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GOLFIS COMING TO IRELAND QUESTION: WHAT DO THREE OF THE LAST FOUR WORLD NUMBER ONES HAVE IN COMMON WITH COUNTY CAVAN? ANSWER: THEY’RE ALL WORKING WITH IRISH SHORT GAME COACH, GARETH RAFLEWSKI. THE CANADA-BASED OMAGH NATIVE HAS WORKED WITH 65 OF THE GAME’S BEST PLAYERS ACROSS THE LPGA AND PGA TOURS OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS AND NOW HE’S OPENING HIS FIRST PERFORMANCE ACADEMY IN EUROPE WITH A STATE-OF-THE-ART SHORT GAME STUDIO SET FOR PGA NATIONAL SLIEVE RUSSELL, WRITES JOHN CRAVEN

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or a nation quick to Move he did. In fact, Raflewski as a young pro,” he recalled. RIGHT: F Gareth with Ariya hop on a home success bounced around like he was “I thought that time equalled Jutanugarn and story, particularly in sport, trapped inside a pinball machine better. I thought, if you put it in her team you’d think the short game between mini-tours, the EuroPro 8 hours a day and put it in, day BELOW-LEFT: expert behind the current Tour, the then Nationwide after day after day, things will be Left to right with world number one women’s Tour and further afield on the better. It made sense. Gareth is Mariajo Uribe , Tiffany Joh, professional golfer would be Canadian Tour, grinding away in “I often hear a lot of players Jane Park- at the a household name on Irish the cash games that have claimed say, ‘if I just had the time to Scottish Open shores. Then again, with a the lives of many a tour pro. practice, if I just had more time name like Raflewski, you can “Every day I played I second to go out and work on my game understand why the Irish guessed it,” he said of turning his I’d be so much better’, but the haven’t been so quick to claim back on the 9-5. truth is, it’s not time, it’s the this one as our own. “When it’s going well, you’re quality and the information “It’s actually O’Raflewski,” like, ‘god, this was a good choice, that’s going to make the biggest short game extraordinaire, I knew I should’ve been doing difference.” Gareth Raflewski jokes of a this’, and when it’s not going so It was still a gamble – there name not synonymous with Irish well, you’re thinking, ‘what am I was no evidence to suggest folklore. His grandfather was a doing here?’ But as it turned out, the life of the teaching pro Polish RAF pilot who escaped to that was the best thing for me. would yield more fruit than the Ireland during the war and met “The struggles are real and touring one– but Raflewski had his grandmother before settling down in the North of the island. It was here that Gareth’s love of Moriya was earning 80 or 90 grand developed on the fairways of Omagh GC. the season I started working with her He showed potential as an and the last three or four years she’s amateur, competing across the interprovincial scene and been averaging at least a million championship circuits but he was a dedicated student too and travelled to Liverpool before graduating as an engineer. Yet, despite his degree in his back pocket, a steady 9-5, healthy income and a shiny company car in his future, his grá for golf was something Raflewski was powerless to ignore. “When it’s in you and you have a calling to do something - I just always wanted to be involved in it so if it wasn’t going to be around playing, it was going to be coaching or something else,” he said. “It’s in my blood and it wouldn’t have mattered how much money I was going to be when you’re working with good already proved he wasn’t afraid were a number of really great making as an engineer, I still players, to be able to relate to of rolling the dice and entered coaches near me and I just would’ve wanted to pursue the how they’re feeling – be they a the competitive cauldron of thought, I still want to do this golf. I had my parents looking at tour pro or a recreational player coaching believing he could here. I got tell that there was a me sideways saying, ‘are you sure who’s just terrified about the stand out amongst the crowd. He club looking for an assistant pro, about this?’ I had my boss at the monthly medal - it really helps.” moved to Canada and despite an a really nice high-end private engineering company telling me The game may have defeated intimidating list of coaches plying club so I met the pro and said ‘we have a great project for you him as a player but Raflewski’s their trade on that side of the obviously I’d work as an assistant and we’re going to bump you up, experience of the grind coupled Atlantic, a bit of luck and a bunch - I want to get my foot in the you’ll have your own car, expense with his studious disposition of motivation meant there was door - but I want to coach, that’s account, everything’ and I paved the way for the twist in his no looking back. what I want to pursue. thought, ‘my god, if I start getting career path that would ultimately “At that time moving to “They said ‘Gareth, I don’t any more I’m never going to leave inform the leading coach he is Canada, Sean Foley [former think our members are into so I had to pull the trigger and today. coach to Tiger Woods] was an that, they don’t take lessons’. make a move’.” “I had no idea what I was doing hour down the road and there I think three years later I was

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Gareth with doing about 12-1500 lessons in was paying off with the local He returned to Canada and Omagh was translating to the a summer season! At the end of swingers. He’d sit out by the although he enjoyed success with fairways of the most elite Tour in the day, if you give people what 16th tee, offering his services PGA Tour names like Kiradech women’s golf. they’re looking for and you lay it for three -hole playing lessons Aphibarnrat, Michael Gligic and Park’s friend and fellow LPGA out for them, people are going with the members, all the while Hudson Swafford, Raflewski’s Tour competitor, Tiffany Joh to come and if you get results – developing his fascination with big break was to come in the entrusted Raflewski to improve whether they’re Tour players or on-course coaching that would women’s game. He joined forces her putting and soon doubled her the Club Champion – if you make serve him so well today. It was with LPGA Tour pro, Jane Park season earnings too, but it was someone better, you’re going to his love of teaching combined and his influence was almost when the Northern Irishman was get busier and that’s just it.” with the immediate feedback instant as Park doubled her enlisted to oversee Thai talent, Raflewski moved home briefly of testing that teaching in a money on Tour the following Moriya Jutanugarn that things after a successful first spell playing environment that spurred year. Suddenly, the same started to truly skyrocket. in Canada and even without Raflewski onto his ultimate formula that saw Raflewski’s “Moriya was earning 80 or a driving range at Omagh ambition of coaching the world’s timetable book up with lessons 90 grand the season I started Golf Club, his Midas touch best players. at members’ clubs in Canada and working with her and the last

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three or four years she’s been communicate that with the in a little notebook. Then when so he can then extract every averaging at least a million,” he student to get the best out of they come back, if you don’t ounce of their talent. said. them that is really the art of remember their name, you “I will research what they like, I Unsurprisingly, her sister coaching.” run into the back and get the will ask their what they’re Ariya, also a budding LPGA star How he builds those notebook and run out saying, into,” he continued. “It can be at the time wanted to work with connections, well he credits ‘hey John, how’s it going? Pint something as stupid as a sitcom the man who was proving a real that to his Irish upbringing and of Guinness again is it?’ and and I’ll sit and watch a couple of differential in Moriya’s upturn in tricks of the bar trade that made they’re like, ‘Jesus, how’d you episodes that the player might fortunes. him a popular figure amongst remember?’ and it’s, ‘of course I be into. Tiffany is into surfing so “Ariya was 66 in the world in frequenters of the local high wouldn’t forget you, how’s little I spent some time learning about January 2016 and at the end of stools. Johnny and Mary?’ surfing, some different terms the year she was number one “I learned it from a barman,” “I think it’s the Irish in me!” and moves so that I could start and won 6 times on Tour that he explained. “He taught me Raflewski insists it’s not that talking to her about that and year including the British Open,” that when someone walks into he’s trying to trick anybody, that would get her excited and Raflewski says. the bar, you sit down and get rather he’s making the effort engaged for the session.” And with that, in the blink of their name and find out a bit to find the all-important “It takes seven interactions an eye, the relatively unknown about them and write all the connection. It’s a vital tool that for someone to trust you so professional from Omagh Golf info down including their drink he applies to his own students, when I know I want to work with Club had gone from three hole leaving no stone unturned to get someone on Tour – say Lydia playing lessons back home the root of a player’s character Ko – where everyone else would to the short game master largely responsible for reaching the The studio is packed with the latest pinnacle of the women’s technology, from high-resolution game. Ever pinch yourself? “You’re always doing cameras to a GC2 Quad launch that there,” he says, his Irishness mightily monitor which will dial-in your intact. “At the end of wedges. We’ve the SAM PuttLab, the day, there’s so many great coaches out there Capto 3D Putting, Swing Catalyst but it’s the connection. With information now, everyone’s Video – it’s really exciting stuff" got all the info now but it’s the ability to walk up and say, ‘hey, I could really help you with your game’, I knew I had to make a number of pitstops along the way before we could even think about introducing that happening. It’s like going to the bar to pick up a girl, the more aloof you are, the more chance you have of doing well!” It’s a system that’s contributed to Raflewski’s lofty reputation on the LPGA and PGA Tours, both as a world class coach and a trusty confident, often spotted spending hours on the practice green during tournament weeks shooting the breeze with the game’s biggest names about all things life. His current stable of stars includes world number one, Jin Young Ko and through his work with Jin, and indeed three of the last four female number ones, the Northern Irishman has seen first-hand what it takes to become the best at your craft.

