by Joni Krats
Edd Boudreau, director of instruction at GBC Golf Academy and 2006 BCPGA champion, had early exposure to golf growing up in Prince Rupert. “When I was a kid, I grew up right beside the golf course. I’d collect golf balls and sell them to my uncle who golfed.”
In his early teens, through golfing with a buddy, he got more serious about the game. He soon became focused on winning.
“Pretty much anything I do, I want to be good at,” said Boudreau. “The better I got at it, the more status and acceptance I enjoyed. I just loved playing golf and when I wasn’t in school or working for my father (I golfed) pretty much the whole day.”
He didn’t play serious competitive golf until he moved to Vancouver at age 30. Two years later, he turned pro and started touring seriously with a lot of success including winning the Titleist/FootJoy/Cobra Canadian PGA Assistants’ Championship 2003 and the BCPGA championship in 2006.
“I had to really learn the game and have the tournament experiences. How to control emotions on the course, I had to learn on my own.”
Now living with his young family in Victoria, Boudreau started GBC Golf Academy and oversees a team of five instructors. He “teaches teachers how to teach” golf during a winter training program. He feels that developing golf teachers should be handled like an apprenticeship. “We slowly integrate them into teaching.” His teaching students are shown professional practices such as “structuring lessons, teaching, creating programs, phone protocol, how to ring in lessons.” His teachers are groomed and prepared carefully before they instruct on their own.
h3. Every student is unique
Boudreau’s method is to assess his students with a pre-instruction interview. He said that with just a few questions, perceptive instructors can assess a person’s fitness, concentration level and committment to the game as well as get a sense of their learning style. It is from there he custom develops his approach to suit the golfer’s needs that day.
“We get enough information to see how they learn. That leads into how we teach an individual and work in the right direction for the student.”
Boudreau especially values routines as a method for managing one’s game, especially as a technique to recover and refocus from a bad shot.
Boudreau and his partner developed a series of videos that give short, specific pointers to golfers. He offers these videos as a teaching aid to his students.
“Any information I can get out there, I put it out there,” Boudreau said. He also feels that his role includes promoting golf in general. “We work on building a rapport with members as well as with the community.”
h3. Supporting young golfers
As someone who coaches elite juniors, Boudreau sees the need to find balance between nurturing a love of the sport and avoiding the over-focusing of young people who might tend to burn out if pushed. During the teen years, so much can change in terms of a person’s interests. “There are so many exceptional golfers who don’t (go pro) because their priorities and focuses change.
“Mentally, how do they do it, when they haven’t had much experience in life? At 13 and 14, you can’t know what is going to change in their lives.”
Because of prohibitive costs and lack of accessiblity, Boudreau is concerned by a decline in young golfers.
“We’re losing golfers, especially juniors,” said Boudreau. “We have to figure out how to get these kids back.”
Boudreau’s company gives opportunites to young people who wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to golf for free in May. Boudreau said that making golf accessible to young people is something he is passionate about.
When asked about introducing golf to his own kids, Boudreau said, “My little girl Danielle has started golfing but with not much teaching from dad. She gets out and has fun just hitting balls. Only thing I do tell her is to hold her finish position. She loves cart rides and eating fries at the course. The boys will start this summer. They all have US Kids clubs though.”
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