Five Team Canada athletes commit to NCAA golf programs
During the mid-November early signing period, five Team Canada Development Squad athletes signed National Letters of Intent to commit to NCAA golf programs for the 2017-18 season.
On the women’s side, three athletes made their official announcements to join NCAA Div I programs next year. Surrey, B.C., native Hannah Lee will join the Oklahoma Sooners, a three-time Big 12 Conference Championship winner. Lee will fall under the guidance of the Sooners’ Head Coach, Veronique Drouin-Luttrell, a Quebec native and two-time Big 12 Coach of the Year recipient.
Mississauga, Ont., product Chloe Currie will head to South Carolina to attend the College of Charleston, a Division I program in the Colonial Athletic Association Conference. The Cougars are three-time conference champions.
Delta, B.C., native Mary Parsons signed in favour of joining the Indiana Hoosiers program. Dating back to 1986, the Hoosiers have recorded seven Big 10 Championship titles.
@maryyparsons @lee_hannahh @chloe_currie27 @TheGolfCanada exciting future for these players #proud pic.twitter.com/j6xwdMf3pw
— ann carroll (@AnnAnncarroll) November 11, 2016
On the men’s side, former Team Alberta teammates Max Sekulic (Rycroft, Alta.) and Chandler McDowell (Springbrook, Alta.) both signed on the dotted line to attend Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz. The pair graduated to the development squad this season together, and will continue their journey next year as members of the Grand Canyon Antelopes.
The early signing period comes to a close on Nov. 16; uncommitted athletes will be eligible to sign agreements once again during the regular signing period from Apr. 12 – Aug. 1, 2017.
What’s in the bag – Hugo Bernard
Hugo Bernard added to an impressive campaign this summer with a two-stroke victory at the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship hosted at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club. Take a look at the Mont-St-Hilaire, Que., product’s equipment in the “what’s in the bag” segment below:
What’s in the bag – Naomi Ko
Naomi Ko captured the 2016 Canadian Junior Girls title by a four-stroke margin at the Links at Penn Hills in Shubenacadie, N.S. The 18-year-old Victoria, B.C. native shares the equipment she used to best the field in the “what’s in the bag” segment below:
What’s in the bag – Jared du Toit
Kimberley, B.C., product Jared du Toit ignited the nation during the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club where he finished T9 amongst some of the best golfers in the world. Here’s what clubs he used during his run at the Open to help him win the Gary Cowan Award for low amateur:
Get a grip
In Canada we are blessed with beautiful landscapes and a seemingly endless choice of fantastic golf courses but we have a much shorter season than most of us would like. While not ideal, this hiatus allows time in the off-season for the short-term results to be less important.
One of the best changes you can make in the winter is to your grip because of the time it takes to become comfortable. For the majority of players, a strong grip (positions not pressure) produces a right to left shape and a weaker grip produces a left to right shape. However, Hall of Fame members who were faders of the golf ball often had a strong grip, which flies directly in the face of this information.
The correct grip is much more than how many knuckles are visible and an often overlooked angle at address could be your way to have improved positions at impact. There will be some experimentation here to see what works for you and I would encourage you to work with your PGA of Canada professional to make this fast and efficient.
In these two pictures above featuring Team Canada’s Maddie Szeryk, you will see two grips (A & B) that are viewed as being strong (three knuckles clearly visible). While these two grips look similar in terms of knuckles they have the potential to produce different flights based on the angle created between the lead arm and the hands.
Now let’s look at photos C and D. The positions at the top look different (wrist angles and clubface orientation) because they have maintained the highlighted angle that was created at address. In picture C the wrist angles mirror those at address in picture A and you can see the difference between this clubface and the clubface in picture D (D is functionally more closed).
If both of these swings return the club with a relatively flat left wrist at impact (one of golf’s few non-polarizing points of instruction) then the face would point in two very different positions at impact. The face has the most influence over the start line of the ball and is critical to achieving the desired direction.
There is no universal grip that is perfect for everyone but there is one grip that works best for you. Think not only about the amount of knuckles showing but also the angle between the lead hand and the club.
As you will likely be indoors, a mirror can be your best friend in trying to recreate these positions both at address and at the top. One of these may feel very foreign to you but it may also be the key to getting your ball started in the direction you want. Practise creating the angle you desire by thinking of your normal shot type and recreating the one you need.
Get a grip This article was originally published in the April 2016 edition of Golf Canada Magazine. To view the full magazine, click the image to the left. |
Sharpen your short game
I love the off-season. It’s the perfect time to develop and reinforce key techniques. But putting into a coffee cup can get boring after a while. Here’s a drill to try in your basement or living room. It is a bit risky but productive and exciting too.
