The new year has begun and we have got all ournew equipment in for 2016! And last week'swinners show that we made the right choice inour choice of manufacturers. Jason Dufner won onthe PGA Tour this week with his new Titleistequipment for 2016!

In his bag he has the new Titleist915 D2, new fairways and the new Titleist816h hybrids. He is also using the new TitleistAP2 2016 irons for this season! 

 

On the European Tour, Rickie Fowler wassuccessful in winning this week! He beat off afantastic field of players, including WorldNumber 1 Jordan Speith and our own European StarRory Mcilroy. Rickie was using the new CobraKing Ltd driver this week, and was quoted tohitting it 15 yards longer than his old driver.He has the new irons in the bag, and he playedgreat this week with his new equipment.

We will do doing a Cobra Demo Day, so look outfor the notification! We have all the demoequipment here in the shop. It is available forboth men and ladies to try either in the studioor on the golf course.



Lots of our lessons have been complaining abouttheir short game so far this winter. I mustadmit, it is much harder to chip when the grassis wet, and the ball has mud on, as well andpoor lies around the green. But I want to showyou a way of working on your chipping to improvethis winter. The most essential part of chippingis the strike on the ball. Any slightly fat orthin shots are penalised heavily, as we alwaystry and accelerate through the hitting are whenchipping. 

 

As you can see in picture one, I have my weight60/40 on the left side. This allows me to createand angle to strike down on the ball. Once I amsetup in this position, I do not have to changeor create an angle to generate loft. Thedownward strike will be consistent and produce anice amount of spin to control the ball. Inpicture 2, my weight is neutral and my hands arebehind the ball. This will mean that I will haveto change something to get a consistent impactposition. This is much harder and will producesome very poor results.

 

Atimpact (picture 3) you can see that the anglehas been maintained and my weight is very stillover the ball, and as seen in picture 4 itallows me to turn through the ball keeping theclub low to the ground. 

Picture 5 shows the angle is behind the ball,subsequently causing the angle to be behind theball at impact. The club then lifts to try and getthe ball up in the air, and will produce a poorfat or thin shot.

If you need help with your chipping this season,get in touch and book a lesson by clickinghere.



Twins Joe and Ben Williams were the only pairingto come out of Colchester Golf Club's Winterleagues unscathed. Their 100% record after sevenmatches in one of the wettest of winters paystribute to the quality golf they played. They cannow go look forward to the next rounds with someconfidence. 

Inthe first round of the knockout stages they are upagainst the longstanding pairing of Bill Eke andStuart Reed who to qualify second in leagueeight. 

Starting last October, 61 pairs, some 122 golfers,played in eight leagues with the top two pairingsfrom each league qualifying for the knockoutstages of this competition, which is played outover the winter months.  

Mike Withers and John Dornan almost got throughtheir league stages unbeaten but a half againstBob Tebby and John Redden put them one pointbehind the Williams'. Withers and Dornan play TimMoriarty and Lewis Chambers who but for having thetwins in their league may also have beenundefeated as they won all their other matches.Kevin Brett and Howard Foster topped league two toearn a tie against the fancied Jim Wilkinson andIan Devenish who were second in league seven.Topping league three were Gary Driver and SteveSharman who are paired against Phil Hayward andKevin Petch who scrapped through league six insecond place after finishing on the same number ofpoints and after a countback knocked Andrew Jamesand Adam Colling into the third and un-qualifyingspot.

Richard Arnold and Mark Joel winners of leaguefour are matched up with Miles Hooton and JonathanGilbert who were second in league five with 8points which was the same number of points as thetwo others in the same league. The winners ofleague five after a complicated countback wereMatt Black and David Chambers. In third and losingout were Lionel Keightley and Keith Newnham.Richard Watts and Mike Akin who were second inleague four are Black and Chambers' opponents inthe first round of the knockout. Glenn Sibbons andPaul Jackson, after squeezing in the bulk of theirmatches in the final weeks of the league periodcame out tops in league six and are paired againstJohn Warren and Andy Higgleton who were second inleague three. 

The final pairings for the knockout rounds areRalph Charles and Robert Svensson winners ofleague seven who are up against second placed,from league two, Tim Logan and Patrick Logan