Pro Diment to coach in China

Quenton Diment

RESPECTED Northland Golf Club pro Quenton Diment will leave Whangarei at the end of the month to take up a coaching position in China after discovering that being a good coach doesn't necessarily pay the bills.

Diment is a casualty of golf's general decline in New Zealand with playing numbers falling steadily in recent years. He said a constant battle to pay his mortgage had led him to look further afield for work.

"You can only survive on bread and water for so long ... Financially we weren't doing very well at the golf club I was at and it had been like that for a reasonable period of time so I decided it was time for a change," he said.

The game is going through some rough times with some clubs forced to sell off land to compensate for declining income and Northland hasn't escaped the general trend.

"Unfortunately, it's still regarded by many as an old person's sport and not that exciting and membership at my club is probably down more than 50 per cent in the last five years or so. We used to have 700 plus members, we're now struggling to get 300," he said.

He has coached most of the province's top golfers at one time or another and current number-one Kadin Neho said if it wasn't for Diment he might not be playing golf today.

"I was 10 or 11 when he picked me and my brother Komene up when we weren't really getting any coaching - he was so kind to us and led us down a good path and I made golf my main sport because of it," he said.

The promising 19-year-old said Diment was technically a great coach but more importantly he had acted as a mentor to him and other young up and coming golfers in the region.

Diment is a true-blue Northlander and is understandably proud of what he has achieved here.

"I was born in Whangarei Hospital and grew up here and have lived here all my life, apart from a sabbatical away down the line, and when I got back I started to put the knowledge that I'd gained when I was away to good use," he said.

He feels that he has given some of Northland's raw talent some much-needed direction and his results back up that belief.

"Since I've been coaching up here I've managed to attract some talented young boys and girls to the game and they have managed to win seven or eight national titles and two world titles," he said.

"The talent has just got to be given the opportunity and shown the pathways and to be honest anything is possible, so I was very reluctant to leave Whangarei and the north but the bottom line is I had no choice, if you can't pay the mortgage, what are you supposed to do?"

Golf remains on a strong footing globally and in Asia it's booming.

"I've been looking at China for a year, maybe 18 months and with my son just finishing year 12 my wife and I thought we couldn't afford to wait too much longer and it was the right time to go," he said.

The coach would like to think that when people look back in 10 years they can see that a legacy was starting and he hopes that Northland golf can go on to do some great things.

"It's kind of flourished again recently with Bronnie Winter and Michael McDonald, as development officer, has continued that on but if you asked me what it was like 20 years ago I'd have said it was garbage."

Diment has only signed a 10-month contract to coach juniors in Henen province but admits it could lead to bigger things.

"If I get enough time with them I'm sure I can make some positive changes in their golf games and we'll see where that leads."