Pre Shot Routine

An often overlooked part of golf is pre shot routine. I define this as what you do before each shot on the golf course. It should be as consistent as possible both in actions and the time it takes to complete the routine.

As I watch players on the golf course in pressure situations I tend to see two different types of reactions when watching their pre shot routines. Some players will get faster and some players will get slower. Both of these reaction can cause problems for the player. As humans, we tend to do most things by following a routine. Think about what you do in the morning and I bet it will be the same most days. People tend to follow routines in their daily life so it makes sense to have a routine for your golf shots.

During the latest school tournament here in Nanshan I timed my students while they were playing different shots to see if they were consistent with their pre shot routines. As you can see by the picture they have some work to do on consistency.

Every one's routine will be different but it needs to be the same every time. The first step should be to formally define what your routine will be. Write down each thing you will do before you play the shot. Things such as choosing a target, visualising the shot, when you take your grip, how many waggles you have, how many looks at the target you will have and what your swing trigger is are all things you should write down.

Once you have written it down you should spend some time on the practice range working on your pre shot routine. Practice it with your practice shots until you find a routine that has all the steps you defined and feels comfortable.

Once you have a routine that feels comfortable you need to have a friend time you doing it in practice. Complete this stage a number of times until you find the timing that feels comfortable and relaxed for you. This is your own personal timing for your routine.

Spend some time each week practicing your routine and you will be more consistent when you are on the course and you can have a consistent routine like Greg in the video.

Until next time,

Brent

My Training Group

I have settled into my new role here at Nanshan Golf School and have my own group of students. My group is nice group of 8 golfers. It is nice to have a little smaller group as this allows me to do more individualised coaching and make sure that all of my players get the attention and coaching that they need.

There is a variety of skill levels and ages in my group which makes it challenging to ensure all the players get the information that they need. I have ages ranging from 12 years old to 22 years old, beginners and national squad players and both males and females. This makes the coaching fun and having the better players in the group gives the less skilled players something to aim for.

We started off their training with the usual group of evaluation tests. We tested their range of motion, basic strength, psychological profile, learning style and golf skills with a number of different tests. This gives us the starting point to develop the golfers to the level that they want.

There are different goals with each student. Some just want to play well in the monthly school tournaments, some have the specific goal of making the China National Squad and some want to be professional players. I always make sure I know what the players want before we start on any training program.

All of the players are being heavily coached on golf swing technique at the moment as well as completing their stretching program to develop their range of motion. They are also being slowly introduced to cardio training, fit ball exercises and body weight strength training exercises. We are moving nice and slowly as these ideas are generally very new to these students as golf is a new sport in China.

I will post again shortly to update their training and talk about how we deal with the Winter here.

Until next time,

Brent

New Job

I have just accepted a new job as the Head Coach of Nanshan Golf School in China. This golf school is based near the city of Yantai in the north of China. Nanshan is a large company based in China that have interests in golf courses, education, construction, manufacturing, textiles, wine and many other things. The company has the largest golf facility in the world and there are 275 holes at last count with several new courses in development at the moment. My job here is to develop and improve the golf training program at the school by training the coaches currently here as well as attracting new students to the program. As well as this role, I will also be doing some work for the China Golf Association with their development program. I will be working with some players on the fringe of National Team selection and hoping to improve them to make the National team.

My first job here was to run a junior training camp over the Summer vacation period. I had a group of around 20 players of varying standards and we worked together for around four weeks. During those four weeks there were also two tournaments for the kids to play in so it was a little difficult to fix too much in their games. We had some fun and did some video coaching and helped them a little with their on course strategy and it was a good opportunity to introduce myself to some of the students and let them know what my coaching style is all about. The students will choose a coach to train with when they come back to school next month so we will see who decides to train with me.

The camp finished last Sunday and this week I have been helping the players from the CGA National Squad. I have four junior boys that I am helping and we are training alongside the National Squad so they can see how the National Players structure their training. It is lots of fun and they have a tournament this weekend so hopefully I have helped them with their preparation and they have a nice result.

That is about it for now but I will post again really soon and fill you in on some of my student's results since my last post. Some of my Taiwan students have had some good results lately and I will tell you all about it next post.

