Scratch Team Beat League Favourites

Saffron Walden Golf Club scratch team beat CAGU Division1 favourites, Brampton Park 4-2 at the Windmill Hill club last week.

The match was delayed by half an hour as a torrential rain storm hit the course.The SWGC course is in such good playing condition that the rain drained away very quickly so play began.

Olly Tuck and Mark Reeve went out first and took on arguably CAGU's finest foursomes pairing, County captain Davies and current county champion Reeson. In a game that produced high class golf; including Tuck's 3 wood over the trees at the dog leg 4th, and an intentional bladed chip from a difficult lie on 12, the game was all square going into 13. Unfortunately, a tricky par putt on 13 that missed dropping in gave the hole to the Brampton pairing. A magnificent wedge around the trees by Davies on 16 set up a birdie for Reeson, and they went into the 17th 2 up.Walden cut the lead to 1 after the 17th with a par. On the 18th both pairings hit pinseeking irons to the flag but failed with birdie putts, so Brampton won 1 up.

Next up Richard Southall and Cam Brown destroyed the pairing of Lockhert and Earl 5 up. It is now 2 wins out of 2 for the two golf club employees. They were rampant in slotting home 5 birdies through 13 holes and never looked back.

To seal the win for Walden, James Goodfellow and Ian Macdonald took on Greenhall and Hemir. The damage was done early on. They were 3 up through 3 and then 6 up through 11, in a round including 5 birdies and a superb chip-in from Goodfellow on the 8th hole. Macdonald and Goodfellow closed the game out to win by 5 holes on the night.

Graham Goodman, scratch captain said " the teams in the top division contain a number of county players, and tonight we showed as a team we can upset the form book. Our 2 and 3 pairings are playing impressive golf at the moment and this will be vital for the challenges ahead. We now have a week off before we play Gog Magog in a couple weeks.

After two rounds: Newmarket 7pts, Walden 7, Brampton Park 6, Gog Magog 2, Girton 2.

Under plane swing. I've chosen this swing or a number of reasons, one because it's an unusual fault, two because it's of the correction required and three because Gareth keeps on complaining he's not received my swing review.

As mentioned earlier this is an unusual fault in a golf swing but comes for a myth that swinging it flatter leads to better ball striking and greater distance.

Click here to view his V1 video.

The set up has the weight leaning too much over the toes which will encourage a flat take away, there needs to be more knee flex which will give a more upright spine angle and better posture.

The first move away sees the club head fall in behind the hands at hip height picture 1. Ideally here the shaft of the club would be above the toe line but as you can see it falls in behind the hands.

From here the arms work across the chest but because it starts off too flat it continues to be too flat to the top of the limited (in length) back swing, so much so that the arm plane at the top of he swing is below the shoulder plane, picture 2. Ideally the arms would be at least level if not a touch higher than the shoulders at the top of the back swing.

These faults cause a very shallow angle of attack and give the club a very small window to square up to the target line, which may cause the hands to over work and flip the club turning into a pull/hook.

The correction is first a better posture, then to feel a more upright setting of the club around hip height. The club only needs to rotate in the lower half of the swing and needs to work vertically from about hip height.

Control your advice… and clear your mind

'Shift your weight'; 'pull down on the bell rope'; 'bunt your hips towards the target'; 'drive your left knee'. You'll recognise these as pearls of wisdom all offered to help you make a better start to your downswing. Okay, so which one is it?

Golf is full of such contradictory advice; and though it is almost always well-intentioned, it just ends up creating confusion. And in a game where clarity of thought is crucial, a confused state of mind is calamitous.

Happily, there is a simple way out of this chaotic cul de sac, and that it is to make a conscious effort to limit yourself to a single source of information. So take advantage of our accessibility, subject expertise and years of experience and make us your one port of call. Your scores will improve… and your brain will thank you for it! Click here to request a lesson.