As part of the agreement, CoachNow becomes a ‘Coaching Software Supplier’ to the CPG and will assist PGA Professionals and coaches across its network with the running of their coaching businesses through preferential product access and pricing, as well as educational content and resources on the business of coaching.

Ian Randell, Chief Executive of the CPG, said: “Evolving the way golf coaches engage with their clients towards a more relationship-based model is key to driving long-term success for golfers and coaches. We fully believe in the tools and capabilities provided within the CoachNow platform to achieve that progression for every golf professional and coach and thus furthering their position as golf’s ultimate influencer.

“We are therefore delighted to be expanding our longstanding partnership with Golf Genius to now embrace CoachNow, supporting our efforts to innovate and provide world-class learning and business opportunities to PGA Professionals and coaches, and urge those interested in developing their coaching businesses to take advantage of this exclusive offer and access to the CoachNow platform.”

Trusted by the world’s best coaches, academies, and national programmes in 140 countries worldwide, CoachNow is a technology platform that helps PGA Professionals build successful coaching businesses with enhanced athlete collaboration, communication and coaching tools.

Craig Higgs, Managing Director of Golf Genius International, commented: “CPG are a key partner in the game of golf who drive standards in the business of golf coaching across the globe. We’re really pleased to be working with them, their Member Country PGAs and consequently, their PGA Members to drive world-class coaching through technology. Our entire team is looking forward to an innovative and industry-evolving partnership.”

Exclusively available to PGA members and coaches of the CPG network, the member offer includes 4-month’s free trial access to CoachNow Pro, followed by a discounted price on all plans after the free trial period has concluded.

Any interested and eligible members can find out more at coachnow.io/cpg or by contacting emea@coachnow.io.

Unlike its publicity-courting cousin, running, walking is rarely associated with leadership and success. There are relatively few examples of Fortune 500 CEOs ‘powering through’ a 20k stroll on their way to work, nor prime-time comedians ‘sauntering’ through the Sahara Desert for their latest charity/publicity drive. Walking is an also-ran in more ways than one.

And yet, a quick flick through the history books reveals enough famous walkers to more than rival their more fleet-footed counterparts.

From Beethoven to Steve Jobs and the Queen, walking has helped many a historic heavyweight to achieve success in their chosen field, even if they haven’t yet felt the need to brag about it to their favourite financial journal.

As scientists will attest, walking offers an array of benefits for regular practitioners.  Aside from the obvious physical perks of regular exercise, there are the various mental benefits to consider.

Walkers tend to enjoy lower stress levels, as well as increased cognitive function.  To add to this, a recent study by Stanford University found moving around led to an increase in creativity in 81% of participants who had previously been seated.

The only area where walking really falls short (aside from the crummy PR team behind it) is the obvious time commitment involved.  This may explain why it’s rarely the activity of choice among time-pressured modern professionals.

The flipside to this is that, contrary to more aerobically challenging activities, it can be crow-barred relatively easily into the working day.  As well as being the perfect option for a reinvigorating, yet sweat-free lunch break, it is a great way to put a new angle on interviews, one-on-one meetings, and brainstorming sessions.

The most potent pro-ambulatory argument, however, is perhaps the fact that walking is what we humans are originally designed to do.  Not pounding the pavement clad in lycra or expensive running shoes, or – worse still – wedged in behind a computer screen for 10 hours straight.

Walking may not win you any awards in the image stakes, but your body (and possibly career) will thank you for it.

This content appears courtesy of Abintegro, experts in career management, transition technology & e-learning for today’s modern, mobile and technology-savvy workforce – Find out more at www.abintegro.com

Credit: LinkedIn; Design School; Inc.com

The successful CPG Podcast, which has provided listeners with regular insight and conversations around golf, professional golf and the golf industry, has been relaunched into a new and exciting Podcast Show.

Steven has been a full time golf coach for 17 years and recently became the youngest ever recipient of the coveted PGA Master Professional title. He has a Master’s Degree (MSc) in sports coaching and is currently working towards a Doctorate in Elite Performance at The University of Central Lancashire.

Steven has coached European tour players, ladies European tour players, the 2018 Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup side and was voted England Golf Coach of the year in 2015. He also has a strong track record in elite junior coaching, having coached several juniors all the way from junior golf through to National level. As a speaker, Steven has delivered sessions at conferences in multiple countries worldwide including Argentina, Holland, Denmark, Italy, China, Bulgaria and Spain.

This podcast is aimed at all professional golfers and assistants with a particular interest in coaching wedge play and more broadly the short game to golfers. By the end of this sessions, listeners will:

– Have a greater understanding of coaching the short game to golfers of all levels.

– Be able to examine different perspectives of elite level player’s pitching techniques, including the key ball, club and movement characteristics within their short games

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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US PGA Professional, Ryan Brandeburg, is the Executive Director of Golf Tourism New Zealand [GTNZ], the Director of Golf for Tourism New Zealand, and the golf consultant to the city of Auckland. Additionally, he is a partner in the Golf Strategy Group, a New Zealand based golf consultancy business, and Managing Director of New Zealand’s Institute of Golf, a teaching academy known best for finding Lydia Ko as a six year old and taking her on the journey to #1 in the world.

With a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and a specialisation in Professional Golf Management from Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, USA, Ryan previously served in various golf management roles in the USA, across several high-profile facilities and one of the world’s largest private equity firms, The Blackstone Group. His journey in New Zealand first came about in 2009, becoming director of golf for both Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers – two courses ranked amongst the top 50 in the world. To add to his plethora of credentials, Ryan sits on the board of the New Zealand Golf Industry Council, and has written two books aimed at educating young PGA Professionals.

In this podcast, Ryan will give insight into the GTNZ project, discussing the importance of creating a golf tourism strategy, how it was developed, and the steps taken to implement it (with a summary of outcomes to date). Additionally, by tying this work into club, city, regional and national level contexts, Ryan will give PGAs and PGA Professionals an understanding as to why these are important considerations for themselves, and their own facilities.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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Russell trained with his father in the UK before leaving for Switzerland in 2001. Since 2004, he had been the head Professional at Golfclub Heidental in Switzerland, and has spent the past 6 years in education roles with the Swiss PGA.

