Last updated at 14:52, Thursday, 24 May 2012

WHAT a weekend of golf – and we even got the weather too!

Starting at Furness for the Evening Mail Open, a big congratulations to Steve Day, who won the Festival of Britain Trophy with a score of 66 nett, and to Rob Leitch, whose one-under 70 took the gross prize.

I’ve been at Furness a couple of times in recent weeks and the course looks fantastic. The greens are smooth and everything is looking good for when the top amateurs come to the links to compete for the county strokeplay.

On to Dunnerholme, where a packed house paid tribute to Brian Readett in the Panama Open. The winning team was made up of three people I coach – Mike Batstone, Adrian Little and Jonny Dale – and myself! We had a great day and a big thank you and well done to Dunnerholme and its volunteers for preparing the course and hosting such a big day.

What do all these winners have in common? They all played junior golf at their clubs. It is definitely right to start young and, with clubs allowing juniors to participate in nominal fee or free coaching, there are opportunities to get into the game.

Furness hold coaching on Mondays from 5.30pm until 6.30pm, Dunnerholme on Tuesdays from 5pm until 6pm, Silecroft on Saturdays from 10am until 11am and Barrow on Saturday afternoons, with everybody welcome to attend.

For more information, feel free to contact me at paul.rawlinson@gmail.com

Well done to all winners, especially Di Herbert and Claire Largue, who won the ladies’ Evening Mail title – you must have listened to Alison Nicholas last week!

TIP OF THE WEEK

Playing the percentage shot: Sometimes during a round you will be faced with a shot that you can play in many ways with differing results.

Imagine the shot, a high risk three-wood out of the rough, over the water from 200 yards or pitching out to the middle of the fairway leaving yourself a wedge to the green. Which do you choose? Who reaches for the wood and tries the Seve shot?

Then splash, drop, probably splash again, drop, wedge out, wedge on and a three-putt? My advice is if you can’t hit the risky shot seven out of 10 times then don’t play it. Don’t ruin your round by taking a big number, but play sensibly and keep your round going. You never know what might happen later on.

Have a good golfing weekend.

First published at 13:47, Thursday, 24 May 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk