Golf Digest India - April 2016

APRIL 2016

THINK YOUNG | PLAY HARD

STICK IT

RICKIE

FROM ANY DISTANCE

INAUGURAL COPY

THE MASTERS ISSUE 4 shots to save par by butch harmon new ranking the world’s 100 greatest courses hero indian open 2016 india golf expo 2016 april 20-21 anirban lahiri inside the ropes swing it like the big easy by david leadbetter

▶ rickie fowler and his three wise men see page 28

Exclusive Official Media Partner INDIA

Contents 04/16

how to play. what to play. where to play.

46 58

Planet Golf 96

97

New Ranking: The World’s 100 Greatest Courses The Non-100 A case for unrated short courses—the ones you play with new friends.

Features

Play Your Best

Cover Story: ▶ Old School Three wise men, two tattoos and millennial man Rickie Fowler.

10

28

32

22

The Core Paddle boarding with Natalie Gulbis.

Rules Resolve any dispute amicably.

by Ron KaspRisKe

25

Style Your clothes are getting smarter. by maRty hacKel

26

Think Young, Play Hard Smylie Kaufman is all smiles after his first win. by stephen hennessey

27

11

Driving Lessons Sergio Garcia’s keys to distance and accuracy

46

14

Jack Nicklaus Make the smart choice on a super-long par 3

15

Hank Haney The do’s and don’ts of videoing your swing

Four Shots You Need to Know How to be ready for these tricky situations.

16

How 4 Bar Games Can Help You Play Better Golf

by butch haRmon

18

Stick it From Any Distance Try my new keys for hitting great wedges. ▶ Tiger’s Healthy Pause by jaime diaz

52

by Ron KaspRisKe 24

40

by RicKie fowleR 50

58

The Masters Issue 62 How Jordan Broke through by jaime diaz

Masterful Storyteller jim nantz with Guy yocom

Ask Golf Digest 78 80

If Augusta Ruled the World

Swing Sequence: Kevin Na He ditched his swing glitch and had a great year

20

David Leadbetter 4 steps to better tempo

39

What’s In My Bag Graeme McDowell

Inside the ropes With Anirban Lahiri by bhaRath aRvind

Hero Indian Open 2016 SSP Chawrasia delights

100 European Tour

Top 25 Under 25 & More...

108 Spotlight

U.S Groomed Golfers Excel in India

112 Player Newsmakers

Update on Indian Golfers around the world

116 Club Round Up

Latest News from your favourite courses across India

118 Upcoming Events

India Golf Expo 2016

120 Corporate Golf

Golf Gang Wars IIM Masters & Indo-Nippon Golf Cup

123 Mercedes Trophy 122 Junior Golf

Update from the junior golf tours

by dan jenKins

124 Tête-à-tête

Zoom in for an intimate look at the Masters

130 18 Holes

by dan winteRs 88

by eRiKa laRKin

▶ Drop More Putts Here’s how the great putters practice. by daRRen may

70

India Digest

Tom Watson My drill for grooving a stroke you can repeat

by jaime diaz

by david owen

The Golf Life

40

with Ernie Els with H.R. Srinivasan

The Shark’s Collapse 20 years later

by sam weinman

Cover photograph by Walter Iooss Jr.

april 2016 | golfdigest india

3

Editor’s Letter T

Dear Readers,

his inaugural issue of the new and improved Golf Digest comes after a seven month break in India. When we heard that the magazine was discontinued in India by its previous publishers, we shared the collective concern expressed by fellow golfers. A world class magazine with best in class original content and relevant, insightful local news and information acts as a catalyst for the growth of a sport. Golf, as we know, has a long way to go in our country. Together with your support, we intend to make Golf Digest India a part of that growth story.

We at Golf Digest India are motivated to bring you the best golf instruction available anywhere in the world. Consider that this issue carries new insights

by Jack Nicklaus, David Leadbetter, Hank Haney, Tom Watson, Butch Harmon, Rickie Fowler and more!

We will go out of our way to keep you informed on news you can use and updates on significant achievements, happenings and developments across the country. Wherever you may be in India, you will now get to know about performances by emerging Indian champions no matter where in the world these performances occur, about new golf course developments, course upgrades, upcoming events and tournaments of importance. You will get to know the people who are shaping the future of the game in our part of the world.

But more importantly, we want you to tell us what you love and what you don’t. What you want to read about. Any suggestions on what we can do to make your golf experience and your golf magazine better. We will be constantly updating and innovating to give you the best product. The magazine, like this great game, ultimately belongs to you – the golfer.

You can reach me at rishi@teamgolfdigest.com or on Twitter @RishiNarain_.

Enjoy the read!

Rishi Narain Editor-in-Chief

CONTACT US Subscriptions yamini@teamgolfdigest.com Phone: +91-124-4961200 Marketing & Advertising nikhil@teamgolfdigest.com Phone: +91-124-4961200

4 golfdigest india | april 2016

TEAM GOLF DIGEST INDIA Editor-in-Chief Rishi Narain Editor Bharath Arvind bharath@teamgolfdigest.com

Publisher Rishi Narain Golf Managament 501 Sushant Tower, Sector 56, Gurgaon- 122011 Phone: +91-124-4961200 Printing & Design Thomson Press India Ltd.

A

LL

SP

EE

D

LARGER CENTER LARGER CENTER DUAL CORE DUAL CORE TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY

FA

ST

B

I N N OVAT I O N

N X T TO U R

SO

F

LONGER LONGER DISTANCE DISTANCE

NXT TOUR S

SOFTER FEEL SOFTER FEEL ON ALL SHOTS ON ALL SHOTS

©2016 Acushnet Company

R TE

C

E OR

SOFTER SOFTER FUSABLEND FUSABLEND COVER COVER

T HAT

NEW

NXT

M A T T E R S.

TOUR

AND

NXT

TOUR

S

Experience technology that can help you shoot lower scores. NXT Tour has a new, larger center dual core designed to produce low spin and fast ball speed for even longer driver and iron distance. This new core technology combines with a soft Fusablend cover for excellent shot stopping control and soft feel.

NXT Tour S has a new softer core and cover formulation producing its softest feel yet. Along with remarkably softer feel, NXT Tour S delivers outstanding distance in the long game and commanding scoring performance for precision in the shor t game. Your game matters and this is performance innovation that matters.

titleist.asia The #1 choice in golf.

Practice Tee Tom Watson

The Path to More Pars and Birdies My two-tee drill will improve your accuracy ost amateurs I see spend a great deal of time focused on the break of a putt and, to a lesser extent, the speed. Those are key fundamentals for sure, but equally important is making a good stroke.

Swinging the putterhead on a consistent path will help you start the ball on the line you pick.

To groove your stroke, try my two-tee drill. Find a straight putt and stand 10 feet from the cup on that line. Set the putterhead down facing the hole, and stick two tees in the green—one just outside the toe of the putter and the other just outside the heel.

The tees create a gate (right) that you’ll have to swing the putterhead through to keep it on a straight path to the hole.

Once you can routinely make practice strokes where the putterhead swings through the gate without touching either tee, set a ball between them and hit some putts (below). Miss the tees, and you’ll start filling up the cup.

ELEMENTARY WATSON One of the reasons target shooters are so accurate is that they work on controlling their breathing. Take a cue from them when you hit putts. Make a couple of practice strokes, then address the ball. Inhale deeply and start to breathe out—but hold it about halfway and stroke the putt. I’ve found over the years that I putt significantly better when I breathe like this.

Excerpted from the DVD “Lessons of a Lifetime II,”

by Tom Watson.

10 golfdigest india | april 2016

Photographs by J.D. Cuban

illustration: mike lynch • Polo golf: shirt, $90, Pants, $198 • ralPh l auren: belt, $495

M

edited by peter morrice

Play

Sergio on Driving Simple tips for boosting power and control

whether he’s being humble, matter-of-fact or simply doesn’t want to reveal the secrets of his extraordinary ball-striking, Sergio Garcia rarely talks swing mechanics. He’s a “feel player,” he says, and tries to keep things as simple as possible: Focus on the target and then make a confident swing. But when pressed on how he has been able to sustain remarkable distance and accuracy off the tee, El Niño, now in his 18th year as a pro, did share some telling insights. Here’s what he had to say. —with ron kaspriske Photographs by J.D. Cuban

april 2016 | golfdigest india

11

Play Your Best Driving by Sergio Garcia

My thought from the top: Imagine you’re pulling a chain SETUP

TAKEAWAY

I like to feel tall and relaxed at address.

A lot of golfers hunch over the ball and really tense up, which restricts the whole motion.

You want to be athletic, never rigid. I check my address posture all the time.

Start back with your body, arms and club moving together. When you reach this point, let your right elbow fold and your wrists start to hinge the club up.

That keeps you swinging on the plane you set at address.

DOWNSWING

IMPACT

Coming down, the only thought I’ve ever used is one my dad taught me: Feel like you’re pulling a chain down with both hands. That keeps you from releasing the club early. Let the clubhead lag behind and then whip it through.

Look at the position of the butt of my grip compared with the last photo: It went from pointing down to pointing up.

I’m letting the club release.

Amateurs often force the club down to impact.

Try to stay loose and let it gain momentum.

12 golfdigest india | april 2016

down with both hands.

BACKSWING

AT THE TOP

As you wind up, you want your front shoulder turning down.

This is a power move, because it helps create more torque in your body that you can release coming down.

It also helps you hit the ball from the inside.

That’s where your power is.

My swing is more compact than it used to be—you can see I’m not quite to parallel—and that helps my control. It’s important to not be in a hurry to get down to the ball. Finish what you’re doing going back, or your swing will be out of sync.

POST-IMPACT

FINISH

When tour players talk about staying down through the shot, this is what they mean.

The ball is long gone, and I’m still basically in the same posture I was at impact. If you struggle to hit the ball solid, focus on staying down longer.

Your tempo determines how you finish. If you swing wildly, your finish will look off-balance and incomplete.

Try to move the club fastest at impact, not before. Sync this with your body rotation, and you’ll maximize distance and accuracy.

+ ADIDAS shirt, $80, pants, $85, shoes, $200, belt, $20, hat, $28, glove, $20

Play Your Best Fixed on Twitter by Hank Haney

29% 14% 13%

44%

How often 5 have you seen HDCP your swing on video? ▶ A bunch of times ▶ My phone’s outta space ▶ Never ▶ Once, and it scared me

42% 34%

SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST READERS

what are the things I get asked the most about on Twitter? Tiger Woods and your golf swing.

We’ll save Tiger for another day, but if you want help with your swing, here are a few tips for shooting it that will help me—or whoever’s looking—provide useful advice.

