IT’S the last week of November, and Mark Gibson (aka Gibbo) is celebrating a significant milestone – 30 years as a full-time teaching professional at Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast.

Mind you, the 66-year-old, who runs Exceptional Golf at Royal Pines, was well-credentialled long before arriving there after having spent time working as a club and teaching professional at Royal Queensland, Gladstone, Keperra, Pine Rivers and Caloundra golf clubs.

At Royal Queensland, Gibbo worked with the legendary Charlie Earp as did Greg Norman who did his traineeship under the master coach.

While Norman pursued a playing career, Gibbo chose the teaching pathway that has brought its own success – two PGA Australian Teacher of the Year awards and three PGA Queensland Teacher of the Year awards.

Norman and Gibson seldom crossed paths in the early years, but one day their worlds collided at a PGA trainee tournament and that was the catalyst for Gibbo deciding a teaching career would be his best option.

“I didn’t have a lot to do with Greg, but he played a pivotal role in me wanting to coach,” he explained.

“The first trainee event I played in 1976 was at a course at Coomera, which no longer exists. I had a 7.10 tee time and, being my first ever pro event, I didn’t want to attract a penalty for being late to the tee so I walked to the tee when the 7am group were about to tee off.

“On the tee in that group was a guy called Greg Norman. He’s hit this tee shot and the sound of it and the flight of it was unbelievable and I thought to myself, ‘I hope I can coach’.

“It was a golf shot that I had never seen, heard or dreamt of. The crack of the persimmon driver on the balata ball was amazing.”

Gibson, who did his traineeship under Reg Want at Coolangatta Tweed Heads, went to work for Charlie Earp at RQ before accepting a position as head pro at Gladstone GC in Central Queensland.

After five years, he was lured back to Brisbane when Keperra CGC head pro, Ian Triggs, sought an assistant.

“My time with Triggsy cemented the idea that I wanted to coach,” Gibbo said. “We agreed to spend half a day a week shooting the breeze over coaching techniques, mechanics and the philosophy of coaching.”

Teaching professional Mark Gibson believes he made the right call on his career choice.

For Gibson, the seed was well and truly planted and he took off for Pine Rivers as head pro for a spell and then moved to Caloundra where coaching took up much of his time.

Since arriving at Royal Pines Resort, Gibbo has taught thousands of students eager to hone their skills.

Even celebrities like Jackie Stewart, the Scotsman who won three Formula One world titles, and Australian V8 Supercar series championship winner Marcus Ambrose have turned up for lessons.

“I love coaching and I have been lucky enough to have a lifetime of being out in the fresh-air and sunshine dealing with people,” Gibbo said. 

“It’s an ever-changing environment because you can’t coach two lessons the same. You have people that learn differently, react differently, have different physical capabilities and people with different ambitions.

“Every lesson you give is a new challenge – even when you coach someone long-term the challenges change a bit because their attitude to golf changes.

“So, the students teach me as much as I teach them. People say to me they play golf to enjoy it but end up being the most competitive people on the planet because they get to 15 and then want to get to nine and then to six.”

Gibbo’s tip: don’t set unrealistic goals when it comes to reducing your handicap.

“One of my steepest learning curves was when I went to Pine Rivers,” he explained. “I had a lady come to me on a 25 handicap. She wanted to get down to 18 and I said it would take nine to 12 months. 

“We did that in nine months and she asked ‘can I get down to 12’? We changed focus and that was achieved in 10 months. Then she wanted to get down to single figures she eventually got down to a two handicap.

“If someone off 25 had asked me to get them down to two I would have seen that as a bridge too far, but by breaking it down and setting goals along the way, we were able to achieve it.

“Right there and then I decided I’m never going to say no to a student who is willing to breaking their goal down into pieces. That still works today.”

FOOTNOTE: In 2022, Gibson was awarded life membership of the PGA of Australia joining the likes of Norman von Nida, Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Charlie Earp, Paul King, Alex and Dave Mercer, Peter Senior, Graham Marsh, Rodger Davis, Ian Baker-Finch and as featured in a previous edition of Inside Golf, Dennis Brosnan and Kyle Francis.

Between 2010-16, Gibson was the chairman of the PGA of Australia contributing to training young players.

“The updating of the education program for PGA members was one of our big steps forward as was aligning our targets with Golf Australia,” he said. “We started the ball rolling, and it has continued in a much bigger vein. The golf industry is now much more united with the Women’s PGA, PGA of Australia and Golf Australia sharing services and offices.”

About David Newbery

Chief writer David Newbery has been living, breathing and writing and editing golf for more than 30 years. His extensive knowledge of the game comes from covering golf around the world. Hired by Inside Golf in 2009, David previously worked as the editor of The Golfer for 25 years and before that worked for numerous daily newspapers in Australia and overseas. The Brisbane-based journalist describes his golf game as “a work in progress”, but has had the privilege of playing golf with some of the game’s best players including nine-time major winner Gary Player. David enjoys travelling, reading, music, photography and spending time with family and friends – on and off the golf course.

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