James Cunliffe

Hello Golfers,

Today has been a sunny, warm and wonderful day on the links. It has been a great few days down here on the coast and it bodes well for the coming weeks as warm weather fronts are pushed up from the Med.

The course is looking in amazing condition at the moment and I am sure you will agree Malcolm and his team have made great headway with the course over the last two weeks. If you see Malcolm or the boys around please take the time to thank them for their efforts and thank you really does do the world of good. The divot bags have been well received by the membership and it looks like we may well extend the trial outwards in the coming months. For all of you who have taken part, we thank you for supporting this initiative improving the condition of your course.

Competition golf

Latest Results

Well, competition golf has been well attended once again and here are a few selected results for you.

Warren Course
Vet's Jeff Wood Trophy - Michael Wilson - 42 points
Ladies Captain's Salver - Linda Else – 41 points. Many congrats Linda on an amazing score and winning by 8 points, brilliant stuff.

Championship Links
Ladies June Stableford & Kent Trophy - Carole Collins-Biggs – 34 points
Ladies Mixed Foursomes - Annie & David Weighton – 39 points
Men's Sunday Stableford - Stephen G Hill - 39 points
Men's Tuesday Stableford - Chris Cardwell - 38 points. Chris has been doing quite well recently maybe time we cashed in our equipment advice chip! Nicely done sir.

The Armitage Trophy - County Greensomes
Sittingbourne and Milton Regis were victorious with a fantastic score of 43 points. Special commiserations to Sarah Mcdonald and Danny Curtis on shooting level par and missing out with 41 points. Great scoring from the KGU.

Well done to all who played and don’t forget to check the diary for upcoming competitions.

Pro's news

Wooden Driver Vs Callaway Rogue

It’s not often you see a wooden-headed driver in the bag these days and I have to say it’s a pretty rare thing to see being hit from the first tee. Early this week I saw just that, it was a 1980’s PING Eye II driver in hardened wood and it went flying straight down the middle with a lovely sound. I was brought into the game using wooden clubs and I remember fondly the Cleveland Classic Persimmon driver I had it was my pride and joy, that was until TaylorMade released the first metal woods and at that point, the writing was on the wall for wooden clubs.

Now I am a traditionalist, I love traditions but embrace change, I even pay for things with Bitcoin these days. The difference between wooden clubs and modern equipment has always been a question I have wanted to investigate, so I did.

Have a look at what happened when I put up a wooden driver against a Callaway Rogue on our TrackMan golf system.

The TrackMan system is a wonderful way of looking at how the ball and club perform, if you would like to check out your own equipment don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team and we would be happy to help.

Upcoming events

Links Experience Day

For those of you who may have missed it, I will be running the Links Experience Days here at the club on the Sunday 14th and 28th July.

The response has been great and as a consequence, I only have one space left for the 14th and two for the 28th.

If you are interested or maybe a spouse or friend may want to get involved, please let me know so you can reserve your space.

Coaching news

Kids Summer Camps

Jake has now put some dates together for the Kids Summer Camps here at the golf club and these will be running throughout the summer holidays. Please book early as they are strictly limited in class size.

Tuesday 30th July 9.30–12pm
Tuesday 13th August 2.30–5pm
Tuesday 20th August 2.30–5pm
Friday 30th August 9.30–12pm

The courses cost £20pp and to secure your place, payment in advance will be needed. These sessions are great fun and are very well attended so please get involved.

Contact james@littlestonegolfclub.org.uk to book your place.

Shop news

Experience Prizm Golf technology

You may remember the video last week about the Oakley glasses, well I gave it a try and it seems the video doesn’t do it justice. So I have come up with the following trial offer for you:

We all love a deal, so take out my trial pair of Oakley Prizm Sunglasses for a round and if you like them I will give you £10 OFF a pair. Pop in store to try them out and you won’t be disappointed.

Club Logo Products

For those of you waiting for our logo bags and accessories, we have now had our drop from Titleist and PRG. We have some great stand bags and waterproof trolley bags now in and the best scorecard holder on the market now in. Take a look below:

Membership news

England Golf Insurance

England Golf is collaborating with Bluefin Sport, part of global insurance broker and risk adviser Marsh, to provide £10m personal liability insurance for all its affiliated club members. The cover came into effect on 1 July 2019 and will be an additional benefit for members.

I'm sure you will be excited about this so if you would like to activate your cover please visit www.englandgolf.org/my-account

Reading between the lines

One of the hardest things in golf is green reading; it is also something that the majority of golfers never learn how to do properly. So, without giving away all the secrets, here are some handy tips to help keep you on track and hole more putts.

High and low

Prior to reaching the green, take note of the high and low points of the surface and where your ball lies in respect to these. This will help you to build a general picture before reaching your ball.

360 picture

If you’re struggling to read which way your putt breaks from behind the ball, try walking around to the other side of the hole as this can often highlight any breaks you may have missed or reaffirm your original read.

Utilise our expertise

To really master the art of putting, book a coaching session with us and benefit from our years of experience as PGA professionals. Here we will teach you the in-depth steps to improving your green reading skills.

message the team >

Are you focusing on the wrong thing?

As soon as the ball has left the putter face, we know whether it’s going to be good or not. It’s like a sixth sense, right? But what constitutes a good putt? Many golfers let the final outcome decide this – i.e. whether the ball ends up in the hole or not – but that is arguably well out of our control. So, perhaps it's time to refocus on what we can control?

There are only two things we can really control when it comes to putting. The first is starting the ball on the correct line. Take Tiger Woods for example; the 15-time major winner focuses on a blade of grass he wants the ball to roll over immediately in front of him, which brings the intended target much closer to impact.

The second is getting the ball rolling correctly, which means imparting top spin as quickly as possible after impact rather than having it jumping and skidding in the air.

One way to control our putting is by utilising the technology in PING’s stunning Vault 2.0 putters.

PING has included True-Roll Technology (TR) into their second-generation Vault putters and it's a smart move, with golfers enjoying more consistent distances on off-centre strikes. Add in the ability to change the weighting on the sole of the putter and you have a fantastic option that can be fitted to suit your stroke.

This is by no means the only putter available within PING's line-up, so click on the link below to view the entire range.

view PING's range >

Shop online | Collect in-store

We understand the convenience of shopping online from the comfort of your own home. We also appreciate that we can't stock every single product in-store due to limited space.

The answer to both of these is our fantastic Click & Collect service, which allows you to browse a huge range of products online and order to pick up from our shop the next time you're down the club. Have you given it a try?

shop now >

Complete Putting Solution - Scotty Cameron

Video of the Week

In the final video of this three-part series, world class putting instructor Phil Kenyon talks us through how to improve our focus on the greens. Could the secret really be this simple?

We hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you need any help with your game please contact us in the proshop and we'll be delighted to help. James and the golf team.

Littlestone Golf Club Shop
St. Andrews Road
Littlestone
New Romney
TN28 8RB

Phone: 01797 363355 opt1

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