The two main ways to look at the swing are face-on (directly across from the player) and down the line (aiming the camera downrange). Both angles have their advantages.

Face-on shows some setup angles, the grip, body position and weight shift, but it isn’t the best view for a thorough diagnosis.

If you’re picking one angle, shoot down the line, from behind the player looking at the target (left). Set the camera about chest high and on an imaginary line halfway between the ball and the feet. Make sure it’s far enough back so the whole club is visible throughout the backswing. Have a friend hold the camera, or clip it to your bag or cart.

From there, you can see the club swing in relation to the target and where the ball starts in relation to where you’re aiming. I’m looking for the thing that causes your big miss. You don’t have to see—or fix—everything, but an accurate video is important.

How to Video Your Swing Make sure you get these details right 14 golfdigest india | april 2016

hand: dom furore • pga tour pl ayer brian davis: j.d. cuban

Hank Haney is based at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch, Lewisville, Texas. To get fixed in Golf Digest, send Hank your swing on Twitter: @HankHaney.

Strategy by Jack Nicklaus

Play Your Best

“Sometimes the yardage to the green doesn’t matter.”

Bear of a Par 3 Will you take on the big bunker? n a long par 3, don’t let the yardage intimidate you. Often there’s no need to carry the ball all the way to the middle of the green.

Take the third hole at the Pronghorn Club (illustrated) in Bend, Ore., which tips at 253 yards and is typically set a hair over 200 yards for the members.

This is a basic design model I’ve used on many of my courses—a large, raised bunker guarding a low green with assistance available to the shorter hitter.

What kind of assistance? If you don’t feel comfortable flying the ball all the way to the green, simply carry it past that high bunker and allow the downslope leading to the green to feed it there. Or, play away from the bunker and leave a simple chip shot.

None of these three strategies is the most correct. All that matters is what plays to your strong suit at that particular moment.

—with max adler

O

AVOID DISASTER There’s no shame in playing to here. The worst mistake is leaving a lengthy sand shot, so taking on that massive bunker on the right isn’t always smart. The left side of this fairway sits below the green, so you won’t be able to run one on from the tee. But you can chip your second shot close to set up an easy par; odds are you won’t make worse than 4.

If you’re cruising along nicely, a bogey might be all you need to keep that good round going.

LOOK FOR THE HELP When I can, I generally prefer to hit a long iron than any sort of hybrid or wood into a green. (My potential for dispersion is wider on my clubs with headcovers.) Because this downslope beyond the bunker will propel a ball toward the green, you can choose a shorter club. Into a strong wind, a low punch shot that just carries the bunker might be a smarter play than ballooning a longer club into the sky.

CARRY WITH CONFIDENCE Standing on the tee, you might be having the day’s first frank discussion about how far your fairway wood or longest iron—maybe even your driver—is carrying. That’s good.

Ball-striking is like the weather, even for great players. Only a stubborn fool believes his clubs fly the same distances every day.

If you feel up to carrying the ball straight to the green, great. No need to make this hole any more complicated than one good swing.

Illustration by Chris O’Riley

everything in the bag Sometimes the world’s best have to swing serious lumber on par 3s, too. On the PGA Tour, a good example is No. 4 at Riviera Country Club. That hole tips at 236 yards and has a giant bunker on the left, putting the lay-up shot to the right. In my days playing the L.A. Open there, it was usually a decision between my 1-iron and 3-wood. I liked the 1-iron, because I always felt the long irons were an advantage for me.

april 2016 | golfdigest india

15

Play Your Best Practice Games

1

Better Golf on Tap Finally, those bar skills pay off by erika larkin

very teacher looks for ways to give students a familiar feel to connect with their golf games. It doesn’t get much more familiar than bar games, many of which involve skills that translate nicely to golf.

Consider the moves and concepts from these four common games—darts, cornhole, poker

16 golfdigest india | april 2016

E

and Ping-Pong—that can simplify and improve your approach to the full swing, short game and on-course strategy. All it takes is some imagination and maybe a few cheap props.

The best part is that you probably use all of these skills without even thinking about them. That will make them a lot

easier to remember and reference when you’re holding a golf club out on the course—where you really need a simple, clear swing thought.

So go ahead and toil over these assignments with the adult beverage of your choice. Call it happy hour. For your golf game.

—with matthew rudy Photographs by Dom Furore

%

In which game do you think good golfers tend to excel? ▶ Ping-Pong: 41% ▶ Cornhole: 33% ▶ Darts: 14% ▶ Cards: 12% SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST READERS

1. GOING FOR THE BULL’S-EYE

The most important part of the swing happens at the bottom, when the clubhead releases through the ball and into the turf. If you release early, you cast away your power. If you release late, you won’t square the face.

To develop your sense of timing, throw darts at a board on the ground in front of you (previous page). Feel when the dart has to leave your fingers to hit the board. Too early, and you’ll miss behind it. Too late, and you’ll throw the dart down the range.

2. SHORT SHOTS ARE A TOSS-UP

Even if you don’t know a thing about cornhole—my favorite bar game—it makes sense that you need to hold the beanbag palmup to toss it into the air, right?

Your short game works on the same idea. Let your arms swing naturally and your body move dynamically in response. Think of your lower hand coming through impact with the palm facing upward. If you turn that hand—and the clubface—down, you’ll lose loft and dig the club’s leading edge into the ground.

3. PLAY THE HAND YOU’RE DEALT

Poker doesn’t have much physical action, but the decisions you make are similar to the ones you face on the course. You might get dealt great cards early but then run into trouble, or a bad hand might be saved by good cards at the end. In both games, stay patient and measured in your emotions. For every striped drive that ends up in a divot, there’s a pull-hook that sits up perfectly in the rough. One more tip: Know when to fold ’em and just get the ball back in play.

2

+ PUMA shirt, $60 skirt, $60 shoes, $80 glove, $22

3

4

4. GETTING A FEEL FOR THE FACE

In golf, the clubhead is far from your hands, which can make it hard to see the relationship between them. You don’t have the same problem with a Ping-Pong paddle. You wouldn’t hold it with your hand wrapped under the grip or around on top. You want your palm to mirror the face for maximum control. Go for the same connection when you set your grip on a golf club.

Erika Larkin runs the Larkin Golf Learning Community, Bristow, Va.

Play Your Best Swing Sequence evin Na might be most remembered as the tour pro who couldn’t hit the ball. Witness several “whiffs” on tee shots a few years back, when he would get stuck on the downswing and pull up just before impact, purposely missing the ball.

TV commentators called it the driver yips.

“I just wasn’t confident in my swing mechanics,” says the 32-year-old native of

K

Kevin Na Turning a bizarre swing glitch into motivation

18 golfdigest india | april 2016

South Korea. Na knew something had to change, so he returned to teacher Don Brown of Wilmington, Calif., whom he started with at 15. Student and teacher went to work, and three years later, the results are impressive.

Na credits a combination of new learning and overcoming old habits. For instance, he was taught as a kid to swing out to right field, an outdated concept they’ve worked

to erase. “He has the opposite problem from the average golfer [who cuts across the ball],” Brown says. “I simply want him to keep his arms following his body through the shot.”

Brown says Na’s work ethic has made the difference. He has eight second-place finishes to go with a victory at the Las Vegas event in 2011. After three top-3s in late 2015, Na is ready to win again. —roger schiffman

SOLID CENTER

WINDING THE SPRING

QUIET AT THE TOP

At address and starting back, Kevin Na is the epitome of balance. “Both side to side and front to back, he finds his center,” says his teacher, Don Brown.

“But I would like to see a little wider base.”

Brown says amateurs should take note: “Kevin’s trunk and arms start together. That promotes consistency.”

Brown doesn’t use the term “turn” to describe body motion—he thinks it promotes the right shoulder coming over and around on the downswing. “Kevin winds his shoulders, then unwinds them,” Brown says. “His lower body is very stable, knees staying flexed.

He has really refined his backswing.”

Notice you can see the butt end of the grip, indicating that Na chokes down for control. “There’s a reason a baseball bat has a knob,” Brown says. “It’s so you don’t grab it at the end.”

Brown notes that LPGA star Lydia Ko does the same. He says it keeps the club quiet at the top, no “bouncing” of the shaft or clubhead.

▶ DRIVING ACCURACY

62.5%

Kevin Na (84th)

▶ SCRAMBLING >30 YARDS

61.7%

76.9%

40.7%

28.2%

48.5%

Tour average

Francesco Molinari (1st)

Kevin Na (4th)

Tour average

Henrik Stenson (1st) S O U RC E : S H OT L I N K ( 2 0 1 5 )

NO BALKING HERE

STAYING BEHIND IT

ALL TOGETHER NOW

PRO-FILE

Making a freeflowing downswing is no longer a problem for Na. “Notice his head position has changed from the previous photo,” Brown says. “He tilts back a little, which allows him to hit up on the ball.” Brown says he’d like Na’s right knee to stay back a little longer. “I want him to keep that stability with the lower body.”

At impact, the clubface is dead square. “That’s the most important thing in golf,” Brown says.

“Kevin does it by moving his arms and body in sync and having his left wrist flat at impact.” For lower-body support, Brown says, “I like the back heel to stay close to the ground at least halfway through the downswing.”

According to Brown, most golfers would improve if they tried to swing the arms past the body.

Na stays behind the ball and pushes up through impact, which boosts his swing speed. Brown says Na keeps his arms on his trunk better than he used to. “His arms follow his body through, and he’s picture-perfect at the finish.”

kevin na 32 / 5-11 / 167 pounds Las Vegas driver Titleist 915D3 9.5 degrees ball Titleist Pro V1x

+ TITLEIST visor, $22 FOOTJOY shoes, $180

Photographs by Dom Furore

Practice Tee David Leadbetter

Finish Strong Swing it like The Big Easy fter all these years, Ernie Els still swings the club like he’s out for a Sunday stroll. There’s real power and effort behind his tee shots, but you’d never know that if you judged his swing only by its tempo. On the flip side, many amateurs take a wild hack at the ball, like it just insulted a family member. If you want a smooth-looking swing like The Big Easy’s, follow these steps to better tempo.

1. SQUEEZE, THEN RELAX

2. REMEMBER TO BREATHE

3. FEEL THE CLUB’S WEIGHT

4. DON’T SKIMP GOING BACK

▶ Tension breeds poor tempo. It starts with a tight grip. To feel how lightly you should hold the club, squeeze the handle as hard as you can, then relax. Sense the lightness, especially in your forearms.

