Innholdsfortegnelse for Dec 2023 - Issue 415 i Golf Australia

Peter Stubbs was running in circles, pumping the sky with both fists, having a moment to himself behind the scoreboard near the 18th green at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. He was trying not to let loose the bullroar that threatened to shoot from his lungs out his larynx. His 21-year-old son, Jasper, had just rolled in a big-bending, 25-foot, downhill putt and looked booked for a berth in next year’s Masters and Open Championship. But it wasn’t over yet. The brilliant Chinese phenom, Wenyi Ding, 18, who’d been schooled on Jasper’s downhiller, set free a slightly shorter putt that curled in and saluted, and saw Peter standing like a statue while Ding’s dad, Feng, his caddie, rocked onto the balls of his feet and punched the sky like he’d backed…

The DP World Tour is going global The former European Tour will be made up of 44 events in 24 countries across five continents. Players will compete for a record prize fund of US$148.5 million (not including the four majors), plus a Race to Dubai bonus pool of US$7.3 million. The off-season lasts four days The season begins at the Australian PGA Championship on November 23, just after the DP WorldTour Championship wraps up. The schedule also includes two new events, the Dubai Invitational and the Bahrain Championship, with the tri-sanctioned ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland dropping out. The five Rolex Series events remain unchanged and will again offer the biggest purses. For the first time ever, a playoff series will be used to crown the Race to…

At the risk of speaking for all of us in the greater Australian sports-watching collective – call us the punterati – but Adam Scott’s single Australian Open victory, at windy old New South Wales in 2009, has left us unfulfilled, unsated, unbecome. We’re the orphan kid in Oliver – mate, surely that’s not it. While he’s not in Greg Norman at Augusta territory for unrequited love, Scott’s sole national title feels like a microcosm of his greater career. One win in our national championship since his first outing 23 years ago? One win in 90 major championship starts? It doesn’t sit right. Maybe we’re being naive, greedy, something, or something. Unbecoming, perhaps. But for a golfer with a swing that sublime, who has won in Qatar, Singapore and Scandinavia, and…

The Bellarine Peninsula was a very different place to play golf when I first visited there in 1998. Back then, it was a far more rural landscape you encountered from the outskirts of Geelong in the west through to Queenscliff on its eastern tip. Once the last of Geelong’s suburbia had disappeared from your rear vision mirror, there were vast areas of native bush, grazing land, wineries, and occasional small villages connected by a network of narrow roads and lanes. There were less golf courses, and of those layouts already in the ground there was only one that could boast a place in a Top-100 in Australia list. Today, 25 years on, some of those small villages have seemingly doubled in size, the roads have improved, and the Bellarine’s golfing…

There are so many amazing Bellarine Peninsula courses serious golfers should have on their bucket list – and you don’t even need to fly there. Take a state-of-the-art fast ferry direct from Melbourne to the 1st tee, in half the time it takes to drive. Port Phillip Ferries is excited to offer a range of two- and three-day golf packages that take care of everything from the short ferry trip across Port Phillip Bay, to transfers when you arrive, and boutique accommodation at the newly renovated Portarlington Grand Hotel. This magnificent hotel has stood tall in the main street since 1888 and the renovation has left 18 boutique rooms, several dining spaces and a front bar that is the perfect setting for your post golf wind down. As all golfers…

Perth’s Joondalup Resort is one of Australia’s best golf resorts, boasting luxury accommodation and world-class golf right at your door step. Joondalup, which recently hosted the PGA Tour of Australasia’s WA Open, is home to 27 holes – the Quarry, Lake and Dune nines – all of which combine for three 18-hole layouts that are ranked in Australia’s Top-100 Public Access Courses. The golf here is visually spectacular and challenging for golfers of all standards. Off the course, the resort has 70 spacious rooms – available as twins or singles – each with a private courtyard or balcony looking over the resort. There is a lagoon-style swimming pool, gym, tennis courts, electric bikes and an Endota Spa if you’re after some pampering. The resort has a very good play and…

Alist of the regional Victoria’s best golf courses would not be complete without Leongatha Golf Club in South Gippsland and its Vern Morcom-designed layout is about to get even better. Lukas Michel from the course architecture firm Clayton DeVries & Pont recently began replacing all of the club’s bentgrass greens with 007XL. That’s not a James Bond reference but a newer blend of ‘super’ bentgrass, which is becoming more popular in Australia. And it’s not just new grass in the offing for the club located a little over 90 minutes’ drive south-east of Melbourne’s city centre. Several of Leongatha’s greens will also be enlarged and some recontoured. The entire process could take more than five years and, for a highly undulating and predominantly clay-based layout which receives more rainfall than…

