For Anthony Caira and his fellow golf professionals at the Education City Golf Club (ECGC), it’s all about getting the fundamentals right. It’s also taking the guess work out of what may look like a great swing but inexplicably to the human eye, is ineffective.
“We were always looking at where the golf ball was flying, and then it was trial and error,” Caira, the head golf professional at Qatar’s newest golf club, told Gulf Times, referring to the time when he grew up in the shadows of St Andrews in Scotland. “The golf club is moving at a hundred miles an hour, you can’t see where the (club) face is.”
Caira and his team, including golf pros Martin Steel and Rachel Choi, now have some cutting edge technology at the ECGC to help improve golfers, besides getting beginners the right information to facilitate “accelerated learning”.
The Centre of Excellence is one of the most holistic facilities in the world, being able to take a golfer from beginner level to an elite tour player. The facility boasts of as many as six studios, with a total of 32 screens, complete with ball tracking technologies, like TrackMan and Flightscope, putting stages that can create countless surface options, biofeedback technologies that facilitates muscle memory, 3D motion capture system, etc, and a fully equipped gymnasium.
There is also a studio which doubles up as a private studio dedicated to women’s golf development, with a short-game facility. “We have always anticipated that our Centre of Excellence would be our USP and now that we have it fully installed, and up and running it is clear that it is a facility that is in a class of its own. To have all this modern technology under one roof being operated by our three highly competent golf professionals will make the learning and development journey of any golfer a much easier one. We are really excited about the prospect of what we can do with the Centre of Excellence to grow the game of golf here in Qatar,” said ECGC general manager Michael Braidwood.
All this technology, in tandem with the club’s three golf courses, particularly the nine-hole Par 3 course and six-hole championship course, is focused on putting beginners on a fast track to become competent 18-Hole championship course players.
The facility is the first in the Middle East to not only have the 3D Motion capture system GEARS Sport, but also PuttView, a visual putting aid that uses augmented reality. There is also a one-of-a-kind facility with Zen Green, which is a computer-controlled platform that enables golfers to create and practice countless number of putting options in an indoor environment.
“When you can feel a proper golf swing, and see yourself doing it on camera at a particular time, that is a massive advantage,” Caira said. “For instance, using the balance lab, you can see where your weight is vis-à-vis your swing. Seeing that as you are making a bad swing, and being able to feel it, record it, and make adjustments is a massive advantage.”
And swing is just one aspect of what Caira and his team are looking to get right in those willing to learn. 
“Technique in putting is different now. Short game is another element. You have to look at nutrition, fitness, psychology, which is very important. And then you have course management, personality development, making sure you have the right emotions behind every shot, because adrenaline can send the ball further than you want,” he said.
Back to basics, then.