Nevil Bland

Hello golfers,

Welcome to our newsletter, in this week’s mail we look at how to improve your game, we look at the 55 yard challenge and also look back at the club Tapas night.

Enjoy the read!

Pro's news

Improve your game

Here’s a great quote I came across this week from 80’s Olympic stalwart Seb Coe. I was 11 years old when he won his 2nd Gold at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and it seemed every race was a battle between Coe and Steve Ovett.

'It was a harsh winter but I ran 12 miles on Christmas morning. It was a hard session and I got home, showered and felt pretty happy with what I had done. Later that afternoon, sitting back after Christmas lunch, I began to feel uneasy but was not sure why. Suddenly it dawned on me. I thought: “I bet Steve Ovett’s out there doing his second training session of the day." I put the kit back on, faced the snow and ice and did a second training session. I ran several miles, including some hill work. Not long ago, I told him the story. He laughed. “Did you only go out twice that day?” he asked.'

I know that playing golf for fun is a long way from training for the Olympics but you never know when inspiration is going to grab you. When it does, don’t let the fact that it’s winter get in the way of acting on it. As I write this, snow is forecast, but I’m busy each day with golfers making the most of their time to progress their golf with lots of these activities:

Re-gripping clubs
Game and Equipment assessments
Club Fittings
Lessons
Yardage gapping sessions
Ball fittings

Click here and get in touch if you are interested.

Studio news

Make use of the Studio

Now you can make use of the Studio by booking time to play or practice on the fantastic Quad and FSX simulator. Practice sessions and On-Course play are both available at the same cost with a special introductory price of £15 per hour.

Up to four people can play and two golfers would manage an entire round in an hour (everyone in the group would need to be either RH or LH).

Half hour sessions are perfect to use the driving range feature to get some practice and these are great value at £7.50, especially considering it costs £6 for a basket of range balls which would take the same time to hit.

We can save your profile and all your shots get automatically uploaded to a website so you can analyse your distances and shot groupings.

You can book by calling the shop on 01785 661485.

55 Yard Challenge

I’ve been challenging pupils to do the ’55 yard Challenge’. This is actually a great test of wedge technique. The goal is to hit the ball 55 yards with a club head speed of 55mph and a ball speed also of 55mph. The only way to do this is to get the club back to impact with its original loft (not hands forward). Here’s a photo of my best attempt so far.

Click here and get in touch if you want to give the challenge a go.

Know your Bounce

One of our new members took advantage of spending a little time to get his wedge play sorted. His most lofted wedge had too much bounce, (the amount the rear of the sole sits below the leading edge).

This was stopping the club digging into the sand when he needed the most height out of the bunkers and the sand was wet. I made up a wedge with low bounce for the 60 degree wedge and then made sure the 55 degree and high bounce to give him options if the sand was fluffy and then mid bounce on the 50 degree wedge for a variety of conditions. This golfer hits a pitching wedge (46 degree) nearly 150 yards so three more wedge were essential.

Lots of golfers only require two wedges beyond the pitching wedge and the most popular combination is 52 and 58.

Club news

Tapas Night

The Tapas night at the club on Friday night was another brilliant social event. Over 950 courses were produced after the kitchen spent two days getting everything ready for the military operation. Here’s a picture of Justyn and the team looking stress free at this stage.

Workshop news

In the workshop this week:

Callaway EPIC Sub Zero driver - HZRDUS shaft
Tom Wishon 929 5 wood - Grafalloy shaft
Tom Wishon 395 7 wood - Grafalloy shaft
Mizuno MP18 MMC irons - KBS C-Taper Lite shafts
Srixon 965 irons - Dynamic Gold shafts

Lamkin crossline ladies Re-grips
Mizuno S18 gunmetal wedges - Project X graphite shaft
Ping G400 hybrid
Ping G30 5 wood - Tour shaft
Cleveland RTX3 wedges - Dynamic Gold shaft