May 14, 2014 – The activity of golf professionals in Catalonia has had an energetic start in 2014, and after the first two tournaments played to date – at the Metropolitan Golf and Vilalba Golf – we can now add the second Catalunya PGA training seminar which was given yesterday by Geoff Mangum, putting guru and creator of the famous PuttingZone, which is known throughout the world.

Twenty professionals, not only from Catalonia but also from Madrid, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, came to Club de Golf Sant Cugat (Barcelona) to receive the wisdom of this expert, with the assistance of James Marshall, professional certificated in PuttingZone.

In the morning Geoff Mangum, who has spent the last 25 years of his life studying the literature and techniques relating to putting, began by explaining his philosophy, which brings together the best golf techniques with the modern sciences of physics, anatomy, biomechanics, motor learning, and especially neuroscience.

After several clinics during the weekend, aimed at the amateur golfers in the CG Llavaneras, Geoff Mangum focussed the seminar on the instructors, so that they would know how to teach their pupils each of the four basic skills of putting: reading, alignment, mechanics of movement, and distance control.

“If an instructor does not teach these four skills, he is not giving a complete picture of what the putt is to his students,” said Geoff Mangum. “And the key skill that unites all others is the distance control. There are players who have talent but don’t know how to control the distance, and for teachers it’s important to explain it to them.”

Mid-morning and in the afternoon the seminar moved to the CG Sant Cugat putting green for the practical session, where the meaning of intentionality became clear, as did the equal tempos to define the putt distance, changing only the length of the up-swing. Has been very interesting to see how Geoff used his synchronized whistle to define, always, the same tempo. And it was amazing how, during an hour of technical explanations, he never stopped holing putts as he demonstrated (except when failing intentionally) and I would say that he holed 90% of his putts from four yards, some hundred or so.

To finish the splendid day, Geoff Mangum and James Marshall gave a session on putting tips to the Elite juniors of the Junior Golf Academy of Sant Cugat, a luxury. Lucky them!

Por REDACCIÓN