Innehållsförteckning för February 2023 från Golf Monthly

If you want to shoot lower scores in 2023, there’s one very simple way to achieve it – improve your putting. By holing more ten-footers and missing fewer three-footers, you will score better. It sounds pretty obvious, doesn’t it, but how many of us actually bother to work hard on our putting? Okay, we might have a little tour of the putting green preround, but how often would you dedicate an hour to practising with the flat-stick, as you might dedicate an hour to hitting balls on the practice ground or driving range? I’m going to go out on a limb and say rarely, if ever. Am I wrong? Winter is the perfect time to change that up and do some proper work on your putting. It doesn’t matter what…

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley has confirmed LIV golfers who are already qualified for the 2023 Masters will be allowed to compete in the tournament. “Regrettably, recent actions have divided men’s professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it,” he said. “Although we are disappointed in these developments, our focus is to honour the tradition of bringing together a pre-eminent field of golfers this April. Therefore, we will invite those eligible under our current criteria to compete.” Ridley also hinted that qualification criteria for the year’s opening Major may change in the future. “As we have said in the past, we look at every aspect of the tournament each year, and any modifications or changes to invitation criteria for future tournaments…

Best moment in golf? My SA Open win in 1984. My first win and got my career going. Dream four-ball? My late father, my son Dale and John Bland. What would you have done if you weren’t a golfer? No idea. I wanted nothing else from the age of 12. Did law credits at university but it was never for me. Lowest round away from the tour? Barely played social golf. Without the adrenalin rush I was useless. Any superstitions? Plenty. No ball numbered higher than four, same type of ball-marker for 40 years, loved Friday 13th. Where would you use a career mulligan? I wouldn’t. I gave every shot my best. Que sera, sera. Would you rather win The Open at St Andrews or The Masters? The Open at…

Replicate in practise Most golfers practise on driving ranges or practice areas with flat surfaces, but many golf courses are far from flat. Sometimes the ball will be well above your feet and successful results from such a lie require the changes to your set-up detailed here. If possible, try and find somewhere where you can also practise from such lies to hone the technique. Swing flatter Your swing needs to be more around you and flatter than usual, so stand a little taller to the ball and maintain your height as you swing. Keep the club moving around you in a semi-circular motion all the way. You’re more likely to hit a draw, so aim a little bit further right, and swing smoothly as balance can be trickier to…

The all-new Srixon ZX Mk II woods are said to provide even more power in 2023, largely down to a stronger Rebound Frame design. It comprises two flex zones that work together to generate enhanced ball speed and distance. Zone 1, the driver face, deforms inwardly at impact, while zone 2, a ring of flexibility offset from the face, deforms outwardly. When they snap back to shape just after impact, the energy transfer is more powerful and efficient than standard designs. The brand says that overall, it creates a face with a ten per cent larger high-COR area, helped by being thinner in the centre and thicker at the perimeter. The ZX7 Mk II driver allows golfers to produce the launch conditions they desire via interchangeable weights in the heel…

Happy New Year to everyone, and welcome to what I think could be one of the most memorable years in the history of professional golf. There will be yet more LIV drama, with the possibility of others going across to the fledgling circuit. We’ll also see what an ‘elevated event’ looks like on the PGA Tour, and if there are any developments in the American circuit’s strategic alliance with the DP World Tour. And, excitingly, alongside the Majors we have both a Ryder and Solheim Cup to look forward to. I can’t wait! “The Ryder Cup is going to be a lot closer than most people think” Before I get going on my start-of-year predictions, I want to talk about a few players I think will be making headlines in…

A ftera fifth PGA Tour triumph, Max Homa took the long trip from the Fortinet Championship at Silverado, in California’s Napa Valley in the west, to the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow, North Carolina, in the eastern United States. Homa had just successfully defended his title at Silverado and he was the last man into Charlotte, arriving at the airport at 2.30am on the Monday morning. Waiting for Homa at arrivals were tour staffer Matt Horton and Presidents Cup captain Davis Love III. “Max was like, ‘What are you doing here?’” recalls Love in an exclusive interview. “I said, ‘I am helping with your luggage.’ The next day Max said, ‘I can’t believe you came to meet me,’ and I said, ‘That’s what we do.’” That day on the driving…

