Fylde coast golf review: Hitting longer irons, giving generously for captains' charities at St Annes Old Links

St Annes Old Links Captain David Stanhope and Lady Captain Tina Akroyd are pictured presenting the cheque to Trinity Hospice’s community fundraising manager Michelle Lonican.

President's week at Knott End and how to drive more like Bryson

In a lesson last week one of my pupils picked up an amazing 37 yards with his irons, so I thought I would share the things we worked on with you all.

Many golfers want their swing to feel controlled, and as a result their backswing becomes short and the speed reduces. This means that even if the contact is good, the balls just don’t travel very far.

The first step, then, was to lengthen the backswing. Because the club had to travel a longer distance in the downswing, straight away the speed of the swing increased and the ball started to fly further.

The next step was to feel as though we were throwing the club down the range after completing the backswing. This created an even bigger jump in speed.

During the session, the club-head speed went from 56mph to 72 and the player picked up 37 yards of extra carry.

Now I’m not saying everyone will get that much extra but you will definitely hit your irons further by following this advice.

To contact Alastair at Herons’ Reach email [email protected] or check out his YouTube channel AliTaylorGolf for more free tips.

The Captains’ Charity fundraising events for 2019-20 at St Annes Old Links raised a total of£4,323 for Brian House Children’s Hospice.

Captain David Stanhope and Lady Captain Tina Akroyd are pictured presenting the cheque to Trinity Hospice’s community fundraising manager Michelle Lonican. The captains wish to thank all club members who gave so generously.

Knott End Ladies played for the Centenary Plate last Thursday, when most players avoided the rain and Pauline Fawcett was the winner with a nett score of 74.

A club competition on the same day was also won by Pauline with a best nett score of 74 aftera card play-off with Kath Coleman. Joanne Kay had the best gross score of 88.

A ladies’ Texas scramble at Fairhaven was won by the trio of Diana Cockerill, Sally Muschamp and Susan Prater with a score of 70. Runners-up were Sue Cooke, Trish Funk and Anne Preston with 70.2.

The ladies’ nine-hole stableford was won by Linda Baxter (19 points), while a men’s four-ball-better-ball was won by David Huzal and James Furlong with 45 points. The second-placed pair were Oliver Drury and Nicolas Shepherd with 45, and Matthew Longsdale and Lee Williams were third (44).