Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 445 i Today's Golfer

Few things give me as much pleasure as an autumn morning on a golf course. The colours on the trees, the dew on the grass, the mist hugging the ground as the temperature creeps up until you need to remove a layer… Throw in the six-mile walk – enough to justify the halfway house bacon sandwich – and it’s my ideal way to spend three or four hours. To me, that’s golf. But for a growing number of players, spending four hours traipsing around a golf course is ludicrous! They play from one spot, data captured digitally, and can be done with 18 holes inside an hour… Virtual golf – at clubs, on Toptracer ranges or at indoor golf centres – has never been more popular. And that’s only going…

Rory, two years ago you walked off the golf course at Whistling Straits in floods of tears. This time you’re the leading points scorer for the team. How much does avenging that defeat mean to you? RM: It means an awful lot. I was so disappointed after Whistling Straits. We all were. The scoreline, 19-9, that hurt. It really did. For me personally, I didn’t feel like I gave my best performance, and I didn’t feel like I did my part for the team. Everyone at the start of the week was talking about, “Do you want to get revenge on the US team?” This wasn’t about revenge. This was about redemption and showing what we could do. This has been a process. There’s been a plan in place. We’ve…

GET IN TOUCH As well as email (editorial@todaysgolfer.co.uk) and post (Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6EA), you can contact us using any of these social platforms… @Thetodaysgolfer @TodaysGolferBauer @Todaysgolfer @Todaysgolfer PING LETTER OF THE MONTH WINS… A BRAND-NEW PING PUTTER RRP £250 WONDERFUL WALKER CUP I had the pleasure of attending the Walker Cup for the first time in September with my dad at the Old Course in St Andrews. We were both amazed by the exceptional talent on display. It was an honour to walk around the Old Course for the first time and a privilege to see some of the future stars of the game up close, including John Gough and Gordon Sargent. If you’re new to golf or just starting out on your golfing journey, watching…

Europe and Tommy Fleetwood stole the headlines, but the supporting cast more than played their part over three days of drama, controversy and record-breaking feats at the Ryder Cup in Rome. This is our take on the best and worst performers for both teams, and the pairings which worked and those which spectacularly failed… EUROPE RORY MCILROY 2023 RECORD: W4, L1, H0 RC TEAM RECORD: P7, W5 Led by example and would have gone undefeated had it not been for Patrick Cantlay’s birdie blitz in Saturday’s fourballs. The events that followed – and then spilled over into the car park – were regrettable, but they shouldn’t take the gloss off what was his best-ever return for the blue and gold brigade. This was the Rory we’ve come to know and…

Ask anyone to name Europe’s top points scorer in the legendary 1985 Ryder Cup and they would surely come up with one of five names: Faldo, Lyle, Woosnam, Langer or Seve. Some might go for Torrance, the odd person for Way, but they would all be incorrect. It was Manuel Pinero, and it meant that he was the top scorer or joint top scorer for Europe in the two Ryder Cups he played in. Those adventures in European colours saw him compete with the giants of the game, players he battled against for two decades. You won’t be surprised to learn, therefore, that he has a story or two to tell… I was the oldest of three brothers and my family moved from Extremadura to Madrid when I was two.…

British Heart Foundation The British Heart Foundation are an official supporter of our Drive for Defibs campaign. A sudden cardiac arrest is one of the biggest killers in the UK. Often it strikes without warning and it doesn’t discriminate by age, gender or even fitness level. Golf courses are the fifth-most likely place for people to suffer a cardiac arrest, but not enough golf clubs – or golfers – are equipped to help save a person’s life on the course. Often there is little time to react and even less time to think, which is why learning CPR and having a defibrillator close to hand is so important. We believe every golf club has a duty of care to its members and visitors. That’s why we’ve joined forces with Motocaddy…