The 1920s was a golden age for golf course construction in Australia thanks, in no small part, to the creativity and genius of legendary designer Dr Alister MacKenzie. His trip to Australia in 1926, primarily to design Royal Melbourne’s West Course, ended with him designing or consulting on several courses including Kingston Heath, Victoria, Royal Adelaide and New South Wales Golf Clubs – all of which remain ranked among Australia’s top-10. (You can read more about MacKenzie’s influence on Australian golf in the feature penned by Architecture Editor, Mike Clayton, starting on page 56.) New Zealand also benefited from MacKenzie’s visit Down Under. Having learned the “Good Doctor” was in Australia, the directors of Auckland’s then named Maungakiekie Golf Club – home to the Titirangi course – tracked MacKenzie down…

It’s a sign of a true golfing tragic to sit in a park and daydream of golf hole designs that might fit the surrounding landscape rather than just relax and enjoy the scenery. Now make things a bit more interesting and imagine being trapped behind enemy lines in a sweltering tropical warzone and concocting a composite layout from various army base golf courses to route an escape to an extraction point through a hostile Vietnamese jungle. As fanciful as that sounds Bat*21 (1988) is based on the true story of Lieutenant Colonel Iceal “Ham” Hambleton’s escape to safety after his aircraft was shot down over South Vietnam during the 1972 Easter Offensive. Ham (Gene Hackman), a weapons countermeasure expert, was aboard an EB-66 aircraft, call sign ‘Bat 21’. The only…

Cam Davis has much in common with Adam Scott. Both have one Australian Open title. Both are mild-mannered and nice chaps. Both can give the ball a rip off the tee and shape the ball in the wind. And both have fired sizzling final rounds at The Australian in the Australian Open, albeit with different outcomes. In 2015 Scott shot 65 on the Sunday but couldn’t run down Matt Jones, finishing runner-up (with Jordan Spieth) by a shot. In 2017 Davis came from the clouds to win after shooting a Sunday 64. Davis was a genuine bolter then, a 22-year-old ranked No.1494 in the world. Today he’s earned $18 million on the PGA Tour and is 43rd in the world (Scott is 45th). His tips for scoring at The Australian…

The most significant thing to happen to Australian golf was not Adam Scott winning The Masters. Nor was it Peter Thomson winning five Opens in Britain or Greg Norman carrying the Australian Tour in the 1980s and 1990s. Players inevitably come and go, and the best ones do leave significant marks on the local game. But unquestionably the most significant months in Australian golf history were the three leading up to Christmas of 1926 when Alister MacKenzie sailed here to redesign Royal Melbourne’s West Course. Until then, if world-class architecture was the measure, Australia’s golf courses had been rudimentary. But 1926 was the midst of The Golden Age of golf design and great architects across the world were showing golfers how much better the game could be when courses emphasised…

Lon is a farm and former family home that has been transformed into a luxurious coastal escape and retreat. Sitting on 250 acres of rural and conservation land in Point Lonsdale, Lon Spa consists of three treatment rooms featuring mineral water-fed soaking tubs and steam rooms with views to the ocean. Water is sourced from natural mineral springs running beneath the farm, which has been owned by the same family for more than 150 years. Lon has a Golf ‘n’ Graze stay and play package for those golfers that also like to spa. The package includes two nights’ accommodation for two, a farm sourced breakfast for both mornings of your stay and two rounds at Lonsdale Links, next door to the retreat. There are two 60-minute muscle ease massages as…

BARWON HEADS GOLF CLUB Green fees: $175 (18 holes weekdays), $225 (peak when available). Discounted rates for house guests`. www.barwonheads.golf 13TH BEACH GOLF LINKS Green fees: $120 (18 holes weekdays), $175 (all day pass, weekdays). $145 (weekend), $210 (all day pass, weekend). www.13thbeachgolf.com LONSDALE LINKS Green fees: $85 (18 holes, weekdays, shoulder season), $95 (weekend, shoulder season); $110 (18 holes, weekdays, peak season), $120 (weekend, peak season). www.lonsdalelinks.com.au QUEENSCLIFF GC Green fees: $50 (18 holes, weekdays), $60 (weekend). www.queenscliffgolfclub.com.au CLIFTON SPRINGS GC Green fees: $50 (18 holes). www.cliftonspringsgolfclub.com.au PORTARLINGTON GC Green fees: $55 (18 holes, weekdays), $65 (weekend). www.portarlingtongolf.com.au CURLEWIS GC Green fees: $75 (18 holes, weekdays), $85 (weekend). $5 off green fee when booked online. www.curlewisgolf.com.au GEELONG GC Green fees: $21 (nine holes). www.geelonggolf.com.au…

Ocean Shores Country Club is one of the best layouts you can play in regional New South Wales. Located just 30 minutes’ drive south of the Queensland border, Ocean Shores offers spectacular ocean and mountain views as well as interesting and fun golf … at a reasonable price. The club, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, has started some redesign work as part of a masterplan from course architect Richard Chamberlain, who assessed the course for improvements without losing Ocean Shores’ current scorecard of six par-3s, 4s and 5s. Chamberlain has a good canvas to work with. Set in an area of amazing flora with tidal lakes, rivers and mountain ranges as a backdrop, it is a beautiful course. Originally designed by Bruce Devlin and Robert von Hagge, the…

