Good morning everyone from a slightly colder, Sandgate. We have had a wonderful Easter weekend weather wise, it’s typical that just when we get a wonderful weekend, we can’t enjoy it!! But hey ho. I hope you are all staying safe and keeping yourselves busy in these very sureal times. Thanks to everyone who took the time out to join us last Friday for the quiz night, unfortunately I seem to have contravened some copyright law and Facebook have asked me to cease and desist certain parts of the quiz, so I am going to have to think of an alternative way of doing things. I’ll let you know what I come up with but for this week there will be no quiz on out facebook live page. I have really enjoyed doing these quizzes, so one thing I will be doing on our return will be to run these at the club for everyone to enjoy and take part in.
This week’s newsletter is packed with some great features that we think you’ll enjoy. Our weekly quiz continues, there are more drills and challenges for you to try at home, as well as a brilliant video at the bottom of this email.
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| Don't forget your club
| A little reminder for everyone ;) !! |
| We can't wait to welcome you back.
| Well it looks like lockdown may continjue a wee while, but welcome to this weeks newsletter. |
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Malloy has been busy with Max on the courses again this past week and you will be pleased to know how well the surfaces are coming along. You wouldn’t have believed, that 6 weeks ago we were asking for the rain to go away, but now we are at the stage once again where we need some rain. Malloy intended to do some the seeding works we need doing, over the last couple of weeks. Due to the dry windy conditions, putting seed down would have been pointless as it would just blow away. So, to help can we all do a wee rain dance his evening to get some moisture on the ground so we can do the additional seeding we need to do. That said other jobs have been completed and we have had a few lovely photos sent by Malloy to show how it's developed over the last few weeks. You will find some of these in my very special video to you all at the end of this newsletter. |
100 Club. For those of you who have numbers for the 100 club please read the following posted from the 100 club committee this week for your attention.
The 100 Club committee have decided to continue with monthly draws. However, in order to comply with the need for social distancing, future draws will be done by telephone, using a random number generator website to select the numbers. Results will be posted on the LCG website and carried in my newsletter as usual. For anyone who is interested in getting one of the very few numbers left, please click here to download an application form from the club website. Thanks once again to the committee for putting the 100 club together, it really does benefit the members with some great additions to club assets and infrastructure.
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| PGA Courses keeping us busy.
| Golf shafts and modern technology.
| | Well, I have been busying myself with PGA courses over the last week and topping up some knowledge with the huge amount of online courses out there. It has been interesting doing some of the required courses and how things have changed in just a year. As a PGA professional we have to keep on top of our knowledge to keep ourselves current and it really is interesting what is coming up in certain areas of the game. I have always been fascinated by coaching and club technology, some of the new equipment that is on the market really has changed the game in recent years. Last week I took part in a seminar held by Kim Braly of KBS golf shafts in the USA. He was explaining how technology in shaft manufacture has changed over the last few years and how he believes we will all go towards graphite or composite shafts going forward. That begged the question, why didn’t we beforehand? That in itself is quite an easy question to answer. Graphite in its very nature can be very brittle and unpredictable, until now. Graphene technology which is incredibly strong as well as very light has been increasingly used by manufacturers because of those two attributes. They are looking to create a piece of equipment that gives the extra clubhead speed that any golfer desires. To make a graphite golf shaft in the past you used to have sheets of graphite that were folded with resins to create tubes. In the early days these tubes were very brittle, I personally remember snapping my beloved Ping Eye two wood on the 11th at Ormskirk, trying to drive the green. It was just the clubhead speed and the flex of the shaft that couldn’t cope with the pressures it created and crack, it just went. Nowadays the technology is very different. We still fold graphite but the tolerances are a lot higher and the accuracy of the cylinder is far more precise. Many of you may have heard of pureing golf shafts. It is something every golfer should consider with all their equipment. When you fold graphite or for that matter, steel, you are creating a cylinder. That cylinder will never be a perfect circle, it will be minutely oval and it will have a seam somewhere along its length. Pureing essentially stabilises and regulates the oval nature of the shaft, in the direction of the strike. Tour players, and for that matter high-end club builders, will always pure the shaft and line it up with every club in the bag. What this does it makes the shaft react the same way with every club in the bag. I am sure you have all had that club in the bag, that you just feel like you know where the club is throughout the swing. That is probably because it is lined up and the rest of the clubs in the bag aren’t. For me, whenever I get a new set I ask for them to be sent to me in component form so I can build and balance them. You would be amazed how easy it is to do, if not a little time-consuming. Click here to see a video of the process of pureing. The difference is quite simply amazing. So why don’t all manufacturers do it? Honestly, it’s all about the profitability and the turnover each club builder can do on any given day. Pureing and centring shafts takes a significant amount of time and skill and just doesn’t fit in with manufacturers required turnover. If anyone would like a demonstration of shaft alignment in a golf club, we will be doing some club building demonstrations/seminars when we return to the club. Any of you interested in such events please get in touch so I can put you on the list of interested parties.
