Golf professional
Born: July 1, 1927;
Died: November 11, 2016
JOHN Stirling, who has died aged 89, was a Scottish golf professional, coach and writer who became captain of the Professional Golfers’ Association.
A life member of the PGA, his professional career started in 1951 when he became an assistant at Roehampton Golf Club in south-west London. Thereafter, he was appointed senior professional at Woking Golf Club in Surrey and seven years later became senior professional at Meyrick Park Golf Club in Bournemouth. After 21 years there, he took up the appointment as professional at Meon Valley Golf and Country Club in Southampton.
He was born and brought up in Newton Mearns and discovered golf at an early age. He began caddying at Whitecraigs Golf Club and in 1945 he joined Eastwood.
He was called up to the Royal Air Force in 1945 and was posted to Egypt, although he must have managed home at some point during that year because he won the first class medal finals at Eastwood in 1945. He was noted as a youngster as one who practised regularly when this was not as fashionable as it is nowadays. In 1951, he won the club championship at Eastwood and immediately turned professional.
He played the tournament circuit for a number of years and twice qualified for and played in the Open Championship, including at Muirfield in 1966. By then, however, he had decided to quit major tournament golf and concentrate on being a club professional and coach.
As a club professional, one of the main duties was to teach members and he enjoyed this aspect of the game. He was one of the founders of the modern day PGA training programme and became one of the first PGA swing tutors. He helped lay the foundations to improve the education and training of young golfers and assisted with writing a training manual. He also became a member of the Golf World teaching panel and was the author of a number of books on the game including Fit for Golf and Golf – the Skills of the Game.
He was national coach to the English Golf Union for 10 years and had a reputation as one of the game’s best after-dinner speakers. He was notable for the fact that he invariably spoke without a note and travelled to clubs up and down the country and as far afield as Hong Kong and Dubai.
He spoke at Eastwood Golf Club’s prize-giving in 1989 and at their centenary dinner in 1993. It was typical of him that he did not charge a fee for any of these engagements.
Good friend Roger Mace has said that John Stirling was one of the best after-dinner speakers he had ever heard and if John was travelling for a speaking engagement he would never stop over in a local hotel – he would always drive straight back home so that he could be available at his golf club first thing in the morning.
John Stirling received plaudits from many renowned golfers not just for his coaching but also for this books on golf. John Jacobs, Gary Player, Tommy Horton and Bernard Gallagher all praised his work.
One of John’s favourite quotations was “playing golf to get fit is important but it is even more important to get fit to play golf”.
He will certainly be remembered and missed by his friends in Scotland and particularly at Eastwood where he was made an honorary member in 1980.
He is survived by his wife Christine, who was very active in golf herself and was captain of Hampshire County Ladies Golfing Association and captain of England teams for six years.
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