Trouble viewing this email? Click here to view it in your browser
 

Nevil Bland

Brocton Hall Golf Club PGA Golf Professional

Get in Touch: 01785 661485
Website: PGA Golf Professional | Golf Club
Send us an email: Nevil Bland

 
 
Glenmuir lambswool men's sweaters GolfBuddy accessories
 
Glenmuir crested clothing Titleist FREE ball personalisation - from £15.99
 
 
Greetings from Nevil Bland
Brocton Hall Golf Club - PGA Golf Professional

Winter time golf practice is all about charting your progress through feedback. You can’t really tell how you’re playing with your scores

  • You can’t swing as freely when it’s cold so you’ll miss more fairways and greens.
  • You’ll come across worse lies on the turf so your distance control will be off.
  • Range balls and mats don’t provide dependable results.

That being said, I’d certainly recommend playing and practicing as much as you can in the winter, it’s just that you can’t tell how you’re performing as lots of the unusual shots may not be your fault.

On the plus side:

  • You can place the ball on the fairways.
  • The ball won’t bounce off the edge of greens into the undergrowth.
  • The thick rough is less thick!

Winter is a great form of golf, especially when we play on proper greens throughout the winter. It was zero degrees on Tuesday and lots of golfers were playing – on the same day in the summer we often hardly see a soul!

Useful feedback comes in many forms and some that we use in coaching include:

GAME Golf tracking system - Why not set up a winter account to compare against your summer stats next year?

The monthly PGA Trade magazine came out this week and there was an article I had contributed to about the benefits of the GAME Golf system which we sell for £149 and is the hot product this Christmas.

FlightScope Launch Monitor - you need to know what you’re looking for.

One of the key elements for playing consistent golf is to have a consistent club path through impact. This is the direction the club is travelling as it hits the ball, it is in 3 dimensions and makes up something called the ‘D-Plane’ e.g. Whether you hit upwards or downwards on the ball changes the club path. Believe me, you will NOT be a consistent ball striker if your divots point to the right of where you aim.

Here’s a screen clip from a coaching session I had with the elite CONGU junior group. We were trying to match impact to the target line (blue line on the pictures below) those being the direction of the club path (shown as an orange line), the direction the face aimed at impact (green line) and the direction the ball started on (yellow line).

Here you can only see the green line as the others are directly underneath it. The ball was tilted to the side by just 0.2 degrees which meant it was going to fly dead straight. Mission accomplished!

Then we tried to hit a huge hook and you can see the result here:

Here you can see the club path (orange line) going right, the club face (green line) pointing left and the ball (yellow) starting left. The ball was tilted 45 degrees to the left which meant a huge hook. Mission accomplished!

It didn’t take a change of swing to do this, just 2 minutes of knowledge and they’d learnt how to escape from trees with distance.

Swingbyte, Zepp, 3Bays - devices that fit on the club to analyse movement

Again you need to know what the numbers mean.

Skills tests indoors and outdoors - it’s all about setting targets.

Putting rails, mats and training aids all help to spend a few minutes and create sustained improvement.

The PING putting app and cradle - we use this for easy putting practice feedback using the free app.

All the feedback devices are available from the Pro Shop and are used in coaching sessions when we feel it’s relevant.

I went to the funeral of Stewart Staples this week. A large number of Brocton members were in attendance including many of the Tuesday Social crowd and the church was absolutely packed as the winter sun streamed in through the stained glass windows. An incredibly touching and poignant service in which I felt quite privileged to be there as the family shared their personal experiences and happy memories with us.

Many of you have commented how nice the shop looks after Phase 1 of the ‘Shop-shuffle’ is complete. The next step is to bring the club-building workshop downstairs and extend it into the shop. I’m busy designing the layout and sourcing new machinery and equipment to make an extra impact. Watch this space.

The Winter Green Fee is now available – Coffee on arrival, 18 holes of golf and a Brocton Club Sandwich, all for just £37.50. This is available for weekdays, avoiding busy times and can be booked through the Pro Shop on 01785 661485.

The President and I played a challenge match against John Lynch and Dave Thacker on Saturday and we had a great match, finally losing on the 17th. I was unsure whether the course would be open after torrential rain on Friday afternoon/evening and although there was some water lying, it was fantastic condition as we teed off at 9:00. I posted a photo of my trousers and shoes on Twitter as we came off the 18th – they were spotless! Well done to Andy and the green staff for a tremendous winter course.

Pro's fiddle results

18 teams played in the three ball texas scramble with the winners being:

  1. Josh Smith, Sam Harvey, Sean Nelson 58.2 £19 each
  2. Wayne Bailey, Richard Gee, Steve Treadwell 58.2 £19 each
  3. Niall McPhee, Paul weetman, Mark Newman, 59.3 £16 each
  4. Neil Jackson, Pete lowndes, Nigel Metcalfe 59.5 £14 each

 
Get out and get golfing!
 
Motocaddy accessories: perfect Christmas gifts
 
Motocaddy accessories
 
Reserve
 
Titleist FREE ball personalisation - from £15.99
 
No more Christmas panic buying
 
Power tips
 
Click and Collect
 
Motocaddy winter accessories
 

GolfBuddy accessories

Whether you want to treat yourself or know someone with a GolfBuddy who you think would like an accessory or two for Christmas to accompany their golf GPS, there are some superb options in GolfBuddy's range that we can get hold of.

If the answer is no then you could seriously be affecting your chances of taking your game to the next level. We can take a look to see if you’ve got any gaps in your bag and talk you through PING's Tour wedges.

 
FIXTURES
Make a note of these dates in your diary
 
RESULTS
Who has been amongst the prizes this week?
 
LESSONS
Book a time and let us help your golf game
 
TIPS
Instruction to help you enjoy better golf
 

 

Oakley Glasses Lifestyle
 
Contact us
Brocton Hall Golf Club
Brocton
Stafford
Staffordshire, ST17 0TH

Tel: 01785 661485
Mail usTwitter Facebook
Join Our Mailing List
 
Glenmuir lambswool men's sweaters
 

  

Nevil Bland is a member of Foremost Golf, the UK's largest golf retail group, delivering value through expertise for the Club Golfer
 
This email was sent to you by Nevil Bland and is provided as a service for the members and guests of Brocton Hall Golf Club and the customers of the Brocton Hall Golf Club Pro Shop and has been supported and sponsored by advertisers in this mail and by our partner suppliers:
 
® The Crest is a registered trademark of The Professional Golfers’ Association Limited
 
adidas | Ashworth | FootJoy | Titleist | Glenmuir | PING | Sunderland | Vokey Wedges | Foremost Ecommerce | Motocaddy | GolfBuddy | Oakley | Golfbreaks |
 
Please click here if you want to stop receiving emails from Nevil Bland