Award-winning club pro in major breakthrough You can now call him “Major Phil” Curd. Phil Curd, Queensland Club Professional of the Year and Bargara Golf Club professional, can now add “major winning coach” to his already impressive resume after guiding South Korean Eun-Hee Ji to victory in the US Women’s Open. It’s a remarkable story in a modern golf world where most professionals insist on having their coach at their beck and call. There’s none of that with Curd and his young protégé, who met five years ago and have formed a wonderful, albeit long distance, working relationship. Curd said he met Ji by chance after a close friend had visited Korea and suggested she travel to Bargara for lessons. “Her father owns a water-ski park and a golf driving range in Korea and a good friend, who is a water-
ski coach, used to go over there and coach the Korean water-ski team,” Curd explained. “Eun-Hee Ji was about to turn professional and they were going to bring her to Australia to get some experience playing the Australian Open and Ladies Masters and my friend said ‘why don’t you come and stay at Bargara and you can meet our professional who can get her ready for those events’. “It was a bit of a chance meeting really and we happened to hit if off,” Curd said. The chance meeting turned out to be a master stroke because Ji finished 20th in the Ladies Masters and went on to win the Malaysian Open and the Macau Open. “We just got off to a really nice start and then we had confidence in each other,” Curd said. Mind you, it took a lot of hard work to get her tournament hardened, but
By David Newbery Curd’s work was made somewhat easier as Ji was brought up by a strict disciplinarian dad and was prepared for anything – well, almost anything. There were a few stressful moments at the end of a long day on the practice fairway. She was an excellent ball-striker, but her putting was below average and Curd knew it. “By professional standards she was a very average putter, averaging between 32 and 33 putts per round,” Curd said. “We used to spend a couple of hours on the putting green and working on technique, distance control and that sort of thing and we used to finish up where I made her hole five 10footers in a row. “It all started out as a bit of fun, but a couple of nights she just couldn’t get it and would get to three or four and have to go back to the start when she missed one. Eun Hee Ji of South Korea poses with the trophy after her one-stroke victory at the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open at the Saucon Valley Country Club on July 12, 2009 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) Opposite: With coach Phil Curd
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Q-Golf Online September 2009