Indholdsfortegnelse for Sep 2022 - Issue 400 i Golf Australia

While the pointy end of men’s professional golf continues to travel down an uncertain path paved with gold bars and $100 notes scattered like leaf-litter across them, there are still wonderful golfing yarns untarnished by dollar values to be found in the golfing world. These are the tales of underdogs and never-say-die players who are just following their dreams in the golfing world. What they would give for a phone call from Greg Norman asking them to join LIV Golf … even for just one event. Take the case of Robert Dinwiddie. The 39-year-old Englishman played on Europe’s Challenge Tour for years but when COVID hit, he went and helped a mate out with his construction company. With the 150th Open approaching, Dinwiddie, who hadn’t played a Tour event in…

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DUSTIN JOHNSON (LIV GOLF) Former World No.1 and two-time Major Champion reportedly signed with LIV Golf for US$150 million. “Ultimately, I decided to come and do this. I’m excited about this. Obviously, the Ryder Cup is unbelievable and something that has meant a lot to me. … Hopefully I’ll get a chance to do that again, but I don’t make the rules.” PHIL MICKELSON (LIV GOLF) Six-time Major Champion reportedly signed with LIV for US$200 million. “They’re scary motherf—kers to get involved with. We know they killed Khashoggi (Washington Post journalist, Jamal] and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour…

Of all the information given to us by modern shot tracking technology, the most surprising data relates to iron shots. After recording more than a million slices, duffs and pearlers over the past eight years, expert analysts Shot Scope recently revealed that the single biggest contributor to the shots we give up to a scratch golfer is not putting, not even driving, but green approaches. And by a lot. In fact, our poor iron play accounts for almost half of all the shots we lose. No wonder Strokes Gained inventor Dr Mark Broadie told this magazine that shots from 150 metres were the key score differentiator across all handicaps. “If I watched you hit five shots from this distance,” he asserts, “I would be confident of guessing your handicap to…

We can pin the elite golfer’s downswing down to two elements … ■ Movement is sequenced from the ground up. ■ The body leads and the club follows. Seen in this context, it’s easier to understand how an aggressive, fast leg action becomes key; a strong drive through the knees sets up that ground-up pattern and helps get the body out in front. The typical club golfer tends to reverse this, with over-active arms and shoulders dominating placid legs. It creates weak, inconsistent strikes. Here’s a drill to get your legs more dynamic and engaged. 1 FINISH: MORE CORE, LESS ARMS This exercise is all about the finish. Swing the club normally, and try to hit the ball with your usual intent. But your finishing position must achieve two things…

More of us have done it than care to admit, but leaving a wedge by the green is one of the worst feelings in golf. Particularly if it fails to make its way back into your possession. Sure well intentioned golfers pick them up but forget about it as the 19th hole beckons, but now there is a way to make sure your favourite club makes its way back into your bag. Stik Stickers are hard wearing and waterproof identification labels that can be placed on the shaft of each of your clubs featuring your name and phone number so the missing club in question is easily identified as yours. And clubs aren’t the only application either, because rangefinders get left on the ground or in carts all the time.…

What started as something of an equipment oddity turned into a full-blown golfing revolution and, while hybrids are less common with the top pros currently, they remain a highly versatile, forgiving option throughout the bag. Utility irons also offer easier-to-hit options that launch higher and are built as fairway finders. Here are the best choices on the market. CALLAWAY ROGUE ST The Rogue ST family borrows from the drivers and fairway woods of the same name and is offered in four models to cater to a wide range of players. An all-new ‘Jailbreak System’ creates distance, while the 455 Face Cup, all-new ‘A.I. Face Optimisation’ and ‘Tungsten Speed Cartridge’ create forgiveness and optimal ball flights. The MAX is for the game-improvement player who wants breakthrough hybrid performance, MAX OS is…

Politics and sport are a messy mix, albeit one that, for golf in this country, is a source of significant financial gain. For years now, governments have signed deals with local tournaments to play the event in their region for large sums of cash to help bring big name players from abroad and raise prizemoney. But rarely has this then led to the golf becoming a platform for that government to overtly take over proceedings to trumpet its own cause, or self. Rather the money and exposure of golf is considered a valuable investment in sport and inbound tourism. For LIV Golf and Greg Norman, the clash of politics and sport is an unavoidable one given the Saudi funding of golf’s latest circuit. This is, of course, where the displeasure…

