Wayne Hocking has been mentoring and teaching juniors at Benalla Golf Club for a number of years now and his dedication has been rewarded with success.
Hocking has been a member at the Benalla course since he started playing the sport when he was 15 and has been working in the pro shop for close to 26 years.
He took the mantle of junior players’ co-ordinator when an icon of junior golf teaching at the club, Vaughan Cowan, handed on the role.
Hocking has an admiration for his predecessor and tries to replicate and improve on Cowan’s teachings.
“I’d like to think that I’ve picked up from there and kept going with it and reinvigorated it a bit as the times go on,” Hocking said.
“We’re pretty strong in juniors and we have a lot of juniors that have come from senior members, and that brings others into the club.
“We have a pro that comes over on a fortnightly basis but, when it comes to the kids, I mentor and play the introductory role. When they start to get better, that’s when I pass them on.
“I manage and oversee them and nurture them and encourage them etcetera, but I like to think that I start them off with a good set of basics.”
One of Hocking’s most recent success stories was Lachlan Spinks, who won the club championship a few weeks ago.
The junior program at the club focuses primarily on internal competitions and training but as players start to improve, Hocking says he encourages them to test themselves at other courses.
“The Junior Pennant is played around the districts and we’ve always been big supporters in that and believe that’s a really good base to launch their playing career from,” he said.
“We encourage our program from five years of age onwards. The stages that it takes to get them towards a pennant level depends on the ability of the player but we’ve had kids who are nine years of age in our junior pennant side.
“We’ve always had fairly strong junior sides over the years and won numerous flags.”
Benalla Golf Club stands out in the crowd of country golf courses, as it attracts juniors starting out and more advanced players with its small greens and tight fairways.
Hocking says the clubhouse being open seven days a week, along with the driving range, provides impressive value for money.
While the man in the pro shop is a legend of the club, his greatest golfing achievement took place on a Yarrawonga course.
“I was invited as a guest to the day from one of our members. We played a couple of rounds before the event and so I asked him ‘Where’s my invite?’ and two days later I got an email from BMW who said you’ve been invited to this BMW golf day,” Hocking said.
“It was a shotgun start (at Yarrawonga) so we teed off on the seventh hole — it took us a while to get round to the fourth.
“I went up to the fourth tee and a couple of the professional golfers from the club had just arrived at the tee and I knew both of them. I hadn’t been playing well on the day so I didn’t want them anywhere around me because I didn’t think I was going to hit a very good shot.
“Anyway, I got up on the tee and teed off — I lost sight of it but I was extremely relieved that I had hit a reasonable shot and I knew it was going to be up there.
“The other guys had seen it go in the hole and they were jumping around like maniacs. They came down and picked me up and were yelling, ‘You’ve just won a BMW.’ And I was going, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah sure.’”
“One of the guys, who is a pro, and I’ve known him since we both started playing, he said, I’ll never forget it, ‘Hock, I know you think that’s gone out the back but that’s in the bread basket mate, that’s done.’ That’s when I thought this could be for real.
“We proceeded to go up to the green and when I went over to the hole not only did I see that it was the same type of ball and same number but I do remember it had a scuff mark on the right-hand side above the writing, and when I looked in the hole I could see all that as clear as day.
“I said — I won’t repeat it what I said, but I thought this is real now, this is the real deal.
“I didn’t have to pay for anything for the day, didn’t even have to shout a round of drinks, that was all on BMW, so everything was brilliant.
“A few days later I went to Shepparton BMW to pick up the car and they upgraded the model for free.”
While his most financially rewarding day on the course may have come at Yarrawonga, Hocking is rewarded almost every day by his work at the Benalla course.
“I just believe for a little country track that doesn’t have a lot of tourist trade it’s just a golf course that is presented in a nice, neat, tidy fashion day in, day out,” Hocking said.
“It’s a little hidden gem.”
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