Innehållsförteckning för January 2018 från Golf Australia

“NEARLY 170 COURSES RECEIVED VOTES FROM OUR JUDGES FOR THIS RANKING...” IT is 29 years since Golf Australia first published a ranking of this country’s finest golf courses. Back in 1989, a judging panel of six cast their eye over more than 40 courses to eventually come up with a final list representing the best 20 courses in Australia. It was a ranking list clearly dominated at the pointy end by the world famous quality courses of the Melbourne Sandbelt. In the years since that inaugural ranking exercise there has been plenty of change to our list, the Australian golfing landscape and the process by which we rank the best courses. One thing that hasn’t changed though is the course sitting atop the tree at No.1, again in 2018.That layout…

CAN BE FUN AT THE TOP I was fortunate recently to watch the final round of theTurkish Open, won by Justin Rose. During the event I couldn’t help noticing that the players were really enjoying themselves. Actually having fun. Dylan Frittelli was laughing, joking with his playing companions and acknowledging his luck that he had along the way. He was just one example of the love of the game that the players were exhibiting.The players seemed to be pleased to be out there and playing the game. The women’s golf displays a similar outlook with plenty of smiles and even poor shots are highlighted by a wry smile. I know, for many of the players, it is the end of a very long year but for many of us, if…

Golf fans were treated to an exhilarating year throughout 2017. Sergio Garcia finally shook the Major monkey off his back after conquering Augusta National. While Jordan Spieth became Champion Golfer of the Year after that brilliant shot from the driving range at Royal Birkdale. Plus, Shanshan Feng ensured the South Koreans didn’t have it all their way in the women’s game. Over the next few pages, we reflect on all the ups and downs that transpired during 2017. From Tiger Woods’ return to Lexi Thompson’s controversial loss at the ANA Inspiration. But first, we consult our crystal ball and turn our attention to 2018. Will Jordan Spieth or Rory McIlroy complete their career Grand Slams? How will Hannah Green fare on the LPGA Tour? And who will lay claim to…

DESIGN (60%) Judges were instructed to ask the following questions to themselves to determine where a course stands in the list. • Is there a good balance of par-3s, 4s and 5s? • Is there a good variety of long and short par-4s? • Is risk-and-reward a factor on many holes? • How fair is the course for all players? • Does the design offer a wide selection of shots based on length of holes and routing of holes bringing any variation of wind direction into play? • How memorable are individual holes and the course as a whole? CONDITION (20%) Judges were instructed to consider: • The overall condition of playing surfaces. Take into consideration elements out of control of course staff, like drought, bushfire and flood. • Are…

1. Brendan James (Golf Australia editor) 2. Matthew Mollica (Course design connoisseur) 3. Shane Gurnett (Course design connoisseur) 4. Richard Macafee (Course design connoisseur) 5. Andrew Presnell (Course design connoisseur) 6. Craig Read (Course design connoisseur) 7. Scott Warren (Course design connoisseur) 8. Brian Walshe (Course design connoisseur) 9. Matt Laverty (Matt Laverty Corporate Golf) 10. Cameron Howell (PGA professional) 11. Michael Green (aussiegolfer.com.au) 12. Ben Jarvis (golf manager) 13. Carl Murphy (aussiegolfquest.com) 14. Peter Martin (Golf Australia reader) 15. Joe Thomas (Golf Australia reader) 16. Lucas Andrews (Golf Australia reader) 17. Felicity Chapman (Golf Australia reader) 18. Sue Johnson (Golf Australia reader) 19. Jacqui Lee (Golf Australia reader) 20. James King (Golf Australia reader) 21. Scott Nielsen (Golf Australia reader) 22. Joe Thomas (Golf Australia reader) 23. Alex Murray…

Why don’t you talk to us about when you felt your timing was at its optimum, when it was perfect? Well, for me, it started at the US Open in 2016. Everything was lined up perfectly. My timing was on, the swing couldn’t have felt any better and I had complete confidence in what I was doing. I knew I was playing really well leading into the US Open, I just hadn’t won anything, but I was playing really good golf. I had a lot of confidence I was going to have a good week. I felt really comfortable on the golf course, starting from day one on the 1st tee. The swing, the timing with everything was spot-on and I knew I was going to play really well. For…

Consistency in your ball striking from a fairway bunker starts with proper club selection and set-up. It is important to set up with stability, because sand is an unstable environment. Select the club that has the proper loft for the ball to clear the face of the bunker. Your key set-up essentials include the following: 1. Ball position is just ahead of centre; 2. Take your stance with the insides of your feet lower than the outsides and your heels slightly lower than your toes. Imagine you have a wedge of wood chocked under your feet from the outside; 3. Hover the club slightly above the ball with your weight being slightly on your heels and your posture feeling tall. From this ideal starting position, you are now ready to…

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Simply stunning is the only way I can describe the look of the Apex MB. The classic, compact shape and thin topline frame the ball perfectly at address and the shiny chrome finish looks great in the bag. My first strike was with a 7-iron, producing a high soft draw that instantly grabbed my attention. In contrast, the X Forged offers a slightly more forgiving look at address with a longer clubhead from heel to toe. While a little bigger than the Apex MB, the X Forged still has a traditional shape and little offset. The satin finish and simple cavity give the model a sleek appearance. HOW THEY PERFORMED: The MB’s performance matches its looks. With the traditional blade iron delivering classic muscleback ball flight, shot control…

 HILARIOUS, actually. Like, there are moments when it’s turned me inside out and had me ready to wet my pants with myrrh and then, there’re those other days. SIMPLY TRYING TO GROOVE THE BALL AROUND THE COURSE ... RESULTED IN THE GREATEST GAME OF MY LIFE. Where some days are gifts, and others you just want to gift the game away, and after nearly 40 years at the rubber end of the club, a light may have dawned. We are passengers in this game, it’s as much about us as the forces around us. And oh, ho ho, that’s what makes golf so bloody funny. Put it this way. I had been looking forward to a game booked six months prior at Links Kennedy Bay, south of Perth. It’s a…

“THIS WILL BE ON MY SCHEDULE AS LONG AS I HAVE MY CARD AND FULL STATUS IN THE U.S. I’LL DEFINITELY COME BACK DOWN HERE AND PLAY TWO OR THREE THAT ARE HERE, FOR SURE.” WINNING SCORE: 18 under par, 270. DEFEATED: New South Welshman Jordan Zunic on the second hole of sudden death. Adam Bland missed the playoff by one shot. DEFINING MOMENTS: Smith started the final round three strokes behind Zunic but the pair was sharing the lead through 13 holes. The deadlock remained until the penultimate hole when Smith poured in birdie as Zunic missed another chance, meaning Smith took the lead on his own for the first time with one hole to play. With the crowd surrounding the final group Smith felt the pressure and missed…

Alex Russell is regarded as perhaps Australia’s finest ever home-grown golf course architect. He served as the Australian partner of the famed Scottish architect Dr Alister MacKenzie in the design and construction of the West Course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, and was solely responsible for the design of Yarra Yarra, Royal Melbourne’s East Course, Lake Karrinyup in Perth and Paraparaumu Beach in New Zealand, all highly rated courses. However, he is important to the story of Australian golf for much more than just golf course design as he was a champion golfer, winning the 1924 Australian Open as an amateur, amongst numerous other national and state titles. Discovering Alex Russell: The Man and his Legacy by Neil Crafter and John Green uses detailed text, period archival photographs, maps and…

“ALL OF MY SWING TENDENCIES ARE ROOTED IN A FEAR OF THE BALL GOINGTO THE RIGHT.” ONE OFTHE OLDEST clichés in golf is that it is a game of opposites. But like all clichés it is a cliché for a reason. It’s true in many ways. One in particular resonates with me: The longer I play, the more I realise that golf conspires against you right from the beginning. None of us can change the fact that we live our lives by reacting instinctively. We can’t override our natural instincts. When we fall forward, our hands and arms automatically attempt to cushion our impact with the ground. Our bodies react before our minds kick into gear. It’s a survival instinct born of a time when we lived in caves. The…

