| 15th
February 2007
Greetings from Duncan,
Stuart and I are back from a very successful
coaching trip in Penina, Portugal. It was great
to see everybody improve so rapidly in such
a short period of time. As the sun shone down
it was hard to imagine a snow-covered England!
The students managed to play 90 holes of golf
and had 10 hours of tuition on the practice
range – more than most golfers will have
in a month!
'Penina 2007'
Not only is Hele Park member Callum
Nicholls a handy golfer – he is also a talented
musician. He recently wowed a panel of judges
to scoop Torbay Festival Performer of the Year
2007 at Upton Vale Baptist Church, and won a £100
prize for his vocal talents and piano skills.
Congratulations Callum from all at Hele Park!
Chris Gill is on top form at the
moment – he
came first in the Alliance meeting at Wrangaton
with a gross score of 67. Chris and Neil Vaughan
won the Pro Am team event with 43 points winning
by 3 points, keeping him in second position on
the Men’s Order of Merit and moving in
on the top spot.
New for 2007 at Hele Park – the
Cobra Fitting Centre. We have all the new equipment
for you to try including woods, irons and rescues,
drivers to follow. The Accu Sport fitting laser
matches up ball speed to shaft flex, helping
you find a club that suits your ball speed. Anyone
wishing to have a fitting please contact me.
This week I continue the discussion
on fairway woods. Come in and see how I can help
you select the right one for you. Anybody wishing
to try the new Titleist or Cobra fairway woods
please call me for a free fitting. The countdown
to the new square heads is nearly upon us – we
are awaiting delivery.I also take a look at the
sometimes baffling innovation of golf balls.
Pop into the shop if you’d like advice
on finding the right equipment, or even just
for a chat.
Enjoy the read.
Regards,
Duncan
GOLF SCHEDULE
Saturday
17 February
Juniors’ Monthly Medal
9 Hole Stableford
Noon
Sunday 18 February
Mixed Stableford
Book your own times
Monday 19 February
Monday Group 10am
Tuesday 20 February
Seniors’ 9 Hole Stableford 10am
Wednesday 21 February
Ladies’ 9 Hole Stableford 10am
Thursday 22 February
Midweek Mixed Stableford
Book your own times
Friday 23 February
Juniors’ Stableford
9 Hole Stableford Noon
(not 10am as per Fixtures Diary)
IN YOUR SHOP
Sale Still on
New shoes from Hi Tech
Cobra men’s ladies’ & seniors’ range
now in stock!
WHAT’S
ON AT THE TOURS?
EURO TOUR
Jakarta Astro Indonesian Open, Damaih Indah G&CC
Defending Champ: Simon Dyson
US TOUR
Feb 21-25
WGC Accenture Match Play Championship
Defending Champ: Geoff Ogilvy
RESULTS FROM THE TOURS
US
TOUR
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
2007 Champ: Phil Mickelson
EURO TOUR
Maybank Malaysian Open
2007 Champ: Peter Hedblom
DID YOU KNOW
In the 1932 Walker Cup, legendary Cambridge Blue
Leonard Crawley hit a wayward shot into the 18th
green which resulted in hitting the actual Walker
Cup trophy, putting a dent into it.
Your Second Longest Wood (Metal!)
Over the last two weeks I have given publicity
to the Fairway Wood. Not as glamorous as the
Driver, nor as revolutionary as the Hybrid, this
club(s) is, nevertheless, a very important part
of your set.
When I am fitting members I expect to look at
all the fitting fundamentals: shaft type, strength
and shaft length, swing weight and grip type
and size. But just as important is the selection
of loft or lofts.
What we are looking for is
the lowest loft Fairway Wood that you can get
airborne onto a good trajectory consistently.
And here is where your “course
management” brain or “guidance from
your Pro” needs to overtake your desire
to hit that occasional perfect shot. ‘Consistently’ means
75% of the time.
