Coaching in Croatia

I had the fantastic opportunity to work in this interesting country between 2002 and 2007. For the previous 10 years I had worked at Marriott Dalmahoy near Edinburgh Scotland where I had combined a fairly hectic tournament playing schedule with a fair amount of coaching. At the end of the playing season 2002 I was approached to see whether I would be interested to take up a position in Croatia near the capital city of Zagreb. Having discussed the opportunity with my wife we decided it would be interesting to live in a different country and as the kids were not due to start school for two years we had the possibility to be adventurous.

The experience
There were obviously many lifestyle differences associated with living in a different country, the weather was hot and dry in the summer, very cold and snowy in the winter. The golf season was almost split into two halves as the temperatures soared into the high 30’s mid summer, the club became very quiet as the Zagreb residents headed to the Adriatic coast for an extended summer break which would last for almost 6 weeks from mid July to the end of August. This would mean that scheduling of group classes had to be worked around that break and finalised prior to the winter snowfall which would arrive mid December and last through until early March.



When I arrived in Croatia in 2002 there were only 2 courses in the Country and around 300 active golfers, therefore the priority of the course owners /developers was to increase the number of players to support the existing facilities and to justify the development of more. During the first two years I spent a lot of time marketing the game, we used lifestyle magazines, TV shows and newspaper columns to promote the game. I also spent the quiet winter months developing beginners and junior programmes. I published two beginners coaching manuals, An Introduction to Golf and Development of Skills, these two manuals supported our two stages of the beginners programme offering written and photographic material to help encourage retention. The manuals were translated into Croatian which helped with the students understanding particularly in relation to the rules and etiquette elements.



After that marketing period the work really started to come in, lots of junior groups and beginners groups. At the peak season I was delivering up to 14 two hour beginners groups per week and around 10 junior one hour classes. Combine that with 30 individual (45 min) sessions and I had a huge work load which filled 7 days of the week. This was very different to the tempo of work I was accustomed to in Scotland, the appetite for coaching was insatiable, it was common for individual students to have 2 lessons per week for most of the year, some would book a time slot for the full season.



The climate was great during the summer, very little rainfall, almost no windy days so there were very few lessons cancelled due to weather. Surviving the temperatures mid summer was tough, 30+ degrees and in the sun from dawn to dusk was a challenge. The individual sessions were 45 mins. and I would book on the hour to ensure a 15 minute break to get out of the sun and to have some water.

During the really hot mid summer period, I would take a month off partly to have a much needed break and as I previously mentioned a huge number of people moved out of the city to family homes by the coast, cutting the amount of work and the possibility to run group classes. This initially felt strange, a holiday in the golf industry in Scotland mid summer was never possible but it was great, we would use the time to get home to Scotland to visit family and friends. I would also take three months off during the winter as the snow was normally on the ground making it impossible to teach outdoors and very few people wished to take lessons in the make shift indoor facility. At the end of each year I would have worked extremely hard for 8 months and had 4 months off. This took a bit of getting used to and it was always a thought to go back to work after the long breaks but I learned enjoy it and it was great to be able to spend the breaks with my family.



I really enjoyed the time I had in Croatia, I met a lot of interesting people, at one stage I was coaching 8 ambassadors, a former Wimbledon Champion, an NBA basketball player and numerous other local celebrities. I think because we were based in the capital city of such a small country and because golf was new and exclusive it had an appeal to those people who wanted to be seen in the right places. I enjoyed the way I was treated, I was the Scottish Golf Pro rather than a Scottish Golf Pro. I would get invited to weddings, opening nights, events in the Embassies, this was not what I was used to in Scotland, there are so many Pro’s back home and so many good amateur players at each club. In Croatia a single figure handicap player was a superstar and a Professional was treated like royalty.

I am now back working in Scotland as a club Pro at Bathgate Golf Club, my children had to start school and we decided that we wanted them to be educated in Scotland. I worked on in Croatia for two years on my own taking the breaks to get home to be with the family but it was too difficult to manage and leaving the family became harder and harder. I miss the weather and the good friends we made there, I enjoyed the teaching although it was hard work and very intensive and I would certainly recommend the experience to anyone who may have the notion to work outside the UK.