Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 471 i Today's Golfer

About 10 years ago, I was fortunate to play Royal Lytham & St Annes in Lancashire, one of the grand old links on the Open rota. As we entered the changing rooms, a man dressed all in black was putting on his shoes. As he looked up and said, “Morning, guys”, the penny dropped – it was Gary Player. There was no entourage. No agents. No handlers. He was there for a social game, asked where we'd come from, if we'd played there before – and urged us to stay out of the bunkers. A few years later, a colleague played 18 holes with Player at an event organised by his new club sponsor, PXG. “I've never seen anyone so good out of the sand,” he said. “He holed one…

Another month, another operation for golf's most rebuilt man. Yes, Tiger has gone under the knife again – this time for what is believed to be his seventh back op in 11 years. This latest setback adds to a growing list of injuries that have restricted the legend, who turns 50 in December, to just 14 PGA Tour starts over the past five seasons. What's more, he hasn't even competed outside of TGL in an official event since the 2024 Open, having ruptured his left Achilles while preparing for this year's Masters. And as our illustration shows, there are few body parts left that haven't required some kind of surgical intervention… NECK MAY 2010 INFLAMED FACET JOINT MARCH 2019 STRAIN BACK MARCH & AUGUST 2013 SEVERE SPASMS APRIL 2014 MICRODISCECTOMY…

Step 1: Check alignment Path control begins at set-up because it is strongly influenced by the aim of your body. The key to working on alignment is parallel lines. Start by framing the ball-to-hole line with two clubs, on the ground. Then address the ball, pinning a clubshaft against your shoulders and ideally threading an alignment stick through your belt loops. These lines should all be parallel to each other. At this point, focus on getting as neutral as possible; the slight leftward or rightward path we spoke about will come more from the way you move than the way you address the ball. Step 2: Check ball position After alignment, ball placement is the second biggest path affecter. As these images show, moving the ball back in your stance…

TOMMY FLEETWOOD Well on his way to becoming one of the continent's all-time greats. Now holds the highest winning percentage (70.6) among the 51 European players who have appeared in at least 10 Ryder Cup matches. He also won more holes (25) than any other player at Bethpage. HARRIS ENGLISH English will feel incredibly hard done by, having twice been sent out alongside Morikawa to try and stop the rampaging McIlroy and Fleetwood partnership. But he will forever be the player who earned more Ryder Cup points by not playing. CAMERON YOUNG The standout among the rookies and wildcards. The New York native was the best player across two separate sessions and led his team for the week in Strokes Gained: Approach, Tee-to-Green, and Total. JUSTIN ROSE Putted brilliantly all…

Niclas Fasth could get very hot on the golf course – in more ways than one. The Swede could hit rich veins of scoring form, but he was also arguably the game's feistiest player in the first decade of the new millennium. After turning pro in 1993, he won six times on the European Tour in lands as far apart as Madeira and New Zealand, and in 2007 finished a career-high fifth place in that year's Order of Merit. Two close calls in Majors, an admirable Ryder Cup appearance in 2002 and a climb to a high 18th in the Official World Golf Ranking augmented a fine career that at times hinted at being even better. Fasth took a break from competitive golf after a dispiriting end to his European…

BOBBY JONES “I didn't used to give Bobby Jones the credit he deserved [for, in part, winning the pre-Masters Grand Slam]. But as I've appreciated the limitations of the equipment he used and understood more, I realised he might just have had the best swing I've ever seen. His balance, at the top, starting down, his tempo… everything.” GENE SARAZEN “I played with Gene at Hoylake one year and he was telling me about how he won The Masters by holing his second shot at 15 with a 3-wood. What a time to do it! He was a very cocky, confident young man and I liked him very much. And, boy, what a swing he had.” BEN HOGAN “Hogan was the greatest player in the history of golf. I played…

With summer now receding in the distance and courses getting wetter and slower, our short-game attentions switch from stopping the ball going too far to getting it to go far enough. This mission becomes especially challenging when we face a long, long chip up a slope. There is perhaps a temptation to take out the lob wedge and fly the ball to the hole, taking all the slope out of play, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a high-tariff selection that needs perfect execution – and even then you're relying on a favourable bounce. Instead, we need a shot that is relatively simple to play and reduces the risk, while firing plenty of speed into the ball. This starts with club selection – it's the hybrid all day for me…

For a long time now, the concept of setting goals has been an accepted and desirable aspect of performance. Goals can give us direction, motivation, a framework against which to measure progress. All positive and useful. And yet goal-setting is not without its potential pitfalls – pitfalls that can make a goal not so much a force for driving you forward but a weight, holding you back. Let me explain the potential problem with goal-setting through two contrasting ends of the scale. First, achieving goals. It sounds like a wonderful thing, but I have not always found it so. I have seen Major winners who, having achieved their ultimate goal in golf, are almost crestfallen. Even as they are holding the trophy, a part of them is thinking, “Is that…

