Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Golf World

‘The McIlroy and Koepka rivalry has been just the right side of ‘spicy’ but neither player wants to give an inch psychologically’ Rory McIlroy compiled a lot of great rounds in 2019, but arguably the most important one came on a late September afternoon at East Lake GC in Atlanta. Standing alongside World No.1 Brooks Koepka on the first tee in the final round of the Tour Championship, not only was the tournament on the line, there was the small matter of the season-ending FedEx Cup bonus. But for McIlroy, who has long since passed the point where $15 million would change his life, money was the last thing on his mind. There was something much more valuable at stake – personal pride. Just a couple of weeks earlier, McIlroy…

2019 was the year Robert MacIntyre announced himself to the golfing world. In his debut season on the European Tour he clocked up seven top-10s, including three runner-up finishes. He came T-6 in his major debut at The Open, becoming the first Scotsman since Colin Montgomerie to finish in the top-10, came 11th in the Race to Dubai and was named European Tour Rookie of the Year. Recent winners of that award include Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, and we wouldn’t be at all surprised if young Bob follows them to even greater success. 1 Did your season on the Challenge Tour prepare you for the European Tour? It made me the player I am today. I learned how to travel on my own. I learned how to spend time…

‘Advocates say it offers pain relief, relieves stress and improves sleep. The suggestion is that it could help golfers cope with high-pressure moments.’ At the top tier of golf, where the margins between success and failure are tiny but worth a fortune, players seek any advantage they can get. The latest edge is CBD oil. The CBD market has grown from almost nothing to £300 million in the last three years, with millions swearing by its benefits – and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the world’s top golfers. WHAT IS IT? Short for cannabidiol, CBD is a chemical compound found in the cannabis plant. In pure form, it is an oil, although this oil has been used to create myriad products, including tablets, lotions, creams, burgers, toothpicks, teas, sweets, chocolate…

Ba Na Hills, Vietnam (2016) Voted the World’s Best New Golf Course upon opening, the Luke Donald design sits at the bottom of one of the most impressive mountain ranges in Vietnam, with every hole framed by native forest. The entire course is floodlit, providing some of the most stunning night golf available in the world. banahillsgolf.com Cabot Cliffs, Canada (2016) One of the world’s most beautiful courses, with breathtaking vistas at every turn, and a Coore and Crenshaw design that more than does the setting justice. There are six par 5s, including three in four holes. cabotlinks.com Lofoten Links, Norway (2015) A stunning course to play at any time of year, visit between August and October for your chance to play golf under the Northern Lights, an experience you…

If I had to rate my year on the golf course in 2019, I’d probably give myself a B-. A season can never be too bad when you win a tournament, but I felt I lost a bit of early momentum and rhythm by taking February off. As a result, my game just wasn’t where I wanted it to be coming out of that. In fairness, I had a lot going on at the end of 2018 with the chase for the World No.1 position, which was always on my mind, so I felt I needed the rest in February ahead of hectic new spring and summer schedule. But I felt like I was fixing my game on the road each week and I just found it hard to get…

From my perspective, bunker play probably gets less attention from amateur golfers than any other area of the game. It should therefore come as no surprise to find that it’s very often the area they find the most difficult. The ironic thing is that splashing competently out of the sand is really quite simple if know what to do. I know that sounds a touch flippant, but the margins for error in a bunker are actually much greater than with a regular chip or flop shot since you don’t have to be extremely precise with your entry point into the sand. The key thing is to take that important first step and get yourself into the practice bunker. If you can make that commitment, I’ve no doubt that within a…

The 350-yard 3rd at Augusta is a great strategic par-4. What makes it so difficult is the shape of the green and the wind that circulates around the trees. You can hit almost the perfect shot onto the front edge and see it roll all the way down. It’s a hole where you have to manage a ‘miss’. STEP 1 Part of knowing where to ‘miss’ is understanding what type of recovery shot you want to play. Here, you rarely have the option of a regular chip. I like to bump a 5-wood up the hill to the left pin or a little lofted shot from back left to a right pin. STEP 2 If you can, always try to find out in advance where the pin is located. You…

1 Identify Identify when you have the tricky moments in a round. Which areas would benefit most from positive head chatter? 2 Notice Notice what self-talk you are already using in your head at those moments. You can jot down thoughts once you come off the course or even use the voice recorder on your phone to capture what you think in these key moments. 3 Consider Consider what would help. Would it be instructional; to improve your stance, routine, breathing or skill, or motivational; to psych you up, stay focused on your mental strategy, be reminded of your purpose or to reduce stress. 4 Think Think of all the different phrases you could use. Try to hone each one down to about three or four…

