There were plenty of roars heard around Pebble Beach on Saturday. Roars for Dustin Johnson blitzing his way into the lead with a sizzling 5 under par 66. Roars for Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell who managed to scramble his way to an even par 71 that still kept him in the hunt going into Sunday. But perhaps the loudest roars were reserved for the man who has unfortunately made more news off the golf course than on it this year.

For one day at least, it seemed like the old Tiger Woods was back.

On “moving day” the world number 1 gave the delighted galleries flashbacks of his dominating performance at the same venue in the 2000 U.S Open where he lapped the field by 15 shots. Woods shot a 5 under par 66 to move to -1 for the Championship. His round included 8 birdies over all and a flawless back 9 of 5 under par 31. However, if he is to capture his first major coming from behind on a Sunday, he will have to make up 5 shots on leader Dustin Johnson who also shot a brilliant 66 to lead at -6.

For Bann Lynch Golf player K.J Choi, it was a round of two 9’s. His first 9 of 1 under par 34 had him looking in good shape and still in the hunt. However a horror back nine of 7 over par 43 which included double bogeys at both the par 5s and 3 other bogeys meant Choi carded a 6 over par 77 and finds himself at +7 for the tournament and tied for 23rd.

Australia’s Stuart Appleby had a similar sort of round following an even par first 9 with a 5 over par back 9 to finish with a 76 for the day that leaves him at +12 and tied 64th for the Championship.

Thanks to Yarra Bend Golf for this article.

They say you can’t win the U.S Open in one round but you can certainly lose it. On day 2 of the 2010 U.S Open Champion, South Korea’s K.J Choi made sure he avoided the latter by putting together a workmanlike round of 2 over par 73.

Choi enters the weekend at +1 tied for 10th place and just 4 shots behind leader Graeme McDowell from Northern Ireland. He mixed 2 birdies with 2 bogeys and a double bogey in his round, but all in all can’t be too displeased with his position going into Friday’s 3rd round. As many players have said this week, any score around par in a U.S Open is usually going to put you in contention come Sunday.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Stuart Appleby made the cut right on the number at +7. He was comfortably within the cut line at +5 through 15 holes of his second round before bogeying 16 and 17. Coming down the last needing a par to make the weekend, Appleby knocked his third shot into the bunker. His heart rate would have risen even higher after he left his bunker shot 5 meters from the hole. The Aussie managed to find the cup and avoid what would have been a pretty gut wrenching missed cut, especially considering his recent struggles. He goes into Saturday’s 3rd round tied for 73rd position.

It has been a tough tournament for the Bann Lynch Golf stable so far, with Choi and Appleby the only 2 to make the cut out of the 8 that started the tournament. Scores for the other 6 were:

Geoff Ogilvy +8, Arjun Atwal +8, Marc Leishman +9, Steve Allan +10, Paul Sheehan +11, Aaron Baddeley +15.

Thanks to Yarra Bend Golf for this article.

A bogey-double bogey start wasn’t exactly part of K.J Choi’s game plan for the 1st round of the 2010 U.S Open being played at Pebble Beach. However, this is the U.S Open. It is as much a test of one’s patience in the face of adversity as it is a test of golfing skills.

Choi showed he had plenty to offer in both departments as he followed up his horror start with a run of 6 birdies in the next 12 holes to get to 3 under par for the day and at one point hold the outright lead. He was the hottest player on the golf course by far. However, the course fought back. 2 bogeys over his last 4 holes meant that after an up and down day, Choi finished at 1 under par 70 and tied 4th, 1 shot behind the 1st round lead set by Shaun Micheel, Paul Casey and Brendon de Jonge.

Still, on a day when some of the best players in the world struggled to get anywhere near par, Choi was very happy to finish under par in the 1st round of a U.S Open, which usually means you are in the mix.

