KEY POINTS:
Amid the ugly rift which split golf in this country three years ago, Chris Doig was horrified at the prospect of six uncommonly gifted coaches being reduced to singing for their supper.
The former opera star then New Zealand Cricket supremo was so far removed from the game
that he did not appreciate national director of coaching Mal Tongue and his loyal assistants were not dependent on New Zealand Golf (NZG) to feed their families.
Tongue, Murray Macklin, Shane Scott, Brian Boys, Bob McDonald and Simon Thomas all had reliable sources of income, unrelated to their contracted relationship with head office.
They did not bleed financially after quitting their roles -- a principled decision reached as a group after Tongue feared the national administration was leading golf down the garden path.
And neither did they mope about, bemoaning their fate, instead setting about doing something meaningful for the benefit of the game as a whole.
But Doig's understandable ignorance fathered a remarkable child because a chance meeting he had with Scott on a domestic flight set in motion a train of events which ultimately led to the creation of a world class teaching facility dedicated to golf in the lush countryside just outside Cambridge.
The end result is nzgolfacademy -- set on 6ha of prime real estate and incorporating a 245m x 90m, 15-bay driving range, practise green, short game area and a grassed tee area 30m in width, as well as offices, classroom, three video analysis suites, plus equipment storage and club repair space.
The $600,000 building and furnishing price tag was covered by Scottwood Trust, a charitable organisation known for doing good deeds in the community, while the land itself was offered by the neighbouring St Peter's School, an exclusive private institution respected for its exacting pursuit of excellence, and which also provides equestrian and tennis academies for its pupils.
Three members of the Tight Six -- as they became known in some quarters after blowing the whistle on former NZG boss Peter Dale -- are attached to nzgolfacademy in fulltime roles.
Macklin is head honcho as the director of golf, Thomas is the head coach and McDonald is another important cog on the coaching programme, which will welcome a new addition when former international amateur Reon Sayer joins the team in October.
As well, Tongue pops his head in the front door periodically as a coaching consultant to add his voice to what amounts to a vast wealth of collective teaching knowledge.
Around them work a fulltime greenkeeper, a sports psychologist and a physiotherapist -- enabling nzgolfacademy to provide services of unprecedented depth and width.
There are 50 pupils on the facility's books, 40 of them from St Peter's School, but Macklin has ambitious plans to expand the intake to 80 and is now concentrating on enlarging the facility.
St Peter's School has also allocated another 7.5ha parcel of land, conveniently sited next door to the academy, which will be developed into a small course taking in three multi-teed holes, each of which can be played as a par-three, four or five.
That's where potential stars of the future can hone their visualisation skills and develop course strategy, crucial areas often overlooked by those who think three hours banging balls on the range constitutes practice.
The rapid establishment of the academy is remarkable considering the idea of such a facility has been discussed by national administrators for more than a decade, with nothing more than diary entries to show for their efforts.
Macklin puts much of the credit for this down to St Peter's School management and Scottwood Trust, two groups he said adopted proactive approaches to their businesses, plus Steve McCollam, a Cambridge man of independent means.
McCollam took on the original role as director of golf in 2005 when Macklin relocated to the Waikato township to conduct the first coaching clinics with five students at nearby Cambridge Golf Club.
"Steve did a stunning job driving this thing along. He did it out of the goodness of his heart because he could see something happening which would be good for the game in this country."
By January, 2006, Thomas had arrived from Dunedin and McDonald joined them by the end of last year from Auckland.
Despite the school's close ties to the academy, it is not for the exclusive use of St Peter's students.
"St Peter's are at pains to ensure people know the distinction. This is the nzgolfacademy at St Peter's not the St Peter's golf academy," Macklin said.
"It is very much a facility for the game in New Zealand."
While the odd NZG official has dropped in for a peek and nodded their approval at what has been achieved, no approach has been made by the national organisation to make use of the academy.
That may well change once Bill MacGowan shortly becomes the organisation's third chief executive in a little over three years, and Macklin does intend touching base with him to alert him to the academy's existence.
"At this stage New Zealand Golf have chosen to ignore us in the sense of using the facility," he said.
"We are relaxed about that; we've set our sights on being able to operate without the need for the national body. But we would welcome them at any stage to utilise the facility and our coaches in some shape or form."
Macklin is justifiably proud at what has been accomplished and recounts a recent visit from Professor Larry O'Neill, the director of golf at Stanford University, the alma mater of world No 1 Tiger Woods in the United States.
Stanford has its own superb 18-hole course but there is nothing in the US collegiate system to challenge nzgolfacademy as a training facility.
"He spent half a day here with us. He said there isn't a school in the US that he's aware of with the training facilities for golf that we have here."
Isn't it amazing what can be achieved when people with passion connect with those of means to make positive things happen?
- NZPA
