Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i Golf Australia

THE year’s most anticipated golf tournament,The Masters, is upon us and with some of the game’s biggest names finding some early season form it promises to be an enthralling four days at Augusta. Early reports suggest Augusta National will be playing firm and fast after a mild winter – that has even caused the azaleas to bloom earlier than usual. That will certainly bring the high ball hitters and the best short game players into the mix on Sunday. There are certainly more storylines heading into this year’s first major than there has been for some time. Here are just a few worth following: • Can Curtis Luck follow in the footsteps of fellow West Australian Oliver Goss in winning low amateur honours? • Has Jordan Spieth fully recovered mentally…

THE R&A and USGA has revealed 30 proposed changes designed to make the Rules of Golf fairer, more consistent and easier for all golfers to understand and apply. While the Rules are revised every four years, this is the first fundamental review since 1984, and was established to ensure the Rules fit the needs of today’s game and the way it is played around the world. The changes, which are due to be implemented from January 1, 2019, cover a wide range of issues across all levels of the game and include changes to determining if a ball has moved, to repairing spike marks on greens, relaxing penalty drop procedures and hitting a flagstick with a putt. But the most talked about modifications will surround those affecting the professional game.…

IT’S an annual affair.The chief executive of the R&A invites members of the media to a “roundtable chat” in what has to be the greatest office in golf. So there we all were on the morning of February 20th, gazing out of Martin Slumbers’ window onto the 1st tee of the Old Course at St. Andrews. Not bad, eh? It started off, as you’d expect within such august walls, very correctly. Mister Slumbers had an announcement. Two, actually. The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews has a pair of new honorary members: former Curtis Cup player Bridget Jackson and two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal. And the 2020 Open Championship is going to Royal St. Georges. Which also means - although Mister Slumbers was careful not to say…

AUGUSTA WEAPON: The longest, straightest hitter in the game can really attack the course. AUGUSTA WEAKNESS: Few, if any, now that he has addressed short game issues. For a player that has been on the PGA Tour for nearly a decade, it seems like Dustin Johnson has only just started fulfilling the potential that so many experts believed he had. His victory in the US Open Championship, his first major victory, was an obvious turning point. At that point he was a top-10 ranked player floating between No.8 and No.6 in the world (at least for the two years prior), who collected a raft of high finishes and one win a year. All that changed at Oakmont last June. Johnson’s record since then – 16 events, five wins and an…

AUGUSTA WEAPON: Long, high ball flight that allows him to attack pins. AUGUSTA WEAKNESS: Remaining patient when the putts aren’t dropping. It’s difficult to know which Jason Day will drive down Magnolia Lane for this year’s Masters. Will it be the hungry, raring-to-go Jason Day who pours his heart and soul into every moment from the 1st tee to the 72nd green? Or will it be the Jason Day who’s not quite feeling 100 percent, has low expectations for the week and, despite some promising moments, finishes in the top-10 and heads back to Ohio to recharge? Since making his Masters debut in 2011 – when he finished T2 behind the fast-finishing Charl Schwartzel – it seems Day has been destined to win at Augusta. His power game puts him…

Sergio Garcia, by virtue of his victory in the Dubai Desert Classic in February, has become a name being whispered around golfing circles once again as a major contender. Garcia, of course, will be bidding for his first Major Championship when he arrives at Augusta National for his 19th tilt at winning a Green Jacket. No doubt he will be encouraged by his victory in Dubai and his three top-10 finishes at the Masters. His first Augusta outing was a memorable one – he finished top amateur in 1999 and turned pro soon afterwards. He admits: “The tournament is so tricky, so difficult. If I go there, feel good and trust what I am doing, it could happen - especially if I get a bit of luck here and there…

When the focus of the golfing world turned to The Masters in April 1987, many predicted Greg Norman – the then World No.1 – would finally conquer Augusta National and see a green jacket slipped over an Australian’s shoulders for the very first time. Norman was, after all, at the height of his powers – a dynamic high, ball-striker with a wonderful touch on the greens. He was seemingly made to win at Augusta. A year earlier, he had led into the final round but he, like several other big names, were chased down and beaten by a rampaging Golden Bear. Jack Nicklaus’ closing nine of 30 saw him surge into the lead and grab an historic sixth green, while Norman was left to lament another missed opportunity to win…

For me, the most important thing about bunker play is creating an address position that promotes good stability - a consistent clubhead entry point into the sand and a simple, square path through the ball. At the same time, many of the themes I look to employ in my full swing – like the feeling of the club moving in front of me and a strong upper-body movement over a stable base – are just as relevant to me when I’m hitting a splash shot. As a consequence, I spend a lot of my practice time in the sand making sure my technique stays on track. In the bunker, I like to create pressure towards the target by feeling the shaft and my right arm, shoulder and knee all work…

