Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Golf Monthly

In association with 1 Try my ‘address system’ to control your wedge distances. With ‘address one’, set up with a clubhead’s width between the middle of your feet, stand a little closer to the ball with your hands down towards the bottom of the grip, and keep about 60 per cent of your weight on your left foot. Now you should feel a natural end point to your backswing – you cannot get your left arm to go any further back. From here, you can gently rotate through the shot, which should travel about 30 yards with a 56° wedge. 2 With ‘address two’, have your feet two clubheadwidths apart and your hands in the middle of the grip. Stand a little further away from the ball, but keep your…

In association with 1 You don’t want a wide stance – keep it narrow to trap the centre of gravity and limit excessive movement. The ball position should be just back of centre. You want a slight forward lean with the shaft and then just flare your front foot out a touch, as shown here. 2 Stand a little closer to the ball and it will help to keep your left wrist nice and flat. If you stand too far away, you’ll create an angle that promotes too much wrist action. The shoulders should be level, so not tilted like they would be in your long game. 3 Put all this together and you should make a good, clean contact. Note how I just rotate around the left pivot line;…

In association with 1 A successful flop shot relies on having the correct set-up – you want a wide stance so you don’t ‘drift’ from side to side. Often, fat or thin flop shots are down to unwanted sideways movement. 2 Set 70-80 per cent of your weight on the front foot, with the ball towards your left heel. The right shoulder is a little lower than the left, which is ideal as it encourages the low point of the swing to be a touch behind the ball, allowing the sole’s bounce to slide underneath at impact. 3 Stand a bit further away from the ball to allow your hands to sit nice and low. This will also give you some cupping in the left wrist. Press forward with your…

In association with 1 Let’s start with the putting fundamentals. Your eyes don’t need to be directly over the ball. However, it’s important they are somewhere in the region of the boundaries of the ball. Stand too far away and your eyeline will be pointing too far to the right. You’re likely to then aim right and push your putts. If you stand too far over the ball, your eyes will start to track left and you’re likely to aim left and pull your putts. Drop a ball from where your eyes are, as above; if it lands on or close to the ball on the ground, you’re in a good position. 2 In putting, you don’t want a lot of excessive hip movement during the stroke. Take a hip-width…

In association with 1 I often get asked what is the best arc for the putting stroke. Is it a slight arc, a more exaggerated one or a straight back and through motion? We all have our own slight tendencies and it isn’t the case that any one is better than the others. However, it is important not to get too far outside or too far inside the line. A good way to self-diagnose the arc of your stroke is to set up a straight line with a piece of string over the top of your putter. Hit a few putts and observe what your putter head does relative to the string. Your PGA pro will also be able to help you determine your putting arc. 2 If your stroke…

In association with 1 One of the most common faults I see with pitching is not marrying the length of the backswing to the length of the follow-through. If you focus on matching the length of your swing going back and coming through, you’ll find greater consistency when it comes to delivering the strike. 2 Often I’ll see a long backswing and then deceleration through the swing, which makes the follow-through too short (see photos). Other players are short on the way back, then try to make up for it with an extended follow-through. Neither method is conducive to clean, consistent ball-striking. 3 Much of your success with pitching comes back to the ‘left side pivot’ I mentioned earlier. This also allows you to hit your distances more regularly and…

Flooded bunker SAYS FERGUS BISSET To start with, I should say I’m very much in favour of bunkers being proper hazards. The flat, perfectly manicured ‘traps’, like we often see on the PGA Tour, are a haven for reasonable players rather than a tricky challenge, as they should be. Although bunkers should be penal, one should have a chance to escape from them without penalty. When a bunker is totally flooded, with no place whatsoever to take relief within it, a penalty drop is the only option. This is extremely harsh as far as I’m concerned and particularly when the bunker in question is greenside. Imagine the scenario; in challenging conditions (it likely will be for bunkers to be flooded), you play a reasonable shot into a green. But it…

Collin Morikawa’s victory on debut in The Open was quite a performance and a fine way to round out this year’s Majors, which have all been compelling. I watched Collin in the final round of the Scottish Open the week before and he was five-over after seven holes and having a nightmare on the greens, so to turn it around the next week is testament to his ability and mental strength. He led the putting stats at Royal St George’s, which was a remarkable achievement. “It does seem like the stars are aligning in the USA’s favour” He’s taken to professional golf like a duck to water and when you’re such a world-class iron player, you’re going to give yourself so many chances to win tournaments, even if you’re not…

