| 26th
July 2007
Greetings from Duncan,
Junior Golf
It’s all go at
the centre this week – it’s
Schools’ Enrichment Week, and Teign School
and South Dartmoor school are here working their
way through the Golf Foundation’s Junior
Golf Passport Scheme, ably assisted by our team
of fab coaches Stuart, Malcolm and Simon.
Hele Park in the Headlines
We have also had ITV Westcountry here filming
for a TV news bulletin highlighting the work
that we at Hele Park do with regards to bringing
newcomers to the game. The Devon Golf Partnership
team, led by Duncan Hassell, has done some amazing
work in formulating a development plan for Devon
Golf. Through our strong links with local schools,
we are leading the way for best practice and
development in Devon. The Devon Golf Partnership
has just been awarded £22,000 as a grant
from the EGU towards developing golfing in the
county. The news bulletin is scheduled to be
screened this week so watch out for it!
Ben Martin
Ben Martin played in
the Wessex League match for Devon against Somerset
held at Bath Golf Club. Unfortunately Devon
lost 9/6 to Somerset but Ben won his singles
match against Curtis Edwards. Ben is also giving
SuperStu a rest this week – see below
for his very first Hele Park E-Newsletter article!
This week I explain how,
by looking at 7 basic fitting points, your
clubs can be fitted to your game, resulting
in an improved game and you enjoying your game
more. I also take a look at the great-looking
Tour Edge Geomax and the technology behind it.
I am interested to know why the equipment survey
showed that so many of you were still not using
a hybrid. Scroll down to see my hybrid suggestion,
and tell me why you are not using one. Remember
I am always available for some advice – pop
into the shop to chat and to see the Drivers
and Hybrids I have in stock.
Best wishes,
Duncan
GOLF SCHEDULE
Friday 20 July
Lady Vets’ 9 Hole Stableford
9.30am
Mixed 9H Hidden Teams & Meal
5pm
Saturday 21 July
Juniors’ Monthly Medal
& 9H Stableford
1pm
Sunday 22 July
Charity Day
Monday 23 July
Ladies’ Away Day @ Whitsand Bay
11am
Monday Group
1pm
Tuesday 24 July
Seniors’ Charity Stableford
9.30am
Wednesday 25 July
Ladies’ Stableford
9.30am
Thursday 26 July
Seniors’ v Exminster (A)
Noon
Midweek Mixed Stableford
Book your own times
Friday 27 July
Juniors’ Stableford & 9H Stableford
1pm
2007 OPEN
The world’s top golfers have gathered
in Scotland for the Open Golf Championship at
the fantastic Carnoustie course. It’s about
time Europe or indeed Britain had a major championship
winner so come on you fans of British golfers – let’s
cheer on a home winner! Why not drop into Hele
Park and catch up on the action in our coffee
lounge.
WHAT’S ON AT THE
TOURS?
US Tour
US Bank Championship
(Brown Deer
Park, Milwaukee)
Defending
Champ: Corey Pavin
EURO Tour
136th Open Championship
(Championship
Course, Carnoustie)
Defending Champ: Tiger Woods
BRILLIANT BEN’S BAZOOKA
CORNER!
The Bazooka Jmax Iron-Wood golf clubs have been
something of a revelation in the golf industry
over the last year or so. These new golf clubs
are the same length as normal irons but have
the playability and forgiveness of woods.
We had a Tour Edge demo day earlier in the year
and this gave us a great opportunity for members
of staff and customers to try clubs out and to
give us feedback.
I think sometimes people
have the idea that they need the stiffest shaft
and the most bladed head to be a good golfer,
but I think that this couldn’t be further
from the truth. Each golfer is different and
swings differently too. The Jmax iron woods
covers the whole spectrum.
Some of the feedback we received
was excellent, so good in fact that you see
more and more sets of these irons appearing
in people’s bags.
Being left-handed, I rarely get to try clubs
out and I must say I was really impressed. They
are very different to what I am using at the
moment but still performed very well. Looking
down on the golf club you get the sense that
you can hit anywhere on the clubface and it will
still somehow manage to go straight, and it does.
