Hi everyone,

 

I would like to start with a little round up of the results from the last week. You can tell we are nearing warmer weather (even though it was absolutely freezing on Saturday!), and the larger competitions are now starting to be played.

The first Wednesday Medal of the year was played on Wednesday 9th April, and the winner was Andy Selway, followed by Peter Walsh in second place. Well played guys!

In the Ladies' Stableford on 8th April, Julie Knox lead the field with a fantastic 41 points, pushing Lynne Vowles into second place with 34 points, and third place was filled by Sarah Cheetham, also 34 points (OCB). Well done Ladies!

On Saturday 12th April, we held the combined April Medal and Lombard Trophy. I have rarely seen a medal sheet so full from the time of opening (people must have been entering at midnight!) and it was a joy to see the course so full. Everyone behaved themselves as well (almost everyone!). The eventual winner of the medal, who will be accompanying Paul to play Burnham and Berrow on 23rd July in the next stage of the Lombard, was Matthew Heappey. Great performance Matt, and well played to all competitors as the weather was rough out there.

Also, congratulations to Sarah and Andy Cheetham who beat Iain Hathorn and Eva Tucker last week to win the Claret Jug. Well done guys.

The Alliance A team again won their Bristol and District league last year, and so played this Monday the Inter League Champions final between the Cotswold and District League winners. They triumphed again, beating them 4-3. This competition has been going for three years, and B&C have won it for all three years running!!!

The team consisted of : Jane Bell, Paula Crabtree (captain), Alison Leatt, Karen Rix, Eva Tucker, Lynne Vowles, Su Worthington.

Andy and Kris took Tri Golf to the two Clifton High School summer camps on Tuesday 8th and on arrival, although they were expecting two groups of 40 children, the school PE teacher said that our activity had been so popular that it was apparently the most subscribed activity of the week! The boys coached over 60 pupils. Wow, it is always satisfying to hear that we are making a difference, and the boys had a fab time. We have already received emails praising their work and some enquiries about junior golf because of the sessions. Awesome job guys, thank you both for all your hard work. I am looking forward to seeing the next sessions you run in June for Clifton College.

Next week the boys have PGA exams so they will be busy revising, and I am sure you will join myself and Paul in wishing them the best of luck. For Luke this is even more important as these are his final exams before qualifying. I am proud of my team, and I know they can achieve whatever they put their mind to. I am keeping everything crossed for you both boys.

Paul will be travelling to Dubai next week, to put in some coaching in the warmer climes, so next week's newsletter will feature his work in the UAE. However when he returns he is playing at Saunton in the PGA West Region Saunton Classic on April 23rd and 24th, so he is working hard on his game. This week's newsletter is a feature on Paul's preparation for that competition and what changes needed to be made!

Over to Paul!

Last Thursday I played my first eighteen holes with my own ball for almost a year, and with all of the work I have been putting into my swing, I can honestly say that it's coming together at the right time. The real positive is that I can pretty much hit the ball exactly where I want it to go as long as I stick to some fundamental key positions in my swing.

My poor shot over the past couple of years has always been a pull draw to the left which can sometimes get me into a spot of bother or two. It's caused by the club-head tracking back too much to the inside during the takeaway from the ball and causes the club to get a fraction closed. (Picture 1 - left hand side). I always have to concentrate on taking the clubhead on a straight line back away from the ball during the takeaway, and I also make a conscious effort to feel the toe rotate open. (Picture 1 - right hand side). Whenever I coach Chris Wood, Chris Lloyd, Paul Reed, Jimmy Mullen or even myself, I always like to see the line of the shaft matching the line of the toes when the hands reach a hip height position during the backswing.

With a good start to the swing, I can now swing the club back down into the ball on the correct plane. In picture two on the left hand side you can see that from a poor takeaway, the line of the shaft is more horizontal approaching the ball. This causes the club to get what we call 'trapped inside' and swing too much from in-to-out, and unfortunately my hands aren't always good enough to time the correct release into the ball, hence the pull to the left. It is a natural reaction when watching the ball go to the left to think that you could be turning the body through the ball too hard and swinging across the ball, but don't be fooled, as this shot is often caused by the opposite swing path. In the right hand picture, the line of the shaft points down to a point just inside the ball (more vertical than the left hand picture). This swing is much more 'on plane', and will allow me to swing the club perfectly into the ball.

In picture three on the left hand side, you can see the red line pointing to the right of the target, indicating the tracking of the club-head after it has hit the ball. The club-head is swinging to the right of where the ball has gone into the net and the hands are having to close the Clubface to stop the ball from going out to the right. There are a number of players over the years who have been extremely successful with this action, Rory McIlroy being one of them. But even Rory has changed his swing in the past three years to more of the impact position that I try to create in the right hand picture. I know that I play my best golf in this position, and fingers crossed I can do just that in a couple of weeks time at Saunton.

I had some great news at the weekend that Jimmy Mullen had won the Duncan Putter at Southerdown. A major tournament in the national amateur calendar, jimmy put together four rounds of fantastic golf to win by three shots at the blustery inland links course in Wales. After some intensive work over the winter, this is just rewards for Jimmy.

Thanks, Paul!

Following on from my email last week, I have had an enquiry about help with flying. It's so nice to hear that people enjoy our newsletter and I hope we make it topical and varied. It doesn't always have to be about golf (hee hee).

Junior golf passport update!

This week we welcomed even more little ladies and gents to our junior academy to partake of a little junior golf passport. This week they learned about a proper golf hole and designed their own par 3. Needless to say they all had a great time!

 

We also held our last Race to the Easter Egg order of merit for the nine hole competitions. The winner of this was Finnian Smith, well done Finnian. He received a large Easter Egg and engraved medal.

   

Finnian's little brother Leo also competed in the Race to the Easter Egg, and he turned up already wearing a medal he won at his rugby tournament, so I couldn't resist taking a photo of Leo too. Well done to the Smith brothers!