PGA Features

Paul Stoller
PGA Pro Ulverston Golf Club

Cumbria is one of the most beautiful places on earth but thats scant consolation to a high-spirited youth with energy and testosterone to burn.

Its probably why Paul Stoller used to get his teenage kicks by whacking golf balls at sheep and dreaming of foreign adventures rather than admiring the views of Coniston Old Man.

Paul Stoller is back at the club where he first played golf as a junior - Ulverston slap bang in the middle of the Lake District. Life's come full circle for the 34-year-old whose sole burning ambitions as a kid were to play golf and see the world.

Stoller's ticket to ride out his fantasy was sparked by a fatherly ultimatum - the family furniture business or golf.

The young Stoller opted for the latter, going on to successfully combine his twin passions of golf and travel to criss-cross the globe working at some of golf's most exotic locations.

Along the way, he's garnered a bagful of experiences, some good - teeing up inside a volcano crater - some bad - watching horror-stricken as a greenkeeper pulverized a huge python on a prized green in Borneo - but always memorable.

Yes, golf's been pretty eventful for the kid who once dismissed it as a dull game for old men and women!

"The rashness of youth," admits Stoller.

"But once I gave it a go it didn't take me long to get hooked and when my dad was at work I'd borrow his clubs and whack balls at sheep in the nearby fields."

Amateur honours followed including victory in the Northern Counties Youth Championship while he was also county junior and youth team captain.

Golf consumed the teenager.

"It got to the point where my dad said I'd either got to come into the business or do golf," he recalls.

"It was a big decision because the business has been in the family for four generations so to come out of out was a big step but I chose golf and I've never regretted it."

His first job in golf was as assistant to Bill Ferguson at Harrogate. Golf aficionados will recognise Ferguson, a PGA Master Professional, as Colin Montgomerie's mentor and the young Stoller saw at close quarters how Ferguson fine-tuned the game of the eight time European Order of Merit winner.

"What sticks in my mind about Bill was how simple he kept things," says Stoller.

"It was always little things like ball position or grip and I think he excelled because he kept things simple. I remember with Colin they always worked a lot on ball position."

Stoller later qualified while at Moor Allerton under Richard Lane and spent the summer playing as much as he could, even winning Open Regional Qualifying at Moortown.

However he never had any illusions of playing the European Tour.

"I'm quite small at 5ft 5in tall and some of the guys were hitting it 60 or 70 yards past me with their driver. On the longer holes they'd be taking five iron and I'd be taking three wood, and not even necessarily reaching the green, so when you're up against that you've got to be realistic.

"I was chasing my tail if I was thinking about being a world beater but I love being a club pro - I get a buzz helping others to enjoy their golf."

While aspirations of landing a Major might not have been on the horizon, travel pangs burned deep in the Stoller soul and once he qualified he bombarded Europe's golf clubs, eventually landing his first job at Sweden's Lunsbrun Golf Club.

From that point on his career as a PGA professional morphed into a blur as he blazed a trail across Europe and the Far East, pitching up at golfing destinations as diverse as Iceland, Turkey, Slovenia, Borneo and Poland.

Turkey's superb David Jones and David Feherty designed National Golf Club on the Belek coastline was a highlight but his second spell at Istanbul Golf Club was more significant because it was there he met his wife Alev.

Stoller lapped up the globe-trotting, relishing the different cultures. At Austria's Villach driving range, he would enjoy the novelty of teeing it up in one country, dining in a second and filling up with petrol in a third as he explains.

"Villach borders Slovenia and Italy and I'd often head to Italy for a pizza and cappuccino, hop over the border to Slovenia to fill up with cheap petrol and then head back to Austria - all in the space of 45 minutes - it was quite surreal!"

One question screams out - how did he manage to get so many different jobs?

"It probably looks like I can't hold a job down but you just make so many good friends and meet so many contacts that you just get inundated with job offers.

"When you go somewhere new you bend over backwards to please people and of course golfers want to know if you've got the magic to fix their games."

One of the highlights of his career abroad was working at Borneo Golf and Country Club in far-flung Malaysia, where he was director of golf at golf at the Jack Nicklaus designed course.

"That was paradise, like living a dream with coconut trees on the beaches, snorkeling in the South China Sea and living in a four star hotel with a company car - it doesn't get much better," he admits.

Borneo's greenkeeping staff also made a lasting impression - but for slightly different reasons!

"One afternoon I heard a commotion out at the 14th green and went over to find the greenkeeper reversing a tractor over and over a huge python," says Stoller.

"I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. Apparently the bigger snakes are known to occasionally take children and the local population is really scared of them. Anyway they killed it and later turned into python soup!

"The green-keeping staff also used to bait cages to catch stray dogs and sell them to the Chinese."

Back nearer Europe, Stoller had spells in Poland and Iceland. The latter was particularly memorable because Vestmannaeyja Golf Club on Heima Island, where he was based, has part of the course in a volcano crater. It makes for spectacular golf.

"It's one of the most awesome golf courses I've ever seen, with an Atlantic backdrop and the weirdest swirling winds you'll ever find."

Iceland's many keen golfers tee it up at two and three in the morning during the summer but with beers at six quid a throw, post round drinks can be among the most expensive in the world.

No such worries at Ulverston where Stoller is adjusting to life back in his home town after succeeding outgoing pro Mike Smith, the man who gave his first lesson and who has retired after 36 years in the post.

"I can't think of a better place to put down roots," insists Stoller.

"I've worked in some beautiful places but Ulverston rivals any of them. The pro shop overlooks Morecambe Bay, I can see Coniston Old Man, Blackpool Tower is away in the distance - it's a beautiful course, beautiful panorama and it's wonderful to be home."