Last Tuesday, the 8th July, the ladies battled it out in medal number 5. 49 ladies played in the full comp whilst 9 more decided to play in the 9-hole.
Division 1 was won by Trish Hunt with a decent score of 72 as Helga Henry came a close 2nd with 73. Gillian Kennedy took 1st place overall and in division 2 with a great score of 71. Darlene Masters filled the prizes by coming 2nd in division 2 with a nett 73. The 9-hole comp was won by Vivian Bisset. Congratulations to all our winners in the ladies medal last week.
On Saturday we had the Coronation 4'somes, in which 44 pairs entered. Peter Mantel and Kevin Harling came out on top with a terrific score of 67.5. Behind them in 2nd place came Richard Johnson and Andrew Oakes who carded a decent 71. Then closely behind tied for 3rd with 71.5 were Eugene Smith with Rob Irving and Chris Adams with Donald Campbell.
We only had four 2's on Saturday which meant each 2 was worth £11 pounds. Peter Atherton and George Senior both made 2's, whilst George Payne did really well to make two 2's giving him £22 pounds from just 4 strokes of his clubs.
So as I am sure you are all aware the it's The Open this week and I'm sure a lot of you are looking forward to a lazy weekend watching the best golfers in the world battle it out for the Claret Jug. Justin Rose is the bookies favourite after his superb victory in the Scottish Open. Justin had a great last round shooting 6 under which left him 2 shots ahead of the pack and never looking like he was going to be caught. Last year we saw Phil Mickelson win the Scottish Open and then storm to victory in The Open, so can Justin do the same at Hoylake?
Tiger Woods is making a return to major golf this week and has said that anything other than first will not do. A lot of people have been ruling him out as he missed the cut in his last tournament, however with the talent he has in his locker I wouldn't be too sure. Graeme McDowell is in good form leading into the tournament, winning the French Open 2 weeks ago and has also performed well at Hoylake in previous attempts. As he is at 28/1, I (mid-week nick) have my money on him for the win. Also I think another player to look out for is young Bradley Neil who is making his Open Championship debut. Less than a week after winning the British Amateur crown, Bradley Neil spent an afternoon familiarising himself with the Hoylake course. I will be interested to see whether he can make the cut.
The Open Sweepstake was drawn yesterday with 47 of the players taken, to see who you have drawn click here.
We are having a little competition between us in the shop to see who can predict the winner of The Open, we have 3 categories with 3 picks from each category. As you can see we are pretty unanimous as to who could win outright!
Nick's picks
Winners - Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Adam Scott
Each Way - Jamie Donaldson, Victor Dubuisson, Mikko Ilonen
Outside Bet - Bernd Weisberger, Graham Delaet, Richard Sterne
Mid-week Nick's picks
Winners - Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, Rory Mcllroy
Each Way - Marc Warren, Jamie Donaldson, Jordan Spieth
Outside Bet - Bradley Neil, Darren Clarke, Kevin Na
Weekend Nick's picks
Winners - Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose
Each Way - Jamie Donaldson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth
Outside Bet - Jimmy Walker, Ryan Moore, Thongchai Jaidee
Finally this week Scott was on tv!!! But only in the background, apart from one scene in the dormitory where both Rose and I spotted him running with nothing on!!!
This week in the shop, the main focus is on putters. It is important to understand what happens when a ball is putted. This helps in the putter fitting process and ultimately to help golfers putt better. First of all every putt skids before it begins pure roll regardless of what advertising says. When you analyse what happens to a ball after it is putted, you would come to the conclusion that a minimum percentage of skid and maximum percentage of roll would be the best situation to control direction and especially distance. This is only true if the ball is putted correctly, so therefore you need the correct putter for you.
The main focus this week is on Odyssey putters. Odyssey is considered one of the leading putter companies in the world and was among the first to introduce mallet-style putters, which helped revolutionize putting. Odyssey makes traditional blade putters, mallet-style putters and hybrids, most with their patented "White Hot" technology, which makes the putters more responsive as there is more give in the clubface and putts come off the putters straight and true.
The company offers a range of lengths in its putter shafts, including several belly-putter styles. Prices range from below £50 up to nearly £250.