Alan Kinvig is the new Club Champion 5 years after he last won it with rounds of 69 and 72 to win by 5 shots from Neil Johnson and Simon Bright with Josh Smith 1 shot further back. 

When Alan Kinvig won previously, Chris Perks won the nett version, the Twigg Trophy, and the same has happened this year - what are the chances of that happening!! Chris won with rounds of 86-12 = 74 and 72-12 = 60. 

What's more ironic is that 5 years ago as well as winning the nett, Chris Perks actually came second in the gross behind Alan and this year Alan won the gross and came second in the nett behind Chris. 




Brocton Hall GC win Staffs Beddowes Foursomes Championships for the first time. Congratulations to Simon Bright & Steve Trotman with their 66 gross"

This Saturday we are hosting the oldest match played between golf clubs in the whole of golf - The Dartmouth Bowl against South Staffordshire golf club. 

There will be 40 per side competing as Brocton hope to lift the trophy on home soil. I know our opponents are bringing a good team and the Captain and I will be taking on Peter Baker and their Captain as the first match out, so come on team Brocton - let's bring the trophy back home!




Speaking of Captain/Pro matches I played with Vice-Captain Kevin Mellor in the contest at Beau Desert last Saturday, a fixture that Brocton have never won on the away leg and we can see why. The level of course knowledge required to traverse the links safely is such that I've always struggled around the course in the past but I managed to get to the turn in 3 under par this time as I just hit a 4 iron off every tee. 

My partner was in good form also as Kevin matched some of my birdies and we were 4 up after 7 holes. A great match ensued and our opponents birdied 4 of the last 5 holes to overhaul us on the 18th, meaning we still lost our match and the club went down to the tune 6-3.




Thanks to Wayne Cooper who I played with at Coventry Golf Club last Monday in the National Lombard Trophy competition. Wayne qualified by winning a medal at the club a month ago with a nett 63 and his good golf continued as he had a birdie-nett eagle on both the 2nd and 3rd holes. We were 7 under after 10 holes in the event where 8 under was the winning score last year to get to the Grand Final in Portugal. Unfortunately we dropped back but at least the winning score of 13 under par (!!!) was out of a mortal's reach. 

Lots of golf to look forward to with the USPGA Championship on this week from Baltusrol. Then on August the 19th we have the Midland PGA Pro-Am featuring many of the best players from around the region. There are a handful of team places available if you're like to play. Click here to send me a request for more details. Previously Paul Broadhurst has lowered the course record on more than one occasion around Brocton and congratulations are due to him as last weekend he won the Seniors Open Championship at Carnoustie by two shots with a closing 68. Well done Broady!!




Just when you think there can't be a niche in golf that's not been covered - it all changes. 

Twenty years ago the Titleist ProV1 ball changed the game for the fastest swingers. Prior to this ball being available, the softest golf balls were used by the best players and they had to sacrifice durability and distance due to them having a wound elastic core that robbed the ball of speed. They used to be made in two compressions of winding as well - 90 for the average hitter and 100 compression for the hardest hitters. The Pro V1 did away with a wound core and suddenly fast swingers had control, distance and durability which showed up on tour with the driving distances shooting up across every tour - a few years later there wasn't a single wound golf ball being made any more and compression was never spoken of again. 

Over the past few years many manufacturers have replicated the performance of the ProV1, for example the Srixon Z-Star and the Mizuno MP-S but these balls are aimed at the faster swinger as they are all a higher compression and need hitting hard to get the performance off the tee AND the short game. 

  

But now there's a viable solution to the average to slow swinger. Two years ago manufacturers came out with a softer compression ball, MUCH SOFTER. In fact they came out with balls between 30 and 45 compression and it turned out to be a great ball for the slower swingers and now produce a distance ball for the average to slower swingers which is a very soft compression and creates the distance required on full shots whilst ALSO feeling very soft. We have the Srixon ULTISOFT in the Pro Shop which fills this gap at the same cost as their AD333 and SOFT FEEL balls - £18 a dozen. In testing I did during the winter with who would normally use the AD333, they were gaining half a club extra distance and loved the soft feel with the ULTISOFT. 

     

Now we also have the much anticipated Mizuno JPX Premium ball from Japan which takes this niche a stage further. This ball provides the same benefit of the ULTI SOFT plus the clever added benefit of generating the same amount of backspin on chips and pitches as the ProV1 ball. The Mizuno ball has gone down a storm in Japan recently and has just been launched into the UK market, utilising its 5 different layers and Japanese scripture on the packaging. It's also coated in a pearlescent anti-glare cover which makes it look pretty cool and comes at the same price as the ProV1. 

So, if you swing faster and want the ball to stop when it lands - use the ProV1, Srixon Z-Star or Mizuno MP-s.

If you swing smoother and want more distance with a much softer feel - use the Srixon UltiSoft. 

If you swing smoother and want more distance, a soft feel AND spin around the greens - use the JPX Premium ball.
 



In the Workshop this week following fitting sessions: 

Srixon 355 irons - Nippon 95 shaft 
PING G Max Plus irons - CFS shaft 
Cleveland RTX 2.0 wedges - Dynamic Gold wedge shaft 
PING G20 re-shaft - Grafalloy Prolaunch Blue 
TaylorMade iron re-shaft - Project X 6.0 
PING G driver and 3 wood 
Nike Vapor Fly 5 wood 

Coming next week - single length irons will be arriving at the workshop to be built up and ready to test - all irons the same length.