Indholdsfortegnelse for Sep 2024 - Issue 424 i Golf Australia

“The Chase Is On” for the pros on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, with a busy schedule of blockbuster tournaments for the first half of the upcoming 2024/25 Aussie season recently released. Starting with the just-completed PNG Open, 10 tournaments will be contested through to the end of the year, highlighted by the two Australian major championships, co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour. The first Australian events on the ‘24/25 calendar will be the Western Australia double in October, beginning in Kalgoorlie at the CKB WA PGA Championship presented by TX Civil and Logistics (to be held October 10-13). Then it’s on to the Mandurah Country Club, the new home for the Bowra and O’Dea Nexus Advisernet WA Open, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary when it is played October…

LIV Golf has officially debuted Any Shot, Any Time, an innovative live broadcast experience for golf fans available exclusively on the LIV Golf+ app. The new feature, launched during LIV Golf Andalucía at Real Club Valderrama, gives fans the ability to select exactly which golfers, teams or groups they want to watch at any given time, driving new engagement and innovation for the sport. The official launch of Any Shot, Any Time offered access to each of the nearly 11,800 strokes played throughout the three-day competition in Spain, which resulted in a historic double playoff finish in the team and individual competitions, won by Fireballs GC and captain Sergio Garcia. “Any Shot, Any Time is another example of LIV Golf delivering what golf fans have long asked for,” said LIV…

I always smile when I hear the quote from Peggy Lee, the famous jazz singer, when she was asked who was the best in her field. “You mean, apart from Ella [Fitzgerald]?” was Lee’s immortal response. Which is the same sort of feeling I always get when I’m asked who, in my experience, has or had the best short game. The answer is easy. “You mean, apart from Seve?” That was the thing about Seve Ballesteros. No matter what criteria I use, the great Spaniard comes out on top. He could hit the freakiest short shots. He could get it up-and-down from places no one else could. And he could save the most shots around the greens. His short game made his scores lower and gave him a significant advantage…

With the majors season over for another year and the Paris Olympics run and won, the focus on significant events turns to the Solheim Cup, to be played from September 10-15. After a dramatic tie in 2023 and with the mantle of which continent is superior in the balance, Team Europe and Team USA head to Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia for the 19th running of the event. It will be played this year, back to even-numbered years, in order to avoid a clash with the Ryder Cup, which reverted to odd-numbered years after it was not held in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Solheim Cup was the brainchild of Karsten Solheim, the creator of PING, and his wife Louise. The Solheims were staunch supporters…

JOONDALUP RESORT Connolly, Western Australia Designer: Robert Trent Jones Jnr, 1985 Address: Country Club Boulevard, Connolly, Western Australia Website: www.joondalupresort.com.au Joondalup sets a high standard for visually striking and immaculately presented golf, thanks to the creative mind of American course architect Robert Trent Jones Jnr. Jones’ career began alongside his celebrated designer father Robert Trent Jones in the early 1960s, before forming his own design company in 1972. In the nearly five decades since, Jones has created or remodelled nearly 300 golf courses across more than 40 countries. Joondalup opened in 1985 and gave Australian golfers their first glimpse of Jones’ imaginative flair. Never had we seen such dramatic golfing terrain, with enormous putting surfaces and bunkering of such size and extravagance. Jones drew on all his creative skills to craft…

If you’re someone who likes to begin preparing well in advance for an upcoming tournament or big club event, the 2025 Centara World Masters Golf Championship in Hua Hin, Thailand sounds like it might be very much in your wheelhouse. Scheduled for 8-14 June next year at the beautiful coastal city of Hua Hin, the World Masters Golf Championship is open to all golfers aged 35 and upwards, male and female, to compete and join in on a wonderful week of golf and fun. With 15 divisions and grades available to enter, you are guaranteed a start alongside people similar to you in age and golfing ability. In fact, 400 golfers from 30 countries across the globe are expected to enter the 2025 event. The World Masters Golf Championship has…

As a 20-year-old who had barely left Australia, several months spent travelling in the United Kingdom and Europe continue to evoke fond memories many years on, bookended by a glut of golf at a variety of courses in conditions which were largely foreign to me at that time. Brandishing letters of introduction from home, a friend and I eagerly snuck in rounds at a treasure trove of links and parkland tracks such as St Mellion in Cornwall, Long cliffe in Lough borough on our way north to Scotland where we scattered in rounds on a pilgrimage St Andrews, Old and New, along with Carnoustie and Lady bank. Ditching the clubs for a few months’ travelling around Europe, we later returned to London to take advantage of fabulous, unlimited golf green…

