Indholdsfortegnelse for Mar 2024 - Issue 418 i Golf Australia

It was only six years ago that Yering Meadows Golf Club, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, had 18 of its 27 holes ranked in the nation’s Top-100 Public Access Courses. It hasn’t featured in that ranking since 2019 and the club has recognised some changes need to be made, including the appointment of Clayton, DeVries & Pont (CDP) and KruseGolf as course architectural advisors. Formerly the Croydon Golf Club, its members decided to move to the Yarra Valley not long after Aaron Baddeley, one of their own, won the Australian Open as an amateur in 1999. Renowned course designer Ross Watson was commissioned to create 27 holes and extensive practice facilities, and the first 18 holes opened for play in 2008 and the third nine the following year. “It’s fair to…

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Lord Howe Island is a world-heritage listed paradise that can be reached in less than two hours flying from Sydney, Brisbane or Port Macquarie. Characterised by sandy beaches, subtropical forests and crystal-clear waters, the island also boasts a terrific nine-hole golf course. With the towering Mt Lidgbird and Mt Gower on one side and the blueTasman Sea on the other, this par-33 is one of the most picturesque nine-holers in Australia. The layout meanders through a lush kentia palm forest and out into the gently undulating fairways along the ocean foreshore. This not only brings the beach into play but the wind offers its own challenges. The course hosts the annual Lord Howe Island Open, which is a limited field event for 50 players but is open to players of…

The new Titleist AVX golf ball has been reengineered from core to cover to increase performance on every shot, delivering longer distance tee to green, more greenside spin and control and even softer feel. Relative to Pro V1, Pro V1x and Pro V1x Left Dash, the new AVX maintains its positioning as the lower flying, lower spinning and softer feeling performance option. The next generation AVX features a new high gradient, high speed core which provides longer distance from tee to green along with exceptionally soft feel. This is the same high gradient core technology found in Pro V1 and Pro V1x, which helps reduce long game spin without sacrificing greenside spin and control. “When we talk about the gradient of the core, we’re talking about stiffness as it radiates…

Mizuno has confirmed the expansion of its exceptional ST-230 metal wood series with the launch of the ST-MAX 230 driver, fairway and hybrid. The ST-MAX 230 driver, fairway wood and hybrid are the new ultra-stable members of an ST-230 series, which put Mizuno firmly back in the metal wood conversation in 2023. A jump in ball speed from Mizuno’s CORTECH Chamber saw Keith Mitchell and his ST-Z lead the 2023 PGATourTotal Driving statistic through the FedExCup playoffs. Now, the ST-MAX 230 driver, fairway and hybrid pack all that performance into an ultra-stable, large footprint profile that will feel like you’re swinging on tracks. Engineered to deliver predictable straight flights, over and over from the widest range of off-centre strikes. “Everything in the ST-MAX engineering is dedicated to producing a straight…

What was your first car and what do you drive now? I had a Holden Commodore. I’ve upgraded to a Mercedes now. When did you last break a golf club? Oh, I’ve broken a lot. I was a bad boy, but it’s been at least 10 years since I broke one in anger. I remember playing really crap for ages, lost $5 to my mate, and got triggered. I started hitting my golf bag and just kept swinging. Broke four clubs with five swings. Have you ever hit a shank in competition? I’ve hit a few. I hit one at The International (outside Boston) one year. I was on the 18th, doing half decently, and had a 7-iron in from the middle of the fairway. I shanked it right over…

Cottesloe is internationally renowned for its iconic beach that stretches out in front of towering Norfolk pines and wonderful terraced lawns making it an idyllic spot to soak in views of the Indian Ocean. If you were expecting to find the Cottesloe Golf Club somewhere in this picturesque seaside Perth suburb, you would be more than 90 years too late. The club, originally formed in 1908, started out as a nine-hole course on the site occupied today by the Sea View Golf Club. As the name suggests, the layout was just a stone’s throw from the ocean in Cottesloe. However, during the 1920s there were several new 18-hole courses being established across Perth’s northern suburbs, including Lake Karrinyup and Mt Lawley, so a move to nearby Swanbourne to ensure the…

The second season of Full Swing, the Netflix show that goes behind the scenes of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf League will be released on March 6. During the inaugural episodes, cameras followed JustinThomas at the PGA Championship, Matt Fitzpatrick at the U.S Open and Rory McIlroy at the Tour Championship. McIlroy, Thomas and Fitzpatrick will be the leading lights alongside Rickie Fowler, Joel Dahmen, Keegan Bradley, Tom Kim, Luke Donald and Wyndham Clark. And this season brings even more drama, with an unexpected proposed agreement between the PGATour, the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The show’s executive producer, Chad Mumm, confirmed on social media that cameras were rolling with several bigname players when the PGATour and PIF dropped their framework agreement bombshell agreement. But…

MARCH 21, 1982 The first Players Championship contested at TPC Sawgrass was held 52 years ago this month. The tournament had been a major event on the PGATour since 1974 when Jack Nicklaus won his first of three Players titles. But thenTour Commissioner Deane Beman was keen to find a permanent home for the championship and the idea to build TPC Sawgrass as part of the PGA Tour’s headquarters at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, was born. The Alice and Pete Dye-designed TPC Sawgrass opened for play less than 18 months before the Players and it was regarded from the outset as one of the most difficult courses on the Tour. Notable players to miss the cut that first year at Sawgrass included Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Johnny…

Gabi Ruffels is a very unrookie Rookie for the LPGA Tour season of 2024. By rights she should be pretty raw, given it’s only eight years since she started playing golf with any form of commitment and just six years since she enrolled at the University of Southern California on a golf scholarship. But, no, she’s not raw. At all. A lot has happened in that short time, most of it unexpected by others. But this is a player with her head firmly screwed on, her feet firmly on the ground and her eyes not on the prize but the process. A player who seemingly came from nowhere yet has met challenges at every level of her development and used them as learning opportunities to springboard to the next level.…

Xander Schauffele is honest enough to admit that he’s had enough. He wanted and needed a break from golf, which is why he pulled out of Tiger’s Hero World Challenge event in the Bahamas last December. He didn’t return to professional golf until the Sentry Tournament of Champions in early January after not playing since the Zozo Championship in October. The last few months have given him time to decompress and enjoy some downtime for the first time since the pandemic. He has not spoken fully about the fallout from the Ryder Cup, but a text message from his agent tells us he is finally ready to talk. This is his chance to reflect and set the record straight about a few things that have been said and written about…

Iron Mike may only have been trashing the claimed strategy of his next opponent, but he was in fact making a rather fine point. Indeed he was echoing the much quoted wisdom of “no plan survives the battlefield”, originally proffered by a 19th-century Prussian soldier. “Only the layman believes that in the course of a campaign, he sees the consistent implementation of an original thought that has been considered in advance in every detail and retained to the end.” Thank you, Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke. Hopefully by now you’ll see where I am going with this… because in a golfing context, so many of us do a pretty good impression of that layman. We head out on to the first tee with a vague notion that whatever swing thought…

Tropical North Queensland is internationally renowned for its heritage-listed rainforests as well as being home to one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef. There are quality courses to play for the travelling golfer, and Port Douglas is the ideal place to base yourself for your golf getaway. Back in the early 1980s, Port Douglas was little more than a sleepy seaside village. When then high-flying businessman Christopher Skase arrived in town with plans to build the ultra-luxurious Sheraton Mirage Resort, it changed the town forever. Today, Port Douglas is a resort town with easy access to the reef and the rainforests that has retained a typical laidback Queensland feel. Anything more than aT-shirt, boardies and thongs as you head for a coffee in the…

The PGA Tour has secured a $US3 billion ($A4.5 billion) investment from a consortium of U.S sports team owners as part of a deal that will benefit its players and allow for co-investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The deal with Strategic Sports Group (SSG) will give the US-based circuit’s players access to more than $US1.5 billion ($A2.3 billion) as equity owners in the new PGA Tour Enterprises. “Today marks and important moment for the PGA Tour and fans of golf across the world,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, CEO of the new enterprise, said in a news release. “By making the PGA Tour members owners of their league, we strengthen the collective investment of our players in the success of the PGA Tour.” Monahan added that the deal…

