Sandy’s Plan
When word came out in late 2019 that respected teaching professional Sandy Jamieson had left Commonwealth Golf Club, one of Melbourne’s finest Sandbelt courses, to head to the nearby nine-hole public course at Oakleigh, most people assumed he’d been sacked.
Far from it. Going to Oakleigh is essentially Jamieson heading back to the roots of golf, indeed, in some ways back to his own roots, in an effort to draw more people into the game.
To many people it’s a revolutionary move and even a puzzling one. But, as he sees it, it’s not a step back or down or even sideways, it’s a forward one. And it’s one that makes perfect sense. Getting more people to just try golf and have a fun experience, he believes, is the way to overcome the negative perceptions and hurdles that surround entry and early days in the game. And that’s the way to build a healthy future.
“We just need to create more golfers,” he said. “But we need to go back to basics. We need to create havens where people can try golf, where they can play without restrictions, where they can use just one club. It needs to be easy, fun and affordable.
“Oakleigh is a perfect place to start, to learn in a simple way, to have fun and fall in love with the game. From there they may go
