Instruction
Golf Digest’s Best International Teachers
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