Will White: Golfer opens indoor range Willfit Golf after stint at Boag’s
After a punishing decade as a trainee and PGA pro, a talented golfer moved to Tasmania, got a job at Boag’s and met his wife. He’s since opened a new range and fallen back in love with golf.
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When professional golfer Will White relocated to Launceston from the Sunshine Coast four years ago, he was having his ‘Ash Barty’ moment: “burnt-out”, disillusioned, and ready to give the game away.
He had lived and breathed golf since the age of 12. When he was old enough, he got a job at his local driving range, became a PGA trainee at Maroochy River Golf Club and, after progressing, spent a year as a touring professional on the domestic Pro-am scene.
Then he hit the wall.
“Every day I was pretty much playing golf. I stopped playing because I burnt myself out. I fell out of love with the game,” Mr White said.
So, he relocated to Launceston to be closer to his parents and got a job at the Boag’s Brewery – “and I’m a big non-drinker,” he said.
It was a fortuitous moved as it was there he met his future wife. The pair now have two children together.
Not only did he find love, but he rediscovered his passion for golf, a path that would lead, via a stint as Launceston Golf Club’s head professional, to him throwing open the doors to Willfit Golf, Tasmania’s first indoor golf facility featuring four state-of-the-art Trackman 4 tracking units.
“Once I changed (industries), I realised I was pretty lucky to have skills I had I wanted to get back on the horse and use those skills I had. I got my confidence back,” Mr White said.
He spent two years as Launceston Golf Club’s head professional before debuting Willfit at Invermay on December 17. It already has 30 paid-up members and hosted 120 sessions in its first fortnight for casual golfers.
“I came from a place where we had an indoor facility. We are so far behind the times compared to the mainland, it took me only a couple of winters to realise there were opportunities to do an indoor facility,” Mr White said.
He described the Trackman 4 simulators – he will install a fifth in the coming months – as the “most accurate ball flight modeller in the world”.
“It will show you very accurately the flight of the ball and tell you numbers on what caused that flight. Once you see that flight and why you’re hitting good shots or bad shots, you get to learn why that is and it’s so much easier to correct yourself. No more guessing,” Mr White said.
Willfit also features a large custom putting green, a “nice spacious lounge area”, a small retail component, and is open 24/7 for members, with staff on-site from Wednesday–Sunday for casual golfers.
“It’s a gym for golfers,” Mr White said.
He said he plans on taking the concept to Hobart in the next 18 months.
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Originally published as Will White: Golfer opens indoor range Willfit Golf after stint at Boag’s
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