Together with his putting coach and now business partner Dr Paul Hurrion, NGF Director Jeroen Stevens, The National Golf Director, Hans Blaauw and many other guests, Robert-Jan Derksen today offically opened the latest in putting science and technology at ‘The Academy’ Nunspeet, Holland.

As already announced some months ago at the KLM Dutch Open, ‘The Academy’ works closely with the NGF to improve their structure in coaching putting to the Dutch top amateur golfers. In recent months, work has been completed on the facility to produce a ’state of the art’ putting academy, was finally unveiled to the press and selected guests.

The Academy is based on the technique that Paul uses in his own ‘Hurrion Quintic’ putting laboratory, located in Birmingham, England. By using multi high speed cameras, Quintic ball roll, Force platform and special computer analysis software allow the coach to observe even the smallest detail in your putting stroke, which the naked eye can not see…

Paul Hurrion is an expert in putting and sports biomechanics and works with the like of Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, Oliver Wilson, Paul McGinley, Philip Price…  After recent months of intensive supervision, Paul has trained NGF coach, Hayo Bensdorp in his putting physilophy and technology. Hayo is really looking forward to becoming the putting coach of THE ACADEMY and to get started with his new pupils.

Paul and Robert-Jan performed the opening by the flag with the logo of The Academy at the entrance of ‘The Academy’ within Nunspeet Golf Club. 

“I am extremely proud of our Academy and assume that we will soon all together will witness the enhanced level of our putt-Dutch top golfers”, says Robert-Jan.

Robert-Jan Derksen, THE ACADEMY, Sophiaweg 412, 6523
NJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Telephone +31 (0) 24 360 3418, Telefax +31 (0) 24 388 8576, GSM manager Jan Derksen: +31 653 15 09 21
THEACADEMY@robertjanderksen.com : www.theacademy-rjd.eu

If you thought that launch angles and spin rates were the sole territory of woods and irons, then think again. Even when it comes to the humble putter, faults and fixes become clear when dipping into the world of science and technology. Dr Paul Hurrion employs both via his Quintic system, used to help many of today’s tour players sharpen up their skills on the green…

What is Quintic?  To read the full article in Golf World, please click here to download the pdf version.  Golf World - Science of Putting Dec11 p64-65  :  Golf World - Science of Putting - Dec 11 p66-67

December 2011 : p64-67 www.golfworld.co.uk

Putting is an art not a science,” this is no more evident than on the US PGA tour…  it was the first time that Quintic Ball Roll had visited the US PGA Tour. The event was the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (Las Vegas) where the software was on show to highlight to the players the importance not only the mechanics of putting, but the way both their stroke and their equipment influence the vital dynamics of the golf ball on its final journey. In the same way that conventional launch monitors such as TrackMan, Vector, FlightScope and Foresight GC2 have revolutionised the long game, so to Quintic Ball Roll is doing the same for the most used club in the bag.

Kent Jones having his stroke analysed by Quintic Ball Roll 

Over twenty players had the oppurtunity to use the Quintic system, (also used by Taylor Made, Callaway, PING, Srixon, Cleveland, Titelist and Yes Golf)  the reaction was dramatic, not only did it alter the way players thought about putting: but also opened their eyes to club fitting and alignment… the nuances of ball speed, spin, launch angle and the nature of true roll. Kevin Na (the winner of the event) reduced his launch angle by on average 2 degrees as a result of the analysis.

Quintic does all this through a state-of-the-art camera which (operating at 260 frames-per-second) captures the movement of a specially marked golf ball over the first 12 inches of its journey for the software to impute all the clubfitter needs to know about your clubface contact and the resulting influence on the ball in terms of the roll and path of putt. Quintic is a highly practical tool, in practice, both for coaches as a teaching aid and for clubfitters who can now match a player’s putter specification to their style of stroke far more swiftly and efficiently than ever before. Just ask Kevin Na…

www.quinticballroll.com

Fantastic couple of days at Sandwich, what a lovely part of the world… Looking forward to the tournament. Great to have the new range of GEL Hurrion Putters on the putting green during the practice days, with some very positive comments from some of the players…

www.gelgolf.com

Rory at 22 became the second youngest European Major winner of all time - and the youngest since 1872, the year Young Tom Morris captured his fourth and final Open Championship at 21.

