Innehållsförteckning för June 2016 från Golf Australia

I DON’T know any sports fan who doesn’t like watching their chosen sport live. As a golf nut, there is nothing better than seeing, hearing and feeling the action up close at a tournament. To see the ball flight, hear the sound of impact and, if you’re unlucky, the feel of a ball rattling into your shins. By far the best, and perhaps safest, spot at a tournament is standing directly behind the player who is hitting.This is the added bonus you get when attending events like the Oates Vic Open, where there are no gallery ropes and you get to walk on the fairways behind the players. Even behind the gallery ropes you are close enough to the action where there will usually be some sort of interaction between…

THAT WAS WHERE JORDAN CHOKED.AS STRONG AS HE IS MENTALLY, HE JUST COULDN’T ‘SAVE’ HIS SWING AT THAT MOMENT. A BIT like ‘shank , it’s not a word you hear too often in PGA Tour locker rooms. We all know it happens but no one talks about it – because no professional wants it to happen to him. But you know what? We’ve all done it. ‘Choked , that is. It may not be at the high-profile end of a tournament, but every golfer has known the feeling of dread that comes with choking. It might be as simple as standing on a hole with out-of-bounds up the right side and not being able to see anything except the ball winging over the boundary fence.That, on some level, is choking.…

Billy Horschel “A lot of the players, and I’m one of them, have lost some respect for the USGA and this championship this year for the greens. And not only the greens. The viewing is awful … when you’re not able to get up close and watch championship-calibre players play a golf course, it’s disappointing.” Sergio Garcia “I think a championship of this calibre deserves better green surfaces than we have this week, but maybe I’m wrong! If my problem is saying what everyone thinks but doesn’t have the guts to say, I’m guilty of that for sure.” Ian Poulter “They were simply the worst, most disgraceful putting surfaces I have ever seen on any Tour in all the years I have played golf.” Henrik Stenson “It’s borderline laughable at…

It’s the brainchild of Big Hole Golf creator Murray Blair and it’s called “The Eliminator”, and it could really shake things up. Like the Par-3 Contest before the Masters, it would be an adjunct to players’ practice rounds. It would be a made-for-TV Big Hole Golf mini-tournament held on the Tuesday of regular professional Tour events. Quite unlike the genteel aura of Augusta National, it would feature music blaring from speakers, shot clocks (with yellow cards if players exceed 30 seconds) and miked-up players dressed in shorts. Carts and GPS would speed things up. It would try to mimic the party atmosphere of the par-3 “stadium hole” atTPC Scottsdale. It would be attractive to bookmakers. The competition would see seven players going at it over six holes. Seven players tee…

To hit with power you need to have a wider stance. When I’m really trying to rip a drive, my stance is wider than my shoulders just because I know that feels athletic and I know I can just get at it and ‘kill’ the ball. In saying that, you don’t want your stance to be too wide to where you can’t turn. But you’ve got to find a width that feels comfortable and slightly wider than your shoulders. Like the old saying that you’re trying to shoot a cannon out of a canoe, well I’d much rather shoot a cannon from a ship than a canoe. Why? It’s a nice stable base. If you’ve got a little base, you’ll be kind of wobbly and it’s not going to be…

A lot has been written over the years about the X-factor of a golf swing. The X-factor is basically the turning angle difference between your shoulders and hips. The bigger the angle differential, the more power you will be able to generate. For example, if your shoulders turn 90 degrees (so your back is facing the target) and your hips turn back 30 degrees, you’ve got an X-factor of 60 degrees. If you don’t get the X factor you need between the hips and the shoulders, you will never generate lots of power to hit the ball a long way. When I see a golfer turning their shoulders about 45 degrees, it is not much of a turn, so there is no real difference in the turn angle of the…

I try to draw the ball all the time and I try to hit it as hard as I can every single time. Personally, if I’m going to hit it in the junk, I’m going to hit it 350 yards into the junk, I’m not going to hit it 300 yards in the junk. When I’m getting up there on the tee I’m trying to rip the cover off the ball every time. I’m just trying to get it down there as far as possible because if I have a shorter club in, then I can get at or around a green with my second and then get up and down. I’ve got a shorter iron in my hand with more loft, even if I am hitting out of the…

