Welcome to the latest Hartford Golf Club newsletter, what a glorious week of warm weather we've had and even though the summer wasn't exactly a scorcher at least it's been extended by a few weeks, may be a long summer is probably better than a hotter one! It certainly was a good weekend for young American Jordan Spieth who won the PGA Tour Championship and with it the mind boggling $10 million dollar prize money for winning the season ending FedEx Cup, this season as well as winning two majors he has returned to the position of number one golfer in the world rankings and won nearly $22 million dollars in prize money, not bad for a 22 year old! It was interesting to note at the Tour Championship after Jim Furyk's withdrawal there wasn't a single player aged forty or over in the field, all the FedEx Cup events were also won by twenty-something year olds showing that the future is bright in the golfing world.
We've got loads of news again for you this week including:
- Mike wins the last summer competition
- Jack's two good for the tenth hole
- It's double delight for Gareth
- Summer Presentation night news
- How you can win FREE range balls this Winter
- Our sneak peek at the new Titleist range
- M1 has hit the shelves
- Bargain of the week
- Ladies news
- Seniors news
- Upcoming events
President's Trophy review
The President's Trophy is our traditional curtain raiser for the summer season and the golf course was in pristine condition for it on Sunday. There was a first time winner in Mike Barrow who scored a brilliant 42 point total playing off his 26 handicap, Mike only joined us in May but he's been steadily improving and it was good to see him claim a win on Sunday, he has also booked his place in next year's Hartford Masters courtesy of the victory.
There were four players who returned the next best score of 38 points, second place went to Alan Nevin, who's had a great season, due to his better back nine score. Third place went to Steve Bond who fired three birdies in his 38 point score.
Jack's amazing eagle
A special mention to 11 handicapper Jack Carroll who scored 35 points, his round was going along nicely as he reached the tenth hole where he hit a drive just into the semi-rough and had around 150 yards to go the pin.
He hit a great 8 iron in that looked like it was 'on a frozen rope' and much to his delight when he reached the green he realised that the ball had gone in for an eagle two. This is the first eagle we've had in a competition on this hole which always plays as one of the hardest holes on the golf course, well done Jack!
Order of Merit News
As the summer season has drawn to a close the Order of Merit has finished with the winner being 6 handicapper Gareth Eaton, his eighth place finish in the President's Trophy meant that he saw off the challenge of Jonno Ness and Ian Daines who finished second and third respectively.
It's a remarkable achievement for Gareth as he also won the winter Order of Merit in dominating fashion despite his low handicap, a testament to his consistent play over the entire year in good and bad weather. Gareth must be the hot favourite to win the winter Order of Merit again which starts on Saturday with the October Medal.
Jonno Ness does have the consolation of winning the best nett score in the eclectic, and the best gross eclectic winner is 5 handicapper James Eaton who just pipped brother Gareth to first place. Click here for a rundown of all the season's competition results.
Summer Presentation night news
As all the summer competitions are now concluded we need to award all the winners their prizes!
Our traditional annual summer presentation night will be held on Friday 13th November starting at 7.30pm. There will be a 3 course meal, followed by prize awards and a disco with late bar, members and guests are more than welcome and tickets are good value at £18 each.
Whether you're a winner or a loser it would be great if as many members as possible could attend the presentation night as we can celebrate what has been another great season at the club!
Are you Hartford's best practicer?
We've had a phenomenal response to our new driving range membership cards, it looks like lots of you will be doing plenty of practice this winter on our driving range and really working on your games which is great to see!
Here is a reminder again of our exciting new range card deals:
GOLD Card 50 x 50 balls £100 save 44%
SILVER Card 20 x 50 balls £48 save 33%
BRONZE Card 10 x 50 balls £28 save 22%
The Gold membership card has been by far the best seller so far and that is because it offers the best value!
This has prompted us to come up with an idea for a little competition, we want to find Hartford's best 'practicer', the idea is that we will keep track of every driving range membership card that we sell and how many times they are used, the member that hits the most balls between now and the end of the year we will reward with a FREE top up of 50 credits on to their card - that's £100 worth of range balls that you can win! So the competition is on, remember the old adage that practice makes perfect but in this case lots of practice can also save you money!
