Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 - Issue 408 i Golf Australia

The quote from Rory McIlroy on the cover about being a more “complete golfer” likely will have stuck out instantly when picking up this magazine. It is a bold claim from a player who emerged on the scene with such a complete set of the tools required to play the game at the highest level that very soon after he started winning majors. The statement that his game is more complete could be brought into question given he hasn’t won one of those major championships in a long time, but delving deeper into statistics and how McIlroy goes about getting the ball around a course now proves his bold words to be true. That same idea of something being more complete is also represented in this issue by the diversity…

The two bodies governing the game globally – the United States Golf Association (USGA) and The R&A – recently announced a proposed new Model Local Rule (MLR) to be enacted no earlier than January 2026 in an attempt to combat the distance gains in elite professional golf. It was 1997 when John Daly became the first player to average more than 300 yards off the tee, a distance that was 30 yards further than the average Tour pro, of the time. Fast forward to 2023 and the average driving distance for the entire Tour is a tick under 300 yards, and by 2024 it is predicted the Tour average will surpass that mark. For context, the average male Tour player will hit his drive 85 yards further than the average…

Like most people I suspect, I wasn’t surprised when I heard the R&A and USGA would like to “rollback” the golf ball for elite players. The signs had been there for a while. Both governing bodies clearly feel how far leading professionals hit the ball is an issue. For myself, I’m definitely in the school of people who think those same bodies missed an opportunity to take action maybe 20 years ago. But following PING’s winning lawsuit over the so-called “square grooves” in clubs, other equipment manufacturers were emboldened and The R&A and USGA were maybe a little reluctant to further challenge technology. And since then, after years of linear improvement, things have exploded. We’ve seen the emergence of titanium, graphite shafts, “hard” golf balls and big-headed drivers. Again, I…

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A MODEL OF CONSISTENCY Three wins and 12 top-five finishes on the PGA Tour in 2022 only tell half the story. Rory became only the third player in history to have a scoring average lower than 68.7. The only other players to accomplish the feat are Vijay Singh in 2003 and Tiger Woods – eight times! TAKING A NEW APPROACH After watching Dustin Johnson transform his wedge game, McIlroy has worked hard to dial in his approach shots and capitalise on his long drives. After the Masters last April, he was ranked second from last on the PGA Tour for average proximity to the hole from 50 to 125 yards. By the end of the season, he was 22nd and ranked as the best on Tour post-Masters, with an average…

Next time you get a chance to watch Rory in action, take a look at his right or trail arm through the first part of the swing. It remains ramrod straight, the elbow almost locked. In fact, it doesn’t start to fold until his hands reach chest height. What does this do for him? And why should you copy it? FOLD … AND COLLAPSE ◆ Perhaps the best way to answer those questions is for us to examine what happens when that trail elbow folds or collapses during the takeaway: ◆ The hands and forearms start to roll, opening the clubface and taking the club well inside its optimal, neutral path. ◆ The shape of the swing already starts to look overflat, creating a need to steepen on the way…

Rory himself tells us, “I have always been around four or five degrees up on my attack angle.” In other words, his driver is sweeping upwards through the strike, an attack that allows him to send the ball high with minimal spin – the perfect combination for distance. But how does he achieve this high launch? Certainly from the in-to-out impact path his technique delivers, but also through his head position at impact. NO DRIFT Watch Rory’s downswing from face-on and you will see his head pretty much holds its position, despite an aggressive shift into his lead side. In fact if anything it moves slightly backwards, away from the target – though his face is tilted forwards, often revealed by the angle of his cap. OUT TO LAUNCH With…

Teaching professional Portarlington GC, Portarlington, Victoria SCAN HERE TO SEE THIS TIP IN ACTION There are three main variables that can influence your ability to hole putts more often. The break and pace of the greens is one variable you don’t have control over but obviously need to be aware of. The other two variables are putter face alignment and the speed of the putt, which are both within your control to get right and increase your chances of making any given putt. Putter face alignment is something you can work on away from the course to ensure when you do play, you’re rolling your putts down the correct starting line. Here is a drill that offers two benefits; to help you better control how the putter head returns to…

