Many golfers, from the top pros down to the high handicappers, have been coached, in the loosest sense of the term, by a family member. Certainly this is so in the case of those who took up golf as youngsters, as often it is a family member who first got this youngest into golf and showed them what to do.
But some of the top pros have remained coached, in a professional capacity, by a family member throughout their career to date.
Former World No.1 golfer Justin Thomas was introduced to golf by his father, Mike, and is still coached by him. Mike’s own father, Paul, was a club pro and Mike became a PGA teaching professional at Harmony Landing Country Club in Goshen, Kentucky. So Justin grew up around golf.
“My dad pushed me a lot,” recalls Mike, “while I never pushed Justin to play or practice. With Justin I tried to keep it fun, I didn’t care whether he played golf or not. We have always worked well together for one reason: I am a friend, not a parent, first. Secondly I am a coach. Lastly I am a parent. If I had to be a parent about something, I would, but I made sure that we were buddies first.”
Another PGA teaching pro who had coached his son as a youngster, and still does, is David Young. He was the head professional at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in New York and his son is Cameron Young, PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2021–22 and runner up in The Open of 2022.
Xander Schauffele’s father, Stefan, had been an assistant golf pro in Hawaii. His son’s website explains that his father “teaches golf based on track and field throwing discipline principles.” As well as being a golf teacher, Stefan has been many things, including a ski instructor and a decathlete. When Xander won Olympic gold in golf it was a poignant moment for his father had had hopes of competing in the Olympics, but a car accident ended his career as a decathlete.
Stefan coached Xander, and still does. He is listed on his son’s website as ‘mind and swing coach’. But Xander had added another swing coach recently, Chris Como. The change seems to have paid dividends with Como making a change to his swing and Schauffele going on to win the PGA Championship.
Stefan explains: “Chris changed a teeny thing and he found answers that Xander and I together couldn’t come up with, We went trial and error, we went empirical, I couldn’t answer it. What is the point here? I didn’t know. But Chris had the answer right away.”
Xander Schauffele said of his father that, “Now that I’m working with Chris, he feels like he can kind of take his hands off the wheel. He trusts him a lot, I trust him a lot.”
Brooke Henderson, the winner of two Women’s Majors, also had a father who was an all round sportsman. Her father Dave, a teacher, was a hockey player, and coached her in that; he also coached her in golf. He still does the latter.
Brooke’s elder sister, Brittany, was also coached by her father and also turned pro, and now caddies for Brooke. She says of her father that “he was a great communicator. It was easy for both of us to learn from him. As long as I can remember, Dad has had a coaching temperament, pushing us when we needed it, knowing when we needed consoling and coming up with exactly the right words at the right time.”
“We knew that we had our father and our coach. They were the same man but separate roles. Sometimes Coach would say things you might not want to hear. But Dad would always be there to love and support us at home.”