▶ Quick test: Take a deep breath and hold it. Do you feel some of your muscles tightening? This is the opposite of your goal when you swing.

Exhale to relax the muscles before starting the club back.

▶ Instead of standing still, waggling the club by moving your wrists back and forth is a great ignition for your swing.

But it also helps you feel the weight of the clubhead— important for a fluid motion.

▶ Complete the windup of your backswing to avoid the urge to swing down aggressively as a compensation.

You don’t want to ruin your rhythm and tempo. A full backswing leads to a smooth through-swing.

A

David Leadbetter is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional.

20 golfdigest india | april 2016

Photograph by J.D. Cuban

illustrations by todd detwiler • Jos a . bank: shirt, $115 Call away: Glove, $25 • rolex: watCh

Nothing wrong with posing after you’ve nailed a tee shot.

edited by ron kaspriske

THE CORE

Sea Worthy Why golfers like Natalie Gulbis say this is their favorite exercise helicopter hovering over the ocean is rarely a good sign.

Recent sightings of at least one hammerhead shark off the coast of Newport Beach, Calif., made a lot of people skittish about getting into the water this past fall, and the sound of rotor blades one October morning made LPGA Tour member Natalie Gulbis even more alarmed.

“They’re looking for the shark. Maybe we should head over to the harbor instead of getting in the water here,” said Gulbis, repeating the suggestion to reinforce the urgency.

The California native knows how to read ocean danger like

A

a 20-foot double breaker, so her concerns were justified. She had come down to the water that day, just walking distance from her home with husband Josh Rodarmel, to discuss and demonstrate the benefits of stand-up paddle boarding for golfers. She has been a convert to the sport since Davis Love III showed her how to do it off the coast of Sea Island, Ga., in 2010. Gulbis says she’ll paddle every day when she’s on a break from the tour and even squeeze in a session or two during a tournament week at a warm-weather location.

On this day, it looked like the mission would be scrubbed, but then things took a fortuitous turn. “Look, look,” she shouted.

“It’s a dolphin!” No more than 50 yards from the beach, the profile

22 golfdigest india | april 2016

of a dolphin could be seen surfacing multiple times. Gulbis scrambled for her iPhone to get a shot, but the sighting was more significant than that—at least for her. The presence of dolphins typically puts surfers’ minds at ease, because many believe sharks keep their distance when dolphins are present. True or not, it was the clincher for Gulbis to paddle out past the high surf and show off her technique.

“I do a lot of things to stay in shape—jog, yoga, lift weights— but paddle boarding is one of my favorite things by far,” says Gulbis, who joined the LPGA in 2002 and has one victory. “I’ve had three back surgeries and a procedure on my hip, and the last was five years ago. I’ve had no back problems since I began paddle boarding. This past year was the first year on tour in like a decade where I didn’t pull out of an event because of an injury.”

If you’ve never seen or tried paddle boarding, the easiest way to explain how it’s done is that you stand and balance yourself face forward on an oversize surfboard (up to 14 feet long) and use an extra-long paddle to row

along the water. To navigate, you have to alternate which side of the board you paddle.

Gulbis said she got the goahead to start paddle boarding from her swing coach, Butch Harmon, who had seen a handful of his players use it to stay in shape and avoid injuries. Because golf is a sport that promotes muscular imbalance—most players swing the club only right-handed or left-handed—paddle boarding is a way to strengthen the muscles that get neglected.

“It can be an effective crosstraining tool for golfers,” says Golf Digest fitness advisor Ben Shear. “It’s a diagonal movement pattern with many physical benefits that transfer well to golf. It improves posture and proprioception, core stability, muscular balance and endurance.”

Gulbis says when she paddle boards, she’ll often wear her Fitbit fitness-tracking band, and it tells her she’s burning about 600 calories an hour on the water.

“I definitely got leaner the more I did it,” she says. “But the thing I like best about it is that a lot of things I do to stay fit are tedious. But not paddle boarding. It’s what I like to call ‘fun fitness.’ ” —Ron KaspRisKe

“I’ve had no back problems since I began paddle boarding.”

+ Apparel by ADIDAS

Photograph by J.D. Cuban

The Golf Life Rules

Play Nice How to resolve any rules dispute amicably olf is a game rooted in polite behavior, but there are times when a disagreement over the rules creates an uncomfortable situation with an opponent or fellow-competitor. Unlike tour pros, you don’t have the luxury of being followed around the course by a rules official who can quickly resolve a dispute. So in those times when a violation might have occurred but no official is handy to render a judgment, follow this step-by-step procedure to keep things civil.

G

—Ron KaspRisKe

24 golfdigest india | april 2016

match play

1

decide if it’s worth it Although opponents can’t agree to waive a rule, you can disregard a potential rules breach by an opponent. An example: You can’t decide to ignore stroke-and-distance penalties for shots hit out-of-bounds.

If you do, you’re both disqualified. But if you see your opponent take an improper drop after hitting a shot O.B., it’s your choice if you want to ignore the violation.

2

make a claim If you’re troubled by something, let your opponent know you think a rules violation might have occurred as soon as you’re aware of it.

That might be awkward, but it’s important.

You must do it before anyone in the match tees off on the next hole, or before all players leave the putting green of the last hole.

The only time you can make a claim after that is if the facts of the situation weren’t known at the time the hole was completed, and you had been given wrong information by your opponent.

3

continue the match Whatever the claim is about, once you’ve said your piece, you have to move on and complete the match. You can resolve the matter and adjust the results of the match after the round by checking the Rules of Golf or talking to the Committee.

stroke play

1

see something? say something It’s good sportsmanship to let a fellow-competitor know a violation might have occurred before he or she makes another stroke. If there is disagreement or uncertainty about how to proceed, that golfer can finish the hole with two balls using two procedures. However, once that golfer has taken further action with the original ball, such as making another stroke, playing a second ball is no longer an option.

2

step aside After informing a fellowcompetitor that you think a violation has occurred, that person has to decide how to proceed. Assuming no further action was taken with the original ball, he or she can announce the intention to finish the hole with two balls and choose which one should count if the rules permit. Or the golfer can continue play the original ball in the manner he or she thinks is best.

3

finish the round The golfer who potentially committed the rules violation needs to alert the Committee of the dispute before turning in the scorecard or face disqualification. Regardless of whether two balls were played, a ruling needs to be made on what happened on that hole and which penalties might apply to that golfer’s score.

Illustration by Paul Blow

Style by Marty Hackel

1

The Golf Life

2

polotech shirt

Smart Clothes Bring a little science to your golf get-up

▶ A sensor on this snug T-shirt records fitness data such as heart rate, steps taken, calories burned. Monitor your vitals with an iPhone or iPad using PoloTech’s app. It also tracks breathing depth and balance.

If you wear it when you play, you can review how nervous or fatigued you were during key moments. + $295, ralphlauren.com

gyde vest

▶ Four battery-powered heating elements in the lining of the Calor vest can raise its temperature to 135 degrees. Perfect for winter golf. Just don’t store a golf ball in its pockets after heating it (against the rules). + $300, gydesupply.com

3

puma golf shoes

▶ The insoles of the Titantour Ignite are designed to help you walk 18 holes comfortably and to regulate temperature inside the shoe by absorbing, storing and releasing heat. + $160, puma.com

The PoloTech shirt’s app lets you review fitness data such as effort, oxygen intake and breathing quality.

10

under armour pullover

▶ The Coldgear Infrared Fleece quarter-zip pullover helps you stay warm on chilly days without having to wear too many layers. Its coated lining wicks sweat and absorbs and retains body heat. + $70, underarmour.com

Photograph by David Brandon Geeting

april 2016 | golfdigest india

25

vest: jeffrey westbrook • pullover, shoes: courtesy of companies

4

The Golf Life Think Young, Play Hard

“I still live with my parents, sleeping in my same old twin bed.”

It’s All Smiles How could it not be when you’re a tour winner at age 24?

▶

smylie isn’t a nickname. It’s my real name. And it has great meaning.

My grandmother’s cousin was Smylie Gebhart, an All-American defensive end for Georgia Tech in the 1970s. My dad and granddad used to stop by Smylie’s house in Meridian, Miss., and my dad enjoyed his company so much, he gave me his name.

Smylie died when I was 10. It’s an honor to have him as my namesake.

age 24 home birmingham, ala. ▶ Young players winning PGA Tour events has happened a lot lately. Five of the tour’s six fall events of 2015 were won by first-time champs. Still, Kaufman’s victory at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in October stands out. He shot a final-round 61 to win in only the second tournament of his rookie season. The graduate of LSU qualified for the PGA Tour by winning on the Web.com Tour earlier in 2015. —STEPHEN HENNESSEY

▶ my little brother is luckie.

That’s a family name, too. I had Luckie caddie for me when I qualified for the 2014 U.S. Open. I missed the cut, but that experience was a game-changer. To see that most pros hit the ball similar to how I do, I realized I can hang with these guys. ▶ the magnitude of winning in the second PGA Tour event of my rookie year still hasn’t hit me. I don’t know what it was, but I was in a different mind-set that day.

Nobody could get me out of that zone. I’ve never been the type of golfer to get scared once I get it going. I’m an aggressive player, and I thrive in those situations. ▶ growing up, some kids called me Frownie because when things don’t go my way, Frownie comes out. I’m a supercompetitive dude and always want to win.

I try to not let people see him. ▶ not every pro golfer lives with his parents. I’m keeping it simple. The biggest perk? My mom still does my laundry. ▶ my story is different from most young guys out here. A lot of them, like Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas, have been good forever. They’ve never gone through a tough patch. I’ve been the opposite.

I struggled to be consistent in college [LSU], but then I figured it out my senior year. My swing was always pretty, but I’ve simplified it with swing coach Tony Ruggiero. Now, I can pull off any shot. ▶ i met my girlfriend in high-school chemistry. You can say it was real chemistry—we’ve been going out ever since. She was a cheerleader at Auburn, so whenever LSU and Auburn played each other, it was fun. My parents played golf for LSU, so I’ve been a lifelong fan. ▶ how much do i love LSU football?

This past fall, my formula was to try to barely make the cut so I could play early on Saturday and finish in time to watch their games. Every time that happened, I played well in the third round—including when I won. So my strategy worked out.

26 golfdigest india | april 2016

Michael cohen/getty iMages • RlX golf: shiRt, $90, pants, $165 • footjoy: shoes • sRiXon: hat, $35

smylie kaufman

Ask Golf Digest

The Golf Life

am i normal? ▶ I know I hit only two greens in regulation each round, but I insist on knowing every pin location. Is this pointless?

hotdogs: jesse l anham • spot illustration: mike lynch • lovestruck: noma bar

Q

Do the pros warm up for tournaments using the same golf balls they play during a round or regular range balls? a ndrew w y k ur z, meTca Lfe, onTa rio

True story: Golf Digest used to own a range off the New Jersey Turnpike.

