Sophomore slump? Don’t bother talking about anything of that sort to  Marc Leishman. The 2009 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year has started the 2010 season picking up right where he left off.

Leishman has made 3 out of 4 cuts with the highlight being a T2 finish in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. The Victorian finished one shot behind winner Ben Crane of the United States, and tied with fellow Aussie Michael Sim and American Brandt Snedeker.

Coming into the new season, Leishman was asked about his goals for the season:

“I think if I could just improve my game, that’s the main thing. If I can do that, I can improve, and the results will take care of themselves. I had a very good year last year. I guess I maybe went past my goals a little bit… It was great. Hopefully I can do better this year and see how we go.”

Leishman has also put in strong performances at the Northern Trust Open (T15) and the Sony Open in Hawaii (T20) with his sole disappointment of the season so far being a missed cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Don’t worry about him becoming complacent any time soon though:

“I knew that just because I got Rookie of the Year it didn’t mean I was all of a sudden going to become an unbelievable player,” Leishman said. “I knew I still had work to be done. I really didn’t take that for granted and I’m not taking the PGA TOUR for granted.”

This is exactly the kind of attitude that has Leishman’s coach Denis McDade of Bann Lynch Golf very excited about his prospects:

“Marc continues to grow as a player but there is no shortage of incredibly talented players out here on Tour” said McDade. “I think what’s really working in his favor is his belief in his own abilities and a very positive attitude towards enjoying his game, enjoying the process of getting better and enjoying the thrill of competition. I’m proud of what he has accomplished so far.”

The season is still young and it remains to be seen whether Leishman can sustain his run of good play for the rest of the year. However with this kind of positive attitude and the results to back it up, not many people would bet against him making it back into the FedEx Cup Playoffs this year after being the only rookie to do so last year.

Hee Young Park has made an impressive start to the 2010 LPGA Tour season with a T11 finish at the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand.

The young South Korean shot out of the blocks on Thursday with an impressive round of 67 at the Siam Country Club in Chonburi, Thailand. She followed that up with a blistering 66 on the second day to be in second place behind Suzanne Pettersen of Norway going into the weekend.

Hee Young struggled a bit on the weekend with scores of 72 and 73 on Saturday and Sunday respectively, however her play in Thailand this week is sure to give her a big confidence boost for the rest of the year.

Despite this being the season opener for the LPGA Tour, Park showed no signs of rust and this wasn’t all that surprising- she has been training at the Bann Lynch Golf school in Melbourne, Australia for the past couple of months and felt pretty good about her game as she left for Thailand.

When asked about her offseason, Park said:

“I went to Australia. They have long days. 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. there is sun so a lot of time to practice. Practiced my short game, greenside, and focused on putting. I did drills to shape the ball. I trained all of December and January and I got a lot of confidence”.

We were lucky enough to get some time to talk to Hee Young before she headed off to Thailand.

You can watch her interview and training video here:

Good golf is about more than just good technique. At IIG we believe in taking a holistic approach to golf training, and this includes paying due attention to the physical training factor in golf.

In the photo above you can see IIG c0-Director working in our Movement Room with his student Nick Flanagan on the LeaderBoard, just one of the training devices available to our students at IIG.

JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia, Oct 25 – South Korea’s KJ Choi made his return to the Asian Tour a memorable one with a four-stroke victory at the Iskandar Johor Open on Sunday.

Choi posted an eight-under-par 64 in the third round, his second 64 in a row, for a 20-under total of 196 in an event reduced to 54 holes due to bad weather.

It was a special homecoming for Choi, who started his career on the Asian Tour and now plays regularly in the U.S. The gritty South Korean, affectionately known as “The Tank” for his strong build, has won seven times on the US PGA Tour. K.J works with IIG coach Steve Bann.

“It is not easy to win on the Asian Tour. The depth of talent here is very deep,” Choi told the media after hitting eight birdies in a bogey-free round.

The Korean made a spectacular par save at the 15th after finding the water with his tee shot, holing a chip from 10 yards.

The win couldn’t have come at a better time for Choi, who hasn’t had the best of years on the PGA Tour. However, he has emphatically broken through whatever barriers were holding him back thus far this year and looks to be in top form heading towards the end of the season.

Stuart Appleby came down to BannLynch Golf last week to work on his game with his longtime coach Steve Bann, before heading off to the U.S to play in the Fall Series on the PGA Tour.

It has been a tough year for Stuart on Tour with his best finish a tie for 8th at the Transitions Championship. However, having spent some time back in Australia, ‘Apples’ is raring to get back out there and make a strong push towards the end of the year to set himself up well for next season. Another goal for Appleby is to get a win under his belt so that he can make it into the SBS Championship in Kapalua (formerly known as the Mercedes Championship) which is limited to winners on the PGA Tour. He is a 3 time former winner of that tournament and it is sure to be a huge motivating factor for him as he heads back stateside.

Go ahead and enjoy watching one of the purest swings in all of golf. You will get to see all the work that goes in behind the scenes as a dedicated professional prepares himself for the toughest Tour in the world.

Stuart has been working with his coach Steve Bann since he was a junior golfer. In this session they were working on Stuart’s leg action, a good full upper body turn and a slightly lower position of the left shoulder through the ball.

Stuart will be working with Steve at the IIG once they both return to the U.S.

A special thanks to our friends at BannLynch Golf for the footage.