Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 466 i Today's Golfer

On July 19, 2019, I was hanging around the 18th green at Royal Portrush when Rory McIlroy missed the cut by a shot at the first Open Championship in Northern Ireland for 68 years. Despite turning it on in a second round 65, it wasn't quite enough to overcome his opening 79 – including that infamous quad on the opening hole in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans. In a few weeks, Rory heads back to the course where he shot a 61 as a 16-year-old, hoping to exorcise those demons and add a second Claret Jug to his collection. It's going to be some week, as he tells us on page 36. The R&A are predicting a record crowd of over 278,000 people at Portrush, surpassing the…

With thanks to Woburn Golf Club, host to 60 professional tournaments across its three fabulous championship courses. Visit woburngolf.co.uk We know from performance tracking that putting takes up around 35-40% of the shots we play during the round. But find us an amateur golfer who spends more than a third of their practice time on this part of the game! For some reason, we seem happy to blast woods and irons into the wild blue yonder for hours on end, while leaving our chief scoring weapon at the sharp end of the hole to take care of itself. For your sake and ours, it's high time this changed. To this end, we've enlisted the help of Rupert Chaplin, an up-and-coming putting specialist based at beautiful Woburn GC, to share a…

1. Use your club's short game area Most clubs have them and they're always free to use. I spent a lot of time around the greens chipping when I was a kid and I think that's where I've got my good short game from. I still spend a lot of time on it and I always practise different shots. I never stand there and hit the same shot, I think that's pointless. 2. Focus on feel over technique I'm not a great technical player; I never have been. Obviously, you need a decent technique, but with repetition you can have an imperfect one and still teach yourself to successfully and consistently get up and down. 3. Be aggressive through impact I think moving the ball too far back in your…

The 7th and 8th provided a fantastic canvas for us to work with. However, we had to move quite a lot of sand to create those holes, so they are not as naturally born as we hope some might think they are. Getting the balance right with the green shaping is always key to projects such as these. We actually designed five greens on the Dunluce for the 2019 Open. The 2nd was moved much further back. The 3rd and 10th were rebuilt in situ – the 3rd suffered from poor drainage and the 10th was not a Harry Colt original and the surface felt overly flat and out of place among the great green shapes he and his men left in 1932. Of the five, there was one change…

Gary McNeill knew well in advance that he could debut in the 2019 Open Championship as a marker. He genuinely made every effort to sharpen up his game and took time out from his day job to find a quiet corner on the range on the Sunday before the Championship began to hit a few balls. Tiger was out playing a practice round, so no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to McNeill – until another American superstar, Dustin Johnson, set up nearby and started launching drives into the stratosphere. There's a picture of the pair hitting shots together, a scenario that was repeated the following weekend when McNeill was called up to play as a marker after the halfway cut fell on an uneven number of players.…

PRESENTED BY YOUR COACH BREAK 100 Control lead knee movement Mid-irons – 5-8-iron – are a part of the bag where different levels of golfer often need different help. For the more erratic and less-grooved 100-breaker, finding the centre of the face is the priority. The intermediate golfer, pushing the 90 barrier, often makes fairly consistent contact but struggles with accuracy and squaring the face at impact. And the more advanced player looking to crack 80 could use some extra speed to create the powerful penetration of the elite golfer to offer a more lofted option into the green. Here, we'll cover each one. But as ever, note that the advice in all three areas can help all levels of golfer. One of the most common mid-iron strike patterns I…

PRESENTED BY EGO TRIPPED A 15-handicapper is on average 66 yards shorter than a tour pro off the tee… and 41 yards behind a scratch player. We all know that tour pros are better than scratch golfers, who are better than 15-handicappers. But with stats, we can quantify these differences in quality, in every part of the game. That's useful because a bigger performance differential in a specific area suggests that area is more crucial to the scores we post – giving a clear guide to which parts of the game we should look to improve. Shot Scope's stats can aid us all (shotscope.com)… 1 Off the tee Distance-wise, the PGA Tour average is 300 yards. A scratch player's is 285 and a 15-handicapper's 234. This puts the club player 66…

