It was great to be back at Valderamma this week for the Andalucia Masters. Valderamma is a special place with a special atmosphere and a favourite venue with many people associated with the tour. The weather also was good during the practice rounds of the event which always makes life easier.
On the Tuesday I met up with Chris Wood and we spent some time working on his stroke. Chris has been making some great progress and has been rolling the ball a lot better in recent weeks. The improvements to his stroke have resulted in a lot less side spin on the ball and as a consequence he feels he is hitting better putts. Things could click for Chris soon.
It was also good to meet up and spend some time with Joost Luiten. Joost has been working hard all year and in the last two weeks (Portugal and Valencia) he has had consecutive 3rd places. His best finishes on tour. In Portugal he finished 3rd on the putting stats, holing a great putt on the last that was worth some considerable euro.
At Valderamma we worked on getting Joost back to some set up basics we have been focusing this season, which he had just slipped out off. He was looking good and it would not surprise me if he did well again this week.
Other players I work with included Michael Hoey who is having a really consistent 2nd half the season making cut after cut, while I also spent some time with Ross McGowan for the first time. Ross asked me to take a look at his stroke, so we analysed him on the SAM system. Ross was actually looking pretty good, so hopefully the positive data from the machine will give him some confidence. We did however spend some time looking at his pre shot routine and alignment to help clarify his thinking and strategy, which is probably where he can make the difference at the moment.
This week the greens are small and very quick while the course itself is very tight and demanding. It will suit a straight hitter with a tidy short game, while the winning score wont be as high as the last few weeks.
