July, and I am back home from Iceland, what a trip. Now it’s time for the British summer, and all it brings!!

It does not take long to get back in the swing of things at Abbotsley and Kingsway. It’s great to do all the trips, but great to get home and see all my friends, and catch up with what’s been going on.

Lin Gowdy’s won again, and got her handicap down again, and so has Viv Ward and Linda Clark. Linda’s goal for the season was to get her handicap down from 32 to 25, and well it’s only July and it’s 23!!  Bring it on, well done Linda!!

I went off to see the Ladies English Open at The Oxfordshire.  It was a lovely day and I had a chance to do a bit of videoing and to catch up with some friends.  I was able to watch Nuria Clau who I know from the ladies pro-am and who is one of the young, up and coming Spanish girls playing on tour.

It’s not been all golf either as it was good to catch up with some friends at the Bedford river festival and enjoy a good afternoon out.

I also headed up North to see my Mum and spent 4 days at the windy, wet, but fantastic Royal Birkdale which is my all time favourite golf course. The weather was really very rough for them on the 1^st day and it was great to see how the boys coped with such difficult conditions. For me I had chance to do more videoing, and to meet an old friend of mine from my junior days - Karen Eckersley - and she has not changed at all!!

What a great end to the Open with Padraig Harrington winning, and Ian Poulter for a great 2nd place, well done boys, a great week for the Europeans... now lets get the Ryder Cup too!

I also, at long last meet Paul Walker from Mizuno, who has supported and looked after me for more than 5 years. Paul and I have had many conversations but have never met, so it was good to put a face to the voice. I am looking forward to my new set of irons when they are released on the market in the next 3 months or so. I have to say my Mizuno irons are the best set I have ever hit, and I would suggest that you have a go with the Mizuno MX25 set if you get a chance, or look at their web site to see the other models.

Thank you Paul for all your help!!

Then I hit the road back for my 2^nd NLP Weekend school at Abbotsley. It’s great to see people work on the drills, and sharpen up their short game. As we came to the end of July I was off to the Ladies Open at Sunningdale to once again update my video clips of the best lady golfers in the world, Annika, Kerry, lots of British girls and no end of players from Korea, Japan and of course Lorena Ochoa. I walked about 7 holes with both Annika and Lorena in their practice rounds and the pro-am. In great sunshine it was good to see all the girls. I also had time to catch up with some old friends. I even bumped into an old neighbour of mine from when I lived in Bedford, Brian McConnell who is now the tour representative for Bushnell performance laser rangefinders. Almost, all the top players on both the Ladies and Men’s tours use them. They are the most accurate way of working out just how far away the flag or that bunker is. The Pinseeker 1500 is the one I have, and it also works out the slope too, it’s great. If you have never seen or used one I would say have a go. Some of them now are legal to use in some competitions!!  www.bushnell.com Take a look and let me know what you think.

What a great win by Ji Yai Shin from Korea In the Ladies Open, She looked so cool all the time and under control, and of course hit some great golf shots!!

Sunday 3rd I held the 3rd “S.O.S” golf day at Abbotsley. I am so pleased to say we were so very lucky with the weather as just down the road it rained for most of the day.

I took the girls through all the aspects of their games and worked on alignment which is something they all will benefit from. We also did drills for better chipping and putting, and to finish the day off we did the 5 hole challenge. Jane came out first with 16 and joint 2nd was Ann and Debbie.

It was a fab day with lots of laughs and the day brought out just how competitive all the girls are!!  I would like to thank them all, for a lovely day, Lin, Yve, Jane, Chris, Ann, Dawn I, Debbie, Jenny, Gerry, Alison and Dawn H. Keep it going girls, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon!!

10th August I welcomed my Ladies Summer School at Abbotsley.

A great bunch of ladies who were up for some fun and of course getting down to some golf.  Over the 3 days of the school we covered both long and short game aspects and I gave the girls a number of drills to do and remember for more consistency and distance control. After lunch on the first day we had on-course tuition where we also did a running stableford and after day 1 Breda was in the lead. Day 2 started with short game chipping, and putting. We worked on getting a good position and controlling the long putts. I think this is something very important, ask your self where all the 3 putts come from? ... often the 1st putt never got the right distance, so we did lots of work on that!

