 Yes! Golf UK has formalized a long-standing arrangement with golfing legend Gary Wolstenholme MBE, who will now carry the Yes! Tour bag among other Yes! products in the future.
Sponsorships like this are big news for Yes! UK, because they’re rare. But if there’s one golf brand that’s known for innovative tactics it’s Yes! And here they are teaming up with the man described by his 1999 and 2001 Walker Cup Captain Peter McEvoy as “…a complete one-off”.
Wolstenholme – who was made an MBE in January 2007 for services to sport – is widely known as being the most capped golfer in the history of the British & Irish amateur game (if not the whole world), before turning pro in 2008 at the age of 48. He also, of course, belongs to that most elite of clubs – golfers who have beaten Tiger Woods in head to head matchplay (Walker Cup 1995).
Gary is a regular visitor to the Yes! Golf HQ in Southport, where he works on his putting alongside Phil Kenyon with an uncanny sense of focus bordering on the unworldly. Given his reputation for being one of the shortest players off the tee in championship golf, his longevity and success must be attributable to something, and behold, here it is.
“He is probably the most intelligent golfer I know,” marvels Yes! Golf UK MD Peter Allison. “He can look at the weather or a five-day forecast and already know how he should manage any course he has ever played – and he’s played dozens if not hundreds on every continent. He is an extraordinary golfer.”
As Wolstenholme prepares for the final qualifying round for The Open, he is focused on re-acquainting himself with the greens at Kilmarnock Barassie that now has a mix of new holes interspersed with the old original course.
“I think that the groove technology is the only way forward for my improved putting,” confesses Gary. “I honestly believe that the Yes! putters are as good if not considerably better than than any other brand out on the market today, and they have a range of putters to suit everyone, which is useful for me as I like to switch putter styles on a regular basis to keep me - and my putters - on our toes!
“Also the key knowledge of the guys at Yes! golf on the game-within-a-game is vital, and I'm benefitting from the understanding which the company has in overall technical expertise - both on putter set up and on the stroke itself - all of which I believe will be important to my own improvement in the future.”
Everybody playing to his strengths
Yes! Golf is not known for its big-budget Tour payroll. In fact it became a matter of policy in the Spring of 2008 not to renew the handful of existing contracts as they expired. Quite some months before the downturn that forced some manufacturers to offer putters for as little as a £1, Yes! Golf saw little point in competing with the major manufacturers on Pro player spend. Instead it opted to plough cash into longer-term investments such as R&D and Yes! Golf Custom-fitting Centres (currently numbering more than two dozen across Europe alone).
C-Groove Putters and the whole association with the Harold Swash putting methodology have helped Yes! Golf pay its dues on the Tour in a way more befitting a smaller more “family-orientated company that nonetheless still punches way above its weight (given its relatively low financial underpinning). Given the current state of affairs, it just so happens that Yes! Golf’s currency of obsessive attention to detail and a truly unique technological advantage is holding its value much more credibly than Dollars, Euros or Yen.
As Gary Wolstenholme MBE looks forward to a 2009 / 2010 season with huge expectation – and beyond to a grand entrance to the Seniors Tour next August – he sums up the new association in this way.
“I wouldn't have created this association if I didn't feel that it was best for me in that Yes! Golf are in my opinion the best brand out there to improve me as a player. I've tried hundreds of putters, been taught by some of the best teachers in the country, but I keep coming back to the same answer :Yes! Golf provides the holistic edge I need to truly improve on the greens. It's as simple as that.”
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