Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2024 i Golf Monthly

Team US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and his European counterpart Luke Donald have confirmed that LIV golfers will be considered for their respective 12-man teams. The pair took part in a ‘year to go’ media event in New York to discuss their plans and both were clear that players will be taken on their merits regardless of which circuit they belong to. Bradley said: “For us, I’m going to take the 12 best players. So if we feel like there’s a few guys there, one guy, two guys, whatever it is, then we’re going to do that. We’re too far out to figure out how this is all going to play out. But we’re definitely going to take the 12 best players, however that shakes out.” In the 2023…

You’ve already achieved so much in the game, including that 2022 Open Championship win. What do you think you most need to do to keep on achieving? My driver needs improvement. It’s a club that I’ve often struggled to get right. I would reckon that it has lost me more tournaments than it’s won me over the years. I feel like there’s a lot of times when I have to rely on my irons, wedges and my putting to get a top ten or a top 15. I think the driver can just be frustrating and get me into trouble, but I know the work I’ve been doing, and that I did last off-season, is getting me in the right direction with it all. What about putting. Clearly it’s a…

PXG is looking to disrupt the premium golf ball market with the release of two new models for 2024 – Xtreme Tour and Xtreme Tour X. In terms of design, these are three-piece balls with a soft urethane cover and, from a visual point of view, they’re some of the whitest golf balls I’ve ever seen. The glossy, shiny finish makes them much more vibrant than the Titleist Pro V1 or the TaylorMade TP5 balls. Don’t ask me why, but I like this vivid finish. Furthermore, I love the alignment aid on the side. As a user of the line, mainly on shorter putts, the bold black line was great, but the finer perpendicular line proved a helpful additional guide for leading-edge alignment. In terms of the performance, despite being…

So, you’ve got your waterproofs and thermal mid-layer on, but something still feels like it’s missing. That’s where this list of key winter essentials comes in. Gloves, hats, snoods and base layers are important final touches to help make golf in poor weather that little bit more enjoyable. These essentials cover the parts of the body you need to keep warm and dry to play your best in inclement weather, especially your hands. Brands have been busy innovating and doing a great job of transferring technology from other garments into these key essentials. It makes them much more suitable for golf than the conventional winter accessories you would find on the high street. This showcase of some of our favourite essentials includes beanies, snoods, boots, gloves, base layers and even…

“When Hidalgo found trouble he also found his inner Seve to play high-risk recoveries” The thing about sport, any sport, is that we never know what we are about to witness. Is it going to be exciting, captivating, relentlessly interesting or is it going to be rather strait-laced, a wee bit predictable and quite dull? We’ve all been there and we will all be there again. Watching pro golf can be like this, of course, but every now and then the old game takes off at a tangent and indulges us in an unexpected flight of fancy that grips our imaginations and, yes, rocks our souls. Did you watch the final round of the Spanish Open? I did. I watched the last nine holes on that Sunday at the extraordinary…

Powered by ENTRY LEVEL The most affordable option is to get a practice net and swing analyser, without a simulator. If you’re new to the game and/or on a pretty strict budget, you don’t want to go all in, at least not at an early stage. You could get a Rapsodo MLM and practice net for as little as £349. Another good option would be to combine a net and mat with the Blast Golf Complete Swing & Stroke Analyser (below, £149.99), a product that provides real-time feedback and video analysis to help you improve. If you’re someone who wants to practise at home – maybe you get a little self-conscious on the range – this is ideal. You can still cast it to a TV and get really useful…

Powered by It’s decision time. You might have a good idea as to which simulator you want, but what about the type of enclosure and the hitting mat? It is these items that will complete your set-up, and it’s important you know the differences between the various products on the market. Think of your home/office simulator like your golf bag – you want each item to be just right and within budget. ENCLOSURES SimSpace Golf Enclosures – £1,299.99-£1,699.99 These robust enclosures are a marvel of modern design. The click-lock tubing system and numbered parts ensure that they are easy to assemble, with no screws or tools required. They come in six different sizes (see panel right of photo), which makes them suitable for a range of difference-sized spaces. NETS AND…

Powered by Pitch Golf, London (new sites coming soon) pitchgolf.london Pitch, a modern and revolutionary indoor golf club, offers expert academies, cutting-edge tech, a sophisticated bar and a relaxed social space all under one roof. Currently, there are two venues to choose from – Pitch Soho and Pitch City. Pitch Canary is underway, while new sites are planned for Manchester, Birmingham and Dublin. In an effort to help grow the game, an academy for beginner women golfers – run in partnership with Adidas – has attracted over 1,000 applicants for just 100 free coaching courses. Kings, East Grinstead, West Sussex kingsentertainment.co.uk Kings attracts a wide range of customers with its state-of-the-art bays, pool tables, cinema room, lots of big screens showing live sport and even a VIP room. Kings also caters…

