Brisbane Golf Club’s Director of Golf, Joe Janison, has been named the Australian PGA National Club Professional of the Year for 2022.
Joining the elite of Australian golf at the PGA Awards at Brisbane City Hall last night (Tuesday), Joe accepted the prestigious award from PGA board member Steve Hutchison of Twin Waters. This acknowledgement follows him being named Queensland’s Club Professional of the Year at the Gold Coast last month.
The national award is for ‘outstanding service to the club and its members’, and Joe accepted his spoils in the presence of the cream of Australian golf, including Cameron Smith, Adam Scott, Marc Leishman, Min Woo Lee, Lucas Herbert and Ian Baker Finch, as well as Greg Norman via video link. Smith, Scott, Baker Finch and Norman are all winners of golf Majors.
“I have always been a proud PGA member, but this was a surreal feeling. I felt so very humble to win the award, and also to be in the presence of so many of Australia’s greatest golfers,” he said.
“There is a host of people to thank – the club, the members, the staff and my family. But I would particularly like to recognise the PGA itself for what the association does for the game we all enjoy so much. I am so grateful to the PGA for giving me, and my fellow Professionals, the opportunity to do what we do for a living.”
Joe was joined at the dinner by BGC CEO Geoff Kuehner, Course Superintendent David Mason and fellow Professionals Reece McRae and Asha Hargreaves.
“It is an honour for Joe that is so richly deserved,” Mr Kuehner said.
“Most importantly from a club point of view, his financial results are outstanding. But the leadership of his staff and his overwhelming popularity among our members makes Joe the wonderful Professional he is, and the reason he has won these prestigious awards in the space of two months.
“As a club, BGC is so fortunate to have such as professional Professional.”
Not surprisingly, Cameron Smith was named winner of the Greg Norman Medal as the outstanding Australian golfer of the year, for the second time. He beat a stellar field, including the 2021 winner and 2022 Women’s US Open champion, Minjee Lee. – TONY DURKIN