Arguably, Oliver Wilson’s most impressive performance of 2022 came in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, a week after winning in Denmark for the first time on the DP World Tour in nearly eight years. Tied 23rd may sound pretty ordinary, but the Englishman was spent. When I met him, he was battling a sore head (self-inflicted) on the range and doing his best to get some preparation in ahead of the DP World Tour’s flagship event, but people kept interrupting him, slapping him on the back and offering their congratulations. It must be tiring being that popular. Wilson thanked everyone – fellow players, caddies, coaches. It would have taken him a while to reply to all the messages, but I’m sure he worked his way through every one. At…

The Rules of Golf have typically been updated every four years of late, but the major modernisation that came into effect in January 2019 strayed a year early from that cycle. In that major revamp, the number of Rules was pruned from 34 to 24 and many long-established Rules changed radically, from reducing search time to three minutes and dropping from knee height to putting with the flagstick in without fear of penalty. Now, The R&A and USGA have reverted to the four-yearly cycle, which means another update as of the start of this year. “It’s not quite the dramatic change of 2019, where everyone was having to completely relearn a lot of things,” Grant Moir, executive director – governance at The R&A, explains, “but we have been busy refining…

A golf watch can become a trusted companion that provides GPS distances and strategy-enhancing information, all coming in a wearable package many golfers find more convenient than a rangefinder. We tested the latest models to determine where each excels. Styling/design On the whole, screen sizes and general footprints have become smaller this year in a bid to intrude less on your eye line. This is especially the case with the minimalist SkyCaddie LX2, although some will argue it detracts from the experience should you opt to invest in the hole maps feature. The GolfBuddy Aim W12 has also slimmed down compared with its predecessor, boosting its appeal on and away from the course. Along with the Shot Scope V3, these watches are still somewhat function over form, whereas the Tag…

So here we are in a new year, perhaps still a tad dishevelled following the self-inflicted rigours of a festive period that helped us to stick a defiant two fingers up at an unruly world too full of stuff that encourages despair. The problem with January is, well, almost everything. We’re too far away from autumn and nowhere near enough to spring, never mind summer, to grasp anything other than reality, and facing the current reality is rougher than usual. Never mind, we’ll get through it and stumble into the vaguely reassuring light that is February while hoping that it is not, as Woody Allen once suggested, the light of an oncoming train. You remember trains, I hope. “Most of us are rarely more baffled than when we hit a…

Count your blessings I have just read your article in reference to use of fairway mats in winter [January issue]. My course is on north London clay, and while all the members hate having to use a mat, it means we are still able to play, keep the swing and enjoy good company. We know it is only really practice for when the new season and warm weather returns. Without the mats, many courses would have to close more often, as ours had to many times years ago. So, just think how lucky we are that we can still ‘walk the fairways’, even with thermals and hand warmers. Paul Freedman, via email Winter warmer The PNC Championship was a heartwarming and fascinating way for golf to have signed off in…

Marc Warren The Scot finished 2022 with missed cuts at the Joburg Open and Alfred Dunhill flanking a T62 at the South African Open Championship. Seamus Power A T5 at the RSM Classic was an excellent way to cap off an incredible year that vaulted Power into the world’s top 30. Marcus Armitage Two missed cuts in South Africa to end his year won’t have been what ‘The Bullet’ had in mind. He’s now well outside the world’s top 200. Adrian Otaegui It’s been an eventful year for the Spaniard, but he finished it off in style with a second place at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.…

