I hope you are all still keeping safe and healthy. We’ve had a number of requests for more details on how we are operating and supporting our students during lockdown. See detailed breakdown below.

Lockdown Operations

Golf Training:
• Each student is receiving two scheduled private 30-minute sessions per week with their coach, conducted via WhatsApp Video or Zoom. Those students who have the facility for hitting balls are able to receive live remote lessons. Others are doing technical drills or just a check-in with the coach.

• Students are able to upload unlimited videos to CoachNow, our remote coaching platform, for their coach to analyse and provide feedback.

• Each player has been given a technical drill programme to work on during this time.

Fitness Training:
• Our Sports Scientist Renee Reinecke is conducting two live group fitness training sessions per week, per group. These are conducted via Zoom.

• The morning Energizer sessions continue for our Study Centre students, live via Zoom at 7.30am from Monday to Thursday.

• The students all have fitness programmes to be working on during lockdown, and Renee has uploaded exercise videos on CoachNow to assist them with this.

• Weekly fitness challenges are being set to encourage competitive spirit.

• Private live remote sessions can be booked with Renee during this period, to be done through either WhatsApp Video or Zoom. Each student has 10 of these sessions to be used throughout the year as part of their programme.

Mental Training:
• Head of Performance and Mental Coaching Mark Fairbank is setting weekly mental tasks for the students to submit and provide feedback. Topics so far have included identifying lifestyle areas that are hindering performance and learning to put together a course yardage book.

• Mark is also sharing motivational videos to inspire desire and learning during this time.

• Private remote sessions with Mark are available during this time.

Study Centre Academics:
• Students follow the Cambridge Assessments International Education curriculum via on online learner management system even under normal operations, so the transition to remote learning at home has been smoother than for most institutions.

• We are following our normal schedule, with study hours from 08:00 – 13:00, Monday-Friday.

• Academic Supervisors continue to support the content comprehension and progress of each student’s work schedule. This includes daily Zoom video calls involving a check-in on study goals for the day/week, a review of work completed, an opportunity to ask questions and request a 1-2-1 tutoring session.

• Specialist tutoring is being conducted in small groups for all core subjects via Zoom.

• Private tutoring sessions are available on request through our new online ‘Ask the Tutor’ service.

• Academic Supervisors are engaging with parents every Monday and Thursday.

• We’ve introduced a growth mindset motivation programme and an online study skills programme.

• Examination skills tutorials and test feedback take place during pre-arranged weekly scheduled sessions in small subject-specific groups.

• A new BSI academic resource database accessible through Google Classroom will also be coming online soon, packed with useful resources to support our students’ education and, ultimately, their examination success.

PGA Diploma Academics:
• The cycle 2 academic lecture schedule continues as normal via Zoom. All of our lecturers have done a great job in transferring the learning from the classroom to remote format.

• Assignments are being set as normal. Exams are due to take place in June, if we are able to return to campus by then.

• We have had to postpone the charity golf day that our 3rd year students were organising as part of their practical assessment. The event was due to be played in May, and will hopefully still be held later in the year.

• We have sourced some additional golf-specific online courses that the students will be doing during this time.

If you have any further enquiries, please email me at michael@bsisports.com.

Student Spotlight

Improvement is Reece's game

Reece Mckain is a 3rd year PGA Diploma student. In his first cycle at BSI he averaged 77.75, and with steady improvement, he was averaging 75.76 by the end of his first year. He worked even harder in his second year, achieved an average of 73.93 and won our Premier Division order of merit. So far this year, he’s continued that improvement with a current average of 73.00. A quick performance audit of stats shows that a further improvement in short game will see him averaging under par before too long.

Reece Mckain

The PGA Diploma provides 3 years of elite performance golf training as well as an internationally recognised qualification to thrive in the business of golf. Spaces for 2021 are limited and already filling up.

Start enrolment process >

Alumni Profile

David Lamprecht:
Academy Manager at Els Performance Golf Academy, The Els Club Desaru Coast, Malaysia

David graduated with the PGA Diploma from BSI in 2011 and has gone on to forge a very successful international career.

After graduation he competed on the IGT Challenge Tour for a couple of years. He then started his coaching career working as a golf coach for Club Med Resorts in Bintan Island, Indonesia alongside two other BSI graduates.

He then moved to Singapore where he took up the role of Golf Director and General Manager at Urban Fairways, an indoor golf facility with golf simulators and a retail store.

He has now moved on to become Golf Academy Manager at the Els Performance Golf Academy at The Els Club Desaru Coast in Malaysia. Check out David’s social media feeds to view the great work he is doing there.

David Lamprecht

Here’s what he had to say about his BSI journey;
“BSI's training and studies gave me the knowledge and foundation to be able to play professional golf for a while and also allowed me to apply all techniques learnt as part of my current coaching programmes to date. My advice to students that are thinking of joining BSI's programme is to just do it! The academy is great, with coaches who today are still my friends. They have a wealth of knowledge and you will learn a lot.”

If you dream of pursuing a career in golf with international opportunities, then the PGA Diploma or Greenkeeping programmes at BSI are the perfect college options for you. Contact us to start your journey.

Your journey starts here >

Performance Tip

Pitching setup vs impact

Your set-up has a major effect on how you execute each shot. Here we discuss the optimum set-up position for effective pitch shots.

Read here >