Until next time,

Brent

Queen Sirikit Cup

April 1-3 were the dates that the Queen Sirikit Cup was held in Bali, Indonesia. This tournament is the women's team championships for the Asia-Pacific region. Each country that plays is represented by three players who play stroke play for three days. The best two scores are used each day to give the team score for the country. The winner of the Queen Sirikit Cup is the country with the lowest team score for the three days. Last year this event was held in Japan and the winning team was Korea. My Taiwan players finished third last year so I was keen for them to improve this time.

The players representing Taiwan this year was Yao Hsuan-Yu, Hsieh Yu-Ling and Tsai Pei-Ying. They teed up on the Par 74 Nirwana Bali golf course for the first round on the 1st of April. Hsieh Yu-Ling had 68, Tsai Pei-Ying had 71 and Yao Hsuan-Yu had 72 which gave us a team score of -9. This placed us in second place behind Korea who had a team score of -11. The second day scores were Yao Hsuan-Yu 68, Tsai Pei-Ying 73 and Hsieh Yu-Ling 77. This gave us a daily score of -7 and two day score of -18 This placed us in second place behind Korea on -25. The final round produced scores of 71, 75 and 76 for Yao Hsuan-Yu, Tsai Pei-Ying and Hsieh Yu-Ling respectively. This was our worst day for scoring but our final team score was -18 which placed us in second place, 10 strokes behind the winning team from Korea.

Yao Hsuan-Yu finished 3rd in the individual section of the tournament with Tsai Pei-Ying coming 7th and Hsieh Yu-Ling finishing in 11th place. This will be a confidence boost for Yao Hsuan-Yu as it is the biggest tournament she has played for Taiwan and she has played very well.

Overall the girls did very well and I am very proud of their achievement in this event. We improved from last year both on score and finish position so they should be very proud of themselves. 3rd in 2008, 2nd in 2009 and Queen Sirikit Cup champions in 2010 is what we are aiming for now!

Until next time,

Brent

Australian Women's Amateur

Tsai Pei-Ying played the 36 hole final of the Australian Amateur yesterday at Royal Queensland Golf Club. She played against Justine Lee from Australia who had also played well in the stroke play section.

Justine jumped out of the blocks in the morning 18 and had opened up a four hole lead by the time the players had finished the 14th hole. Tsai Pei-Ying fought back though, winning three of the last four holes of the morning round to head into the lunch break only one hole behind.

The break was handy for Justine as she opened up another two hole lead with only nine holes left to play. Tsai Pei-Ying showed what a fighter she is by getting herself back to square after the 35th hole. Unfortunately she lost the final hole and Justine Lee became the Australian Amateur Women's Champion for 2009.

Tsai Pei-Ying had a great tournament two weeks and gained a lot of experience from playing in this event. It is a lot of golf (11 rounds in 8 days) in both match play and stroke play formats and for her to finish 3rd in the stroke play section and runner up in the match play section shows how good she is as a player.

I spoke to her quickly last night on MSN and she said she was feeling a little sad and happy at the same time. I told her she should be really proud of herself and that she did so well in a strange country travelling by herself. I will speak to her more when she gets back to Taiwan later this week.

I also want to give a big thank you to Michael Craperi and Hills International Golf School for looking after Tsai Pei-Ying while she was in Australia. I really appreciate all the the help Michael gave her while she was in Brisbane.

Just a quick update on the Faldo Series Final at Mission Hills in China. Hsieh Yu-Ling shot 69 to be leading both the girls section and the tournament, Liu Yi-Chen had 71 to be well placed in the girls section as well. In the boys section Hung Chien-Yao had 71 and Hsieh Chi-Hsien had 75. Both boys are well placed to compete in the rest of the tournament. You can find the live scores here.

Until next time,

Brent

Faldo Series/Australian Women's Amateur

Some of my students are currently in China for the Faldo Series final at Mission Hills. They flew from Taiwan to China yesterday and were playing a practice round today. I spoke to a couple of them on MSN last night and reminded them them to make sure they do their yardage books and plans while they played the practice round. We focus fairly hard on preparation during tournaments and because I am not travelling with them this week I like to make sure they still do what they are meant to do. I will hopefully catch some of them online tonight so we can go through any questions/problems they might have so they are all ready to play when the first round starts tomorrow. I will let you know scores as the tournament progresses.

