Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2025 i Golf Monthly

MONTH IN STATS Niklas Norgaard claimed the season-high number of DPWT eagles in 2024 23 SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER WAS 105-UNDER IN HIS SEVEN PGA TOUR WINS IN 2024 ____ MULTIPLE RACE TO DUBAI CHAMPIONS SINCE IT WAS INAUGURATED IN 2009 ____ 2 Lee Westwood 6 Rory McIlroy 2 Henrik Stenson 29 Holes-in-one on the LPGA Tour in 2024, with Jiwon Jeon bagging three 416 Matt McCarty went 416 holes without a three-putt on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour PGA TOUR TOP-TENS RECORDED BY AMATEUR LUKE CLANTON IN 2024 ____ 5 Thriston Lawrence had more runner-up finishes than any other DPWT player in 2024 10 The South African also recorded more DPWT top-ten finishes than anyone else 17 Years between John Parry turning pro and hitting the world’s top 100…

USA GF: $190-$275 Stats: par 71, 6,510 yards This outrageously attractive course, which opened in 2019, is one of five brilliant and very different designs at the expansive Big Cedar Lodge resort in Missouri. It is another creation from the fertile imaginations of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the pair responsible for acclaimed designs such as Bandon Dunes (Bandon Trails and Sheep Ranch) in the States, Barnbougle (Lost Farm) in Tasmania and Cabot Cliffs in Canada. The canvas here was a series of dramatic ridges with panoramic views. Imagine New Zealand’s Cape Kidnappers transported to a lush inland location. The design showcases the region’s fabulous natural beauty, with plenty of inviting drives and visually appealing but strategically demanding approaches. One of many unusual highlights is the 400ft wooden beam and…

And Relax. Ludvig Aberg is fine. It’s never nice to hear about athletes going under the knife, especially when their careers have yet to really take off, so when the 25-year-old had surgery in September to repair a torn medial meniscus in his left knee, it was concerning. The Swede withdrew from the Wells Fargo Championship last May because of it and he turned up at the US PGA a week later wearing a knee brace. If he were a footballer (he was actually a decent central midfielder), he’d have been sent for surgery straight away and he’d probably have missed the whole season. That wasn’t going to happen, though, mainly because the injury only really hindered his ability to squat down and read putts, something he learned to deal…

After a professional football career that lasted 18 years, Peter Odemwingie could have happily sat back and reminisced about a journey that saw him play in the top flight in Belgium, France, Russia and England. He could have dined out on tales of his exploits for Nigeria, from helping them win an Olympic silver medal in Beijing in 2008 to scoring the winner against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Brazil in 2014, giving the Super Eagles, as the national team is known, their first win at a FIFA World Cup since 1998. Having pushed himself every day on the pitch and in the gym, Odemwingie could now settle into the comfortable life of an ex-footballer. A fluent speaker of French, English and Russian, he was inundated with offers to work as…

How should I adjust for compacted sand? By Top 50 Coach Dan Grieve At this time of year, we face a lot of bunker shots from compacted sand and need to make the necessary adjustments to change how the club enters the sand. If you release the club, the trailing edge of the sole bounce is going to kick and you’re going to hit the ball halfway up. You need to get the leading edge going down more. The ball will come out lower and run a bit more, but that’s a sacrifice you have to make to get the solid contact you want. Set the ball back of centre in your stance and feel like you’re leaning left with both upper and lower body. The shoulder line will be…

Before we get underway in a competition, there are often a few pieces of housekeeping we tend to get sorted on and around the 1st tee. If we are playing in some kind of stroke play format, one of those would be to exchange scorecards with another player in our group. But what if we fail to exchange cards and start to score our own scorecard? Well, the Rules do make provision for this, as long as you spot the error in time. And failing to swap scorecards on the 1st tee is exactly what Alexa Pano did during the third round of the Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican back in November, where she was playing alongside Charley Hull and Nelly Korda. Pano had completed the front nine when…

While you may think all putting mats are created equal, there are many factors a golfer should consider before taking the plunge, from price and size, to speed and the number of different features a product offers. It’s nearly impossible to test a putting mat before purchase, so we’ve done all the hard work for you. Here is our verdict from our recent testing of seven different putting mats across the price spectrum… Most realistic Replicating what you experience on the golf course is what we really all want from a practice putting mat. Of course, the true golf course environment is incredibly hard to reproduce in your home or office, but many of the best mats have done a great job of mimicking course conditions, all from the comfort…

