Volvo China Open

April 16th, 2010

With the golfing world still catching its breath following a sizzling Sunday at Augusta the European Tour schedule takes us to Jinji Lake Golf Club in Suzhou, China for the 7th playing of the Volvo China Open.

The course at Jinji Lake marks a new venue for the event and the Gary Player designed, par-72 layout offers two very different nines. The opening nine holes have been designed in the style of a classic links golf course but, as the players hit the turn, the character of the course changes and the inward nine is pure parkland golf.

As the Titleist Tour Team landed in China for the practice rounds the major surprise was the local weather which resembled a typical February in the UK. Cold and rain was the order of the day and, as you can see from this week’s slideshow, the players were breaking out their winter gear in an effort to stay warm and dry.

Click here to view the slideshow.

With the event taking place in China the Titleist Tour Support Vehicle was not on site this week (UK to mainland China in a heavy goods vehicle is a tough commute even for our driver Ian “Iron Man” Martin) and equipment work was therefore fairly restricted. However, the Team did take time out to speak to a number of players about their wedge requirements. New Vokey Spin Milled C-C wedges were issued to all Titleist players at the start of 2010 to conform to the new R&A groove rulings but, with the amount of playing and practicing that these guys do, a number of players are already looking to order a fresh set of wedges. Titleist Ambassadors Pablo Larrazabal and Martin Erlandsson were two of the players to place their order for new Vokey C-C wedges and will take delivery of these at the Open de Espana in two weeks time.

Other Titleist Ambassadors to touch base this week were Australian Rick Kulacz and Argentina’s Tano Goya. Both players headed for Titleist Tour Representative Mattias Jelver to discuss potential changes to their equipment set-up. Rick is currently using the new AP2 iron with the True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shaft but would like something that offers a flatter ball flight. With the Dynamic Gold being one of the lowest launching iron shafts available a change in shaft would not have the desired effect and it was therefore agreed that we would build a new set of Titleist CB irons with the same specification as his AP2 set. The design of the CB iron features a higher CG which produces a naturally flatter flight than the AP2 and these should produce the ball flight that Rick requires. These will be assembled at Titleist HQ back in the UK and be shipped to Rick for his next event. Tano Goya’s request was somewhat similar but this time it was the driver that he was looking to hit a little flatter. Whilst generally happy with his set-up in his current 909D2 Tano felt that the spin may be a little on the high side and has booked himself in with Mattias for a Trackman session in Korea next week. These subtle changes in equipment really can make a difference at this level and, whilst a few hundred revs of spin on the driver doesn’t sound like much, it could be the difference between making a carry or not making a carry; the difference between success and failure.

Finally this week, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Titleist Europe Twitter page. This page will allow our Tour Team to provide real-time updates from inside the ropes at European Tour events. We hope that you will enjoy following the new page and feel free to communicate with the Team regarding their “Tweets”. We would very much appreciate your interaction.

Click here to visit the Titleist Europe Twitter page

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized