Golf may have been invented in neighboring Scotland, but England’s history is rich with its affection of the game of golf, even reportedly enjoyed by Queen Elizabeth I herself. And who knows? Perhaps it was somewhere on the back nine that Shakespeare got the idea for Romeo and Juliet. It was ships of travelers and adventurers from England that brought their love of tea, those weird Pilgrim hats, and possibly golf to the shores of America. Fortunately for Jack Nicklaus and Babe Ruth, golf stuck and cricket did not.

English Elegance from Beginning to Eighteen

If you want to be encompassed by superlative lodging and some of the most lush and serene scenery in England, then the Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel & Country Club is definitely the golf course resort for you. This charming and ravishing resort is considered one of the top picks for golfers, and anyone who enjoys posh surroundings in the United Kingdom and around the world.

The rooms and suites are top-of-line in furnishings, amenities, and décor. If you get the urge to be indulged and spoiled, make an appointment at the golf course resort’s excellent spa for a massage or a cleansing facial treatment. Body wraps and body scrubs are also available. Once your body is cleansed and relaxed, a visit to the premium fitness facility should be your next stop.

There are two very splendid golf courses to choose from during your stay at the Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel and Country Club; the Arden Course is the largest of the two and considered the championship golf course (used for competitions like the British Masters), while the Aylesford Course is a favorite of many of the resort’s guests. A driving range and golfing lessons are available for anyone who needs to brush up on their game, or just wants a little extra practice at the first-class Golf Academy.

In between getting your fill of challenging and enjoyable games of golf, take a dip in the luxurious indoor pool and whirlpool or grab your racquet and get in a few sets of tennis. There are hiking and biking trails also on the grounds of the Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel and Country Club for those wanting some fresh air. If the shopping bug bites, catch a ride into any of several nearby shopping centers and boutique clusters.

You can find more details about this splendid golf course resort at the Putt.com web site, as well as contact information and travel deals that may give you and even better reason to smile.

About Author

Janna Lutz has been an author and accomplished freelance writer since her first children’s book was published in 2001. She has worked as a ghost writer on more than a few books, and is now working on two book projects of her own.

If you want to get involved in the game of golf, there are several ways to do it. Most people love to play the game during their free time. Others, however, love golf enough to want to make a career out of it. While lots of people are able to make a living by hitting straight drives, sinking long pressure putts, and posting low scores in the clubhouse, not everyone is blessed with that type of talent. Still, you do not have to be extraordinarily talented to get involved in the golf industry. One of the most popular and most rewarding forms of golf employment is the job of being a golf teacher. By having a great understanding of the fundamentals of the golf swing and a passion to teach others, you can be a great candidate to have awesome golf employment and make a difference in other people’s lives.

The game of golf has exploded in popularity in recent years and it seems that just about everyone wants to learn to play. By taking golf employment as a certified golf teacher, you can get a piece of the action and have a rewarding career. The teaching industry is growing just as quickly as the golf industry and because of that, new jobs are being created every day. At local country clubs, golf clubs, and municipal clubs all over the country, dedicated people are being hired based upon their enthusiasm and ability to teach. As a spin-off of this, the golf industry has created job opportunities for other people, including golf specific retailers, golf club repairmen, and even golf club fitters. All of these people are employed for a reason. The game of golf is reaching people like never before and it is about time you got a cut of the action.

As a golf teacher, your responsibilities will likely fall on helping golfers improve their game. Generally, you will have the chance to deal with young and new golfers in addition to those who just need a little reassurance. Those guys who are good enough to play professionally generally go to big-name swing coaches or a golf academy in order to get their training. Therefore, in the position of golf teacher at your country club, you will have a chance to make a real impact on a grass roots level. If this sounds like something that interests you, you should work on getting the necessary training.

As the industry has grown recently, the money available for golf employment positions has also grown. Good golf teaching professionals are able to charge a very good rate for their services. Generally, those looking to gain lessons and take in your expertise will have the resources to pay you well. ESPN has said that being a Sports center anchor is America’s dream job, but golf teaching professionals all over the country would probably argue against that adamantly.

