Ryder Cup Produces Stellar Three Days!

What a great start to our winter training at the Iberostar Resort in Cadiz Spain. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week saw The Lee Westwood Golf School students from both Cheshire and Essex along with The Darren Clarke Golf School students compete in a Ryder Cup style format.

The weeks leading up to the trip had been peppered with confident talk from all schools of how they were destined to take home the trophy. Day one saw the Lee Westwood second year students from Essex top the table taking an impressive fifteen from a possible twenty points against their fellow Essex year one students. While the Darren Clarke students fell to the might of the Lee Westwood Cheshire students who took eleven and a half points in what must be said was a very close match. Throughout the day their was some stand out performances such as year two Essex student Harry Noble who shot six over par gross and won his match eight up with six holes to play, similar to year two Cheshire student Nathan Grant who played solid golf to win his match seven and six. So at the end of day one the table looked like this. Lee Westwood Golf School Essex second years sat in first place with fifteen points, Lee Westwood Golf School Cheshire held second with eleven and a half points, Darren Clarke Golf School were third with eight and a half points and Lee Westwood Golf School Essex first years rounded out the competition in fourth place.

Day two provided excellent weather conditions once again and with Essex second year students keen to build on their lead they managed to hit the ground running against The Darren Clarke School by taking yet another fifteen points from a possible twenty! A major highlight within this match had to be Essex second year Tom Bright holding his nerve on the last green to stroke home a three foot putt to win his match one up which maintained the teams earlier momentum. The other side of the draw saw Essex first year students outgun the Cheshire student’s eleven and a half points to eight and a half. Essex first year Ryan Craig was a particular highlight as he managed to continue his winning streak in taking a four and three victory against a difficult  Cheshire opponent second year Sam Ruston. Despite the loss the Cheshire students also managed to produce some superb golf case and point being Matt Osborn catching fire in a six and four victory. At the end of day two Lee Westwood Golf School Essex second years’ maintained top spot on thirty points while also extending their lead to ten points from the still second placed Lee Westwood Golf School Cheshire who moved to twenty. Lee Westwood Golf School Essex first years began their fight back and leap froged Darren Clarke into third place with sixteen and a half points while Darren Clarke slipped into fourth finishing the day on thirteen and a half points.

The final day brought an air of nervous tension and excitement as Essex second year students aimed to close out a wire to wire victory while Cheshire and Essex year one students were desperate to claim runner up. The Darren Clarke students stood between Essex first years and a possible runner up finish and proved stern opponents. Fraser McDonald gathered the earlier momentum by winning his game seven and five however Stephen Young of the Darren Clarke school quickly flipped the scales by also winning his match by the same margin in the following group. Without doubt Essex first year Nick Homewood showed what he was truly made of in coming back from the dead in his match where after nine holes he was six down and managed to claw back a half! This proved to be the final blow as Essex first years took twelve and a half points to Darren Clarke’s seven and half. The main match of the day followed after lunch and saw Essex second years take on their nearest challengers in the Cheshire students. Once again as they had done all week team Essex showed no mercy early on with Chris Chaplin taking an impressive six and five victory, all though it must be said some of the credit should go to his outstanding caddy for the day our very own coach Simon Dainty! Cheshire quickly stole the momentum back with Gap year Andrew Ni taking a three and two victory to make it six of the last seven matches going in favour of Cheshire. With Essex under pressure and victory on the line they stood firm and managed to sweep eight of the last ten matches to ensure they would be crowned the 2016 Ryder Cup Champions!

After three days of glorious golf the final table looked like this. Lee Westwood Golf School Essex second years took first place with an outstanding forty two point total while Lee Westwood Golf School first years stole second place and runner up with a brilliant fight back and final total of twenty nine points. Lee Westwood Golf School Cheshire despite some fine golf slipped back into third with a final total of twenty eight points while Darren Clarke remained in fourth place with twenty one points. Upon reflection the greatest result has to be the spirit in which this match was played. Each team conducted themselves as professionals and provided golf of the highest quality. Already our mind is turning towards next years winter training to see if Essex second years can defend their crown or if another school can steal victory!

New Year New Start New Possibilities

The first day back after the Christmas break is always a mixture of excitement, anticipation, reflection and organised chaos to a degree. As most people begin to settle in to a new year at a leisurely pace our students and staff begin in high gear. There are a number of reasons for this with a key one being our warm weather training camp in Spain being just one week away! However it goes deeper than this. As people and in particular golfers we see the New Year as a chance to start fresh and improve ourselves both physically and mentally. Within our schools we try to always instil a high level of goal setting and time management and with a new calendar year it is a great opportunity for us to allow our students to look back on what they have achieved and how they might go about consolidating this and improving on it in the coming year.  

Our schools provide endless opportunities for our students throughout the year such as Order of Merit awards, British Schools and Intercollegiate events, field trips to facilities such as the PING factory and golf events like The Dunhill Links Championship not to mention warm weather training in Spain. With so many opportunities it can be easy to left feeling overwhelmed and this is why it is important for not just our students but for each of us to take a second and ask what do we really want to achieve this year? More importantly how do I plan to achieve this? Our students have to physically write down these questions which in essence make them more real and also ensure they reflect on their answers. Many write their initial goals and plans in the New Year to realize they are not relevant or on par with what they want to achieve and begin to restructure their thoughts and how best to achieve the goals which are now important to them. It is not so much the content of this process but more the time taken to ask how I can get better which is so important and allows our students to keep progressing even when faced with adversity or struggles within their game throughout the year.

Whatever our students achieve this year it will no doubt be a brilliant success and to see them walk back after Christmas with a bounce in their step with thoughts of conquering the globe is a sight to behold and if anything is the true most wonderful time of year!

Happy New Year from the Lee Westwood Golf School.