His research and learning has been based around two key questions: How do I become a great coach? How can we develop great coaches? These questions have taken him around the world to visit many great coaches and also led to his completion of a Masters Degree in Sports Coaching at the University of Birmingham.

He is an avid user of technology within the assessment phase of coaching and embraces a person first approach to support golfers on their journey or solve any problem they may experience.

In this podcast, Russell will unpack his MSc research on coach learning and link it to his own journey as a coach and coach developer. The aim is to assist any practicing coach in reflecting on their beliefs of how they learn. It will assist them in a better choice of future learning activities, saving both time and money.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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Whilst performing for United States military veterans, Keirstead realised that with each shot he was hitting was in fact inadvertently altering their mindsets from ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can’. Todd was showing these amazing military individuals how golf could be played in an adaptive way.

 Shortly after Todd has created his own Adaptive Golf Initiative, becoming one of the leaders in promoting and empowering individuals of all abilities to get involved in the game of golf. Keirstead has enlightened thousands with his vision that anyone can play golf, no matter what their circumstance. “My vision is to ignite the passion in individuals and to transcend personal boundaries both on and off the fairway”.

 In this podcast, Todd will utilise a business case study on the financial impact of adaptive golf and how it can influence your business moving forwards. This should provide a better understanding of:

– The importance of inclusion and diversity

– The benefits that can be achieved by your business through increased inclusion

– A better acceptance that golf can and should reflect the community of which your business is in.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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CPG Golf Development Team member and Transition and Performance Coach, Ian Peek, is heavily involved in researching the sociological and psychological elements of golf and coaching performance.

In part two of this podcast special, Ian continues the challenge for you to first of all identify your Professional ‘why’ [your passions, your inspirations and your motivations], and then provides a clear and easy-to-follow framework for helping you to then achieve your professional ‘why’.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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Brian Hemmings Ph.D has over 25 years of experience in sport psychology consultancy. He was the lead psychologist to the England golf team for 16 years (1997-2013) delivering high performance strategies with European and World Championship-winning teams and individuals at men’s, youth and junior level.

He is the author of the CD ‘In the Zone: Simple Mental Skills to Improve Your Golf’ and four books, including the best-seller ‘Mental Toughness for Golf: The Minds of Winners’. Brian also developed the online Golf Psychology Coaching Certificate, an approved education programme of the PGAs of Canada, Switzerland, GB&I and New Zealand.

In this podcast, Brian aims to equip PGA Members with 2 core psychological techniques to teach players – A simple breathing technique, and a ‘grounding’ method will be explained, with the aim of improving your psychological understanding and in turn, aid both your coaching practice and future coaching sessions.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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As a longstanding PGA Professional, David Kearney has had various coaching involvements and successes including  his work with the Irish Ladies Golf team for 19 years and his leading role during the Carton House’s staging of the 2018 World Amateur team championships, The Eisenhower Trophy and The Espirito Santo Trophy.

As part of his golf development work, David has represented The CPG and The R&A on golf missions and speaking engagements in Panama, Brazil, India, Bulgaria, Hungary, Bahrain and Ukraine, where he advised on Development and High performance programs. He is currently working on the International Golf Federations Olympic solidarity program, bringing training programs to Bahrain and Ukraine.

As part of David’s volunteering as a counsellor with Ireland’s Depression and Bi-Polar support group, and in anticipation of a book he is currently working on, David will use this podcast to explore the significance of the Buddha’s writings and aligns the content and its significance to the life of golf and golfers.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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Honorary President of the Confederation of Professional Golf [CPG], Pascal Grizot, former Chief Executive of the PGA of GB&I, Sandy Jones, and former Executive Director of the European Tour, Ken Schofield, join CPG Chief Executive Ian Randell in this special edition ‘Masters Memories’ CPG podcast episode, as they preview the 2020 Masters Tournament at Augusta National. Seve Ballesteros, French wine, tales from the clubhouse lawn and Pascal’s attempts to avoid George O’Grady are key highlights, in what is a truly epic CPG Podcast episode.

In this Masters special Podcast episode, PGA Professionals and coaches to elite-level tour professionals including Holland’s Joost Luiten, Phil Allen and Rob Mouwen, discuss sub-air and complex green systems; cross-seeding the fairways of Augusta; trying to break 100 at The Masters and not being allowed behind the ropes on the driving range.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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As love.golf’s head coach Alastair supports a team of like-minded and forward-thinking coaches, helping to create opportunity and impact, sharing best practice, building and growing a community of new and existing female golfers.

Alastair has presented his thoughts and research at many industry and educational conferences including the 2018 World Scientific Congress of Golf in Canada.  In this podcast, Alastair will encourage attendees to consider and reflect upon their gender lens. From this, listeners will learn how a simple reset can lead to significant impact and change across their coaching business and venue.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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Adam Young is a World-renowned golf coach, known for his best-selling book – ‘The Practice Manual’. Adam specialises in skill-development for golfers by applying the body of scientific research on motor learning – with a reputation for being able to take the complex information and make it simple, digestible and easily applicable to all levels of golfer. Adam reaches millions of golfers Worldwide through his online content at www.adamyounggolf.com.

In this podcast, Adam will take a look at the 5 phases of training and how to use these effectively to create practice plans for golfers. It will also deliver more ideas on how to coach players of different abilities, generate more and better lesson structure and ultimately, more revenue.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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Head of Disability and Inclusion for the IGF and President of EDGA, Tony Bennett, is a PGA Master Professional bringing a wealth of knowledge to the development of innovative and far-reaching projects around the World.

In a career which has spanned five decades, Tony has collaborated with almost all of the world’s leading golf organisations, and has been a leader in several European Commission initiatives.

Tony has received recognition for his work, including the Order of Merit medal from the former President of the Republic Dr Jorge Sampaio for his contribution to sport.

As a current PhD student at Durham University, and former Masters graduate of Birmingham University, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the development of innovative and far-reaching projects around the World.