BEING able to chip well isn’t just about perfecting technique. It is the one area of the game that calls on you to be creative and use your imagination. Part of this process is visualising the shot you are about to hit. It doesn’t matter if it is a straightforward chip-and-run with a 7-iron or a high flop shot over trouble with your lob wedge, if you can’t “see” the shot you need to hit you won’t be able to hit that shot. Once you can see the shot you then need to visualise where you need to land your chip shot for it to finish close to the hole. I see a lot of club golfers stand up to a chip shot, look at the flag and play their…

YOU can’t make a good golf swing with a poor grip. Your grip is one of the foundations of your swing and if it is not secure, while also allowing for a free range of movement in your wrists, then you won’t be able to swing with power and accuracy. This is particularly true of your left-hand grip (for right-handed players). A common mistake I see by players is that, with the club sitting out in the middle of their stance, they reach down and rotate their arm so their left hand comes from underneath the grip. One thing I try to encourage students to do is to position the club so the butt of the shaft is in line with the outside of their left thigh. This lets you…

MODEL USED: Golf Skate Caddy 2016 V2. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: This was an entirely new facet to playing golf for me. I’m no surfer and I haven’t been on a skateboard in years, yet judging by the simplicity of the Golf Skate Caddy’s operational features, it didn’t look like it would take long to learn how to successfully manoeuvre it. HOW IT PERFORMED: I really enjoyed cruising the fairways on the Golf Skate Caddy 2016 V2. Granted, it took me a few holes to get a feel for how it moves but the longer I was on board, the more comfortable I felt. The mechanics behind it are simple – with the V2 you have a choice of a thumb-driven toggle to stop and go or the same hand-held remote control…

Just 50 minutes’ drive south of Perth, Mandurah is a beautiful coastal town with something for everyone, especially golfers. This Qantas Golf Club holiday package includes: • Four nights’ accommodation at the four-and-a-half-star waterfront Sebel Mandurah; • A round of golf at Meadow Springs Golf & Country Club; • A round at The Links Kennedy Bay (pictured); • A round at Mandurah Country Club. The package starts from $745 per person. Visit www.qantasgolfclub.com/mandurah for details or call 1300 742 973. *Conditions apply.…

SPONSORS WHOSE SHARES MAY OR MAY NOT SUFFER BECAUSE OF A PLAYER’S PERFORMANCE HAVE THEIR PLACE IN GOLF BUT THEY SHOULD NOT OVERSHADOW THE STORY. JUST when we thought we’d seen it all, Jordan Spieth played the 12th hole at Augusta National like Kevin Costner going for broke in the climax of movie ‘Tin Cup. There the hero blew his chance of winning the US Open by dumping ball after ball in the water while going for the green with a 3-wood. It wasn’t Spieth losing from five shots in front on the back nine on the Sunday that was shocking. Greg Norman had shown it could be done when he handed the Masters to Nick Faldo on a plate in 1996. However, Spieth took golf reporting in a weird…

The average number of three-putts per player in US Opens between 1997 and 2014 was 4.84. That figure rocketed to 8.58 at Chambers Bay. The problem arose in the autumn of 2014 when the fine fescue greens were invaded by poa annua. Poa can actually be maintained as a putting surface – as witnessed at Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach. The problem comes when you mix poa annua with fine fescue. “We had about 20 percent poa in many greens,” says Darin Bevard, director of championship agronomy for the USGA. “The problem is that the poa and the fine fescue grow at different rates. In the mornings the poa tends to stand up tall and so the surfaces become very bumpy. Then, the sun and breeze makes the greens firm…

The normal golf hole is 4.25 inches (10.8 centimetres) in diameter. The Big Hole Golf hole is eight inches (20.3cm) in diameter, about the size of a dinner plate. “Fastball” is a scoring system in which new players don’t need handicaps, and is based on a combination of shots and putts. BHG can be played in two-person teams – one regular golfer, one beginner – with players playing a combination of alternate shot and ambrose. BHG organisers are in talks with governing bodies about handicapping. For a club in your state that hosts Big Hole Golf, or to see about bringing it to your local club, check out www.bigholegolf.com.au…

