Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i Compleat Golfer

Where have all golf’s characters gone? It’s a question that many older golf fans will have asked themselves over the last decade or so, as a generation of well turned out, robotic golfers do battle one predictable shot after the next. It seems like there is not much room in modern tournament golf for the wild, wacky or mischievous players we had in the past. I think of the likes of Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros and John Daly – fierce competitors who also had more than a little bit of crazy in them. When it comes to the great characters of yesteryear, Simon Hobday surely takes the cake as the most colourful. Everyone who has played golf with Simon has a funny story about him and he’s got plenty of…

1 ESSENTIAL BYRON NELSON Byron Nelson has been recognised as one of the greatest golfers in the history of the game and as one of the biggest gentlemen of golf too. Here are 10 things you need to know about the Hall-of-Famer. ■ Bit.ly/CGByronNelson 2 GEORGE’S FOOTGOLF SKILLS What do you get when you cross football with golf? Footgolf. And how do you play it? Just ask George Coetzee, Graeme Storm and Byeong-hun An. ■ Bit/ly/CGFootgolf 3 BUBBA’S PUTTING SKILLS During his practice rounds for the US Open, Bubba Watson gave fans a taste of just how lethal the slopes on the greens are. His reaction, unlike his caddie’s, was surprisingly calm. ■ Bit.ly/CGBubbaPutt 4 ANYONE FOR A SHANK? Justin Rose managed to play the shot we don’t like to…

Sean died of a heart attack at the age of 49. Oldest brother Craigen is the head professional at Heritage Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio, while Sean, Deane and Brenden Pappas all attended the University of Arkansas and plied their trade on the Nationwide Tour. Sean returned to SA in the early ’90s and won five events on the Sunshine Tour, the last in 2000. In 1994, he shot rounds of 59, 61, 64 and 68 in a mini-tour event in the USA to set a world record score of 252 for 72 holes. In 2010, he became the resident club professional at The Ranch Resort, Executive Golf Course and Academy, outside Polokwane. Our condolences go out to the Pappas family and to Sean’s many friends.…

Dylan Naidoo has risen dramatically through the rankings since winning last year’s Nomads SA Boys U17 Strokeplay at Polokwane Golf Club. Less than nine months later, the 17-year-old Central Gauteng golfer took the No 1 spot in the South African Golf Association (SAGA) Junior standings after lifting the Nomads SA Boys U19 Strokeplay Championship at the same venue in April. The reward for all this hard work earned Naidoo a spot in the four-man team that chased down South Africa’s 17th consecutive victory in the All Africa Junior Golf Championship in Zambia this May. He was one of the key contributors to the team’s 55-stroke victory over Zimbabwe. Earlier this year, Naidoo competed in the European and Sunshine Tour’s co-sanctioned Joburg Open on invitation. In February, he helped the SAGA…

All golfers are well versed at what a par three, par four and par five mean. They also know a bogey (1 over), double-bogey (2 over), triple-bogey and so on. On the other side we have birdie, eagle, albatross and condor. The USGA guidelines for establishing the par of a hole is based purely on distance and states that a hole over 632 metres (ladies 540 metres) is a par six. At the Links Golf Course in Post Falls, Idaho, the 9th hole is 711 metres and is classed as a par six. Chocolay Golf Club in Marquette, Michigan, has a 921-metre par seven. Gunsan Country Club in South Korea has a hole measuring 1 003 metres which is classed as a par seven. What is the golfing terminology if…

FOR MORE COLUMNS from Joanne Lefson, visit her blog at bit.ly/joanne-lefson. Two specific cartoons caught my attention recently, and while I really feel for Tiger Woods, they still made me smile. The first showed a typical double-chinned golfing husband walking through the front door, looking pretty depressed, with the caption “I played so bad, even Tiger would have beaten me”. The second was a take on the 2005 American epic romantic drama Brokeback Mountain, with the main poster of Tiger, sporting a cowboy hat with the caption “Broke Black Golfer”. What to make of the fallen great is not for me to say, but the reality of Tiger in golf today is what 9/11 was to the world. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. I’ve already taken a few columns to share my…

THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP 2 is the number of times Whistling Straits has hosted the US PGA Championship prior to this year’s event. Martin Kaymer won the title the last time it was held there, in 2010. $0 is the price of a ticket to the US PGA Championship for members of the US Armed Forces and children below the age of 17. 2 is the number of times a South African has lifted the Wanamaker Trophy. In both instances (1962, 1972), Gary Player did it. Having said that, our Zimbabwean neighbour Nick Price also won the tournament twice, in 1992 and 1994. 5 is the record for the most US PGA Championship victories, held by Americans Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus. 8 is the largest margin of victory in the…

It’s very easy to like Jordan Spieth. Or to put it more accurately, it’s particularly difficult to come up with any reason to dislike the young man – not that many people seem too inclined to try. At barely 22 years old, the double Major champion is the hottest property in golf right now and is yet another breath of fresh air in what is rapidly becoming the post-Tiger era of golf. With Rory McIlroy (a relative veteran at age 27) and Spieth occupying the top two spots in the World Ranking by some margin, it’s clear that the future of golf is not only in safe hands, but also exciting hands. For one month between the US Open and the Open Championship, the pair held all four Major championships…

GRANT HEPBURN To watch more instruction videos, go to www.compleatgolfer.co.za. It was back in the 1930s when Gene Sarazen famously invented the modern sandwedge by soldering a lump of lead to the back of his wedge. The club has evolved from being principally used to escape the sand to becoming the most relied-upon club for most golfers inside scoring range. For most amateurs it is the highest-lofted club in the bag and is used for a variety of pitch- and chip-shots around the green. And the good news is that since this club requires more skill than strength, mastering the sandwedge is attainable by any player – it just requires a good deal of practise. In this tip, I demonstrate how to play three types of shots with the sandwedge,…

GARTH MILNE To watch videos of the tips, visit Bit.ly/GarthMilneTips. Excessive lateral sway and sliding of the pelvis in your swing is usually a result of limited hip joint mobility. The golf swing is characterised by rotation around the spine as well as pivoting around your two posts, your legs. There are a number of different ways to pivot in your lower body, but no matter what technique you employ, hip mobility is required to execute this fundamental golf movement pattern. At the Wanna Be A Champion academy we use 3D swing technology, Golf BioDynamics, to analyse our players’ swings. One of the common parameters that we look for is pelvic rotation. Correct pelvic rotation in the backswing and downswing allows one to create torque within the body. When a…

OUR FINAL SWING Interesting trivia from the world of golf. MOST CONSECUTIVE VICTORIES Byron Nelson’s 11 wins in a row in 1945 is a record that is unlikely to ever be beaten, with the next best being Tiger Woods’ seven straight wins in 2006-2007. MOST CONSECUTIVE TOP 10S Unsurprisingly, Mr Nelson holds this record too, having milked his hot streak for 65 top-10 fi nishes on the trot. For four years, from the 1942 Texas Open to the 1946 New Orleans Open, ‘Lord Byron’ did not fi nish outside the top 10. MOST CONSECUTIVE FAIRWAYS HIT Little-known Brian Claar hit a staggering 59 fairways in a row back in 1992. Unfortunately, accuracy was not enough for the American, who failed to win an event in 369 starts on tour. MOST…

He may not have won the US Open, but Branden Grace has shown that he is able to contend with the world’s best on the biggest stage. His six wins on the European Tour are proof of this. Grace has had a great 2015 season to date, having won twice on the European Tour in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek and the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. He also won the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt on the Sunshine Tour and it was the third time he has won a professional event at the estate where he is an ambassador. While he’s not the tallest or heaviest player out there, Grace is still quite capable of regularly smashing drives over 300 yards (275 metres). Grace is a Callaway staff…

Paarl Golf Club has been particularly good at keeping record of the fertiliser usage, pesticide management, hazardous wastage and consumption of fuels, lubricants and hydraulic oils. The club has also used expert advice to deal with water delivery to the course more effectively, as well as finding more efficient ways of using energy. Lastly, Paarl Golf Club’s comprehensive biodiversity programme, which includes a tree and shrub asset register, was noted as top-quality and shows careful planning with thought being given to the purpose of placing new trees in specific areas. Special mention was given to Zebula Golf Estate; however, it was Paarl Golf Club’s proactive programme in caring for the environment that tipped the scales in its favour. This includes rearing of young spotted eagle owls on the course, releasing…

