STAFFORDSHIRE GOLFER
APRIL 2024
ISSUE TEN
FROM AMATUER TO PROFESSIONAL WITH ZARAK CURLEY
LIV GOLF UK TICKETS NOW ON SALE
WINTER PROGRAMME A SUCCESS FOR ELITE SQUADS
GRANT FIELD ON WHAT IT TAKES TO GET TO THE TOP
FROM THE EDITOR
Welcome to the tenth issue of the Staffordshire Golfer. We can’t believe we’re already at double digits for this e-magazine. The magazine, stories and our readership have all evolved since we published our first issue back in September 2022. We’ve spoken to some fantastic guests on our podcast, had the inside scoop of what it takes to be a coach of an Open Champion, spoken to local professionals who are making their own waves in the golfing world, chatted to aspiring junior golfers and highlighted all the great things we do here at the County.
Golf has had a bit of a false start this season, with club competitions and team matches all starting to fall victim of the weather due to the
unprecedented amount of rain – I think even the ducks are complaining about how wet it is! In this issue we sat down with aspiring Tour Professional Zarak Curley of Leek Golf Club, who has recently made the step up from the amateur ranks to the professional game. He talks about starting the game from an early age, his time at attending college in the United States of America and why Junior golfers should look to follow in his footsteps and head stateside.
On the subject of professional golf, tickets for LIV GOLF UK are now on sale via the LIV Golf website. With Major champions, Ryder Cup heroes plus other famous faces from the golfing world set to be teeing up in the event, tickets will go fast.
THE TEAM AT STAFFORDSHIRE GOLFER
Editor and Production: Medi8 Golf – nathan@medi8ltd.co.uk
Editorial research: Gareth Shaw – secretary@staffsgolf.org.uk
Editorial research: Michael Entecott – michael.entecott@staffsgolf.org.uk
A MESSAGE FROM THE COUNTY SECRETARY
So make sure you secure yours sooner rather than later.
Back to the issue. We have part two of our chat with Grant Field, coach to Open Champion, multiple PGA Tour winner and now LIV golfer, Cameron Smith. We also touch on the work that our County teams have been putting in to get ready for the new season, including team bonding sessions, Aim-Point masterclasses and zoom meetings.
If you want to listen to the full interviews with Zarak Curley and Grant Field, then head over to our podcast channel where you’ll find those plus many more interviews with Staffordshire legends and others from the golfing world.
I’ll let you get on and read the rest of the issue, and if you like it, don’t forget to share it with your members, golfing friends and everyone else!
IN THE CLUBHOUSE
Wergs
There is just under a month to go before Ingestre Park Golf Club open their new holes.
Druids Heath Golf Club are celebrating their 50th anniversary. They have unveiled their golden stone, and are even serving a special 50th anniversary beer! Golf Club collected an incredible 100 Easter eggs for Keith Wootton’s Captain’s charity – Acorns Children Hospice.38TH COUNTY PRESIDENT ANNOUNCED
The Staffordshire Union of Golf Clubs have installed our 38th President, Mr. C.M. Gaskell, at the AGM on February 5th. The AGM and appointment of our new President took place at the home club of Mr. Gaskell, The South Staffordshire Golf Club. With County officials and members of the County all in attendance, it was an evening for the new President to remember.
The South Staffordshire Golf Club has a proud history of supporting the County Union, and the new president alluded to this in his acceptance address. He is proud to follow in the footsteps of Colonel J.W. Bedews, J.Beattie OBE, R.M. Carver, Professor D.J.E. Thomas and N. Weaver who as members of The South Staffordshire Golf Club, served terms as president of the County Union.
We wish Chris all the best in his role and we hope that he enjoys his term as much as his predecessors have.
WILSON SUPPORTS JUNIOR SERIES
Following the announcement of our brand new junior series for 2024, we’re delighted to announce Wilson Golf as sponsor of our Junior Order of Merit.
Wilson is a brand with unrivalled heritage, being used in a record breaking 62 Major Championship wins. From Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Walter Hagen, through to Nick Faldo, Padraig Harringtom and most recently, Gary Woodland, Wiilson Golf has supported the best players in the game.
