Accessories
Lessons learnt from 2006
It’s that time of the year again, and we’re looking forward to another Open Championship taking place at Royal Portrush after Shane Lowry’s dramatic finish in 2019.
We’ve been reminiscing about how harsh and varied the weather conditions can be at The Open. 2023 was a particularly drizzly time at Royal Liverpool, but who remembers how the course fared when Tiger won The Open there back in 2006?
As those of you who watched The Open that year will remember, the weather was exceptionally hot over that particular July weekend, and the course certainly suffered as a result.
Rather than being lush and green, the fairways were bare and firm, fundamentally changing the nature of the game for players battling for the Claret Jug.
This can make the course a lot more difficult to judge, so today we want to illustrate to you how beneficial Bushnell devices are when it comes to preparing for your next shot in challenging conditions.
How hot weather changes the game
Golf is an eternally changing game as the seasons and weather are always varying, and while wet muddy winter golf is a challenge, so too is golf in very hot conditions. The grass deteriorates in the heat, losing its colour and firmness. This firmness dulls the turf’s natural sponginess, causing your ball to run further as the grass is providing less resistance in stopping it.
When Tiger won The Open in 2006, he did so having used his driver just once the entire tournament. Rather than taking the big stick off the tee, Tiger would strike controlled stingers with long irons, the longer distance he now gained from his shorter, more reliable clubs factoring into his course strategy in the heat.
So, if you’re playing golf over the next few months in the summer heat, you may want to take the firmness of the ground into consideration. We may be lacking in having personal caddies giving us advice at every stage of the hole, but here in the pro shop we have the next best thing…
Bushnell's Distance Measuring Devices
As we’ve mentioned, summer golf courses play very differently to when they’re in the grip of wintery conditions. In the winter, the ground is much softer, and you can go for the flag with the confidence that the ball will sit down well. However, during the summer months you’ve got to anticipate that the firm ground will cause the ball to run on.
This is where knowing distances to hazards as well as the distance to the front of the green allow you to make more calculated decisions when you’re considering which club to pull out of the bag, and that’s where a handy Bushnell device comes in.
We stock plenty of phenomenal Bushnell products in the pro shop, one such handy gadget is the Phantom 3 tablet.
A superb handheld device that golfers of all abilities can appreciate, the Phantom 3 is a pocket-friendly tablet that displays distance readings in large eye-friendly font. With simple buttons and a straightforward navigation system, this device is very user-friendly. It can read up to 6 hazards per hole and comes preloaded with over 38,000 courses, so you can rest assured you’ll have no issues using it when you’re visiting golf courses away from home.
We can source you any of these fantastic products through the pro shop. If you’d like to learn more about them or be given a demonstration of how they work, we’d be happy to help you when you visit us.
