Gone are the days of cutting down grandpa’s hand me downs for young golfers.  Often times doing this will deter young golfers from enjoying the game.  They are almost always too heavy and stiff to develop proper fundamentals.

 As adults, we realize how tough golf can be some days and how much the right equipment can help our games. By keeping these considerations in mind when buying junior golf clubs, you can help your junior play better golf, and more importantly, have a better time on the golf course.

A good fitter will take several factors into consideration when fitting a Junior with golf clubs.

Length

Length of shaft is based on the height of the child, not their age!  After determining the child’s height we have a great starting point for getting properly fit clubs.

Shaft Flex

Taking a standard golf club and cutting it down will alter the shaft flex a great deal.  At the slower speeds children swing the club, this extra stiff cut down shaft will make it almost impossible to get the ball in the air.  No one thinks its fun to watch the ball go 10 feet in the air then roll down the fairway.  The flexible shafts will help get the ball in the air and lead to kids having more fun on the course and range.

Weight

Very much like the flex, the weight impacts a child’s swing dramatically.  A club that is too heavy can cause a varity of bad habits.  Flatter swings, poor grips, and over active hands, are just a few things that might be caused by a club that is too heavy.

These are a few of the keys that we look at when your getting your child a set of clubs.  Feel free to ask any questions you may have about Junior clubs! 

We sell and fit U.S. Kids, Taylor Made, and Nike junior sets.  We also have lots of Kids sized shirts, shorts, sock, gloves, and shoes!

Patrick

I was speaking to Davy Gilchrist, the Caddie Master at Kingsbarns, who supplies our caddies for the week, and the weather has been pretty good up to now this year, so the courses should be in great shape. He will be heading the Ladybank team of caddies against us on the Friday and says that they should have no problem retaining our Ladybank Challenge Trophy for the third time in four years. We should be asking for more shots as we always play on their home course, don’t you think!

So the courses and tee-times are set, mini bus is hired and flight is booked. Now where did I put that rain suit and that sunscreen?

Andy

If you want to play in a tournament and raise funds for local good causes I’m going to list some here. This can be a chance to play a different course, play with some different people and have fun while raising funds!

May 12 Home Builders Association at Flintrock Falls
https://m360.hbaaustin.com/ViewEvent.aspx?id=15760&instance=0

May 14 National Elite Gymastics at Barton Creek Fazio and Crenshaw courses. Contact ckdanson@austin.rr.com or pick up a registration in store.

June 7 Flipnastics Golf Classic at Falconhead. Registration forms in store or contact kellinokes@yahoo.com

June 25 NFL Alumni Golf Classic supporting the Center for Child Protection at The Hills. Pick up details in the store or contact sheila@britgolf.com . Andy and I are on the committee for this one!

Sheila

Each year I get together a team and play in Rally for a Cure at Barton Creek Lakeside. This is a fantastic tournament that benefits Susan G Komen for the Cure to help find a cure for breast cancer. It was a perfect day weatherwise with a breeze but no rain. The tournament was very well organized and the course looked great.  With the abundance of rain this year the bluebonnets looked fantastic.

We finished in 8th place which was great as none of us play on a regular basis.  We were playing for fun and a great cause. Everyone wore pink for the occasion including all the staff at the course. We ate good food and watched while some great raffle prizes were handed out.

If anyone wants to play next year let me know as I co-ordinate teams for local golfers who want to participate.

Sheila

Our party was catered by Vasco Entertainment. This excellent company is run by our daughter and her boyfriend. They can help you out with food, staff, a DJ and bounce houses for the kids. www.vascoentertainment.com

We have had some very successful demo days this month and this week had the Bridgestone Ball Fitting Challenge. This is the first time we have had Bridgestone here and they were a big hit with our customers. The 2 technicians arrived with $65,000 of computer equipment and sensors! Customers were invited to hit the ball they usually play and then hit the Bridgestone ball suggested by the technicians. Depending whether customers wanted more distance or better feel around the greens (don’t we all want both!) they were given some of the recommended ball to take away and try. One customer came back the following day to say he just shot the best round of his life. Needless to say he stocked up on his new ball!

