Barrie Trainor: I’m here to create the best golfers in China

In the summer of 1981, Barrie was born in Warrenpoint, a port town in Northern Ireland that sits almost on the border with the Republic of Ireland. His father, Patrick Trainor, was 26, working as a caddie in this old Gaelic territory of 5,000 residents at the time. Five years later, Patrick opened Newry & Mourne Golf Center and competed for Ireland in the Euro Tour as an amateur, as he was grooming his son, who was going to be the no. 1 PGA golfer in Ireland in 2011, and among the best in Ireland from 2006 to 2012.

“My hometown is gorgeous. It is on the edge of Carlingford Lough with the Mourne Mountains (Northern Ireland) on the north side; and Cooley Mountains on the south side (Republic of Ireland). There are lots of parks, beaches, and it’s only a twenty minutes drive from one of the world’s best golf courses, Royal County Down. You have to come visit, it’s absolutely a-meh-zin’,” he said, and I started to dream away thinking about granite highlands and dragons soaring across my lens with the rain bowing in the background. “Well, there were times when it wasn’t so pretty. I was in Primary 3 and one day, this morning bomb hit the town close to my school. The windows shattered around us…”. I think I saw the 8-year-old Barrie relived that moment, part of “The Troubles” Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland experienced. I noticed the dilated blood vessels on his cheeks and the end of his nose.   

September, COVID-19, Barrie sits in the most sacrosanct Irish sports bar in Beijing, Paddy O’Shea’s. It has been four years and one month, since he set foot in this country. He is now the Head Coach at PineValley Golf Academy, Beijing, where he works with 23 Chinese adults and children to have a taste of golf, and for the ones who really want it, to develop their love of golf and to help them with the single most important life skill Barrie considers – respect.

LoP: We’re honored to have you as one of the four interviewees featured in the very first issue of Lens of Passion, Barrie.
Barrie Trainor: Thank you for having me and congratulations on the launch!

When you hear the word “passion”, how does it make you feel? How would you contextualize it?
Passion for me is getting out of bed everyday with a focus to improve people’s golf. For me it is feeling “I don’t think I’ve worked a day in China”. 

Passion is also sensational. When the kids hit a good shot and I hear it, it makes me so much more proud and satisfied than I myself hit that shot.

My passion for golf started out as an interest, then it grasped me. Golf is a sport that makes you remember the one good shot, not the bad ones. It swings so much dopamine to your brain. 

How would you describe your passion in a few sentences? 
As a professional golfer then, my passion was to improve my golf game each and every day. This was when we were playing competitively on tours. As a golf professional now, my passion is to make my every student a better golfer each and every session. To me my passion is tied to goals and mission. My mission is to create the best golfers in China.

If passion were an animal…
Tiger. [laughs]

Your sharing makes me think of the Japanese concept, “Ikigai” (生き甲斐). It sounds like you’re getting really close to your reason for being. 
Golf is my life, it really is. There’s nothing I want to do more than being involved with golf. 

You know, money does not drive me as much as success. I don’t mind driving nice cars, don’t get me wrong, I check my balance but for me as long as I can send money home, live decently and have some savings, I’m good.

If you spoke to me 5 years ago, I would tell you I really wanted a Lamborghini. Having a Lamborghini and a nice house was a motivator for me, once upon a time.

I think that we can always re-adjust our dream. My dream now is that my son has a stable life and I work hard to create the best golfers. Now I’m aware of burden. I want reasonable things that make me feel light – beers with good friends – classic, simple, great.

I love what you said about re-adjusting. Updating our narratives makes a lot of sense. Please share with us your journey with golf. You mentioned a three-generation legacy in the Trainor’s family!
Yes, my first touchpoint with golf was a gift given by my family. My dad and grandfather co-owned a golf facility, the first driving range south of Belfast at the time, it was opened in April 1986. I was driving a tractor at age 10, cutting the grass at 11 and basically immersed in the environment. I wasn’t particularly good though when I was a teenager but I persisted and got better at 18. I have my dad to thank in many ways – he was patient, stable and experienced. I had a few plateaus in my golf career and without him I would not have developed so deeply with this passion and finally, truly understood the meaning of golf. 

My dad was my coach, my sponsor, my mentor, and my manager. He was my everything. Till this day, we speak religiously three times a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday. He retired a long time ago but he still drives taxi sometimes…I feel guilty he’s doing this at 66, because we spent a lot of money on events and tours. Very shortly I’d like to take the pressure off him. He worked at his own driving range for 70 hours a week non-stop, for 23 years. He has been a hard worker, I learn great work ethics from him.

I never had the big backing, between me and my dad we tried to do it ourselves. We were a father-and-son-team trying to navigate a pretty costly sports career. I’m grateful I had club deals, I had free golf equipment from Callaway, Ping and Taylormade; but no sponsorship money.

A few guys wanted to sponsor me in 2006 when I turned pro but it fell through. I wanted to tried again by becoming PGA qualified in 2009, which I did, but because of 2008’s financial crisis, sponsorships were not as open. Sometimes, the scores weren’t happening when I was playing pro. A lot of things can affect performance – family, finances, pressure to win a certain tournament to make the next one. Some of my good friends had big sponsors and open checkbooks, my dad and I did our best. Say when on tournaments to England, France and Spain, I had to fly home, do something to reload my bank account in between stops; while some could go from one destination to another, with rest and practice time in between.

I had a lot of good pressure. Sometimes not so good. Money is a huge factor in the process but looking at all of it, I’m still very happy with where I was and where I am now. 

What is the meaning of golf to you? 
Golf is time-off from the world. When you’re on the course for 4 to 5 hours, it focuses you, it quiets the noise in the world. Golf makes you forget your worries, even for just a while, or if you play enough, it can dominate your life for however long, streamline your life, in a good way, I think.

Why do you think people like to talk business on the golf course? 
[Laughs] People are more relaxed and real on the golf course. Throughout a game they really reveal how they weather.  

Emotional Quotient. 
Me in a nutshell and complete honesty, my father never came close to me on course on tournaments but he was always close enough with a binocular. He could always tell if it was going good or bad for me. Is that a good thing? No. If I was going good, I always hit a shot, took the club back down, put the club straight in the bag, walk on; if I played bad, I would stay there and fix my swing before I moved on. It’s a funny one, I’m the sort of person, my personality is very obvious, see when you watch the best players, they have a bad hole, they walk on; being a red-head, I was always a bit more on the edge, feisty, not so happy sometimes, very happy other times. It’s great training of the mind overall, for sure.

You were among the best players in Ireland in your late 20s and you were the first to win the Assistance Championship three years in a row from 2006 to 2008. What was the single most memorable moment of your entire career, a snapshot, a conversation, a person?
Playing the Irish Open with Shane Lowry in 2009 for the first two rounds, when he was on his way to winning the Irish Open and gaining European Tour status as an amateur at the time. He beat all 140 pros in that tournament, and now he’s one of the top 50 players in the world. In November 2019, I met up with him again in China, he was playing the HSBC Tournament in Shanghai and we had a good conversation about 2009! I love the people on my journey. I celebrate them.  

Favorite club.
All 14 clubs! You have to love all of them, respect them all. Okay…I love my driver the most, because it goes the farthest.

One club to give up.
3-iron is a tricky one. I haven’t had it in my bag for ten years, it is replaceable. I have a hybrid. It’s a mixture of iron and wood. 

Ok let’s talk about China. Why China? 
China found me.

A good friend of my dad was in China for 10 years before me coming here and my dad visited him before the Beijing Olympics in 2008. My dad was thrilled about what he saw here and said China and golf had some massive growing aspects. This made me think that there was a future about to be designed by professionals. 

My dad’s friend then spoke to me in 2015 December that he wanted to retire in 2016, he said he would find another pro that would take over his students here.

I had a good job then, a golf pro running a golf club, but then I thought, I had visited 27 countries playing golf and why not add the 28th one, so I agreed on a 3-month trial to test it out, and haven’t left since. 

How did you feel when you first landed?
Lonely. My dad’s friend spent two days with me and he said bye-bye. My translator was my life savior but I had no friends. I bought 140 DVDs. 

Describe Beijing in one sentence, or two.
Beijing is a city with lots of ancient history but also the most amazing buildings. It is a fantastic place to live and a great place to visit. 

Most amazing experience in the four years you have lived there. 
First time to the Great Wall. Where I’m from has lots of beautiful views but when I went up to the Wall, I thought “how is this possible?”. 

How is the golf culture, mentality, level like in China? 
I can only share from my experience working with younger learners. In Ireland, there’s more fluidity; here, it’s a lot more instructions. Golf is treated as a serious training, a goal, not so much just a hobby or time-off for the parents. It’s quite the opposite. Parents are very involved here, they are watching their “investment”, which, in a way, can be understood considering the cost. The entrance cost is really high in Beijing, we’re talking 100-400 euros for an 18-hole game (approximately a 4-hour experience) and 150 euros per hour for coaching fee. It’s definitely more of a family investment operation over here. Golf is considered to be for wealthy ones only in China, and it is used to reflect social status.

In terms of the future, I met Li Haotong and his coach Paul McLoughlin at HSBC tournaments last year watching his practice, highly-ranked golfer. I think there’s a very potential future for Chinese golfers to perform very highly on European PGA and Asian tours. One of the best female golfers, Shanshan Feng already attested to that. Chinese learners I have come across have an incredible amount of adaptability. They respond very well to instructions and they are very agile. 

Tell us about your favorite student. How is he like?
It has to be Tiger Guo. He’s 10 and he has won 5 tournaments in Beijing for the under-9. His best score is 65(-7). Quite remarkable. Tiger works hard. When I was a kid I hit 130 yards, Tiger can do 210 yards after two years under my wings. His parents are part of every victory. They have been very supportive of me and my guidance. They trust the process. 

Do you coach any female students?
I’m lucky enough to have 3 female adult students and have some female junior students. One of them is who I believe will be a future superstar, she’s 7. I think the Asian female body type, compared to European, is more suited for golf swings. I am very hopeful about their futures. 

Golf lovers or parents may be reading this. What would you say to someone who wants to build the best experience with golf? 
To create a junior champion, we got to create a communication circle between player, parent and coach. Personally I was lucky to have my PE teacher who was the head of golf at school, my principal, my English teacher and  my dad, to support the formative years of my golf life. For solo adult players, understand the work ethics – the 10,000 hours. Biggest thing I learnt was, it was the people who worked the hardest made it to the top. If you have a dream to play top-level golf, you can do it, through hard work, determination and good coaching.

What are the 3 pieces of golf wisdom we can apply to day-to-day life?
Patience: golf teaches everyone to be much more patient in golf and life
Time management: if we are late for our tee time we are disqualified so golfers always try to be on time
Respect: golf teaches us to respect our playing partners, golf course and all others on the golf course

A word of advice to people who are exploring or cultivating their passion now?
Be aware of it, believe in it, work hard.

Lens of Passion exists to reflect passionate stories and weave the human fabric with our interviewees and audience, you. We hope you enjoyed reading this piece and that Barrie’s story gives your life of art something nutritious. If you wish to connect with Barrie and begin your own dialogue, he can be reached at pgaprofessionalbeijing@outlook.com.

Thanks for reading this article, and we’d love to hear from you in the comment section!

Share with us – how is golf perceived in your country and culture? What do you personally think about it?