Jonathan Craddock, a Peter Cowen Academy coach in Dubai, upbeat about junior talents

Dubai: Jonathan Craddock, the 38 year-old teaching professional at the Peter Cowen Academy at Emirates Golf Club, Dubai spoke to Gulf News about his journey as well as the activities of the academy. Excerpts:

QUESTION: Where did your golf career all start?

JONATHAN CRADDOCK: I am originally from Cannock, Staffordshire in England. I come from a humble background having worked at primarily Municipal Golf Courses in the English Midlands.

My real career passion is grassroots golf and coaching complete beginners. In those early days, we introduced golf to schools, under the umbrella and coordination of the Golf Foundation, and funded by the Local Government Councils. We started our golf programmes in fairly basic surroundings: indoors at gymnasiums or at football and playing fields, involving plastic balls and wide targets.

It was so different to these days in Dubai, especially the available facilities but it worked and sometimes. I do miss those early day pioneer challenges.

Having fun is certainly the priority to introduce kids, both boys and girls to the game of golf, as well as adults.

We also worked with ‘People of Determination’ in Walsall. This was very rewarding and involved working with self-created ‘Pitch and Putt golf courses’ on sports fields to targets 40 and 50 yards away and often shorter. We went to them for lessons at their facilities and they came to us with organised and supervised visits.

Everyone was a winner, they all played in a group environment, the challenge was always to rely on volunteers to support, but we always made sure it happened, it was well worth it for the students and us Pros.

How did you come to Dubai?

In 2010 one of my former bosses David Dunk, who has since sadly passed away, a very good player and golf professional, introduced me to Peter Cowen, who he had known throughout his playing career.

I first worked in Dubai for Grass Roots Golf at Emirates Golf Club with Mark Gregson-Waters. After three years, I moved to become Golf Development Coach at Dubai Golf.

How do you see junior development of golf in the UAE?

I believe all the golf clubs all over the UAE are doing a great job in introducing them to the game. The numbers in the programmes are huge. At Emirates Golf Club alone we have around 260 juniors in our Peter Cowen Junior Academy Programmes every season and over 700 at all three Dubai Golf Clubs; at Dubai Creek, Jumeirah Golf Estates and including EGC each year.

The challenge is: where do they go after a few months of group lessons on the range?

What we are missing in the golf infra structure in the UAE is more Par 3 short courses, at the golf clubs or independent of the existing facilities.

The dynamic in this part of the world, unlike in the UK, is the professionals and academies do not fully follow the transition of the junior golfer’s journey from junior golfer to adult golfer, due to the transient society of ex-pats, a very high drop-out rate and the limited conversion of Junior Programmes to Club Membership at the golf clubs, especially when the parents do not play golf and or are not members of golf clubs.

A UAE-wide recognised certification level for all juniors prior to their access to golf facilities and having a significant UAE Junior Golf Calendar for all, aligned with the certificated levels of age and skill, would be a huge positive, not just focussing on elite juniors. There have been conversations with Peter Cowen on this matter, it would be great to see this formally introduced as soon as possible with the UAE golf industry working closely together and learning from each other.

With my background of introducing golf to schools, this will see a coordinated expansion of the game, not involving PGA professionals in the day-to-day teaching. It would involve teachers and parents acting as ‘Coaches’ under the overall supervision of the Programme by us Pros.

It would also be great to see more UAE national juniors taking up the game, and at the right time, being integrated into the overall UAE golf eco-system with specific encouragement to create a pathway to the UAE National Team.

Where do you see your golfing career going?

Having been involved in the game for over 25 years, my greatest satisfaction and pride comes from coaching juniors and beginner golfers from Day 1 through their learning journey, and transition to a competent golfer, then to achieve a golf handicap and ultimately a member of a golf club. Some will become champions, but introducing them to the game is already a Win – Win for us all.

Once introduced to the game of golf, it is with you for life.

I want career wise to remain in this junior and development space in golf and having been in Dubai for over 10 years, we have come a long way and now realise there is still so much to do.

Follow Jonathan on @GolfCoachJC