The London Golf Show – Too Good to Miss

Love golf? Love the London Golf Show!

If you are the kind of person who spends their weekends on the fairways and their time in the office just waiting to get back to that first tee then why not visit the London Golf Show where you can see and sample all things golf. From the latest equipment, fashion and golf holiday hotspots to trick shows, indoor driving ranges and golf gadgets; the London Golf Show has it all and this year this fantastic event is being held at Earls Court on November 11th-13^th. Read more

Wychwood Park Supplier Weekends

De Vere Venues Wychwood Park has teamed up with Your Golf Travel to launch is supplier days for 2010, offering customers staying on golf breaks, discounts & promotions from a selection of the most sought after retailers in the golf industry.
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The Return of the Flyer: New Rule on Grooves to curtail Backspin

From 1st January 2010, a new V-groove rule will come into effect which will limit the amount of backspin a player can generate with iron shots from the rough.

The rule will be implemented by three associations – the United States Golf Association (USGA), the Royal & Ancient (R&A) and the Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA), and has been several years on the drawing board. The rule has been developed to bring back the challenging aspect of playing shots from out of the rough, which Tour officials across the three associations felt was being lost due to players’ ability to stop the ball close to the hole, despite playing from deep rough when missing a fairway.

The change in the rules will affect all iron clubs, but most effected will be the high-lofted clubs and wedges. Currently, most iron clubs have wide U-shape grooves which minimise the effect of grass between the clubhead and ball on impact, in order to ensure the best possible contact.

But while the change in grooves will have little effect on iron shots from fairways, there will be a definite effect on shots played from the rough, says Tiger Woods’ coach, Hank Haney. Haney believes the change will herald the return of the ‘flyer’ – a incidence where enough grass gets between clubhead and ball to prevent sufficient spin being applied, resulting in the ball travelling farther than anticipated.

“When you’re hitting off the fairway, you don’t typically get flyers,” Says Haney. “You can, but you don’t see it too often and especially on the fairways the pros play on because they’re mowed so closely. But when you get in the rough and you get grass between the club and the ball, with less spin possible, all of a sudden that 6-iron you might hit 175 (yards), might now go 200 — 25 yards over the green.”

Haney also believes the rule change will see players switching to a softer ball in order to compensate for the lack of spin; sacrificing distance for accuracy and control.

Several players have already begun to play using irons fitted with the new groove design in order to better prepare for the rule change, although clubmakers will have to work closely with the associations to ensure their grooves conform with the rules. Phil Mickelson has already fallen foul of the regulations after intending to use a prototype set of irons made by Callaway golf at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, but was informed by the USGA that the grooves did not meet guidelines laid out by the association.

Mickelson shows off new golf club design at Bethpage

Eagle-eyed spectators will no doubt have noticed the strange new club which Phil Mickelson used to great effect during his US Open challenge at Bethpage Black. The hybrid club, which Mickelson helped to design with the assistance of Callaway golf, is actually a prototype club designed to achieve greater consistency and distance from shots out of the rough.

While the club head features a distinctive, rounded sole shape, its centre of gravity means the club handles much more like an iron and features a wedge-style grind and grooves which run up the total face of the 18 degree-club. It has been designed as a rescue club which can be used from a variety of different ball lies as Mickelson showed, using the hybrid club from the heavy, wet rough around the Bethpage course.

The prototype’s grooves conform to the USGA’s new regulations regarding V-grooves, which come into effect in 2010.

Callaway’s head of research and development, Jeff Cotton, revealed that Callaway had spent considerable time with Mickelson at the Riviera Club in Los Angeles, California, and discussed the player’s requirements for the club.

“He wanted his hybrid to play more like an iron, as to where the centre of gravity is placed. And a unique, shallower sole shape allows him to use it out of a variety of different lies in the rough by hitting down and minimising turf interaction.”

However, Callaway have no plans at the moment to release a version of the new hybrid club for club golfers but haven’t ruled out such a release of the club in the future once they have seen how the club performs in the long run.