By Peter Owen
AT 3AM on the morning that he would play for his golfing future in a Q-School qualifier at Lakelands on the Gold Coast, Jack Wright was hunched over a table in The Star Casino, nursing a beer and praying that the card he’d just drawn would fill an inside straight.
Unsurprisingly, when he did make it to the course later that morning, he didn’t play particularly well, missing the cut at the first stage of 2021 qualifying, and delaying the start of a professional golf career that now promises great things.
Wright says the story about his night at the casino is well known, and he tells it as an example of how far he’s come, how much he’s changed, in his quest to become a successful touring professional.
“I was an idiot,” Wright, 26, concedes. “I loved golf, and I knew that I had a talent for it, but I just didn’t take it seriously. I knew I wanted a future in golf, but didn’t care too much and I wasn’t really dedicated.”
That all changed when Wright was playing and practicing on the Gold Coast last year with successful professionals like Michael Sim, and realised that he was capable of competing at a similar level.
Realising he’d have more opportunities to play competitively as an associate, he made a last-minute decision to apply to head professional Jared Love to become a trainee and began life as a first-year associate at Coolangatta & Tweed Heads late last year.
He works 20 to 30 hours a week in the pro shop, loves the job and the people he works with, and spends the rest of the week playing and practicing. He’s impressed everybody with his work ethic and attention to detail.
Associates, or trainees as most members know them, are required to complete a three-year apprenticeship, learning all aspects of life as a club pro and undertaking extensive study. They’re also required to maintain a
high standard of play, tested most Mondays against their peers in a series of pro-am tournaments.
Wright played his first MPP (Membership Pathway Program) event on January 23 at Maroochy River – a PGA Employer/Employee Challenge – shooting two-under-par 70 to finish tied for third. That was the beginning of a campaign virtually unmatched in PGA history.
Wright has since won an unprecedented seven events on the Queensland MPP schedule. He’s twice ventured interstate – for a fourth placing in the 72-hole Victorian PGA Associate Championship at Tocumwal in May, and a win in the NSW/ACT Associate Championship at Tura Beach in late August.
In all he’s finished top 10 in 21 of the 24 events he’s played, and has an unbeatable lead in the Queensland Associate annual Order of Merit.
His outstanding play has seen him recognised by the Australian PGA as one of the country’s top five associates, a status allowing him to play in pro-am events across the country, as well as Tier 2 tournaments, which include all the state PGA championships.
He played in the Northern Territory PGA in August, shooting rounds of 70, 70, 71 and 70 to finish 25th, and is looking forward to testing his game against all-comers in the Queensland PGA at Nudgee in November.
Wright was introduced to golf as a youngster in Bairnsdale, where his dad John was the club pro. He gained his first handicap at the age of nine and showed outstanding potential from an early age. He moved with the family to Yamba in NSW, when his dad became head pro there.
“I just about grew up in the pro shop,” he said. “I was answering the phone when I was about 10 and I was always around golfers.”
His younger brother Mackenzie is a professional golfer and his father is a teaching professional at Maroochy River on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
“My dad’s been the only coach I’ve ever had and I get up to the Sunshine Coast about once a month. Nobody knows my swing like he does,” Wright said. “We make a good team.”
Proud dad John said: “When he hits a ball it makes a sound you don’t hear from other players, but Jack was slow to mature as a golfer. He wasn’t ready until this year.”
He’s ready now, all right, and says he’s supremely confident in his game, happy in his job, enjoying everything about being a professional golfer, and well aware that success in his field is never easy.
He plans to complete his traineeship at Coolangatta & Tweed Heads, play as much golf as he can and, hopefully, become a successful tournament player.
“But if that doesn’t work out I’ll be happy enough joining my brother and my dad as a PGA member,” he said.
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