Nevil Bland

Hello golfers,

Welcome to another edition of our newsletter, this week we give you a chance of sunshine, I recap on my trip to the Belfry, we ask what you would like to play in the studio, we have lots more clubs stamped, and Brocton loses a tree. Enjoy the read!

Pro's news

Sunshine I promise

The course is holding up well with the recent onslaught of snow and rain. We had to shorten the Captain’s Charity event on Saturday to 9 holes due to snow but still raised £200 for Cerebral Palsy. This Sunday we have the Captain and Presidents Drive in competition which is a men’s better-ball stableford event. It’s set to be 13 degrees and sunny so let us know if you need fixing up on 01785 661485.

Speaking of sunshine, we’re currently arranging a couple of golf trips abroad with one being a mixed trip to Portugal in October staying at VilaSol and playing some of the great courses at Vilamoura with spare days and plenty of chance to hit some balls and enjoy some coaching in the sun if you wish. A men’s trip is in the planning also.

If you’d like further details please click here.

The Belfry

Myself and Mike played in the Winter Series event at The Belfry on Tuesday and it was in great condition for the time of year - we sensibly had placing everywhere which made it much better for playing. Teeing off the 8th hole in a shotgun start, our round got going when Mike knocked a driver on the famous 10th hole to within 20 feet of the pin! Six birdies later and we had a tied 2nd finish to get 2018 off and running.

We’ve both been practicing a lot lately and making use of the Quad launch monitor and simulator. It’s amazing how well you get to know your yardages when you’ve played off perfect lies with no wind indoors, but equally it reminds me how much you have to factor in so many other elements when on the real course. The lie, the wet, the wind and our aversion to losing a ball or avoiding particular trouble all play a part in affecting how well we play a shot. Personally I was very happy with my consistency of hitting and club selection but felt like I hadn’t played tournament golf for months when it came to picking a target and sticking to a routine. There’s many aspects to playing this game and you don’t have to be good at them all.

The Staffordshire Winter Alliance Pro-am’s start in early March and the team sheets for myself, Luke and Mike are in the shop if you’d like to join any of us. The events are £45 per person with a bacon sandwich, before play, 18 holes on a range of Staffs courses and a meal afterwards with prizes going to the top 5 teams, plus we usually have a flutter between the Brocton teams.

Studio news

Which would you play?

The Belfry is one of the possible courses I can purchase for you to use on the simulator. Maybe you can help me decide which would be the best choice if there was only a choice of one.

Here’s my top options:

Wentworth
The Belfry
Carnoustie
Kingsbarns
Royal Birkdale
Sunningdale
Dubai Emirates
Pebble Beach

Please click here and let me know which one would be your top pick.

The simulator was in use all morning on Sunday as golfers made the most of the snowy day and enjoyed some free coffee as they played and practiced in the warm. The introductory price of £15 per hour is still available as well.

Throughout February we’ll be running a nearest the pin challenge that anyone can enter, more details next week. I’ll also be running a long drive contest with the goal of seeing once and for all, who is the longest hitter in the club. There’s a few contenders - Billy Mackie, Bubba Birch, Martin Hunt, Dave Moore, Simon Bright, Simon Harbridge, Mike Dewsbury, Luke Howe, Joe Phillips and Jon Parkes to name a few. I’ll send a message out once it’s ready to go - and once I’ve figured out a way for me to fix it so that I win!

Shop news

Wedge stamping

One of the aspects of club building which we do that always gets some attention is the personalising of wedges by stamping and painting them. Some of the golf companies charge £25 for simply stamping a single word but we don’t charge anything for pimping up new clubs bought from us. Here are a few examples below of recent clubs we’ve done. We’re also working on some real examples which will be on view in the shop.

Click here to get your clubs stamped.

New arrivals 2018

It seems that since the snow arrived before Christmas, golfers quite understandably think that the golf season is just about upon us and let’s hope they’re right. It could also be the buzz of social media as many of the golf companies are launching new clubs in the next couple of weeks.

I’ve ordered all the latest drivers for you to try including the Callaway Rogue and Sub Zero, TaylorMade M3 and M4, PING G400 Max and Mizuno ST180 and there’s shafts, flexes and lengths to suit everyone with my unique fitting system. They will all be here in the next couple of weeks plus we’ve got the old favourites like the Tom Wishon 919 which I use and can’t find a driver to better it yet. There’s never been a better time to invest your hard earned competition winnings!

Course news

Picture of the week

Finally here’s a picture of the old, iconic tree on the right of the 6th fairway, two thirds of the way down the hole, which blew down in the high wind last week. There was a huge, intricate bee’s nest right in the middle of it.