The Dunes is one of Australia’s finest links courses and now you can stay right on course when you next visit the beautiful Mornington Peninsula. Ranked No.7 in Golf Australia magazine’s Top-100 Public Access Courses for 2023, The Dunes has been a “must-play” layout-since it opened in 1995. “It doesn’t matter if it’s blowing a gale or completely still, any round at The Dunes is a load of fun. With an incredibly diverse range of holes – from thought-provoking short par-4s to long, brutal par-5s and intense par-3s – The Dunes should be on your bucket list,” says Top-100 ranking judge, Joe Thomas. Purpose built for the travelling golfer and completed in November 2021; The Links Lodge at The Dunes offers sweeping views across the famed Dunes landscape from all of…

Although the turmoil at the professional level of golf refuses to cool down, the local weather is starting to turn from the heat of summer and wearing shorts and short sleeves to the cooler months and layering. The change in weather doesn’t have to mean a change in your golf game, with innovative designs, high tech materials and varied options allowing you to swing with freedom but remain warm. Over the following pages, we present some of the best winter warmers from some of the biggest names in golf apparel to keep your body and game firing on all cylinders this winter, as well as some of the latest footwear options. ULTIMATE365 TOUR PRIMEKNIT POLO Stay in the zone and swing without restrictions in this adidas golf polo shirt. adidas PRIMEKNIT…

“WHEN I GOT TO NO. 1 IN THE WORLD BACK IN ‘15, I ENJOYED THE JOURNEY GETTING THERE, BUT WHEN I GOT THERE, I DIDN’T KNOW HOW I GOT THERE …”– JASON DAY Few, if any, of us will ever truly understand the feeling of setting the loftiest of goals as a child and then achieving them. The inspiration and drive to then push on from what your life’s work has been about to higher accolades or positions, something no one fathoms when setting those sort of goals, with few experienced in such a way to help guide them on that path. That is exactly what faced Jason Day back in late 2015 and early 2016 when he reached the pinnacle of men’s golf in the weeks following his maiden,…

Yes, we hear it too – our rather tactless inner monologue, which right now is saying something along the lines of “How on Earth can anything Rory does be relevant to you?” He is, after all, a honed athlete who hit a million balls before he was 15. He has a driver swing speed of 122mph, a ball speed of 183mph and an average driving distance in excess of 320 yards. And where we try to wrestle our driver into submission, to watch Rory in full flow is to wonder where the golfer stops and the golf club starts. But let’s look at this from a more constructive angle. Rory is, in fact, human. Despite appearances to the contrary, he is subject to the same laws of physics that govern us…

To understand what we mean by ‘deeper’, consider these two trademark aspects of Rory’s position at the top: ◆ His left or lead arm ‘covers’ his shoulders. ◆ The handle of the club is ‘behind’ his heels. These elements combine to take the club a healthy distance inside the ball-target line; the further the club is inside that line, the ‘deeper’ it is. But what does this do for Rory? And how can it help you? QUICK ON THE DRAW A deeper position at the top encourages a metre-eating draw by giving us more room and time to approach the ball from inside the ball-target line. It also promotes the ideal low-spin, high-launch driver strike by encouraging a shallow, sweeping attack through the impact zone. This deep position is a…

Jason Day’s re-emergence as a top player, and likely major contender, has come about through plenty of hard work and swing changes that were more driven by body limitations than for most others at the top of the game. Day’s back injuries have been a constant throughout his career, and part of the work he has undertaken with coach Chris Como was to reduce the load on his body during his golf swing, while also delivering an improved ball flight. The depths of Day’s digging into golf swing theory are substantial, but one area he has spoken about is his delivery of the club into impact and the release motion. A significant area of work for Day has been shallowing the club in his release, something he has done in…

Attending the Masters is a once in a lifetime experience for most people. Take a break from watching it on TV next year and fulfil your golfing dreams with a trip to the Masters and Augusta National Golf Club. And, to make the most of the trip, stay within walking distance of the famed course. During Masters Week, Augusta buzzes with excitement and when you stay in town, there is an array of restaurants and sports bars to choose from. You can share the Masters experience with people from all over the world. You may even bump into the odd golf legend along the way. Avoid wasting hours each day travelling from surrounding towns in heavy event traffic and instead spend those hours inside the gates of Augusta National and…

