Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2015 i Golf Australia

1. It’s a new year and the first of the four major championships brings with it a level of high anticipation, from players and fans alike, like few sporting events. 2. Adding to it being first off the blocks is the fact the Masters is the only major played at the same course every year, which means we know the holes, we can recall the memorable shots … where Masters dreams were realised or where they turned into nightmares. 3. Curling up on the lounge under a doona with a strong cup of coffee, wiping the sleep from your eyes and hoping an Aussie is on the first page of the leaderboard. 4. The ceremonial Thursday morning tee shot with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer.There’s nothing else like…

ONE sure way of improving your short game, no matter what technique you use, is to develop a ‘template distance’ shot in practice so that you can take this ‘stock’ shot out on the course. Once you have warmed up hitting some short shots in a practice session, turn your attention to then working on hitting a certain distance. I think 20 metres is ideal, because it’s a common distance you can face on the course where you have to play over a bunker or swale. If you have a hula-hoop handy that makes a great target, otherwise use some tees to mark out a target area of about the same size. Now start hitting shots, with the aim of trying to land your chip in the target area.You’re not…

RORY McIlroy is no doubt talented on the golf course, but he appears to fancy himself as a spin bowler too. Here, he’s captured rolling his arm over to Ernie Els as they wait on a tee.What do you think of his action? Submit your caption on the entry form found on our website (not in the comment box) for the accompanying photo and the best entry judged by Golf Australia’s editors will win a pair of 2015 adidas Tour 360X shoes, worth $149.The new Tour 360X shoes continue the evolution of the Tour 360 family. With its Tour-proven performance and stability unquestioned, the new model features increased cushioning and comfort. For more information visit the website www.adidasgolf.com  or call 1800 700 011 TO ENTER: Visit www.golfaustralia.com.au and…

CHILE’S Felipe Aguilar incurred a rare penalty of four strokes at the Turkish Airlines Open last November for switching a club in his bag when not permitted to do so. Play of the second round on the Friday was suspended due to a thunderstorm with Aguilar having just finished the 13th hole. When play resumed the next day it was noticed that Aguilar had changed one of his clubs from the day before. Rule 4-4a states that,“The player must not start a stipulated round with more than 14 clubs. He is limited to the clubs thus selected for that round, except that if he started with fewer than 14 clubs, he may add any number, provided his total number does not exceed 14.The addition of a club or clubs must…

AUSTRALIA’S longest running women’s team event – the Marrum Cup – celebrates its 90th anniversary next month. Generations of female golfers have travelled to Victoria’s Barwon Heads Golf Club every May since 1925 to contest the trophy, coming from courses across Victoria and interstate including clubs like Royal Adelaide, Lake Karrinyup in Western Australia, Royal Sydney and Royal Queensland. The inaugural trophy was presented by Mrs Lennox Speirs and was named after the marram grass that grows along the dunes separating the course from the beach. It was, however, mistakenly misspelt but ‘Marrum’ has now become a 90-year tradition … mistake or not. What began as a one-day competition now comprises four days of individual and team events with up to 160 golfers taking part.The Marrum Cup,to be played on…

IT IS good to see Adam Scott back playing and without that horrible broomstick putter. I have to say I was not surprised to see that he putted well with the conventional-length putter, because he really wasn’t all that bad with the short putter before. Yes, he did miss some crucial putts from short distance over the years but I reckon he was one of the best putters I have seen from between ten and 20 feet.Think of the big events he won with a last-ditch long putt – the Players Championship and the Houston Open, for example. With his new putter and ‘claw’ grip, I reckon he will be hard to beat at Augusta this year. Alex Flynn via e-mail…