One day, a guy walks into the shop and asks for two buckets of range balls. The attendant says “That will be $12.” The guy hands over $12, walks out of the shop, puts the buckets in a beatup car and drives away. We bring this up because pros can pretty much do the same thing at every tour stop. Only they don’t have to fork over $12, the balls are new, and the car is made in Germany.

No matter which ball a pro plays, there are bags of that make and model. These bags are usually found on a table by the range, and the pros can take as many as they want. They use their own balls when they practice putting, but they get those for free, too. If only we had it so good. Which reminds us, if you see a guy selling golf balls at a highway rest stop, would you give us a call?

A

Illustration by Carolyn Ridsdale

I keep landing my shots short of my course’s elevated greens despite using a range finder. What gives?

Javier ramirez, Laredo, Texas

▶▶▶ First, we applaud your honesty.

Most golfers blame coming up short on their caddie, partner, 7-iron, barometric pressure, global warming or President Obama. The reason lies in your question, says Rob Akins, Golf Digest teaching professional.

“If you’re using a range finder to get a yardage to an elevated green, keep in mind it’s going to play longer than the yardage you get,” Akins says. “When you hit into an elevated green, the ball doesn’t stay in the air as long as it would hitting into a flat green, and that means it won’t go as far.” Next time, select at least one club longer than normal. Still short? Now you can blame Akins.

Who decides the colors of a course’s stakes?

Jim Gmur, cenTraL PoinT, ore.

▶▶▶ The color of stakes and lines that define boundaries and hazard margins are determined by the Rules of Golf in its Definitions section. It’s mandatory to use yellow to define water hazards and red for lateral water hazards, but any color can be used for defining out-ofbounds—though white is de rigueur. Frankly, we’d like to see something in tangerine tango or rich razzleberry. That being said, if you’re wondering who decides where the stakes are placed, it’s up to those in charge of the course. Although Mr. Johnson did have some influence on the addition of those white stakes near his petunia garden on No. 8. lovestruck Do you have a story in which golf is the reason you met someone and fell in love?

Maybe the starter at your course serendipitously paired you, or you found yourselves next to each other at the range one night. If you have a romantic tale of love and golf, we’d like to hear it. Send a brief email to lovestruck@golfdigest.com, and you could be featured in a future issue.

To quote Gordon Gekko of “Wall Street” fame, “The most valuable commodity I know of is information.” We agree. Whether you are a good enough golfer to capitalize on the information should not deter you from obtaining it. Do you have any idea how many times Thomas Edison struck out on his ideas before he invented the light bulb? What’s that? He didn’t invent the light bulb? Never mind.

Just remember that a prepared golfer is a dangerous golfer.

Keep checking.

QUICK HITS ▶ New Year’s Resolution? Order fewer hot dogs at the turn. ▶ How many less?

At least one. ▶ Chili? We prefer it hot.

Submit your burning questions here: ask@golfdigest.com or on Twitter @GolfDigest

april 2016 | golfdigest india

27

28 golfdigest.com | april 2016

old

THREE WISE MEN, TWO TATTOOS & MILLENNIAL MAN RICKIE FOWLER by jaime dia z

school Photographs by Walter Iooss Jr.

29

Tanaka walks outside the gallery ropes of the pro-am in Scottsdale, quietly aware that most eyes and many cellphones are on his grandson, Rickie Fowler. ▶ A female voice cries out, “Rickie, be in my selfie!” Fowler, 27, looks up, aligns himself visually with a boisterous group, strikes an Instagram-proven pose, awaits squeals of affirmation, and moves on, golf’s millennial man in full. ▶ By coincidence it’s Wednesday, the day of the week that Tanaka, after retiring from his flame-cutting steel company in Southern California 24 years ago, would set aside to give his then-3-year-old grandson the choice between spending a few hours at an Inland Empire fishing hole or at the rustically pure Murrieta Valley Driving Range, learning golf. Before the tradition ended with Fowler going off to Oklahoma State on a golf scholarship, Tanaka got to a 10-handicap and his grandson was shooting 62s to win high school tournaments. ▶ “Good days,” says the 77-year-old in the faint Western twang often developed in an area with high-desert backdrops favored by Hollywood for cowboy movies. “Rickie took all our quarters on the putting green, and he found out he had a gift. It was wonderful to watch.”

30 golfdigest india | april 2016

Rickie Fowler with his grandfather, Yutaka Tanaka.

criticized Tom Watson in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. team’s latest loss of the Ryder Cup, Fowler nobly stood up for his largely abandoned captain.

When Fowler won in Abu Dhabi in January, he sent champagne to the media room, à la Tony Lema. After the victory lifted him to No. 4 in the world, Fowler resisted the media’s urging to declare The Big Three of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy was now The Big Four. “We’ve got to take care of a major,” Fowler said, “and then maybe I can join the crew.”

According to the tournament director of the John Deere Classic, which Fowler has skipped the past five years, he even says “no” with a well-mannered empathy. “Rickie was brought up in a humble home where he was never crowned,” says Clair Peterson, “and it shows.”

gro unded from hardship lderly mentors have mattered. The first was Tanaka, his maternal grandfather, who as a young boy was taken with his family to a World War II Japanese internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyo., displaced from Pomona, Calif., where his father had a small poultry business after emigrating from Japan.

“I was so young, I didn’t understand the hardship,” Tanaka says. “Even after the war, we weren’t allowed to come back to California for two years and ended up going to New York state. My father was able to keep a business going and bring us back, but some of our friends lost everything. My parents hardly ever mentioned it, and I never talked to Rickie about it.”

It’s why he was surprised and moved when his grandson had Tanaka’s name in Japanese tattooed on the inside of his left biceps. “I thought, Wow, that’s a tender place; had to hurt,” he laughs before becoming emotional. “Rickie did that with a deep feeling. It touched me pretty good.”

Tanaka is dismissive of the idea that his grandson was the beneficiary of any special wisdom from “Wednesdays with Taka.”

“I would pick him up at 2 o’clock on a school day, and

E

COURTESY OF FOWLER FAMILY

yutaka

The man called Taka by family and friends is lean and spry, wearing hand-me-down Pumalogoed golf shirts from a certain three-time PGA Tour winner that happen to fit him pretty well. He and his wife, Jeannie, get to about half a dozen of their grandson’s tournaments a year, although it has gotten harder to see Rickie as his galleries have grown. This pro-am should afford some clearer views, as well as allow him access inside the ropes if he chooses.

But Tanaka stays outside them, sitting on a portable seat, feeling uneasy about being a possible distraction. “Rickie’s got a lot of people he has to attend to today,” he says. Tanaka even declines the privilege when Fowler reaches the famed par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, where the grandfather could have entered the eerily cavernous enclosure through the players’ entrance to get an up-close view of his grandson getting a gladiator’s welcome.

“It’s all right,” Tanaka says.

“What I really like is to see how he treats all the little ones who run up to him wearing orange with the big caps. He just has the touch with kids, and he knows it gives him the chance to motivate them to something better, not just golf.” Tanaka was especially proud to learn that Fowler had honored his commitment to put on a junior clinic for The First Tee of San Diego the Monday after winning in Abu Dhabi, going from plane to tee in 18 hours covering 8,500 miles. “True golfers give back,” Tanaka says.

For all of Fowler’s flash— he’s expanding golf’s fashion boundaries to include high-tops with ankle straps under skinnyfit joggers—at his core, he’s old school. When his frequent practice-round partner and friend Phil Mickelson publicly

+ PUMA shirt, $70, pants, $85, belt, $22, shoes, $180, hat, $26

rickie has learned from his grandfather: ‘it’s the way i try to be.’

ROLEX watch, $75,000

april 2016 | golfdigest.com

31

get HOW TO HIT WEDGES TIGHT

all gutter credit tk

we just did things together,” he says. “He didn’t talk much, mostly just watched. When we fished, he did everything right, and he had that patience where he didn’t mind if he didn’t catch anything. In golf, we were both beginners, but he could hit the ball, and he could concentrate, and he had drive. Those things came from his parents [Rod and Lynn Fowler], not me.”

Fowler says his grandfather underestimates his influence: “Being around him gave me an attitude toward life. He’s always in a good mood. He loves having people around him.

He treats people the right way.

Loves life. He’s just . . . happy.

It’s the way I try to be.”

Tanaka made sure to keep his distance from Rickie’s development in golf. Fowler played in his first tournaments at 4½, and at 7 he began taking lessons at the Murrieta range from Barry McDonnell, whose deep roots in the game emanated from his grandfather, John Gilholm Sr., from North Berwick, Scotland, who served as the head pro at the Country Club of New Bedford in Massachusetts for almost 40 years. After growing up caddieing at the club, McDonnell moved to Los Angeles, where he was an assistant pro at now-defunct Fox Hills Golf Club, fabled for its money games and for being the club where the nation’s best black professionals were granted practice privileges after the club was picketed by protestors of the PGA of America’s old “Caucasian only” clause. McDonnell saw all manner of self-made top players with idiosyncratic swings and developed a teaching philosophy that allowed for individual differences.

McDonnell never used a video camera or even alignment sticks, leading Fowler to say he was taught “like it was 1950 instead of 1995.” The two would have long sessions under a pepper tree McDonnell picked out from a nursery across the street that became “the Hogan Tree,” the teacher sometimes calling the diminutive Fowler “Little Hawk.”

The owner of the range, Please turn to page 38

32 golfdigest india | april 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

over

by rickie fowler

FROM ANY DISTANCE

gutter credit tk

it Photograph by First Lastname

april 2016 | golfdigest.com

33

i already feel a lot more comfortable on the course than I did last year. My priority now is to

win a major, and I plan on being in the mix on the big Sundays in 2016. ▶ One reason I’m confident is that we have a plan. Butch Harmon and I went through the 2015 stats, and one thing really jumped out: My wedge game was weak. In almost every category the PGA Tour keeps, I was up there—driving the ball long and gaining strokes tee to green and making putts. But from 100 to 125 yards, I finished last year 145th on tour. On average from that range, I hit the ball 21 feet from the cup. That’s just not good enough.