1 BROOKS vs RORY: WHO COMES OUT ON TOP? It’s been a long, long time since we’ve had a decent rivalry in golf. Tiger Woods’ dominance of the sport deprived us of all that fun. You have to go all the way back to Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson to find an evenly-matched rivalry. Greg Norman and Nick Faldo’s ‘spicy’ relationship gripped us but their head-to-head encounters rarely ended well for the Australian. Woods and Mickelson had potential but Tiger had eight majors in the bag and was out of sight before Lefty had even got off the mark. And the Big Easy found it hard to get Woods out of his head long enough to become anything more than a minor irritant to the American. Koepka and McIlroy, however,…

MASTERS AUGUSTA NATIONAL, 9-12 APRIL DUSTIN JOHNSON He’s never won the Masters and his only major victory will be nearly four years past by the time this year’s majors get underway, but no one is as consistent around Augusta as the former world number one. He’s finished in the top-10 in each of his last four appearances – a feat no one else can match – and was only a shot behind Tiger last year. They say it takes a while to really get to grips with Augusta’s subtle quirks this is DJ’s 10th Masters and will be his time to shine in green. PGA CHAMPIONSHIP TPC HARDING PARK, 14-17 MAY RORY MCILROY He’d never played Harding Park before the 2015 WGC-Match Play but that didn’t stop Rory blitzing his…

Ever since a 19-year-old Jordan Spieth won the 2013 John Deere Classic and started holing everything he looked at, one question lingered. What would happen if his super hot putter ever went cold? It didn’t take long to find out. In 2016, Spieth ranked 2nd in Strokes Gained: Putting on the PGA Tour. A year later, he ranked 123rd, having also tumbled to 181st in cleaning up the three-footers. He is now without a victory since the 2017 Open Championship. But at least the solution was simple – rediscover the magic and climb back up the rankings, right? Not quite. In 2019, Spieth had his best ever putting season. Yet he is now 43rd in the world and was a bystander as the American Presidents Cup team boarded the plane…

The four constituent parts of golf’s Grand Slam are the best of the best, tournament-wise. So winning one isn’t easy. But perhaps even more difficult than finishing first at the highest level is doing it again. The game’s long history is littered with one-off major winners. Right now, Shane Lowry falls into that category. And, unfairly or not, only a few months on from his career-defining Open victory, that is the question for the genial Irishman: can he win another major? The immediate signs are not that good. Perhaps understandably in the wake of such an emotional triumph, Lowry failed to record even one top-10 finish for the rest of 2019. And don’t think he hasn’t noticed. “I would have taken your hand off for what I’ve done this year…

The familiar refrain of ‘C’mon Aussie’ has been missing across both tours in recent months. Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert all slipped down the world rankings in 2019. Adam Scott had a good year but didn’t get a win. In fact, there were no Aussie wins on the PGA Tour in a calendar year for the first time since 1987, and only Scott Hend got a trophy on the European Tour. Australia’s rich golfing heritage is undermined by a lack of strength in depth – with only three players in the top 50 and five in the top 100 of the world rankings. So when the big names don’t perform, Aussie golf struggles. Scott is the most likely to get back in the winner’s circle in…

Niblicks, cleeks and featheries weren’t on Archie Baird’s mind as he courted Sheila Park while at Edinburgh University in the early 1950s. He was falling in love and showing just about enough interest in his academic work to qualify as a veterinary surgeon, becoming the fourth generation of Baird to do so. ‘WILLIE PARK SNR’S CLUBS WERE BEAUTIFUL CRAFTSMAN’S CREATIONS, I PICKED THEM UP FOR FIVE SHILLINGS’ Final exams over for both he and Sheila, who had read medicine, they resolved to get married and began setting up home in Scotland’s capital city. A flat was inherited, but it required furnishing. With money tight as the young professionals started out, they scoured the secondhand shops for pieces of furniture others had tired of. One such excursion to the auction lane…

While Trevino’s Major thrills were glorious, his inability to win a Masters title remains a regret seared on his memory. Trevino’s relationship with Augusta makes Donald Trump’s look cordial. Though he played the tournament in 1968 and 1969, he signed off by announcing “Don’t talk to me about the Masters. They can invite me all they want, but I’m not going back.” Despite all this bluster, he only snubbed three tournaments – in 1970, ’71 and ’74. Trevino’s distaste for the Masters was usually attributed to the layout, and the plentiful right-to-left holes that welcomed creator Bobby Jones’ draw but shunned his fade. In 1970 he added: “Augusta is full of humps, and guys like me who hit the ball low don’t like that kind of course.” In 2015, however,…