CALLAWAY OPUS WEDGES GROOVY Callaway presents its pinnacle in wedge design, the new and improved Opus, epitomising ultimate spin, versatility and feel thanks to its new Spin Gen Face Technology. This innovative tech integrates three key elements on the wedge face: a new tighter pitch which increases the number of grooves, an offset groove-in-groove design for enhanced spin when opening the face, and an aggressive face blast for added spin and bite on partial shots. Together, these features deliver crisp, Tour-level spin and control. Renowned for its Tour Certified Shaping and validation, Opus wedges boast the most Tour-tested and Tour-validated shapes in Callaway’s history. Their design includes a higher toe peak, a radius in the leading edge, and seamless hosel transitions, making Opus the best wedge shape to date. This…

Michael Block. Remember him? He was the then-46-year-old American club professional who played his way into contention at the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill, earned a final-round pairing alongside a Northern Irishman called Rory McIlroy and made a hole-in-one down the stretch before grabbing a cheque for more than US$220,000 for snaring a share of 15th place. It was a classic “Cinderella” story with Hollywood’s fingerprints all over it. His phone soon rang off the hook with sponsorship and tournament invite offers, including one from Golf Australia offering him a spot in the Australian Open to be played at The Lakes and The Australian Golf Clubs in Sydney. It was a canny move and Block repaid the organisers by doing what he could to promote the championship to his…

The 2024 NSW Open is set to shine when it heads to the magnificent Murray Downs Golf and Country Club in the NSW south-west from November 14 to 17, with Australia’s best golfers competing for a record-setting purse of $800,000. Last held in March 2023, the NSW Open will also return to the spring/summer window for the first time in five years. This tournament and the entire men’s regional Open series has the support of the NSW Government’s Destination NSW. “This year’s NSW Open presents a fantastic opportunity for us to ensure the tournament maintains its standing as the most prestigious State Championship on the Australian golf calendar,” said Stuart Fraser, CEO of Golf NSW. “Rich River proved to be a fabulous venue for last year’s Championship, and the crowds…

A Victorian he may be, but there are few people, if any, walking planet Earth who know more about the conditions, soils and seasonal weather fluctuations which prevail at the Royal Queensland Golf Club than Ashley Mead. The OCM Golf (Ogilvy, Cocking, Mead) director’s involvement with the club stretches back almost 20 years to when he was part of Mike Clayton’s team that last renovated the golf course following a government acquisition of land to build a second Gateway Bridge over the Brisbane River. Mead lived on site at Royal Queensland as part of the build which led to the 2007 opening of the current layout and has continued his involvement with the club in various iterations as consultant architect, first with Clayton and now in his role as a…

It is an underlying theme throughout this story; if you ever get the privilege of watching New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori go about his work on the golf course, one abundant skill sticks out above the other traits of his game. His putting. This isn’t to say the other aspects aren’t impressive, because they are. But what the 22-year-old from Rangiora, just north of Christchurch, does on the putting surface is generational. It is simply first-class and has been instrumental in a wildly impressive first year as a professional. This writer may be slightly biased – we grew up in the same town – but Kobori is destined for great things when it is all said and done. And it’s not just me – plenty of good judges believe the Japan-born…

Depending on who you listen to, world No.1 Scottie Scheffler’s swing isn’t likely to be found in golfing instruction manuals any time soon. Depending on the day, however, his short game can be as hot as anyone’s. “The shot Scottie is being challenged with here looks like it is only a short distance from the pin; from long rough on a downslope to what looks like a green sloping away from him, to a flag positioned not far onto the green,” offers Michael Smyth from Howe 2 Golf in Moore Park in Sydney. “This would be a really difficult shot, even for someone with as skilled a short game as Scottie Scheffler. “The elements to his finishing position, which we can obtain from this picture, are that he has selected…

Alejandro Del Rey may not have taken the chocolates at this year’s Scottish Open (he finished T15), but his smooth and simple swing still took plenty of people to school across the weekend at The Renaissance Club at North Berwick. And for those of us looking to unscramble all that conflicting information and advice our brains have taken onboard over the years, the Spaniard’s work here is a lesson in getting back to basics with our swinging action. “In looking at Alejandro’s swing, he does an incredible job of simplifying the backswing by keeping the hands in front of the chest, and the lead hand in a slightly flexed position to keep the club face square,” Certified PGA Professional, Advanced Coaching and the Head Teaching Professional at Bankstown GC, John…

The hickory golf world is abuzz with excitement and energy, with two important tournaments on the very-near horizon, both here in Australia and across the ditch in New Zealand. The 29th staging of the Australian Hickory Shaft Open Championship is scheduled for Sydney’s Northern Beaches from 8-10 September, 2024. This event is open to both amateur and professionals, with organisers expecting players from Japan, China and New Zealand to take part. Day one of competition will consist of Foursomes at Warringah Golf Club, followed by a presentation. The next day, singles at Manly GC will be fought out, followed by dinner, with the night highlighted by a guest speaker. Day three will consist of the second round of singles matches being played at Cromer Golf Club, followed by a presentation,…