Success in putting is heavily dependent on the messages our eyes send to our brain. Unfortunately, because we stand side-on to the line of a putt, our eyes can play tricks. A blade that looks dead square at address can in fact be several degrees open or closed. On a 20-footer, that means you’ll miss left or right by a few feet. This simple drill ensures that your reality and your perception are one and the same. On a straight 10ft putt form a gateway with two tees slightly wider than the ball about three feet from the ball, on what your eyes tell you is the ball-to-hole line. Squat down to check how accurately you positioned your gateway. Ideally your ball-hole line will run straight through it; but more…

Cost: $729.99 (for both models).Tested by: Jimmy Emanuel, Golf Australia writer (GA Handicap 9.4) MODEL & SHAFT PLAYED: 9° loft, Fujikura Pro Green Stiff shaft (Epic); 9° loft, Aldila Rogue Max Stiff shaft (Epic Sub Zero) FIRST IMPRESSIONS: When a club is as heavily marketed before it’s released as the Callaway Great Big Bertha line of Epic drivers were, and a player like Rory McIlroy puts the driver in the bag with no contractual obligation, it is difficult to approach testing the club without high expectations. Upon first hits with both models it was easy to see these drivers would live up to the hype. Great slightly different feels and flights were instantly noticeable, with strong penetrating flights that went a long way. The all black look of the drivers…

As a general rule, a splash is not the sound a golfer wants to hear after hitting a shot. Aqua Golf, located in the beautiful Hunter Valley Gardens, doesn’t follow many of the general rules of golf. A Hunter mainstay that has been a part of the region for longer than many of the golf courses and even some of the famous wineries in the region, the driving range, where players hit balls into water, has been introducing people to golf and giving hard-core golfers enjoyment from hitting balls into the water rather than the usual distress it causes on the course since opening in 1979. PGA professional Kieran McMahon and his wife, Kristine, took over the business in 2005 and are driven to grow the game of golf. Introducing…

WHAT would you say if someone told you a round of golf could win you a caravan and help to house Kenyan orphans?You’d probably be interested, right? Well, read on… The East Coast Golf Classic is the brainchild of Wayne Limbrick who, together with his wife Pam, hope to raise funds and awareness for the Rotary project – Umoja Orphanage Kenya. The orphanage currently houses seven orphans and their carers but the goal is to eventually build a further six houses to accommodate a total of 70 children. The month-long golf tour departs Shepparton on May 13 and will visit a host of impressive courses throughout New South Wales and Queensland including Shepparton, Wagga Wagga, The Vintage, Forster, Coolangatta & Tweed Heads, The Glades, Pelican Waters and Bargara. The Limbricks…

WHEN Marty McFly rode a hoverboard in the 1985 movie Back to the Future we were impressed by the special effects but knew it would never happen in real life. Thirty years on, people are using them on the golf course. At Curlewis Golf Club on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, passers-by are startled to see golfers gliding along the fairways on the GolfBoard with their clubs, dismounting to play a shot and then taking off again at speed. Only closer examination reveals they are not levitating but standing on an electric four-wheel drive system, which has forward and reverse gears and is guided by moving your weight as on a surfboard or skateboard. Speed is controlled by a ‘dead man’s grip’ throttle and while there are no…

AUGUSTA WEAPON: Strategically brilliant and can putt better than most on fast, undulating greens. AUGUSTA WEAKNESS: Can throw a lot of bogeys, among the birdies, onto the scorecard. Hard to believe Jordan Spieth will tee up this month in just his fourth appearance at the Masters. His record at Augusta thus far is better than any player in the modern era and with nine holes to play last year, he appeared certain to win back-to-back green jackets as he held a five-stroke lead and seemed well in control of his game. Fifty minutes of chaos through Augusta’s famed ‘Amen Corner’, including a quadruple bogey 7 on the 12th hole, cost him the win. How he moves on from that meltdown remains to be seen despite publically saying he has well…

AUGUSTA WEAPON: Experience and three green jackets! AUGUSTA WEAKNESS: Does he have one at Augusta? Phil Mickelson knows his way around Augusta National like it was his own backyard. He made his Masters debut as an amateur back in 1991 (when he won the leading amateur medal), more than two years before Jordan Spieth was born. Now 46, the game’s greatest ever left-hander owns three green jackets and has finished in the top-10 an amazing 15 times in 24 starts. And no matter what form he is in prior to Masters week, it usually means nothing where Mickelson is concerned as he seems to be invigorated just by driving into the clubhouse car park at Augusta. If he wins this year, he will surpass Jack Nicklaus as the oldest winner…