“The whole week has been incredible - I could not have asked for any more and I am so happy to hold this trophy,” he said. “For such a small nation to win two US Opens in a row is pretty special. I know a few of my friends will be partying and I can’t wait to get home and join them.” Congratulations Rory!

With this win… Rory McIlory

· His second European Tour International Schedule victory in his 90th European Tour event.

· Moves into the top four in the Official World Golf Ranking.

· First Major Championship victory in his 11th Major Championship appearance.

· This victory beats his previous best Major Championship performances of tied third in the 2009 and 2010 US PGA Championship and 2010 Open Championship.

· This victory comes in his third appearance in the US Open Championship, beating his previous best of tied tenth in 2009.

· Aged 22 years and 46 days becomes the youngest European Tour Major Champion since The European Tour was formed. He beat the previous record of Seve Ballesteros, who was 22 years and 103 days at the 1979 Open Championship.

· Second consecutive Northern Irish victory in the US Open Championship, following Graeme McDowell in 2010.

· European Tour Members have now won the last five Major Championships. They are: Graeme McDowell (2010 US Open Championship), Louis Oosthuizen (2010 Open Championship), Martin Kaymer (2010 US PGA Championship), Charl Schwartzel (2011 Masters Tournament) and Rory McIlroy (2011 US Open Championship).

· Joins Harry Vardon (1900), Ted Ray (1920), Jim Barnes (1921), Tommy Armour (1927), Tony Jacklin (1970) and Graeme McDowell (2010) as Europeans to win the US Open Championship.

· Joins Fred Daly (1947 Open Championship) and Graeme McDowell (2010 US Open Championship) as players from Northern Ireland to win a Major Championship.

· Becomes the seventh wire-to-wire winner (no ties) in US Open history. He follows: Walter Hagen (1914), Jim Barnes (1921), Ben Hogan (1953), Tony Jacklin (1970) and Tiger Woods (2000 and 2002).

· Becomes the fifth player to win the US Open Championship with four sub-par rounds.

· Becomes the 27th foreign-born winner of the US Open Championship.

· Here are the US Open Championship record broken: Low first 36 holes of 131 and lowest first 36 holes in relation to par of 11 under. Low first 54 holes of 199 and lowest first 54 holes in relation to par of 14 under. Broke the 72 hole scoring record with 268 and low 72 hole in relation to par at 16 under. He matched the largest 36 hole lead of Tiger Woods of six shots in 2000.

· His eight stroke victory is the fourth largest in US Open Championship history and largest since Tiger Woods won by 15 in 2000.

· Of the eight Major Championship rounds played in 2011, he has now led in seven of them; first three rounds of the Masters Tournament and four of the US Open Championship.

OTHER FACTS

· First European Tour International Schedule victory since the 2009 Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

· This victory beats his previous best 2011 performance of second in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.

· The 42nd Major Championship victory by a European Tour Member since Seve Ballesteros won The Open Championship in 1979.

· The 21st different European Tour Member to win a Major Championship since Seve Ballesteros in 1979.

· Since The European Tour’s first season in 1972, joins Ernie Els (1994 and 1997), Retief Goosen (2001 and 2004), Michael Campbell (2005), Angel Cabrera (2007) and Graeme McDowell (2010), as European Tour Members to win the US Open Championship.

· Gains a ten year exemption into the US Open Championship.

· Gains a five year exemption into the Masters Tournament, Open Championship and US PGA Championship.

· Gains a place in the 2011 WGC – HSBC Champions PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

· Extends his European Tour exemption until the end of 2018.

· His third win as a professional worldwide.

Tour News : 20 June 2011 10:15

“I have to give a big thank you to Paul Hurrion as well who helped me on the greens. Without the knowledge and the understanding he has given to me about my putting, about my stroke, and about — it’s a very scientific thing, you know, with him. But if I didn’t have that knowledge, then I probably wouldn’t be able to putt as well as I am now.”

