Jonathan Wallett awarded PGA Master Coach status

Former Hong Kong National Coach Jonathan Wallett, has recently achieved the distinguished recognition of becoming a PGA Master Coach.

Coach Wallett with Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho (The Open 2023)

In a recent interview with The Professional Golfers Association, Jonathan, a dedicated PGA member and esteemed coach at the renowned Elite Coaching Golf Academy, discussed his recent accomplishment and emphasized the pivotal role of continuous self-improvement in shaping his successful coaching career.

What does it mean to be awarded Master Professional status?

To achieve the highest possible honour for a PGA Member, which reflects a life-time of my learning is very humbling. I grew up living next to the 13th green of Kingsdown Golf Club near Bath and I never wanted to do anything else other than be involved with golf. I’m so grateful for The PGA for their decision to award me with the Master Coach designation and I am thankful for the career and travel opportunities the PGA qualification has given me. 

What has your career path been and what have you learned along that journey?

I have spent most of my working life outside of the UK, with roles in France, Switzerland, Asia and now Australia, where I am now based at the Elite Coaching Golf Academy on the Gold Coast. My PGA qualification, which I gained back in 1993, has created these opportunities and for that I am truly grateful.

During the last 20 years I have focused on coaching elite players, ranging from  juniors to Tour players. I think if you aspire to be a full-time coach, it’s important to speciali se in an area you are passionate about so that it does not feel like work.

For me this passion started with my clearcut failure as a player. I played for England Schoolboys in 1986 and 1987 and then went to Tour School in 1990, but I quickly discovered that I was not good enough to make a living on  tour, so I switched to the idea of coaching, and started the PGA Trainee Programme.

My key takeaway from this time was that hitting thousands of balls and ‘finding it in the dirt’ was not the key to being a successful Tour player. That completed the circle for me many years later, when I did my own research project with 50 Tour players to identify the ‘critical success factors at Tour Level’ to truly understand what the best did to get to the top.  

I have written seven books based on this research and it has been very rewarding to be able to coach on Tour on a part-time basis over the last 15 years, and to have the opportunity to coach players by essentially passing on what I have learned from them. It’s difficult to distil this into a few sentences but core findings were to encourage the building of the SELFS – self- responsibility, self-belief, self-trust, self-discipline etc and another would be the importance of what I called the Four Quadrants of Player Development in their formative years of Coaching, Instruction, Experiences and Environment.

What areas of work or achievements stand out to you over the years?

In 2015 I had the opportunity to be a National Coach in Hong Kong, which I did for three years, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had as a coach.

Over time, through working and building a cohesive team of local PGA coaches, we created a meaningful programme from schools’ golf right up the chain to professional level. Hong Kong had never produced a Tour winner in its history or any players on Tour, however, for me, the main objective was not to create a champion golfer, but to help players in the programme develop a lifelong passion for the game and to grow as people.

So many players get burned out in national programmes and leave the game feeling like they have failed as people. Only a very small percentage of players ever make a career on Tour, but all of these players are potential future PGA Pros, club managers, junior organisers, club committee members or just passionate golfers.

I am very grateful that despite finishing my time in Hong Kong in 2018, many of the players that I worked with still engage me as their coach and I see them all as part of my extended family. It was terrific to see one of these players, Taichi Kho, transform from a talented 15-year-old junior to becoming Hong Kong’s first ever winner on Tour earlier this year  and competing at this year’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. There is a solid group of players coming through now, so I’m sure he will be the first of many.

However, the most rewarding experience to date has been the Elite Performance Coach Certification Program  that I developed. Because it is delivered online, it has allowed me to interact with coaches from Brazil to Finland, and from America to Australia. Helping other coaches and inviting world renowned coaches to be co-presenters on the course, has not only enriched my knowledge, but also my passion. Helping others, whether it is players or coaches, is truly the most rewarding part of my job.

From all at golfing.hk We’d like to congratulate Jonathon Wallett on a fantastic achievement.

The full article can be read here.