HKGA KSC LSA3 913

Hong Kong Golf Association – Kau Sai Chau Golf Academy Project
Section 6 The KSC Academy Facility Recommendations for HKGA This section details the equipment, resources & facilities required for a World-­‐Class Player Support System for HKGA Members. It is intended to give HKGA a clear direction in future negotiations and discussions with the designers of Kau Sai Chau Golf Academy. In many areas the KSC concept includes facilities and resources that will provide world class training opportunities for HKGA programs. The opportunity exists right now to ensure that key aspects of the KSC design will raise the standards existing in similar facilities around the world. It is also important to ensure all aspects of the KSC design and outfitting plan are “on track” to establish Hong Kong as a world leading golf training centre. What is an Elite Golf Training Facility? An elite training facility is a combination of • opportunities for players to practice shotmaking in keeping with the principle of "ecological validity" • systems to formally assess, monitor & provide feedback for players' practice efforts (via programs conducted by high performance coaches) • specialist physical training, recovery, & rehabilitation centres as well as cutting edge learning centres & associated technologies • services that allow players to test, adapt & maintain their equipment Performance Enhancement Systems – September 2013 Final Report - Project Review & Recommendations
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The components of this Elite Training Centre all have many related issues, factors, sub-categories and details that are crucial to "getting it right" for the elite players
populating the centre. The relationship between the HKGA & KSC needs to be a "marriage of convenience", operating as a highly developed partnership driven by the
realities of the cooperative arrangement goals and the relative capabilities of each party to contribute to the cooperative arrangement. These sub categories are reviewed
below.
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Internet, Wireless Capabilities, Innovation
To support an ambition to create and operate a World’s Best Practice training facility, KSC must install, maintain & continue to upgrade a contemporary communications infrastructure.
Player Welfare
To support players striving to achieve their best physical capability, the Academy must demonstrate the appropriate duty of care towards the scholarship holders and visitors by including medical primary
care facilities.
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Gymnasium
A golf-specific gymnasium provides the opportunity for “athlete players” to develop their natural strength, flexibility and fitness, and to hone their physical development in parallel with their swing
development. The standards being set now by the world’s elite players are the standards we will expect of our under-18 year old players in the very near future. The days of Gary Players being unusual
have long gone. Now the norm is a touring player who is actively working with strength & conditioning coaches during tournament play as well as during “off weeks”.
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Recovery Centre
Elite sport has long recognized the importance of systematically programmed recovery work to an athlete’s total training load. The inclusion of a golf specific Recovery Centre is a significant “World’s
Best Practice” initiative.
The establishment of a Golf Specific Recovery Centre will make the KSC Golf Academy a
world centre of innovation in elite player preparation & support. Performance Enhancement Systems – September 2013 Final Report - Project Review & Recommendations
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Training Room
The “Training Room” is not a gym. It is a contemporary training facility that incorporates many aspects of computer technology to facilitate professional & personal development programs done
individually or in a group. It could be seen as the “Mind Gym”. Properly designed, the training room can take on many “guises”, from media training (TV studio) to psycho-physiology lab. It is where the
group and / or individuals will interact with trainers, coaches and specialists from around the world via high-speed internet connections.
The establishment of a Golf Training Room will also make the KSC Golf Academy a
world centre of innovation in elite player preparation & support.
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Putting Centre
The teaching/coaching of putting has become a hard-numbered science. The touch side still requires the opportunity to practice (and be assessed) in a range of controlled, specifically designed
“scenarios” in a putting centre that has under cover & external greens.
China National Training Centre Putting Facility Performance Enhancement Systems – September 2013 Final Report - Project Review & Recommendations
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Club Fitting Centre
The training facility must include a capacity to measure and assess the correctness of the equipment set-up for each individual. This service makes the centre a regional focus for manufacturers and
tournament players. It also provides the HKGA with a premium-grade property that will attract players from the region looking for assistance in ensuring the right equipment mix.
Club Repair Centre
The same facility that can establish set make-ups can ensure that the player’s equipment can be kept in good repair.
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Short Game / Wedge Lay-Up Centre
Incredible distance control inside 100 yards is one of the hallmarks of modern tournament professionals. Contemporary training facilities in places like Augusta National, and the facilities being
developed for college players in the NCAA “race to have the best practice facility in the US College system” are heavily focused on assessing and training a world class wedge lay-up game. There are
obvious links to the club-fitting centre.
