Learning Lab – Umhlali

to develop superhumans and not just superstars
INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION
for passionate, golf-captivated high school students
HOLISTIC EDUCATION
to help students develop and reach their full potential
HIGHLY EXPERIENCED TEAM

Welcome to the MCKENNA PERFORMANCE ACADEMIES IEB Education Accredited Learning Lab and Golf Performance Academy.

in partnership with EVOLVE ONLINE SCHOOL

We offer quality holistic education for passionate, golf-captivated high school students, where our main goal is to develop superhumans and not just superstars.

Our team of professionals, in each of their respective fields, collaborate to give each student specific, individualised attention to develop them into reaching their full potential.

EVOLVE Online School is an ADvTECH school - Africa's largest private education provider.

Evolve Online School's mission is to provide your child with an education like no other. The academic team are committed to guiding your child through an educational adventure of self-discovery and subject mastery. Evolve's goal is to help them quickly excel in areas of interest and strength, and progress steadily in areas where they need more time and focused attention to succeed.

The time has come for education to evolve. Evolve is designed to take each child on a journey of personal mastery, using trend-setting curriculum mapping systems developed by MIT, where they progress at their own deliberate or accelerated pace.
Colin Northmore
Founder & Principal

to provide a platform for golf-enthused students to obtain world-class, holistic instruction in high-performance golf and revolutionary school education.

to develop super humans not just superstars who are xxx

I am passionate about revolutionary education and about giving hope to young learners through the wonderful game of golf.
Andrew McKenna, founder of McKenna Academies
Andrew McKenna
Founder & CEO

LEARNING LAB - Evolved online education

We will provide students of McKenna Academies with the most revolutionary Learning Lab for a modern and evolved online education.

The students will be attending their online schooling at McKenna Academies Learning Lab hosted within the beautiful grounds of Umhlali Country Club KZN, where students will be under excellent guidance and tutoring whilst completing their education.

GOLF PERFORMANCE ACADEMY

The performance academy is of a world-class standard and is headed up by Class AAA PGA Professional Emile Steinmann. Our coaching team has developed the high-performance golf programme by using the knowledge that they have gained through many years of golf coaching experience and from various coaching certifications, namely but not limited to:

  • Professional Golfers Association of South Africa (PGA)
  • Titleist Performance Institute (TPI)
  • US Kids Golf
  • Positive Coaching Alliance
  • Gravity Fit
  • K-Vest
  • Boditrack

Aided by specialists for each department of the game and by making use of the necessary teaching technology, the students are taught the technical, tactical, psychological and physical elements required for high-performance golf whilst being carefully guided through the various stages of long-term athlete development.

By doing this, we as McKenna Performance Academies hope to achieve our goal of helping each individual to become the best golfer and person that they can be.

WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE

Mckenna Academies has partnered with the online school Evolve to provide each student with flexibility in their individualized education and golf careers to enable the students to fully engage in all aspects of the performance academy.

Students of the Academy will be developed by our Sports Psychologist, offering the following, but not limited to: Golf Psychology, competitive psychology, on course golf psychology sessions, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, stress management as well as individual psychology sessions.
Students of the Academy will be developed by our Strength & Fitness Trainer on a daily basis using training techniques to prepare our golfers for the physical demands put on their body, reduce risk of injury (lower back pain) and increase force production (ability to hit it further).

The flexibility and partnership with Evolve allows students to compete in golf tours across the country without falling behind in their schooling education.

Our state of the art building includes classrooms, a swing studio and a fully equipped gym.

WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS

Umhlali Country Club and Golf Estate is one of the best courses on the North Coast and known as the ‘Gem of the North Coast’. 

It has a 18-hole Peter Matkovich-designed course that is green all year round, a full driving range with a chipping green, practice putting green and a bunker to practice sandy shots. Umhlali Country Club and Golf Estate strives to provide members, guests and visitors with an affordable and beautiful eco­friendly club with a top-rated golf course, sporting and recreational facilities which offers an enjoyable experience.

At the McKenna Performance Academies IEB Education Accredited Learning Lab – in partnership with ADvTech's revolutionary online school, Evolve – our mission is to:

To develop wholistic high performance thinkers and doers 100%
To provide a safe and nurturing environment 100%
Establish authentic relationships 100%
To act with the utmost integrity at all times 100%

FULL ENROLMENT OFFERS

Education & Personal Development
Athletic Development
Extra Benefits

MEET THE TEAM

Andrew McKenna

CEO and Founder
I am excited to be adding our online school offering into the McKenna Academies portfolio. Our tertiary education has opened many doors for our students. With the new schooling academy we will be enabling youngsters to pursue their dreams of playing professional golf alongside the autonomy of studying online.

Emile Steinmann

Head Golf Coach
The process of becoming a successful tour player starts early and requires many inputs. Environment, structure and work ethic and most importantly - the right people, professionals in their respective fields. Over the years, I've been part of this process for many players and I'm excited to be a part of developing many more tour champions within our academy.

Nicholas Powell

Golf Coach
I am very excited to be part of an academy that is geared towards allowing learners to focus not only on their academics but also their passion for golf. This is all possible through the world class facilities and team at Umhlali giving learners the opportunities needed to reach their full potential.

Ryan Schierhout

Golf Coach
I am super excited to be part of the academy. I can’t wait to see the young humans grow into amazing and talented individuals, not just in golf but in their academics as well.

Roxanne Cogan

Learning Lab Manager
I am highly passionate about growth and development, and I truly feel that our academy will afford kids the most amazing opportunity to discover themselves and their own individual personalities and talents. Grateful to be part of a team that is aligned in this goal to develop super humans.
Give us a call

Simply call or WhatsApp Roxanne Cogan at +27 61 852 4618

Send us an email

Pop us a mail and we'll be in touch as soon as possible

Enquiry Form

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CONTACT US FOR ANY QUESTIONS OR TO ENROLL

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OUR SUCCESS STORIES

SA Girls Champion

Phenyo Sebata (Mckenna Academy Silverlakes) is our SA Girls Silver Division Champion. With so much grit her hard work is paying off. Phenyo chatted to her coach Xander Basson about her goals and they're ticking them off one by one. Great to see a youngster manage a course like she does. Look forward to seeing many more trophies in the near future.

US Kids Open 2nd Place

A big congratulations to young Liam Thompson (Mckenna Academy Silverlakes) for finishing 2nd in the US Kids Venice Open in Italy this week. A huge feat for someone in an International Competition and only 12 years old! Liam had 3 great rounds of 71-74-70 for a 1 under par total. A great result!

Interprovincial Title

The Gauteng North Under 15's team (Mckenna Academy Silverlakes) won the interprovincial title at Paarl & Pearl Valley Golf clubs in July 2022. The team – from our resident club at Silver Lakes Golf Estate – are made up of Roelof and Cilliers Craig, Liam McKenna, Liam Thompson, Storm du Toit and Zinan Maimane who had 6 wins out of 6 matches.

Elebula Open Winner

McKenna African Turf Academy (Silverlakes) student Jandre van Niekerk on winning the Elebula Open in Limpopo in August 2022. We couldn't be prouder of his achievement and applaud the great result for this young man. Well done to him and his incredible coaching team!