What a Ryder Cup we were treated to! I'm sure you've seen and read plenty about it but I have a unique Ryder Cup viewpoint for you from one of the volunteers who was actually there working for the week - one of our members, Matt Wilkes.

I've also got a couple of seamless Ryder Cup links for you here: 

Seamless link #1: Some Brocton members were surprised as they sat in the bar to watch the opening tee shots on TV on Friday, as they looked across the room and saw a previous Ryder Cup competitor watching it with them. Paul Broadhurst had come to see me to get the loft and lie angles on his irons corrected (he'd got the Tour Van to duplicate his current iron set but they'd got all the irons wrong by up to 3 degrees!!). The lie angle is a huge club specification to get right, particularly for someone who tends to miss shots to the left and this golfer would be potentially ruined by a club which is too upright for them.

  
 
I asked him to bring the Seniors Open Championship trophy with him, which weighs a ton! He also had a letter from Arnold Palmer which had been written 2 days before his sad death and Paul received two days afterwards. He'd never met Arnie but even in his last days, Palmer had been watching the Pebble Beach event on the US Champions Tour that Paul won and took the time to write and congratulate him. What an amazing gesture and fantastic thing to receive at that time.

Seamless link #2: On Monday and Tuesday this week, Walsall golf club played host to the Staffordshire PGA Matchplay Championship and I tee'd it up against Alec Smith from Trentham Park in the last 16. I went out 17 holes later and chuckled at the difference between the conditions and standard of golf compared to those amazing scenes from Hazeltine. I returned next day in my position as Staffordshire PGA Captain to watch the final and present the trophy and here is the Ryder Cup link as two-time Ryder Cup golfer David Gilford was edged out with a last hole birdie by Jason Timmis from Newcastle.




The Tuesday Social was played with ever shorter daylight and next week could be the last one for this year. This week's winners were: 

21 David Robertson 
20 Ian Gwinell 
19 Josh Smith 
18 John Nicholls 
16 Graham Cooper 


 

In the shop this week we have received some of our Autumn/Winter clothing ranges from PING Collection and FootJoy. I've also got a new demo of the TaylorMade M2 driver and the Titleist 917 driver is due any time now.




I'm also launching our new Winter Academy programme next week. There's certainly been a shift over the past couple of seasons from golfer's attitude to taking lessons in the winter and the fact we now have a full simulator in the loft makes it easy to see the actual ball flight and distances you're achieving as you hit shots indoors. Of course, coaching doesn't have to be indoors if the condition permit but it's a great way to spend some time on your game although I do think that half an hour is long enough to be working on improving your scores in a session in the winter. If we were to be outside, the temperature can reduce the effectiveness over a longer period than this and if indoors, we get to hit so many more shots in a shorter space of time. 

Winter Academy Package 

- Available to run from October until the end of April 
- Consists of a full 50 minute lesson to start with, followed by 5 half hour lessons for £199 
- PLUS a FREE club check MOT
- (£30 value) - Motivation to keep your game going in the winter 
- Free coffee on arrival 
- Use of indoor simulator, launch monitors and video 
- Use of training aids 
- Premium quality golf balls 
- Warm, relaxed environment 
- Lesson notes and follow up 
- LIMITED NUMBER OF PACKAGES AVAILABLE (as we won't have the time for more!!) 

- PLUS - DON"T FORGET YOU CAN USE YOUR LOYALTY POINTS 

- 2.5% of anything you've bought in the shop from 1st October 2015 can be used as credit against the package. 

Click here if you'd like to reserve one of the packages.