Five or six feet closer, and all of a sudden you’d see a lot more putts go in. Sure, I’d have days where I was throwing it in there tight, but overall, distance control with the wedges cost me. ▶ So, what I give you here is my revamped wedge game. I did a lot of work over the winter getting sharp with three basic shots: the full wedge, a flop-pitch shot and the chip. Master these, and you can cover just about any situation. Slick wedge play makes your on-days great and your off-days still pretty good. —with max adler

Short and Wide

‘with wedges, never get loose at the top.’

gutter credit tk

backswing

I carry four wedges: pitching, gap, sand and lob. The lofts are 47, 52, 57 and 62 degrees. For me, a full swing with a pitching wedge flies 140 yards, and a full lob wedge goes 90. What all great wedge players can do, of course, is dial up the random “tweener” yardages the course throws their way—121 yards, 107 yards, 84—whatever’s awkward given how far their full wedges carry.

The first step to distance control, Butch says, is matching up the arms with the body.

That means your trunk and hands arrive at the top of the backswing at the same time.

In this photo, I know I’ve done that because you could draw a line from my chest straight out to my hands. (An unmatched backswing would show my hands out-running my chest and drifting behind me.)

With the longer clubs, like a driver or 5-iron, it’s OK to have a longer backswing. To be free and rhythmical and get more power, you can let your arms go back a little farther after your body stops turning. But with wedges, never get loose at the top. Think short and wide. Your goal is to produce a consistent amount of power, not maximum power.

Photograph by First Lastname

gutter credit tk

Now suppose your full gap wedge goes 110 yards and you’ve got 104 to the hole. To make that wedge fly six yards shorter, a lot of amateurs swing softer. They try to slow down a hair at impact, but that often causes them to hang back and flip their hands.

Forget distance control—now they’re lucky if the ball gets in the air. A better method is to set your hands lower on the grip, then swing at normal speed. For me, gripping down an inch takes off five yards.

Sometimes I’ll go down the entire length of the grip to take as much as 20 yards off a wedge.

Swinging aggressively is the only way to achieve good contact and to get the ball flying on a predictable trajectory. In this photo, you can tell I’ve fired my hips and chest toward the target with speed. I’m turning through with my big muscles so that my arms and hands feel as if they’re just along for the ride. Like the backswing, I want my follow-through to be abbreviated. Again, check out how my hands are in front of my chest, not lazily drooping over my shoulder.

When I practice, I like to hit to different targets. Mixing it up with each ball simulates what you face on the course: one chance to get it right.

‘swinging aggressively is the only way to achieve good contact.’

through-swing

Turn to the Target b

flop-pitch shot

gutter credit tk

Hold the Face Open

‘on a scale of 1-10, your grip pressure should be a 1.’

Here’s a tough one: a tight lie over sand to a tucked pin, 40 or 50 yards away. It’s too far for a flop, and a basic pitch will scoot to the far side of the green. You need a shot that’s a hybrid. I call it a flop-pitch.

Given the prospects of a poor shot here, it’s natural to be tense. But being tension-free is critical. Start by letting your right arm hang. With the grip resting in the fingers of that hand, let the face fall open so the back of the club lays flush to the ground (left, top). The leading edge will flare open.

Now open your stance a bit.

Finally, set both hands on the club. If you take your grip with the face open, you’re effectively creating a weak grip, which is when both hands are rotated counterclockwise.

That’ll help maximize loft at impact. On a scale of 1-10, your grip pressure should be a 1.

I don’t think about the backswing; it’s just a slight turn with a little wrist hinge. My focus is the follow-through. Swing across the ball and along your stance line, and don’t let the hands release (left). Your divot should be shallow, and the face pointing to the sky at the finish.

36 golfdigest | april 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

basic chip

Swivel Your Chest

OK, this is not the most exciting shot, but a standard chip saves more strokes than any other shot. And if you can learn to hit it solid, it bleeds into the rest of your game. To start my practice sessions, I begin with little 10-yard chips to hone the feeling of center-face contact.

So here’s a quick refresher on the basics: Take your setup with a bit more weight on the front foot. Some golfers stand open, but I prefer to set up square with a narrow stance.

Push your hands just ahead of the ball so the shaft is leaning slightly forward.

The chip is basically an upper-body movement. I don’t want my hips or legs moving much at all. To make this little swing, I feel like a slight swiveling of my chest is the motor that drives the clubhead. The forward angle in my wrists created at address stays fairly constant, but the key is to not be overly stiff during the swing, especially at impact. I see a lot of amateurs tense up and dig the leading edge. With soft wrists, you let the club release past your hands just a tiny bit (left). This activates the bounce, that wide bottom of the clubhead that saves us all from hitting hot screamers and chili-dips.

gutter credit tk

‘the key is to not be overly stiff during the swing.’

Photograph by First Lastname

april 2016 | golfdigest.com

37

Continued from page 32 Bill Teasdall, had years before benefited from McDonnell’s teaching and life wisdom after his promising career as one of the best juniors in Southern California had foundered in an excess of swing theory.

“Barry would say he wanted to make sure what happened to me would not happen to Rick,” Teasdall says. “He didn’t change his loop at the top, saying, ‘That’s how he finds the ball.’ He was always encouraging and positive. He’d say things like, ‘OK, Rick, 18th tee at Augusta. Need a high cut. Can you do it?’ And Rick would bear down and say, ‘I can do it.’ Barry would tell me, ‘Two things I’m going to do with that kid. Stay out of the way of his talent. And build a great golf mind.’ ” The second part meant preparing Fowler for the stardom McDonnell was sure he would achieve. “Barry could see Rick was one of those special guys who can just flat do it, and he believed he would achieve a lot in the game,” Teasdall says.

“He’d seen a lot of good players, and he studied great athletes, especially boxers. At Fox Hills, he had a regular game with Joe Louis. Barry used to say, ‘Show me a superstar, and I’ll show you a tragedy.’ He would quote George Eiferman, a former Mr. Universe he was friends with, who said, ‘Talent is God-given; be humble. Fame is man-given; be thankful. Conceit is selfgiven; be careful.’ ” All that is inside of Rick. He never got cocky, and he’s never changed.”

But when McDonnell became seriously ill from heart problems at the start of 2011, eventually passing at 75 in May of that year, Fowler, who had been PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2010, hit a prolonged lull, with only 14 top-10s in 69 events through 2013. “That was very hard,” says Fowler, who has a tattoo of McDonnell’s sig-

nature on his left wrist. “He was supposed to caddie for me in the Par 3 at the Masters, and he couldn’t make it. It wasn’t like I had someone to turn to. It was a bit of searching as far as when I reached the max of where I was going with what I was doing.”

harmon’s influence nter Butch Harmon at the end of 2013. The two were familiar with each other from Fowler’s participation in numerous practice rounds with Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. With a teaching approach he summarizes as “the ball is my barometer,” Harmon’s methods shared much in common with McDonnell’s, but with an added sophistication born from years of honing the swings of the best players in the world.

Knowing that Fowler’s technique depended too much on his superb but not infallible athletic timing to drop the shaft into the correct downswing plane, Harmon has focused on reducing the size of the loop.

Fowler’s backswing has become more vertical (the action still being grooved by a now-familiar elongated takeaway as a pre-shot waggle), making it less likely the shaft drops behind him on the downswing. It was that move, along with Fowler’s propensity for aggressiveness (never discouraged by McDonnell) that led to Fowler making a disproportionate number of driving and approach-shot errors, particularly penalty results, for such a highly ranked player, as quantified by statistical analyst Peter Sanders of ShotByShot.com.

The more efficient action has brought Fowler increased clubhead speed and more length.

Instead of bad rounds producing mid-70s scores that took him out of tournaments, they became manageable enough to keep him in contention.

E

tracking progress At 27, Rickie Fowler has more than $21 million in PGA Tour oncourse earnings. Some pro highlights after an All-America career at Oklahoma State, where he won the 2008 Ben Hogan Award: 2010 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year after two runner-up finishes (Memorial Tournament and Waste Management Phoenix Open). Member of U.S. Ryder Cup team.

2011 Best finish was T2 in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Career low round of 62 at Phoenix.

2012 Won the Wells Fargo Championship in a playoff with Rory McIlroy and D.A. Points for his first PGA Tour victory.

2013 Five top-10 finishes.

2014 Joined Jack Nicklaus (1971, 1973) and Tiger Woods (2000, 2005) as the only players to finish among the top five in all four majors in one season.

Member of Ryder Cup team.

2015 Won the Players Championship and the Deutsche Bank Championship on the PGA Tour and the Scottish Open on the European Tour. Member of Presidents Cup team.

2016 Started the year with a victory in Abu Dhabi over a field that included Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, improving to a best of fourth in the World Golf Ranking.

major finishes YEAR

MAS

USO

BO

PGA

2008

dnp

t60

dnp

dnp

2009

dnp

cut

dnp

dnp

2010

dnp

dnp

t14

t58

2011

t38

cut

t5

t51

2012

t27

t41

t31

cut

2013

t38

t10

cut

t19

2014

t5

t2

t2

t3

2015

t12

cut

t30

t30

Fowler made a breakthrough in the majors in 2014, with four top-five finishes.

However, he was winless and finished eighth on the money list. Spurred on by Harmon, whose greatest strength as a coach is probably instilling self-belief, Fowler jumped a level in 2015, winning the Players, the Deutsche Bank and the Scottish Open. And this year Fowler is off to the best start of his career.

“Rickie is a joy to be around because he loves the game and all the talking and joking and friendship that goes with it,” Harmon says, “but when it’s time to work, he’s a great listener, and he absorbs things very fast, which is a mark of talent. What he’s shown me is that he truly wants to be the best. He’s proven in the tournaments he’s won and the players he’s beaten that he’s got it in him. At Abu Dhabi, he was paired the first two rounds with Jordan and Rory, and I needled him a little: ‘They’re not even talking about you.’

He kind of came back at me and said, ‘I’ll get them to notice me.’ And he did. Right now all I see is a player who is going to keep getting better.”

If so, it dramatically increases Fowler’s chances of winning majors. As he prepares for the future, highlighted this year by Augusta, Oakmont, Troon and Baltusrol, he bolsters his confidence with scenes of the past.

“I think about the driving range all the time,” says Fowler, who now lives in Florida. “Walking there from elementary school, middle school, high school, or spending the whole day there in the summer. I think about my times there with my grandpa, and all the times with Barry. I still go there sometimes when I’m back home, and when I get under that tree, it’s like, I can’t hit it bad. It’s a special place for me. Old school.”