Onward, onward we go chums. After a unique sprint of Majors since The Masters last November, we now hurtle towards the biggest fun week of all, the Ryder Cup. A year late – and all the more welcome for that painful delay – the 43rd matches betwixt the USA and Europe will certainly offer a vivid contrast to the hurly-burliness of the 2018 rumble at Le Golf National, the Eiffel Tower a backdrop, cosmopolitan Paris a hectic staging post for everyone concerned. It’s not that the imaginative jousting field that is Whistling Straits is inferior; it is not. It is, however, somewhat quieter. Perched on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, this Wisconsin course is also near, well, not a lot. Wisconsin, after all, is known as America’s dairyland, with cows…

Colin Montgomerie knows a thing or two about making tough calls. In 2010, he left out Justin Rose and the then World No.7 Paul Casey – “leaving them out was the hardest decision of my life” – as he put together a winning team at Celtic Manor which set the ball rolling for three straight Ryder Cup victories. As a player, his record was a phenomenal 20-9-7, which puts him at fourth in Europe’s list of all-time points scorers behind Sergio Garcia, Sir Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer and includes a record six wins and two halves in eight singles outings. We asked the Scot to name his Ryder Cup dream team, so 12 captain’s picks from a galaxy of European heroes. He’s put them into some sort of order…

It was almost over. Late on Saturday September 29, 2012, as the American roars grew louder and louder, Europe found themselves 10-4 down. Europe’s captain, Jose Maria Olazabal, wore a pained expression, which intensified with each missed putt. It was turning into a nightmare. This could so easily have been the ‘Mauling at Medinah’. There are many enduring images from that thrilling contest nine years ago, but only one that tells the story of when the tide turned in favour of Olazabal’s men. It came after Ian Poulter, playing alongside Rory McIlroy in Saturday’s afternoon fourballs, holed a 15-footer at the last – his fifth straight birdie – to give Europe a 1up victory. The Englishman, eyes burning like a man possessed, turned to his teammates and let out the…

The one that jumps to mind would be the 62 I shot at St Andrews in the 2016 Dunhill Links Championship. It was on the Saturday and then I followed it up with a 66 to win my first European Tour title. I remember it all seemed fairly easy, my swing was in a pretty good place and everything was working really well. I guess I was ‘in the zone’. I didn’t really have any swing thoughts. I like to keep things simple and try not to overcomplicate anything because it allows you to swing freely. I wasn’t worried about hitting certain positions in my swing. I was just taking the club away and it was all pretty natural, it just flowed. I think that’s what allows people to have…

What are Welwyn Garden City’s biggest claims to fame? Sir Nick Faldo started his playing career at Welwyn Garden City Golf Club and has since been followed by two-time European Tour winner Tom Lewis, who still retains his membership. Most of our members would contend that we probably have the hardest opening hole in Hertfordshire. Why Welwyn rather than other local clubs? When I joined 28 years ago, waiting lists were still the thing and I had to bide my time for five years before getting in. But I knew a few members and knew it to be a friendly club and a layout I was unlikely to get tired of, with plenty of competitions and casual group roll-ups. What are your two favourite holes on the golf course? The…

“Stroke play is for that small minority who can really play this game” I’m back and this time it appears I’m serious. For various tedious reasons, some outside my control and some very much inside my body, I’ve only managed three rounds of golf in almost a year. The third of these has just taken place across the wonderful green acres of West Hill Golf Club in deepest Surrey and a course that never fails to delight. Anyway, here’s the thing… I am sitting here looking at a scorecard that shows a gross 65 and that includes a run of four consecutive 3s. Put that in your breakfast porridge and eat it. It’s the best scorecard I’ve ever signed in 50 years of grappling with the old game. Okay, here’s…

In association with 1 Many club golfers find this shot tough because it’s hard to get that ball-first contact. Get your set-up right and the shot will become a lot easier. The ball position should be just back of centre and you need to get your chest bone a good few inches ahead of the ball (below), as this dictates the low point in the swing. Club golfers often get their weight stuck on the back foot, and this moves the low point back, making it all too easy to hit the ground first. 2 With most short game-shots, sole bounce is your friend, but with this type of shot it isn’t. Make sure you’re using more of the leading edge to help you make good contact into the back…

