One of the region’s longest serving and popular professionals retired from duty in April following a successful playing and coaching career, most of it (and culminating) at Burton-on-Trent Golf Club. Phil visited in March to grab a chat with Gary Stafford, level 3 coach and Fellow of the PGA. A golfing career to be proud of it has certainly been.
Let’s begin at the end – 34 years Gary spent at Burton as the Head Professional. On his retirement, the club reminded him just how much he’s meant to them over the years by unveiling this new sign in his name by the 18th hole bridge. He took the family over for this picture below in April.
Gary, self-admittedly was something of a late developer to golf. He was born and raised in Lincolnshire and only got seriously into the game via a government initiative when he had just turned 16.
“Lincoln’s my home city, I started out as just a junior member at Carholme GC there. In 1978 I left school at 16 and during that time the government were running YTS schemes where the government would pay you to be employed at a place of work. I spoke to the club’s pro at the time, a guy called Glenn Clark and asked him if I could be an assistant on the scheme. He took me on instantly, not a difficult decision, he was getting free labour for the first six months!
In those days golfing prowess was no barrier towards PGA qualification, no handicap limit at all. So once at Carholme, Gary immediately took on his PGA studies and when he began the qualification process, he was playing off a handicap of 13!
“Yeah, I didn’t have anything of an amateur career, no county junior golfing or anything like that, at the time I didn’t have any aspirations to be a player. Yet working under Glenn who went on to get a tour card and leave Carholme, it started my improvement and interest in that side of things.”
Gary moved on too, taking a role at Thonock GC as they were at the time, before changing to Gainsborough GC and now named Thonock Park. He spent four years there and honed his golfing skills further at the time, the 13 handicapper of the late 70s was long gone, by the early 80s he was ready to start.
“I had improved a lot, but back then there wasn’t that much to play in, a few alliances that sort of thing but the PGA regional stuff that is so valuable to young pros these days wasn’t around then. But I had some joy and gained experience and also passed the PGA exams whilst at Gainsborough. Then I got a call from Royal Mid-Surrey.”
Southern Comfort
“David Talbot was the RMS pro, fabulous guy, ex-Captain of the PGA, he nearly made a Ryder Cup, a great player and I learned a lot from David. I also had a lot of time to practice down there, other than working I had no real social life so I was always at the club, even on my day off I was there playing holes and practicing. That was where my golf really took off, and David was such an influence. We actually only worked together for just short of a year, but it made all of the difference.”
Such had Gary’s golfing improved and the confidence to go along with it too, he decided to go straight in at the deep end.
“In those days you could qualify for a European Tour event on the Monday of the week of the tournament. The European Open was on just down the road at Sunningdale so I entered the qualifier which was at Foxhills, also in Surrey. I managed to qualify! So there’s me, back in 1984 I think it was lining up alongside Seve and Faldo amongst others at Sunningdale. I didn’t even own a car back then, wasn’t even sure how I was going to get there!”
An RMS greenkeeper came to his assistance and caddied for Gary too. Ultimately it was an early bridge too far and cut missed, but what an experience it was, one that set him on his way towards a successful playing career.
The Open Championship
Not long after, the Head Professional job came up at former club Gainsborough, so Gary returned to his home county and spent four years at the soon to be PING owned club. The years there were happy ones, but Gary’s golf stayed on the incline and the playing bug eventually became too much to ignore.
“I decided to give it a full time go, I qualified for the British Open at Lytham in 1988 and made the cut that year. Missed out on qualifying a few more times in the years after whilst I was playing on the Challenge Tour and a few more European Tour events. It was good, I did ok but not quite enough to earn the big bucks. If had not been for my wife Linda and her working at the time, I wouldn’t have been able to play for so long.
He also qualified for another Open Championship at the home of golf in 1995, the famous John Daly win. Gary qualified on the Sunday/Monday of the week before at Leven Links with Linda and his young children as support. Although not producing his best golf that week at St Andrews, blown off course as many were, he remembers that as a career highlight.
It wasn’t the only occasion he’d got on the wrong side of the weather at the Open, going back to Lytham in ’88, Gary was supremely unlucky there.
“That was the year when the tournament went on to the Monday, I was the last player to make the cut, so I went out first with a marker on the Saturday. It just simply rained and rained and eventually I think the hooter went off while we were on the 17th. Had play carried on in those conditions for all of the field behind me, then my 4-over I think it was wouldn’t have been too bad a score going into round four. But then the sun came out on Sunday and Monday and it all completely turned around for the scoring.”
Time to put down the clubs
Gary lived the dream for a while, played in a PGA Cup match, success followed in Midlands PGA events and he also had a series of top tens in the Club Pros Championships. But the European Tour life was getting harder all the time to reach the heights and took its toll eventually. Mainly due to the newly arranged Tour School that they had to bring in during that successful period for European golf. Gary very nearly got his full tour card a couple of times, but it’s a gruelling event, and heartache goes hand in hand with it.
