Tahlia Kennedy and her younger sister Hannah love to dance.
At 16 and 11, respectively, they’re encouraged to follow their passion to perform publicly. Proud mother Narelle is routinely among the crowd, as is wide-eyed father Brad, who marvels as more than just a doting dad.
“There’s no bigger pride in my life than getting to see my girls perform in front of 500 people at a dance concert,” says Brad, who’s been a professional – golfer that is – for longer than the girls combined have been on the planet.
“I obviously get a lot of joy from watching them – it really makes you think about everything differently when you get to watch it as a father. It’s sheer joy, not just for us watching as parents, but actually for the girls, too, because they just get up and perform and everything is so simple to them.
“It makes you go, `Wow!’, but it also makes you think …”
That thought, extrapolated to golf, in part at least, defines not only Kennedy’s career, but so many of his peers: can simplicity, instinct and, heaven forbid, even fun thrive in the heat of battle?
Inquisitive by nature, Kennedy has always had an ability to appreciate things as they are, but also to ponder what they could become.
He played pennants for Surfers Paradise Golf Club where he won the club championship as a teen talented enough to be selected in an Australian schoolboys’ team in 1992.
While he completed a PGA traineeship under Geoff Parslow at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club, Kennedy won the Queensland Trainee Championship before progressing to become head pro in 1996.
One year later, though, his desire to push his limits drove him on to the road. It would take a couple of years, but Kennedy eventually won a handful of small events around Queensland and
