Welcome to another edition of our newsletter, in this week’s mail we recap on some recent results, we are out on the course talking pin positions, there is still time to grab a special Father’s Day present, and we have wide range of putters and wedges available to try. Enjoy the read!
|
Lady Presidents Day Well done to Julia Nicholls, winning Lady Presidents Day with a fantastic 37 points. Gill Griffiths won the 9 hole event and 67 ladies took part in total which is a great turnout. Roughly this number play every week on a Wednesday, so we do have a very dynamic and keen ladies section, with newer members (and in many cases new golfers to the game) coming through and enjoying the great spirit. I don’t have photo of Julia, so here’s a picture of some strawberries instead! I could have taken a picture earlier this week as Julia took part in another ladies coaching class with me. Why is it that the golfers who spend time on lessons, invariably end up winning?
|
|
Tuesday Social This week’s winner was Nathan Cooper who wins the parking spot with 22 points. Other scores can be found on the Facebook page. It’s been a great turnout again with nearly 60 golfers and everyone is getting round quickly and joining up into groups. Please take care, in your eagerness when driving in, to avoid putting off golfers playing on the 17th and 18th.
|
Pin positions Over the last couple of years at Brocton we’ve had some very testing pin positions in play. Or have we? I’m in the middle of conducting a project of assessing each green at the golf club, measuring the percentage slope and direction, every few feet on every green, and it’s coming up with some interesting results. This was borne out of a meeting where we were discussing the difficulty of pin positions. The greenstaff have a tricky job in picking the pins as I found out a few years ago when I went out with Andy at 6am to select them for the Pro-Am. The accepted method is to pick six easy, six medium and six hard locations. Starting at the 1st it went like this:
|
1st - We always put it on the front to alleviate golfers waiting for the 2nd tee to clear and this would be a HARD pin position. 2nd - There aren’t any easy spots on this green and deer had pranced across the green leaving feint hoof prints covering the medium areas, so another HARD location had to be chosen 3rd - There’s only one easy spot and an old hole was in this place, the medium sections on this green are tiny and there was an unfixed pitchmark here, so this became the 3rd HARD spot in a row. At this point I had to make sure to get lots of easy and medium spots whenever I could which meant the last few would all have to be hard ones. It’s not as easy as you’d think until you have a go, plus we have to consider that the green staff change the holes three times some weeks, upwards of 3,000 changes a year in total!
|
|
Anyway, back to the slope project. On occasion over the past season and a half we’ve had quicker greens due to many reasons including the use of a greens iron machine, healthy grass and precise top dressing/seeding. Many of the pin positions that we would consider medium when the greens are a medium pace, become hard (or very hard) when the greens are at their fastest. I had wanted to measure the greens for many years out if interest and to help with green reading techniques so this was a good opportunity. By measuring the slope all over the green we can show where the hard, medium and easy spots are on each hole, how those spots change with green speed and this would answer any queries about certain hole positions. It turns out, with regard to slope severity, there are only two levels of usable slope, call them easy and hard, the third level would be IMPOSSIBLE for a hole location.
|
Take the 14th hole as an example. There are only two very small easy spots on the green as far as the severity of the slop dictates. Both of these spots (front left about 5 yards up the green, and back left just before it slopes off) become hard when the greens are fast as a ball that rolls 18” past the hole can run well off the green. So this green literally doesn’t have any easy spots and if someone were to comment that the pin position was tough on that hole, they’re all tough!! (Or impossible of course). Shortly, I’ll be producing a chart detailing the slopes on the greens which will include the putting green as well. Until then here’s an example of the same kind of chart in use at the US Open this week at Shinnecock Hills. The Orange areas are where the ball will likely not stay still (Impossible) and the yellow areas are where you wouldn’t recommend a pin position (over 3% slope which is the extreme of hard). Interesting!
|
|
Demo wedges and putters I have a bag of demo models of the new Scotty Cameron putters which you can try out on the practice green or the course. I also have collected all our second-hand wedges, placed them in a tour bag and they can be found in or near the shop. The invitation is there for you to tell us which one you’d like to try out, pop over to the walled garden and have a go with them for a variety of shots. We can adjust the lies, lofts, lengths and replace the grips or even change shafts if you wish. The best way to get your clubs all dialled in is via a fitting appointment, but this also gives you a chance to grab a bargain and try something new out. Brands include, Callaway, Miura, TaylorMade, Vokey, Cleveland and PING. |
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the key to unlocking lower scores lies in improving your short game. Having the correct technique is one part of the journey to achieving this. The other is making sure your wedges are the correct grind and bounce for your swing, as well as having a set of wedges that are evenly gapped to cater for any distance. |
 | | Poorly gapped wedge system |
|
 | | Correctly gapped wedge system |
|
50% of you are like the first graphic
If you’re working hard to get your handicap down to single figures, it really will pay off to dedicate more of your practice time to your short game and the shots you need to improve in the scoring zone. As you can see with the graphics above, the wrong wedge set-up can lead to an awkward 35-yard gap and more difficult half shots, which is why we always recommend a gapping session or fitting.
With Mizuno you have plenty of options, including this popular S18 wedge, which comes in 18 different lofts between 45° and 62°. It means whether you’re looking for a two, three or four wedge set-up in your bag, we can get your yardages gapped perfectly. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
