Junior Golf 2013

It's that time of year to get your kids signed up for all the summer activities and keep them BUSY!  Don't forget golf is one of the best ways to get your kids up and moving, breathing fresh air and having fun with other kids.  Our junior golf programs are in full swing sign up mode and we are registering kids for our camps and league. 

Summer camps consist of a 5 day lesson program having kids rotate through various stations at full swing, chipping and pitching and putting.  Lots of fun drills and games that keep kids attention and get them excited about golf.  (See some photo's below)  The end of the week is capped off with a fun day of games and prizes along with a fun lunch with the Pro's.  There is a camp in June and one in July with the ability to register up to 60 kids in each.

Our Junior League is a great program for the next step up in golf.  Kids age 8-14 come each Wednesday for 6 weeks and receive a lesson from the Pro's and then head to the Executive Course for their weekly play.  Kids will come at an assigned time based on age and will work on their game first before heading to the course.  A weekly lesson plan is given to the parents upon sign up so you know each week exactly what your kids are working on.  Scores are recorded and parents receive a weekly update email regarding progress.  At the end of the program on the 7th week we have a very popular Parent/Child scramble for 9 holes followed by some fun awards and prizes.  A great program for kids age 8-14!

So, if you are looking for some great activities for your kids this summer don't forget about GOLF! 

Have a great day!!

Golf Memberships at Wilderness Ridge

Want a great place to play, practice and have some fun this year?  Wilderness Ridge has some great membership options this year that may just fit into your golf plans.

If you haven’t heard about some of the great changes we are making at Wilderness Ridge, this could be the year to check it out!  Wilderness Ridge Golf is working towards growing the membership this year and has made great efforts to reduce leagues and outings so that members have greater accessibility to the golf course.  In addition, the golf course conditions have improved greatly under the direction of our new superintendent, Tom Athy.  To help us with our plans this year we have formed two member committees; one is our events committee which is currently working hard on a Member-Guest event and other great events for men, women and couples as well as a Membership Committee which is helping us get the word out about membership this year and all that we have to offer.

New to the membership categories is a large group membership.  Form a group of 8 or more friends with the ability to have up to 30 that can join the group and you will significantly reduce your annual cost.  The larger the group the lower the cost.  If you belong to a business or own a business that maybe is interested in adding golf for employees, this is a great way to do it, or just form your own group and save.

Don’t have a group, that’s ok because we offer a great junior membership (only $1800 annually), dual membership if you already belong to another club and senior memberships.  All great ways to affordably become part of a fun and growing club.

Interested in a free round of golf this spring?   Print off the TOUR PASS below, schedule a time to talk with one of our professional staff about membership and we will give you a pass to play golf one time at the club.”

Comments encouraged- AT&T Pro-Am...

Good afternoon to all of our golf fanatic followers..... Today I thought it would be fun to hopefully get some interactive comments going about the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am that is taking place right now in California.

The AT&T Pro-Am is a very exciting event on the PGA TOUR, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is contested annually on three of the Monterey Peninsula's premier golf courses- Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course in front of over 150,000 spectators and millions of television viewers. The field consists of 156 professionals / 156 amateurs and the Defending Champion is Phil Mickelson.

So, my question to you is if you could put your ideal Pro-Am team together, what Pro would you play with and why?  

Also, there are quite a few celebrities that play in this event as well, I have have pictures of a few listed below, what celebrity would you play with given the opportunity?

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our WR Golf Blog, feel free to let us know if there are certain golf related topics that you would like to see us cover.

Have a great weekend- Maureen Farrell, PGA

Winter Golf Academy-Great for Cold Days!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR.......Cold again!  If you are the die hard golfer and need a warm place to practice, come visit our Nebraska Golf Academy at Wilderness Ridge.  Heated hitting bays and a large indoor (warm) putting and chipping green are just the ticket to get that golf game in shape before the "warm" season hits.

Need to tune up the game?  Visit our website for more information about the Academy and our golf lesson pacakages and pricing.  No matter if you are a beginner, avid player or experienced player, we have a program for you. 