Teaching golf is the top growing opportunity in golf employment. Whether you are interested in making money or simply in making a difference for other people, teaching will afford you that opportunity. The timing is great to jump into the industry as it continues to grow by leaps and bounds. With new television deals for the professional golf tours and golfers like Tiger Woods continuing to carry the game into the 21st century, it is apparent that there is an ongoing interest in the game of golf, and it is here to stay.

About Author

Andy West is a writer for SDGA. San Diego Golf Academy is a premier golf school with five locations across the United States. For information on how you may obtain golf employment, please visit http://www.sdgagolf.com/golf_careers.php .

Spain is a great golfing tourist destination. There are large a number of international standard golf courses in Spain, some of them have also been enlisted in top ten golf courses in entire Europe. If one is looking for playing golf in Spain, the below mentioned information regarding top golf courses in Spain shall prove fruitful.

Top Golf Courses in Canary Islands

Canary Islands is such a place where one can explore the most elegant courses in Spain. From the golf course of Real Club de Golf De Las Palmas to Las Americans of Tenerife with fantastic sea vision, this island offers number of golf courses which are both scenic and diverse. Tenerife welcomes more than 4 million travelers every year. The spectacular volcanic terrains and excellent weather conditions are major attractive destinations along with nine golf courses of the island. Some most famous golf courses located in Tenerife of Canary Islands include Abama, Buenavista, Amarilla, Golf Las Americas and Golf Costa Adeje.

Top Golf Courses in Menorca and Majorca

Menorca and Majorca are two world renowned island destinations that proffer an excellent range of spectacular golf courses which combine golfing experience with splendid scenery. The region of Majorca facilitates whole year golf playing at its many courses like Santa Ponsa, multi-ethnic nightlife and best shopping experience which compliments the days on greens. The city of Menorca which is also a “UNESCO Biosphere Reserve” is unspoiled and laid back. Apart from exceptional golfing experience, the place also offers for enjoying other different types of activities like horse riding, walking tracks and sailing.

Top Golf Courses in Cadiz

Cadiz is another popular region where the golf enthusiasts can enjoy their favorite golf game. Easily accessible from the airports of Gibralter and Seville, the region of Cadiz along with the significant walled metropolis of Cadiz as its major capital, has about ten golf courses starting from Ballena to Montescastillo (inland). Around the famous villages of Rota and Chipiona in the southern most regions, you will definitely find some excellent coastlines along with beautiful pine woodlands set along rocky beaches.

Top golf courses in Spain’s Costa Del Sol city

Costa del Sol is just the foremost golfing destination in entire Europe where different golf courses are established on the edge of one another for the full length of coastline. Some of the golf courses are also extended towards sand beaches. The exceptionally beautiful towns of Fuengirola and Benalmadena, set near the international airports are ideal bases for spending golf holidays in Spain.

The Desert Springs Golf course was inaugurated during the year 2000 and since then, it has been awarded with many international awards for its excellent hospitality services. This golf course also possesses state of the art golf academy along with a prominent golf course. It is situated in Ameria which is considered to have the driest climatic conditions; so wonderful golfing experience is guaranteed practically all round the year.

Overall, there are a number of top golf courses in Spain where you can enjoy your golf holidays at much affordable price rates.

About Author

Top Golf Courses in Spain . One search to compare the best golf vacations online. Golfing Holidays at La Manga Club, one of the great golf resorts.

Tony de Kort:  Welcome to this interview and welcome again to www.sliceyourgolfhandicap.com.  This week are going to introduce Andrea Furst. Andrea is a sports psychologist with a Masters in sport and exercise psychology from the University of Queensland.  Andrea runs her own sports psychology consultancy, Mental Notes Consulting with headquarters in Brisbane, Australia and Singapore.  Andrea is currently the sports psychology for the Queensland Academy of Sport and Golf Programs.  Andrea works closely with a number of touring golf professionals on the Asian tour.  This year she has just started working with the Singapore National Golf Tour.  So, welcome Andrea and if you could please just give us a brief background on yourself and how you got involved in this silly game of golf.

