It was my birthday while I was in Florida and whilst I was sad to be away from my family, it was an awesome experience to play the TPC course on my birthday and to make a 2 on 17! You can watch the video of my shot below, and see where the ball finished up!

I showed Andy some pictures from Sawgrass where the Bermuda grass greens were phenomenally difficult to putt on, not because of the slopes, but because of the grain. This is the direction that the blades of grass are leaning and the blades were so rough and strong with their Bermuda grass. I've heard about the grain of the grass before and come across it before but it's never been anywhere near as strong as at Sawgrass, even the other courses in the area weren't as strong.

Here's a picture of one of the cups and you can see that the grass is growing over the hole on the left side and creeping away from the hole on the left side. This was at 5pm and the hole had been cut fresh that day, it moves that quick!

Here's how it works:

1. If the slope of the green is slightly left to right, but the wind is blowing the opposite direction and the grain is growing to the left also, then the putt will turn uphill!. "Two strikes against the slope of the green will win" was our caddies advice.
2. There was no pattern to it - we tend to have light and dark stripes on our greens in the UK where the mower has dictated the direction of the grass, but over there the green has huge light or dark random patches, it doesn't even grow towards the sun, it's all over the place.
3. We had a putt on the practice green of 4 feet and it was straight and down grain. 3 feet further back on the same line and it was into the grain and would turn about 4 inches - BUT, it would then carry on turning on the previously straight remaining 4 foot length! Try figuring that one out.
4. If you putted from just a foot or so off the green across the grain, it would send it way, way off line before it reached the green because the blades on the fringe were so much thicker and stronger.
5. I finally figure I'd got it on the 14th hole at TPC Sawgrass when I'd allowed for the grain and holed a short putt, then I couldn't reach the hole against the grain from 15 feet away!

It also affected shots from the rough, especially around the green and, as our grass grows thicker with the recent warmth and moisture, I thought I'd show you how you could learn from this in your own game:

Firstly, I had to use my sand wedge (55 degree loft) as opposed to my lob wedge (59 degree loft) or extra lob wedge (64 degree loft) as the higher lofted clubs would go straight under the ball.

Secondly, I had to open the clubface as if I was playing a bunker shot so that the club had more bounce. This means the club won't dig in if it snags behind the ball.

Thirdly, we had to fully commit to the shot and accelerate through impact, any slowing down would result in the grass grabbing the club and the next shot would be from the same situation.

Fourthly, if I didn't finish near the hole, I wanted to finish past it. This would mean that at least my next shot would be a putt, not another pitch out the rough.

Try this the next time you're around the green in a rough spot, it's a really important shot to get good at.

The Captain, Gerald Griffin and I play our first match this week against Mike Haynes and Colman Whitelaw. We didn't lose a match last year so I'm hoping the jet lag has worn off by then!

I'm also playing matches this year with the President as a special one off event. We've kept it under wraps until now, but we'll be playing against the four leading unsuccessful qualifiers from each day of the Captain/Pro challenge qualifying weekend. David was the Captain the year before I started at Brocton and often mentioned that he had missed out on the matches, so I thought it would be nice to play them in his Captains' Year. We'll be sending the relevant golfers some dates this week.

The Lady Captain and I are also playing some matches later in the year. Busy time on the golf course!

Tuesday social:

1. Steve Hirst 22
2. Mick Dilworth 21
3. Roy Douglas 19
4. Bill whittle 19
5. Daz Poole 18

May Medal

• Division 1 - 1st Mark Ferguson 67
• Division 2 - 1st Stevan Skibicki 68
• Division 3 - 1st Richard Hocknell 66

In the workshop this week:

• Tom Wishon 771 irons - graphite shaft
• Miura K grind and Y grind wedges
• Tom Wishon 4 wood - ACCRA shaft
• Mizuno wedge
• Titleist Vokey wedge re-grind