2010 SPRING ISSUE 3.75 Incl. VAT - Backspin Golf Magazine

In 1996 I became the club professional at
the Slazenger family’s magnificent new
Powerscourt Golf Club in Enniskerry. It’s a
wonderful club with great members and
colleagues and great facilities which give me
great scope to develop my coaching career.
You became involved with the Leinster
Branch of the GUI as a provincial coach in
2001. What does this role entail?
PT - The Leinster branch’s main focus is to
continue developing a plan geared towards
raising the standards of existing elite players
and nurturing young golfers at grass roots
level. The plan is to put into place Long Term
Development Pathways for players. There is a
strong focus on finding talent at a younger age.
With this in mind the Leinster branch created
an Under 13 series of competitions a couple of
years ago and although it’s still in its infancy
we have had a great response to this concept
with several young players showing promising
signs.
The provincial coaching sessions are
mainly held in winter which has its obvious
drawbacks but having training sessions for
elite players would be impossible during
summer as they have schedules busier than
professional tour players. I am involved with
four different panels this year, a development
panel that includes players as young as 8, two
intermediate panels and an ‘A’ squad. The ‘A’
squad have full day sessions at the national
academy and the other panels have half-day
sessions. We cover all aspects of the game.
When it comes to swing technique we are
trying to supplement a lot of the work that the
players may have done with their own club
pros. A lot of time is spent on the short game.
It must be very satisfying working with young
players who make the grade...
PT - In my role with the Leinster branch I have
been involved with a lot of excellent players
including Shane Lowry and Niall Kearney, both
of whom made incredible strides in 2009.
There are several fine young talents coming
through like Paul Dunne from Greystones and
Daniel Murphy from Portarlington. The future
looks bright for Leinster golf (all the more so
as my wife Teresa is the boss of the branch
office!). There are so many great people
involved willing to give their time and support
to these golfers. I thoroughly enjoy my
involvement.
continued...
Facing Page: Paul Thompson
demonstrates the art of bunker
play to a group of Leinster U-13
golfers at a coaching session
Above: Paul performs a trick shot
routine with Issac Agnew (Old
Conna).
Below: Paul with a group of
Leinster U-13 panellists at a
coaching session at Powerscourt.
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