Powered by A few eyebrows may have been raised when, in August 2022, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy announced details of their tech-based golf league. Time will tell if it catches on, but does the idea of tour pros competing on a golf simulator really seem quite so out there these days? One of the aims of TGL is for golf to get more people engaged with the game. Instead of a golf course, a 64ft x 46ft simulator developed by Full Swing, and a short-game complex with three virtual greens and 3,800ft2 of putting space, will be the new playground. The league is being launched in partnership with the PGA Tour from a custom-built stadium, the SoFi Center, at Palm Beach State College in Florida, which features real grass…

“THERE WAS A LOT OF DAMAGE AND WE HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE WORKING HARD TO GET US BACK UP AND RUNNING”Fred Ridley on the Augusta clean-up after Hurricane Helene “I DON’T THINK THE DP WORLD TOUR SHOULD HAVE GONE WITH THE PGA TOUR”Matt Fitzpatrick thinks the European circuit has had the rough end of the deal since the ‘strategic alliance’ in 2020 “SHE’S SO MUCH FUN. SHE IS A GOOD LAUGH. SHE CAN BE SERIOUS WHEN SHE NEEDS TO BE. SHE BRINGS A LOT OF THE ATMOSPHERE TO THE TEAM”Charley Hull backs Mel Reid to lead the 2026 Solheim Cup team “RAHMBO IN THE RYDER CUP IS AN ABSOLUTE ANIMAL. I’VE SEEN HIM IN TWO AND HE’S UNBELIEVABLE”Shane Lowry desperately wants Jon Rahm on the European team, but questions…

Portugal GF: €185 Stats: par 71, 6,819 yards There’s a beauty to the new and it does not get much more beautiful or newer than Terras da Comporta. There’s a joy to the destination, too, as Portugal’s Atlantic coastline, south of Lisbon, is growing ever more attractive to golfers. The David McLay Kidd-designed Dunas course opened in 2023. Set in endless pine forest and sandscapes that stretch for miles, the drama deepens the further you drive into the 1,100-hectare property. When those perfect swathes of green flash past the car window, your heart starts to beat that little bit faster. This is a beautiful creation where elegance entwines with playability. Each hole sits alone, framed by those pines and the vast sandy wastelands beneath. It makes the green of the…

It’s Viktor’s world, we’re just living in it. That’s what it felt like 12 months ago when golf’s unassuming smiling assassin capped off a stellar season on the PGA Tour with an inspirational display at the Ryder Cup. The FedExCup champion was rightly being touted as a future World No.1 and a Major winner in waiting. Then came 2024. Tied 12th in the FexExCup standings rather masked how he performed over the course of the season. By his own very high standards, it was a C-minus: 16 PGA Tour events played, a best finish of second, just two top-tens and three missed cuts. There were flashes of the 2023 Viktor at the US PGA Championship in May, where he finished third, but on the whole it was a mixed bag.…

Each year, members of the Golf Monthly forum and their guests meet up to enjoy a top-notch course at the same time as raising funds and awareness for Help For Heroes. Dating back to 2010, this has since evolved into an eagerly anticipated win-win tradition where the beneficiaries are both those taking part and this most worthy of charities. Along with plenty of regulars, there are always a few new faces, and the funds raised are both needed and greatly appreciated. FROM SMALL ACORNS The very first Help For Heroes day was staged at Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire in 2010 and was organised by Rick Garg, with an initially modest field of fewer than ten members of the forum. Happily, this was supplemented by a healthy turn-out from Rick’s own…

Shot on location at Formby Golf Club 1 The biggest problem many people have is the thought process that, because it’s a wood, it has to be helped up in the air. But even though it has a low loft, it’s still enough to get the ball up, even if you hit it with a slightly descending strike. If you’re topping your fairway woods it’s most likely that, as you’re coming through impact, your body is backing up and away from the target with the clubhead overtaking the hands. This means the club is ascending through impact and that’s why you’re catching the top of the ball and not hitting it flush. 2 To remedy this, think of an imaginary circle that the club takes around the body. It’s not…

FROM THE TOUR CLUB DAMAGED DURING PLAY Although it’s not something we experience every time we step onto the course, occasionally our clubs do suffer damage, which can affect performance. There are a number of ways in which a club can be damaged during a round, but an option that is always available, regardless of how it was damaged, is to continue using it for the remainder of that round. So, if the clubhead is deformed as a result of striking the ball, or even if you bend or break the shaft following abuse or a moment of anger, you can continue to use that club; it is deemed as conforming for the remainder of the round. If the club is damaged not as a result of abuse, but perhaps…