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“Her perspective on life amazes me,” he said. “You can have a healthy obsession with something and if you don’t really have other interests, then that’s fine because at the end of the day, you’re doing something you absolutely love. But if you’re an obsessive person and you’re burnt out by it, you probably need to find some kind of outlet that’s going to help you. “The person that’s well- balanced tends to be able to pick golf up and put it in a box – it’s like a toy you play with, SMYTH WELCOMES RAFLEWSKI TO ‘OK I’m done with it now and I’ll come back to it tomorrow’. PGA NATIONAL SLIEVE RUSSELL That’s Jin.”

RAFLEWSKI AT PGA NATIONAL SLIEVE RUSSELL YOU’RE NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN IN THIS GAME, ESPECIALLY WHEN And so, it’s particularly exciting THE PERSON YOU’RE LEARNING FROM HAPPENS TO BE ONE OF THE that a man with such pedigree at just 39 years young has decided BEST PERFORMANCE COACHES IN THE WORLD to share his short game wisdom Even with 20 years’ experience banked as a PGA profes- prove a great asset to golfers here wanting to take their game with the island of his birth. sional and a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading to the next level.” The Raflewski Performance coaches, Gordon Smyth finds himself embracing the Exactly what golfers signing up to the Academy can expect is something completely different from your regular driving Academy is coming to Europe opportunity to upskill himself with the arrival of the Raflewski Performance Academy at PGA National Slieve range experience in Ireland. The proposed outing at Slieve and specifically to PGA National Russell. Russell will offer so much more than that, from testing and Ireland at Slieve Russell where Currently the Head PGA Professional at PGA National teaching to players then being encouraged to stay on-site and Gareth will link up with Head Ireland, Smyth has been a driving force behind the Academy put their practice immediately into play. Professional, Gordon Smyth. that’s expected to take the Irish golf scene by storm when “The idea is that when the person is finished the lesson, we launching later this year. want them to stay,” Smyth explains. Raflewski has always wanted Ever since Smyth was introduced to Canada-based Irish pro “We want them to go to the Academy Course and put their to do something closer to home and short game guru, Gareth Raflewski, the pair have gelled, practice into play right away and get that invaluable feedback. but exactly what remained a and when the opportunity to work with one of the world’s We will have state-of-the-art putting and wedge fitting capa- mystery until off the back of leading performance coaches came to pass, Smyth knew it bilities if players want to take it even further. Gareth and I are was a chance he couldn’t think twice about taking. constantly in touch brainstorming about how we can ensure some training aids he launched “As a coach, to be able to go on Tour with someone like players get the most out of a visit. last year, more opportunity Gareth is incredible,” said Smyth. “We just had an idea that we could ask the player what ball presented itself. Mutual friends “His stable of stars, both on the PGA Tour and the LPGA they use on arrival and if it’s a Pro v1x or whatever, we’d give put Gareth in touch with Smyth Tour boasts an unbelievable pool of talent so to have the them a bag of brand new balls after the lesson and say, ‘there chance to attend events and shadow what he’s doing is you are, now go and use the facilities and practice what we and the pair instantly clicked, phenomenal for me and hopefully in turn, it will be great for just worked on and we’ll be here to talk through the results’. swiftly exploring ways they Slieve Russell and Irish golf too.” I mean, that would’ve been my dream as a player. We’re could work together. Covid-19 travel restrictions have proved a torn in the side of encouraging them to invest not just money but time into their “Gordon loved the idea of the Smyth’s shadowing plans thus far. A proposed extended stay practice and ultimately, the goal is to make each player who in Canada in April was cancelled but regular Zoom meetings visits, better, and we believe we will.” Academy,” said Raflewski. “We with one of the world’s best have still been hugely beneficial. The Raflewski Performance Academy is set to be the first brainstormed and I’ve always Smyth admits he’s taken on the role of a sponge, absorbing as of its kind on the golf mad island of Ireland. Its walls will be wanted to do another Academy much information as possible from Raflewski who holds one brimming with technology, from the GC2 Quad which should somewhere but it’s very difficult of the most glittering coaching CV’s in the sport. help players dial-in their wedge game like never before, to “I was on the phone to Gareth the other day and I asked him cutting edge systems like the Sam Putt Lab, Capto 3D Putting because if you don’t have the outright, ‘how much did your players earn last year?’ Smyth and Swing catalyst Video. right person to head the project says. “He did a rough top-up and it was over $10 million. It’s Together, Smyth and Raflewski hope to change the culture and get it up and running the insane! in Ireland when it comes to coaching and with everything the right way, it just falls flat. "As a coach, to be able to go out on the PGA Tour is the studio will certainly bring, coupled with the existing facilities pinnacle really. It’s amazing for me personally to have that at the stunning Co. Cavan venue, it’s hard not to think they’re “You also don’t know what chance, and the trust Gareth’s shown in me hasn’t gone onto a winner. Covid-19 has presented logistical challenges, people are teaching and how unnoticed. It’s a significant sum of money that he’s put into both to Smyth’s upskilling and the final touches being put on they’re treating people but after this project. He’s not only investing in me but he’s investing in the Academy itself but the pair are confident that a September meeting Gordon, sharing my Slieve Russell and Irish golf as a whole but we both believe in launch is achievable. Whatever that date may transpire to be, the Academy and we’re confident it will prove successful.” Irish golfers will soon have a facility on their shores capable of ideas and listening to his, we “I’m just trying to get all the information I can and Gareth’s rivalling the world’s best. had no doubt that we could work been so open with me. As an engineer, he’s so technically together and get this project off minded and so into it that it’s fascinating to learn from him To keep up with the latest from Gordon and Gareth, you but he keeps it simple too and I’m sure his knowledge will the ground.” can follow them on Twitter @GordonSmyth / @Raflewski