“We’re delighted to have Wilson support the junior order of merit,” said County secretary Gareth Shaw upon the announcement. “We’re excited to introduce juniors to some of the best courses we have. To add these fantastic prizes really raises the level of competition and we hope will inspire young golfers from around the County to get involved.”
The winner of the Junior Series Order of Merit will receive a Wilson Golf ambassador experience. This includes Custom-fit irons (7 piece), Custom-fit woods (2 woods), 2 custom-fit wedges, 1 exo lite bag, 1 tour towel and 2 dozen balls of the player’s choice.
In addition to supporting the Junior Order of Merit, Wilson will be offering our county elite players preferential rates on Wilson golf equipment, further underlining the brand’s support of the grassroots game.
GOLFERS DONATE OVER 16,000 BALLS TO GOLF TRUST’S CAMPAIGN
With the help of Staffordshire golfers, the Golf Trust has shipped an incredible 16,000 golf balls to Fafali, a charity in Ghana that delivers a Golf & Goal educational programme to the local community. Golf clubs and golfers from all over the United Kingdom were called into action with a nationwide campaign taking place over the Christmas period and into the New Year, with Staffordshire contributing a significant proportion of the final total.
Golf balls, whilst easily accessible over here, are hard to come by in Ghana and, with the help of everyone who has donated, The Golf Trust are enabling this incredible programme to continue into the rest of 2024. The programme provides golf coaching and a mainstream education for Ghanaian children who may not receive an education otherwise. Children are gifted equipment to continue their golf education alongside their schooling if they remain on the course and interested in the sport.
“The Golf Trust has been a great partner in our quest to grow the game in Ghana,” explains Solomon Allotey of the Ghana Golf Union. “Through their support, we have been able to provide the needed equipment to the underprivileged in Accra who wouldn’t have access to golf.”
Cae Menai-Davis, founder of The Golf Trust, said: “I was totally blown away with the amount of balls clubs from all over the country were donating. I was driving vans full of golf balls up and down the country, so they’ve seen some miles even before they make their way to Ghana. It may only seem like golf balls, but to Fafali they are a huge help and will help them out massively over the
next couple of months. The work they do over there to not only grow the game of golf but to also give children a fantastic education is simply incredible and we look
forward to helping them grow in the future.”
Over 3000 golf balls were donated by the Staffordshire Golf Union after Trentham Golf Club, Barlaston Golf Club and The South Staffordshire Golf Club were amongst some of the first clubs to sign up to the campaign. County Secretary, Gareth Shaw, said: “Once I put the message out to clubs we were inundated with people saying they had golf balls to donate. To donate them to such a worthy cause was an easy decision for us and we’re delighted we were able to collect and donate over 3000.”
About The Golf Trust
The Golf Trust was set up in 2012 to bring people together through golf. The Golf Trust’s work has brought the benefits of golf to thousands of people and helped to make golf an accessible sport for all. We can harness the power of golf as a driver of social mobility and change. The impact of our work goes beyond what happens on the golf course; Golf has the power to bring together homes, families and communities. We are passionate about using golf to inspire and empower the people we work with to lead happier and healthier lives. Our specialism is adapting the golf activity to suit the needs of the community. Golf is the one of very few sports where four generations of a family can take part together. Charity number 11723134
FROM AMATUER TO PROFESSIONAL WITH ZARAK CURLEY
County Secretary, Gareth Shaw, sat down with Zarak Curley to chat about life in the college golf system in the United States of America, the experience of turning professional and tips for scoring low.
Gareth Shaw: We’re going to take everyone on a bit of a journey, talk about your golf career, and discuss your aspirations for the coming season. But before we dive into everything, take me back to the very beginning. Was it here at Leek Golf Club where we’re sitting now? How did it all start for you?