In this CPG Podcast, Tony takes us through the following various areas of personal development and the growth of the game, covering:

– The principles of golf and why the industry needs to adapt

– Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

– The world of disability golf

– The continuous development and learning of teachers / coaches

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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CPG Golf Development Team member and Transition and Performance Coach, Ian Peek, is heavily involved in researching the sociological and psychological elements of golf and coaching performance.

As a conference and webinar presenter, Ian has presented to colleagues worldwide since 2004. This podcast challenges you to first of all identify your Professional ‘why’ [your passions, your inspirations and your motivations], and then provides a clear and easy-to-follow framework for helping you to then achieve your professional ‘why’.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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Level A Austrian PGA Professional and CPG Golf Development Team member, Marie Jeffery, explores the topic of coaching communication and its significance for golf participation and performance.

The webinar will focus around four key areas of communication science and coaching: communication basics, using communication to build rapport, human sensory channels and message structures to support and enhance learning.

By the end of this CPG podcast, you will be able to:

– Understand the importance of multilayer communication for coaching

– Feel comfortable infusing the 4-side model for your own coaching

– Have a basic understanding of rapport-creating strategies

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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European Tour Golf and Murray Sport and Medicine Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Andrew Murray, and Golf & Health Project Executive Director, Dr. Roger Hawkes, explore the science of COVID-19 and implications for golf / golfers, while also talking about the longevity, physical health and mental health benefits of golf.

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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Both key figures in the world of golf and Professional golf, Johan Hampf and Jonathan Mannie play pivotal roles in their respective countries of Sweden and Austria. As Chief Executive of the PGA of Sweden, Johan is at the forefront of developing PGA Professionals and the Professional game throughout Sweden. Jonathan meanwhile is Chairman for the Ryder Cup European Development Trust [RCEDT] and is a CPG Golf Development Team member, alongside fulfilling his coaching roles.

In this CPG Masterclass Series podcast, Jonathan and Johan will both take you through what life has been like during the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, using Sweden as a case study, and focus on the measures and steps that have been taken over the past month and what their experiences of this have shown. As the golfing world begins to come alive once again, they will answer the key question: What are the individual countries’, PGAs’ and their PGA Members’ next steps?

The CPG Podcast brings the latest features, news and in-depth interviews from the world of professional golf, PGAs and PGA Professionals.

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This special edition of the #ASK Podcast celebrates #GolfHealthWeek and its work to shine a light on the many benefits that golf can have.

We are joined by Dr Roger Hawkes and Dr Andrew Murray from the Golf & Health Project to get an overview of the Project’s progress so far, as well as a look into its future work, but also to discuss each of the #GolfHealthWeek themes looking at the research and activities behind them and what you can do to help spread the message:

• Day 01 – Fitness – 07:23
• Day 02 – Mental health – 11:16
• Day 03 – Disability Golf – 17:54
• Day 04 – Golf For Everyone – 23:23
• Day 05 – Club Level – 36:08
• The Future of Golf & Health – 44:06

Find out more about the health benefits of golf at www.golfandhealth.org.

Listen to the full interview and subscribe to more episodes from the Confederation of Professional Golf A.S.K. Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Anchor.fm, Podbean or Soundcloud.

Listen to the full interview and subscribe to more episodes from the Confederation of Professional Golf A.S.K. Podcast on Soundcloud or Apple Podcasts.

—————————–

Fact File

Formed: 2002

Members: 36

Players: 1,222

Courses: 16

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“We literally built the first golf hole in Hungary during the early 1980s.” How many people can lay claim to such an achievement? Well PGA of Hungary Professional, László Tringer, can. Not only was László, his father and a few friends right at the sharp end of golf’s re-emergence in the former communist state around the time of independence, but he was also responsible for the creation of the PGA of Hungary at the turn of the century.

I caught up with László and Áron Makszin in a very cold and snow-covered Budapest in February. Why I agreed to go to Hungary at that time of the year is something that I have asked myself for the last few days. Even so, the cold exterior is more than made up for by the warm hospitality and of course the celebrated Goulash soup.

The reason for my visit was to deliver the Confederation of Professional Golf’s Tutor Training course to a group of Professionals who currently are or soon will be, delivering the PGA of Hungary professional education programme. Education is taken very seriously in this part of the world. The University of Sport and Physical Education, which emerged from the world famous Semmelweis University, is an education partner of the PGA of Hungary.

As is the case in many emerging golf markets, there are those who have lived each faltering step along the way. László and Áron are such people. I also caught up by Skype with PGA Professional, Damian MacPherson, who was out of the country during my visit.

Damian moved to Hungary 20 years ago and has since built a career and reputation that has resulted in an award from the government to recognise his services to the game. Thankfully all three were willing to share their experiences. Lived experience is often a subjective account of what actually has happened, but this potential weakness is more than made up for by the rich understanding that emerges from every ounce of their being.

For most of us, it is hard to imagine starting to play golf when there are no facilities, no equipment, and no access to knowledge. Imagine starting to play on an athletic field, or building your own hole. With no courses available, what would you do?

For László the answer was obvious – build one. Well, perhaps not a full course, but a least one hole and then another. Three holes later, these creations eventually became holes seven, eight & nine on the Kisoroszi Course, and once again golf was on its way.

Not content with his efforts, and after a period of training with the PGA of Germany, László returned to Hungary to form the PGA of Hungary. As the President, he has overseen every step of the development of the Association and now acts as Vice President.

Meanwhile, Áron was competing in the Decathlon and racking up two gold medals in the national athletics championships. Imagine his surprise when this seemingly simple game that involves swinging a club and hitting a ball proved too difficult to master. Áron says that the “challenge and the environment were the key drivers” for his involvement in golf. He found it hard to understand as an athlete who could easily control his body positions and copy from master teachers, that he was unable to do the same in golf. He was hooked. Áron is a lifelong learner and sees every situation as an opportunity to develop his knowledge or skill. Golf satisfied his thirst for continual exploration and learning.

Golf has been played in Hungary since the early 1900s, but it was football that was the major sport when under the Communist party rule. Golf was banned as it was thought to be a potential threat to the party and so the existing golf facilities were destroyed. The nation had success in other sports, swimming, water polo, athletics and handball, but surprisingly there has been success on the golf course too. Although the link to Julius Boros, the son of two Hungarian immigrants to the United States, is somewhat tenuous, ‘Boros’ as they simply call him here, won two US Opens and played on four USA Ryder Cup Teams.

