In May of this year, Leicester Golf Centre owner Anders Mankert was presented as the 65th professional to be made a PGA Master Professional worldwide since 1901. It’s the highest honour that can be bestowed to anyone in the profession.
In this exclusive feature length article Anders relates his route to this ultimate accolade from the beginning up until now. His career highlights are all here, crediting the family and friends and important people who have helped him along the way…….in his own words.
I learned to play golf at Lutterworth Golf Club and started as a 9-year-old with my best mate Matt Ulyett who is the club pro there today. We have enjoyed friendship and competition against each other for over 40 years and have supported each other in the many highs and lows of life as a club pro. We played and practiced until dark and even when I’d moved back to Sweden I’d come back to see him in the holidays to play golf day in day out.
We eventually both set course records at Lutterworth with my 63 besting his 65! I was taught to play there by the late Nick Melvin who became a lifelong mentor and family friend. We moved back to my native Sweden as a 15-year-old which is where my golf flourished and I subsequently won a scholarship to the University of Texas Pan American to study International Business and play tournaments all over The USA and Mexico.
In 1993 I returned to Leicestershire and began my PGA journey at Kilworth Springs under Nick Melvins tutelage. Pete Cowen also took me under his wing and coached me for several years during my playing days. He would later be a mentor and sounding board to me in my capacity as a coach myself. He has always been very generous with his time and advice in making me the coach I am today.
When I had become a fully qualified PGA professional Nick passed away suddenly and I was instated as the Head Pro at Kilworth Springs where I threw myself into coaching and started to generate a nationwide client base as well as the day to day running of the club. After 17 years there and an unsuccessful attempt to buy the club it was time to move on.
I went to Cosby Golf club in Leicestershire to a dilapidated pro shop building which I set about totally gutting and invested in a rebuilding project from the inside out to create beautiful new pro the shop and a state-of-the-art studio and fitting centre. Soon we had golfers coming from far and wide for lessons and fittings and even became the #1 on course account in the UK for Titleist within 2 years. We had a thriving small business and even named as “Most Loved shop in Leicester” in a local business poll and enjoyed looking after members and visitors alike.
I was at this time named as the UK’s Top Instructor in the Best of UK Awards and as one of the UK’s Top 40 coaches by Today’s Golfer magazine. I finished runner up to one Claudio Ranieri in the Mercury Sports awards Coach of the Year. I was also presented with Coach of the Year runner up (again!) in the UK Coaching Awards by HRH Princess Anne. I also achieved the status of Advanced Fellow of the PGA. I was also the first ever Professional to be honoured with The Lifetime Achievement Award in the England Golf Awards which was presented at The Grosvenor in London and shown on Sky Sports.
Unfortunately the club changed the terms of our contract which meant that we were no longer in a viable position to continue at Cosby so me and my team needed to find somewhere else to go. This was a horrendous time for not just myself but also my team and right-hand man Tom James, who is now a PGA Fellow Professional himself and has earned his position as one of the most sought after coaches in The Midlands in his own right.
We both had mortgages and young families and needed to find somewhere to earn a living, ideally where hard work and commitment was recognised…And so the idea of Leicester Golf Centre was born!… Tom decided to come with me in creating Leicester Golf Centre and has set up incredible Ladies, Junior and Senior Golf Academies here, as pictured above.
I spent best part of a year negotiating to buy the lease of the former Oadby Golf Club at the racecourse in Leicester. It had been abandoned by the council 8 years prior and was in a state of disrepair and the clubhouse was dilapidated. I had to cash everything I owned to help finance the project and literally had everything on the line. I was also very fortunate to have access to some brilliant and successful people who were willing to invest in me to get this idea off the ground.
We eventually fought off all other bidders and set about building a 16 bay Toptracer Range, coffee shop, studio and fitting centre, and bring back to life a 9 hole derelict and overgrown golf course. Myself, my Dad Thomas, my Wife Pippa and friends spent a year mowing the former course to try and get back into some sort of shape to play golf on. Once again, my best friend Matt Ulyett was there to help further and jump on a mower when my first GK here had broken one and done a runner! Finally, 18 months later we were ready to open!