Many travelling golfers are aware of courses in Africa’s northern and southern extremities, but far fewer know too much about golf in its more central countries. Kenya straddles the equator on the eastern coast and, with just a two- to three-hour time difference from the UK, jet lag should be no issue. Its bustling capital is Nairobi, a name derived from the Maasai for ‘cool water’, and at over 5,500ft above sea level, the air is more refreshing than you might expect. With the majority of the nation’s golf within easy reach, it makes for the perfect base for a golfing safari. Our three featured courses are all close to the city, as is the excellent Karen Golf Club in the south-west suburbs. The district and club were named after…

Time for a shake-up I honestly believe that golf is at a crossroads. LIV Golf isn’t going anywhere, especially with the money involved, and it should be a wake-up call to the powers-that-be running the tours. The PGA Tour especially feels stale; the DP World Tour, too. I’m just not sure who wants to watch four-round tournaments any more. With the advent of YouTube and TikTok, the emphasis is on pace, wit, razzmatazz, glamour and colour. The new generation coming through is vibrant! I think the money men should get together to create a new product that inspires the younger generation. Keep the four Majors and the Ryder Cup, but instead of four-day events, have one big day that everyone can get involved in – one-round shootouts, challenges, audience participation,…

“A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY GOING TO CHARITY AND WE’RE GOING TO TAKE A LOT OF C**P”Xander Schauffele responds to the Ryder Cup payments row “IT’S A LOT BETTER, BUT I STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO”Tiger Woods gave a fitness update at the PNC after undergoing the sixth back surgery of his career last September “IT’S RIDICULOUS. I FEEL SORRY FOR THE FANS HOW SLOW IT IS OUT THERE”Charley Hull has called for players to start losing their tour cards if they don’t speed up play on the LPGA Tour “LOOK, WE ALL GET OLDER, WE ALL MATURE A LITTLE BIT, AND THEN YOU REALISE, HEY, BRYSON’S A GOOD DUDE”Brooks Koepka admits he was wrong about Bryson DeChambeau…

Shot on location at Trump Turnberry 1 Many club golfers struggle with their short games at the best of times, but when the wind is howling around the green, it can strike fear into the hearts of even the most confident of players. However, with just a few simple set-up changes, you can overcome the elements and get up and down from anywhere. The first thing I’d advise is to take a lower-lofted club, like an 8- or 9-iron, to keep the ball under the wind. Make sure your hands are forward of centre and the ball position is a little further back in your stance. This will ensure you can get the ball rolling as quickly as possible. 2 We want to almost take the wrists out of play…

The trend for synthetic leather has been bubbling away over the last few years, with more and more brands offering their own version of a classic, premium stand bag. This year appears to be no different and now Ben Hogan has entered the fray. This is a brand that is simply made to create a stand bag like this, and the new Signature ticks pretty much every box in this field. As with most bags of this kind, the majority of the product is made from a water-resistant synthetic leather material – note, it’s not fully waterproof – that aims to offer a blend of practicality and looks. It’s a much heavier material than you’ll find on fully waterproof stand bags, but at 2.7kg it’s still relatively lightweight compared to…

Package sets do very big business. They might not be the choice for the more experienced and/or discerning golfer, but going with a package set ‘off the shelf’ suits a lot of beginners and higher-handicappers, as well as those who don’t play the game regularly. As a result, they tend to be designed in a way that makes them easy to launch. Wide sweetspots and forgiving heads are the norm, and although thicker toplines and chunky soles might not appeal to everyone, most package sets are looking to give that less consistent ball-striker every bit of help, including a confidence boost over the ball. Our equipment experts have been busy testing package sets throughout the year that offer varying numbers of woods, hybrids, irons and wedges, plus, typically, putter and…

The long par-4 5th on the Balcomie Links at Crail is the toughest hole on the course at 447 yards, with the beach on the right all the way Crail GF: 18 holes: Balcomie £160, Craighead £125; day ticket: £220 Just a short drive along the Fife coast from St Andrews, Crail Golfing Society very successfully combines the best of the new with the best of the old. Its roots date back to 1786, and its original Balcomie Links is both traditional and unusual. It’s not a long course overall and this is partly because there are no fewer than four par 3s in the closing six. There are also several short par 4s and a fair number of holes that hug the shoreline. The Craighead Links opened in 1999…

Shane, Ludvig and Wyndham, you played in the first TGL match and won 9-2. How did you find the whole experience? SL: The last time I had that much fun was probably last September [Ryder Cup]. I think some weeks can be monotonous and tough, but this is just something different and something fun. LA: It was awesome. I always said I was so jealous of basketball and NFL players because they get to do this a lot and we don’t. This whole stadium-like feel is awesome to be a part of, and it gets you going a little bit differently from a normal golf tournament. WC: There’s a bunch of cool things you could do with this. I feel like the possibilities are almost endless. You can put a…

