Golf Vic Vol 60 No 3 2019

and still miss with a blade of grass on your putter face, the next he’s offering anyone in the group $1000 for a hole- in-one. “A thousand dollars worth of kangaroo poo,” he later clarifies. Aiden Neskov, one of his students, is used to it. “I know he’s joking, but it’s actually quite good to motivate the kids and get them to try their best to win something,” he says. Darren Hamilton agrees. “He’s fantastic with all the kids. He’s just got a way of teaching them his way and they all listen to him.” “I'm probably more down-to-earth than most golf pros with teaching kids,” Wearne says. “It's not all about making them go for a run when they have a four-putt or anything like that. “It's fun, I want them to learn without them knowing it. And when they hit a bad shot my big thing is not ‘Whoops-a-daisy!,’ it's either ‘Crikey!,’ or ‘Strewth.’ A bit of Aussie slang in there, so they're actually learning bad English while they're here as well!" Along with encouraging the best of his students to take part in School Sports Victoria West Metro, Wearne runs end- of-term competitions for all his pupils, though even he admits some are more engaged than others. “Half the kids only come for the ‘Scott dogs’,” he laughs. “The whole family comes and we have hot dogs or barbecue or pizzas or something. The other half are coming for the first prize. So there are the competitive ones and the hungry ones. “We bribe them into coming sometimes but they get here, that's the main thing!” At the end of the day, keeping the kids coming back and enjoying their golf is what drives Wearne. In essence, that’s what his small course out the back of the driving range is about. “If they can go around there and have 3-3-3 or 4-4-4 instead of 12-12-12, they're going to keep coming back, aren't they? If they think they're on an even keel – everyone can be on an even keel with putting but not everyone can hit 300m – they'll keep coming back.” AIDEN AND ELLA LOVE THEIR GOLF As Aiden Neskov walks around the practice green at Keilor Public Golf Course, he appears to have all the confidence in the world, talking to other kids in the group and joining in the banter from his coach Scott Wearne. You wouldn’t know he’d only started getting lessons just three weeks earlier and that this is his first session with other kids. Perhaps age plays a role – Aiden is 14 and the group’s ages range from five to 15. But it’s also quite simple. “They’re actually really nice,” he says. The other thing you mightn’t notice about Aiden, unless you were looking closely, is that he has cerebral palsy. Aiden has a mild form of CP, the most common physical disability in childhood. “Three or four percent”, according to his grandmother Zora. “It affects his speech a little bit and it affects his mobility a little bit with his right leg and his right hand,” she says. “But he’s had Botox and some occupational therapy to try and strengthen the muscles once they’ve been softened and weakened. He’s going well.” Another of Wearne’s pupils, Ella Hamilton, has Down syndrome but wanted to play with her two younger sisters Abbey and Molly. “Ella wanted to join in, so Scotty had no hesitation at all,” said their father Darren. “She joined in fully, participates in everything, he helps her out no end.” The only special treatment Ella needs to take part in the group session is her dad sticking around to reinforce the lessons while Wearne turns his attention to the rest of the kids. “The thing with Down syndrome is she can learn to do things, everything’s just so much slower. Being the age she is now, she kind of tries to do things her way,” Darren says. “It’s just patience, repetition and encouragement and just making sure she has fun, really.” For Aiden, there’s a little more to do but the solutions are equally simple. He has special grips to allow him to hold the club better and used a brace in his private lessons to get his arm straight. The other thing Aiden has to do somewhat differently is putt with his left hand lower on the club, despite addressing the ball right-handed. (Only somewhat differently, because with the way so many of us mess with our putting grips, he’s hardly alone.) For Wearne, it’s the perfect example of his philosophy when teaching all-abilities children: start with what they can do. “He thought he could only chip, and now he swings like John Daly!” Aiden is really enjoying his start in golf. He’s not thinking too far ahead but having (sadly, all too predictably) faced bullying at school, playing golf gives him a release. “Golf takes my mind off it,” he says, “It lets me forget about all the bad stuff for an hour, kind of calms my mind down.” For Ella, it’s also just about enjoyment, Darren believes. “She just wants to join in with her sisters, so as long as she’s having fun that’s what it’s all about.” Ella Hamilton learning golf her way at Kangaroo Plains. Aiden Neskov putts left hand low and hits like John Daly. 42 Golf Victoria