What have Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Lucas Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton and Dustin Johnson got in common? Not too much when it comes to their personalities or their games, yet they've all had a 7-wood (or even more loft) in the bag this year. According to a report from Sports Marketing Surveys, just over 10% of tour professionals have a 7-wood (or higher lofted) fairway in their bag. So, should you follow suit? It's not easy to know what to consider with a club you may never have used, or even seen, before. As with fairway woods in general, knowing which model offers the best forgiveness, the most distance, which is the easiest to launch off the ground, even down to the size of each model's head, they can…

Valderrama has a mystique very few courses come anywhere near to matching. The Ryder Cup of 1997 - Seve as captain, Tiger's debut, a first continental venue for the event - definitely plays a key part in that. So, too, does the difficulty in getting a tee time here, and the expense once you have a slot. Let's mark it down as ‘reassuringly expensive’. The legend of the charismatic former owner, Jaime Patino, might also be a factor. There are some great stories about him… These aspects combine to produce such a unique ambience but we don't measure them in our ranking. Just in the same way as the Old Course at St Andrews has something special that is quite impossible to measure, so too does this icon of European…

TAG Heuer's GPS smartwatch is one of the most stylish pieces you can buy, and this latest version takes the looks and functionality to a new and altogether higher level. Now in its fifth generation, the Connected Calibre E5 Golf Edition comes in two sizes – 45mm and 40mm – both featuring improved graphics and battery life, plus faster, more intuitive navigation. As you'd expect for a multi-sport smartwatch, you get all the usual bells and whistles – it monitors your daily activity, supports voice calls and contactless payments, and sends you personalised training plans – but it's the golf features that get us excited. It looks like a TAG watch, but it's the little touches – besides offering personalised club recommendations – that really jump out. Like the engraved…

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 RESTRICT RYDER CUP TICKETS TO RESTORE RESPECT LETTER OF THE MONTH After observing the crowd behaviour at this year's Ryder Cup, I completely agree with those who believe that those guilty of the abuse directed at players and their families cannot possibly be golfers themselves. With this in mind, I believe a possible policy for eliminating this foul conduct may be to restrict tickets to golf club members. That way, any person ejected from the event, or even identified through media evidence, can then be dealt with by their club (ridiculed, fined or kicked out). Obviously, some exceptions will…

The ideal strike: Get into the (5th) groove The ideal strike point for an iron is, of course, central and about four to five grooves up. This contact gives maximum energy transfer - helping distance – and maximum face stability – improving accuracy. The more we move away from this impact point, the more problems we'll encounter with: ■ Toe strikes: Poor energy transfer, loss of distance, potential for pushes as the face twists open, or hooks if ‘gear effect’ takes over. ■ Heel strikes: Again, loss of distance through inefficient energy transfer, pulls or slices with gear effect, potential for the ‘sh’ word. ■ High-face strikes: Loss of distance through poor energy transfer and poor trajectory, as lower spin can see the ball fall out of the air. Risk…

How body position affects low point In our quest to gain control of low point, the first thing we need to grasp is that our torso positioning is by far its biggest influencer. The club wants to bottom out under the lead side of our chest, as illustrated here by the hanging club. This is the point at which our lead arm and clubshaft are at maximum extension. Right on the club's low point, the ball position here would in theory encourage a clean and level strike. We tend to describe ball position in relation to the feet, but truly we would do better to think of it in relation to that lead chest low point marker. Low point control enemy: Sway Of course, our torso position is not fixed:…

As far as I am concerned, if you win all four of golf's Major championships, you can justifiably call yourself a complete golfer. Each of the Majors presents a unique challenge to your shotmaking, your course management, your fitness and your mental resilience under the most extreme pressure you'll ever face in our sport. It takes a combination of skill, maturity, experience and, in all honesty, a little bit of good fortune here and there, too. That's why, when I won the Grand Slam at the then record-breaking age of 29 back in 1965, I told my wife that nobody in the foreseeable future would be able to match what I had just achieved. But, lo and behold, Jack Nicklaus comes along just a year later and completes his set…

Watch hundreds of video tips at todays-golfer.com HERE TO HELP YOU SAVE SHOTS QUICK TIP CROSS PURPOSE Club golfers typically fail to engage their core enough on pitch shots, leaving their hands, arms and wrists to do most of the work. This creates quick changes in the club's loft and attack angle, and causes inconsistency. To get on top of this, take two wedges and hold them across each other as shown. Allow your upper arms to hold the shafts in place against your sides, and grip just under the handle of each before criss-crossing your wrists. This ties your arms to your body. Form your address position before making a backswing rotation, your chest turning away from the target. Note how the crossed clubs lock your hands and arms…

