“I’ve learned a significant amount from him. I think technically he’s the best coach in the country. And he’s able to change his communication style to the player with whom he is dealing. I trust him completely with my players when I’m not there.”– Acclaimed coach, Ritchie Smith.

Through the different golf programs and coaches around the country, Lumsden came into contact with a lot of players at different stages in their development and was vitally interested in the ways that the different coaches managed them.

“I wasn’t just watching; I was working very closely with them,” Lumsden says. “They would ask a lot of questions of me and were challenging me to figure out answers based on information I had, and that led me to thinking about a lot of things, what they were doing, what worked and why it worked.”

RIGHT: Tanner’s work with Lumsden extends to time on the practice putting green. PHOTO: David Brand.

Around this time Pete Cowen, currently acknowledged as the world’s best coach, arrived to also see what the best practice in golf looked like. He, McMaster and Lumsden found themselves on the same page.

“It started out as a project in Dubai that we thought would work, with Ramsay doing the physiotherapy, Ryan the biomechanics and myself the coaching. We knew it was the way forward to get players injury free, have better mechanics and more productive practice. It helped a lot with players such as Henrik Stenson, Soren Hansen, Thomas Pieters and others. It helped me a lot to understand movement and muscle structure, and it still does,” Cowen said.

McMaster’s sudden death in 2011 stopped the project in its tracks – and also affected the way in which coaching is delivered in this country – but Cowen and Lumsden still remain close friends and talk often, exchanging thoughts and information.

In a text to Lumsden early last year, Cowen asked if his mate had discovered the ‘secret’. “Is there a secret?” was Lumsden’s reply. Cowen responded that everything he is now teaching takes him back to where they were 15 years ago. It’s a theme common to many coaches from that golden era who are still producing the best players, that trying to re-invent the wheel is not productive.

“Thanks to Ryan and his knowledge, my game has improved significantly. As golfers we want our swings to be functional and effective. Without him, I wouldn’t be swinging it the way I am. He has helped me and many others to get to the next level.” – European Tour winner, Min Woo Lee.

To say Lumsden has had a big hand in the success of many of Australia’s best players is obvious. But along the way he has also seen talented others fall by the wayside for various reasons. One of the biggest threats to players, he believes, is what he refers to as ‘the ugly truth’, how hard it really is to succeed.

Hannah Green & Lumsden pose for a photo during a round together on the Old Course at St Andrews. PHOTO: The R&A.

“For a lot of players, it comes back to that,” Lumsden says. “The percentage that actually get anywhere is very low. If you look at those that get Tour cards, it’s less than one percent that attempt it. And just getting a card is not ’successful’, you’ve got to retain it.

“Many of the young players now just think it’s their right to establish themselves on Tour and don’t know how good you’ve to be.”

As an example, he refers to skill testing World No.8 Minjee Lee early last year. Lee produced 100 percent of 15 shots within a five percent error radius of her target with a 6-iron. “We need to educate players that that’s what they’ve got to work towards if they’re going to reach that same level.”

In an era littered with tales of player/coach breakups and clinical relationships, it is refreshing to hear from players who have been with Lumsden for a long time and come to see him as more than one of their support staff.

One example is recent WA PGA Championship winner Jarryd Felton, who has been with both Ritchie Smith and Lumsden since he was 14.

“I had two hip surgeries when I was about 14 and Ryan’s help with injury prevention as well as the biomechanical stuff has been massive,” Felton said. “The injury itself is permanent and it’s always going to be a part of my golf swing, so between Ritchie and Ryan we’ve been trying to do some things to work around the injuries and not cause as much pain.

“I think all of us players – Hannah, Minjee, Min Woo, me – we‘ve all come to see Ryan as not just the biomechanics guy, he’s more of a close friend.”

Green and Lumsden on the Old Course at St Andrews. PHOTO: The R&A.

That’s certainly the case for 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA champion Hannah Green, who started working with Lumsden at 13. Since then, she has become close to his family, often taking Lumsden’s two youngsters, Aedan and Islay, on outings when she has been in Adelaide working with him.

On one occasion she arranged for Aedan, a devoted Manchester United fan, to attend a game in Perth when MU played Leeds at Optus Stadium and then capped off the young fellow’s experience by taking him shopping for golf clothes the next day.

“Ryan’s always been helpful to me, let’s me come and stay with his family,” she said.

“We do a few days’ work together and then go and play and he’s taught me a lot about seeing different shots, my course management, he’s come to a tournament in Scotland and seen me compete there; he even took me to St Andrews just to play a fun casual round, so we have more than a player/coach relationship, he’s definitely looked after me personally.”

For her part, Minjee Lee noted that she’s been able to improve both her swing and her consistency since she started with him around 10 years ago.

“The incredible knowledge that he has about biomechanics and specifically golf movements has been such a big part in the development of my game. Working with Ryan is always a learning opportunity for me because over the years I’ve learned more and more about my swing through his interpretation of the data,” she said.

It’s not just the girls either. Min Woo Lee, like his sister, has been working with Lumsden since he was around 14 years old, while emerging players Brett Coletta and Ryan Ruffels – along with countless others around the country – have all felt his guiding hand at some point, either through the various programs or beforehand.

“He’s very caring, he does a lot of extra work, a lot of unpaid hours, he’ll look at swings on his computer long after the players are gone, he’s just thinking about how he can get them to improve and get them better, that’s really what he’s about.” – PGA of Australia Coaching Programs Manager, Nick Bielawski.

Every person who works closely with him, agrees Lumsden is really ‘the quiet man’ of golf. Outside of players, coaches and service providers, few people have heard of him or realise the significance of his reach. And the man himself prefers it that way.

“That’s partly because you don’t want to be out there shouting about what you’re doing and with whom but also because ultimately you’re always a support member to the coach,” Lumsden said.

“I think all of us players – Hannah, Minjee, Min Woo, me – we‘ve all come to see Ryan as not just the biomechanics guy, he’s more of a close friend.” – Jarryd Felton

He has been approached to undertake a PhD, such is the respect for his knowledge and skill. Yet he is still continually searching for new information and ways to communicate his message.

When COVID-19 hit early last year, Lumsden was overseas in Belgium, where he works on golf programs with Golf Vlaanderen, on his way to Ireland, then Denmark for a meeting at the Trackman headquarters.

The months at home in Adelaide were his longest break in 12 years. It gave him pause to consider his amazing experiences in golf so far – and that PhD. But an academic career will have to wait a while longer. Fact is, he’s happiest when he’s in front of a player.

“That’s where I like to be, in that elite development space, and yet that’s the hardest area to work within golf. But that’s my thing, I think, being out in the trenches and getting involved in that process,” Lumsden said.