The winning letter in the June issue refers. It is indeed very irritating how the US golf commentators end almost every statement with “right there”, or “right here”, or “right now”, ad nauseam, but this is how Americans speak, “right”? Listen to South African sports commentators how they end their sentences, so often, with “as well”. Ask the question, “As well as what?” and there will probably be no answer. Some even start with “also” and end the same statement with “as well” – a double whammy. Dale Hayes, in his June Golf Talk, pays tribute to some of our ‘professional’ golf commentators. I am reminded of Martin Locke’s interview with Lanny Wadkins at the Sun City Million Dollar tournament many years ago. Wadkins was leading the small field at…

FOR MORE COLUMNS from Dale Hayes, visit his blog at bit.ly/-dale-hayes. I received this email from Vaughn Tucker on Father’s Day. Hi Dale I am very proud of the fact that two of my juniors are in the top five of the US Open. I had no golfing father but your dad was mine. He was the best coach in SA and I now know that what he taught me teaching-wise transferred into my players. Your tour experience was also valuable. Thanks Hayes family. This is like a movie, but I think I told you that Branden could win a Major. Happy Father’s Day. It was a great day for Vaughn. Even though neither of his players won, they certainly made him, and all South Africans, proud. And his email…

For a relatively small country – when it comes to population that is, not land mass – Scotland has been something of an overachiever. The country of kilts and haggis has given us not only the television, the telephone, the steam engine and penicillin, but plenty of other worldchanging inventions. Yet of all the great gifts that the country has introduced to the world, few will have been appreciated over a longer period of time than whisky and golf – two great Scottish icons. Both whisky and golf can be traced back well over 500 years and connoisseurs of these pastimes will be able to reflect on a certain charm and class that links two products that share a great deal in terms of precision, patience and artistry. The rich…

if you had to select a group of talented, young Sunshine Tour players who are bubbling just under the very top level, you’d have to include the likes of Danie van Tonder, Jacques Blaauw, Louis de Jager, Dean Burmester, Merrick Bremner and Justin Harding. These multiple winners on the local tour have proved that they have more than enough game to compete internationally and one suspects that given the chance to play on the European Tour, they would feel quite at home. The trick is to make that step from the Sunshine Tour to European Tour, and short of winning one of our co-sanctioned events – a tough ask in itself – the road to Europe is a particularly difficult one. Qualifying School is a tough slog, particularly for those…

The best way to explain the benefits of quiet legs is to point out what happens when you don’t do it properly. Imagine two big wine barrels on top of each other: the top one represents your upper body and the bottom one your lower half. In order to get your best contact, impact position and strike, the lower barrel needs to stay stable so that the upper barrel (your upper half ) can work through the ball correctly. If the lower barrel moves laterally, it will affect the top barrel and possibly make it fall off – or, if related to your golf swing, make you topple backwards. What this means is that if you have a problem finishing your swing or getting your weight and power through the…

It’s not often that your ball gets stuck up in a tree, but it does happen. In the North Texas Shootout in May, Lydia Ko’s ball got stuck up a pine tree after an unsuccessful flop shot, while in the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore in March, Lewis’ ball finished in a palm tree. You can deem your ball unplayable anywhere on the course, except when it lies in a water hazard. When proceeding under the unplayable ball rule (Rule 28) you may, under penalty of one stroke: A. play a ball from where your last shot was played, or B. drop a ball any distance behind the point where the ball lay, keeping a straight line between the hole, the point where the ball lay and the spot on…

