Innehållsförteckning för Jun 2023 - Issue 409 från Golf Australia

Congratulations where congratulations are due. Greg Norman and his team at LIV Golf put on a great show in Adelaide. Don’t mind that there appeared to be more beer spilled than what was consumed, by shoe or can, over the three days. The course was beautifully set up for entertaining golf and that’s what we got. Talor Gooch was phenomenal over the first two days and when he got the chicken bone caught in his throat with nine holes to play, it thankfully made for a far more exciting finish than if he kept his 10-shot advantage. Of course, he held on to win which was no surprise to anyone, including Gooch. His biggest surprise came after he touched down in Singapore two days later and checked his bank account…

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How many times have you heard, or been told by a playing partner, to keep your head down after you have duffed a shot? Unfortunately, it’s more likely the cause of your mis-hit was not your head but a common fault that hits in the split second before impact. It is a swing fault known as early extension, which usually gets confused with lifting the head as they come through to hit the ball. Early extension occurs when your hips move incorrectly through impact. Instead of rotating left (for right-handers) and around, your hips slide forward and upwards forcing them towards your golf ball and the target. That will always force your upper body to straighten up and out of the shot, creating the misdiagnosis of a lifted head. A…

THE DATA EXPERT LOU STAGNER A self-confessed “golf nut and data nerd,” 2-handicapper Lou joined Arccos in 2021 from a background in business intelligence and analytics. Alongside his work with the shot-tracking giants, he has gained a legion of followers through his lively Twitter feed @loustagner and the Hack it Out podcast he co-hosts. What do two-thirds of a billion amateur golf shots tell us about the way we play golf? Pretty much everything. I could give you the success rate of 10-handicappers attacking front-right pins from 175 yards in the right-hand rough; or of 20-handicappers driving the green on par-4s over 325 yards (actually you can probably work that one out yourself). But underpinning almost every stat we care to pull up is a clear and important theme: we…

Famously, they went all but head-to-head in the final round of the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews. But since then, it is difficult to imagine two golfers who have diverged more than Cam Smith and Rory Mcllroy. In the almost 12 months that have passed since the mullet-headed Aussie putted his way to victory over the Old Course, the pair have emerged as the poster boys for two wholly contrasting views of what is best for the future of the sport they both play so well. While McIlroy has preached the virtues of the PGA Tour, what has been the professional game’s establishment over the last half-century or so, Smith took what many view as the less-ethical pledge and joined the controversial Saudi-backed upstart, LIV Golf. At first glance,…

It’s hard to fathom why the second-most populous city in North America, behind New York City, and one of the most famous cities in the world, has seemingly been ignored by the United States Golf Association for so long. As you would have read earlier in this edition, the last time a U.S Open Championship was contested in the City of Angels it was won by Ben Hogan at the Riviera Country Club. The year was 1948. That’s right, the U.S Open trophy, one of the most prized pieces of silverware in the game, has not been seen in Los Angeles for 75 years. Which is all the more surprising when you consider the money and influence to be found everywhere in a city like L.A. But the trophy’s L.A…

SCAN HERE TO SEE THIS TIP IN ACTION Knowing how to read your divots is a great asset for any golfer looking to solve swing problems on the driving range or on the fly during a round. Divots can reveal many things. For example, the size and depth of the divot will help you better understand your angle of attack down into the ball. A deep gouged out divot is the result of steep attack angle, whereas a shallow divot means the clubhead moved through impact closer to the ground for longer. The direction of your divots – relative to your target line – can also reveal swing issues that, when corrected, will improve your ball-striking and get your approach into the ball on the correct swing plane (pic 1).…

The 44th Ryder Cup matches will be played in Rome, Italy, for the first time in the history of the storied event, and you could be there to witness the greatest team event in golf. Trendsetter Travel is offering a Ryder Cup tour from September 27 to October 3, which will include playing a few rounds of golf and staying in luxury five-star accommodation in Rome throughout the tournament. The tour package includes six nights’ accommodation at the Intercontinental Rome Ambasciatori Palace, private coach transfers to and from the Ryder Cup venue – Marco Simone Golf Club – daily breakfasts and two rounds of golf at Rome’s No.1 ranked layout, Olgiata Golf Club. There will also be a welcome and farewell dinner, with drinks. Ryder Cup tickets are not included…

Athlea Archer is a golfing icon in Western Victoria and, despite turning 90 years old this month, she continues to inspire. Athlea’s competitive record speaks for itself. She had a dozen club championship victories across five decades and claimed her 12th and final title at the age of 76. She was not just a home course specialist either, spending more than 25 years in the Western District representative side and winning seven Western District championships. Her first taste of the game was at 12, playing at the Cavendish Golf Club; she also got plenty of practice at home. Athlea and her family had three holes on their property, one parallel to the ‘bull paddock’ where her father’s Shorthorn stud grazed. As expected with any beginning golfer, many a wayward shot…