WHEN most golfers pick up the new Preset putter designed by Melbourne man Paul Sussich they say:“This is just what Adam Scott needs.” Just as we felt personally responsible for trying to get Ian Baker-Finch out of the slump that ended his career, we feel the need to ensure that Scott has a reliable flatstick when the ban on anchored putting comes into effect at the start of 2016. Sussich, a 59-year-old former fireman, smiles at the compliment but is not getting grandiose ideas. It has taken him nine years to develop the putter and the latest signs are good. On the strength of selling 100 clubs in the past nine months, he has just ordered another 150 heads to be made in Melbourne. The secret, he says, is that…

IT IS hard to believe that another year has passed and the 2015 majors are already nearing full swing. Heading into this season will be different than any other that I have experienced over the years as I have made my transition from playing to watching and now to commentating on the game. In my new role as lead golf analyst at Fox, I will be making my major debut at the US Open Championship at Chambers Bay this June. In preparation for this, I have spent a lot of time researching and studying the players, their habits, their coaches and their stories and have developed a list of who I believe will be the main contenders on golf’s biggest stages. I believe that 2015 will be very much like…

JASON DAY HOW HE QUALIFIED: Top-4 at 2014 US Open, qualifier for 2014 US Tour Championship, top-50 of year-end world ranking, 2015 PGA Tour event winner. BEST MASTERS FINISH: T-2nd (2011) BEST FINISH SO FAR IN 2015: 1st (Farmers Insurance Open) MOST POTENT MASTERS ASSETS: Power and putting. LIKELY STUMBLING BLOCK: Wanting it too much. He endured near-misses in 2011 and 2013. COMMENT: Day has the tee-to-green game (distance off the tee, high-flighted irons) and pure putting touch to seemingly be the prototypical golfer for combating Augusta National. And, at 27, he’s already twice felt what it is like to be in contention late on Sunday at the Masters.A green jacket at some stage of his career appears to be a given – but 30-odd years ago the golf world…

EVERY Masters,we watch in morbid fascination as the world’s best golfers suffer three- and four-putts that make them look like rank beginners.Augusta National is famous for having the slickest greens on the planet and incredible undulations that produce wicked breaks. But none of us really knows how difficult Augusta’s greens are – until now. We’ve teamed up with AimPoint, who map greens and use complex mathematics to predict accurate reads on any putting surface to help golfers make the correct read every time, to reveal how fast the Masters greens play in comparison to typical greens and how much break there really is. Some of the findings have been incredible. For example, the force needed to send a putt 20 feet across a flat Augusta green would send the ball…

1 PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IS A KEY TO WINNING THE MASTERS.THE LAST MASTERS ROOKIE TO DON THE GREEN JACKET WAS FUZZY ZOELLER IN 1979. That rules out Erik Compton, Corey Connors, Matias Dominguez, James Hahn, Brian Harman, Scott Harvey, Morgan Hoffmann, Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry, Byron Meth, Antonio Murdaca , Bradley Neil, Seung-Yul Noh, Robert Streb, Brendon Todd, Cameron Tringale, Danny Willett, Gunn Yang. 2 THERE CAN ALSO BE TOO MUCH EXPERIENCE. JACK NICKLAUS WAS 46 WHEN HE WON HIS LAST MASTERS IN 1986. NO WINNER HAS BEEN OLDER. Therefore, Fred Couples Ben Crenshaw, Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, Mark O’Meara, Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Bernhard Langer,Vijay Singh, Steve Stricker,Tom Watson and Ian Woosnam miss out. 3 MAJOR PERFORMANCES ARE IMPORTANT TO WINNING AT AUGUSTA. ONLY ONE PLAYER IN THE…

TWO of the most common and worst swing faults afflicting a vast majority of club golfers are swaying and a reverse pivot. No doubt you have read about both problems in these pages before. Here is a simple tip to cure both ills: maintain a constant back knee flex throughout the swing. It’s as easy as that. A good right knee flex (for right-handers) – from address to the top of the backswing – assists in having a correct weight transfer, just like Dustin Johnson is here. For example, your weight doesn’t move to the back foot during the backswing, it should only go as far as the inner right thigh. If your weight strays further back than that you have developed a sway. Similarly, if you straighten your back…

