THERE’S no Rolex gold watch or expansive long-service package for serving as a PGA member over your entire adult life, but if job satisfaction counts for anything then Greg Ramsey is “rolling in it”.
On January 1, 2023 not only did Greg break open a fine bottle of Tyrells Merlot to bring in the new year he also broke cracked the 50-year mark as a vocational member of the Australian PGA.
I asked Greg about his first reaction when he realised the milestone.
“After being slightly disturbed by the fact that 2023 was going to be the year I turn 70, I felt a sense of accomplishment, gratitude and for how fortunate I’ve been,” he replied.
Although now in semi-retirement in the beautiful Port Stevens area, part of the Hunter Valley Region in NSW, Ramsey is still doing the thing he loves most – teaching golf and working behind the counter at Pacific Dunes which just happens to be a short walk away from his home in Medowie. But Greg’s career hasn’t always been about a stroll down the road to give a couple of golf lessons.
“From the moment I began playing at the age of 11, all I ever wanted to be was a golf pro,” he said. “I completed my final school certificate exam at 11am in late November 1969, rode my push bike from Lismore High School to the golf course and started my apprenticeship at 12 noon.”
Ramsey’s first boss was a burly old Scotsman named Alex B. Cation. He had emigrated to Australia after WWII and had done his apprenticeship at the home of golf, St Andrews. Caton left an indelible impression on the young apprentice and Ramsey decided he wanted to be just like him.
After receiving his stripes as a fully-qualified vocational member of the PGA in 1973, Greg travelled to Sydney to learn more about the business from the likes of Tommy Moore, Graham Watson and Billy Kaye-Smith – all respected club professionals.
Barely two years after completing his apprenticeship a fresh-faced 21-year-old Ramsey was appointed head professional at Moree Golf Club.
“I had to borrow $400 from my parents to get there and Dunlop Slazenger, PGF and Spalding had given me 90 days credit on some stock. On my first day the outgoing pro came by to collect a few things and told me to look for another job immediately as every pro that had gone to Moree ended up broke.”
“When I left six-and-a-half years later to go to Nelson Bay, I had become the longest staying pro in their history … and I owned a house.”
After another seven years at Nelson Bay and creating two off-course golf outlets in Newcastle, saw Ramsey’s focus move onto golf equipment design, manufacture and wholesale.
For the next 12 years at Prosimmon Golf models such as Magician, DRK XP, Icon, a ton of Peter Senior models, which were the birth of the packaged set in Australia, were released under Greg’s guise and were all his own designs and concepts.
“I just loved the opportunity to create product, to bring an idea to a reality,” he said.
In 2000, Greg and his wife Carolyn founded their own brand – a boutique multifaceted golf business called GCR
“We primarily serviced pro shops in NSW and club pro mates across the country with GCR-branded bespoke golf equipment, along with freelance design for other international brands, and various consultancies including a seven-year consultancy to PGA National.”
In early 2008 an old member from Nelson Bay approached Greg with an offer of a 90-day consulting contract at Horizons Golf Resort under the Korean owners.
“We, at Pacific Dunes, are extremely lucky to have Greg Ramsey working with us.”
“My very first day back behind the pro shop counter after 20 years in design/manufacture/wholesale, I knew I was home and three months became 10 years at Horizons as director of golf.”
In 2019, 50 years after Greg rode his bike into the Lismore pro shop, he and Carolyn are enjoying semi-retirement but the passion for golf is still there.
Ramsey feels he has covered just about every possible position in the golf industry and as with any career spanning that long there have been dazzling highs and dark lows, but he wouldn’t change any of it.
“The work ethic/cultures of China, Korea, Japan, and indeed all of southeast Asia coupled with the boardroom/big business mindset of North America, the uniqueness of each European market and the “correctness” of the British Isles has given my life perspective, knowledge, experience and respect for all that I never could have imagined in 1973 as a bulletproof 19-year-old with freshly-minted credentials.”
When clubhouse chats turn to amazing Aussie golf careers – Peter Thomson, Greg Norman or Karrie Webb are usually the names mentioned but I find stories like Greg Ramsey’s just as amazing and intriguing.
In Greg’s words: “I have been blessed to have played a small role as a golf professional on the brilliant team at Pacific Dunes Golf Club.”
I reckon Pacific Dunes Golf Cub staff and members are the lucky ones.
And the club head professional Jamie Hook agrees: “We, at Pacific Dunes, are extremely lucky to have Greg Ramsey working with us.”
