Hello golfers,

Welcome one and all to 2018 (last week’s newsletter was penned by Linda), a belated one after I was busy on a little expedition to New York. Thank you to those who wished me well after getting engaged stateside during my visit, a very cool experience and that wasn't just the arctic temperatures. Brrrrrrrr.

As it is now officially 2018 it's worth starting to look ahead to a new season of golf, including a look at some new releases in today's newsletter. I am looking forward to a full season (fingers crossed) of Tiger, the Ryder Cup and a blissful hot summer; you may have to delete that last part when it rains for 40 days and 40 nights. So over the coming weeks you will find out plans we will be putting in place to bring you better coaching and new, improved ways to learn some skills. We will also be offering our widest selection EVER of equipment, all of which will be fully available for fittings. With a team of three PGA Professionals you will have every area covered in coaching, fitting and retail, so we are very excited. Stay tuned to our newsletter, our Social Media pages and the Clubfit Golf website.

On to today we will be looking at a few new releases due our way from TaylorMade, Callaway and Cobra. Plus a quick look at a 30-minute lesson with HUGE improvements and how Heysham Golf Club is helping young golfers in the wider community.

Time to step aside...

Heysham Golf Club's lowest handicapped golfer has changed. Step aside Simon Robinson, 2018 has given us the gift of a phenomenal leading amateur. Welcome Steve Lockhart. Not only is he now a better player than his son Adrian, but the former Lansil member is now the lowest golfer in the Bay Area. We are proud to say we fitted the athlete Steve with new PING clubs at the back end of last year and it really has paid off. We look forward to him getting called up to the England Squad in due time before hopefully pursuing a career on the Seniors' Tour. Despite being more physically connected with a 1980's BDO Darts player, Steve has hit the gym hard I over heard someone saying in the club last week. I quote, 'Bloody Steve went 10 deep today'' (I presume that means under par and not in pints of boddington as he used to do). They continued, ' Yeah, in fact I've heard he's been hitting the gym hard, probably not even having tonic as well knowing him'. I'm not sure why you would have tonic at the gym? Maybe that is the secret to him leading the Winter League after him and Scott Lee won with a great score of 39 on the 16 hole course. Scott tells me he was also 5-under-par, not bad for a golfer that is that tight he only breathes in.

This week's format is Canadian Foursomes, the rules of which if you aren't familiar with will be found in the shop when you sign in on Sunday. Please note this article includes several mentions of Steve's handicap, we must mention it includes 17 penalty points.

Time to take your game to the next level...

January can often be a quiet month, but it is also a great opportunity to start to look at your game for the season ahead. Graham for example has only started playing in August so is taking the opportunity to hit the floor running in 2018.

You can see from the picture on the right Graham has an unorthodox grip in which his left hand is weak, his knuckles facing out to target and his right hand falling underneath and strong, this baseball style grip can cause all sorts of swing problems. The problems often emanate from poor wrist angles caused by a grip like this, so I made the move to quickly introduce a new overlap grip and to move his hands into a much more positive position. Almost immediately using the grip pictured on the left Graham was hitting straighter shots as his wrist angles naturally improved so his shaft flattened and path changed. Great news.

You too can improve in time ready for the season by contacting us here to get booked in with Ryan, Trevor or Paul.

Junior coaching

Heysham also has a coaching impact on the local area by going into schools or have them come to us using our award winning facilities. This week I visited Lancaster Road, setting up some putting games for over 60 children in the chilly conditions, from next week I will also be back into Skerton St.Lukes. With Morecambe Road also visiting Ryan weekly at Heysham we will be introducing golf to nearly 150 children weekly over the next several weeks.

Paul's Bambinos start again this Saturday, 13 January. Sessions start at 2:00pm with ages 4 - 9 and 3:00pm for ages 10+. You can contact us here to ask for availability, or turn up on the day and pay £5 a session. Paul also runs an upfront loyalty offer of six sessions for £25. These can be used when you can make the sessions.

New equipment spotlight

Callaway MackDaddy 4 wedges - Click here to find out six things you need to know about Callaway's new MackDaddy 4 wedges. These will be available from the release date of Friday, 26 January.

TaylorMade M3 and M4 driver - Due in February, the new TaylorMade collection of drivers include the new innovative Twist Face technology. The fully adjustable M3 driver and more forgiving M4 driver will be available in a variety of shafts and fully fittable by our friendly Clubfit team. Click here to learn more.

Cobra F8 Collection - With a February 1st release date, but available before at Heysham Golf Club, the new King F8 range will feature a new matte grey finish and for the first time ever a full set of smart tech clubs. Using Cobra Connect by Arccos, you can now have every club in your bag accurately measuring your distances and enabling you to improve your game through your stats.

Click here to get in touch if you would like to try any of these new clubs to see what you could gain.

Swing Lounge Winter League update

Our Indoor Winter League continues into 2018 as over 30 teams take part to win a host of prizes supported by Callaway. The league ends towards the end of march before our top four play-off, so there is STILL time to enter. Only £49 per person for 10 courses, so you have bags of time still to get the courses in. Until then you can view our updated league by clicking here.