There is no one better placed to predict the future of Adrian Meronk than Matthew Tipper.
The man from Porthcawl first met Poland’s star golfer in 2010 when he was the Director of Instruction at Toya Golf and Country Club near Wroclaw when Meronk was a six-foot 16-year-old.
Tipper only saw a few swings before concluding he would become a star which, under his tutelage, he did. Meronk is a four-time DP World Tour winner, he was voted Player of the Year by his peers in 2023 and was desperately unlucky not to debut for Team Europe at the Ryder Cup in the same year. He is now a member of the LIV Golf League.
Tipper’s eye for a future star was proven by Meronk’s success, having also played at eight majors to this point. The pair may not work together anymore after splitting earlier this year, but Tipper wholeheartedly believes the towering 31-year-old will taste victory in one of golf’s big four events soon, with The Open Championship coming next.
“If you’d have gone back to 2010 and I was speaking to you and I said look, there’s going to be a kid from Poland and by 2024 he’s going to do this, this and this, I think you probably would’ve looked at me a bit strange,” Tipper told NCG, having recently moved to Nebraska to work with top golf coach James Seickmann at Your Short Game Solutions.
“But I knew when I first saw him hit four balls, I knew he was good, I mean proper good. I had to sit down and make up a plan to help him progress quickly so he could get to where I think he could get to and people always say to me, ‘Are you surprised by what Adrian’s done?’ To be honest, I’m not surprised.
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“I knew he was capable of everything that he’s done up to now and I still believe to this day that he will win a major. I do believe he’s that good, whether that’s with me in the future or not I don’t know, or it’s with another coach, but I do believe he’s capable of winning a major and I’m incredibly proud because we’ve helped each other.
“We’ve gone on this journey together and we’ve helped each other along the way which I’ll be incredibly grateful for.”
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Matthew Tipper: ‘Sometimes, you need to move apart to come back together in the future’
Tipper’s footprint can be found across the golfing world. He has worked in Malaysia, China, Dubai and Portugal, helping a variety of professionals and amateurs to over 50 national and international titles. He was given special membership to the PGA of Poland and the PGA of Italy and in January, he received the Confederation of Professional Golf’s John Jacobs Teaching and Coaching Award.
At the end of April, Tipper revealed on social media that he and Meronk had split. During the 14 years that spanned their relationship, Tipper built a body of work that could be the envy of any tutor in the sport.
Having built his own game from the links of Pyle and Kenfig, Tipper became the Director of Instruction at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy in 2010 and in 2016, he met Sieckmann for the first time after being inspired by his coaching philosophy and his outlook on the short game.
Tipper is now the Director of Instruction and Education at Seickmann’s Your Short Game Solutions based in Omaha. He admits he might have stayed with Meronk if the player hadn’t decided to stay in Dubai and pursue his next path with LIV Golf.
Meronk was openly shocked and saddened not to be chosen by European captain Luke Donald for the matches against America in Rome at the end of last year. Meronk later admitted that because he failed to make the team, his decision to join the Saudi-funded tour was made easier.
The split between Tipper and Meronk was made harder, Tipper said, by their bond blossoming from work to real friendship. Despite choosing their separate ways for now, Tipper didn’t rule out re-connecting in the future and left the door open if Meronk wanted one last piece of advice or a swing tip.
“I think it had run its course more than anything,” he added. “The situation had come where my life was going in a certain way.
“But I think, with me being in America and Adrian joining LIV and staying in Dubai as that’s his base, we’re a long way apart and I think travelling back and forth, obviously I have responsibilities in America with the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, the LPGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour for James. Travelling to Dubai to see him for a week which is what I used to do was going to be challenging, and you know, it had just run its course in the end.
“Something fresh, something new for both of us and sometimes, you need to move apart to come back together in the future – he knows if he really, really gets in a pickle, I’d like to think that he’d pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey what do you think of this’, because at the end of the day, I’ve seen him hit billions of golf shots.”
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