As we came to the last day, Breda was still in the lead. The girls all went off in 2 balls and I played 6 holes with each group, giving some hints and tips and reminding them of some of the things we had learnt.  What a nice day we all had.

Overall winner was Lesley with a great 28 points to beat Breda by just 1 point. The secret pairs was won by Shirley and Lesley... well done to all the ladies for a great fun 3 days.  We had lots of laughs, as all ways on the summer school, and I look forward to hearing from you all when those handicaps come down, thank you all, you mad lot!!!

Abbotsley Summer School

Now it was time to get back to normal... well as normal as it gets this time of year. Teaching at Abbotsley and Kingsway, catching up with everyone and finding out that so many people have had their handicaps cut, Josie, Lin, Yve, Vivian W. Chris A. Dorothy, and Linda!! Well done girls great summer of golf!

I also met up for the first time in about 10 years with a great friend of mine, Angie Hawkness.  It was just great to catch up and drink some wine with my little friend. Another blast from the past too was Karen Eckersley from Southport who I caught up with at the Open, and another friend of mine from my junior days Sandra Wilson from Bradford... what a wonderful thing the internet is for finding old friends and keeping in touch!!!

So May kicked in and I was home after the Ladies Pro-Am with time to rest a little and to catch up with things at home. Back to Abbotsley to sort the Ladies golf school out for August and also prepare for my trip to Iceland in June.

This is a time of nice weather and playing a bit of golf with friends. I was told that Lin Gowdy had got her handicap down again, and Viv Ward has also been winning again. It’s great when I get word of peoples success on the golf course!!

It was also time to hit the road to go to Liverpool and see my Mum before I left the country for my last school in Spain for this season and then onto Himmerland school in Denmark, a quick change of clothes and then off to Iceland.

Friday 16 May Viv and I left to go to Valle del Este. It was a great week, with nice people. This is like a reunion week, as it’s the same people each year. So we got stuck in with great practice and worked on routines. Check out how it went.

Then back to the UK and in between teaching at Abbotsley I spent time with Brian from Tarleton sorting out the dates and places for the new season. This is always a very exciting time as we pull plans together for new places and courses that we will play between September and next May as well as deciding on the dates for both the ladies pro-am and the Mixed pro-am.

Before I know were I am, it’s Denmark again!! I left the UK, in warm weather, and landed 1 hour 20 min later in the tropics!! It was around +25 for all of the first week so there were some very happy but hot people!! Great fun was had by all. The academy week is for lower handicap ladies, so we are able to take them to the next level, and of course it’s great to work with Chris.

At the end of the week we played a match - my team against one of Chris’s and I am pleased to say we won by 1 point.  It was a great match and of course great fun!!

My team, Ulla, Bente, Anna, Pernille, Benedicte, Bitten, Susanne, Linda, and Jette!!  Great work girls!! And thank you for all the fun!

A weekend off then the ladies week at Himmerland started. We had 57 ladies to teach. Now this week is a touch on the wild side, working with Chris and now Rica, we worked with the ladies on their golf swings and the important short game. The after golf entertainment was good fun too. One night we did a fashion show, where the pro’s were models (my Mum thinks I have a proper job, if she could only see what we have to do!!) it is a good laugh I have to say.  Another night we had the groups make a dress for the Oscars out of crepe paper, ribbon, card board and any other props they could find, then the last night we did the Eurovision song contest where the groups dressed up and mimed to the song!!!!!!! What a laugh that was. The ladies were from Denmark, Norway, and Iceland, and all of them great sports. Another great week, and I thank every one who works so hard to make it work, and it goes without saying, I am looking forward to 2009!!

Oscar Night dresses!

The Eurovision Song Concert!

Home for me to catch up with things, and pack again, as I was off to Iceland on the 16 to prepare for my first of 2 golf schools at Hellisholar. My first 3 day school was good with 14 people on it. We went through all the things we needed to do, it was great in nice weather too. My next stop was at Fludir where I did a one day school then the next day I played in the midnight sun open and won the competition for the ladies’ longest drive!! Now that was a new one for me!