First of all, I have to say I’m a “PGA Tour guy.” But that doesn’t mean I didn’t derive some pleasure from the recent LIV Golf event in Adelaide. As the PGA Tour has shown little interest in taking a tournament to Australia, which would seem an obvious and worthy place for them to go in the same way as there have been events in China and Korea, then LIV is sort of the next best thing. Besides, Adelaide hadn’t seen a major male tournament in decades. So, it was good to see the locals able to watch what was, in terms of the field strength, the biggest event in Australia since the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. What it wasn’t though, was the strongest field ever seen Down…

Jon Rahm is a self-confessed golf nerd. Away from the course – when he’s not spending quality time with wife, Kelley, and two young sons, Kepa and Eneko – you’re likely to find the 28-year-old tumbling down a YouTube rabbit hole of golf videos on his laptop. Really? Yes, really and it’s all part of the learning curve that has helped elevate Rahm to World No.1 and has many believing he can hold that crown for years to come. “I know the details of a lot of players’ careers,” Rahm says. “I like history in general and the history of the game and I like seeing what players have done in the past. I’m a golf junkie. “I’m the guy who, you know, if the kids don’t wake me up,…

If your golf game typically sees you hit 50 percent, or less, of your iron shots out of the middle of the clubface, here are two swing thoughts that will get you hitting the sweetspot more often. The first thought is to lean the shaft forward at address, which reminds you to position your hands a little ahead of the ball, not directly in line with the ball. This is the position you will be aiming for at impact… that’s what makes good impact. The clubhead, with hands slightly ahead, hits the ball and continues moving forward and down through impact. This can only happen if the clubhead lags behind the hands or, in other words, if the shaft leans forward. Closely related to this swing thought, is having a…

If you’re one of the many golfers who regularly hit it ‘fat’ or ‘thin’, the two disaster shots for chipping, here is a drill that will encourage a better strike on those short shots. Set up to play a chip shot with your back directly facing the sun and a golf ball placed on the ground in the shadow created by your head. You can call this your clown’s nose. Now the key to this drill is make your chip swings while keeping your ‘nose’ in the shadow. The only time your ‘nose’ should come out of the shadow into the light is when you finish your follow-through. What you don’t want to see is the ‘nose’ getting ahead of the shadow, which is the result of your head and…

Tom, you and your colleagues were back at Cape Kidnappers in 2022, working on a variety of renovation projects. The course has never looked or played better. What struck you, spending extensive time on site for the first time since the course opening in 2004? When I worked on this golf course 20 years ago, what struck me most was the scale of it, the way it sits so high above the bay. And this is still true, of course: There is nothing like it in golf. There are a lot of seaside golf courses and a lot of varied seaside settings, but nothing else offers that sort of perspective. You’re just so high above the water. From that high up, it looks like someone threw a rock in a…

Western Australia’s biggest public golf complex, Wembley Golf Course, will get a digital upgrade to its popular Swing driving range with the installation of the TrackMan range system. The TrackMan Range system comes with a variety of family-friendly games and other advanced features that can improve a player’s swing by giving live feedback direct to their smartphones or nearby screens. TrackMan Range is currently used by professional golfers, industry leading equipment manufacturers and thousands of coaches. The recommendation to invest in upgrading the driving range comes after several years of research. Course management has been investigating the technology since 2019 and put forward the recommendation after listening to staff and patrons about ways to enhance the customer experience. Town of Cambridge Mayor Keri Shannon said she supports the decision and…

For the third time in recent years, TaylorMade have released a Mini Driver with an ode to the company’s past. The new BRNR Mini Driver is designed to fit two varieties of player, while its style, and even some technology, pays tribute to the brand’sTi Bubble 2 driver that was exceptionally popular in the 1990s and was used by Mark O’Meara to winThe Masters in 1998. Created either for better players with high swing speeds looking for a more accurate tee option or a longer club to hit from the fairway, the BRNR is also designed to cater to golfers who struggle with 460cc driver heads. Particularly those who hit down on the ball, with more forgiveness and distance than a 3-wood. Coming in at 304cc, the new model uses…

BRIDGESTONE TOUR B He might be out following another round of surgery, but whenTiger Woods does play, he plays Bridgestone’s top golf ball line. That’s a pretty strong endorsement. The latest iteration of the brand’sTOUR B line use ‘REACTIV iQ’ covers as the hero technology for unparalleled distance and greenside control. REACTIV iQ, as the name suggests, is a cover that reacts to the force of impact for each shot, resulting in no trade-off in spin and distance performance for longer distance from the tee and more spin around the greens. The TOUR B RX and TOUR B RXS suit players with less than 105 mph driver swing, whileTOUR B X and TOUR B XS are for those over the 105 threshold. RRP: $79.99 www.bridgestonegolf.com.au BRIDGESTONE E12 CONTACT Distance is…

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“THE GOLF FAN IS SEEMINGLY COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN THIS BATTLE.” The LIV Golf League event held recently in Adelaide was celebrated widely as a success by the new circuit, its players, fans and more. Numbers through the gates showed just how much Australians love a big name and event. The success of the Saudi funded circuit’s first visit to Australia creating renewed conversation around the current state of play in golf’s cold war between the established Tours and the disruptor league. However, it seems no matter the success of the event, or even top-quality play of LIV golfers at the majors, there is no end in sight for the battle. And there is one major loser in that scenario. LIV Golf appears to be attempting to soften its approach in…