Here’s what I learnt that you can digest if you’re playing the match later in the summer:

 - The tournament leader had a 6 shot advantage and lost half of that by missing the 2nd fairway left - Don’t go there!

- I only saw one driver hit and that resulted in a treble bogey.

- They must have been watching my putting videos from last week as they were trundling every putt just up to the hole.

- Don’t go for the par 5’s in two

- Don’t miss the par three’s

- Park as near to the clubhouse as you can.

Well what did you expect?!?! My track record at Beau is not the best - my best advice is just don’t go past the flags and don’t give your opponents any putts (Which is my standard advice really!).

We will fix you up...

If you need fixing up in competitions don’t forget to call the Pro Shop and we can help. On Thursday we had 15 callers on the day of the midweek medal and got them all arranged into groups on the day. We then fixed up 30 golfers for the Shugborough Cup on Sunday. The system is simple, call and tell us if you are on your own or need a third, leave a preferred tee time and then we’ll text or email you when you’re fixed up. We also send out an email with a list of players/times required and also players already fixed up so you can get a feel for when it’s going to be busier. On Sunday the play was very spread out and whilst I was there was never a queue at all.

Lady Captain Day

Congratulations to the Lady Captain for a successful day last Wednesday and to the winner Diane Ferriday with a scintillating 63. The Lady Captain had requested ‘sensible’ pin positions and they were all in the middle of the greens, front, middle and back. I expected the scoring to be similarly good the next day for the men’s medal on the same pin positions but the opposite was true- so what does that prove? I’m not sure, but maybe when you’re on - you’re on!

Someone who was ‘on’ over the weekend was teenager Atthaya Thitikul who became the youngest ever winner on the Ladies European Tour by claiming victory in the Ladies European Thailand Championship aged 14 years, 4 months and 19 days. Wow!!

Golf ball types

One of the most confusing aspects about golf equipment is the ‘What golf ball should I use?’ question.

As golf advisors, we have to know what ball suits what type of golfer, but I wanted to delve a little deeper into the subject. Generally our recommendation is based on feedback from customers and the marketing and product knowledge from the ball manufacturers. When I took a more in-depth look, I’m not sure the manufacturers are even sure exactly what fits where and I believe the marketing speak is vague to stop people discounting using a particular ball.

- Some golf ball companies recommend the driver speed as being the most important aspect.

- Some recommend choosing the best ball for chipping and putting.

- Each company gives you the technical spec for only a few of their balls

- Some balls are classed as ‘Less’ spin, some as ‘more’ - but more or less than what??

- It’s a tough job to rank different manufacturers balls into similar groups.

Our recommendations haven’t changed as yet, I’m just trying to produce a simple chart for golfer to make sense of the differences. I’m not there yet, but this is what I’ve got so far with Mizuno, Srixon and Titleist balls:

Did you know where the company’s names originate from?

Srixon is made up of Sumitumo Rubber Industries, the X stands for advancement and the ON means onwards. (Sumithumo’s other well know brand name is Dunlop).

Titleist came up with the name as they figured if someone in a ‘final’ was a ‘finalist’, then some winning a ‘title’ could be called a ‘Title-ist’.

Mizuno was the surname of the brothers who started the company in 1906.