Grab your 56- or 58-degree wedge and some small whiffle balls. Start with the ball in the middle of your stance (A). Then narrow your stance so your heels are closer together than your toes (B). Keep the shaft of your club perpendicular to the ground or very slightly leaned towards the target (C). Then reach down with your lead hand (left for right-handed golfers) and touch your left knee (D), as this will put your shoulders in a level position and your spine perpendicular to the ground.
Hit a few practice shots from this setup with only your trail hand (right hand) on the club. Try to softly pitch the balls onto a couch four or five paces away. I love the feel of hitting one-handed shots with the right hand as it naturally allows the club to open and slightly hinge in the backswing before releasing naturally in the downswing. Finally, in your follow-through, the club head can overtake and pass the hands, allowing for soft pitch shots and great use of the bounce of the club.
Rotate hitting three balls with only your trail hand on the club and then three balls with both hands on the club trying to feel the same thing. Do this four or five times to really get the feel of the correct setup and how the club works. Then use both hands like you would outside on the course and hit pitch shots to different targets. Once you’re comfortable with the whiffle balls graduate to real golf balls.
Why do I like this drill? Indoors you will learn to soften up your hands and arms in a hurry, otherwise you will not hit high and soft landing shots. Plus the firmness of the floor under the carpet gives great feedback on how the club head is working along the ground. It should slide along the ground rather than crash down into it. This feedback allows for quick learning of solid contact, a shallow angle of attack and nice use of the bounce.
Learning to feel the correct pitch shot technique and enjoying some valuable indoor practice is the perfect type of preparation before golf season starts.
Sharpen your short game This article was originally published in the April 2016 edition of Golf Canada Magazine. To view the full magazine, click the image to the left. |
Mullally leads national women’s team to successes at many levels
With a schedule that will see him on the road for 180 days this year, there is little time to look in the rear view mirror for Tristan Mullally, Ontario and Canadian Coach of the Year for 2015, unless he’s sitting on an airplane.
One look at the travel itinerary for the Head Coach of Golf Canada’s Women’s National Amateur and Development Teams over the next couple of months will leave you breathless – and that’s just the lead-up to the four majors in five weeks in August and September that Mullally is preparing his girls for, as well as members of the Young Pro Program that he oversees.
This past weekend, Mullally made the trip to Ohio State University to see Canadians in action at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational where Team Canada Amateur squad member Josée Doyon finished T2. From there he will make stops in the coming weeks at the LPGA Tour stops at Volunteers of America Texas Shootout and the Marathon Classic in Ohio, a couple of Symetra Tour events in Albany NY and Michigan, NCAA Regionals and NCAA National Finals, the CN Future Links Pacific Championship in Kamloops, a National Team training camp in Toronto, the Women’s Western National Amateur Championship, the Porter Cup, the Women’s North & South Amateur Championship, several provincial championships, the Canadian Junior Girls’ and Women’s Amateur championships, the US Women’s Amateur and that is just a warm up to the most important stretch of golf for this year.
Canada’s top professional and amateur female golfers will be on the world stage at the Olympic Games in Rio from August 15th to 21st, the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open from August 22nd to 28th in Calgary, AB, the Manulife LPGA Classic from August 31st to September 4th in Cambridge, ON, the World Amateur Team Championships from September 14th to 17th in Mexico and Mullally will be with them every step of the way.
“We have four majors in five weeks. It’s going to be a busy run. It’s make or break. I want these players to have success. They work very hard to try to have success and I want to help them achieve it. I think we have had lots of success from players across the board this year. The last four, five years, Brooke Henderson has stolen the limelight, but if you were to really dig down and look deeper you’ll also see some strong players just below her who I think will start to shine over the next couple of years,” says Mullally who was named 2015 PGA of Ontario and PGA of Canada Coach of the Year earlier this year.
Mullally initially turned heads when he moved his family from Ireland to Oakville, ON, in 2011 to take over as the women’s national coach, but since then the girls he has been coaching have been turning heads. “During my first year, one of my many program targets was to place one player in the top-100 of the world rankings, based on the team’s previous best performance, and last year every player in the program was within the top-100 with six inside the top-50,” Mullally says, noting that players he has coached have won on every female professional tour in North America in 2015 including; the Cactus Tour, the Suncoast Tour, the Canadian Women’s Tour, the Symetra Tour, and the LPGA Tour.
Many of the up-and-coming female Canadian players Mullally has coached over the last five years are showing great potential including; Brooke Henderson, Alena Sharp, Sue Kim, Augusta James, Rebecca Lee Bentham, Brittany Marchand, Jenifer Ha, Anne-Catherine Tanguay and Maude-Aimee Leblanc are now among the professional ranks.
Now there’s a new crew that’s starting to move through the national team program including; Hannah Lee, Kathrine Chan, Chloe Currie, Tiffany Kong and Grace St-Germain on the Development Team and Josée Doyon, Michelle Kim, Jaclyn Lee, Maddie Szeryk and Naomi Ko on the National Amateur Team.
