Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i Golf Monthly

Rory McIlroy believes pro golfers need to “come back together” as the PGA Tour announced a delay in its efforts to reach an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s PIF. A surprise framework agreement was revealed last June between the PGA/DP World Tour and the PIF, with December 31 set as a deadline for a “definitive agreement”. However, Jay Monahan sent a letter to PGA Tour members in early January revealing the deadline had been pushed back, despite “meaningful progress” in negotiations between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, PIF and Strategic Sports Group – a consortium of billionaires with whom the PGA Tour decided to pursue exclusive negotiations in December. It’s believed all parties are pushing for a tangible agreement before The Masters. McIlroy has been a staunch advocate of the…

• GEAR NEWS Louis Oosthuizen won back-to-back DP Worl Tour events with a Ping G430 LST driver, G430 Max fairway wood and a prototype PLD Custom Voss putter. Joaquin Niemann used a Ping G430 LST driver, a Ping G425 Max 7-wood and Ping Glide 4.0 wedges to emerge victorious at the Australian Open. Min Woo Lee claimed the Australian PGA with a Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond driver, Callaway Apex MB irons and an Odyssey Tri Hot 5K Double Wide putter. Dean Burmester played with a TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver, Srixon ZX driving iron and Cleveland RTX ZipCore wedges to win back-to-back in South Africa. Nicolai Hojgaard used a Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond driver and X21 utility iron plus an Odyssey Jailbird Versa putter to win theDP World Tour Championship. •…

The high-MOI G430 Max 10k boasts a larger footprint than G400 Max and frames the ball well at address Ping has been producing solid drivers for several years now on a consistent two-year product cycle. To see the brand interrupt that cycle and introduce a new model suggests something of a breakthrough. The driver in question is the G430 Max 10k. Ping says it’s the straightest and highest-MOI driver to date, eclipsing the 10,000g-cm2 combined MOI threshold first surpassed by the G400 Max five years ago. It boasts a much bigger footprint, a fixed back weight and a Carbonfly wrap on the crown. In terms of the look of the head, we were sold immediately. While its footprint is noticeably larger than on previous models, the proportions still felt right.…

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in home golf practice. Being able to work on your game from the comfort of your own home is an attractive proposition, and the practice net is an important component for the home practitioner. While we have tested a swathe of different nets over the past few months, the six featured in this group test represent our favourites for various reasons. • Ease of set-up All of the practice nets arrived on the doorstep in packages of very different sizes and shapes, which began to make us wonder how different, and indeed difficult, they would be to set up. The Forb ProFlex Pop-Up net assembly was relatively straightforward. Despite some disappointingly basic instructions, we got the net to its usable state…

• Essentials Denham, Uxbridge, Buckinghamshire, UB9 5DE Stats: par 70, 6,488 yards GF: round: £95wd Harry Colt is regarded as one of the greatest golf course architects of all time, and while his most notable designs such as Royal Portrush and Sunningdale New are world famous, there are plenty of interesting and engaging designs that are less well-known away from their locality. One lovely such example is Denham, which is on the south-eastern corner of Buckinghamshire, just 20 miles from the heart of the capital and a short drive from the M25. Despite this suburban setting, it is remarkably peaceful and rural. • Heritage and design The club was founded in 1910 and the course was designed by Colt while he was engaged as the secretary at nearby Sunningdale. It…

• Dooks GF: 18 holes: €200 Blessed with a truly outstanding shoreline setting overlooking Dingle Bay, Dooks is sometimes missed by those focused on the golfing heavyweights on Ireland’s stunning west coast. This is their loss, because it is a first-class links in its own right and worthy of any golfer’s attention and time. The views alone reward a trip to this Golf Monthly Top 200 course, but as well as these, you get to play a genuinely top-notch design thanks to the creativity of Eddie Hackett and Marc Westenborg. If you are lucky, you may even spot a natterjack toad, which is the club’s emblem. • Caldy GF 18 holes: £130wd, £150we The Wirral Peninsula in England’s north-west is home to some premier league golf at Royal Liverpool and…

