Dear Valued Customer

Welcome to another interesting and informing newsletter from PGA Professional Brad Mitchell.

We all know that times are getting tougher and maybe that new set of clubs that you wanted may feel further away than what you think.  With winter fast approaching now is a great time to look at your clubs and re-grip them.  If your grips are so shiny that you can see your reflection or your thumb is sitting in a pre-loved groove then it is time.  A new range of lamkin cord and rubber grips have arrived in store now.  While we are at it let us fit your grip for proper size for free. 

Tempe Golf Driving Range has continued the special members discount for all Beverley park members.  Make sure that you show your members card to receive your discount.  Over the next couple of months there will be some great offers coming to you from the range including free lessons and free information sessions so stay tuned and make sure you don't miss out. 

Free times are abundant on the weekend at Beverley park during the members competitiom so why not invite a visitor from another club  next time you play golf.  Help fill the time sheet and recession proof the course.  Remember. Active members make and active club, and an active club is a healthy club.

Please feel free to Forward this message to a friend

Regards,
Brad Mitchell

Last newsletter I featured a story on driver distance and attack angle to help achieve the optimal distance from the tee.

This month I will explain how!!

The Attack Angle: How to Get It

Minor tweaks to your setup and swing make hitting up easy

STEP 1
Change Your Address

Move the ball forward in your stance and tee the ball higher. Try to find the bottom of your old swing, and then tee the ball 3-4 inches in front of that old position. This will force you to make a more inside-out swing. Follow the setup changes at right to hit the ball with an ascending blow. OLD BODY TILT - Upper body only slightly tilted back, with your hands even with your zipper. OLD BALL POSITION - Opposite your left armpit. This encourages an outside-in swing. KEY MOVE - Your right shoulder should be noticeably lower than your left. NEW BODY TILT - Your body tilt is more pronounced leaning back. NEW HAND POSITION - Your hands should be further forward, in front of your left thigh. NEW BALL POSITION - Find the bottom of your swing and tee the ball 3-4 inches in front of it. This will encourage an inside-out swing.

Hitting up on the ball only works if your shaft sits at the appropriate angle at impact. Studies show that the ideal angle is 45 to 47 degrees (very similar to the ideal shaft angle at address). Since it's hard to know for sure what 45 degrees feels like, set up using a square box as a guide. Set the heel of your driver against the far lower corner of the box, then adjust your stance so that the shaft crosses the high near corner. This makes a perfect 45-degree angle.

STEP 3
Changing Plane

If you have an out-to-in swing like most amateurs, your upper body is unwinding too fast and your club is approaching the ball too steeply. To change to a positive attack angle, you need to groove a more in-to-out swing. Try this baseball-swing drill to engrain the feeling of your new attack angle. Step 1 - Swing the club in a baseball-like plane, above the ground, and drop your back foot back. Step 2 - Make your regular golf swing. You will feel as if you're making a more in-to-out swing.

STEP 4
Check If You're Doing It Right

Get an erasable-ink pen and make a mark in the centre of your ball. Place the ball on a tee with the mark at the equator of the ball, and facing the clubface. Hit the ball and check your clubface - you should see a mark. If the mark is high on the clubface, you have a positive attack angle. If the mark is low on the clubface, you have a negative attack angle, and are losing yards.

A recently new, very effective category of golf clubs is the hybrid. Although golf club hybrids have gained new popularity, clubs of that type have been around for some time. The category is also sometimes called utility clubs. The main reason hybrids have become popular is the common feeling that long irons are hard to hit.

Have you heard the great Lee Trevino Story? He was out playing in the rain, and lightning was threatening. He took out his 1 iron, held it up over his head, and said to the gallery, “Now I’m safe. Even God can’t hit a 1 iron”. If that’s how a pro of Lee’s calibre felt about his long irons, what does that say about your game?

To achieve playable trajectories with long irons the player needs to have an above-average (85 mph, 6 iron) club head speed. The reason that a hybrid club is better than a comparable long iron with slower club head speeds, is that the head design allows the centre of gravity to be moved lower and further back from the face. This gets the ball up easier, and at a higher launch angle.

Given that we use these clubs to approach the greens, this higher ball flight enables us to have the ball land on the green and stop, before going over the back of the green.

Below I have listed a number of different types of Hybrids:

Confusing?

Which Hybrids Are Right for You?

Fitting Professionals are aware of the swing changes/faults that club golfers apply in an attempt to hit poorly-fitted clubs into the air. The use of correctly-fitted hybrids enables the player to swing as correctly as possible, attain the same distance that the player would achieve with an iron, but with a playable trajectory. The combination of shaft variables and loft angles needs to be evaluated to find the correct club combinations for ideal launch angles and distances created.

This month’s product under the microscope!!
MGI SL350c

SUPPLIERS

Adidas | Bridgestone Golf | Callaway Golf | Cobra | Cutter & Buck | Eagles & Birdies | Golf Gear Australia | Greg Norman | Footjoy | MGi | Odyssey | Ping | Precept | Signature Sportz | Smoothy | Sundog Eyewear | Sporte Leisure | TaylorMade | Titleist | Top Flite | Wilson Staff | Yes

Contribution from: Golf.com, Don Penny, Schecter Lee