Former European Tour players coach Union ahead of new term

Halifax, Huddersfield and District Union of Golf Clubs have turned to two former European Tour players to help their senior side prepare for the coming Yorkshire Inter-District Union League season, writes Christopher Stratford.

Team manager Frank Greaves hopes that coaching from Simon Dyson, six times a winner around Europe, and Chris Hanson, three times victorious on the PGA EuroPro Tour, can help raise the squad's individual and collective ability as they chase title success.

Greaves, who steered Halifax-Huddersfield to the league championship in 2019, craves a triumph in the end-of-season two-round team championship as well as improvement across the seven-match season, which saw his team place a disappointing fourth last year.

He and team captain Adam Walker drew up a roster during the winter of 16 elite players, split into two groups of eight, with each group receiving a pair of specially tailored sessions of performance coaching at Mottram Hall, Cheshire, where Dyson is based.

The second group had their first stint on Sunday, after the initial session was staged before Christmas, and came away enthused by their day's studies under Dyson's and Hanson's tutelage, the former focusing on short game analysis and the latter on irons and driving on the range.

“We were disappointed to finish fourth in the league,” said Greaves, whose men nonetheless ended the season well by pushing Sheffield hard before finishing as runners-up to them in the team championship at Rotherham.

“The discussion was, 'We're not happy, how do we win? We win by getting better. What do we do to get better? We narrow the squad, we put emphasis on it, we make you proud to play for the union and, once you're in, we give you a bit more'.”

The 'bit more' includes the coaching at Mottram Hall with players only having to pay £20 each for a session that also includes on-course supervised golf with Dyson and Hanson. The union's coaching funds are meeting the remaining costs.

Halifax-Huddersfield's senior side's YIDU campaign will get underway on May 21 with a trip to Filey to face East Riding.