Golf Monthly March 2023

It’s set to be a stellar year in competitive golf and I think a significant one in the women’s game. Interest in women’s golf – and in women’s sport in general – is, quite rightly, on a significant upward trajectory. With this year’s exciting golfing calendar and the superb players packing the upper echelons of the game, that ascent should be expedited. The AIG Women’s Open will be played at Walton Heath in Surrey for the first time from August 10-13. Not only is it a tremendous club, but, close to London and the populous home counties, it’s also in the perfect location to draw sizeable crowds and generate significant interest. Other big events include the US Women’s Open, staged at the iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links for the first…

A lasting legacy One of the standout moments from last year was undoubtedly the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews. Credit goes to The R&A for putting on an event justifiably fit for the celebration. Some six months later, its legacy is still not lost on my eldest son, who, along with his younger sibling, attended his first ever Open last year at the Home of Golf. For his ninth birthday a few days after Christmas, he announced to his mother that he wanted his birthday cake to be the 18th hole at St Andrews, complete with Swilcan Bridge! In true British home-baking fashion and adorned with enough green food dye to turn the baked Old Course fairways into the luscious lawns of Augusta, my wife set forth at creating…

Victor, it’s been a great couple of weeks with victories in the Hero Cup and Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Describe that final round... Yeah, it’s very hard to describe. When I started the day, 15 guys were within three shots of the lead. I knew it was going to be a dogfight and the course set up for it. I knew getting off to a good start would be key and I was able to do that, but it was only half the job done. Fortunately I was able to hang in there until the end. Talk us through that holed bunker shot on 17… I was saying, it’s probably going to be shot of the year already! I was just trying to flight it all the way to the…

The wait is almost over! Netflix’s Full Swing docuseries tracking the ups and downs of some of golf’s biggest names will hit the streaming platform on February 15. Created by the same people behind the Formula 1 hit show Drive to Survive, golf’s version will deliver a rare glimpse behind the scenes into life on tour. “You picked a hell of a year to start following the PGA Tour,” says Ian Poulter in the trailer. He’s not wrong. As fate would have it, filming coincided with the rapid rise of LIV Golf. Since its inception, LIV Golf has challenged the dominance of the PGA Tour in ways unthinkable as recently as 12 months ago. The saga has divided the men’s game and viewers are going to be given an insight…

Sepp Straka Straka finished tied for 21st out of 39 at the Tournament of Champions and missed the cut in Abu Dhabi, his fourth early exit in six starts. Tom Kim A T6 in Hawaii and a T5 at The American Express represent a good start to 2023 for last season’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. Billy Horschel Horschel beat just seven players at the Tournament of Champions before missing the cut by five shots at the Sony Open the following week. Chris Kirk The American has leapt into the world’s top 50 following back-toback third-place finishes at the Sony Open and The American Express.…

Golf’s dress code debate was thrust back into the spotlight at this year’s Sentry Tournament of Champions, and this time it was the sight of JJ Spaun’s untucked shirt that triggered the luddites. So, should such a it’s an wardrobe choice be allowed on tour? It’s an odd position to be in discussing the clothing choices of grown adults; let’s add it to the list of things that don’t make too much sense about this game of ours. Ultimately, athletic sport, so there is an argument that the attire should reflect that, but the uproar at ‘incidents’ such as this never ceases to amaze. Ultimately, it is allowed on the sport’s biggest stages and is there any reason for that to be changed? We’re not so sure. Some people don’t…