The Gate December 2017 | Page 8

BGGA Students Learn from Golf Royalty at Faldo Series U.S. Grand Final BGGA students were in the presence of golf royalty at the Faldo Series U.S. Grand Final when Sir Nick Faldo was in attendance to give a clinic on the driving range and speak at the opening welcome dinner. Faldo started the clinic by talking about how students could get the most out of their practice. He was very engaging and entertaining throughout, even bringing up BGGA student Christian Wentzel as a volunteer to demonstrate a drill. Faldo’s tales from when he played competitively kept the students on their toes and wanting more. Faldo, now dedicating his time to the development of junior golf through his Faldo Series, spent 97 weeks at the No. 1 ranked golf and has 39 professional wins including six major championships. After the clinic, the tournament participants attended a welcome dinner to kick off the event. Faldo spoke about how he grew up playing the game, giving the junior golfers wisdom about their own paths to come. Thursday kicked off the first round on Thanksgiving Day. Despite the rainy weather, scoring was good a number of rounds below par 72 leading the boy’s field and level par leading the girl’s. Friday’s second round was chilly and wet but that didn’t stop incredible scores from rolling in. BGGA’s Teddy Tetak put up a blistering 8-under 64 with eight birdies on the day to lead the Boys U18 Division.