What a few weeks it's been for Rory McIlroy, he won his fourth major at Valhalla in Kentucky when he won the USPGA Championship and this was his third consecutive tournament victory, he is now firmly established as the world's number one player. The USPGA was a great tournament played on a golf course that offered many birdie and eagle chances, it's always good to see the world's best players scoring well and being able to attack the par fives whilst the softer greens also helped scoring.

It was good to see Rory McIlroy show a steely resolve to dig in on the back nine after the resurgent Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, two players who certainly had the American galleries support, overtook him on the front nine. A fantastic eagle for McIlroy on the tenth hole after a 282 yard second shot ended within ten feet of the cup was the turning point and he is now just two more major wins away from equalling Nick Faldo's record as the most successful European golfer - quite an achievement at just 25 years of age!

With the combination of his Nike Covert 2.0 Tour driver and his Nike RZN Black ball, McIlroy ranked first in driving distance for the third straight week, averaging a staggering 315-yard off the tee.

Rory's winning Nike equipment:

• Driver: Nike VRS Covert 2.0 Tour 8.5-degree (Kuro Kage XTS 70X)
• Fairway Woods: Nike VRS Covert 2.0 3-wood/15-degree and Nike VRS Covert 5-wood/19-degree
• Irons: Nike VR Pro Blade (4-9)
• Wedges: VR Forged 46-degree, 52-degree, 56-degree and 59-degree
• Putter: Nike Method 006
• Ball: Nike RZN Black

Captain's Day makes a big splash

One of the highlights of our year's calendar took place on Saturday as Chris Bird and Jill Bebbington hosted their Captain's Day, a total of 48 players took part in the golf during the day and luckily the weather was kind and the competition was played in a real fun atmosphere, we even had three members swimming in the fifth and ninth ponds during their round and the on course drinks buggy kept everyone suitably refreshed!

In terms of the golf the winning score came from Antony Green, who also happened to be one of the swimmers, but this didn't seem to put him off too much as he scored 40 Stableford points this included back to back birdies on holes six and seven - where he also won the nearest the pin prize with a tee shot that ended about 18 inches from the flag. Liam Tyrer finished in second place with 39 points whilst third was Dave Shering who fired three birdies in his round, the leading lady golfer was Ann Broster who scored 38 points.

There was also a quite remarkable round from new course record holder Steve Bond, he scored six birdies including a run of FIVE in a row on the back nine, maybe it's no coincidence that this good run came at the same time as the drinks buggy was in his vicinity!

The long tradition of the men's Captain visiting the ninth pond after the round continued as Chris was a great sport and brought his snorkel and inflatable lilo along! This was followed by the evening's entertainment with live music and the winners presentations and some great and very humorous speeches from Chris and Jill. I would just like to say a big thank you to the two of them on behalf of all our members for organising such a successful day.

Team news

We won our latest match in the nine hole clubs league at home against Flixton last week, the winning score was 10-1 as we won three matches and halved the other. We are now near the top of the table with Alderley Edge and coming up soon is a top of the table match against them that will quite probably decide who the winners of the league are.

Readers equipment review

This week is the first in our series of equipment reviews by our newsletter readers where they give us honest feedback on equipment. The new PING G30 range of clubs is the first to come under the spotlight as we did a full fitting for Steve Stockton who plays off a 12 handicap and currently uses a PING G25 driver and TaylorMade R11 irons.

First of all we fitted him for the PING G30 irons, here are his thoughts and his marks out of 10:

• Looks 9/10: 'I liked the sleek look of the irons, they didn't look too chunky at address, however if I was being picky I would have preferred a chrome finish rather than the black gun metal look'
• Distance 10/10: 'the G30's couldn't be faulted in this category - I was nearly 15 yards longer with the 7 iron, the Trackman monitor showed that I hit my own 7 iron an average of 151 yards, the PING G30 7 iron was 163 yards on average, it's the longest iron I have ever hit'
• Innovation 9/10: 'I liked the extra weight they have positioned towards the toe as if I do miss strike the shot it's normally towards the toe'
• Forgiveness 9/10: 'the impressive thing was that as well as being longer these irons also hit the ball with a tighter dispersion so they were flying straighter so I found them very forgiving'
• Feel 10/10: 'I loved the solid feel and sound of the irons also I liked the way I could feel more weight in the head, it really inspired confidence'

