Graeme Nethercott (left) and his new boss, Deeside Golf Club director of golf Frank Coutts (image by Cal Carson Golf Agency)

Frank Coutts picks Stirling graduate

Graeme Nethercott as assistant pro

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Graeme Nethercott, a 23-year-old Birmingham-born Stirling University graduate, has beaten off worldwide opposition to become Deeside Golf Club director of golf Frank Coutts’ new assistant professional.
Frank’s advertisement on the Professional Golfers Association website for a successor to Nick Reid, who is going to play full-time on the Tartan Tour this year, drew applicants from the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Finland as well as Britain.
“I was astonished by the response,” said Frank. “It wasn’t easy making a choice because there were a lot of applicants with impressive CVs but Graeme fitted the bill perfectly.”
Nethercott, 6ft 2in son of a banker, was introduced to golf as a three-year-old and played his first 36-hole open when he was only nine years of age and, a year later, played for the junior team at Stoneham Golf Club, Southampton.

By that time the Nethercott family had already moved from Birmingham to Surrey, where Graeme was a junior member of the West Byfleet Golf Club, as father's banking career took him around the country.
“I spent four years at the International Junior Golf Academy on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, before coming to Scotland to take a four-year degree course in sport psychology at Stirling University,” said Graeme who had three of a handicap when he turned professional to take the Deeside assistant’s job.
“Frank will be my tutor over the next three years, training me to pass the PGA exams and I’m looking forward to learning the ropes. Coaching, and applying some of the sport psychology things I learned at university, is what really attracted me to golf as a profession.”
Nethercott does hope to play on the North-east Alliance circuit and the Scottish PGA assistants’ tournaments once he settles down.