Innholdsfortegnelse for Jun 2025 - Issue 433 i Golf Australia

HAWKE’S BAY • NEW ZEALAND The legend of how Cape Kidnappers came to be Cape Kidnappers is a tale of crossed wires. Before the stretch of coastline was known as Cape Kidnappers, it was Te Kauwae-a-Māui – the jawbone of Māui. Māori readings explain that native adventurer and explorer Māui fished up the North Island with a hook made from his grandmother’s jaw. That curve of land? That’s it. The hook. The origin of “Cape Kidnappers” stems from the story of local Māori attempting to reclaim a young Tahitian they believed had been taken, only for Captain James Cook’s crew to see it as an attack and open fire. The moment passed quickly, but the name stuck: Cape Kidnappers – a lasting reminder of a tense encounter on a wild…

It’s hard to believe a decade has passed since Jordan Spieth stunned the golfing world at Chambers Bay. At just 21 years old, the American captured his second consecutive major in dramatic fashion, winning the 2015 U.S Open – the first time the tournament had ever been held in the Pacific Northwest region of the country. Coming off his Masters victory earlier that year, Spieth battled the unpredictable setup of Chambers Bay, where yardages and pars changed daily. The course ranged from 7,384 yards on Sunday to a massive 7,695 yards on Friday, with holes 1 and 18 alternating between par-4s and par-5s. Despite criticism of the course – Henrik Stenson famously said the greens were like “putting on broccoli” and Gary Player called it “the worst golf course” he’d…

It is a job I will be giving 100 percent to over the coming 16 months or so. When next year I captain the International side (drawn from everywhere except Europe) against the United States in the Presidents Cup at Medinah, it will represent one of the biggest honours of my professional career - a moment which has been “part of the plan” for the last six years. When the International squad left the 2019 matches at Royal Melbourne, it was agreed we would adopt the sort of system – a “leadership group” – which has clearly served the European side so well in the Ryder Cup. Within that would be International players who had been part of Presidents Cup teams and those involved behind the scenes at Presidents Cups…

Occasionally, greatness must navigate chaos to reach its crowning moment. Few venues demand excellence, resilience and fortitude like Pennsylvania’s Oakmont Country Club with U.S Open conditions. The rough is punishing. The greens are firm and lightning-fast. The course doesn’t hand out pars – it demands survival and tests the nerves of even the best. In this tradition, the course was the perfect stage for the redemption – and coronation – of Dustin Johnson. By 2016, the story of “DJ” was wellknown: a rare and effortless talent, yet one who had been undone by a series of nearmisses when stakes were highest. At Oakmont, Johnson had led after two rounds before heading into Championship Sunday in equal-second with Andrew Landry, four shots behind Shane Lowry. The Irishman, who had dominated the…

Out at The Cape Club at Palm City, under a pale Florida sun and the watchful lens of a Bridgestone camera crew, Jason Day is deep in discussion – not about swing planes or spin rates, but about the conversation inside a golfer’s head. “We’re on the ninth hole,” Day says, driver in hand, standing on the tee of a par-5 which stretches 586 yards. “I want to be on the right side of the fairway, aiming at the tent in the distance. That’s my target,” he says. This isn’t just casual practice. It’s a handson demonstration of MindSet, Bridgestone Golf’s new visual technology and mental performance framework, designed to help players separate analytical thought from athletic action. With Day and his long-time performance coach, Jason Goldsmith, leading the charge,…

With green fees soaring around the globe, it’s refreshing to see the Home of Golf going in the opposite direction. St Andrews Links has just announced a new initiative which will give Scottish golfers the chance to play some of the world’s most iconic courses at a fraction of the usual cost. That’s right – teeing it up on the legendary Old Course will set locals back just £42.50 instead of the usual £340. Between May and October 2025, 179 discounted tee times are on offer, giving 716 lucky golfers the chance to play across the Old, Castle, Jubilee and Eden courses. That’s an 87.5 per cent saving on peak season rates. A round on the Old Course will cost just £42.50 instead of the usual £340, while the Castle…

Golf NSW has signed an agreement with global sports agency 54 to develop a long-term business plan, elevate the organisation’s commercial potential and build a sharper international strategy. The agreement brings together the advisory and commercial teams of the governing body and 54 to define the future of the sport across the state – from brand development and supporting grassroots initiatives to the commercial and operational planning of flagship events like the men’s and women’s NSW Open. The new partnership also covers strategic commercial sales strategy across the suite of Golf NSW assets, as well as a number of high-profile state tournaments and events. The collaboration marks a new chapter for Golf NSW, building on strong foundations to deliver bigger impact across participation, performance and profile. “Golf NSW has long…

So, Ernie, it’s over 30 years since you won your first major, the U.S Open at Oakmont. What stands out as a memory from that victory? Mostly the playoff. It had been scorchinghot all week, so by Monday we were all very hot and bothered. The course had been massacred by the hot weather; it was absolutely brutal. I started with a bogey and then a triple on the second; the easiest hole on the course. I was 1-under par from there on, to shoot 3-over. It was a miracle. True grit and determination, I guess; just staying in the tournament somehow. Then I won it in sudden-death. That was it. The biggest win of my life; nothing else even comes close to it. Did you always believe you had…

The U.S Open returns to Oakmont Country Club for a record 10th time in the history of the championship. Clearly, it’s a venue the USGA holds in high regard, with the belief it perfectly suits its premier event. What kind of test, then, does Oakmont present? What’s it like to play and what type of player does it favour? A number of players immediately come to mind as strong contenders. For two-time U.S Open winner Andy North, there are three in particular which stand out. “I think it’s the usual suspects who we often discuss in major championships: Scottie, Rory and Xander – the top guys,” North tells Golf Australia magazine. “Oakmont is a golf course that will always produce a deserving winner. Every time we’ve had an event there,…

