Having got to know Hend over recent years, I wasn’t surprised by what I got when we sat down for my new podcast The Round. Direct, entertaining and compelling. But it’s fair to say there were a few unexpected twists and turns along the way.

Players often talk about inspiration. The great golfer they watched on TV growing up or met in person who inspired them, a Jack or a Tiger normally. A young Scott Hend had a meeting that he claims inspired him. But it was certainly not in the traditional manner when it comes to his meeting with Ian Triggs.

Triggs is recognised as one of Australia’s top golf coaches, helping the likes of former world number one golfers Karrie Webb and So Yeon Ryu amongst others. What he won’t be aware of is how he almost burst a young boy’s dream but how that kid used his perceived insults as huge motivation.

Hend in action during the European Masters, which he lost in a play-off to Alex Noren. PHOTO: Getty Images.

As a young lad, Hend moved from town to town with his father working in the air force. When he was just 16 years old, in a bid to take an important step to his hopes of being a pro golfer, he went to Brisbane’s Kelvin Grove School of Excellence for an interview.

“Now here I am I am a young boy in the Northern Territory from Katherine. We had five sand greens, four grass greens, just nine holes. I would be out there every spare moment I had when I wasn’t playing cricket. Hitting golf balls off hard pan in 40 degree heat, practising. I thought I was doing well. Won the junior championship, the club championship. Not bad,” Hend recalls.

At the interview, Hend went down to the range and was approached by Triggs asking him to hit some shots.

“So I hit a few balls, then a few more. He says ‘sorry mate. You’re not good enough. Go away and practise’,” Hend said.

“I just sat there. That was the most heartbroken I had ever felt in any sport I had ever played. To be told you’re not good enough, you can’t come to this school. And I was sitting there like I have just worked my arse off to come to do this. I’m up there practising on these sand greens and all I want to do is come to this school of excellence and play.”

Hend claims it was an incident that has motivated him throughout his career. A couple of years later. His family moved from Victoria to Brisbane and he was looking for the best coach in town. He was told there was a choice of two.

Hend has won 14 professional titles around the world. PHOTO: Getty Images.

“Well, there was the great Charlie Earp and Ian Triggs,” Hend says. “Besides the fact Charlie is one of the greatest teachers Australia has ever had, there’s no chance I am going to that other guy, who told me I wasn’t good enough.

“It’s funny how these little things play in your mind and spur you on and that has always been in the back of my mind.”

Naturally, Hend and Triggs paths have crossed over the years since but Hend has never brought up the past.  

“I am civil. He probably doesn’t realise. It’s something in my head that I know inspired me and made me want to work harder,” Hend said.

And the winner of two European and nine Asian Tour titles says he makes sure he treats youngsters in a way quite different to the way Triggs treated him.

The Queenslander says the final round of the 2014 Hong Kong Open was the round that changed his life. PHOTO: Getty Images.

 “When I see a junior trying, I never say you’re not good enough, go away and practise. I never say that. It’s so heart-breaking and demeaning,” Hend said. “You don’t know how hard they have been practising. I mean the best thing you can say is ‘mate, you’re doing a great job. Maybe next time but this time we haven’t got a spot for you’.

“I was just 16 years old. I was winning golf championships in all my grades all around Australia, thinking I am pretty good, I have got a shot at this. ‘You’re not good enough, go away and practise’ That was pretty harsh I thought.”

But history proved Hend wasn’t crushed.

In my podcast interview with him we discuss how he made the PGA Tour, the injury and health problems that blighted his time in America, his battle with his temper, his relationships, philosophies and of course, the Round.

The premise of The Round podcast is for the golfer to choose a round which has had most significance in their career. That is where the conversation begins. And Hend chooses the one that saw him break through on the European Tour, the Hong Kong Open, revealing a surprising comment from his play-off opponent, Angelo Que.

He may be 44 years old but Hend is clear that he’s far from done yet. And he is desperate to add to his successes. But his own admission, he hasn’t played to his potential since losing a play off in Switzerland for the second successive year back in September. His main goal is to win on European soil, no doubt with those harsh words from Triggs still ringing in his ears.

CLICK BELOW to hear the full interview with Scott Hend in The Round with Richard Kaufman