knowledge he had learned from
nearly two decades of playing at
the top level. The Scot had his
highs as a professional but also
some lows. He acknowledged the
importance of confidence, self-
belief and setting the bar as high as
possible. Believing you belong on
tour and believing you are better
than other players is pivotal.
Many in the room were just
starting their golfing journeys, so
Coltart gave three main pieces of
advice. The first was to understand
what to expect with the life they
had picked. The second was to
prepare as thoroughly as possible
in every single way. And the final
piece was to create an environment
that allows them to succeed.
Strength and conditioning
I was expecting this to purely focus
on the physical side of the game,
but it turned out to be much more
than that. Run by Stefaan Vossen
from Core Clinics, he gave a clearer
idea on the importance of getting
every aspect of the body right, both
physical and mental.
A key focus was getting players to
understand the body and its
relation to the golf swing. Vossen
said that if you understand the
body more, you can get more out of
it and this can have a huge effect on
your game. In one case, he dealt
with a 14-year-old who improved
his hip issues and as a result gained
40 yards more distance.
He also put a lot of focus on the
mental side. It sounds like a cliche
to say golf is a game played
between your ears, but that doesn’t
make it any less true. Vossen talked
about learning to control the mind,
because pursuing exceptional
performance day after day requires
you to be unhappy, which means
living in perpetual unhappiness. It
takes a special sort of person to
embrace this and learn how to
control the depression and anxiety
that comes with it.
Golf is a sport where we are
constantly aiming for perfection,
which is essentially impossible.
This creates intense pressure on the
mind, to the extent that the mental
side of golf has to be nurtured and
practised as much, if not more,
than the physical side.Performance coaching
PGA 5-star professional coach
David Kearney was next, and he
discussed practice. While some pros
like Bryson DeChambeau spend
hours hitting balls on the range,
most don’t because it’s not efficient.
Instead, you must think about
how to utilise your time better,
whether through pressure practice,
practice by playing or setting
realistic goals for that session and
beyond. Try disrupting your
practice so it is more closely
aligned to a round of golf, he said.
Kearney also referenced the
mental side of practice. He said youhave to find a way to lower the
intensity of your competition golf
and raise the intensity in practice,
because making the scenarios the
same will allow you to perform. He
created the acronym PACER to use
on every shot you hit: P – every shot
starts with a possibility; A – assess
the situation; C – make a choice; E- execute; R – reaction to the shot.
Caddying
Billy Foster was the next seminar
up. Given he has caddied
for players like Tiger
Woods, Darren Clarke, Lee
Westwood and currently
Matt Fitzpatrick, Foster had
decades of experience and
countless stories to call
upon – Vijay Singh using
the back of a 5-wood to get
out of pot bunkers was
particularly interesting.
Foster went into incredible detail
on all the parameters that both the
player and the caddie should know
about – weather, temperature,
altitude, wind direction and
strength, landing distances, depths
of bunkers, grain of the grass,
elevation changes and how far the
ball releases are all vital.
His key advice was know how far
each of your clubs go, be smart
with where you want to position
your ball and importantly knowBearwood Lakes played
host to an 18-hole medalSam receives some
expert tuition