Next we tried the PING G30 drivers in both the standard head and the SF Tec version:

• Looks 10/10: 'I really liked the look of the driver, I loved the blue shaft and the turbulator ridges on top of the head might not be everyone's cup of tea but I didn't even notice them at address'
• Distance 8/10: 'my ball speed increased with the G30 driver and I was consistently carrying the ball further through the air than with my G25 although I lost a bit in run out - but overall distance was good'
• Innovation 10/10: 'this is where I was very impressed as the G30 SF Tec driver, which promotes a draw, did noticeably make a difference to my ball flight and got rid of my tendency to fade the ball too much, the technology really did work but at address you don't even realise the weight is set more for draw'
• Forgiveness 9/10: 'I noticed the extra forgiveness more than I really noticed an increase in distance and the Trackman again showed a tighter dispersion with the G30 so I would hit more fairways which for me is the main consideration with a driver'
• Feel 9/10: 'again I loved the solid feel and sound of the G30 driver, it did sound louder than the G25 which again might not be to everyone's liking but the feel off the face really is good you can almost feel the ball springing off the face'

I hope that you will find this review useful and if you are a reader that would be interested in volunteering to do a product review please contact me here

Remember that if you are thinking of looking at trying out the new PING G30 range we have demo models in stock and as we are an authorised PING fitting centre we can make sure that you get the right clubs to suit your game just as we did for Steve!

The latest junior competition results:

18 holes division:

1. Kieran Underwood nett 67
2. Javier Lang nett 79

9 holes division:

1. Benjamin Barrow nett 29
2. Harry Godwin nett 41

Well done to our young Cheshire and England star Rhys Nevin (handicap +1) who travelled to Germany to represent England in his first overseas event and finished as the leading English player in a tie for twelfth place overall finishing on two under par for three rounds. He was competing in the RB German Junior Championship which consisted of some of the best under 18 players in Europe with handicaps ranging from scratch to plus four. He is also competing in the British Boys Championship in Scotland this week and travels to Italy next month to represent England again, he is also set to qualify for the final of the Telegraph BMW Junior Golf Championship which is played in Portugal.

Another Junior member playing well is Tom Duncalf (handicap 3), he had a good showing at the recent Douglas Johns Trophy at Harewood Downs, he shot a brilliant first round 68 to lead the best gross category and added a score of 72 in the afternoon to finish on four under par ahead of some international junior golfers.

Margaret Cherry has won the latest ladies Thursday morning competition scoring 19 points over nine holes, Sandra Peake and Collette Walling finished in second and third respectively on 18 points. There was also a Monday night competition this week, it was Elspeth Forbes that triumphed with 20 points including a great birdie two on the fifth hole, second place went to Sarah Dee on 16 points.

The next ladies competition is the Neil Clarkson Trophy on Thursday 21st August.

FootJoy shoe fitting experience

For the first time at Hartford Golf Club we are hosting a shoe fitting day with Sam Allan from FootJoy, it takes place on Thursday 28th August. According to FootJoy, 70% of golfers wear the wrong size shoes and most golfers that I know have never had their foot size measured. If you have shoes where the leather has bunched, the eyelets on your laces are too close together, the heel of your shoe wears away or even if you suffer from blisters these are all signs you could well be wearing the wrong size golf shoe! As well as being uncomfortable, wearing the wrong size shoe can cause reduced stability and power loss so I would thoroughly encourage all of you to call in take advantage of this FREE measuring service FootJoy will be offering - it really could make a difference to your game. Sam will have a range of shoe styles, sizes and width fittings so there is no compromise in finding the right fit, this is really an opportunity not to be missed.

You can pre-book a slot or take your chances and turn up on the day if you can make it.

TaylorMade fitting day

We now have another TaylorMade fitting day booked in the diary, it's coming up on Thursday 4th September from 3pm-8pm. During these times Jamie Hope from TaylorMade golf will be on hand to give you a full FREE fitting using his FlightScope launch monitor on any of the TaylorMade clubs range, whether its a set of irons, a driver or even something like a wedge. The only thing is this will be a busy day you must book an appointment in advance, please click here to book your slot.