Frenchman Matthieu Pavon birdied the 72nd hole to win the Farmers Insurance Open. He is the first Frenchman to win a PGA Tour recognised event since Arnaud Massy won the 1907 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. On a leaderboard dominated by Europeans, Pavon, 31, held his nerve down the stretch to finish at 13-under and claim the title by a single stroke. Pavon, who won his PGA Tour card last season on the DP World Tour, said: “It is amazing. It has been a long journey waiting seven years to win on the main tour back in Europe but I now finally have a win in America. I am glad I haven’t cried yet but it must come.” Getty Images photographer Orlando Ramirez captured the moment Pavon was deep in…

‘Twas the night before Christmas when Queenslander Robyn Choi flew back into Australia from her final event of inarguably, her most consistent year in the past five as a professional. It was a season of somewhat frustrating consistency on the secondary Epson Tour in the United States but one highlighted by winning back her playing privileges to the LPGA Tour for 2024, the hard way. Sydney-born but a long-term Gold Coast resident, Choi’s 2023 Epson Tour season featured six top-10 finishes from 21 starts, with a best result of a tie for 2nd in the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout in Arkansas. With her mum on the bag throughout and despite not missing a single cut, what amounted to just a few extra strokes here and there over the course…

True power in the golf swing is the result of your upper body coiling over the resistance of the lower body, and pivotal to doing this well is establishing good footwork. You may have even heard that a good golf swing starts from the ground up. Average golfers tend to turn too much on the backswing, allowing their left foot (for right-handers) to come off the ground, which can create a myriad of backswing problems including a reverse pivot at the top of the swing. From this position, it’s nearly impossible to shift weight correctly on the downswing. As a result, these players are forced to keep the right heel firmly planted at impact. This is the opposite of what you should do. Professionals keep their left heel planted on…

BATEMANS BAY There are so many things to do in Batemans Bay, you are spoilt for choice! Fishing, surfing, jet skiing, kite surfing and swimming are popular water-based activities with locals and visitors. A Merinda river cruise is a perfect way to see the stunning bay and the Clyde River as it stretches back toward the mountains. A kayak tour through the mangroves is a unique way to explore the river and bay. Try an oyster kayak tour to the oyster leases and sample the molluscs that have made Batemans Bay famous in the seafood world. MORUYA Visitors to Moruya from the north cross the bridge into town and are welcomed by stunning river vistas to the east and west. As you might imagine, much of Moruya’s recreation is linked…

TaylorMade has had a long-held reputation for making some of the game’s best drivers when it comes to greater ball speeds, but have sometimes overlooked forgiveness in chasing greater distance. The new Taylor Made Qi10 driver family – Qi10 Max, Qi10 LS and Qi10 – changes all that with Taylor Made’s team of engineers and designers focusing on forgiveness more than ever before. This cutting-edge series unlocks a new frontier of forgiveness, with the Qi10 Max hitting the elusive total MOI (Moment of Inertia) of 10,000 g-cm². What does 10K MOI mean for you? In its simplest form, higher MOI = more forgiveness. Higher MOI reduces head rotation on off-centre impacts, protecting ball speed on mishits and delivering more consistent launch conditions. This is measurable forgiveness. The Qi10 Max driver…

Faster core technology and a reformulated cover system drives improved all-around performance in the new Titleist Tour Soft golf ball, providing golfers with longer distance off the tee and increased spin into the green, with an exceptionally soft feel off the club face. Tour Soft features a new, large core that increases ball speed and distance off the tee while providing an incredible soft feel on every shot. The 1.608” diameter of Tour Soft’s core makes it the largest ionomer-covered core in the market. Engineered over Tour Soft’s core is its thin FusaBlend cover which has been reformulated to increase spin and control into and around the greens. Fusablend is a Titleist proprietary combination of ionomers and softening polymers used to create a cover material with spin performance and feel…