As you already know, Tsai Pei-Ying is in Australia playing the Women's Australian Amateur. I am pleased to say that she has progressed through the matchplay to be playing in the 36 hole final tomorrow. She won her first two matches on Monday 3&2 and 3&1. She won her quarter final match this morning 1 up after chipping in on the 17th hole to get back to square and winning the 18th hole with a par. She then played Julia Boland (the stroke play champion) in the semi-final and managed to win 3&1 in that match. I spoke to her quickly on the phone and she was very excited about her results so far. I will make sure we speak on MSN tonight so she can tell me all about the good golf and then we can refocus her for the final tomorrow. Live score updates will be here.

Until next time,

Brent

Australian Women's Amateur

In my last post I mentioned that one of my students, Tsai Pei-Ying, was playing in the Australian Women's Amateur. The stroke play section ended on Saturday and Tsai Pei-Ying shot rounds of 74, 74, 73, 73 to finish in third place, four strokes behind Julia Boland. The final scores are here. She will be playing in the matchplay section starting on Monday at Royal Queensland Golf Club. The matchplay section is for the Top 32 players from the stroke play section and is a knock out until one player is left. This player is the Australian Women's Amateur champion.

I spoke to her on MSN tonight and she is a little concerned about the golf course for the matchplay. She played the stroke play section at Brisbane Golf Club but the matchplay is at Royal Queensland. She played a practice round there after the men finished their final round and she told me that the course is a lot different to Brisbane Golf Club. There are a lot of bunkers, the greens are fairly undulating and some of the greens have little run off areas that make it tough to get close to the hole. She also has not played much matchplay so she is a little worried about this section. We spoke about how golf is golf and there shouldn't be much difference between stroke and match play. We spoke about sticking to her plan, keeping the ball under the hole as much as possible and not worrying too much about the other player. Hopefully she plays well and you can watch the scores on the Golf Australia website.

Until next time,

Brent

Australian Womens Amateur/Faldo Series

One of my players, Tsai Pei-Ying, is in Australia currently playing in the Australian Women's Amateur Championship. The stroke play section is being played in Brisbane at the Brisbane Golf Club. This section is 72 holes and the top 32 will qualify to play matchplay to find the national champion. Tsai Pei-Ying had a first round score today of 74 which puts her in a nice position after the first round. The first round news story is here and the complete score list is here. I will keep you updated as the tournament progresses or you can check her progress on the Golf Australia website.

Next week some of my students will be heading to Mission Hills in China for the final of the Faldo Series. This is a big tournament and I will update the scores here as they play next week.

Until next time,

Brent

Volvo China Open

This week one of my students, Hung Chien-Yao travelled to Hong Kong to compete in the pre-qualifying rounds for the Volvo China Open. This tournament is a co-sanctioned event on the Asian and European Tours. I was glad that he travelled to play this event as I feel the more experience he gets playing with better players under pressure, the better he will become as a player. He travelled with Chen Ming-Chuan who is a student at one of the sport colleges in Taiwan and is another player who has attended some of the training I have held in Taiwan.

The event was 36 holes of stroke play and the best four scores would qualify for the tournament. It was held at the Discovery Bay Golf Club in Hong Kong on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Both Hung Chien-Yao and Chen Ming-Chaun had first round scores of even par 72. The best score for the first round was 71 so they were both well placed to qualify. The final round again produced identical scores for both players. They both shot 2 under par rounds of 70 to finish at 2 under for the 36 holes.

Two players finished the event on 3 under so they automatically qualified for the tournament. Four players finished on 2 under for the 36 holes so a play off was needed to see who would take the remaining two spots. Unfortunately, my student, Hung Chien-Yao, made pars in the play off and didn't manage to secure one of the remaining spots. The good news for Taiwan golf is the two spots were taken by Taiwan players Chen Ming-Chaun and Chan Shih-Ching. Check the final results here.