My arms work as a unit on the backswing. When I’m taking the club back I try to take it back as far as I can, so the width of the backswing is huge. The width of your swing needs to be big on the takeaway so when you’re swinging back down into the ball you can lag the club down and swing into the ball on an inside-the-target-line swing path. Every time I played, even as a kid, when I first took the club away it has always been pretty much all shoulders and arms. They all work together as one. Then, from there, I can fold up the right arm and make sure I still have good width because width equals power and power equals distance. If your…

For most of you reading this, one of the hardest things to do is to get your club moving on a better swing path into and through impact. This usually means getting rid of that ‘throw-it-over-the-top-move’ where you hit the ball left-to-right (for right-handers) with a big old cut. You not only miss the fairway, you don’t hit it very far either. So for you, it’s imperative to think in opposites. To hit less of a slice, you actually have to feel like you are going to hit the ball to the right. Easier said than done, right? When you’re hitting cuts and realise you’re going right, you think, ‘Well I don’t want to do that,’ so you align even further and further left and you see the ball moving…

Everyone’s greedy, it’s really true. Everyone wants more distance. We certainly can improve from the technology we currently have. You can definitely do that but let’s face it, it’s about the self-improvement of trying to get better with your golf game and trying to get better with your body. Unfortunately those things go hand in hand. You’ve got to improve your body first to get better at golf and to be able to hold the stability and force through a golf swing. If you’re into that and you want to improve your driving, specifically the length, you would go with that first. Fitness, stability, and functional movement is obviously key and from there working on your golf swing and making sure you’ve got sound fundamentals from there. But it’s kind…

YOU can have the best swing in the world but if you don’t aim correctly, you won’t hit your target. A few months back Marcus Fraser won in Malaysia and later admitted he started that week not being able to hit the fairway because he was aiming too far right on every tee. He fixed his alignment in practice on the range and went on to win the tournament. Have a look at any good players practising and they will have an alignment stick aimed at their target or a club along the line of their toes parallel to their target line. Bear in mind, the target line and your toe lie always run parallel, like railway tracks, so you get a straight ball flight. If railway tracks ever ‘meet’,…

STRIKE A BLOW Pain Strike Oil is a 100 percent natural blend of essential oils that can assist in the relief of muscle and joint aches, minor skin irritations and congestion. This Australian-owned and manufactured product is a blend of cajuput, wintergreen, clove and camphor. When applied topically, clove oil may have local anaesthetic and antiseptic properties and might assist in the relief of muscle and joint aches and pains, while camphor oil is renowned for its use as a topical chest rub. The unique roll-on applicator ensures golfers can conveniently target pain directly without any mess or waste. It comes fitted with a children’s safety cap. Pain Strike Oil is available online and at a range of chemists. RRP: $12. Contact: For stockists or more details, visit www.painstrikeoil.com.au PERFECT…

A curling putt that drops at perfect pace or a crisply struck pitch shot might earn a nod of approval from your playing partners, but nothing widens eyes and raises eyebrows like a powerful drive boomed way down the fairway. The driver is king, and its reign is stronger than ever, even at club level, in this turbo-charged era of modern golf. Everyone wants to hit the ball farther and today’s technology is all but guaranteeing you can. Features such as carbon composite crowns and titanium cup faces coupled with technology like Speed Pockets, Action Mass and HyperFlight Faces help even modest swingers squeeze every last metre from their tee shots. The research and development is as instructive as it is impressive. Some engineers are turning to nature for inspiration…

THEY ALL AGREED THE ‘FEEL’ IT TOOK TO BE A GREAT PUTTER WAS A VERY PERSONAL THING. JACK Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Gary Player were, with Arnold Palmer, the four greatest players in the decade from the mid-1960s through to the emergence of Severiano Ballesteros and the dominant few years of Tom Watson. The three came from wildly differing circumstances and played starkly different games. Nicklaus, from an affluent mid-western American background, took up the game as a ten-year-old, was a prodigy within a handful of years and in time became the undisputed greatest player of all time. He did it with great power, a great mind and a deadly putter. “Who” I askedTom Weiskopf once, “was the greatest putter you ever saw?” “Nicklaus was, of course. Did you ever…

