Welcome to this week's newsletter,
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Masters Week
Masters week is upon us and we are all very excited. The players have been practising, after the heavy rain at the start of the week there has been nothing but sunshine, and let's hope it continues for them. The groupings for the first two rounds has been drawn and it's going to make for a great watch from start to finish, as it always does.
McIlroy will join Rahm and Hideto Tanihara from Japan in the third to last group that will tee off at 1.41pm. Defending champion Danny Willett will tee off just before 12.30pm alongside American Matt Kuchar and US Amateur champion Curtis Luck from Australia. Matt Fitzpatrick, who secured a top ten finish in 2016 with a final round of 67, will take to the course alongside Spieth and European Ryder Cup hero Martin Kaymer. Lee Westwood, runner-up to Willett 12 months ago, will go out in three ball with Sergio Garcia and Irishman Shane Lowry.
But the thousands of fans turning up at Augusta to see red-hot favourite Johnson will have a long wait to watch the American world No.1. Johnson, who has won his last three tournaments, will be last out at just after 2pm along with two-time champion Bubba Watson and fellow American Ryder Cup team-mate Jimmy Walker in arguably the most exciting group of the day.
Of course, Masters Week means the Masters sweepstake. The draw was done by Joe on Tuesday, so if you have any problems speak to him. We hope you got who you wanted and good luck!
Click here to view the draw.
Club Competitions
On Saturday, we had our season opening Captain Vs President match. The Captain very nearly led by example in what was a great game. I thought Mark hit the ball better than I have ever seen him, but I managed finish off the round with a 2 and a 3 to win both the last holes and get the half. Everyone in our match played exceptionally well and it made for a great game. In the end the Captain's team ran away with it, winning 9-4 on the day.
On Tuesday, the ladies then played in a Stableford competition, they were split into 2 divisions. In division 1 Gill Mellor was the runner-up with a great score of 33 points, playing off 2. Gill was narrowly beaten by Jill Morris who scored 34 points to win division 1, here is Jill looking very happy with her win with our head green keeper, Mark. In division 2, Elaine Mclean was the runner-up with 35 points but out in front with a great score of 37 points, and the overall winner on the day was Tracy Titchen.
Well done to all our winners in last week's competitions.
Ball Testing
In the shop this week we decided to test the different Callaway balls to see which ball works best. The Callaway balls we have in the shop are the Chrome Soft, the Solaire and the Supersoft. In these 3 videos we have Joe chipping from different distances with those 3 balls in that order.
As you can see in the long chip video there is quite a big difference in the way the ball reacts to the green. The Chrome Soft checks on the green a lot more than the other two and even though Joe lands the ball quite a lot further onto the green it stops at around the same place as the Solaire. In the short chip video there isn't much difference in how the ball reacts to the green as the ball isn't struck as hard so the spin rates are a lot more similar.
To give you an idea of spin rates on the ball we used these 3 balls again but this time hit full swings and used the launch monitor to measure the spin and distance of Joe's shots.
Driver | Swing Speed (mph) | Ball Speed (mph) | Spin Rate (rpm) | Distance (yards) |
Chrome Soft | 107 | 157 | 2710 | 267 |
Solaire | 108 | 155 | 2961 | 261 |
Supersoft | 108 | 155 | 3339 | 257 |
As you can see Joe's swing speed remains around the same for each hit, as does the ball speed as it leaves the face of the club. The spin rate is where it starts to get interesting. As we are sure you are aware, getting a lot of spin when hitting a driver can have terrible consequences, so the lower the spin rate on a driver the better. The Chrome Soft has by far the lowest spin rate, with the Supersoft having the highest. This also makes a massive 10 yards of difference in the distance Joe hits the balls. An amazing difference for just using a different ball.
Next, we decided to test the 3 balls with wedges.
Wedge | Swing Speed (mph) | Ball Speed (mph) | Spin Rate (rpm) | Distance (yards) |
Chrome Soft | 85 | 101 | 9137 | 134 |
Solaire | 86 | 96 | 8827 | 127 |
Supersoft | 83 | 97 | 8765 | 129 |
As you can see the swing speed is around the same again but this time the ball speed off the club face is higher on the Chrome Soft than the other two, even though Joe's swing was fastest on the Solaire. Then if you look at the spin rates, it almost the reverse of the driver. The Chrome generates more spin than the other two, which are about the same. This extra spin on wedge shots actually makes the ball travel further as oppose to the Driver.
In conclusion, the difference experienced on the ball has a much more drastic effect at longer distances. As you get closer to the green the margins become finer.