GOLF DIGEST is a registered trademark of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. Copyright © 2016 Golf Digest Publications. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Volume 67, Number 4. GOLF DIGEST (ISSN 0017-176X) is published monthly (except for an additional Masters issue in March and a combined issue in December/January) by Golf Digest Publications, which is a division of Condé Nast, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. Principal office: Condé Nast, One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse Jr., Chairman Emeritus; Charles H. Townsend, Chairman; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., Chief Executive Office and President; David E. Geithner, Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration 123242885-RT0001. Canada Post: Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: P.O. Box 874, Station Main, Markham, ON. L3P 8L4. Postmaster: Send all UAA to CFS (see DMM 507.1.5.2); Non-Postal and Military facilities: Send address corrections to Golf Digest, P.O. Box 37065, Boone, IA 50037-0065. For subscriptions, address adjustments or back-issue inquiries: Write to Golf Digest, P.O. Box 37065, Boone, IA 50037-0065; visit golfdigest.com; or call 800-PAR-GOLF. Please give both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. Subscribers: If the post office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business and production correspondence to: Golf Digest magazine, 20 Westport Road, Box 850, Wilton, CT 06897 or call 203-761-5100. For reprints, please email reprints@condenast.com or call Wright’s Media 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please email contentlicensing@condenast.com or 800-897-8666. How to play, what to play, where to play is a registered trademark of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. To subscribe to other Condé Nast magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.condenastdigital.com. Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 37065, Boone, IA 50037-0065, or call 800-PAR-GOLF. Golf Digest does not accept any unsolicited submissions and is not responsible for the return or loss of, or for any damage or any other injury to: unsolicited manuscripts, unsolicited artwork (including, but not limited to, drawings, photographs and transparencies), or any other unsolicited materials.

38 golfdigest india | april 2016

What’s in My Bag

Play Your Best

Handy tool This Swiss Army knife is helpful when the tailor has sewn the back pockets of a new pair of trousers.

GRAEME McDOWELL age 36 lives Orlando story Won the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. The OHL Classic at Mayakoba title in November was his third victory on the PGA Tour.

equipment: J.D. Cuban • m c Dowell (top left): Kevin C. Cox/getty images • m c Dowell (above): nona blue

leadoff man Going out first against Jordan Spieth at the 2014 Ryder Cup was a big role. Sometimes when you want something so bad, you get in your own way.

I got down early, but I kept trying to win the next hole and extend the match. Eventually, it turned around, and I won, 2 and 1. the good life I built a wine cellar in my house. It holds a couple hundred bottles. I’m not a wine expert, but I have an appreciation for it.

—with e. michael johnson CLUB

YDS*

driver

268

3-wood

245

4-wood

230

3-hybrid

215

4-iron

208

5-iron

198

6-iron

188

7-iron

173

8-iron

160

9-iron

148

pw

128

gw

115

lw

95

*carry distance

HYBRID

DRIVER

specs Adams Idea a7 PNT, 22˚, Miyazaki Kusala Indigo 83 shaft, X-flex

specs Callaway Optiforce 440, 9.5˚, 44.75 inches, Mitsubishi Diamana W-Series 50 shaft, X-flex, D-3 swingweight

In my bag for eight years, it’s a bit battered and bruised. A good go-to club.

IRONS specs Srixon Z 745 (4-iron through 9-iron), Project X 6.5 flighted shafts, Golf Pride Tour Velvet 60 grips, D-3 swingweight I’m a muscleback guy. I like how they set up.

I’ve used flighted shafts for about 15 years.

WEDGES specs Cleveland 588 RTX 2.0 (48˚, 52˚) and Cleveland 588 RTX (58˚), Project X 6.5 Flighted shafts I don’t like to get into funky grinds with my wedges. It’s too difficult to duplicate when you get a new set of wedges.

Another sleeve, please I use six to nine Srixon Z-Star XV balls a round.

On a course where I use more wedges, I tend to tear them up a bit more.

I changed drivers mid-event at Mayakoba back to this one.

I’ve used it more than any other the last couple of years.

Moonlighting I’m part owner of Nona Blue, a restaurant in Orlando that opened in 2013. A second one is set to open in Ponte Vedra Beach, and I hope to have it going by the Players in May. FAIRWAY WOODS specs Srixon Z F45, 13˚(42.5 inches) and 17˚(42 inches), Miyazaki Kusala Indigo shafts, X-flex, D-4 swingweight The shafts are shorter than standard. That makes the swingweight too light, so I added lead tape to the soles of both woods.

PUTTER specs Odyssey White Hot #7, 34 inches, 4˚ loft I won the 2010 U.S. Open with this putter, so it holds a lot of good memories. I tried a different putter last year, but then I went through a process of simplifying things.

Going back to old faithful was a big part of that.

Home away from home Baker’s Bay is a resort in the Bahamas. We’re starting to build a house there, and when I need extra motivation, this bag reminds me I need to work hard so we can finish it. april 2016 | golfdigest india

39

India Digest Inside the Ropes

S

even global career wins, Top 40 in the Official World Golf Rankings, best finish by an Indian in a Major (T5- PGA Championship 2015), first Indian to play in the President’s Cup, India’s first ever Olympic contender in golf, member of the Eurasia Cup team & a loving husband- that’s quite a resume to have at 28! We got a chance to catch up with the current flag bearer of Indian golf Anirban Lahiri at his home course - Eagleton Golf Resort, Bengaluru. Hope you enjoy getting to know Baan as much as we did. Here’s wishing him the very best for a fabulous 2016 season on the PGA Tour.

40 golfdigest india | april 2016

By Bharath Arvind Describe a day in the life of Baan?

During Season- Early start like all pros.

Practice rounds before the tournament starts and then practice after each round. This year adjusting to jet lag has been something I have done a lot. Just ensuring that the body clock is reset and that all systems are ‘go’ in time for Thursday. Playing on three different tours in 2015 was a serious concern so it took a lot more effort. I generally eat dinner by 7:30pm and get to my room by 9pm at the latest. I like to dedicate an hour to myself to call home or watch something on Youtube. On days that we have an early round you could wake up as early at 4:15am, so it’s important to get sleep. I am a light sleeper so for me 6-7 hours is more than a good night’s sleep.

Off Season- I divide my time between work and family. We took a lovely vacation at Ananda in the Himalayas which felt like detox especially after a gruelling 2015. I generally wake up by 6 am and hit the gym for some stretches and yoga to get the muscles ready for the day. I then putt and chip for about 45 minutes before breakfast. After that

I hit the range with my coach Vijay Divecha.

We work on various aspects like chipping, putting or some swing techniques for about 3- 4 hours. I usually just take a 30 min lunch break and get back to work on the short game or play 9 holes. I’m not a machine, so I take breaks in between to check my phone or chat with someone.. one just can’t focus on the game for that long. I hit the gym by 5pm for an hour of cardio or strength training and it’s early dinner and bed after that.

Describe your meditation routine or a few basic yoga aasanas that you highly recommend?

There are three aasanas that I definitely recommend. Parsvottanasana (side stretch), Sarvangasana (shoulder stand) or ideally Sirsasana (head stand) but that is really hard to do and Halasana (the plough) which stretches out your entire back.

I practice Vipassana for meditation and recommend professional training in it if you choose to follow it. I have a lot of friends and golfers who have benefitted from yoga and it’s great overall.

Photographs by Golf Digest India

Anirban with his father Dr. Tushar Lahiri at Eagleton-The Golf Resort, Bengaluru

Inside the Ropes

India Digest

instance. Wining early in the year opens up the rest of the year. Historically I have done well early in the season…my first win was the Panasonic Open 2011 on the Asian Tour which was early on and the following two years the SAIL-SBI Open which were early on as well and then of course the 2015 wins.

Before I pull the trigger, I visualize the type of shot; whether it’s a draw, a fade, a flop or anything and then draw an imaginary line to my target.

With longtime Coach Vijay Divecha

What goes on in your mind when you’re addressing the ball and about to start your takeaway?

Before I pull the trigger, I visualize the type of shot; whether it’s a draw, a fade, a flop or anything and then draw an imaginary line to my target.

What do you do when your round isn’t going well? Any tips for golfers out there to bear in mind when it’s an ‘off’ day?

If I am not swinging it the way I want I try to simplify my round. Just focus on your go-to club or go-to shot and focus on hitting just one fairway and then one green and so on. Simplify everything to a single shot. I don’t think about whether I need to birdie the next three holes or par them or any of those things. Just keep it simple.

Obviously a lot has been said about 2015 being your year. Do you feel that you left anything out there or did you give it your best?

I have always approached my golf in a methodical manner. I set myself some realistic targets and when you achieve them, you reset your targets. I don’t generally reflect too much. For 2015, the start of the year was fantastic because I achieved some of my goals early on i.e. retain my European Tour card, win on the European Tour, break the top 50 in world rankings and get into the Masters. These happened in quick succession and eased a lot of pressure allowing me to reset my targets. The next targets then logically became to get into the President’s Cup team, get my PGA Tour Card and perform well in the Majors. So essentially I just Photographs by Golf Digest India

keep shifting focus and try not to get complacent. It has happened to me early in my career, where I got complacent after winning and it really set me back by a few months. So over the years, I have taught myself to keep refocusing and resetting to maintain the same focus throughout the year.

Did I leave anything out there? Yes, definitely. I felt I ran out of gas towards the end of the year, more from all the trans-continental travel which took a toll on my body. Starting with the President’s Cup, it was very disap-

There are three aasanas that I definitely recommend.

Parsvottanasana, Sarvangasana and Halasana which stretches out your entire back. pointing for me to do as poorly as I did that week… then to not do well in the last few events left a bitter taste, especially to end what was a good year. At the same time I am learning from that and am definitely going to schedule 2016 better and cut down on my big jet lag travel! You don’t realize these things until you have done it and that’s part of the learning.

Targets for 2016?

Goal wise, I would love to get an early win. That would be utopian, like this year for

So I have been getting off to good starts and hope to do that in America.

My target now would be to play well in the Majors and the WGC’s and also to do well in Rio at the Olympics. I am likely to make the team and hope I peak at that time to give myself a good run at a medal. I will try to keep improving myself and work hard to break into the top 20-25 in the world rankings and get into the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Those are aggressive but realistic targets I am setting myself.

Olympic golf back after 112 years. Olympic Gold versus a win at the Majors? Both equally big. What would do more for Indian golf?

On a personal note, a Major would definitely supersede the medal and that is true for most professional golfers. Winning a major is the pinnacle of professional achievement for a golfer. That being said, an Olympic medal would definitely do more for Indian Golf, but only if it’s Gold! It will definitely make a bigger ripple than a Major in terms of the media, the government support and growing fans.

How much of an influence does your caddie Rajiv Sharma have on your golf?

Will he be with you for the full PGA Tour season?

