Mobile Coaching Clinic’s Free Lessons Around Europe
It’s free… it’s delivered by PGA qualified coaches… it’s fun and informative at the same time. And so far some 600 golf enthusiasts of all ages, both genders and any (or no) handicap level have taken advantage of what’s on offer in three different countries.
This is the RCEDT-funded series of coaching clinics currently being staged by the local PGAs at European Tour events across the continent as an alternative means of either introducing newcomers to golf or offering a helping hand to improvers or even the low handicapper.
Ideal portable facilities of large ‘blow up’ driving nets, tee off mats and clubs are provided by Provision golf who are operating the scheme on behalf of The PGAs of Europe and the European Tour.
Each national PGA who accepts the opportunity simply has to provide a coach or coaches to man the facility, located in the tournament village, and carry out a one-on-one lesson to any member of the public requesting it.
Each adult participant has his or her swing videoed and afterwards an e-mail is sent to them with their video clip from the sponsors thanking them for attending.
The Open Championships in Portugal (Estoril), Spain (Catalunya) and Italy (Turin) were the first to willingly take the chance to get more and more people bitten by the golf bug. Four more were scheduled to follow in France (Open de France Alstom, Le Golf National), Sweden (SAS Masters, Barsebäck G&CC), Czech Republic (Moravia Silesia Open, Prosper Golf Resort) and Holland (KLM Open, Kennemer G&CC).
A typical reaction to the staging of the mobile clinic came from Keith Barrett, Director of the PGA of Portugal, who commented: “This was a very successful promotion for the PGA of Portugal.
“It gave us the opportunity to raise the profile of our association, meet new potential students and demonstrate to a wider audience the benefits of receiving coaching advice from qualified PGA professionals.”
