The downside about knowing plenty of people in the golf industry and the combination of social media is seeing all the photos from Augusta that are getting posted! To be fair, I think we'd all be doing the same thing - rubbing everyone else's nose in it!

A few people will be hoping that Cleveland Staff Players Keegan Bradley, JB Holmes or Graham McDowell win come Sunday as they'll be getting their cost of a new Cleveland wedge back on their account! My bet for European golfer would be Jonas Blixt and Dustin Johnson for the rest of the world.

I mentioned last week that I'd be telling you why 'swinging too fast' is never a fault in your game. Here's a couple of scenario's:-

Swinging too Fast #1. - What happens very often in lessons, is someone will be hitting the ball so much better after we've corrected an imbalance in their swing. Then at some point they'll strike a shot slightly thin, purely due to the nature of the game, and immediately berate themselves for swinging too quickly and assume that was the cause of the mis-hit.

All of a sudden they'll have changed from whatever has been improving their ball striking and altered their focus onto their tempo, trying to slow their swing down. This will cause the balls flight to be more erratic again and they'll keep trying harder and harder to slow their swing down, whilst totally leaving the context of the lesson. So, why does that happen in the first place?

Using the FlightScope launch monitor, we can track the speed of the clubhead to within 1/10 of a mile an hour from 4 feet before impact to a couple of feet after impact. What this shows is that when you strike a ball from the middle of the clubface, or take a small divot, the clubhead gets slowed down at impact.

When you hit a ball thin, the leading edge of the clubhead strikes the ball with a glancing blow and doesn't hit the turf so just after impact the club is travelling much faster than you are used to feeling, especially if you've just been experiencing consistent good hits.

Cure for #1 - Don't blame your speed for a poor strike. It was merely a poor strike that stopped the club slowing down, you felt the excess speed AFTER the ball had gone. These days I'll tell people this fact in lessons as soon as they mention that they swung too fast as it saves them finding out they were wrong the hard way!

Swinging too Fast #2 - The goal of any swing is to produce a solid and repeatable impact. The style is irrelevant as long as it is repeatable and everything a golfer does will produce, on it's own, either a steep or a shallow impact position. Think of a top class touring pro as having one or two steep elements in their swing and one or two shallow elements that neutralise each other out - sometimes it's more noticeable (Jim Furyk) and others it's much less obvious (Luke Donald). The nett effect in both examples is a solid and repeatable swing which doesn't require much maintenance or timing - Eureka!

Now, imagine a golfer with five or six steep elements, requiring another five or six shallow elements to balance them out - they are going to need a whole lot of rhythm and timing to keep juggling the various elements successfully for a few shots let alone a whole round. Ultimately, this is doomed for failure and they'll find other 'swing-fixes' to work on which will mean they're juggling even more elements together. This golfer will feel that they can only play well when they swing slowly.

Cure for #2 - Remove some of the excess steep and shallow elements and you won't have to swing slowly at all. Many golfers ask, 'should I be swinging slower' to which I'll often reply, 'Only if you want to hit the ball shorter and less consistently'

The first Tuesday social event took place this week in glorious weather. 36 golfers took part in a 9 holes stableford that takes place weekly now, teeing off between 3pm and 6pm as long as the course is available.

Each week we also have the Stewart Staples Trophy to play for - a trick club with a bent shaft that must be used three times in the 9 holes. Your score will then go on the Stewart Leaderboard and the winner at the end of the season will win a trophy and a prize voucher. The leader after week 1 is Rich Nicholls who scored a very creditable 16 points with the club.

Blue tees junior winner - Cameron Efford 17 points

1st Chris Leonard - 20 points - £17
2nd Maurice Braden - 20 points - £12

The Seniors team managed a feat never accomplished by the club men's team as they won their match away at Beau Desert! A victory for visiting teams at Beau must be a rarity as the course demands such local knowledge and I think I'm right that this is the first time the Seniors team have won there.

If you're on the practice areas, please leave my teaching balls where they are.

Often I can't pick the balls up during the day as other people are practicing, then when I go to collect them at night or the following morning, they've been hit all over the place and many have been lost. We have unmarked balls for you to practice with which you can collect from the shop and return.

Please don't use the ones marked like in the picture.

Clubhouse Clearance - this Friday from 2pm - 8pm.

Here's a sneak peak of some of the items from our off-season stock that we'll be clearing out at below cost prices on Friday in the Clubhouse Foyer:

- Mens Ashworth, Glenmuir and FootJoy clothing including base layers, fleeces and tops
- Ladies Glenmuir and Sunderland clothing
- ECCO and FootJoy shoes
- Motocaddy, Masters and Mizuno cart bags
- Bridgestone towels
- Variety of caps
- Waterproofs
And plenty more!

In the workshop:

PING G30 irons & Glide wedge - steel shafts
Srixon Z Driver - Kuro Kage shaft
Miura SIT driver - ACCRA i-series shaft
Tom Wishon gap wedge
Diamond counter balanced putter
Mizuno re-shafts

Special Offer with ECCO shoes

When you buy a pair of ECCO golf shoes you'll qualify for a FREE shoe tree or care kit worth up to £19.99 . ECCO shoes have that 'different kind of comfort' and you'll want to keep them that way.

Come in store to view the range, and in the meantime, watch our video here on two of ECCO's standout models for 2015: the BIOM G2 and BIOM Hybrid 2

Click here to find out more.

New spring styles in from FootJoy and Ashworth

We have the latest spring and summer clothing ready for you to try and take advantage of from FootJoy and Ashworth.

Why not pop in store and see if we can help you to look good this year.