BENALUP, Spain, January 2010

I left Luton at 7.30am and I guess it was around -4 and snow, and when I got to Malaga it was +7 and I have to say it felt like +22. My drive to Benalup was good and it took just over 2 hours, as I went down the coast road. When I arrived it was as though I had never been away! The staff are so good and make you feel like you are part of the family, I was taken to my room Cadiz5 and then went for Sunday lunch, a fab roast lamb. I met up with the rest of the group in the cocktail bar for the welcome drink and then we had dinner in the Bistro.

Day 1 started with rain and lots of it, but by 9.45 it stopped, so we got started with some short game instruction. Concentrating on achieving a better set up and making good contact because that is what gives you consistent distance control. We then did some long game plus video instruction too, again going over just how important the set up is and alignment. With both of these in place we then have a chance to hit the ball in the right place. After a bite of lunch in the Casa Club we hit the golf gourse, choosing the back 9 as it was the driest. We worked on correct alignment, something I feel a lot of people do not work on enough.

Day 2 started with long and short pitching. Once again making sure the set up ball position is right and then making sure we were working on the right landing spot as again I feel a lot of people do not take much care and do not realise this is one area of the game you must practice. We then did some long game working on crisp iron shots, again going over correct alignment and balance. After some lunch we hit the course, and it was like millionaires golf with just us out there, so we were able to take our time and work on pre shot routines.

Then came the day of rest where some played a bit more and just about everyone spent time in the fabulous spa... well to be truthfull I think the spa was used by everyone every day, me I had a great day of rest in the gym and the spa, after that I was looking forwards to dinner.

Day3 started with a drive down to Novo Sancti Petri. At last the sun came out, we did putting, started with a clinic and I gave the group some drills to improve direction, distance and of course contact. Putting to a tee peg is a great way to build confidence but you should use just one ball. Too many people go to the putting green with 3 or 4 balls and just hit one after another to the hole.  If not careful all they do is to practice missing! By using 1 ball and putting to a tee peg it creates a situation more like the real one you find on the course.  You have one ball there after all. By hitting to a small target (the tee peg) it makes practice harder than the real thing and so when faced with a real hole, it will seem a massive target and help your confidence.

We then hit the course, it was a little wet under foot but good to play the course and we worked on hitting enough club, again some thing a lot of people just don’t do. If you think how often you hit through a green and compare this with how often you are short of the green you will soon realise that most of the time you underclub!

Day 4 we hit the beach I really like doing bunkers and short pitching as not many people do practice this so we have plenty of time to practice it and from different lies in the bunker. We followed this up on the range working on driving and woods. A bite of lunch and then on to the course where we worked on keeping stats and using the information to see where the weakness is in our game -and of course the strengths... another great day!

Day 5 came around as always too quickly. What a great week. We started the day with a round up clinic going over all the things we had worked on and then on to the course for the end of the week tournament.