Andrea:  Essentially, I started working with golf when I was working at the Hyatt Regency Coolum here in southeast Queensland. I was working out there funding my study in psychology.  I started working with golfers actually on the physical game through working on their stretching and strength aspects of their game and then while I was studying, and then started to work on the mental skills with professional golfers and amateur golfers.  Therefore, I really have to thank the golf professionals up at the Hyatt Coolum for getting me into this game.  If someone had said to me ten years ago or even five years ago that I would be doing mostly work with golf, I would have thought they were a little crazy because tennis is my sport and I ended up working with golfers, so it is all very interesting. 

Tony:  Okay, so do you feel the transition from tennis to golf different, are the mental thought processes different, or how would you describe it?

Andrea:  I think tennis has actually helped me work with golfers because they are both stop-start sports, so you actually have breaks in play consistently as well as skill execution.  Golf and tennis are different obviously with regards with the physical components of tennis requiring movement, speed and agility.  However, what you will find is that both of them actually have a large proportion of their competitive time where they are not executing skills.  You will find that in golf you have most of the time spent walking between shots, setting up the shots, and reacting to the shots.  The same thing in tennis, you have got between point time and change of venue time, which most of them are up in the 90+ percentage with the time out on the courts or court. 

Tony:  Too much time to think.

Andrea:  Absolutely.

Tony:  This week the topic we are going to talk about is developing your course mental plan.  Now most of us just go up there and maybe warm up or hit a few on the range, and then we head out to the course, but I think Andrea is going to give us some tips and ideas on why, even though we are out there as a club golfer or socially, why we should maybe have a plan.  For example, the analogy that Andrea uses is that big companies have systems in place and maybe we mere mortal golfers should as well.  So Andrea if you could maybe give us a little bit on what you are thinking here in this area.

Andrea:  I guess my thinking predominately stems from the fact that most of the issue surrounding performance in golf, tends to be the time we are over the ball and what we are trying to do is make that “over-the-ball” time as clear and as free of sport as possible.  If we set up a regular and consistent system both leading into the shot, after the shot and during the walk time, we start to be free up the brain for just focusing on skill execution over the ball.  The point of comparing it to large companies is that we are trying to get a system that we can repeat and often we find is the simpler the system, the easier it is to repeat.  If we are after consistent golf, then we need a system that we can repeat under pressure in whatever level golf you are playing. 

Tony:  Okay, so if we are out there in our normal day-to-day world, we are creatures of habit, so what we are saying is maybe we should consider having some sort of structure to play the game more consistently?. 

Andrea:  Absolutely, with so much time as we talked about earlier, there is more time spent that you can be in charge or take of control of things that are not on the golf course and what we tend to do is spend more time focusing on the time over the ball, which is not 100% within your control.  So what the system’s approach as a coach, he is essentially looking at is setting up time on the course so that you actually know what you want to do before each shot, after each shot and in your walk time in between shots.  It allows for, again that consistency in everything surrounding the over the ball time. 

Tony:  If we are not doing that chances are that if a couple of things go wrong, we just do not know how to get it back on track, which is just sort of the blind leading the blind so to speak because we are not thinking clear, we are just going over all the place.

Andrea:  Absolutely.  I think the thing what you want to be able to do is have something that holds up under pressure.  The pressure of competition whether again it be a weekend round with your mates or whether it be something at a higher level where you really are pushing yourself to create a career out of this game.  It is where, I liken it often to legal contracts or contracts where most of the time it is for when things do not go well.  Therefore, what we want to do is actually keep a system in place so that we always got something that we follow regardless of what is going on.  We have got a basic state of behavior, the basic set of thoughts that we really try to stick to out there and mentally it is not an easy task to do by any means, it is not something that I think everybody can do automatically, but over time practicing their systems you find that it does become a lot easier and by that you have got something to rely on and then you get that consistency in your golf..

 I just see too many golfers who don’t have these systems in place really struggle with, “How do they set out for different types of shots and different courses and different playing partners with different conditions and with different levels of experience, and also things at “stake” (like a side bet) and then also, “How do I respond to things” when they don’t go their way.  If we have an idea, or a bit of template or a recipe, and you try to follow that every time, then you are aiming towards ­­­becoming more regularly consistent out on the golf course.

Tony:  Sounds good in theory.  I mean I know the trouble; I have done it to myself and been guilty of it or seeing my playing partners do it.  They have a shot off a tee and into the trees and basically had a bad lie and all of a sudden blaming the world, but it is their fault, they put the ball there, so they need to obviously trying to straight away click back into “Well listen I have got a plan, I just got to go and get on with the plan.” 