27 MAY 1927 On arrival at Melbourne, I was met by the various officials of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club. They told me that all the principal golf clubs in Australia wished to avail themselves of my services, and, as a matter of fact, during the few weeks I was there, I advised on 19 golf courses. Thirteen of these were reconstruction jobs and the remainder new courses. The morning after my arrival in Melbourne, I was much impressed with the imaginative genius of the Australian newspaper reporter. The only reporters I had seen were those who met me at Fremantle, Adelaide, and Melbourne, and I had not even touched a golf club, yet I found the following account of my visit in the morning paper: “Outside the club-house of…

Automotive giant BMW will become the title partner of the Australian PGA Championship. The collaboration will see the BMW Australian PGA Championship, one of Australian golf’s two majors, join BMW’s suite of premium global tour tournaments, alongside the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the BMW International Open in Munich, the PGA Tour’s penultimate play off tournament, the BMW Championship, as well as the BMW Ladies Championship on the LPGA Tour. Locked in for Royal Queensland Golf Club on November 21-24 this year, the BMW Australian PGA Championship stands as one of the premier tournaments on the Australian sporting calendar, with its vibrant party hole and spectacular golf attracting record crowds. Thanks to the co-sanctioning agreement between the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia and DP World Tour, this…

It is likely American Xander Schauffele knew he’d have to climb a mountain in order to stand any chance of winning the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland, but we’re betting he didn’t anticipate having to chip from that mountain while surrounded by scores of golf fans standing within breathing distance. Troon delivered it all – the blind hell of the Railway Hole, the “fun” of the Postage Stamp – and everything in between. How ever his third shot on the 12th on day two went, all would have been forgiven between course and player when the popular now-two-time 2024 major winner claimed the Claret Jug and etched his name into history.…

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Xander Schauffele is a champion. Winner of the U.S PGA Championship in May. Champion golfer of the year in July. He headed into the Paris Olympics as men’s defending champion and, doubtless, as you read these words, you’ll know how he fared better than we did when we wrote them, given the IOC didn’t consider the business practice of this journal, which was off to the presses the day the golf events kicked off. Regardless, plenty has been going right for the 30-year-old from San Diego. Two majors. Heap of money. All the physical and technical attributes of a champion golfer represented. And, mentally, emotionally, as soon as he hurled that first major monkey off his back, there followed another soon after. Might there now be a flood? Might he,…

The Australian Mini Golf Open is a true “open” championship in that anyone can enter and become champion of Australia. Have a putter? Have the weekend off? Know where Barooga is? Then you, friend, could win cash money in the Australian Open of miniature golf. This year’s Open and match play championships will be run August 22-25 at Sporties Barooga in Cobram-Barooga, the golf-centric town on the Murray River. Sporties is the tournament’s host and naming rights owner, while Mini Golf Creations is sponsoring the Australian Match Play. You could compete as an amateur and chase one of the great gongs for your pool room. You could do it just for fun, just to say you did. You could take the kids to compete in the youth tournament. Or, as…

Cost: RRP $349.95 Focus S; $499.95 Focus OLED Pro Tested by: Matt Cleary, Golf Australia senior writer and Callum Hill, Golf Australia writer FIRST IMPRESSIONS: From the more affordable group of range finders, the Zoom Focus S certainly looks as functional as any similar bit of kit. It is a pleasing charcoal-verging-on-black in colour, with a splash of red indicating when you’ve flicked the switch into slope-adjusted mode. Comes with a capsule which hangs from a widget off your bag, too. The Zoom Focus OLED Pro is a neat-looking device and certainly looks more expensive than it’s encouraging price point suggests. The rangefinder illustrates all the qualities of a premier device, however, with a rangefinder, I’m not too fussed on how it looks. I was looking forward to getting out on…

Cost: Subscription: $634 upfront (24-month membership), $379 upfront (12-month membership), $44 monthly ($528 per annum). Tested by: Callum Hill, Golf Australia writer FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The time had probably come for this scribbler to be held accountable for his actions. So, the WHOOP arriving at Golf Australia magazine HQ for me to test was one of the great blessings. A simple-looking unit which is light; the only time you really notice the device on your body is when you have to charge it. Even then it doesn’t look too dissimilar to a watch. The WHOOP 4.0 differs from most of the equipment we test in this section, but I had only heard good things and was pumped to put it to the test. HOW IT PERFORMED: I am fairly old-school; I have an…