Remember my advice around
Lofts on your Drivers? Now extend that thinking
into your Fairway Woods. The 3-Wood on the
Titleist 906F2 has 13° loft
(as do most 3-Woods) and that is too little loft
for anybody with a swing speed of under 90mph.
If your swing speed is under that benchmark then
start at 16° and even go higher. Use a club
to get the ball airborne, with good hang-time,
to take advantage of modern golf ball aerodynamics.
And if you do make the right
choice, you’ll
notice the impact of your decision on your scorecard.
Make 2007 the year that you get
fitted for your golf equipment. Mail me on duncan.arnold@foremostgolf.com
or call 01626 336060.
THINK CAREFULLY
When choosing the make-up of your set, you are
going to be faced with the decision on just how
many Fairway Woods that you should be carrying
in your bag.
My advice on the left relates to a Fairway Wood
that you can hit off the deck consistently. For
many of you that will be a 5 or 7-Wood equivalent
irrespective of your swing speed. And be prepared
to go higher if that is what it takes to gain
consistency.
I would suggest that most golfers, with average
to higher handicaps, look at carrying a Wood
in their bag that they can use off the Tee with
a higher level of consistency than their Driver.
This will probably be a lower loft than the Fairway
Wood that they can hit consistently off the deck.
In that case you are carrying at least two Fairway
Woods. And in making the choice of which Fairway
Woods to choose be prepared to go with different
manufacturers to get the best for your game.
The Fairway Wood that you are looking to bring
additional consistency from the Tee will probably
need a deeper face to provide you with a larger
hitting area. It might then be useful to play
with a Fairway Wood (for the Fairway) that has
completely different technology benefits (ie
those aimed at making it easier to launch the
ball on a higher trajectory).
Each Fairway Wood will come
in a range of loft options but again these
will differ from product to product. Even within
one manufacturer two different models will
offer different options. From Titleist the
906F2 offers only 13, 15 and 18° options while the 904F offers loft options
all the way up to 22°. This difference reflects
that the 906F2 is very clearly targeted at the
very good golfer who will have no requirement
for higher lofts on Fairway Woods.
Mizuno, TaylorMade and most
other manufacturers will offer a range of loft
options beyond 20° with
Callaway going all the way to 25° with their
Big Berthas.
Remember the higher lofts are not just more
manageable because of the higher loft, they usually
also have shorter shafts.
The Advertising Can Be Baffling
I am making the golf ball and
its evolution in 2007 a passion of mine and I
can now see how confusing the manufacturers are
making it for golfers with their advertising.
It is either so technical, mentioning materials
that seem to have been used by the Space Shuttle
Discovery, or inspirational, promising you the
distance of Tiger Woods off the Tee and the control
of Luke Donald on approach to the flag.
We were told through the
turn of the century (I love that we can use
that phrase) that multi-layer golf balls were
best. The TopFlite Strata led the way as the
first golf ball incorporating this technology
(they had over 200 of the Pro’s
playing the ball at one stage).
Ben Hogan, and a few others, even introduced
us to golf balls with four layers as the search
for the golf ball that could do everything for
everybody really heated up.
Then in 2006 two European
Tour victories were achieved by a top Pro playing
a 2pce golf ball from Topflite (hadn’t
they started the trend towards more layers?).
Now try and figure that one out. He was obviously
playing it because it worked and the results
certainly indicated that it worked well.
So where are you left? What is the right answer?
What I can tell you is, that you can experience
a significant difference in performance from
different golf balls, so be prepared to change.
Just when you thought you understood the basics
of golf ball design – more layers, more
expensive, more performance – along comes
a golf ball with just two layers, costing less
and gaining two Tour victories.
Of course the first thing
the manufacturer did with the Pro, after the
victories, was switch his golf ball to another
make, with more layers, that cost more money
to buy. Not that our, now world famous, globe
trotting Pro ever had to buy any with money
from his own pocket. It’s
called endorsements.
Have a great week and good luck
to all of you playing this weekend.
Regards
Duncan
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