Life’s getting busier at the golf club as Spring approaches. Our first pro-am of the year took place on Thursday at South Staffs golf club and afterwards there was a short ceremony as I was elected the Captain of the Staffordshire PGA for the next two years, taking over the position from Darren Prosser.
Then, next Tuesday, Foremost are holding one of their Spring Workshops at Brocton Hall and I’ll be presenting to a room of my peers on the subjects of (1) this newsletter (which I’ve done every week for the past 9 years), (2) the use of an indoor golf studio and (3) the role of a PGA Pro in a golf club.
If you’ve been feeling like the winter’s been dragging on this year, you’ll be glad for a warmer weekend ahead - Hooray! We’ve only been closed for rain 3 days this winter compared to 22 days last year which is why I think most people think it’s been going on so long – you’ve been out in it so much this year!
Coinciding nicely with the improved temperatures are the fresh range of FootJoy shirts which have just landed in the shop. We’ve been wearing FootJoy as our staff uniform for the past year and they wear amazingly well.
Also in this week we have the new Powakaddy cart bags and full range of electric trolleys.
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The 55mph challenge took place last Thursday and there were some good efforts at achieving the wedge Holy Grail of 55mph clubhead speed, 55mph ball speed and 55 yards carry. Mike Richards came the closest with 55 yards carry and clubhead speed but 52.5mph ball speed - just a slight toe hit! Good effort Mike.
Everyone who had a go was close and most would have hit the magic number given long enough I think. The key was to hit the ball with the true loft of the club at impact, not de-lofting the club and producing false excess distance. Ironically this same method would produce greater distance with the lower lofted clubs in the bag like long irons and woods. De-lofting your shorter clubs so they go further will only make your longer clubs go lower than they were designed to go and therefore shorter.
More wedge matters
This year, more than ever before I have the ability to focus on a particular area of the game which is hurting most golfer’s scores - wedge play.
This screenshot from GAME GOLF shows the up ’n’ down percentages for a selection of golfers. They are all Brocton members who I follow on GAME GOLF and I’ve carefully avoided showing their names! They range from getting up and down 3% of the time to 26% of the time.
The red column is my stats of 44% and the longest column of 63% is Tour Pro Graham McDowell’s, showing how important the wedge play is and don’t forget – this doesn’t require power or heaps of practice. 
The reasons we have more ability to improve wedge play include:
- Technology like GAME GOLF to chart improvement
- Cutting edge workshop tools to grind the sole to suit the golfers style
- More wedge choices than ever
- Cleveland Fitting cart with the opportunity to trial different clubs for real.
- More experience!
It was fairly obvious during the recent club MOT’s that many golfers had uneven distance gaps in their wedges and they didn’t have the best options of sole design to be able to play shots from different lies.
Quite often when I demonstrate a shot like a bunker shot it strikes me how difficult a simple task becomes because the wedge is poorly suited.
A pre-requisite for a good wedge would include:
- Softer flex than other clubs in the set
- Flatter lie angles than other irons
- At least one high bounce sole
- The correct grip size
I’m investing quite heavily in wedge play this year as it produces the quickest results for many golfers and I see most golfers poorly catered for in this area.
We already have 100 wedges in stock from Titleist, Mizuno, Cleveland, Miura and Vega.
Wedge fitting is free of charge and I’ll also be holding regular wedge clinics throughout the year. There are also some older model wedges which I’ll be putting on clearance next week so keep a look out on the club display in the shop.
One trend that has come to light from the last 2 weeks of FREE club MOT’s and FREE Golf Pride re-grip that we’ve been conducting is that many golfers need their clubs re-gripping and don’t realise how worn their current grips are until they try a new one. These are the signs that you would benefit from new ones:
- Shiny or partly shiny surfaces
- Impressions in the grip from your thumb/fingers
- Your grips are vastly different sizes/styles on different clubs
- You’ve washed your grips in the past with washing up liquid or soap (oil based products) – they’re going to get slippy quick!
My main suggestions for which style to go for would be: (Performance/Grip/Colour/Price*)
Soft feel grip - Golf Pride Tour Velvet, Black, £5.99
Longer lasting - Lamkin Crossline, Black & white, £5.99
Good in all weathers - Golf Pride Multi Compound Cord, Multiple colour choices, £9.99
Stickiest long lasting - iomic Sticky, Multiple colour choices, £10.99
Thinner - Black Widow, Black/white/red, £4.99
*Plus £1 per grip fitting fee
The grips come down in price by 50p when you have 6 or more and by £1 with 10 or more. They will all be installed to your hand measurement to ensure the correct grip pressure at no extra cost.
Pro's fiddle results from the weekend - betterball stableford
- J Parkes & W Bailey 42 points £18 each
- A & N McPhee 42 points £15 each
- D Moore & P Birch 41 points £11 each
- S Smith & D Robertson 41 £11 each
- B Nicholls & P Horsley 41 £11 each
- C Perks & J Lynch 40 £9 each
- I Thwaites & S Rushton 40 £9 each
Two’s J Parkes, M Aldred, J Lynch, E Wong receive £14 each