The Circuit is a national defibrillator network and provides the NHS ambulance services with vital information about defibrillators across the UK so that in those crucial moments after a cardiac arrest, they can be accessed quickly to help save lives. If a defibrillator is not on the circuit, emergency services do not know where it is or how to direct someone to the location to access it. Registering one takes less than 10 minutes, but it could mean the difference between life and death. thecircuit.uk…

As the putt gets longer, we obviously need to create more power in our putting stroke for the ball to reach the cup. The problem here for many amateurs is that they try to generate this power the wrong way. Let’s look at what that is, before learning a drill that will give your putts extra speed with no loss of consistency. YOUR COACH DARREN PARRIS PGA Professional for more than 20 years who played inthe20060pen. Based at North Foreland GC, Kent Wrong: Lead wrist breaks down On long putts, many club goiters try to create the extra speed needed by using the hands and wrists. Typically the lead wrist collapses and the putterhead flips way past the hands, its face looking at the sky. It creates inconsistencies with path,…

Galvin Green Armstrong £299 If you’re only planning on playing golf in your waterproof jacket, Galvin Green’s superlightweight Gore-Tex Paclite Armstrong is a brilliant choice. It takes up no space in your bag, boasts front pockets and comes in six colours. There’s also a good half-sleeve option in the Axl. Ping SensorDry S2 £130 A brilliant choice if you don’t want to go all out on a waterproof jacket. The S2 is guaranteed waterproof to 10,000mm for three years. A mesh lining increases warmth and we also like the lightweight fabric, stretch properties and the very keen pricing. Abacus Bounce Hoodie £149 Hoodies are massive in golf right now and ideal for wet weather, as the hood stops water running down the back of your neck The Bounce is the…

Ping 2023 Tyne G £280 If the ball-sized hole in the middle isn’t enough to show you where the ball needs to sit in front of the face, two outer lines and a central sightline frame it for you, too. Cleveland HB Soft £135 Sit the ball in front of the blacked-out, lowered back and you’ve got a brilliant frame at address. Proof the latest tech doesn’t have to cost a fortune. TaylorMade TP Reserve M33 £379 You won’t find a more subtle ball width alignment aid. Beautifully smooth, CNC-milled bumpers are adorned with simple black lines. One for classic putter fans. Odyssey 2-Ball Triple Track £329 2-Ball with Triple Track tech is a belt-and-braces approach to putting. There isn’t a simpler way to focus attention on the impact zone.…

OK, I have a few to mention here. I’ll start with Golf National. It is so tough and I love it because of that. You need to hit every shot properly. I like the design and on every tee you say, “If I make a par here it is a good job!” They changed it a little bit last year and it is now more fair, but they can play it with softer or firmer greens so can change the difficulty. It can also get very windy there, adding to the challenge. Next, Chantilly. It is a lovely place, a two-ball course and it is a famous club for us Frenchmen. When it is prepared properly for a tournament, with high rough and firm, quick greens, it is a serious…

I’m a giant fan of the short par, the drivable par 4, which Tom Weiskopf brought back in his design career. So, on the front nine we have the 8th hole and it’s eminently drivable. You tee off level with the green but the fairway sits maybe 20 feet below you, but there’s a speed slot on the left that is actually higher than the green So if you’re feeling lucky, you can try and catch that speed slot off the tee. That might be a couple of hundred yards’ carry, but the ball will scoot another 60-70 yards and make it on to the green if you catch it. The green is absolutely massive. So you’ve got this giant fairway and a huge green on a relatively short, drivable…

CARLOTA CIGANDA The home hero recovered from a shank to birdie the next two and secure the crucial point that retained the Solheim Cup for Europe. Her four wins from four in Spain made her Suzann Pettersen’s MVP. STEWART HAGESTAD Despite working an office job and barely playing in the winter, this 32-year-old amateur is almost unbeatable in matchplay. He helped America win the Walker Cup for a fourth time, and then won the US Mid-Am Champs for a third time. Zach Johnson could have done with him in Italy! SUN JAE IM / SI WOO KIM After winning team gold at the Asian Games, the PGA Tour stars are now exempt from 21 months of military service in South Korea. DANNY WILLETT Faces a race against time to be…