Every golfer knows the singular pain associated with thin bunker shots - that dreadful sensation of metal on urethane and the ball either bulleting across the green or thudding into the sand in front of you, depending on the lip height. Either way, it's a fault that leads to a card-ruining number. So let's get rid of it once and for all by developing our understanding of its most common cause – and learning an easy drill that will improve your ability to strike the sand an inch or two behind the ball. THE FAULT: Buckling lead arm Good bunker play is reliant on our ability to take a shallow sand divot from beneath the ball. We can only do this by controlling the arc or width of our swing.…

If you play off around a 20 handicap and are thinking you don't hit many greens from 160 yards or more, you'd be right. According to data from performance-tracking specialists Shot Scope, a 20-handicapper finds just 8% of greens when hitting an iron from 175 yards – in other words just once every 12 or 13 attempts. However, with everything else equal, the figure when hitting hybrid leaps to 14%, or about one green found in every seven shots. That means that a simple change of club is almost doubling your chances of leaving yourself a putt. When it comes to improving your chances of success, this has to be one of the easiest wins out there. TRY THIS Half-swing punch Like a sand wedge, the sole of the hybrid…

ODYSSEY AI-ONE SQUARE 2 SQUARE MAX STRIPE TOTAL: 38/40 Tech and components The major selling point of the Max Stripe is its Versa 90 alignment technology. The contrasting white stripe running through the centre of the head really keeps the putter square and helps you line up correctly to your target. Away from the alignment assistance, the Ai-One insert is very much appreciated because it's a premium face insert that delivers a very positive and consistent forward roll. The built-in forward press grip also helps to promote a positive roll by ensuring you strike the ball with the desired loft to get the ball rolling correctly. Hard to find any fault here. 10/10 Forgiveness and stability This is sold as the most forgiving and stable model offered by Odyssey -…

I first had input on the Continental Europe ranking in 2011 and since that point, when I had played 23 of that year's Top 100, I have been desperate to have played all of the courses on the list. I'm happy to say I have achieved that goal this time. Its importance lies not in any personal glory (though it's been very fun completing the task), but solely in the fact that it gives me the ability to compare the courses on the list as well as those just outside it (I've played 142 of the top 150). The eight I've not been to might feel hard done by, and rest assured they are on my radar. I'm definitely not the only voice on the panel, but this breadth of…

I walked the site in 2011 for the first time and loved it. Pure sand and pine trees. There were four original founders back then, and they had another architect involved. But they came back to me and Henrik in 2016, so I started doing some conceptual designs. But then, in 2018, I bought the property from them. That was a big decision! We wanted to build this at a different level from anything else in Scandinavia. Do it private, not for the sake of being private, but for the sake of delivering high-end golf. There's not many private clubs in Scandinavia. I call Sweden the Ryanair of European golf – we bring you from A to B, but there's nothing extra to it. It's very functional. We wanted to…

Name: Nicolas Colsaerts Nationality: Belgian Age: 42 Tour: DP World Tour Pro wins: 10 What was your first job? This. I turned pro on my 18th birthday and I was on tour two weeks after that. What's the most money you've gambled on the golf course? I was never really a big gambler on the golf course. Now, the question would be very different if you asked Marcel Siem, because the biggest pot I've ever seen was with Marcel. He kept on losing and losing, and then doubling up. This was back in the day and his caddie completely saved his ass by holing a 60 footer on the last to make it even, otherwise I think he would have been five or six grand down. What's your practice set…

There are lots of things to love about winter golf, and one of the best is preferred lies, formerly known as ‘winter rules’. But there are things you need to know before you pick up your ball in the middle of the fairway. Here's our guide to prepare you for winter golf, wind, and standing water on the course. You can… Prefer your lie, but only when the committee have introduced a Model Local Rule for preferred lies. Once enforced, you are entitled to free relief when your ball lies on any part of the general area cut to fairway height or less. This includes fringes, aprons and even paths through the rough when they are cut to fairway height or less (8E-3). You can't… Assume you can place the…

Shot on location at stunning LA HACIENDA LINKS GOLF RESORT, Sotogrande, home to two fantastic 18-hole championship courses. Visit www.lahaciendagolf.com If you ever wondered why getting better at golf can seem such a struggle, I have an uncomfortable truth for you; you're quite possibly going at it the wrong way round. Traditionally, we golfers have looked to improve our performance by making technical, swing changes. We make these changes in the hope they will get us to impact - golf's Moment of Truth – in better shape. Yes, it can work – but more often, the effort and focus it takes to train the new move sees us lose sight of that ultimate goal, and the process becomes laborious and frustrating. So what if we reversed this approach? What if…

