For someone who has spent much of their life playing golf and working in the golf industry it is surprising to hear Jerome Ng say, “I never wanted to take up golf, my first love was food”. It was only when his father promised him a bowl of noodles after hitting balls at the Toa Payoh driving range that he agreed to go along for the first time.

Thankfully that reluctant 12-year-old persevered and not only became a successful amateur golfer but has grown to be a passionate advocate for the game of golf in Asia-Pacific.

THE EARLY YEARS
After a few months of hitting balls at the range and seeing his game improve, Jerome started to enjoy golf, and joined Seletar Country Club in 2002, where his father was a member. It was at Seletar that he was spotted by golf coach Greg Anketell and enrolled in the club’s junior programme. Just two years after picking up a club for the very first time Jerome was playing off a single-figure handicap and visiting the range or course almost every day.

School work at St Gabriels had to take second place. A good performance in the Singapore Golf Association, (SGA) trials in 2004 saw Jerome offered a place in the Singapore Youth Squad, where his handicap quickly dropped to three. A promotion to the National Squad in 2005 followed and the next 10 years saw Jerome compete at the highest level of amateur golf in Asia.

He rates his seven appearances in the Asia- Pacific Amateur Championship, making the cut every year, and his win at the Philippines Amateur Open in 2013 as his greatest achievements as an amateur golfer. However, it was not easy, the highs and lows of playing golf full time were wearing on Jerome and he started to doubt his desire and ability to make golf a career.

While many of his counterparts in the National Squad such as Jon Woo, Choo Tze Huang and Johnson Poh stepped out on tour Jerome decided not to join them. Today he still wonders if he should have given it a go, “Maybe I just needed more faith, belief and courage. After all, the sport gives us back so much, both on and off the course. I had forgotten how I fell in love with the sport and got too caught up and desperate for immediate results,” Jerome reminisces.

“My best advice to young aspiring amateurs? Sometimes we just need to enjoy golf and not base everything on results.”

MAKING THE SWITCH
Jerome’s decision not to join the professional ranks left him figuring out what next. He had enrolled in a degree course in Business Management and taken an internship at RHB Bank. While both gave him new experiences and knowledge his interest in golf never left him.

In 2015 a role came up at the SGA to assist Andrew Welsford, the national coach at the time. This involved both teaching as well as mentoring the new wave of young elite golfers in Singapore. Jerome jumped at the opportunity, and says, “I took great joy in working with these young athletes, many of whom I (already) knew.”

In 2017 the General Manger of the SGA left, and Jerome was offered the position of Acting GM. A move from the teaching bay to the office felt right for Jerome. His experience as a player, combined with his understanding of the sport’s constraints in Singapore, made him the ideal person for the role. He had seen firsthand the challenges faced by young golfers in Singapore, including limited access to facilities, coaching, and tournaments.

He so impressed the SGA Board with his management and decision making that in 2018 he was offered the General Manager position at the SGA on a permanent basis. Jerome speaks fondly of his time at the SGA,” When we won our first South East Asian Games team gold medal in 2017, I was so emotional. It was long overdue; we worked hard for it and had proven that we can be a force to be reckoned with. We started building the high-performance programme, including a culture of respect and discipline. We invested more in our youth programmes to ensure there were clear pathways and a pipeline for talent. The success in 2017 also brought in commercial interest and partnerships”.

However, Jerome also admits there were challenges. “The sport is deemed to be elitist and not appealing or attractive to the younger demographics,” he admits. “Also, the harder we promoted the sport and increased demand, the more we faced the obstacle of the lack of supply.The governance of the SGA is linked to the golf clubs. We had to balance the views of (club) members versus public accessibility.”

This last point is still an issue today. So how did Jerome try to tackle it?

“It was about education and communication”, he says. ”We increased our engagement with stakeholders and golf facilities, helped them better understand the opportunities, and encouraged them to make measurable commitments. The pitch to stakeholders needs to be data driven. We also prioritised youth.

It is going to be a constant battle but one worth fighting for,” he adds, underscoring his methodical approach.

GROWING THE GAME
It is fair to say that after four years at the SGA Jerome was looking for a bigger role and it does not come much bigger in the golf industry than working for The R&A. In September 2021 Jerome packed his bags and moved to the ‘home of golf’, St Andrews, Scotland. The R&A had long recognised the importance of growing golf in emerging markets, and offered Jerome a position as Director of Business Development.

Among his objectives are, sharing best practice, increasing access to training programs and fostering a greater appreciation for the sport in countries where golf has traditionally been viewed as a niche activity. The role involves working closely with each country’s national golf association, something that  requires good diplomatic skills.

Anyone who has met Jerome will testify to his ability in that area. One initiative that Jerome helped launch is a golf game using the online gaming platform Roblox. Targeted at teenagers and young adults this ‘Screen to Green’ initiative provides players an opportunity to earn points that can be redeemed for access to golf facilities, so converting ‘virtual play into active play’, making golf more accessible and affordable.

This helped The R&A’s vision of creating a pipeline of talent from Asia that can compete on the world stage. The R&A is also a strong advocate for increasing the participation of women in golf.

Historically, the sport has been male dominated, particularly in Asia. Jerome is part of the team working to create opportunities for women to engage with the sport, from offering specialized training programmes to hosting women’s tournaments. One example is The Women’s Asia Pacific Amateur Championship first held in Singapore. Senior golfers have also not been forgotten; an interesting programme is taking shape in Japan extolling the benefits of walking while playing golf. The message being ‘golf keeps you healthy and reduces the cost of healthcare’.

Thankfully it was not all work in Scotland, and Jerome did get to play a bit of golf, including at the Old Course. He rates the New Course at St Andrews as his favourite. ” It does not have the history of the Old Course.

However, it is a great walk and forces you to play all manner of shots. You can create your own history there,” he says.

RETURNING OF THE PRODIGAL SON
While developmental programmes were bringing more people to the game, The R&A realised that if they are to grow the game in Asia, they required more ‘spikes on the ground’ working alongside the national golf associations.

In December 2023, Jerome returned to Singapore still with his ‘develop the game’ brief. He sees Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam as markets where there is an opportunity to attract more players.

Further afield, India and China are also prime targets for growth. However, while great progress has been made, he readily admits challenges still lie ahead. ”We must remind ourselves that golf needs to be fun, and fun does not always mean championship style or championship length courses. We need accessible and shorter form facilities, focusing on providing a more welcoming and inclusive environment.

We need golf courses and facilities that make it easy for beginners to pick up the sport. Appropriate tees for women and kids to enjoy playing golf, not laying up multiple times before a creek because the design is solely focused on championship play.”

The move back to Singapore was also timely for Jerome as he had proposed to his girlfriend Xiang Yi. They got married in January 2024. Recently, Jerome became a father with the arrival of his daughter Charlotte. And will he encourage his daughter to take up the game? His answer is a firm “yes”, and he hopes to do so without needing the incentive of a bowl of noodles.