Diary of a PGA pro

Playing, teaching, testing clubs, is it really as good as it sounds? PGA pro Jack Backhouse gives us some insight as what his life is like as a PGA professional.

Being a PGA pro is amazing; at times, it feels like there can’t possibly be a better profession out there. I spent five years working in a pro shop at a private members club whilst attaining my PGA status and whilst spending a large amount of time cleaning clubs and selling crested polo shirts; I fell in love with coaching and became obsessed with understanding the golf swing. I loved this job a lot.

I didn’t have any success playing as an amateur golfer, but any game I may have had completely left my body when I moved on to be a self-employed coach full-time at a busy driving range, coaching six days a week, working every weekend and never enjoying golf as the game I fell in love with as a kid.

COVID struck, which, in a pursuit to earn some money, led me away from golf to a job bizarrely in finance. During this career interlude, I joined Silloth Golf Club, not that I live anywhere near it (does anyone?), where links golf completely reignited my love for playing the game. Crisp long irons from burnt sandy turf convinced me to get back to coaching and doing what I love. Thank you, Silloth. Returning there feels special.

Since returning to golf, alongside reviewing clubs and filming for Hannah Holden’s YouTube channel, I now coach at a cheap pay-and-play family-owned course, on a wooden shed of a driving range where there are basically no rules. Dress code? Nope. £10 for 9 holes, ridiculous. It’s a brilliant place to play and teach, as it puts golfers at ease, and I can teach in my own way.

I have possibly the best life now, and I wanted to start a diary documenting interesting things I get up to and some thoughts I get as a golf-obsessed PGA pro.

Week commencing 22nd May 2023

I played in my first golf competition since 2019 this week. I’ve been playing regularly, at least once a week, for 6 months and have been scoring well around Sand Moor, which is the golf club I’m a member of in north Leeds, so it felt like the right thing to do.

My prep for this links golf competition at Seaton Carew did feature some links golf with 9 holes and some practice at Dundonald Links, and 18 holes the day before. I hit it pretty poorly for the first time in weeks, which certainly can be attributed to the anticipation of having my score on a leaderboard the next day.

The day started well as I arrived in good time and went through my usual lag putting, coffee, hit some balls warm-up routine. I even started with a couple of birdies, which lead to me wondering what the course record was standing on the fourth tee. How embarrassing. I checked myself and proceed to make 3 bogeys in a row. Justice was served.

Things started to go wrong when I realised I had left my on-course nutrition (granola bars and a banana) in the car. Rookie error. In my last 5 holes, I had a double and a triple which featured a complete top into some long hay and a penalty shot. Signed for a 78 and missed the cut. It felt a lot better than that.

In lessons, I spend a lot of time reviewing golfer’s rounds on the MyEG app and asking them how on earth they manage to have doubles and triples, as they are completely avoidable. On this day I realised it’s a lot easier than I remember and are not completely avoidable.

Playing competitive golf has reminded me how hard medal rounds are and how important it is for me as a coach to stay closer to this feeling. It doesn’t matter what I score, and nor does anyone care, but for me to help players score better, I have realised that I need to at least be regularly scoring.

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