January 2010
Bryce has just left to go back to the USA where he has a scholarship at school for the next five years. He spent three weeks in South Africa on holiday and first time since August he has being home to South Africa. He resides on a student visa in Florida where he attends school and the golf academy. When he left Crawford they planted a tree in his honour for his golf achievements over the past 10 years. He placed a plaque inscribed with the words “A true champion learns to Win humbly and lose gracefully”.
It has been a tough five months for Bryce as it is not ideal to be split from your family but we all believe that this is the best option. It took awhile for him to settle in. He now looks at it as two homes and has settled in over the past three months and testimony to this is that he obtained an average mark of 94.8% for his first exams and 90% for his second exam. The first Semester term marks have seen Bryce receiving marks as follows: English “ A-“ Pre Algebra( Hons) ”B+” Science “A”
History “A-“ Spanish “A” . An academic background is vital and he has exceeded his goals by far for the first semester and is hoping to achieve equal or better for the second semester.
The golf has turned out to be an eye opener to his parents as to methodology and coaching. He practices five days a week from 2 pm to 5 pm and also attends the high performance centre. The academy requested we cancel all the events he was entered as they were working on his swing and this would affect his game. It would get worse before it got better. The three major areas they focused on were his grip, posture and setup. The changes were difficult to make but has being rewarding as on his recent visit back home he played three games and missed only 3 fairways. His second shots were near perfect (long irons and f/way woods) but his short game has slipped. The academy has focused on his swing and the next semester they will be working on 8 iron through to Sand Wedge as well as putting.
He did play in a few competitions whereby we could not get refunds and has finished in 3rd, 4th, 18th, 20th and 39th from fields of 20 to 140. He plays under 16 although just turned 13 and the course play upwards of 6,400 yards to about 6,800 yards (equivalent to same metres at altitude). He is very happy in Florida, USA and he is confident he will continue improving his golf as well as academic studies. If any of Bryce’s friends or family wish to see his comparative swing analysis from August to November then please email your request to aburke@global.co.za for website, login details and password.
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