This August will mark one year since Zac and Maddi Kelly became the new owners of the Parkes Pro Shop at the Parkes Golf Club. Zac, originally from Parkes moved to Mudgee when he was around 11 years old and came back to Parkes after completing high school, before moving to the Gold Coast for six years. When the opportunity arose for Zac to be head pro and run his own shop at the Parkes Golf Club, it was an opportunity he couldn't turn down, leaving the Gold Coast and returning to Parkes once again. "It's always kind of been home back here, being back in the country," Zac said. Playing every sport he could growing up including golf, soccer and cricket, golf was always the priority for Zac. "I got old enough and stopped playing soccer and cricket and just continued playing golf a bit more. I got a bit better at it and then it went from a hobby to a career." Not long after moving to Parkes Zac and Maddi were married. "It'd be good to raise a family here because my wife Maddi, she's working in the shop a bit as well so it'd be good to have a family and go through what I did when I grew up out here in the country." For the future of golf in Parkes Zac would love to see more members and an average of over 100 players during Saturday competitions. "If we can get some more ladies and juniors into golf and competitive golf that would be good. "If we can grow it up and just try and make every day a little bit busier each year and just grow golf overall that would be great," Zac said. Coming up at the Parkes Golf Club Zac was excited to share the Parkes Open will be held from 11 to 14 September in a new and exciting format. "It's the very first year that it's going to be the four ball on the Friday and then a two round 36 hole championship over the weekend which is the first time it's gone to two rounds." The Summer Super Tens Business House Competition will then begin when daylight savings clicks over during the start of October. "That was pretty big last year so we will try to make it bigger and better again this year," Zac added. For Zac golf is all about getting to enjoy a couple of hours in the sunshine with his mates and a couple of beers. "It's a hard game because it's different every day."
