Guy Shoesmith

Greg Craigen

Greg had a video call lesson with me this week - I mentioned to him not to practice the follow through barefooted as you will not get up onto your right toe cap therefore reducing hip rotation and weight transfer.

Kevin Young

Kevin on the other hand is well prepared and even keeping his ankles warm!!

Alistair Wooster

Do you remember my video about backswing sequencing? Look how Alistair is perfectly demonstrating a stable right knee as his upper body winds up against the resistance of the legs.

Craig Kimber

Craig Kimber is holding his full balanced finish which is a sign that he is using his legs really well to unwind his upper body. ( Golf Drills For The Garden No 1 ).

Greg Mackay

Greg is demonstrating perfect balance and posture ( Golf Drills For the Garden No 14 )

Stuart "Bullet" Mackie

Stuart "Bullet" hits it so hard that you can see the ball is pulling the sheet off on the left hand side (maybe indicating an out to in swing path??)

Mark Randall

Mark, I am interested to know why there are no divots in front of your net?

The net is for show?
You are not compressing the ball?
Your wife tells you to tidy the mat away each day after practice?

This Week's Photo Winner

The winner of Photo of the Week has to go to Paul Hanley for sheer dedication. To get to this stage Paul has completely felled and chopped up a tree to make room in his garden, cleared the space and built his own net frame. Now he is busy cementing a base. We all hope you finish before the end of lockdown Paul!

US Masters Sweepstake Results

US Masters 2011

I had a last minute idea for members to enjoy Masters Sunday. I provided a list of 20 players from which you had to select your most likely 3 to give you the best cumulative score at an unknown US Masters between 2000 and 2019.

I selected the 2011 Masters because I thought it had all the exciting components you would ask for.

A front nine Tiger charge into contention
The pain of a leader back 9 struggle
The excitement of 5 players within 1 shot of the lead with 4 holes to play
The pure class of the winner finishing with birdies under pressure to win,

We had 25 entries to the Sweepstake which gave a pot of £250. Here is the top of the leaderboard and their prize money

1st Ian Edwards - Adam Scott (-12) Justin Rose (-5) Fred Couples (-4) Total - 21 £125

2nd Adam Salazar - Adam Scott (-12) Angel Cabrera (-9) Bubba Watson (+1) Total - 20 £75

3rd Greg Craigen - Charl Schwartzel (-14) Justin Rose (-5) Sergio Garcia (E) Total - 19 £50

4th Clive Morgan - Angel Cabrera (-9) Justin Rose (-5) Trevor Immelmann (-4) Total - 18 Unlucky!

4th Alistair Wooster - Angel Cabrera (-9) KJ Choi (-8) Phil Mickelson (-1) Total - 18 Unlucky!

The Malibu went to the only player who finished over par

Craig Kimber - Phil Mickelson (-1) Paul Casey (+1) Bubba Watson (+1) Total + 1

Bouncing The Ball On A Wedge

I hope you all had some fun with this over the Easter Weekend and that the Golf Drills For The Garden video helped you to improve your technique. My favourite report came from new member Barry Jones at 6pm on Sunday evening

"I might make worst improved Guy. I made 122 bounces straight off the bat (wedge) on Friday but only 3 on my final attempt just now......... too many Sundowners already..."

You had me laughing Barry - a decrease in performance of just 4066%. Best perseverance effort goes to James Elliot who's first attempt was 383 on Friday. His final attempt was 614 before his arm dropped off - an improvement of 231 bounces and 60%. Our biggest percentage improver reported to me was the Captain who managed 6 on Friday and after so many goes that his arm hurt managed 24 on Sunday for a 400% improvement. Being a Leeds fan has obviously taught him perseverance!!

Course News

The new path on the 5th hole

Here is another fantastic example of the work that Ben and his team have done over the last few months. As well as building a new path through the cross heather they have transplanted lots of heather to replace the areas which have been worn away. Please protect this area by making sure you keep trolleys within the wooden edges of the path when we return.

Golf's greatest rivalries

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to discuss some of the game’s greatest rivalries but would love you to get involved too! So, let us know which rivalry stands out for you the most and why by getting in touch here.

Nicklaus vs Palmer

A lot of you will remember this one and it’s for far more than the fact they were the two best players on tour for most of the 60s.

It was trophies galore for both gentlemen, with nine Major titles between them from 1960 to 1964 and one of them winning the PGA Tour’s money list each year between 1962 and 1965.

However, whilst Jack is recognised by many as the greatest of all time (let’s save the Tiger vs Jack debate for another time!), he didn’t have the love of the fans that Arnie had.

If you read up on the pair’s rivalry, you’ll quickly find out that they were close friends too. From travelling together during their playing days to Nicklaus being by Palmer’s side when his wife sadly passed away, their friendship was a strong as their fierce rivalry on the course.

It's quiz time

What a response to last week's quiz! Hopefully, you all enjoyed it and learnt a thing or two on the way.

For this week, you'll need to match the golfer with their nickname.

It starts relatively easy with a few that we think the majority of you will get, but there are certainly a few curveballs in there that you may have never heard of before!

Click the link below to take part and, remember, have fun!

take our quiz >

Weekly challenge

If you’re a fan of archery or darts then you’re going to love this week’s challenge. It’s one for you and the family to try, or even have a go with your golfing buddies (at your own homes, of course) and see who’s at the bottom of the leaderboard!

The set-up

Once again, you’re going to need to get creative for this one. We’ve used bamboo sticks from the garden to create our target area, but it can easily be done using golf clubs or ties too.

Set your hitting zone (the mat in our images) as far away as you feel comfortable with – we’d recommend starting at 5 to 7 yards – before grabbing yourself a wedge and some golf balls.

How to play

There are so many ways you can play this challenge. In our example above, we’ve given each zone on the archery board a score with the larger score for the smallest zone in the middle.

From here, set yourself a target – say 100 points. You then take it in turns to hit three balls and tally up your score based on where your ball ends. The first person to reach the target score wins!

message the team >

Golf at home

Do you find that you putt better when in a practice game compared to competitions? It’s a common problem for many golfers and often stems from the fear factor associated with missing a putt during a competitive round that simply isn’t there when knocking it around for fun.

The idea

It all comes down to confidence and our gauge as to how quick the greens are. If we can be certain that any missed putt will leave us no more than a foot or two from the hole, we needn’t have any fear about missing and three-putting will (hopefully) become a thing of the past!

The set-up

In the image above, you’ll see we’ve placed two tealight candles on the floor about a hole’s width apart followed by four coasters one-foot past the hole. This drill requires you to hole the putt (putting through the tealights) and get your ball to finish within the inside square of the coasters.

message the team >

Video of the Week

How similar are we as golfers? Give this video a watch and count how many of these you say on a regular basis. We bet you say a lot more than you might think!

I hope you have a great week. Guy and the golf team.

West Hill Golf Club
Bagshot Road
Brookwood
GU24 0BH

Phone: 01483 473172

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