EGTF golf teaching Professional, Danny Duffain, recently arranged for 10 ex-soldiers to come out for a week’s golf instruction and competitions at Golf Son Parc in Menorca.  All the guys had either lost limbs or been wounded in some way, and they were all part of the On Course Foundation which has been formed simply to give something back to our injured soldiers. 

For more information on the Foundation, please go to http://www.oncoursefoundation.com/   It is truly inspiring.

The annual EGTF Pro Am took place down in sunny Murcia at the end of February this year and it was another lovely affair, with golf, good weather and great people.

For many, being able to play golf at this time of year is a real bonus, and probably the reason we see the same faces each year, all desperate to get out onto the fairways.

This year we chose to play mainly on Las Collinas Golf Course, which was voted best new course in Europe last year, and it always lives up to its billing, being a firm but fair test.

On the Tuesday we played a Texas Scramble, which is always a great way to start any golf week.  You can make some birdies and play from some areas not normally associated with many peoples’ games!!

My team scored a very respectable 61 (10 under par gross), which we thought was great.  Unfortunately we came second from bottom with this score!!  I knew it was going to be a tough school this week!  The winning team was lead by EGTF Pro Joe Smith, whose team scored a magnificent 53.5 (17.5 under par).

The main competition was held over three days and always provides a true test of who is playing the best golf.  We had an EGTF Pro’s tournament, an Amateur tournament and a Team event, to keep everyone in with a chance of winning something.

Day 1 witnessed some excellent golf in all competitions, with Ryan Boal shooting a level par round of 71, followed by Stewart Craig with a 72 to top the Pro’s board.  There were also a number of good scores in the Amateur section, with Willie Stewart leading after the first round with 40 points.  The Team title had Montrose LK just edging things on Day 1 with a score of 119 points.

Scenes from Las Collinas Golf Course

Day 2 was held at the lovely Mar Menor Golf Resort, designed by Jack Nicklaus.  As they say on tour it was moving day, with Stewart Craig getting himself into the lead of the Pro event with another solid round of level par 72, along with Martin Park who posted an excellent -1 under par score of 71.  Ryman Smith shot a fantastic best of the week round of -4 under par 68 to take the lead in the Amateur event (Ryman was playing off 3 handicap).  Montrose LK continued their lead with more solid play and a score of 108 points.

Scenes from Mar Menor Golf Course

Day 3 – The final day of excitement, with a superb last day charge from Ryan Boal coming through with a fantastic round of -3 under par 68 at Las Collinas, taking the Pro event by 3 shots from Martin Park in second place.  Ryman Smith continued to shine in the Amateur event shooting 36 points, and taking the Amateur event by 5 points from Mike Boyle in second.  La Manga team, lead by Ryan Boal came through the rails and pinched the title from Montrose LK, with a last round of 122 points.

 Pre and Post Game Scenes from Las Collinas on Day 3

The presentation evening was again a lovely affair, with the players all winding down at the end of an excellent week of golf, with a few drinks and stories.

Congratulations to the winners and a huge thankyou to everyone who turned up and made the week so entertaining.

The Winners

Ryan Boal - EGTF Pro Winner

Ryman Smith - Amateur Winner

Team Winners - La Manga

My final thanks go to Gavin and Paula, who once again combined to run the tournament to their usual high standards and make sure everyone had an enjoyable time in Murcia.

 A Small Selection of the Teams

Bill Abbott's Team

Stewart Craig's Team

Pete Stopford's Team

Mark Miller's Team

Back Row L-R: Paul Tolley, Terry Hydes, Michael Cernohuby, Ryan West, Dave Chapman, Adrien Vanhamme, Bill Abbott

Front Row L-R: Pavel Landa, Thilo Koessler, Ole Roemer, Mark Cato

The EGTF have been exploring new Countries for many years, making it a truly global golf teaching organisation.

China is a developing golf nation and we were asked to go there two years ago and help create golf teaching professionals for the new emerging golf population.

