US PGA Championship

The final major of the year is nearly upon us but fear not we have a sweepstake running just so you can keep the interest for the week. All you have to do is pick 2 players, 1 from the top 25 in the OWGR and 1 from the rest of the field and combine their scores for the week. Entry will cost £10 per team and you can have as many teams as you wish. We will stop taking entries at 1:00pm on Thursday 13th August so get your teams in fast to ensure you don't miss out! Please click here to an entry form if you want to enter a team.

As well as the sweepstake, we will have the return of the US PGA Chipping Competition which as you may recall was won by Naz Gill last year and after being beaten in a playoff for the best putter this year he will be more than up for the challenge of defending his title. If you fancy your chances of knocking Naz off his throne come and want give it a go on Sunday 16th August, 3:00pm to 5:00pm on the chipping green by the driving range. You can have as many goes as you like and each time will cost £1. You will get 3 chips to the same flag and the player with the closest combined distance will be crowned chipping guru for the year.

Club Scratch & Winch Gold

Sunday was undoubtedly the biggest competition of the year; The Club Championships! With 62 finely tuned athletes vying to be top dog for the year; all that stood in the way was 36 holes of medal format. It was a marathon not a sprint.

After 2 gruelling rounds Marcus Sewell was crowned Scratch Champion but it was not easy! Marcus claimed victory after winning in a sudden death playoff against Rob Osmond after both players returned a total of 144, 3 over par.

Marcus joins the hall of fame by being only the 4th person to win the competition 3 years in a row, the last person being somebody you may know; somebody who is also known as 'The Wizard' not only around the greens but also on the poker table...I will let you figure that one out. 

The winner of the Winch Cup was Daniel Naqvi with 2 very solid rounds of nett 70 in the morning and nett 68 in the afternoon, totalling 138 and using all his class and skill to hold off a challenge from Kurt Dennison who returned a scores of nett 69 & 71 to get final total of 140.

New PING Gmax Range

In the shop this week is the NEW PING GMax irons which have PING's new COR Eye Technology making the sweet spot of the  clubface more flexible which allows for faster ball speeds, up to 3mph quicker, this may not sound like much but actually adds another 9 yards per club.

PING have also placed a weight in the sole of the club moving the centre of gravity back and lower in the club head making the clubs more forgiving and for a higher launch. To aid the golfer with the long irons, 4 to 6 iron, PING have given them a lighter swing weight to help the golfer square the clubface at impact making those greens easier to hit from farther out.

As well as the stock PING shafts there are also 4 other shafts which can be used making custom fitting the clubs to your needs so much easier.

This week saw The Europro Tour make its way to Chart Hills and our own Matt Haines was in the field looking to build upon the tied 4th result at The Glenfarclas Open a couple of weeks previous. Once again Matt seemed to be in a rich vein of form and signed off at The PDC Open at Chart Hills with a total of 207, 9 under par, leaving him in a tie for 8th with the winner on 14 under par. Matt's next event will take place at The Carrick GC in Dunbartonshire in The Cobra Puma Golf Open, good luck Matt and hope you carry your form into next week!

As a coach there is no better feeling when somebody you teach really grasps what you are telling them and you see an instant improvement during the lesson. So you can imagine the feeling I had when I heard that one of my students Clair Meaden had shot a nett 67 in the Ladies Medal/Edna Fowle & Lady Presidents to win division 2 by an outstanding 8 shots which also reduced her handicap from 32.8 to 27.9, a whopping 4.9 cut off the handicap! Such an amazing turnaround from somebody who was ready to quit the game at the back end of last year, well done Clair!

Another of my students, Alfie Plant, played in the English Amateur this week at Alwoodley & Pannal Golf Club. After firing in a -6, 66 making it through to the knockout matchplay stages which he was on fine form for claiming 6&5, 4&3, 3&1, 4&3 and 20th Hole victories taking him to the final which would be 36 holes. Unfortunately it wasn't to be as he lost 9&7 to Joe Dean from Lindrick Golf Club, I travelled up to support Alfie and I have to say the golf on show was of the highest quality from both Alfie and Joe and the score line did not pay testament to the way that Alfie played all week. Alfie has been selected to represent England in the Home Nations Cup next week which is a fantastic achievement in itself. Hopefully will lead to call up to the Walker Cup squad which takes place in September. Alfie started the year ranked 950th in the Official World Amateur Rankings. I am delighted to say that he is now ranked inside the top 150 (148 to be exact). Keep up the great work!


 

Weigh In

 After weeks of speculation and guessing the time had finally come to answer the question on everybody's lips...how much do they weigh? On Saturday we weighed the 3 amigos; Terry was 286lbs, John was 259lbs and Graham was 253lbs meaning the total weight was 798lbs. There was a 4 way tie for the winning spot with Mick Stratton, Jack Osborne, Bruce Davidson & Dean Lanning all correctly guessing their weight, each of them will get £30. The remaining £123 will go towards the Captain's Charity, Teenage Cancer Trust. A big thank you to everybody that supported this great cause and an even bigger thank you goes to our big 3 for donating their body's to such an event.