Hungary is a very different nation today than it was just 30 years ago. In an economy that has zero unemployment, one might think that golf professionals might have an easy life. This is not the case for the 37 PGA of Hungary members who serve 1,300 officially registered players along with another estimated 500 nomad players. You can do the maths, but it clear that from a population of ten million people, golf is not likely to feature in the top ten sporting pastimes. Why so?

According to László, people like golf when they see it on TV. The Olympics he says has had a small positive effect – so why do more people not play? Many people try golf, but few are really grabbed by the shirt and bond to the game. Time? Expense? We have heard these reasons before and yet alpine skiing, sailing and tennis have all gone onto to enjoy a burgeoning appeal. Why then has golf not made this step?

Damian, who arrived in Hungary in 1998 with no intention to stay more than a year, is fully integrated into the Hungarian way of life with his family and friends. He has no intentions of going anywhere else. He has experienced the difficulties of getting golf to penetrate into the hearts of the Hungarian people. People try the game but rarely take the next step, “perhaps it is perception,” says Damian. “The government see it as an elite sport and when youngsters go home saying that they have tried and enjoyed golf, it is met with parental advice to forget golf and take up one of the more mainstream games.”

Áron, who is the Secretary-General of the Hungarian Golf Federation also makes the point, “perhaps the perception built up by the media is not helping”. Golf is no more expensive than alpine skiing and sailing, and it likely takes around the same or less time, so is there a misguided perception? The Hungarian people see the sport as elitist, for the rich, the powerful and the famous. Until now it is not a game for the people, or so they think, he says. The Federation together with the PGA and golf facilities, of which there are now 18, are all behind a project that will help newcomers have an experience that is inexpensive and entirely inclusive.

Even after more than 20 years, László, Áron and Damian still have the passion to help the Hungarian people get into golf. Typically Áron sees education as being an essential tool for the professionals and says that all professionals now, more than ever before, need to have great communication, personal relation and coaching skills.

All three agree that Hungary needs more players, to which László adds that they also need a good player, someone who can make it on the European Tour and perhaps win a tournament. A dream? Perhaps. But a dream that the professionals in Hungary will keep working for.

Click to Find Out More About the PGA of Hungary

“I think women’s golf has a great future if it can market itself correctly. For me it’s as exciting watching a ladies’ tournament as it is watching a men’s tournament. Sometimes people get a bit drawn to how far the ball flies and they attack impossible pins and take on impossible shots, but the ladies play really clever golf too.

“I was at the Evian Championship last year and what I saw was very impressive – they had a very professional attitude and were really focused on the range so there’s no difference between them and the guys. I would like to see ladies get much more TV time and more acknowledgement for what they are doing.”

Interview Highlights:

00:29 – How Marie got into golf…

01:39 – Entering a golf club as a young girl golfer…

02:21 – The changes in golf in Austria…

03:23 – Marie now works at the same facility that she started her golf career at…

06:25 – Being driven by those that originally discouraged her golf…

08:23 – Getting the Austrian National Team Coach job…

09:20 – Becoming involved in ‘Communicology’…

11:25 – Using ‘Communicology’ to break things down and not get lost in the detail…

12:10 – Key learnings from Marie’s career so far…

14:19 – The difference between teaching & coaching…

16:00 – What changes has Marie seen over the time she worked with the Austrian Girls squads…

18:49 – Working as a National Coach is a 24/7 role…

19:41 – What is the future of girls’ golf…

20:48 – The challenges face in women and girls’ participation…

23:01 – The difference between girls and boys’ sport …

24:26 – What are the mistakes most beginner golfers make…?

28:15 – Who is the best lesser-known coach Marie has worked with…?

30:19 – What advice would you give your 25-year-old self…?

31:09 – Marie’s views on who she feels are ‘successful’ people…

32:05 – Marie’s favourite book…

33:01 – The advice has Marie found beneficial up until now…

35:01 – What might surprise listeners about Marie…

35:19 – The golf equipment that gives Marie the most joy…

35:55 – Marie’s dream Fourball…

36:34 – Advice for aspiring PGA Professionals…

Find out more about Marie at www.functionalgolf.at and at functionalgolfat on Facebook.

Find out more about the Confederation of Professional Golf Golf Development Team at http://eur.pe/GolfDevelopmentTeam

Interview Highlights:

01:14 – Early beginnings in golf…

04:38 – Alastair’s first golf coach…

07:58 – How has the way Alastair learnt golf shaped his coaching style…

08:48 – Turning Professional…

12:58 – Working at Hintlesham Hall Golf Club in Ipswich…

16:16 – An increased in development and working as a County Golf Development Officer…

22:24 – Taking an interest in gender disparity in clubs and golf in general, creating an interest in women’s golf development…

23:54 – How did Alastair create a women’s participation-led programme…

27:37 – Barriers to developing women’s participation programmes…

29:06 – How will female participation help the industry in general?

30:32 – Learning from the stories and communities developed at ‘Park Runs’…

33:12 – What changes have you seen in golf across your career?

35:00 – What’s the main mistake golfers make when taking up the sport?

37:05 – What would you tell your 25 year old self?

38:57 – Alastair’s favourite books…

39:34 – What might surprise us about Alastair Spink?

40:21 – Alastair’s dream fourball…

Follow Alastair on Twitter at @Thegolfcoach and find out more about Love.Golf at www.love.golf.

Find out more about the Confederation of Professional Golf Golf Development Team at http://eur.pe/GolfDevelopmentTeam

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Read the entire story behind this here from James Clear.

Will’s first suggestion – The Ivy Lee Method

1. At the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.
2. Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.
3. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.
4. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
5. Repeat this process every working day.

Read the entire story behind this here from James Clear.

The biggest killer of everyone’s day is opening up emails first things in the morning.

Everyone is always asking “how” questions. What really matters is the “why”.

Take some time to improve your business / sales skills if it’s something you struggle with and go outside of the typical education / certifications. Give yourself permission to try some new ideas out with the framing of an experiment or challenge.

