Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
With most of us arriving back from a summer break to cooler climes, escaping the heat of Bahrain, the prospect of returning to work or school might not fill you with much excitement.
For the kingdom's golfing community or those wishing to start playing this wonderful game however, there are exciting times ahead with the opening of The Royal Golf Club (RGC)_just around the corner.
The new club's facilities present us with a fantastic opportunity to develop the game of golf in Bahrain, and to help me on the coaching side I have been lucky to recruit two of the UK's finest young professionals.
When we began the recruitment process back in March, the response from professionals around the world was phenomenal, but not at all surprising considering the exciting project taking place here in Bahrain.
The Middle East region is a thriving area in many industries as we know; but in the past 10 years the popularity of the game of golf and the state-of-the-art facilities on offer at clubs around the region has seen the number of golfers escalate dramatically.
The number of extra visitors that golf attracts to the region is increasing year on year and when you put this all together with the climate, it makes the golf industry a very attractive prospect for professionals around the globe.
This week we are extremely pleased to welcome Oliver Brown and Martin Robinson to Bahrain to join the PGA professional team at the Royal Golf Club.
After a busy summer season back in the UK there will be no respite for the two new guys as we enter in to our autumn tuition programme and add the finishing touches to our brand new Royal Golf Academy ready for the grand opening.
We will be starting programmes for both juniors and ladies and making tuition trips over to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks as we move towards opening.
Oliver, Martin and myself are 100 per cent committed to helping develop the game of golf in Bahrain whether you are an experienced player or a complete beginner. We will be running tuition programmes to suit everyone; The Royal Golf Academy will be the place to be to improve your golf in Bahrain.
To help you get to know the new professionals, this week instead of my usual tuition tip I have included a brief biography of each of the guys.
If I had to give you a tip this week to help you improve your game it would be book yourself in to a tuition programme at the Royal Golf Academy as soon as you can with one of the PGA teaching professionals.
You will see your golf improve dramatically!
Oliver Brown - PGA Teaching Professional, RGC
Oliver hails from Cambridge in England and joins us from Hilden Park Golf Club in Kent.
He began playing golf quite late at the age of 15 but showed immediate aptitude for the game and rapidly achieved a single figure handicap with help from renowned tour coach, Dennis Pugh.
Following a six month intensive training course and amateur competition schedule in Queensland, Australia, he returned to the UK in 2003 to train as a PGA golf professional.
Whilst in his first position at Brampton Park GC his playing career flourished competing in East Region and Thompson Tour events.
Oliver moved to the prestigious Royal Jersey Golf Club which sparked his real passion for coaching after he was charged with setting up and developing the club's junior academy.
Having qualified as a PGA professional at the beginning of 2007, he joined Hilden Park GC where he flourished as a full time coach.
Martin Robinson - PGA Teaching Professional, RGC
Martin hails from the Wirral, near Liverpool in the north-west of England and joins us from Caldy Golf Club. He first started playing golf seriously at the age of 14 when he joined Caldy Golf Club.
Caldy is a prestigious club on the Wirral coastline close to its more famous neighbour of Hoylake. Martin was assistant professional at the club where he qualified as one of the first new PGA professionals to graduate the updated training programme.
During his time at Caldy, Martin has developed his client base to include many diverse skill levels from England juniors and county players to complete beginners.
To enhance his coaching through further study, Martin is a fully qualified NLP (neuro linguistic programming) sports practitioner, which is a very practical form of sports psychology.
He is also an accomplished player having competed in PGA, Exel Tour and regional events.
