AS a budding golfer on the Hawks Nest fairways, Kasey Henshaw carved out an impressive playing record before joining the professional ranks.

Local golfing enthusiasts would remember the diminutive dynamo winning ladies championships as a fresh-faced teenager and figuring prominently with older brother Ryan in Pennant-winning teams.

She would later join the Ladies Professional Golf Association and compete in major tournaments including the Australian Open, Ladies Masters and the New Zealand Open.

Now the former Hawks Nest sporting identity is putting back into grassroots golf.

For the past seventeen years she has been coaching kids as young as four at Lane Cove Golf Club in Sydney where she is entrenched as the Head Teaching professional.

Kasey coaches both adults and children from four to seventeen years of age on the finer points of golf and has developed a non-existent junior golf program to one of the most successful and highly participated junior programs in NSW.

Many are kids aged between four and six in the Peewee Program where she provides the opportunity for youngsters to hit balls in a game-based environment.

Prior to COVID she coached up to 130 children.

The Lane Cove Golf Club is currently undergoing a major construction program with limited facilities and combined with this year’s ‘big wet’ the numbers have declined although there are still around 70 children enrolled for weekly lessons.

Kasey and Ryan cut their golfing teeth in Canberra back in 1993 when their parents Terry and Robyn Henshaw built a house on the Murrumbidgee Country Club Golf Course.

At the age of thirteen Kasey developed a passion for the sport after winning a voucher at the Brett Ogle Classic in Goulburn.

She represented the ACT at the 1997 Australian Secondary Schools Championships in Alice Springs before moving to Tea Gardens after the family bought the Tea Gardens Club Inn Motel.

The family joined the Hawks Nest Golf Club and with the support of club members both Kasey and Ryan settled into their new life and thrived on the golf course at the amateur level.

Both Ryan and Kasey were selected for the Hunter Valley Talented Athletes Program and heavily involved in the Jack Newton Junior Golf Foundation (JNJGF) attending junior tournaments throughout NSW and talented athletes’ programs at Narrabeen.

In 1998 Kasey represented the Hunter Valley Combined High Schools at the Australian Secondary Schools Championships and teamed up the following year with Ryan to win the Hawks Nest Mixed Foursomes title.

Ryan was Hawks Nest Junior Champion in both 1998 and 1999, Matchplay Champion in 2000 and Foursomes Champion with John Barr (1999) and Craig Golledge in 2001.

Kasey’s passion for golf was formed through her involvement with the JNJGF and at the age of seventeen was a recipient of the JNGF Spirit of the Foundation Award.

During her successful amateur career Kasey won the Muswellbrook Ladies Open, Horizons Classic, Myall Classic and the Scratch and Country Medal at the WGNSW Medal play offs.

She was Ladies Club Champion at Hawks Nest in 2001, 2002 and 2003 (Gross) and played Division 2 when the ladies won the NHDLGA Pennants Championship in 2000.

Kasey also played Division 1 Pennants for Newcastle Golf Club when they won the NHDLGA Pennants Championship in 2001 and later helped NSW Golf Club clinch the Sydney Grade Pennants Championship.

Ryan played PGA tournaments before quitting golf for a career in the hospitality industry.

“He now has a dream job working as Venue Manager for Your Mates Brewing, a craft brewery on the Sunshine Coast,” his mother Robyn told News Of The Area.

“Kasey is now a wife and mum having married another professional golfer Martin Dive,” she revealed.

“Martin did his PGA traineeship at the same time as Kasey and had a successful playing career both in Australia and Asia prior to COVID.

“He is currently Assistant Professional at Ryde-Parramatta Golf Club and also works for The Charity Challenge,” said Robyn.

“They have two young daughters Willow (nine) and Charli-Rose (seven) who love swimming and soccer.

“Both enjoy the odd golf lesson and have played a few holes on occasions at Hawks Nest Golf Club” she added.

By Chris KARAS