3 Morning Questions:

• What happened yesterday?
• How do I feel about that?
• What am I working on today

Will’s past episodes on coaching programs:

Group Coaching Q&A part 1
Group Coaching Q&A part 2
Working with Groups

Links / Resources

Charles M. Schwab productivity story – Ivy Lee Method
2017 Coaching Workshop in Orlando
Will’s Consulting Company RGX
BJ Fogg – Tiny Habits

We’re sitting down with two guys, Graeme McDowall and Peter Arnott, who have some interesting concepts that might explain a lot of the “luck” and “mystery” surrounding great players.

Ecological psychology is really the study of how organisms act in their environment, how they adapt, and how they become functional in their environments.

One of the key concepts explains how we are able to directly perceive our environment and how we are able to scale movement solutions to that environment. This essentially reverses the paradigm – you’ve got to find the problem first, then come up with a solution.

With an ecological dynamics approach, you don’t give the organism any solutions. Instead, you just give it appropriate problems and let the organism (golfer) come up with the solution. Because we are all different in the sense that we are unique, we act with creativity and novelty.

For instance, you see all these guys in the PGA Tour with different movement patterns, but they are effectively doing the same thing and that is behaving functionally in the environment.  Each of them has come up a unique solution to a problem. The human system is very smart. It has evolved to adapt to the demands of his environment. These are empirical chase-able theories and facts that you put down that we can present a lot of literature to support these in motions

The human system is very smart. It has evolved to adapt to the demands of his environment. These are empirical chase-able theories and facts that you put down that we can present a lot of literature to support these in motions

We just need to provide it with an appropriate environment and an appropriate level of development and the whole organism will be capable of whacking whole things out and you’ll have such as self-organization.

Real World Example of Great Players Adapting to the Environment

One of the great examples of this is from Padraig Harrington when he talks about his junior golf development.

He talks about being a part of a group of players who used to play games for money every day and quite simply, if you couldn’t hole a putt for money, you had to leave the group. If you couldn’t develop that competency, if your skill couldn’t emerge to a high enough level you would have to leave the group because you couldn’t afford to be a part of this group.

Padraig talks about never ever being concerned with technique, but only that they knew how to get the ball in the hole.

We talk about this certain illusion of form following function.

When you look at the PGA tour you see a lot of different golf swings, grips, and techniques. Some of these are techniques you wouldn’t necessarily want to teach someone . What you are seeing there is people who have learned to do something that is a function.

Learn to get the ball in the hole, “This is the way I get the ball in the hole, my technique has just emerged”. It doesn’t necessarily resemble a particular standard.

It doesn’t always look optimal, but I am going to get this ball in the hole because those are the demands of the environment placed on me.

That’s what Harrington is describing here. He is saying that his environment growing up was such that if you couldn’t learn to hole putts for money, then you had to leave the group.

You see a skill being emergent; they didn’t really concentrate on the technique. They were just figuring out a way of getting that ball in the hole because of the constraints that were part of the environment.

About Graeme McDowall

Graeme has an MPhil in Sports Coaching from the University of Birmingham and is a full-time Golf and Sports Coaching lecturer at the SRUC in Scotland. He is also an associate lecturer and a PhD researcher at the University of Abertay Dundee.

His main area of research is skill acquisition in sport and as well as being a practitioner in this area with the high-performance golf programme at the SRUC, he has worked with coaches in rugby and football. Graeme is currently involved with some of the world’s leading experts in non-linear pedagogy, in a project aimed to bring coaches, academics and education professionals together to raise standards in player development.

Follow Graeme on Twitter Here

About Peter Arnott

Pete Arnott is the Teaching Professional at Craigmillar Park Golf Course. Pete is currently studying a MRes in skill acquisition and has worked with all levels of golfers, from novice to European Tour Players, using a constraints-led approach. Indeed, recently one of his star pupils, Nastja Banovec, won a very prestigious Professional Tournament (The Paul Lawrie Invitational) whilst still an Amateur.

Peter has also just recently returned from talking to over one hundred delegates from all sports at the English Institute of Sport on how he puts ‘science’ into practice and has been asked to talk at several high-profile institutions as a result. Basically Peter specialises in creating effective practice environments, which enable a greater transfer from practice to play.

Follow Peter on Twitter Here

Our bonus episodes offer a fun change of pace from our traditional “interview-style” episodes on The Science of Social Media. Get to know the hosts Hailley, Kevan, & Brian a bit better as they share thoughts on the future of social media – complete with actionable takeaways and useful insights.

This week we’re chatting all about our brand new State of Social Media 2016 Report! 3 major trends emerge from the study, including the peak of video marketing, Facebook remaining atop the pack, and the importance of customer service on social media.

A huge thank you to all of you for joining us every week for brand new episodes. We appreciate you taking the time to listen and for your amazing support over the last few weeks. We’d love to hear from you on iTunes or using the hashtag #bufferpodcast on Twitter.

“That’s what I see social media in 2017 being – Understanding why you’re there and then creating something awesome for the people that you’re hoping to reach on that channel.”

3 Themes That Stood Out to Us From the Survey

Theme #1

The first takeaway is that video is on the rise and about to hit the peak. If you ever wanted to get into video marketing, now is the time to do so! We found that there are some inherent challenges that people are experiencing that are keeping them from fully joining.

Theme #2

No one has really left Facebook like everyone was saying might happen once organic reach dipped. From our study, about 9 out of every 10 marketers use Facebook and 9 out of 10 use Facebook Ads. I think some of the response to the dip in organic reach is people moving to Facebook Ads. So, marketers finding a way to make the most of that giant network.

Theme #3

Only 1 in 5 survey respondents – so 1 in 5 brands, 1 in 5 marketers – use social media for customer support. And that was shockingly low for me. At Buffer customer support has been very key to us and it has been key for a lot of the brands that we admire. That feels like a really neat opportunity for brands to stand out.

The amount of information and number of statistics/metrics available to the Professional coach has never been greater – in fact, many argue that there is too much information out there that does not answer the questions people really want to know about.

