Only a week until the US Masters and it's all happening! Tiger Woods is ruled out through injury, the world's top players are off-form and we've just got a handful of spaces left on our Masters sweep. We'll be doing the draw after the weekend. I might be radical and not mention it at all in the newsletter next week - could be the only one in the webiverse!
Thanks to Junior Captain George Johnson for rescuing some new packs of balls that had been chucked out with the old display boxes. Very honest of you and nice to know the juniors are in safe hands.
FootJoy D.N.A.
The highly anticipated D.N.A. shoe has arrived from FootJoy. It's a fantastic shoe, both stylish and comfortable, and currently comes with a FREE shoe bag when you buy a pair. Be quick though, we have a limited number of bags.
Tuesday night SOCIAL GOLF starts again on 15th April. It's an opportunity to come along to the club to tee off for 9 holes anytime between 4 and 6pm, mix in with whoever's here, meet new golfers and win some prizes.
Open to all members, played off the white tees for men and 3/4 handicap stableford with an entry fee of £2. It's run between the pro shop and Match and Handicap committee, most weeks I play as well and announce the results after everyone's in. Last year we had 30-50 playing each week and most stay for a bar snack afterwards. See you on the 15th!
I wrote an article for the PGA website this week, all about "is there really any new technology in drivers". One of our members was asking me if a modern driver would hit the ball better than his 4 year old model. As an explanation, here are some excerpts from the article.
"Golf Equipment technology is a never-ending evolution which ultimately benefits every golfer, although it may not always appear that way.
The club manufacturers and designers may promise 5 extra yards here or 11 extra yards there with every new product but do we all believe the continual distance claims? Surely if we added up the extra distance claims for the past decade from just one company we'd be hitting the ball 500 yards by now?
The distance gains are in fact real, and available to every golfer, you just have to know which equipment advance is suited to your game.
For example, much is made of the benefits of reducing backspin with your driver to increase distance. However if you tend to hit low hooks, don't generate much height, or play with a slower clubhead speed - you will be in the category of golfer who would benefit from MORE backspin, not less.
Consider also that your PGA Professional could show you how to hit the ball further through changes to your technique and most likely much further than simply changing club. However the true long term benefit to your game comes from a combination of the two - technique and equipment technology.
In the case of the golfers requiring MORE backspin on their drives to keep the shots straighter or for greater carry, they could achieve this by simply using a higher lofted driver, although many golfers will tend to lose overall distance this way and end up finding a way to hit the ball lower again.
They could take the technique route instead and learn to hit more upwards on the ball through impact but realistically that's not going to happen when playing into the wind or downhill - golfers tendencies will take over.
The maximum benefit would be to allow for the bad swings and mis-hit shots with a small increase in loft, or more flexible shaft and then develop the technique as well to optimise the drives.
This creates a win-win situation for the golfer. Make a good swing and the driver will perform perfectly for you, make a bad swing and the club will minimise the damage. The beauty of this is that if the golfer starts to struggle with their driving in the future, they know it has to be something that they've done differently, not the golf club.
As a PGA Pro and Clubfitter, I see a lot of golfers who want to make an alteration to their clubs in order to correct a particular bad shot - but the shot in question is purely down to technique. Equally I see lots of golfers who are trying to hit a club that is totally unsuited to them and they are having to develop a makeshift way of swinging just to be able to hit it.
Get the swing to suit the golfer and the clubs to suit the swing and then see what happens!"
One golfer who has recently spent time getting their game and equipment ready for the season is Mike Dewsbury.
Mike Dewsbury in action
He's been away for the winter at a Golf Academy in Spain and then we tested his clubs out for suitability last week. Mike's clubs are 2 years old and the testing showed that he had progressed from a swing force requiring stiff flex shafts, to now requiring extra stiff flex.
My FlightScope launch monitor measures the acceleration of the club in the late stages of the downswing and showed that Mike's iron heads were unstable at impact due to the speed. This should give him more control over the trajectory of his approach shots. This week will be a good test as he's playing in an event in Cornwall partnering Paul Broadhurst.
Mike's impact - the orange line on the left showing the club flipping through just before impact (the white line with zero at the bottom).
Extra stiff flex now showing with a constant rate of acceleration into impact, no sudden spike before impact and a stable club face.
The Pro's Fiddle results from last weekend hadn't been done by the time I wrote this, they'll be on the board and in the shop. I do know that Mike Mazzitelli and Don Ward won with 45 points!