Rajiv will be with me for the full season and we really work well as a team and have good synergy on the golf course. He understands my game and my attitude. He is also an extremely positive person and a quick learner so I am very happy to have him with me on the PGA Tour. He also has a young family, so he will be missing in action a couple of weeks here and there. I think for him personally it is exceptional to be out there in America and for other Indian caddies he is an inspiration as he will be the first caddy from India to be on the PGA Tour and why not!

Would you like to comment on the support from your sponsors?

Definitely and I appreciate the opportunity to do so. Hero has been with me for six years now. I remember I came on board with Hero Motocorp even before I had won in Asia, april 2016 | golfdigest india

43

India Digest Inside the Ropes

Selfie-time !

Chikkarangappa, Vijay Divecha and Anirban

so their support has been there from before I ever started doing anything in the world of golf. I am really grateful to the Hero Group and Mr. Pawan Munjal, not just for myself but for the multitude of players he has sponsored. I think it’s thanks to the Hero Group that the Indian Open has remained one of the most prestigious events in Asia. If you look at the Philippines Open, which is the oldest

I am really grateful to the Hero Group and Mr. Pawan Munjal, not just for myself but for the multitude of players he has sponsored national open but is only a $300,000 event without live TV, that could have easily have been the case for the Indian Open had it not been for his support. I am so thankful to be part of a group that has contributed so much to golf and to other sports such as football and hockey etc. A big thank you to them.

Even though I don’t wear GATTI KWE’s (logistics company) logo today, they supported me when I was an amateur up until the first couple of years as a professional. If it wasn’t for their help, I probably wouldn’t have been playing professional golf because I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Their CEO- Mr. Mahindra Agarwal is another person who I have a lot of respect for and who has done a lot for me at a time when it mattered more than ever!

44 golfdigest india | april 2016

I have been with Srixon ever since I turned professional and enjoy playing with their clubs.

I will continue with them for 2016/ 17 as well. My other sponsors Hinduja Global Solutions, Mastercard and Chervo are newer relationships and I am grateful to have their support.

Words of wisdom or encouragement for other rising stars with a huge golfing career ahead of them?

I think it’s only a matter of time when more of my peers join me company in America. They are all very talented and it’s only a matter of time before they harness their full potential.

I think it’s fantastic to see Aditi Ashok right now. It’s great to see an Indian girl at the young age of 17 breaking mental barriers to perform at that level and I just hope she keeps her head down and keeps going. She is already doing things that no Indian girl or woman has ever done and hopefully continues to set new benchmarks for others to aspire to achieve. I wish her all the luck and hope she keeps doing whatever she’s doing because it is just fantastic!

Do you have plans to help grow the game at the grassroots level in India?

That is definitely something I want to do, but yes, it is a bit premature right now. Hopefully in five years when we chat again and I would have been playing on the PGA Tour and even better, with a Major under my belt, I would be able to share more. It’s important to have those wins as it gives me a lot more to work with…to mobilize more support from sponsors and the government because that is what is required for golf development in India. But it definitely is very high on my priority list as this game has given me everything I have today and I definitely will give back.

BAAN’S FAVOURITES Golf course in India Kalhaar Blues & Greens, Ahmedabad Golf course around the world Whistling Straits, Wisconsin Movie Shawshank Redemption Music Linkin Park. Deep tempo and progressive house Drink Cold Coffee Food Ghar ka khaana as my wife is also a great cook!

Superstitions I love wearing bright colours on Sunday to carry the energy with me Essentials in your travel bag A ton of wires, power banks, 3 phones, laptop – Gadget freak Mid-round power snack Almonds Golf Course on your wishlist Pebble Beach on a sunny day and Royal Springs in Kashmir which I’ve heard is spectacular.

Heroes Vijay Singh for his work ethic, Tiger Woods, Jeev Milkha Singh and Vijay Divecha (Coach) Sport apart from golf Football, squash . Although I can’t play either now because I tore a ligament. I don’t watch the English Premier League so no favourite team. You can crucify me for that!

Holiday destination Ananda in the Himalayas in India and Iceland blew me away as well What are you sucker for I am a Bengali in my DNA so I love FOOD!

Photographs by Golf Digest India

India Digest Hero Indian Open 2016 An ecstatic SSP Chawrasia embraced by his caddie on the 18th Hole after winning the Hero Indian Open 2016 (Photo : Getty Images)

“I think every Indian player looks at this tournament as the biggest. It is our national championship and a huge honour for me.

Pawan Munjal, Chairman, Managing Director & CEO, Hero Motocorp presents the Hero Indian Open trophy (Photo : Getty Images)

T

Delhi Delight For Chawrasia SSP Chawrasia produced a gutsy, closing one under par 71 to hold off the challenge from Anirban Lahiri and Jeunghun Wang of Korea to win the Hero Indian Open.

46 golfdigest india | april 2016

he home favourite had finished second in this event four times, including last year when Lahiri defeated him in a play-off, but this time he held his nerve down the stretch to claim a third European Tour title by two shots.

Lahiri had held a tie for the lead on the front nine as he signed for a 69, while Wang recorded a closing 68 but could never rein in a man who is an expert at Delhi Golf Club.

In 16 previous appearances, Chawrasia had ten top tens on the New Delhi layout with two wins, and he showed all his skill around the narrow, tree-lined course to claim a long-awaited national open title.

The win sees the 37 year old reclaim his European Tour playing privileges which he narrowly lost last season after finishing 113th on The Race to Dubai. With this victory, he moves up to 151st in the Official World Golf Rankings, a massive jump of 92 places and is now 20th in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai rankings.

"This is very important for me because I get a full card and most probably I'm playing the Olympics and the World Cup also so it's very, very important for me," he said.

“I think every Indian player looks at this tournament as the biggest. It is our national championship and a huge honour for me.

"There was a lot of pressure on me on the last hole but I had to say thank God when Anirban missed his birdie putt! I played a great chip there and then when he missed I knew I would win the tournament.”

21 out 41 Indian players made the cut including amateur Arjun Prasad who recently won the Faldo

Hero Indian Open 2016

India Digest

(Photo : Getty Images)

Series Asia Final. In preparation for the national Open, the Delhi Golf Club had closed the course 4 weeks prior to the event in order to keep it in prime condition for the golfers.

Chawrasia was crowned champion thanks to a brilliant approach to the 18th from the rough which produced a birdie, and applause from Lahiri, and got him to 15 under and two shots clear of Lahiri and Wang. Massive crowds thronged the Delhi Golf Course and the final group consisting of SSP Chawrasia, Anirban Lahiri and Australian Terry Pilkadaris was cheered on for every shot.

POSITION PLAYER

SCORE

Prize(US$)

1

S.S.P. Chawrasia

NATION India

-15

276,660

2

Jeunghun Wang

Korea

-13

144,178

2

Anirban Lahari

India

-13

144,178

4

Angelo Que

Philippines

-12

76,692

4

Adilson Da Silva

Brasil

-12

76,692

6

Gregory Havret

France

-10

46,646

6

Daniel IM

USA

-10

46,646

6

Thangaraja N.

Srilanka

-10

46,646

6

Rashid Khan

India

-10

46,646

10

David Lipsky

USA

-9

28,884

10

Shiv Kapur

India

-9

28,884

10

Jorge Campillo

Spain

-9

28,884

10

Julien Quesne

France

-9

28,884

10

Rahil Gangjee

India

-9

28,884

15

Jbe Kruger

South Africa

-8

22,443

15

Jazz Janewattananond

Thailand

-8

22,443

15

Maximilian Kieffer

Germany

-8

22,443

15

Alejandro Canizares

Spain

-8

22,443

15

Terry Pilkadaris

Australia

-8

22,443

Massive galleries gathered to cheer their Indian heroes on the final day (Photo : Bharath Arvind)

Anirban Lahiri during the final round of the Hero Indian Open (Photo : Bharath Arvind) april 2016 | golfdigest india

47

The Golf Life Stuff

A

TrackMan 4: Uses two Doppler radars: one for the clubhead, one for the ball B

FlightScope x2 Elite: Enhanced radar, super-slowmotion camera feature C

hat square-ish device that spits out numbers every time you hit a ball in the fitting bay at your friendly neighborhood golf megastore has mesmerized clubfitters, retailers and even golf instructors for the past decade. Despite the price (generally $10,000 to $20,000, though some consumer models are just $2,000), the monitors have become more common than bowls of peanuts in the grillroom.

But just like that bowl of nuts, sometimes a launch monitor might leave you with a handful of something you didn’t want.

Don’t get us wrong—it’s a terrific tool if operated correctly.

But before you have your swing “monitored,” here are a few things to consider:

T

1 know your ball speed, launch angle and backspin

▶ Most devices track dozens of ball-flight and swing characteristics, but these are three

Prepare to Launch What you need to know before having your swing analyzed that are critical. And ball speed should dictate the other two, particularly when we’re talking about drivers. If your ball speed is low (less than 120 miles per hour), focus on launch angle.

Find clubs and a golf swing that get you launching the ball higher for more distance. Higher than 12 degrees is a good start.

Conversely, if you swing fast and hit it dead center, focus on spin rate. Getting that lower (less than 3,000 revolutions per minute) could mean 10 to 20 yards.

If you want to go to the next lev-

48 golfdigest india | april 2016

el with your data tracking, pay attention to things like “angle of attack” and “angle of descent.”

The former is the angle the club comes into the ball. You want it to be a positive number for your driver to help shots launch high with less spin for more distance.

Angle of descent is the angle that the ball lands. A shot landing too steeply will have less roll than one hit on a flatter trajectory. A good angle of descent for a driver is less than 40 degrees.

2 consistency matters most

▶ Launch monitors are ridiculously specific in the numbers they produce—you’re not. Even so, resist the urge to buy the driver that produces the most distance or the best numbers on one shot. Nor should you trust a clubfitter who focuses only on that one hit. Instead, go with the driver that produces the most consistent—and satisfactory— data. Many launch monitors

can track impact location or whether your clubface is square to the target, so if the numbers show that you’re hitting the ball consistently solid, you’ve found a club you’ll love as much as any new car you’ve ever bought.

3 don’t rush through the process

▶ Not everyone charges for a launch-monitor fitting, and some sessions can be as much as $300. Our advice is to worry less about the cost and more about how it’s done. Before forking over a credit card, talk to the fitter about the process. You want a session that includes an interview about your tendencies and desires, allows you to test a variety of models and brands, and affords you the opportunity to dial in specific loft and shaft options. Also, make sure you’re hitting quality golf balls, not beat-up range rocks. A legit ball will give a more valid read on spin and launch angle.

