Established in 2024 to provide support to female PGA Professionals seeking to advance their coaching credentials, the Karrie Webb Coaching Scholarship not only offers mentoring opportunities, but $7,500 to assist in the enhancement of their high-performance coaching aptitude.

Assistant coach with the Victorian team for the upcoming Junior Interstate Series at Moonah Links, a position she has held for the past three years, Shellback hopes to emulate the likes of Ritchie Smith and Khan Pullen in guiding young players to the very highest levels of the sport.

“This is really special,” said Shellback, who coaches out of The Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

“It is an honour to be selected, and I’m incredibly grateful; I can’t thank Karrie enough for the support.

“It means a lot to be recognised and gives me real confidence that I’m on the right path.

“It is a chance to learn from the best, push myself and keep building as a HP coach.

“Ideally, I’m wanting to spend a lot more time with coaches like Ritchie Smith and Khan Pullen to see how they work with their players.

“Ritchie has such an amazing resume of players. I have worked a little bit with him in the past and what I’ve learned is that the culture and environment that he sets out is just so supportive.”

A long-time supporter of aspiring players through the Karrie Webb Series Scholarship, Australia’s greatest major champion has seen first-hand Shellback’s passion for coaching and the influence she can have on the next generation of Aussie golfers.

“Congratulations to Jade Shellback on being this year’s KW Coaching Scholarship recipient,” said Webb.

“Having spent a little bit of time at this year’s junior girls HP camp, along with talking to other coaches within Golf Australia, I know that Jade has a real passion to learn and grow her skills in the HP space.

“I hope this scholarship and the opportunities that come with it help Jade achieve her goals for her coaching career.”

Four years ago, Shellback was the only golf coach of 31 recipients from a variety of sports to benefit from the National Generation 2032 Coach Program, a joint initiative between the Australian Institute of Sport, National Institute Network (NIN) partners and National Sporting Organisations (NSOs).

It gave her exposure to coaches from other sports and their approach to a successful HP program.

“It was really interesting working with other coaches from other sports and how much you can learn from them,” she added.

“Golf is such an individual sport, but being able to learn from other sports like AFL and cricket is really important as well. And being able to learn and then bring that back to working within golf is really cool, too.”

Paying tribute to mentors including Smith, Dan Whyley and Richard Cooney, Shellback is intent on not only aiming high, but enjoying each step along the way.

“You always try to strive for the highest benchmark, but also learning and enjoying the little steps along the way,” Shellback said.

“The biggest thing I learned as a player was there was always a massive goal at the end of it and I kind of didn’t enjoy the little steps along the way.

“As a coach, I’m wanting to enjoy the little steps along the way, rather than always just trying to get to the main step so quickly.

“Having someone trust you with their own golf game is really important, but also building the connection that you can work together, letting them know that it’s okay to fail and that I’ll be backing them every step of the way.”

Previous recipients
2024: Jenna Hunter
2025: Asha Flynn