I’m away this week at the Golf Trade show in Harrogate which is our annual training/buying/networking event and a veritable “who’s who” of the great and good in the industry. This year’s Gala Dinner and industry awards are on Wednesday night, presented by the BBC’s Andrew Cotter, so by the time you read this I will already know if I’ve won the prestigous 'Foremost Pro of the Year award’ for which I’ve been nominated.

I’ve found out two of the other three nominees and attempted to break their legs but without success so far.

Whilst at the show I’ve been hosting some workshops to my fellow professionals, demonstrating the benefits of re-gripping club using an air compressor. I’ve used this method for 8 years with the result of creating more consistency and accuracy for the golfer with the following benefits:-

• Cleaner and quicker turnaround – no messy fluid to wait to dry, use the club immediately.
• More accurate grip size.
• The same grip size no matter how the shafts of your clubs differ.
• Larger choice of grips.
• Cheaper prices!

Many of the professionals presumed that by making the investment and using this method, being able to get the grips to a far more accurate size for the golfer, would enable the pro to charge more for the re-gripping service compared to the stores which simply slide a grip on ‘willy-nilly’. In actual fact I was promoting the benefit to the golfer that pro’s can actually ‘reduce’ the price of their re-gripping service as the process is quicker. We re-gripped 1,100 clubs last year which appears to be 4 x more than most of the other guys and we provide the service to you cheaper too!

Now is the perfect time for you to spruce up your kit for the winter, a good grip makes a huge difference in your ability to control the club face and the accuracy and consistency that we provide through using the air compressor method effectively comes free of charge.

Whilst at the show I’ve been attending some of the training seminars, here are a few pictures from the ‘Ball Flight impact parameters’ seminar from the inventor of the Launch Monitors which we use in our club fitting and coaching.

It’s strange to sit in a very technical presentation full of drag, lift, D-plane, club path, spin loft, gear effect and attack angle and not make any notes because I’ve already learnt everything before. What it does remind me of is what a good job we make, as professionals, of providing the information on a ‘need-to-know’ basis to our pupils compared to a scientist! Of course, I was still riveted by it!

We finish on Thursday afternoon with the Teaching and Coaching Conference with short game guru Dave Pelz being the guest speaker. I was introduced to him yesterday and it’s refreshing to see that he’s been spending 3 days at the show instead of just turning up to do his bit on Thursday.

Competition winners last week:

Shugborough Cup – Ian Ashton (67)

Commiserations to the Captain who lost out on local rule and had his handicap reduced before we play our last Captain/Pro match!

Monthly medal

Division 1 – Winston Lee (67)
Division 2 - Richard Jefferies (66)
Division 3 – Andy Metcalfe (64)

Richard has been working on his game lately and was actually 2 over gross after 10 holes playing off 15 handicap which was a great effort.

Ladies Medal – Caroline Wilkins (69)

Don’t forget our couple of upcoming FREE demonstration events:

Srixon Ball fitting day – Thursday 16th October

15 minute appointments indoors using the GC2 launch monitor to find out your perfect ball. PLUS, purchase a dozen on the day and receive a FREE glove.

Mizuno Fitting Day – Monday 3rd November

30 minute appointments with the Mizuno Tour Rep

Non-members welcome, please call the Pro Shop on 01785 661485 to book.