P l ay e r P r o f i l e
I fell in love with this thing called golf Dennise Hutton on her life-long passion Story by BRUCE YOUNG
New South Wales State Women’s Golf Coach, Dennise Hutton, was destined for a life in golf from a very early age. The daughter of the greenkeeper/caretaker at the Glen Innes Golf Club in the New England area of New South Wales and with a mother who was the B Grade Champion at that same golf club, Hutton could not avoid exposure to the game from a very early age.
city kids and what was available to them she developed a desire to play for her State and Australia. On leaving high school Hutton attended the University of New England’s campus at Armidale where she did a double major in psychology and education before moving to Sydney to complete her Diploma in Education. That was in 1979 and she was immediately adopted by the Bonnie Doone Golf Club.
That the family lived on the golf course made it even more likely that she would end up with golf in her veins and so it would prove. “Even when we went on holidays my parents would play golf while we played on the swings etc,” said Hutton. “I soon got bored with that and decided to go out and join them and fell in love with the game. I loved the feeling of hitting a good shot and that it was just you against nature to a large extent. Even though I didn’t really know what I was doing then, I fell in love with this thing called golf.”
It was soon after that Hutton was selected for Australia and for the next six years she would play amateur golf at the highest level in Sydney and Australia. Was there ever a temptation to turn professional earlier than when she eventually did in 1986?
Hutton first started playing around the age of 11, joining the Glen Innes Golf Club at age13 with a 36 handicap and within less than a year she had an 18 handicap. By the time she was 16 she was playing off a 4 handicap and as she began to get exposure to the
“My passion was never really to be a professional but rather to teach. It was Bruce Green who eventually convinced me to think about turning professional to teach golf. It was a no brainer really as I loved teaching and what better than to teach a subject matter that you absolutely adore. I had reached a point in amateur golf when I was thinking – well what’s next? I never won the Australian Amateur although I was beaten in the final by Lindy Goggin in1980 and had a fair amount of success but in 1986 made the decision to give professional golf a go.”
“I was enjoying playing amateur golf and had my school teaching career which I was also enjoying. I was having my trips overseas for a few weeks in major amateur events and so there was no real reason to turn.”
“Jenny Sevil and I turned professional on exactly the same day and we drove down to Moe to play the Australian LPGA Championship which I won. I remember winning a $1000 in cash which I invested in shares which, given the timing, was not a good move. I also won an airfare to the UK however and that convinced me to travel there to play.” Hutton played the Ladies European Tour in brief campaigns over the next two years, mixing that with her teaching back in Sydney and a bit of time playing in Asia, and achieved some success. In 1989 however, Hutton decided to focus her attention on playing an extended European Tour campaign and won two events. “I won the European Match Play in Barcelona and the Biarritz Classic in consecutive weeks and got to number 5 on the Order of Merit that season.” “I loved my time there (in Europe) but my passion was to teach and knowing that made my time away from home a little easier as I always knew I had that to come back to.” A combination of a wrist injury, incurred when playing the French Dennise with Nerida.
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