1. TEA OLIVE Par-4, 445 yards It’s Augusta, it’s the Masters, it’s the first Major of the season ... and it’s pretty nerve-wracking. It’s really important to make a solid start and open your account well, so the pressure is on from the word go here. The last thing you want to do is drop a shot or two early on. The opening holes in Majors are always important and can set the tone for the rest of the week, and with this opening hole I’ll be pulling my driver out of the bag for the first time and trying to stay left of the big bunker on the right of the fairway. Depending on the wind, I’ll usually try a little fade, and then it’s a case of finding…

In the swing, much of your speed is delivered through your shoulders, wrists and elbows. Each of these joints loads and releases, just as you’d do naturally when using a hammer. The better you can match up their motion, the more speed you create. With my old ‘inside’ takeaway, I couldn’t co-ordinate this motion. Picture a hammer motion, with it working to the side of your body; once the hands and arms work round behind you, creating speed in the right direction is hard. Here you can see how the elbow-to-hand of my right arm forms a vertical line. An overcooked ‘inside’ backswing would see my right elbow splayed out behind me at 45°. If I stopped and turned to the camera now, my arm would much be in the…

DANNY ON… BEING COMFORTABLEIN UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS “With Pete Cowen and Mike Walker, who coach me, you work at uncomfortable things. Every time you go to the range, you’re not going there to get a pat on the back and told how good you’re doing. You go there to try to get that half or one per cent better. Trying to accomplish perfection makes you uncomfortable. To delve into aspects of your game you might not like makes you uncomfortable. Nobody likes being told that they don’t do something good enough.” DANNY ON… CLOSING OUT THE MASTERS “I felt like I’d done enough work and hit enough balls under my coaches’ supervision. Each shot that I was faced with during the final round, I just went through the same process and…

BUBBA WATSON ‘Get your hands high for more speed’ I have a pretty individual position at the top of the backswing, with my hands very high and my front heel lifted off the ground. Both these things help me create more clubhead speed and ultimately hit the ball as far as I do. The high hands means they drop further than if the swing was flatter, so I’m able to increase my arm speed. Stamping my front foot into the ground in the downswing enables me to rotate my body even faster. Arm speed and rotational speed are the magic ingredients for distance. RICKIE FOWLER ‘A good takeaway gets the club on plane and sets a smooth tempo’ For me, making a good swing is all about being on plane…

Cost: $79.95 (a dozen).Tested by: Brendan James, Golf Australia Editor (GA Handicap 8.2) MODEL PLAYED: Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls. HOW THEY PLAYED: An old pro offered me some sage advice a few years ago … advice I have followed ever since. “When you find a putter and a ball that works for you, stick with it. Never change,” he said. “That is, until you find something that is definitely better…” I’ve only had a handful of putters in 35 years of playing and for the past 15 years I’ve used the same ball for 90 percent of the rounds I have played. The Titleist Pro V1x has been my choice of ball in all that time, and I have used the softer Pro V1 at selected times…

 WINNING SCORE: 14 under par, 270. “I’M VERY PROUD OF THE WAY I PLAYED THIS WEEK AND OBVIOUSLY GETTING THIS VICTORY, IT MEANS A TON.” DEFEATED: England’s Tommy Fleetwood by one stroke. Fleetwood’s fellow countryman Ross Fisher and Spain’s Jon Rahm were a shot further back. DEFINING MOMENTS: Having started the final day one shot behind fellow American Justin Thomas, Johnson seemed to be on cruise control halfway through his final round at four under par. Consecutive bogeys at the 12th and 13th let Rahm in, who was five under through 15 holes. But back-to-back bogeys for the Spaniard and a birdie at the par-5 15th for Johnson got the World No.1 back in the lead. With Fleetwood already in at 13 under, Johnson found the middle of the green…

 LIKE most people in golf I watched the recent World Super 6 tournament played at Lake Karrinyup in Perth. It was a cool idea that worked well and was an interesting break from the steady diet of 72-hole stroke-play that dominates professional golf. Just about the only quibble I had was that the six-hole matches on the last day seemed to take a long time to complete. PLAYING EVENTS ALONGSIDE THE WOMEN IS ANOTHER THING I WOULD LIKE TO SEE AS PART OF THE ANNUAL MIX ON TOUR. Still, any format that steadily whittles down the field and leaves only a few to battle it out for the title at the end has much to commend it. That makes sense to me. One of the best aspects of the present…

SPOT THE BALL WHERE could Danny Willett’s ball possibly be in this photo? All you have to do is correctly identify where Willett’s ball is hidden on the grid, using the letters and numbers (eg. A4, B2 etc). Answer correctly and you could win a dozen Mizuno JPX Platinum and JPX golf balls. The JPX Platinum combines all of Mizuno’s available technologies to deliver a tour feel ball suited to mid and lower swing speeds – up to 90 mph driver swing speed, while the three-piece JPX is designed to deliver increased distance as well as a soft, responsive feel. TO ENTER: Select your grid reference and then go to, www.golfaustralia.com.au, to submit your answer. The winner and the correct answer will be published in the June issue of Golf…

