I hope you've enjoyed the balloon fiesta this weekend! Let's move on to the results at the golf club this week.

This week saw the ladies play the James Cup. This took place over two days, Tuesday, 8 August and Thursday, 10 August last week. The winner was the super smashing Alyson Matthews with 71 (yay!) and in second place, Helen Wilson with 71 points. Many congratulations to you.

The Midweek medal was played on Tuesday 8 August and was won by the lovely Mike Collins with a nett 69, pushing Clive Pulteney into second with 71 and Martin Reed into third, also with 71. Well done guys.

The August Medal was played on Saturday, again with a full field of chaps taking on the mighty B&C course (as ever in beautiful condition, good job Matt and the team!). The winners were as follows:

• Division one winner - Stuart Gillies (68).
• Division one second place - Pete Muddiman (69).
• Division two winner - Craig Janes (68).
• Division two second place - Martin Jennings (69).
  

Now over to Brendan Blair for the latest Divots round up:

The Divots bounce back...

The Divots bounced back from a bad result at Knowle on Tuesday, 25 July, to inflict revenge on Henbury on Wednesday, 9 August for a defeat earlier the season winning comprehensively 4-1. On a difficult evening, with swirling winds and dark skies, the boys played some excellent stuff, and lost only one match on the 17th.

We are now approaching the climax of the season, with only two remaining fixtures, both at home, against Knowle on Wednesday, 16 August, and the Manor House on Wednesday, 13 September.

We are looking forward to the away day to Minehead on Wednesday, 20 September. This should be a smashing day, with various prizes to be won. This day is open to all members, and costs £50 all in. Contact Allan Slater if you are interested.

Finally the Divots Cup & Dinner on Tuesday, 26 September is open only to those who have played at least one match this season.

Cheers
Brendan Blair.

Now we head over to the Academy for the low down!

This week I finally (FINALLY!) finished GolfMark. It has been passed on to England Golf to be checked and both my county development officer Debbie Casling and I are hopeful that Bristol & Clifton will soon regain the prestigious award for juniors that we managed to secure five years ago.

I would like to thank Chrissie Savage for being fabulous and for all her hard work. We deserve a champagne or two if we succeed! I found this old photo of the original GolfMark high achiever award ceremony on my iPad - proud that we're doing it again.

This week as promised, here's the ever brilliant Andy McGreevy with a fascinating instructional. Enjoy!

Stop...carry on!

This week I’d like to share with you a tip on how to sequence your downswing correctly. Being able to sequence how you move your body correctly from the top of your backswing down to impact can help you create a consistent and repeatable action.

The correct sequence from the top of your backswing is to start with your lower body. Shifting your weight by bumping your hips towards the target will start to bring the club down.

Next your hips and torso begin to rotate toward the target and open. This move brings the club closer to impact and your arms down in front of your body ready to deliver the payoff!

Notice how we’re almost down to impact and I haven’t yet mentioned your hands. A lot of players with poor sequencing will probably use their hands from the top of their backswing or too early in their downswing.

This move can be hard to repeat and cause the club face to open or shut too early in the downswing meaning a compensation has to occur so you don’t hit a dreaded slice or hook. Instead of using your hands to initiate the downswing try to maintain their position from the top right down to the moment of impact as shown below.

A drill I like to use to enhance the feeling of correct sequence is to pause for a couple of seconds at the top of your backswing and then hit the ball. Pausing at the top robs you of any momentum you may have from your backswing and therefore highlights which body part you use to initiate your downswing.

When swinging poorly, I’m guilty of using my hands to bounce the club at the top of my backswing, so this drill is a real eye opener for me, but if I work at it for 10-15 minutes, I can start to get some consistency back into my swing. Don’t rush your downswing when doing this drill. Take your time to feel the correct sequence as explained above. You can build speed into your swings when you feel you’re progressing. I watched Tiger Woods doing this drill on the range at Hoylake in 2006 when he won The Open. I noticed he was using a 7 iron which I guess he normally hits 175-185 yards and must’ve only been hitting it 120-130 yards, so speed isn’t the most important thing here. Moving your body smoothly and in the correct order is.

Lastly, although I do like to encourage you all to practice and it’s always good to see you using the fantastic practice facilities here, I did just want to point out something that caught my attention down on the far practice ground. For most of you this will be nothing new but for those who don’t know, when hitting a lot of balls from turf it is always courteous to others who will use the practice ground after you to try and keep your divots close together in a square. This means less space is taken up on the practice ground, which means more space for others to hit from. The pictures below show how the ground should look after you’ve finished practicing.

This is how the ground shouldn’t look. Single patches of divots everywhere and more room taken up. Please make sure you take care when practicing and consider those who will be practicing after you.

Thanks for reading and as ever pop in the shop to let me know how you get on.

Andy.

Thanks so much Andy.

On that note,

Have a great week,

Caren, Paul, Andy & Nick.