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Your first ‘top’ player was Ian Poulter – how did you start working with him and what was it that made him different to others? I first started working with Ian when he came to work for me as an


Assistant. He had an unbelievable desire to achieve his goals, which made him both easy and hard to work with…!


What set Charley apart was her unquenchable thirst for practice,


getting her to slow down and practice with class and thought was the tough bit. We did a great job and winning rookie of the year and then becoming number one in Europe are great achievements that can't be taken away.


What are the key differences that set the Poulters and the Hulls of the world apart from the rest? Both of these two had an unreal desire to achieve, channelled in


different ways yes, but both were not going to fail in their goals and I am honoured to have helped them along the way. They are the names that would stand out on my resume but I am lucky to have a lot of great players working hard to rise to both Charley and Ian's level. As a coach you are always pushing and trying to find ways to help


your players improve not just their technical golf swing but their overall performance. Sometimes you need to push them to do things they may not like, but you have to believe in what you are doing and find the best way to get the most out of the player you’re working with.


What differences do the players at that level have to perhaps the elite amateurs you work with? The gap between tour players and elite amateur players is closer than


Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters. Provided by www.actionimages.com The thing that made Ian stand out was his belief in himself and that


nothing was going to stop him. His self-belief needed to be maintained when coaching him, so I would suggest things I was working on with other players to him. When he used these ideas in his own swing they where now his ideas and as such became something he wanted to work on. It was a little sneaky but it was the best way to help him achieve. What


was great was watching Ian attain his goals and finish rookie of the year on the European tour, something I am so proud we achieved.


You have worked with another more recent figurehead of the women’s game, Charley Hull – did you see the same characteristics in Charley as you did with Ian? I first met Charley when she was nine and her first words to me were that


she wanted to become world number one! She would then visit once or twice a year until she was fourteen when she came to me full time to be her swing coach.


ever, and most of the top amateurs are working the way tour pros do as this tends to be their long-term goal. As a coach I am always just trying to get the most out of my player


whether they are a tour winner or complete beginner. As a coach my attitude always stays the same - make the person before me the best they can be whatever level that might take us to.


Elite pros are likely to be travelling around more, so how do you manage the coach-player relationship at distance and across a season? Working with tour players as a Club Pro is tricky as it is not possible to


travel to all events, but with all modern media tools it is easy to video golf swings and send them to be analysed as well as keep in touch in general these days. Personally I would like my player to be clear in what they are working on and try to get their minds more in play mode rather than trapped in technique, but, as always, it is totally down to the individual and what works best for them.


What do you think makes for a successful coach-player relationship both for beginners and then for elite players? A player coach relationship has to start with communication as, if


either person doesn’t understand what is required, confusion will reign. This is the basic for all coaching regardless of the ability of the student.


Do you have a different mindset for coaching beginners as you do for elite players? As I said before, I would treat both a beginner and a tour winner the


same and just try to get the best from that person. But how I would do that or go about achieving that would vary as you would expect based on the time they can give me and the individual requirements, characteristics and ultimately level of their game. But then when working with top players you become more and more


aware of the small margins to success. Building swings and players to be winners is more than just swing the club like this - it's a total holistic approach and finding how to make them perform their best is like putting together a puzzle and has great rewards. It can be hard work, but you can only give your best, and working


Lee working with Charley Hull on the range at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club, UK Charley had got her swing in a bit of a mess and we set about making it


more solid and reliable without taking a step back. In the first year she won the Scottish and Welsh National Championships and then a couple of other major amateur tournaments.


with these players makes you question yourself and the swing so much that it forces you to improve your own knowledge and keep questioning whether there is more you could do. This helps with all lessons as you become more aware of how different types of people work, so helping becomes easier.


Find out more about Lee and John O'Gaunt Golf Club here: www.johnogauntgolfclub.co.uk www.pgae.com SGBGOLF 13


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