Zarak Curley: Yeah, actually, in this room, I had my meeting for a handicap, and it started from there. My dad’s a big golfer, so we played nine holes every day with him, and then I decided to focus more on golf, fortunately. It did start here; it was a very challenging journey, actually, because we had Harry Fearn
playing, and he was always better than me. I looked up to him and tried to catch him, but sometimes it affected me a little bit, trying too hard. Obviously, it did get tough, but I enjoyed it, I loved it.
G.S: Did you find those golfing pressures, like you said, at an early age, trying to compete in everything, from a competitive standpoint? Like England Golf stuff, County stuff, was it a balancing act with club stuff as well?
Z.C: Yeah, it was. Sundays, I ended up getting into the men’s team here and the junior team. Sometimes I’d play junior competitions in the morning and then men’s team in the afternoon, sometimes I’d have to cancel my Junior competitions. It was tough to balance, but as I got to the end of my time as a Junior, it was alright. We were in a good routine, and I think they’ve learned from my experience for the up-and-coming junior golfers.
G.S: Yeah, for you, kind of sitting down here and almost reflecting on your experience as a junior, what advice would you give to any juniors out there who want to emulate your footsteps?
Z.C: I would definitely say get a coach and stick with that coach no matter what, good or bad. Stick with the same coach and just practice, keep playing, have fun with it. That’s the main thing, have fun. I see some juniors get upset a lot, which is fair enough, I did it, but you learn that there’s no need. I’d also say playing with your mates is important and starting that repetition.
G.S: Would you say that, for you, it was more important than beating balls in driving ranges, going out and playing at a young age?
Z.C: Definitely, but even having good players playing with you kind of pushes you on to play.
G.S: Yeah. And for you, was that Harry? Was that anybody else? Did you just kind of stick to his side?
Z.C: My dad. So I was always around good players, and he pushed me like, “I want to get there,” always playing matches against them while still having fun at the same time.
G.S: Once you finished in the junior ranks, what were your thoughts then? Was the instinct always to go abroad, or was it to stay here? What were the choices you had?
Z.C: I was looking to go abroad really. Obviously the weather is not great here. But yeah, I mean, staying is not a bad option; you’ve got your family and friends, and they do push you on, and you don’t think about it, but they do. Like Harry’s helping me out at the moment, Harrison’s dad Andy helped me out a lot.
G.S: And for you, your college golf journey, what was that like?
Z.C: That was great actually. I thought it was going to be a little bit better, but I think it’s because I went to junior college. But definitely, I met some really nice people, and you’re playing golf every week. The only thing I struggled with was the
weather; it was hot, and then it just went really cold, so I didn’t really get used to it, and I didn’t quite adapt, but I had some really good results, and it was really eye-opening and really good actually.
G.S: Because of the consistency of other players?
Z.C: You’re playing against good players all the time. You’re always trying to compete against them and practicing all the time with each other. And I mean, as a team sport for golf, you don’t see much, but when you do, it’s fantastic.
G.S: How was that model for you? Of playing medal qualifiers to get into the [college] team?
Z.C: Yeah, so you do qualifiers. The first week I got there, we played a qualifier straight away. Then it was trying to get used to the different grass and the sun! It was hot all the time. So it’s just getting used to the good players; you don’t know anyone, you’re nervous because you want to get in the team to play your first tournament. It’s nerve-wracking.
FROM AMATUER TO PROFESSIONAL WITH ZARAK CURLEY
G.S: Did you get used to it?
Z.C: At the start, I actually struggled just with the grass and the conditions and the players, but I did get used to it. Then you’ll have freshmen coming in and saying: “How did you get used to it?” It’s just a process really. I mean, you play all the time and practice all the time, so you do get used to it.
G.S: And for our aspiring juniors who want to go to college in the USA and do that kind of thing. What advice would you give them?
Z.C: I would definitely say if people are undecided, definitely go and do it. The college had a good schedule, they had a really good routine. [Looking back now} if I had the choice, I probably would say I’d go to somewhere a bit warmer, but definitely anyone who is undecided whether to go 100% go and do it, even for a year, just go and do it and see what it’s like. You play every day, practice every day with good players. Every golf course is in great condition, and there are great facilities on every single golf course. It’s a no-brainer. I would say if you’re going over there, keep your coach and your contacts because when
you’re there, your coach doesn’t really give you lessons. It’s just performance stuff. So definitely keep your coach.
