Hello golfers,

Welcome to another edition of our newsletter, this week we welcome in all the new captains and presidents, Tiger returns on tour, we talk driving and invite you to our contest, and handicap changes are coming. Enjoy the read!

Drive for show

Driving has been a hot topic of golf this week with Tiger Woods back in action at Torrey Pines on the PGA Tour and hitting it all over the place, even utilising the new TaylorMade Twist-Face technology. He showed immense patience and short game skill to make the cut and finish the week under par and he drove the ball pretty well on the first day so we may see some of old Tiger magic at some point this year. The TaylorMade drivers are here in a couple of weeks along with many other to test.

We’re also going to have a Long Drive contest on the simulator which is now ready for you to enter - in fact we’re going to have a few with different categories which are:

Change is coming

I was listening to a podcast from America the other day and there was a 2 handicap golfer who was talking about how he plays off scratch when he’s playing well and then plays off 4 when he’s undergoing a lean patch. They use the system which is similar to the one we will be chaining to next year, by ‘we’ I mean the whole world. Your handicap won’t go up by 0.1 for a poor round or down by a fraction of a shot for each shot under handicap anymore. It will be the average of your best 8 rounds from your last 20 and just like the golfer on the podcast, you could start a month at 15 handicap, for example, go up to 18 or 19 by mid-month and be back down to 12 by the end of the month, especially as social golf and 9 hole golf also counts. Exact details are months away from being relevant but it will be a much better reflection of how a golfer is playing at the time.

This year at Brocton the Tuesday Social 9 hole events will be handicap qualifying - apart from the weeks when I throw in a mulligan for everyone or something similar. You can tell that the golf season is just around the corner as the Tuesday Social is a mere 7 weeks away, starting at the end of March weather permitting.

Sports round-up

Well, thanks to Alex Noren and Jason Day for keeping me up too late on Sunday night with their 5 hole playoff at Torrey Pines, which didn’t even finish there. They had to return at 8am on Monday morning whereupon Noren lost out to Day’s birdie. Even so, European golf has had a storming start to the early season with Rory on form, Tommy Fleetwood winning and Justin Rose, Tyrell Hatton and Alex Noren all making October’s Ryder Cup look like being a momentous event.

I built a set of Titleist irons and wedges this week which I pimped up for a Wolverhampton Wanderers fan who shall remain nameless! - here’s a couple of pictures:

As a West Brom fan by virtue of the fact that Simon is an ardent fan, we’re pretty happy with the last minute signings in the transfer window - hopefully that will do the job to keep the Baggies out of the relegation zone!