Innholdsfortegnelse for Aug 2023 - Issue 411 i Golf Australia

The Presidents Cup is heading back to the Melbourne Sandbelt in 2028 and will be played at Kingston Heath Golf Club. Consistently ranked in Golf Australia magazine among the top five courses in Australia, Kingston Heath was created by Dan Soutar and features natural bunkering designed by legendary architect Alister MacKenzie during his visit to Melbourne in 1926. Of course, Kingston Heath has hosted plenty of big championships including the Australian Open, which has been played there seven times and most recently in 2022 when it shared duties with Victoria Golf Club. It also hosted the 2009 and 2012 Australian Masters, the 2008 Women’s Australian Open as well as the 2016 World Cup of Golf. “On behalf of the PGA Tour, we are excited to bring the 2028 Presidents Cup…

In an age where people cannot bear to be separated from their smartphone for more than 10 minutes, phones on the golf course are a common sight. In some cases, they can even help to improve your game. But before you reach for your mobile on the course, make sure you switch it to silent and know what you can and cannot get away with … YOU CAN … Use the device for matters unrelated to golf. Checking the football scores or calling home to say you’re stuck in the office and going to be home late are both fine. Access information from previous rounds played. It’s perfectly fine to look at your average yardages for each club, as well as any swing tips that you or your coach have…

WIN A SET OF THREE T22 WEDGES from MIZUNO 3 SETS TO BE WON VALUED AT $ 1,017 EACH! EAGLE CLUB MEMBERS GET ALL THIS! • 24 issues of Golf Australia magazine• One dozen Callaway Supersoft golf balls• Golf Australia a golf shirt• Choose a DVDD - 8 golf titles to choose from• Entry in all chance to win competitionsions The Callaway Supersoft Golf Ball features Advanced HEX Aerodynamics, optimized for reduced drag, higher flight and longer carry distance. With more than 50 years of refining the Grain Flow forging process in Hiroshima, Japan, Mizuno’s wedges are unrivalled for touch and feel around the green. The latest evolution – theT22 refines Mizuno’s players shape once again and introduces four different sole grinds for varying techniques and conditions. One-piece Grain Flow Forged…

Grace Kim cut a determined figure as she walked the 9th hole at Melbourne’s Yarra Yarra Golf Club. Her slender frame, although partially obscured behind a heavy golf buggy, was moving at a fair clip to reach her ball lying near the left edge of the fairway. The then 21-year-old smiled when she realised her ball had trickled into and then, out of, a sand filled divot. She was one-under for her round and leading the 2021 Sandbelt Invitational, having opened with 76 at Kingston Heath and impressing all and sundry with a 70 across the famed West Course at Royal Melbourne. A round and a half later and Kim was the inaugural women’s Sandbelt champion, claiming the title by four shots from Tour winner, Su Oh. There was that…

TRUE Linkswear made its name in the golf shoe market by blending performance with comfort, all put together in a modern style to suit the modern golfer. Continuing to innovate, while offering a diverse range to accommodate every and any golfer and their preferences and needs, the brand’s latest release are designed to be worn by the best golfers in the world, with the rest of us benefiting too. The new TRUE Tour Series takes the company’s reputation for combining all the important performance elements of a golf shoe to another level through updates and ultra-premium components. The new OG Tour and Lux Tour utilising all-new signature top grain Napa leather, exotic leather accents and metal logos that pop, while the ‘Wanderlux’ midsole compound and insert have also been updated.…

Not everyone can drive the ball 300 yards, or flush irons close to the hole with consistency. But everyone can own a good short game, and with the skills learnt in this magazine, the wedges featured over the following pages will help that cause. Here are the latest and greatest short game tools on the market, plus some fitting guidance from the two biggest names in wedge design and the most influential models made. CALLAWAY JAWS RAW Callaway’s wedges have the distinct advantage of legendary designer Roger Cleveland heading up the category for the brand, the new Jaws Raw are no different. Featuring what Callaway calls “the most aggressive grooves in golf”,” the Jaws Raw has a face, that as the name suggests, is without a plating to add more spin…

EAST GIPPSLAND • VICTORIA Awards have come thick and fast for Bairnsdale Golf Club in the past decade, though recognition from the general public as one of country Victoria’s best courses has not come as easily. Locals are well aware of Bairnsdale’s enviable year-round conditioning and interesting variation of holes, some of which make you feel as though you’re on a Melbourne Sandbelt course. But has the course captured the attention of city golfers? Not so much. Discussions amongst Melbourne golfers about where to play golf in Gippsland often throw up Lakes Entrance and Leongatha as the must-play layouts and Bairnsdale – more than three and a half hour’s drive east of Melbourne – is too often forgotten. However, that is changing. “I don’t think there’s a poor hole,” Bairnsdale…