Andrea:  I think what we are trying to do there is manage ourselves, we know the natural response to things not going our way tends to be nonproductive or an ineffective one for our golf.  By no means am I saying that that is wrong or I do not understand it, I absolutely do.  Everybody is human out there, it is a game and it creates a lot of emotional responses, however if we are looking at pushing again to a higher level to what it currently these systems can help you to have set plan of how you would like to react.  Does this reaction happen every single time in the set way that you have written down or you have thought in your mind, I would say not all the time, but if we are getting it most of the time, we start to say again that whole concept of consistency coming back to your game. 

Tony:  In solving this problem, I understand that you have a four-point plan and it is a pre-shot plan, an actual shot plan, a post-shot plan, and a walk plan.  Therefore, are you able to take us through each of those four points as to what do you think we should be considering.

Andrea:  With each of the stages, what we are trying to do is come up with a set of thoughts and a set of behaviors that link in with each of the four stages. 

One of the big areas, when I first started working with golf which  was very very clear, was players had behaviors that they try to stick to, but were not matching the thoughts to those behaviors so they look like they are doing the same thing, but in fact their minds were doing quite different things.  Therefore, what we are trying to do is match the thinking and the behaviors of each of the stages.

Therefore, the first stage being the pre-shot stage starts when you arrive or when you are walking towards the ball and you are starting to gather information.  You are starting to take in the factors that will help you make a decision about that particular shot.  From there I am moving to the commitment phase of the pre-shot routine, which is maybe a practice swing or two, you may be visualizing the shot, feeling the shot and maybe talking to yourself.  The players use a combination of different things there in that particular phase.  Then it is moving through to execution when we start to get into that automatic skill side where I am really emphasizing the players that they keep it simple over the ball.  There might be a swing for it, there might be one or two technical thoughts, but when we look at the experts we are really moving towards keeping the technical thought and the actually how to swing the club to a minimum over the ball.  Things that I might look at over the ball will be their looks at the target, their waggles, their breathing, their physical presents as far as the setup goes, and working with their coach on that so at that time over the ball becomes an automatic part of the time on the course. 

The post-shot, which is the third stage, starts as soon as the ball makes contact with the club and from there we are promoting the finishing, the following through, the watching the ball through the air and where they land.  Then the post-shot is primarily about learning from what has happened and taking onboard the good, storing it in the memory back and hoping that it is something that we can draw on later, and then also dealing with, coping with, and moving on from the bad shots so to speak. 

The post-shot then moves nicely into the walk and the walk time is really, where you spend much of you time on the course.  So that time there is where typically we say we switch off, but rather than just getting players to switch off, I also spend lots of time working with them of what they want to think and do in that particular time, because that to me is sometimes the most important time on the course.

 If they are not switching off, particularly for 4-1/2 to 5 hours in a day when they have been spent anytime playing on the course; it becomes a very draining game.  We are trying to enjoy that time as much as we can and put things in place there again by thinking about thinking of behavioral aspect that players can do every time that they are in that walk phase.

Tony:  That is amazing, obviously just listening to you today, I am sure that the listeners are going to agree that each one of those four points we can probably spend a lot of time on, which we will not cover today but we are fortunate we have got Andrea on a regular basis.  Therefore, we will probably revisit each of those things in a bit more detail, but that is a fantastic insight to something that we just take for granted.  You know, we walk up and we are chatting, maybe we are not taking note of the surroundings or things, we are not doing these things regularly, sometimes we do it and at other times, we get a bit frustrated.  We drop part of our routine.  I know the other day one of my playing partners, who normally has a certain routine, he just walked up and hit the ball because he was cranky about what had happened a couple of minutes before and that sort of stuffed up the shot, so that is amazing how, I mean now we have a bit of an understanding that there is so much to just those four things and we look forward to covering that in a bit more detail at a later time.

Andrea, have you got some examples of, and obviously it is a bit of a time thing with being able to input these things, do you have some examples of people who you have assisted say more like a club or social golfers, can you give some examples of have you seen an improvement or this sort of thing? 

