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.

6 players coached by Bann Lynch Golf coaches competed at The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio which concluded on Sunday.

It was a case of what might have been for Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy who shared the lead after the 1st round thanks to a blistering 7 under par 65 which could have been even better if not for a missed 2 footer on the par 3 8th hole. Unfortunately for Ogilvy, a 77 in the second round put paid to his chances for the week.

He got back on track with a 3 under par 69 but a 4 over par 76 on Sunday meant he could only finish T41 for the week at -1, well behind England’s Justin Rose who shot a final round 66 to capture his first PGA Tour title. Still, Ogilvy is sure to take plenty of positives from his first round in which he matched his superb ball striking with deft touch on the fast greens, needing just 26 putts despite the 3 putt on hole #8. The former US Open Champion is showing some good signs heading into Pebble Beach.

Fellow Aussie Aaron Baddeley finished T47 at even par while South Korea’s KJ Choi, a former winner here, finished T52.

Thanks to Pure Golf Blog for this post.

Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy has made a great start to his campaign at The Memorial Tournament on the US PGA Tour, firing a blistering 7 under par 65 to be tied for the lead after the 1st round.

The Bann Lynch Golf/Yarra Bend Golf team member made 8 birdies in his round against the lone bogey to share the lead with England’s Justin Rose and American Ricky Fowler.

Ogilvy seems to have carried into this week the positive momentum from his final round at last week’s Crowne Plaza Invitational where he shot a 6 under par 64 in the final round to vault up the leader board and finish T13. His putting was the key stat, as he needed just 26 putts in his round (T8 in that category).

With the US Open at Pebble Beach approaching, the return to form bodes well for former champion Ogilvy who has had a bit of a quiet season since his win at the opening event in Hawaii. At The Memorial however, Ogilvy is once again displaying his knack for playing well in tournaments with strong fields (the field includes Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and some of the top ranked players in the world).

“I’m happy the way I’m hitting the ball.” said Ogilvy. “I hit the ball great last week. I hit the ball great really since Augusta. And I feel like it’s been on the improve. So that’s nice.”

KJ Choi was the best of the other Bann Lynch Golf players, shooting a 3 under par 69 to be tied for 16th place. Having finished 4th at this year’s Masters, Choi is looking to peak at the right time once again for the US Open at Pebble Beach and get that first major.

Scores for other Bann Lynch Golf/Yarra Bend Golf players: Aaron Baddeley -1 (T34), Stuart Appleby +1 (T67), Mat Goggin +1 (T67), Marc Leishman +4 (T109).

Bann Lynch Golf players K.J Choi of South Korea and Geoff Ogilvy of Australia can both take plenty of positives from their respective performances in the US PGA Tour’s Crowne Plaza Invitational which concluded today at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Choi and Ogilvy both finished in a tie for 13th along with 7 other players at 12 under par, 9 shots behind winner Zach Johnson of the United States.

Choi and Ogilvy are coached by International Institute of Golf co-Directors Steve Bann and Dale Lynch respectively.

Yarra Bend Golf team member Ogilvy followed rounds of 70, 67 and 67 with a blistering final round 64 on the par 70 layout to vault up the leader board. He made 6 birdies against no bogeys and this performance will surely give the 2006 US Open Champion plenty of confidence with the 2010 event just a few weeks away.

While Ogilvy shot a stellar final round, Choi can probably lay claim to the strangest round of the week- his 66 on Saturday is probably one round of golf he won’t forget for a while. The South Korean birdied 3 of his first 4 holes, then recovered from a bogey on the 5th with a stunning eagle on the par 4 6th. He parred into the turn to score 4 under par 31 for the front 9. K.J then caught fire again birdieing 4 of the next 5 holes to get it to 8 under for the round. After parring 15 through 17, Choi teed off on the 18th hole tied for the lead with Bryce Molder at 14 under par and needing a birdie to match the course record.

That’s when it all went wrong.

After hitting his tee shot into the left rough, KJ couldn’t get it out on his first attempt, and then compounded his problems by hitting the next one into the water next to the green. After dropping, it took him 3 attempts with the wedge to get it onto the green and he had to make an 8 footer for a quadruple bogey 8 that left him with a 4 under par 66 which while impressive could have been so much better.

Still, both Ogilvy and Choi have shown some very encouraging signs this week that their games are peaking at the right time for the second major of the year. The US Open will be played at Pebble Beach Golf Links from June 17-20.

