b'Performance Program Thrives Despite COVID-19 Challengesby Brad ZiemerLakes in July. It wasnt quite Arizona, but the sun was shining.IT WAS MAYFAIR LAKES , not Mesa, but no oneAs much as COVID has been difficult for was complaining. everyone, it has given us opportunities to do COVID-19 has created challenges fordifferent things, says Lavers, a Class A CPGA the new British Columbia Golf PerformanceProfessional who works out of Seymour Golf & Program, which was just getting started whenCountry Club in North Vancouver. the pandemic struck.We would never have been able to haveGuest Coach and Former SFU Clan Standout Chris But rather than worry about what they coulda camp like this in the middle of July in theCrisologo (L) addresses the team along with Coach Lavers. not do, British Columbia Golf Performancepast because they would have been right now Coach Colin Lavers and his team decided toplaying the B.C. Amateur and just finished theThe pandemic gave us an opportunity to focus on what they could do for the nine juniorB.C. Junior. This essentially is the camp wesay, Okay, things dont always go our way. How golfers who are part of the program.So thatwere going to do in Arizona in March. So it gotdo we make the best of it? How can we use this five-day camp scheduled for Arizona duringdelayed, but I think all of us, the kids and theto our advantage and come out better than spring break had to be rescheduled for Mayfaircoaches, are making the best out of COVID. everybody else who is not doing that?In the early days of the pandemic, when most courses were closed, Lavers organized regular Zoom calls for the team.We were checking in as a whole team weekly and even sometimes twice a week on Zoom and in a lot of ways that was really good, Lavers says.North Vancouvers Niklas Jaakkola says those Zoom calls helped keep the Team B.C. members connected during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis.I think those calls really benefitted me because we were all working to get better instead of just being lazy throughout the whole COVID thing, he says.We had a weekly checkup where we had to talk about what we had done that week to get better and wed do challenges and stuff. It really helped me stay motivated throughout the whole quarantine and then the golf courses opened back up and slowly we have been getting things going and it is just great to meet with the team again.With most of the junior tours shut down for much of the spring, Lavers arranged for the Team B.C. players to compete in several Vancouver Golf Tour events.Luckily we had decent weather in the spring and we were able to get the VGT opportunity, Lavers says.All of the players pretty much had one really good round or one really good tournament. We had some under-par rounds and as players they have to understand they are basically playing against college and top amateur players and they are holding their own.Dealing with adversity was one of the themes of the Mayfair Lakes camp. The first day concluded with nine holes of golf where team members were put in tough positions to create some of that adversity. Mental coach Kim Senecal walked alongside the players to offer advice.We really wanted them to understand they are going to face adversity 4BRITISH COLUMBIA GOLF |SEPTEMBER 2020'