Golf Australia October 2019

IT’S date night.Your wife whisks you off to the movies and you’re subjected to some chick-flick that is so tedious you drift off to sleep through sheer boredom. I did that about 20 minutes into The Notebook. I only thought of this mind-numbing cinematic experience recently when I nodded off at my desk here at Golf Australia magazine watching Justin Thomas reduce Medinah, a once brutally challenging major championship venue, to little more than a pitch-and-putt course. The stream of 320-yard plus drives – to any part of the golf course – followed by a wedge onto a soft, receptive green bored me stiff. Yes, I fell asleep sitting up. I never imagined pro golf, which I have loved watching for four decades and written about for more than 23…

I’m sure I am not alone when I say my favourite golf is the variety played on courses positioned by the sea. It is where the game has its origins and the sound of the ocean and the sea breeze requiring creativity when playing shots off tight, sandy-based grass makes for a truly enjoyable experience each and every time. Magenta Shores Golf & Country Club certainly has the benefits of such an idyllic location in spades. However in the immediate period after the Ross Watson-designed course opened in 2006, the extremity of the challenge made it a less enjoyable experience than the course presents today. Since those early days of high handicappers losing handfuls of golf balls and recording Stableford scores in the low 20s, the club has made numerous…

THE COURSE LOCATION: 1 Magenta Drive (off Wilfred Barrett Drive), Magenta, NSW, 2261 CONTACT: (02) 4336 0100 WEBSITE: www.magentagolf.com.au DESIGNER: Ross Watson (2006). SLOPE RATINGS: Black 142, Blue 138, White 137 and Red 136. PLAYING SURFACES: Legends Couch fairways (currently being converted to Santa Ana couch) and G2 bentgrass greens. GREEN FEES: $99 (walking), $124 (including cart). Magenta Shores is a private course, however, limited tee times are available to players with a Golflink number, or guests of the adjoining Pullman Magenta Shores Resort. COURSE SUPERINTENDENT: James Newell. PGA PROFESSIONALS: Rob Hurley (General Manager), Greg Lewis (Head Teaching Professional), Jeremy Farr (PGA of America). THE CLUB MEMBERSHIP: There are nine categories of membership on offer at Magenta Shores, ranging from discounted rates for young golfers up to the age of…

I HAVE to be honest here: I’m more than a little bit fed up with Jason Day. It’s been a while since the former World No.1 – emphasis on former – has played anything like a man capable of attaining that elevated status. A glance at his record on the 2018-19 PGA Tour season reveals a few of the ‘top-10s’ that people like me habitually and lazily use to illustrate how ‘consistent’ or otherwise a golfer has been. There are also five missed cuts and one withdrawal. All in 21 starts that have seen the former – there’s that word again – Queenslander now resident in Columbus, Ohio slip and slide his way outside the planet’s top-20 golfers. That isn’t what irritates me though. Day is hardly the first elite…

For the past handful of years the inevitable second or third question of the first press conference in Emirates Australian Open week is, “Are you happy with the field? It’s pretty weak isn’t it?” The man fielding that question, Tournament Director Trevor Herden, plays a Steve Smith-like straight bat and lays the cards on the table. It’s scheduling. It’s money. It’s the tyranny of distance. He won’t have to worry about that this year. The 2019 Australian Open is shaping up to have the best field assembled to contest our national championship since the 2011 event, which was also held the week before the Presidents Cup being played at Royal Melbourne. That year, Greg Chalmers claimed his second Stonehaven Cup by a single stroke from John Senden. Also in his…

HANNAH GREEN captured her second LPGA Tour title of the year when she won the Portland Classic at the beginning of September. The West Australian, winner of the Women’s PGA Championship in June, defeated American teenager Yealimi Noh by one shot at Colombia Edgewater Country Club. RORY MCILROY won his second FedExCup title at the end of August, pocketing US$15 million (AU$22.3m) in the process. The four-time major champ also lifted the Cup in 2016. CAMERON PERCY earnt promotion back to the PGA Tour just four months after breaking his wrist and fearing retirement. The 45-year-old Victorian played his way back onto the main circuit via the Korn Ferry Tour. CAMERON DAVIS finished T13 in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship to grab one of the 25 PGA Tour playing cards…