Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2016 i Golf Australia

A MATE and I were playing golf in the south west of Ireland back in 1997 when we had the pleasure of a staying at a little bed and breakfast on the outskirts of Killarney. Michael, the owner and resident mad golfer, filled us with Guinness as well as bacon and egg sandwiches. One evening after playing golf all day we made very light work of said sandwiches, which prompted Michael to recount a story I have never forgotten. “The last man I saw devour beer and sandwiches like that was Ernie Els” he laughed. Turns out the ‘Big Easy’ dropped on Michael’s front step one evening back in 1992 looking for an affordable bed for the week days while he played in the Irish Open. The young Els had…

I’VE PUSHED MYSELF HARD ENOUGH TO GET BACK OUT THERE, AND NOW THE CHALLENGE IS JUST TO SEE HOW I DO ... LAST month this column touched on the prospect of a merger between the European and Asian Tours and the impact that might have on both the PGA Tour in the US and my own playing career. Since then, I’ve been asked more than once to expand on that notion. So here goes. As good as the PGA Tour has been for me, I’ve reached a stage in my professional life where a change of scene might be a good thing. Playing in the same tournaments and on the same courses year after year inevitably gets a bit old. I’m not talking about the best events held in the…

FOLEY SAYS “If you watch Justin hit splash shots, you’ll notice how stable he keeps his lower body. There’s no weight shift at all. A great tip is to imagine there’s a mirror on the face of your sand wedge. You should be able to see your face in it at all times during the swing. ” PROXIMITY FROM SAND My bunker play is quite intuitive but weirdly enough sometimes I don’t feel very comfortable in the bunkers. It’s always been a strength of mine but I’ve been less comfortable in recently – and that’s reflected in being outside the top four in proximity to the hole from sand for the first time in six years last season. My technique gives me more margin for error in terms of how…

FOLEY SAYS “At the top level of the game, the difference between hitting good wedge shots and great wedge shots is visualisation. Facing a short-range shot, Justin focuses on the ‘feels’ he needs to hit it close and he visualises in detail how it will come off, even going so far as anticipating how the ball will spin when it hits the green. Amateurs are perfectly good at visualisation – it’s just they usually picture the wrong things.” SCRAMBLING If you look at the great wedge players like Zach Johnson and Luke Donald, I feel like there’s a gap there and there’s no reason why I can’t be better with my wedges. I think it’s about practice, visualisation, confidence and trying to be more creative. For a long period of…

ANY golfer who reaches a single figure handicap and has aspirations of consistently shooting in the 70s and perhaps going lower, already has a sound swing fundamentals. A good player’s swing does not change much from day-to-day. What does change is your tempo, which can have a detrimental effect on your transition from backswing to downswing as well as your timing at impact. If you can develop a consistent tempo you will find you won’t get any great fluctuation in your ball-striking. It is important to note that tempo in the golf swing is not clubhead speed. Look at the swings of Adam Scott and Jason Day – both have a clubhead speed of around 120-122 miles per hour at impact. But the tempo of their swings is different, with…

HAVE you ever been told by a playing partner “keep your left arm straight?” A collapsing left arm (for right handers) in the backswing is a common swing flaw for a lot of amateurs who try to make a big swing to hit the ball hard. Chances are, if you have been told your left arm collapses, you probably find it almost impossible to get rid of. Some players incorrectly think they can avoid the collapse by holding their left arm stiff during the backswing but, not surprisingly, this shortens the backswing and robs you of power because the swing becomes inefficient. The solution for avoiding a left arm collapse actually lies with your right arm. Your left or lead arm collapsing is simply a by-product of your right or…