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WHAT MAKES THIS most out of the day. You might DIFFERENT? have only paid for a 90-minute The result, Raflewski believes, is session but we really want you to like nothing currently available to stay and maximise your time and golfers on the island of Ireland. ultimately your with us – that’s It’s been founded on three pillars; the difference.” the studio, the short game area Indeed, Raflewski is hoping the and the golf course and it’s the Academy can inspire a cultural link between all three that will shift in terms of golf coaching on prove the big difference for the island in general, something golfers looking to improve their that would not only greatly game like never before. benefit the wider industry that The journey will see players has taken a massive hit during first avail of cutting-edge Covid-19, but every player too. technology in studio, absorbing “Our seasons are so short and as much information as possible you see it so often as a coach, to take to step two. you have someone come in, you “The studio is packed with the conduct a good lesson and they latest technology, from high- say, ‘I’ll see you in two weeks’. resolution cameras to a GC2 That’s just not working. I’m Quad launch monitor which will thinking, ‘why do I have so much dial-in your wedges. We’ve the success with my pros and less SAM PuttLab, Capto 3D Putting, with my amateurs?’ It’s because I Swing Catalyst Video – it’s really see the pros so much more. exciting stuff,” Raflewski says. “A 90 minute lesson is going to “We’ve spent a fortune on be good but it’s not really going the flooring. A company called to make you any better. You’re Wellputt is making it; it has two just going to have information. different speeds in different There’ll be times through the directions, basically a whole indoor system. With the weather We believe the appetite is there for players to in Ireland, if we get a bad day, we don’t want someone travelling to travel and stay at the Slieve Russell and spend Cavan and getting washed out so being able to go into the studio a couple of days working at their game. That’s was very important to us. what’s going to make them better “The green is literally designed with eight different exercises so it’s really going to hit on most of and if you don’t have the skill set the opportunity to have a full day, even if Gordon or I are not what we need to do with putting. to pull them off, you need to go understanding of their short directly teaching, where we’ll Plus, with the brilliant outdoor back into the studio and learn game. be walking around making sure facilities on-site at Slieve Russell the movement patterns that are “This is for everyone,” students are still doing the right already, it’s nice that we can put needed to create that type of Raflewski says. “I would assume things so we have that touch the shutter up and hit outdoors shot. it would attract pretty good point that the players can access or vice versa when necessary.” “Then you’ll go to do practice players but I love helping people, and if they’re not, we’ll be able to From the studio, players area again, hit lots of balls doing whether they have the yips or catch it and fix it there and then. will take their new-found just that and we’ll go back onto chipping woes or they’re just “So, I think it will do well. We information to the multiple the golf course and see if that terrible putters in general, if believe the appetite is there for short game areas on site, work has made a difference to people know the scope for players to travel and stay at the training their skills with drills whether or not you can produce improvement that we’re capable Slieve Russell and spend a couple and repetitions before putting a shot you couldn’t one hour of achieving at the Academy, of days working at their game. this practice into play on the golf ago.” then we believe that the hunger That’s what’s going to make them course. And don’t allow the will be there amongst players to better. It’s changing that culture “We want to take players professionalism of the concept put the time in to access it. to make people know that this out onto the golf course and intimidate you into thinking the “The least amount of time they is how you’re going to have to put them in a match situation studio is only designed for the can spend with us is 90 minutes do things if you’re serious about and say, ‘what do you do here?’ elite player. Yes, it will attract but we’re hoping they’ll spend getting better.” Raflewski continues. some top talent looking to time on the short game area “We’re taking a look at maximise their learning but the and the Academy course and For more information about specific shot scenarios that will technology is designed to allow put the exercises to use, see if Gordon and Raflewski Golf, arise when you’re playing for real anyone, professional or amateur, the drills are clicking and get the visit https://raflewskigolf.com/

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