Faye is firm advocate of playing the mind game

Jun 11 2009 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

JOHN Harrison, The Journal’s Dr John, made an excellent point in last week’s Teeing Off column when he wrote that none of us should ever lose sight of the fact that the reason so many of us play golf is because we enjoy it.

That is why Faye Sanderson, from the Heworth club in Gateshead, will be able to draw on her own experiences and deliver an important message to her players now she has been chosen to captain the England girls’ team.

The 25-year-old Sanderson (pictured left) leads defending champions England at the girls’ home internationals at Fairhaven, Lancashire, from August 4-6 and in the Junior European Championships in Finland during the first week in July.

An ex-county hockey player who lives in Washington and a former pupil at Emmanuel College, Gateshead, Sanderson is a keen Newcastle United fan.

She was a member of a champion England girls’ golf team in the home internationals in her last year as a junior, winning all five of her matches. “I’m really looking forward to being captain,” she said. “It should be a great experience and hopefully a successful one, too.”

After leaving the junior ranks, Sanderson went on to represent England in the European ladies’ and lady junior team championships and in the home internationals.

She was also a member of the GB&I squad and won the English Women’s Golf Association’s Silver Tee award for the way she combined golf and education.

At the same time as hacking it in England golf circles, she took a law degree at Newcastle University before going to Northumbria University on a scholarship to do a masters in sports management. She’s returning there in September to do a legal practice course to enable her to qualify as a solicitor.

But for all that achievement, she admits to being a bit down in the dumps when she set off on a 10-month gap year trip round the world with another England standard golfer, Whitley Bay’s Julie Ross, in 2007.

Sanderson said: “Before that, I was probably beating myself up a bit too much when I was not playing well. At times I worried too much about whether I qualified for this event or did not get picked for that team.

“The fun element had gone out of it for me and I was not enjoying my golf any longer. But that gap-year trip recharged my batteries and I came back with a refreshed perspective on the sport.

“That is a point I shall make to the girls as captain. Yes, of course, it is important to win and to do your very best on every shot and get the best results you can for your country.

“But I shall also tell them that it is equally important go out and enjoy playing golf for England – the years I played for England Girls were the happiest golfing years of my life. I went on trips to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sweden, France and Madeira and I have some wonderful memories and great experiences.” Sarah Miller, who chairs EWGA’s English selection committee, said: “Faye is a very good player and has had wonderful experiences representing England.

“The girls will be able to look up to her as a role model and, as she’s still in her 20s, they will find it easy to relate to her. I am sure she will be ideally suited to help and guide the girls in her role as captain.”

Another golfer with a new found peace of mind is Northumberland’s Lucy Newton, who stunned the amateur game when she reached the final of the England Seniors on her debut in the event at Hunstanton earlier this season.

Newton lost the final to a golfer good enough to have also won the event twice previously, Hampshire’s Chris Quinn. But Newton was able to put defeat in perspective when she said the thing that stuck in her mind most about the day was that the wind was so fierce she had been “playing with a horizontal pony tail!”

Tuesday brings the start of the English senior women’s strokeplay championship at Royal Ashdown Forest, Sussex, with Newton among the contenders for the title.

She is a relatively recent convert to the mental approach to golf advocated by Dr Karl Morris, Europe’s leading mind coach who gave a talk at Newton’s club, Matfen Hall, in March.

Morris has worked with top stars such as Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley, David Howell and Trish Johnson.

He pointed to Padraig Harrington, winner of three majors in the last two seasons, as an example of a man with a new and healthy approach to the sport.

“A few years ago, Padraig made a decision to lighten up in between shots,” said Morris. “When you see him play now, he is often smiling and joking. His head is up, his body language good. Padraig says: ‘When I smile in between shots, the lie on the next shot often seems better’.

“But what most of us do is become victims of our own thoughts. We get wrapped up in them, we believe them and as we spend so much time in our heads, thinking, we leave little or no room for just doing and allowing.”

Newton faces some tough competition next week, including Janet Melville – a former British champion from Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, who is defending the English title.

Quinn will be chasing a national double and former strokeplay champions Sue Dye, of Cheshire, and Geraldine Bray, of Kent, are in the field.

This year, for the first time , players will also compete for the County Team Trophy.