G.S: I think the misconception is that people think the coach over there is a coach, but the American coach is more of a mentor and helps with performance rather than technical work.
Z.C: You can have technical work, but you don’t see it at all; they don’t really care about how technical you are. It’s all about performance and scoring average. There’s no handicap; they’re not bothered with that. It’s all about how you play, which is how it should be really.
G.S: You can see it now on the PGA Tour, the guys like Ludvig Aberg coming through the system and early I think he’s been a pro since March. And he was on the Ryder Cup Team and done all that kind of stuff, but is that because of the grounding of the system over there? They’re very much birdie birdie birdie, and over here we’re very par-related; if we shoot level par over here, that’s a good score, but I bet level par is laughable over there?
Z.C: I mean, if you’re shooting level par, you’re not even in the system. You’ve got to be shooting eight or nine under just to make it into the top ten. You can’t be shooting level par, really, unless the golf course is really tough.
G.S: Was that an eye-opener for you then almost coming back from college? In terms of what really got you to go low? Was there any part of your golf game that got you to think ‘right I’ve got to improve this because if I don’t I can’t score’?
Z.C: I’ve always been a pretty good putter all my life really; I worked on it a lot. I’m an okay driver of the ball. They always say your short game needs to be the best, and yeah, it helps, but if you can’t hit within 10-15 feet and having birdie chances, you’re not going to score well and score low. You’ve got to hit the ball close, hit fairways; your short game does have to be good, but you’ve got to be hitting it close –that’s how you make your birdies.
G.S: Your last season as an amateur was brilliant. Was it always in your mind to turn professional, or wasn’t it in your mind really?
Z.C: Before going to college, I always said I’d maybe like to turn pro in 23/24. I played well last year, and I didn’t really think about turning pro, but it was in the back of my mind. I thought I’m 22 now, I need to do something like starting social media so I can lead up to turning pro and I had a good year, and I thought what’s the point really; you might as well just go and do it. If you have a good week as a professional, you win some money, but as an amateur, you’re not really getting anywhere. Unless you’re in the England squad, you’ve got no point, you might as well just go out and do it. And if you have a good week, you make some money.
To listen to the rest of this in-depth interview with Zarak, head over to our podcast channel:
MIDLANDS SALVER PAIRS
The last few spaces are still remaining for the inaugural Midlands Salver Pairs 2024 event. Enjoy three days of golf spread over three of the best courses in Staffordshire and the Midlands. The tournament will be played at Staffordshire clubs Little Aston Golf Club and Walsall Golf Club. Whilst Midlands club, Sutton Coldfield will host the other.
To participate in any HIO pairs event all players must have an official WHS Handicap Index or an iGolf subscription. The winning pair will quality to play in the National Pairs Playoff final to play for an all expenses trip to the HIO-Club 2024
ITINERARY
Wednesday 8th May 2024
Arrive and check in at Little Aston Golf Club – 1st Tee Time 8.30am
Receive Welcome Gift
Complimentary Tea/Coffee & Bacon Roll
1st Round over the stunning parkland course
Grand Final at TPC Sawgrass. Entry fees are £249.00 per player and this includes: Welcome gift, daily complimentary tea/coffee and bacon rolls, daily nearest the pin champagne prizes, pairs prize table, daily leading pairs prize,
professional leaderboard system and PGA Tournament Director to officiate the event.
