I hope you've all had a fantastic week on and off the golf course and welcome to another exciting edition of the Moray Pro Shop weekly newsletter, bringing you up to date with all the latest news and gossip from within the walls of MGC.

  

The fine weather continued this last week at Costa Del Lossie and it's been great to still see plenty visitors coming to play the courses. The Old Course has now had all the greens hollow cored and top dressed. Hopefully if this weather continues we will see the greens recover quickly and they will be back to their best shortly.

Last weekend saw our first Saturday without a club competition. However instead we hosted Duff House Royal GC in the yearly match fixture. We had a reasonable day's weather and I'm glad to say our visitors all seemed to have good fun. 

I managed a game of golf last week at The Renaissance Club. This is situated in between Muirfield and North Berwick and I caught up with some of my fellow Professionals for a game. Having not played much in the last month, I wasn't expecting much but I was pleased to show some good form and managed to win our match on the 17th green. The course was well laid out and had some great holes especially the new 9th hole pictured below.

                  

The clubhouse facilities were really impressive and I had a nice surprise in the locker rooms on my arrival! It's just a shame I didn't have enough time after golf to relax in the jacuzzi bath!! However at £5000 per year and £75,000 joining fee I don't think I'll be joining anytime soon! It just goes to show what a great course and facilities we have for under £500 per year! 


I'm currently on the train as I'm writing this week's newsletter on my way to the annual Golf Trade Show at the International Convention Centre in Harrogate. 

This is always a great week and allows me to do some buying for next year, check out some suppliers I don't currently stock, attend some educational seminars and the teaching and coaching conference on Thursday which is hosted by guest speakers Martin Hall (Golf Channels School of Golf Host) and Dr Greg Rose who is the co founder of the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI).

I'm also attending a seminar on "The Yips in Golf - What is it and what can we do about it?" Im very interested to see what I can learn from this and hopefully I may have the "Cure" for some of you on my return!! I may even be able to give Ernie Els some help! Ernie had quite a good week at the Dunhill at St Andrews last week but really should have been one shot better! Check out Ernie's Yip putt. There's hope for us all!! 

Click here to view one particular example of the yips in action.

The other great part of the week is networking with other Golf Professionals and people in the golfing circles. I always come up with some great ideas for the following year ....the only thing I need to do is remember these the next morning!! 

I'll be leaving you in the capable hands of Derek and Julieann during the week so if you have anything you would like help with then please feel free to pop into the shop where they will be happy to help. I will still be available via email if anyone has any urgent matters they need me to deal with.

Click here to get in touch if you have any questions.




Last Saturday we ran our own TaylorMade M1 Driver launch day with 20 minute fitting appointments for a number of members who were keen to put the new Driver to the test.

The feedback from everyone has been very positive and it certainly provided some improvements for quite a few of you. The main difference was in reducing the spin on the driver shots which, when fitted to the right launch angle, certainly maximises distance.

I put the 430 (smaller head) into play last week and drove the ball great (much to my surprise), and I think this is a great driver for links golf as the ball really flies through the wind with very little backspin. It's usually difficult to reduce spin on people's drives; however this definitely seemed to do the trick. Both the 460 and 430 heads look great at address and we now have a decent selection of heads and shafts for you to give it a go. It's certainly "going straight in my basket!"

Here are a couple of the fittings we carried out with the data with their own driver and then with a correctly fitted M1 driver.

The first player was the aptly named Player 1. With his current Driver, he was averaging 263 yards of carry. However his launch angle was quite low at 7.7 degrees. Ideally we would like to see this above 10/11.

Once we had a look at Player 1 with a few options we got them in an M1 Driver 430 head 9.5 degrees. To alter their launch conditions we increased the loft slightly. We also placed them in a driver with a ½'' shorter shaft. This helps to promote more control of the club and as you can see it didn't affect distance as they were now averaging 278 yards.

The second player again had a cracking name of Player 2. Player 2 was averging 179 yards of carry with their current driver. However when we fitted them with an M1 with a slightly softer shaft, we managed to increase their carry distance to 196. This was achieved by increasing the ball speed off the face due to the lightweight profile of both the head and shaft. 

Thanks to everyone who came along to support the event. Everyone received a FREE sleeve of TaylorMade golf balls for their time. 

Click here to find out more about the new M1, or click here to get in touch if you would like to arrange your fitting.

 

Ladybank 4 Ball Offer 

I have a 4 ball available for Ladybank Golf Club up until the end of October. Ladybank is an Open qualifying course and always in great condition. 

If anyone wants to play this fantastic course in Fife, I am asking only for a donation which will go to the Ladybird Group in Lossiemouth. 

Click here if you're interested and make an offer. 

The highest bidder wins the 4 ball and gets to support a great cause at the same time. 

Why not make a great trip out of it by taking advantage of our FREE reciprocal offer with Blairgowrie at the same time!