We have delivered three courses so far, all with great success, and as the golf boom takes off, we will continue to go back and help provide top quality golf teachers there.

We have some good partnerships forming in China with companies looking to get involved at the initial stages in the teaching and training aspects of golf.  There are many potential new golfers looking for help, so it is inevitable that China will become the next major golf nation to emerge, obviously as long as there are enough golf teaching professionals to help at the grass roots level.

I look forward to continuing my association with the golfing people of China.

Gallery from our first few Courses in China

All three instructors (Bill, Martin and Paul) have a great personality and shared their immense knowledge in such a refreshing and professional way.

The three CPD Courses I attended showed me another side to golf and renewed my enthusiasm for the game and teaching it.  The Courses were just amazing.

Thomas Cathomen

Therefore I would like to thank once again Bill, Martin and Paul for three unforgetable days that delivered to me far more than expected and made me proud to be an EGTF Member.  I can only highly recommend the EGTF CPD Courses to others.

Thomas Cathomen
EGTF Professional
December 2011

An Appreciation – Bob Barnes, Proprietor, Cambridge Lakes Golf Course

Having completed the Diploma course at Oliva Nova in February, 2001 and attended other EGTF courses at Forthview and Darenth Valley, I was delighted to have the opportunity of returning to Spain for yet another EGTF learning experience.

Paul Tolley, Martin Park and Bill Abbott put together 3 incredible days, skilfully combining in-depth classroom work with invaluable sessions on Oliva Nova’s excellent practice facilities.

Paul Tolley’s “Vision Training for Golf” day explained how differently our eyes interpret information leading to errors in aiming and judging distances.

Paul has obviously studied this subject in great depth and we were fortunate to benefit from his knowledge and experience.

Practical exercises and tests revealed our own tendencies and numerous drills gave us ways to improve our ability to aim and judge distances especially on the putting green.

Martin Park’s “Studio 54 Performance Coaching” day was also a massive eye opener and covered literally dozens of practical, logical ways in which we can maximise our performance and that of our pupils with a much-reduced emphasis on making technical changes.

Using just a few of Martin’s ideas I have radically improved my own approach to practising and playing and have no doubt that our pupils will benefit from Studio 54’s extremely clear blueprint for improvement.

Incidentally, Martin made the long trip from his club in Denmark so many thanks for that too!

Bill Abbott’s Putting Improvement day was similarly revealing with the latest bio-mechanic analysis, challenging putting tests, before and after videos of our putting strokes and, as ever, high quality, state-of-the art information, all presented very clearly and professionally.

Bob Barnes

Throughout the day, Bill displayed his usual patience and enthusiasm for his subject as he took us through the various changes required to our putting strokes all of which showed great improvement in a remarkably short time.

All in all, 3 tremendous days made even better by a great group of guys, Daniel from Seville, Thomas from Switzerland (via Venezuela and Dubai!), Walter from Austria and Willem from Holland.

As on all the other EGTF courses I have attended, we worked very hard but with plenty of banter and good fun to keep the adrenaline flowing and the cortisol at bay.

As EGTF members we are uniquely fortunate to have senior coaches who are enthusiastic, knowledgeable and professional communicators and who, perhaps most importantly, have a keen desire to share all the information that they have gleaned over the years.

I would like to thank all those who made these 3 days possible and urge fellow EGTF members to sign up as soon as these courses are next available.

I guarantee you will learn more than you could ever imagine.

Bob Barnes
Cambridge Lakes Golf Course
December 2011

Another fantastic week of learning was completed recently over in sunny Spain.  A group of 6 eager students had a great week of informative information that helped mould them into golf teaching professionals.

These weeks help to get more dedicated people out into the golf teaching world who have a passion and desire to help the public and hopefully improve the standards of coaching.

It is fantastic to see the look on students’ faces when they give lessons to the general public after only having learned these teaching skills earlier in the week, and giving very high standards of lessons.  It really does go to prove that you can definitely learn the basic coaching skills needed to teach others in the space of 7 days, as it happens on every EGTF course that we do.

