SHORT GAME:A state-of-the-art golf academy has opened at Slieve Russell Hotel Golf and Country Club following an investment to create a centre of golfing excellence.
The Academy combines world-class facilities with expert tuition from PGA professional Gordon Smyth. The new academy features the latest golf tuition technology including the V1 video swing analysis system which allows golfers to work with the Pro at the Slieve Russell to correct all areas from posture to backswing.
Catering for everyone from all-weather golfers to those new to the game, and everyone in between, the academy’s facility also include a five-bay floodlit range, short game area and a large practice putting green.
Slieve Russell also have a nine hole golf academy course where beginners get on course coaching.
Castletroy aim to bring rules up to scratch
Handicaps and the Council of National Golf Unions system will be the main discussion points when the annual delegates’ meetings are held in all four provinces on Tuesday, November 27th.
Castletroy in Munster have put forward a motion that all players entering competitions must complete 18 holes before their score may be considered as a qualifying score for competition or handicap purposes. Every score returned directly affects the standard scratch on the day under the present system. However golfers can enter qualifying competitions and elect to play 9, 14 or 16 holes and leave the golf course. All these players are automatically awarded a 0.1 increase in handicap. By failing to finish the course players are directly affecting the standard scratch for the competition leading to an artificially low standard scratch on the day.
Wexford and Tandragee Clubs also have motions on the CONGU system down for discussion. Leinster delegates will meet at Carton House, Munster at the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow, Connacht at Abbey Hotel, Roscommon and Ulster at Shandon Park GC.
Mahanic's foul-mouthed rant costs him his job
Matt Mahanic, Huntingdon College men’s golf coach, was dismissed from his coaching duties last week after a profanity-laced rant he delivered to his team was circulated around the internet. A recording of Mahanic addressing his golf team after it finished 11th of 12 teams at the Gordin Classic went viral on Deadspin on Friday morning local time. According to the accompanying article, the recording was made by one of Mahanic’s players in the team bus.
The authorities at Huntingdon College, Montgomery in Alabama announced Mahanic’s dismissal in a statement on its website on Friday.
Final hole heroics clinch the title for Baumgart
Michael Baumgart from Corballis Golf Club came from five shots back to clinch the Golf Digest Turkish Airlines Grand Final 2012 at the Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links in north Dublin last week.
At the halfway point, Valerie Cotter from Powerscourt, who was last year’s runner-up, was leading the field on 40 points. John O’Donovan from Slievenamon was just one point behind.
On day two after 17 holes O’Donovan had edged ahead and so, the entire championship came down the last hole.
It proved a disastrous one for O’Donovan as he scratched the hole.
Cotter bogeyed the hole and scored two points but it was to be Baumgart’s day, as he sank his final putt for par and three points, to reverse a five-point deficit to become the Golf Digest Turkish Airlines Grand Champion 2012.
St Leon-Rot to host Solheim Cup
The Ladies European Tour have announced that Golf Course St Leon-Rot in Germany will host the 2015 Solheim Cup.
Golf Course St Leon-Rot is located near Heidelberg and only an hour’s drive from Frankfurt. The club has hosted many leading professional and amateur events including the Deutsche Bank SAP Open with triple champion Tiger Woods, as well as one of Europe’s leading youth tournaments, the Allianz German Boys and Girls Open.
In addition to boasting 36 holes of championship golf, the venue has built some of the most spectacular practice facilities in the world with the aim of developing junior golfers.
skeenan@irishtimes.com