The basis of all effective iron shots is an impact position that sees our body weight favouring the front foot and hips clearing out the way. This allows the club to approach the ball on a descending attack angle with the low point just past the ball and the shaft leaning slightly forward so the sweetspot contacts the ball. You can learn to hit higher and lower flights by slightly tweaking this standard impact position. Here’s when and how to do it. HIGHER WHEN? The higher flight is ideal when playing into firm greens or the pin is at the front of the green and you need to stop the ball quickly. HOW? The ball is further forward in the stance, the weight fractionally back with very slightly more upper…

Cost: $230 each. MODEL & LOFTS PLAYED: Nike Engage wedges, firstly the 60° Dual Sole lob wedge and later the 56° and 60° Toe Sweep gap and lob wedges. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: I liked the way the Dual Sole lob wedge lay, it seemed to naturally fall open a little bit. The Toe Sweep wedges felt good in the hands at address; it felt like there was some good weight at the end of the club. They sit beautifully square, too. I was surprised how square they sat for a clubhead design with additional weight in the toe. HOW THEY PLAYED: I found the Nike Engage Dual Sole wedge dug into the turf a little at impact, but when I struck it cleanly impact was sweet – it’s not a bad…

“WE TALK ABOUT FATE, TALK ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE THAT GOES WITH IT … IT’S JUST A CRAZY, CRAZY WEEK.”– DANNY WILLETT. WINNING SCORE: Five under par, 283 DEFEATED: Defeated fellow Englishman Lee Westwood and defending Masters champion Jordan Spieth by three strokes. DEFINING MOMENTS: Much will be made and said about Jordan Spieth’s capitulation at the par-3 12th hole, but you can’t take anything away from Danny Willett’s final round 67. After opening with five straight pars, Willett rolled in an 11-foot birdie putt at the par-3 6th and he was on his way. He had pocketed three more birdies by the time he reached the famed 16th hole, where he stuffed his tee shot into seven feet and duly converted the birdie for a three-stroke lead. WITH THIS VICTORY……

PHOTO CAPTION COMPETITION Here’s an interesting moment after Danny Willett’s Masters win as Jordan Spieth presents him with his green jacket. What is your caption to go with this photo? Submit your caption, on the entry form found on our website (not in the comment box), for the accompanying photo and the best entry judged by Golf Australia editors, will win a pair of 2015 adidasTour 360X shoes, worth $149.The newTour 360X shoes continue the evolution of theTour 360 family. With its tour proven performance and stability unquestioned, the new model features increased cushioning and comfort. For more information visit the website www.adidasgolf.com or call 1800 700 011 MARCH PHOTO CAPTION COMPETITION WINNER We had some very good entries to our photograph of golfing legend Gary Player attempting to hit…

 After playing at Mirboo North, in Victoria’s Gippsland district, it is hard not to think of the comedy movie, Doc Hollywood, starring Michael J. Fox. SOME OF THE KIDS COME BACK YEAR AFTER YEAR. THEIR MOTHERS TELL US THE FEE IS THE CHEAPEST BABYSITTING THEY HAVE EVER SEEN. When asked what he thought of the small town of Grady where he was stranded after crashing his car he replied that he had not seen all of it yet. “Oh, yes you have” chorused the townsfolk. Both Grady and Mirboo North embody what is good about small town living. As Australia’s population tops 24 million and my home town of Melbourne tries to absorb an extra 100,000 residents a year into infrastructure that can’t cope, escaping to a place like Mirboo…

The 80th Masters ended with a fizz rather than a bang for the three Australians to make the cut: World No.1 Jason Day, 2013 winner Adam Scott and debutant Cam Smith. Day began the final round at even-par, as did Willett, as he sought to become the first World No.1 to win the Masters since Tiger Woods in 2002. Greeted by far more agreeable conditions than the past three days, Day began slowly, not making a birdie until the downwind par-5 8th, to shoot a one-over 73. Day traditionally struggles on the front nine at Augusta and plunders the back. This week, he was inversely eight-under going out and nine-over coming home. “Pretty much the whole week I was just out of position, for the most part” said Day, who…

