Date: April 01, 2016
Author: Golf Victoria

Q&A with Ian Rae


Welcome to Australia. Tell us a little bit about your trip so far.

Oh we have had a great time here! It’s the first time I’ve been here for maybe 6 or 7 years with a squad. I was trying to shake up the schedule, you know change it a little bit from what we have done. Trying to give the guys some different experience playing at two great events, the Australian Master of the Amateurs and the Australian Amateur.

You brought out a great team of talented players. How is the talent pool in Scotland?

The talent pool in Scotland over the last couple years has been really really good. We have won quite a few major events in Europe, Irish Amateur, Lex trophy and the European Championship last year, which obviously the four guys that are here were all a part of that team. So it’s been really really good over the past 2-3 years.

What are your impressions of our high performance programs and some of our players here?

I know Marty [Joyce] well and I know some of the other coaches too. I’ve been in touch with guys and we meet up at events, like world championships and we discuss what we’re doing. The programs throughout the world are quite similar. You know everybody is kind of on the same page.

So how does one differentiate themselves? How do you keep ahead of the game?

You are always trying to improve, you’re looking at individuals, what are their requirements? Even though we have a team or a squad everything is much individualised. So you know what Connor Syme needs would be pretty different to what Grant Forest needs but you know it’s an individualised program but we are always trying to improve on it and as a part of the deal of coming down here. We are trying to improve and challenge the guys to perform in different environments, different types of golf and against different players.