LOUIS TRICHARDT – "We want to feed the Northern Province with good golfers in the future. That is why I do weekly training at Louis Trichardt High School."

These were the words of Ray Earle, a professional golfer and trainer from the Professional Golf Association who trains children free of charge.

Ray is the trainer of Goose Academy, a golf academy founded and sponsored by Retief Goosen, a South African golf champion. The Goose Academy sponsors the trainer and the training programme at five secondary schools, namely Louis Trichardt High School, Pietersburg High School, Tom Naudé, Capricorn and Merensky. Potgietersrus High School may be added in the near future.

"In every school I select twelve kids from Grade 8 after I have run a talent identification programme where I do five tests, including mobile balance, static balance, hand/eye co-ordination, hand speed and overall mobility. The twelve with the highest scores are selected for the free training programme," says Ray. He has been working with children for thirty years. At first he used twenty tests, but after research he narrowed it down to five tests which very accurately test the golfing potential.

He explains that after the first year he will drop six children and the remaining six who will then be in Grade 9 will receive another year of training together with six new Grade 8's. In a similar way he will annually drop some of the older ones and feed the programme with selected young players every year.

"Even the child who had one year of intensive training in the basics of golf, will enjoy a good game of golf for the rest of his life. However, we hope to get some good golfers from among them who will play for their province. We want the Northern Province to be strong consistently and we still want to win the inter-provincial tournament with the boys."

Ray feels strongly about the fact that children in secondary school should start specialising in their sport.

"There are tests available to test in which sport the child has the most potential. In the USA and Australia they use these tests to choose the right sport for the child and then specialise much earlier than in our schools. Here the same child participate in three or more sporting codes and when he leaves matric he is average or good at everything, but not brilliant at anything."

The training nets were put up by the Goose Academy and sponsored by an ABSA Broker, Mr Corrie Calitz. Mr Theo Muller, the teacher from Louis Trichardt High School assisting Mr Earle and the boys have the responsibility to look after it. The boys who are presently participating in the programme are Jannie Brink, André Naudé, Tendani Ramulifho, Jaco Calitz, Eduan van der Westhuizen, Donovan Pennells, Willem Ehlers, Jean Botha, Jaco Lewis en Louis Botha.

"Louis Trichardt is one of our top schools at the moment, together with PHS and Merensky. We were happy to find more than average talent here. And with a teacher who is also nuts about golf, it is tremendous to do training here," says Ray. Contact numbers for the Goose Academy are 015 291 4818 and 015 291 5432.