THE PRACTICE ACADEMY

Donaghadee Golf Club Practice Academy in Full Swing!

The unrivalled Donaghadee Golf Club Practice Academy made local headlines when it was officially launched by Northern Irish golfing legend Norman Drew on 30th June 2010, and has since enjoyed a glorious summer with many, many rounds being played by our enthusiastic members and even receiving a nomination for the prestigious Turf Pro Project of the Year Award!

Below, Club Professional Gordon Drew and Assistant Professional Lindsay Boyd provide an update on the facility and how our members are finding even just a few rounds on the Practice Academy makes such a difference to your overall game!

Gordon Drew, PGA Head Professional
As a PGA Professional and golf instructor, the development of the new Practice Academy at Donaghadee was warmly welcomed. This facility provides the opportunity for player’s of all abilities to improve their games, allowing skills to be developed from the smallest of chip shots to the full swing.

David Leadbetter is one of the world’s leading golf instructors and emphasises the importance of improvement with the short game in his book Positive Practice:

"Over half the shots you play in 18 holes are from within 100 yards of the flag. So it makes sense that at least half your practice time should be devoted to sharpening these short-game skills. Probably more." (Leadbetter: 1997:10)

The Practice Academy has proved popular with the Ladies Section and our more ‘senior’ members of the Club; many of whom take short game lessons and enjoy playing the 9-hole Practice Academy course to improve their skills. The feedback following these sessions has been very positive with much praise given to the new facility and to the improvement it is making to the members’ game.

Lindsay Boyd, PGA Professional
There has been a great amount of interest shown in the Practice Academy from members at all levels and we took over 50 bookings in the summer alone. The Practice Academy proved to be the ideal facility for the Junior Golf Ireland Summer School for juveniles, as it enabled a much larger range of shots to be taught. All participants and their parents gave high praise to the new facilities and to the scheme, and as a result many newcomers have joined the Club as members.

Looking ahead - Winter Play
Renowned golf course architect Howard Swan of Swan Golf Designs has cleverly incorporated excellent drainage into the design of the main pitching green, and with the superb synthetic tee areas, the Practice Academy will be open for play throughout the winter months.

Lindsay is currently developing ideas for more group sessions next year and said, “It really is a great facility that I strongly encourage all members to use and support. It gives you the opportunity to really improve on a lot of those ‘trouble’ shots and please don’t worry if your ‘troubles’ persist I will be glad to help – for a small fee of course!”

To book your time on the Practice Academy and iron out some of those trouble shots, please telephone the Pro-Shop on 028 91 882 392.