RORY MCILROY “This competition (Ryder Cup) has been around since 1927, and that’s the way they have always done it. I think it’s nice to keep some tradition around the event.” TYRRELL HATTON “Tying is probably not ideal. Maybe just having the tee times starting a bit earlier on Sunday would allow for a nine-hole better-ball, two players’ best ball sort of play-off format.” STACY LEWIS “It obviously would be better TV. It would be a better experience for the fans if there was, whether it was a team playoff or something like that. I think that would be pretty cool.” JUSTIN ROSE “It’s quite nice to wrestle it back fair and square. You have to win it to get the cup back. Not letting the other team have the…

Just when we thought golf was going to enjoy a couple of events without talk of money, along came the topic of being paid to play in the Ryder Cup. It all came from reports that Patrick Cantlay wanted to be paid to play in the event and was refusing to wear a cap in protest. The American denied those claims and said his decision to go capless was because he couldn’t find the correct fit of headwear. But this isn’t the first time the suggestion that players should be paid to play in the Ryder Cup has arisen and it’s remained a hot topic in the weeks since we left Marco Simone, with Xander Schauffele’s father suggesting players should be paid, rather than being allowed to choose a charity…

TAKE CHARGE AND GET CONNECTED Because you can’t put a price on a person’s life, we’ve teamed up with HeartSafe, our official supplier, to help find the best AED package for your club. For exclusive offers, visit heartsafe.org.uk JOIN OUR ARMY OF ON-COURSE LIFESAVERS Learning CPR will give you the confidence and ability to save the life of a relative, friend, colleague or even a complete stranger. Anyone can take the free training course in just 15 minutes by visiting revivr.bhf.org.uk HELP TO SAVE LIVES, ONE DEFIBRILLATOR AT A TIME There are many ways you can raise funds to buy a defibrillator, such as organising a Defib Open or taking part in a Longest Day Challenge. For more ideas, visit todays-golfer.com/drive-for-defibs WRITE TO TG Email drivefordefibs@todaysgolfer.co.uk today and let us know…

Watch hundreds of video tips at www.todays-golfer.com HERE TO HELP YOU SAVE SHOTS YOUR COACH CHRIS RYAN Founder of the HIT Golf Academy, based at Forest of Arden, Warwicks www.chrisryangolf.com QUICK TIP GET WIDE FOR POWER At address, we tilt forward from the hips to give ourselves room to swing. But if we hang on to this forward tilt throughout the backswing – as many club players do – our arc narrows and our power suffers. To find more width, we need to extend and stretch through our torso as we swing back. To work on this, take your set-up posture and push the butt of your driver against your chest, as shown. Swing back with the intention of getting the shaft of the club above the horizontal. Make sure…

YOUR COACH ADRIAN FRYER solidgolf.co.uk Fellow of the PGA based at Liverpool Golf Centre liverpoolgolfcentre.co.uk When we find sand, the lie we’re faced with can be anything from perched to plugged. Unfortunately, we cannot apply a uniform approach here, but there is a simple rule we can use that will help us adapt: the more the ball is nestled, the more you need to close the clubface. This is because the sole of your sand wedge works in different ways, depending on how the face is angled. Once you know how the face orientation affects the sand strike, you can adjust it to suit the lie you’ve been given - and give yourself your best chance of a successful shot. Here’s what to do in three common lies… 1. Clean…

Good posture - the way we set our body and weight at address - gives our swings two vital qualities: ■ Plane. It helps us swing on an angle that is neither flat nor upright, improving the path of the swing and the quality of the strike. ■ Balance. By allowing us to keep our poise throughout the swing, we avoid the host of swing blunders that come with trying to find our balance mid-swing. This four-step process will help you And great set-up posture. Return to it at least once a month to check you’re not slipping into bad habits. YOUR COACH SAM HEAD Six-time tour winner and PGA coach based at the Bedfordshire GC samanthahead.com STAND UPRIGHT Take your 6-iron and grip the club normally. Stand upright shoulders,…