THE stance is the main foundation for the golf swing. A poor stance will create a rocky platform to perform your best swing and will result in shots lacking power and control.A good stance, however, will provide balance and stability for you during the swing and at impact, as it does here for Henrik Stenson. The recommended width of your stance is shoulder-width apart, i.e. the outside tips of your shoulders should be vertically in line with the insteps of both feet. But this standard stance measurement will vary from person-to-person depending on their height and build. I recommend you start at a shoulder-width stance and tinker with a stance that feels comfortable and gives you good results. In saying that, don’t vary the shoulder-width stance too much. A stance…

PALM MEADOWS GOLF COURSE CARRARA, QUEENSLAND RANKING: Palm Meadows was one of the big movers in Golf Australia’s latest Top-100 Public Access Courses list, leaping 13 places to be ranked 65th in Australia. That makes it the 14th-best public-access course in Queensland. THE DEAL: Green fees are $69 on weekdays and $79 on weekends and public holidays, including cart hire. A twilight rate of $39.50 (also including cart) operates after 2pm. GOOD TO KNOW: Thinking of joining? Congratulations, you just scored a free membership. Palm Meadows is linked to Gainsborough Greens Golf Club and pairs full membership at the two courses for $1,795 a year. The enjoyable Gainsborough Greens course is 33 kilometres north, creating potential golfing homes at both ends of the Gold Coast. ANECDOTALLY: Even the most gruelling…

ONE of the key words when it comes to putting is consistency.Introducing any funky moves during the putting stroke will only create inconsistency. Look at a good putter like Australian Open champion Jordan Spieth and you will note that the only things that move during his putting stroke are the shoulders, hands and arms. And, importantly, there is no wrist break in the stroke. Using the correct set-up position, a triangle is formed by your shoulders and arms.To be a consistent putter, this triangle should be maintained as you putt. To get the feeling of putting with a one-unit action of shoulders and arms moving, place a box or a ball, like a basketball, between your biceps and make a putting stroke. Putt half a dozen balls before removing the…

WGC–CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER WINNING SCORE: Nine-under, 279 DEFEATED: Fellow American JB Holmes by one stroke, with Bubba Watson another shot further back. DEFINING MOMENTS: A day after Johnson made a hole-in-one on the par-3 4th hole, he nearly did it again in the final round, missing the cup by a few centimetres. That was his first birdie of the final round, and two birdies on the par-5s around the turn kick-started his round and drew him closer as Watson began to slip.The big moment came on the par-3 15th, when Johnson rolled in a birdie from just inside 15 feet for a two-shot lead. WITH THIS VICTORY: • Johnson joins an elite club of eight players who have won at least two World Golf Championship events.• He extends his streak of eight…

THE single-round scoring record in major championships is 63.The mark has been reached 26 times by 24 golfers between 1973 and 2013.Vijay Singh and Greg Norman are the only two golfers who have recorded two rounds of 63 in the majors. Ten years after Norman blew the field away with a 63 in the second round of the 1986 Open Championship, he set the Masters alight when he matched the score with a sizzling opening round at Augusta National. The Norman résumé for opening rounds in 15 Masters before 1996 was not good. He had carded just one round in the 60s and just five opening rounds under par. However, on a warm opening day in ’96, Norman exorcised his first-round demons and put on a clinic. “I come in…

WHAT started out a few years ago as a discussion over a few beers has now turned into one of the most exciting events for club golfers. The Stoney Creek 3ball Golf Classic began in 2012 with 20 clubs holding qualifying rounds.This year,more than 5,000 players will tee it up in events aiming to win and book a spot in a regional final and, ultimately, a place in the final at Hamilton Island in September. So what makes the Stoney Creek 3ball Golf Classic so popular? The completely new format has a lot to do with its appeal. It is a team event where each of the three players is equally as important as the others, irrespective of their handicap or gender. It combines a unique scoring system with a…