SOUND BITES “THEY SAY A COMPUTER WORKED OUT THAT I’VE HIT 15 MILLION BALLS. THAT’S OVER 73 YEARS AND I WAS AN ANIMAL, I NEVER GOT TIRED. ONE OF THE GREAT BLESSINGS I HAD IS THAT I HAD SO MUCH ENERGY” “I KNOW EVERYBODY DOESN’T WANT TO BELIEVE ME, AND EVERYONE WANTS TO BELIEVE THE RUMOURS THAT WE’RE BANKRUPT AND WE WERE SAVED BY THE AMERICANS AND ALL THAT BULL****. THAT’S ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE” “HE LOOKED GOOD PHYSICALLY. AS I SAID, HE LOOKED BETTER AT THAT MATCH. SO, YOU KNOW, I’M NOT SAYING HE COULD BE, I ACTUALLY BELIEVE HE WILL BE A DANGER. I THINK HE’LL WIN ANOTHER MAJOR” “BBC SPOTY IS A JOKE. DISGUSTING HOW @MATTFITZ94 IS COMPLETELY OVERLOOKED. GLAD HE DIDN’T WASTE HIS TIME FLYING OVER THERE”…

The golf Par 72, 6,831 yards The original course here fell into disuse after World War II and it wasn’t until 2005 that the new Kyle Phillips-designed links came to life, going on to host the 2017 Scottish Open, won by Rafa Cabrera-Bello. The course is a clever blend of length and well-designed shorter holes that can trip you up as easily as the tough long par 4s at 1, 10 and 16. There are two cracking holes early on the back nine, where length is not the challenge. The 11th plays over marshy ground to a well-protected, wide, elevated green and you then need to plot your way shrewdly down the short par-4 12th. The best angle in is from the left, but a cunning fairway bunker lurks at…

We’re currently in that funny time in the golfing calendar where the new season hasn’t quite got going yet, but there have been a few slightly different tournaments which have kept things interesting of late. I remember writing my column this time last year about what a joy the PNC Championship was to watch, and I have to say it was even more entertaining this time around. The quality of the field just gets stronger and stronger and it’s become a real fixture on the pre-Christmas calendar. “Away from the negative headlines, golf is doing so much right at the moment” The Tiger and Charlie pairing may have dominated the headlines again, but there was something rather joyous about the whole event and hopefully the wider sporting world picked up…

I t’s late morning at Edgbaston Golf Club on Saturday November 5, 2022. I’m standing in a medium-sized room on the ground floor of this fine red-brick building surrounded by golfing collectibles and memorabilia and the men and women who collect them. Robert Chadwick, captain of the British Golf Collectors’ Society, has just declared the weekend-long collectors’ fair open and the gathered members Hickory are catching up with old friends, checking out each other’s exhibits and no doubt eyeing up items they might quite like to add to their own collections. Some are dressed slightly eccentrically, others less so. There are golfing artefacts and collectibles of all kinds – old clubs and balls, books, trophies, medals, paintings, programmes, stamps, postcards, ornaments and much more. Whoever the golfing equivalent of Aladdin…

GM verdict TaylorMade’s updated trio of better-player irons are constructed differently to provide specific types of performance, and we tested all three. Starting with the tech-packed P770, TaylorMade has made some minor tweaks to the design that should subtly enhance the playing experience. Visually, this iron is a stunner and it looks more compact at address via the thinner topline. The finish is slightly less reflective overall. With its hollow head housing up to 46g of tungsten, it feels livelier and more stable than the other two models, producing a subtle ‘thwack’ that balances power and precision. The 7-iron performance of both the old and new versions on the Foresight Sports GCQuad launch monitor was almost identical. The new P770 for 2023 did launch a little higher and consequently flew…

Following a changing of the guard in the spring of 2021 and the recruitment of a number of new readers to the Golf Monthly Top 100 panel, the process to review every course on the contender list began. The window for visits and reviews this time around ran from July 2021 through to the end of October 2022, a period of 16 months, during which time we returned to every single course being considered for inclusion in the updated rankings. We have always felt it vital to make our list as fresh and contemporary as possible, and by making sure that we review each and every one of the courses during the cycle, we are using information that is as up to date and complete as possible. A few weeks…

