Hello all,

I hope you are all having a great week. Let's move straight into the Club News.


 

Last Tuesday saw the Ladies' Section play in the Medal and the Divots Cup. The Medal was won by Paula Keaney with Lynne Vowles in second place and Liz Hale in third. The Divots Cup was won by Shamim Dinani with Alison Bracey in second and Sue Wilson in third. Many congratulations to you all Ladies.


On the same day, in fair weather and foul, one brave and wonderful man undertook the challenge of playing 125 holes in a day to raise money for the Captain's charity, the Bristol Area Stroke Foundation. 

Mike Blake played from crack of dawn to end of day and the charity has benefitted greatly from the donations received. Well done Mike, what a great thing to do.

There are some genuinely good guys in this club - we are extremely lucky aren't we?

   

Last week, during a knockout match, the ever lovely Stuart Palmer managed to get a hole in one on 17th.

Well done Stuart, you join the elite club and we congratulate you.

So what's on the way next?


 

- Thursday, 30 June - Bristol Irish Golf Society 
- Saturday, 2 July - Monthly Medal (online start sheet) 
- Sunday, 3 July - Junior Professional's Trophy (normal starts) 
- Tuesday, 5 July - Ladies' County Greensomes Stableford 
- Wednesday, 6 July - Practice Day SW Counties U18 Boys Championship 
- Thursday, 7 July - SW Counties U18 Boys Championship Day 
- Sunday, 10 July - Failand Cup (online start sheet)

Now it's time to see what's occurring at the Academy...


 

We started off the week with setting up the festival which never was! Tuesday evening we set up the festival plans again, but unfortunately rain stopped play. A decision was made by the schools coordinator to cancel due to the risk of severe weather conditions. We were absolutely devastated as we love doing these and felt as though 100 or so children had been let down. We hope to reschedule, but for this year's school games event we unfortunately could not find another suitable date. 

We will however do whatever we can to do two more next year, so let's hope for a non washout June 2017. I am very grateful that we were able to do at least one for 2016.


Following on from this, Paul & Andy took the Tri Golf set to Parson Street Primary School on Thursday. They were in charge of coaching lots of (very) little year two tiny tots. They spent the morning at the school and the feedback received was extremely positive. Well done boys.


This week also saw our AimPoint Express Course take place. Oli Leett from the Putting Hub at Ross-on-Wye Golf Club was the instructor and five brave trainees took on the ever-changing weather to be instructed in the fine art of AimPoint. This is a method of lining up putts with accuracy using your fingers - clever stuff.


Paul also spent an evening at The Bristol Golf Club this week, with some of the GGU county squad and also Nick our assistant, taking in an evening seminar with Dave Alred. Dave Alred MBE is an elite performance coach and has worked with the likes of Rugby's Jonny Wilkinson and Golf's Luke Donald. 


We would also like to offer our congratulations to Finn Ellis, who recently took on the English independent schools championships and won the under 10 category. 

Paul coaches little Finn and he is a pleasure to work with. Congratulations buddy, well done.

Now over to Paul for his report of the week:


 

Alexandra Saunders has shown some brilliant improvements this year in her game, and even though she has had exams at university, she has mixed well; gym work, lessons, practice and tournaments. Two great rounds of golf, exactly when you want it, isn't the easiest thing to achieve and a total of one under par gross for the two rounds at this year's Ladies Club Championships, shows her dedication and desire to achieve perfection. 

Well done Alex, Ladies' Club Champion. Well deserved and we know how hard you work to get better.


At a recent seminar I attended, David Alred talked about the importance of simplifying everything that you do, and it reminded me of an occasion with Woody. Turnberry 2009, The Open and Chris had a brand new caddy on board. I can remember Chris was losing shots to the right during the practice round and I took him straight to the range, explained and demonstrated exactly what he needed to do and then watched him execute beautifully straight shots.

On the course in the first round, could he do it? No. Straight after the round we went straight to the range again and simply focused on the back of his left hand facing the target after impact. This stopped the face from remaining too open at impact and achieved a great impact position (Try it if you suffer with the slice). He could do it perfectly well on the range, and towards the weekend achieved the position we practiced to play fantastic golf only to miss the playoff with Tom Watson and Stuart Cink by just one shot. I wouldn't have been too surprised if he had won The Open back then. David Alred last Wednesday reminded me of how we need to keep swing thoughts simple, and this has always been one of my main coaching philosophies over the years. Why make it difficult?

Playing golf under pressure, like Alexandra in the Ladies Club Championships, is something that can be learnt. Like me, David Alred advocates simple specific thoughts. You should always work with a coach on your game, even if you play just once a month, golfers should have a session with a coach every half a dozen rounds of golf. I guarantee your game will improve, and Andy and I would love to help you! 

Click here to get in touch if you would like to discuss arranging a lesson.

I also had a great weekend coaching both the tiny tots Tri Golf last Saturday with five little ones and the regular Junior Coaching session with eight boys and girls. It's really rewarding to be looking after the stars of the future and we have lots of junior sessions here at Bristol & Clifton. Ask us for more details.

  

Paul


 

So it has been busy once again in the Academy. We have also set up a new series of Inclusion dates with Andy for later in the season - please come and see us for more details.

On that note, I hope you all have a great week. We are off on annual leave until Saturday in Norfolk (pray for good weather.) but both Andy and Nick will be in the Pro Shop to help you all.

Caren, Paul, Andy & Nick