Visit www.wildernessridgegolf.com and go to the either PGA Professionals, Player Development or Golf Academy for more information.

Thanks!

Dominant Performance at Waste Managment Phoenix Open

Well, the PGA Tour is off to an interesting start this year!  Two of the most dominant players in the recent history (Tiger and Phil) out of the gate early with big wins.  What's in store for the majors?

If you had a chance to watch the Waste Management Phoenix Open this past weekend you probably saw a lot of focus on the 16th hole.  This has been a crowd tradition for years to gather there, make some noise and have some fun.  Over the years the tradition has grown and now the entire hole is encompassed with either corporate viewing booths or stadium spectator seats.  One of our members just returned from the tournament and said he sat at 16 all day and just had a blast watching all the antics from either players, caddies or fans.

The other "hot spot" is at night with the outdoor party at "The Birds Nest".  If you haven't attended the event or the party at the Birds Nest it is definitely a must at least once!

With 58,791 fans in attendance for the final round, the tournament drew an amazing 525,821 for the week, but trailed the 2008 all time record by 12,535.  It did surpass last year’s last year’s attendance by 7,559.

Phil used the new Callaway Razr Fit Xtreme driver in his dominating performance.  This shows you how sometimes a positive change in equipment will really help your game.  It will be very interesting to see how Rory handles all the new changes to his equipment this year.....Fun to watch nonetheless when they go wire to wire and just don't miss shots. 

Stretching to help your Golf Swing

Today we are going to focus on some off season stretching you can do to help your golf game come Spring time.  These should be done year round but good to do this time of year at home with the weather being so cold outside.

Most all clients I encounter have some sort of muscle imbalance when it comes to posture and mobility.  Our bodies were not made to sit at desks and look at computers all day, so we need to work on stretching exercises that help counteract tight hip flexors, anterior rotated shoulders and general lack of our stabilizing muscles.


Stretching and self myofascial release (will show pictures) alone will help your flexibility.  This will really help with your golf game.  Most people think that strength is the key to hitting the golf ball far, it is a key part in the process but the second part to strength is range of motion. Having good hip and shoulder turn allow you to create torque and rotation in your swing.  
Self myofascial release for hip flexors: this will help posture and hip turn for your golf swing.

Self myofascial release for shoulders, back and neck.

Great stretch for your hamstrings, you can use a resistance band or even a towel to do this.  I have had students with such tight hamstrings they couldn’t get there hips set in the right position at set-up.  


Use a towel or resistance band and tie it to a stable fixture in your home.  You should feel this stretch in your lower lat muscles.


I do this exercise with a towel, it helps open up your deltoid shoulder muscles.

Example showing proper shoulder turn for golf swing.



Look at how active the hips are during this swing sequence- rotated and loaded into right hip on take away then opens/clears hips at impact to create power.  

-Maureen Farrell, PGA

Putt Better in 2013!

Have you ever had one of those days on the course when every shot feels great and you just can't miss but once you get to the green you feel like you have hands of stone?  This happens quite often with golfers mainly due to lack of practice or proper practice on the practice green.  Yesterday we focused on the chip shot and the proper technique you should follow in order to hit shots more consistently close to the hole.  Today we will talk about some great short putt drills that you can incorporate into your practice sessions and start to become a better and more consistent putter when you play.

I have a few very quick videos of Mike Schuchart, PGA our Director of Instruction at the Nebraska Golf Academy right here at Wilderness Ridge. 

Our first drill is a ladder drill where your start close and work your way back.  This is a great way to practice as it incorporates chipping and putting together so that you are more confident whether you have a one footer or a ten footer. 

The second drill is a string drill for proper alignment, body position including posture and where your eyes should be in relation to the ball.  We make these drills from Gatorade bottles filled with sand and attach a string.  For outdoor use we use a long string and tie it to two pencils so we can push it into the green.  Stretch it over the hole and and place the ball is placed directly under the string so when you address the shot you will stand close enough that your eyes are over the ball and the string will slice the ball in half.  Your putter should always stay low back and through and never touch the string. 