Tiger returns to action alongside son Charlie What do you enjoy most about the PNC Championship? The bonding, by far. Just to be able to be out there and share this with Charlie, and for Joey [caddie, Joe LaCava] to share it with his son, as well. Joey has been out here for what, 35, 40 years, and to be able to show his son what it feels like to be inside the ropes, it’s great. He’s been fantastic with Charlie. Your best shot of the week? I can tell you a lot of my worst shots. I didn’t hit many good ones. I hit a couple of good drives where I could needle JT [Justin Thomas] a little bit, but that was basically it. I did not putt well…

Muddy greenside lie says Fergus Bisset Let’s face it, neither shot is appealing. The concrete bunker is a daunting prospect, but I’d rather tackle it than face that most dreaded of greenside scenarios – the soft, muddy lie. Just writing it has me suffering palpitations. I can picture the scene all too clearly. Having just pulled or pushed a shot towards a green, you walk up with just a hope that your ball may have clung on to the fringe. When there’s no sight of it, you pray for it to have found a grassy spot. But it’s to no avail – your Titleist has come to rest in a patch that resembles the penalty area of a non-league football pitch after 90 minutes of chopping and hacking. There’s no…

Some 50 miles as the brahminy kite flies to the south-east of Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam, The Bluffs at Grand Ho Tram Strip is a quite spectacular course with views out over the Pacific Ocean. Running through the towering dunes that separate the beach from the national forest, it was designed by Greg Norman and opened for play in 2014. The sea breeze, or more often sea wind, is a significant factor here, with the course reaching a height of 50 metres at certain points. The upside of these elevation changes is that there are sensational far-reaching views, none more so than at the short 4th hole, where there is an unbroken 360-degree panorama. The front nine runs to the north of the clubhouse and…

ASK OUR EXPERT Any tips when travelling with my clubs abroad? Graham Ledger, via email Be sure to buy or borrow a sturdy travel cover that offers complete padding and protection. At particular risk are the longer clubs – the driver and woods, which stick up highest out of the bag. Use clothing, towels or even a plastic bucket to place around the clubheads, keeping them in place within the flight bag. Utilise any internal straps and try to keep total weight down, which will make it easier for the baggage handlers. Why do some brands offer two hybrid models? Mason Hayes, via email Hybrid designs are aimed at different ability and skill levels. The traditional choice of better players is a hybrid with a compact profile and iron-like appearance,…

MUST PLAY The East Lothian coast is home to one of the most concentrated stretches of fine links courses – both ancient and modern – anywhere in the world. No trip to the region is complete without a visit to North Berwick’s West Links, looking out over Bass Rock and the Firth of Forth, where there’s a real sense that precious little has changed over the last 190 years. Dating back to 1832 and believed to be the 13th oldest course on the planet, this wonderfully natural links has been drawing in golfers from all over the world in ever-increasing numbers, so much so that 2023 tee times are set to prove highly elusive, if not impossible, to come by. In 2011, I wrote that the green fees were £85-£95;…

Westport No one would argue if you suggested that the opening six holes at Westport are tame. They’re a gentle introduction to a course that grows ever more challenging and thrilling as you play your way deep into the back nine. You play the par-3 14th with Ireland’s most famous mountain (Croagh Patrick has a chapel on top) as a looming backdrop and then drive over a sea inlet to reach the par-5 15th fairway. These are two stunning parkland holes embracing Clew Bay on the Atlantic’s edge, but they are by no means the only ones. The landscape frolics up and down along the coastline and the holes bounce right along with it. Westport’s quiet start leads to a satisfyingly noisy finish, with its par 3s at 9, 12…

Lahinch – Castle course Immediately across the road from the superb Championship course, this charming and very playable links was designed by architect John D Harris 60 years ago. Increasing numbers making the pilgrimage to Lahinch created the demand, and its original nine holes were extended to a full 18 in 1975. Just 5,488 yards from the white tees, there are still three par 5s, as well as six varied short holes and a trio of drivable par 4s. The castle’s attractively shabby chic appearance is not down to conflict, but to having been built on sand! GF: €60 all week Back to-back par 3s await on the 6th and 7th holes of the Castle course at Lahinch, each overlooked by Dough Castle, whose roots date back to 1306. Castlerock…