Name Lanto Griffin Nationality American Age 35 Tour PGA Pro wins 5 What was your first job? I played poker. I got into it pretty hard in high school and college and for a minute I thought I was going to play pro. I’m glad I didn’t go down that route, though – I’d be 100 pounds heavier! What’s the most money you’ve ever gambled on the course? In Vegas, we did play for $5,800 a hole but I didn’t put up the money. Ironically, though, the guy we played with is a big-time poker player and he ended up winning about $50,000 that day. How much was your first pay cheque? It was $975 in the Hooters Winter Series in Central Florida. The funny thing about that was that…

The PGA Tour is changing for the better, with a reimagined series of events for 2024, a new, high-profile board member, and another record prize fund. Jay Monahan is staying on for now, but player power is on the rise and the rewards are about to get even juicer. Here’s everything you need to know about the tour’s latest round of changes. The FedEx Cup season has a new format. The tour will return to a calendar-year season for the first time in a decade, with 39 events running from the start of January to the start of September. The FedEx Cup fall events, which will finalise the top-125 for 2025, are set to be announced later in the year. The signature events have replaced the World Golf Championships. Previously…

In the long and storied history of the men’s Australian Open, it took 105 years before the championship ventured to the edge of Sydney’s Botany Bay and the world famous New South Wales Golf Club. It then took less than two days of competition for controversy to rear its ugly head when second round play was suspended for nearly six hours as a 70km/hour southerly buster whipped across the course making the greens unplayable. It was the third time in eight years that the national championship had been disrupted by unplayable greens, following similar episodes at Victoria Golf Club in 2002 and Moonah Links in 2005. “It unfortunately seems to be an Australian Open tradition,” said 36-hole leader Stuart Appleby, who repeated his opening round 66 before the strengthening wind…

Jack Nicklaus was nine years old when Kel Nagle won his first Australian PGA Championship in 1949 at Royal Perth. Twenty years later, at Metropolitan, Nagle won PGA Championship title number six – in second place, Jack Nicklaus. Nagle, who earned the handle ‘Mr Modesty’, reckoned he was lucky. “It was fortunate for me that Nicklaus wasn’t burning,” Nagle said. “Normally I hate to lead in a tournament with one round to go because you feel bad about it when you’re beaten. This time I was lucky.” Lucky? He finished 20-under. He beat Nicklaus – who to date had won seven Major championships, the career Grand Slam and the Australian Open the Sunday before – by six shots. And along with that guy he blew away Arnold Palmer, Gary Player,…

Grace Kim didn’t quite have the resume she does now when she made a dash at the Patricia Bridges Bowl in Melbourne last year, and her close call on Sunday at Victoria Golf Club has added extra motivation to hoist the trophy aloft in her home city. The Sydneysider will punch her ticket to return home this summer after completing an impressive LPGA Tour rookie season, which included a breakthrough victory at the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii in just her third start. It showed she was right at home in the big moments when she made her eight-footer for birdie on the first play-off hole to fend offYu Jin Sung of Korea and China’s Yu Liu to claim her maiden LPGA Tour title. The 22-year-old accompanied her win in the…

Could a change of attitude really be enough to take us from serial losers to regular winners? It sounds hard to believe… yet that is exactly what has happened to the England cricket team under the guidance of captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum. Prior to their May 2022 appointments, England had won just one Test match in 18; between then and the start of this summer’s Ashes series, the team won 11 out of 13. Whatever happens over the course of this summer, that has to go down as one of cricket’s greatest turnarounds. If we could sum up the new mindset of English cricket – coined ‘Bazball’ after McCullum’s nickname – in a word, it would probably be ‘fearlessness’. The team’s relentlessly aggressive and positive approach…

When it comes to facilities, functions and epicurean experience, Curlewis’ new clubhouse is next level. The club’s Spike Bar is home to a more intimate, relaxed occasion, while the signature restaurant, Claribeaux, will delight with its culinary, French influenced options that also maintain a strong focus on sustainable local produce. There’s also an extensive local and international beverage list guaranteed to impress. Add to that an accommodation complex like no other. Cool eco-suite installations are nestled amidst native landscape, flanking one of the region’s most highly acclaimed golf courses. Curlewis (pictured right) offers a play and stay package, starting from $375 for two, including 18 holes on the wonderful Curlewis course for two, overnight accommodation and breakfast for two at Claribeaux. For more details or to book, visit www.accommodationatcurlewis.com.au…

Tom Doak’s latest Kiwi masterpiece, executed amid high dunes 90 minutes’ drive north of Auckland, officially opened for play on October 1. Doak and the team at Renaissance Golf Design have fashioned the North Course in the shadow of their own work: the ultra-private Tara Iti Golf Club just up the beach, a layout routinely ranked among the top courses on the planet. Just down the beach, the Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw-designed South Course atTe Arai Links has been dazzling golfers since it opened on October 1 last year. The par-71 North Course opens and closes by the sea, with another sweep down to the Pacific Ocean at the 8th and 9th holes. Elsewhere, the unique routing explores what had been a pine forest set on dunes high above…