Then Covid hit and we were forced to shut the place down like everyone else. Unfortunately as a pay and play course we didn’t have the safety net of membership fees coming in and had to sit down and work out how long we could keep our heads above water and keep our fledgling business going.
It was sombre reading. We decided that it was now or never to upgrade the poor quality greens so embarked on a project to relay all the greens with top quality greens turf in the hope that we could ride out the storm and reopen with a golf course to rival any pay and play course in the country. It was a gamble which started to pay off the day we were allow to reopen as customers flooded in and were totally and pleasantly surprised by the quality of our new greens!
Since then we have demolished the old clubhouse, built a modern covered seating area, and most recently opened a bespoke and unique 18 hole Adventure Golf course all of which are open to anyone who wants to experience golf without the formality or stuffiness which has sometimes plagued progress in our great game. It’s a place of fun great welcome to all.
Coaching has always been my passion and I consider myself very lucky to have been the recipient of knowledge and to be coached by greats such as Nick Melvin then Pete Cowen for many years.
I must also acknowledge the great contribution made by some phenomenal coaches at my home club Ljunghusen in Sweden and a man called Jarl Ekelund who knew how to encourage a young lad to believe in himself and to go for it against players who were older and better than myself. This is where my game took off.
As an assistant pro I took out a bank loan and invested in visiting world class coaches such as Pete Cowen, Dennis Pugh, James Leitz and Harold Swash. This was possible the best investment I ever made. I was also invited to spend a couple of days with Butch Harmon and his brother Claude. I have always strived to get better at my craft and have embraced technology from the very beginning of my coaching career. It has taken me to some incredible places such as the European Tour, The Open Championship and The Masters.
I have coached winners on European Challenge Tour and European Seniors Tour as well as winners of The British Amateur and many international titles. I have coached sports stars, rock stars, celebrities and even been invited to coach at royals households and royal palaces! I set up a scholarship programme for 20 years for junior golfers to experience free coaching and support which has created several professionals who have gone to forge a career in the game themselves.
I feel very proud to have been able to give a bit back to the game which has given me everything. I now enjoy a clientele which is nationwide and even have golfers who fly in internationally for a few days coaching. My biggest buzz is still from helping ordinary club golfers who want to enjoy their golf a bit more by playing better.
In February 2026 it will be 30 years since I started working with blind and visually impaired people who wanted to try golf. This has been the most rewarding undertaking and an incredible journey where I have met some of the most extraordinary and resilient people. Some have just wanted to take on a new challenge and others have wanted to challenge for titles. I have made many great friends in this community, and I feel confident that I have learned more from them than they have from me.
Particularly about resilience and the human spirit. I’m proud to have made some contribution in working with winners of blind tournaments such as The British Open, Australian Open, Canadian Open, British Masters, Spanish Open and The Blind Ryder Cup.
My first ever blind student from 30 years ago Jim Obrien still plays golf to this day and has achieved the remarkable feat of a hole in one! More recently I have enjoyed training other professionals from many different countries to coach blind golfers and to help grow accessibility for disabled people to the game of golf.
Receiving the honour of PGA Master Professional and to join such genuine greats of the game has been incredibly humbling. I never thought in a million years that I would join this most elite of clubs. To think that the young boy from Sweden who came to the UK not being able to speak a single word of English could join a group of his own heroes as the #65th in the world since 1901 takes some believing.
It is particularly thrilling to be able to share it with my Dad Thomas and Wife Pippa who have been such a huge factor in for me being in this position. They have supported me not just morally but even in jumping on a tractor each and mowing out a future golf course when there absolutely was not one visible! They have both encouraged me and my eagerness to create and to push myself out of my comfort zone repeatedly.
Simply put, Leicester Golf Centre and the accolades I have been fortunate to receive would not have happened without them, and to share the joy of these successes with them makes all the sacrifices worth it.
The only tinge of sadness I have is that my cousin Karl and my great friend and TV presenter Jonnie Irwin didn’t get to see this day. They are both pictured here and were equally instrumental in pushing me to get here and also invested in me when I’d exhausted all other options. I know they would be incredibly proud to see me in this position today and their support is not something I’ll ever forget.
