Stuart Wilson

Hello Golfers,

(Channelling your best Barry Manilow)

Koepka, Koepka`s the Man-a!
With the power of an angry Bruce Banner!
He`s Brooks Koepka, halfway to winning the Grand Slam-a!
He hit the ball so far, was always under Par!
And when his wedges flew, they would stick like glue!
It`s Koepkaaaaaaa…………..he`s a cut above!

Pro's News

Brooks Koepka is not only the new USPGA Champion but he is also a Tri-Major Winner, all in the space 14 Months! His form, especially this season, is all the more remarkable when you consider he`s been out injured for a large chunk of it.

From the moment he got in contention at Bellerive Country Club courtesy of a 2nd Round 63 he was pretty much always in control. Sprinkle in a couple of ‘Clickety-Clicks’ over the weekend and he was a worthy Wannamaker Winner, the only thing that his victory spoiled was the prospect of Tiger Woods doing, what many was unthinkable, and getting his paws on another Major Championship!

Tiger was brilliant on that final Day….well, certainly his Iron Play, Shortgame and especially his putting were. 23 Putts he managed to shmoo into the cup that day. The only chink in his armour will come as no surprise……his Tee Shots! It took Tiger until the 10th to hit a Fairway! I know the reason tigers have stripes is to act as camouflage in amongst the long grass, but this Tiger needs to realise he can only catch HIS prey from the short stuff!

With Tiger truly on the prowl again and Koepka, and many others for that matter, playing some tremendous golf, the 100th USPGA Championship was actually one of the best and most watchable Major Championships we`ve had in a long time!....The only problem was……you pretty much couldn`t watch it!

I say pretty much, because it was being, ahem, `televised` but not by Sky nor BBC or Netflix or even FletNix or Amazon Prime! Goodness, even Optimus Prime struggled for reception on Cybertron! That`s because it was being broadcast by that Global Media Powerhouse – Eleven Sport!???? Yeah, me neither! In summary it was basically Dominic Hollier and Jamie Donaldson with a Webcam in a Portaloo!!

Quite sad that one of the 4 pillars of Golf`s Grand Slam was reduced to a pawn in a financial farce between the governing bodies and the broadcast networks! I think those ‘in charge’ of our sport have lost the plot! I`m guessing they`ve mixed up the quest to ‘GROW THE GAME’ with ‘HOW TO GROW RHUBARB!’

• Take The Seed
• Bury It Under Copious Amounts Of Manure
• Shut It In A Dark Room
• Do Nothing Worthwhile
• Hope It Grows
• Grow A Little Bit Of Rhubarb
• Take Credit When The Rhubarb Tastes Good

Let`s hope they are about to whip up the most amazing batch of custard to compliment what they are trying to achieve just now....but my gut instinct is they are more likely to get left with egg on their face!

Tour News

Undoubtedly the best thing for mopping up egg yolk is a nice slice of Scottish Pride, and that`s exactly what we got at the inaugural European Golf Championships at nearby Gleneagles. Another in the expanding list of alternative format Golf Events, and another that attempted to create Mixed Events with Men`s & Ladies Team Tournaments as well as a Mixed Event.

Not only did Scotland host another excellent Golf Tournament but some of our Scottish Representation collected medals as well. Don`t ask me how it all worked as I`ve no idea….I was too busy trying to decode the Enigma Machine in order to find how I could watch the USPGA!

But what I do know is one of the Spanish Teams won the Men`s event (Scott Fernandez and Pedro Oriol), the Swedish Pair of Linda Wessberg and Cajsa Persson won the Ladies event and the Mixed event was won by the Iceland Quartet of Birgir Hafthorsson, Axel Boasson, Valdis Thora Jonsdottir and Olafia Kristinsdottir.

Scotland`s Medals were claimed by Meghan MacLaren and Michele Thomson who picked up Bronze in the Ladies Event and also were part of the Mixed Team, alongside Connor Syme and Liam Johnston, who took Silver in the Mixed event.

Fortunately the next time we see a Team Competition it`ll be a little more straight forward to understand….Europe To Beat USA, that is all!!

Yes, the Ryder Cup is a little over a month away and following the USPGA the American Team have their Automatic 8 Players confirmed. And an impressive bunch it is too!

Brooks Koepka
Dustin Johnson
Justin Thomas
Patrick Reed
Bubba Watson
Jordan Spieth
Rickie Fowler
Webb Simpson

With those names all cemented into the Team Selection the talk and attention turns to who will their Wildcards be. Obviously Tiger is being touted for one of those Captains Picks and I for one think he`s a shoe in, especially when you consider that he only made his competitive return less than a Year ago, has played a very select schedule and only missed out on one of the Automatic 8 places by $400K-ish Dollars, finishing 11th!

The European Team still have a few more weeks & tournaments before the Race To The Automatic Spots finishes, but again our Top 8 look very good, and more importantly are all still in reasonable form.

CAPPRO Cup

The Race to our own ‘End-Of-Season’ Ryder Cup-Style Match is also hotting up as it reaches its last 2 Qualifying Events. Click Here to view the current standings.

Competition News

The weekend also saw the start of our 4 Round Strokeplay Championship with Rounds 1 & 2 played on Saturday & Sunday. Leading the way at ‘halftime’ in the Scratch is Nick Mackie (73+78) and a great weekends golf from Gary Chalmers (69+67) has him atop the Handicap Leaderboard.

Scratch Championship

Nick Mackie 73 + 78 151

Dylan Smith 74 + 80 154

Greg Smart 70 + 84 154

Handicap Championship

Gary Chalmers 69 + 67 136

Brian Mitchell 67 + 69 136

Nick Mackie 68 + 73 141

Stan Forbes 68 + 73 141

The Individual Results look like this:

Saturday 11th August
Division 1

1 Greg Smart 70(6) - 64

2 Andrew Tremain 74(8) - 66

3 Martin Craig 69(3) - 66

Division 2

1 Paul Singer 80(12) - 68

2 Brian Kiloh 82(13) - 69

3 Gary Chalmers 82(13) - 69

Division 3

1 George Donaldson 84(18) - 66

2 Mark Will 85(17) - 68

3 Ian Paterson 86(16) - 70

Sunday 12th August
Division 1

1 Bruce Harrold 74(7) - 67

2 Brian Mitchell 78(9) - 69

3 Charles Watson 77(7) - 70

Division 2

1 Gary Chalmers 79(12) - 67

2 Stewart Clark 83(13) - 70

3 David Farmery 82(12) - 70

Division 3

1 Rama Maganti 96(24) - 72

2 Paul Bain 88(16) - 72

3 Jeff Capstick 92(19) - 73

Wednesday 8th August
Division 1

1 Michael Cameron 73(10) - 63

2 Scott Kranzke 71(7) - 64

3 Keith Horne 66(1) - 65

Division 2

1 Brian Wood 77(15) - 62

2 Neil Anderson 76(12) - 64

3 Graham Rennie 76(12) - 64

Division 3

1 Archie Murdoch 78(17) - 61
2 Mike Ion 79(16) - 63
3 Jamie Kidd 80(16) - 64

Success Stories

It always gives me enormous pleasure when I look through the Results from the week and see Members Names that have gotten some instant success following a sprinkling of my Professional experience. This week was no different, if anything, this week was bursting full of success stories!

From a Technique Perspective, the stand out score was also the lowest score of the week. Archie Murdoch fired an astonishing Nett 61 on Wednesday and took the time to dedicate a large portion of that score to the influence my lessons have had on his game.

Archie had been struggling badly with his Chipping and also was looking for some guidance on how to best improve his long game. We only had a 45 Minute Lesson on each area which gave Archie the insight into his faults and easy to follow remedies. From there Archie has followed my ‘Train It, Test It, Trust It’ process where he has put in a bit of Practice to engrain the changes, played some casual rounds on the course to see if he could replicate it when it mattered and finally packaged it all together in one complete score. He Trained It, he Tested It, he Trusted It!

If it weren`t for Archie`s great score it would have been Brian Wood claiming the Low Round of The Week, as he posted a 62 Nett on the very same day. Brian`s improvement came from a slightly different source. Having mentioned that he was in the market for new Clubs since the beginning of the Season, Brian finally grasped the nettle and booked a Fitting Session just the other week. The Clubs we settled on were the TaylorMade M4 Irons, Woods/Hybrids & Driver. The main Specification change we made was to the Shaft Type, moving from Steel to Graphite to help the Club Speed. But we also made an adjustment to the Lie Angle of the Irons, and a Loft/Face Angle adjustment to the Driver to encourage a more consistent direction.

Needless to say with a Nett 62 and a wad of Sweep Money the Clubs are starting to pay for themselves as well as fulfilling their purpose of lowering Brian`s Handicap!

Similarly to Brian, Scott Kranzke took the plunge for a new Driver as it was the only department of his game he wasn`t happy with. Again, like Brian, we carried out an extensive Custom Fit Session where we established exactly what was letting Scott`s Driver Performance down, then made up Trial Options that suited better.

Like many players this Season, the TaylorMade M4 Driver came out on top for Scott. We were able to find a Shaft type and an ideal Loft that allowed him to create less Spin and a straighter flight – This gained him significant Distance on top of a much straighter shot.

