Indholdsfortegnelse for Sep 2023 - Issue 412 i Golf Australia

I am writing this just a few minutes after a team discussion in the Golf Australia office. We bounced between golf topics before landing, out of the blue, on Aaron Baddeley. Badds’ career has had a wee resurgence in 2023. In fact, the now 42-year-old and four-time PGA Tour winner is having one of his best seasons in years. At the time of writing, he had three top-10s and five top-25 finishes in 22 starts, which is amazing when you consider he’s had to rely on getting starts from the lowly Past Champion Category, in between getting sponsor’s exemptions into events. At the recent 3M Open, after shooting a third round 65 to move into contention, Baddeley revealed his 13-year-old daughter, Jolee, had even been lobbying tournament directors with letters…

The PGA Tour of Australasia has released the first half of its 2023/24 schedule with nine events – including one new tournament – making up the program. The opening half of the season will offer $5.45 million in prizemoney, and all of the events through October and November will be broadcast on Fox Sports and Kayo, with the two marquee tournaments – the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship and ISPS HANDA Australian Open – also being broadcast free to air on Nine and 9Now. This builds on the recent success of tournament coverage, which has provided homegrown talent a platform to showcase their skillsets, not just in Australia but across the globe. The 2023/24 season began in May with the PNG Open at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club and continued with…

“There was the fruitcake story in the World Matchplay. Seve swallowed a piece of fruitcake and started coughing at the top of Nick Price’s backswing. He duffed the shot. We got to the green and Nick had a 10-foot putt and I said, ‘Seve, give him the putt.’ He said, ‘What, are you crazy? ‘I said sorry to him on the fairway.’ I told him that it would be the right thing to do to avoid any controversy. But Seve wasn’t having it. Thank goodness Nick made the putt.”…

There has been a seismic shift in women’s professional golf since the first Solheim Cup was played in Orlando, Florida, in 1990. Of the eight Americans who lined up for the inaugural event, five – including Pat Bradley, Nancy Lopez, Patty Sheehan, Beth Daniel and Betsy King – would be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame before the end of that decade. The Europeans were buoyant when English duo Laura Davies and Alison Nicholas snatched a 2&1 foursomes victory over hot favourites Bradley and Lopez. It was the only Euro highlight on an opening day that closed with the United States smashing their opponents in each match to lead 3–1, with no match going beyond the 14th hole. The American domination continued for two days and there were…

OK, it’s hard to define what we mean by ‘too hard’. But we all instinctively know when we’ve done it; an ugly sensation of blacking out as we succumb to that hit impulse, swiftly followed by one of anguish as our ball peels away towards the OB fence. WHAT PROBLEM SHOTS DOES IT CAUSE? You name it. Hitting too hard goes hand-in-hand with a loss of balance, co-ordination and sequencing … and without those three you can hit anything from a smothered snap hook to a towering sky. The fact we tend to commit this sin with the most unforgiving club in the bag – the driver – only adds to the carnage. But if there is one common denominator it is, poetically, a loss of distance. WHAT SHOULD I…

We set the plane and path of our golf swing through a blended move of armswing and body turn, the body providing the rotational element while the arms swing the club up and down. But when we fail to engage the core during the backswing – as many club golfers do – we get plenty of ‘up’ and no ‘around’. The result is a steep motion with the club remaining too close to the ball-hole line. Expect choppy, weak cutting shots. CHANGE YOUR SWING PATTERN: BODY-ARM CONNECTOR To get your torso more involved as you swing the club away, place an object under your trail armpit. An alignment stick works well. Take your address position with your chosen object squeezed and held between your upper arm and side … and…

We finish with, perhaps, the most common swing problem of them all – the slicing swing path that sees the club moving excessively from outside to inside the ball-target line through the ball. There are too many causes of this destructive pattern to list – even within this article, errors 2, 3, 4 and 5 can lead to an out-to-in path – but all have one thing in common; the club is outside the ideal swing path in the downswing delivery position. Here’s where we’ll focus. WHAT PROBLEM SHOTS DOES IT CAUSE? A severe leftward path through the ball (right-handers) typically sees the golfer opening the clubface to avoid sending the ball left. It’s a dicey arrangement that can cause anything from pull hooks to the classic slice, depending on…