WHAT DOES LIV GOLF HAVE TO GAIN? There’s an element of ‘who at LIV Golf’ in this question. For Greg Norman there would be great satisfaction in causing turmoil for the PGA Tour, which he has long held in low regard. In that sense, it is mission accomplished for the Shark (with the added bonus of remaining in the limelight well past his playing days). The bigger question is about those putting up the money – Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – and what their goals might be. Nobody really knows, though common sense says that beyond any sportswashing narrative there must be, in the longer term, a profit motive. The Saudi monarchy’s publicly stated goal is to pivot away from their heavy reliance on oil for economic growth…

Examine the actions of any great iron player and you will see that, at impact, the shoulders are relatively square to the target line while the pelvis has opened out or rotated; in the case of golfers like Collin Morikawa and Dustin Johnson, extremely so. You will also see their lead toe and trail heel off the ground. The two elements are very much related. WHY ELITE GOLFERS ROTATE SO HARD Lower-body rotation is important because it allows us to release the club with more power and control. ■It sets up the correct ground-up sequencing for the downswing. ■It allows the bigger muscles of the core to carry a far more stable club through impact, collecting the ball as it goes. In remaining side-on, we can only give the ball…

For our fourth exercise, we’re going to address the clear twist top golfers routinely display as they swing down. For while the lower body has rotated and cleared in this pre-delivery position, the shoulders are much squarer. ■ This is part of the downswing’s ground-up uncoiling sequence, improving power. ■ It also improves path; if the shoulders went with the hips, we’d swipe across the ball. Let’s look at a four-step drill that will help you feel how to open up that lower half without the upper body rotating too. EXERCISE STICK AND TWIST 1. Grip two alignment sticks as if they were golf clubs. Alternatively, flip two clubs and grip them up near the heads. Swing down and hold your delivery position. 2. From here, simply release the wrists…

Not all of us can be wizards with a wedge, as much as we may try. For golfers who resemble T.C. Chen more than Tony Finau around the greens, PING have created short game solution combining elements of a putter and a wedge to deliver a better short game. The new ChipR owes its inspiration to the Chipo created by company founder Karsten Solheim in the 1970s, and like that club is for the golfer fearing bladed or chunked chips. Measuring the length of a putter (35 inches) and carrying a loft similar to a 9-iron (38.5), the ChipR is to be used inside 40 metres and produces consistent and reliable shots in the mould of a bump and run. Cast from 431 stainless steel with a compact head design…

Let’s face it, even if our game doesn’t match up, most golfers like to at least look like we know what we are doing. Mizuno have long catered to this inner desire with its range of Tour bags, which have been refreshed for 2022 in a range of options and a variety of colours. www.mizunogolf.com TOUR CART BAG • 14-Way Top Cuff with Integrated Putter Well / Full length dividers • Rubberised Grab Handles Moulded into Top Cuff • Single Shoulder Strap with Adjustment Point • Full Length Apparel Pocket x 2 • XL Insulated Cooler Pocket with Drain Holes • Fleece Lined Valuables Pocket with Waterproof Zipper • Removable Ball Pocket Panel • Magnetic Pocket • Insulated Drink Pocket • Push Cart Notch Moulded into Bottom Cuff • Umbrella…

Sanctuary Cove Golf & Country Club’s The Palms course will undergo an enhancement plan, which will see further upgrades since its redesign was completed more than a decade ago. Paul Mogford and Neil Crafter of Crafter + Mogford Architects, who have Melbourne’s renowned Metropolitan Golf Club and The Barwon Heads Golf Club to their names, will oversee the project. Work is due to commence in early 2023. Mogford, who was recently elected President of The Society of Australian Golf Course Architects, is creating the enhancement plan for The Palms, which underwent its last significant rebuild by renowned architect Ross Watson in 2009. Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club Executive General Manager Paul Sanders said the plan was part of the club’s commitment to maintaining the best facilities for its members…

So that’s them done for another year. And nine months will have passed before we see another one in the men’s game. A major championship, that is, if the 2023 Masters “Tournament” – America’s so-called “rite of spring” – can actually be labelled as such. It’s a long gap, one that looks like being largely filled by a continuing and unedifying spectacle. As we all try to make the most of what’s left on the golfing table, the elite men’s game seems to be intent on tearing itself apart. The battle between the establishment, in the shape of the “strategic alliance” formed by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, and the money-laden interlopers from Saudi Arabia known as LIV Golf shows little sign of abating any time soon.…

