Innehållsförteckning för Jan 2026 - Issue 440 från Golf Australia

The year 2026 is shaping up to be a thrilling one for women’s golf in Australia. The WPGA Tour of Australasia has just released the first half of its schedule, and it’s packed with opportunities for our players to shine. Spanning five states, offering nearly $5 million in prizemoney and featuring four straight weeks of Ladies European Tour (LET) co-sanctioned events, it’s a calendar which will have fans and players alike counting down the days. The year kicks off in Perth with the second staging of the Webex Players Series, hosted by superstar siblings Minjee and Min Woo Lee at their home club, Royal Fremantle. It is a perfect way to start the year, giving both rising stars and established pros a chance to get back into the swing of…

We are definitely not jealous. Nope. Not one bit. Watching the Butterfield Bermuda Championship 2025 unfold on the 16th at Port Royal Golf Course? Totally fine staying put in the land of Oz while players and fans soaked up that picture-perfect Bermuda breeze. Sure, the turquoise waters, the swaying palms, the impossibly perfect fairway … it’s tempting, but we love our work too much to trade it. Well, maybe just for a peek over the ropes. Okay, fine – maybe we’d take a tiny, tiny detour to that 16th ……

On the basis that a bit of nostalgia never did anyone any harm, my appointment as Captain of the International team at this year’s Presidents Cup has had me thinking about teams past. My first experience as part of a group effort was as a young teenager, when I was selected to play for Cheltenham Golf Club’s division five Pennant team. Looking back, it was great fun and great experience, travelling to clubs like Chirnside Park and Gisborne. For away games, my mother would drop me off at Cheltenham very early on Sunday morning, after which there would be maybe an hour-and-a-half drive to our destination. John Cunningham, our junior (under-21) Pennant manager, piled all five of us into his little van. It was a wonderful education, though; one that…

SCOTTIE’S 2025 STATS • 1st in total SG (2.75) • 1st in scoring average (68.11) • 1st in birdie average (4.54) • 1st in bogey avoidance (10.65%) • 2nd in consecutive cuts (62) WHAT SCOTTIE DOES Pretty much every practice session for Scottie begins in the same way… with attention solely on his hand placement on the club. His highest-profile training aid is a 7-iron with a moulded grip, designed to force his hands into the ideal, neutral hand position. PLACED TO PERFECTION This sees the handle more in the palm of the lead, upper hand and more in the fingers of the trail, lower hand. If you’re lucky enough to get a chance to watch Scottie warm up, you’ll see him hit shots with this special 7-iron before checking…

WHAT SCOTTIE DOES Watch any slow-motion videos of Scottie swinging at full tilt and you’ll see a couple of things – his lead foot spins until his toe is almost looking down to the hole, and his trail toe drags along the turf towards the lead foot. While these two moves give him a look of instability, we should note they happen a long time after impact; at the point of contact, he’s rock solid. We can also link this footwork directly to his incredible control and consistency. WHAT DOES THAT DO? STATIC… AND STUCK Maybe the best way to see the value of Scottie’s footwork is to compare it against a throughswing that shows no lead foot rotation and no trail foot drag. A passive, flat-footed delivery fails to…

Odyssey Golf continues to redefine putter innovation with the launch of the S2STri-Hot series – a line engineered to deliver ultimate stability, precision, and feel. By advancing multi-material construction and rethinking centre of gravity placement, Odyssey Golf has created a design that makes setup and performance more natural, intuitive, and consistent for every golfer. Built around a bold “ZeroTorque” concept, the S2STri-Hot range showcases Odyssey Golf’s commitment to pushing performance boundaries through engineering excellence and player-driven design. Moving Zero Torque Forward By using multi-material construction in S2S Tri-Hot, Odyssey has been able to move the CG of these putters far enough forward to get the shaft entering the head on the topline. This eliminates the need for shaft lean and thus removes one of the biggest barriers to entry for…

Got to be honest here. At least for this long-time observer of all things pro golf, Keegan Bradley has forever been irritating. So, so irritating. All that twitching, club twirling, pacing back and forth and seemingly endless wideeyed (and slightly creepy) looks at the hole during his interminable pre-shot routine surely provoke much eye-rolling from anyone who wishes the game to be played at something above snails-pace. Still, that view of his weird on-course behaviour is mere trivia in the wake of Bradley’s abject performance before, during and after his tenure as captain of the American Ryder Cup team. Quite apart from the fact that his out-of-nowhere selection for such a uniquely challenging role made little or no sense, the man from Vermont confirmed our worst fears almost from day…

Golf Australia magazine presents our Top 100 Courses list for 2026, a feature-length guide to the best golf courses in the land. The list, compiled with input from an expert panel of golfers, travellers and architecture buffs, is a celebration of the country’s finest layouts, from coastal masterpieces to inland gems. Our Top-100 Courses intertwines with our other biennial rankings list, that of the best public access courses in the country. Many of those layouts appear high up in this list, underscoring how lucky Australian golfers are with the wealth of accessible, affordable, world-class tracks. This year’s list was put together from the assessments of a newly-assembled judging panel, comprising some of Australia’s most well-travelled golfers. Judges for 2026 include: Michael Green, Ashley Clinch, Paddy White, Rob Evans, David Garnier,…

WHAT CAN YOU DO You can start by showing the grip the same level of respect the World No.1 gives his. The grip may not be the sexiest element of golf technique, but as Scottie has shown, it certainly paves the way for some sexy golf. You could do a lot worse than invest in your own moulded grip, widely available for under £20. But also try these three ideas… 1. MARK YOUR GLOVE: THE 2.5 KNUCKLE RULE If you don’t have a moulded grip to hand, there is nothing to stop you making your hold more orthodox and consistent by marking your glove. Find a pen and place a dot on the first three knuckles of your lead, gloved hand. As you look down, make sure you can see the…

WHAT SCOTTIE DOES In harmony with his long game, Scottie plays short-game shots with a fade bias, the ball typically starting slightly left of his target but packed with cutspin that creates a soft, checking bounce rightward towards his target. He also uses plenty of loft and tends to strike shots crisply, almost aggressively, driving shots in fairly low. WHAT DOES THAT DO “Great wedge players control the contact so they can control the green,” says Scottie’s long-term coach, Randy Smith. “We tend to see a lower flight and control of the first bounce.” We can easily see these concepts reflected in Scottie’s greenside play. Traditionally, golfers have controlled the ball’s runout with trajectory, looking to hit it higher and land it softer when less run is needed. Scottie clearly…

For all the talk by the NSW Government about meeting the needs of an increasing population, its Moore Park South Establishment Plan contains no rigorous recreational needs analysis. Instead, we get glossy illustrations and motherhood statements. There is scant detail on the planning merit or environmental impact – leaving critical questions unanswered about ecology, heritage, pedestrian and vehicular access, contamination and tree loss. “When a government reshapes public land, especially land a community has relied on for generations and one of the best performing sports facilities in the country, the bar for improvement has to be extraordinarily high,” Moore Park Golf Club Director and leader of the Save Moore Park Collective, Jared Kendler, said. “What the government has released is nowhere near delivering for the community compared to what exists…

Matt Cleary: The great Mat Goggin, thanks for your time and welcome to Golf Australia magazine’s “Drinks With …” Q&A. Mat Goggin: Thanks for having me. MC: We’ll get to Seven Mile Beach soon, but for the moment, here you are, freshminted NSW Senior Open champion and King of Thurgoona! MG: Yeah, improved on my stuff-up from last year when I let my roommate, David McKenzie, beat me. This time I got it over him, so it was nice. MC: When we hear “Mat Goggin” now, it’s usually in the context of “creator of Seven Mile Beach”, yet, as a player, you’re still clearly in good nick. MG: [Smiles] Sort of. I had a couple of injuries, then COVID, so I didn’t get to play as much. But I turned…

