St Andrews Links Blog

Jam-packed summer at the Academy

Phew, looks like we can finally draw breath! August has come to an end, and here at the St Andrews Links Golf Academy it has been a busy summer. Throughout June, July and August we delivered over 1,600 hours of golf instruction!

So what’s been going on? Well, we’ve seen visitors from all over the world come through our doors, with golfers from Poland, Kazakhstan, China, America and Germany to name just a few. We also welcomed many top tour players during the British Open which was played at nearby Muirfield. Our Junior Golf Schools were another huge success and the continued development of our junior programme, SALJGA, was great to see. It all goes to show that you never quite know what to expect at the Golf Academy.

Women’s British Open

One highlight was definitely seeing the Ricoh Women’s British Open played on the Old Course. I really enjoyed watching the world’s best women in action and, from an instructional point of view; I certainly think we can all learn a lot from them. It’s a great advert for technique over strength and rhythm over power.

Judy Murray

During the tournament, I got the chance to teach Judy Murray, mother of our brand new Wimbledon Champion and soon to be knighted (surely?), Andy. The nerves were jangling for me, as the lesson took place on the official tournament range, so we were practicing right next to the players – #daunting. But it went great; Judy (a relative beginner) was brilliant to work with and showed real determination to improve. After a few not so good shots at the beginning we spoke about technique and from then on the improvement was amazing and she began hitting some really nice shots. And I’m not just saying that to be kind, they really were!

One of the real rising stars in Ladies’ golf, Lydia Ko, spotted us and came over to introduce herself as she’s a big tennis fan. After watching Lydia flush a wonderful drive into the range, Judy stepped up and smashed her best drive of the day long and straight into the sky. Talk about pulling it out the bag when it really matters! Anyway, it was a great experience and I hope Judy keeps playing as there was some real potential there.

Looking ahead

So what’s autumn got in store? Well the University Golf Team has just started its pre-season after returning from a trip to Texas. There are some new recruits to the team this year so stay tuned for updates. We also have Junior Golf Schools running during the October School holidays. The newest major champion, Jason Dufner really enjoyed chatting with the kids when he visited our Summer Golf School in July; I think it must’ve inspired him…

 

Words by Blair Cross, Academy Instructor