The ninth generation of Srixon’s premium golf ball franchise has arrived with four new models. The biggest change comes in the specification of its newly formulated, extra-thin urethane cover. It’s made with biomass, which Srixon says will make the cover more durable than ever before. The FastLayer DG Core has also been reformulated. The core is soft in the middle, becoming gradually firmer from the inside out to optimise spin and distance while maintaining the familiar feel of a premium Srixon ball. The Z-Star model features reduced compression at the centre of its already soft core, which minimises driver spin and produces a softer feel and enhanced greenside spin. The Z-Star XV features added firmness partway through the core to boost ball speed for greater distance and improved iron spin.…

There’s a strong argument to be made that Lottie Woad was the golfer of 2024, whether male or female, professional or amateur. The English youngster, who turned 21 on January 17, lit up the amateur game last year and even threatened those in the paid ranks. Coming into 2024, Woad was likely to play in her first two Majors; she ended it by playing in four of the five and faring very well in two of them. At the Chevron Championship, she was only three off the lead at the halfway mark – Woad would eventually tie for 23rd – and she picked up a top-ten in the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews. The following week, Woad helped GB&I to a first Curtis Cup win since 2016. At Sunningdale,…

1 PUTTING One of the things I see in pro-ams is that a lot of amateurs can’t start their putts on line. Find a straight 6ft putt and put two tees 2ft in front of you. Start by making the gate two ball-widths apart and just try to roll it between the tees over and over. Then adjust your sight to where you can look at the hole and see those tees. You then know that’s where you need to roll it through. The better you are, the narrower the gate should be. 2 THE HANDS IN CHIPPING Many players use their hands too much when chipping. Everyone talks about someone having great hands, but a lot of the best chippers don’t use their hands a whole lot. It’s a…

When Jason Day appeared at last year’s Masters in a pair of not-then-released Payntr shoes, my interest was piqued. Up until then, Payntr’s tour presence had been rather understated, with the brand instead focusing on R&D as a fairly new player to the market. Not only is Day an ambassador, but he was also closely involved in the design process. The Eighty Seven SC is named as such as it is the Australian’s lucky number – the level of detailing even runs to the styling at the back, where strips of eight and seven vertical gold dots sit side by side. Day was walking into a relationship with a manufacturer renowned for creating high-level performance shoes and the Eighty Seven SC has built further on a platform that was already…

What does COR mean? Michael Leach, via email COR stands for coefficient of restitution, a term that signifies the levels of energy transferred between two colliding objects. The COR figure for object A represents a precise measurement of object A’s ability to transfer energy to object B when the two collide. The figure generated is between 0, which would denote that all the energy has been lost, and 1, which signifies that all the energy has been transferred. Generally, a higher COR equates to more ball speed. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, there were no limits. The introduction of ultra-thin springy faces, on drivers in particular, meant ball speeds and distances were rising significantly courtesy of the Callaway ERC and other models, forcing the governing bodies to implement…

Essentials Blackmoor Golf Club, Firgrove Road, Whitehill, Hampshire, GU35 9EH Stats: par 69, 6,170 yards GF: Mon-Thu: £82 Nov-Mar, £120 Apr-Oct The A3/M3 corridor heading south-west out of London is graced with many cracking heather-lined courses that rank among the best in the country. Blackmoor lies at the western end of a fine cluster that also features Hankley Common, Hindhead and Liphook. The course was laid out on lovely heathland terrain in 1913 by Harry Colt. This century, it has enjoyed major improvements to the clubhouse (back in 2018) and more recently to the course itself via an ambitious project overseen by architect Tim Lobb. The three-year programme, not to mention half a million pounds of investment, has seen all 18 holes improved. Enhancing the visuals Blackmoor has always been…

So here we go, sliding into 2025, eyes half-closed, fingers crossed. Can it be a better year than ’24? Yes it can. Will it? Who knows, but it’s easy to doubt it. Of course, the seriously bad stuff is happening outside the mink-lined world of pro golf, but for those of us who give a tuppenny damn, pro golf clearly comes with its own problems. The biggest one of these remains LIV, and the only way that one can be a tad resolved is by significant compromise on both sides. Make that three, because any proposed deal has to be ticked through by the US Government. Such a deal, however, will bring its own problems as the Saudis try to buy up most, if not all, of the entire pro…