31 Nov 2010

It’s been some time since the last entry. I really have to get more diligent at this.

Our players have been paying with mixed fortunes through the year.

Andrew Dodt: has continued to compete on the European Tour after his win gave him full exemption there. A number of mid field finishes, and a few missed cuts have led to a level of frustration. Hopefully we’ll see a change or form in the last few events of the year. He’s running 3^rd on the Asian money list, with a goal to finish in the top 2.

Adam Blyth has returned to Asia after a number of near misses on the European Challenge tour. He had a number of solid finishes before him (self imposed) disqualification last week. That’s a major difference with our game. He called the penalty on himself, after seeing the results in the paper after the event, costing about $5000 in prize money.

Gavin Flint has almost secured himself a card for 2011 in Asia. One more good finish should do it. He tried out for the Japan tour, but missed at stage 2.

I’ll be catching up with these guys next week at the Singapore Open.

Chris Campbell has earned enough to keep his playing rights in Japan. That’s been a solid performance after winning the challenge tour money last year. Obviously, the next goal is to win there, which we’d love to see in 2011.

On the more local front, Paul Donahoo has played nicely in a number of events in Queensland as a preparation for the Japan Q-School. Unfortunately he missed at stage 2 by 2 shots.

Tim Porter and Kurt Carlson have been improving their position in the pro-am events, with goals to move to bigger and better things in the coming years.

The recent PGA Coaching summit was another highlight for 300 PGA delegates at the Gold Coast recently. Keynote speaker David Leadbetter was informative and entertaining. There are a lot of developments in golf coaching as science and coaching mix more and more.

I will be going to China again from Nov 24 to Dec 6. We’ll be presenting 2 Level 2 courses in Zuihai, before returning to Australia and the PGA Championship at Coolum.

Our friend Nathan Uebergang gets married in December in Adelaide just before Christmas. Best wishes to Nathan and Joy.

TIP

I often ask people how they practice, and I generally get a similar answer—“start with a few wedges, work up through the irons and finish with drivers. 100 or so balls take about 50-60 minutes”.

There may be some small variation to this, but the theme is the same.

Try a change to this if you seriously want to improve. Set out the goals you may have on game improvement, and plan to work at each segment on a regular basis. Eg pitching distance could be a project for a session. Develop a system, improve the feels, and randomise the targets. You can get really good at 1 distance if you hit enough, but you have to be good at a lot of distances to improve real scoring.

Each area of your game should be examined and trained with a view to long term improvement.

Nothing stays the same, so the development of systems and processes can head you in a better direction.

Good golfing

I’ll try to get a Christmas message out in time.

Thanks for reading

JIM B

July 2010

Hello to all our readers.

It’s been nearly 2 months since the last entry so a lot has been happening.

I recently went to Singapore for 3 days to do some work with Andrew and Gavin. Gavin is a member at Sentosa Country Club, so it became our “home” for the week. A magnificent golf facility near the busiest shipping port in the world. We did some good work, both on the range and on course. They both played nicely in the following week in Thailand with Andrew finishing in the top 10 and Gavin made his first cut in a while. Andrew has since finished 18^th in France after a 45^th place in Germany.

I had a week at home and then went to China for the second time this year. We went to Cheng Du in central China for a week at the Magnificent Grand Hill Golf Course. Sensational facilities!! One of the downsides to travelling eventually happened to me. My bag didn’t leave Australia. It followed 3 days later. A bit uncomfortable, but we managed.

After the end of the week there we took a tour of the Panda Park, where the breeding programme for the panda is conducted. Well worth the time spent.

Our second week there was at the Golden Gulf CC in Zuihai. We’ve been there a few times now, and they really look after us. We were invited to join the GM at the staff dinner on our second last night there. Seafood specialty. There were some strange things on offer, but we stayed with the stuff we knew.

The other tour players have been on a break and start again in North Qld this week.

Adam has been struggling for form a bit this year, and has had some time out. He will focus on Asia for the rest of the year.

Sean from VP is taking a couple of trips to interesting golf destinations. His next venture goes to Mission Hills in China from Nov 8-15, with a couple of days in Hong Kong on the way home. If anyone is keen, you can contact him on email at sean@vpgc.com.au.

I recently did a new article on sand play for the Golf Qld on line magazine. Have a look via the GQ link. The next article should about distance control from sand.

Thanks for reading

Good golf

Jim B

May 2010

Hi All

It’s been a while since my last entry to the blog

I returned from China over the weekend after another fortnight of hard work and fun.

We spent the first week in the industrial city of Nanshan. The golf courses we saw were sensational. They have just come out of one of their coldest winters in years, but they have their golf courses up to a reasonable standard already.

We had our group of 105 students all trying to get into golf coaching as a career. Hopefully, a high percentage pass the tests and can move to Level 2 and beyond.

They are very serious about golf and expect up to 50 million golfers to be playing in the next decade. The fact that golf is an Olympic sport from 2016 has helped the cause.

