#PricelessGolf Memories: Sir Nick Faldo’s Legends Academy Clinic #MC

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Thanks to MasterCard, this week we had a once in a life-time experience to make #Pricelessgolf memories at Sir Nick Faldo’s Legends Academy Clinic at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ with our dear friend, Cynthia Hudson, personal fashion stylist. MasterCard pampered us with the perfect golf outing. An unbelievable line up: a clinic with Sir Nick Faldo, a tasty box lunch, 18 holes with a caddy including playing a par 3 with Sir Nick, a beautiful cocktail hour and a delicious awards dinner with the ultimate royal pairing: Sir Nick chatting with Steve Sands, Anchor of the Golf Channel.

Sir Nick Faldo

Making Priceless Memories:

Since we don’t to get to spend much time on our own golf game as moms, we loved the chance to have a peaceful personal day to recharge our batteries and our game. Working on our swing, strategy and short game was just what the doctor ordered. We arrived to smiling staff who catered to our every need, valet parking, curbside club service and a great favor bag. Since Sir Nick was delayed due to inclement weather at the PGA Greenbrier Classic, we had a leisurely coffee hour, relaxing warm-up on the range and putting green and had a few minutes to shop for ourselves in the pro shop. The free time offset the chaos of getting the children out the door to camp and the mad morning rush on the George Washington Bridge.

The amazing personal fashion stylist Cynthia Hudson

We had a few minutes to ask the event team about other exclusive golf benefits at #Pricelessgolf such as playing at TPC courses across the nation which you can view here. If you are a MasterCard holder, be sure to register for Priceless.com/NewYork or a listed city near you to get a full understanding of the incredible benefits available to card members. You don’t want to miss the chance to make priceless memories with your family at exciting sporting events, cultural entertainment and fine dining.

What Fun! A ticket to their MasterCard Club at the Barclays at Liberty National

We even had a few minutes to check out the goodies in our favor bag. Not only had MasterCard generously supplied extra balls for the day (hate to say we lost a quite a few), but also, they offered other fantastic benefits such as a gift certificate to the pro shop and a ticket to their MasterCard Club at the Barclays at Liberty National Club from August 21-25th. The ticket to the Barclays makes a very special gift for us because the tournament has a rich history with our Sound Shore community. For many years, the Barclays has donated to one of our favorite charities the Twig, Inc which supports the Port Chester, Rye, Rye Brook EMS and the Harrison EMS allowing everyone to have access to healthcare in medical emergencies. We also enjoyed running into the Barclay’s Tournament Director Peter Mele during coffee hour and thanking him for the many years of the PGA’s support of the Westchester county community (NY). The PGA giving back to those in need is a great example for our children of how playing sports not only keeps you healthy and happy but also improves society in general! Be sure to check out MasterCard’s perks for card members at the Barclays Tournament and use your card to buy one ticket and get one free.

Sir Nick Faldo’s Legends Academy Clinic:

Sir Nick Faldo gives us a clinic #PricelessGolf #MC!So handsome and so funny in person by @skconcepts

At the clinic, we had amazing seats right in front of Sir Nick. We loved how he kept his points simple and illustrated with humor “what not to do”. He focused on three things for improving your swing: alignment, grip and your leg position. He reminded us of a very important advantage in golf–that you should take advantage of the practice swing. How often do you get a dress rehearsal in life? The big takeaway was his sports psychology monologue where Sir Nick suggested we visualize the shot we want to achieve not what we are trying to avoid: “we will not hit the ball in the pond!” He advised that we choose our favorite player, visualize how he or she would hit the shot based upon what we have seen at tournaments or on TV and then “click into their ghost”. Sir Nick then mentioned how he recently improved a client’s game by demonstrating this visualization concept by hitting a drive and having her walk right into the shot imitating his technique.

The best lesson we learned for our children from the clinic was lining up your shot by placing your club on the ground aimed at your target. The kids love this idea but we had to stress that after the shot the club goes back in the bag not in the air like “Happy Gilmore”.

The Round:

Not only did the Ridgewood Country Club feature an absolutely beautiful course but it really challenged our game. We had some incredibly ugly shots, but a few pars along the way kept us in the mix. Given neck and Achilles injuries, we took it easy and found that a more low-key relaxed swing actually improved our performance. Our foursome put Sir Nick’s suggestions into practice with positive results. We had a great time citing the key pointers along with lots of laughs with our wonderful caddy Howard who reminded us of the basics of keeping our heads down during our swing.

We had the pleasure of playing a Par 3 with Sir Nick Faldo. Since visualization ranked as an important part of his clinic, we asked him to try out “clicking into the ghost” and our partner, the amazing fashion stylist Cynthia Hudson, perfected the technique.

Clicking Into Sir Nick’s Ghost

Awards Dinner and Q&A with Steve Sands of the Golf Channel:

Steve Sands Anchor of the Golf Channel interviewed Sir Nick Faldo

After the golf round, MasterCard holders enjoyed a fantastic dinner in the gorgeous Ridgewood Country Club main dining room with a fun Q&A session with Sir Nick by Steve Sands of the Golf Channel. Guests asked Sir Nick about his favorite tour memories and what it was like to be Knighted. Steve asked Sir Nick about future competitive play and he responded that he couldn’t wait to get back on the course. In closing, Sir Nick promised that he would adopt Tiger’s recent quote (about his elbow injury) for how his game is doing for upcoming tournaments: “Good Enough”! This quote is one to live by for our games. We know that our golf strategy may focus on building our children’s skills for the next few years, but thanks to MasterCard, the #PricelessGolf memories we made at Sir Nick Faldo’s Legends Academy Clinic at Ridgewood Country Club will forever remind us that, “we still got game”.

PS: Since it didn’t makes sense to include our blog’s mascots this round, we are introducing a new tradition: “drinking an Arnold Palmer” at every major golf course. Sir Nick sang Arnold’s praises during his speech and you gotta love Arnie!