Richard Whitford

Hello golfers,

In this week’s email, we look at the impact of a study by the University of Edinburgh on your golf game, we feature some exciting new product that has just landed in-store, and we look at what happened during last weekend's PGA Tour event in Phoenix.

Enjoy the read.

Competition news

Weekend Sweep Results - Friday, 2 February - Sunday, 4 February

We managed to play a 16 hole sweep this weekend with some really impressive scoring. First place went to Ben Graham with 39 points, second place went to Colin Russell and third place went to Lee Mitchell (both recorded 38 points and had to be separated on the countback). Mark Kelly snatched fourth place on the better back nine with 37 points.

The best gross with 62 (level) went to Michael Sinclair and the twos club paid out £10 each. All monies have been transferred onto your pro shop accounts. It's worth noting that Ben Graham shot a -5 gross recording seven threes in his last nine holes... not bad sir.

Club news

The 2018 AGM

The Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday night with a superb turnout of shareholders. For the first time ever many of our new lady full members were in attendance and there was a great atmosphere about the club. Frank McGrath has been elected for a second term as Club Captain, his Vice is Peter Truesdale and Drew Blackburne is our new President. Tom Reid is taking the post of Hon Sec from the retiring Robin Pooke. In the ladies section Helen Anderson is the new Lady Captain and the Lady Vice Captain is Eve McCracken.

Pictured is Robin Pooke (left) handing over the reigns to our new Hon Sec Tom Reid

Pictured is our new Vice Captain Peter Truesdale

New Lady Captain Helen Anderson

Pictured is the Captain addressing the AGM Shareholders

Social events at Knock

Our January Jazz Sunday was a great success with some members unfortunately unable to secure a table, so please book early for the next Jazz Carvery on Sunday, 25 February with the unique piano and vocal talents of Kyron Burke and Ronnie Greer on guitar. It's a great combination with Bob's delicious food and great background music in a lovely atmosphere. Book on 90480915.

Don't forget Saturday, 10 February is our Valentine four course dinner and entertainment and Wednesday, 14 February is our special Valentine's Night meal deal. Book on 90480915.

Come and join us and support your club.

Fixture Cards

The new Knock Golf Club Fixture cards are now ready to pick up from the office or on the main hall table. You will see a busy schedule ahead with plenty of opportunities to play in qualifying events each week. One big notable change in the men's fixtures is that we will only be holding two stroke play events all year. We have listened to the members who in general don't enjoy strokeplay and also it will help with the pace of play on a Friday and Saturday. The Challenge Cup and Victory Cup Qualifying are the only competitions to remain strokeplay... a great initiative by the club I feel.

Team sheets

The team sheets will soon be going up on the board so keep an eye out and add your name if you are interested in representing the club. Depending on your handicap there is many different teams to play in... if you would like to ask me any questions regarding teams and Team Captains get in touch here.

Pro's news

A new arena for golf?

Last week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour might seem like an ordinary event on the surface, but it has one particular aspect that no other event comes anywhere near to.

The 16th at TPC Scottsdale is turned into a sporting arena with grandstands lining the entire par-3 to create space for 16,000 spectators on the 163-yard hole, referred to by many as the Colosseum.

It’s easily the closest that golf comes to being played in a stadium like football or rugby, and the atmosphere surrounding the 16th is like nothing else on the golfing calendar. But don’t just take our word for it, watch this video of Matt Kuchar almost acing the par-3 on Sunday – just listen to the crowd’s reaction.

Shop news

New arrivals

I touched on it in last week's newsletter, but I have now taken stock of the entire Callaway Rougue range of clubs. If you would like to book a club fitting using the new GCQuad launch monitor, please get in touch here. The early testing has been very positive by a number of players.

Get a grip...

The new stock for the coming year is filtering in store thick and fast. Below is a picture of the vast array of grips I stock. I have the new Golf Pride Align now in stock along with the new MCC's in many different colours and all the new SuperStroke putter grips also... pop in and have a look or give me a buzz if you would like to discuss.