Hello golfers, 

Welcome to another edition of your pro shop newsletter bringing you a recap of last week's tournaments on the European Tour and PGA Tour, news of impressive scoring in my pro's stableford and a golf grip that fits perfectly in the hand. 

Enjoy this week's read. 

So, Rory nearly did it again

On this occasion he will rue a couple of errors that allowed the eventual winner, Li Haotong of China, to take the advantage on the back nine on Sunday but he really shouldn’t be worrying too much. His return, after a number of months off getting over injury has been impressive to say the least. He is swinging the club as well as he ever has and I really do think these tournaments are helping him to sharpen up those areas of his game that aren’t quite there. To finish T3 and 2nd in his first two events back is fantastic, especially looking forward.

Li was, however, a worthy winner. This guy does not melt as was proven on the back nine and perhaps even more noticeably, on the last hole on Sunday. To have to watch Rory bomb an iron over the water onto the green of the par 5, knowing he had to lay up, would have affected most, but his third shot and the subsequent putt that sealed victory speaks volumes about him.
Well done him and I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him this year.

Tiger's return

Over the pond and the other returnee, Tiger Woods, was playing his first full tour event in his latest comeback. At one point on Sunday he was just five shots off the lead and although he dropped a couple coming home this has to be viewed as very successful. Perhaps more chilling, if you’re one of his competitors, is the fact that he did that not swinging particularly well.

I am constantly reminded that in his early career it is widely known that his coach, Butch Harmon, used to have him practising with a full second pause at the top of his backswing, rather like Higeki Matsuyama swings now. He always had a tendency, I understand, to want to jump down too quickly, which leaves the club behind and causes you to either lose the ball right or to be too pronounced from the inside and so you get flippy with your hands to save the shot.

Doesn’t that sound a lot like Tiger now?

He looks like he can’t wait for his backswing to finish as he pulls downwards dramatically and just before he releases the club this creates a massive gap between his arms if you are viewing him from behind the shot. That means the ball should go right unless he does something quickly to save it. To me this is the most obvious thing he needs to do and something you can all think about in your game. We should all be thinking more of a pendulum feeling, allowing the club to swing down rather than pulling hard on the club. The power should come much later, almost as if it’s after you hit the ball.

But let me repeat, he’s had two good results even swinging like this, and who are any of us to tell Tiger Woods? If he stays healthy I would be very scared of him. If he’s competitive now I hate to think of what he can do when he gets his swing where he wants it, and only a foolish man would bet against him doing just that.

With Tiger back, hopefully for the foreseeable future and Rory playing as he is, not to mention the fact that we’ve hardly seen or heard from Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas or Dustin Johnson this year, it makes the coming year one of the most exciting for some time.

I, for one, will love every minute.

Our course continues to impress!

Back home and the course, and the scoring, continues to impress. January has disappeared in a heartbeat it seems (wasn’t it Christmas Day just a few days ago?) and thankfully it hasn’t been too hard on us. Having had a couple of decent downfalls recently though you’d be excused for thinking the course would be affected with the greens starting to show signs of wear. However, the whole thing, despite the wormcasts, is in surprisingly playable condition.

The wormcasts, which mean that we all walk off with lots of mud on our shoes (and the bottom of our trousers), are an unfortunate result of worm killing pesticides being banned, and they are affecting most courses. They give the impression that the course is very wet but this is actually not the case. It seems to be standing up very well and the scoring is testament to that.

Impressive scoring on Sunday

On Sunday I ran another of my pro’s stablefords and the winning score was a very impressive 41 points by Tim Thring. There were several other scores well over the 36 mark and, most surprisingly, eight 2s. Accessible pins or not for that many 2s to come out in a field of 39 the greens simply must be putting pretty well. That certainly seems to be what I’m finding when I’m venturing onto the course and I’m glad others are putting well on them.

A grip that fits perfectly in the hand

Around this time of year we all start to look at our mud covered clubs and we start to think about the months to come. Invariably we also think about renewing our grips and this certainly seems to be the case as I’ve had a few sets in already.

Now, I’m not normally impressed by new equipment, which I think is a good thing as most ‘new’ ideas are normally just marketing stunts and not often of much benefit. This is certainly normally true of new grips but one grip that has recently come out has really impressed me.

I am a little biased to be fair when talking about the new Golf Pride Align grip as I am a staunch ‘ribbed’ grip devotee. For those that don’t know a rib is a raised lump on the back of the grip that sits in the fingers and I have always preferred them (as a matter of interest many of you may have been using them inadvertently as both Callaway and PING have fitted them as a matter of course to some sets of irons for many years).

The new Align feels superb. It sits in the hand perfectly and feels incredibly tacky. As a result I have ordered some for stock and will be fitting them to a club so you can feel them yourselves.

If you are thinking about new grips please remember I offer good discounts for bulk fittings and will be stocking grips from Lamkin and Golf Pride.

Come in and see me soon.