Declan Kelly: When we’re talking golf, OuttaBounds, Perth’s golf entertainment venue. If you are a serious golfer, we can cover you there. If you just want some fun games, we can cover you there. Great food, great drinks on offer. Mini golf suits all ages — great for families.
Situated at 24 Baker Court in North Lake. Just check them out at outtabounds.com.au.
My next guest is a PGA Golf Professional. He’s also the General Manager of OuttaBounds. When we want to talk golf, we turn to this man, Jason Roach.
Hello, Jason. How are you this morning?
Jason Roach: I’m good, thanks, Declan. How are you doing?
Declan: I’m very good. Nice day, 25 degrees. I’m sure you’re sitting in your office there at OuttaBounds looking out. It beats working for a living, I’d say.
Jason: True, but it just sort of teases you a little bit. So much work to do, but it’s good to look out the window and everyone else is having fun. So I still guess it’s a bit of a win.
Declan: Good answer, good answer.
I just wanted to recap. It finished last week, but always nice to see a first Englishman in 107 years — and I’m saying that as a proud Irishman — Aaron Rai taking it out at nine-under in the US PGA.
What did you make of the tournament? A surprise winner, but great to see.
Jason: It was. I thought it was a great tournament.
The conditions were extremely brutal the first couple of rounds, where I think they might have got the tap on the shoulder to make it a little bit easier because the scores were very reflective of how tough a challenge that golf course really was, with the undulating greens and the wind around as well.
But I thought it was really good to see Aaron Rai get up for his first major victory. He’s played very well for the last couple of years on the DP World Tour and won a couple of playoffs over the last couple of years against Tommy Fleetwood as well.
Look, it doesn’t surprise me. The PGA Championship normally throws a couple of roughies in there every now and then, as history suggests. But I think a very worthy winner.
That final-round 65 just really showed that he certainly deserved to win. He didn’t go out there and someone else lost the tournament. Aaron Rai certainly went out there and won that golf tournament.
So congratulations to him. Well deserved.
Declan: Yeah, great winner.
Looking through the Aussies, Cameron Smith — his bank balance is very healthy thanks to LIV Golf, which we’ll talk about in a minute — and Min Woo Lee, both up there among the best of the Aussies.
Cameron’s starting to find a little bit of form, and Min Woo Lee just threatening but not quite getting there just yet. Hopefully his time will come very soon for one of the big prizes, Jason.
Jason: Absolutely. It was really good to see Min Woo in the first couple of rounds in particular, where he was tied for the lead.
I think the tougher, windier conditions really suited him. Obviously, he grew up in Perth playing golf at Royal Fremantle and is probably fairly used to playing in tough conditions where it does get quite windy.
So I think it really played into his wheelhouse those first couple of rounds. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to continue on over the weekend.
But it was good to see Cameron Smith back up towards the top of the leaderboard. It’s been well documented he’s the only player to miss the cut in the last six major championships.
Interestingly enough, he just parted ways with his long-term coach Grant Field over in Queensland. His long-term coach had been with him since the age of nine and obviously took him through to win The Open Championship at St Andrews and have a very successful career.
He parted ways with him the week before this major championship. I don’t know if it’s got anything to do with it or not, but he’s gone to Claude Harmon, who is Butch Harmon’s son, a very famous golf coach globally.
Interestingly, he gets a tied seventh straight after a change of coach. So anything can happen.
We saw Carlton on the weekend have a win in the footy with a change of coach, and maybe it works in golf too sometimes.
Declan: You’ve got to shake it up.
If you’ve just joined us, good morning. We’re Talking Golf. Jason Roach is the man, General Manager of OuttaBounds. Jason is also a PGA Golf Professional.
Jason, while I’ve got you on — and I appreciate your time as always — I’ve got to ask you about LIV Golf.
From my layman’s perspective, I’ve loved seeing it. I know it caused a rift with the established PGA, but for me, and probably a lot of people, it shook up the whole, at times, elite, snooty world of some professional golf.
What’s been your take on the introduction of LIV Golf and perhaps the demise of LIV Golf from what we’re hearing now?
Jason: It’s been quite interesting, hasn’t it, Declan?
As a PGA member myself, it was like, “Oh, the ecosystem’s having a bit of a shake-up here.”
However, I know if you were asked about it in America, you’d get a very different response because they get high-quality golf all year round.
But I saw the positives in being able to bring some big names to Australia. Obviously, LIV Golf Adelaide has been one of their most successful events that they run through their calendar year.
It completely shook the whole golf ecosystem. It changes things up, obviously with all the music going on. It turned into a bit of a party with golf wedged in between, but with very high-class golfers.