I JUST thought I would write to you with my opinion on Steve Keipert’s article, Growing The Game, Big and Small (GA, January 2015 issue). After purchasing Golf Australia, my first ever golf magazine, I read with interest your story. I’m 28 years old and have played only four rounds of golf, but I’m well and truly on my way to a lifelong addiction. Golf as a sport is intimidating. I play AFL football, have played cricket, basketball and enjoy surfing and skateboarding, but the thought of arriving at a golf course with little idea on how to skilfully play the game is scary. The whole experience can be overwhelming.The daunting size of most courses is the first thing that strikes you upon arriving at the 1st tee.Although I am…

IT’S a strange thing.For a game that has forever prided itself on the inherent honesty and openness of its participants,golf does seem to make an inordinate number of high-profile excursions into ever-more fanciful flights of fantasy.Indeed,many of today’s leading players and administrators would not look out of place in the world of politics,such is their mastery of the dark arts of obfuscation and point avoidance when subjected to clear and direct questioning. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has long been the archduke of such drivel. But soon-to-be ex-European Tour chief executive George O’Grady isn’t far behind when it comes to obscuring horrible truths amid acres of pointless verbiage. Perhaps most amusing is that both are especially adept at answering the soft question they would like to have been asked rather…

You probably won’t have heard of Jean-Jacques Rivet, but he is a genius. I know that is a big statement, but I make no apologies for making it. Who is he? You will know all about the importance of golf coaches and teachers – heaven knows, many of them never seem to tire of telling us how good they are and what an important part they play in the lives and careers of today’s top tournament professionals. Rivet, known to everybody as JJ, would never do that. He prefers to let his work do the talking for him. A Frenchman, he runs the Biomecaswing performance institute based at Terre Blanche, near Nice. He is not a coach, but the part he plays in helping golfers of all levels to improve…

NEW MIZUNO BALLS Mizuno has announced the release of a new range of golf balls to cover all swings and player’s needs. The new JPX ball features a ‘Dimple-Cluster’ design, which is the result of a three-year study into the descent phase of ball flight. In tandem with the Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Mizuno’s ball engineers found by focusing on dimple performance in the ‘descent phase’, they could effectively extend airtime and overall distance.The smaller,micro-dimples within the JPX’s cluster pattern take effect at slower speeds – as the ball transitions to descent. The MP-X ball has been unveiled to help Mizuno expand its use among the next generation of Tour players and elite amateurs.The four-piece construction features a dual-core design, which reduces spin from the driver – suited to more…

THE COURSE LOCATION: Country Club Boulevard, Connolly,Western Australia.About 30 minutes’ drive north of the Perth CBD via the Mitchell Freeway and Hodges Drive. CONTACT: (08) 9400 8888 or 1800 803 488. WEBSITE: www.joondalupresort.com.au DESIGNER: Robert Trent Jones Jnr (1985). PLAYING SURFACES: Santa Ana couch (fairways) and Penncross bentgrass (greens). COURSE SUPERINTENDENT: Ashley Watson. PGA PROFESSIONAL: David Milne (teaching pro David Milne Academy), Greg Ashton (master club-fitter) GREEN FEES: $135 (18 holes, Mon to Thurs) incl. twin share cart; $145 (Fri to Sun). Hotel guests $75. THE CLUB MEMBERSHIPS: Joondalup offers a range of membership types and categories including non-transferable (term membership), membership shares, junior and corporate membership. Members enjoy golf rights to the 27 holes as well as access to the clubhouse and use of the facilities and services…

FEBRUARY PHOTO CAPTION COMPETITION We had a mountain of entries to our photo of Martin Kaymer playing the clown with wacky glasses.The best entry according to our judges came from Sam Smith of Uralla, NSW, with: “Hands up if anyone needs help reading the greens.” Congratulations Sam, you win a pair of adidas adizero one shoes, worth $209. TOMTOM GOLFER GPS WATCHES All subscribers to Golf Australia magazine were entered into a draw to win one of five TomTom Golfer GPS watches, worth $299 each. The winners were Ian Bevan of Padstow, NSW; Terry Budge of Crawley, WA; Andrew Drummond of Kirwan, Qld; Larry Hayne of Ebenezer, Qld; and Gary Loy of Tennant Creek, NT.…