If you venture out to any golf tournament this summer, chances are you will see some pros honing their game, especially putting, between rounds by working through a practice drill or two. While some drills will certainly help technique, here is a drill that is designed to mimic the pressure you might feel in competition – no matter whether it’s a six-footer to win the Australian Open, your club’s monthly medal or a fiver off your mate. This five-stage exercise is known as the ‘completion putting drill’ and the theory behind it is in the name … you need to successfully complete all levels to finish the drill. This is not an easy drill to complete, which is why high-performance players like it, and you know if you do complete…

Two of Victoria’s most acclaimed public access courses have teamed with Searoad Ferries to offer a unique golf play and stay package that spans the great divide between the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. This is a getaway offering world-class golf, breathtaking coastal scenery, and a relaxing ferry journey across Port Phillip Bay. The package includes a round of golf at Portsea Golf Club (pictured inset) on the Mornington Peninsula and Lonsdale Links (pictured main) on the Bellarine Peninsula (ranked No.12 and No.8 respectively in Golf Australia magazine’s Top-100 Public Access Courses for 2023), with Searoad Ferries providing a seamless travel experience between Sorrento and Queenscliff. There is a one-night stay in four-star accommodation at the Mercure Portsea on site at Portsea Golf Club. With 24 boutique style rooms, each room…

Cost: $199. Tested by: Jimmy Emanuel, Golf Australia Deputy & Digital Editor. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Cupping. You’ve probably heard about the therapeutic practice, or seen photos of people with red circles marking their backs after receiving it. And while it is reasonable to be sceptical, the value of cupping therapy is a proven one and there is no easier way to utilise it than the ultra-portable TheraCup. Made by the creators of the Theragun previously reviewed in these pages, this handheld device has a range of applications and intensity levels for optimal treatment for each person and can easily be thrown in any bag when hitting the road. The first impression of the product was just how conveniently sized it is and easy to use the TheraCup is. Straight out of…

WYNDHAM CLARK A true underdog story. Clark beat Rory to the U.S Open title despite having never finished higher than T75 in six major starts. He also only won for the first time on the PGA Tour back in May. PABLO LARRAZABAL The Spaniard is playing so well right now that Jon Rahm has already messaged him about playing together in Rome. The way he celebrated his fourth win in 14 months at the KLM Open suggests we may have found a replacement for Sergio. COLIN BOBOWSKI Tasked with hitting tee shots all day in a charity scramble event, this 15-year-old aced the same par-3 three times from 145 yards at Aston Oaks in Ohio. Maybe practice does make perfect. LEE WESTWOOD The former World No.1 had hoped to make…

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Team Europe’s first Solheim Cup victory over the Americans on U.S soil. The U.S side were hot favourites to win the Cup in Colorado and were just a point in arrears after the morning foursomes on day two of competition. But the afternoon fourball matches produced a landslide of European wins and they headed into singles Sunday leading 10½ to 5½. Swede Caroline Hedwall (pictured inset) birdied the 18th hole to beat Michelle Wie 1-up ensuring Europe retained the Cup. She was undefeated in Europe’s 18–10 victory, which remains the biggest winning margin for either team in the history of the event.…

On the face of it, this wonderful game of ours appears to offer a staggering number of ways to hit a genuinely awful shot. But from a coach’s perspective, things look a little different. While the ball can indeed ping off the clubface in any direction, height and speed, these miscues tend to be the by-products of familiar, ineffective swing patterns we see time and time again. In truth, the pool of really damaging movements is not as wide as you might think; and once you get your head around this, confidence and consistency do not feel quite so elusive. In this article we will take a look at seven of the most common danger moves. No doubt you will recognise some, possibly even all; but my advice is to…

Ideally, we need the downswing to work from the ground up. In practice this means ankles, knees and pelvis working to shift weight and begin the process of core rotation. This places the upper body – torso, shoulders, arms and club – in the role of follower, reacting to the lead of the lower body. This sequence of movement allows us to build power and deliver the club from the ideal path, inside the ball-target line. However, when we get to the top, the feeling of stored power in our rotated shoulders is tough to resist – so much so that starting down with the upper body has to be one of our seven most common errors. WHAT PROBLEM SHOTS DOES IT CAUSE? As this image shows, the main problems…

