The school always devotes time to improving bunker play and we did this on the morning of day 3. It is always a good session as most players either choose not to, or don’t have opportunity to practice playing from bunkers. It was good fun getting the group to experiment using different face angles and lies in the sand. We followed these sessions over on the range improving the players swing. I did talk about the swing path and ensuring the club face arrives at the low point when making contact with the ball. After lunch we took the opportunity to play the Yellow and Green Course. I enjoy this as it gives me a great opportunity to see how what we have worked on is put into practice. The group could also see how their individual improvements were working out in practice.
Day 4 of the school started on the putting green. Putting is that part of the game where scores can be made or lost. The seemingly simple task of keeping body and eyes absolutely still is so difficult in practice. The requirement is to wait to hear the ball drop in the hole. I believe the key with practicing putting is to have a plan and use drills to help create a consistently good technique. Some time hitting putts from the same spot helps through the repetition, whilst working from different spots helps judgment. In all cases it is essential to always ‘hole out’ so that the very short putts are not ignored. They need the same degree of concentration as do all others. It is very important to go through your tried and tested routine on every putt however long, short or tap in. Every stroke counts so don’t let complacency take over and unnecessarily add another shot. This is called practice as you play. Later the group moved to the range to work on drivers and woods, again as with a lot of practice sessions, using check points making sure the ball position and tee height are correct. After lunch we took on the challenge of the Green and Blue course.
Thank you all, you were FABULOUS.