In association with 1 Varying what club you chip with is one of the game’s lost arts. If you use the same club around the greens all the time, you’ll end up having to hit the ball harder to get it to the pin on longer chips. I recommend sticking to the same chipping technique but varying the club. Practise chipping with three different clubs, including a straighter-faced one than you would perhaps normally consider. This way, you’ll find it easier to chip the ball close more often. 2 Place a towel on the green a third of the way to the hole so two-thirds of your overall shot distance is between that point and the pin. Use your normal chipping technique with a 9-iron to see if you can…

In association with 1 A wide base helps guard against moving from side to side, which can often lead to fats or thins. Turn your front foot out about 45? so your front knee sits over it and sets most of your weight over your lead leg – maybe up to 80 per cent. Set the ball just inside your left heel and open the clubface. Note the neutral shaft line, with the hands neither ahead of nor behind the ball. 2 In soft sand, you can afford to allow your right shoulder to drop back a little bit – you don’t want to get your upper body stacking over your left leg too much. Stand a bit further away from the ball, too, to allow your hands to drop…

In association with If driving is the glamour part of the game, then the short game is very much the business end of affairs. We often overlook it in our quest to improve, but the reality is that your ability to turn three shots into two more often closer to the green can quickly pave the way to better scores. In this supplement, created in association with TaylorMade, the focus is on the various shots you might face from 70 yards and in, with top advice on set-up and technique from Dan Grieve, the head professional at Woburn Golf Club. Dan’s short-game schools on the club’s superb Tavistock shortgame area are always well subscribed. So, if you want a better understanding of everything from pitching to putting and a fast-track…

In association with 1 If you tend to push putts right, you may want to feel a touch more right-hand release. Watch for how the butt of the grip works as you go through. If you’re a little bit right-hand dominant, the butt will point more at the belt buckle going through and that means the putter is releasing. 2 If you tend to pull putts left, you may want to feel like you lead a bit more with your left hand to keep the putter face squarer through impact. Keep your left hand a bit firmer. When this hand leads more, you’ll see the butt point more at the left hip with the face being held more square. 3 A simple gate drill, as above, will show you if…

In association with 1 Pitching can be split into two elements. First, you have your distance wedges, which are full wedge shots. Then, there are your finesse wedges, and it is this type of shot that most players find tougher to execute and hit the right yardage on a consistent basis. Ball selection Playing the right golf ball is essential in all areas, but particularly around the greens. The TaylorMade TP5, which I’m using here, and the TP5x both deliver excellent feel and spin control. The TP5x now has a softer cover than prior models, which also assists with greenside grab. Elsewhere, the Tour Response ball boasts comparable levels of spin, too. It’s essential to find a ball that offers you the best performance for your game in all areas.…

Are you a links golf fan? A big fan. I enjoy the creativity and different shots you have to hit. Putters – stick or change after one bad round? I don’t think the putter is to blame for someone’s bad putting! How important is social golf when you’re home? It’s very important to me, but my fiancee probably hates it because I’m never at home! And how often do you play for money? All the time. Fred, one of my best friends who is also a pro – I love taking his money! Favourite local course? I love Stratford-on-Avon, but a favourite I haven’t played in ages is Beau Desert. Other sports you were good at as a kid? I quite enjoyed cricket – I played for the county at…

GEAR NEWS ROUND-UP Jordan Spieth switched into the new Titleist T100 irons at The Open Championship and finished 2nd. Collin Morikawa added heavier putter weights and TaylorMade P7MC short-irons to win The Open. Seamus Power claimed his maiden PGA Tour title with a Ping G410 driver, Blueprint irons and Glide 3 wedges. Min Woo Lee won the Scottish Open with a Callaway Epic Speed driver and an Odyssey White Hot OG #1 putter Rory McIlroy switched into an old Scotty Cameron 009M putter with a bronze finish at the Olympics. SPOTTED ON TOUR Retro design Justin Rose put a set of Mizuno’s new Pro 221 blades from 4 to 9-iron in play at The Open Championship. Horschel the Hammer Billy Horschel sported this West Ham-themed tour bag at The Open.…

One of the first big events I covered at Sky Sports was the 2013 Solheim Cup in Colorado, where the US team were heavy favourites but Europe stormed to an 18-10 victory. The crowds were big rather than huge, but I remember thinking how much of a massive deal it was for women’s golf and how much coverage it was given compared with a run-of-the-mill tour event. Since then, it seems to have got bigger and bigger with each hosting, culminating in 2019 and the events at Gleneagles. I’ve seen some amazing tournaments over the years, be it Opens or Masters or Ryder Cups, but I count that Solheim Cup as one of my favourite weeks and one of the best in terms of drama. It epitomised just how exciting…