Although Hung Chien-Yao didn't qualify this time it is a great experience for him to get so close and experience a little of the pressure that tour players face all the time. I spoke to him on the phone yesterday and he sounded a little disappointed. I stressed to him that he needs to be proud that he got as close as he did to playing in a co-sanctioned event. He is only 16 years old and will learn so much from playing in this event. I will talk to him more when he comes and sees me next week.

Until next time,

Brent

China Girls Camp

As I mentioned in an earlier post we held a girls training camp recently in China. This was held in the Chinese city of Xiamen at Orient Golf Course. This golf course is part of the Orient Golf Group which runs eleven golf courses all over China as well as one in Taiwan. This golf course allowed us to stay at the club in the caddy accommodation and utilise the golf course and practice facilities.

In previous training camps I have run in Taiwan we have had a mixture of boys and girls and quite a large number of players. This camp was different in that we had only girls and the number was kept to six. This allowed me to run things a little bit differently and get into some more detail in certain areas.

One of the challenges of this camp was some of the players have spent a fair bit of time with me over the past year while some of the girls were either new students or players that, for different reasons, hadn’t spent a lot of time with me over the past year. The main focus I wanted for this camp was “playing golf” as apposed to technical golf. We have worked fairly hard last year on the player’s golf swings and this year I want them to have a greater understanding of all the other pieces that make up successful golf. As some of the girls hadn’t spent a lot of time with me last year, I did some technical coaching with them along with the “playing golf” sessions with the rest of the players.

One of the first things we did with all the players is run them through a physical evaluation. We did a basic body screening as well as some basic physical fitness tests to evaluate where their bodies are currently. The video on this post shows one of the players running through the body evaluation. We run them through a number of tests which highlights a player’s body weaknesses and allows a total body conditioning program to be written. These tests are used periodically through the year to assess a player’s progress.

Another focus of this camp was fitness. Each morning the players completed a physical training session. We were lucky enough to have one of the girl’s mothers at the camp. She has a background in physical education and basketball coaching so the players had some basketball style training combined with some golf specific exercise. This cross training kept the players interested and the sessions fresh.

Competitive practice also played a large role during this camp. Lots of games and competitions where used to simulate on course pressure. Putting challenges, with the bridge as a punishment for the losers, as well as ball flight control games were all used during these sessions. Everyone disliked doing the bridge so the competition was intense and serious, just like on course play.

We also utilised the golf course on several occasions and used these sessions to develop and finetune warm-up and tournament day routines. Each player designed a perfect warm up plan and listed the steps they would take to warm up before a round. I then asked them what would happen if the golf course didn’t have a driving range/practice fairway (like a lot of Taiwan golf courses) to warm up on? They then had to design a warm up plan that they could use if they faced this situation. After these two were designed and finetuned I asked them what would they do if their car broke down on the way to the golf course and they only had 10 minutes to warm up? They then had do design an emergency plan that they could use if they ever had to face this situation. The players now had three separate warm up plans that they could use to handle any situation they found themselves in.

Overall, the camp was great fun and I finished the two weeks learning more about each of the players and I am sure the players also learnt a lot about themselves and how to continue their improvement.

Until next time,

Brent

Winter Cup

The first of the quarterly ranking tournaments, the Winter Cup, was just completed last week. These four season cups combined with some other Taiwan events, such as the Taiwan Amateur, form the list of ranked players that players are selected from for overseas tournaments throughout the year. Obviously, they are important for the players and everyone tries their hardest to score well.

The boys section was close with two of my students, Hung Chien-Yao and Hsieh Chi-Hsien, tied for the lead on 6 under heading into the final round. Hung Chien-Yao made a great start to the final round and was 4 under after nine to take a 4 stoke lead heading into the final 9 holes. This lead was quickly cut to 1 after 12 holes due to 2 bogies made by Hung Chien-Yao and a birdie by Hsieh Chi-Hsien. Hung Chien-Yao regrouped and played the last 6 holes in 2 under to shoot a final round of 68, finish 10 under for the tournament and 4 strokes clear of Hsieh Chi-Hsien in second place on 6 under.

