Chambers named National Coach of the Year
Swift Current’s Jeff Chambers will have to make a little more room in his crowded trophy case for perhaps his most prestigious award to date. The Elmwood Golf and Country Club Head Professional was recently announced as the recipient of the PGA of Canada Coach of the Year award.
“It’s pretty surreal,” admitted Chambers. “When you’re looking at a provincial award you feel great about it. All of a sudden the national call comes and it’s a whole different feeling.”
Chambers had actually been notified a few days prior to the official announcement. “It was hard not to say anything. I had to think about how big this really was. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Chambers moved to Swift Current 17 years ago and has been the Head Pro at Elmwood for the past 10 years. He said this latest award was a chance to reminisce about his time in Swift Current and on the golf course.
“Having the national recognition and then the social media blowing up, just to see everybody with the congratulations, the little stories here and there, and the messages that I’ve got from past players that I’ve worked with and how sincere they are with that, because it’s personal stories that have impacted them. It really hits home that wow I have a great job.”
Chambers has been named the provincial Junior Promoter of the Year seven times and provincial Coach of the Year once. He was named the national 2010 Junior Promoter of the Year when he was the first Saskatchewan national award winner. “It was a big deal to our province. Going forward with the coach award, obviously that’s a huge one for them and they just love the fact that they are realizing that in Saskatchewan we can do some pretty amazing things too,” said Chambers.
Most recently, Chambers won three PGA of Saskatchewan awards in October when he took home the Professional Development Award, the Junior Promoter of the Year, and the Coach of the Year Award.
He has recently refocused some of his attention to coaching through the Jeff Chambers Golf Academy.
“In the last couple of years I’ve switched gears from just concentrating on getting them going. I felt that there was a coaching need out there. I started with three local kids for coaching and a couple came from Kindersley. This last year it grew to 17 kids and 80 percent of them travel over two hours to see me. I knew there was a niche for coaching and I truly love it to help them out.”
Chambers is stepping down as Head Professional at the Elmwood Golf Club. Brennan Rumancik, his assistant for the past 10 years, will be moving up to the Head Pro position.
Chambers said he will be doing more teaching and coaching out of the Academy. He is also the Tournament Director with the Maple Leaf Junior Tour and still works with Golf Saskatchewan. He has worked with the National Maple Leaf Junior tour and has coached in Scotland three times, Australia on four occasions, and coached in Estonia and Finland this past year.
“Coaching is a little different than teaching because it is constant contact. Instead of just one lesson here, it’ regular lessons throughout. We cover everything from mental game to technical. It’s texting late at night with kids, it’s talking to them before tournaments, it’s afterwards. I really enjoy that part. That’s were I am concentrating my efforts now in the coaching world.”