FOLEY SAYS “Tour players face a different set of driving problems to amateurs. Pros tend to shift their weight onto the front foot too early, while amateurs struggle to get off their back foot. The secret is getting your weight off your right foot without sliding towards the target.” DISTANCE ACCURACY A sneaky part of my game that’s improved over the last 18 months is distance off the tee. I hit it eight yards further on average in 2015 than the season before and actually increased my accuracy too. I believe there’s a different golf swing for the driver as opposed to the irons. It’s the only club where you tee the ball up and try to hit up on it. There’s a whole different set of dynamics involved. How…

FOLEY SAYS “When Justin says he focuses on a neutral head position, what he really means is that he sets his eyes in a neutral position. It’s easy with putting to get into the habit of misaligning your eyes. To feel the correct set up, stand upright and focus on a horizontal line on the horizon. Now lower your head and body to the ball. That’s the optimum head and eyeline position.” STROKES GAINED – PUTTING I focus very hard on my putting. The ‘strokes gained – putting’ stat proves it’s paying off and it has improved in each of the last three seasons. But I can get better. The first part of that improvement was getting an understanding of what putter best suited my stroke and helps me aim…

TWO of the most common sights I see every day on the range are players using a driver with not enough loft and those whose swing path into impact cuts across the line of the ball. Both have the effect of starting the ball on a trajectory that is lower than what is needed for the ball to fly the optimum distance. TheTrackman Launch Monitor (inset pic) has taught us is the optimum launch angle for a driver is 13°, so if you use a 9.5° loft driver you need to optimise your driver’s carry by hitting the ball on the up by four degrees. To achieve the optimum launch angle and, ultimately, hit your drives as long as possible two things need to happen. Firstly, your clubhead must attack…

Irons are precision clubs. Unlike the driver, where you want to hit the ball a long way, iron play is all about hitting it as close as possible to a specific target. You can always go up a club if you want to hit it further so iron play must be built around control and consistency to achieve the best results. There are three elements to good iron play – ball striking, flight control and distance control. A quality strike enables you to produce consistent and repeatable launch conditions. From this solid basis, you can tweak your flight and carry distance to tailor each shot to the situation you face. Here, I will explain how you can improve each of these three areas to hit your irons closer to the…

Golfers with good distance control never look like they’re swinging hard at the ball. Because iron shots are all about precision, you should swing at about 70 per cent – as opposed to 90 per cent for the driver – so you can be controlled and consistent. Forget your ego and simply ‘club up’ to increase distance rather than swinging harder and losing your rhythm and tempo. Your results and scores will benefit. These drills will help you find your natural rhythm and tempo and swing within yourself to increase your accuracy. TAKE AN EXTRA CLUB A great way to get used to swinging within yourself is to try hitting your 6-iron the same distance you normally hit a 7-iron. Practice to a specific target and you’ll be amazed at…

Cost: $390 each, or $410 (XR 16 Pro). MODEL & SHAFT PLAYED: Callaway XR 16 15° 3-wood and 17° 4-wood, fitted with regular-flex Fujikura Speeder Evolution 565 Red fairway graphite shafts. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: One word popped into my head the moment I took the 3-wood out of the headcover … sleek. Despite being a slightly bigger clubhead than previous models, I found the head shape appealing with an aerodynamic look. Coupled with the black matte cosmetics across the crown, it could double as the topside of a stealth bomber. But seriously…the cosmetics aside, I knew this club was going to suit my game the moment I turned it over to reveal the sole. I was a big fan of the Callaway fairway woods with the contoured Warbird sole back in…

“WHETHER THE GAME IS BETTER OR NOT SINCE NICKLAUS’ TIME IS DEBATABLE BUT IT IS SURELY A LOT DIFFERENT.” WHEN Jordan Spieth flew his teacher, Cameron McCormick in for the final day of the Masters it was going to be viewed by the critics as either a genius choice or a distracting mistake. It was going to depend on how he played. Four birdies from the 6th to the turn extended his one shot, Saturday night, lead to five and the tournament was all but over. Whatever they had done together on the range on Sunday morning had worked. Staggeringly three holes and six dropped shots later Spieth was all but out of the tournament. It was all lost with not one but two awful shots into Rae’s Creek but,…

