 Yes! Golf Technology earns Hollander Maiden Challenge Tour Victory
"A quite stunning final round…" is how the European Tour reporter described the weekend's performance of Netherlander Taco Remkes in his maiden Challenge Tour victory in the Scottish Challenge at the MacDonald Cardrona Golf & Country Club near Peebles.
Remkes is one of the latest rising stars to have spent a few productive hours at the newly opened Yes! Golf Putting Centre in Eindhoven under the coaching eye of seasoned golf coach Bart van der Wind.
"I told myself to stay calm and relax, because it's just another 18 holes of golf," said the 23 year-old from Amsterdam.. "Starting with three birdies was fantastic - every putt seemed to drop in the hole! On the back nine the wind got up a little bit, but I knew pars would be good enough to win. It's a great feeling to win in my first season on the Challenge Tour."
His -13 final score and 5-stroke lead over Englishman Seve Benson and Jeppe Huldahl from Denmark netted a cheque for €35,200, and has also earned Remkes a place in the top five of the Challenge Tour Rankings in his maiden season. The top 20 will gain cards on next season's European Tour International Schedule.
Taco was using a long-shafted Yes! Natalie Putter that had been custom-fitted for him by Bart van der Wind in Eindhoven. The Natalie is a very distinctive centre-shafted, face-balanced putter with a long single alignment line in its elliptical 'cut-out' head. As well as the long-shaft option, the Natalie is also available in belly length (40 inch - 45 inch) and standard length (32 inch to 36 inch), as well as in a left-hand variant.
Other players currently favouring the Natalie include Tom Whitehouse and Eamon Brady
The Yes! Golf facility in Eindhoven is the first custom-fitting golf club laboratory of its kind in Europe outside of the British Isles, with specialized focus on putters . Not only is it a first for The Netherlands, it is a first for mainland Europe as well.
The facility is owned by Approach Golf - a golf distributor based in the south of the country, and one that has made itself a fearsome reputation by taking the Yes! Golf brand of C-Groove putters and putting them in golf shops from Reykjavik to Moscow in a little over two years.
Outside of the British Isles (Yes! Golf UK & Ireland is a separate entity based in the UK) for a sports equipment brand to have achieved such widespread distribution is almost unheard of (and sales are up 30% on last year). Particularly when one considers that while Yes! Golf is usually #2 or #3 most widely used putter on the Tour, it is only a fraction the size of the big golf names that predominate, such as TaylorMade, Titleist, Nike and so forth.
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