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Unfortunately, we have had a few instances of people using the course contravening the government and club guidance. Admittedly most of these instances have been by non-members but we need to just go over the guidance once more. Please see the following from the club's Board of Directors.
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| Important Club News
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Reminder regarding Course Closure We want to remind all members that both courses and all associated practise facilities etc are closed and should not be used. For the avoidance of doubt, golf clubs should not be brought on to the courses or the club premises in any circumstances until further notice. Other games should not be played on the club’s land. It is clearly frustrating for us all not to be allowed to play or practice on the courses. But the Government guidelines and the club’s response to them is very clear. We need all members to respect both the spirit and the letter of what we are asking, as the vast majority are doing. Any member in breach of this request will have their playing privileges suspended for a month once play resumes. If you live locally please feel free to walk the course for your daily exercise if you wish to (in line with the official guidance), and be sure to clear up after your dogs if you bring them with you. With thanks and best wishes, LGC Board |
During the lockdown I have had plenty of time to look at some of the new and not so new research into the golf swing and all its parts. One thing that has always fascinated me is the mechanics and mental side of putting. I have not always loved putting. As an amateur I went through a stage of missing everything, or so I thought. The fact is, at that time, I went from a six handicap to a 1 and I was hitting everything a lot closer than I used to. Therefore, I was leaving myself a lot of shorter putts, which I was expecting to hole. The law of averages really doesn’t allow for that, the more I have the more I’ll miss. All I did was get myself into a circle of “don’t miss another one James” and that is exactly what it gave me.
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| Visualise how the ball will enter the hole.
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Putting is a mystical art, I am convinced of it. There are certain technical aspects of putting which we should strive to be correct, but just like with the swing, there are so many different ways of producing a successful outcome. I remember when things really changed for me in my putting, it coincided with reading a Dave Stockton book on putting. It really taught me the value of pace and in particular how you should focus on a putt, of any length. When judging how hard to strike a putt, people often stand over a putt and look at the ball or the putter head whilst making the stroke. Doing this makes it relevant to nothing. I make the stroke relevant to where I am aiming. Sounds obvious but you’ll be surprised how many people do this. I stare at where I am aiming whilst loosely moving the putter back and forth, 'feeling’ the distance so to speak. I then setup slightly open due to my right eye dominance and I then look and stare once at point at which I am aiming, look back at the ball and fix my eyes on the ball. I then let it go and invariably hole the putt. This is a process known as “Quiet Eye Theory, a neurological technique of focusing the mind. [Quiet-eye theory] is deceptively simple: Before you perform an action, you focus your gaze on the salient aspects of your goal—the aimpoint, the light spot, the cup, and so on. In recent years, using eye-tracking technology, researchers have found that locking onto the relevant stimulus during the right time frame—typically the few hundred milliseconds before, during and after the movement—greatly improves your chances of success. It really works. When we return the team and I will be taking you through a few of these techniques in some specialist putting classes we will be setting up. Click here to view an interesting research paper on Quiet Eye theory. A concept to leave you with is the idea of where the ball goes into the hole. On a breaking putt it is an incredibly important factor in it being a success. For me putting is natural but the only thing I really practice is pace and here is my top drill for practicing pace whilst at home during the lockdown. I’ll take everyone through some concepts in green reading next week. Click here for my pace drill. Try to stop the ball in each section of the ladder you make with tape. |
| My favourite lockdown photo | I would like to at this stage in our lockdown, ask for your help with something. As a proshop team we obviously try to keep everything we do as relevant to the members and club as possible. I want to get better at giving you what you want as a member or guest of Littlestone. The lockdown has made me very aware of how much I miss golf and how much I actually play with the members and in general for that matter. When I return, that will change. I will be playing a lot more with you all, I have a plan to do it and a new diary to ensure I stick to it. Some of it will be advertised for people to take part in (pro vs member challenges) and some of it will be me or one of the boys dropping in for a game in one of the many swindles we have a both courses. So, this is one part of how we can improve ourselves as a team but what else is there? I would like you all to give me some ideas as what you would like to see on our return. This may be group sessions on short game or a particular brand instore or whatever you think maybe relevant. I look forward to reading your ideas. Just drop me an email I would love to hear your thoughts. |
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| Parting gift this week.
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Well that just about wraps it up for this weeks newsletter. Thanks ever so much for reading, it makes the hours it takes to write worthwhile, especially when I get the messages of support. It is more and more evident as the days pass how important you all will be to your club in the coming months and years. Make sure you support it in anyway you can afford and we will continue to strive forward in these challenging times. If all else fails I could always become a filmmaker, as I give you a parting gift from my home movie studio. My gift to you all. Stay well and I look forward to welcoming you back very soon. Click here to view my visual masterpiece :) |
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What a response to last week's quiz! Hopefully, you all enjoyed it and learnt a thing or two on the way. For this week, you'll need to match the golfer with their nickname. It starts relatively easy with a few that we think the majority of you will get, but there are certainly a few curveballs in there that you may have never heard of before! Click the link below to take part and, remember, have fun!
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