Overall, in the boys section, my students won the open section (Hung Chien-Yao 70, 74, 66, 68), the over 18 section (Hsieh Chi-Hsien 69, 72, 69, 72), the 16-17 age group (Yang Fei-Hao 71, 75, 71, 71) and the 14-15 age group (Lee Chieh-Po 75, 71, 73, 69).

The girls section was even closer than the boys section. The leader after three rounds was one of the students from one of the Sports Colleges in Taiwan. She was 2 under par and 2 shots ahead of another girl with two of my students Yao Hsuan-Yu +1 and Liu Yi-Chen +2 sitting close behind. In the end, the leader had a tough day on the last day and shot 77 which gave the other girls a chance.

The final round was exciting with three girls coming down the final hole with a chance to win the tournament. In the end Yao Hsuan-Yu had a final round of 72, Liu Yi-Chen had a final round of 71 and the girl that was coming second after three rounds had a final round of 73 which led to a three way tie at the top of the leaderboard. As it is difficult to actually get on a golf course in Taiwan, let alone have a playoff, the final results were determined by countback. This meant that Liu Yi-Chen finished first and Yao Hsuan-Yu finished second. Although these are the official results, I consider all three girls as joint winners.

Another of my students, Hsieh Yu-Ling, charged home with a 68 on the final day to only finish two strokes away from the girl winners.

Until next time,

Brent

My Golf Game

Today I decided to head out on the golf course with three of my students. Now, this may or may not have been a good idea as the three players I decided to play with are the three top ranked players in Taiwan and we were playing on Sunrise Golf Course in Taiwan which is not exactly the easiest course in Taiwan. We were also playing from the back tees because the players were preparing for a tournament that starts on Wednesday. This combined with the fact that I haven't played a game of golf except for two rounds with borrowed clubs when I was back in Australia for Christmas and my total number of rounds for 2008 would be approximately six 9 hole rounds.

Standing on the first tee I (foolishly) decided that we should play for some money. I asked them to give me 4 shots start and we would play for $100 NT (approx $4.50 Aus) for every shot the winner finished in front. The players had the cheek to ask if 4 shots was enough!

We started on the 10th tee and as you can see from the picture it is not the easiest tee shot to face when the last time you played a golf course was two months ago. I managed to keep the ball out of the water and actually played some fairly decent shots for the first three or four holes. I was being accused of being a hustler as the players have seen my attempts to hit a few shots on the driving range this year.

Things were not going too badly until the first par 5 we came to. This is when I let my ego rule my brain and attempted a 250 yard water carry with my 3 wood and splashed in the water. I then proceeded to do exactly what I tell the Taiwan players to never do. Still thinking about how stupid my previous shot was I dropped another ball and, without thinking, dumped a wedge in the water as well. So I had just committed the sin of following one mistake with another. A score of 9 was the result and much laughter from my playing partners as we made our way to the next tee.

I managed to find the fairways and greens over the next few holes and made a few pars and even a birdie and as the rain and fog closed in on us as we headed up the 6th (our 15th) I still had all 4 of my strokes over one player, 3 strokes on another and 2 on the final player. I was also enjoying the fact that a coach who doesn't play anymore was keeping up with the top Taiwan players and I was letting them know! Actually, I shouldn't say too much as I think it was me dragging them down to my level rather than me playing to their standard.

It was interesting, from my perspective, as I found that my ball striking was not that much different from when I was playing more often but my chipping and putting was disgraceful! I think I had over 30 putts for the 15 holes we played and didn't hole a putt over 4 feet for the whole day. That being said, it was fun to get out there on the course again and I will try and play a bit more this year.

Until next time,

Brent

Taiwan Winter Cup

The players in the Winter Cup ranking event here in Taiwan are starting to finish their second rounds. The common theme amongst all the players is problems on the green. A lot of them are striking the ball well but not holing putts. Lots of 3 putts are being reported as well as a couple of 4 putts and even a 5 putt!

It is interesting to watch them practice as well. Looking out the window now I can see one player chipping with one hand while talking on the phone and another two players standing on the green talking. The two biggest complaints seem to be that the players are having trouble reading the green or judging the speed yet none of them are doing any green reading or speed control drills.