Thanks to Yarra Bend Golf for this article.

UPDATE: Arjun Atwal fired a final round of even par 70 on Sunday to finish the day where he started, T7th on the leaderboard at -6, 4 shots behind tournament winner Jason Day of Australia. Day gave back 2 shots to the field but held on to win his first PGA Tour event with a score of 10 under par 270.

This is Atwal’s best finish of the season. He earned US $189,150.00 and 80 FedEx Cup points for his efforts. He still has a lot of work left to do to be a factor in the FedEx Cup, currently ranked 146th. Coach Dale Lynch will surely be pleased with his performance this week, however.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Marc Leishman fired a final round of 1 under par 69 to finish at 5 under for the week and T12th. Leishman earned US $131,625.00 and 59.50 FedEx Cup points. This is Leishman’s 5th Top 25 finish of the season and moves him to 39th in the FedEx Cup standings. Another one of Denis McDade’s charges continues to perform well at the highest level.

India’s Arjun Atwal has put himself in a great position to get his best finish of the season on the US PGA Tour by firing an impressive 6 under 64 in the 3rd round of the HP Byron Nelson Championship at the TPC Four Seasons Resort Las Colinas in Irving, Texas.

Atwal’s moving day performance vaulted him to T7th on the leaderboard at 6 under for the tournament, 6 strokes behind leader Jason Day of Australia.

This is only Atwal’s 3rd event of the season, with his best finish so far on Tour coming last week at the Valero Texas Open (T17th).

Atwal works with IIG co-Director Dale Lynch. Another player from the Bann Lynch Golf stable, March Leishman of Australia is T16th at -4.

Australia’s Aaron Baddeley notched his best finish of the season by far by finishing 3rd at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday.

“Badds” as he is popularly known bounced back from an opening round of 75 to shoot 66 in the second round. After poor weather had forced a 36 hole Sunday finish, the Aussie fired rounds of 67 and 68 on the marathon final day to finish at 12 under par for the tournament, 2 shots behind eventual winner and fellow Aussie Adam Scott.

While it was the end of a long victory drought for Scott on the US PGA Tour, Baddeley would be encouraged that he too is not too far from winning form and ending a drought of his own (his last victory came at the 2007 FBR Open). Going through swing changes while competing at the highest level can be tough for even the most talented players in the world, however with his performance this week Baddeley seems to have turned a corner.

Baddeley returned to his childhood coach Dale Lynch earlier this year after having experimented with other swing methods. The pair had plenty of success early in Baddeley’s career as he lifted the 1999 Australian Open as an amateur and retained his title the following year having turned professional. He has been looking to return to the same principles in his game that brought him all that success, the basis of which is taking a holistic approach to golf as outlined in Dale Lynch and his coaching partner Steve Bann’s Pure Golf Training program.

The numbers:

Baddeley was typically strong on the greens this week ranking T4 for Putts Per Round (26) and 3rd for Putts Per Green In Regulation (1.574). He also bombed it off the tee ranking 2nd in driving distance (averaging 310.5 yards). Driving Accuracy (57.1 %- T25) and Greens in Regulation (65.3%- T24) might be two areas in which he did quite well but might look to improve a bit to get him over the line for that win.

With Baddeley’s putting talent, more greens will surely mean more birdies. More birdies ought to lead to that breakthrough win sooner rather than later.

Thanks to the Pure Golf Training team for this article, and well done Badds!

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.

Six Mile, S.C. (January 11,2010) — The International Institute of Golf (IIG) would like to congratulate Geoff Ogilvy on his second straight victory at the SBS Championship at Kapalua Resort in Maui, Hawaii.

Ogilvy posted four rounds in the sixties to finish at 22 under par, good for a one stroke victory.  This victory moved Geoff to 9th in the Official World Golf Rankings and marked his seventh PGA Tour victory including wins at the 2006 U.S. Open and the 2006, 2008 and 2009 WGC Accenture World Match Play. 

Winning the SBS Championship back-to-back is nothing new to IIG students.  Stuart Appleby is a three-time winner of this event 2004, 2005 and 2006, marking the only time it has been won in three consecutive years.  With Ogilvy winning this event the past two years it marks multiple victories for both Steve Bann and Dale Lynch as instructors at this event.  Ogilvy has been under the watchful eye of Lynch since he entered the golf program at the Victorian Institute of Sport at the age of sixteen which Lynch co directed with Bann.  

