Going to school on a putt
By Brendan James

It has been nearly 20 years since I sat in a classroom and had the work of Shakespeare and theory of Pythagoras drummed into me. The various plots and sub-texts of King Lear and Othello were having little impression on me as I stared out the window, longing to be a few kilometres away hitting practice balls at the local golf course.

Much has changed in two decades. Students still tangle with Shakespeare’s words and Pythagoras’ Theorem, but at some schools in NSW, WA and Queensland they are also given time to consider and apply the intricacies of Tiger Woods’ swing and Aaron Baddeley’s putting stroke.
Golf is now a subject in selected sports high schools, such as Como Secondary College in the WA capital.

Queensland’s Hills International College, about 50 minutes’ drive south west of Brisbane, leads the way in high school golf tuition. The private school has been offering students a tandem education for the past decade, striking a balance between golf training and academic commitments. All of Hills International’s programs are designed to produce elite-level golfers. The school is surrounded by a championship golf course, teaching professionals are on staff and players/students even have access to physiotherapists and psychologists.

While this private school will produce many champions of the future, it comes at a private school price.

In NSW, the state government’s public school system has been undergoing significant change in recent years, with some secondary schools being changed to selective academic, sport or technology schools.

The seven sports high schools in NSW provide opportunities for students who have the potential to reach elite levels in a range of sports, while still completing normal schooling requirements. The Hills Sports High School, in Sydney’s western suburbs, is one of a few that offers golf as part of its Talented Sports Program (TSP).
For the school’s small band of golfers this means four hours a week, in school time, devoted to improving their golf games. (A fact that makes me think I was born 20 years too soon. Can you imagine how good it would be to play golf two afternoons a week instead of sitting behind a desk?)

Under the guidance of Fox Hills Golf Club teaching professionals, Glen Pollard and Jamie Atkinson, the squad of a dozen players is showing impressive results in just its first year. The current NSW Schoolboys’ champion, Ben Watkins, is part of the school’s golf program, as are promising 16-year-olds Kirk Buckley and Adam Downton, who was the highest placed NSW player at the Australian Junior championship earlier this year.
“It’s pretty good that we can get out on the golf course as part of school,” Buckley said. “The coaching is good so when you get to tournaments you are better prepared to do well.”

Hills Sports High director of sport, Robert Hawkes, said they “allow kids to achieve their full potential”.

“We’re not interested in putting these kids in competitive situations week-in week-out because that only leads to burnout,” he said. “But for 42 weeks of the school year these kids get two coaching sessions a week to hone their skills to make them better.”

Teenagers including Watkins, Buckley and Downton might be a part of the next generation of professional golfers we look to for inspiration and guidance of our own games. But, for now, they’re enjoying the best school subject ever … golf.

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