| 5th
April 2007
Greetings from Duncan,
Congratulations to Betty Golding who won the
Glenmuir Ladies’ Matchplay Champion with
a fantastic win this weekend at the Belfry.
Hele Park was very proud to have two players
in the finals of this great competition. Darren
Read competed in the Men’s final finishing
a very creditable third.
I have just come back from playing
in the Devon Costa Brava Pro-Am. My team members
were Hele Park’s Ben Martin, Jon Axford and Steve
Bristow. We finished in 4th place after playing
some great courses; Emporda, Catalunya and Mausnou.
The highlight of the week for us was winning
the Practice Day Scramble, we peaked too early!
Congratulations to Chris Gill who finished third
in the Pro’s competition – what a
pity it took 4 rounds before he found out how
to use a putter.
Club
Vice-Captain, Neil Vaughan, played in the tournament
for the first time with Downes Crediton professional,
Barry Austin, and had a great time and finished
in the top 10.
Lee Johnston won the Mixed Stableford last week
with 22 points. Lee popped in for a driver fitting,
but I told him to practice his putting and wait
until the demo days this month when he can try
a whole heap. Obviously my advice worked. Well
done Lee.
The first demo day is on Thursday – today – 4-8pm
when we have Yonex visiting. Come along and try
their fantastic range of clubs. I will be there
with the Yonex representative to give you the
right advice and put the perfect club in your
hands.
The Easter Sale starts on Good Friday through
to Monday. We have a very special 4 days lined
up for you with a special shop extension to show
you our fantastic range of clubs, shoes and clothing.
I look forward to seeing you.
We carry on this week with the
process of iron manufacture. Also in the mail
I talk about how to eliminate three putts from
your game and feature a tried and tested putter.
Regards,
Duncan
GOLF SCHEDULE
Thursday 5 April
Midweek Mixed Stableford
Book your own times
Tuesday 10 April
Seniors 9-Hole Stableford
9.30am
Wednesday 11 April
Ladies Extra Medal
9.30am
Good Friday, Easter Saturday,
Easter Sunday & Easter
Monday – course and range open as normal
PLUS our fantastic sale
WHATS IN YOUR SHOP?
Square Head Drivers
The Callaway square head drivers are finally
in – come and have a try!
WHAT’S ON
AT THE TOURS?
US TOUR
Masters Championship (Augusta National, Florida)
Defending Champ: Phil Mickelson
RESULTS FROM THE TOURS
US TOUR
Shell Houston Open
2007 Champ: Adam Scott
EURO TOUR
Estoril Open de Protugal
2007 Champ: Pablo Martin-Benavides
A PUTTER FOR EVERY BUDGET
Ian Lidbury, 6 handicap, was asked to review
a putter for every budget. He chose the Odyssey
White Fang at £129.99, the Wilson 8873
at £69.99 and the PGA DS02 at £39.99.
ODYSSEY WHITE FANG
PUTTER £129.99
Ian, says:
When I used this putter I appreciated its great
sense of feel and hit a lot of accurate long
putts - all ending within 2 feet of each other.
The manufacturer has come up with a wonderful
putter to help hole more putts and, more importantly,
leave a short second putt.
Soft, highly resilient core enhances feel and
gets ball rolling quickly
Thin, firm cover gives exceptional feedback.
Textured impact zone enhances feel and clearly
defines the sweet spot
WILSON 8873 - £69.99
Ian says:
Wilson has used innovative materials creating
a more refined putter from their traditional
models. I was impressed with the weight and balance
of this mid range putter. The style of putter
really helps align the putt and get the ball
rolling on line. The Wilson putter can be custom
fit as the shaft allows change to the lie of
the putter to suit your own individual style.
Ian’s Choice: The good feel and opportunity
to custom fit makes this putter my top choice
of the 3, offering the best value for money on
the market at the moment.
PGA DS02 £39.99
This putter is a very good, low budget club.
Its mallet shape features an alignment system
to help you to line up each putt. The putter
has perimeter weighting keeping the putter stable
as you swing. It also has a soft feel insert
for good feel and touch. It is a nice putter
to look down on and the alignment system helps
a lot with aiming. The putter is very good value
for the price and I found myself surprised with
the results I achieved.
