 Adare Manor, Co. Limerick (The 2008 Irish Open) - Maarten Lafeber has taken the advice of close associates on the Tour to hone his putting skills, and the 34 year-old Hollander has been spending time with Yes! Golf Tour rep Phil Kenyon.
The immediate impact has been that Maarten has shaved on average five putts per round off his game within just a few weeks.
"A couple of the guys from Mizuno were telling me how Maarten was playing such tremendous golf, and that some Tour victories were destined to come his way very soon," says Kenyon. "The last part of his game that needed to be brought up to par was his putting. I'd been spending a lot of time with Tour technicians at various events around Europe and they pointed Maarten in my direction."
Lafeber will benefit not just from the C-Groove top spin, but also from a consistency of coaching that springs from the inventor of the C-Groove concept, Harold Swash.
The fortunes of Yes! Golf and those of the Harold Swash Putting School of Excellence (HSPSE) are unavoidably linked. Swash and the Yes! Golf company that now manages it worldwide have forged even closer ties on the Tour.
For many years, Yes! Tour reps the world over have attended events with analysis equipment so that practice green performance can be minutely examined and managed. In addition, the coaching methodology has been standardized worldwide for Yes! Accredited coaches so that coaching and fault-fixing given to Tour players in Dublin is exactly the same as would be given in Cape Town, Mumbai or Perth.
This is a huge benefit to Tour players who travel widely but need consistency in method above all else. It impacts their confidence, clarity of thought and all-round performance immeasurably.
It's no coincidence that Phil Kenyon is also director of instruction at HSPSE. The sum of knowledge between the two companies - as well as the combination of a structured putting coaching system and the C-Groove concept - is a unique proposition to professional golfers. The proposition is also now being found at a growing number of golf clubs, as Yes! Golf rolls out a series of ousHputter custom-fit centres at golf clubs and driving ranges worldwide.
It looks like the Dutch contingent of players on the tour is going to benefit vastly from the Yes! Golf Putting Centre in Eindhoven. Joost Luiten, who recently signed a sponsor agreement with Yes! Golf, has commented that the presence of the putting centre analysis facilities was one of the reasons for signing with Yes! And obviously Maarten Lafeber is welcome at the Dutch centre as well to work further on the things he learned from Phil Kenyon. |