Is no secret that the average age of golfers is slowly creeping up. But did you realise that once you hit the big 6-0, you typically lose 0.5 mph of swing speed each year? Within a decade, you’re dropping 5mph, which equates to 15 – 25 yards depending on your launch characteristics! Not surprisingly, many of the top brands see the lightweight super game-improvement market as a significant area for growth. Wilson is joining the party with its new Launch Pad – and its whole idea is centred around helping golfers avoid the need to shout, ‘Fore! Right!’. Within the Launch Pad, Wilson has created a whole new tool box of ‘no going right’ technologies and crammed them into a design that doesn’t shout game improver. Woods have a large…

While Machrihanish is not short of memorable holes – the 5th, 8th or 12th could all be covered here – the sheer statement of the opener sees it take the honours. “I’d say the drive looks more daunting than it is,” says head pro Jennie Dunn. “There is plenty of room out there, but like every hole here you are at the mercy of the wind, which ensures it plays differently every day. You can bail out right towards the 18th fairway but it’s a long way in from there, and you bring four fairway bunkers into play. The ideal drive is a draw, which can catch a fairway ridge that helps your ball run down into position. This leaves a shorter, cleaner approach from a level stance and makes…

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“I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to play golf.” Those were the words of Donald Trump, late 2016, in the midst of his campaign to be elected President of the United States. He was criticising the outgoing President, Barack Obama, saying, “Can you believe that with all the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf?” Trump’s election campaign was successful, but has he stayed true to his promise? Obama is believed to have played golf 306 times during his eight years in office, roughly a round every nine and a half days. Trump’s numbers are somewhat harder to track as he tends to be less open about when he is and isn’t playing golf. He has spent…

BLOOD MONEY The European Tour’s decision to head back to the Middle East and host the second Saudi International this month is another kick in the teeth to the reputation of the game. Those big-name players who’ve signed up for the fat appearance fee should feel ashamed of themselves – do Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson and all the rest really need the money so badly? They may trot out the well-worn spin about helping to grow the game and being excited to visit new places, but the reality is that they are helping a wicked regime present a false image of itself to the world. In the year or so after directing the assassination of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia has hosted high profile sporting events that…

It’s time to talk politics. Stay calm. Politics and golf, actually. It has forever been a potent and volatile mix, one that is unfortunately both inevitable and inherent, especially when the professional game is our focus. In that arena, players and administrators are more and more having to ponder the direction of their moral compasses. Not that too many seem to be in any doubt. Not, say, when it comes to competing in Saudi Arabia, a nation where, according to Amnesty International, “torture and other ill-treatment of detainees remains common.” Indeed, just over three months after Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was extrajudicially executed inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, the European Tour was in the Middle East state for the Saudi International. No doubt highly compensated, four of…

CREATE A SOLID BASE Ball position is key and it needs consistency. Flex your knees so they are over the laces of your shoes with your weight towards the toes. I like a slightly closed stance because it’s something I’ve always done. I just like to have my right foot drawn back very slightly. CHECK THE LIE The toe of the club should be just off the ground. This is why fitting is so vital. The clubs should fit you. If they don’t you’ll always be making compensations. GET THE HANG OF IT Your hands and club should hang vertically underneath your shoulders because they are always going to want to return to this point. Your hands should be neither too near your thighs nor held away from the legs.…

If you release your forearms freely through impact – think Tiger Woods in his prime – you are obliged to maintain your spine angle, for if you stand up through impact the ball will start left, stay left and continue left! Powerful draw spin comes from a consistent spine angle. Players such as Lee Trevino and Nick Faldo employ what is essentially a ‘fade mechanism’ by keeping their hands and the clubshaft low through the ball. However, a small side-effect of this method is that the player is forced to stand up through impact and finish with the spine in a more upright position. It is no coincidence that both Faldo and Trevino, who could be labelled supremely accurate ball-strikers, are far from being long or powerful hitters quite simply…

He needs just one more win to usurp Sam Snead as the PGA Tour’s most successful golfer of all-time and four more majors to end the Tiger vs. Jack debate once and for all, so 2020 is an exciting year for Eldrick T. Woods. But it’s also one that needs to be very carefully managed. A series of back surgeries and rehabilitative work have, against all odds, enabled Tiger to win again, but the fact remains that he’s a 44-year-old who has undergone multiple back surgeries. As such, he played just 13 events in 2019, around half as many as his peers, and had to withdraw from the Northern Trust in August due to injury. He played 19 events in 2018 and said he was “mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted”…