Our sneak peek at the new Titleist range
Last week we were lucky enough to have a visit from James who works for Titleist, he came to show us the new Titleist range of 716 irons, utilities and the new matching 816 hybrids. It was really interesting to hear all about the technology behind the new designs and why the new clubs perform so well, then we had a chance to hit them on the range and I can tell you that we were very impressed!
We found the new 716 AP1 iron to be extremely long in distance with powerful ball speeds, we saw an increase of around 12 yards on the old 714 iron through a 360 degree undercut cavity but not only this the accuracy was improved, this is achieved through the use of tungsten weights that allows the MOI of the head to be improved meaning that the face won't twist much on mishits.
Check out the photobomb from Adrian as James is talking me through the range!
Have a look at this informative video from Foremost TV about the new Titleist range.
Another particular favourite for us was the new 716 utility iron, this is based on the look of an old fashioned driving iron but packed with modern technology that provides a really powerful ball flight and is a great alternative for a player either looking to replace a long iron in their bag or who doesn't get on with hybrids and prefers the look of an iron but wants forgiveness.
I'm pleased to announce that we will be one of the first places in the UK to receive the new 716 AP1, AP2, CB, MB, utility and 816 hybrid fitting heads and shafts next week and we can carry out fittings for you on any of the new range, click here if you would like to book a slot now.
M1 has arrived at Hartford
The new arrivals keep on coming, sometimes it feels like Christmas has come early in the shop and we definitely got a bit excited when we opened a box from TaylorMade containing the exciting new M1 range of 'unmetalwoods' so-called because they have a carbon chassis rather than the traditional all titanium head design.
So we know that TaylorMade have received a bit of stick in the past for bringing new clubs out sometimes in a very short space of time but their philosophy has always been to be on the cutting edge of innovation and if they come up with a new golf club that performs better than a predecessor they want to give the golfing public a chance to use it!
The M1 driver in particular has caused quite a buzz in the golf world in the last few weeks and with good reason as leading players such as Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose have immediately put the new driver in the bags, for them to do this as this stage of the season when they have been playing important FedEx Cup tournaments shows that the M1 must really perform and that the players have total faith in it. Jason Day in particular has been using the driver to devastating effect in his last few events when he reached world number one status winning twice in a row based on hitting extremely long but straight drives.
Rather than bore you with more technology talk have a look at this really cool video including Justin Rose hitting his 'longest drive ever!' Click here.
Bargain of the week
As usual we have plenty of great buys in the shop at the moment, we have a special offer on the Titleist 714AP1 irons that are soon to be replaced, if you want a premium set of irons on a budget these are the clubs for you!
We have a 4-PW and a 5-PW set that quite simply have to go! They are marked down to £479 and £399 respectively but this isn't all - as they are the last two sets we will also give you for FREE 2 dozen Titleist ProV1 balls or a Titleist Vokey SM5 wedge worth £99, this is an offer not to be missed so be quick!
Also for this week only we are having a flash sale on our Callaway bags - we will give you 25% off the marked price on any of our Callaway golf bags if you buy one this week!
The ladies played a match against our sister club Pryors Hayes last week and it was closely contested, our first group of Sharon Dunning and Ann Broster had a convincing win but the highlight of the day was definitely a fantastic first time hole in one on the sixteenth hole by Pryors member Sheri Shaw.
Next week the ladies play another match away to Sandbach and the next ladies competition is a nine hole Stableford on Thursday 8th October.
The seniors have had a busy week, they also played a match against Pryors Hayes but unfortunately they got beat then on Tuesday there was an 18 hole Stableford played in glorious sunshine, the winner was the in-form Alan Nevin with 40 points.
Alan had a cracking back nine of 24 points including two birdies, this was good enough to edge out Paul Frost who also scored 40 points, third place went to Tim Donnelley with 39 points.
The senior's singles knockout has been won Andy Margeson who beat Pete Dawson and the pairs was won by Tony Ledson and Paul Frost who beat Andy Margeson and Peter Earlam 2 and 1 in the final.
October Medal - Saturday 3rd October 11am
Seniors 9 hole roll up - Tuesday 6th October 9.16am
Ladies 9 hole Stableford - Thursday 8th October 9.32am
Winter League round 1 - Saturday 10th October 11am
