The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) and Golf Australia (GA) are delighted to announce that Dean Kinney will take on the highly sought after role of VIS Golf Program Head Coach.
Kinney comes to the VIS with a varied background of skills and experience; an expert in the area of biomechanics through a degree in anatomy and physiology, Kinney has over a decade of professional touring experience as a player and 18 years of coaching experience.
“I am very much looking forward to working with the VIS team and I am excited by the challenges presented by this highly regarded position,” Kinney said.
As a full time playing professional, his career highlight was being awarded the 2007 NSW/ACT Player of the Year, and his coaching highlight so far was being voted Australian Golf Digest Coach of the Year in 2016.
“Dean Kinney emerged from a strong set of candidates, aiming to work in one of Australia's most credentialed state elite golf programs. The VIS golf program has enjoyed strong leadership and success over the past 20 plus years and I am certain Dean will enjoy the challenge, bringing his extensive coaching experience to further strengthen the contributions by Victorians at the elite level,” said VIS Performance Manager Pathways Rob Leeds.
Since 2013, Dean has been successfully managing and coaching the NSW High Performance Golf Program, and has enjoyed a successful record of helping talented golfers progress to dominate at the elite level.
In 2016, Kinney guided the Australian men’s team to the World Amateur Teams title - Australia’s first Eisenhower Trophy triumph in 20 years. The three-man Aussie team of Cameron Davis, Curtis Luck and Harrison Endycott reached a whopping 38-under and won by a landslide 19 shots from England at the Mayakoba Golf Club on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Prior to his roles at Golf NSW, he worked as the Head Professional and Director of Golf at the Pennant Hills Golf Club in Sydney, the Head Professional at Riverside Oaks Golf Clubs and conducted his PGA Traineeship at Sydney’s Monash Country Club in the mid-1990s.
Kinney is known for developing holistic training programs that improve not only players’ technique and strategy, but also their mental and physical resilience.
“We are very happy that he has decided to join us at the VIS, where his insights and methodologies will help us develop our golfers into national and international champions, said Leeds.
VIS CEO Anne Marie Harrison said, "the VIS has a proud history of producing world class golfers, including Stuart Appleby and Geoff Ogilvy and more recently Brett Coletta and Zach Murray, and we're confident that the appointment of an outstanding coach like Dean will enable us to keep doing that well into the future.”
Dean will be responsible for leading, planning, delivering and monitoring all aspects of the VIS Golf Program and will relocate to Melbourne from Glenhaven in NSW and will seek to continue the VIS's proud tradition in the sport of golf when he commences the role in January 2019.