There will be times during a round when you be faced with having to hit a recovery from the trees after playing a poor shot. If you have the ability to punch a shot out of trouble, minimising the effect of your mistake, you can also limit the impact on your scorecard. Good golf is not always about hitting pure golf shots all day long. Here, I'm faced with a situation that would be familiar to many players - I'm in the rough, surrounded by trees but there is a gap back to the fairway. Hanging over that escape route are some branches so we will need to loft down the club to keep the ball under the branches. I've got a 5-iron and at address I'm going to choke…

From the moment you turn into the driveway of the club, there is no mistaking who the favourite golfing son of Warrnambool is. Tour pro Marc Leishman is a much-loved hero of the club, which honoured ‘Leish’ by naming the driveway after him. He learned and honed his game here and was well-supported by the members in the fledging years of his golfing career. When he returns home he always makes time to tee it up in the club competition with a few members and share a few stories around the bar. To look at the strengths of Leishman’s game – long hitting, precise iron play with a variety of shots in all conditions – you need look no further than the holes covering the varied terrain here to see…

Tour Edge offer a range of different clubs to suit different golfers, and even different budgets, and the Hot Launch E523 driver offers longer, straighter drives at a fraction of the price of some other options. Powered by a ‘Houdini Sole’, which moves weight to the trailing edge and curved leading edge, the centre of gravity of this driver can be placed low and deep in the head for improved launch and stability. The stability of the increased moment of inertia isn’t just for straighter drives but improves ball speed on off centre strikes for less distance loss, while the ‘power channel’ on the sole increases face flexing and subsequent ball speed, as well as forgiveness on low face strikes. ‘Diamond Face VFT’ utilises 39 diamond shapes behind the clubface…

These days, stories of Australian companies achieving success in the golf equipment space are few and far between, and while it might not be the traditional clubs or clothes you think of, R&J Batteries is certainly one to be celebrated. Started by Ray Robson, who is still involved in the business, and John Webb in the form of an old shed in Ballarat in 1995, R&J Batteries is now one of the fastest growing battery distributors with 29 branches and more than 10,000 stockists across Australia and New Zealand. The company built this ever-grown battery expert business, with presence in all Australian states and territories, with a focus on three things, people, products, and service. “One of the key factors of our continued success is securing distribution rights for the…

Amongst the vast array of things this correspondent struggles to understand in this ever-more complicated life, the level of prizemoney in major championships is but one. Why, my simplistic mind wonders, do any of golf’s four most important events care even a little bit about how they compare in financial terms with anything else out there? Why do the bods in charge at Augusta National, the PGA of America, the United States Golf Association and the R&A bother themselves with such crass considerations? Does it really matter that some obscure LIV event no one has watched or paid any attention to pays more than, say, The Open Championship? This is a mystery to me. Here’s the thing. Let’s stay with the game’s oldest major to illustrate the point. Does anyone…

I remember telling Tiger that for all his fame and money I would never want his life. We were walking through the crowd from the clubhouse to the 1st tee (at the Presidents Cup), about a 200-yard walk, and all the fans were screaming at him. He had pen marks all over him. We got to the first tee and I said, “That reminds me of working for Seve Ballesteros, but on speed.” I said to him, “You could be a multimillionaire, have any woman you want, you could be the best golfer that has ever lived, but I wouldn’t swap your life.” He said, “Billy, that’s why I don’t play so much.” I got it. You almost felt sorry for him. Tiger’s manners were impeccable. Please and thank you…

Golf is a fickle sport, with ancient rules that are seemingly in a constant state of being changed to keep up with evolution of the game. Over the years these rules have yielded all kinds of wild occurrences, from players missing out on play-offs at majors, losing massive amounts of prizemoney or being sent home early. What follows is proof that even the game’s elite players can fall foul of the rules book and we should learn a lesson from their mistakes. DUSTIN JOHNSON 2010 PGA Championship Playing the 18th hole at the 2010 PGA Championship, Dustin Johnson hit his drive into what was designated as a waste bunker. There are more than 1,000 waste bunkers scattered across the Whistling Straits course, but by late on the final afternoon of…

