Pro helps young golfer slash his handicap

Max Baxendale, a 20-year-old golfer from Salford has taken a giant step towards his dream of a professional career in golf having dedicated the last 12 months to his game working alongside David Screeton, the head professional at Worsley Park Marriott Hotel & Country Club, to bring his handicap down from fifteen to five. With a determination that has been nurtured and matured over the last year by Screeton, the young golfer now has his eye on playing scratch by the end of next season.

Max’s love of golf started at a young age where he found a natural talent for the game which, along with support from his family, afforded him the chance to study on a golf scholarship in Preston at 16 years old. This wasn’t however to be the fairy-tale sporting start as the upheaval of moving away from home caused Max to temporarily ‘fall out of love with golf’.

Having not picked up a club for a few years, Max was working for the family business when he went for a round for his father’s birthday on the championship course at the Worsley Park Marriott Hotel & Country Club. He added; “Dad was always encouraging me to play for fun but I felt I just needed a break. I hadn’t hit a golf ball for years when my dad suggested we go for a round. We came down to Worsley Park, and I must have knocked around in about 90 – but loved it. I came back the next week and it has gone from there!”

Soon after getting back into his golf, Max was talking to a friend who’d recently turned pro and who had worked with David at Worsley Park to refine his swing. “He suggested that I also go and see David, even if it was just to play better golf,” added Max. “I called David straight away and booked in a session with him and haven’t looked back since. I was keen to not make this a quick fix. If I were to make this count, I wanted to work on a complete swing so we went about breaking down the entire swing, what we needed to work on, and structured a plan around that.”

Having worked with David over the winter, his handicap fell from 15 to 9, almost overnight – even scoring a scratch round at Worsley Park in March – which is no mean feat! With the 8 hours of practice and training he was putting in a day, and with a falling handicap, Max was able to win a raft of competitions, mainly playing Swinton and Worsley Park.

By the end of July, Max was down to five, a massive ten shots taken off his handicap over the season. He added; “We’d made such huge improvements over such a short space of time, however that is where I stalled. When we got down to five I wanted a bit more – but started to get frustrated that we couldn’t get any further.  Again, it was David who took me aside to remind me how far we’d come and guided me through the bump in my mental game. Being a little older, and having someone like David in my corner has really given me the strength to move forward with my golf – something that a few years ago I would have never even considered possible.”

The facilities at Worsley Park Marriott have given Max and David the perfect platform from which to base their success. From the grass driving range to the challenging 6611-yard par 71 championship course have enabled better course management. “I love the course at Worsley Park,” added Max. “However it is tough to make birdies. There are some challenging slopes on the greens which means you need to really choose your spots. You can think you’ve hit a great approach and you can still be a good 20 feet away.”

Now with the long-term goal of making a living from playing golf, Max is travelling to Spain over the winter to continue his training. “I have learnt not to focus on chasing the number, but to play the best golf possible. One of the most important lessons that Dave has taught me is to just play the best golf you can and the numbers will look after themselves.”