Tyrrell Hatton has fought his way to the top of the game. He didn’t have a particularly decorated amateur CV before starting his professional career at the bottom and earning his way up every rung of the ladder. But here he is, ten years after turning pro, with seven wins on the European and PGA Tours, ranked England’s number one golfer and heading to his second Ryder Cup. The fighting spirit and talent that got him here is exactly why he will be an integral part of Team Europe at Whistling Straits, and for many matches to come. Hatton was one of five European rookies in 2018 and started the week as the ninth highest-ranked of the 12 at 26th in the world. This time he’ll be one of the…

12 Phil Mickelson has made the most Ryder Cup appearances. 984 From the 42 Ryder Cup events, 984 matches have been played with 354 players. 1927 The Ryder Cup was inaugurated in 1927. The USA have won 26 contests and GB&I/Europe 14. There have also been two ties. 1997 In 1997, Valderrama in Spain became the first golf course outside the United Kingdom or United States to host the Ryder Cup. 6 There have been six hole-in-ones in the history of the Ryder Cup. Europe have registered five and the USA one. 1959 From 1959 to 1983, the United States did not lose the Ryder Cup. That is a span of 13 events. 1983 17 The Ryder Cup trophy is 17 inches tall and measures nine inches from handle to…

When the Ryder Cup was last held in September of 2018 near Paris, the world was a different place. In much the same way as other significant moments in history have served as markers of time, so too has the Covid pandemic. There was before, and there was after. The same could be said of the biennial contest between the United States and Europe, which now returns to odd-numbered years (as it was prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001) at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin this September. So, just how different is the golfing landscape compared to the last time the two foes met? Well, consider this. Tiger Woods was still playing and was a few months shy of capturing his 15th career Major at the following year’s…

Good posture A great way to achieve good posture is to hold the club out in front of you and bend from the pelvis first before just adding a little soft flex in the knees. 1 Poor posture at address is often a primary cause of the topped shot as you won’t be able to maintain your angles as you swing and are likely to lift away from the ball through impact (below). Golfers with poor posture tend to bend through the back so their pelvis is too far forward. Push your pelvis back to maintain a good spine angle and focus on keeping it back through the strike so you can stay over the ball more and get to the bottom of it through impact for solid contact (main…

1 Collin’s arms hang out slightly at address, which helps to create lots of width, so he’s not going to pick the club straight up and down. He then has a very slow, deliberate takeaway – and it works. He’s preparing himself to fire the gun. His hands stay close to the body with the club outside the line. Many club golfers get the club behind them by going under the optimum swing plane. This fans the club and opens the face, so they have to then use their hands to try to recover it. 2 Now you can see how deep the rotation is – the left shoulder stays down and turns. I’m drawn to the logo on his glove; although it’s difficult to see here, what this tells…

In association with 1 Chipping and pitching are in the same short-game family – so it’s still about keeping a ‘left side pivot’ and rotating the body. However, the difference comes in how you use your wrists. 2 In this situation, with the pin approximately 15-20 yards away, I want to get the ball on the ground and running towards the hole as soon as possible. I’m choosing a chip shot, so the ball is going to spend more time on the ground than it does in the air. Note how there is less wrist action in a chip. 3 With the flag now 35 yards away I’m choosing a pitch, in which the ball spends more time in the air than on the ground. The key difference between the…

In association with 1 With a perfect lie in the fringe and plenty of green to work with, the chip and run is the perfect choice of shot. Remember, one of the keys to executing a good strike in chipping is to make sure the left wrist is nice and flat. Standing a little closer will prevent too much wrist action. With chipping, we’re looking to take the wrists out of the equation. Keep the left wrist flat 2 One of the most common faults I see with the chip and run shot is players moving all of their weight back – they ‘back off’ in a mistaken attempt to help the ball up into the air. But this actually means the low point of the swing will be too…

In association with 1 Often, you’ll face a bunker shot from more compacted sand, as on the right. It’s a skill to be able to correctly read the lie and make the adjustments required, but if you don’t alter your technique and approach it like a standard splash from fluffy sand (left), you’re likely to catch it thin. Read on to learn how to play from compacted sand. 2 From a compacted lie, keep your stance the same – weight forward on the left side – but get your left shoulder more over your left foot. This steepens your angle of attack. The club will come down into the sand more with the leading edge than the trailing edge of the bounce, so it digs down a bit more. 3…