To read the full story please click here : http://www.todaysgolfer.co.uk/Golf/News/searchresults/June-2011/The-best-bits-of-Rory-McIlroys-press-conference

Analysis by Dr Paul Hurrion
BIOMECHANICS EXPERT & EUROPEAN TOUR COACH ‘www.quintic.com’
PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID CANNON/GETTYIMAGES.COM

Here’s a question for you: how can you realistically hope to reduce your handicap if you don’t seriously practice with the one club you use most often in every round of golf! It’s time to change. Get yourself a putting mirror, like the one Rory is using here, and commit yourself this season to working on the same drills and practice routines that I use with one the world’s most exciting young golfers. The return on your investment will be worth it…

Roll Model

Mirror, mirror… If I had to choose just one training aid for the players I coach to use regularly in their practice routines it would have to be a putting alignment mirror. I believe it is the simplest and most effective piece of equipment you can buy when it comes to working on all aspects of your aim, set-up and stroke. The graphics on the top of the mirror have certainly helped Rory to make consistent both his eye position and the square alignment of the putterface behind the ball on every putt. It is easy to use for a quick practice indoors at home or in the hotel room as well as on the putting green.

Non negotiable… That the putterface is aimed square to the initial line on which you want to roll the ball is one of the ‘non-negotiable’ elements of good putting technique. Simple, you might think, but you would be surprised at the number of leading professionals I have worked with who fail to take care of this most basic of laws at the set up. It’s that old issue of perception versus reality – what we think we are doing in golf is often a long way from what we are actually doing. Which is why it is vital you check this element regularly. Rory uses the solid transverse lines directly behind the ball as his reference point. He is then able to see the line directly in front of the putter blade, which is at 90 degrees to the target. Rory knows that if he strikes the ball with an open or closed face, not only will it fail to start online but the unwanted sidespin will further be evident in the inconsistency of roll.

Precision alignment to the target – that’s Rule No. 1
The first steps you see Rory running through here are designed to confirm perfect alignment of both his body, eye-line and the putter face. We generally like to start off a practice session with a straight 10-foot putt – Rory will get down behind the mirror to check that the centre line is aimed exactly down the target line. By using the alignment guides on the mirror, Rory can then check his eye position
(for him just inside the middle line), square the putterface to the target line and confirm that the key body lines (feet, hips and shoulders) all run parallel. With the mirror fixed in place, aimed at a straight putt, I would expect Rory to hole putt after putt from 10 feet. And one of the vital checks I make as he hits these putts is that Rory’s eye-line is maintained from the set-up all the way to impact – this helps to ensure that he ‘stays in the putt’. (You don’t ever want to peek too early – that throws the whole stroke off line).

I also like to film all of the putts and drills so I can review them in the Quintic video analysis software (see image below); we have created a substantial library of good putts and this is always very useful to refer back to. Once Rory is confident and rattling in the majority of the putts he hits I then remove the mirror and continue to film his stroke from the same spot on the green. Doing this introduces clubface alignment into the equation – i.e. Rory has to square the face without the benefit of the lines on the mirror. If the percentage of holed putts drops below 80% we need to address the failure of being able to repeat correct alignment. Once Rory is achieving 90% we repeat the drill with varying length putts, and finally we find a slope and repeat the drill with breaking putts. This drill examines and improves Rory’s pace control, which has to be correct for the ball to take the break and find the hole.

To download the full 6 page article please click here : GI101_McIlroy_Hurrion
GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM MAY 2011

http://www1.skysports.com/golf/us-open-2011/story/14636/6991407

Harrington believes he has more majors in him despite mixed results
By Matt Cooper.  June 15, 2011

Some things change, others stay the same.

When Padraig Harrington arrived at Congressional for the 1997 U.S. Open he was a second year pro and the challenge overwhelmed him. “I couldn’t get it round,” he remembers. “I changed my swing because of that experience. I started hitting the ball higher, especially off the tee. I remodelled my swing.”

Since those changes he has become a three-time major winner and yet he returns to Congressional still making changes. For the media the Harrington angle is simple: what was once an “unceasing desire to better himself” is now “unnecessary tinkering”.

It’s a good job that the Irishman is intelligent enough to understand how the media operates because, if he didn’t, it might tear him apart and his adept ability to cope with the media has always been in his favour.