Rolling the shaft – also sometimes called a ‘wrapped over’ release – gives us an unwelcome, loose sensation of the hands and wrists rolling the clubface from open to closed through impact. As a result, the clubface feels lively and out of control. WHAT PROBLEM SHOTS DOES IT CAUSE? Because rolling the shaft directly influences face angle, the main problems it causes relate to the direction of the ball straight off the clubface, which becomes extremely inconsistent. Secondary issues relate to launch angle and spin rate, as the clubface – rolling from open to shut – rapidly loses loft. Ultimately, you have little chance of consistency with this release. WHAT SHOULD I BE DOING INSTEAD? All instincts suggest we should be working on calming the hands and wrists to tame…

Ending up on the back foot at the finish of the swing is one of the most common swing traits we coaches face. It’s usually caused by a subconscious desire to hit the ball upward into the air, but it can also be the result of a counterbalancing move if your weight has shifted onto the front foot on the way back. This damaging move destroys path, attack angle and most of all power as there is no forward momentum to the strike. But with two simple visualisations, you can deal with it relatively quickly. CHANGE YOUR SWING PATTERN 1: THE SCHEFFLER DRAG Watch the World No.1 in full flow and you will see a very definite dragging of his right or trail foot towards his lead, left foot as…

We can picture the clubhead moving in a circular motion from the top of the backswing through to the finish of the swing; and we can also picture that this circle will have a base, or low point. When the ball is teed up, it’s OK for this low point to fall slightly before the point of impact; but when it’s lying snug against the turf, we’re asking for trouble. WHAT PROBLEM SHOTS DOES IT CAUSE? The typical result of the club bottoming out before it reaches the ball is, of course, a duff, as the clubhead engages the ground pre-impact. But with the club into its upward arc at the point of impact, you can also expect thins. Either way, you’ll experience a loss of distance as the power…

Perfecting a bunker shot is an art, requiring a mix of technical skill, judgment, and practice. Key to this shot is understanding the ‘splash’ – the interaction between the club, sand and ball – which is being beautifully demonstrated here by two-time major champion, Zach Johnson. Firstly, your stance matters. Your feet should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart with a small bend in the knees, ball positioned forward in the stance. This setup promotes a downward blow, necessary for splashing the sand. Secondly, the swing itself. The club should enter the sand about two inches behind the ball, not striking the ball directly (main pic). This splashes the sand, creating a cushion that carries the ball onto the green (inset). The power of the swing should be strong enough…

Everyone has heard about the importance of a pre-shot routine. But did you know a good pre-round routine is just as important to making better scores. The following tips might sound very simple, but you might be surprised at the number of people who ignore them and continue shooting high scores, particularly because they get off to a slow start in the round. Ideally, during a round you want to try to keep yourself on a “flat line” both physiologically and psychologically. If you are fully prepared and are going about things at a pace you are comfortable with, you will remain on a level … you won’t get flustered and you won’t lose concentration. Physiologically, you don’t want to drink any caffeine or sugar drinks before your round because…

Cost: $329 per iron (steel shafts); $354 per iron (graphite). Tested by: Jimmy Emanuel, Golf Australia Deputy & Digital Editor FIRST IMPRESSIONS: What’s not to like about a new range of Titleist irons? That’s certainly true with the new T-Series that although they carry a similar look in the cavity carry out extremely different functions from a performance standpoint. The all satin chrome look is great, as is the ability to combine the T-Series line with other models following the Tour trend of blending sets with more forgiveness at the top end of the bag, and more control in the scoring clubs. That combination capability is clearly evident when going through a Titleist fitting, just as this writer did, where the goal is to maintain peak heights, and landing angles…

For just the third time in history, this month will see the Solheim and Ryder Cups played in the same year since the former came into existence in 1990. The two biennial competitions have always been planned to play opposite years, with the only previous double ups coming due to events beyond the organisers’ control, firstly the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, then COVID. With the COVID adjusted years not being rectified to restore the status quo, both major competitions pitting Europe against the United States played one week after another raise two of the constantly bubbling issues in the professional game. First of those is scheduling. Tournament scheduling has become a minefield for those trying to garner maximum attention and viewership, the best fields and sponsorship for years, and…