PRESENTED BY Trackman Master Gary Nicol shows how this leading launch monitor's ability to track and quantify the entire distance of a putt can help you improve your distance control on the greens… and deliver fewer three-putts. Trackman has been out for more than two decades now, and most golfers are familiar with its ability to measure vital full-swing impact parameters such as club path, face angle and attack angle. But perhaps less known is the monitor's putting module, introduced in 2018, which uses a similar radar system to track slow movement. With its ability to capture not just impact but the entire length of the putt, this software has the potential to deliver profound insight into a series of putting performance essentials including green reading, distance control and ability…

Since putting makes up the majority of your score, you need a flatstick that suits your style and helps you hole more putts. But with dozens of different shapes and styles on sale, not to mention hosels, face inserts, head weights and constructions, finding the best fit for you isn't easy. That's why we've gone all out to bring you our 2025 putters test. Over two days at Prince's Golf Club in Kent, the TG team tested 72 models on sale this year, hitting more than 7,500 putts to establish the best blades, mallets and zero-torque models in 2025. HOW WE DID IT Unlike drivers, woods and irons, where PGA pro Neil Wain hits hundreds of shots to gather launch monitor data, putters are much more subjective, with looks, sound…

ODYSSEY AI-ONE SQUARE 2 SQUARE #7 £289 TG VERDICT: The #7 looks markedly different to the Square 2 Square Jailbird, but it scored just as well for alignment. The fang is a very popular design and it works well as a zero-torque putter. It definitely isn't as stable as the Jailbird or the three L.A.B. putters, and the feedback isn't as solid, but its conventional looks will win people over. PXG ALLAN £429 TG VERDICT: Considering how well Odyssey and L.A.B. did in the zero-torque category, PXG did well to place in the top six. Many of the testers really liked the Allan; the cut-outs in the head help you lay the putter flat to the ground, and the contrasting black line running through the centre of the head helps…

Name: Kris Kim Nationality: English Age: 17 Career highlight: Winning the 2023 Boys Amateur Championship and going undefeated at the Junior Ryder Cup How did it feel, becoming the youngest European to make the cut on the PGA Tour last year? Pretty good [smiles]. All the practice paid off and it was such a good experience. The first couple of days definitely felt a bit weird, being next to people you watch on TV. But over the week, once I got into a rhythm, it kind of felt normal. What was the biggest surprise? How slow it was! I was looking at my watch quite a bit, but then it's their job I suppose. Did you have any ‘wow’ moments? I know it sounds funny, but just going to the bathroom and walking…

Whether you want to know your average proximity from 165 yards in the right rough or simply the yardage to the middle of the green, Shot Scope have the device for you. In GPS watch, laser rangefinder or direct-to-your-smartphone form, the class of 2025 offers the latest technology in performance tracking and on-course assistance. But while the functionality varies, the quality of the technology and information does not: every device offers the simplicity, clarity and style you would expect from a company leading the way in advanced GPS and performance tracking. V5 £219.99 Automatic tracker with GPS and full hole maps Shot Scope's latest wrist-worn GPS device automatically tracks your game, with Full Hole Maps on its circular, high-visibility screen. At-a-glance features include: ■ Full hole maps for 36,000 pre-loaded…

I took up the game at the age of 12, but my passion didn't really take hold until I hit my 20s. Since then I have managed to hold down a single-figure handicap, playing off 7.2, but I still harbour ambitions of one day reaching scratch. I play most of my golf at my home course, Dunfermline. It's not overly long at 6,121 yards, but it has plenty of trees and elevation changes to keep you honest. It also has masses of variety, with five par 5s and five par 3s. That makes it fascinating from a strategic point of view, and even after playing it for years I can find myself wondering if I've got my tactics right. I was delighted, then, to discover the Course Analysis function, available…

I think there is a perception that performance-tracking is time-consuming and complicated. It certainly doesn't have to be… and for me this starts quite simply with understanding how far I hit each club. Through X5's tracking and analytics, I know I hit my driver 212 yards and my 7-iron 126. Basic information, but essential for effective course management and approaches. Understanding my tendencies is important to me and actually, very simple to discover. Tee shot tracking tells me I miss slightly more fairways right than left, and that I come up short on 47% of my approaches. Again, these are not complicated or detailed stats, but they are massively important to select targets and clubs. Around the greens, my X5 has shown me my most commonly used club is my…

