Greetings from James,

Welcome to another exciting edition to Ringway GC weekly newsletter. We hope that you've had a good week on and off the golf course. In this week's newsletter we go into real depth of the Art of Pitching. Enjoy the read.

What a Week!

What a week it’s been for both myself and the club! Firstly we have the fantastic announcement that Tracy Rawlinson will be the General Manager to help move the club forward, who has a tough job on her hands after the great work of Fiona in the office.

Monday evening we saw a great presentation by Tony Bray and Stuart Alexander with the assistance of the Captain to keep things moving. On Tuesday, Stuart Alexander and I went to Hartford Golf Club for a good governance seminar lead by England Golf and finally on Wednesday I was at the Belfry attending ‘The Art and Science of Pitching’ Seminar.

So much information has been taken on board these last few days and I’m still trying to digest it, but I do enjoy being in that educational environment and learning about how the golf club can operate more efficiently as well as how to control your spin on a pitch shot!

Information Evening

We had well over 100 members attend the information evening on Monday to hear about the proposed new fresh look for the clubhouse, the development of the practice facilities with undercover bays and a teaching studio and the appointment of Tracy. It was personally great to hear the support for the development of the teaching studio and I thank those that spoke for that. We had some suggestions and questions which were good to hear and to learn about the thoughts of the members is essential in moving forward.

I found out about the good governance course through England Golf and put it to the committee that someone should attend, and Stuart and I learnt a lot about what is ahead in moving the club forward. The best thing for me is that we have so much support from England Golf in future proofing the club going forward and we sit in the small percentage of golf clubs that are forward thinking enough to be proactive rather than reactive for its members.

Pritchard Bowl

A Pughe double this weekend after we eventually managed to get the Pritchard Bowl completed on the third attempt. Well done to Chris and Tom for some great scores in tough conditions. Also another win for our President elect Judith who has had a great season and had a brilliant score in the conditions which included two four putts!

Results: 

• First place - Christopher Pughe - nett 68.
• Second place - Jeremy Plastow - nett 72.
• Third place - Robert Macauley - nett 73.
• Fourth place - Ashely Brooks - nett 73.
• Fifth place - Paul Hunter - nett 73. 

Junior Stableford

Well done to Thomas Pughe who won the Junior Stableford with a fantastic score of 37 points. In second place was Harry J Brioche with a score of 32 points and in third place was Ben Lee with a score of 30 points.

Ladies Jubilee Multiday

Congratulations to Judith Wainwright who was the Division one winner of the Ladies Jubilee with a fantastic score of nett 72. In second place was Judith Hardman with a score of nett 74 and in third place was Jane Harper with a score of nett 77.

The Division two winner was Norma Stephen with a score of nett 74. In second place was Kate McKenna with a score of nett 77, and in third place also with a nett 77 but just missed out on countback was Sue Shoylin.

Well done to all the winners.

The Art and Science of Pitching

Did you know it was Dave Pelz in the 80’s that looked in Tom Kite’s short game statistics (who was regarded as being one of the best short game players at the time) and discovered that he could improve on his play by having an extra more lofted wedge in his bag. Tom dismissed it so Dave Pelz sent him his findings and after reading through them Tom got in touch with Dave, they then went to his club manufacturer Ben Hogan and a 60 degree wedge was designed and practiced with. From this Tom became even more successful on Tour and won the U.S Open with exceptional pitching on the final day in really windy conditions.

This wasn’t to Seve’s liking as he thought it took skill out of the game, but the developments of the wedge since then have been revolutionary. 

I will go into the technical discoveries I found next week, but I will leave you with the knowledge I found about grooves and how they don’t influence spin in perfect conditions, but they do make a big difference out of the rough and when it is wet.

The analogy used was a Formula one racing car in the dry will run on slicks to achieve as much friction as possible with the ground, but in the wet they don’t work so a tread is needed to display the water stopping it from being trapped between tire and road. That is the action of grooves so friction can be generated between the ball and the face, with grass, dirt and water being dispersed.

If you have any questions regarding this, then please don't hesitate to ask us.