Young Kiwi golfer Mako Thompson takes aim at multi-million-dollar professional tour tournaments.
Rising Kiwi golfer Mako Thompson is preparing for a potentially life-changing tilt at the multi-million-dollar PGA Tour of Australasia.
The Napier-based 26-year-old says the memory of his late father Paul will spur him on.
He previously paid the bills by fronting covers band Audio Pimp and coaching at Maraenui Golf Club
It wasn’t long ago that Mako Thompson’s earnings fronting a covers band dwarfed what he made on the golf course.
The 26-year-old is the lead singer of Audio Pimp, joining guitarist Matt Wallace in a duo backed by pre-recorded tracks - that has provided plenty of good nights out forpunters at Hawke’s Bay bars for the past six years.
Not only is Thompson an entertainer on stage – banging out covers from Dire Straits, Queen, the Rolling Stones and Guns N’ Roses – he’s also an incredibly talented golfer.
Those talents will see him line up in the upcoming 2025-26 PGA Tour of Australasia; a circuit that involves multi-million-dollar prize funds.
Precious world ranking points are also on offer, as well as entry to the DP World Tour – which features hugely lucrative tournaments in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and America – for the season’s top three ranked players.
Prior to qualifying for the tour – which will begin with the PNG Open in Port Moresby in August – Audio Pimp was at times performing several times a month.
Young Kiwi golfer Mako Thompson - who is based at the Maraenui Golf Club in Napier - is living his pro dream as he prepares to take part in the 2025-26 PGA Tour of Australasia. Photo / Neil Reid
Qualification for the PGA Tour of Australasia will now see Thompson temporarily hang up his microphone, hoping to unleash some amazing performances on golfing links that could change his life.
That included having to forgo a $50,000 payday after he won the 2022 Charles Tour event at Mount Maunganui Golf Club.
Fronting Audio Pimp and coaching at his home course, Napier’s Maraenui Golf Club, paid the bills.
Mako Thompson is on a mission to entertain on golf courses as well as on the stage. Photo / Neil Reid
The money that Thompson could earn going on the pro Australasian golf tour this year could easily eclipse more than a year’s worth of gigs.
While performing on the stage will go on the backburner for the time being, he hopes to enjoy similar feelings of euphoria on some of Oceania’s best golf courses.
“It is actually quite similar, when you’re when you’re playing a gig and people are loving it . . . and hitting great shots . . . you just really get in that zone,” Thompson said.
Mako Thompson celebrates his win at the 2022 Mount Open on the Charles Tour. But golf's amateur rules meant he had to forgo a $50,000 payday. Photo / Supplied
He secured his pro tour spot via a series of qualifying tournaments in Australia in April.
Nailing a place in the tour was a “relief”, saying his final round in the series was one of the most nervous he had ever played given what was at stake.
“Essentially, if you don’t get through, you don’t have a job for a year,” he said.
While over half a million New Zealanders play golf for fun each year, the reality of how big the obstacles facing wannabe pros face mean that for the likes of him heading a little white ball takes on a whole new meaning.
The tour life “grind”
On average, it takes a player eight years playing professionally to crack into the world’s top 10.
“You don’t get good in two years,” Thompson said.
Netflix’s fly-on-the-wall Full Swing series has proven to be a broadcasting sensation, taking viewers behind the scenes as golfers succeed or in some cases fight to stay on North America’s top-tier PGA Tour; a series that offers a combined $660m in prize money.
Jordan Spieth, left, and Justin Thomas are two of the stars of Netflix's behind the scenes golf series Full Swing. Photo / Photosport
The spoils of success – including travel on private planes, high-end sports cars and sprawling mansions – feature prominently in the show, which released its third series on the streaming network in February.
But the lifestyles of golf’s truly rich and famous are a world away from life on the PGA Tour of Australasia– even though it features tournaments offering combined prize funds in the millions.
And life in the level below – where Thompson has battled his way through hundreds of other hopefuls to make tour – is even more brutal.
“I know one of my mates, and other people as well, that are sleeping in cars [during tournaments] to keep the cost down,” Thompson said.
Mako Thompson is also the recipient of several sponsorship deals, including golf giants Callaway. Photo / Neil Reid
“Or they’ll take a caravan and use the showers at the golf club where the tournament is at.
“It’s certainly not the glamorous lifestyle that that you see on TV or that you’ll see on social media for sure. It’s a real grind.”
For those on the US PGA Tour or the DP World Tour, life is “pretty good”.
Young Kiwi pro Mako Thompson is mentally fired up to give it his all. Photo / Neil Reid
They are tours – and paydays - that Thompson would love to experience one day himself.
While on the 18-event Australasian PGA, in a bid to reduce costs, he’ll be travelling in a rental car and sharing accommodation – mainly Airbnbs - with up to three other tour members chasing the same lucrative payday dream.
“You’ve got to find that balance between keeping costs down, but then also not going too far where there’s too many people in there that you can’t get in to have a shower,” Thompson said.
Mako Thompson will travel with several others on the upcoming tour in a bid to cut travel and accommodation costs. Photo / Neil Reid
“You’re enjoying your good mates’ company, guys that you’ve known for 10 years.”
Despite the vastly different lifestyles shared by those on the Australasian PGA and the PGA Tour in North America, Thompson doesn’t watch Full Swing with a sense of envy.
Thompson lives with the belief that regardless of what you do in life, “nothing comes easy”.
He hopes what sacrifices he has made to date, and will make over the coming months, will pay off in the years to come.
“Whether someone is a really good accountant, or in business, you can relate to the hours they’ve put in, what they’ve sacrificed and how hard they’ve worked, to get to where they are,” Thompson said.