Getting caught out in a heavy shower is one of the most unpleasant experiences on a golf course and one that can also be significantly detrimental to your score. Ensuring you have the best waterproofs is a sure-fire way to remain as comfortable as possible on the course, even when the weather isn’t playing ball. There is a broad price range when it comes to waterproof golf clothing and the general rule of thumb is that the more you are willing to invest, the more performance you will get in return. Vast improvements in technical specifications and material advancements mean the best of these garments will now be incredibly versatile in a variety of conditions, providing not only an assurance that you will remain dry but also breathability and mobility.…

Essentials Beacons Way, Conwy, LL32 8ER Stats: par 72, 6,667 yards GF: round: £110wd and Sun Midway along the attractive north coast of Wales, the towns of Conwy and Llandudno are separated by the lovely River Conwy. To the east, Llandudno is home to two fine courses at North Wales and Maesdu, while to the west, Conwy itself is a first-class links enjoying a fabulous setting by the estuary and the beach. Overlooked by mountains to the west and the Great Orme to the east and north, this strong, testing but ultimately very fair links has evolved greatly over the years since the original design by Jack Morris, nephew of Old Tom, between 1875 and 1895. In the 1970s, Frank Pennink made substantial changes to the front nine, with Brian…

Powered by It would be hard to argue against the fact that the weather seems to be getting frustratingly more unpredictable. The prospect of teeing it up on a bad-forecast day seems to be becoming more frequent and, for many, not very palatable. One alternative that more and more golfers are turning to is indoor golf, which comes in many forms. The one every golfer dreams of is having their very own home simulator so they can work on their swing in a virtual driving range setting or play some of the world’s best courses in a surprisingly realistic simulated form. No more time lost travelling to the driving range or money spent on questionable range balls – your home could become the place where you take your game to…

Powered by When it’s not possible to get to the range, or poor weather puts you off hitting balls, there’s always the indoor option. Practising inside on a state-of-the-art simulator has certain advantages over an outdoor range, such as being able to work on your game long after the sun has set. The biggest benefit, though, is the feedback you get, for simulators open up a world of data you can use to improve your game… 1 ESTABLISHING PATTERNS You can hit balls all day on the range and have a general idea of what you’re struggling with – maybe a push with your irons or a big slice with your driver. The simulator gives you facts. You might think you’ve been hitting it all over the place, but in among…

Powered by You can work on your putting mechanics pretty much anywhere, but what are the best drills for home practice? Staff writer and PGA pro Joe Ferguson outlines his four best home drills to ingrain a better stroke and lead to more holed putts… 1 GOLF BALL BOX DRILL A great drill to help with path and centredness of strike is the golf ball box drill. Set two golf ball boxes down just wider than your putter head, parallel to your intended line. Place a ball in the centre and hit putts towards your target. If your path is a little off, you’ll likely collide with one or both boxes. If you are prone to a heel strike, you’ll probably impact the outside box on your downswing, or the…

This summer, you did so well at Royal Troon and now you’ve won the BMW PGA Championship. You really quite like it here in the UK, I take it? I do enjoy coming over here. I enjoy all parts of the UK. I do fancy London, especially Surrey. I’ve made some great friends over here that I hang out with when I come over. As I’ve told people over the years, it wouldn’t shock me if somewhere down the road I do buy a little place and spend some time over here in the summer when my kids are grown up and out of the house. You were gracious in victory, paying tribute to Rory. How was it doing battle with him? Yeah, he’s a really good friend. We go…

1 A common mistake among club golfers, particularly high-handicappers and beginners, is a lot of moving parts in the backswing. Sometimes it’s because they want to be positive and make a nice, committed swing; other times it’s because they don’t know how best to initiate the takeaway. I like to feel as though my hands get the clubhead moving first. A good wrist set should be the priority. Start to create a 90˚ angle between shaft and forearm as the hands gently begin to push the club away from the target. 2 The shoulders follow the hands, then the torso and finally the hips and lower body. Swing slowly to the top and stop. Have your shoulders turned 90˚ so you’re looking over the lead shoulder? Have your hips turned around…

Greenkeeping is one of, if not the most, important professions in the industry. Heck, I wouldn’t have a sport to write about every day if greenkeepers weren’t busy maintaining golf courses. Up at the crack of dawn and often out of the way before golfers even have a chance to see them preparing the course, their work can often go unnoticed and unsung. Working alongside BIGGA - the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association - I was given the opportunity to spend a day as a greenkeeper at Edgbaston Golf Club in Birmingham. I would be overseen by course manager Jake Field throughout the day, who would tell me a little about each task, as well as giving me a go on all the important machinery and technology that helps…

