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

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.

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.

Cameron Percy & coach Darren Cole

Note: We previously reported that Cameron Percy had qualified for the US Open. He has in fact qualified for the British Open Championship. We apologize for this error.

Australia’s Cameron Percy has qualified for the 2010 Open Championship by defeating Charley Hoffman and Bubba Watson in a playoff at the qualifier in Texas.

Percy birdied the third playoff hole to defeat the American duo and grab the final spot available from the qualifying event being played at the Gleneagles Golf Club in Plano, Texas.

It will be Percy’s 2nd start in a major championship, having previously competed in the 2003 Open Championship where he missed the cut.

Having earned his PGA Tour card after a stellar 2009 season on the Nationwide Tour where he finished 8th on the money list, Percy is still finding his feet on the big stage with 5 of 12 cuts made this season and one top 25 finish to his name.

Playing in his second major should be a huge boost for the Aussie who is coached by Bann Lynch Golf coach and Yarra Bend Golf team member Darren Cole.

It has been a good week of qualifying for the Bann Lynch Golf/Yarra Bend Golf stable with Paul Sheehan (coached by Denis McDade) qualifying for the US Open Championship via the qualifying event in Japan.

Marcus Fraser has completed a 7 year journey back into the winner’s circle on the European Tour by winning the Ballantines Championship on Deju Island in South Korea.

The Victorian shot a final round of 69 to win the weather-shortened 54 hole event by an impressive 4 shot margin at 12 under par. He beat an impressive field which included the likes of Ernie Els, Anthony Kim, Y.E Yang and some of the best players on the European Tour.

“It’s unbelievable, I don’t know how I did that today. It has blown me away,” said Fraser. Clearly emotional and relieved after finally closing the deal, Fraser admitted he has had his fair share of struggles and doubts over the last 7 years or so:

“Probably three or four years ago, I thought about giving it away,” he added. “I was playing terrible. Golf swing wasn’t improving and everything wasn’t really getting any better.

“I thought I was wasting my time and you really start to question yourself, whether you think that you should be out here or whether you deserve to be out here. I went through a patch like that and luckily I went back and saw my old coach that I used to see when I was an amateur, and we got things moving in the right direction.

He was quick to give credit to his coach Denis McDade of Bann Lynch Golf:

“It’s been a lot of hard work over the last couple of years to get back to this position. My last win was when I was coached by Denis McDade, and I’ve had another win today, still being coached by him. So I think we’ve done a lot of things to keep things moving in the right direction.”

We will have more on this story soon. Congratulations to Marcus from all of us here at Bann Lynch Golf!

(Thanks to bannlynchgolf.com for this article)

22nd March|South Korea’s KJ Choi continued his recent run of good form by finishing 2nd in the USPGA Tour’s Transitions Championship at Innisbrook. Choi shot an impressive final round of 4 under par 67 to finish just 1 shot behind winner Jim Furyk of the United States.

The strong finish was doubly satisfying for the man known as “The Tank” as it moved him up from 75th to 47th in the Official World Golf Rankings. That means that as of now, Choi is in the field for the Augusta Masters which begins on the 8th of April. He needs to stay within the top 50 for the next couple of weeks to ensure his spot in the field at the first major of the 2010 season.

It has been a tough couple of years for Choi who has struggled with his game due to equipment changes as well as what he described as his own impatience with regards to his fitness regime:

“I had a lot of excess fat stored in my body,” said Choi. “But I think we tried to do it in such a short time that I lost more than what I needed to, and that threw my body off a little bit. I lost a lot of energy. Just compared to the reduction of the weight, the specs for my clubs, they didn’t feel right. So everything was kind of thrown off-balance.”

His  3rd place finish at last year’s Northern Trust Open at Riviera was pretty much the only bright spot in a season where he struggled enough to almost fall out of the top 100 ranked players in the world. Meanwhile, his compatriot Y.E Yang took the golf world by storm, not only winning his first PGA Tour event at the Honda Classic, but backing that up with an epic win over world number 1 Tiger Woods at the US PGA Championship to become Asia’s first Major Champion.

Plenty of motivation to get his game back on track.

Choi showed some signs of a resurgence towards the end of last year as he won the Iskandar Johor Open on the Asian Tour , where his pro golf journey began. He began the 2010 season in promising fashion with top 20 finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open and the Mayakoba Golf Classic. He also came close to winning the Maybank Malaysian Open on the Asian Tour, losing out to 18 year old compatriot Noh Seong-yul by a shot.

Choi’s coach Steve Bann has been predicting a solid performance from KJ over the last few weeks, having seen him perform really well in practice: “KJ was just rearing to go after a practice session before the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am” said Bann. “Something just clicked while we were working on his swing, and he said “that’s it, lets go play”". “He couldn’t wait for the tournament to start”. For the record, Choi finished T21 at that event after sharing the lead at one point in the opening round.

Moving forward, KJ is just looking to continue to trust his skills and using Pure Golf Training concepts such as “The Confidence Cycle” to believe in his ability to perform under pressure, when it counts. Of course, there is no bigger test of nerves than a major championship, and Choi admits it has been in the back of his mind to continue his run of playing in every Masters tournament since 2002, with a 3rd place finish being his best (in 2004).

“When I started out this year, I didn’t really think about it that much, but obviously it was in my mind,” said Choi. “I just said to myself to take it week-by-week and just try my best. To hear that this finish puts me in 47th in the world, it’s actually better than what I thought I would be at this point. All I can say is I will try my best next week to maintain or better that position.”

Pure Golf Training would like to congratulate KJ Choi on a wonderful performance and wish him the best of luck in the coming weeks. Hope to see you at The Masters KJ!

P.S Here is a link to an audio interview of KJ after the Transitions Championship:

A big thanks to Pure Golf Blog for this content:

Along with being crowned champion at the Volvo China Open, Strange also finished runner up to Robert Allenby at the 2009 Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola, had a 12th place finish at the Australian Open, and secured a further five European Tour top 10’s.
According to Strange, “The OneAsia Tour is a great concept for the region’s best players competing on a tour that develops golf in those partnering countries,”
“As the winner last year’s inaugural Order of Merit, I am really looking forward to 2010 and participating in the OneAsia events – hopefully last year’s form continues! I look forward to opening my 2010 account at the Luxehills Chengdu Open, and seeing the international players competing in Australia at the end of the year.”

PGA of Australasia has the rest of the story:

While this may be welcome news for golf fans who just want to see him back playing golf instead of on tabloid frontcovers, the Woods camp still hasn’t given any indication of when he will be coming back to playing golf from his “indefinite break”.

“He is still working on his marriage and they’re working hard at it,” said the source who according to Reuters declined to be identified. “He is (also) hitting some balls and working out.”

Tiger spent a week in Arizona attending counseling sessions with his wife Elin before returning home to Orlando to start practicing again. The 14 time Major winner has only missed two events so far this season that he regularly plays- those being the San Diego Open in Torrey Pines and the WGC CA Championships.

The Augusta Masters, which starts on April 8, was the tournament many believed would be the one where he would make his comeback, however after his recent public apology, all bets seem to be off on when he’ll show up on our tv screens again.

Goggin, who works with Pure Golf Training coach Dale Lynch, started the week off in blistering fashion with a 66 in round 1 followed by a 67 in round 2. A 1 under 70 in round 3 might have slowed him down a bit but he still would still have had a chance to win the event going into the final 9 holes on Sunday. Unfortunately, an  eagle on the par 5 13th was offset by 4 bogies on the back 9 and Goggin eventually finished 3 shots behind eventual winner Hunter Mahan of the U.S.A.

Pure Golf Blog has the rest of the story: