Although he doesn’t see himself as Ireland’s answer to Robert Rock, Conor O’Rourke is brimming with excitement as he combines life as a touring professional with coaching.
O’Rourke has just launched his new coaching business ‘Conor O’Rourke Coaching’ where he hopes to help everybody improve their game including bringing his methods out on tour to help his fellow professionals.
“It’s something I have always been passionate about. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some good coaches over the years and felt like I had compiled really good bits from all of them,” says O’Rourke who has been kindly granted permission to use the K Club as a base to coach from as well as representing the club as a touring professional.
“It’s exciting and it’s brilliant for me to have those facilities and the support of the club and the owners has always been incredible. I’m both fortunate and grateful to have it.
“I will also be teaching from there so between living there and building a house in Wexford that will keep me in line!”
At 33, O’Rourke still feels he has plenty to offer from a playing perspective as he enters what is traditionally known as the prime years for a golfer.
As he searches for the perfect formula to make the breakthrough on tour he believes combing playing with his new coaching venture – which will feature both in person and online lessons – could be the recipe for success.
“I just felt like I was in a position where I could share a little bit and help golfers improve. It’s quite rewarding seeing people get better,” says O’Rourke.
“The burning desire to compete is still there in my belly and this is just another venture to go alongside it and I can bring it with me when I travel so it should be a good combination.
“I’m trying to build this up to a point between online and in person that I can structure it to a point where I can marry both while I am playing.”
The Naas native won’t have full competitive action until the spring but he has already seen some positive signs on course as he marries his own playing and practice time with giving lessons and responding to online requests.
He feels like he is playing with a new mentality and his new role as a coach has been a welcome diversion from dwelling on his own golf, his performances and results.
“The little bits I have played it has been working out nicely. The golf game is crazy you can spend all day trying to figure out what makes you tick and I don’t think anyone really has the perfect recipe so I found by doing less and having other focuses for the time being has helped me on the course.
“It’s funny you can do everything perfectly and not produce and you can put in a lot less time to it and maybe just practice a little better when I am practicing and play better! It’s a crazy gig.
“Golf isn’t a straightforward career for everybody, form comes and goes. It will never be a normal 9-5 job so by combining the coaching with it, that’s my thinking. I can look after those things and allow myself to do what I love which is competing and hopefully I can do that a bit better.”
O’Rourke doesn’t see his coaching career as a plan B and has no intention of stepping away from competing.
The Kildare man has full status on the Clutch Pro Tour next season while he will head to South Africa for Sunshine Tour Q-School in the spring.
O’Rourke views coaching as a long term venture which he hopes can prolong his own competitive career and provide him with a welcome mental distraction from the demons that try to descend on the brain between rounds.
“Sometimes you are trying so hard where you picture where you could or should be. It’s about having the patience to wait your turn. If you feel like you are good enough which I feel like I am it will happen.
“It’s just about having the patience to stick along for the ride and coaching now is another way of going about things which will be really good for me just with how I tick.
“Coaching will be a long term thing. No aspirations of leaving the playing side. I feel I have too much to offer. It’s something I want to build up going forward.
“Even if you are playing there is still a lot of time in the day and I have delved into the online stuff and getting it set up. Even on tournament weeks I can still do work. We waste a lot of time at tournaments trying to kill time so if I have x amount of lessons to respond and reply to then great.
“Whether it be mornings before or afternoons we only play golf for five or six hours so having something else to be responsible for won’t do me any harm.”
Robert Rock can often be seen giving lessons and tips to his fellow tour professionals at tournaments and O’Rourke hopes he can develop his own coaching business to a level where he is bringing his work on tour.
“That’s something I always feel would be great to have. Where guys in our camp give each other a dig out on site, not that it’s incredibly lonely but you spend a lot of time alone on tour so that would be nice.
“All the guys have quite a lot of knowledge so why not give each other help and get more Iirsh guys out on tour.
“You just don’t know when you’re really going to click in this game.
“I’ve given so much to golf but not that I deserve anything because nobody does but I’m glad to still be involved in it and to help people. My golf was usually centered around myself and how I could get better but now it’s about people of all different abilities and it’s exciting to see people get better.”
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