He was the boy from Leumeah whose dream was to become a helicopter pilot but ended up competing with the world’s best golfers.
And then, after 16 years of living in a suitcase, PGA pro Paul Marantz decided it was enough.
About five years ago Marantz put away his golf clubs and swapped PGA touring for being a typical family man with a regular job.
“People watching on just don’t realise how hard this life was,’’ Marantz recalls of the time he was playing tournament after tournament in Europe.
“The public only see or think of the glamorous side of golf.
“When I watch the golf now and see the players I know how hard it is to get to the top.
“I actually find it hard to criticise any of them when they’re struggling, knowing what they go through, having done it myself for so many years.
“It is really a very, very hard life,’’ says Marantz, who is now 45 years old.
For a few years after calling it quits Marantz worked as the golf pro at Campbelltown Golf Course at Glen Alpine, but he has now gone down a different path.
He has joined Luke Mannion’s real estate team at McGraths Camden and he says he “loves’’ the job and the people he works with.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“When I played golf it was all about rewarding myself but in this game you reward and make other people happy when you help them buy the property they’re after,’’ says the father of two children, aged 11 and 8.[/social_quote]
“All you have to do is just keep it honest, tell customers it is what it is.
“And you meet more people from more walks of life, better walks of life, than you do in golf.
“It’s been fantastic working with Luke Mannion and the team.
“I actually wish I got into this a lot earlier.’’
♦ The young Paul Marantz grew up in Leumeah and his dream was to become a commercial helicopter pilot.
But at 17 a mate of his suggested a round of golf and for the next 20 years it became almost his entire life.
“My mate said, come and have a hit, and we went up to Campbelltown Golf Course.
“So I started a bit late at golf but from then on that’s all there was,’’ he says.
A big, strapping lad – he’s almost two metres tall – the young Marantz’s golfing strengths were a mighty long drive and accuracy.
Playing with confidence, in 2006 he won the NSW PGA, but other wins and top 10 placings were hard to come by in the next few years.
Marantz says that if he could turn back the clock to when he was 30 he would practice on his chipping and pitching skills.
He says there’s not really that much that separates the top 20 golfers – the ones who travel in a private jet with a large entourage – and the next 200, where Marantz was ranked during his pro career.
“There’s a fraction in it, the difference between the top 10, 20 golfers and the next 200, 300,’’ Marantz says.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“The very best players are those who understand their weaknesses and then practise at improving those areas of their game.’’[/social_quote]
♦ As well as having a regular job selling property with Mcgrath, Paul Marantz has now also embarked on a mission to realise the dream he had when he was young: to become a commercial helicopter pilot.
He has already had a few lessons up in the air with Bankstown Helicopter School and is looking forward to completing the 105 flying hours needed for a licence.
“I was really infatutated with helicopters,’’ he says.
“When we lived at Bankstown, before we moved to Leumeah, the family across the road had a son who was a helicopter pilot, and I just wanted to be like him.’’
On his first training flight the instructor told him to “keep it at 500 feet, you’ll be right’’ and the novice pilot had the controls of the chopper over the southern pylon of the Harbour Bridge, out to the Heads, then Manly, before returning home to land.
“It’s incredible flying a helicopter,’’ Marantz says.
“It’s three dimensional flying a chopper, whereas a plane is two dimensional.’’
♦ When he was a young golfer climbing the rankings, Marantz looked up to champions such as the South African great Ernie Els.
Of course he ended up meeting as well as playing with Els and other greats such as Sandy Lyle – “both nice fellows’’.
“Sure, I got close to a lot of the well known golfers,’’ Marantz says.
“He was before my time but I was also lucky enough to meet the great Jack Nicklaus in 2000.’’
Marantz says he has a lot of good stories he will be able to tell his kids and grandkids in the years to come.
But right now, as he embarks on another career – maybe two when the helicopter pilot’s licence is in the bag – Marantz looks back at his golfing career as a learning experience.
“You’ve got to be careful what you wish for in life,’’ he says.
“When I was young I had this idea of what being a golf pro would be like but when I actually got to do it I discovered it wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.
“It was actually quite different from what I had imagined it.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“You turn up to a tournament, you’re the performing seal, they give you a couple bits of fish and you move on to the next town.[/social_quote]
“One day you’re in Spain playing and the next day you have to be somewhere else in Europe.
“I was worn out mentally and physically; I had had enough and that’s when I gave it all away.’’
