Hello everyone,

So now for part two of Annual Leave news.



So what an absolute belter of a week the Ladies' Open Amateur Strokeplay was. Beautifully done, wonderfully executed, catered well, enjoyed by all. 

Top scores:

1st - Emily Price - -7
2nd - Georgia Price - -5
3rd - Ebonie Lewis - -3
4th - Sana Tufail - -2
5th - Emily Toy - Par

Click here to view the full line up of the winners.

Many congratulations to the extremely worthy winner.

It is so nice to see that our reputation as a championship venue grows further, and it is a great feeling to be associated with such a fine club and course.

Young Ebonie Lewis, who has been coached by Paul for the past two years, took third place in the Strokeplay, but this has given her even more reason to smile as she has now got her handicap down to plus two and she is 12th in the English Women's order of merit. She's just 15 years old. We are very proud of her and she is an obvious Curtis Cup contender in a year or so. Ebonie you are a star.

  

Bristol and Clifton Junior Player, Harry Kennedy is on a run of great form. After winning the Junior Open last month he recently won the U12 competition at the Stowe Putter yesterday with 46 points and obviously played amazingly. Even better, he was presented with his award by Peter Alliss.

He produced another good performance in the Club 9 Hole Stableford to win with 20 points. Maureen Pomphrey came second on countback with 19 points from another Junior Team Player, Willem Cole.

Harry then narrowly missed out on winning the Suspension Bridge Cup at the weekend. Playing Matchplay against the course, Harry finished the round +3 (3 up against the course) and lost on count-back to a brilliant gross 69 by consistent performer Mike Collins. Also well done to David Mann for finishing in third position.


Greg Gough followed up his excellent form with another victory last week winning the Fry Cup by four shots from Jeff Pickering. After his best ever round in the July Medal of 67, Greg shot a round of 68 gross. Future Club Champion I wonder? Alex Champion with a brand new baby and a brand new set of Callaway irons, finished third with a nett 70.

Congratulations also go to John Laycock for winning the Steinberg Cup narrowly defeating Sean Devane (2nd) and Ian Roberts (3rd)


The 3 Niblicks competition always surprises a number of people and yet again, a sub par round won the event. Martin MacBlain produced a wonderful display of golf with just three clubs and a putter to win with 38 points from Roger Speakman (36 points, not age) with Ed Allsopp pushed into third with 35 points.


 

This week continues the theme of instructionals. Today Paul focuses on the putting grip, so sit back and enjoy.

We see so many different putting grips these days on the professional tours and perhaps you could improve your putting by making a positive grip change?

Personally I have always putted with the conventional putting grip:- Left hand at the top, held very much in the palm with my left thumb down the left hand side of the grip. This allows my left wrist to feel solid throughout the stroke but if I wish, I can allow the weight of the putter head to hinge my relaxed wrists. A gentle hinging of the wrists during the putting stroke is vital to aid control of distance and good feel. With the correct hold in the left hand, you can hinge without changing the position of the putter face aim through the stroke.

The right hand should also be held in the palm with the right thumb positioned down the right hand side of the top of the putter grip.

Caution: Remember the hinge should never be a conscious movement but more of a reaction to the swinging of the weight of the putter.

For the player who feels their left wrist breaks down through the impact of their putting stroke, the crack handed or left below right grip will make a huge difference, particularly on the shorter putts. If you watch Jordan Spieth, he forward presses just before he takes the putter back away from the ball and this locks the right wrist in against the inside of the left wrist (without anchoring). This movement enables Jordan to keep the face square to the target through impact. You may just need some specific practice on longer putts as your feel may be distorted with the left below right grip...

Quite a number of people unfortunately get the 'yips' over the shorter putts and this can be one of the most alarming experiences and can happen to any level of player. One of the grips below will most certainly help you get over the yips and I have had a huge amount of success with players who have converted to one of these grips. Many top golf professionals have turned to one of these grips over the years including:- Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Chris Di Marco, the list goes on.

Don't be scared to experiment but always put a little practice time to one side just to concentrate on your putting. It's the most important part of the game.

    

  

Thanks for this Paul, next week we see Andy bring us some new tips to further enhance your game.


We have recently been strengthening our social media offering by opening an Instagram account and the idea is that we can add pictures without having to write lots of explanations. After all, pictures speak louder than words. 

To follow our Instagram Account, we are PaulMitchGolf and we will be running our silly snowman competitions through this channel for 2016 so don't delay follow us today. And we follow back.


Next week sees Andy head off for a much deserved break on annual leave. It's been a frantic 2016 and he's shouldered a lot of responsibility for us so we wish him the best holiday. The week after, Nick also journeys off to the sun in Greece so you will be putting up with little old me.

As I have been away, I fortunately have nothing further to depart so for this week (and this week alone ha ha) je vais ferme ma bouche (ah le silence) so until we see each other again, have a great week.

Caren, Paul, Andy and Nick (and Cam)