This is something that Columbia Business School Carson Family Professor of Business and keen golfer, Mark Broadie, saw as being fundamental to his groundbreaking research in the past 10 years. Current statistics and metrics are good but lack the capability in many cases to relate other metrics. In response to this he developed a system that allows all the elements of the game to be compared to each other – Strokes Gained.

In his new book, ‘Every Shot Counts’, Broadie explores his Strokes-Gained metric that has entered the public consciousness through use of Strokes Gained – Putting on the PGA Tour, and the overall research that has led to a fundamental change in our understanding of how important the different areas of the game are.

IGPN: The Strokes Gained statistic is really a completely different way of assessing the performance of a player on the course – how did you come up with the concept for it?

MB: I started by asking ‘what separates an ‘80’ and a ’90’ golfer – where do these 10 strokes come from?’ Another question was how to grade a golfer in different areas; long game, short game, sand play, approach shots, driving – how could you compare all those things?

There are a lot of ways you could do this – such as how close do they put approach shots to the

“About two-thirds of a 10-stroke difference comes from shots outside of 100 yards and about one-third comes from shots inside 100 yards…that’s pretty robust across hugely different skill levels”

hole? If you have a large enough data set then you can see that this person’s average score might be 80 but they’re hitting their approach shots like a scratch golfer, or they may be hitting relatively poor approach shots like a ‘90’ golfer.

The problem is that these measures still don’t answer the question of where do the 10 strokes between and ‘80’ and a ‘90’ come from? In order to answer that question you need to be able to compare drives that are measured in yards/meters with something like greens in regulation which is either ‘yes you hit it’ or ‘no you missed.’ You have all these different ways to measure golf but they don’t answer the question about where that scoring difference comes from.

In order to do that you need to be able to measure say driving distance and driving accuracy on a scale that’s comparable to sand play or to putting, and it turns out how to do that is to measure everything in strokes – and that led to strokes gained.

The idea was that you could measure the quality of every shot from a drive to an approach shot, or a sand shot to a putt in this consistent unit of strokes gained – it allows you to measure all parts of the game together.

IGPN: And the PGA Tour have used the putting element of your research…

MB: I had written an article and then presented at the World Scientific Congress of Golf in 2008 with some early findings on this notion of strokes gained applied to the entire game. A couple of years later I was at a conference with a group from MIT [The Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and the PGA Tour was there just letting academics know that this is what their ‘ShotLink^®’ data is and how it’s available to academics through their ‘ShotLink^® Intelligence Programme’. So we presented our work there…[and] that sort of crystallised things at around the same time that the PGA Tour internally was saying ‘we need to come up with a better putting statistic because putts-per-round’s deficiencies were obvious to them.

What the PGA Tour implemented in 2011 was just the ’Strokes Gained – Putting’…I had been looking at short, medium and long putts [to] break it down into sub-categories, but the PGA Tour’s reaction was ‘no, no, the problem is we have too many stats’. They have putting from four-feet, five, six, seven, eight, etc. – so in a way they have too much and too little.

Part of the reason for this book is to let people know that this analysis applies to all parts of the game and that the PGA Tour’s aim has always been to roll out more strokes gained stats in the future. They are planning on rolling out ‘strokes gained – tee to green’ next.  On a TV broadcast or leaderboard at a tournament… you could have ‘total stokes gained’ broken down into tee to green play and putting. That would allow you to see on why somebody is leading or why somebody is only in 10th or 20th place.

Strokes Gained – Putting Example from the PGATour.com:

The statistic is computed by calculating the average number of putts a PGA TOUR player is expected to take from every distance, based on ShotLink® data from the previous season. The actual number of putts taken by a player is subtracted from this average value to determine strokes gained or lost. For example, the average number of putts used to hole out from 7 feet 10 inches is 1.5. If a player one-putts from this distance, he gains 0.5 strokes. If he two-putts, he loses 0.5 strokes. If he three-putts, he loses 1.5 strokes.

A player’s strokes gained or lost are then compared to the field. For example, if a player gained a total of three strokes over the course of a round and the field gained an average of one stroke, the player’s “Strokes Gained Against the Field” would be two.

IGPN: Your research revealed that when you look at all these areas together the relative impact of each area of the game was actually different to traditional thinking – the differences between ‘80’ or ‘90’ golfers, or even between good tour players and the best players, were more because of the long game…

MB: Roughly about two-thirds of a 10-stroke difference comes from shots outside of 100 yards and about one-third comes from shots inside 100 yards and that’s pretty robust across these hugely different skill levels.

There are definitely differences amongst individuals – I’m talking about a typical ‘80’ golfer versus a typical ‘90’ golfer, or a typical professional golfer versus typical top-10 professional.

IGPN: So the traditional emphasis on putting, or at least the general tendency towards ‘drive for show, putt for dough’, is not accurate – what sort of reaction have you had to that?

MB: I’ve heard more from the people that agree with the findings in the book – people are saying ‘finally, I’ve thought this all along’ – and probably a little less from the people that disagree.

I tried in the beginning of the book to figure out what are the strongest arguments that people have for the importance of putting – I tried to say why I thought the arguments fell short, but I’m certainly interested in trying to speak to anyone that has a different view.

A lot of people have pointed to Tiger Woods and have said that the main factor that explains his success is his putting. The reason that seems plausible is that he’s such a good putter – the data bears that out, but he’s also good at everything else, it’s just approach shots where he really dominates. He’s great at everything but really great at approach shots. It’s a surprise to a lot of people but not someone like Sean Foley, his coach.

“Tiger’s approach shots are where he really dominates, he’s great at everything but really great at approach shots.  It’s a surprise to a lot of people but not someone like Sean Foley”

The other thing I’ve found is that when you look at PGA Tour winners, the explanatory power of putting is higher.  Using 10 years of data, I find that putting contributes about 15% of the scoring advantage of the best Tour players compared to average Tour players.  If you look at tournament winners then putting contributes about 35% of the scoring advantage during their wins.

Part of the reason is that when you look at tournament winners, then there’s a different one every week, and whoever wins that week is someone who’s playing well above their norm.

That’s part of the reason that people tend to believe in the importance of putting – they see putts going in from all over the planet when they watch the highlight reels of someone winning a tournament but they don’t show the shots that get them there.