SEVE, OF COURSE, ATTRACTED MORE RESPECT THAN MOST DURING HIS HUGELY SUCCESSFUL CAREER. WHAT first got me thinking was the sight of Rory McIlroy defending a temporarily beleaguered Jordan Spieth onTwitter. “No, he’s not TW (Tiger Woods)” said the Irishman to his impressively numerous 2.7 million followers. “He’s not slumping and he’s not done. He’s a double major-winning 22-year old. He’ll be just fine” As compliments go, that’s pretty stellar, as well as a fine tribute to a young man who is surely still adjusting to his relatively newfound status as the No.1 ranked player in the game. But golf, being perhaps the most sporting of sporting endeavours, has always been filled with such accolades. One of the best – and most sincere given the spontaneity with which it was…

At every start on the PGATour this year, Scott has been quizzed about his putting. Here’s what he has been saying: • “Getting it up-and-down for par feels as good as making a birdie” • “I’m on the right track with the things I’m doing on the greens obviously and I’m just going to try to get better every week. And I think it’s in a great spot at the moment. If I can get better and better, then I like what’s to come” • “You can’t be too reactive to things. I think everyone is guilty at some point of being pretty reactive to whatever happens, and time does pass quickly, but you know, if I came out at the back end of last year with the short putter…

RORY MCILROY (Tied 10th) A shot off the 36-hole lead and staring Jordan Spieth in the eye in the final group on Saturday, McIlroy fought a cold putter, failed to make a birdie in round three and was dusted by Spieth by four shots in their match-up. When zero momentum materialised early on Sunday, McIlroy’s bid for a career Grand Slam moved on another 12 months. ADAM SCOTT (Tied 42nd) The 2013 champion didn’t make worse than a bogey all week, but broke par for nine holes only once: the back nine on Friday. A shortage of birdies kept Scott from contending and his much-applauded putting touch of the past six weeks was in short supply this week. RICKIE FOWLER (MC) The showy American’s bid to win a major and…

59 Lee Westwood has more gold putters in the vault than anyone else. Interestingly his winning models range between blades, mallets and MOI style heads. 46 Number of putters Seve has in the vault. He was the only player to use one in a tournament. 22 Major wins for Ping’s Anser, which celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2016. 1 Vault keeper. It’s Leza Clarke’s full-time job to look after the vault, document its contents and order new gold putters after every Ping player’s victory. 61 Major victories, including 18 Open Championships, 14 PGA Championships, 13 Masters, 13 US Opens, two Champions Tour majors and a Women’s US Open. 1 Player has a putter for an event he didn’t win. Hunter Mahan led 2013’s Canadian Open when his wife went into…

FOLEY SAYS “The biggest swing focus for Justin with his irons is ensuring that his left arm doesn’t get trapped behind him starting down. A good swing thought is to think about keeping the triangle formed between the shaft and arms in front of the chest coming down.” GREENS IN REGULATION Historically, iron play has always been my strength. I do well in greens in regulation – I’m usually in the top 10 on tour – and I’m one of only five players to be in the top 10 for ‘strokes gained – tee to green’ in each of the last five years. The iron play creates a lot of birdie chances for me. Over the years I’ve controlled the clubface much better than I used to. I used to…

Sean Foley Rose’s technique, statistics and form have been on an upward trajectory since he started working with the renowned Canadian swing coach in 2009. Mark Fulcher He’s had Fulcher on his bag since March 2007, He’s won the US Open, nine other PGA and European Tour events and two Ryder Cup teams in that time. Justin Buckthorp Rose’s fitness coach at 360 Health and Performance. Rose credits many of his improvements to his increased strength and flexibility. Paul McDonnell His manager is a childhood friend who spent 14 years at TaylorMade-adidas Golf then joined Excel Sports Management in January 2014.…

