Cathal Simpson takes the World No.1 Course in his stride!

After winning a Darren Clarke Golf School Qualifier back on February 11th, second year Full Time student Cathal Simpson was awarded the opportunity to play last year’s Irish Open venue and recently announced the World No.1 golf course, Royal County Down. Cathal's only previous visit to Royal County Down was last year when the DCGS took the students down to do some volunteering work for the week at the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. It is fair to say Cathal was extremely pleased to have been given this unique opportunity to play in his first Pro-Am with Coach Stuart Bickerstaff on such as prestigious golf course. A Pro-Am which did in fact include European Tour players Simon Thornton and Damian Mooney. He was certainly looking forward to getting out onto the fairways and experiencing it for himself.

With such a huge build up of excitement and anxiousness to get going it would have been easy for Cathal to slip under the radar. However once again he did not disappoint. Cathal blew away the rest of the field of 34 players to shoot an impressive net 73 in what would be described as very windy conditions on the day.

A very solid opening start paring the opening 2 holes helped to settle the nerves and enjoy his golf. It was to be much the same for the remainder of the front nine with a very solid 3 over par. However Cathal was to go on and play the back nine in 1 under par net. After birdieing the 11th and 13th holes Cathal was just 1 over par going into the last 5 holes however a bogey on the difficult par 4 17th hole left Cathal finishing on 2 over par which was enough to take the victory.

What this now does for Cathal is give him tremendous confidence and self belief in himself and his golf to help him kick on and continue to develop his game as he approaches the start of the new season.

Cathal stated, 'Having the opportunity to play Royal County Down gave me great experience. Although I feel I could have played better I am delighted with the result and the victory. Having Stuart there and with his knowledge of the golf course helped me to hit shots into the correct areas of the course which is required around this very tricky golf course. I hope to once again have the opportunity to play the World No.1 course in the near future'.

International DCGS Student Arne Egan

Arne putting for birdie

Arne Egan is aged 16 and has a German mother and a British father. He has lived in Leesteon the outskirts of Bremen in Northern Germany all his life.

Arne started playing golf at the age of nine having played football as most German boys do from about the age of five. His local club is Golf Club Syke and his teaching pro is Ralph McLean who is originally from Scotland but has been working in Germany since the late 80's.                                                                                                                                                           

International DCGS Full Time Student Arne Egan. 

Arne entered the GVNB Mini Cup in 2009 (Junior County competition for Lower Saxony / Bremen) and won the final which was held at Golf Club Hatten near Oldenburg. In the following years Arne began to play more basketball and used his height to good effect representing TUS Syke and the Basketball Academy Bremen Süd.

His passion for golf was reignited when Ralph McLean took charge of the Under 16 squad and the team made the German national finals in 2014 finishing in 8th spot out of all 700 golf clubs in Germany.

On completing his 10th year at the local KGS Leeste School in the summer of 2015, Arne was keen to experience a year abroad before completing his schooling at home. The Darren Clarke Golf School was found on the internet and seemed to tick all the boxes. This was confirmed after a week at the School in October 2014 when Arne joined the Halloween training week. A year in Antrim would improve all aspects of his game and provide Arne the perfect stage to improve his English and make friends with boys of his own age.

His parents are very pleased to see the personal development which has taken place in the last months at the school including self catering and shopping as well as budgeting for the month. Arne has been able to get to know boys from all parts of the UK, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland. He will always look back on a very eventful year including playing at various courses in Northern Ireland, a visit to the Irish Golf Expo and the eagerly awaited 2 week training trip to the south of Spain.

 Trying out the new Taylormade M1 Driver at the beginning of the year

The coaching staff at the DCGS are extremely pleased with the progress that Arne has shown to date, not only in his golf but in all the skills required to live away from home in a foreign country at such as young age.  In his golf Arne has been able to vastly improve his ball flight as well as strengthening his short game which is going to enable him to lower his handicap which is currently 3. The School has seen a great level of maturity from Arne which he has continued to develop over the course of the year. We hope Arne continues to enjoy his time here and fulfil his obvious potential.