For more information and bookings email: graeme@theggbc.com
Thursday 9th May 2024
Arrive and check in at Sutton Coldfield Golf Club – 1st Tee Time 8.30am
Complimentary Tea/Coffee & Bacon Roll
2nd Round played over the amazing parkland heathland course
Friday 10th May 2024
Arrive and check in at Walsall Golf Club – 1st Tee Time – 8.30am
Complimentary Tea/Coffee & Bacon Roll
Final Round played over the fantastic parkland Course
Prize Presentation
Depart for home or enjoy additional nights in the Midlands Format of Play:
Teams of 2 amateurs
54 Hole Tournament Pairs
Betterball Stableford
Max playing handicap index 24 for Men 36 for Women
85% Handicap Allowance
All players must have an active WHS Handicap
The event is open to Men’s, Ladies and Mixed Pairs over the age of 18 years
INSIDE THE ROPES WITH GRANT FIELD PART 2
In the last issue we caught up with Grant Field, coach to Open Champion and now LIV golfer, Cameron Smith. He spoke about the incredible experience of last year’s Open Championship where he was part of the team that took home the claret jug. In part 2 of his interview, Grant chats about some of the key skills needed to make it to the top.
Gareth Shaw: We spoke a little bit about short game, and I know you’re a short game expert as well. In terms of Cam’s [Smith] journey and his natural talent, what kind of advice would you give them or what things could [the people listening and reading] mirror and emulate? Or what you do advise from a short game perspective?
Grant Field: Cam has that innate talent and practices really hard and has always had that creativity around him. So he’s never been scared to practice shots that maybe others don’t practice. So, technique-wise, we
basically have one fairly stock motion that we work most of the shots off. So you’ll see he uses a lot of body motion. He maintains radius really well, he’s just sort of maintaining the loft of the club that we set at address. So when you see him play high, you won’t see him with this really wide stance and lowering the handle and hinging it a lot and trying to slide the club. He’s basically making the same swing and we’ll change the tempo of it or we’ll change the length of it for the speed, but we won’t compromise on maintaining that radius and over-hinging.
You’ll still see him use a lot of body motion to generate speed. So our philosophy builds off three main things you’re trying to control: the quality of the contact, the loft of the club, and the speed of the swing. So how do we regulate those things? We try and set the desired loft that we’re after. So we’re not trying to find loft or take loft off during the motion. You’ll see that we’re controlling the speed through the pivot, either through the length of it or through the tempo. We’ll change the tempo or the pace of it, but we won’t do that by pulling on the handle or throwing the head to generate that speed. So one of the things I find in a lot of people is they don’t, in my opinion, use enough body motion, which then causes us to try and find speed through the swing.
All right, so we have a blend of body and the wrists are responding naturally to that motion, rather than you’ll see a lot of people, especially with the high, soft one, will have a lot of arm motion, a lot of hinge, which is one
way of creating speed, but then for me everything is sort of steeper and you’ll see a lot of people try and shallow the club, which then runs its risk of inconsistent lofts and strikes. So for me, every swing has the same sort of impact and look about it, you’ll have the same release to it. We don’t teach multiple release patterns, because I look at it and go well, loft is loft and speed is speed. So how do I get those two things to hit the desired shot that I’m after? Do I change clubs? Then speed-wise there’s times that we will increase the tempo to change the speed depending on what we want. So I think if you watch him [Cameron Smith] across the board, you’ll see a lot of swings that look very similar, with some slight changes of loft and length of swing.
Over the years, I remember, I used to teach three or four different types of swings, all that stuff, and I got to the point where I’m like I don’t need to. With what I teach now, you’ll see, is a lot more neutral with the delivery. We don’t try and swipe across it, because again, for me,
INSIDE THE ROPES WITH GRANT FIELD PART 2
those things are about loft and speed, so we can do them other ways to get the desired outcomes. I think it just becomes a lot simpler to be able to control what the ball is doing with minimal variation, rather than a totally different swing.
G.S: That’s really nice, it’s simplistic and yeah, it sounds absolutely brilliant. Thank you for that. And with that in mind now you guys are moving into the off-season like we are here in the UK, what kind of stuff are you working on with your players? Is it the fundamentals? Is it the basics?
