The Golf Academy News - Autumn 2007

Follow the link for a PDF version of the Golf Academy Newsletter Autumn 07

The Golf Academy has yet again seen growth this year with our numbers increasing to 42. These have been spread across all year groups except the Upper 6th, and have come from Scotland, England, Spain, Germany, Lithuania and Austria.

To ensure the level of coaching continues to improve we have made a couple of changes this year. Firstly we have added another coach Norman Huguet who is a PGA Professional at Musselburgh Golf Club and he coaches at school every Thursday afternoon. Also we have now made coaching available to the senior squad during lesson time, allowing them to book a lesson with me during day preps. Finally we have upgraded our coaching technology with the addition of the EDH Flight Scope ball flight analyzer to go with our Dartfish Video Analysis system. This gives us very detailed feedback on a player's ball flight which can assist in fitting clubs and shafts as well as help in determining carry distances of a players clubs and their consistency of strike during a session.

The schedule for this term has been a combination of coaching, practice and competition with a focus on swing development over the winter. Each player has undergone a video analysis session with either me, Derek or Norman to give them a few key points to focus on.

Also new for this term we had Jamie Edwards from Trained Brain (www.trained-brain.com) visit to give a lecture to all the golfers on the mental side of the game. The lecture was extremely interesting focusing on areas such as pre shot routine, visualization and practice technique. All the golfers confirmed they got a lot out of the session which I can believe as I have never seen them all sit still for two hours without a break. We will continue to work closely with Jamie in the future to develop our mental training further.

This term we have also developed our strength and conditioning training opening it up to all golfers. Andy Douglas the new strength and conditioning coach runs two sessions a week, one for the senior squad and one for the development squad. In these sessions he has worked on several areas, training in the correct use of the gym and lifting techniques, strength training, and cardiovascular training. The strength training has included free weights and use of the multi gym for an all body work out, most of which can also be completed during the holidays using dumbbells. Finally the cardiovascular training has included testing over a 3km run and training using a 20 minute training programme, again they can continue this training through the holidays.

The Order of Merit has got off to a very competitive start with a lot of jostling for places over the first five events. This is shown by only three of the current top 6 maintaining their places since the first event. Some impressive performances are as follows:

After a good result in the last event Tom Scott has won himself a place in the top 6 and will represent the school in the next HMC Foursomes match next term against RGS Newcastle. Tom still only in the fourth form will be the youngest member of the team since the qualifying stages two years ago.

Phillip Buckendorf after a term of very hard work has finished the term in 7th place and ranks as the highest new player.

Jess Wilcox who has also just joined the school this year into the fourth form has had an impressive start where she is currently ranked 18th and leading girl.

Finally Fiona Freeth had an outstanding round in the last event of the term shooting 2 under par over the front nine of Craigielaw despite a bogey on the last. This makes Fiona the youngest ever winner of an Order of Merit event as she is still in the 3rd form.

Our defense of the North Region of the HMC Foursomes Championship started with our first ever away match which was played against King Edward VII Lytham. We traveled down the night before and after a luxurious night in a travel lodge outside Preston we headed over to Fairhaven Golf Club for the match. There was much debate in the bus on the way down that Fairhaven was in fact the course that had a bunker for every day of the year. However on arrival and inspection of the course planner we were disappointed not to see that many bunkers!! Later on though we were reliably informed that it had in past had the 365 bunkers, but had filled many of them in to reduce maintenance costs. The team played very well on a beautiful day to win two matches comprehensively, but unfortunately lost the 18th in the final match to half the game. Our second round is against RGS Newcastle in January.

The qualification stages of the ISGA Championships also started this term with both our A and B teams in action. The A team were to play first against Craigholm which they were quite shocked to find out on arrival was a girls school. Despite the initial concern of the possibility of loosing to a girl they played very well to win all three matches convincingly. The B team drew Gordonstoun's A team, and the match was played at Craigielaw. Again on what seemed to be a summers day in the middle of November, the team was unlucky to loose 2-1. Joel Westwell led the team well winning the opening game 6 & 4 but unfortunately both Peter MacKay and Michael Wiederholt lost the 18th hole to loose their matches. Our A team will now play Gordonstoun at home in the semi finals of the Scottish region.

We have also played several other matches this term against St Leonard's, Gullane Juniors and Gordonstoun. I have selected the teams for these matches on a rotational basis to try and give all players the opportunity to represent the school. In these matches the boys and girls have played very well in some testing conditions often giving a lot of shots.

Finally I would like to wish every one a Merry Christmas as we look forward to what I hope will be a very successful spring term.

The Golf Academy News - Summer 2007

Follow the link for a PDF version of Golf Academy Newsletter Summer 07

It has been another highly successful term for the Golf Academy both in team and individual competitions.

