Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Compleat Golfer

6 Jordan Spieth What can I say about Jordan Spieth? Well, I did spend a bit of time with him in college at the University of Texas and I can safely tell you this: he’s a better person than he is a golfer. And that’s saying something given the quality of golfer he is. While he is a four-time Major champion, he hasn’t changed one bit since I met him in 2010. He’s kind and good-hearted unlike anyone I’ve met before. What he’s done for charities in the US is staggering. I could go on for hours about the man himself, but it’s his golf game that’s giving him the platform to do such amazing work. Without question, Jordan is one of the most clutch golfers of all time. Whether…

In this age of social media and keyboard warriors it takes a special breed to shut out the noise. One of the world’s leading sports psychologists told me at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics that he encourages his athletes to stay off Twitter ‘The human brain is wired such that you can get a hundred positive comments and one negative comment and you will focus on the negative comment,’ he says. ‘Even if it comes from a troll who has one Twitter follower or might even be a bot. That negative comment will override all the positives.’ It is also why not everything you see is what it is. Many verified Twitter athletes don’t personally engage on the social media platform and they employ management companies to send out their tweets.…

As someone who enjoys having a punt – racing and football being my Staple diet – I have to say I’ve never been drawn to betting on golf. As with every sport, there’s a huge market for it. but throughout the A-Z of codes there surely isn’t a game that’s harder to predict than golf. When there are 160 players teeing up on a Thursday with 72 holes ahead of them before determining a Sunday winner and you are going to put your money on one of them to win outright, the only way to double your money is by folding it and putting it in your back pocket Anything other than that and you may as well crunch it up and toss it into the gentle breeze. I am…

South Africa, it is fair to say, is a net exporter of sporting talent. Most international cricket and rugby teams have their fair share of South Africa-born players, and many other sports stars now ply their trade under another flag. So it was something of a coup when one of the most exciting golfing talents and the reigning Western Australian Amateur champion, Aldrich Potgieter, reversed the trend and made it back to the land of his birth after nine years in Perth. Potgieter learned to play the game on the Australian west coast, where the 17-year-old progressed through the excellent Golf Western Australia system as one to watch. His victory at The Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes, where he beat England’s Sam Bairstow 3 & 2 in…

With the 150th Open Championship having been played on the Old Course at St Andrews, I thought it would be fitting to look back at my past Women’s Open Championships there. As a kid growing up, I had always dreamed of one day playing the Old Course. If you are a golfer, it’s like visiting the Promised Land. The feeling you get when you arrive at the Home of Golf is like no other. It gives you goosebumps and, to be honest, it is emotional. The ladies have played only two Women’s Opens at St Andrews and I have been lucky enough to play at both. The first was in 2007, my rookie year at 18.I Qualified for the event by winning the third Ladies European Tour (LET) tournament I…

Only four left-handed players have won Major championships. Three of them have won The Masters, W so it’s no surprise that one of the Sunshine Tour’s newest winners, Dylan Mostert, thinks The Masters would be the one Major he would play if he got the chance. Mike Weir, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson have all won at Augusta. Bob Charles is the only other southpaw to have won a Major, taking The Open Championship in 1963. ‘I’d choose The Masters because of the tradition the tournament stands for, as well as the golf course,’ says Mostert, the lefty who won his first Sunshine Tour title at the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am at Irene Country Club in June. ‘The Masters is one of the best out there and there is nothing…

Gabbi Venter produced the goods when it counted, pulling off a miraculous approach to set up an eagle on Sun City’s par-five 9th hole to win the Nomads SA Girls Championship in a playoff. Having finished the 54-hole tournament tied with Central Gauteng’s Sam Whateley, Venter took on the iconic island green with her second shot and very nearly holed out for an albatross. ‘Sam laid up with her second and I knew I had to go for it,’ said Venter. ‘I had 174m to the green – it was a blind shot because the pin was on the left behind the trees, but I felt confident about it. I flushed it and I started running. ‘I could hear the people shouting and I saw the ball bounce right next…

