Welcome to this week’s newsletter. Another week of rain has passed, and watching the golf in Arizona last week has given us all a glimmer of hope as to what a dry golf course looks like. This week, we bring you the latest competition news, new product arrives in-store, and we have a question for you… Enjoy the read.
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On the Course...
Like the rain, you guys don’t stop and carry on playing through despite the ground conditions. Below is this week’s competition results. Some really good scores have been posted:
Men's Team Competition Saturday, 1 February
1st - Brian Betts (9), Jonathan Doucy (9), Andrew Gibbs (7) & James Thomas (14) - 94 points 2nd - Bill Milford JNR (5), Alan Kingshott (11), Nigel Fuller (12) & Martin Price (7) - 91 points 3rd - Ian Pether (5), Shaun Lawrence (10), Kelly Jones (12) & Billy Houston (17) - 91 points 4th - Colin Bamford (16), Paul Bosher (5), Andrew Smith (7) & Peter Bone (13) - 90 points 5th - Ray Akehurst (8), Richard Bevan (10), Andrew Chapman (10) & Andrew Jenner (14) - 90 points
Tams Stableford & Eclectic Tuesday, 4 February
Division 1: 1st - Malcolm Elsmore (16) - 40 points 2nd - Craig Reader (13) - 39 points 3rd - John Biddle (12) - 38 points 4th - Michael Wickham (18) - 38 points 5th - Peter Brian Davies (16) - 36 points Division 2: 1st - Rod Lilley (25) - 42 points 2nd - Roger Curtis (20) - 40 points 3rd - Steven Smith (19) - 38 points 4th - Peter Bowles (23) - 35 points 5th - Andrew Rees (24) - 35 points
'Score of the Week’ must be Rod Lilley’s 42 points round in the Tams on Tuesday, 4 February, cracking effort.
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A new type of spider
A new week and more new products delivered, this time putters are the culprit. There is the ever-popular TaylorMade Spider X putter which is massive on both sides of the continent. Both the European and PGA Tour see a lot of use of this popular shape.
A new model has been launched by TaylorMade, being one of the most user-friendly putters they have ever made, the Spider S. This putter is designed to really help when you hit putts away from the centre of the clubface. A tungsten weight bar is fitted to the back of the putter which weighs 65 g, this is designed to reduce the amount of face twisting through impact, massively helping with line of putt and also the pace the ball travels with.
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Odyssey Triple Track putters NEW IN
Odyssey has launched a new line of putters with the ‘Triple Track’ line up lines which were first introduced to the Chrome Soft ball.
The new line of putters paired with the Callaway ball make lining up your putter so much easier. Those often-missed putts from inside 15ft can be the difference between a good score and a 0.1 handicap increase. Check them out in the Pro Shop if you’re interested.
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| Triple Track putter and ball |
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Fairway Wood, Hybrid or Iron...that is the question? |
The next time you play golf, ask yourself the following questions?
- Where do I hit my longer clubs? i.e. into par 3’s, off the tee, off the deck? - How far do they go? Distance in the air, total distance? - How easy are they to use? Do you hit them consistently? - Am I struggling to get the most out of my longer clubs?
The biggest advice we can give you on making a decision when choosing one of the above is, first thing is first, ask yourself the above questions. Then, understand why these clubs are both quite often the same club but totally different animals.
Often clubs are defined by the number on the bottom and not the club loft, the most important thing for you to think about is the club’s loft. Often when going through club golfers’ bags, they carry three versions of the same club. For example, a 5 Wood, 3 Hybrid and a 3 or 4 iron. Basically, all those clubs can be condensed into one maybe two clubs if necessary.
Just as many weekend golfers can hit a fairway wood more easily than a long iron, they can typically swing a hybrid more comfortably than a fairway wood – if they use the hybrid correctly. The hybrid’s clubhead is dense, with a lower and deeper centre of gravity than a fairway wood’s clubhead. This makes the hybrid more forgiving of mis-hits and makes it easier to get the ball in the air. Additionally, the fairway wood has a much broader sole, roughly twice as large as a comparable hybrid. It doesn’t take much of a swing error to clip the ground with the back of a fairway wood's clubhead just before making contact with the ball, something that obviously could throw off your shot.
The biggest difference between hybrids and fairway woods is the way they’re swung on standard fairway shots. With the fairway wood, the ball is played forward in the stance, generally about 3 inches inside the left heel for a right-handed golfer. The player takes a more level swing, with the clubhead parallel to the ground as it sweeps the ball off the fairway. The hybrid, however, is played more like an iron. The ball is placed in the middle of the stance and the swing is steeper as the player hits down on the ball. On a well-hit fairway shot with a hybrid club, a golfer should take a divot just beyond the spot where the ball sat.
To summarise, Fairway woods often have a much longer shaft, bigger but shallower head meaning if you find the correct loft, they can produce more height, Hybrids are much easier to control. The length of shaft is shorter and can be easier struck from the centre of the face because of this, however, because of the length of club and also the profile of the head they do not produce quite so much overall height. Long irons are a different beast altogether, they are much harder to use, require much more consistent strikes and do not provide forgiveness on off-centre strikes. The biggest thing is the height club golfers can produce with long irons, the overall height will be very flat and the amount of spin on the ball low. Meaning that trying to hit a 3 or 4 iron into a par 3 is just making things more difficult.
Again, all of these can be different for a certain golfer and the way they swing the club but please have a think about this and if you are interested in testing this then come and see one of your Professionals for advice.
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This year has already seen the launch of new drivers and irons (nothing unusual in that), but now we have something else to show you that we are particularly excited about... |
| TaylorMade Tour and Soft Response golf balls
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The TP5 franchise has been a great success with plenty of you following in the footsteps of McIlroy, Rahm and Fowler by giving them a try. Well, to back those ball models up, TaylorMade has released two brand new balls for 2020 and they come in at a fantastic price point!
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The Soft Response will help golfers with mid-to-slow swing speeds to launch the ball far from a softer feeling ball, whilst the Tour Response is a tour-level model but at a more affordable price point. Both balls are available through us so be sure to pop by the shop and give them a try. |
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