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.

I was told by my coach Steve Bann recently that there is more instructional material published/produced about golf than all other sports combined.
I don’t find this hard to believe. Why? Because all that supply is only responding to demand, or desire, and what do most golfers desire? A quick fix that’ll have them playing the best golf of their lives this weekend.

I was cleaning out the apartment recently and came across the mountain of golf books/magazines/dvds that I have accumulated over the years. There were the usual suspects: Hogan’s 5 Lessons, Bob Rotella’s golf psychology series, Dave Pelz’s short game bible and a collection of Golf Digest magazines big enough to build a fort with.

Apart from feeling disgusted with myself for being such a golf instruction whore, I couldn’t help but remember all of the emotions attached to my first experience with those golf tips. “This is IT!” I remember saying to myself. “Of course, THAT’S why Tiger can shape the ball at will”, “I think this is the final piece of the puzzle” and other ridiculously early calls.

I knew many girls in high school who spoke of boys the way I used to speak about golf tips. “I think this is the one”. Of course, one disastrous weekend later there were tales of betrayal, of sorrow from which there was no recovery. “I can’t believe he did that”, Vicky would say. “I can’t believe I couldn’t break 80” I would say. “My life is over” cried Jessica. “I’m never playing golf again”, said I.

Yet next weekend there we were again, trying out a new tip, or you know…

Now I’m a glass half full kind of guy, but (bitter) experience has taught me the difference between optimism and plain old wishful thinking. There is no such thing as “The Secret” to golf, any more than there is a perfect, flawless partner for you in life.

Yet you still see happily married couples don’t you? You still see incredibly successful professional golfers don’t you?

There are numerous ways to play this great game. Find one that you like and are comfortable with, and STICK WITH IT.  You have a much better chance of succeeding that way than if you flit from tip to tip, method to method in search of “the one”.

Don’t be a golf instruction speed dater.

All golfers around the world, no matter what level of skill they possess, have one thing in common: they want to get better. Most club level golfers share this desire for improvement- however they often don’t feel like they have the time to dedicate to a process that will help them achieve sustainable improvement in their golf games. So they try and find quick fixes in golf magazines, tips on tv or even worse, expert analysis from their fellow high handicapper friends.
However this game has a knack of biting you on the backside if you try and look for shortcuts. A “band-aid” remedy for your golf swing that works today might not work tomorrow and you will be back at square one, with a heavier heart and a lighter wallet. Often times you might find two different tips in the same magazine issue that completely contradict each other!
Another shortcoming that most golfers suffer from is an obsession with golf technique. We don’t mean to suggest for a moment that having the correct technique isn’t important. It is a fundamental component of our golf training program. However, good technique alone does not make a complete golfer.
So what is a golfer to do if they want to break out of this negative cycle?
We suggest you make a paradigm shift in the way you approach improvement in your golf game. We suggest you take what we call a “holistic approach” to golf training. What do we mean by holistic?
Holistic means we acquaint ourselves with The Four Training Factors of Golf, i.e. the Technical, Physical, Mental and Strategic golf training factors.
Why cover all four training factors?
We learned from our experience working alongside various sports programs at the Victorian Institute of Sport in Australia, programs that included Olympic sports, that in order to produce complete athletes and not just technicians, we had to pay attention to all the factors that would facilitate their growth.
Learn more about The 4 Training Factors of Golf at: http://www.puregolftraining.com

After playing his way to a Nationwide Tour membership during the year, the Greenville, S.C resident set his sights on pro golf’s ultimate stage. With rounds of 74, 71, 66, 68 ,75 and 69, Delahoussaye finished at 9 under 423 for the tournament and tied for 23rd place.It was a clutch performance in his final round of 3 under par 69 that sealed the deal for Delahoussaye.

While he hails from the United States, his success certainly has an Aussie connection to it. Delahoussaye has been working at the International Institute of Golf at The Cliffs, Keowee Springs in South Carolina with IIG coaches Brett Latcham and John Thalassinos.

The International Institute of Golf is the brainchild of Australia’s most successful coaching team- Steve Bann and Dale Lynch. The Institute officially opened its doors in May this year and is the training ground for some of the PGA Tour’s top stars including Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy, KJ Choi, Nick Flanagan, Mat Goggin, Aaron Baddeley and many more.

Back in 2006, KJ had dropped from the top 20 in the world to being outside the top 60. However, he is now firmly back in the winners circle and well positioned for a great year in 2009.

Here is a short video, produced by Steve Bann, covering some of the areas that KJ has been focusing on over the past couple of years

You can get the full story here at Pure Golf Training

We get many requests from our customers asking us to recommend the best golf training aid on the market. It is understandable that there is confusion out there simply due to the sheer volume of golf training aids being sold. The best advice we can give on this topic is to start off with a very simple question:

Do the pros use this training aid?

If the answer is “no” then you need to be very skeptical. The reality is that the devices that the world’s leading golf coaches use to train their charges are exactly the same training aids that YOU should be using to improve your swing.

There is no difference. These top PGA Tour Players focus on the basic movement of the golf swing just like you should. The fundamentals of golf don’t change. If it is good enough for the pros it is good enough for you. Elite golfers do not waste their time on gimmicks and nor should you.

So, which training aids do the Pros use?

According to Steve Bann, coach to Stuart Appleby, there are three core golf training aids that he uses with all his players in the area of golf strength training (a key area for the Tour players)

The LeaderBoard – perhaps the hottest golf training aid on the market today. Focuses on core strength training.

The SpeedStick – a great device for improving clubhead speed

The Club Kite - an ingenious but simple little golf training aid that works great in combination with both the LeaderBoard and the SpeedStick to build power into the golf swing

So there you have it. These training aids are actually used by the Touring Pros. They are not gimmicks. They are proven weapons used by the players, to increase power and hone their skills, before they hit the fairways of Augusta or Oakmont.