We hit the nail on the head with some of our predictions for 2017 but missed the mark completely with others. Here’s how we fared: NAILED IT … • Golf Australia Editor Brendan James urged readers to keep their eyes on Marc Leishman. And although Leish didn’t quite crack the world’s top-10, he certainly had the best year of any Australian, winning the Greg Norman Medal. • James also predicted Jason Day would make his first appearance on home soil in four years at the Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club. • Golf Australia Architecture Editor, Mike Clayton, selected Jon Rahm as the global player to watch throughout 2017. The Spaniard went on to become one of the world’s top-10 ranked players after starting the year in 137th. •…

Q1. Who will win the most majors in their career: Dustin, Rory, Jordan or Jason Day? At the time of asking this, Dustin had one major to his name, aged 33. Rory McIlroy had four at the age of 28, Jordan Spieth had two at age 23 and Jason Day had one, aged 29. To our anonymous pros, it was a straight choice between two men. They said... “When he’s ‘on’, Rory is the best player out there.” “Dustin. When he’s clicking he’s the most talented all-around player from that group.” “Rory. I think Dustin will win three more and Rory has a long career ahead of him.” Q2. Are Keith Pelley’s modernising golf initiatives on the right track, going too far or not going far enough? Since taking over…

Winning the 2016 Open Championship in the way you did was obviously extra special, but how did you react to it all in the aftermath of such a high? 2016 was the best year of my career, but the 12 months after Troon were also the busiest of my career. And yes, it was hard at times to focus on what was ahead rather than what had been. Until I actually returned the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale, I felt like I was constantly living in the past. Everywhere I went I was the Open Champion, which is great. But the spectacular way in which I won definitely made it even more interesting to people. Everyone wanted a picture and everyone wanted to talk about it. So it was hard…

 STARRING: DUSTIN JOHNSON RORY MCILROY JUSTIN THOMAS JASON DAY ADAM SCOTT THOMAS PIETERS TONY FINAU JON RAHM “THE WIDER YOUR SWING ARC, THE FURTHER THE CLUBHEAD WILL TRAVEL AND THE MORE CLUBHEAD SPEED YOU CAN GENERATE. THAT’S HOW YOU HIT IT FURTHER” – DUSTIN JOHNSON 1 DUSTIN JOHNSON CREATE A WIDE SWING ARC TO GENERATE MAXIMUM SWING SPEED FLAT LEFT WRIST My left wrist is bowed, but you want the back of your left hand and wrist to be flat. This makes it easier to square the face in the downswing if you’re not as flexible and athletic as me. STAY RELAXED AND CONNECTED Gripping the club too tightly makes your muscles tense so hold the club loosely to stay relaxed and allow your muscles to create maximum power in the…

ORGANISE YOUR GAME Rattling club heads, rubbing graphite shafts and hard to find irons are evils all golfers have long accepted as part of the game and golf bag design. Australian company Kahma Golf think differently, and its Caddyrack Pro technology incorporated in the C5 golf bag removes all three common issues. The Caddyrack Pro uses soft concave and convex surfaces to lock iron heads in place and suspend the shafts within the bag. Meaning heads will not bang against each other and cause damage. While the shafts hang free of any other surfaces that can rub and damage them. More than just a club organiser, the C5 also features a magnetic cooler pocket, two external putter wells for easy access and all 11 zippered pockets are accessible from the…

WHENEVER I see or hear the words “appearance” and “money” in the same sentence my mind immediately goes back to 1981. That year, with a 12-strong team containing 11 current or future major champions, the United States gave the European side a right good going-over to the tune of 18½ to 9½ at Walton Heath near London.The home team featured a few notables too - the likes of Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Bernhard Langer – but one name was significantly absent. Due to an on-going dispute with the EuropeanTour over “turning-up money,” Seve Ballesteros was not part of the heavily-defeated Old World squad. So any debate over the legitimacy of golfers being compensated merely for turning up is nothing new. Nor is there today any sight of a solution…

SERGIO Garcia performed well at the Australian PGA. But where could his ball be here? All you have to do is correctly identify where his ball is hidden on the grid, using the letters and numbers (eg. A4, B2 etc). Answer correctly and you could win two dozen Mizuno JPX-S golf balls.The new JPX-S is a soft compression edition of Mizuno’s three piece ball – producing a balanced performance for a wider range of swing speeds, which also boasts Mizuno’s Dimple-Cluster design for improved aerodynamics. TO ENTER: Select your grid reference and then go to, www.golfaustralia.com.au, to submit your answer. Entries close 11.59pm on January 17.The winner and the correct answer will be published in the March 2018 issue of Golf Australia magazine.…