The leading score after one day in the girls section was 67 with a 69 and 70 close behind. The boys section is being led with a score of 68 with a 69, 70 and 71 close as well. I will update the final results after the last round on Friday.

Liu Chen-Lin, who I mentioned in an earlier post was currently in America is playing another International Junior Golf Tour event this week. You can watch his progress here http://www.ijgt.com/details.php?id=276

Until next time,

Brent

My Australian Students

I sent an email to all of my students in Australia this week with a link to my new blog and asking for any news that they had to share. I always enjoy hearing from my students and love hearing about their successes and struggles with this game we all play.

It was great to see Box Hill Golf Club win the Division 5 Pennant last year and hopefully they will continue the form into the next season in the higher division. Box Hill was the first golf club I worked at when I made the move from country New South Wales to the city of Melbourne. Hopefully they will keep up with the success. Check out the club's website at http://www.boxhillgolfclub.com.au/

One of my students from Box Hill Golf Club told me in his return email that he had his best score ever recently at Box Hill. He shot a 78 off the stick and wasted a number of shots during the round as well. This was the first time he had broken 80 and I am so excited for him! It was also interesting that he said he hasn't been playing much recently due to other commitments and he went out and just played golf without thinking about the score, his swing etc. It made me think about how much importance we put on swing mechanics and trying to build a "perfect" golf swing. It always amazes me how well people play when they just stop thinking and just swing the club. I think there needs to be a blend of swing mechanics and freedom from thinking but in an ideal world we would just let go and only think target when we are on the course. Feel free to post any comments/thoughts you might have.

Another one of my students and an ex workmate from when I was at Burnley Golf Course also had some great news to report. He is currently coming second in his club championships with the final round left to play! I am sure he won't mind me mentioning that his swing when I first met him was a little..... how should I put this?...... Unusual! It is a credit to his dedication and work ethic that he has changed his swing and improved his scoring skills to the point that he is contending in his club championships. I am extremely proud of him and hope he continues to get better and better.

For him, working at Burnley Golf Course, is a great asset to his golf. Burnley Golf Course is a great little short course which really tightens up your short game. It has a great chipping and putting green to work on those little chips that really save you shots and the course is short enough and the green small enough that you need to be precise with your short irons and wedges. A link to their website here http://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/Leisure/Golf/index.asp It is a great course for working on these important scoring shots and if you are driving past, drop in for a hit. Tell the shop staff that Brent says hi.

Until next time,

Brent

Girls Camp/Winter Cup

I just got back from a two week training camp in China with six of my girl students. We worked hard and covered lots of fitness, short game, putting and introduced them to some recovery tools we will be using through the coming year. I will post some more details about the camp in the next day or two.

Next week is the first of the quarterly ranking events here is Taiwan. All of the top players from Taiwan will be playing and the results will help us pick teams for the upcoming Queen Sirikit Cup in Bali and the Asia-Pacific Junior Championships in Thailand. I will post more next week as the tournament unfolds.

Brent

International Junior Golf Tour

One of my Taiwan students has recently moved to the United States to continue his golfing development. He has moved to Oak Valley in California and is using Oak Valley Golf Club as his training base. He is living with an American family and going to school there which will help him develop his English skills and move closer to his goal of going to college in America and playing professional golf.

Oak Valley has set up a nice training facility with a good emphasis on fitness and golf training. A few of my students have spent time there and the golf club was our base during our trip to America last northern Summer.

My student's name is Liu Chen-Lin and he played his first event in America this week. He emailed me his statistics after his first round and was very excited to shoot a score of 8 under 64. This placed him tied first after the first round and was a huge boost to his confidence. He shot 72 in the second round and missed out on a playoff by one stroke. Second place in his first tournament in a strange country was great and I was very proud of him. A link to the final results is here http://www.ijgt.com/results.php?id=294

I spoke to him via MSN after the final round and we spoke about what he was feeling and how he was finding the new settings in America. He was excited about his scores and also a little surprised that he was only tied for the lead after scoring 8 under. We spoke about the amount of talent in America and how he will get a more realistic idea of what level his golf is at and what parts need to be improved. Overall he was justifiably excited with his results and I was very proud of him. He was also enjoying the training at Oak Valley and I am sure he will be fitter and stronger when I see him next.