Brian Bazzel, TaylorMade’s VP of Product Creation Golfers who’ve watched any tour golf in 2023 will know counterbalanced putters are back on the scene. Two Majors were won with them this year (Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman), plus the resurgent Rickie Fowler and Keegan Bradley used them to win again, too. ‘THE SPIDER TOUR S MAY LOOK SIMILAR TO THE TOUR, BUT ITS HEAD IS NOTABLY LONGER, WIDER AND HEAVIER’ TaylorMade’s response is the Spider Tour S. Oil the surface it may look very similar to the Tour, but its head is 3mm longer from toe and heel, and 8mm wider from face to back. The extra size allows us to up the weight to create a counter-balanced model. That means it is only available at 35 and 38in, both…

TECH As golfers, we’ve been conditioned for decades to think high MOI golf clubs are great for increasing forgiveness. MOI (moment of inertia) is best understood by thinking about how an object resists twisting at impact. When not hit out of the middle, clubheads rotate around their centre of gravity. It’s thought that when weight is positioned further from the face, creating a deeper centre of gravity (CG) clubheads are more stable, as rotation is restricted. For golfers, higher MOI ultimately means greater shot consistency, as off-centre hits are not punished as harshly as with lower MOI clubs. But there’s a new trend surrounding MOI, and we’re not talking about drivers or irons. Cleveland revealed a new Frontline Elite putter family this year and their tech flies in the face…

Drivers Eleven different models won on the PGA Tour this year. Callaway’s Paradym Triple Diamond racked up the most (9; 27.3%), with TaylorMade’s Stealth 2 Plus coming in with six wins (18.2%). Ping LST drivers managed seven across the G425 and G430, and interestingly, Titleist’s older TSi drivers bagged more wins (five) than the newer TSR (two). Shafts Most shaft brands don’t pay players to use their products, so being able to say your shaft is the most popular is a hotly-contested game. In 2023, Fujikura shafts appeared in the drivers of 15 winners, seven more than the next best, Mitsubishi. Fujikura’s most popular shaft was the Ventus Black (five wins), followed by the Ventus Blue (four), with Speeder, Atmos and Ventus TR sharing the rest of the spoils. Balls…

The Continental Top 100 is my favourite ranking to compile and my view has not changed after working on this 2023 update. I relish it so much because it always feels as if there is more opportunity than in other lists to tell our readers something they might not know. Of course we pore over every position within the GB&I list, and the too names that make up that list are obviously important, but as many as 90 courses in it could possibly be named by many golfers. Continental Europe is a bit different. The size of the area means that getting to the best courses in each country takes a lot of time, money and determination. As a result, far fewer people across the whole of the continent have…

We have to start with Frassanelle, in Padova, not so far from Venice. That’s where I grew up. The design is good as it moves into the trees and there is one of the best par 3s in Europe: the 15th, a beautiful hole with water and the trees. I still use a ball marker from the club to this day. I also like Asiago, up in the hills, above Vicenza, and Marco Simone is obviously very good. Of the old courses, I like Villa D’Este and especially Biella, high above Turin. Royal Park and Torino are also good in Turin. The Verdura golf resort in Sicily is very beautiful. I haven’t been since the courses were changed but I am guessing they are as beautiful as they were because…

I have been fortunate to have played many of the great courses in Europe in my life. Of course that includes many of the very best of Spain. Real Sotogrande is one of my favourites. I might have preferred some aspects such as the new 8th - of the ‘old’ course, but I still love it. Valderrama is a perfect example of a golf course for today’s professional golfer. Length is not such an advantage; you really have to hit every shot. But at my age, or for an amateur, if you have to play there every day it is too tricky. For top players, though, it is simply fantastic. With the cork trees, positioning the ball off the tee for a clear shot to the green is everything. Then,…

