How to make the PGA tour

Sure, you need talent. But you need hard work even more.

Canada’s next golfing superstar just might be 17-year-old Marcus Brown of South Surrey, B.C.  

Brown started his golfing career at age four with a plastic golf club and a little green in the backyard. By age nine he was playing on an executive nine-hole course and admits he was not very good. A year later he was taking his first golf lessons and, five years later, placed tenth in the British Columbia junior championship. It was this event that convinced Brown to put the hockey pads away for good. 

He’s now 17, in grade 11 at Semiahmoo Secondary, and has developed into a one-handicap player. His best competitive round was a 69 at Calgary’s Mackenzie Meadows in a Maple Leaf junior tournament in 2012. None of this was accomplished by being lucky.

The lab

Brown attends Northview Golf Academy, nicknamed “the lab.” The CPGA instructors there are Matt Palsenbarg and Jason Glass. Once a week Brown works on weights, stretching, sprints and golf-related exercises. On the driving range he uses an orange box called a Trakman, which measures club head speed, trajectory, distance, attack angle and club path.  Along with video analysis, the immediate visual feedback helps to improve his swing technique.  Brown also averages two rounds of golf a week, along with hours on the driving range.

An essential part of the lab includes Vision 54. The core belief of this philosophy is that every individual has a unique and unlimited potential in life. When applied to golf, individuals have the potential to shoot 54, or a birdie on every hole. The school’s training guide is called Play Your Best Golf Now and they teach it with the help of a Vision 54 app.

Competitive golf

The only way to develop the skills and mental discipline in order to play competitive golf is to play competitive golf. That requires playing tournament golf against good competition. Some of Brown’s results so far include:

• Maple Leaf Junior Tour. Brown has won three tournaments—Predator Ridge in Vernon (2011), Ledgeview in Abbotsford (2011) and Hazelmere in South Surrey (2012).
• Canadian Junior Golf Association tournament. He won in 2012 at Ledgeview.
• Canadian Junior Golf Association’s B.C. Junior Open. He placed third in 2013. 

At present Brown is a member of his high school golf team, but his future lies south with a golf scholarship. There has been some interest from Division I and II schools, but his grade 12 year will determine where he will play his college golf. Trying to attract American interest, Brown just returned from Beaumont in Oak Valley, California, where he tied for 13th in an American Junior Golf Association tournament.

Brown also competed in the 2012 Vancouver Open, playing against more experienced golfers such as Canadian amateur champion Nick Taylor, James Lepp (NCAA championship, University of Washington), Eugene Wong of the University of Oregon and 2012 Canadian junior champion Adam Svensson.  

Golf in 2013 

Brown plays 90 to 100 rounds of golf per year. This summer his goals are to play, win or place in the top ten at the following tournaments:

• Canadian National Future Links in Courtenay, B.C.
• British Columbia Junior Championship in Revelstoke, B.C.
• B.C. Amateur in Radium Hot Springs, B.C.
• Canadian Junior Championship in Sudbury, Ontario.
• Canadian Amateur at Royal Colwood in Victoria, B.C.

The future is bright for Brown, but every tournament is only a stepping stone to Q-School, the Canadian tour, the Web.com tour and finally the PGA tour. The development of Marcus Brown as a PGA golfer will take another five to six years. During that time he will hit millions of balls and travel thousands of miles.