Many who know Rob Bradley and his family well say his 27-year-old son Joseph is his spitting image at the corresponding age. Bradley, now 57, can see the similarity, but that in itself becomes a head-scratcher to the man who has just celebrated his 30-year anniversary as superintendent at Curlewis Golf Club on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula. “He looks like he’s 12 to me, so it makes me wonder how the hell they ever entrusted this club to me when I looked like he does all those years ago,” Bradley jokes in his classic self-deprecating style. No doubt Bob McDougall and his Curlewis recruiting team took a punt on the young Kiwi who’d only been in Australia for five years when he was given the keys to what was very much…

GREEN LIGHT FOR WEMBLEY MASTERPLAN Course design firms Clayton, DeVries & Pont (CDP) and Kruse Golf (KG) have been appointed as the consulting course architects to prepare a masterplan for Australia’s busiest golf complex – Perth’s Wembley Golf Course. Wembley, just 15 minutes’ drive north of Perth’s CBD, boasts two 18-hole courses, and hosted more than 180,000 rounds in 2022. “Not content to rest on its laurels, this benchmark public golf facility is looking to make its golf much better and diversify its offerings to provide many more golfing choices for all ages and abilities to play,” Harley Kruse said. “A better, traditional 18-hole course, a short course, a par 3 course, putting course and short game practice & teaching area with lighting to extend its hours of use –…

Media coverage of The Open Championship has changed significantly during the past seven decades. Here, just metres behind the 18th green at Royal St. George’s, a crowd gathers around the BBC radio commentary box to keep up to date with the 18-hole play-off between South African Bobby Locke and Ireland’s Harry Bradshaw. The host commentator is Stewart Macpherson (right), who worked as a war correspondent during World War II, and alongside him is the esteemed writer Bernard Darwin. Darwin covered golf for The Times from 1907 to 1953 and the weekly magazine, Country Life, from 1907 to 1961 and was the first writer ever to cover golf on a daily basis. Darwin was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2005.…

Tuesday, June 6, 2023 … The day men’s professional golf changed forever. Two formerly bitter rivals – PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) Yasir Al-Rumayyan – sat side-by-side for an interview on American TV network, CNBC. During that 25 minute and 34 second interview, the unlikely pair explained how they were putting an end to the long running feud between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund’s golf elements, including LIV Golf. The news shocked everyone, with two months of secret meetings, calls and golf games kept between an infinitely, considering the magnitude, small group. Key players, and even LIV boss Greg Norman, were alerted to the deal just moments before the aforementioned TV appearance. The details of what was discussed…

Tucked away in the heart of Surrey, Walton Heath is an embodiment of age-old charm and contemporary challenges. Its rumpled fairways, flanked by heather and gorse, lead to intricate green complexes, creating the quintessential heathland challenge. The Old Course 4th hole, which will play as the 2nd hole, is a 432-yard par-4, that is demanding of precise ball-striking and not surprisingly is rated the hardest hole on the course. A tight fairway guarded by bunkers and heather requires a brave and accurate tee shot. The hole narrows towards the green, putting a premium on both the line and distance of the approach shot. A par here feels like a birdie and a birdie is an omen for a good round. On the 10th hole (normally the 12th hole) there is…

We are going to start this instructional feature with a lesson not in technique but in course management. There is a good reason for this. The situation you are in must always dictate the type of shot you play and, as a result, which of the three releases you need to use. For the typical club golfer, who tends to pull the same club and hit the same shot irrespective of their position, this is an important first lesson to learn. RELEASE 1: THE CHIP-AND-RUN The first release is for what we might call the basic chip-and-run shot. A lower, more chasing shot, it delivers minimal carry and plenty of runout. Your key goal with this shot is to get the ball running on the green as quickly as possible.…

There are often times during the course of a round where you will find yourself on the green but a long way from the flag. You may have hit a poor approach shot, or the green is quite firm, and your ball has bounded well beyond the flag. Nevertheless, you have a putt, albeit a long one … perhaps from 30, 40 or even 50 feet. The expectation is you’re not going to make the putt. It’s a long shot, but instead of fixating on the hole, your goal should be setting up an easy second putt. This is where lag putting becomes a game-changer. Lag putting is all about distance control. It’s about rolling that initial long-distance putt close enough to the hole to make your second putt a…

Set at the foot of the 26-million-year-old volcanic peak Mt Coolum, the golf club of the same name is one of the most improved layouts to be found on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The course opened as a nine-hole course in 1976 and was known as the Suncoast Beach Golf Club. A name-change to Mt Coolum came in the mid-80s and a further nine holes were built and opened for play in 1992. With the course being constructed in two stages, possibly with differing budgets and across varying landcapes, there is a definite mix of tight tree-lined fairways and wider holes with more generous landing zones. There is also an interesting blend of small subtle sloping greens and larger undulating greens … all of which compensate for the course only measuring…

