Q & A: Robert Ratcliffe

RR: Well, thanks. It was very exciting, you know. We had a good team, a good effort and got the job done.

PGA: Heading into the tournament, what were your expectations for a finish?
RR: We won it in 2003 and 2005 with very different teams, but we knew the team we had this year had the potential to win. That being said, our scorecard goal option was top a three finish because of the quality of the field.

PGA: Talk about the makeup of your team—Augusta James, Brooke Henderson, Corey Conners and Albin Choi.
RR: Everyone is, currently or has been, on the National Team, so they’re familiar with each other. And both Albin and Augusta go to school at N.C. State, so they’re great pals, too. Corey and Brooke are calm and cool; in fact, the whole team is pretty quiet and it obviously worked in our favour.

PGA: Talk about your role as the team’s coach
RR: As a coach, my role is to help prepare the players—going over the golf course’s design, creating a game plan, things of that nature.

RR: The game plan includes two or three items for each athlete. Could be a specific technical key, might be mental thing or it could be strategic. But it’s important to remember that each athlete’s game plan is different

PGA: Walk me through what goes on before, during and after a round.
RR: During warm ups I’m there chatting and trying to keep them in right frame of mind.

Immediately after play I sit down with the athletes and evaluate the round—what went well, what could have been better, develop strategy for the following day.

Then you have post round practice and that addresses the concerns that came up during the day’s play.

In the evening, as a group and as individuals, we work a game plan for the next round. 

What’s different about the Copas from other tournaments is you can coach while on the course, so I had the opportunity to jump up there and talk about what’s happening. One of the interesting things was going into the last round we had a lead, but it had been cut and was getting slim. Albin needed par to win on the last hole, so I told him that and he changed his game plan on the tee by hitting driver instead of three metal. He hits a great drive, holed a 10-12 foot par putt—his first par on that hole the entire week—and we win the tournament.

Robert Ratcliffe is a Class “A” PGA of Canada Professional, Head Teaching Professional at Ratcliffe Golf and the Men’s Amateur Team’s Assistant Coach.

The 2009 PGA of BC Teacher of the Year and 2011 PGA of BC Coach of the Year is one of the facilitators for next week’s Coach of Developing Competitors Workshop in Port St. Lucie, Fla.