Practitioners from the Ladies European Tour Performance Institute (LETPI) attended the Third International Conference on Golf and Health earlier this month.
Held at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the two-day conference focused on maximising health benefits through the game of golf with delegates delving into key topics including injury prevention and management, nutrition, strength and conditioning, and insights tailored for female golfers.
Dr Danny Glover, Chief Medical Officer at the LET and Director of the LETPI, presented on the topic of Golf Performance and the LETPI. He highlighted why the institute was created, the increase of health services on offer to players, as well as the research projects the LETPI supports.
“During the presentation, I gave a general overview of the LET, the creation of the LETPI, and a taster of what we’re trying to achieve. We have always ensured the LETPI is female-athlete focused, and not just a carbon copy of the men’s institute,” said Glover.
“The services have been really well supported by the LET, and we have listened to the players with what they want. There are the core services of physio and soft-tissue therapy, we’ve introduced nutrition, S&C, mental health, sports medicine and then this year we really want to push women’s health services further.
“The quality of speakers at the conference has been amazing. The variation of topics around Golf and Health is a testament to the likes of Dr Roger Hawkes, Professor Andrew Murray, and the R&A who have done a great job in promoting the conference. Having a room full of experts in golf and health is amazing.”
Lewis Clark presented work from his PhD, which is in collaboration with the Research Group in Breast Health, the LET and the R&A. Clark spoke about breast health and sports bras showcasing the research conducted on LET and LET Access Series (LETAS) players in the 2024 season about their use of sports bras in golf and the next steps in the research.
Amy O’Donnell, LET’s nutritionist, talked through her PhD research, her role with the LET, as well as showcasing work done with the GB&I Curtis Cup team in 2024, and the European Solheim Cup Team since 2021.
During the conference, O’Donnell was awarded the Best Poster Presentation for her abstract entitled ‘Physiological and Performance Effects of Using a Golf Cart Versus Walking during Tournament Golf’.
“We won the abstract competition which is exciting! We’re currently writing the study up at the minute just to see if there are any real performance benefits when it comes to using a golf cart or buggy,” said O’Donnell.
“I presented a scoping review I had published on golf and nutrition on all the research that is out there right now, and also I gave a brief overview of the work we do with nutrition at the LET and on other Tours.
“It’s been a brilliant event! There was a lot of information packed into the two days and I’ve learned a lot about areas I wouldn’t have necessarily thought about before, plus it was a first for me presenting at an international conference.”
Dr Will Wynter Bee explained his work about mental health in golf and some research conducted on the DP World Tour and LET; he also highlighted the mental health toolkits put in place on Tour and the next steps in improving mental wellbeing.
Fiona Scott, Strength & Conditioning Lead of the LETPI, was also in attendance in Edinburgh, leading a Strength and Conditioning/Recovery in Golf workshop alongside Dan Coughlan and Chris Bishop.
“I provide a S&C service for LET players, where we’re trying to optimise the performance of the players,” said Scott. “Golf is a very strength and power-based sport, we need to make sure that they’re training in the right way, so that their body is able to manage the forces the sport exposes on them.
“The conference was a great environment; I loved being here. I need to go away and process a few bits; it’s been great touching base with so many stakeholders, and it’s felt so friendly and open the whole time.
“At our S&C workshop, we talked about what we have found out so far through our research and about the key physical attributes that correlate with golf. Jump impulse is important, so we showed the room how we’d collect that data on Tour, and we also gave them a warm-up to educate people as a way of micro-dosing small amounts of physical training to the general population.”
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