votes: To be an excellent professional golf player is one thing but to become a worldwide recognized and respected golf coach is another thing What are the attributes of being a successful golf coach Patience humility and love for the game of golf How did you get to teach golf bring up new golfers as a professional golf coach Just by chance My friend Graham Darke a PGA professional asked me if I could substitute for one of his golf pros who was ill To help out I agreed and has taught ever since You lead the Albatross Resort Golf Academy what was your first contact with the project Have you been around since the very beginning of it I wanted to return back home mainly because of my mother who turned 81 this February Then I heard of plans for the Albatross and after an interview with the investor Dr Šimáně I was so excited I wanted to participate I truly believe we are creating a great golf resort and teaching facility What role should the golf academy play in the context of the Albatross Resort The academy should be the heart of the resort We are dedicated to introducing as many people as possible to the game of golf and helping them to play their best The academy should work for all players of any age or level of ability Do you draw in any way on your rich international experience of teaching golf all over the world and do you bring any new ideas that Czech players do not know and which will be new to them First of all our academy will have a state of the art computer and video equipment to help analyse our customers swings There will be a putting studio equipped with the newest technology and we will be able to find the most suitable equipment for every player Is there anything truly new or distinctively different that you are bringing in your concept of a golf academy in comparison to the other golf schools in the Czech Republic It will be the technology and service for every customer which should stand out I want every serious golfer to feel that they have just found their golf heaven When I started as a national coach in 2002 we recruited a sport psychologist and physiotherapist for the first time We definitely have some real novelties but they should remain a surprise for our clients Who is the Albatross Resort Golf Academy meant for Will it focus on the adult players beginners or do you also prepare programmes for kids and the youth Extensive juniors programme is a must in every modern golf resort The kids are the future of golf and we will invest in them We plan to launch an international programme too so the kids of whatever nation who happen to live in Prague can find their golfing home at the Albatross Academy We want to attract families and we will have family oriented programmes as well Is it necessary to have different programmes in the teaching and training process for young girls and boys Or is it possible in golf to teach them together Golf is a game of fine motor skills and the hand eye coordination Girls are better movers boys hit it faster and most of the time better So each of them can serve as an example for the other That is the reason why we practise and train together You have worked as a professional golf coach for almost thirty years Has the view of the golf training process of beginners changed or developed in any radical way over the time Well today we know that beginners who started with an excellent professional develop much faster than players who were taught by friends husbands or amateurs in general A good professional will simply not allow his pupil to adopt bad habits Even kids should be taught by fully qualified professionals They build great fundamentals within three months which last for the rest of their lives The same is true for bad habits They too stay with the pupils for the rest of their lives Why does a golf club need its own golf academy Is it necessary for the success of any golf resort nowadays or can a golf club exist easily without that Great golf resorts have got great golf academies It is as simple as that By Filip Hubáček A talk with Jiří Kromichal one of the most recognised golf coaches in Europe about teaching golf Jiří Kromichal started his career as a professional coach in Germany in 1982 He also worked as a coach for long periods in the USA and Italy He is the only golfer from the Czech Republic and only the second continental European to have ever joined the British PGA He received diplomas from the American PGA in 1987 In the same year he also took classes with the legendary Harmon brothers Butch Harmon taught Tiger Woods for nearly ten years and in the following year he worked with Dave Pelz Jiří Kromichal was also heavily infl uenced by Jim Flick Paul Runyan and Chuck Cook and learned a lot from all of them 26 Leaders Magazine II 2009 GREAT GOLF RESORTS HAVE GOT GREAT GOLF ACADEMIES Photo Paul Pacey
An interview with Mr Jiří Winkelhöfer Manager of the Albatross Golf Resort Leaders Magazine II 2009 27 You call Albatross the golf resort Why the golf club Albatross rt does not consist just of ubhouse but also the golf stantial part of the resort of the golf resort will be which will offer our guests o practice their golf strokes mum length of 275 metres 5 metres This will allow up m the mats Besides that ea will offer also a putting d to a teeing area and hatheir approach shots and anning to offer floodlighter sundown so it will also actice after dark a resort and not a regular do your 18 hole game and see guests spending the her on the green or in the Where did the inspiration come from Was there any particular golf course that you had as a model ome from any specific golf ně who is the investor and ect carried in his head for creating an ideal golf resort d the Czech environment erience how similar resorts other people involved had ut we always spent time s or that is the right thing olfer since they have their The Czech Republic is a rather well developed golf country in the region What specifically new are you bringing for the Czech golfers who can be chosing nowadays among some eighty golf courses hat the Czech Republic is The number of clubs that have been opened in a relatively short period of time is stunning Our aim is to get among the top Czech golf courses and even better on their absolute top We want to achieve this though offering such services that will make a golfer satisfied to the limit Any golfer should feel in Albatross that we are happy that they are coming to play in Albatross and that they return to us No less important to us is that the golf course has to be constantly in superb conditions and quality For this we have as a member of our team Jiří Dvořák experience and outstanding greenkeeper with many years of experience from abroad Your project is grand scale Do you intend to recruit your members also among the ordinary golfers or are you targeting the demanding golfers who are willing to pay for quality Our price strategy is not aimed on the rich cliental We will not be probably one of the cheapest golf courses in the country but in no way we will be out of the Czech context Pricewise we will be reachable for any golf player At the same time we want to offer the meantioned quality so the result should be that after you play in Albatross you will feel that the price you paid was absolutely adequate to what you got To be a member of a golf club is to a large degree a question of emotional and personal relationship with the particular place You meet people in your club on regular basis you are used to coming there How do you want to achieve a feeling of pleasentness and coziness in your brand new resort How do you want to make it the place where people want to come and would give up for it their golf club maybe after ten fiften years This is an excellent question which I can explain on how our club will operate Albatross should be the club We want to nurture the club atmosphere with organizing number of club events and tournaments Our activities should not be limited simply to activities around the golf course which in our geograpfic conditions are seasonally limited We can go to play golf to the countries with milder climate or we can go and do other sports together as well Certainly every member can use the premises for organizing their own events celebrations or presentations of their companies Simply the club should vibe A part of this endeaveour is that we would like to keep the number of commercial tournaments on such level so our members would not need to change their habits due to commercial events and tournament and would have always enough time for their own play as they are used to By Filip Hubáček českou verzi naleznete na www leadersmagazine cz ALBATROSS THE RESORT Mr Winkelhöfer 37 comes from Pilsen where he served as a mayor of the town district of Pilsen 1 between 2002 2007 Before he spent 10 years as a manager in Unimex Group s r o to where he returned to head the realization of the Albatross Golf Resort project in Vysoký Újezd u Prahy Photo Paul Pacey resort and not simply a g The Albatross Golf Resor the golf course and the clu academy will be a very subs One very important feature the modern practice area w a first class training facility to The range shall have a maxim and a maximum width of 165 to 50 players to tee off fro the exceptional practise are green which shall be linked zards for guests to practice short game We are also pl ing for the practice area aft be possible for players to pra Now you see that we are golf club where you come to leave We will be happy to whole day in Albatross eith pleasant Kogo restaurant inspiratio t The inspiration did not co course anywhere Mr Šimán co author of the whole proje a very long time the idea of c for the Czech Republic and Certainly he had his own exp work abroad as well as the international experience B in long debates whether thi or solution for the Czech go specifics r gol eigh I could not agree more t well developed golf country
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