THERE have been a lot of American golf writers jumping at shadows in recent months in the hope of breaking the story of Tiger Woods’ return to the PGATour. After video emerged of Woods playing some holes at the opening of his new Bluejack National design, social media went wild with speculation that the 14-time major winner might be close to a comeback after two rounds of back surgery. Woods, who hasn’t played since the Wyndham Championship last August, has repeatedly said there is no timeline for his return, yet the speculation continues. It was thought that Tiger might return at the Players Championship after Golf Channel reported accommodation for Woods had been booked in the Ponte Vedra Beach area for the week of the tournament. But the deadline for…

PROPER GOLF, THAT MOST MULTIFACETED OF GAMES, IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN. THIS, FOLKS, IS NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF. IN THE run-up to this year’s US Open, prepare yourselves for much flowery rhetoric regarding the difficulty of the golf course, which is fair enough. Oakmont Country Club is, by well-earned reputation, the toughest venue of them all in a championship that perversely prides itself on the levels of frustration and stress it annually imposes on the wide-eyed and invariably sweaty competitors. The same can also be said of the Oakmont membership, a collection of golf sadists whose idea of a good time seems to be a combination of hacking out of long rough, taking multiple shots to escape deep bunkers and three-putting endlessly on greens closely resembling friction-less surfaces.…

Nick Flanagan is the lone Australian to have tasted success at Oakmont, out-duelling Casey Wittenberg on the 37th hole in the final of the 2003 US Amateur at the esteemed Pennsylvania course. Aaron Baddeley led into the final round of the 2007 US Open there, then triple-bogeyed the 1st hole on Sunday on his way to a devastating 80. Neither player looks likely to be in the 2016 field, and here’s hoping Oakmont is kinder to the half-dozen Aussies who definitely are. Others can join these six through sectional qualifying or by entering the top-60 in the world ranking by either May 23 or June 13. Most likely to do so are Marcus Fraser (66th at the time of writing), Matt Jones (74th) and Scott Hend (80th). JASON DAY World…

PRIVATE 2012 Olympic Club (Lake) Private/Traditional (1924) -up was to what we expect from the USGA, with long rough, narrow fairways and fast greens. A great variety in hole length saw the longest hole in US Open history (670-yard 16th) and a par-4 of 294 yards from the tips. 2006 Winged Foot (West) Private/Traditional (1923) Davis’ debut saw graduated rough introduced and different teeing grounds. The first cut (3.5in) was 20 feet wide before the second cut (5.5in) started. Half the greens were enlarged to allow new hole locations. 2011 Congressional (Blue) Private/Traditional (1924) oversaw Rees Jones’ renovating course, new greens and tees. Graduated rough meant the five-inch rough from 1997 was history. Soft conditions contributed to Rory McIlroy’s winning score of 16-under. TRADITIONAL 2009 Bethpage State Park (Black) Public/Traditional…

Chances are you’ve seen it, the cracking bit of shtick by the late, great and ridiculously funny man Robin Williams; the one in which he explains golf in the character of a maniacal, drunken Scotsman. You know the one (and if you don’t then Google is your friend, and you may thank us later). Funniest bit of golf gibber ever. There he is on stage ripping off that thick Scottish brogue, riffing about his idea for a sport, one in which you whack a ball towards a gopher hole, with a tyre iron, trees and bushes and high grass between you and the target hundreds of yards away. “Oh, great, oh, and here’s the better part – this is brilliant!” he says. “Right near the end, I’ll put a little…

I have no doubt if you work on your fitness, you will definitely see an increase in your driving distance. It’s not about throwing weights around a gym or running miles or riding a bike. Most amateurs are not flexible in certain spots – they get very, very tight, which is no good for hitting your driver its maximum distance. For amateur golfers, in terms of their golf fitness, I think it should be more about flexibility and stability. Why? Well you’ve got to be able to turn behind the ball and keep your hips pretty still. When amateurs ‘turn’ they’re swaying side to side. Everything – hips and shoulders – go as one. When I’m taking it back there’s a little bit of hip turn but there’s about 90…

