How to take the leap from teacher to PGA Trainee

After years of guiding students through their own challenges, Gill Hansom of Hornsea Golf Club found herself looking for a new adventure, one that took her outside the classroom and onto the golf course.

Leaving a teaching career to pursue professional golf wasn’t a decision made lightly, but her renewed love for the game and desire to continue her mentor’s legacy drove her to take a leap of faith.

PGA Trainee, Gill Hansom

Hansom’s early experiences with golf were a bittersweet mix of talent and tension. As the only junior girl at her golf club, she struggled to find playing partners once she became an adult, and often experienced moments of exclusion and dismissal. She elaborates: “In one breath I was being encouraged and with the next, I was being pushed out. But I was quite good at other sports like hockey and I played football at Hull City. I got a scholarship at Reading University, but on the golf team, I could just tell I wasn't welcome, and I could see that the girls' hockey team and the girls on the football bus were having a great time. I became disillusioned with golf and thought, I'll go to a sport that welcomes me.”

She decided to continue with her Sports Science degree at Cardiff University, playing football for the University, and quickly securing a job as a PE teacher after graduating.

Hansom said: “Before The Lionesses, I was going into a school saying, "We need to put girls' football in the curriculum. It's moving forward. We need to get things going." So I got the school teaching girls football, and because I was also playing for Hull City at the time, the kids respected me. I managed to get my school from having no girls provision to having it completely embedded in every year group 7 to 11 and then also producing the best national school side for the under 16s. Plus, some of them even went off to America with a scholarship, which I was super proud about.”

For Hansom, the challenges of teaching became increasingly daunting as school budgets were slashed, leaving classrooms under-resourced and teachers stretched. The Covid pandemic only amplified these issues, as the isolation of remote teaching, combined with dwindling resources, left Hansom feeling burnt out and distanced from the very aspects of teaching she once loved. She was left questioning whether the career she had dedicated herself to was sustainable any longer.

After Covid, having taken up golf again after 20 years away from the sport, Hansom found a revitalised golf industry, as she explains: “Everything had changed, everything seemed easier. There was no sexism, there were hybrids, there were launch monitors… Golf had completely evolved and I hadn’t been a part of it. My first handicap when I restarted was 13 and I got down to 3.8 within about a year.”

As a youngster, Hansom had been guided by her coach and Director of Golf at Hornsea Golf Club, Stretton Wright, who had seen her potential from the start, and became both a coach and a friend. Tragically, Wright passed away during the height of the Covid pandemic, and although she didn’t know it yet, his passing would become a powerful motivator for her to carry on his legacy and take her love of golf to the next level.

Wright’s wife is the Business Manager at Hornsea Golf Club, and during Hansom’s resurgence into golf, asked her if she would consider working for the club, offering support for her to turn professional. Her late husband had set up a charity called Swing into Golf, with the aim of bringing the opportunity to try golf to every school in East Yorkshire, but he hadn’t been able to achieve his goal before his untimely passing. She asked Hansom if she would continue her husband’s goal.

Hansom said: “Half the problem of why kids don't play golf is just because they don't know how to access it. If they can access it and see a female coach one week and a male the next week, it makes them think it's possible. I talked it over with my parents and they said, "If you do it and it doesn't work, you'll always be a qualified PE teacher, but can you live with it if you don't try it?” So that's why I'm doing my PGA training, to be able to do that. I'd love Stretton to know that I'd come back and I'm now working with his wife. He'd have a little grin, I think!”

Hansom was pleasantly surprised by how straightforward the entry process was for the PGA training course. She said: “I went to an open day at The Belfry with my dad - we had a really nice day out. The staff were so helpful on that day and that really changed my mind about doing it because I could talk to people; I could see where I was going to be staying for the week; I could see how the course was going to be done, etc.”

Once she started the PGA training course, Hansom quickly built bonds with other female trainees. Bonding over their unique journeys and challenges, they formed an instant connection and the camaraderie quickly turned into close friendships.

Hansom elaborated: “I kid you not, I didn't know other female pros existed. We meet up and we play, and it's nice to be at the same tees, all playing together, but we've all got different passions. I hope that in our future careers, we can all work together. We're always on our group chat because my strengths and weaknesses are almost the opposite of theirs.”

Hansom is optimistic about the future of women’s golf, confident that the industry is on the cusp of significant growth and greater visibility for female players. She said: “I really do believe it's going to be on the same trajectory as football. I actually think golf is going to be accessible to even more people because football is a young girls' game. You can't be playing football in your 40s, 50s and 60s, but golf's a lifelong sport - you can play whenever you want for as long as you want.”

Hansom spoke passionately about the importance of bringing younger women into the world of golf, recognising the unique challenges they often face when entering the sport. She emphasised the need for more welcoming environments and visible role models to make golf feel accessible and exciting for young women who might otherwise feel intimidated, saying: “I’d say get ahead of the curve - get young, approachable, enthusiastic females in. When I was in schools, a lot of girls didn't like the high-impact stuff, they didn't like being sweaty, the contact sports etc. Whereas golf gives them the opportunity to burn a lot of calories while chatting! It’s good stress relief too.

“Some of my old students have even come to the club to see me, some have even had a golf lesson. They would never have considered doing that before, but they're like, "If Miss Hansom does it, why can't we do it?" They can see someone they know or look up to doing it, and that's the important thing, isn't it?”