| 23rd
August 2007
Greetings from Duncan,
This week is our first week
without the brilliant Liv in the office. She
has been with us for 2 years and will be missed
by members and staff alike. Her special leaving
lunch was at Sampsons Farm Restaurant with
Nigel, Wendy and I – all
the rest of the staff had to stay behind and
hold the fort. We would have loved to have taken
them all – honest! For just £12.50
each (well, it was only 2 years so we can’t
splash out too much) we had the most amazing
two-course meal cooked by their fantastic new
chef. I can definitely recommend Sampsons Farm
for a business lunch or treat your loving partner
one evening. I’m sure you will all join
me in wishing Liv well for the future as she
goes on to pursue her musical career.
Lee Johnston caddied for
Jimmy Heggarty at the English Seniors’ Open at St. Mellion last
week. Lee needed to be at St. Mellion by 6.30am
on most days, sometimes not finishing until nearly
8pm. Great fun but a bit tiring. Jimmy Heggarty
was in the last group on the last day and Lee
said it was very exciting, although Lee (let
alone Jimmy!) was quite nervous. Jimmy was lying
in second place going into the last day but nerves
got the better of him and he finished joint 6th.
Lee said, ‘It’s definitely something
I’d like to do again and I’m really
pleased that Jimmy has already asked me to caddy
for him next year.’
For those looking for some
golf in the sun, why not join us for a week’s tuition at
Islantilla from 25 February to 3 March 2008.
You can get the low down at Hele Park on Wednesday
5 September at 7pm when we are giving a short
presentation to wow you all! If you are at all
interested, just come along to the meeting and
we will show you the amazing facilities that
Islantilla has to offer. And then, of course,
there is the added excitement of having me and
Stuart as your personal tutors for the week – all
this for just £625.
If you are struggling to save shots, book a
fitting with me and let me help you improve your
game. Most of you think that fitting is most
important when buying new equipment, according
to a fitting question asked in the past. Click
on the banner below in the mail and book your
time for a fitting. You can also improve your
game and overall health with a simple exercise
plan, better flexibility equals a better backswing.
I continue with putting tips this week and give
you another easy exercise to help improve your
putting.
Regards,
Duncan
GOLF SCHEDULE
Saturday 25 August
Weekend Stableford
Book your own tee time
Sunday 26 August
Men’s Friendly v Libbaton (A)
2pm
Tuesday 28 August
Seniors’ 9 Hole Stableford
& Barbecue
10am
Wednesday 29 August
Ladies’ Stableford
9.30am
Thursday 30 August
Midweek Mixed Stableford
Book your own tee time
Friday 31 August
Juniors’ Stableford &
9 Hole Stableford
2.00pm
Saturday 1 September
NEW – Men’s Red Tees Competition
Ladies’ White Tees
Competition
Sunday 2 September
Mixed Uncle John Trophy
1pm
Tuesday 4 September
Seniors’ September Medal
9.30am
Wednesday 5 September
Ladies’ Stableford
WHAT’S ON AT THE
TOURS?
US Tour
Barclays FedEX Cup
(Westchester CC, Harrison, NY)
Defending Champ: Vijay Singh
EURO Tour
KLM Open Championship
(Kennemer G&CC)
Defending Champ: Simon Dyson
RESULTS FROM THE TOURS
US Tour
Wyndham Championship
(Forest Oak CC, Greensboro, NC)
2007 Champ: Brandt Snedeker
EURO Tour
Scandinavian Masters
(Arlandastad GC, Stockholm GC)
2007 Champ: Ilonin Mikk
CALLAWAY OPTIFIT CUSTOM FIT SYSTEM
Some of you may have noticed a very large black
contraption on the Driving Range. Before you
ask, no, it is not Darren’s portable
hair centre!! It is the latest offering in
Custom Fitting offered by Callaway. The OptiFit
system contains 15 FT-5 and 6 Big Bertha 460
driver heads, along with 29 different shaft
options from the top shaft manufacturers in
the industry. The reason that there are more
FT-5 heads is because of the Fusion weighting
technology that Callaway possess. The head
is mainly carbon which allows more weight to
be placed lower and deeper in the clubhead
giving maximum forgiveness and optimum launch
angle. The weight can be pre-positioned by
Callaway to give either a Neutral or Draw option
in the standard heads and a Neutral, Draw or
Fade option in the tour heads. This allows
for the best levels of custom fitting to give
you the best driver possible. Combine the Fusion
technology with the ability to change shafts
in a head in an instant and we are able to
find exactly the right driver to suit your
individual swing.
This centre is ideal as it
allows us to custom fit lefties as well as
ladies! There are two left handed driver heads
included in the Big Bertha range and three
heads in the FT-5 range. The clubheads are
identical in men’s and
ladies, so we are able to use the whole range
of heads for custom fitting our lady members.
We have two ladies’ shafts, one designed
specifically for the Big Bertha range and one
for FT-5 range. But ladies are welcome to try
a men’s regular or light flex shaft to
see if that works better for your swing.