Over the course of the past three decades Tom Doak has risen to become an eminent figure in the world of golf course architecture, having sculpted some of the most notable layouts globally. His designs, recognised for their strategic depth, natural aesthetics, and environmental sensitivity, have created a lasting legacy in the game. Doak’s architectural philosophy is rooted in a profound respect for the sport’s history and the landscapes he works with. He draws inspiration from golden age designers such as Alister MacKenzie and C.B. MacDonald while embodying an innovative approach that resonates with modern golfers. An ardent advocate of ‘minimalist’ design, Doak firmly believes in less being more. His courses embody the concept of naturalism, aiming to sit lightly on the land, capitalising on existing topographical features, rather than…

Byron Nelson’s 1945 season was undoubtedly one for the history books. He played 30 official events for 18 wins – including a run of 11 consecutive – culminating in victory at the Canadian Open. Following his 10th straight victory, the week prior in Chicago, Nelson crossed the border in a generational vein of form. The Canadian Open attracted numerous household names, including Claude Harmon, Sam Snead and defending champion Craig Wood. They would all commute to the small village of Thornhill, Ontario, to stake their claim at the historic national open. There was plenty of anticipation around the event, with the most extensive galleries in Canadian Open history expected to attend the event’s first instalment following a two-year hiatus due to the Second World War. The Stanley Thompson-designed Thornhill Club…

“THE COMPETITION BETWEEN LIV AND THE PGA TOUR HAS BEEN GOOD IN A WAY.” Even though it has always felt like a resolution was eventually inevitable, like everyone else I was a bit taken aback by the recent announcement that peace has broken out in the dispute between the PGA and DP World Tours and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League. As with most things in life, the money and the establishment do come together, as it seems to have done in this long-running quarrel. Quite simply, it made no sense for either side to keep arguing. Had it continued, both were going to be hurt. Still, the resolution happened a lot quicker than I or pretty much anyone else thought it would. I was at the Canadian Open when my…

If the Claret Jug could talk, what a tale it would have to tell of its past year in the hands of Cameron Smith. The Queenslander and golf’s most famous piece of silverware have been in each other’s company since 6.51pm on Sunday July 17 last year. Some 18 minutes earlier, Smith put the finishing touches on one of the all-time great Open Championship final rounds when he rolled in a sixth back nine birdie on the 72nd hole to post a closing 64 and reach 20-under. Eight minutes later, there was confirmation the Claret Jug was heading back to Australia (via Jacksonville, Florida) for the first time in 31 years when Rory McIlroy’s pitch for eagle on the iconic short par-4 18th hole of St. Andrews’ Old Course slipped…

Going to meet The Furrows is like a blind date with a legendary long-lost mate’s younger sister. You know the family is of outstanding stock, but the chances of junior living up to her older sister Kingston Heath’s reputation makes this an unlikely love affair. The Heath is a raging beauty; confident and capable of strutting her stuff on any global stage. I’ve watched her with blushing admiration as she’s entertained a string of would-be suitors and left them all wanting more. The Furrows, even despite her DNA, will need a degree of magic to hold her own. Apparently, she resides in the equivalent of a little granny flat out the back of the family house, hence why I’ve never met her. So, it’s only fair that as junior readies…

One of the most challenging aspects of golf is the mental game. It’s not only about the ball-striking skills but also about making smart decisions, especially when recovering after a bad shot. Eventual champion Wyndham Clark provided several examples of this during the final round of the U.S Open Championship at the Los Angeles Country Club. Clark found himself in trouble at key times during the final round but instead of getting frustrated and going for a risky recovery shot, he played smart and ‘took his medicine’. He accepted the consequences of the poor shot he had played and opted for a safer recovery rather than trying to make up for the mistake with a high-risk shot option. Ultimately, taking his medicine won him his first major championship. Taking your…

The G430 range from PING has already proven exceptionally popular throughout its product categories, and there is a new addition that while not for everyone, will be a salivating prospect for the target market. The G340 LST 3-wood uses multiple materials to create additional ball speed and all round performance, including lower spin. A Tour-style design, uses a combination of a 2041 Beta Titanium face, Titanium 8-1-1 body, and 80-gram tungsten sole plate to position the centre of gravity (CG) low and back for faster ball speeds with reduced spin. The combination creating seven yards more distance on average. “We’re excited to bring this score-lowering technology to golfers to give them a long and versatile 3-wood to help them lower their scores and raise their enjoyment on the course,” PING…

Cost: $749. Tested by: Jimmy Emanuel, Golf Australia Deputy & Digital Editor FIRST IMPRESSIONS If you like putters, it is a fair assumption that a new line of Scotty Cameron milled models will appeal. For this reviewer, that was a tick and tick in the case of the Super Select range. The silver colorway of this line is just classy, the all-over milling patterns the same. When it comes to the look of the various models, every putter got a pickup, waggle and roll, and from the standard Newport to the GOLO 6 this is well designed line. For mallet lovers, the Super Select range is a traditional look without a whole lot of visual bells and whistles, while actual putting will reveal the well-hidden technology. But I am more often…