Archive for May, 2011

On our travels either installing studio or simply visiting customers we get to see how other countries and clubs embrace new ideas and systems to help develop the game of golf at their Academies. 

In the spring we have been installing 4 studios at Golf Club St. Leon-Rot just south of Frankfurt, Germany. One early evening as I arrived to prepare for a day’s training the next day Mervyn who had been installing the studios that week told me to come and have a look at what was happening on the range that evening.  To my surprise the range was absolutely full with kids and when I mean full there were at least 120 of them hitting balls or having tuition.  Mervyn said that while he was there this was a regular occurrence in an evening/late afternoon. So I had to investigate further. That evening I sat down with the Academy Director Fabian Bünker for a dinner and asked him if there was a special event happing with juniors this week on the golf range.

His reply was “No, our junior academy is my main focus and he and his team of 8 coaches concentrate in developing the kids from a young age to feed their first teams and ultimately the national side”. He said that “St Leon Rot have a team of coaches for the juniors and then a team of coaches for the adult teams and member with a full time physio as well. Planning for the future is one of their main aims not just to develop golfers to a high level but they realise that this will also benefit the club in the long term. 

It doesn’t stop with a great learning centre and range.  The facilities start for the kids with a short 9 hole course with holes between 20 – 50 yards long.  Then they progress 9 hole longer course, 18 hole course and a championship course. They have developed a clear path for kids to learn and progress even from a young age.  To see more in my interview with Fabian follow this link to Junior golf Development.

So what is the mission of the regarding the Acdemy at Golf Club- St. Leon-Rot Fabian??

“The mission of Golf Club St. Leon-Rot is to be an innovative, reliable and service-oriented club. We want to offer the best environment, infrastructure and facilities for golf. We have implemented a Junior Development Program, in which we commit to support the young regional children due to the Clubs ambitious athletic attitude and its strong connection to the region. The whole Program is based on a five-pillar-strategy. The five pillars are golf skills, athletic skills, mental skills, social skill and skills for school and job. Besides preparing talented players for competitive golf, our main goal is to build up their personality in terms of concentration, coordination, discipline, sense of fair play, politeness, ability to work in a team, good behavior and manners.
In our Junior Development Program we instruct over 500 children in groups of four to twelve kids. We have ten fully qualified golf professionals and six golf professional apprentices. Our goal is to develop players for our Men- and Ladies-Teams, to strengthen their top-position in Germany and Europe. The Men-Team is seven-time German Champion and European-Club-Trophy-Winner. The Ladies are four-time German Champion and won the European Club Trophy four-times, too. We also have the vision, that one of our players is part of the European Ryder Cup Team in 2018. To make this vision come true, we implemented a special high-level-sponsorship - the “Club 2018”.
To secure this number one spot in Germany we coach the teams in golf-, athletic- and mental-skills on a daily base. We work together with a special educated golf-athletic-coach and a fully qualified mental-coach.

Every team has once a week a team training golf and team training athletic. Additionally we arrange multiple mental-workshops for the teams and for single player. On holidays we host camps, were the kids have a full-time support. 
Again the Golf Club St. Leon-Rot is always interested in modern and high-quality infrastructure. Alongside two 18-hole courses and one 9-hole course, we offer a big pitching-, chipping- and putting-area, plus a five-hole bambini-course. Our driving-range with 54 boxes has 22 canopied and 15 heated boxes. Furthermore we have three video-boxes and one SAM-Putt-Lab-Studio. To increase the level of infrastructure we re-engineer our video boxes, build a fourth video-box and change from Scope- and Trackman-technology, to the new GASP-System. The GASP Golf Swing Analysis Software is very versatile and modern Video-System. It combines a force plate, a 3D sensor vest and a launch monitor all in one system. The GASP-Software provides on-screen drawing tools, action replay and simultaneous multi camera capture.

The Golf Club St. Leon-Rot is proud to offer this new innovative-system to all members and guests. ”