Then it was back to town to do 2 one day schools at Oddfellows. After those 2 days I was back to Hellisholar for my other 3 day school. This time I had 17 people, and once again it was great.

I have to thank Edda and Bergie who always look after me and my trip, Hordur from the Icelandic golf federation, and Laia and Vidia from Hellisholar. A big thank you to you all, once again it was great!! and I look forward to 2009.

The start of March saw me in Spain, finishing off my school at Almerimar. A few days later on 8 March our mixed pro-am began at Valle del Este with just a small group of 4 teams of 6 amateurs headed by a lady pro which is the same set up as our very successful ladies' pro-am we hold in April. We had 3 men and 3 women in each team, and I have to say they were all very keen to do well so there was lots of teaching going on with the pros. The Texas scramble was won by Kerry’s team.

After the 1st round Ali’s team were in front, so it was game on!!

On our day off Brian, John and myself went to have a look at Aguilon Golf - a new course about 40 minutes away. It was a good course but quite difficult – largely due to the 200 bunkers! This course was only 14 days old, so very new, and good.

As I said goodbye to the guys on the pro-am I said hello to my school of 10 new people to Valle del Este, all looking forward to a week in the sun…, which they got.  We practiced and played well, did drills, the par 18 game to improve shots on and around the green and played in the running Stableford. Check out how they got on, and all the fun!!

While I was a way I got an sms text message from a good friend of mine that I teach (Lin Gowdy) telling me that she had won a competition and got her handicap down by 3 shots!!  What great news for her, especially as I know how hard she works at it. Then just 2 weeks later I received another sms from Lin all excited as she had won a big competition at The Cromwell Club, and will get her name on the winner’s board!!  As I have told her for some years, “be patient, it will happen” and it has. Well done Lin, keep practicing mate!!

When I was back at the club I was talking to some of the people I teach who told me that Josie Pilsworth had also won one of the big board competitions.  So another one of my girls had done well… I am so pleased for both of them. It is always good to hear that my people win competitions, all the hard work really does pay off…keep it going guys!!

In March I had my birthday, and I must say it was a great long weekend of partying, clubbing, a party at Rae and Brian’s, and dinner with some friends which ended with a curry on Monday night!! Nice one, and thank you all for making my birthday a FAB one!!

My first NLP weekend school was a great success, with my people working on drills, and playing and practicing with a purpose. It was great to see them going home with new ideas and full of positive vibes!!

My birthday did not end in March, as I was off to my most favourite place on the planet… New York!!  I had a 4-day trip – boy I am a lucky girl to have such great friends – we did all the right things… the Statten Island ferry, the Empire State building, the Chrysler building, not to mention Rosa’s Cantina for the best Margaritas in the world, and Macys too… what a trip it was –  just great – thank my best friend Linda for doing all the organising… and you guys thank you!!!

Time to pack again as I was off to run our first singles golf week at Valle del Este. The group arrived in great sunshine, so that is alway ways a good start. We ran a singles running  stableford competition all week, with a secret pairs competition too.  One of the nights we went over to Venues bar where Dan the barman put on the music so my group could dance the night away… good time was had by all!! It was a good job we then had a day off to recover with the girls hitting the shops while the boys rested!!

We did a putting clinic and competition on the very tricky practice green at Valle del Este which went down well, and a little bit of tuition every day for those who wanted it, so it all worked out well. By the time we got to the last 2 days the scores were getting better as they were getting to know the course and at the end Ivor was top man, Sue was top lady and the secret pairs of Nigel and Di also won with 55 points!! Game on!

Then it was time to pack up the van and Karen Smith (Tarleton’s representative in Spain) and I hit the road to Islantilla to prepare for the Ladies' pro am!!

The girls arrived in glorious sunshine and got to work straight away with practice and getting to know their teams and the course.

As the New Year came in, I was not at my best, I got the horrid flu virus, and felt like death for the first week, but had to pull myself together as I had my first school of 2008 going out to Benalup, Spain on the 12th.

