Simon taking hi-tech approach to Ireland final

Simon McGreal is using the latest state of the art technology to arrive at Bradfield College to boost his Titleist & FootJoy PGA Professional Championship Final bid.

McGreal is the Berkshire establishment’s PGA professional and says the latest arrivals are giving him some valuable practice time ahead of the showpiece event.

He will tee off in the £78,000 grand final which takes place between June 13-16 at Luttrellstown Castle Golf & Country Club in Co Dublin, Ireland.

“The college have just brought in a Trackman simulator and I’ve been using it to fine tune my game a little bit,” said McGreal.

“We’ve only had it here maybe two months. It saves me some time as well in between teaching and coaching.

“A lot of it’s about time management.”

McGreal says the college students have a tremendous golfing facility at the college’s Reading base.

“Creating the indoor performance centre here has been about four years in the making,” he said.

“They’ve got a fantastic opportunity down here, maybe 100 of the 800 pupils here are golfers. And they get a lot of coaching from myself which is all included in the tuition fees at no extra cost to the student.

“First of all, it’s academic based but there’s a strong sporting side to the college.

“Golf can be a secondary sport here, but I think we have the best Under-18 player in the country here in Angus Flanagan who plays off plus four, he’s off to America now which is a shame as he would’ve loved the set up we have here.

“We’ll be getting more technology in soon and that’s only phase one. We plan to have two Trackmans.”

McGreal has a string of USA-equivalent finals behind him after living in America for 12 years.

But this will be only his second one on this side of the pond after qualifying for Luttrellstown Caste at Sonning Golf Club in May.

“I qualified five years on the bounce in the USA, but it’s exciting to play in this final,” he said.

“I played at Slaley Hall a few years ago so it’s good to be back.”

Other players from the South of England due to play at Luttrellstown Castle include: Andrew Raitt (St Georges Hill Golf Club); Chris Gane (Left Handed Golf at Silvermere); Scott Marshall (The Lambourne Club); Mark Bell (Shanklin & Sandown Golf Club); Lewis Atkinson (Gerrards Cross Golf Club); Alexander MacGregor (Addington Court Golf Club); Paul Simpson (West Berkshire Golf Club) and Adam Wootton (Oxford Golf Centre).