ONE of the most common short game problems I see with amateur golfers is their tendency to want to scoop chip shots into the air. If you try and scoop chip shots you are probably costing yourself eight to ten shots a round because this action ultimately results in shots bladed over the green or fat shots that drop well short of the target, perhaps into a bunker. When you try and scoop the ball into the air, your hands and wrists fall behind the clubhead causing the shaft of the club to lean away from the target at impact.This backward leaning shaft has the effect of increasing or widening the bounce of your wedge, which makes it very hard to hit a solid shot. If you want to hit…

IF you are looking for ways to lower your score, one area you must practice is your lag putting. Strong putters have good distance control skills and this helps them hit the ball on their desired line with the appropriate pace. When this combination is improved so will your proximity to the hole on your first attempt. The following drill is simple, yet effective, and an encouraging way to improve your pace control and reduce the amount of putts you have throughout your round. Lay three clubs, or alignment sticks, horizontally on the ground – one placed at six metres, eight metres and 10 metres. Now, create a gate using tees which are a metre apart and about 30cm ahead of the rod (pictured). Once the drill is set-up, address…

Irons are perfectly engineered to deliver a crisp strike at impact. Think of the club as a tool that is designed to help us hit the ball in the best way possible. Our technique must complement this and allow the club to work as intended. If you can get yourself into a good position to deliver the club at the start of the downswing then the clubhead will naturally square up into impact, so the ball will start on your intended line. And if the clubface is leaning forward at impact the ball will make contact with the sweetspot, which creates maximum ball speed and optimum backspin. MANIPULATION REQUIRED If the clubhead is inside or outside the neutral line then you can’t simply pull the club on line and square…

If there is an overriding theme to game-improvement irons it would be distance-enhancing attributes packaged in an aesthetically pleasing design. Or, in other words, technological benefits you can’t see in a shape you can see – and like. Increasingly, club manufacturers are continuing design ideas found in driver lines to deliver similar advances in irons; things that help raise ball speed while retaining forgiveness like thin clubfaces and faces that also cover the sole and the topline. It might be a heat treatment during the construction, a multi-material composition, slots embedded in the clubhead or a substance strategically positioned to minimise vibration. The technology is exceptionally good and is exploited with the mid-handicap player in mind. So, how to tell if the set you’ve been eyeing in the corner of…

Cost: $299 each. MODEL & SHAFT PLAYED: TaylorMade M2 19° 3-hybrid, fitted with a stiff-flex graphite shaft. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: After a long stretch where I couldn’t find a hybrid I liked, four years ago I bought a 19° TaylorMade RocketBallz 3-hybrid that I loved instantly. However, lately that club has been ‘misbehaving’ so I am curious how the M2 3-hybrid will perform. The black look is sleek and a true contrast to the white RocketBallz clubhead I’m used to. I like the M2’s face markings, although standing at address they appear a little nearer the heel than the centre. This might be an optical illusion from the address position, though. I alternate between regular- and stiff-flex shafts (in truth, I’m probably suited to something in between) but tend to favour…

The third Streamsong course in 2017 will add to nearly a dozen spectacular layouts opened worldwide in the preceding two years – a period some are describing as a golden age of modern course design. With big names behind these projects – including Tom Doak, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, Jack Nicklaus, Gil Hanse and Tiger Woods – there has not been a period in the past 90 years where so many outstanding layouts have been produced in such a short space of time. Here are seven courses you might want to add to your bucket list alongside Streamsong. CAPE WICKHAM, KING ISLAND Debuted at No.5 in Golf Australia’s Top-100 Courses ranking in January, just months after opening. With eight holes flush against the ocean, and panoramic views from the…