Head Instructor - Chris Marriott

In 8 years of golf coaching in Singapore, Chris has made a huge contribution toward improving both the level of play and the level of coaching in South-east Asia. Chris has been privileged to work with many of the region’s finest ever junior, amateur and professional golfers. The success of these players that have trained under Chris’s guidance, demonstrates the positive impact of the golf instruction he and the Singapore Academy offers.

In 2002, Chris began donating several hours of his time each week as the Head Coach for the OCC Junior Golf Programme This training programme has since developed many young champions that have brought great credit to Singapore, notably Gregory Foo who won the prestigious Asia-Pacific Junior Championship, was twice the National Inter-Primary School Champion, won the Singapore Junior Championship and achieved an impressive 3rd place finish in the Callaway Junior World Golf Championship during his time in the programme.

From 2003-2005 Chris was part of a team of coaches at the Academy responsible for the training of the SGA National Squad and Development Squads. Many players training under Chris’s guidance in these squads have since progressed to the professional ranks such as Quincy Quek, Patrick Tang, Marc Kawasoe, Justin Han and Goh Kun Yang. Some are still making a name for themselves at the highest level of amateur golf such as Choo Tze Huang and Jonathan Leong.

In 2004, Chris was appointed as Head Coach of the SLGA National Squad and Development Squads. Chris spent 2 years in this coaching role working with a talented young group of female junior golfers. Many of these girls have dominated the ladies amateur golf scene in Singapore such as Koh Sock Hwee, Stephanie Loi, Melissa Low, Joey Poh and Kok Jo Ee.

In 2005, Chris was responsible for designing and implementing the Singapore Sports School Golf Programme in conjunction with the Singapore Golf Association. This programme has proven extremely successful in grooming young talent from secondary 1 to secondary 4. Several students of the programme have gone on to become National representatives, National and International Junior Champions and Amateur Champions.

Some of the Sports School student’s outstanding achievements include Timothy Low’s 2005 victory in the OCC Junior Invitational, Lam Zhi Qun winning the 2006 National Inter-School Championship and 2006 Singapore National Amateur Championship, Nicholas Smits being crowned the 2006 Asia-Pacific Junior Champion and 3rd in the 2006 Callaway Junior World Golf Championship, Gregory Foo claiming a hat-trick of DBS Junior Challenge titles in 2006, George Foo winning the 2007 Singapore Junior Championship, Chia Chong Zheng winning the 2007 National Inter-School Championship, Gregory Foo’s 2007 Singapore Junior Championship win and Standard-Chartered Junior Open victory, Marc Ong winning the 2008 HSBC Youth Challenge Champion of Champions and the 2009 National Inter-School Championship, Edgar Oh’s victory in 2009 Singapore Junior Championship and Nicholas Lim winning the 2009 NSRCC Junior Open.

While Chris has achieved much success through his junior and amateur students, he has also recorded fine results from his professional students.

Scott Barr was formerly a Teaching Professional at SICC who successfully re-launched his playing career in 2003 with the technical guidance of the Gary Edwin Golf Academy and has since recorded 5 runner-up finishes on the Asian Tour and several victories on the Local Circuit including twice a winner of the Accenture Champion of Champions. Scott recorded his best season in 2005 when he finished 11th on the Asian Tour Order of Merit. In 2008 Scott secured playing rights on the lucrative European Tour.

In 2006, Chris was challenged to coach Singapore’s struggling tournament professional Lam Chih Bing out of a slump that had him seriously considering an early retirement from the game. Chris helped Chih Bing through what was a very difficult and trying time in his career. After remodelling Chih Bing’s golf swing from what was a very loose left-sided action to a more efficient and repeatable right-sided swing, they began working on sharpening his short game skills, improving his fitness and developing his mental skills. The results started showing and Lam’s scores soon began reflecting his true ability. Chih Bing’s career was successfully resurrected under Chris’s coaching and he has since gone on to become a winner on the Asian Tour.

Singapore’s rising star and rookie professional Quincy Quek began training under Chris 6 years ago as a junior golfer. As Singapore’s no.1 amateur golfer for the past 3 years, Chris succeeded in coaching Quincy to a silver team medal in the 2005 SEA Games. Quincy’s long list of tournament victories since then have been the result of much of Chris’s hard work dedicated to refining Quincy’s swing technique and improving his tactical and mental skills. 2007 was a standout year for both player and coach as Quincy claimed victory in the Singapore National Amateur Championship and the South-East Asian Amateur Championship (Putra Cup). He was runner-up on the Mercedes-Benz Tour in the Asean Laguna Championship and capped off a terrific year by doing Singapore proud at the Barclays Singapore Open where he mixed it with the world’s best for 4 rounds before claiming the Leading Amateur Trophy. Quincy then received the honour in 2008 of being the first ever Singaporean to be selected in the Asia-Pacific Team to contest for the prestigious Bonallack Trophy against Europe. In 2009, Chris was privileged as a coach to see Quincy presented with a Meritorious Award for Golf at the Singapore Sports Awards.

Chris’s coaching services have extended well beyond grooming young talent in Singapore. Chris has coached some interesting and influential people including MP’s, television and radio personalities, actors, models, musicians and sporting legends.
Chris has also contributed instructional articles for Golf Digest magazine, GOLF tabloid, Where2Golf and has also appeared on ESPN Star Sports.


Contact Details:

Chris Marriott
Gary Edwin GolfAcademy

1 Orchid Club Road,
Golf Driving Range #02-01
Singapore 769162

Telephone: (65) 65556776

e-mail: golfacademy@lifestylz.com.sg