Chris Hanson bags the first set of Master Model Irons

John Letters Staff Player Chris Hanson yesterday picked up his new Master Model irons ready for 2011 season. The Master Model is returning to the John Letters line up after a 30 year absence, ready to retake it's place at the pinnacle of the game.

The 8620 carbon steel head is forged for an ultra soft feel at impact and features a tour inspired head shape and thin topline. The brushed satin finish reduces glare at address. Unique to the Master Model is the option for paint fill personalisation, so Chris came in and got hands on, choosing a blue colour scheme.

Most tour players strengthen their lofts on their iron sets to get the ball flight they want, so we have built these stronger lofts into the set straight out of the box, and Hanson noticed this straight away. "I loved the strong penetrating flight they gave me, the short irons had a really strong piercing trajectory."

Despite the cold weather, Chris is practicing hard in preparation for the first Challenge Tour Event of the season in India, and all going well the Master Models will join the T9+ Fairways, Hybrids and TP Forged wedges in his bag for the start of the season.

Expect to see the John Letters Master Model in store this spring.

TOUR TRUCK STOPS OFF AT SOLIHULL

The John Letters Tour Truck visited Direct Golf Solihull this weekend. The dreary weather didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the hundreds of keen golfers, who couldn't keep themselves away from the lure of a working European Tour Truck.


Product development manager and Tour Technician James Graham was kept busy by inquisitive golfers eager to learn about the ins and outs of life on tour and keen to get their clubs worked on. James focused on custom fitting wedges on the day, offering a variety of tour only finishes and grinds not usually available on general sale.

The most popular option on the day was a torched finish. By taking the chrome off of the wedges, it opens up a variety of finish options. By taking a blow torch and heating the wedge you can change the colour of the wedge from a light gold all the way to a deep purple depending on how hot and how long you keep the blow torch on the wedge. Another popular tour option for the John Letters TP series wedge is brushed chrome. By putting the wedge on a buffing wheel it dulls the finish to a satin chrome as preferred by many better players for its glare reduction qualities.

This Saturday the van is visiting the Direct Golf UK Wirral store, there all day from 9AM.

Torrance Bags JL Tour Black Wedges

Sam Torrance had his highest finish since March this weekend, coming third at the OKI Castellón Senior Tour Championship, including a course record nine under 63 in the second round. And it was a good week for us as here at John Letters HQ,  the first week that Sam has bagged the 2011 JL Tour Black wedge in a tournament.

Developed with the tournament professional in mind, the JL Tour Black wedge features a subtle sole grind that offers relief on the heel and toe of the wedge. While using a classic teardrop head shape. When Sam first saw the wedges he told us “These are beautiful, do you have any for me to use in play next week? These will go straight in my bag." And good to his word Sam put them in as soon as he received them in his spec.

Playing a three wedge set up with a 52, 56, and a 60, Sam has his wedges shafted with KBS Tour X Flex shafts, soft-stepped for a slightly softer feel and a touch higher launch than a typical Dynamic Gold S300 shaft. This set up will help produce a little more spin, important considering the change in the groove rules this season for professionals.

Sam has also requested a 54 degree wedge to use on certain courses. This show's the attention to detail tour pro's go to, taking extra equipment options to each tournament. In this case the 54 degree sand wedge replaces both the 52 and 56 degree wedges for weeks where he feels the course requires an extra long iron, hybrid or fairway wood. As 54 degrees isn’t one of our stock loft options, co-designer of the Tour Black wedge James Graham has bent and stamped a 56 degree sand wedge to his specs.

The JL Tour Black wedge will be available in store from March next season.

Archer Prepares for 2011

John Letters Staff Player Phillip Archer came to our  test centre at the Stadium Driving Range in Huddersfield yesterday to help us with product development for next season, while being fitted for some new gear himself. 

Testing was focused on two area’s.  Firstly we’ve got a tour driver in development for next season, that sit’s square to slightly open at address, looks a little smaller, and that hit’s it with a flatter ballflight and lower spin. Chris had already done some testing on the head, but it was it was the first time Phil had hit the proto. And we almost didn’t get it back. Compared to his current driver Phillip hit the ball on average 3 yards further, but more importantly his dispersion was improved from 6.2 yards to 2.7 with the JL Proto head. So he was quite literally hitting it longer AND straighter than his current driver, known for being the number one driver on tour. 

We had to make sure we had our eyes on it the whole time, as otherwise Phillip would have nabbed it, but as it’s currently the only one in existence we couldn’t let him have it just yet.  On Phillips request, we’re also going to develop a deep faced version of the driver for players who like a smaller looking driver at address. 

Secondly we also fitted Archer for a three wood. In a lot of ways these are the hardest clubs to get in the bag of a touring professional. Their three woods need to be used as a mini driver off the tee, hitting into par 5’s from distance, while also being used to shape the ball. It’s not necessarily all about having optimal spin rates and launch angles, but what feels right. Phillip tested a variety of shaft options, but settled on an Aldila VS Proto 60 x shaft. Lighter than what he’s used to using he was hitting a John Letters T9+ 15 degree three wood as far, and with better dispersion than his current 13 degree head. Archer wants to do some on course testing first, but all signs point towards it going into his bag for the start of next season.

Charley Hull Tests the 2011 range

Teen golfing sensation Charley Hull came and visited the John Letters Test Facility in Huddersfield this week to get her equipment prepared for 2011. Charley, only 14, already carries a plus 3 handicap and has was agonisingly close to qualifying for the Ricoh Women’s British Open missing out by a shot in a four women playoff.

