Having fun on the course!

Hi guys.

While the golf schools are on a break over Christmas Dave and I are up to our usual gig of trying to get golfers enjoying and improving at this marvellous game we love. I would like to tell you about some of the things we do to not only help people play better but also to get our pupils having more fun with their golf.

This week while on the golf course with regular pupils i have engaged in different tactics to create more enjoyment while giving an authentic learning experience.

Firstly i start with Lee, who is a very regular pupil who over the past 22 months has improved from a 12 handicap to a 4. Lee is a very hard worker on his game, putting in at least three days per week of serious practice (including tuition). A regular session with Lee will include a warm up on the range, either a chipping or a putting competition, 18 holes which include a point score game that i have devised for our sessions as well as a 9 hole scratch competition between he and I. Now if you were to look at what we get up to on a usual session it would look like a great skylark and two grown men playing golf, but the sessions have much greater depth. Firstly they allow for evaluation. Because we catch up regularly it is hard for us to be able to adequately keep check on Lees improvement. Games like the point score allows him to compare point scores now to that of the past noticing a nearly 50 % increase in the past 9 months, also with the 9 hole comp starting at 3 holes and growing to 6 ( and from next year we are going to 12 holes). Playing golf with someone who (at present - and maybe not much longer if he keeps getting better) plays better than he can be quite off putting for an average person. Having these games tailored to match Lees progress and standard at the time, allows him to have success without being patronised by receiving something that he is not entitled and puts him under real life pressures which allows us to check whether what he is learning actually works. Sometimes the procedure fails and it allows Lee and I to evaluate where it went wrong and what we do to make it better. Which really is what a good golf lesson is about. By the way if you were wondering Lee is the current holder of the chips which is the trophy we play for over 9 holes and he has taken them with him to the UK to visit his family. Well done mate.

The other story i would like to relay is the junior group i teach at Wallacia Panthers where i took 4 (of the usual 8 that attend when it's not xmas) for a game of cross country golf. I had been explaining to the guys and girls how when i was their age, me and my friends would make up holes from the first tee to the 8 green, then the 9th tee to the 13th green and so on to see what we would need to do to have the best score we could. This was something the kids thought sounded like great fun , so we held the latest edition of cross country golf to be held at Wallacia in over twenty years (at least that i have been involved in). We played the boys versus the girls with me being an honouree girl for the day. We played 5 holes over two hours including a par 8 from the 8th tee to the 18th green in ambrose format with the boys finishing triumphant. But nobody really lost as everyone had a great time, we all thought a little different on the course for a change and saw some of the holes from a different perspective for a little while.

Just remember. Golf is a game. It's supposed to be fun, we are supposed to enjoy it and if we can learn while we are having fun well who can complain about that.

This will be the last posting before Christmas. I would like to thank all the attendees of the schools, classes, trips and anything else that Absolute Golf has been involved in this year. Thanks to all our guest coaches Bryan, Bob, Paul, Geoff and of course Scott as well as all the venues who have looked after us so beautifully during the year, with out you all we could not be doing what we are doing. we look forward to helping you with your game next year and getting everyone to enjoy their golf just that little bit more.

See you on the course.

Jeff Mansfield