“This is a transition year for the national team and I’m looking forward to seeing the next wave start to come through the system,” says Mullally, who grew up playing Gaelic football, hurling and golf in Ireland. The average player age is 18, but with girls developing at an earlier age than boys, Mullally keeps a close eye on those who are 15-years-old, or a year on either side of that. “When players come to our program a lot of time the bigger weaknesses are about how to actually play, they are not about how to hit shots. It’s actually getting out there and bringing a level of play to competition that we focus on. Success as a professional is not getting your card, it’s actually making money and having a good life on tour, not just playing a year or two, but making a career of it.”
When it comes to the overall approach to coaching, Mullally’s objective is to create pathways to success for as many players as possible. To do this, the 36-year-old, has created a team dynamic for his players to develop not only as individuals, but as a group of players who learn to support each other and may become friends. He has improved and increased consistency for player contact and personal coaching, introduced yoga and meditation to daily practice rituals, included the use of phone Apps to challenge the mental game, added pressure situations to training, streamlined the player support program, increased the use and analysis of stats and much more.
“I now visit players at their home, at their schools and at provincial tournaments rather than just Team Canada events, because it’s important to see them in a variety of settings. It makes for a busy schedule, but it also allows us to have a better picture of the athlete so we can help them get to the next level,” says Mullally, who enjoys spending time with his wife Yelena and their five-month old son when he’s not on the road.
VIDEO: Eric Banks – Heart hero
Four-time Team Canada member Eric Banks was honoured as one of five Heart Heroes by the QEII Foundation in November of 2015.
Banks, a Truro, N.S. product, along with Dr. Camille Hancock-Friesen, tell the remarkable story of Banks’ heart condition and how it changed his life.
Operating out of Halifax, the QEII Foundation helps fund new technologies, medical research, innovation and professional education that contribute to life-changing moments experienced every day by patients.
Click here to learn more about the QEII Foundation.
Canadian Blair Hamilton finishes 2nd, but sweetheart is No. 1
The Canadian three-peat did not come to be at the Jones Cup Invitational, but Blair Hamilton emerged in a share of the runner-up spot. Hamilton’s 71-73-76 showing at Ocean Forest Golf Club was six short of Beau Hossler’s winning total, and the Canadian’s performance didn’t match that of fellow countrymen Corey Conners and Austin Connelly, the 2014 and 2015 Jones Cup winners, respectively. But the second-place finish was still quite an accomplishment after a hectic month…
Read the full story on Golfweek here.
Embrace the off-season
Many of us head south in the off-season to continue to play golf while many other’s hunker down to survive Old Man Winter. At the elite player level, winter offers a chance to get more physically fit so that next season is an improvement on the past. Our emerging pros and amateur players work on becoming stronger, fitter and more flexible so they can more easily make the technical adjustments to hit the ball longer, straighter and more consistently. No matter who your swing coach is or what amazing magazine article on swing plane dynamics you have read, your physical limitation will determine which of those technical changes you can make.
The off -season can also provide the opportunity to try new activities that will complement your golf game. We recommend you try the following activities between now and the spring; each of these activities will improve your strength, flexibility, balance and cardiovascular fitness.
INSIDE
Gym
Purchasing a winter membership or punch pass is all that is required at many commercial gyms. Membership brings access to a multitude of exercise equipment and group classes to keep you motivated over the cold months. Finding a gym with a strength and conditioning expert who has expertise in golf is always a bonus. Focus on exercises that improve strength in the glutes, quads, lower abdominals, and stabilizers of the lateral pelvis and shoulder blades.
Home gym
All you need to create an effective home gym is a few resistance bands, mini bands, stability ball and a foam roller. Hiring a strength and conditioning expert to write you a winter program using this equipment would be best and would be advised to make sure your program is focused on where you need to improve. It will also keep you motivated as the thinking has already been done for you.
Yoga
Sign up for a novice or easy/gentle class at your local yoga studio. Although a golf- specific yoga class is ideal, you will improve your game with any class. To see the most improvement, jump into two yoga classes a week and perhaps by the time the snow melts you will be trying the occasional advanced class.
OUTSIDE
Skiing
Yes, believe it or not, a day on the slopes will help you gain more distance on your drives come spring. Focus on engaging your glutes and quads and working on your balance as you carve your way down the hill.
Cross-country skiing
This is an incredible way of improving balance, combined strength in your legs and arms as well as cardio fitness as you transfer your weight from ski to ski. Cross-country skiing is probably the best winter activity that trains weight transfer in a golfer.
Snowshoeing
This is a sport that you can make as challenging as you feel you want to on any particular day. A longer slower day out in the Canadian wilderness allows you to enjoy the scenery and the company of your fellow snowshoers while improving the endurance strength of your legs and arms (if you are using poles). Or, you can really push the pace for a shorter more intense day out, which improves the strength and power of your legs.