The standard model is slightly offset so it
will help the club golfer who will want to get
rid of the dreaded slice. For the lower handicapped
player, a TOUR model is available which has no
offset and sits very square to the ball. I hit
the tour model and loved it. It has a slightly
lower ball flight than the standard model.
In summary, they are easy to use, they get great
distance, are value for money, they work for
golfers at all levels, and are fantastic for
game improvers. There is a lifetime warranty
on the Bazooka JMAX irons shaft and a 30 day
playing guarantee.
We always have demo clubs available for customers
to try out. If you have any more questions then
please do not hesitate in contacting anyone in
the pro shop.
Ben
YOUR GOLF CLUB: GRAPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED
Less than 40% of golfers have their golf clubs
fitted, even cursorily, when they purchase new
equipment.
That means that 60% of golfers,
faced with the fact that there are comfortably
over 900 variations on anyone of the manufacturer’s 5-Iron’s,
invest in a golf club off the shelf that has
very little chance of being a good fit.
There are 7 major fitting points, where I can
influence how effective a golf club is going
to be in your hands and with your swing.
Some of them, like shaft
type, will, for most golfers, be an obvious
choice. Graphite should be in the shafts of
most golfers’ Irons,
but, there is a point where Steel offers advantages.
You will probably feel that you can have a good
bash at selecting the club head design that is
going to make the biggest difference to your
game. Although at this point, I do feel that
many of you are influenced by the brand and adverts
rather than what is best for your game.
After that, there are a great
body of golfers that don’t feel that they ‘merit’ any
other customisation.
The thinking goes – “my swing and
golf game isn’t good enough for me to waste
anyone’s time with a fitting”.
How difficult, after that, is it to match your
swing speed to a shaft strength, your dimensions
to a shaft length and your hands to a grip size.
Surely these are all as logical as being able
to change the seat position and seat height in
your car.
And while we have the seat
analogy in mind, it’s only a small step
to make sure that your Lie Angle fits the way
that your club head strikes the ball in the
contact zone.
You spend a lot of money
on a motor car and you expect to be able to
set the seating to exactly your requirements,
even though you’re not
Michael Schumacher. You spend a lot of money
on your golf clubs. You should make sure they
match YOUR swing, even though you’re not
Tiger Woods.
GOOD LOOKING WITH TECHNOLOGY
Last
week I talked about the fact that Drivers had
become so much easier to hit over the last 15
years.
(In fact, if you are still
not using a Driver, CLICK HERE, send me your
details and I’ll
book an appointment with you to show you just
how easy they are to use now).
I also talked about ‘geometrics’.
A couple of people have chatted to me about the ‘ugly
ducklings’. It doesn’t have to be.
Just look at the Tour Edge GeoMax on the right.
This golf club looks like a Driver. It has an
exquisite design and inspires confidence.
Yet it is still packed with
all the technology you want in a Driver, including
an MOI rating of 5000 g/cm².
I didn’t mention, by the way, that a straighter
drive is also likely to be a longer drive. So
the second isn’t just being played off
the fairway, it is closer to the green.
WHAT’S
YOUR REASONING?
I was
amazed at your responses to the Hybrid Questions
in the Equipment Survey. Over 40% of you are
NOT playing with a hybrid, preferring to carry
(I wonder if you play them) long-irons in your
bag.
Why am I amazed? Firstly because, even for
the Touring Pro, the long iron is so difficult
to use. Many of them have switched to hybrids
(almost all on the Champions Tour). And even
if they haven’t, many will use a model,
for the longer irons, that is a little easier
to use than the model they play with in the
mid and short irons.
Almost all amateur golfers
fail to hit the long iron with anything like
the consistency required for it to have any
value in their golf bag. The longer shaft and
stronger loft (remember the lofts have become
about 4° stronger over
the last years) make it a club that works against
all but the very best golfers.
The publicity around the
Hybrid has also been wall-to-wall. Sure there’ve been no fancy
acronyms (like COR or MOI), but the message is
simple: “These are easy to use. Much, much
easier than a standard long iron”.
So if the proposition seems so obvious (“something
that works, replacing something that doesn’t”),
why have so many of you not made the move? I’m
really interested. Think about it over the next
week – in next week’s mail you’ll
find a survey, with a couple of easy to answer
questions.
The results will be published, together with
some of the answers that I receive.
Regards
Duncan |