The philosophy of MJ Daffue was right there for all to see during the second round of the 2022 US Open at The Country Club at Brookline. The South African hit a spectacular shot from the hospitality deck on the 14th hole – a 3-wood that earned a man with an already devoted cult following an even greater fanbase. ‘That shot is a summary of me,’ said Daffue. ‘It may not be the best shot in US Open history, but it may be one of the most memorable in US Open history. And that shot wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t hit a bad tee shot. The bad created the good.’ It’s this philosophy that has carried Daffue through some challenging and torturous years, and through near financial ruin, chasing…

Historically, on the back of the mining booms, there was a need for leisure activities and places to unwind for the growing population away from the rigours of work. Golf courses and country clubs were the go-to options, and there was uninterrupted Highveld terrain on which to build them. Then there is, of course, the great year-round weather. Whichever way you look at it, golf has become many things to many parts of the economic heart of the country, and perhaps none more so than at Irene Country Club, established in 1911 with General Jan Smuts and Sir Percy Fitzpatrick among the original committee. And one that today has retained the best of the old while incorporating the attractions of the new to create a memorable facility. Measuring 6 216m,…

Necessity. we are told, is the mother of invention. Necessity. or desperation? Regardless, in 1928, there was one of those eureka moments when Edwin Kerr McClain. a member at Houston Country Club found himself trying to hack out of yet another bunker with his niblick. the highest-lofted club in his bag, equivalent to a 9-iron Then it dawned on him he needed a radically lofted club. And so was born the sand-wedge. Actually. there had been a type of wedge back in the day when those hardy Scottish players trudging across fields in pursuit of their featherie balls carried a ‘rut iron’ a spoon-shaped implement used to extract the ball out of the many cart tracks and mud pits to be found on most courses But that disappeared in the…

MEN JUNIORS 1 (3) Pascal Gunther (Bryanston CC) DNQ (DNQ) Aldrich Potgieter (Pinnacle Point GC) 2 (2) Stefan Jacobs (Randpark GC) 3 (9) Ivan Verster (Pinnacle Point GC) 4 (5) Jack Buchanan (Milnerton GC) 5 (1) Daniel Bennett (Royal Durban GC) 6 (6) Amilkar Bhana (Country Club Johannesburg) 7 (4) Jaden Deltel (Bryanston CC) 8 (7) Keagan Crosbie (Centurion CC) 9 (11) Dylan Kayne (Pearl Valley Golf Estate) 10 (17) Janko van der Merwe (Magaliespark CC) 11 (10) Fabrizio de Abreu (Woodhill CC) 12 (14) Jordan Wessels (Mooinooi GC) DNQ (DNQ) Tristan Leonard (Silver Lakes CC) 13 (13) Joshua Koekemoer (Silver Lakes CC) 14 (12) Timothy Daniels (Devonvale Golf Estate) 15 (19) Mamo Lange (Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate) 16 (-) Christopher Bagnall (State Mines CC) 17 (16) Jack Brugman…

PICK OF THE MONTH TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 25-28 AUGUST 2021 revisited: FedExCup winner Patrick Cantlay became the PGA Tour Player of the Year, winning at East Lake to claim the Tour Championship. That capped a four-win 2021 that reaped $7 638 805 in official earnings plus $15-million as the FedExCup champion. The PGA Tour Player of the Year wins the Jack Nicklaus Award and the honour is determined by vote of the Tour membership. Cantlay won despite a stellar year from Jon Rahm, who was a finalist along with Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English and Collin Morikawa. ‘The fact it’s voted on by my fellow PGA Tour players means a lot to me,’ Cantlay said. ‘It wasn’t something I necessarily thought was on the radar in the middle of the year, but…