In short, nothing more than he’s already doing. Having raced to five European Tour titles in just 39 starts, 10 quicker than Seve, and having put himself in contention to win at a rate not seen since Tiger in his pomp, and having registered top 10 finishes in all four majors since turning pro, the question is when and not if the Spaniard will win his first major. Blessed with the game, and a high ball flight reminiscent of the one that powered Jack Nicklaus to 18 major titles, the only question mark of Rahm has always been his hot temper. But even that seems to be under better control nowadays. Witness last November’s DP World Tour Championship and Rahm three putting on 15, something that might have made the…

That kids grow up so fast these days is as true a cliché in golf as it is anywhere else. Elite amateurs are ready to win the moment they turn professional. Most of them went through the American college system, so they’re essentially living life as a tour pro and competing at an extremely high level before they cash their first cheque. Last year, we saw Viktor Hovland, Matt Wolff, Bob MacIntyre and Kurt Kitayama explode into our consciousness, but who comes next in 2020? 1. SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER is the man to watch on the PGA Tour. The Texan played in the Walker Cup in 2017 and won twice last season as he topped the Korn Ferry Tour. He’s taken to the top tier like a duck to water, with…

Out of the world’s top 50 for the first time in 25 years, months away from hitting the big 5-0 and on the back of a season that was, by his own standards, troubled, it’s easy to predict that we’ve seen the best of Phil Mickelson. Having reinvented himself as the king of social media, and accepted a $3m pay cheque to play in the Saudi International rather than play the Phoenix Open he’s been a fixture at every year since 1990, it’s also easy to think that Lefty is slowly exiting the main stage and transitioning into the next phase of his life. “Given that I turn 50 this year, there’s a good chance I’ve played my last Phoenix Open,” he reasoned, an air of finality in his voice.…

A WEAK GRIP When we reference a ‘weak’ grip, we’re not talking about grip pressure. We’re talking about the position of the hands, and the top hand in particular. In a good grip, you should be able to see two to three knuckles on the top hand. If there are more than three knuckles, the grip is ‘strong’. Fewer than two and the grip is ‘weak’. A weak grip often causes the clubface to be too open at the top of the backswing, which in turn leads to it being open (aiming) right at impact. BAD AIM & ALIGNMENT If you don’t aim the gun correctly, the bullet will never hit the target. The same holds true in golf. Many amateurs set up aiming too far right of the target.…

Alignment and stability are hot putter topics. Whereas a decade ago Tour pros swore by narrow bodied blades, many have now switched to higher MOI stability and alignment models. So great is the trend that more than 60% of tour players use mallet models these days. And when pros make the switch, regular club golfers feel they need to change, too. Not wanting to miss out on the MOI party, ex-TaylorMade man Sean Toulon, who lists the TaylorMade Spider (which was one of the original high MOI models) as one of his favourite projects, has taken the decision to drive Odyssey down the stability route, too. Odyssey has revealed two new Stroke Lab Black putters – Ten and Bird of Prey – both of which are high MOI with high-definition…

TOTAL Starts with a bang, ends with a whimper but the magnificent setting, added to the fun challenge, ensures this is a pilgrimage worth making. 80.8 OUT OF 100 DESIGN Wonderful use of contours and dune corridors sets a rugged yet mostly visible challenge; large, muscular greens throw an emphasis on short-game touch. 25.7 OUT OF 30 SETTING The course runs through stunning duneland that allows the entire front nine to track the coast. 17.5 OUT OF 20 PLAYABILITY Under 6,000 yards off yellow tees, but wind makes yardage irrelevant. Inscrutable at times, but rewards the classic linksland ground game. 12.5 OUT OF 15 HOLES Awesome opener gives way to some wonderful linksland through the first 12, with the 3rd, 5th and 8th standout par 4s. Last two make for…

What is your earliest memory? My mum is a pre-school teacher and I remember running around the playground with my friends when I was three or four years old. My mum was actually my teacher. What was it like? I was a bit of a troublemaker because I thought I could get away with a few more things. We were living in Cape Town at the time, but she wasn’t my teacher anymore when we moved to Pretoria and I got put back into line pretty early on. But it was quite fun while it lasted. Have you ever had a close brush with death? Yes, my family all surf and bodyboard. We were surfing at this one spot where my dad grew up surfing when I was 10 years…