Erin Hills’ website claims that visiting golfers will “experience a thrilling range of challenges, from a terrifying 140-yard hole to a brute of 620”, advising that players take advantage of the course’s “seasoned caddies who will assist you hole by hole to achieve not only your best possible score but also the most fun.” The professional players in this U.S Women’s Open won’t be having fun, at least not as we recreational players would have it, if the wind tears in over the former glacial lands of Wisconsin. “Erin Hills is routed over kettle moraine areas left by glaciers. It’s surrounded by wetlands and a river, with ground that consists of glacial till of varied composition of sand and small rock,” it is written. “In an unconventional decision for a…

Don’t ask meWhat you know is trueDon’t have to tell youI love your precious heart “Never Tear Us Apart”, INXS, 1997 I was mid-round when the idea struck me like a lob wedge to the back of the head: what if they’re not love songs? What if they’re golf songs? The notion was as surprising as it was distressing. First, because it was obvious: who could think Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You is about anything but golf ? And second, why wasn’t I concentrating on my stupid golf game? To put the episode in context, I was at the back end of a hot streak. Truth be told, there was no reason to believe it wasn’t the front end of the hot streak. Or even the middle. That’s…

Remember the American TV sitcom, Cheers? The show’s opening theme song became iconic for generations ofTV watchers who were forced to jump off the couch to change the channel via a giant knob on the giant idiot box, through one classic lyric. “Where everybody knows your name” Fiji’s Laucala Island runs on the same mantra, but with a twist. Every staff member, all the resort executives, even the in-room technology know your name. The greeting “Bula! Mr Brett!” became so ingrained in my daily routine, that upon returning home to Hobart, I found myself awaiting that same greeting at work, in the pro shop, at the drive-through at McDonalds. Bula, Mr Brett! Of course, in Australia, a sneer is an acceptable form of welcome, and it took me a small…

We have lost Holden cars, Sunnyboy ice blocks, drive-in cinemas and milk bars, so perhaps it’s not surprising that the iconic couch grass blanket of my childhood is also disappearing. This unsettling news was revealed by the pro at my local golf course when I asked about the strange, ghostly patterns on the greens. I’d assumed it was bindi grass being poisoned, but no, the club had decided to switch to bentgrass. I suddenly felt a pang of loss, as if my family home had been bulldozed for a six-storey block of flats. That familiar gut-wrenching feeling which comes with realising existence is fleeting – just as it is these days for an old house in Sydney. I grew up playing on couch grass and like so many things in…

History will be made at The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush after it was revealed by The R&A that 278,000 fans will gather at the iconic Dunluce links from 13-20 July for the largest Championship held outside of St Andrews. Excitement among fans at The Open’s return to the Antrim Coast after the success of the Championship in 2019 led to unprecedented demand for tickets in the ballot last year, with applications for more than one million tickets. The attendance this year will surpass the previous high mark set at Royal Portrush six years ago, when 237,750 fans celebrated Irishman Shane Lowry completing a memorable win with a six-shot victory over-Tommy Fleetwood. “The Open is one of the world’s great sporting events and we will do everything we can to…

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Who am I?As a 14-year-old amateur I won the national championship of my country. In my rookie season as a professional, I won three times on the U.S tour. By October of that year, at the age of 19, I became the second-youngest world number-one of all time. I have since won 17 tournaments around the world and earned $10 million in prize money. Who am I? If you’re now shouting at the page, You are Jeeno Thitikul, who at the age of 22, despite not having won a major championship, is ranked behind Nelly Korda as the second-best player in the world, then you are, of course, correct. That’s right. Jeeno Thitkul. Say her name. She’s so nice to western commentary teams she changed it from Atthaya to the…

These days, it’s easier than ever to marvel at the skills of the world’s best players, be it on TV, a streaming service or your chosen device. Tune in day or night and high-level action from some corner of the globe is likely to be presented to you, live or otherwise. The admiration of players’ skills is, of course, amplified exponentially if you can attend an elite-level golf tournament, male or female. Whether you’re turned on by power, the height and flight of shots, silky putting strokes, or mercurial chipping and bunker play, being at a tournament in person is the veritable Savoy Grill for a golf-watching aficionado, with quality on display at every turn. You inevitably ponder the physical preparation these players put themselves through to perform at this…

In 1980, when long flights from afar to play highly regarded golf courses weren’t as common or as popular, Royal Melbourne was the only Australian course worth flying all the way from New York or London to play. It wasn’t as though Australia’s high-level golf was poor. Far from it. Royal Adelaide, New South Wales and the best of the Melbourne Sandbelt was good golf, but flying 24 hours to play it when you already had great golf on your doorstep? Not so much. People thought early-‘80s Royal Sydney was a good course, but the new “Sandbelt” version shows off just how far it was from its potential – and it was far from the only one in the same boat. You could say the same of both Kingston Heath…

Watching this year’s Masters brought back memories of being obsessed with the event back in the 1980s – and what that decade meant for Australia and the world. We were emerging from the chaos of the 1970s – oil shocks, stagflation, Vietnam – and cautiously stepping into a new era. The protectionist mindset of the ‘70s gave way to the promise of globalisation. Free markets, migration and new technologies created a world which felt more open and interconnected. Azaleas bloomed in our gardens, and Augusta came into suburban homes via television. Sunday night became sacred for golf fans, who tuned in to the unfolding drama, long before streaming and highlight reels. Golf, once the domain of the elite, became aspirational. Public courses were bustling, memberships swelled and kids around the…