NOT EVEN eight wins in his first 12 months as a trainee skilled, together with the affiliate championship of NSW, might persuade Jack Wright that he’d made the appropriate determination in selecting golf as his profession.
However a 12 months later, with one other eight wins below his belt and with the interior confidence that solely maturity can present, Wright now not has any doubts. He’s destined to be a touring professional.
“I simply really feel I’ve no different possibility in life,” he stated, as he begins his third and closing 12 months as an affiliate skilled at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads. “I reckon I used to be born to play match golf.”
One thing of a late bloomer, Wright was 25 earlier than he determined to observe the PGA’s Membership Pathway Program below Coolangatta-Tweed’s head professional Jared Love.
As a part of their traineeship, associates are required to play Monday tournaments – typically carried out as pro-ams, with the hopefuls taking part in alongside membership members and celebrities. Wright’s first season was off the charts – eight wins all through south-east Queensland and northern NSW, which earned him Order of Benefit honours.
A late bloomer, Jack Wright has been one of the best PGA affiliate golfer over the previous two years.
However nonetheless he wasn’t satisfied. “There are simply so many gifted golfers in Australia, most of them struggling to make a dwelling,” he stated. “Don’t get me fallacious, I’m a assured individual, however you surprise about making an attempt to make a profession out of it.”
His second season was a duplicate of the primary. Eight extra wins, Order of Benefit honours once more, and one other state championship, this time the Queensland PGA Affiliate Championship at Windaroo Lakes Golf Membership, a victory which earned him a spot within the Queensland PGA Championship, his first style of a 72-hole Australasian Tour occasion.
And that was the clincher.
“Some guys are born for it,” he stated. “They simply know they’re going to succeed. I believe I’m a kind of. I’m very motivated with my golf. I need to win all the things. If there’s a prize up for grabs I need to win that prize.”
One man who has had a entrance row seat to Wright’s outstanding achievements is the PGA’s Queensland Member Growth Officer Mark Weir, a 35-year golf trade veteran who works intently with associates and their head professionals.
“Jack is by far one of the best affiliate golfer in Queensland,” he stated. “He’s been our greatest participant for 2 years now, and he’s not afraid to go low. Enjoying for prizemoney appears to have given him an additional focus.
“Some younger golfers who’ve success can get a bit stand-offish,” he stated. “However not Jack – he’s retained his character. He’s nonetheless obtained a little bit of the larrikin in him, however he’s tempered that. I price him very extremely.”
With lower than a 12 months of his traineeship to go, Wright is already planning his taking part in future.
He hopes to be one of many prime 5 affiliate professionals within the nation on the finish of this season – a seemingly modest objective contemplating he’s been prime 5 in each of the previous two years. That will achieve him begins in a lot of the 2025-26 Australasian Tour occasions.
Wright’s assured he can flip that chance right into a long-term card on his house tour.
He’s additionally planning to journey to the UK later within the 12 months to see if he can achieve standing on the Challenger Tour, the feeder tour for the profitable DP World Tour.
Trying additional afield, he’s eager to check himself on the Japan Tour the place, as a 17-year-old, he as soon as caddied for his mate Matt Guyatt.
“I’d like to play in Japan,” he stated. “I’ve began to be taught Japanese as a result of I’ve heard it may be actually robust in the event you don’t have the language.”
Wright is the son of Maroochy River educating skilled John Wright, and the brother of golf coach Mackenzie. Although he discovered the sport in rural Victoria and grew up in Yamba, the place his dad was the membership professional, Wright considers himself a Queenslander.
Other than golf, his ardour is the Brisbane Lions AFL workforce. He was thrilled final 12 months when, competing in a pro-am at Indooroopilly, he discovered himself teamed with Brisbane midfield star Jarryd Lyons. He’s additionally loved a spherical with Jonathon Brown, who he says he grew up idolising.