At the beginning of 2023, with my ‘courses played’ tally standing at 982, I knew that barring injury, illness or some major crisis, this would be the year when I would hit 1,000. Those who I’d told about it were asking where I was planning on marking this particular milestone, but I hadn’t really given it too much thought. Part of me wanted to go to the grandest course in the UK&I I’d not yet played, but that would almost certainly have meant somewhere more exclusive than I really wanted. I then pondered going off-piste and taking myself to some backwater nine-holer that no-one had heard of. And then it dawned on me that, with some clever planning, I could potentially arrange for my 1,000th golf course to coincide neatly…

What a welcome I have three sons aged six, 11 and 14 who are all keen golfers and love playing together. Recently, a few of the 14-year-old’s friends have shown an interest and started going along for a game with him. We spoke to the club where we are members and the pro could not have been more welcoming. He encouraged my son to bring his friends on whenever he could at a guest rate and just asked to let him know when they wanted to play. He was delighted to see juniors out enjoying the game. He even lent one of the boys some clubs to make up his full set. Last week, my son went to play at a different course where a friend has recently become a…

18 In 1945, Byron Nelson won 18 times on the PGA Tour – a record that, unsurprisingly, has not been beaten 16 At the start of 2024, the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking comprised players from 16 nations, with America boasting the most at 25 $20,000,000 The prize pool per tournament for most PGA Tour Signature events in 2024 1.39% Aaron Baddeley has only three-putted 20 times in his last 1,440 holes 21 Patrick Cantlay’s remarkable longest ‘career rounds in the 60s’ streak • MOST WEEKS AT WORLD NO.1 60 Louis Oosthuizen won his first event for 60 months at the Alfred Dunhill Championship 44 There are 44 events on the 2023/24 DP World Tour schedule 69 In 2023, American Adam Long went 69 holes without missing a…

1 You don’t have to learn the flop shot to improve your short game. A lot of club golfers could simply do with a better understanding of how loft works in the swing, so they can start to ‘pop’ the ball up. Note where the magnetic rod is pointing, which shows that loft has been presented at impact. This is going to help the club to slide underneath the ball, maximising height. 2 Hit some chips from waist-high back to waist-high through. This is the perfect backswing position to start practising high, short shots. The rod is pointing up towards my face. This indicates that I’ve kept the loft on the club, helping to ‘pop’ the ball up. If it were pointing down to the ground, it would suggest too…

• It’s rare to see Ping launch a new driver model outside of its normal two-year cycle, so the G430 Max 10k should give us a lot to get excited about. The 10k in the name denotes this is Ping’s highest-MOI driver so far, eclipsing the 10,000g-cm2 combined moment of inertia threshold achieved in the G400 Max, which was launched in 2017. In plain terms, it means the Max 10k is Ping’s straightest and highest- MOI driver to date. • A fixed 28g back weight drives mass down and back in the head to increase forgiveness and optimise the centre of gravity position, lowering spin and ensuring ball-speed preservation across the clubface. Being able to incorporate such a large weight at the back of the head is all down to…

Poised for a breakthrough season • Maja Stark Stark has already enjoyed success on the Ladies European Tour with six victories and she earned 2.5 points from four games in the 2023 Solheim Cup. She hasn’t yet fully made her mark on the LPGA Tour but looks destined to do so in 2024. She has steadily climbed the Rolex Rankings over the last five seasons and now sits comfortably inside the top 50. Expect her to push into the top 20 by the end of 2024. Best moment so far Playing in her first Solheim Cup must have been a thrill and performing so well demonstrated her potential. Stark secured a crucial win in the singles, beating Allisen Corpuz in the third-to-last match – a vital win that helped Europe…