I was really excited to be going to this new venue for my school, and no one was disappointed!! The Benalup Fairplay Golf, Spa and Hotel resort lived up to all expectations... and more!  What a fab, beautiful place where everything is just first class. It is like a white village on the top of a hill overlooking the golf course, with fantastic views over the countryside. Benalup has everything, great food in a range of restaurants, friendly helpful staff, large comfortable rooms and as a real 5 star hotel and spa resort its got lovely pool and treatment areas to relax in after a day of golf. To top it all its an all-inclusive resort so there’s no need to even carry any money!  Does a holiday get any better?  I don’t think so... I cannot wait to bring another group here soon... see what my group got up to, and what they had to say about Benalup.

At home I was getting myself ready for my own holiday of skiing, my annual trip to the lovely village of Flizmoos Austria. This is a place I have been going to for over 10 years, and I must say I am never bored of the ski slopes around the village. Being there with the usual group of friends was great.  Everyone had a good time in the cold bright sunshine. My only disappointment was that my knee did not stand up too well to all that pounding down the slopes. I got to 3 days and my knee began to swell up, so I just had to take it easy…. Believe me that was not easy, I just wanted to be out from the time the first lift opened, to the last run of the day as I used to, but sadly it was not to be!! As the week came to an end, we had a slalom race, which was greet fun. Richard was 1st, Andy was 2nd, and me, well I was 3rd, (out of 10 so I did ok) it was really good fun... and young 5 year old Finn (son of Andy and Jane) was 1st in the special junior race!!!!  All in all a great week with nice people, and a big thank you to John and Ann Penny for arranging the trip. This was my 12th year skiing with the Penny clan and I look forward to many more!!

Home to get ready for my next school in Spain, and to get ready for Jamie Edwards to come and deliver a work shop on Trainbrain at Abbotsley.  Jamie came down to us on the 25th Feb. for a 3 hour workshop. He showed the group of 36 golfers from a variety of local clubs how to get the best out of their practice, how to change the way they think as they play and prepare to play and even how better breathing control can help their golf. We went through some practice drills and some techniques for keeping track of progress to help identify those areas which need further work. All in all it was a good night, and I would like to thank all the people for making time to go and of course a big thankyou to Jamie.

Back to work for me to get ready for my trip to Almerimar. I left the UK to its windy and cold weather (just after the earthquake, which was a real strange feeling) to land in Spain in some overcast but nice warm (+19) weather.  It was so nice to get the shorts on and put the group to work.  As the week went on we worked on all the basics and drills to get the most out of their practice, so their on-course play was better. The end of Feb. was in lovely Spanish sunshine. Check out how the school went, and who were the winners.

As November starts, my thoughts go to the sunshine of Spain.  It’s only been cold for 4 days, but it’s 4 days too much for me!!

I am continuing to prepare for the 08 season, and starting to organise our new junior club at Abbotsley, our Lion Club!! It’s all exciting getting the revamped junior club going, I feel some times the older members forget the juniors are the life blood of a club!!

9th Nov I was off up to Liverpool to help paint my Mums living room, just to brighten up the place for her and help with her recovery from hip she broke in late summer.  I am pleased to say she is getting there, but it is a long process when you are as old as she is!!

Monday 12th Nov. saw me in a classroom for the first time since I did my PGA exams in 1987, and I have to say I did find it hard.  Five days in a class room along with 13 others, from different sports was great for all of us, with the one thing in common, we all wanted to improve our knowledge... and we did.

Working with Jamie Edwards of Trainedbrain doing our NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Sports Practitioners course.

I have wanted to do this course for over 3 years, but it has always been on a week when I have been away, so it was great to be able to complete this great course, with a great coach as Jamie is. Going through lots of drills and skills, the four golfing types, the four quadrants of mastery, attitude, methodology, and state control, just to mention a few.

Very interesting I must say, and I cannot wait to put it in to practice.

So now I am proud and pleased to say, as from Friday 16th November 2007 I am a Qualified NLP Practitioner, and

I am running special NLP golf schools in 08.