G.F: Well, the thing is it’s not really our off-season. Our amateur stuff starts like literally the middle of January. So we, yeah, this is our golf season, this is our summer season. So a lot of them have played some pro events to the back end of the year. We just finished up our Queensland Academy of Sport training on Friday for this year, you know like everybody will have a break. But we’re also conscious of, their biggest tournaments of the year, the Australian Amateurs mid-January and there’s a month or so of bigger events here. I think the master of the Amateurs is the week before that. So they’re starting. Like I have a junior tournament. It’s on the 3rd of January, yeah, 3rd, 4th, 5th. So yeah, we’re not in our off-season, we don’t really have an off-season. Our summer, our winters, especially in Queensland, like we’re early to mid-20s still.
G.S: People are crying Grant! It’s freezing cold over here and it’s about 10 degrees in the UK tonight.
G.F: Even with Cam. They finished at the end of the year, they just finished the Australian Open. Yeah, he’s actually getting married this year on the 30th of December and then they’ll have the honeymoon and hopefully we get a week or two before the start of the
season. But you know, especially for those Aussie guys who come home and play the events, they miss a little bit of that break so it is harder to get that work in sometimes. Hopefully we’ll get a couple of weeks. There’s a couple of little things I want to spend some time on, nothing major, but just a couple of little things that I want to keep working on that we don’t get as much time through the regular season to do.
G.S: Does the new schedule in terms of LIV give you a chance to work on that, especially with Cam? In terms of the things that you maybe couldn’t change before because of the intensity of the PGA Tour schedule?
G.F: Yeah, a little bit. They would always start back that first week in January right with the Tournament of Champions. When he you think about it like he would play into early December, have Christmas and then literally the first week of January. So we missed a lot of that even with his physical stuff. There was never really any sort of four or five-week blocks that you could get that done. Now this year only they sort of went a little bit longer. Next year it’ll finish much earlier. I think it finishes late August, early September, so there will be a bit more of a block in there. His schedule will be quite a lot more condensed this year once they start in February. They start at the start off in February in Mexico, and play through to, like I said, end of August, start of September and you’ve also got the four Majors in there. So he’ll play a lot through that period.
Then at the back end of the year he’ll have, a good couple of months back at home, which was kind of the original idea, just that little bit of extra time and play in a more condensed block, but also give that little bit more time at the end of the year to come home and spend a couple of months at home rather than those couple of weeks.
Generally speaking, the PGA Tour season wouldn’t finish till towards the end of the year. They’d play the couple of Aussie events and literally you’d have two weeks at home and that was that was it. So getting that January month, but also, you know, from, let’s say, September through to January and then playing a couple of Aussie events, was one of the things that helped that decision to go to LIV.
G.S: We’re going to be welcoming you to Staffordshire this year. You’re coming to JCB, one of our courses in the County, so we can’t wait to welcome you. Have you seen or heard anything about the golf course?
G.F: No, nothing, nothing. So I might lean on you for some information before then! But you know, his Caddy Sam and you know like they do their work earlier in the week and usually they’re pretty good at getting that sorted. He doesn’t struggle too much with that side of things, so hopefully there’ll be nothing there that he can’t handle.
One of the things, and this is going back to that development phase, we’re trying to give our players as many tools as they can that there’s no situation they find on the golf course that they can’t deal with. That’s one of our goals is to have no holes in that bag where
he gets to a situation and goes oh, I can’t hit the shot. I think definitely with Cam I think we’re pretty close to that. But that’s always one of the things as you go forward with the young players. I think what makes somebody good at 14, 15, 16 is very different to what makes them good on the PGA Tour or LIV or DP World [Tour] or whatever it might be.
I’m always big on trying to look to the future. Okay, what is this player going to need? If they want to be a top 10 player, top 50 player in the world, what skills do they need to be able to perform on that level? I know a lot of people, like I’ve had it over the years where people come, say with short game, and I’ll say how do you think your short game is? And they’ll go oh yeah, it’s pretty good. I’ll ask them to hit a lot of shots and they can’t hit most of them and they go oh shoot, you know, it’s like well, you know, if you want to be one of the best wedge players in the world, you kind of have to be different, and I always look at as a work in progress.
As mentioned in the interview, Grant and Cam will be visiting Staffordshire for the LIV GOLF UK event at JCB Golf & Country Club. Get along to see them in action and see how many different types of wedge shots you can spot!