I've been playing golf on and off since I was 10 years old and have been a club member during this time. But at present, it just doesn't work for me. I love being an itinerant player. For starters, I'm based in Edinburgh and pretty much surrounded by amazing courses; it seems a shame to limit myself to just one of them. I also love visiting the Highlands and playing golf when I'm up there. I've recently enjoyed Ullapool and Gairloch. Then there is the fact my family are all at different clubs – my grandfather at Ratho, my father at Fairmont St Andrews and my partner at West Linton. I enjoy spending time on the course with all of them, especially my grandfather, who remains an enthusiastic and competent…

I performance-track every round I play through my X5, and my first port of call after the round is the Strokes Gained zone. I measure all my stats against tour pro averages, because this is the level at which I am aspiring to play in qualifying for the Open. Performance tracking can be pretty brutal, but it also serves as a valuable reality check in terms of the differences between the genuine touring professional and a bloke who spends most of his time posting stuff on the internet. If I'm ever tempted to think I'm half-decent, the data will give me the true picture. It will also show me where I am most behind tour pro level. My 2024 data showed me clearly that approach play was by far the…

Over the last 10 years, Shot Scope has amassed a database of over 400 million golf shots, hit by over 250,000 users all around the world. This has created a vast database of drives, approaches, pitches and putts, each one tracked from the moment of impact to the ball's final revolution. And just as launch monitors have exposed the secrets of impact, performance tracking analytics are delivering an ever-more-accurate picture of how ordinary, amateur golfers play the game. Here's some key insights… OFF THE TEE 1. If we record every drive struck, the average distance for a 15-handicapper is 204 yards. If we remove the clear outliers – skies, tops, shots that hit trees etc – this jumps to 236 yards. This figure is what Shot Scope calls a Performance…

While golf's original Championship dates back to 1860, the Claret Jug did not actually exist for another 12 years. It was commissioned after Young Tom Morris won the original Challenge Belt outright in 1870 as a result of winning The Open in three consecutive seasons. With no prize to present, the Championship was not held in 1871. It prompted the Open's three host venues – Prestwick, The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club – to contribute £10 towards the cost of a new trophy, made in the style of 19th century jugs that served claret. Want to know if you're looking at the real trophy or just a very convincing replica? It's not easy, but look back to the year 1947 on the trophy…

Portrush Clubhouse Manager Kenny Gault was working in the halfway house on a mostly windless July afternoon during the second qualifying round of the 2005 North of Ireland Championship when suddenly, the phone rang with a call from the bar. “They said, ‘You won't believe what Rory just shot!’” he recalls now with the enthusiasm of a man who is still in disbelief. The answer was a course-record 61 that included nine birdies, one eagle, and a closing 28. What's more, it was the first bogey-free round McIlroy ever shot; he was 16. “Whenever I think about Royal Portrush and about links golf and my development, I always think about that round of golf,” Rory told TheOpen.com. “There are not many rounds where I remember every shot, but that day…

How do you reflect on that week at Portrush in 2019? It's been a dream of mine to win The Open, ever since I was a very young kid growing up in Southport. It just wasn't really my time that Sunday at Portrush. Shane played some really unbelievable golf and it was a great moment to be a part of. Even now, I still have some very fond memories of that Sunday, being in contention and playing in the final group. How did you feel on Saturday night, knowing you were going to be in that final pairing? It felt amazing, leaving the course at night, feeling the adrenaline and knowing there's a chance you could win the next day. That was a really cool feeling. You just never know…

1st: Hughie's With all due respect to Shane Lowry,I think Rory could have won The Open in 2019 if there was not out of bounds to the left of the 1st hole. If not, he would probably have found his ball with a trampled lie, hit it onto the green, calmed his nerves and marched onto a great round and a possible battle with Shane on Sunday for the Claret Jug. As controversial as it is, that out of bounds is crucially important to the hole, as well as the one on the right, and drama can be expected from the start of anyone's round. 5th: White Rocks Possibly the best driveable par 4 in the game in the right conditions. Again, out of bounds plays its part, this time…

How much are you looking forward to coming back and defending your title? I've never defended successfully any tournament that I've won in the past, so I'm very much looking forward to it. If I could do it at a Major, especially The Open, it would be really incredible. It's always interesting to know what the defending champion has done with the Claret Jug. Am I right in thinking your dad has had it the whole time? Yeah, I don't drink too much. My dad definitely consumes a lot more wine than I do. He's got some good friends to enjoy it with, as well. It's in the care of my parents as of right now, and it's in good hands. Have you drunk anything out of it? I have,…

