We need to develop our young golfers

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16: This past weekend Henry Brunton visited Tucker’s Point Club.

Brunton is one of the best coaches in the world and a pioneer in the development of golf.

He helped create the Long-term Development Athlete, Sport for Life Programme for golf in Canada.

Sport for Life is a movement to improve the quality of sport and physical activity.

It links sport, education, recreation and health and aligns community and national programming.

LTAD is a seven-stage training and competition pathway guiding an individual’s experience in sport and physical activity from infancy through all phases of adulthood.

LTAD represents a paradigm shift in the way we lead and deliver sport and physical activity.

One of the keys to developing the athlete development in golf was to bring all the various organizations together — Bermuda Golf Association, Junior Golf and PGA of Bermuda.

During the weekend Henry conducted seminars and meetings with all of them and is a catalyst for bringing all three together with a shared vision.

A series of clinics and assessments were conducted for junior and adult players for their short game, golf fitness and ball flight.

The feedback was discussed with the individual players and a benchmark was established for future progress and a strategy could now be created for improvement.

LTAD gives us the pathway and information for us to develop players at the right speed and the correct amount of practice.

For instance, it is important not to over specialize in golf at too early an age. Kids should be exposed to many activities such as learning to swim or run or kick a ball.

In other words, develop the basic tools first, so when a child comes face-to-face with a golf programme, he or she is well equipped to optimize his or her experience.

However, when we are trying to develop our very top players that will represent us on the world stage a minimum of 40 hours of practice and playing is required per week or they will not be able to perform to their potential.

As Henry commented: “All things being equal, the player that hits the most balls, will be the winner”.

Craig Brown has been a visionary of the LTAD in Bermuda and has been instrumental in educating many of the other sports in Bermuda to its benefit.

Passionate

Craig has been passionate about the need to bring this to Golf and hopefully with all three bodies now getting behind this vision a plan can be made of how we can make this a reality.

The only requirement now is for funding to develop this programme.

We have facilities at Tucker’s Point for developing all parts of the game, but there is room for improvement at other locations, especially for the short game.

Funding will need to come from several sources to allow the full LTAD to be rolled out.

Principally it is hoped that a number of corporate sponsors will be able to facilitate some of the programmes but some government funding and time will be needed to get this programme to a point where we will be able to get reasonable results in the Eisenhower Trophy or even to consider participation in the Olympics.

Henry’s opinion is that focus should be on the players that are actually playing the game initially. His comment “It is important to grow the base of players, but it is more important to develop the players that you have”.

This in itself will grow the game.

Paul Adams is the PGA director of Golf at Rosewood Tucker’s Point.