Woburn has been at the forefront of English golf for nearly 50 years, but despite being a hugely successful club, its three superb courses remain accessible to all who have read so much about them. Woburn is constantly striving to up its game in all areas, taking its responsibility with regard to sustainability and community very seriously. It has also become a Disability Hub and in 2023, the Duchess’ course staged the inaugural G4D Open for golfers with disabilities. Brendan Lawlor beat Kipp Popert that year, with Popert reversing the result this year as Woburn hosted again. Recently, the club announced it would provide a permanent home for one of just eight ‘Paragolfers’ in the UK – an incredible all-terrain machine that rises users up to a standing position to…

By GM Top 50 Coach Katie Dawkins Have a really good look at where and how your ball is lying around the green. If there is a bunker in the way, yes, you will need some loft. But if there is no trouble in front of you, there is no need to go for that more lofted weapon. Arm yourself instead with a 7- or 8-iron and play more of a running shot. Routine can play a great part in getting shot selection right. When you get to your ball, pause for a moment and visualise yourself throwing the ball close to the hole. Once you have that image in your head, select the club that will best recreate what you’ve imagined. How tightly should I grip my fairway woods?…

The new P7CB has the makings of a modern classic for lower-handicap golfers The low-handicap iron category is an interesting one, with a demanding and discerning market to satisfy. Players at the lower end of the handicap spectrum tend to have clear ideas about the visuals and performance characteristics they are looking for, so it is a tricky genre to navigate for club manufacturers. Not one to shy away from a tough task, TaylorMade has brought to market a brand new players’ cavity iron, the P7CB. From a shelf appeal point of view, I’m not sure I have seen many better. The sophisticated brushed satin finish adds a real touch of class over high-gloss chrome, and the company branding is subtle yet effective. There are some nods to previous models,…

When the temperature starts to dip to levels where a polo shirt alone won’t suffice, you’ll be glad to have the right mid-layer to keep you warm on the golf course. Layering up appropriately over the autumn and winter is key. Depending on the functionality you’re seeking, there are many different types of mid-layers to choose from – and a wide range of brands offering them too. One of our favourites is a wind top. Though technically a jacket in some cases, these mid-layers won’t quite offer the full protection of waterproof jackets, but are instead designed to keep wind chill off the body. We’ve also included plenty of gilets and hoodies, too. Both are fairly new inclusions in this category, and both offer the best on- and off-course wearability…

Mark Twain is often misquoted as saying “golf is a good walk spoiled”, but what he almost certainly did say was that, “You gather the idea that Mauritius was created first, and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius.” And he’s right. This is a sumptuously gorgeous island, even without its dozen and more lovely courses. Most of the golf is dotted along the beautiful, jagged coastline, but the oldest club, the historic Mauritius Gymkhana Club, lies a few miles inland at Vacoas. The real star of the show is one of the world’s most photogenic courses, the amazing Ile aux Cerfs at Le Touessrok. It fits perfectly on a tropical island and can only be reached by a short, gentle boat ride from the adjacent hotel across…

Seaton Carew GF: 18 holes: £65-£90 Most unusually, this Top 200 course in County Durham has 22 holes, which can be played in a variety of configurations. The original MacKenzie holes make up the Old, while 14 of these combine with four newer ones designed by Frank Pennink on a routing known as the Brabazon. This is a really strong, traditional links where the natural setting of the holes contrasts vividly with the industrial surroundings. Celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2024, the club hosted the English Amateur Championship this July and August. Broadway GF: 18 holes: £70wd, £75we This is not the only club to be located in one county (Worcestershire) but affiliated to a different golf union (Gloucestershire), but that matters not one jot. What does matter, is that…

Powered by You don’t have to go to the range to work on your swing, or pound 100 balls a day to make improvements to your game. Here, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Ged Walters highlights five drills you can work on in the comfort of your own home or garden, without hitting a ball… 1 SLICE FIX DRILL This drill requires a swimming noodle, the perfect tool to help you understand the swing path you are trying to achieve and provide instant visual feedback. Place the noodle so it mirrors the semi-circular arc of the golf swing and make some slow practice swings. Feel how you move back in a circle. At the bottom, the club moves down and comes through impact before continuing in that circle to the…

Powered by The very idea might once have sounded fanciful, but more and more golfers are now investing in simulators so they can play the game in the comfort of their own home. That’s because these fantastic, game-changing pieces of kit are a lot easier to build than you might think – and they are more affordable than they used to be, too, especially if you already own a decent laptop. An even more cost-effective route is to install a basic hitting net and launch monitor, most of which are compatible with smartphones. This allows you to hit balls, get feedback and improve your swing. Plus, you don’t even need a huge amount of space. But for those who want the full simulator experience, you’ll need a bit more kit.…