Andy is leaving me in charge once again! This time he is off to Atlanta at the invitation of Mizuno. He will tour the factory and play at Bears Best and Country Club of the South. He has been invited to give feedback from the perspective of an independent store owner! It’s nice to know someone cares!

Usually when I get left in charge it’s because Andy is off on one of our escorted golf vacations. We currently have just 2 places left for Scotland in June. Call the store for details. 512 263 3343

Sheila

For many golfers the start of the season means new equipment and at britgolf we have many demo days this month to help you make your choice. If you have never attended a demo day let me briefly explain. As we are an indoor facility we bring in one vendor at a time. Today is the turn of TaylorMade. Representatives from the company arrive with many clubs with different lofts and shafts so that you can hit many different options and make a choice. The staff will custom fit you to make sure the clubs we are selling are what you want/need depending on whether you are looking to improve your game or just make it easier and more enjoyable!

We have more demo days coming up so I’m going to list them for those interested.

Thursday March 18th Mizuno 3-6pm.
Mizuno are going to give a custom fit driver to one lucky person who has a fitting on Thursday at britgolf. As we can only have a limited number of fittings you have a great chance to win this awesome prize! Call us on  512 263 3343 to book your appointment!

Wednesday March 24th Nike 2-6pm
Come and try the latest Nike equipment in the VR and SQ Machspeed lines.

Thursday March 25th Bridgestone Ball Fitting 12-5pm
Have you ever wondered what effect the ball you play has on your game? Come to the ball fitting day and discover the best ball for your game!
http://www.bridgestonegolf.com/product/ball-fitting

Thursday April 1st 3-7pm Ping
Come and make your choice from the G15 and i15 families!

Another upcoming event is Ladies Day Tuesday March 30th 1-6pm when we will have the representative from Adams and Keri golf in store. Dinah can help you choose clubs from the excellent Adams ladies range or a fantastic new bag from Keri golf. We will also have a trunk show with jewelry and lots of other great accessories. We will have goodie bags and serve wine and appetizers. Come and join the fun!

Tuesday March 23rd is our 5th birthday party! We will be celebrating five years of helping local golfers to enjoy the great game of golf. Call in any time between 5 and 7pm for drinks and appetizers.

See you on the course!
Sheila

 My husband and co-owner of the store Andy and Patrick our golf pro will also be posting. You will be able to tell when it’s one of us Brits when things are spelt the English way like colour and humour although after five years here we are getting the hang of your way! As no-one has yet invented the sarcasm font you won’t know when Andy and I are being serious or joking! Sarcasm is an integral part of the British sense of humor but we often find our American friends take everything we say seriously!

And so I’m going to start by telling you how I spent my morning. I have been unpacking! To be precise I unpacked 84 individual pieces of equipment that make up the brilliant new TaylorMade Selectfit System. It consists of many different iron, driver, fairway and rescue heads and a vast number of shafts so we can put together a fitting club to suit you. In fact it offers 186 driver possibilites and 258 iron possibilities and we’re pretty excited to have it in the store!

Every single head was wrapped in bubble wrap, each shaft encased in a plastic sheath with the shaft tip also in bubble wrap so you can see why it took me most of the morning to unpack! While I was peforming this ever so slightly boring task my mind wandered back to exactly five years ago when we were first setting up our store,britgolf! All our stock was arriving daily around this time so each day was spent unpacking clubs (mountains of bubble wrap), putting together fixtures and steaming and hanging apparel! It was a very exciting time as this was our very first venture into a business of our own!

Andy and I had only lived in the US for a few months at this time and we were still getting used to the attitude of people here in Austin. We were made so welcome we were knocked out. While we were doing the aformentioned unpacking people would stop by the open door and wish us good luck. We couldn’t understand why people we didn’t know were so nice to us. I have to admit we spent our first year being suspicious of people who were nice to us What did they want from us? Now we understand that people here are just that nice and we love it!

We will be celebrating our 5 years with a little party in the store. Look out for details here or on our emails.

Sheila