Product Spotlight

Although I seem to mention this Product Range most weeks I`m not touting it for any other reason than ‘IT WORKS!’ But whilst the above examples are hopefully great endorsement of what they can do to Handicap Golfers games you need look no further than what`s happening on Tour where guys are winning with these Clubs and they aren`t contracted or paid to play them!

Consider that the last 3 Majors (albeit 2 are the same guy) have been won by TaylorMade M-Series Drivers, yet the Players using them are not T/Made staffers and have chosen these Clubs because they have performed the best!

These Clubs really do work WHEN PROPERLY FITTED and right now TaylorMade are packing in some great Added Value with the promise of a Dozen TP5 Balls with any M Series wood purchased. So don`t delay, Click Here to book your Fitting today.

Upcoming Events

You hopefully have all received details of a couple of cracking, not to be missed Golf Days coming up, but I`d like to share a few more details with you.

‘PRO`S DAY’
Saturday 25th August

ENTRY FEE - £40
Teams Of 4
Format:
Front 9 – Best Ball
Back 9 – Scramble

Overall Team Prizes
9 Hole Format Team Prizes
On Course Challenge – Individual Prizes
Beat The Pro
Golden Ticket Prize Draw

Halfway House Hospitality & Refreshments

Loads Of Prizes & Fun To Be Had!

Rolling Tee Sheet
BRS Booking Goes LIVE @ 7pm Thursday 16th August
OPEN to ALL MEMBERSHIP Categories.

‘MEMBER & GUEST INVITATIONAL DAY’
Sunday 9th September.

A Day not to be missed because EVERYONE who play`s stands a chance of receiving their 2019 Membership for FREE! Yes, that`s correct if you and your Invited Guest are the lucky pair pulled in the ‘Scorecard Draw’ then you will both receive a 2019 Portlethen GC Membership for FREE (T`s & C`s apply – See Official Poster or Club Email)

On top of that Incredible Give-Away you will be treated to a fun-filled, value-packed Golf Day that hopefully you and your guest will remember for a while.

ENTRY FEE - £35

Includes:
Member & Guest ‘Goody Bags’
2 Man Best Ball Stableford Team Prizes
18 ‘On Course Challenge’ Team Prizes
Halfway House Hospitality
Carvery Lunch
Scorecard Draw To Win FREE 2019 Membership For You & Your Guest

You can Sign Up to this now via the Professional Shop or the Office.

Staff News

Pro`s Day on the 25th August takes on another significance as it will also be Ross`s last day working at the Club!

Ross has been given an opportunity away from the Golf Industry that right now is too good to turn down. I`d like to take this moment to thank Ross for all his help in the time he has been here. He settled in very quickly and I know as well is liked by the Members. He also did a good job with the Junior Development and I know both Terry and the kids are sad to hear he is moving on.

I`m sure you all join me in wishing Ross every success in this new chapter in his Career.

As I said, Ross will be on duty for the last time on Pro`s Day if you wanted to come along and wish him well.

Introducing Cleveland RTX 4

Trying to hit your wedge shots the same way as the pros can be frustrating, especially when you see the amount of spin they achieve from all sorts of lies. Yes, technique plays a part, but so does having a set of wedges that you can trust in every situation.

A wedge fit for tour

Available in September, Cleveland's latest wedge incorporates feedback from some of the world's best golfers, such as Graeme McDowell, to make this their most tour-authentic wedge to date.

As the name suggests, the RTX 4 is the fourth generation of the RTX family, with each seemingly better than the last. Cleveland says the RTX 4 will provide ultimate short game control, thanks to increased spin generation from their sharpest grooves to date.

So, if you're serious about improving around the greens, come and speak to us about a custom fitting.

learn more >

And the award goes to...

Always trying to raise the bar on previous models isn’t an easy job, but it’s for this reason that technology has advanced considerably in the past few years. It means we’ve never been in a better position to help you enjoy your golf, from drivers right through to shoes.

Come and see what all the fuss is about
This award-winning FootJoy Tour-S shoe has been recognised for the highly stable platform its PowerPlate outsole provides, while still being lightweight and comfortable straight out of the box.

If you try these on you’ll enjoy the precise fit, underfoot comfort and the feel of FootJoy’s Premium Performance Leather.

We think it’s obvious why this shoe was selected as one of the best of the year, but to see if you agree, drop by the store.

watch our video >

Video of the Week

If you're someone who likes to open up the face on your wedges and hit higher lob shots, TaylorMade's Hi-Toe wedge will be right up your street.

I hope you have enjoyed this week's update.
We hope to see you soon
Stuart

Portlethen Golf Club
Badentoy Road
Portlethen
AB12 4YA

Phone: 01224 782571

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