“Six rounds back-to-back and all it takes is a couple of bad swings to knock you out of contention. When I look back I suppose I wasn’t quite there, I was a good player but there’s a gulf between what I was and what I needed to be. I came back from tour school in 1991 and we went on holiday, Linda and I were driving up to the Lakes for a few days – and I simply said to her, I think it’s time I got a proper job again.”
The final career change
At the time, the Burton-on-Trent GC job was advertised and along came Gary who applied for the role whilst on that same Lake District holiday. As a result, the remainder of his career began at the beginning of 1992, and the normality of club professional life set in again.
“It’s a great club, we’ve been around for just over 130 years I think and we’ve only had four professionals here, that says a lot about the place.”
Gary reflected on 30+ happy years and steady progress at the club that has kept it in a reliably strong position, even through challenging times for golf of late.
“I think the facilities have improved dramatically, the shop has always evolved and is going through another process right now in order to bring some indoor technology here and give my successor, Steve Clancy all he needs to build his career here. The outdoor practice facilities are superb now too. My knowledge has improved too, in the early part of my time here I still wanted to play a little too. But as the years have gone by my concern has gone all towards the golf club, looking after the societies and the membership, my coaching – it’s all developed year on year and it’s been a joy.”
Head teacher
Gary’s a great golf coach with a simple philosophy, but he’s also still a humble golfer himself and liked to make sure his own game stayed in shape too into his 60s.
“Up until a few years ago I always had lessons still. My own coaching philosophy came from my own teacher, a gentleman called Eric Sharp who has retired now from Kenwick Park near Louth in Lincs. A long journey from Burton to there but it was worth it. To me, he was a fantastic teacher and the way he was with me, I took into lessons here with my own pupils. As my golfing playing career went backwards a little, I became more enthusiastic and wanted to coach more and get involved in junior and ladies coaching too. We developed a ladies Get into Golf programme here that we run ourselves and it’s been really successful in recent years.”
“I work on basically seven simple steps of the golf swing, the seventh being look ahead and enjoy the results of your good golf shot. I’m not a big one for making dramatic changes to people. There are times obviously when drastic things have to occur but generally I’m just tinkering with a swing. It’s like a derailed train, all they want is putting themselves back on track, stick an engine on the front and away they go. I was my own worst enemy during my playing career, I used to dig myself some massive holes when it was going wrong, then I saw Eric and he’d calm it all down, tweak a little and away I went again. Keep it as simple as possible.”
I get a real buzz out of coaching now, where before I got a buzz out of playing. It’s easier to coach than playing golf. Golf is hard, what you do as a pupil is hard, what I do as coach is a fair bit easier. I watch them go off and then at the weekend look at the results on the comp sheets and see who’s been listening the most!”
The state of the game in 2026
Gary was nothing but positive about the shape that golf is in these days compared to what it was like when he was first getting into golf in Lincoln. For aspiring junior golfers, he couldn’t be more enthusiastic.
There’s many, many different ways to get youngsters into golf now, back in the day they just rocked up and that was it, now there’s so many entry pathways and that’s brilliant for the game. We do some school teaching here, they bring the kids down, and ok many don’t take interest but if we get 2 or 3 who are keen and turn into junior members, that’s great. We’ve got a fantastic junior programme here now with the aid of Simon Parsons, our junior organiser, and Steve will inherit that when he starts.
When I was a young boy golf wasn’t a cool sport. When I was getting into it in the 70s I can’t remember telling any of my friends that’s what I was up to. The way the game has developed since and kids watching Tiger and Rory and DeChambeau whacking it 350 yards + up the fairway, the athleticism, the power, the fitness levels, it’s inspiring. When you couple that with all of the new technology on the ranges, indoor golf simulators and all the fun things they provide in this age of technology it’s easy to see why golf is a cooler sport these days.
There’s no doubt that it can still be quite a daunting prospect for a young person, even an older one to come to a club for the first time and start having lessons. Yet these days with a driving range near enough around every corner, and a free club or two to have a try with, it doesn’t have to be like that anymore. Getting a feel for the game to begin with is very important.
What I’ll miss
I want to play again, I’d like to practice a bit, not sure the body will allow me to do that as it used to, but we’ll try. I’ll miss the members, the banter and simply just the relationships we’ve built up with the membership here. They’ve become part of our lives and us theirs, golf clubs like this in general, pretty much one big family. It doesn’t matter that much in the clubhouse afterwards how everyone’s played, it’s the banter – talking rubbish about politics, football, cricket, whatever. It’s been a huge part of mine and Linda’s lives for over 30 years, we’ll miss it a lot.
Reflections
It is time to go, the last couple of years have been really difficult, no particular reason other than maybe the summers we’ve had. Such a busy club, so many comps and societies etc, leads to very long days and hours in the pro shop. As I’ve got older, doing 60-70 hours a week has more of an effect. These days I’m not that much company when I get home at night, cup of tea on the sofa then I’m out for the count!
The club have been fantastic to me and hopefully I’ve done the same for them, but it’s time for a new breed, a young go-getting pro shop team, bit like I was in 1992. I wish Steve (pictured below on the right) and his team all the best, he’s got to do 30 years minimum though!