Never before has there been so much money available at golf’s top table. Rory McIlroy was the biggest earner on the PGA Tour last season, taking home $22.8 million. Jon Rahm was the European Tour’s biggest earner, making €6.2m from 13 events. The Spaniard turned pro in mid-2016 and has already made €13m on the European Tour and $16m on the PGA Tour. And it’s not just the game’s very top players that are making huge amounts of money. 112 players made over a million dollars on the the PGA final hole Tourat last season. In the 3M Open to 1999win , only by one 36 players reached that shot figure . . In Europe, 49 players made over a million last season. In 1999, only five players made that…

END OF AN ERA The news that the BBC will show no live golf this year, with the loss of its Masters coverage, is hardly unexpected but no less depressing for that. First the Open, now the Masters and for the first time since 1955 the BBC will show not a moment of live golf. Clearly money talks in the modern world and Sky Sports always held all of the aces in negotiating to show both of those majors. But if those in charge of the game were serious about trying to find a way to grow the game, they would find ways to ensure live golf remained on terrestrial television in some way, shape or form. What message does it send? M Burdett, Email Your view could win you…

If you are looking for a player from whom to learn how to hit good approach shots, Tommy Fleetwood is your man. In the past two seasons, he has been ranked 12th and 18th respectively on the European Tour in the Greens In Regulation performance category. That’s a lot of very, very good irons shots – enough to see him average 13.3 greens per round across two long campaigns. Here, he reveals the secrets to his incredibly consistent ball-striking. 1 Everyone is trying to hit it further off the tee, but in my world, with a choice of 280 yards in the fairway or 300 yards in the rough, I’d take the former. Why don’t amateurs think the same? To hit more greens, make more effort to find the fairway…

GW How do you distribute your weight at address and finish for maximum distance? I start on the balls of my feet. I’m not thinking about putting the weight on the right foot and then transfer to the left. I get in an athletic position and I make a solid turn. To be honest, I don’t really know what per cent of my weight is going where, but I know that through the ball it’s definitely 80 to 90 per cent off my left foot, and holding a nice finish off my left. It takes strength and the variables of timing with your body but I know I hit the ball solid. GW How important is it to set the club early? Setting the club early is super-important…

Much is made of the importance of hitting the sweetspot with your driver and irons, but it’s just as important for putting. And for two reasons. First, speed and distance control are the secrets to avoiding those frustrating three-putts from medium-to-long range. You can’t roll the ball dead weight from different distances if your control of speed is inconsistent from putt to putt. You just can’t achieve that consistency if your strike pattern is out of the centre of the face on one strike then near the heel or toe the next. Second, those putts hit towards the toe or heel of the face will not only come up short, they’ll also veer off line because the putter face will twist either open or closed at impact. Focus on these…

Predicting where Tiger might win next on tour is tricky as his schedule remains uncertain, but he’s won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the WGC Invitational and the Farmers Insurance Open so often they pretty much engrave his name on the trophy as soon as he arrives. In terms of adding to his 15 majors, the Masters and the Open again remain Tiger’s best hope. Both Augusta National and Royal St George’s will reward the man who can plot his way around the course, seeing the shot and execute under increasing pressure. Even more so than Augusta, Woods relishes the challenge links golf throws up. “It allows you to be creative,” he’s said. “Augusta used to be like that. The US Open is obviously not. And the PGA is similar to…

JIN YOUNG KO Jin Young Ko recorded the season of her life in 2019, featuring 12 top 10 finishes, including four victories, half of which were majors. She finished the year with the second-lowest scoring average in LPGA history, having gone 114 holes bogey-free at one stage and ending the season with an insane GIR stat of 79 percent. But like so many greats before her, she wasn’t happy. “My play today was not good,” she said after finishing only T11 in the CME Group Tour Championship in November. “I will work harder and more.” Chasing perfection is a futile pursuit, but Ko won’t come up short for lack of trying. “This is not the end but only the beginning,” she vowed. “I will work even harder to become a…

Bryson DeChambeau entered last season with high expectations, having closed 2018 with a flurry of victories that suggested a major victory was within reach in 2019. Instead, he struggled to make the impact expected, falling from a year-end world ranking of 5th to 12th a year later. The off season has allowed him to take stock and look at how he can take his game to the next level. The answer, it seems, is for the young American to bulk up. “I’m going to come back and look like a different person,” he announced late last year. “Bigger. Way stronger. I’m going to be hitting it a lot farther.” In this era of gym bunny super athletes that’s hardly a revolutionary approach. But this being DeChambeau, there is science behind…