The bit that I really enjoyed, strangely enough, was the team aspect and the team environment as well. With golf being such an individual sport, it gives you something else to look forward to.
I sat back watching LIV Golf Adelaide and, obviously with Anthony Kim, one of the comeback stories in all of sports history, I was watching that and I was just as interested in the Australian team, Ripper GC.
I was just as interested in watching them for their team event and how well they went for the last couple of holes to literally snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert weren’t contending for the individual honour. However, they made a couple of crucial birdies down the last couple of holes to get themselves the team victory as well.
I thought that was really exciting.
But it has definitely shaken it up and has forced some changes globally with golf. It’s good to see that it’s now starting that discussion with the PGA Tour to go, “Hey, maybe we do have to look a little bit further beyond our shoreline and make this more of a global game and showcase their product a little bit more around the world rather than just being so America-centred.”
So it was a bit of a disruptor. It could only be good for the game.
I look at the amount of young kids and children around here in Perth who are all wearing Ripper GC or LIV Golf hats.
Ripper GC do a lot of work with the Golf Australia junior golf program as well. They invest a lot of money into that to promote junior golf and get more people into the great game.
But it’ll be interesting. Look, I’m still not 100 per cent certain. Yes, the Public Investment Fund might have pulled, but I reckon they might have something else up their sleeve.
There might be someone behind the scenes that we don’t know about who is ready to prop it up and hopefully continue to see it going, moving forward in 2027 and beyond, because I think it has been great for the game as well.
Having a few different global tours with such high-quality fields, I think it can only be good for the game.
Declan: I agree. A lot of people who did go across to Adelaide just raved about the whole tournament, not just the golf, which is most important, but the razzmatazz around that show business. It shook it up.
Mark from City Beach on the Retrovision text line asks: “Can you ask Jason, in his opinion, how important a good caddie is at the top level?”
Would it vary? We heard the famous Tiger Woods instance where his Kiwi counterpart — the name escapes me — was with him for years.
Do a lot of golfers really rely on their caddies, in your opinion, Jason?
Jason: Absolutely. The caddie is vitally important.
You’ll see Steve Williams, who was Tiger’s caddie.
Declan: Steve Williams. Thank you, thank you.
Jason: Interestingly, he was New Zealand’s highest-paid athlete when he was with Tiger Woods.
There is a reason the caddie is there. What you see on TV is the person carrying the golf bag and stepping it out: “You’ve got 137 metres.” But there is a lot more to it than that.
It’s not only working with the player to keep their emotions and their levels of energy intact and balanced throughout the round of golf, and understanding when they need to switch on and switch off, but also triggering them when it’s go time.
They need to be clear and concise with delivering the message in regard to the shot they need to hit or the distance they need to carry a certain bunker, what the ball is going to do when it lands on the green and the best position to leave yourself to make the next shot easier.
It is extremely important out there.
This is why they earn significant amounts of money and they’re in such demand, especially the caddies nowadays.
They’re literally guiding the player through the golf course and exactly where they need to hit it, but then also providing that positive reinforcement and clear direction on where they want the player to hit that shot.
It’s really good to see what works best is when you have that relationship between the player and caddie.
That’s why you see some of these caddies stay with their players for such a long time, because they know more about the player half the time than what the player knows about themselves.
I’ve been in circumstances where I’ve had a caddie. I see the shot, you get your ball, you see the shot and you go, “Yeah, that’s all I need to do.”
Then the caddie will throw something at you and you think, “Well, I didn’t even feel that or think of it,” because the player gets so drawn into the next shot they need to hit.
You’re so focused on the flag or the hole, depending on whether you’re putting or hitting a full swing, that you’re not focused on the next shot.
You literally don’t even think about, “Oh, the wind’s just turned from another direction,” or “This green is firm at the front. It’s going to release heavily, so I don’t need to carry it as far as I initially thought or what the numbers suggest.”
They come in absolutely handy because when you get in that zone, you’re sort of in a bubble and you have tunnel vision. You don’t really feel or see too much around you.
But that caddie has all of that information. They’re pre-logged. They spend hours before the round of golf literally building a game plan for how they’re going to tackle that golf course.
That changes every single round based on wind, based on pin positions, et cetera.
So, vitally important — and a very good question, I will add.
Declan: Very good, Mark from City Beach. Asked and very well answered, comprehensively.
Jason Roach is the man doing that, Talking Golf. He’s the General Manager of OuttaBounds and also a PGA Golf Professional, so he knows what he’s talking about.
