Our Joe is the Top Pro

Brisbane Golf Club’s Director of Golf, Joe Janison, has been named Queensland’s Club Professional of the Year for 2022.

The honour was announced at the recent Queensland Golf Industry awards night at The Star Gold Coast, an annual event which recognises the efforts of those who continue to excel in the golf industry.

As well as Joe being recognised, past President and current Golf Australia Board member Peter Castrisos was bestowed the ‘Services to Golf Award’, while TBGC was a finalist in the Golf Club of the Year and Junior Program of the Year categories, and Teaching Professional Asha Hargreaves was a finalist in the Coach of the Year (Game Development) category.

In accepting the award as the Club Professional of the Year, Joe said he was both humbled and proud to be recognised at a time when golf was in such a buoyant state.

“It is a great honour to win this award. To be listed in the company of this year’s finalists and to look through the amazing list of past winners, this recognition is going to take a while to sink in,” he said.

“I have many incredible people to thank for me being in the position to win this award, some of whom may not be completely aware of what a profound impact they have had on my life, both professionally and personally.

“Firstly, my wonderful family, who thankfully understand the difficult balancing act between work and family life, and the past and present Brisbane Golf Club staff, members and club committees for putting their faith in me to continue to grow and learn in such an amazing environment.”

And Joe particularly stressed the importance of his staff of golf professionals – Reece McRae, Asha Hargreaves, Lee Eagleton, Garry Calder and Richard Gompels – whom he said had worked tirelessly and contributed greatly to the outstanding attainment of 100 percent of the KPIs set by the club for the past financial year.

Born in Brisbane but raised on the land in Queensland’s Scenic Rim, Joe Janison learnt his golf at Boonah Golf Club. By the age of 15 he was playing off 10 handicap, then spent his final two years of high school at Brisbane’s prestigious Marist Brothers Ashgrove.

The road to becoming a golf professional was not, however, paved in gold. Joe worked in the bar at Keperra Golf Club before snaring a job in the golf shop and – eventually – earning his spurs there as a trainee professional.

When his three years were completed, he spent time working casual teaching shifts at the Hyatt Coolum Resort before being permanently employed at The Brisbane Golf Club in April 2005. Three years later, in June 2008 he was appointed Director of Golf.

The 45-year-old is a Certified Member of the PGA of Australia with an ‘advanced’ status in coaching and in March 2015 was a finalist for the PGA Club Professional of the Year Award. He is also a graduate from the Dave Pelz Scoring Game School, in Colorado, USA. Pelz is a world-renowned short game coach.

As BGCs Director of Golf, Joe is responsible for the management of all aspects of golf services, delivering exceptional customer service/member experience and achieving annual KPIs as set by the CEO. And in the current financial year he has achieved 100 percent of those, both financial and non-financial.

Among those outstanding achievements have been:

• 65,000 rounds of golf and competition fees garnering in excess of $400,000
• Record golf shop retail revenue in excess of $800,000
• Record golf tuition revenue of in excess of $320,000
• Record corporate golf-day revenue of more than $400,000 from 30 events
• Five member-travel experiences, generating $220,000, also a record

And while those results speak volumes for the financial viability of the Pro Shop and its associated events and activities, TBGC members have also voiced their acclamation for Joe and his staff.

In a recent member survey, when compared to a similar survey 2018, golf operations overall received a score of 3.88 out of 5. Of those responses, 98 percent were 3 or above, compared to 81 percent in 2018, 75 percent were 4 or above (63% in 2018), teaching professionals received a score of 4.51 out of 5 and golf services staff received a score of 4.45 out of 5.

Other impressive results associated with the work of the professional staff include fully-subscribed Junior Academy and Ladies Let’s Golf programs, a newly-introduced High-Performance Program and an impressive statistic that 100 per cent of members who have received a lesson in the past 12 months have renewed their membership.

In the words of Club President, Dr Mark Deuble, ‘Joe Janison epitomises all that is great about the Brisbane Golf Club’

“Joe has passionately embraced his position as Director of Golf over many years and in simple terms he ‘loves the place’,” said Dr Deuble.

“His acceptance speech at the awards ceremony was inspirational and heartfelt as he thanked everyone from his family through to members and all staff at the club. He has also been instrumental in the development of our outstanding Junior Development program.

“In summary, Joe is simply much more than a golf professional at this club. He is a loyal friend and supporter to all members and staff. “ – TONY DURKIN