One of the popular products of late has been the GAME GOLF shot tracking system. I first came across is 4 years ago and it took until this January to finally launch thanks to some funding from Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood and Jim Furyk.
It’s brilliant for tracking your stats, LIVE whilst you play. You wear a little GPS tracker on your belt and then push a tag into the grip end of each club. Then, when you touch the club to the belt tracker before you hit the shot, it knows where you are and what club you’ve hit. Afterwards you download the round onto a computer and you can see where you went, how far you hit your clubs, how many fairways etc you hit and you can compare your stats to other golfers shooting similar scores. It’s a great way of seeing where you need to improve to shave shots off your game and you can view it on tablets and phones too.
I originally got it with the view of letting pupils use it to learn more about their game but everyone wants their own to use full time! I first used mine at the Captain's Away Day in June and I’ve played 11 rounds with it up until the end of October. I then started a new file at the beginning of November to compare winter to summer golf and I’m currently 3 clubs shorter into the greens than I was during the summer!
They cost £149 and I can show you a demo of it in the shop, why not come along on the Christmas night/Open Day?
We also have the popular Garmin and GolfBuddy GPS watches if you’d rather just have the luxury of knowing exactly how far you’ve got to the green?
Golf Centre Open Day – and Christmas Greetings and Eatings night – Thursday 27th November
The Golf Centre including Pro Shop, Fitting Studio and Workshop is open all day from 9am until 7pm with myself in attendance all day to show you around and answer questions on club fitting, club building, golf club membership, Academy membership, coaching, beginners golf, junior golf and the Harry Vardon original design golf course.
- Come along for a coffee or a hot chocolate, [or something a bit more festive] and some refreshments
- Check out the facilities including indoor studio and extensive workshop
- Watch a demo of our embroidery machine
- See what a Launch Monitor can tell you and have a go on our special prize challenges:
- See how many 1O foot putts you can hole in a row.
- Prize for the most consistent ball strike on the Flightscope launch monitor
- You can also take a tour of our freshly decorated clubhouse and wedding facilities.
PLUS
Christmas Greetings and Eatings
On the same day, Thursday 27th November, we host our popular Christmas Greetings and Eatings event which runs from 2pm until 7pm:
- Come along and share a festive drink with us in the Pro Shop
- First chance to enter the Christmas Raffle
- An opportunity to fill out your Christmas Wish List
- Special menu available afterwards in the clubhouse including items off the new Autumn menu – why not make a night of it.
We usually have upwards of 100 people here for the evening so it’s a great evening to catch up and meet up.
Members and non-members welcome.
Shop Development
We’ve been busy this week with Phase 1 of the shop re-development which will see the back areas of the shop converted into a ‘Tour Van’ style workshop. I have all the gear upstairs at the moment including grinders for customising the soles of wedges, MOI machines for balancing the clubs to a golfers’ strengths and frequency analysers to guarantee that the shafts do what they should do, but I could be busy in there all afternoon and no-one would know what is involved. Having the workshop downstairs will be a great addition to our facilities and speed up the process for building clubs and repairs too.
Here’s a photo of the shop just after we started moving the counter.
One of the reasons I custom build clubs myself in the workshop is highlighted by a set of clubs I had in this week which I rebuilt for a customer – and these are from one of the best manufacturers around.
The clubs came with the wrong shafts in, not the ones I’d ordered in writing - I would normally return them but I was going to re-build these clubs anyway and I had the correct shafts in stock. The headweights were inconsistent, the swing weight (balance) of the club was heavier than advertised, after taking the grips off there were bits of metal hanging inside the butt of the shaft, these should be removed after cutting the shaft otherwise they’ll fall into the shaft and rattle in the future and the lofts and lie angles were wrong. I measured a stock set from the same manufacturer and my measuring gauges agreed with their advertised specs.
Pro's Fiddle results
- Rich Brown & Jim Clarke 48 points!! £24 each
- Sam Harvey & Sean Nelson 42 £20 each
- Lewis Powell & Steve Trotman 42 £18 each
- Nigel Jobling & Graham Matthews 42 £16 each
- Bill Whittle & Brian Sumner 41 £14 each
- Matt Kirkland & Neal Kirkland 40 £12 each
- Colin Evans & Bill Lakin 40 £10 each
9 two’s received £8.44 each
This coming week there was due to be nothing on at the club on Saturday but as the Pro’s fiddle 2 weeks ago was almost a washout, we’ll have another go with the 3-ball Texas Scramble. Saturday 22nd, three ball Texas Scramble, 1/6th combined handicap, three tee shots to count each player, £4 entry per person . Call the shop on 01785 661485 if you require fixing up.
Ladies Coaching
Each Thursday for the next 5 weeks we have some ladies coaching sessions. We cover a different aspect each week and the cost is just £10 per week .
Full details can be found by clicking here.
Ladies beginners coaching is also taking place on Monday morning – session details are available by clicking here. If you know anyone who would like to take up the game, please pass this along.
Junior Coaching
We will be running a four week course to take us up to the Christmas period these dates will be 22nd & 29th November and 6th & 13th December. The cost will be £24 for the 45 minute morning group (11:00 – 11:45) which is aimed at the youngest golfers and beginners and £32 for the 1 hour afternoon groups at 1:30 and 2:30.
Junior Skills Challenge Day
Also for all those interested there is a Christmas skills and challenge day on Monday 22nd December 8.30 – 12.30 which will be £30pp . (minimum of 4 participants for day to go ahead.)
This day will include;
Skills and target games
Teams challenges
Golfing assault course
Lots of fun
Light refreshments
Prizes
To book onto the 4 week course or skills day please visit the shop or contact the shop on 01785 661485 or click here