Jason, you and I spoke about this when I met you a couple of months ago.
There are a lot of ladies and men out there on these tours — golf professionals by name and technically they are — but scraping a living.
They’re really going from tournament to tournament in the various regions where they choose to ply their trade, relying on probably a bit of sponsorship from home and making a cut.
It’s not all glitz, champagne and glamour on the tour, is it? It is at the top end — private jets — but there’s a host of players who we never hear from who are trying to earn a living on these golf tours.
You’ve been there, you’ve done that. It’s not always a glitzy life.
Jason: No, it’s certainly not, unfortunately.
You hear about your Rorys and your Tigers and the private planes. Rory spoke about The Masters — he was able to drop his daughter into school, catch the private jet to Augusta and then fly back and be home for school pick-up and dinner.
That’s all you see on the news.
But what a lot of people don’t understand is how good these golfers are and how good you need to be to get to that level, to be successful on your major tours around the world.
There are so many extremely talented golfers out there, including in Australia, who are literally travelling tournament to tournament to try and make enough money to get to the next tournament.
Unfortunately, one of the things with golf is if you miss the cut, you don’t get paid.
Whereas in tennis, if you’re playing any of these tournaments, you get paid whether you get knocked out in the first round or second round, and your prize money goes up from there.
In golf, if you miss the cut, you don’t receive anything.
So you’ve got that added pressure, travelling from tournament to tournament, with golf being a very mental game as well. It can make it very challenging.
At the top, it’s all very pretty and well publicised, but there are a lot of very, very good golfers who struggle week to week and you’ll never hear from them.
But then you have some where you get the really good news stories. They’ve just battled for years and years, and that one week it comes good for them.
They have a huge win, generate a lot of money for their bank account, but then they also start to get sponsors’ exemptions and invites and access to a lot of tournaments.
Access is also another challenge these guys have. We’re seeing it now even in the PGA Adidas Pro-Am Series in Western Australia.
There are so many good-quality golfers in Australian golf who are still struggling to get a start in a tournament based on categories and rankings.
It is quite challenging for everyone involved, but if that’s their dream and that’s their goal, it’s very important that they continue to push and work hard, work with their team and try to get that little bit better each and every day.
It’s extremely challenging on all tours in the world because there are just so many good golfers out there.
Declan: Beautifully answered.
There are lots of tournaments as I look at the world golf calendar. Obviously, the big one is next month, the US Open in New York between the 18th and 21st of June.
Wouldn’t it be great to see perhaps a qualifier, where there are qualification spots up for grabs, maybe a no-name coming through from nowhere?
Jason, as always, you’re great with your time.
Tell us a little bit about OuttaBounds, what’s happening and how people can find it, because I still think it’s one of the great secrets around.
I’ve seen it personally. It’s an outstanding venue for all sides of life. Bring the family down, mini golf and everything else.
You’re the man in charge there. What’s been happening and what is happening at OuttaBounds?
Jason: We’ve been extremely busy here of late, and it’s nice to have some really good weather to go with it as well.
There’s currently a global Inrange tournament happening, which is free to enter. Anyone can participate and have the opportunity to win some prize money, which is really fun and exciting.
It utilises our ball-tracking technology here on the outside driving range, but also on the indoor simulators as well.
We’ve seen a nice uptick with that because a lot of people love that bit of competition and the challenge, and they get to see where they rank on a global leaderboard.
We’re also prepping for all the end-of-financial-year functions. We’re doing a lot of team-building sessions and corporate events currently, along with a lot of kids’ birthday parties.
There’s always something happening here at OuttaBounds because we do have exceptional facilities, but we also provide not only for the golfing purists, but anyone who wants to come out and have some good-value-for-money fun and entertainment.
It doesn’t matter if they’re with very young kids, right the way through to some of our older golfers who come out here and do some practice.
We have something here that caters for everyone and provides a really good, fun and entertaining day.
We’ve also got May Madness on at the moment. You can book one of our indoor simulators for up to six people for $40 for an hour for the month of May.
So, just over $6 each per person if you have six people on your simulator. You can play games, virtual golf courses, long-drive challenges, et cetera.
That makes for a very fun, good-value-for-money day where you get to spend some time with family and friends as well. So that’s been pretty exciting for May.
Declan: Outstanding value — six people, $40. Unbelievable value.
Check them out at OuttaBounds. Jason’s always around — say g’day to Jason.
Jason, thorough, professional. I wouldn’t expect anything different. Thank you, as always, for your time, and I look forward to having you back on Sports Connection in our Talking Golf segment very soon.
Jason: Fantastic. Thank you, Declan.