One of the most dramatic courses ever seen in Europe has not existed since World War II. But there is an enticing possibility that, given a fair wind, it could be put back. Harry Colt built the course at the Chateau d’Abbadia in Hendaye on the French/Spanish border in 1911. The neo-Gothic chateau was built for the Victorian French explorer Antoine d’Abbadie and left, on his death in 1897, to the French Academie des Sciences. The property at Abbadia was remarkable. Running along the cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean, it brings to mind Cypress Point, yet it pre-dated that great course by nearly 20 years. Colt, at the time Abbadia was built, said It could be “the best course in the world,” and Bernard Darwin, in 1927, said of the…

For too long the mental health of the next generation has been ignored. Now, the Golf Foundation have made it their mission to change that and want to use golf as a means to educate, support, and inspire schoolchildren of all ages and backgrounds. As part of a new campaign, they are inviting all 32,000 schools across GB&I to offer a six-week golf programme, which has been specifically designed to help prepare pupils for all the challenges that life throws their way. The Golf Foundation are offering fully funded kit and resources to a selection of schools that need it the most. Any school can apply for support before the end of October or they can purchase the programme immediately at a heavily subsidised rate. To help raise funds for…

1 TITLEIST VOKEY SM8 WEDGES £119 | SAVE £40 A tour-level blade-style wedge at a knock-down price. For the first time, Titleist have really focused their attention on forgiveness, adding tungsten toe weights and increasing MOI by 7%. Because there are six sole grinds to choose from, as well as plenty of shaft options, we’d recommend investing in a proper wedge fitting session. 2 TAYLORMADE RBZ SPEEDLITE 11-PIECE COMPLETE GOLF SET £889.95 | SAVE £200 A brilliant option for those starting out, as well as high-handicappers and intermediates. Forgiveness is certainly the theme here and the lightweight design will help those golfers who need a bit of help generating clubhead speed. The set comes with a 14-way cart bag and includes a driver, 3-wood, 4-hybrid, irons (6-PW+SW) and a mallet putter.…

Ah, a tour-quality golf swing… the stuff of dreams, right? Well, maybe not. US coaching company GOLFTEC have been using 3D motion technology to capture and document swings for almost three decades… and with around 20 million in their database, from tour pros to complete beginners, they have formed a pretty sharp picture of how movement changes with ability. Indeed, GOLFTEC have identified six major Skill Separators as “Aspects of golf technique that correlate strongly with skill level,” explains Senior Vice President of Player Development, Nick Clearwater. In this instruction special, TG coach Gareth Johnston will take you through the six with drills to move you towards the pro motion; but first, Clearwater explains what they are… and why they matter. The six ‘Skill Separators’ “We wanted to better understand…

What is the NGT? A professional, mixed-gender golf tour played on Trackman simulators anywhere in the world. Prize money: $892,200 in Season 1, including in-round prizes (longest drive, closest to the pin). Season 2 will see more players and bigger purses with a minimum of $30,000 for event wins. Tour invites: One DP World Tour event plus three Challenge Tour events for Season 2. Events: Seven regular season events plus a season finale for the top 100 players. When: Players have a 10-day window to complete and upload their round. Courses: During Season 1 players competed on PGA West, Marco Simone, Medinah, The Concession, Adare Manor and Innisbrook Copperhead. Courses for Season 2 are TBC, but the first event will be on Marco Simone. Entry fee: $130 per tournament ($100…

WHAT WE SAY Of the many self-help books we’ve trawled through over the years, the Playbook sits alongside the very best. Booker’s experiences in business and at the highest level of the game are hugely relatable and his lessons rich with ‘aha’ moments and hacks which will get you believing that you can be a better version of yourself, in life and on the course. It’s essential reading for any golfer who plays the blame game and struggles to break the negative spiral. See more at: tgplaybook.com POSITIVE SELF-TALK Tournament Golfers must be their own best friend. Golf is difficult and solitary, so it’s essential to be positive to yourself to be an effective Tournament Golfer. It’s okay to demand much of yourself and even to be disappointed in yourself…

