Here's a summary of the equipment I use and the team I've got around me.
Besides my caddy Rick Brand, named Rick the Rookie (see photo), I have four coaches who assist
me in the different aspects of the game.Tom o’Mahoney is coaching my technique. Alan Fine is taking care of the mental part. And my put coach, Harold Swash, purely focuses on my putting.
Driver:
3-Wood:
Wedges:
Putter:
Shaft : dynamic gold Super Light
(½" verlengd, swing weight D5)
Taylor Made R7 series 7.5 º
shaft: Fukikura RE AX 65 TP stiff, swing weight: D2
Taylor Made tour rescue (Japans model)
shaft: Grafalloy pro launch S, swing weight: D2
Cleveland reg 588 (gunmetal finish) sw 54º, lw 57½º
shaft: dynamic gold S300 Super Light (½" verlengd)
swing weight: D5 - D7
Ping Darby Redwood of Odyssey 2-ball white hot
Born in Clonmil, Ireland on the 11th of November, 1945. Tom played the European Tour for
3 years and concentrated afterwards on instructing. At Walton Heath golf club, Henry Busson
(a famous former club maker and a former Ryder Cup player) taught Tom the subtleties of
instructing. He is an instructor for over 30 years now at Noordwijk and for over 15 years
he is head swing coach of the Dutch Golf Federation.Since 1989 (when I joined the junior Dutch team), I was taught by Tom and we see each other on a regular basis to check my swing. The winter season leaves more room to work together intensively on minor enhancements.
Tom’s vision is without any doubt unique. Over the years I have learned a lot on the swing and its set-up. Tom’s strength lies in his ability to pass the message in different ways, allowing me to enhance my swing in my own way.
A nice example occurred at the Dutch championships of 1996 at Hoge Kleij. The day before the tournament I started to hook my balls (left). Immediately I went to see Tom to ask his advice on the problem. I hit 5 balls in total, Tom wished me good luck and left. Four days later I became Dutch champion with –11, still the best score after four rounds in Dutch amateur golf.
Finy as most people call him is originaly from Wales, but the last ten years he has lived in
Salt Lake City in Amerika.In his early days he was totally involved in Tennis and was working/coaching for the British tennis association, including the Davis Cup team. Than he got involved in the game of golf and had great succes with David Feherty in the nineties.
As Alan moved to the States he stopped working with his players in Europe to concentrate on his new business which he was setting up in the States. But as players in Europe asked him to come back again on tour he now travels regularly between the States and Europe to accompany us to about five tournaments a year.
Outside those tournaments I speak with him on the phone on a weekly basis. Alan has helped me a lot to strenghten my focus and to become more an stable person on and of the golfcourse.
The first time I met Harold was at the meeting preceding the European Tour. Harold comes
from Southport, England and is known as the „putting doctor“. During his 40 years in the
golf business he assisted Darren Clark, Ian Woosnam, Bernard Langer and Nick Faldo to improve
their putting.His putting philosophy is purely based on the role of the ball. If the ball rotates perfectly around its equator, it will hold his „line“ and chances increases that it will make the hole. Harold was also the first to introduce the face-balanced putter. This model makes a straight stroke a lot easier than with the confidential putter.
The most important thing Harold taught me is that putting is more a question of technique than of feeling. Of course a sense of distance is required but for shorter puts the technique is very important to get the right (over)spin on the ball.