Programme To Coach Younger Players At Puttenham Golf Club

Published on: 29 Jan, 2020
Updated on: 29 Jan, 2020

A Guildford golf club has launched a programme to help and coach younger people who wish to take up the sport.

Like many others, Puttenham Golf Club, one of the oldest in South East of England, has been struggling to maintain an active junior section.

Now, former club chairman Colin Reardon and fellow golfer Colin Price have volunteered to take on the role of junior organisers.

To do this they enrolled on an ASQ Level 1 coaching course, delivered by the Professional Golfers’ Association at the Meon Valley Golf Club in Hampshire.

Colin Reardon and Colin Price with their coaching course certificates.

The two-day course, held in November, covered many aspects of coaching for juniors and beginners; not just the skills required, but roles and responsibilities, preparation, behaviour management, risk analysis and more.

Basic skills covered included putting, chipping and bunker play, pitching and full swing. Each skill required attendees to conduct “micro-coaching” sessions for the other course attendees.

Passing the course required successfully answering a multiple-choice questionnaire and delivering a 15-minute coaching session on one of the key coaching elements to a group of other course attendees under strict time controls.

The two Puttenham Colins were the only volunteers on the course, with the other attendees being young PGA professional trainees looking to develop their coaching skills and move on to a ASQ Level 2 and further coaching qualifications.

Colin Reardon said: “As a 20-handicap golfer, I felt it was important that I understood the fundamentals of coaching the juniors.

“My swing has been likened to that of trying to kill a snake in a phone box, so I didn’t want to pass this on to our juniors. The basics taught on the course were incredibly useful and have helped my game too.”

For more information about Puttenham Golf Club, visit https://www.puttenhamgolfclub.co.uk/club.