If you’ve made the investment in a personal use golf cart, or if you run a fleet of carts for a course or club, there is little point not opting for the best in the battery game to ensure high performance and longer life. R&J Batteries are a leading seller of batteries in Australia and New Zealand and its Predator Golf Cart Battery range are powerful, reliable, cost efficient and offer longer lasting charge life as well as life cycle. Thick plates in the construction of the premium battery offering deliver dimensional stability, while the brand’s unique cap design minimises water loss and consumption during use for more reliable and safer performance each and every time. Designed and produced in a state of the art facility, Predator batteries are offered…

Last month you would have read about David Micheluzzi’s plans to “go hard” at the NSW Open to close out his PGA Tour of Australasia season chasing a DP World Tour card after foregoing qualifying schools in the hopes of a good summer at home. That good summer became a golden one when the Victorian claimed the title at Rich River, his third of the season to secure the Order of Merit crown for 2022/23 and add a maiden major championship start at The Open in a couple of months alongside one of three cards in Europe. The run of form for the former World No.2 amateur also included five other top-10s and six more inside the top-30, including the non-sanctioned Sandbelt Invitational. It was not only a reward for…

It’s a lengthy list, one that should, when you think about it, make every golfer feel better about the game we all love. Finesse. Imagination. Touch. Feel. Determination. Focus. Persistence. Concentration. Strength. Speed. In addition to others I’ve no doubt failed to mention, all are required to play golf well. In an ideal world, each one would play a close-to equal part in the shooting of good scores. The extent to which those various attributes answer the game’s eternal questions goes a long way to telling us just how good a course is. And, in turn, how much fun the golf being played is for participants and spectators alike. Unfortunately, of course, the professional Tours have for long enough provided an unbalanced “product”, to use the description so beloved of…

PRESENTED BY With so many great golf holes spread across the Australian golfing landscape, we thought it was time to acknowledge the best of the best. So, until May 17, you will have the chance to nominate the best holes in the country. We want you to nominate the best 1st hole, the best 2nd hole, best 3rd hole and so on. We will then count all the votes to ultimately establish Australia’s Greatest 18 holes, which will be revealed in a special feature in our July 2023 edition. Across the following pages, you will find a collection of holes – as suggested by some of our Top-100 Courses ranking judges – that may refresh your memory prior to submitting your nominations. These are just suggestions and if you want…

We can all agree that Rory’s driver technique is magnificent. Yet you will notice a theme running through this article – of just how much ‘great advice’ his super action contradicts. The way he starts the swing is a great example. Over the years, we have had it drummed into us how much care we need ed to take at the start of the swing. We need to stay ‘centred’. We need to take the club ‘back low and slow’. This is only possible from a ‘relaxed’ address position. We see none of this in Rory’s start. In contrast, he fires energy and dynamism into his action from the very first move. Here’s how he does that … 1. THE FIRST MOVE Watch Rory carefully and you will see his first…

You’ve read it so many times before – how the downswing starts from the ground up, lower body leading and the upper body responding. But watch Rory from the top and you’ll see this isn’t the whole story. Sure, his legs and lower body are active … but so, too, are his hands and arms. Far from being passive, they work hard to swing the club downwards from the top. Let’s examine this important and overlooked move … and see how it promotes that lovely draw. OVER THE TOP This is important, because – as Rory demonstrates so beautifully – it’s this downward motion of the hands and arms that puts the club into position to attack the ball from inside the ball-target line – the source of a draw.…

Teaching professional The National GC, Cape Schanck, Victoria One of the most common issues I see with amateur golfers is the dreaded chicken wing, where the left elbow (for right-handers) bends through impact and into the follow-through. The chicken winged left arm pulls the clubhead away from the golf ball (pic 1) resulting in a myriad of bad shots. You might hit the ball fat, thin, sliced and much shorter than you would like. Here is a simple drill that will help you get rid of that chicken wing and hitting straighter, long shots in no time at all. Using a 7-iron, grip down towards the end of the grip and stand with your feet about two clubhead widths apart (pic 2). From here, you are going to make some…

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