Here is his interview after the round (courtesy of pgatour.com):

Choi, coached by Bann Lynch Golf coach Steve Bann, clearly understands that focusing on the mental and strategic aspects of his game is as important as thinking about his golf swing:

“This course it looks like is wide open fairway, but in the teeing ground, hitting before in the mindset, in the right, in the left, either way is very tough in the bunker and tough in the rough,” he said. “And it can’t stop in the bouncing, so very scared on the tee shot.”

It was a day of mixed results for the other 7 players from the Bann Lynch Golf stable competing at Pebble Beach this week. Starting on the 10th tee, Stuart Appleby (also coached by Steve Bann) recovered from a poor start much like Choi to make the turn at even par after 3 straight birdies, but gave back 2 shots on his back 9 to finish at a very respectable 2 over par 73 which left him tied for 30th position.

Former champion Geoff Ogilvy had a disappointing start to his U.S Open campaign with a 8 over par 79 that left him tied for 135th. Ogilvy had 8 bogeys and a double bogey in his round along with 2 birdies and will need to do something special on Friday to make it to the weekend, let alone be a factor on Sunday.

Other scores for Bann Lynch Golf coached players in the field:

Arjun Atwal +4 (T67), Marc Leishman +6 (T106), Steve Allan +7 (T119), Aaron Baddeley +9 (T142), Paul Sheehan +9 (T142).

Thank you to Yarra Bend Golf for this article.

3 Bann Lynch Golf players played in the St.Jude Classic presented by Smith & Nephew which concluded on Sunday at the TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.

Cameron Percy of Australia (coached by Darren Cole) finished tied for 25th place at -3 for the week after rounds of 70, 68, 67 and 72. Percy finished 7 shots behind eventual winner Lee Westwood of England.

Mathew Goggin (coached by Dale Lynch) finished tied for 37th place at -1 after rounds of 69, 69, 69 and 72 at the par 70 layout.

Stuart Appleby (coached by Steve Bann) shot an excellent 3 under par 67 in the second round but failed to make the cut as a first round 75 left him with too much ground to make up.

It was a bizarre end to the tournament as American Robert Garrigus seemed to have the tournament wrapped up with a 3 shot lead coming to the final tee on Sunday. Unfortunately, the pressure of chasing his first PGA Tour win seemed to get the better of him as he yanked his tee shot left into the water. He proceeded to make a mess of the hole and had to hole a 3 footer just to make triple bogey and get into a playoff with Westwood and Robert Karlsson of Sweden.

Garrigus was the first to perish in the sudden death playoff, and Westwood and Karlsson matched each other’s shaky putting until the Englishman finally holed a 6 footer to grab the title on the 4th playoff hole.

The golf world’s attention now turns to the US Open being played this week at Pebble Beach. Bann Lynch Golf has 8 players competing in this year’s event. Watch this site for up to date coverage on all our players.

Thanks to Yarra Bend Golf for this article.

Aussies Stuart Appleby and Aaron Baddeley were among the 15 players who have successfully qualified for the 2010 US Open from the Sectional Qualifying event in Columbus, Ohio.

The Down Under duo came through the 36 hole qualifier played at the Lakes and Brookside courses along with major winners Tom Lehman, Davis Love III and Ben Curtis.

Meanwhile, India’s Arjun Atwal has also qualified for the US Open, being played this year at Pebble Beach, by coming through qualifying in Rockville, Maryland.

Thanks to Pure Golf Blog for this article

Stuart Appleby sent out the following message on his Twitter on the Sunday before the 2010 Verizon Heritage tournament in Harbor Town:

“Time, age, quality, coaching, competition, direction….many more. All of those but still to know how then play like a kid…swing away….Your direction, what you want.Paint the picture of how you want your game to be.To putt with confidence you need to be ok with missing putts…that’s the most important thing. All good putters don’t get wrapped up in missing only excited at the chance to make the next putt“.

Appleby stayed true to those words all week as he “played like a kid” all the way to a t-8 finish at Harbor Town Golf Links, his best of the season so far.