“The effort is the same with my golf, but someone else has just put it into different areas in life.”
The mind game: beating mental demons
The opponent isn’t always the only thing to beat in professional sport.
So often, the biggest challenges to overcome are from within and relate to an athletes’ own fear of failure.
Thompson says to be a winner in golf – like other pro sports – you must be both physically and mentally fit.
He said the mental side of golf was “huge”.
Kiwi pro Mako Thompson says winning the mental game on the golf course is crucial for success. Photo / Neil Reid
“In cricket, you see that ball being delivered in and you hit it through natural instinct and what you practice for,” Thompson explained.
“In golf, if you’re leading a massive tournament, and you’ve got three holes to play, that’s going to take you an hour and 15 minutes . . . and you might only hit the ball 10 times in that time.
“So, you’ve got more than an hour thinking about those 10 shots; it’s in your head that whole time. Golf demands so much from yourself mentally.”
Earlier in his career he worked with a neuro linguistic programmer in an effort to encourage positive thoughts and emotions.
Mako Thompson has been utilising the skills of a performance coach who has worked with Dame Lisa Carrington. Photo / Photosport
He has also worked with performance coach David Galbraith who has a client list including eight-time Olympic champion Dame Lisa Carrington, netball star Laura Langman, and the Chiefs and Japan rugby teams.
Mind coaching has taught Thompson that given how many shots he plays, there’s always going to be some “poor” ones in the heat of competition.
Dwelling on them too much wasn’t the best strategy.
Even the very cream of world golf, including world No 2 Rory McIlroy, are open about battling negative thoughts on the course. Photo / Mark Humphrey
“The technical side of golf is super important. But your mind controls everything when you are out there. In pressure situations, it wants to make you nervous; it’s almost like it works against you.”
Thompson said the mental game was something that even the best players in the world had to conquer.
It was a belief reinforced to him after hearing world No 2 Rory McIlroy confide in an interview after winning the recent Players Championship – an eventual $7.4m payday – that one of the first thoughts he had before a crucial shot was about hitting his next tee shot into the water.
“And he’s one of the best golfers of this generation.”
McIlroy is one of the “1%” of the world’s professional golfers who are the top earners with endorsement deals so large that they outstrip the multi-millions they’re winning on golf courses.
Thompson’s realistic to know that’s unlikely to be him.
But by beating opposition – and his mind – on the PGA Tour of Australasia will be the start in what could be a very lucrative career.
“You don’t need to be a McIlroy to have an amazing career in golf,” he said.
A frustrated Rory McIlroy snaps a golf club in two. Photo / Twitter
“There’s lot of guys, New Zealand pros, that have spent their years away crafting in Japan or on secondary tours and have made millions. The opportunities are there; you don’t need to win 10 majors and be a Hall of Famer to have a really comfortable career in golf.
“You’ve got to be realistic in golf. I’m not going to be Tiger Woods . . . Tiger already had 5 majors at my age.”
A long way from Te Pōhue: rural roots
The upcoming PGA Tour of Australasia will take Thompson to some of Oceania’s most-desired golf destinations.
And the expertly manicured fairways he will walk on and plush clubhouses he will visit at courses such as the Royal Melbourne, Royal Queensland, Royal Port Moresby and The Vintage golf clubs are a world away from Thompson’s introduction to the sport.
Thompson’s introduction to golf – and it was a reluctant one to start with – came at the humble Te Pōhue Golf Club; located on the side of SH5 about a 40-minute drive from Napier.
Future Kiwi golfing talent Mako Thompson pictured with his late father and keen golfer Paul, who died in 2016. Photo / Supplied
“This little course is where you’ll find the true Kiwi, rustic spirit, famous for its browsing sheep on the fairway. Founded in 1967 the nine holes of rambling paddocks and fenced greens will surely make you smile and spark interest,” is how Hawke’s Bay Tourism describes the course on its website.
Thompson’s father Paul played at the club most Sundays.
And from the age of about 11 his father would make him tag along.
“I’d get dragged along,” Thompson recalled.
“I used to hate going to the golf club, going, ‘Oh, this is s***’.”
The rural Te Pōhue Golf Club - located west of Napier on the side of SH5 - is where Mako Thompson began his golfing journey, Photo / NZME
Bored at sitting in the clubhouse while Paul was on the course, Thompson eventually took the plunge and started swinging a club too at Te Pōhue.
“I asked if I could play with him,” Thompson said.
“He goes, ‘No, you’re not good enough to play with us yet. You just go play by yourself and play behind us’.
“That’s how it started. And I’m pretty grateful for it now.”
Tragically, Paul isn’t around to watch his youngest son tee off in the 2025 PGA Tour of Australasia after dying from throat cancer in 2016.
Napier's Maraenui Golf Club is the playing home of rising Kiwi pro Rory McIlroy. Photo / Neil Reid
Paul’s legacy lives on strongly almost nine years after his death.
In 2017, an 18-year-old Thompson credited his father’s memory for helping him win the New Zealand Men’s Age Group Championships.
He said his father was “massive into sport” and was a big supporter of all his sons’ sporting endeavours.
A teenaged Mako Thompson in triumphant mood in 2017. Photo / Supplied
“It was cool,” Thompson said.
“And where I am now . . . he’d be loving it.”
Does the young Kiwi sportsman who could be on the brink of big financial paydays reckon his dad would allow his youngest son to play in the foursome group as him?
“He’d still be trying to tell me what to do,” Thompson said with a laugh.
“I would have to tell him to bore off, saying: ‘No sorry mate, you don’t know enough now. You play behind us, you’re not good enough’.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience.
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