THE PLACE TO ENJOY
A LIFE FOR GOLF
Who plays at the
Golf & Country Club Schloss Pichlarn
can confidently put themselves in the hands of golf pro Alan Mitchell. For over 40 years he has been responsible for the golf club and the
IMLAUER Hotel Schloss Pichlarn
and has awakened a passion for golf in many people.
Alan Mitchell is originally from Great Britain, the birthplace of golf. We spoke to him in an interview about how he came to Austria and what golf means to him.
How did you get into golf?
I got into golf, I think at the age of five or six through my father. He was a passionate golfer and also worked in the golf industry. I just went to the golf club with him. I liked that. As a child, I wanted to play all kinds of sports and when I was ten or eleven, I thought that was what I liked best and concentrated on golf.
In the beginning, of course, I wanted to be a player, but it wasn’t quite enough. I then chose the best for me and trained as a golf professional.
I worked in England for four years and also did my training there. After that, I spent two years in southern Ireland. I came straight here from there.
What are you particularly proud of in your professional career?
What makes me proud is simply the situation when someone comes back to Pichlarn after many years and says, Alan, I started playing golf with you 35 years ago and I love playing and you have made my life a great joy and I thank you. That makes me happy. The joy of teaching golf is the highlight for me.
Has your attitude to golf changed over the years?
Yes, because you also develop as a person, so your perspectives also change. It used to be an absolute hobby and I couldn’t get enough. This has been reduced somewhat over the many years in which I have been involved with golf on a daily basis. I also enjoy doing other things now.
In golf, I see that developments in technical equipment have made golfing much easier for many people. A lot has already changed and I’ve actually always gone along with it. On the whole, a positive development. Many more people play. When I arrived, there were around 30 golf courses, now there are 200 in Austria.
How did you end up in Styria and at Schloss Pichlarn?
In 1982, I received a call from a friend that the golf pro at Schloss Pichlarn at the time was looking for a second golf pro. It was known that I wanted to do something different – I was in Ireland at the time – so I was called to see if I wanted to come for a season. I said that unfortunately I can’t speak German and he said it doesn’t matter, the people all speak English. And two months later I was already here. I was actually only planning to stay for a year or two and then I wanted to travel around with golf. But they kept saying, you’re coming back next year anyway, and I said, yeah, okay, why not. And now I’m still here.
You have been loyal to Golf & Country Club Schloss Pichlarn for a long time. What do you particularly like here?
It’s beautiful here, the golf course is very idyllic in the countryside. I like the peace and quiet. The course is very interesting to play. I have a lot of variety with the hotel guests, which makes the whole thing very interesting. It’s simply beautiful here.
Do you have a lot of regular guests who come back every year?
Yes, it is. There is usually a lot of enthusiasm at the beginning and then the guest comes very often in the first two or three years. Once they are better trained, they will have the confidence to play elsewhere and won’t come as often. But they always come back. It’s fun to meet people again. People from the 80s still come. I was already teaching them, and the children and grandchildren were also with me.
What is the most common mistake people make when they start playing golf?
From my point of view, I would say that people don’t go to a trainer often enough at the beginning. They take a course and think they can play golf after three days. And they try to teach themselves with the Internet and then make mistakes. It is better to go to a trainer every now and then and correct the mistakes properly. Self-infliction is very difficult in golf, but with the media these days you are very tempted and you also want to save money. If they are very skilled, this works too, but for the majority it is better if they practise with the trainer for half an hour every now and then.
Another mistake is the wrong equipment. They also save money here and then it doesn’t match the body size or ability. As a pro, I can give good advice here.
The Pichlarn Autumn Golf Week starts on September 17. What are you most looking forward to?
I personally don’t have that much to do with it. I always look forward to presenting the store beautifully and also to seeing various guests who only come once a year to play in the Fall Golf Week. It has a long tradition and has been around for 35 years, I think. It is simply a small highlight of the season. The tournaments are fun for people and in the evening you get together with people you may not have seen for a long time.
What special challenges does the golf course at Schloss Pichlarn offer?
It is a very interesting golf course. You have different situations, different locations, which are often not available on other golf courses. A lot of the new modern golf courses are built with wide fairways, big bunkers, big greens, but all the holes are kind of the same. Every hole in Pichlarn is different. We have uphill, downhill, we have sideways, you have to play over the pond, through the woods, even places where you can’t see where the target is from the tee.
If you accept that golf doesn’t always have to be fair, then it’s a very nice thing. You just have to accept what comes and make the best of it. When I play a round, I’m allowed to take 14 clubs with me and I often need nine or ten of them. On other courses, it is often just a long drive and a pitch. You might need four or five clubs. Our course is very varied. And of course the way it lies and the peace and quiet. In recent years, we have cut back some of the forest so that you can see the wide views better.
It is also a challenge. If you have played a round here in Pichlarn, then you know that you can play golf. If you learn here, you learn well.
Which golf course would you like to play on and who would you like to take with you?
I’ve played a lot of golf courses in my life, but there’s one course in America that really appeals to me for some reason. This is Cypress Point in California near Pebble Beach. I’ve always really liked the look of it. And there’s Muirfield Golf Course near Edinburgh, I’ve been there once or twice, but I’ve never played. If I could play on these two courts one day, I would be very happy.
My golf idol was Jack Nicklaus. He was in the 60s, 70s and early 80s what Tiger Woods is today. I would go back in time and play with him when he was about 35, 40 years old and of course I was too. I would like to have my father with me, which is not possible, because he got me into golf. The fourth could be my brother, who also plays golf, or a celebrity from history, perhaps Seve Ballesteros, who is one of the “Big Five”.
