Happy Thursday (or Friday depending on when this is sent out!) with Guy taking his well earned annual leave in Spain its been left up to me to take the reigns and supply your weekly update from the professional team. As I'm currently writing this Ben and his team are hard at work on the course declaring war on thatch and ensuring we have a course that plays fantastically all year round, I'm sure I speak on behalf of all the members when I say it truly has been a pleasure to play the course this summer and thank you for all the hard work put into making this course so special.

This week West Hill opened its gates to Ladies around the South of England for the annual Ladies Open, it was great to see so many of our Lady members out supporting the event and covering all tasks from starting to even being a last minute replacement to make the numbers, I'm sure our Lady Captain was even on course for winning the event but graciously came home 5th to allow the visitors the spoils! Fiona Horrocks of Royal Ascot Golf Club stormed to victory with 39 points playing off 5! I think we might have to tuck the pins away and double cut the greens next year to tackle the high standard of golf!

Saturday morning sunshine greeted us for the Centenary Trophy Foursomes, friendships would be tested over the next few hours as responsibility for that single golf ball now rested on two shoulders, the steady eddies had an air of confidence about them whilst the bomb it everywhere guys were feeling the added pressure of having to steer a partners ball away from the pretty purple Venezuelan ball traps that line each fairway. Kaj Abrahamsen and Tim Cleminson used their experience to claim the spoils on countback from young guns Ben Raven and new member Alex Paramore on 33 points with bookies favourites Tim Osborn and Peter J Robinson a point further back on 32.

After what seems a lifetime of waiting due to TaylorMade's change in computer system (one might suggest the new method of carrier pigeons and smoke signals is proving useless!) John Pittard has collected his new TaylorMade Speedblade irons.

John made use of our FREE club checking service on the FlightScope a few weeks ago to evaluate his current irons which were some steel shafted PING's in regular, here is the data from an average shot with said 7 iron

 As you can clearly see from the photo JB rips it! The ball flight was aesthetically pleasing and very straight but as you can see circled in the data section the spin is exceptionally low, the distance is a bit down and the ball speed could be higher.

With the said issues in mind we had a look at some graphite shafts in TaylorMade's Speedblade iron head, I was keen to get John in as light a shaft as he could maintain consistency with, the senior shaft was just too whippy for John and was producing erratic results, the regular shaft for this set however was diamond as you can see.

I promise I have not doctored this image, John is just a machine with his irons! you can see whilst the ball flight looks identicle in both images the Speedblade in regular graphite has jumped the swing speed up by 2 MPH which in turn upped the ball speed by 7.7 MPH which has thumped John's carry up by 18.4 yards without changing his swing!! that's nearly two clubs further! Game Changer.

I still have two half hour slots at 1730 and 1930 on my "Game Changer Friday" (28th August) if anyone else would like to reap the benefits of better fitted equipment, did I also mention it's FREE!

Click here to grab a time

Improvement of the week

TaylorMade Counter-Balance Putters

Before I start discussing the technology and benefits of the 'TaylorMade Counter-Balance Putters', I would like to thank all the West Hill members for making me feel so welcome. Everyone has been so kind, and has gone out of their way to make me feel at home, so thank you West Hill members! This week I am going to be talking about TaylorMade's answer to the ban of 'putter anchoring'. As you may or may not know, in two years time anchoring a putter will become illegal in professional golf. Therefore players such as Adam Scott, Tim Clark and Webb Simpson will have to go to a normal putter, which could cause a problem for some players. TaylorMade have tried to answer the problems for these players with their new 'Counter-Balance Putters'.

This new putter released by TaylorMade (Daddy Long legs) is longer than the standard putter, with the top of the putter being quite heavy. TaylorMade suggest that the player grips down on the putter, so the heavy part on the top of the grip acts as an anchor, when technically it isn't. In my opinion, the Daddy Long Legs is going to be big on tour, so why not come to the shop today and try one? Don't worry, these long legs won't bite!