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Instruction

Golf Digest’s Best International Teachers

March 03, 2020
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All those national flags you see next to the names on the leader boards at PGA and LPGA Tour events should be validation that golf is a global game. But just to prove the point, we conducted a worldwide search to identify the best instructors outside the U.S. What we found were 78 teachers from 33 countries in virtually every region of the Earth. (To our knowledge, there’s no topflight instruction happening in the polar ice caps, but apologies if we’re wrong.) These are Golf Digest’s Best International Teachers.

Great coaching is being delivered in dozens of languages from Dutch to Mandarin, but the processes seem universally similar: Simplify the complexities of the game, so that even the most rank beginners experience successes and enjoyment out on the golf course.

“It used to be that to get good golf instruction, you had to live in one of a few obvious places where golf is king, places such as the U.S. or the U.K. or Japan,” says renowned British instructor Denis Pugh, who teaches Francesco Molinari on the PGA Tour. “But as I’ve traveled around the world, I’m finding that golf’s popularity has made it much easier to get quality teaching no matter where you live. The growth is obvious—and exciting.”


Santiago Garat -- Argentina

Steve Bann -- Australia

Grant Field -- Australia

Dean Kinney -- Australia

Anne-Marie Knight -- Australia

Dale Lynch -- Australia

Denis McDade -- Australia

Ritchie Smith -- Australia

Ian Triggs -- Australia

Stuart Morgan -- Austria

Mitchell Spearman -- Bahamas

Jerome Theunis -- Belgium

Henry Brunton -- Canada

Kathy Gook -- Canada

Rob Houlding -- Canada

Derek Ingram -- Canada

Shauheen Nakhjavani -- Canada

Matt Wilson -- Canada

Eduardo Miquel -- Chile

Connie Chen -- China

David Norquay -- China

Kevin Smeltz -- China

Jorge Mesa -- Colombia

Jiri Nemecek -- Czech Republic

Karel Skopový jun -- Czech Republic

David Dickmeiss -- Denmark

Andre Askali -- Denmark

Jamie McConnell -- Dubai

Enrico Villo -- Estonia

Mikael Piltz -- Finland

Alain Alberti -- France

Stephane Barras -- France

Paul Dyer -- Germany

Ian Holloway -- Germany

Jesse Grewal -- India

Randy Mawuntu -- Indonesia

Neil Manchip -- Ireland

Brendan McDaid -- Ireland

Shane O'Grady -- Ireland

Sergio Bertaina -- Italy

Roberto Zappa -- Italy

Todd Baker -- Japan

Toru Inoue -- Japan

Yoshie Koyama -- Japan

Horacio Morales -- Mexico

Alejandro Munoz -- Mexico

Tom Stickney -- Mexico

Phil Allen -- Netherlands

Susan Farron -- New Zealand

Guy Wilson -- New Zealand

Rob Cheney -- Portugal

Justin Han -- Singapore

Peter Berman -- South Africa

John Dickson -- South Africa

Jamie Gough -- South Africa

Derek James -- South Africa

Hyunjee Chun -- South Korea

Duch Ho Koh -- South Korea

Siwoo Lee -- South Korea

Robin Symes -- South Korea

Jason Floyd -- Spain

Jose Vicente Perez -- Spain

Jesus Rodriguez -- Spain

Christian Hardin -- Sweden

Henrik Lundqvist -- Sweden

Henri Reis -- Sweden

Mario Caligari -- Switzerland

Noppakhun Wonglaw -- Thailand

Michael Bannon -- United Kingdom

Stuart Clayton -- United Kingdom

Peter Cowen -- United Kingdom

Phil Kenyon -- United Kingdom

Hugh Marr -- United Kingdom

Chris Murtagh -- United Kingdom

Andrew Nicholson -- United Kingdom

Denis Pugh -- United Kingdom

James Ridyard -- United Kingdom

Mike Walker -- United Kingdom