Representing Golf Queensland at the Golf South Australia Junior Masters this week, Issy shot a PB for a major tournament of 3 under par. Played at Royal Adelaide, the 72-hole event was cut short to 54-holes due to bad weather but that didn’t stop Issy. In training, we focused on under 100M and putting, and as the score shows, it’s great to see Issy has delivered the goods. Up against top juniors from Australia and overseas, Issy finished T2 with 1st place to Becky Kay, one of Australia’s top junior golfers. And the icing on the cake was that Issy and her fellow Queensland team representative Cassie Porter won the girls team event!

This followed a T5 finish in the Golf SA Junior Amateur Championships played earlier in the week where Issy had to get used to the local conditions – especially the bent greens. Shooting a total of 4 over in the 54-hole tournament played at Kooyonga and The Grange, this event proved good practise for Issy.

It’s been a great couple of months for Issy with her T7 finish at the Aaron Baddeley International Junior Championships in San Diego, USA in December. At her first international tournament Issy competed against some of the worlds top juniors and achieved well beyond her goals. Issy said she really enjoyed meeting and playing with golfers from other countries and spending time in the USA, especially San Diego. Well done Issy!

Next step is the Australian Amateur being played at Yarra Yarra and Peninsula Kingswood next week. It’s a pleasure to coach real talent and to see Issy bring her best golf to the top tournaments. Go Issy!

“I have been working with Michael Jones from MJ Golf Performance for the past 5 years. During the first two years we got my handicap down from mid teens to scratch and I have basically floated around +1 to 1 ever since then.

12 weeks prior to the 2016 Club Championships at Sanctuary Cove Golf & Country Club, I sat down with Michael and expressed my desire to win back to back Club Championships and play better golf than I did when I won the 2015 final. Michael explained the new teaching technologies he had available, including BodiTrak and FlightScope, and we immediately got to work.

The key focus for the first few weeks was on BodiTrak and making sure my weight distribution at set up, top of swing, impact and follow through were correct. The data didn’t lie and having too much weight on my toes and also on my back leg were causing my swing to be too steep with my misses being cuts going high right. The instant feedback from BodiTrak enabled me to feel the correct setup and over time this correlated into correct weight distribution in all other parts of the swing.

Once the setup was locked in we focused on FlightScope and made some improvements to my club path, face to path and attack angle. Again the desire here was to flatten out the swing slightly and get the club head exiting more to the right to get rid of the high cut. Again, with the instant feedback on every shot from FlightScope, we are able to make some improvements.

The technology worked and I was able to rely on it when it came to the crunch. During the 2016 Club Championships, I focused on my weight distribution at set up and swing path at impact. I ended up winning the Club Championships on the 36th hole and definitely played better golf than I did the year before. Michael from MJ Golf Performance and the use of BodiTrak and FlightScope played a massive role in allowing me to achieve my goal and I can’t thank him enough.”

 – Paul Smerdon

Other Honour board events Paul Smerdon has won in 2016:

• Men’s Foursomes
• Mixed Foursomes
• Club Shootout

Over the past 2 months I’ve been lucky to attend the Australian Open and the Australian PGA.

Firstly, my son Lachlan won a competition run by the Australian PGA to caddie for a tour pro during the pro-am! He was so lucky to get Jarrod Lyle for the afternoon along with another little caddie Harrison! Jarrod was fantastic; he did photos, autographs, signed balls and gloves complimentary! Unfortunately, storms were coming in during the afternoon and the siren went, but instead of packing up and going back to the clubhouse, Jarrod let Lachy and Harry have a hit with his driver on the 16th hole. Unfortunately both shots went in the water!!!! But the boys weren’t worried at all.

On the way back to the clubhouse Jarrod offered the boys the chance to come up to the Kirkwood Hospitality marquee (while it was pouring) and both boys loved mixing it other tour pro’s including Hall/Pom/Poults/Pamps the nicknames kept coming! The joke in the marquee was who were the two’s boys and the response was ‘we’re Jarrod Lyle’s caddies’. After resuming post storm unfortunately the boys only got another 2 holes finishing on the 18th but Jarrod had one last challenge for the boys which was a sprint up the fairway, something he regretted at the end.

Jarrod Lyle would have to be one of the best pro’s out there. The way he treated the boys; he packed in so many favours during the afternoon, none he had to do, but it made both Lachy and Harry’s day! Thanks to Jarrod Lyle, a fantastic ambassador for golf/life/fatherhood/humanity. Also thanks to the Australian PGA for coming up with the concept as it gave two young budding golfers have a fantastic day!

Thank you to all my clients for your support during 2016!

Coming to work and being lucky enough to do what I do is a real pleasure. Together we’ve done the hard work in 2016. We’ve found solutions using world class technology and achieved some amazing results. That’s what motivates me and I would like to thank everyone for your appreciation as your golf has improved.

In 2017 I’m Iooking forward to helping you bring a ‘can do’ attitude and ‘thinking outside the box’ mentality to continue setting new targets and trusting what you know you can do well either while practising or competing in tournaments.

I wish you all the best for 2017 and happy golfing!
MJ