Our second week was in Beijing. We had about a day and a half to be tourists. The Great Wall is amazing. We also visited the Emperors’ Tombs. An equally amazing place.

Our players have been spread all over the world. Andrew Dodt has re-located to England to focus most of his attention to the European Tour. He starts again this week at the Italian Open. You can check his schedule on the European Tour website.

Adam Blyth will now focus on the European Challenge tour, in a bid to play on their main tour next year. Gavin Flint will have a small break after missing the cut at the Ballantynes in Korea. We’ll meet up in June in Singapore for a few days to prepare for the next few months.

The boys on the Australian tour have played with mixed results. A win in Adelaide for Nathan Uebergang and Paul Donahoo, and a couple of solid performances from Kurt Carlson and Michael Craig are nice results for the team. Chris Campbell has started in Japan, with a top 20 and a 45^th in 3 events.

Thought of the month: one of the easiest ways to improve your consistency is to consume adequate food and fluid during a round of golf. Nearly everyone has very little to eat or drink during their round. Too often I hear from players about finishing badly and they assume that they are either not fit enough, or they are poor mentally. Maintaining an adequate level of food and fluid during the round will allow you to concentrate better in the closing stages of the day, as well as feel more energy. As a general rule, about 10 mls per kg of body weight is the number for adults. Everyone will have their own magic number though. You should take care about what you consume, relative to your own health needs. Eg: too much sugar, or salt can be harmful.

Hello everyone.
I hope your golf has been to your expectations so far for 2010.
Some of our players have been continuing in their success so far this year. Andrew, Adam and Gavin recently played in the British Open regional qualifier in Asia. Unfortunately they missed out this time.
They now have a small break until their respective tour schedules start again.
Nathan has been coming back into some form through the pro-am tour in Victoria. Professional golf is a long hard road to success.
On the local front, I will be in Victoria for 3 days this month with Andrew, doing a number of training days before he heads to Europe.
I'll be home until April 17, when I'll be going to China for the first of 4 or 5 trips to that country for this year.
We have been using and testing our new on line stats programme over the last month. I have 10 players recording their data for each round played. Some interesting information has come out of this, even with a small number of rounds. Sometimes our perception of our game is different to the reality.
Let me know if you would lke to be in the programme.
As a quick thought for the month: Think about your best ever shot. remember it's shape, sound, feel in your hands, the enjoyment you got from it. Next time you go to the range or the course, try to re-create this feeling for every shot you play. They won't always come out like your best, but you should se the percentages improve.

Good luck

JIM B

Congratulations to Andrew Dodt on his first professional win. His 14 under par total on the weekend was good enough to win the Avantha Masters in India. This opens lots of opportunities to him for the next few years. We hope to continue the good form.
Adam Blyth finished a creditable 38th in the same event. He had to do it the hard way with his last 4 holes of day 2 played on the Saturday due to rain. Good job Adam. You can follow Adam’s fortunes on his website in the links area of this blog.
Kurt Carlson returned to form over the weekend with a 14 under total at the Victorian PGA to finish in a tie for 15th. He’ll be heading to Canada soon to compete in their Q-School. Best wishes to Kurt.
On the local front, Warwick Oxenford was rewarded with a win at the Sir Manuel Hornibrook Trophy at RQ. This was his first AB win. Well done Warwick.
You can go to the Victoria Park website from here to see some game improvement tips.

Good Golf Coach See you soon.
Jim B

Feb 7

Congratulations to Adam Blyth and Andrew Dodt on their strong start to 2010.
Adam finished in the Top 10 at the NZ PGA, but unfortunately missed the cut at the next 2 events. Andrew played fantastic golf for 2 weeks in the Nationwide Tour events. He finished 2nd at the NZ Open, followed by 7th at the Moonah Classic.
I had the pleasure of travelling to the Moonah event for 4 days. It was ggreat to see the guys play in an event. we just don't do that enough. Chris Campbell had an encouraging week at Moonah, making the cut.
Gavin Flint won on the Asian Challenge Tour. That's a nice return to form for Gavin.
The year gets busy for the players now as tours start up again. follow their progress through the links.
Thanks for reading
Good luck!!

Congratulations to Chris Campbell on his strong start to 2010.
Chris finished 2nd in the Victorian Open at Spring Valley GC in his first event back.

MIchael Craig made it through the first stage of Q-School in Asia. He shot -3 to get through "on the number", but unfortunately missed the cut at stage 2 by 1 shot.

The other players will start soon in their quest to be the best they can. Andrew Dodt and Adam Blyth will start in NZ for 2 weeks followed by the Moonah Classic. Then they go to India the following week. I hope to go to the Moonah event to watch their form.
Nathan Uebergang will play 1 event in NZ.

If you wat, please go to the Golf Queensland link to see the most recent putting drills we've done.

Best wishes and good golf for 2010