Hi everyone,

It's been another busy week at the academy, and we have been coaching lots.

I would like to start this week's newsletter by congratulating Nigel Jones on his hole in one on 6th last week. Nigel and his wife Gill have certainly been in fine form recently, and we are thrilled to hear this latest news. Well done Nigel, and thank you for your lovely gift to the shop. We love wine! (Anyone who knows me knows I love wine!)

This week I would like to feature articles from both Paul, who talks about what you need to do to improve, and also an article from Luke who has been teaching some very successful Seniors' groups.

Over to Paul!

Recently I have been researching what it takes for a golfer to improve, and to the left is a diagram explaining what I believe are the main stages of the improving cycle and it can apply to every improving golfer.

After Round Evaluation

This will take about ten minutes to complete. After each game of golf, think back to when you arrived at the golf course and work your way through the whole round of golf considering instances where you could have done better.

Just for example, when I played at Hadley Wood last week, I had a very thorough practice round, made some great notes on my course planner about each hole, and felt completely ready for the next day. I realised that the greens were going to be some of the sloppiest greens I had ever experienced and I made a conscious decision to practise my putting before teeing off in the main event. My tee time was at 12.15pm and I thought that I would need to arrive at the golf club at around 11.00am, which would give me enough time to practice. I made the mistake of practising my putting for too long, and by the time I wanted to go to the driving range to warm up, I didn't have enough time and all I could do was to to hit balls in the practice net. This worked against me as on the day as I had unknowingly slipped into an old swing thought and didn't realise until I was on the course. If I had calculated my time wisely, I could have practiced my putting and had been able to go to the range and iron out any problems in my swing.

This is an example of something that should be noted as a mistake to learn from in the future. The top players in the world have constantly evaluated their rounds from a very early age and acted upon any discrepancies.

Practice

Let's just say that after your After Round Evaluation you realised that you weren't concentrating on the ball. You could then spend a lot of your practice time concentrating on watching the ball and monitoring when you don't do it. It would be worthwhile making a note that on Monday, it took 20 balls before you forgot to watch the ball? By Friday it took 100 balls before you forgot to watch the ball. After two weeks you never forgot to watch the ball and so hopefully the habit was ingrained?

Another example may be that I had 38 putts during my round and missed five putts inside seven feet of the hole. If I didn't regularly practice my short range putting then I can only expect to continue to do the same things. It would be fluke if it magically got better?

Competitive Play 

It is now important that you go out to achieve and complete your process goals. It looks as if one of my goals should be to arrive at the course two hours before and practice my way to the first tee. Other goals during play for example could be: -

• To play sensibly and to not take any calculated risks.
• To hold my follow through on every single shot.
• To smile and be happy.
• To stare at a dimple on the ball during every swing.

These may sound simple but that is what makes it so difficult to complete on every shot.

If I were to say, hold my follow through on every swing, chip and putt, I have to make sure that I do just that on every shot. Regardless of whether I am five over my handicap or five under. It is the key to consistent golf, especially under pressure! If you get tied up in thoughts of how well you have done on the front nine or thoughts of the future then beware. If you are trying to hold your follow through on every single shot to the end of the round then you stand more chance of success.

In just three rounds of competitive medal play this year, I have found out so much about myself, and if I don't make changes and improvements then I will continue to repeat the same cycle. As improving players we all need to take time to assess our games'. Good luck with yours!

Thanks Paul, we now know what to aspire to.

We had some fabulous results again this week, and Andy Smith won our May Medal, so congrats to Andy who I must say is a fantastic player. In second place was Jason Dayus.

The Mixed Foursomes Supper Evening on Sunday 12th May was won by Julie and Selby Knox, fabulous golf guys!

Now we move on to a report from Luke Fraser, assistant professional, about his Seniors' Groups last week!

Last Thursday myself and seven dedicated seniors went to the chipping green in the wind and rain to work on shots that they were struggling with around the greens.The shots we discussed were a chip over a bunker, a chip and run, as well as a ten yard chip shot. We started by talking about the different clubs that could be used and how to play the shot. I then watched everybody play a few shots where I gave them some advice on their technique. Despite the high winds and persistent rain, the group enjoyed the session and can not wait until the next session where we will be doing pitching.

Luke

Luke you've done me proud, thanks for filling us in.

Get Into Golf Day - Thursday 29th May

Thanks to some brill editorial from our wonderful Junior Organiser John Pajak, we featured in the Bristol Evening Post last week. Our Get Into Golf day is gaining momentum, and we are hoping many of you will pop along to Gloucester Row in Clifton on May 29th between 10.30-2.30 to see us! We will even give you a biscuit if you're very lucky! To have a look at the article please click here.

I think the picture must be very old, Paul has had a beard for five years and is carrying a bit more weight ha ha (I am relieved the picture is not of me, I am carrying a lot more weight! No beard yet though!)

Because of our proactivity, the county have also selected our academy to be an official Get into Golf Centre. We will be coaching more beginners, ladies and juniors on behalf of the county and sometimes going off site to do this. It is an honour to be selected and I hope we can do you all proud. There are not many of these official centres and we are thrilled to be one of them.

We have arranged for a programme of beginners' coaching weekends with Paul, weekday evenings with Andy and Ladies only beginner coaching with Paul on Tuesday mornings. These all kick off during June/July alongside a four week disabled friendly group. These sessions are for beginners, but we would be more than happy to welcome some members. I have been furiously filling out funding forms to help with the Play More Golf programme we are introducing, and we are hopeful that at least some of these groups will have funding. Woo Hoo! If you would like to know more, please ask us for a flyer with our coaching dates and we will sign you up.

That's all for this week's newsletter, but thanks again to everyone who says such nice things about our weekly missive. I love writing it and I hope you all love reading it.

Next week we hear all about Andy's Ladies' only group coaching, I joined them on a miserable wet morning and watched how fabulous they all were! I am looking forward to hearing the whole story next week.

Bye for now y'all!