Andrea:  I think the main thing that we are looking for over the long term is that everyone’s’   golf of course, improves. We want to see that and it is not necessarily the first thing that changes, but over time, we should be seeing those changes with most club golfers they are not doing these things in their games, I found that when I do work with recreational and club golfers that there is so much change being made because we are putting in some simple things that most elite amateurs and touring  professionals are doing automatically, not to say they are doing it well all the time, but club golfers often don’t even think about these aspects..  So what we are finding is that definitely the first thing we see is the blowout rounds tend to come down so we are not having the big mistakes where one mistake leads to several others and a snowball effect occurs.

  We are actually seeing that they can manage themselves a bit better.  The big thing with club golfers is that they actually start enjoying their golf.  Many club golfers are spending a bit of time practicing and then maybe once or twice a week playing, and I think sometimes the frustration of golf makes them question why they play golf.

Tony:  So in other words, someone like us club golfers should be trying to not rather work on the whole four at once, but just try and focus on, say , the next couple of weeks.  Or the next few times we are going to think about maybe improving or looking at the pre-shot routine” with getting in the habit of saying to myself, “Okay, each time I get ready for a pre-shot I am going to maybe look at the line between here and the flag.  I am going to maybe have a couple of practice swings to try and block out some stuff and just concentrate on a regular pre-shot routine.”  Would you agree with that?

Andrea:  I think that what we are trying to do is to develop, and really you can look at it as a recipe if you like of thoughts and behaviors in a set order that works for you and again you can discuss this with your teaching professional because they will understand what your level of golf is ready for.  You can then develop from when you arrive at the ball, if you are talking about pre-shots to essentially walking into the ball and setting up over the ball, what you want to do and what you want to think in a particular order.  Really, you can do it for every type of shot on the course.  Therefore, if you are looking at doing some homework and really improving your tactics of the game, the best way to do it is probably on the range or on the course.  Have a bit of a play with some of the things you might like to put in there, maybe with a notepad next to you, and again you can work with your teaching professionals on the range to work out what they think you should be doing.  Often they are really good at guiding you with your level of golf as to what you should be paying attention to particularly in the information gathering stage and then practicing it.  Practicing on the range.  Practicing on the course.  What we want to see is the number of times you stick to that routine, improve. Therefore, number of shots on the course and tick the number that you actually stick to, and that percentage should increase over time.

Tony:  So I am going to put you on the spot here.  For somebody who, a lot of the subscribers and listeners are busy and cannot get to the range, as they would like to…their week is very full.  Is there something that they could maybe do at home or something to get them thinking about these things so the next time they go out; is there something they can do?

Andrea:  Obviously being at the range, being at the course makes it more real for you because you have got the environment, particularly the course of how you want to play and what you are going to be playing on, but you can do this in the back yard, or you can do this in the lounge room.  If you got your club and you have a two by two area generally that is enough to actually set up and start working on what you want to do.  Some people would just sit down at their dining room table and just jot down what they think they want to do and then they can go out on the course and test,  Is this exactly what I want to do?.  It is trial and error.  It is something that you have to have a system that works for you.  I will have guidelines for players on the very specific things I think should happen in each of the stages, but players essentially of all levels develop their own routines that suit them and the style they want to play with.  So if I had 12 or more of my tour players, their routines would look quite different to the naked eye, but when you actually look at the plan, the same plan would be in place.

Tony:  There are a couple of good things there for those who can get out to the range, they have their homework they can take their notepads.  For those who can’t, they can do their little practice at home.  It is interesting in hearing that Andrea says that we are all different, so it is a matter of actually getting a plan in place.

Okay, so we are probably going to wrap up now with some very interesting information.  I would just like to mention Andrea’s web site if you would like to go and have a look at he web site and find out some more information about what we discussed today or other information.  It is www.mentalnotesconsulting.com.au all one word.  So Andrea could you spend a couple of minutes just sort of summarizing this subject.  You have done a great job and I thank you very much and we look forward to having you back, but if you could just give us a bit of a summary that would be great.