IGPN:  You spoke recently at an MIT Conference with Tiger Woods’ and Justin Rose’s coach, Sean Foley, about how he and other coaches can turn the data produced using strokes gained into actionable data and also on the statistical approach coaches should have – what do you think are the main ways a coach can use this type of information?

MB: It’s definitely easier for coaches whose pupils are PGA Tour golfers because of the ShotLink® data that’s available…the PGA Tour records all of the shots of all of the players at all PGA Tour events.  You can break down a golfer’s strengths and weaknesses fairly accurately [using strokes gained] and that allows a coach like Sean Foley to focus his instruction on what will give the biggest bang for the buck.

It would be ideal if amateurs went to their instructors with strokes gained reports, which detailed their trends, strengths and weaknesses.  It is possible for amateur golfers to collect data on their own shots, using lasers or yardage books, and then use the tables in the book to do the strokes gained analysis on their own.  We’re working on an app that I am hoping will be ready for beta-testing in two or three months that will make it even easier for individuals to do it themselves.

You want to make it as painless as possible for golfers to record their shot information – the PGA Tour pros have it great because someone else is doing it for them – but for amateur golfers data entry is the hurdle.  The good thing is it’s really not that painful for an amateur to record their own data  – I’ve been doing it for years and the app will make it even easier. In my database of amateur golf shots, it shows that putting contributes about the same to scoring differences as it does for the pros. But every golfer is unique, and having strokes gained report for individual golfers would be, I think, quite useful for coaches.

The book shows how you can go out to the practice green or short game area and test your skills by hitting a bunch of putts and shots.  There are tables in the book where you can compare yourself to pros and amateurs of various levels.  It’s fun and you can do it in a short period of time, an hour or so, though it has the disadvantage that it’s not in tournament play and it’s not in the changing conditions that you might get on the course.

In EVERY SHOT COUNTS: Using the Revolutionary Strokes-Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy (Gotham Books, March 10, 2014, Hardcover, eBook) Broadie explains the simple idea behind strokes gained and shows how it applies to all golf shots. He uses it to answer many questions of golf performance: What does it take to win a PGA Tour tournament? What is the secret behind Tiger Woods’ success? Which skills separate amateurs from pros? How much is twenty extra yards of driving distance worth?

EVERY SHOT COUNTS also uses this new data to analyze golf strategy: Lay up or go for it? Play an aggressive or conservative shot off the tee? Not a book about swing mechanics, EVERY SHOT COUNTS uses data and analytics to better understand golf performance and golf strategy. EVERY SHOT COUNTS reveals truths that will change the way golfers of all handicaps look at and play the game.

For more information visit www.everyshotcounts.com and to purchase your copy of EVERY SHOT COUNTS visit the Amazon Bookstore here http://eur.pe/PA76cZ (includes a short preview of the book).

David Leadbetter has been at the forefront of the golf coaching psyche for as long as we can probably remember. Or around the mid-80s depending on how old you are.

His work in carving out a place in history for England’s greatest golfer, Sir Nick Faldo, has helped him build a reputation around the world for being at the forefront of coaching some of the greatest players to play the modern game.

He could also arguably be credited with the development, if not creation, of the ‘tour coach’. A coach that isn’t just with a player for sporadic swing check-ups, but one that forms a key part of the athlete’s team and spends significant time with them both away and at tournaments.

At the 144th Open Championship at St Andrews, the Confederation of Professional Golf caught up with David in his natural habitat – strolling the golfer-dense driving range of a major championship, checking in on his myriad of athletes’ competing that week. Where better to pick his brains about the past 30 years…

“Just the time flies by and you see a whole host of different players now and a new generation of young players…”

Leadbetter’s viewpoint has been one that is only shared with a handful of names in the coaching world – a behind-the-scenes look at what was once one of the sport’s best-kept secrets – the inner workings of a tour professional. A perspective that has enabled him to see the game evolve first hand:

“It’s gone by in a flash really…1990 was when obviously Nick Faldo won here and that was 25 year ago and obviously he had his little swansong here at St Andrews this week and it’s incredible really.

“Just the time flies by and you see a whole host of different players now and a new generation of young players. If you think just this week there’s five amateurs making the cut…it just shows the gap between the professionals and the amateurs is getting closer – we’ve got an amateur leading the tournament…it’s amazing really where the game’s come from and where…it’s going to go to.

“I guess it’s progress – you’ve got better athletes, better equipment – these players are looking like it’s a real job now, it’s a business – there’s always been somebody with a lot of talent to show up and play well and it was almost by happenstance that they were successful.

“But now it’s sort of a plan from a very young age where you know you’ve got junior academies all over the world, you’ve got players from a multitude of countries.”

“It’s really interesting to see how well trained these young players are and how focused they are…”

Leadbetter was very much a trailblazer and was not afraid of adopting new methods and technology in his work, regardless of how it might have looked to his contemporaries:

“It was rather the exception than the rule back in the day when players had coaches – I was sort of a phenomenon from the standpoint of I had a video camera and people were looking saying wow. Nick Faldo lead the way as far as creating better work habits shall we say and having a coach, looking at workouts and looking at nutrition, sports psychologists. Now you have teams of people around, like Jordan Spieth always refer to it as ‘we’ – ‘we are doing this and that’. A swing coach, sports psychologist, the fella that works with him on his physical training.

“Obviously when you’re talking about the amount of money that they’re playing for – Tiger Woods has been a big factor in this – it’s no wonder that you’re seeing people with talent that are pushed to the limit.

“It’s going to be interesting in years to come – one of the things that we’re seeing, especially in the women’s game, is how long careers last. There’s a lot more emphasis on how really putting the reps in at a young age – you’re seeing injuries with these young players that we haven’t seen in the past so that is a factor.

“Just look at Jordan Spieth who’s 21 and a whole host of young players stateside and also in Europe now and in the far east too, who are exceptional players at a much younger age through better coaching and all the rest of it. From things in the past it really is progress in many ways.

“It’s really interesting, looking at it from my perspective, to see how well trained these young players are and how focused they are. Golf is a game where there’s no team aspect, apart form the Ryder or Presidents Cups, but it really is a one-on-one situation and so there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on them to perform at the highest level.”