PRESENTED BY Our bodies are of course incredibly clever, carrying out all sorts of essential acts and processes without us even noticing. But when it comes to tension – the body's instinctive tightening to prevent injury in the face of danger – we may have to make an exception. Tension has become our default response to anything we deem a threat – whether that is a green mamba sizing us up for supper or a pond to the right of the fairway, 230 yards yonder. And of course, it is venomous for our golf. If we consider golf is essentially a game of coordination, with arms, body and weight shift all needing to work in sync, white knuckles and tight muscles are no help at all. And it's not just…

PRESENTED BY During my years working in the field of golf and golf performance, I've observed that in certain areas of the mind game, golfers are repeat offenders. I call these areas golf 's ‘thinking sins'. Here are three of the most common and most damaging; and if any of them sound painfully familiar to you, take action now! They will be costing you shots and making the game much harder than it needs to be. 1. Ignoring current form Not long ago, I heard one of the world's best golfers talk about his game in terms of A, B, C and D. His A game was obviously when everything was firing at 100%. He felt totally in control of his golf ball. His B game was still good but…

TOULON LAS VEGAS H7 £599 TG VERDICT: Given the popularity of the fang-style mallet, it comes as no surprise that the Las Vegas took second place for looks. The roll off the 304 stainless steel is absolutely incredible and helped the model achieve a T3 finish in that category. Where it lost out a little on those above was in alignment stakes, but it was still an impressive performance. PING SCOTTSDALE PRIME TYNE 4 £339 TG VERDICT: Another fang-style mallet, the Tyne 4 finished just behind the Las Vegas in the mallet category. They posted very similar results – and many will like its significantly cheaper price tag. It scored well for roll and feedback, the PEBAX face insert delivering a lovely, soft feel that most testers enjoyed. A very…

Venturing to the coastal outposts of Britain & Ireland was what got me interested in golf trips. And while I loved playing the big names in Southport, Kent, Fife and East Lothian, it was actually the journeys along less-trodden paths to links that really lit the fire. The afternoon 20 years ago that I drove to Belmullet to play Carne would be right up in there in that bracket. At the time I knew of precisely no-one who had been there and it was only because it featured in Golf World's GB&I Top 100 – a list I was following religiously – that I made the trip. I recall overtaking a camper van from Poland at one point, thinking they had to be going to Carne. That was the only…

Tom Doak is the foremost course architect of the modern era, with a portfolio that stacks up against the greats of the Golden Age a century ago. The list of courses on which he has worked comprises many of the most illustrious names in the game, as well as some stellar revisions of historic greats. A year he spent in Great Britain and Ireland in the early 1980s accelerated his education and helped shape his philosophy. Earning a scholarship from Cornell University to study the classic courses on our shores, Doak spent three months caddying in St Andrews then struck out to more than 170 courses in order to soak up the knowledge that would propel and sustain his career. Here, in his own words, is the story of that…

In case you hadn't noticed, golf is not particularly easy. When your target is no bigger than the size of your fist… and a quarter of a mile away… and a piece of paper suggests you're supposed to find it in just four blows, it's fair to say there are simpler tasks you could ask of yourself, like playing tiddlywinks or planting geraniums. Yet for more than half a millennium, golf's famous difficulty has proved no obstacle at all in drawing millions to its awesome challenge. The truth is, we like it tough. If golf was any easier, the successes we experience would not feel half as special. But even though golf's difficulty is one of the game's chief draws, that doesn't mean we don't welcome all the help we…

PG Wodehouse once wrote, “Golf, like measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious.” It's a great quote from a wonderful observer of this amazing game, but one my own game seemed determined to contradict. Until I found Shot Scope. My father introduced me to golf when I was around 13 or 14, a great age to start. But even though I felt I had reasonable ability and fitness, I only ever seemed to struggle. Some 25 years later, my handicap was still refusing to budge from the high teens. Looking back now, it is clear to me that a big reason for my flatlining game was that I didn't know how to work on it. Like most of us, my practice…