During his very first major win, the Open Championship at Carnoustie in 2007, his cool deflection of the mounting pressure made a striking contrast with Sergio Garcia’s complete failure to do so. It’s also true that he’s always been ahead of the media, freely admitting to an obsession with practice and talking of the need for balance even when he was being praised to the hilt.

What he does disagree with, however, is the notion that having reached the top of the game he should have quit attempting to get better. Why stop using the methods that got you there in the first place?

Quest for knowledge

Harrington has a passion for understanding (in detail) every movement his body makes and it explains his close connection with the sports biomechanist Dr Paul Hurrion. Together they share a like-minded dissatisfaction with conventional wisdom and their quest for advances are never-ending.

Hurrion specialises in the dynamics of putting and his company Quintic recently launched their new Ball Roll Software which produces a uniquely detailed scrutiny of the performance of the ball after a putt is struck.

Harrington uses the software on his personal putting green at home and, via a camera that captures 260 frame per second, he can immediately view a fully digitalised analysis of the ball: the speed, sidespin, angular rotation, vertical bounce, launch angle and the point at which the ball reaches true roll.

This wealth of information is so revealing it can smash previously accepted notions. For example, one of golf’s finest putters advocates acceleration through the ball (for the very good reason that it is what he has always sought to do).

However modern camera technology (the same used by Quintic with high speed frames per second) proves this golfer does not accelerate through the ball. Instead he maintains perfect pace. It doesn’t change the fact that he is a magnificent putter but his perception is one thing and reality another.

This is the key difference between the nay-sayers and Harrington and Hurrion. The modern world allows us to ask hard questions of long-held perceptions and the answers can be damning; Harrington and Hurrion are not afraid of addressing them. “Because the golfer can now actually see, and so more easily understand, the putting data,” says Hurrion, “there is no room for doubt or argument.”

Better

Of his pursuit of improved performance Harrington recently said: “I actually think every part of my game is better now than it was in 2008, so I just have to be patient and let the results happen.”

Based on what he has seen, Hurrion concurs with the sentiment. “Padraig’s putting was good as ever when I saw him two weeks ago,” he said ahead of this week’s US Open. “The widespread notion that he ‘tinkers’ is a very harsh one. He’s merely seeking to make things better.

“It is worth recalling what he has gone through to reach the top of the world game. If you watch video of his swing when he was 18-year-old and even early in his professional career, well … it was nothing like it is today. He has transformed it through sheer hard work.

“Technically his swing and long game are in wonderful shape. On the range he is doing some great things.”

To twist an idea Hurrion likes to use about putting, the obvious question is how to transfer that perception of quality in practice to the reality on the course.

“Yeah, we discuss that,” says Hurrion. “What Padraig understands, and always has, is that his putting and short game are his strength. He has total trust in them and therefore his pre-shot routine and mental state reflect that complete faith. “He is in the process of accepting that he can now do something similar with his long game - the work on the range is good enough for him to have faith in that aspect of the game too.”

Harrington knows how to play the long game (the “other” long game; the one about being patient and not reactionary). “I believe I’m going to win more majors,” he said last week. “I feel like I’m in the middle of my career, not tailing off.”

http://www1.skysports.com/golf/us-open-2011/story/14636/6991407

The 34 year old Englishman completed a wire-to-wire victory with a closing 67 that left him 21 under for the week, one ahead of Thorbjorn Olesen and Gary Boyd.

“I thought I would eventually do it. It’s taken longer than planned but it’s incredibly hard to win on this Tour. There are great players already out here and new ones arriving all the time like we saw today with Thorbjorn, so my best weeks have just not quite been good enough before. I’ve had good results but I’ve come up short. Finally, it’s all gone my way.”

With this win….

• First European Tour International Schedule victory in his 209th European Tour event.
• Moves to inside the top 115 in the Official World Golf Ranking, from 165th.
• This victory beats his previous best European Tour finishes of second in the 2009 3 Irish Open, tied second in the 2009 Alfred Dunhill Championship and tied second in the 2009 BMW Italian Open presented by CartaSi.
• This victory beats his previous best 2011 performance of tied fifth in the South African Open Championship.
• Gains a two year European Tour exemption until the end of the 2013 season.
• His first win as a professional.
• Gains a place in the 2011 WGC – HSBC Champions.

All the best Rob for the US Open this week…