Growing The Game At Broadstone G.C!

Broadstone Golf Club Junior Section- Summer Coaching Package 2016- In association with Titleist Golf. 

Following a long winter of a distinct lack of golf I think you will all agree that we are very much looking forward to the summer months and getting back out on the golf course!

Each day brings us closer to the golfing season and closer to a string of Open events, Matches, Medals and Team Competitions. Which leads me to ask you all- how prepared are you? Or how prepared will you be when the time comes and you’ve got to nail a shot to win!

One of the processes I put in place last season was the Tuesday afternoon/evening junior roll up at Broadstone. For those of you who have recently joined the club or did not make it to one last year, the roll up was a way of you all to come and have a game in an informal, relaxed setting. All in all, I believe the roll up was a very positive thing to introduce but having spoken to and gathered feedback from you all its quite clear that the roll up could and should be much more efficiently used for your improvement and would benefit further from some quality, structured coaching and performance monitoring.

With this in mind, please see below- the newly developed Broadstone Junior Section- 2016 Coaching package.

Starting on Tuesday 12^th April at Broadstone GC will be a chance for you all to have a 2 hour session per week of top quality, in depth group and one to one coaching. Set out in blocks of 5 weeks, each session will be focused around different aspects of your game. Mixing sports psychology techniques learned from Dr. Karl Morris and utilising the access we have to Flightscope, TPI Performance, Xplanar and the Titleist Vokey Pro programme as well as plenty of time on the golf course my aim is to bring a clearly laid out, fun and productive game improvement course for all Junior Members at Broadstone GC.

Before the beginning of the course all golfers will be asked to complete a goal setting and performance plan for the season. This will help to gather an idea of a starting point within the individuals golf game, enabling us to set a clear and definite goal for the year.

All groups will be limited to 6 Golfers and the entire programme will cost just £50 (£10 per session) To be paid in advance of the first week. All range balls and equipment included.

The first 5 week course will be on a first come first served basis; however, if the sessions are over- subscribed I will aim to put on a second package on a different evening.

 

WEEK 1- TUESDAY 12^TH APRIL- 5PM-7PM

Understand YOUR technique.

 -(Classroom) 5pm-5.30pm– Ball Flight Laws and what effects Ball flight? How can you influence shot shape?

-(Range) 5.30pm-6.30pm– Flightscope examples and Shot Shaping challenges. Who can hit the biggest draw? Who can hit the lowest 4 iron and more importantly, how?

-(Range) 6.30pm-7pm– Data gathering summary, looking at the evidence on Flightscope and Understanding what the numbers mean.

 

WEEK 2- TUESDAY 19^TH APRIL- 5PM-7PM

 On Course Tuition- Focus on shot shaping to aid course management.

 –          9 holes in groups of 3. Tee off at 5pm

–          How can we shape the golf ball to help lower scores?

–          When is the best time to hit a high, low, draw, fade on the golf course?

–          How do we build our individual misses in to our games?

–          Mental approach- it’s not the bad shots that harm us, it’s the reaction to bad shots that harm us- how to keep positive during rounds!

 

WEEK 3- TUESDAY 26^TH APRIL- 5PM-7PM

Wedge Week with Titleist SM6 Vokey Wedges

 –          5-5.45PM– Short Game Work. At bottom of driving range,     finding YOUR favorite yardage.

–          Where is your ‘go to’ distance?

–          Using trajectory to control yardage

–          5.45- 6.30pm– Greenside Work

–          Understanding Bounce with Vokey Pro, experimenting with different wedges around the greens.

–          Bunkers, how to deal with different lies and situations

–          Fun Flop Shots! Using loft to help you out of nasty situations!

–          Practicing with consequence

6.30pm-7pm Summary and Putting contest

–          Putt to the picture, who can putt best with their eyes closed?? Trust me, there’s a lesson there!

 

WEEK 4- TUESDAY 3^RD MAY- 5PM-7PM

On Course Tuition.

–          Groups of 3

–          Texas Scramble, let’s score! This is a great way to go as low as you can, working in a team and making some birdies!

–          But there is a twist!

–          One player nominates to play aggressively, one plays sensibly and one plays conservatively on each shot.

–          Who’s shots do you use the most? What can we learn from    these shot selections?

–          Focus on Green Reading, how does speed effect line with 3 different styles of play? Firm, reserved and lag?

–          When does the ‘percentage play’ trump the aggressive play?

 

WEEK 5- TUESDAY 10^TH MAY- 5PM-7PM (Refreshments to follow play and lesson summary)

On Course Play- 9 hole S’ford with 1 Dozen Titleist Pro V1’s for winner!!

• Competition!
• How do we prepare?
• Letting nerves help your golf
• Routine and trust
• Gain control by giving up control
• Enjoyment & Improvement

 

END OF FIRST PROGRAMME

I hope this all makes sense and, more importantly, sounds like fun! Please can you let me know via email or phone if you would be interested in starting this course of lessons!

Many thanks!

Chris

 

 

What’s important when choosing a new club?

 

Not long ago we were having a discussion in the pro shop about what we felt was the most important factor in choosing a new golf club. Between the three of us we had fairly contradicting opinions so we decided we would find out more from our customers. We ran a poll via our social media platforms, which showed up some very interesting results.

The questions asked- what factor do you consider to be the most important when choosing a new golf club or having a club fitting?

-Distance

-Accuracy

-Looks

-Sound

The poll results changed a little bit throughout but ended up heavily biased towards accuracy. As we all know, accuracy is massively important in the game of golf but I thought I would put this theory to the test in my next few fittings.

In my next driver fitting I had a low handicap player who was a pretty long hitter, he was looking for added control and an increase in the ability to shape the ball both ways- fade and draw.

First, I worked with the player on his strike patterns, focusing on the importance on hitting the middle of the club face- a simple matter that is often very overlooked in golfers practice routines. His strikes were varied- quite drastically. In order for the player to find more consistency in his strikes I gave him a shorter than standard driver shaft, one which had a tad more weight than his current set up. Immediately the length and weight of shaft helped to control the strike and in turn gave the player a lot more control of his ball flight. The dispersion tightened dramatically. The player was able to call the shots- he was hitting high draws, low fades, big slinging hooks and Bubba Watson style fades at will. We then looked at his stock shot- his normal ‘fairway finding’ drive he would use on the course compared to his current gaming driver.

The results were fantastic, but the player was not happy. The clubhead speed, due to the shorter, heavier shaft had slowed enough to lose distance. There was a sacrifice in yardage for the gains the golfer saw in accuracy. We had to go back to the original statement made at the start of the custom fit. The player wanted more control, more ability to shape his drives and I felt we had achieved this but the golfer realised that he was not willing to give up the 10 yards he had lost!

This proved very interesting to me as I feel a lot of golfers say that they would gladly lose yardage to gain control but in reality would be reluctant to use equipment that wouldn’t maximize the distance they hit the golf ball. I only have to think of the reactions I get when, during a fitting, I suggest shortening a driver length- 9 times out of 10 golfers don’t want to shorten driver shafts, even when the evidence proves that this would show improvements in performance! Sometimes, gaining control and hitting more fairways can lead to a loss of distance.

However, we like the idea of having the potential to hit that one drive that goes further! And why wouldn’t we? You have to figure out whats better for you- long and wrong or short and straight? It’s all about building in a repeatable miss and learning more about your on course tendencies. Like always, it’s about what you want from your fitting and what you want from your golf clubs- but make sure you’re honest with yourself!