So at last, after a lengthy but eye opening journey, The David Bailey Golf Academy is now up and running. It’s taken a little longer than hoped but finding the right location was always one of the key ingredients considering we will be here for at least the next 10 years. This first blog is intended to give you a bit of an insight into how we came to arrive at St. Swithin’s Lane.

Throughout my 33 years of being a PGA professional, I have worked in senior positions in many teaching academies in Europe, including being the first Director of Golf for Jack Nicklaus Golf academies in Europe. It has always been my ambition to use all these experiences both in teaching and in setting up golf academies to start my own in the centre of the City. This opportunity presented itself in May this year when we were given 1 months notice that the lease on the shop at Broadgate Circle was to be terminated so finding a new home became a necessity rather than just a wish. Many hours of searching followed trying to find the right location and after viewing many properties I came across 18 St Swithin’s Lane.

Famous for its historic connections with the Rothschild family, who have been located in St Swithin’s Lane for the last two centuries
and more lately well known also for The Don Restaurant, St Swithin’s Lane recently underwent extensive regeneration including the refurbishment of no. 18. Being less than a minute from Cannon Street, 2-3 minutes from Bank and within 5-10 minutes of all of the City’s key locations I felt that this would be a great place to be. So the process of securing the lease began which included gaining planning permission for the Academy as well as securing a change of use to D2. The plans submitted looked like this.
 
The only problem was we started with this!!
        
A fair bit to do but after a lot of hard work (not to mention expense!!) this is how it’s ended up.

With the extra room from our previous location it’s enabled us to add the front camera along with the down the line camera and also the launch monitor. During the building work a lot of research was done on launch monitors, diary systems and analysis software to make sure we could put together the most professional package possible and in the next blog I’ll go into more detail as to why we chose the one’s we did. I’m pleased to say that Cameron has joined me at the new Academy and we both look forward to seeing you all to St Swithin’s Lane soon.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this first blog and keep watching for updates!!
All the best
David