MEET OUR TEAM

Rob is our PGA Director of Player Development. He is a Class A PGA Member and the 2014 recipient of PGA Canada’s most prestigious Teaching Award the George Knudson National Teacher of the Year and a Golf Digest Magazine World Top 75 International Teacher.
Rob is the only teacher in Canada to develop his long term clients to win The IMG Junior World Championship and he has done it twice for both girls and boys divisions- Adam Svensson and Michelle Liu.
He is the long term Coach of the youngest player in history to win low Canadian at Canadian Women’s Championship and the youngest player in history at age 12 to compete in an LPGA Tour event at the 2019 Canadian Women’s Open Championship. Ivy Academy has been rated # 1 out of 100 junior academies across Canada by Maple Leaf Junior Tour 2017, 2018,2019, 2020

Rob began coaching golf full time in 1994 and in 2000 started his High Performance Program.
With a background in competitive sports and business he has studied biomechanics, motor learning and psychology to develop one of the worlds most successful junior development programs.He has developed an international reputation as a leader in golf instruction and is sought after globally by other coaches and players aspiring to perform at the highest levels of their ability.

Rob’s long term client list is impressive and ranges from several Junior World Champions to PGA Tour and Web.com winners. Some of Rob’s better known clients include PGA Tour winner Nick Taylor from 2006 to 2016 and Web.com and PGA Tour Member Adam Svensson for nearly 20 years.More recently Michelle Liu the 2017 IMG and US KIDS champion age ten girls from age 6 to present. His accomplishments are unmatched by any other Canadian Teacher.

These are some of Rob’s long term client results
2 clients long term clients of ten or more years to earn PGA Tour Cards in 2015 and 2018
Two PGA Tour wins – 2 NCAA Div 1 and Div 2 Mens Player of the year winners
12 Canadian National Champions – 28 Provincial Champions – 15 Juniors in the past 14 years were selected to Golf Canada’s National Development Team – 6 Junior World Titles – Scholarships and Universities our students have earned spots to include Stanford , Yale, UCLA,Washington, Dartmouth, and dozens of NCAA Division Universities

Matt was born and grew up in Surrey, England. His introduction into the game of golf came at the age of 15 when he was hired as a caddie at the prestigious Wisley Golf Club in Surrey. Since then he has worked in just about every facet of the golf industry, from retail sales to maintenance crew and now as Senior Performance Coach at Rob Houlding Golf. Matt moved to Canada in 1994 and joined the PGA of Canada in 2005 and has enjoyed teaching the great game to all skill levels of golfers and especially takes pride in being a Coach for BC Golf working with many of the provinces top golfers.

Teaching Philosophy

Matt is familiar with many different teaching theories and has spent time with some of the games greatest instructors including, Stan Utley, Dr. Craig Farnsworth, Mike Bennett, Andy Plummer, E.A.Tischler, and Mike Adams and the past 2 years full time with Rob Houlding.

Matt has assisted Rob with many of the academies top students including junior World Champions Michelle Liu , Ryan Liang and Anna Huang.

Colin recently firmly established his ability to develop an elite junior by winning the US Kids Junior World Championship in 2019 with his longterm student Alex Zhang age 10.!
Born in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in beautiful Tsawwassen, BC., Colin turned professional in 2004 after a successful Junior, Collegiate and Amateur career with victories at every level. As an Amateur, Colin played in six consecutive national championships, and traveled to Scotland, the home of golf, to participate in the 2001 British Amateur Championship. After turning Professional he traveled to Australia in the mid 2000’s to play on the Australasian Tour. Upon returning home he joined the PGA of Canada and qualified for the 2005 Canadian Tour.

Colin started teaching golf in 2005 and has since worked with hundreds of students, racking up thousands of hours of teaching experience. An avid reader, he has collected hundreds of books on golf and has studied all of the greatest teachers from every generation. Colin’s teaching philosophy is: build a solid foundation of fundamentals, create a flawless swing plane, relentlessly pursue a sharp short game, while never neglecting the importance of the mental game.

Colin is a graduate of the Professional Golf Management Program (Camosun College). Further certifications include the Foresight Sports Peak Training Program, Trackman University, and the National Coaching Certification Program (PGA of Canada). He is also an expert in V1 Sports, BodiTrak and the SAM PuttLab. He sees technology as an incredible tool to further his students’ progress.

Colin’s passion for the game has fuelled his nearly three decades in the sport. He is humbled beyond words to be sharing his love of golf with the next generation of aspiring competitors.

Tyler grew up on Cape Breton Island a magical place on Canada’s east coast and in Kelowna, BC. Both places are home to some of Canada’s most extraordinary golf courses. He learned to love golf at an early age and as a junior golfer, he earned a U.S. college scholarship after a successful high school golf career.Following college, Tyler completed his Professional Golf Management courses in Victoria while working at Cordova Bay Golf Course. He began coaching as soon as he turned professional. In 2015 Tyler joined Rob Houlding Performance Golf and has worked very closely with Rob on a daily basis studying his approach to advanced player development. Tyler plays a key role assisting Rob with the training of many of Rob’s elite long term juniors as well as his own followers.

Tyler is the long term Coach of Billy Zhang the 2018 BC Bantam Champion

Teaching philosophy: Tyler has always been very interested in the golf swing and the mind and has sought out mentorship from some of the best coaches in the world including: Rob Houlding, Andy Plummer, Mike Bennett, Lynn Blake, James Ridyard, and many more. Tyler’s true passion is supporting and encouraging kids with their goals and dreams. He has helped many top juniors progress all the way from learning to hold the club correctly all the way to competing at the world junior golf championships.

TMike Aizawa grew up playing multiple sports at very competitive levels including baseball, badminton, basketball, track and field, and ultimate frisbee. He was a Vancouver and Districts champion in the 100m and 200m events during his high school days. He also started ultimate frisbee in high school, played on the UBC varsity ultimate frisbee team, played on Team Canada in 2008, 2012, and 2016 finishing with two world world championship gold medals and a bronze medal.

Mike studied exercise science at UBC through the human kinetics program and graduated in 2008. Since then, he has trained many professional athletes and golfers to help them to learn how to move well, efficiently, and powerfully.

Mike started golfing in 2012 and played in his first competitive tournament in 2014. Since then, he has studied the biomechanics of the golf swing and through this knowledge, training and application, he has gone from a 12 handicap to a +2, recently shooting a round of 63 in a competitive round on VGT and won several Vancouver Golf Tour events, placed top ten in the 2017 BC amateur, and qualified for the 2017 Canadian Amateur.