The PBG Junior Talent Squad (2001)

• In 2001, SGA, through the direction of Dr. Goh, initiated a Junior Program incentive out to all the Clubs in Singapore to do something about their own junior base and either kick start a program or do something to improve their current program.  This gave Phil the opportunity to revive his vision of a Junior Talent Squad, an idea that had been earlier squashed at a Greens Committee meeting when he presented it to the Club.   There were enough young keen and committed junior members within his Junior Program with talent worthy of starting such a program. 
• The inaugural squad was handpicked based on handicap and included players such as Reagan Png, Su-Ann Heng, John Goh, Glenn Lee and Christabel Goh.  The concept grew and not before long we had to open up a Primary School Age Division as well as a Secondary School one. 
• The funding soon dried up as Dr. Goh stepped down as Chairman of the SGA and the funding to each Club ceased as a result of the new direction by the incumbent Chairman.  Despite this financial backing set back, Phil decided to continue what he had started all at the same low rates and started to engage Mr. Poh Ah Hai to assist him in the teaching duties.
• The interest in the Junior Talent Squad continued to grow and we had more and more young golfers showing promise.  Eventually it was decided to have multiple squads in each division.  At its peak, the Junior Talent Squad had an A, B and C Squad in both the Primary School Age Division and Secondary School Age Division, and we even started a JCP Division, a division designed to service those aspiring juniors who have graduated beyond the age of secondary school, when they go into Junior College or Poly (hence JCP).  

The PBG Tour (2004)

• Initiated in April of 2004 after a successful piloting of the concept the year before with the Junior Talent Squad, the PBG Tour was a junior version of the PGA Tour (tongue in cheek), really in the sense that we provided regular weekly competitions on the Par 3 Executive and monthly 18-hole competitions on courses around the region. 
• We even organized overseas trips to Australia and to Thailand from time to time in the school holidays to play in golf tournaments there. 
• We did share some space on a friends’ website which provided draw sheets and updated statistical information on the players Order of Merit Rankings, their Scoring Averages for both the Par 3 Executive and for the 18-hole competitions (adjusted). 
• We issued detailed reports at the completion of a season on their personal performances, we even went down to the number of pars and number of birdies they had, their average number per round that they had them and had all these categories ranked … it was quite an effort to keep up with all of this with every player and produce all this in a report form with color pictures at the end of every 6 month season.

Nobody in Singapore back then was doing this – Phil Brew Golf was the only institution to provide such a service.  We became quite well known around the country and even other Academies were sending their students to our side to participate in our PBG Tour program of events.  Every golf professional knows how vital playing in golf tournaments is to the development of an aspiring young golfer.   The PBG Tour was so good other golf pros were willing to send their students over to experience and to reap the benefits of the PBG Tour for the good of their student – it was a Tour that was open to anyone to join, however about 90% were from my very own student base leaving the remainder from other Academies. 

And why did no other golf professional bother to do the same, you might ask?  Simple, it required a ton of work, work that for the most part carried no remuneration.  This required a ton of passion from whoever was doing it and would have required motives beyond monetary ones.  Phil had and still has that passion.  He was spending over 30 hours per week in addition to his already packed lesson schedule to manually keep up to date with the statistics from the PBG Tour.  How many golf professionals around would be willing to put in those extra hours for no direct monetary reward?  The sacrifice of a normal life outside busy life of teaching – it meant that one would have to absolutely live golf every waking hour and approximately 40% of the time spent living it, you would not be paid for it.  The answer is none and this is one big reason why Phil’s programs have been so successful.

It was this passion to see out his dream of creating something great for the kids, pure and simple that was the secret ingredient.  It was not a condition of contract; nobody was forcing him to do all this; he did it because I loved it, because it fit into his ultimate goal of creating something great for the juniors, a fun environment for kids to grow to love the game, the game that had given Phil so much over the years and now it was his turn to give back something to the game. 

Who benefitted from the PBG Tour? 
Well the students did for obvious reasons but NSRCC also benefitted.  Numerous non members were signing up to become members on the strength of my Junior Program and the PBG Tour.  With the chance to gain exposure, on-course exposure in some low-key golf competitions, teaching the youngsters more about the game, about the rules, about themselves, complimented by one of the best Junior Programs in the country … it was all so attractive for any aspiring young golfer and the parents could see it.  The extra revenue for the Club that was generated by holding Par 3 Competitions every Saturday and Sunday, remembering that at its peak the PBG Tour were having fields of 30-40 players each day, was substantial to the Club’s bottom line, no question.  That’s not to mention the extra rounds during the weekdays as practice before the weekend competitions that was created due to the PBG Tour hype.  If there was ever a win-win situation between an Academy and a Club to which the Academy was attached, the PBG Tour proved to be that situation – it was good for everyone.

Continue reading..