Brocton juniors were involved in some important matches over the last few days with Maria Tiffany-Thompson getting her County colours playing for Staffordshire girls for the first time against Ingestre Park, and the girls won.
Also in the match were Holly Hunt, Jasmine Luo, and I'm sure I could see Hannah Golding hiding in the background of the picture!
Then on Monday a team of Brocton Hall juniors descended on Trentham Golf Club as they hosted the Friendship Shield. A fantastic tournament, as the title suggests, played annually in great spirit between teams from Walsall, Beau Desert and Trentham and the hosts won this year. Well done to all the juniors for representing your clubs with pride.
We possess a great junior section at Brocton, facilitated by great junior organisers, volunteers and a junior committee including members of all sections of the club. Our regular Saturday group coaching sessions have been going on for 14 years now and we have some new kids in the 5-8 year age group coming through now, so we can even see the next generation of Brocton golfers starting out. The group's sessions are loosely based on age and ability and run as follows:
11:00-11:45 - Youngest golfers, 5-10yr olds - £36 for 6 weeks
1:30-2:30 - Blue tee golfers - £48 for 6 weeks
2:30-3:30 - Red tee golfers - £48 for 6 weeks
CONGU handicap juniors, i.e. boys playing off the white tees or girls off the red tees, can also benefit from one-to-one coaching at a special rate of just £10 for half an hour, bookable at whatever time is convenient. Simply call the shop on 01785 661485 to book any of these sessions or click here and we'll get back in touch.
To all you Brocton juniors - don't forget that you can come along to practice at any time of day, even if there isn't any coaching or competition on. You can use the nets in the walled garden, the short game area, the practice ground and the putting green. When I was a junior, me and my mates would be at the golf club all day whenever we could - which used to really irritate the steward as we all ordered half a coke and a bowl of chips at different times, and seven of us turned professional with two others moving into green keeping. At one point we almost entirely made up the County squad.
A recent graduate of the junior section at the club had another good finish at the weekend in the medal on Saturday. Mike Dewsbury equalled the amateur course record of 64 (-5) to win the Highland Brigade, set by Simon Bright last year and equalled by Mike again earlier this year, meaning Mike is now playing off +2 handicap. For those of you that don't know - a handicap of plus two means that to play to that handicap, a golfer would have to shoot two under the scratch score of the course, or until recently, two under par at Brocton. Instead of gaining shots on the hardest holes like the rest of you, Mike has to lose a shot on the two easiest holes on the course, the 8th and 18th, so a birdie would mean a nett par. Also, if I play him in a match I get two shots off him - wahey!
The other winners of the divisions on Saturday were David Robertson with a nett 68 and Richard Egan with a nett 65. Richard has had a phenomenal year, when we played against him in the Captain Pro match in May he was off 26 handicap. He's now off 15 and his handicap has gone up by a shot twice this year as well! Rich sought out some advice with his driving from me and understandably with such a stellar year, he reached the final of the Matchplay Bruton Trophy where Phil Musker pipped him at the final hurdle to claim the trophy.
Here's a great picture from the Nations Cup event last week. Yes, they played, dined and partied in this attire all day! One of the team, I think it was Jack Murphy, had managed to get a hole in one on the par-4 10th hole the week before. The only downside was he was teeing off on the 7th at the time (which for those of you who know the course - isn't that close!). The Captain MC'd the presentation at the Nations Cup - not Mr Dell who had been lined up to perform, as I alluded to in my newsletter last week. That's what I get for writing this newsletter late at night!
Apparently Rory McIlroy has ditched his Nike driver in favour of the TaylorMade M2 model, which is big news in the world of golf. Nike have pulled out of the golf hardware market so it was always interesting to see what his club of choice was going to be. I presumed he would be using the new Titleist 917 which launched last Friday as he always used to use Titleist drivers and the rumour when he went to Nike was that his role was to replicate the shape of the club head for Nike.
Luckily for you we have the following drivers for you to use in a fitting session:
TaylorMade M2
Titleist 917 D2
Callaway XR
Srixon Z 565
Mizuno JPX EZ
Srixon Z 355
Yonex XPG
TaylorMade M1
Miura SIT-460
Tom Wishon 919THI
I have invested in a system of connectors which means we can use whichever head suits you best and drew a range of shafts in to make them suitable for any speed of swing for men, ladies and juniors. Fittings are conducted indoors in the dry with proper golf balls and there is a charge of just £30 for a driver session, all of which comes off the price of a club if you purchase one. Now is the perfect time to test out the new drivers - click here to book a fitting. We can't allow the drivers to go out on the course as the connectors may come loose, why would you want to invest in a club via 'trial and error' hitting? It doesn't make sense.
