It was back to the European Tour this week and Gleneagles for the Johnny Walker Classic. This is a regular event on the European Tour and no matter what time of year they have it the weather always seems to be terrible and the greens always poor. This year was no different.
On The Tuesday I met up with Rob Coles in the morning, as I hadn't seen Rob for while. Rob has been having a good season this year and is looking to finish strong for the remainder of it.
Rob had crept into a few bad habits at set up which we corrected and while he was also 'fanning the club open' slightly going back, so I gave a him some drills to help focus on a better backswing position.
In the afternoon I met up with Michael Hoey. With Michael we spent most of the session working on controlling his swing length and tempo. Michael can creep into a couple of bad habits which affect his ability to control his speed and which also cause deviation to his path.
One of the drills we did with Michael that really helps him with his pace was to set up a box using 4 tee pegs. The front of the box forms an entry point and the back of the box an exit point. The Box was 10 foot long and then we placed a tee peg 15ft from the box from which we putted from.
The Aim of the drill is to put the first ball just past the first tee peg and short of the exit point. Then on the 2nd ball put it just past the first ball but short of the exit point. 3rd ball put it past the 2nd ball but sort of the exit.
You can guess the pattern here. The more balls you can get in the zone without hitting them short of the previous ball or past the exit point the better. As soon as you are short or long the game is over. See how many balls you can score. This is great practice drill for you to instinctively train pace control and also at the same time it gets you 'external' and into the roll of the ball rather than focusing in technique.
On Tuesday I also met up with Chris Wood. Chris was stroking it well and I was happy with the work he had done over the last month. He hasn't quite been getting the results recently but I feel strongly something pretty good is round the corner with Chris.
It was also good to meet up with Ollie Fisher. Ollie's win the week before at the Czech Open was really satisfying for me. Purely because I know how hard Ollie works and although he hasn't been getting the results over the last year he has always displayed a great attitude and commitment. I worked with him when he was an amateur and then we started again during his second year on tour, so as you can imagine it was great to see him clinch his first victory. I saw him last when he came to the studio and as you would expect after holing some good putts down the stretch his stroke was looking good in Gleneagles, so it was a case of more of the same please!
On Wednesday the weather was typical Johnny Walker weather with showers throughout the day. With it being pro am day I walked the course with Chris Wood and Thomas Bjorn separately. Thomas was looking good in practice and he if can translate that into tournament play some good results are around the corner.
My next event is Holland for the Dutch Open next week.
