Bill leaves nothing to chance, his infectious enthusiasm means he starts contacting previous players before Xmas, with almost a full field by the end of February, then filling any vacant tee times from late requester’s, right up to the last moment.

Bill has many friends and acquaintances from his golfing years, in particular from his year as Captain of GBGC, who continue to support him by attending this event. There are also a lot of new faces entering as gents become of age to enter the Seniors Open competition, that being 55.

The competition is split into under and over 70 categories with the overall winner being presented with the Bunny Staples Trophy.2020 was different to previous years as can be expected, there was no carvery meal after 18 holes, no raffle or presentation for the Bunny Staples Trophy and the other attractive prizes, no socialising after the game to share the missed putt or the cracking drive with other groups of players, but that didn’t put people off.

The weather was very kind to us, so despite the restrictions a great day was had by all with the winner of the Bunny Staples Trophy going to Paul Cooper with 44 points.  Here’s hoping the 2021 Seniors Open is able to revert back to the previous years format, whatever the future holds, with a Bill at the helm it will still be a roaring success for GBGC.

BodiTrak header

You know what’s it like, 1 round you can’t do anything wrong, irons are pure’d and drives are launched majestically down the centre of every fairway. 10 foot putt? No problem! It’s the purple patch that all golfers long to experience, sometimes it lasts a few months, sometimes a few weeks but more often only a few rounds.

Let’s get one thing out there…GOLF IS A HARD GAME! It’s a game where we are asked as players to perform an unnatural move that the human body is simply not built for. A lot of the golf swing happens behind the player and I’m sure we can all relate to the idea that what we think our swing looks like is far from reality!

PGA crest logo

As PGA professionals our training allows us to assess a golf swing from several angles. One of our key beliefs is that a golfer should build a swing that their body physically allows them to carry out. It’s not necessary to have the flexibility and rotation of Dustin Johnson to be a great golfer, the strength and swing speed of Tiger Woods, there are several players who do not complete a traditional “full shoulder turn” but still get phenomenal results – just take a look at John Rahm’s swing and you will see you can generate power and a silky smooth and technically sound swing without that full rotation.

It’s no secret that most club golfers do not get coached on their golf game, often magazines or YouTube is the goto source of information for that golf swing fix. There is a lot of great information out there but more often than not it is very generic information, it’s easy to convince yourself that you have found the fix for your swing and then you take it straight out on the course which inevitably delivers the opposite result that you were hoping for.

Coaching can benefit your game, and those benefits can come quickly, without fail always quicker than the YouTube approach. Our own research shows these are the most common answers to the question of “What has stopped you getting coaching before now”:

“I know I will get worse before getting better if I take coaching”

Unless we are rebuilding a swing from scratch this is a very unlikely outcome! You will come out of a lesson with a drill or two after seeing your swing at the start of the lesson and your swing after the lesson – this gives you the confidence you need to take those drills into your practice to get your game back on track.

“I’m not good enough to have lessons at my current ability”

We coach our club champion (who plays of a handicap of 1) as well as complete beginners, for example our getting into golf scheme has been a huge success. Coaching can help you improve your golf at a faster rate.

“My swing is awful and I’m a little embarrassed, and you want me to swing in front of a professional?”

a. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, will focus on the positives and work with you in the way that makes you feel comfortable. Taking that first step is the hardest thing to do, by the end of your coaching session you will have seen how good your game is – this alone will build your confidence and help you enjoy golf even more.

“I don’t have a physics degree – what chance have I got of understanding all the data you will give me?”

Do you like data? “No”? In which case we won’t show you data! “Yes”? Then we have plenty of it for you. Our principle aim is to give you meaningful information, data can become confusing and YouTuber’s often push lots of numbers on the screen – those numbers are really for your PGA professional to help understand what is going on with the swing so they can give you simple guidance to help you improve.

Our approach at Ted Maher golf performance here at Great Barr Golf Club is to work with the golfer to set realistic expectations. We see a clear difference with club golfers vs the casual golfers who come in to the club. Casual golfers often respond to the question of “What are you hoping to achieve today?” with an answer along the lines of “I want to swing like Tiger” or “I want to be able to play the flop shot like Phil Mickleson”. Club golfers are more realistic and always come to us with some good insight to their own swing and what they think is wrong.

We have several ways to carry out coaching:

• Simulator – this maybe used where we do need to take a look at some numbers using our GCQuad sensor housed in our recently refurbished swing room.
• BodiTrak pressure sensor mat – we have recently successfully undertook the “BodiTrak Golf Ground Mechanics” certification, this new addition to our golf performance centre allows us to get the most out of your swing – with really minor changes to your swing you can finally gain those extra few vital yards but more importantly see with your own eyes the difference between poor weight transfer and goof weight transfer. We are sure you won’t be disappointed – click here to take a look.
• Practice area – we are lucky to have a practice area where you can hit off grass. This is really useful where a golfer may struggle to take their game from the driving range to the course.
• Chipping and putting greens – these areas allow us to coach you on the often overlooked but so vitally important areas of your golf game.
• The course – another overlooked area of a golfers tool-set is course strategy, here we take you around some of the holes at Great Barr Golf Club to work on your strategy, “Do you really need to take driver on this hole?”

Our approach to coaching can be tailored to your needs. Our focus is not to sell you a bunch of lessons, our focus is to build a coaching plan to fix a swing fault or to improve your game in the way that you want. We are really proud of the fact that the vast majority of new students come to us by recommendations of current students, and we feel that speaks volumes for the results we deliver.

We offer coaching all year round and can make use of the simulator up until 10pm (9pm last session) so there is never a reason to not practice or book our coaching sessions as we will always have time to fit into your busy schedule.

Our overall mission is to help you enjoy the game of golf, the more you enjoy it the better you get, the better you get the more you will get out this wonderful game we call golf!

Let us help you play the best golf of your life.

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I said, “I will be ready for The Match,” and I will be! Thank you to Dave Phillips and Greg Rose from @mytpi for their knowledge and expertise. Tom House who has helped so many athletes prolong their careers. @SeanMCochran for keeping me healthy, strong, and injury free for the last 16 years. Andrew Getson for working with me to get my game back and for helping me win this year – the first time in 5 years. And, to my brother @timmick29 – for making my job fun and enjoyable. Thank you all, I appreciate it so much! @TigerWoods, you’re going to need your best next Friday. Just saying.

A post shared by Phil Mickelson (@philmickelson) on Nov 14, 2018 at 4:29pm PST