Thomas Johansson has pledged to revolutionise golf tuition at Spain's historic La Manga Club after his appointment as the luxury resort's new director of golf training.

The 43-year-old Swede will bring a wealth of experience to his new role in Murcia having taught golfers of all abilities across Europe over the last 20 years including, most recently, at The San Roque Club.

As well as helping beginners, high and low handicappers improve their games, Johansson has coached a number of leading players on the European Tour and Ladies' European Tour while he is also coach to triple world blind golf champion Paul Appleyard, who will defend his title in Japan next month.

And Johansson now intends to implement his progressive coaching ideas at La Manga Club's rebranded Golf Training Centre with his exclusive NXT LVL training concept, while tailoring the sessions using his previous extensive experience of teaching students in a group setting.

Johansson explained: “The student does not practice alone. Here, we train so that your level of golf improves, by means of determined exercises and paying attention to progressive results. Each culture has its own way of teaching and we have combined them together to form one. For us, golf is a sport for everyone, with great diversity, and for this reason we have adapted the classes to each person's individual experience.”

In addition to helping those who are already keen golfers and looking to improve, Johansson is also determined to attract new players to the sport at the top Spanish resort, with the expert assistance of colleagues Anthony McCarthy and Anders Thelberg, head of education at the Norwegian PGA. There are also plans to introduce a new junior golf team to represent La Manga Club in high-profile tournaments throughout Spain.

Johansson, who also coaches the Gibraltar Special Olympics golf team, said: “I will put a lot of effort into creating a junior programme and also bringing more people to try golf through beginners' clinics. There will be a lot of focus on group lessons and creating a good practice environment.

“Many golfers on holiday want to improve their game but don´t want to spend most of the week on the driving range working for hours on a new swing. There are many ways to improve and we will help bring their game to another level.”

Johansson's appointment is the latest exciting development at one of the world's leading elite sports and leisure destinations. And the opening of the new golf training centre highlights some of the huge investment that La Manga Club has made in recent months.

The 37 Spike & Sports Bar is one of a number of improvements that the resort has carried out to upgrade its food and beverages service this autumn, including the reopening of its famous Piano Bar after a summer refurbishment programme.

And the significant investment in its golf and leisure facilities, which has also included the redesign of its pro shop and the purchase of a new golf buggy fleet, has seen La Manga Club win a number of top recent industry honours.

Having been named as Spain's best golf hotel at the World Golf Awards for the last two years, La Manga Club was voted best golf resort in Spain by Today's Golfer readers for the fifth year in a row earlier this year while it was selected as one of Europe's top golf resorts in Golf World magazine's inaugural list of the 'Top 100 Resorts in Europe' this autumn.

Set across an area of 1,400 acres, La Manga Club has been at the forefront of European sports and leisure destinations for more than four decades and is widely regarded as Spain's flagship resort.

The official overseas training base of the Lawn Tennis Association, the multi award-winning venue boasts unrivalled facilities including three 18-hole golf courses and outstanding golf academy, a 28-court tennis centre, a new High Performance Sports Centre and 2,000sqm spa and fitness centre.

Guests can stay in a choice of the resort's four-star Las Lomas self-catering apartments or five-star Principe Felipe Hotel, while La Manga Club offers more than 20 bars and restaurants and its own Mediterranean cove beach.

For more details on La Manga Club, visit www.lamangaclub.com 

ENDS

Picture caption: La Manga Club's new director of golf training Thomas Johansson (centre) with colleagues Anthony McCarthy (left) and Anders Thelberg (right).

Information for journalists

Press release written and distributed on behalf of La Manga Club by the Azalea Group.

La Manga Club
La Manga Club – www.lamangaclub.com – is an unrivalled sports and leisure paradise which sits between the low hills that separate the Mediterranean from the Mar Menor Sea, just 20 minutes from Murcia airport and an hour from Alicante.

Set out over an area of some 560 hectares (approx. 1,400 acres), it enjoys a mild year-round Mediterranean climate and offers visitors a prestigious five-star hotel, luxury vacation apartments and extensive sports facilities, including three 18-hole golf courses, extensive practice facilities, a 28-court tennis centre and eight grass sports pitches. The resort is also home to innumerable leisure facilities, such as the 2,000m2 Spa La Manga Club with its 13 luxurious treatment rooms, comprehensive fitness centre and 25m indoor swimming pool; meeting, banqueting and incentive facilities, and more than 20 restaurants and bars.

As well as hosting both Davis and Fed Cup tennis matches, La Manga Club has signed a long-term deal to be the overseas training resort of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) until 2019. It has also staged the Spanish Open golf championship and regularly attracts professional and international football teams to the first-class year-round training facilities which are also used by rugby and cricket sides.

As a result of more than four decades of continued investment, innovation and commitment to excellence, La Manga Club is widely recognised as Spain's flagship resort and as one of the finest sports and lifestyle destinations in the world. Evidence of this is provided by its numerous awards and accolades.

La Manga Club was the proud recipient of a 2013 Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel website, for the facilities and service on offer at its five-star Hotel Principe Felipe. The resort has been voted 'Best Golf Hotel/Resort in Spain' by UK readers of Today's Golfer magazine for the last five years and was named 'Best Golf Hotel in Spain' at the 2014 and 2015 World Golf Awards. La Manga Club has long been a staunch supporter of women's golf, being the official overseas resort partner of the English Women's Golf Association for three years as well as hosting the Ladies European Tour (LET) Qualifying School from 2009-12. La Manga Club is also the venue for the Ladies Murcia Open, an LET Access Series event, and regularly hosts top women's amateur events and teams.

• High-resolution images of La Manga Club may be downloaded for editorial purposes from https://goo.gl/oi837y 

For more information on La Manga Club contact Pete Simm on 01730 711920 or email petes@theazaleagroup.com