Finally, if you want to work on your short stroke you can work with a drill called the putting arc which is shown below.  The heel of the putter stays on the flat edge of the board the entire stroke allowing you to have the correct path.  The key is to work on equal back and equal through sizing in your swing.  Actually, for juniors a three foot 2x4 works just as well and will save you about $100

For more information about our lesson programs or to schedule a lesson please visit our website at www.wildernessridgegolf.com or give us a call at 402-434-5106, we would love to show you all the drills that will help make you a better player.

There will be no blog tomorrow but Monday we will have an article from Maureen Farrell, PGA regarding some great winter stretching programs that will get you ready for golf this spring.

Hope this tip helps!

Chris Thomson, PGA

Hello Golfers!  Frigid today here in Nebraska with morning lows around zero. 

I wanted to post a few pictures of Wilderness and show the absolute beauty of the golf course during the winter time.  I think you will enjoy the posted pictures as much as I do.  I actually have a disc with all the great pictures of the course taken by one of our Wilderness members Ken & Mary Emmons.  I will have a drawing for a free disc of the pictures that can be used as a screen saver for your computer or for you to print off.  Just email me at cthomson@wildernessridgegolf.com to enter the drawing and I will select the winner on Monday, February 4th.

Today I will focus a lesson tip on chipping (I'll get back to Aim, Stance & Posture at another post) and the importance of learning the proper technique so you can get the ball close and one putt for the save.  Too often I see golfers come to the practice facilities and head right to the range to smash some balls.  The first club they pull out is the driver and many times that's the only club they hit.  I stress to all my students (especially the juniors) that the short game is where its at.  Competitions such as high school matches, amateur events and even professional events are won and lost due to someones ability to pitch, chip and putt the ball well.   I love teaching chipping because I can show a student how to get positive results in a very short amount of time just by understanding proper technique and proper club selection. 

Again, most often the core middle handicap player chips only with his wedge or sand wedge.  Wrong!  If you watch the PGA or LPGA tour you see a variety of clubs from a 7 iron through wedges or maybe even a hybrid.  The idea is "minimum air and maximum roll" just like when you putt.  Better players line up chips like they would for a putt so that they can try to hit their line and let the ball roll to the hole.  You just don't see a good player or a pro try to pitch the ball in the air to the hole, it's too difficutlt to judge your carry distance, spin, roll, etc. 

I like to use alignment rods when I teach as this helps the student pick the target line as well as understand the position of the body at the address position needs to be slightly on the open side.  Here is a quick checklist to help with getting set up for a chip:

1)  Use 3 alignment rods (or clubs). You can buy these at Home Depot for $1.99 ea.  See photo for set up
2)  Ball in the middle of the rods
3)  Stand close to inside rod with body slightly open to the target (right hand players) 
4)  Choke down the grip and allow the club to stand up more like your putter
5)  Feet close together
6)  Weight distribution more of the front side
7)  Hands slightly forward of golf ball to create a "pinch" when you hit the ball
8)  Small swing that is equal in backswing and throughswing without using your hands.  I tell the junior golfers they are swinging the letter "Y".  The Y forms from each arm and the shaft of the club when you hold it.  The idea is to not use your wrists to hit this shot.  Remember, we need to control distance and direction.
9)  Ball will hop in the air not very high, hit the ground with some check and then release to the target. 

Now, the idea here is to have the ball stop in a relatively close 3' radius tot the hole.  The next article will focus on the putting drills necessary to consistently make the 3 foot putts.  The idea is to marry chipping and putting drills together so that you have a routine to practice and can then incorporate on the course and see results.

Please view the video attached below for a quick synopsis of how the chip set up and swing look.  Tomorrow I will post the drills on the short putts and then you can spend some time on the short game instead of just hitting drivers when you come out!

For more information about our lesson programs or junior golf programs please visit our website at www.wildernessridgegolf.com or email me at the above address.

As I get better at blogging and figuring out video's, etc I hope to have the blog up in the mornings.
I hope you enjoy and find the tip useful.