Duncan says:
This was a good test of three similar looking
putters of differing prices. Ian’s choice
of the Wilson 8873 putter was swung by the ability
to custom fit. Each putter performed well but
slight changes to the Wilson gave it the edge.
Anyone coming for a putter
trial this weekend will receive a True Putt
putting aid worth £6.99
when quoting email newsletter offer.
WANTED
Golfers to join our Review Panel – all
handicap levels required. Contact Duncan on duncan@heleparkgolf.co.uk
IT USED TO BE ONE-PIECE CAST vs. FORGED
Last week, I looked at how the better manufacturers
were creating what they call ‘discretionary
weight’. That is weight that can be saved
from one area of the golf club and then placed
in another area that will help the golfer hit
the ball straighter, further, more often.
The top brands invest lots
of R&D dollars
into experimenting with materials, design and
the manufacturing process to try and find ways
to deliver great shot making solutions for you
in golf clubs with a great feel and quality finish.
Of course different manufacturing operations
and different materials will have a real impact
on the cost to produce. Irons that are ‘cast’ – where
molten metal is poured into ‘dies’ – are
much easier to manufacture and involve less steps
and therefore cost less to make.
We are probably all familiar with the fact that ‘forging’ will
produce an Iron with a softer feel and a truer
performance. Producing this level of quality
will also come at an increased cost when compared
to a one piece cast Iron. Titleist and Mizuno
have consistently led the way with one-piece
forged golf clubs for serious golfers.
More recently we have seen Irons manufactured
from different materials with only the face and
neck forged.
The Mizuno MX-900 3 – 7
Irons are a multi-piece, face and neck forged
set.
The 8 Iron – Wedges
in this set are one-piece forged.
This combination allows technology to be built
into the clubhead to support you where you need
it most.
Choosing an Iron used to
involve a first step decision on cast vs. forged
but has now become a little more complex. Talk
to me and I can help you maximise what you’ll
get out of your golf club investment.
IT IS YOUR CHOICE BUT REMEMBER RESULTS
There are golfers amongst you that do NOT want
to play with a Putter that looks like it has
more in common with a hubcap than something that’s
going to get the golf ball into the cup on a
little 3 foot downhill slider.
You want traditional appearance with a club head
that you feel that you have control over. You
are confident in your stroke, your rhythm and
your alignment.
Well, even the putters that appear as close
to a blade as you can find, have benefited from
the advances in materials, design and manufacturing.
Materials on the face have changed to create
a softer more responsive feel. The ball will
start rolling quicker to ensure more accuracy
and distance consistency. The sweet spot is broader
meaning you have a little leeway. And most come
with some alignment aid.
Watching golfers try out putters brings home
that they are looking for a club that ‘fits’ them.
It is an instinctive search. They swing the golf
club looking for that feeling of comfort (once
they have visual comfort) that will boost confidence.
Well that feeling of comfort will have a lot
to do with how well the Putter fits.
Putters like any other club have Lie Angles,
Lofts, Shaft Length and Grip Sizes. These will
all conspire to work with or work against your
Putting stroke.
Yes, you’ll probably adapt but remember
that a Putter that doesn’t fit is going
to be more likely to let you down when you have
the slightest concentration lapse or when the
pressure starts to mount.
We started by talking about the 3 foot, downhill,
slider. Funny how, even when you are not playing
in a competition, this Putt increases the tension
in your back and arms. Well I talked about removing
3 Putts by improving distance control, the next
step is thinking about where to miss the hole!
If you are looking for a new Putter and have
narrowed down your likely choice to a few, why
not check out the results on the Putting Green.
Setup a few drills (distance
and accuracy), make sure you can score the
results and then run them with each Putter.
There might be one that you think that you
like the look and feel of, but it doesn’t
deliver results.
A Putter that works is critical to your scorecard.
Test your choice out. In fact match your Putter
that you use now against a couple of options.
NO MORE THREE PUTTS
Faced with a 30 foot Putt the likelihood is
that you are going to miss it. If you’ve
improved your distance control such that you
know you are not going to be more than 3 feet
past the hole, or 3 feet short, then the next
step to removing the 3 Putts is to think about
your second Putt. This thinking applies with
a Putt, a Chip or a Pitch where you are looking
to get the ball close. There will be a side
of the hole that offers a higher percentage
for holing out.
Have a great week and good luck to all of you
playing this weekend.
Regards
Duncan
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