Photography Getty Images, Howard Boylan • What is the shot? 1 As is the case for many of the world’s elite players, it’s a fade that Collin favours, in which the ball starts slightly left of target and curves to the right. It’s a shot that he and his coach, Rick Sessinghaus, have worked on diligently. When winning his two Majors – the 2020 US PGA and 2021 Open Championship – he had his soft fade perfected. It’s a shot you’ll see him play week to week; he has complete trust in it and he can clearly depend on this small left-to-right movement in the most high-pressure situations. • How does he play it? 2 Collin has an extremely weak left-hand grip. The left hand is rotated counter-clockwise on the grip…

The AD333 has become a really strong franchise for Srixon, with consumers associating it with consistent performance and good value for money. Widely regarded as one of the best golf balls around for under £30, we were interested to get our hands on the 11th generation of this stalwart to see what had changed. The simple answer to that question is not too much. That is not necessarily a bad thing, however – with many golfers across the globe trusting the AD333, it would be foolish to discard a winning formula. In terms of the technology, Srixon tells us that a reformulated FastLayer core transitions from soft in the centre to slightly firmer around the perimeter, which adds ball speed without sacrificing feel. It almost feels silly to mention that…

ADIDAS ADICROSS GTX SHOE £150 As a shoe/boot crossover, we can’t fault this effort from Adidas. Waterproof yet breathable and with plenty of comfort, it’s made to handle the worst of winter golf conditions. It uses a similar spikeless outsole to the Codechaos 22, which performs brilliantly in the wet. The breathability of the Gore-Tex fabric means no sweaty feet despite the totally waterproof build. This certainly isn’t a summer shoe but, as winter warriors, we haven’t tested much better. J.LINDEBERG VENT 500 SHOE £199 The Scandinavian brand’s first proprietary golf shoe is a trainer-style concept with a chunky sole and JL branding all over. It’s very on-trend and will no doubt pair well with J.Lindeberg’s extensive range of funky apparel. The outsole features an assortment of TPU nubs shaped…

Our new Retro Review series is where we’ll be going back in time and taking a look at some iconic pieces of equipment to see if they still compete against their modern-day equivalents. First up is the Callaway Fusion FT-i driver, which caused quite a stir back when it launched 17 years ago. When you take the headcover off, it becomes apparent why… it’s square! What was the tech? The idea behind the Fusion FT-i was very much centred around high MOI and straight hitting thanks to the weight being spread as far into the corners as possible due to the geometry of the driver head. A lightweight carbon composite body helped further. The shape itself will, and certainly did, divide opinion, but I actually found the straight lines really…

• Tiger, it was great to see you back at the Hero World Challenge and PNC Championship. What pleased you the most? In the Bahamas, I drove it pretty much on a string all week. I felt like I had my ball speed up, which was nice, and I was hitting the middle of the face the entire week, which was also nice. So it’s not like I have to go and try to find something the next few weeks or going into the new year. • How much golf do you plan on playing in 2024? I think that best scenario would be a tournament a month. I think that’s realistic. You would have to start with maybe the Genesis Invitational in February and something in March near The…

“THE SWEETSPOT ON THE DRIVER IS THE SIZE OF A PEACH NOW”Three-time Major winner Nick Price weighs in on the distance debate “I KNOW THERE IS A BIT OF PAIN INVOLVED FOR THE MAJORITY, BUT IT’S FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF THE GAME”Padraig Harrington on the golf ball rollback “I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY HE LEFT. THAT’S A LOT, A LOT OF MONEY”Viktor Hovland on Jon Rahm’s decision to sign with LIV Golf “I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FANTASTIC TO WIN ONE MAJOR”Ten-time Major winner Annika Sorenstam reveals her mindset at the start of her career 10 Rory McIlroy finished in the top ten in each of his last ten PGA Tour starts in 2023. The last player to do that was Tom Kite in 1981. Jason Day and Lydia Ko…