Yani Tseng showed why she was the best golfer in the world when she came from behind to successfully defend her title at the Women’s Open. Nini, as her friends call her. finished on 16 under four shots ahead of American Brittany Lang at Carnoustie. More than winning a trophy, Tseng became the youngest player to win five Major championships. At 22 years, six months and eight days, the Taiwanese golfer accomplished something that Tiger Woods did only when he was 24 and Jack Nicklaus did at age 26. Yarn was the only player to have won four LPGA Tour titles that year and. since Lorena Ochoa’s retirement, she was the golfer who had been atop the Rolex Rankings for more time. Ai Miyazato. Ji-yai Shin and Cristie Kerr were…

Golf is the only sport that has the capability of bringing people from all walks of life together. It’s because of this that so many of the world’s elite have developed an unwavering love for the great game. It’s these individuals who help solidify golf’s future as a game unlike any other. A local example would be Mr Johann Rupert. His love for the game and its South African representatives has helped our country become one of the greatest golfing nations in the history of the sport. Now, while Mr Rupert is exceptional in his own right, he is not alone in his undeniable love for the game of golf. Another such person is Mr JP McManus, a hugely successful businessman and racehorse owner. In July he hosted a proam…

They call her ‘Dumbo’, which has nothing to do with her level of intelligence. In fact, quite the opposite – she was considered a maths prodigy and according to reports she has a genius-level IQ. But In-Gee Chun has fully embraced the unusual nickname given to her by her coach Won Park – because of her keen sense of hearing. The name stuck with Chun, who has the nickname on her golf bag and other accessories. When I came over here, some American fans recognised the nickname and called me Dumbo,’ Chun says. ‘Some even shouted it, ‘Let’s go, Dumbo.’ That has really made me enjoy the game.’ Now 27, the Korean heads to Muirfield where the Women’s Open will be staged for the first time. The East Lothian location…

It is useful to elaborate on a few recent rules incidents on the Touts around the world, so that golfers understand what happened and hopefully avoid a similar breach of the rules. In the first incident, on the final hole of his second round at the Travelers Championship, Jason Kokrak hit his ball out of bounds. But, instead of going back to where he last played from (stroke and distance), he decided not to continue play and was disqualified for not entering a score on the hole and therefore not finishing his round. While this may seem like he walked off in frustration, Kokrak was outside the cut line at that stage and after the long time it took to find his ball and determine if It was in fact…

7th hole, 130m, par three There are a few contenders for the choice of the signature hole. The one that really stands out and can be played in many different ways, depending on the season and weather, is the par-three 7th. In keeping with the feel of the course and not having to be overly long to provide a decent challenge. Irene pro Mike Usendorff shares his thoughts on how to play 1 has hole. ‘It is nicknamed “Pulpit – and standing on the tee you certainly feel like you need to deliver something special shot-wise here. Being so high above your target area, many thoughts come into play. from club selection through to visualising the shot you want to play At just 130m from the club tee. the true…

Jono Broomhead claimed the second win for the travelling Golf RSA National Squad when he wrapped up the qualifying for the 127th Amateur Championship. The Durbanite fired an opening round of 67 at Royal Lytham & St Annes, and closed out the win with a 68 at St Annes Old Links. He tied with Englishman Barclay Brown on a total of seven-under 135, but was declared the winner on a countback. Broomhead became the second South African to win The Amateur quali. er, following Wilco Nienaber who, in 2018, became the first South African medallist since qualifying was introduced in 1983, edging current world No 5 Victor Hovland by two strokes at Royal Aberdeen. Broomhead, 21, had a strong finish to thank for the win, as he chipped in for…

It goes without saying that the proverbial horse has bolted when it comes to LIV Golf’s disruption of professional golf. Between the Instagram posts of that private Airbus on which the players (and their caddies) fly, to the never-ending line of questions in the media tents, it’s the only show in town. Without a doubt, the most trending topic of 2022 is set to live on, long into the foreseeable future. But it has also captured the hearts and minds of the game’s ‘lifeblood’, namely our own golf club members. Being the golf director at a club like Royal Harare, I would never have imagined the demographic capture which LIV Golf has managed to pull off. So many golfing purist members of ours (most of them in their sixties) cannot…