Barney's October 2025 Newsletter
- Barney
- Oct 26
- 4 min read
Hi Everyone,
A phrase that has been used a great deal in golf in the past few years is that of “Growing the game”. It is often then attached to millionaire golf / professionals playing at five star resorts around the globe for vast amounts of money. Hopefully some people will be inspired by that, however the reality of growing the game begins with all the marvellous grass roots schemes that take place all around the country and indeed the world.
I am proud to say that here at Mid Herts over the past few years we have formed a thriving junior section, where many boys and girls have started their journey in our wonderful game.
You may well have seen either my friend and colleague Matt Clarke and our outgoing professional Andy or myself taking a group session with the juniors. They come rain or shine or on one memorable occasion sleet. Their enthusiasm is infectious whatever the weather. Slowly but surely they have increased their skill sets and many of our younger members have represented the club in the golf sixes event and actually won their division too! We are expanding our older junior section too and hopefully we will be taking part in County events in 2026. In this season Tom, Seth and Lily were runners up in the Hertfordshire Junior Club Competition. Lily and Seth have been great Junior Captains and Tom will be driving off into office with Men’s, Ladies and Senior’s Captains on November 2nd.
In the coaching sessions we work on the basics (can’t ever get away from them) and a theme for each session. The recent one I hosted was on Balance and Swing path. We looked at various exercises and drills to improve both by hitting with our feet together and using my favourite gadget, the swing wheel.
We are so fortunate that throughout the land there are professionals, volunteers and golf clubs practically and joyfully it has to be said really growing the game and enthusing the next generation. For all of us and especially the young, the pull of social media is a strong one and if golf can get us outside and away from our screens, to soak up some vitamin D (not sure if sleet has any health qualities) and get some exercise. On the thought gymnastics, for instance we've hit our ball into the trees and how do we extricate ourselves? The art of mapping its path out of them causes movement of our grey matter, which apparently is good for our well being. Of course as problems go, it's an easy one to solve as every golfer knows that trees are 90% air!
Although a few weeks have passed since a tumultuous Ryder Cup and to be fair it’s taken this long for my heart rate to come down. Holding a record lead going into the singles didn’t provide the procession to victory we all thought it would. I feel it was a combination you often see in sport where a large lead can produce lack of focus, a feeling of “we’ve won this” when you haven’t and in the case of many European players, in very noisy and trying circumstance, who were simply fatigued and had given their best. We’ve all played with that player who as PG Wodehouse so brilliantly put it “can hear the roar of a butterfly in an adjacent field” as they fuss and eye roll at the slightest noise. Can you imagine that huge crowd with a sadly unpleasant vociferous core within it shouting and jeering each shot, in every match. The concentration and mental energy to combat that must have been draining and needless to say, I’m grateful under Luke Donald’s amazing Captaincy, Team Europe got the job done. Let’s hope the players and powers that be can talk Luke into a trilogy for 2027 at Adare Manor and the spectators just spectate.
Closer to home I see Luton Hoo have begun their ambitious project to renovate their course and facilities to be able to host the 2035 Ryder Cup. For our area it would be terrific, so wish them good fortune with their bid and perhaps as a near golfing neighbour they might send us a few tickets.
One of the many outstanding players in the Ryder Cup was Matt Fitzpatrick. Of course a real talking point is his excellent cross handed chipping. Although relatively common in putting, I’ve noticed a few more players certainly in practice bringing it in to their repertoire. From a coaching standpoint I’ve long been an advocate of rehearsing a chip cross handed to give the muscles the feeling of flat lead wrist through impact which is golf’s holy grail.
Here’s a video I did for Golf Monthly on the subject to give you some golfing food for thought next time you play, although I strongly suggest you practice it first. https://www.golfmonthly.com/videos/short-game-tips/wet-lie-chipping-method
I hope you all enjoy your golf in this end of Autumn season and you save a few brain cells by keeping out of the trees
All the best
Barney
Fellow of the PGA
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