In light of the current developments happening in and around men’s professional golf, it is worth looking back at how the modern PGA Tour was founded. Professional golf was booming in the late 1960s with the likes of the ‘Big Three’ – Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player – dominating the game worldwide and becoming household names. Expanded television coverage of events led to an increase in revenue pouring into the game, which eventually led to a dispute between the touring professionals and the Professional Golfers’ Association of America on how best to distribute golf’s pot of gold. The PGA of America had been running the professional game, including tournaments, since 1916. While the Tour players wanted a bigger slice of the pie, the PGA wanted any revenue to…

Almost exactly four years had passed since I last teed-up in a PGA Tour event, but when I drove off the 1st tee at the Barracuda Championship in mid-July it was, in many ways, as if I had never been away. Turning up at the course, registering, seeing the equipment representatives on the range, practising Tuesday and Wednesday; it felt like I hadn’t been gone more than a week. In that respect at least, the Tour is like riding a bike; you never forget. In other ways, of course, my time away from the competitive element was all too evident. As we all know, golf with a scorecard in your pocket is a lot different from playing a casual game with your mates. So, for me, everything had changed and…

CROWN PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN The seventh son of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and perhaps better known as ‘MBS’. He is the deputy prime minister of Saudi Arabia and chairman of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is financing LIV Golf. The United Nations has accused MBS of being personally linked to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi – a Washington Post journalist who was critical of the Saudi government – and other human rights violations. YASIR BIN OTHMAN AL-RUMAYYAN Governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and serves directly under MBS. He is also the chairman of Newcastle Football Club (owned by PIF since October 2021) and the Saudi state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, which has been sponsoring women’s golf events. Along with MBS, has plegded $2 billion to LIV…

In his own modest, unassuming, no-nonsense kind of way, Retief Goosen has made an impression whenever and wherever he’s played. And like his fellow countryman, the legendary South African Gary Player, he’s teed it up in an awful lot of places. All four corners of Planet Golf, in fact. Aided by one of the silkiest and stylish swings in golf, the 53-year-old has played and won all over the globe, including nine times on both the European Tour and Sunshine Tour back home in South Africa, plus another five victories on the Asian Tour. The highlights of his career have come in America with seven wins on the PGA Tour, highlighted by two stunning U.S Open victories in 2001 at Southern Hills and 2004 at Shinnecock Hills. Even the modest…

In our second technical common denominator, we see that coming into impact, the lead hip and pelvis have shifted forwards, the belt buckle out ahead of the ball, while the head remains slightly behind it. This is so important to hitting quality iron shots for a number of reasons … WHY ELITE GOLFERS PUNCH THEIR HIPS FORWARD Shifting the pelvis forward from under the chest is important because it helps with attack angle and putting pressure into the ball. ■We all know about the famous ball-turf strike. To create power from a lofted face we need to compress or squeeze the ball, and that comes from a slightly downward attack angle. ■To deliver this squeezing attack, we need to get our weight – or more precisely our centre of pressure…

The average PGA Tour player launches his 7-iron at an angle of 16.3º. When we consider the average loft of a 7-iron is around 32º, we can see just how much these players are delofting the clubface at impact. In presenting a stronger face to the ball, elite players gain not just power but also a more controllable, penetrating flight. Sure, some of this delofting is created by angle of attack – hitting downwards – but according to launch monitors, only about 15 percent. The rest is all about the clubface’s loft at impact. Top players flatten the lead wrist to deloft the clubface. FLAT LEAD WRIST: STRONG CLUBFACE Here, I’ve placed a gadget on the clubface to help visually define its position. In this solid predelivery position, my lead…

The advent of launch monitors in golf has brought about significant improvements in golfer performance, and it isn’t just Tour players who are hitting longer, straighter drives and more accurate approach shots thanks to units like TrackMan. Club fitting is now a highly scientific process, golf lessons are backed by data and the fortunate few are able to work on their game in the privacy of their own home if owning a Trackman and the space to swing. Combining a Trackman and real ball flight is the ideal, but so much of fitting and practise takes place indoors, and now thanks to a partnership between Titleist and TrackMan the data captured in that environment is at its absolute peak. Titleist recently unveiled the Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls…

With inflation on the rise and the cost-of-living putting pressure on the hip pocket nerve, there’s no need to sacrifice your golf game. Over the following pages we reveal the best golf you can play in metropolitan areas of Australia – which includes all state and territory capitals and cities with a population over 200,000 – where the green fee presents a real bargain. To qualify for the list, a course’s most expensive green fee was not to exceed $50. From there, we poured through notes and observations made by Golf Australia editors and Top-100 ranking judges to come up with the courses we believe present challenging, fun golf at a price that won’t put a hefty dint in the household budget. The green fees listed are the rack rate…