I'll use the par-4 14th at Dunfermline GC – my nemesis – to show you how I use V5's Course Analysis function for home-course insight. As this first image shows (below left), the 14th is a slight dog-leg right, measuring a little under 400 yards. Not only is it the official scorecard stroke index 1, it is also my worst hole for scoring, as calculated through my last 11 Shot Scope-tracked rounds. An average score of 5.4 is losing me a massive 0.81 shots against a five-handicapper's expected score, a level I aspire to reach. In fact, I am even losing ground on a 10-handicapper, who averages 0.34 shots better than me on this hole. How am I getting it so wrong here? The Shots Plotted feature within Course Analysis…

I've been playing golf for around two years… though only once or twice a week, and my handicap remains up at 32. I'm a member at Broomieknowe GC, a pretty, tree-lined parkland layout in Midlothian, and my best round to date is 95. While I do have some performance goals – breaking 90 in the short term, getting down to around a 10 handicap one day – golf is more of a social thing for me just now. I enjoy spending time out on the course with my two brothers and a couple of friends, a bit of banter and light competition. But I have also enjoyed some slightly more serious golf, playing in the odd club Medal. I think it's great that even golfers new to the game can…

The day before I'm due to tackle a new course, I will take a look at it via the brilliant overhead maps available on the Shot Scope website dashboard or the free smartphone app (left). These maps allow me to familiarise myself with the course… what type of hazards it has, whether the holes are predominantly straight or dog-legs, and if the latter, which way the majority curve. If you've never done this before, it's amazing how much you can learn from bird's eye views. Almost instantly you can see the architect's intention, how the holes are protected and designed to be played. Are the fairways generous? Are the greens heavily guarded, and if so by what? Are bunkers generally short of the greens, or to the sides? After just…

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 LIFE-SAVING INITIATIVE LETTER OF THE MONTH As a paramedic and a very new golfer, I am writing to commend TG and Motocaddy for your ‘Drive for Defibs’ campaign. Having attended cardiac arrests on golf courses in my professional capacity, I've seen first-hand the critical difference an accessible automated external defibrillator (AED) can make. My experiences on the course, both as a golfer and a responder, have shown me that anyone can become a lifesaver with basic training and access to this equipment. Initiatives like Royal Dornoch fitting defibrillators on buggies underscore the impact of this campaign. I urge every…

When you think back to 2019, is there a moment or a single shot that stands out above all others? There's a few. Saturday evening was probably the most special couple of hours I've had on the golf course. Finishing the way I did, I think my 4-iron on 16 was the shot. You picture it and when you visualise shots, a lot of the times they don't come off. But that was exactly what I'd drawn up. I went and birdied the hole and it's not called Calamity for nothing. It's a very tough par 3 and when I went and birdied 17, at that stage I felt like I could birdie every hole the way I was playing. And when you hit shots like that under pressure, that…

It is the small seaside village that became the busy seaside holiday resort that became an international golf destination and finally, after almost a lifetime's wait, the host of The Open Championship once again. Named after the nearby ruins of the medieval Dunluce Castle, the Dunluce course was laid out by Harry Colt in 1929, 41 years after the club was formed as a nine-hole course. Completed in 1932, the Dunluce was awarded its first Open Championship 19 years later. The town had to wait 68 years for its next opportunity and put on such a show that we're going back again next month for Rory's post Masters homecoming. A record 278,000 are expected to descend on the links, which has been given a mini makeover since Shane Lowry walked…

MEET YOUR COURSE GUIDE GARY MCNEILL A friend of Darren Clarke and former coach to Graeme McDowell, McNeill has been the Head Pro at Royal Portrush since 1999 and played as a marker during the 2019 Open Championship. 1st HUGHIE'S PAR 4 | 420 YARDS 2019 average score: 4.192 (6) A really demanding opening tee shot, with internal out of bounds on both sides. Everyone remembers Rory McIlroy went OB on the left in 2019, but he very nearly repeated it with his second shot as well. It is easily done, but the clever play is to lay up short of the bunker on the left side and to take your chances with a mid-to-long iron. The approach plays uphill, over a false front, to a green which cambers a…

Watch hundreds of video tips at www.todays-golfer.com PRESENTED BY QUICK TIP EVEN-HANDED APPROACH To putt well we need our hands to work as a unified force, each one making a matching contribution to the stroke. If they start to fight each other, we are heading for trouble in terms of both direction and distance control. To work on this, grip your putter in your lead hand and your wedge in your trail hand. Swing back and through, working on keeping the shafts parallel throughout the stroke. Shafts converging or clashing is a sure sign one hand is tending to dominate the other. Keep going until the shafts match back and through, gradually extending the length of the stroke. The better you get at this, the more evenly your hands are…