WINTER TRAINING
During the winter season, the elite squads of the Staffordshire Union of Golf Clubs have had some remarkable opportunities to hone their skills and advance their. It all began with a fascinating nutrition webinar, delving into the intricacies of preparing nutritionally for golf. From discussing what to consume and when, to navigating what to abstain from both on and off the course, our players gained invaluable insights into optimising their performance.
Continuing our quest for improvement, we delved into the realm of psychological resilience under pressure, guided by the expertise of Sports Psychologist Lyle Kirkham. Our players gained strategies for maintaining focus and composure when it matters most.
Later, they delved into the art of green-reading with Aim Point Coach Oli Leett. AimPoint putting, a method endorsed by golfing stars such as Justin Rose, Adam Scott, and Max Homa, offers a systematic approach combining physics and intuition to enhance putting prowess.
Further refining our putting game, former county player Matthew Fieldsend lent his expertise, providing invaluable guidance on putting routines and incorporating pressure-inducing drills. Additionally, Matt taught our elite players hints tips on how to improve in the scoring zone of within 100 yards. We continued our quest for the extra edge in the new season by heading to Wigan and the Tour X fitting
studio, often frequented by elite professionals like Tommy Fleetwood. Whilst there our players experienced a tailored equipment fitting session, optimising their current gear before the season begins.
As the game of golf has evolved over the last ten to twenty years we also put a on a session with performance coach, Luke Downing. In these PT-led sessions we went in-depth on mobility and fitness tailored specifically for golfers.
As the season draws ever closer our juniors took part in a elite coaching day, hosted at JCB Golf and Country Club. Throughout the day the juniors worked on every aspect of their game. Learning how and when to play flighted golf shots and honing their bunker play was the main focus of the day, before the session came to an end with our juniors playing a 9-hole tee slip scramble, which gave them the opportunity to put into practice what they had learnt on the golf course.
TICKETS ON SALE FOR LIV GOLF UK AT JCB GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB
Top class golf is on its way to Stafforshire this summer as LIV GOLF UK comes to JCB Golf & Country Club.
Tickets for the event are now available to purchase via the LIV Golf website. LIV Golf UK will take place on July 26th – 28th, with tickets starting from £19.50. Admission for under 12s is free.
With golfing superstars such as Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickleson, Sergio Garcia, Major champions and legends of the game teeing it up at the Rocester course, it’s an event not to be missed. Link for tickets: www.livgolf.com/events/uk-2024
WHAT’S THE RULING?
You’ve lost your golf ball, how long do you have to search for your ball before it is deemed as lost?
A) 5 minutes
B) 2 minutes
C) 3 minutes
See back page for the answer
Staffordshire Boys Pathway 2024
TRIAL DAY
4th May 2024 | Ledene Golf Centre 1-3pm
We are looking for boys aged 13 and under as of 01/01/2024 to come and join the Staffordshire Boys Pathway programme.
Are you a member of a Staffordshire Club?
Do you have a handicap of 54 or below?
The Pathway works with some of Staffordshire’s leading coaches and delivers group training sessions around the region that are part funded by England Golf and Staffordshire Golf.
Are you interested in representing Staffordshire in future County golf fixtures? Interested?
To reserve your place please email with your name, current club and handicap to: vicki.donoghue@staffsgolf.org.uk
Trial day is at the Ledene Golf Centre, Woodhall Farm Wood Rd, Wolverhampton WV8 1QR
Sessions will be held on the par 3 course and you will be assigned a 1 hour slot
STAFFORDSHIRE GOLF
Is there someone at your club that goes above and beyond? Has there been a hole-in-one or an exceptional score? Do you have a special event happening in the coming months? Have you redecorated the clubhouse?
We want to know! Let us know of anything exciting going on at your club and we’ll try and find a spot in the next edition! E-mail: secretary@staffsgolf.org.uk
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Staffordshire Golf Union
www.staffsgolf.co.uk
Answer: C – 3 minutes.
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