Shooting rounds of 69, 67, 73 and 67, Appleby finished at 8 under par, 5 shots outside the playoff between Jim Furyk and Brian Davis, which Furyk went on to win. The 67’s he shot in the 2nd and 4th rounds were his best scores of the season, one in which he has continued his struggles from last year.

Prior to this week, Appleby’s best finish of the 2010 PGA Tour season was T30 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. This coming on the back of his worst season on the PGA Tour where he lost his playing privileges finishing outside the top 125 on the money list. For a man who is ranked 16th in career earnings on the PGA Tour, this was uncharted territory. In fact, he is using his one-time exemption for being ranked in the top 25 in career earnings to play on Tour this year.

For the likable Aussie’s fans around the world, it has been a frustrating experience watching a player with such beautiful technique struggle this way. However even the best players in the world can sometimes get too caught up in being technically perfect and lose sight of the most important thing in golf: get the ball in the hole in the least amount of shots.

Judging from Appleby’s tweets before this week, he understood the need to go back to having fun playing the game, like he did as a kid. His coach Steve Bann spoke earlier in the week about their preparation for the Verizon Heritage:

“Harbor Town is a course where even if you’re in the fairway, you often have trees in your way and it just forces you to be creative with your shot making. Add to that the fact that these are some of the smallest greens you’ll see on Tour all year, and you’ve got a course where you need all the shots….Stuart and I have been working on our 9 ball drill a lot in practice, i.e draws, fades and straight shots at low, medium and high trajectory. It really brings out your creative side and makes you visualize shots…he’s had lots of fun with that“.

The numbers tell the story: Appleby ranked T8 in Greens in Regulation and T19 in Putts per Greens In Regulation. That translates into lots of birdies and par saves, exactly what you need to do well at Harbor Town.

Appleby’s legion of fans will be hoping this is just the spark he needed to kick off a run of strong play to get back to being a regular contender on the weekends.

Thanks to Pure Golf Blog for this article.

Do you want to get your kids into golf but aren’t quite sure where to begin? Or perhaps you’re new to the game yourself and are looking for a good place to start. There is enough instruction around on golf to make you go nuts even before you pick up a golf club! However, luckily for you, we’ve found a great resource which will help you get started on the right track. And best of all…its free!

My First Golf Book Online is a great website developed by world renowned PGA Professional Steve Bann, who coaches PGA Tour stars such as Stuart Appleby and KJ Choi.

The website covers all parts of the game, starting with an introduction to the basics of the game, a section on safety and the rules of the game, and then gets into some basic lessons about technique and the fundamentals of the game.

The website is a great place to get started with the game and has some nice illustrations to go along with the written content to make it fun for the kids to read as well. Give it a go this summer!

Visit: http://www.my-first-golf-book-online.com/

5/12/09| Stuart Appleby might be a little disappointed that he didn’t win the 2009 Australian Open which concluded at the New South Wales Golf Club, La Perouse, NSW on Sunday. However his performance this week must have done wonders for his confidence as he played the kind of golf his supporters have longed to see this year.

Appleby seemed to be playing a tournament of his own the first two days, shooting two consecutive 66’s while playing on the tougher side of the draw in extremely windy conditions on the tough layout. He was several shots better than anyone playing on his side of the draw, and many onlookers called it some of the best golf they have seen for some time.

His coach Steve Bann said the following on Twitter:

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.

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that Steve Bann will be onsite at the International Institute of Golf this week (June 9- 11) before he travels to New York for the US Open at Bethpage Black.

Steve looks to share the same golf philosophies and principles he uses with top professional clients: Stuart Appleby, KJ Choi, Nick Flanagan and LPGA Hee Young Park.

Schools Offered:

Half Day: $895 (9am-12.30pm, 1pm – 4.30pm) – lunch provided

Full Day: $1,790 (8.30am – 5pm) – lunch provided

Individual Lessons are also available. Cliffs members receive 20% Discount.

To book or to get more information call 864.868.0477 .

Download pdf document at:    iigstevebann1