Well what a Masters tournament it was. It had almost everything this year from meltdowns to masterful performances and much, much more. We really hoped you enjoyed the spell binding golf and that it's got the juices flowing to get out there on the course?
My own personal highlight was seeing how much of golf is based between the ears. Something I've suspected for some time and was only highlighted again with Jordan Speith going into meltdown around the turn on Sunday. Having closed out the front nine holes with four birdies in a row, nothing could go wrong, or could it!? Well it certainly did, as we all know, and surely this wasn't a technical swing flaw. It was absolutely a mental thing for sure.
If you feel you have the odd mental issue on the course too, then please get in touch. I'm a qualified sports practitioner in the 'train the golfing brain' technique and feel I can help many of you with the odd mental error on the course.
For the remainder of April I have a special offer where I walk 5 holes with you on the course and give you feedback as to how you can improve your mental golfing processes. If you like the sound of this please click here to register your interest and we can fix up a date.
5 hole sessions and after round feedback will take place midweek afternoons and evenings. The cost is £45 . There would be no technical swing changes/input unless you specifically ask for it. We would be working exactly with what you currently have.
Ladybank GC gents shirt deal
We have a members only shirt promotion for the rest of April.
Buy two of these crested shirts for only £40 rather than the RRP of £59.98 ( £29.99 each). Saving you a whopping £19.98.
Click here to reserve your shirts today. All sizes available from medium to XXL.
The below events are open to all members
Iron/Wedges MOT day - Saturday, 16 April. 9pm - 2pm
#WeDeliverMore campaign
We’ve introduced some exciting new opportunities that we’d love for you to get involved in. What better place to enjoy some coaching with our team of experts than here at the club? See below for the date, time and location of our events.
- Putting clinic - Friday, 22 April 4pm
- Short game clinic - Friday, 6 May 4pm
- Long Game masterclass - Thursday, 19 May 4pm
- Ladies Fairway woods class - Friday, 13 May 4pm
Click here to book your spots on any of events above and to find out more about this great campaign.
Demo day
Callaway demo day - Thursday, 26 May 2-6pm
Here at Ladybank we are holding a Callaway demo day. This is a great opportunity to test out the latest Callaway products and to be fitted by a world class company.
Places are limited so make sure you don't miss out by booking your place now!
To book please click here.
PGA Q ( Downie, Tassie, Glass & Fraser)
Cat 1 & 2
1st - J Bruhn 73 (6) - 67
2nd - P McGlynn 74 (7) - 67
3rd - D Pryor 78 (10) - 68
Cat 3 & 4
1st - GR Lennie 87 (25) - 62
2nd - D Jamieson 87 (19) - 68
3rd - AJ Drummond 83 (13) - 70
Match & Handicap
The handicap winter league team played the final of the knockout cup against Leven GS. The match was played at Leven Links giving Leven GS home advantage. In four tough, closely fought matches Ladybank enjoyed an excellent team victory. The match results were as follows:
- Game 1: Gordon Wilson & Brian McSkimming - lost 2 & 1
- Game 2: Craig Mathie & Dugald MacGregor - halved
- Game 3: Steve Hutcheon & Gordon Mathie - won 1 up
- Game 4: Fergus Johnstone & Duncan Glass - won 2 & 1
The club would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the team and thank all players for their participation and commitment throughout the season.
Kevin Bruce and
Paul McGlynn were the winners of last weeks Famous Grouse Foursomes with a net 74.0, pictured above right.
Pictured below is our man in blue,
Graeme Lennie after his net 62 on the weekend.
Graeme has had new fitted Titleist clubs this winter and a series of lessons with
Sandy. After much hard work on the practice ground things would appear to be progressing nicely!!
Johnny Bruhn above, after his scratch 73 net 67 on the weekend.
Johnny has been taking lessons throughout the winter/spring with
Sandy and feels his game is really moving forwards again after a tricky spell in the last couple of years. After a significant change in swing path, to alter his shot shape from a heavy draw to a slight fade, it looks like all is well again. Needless to say this has taken a lot of hard work on
Johnny's behalf, and it's great to see
Johnny moving in the right direction again.
Ladybank Ladies
SAS Merit 1 (Stableford) - CSS 75
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D Fraser (20) 31pts bih
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E Todd (17) 31pts
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I Morrow (13) 30pts
SAS Merit 2 (Stableford) - CSS 78
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RO M Hair (10) 29pts
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C Mathers (21) 28 pts bih
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L Bennett (3) 28 pts
Nine Hole Stableford -
J Hayward (20) 19pts
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E Stone (20) 17pts
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F Black (20) 15pts
Mail on Sunday ClassicThe Mail on Sunday Classic took place over the weekend with the ladies team winning their third round tie against Milnathort at Milnathort 3-2. This is a singles match play event with teams of 5.
Ladybank had a bye in the first round and have won against Balbirnie at home and then Milnathort. We are playing at home against Elie & Earlsferry in the next round.
The team of
Sheila Johnston and
Aileen Hampton won against Edenfields in the second round of the Daily Mail Foursomes 2&1. Congratulations to the team!
Next round draw yet to be done.
Head Greenkeepers Blog
I hope everyone was tuned into The Masters at the weekend, it was very entertaining viewing and as always the course demanded incredible focus and concentration. It's a week that we all dread as Greenkeepers when we see Augusta in all its glory with beautiful sunshine and the azaleas in bloom, something we can only dream of in April…..I was greeted here on Sunday morning with zero degrees and a frost!!
I touched on Top dressing in my last blog but I wanted to go a little more in depth with this topic as we always get a lot of questions on why it is so important. Top Dressing is ultimately sand, although it can be made up with a certain percentage of soil if desired but in general 100% sand is the preferred choice. For the last 5 years we have used kiln dried sand as our top dressing for a few reasons but the main one being that dried material works into the canopy a lot faster than damp. Our dried sand is stored in a Silo located at the greensheds which eliminates any contamination as well as keeping it dry. Our target is to apply in the region of 90-120ton to Greens per year. This is mainly done from March-October as ideally we need some sort of growth or aeration holes, otherwise the sand would simply sit on the surface and go nowhere.
In the last 7 years we have been targeting the top 20mm of the greens profile with a focus on reducing our organic matter (thatch) levels with great success. We have halved the levels in this period courtesy of increased sand applications combined with a very effective aeration programme.
With this reduction in OM our greens have naturally become firmer, drier, smoother, truer, and faster. We know this because we have all of these factors tested twice per year during our STRI visits. Our focus is now on dilution of the OM as there will always be a build up, it's simply a case of keeping it at our target level and the dilution is done in the form of 'little and often' Top Dressing. In addition to this dilution of OM, once brushed in, the sand evens out imperfections on the surface improving smoothness and trueness.
The 'little and often' approach is preferred over very heavy dressings which can create problems with blunting blades and the sand can hang around the surface for weeks. There is no doubt that top dressing is the most critical part of our golf course maintenance.
Last week we received a few heavy downpours with 41mm recorded in 48 hours. After this the course was naturally very wet, especially some of our busy traffic routes which were looking good after being roped off all winter. Frustratingly we have had to put extra diversions back in place again after these areas were churned up by high volumes of golfers walking or driving through them.
Can everyone please be very careful with trolleys, buggies/carts following wet weather and vary your route around the course rather than ploughing through visibly muddy areas when there's a better alternative route.
This not only looks unsightly but drastically increases the recovery period for these areas.