“I WOULD LOVE TO KEEP CLIMBING UP THE WORLD RANKINGS. I’D LOVE TO BE THE NO.1 PLAYER IN THE WORLD AT SOME POINT AND WILL KEEP WORKING HARD TO GET THERE.” 1.When did you first shoot under par? I was probably around 12 when I first broke par. 2.Your favourite course in the world? I have played really well in the Pacific Northwest of the US, winning in Portland twice (Columbia Edgewater Country Club) and in Seattle at Sahalee – those are definitely two of my favourites! 3.What’s been one of the best shots of your career? My iron into the green at Sahalee to win my first Major in the playoff against Lydia was really special last year. 4. Favourite club in your bag? I love my driver. 5.…

AUGUSTA WEAPON: Arguably the best ball-striker in the field. AUGUSTA WEAKNESS: Streaky on the greens. If he starts missing putts early in the round bogeys follow. This time last year, with two wins in as many weeks on the PGA Tour, Adam Scott was being touted as the next man to win a second green jacket. At the time of writing, his highest finish anywhere in the world since winning the WGC Cadillac Championship last year was his third placing in the Australian PGA at Royal Pines in December. Scott’s form this year on the PGA Tour has been solid without being spectacular. Through the WGC Mexico Championship he had played 12 rounds and had one forgettable 76 (2nd round in Mexico), while eight of the remaining 11 rounds were…

AUGUSTA WEAPON: From 150 yards in, there are few better. AUGUSTA WEAKNESS: Can be far too inconsistent from round-to-round. When Rory McIlroy has won major championships he’s done it with a level of consistency from round-to-round that either blows the field away or keeps his nose just in front. At Augusta, he is yet to find that level of consistency which will ultimately win him a green jacket and complete the career grand slam. For example, his highest and lowest scores at Augusta came in the same tournament. He opened his account in 2011 with a 65 and ended it with an horrendous crash that led to an 80 on Sunday afternoon. Interestingly, he’s only shot in the 60s at Augusta on five occasions since. McIlroy, as the World No.3,…

It’s probably the most famous golf course in the world and certainly it’s the most recognisable. Many would suggest Augusta National is the best and no other course is better known by golfers who have never been there. Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie’s creation is a reclusive hideout for American business leaders, a place where they can play golf, socialise and plot the future of American business in privacy. MacKenzie died suddenly in early 1934, only ten weeks before the first Augusta National Invitational and, sadly, still pleading for a much needed payment for the design work he’d completed a couple of years earlier. His career outside of his homeland had taken off when Harry Colt declined Royal Melbourne’s invitation to redesign their Sandringham course and recommended instead the Scottish…

Much of what I’m trying to do in the long game is based around creating a better path through the ball. Playing the ball just forward of centre in my stance keeps my shoulders, feet, knees and hips square to the target. My weight slightly favours my left side to brace the position – as it does throughout my short game. I’m not a wristy pitcher. I like to keep my hands and arms passive and extended on the way back with my right elbow in front of my body, not folded behind it. My lower body doesn’t move. Through the ball, I work on feeling my right shoulder, arm and knee ‘gathering’ through impact, moving as a unit down the target line. When I get this right, my right…

Cost: $599.95.Tested by: Jimmy Emanuel, Golf Australia writer (GA Handicap 9.4) MODEL & SHAFT PLAYED: Wilson Triton 9.0°loft, fitted with Aldila Rogue 60 stiff shaft. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Straight out of the box the Wilson Triton driver grabs your attention. A traditional-styled headcover and a small case containing a wrench, different sole plates and variety of weights means there is no lack of bells and whistles with this model. The ‘Swing Active Technology’ 1-1 alignment system catches the eye straight away when putting the driver down at address. The large grey line, that is the same width as a golf ball, takes some getting used to but is an easy-to-use and helpful alignment tool when aiming the clubface to your target and helps swing the driver on the correct path. The…

MERCURE RESORT HUNTER VALLEY GARDENS Mercure Resort Hunter Valley Gardens offers a varied selection of 4½ star accommodation located in the heart of the Hunter Valley and only minutes away to three of the top golf courses. Each room is beautifully appointed and opens out to a private balcony or courtyard, taking in the wonderful Hunter Valley views and magnificent gardens surrounding the property. Guests can avail themselves of tennis courts, resort-style swimming pool, sauna, spa and the Lodge library. www.mercurehuntervalley.com.au CHATEAU ELAN HUNTER VALLEY Château Élan at The Vintage has four luxury room options. The main hotel complex accommodates a limited number of Spa Suites, designed for singles or couples who require absolute comfort, privileged spa access and total privacy. Adjacent to the main hotel complex and cascading down…