News: England Golf Coaching Conference

The country’s best golf coaches came together before Christmas to share ideas and experiences at England Golf’s annual conference.

Held at St George’s Park in Staffordshire, the England Golf Coaching Conference is attended by county, regional and national coaches and managers.

Guests speakers such as Tony Minichiello, who has been Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill’s coach since she was just nine years old, conducted seminars aimed at improving the performance of coaches, with the hope this will lead to the creation of better golfers.

This is a great honour, but an award is not about the individual.” – Terry Casey Held between December 14-15, three men who have ‘pulled out all of the stops’ to support golfers were honoured at the event.

Terry Casey, father of PGA Tour player Paul, recently retired as manager of the England men’s team and won the award for Outstanding Contribution to Coaching.

He said: “This is a great honour, but an award is not about the individual. It’s about the people you work with and in my case I’ve had the privilege of working with coaches like Graham Walker and David Ridley and all the other fantastic people at England Golf.

“It’s been fun. The friendship and the camaraderie among that group is something very special and, if I miss anything, it will be that and the contact with the players.”

Casey is a member at Burhill in Surrey, where another award winner is also based. Steve Parrish, the England Golf south region manager, was named as the Volunteer Manager of the Year.

Steve Orr, the director of coaching at the Cranfield Golf Academy in Sussex, received the 2015 Coach of the Year award.

Nigel Edwards, the England Golf performance director, said: “These awards recognise people who really do pull out all the stops to support the players and squads they work with. They offer encouragement, guidance and support during both the good and bad times and they play a huge role in our successes.”