Meet Hélène Delisle: Fairwinds' "New" HP
Hélène Delisle has called the island home since 2006 becoming the Head of Instruction at Fairwinds 12 years ago. This year she has been promoted to the position of Class “A” Head Teaching Professional. Read on to find out more about this impressive Quebec native plus get three of her best tips ...
PGA of Canada Class “A” Professional Hélène Delisle initially came to Vancouver Island in 2005 in order to improve her English as she explained on her bio page on the PGA of BC website.
"Teaching and coaching were always what I was the most passionate about and was lucky to start teaching at the age of 21-years-old. Once I found my passion, I made decisions that would help me become a better teaching professional. In 2005, I decided to move to Victoria to improve my English, so that I can teach in both French and English and was planning on moving to Montreal and working for Debbie at Le Mirage Golf Club, but ended up falling in love with the island."
Initially, she worked as a professional at Nanaimo GC. That was followed by a short stint at Beban Park before the move to Fairwinds.
There are a few things she has noted as being some of her proudest achievements since arriving at Fairwinds. One was developing the junior program there, "When I started working at Fairwinds there wasn’t any juniors and nine years later, we had over 100 juniors participating in our junior programs."
In recognition of her efforts, Hélène was selected as the regional PGA of BC Teacher Of The Year in 2015. She is also the only female professional who has won on the Vancouver Island Professional Golf Tour.
Below Are Three Pro Tips From Hélène
#1 - Starting The Season With A Lesson (See original full article HERE)
I always wonder why amateur golfers try to fix their golf swing by themselves when professional golfers use the help of a coach.
Over the years I have seen many golfers try to improve their swing by trying different things that they heard on TV, videos, or read in a magazine that are not specific to their swing.
What you need is the help of a professional golf instructor that will tell you what you need to improve, so you don’t create bad habits or waste your time practicing something that you already do well or that is not the cause of your miss-hits.
What you need is the help of a professional golf instructor that will tell you what you need to improve, so you don’t create bad habits or waste your time practicing something that you already do well or that is not the cause of your miss-hits.
A golf professional will help you find the problem faster and give you tools to improve your golf swing. Often what we think we are doing and what we are really doing are two different things.
That is why a video analysis is a great tool to help improve your swing. A golf instructor will also help you improve your course management and make sure your equipment fits properly.
#2 - A Few Tips In Chipping
Improving chip shots requires a few basic adjustments to your body and stance, and with the help of a golf instructor and a little practice, you can perfect your chipping:
1. Put your hands lower on the grip and your feet closer to the ball.
2. Your ball position is best two inches behind the middle of your stance. Stand close enough to the ball so that when you raise the heel of your club, the toe is down.
3. Use an accelerating swing by making a follow-through about 20 percent longer than your back swing and using a rhythmic, smooth and steady swing.
4. Keep your wrists firm.
5. Put more weight on your front foot (left for right-handed golfers) and keep your hands in front of the club face.
6. At the end of your swing you should be able to hold a glass of wine on your club face.
Don’t be overwhelmed – chipping takes practice and if you hit the greens on a regular basis you should see improvements over time. If not, you may want to set up a lesson to find out how you can improve your stance and swing.
#2 - A Few Tips In Chipping
Improving chip shots requires a few basic adjustments to your body and stance, and with the help of a golf instructor and a little practice, you can perfect your chipping:
1. Put your hands lower on the grip and your feet closer to the ball.
2. Your ball position is best two inches behind the middle of your stance. Stand close enough to the ball so that when you raise the heel of your club, the toe is down.
3. Use an accelerating swing by making a follow-through about 20 percent longer than your back swing and using a rhythmic, smooth and steady swing.
4. Keep your wrists firm.
5. Put more weight on your front foot (left for right-handed golfers) and keep your hands in front of the club face.
6. At the end of your swing you should be able to hold a glass of wine on your club face.
Don’t be overwhelmed – chipping takes practice and if you hit the greens on a regular basis you should see improvements over time. If not, you may want to set up a lesson to find out how you can improve your stance and swing.
#3 Practice Putting Approaches: Work on What Needs Working On
This excerpt comes via past BC Golf contributor Alfie Lau, who attended a High Performance Camp for top BC Juniors where Hélène presented. You can read the full article HERE
On the green itself, Delisle had players practice lag putting every 10 feet, from 20 feet to 60 feet, and for big breaking putts, she had them putt every 3 feet, from 3 to 15 feet, so that they could practice reading how the same putt can break differently depending on the distance.
Most importantly, Delisle stressed to the students that by learning what aspects of their short game they were good at, they can then spend more time working on those parts that need improvement.
Most importantly, Delisle stressed to the students that by learning what aspects of their short game they were good at, they can then spend more time working on those parts that need improvement.
Hélène can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.