Why this tour winner has quit pro golf to become a referee

It is a path that has been left largely untrodden.

When professional golfers decide to step away from earning their living inside the ropes, they usually mean it. Some players become coaches. Some become pundits. Some walk from the sport entirely.

Others, no matter how old, just refuse to stop winning golf tournaments. (See also: Langer, Bernhard.)

But for many retiring players, going back to school and studying the laborious Rules of Golf would rank way down the list of possible career transitions.

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Yet an opportunity to learn the craft is exactly the reason Felicity Johnson has chosen to step away.

After 18 years, two wins on the Ladies European Tour and more than 300 tournaments worldwide, the 37-year-old Englishwoman is – for the time being at least – putting the clubs away in the pursuit of becoming an elite referee.

“I’m excited for what comes next which is the reason why I know its the right time,” Johnson told bunkered.co.uk hours after announcing her career change.

“I’m not sad. It’s a chapter I’ve loved and I’m very proud of. I’ve got no regrets. I knew it was the right time, it wasn’t a major decision. I’m just ready and excited.”

Johnson, whose career highlights include winning the Tenerife Open in 2009 and the French Open two years later, wants to provide a rare player’s voice among the referees in the future.

“I’ve never been afraid to put my opinion across when a course is set up well or badly,” she says. “It’s something that’s always interested me. To go down that route and to have that responsibility in the future, you need to do the rules and refereeing first.

“Putting the tournament together and working with the different stakeholders, with the respective tours and the sponsors – that would be something I’m interested in doing.

“For the time being, though, I’m interested in working up to that stage and getting out there, doing the rulings with the players. I think I can bring a player’s perspective to setting the course up, looking at the scores from the previous day, and reacting to what’s going on.”

It is not lost on Johnson that the role of an elite referee is no picnic. First, she had to bring out the textbooks as part of a three-stage qualification process – which includes a three-day course run by the R&A – that enabled her to become a national referee.

“Level One, you go online, get a certificate,” she explains. “I did my Level Two course exams in April. That’s a two-day seminar to get a grasp of the rules. Then you show an interest in progressing further and going onto Level Three, so I did that exam in August.

“I then did my TARS (Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar) course in October. I’m lucky that timings have worked out really well. I’ve got on the course relatively quickly. A lot of people have helped me to do that, which has been really appreciated.”

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Johnson was never a rules boffin in her playing days, but knows their value. She insists that if players were more clued up on the small print, the perennial slow play issue across the professional game could at least be improved.

Which is why she wants to be part of the solution.

“The golfers on the main tour get spoiled because there are a handful of referees out there,” she says. “If you’re not 100%, it’s easy to call the referee and it’s a simple answer.

“But by doing that less, it would be another factor to have a positive impact on pace of play.

“I could definitely have known more as player. It’s only in the last 12 months when I’ve got into the rules that I’ve learned more. They are there to help you, not hinder you. Everyone can do a little bit of a better job to educate themselves and it will help everybody.”

Just like she did in almost two decades as a pro, Johnson is making plenty of sacrifices to remain inside the ropes.

“When I was on my course with Andy McFee [the former DP World Tour referee], the one thing he said is that you never get a late tee time,” she jokes. “As a player, you have at least one lie-in a week. You have a late early or an early-late.

“The early mornings will be different for me and you’re always the last people that leave the golf course but hopefully working with a good team makes those days go quicker.”

So, just weeks after playing her final tournament at the Hero Women’s Indian Open, Johnson is already raring to go.

“It’s been quite quick,” she says. “Six to eight months on from my Level Two to now having done the school work and getting out there. I’m still reading, learning and doing more questions to get onto the golf course but its nice not to do any exams again.

“I’m going to the LET Q School in Morocco in December to go and shadow the team there. Setting up the course, marshalling pace of play and doing the rules.”

Johnson’s ambition in this pursuit is befitting of a hugely successful playing career.

“As a player, you want to play in the biggest events and test yourself at the highest level,” she says. “I’m no different to that in this chapter of my career as well as a referee.

“I’d love to work at the majors and a Solheim or Ryder Cup down the line. That’s definitely the aim.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.