ELVIS SMYLIE PUNCHES TICKET TO THE BIG TIME Whenever I’ve seen Elvis Smylie play, I have been nothing but impressed. The swing is efficient, the short game is phenomenal, there is coolness under the pump. With another full season in Europe, Elvis is a red-hot chance to collect one of the 10 PGA Tour cards on offer on the DP World Tour. This country’s most promising prospect in the men’s game. – Callum Hill. TIGER ROARS AGAIN It’s a stretch to see him hobbling up and down Augusta National at the Masters (but the man is mad, so don’t write it off) but Tiger Woods will take baby steps onto the world golfing stage this year. And, come December and his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, the Big Cat…

GRADE B ADAM SCOTT Adam turned in a steady but somewhat subdued year, producing the kind of report which often leaves teachers writing “capable of more” in the comments section. His T12 at the U.S Open was the clear highlight, a reminder that the 45-year-old’s class is permanent, even when the scorecard says otherwise. However, aside from that majorweek spark, 2025 was a grind. Adam made a healthy number of cuts, showing consistency to go with professionalism, yet the top-10 column stayed frustratingly empty At the Masters, The Players and The Open Championship, he never found the rhythm needed to stay for the weekend. His other starts, from the RBC Heritage to Valspar, were workmanlike without ever threatening the leaderboard. GRADE A+ MINJEE LEE Minjee enjoyed a standout 2025, highlighted by her…

If tour pros are on a different planet to you and me, we’ll probably need the Hubble telescope to spot Scottie Scheffler right now. A season of five wins, including the US PGA and Open Championship, is the latest chapter in an astonishing career that has brought him 18 PGA Tour victories, four Majors and an Olympic gold medal since his breakthrough year in 2022. He has held the World No.1 ranking since May 2023. His form is such that, aged just 29, he is already drawing comparisons with the game’s true legends. But if you figured his incredible form and skill make his game irrelevant to you and me, think again. Scottie’s famed consistency is founded on elements available to every golfer playing the game. In this article we…

WHAT SCOTTIE DOES Scottie is a natural feel player and learned the game creating shots, shaping the ball both ways. But his go-to shot today is very definitely a soft fade, a shape he is clearly comfortable with and that allows him to control the ball. WHAT DOES THAT DO? This commitment to a shape is a lesson in itself. Removing the infamous ‘two-way miss’, it gives the golfer far more predictability and confidence; Scottie can aim down the left side of the fairway all day, knowing the ball will either fly straight or cut into the middle of the fairway. If he does miss his mark, it’s generally squaring the face up to his leftward start line to create a pull into the left rough. But his relentless pursuit…

WHAT SCOTTIE DOES First, the putter. Until 2023, Scottie had always been a confirmed blade putter man; but a recognition of strike inconsistency led him to experiment with mallets. He finally put one into action in 2024 – TaylorMade’s Spider Tour X – and won 10 times in the next 15 months. But by the end of 2024 he was also becoming more and more comfortable with the increasingly popular claw putting grip. WHAT DOES THAT DO In an orthodox putting grip, the lower trail hand is a potential weak point. Fully on the handle and closer to the putterhead, it can start to dominate the lead hand… and the stroke itself. That means inconsistency, both in terms of face aim and speed delivery. Fundamentally the Claw grip puts the…

Circa 1915, a young Edward, Prince of Wales (pictured right) struggled through his first golf lesson, looking every bit the royal novice. Little did anyone know, his seemingly relaxed, casual start to his playing days would leave a lasting mark on the game. Years later, as King Edward VIII and beyond, he captained Walton Heath longer than he reigned, led the R&A, and famously used “illegal” steel-shafted clubs in 1929, ultimately helping modernise golf, one rebellious swing at a time.…