Andrea:  The purpose of the course mental plan, meaning pre-shot, shot, post-shot, and walk is to give you as a player something systematic, something of a routine that you know you can rely on every single time you play.  You can practice it, so once you have developed what you think is your pre-shot, your post-shot, and your walk time, once you think you have come up with something that you would like to work on consistently, then essentially what I am saying is start monitoring how often you are actually sticking to those.  What we want to see is eventually is that 100% of your shots you are sticking to and 100% of your pre-shot, your shot, your post-shot and your walk.  Something that can help you, if you have got friends that can watch your video, if you want to use video to see what you currently do and what you currently look like.  I definitely do that a lot with players and particularly the tour players and they get a lot out of that, and they can see exactly what they are doing.  “Did they like how they look; do they like their set up?  Then they can change it if they want and then they can practice it from there.  The big thing is that you have to practice it, whether it is in the backyard, the lounge room, or whether it is on the course or on the range, you want to start putting some time into this so you get a system in place that has some training and it can actually work for you.

Tony:  Well thank you very much Andrea and we look forward to talking to you again very shortly.

Andrea:  Thanks Tony.

About Author

Tony de Kort is a 10 handicapper and mad passionate golfer. He interviews touring golf pro’s, teaching golf pro’s and golf psychologists on the “mental side of golf” from a club golfers perspective and in easy to understand chatty every day language

Buying Overseas Investment Properties

When it comes to searching out a great overseas investment property, the first place to begin looking is in search engines. Some UK home based companies have offices throughout the world-Hong Kong, Sweden and Spain and has just recentlylocated in Thailand.

Fareps Property Investment(d/b/a Far East Property Solutions LLP) customizes the overseas property investment search with the ease and experience with qualified agents and a team of specialist to handle legal and financial issues when dealing with overseas property administration and management. Fareps features SIPP(Self Invested Personal Pensions) and SSAS (Small Self Administered Schemes) to give investors the availability to gain some tax relief(up to 40%) on personal contributions. The SIPP is available to investors seeking overseas properties in Spain, Cape Verde, Thailand and other South East asian properties.

In today’s economical situation, many people are backing off buying second properties for vacation, business or investment purposes or some may begin to panic because they are carrying a second property on an already stretched budget. Because of the worldwide reach Fareps has in the real estate market, Fareps can help work with anyone to figure out what is the best real investment portfolio to have in this tight economy.

The biggest areas to get into overseas property investment is in Thailand, Spain and Portugal. Both areas boast a warm sunny climate, tourist attraction areas, beaches and businesses. In Thailand, the country has stabilized the tourism industry and continues to provide a cheaper vacation/holiday alternative then other counterparts around the world. In Spain, overseas property investments are on the rise due to the amount of bank owned properties. Fareps councils investors on how to purchase a property in Spain without risking a financial loss.
Even though the economy has plagued these parts of the world just like everywhere else, Fareps can help you stay and be successful in the overseas real estate market.

Fareps works with an investment specialist based in Thailand. Current Fareps properties listed in Thailand are:Himmapan Beach Samui, Bophut Residence, Cool Blue Samui, West Coast Apartments, Pangea Golf & Spa Hotel and Serenity Spa Hotel. The hotels are turnkey facilities. Fareps has a list of current properties available for resale in Spain and information on investment in the Hacienda del Alamo Golf Resort.

Another hotspot to get involved with overseas property investments is in London. Although London may be suffering due to current economic conditions, Fareps believes this area is still a hot target. With offices in London, Fareps can direct clients on where to find the best properties in London. London attracts overseas students who seeking off campus housing. Fareps can assist the guardians of the students find an affordable yet stylish place to rent during the student’s stay in the UK. For clients who need to provide housing for employees living and working in the UK, Fareps will work with the clients to secure a nice apartment or housing unit without breaking the budget. If a vacation investment property is something you are looking for in London,
Fareps has an up-to-date list on current resale and bank-owned properties available for potential clients.

The biggest area to make a move into the London real estate market is on flats and apartments near reemerging developmental projects. Fareps has information on a overseas property investment in
The Flaxby Golf and Country Club Hotel Investment. Not scheduled to be completed until 2011, the Flaxby Golf and Country Club Hotel will be connected to a prestigious golf course, the Lee Westwood Academy, the Elemis Spa and other popular restaurant and bar destinations.

About Author

Doug Muraski
http://www.ticketslash.com