6 moves… 6 minutes… Serious gains If you’ve managed to take some time out of your busy schedule to play 18 holes, you need to make the most of it and prepare well to play well. Most golfers are resistant to the idea of warming up and stretching properly, but what a lot of people forget is that golf is a very explosive action which puts huge demands and stress on the body. The risk of injury increases significantly when your muscles are cold, and your swing speed – and power – will suffer as a result. Over the next six pages, I’m going to run you through my ‘Simple Six’ warm-up – six moves in six minutes – which will prime your body and give you the best chance…

Motocaddy’s GPS trolleys and app provide free lifesaving information in the event of a cardiac arrest on a golf course. Around 200 sudden cardiac arrests occur in the UK every day, with a survival rate of less than one, and one in nine men will experience a cardiac arrest before the age of 70. When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, time becomes a matter of life and death. Every minute of delay reduces a patient’s chance of survival by 10 percent. CPR and defibrillators used within five minutes increase the chance of survival from six percent to 74 percent. Every second counts when it comes to finding the nearest defibrillator and putting it to use. That’s why Motocaddy created the Defibrillator Database, which lists the location of the nearest defibrillator…

PLAY BETTER YOUR COACH OLIVER C. MORTON The Leading Edge Golf Company, Archerfield Links theleadingedgegolfcompany.com Arguably more than any other part of the game, iron shots dictate our score. There are two key reasons for this: ◼ Frequency: we play a lot of them during a round of golf. ◼ Range: an iron shot offers an unprecedented range of results, from an OB shank, through an 80-yard duff to a pure, towering strike that nestles by the pin. Improving the quality of your iron play is a fast track to breaking those all-important scoring barriers – and with a focus on strike point, solid contact and shot shaping, this feature will help you do just that. Try the drill relevant to your level first… but don’t neglect the other two;…

YOUR COACH SIMON PAYNE UKCC Level 3 coach and PGA Fellow pro at Cowglen GC, Glasgow We all have an excellent, instinctive ability to judge distance. We can see it in ourselves every time we throw a ball to a friend, 15 yards away; with very little effort - conscious or otherwise. We sum up the distance, speed and trajectory demanded… and almost always, our friend scarcely has to move to make the catch. Of course, an external element like a golf club makes those calculations slightly more complex; but that instinctive, vision-led ability is still there. Unfortunately, this significant asset is massively underused; as long as our focus is on our movement, our technique, we cannot draw upon our instinctive ability. So for this month’s challenge, I want you…

Your drive has run off the fairway and behind a tree… which affords a full backswing but just a half-followthrough at best. With the green still a full shot away, this presents an obvious problem. Hitting the shot flat out will probably result in broken limbs… and they won’t be the tree’s. So how do we gain as much distance as possible while keeping our wrists - and club - in one piece? Start by curbing your ambition, before following this three-step strategy… YOUR COACH NEIL TURLEY Club professional and golf operations manager at Monte Rei, farmer Challenge Tour player with 30 years’ coaching experience !KEY CONCEPT: HIPS CREATE MOMENTUM, CHEST APPLIES BRAKE To execute this shot, we need to fire speed into the clubhead… and find a way to…

YOUR COACH NATALIE LOWE TPI Level 3 trainer and UKSCA Strength & Conditioning coach, owner of Manchester-based Pro-Fit Golf Conditioning www.pro-fitgolfconditioning.com One of the things we most admire about elite golfers is the way they maintain their posture so well throughout the swing. With such a solid structure to swing from, it seems so easy to hold a good path and plane from start to finish. Yet, as we know to our cost, retaining our angles while we swing a club around us at speeds approaching 100mph is no easy feat. We tend to picture loss of posture as a change of spine angle, but this is more the symptom than the cause. In truth, it has much more to do with our lower body, specifically the backside muscles (glutes)…