SA’s nine-time Major winner Gary Player was belatedly inducted into the Southern Africa Golf Hall of Fame alongside professionals Fulton Allem, John Fourie, Lewis Chitengwa, amateurs Mrs AE Vernon, Ronnie Glennie and golf administrator Walter Conyers Kirby at a glittering ceremony at the Waterfront’s Radisson Blu Hotel. Player comfortably qualified for the inaugural Hall of Fame class of 2009 but had been unable to attend the ceremony until this year. His addition to the Hall of Fame completes the list of Southern Africa’s golfing greats. The Deputy Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa addressed the induction banquet, and guests were in stitches thanks to anecdotes from the likes of Hugh Baiocchi, Denis Hutchinson, Dale Hayes, Johann Rupert and Sally Little. In a heart-warming moment, Zimbabwean golfer Chitengwa was posthumously inducted into…

“I think I underachieved all my life. I think that’s why I got better.” – JACK NICKLAUS OFFERS HIS OPINION ON HIS CAREER. “I have 40 putters in there and I hate every one of them.” – MARK CALCAVECCHIA TALKS ABOUT THE COLLECTION OF REJECTED PUTTERS HE TAKES WITH HIM FROM TOURNAMENT TO TOURNAMENT. “I will not be discussing the Open course with anyone, so it will be [quiet] on Twitter next week.” – IAN POULTER’S WORDS BEFORE THE US OPEN. IT WAS A WELCOME RESPITE FROM HIS DAILY WHINGEING, ALTHOUGH IT DIDN’T STOP HIM FROM MOUTHING OFF AGAIN AFTER THE TOURNAMENT. “There’s no louder Christian on the PGA Tour than Bubba Watson and in my opinion, no bigger hypocrite.” – SHANE RYAN COMMENTING ON HIS OPINION OF BUBBA WATSON…

1 JORDAN SPIETH Spieth is undeniably the man of the moment, with the 22-year-old world No 2 having won the Masters and the US Open this year. By the time you are reading this he may just be the 2015 Open champion too and three quarters of the way to the Grand Slam. He also has another four professional wins to go with his two Majors. 2 HIDEKI MATSUYAMA This 23-year-old is undoubtedly Asia’s top golfer right now and has won six times on the Japan Golf Tour and once on the US Tour – in the 2014 Memorial Tournament. He has had three top 10s in Majors so far and played on the 2013 International team in The Presidents Cup. 3 PATRICK REED He may come with plenty of…

Much has been written about the decline in golf club membership and the closure of golf courses. But John Botha, in his reviews of golf courses, often refers to the camaraderie, welcoming atmosphere and friendliness of clubs. So I decided to join my local club. Unfortunately I have remained merely a number at my club for the past year. I have been unable to penetrate the club membership and find regular golfing partners. Most players seem to belong to their own exclusive little group, with no room for newcomers. I suppose I could have made a better effort, but, as a high-handicapper, I don’t have the self-confidence to join the Saturday competitions, and therefore play mostly on my own. I want to suggest to chairmen, committee members and pro-shop staff…

FOR MORE COLUMNS from John Botha, visit his blog at bit.ly/john-botha. I was amused when I read in a national newspaper that the infamous convicted criminal Schabir Shaik had applied for membership at Durban Country Club, and that a group of concerned members there let their displeasure be known by signing a petition to prevent him from being accepted. In an excellent article written by William Saunderson-Meyer in The Independent, it was pointed out that although ‘Shabby’ Shaik had been granted temporary membership while his application was being scrutinised, he had been informed by the club that there was “a groundswell” of opinion among certain members that his membership “may well bring the club into disrepute and tarnish its good name”. The petition apparently demands that the club’s board and…

TO WATCH AZINGER WIN THE 1993 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP, log onto bit.ly/CGAzinger1993 PAUL AZINGER BORN 6 January 1960 TURNED PRO 1981 FIRST WIN 1987 Phoenix Open CAREER WINS 17 MAJORS 1 MASTERS T3 1993 US OPEN T2 1987 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP T2 1987 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP 1993 In 2008, the American Ryder Cup team made history at Valhalla Golf Club. The 16½–11½ victory over the Europeans was the first since 1999, and the person captaining their triumph was one Paul Azinger. His method has since become legendary, even warranting a book called Cracking the Code: The Winning Ryder Cup Strategy. Though this ‘revolutionary’ theory truly only capitalised on the idea of pairing players by personality, it was Azinger’s drive and enthusiasm which inspired the players to the next level. This drive was born…