Four years ago, the likes of Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott chose not to play when golf made its long-awaited return to the Olympics in Rio. Justin Rose embraced the opportunity, won the gold medal and has revelled in being introduced as the Olympic Champion ever since, describing it now as his most important victory. This year in Tokyo, all the big names will be there, because Rose is proof that an Olympic gold medal really matters. The Olympics still might not be viewed with the same reverence as the majors by most players, but it’s leapfrogged the WGCs for many of them. Those who played in Rio raved about the tournament and being a part of the Olympic experience, the fans turned out in their…

WHY THE US WINS HOME ADVANTAGE COUNTS TOO MUCH But for the historic comeback in 2012, we’d be looking at six straight home victories. Home advantage, with the partisan crowd and advantageous setup, has become too big an advantage and it will show this time. THE US NOW HAVE A PLAN Europe used to win in the States – 2012, 2004, 1995 – but that was when the US had no plan and lacked unity. The US have copied Europe and now go in with a plan and a system – if not complete unity. EUROPE’S TEAM HAVEN’T AGED WELL Sergio, Stenson, Rose, Poulter and Casey will be 40, 44, 44, 44 and 43 respectively. We hope for one last hurrah but powers wane and the reduced captain’s picks means…

Tiger has always possessed exemplary fundamentals and they are all evident here. The first thing to notice is how relaxed he looks. There are no excessive body angles. Since he is hitting the longest club in the bag, Woods’ posture is just gently tilted from the hips so his arms hang almost vertically below his shoulders. If you could view this set-up from the face-on angle you’d also see the ball position underneath his left armpit, his left arm and shaft forming a spoke and his right shoulder set slightly below the left. Top of the backswing positions don’t get much better than this. Tiger has coiled his left shoulder underneath his throat through a full 90 degrees while his right knee has remained beautifully flexed to harness the motion.…

‘THE DOCTORS WHO TREATED TREVINO SAID THE SORT OF SCORCH MARKS ON HIS SHOULDER WERE USUALLY ONLY RECORDED IN THE MORGUE’ To have reached 80 years old is a fine innings by any metric – and an exceptional one for someone who, at the tender age of 36, was struck by a bolt of the great creator’s finest electric juice. As he hovered a couple of feet off the ground – the lightning having flashed off a lake as he waited for a squall to pass during the 1975 Western Open in Illinois, hitting the bag he was leaning against, then via the steel shafts of his clubs passing up his back and out his left shoulder – Trevino experienced the sense of flying through an ethereal tunnel, faces of…

There’s never an excuse for not being able to find a putter that suits your eye. There are literally thousands of different colours, shapes, sizes, weights and hosel styles from which to choose. Alignment aids and stability may be trending right now, but you’ve got to hand it to short slant hosels. They’ve played a massive role recently in making forgiving mallet and MOI models more palatable options for blade-loving tour pros and elite amateurs. So if you’re looking for a putter change in 2020, hosel designs are a great place to start. Here are some of our favourite flatsticks together with an explanation of why they should be on your radar.…

TaylorMade Spider X A cracking compact-headed MOI model. A carbon fibre core allows extra weight to be positioned around the Spider’s frame, increasing stability. The Y-shaped sightline was designed in conjunction with optical specialists at Indiana University. £299 Ping Sigma 2 Fetch Not only the best ball retriever ever, Fetch has sneaky high MOI stability, too. Two long, narrow sightlines frame the golf ball at address, while a Dual-Durometer insert means softer feel on must-make shorties and firmer feedback from distance. £200 Odyssey EXO Stroke Lab Seven A super premium CNC Milled head with a lightweight aluminium centre and heavy steel surround. Expect a boost in off centre hit forgiveness. Shows how complex putters have become to help you hole more. £349…

When plotting our next regional guide, we’d have very much liked to have done as so many have before us and grouped Cornwall and Devon into a single article. We considered this for a while, then came to our senses and realised again that there is far too much world-class golf spread across those two counties to squeeze it all into one. So it is to Cornwall we head first, home to four courses inside our Top 100 England ranking. Despite that concentration of quality, the far southwest of the country really hasn’t quite received the love or attention it deserves for the quality of its golf. Distant from Britain’s acknowledged golfing centres – Southwest London, the Lancashire, Kent and Norfolk coasts, Lothian, Fife and Ayrshire, Cornwall is perceived as…