In this month's Challenge we address one of golf's most hated and feared shots – the duffed chip. By putting you in an environment where the causes of heavy contact are ruthlessly exposed, it forces you into finding a more productive method and a cleaner contact. Grab a 9-iron or pitching wedge and head to the nearest practice bunker… YOUR COACH THE CHALLENGE: CLEAN CONTACT Take five balls into the practice bunker and find a level stance. All you are going to try to do here is attempt an orthodox chip-and-run shot of around 10 yards, simply trying to make clean and solid contact on each shot. When you can achieve this on all five balls, you've passed the test. And no, thin or skinny strikes do not count as…

We all understand there are some swing patterns and techniques that produce poor shots, but some of these go further, creating the very real chance we could be damaging ourselves as well as our scorecard. This series is dedicated to identifying the most common of these danger moves, and giving you simple exercises to help you towards a safer and more effective method. This month we look at the potential for neck pain, caused through faulty posture. Even if you feel you address the ball well, the exercise will help your mobility and protect you from injury. Always consult a qualified physician before starting any new fitness regimen. Ideally, we would like the spine to be nicely extended at set-up… and that includes the cervical zone that runs from the…

BETTINARDI QUEEN B8 £439 TG VERDICT: The Royal Rose finish of the Queen B8 is certainly striking. It scored very well for looks and roll, two areas where we expected this model to do well. It sits beautifully at address and does help with alignment – it was T3 on test. Had it been a tad more stable and produced slightly better feedback, the Queen B8 could easily have earned a medal. COBRA SPORT-40 VINTAGE £199 TG VERDICT: Undoubtedly the best Cobra putter we put to the test this time around. It wiped the floor with the brand's other putters, in large part thanks to the stability of a mallet in a sleek, blade head. It feels like it's on rails. Factor in Descending Loft Technology and you have yourself…

Of all the performance-tracking statistics of the V5, the one I've found the most helpful is Strokes Gained. SG provides benchmark performance values for the four main parts of the game – tee, approach, short game and putting – at 5-handicap intervals. This means that, as an 8-handicapper trying to get down to five, I can see exactly how a typical 5-handicapper performs and measure my play against it. The graphics here are taken from my personal online dashboard, available to all Shot Scope users. The Strokes Gained tab shows the state of my game versus a 5-handicapper's over the past year – slightly better on tee shots, even on putting, worse on approaches… but dramatically worse for short game. As you can see, the 3.42 shots per round I…

I would regard myself as a sports lover and naturally competitive. I played many sports in school and college as I grew up, but golf wasn't one of them. Then, shortly after I took my first job in the corporate sector, the pandemic struck. Golf quickly emerged as a great option, both as an activity to satisfy my competitiveness and as a way of unwinding from the stresses of work. Almost immediately, I established twin goals of improving my play and having fun. They will always remain at the heart of my relationship with the game. I hit my first golf shots in 2020. Like most people taking up golf, I struggled at first. But I guess those competitive instincts kicked in; I was determined not to let the game…

The G6 is simple, easy to use and in no way overwhelming. All the essential data is either there in front of you, or easy to find. I'd say it was the ideal watch for a beginner, and also for the golfer who doesn't get on so well with tech. I particularly like… ■ The ‘last shot’ feature. At the press of a button, G6 measures the distance of the shot you just hit while you are walking up to your ball. This gives me excellent feedback on how far my shots are going, and this is just as valuable on poorer strikes as good ones, as it helps me allow for miscues. ■ Distances to hazards, lay-ups and dog-legs. My tee shots are probably the worst part of my…

Born and raised in Preston, Lancashire, I was mad about sport from a very young age. But in those early days it was football that absorbed me. Then, at some point, golf took over and I never looked back. I determined to make the game my career, though I wasn't certain in which capacity that would be. I studied Professional Golf Studies at the University of Birmingham before qualifying as a PGA professional in 2008. By that stage I was a more than competent player, but my playing results didn't quite support any aspirations I had to be a tournament professional. I moved into coaching at a club near Manchester. It was just at this time that YouTube was beginning to establish itself as the main platform for uploading videos.…