What is Pro Tour Golf College Really Like?

I started attending Pro Tour Golf College on the 3rd of October 2011 when I discovered its existence via Facebook. Before enrolling, I heard some great feedback from Idzwan Marappan who is a student at PTGC. On the first day of the third term, I was there around 7.30am to warm up as training starts at 8am sharp.

My expectations were pretty high as Idzwan was telling me the training is very detailed and every single shot is recorded. Just before 8am, I received the weekly training log and also my daily training log from Lawrie Montague.

From there, we started to gather the equipment needed to set up the training area behind the driving range. Every target we were hitting to was precisely measured via a laser rangefinder and cones were placed in certain diameters to ensure our distance control is accurate, not only the direction.
The training was very detailed because we cover every aspect of the game from full swing, chips, pitch, bunkers, approaches, scrape shots and even trouble shots. The best part is, every single stroke is recorded and this allows us to determine the percentage of my shots being in the target diameter.

Once the training at the back was completed, we packed up all the equipment and headed back down to the putting green next to the clubhouse and ended the day with our putting drills.

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The amount of strokes hit for the day may not seem a lot to some people, but every single shot is hit with focus and concentration, not just blindly firing balls from the driving range etc.

On the 5th of October, I had my first golf course instruction. Right at the beginning of the session, I immediately felt the difference in confidence and my ability to maintain my focus and concentration longer. This is all due to the amount of hours that we actually spend concentrating when we do our practice. The training set out has different intensity levels and it is adjusted accordingly with what we train for the day.

On the 7th of October, it was the end of the first week of training at PTGC and Lawrie ended the day with a friendly 18 hole short game competition between the students.

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The reason for this is to determine the progress we made for the week and to set future goals. Every student in PTGC has their own drills and techniques to work on compared to some golf academies which tries to change a student's swing to look like another person's swing. That would be very time consuming and also financially costly.
The training method adopted by PTGC is very personalized due to the amount of students. PTGC limits the amount of students each term for personalized attention to each student and this makes it a lot more effective compared to academies with large amount of students with only 1 or 2 coaches.

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Not only the coaches, but the students of PTGC are all very supportive towards one another and this makes it a very positive learning environment.

All in all, the first week went really well, surpassing my already high expectations. I can't wait for next week's training to begin. PTGC, you will be seeing me A LOT not only for this term but also in the coming months and terms. This is definitely the best experience I've ever had in training.



Bernard Chan

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