When I talk about driving, I try to feel like I’m not only hitting the ball from the inside of the target line, but I’m also hitting the ball on the up – that is, the clubhead has already bottomed out in the arc and is swinging up. When you do that, then you can get more power … every time. Most amateurs try to muscle the ball and, in doing so, they mistakenly make their first move down with their arms, which throws the club away (casting) and onto the wrong swing path once they hit down from the top of the swing. Hitting down into the ball with your arms sees the clubhead come into impact on a steeper angle. When you hit down on the ball like…

In just one year, Englishman Danny Willett has surged nearly 40 places to settle into the Top-10 of the world ranking. His Masters victory in April was validation of work he has done with coach Mike Walker during the past two years to match his swing to his physique and capabilities. The 28-year-old was only briefly mentioned in dispatches on the eve of the year’s first major but his tie for sixth at the Open Championship at St Andrews last year should have been warning enough that his star was rising. He has not missed a cut in 19 events played since July 5 last year and in that time he’s had three wins, including the Masters, and a further six top-six finishes – two of which came in World…

DELIVERY of your clubhead into the sand with the appropriate angle of attack is paramount for success in getting out of greenside bunkers. Your ability to hit a precise point behind the ball will determine if you achieve the necessary loft and spin to get your ball out and on the green safely.You only want one attempt at this shot and to achieve the best result. This drill will provide instant feedback and clubhead awareness to help you take the ideal amount of sand from underneath the ball. Firstly, draw a vertical line in the sand approximately one metre long. Create up to four dots, five centimetres left of the vertical line (main image). These dots will represent the golf ball position. Draw a second line, which is nearly ten…

MODEL PLAYED: Odyssey Toe Up #1 putter. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: This putter looks good. It’s new to me to use a putter that calls itself balanced ‘toe up’, but that didn’t create a problem. I also like the fatter, half-square grip. It’s not as bulky as the really fat ones and helped the whole putter feel balanced plus comfortable to stand with at address. The clubhead design is appealing, particularly the three alignment lines that help you line up. HOW IT PLAYED: I putted really well with the Odyssey Toe Up #1 putter. I used it during a Par event, a format that often lets you ‘have a go’ at more putts, so I felt like I could be more aggressive on the greens. The overall balance was excellent – the…

I have to admit, at first I was sceptical. But after a few holes, Supa Golf had certainly won me over. Supa Golf was invented by Perth engineer and keen golfer Andrew van der Meer as a means of allowing people of all ages and abilities to enjoy. All the best aspects of conventional golf have been repackaged into a game that is easier to play for everyone. That said, it’s no snack. But on any given hole, a single-figure handicap player could easily be matched by someone playing for the first time, which makes it the ideal game for golfing parents and their kids, or non-golfers just wanting to have a bit of fun. I played at Oasis Supa Golf, a short drive from The Vines Resort in the…

TAKE a sunset walk among the magnificent sand dunes at Maspalomas, protected as a nature reserve and home to a variety of flora and bird life. Contrary to popular belief, these 988 acres of golden sand didn’t blow across from the nearby Sahara Desert; they washed up from the ocean. EXPLORE the old town of Las Palmas and visit the historic Catedral De Santa Ana (you can go up the tower for city views), the emblem of the city since the Spanish conquered the island more than 400 years ago. SAMPLE the catch of the day in one of many family run restaurants on the seafront of the enchanting fishing village of Puerto de las Nieves, with its characteristic low white-and-blue houses. IMMERSE yourself in history at two excellent museums…

WINNING SCORE: Nine-under-par, 279 DEFEATED: Defeated fellow American Roberto Castro on the first hole of a sudden death play-off. DEFINING MOMENTS: Hahn thought he had blown his chance to win when he three-putted the 72nd hole for bogey. But Castro hit his tee shot into the creek left of the fairway on the first play-off hole, before hitting his third shot into the shoe of a greenside spectator. Hahn took full advantage of Castro’s misfortune and parred the hole to bring his eight-run stretch of missed cuts to the best possible end. WITH THIS VICTORY… : • Hahn moved up nearly 80 spots to No.55 in the world ranking. • The 34-year-old had missed eight consecutive cuts prior to winning the Wells Fargo. • Extends his PGA Tour exemption until…