BIOGRAPHY

Chris Parker was born in England in February 1978 and grew up in the West Midlands. He began playing golf at the age of 8, influenced by his father who is an avid golfer. It was quickly identified that Chris had a natural talent for the game and progressed quickly, competing in many amateur and junior tournaments at club and county level, before attending University of Central England. After having a successful University career it was only natural for Chris to pursue a career in golf, turning professional in 1998. In 2002 Chris graduated from the PGA of Great Britain gaining Distinction in Coaching. It was during this time period that Chris was drawn to the teaching and philosophy of David Leadbetter where he began his Leadbetter Certification. In 2005, after successfully completing his certification, he began working for the David Leadbetter Golf Academy in Timmendorfer Strand, Germany, moving in 2010 to the Academy in Munich as Senior Instructor and Head of Training. In 2013 an opportunity arose for Chris to return to England where he took on the position of Director of golf for the newly established Leadbetter Academy at Leeds Golf Centre. Now settled down Harrogate for the past 12 years and bringing up his young family, Chris is looking forward to the new opportunities awaiting him at The Grooves Golf Academy at the prestigious Rudding Park Hotel Golf & Country Club.

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Improve pitching and chipping without technique (The 3 Rs)

 Here are 3 strategy tips to save more shots around the green, now the time has come to go out and practise on fine tuning your short game. Be careful before investing time in improving your technique it is important to do the following first.



The first key is to understand the tactical and strategy side of the game first throughout your short game, as there is the chance to save many shots through this theme. Not knowing or understanding this will make the learning process in improving technique more difficult. Here I will show you 3 tactical and strategic tips that will dramatically improve your wedge game. 

















Read

Assess the situation

We often see players looking at the target after they have addressed the ball, which obviously makes sense. But this is one of the main problems why players make poor decisions around the green Compared with the photos shown here, from the ball to the flag is a difficult high pitch shot to produce. But when we assess the situation more clearly there is actually a lot of room to work with resulting into a simple pitch shot to play.















Rehearse 

Wedge strategy 


The golden rule here is to land the ball as early as possible on the green due to having a target that is closer to you is easier to hit than a target further away 


Only golfers that have extremely good ball contact should allow the ball to fly further. Through good ball contact the ball will spin and roll out less towards the flag. 


When selecting the correct club it is important to access break and roll direction to locate the exact landing zone 


Now to the hole you must mentally prepare on rehearsing and concentrate on the right boreflight and length which is advantageous to playing the correct shot 

















React 


The LIE of the ball 


Tour players use the 70% rule. This is where you should only attempt the shot to play when you are sure you can reproduce the shot 7 out of 10 times.


One important decision factor is the LIE of the ball. Here you can finally decide which shot is possible. Depending on how the ball lies, you can attempt a flop, lob or pitch shot or even by a bad lie be prepared to accept the consequences of the shot going beyond the flag.


There are 4 different lies that you may come across 

Bare  lie, no Lobshot possible try using a high lofted club with little bounce 

 

Good lie, A lob and pitch shot is possible only when you reproduce it 7 times out of 10.

 

Ball in deep grass, a lob shot is difficult to play. Try using a lofted club with a higher bounce 


Ball sitting up in rough, a lob shot is unwise in case you get too much underneath it and end up dropping it too short so try using a wedge with less lofted face.


Friday, December 19, 2025

TRUE GOLFING FACT - WHERE GOLFER LOSE MOST SHOTS

Research has proven that golfers lose almost 80 percent of their shots to par inside of 100 yards from the hole. To that end, our golf school curriculum focuses strictly on what I define as “The Scoring Game,” a combination of the short game (distance wedges, pitching, chipping, sand play) and putting, which comprise 60 to 65 percent of the total number of shots played per round. From three-foot putts to full wedge and long bunker shots, at this truly unique golf school, you’ll learn to properly execute shots from any scoring position.


If you have difficulty controlling distance when you face short shots, it may be because you find a small, delicate swing with a short backswing to be a more difficult swing to make than a long backswing. Research shows this to be true for any level of player. One problem with the short backswing is that there is not much time to get your body parts synchronised. It is the same feeling you may have over very short putts: You jab with the hands because you feel there is not enough time to get the flow and rhythm of the stroke.

Friday, December 12, 2025

THIS DRILL HELPED ME TURN PRO.




There was a time I used to feel long at the top of my backswing, disconnected and have very little synchronisation throughout my golf swing which led to the occasional stray shots. 

My mentor, @Davidleadbetter showed me this drill 
it was something he used to do with Nick faldo, one of my childhood golfing idols. This drill helped shorten and tighten up the swing and have everything working together as one in a synchronised fashion without any lose of distance, to be honest the strike was pure. ❤️πŸ‘

Place a towel behind your back and under your armpits. When you take your address position, the towel should feel slightly taut across your back when you attempt, making your practice swing you will feel that body and arms will work more together in a synchronised fashion. The swing will feel shorter and tighter while doing this.
Make sure the towel does not fall from underneath your arms at any point. πŸ‘ŠπŸ‘

Give it a try and be patient with itπŸ‘Š

VALHALLA GOLF CLUB No 14

#Golf #Golfpro# golfdrill, #Golf tip 
#golfswing #golfcoaching #golfinstruction #golftips #golflessons #golflife #golfdrills #golfinstructor #golfcoach #golfexercises #indoorgolf #trackman #winterpractice #wintertraining

@golfzonleadbetter
@faldo006

Friday, December 5, 2025

HOW YOUR LAG WORKS DURING YOUR DOWNSWING



The Way you ease up during the Downswing


Easing up on the downswing is important when it comes to speeding up the clubhead toward impact. We call the indicator for revealing how you ease up on the power "natural uncock."

More detail...

From the latest findings in sports science(*), we have learned through the modeling of golf swings as pendular movement that the energy of the arms can be more effectively delivered to the club using the natural acceleration of the club itself. In these models, the natural acceleration of the club is utilized by power in the arms being relaxed during the downswing, causing the club head to accelerate.
Natural uncock shows to what extent the speed of one's arms is releasing power, from its maximum to the time of impact.

The reading will be 0% if no power is released, and when power is released, it will rise in keeping with the extent to which it is. If the reading is below 30%, please give thought to how you use power up to the point of impact and look for a timing that will hasten the head speed. Incidentally, in our data, the average of natural uncock for male pros and female pros are about 40% and about 20%, respectively.

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Improve pitching and chipping without technique (The 3 Rs)

  Here are 3 strategy tips to save more shots around the green, now the time has come to go out and practise on fine tuning your short game....

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