The OptiFit system also contains
irons! There are in total 24 iron heads and
29 iron shafts, giving a total of 696 different
combinations!! Obviously you wouldn't have
to go through all of these to find the correct
configuration for your swing but it shows that
we should be able to find the exact match to
give you maximum distance and accuracy. The
models that are available for fitting are X-20
(men’s & ladies),
Big Bertha (men’s & ladies), Fusion
(men only) and Fusion Wide Sole (men only). This
gives us the ability to find the correct clubhead
and correct shaft to work for your unique swing.
The iron heads are both standard lie angles and
we also have 2' upright and 2' flat lie angles
available to try and get the best fit possible.
Not stopping at lie angle, we also have longer
and shorter shafts to try to get the correct
length to improve ball striking.
OptiFit Clubs Replicate the Look, Feel and Performance
of Production Clubs
Callaway Golf engineers have designed OptiFit
Fitting System clubs to make them indistinguishable
from the actual driver or iron a consumer will
put in play. The swing weight and centre of gravity
location are basically identical to the finished
production club with no discernible difference
in terms of playability, feel and performance.
A Callaway OptiFit Fitting
Session can be booked for a 1 hour session
with one of our Team of Professionals and costs £20.
This payment will be given back to the customer
in the form of a voucher (valid for 6 months
from date of session) which can be redeemed
against any hardware purchase (i.e. clubs)
in the Pro Shop, not just against clubs fitted
using the OptiFit system.
To book yourself in for a Callaway OptiFit session
click here to email your preferred date and time,
or ring us on 01626 336060 to book your session
with me, Stuart or Simon. Or just pop in next
time you are passing to get an OptiFit appointment!
HOW MANY SHOTS COULD YOU SAVE?
Over the last two months I have written various
articles all hammering the message that I can
almost certainly improve your golf just by ‘fitting’ you
correctly for your golf equipment.
I also know from the ‘Fitting’ Question
that I asked, when I started to produce these
weekly emails, that almost all of you think that
the Number 1 Priority when purchasing golf equipment
is Fitting.
If you want to know how big
a difference we can make to your game, why
don’t you set
up a fitting with me and then compare the setup
that I recommend to the setup you are playing
with.
Go on, click the link below,
leave me your details and we’ll schedule a time that is convenient
to you. Then you’ll know how much better
you could be, before you think about any investment.
YOU DON’T
HAVE TO BE TIGER WOODS
Do you do any exercise or belong to a gym? Have
you ever considered a simple exercise programme
that might help with your golf? Don’t
let the stories of gym fanatics influence you
in any negative way. There are simple exercises
you can do, which will help not only your golf,
but will also contribute to improvements elsewhere
in your life.
For you, following some simple
exercise steps, which are related just to the
core strength and flexibility, ought to create
more ‘power’ in
your golf swing and therefore more distance.
If you belong to a gym please go and spend time
with an instructor and ask them to give you a
programme of exercises that will provide you
with increased core strength and core flexibility.
The great thing about the exercise programme
that they will give you, is that you could probably
buy your own ‘exercise ball’ and
complete the programme at home in your own bedroom
in the mornings or evenings.
A programme will also help as we get to Winter
enabling you to surprise the four-ball in the
Spring.
‘The Core’, now
a very popular theme in all gyms, covers your
abdominals, hip flexors and glutes. With a
stronger AND MORE FLEXIBLE core, you will be
able to rotate fully quite comfortably on your
backswing creating maximum torque.
From what most golf teachers
then call “the
loaded position” you can generate a high
level of club head speed WITHOUT swinging harder.
This allows a smoother, more controlled swing
with relaxed muscles.
Do NOT underestimate the value of training for
flexibility. As we grow older we know that we
lose muscle strength, but the biggest challenge
to our golf is the level of flexibility that
we lose, restricting our golf swing.
And if you didn’t believe
me, up front when I said it would make a difference
to other parts of your life, after a few weeks
of training for your core strength and flexibility,
check how easy it is to put your socks on now!
THE KEY TO SINKING MORE SHOTS
If you have fairly good distance control, then
the secret to shooting a lower score is sinking
more Putts in the range up to 8 feet. And if
you want to know how important those shots are,
consider this: You will use your Driver a maximum
of 14 times in a round, not as often as you will
stand over a short Putt. And, you don’t
necessarily lose a shot with a poor Tee Shot
while you will, with almost every poorly struck
short Putt.
While watching the PGA Championship
from Southern Hills, I was struck by how still
the head and body of the best golfers are when
Putting, even after they have struck the golf
ball. It’s
almost as though the stroke is more important
than the ball.
That reminded me of a little tip to go with
the drill to shorten your backswing and force
you to accelerate (see below left). Try this
again on the practice green, only this time focus
on the space between the putter and ball at address
and keep your focus on that point throughout
the backswing, downswing, contact and follow
through and LISTEN for the ball dropping into
the cup.
This encourages your head to stay very still
on the line of contact, resisting the temptation
to watch the ball or to move with the backswing.
Just try that on the Practice Green and you will
surprised at how deadly you become. If you don’t,
then contact me and we’ll look at your
Putting Stroke.
If you want to check your stroke quickly yourself,
then stand facing a wall and line up so that
the toe of the club is only an inch from the
wall. Now, take a normal swing and check: does
your club move away from the backswing or brush
up against the wall at any time? If this is a
problem then practice on the green using six
tees as set up in the graphic above right.
Have a great week and good luck to all of you
playing this weekend.
Regards
Duncan
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