“Geoff’s game is primed for the 2010 season and he will not rest on this victory.  He has his sights set on becoming a better player,” said Dale Lynch.  “We focus on all aspects of his game – physical, mental, technical and strategic,” said Lynch. “Of all the things that stood out in Geoff’s game at Kapalua, his wedge play and putting showed the effort he has put into his off season practice.  Many players come to Maui to shake off the rust; he came with his game in shape to start the year off strongly.  I look forward to seeing what he will accomplish in 2010.” 

About the International Institute of Golf (IIG)
Located at the Cliffs at Keowee Springs, the IIG accompanies a Tom Fazio-designed golf course and community.  Headed up by Steve Bann and Dale Lynch, the IIG offers varying levels of instruction, group lessons and corporate outings.  In his commitment to make the IIG the premier instructional facility in the world, Lynch relocated to the Greenville, S.C. with his family. Bann will commute across the continents at the outset, splitting his time between the IIG at Keowee Springs and Melbourne training facility.  Both instructors spend time traveling with their professional clients including Geoff Ogilvy, Stuart Appleby, Mathew Goggin, K.J. Choi, Arjun Atwal, Roger Tambellini, Nick Flanagan, and Steve Allan.  

The IIG includes a state of the art 80-yard short-game area with varying rough heights, run-offs and green shapes and speeds will help golfers learn different ways to save strokes; a teaching center featuring NIKE 360® Fitting System; a state of the art Swing Catalyst motion analysis studio; and an indoor putting studio with the TOMI system and a fitness training area. 

The Cliffs at Keowee Springs is one of eight private master-planned residential developments within The Cliffs Communities, founded in 1989 by Jim Anthony and located in the heart of the Carolina Preserve stretching from Greenville, S.C., to Asheville, N.C. To learn more about the IIG, call (864) 868-0477 or visit www.iofgolf.com ? 

About The Cliffs Communities
Founded in 1989 by Jim Anthony, The Cliffs Communities offers a unique collection of eight communities within three distinct regions of The Carolina Preserve — Asheville, Mountain-lake and Mountain— while providing immediate enjoyment of all with only one membership. All communities are just minutes from each other. All are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of protected parklands at the southernmost edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And all provide access to two of the South’s most vibrant towns: Greenville, South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina. When you are a member of one Cliffs community, you are a Member of all eight. The Cliffs offers home sites from $200,000 to more than $3 million and custom homes from $700,000 to $5 million. To learn more about living at The Cliffs, call (877) 254-3371 or visit www.cliffscommunities.com. 

Contacts:
Barrett Wood      
(864) 868-0477 IIG      
(404) 543-3400 cell    
bwood@cliffscommunities.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:

Cameron Percy

Cameron Percy has had a memorable year by any standards. He finished 8th on the Nationwide Tour money list and won his card on the PGA Tour for next season. Percy has played solidly all year, but its a safe bet his latest round would have been one of the most memorable of his career.
After starting off the JB Were Australian Masters with a superb 5 under par 67 on Thursday, Percy immediately came into the media spotlight as one of the best Australian hopes for the week. Inevitably, with Tiger Woods’ presence creating an unprecedented amount of excitement in the tournament, questions began to be asked of Percy regarding a possible pairing with the great man over the weekend.
Questions that Percy couldn’t help but ask himself.
He admitted it was on his mind in his second round, when he shot a somewhat disappointing but respectable even par 72. Still, he was still in the hunt and needed a strong showing over the weekend to challenge for the title.

However, on the morning of the third round, Percy wasn’t feeling quite comfortable with his setup over the ball. This is where PGA Tour coaches really earn their money. Luckily for Percy, he had trusted coach Darren Cole on hand to have a look at his setup on the practice range and make a minor adjustment which immediately had him feeling a lot better about how he was striking the golf ball.
Percy shot 69 on Saturday and thanked “Coley” while being interviewed by Fox News later that day. He had something else to be happy about. As it turned out, he had his dream pairing with Tiger Woods for Sunday.
Percy couldn’t have had much sleep on Saturday night but he didn’t show too many nerves on what was probably one of the biggest days of his golfing career so far. The new PGA Tour member (he earned his card through the Nationwide Tour this year) kept it together beautifully to shoot an even par 72 to finish the tournament on -8 and earn a tied-6th position.

All of us at IIG would like to congratulate Cameron Percy and his coach Darren Cole on a wonderful and memorable week.