Whilst the elite and tour golfers have kept him busy for much of his career, Leadbetter is no stranger to teaching a range of golfers. He continues to coach all types of players himself, and, together with his small army of Leadbetter coaches and Academies, has many touch points with the sport across its many and varied ability levels.

This permeation across the sport and his inclusion of many PGA Professionals into his fold has again given him a perspective that few others can have really seen on the ground…

“I think the standard of coaches has definitely improved through the PGAs worldwide getting together with seminars and experts in their field talking to individuals.

“It’s interesting – we do live in an age of technology and all the aspects there are that we’re able to ascertain what’s going wrong with peoples’ swings. We can analyse to the nth degree – as I like to say in the old days when we didn’t have video cameras and it was just our eye and our instincts as teachers and coaches, it was just our opinion which was the main factor. These days we can actually prove how bad people are when we look at Trackman and we look at biomechanics and we can see all these numbers.

So the secret is still how to transmit that information to the average player in a simple fashion where they can out and play. Because we also have to remember that the issue here really is that although we have all this technology which in some ways makes things more complex, people have less time to play and practice than they ever have in the past so if anything you’ve actually got to get the message across in a more simpler fashion so people can have immediate improvement.

The old theories back in the day where you’ve got to work at it for six or nine months with a grip change and this and that and just be patient. But people aren’t patient these days they want it now and if they don’t get it from one source they’ll get it from another.

“I’m glad in many respects that I grew up in the era where we didn’t have the mod cons because you have to use your eyes, instincts and intuition to teach…”

“You can go on the Internet and there’s a million and one ways to fix things so that is a danger. I think it’s important from the teacher’s standpoint…I’m glad in many respects that I grew up in the era where we didn’t have the mod cons because you have to use your eyes, instincts and intuition to teach.

“Where I think a lot of young teachers unfortunately because of the advent of all this technology they tend to rely on that purely so that is a danger.

“But I think it’s nice to know that if you have this detailed knowledge as a teacher, to be able to put it across in a simpler fashion and having the knowledge of maybe not being a sports psychologist as such, but having a psychology approach where you can get people to clear their mind. Those are the things that need to be taught as well to players if they are going to fulfil their potential.

Leadbetter has also been known for his role in developing the golf coach into more of a commercial entity and could arguably be termed the first ‘branded’ golf coach having developed the Leadbetter brand around the globe with over 20 academies and selling millions of books and videos.

But he has also produced a number of theories or swing systems for golfers – most recently his ‘A Swing’ has been the focus of his attention and the development of this approach with his players.

“I’ve written a number of books through the years and instructional videos, and I thought about this for a long while and I really wanted to bring out something that was a little bit different and something that was hopefully a bit simpler.

So this book, ‘The A Swing’, which stands for ‘alternative’, is really an alternative way to swing the club from the standpoint of making a simpler backswing because that’s the area that I think most amateurs get confused by.

They spend so much time and energy trying to create a nice backswing they never really get into the issue of trying to make contact. If you think of cricket or tennis and everything’s about going forward, making contact, hitting the ball towards a target. And yet in golf it’s almost an after-thought – ‘oh yeah look, the ball went down the middle of the fairway.’

I wanted to bring this out and it’s a fairly simple approach and really it’s been out in the States for five weeks now and the feedback has been really good, from people at all levels from beginner to tour level. I’ve got 20 test students and it’s been a couple of years in the making shall we say.

“The essence of this ‘A Swing’ is really helping people to synchronise their body parts – essentially synchronising your arm swing with the body rotation because I think that’s where people really have an issue. If you got someone to do a mini pivot drill without a club, just fold their arms and put the club behind their shoulders or hips or one of the many variations of a pivot drill, you could get them to make a pretty reasonable movement in a very short space of time. But yet you put a club in their hand and that looks nothing like it – it’s almost as if the body is reacting to where the club is – so out of sync with the swing.

‘Synchronisation to me is a big word, regardless of whether you use the ‘A Swing’ or whatever you use. To me when players are really on song, and even amateurs, it’s as if the timing of the swing if you will, where the clubhead is relative to where the body is, you know they really match up well.

“I think Tiger Woods was a perfect example of being out of sync, especially when he gets on the first tee and the first tee shot is inevitably a push shot, and it’s a little bit nervous and the synchronisation is an issue.

“This book’s been well received as I say, there’s some simple drills, and the thing about it is it’s not really a method, I would like to call it an organic approach because it doesn’t have to be perfect – there is a model that you can work towards, but as we all know what you work towards and what you achieve can be two different things.”

“That’s the great thing about this game, you continue learning…and if you’re not learning then you’re going backwards instead of forwards…”

“I could keep doing what I’ve done, which has been fine and some of the stuff I taught back in the nineties is still a factor in my philosophy shall we say. But if you remember the old mobile telephones, those big clunking things, compared now to the iPhone, there’s a big difference.

“It would be strange to say you haven’t gone forward or had any sort of progress in your philosophy or your outlook. So I would say essentially a lot of it is very much based on my original thoughts of the dog wagging the tail syndrome where I really believe the bigger parts, certainly you’ve got to understand how the hands and arms work, but your power, your balance comes very much from how your torso moves and so I haven’t really changed in that so I haven’t really had an epiphany and said ‘ok, whatever I’ve taught the last 40-odd years has been wrong’, because it’s a continual learning process.”

So with this experience and knowledge constantly building up, where does Leadbetter think coaching is going in the future…?

“I think that in many respects golf instruction needs a little bit of a shake-up, the instructional business shall we say.

“The thing I think we’re really got to be careful of in this day and age is that we don’t over complicate things for the masses. When talking with tour players, they can get into it to a certain extent so far as ground force pressure and how exactly what is taking place with the angle of attack and the track, the flush squareness of contact. But the average amateur really probably couldn’t give a hoot, it’s like ‘hey just show me how to hit the ball more consistently, I want to lose fewer balls, have more fun,’ and if we can do that to people there’s an excellent chance of people staying in the game and more people getting into the game.”

Click Here to Listen to the interview in Full (http://eur.pe/1VrKafJ)