It was then time to pack as I was off to do my last school of 07. I was going to a new venue to me, a great place called Novo Sancti Petri. I must say it was great, the range could hold around 70, plus there were 3 large pitching greens with bunkers, 3 very big putting greens and a 3 hole academy course. Complemented by a good club-house and 2 very good golf courses.  I look forward to coming back. Check out how we got on, and who did what on my last school of 07, and I have to say it was great, with a good group of people.

Back home to get ready for Christmas. This is a busy time for me, as I have to get my 2008 Abbotsley Golf School brochure out, all the printing of my newsletter, and stuffing the envelopes, and then sending them with help from the girls at Abbotsley!!

The staff party was a great laugh, as usual, and the Cromwell Club dinner and dance was good too.

So now the end of the year is soon upon us, with still our junior groups going to strength to strength, even in the cold they are all up for getting on the golf course, and for some of them for the first time.

Also I find myself getting ready for my first school of 2008, to the new venue of Benalup in Spain. I am looking forward to doing a school there, with some of my best friends, and longest clients in John and Ann Penny and Nigel and Wendy Ealing, I know they will love it, and I am sure they will give it a good write up….watch this space.

So for me I am up to Liverpool to spend Christmas with my Mum, then back down to Cambridge, play a little golf, if it’s not too cold or wet, catch up with my friends, and then bring the New Year in, in Style, so all I can say is, a big thank you to every one for supporting me this year, and I wish you all the very best for a Great Golfing Season.  I look forward to seeing you all soon, in Spain, Iceland, Denmark, and of course here in the UK at Abbotsley….

Then for me it’s off for the 10th anniversary Tarleton Festival week at Almerimar. This was a great week with 110 people playing different format competitions every day on 3 different golf courses. A great fun week played in great weather, as at home the weather had become wet and windy. It was nice to see my mates the Boys from Bolton, who looked after me when I dislocated my knee at the same festival last year. Oh boy it does not seem like a year ago, how quickly time goes by...

When the festival finished I stayed on as my golf school followed on a few days later. That meant I had time for a rest and to play a bit of golf, on the much improved golf resort. The only thing for me is that by the time I get home I am so in need of a good curry!!

So my school of 8 (7 ladies from Tyrrells Wood Golf Club, and Derek (aka Del) Whittington) arrived in nice sunshine, and all really up for some good golf. What a great week!  Everything went well, from the weather, which was a surprise to everyone as it was between + 23 and +27 all week, to the food, drink, and of course the golf!! I put the group through their paces every day, and I feel they all went home with new ideas.  So a big thank you to Sally and her girls!!

Home, then straight up to Liverpool, as my Mum was about to come out from hospital, she was now walking with a stick and looking forward to being in her own home. A big thankyou to all the staff at Fazakerley Hospital in Liverpool for looking after my Mum.

So now I am back home, teaching at Abbotsley, Kingsway, and Biggleswade, catching up with all the normal things, like seeing my friends, going out for a curry or 3!!

This is the time of year when I am preparing for the next season, getting photos done, changing my golf school brochure and just doing things!!

It’s nice to have a bit of time to catch up with the juniors, as we at Abbotsley are starting up the junior Saturday club again.  We will now be called the Abbotsley Lion Club, so it’s all go, and we are excited about getting stuck in with the juniors at the club.  We will  also be going into two primary and junior schools to deliver “Trigolf” which is designed especially to encourage small children to join in, it’s new to us at Abbotsley but great fun for the kids.

I am also looking forward to working with Annie, my web designer, as we are giving the site a makeover. There will be video clips and a host of other new things.  I’m not saying any more about it... you’ll need to take a look soon and see what you think.

I am always interested in what YOU think, and what you would like to see on my site... so have a think and let me know!!

So as we come to the end of another month, with Christmas just around the corner,and presents to get, remember a golf lesson voucher is always a good one. I hope you enjoy the nice autumn colours and I look forward to seeing you at a school soon. Don’t forget there are still places left at Benalup school in January... a real fab place, all inclusive, 5 star, let me know if you want more info.