Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter,

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

Sarah Smith - First WPGA Win

Thursday this week I travelled to Salisbury & South Wilts Golf Club to play the 6th WPGA One Day Series Event. It was an early tee off at 8:30am but after a quick swing change thought from Rob on the Wednesday in the nets, although feeling very strange, I had to trust it for the round.

I hit the ball a lot better, both strike and flight, than both tournaments last week and had a good start with a birdie on the first. I thought about playing hole by hole golf rather than thinking ahead to much early on in the game and by the 10th tee I felt very nervous standing 3 under par!

The par 5 10th was hard work back into a 3 club wind and even after hitting a great driver and 3 wood on the par 4 11th I still came up 50 yards short to go back to -1. I played a steady back half, missing a couple of birdie opportunities but not disappointed after walking off with pars. I was very happy to hole a good putt on the 18th par 3 to finish level par to put me into first position!

After waiting a nerve racking half hour for the last groups to finish I'm very happy to have come 1st in the event!

The even better news for me is this put me into 1st place in the LETAS Qualifying Order Of Merit going into the last event of the series at the end of August at South Herts Golf Club.

The LETAS Qualifying Order Of Merit is played throughout each individual 7 One Day Series events. We get points for where we finish on the day which goes into an order of merit chart, top 10 at the end of the season are invited to play in an Access Tour Event, the next level up from WPGA for me. My goal at the start of the season was to beat last year’s finish of 7th place!

As normal a big thank you for all the support I have.

Swing Analysis - What a difference a week makes

Old swing

This was Sarah's swing from last week where she struggled in a couple of tournaments. She has a strong grip and her swing is built on a big turn. When this goes wrong the club over rotates and it gets trapped in behind her causing a block to the right or if she over compensates, a low one to the left. You will see at the top of the back swing the club face points to the sky meaning it’s closed. This makes it difficult to get a consistent straight ball flight and compensations are required to get it back on plane and hold it off.

New swing

Here the arms work more with the body and as a result the wrists hinge up squaring off the club face. This gets the club working more out in front of Sarah and means she doesn't get her low left shot or high block to the right.

Thrilling finish after play off leaves Kelsey Ladies Senior Champion

Kelsey and Gunter started up the first in a sudden death play-off. Gunter was desperately unlucky when her 4th shot ended 3 inches from the hole; Kelsey's par 4 secured the championship. “I am absolutely thrilled" was her reaction.

The Holwood Bowl for the best nett score went to Yvonne Jardine with a nett 75, with Sue Gunter runner up on countback. The Nicholson Bowl for the best gross score by players with handicaps of 21 and above went to Jane Wagstaff with a gross 98, 1 ahead of Madeline Walker.