Hole 4: par 4,452 metres The toughest hole on the course in terms of stroke rating, this par four - aptly named ‘Glory’ - won’t produce many birdies, but those who do find the hole in three shots will feel they have gained two strokes on the field. With the hole hugging the shoreline of Lake Michigan, players need to keep to the right of the fairway; however, large mounding on the right tends to make players aim left. It is this optical illusion (found on many of the tee shots at Whistling Straits) that makes the holes so tricky. Taking driver off the tee can lead to running out of fairway on the left, but taking anything less leads to a longer approach with a mid- to long-iron into…

The average amateur golfer will find a green in regulation between six and eight times during a round of golf. This means that, on the majority of those holes where the green has been missed, they will probably be testing their short game. If you factor in par fives (where you find the green in regulation using your short game for your third shot) it means your wedges will be used for up to 14 times per round, give or take. That should make it clear how important it is to have the best-suited wedges for your game. When it comes to finding the best combination of wedges, two aspects need to be considered: bounce fitting and distance gapping. Bounce refers to the angle between the leading edge of the…

A lot of people miss short putts because their rhythm is out and, as such, they don’t make contact with the ball with the middle of their putters. Solid contact is fundamental to being a good short putter. An excellent drill to help improve both your rhythm and your contact is to use the toe end of the putter to practise your putts. In other words, hit some short putts with the toe of the putter pointing towards the ball, as I demonstrate in the images. Of course, this only works with a blade or perimeter-weighted (Anserstyle) putter. The idea here is not to worry about how many putts you make, but rather to get the feel for how this drill encourages a straight-back-andthrough putting stroke, with a followthrough that’s…

AMATEUR GOLF Foremost on the list of Glacier Junior Series achievers is Bloemfontein junior golfer Attie van Wyk. The young golfer made history by becoming the first player to win the Bloemfontein tournament three times. Van Wyk won the 2012 and 2013 editions of this tournament, but finished four strokes off the winning score last year. He put that right in June, however, when he claimed his hat-trick of titles, winning the A Division of the SuperGolf-sponsored event with a round of 71. Bloemfontein Golf Club’s Ruan Pretorius was second with a 73. The Free State golfers dominated this event in the other divisions too. The B Division title was won by Bloemfontein Golf Club’s Fourie du Toit who shot a round of 81, one stroke clear of FG van…

1. A REAL FLYER TIGER WOODS, US OPEN FIRST ROUND, 18 JUNE 2015 University Place, Washington Tiger can actually claim that he wasn’t throwing a club this time, but as to why he needed to let go of it, only he or his coach can answer. 2. AN UPHILL STRUGGLE TIGER WOODS, US OPEN SECOND ROUND, 19 JUNE 2015 University Place, Washington Tiger’s two days in the US Open were characterised by him climbing high up the thick fescue dunes, and eventually at one point, sliding down them again. 3. THE GREENEST GREEN US OPEN SPECTATOR, US OPEN THIRD ROUND, 20 JUNE 2015 University Place, Washington Many players in the fi eld would argue that putting would have been easier on this fan’s hat, rather than on the Chambers Bay…

THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT MUIRFIELD VILLAGE GC, DUBLIN, OHIO 4-7 June 2015, $6.2 million DAVID LINGMERTH David Lingmerth of Sweden beat Justin Rose on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff at Muirfield Village to claim his maiden US Tour title. Very calmly, he rolled in a five-footer for par on the 10th green to earn the famed handshake with tournament host Jack Nicklaus. FEDEX ST JUDE CLASSIC TPC SOUTHWIND, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE 11-14 June 2015, $6 million FABIÁN GÓMEZ In winning the FedEx St Jude Classic, Fabián Gómez became the fifth US Tour winner from Argentina, joining Andrés Romero, Ángel Cabrera, José Cóceres and Roberto De Vicenzo. The 36-year-old finished on 13 under, four shots clear of Englishman Greg Owen. US OPEN CHAMBERS BAY GC, UNIVERSITY PLACE, WASHINGTON 18-21 June 2015,…