Club News
Incredible to think that only those of you over 70 years of age have ever experienced a Spring like this, with the driest March and the sunniest April for 69 years. According to the Met Office, it’s also by far the driest year in total since records began in 1852. Incredible to think that this time last year, we still had the 15th and 18th fairways cordoned off, the 17th had just come off a temporary green, and on this exact day, May 22nd, we were closed for further flooding.
After last year's weather, it just shows the vagaries of conditions that we manage to play golf on and that the course staff have to contend with and all without any way of knowing what conditions are impending.
Here are some photos of the course comparing last year and this year.
Brocton Hall usually plays a little easier when there is more run on the ball, but then much harder when it gets firm enough that the ball missing a green or fairway keeps running off into trouble. Here’s a way to think about your course management that I developed to help to shoot your best scores.
Firstly, have a score you want to achieve as a goal and don’t be afraid to stretch it. So, if your goal is to break 90, why not set 85 as your goal?
Then, when you next play, commit to leaving the course after you’ve racked up 85 shots.
Can you imagine how you’d play if it were a nice day and you desperately wanted to play the full 18 holes and didn’t have to leave the course after the 15th or 16th?
You’d play your most dependable clubs off the tee, you’d favour hitting fairways over hitting it further, you’d play to the heart of the greens, you’d lag your putts and only at the end of the round would you feel the need for any gung-ho golf if you were running out of holes.
Course management is a huge aspect for scoring, and it would be no coincidence that the best scores will come from using hybrids, lofted fairway woods, lower lofted wedges and fewer long irons, fewer lob shots and putts from off the greens. Try it next time you play and let us know how you get on. (You don’t have to walk off, but that is the mentality that you need to challenge yourself to.)
