As part of the 2013 ISPS Handa Women’s Australia Open at Royal Canberra Golf Club, juniors had the chance to get up close to some of the world s leading female golfers during activities run by MYGolf. On Wednesday, approximately 30 children had the chance to learn from LPGA star Christina Kim at the MYGolf Clinic. The audience was captivated right from the start as Kim s bubbly personality and sense of humour were revealed. After speaking about how she played many sports growing up (American Football, Baseball and chasing boys ), Kim explained why she chose not to play college golf and then gave the children and their parents a great insight into life on the tour. Kim was then put through her paces by Golf Australia s High Performance Director, Brad James, as she showcased a number of different shots for the audience. High shots, fades, draws and long drives were all on show at the practice range before the clinic was moved to the green where Kim demonstrated how she plans and thinks through her chip shots as well as hitting a trick shot over her boyfriend s head, much to the delight of the young audience. Whilst at the practice green, the MYGolf Clinic attracted the attention of another LPGA player, Brittany Lincicome, who wandered over on her way back from the practice range. Lincicome was kind enough to have a chat to the kids before teaming up with a young man to take on Kim and a lucky young girl in a chipping contest. Thank you to Lincicome, the eventual winner of the chipping contest, for making this clinic even more memorable! Once all shots had been demonstrated and all the questions from the audience had been answered, Kim posed for photos with the children, signed countless autographs and chatted with the parents of the participants before leaving the practice range, and plenty of new fans, behind to prepare for the first round of the tournament the next day. Click here to view photos from the clinic with Christina Kim As the tournament got underway on Thursday, so too did the MYGolf Zone where golfers of all ages had the chance to work on their putting, chipping and iron shots. Those in attendance at the zone on Friday afternoon had the opportunity to meet Australian players Julia Boland and Rebecca Blain as they tried their hand at some of the activities on offer. Further excitement was generated on Sunday morning, when close to 60 children descended on the MYGolf Zone for a clinic with Karen Lunn, Felicity Johnson and Golf Australia s High Performance Manager, Matt Cutler. A 13 time winner on the Ladies European Tour (LET), including a Women’s British Open, Australian Lunn shared some valuable advice with the children and their parents in regards to her warm up and practice techniques before hitting the kind of shots that have brought her so much success. Hailing from England, Johnson is a two time winner on the LET and has qualified for the 2013 LPGA tour. Johnson reinforced Lunn s advice and also explained to the parents that at such a young age, golf should be more about having fun and being active rather than focussing on the many technical aspects of the game. A handful of children from the audience had the opportunity to hit some shots under the guidance of Lunn and Johnson and one lucky young lady got a very special lesson on bunker shots. Lunn and then Johnson then chose one child each from the audience to compete with them in a hole-in-one putting competition before signing autographs and answering questions from the enthusiastic junior golfers. Click here to view photos from the clinic with Karen Lunn and Felicity Johnson Thank you to Christina Kim, Julia Boland, Rebecca Blain, Karen Lunn and Felicity Johnson for taking time out of a busy week to share their knowledge and experience with the next generation of golfers. Some wonderful memories were created during the week, and who knows, perhaps a future Australian Open Champion was present! The below video was put together from Sunday&aposs clinic with Karen Lunn and Felicity Johnson.
Author: Sarah Kennedy / Golf Australia