Now and then, we all need a few pointers to get our game back on track. One way of doing this is to book yourself on a residential course. But how good are these golf schools?
Avid TG reader Charles Evans spent a week at the James Andrews School of Golf, in Hastings. Here is his diary of the daily schedule he followed, and whether he thought the course helped his game.
Day one
Is it really possible to change the golf game of a 26-handicapper in his senior years? That’s what I asked myself a few months ago. I took the bull by the horns and booked myself on a five-day golf school at Sedlescombe Golf Club, home to the James Andrews School of Golf.
I’m greeted by my instructor, Phill Bartholomew, one of eight PGA-qualified professionals who will guide our group of four in the coming days. He gets straight down to questions: how long have I played? What handicap? What are the strong points of my game? What weaknesses? What particularly do I want to achieve over the five days?
I meet the other group members: Martin and wife Brigette from Switzerland; Diane, returning to golf after a temporary rift in her love/hate relationship with the game.
One by one we are called into the video analysis centre. Nervously, I swing in the middle of a cluster of tiny cameras.
“How was it?” I ask.
“A few things we can work on,” Phill laughs. He takes me back on the mat, lifts my chin, turns my shoulder under it, lowers my grip, straightens my left arm. Suddenly there is more power. He prints out both swings from the video, we look at the comparison. The first is horrendous; the second looks, almost, like a golfer.
After a break Phill sends us back on the range with more balls. We have clear instructions on individual aims. Between balls, we all share a common sense of horror at our first video pictures, and a growing confidence as we see clear improvements. Intermittently he invites us back into the video centre to recapture our swings and monitor our progress, then joins us on the range, making the occasional observation, a correction here and there, words of criticism mixed with encouragement.
After lunch we head on to the Sedlescombe course ready to try our new techniques. Predictably, some work, some don’t. I hit longer shots but lack consistency with the new swing. We persevere, try new shots, enjoy some successes, and donate a few errant balls to our successors. I find I can remember and integrate into my swing, any one of Phill’s improvements - but not all at once. We trudge to the hotel bar, chastened and yet elated in equal measure.
Day two
After a hearty breakfast we’re back on the range by 8.30am, using our free passes to draw buckets of balls from the gurgling green dispenser. Phill sets out the day’s aims, seeming to anticipate our questions from yesterday.
He reassures us that it is normal to feel we have taken a step back in order to improve.
“Don’t hit balls mindlessly,” warns Phill. “I want quality, not quantity.” One by one we go to the video centre as Phill checks progress. Today I am given new areas to improve – my knee flex and hip action. I’m also given a Leadbetter SwingSetter to help me get the correct wrist hinge. Phill is full of encouragement; he mixes description, theory, video and demonstration. We may ache but we are never bored.
A short break for coffee, then Phill leads us to the chipping and bunker area. He stresses smoothness, rhythm and the need to find a swingpath under the ball. As usual, he has a trick to help: perching a ball on a tee peg, directing us to break the tee without touching the ball.
We chip from positions around the bunker. Looking round, I notice the steady progression from thinned shots flying past the greens to balls popping up and gently dropping. Just as we begin to tire of chipping, Phill announces a visit to the Sedlescombe course, to play a Texas scramble over three holes. Some of the group are so hooked they stay out to complete the full 18. Tired, but happy with my improvement, a pint of John Smith’s calls me to the bar instead.
Day three
Our group is buzzing with excitement: our programme reads ‘Full Swing’.
This morning’s work at the range is intensive. Phill wants feedback on our experiences on the course yesterday, and selects points for each student. With me, he concentrates on the errant drives. He gives me some new pointers in the video centre and sends me away to work on them. After an hour there’s a noticeable difference in the sound of my hits; much crisper cracks. Phill appears behind us, moving from student to student, adjusting here, commenting there. Through the good shots, and the bad ones, he never loses that enigmatic smile.
We break for coffee and, in total contrast to our driving, Phill leads us to the putting green for the next session. We listen carefully as he explains alignment, marking a line round our balls, insisting we line up ball and pin from behind (not over the ball) before the stroke is made. We play a few putting games to add some fun and help us focus on our new skills.
After lunch we play the course. Our spirits are high and, today, our shots seem cleaner, longer, crisper and (most importantly) straighter. I am really beginning to enjoy this course.
Day four
Phill meets us outside the range, asks for our experiences on the course yesterday and then directs us to the bunkers. We line up with our buckets of balls and Phill steps into the trap. He draws two circles in the sand each the size of a large saucer. The idea, he tells us, is to swing our wedges so that all the sand is removed from the circle. He demonstrates the drill and then gets us each to try. I successfully swish out my first ‘saucer’. Suddenly, the most troublesome aspect of my game seems easy.
We spend half the morning on bunker shots, as Phill finds a variety of placements to create different problems: under the lip, half-buried, heavy sand. He moves steadily between us, encouraging , correcting and advising. Now, as he senses we are ready for a change, he announces another set of holes on the golf course. We go out in two buggies and play a Texas scramble again. Today he wants us to focus on good alignment, insisting that you can get lazy on the course when you’ve been practising off a range mat. We are all playing with more confidence and striking the ball better. We still hit bad shots, but definitely fewer.
Day five
We spent dinner last night in agreement that we couldn’t believe how quickly the week had flown by. There was a unanimous praise for the facilities, tuition and accommodation (with just one small complaint about a shower). We’re all eager to cement our improvements on the range this morning and I enjoy looking at the transformation in my technique, in the video centre with Phill. Is this really the same golfer that arrived just five days ago?
Phill’s manner is, as always, positive and encouraging, discussing my progress and performance, my strengths and weaknesses, illustrating main points with pictures from the last few days. He is clear, firm and honest.
Then I receive a neat bound folder containing all the before and after shots from the start of the course. At the front of the folder is my practice programme, detailing points I must rehearse, the routine I should follow. When I leave, with a handshake and profuse thanks to this talented and sympathetic instructor, there is no doubt in my mind of the debt I owe him.
I began this course with a question, could a senior, high-handicap golfer change his golfing life with intensive instruction of this kind? I will know in the coming weeks, as new courses and new challenges come and go, whether this experience has substantially changed my golf. But as I drive away from Sedlescombe, the instructors already taking charge of their new arrivals, I know I have better knowledge, new skills, higher confidence and my hopes are high. And that, in itself, is worth the visit. |
