About Stuart McPhee
My Story
I am an R&A Level 3 Certified Referee and I hold ‘Expert’ Rules certification from the USGA, after scoring a perfect 100% in the USGA 4-hour exam.
I attended the R&A Level 3 Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar (TARS) in St Andrews in February 2025 and a USGA Expert Rules Workshop in Texas in March 2025.
During Australia’s professional tour season, I work as a Referee on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia. I also serve Golf Australia regularly conducting R&A Level 2 Rules seminars around Australia, and creating rules education videos.
For more than three years, I co-hosted the world’s leading podcast dedicated solely to the Rules of Golf, listened to by referees and rules enthusiasts all around the world.
I support Australia’s #1 Golf podcast, Talk Birdie to Me, as their ‘Rules Guy’ regularly assisting them with Rules issues and questions.
I have refereed at National and State Championships in Australia, including multiple Australian Opens and the Western Australian, NSW and Victorian Opens. At tournaments, I prioritise open communication to maintain excellent rapport with players and caddies, with clear and calm communication as key components of my approach to tournaments.
Away from tournaments, I present seminar-based and on-course practical rules clinics for Golf Clubs, from basic introductory sessions to expert level rules clinics, as well as match play specific sessions, tailored to players and caddies alike.
I write a popular weekly Rules newsletter sent to golf clubs, club professionals, committee members, tour referees, rules enthusiasts and golfers all around the world, containing rules questions and tips.
Prior to my interest in golf, I travelled the world for 20+ years speaking to people about trading currencies and stocks. I spoke live in front of tens of thousands of fellow traders from Mumbai to New York, Melbourne to Beijing, Tokyo to London, and many places in between. I travelled extensively throughout South East Asia and I wrote a best selling trading book, ‘Trading in a Nutshell, 4th Edition’ (John Wiley).
Prior to all of that, I was a full time Army officer in the Australian Army. I graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon (the Australian Army’s highly-renowned officer training institution in Canberra) as one of its youngest graduates in its 100+ year history and I spent 10 years in the Australian Army. My highlight was being selected to represent Australia for two years as an exchange instructor with the US Army in El Paso, Texas.
When COVID hit, my travel stopped and my passion for trading currencies steadily declined. This is when my interest in the Rules of Golf exploded.
I now live and breathe the Rules of Golf.
I live in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
Rules Sessions - Feedback & Reviews
“Stuart brought a usually dry topic to life, making me keen to get stuck into learning more about the rules.”
Susan H.
“Stuart happily veered off his PowerPoint session to deal with our requests and gave straightforward answers.”
Sarah M.
“Stuart presented a wonderfully engaging session in which he ‘warmed us up’ by provoking us with ‘true/false’ real-golf situations”