TRYING to find a waterfront home anywhere, let alone in a city that you’re not familiar with, is only achievable by an exhaustive search of many agents in many suburbs.That used to be the only way to find golf course-associated properties as well – until now. Now there is a website that serves as a ‘directory’ for people looking to find properties for sale located within golf-course precincts – golfinghomes.com.au On this site you can search for properties in a variety of ways. If you are only interested in Victorian properties, for example, then you can look for land, apartments or homes for sale in that state. If you have identified the particular golf course you want to purchase near, then the search can be narrowed down to those specific…

30 YEARS AGO Playing in only his third Masters, Germany’s Bernhard Langer fired weekend rounds of 68-68 to overtake a stumbling Curtis Strange to win the Masters. Despite an opening-round 80, Strange led by three with six holes to play but bogeyed the 13th, 15th and 18th to finish second. 20 YEARS AGO Ben Crenshaw paid tribute to his late mentor Harvey Penick, who had died just the week before, by winning his second Masters title. Crenshaw birdied the 16th and 17th holes on Sunday to win by a shot over a fast-finishing Davis Love III.‘Gentle Ben’s’ first Masters win came in 1984. 10 YEARS AGO The 2005 Masters was the year of the chip. Tiger Woods pulled off a memorable chip-in at the 16th, then…

JUST about everyone in golf is familiar with the concept of putting yips. Pretty much all of us have seen or at least heard about someone afflicted with the dreaded twitch on the greens.But just lately another form of the disease – chipping yips – has become a lot more prevalent. It’s always been around, but now it seems to be even more common than the putting version. Indeed, it seems to me we don’t see much in the way of putting yips on Tour these days. There is certainly no one out there suffering the way Bernhard Langer did in his youth, when he was capable of putting off the green. No one does that any more, whether through using a long putter or a new grip or whatever.There…

THE most fun I’ve ever had watching golf was in 1978 at Royal Melbourne.Twenty-one-year-old Severiano Ballesteros was out to play the first of the five great Australian PGA Championships played from 1978 to 1982 over the Composite course. Since 1970 the PGA has been played over a wide variety of courses depending on where the commercial realities worked best,but this was the golden era of the championship because the sponsor chose to play the best course in the country. Alister MacKenzie had been an admirer of the great Walter Hagen who, like Ballesteros half a century later, played with great flair, imagination and charisma. MacKenzie believed fervently in giving players space to play and opportunities to recover from an erratic drive by playing a brilliant and bold approach.Two things he…

IN THE heart of one of Sweden’s oldest deep-water fishing villages, a fresh-faced Henrik Stenson channelled his first bout of aggression as a golfer. After heeding his father’s advice to either calm down or go home, Stenson’s first victory on the road – as a young teenager competing on the island of Orust – for the first time blurred his vision between competition and combustion. In chasing golf’s coveted green jacket 25 years later, the World No.3 has so far built a major legacy based on tantrums and petulance, rather than the ingenuity of his well-respected game. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist,” admits Stenson, who heads to Augusta National aiming to break his major duck at the 36th time of asking.“I’m working hard at my game so if I…

1 Get grounded Why it’s important: Ask JJ Rivet what he considers to be the key to good ball striking and he will tell you, without hesitation: “Foot grounding. Get that right and everything else will follow, I promise.”This requires some explanation. Look at any top professional (like Rory McIlroy on the previous page), watch their feet during the swing and you will see that, Patrick Reed apart, those feet are generally as steady as a rock.“If your feet move or roll during your golf swing the chances of making solid contact on a consistent basis are almost non-existent,” JJ says. Try this drill: When addressing the ball, JJ tells me to focus on putting the weight on the heel of the right foot, and the toe of the left…