In association with 1 The reverse overlap is perhaps the most classic putting grip. It has been used by some of the game’s greatest putters, like Ben Crenshaw, Brad Faxon and Tiger Woods. See how my left forefinger travels down the knuckles of the right hand. You’ll feel like it really locks the top of the hand from the top of the thumb to the forearm (photo right) because it extends the thumb longer down the grip. 2 The left-below-right grip creates a little bit of extra strength and arch in the left wrist, which promotes a lower, stronger follow-through. If you tend to pull your putts, I would certainly recommend having a go with this grip. 3 You’ve probably seen a good number of players adopting the claw, which…

In association with 1 Pitching should be seen as part of the short-game family. Those who struggle the most, especially on those awkward 30 to 80-yard shots, play pitches too much like a mini version of their full swing. Think about pitching as an extension of how you chip, rather than a watered-down version of your long game. 2 The problem with playing your pitches more like a full swing is that you develop a bit of a weight shift, as in the top photo. This is fine for the long game, but becomes a problem in pitching. Set up with your stance a lot narrower than you would with your irons and grip down the club a little. 3 Imagine a straight line running through your front foot, knee,…

A lot has happened in the world of professional golf since my last column, but I wanted to discuss the Olympic men’s golf because I found it so captivating (the women’s event took place after this went to press). I know there were negative headlines in the lead-up once again as some of the world’s best players declined to participate, but that simply didn’t matter. The event was engrossing from start to finish and it was refreshing to see golfers giving their all in an event that carried no prize fund. Everyone truly embraced the Olympic spirit. “This will give Schauffele huge belief he can land one of golf’s big four in 2022” Xander Schauffele held off a stellar chasing pack in the end to win a Gold Medal for…

Why do you think you’ve performed so well in the Ryder Cup? One of my biggest memories is going to the Ryder Cup as a 15-year-old and really loving what it meant from a fan perspective. Being a kid who loved sport, and team sport, I absolutely loved the team atmosphere. I just said to myself ‘I need to make this Ryder Cup team, I want to be a Ryder Cup player, I want to be inside the ropes. I don’t want to be watching it from outside. I want to make it something I enjoy, I love, and I do to the best of my ability’. That’s really how I look back upon what took me to wanting to be a Ryder Cup player. Your first match was a…

1. Be prepared when you step on the 1st tee Good preparation before you get to the tee sets you up for a good day. You have to manage your time well. You have to make sure you eat at the right time and that your hydration levels are good. You need to have a good warm-up so your body is ready to go. It all helps you to play good golf. Lesson: Plan the day before your tee time so it works around your golf. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare and arrive on the first tee ready to go mentally and physically. 2. Don’t worry about a bad warm-up session Generally, the best days are when you’ve absolutely dogged it on the range and your swing feels…

Steep You need to come into the ball with a downward angle of attack, so put the ball back in your stance and pick the club up steeply. By Top 25 Coach Ged Walters Firstly, don’t get greedy – so put the 7-iron away and take out your sand wedge, because you want plenty of loft. Move the ball back in your stance a little, which encourages a downward angle of attack. Note how I’ve picked the club up steeply, which helps me to drive down into the ball. Having a little more pressure on the lead side (60-70 per cent) also helps. Tighten your grip a fraction, too, to stop the club turning over. Put this all together and you’ll advance the ball 60 yards or so – and…

Styling We love the contrasting grey colours, the shock of orange on the outsole and the faux-mesh pattern across the entire upper. GM Verdict Puma’s recent shoe range has impressed, combining fashion-forward designs with comfort and versatility. The Proadapt Alphacat is Puma’s newest spikeless offering and one that aims to build on the Puma ethos of energy and innovation. It’s a great addition to the brand’s large family of spikeless shoes. The first thing you notice about this shoe is the styling. It has an athletic look and feel to it, more akin to a running shoe than a golf shoe. But this arguably makes it more versatile and appealing. The Alphacat cuts a fine figure in the other two colourways too, with the grey and black versions boasting similarly…

The putter brand used by Bryson DeChambeau is looking to make a splash in Europe with the opening of its National Performance Studio at Silvermere in Surrey. I went along to see what the fitting experience was like. In short, it was mind-blowing! I arrived with an idea as to the right style of putter for me, but that was flipped on its head after talking with fitter, Collin, about the intricacies of putter design. He was using the Quintic system to quantify the performance and, while my own Evnroll ER2v fared okay, the amber readings showed there was room for improvement. I’ve recently acquired a soft spot for the wide blade, which SIK offers via its Double Wide 2.0 C model. But to determine which sightline to choose (full…