Sunday 28 / April / 2024
Muscat: Continuing with their junior golf development programmes, the Oman Golf Committee (OGC) has organised a summer training camp for junior golfers at the Ghala Golf Club from August 7 to 18 with participation of nine young Omani talents.
During the camp, the young golfers sharpened their golfing skills under programme's chief trainer Milo Breitenwischer, PGA Pro coach of Ghala Golf Club.
“The major goal for the camp was to gain more experience on the course and to archive a handicap for each player after the camp,” said Breitenwischer.
Over a 7am to noon morning schedule, the golfers participated in the warm-up session and in a small game and then went through stretching exercises.
Everyday there was a 9-hole game for each participant on course where Breitenwischer helped them in nurturing and sharpening their golfing skills and also how to adapt to game situations.
After an outdoor session in the heat, the participants were taken to a classroom where the coach stressed on the understanding of the rules of the game, the necessity of fitness training, how to boost up mental strength before and during play, the importance of maintaining a proper nutrition, how to get a handicap, how to calculate a handicap, and different formats of the game like match-play, stroke-play and stable-ford formats.
After the theoretical sessions inside the clubhouse, the participants were again taken outside to do a bit extra training, and at the end, some exercises to strengthen their muscles.
“The weather was not conducive for a summer camp, but we had to adapt and everybody persevered quite well, so I can see that these kids are willing to improve their game,” said a hopeful Breitenwischer after the camp.
National team players like Azzan Al Rumhy, Fahad Al Kitani, Rashad Al Harthy joined hands with Breitenwischer to train the juniors.
“I hope the kids enjoyed the outing. We want to see some bright faces from the camp who will shine for our country in the next age group competitions,” Mundhir Al Barwani, the Chairman of OGC, said.
Breitenwischer, in his report on the camp, suggested lengthy and continuous training for the participants.
“To have more time for the kids and have daily practice is helping the kids a lot to improve their game in many ways. The effort now has to be made that all kids with handicap have to play regular tournaments during the whole year.”
Breitenwischeris particularly impressed with Ayman Al Busaidi, Mohammed Al Balushi, Nasih Al Barwani and Osama Al Mahrouqi. Among them, Nasih Al Barwani, Mohammed Al Balushi and Ayman Al Busaidi were in the junior national side before. They had taken part in the Under-15 GCC Golf Championships held in Bahrain last year.
“Ayman has improved during the summer camp a lot. He is putting results are now I would say on a normal level. Also, he has gained some extra meters. Compared to the tournament in Bahrain, he has improved his game by 30 shots. Once they get older and gain more distance, they will be part of the junior national team for sure. Nasih has technically not the greatest swing, but it works for him and he is relatively consistent with his shots. More focus on counting the shots would be recommended,” Breitenwischer added.
Based on their performances after the camp, Breintenwischer suggested a 4 month long training spell for these kids to improve their game, which may fetch a good result in the GCC U-15 in 2017. He has suggested some names to OGC as to who can be picked up for the national team to compete in the GCC competitions.