Step 1: Hone your grip Our starting point here has to be a sound hold of the club. Because our hands are the only part of us in contact with the club, our ability to control the aim of its face is reliant on the quality of our grip. Grip is an area where we can easily get complacent or slip into bad habits, so double-check your hold to make sure it is near or very close to these seven neutral markers: 1. You can see two-to-three knuckles on the back of your gloved hand as you look down. 2. The Vs formed by your thumbs and forefingers point between your right ear and shoulder (right-handers). 3. The thumb of your gloved hand sits just to the right of the…

Sir Nick Faldo has rarely pandered to public opinion. As a player, he was never interested in being anyone's best friend. He didn't play to the galleries, nor did he care about being universally adored. What he did do was win – six times in Majors and another 37 times worldwide. That ruthless intensity, once dismissed as cold and calculating, has also made him one of the game's most outspoken pundits, never afraid to outwardly challenge players, tours or trends. His unwillingness to sugar-coat makes him one of golf's greatest interviews, a fact that played out during the 20 minutes we spent with him at the Belfry. As part of our wide-ranging conversation, Faldo didn't hedge, soften or duck when discussing golf's slow play policy, the Americanisation of the men's game,…

‘Better’ driving means different things to different people. The advanced golfer typically wants to add distance for shorter approaches and more birdie opportunities. At the other end of the scale, the beginner is just looking to make reasonable contact and to keep the ball out of trouble, so consistency and control tend to be the priorities. In between, by far the most common issue for the game improver is a cut or slice, so generally what's needed here is some reducing of the curvature without sacrificing any distance. We will deal with each issue in turn here, starting with the 100-breaker as usual. Of course your own driving needs may not reflect these generalisations, so take a look at the tips that are most relevant to you. But as always,…

Wrist injury is a common if relatively unreported part of golf fitness. These small and potentially weak joints are asked to absorb a huge amount of strain through the swing - partly through the momentum of the swinging, releasing club and partly through the repetitive jarring of impact, especially if we're hitting a lot of iron shots off range mats. Strengthening your wrists will not just benefit your golf, but also help you guard against a frustrating injury that can keep you away from the game for an extended period. Here is an easy and effective way to make those wrist joints more robust. All you need is something heavyish you can fit in your hand – a full water bottle works well. Always consult a qualified physician before starting…

Zero-torque putters continue to grow in popularity, and as demand increases, PXG have extended their range by adding the new Hellcat ZT. The brand now have three zero-torque models, and the Hellcat ZT enters the line-up as the cheapest, at £239 – significantly cheaper than many of its rivals. You still get a putter that's precision engineered from MIM 303 stainless steel, with a clean, streamlined design that delivers stability performance without the need for adjustable weighting. PXG's signature ‘pyramid’ face pattern enhances feel and ensures consistent roll across the face, while the hosel positions the shaft axis just above the centre of gravity, creating a toe-up balance point that increases stability and resists twisting throughout the stroke. PXG HELLCAT ZT £239 Loft: 2°-6° Lie angle: 68°-72°…

Ping iDi £269 The new iDi is engineered for control, distance and playability, featuring a Carpenter 455 steel face for high ball speeds. Its hollow construction, with strategically placed high-density weight, lowers the centre of gravity to improve launch and forgiveness. Tungsten toe weighting optimises the MOI, enhancing stability and precision. A Hydropearl chrome finish reduces friction in wet conditions for consistent performance. Callaway 2025 Apex UT £249 The new UT features new FLEXCORE technology, which is part of a six-piece construction that allows the face to flex more on low strikes, maintaining ball speed and spin. A classic iron shape helps it combine with Callaway iron sets such as the Apex Ai150 and similar profiles and is offered in lofts from 2-iron (18°) to 5-iron (24°). TaylorMade P-UDI/ P-DHY…

Do you agree with our top five and their order? Generally speaking, yes, although I feel Real Club Valderrama is worthy of inclusion. If I had to swap out one course, I would include Valderrama at the expense of Fontainebleau. The two Netherlands courses are worthy of representation within the top five. The clear number one in the panellists’ eyes (and also mine) is Morfontaine – a course I have photographed and played multiple times. It ticks all the boxes of what makes an exceptional course. How special is Morfontaine? From the time you drive through the tightly controlled entrance and along the internal long and winding driveway, assessing many of the holes you will be playing, through to the time you leave, a day at Morfontaine is one of…

There will be a new contender for the Continental Europe list in coming years, after Clayton, DeVries & Pont (CDP) were engaged to design a new course in the Galicia region of Spain. Val de Rois, south-west of the city of Santiago de Compostela, will be the partnership's first original 18-hole design in Spain and the design team will be led by European Tour winner Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (above), who joined CDP in 2022. “With the landscape, the rivers, and the heather, Val de Rois has everything needed to become a spectacular golfing destination. I am really looking forward to us breaking ground next year,” Fernandez-Castano told TG. “This represents a milestone for me personally in my development as a golf course architect and marks the beginning of a new chapter…