Author and Professional Tour Caddie David Kight grew up on the edge of the Melbourne Sandbelt and was drawn to the game of golf at an early age. To earn money as a youngster, he caddied for members at Riversdale before doing likewise at the more famous and private Metropolitan Golf Club. It was here, in the mid-80s, that Kight caddied for Greg Norman, who was filming an instruction video at the course. Norman never forgot that meeting and he provides the foreword for Revelations Of A Tour Caddie. Kight’s book takes you back to a time when there was great mateship among the Tour caddies and reveals what life is really like on Tour as a professional caddie; the dodgy hotels, missed flights, stolen luggage and what it’s like…

AUSTRALIA lost a distinguished historian and golf is poorer for the recent passing of Professor Weston Bate at the age of 93. The Melbourne-born academic had an extraordinary life into which he crammed flying Lancaster bombers in World War II, teaching at every level from, kindergarten to PhD and writing the histories of the Metropolitan and Barwon Heads Golf Clubs. He said his taste for history and his take on it stemmed from growing up, the third of two girls and five boys, in suburban Mont Albert. There they lived in a Californian bungalow with a Californian mother (Molly, from Montecito near Santa Barbara, CA). It was by the railway station in a village full of Dickensian characters and had a wonderful feeling of belonging. When asked to write a…

So here it is. The culmination of two year’s work to comb the country and come up with Australia’s Top-100 Courses. I am sure you won’t agree with the positioning of all the courses in the list over the following pages. The exercise of ranking golf courses is not an exact science but based on the various points of our criteria, I think our judging panel has contributed to a list that won’t let you down if you let it guide you to the layouts where you will have the most fun. Written by readers and golfers themselves, this Top-100 list recommends the best courses for our fellow golfers to play; where you will have the most memorable golfing experiences. That’s what we think is the most important aspect of…

The ranking of courses for 2018 saw 168 layouts receive votes from our judges, which is a record number. The following courses finished just outside the Top-100, having received votes from our judge’s but did not accrue enough points to make the Top-100. 101. THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN 102. THE SANDHURST CLUB (NORTH COURSE) 103. MAROOCHY RIVER GC 104. PARADISE PALMS RESORT 105. CASTLE HILL CC 106. KEYSBOROUGH GC 107. THE SANDHURST CLUB (CHAMPIONS COURSE) 108. MONASH CC 109. THE HERITAGE G&CC (ST JOHN COURSE) 110. SECRET HARBOUR 111. MT COMPASS GC 112. THE HERITAGE G&CC (HENLEY COURSE) 113. PALMER SEA REEF 114. YERING MEADOWS (HOMESTEAD COURSE) 115. PALM MEADOWS 116. PYMBLE GC 117. LEONGATHA GC 118. MURWILLUMBAH GC 119. CROMER GC 120. NOOSA SPRINGS RESORT 121. KOOINDAH WATERS 122. THE…

Pulling the big stick for a shot off the fairway is something most teaching pros will likely frown upon you doing. But there are times when hitting a driver off the fairway is not such a low percentage play. Tour pros rarely need to use the driver from the fairway but Rickie Fowler is one player, who regularly plays the shot when trying to reach a long par-5. Usually the flag will be positioned in the right half of the green because the ball flight is generally a fade. You too can hit a driver from the fairway, under the right circumstances. This kind of shot should be considered when you’re trying to cover distance and you need to keep the ball low. But if there is any trouble, like…

MODEL PLAYED: Indianapolis with a SuperStroke grip. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Different. The ‘Indy’s’ X shaped design is not the style of putter head I would typically opt for. But when put behind the ball, and after a little time on the putting green, I got used to the look and came around. With the combination of the head shape, large line and contrasting look between the satin face and black rear of the putter being extremely easy to align. HOW IT PERFORMED: Once I felt comfortable with the look of the putter, there was another performance characteristic I struggled with. The feel off the putter face was firmer than my preference. Odyssey is known primarily for soft insert putters and the fact that the Indy had a slightly harder feel surprised…