Until next time,

Brent

Qualifying - World Junior Teams Championship

The first tournament this year that I travelled with the players for was the Asian qualifying for the World Junior Teams Championship. This event is open to qualifiers from all over the world and the final will be held in Japan later in the year. The Asian qualifying event was held in Malaysia and I took the Taiwan team of four boys to play in this event. The same four boys played last year and Taiwan didn't qualify for the final so we were all keen to do better this year.

The tournament is three rounds of stroke play with the best three scores from each country to count each day. The top two teams from the qualifying round are the ones to go through to the final. There are teams from Japan, Korea, India, Singapore, Philippines and of course Taiwan playing. Korea and Japan are traditionally the strongest and Korea have two teams playing.

We flew from a cold winter Taiwan to a hot tropical Malaysia and then drove for six hours (meant to be four but the driver got lost) to the resort/golf course we were staying at. The boys rested well that night and we played a practice round in the morning trying to avoid the tropical heat. I walked the course with them helping them with their yardage books and discussing different options for certain holes. The 9th is a drivable par 4 over water and we decided that the longer hitters could go for the green if their driver was working well for the early holes. I thought it was strange that Taiwan players were the only team to attempt to drive the green. Our players made some easy birdies and never made worse than par. We also noticed some amazing views and some interested spectators around the course (see pictures).

All the players played well the first day with Huang Tao scoring 69, Hung Chein-Yao scoring 73 and Hsieh Chi-Hsien and Hsu Hao-Sheng each scoring 76. This gave us a team score of 2 over par and placed us in first place, one stroke ahead of Japan.

The second round scores weren't quite as good as the first round. Huang Tao had 72, Hung Chien-Yao had 73 again, Hsu Hao-Sheng had 76 again and Hsieh Chi-Hsien had 79. This gave us a team score for the day of +5 and moved our overall score to +7. Fortunately we increased our lead and went into the final round with a seven stroke lead over Japan and an eleven stroke lead over one of the teams from Korea. Three of the Taiwan players were also in the top 10 of the individual rankings as well.

Before the final round we spoke about making sure we just played to our course plans and did not worry about the other players around us. We spoke about how easy it would be to go out and try and protect the lead rather than sticking to our plans. The players did well with Hsieh Chi-Hsien having 70, Hung Chien-Yao shooting 73 (again!) and Huang Tao and Hsu Hao-Sheng having 75. Our team score for the day was +2 and our final score for the tournament was +9. We managed to increase our lead over the other countries and we finished first ahead of Korea and Japan.

So the boys will be off to the final in Japan later in the year. With the rest of the world being there it will be a great challenge for the Taiwan junior players and will give them a better idea of how they compare to the rest of the world.

Until next time,

Brent

Happy New Year

Hi Everyone and welcome to my new blog. This will be a way that you can keep in touch with me and keep track of the results of my students all over the world.

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Brent Davis and I am an Australian PGA Golf Professional. I am AAA rated with the Australian PGA and I have Masters in Applied Science (Sport Coaching) through the University of Queensland. I am currently working in Taiwan as the National Coach and am based at Sunrise Golf Club. I coach the national squad in Taiwan as well as some of the younger players here. I coach the players in Taiwan on all aspects of golf. We cover long game, short game, putting, fitness, nutrition, club fitting, planning, periodisation, practice routines, statistics and lots of other things that make up a top level golfer. I will talk about our training here and some of the things we do in other posts.

As part of my job here I get to travel with the National team to all of their major events throughout the year. Last year we travelled to China, Japan, USA, Philippines and Australia to compete in some of the major amateur events on the world calender. This travel allows me to coach the players in effective travel techniques. They learn how to play different golf courses in different conditions and deal with such travel problems as jetlag, finding food in strange countries and dealing with language barriers. I will keep you updated on the player's results in these events on this blog.

I also keep in touch with my students in Australia and enjoy hearing from them and helping them with their golf in any way I can.

Now that I have introduced myself and what I do, I look forward to posting on a regular basis and hearing from all of you and helping where I can.

Until next time,

Brent