Internally the Order of Merit has had to take a back seat this term due to school matches and the pressures of exams, but this did not take from the excitement of the final event when Angus Cappi shot a fantastic 3 under par to snatch the title away from Tom Hayes. This means that in the four years the event has been running the title has yet to be defended, so that is something Angus can try and change next year. The final Order of Merit event of the year was also the School Stroke Play Championships which eventually got played in the second last week of term after having to be postponed twice due to bad weather. The event was a huge success with some excellent scoring won by Angus Cappi shooting the 3 under par I mentioned earlier, second was Tom Hayes on level par and third George Munsey who shot two over. This also won George the Junior title from Tom Scott in second and Jamie Gavin in third. The Handicap event was won by Adam Wraight who shot a gross 74 net 68, so well done to all of them.

Externally the first major event of the term was the inaugural Independent Schools Golf Association National Finals. This was made up of the winners of the 17 regions who congregated at Hollins Hall in the Yorkshire Dales. The teams consisted of three players, each playing 36 holes over two days of scratch stableford, with the team score made up of the best two scores per day. The Loretto team members were Tom Hayes, Angus Cappi and Andrew Baillie. The weather on the first day was very challenging with high winds and driving rain. The boys did not complain and were very professional in their preparation and approach to the round but were disappointed when they did not perform as well as they had hoped placing fourth after the first round. After a relaxing evening and attending the official dinner, the weather for the second round was far better. Again the boys were extremely focused setting their sights on trying to climb the leader board. Unfortunately the rub of the green did not go their way and we actually dropped back to finish in fifth place. Although the team was very disappointed with their play, fifth place was still a respectable result and a very good learning experience for them.

This placed slightly more pressure on the final two qualifying matches for our defense of the other major British Schools Championship, The HMC Foursomes. The semi final was played at Craigielaw against King's Maclesfield. Although they put up some tough opposition we played very well to win the match 3-0. The final was due to be played on a neutral course however due to the other semi final being played very late Merchant Taylor's, Crosby decided to come and play it at Craigielaw. Again this was a very close match, but we held our nerve on the back nine to etch out a 2-1 victory to book our place in the grand finals to be held at Cotswold Hills in July.

The summer term as usual has also been very busy playing all of the school matches. Due to the strength of Loretto golf, a lot of these matches are now being played off handicap and due to the size of the Academy most of the matches were contested by our junior players and those outside of the top six. This has been an excellent learning experience for the players who at times have been giving up to 14 shots (even using ¾ difference!!), but they have maintained their focus and held their nerve to complete an unbeaten season.

There have also been three big external stroke play events this term. Firstly was the Edinburgh Schools Championship which was held at Silverknowes Golf Course where we entered all members of the Golf Academy. Unfortunately several of our top players did not perform at their best, however due to our strength in depth we still managed four players in the top ten and nine in the top twenty with Adam Wraight finishing second and Joel Westwell third.

The East Lothian Schools was held at Dunbar Golf Club this year and is our qualifying event for the Scottish Schools Championships, where the top three qualify to represent East Lothian. Our top players performed far better this time and we nearly completed a clean sweep with both Angus Cappi and Tom Hayes qualifying to represent East Lothian with scores of 73 and 75 respectively on a windy day. In the team event which is played off handicap we came tied second.

Finally the Scottish Schools was played over Gullane 2 and 3 this year on a calm summer's day. Unfortunately Angus had to withdraw due to a Math's re-sit leaving only Tom Hayes from Loretto. The scoring was very good and Tom got off to an excellent start shooting three under par in the morning round on number 2 to lye in second place and two shots off fellow East Lothian team mate Neil Henderson. In the afternoon Tom was a little unlucky at times but he fought hard and ground and another excellent score of two under par for a total of five under. This unfortunately dropped him further behind Neil, but still confirmed his second place finish as well as East Lothian winning the team championship for the first time in about twenty years. Well done Tom.

Tom Hayes and Angus Cappi also competed in the Scottish Region of the Faldo Junior Series. This was played over two rounds, firstly at Blairgowrie Golf Club and secondly The Carrick. Tom again performed exceptionally well in the Under 21's winning both events and qualifying through the regional finals. Angus also performed very well in the Under 18's tying for second after round one, but unfortunately dropped to fifth after round two and outside the qualifying positions.
The summer term also hosts the Simmers Cup and Under 11 Championship for prep and primary schools. This year the event moved to Haddington Golf Club so that both events could be played at the same venue. The moved proved very popular amongst the players and with the help of the Scottish Golf Union and their van the event was again a huge success.

Looking ahead to next term I would like to introduce Angus Cappi as the new Captain of golf. Angus has a hard act to follow succeeding Tom Hayes but I am sure he has learnt a lot from Tom and he will do an excellent job next year.

Finally it just leaves me to wish you all a very successful summer of golf and congratulate all the players on an excellent year of results.