JUNIOR COACHING

County coaching takes place at Wynyard Golf Club. The practice facilities at Wynyard are second to none and we are very grateful to Wynyard Golf Club for allowing us to base our coaching there. There is a large putting green, an excellent chipping area with bunkers. There is an undercover driving range and a grass driving range. The coaching team are all based there.

The Coaches

Andrew Nicholson

Andrew is the European Head of Coaching for David Leadbetter and has been working for Leadbetter Golf Academy since 1997. He has worldwide experience coaching in the USA, Europe, Asia and the UK. His home Academy at Wynyard is the longest serving Leadbetter Academy in Europe. Andrew is acknowledged as one of the finest coaches in his field and specialises in elite development.

He is a Tour Coach, England Golf coach and past BBC Swing analyst. His passion is development and in particular developing children to elite National levels. His alumni includes European Tour Winners, Multiple National Champions, National teams and squads. Top 10 World Ranked Amateurs and Champions of all age groups have been coached and mentored by him. However, despite Andrews worldwide reputation, he gets as much satisfaction developing golfers of all ages and abilities. Indeed anyone with a desire to be the “best they can be” is always welcome at his academy.

List of Awards:

“Coach of the Year” England Golf
U.S Golf Digest – Top 75 World International Coach
Worldwide Instructor of the Year 2016

Andrew Betts

Andrew Betts is 43 years of age and is the Head professional at Wynyard Golf Club. His interests in golf cover all aspects. He helps to run the golf club and plays golf events through the NENW PGA. Andrew says the most rewarding part of his job is teaching all aspects of golf to people of all abilities young and old. He says “I am fortunate enough to be one of the DCLGA coaches and also coach some collegiate golfers that are studying in America.”

Laura Harvey-Dodds

Laura Harvey-Dodds is a PGA Professional at Wynyard Golf Club. She turned professional in 2007 after a successful amateur career playing for Yorkshire, England under 18s and English Schools Teams.

After completing her PGA Degree in Golf she chose to play professionally and competed on the Ladies European Access Tour & Santander Golf Tour. She also played WPGA and NENW PGA events.

Laura says “Although I enjoyed playing professionally full time and I still enjoy playing, I decided to concentrate on the PGA side of my profession and this has been my passion for the last couple of years. I thoroughly enjoy teaching all aspects of golf to all ages and all levels of ability. I was honoured to be asked to join the DCLGA coaching team in 2019 and I have really enjoyed meeting the girls and playing a part in them achieving their golfing ambitions.”

Gordon Morrison

Mental Skills Coach

Gordon Morrison MSc, PGA. Gordon specialises in performance management, golf coaching, mental skills & skill development.

Mission statement: - ‘Strong minds and ‘smarter’ practice’. Practice is the main way we can improve our skills so I will help you to practice so that you get the maximum benefit from your practice and integrate mental skills training.

Vision:

Players develop mental skills to deal with the challenges of Tournament Golf and understand how to get the most from practice sessions.

The key Mental areas for golfers:

Concentration, visualisation, confidence, motivation, mental toughness, managing anxiety and goal setting.

The key Skill Development areas for golfers

Shot routine development (shot planning), getting the most from practice, high ‘focus’ training, improving information gathering and decisions, simulating the challenges of tournament play during practice and knowing what type of practice is best to use at certain times.

Andrew Turner

Strength and Conditioning Coach

Andrew draws on his experience from various settings to offer personalised training, to help clients achieve their goals. He utilises mindset and NLP within in his coaching to create long lasting habits for true change. He is currently the strength and conditioning coach for the Elite Sport Program at Hartlepool Sixth Form College and works with over 100 athletes.

He has a passion to show people that they can achieve anything: as long as they want it enough and that by creating a sustainable outlook to exercise and nutrition it is maintainable. His passion for strength and conditioning comes from his background in rugby and an unfortunate back injury resulting surgery at a young age. His mission is to prepare and educate young athletes to ensure they have the mental and physical fundamentals to maximise their athletic ability and to develop into high performance sportspeople.

Andy runs weekly sessions on Zoom. All the girls can access these. Andy works specifically toward improving their strength and conditioning in relation to golf.

If you would be interested in joining Andrew’s Strength and Conditioning Programme contact him directly.

Mobile: 07918156085

Email andyturnerpt@gmail.com

Coaching Programme

There are currently two groups in the programme.

Development Group

Laura Harvey coaches the girls in the development group. The girls in this group are the girls with higher handicaps. We will take girls into this group who have not yet achieved a WHS handicap but all girls must aim to gain a handicap as soon as possible. This group get two hours coaching a month.

Elite Group

Andrew Nicholson and Andrew Betts coach the girls in the elite group. This group is for the girls with lower handicaps. The girls get four hours of coaching every month. Once the Covid situation improves they will also get 9 holes of on course coaching each month to help them to improve their course management and matchplay skills.

The girls in this group also have access to Psychology sessions with Gordon Morrison which are aimed at improving their mental strength. These sessions are currently on Zoom but will become face to face once it is deemed safe.

Currently the coaching for all the girls has had to be adapted to keep them safe, in light of the Corona virus. The girls are working in bubbles and each girl has a clicker tube of named balls to avoid any sharing of equipment.

The County coaches aim to work with the girls’ home coaches to support the girls to become the best golfers they can be.

If you would like to be involved in County Coaching please download and complete the form by using this link.