Case Study: Coaching Impact
The true value of coaching
Stuart Brewer has spent more than 40 years in the industry but the thrill of instilling a passion for golf in others is as strong as ever
It's the individual stories that matter. Amid all the data on participation numbers, membership figures and rounds played, it's the story of a young boy who develops a passion for golf thanks to the guiding hand of a skilled coach that really captures the imagination.
In a career spanning more than four decades, Stuart Brewer has lost count of how many people he has instructed, from beginners to the elite level, but there are individuals he will never forget.
Stuart, who qualified in 1981 and is a Teaching Professional at Grimsby Golf Centre, regards his role as a privilege and he has seen how positively impacting one person can have a ripple effect across the golf industry.
"There's a kid I've been teaching for a few months, he's 14 years old, and he said to me, 'We're going to join a golf club'," Stuart said. "That's two memberships, him and his dad, and he got a set of golf clubs for Christmas.
"This is a young lad from a rough area of Grimsby who knew nothing about golf when he came to me, and now him and his dad are joining a club and they've fallen in love with the game.
"It would be fascinating to know over the course of a lifetime what that father and son will spend on golf, because it will be substantial."
The journey that teenage boy is just starting out on is one Stuart can readily identify with, having embraced golf himself at a young age and quickly become a convert, despite not showing an immediate aptitude for it.
"I was quite good at sports; I could play cricket and football, but I was heavy and I couldn't run," he said. "I discovered golf when I was 11 and I was poor - I was really bad. I had lessons right at the start and after one or two good shots, I was hooked. It changed my life.
"I'm from a council estate in Lincoln and I would walk out onto a golf course and see these pristine greens and fantastic fairways, and it was amazing."
“After one or two good shots, I was hooked – it changed my life”
Stuart, who was named Lincolnshire PGA Coach of the Year in 2024, emphasised the need to ensure people, particularly youngsters, have a memorable and meaningful introduction to the sport, and that extends beyond the golf course itself.
"My son's a professional caddy and caddied on the DP World Tour," he said. "He sent me a video of Padraig Harrington hitting balls at Qatar, and he's someone who summed it up very well. He said when a father takes his son to the driving range or the golf course, they should take them into the clubhouse and have a coke or a milkshake and just spend that time creating memories.
"That way, their association with golf isn't just hitting golf balls – it's about the community, the environment and being part of something."
However, Stuart knows he operates in a business where people expect to see a return on their investment. A sense of belonging won't assuage people's concerns if they are not ultimately becoming better golfers after parting with their cash to undertake lessons.
"It's a results-based industry," he said. "I can't tell you the number of times people have come to me and said, 'You're my last resort' – I hear that often, which is quite scary, really. But it's a fantastic responsibility because they're saying, 'I've tried, I've failed, and I keep failing – it's not fun and I'll pack it in if I can't do something about it'.
"The onus is on me to get results quickly. The days are long gone when people will come for a lesson, you see them again in a couple of weeks' time and everything is the same. If that happens now, they won't come back.
"You need to show an improvement immediately and then they can see what you're trying to do and the path they're on."
'Don't mess with people's leisure time'
"As coaches, we have a massive responsibility. I think it was Hugh Marr who said, 'Don't mess with people's leisure time' – it's such a good phrase and it's so true. If you make sure that you create good golfers so they can enjoy their leisure time, you've got a friend for life. Our job is to make people feel good so they want to keep coming back."
Stuart is a dedicated scholar of golf and he credits a couple of people in particular with having given him his grounding. After time spent in Denmark and Sweden, he honed his craft under the tutelage of Dennis Sheehy and Denis Pugh, two proteges of the great David Leadbetter who led by example and showed Stuart the most valuable thing any coach can offer is their time.
"I got the best grounding you could ever imagine," he said. "I would go for a golf lesson and they would not just give me the lesson, but they would sit me down and we would look at swings, we would go through different elements, and they educated me.
"I've always found that expert golf coaches seem to be very generous with their time. I've been incredibly lucky and the relationships I've formed with those people have helped me so much."
Despite his vast experience, Stuart still demonstrates a voracious appetite for learning, ceaselessly pursuing knowledge and self-improvement.
"I'm in the business of trying to hook people into golf like I'm hooked in on it," he said. "I'm an absolute obsessive. Every winter I have a programme of self-education again, and I just revise what I do and I read books and I keep learning.
"It all comes from the start that I had and it hooked me in, and I need to do the same for my pupils now.
"We're selling a dream, aren't we? It's not difficult to get people into it. Once you get them hitting a few good shots in straight lines, you can hook people in really quickly and you can provide them with a passion for life."