Choosing which golf ball to play can be confusing. Most major brands make multiple models, all of which seem to offer more distance, more short game spin and more feel. And while some offer good value for money, others are likely to make you wince when you duff one into a lake. Thanks to our recent robot golf ball test at the world-renowned Loughborough University, we can now show how balls from a single brand compare - one of the simplest ways to decide which to buy. Here, we’ve broken down our test data for Callaway’s five main models, so you can see the differences between tour and two-piece models - and everything in between. Based on our insight, you should be able to understand which performance attributes best complement…

Kiwi Fox failed to read Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup preparation script, shooting a final round 67 to leapfrog Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, and Ludvig Aberg to win the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on 18-under par. The victory secured the biggest title of his career, took him to the cusp of the top 30 in the OWGR and earned him a $1.53 million pay cheque. These are the clubs he had in the bag. Driver: Srixon ZX5 MKII (9.5°, Fujikura Ventus Blue 7 TX shaft) Fairway wood: Srixon ZX MK II (14°, Fujikura Ventus shaft) Utility: Srixon Z U85 (20°, Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 shaft) Irons: Srixon ZX5 MK II (3-5); Srixon ZX7 MK II (6-PW, True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts) Wedges: Cleveland RTX-6 ZipCore,…

Paddy has been on tour for a quarter of a century now, racking up three Majors, and more than $26 million in earnings. Phil Bonham has been Wilson’s European Tour Rep for 20-plus years, and told us recently that Harrington is swinging faster now than a decade ago. “He’s hitting driver 329 yards… some younger guys can’t do that. Since turning 50 he’s totally refocused. He's ‘scary eyes’ Padraig!” Here’s what Paddy has in his bag… Driver: Titleist TSR3 (9°, Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft) 3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15°, Project HZRDUS TX shaft) 5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (Project HZRDUS TX shaft) Utility: Wilson Staff FG Tour V4 (4-iron, Accra Tour Z X Hybrid shaft) Irons: Wilson Staff Model CB (5-PW, KBS Tour-V 125 TX shafts) Wedges: Wilson Staff Model…

There were already many good courses in Denmark, then the Great Northern came along and elevated everything. It is one of the best in Europe. It is a Nicklaus Design and is very well made; it reminds me of Paris National. Because of its closeness to the old fishing village, you get an atmosphere that most modern courses don’t have. You have all the best ones in your list! Esbjerg is a traditional course that, when the wind blows, is a good test. Holstebro is very good too. Of the ones you don’t have, Royal Copenhagen is nice and historic. It’s played on the old King’s hunting ground and is like an inland links. And Trehoje is a course I would like to see myself… ■ Soren Hansen is a…

The most important person in the history of European golf is an Englishman. Harry Colt, the real founder of the profession of golf architecture, was responsible for bringing great courses to virtually every European country of golfing significance. Without him, many of the most famous names of European golf would have had nowhere to play. Colt’s obvious rival for the title of ‘most important person’ in European golf is Seve Ballesteros. But Spanish golf could not have existed as it did without the work of the architect: he travelled to Madrid in the spring of 1913 to lay out Puerta de Hierro, the country’s first proper golf course, and then, in subsequent years, built courses in Seville, Barcelona and Malaga. And, in the late 1920s, Colt built Pedrena, the course…

Monte Rei is a very challenging course where you need to manage your game shot by shot to reach the green with any birdie chances. Overall a great test. In my view Troia is the trickiest course in Portugal; very narrow, with small greens, typically very windy as you’re by the sea. One has to play very precisely there. Quinta do Lago South is a challenging course from tee to green. You have to shape the ball consistently and position it well to get an angle onto the greens, which are relatively large and flat. It’s a fun and accessible course for all handicap players. Santo da Serra on Madeira is in a beautiful location, built on a high volcanic island and with stunning views over the ocean. It has…