Charley has been taught in her own words, to “hit the ball like a man” and she was overpowering certain X Flex shafts in her testing session.  After significant shaft testing we put Charley into a X Flex UST Mamiya Proforce V2 shaft in her driver, for a more penetrating low spin trajectory, and a UST Mamiya  Attas shaft  in a 15 degree T9+ fairway wood for a little longer carry. Charley also extensively tested the Master Model Prototype irons, and can’t wait to get her set in the New Year when the stock comes in. Charley has also requested a set of the highly anticipated JL Tour Black wedges, having fallen in love with them at first sight. This forged 8620 carbon steel wedge was designed with the better player in mind, with its clean lines and subtle sole grind, not to forget the stunning black finish. 

With 2011 fast approaching, everyone on the John Letters Tour Truck is looking forward to helping Charley achieve her goals.

Johnnie Walker Championship @ Gleneagles

It was a successful week for the John Letters Tour Truck at the Johnny Walker Championship at Gleneagles. Although not the busiest week we’ve had all season, with the heavy rain the players didn’t spend as much time on the range as usual, there were real quantifiable results to be had from our hard work.

John Letters Staff player Phillip Archer came into the van at the beginning of the week to get his clubs re-gripped. Going with Golf Pride Tour Velvets with a ribbed reminder, Tour Technician Kevin Ludkin thickened the grips with two layers of tape. Four rounds and four under par later, Phil had his best finish of the season with a tied 10^th finish.

With the amount these guys play, they are looking at new grips every 2- 3 months. Obviously most golfers won’t need to change their grips anywhere near as often; however it’s worth changing your grips at least once a season for optimal results. With so many options on offer and seemingly every colour in the rainbow available there’ll always be a new option that will take your eye.

On site at The Farmfoods British Par 3 Championship 2010

The Farmfoods British Par 3 Championship enjoyed another great year at Nailcote Hall, Warwickshire, as a number of the biggest names in golf and the celebrity world attended the prestigious championship. On location the John Letters Tour Truck was busy over the four days with a mixture of celebrities, Professionals and members of the public taking full use of the facilities. Custom Fit Technicians adjusted lofts and lies, assembled new wedges and ground down soles to give competitors the perfect clubs to maximise the short course. With the average hole on the par 3 course being 114 yards it was the perfect venue to promote the new TP Wedge Series. Former Manchester United footballer Lee Sharpe was in high praise of the workshop and had a 52, 56 & 60 degree TP Series Wedge custom fitted to his personal specifications.

The ‘Please Mind the Gap’ campaign was in full flow as golfers flocked to purchase the 52 degree TP Series Gap Wedge to fill the distance void between their Pitching (normally 48 degree) and Sand Wedge (normally 56 degree). Sky TV cameras visited the workshop to film John Letters Technician Kevin Ludkin custom build a brand new T9+ series Driver from  start to finish. Former European Tour Player Shaun Webster commented “it’s great to have the John Letters workshop on site, I don’t think I’ve passed it when there weren’t people in their having clubs adjusted”.

Away in the ‘tented village’ area the Sam Torrance Chipping Challenge saw over 500 contestants take part. Daily winners won custom fitted TP Series wedges whilst any golfer achieving 200 or more points won a John Letters Pitchfork and Ball Marker.

Midlands based professional Richard O’Hanlon won the Championship in style finishing on an impressive six-under par, pipping Nailcote Hall’s resident professional Mark Mouland to the title of Farmfoods British Par 3 Championship winner. O’Hanlon was crowned champion and his consistent and superb form going into the tournament, after winning the PGA order of merit event at the Forest of Dean in the Forest Classic, meant that he was always set to be a contender at Nailcote Hall.

After shooting a first round 51 O’Hanlon remained in contention for day two at Nailcote Hall trailing overnight leader Mouland by two shots. His victory at the Forest of Dean was his first-ever PGA order of merit win after 22 years of trying and he has now secured another strong PGA tour event under his belt. European Tour professional Oliver Fisher produced a solid three under par finish alongside former British Amateur Championship winner Gary Wolstenholme to tie for third place.

On the two Celebrity golf days taking place either side of the Pro Am, Brian Close won both competitions. The Former England and Yorkshire cricketer played some fantastic golf beating other celebrities including ‘Strictly Come Dancing’s’ Len Goodman, Sir Bobby Charlton, Peter Shilton OBE, Jasper Carrott OBE, William Roache MBE and snooker legend Willie Thorne.

The event was a real success raising a substantial amount for Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People and The Seve Ballesteros Foundation as there were two fantastic Gala Balls both featuring charity auctions with some amazing money can’t buy prizes including a unique one on one putting session with European Number One Lee Westwood

Tony Jacklin CBE once again hosted the event and deemed it another success, The former US Open Champion, celebrating the 40th anniversary of his victory at Hazeltine said; “Once again the event has been incredible, I would like to thank Farmfoods in supporting the event and ensuring that it succeeded and surpassed last year’s success. I am very much looking forward to next year’s event already and the chance to build on this year’s amazing success”

Former England and Manchester United footballer Sir Bobby Charlton was delighted to have been involved in this year’s competition, he said; “This is a great event, a superb location and I have really enjoyed myself, I will certainly try and come back next year and improve on my performance this year”. He continued; “Everyone has made me feel welcome and the event has attracted a large number of spectators which is very pleasing”