Golfing courses
Do you plan to start playing golf? Take the opportunity to attend a beginner's course in golf while you visit Åland.
- The learning is more effective when you are travelling and can concentrate to 100 %, says Kjell Hansson at Ålands Golfklubb.
The Åland Golf Academy consists of Head Pro Chris Waldron
with 20 years of experience of Swedish and English clubs and Pro Niklas
Rajamäki with 16 years as instructor. Together they offer all types of
golf courses, from private lessons to beginner and follow-up courses.
Choose between private lessons or education in a group for two to ten
persons. There are special company packages for companies.
Basic golf course
In a basic golf course, five
two hour lessons during a week, from Monday to Friday, are included.
Each lesson begins with half an hour theory in the practice area before
it is time for hands on golf.
- Our theory is held in the training
area because it is much easier to learn if you see what we mean
directly instead of just reading in a book, instructor Chris Waldron
explains.
In the first lesson you will learn the foundations that you must
know to play golf, such as the correct grip, how to swing the club
towards the hole, how to aim with the body, the correct body posture
and the position of the ball.
- We also explain the function of the swing in a simple way, Chris adds.
Then it is time for a simple warm up before it is time to hit the
balls. The instructor walks around and instructs all participants one
by one.
- It is important that the body is aimed the right way and
that your body posture is straight when you play golf. But everybody is
different - we have different styles and different body postures and it
is important to adjust the style to your body.
The foundational techniques are then repeated continually during the
following four lessons, where you'll also learn chipping, pitching,
putting and finally bunker putts.
- That makes up all the golf
swings you have to know to play golf. The next step is to combine them
all, which is not always easy.
After completed basic course
After the five
basic lessons your new knowledge will be tested. The test is followed
by a play round on the golf course where the instructors show how it is
really done when you play.
Before you get your green handicap card you must play five rounds
starting from an orange tee, 150 meters from the hole, and participate
in three organised high handicap rounds. Choose if you want to play
them in Åland or at a golf course near you.
The course fee for a beginner's course is 145 Euro per person. There
is an additional fee of 50 Euro for the final test. The organised high
handicap rounds are usually arranged once a week.