Dear Alumni, Students, Parents and Friends,
Looking back at my opening letter from the 2017-18 school year, I was reminded
of my comments at our Opening Banquet:
A NEW
SCHOOL YEAR
By:
Andrew Summers
Founder/CEO
“Welcome everyone to the “best” junior golf academy experience, with the “best”
junior golf coach team attracted to work on the “best” facilities, all adding up to
providing students the opportunity to achieve their “greatest” results – an alternative
description of what BGGA stands for, the “best” and “greatest”.
At this most recent Opening Banquet I reported on our tournament successes:
“Over the last year we had 56 winners, of which 30 were at the AJGA/Faldo Series level or higher. This adds up to about
the same as the aggregate of our south-east competitor academies, and ours are at a higher level”
Obviously, immensely pleasing to have such success from our extraordinary students, and confirmation that our
strategy of having the “best” facilities, to attract the “best” junior golf coaches, providing the “best” experience for
the “greatest” results.
Which leads to my introduction of our new Director of Golf Coaching and Instruction, Kevin Craggs. Although
given notice by his predecessor Kevin Smeltz at the start of this year that he would be spending more time in Asia,
as we have a very strong team of golf coaches we didn’t rush into finding a new Director, but instead took our time
to find the right fit. We are extremely proud that Craggs was attracted to us by the quality of facilities, staff and
students. Craggs will join us on October 1st, 2018, taking his time to settle in and will be actively engaged with the
students from January 1st, 2019. Smeltz will continue to serve on our Advisory Board and assist with assessment
week during this transition process, a testament to his loyalty to our students, staff and company.
With the support of Advisory Board members Kevin Smeltz and Rob Neal, the golf coaches conducted their
assessments of students these past weeks and have completed their “blueprint” golf plans, identifying what students
need to work on in golf, mental performance and strength and conditioning. The coaches have also developed their
golf tournament strategy for the fall semester. As we previously mentioned we are thrilled to have introduced the
HJGT Elite series, supported by our partner IJGT, which provides a more challenging event for our better players.
On the Labor Day holiday we held our annual opening student character and leadership development program
which is always a lot of fun, identifying student personality traits and also their goals and aspirations. This immersive
experience allows us to then work through individual student objectives, ensuring that we have a strategy for golf,
academics and of course college. Later this month Jeff Hay will provide detailed thoughts on our expectations for
the type of college and golf program your child can aspire to, and a plan for seeking out the best college opportunity.
Jeff Weaver sent out details of our Learning Center services in mid-July and we invite you to contact him with any
of these additional services that might be of benefit to your child. We in turn will make recommendations for
additional tutoring or study hall as we see fit.
As always, we thank you for your trust in having your child at Bishops Gate Golf Academy – the best and greatest!
All the best,
Andrew Summers
CEO/Founder