Carry Distance Centre
The facilities and resources required to give players feedback and training opportunities to develop their ability to control the distance of their full-game shotmaking are highly specific, and closely
approximate the range of target conditions faced in tournament play. KSC has the potential to provide a truly world class centre for carry distance control “through the bag”.
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Elevation Changes
International trends in the design of tournament golf courses are encompassed in the 3 courses at KSC. Elevation changes are part of the modern architect’s “stock in trade” to create challenges for the
player to judge distances. Finding facilities that allow players to learn the effects of elevation changes on their game is difficult. Finding opportunities to practice this knowledge and understanding are
equally challenging. The KSC Golf Academy is a rarity – it can provide both.
Angled Lies
The same can be said of angled lies.
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Sand Shot Centre
Gene Sarazen invented the sand wedge. Gary Player made it an offensive weapon. With access to the right facilities, Hong Kong’s elite players can become part of the new generation of “sand wizards”.
Contemporary bunkering provides a way to stop the ball in specific places for a skilled sand-shot player. For the novice they create fear & dropped shots.
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Full Range of International Grasses
Players can wait until they get to a new tournament venue to learn how to deal with new grass types, or they can practice in a facility that allows them to develop an understanding of how various grass
types affects their game.
International grasses refers to the provision of the full range (climate/local growing conditions allowing) of
tournament standard grass types likely to be encountered by travelling tournament players, including
International Green surfaces
couch (Tifdwarf (Tifton 419) and Tifgreen (Tifton 328)), bentgrass (Penn A4), bermuda
International Grasses (fairways & Rough)
Santa Ana Couch, Legend, Windsorgreen, Paspalum, Fescue, Bentgrass, Poa Annua, Common Tussock, weeping
grass, wallaby grass (especially a short variety such as Oxley), Queensland bluegrass and redgrass, Kangaroo grass,
Tall oat grass, Lemon scented grass and Large tussock grass, Rye grass, Kentucky Blue Grass or Smooth-stalked
Meadow Grass , Zoysia, Axonopus compressus, known as Carabao grass in the Philippines, carpetgrass
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Target Frames – replicating contemporary golf course architecture
Practice facilities that allow players to work on the kind of shots they will be challenged by in international tournaments will increasingly be recognized as centres of excellence. If designed properly,
such features can also facilitate the training of some of the contemporary targeting strategies that elite players use.
Consideration of Prevailing Winds / Designing For Wind Shot Training
World-class players tend to come from windy regions. The best US College players come from Florida, Texas & California – notoriously windy parts of the USA. Australian golfers from the coastal areas
around Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane & Perth have proved their ability to compete on the world stage. A practice facility that allows players to develop their game given consideration of various strengths
and directions of wind will produce highly competitive tournament players.
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Designing for Competition Options within the Academy Zone
The ability to challenge players with realistic competitive games and drills within the confines of the elite training centre adds incredible value to the facility. When these games & drills can be conducted
within easy reach of the assessment capability built into the training centre, we have a world-class centre.
Competition Options refers to the ability to utilise all the features of the coaching / practice / assessment centre to conduct
"mini tournaments" (scrambles, match play events), multi-aspect skills tests, squad and individual practice fairway score
indexes, etc. This allows players to break up their skill repetition work with fun, with strategic & performance related
indicators / challenges, with competitive drills that retain sharpness, with performance indexes that facilitate longitudinal
comparison & analysis. Quality practice facilities used in this way facilitate the transition from "practice think" to "play
think", which is far more target oriented, more strategic in nature, more immediate in demand, more challenging to play
systems & psycho-physiological / emotional control systems.
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Technology Required in a WBP Golf Academy
Elite training centres are driven by technology, most of it these days in highly miniaturized and portable forms. The data that is collected as part of contemporary training needs to be compiled and
analysed. The records from tournament play need to be accessible to drive and direct training efforts. The physical information of value to strength & conditioning programs, medical management, and
coaching decisions needs to be compiled and accessible to a range of professionals. The typical practice session today has at least some interaction with a data recording device that provides feedback &
direction for players and coaches.
The technology must be understood and fully utilized. Professional development is as important as maintenance contracts. Data collection & feedback tools in cupboards are the sign of an underachieving facility.
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