Congratulations to all the group at Oliva Nova Resort for their excellent standards throughout the week.

November 2011 Group, Oliva Nova, Spain

EGTF Social Golf Day – 13 November 2011

On the Sunday after the Diploma Course we had a Social Golf Day for EGTF members and guests, held at the lovely Oliva Nova Golf Resort.

For anyone who has played at Oliva Nova, you will know that it is a tough track playing very long, so your ball striking skills are always tested to their limits.

It was great to see some old and new EGTF members who turned up and made the day very enjoyable.  A couple of drinks and some food afterwards helped to complete a very pleasant day.

1st Bill Abbott – 75 (on count back)

2nd Martin Park – 75

The Winner - Bill Abbott

Warming up before the round

Continual Professional Development (CPD) Seminars

The EGTF CPD days were another excellent learning experience for students involved, taking on board high levels of golfing information to push their golf teaching onto higher standards.

The three days were conducted by EGTF Master Professional Paul Tolley for Vision Training in Golf, EGTF Master Professional Martin Park for Performance Golf using the Vision 54 Model, and myself concentrating on the Biomechanics of the Putter Stroke.

All the days combined excellent theory work in the classroom, followed by fantastic practical work on the range and putting green.  The quality of the information was there for all the students to take in, with the subjects covered being very popular on the tours these days.

If you have never been to any of these extra learning seminars, then try to take some on board for 2012.  It really will help you keep your knowledge up to a fantastic level in the golf teaching world to take you above your competitors.  It’s also a great social, networking week, where you can meet other coaches and talk golf and teaching, so you get the best of all worlds.  Future EGTF Masters Courses and CPD days will be published soon to give people enough time to clear their diaries for the upcoming season.

My thanks go to Paul Tolley and Martin Park for their supreme knowledge and professionalism conducting these seminars during the week.

Vision Training for Golf

Performance Coaching Vision 54

Putting Skills Test

Putting Biomechanics

November 2011 Group, Oliva Nova, Spain

 L – R: Gabriel Dandanell, Anthony Burn, Gary Dalziel, Bill Abbott, Jaime Sureda Alvarez, Thomas Cathomen, Antonio Pelosi

We have been asked to announce the launch of the 2012 Stella Di Mare International Pro-Am from Monday 23 April to Monday 30 April 2012.

Please click on the blue links below to download the tournament registration pack, Professional prize money and Tournament Flyer.

After the success of 2010 & 2011 with Professional champions Steven Tiley & Paul Broadhurst, 2012 is set to eclipse all again!

For further details and bookings, please contact their golf sales team.

sales.golf@stelladimare.com

joshnorth@hotmail.com

clinton-norris@hotmail.com

www.stelladimaregolf.com

International Application pack 2012

Prize Money 2012

Pro-Am 2012

Group 1 Palm Hills

We played a friendly roll up competition each day, with everyone (pro’s and amateurs) playing in the same tournament, where you could play as much or as little as you wanted.

This year we played 3 golf courses, Black Mountain (rated the best new course in Asia), Palm Hills (only Augusta National has quicker or slopier greens!) and Royal Hua Hin (the oldest golf course in Thailand).  All courses were doing some good rates and the cost was around £40 each day for golf, caddie and buggy, which was excellent value.

Black Mountain GC

The days were played in good spirit, with plenty of banter going around as this trip was designed as a fun, social event.  But as we were all very competitive when it comes to golf, people were going to bed early some nights to prepare for the next day’s golf activities (as can be seen by the results table!)

EGTF teaching professional Pete Stopford - Black Mountain

Hua Hin is a beautiful place for a golf trip with some excellent golf courses around, and beautiful town and beach areas for those looking to relax as well.  The weather is always hot and for some that is a bit of a problem, but if you are looking at the grey skies outside and wishing you were somewhere else, then have a think about the EGTF Golf Society trip to Thailand next year.  It really is very good.

Results for the Week