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 3rd 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
