Contact

Member Login

Become a Member

1st Tee Talk

Enjoy the deals and bargains

Many thanks to all the Members who have been in to take up the bargains on my 2019/2020 stock and wish me well in my next stage at the Club. I have all my supplier accounts open, so come and use your shop credit if you have it on kit to order or kit in store. There are never to be repeated internet-beating deals on everything!

PGA Assistant professional Mark Robson

Mark is leaving the Club in late March to relocate his family back to Yorkshire. Mark has been a highly respected PGA professional at the Club for his eight years here and has developed many young Members into established players who love the game. That is the measure of him as a PGA professional and he stands tall. Furthermore, his administration of the Junior Programme and his involvement with Club life has been incredible and he will be missed by us all. On a personal level, I have thoroughly enjoyed Mark’s loyalty, friendship, honesty and brutal sense of humour, mostly with me as the target! Mark is a loving family man and I know he will embrace the space and time to spend with his wife Sophie and their special little man George who has just turned a year old. Good luck Mark and thank you very much.

Your angles at address = your swing motion and what a difference 7 degrees can make

Below is Roehampton Club’s star pupil of the week; Jim. Jim is an established golfer and plays well, so gains can be a little harder to achieve instantly but Jim did very well and his Trackman results are proof positive as well as the technical improvements described below. In the picture below, he is leaning his upper body a little too forward and his head dipping is making his shoulders rounded. This doesn’t help his ability to create a full backswing. Following a small adjustment shown this picture (which felt enormous and more of that later) he is standing more athletically. The difference in positions is 7 degrees.

In the picture here, Jim is in his top of the backswing position and this is where the most noticeable improvement is evident. His old address angles of being stooped made his backswing look cramped in the left hand picture. His more upright address position looks much freer in the right hand picture because his body is in a better position to turn fully and allow his hands and arms to reach a big position at the top. Also, look where the club shaft is pointing in each picture; a club pointing to the target creates a swing towards the target when we hit the ball. The left hand picture shows a shaft laid off (pointing left) and the right hand picture shows the shaft on line. This improved Jim’s accuracy by 43%.

I am always fascinated how one’s DNA for a golf swing doesn’t change much and this is crystal clear in the pictures below. His follow through is each picture is almost identical. Thankfully the ball is well on its way to the target by this point.  

The data

What results we had within an hour; faster, longer and straighter.

Club speed increase: 4%

Ball speed increase: 4%

Yardage carry increase: 2.7%

Yardage dispersion improvement: 43%

 

All the small gains create lower scores throughout the season and prolong the good spells. The big gain in accuracy will have an immediate impact.

What does this mean to you?

Trackman gives me the ability to make small improvements and prove to you very quickly the value of those improvements. Swing angles are easily measured on my ipad camera and I use this to make your swing improvements visual, which is so important in creating the most instant feel for your improvements. In Jim’s case, the 7 degree change at address felt far more significant than what he saw on my ipad, but once he saw that he accepted the change quickly; ‘feel isn’t always real’. Trackman did the rest.

 

What does this mean to me?

My constant retooling of my swing vocabulary and the manner in which I coach is proof positive of how technology can improve us all. I’ve always loved tech, but modern kit is so advanced and easy to process that my journey as a PGA professional coaching the game to Members remains fascinating and invigorating. Book yourself in for a very fresh perspective: richard.harrison@roehamptonclub.co.uk or call the shop to book in straight away 020 8876 3858.