• Why have changes been made to the WHS? Claire Bates, The R&A’s director of handicapping says: “We’ve made good progress in the early stages of WHS but there are always areas that can be improved as we gather more information and data from around the world. We’ll continue to work with handicapping bodies and national associations to ensure that the WHS provides a system offering a sensible balance between inclusivity and integrity.” • Will the Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC) be modified? Nearly all regular competitive golfers will at some stage have looked at their handicap record after a particularly testing day and been baffled to see a PCC of zero! Nobody seems to really understand its algorithms or calculations, and while that seeming lack of transparency may not change,…

• Essentials GF: up to €190, resort guests only, stay-and-play packages available Stats: par 72, 6,599 yards Mauritius is a stunningly beautiful island that is home to a surprising number of excellent golf courses. Not resting on its extremely green laurels, the exciting news is that there is a brand new addition to the treasure trove on offer here, with the recent opening of a second course at The Heritage. This is on a magnificent plot of raised ground close to the south-western corner of this tropical paradise, and it complements the highly regarded first design from 2004, Le Chateau. Billed as the first contemporary links in the Indian Ocean, La Reserve is a collaboration between architect Peter Matkovich and former Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen. Enjoying a more elevated setting,…

How do you reflect on your Major Championship wins and especially the first one at the 1994 US Open? When I look back now, my Major wins were all very special. Majors define you so much over your career. The 1994 US Open was a battle. I messed it up on the 18th hole. I made big mistakes in the play-off. It was one of the toughest victories ever. It took 92 holes. Looking back now, that win was very, very important because if I didn’t win that tournament, things could have turned out a lot differently in my career. I was 24 at the time. Winning the US Open gave me a lifetime exemption on the European Tour and a ten-year exemption on the PGA Tour, which means a…

How do I stop digging at my chips? By Top 50 Coach Dan Grieve This is a great drill for any ‘handle draggers’, whose tendency is to drive their hands at the ball when chipping, creating a lot of shaft lean and little use of the bounce. When you chip, especially if you want it to land softly, you want the clubhead to release – and this means swinging the club. To get the feel of this release, use this ‘trail hand only’ exercise. Hold the club in just your trail hand, with your other hand on your trail shoulder. Swing without a ball and you’ll begin to feel the clubhead release. Then hit some balls using this drill. When you have this feel, put both hands back on the…

David Wilson, rules manager at The R&A, unpacks the ins and outs of out of bounds with reference to a specific moment on the Korn Ferry Tour last year. Something all golfers will have experienced is hitting their ball out of bounds (OOB). When this happens, you get a one-stroke penalty and proceed under stroke and distance; you must return to where your previous stroke was made or, if you have played a provisional ball, that ball becomes the ball in play. By definition, the course is the entire area of play within the edge of any boundaries set by the Committee and all areas outside the boundary edge are out of bounds and not part of the course. The boundaries may be defined by boundary objects such as rows…

“ASIDE FROM THE GOLF ITSELF, USING A REMOTE TROLLEY BRINGS YOU SOME OF THE MOST FUN YOU CAN HAVE ON A GOLF COURSE”DAN PARKER, GM STAFF WRITER To the naked eye, there isn’t a lot to choose between the leading models in both the electric and push trolley sectors. However, our extensive testing over the last few years suggests the exact opposite and that’s an exciting prospect if you’re in the market for a new model. The differences may seem small but, much as when buying a new car, a few added extras or different styling points can make all the difference in your day-to-day use. Last year, there were three major remote electric trolley releases, all of which carry over into 2024. Depending on your preferences, we think all…

The United Arab Emirates is a gloriously warm and sunny country in the Middle East that is home to a strong and ever-growing array of surprisingly varied golf of the highest order. Almost all of the developed land is on the shores of the Arabian Gulf, and each of the courses is easily accessible, making a tour very appealing. It’s hard to believe that just 40 years ago the only golf here was ‘sand golf’ with no grass courses in the UAE. There are now more than 20 clubs affiliated to the Emirates Golf Association with newcomers still arriving, such as the floodlit nine-hole Yas Acres in Abu Dhabi, which only opened as recently as December 2021. Given the desert terrain, you would be forgiven for expecting a degree of…