—MIKE STACHURA

trackman: jeffrey westbrook • other monitors: courtesy of companies • illustration: mike lynch

Foresight GC2/HMT: Camera system captures 10,000 frames per second

HURT, PAUSE after all the

a healthy

THE TIGER OF OLD IS DONE, BUT A NEW VERSION COULD BRING A DIFFERENT KIND OF SATISFACTION

T by jaime diaz

hree weeks before his 40th birthday in December, Tiger Woods did something he should have done a long time ago: He publicly stepped away from golf. Truly stepped away, with no stated expectations for when—or if—he might return. It placed before him an undetermined period free of scrutiny and judgment, something he has probably longed for since he started racking up agegroup titles as a junior.

The decision was accompanied by a rare openness. At his pre-tournament press conference at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, where he was the host, and two

50 golfdigest india | april 2016

days later in the release of a wide-ranging interview with Time magazine, Woods showed vulnerability, a quality he has always implicitly denied that he even possesses.

Rather than defiant optimism, Woods was fatalistic. “I’ve reconciled myself to it,” he said of the real possibility that he might never play tournament golf again. At the press conference, two statements in particular stunned the room. “Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? I don’t know.” And: “I think pretty much everything beyond this will be gravy.”

Upon first airing, these words and others were a sad acknowledgement of the end, a de facto retirement speech. Nerve damage in his lower back, first requiring surgery in March 2014 before two more procedures to the same spot within six weeks late last year, left him unable to even know when he could begin rehabilitation. It’s likely 2016 ends up a competitive washout.

Yet amid all the gloom, I sensed Woods was relieved. Finally, he was letting go of the immense burden of being golf’s Superman.

He immediately seemed lighter, but not because his playing career is over. Woods never said he was quitting. Rather, for who knows how long, he is pausing. “With all my heart,” he told veteran golf journalist Lorne Rubenstein in the Time interview, “I do not want to stop playing golf.”

If he is able to compete again, Woods won’t be in a rush—a first. Restless fury fueled his domination at every level of his career. It also led him to take on risky swing changes, to adopt a joint-jarring Navy SEALstyle exercise regimen that trainers warned

him against, and to return to competition after injuries sooner than physicians advised.

He conceded the cost of at least some of that behavior. Coming back from surgeries too quickly probably “made injuries worse.”

His epic victory at the 2008 U.S. Open came two months after cartilage was cleaned out of a knee with a torn ACL. After a procedure on his meniscus in December 2002, he would play (and win) at Torrey Pines two months later. Many around him believe Woods’ return to competition at the 2010 Masters was too soon after his public humiliation began on Thanksgiving 2009. He even seemed to rush back in 2014 from his first microdiscectomy, only to play poorly. Graham DeLaet, who has had the same procedure, says it took him almost a year to feel close to recovered.

Perhaps acknowledging the pattern and its toll have been the reason for Woods downshifting his old persona and becoming more human over the past year. He hugged people at last year’s Masters, gladly offered mentoring to a hesitant-to-ask Jason Day, and made it known he would invite being asked to serve in the almost comically subordinate role of Ryder Cup assistant captain.

In the Bahamas, Woods was amiable, never bristly. In the Time interview, he addressed some past mistakes, his relationship with ex-wife Elin, and why he and Lindsey Vonn broke up. His main theme was that his role as a parent to his two young children is far more important than his golf.

Amid such relative candor, it seems the trickiest subject for Woods is his legacy. Eagerly comparing himself to team-sports contemporaries Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter and Photograph by Nick Laham

Professing satisfaction with his record allows Woods the view that he didn’t lose a battle he never really fought. Woods correctly reminded us that the list he hung over his bed as a kid was not of Nicklaus’ majors, as was commonly believed, but instead one that compiled Nicklaus’ ages when he achieved certain early milestones, ending with victory in his first major championship. Woods’ goal, he told Rubenstein, was to reach the same accomplishments at a younger age. And then, in a phrase whose repetition indicates just how much he competed with Nicklaus, Woods said, “I beat them all. I beat them all.”

Presuming that Woods can go forward competitively, freeing himself from Nicklaus comparisons, allows the possibility of an extended free run. At the same moment that there’s plenty of evidence that Woods’ time is over, he has nothing but time.

The long road is the biggest advantage professional golfers have over other athletes. Woods, meanwhile, can credibly cite the post-40 feats of Vijay Singh and, yes, Nicklaus’ victory at 46 at the 1986 Masters.

Woods’ sabbatical not only gives the best chance for his back to heal, but time (and presumably, reflection) give him an even better chance to heal psychologically.

The most haunting thing that he said in the Time interview was this: “I would have to say, probably, my only peace has been in between the ropes and hitting the shots.” As he must know, any peace that he finds in life would help him as a golfer.

Of course, if Woods’ back never responds, all bets are off. But if it does, who could say that Woods in his early or even mid-40s couldn’t be a force again?

What style of golfer would a relatively healthy Woods coming back in 2018 or thereabouts have to be to have success? He’d have to finally surrender the ego and fun that comes from using superior power and distance as a main weapon. It would mean focusing on being straighter and more precise with a swing that takes less of a physical toll, and placing more emphasis on short-game and putting excellence. A preview of that game was on display in Woods’ victory at the 2013 Players. It would often put him at a disadvantage in regular tournaments but raise his chances in majors.

A bigger question is whether he still possesses the desire required for even a late-career version of greatness. He insists he does, but close observers have seen a drop in his work ethic, which has led to a commensurate drop in his joy for playing. No doubt injuries have bred discouragement, but Woods has always maintained that the moment he believes he is no longer capable of winning, “I’ll rack the cue.”

He is not there yet, though he’s definitely in new territory. But not completely foreign. Woods was in an eerily similar position at the most dramatic point of his career, the weeks before his victory at the 2008 U.S. Open. As Haney recounted, “For one of the few times in his career, he wasn’t facing crazy expectations. Because he was injured, the pressure to win was largely off, and he basically had a free run. It gave him the perfect attitude: highly motivated, but with little to lose. . . . At Torrey Pines, more than anywhere else, Tiger was the model student.”

Since then, life has presumably taught Woods a lot.

If he has been a good student, perhaps he can have that perfect attitude again. He’s hurt, he’s in limbo, he might even be done. But at the moment, the course he has embarked on finally seems healthy.

IF HIS BACK RESPONDS, WHO COULD SAY THAT WOODS IN HIS EARLY OR EVEN MID-40S COULDN’T BE A FORCE AGAIN? Woods’ former teacher recounted a 2007 exchange after Haney had become exasperated with his player’s increasing involvement in physically punishing training. Haney: “Man, what are you doing? Are you out of your mind? What about Nicklaus’ record? Don’t you care about that?” Woods: “No. I’m satisfied with what I’ve done in my career.”

Comparisons with Nicklaus brought glory, but they also carried intense questioning and pressure. Woods has always been perceived as welcoming pressure—his record as a closer is where he has put the most separation between himself and the other greats of the game. But in his post-scandal years, he has played tight on weekends at majors, and in the past year he experienced a shocking bout of the chipping yips and a flurry of the highest 18-hole scores of his career.

GREAT MOMENTS IN (AGING) GOLF Tiger Woods turned 40 on Dec. 30. Significant achievements by golfers late in their careers:

OLDEST TO WIN ...

The Masters Jack Nicklaus, 46 (1986).

Ben Crenshaw, 43 (1995).

U.S. Open Hale Irwin, 45 (1990).

Raymond Floyd, 43 (1986).

Ted Ray, 43 (1920).

Open Championship Old Tom Morris, 46 (1867).

Roberto De Vicenzo, 44 (1967).

Harry Vardon, 44 (1914).

Old Tom Morris, 43 (1864).

Phil Mickelson, 43 (2013).

Darren Clarke, 42 (2011).

Ernie Els, 42 (2012).

J.H. Taylor, 42 (1913).

Willie Park Sr., 42 (1875).

Tom Watson was 59 in 2009 when he lost a playoff to Stewart Cink, and Greg Norman was 53 in 2008 when he led after three rounds.

PGA Championship Julius Boros, 48 (1968).

Lee Trevino, 44 (1984).

Sam Snead was 62 when he finished T-3 in 1974.

Ryder Cup Raymond Floyd, 51 (1993).

PGA Tour event Sam Snead, 52 (1965 Greater Greensboro Open).

Art Wall, 51 (1975 Greater Milwaukee Open).

Davis Love III, 51 (2015 Wyndham Championship).

European Tour event Miguel Angel Jimenez, 50 (2014).

Jimenez, 49 (2014).

Jimenez, 48 (2012).

april 2016 | golfdigest india

51

Hulton ArcHive/Getty imAGes

Peyton Manning, all of whom have a shorter window than a golfer, was a way of saying he, too, had left it all out there nobly, only to see his gift worn away by injury. It’s a preferable narrative than being the singularly gifted “chosen one” on track to be the greatest golfer of all time—perhaps the greatest athlete ever—who self-destructed.

To the inevitable question about catching Jack Nicklaus’ 18 professional major victories, Woods offered this cherry-picked self-assessment: “I’ve passed Jack on the all-time win list [79 to 73], just shy of Sam [Snead, 82],” he said. “I passed Sam basically a decade ago in major championships, but I’m still shy of Jack’s. So I’ve had a pretty good career for my 20s and 30s. For my 20 years out here, I think I’ve achieved a lot, and if that’s all it entails, then I’ve had a pretty good run.” He added, “I’ve done a lot more in the game than I ever thought I could.”

The downsizing doesn’t ring true. Catchphrases like “let the legend grow,” “second place sucks,” “first loser” and “never settle” all came from a belief in his competitive superiority. It never looked like cockiness as Woods was winning 14 majors by the age of 32, a run so colossal it seemed to make him a one-man human-potential movement, never mind a lock to overtake Nicklaus. It’s hard to believe Woods would accept falling short so matter-of-factly.

Perhaps Woods’ response was calculated to set him up as a more likable hero in a comeback. Humility always becomes an aging star.

Then again, we might have underestimated the weight of being the chaser in the most celebrated extended pursuit in sports history. More than a hint was provided

by Hank Haney in The Big Miss, in which

Photographs by J.D. Cuban

short game savvy by butch harmon / golf digest te aching professional

HOW TO ADJUST WHEN YOU GET THOSE ODDBALL SHOTS •••

Every golfer loves standing in the fairway with a perfect 7-iron yardage, ready to make a stock swing and stick it next to the pin. But when you get around the greens, circumstances often force you to create a particular kind of shot.

Sometimes the issue is a difficult lie, or an obstacle in front of you, or a tricky hole location—even the pressure of your score or the outcome of the match. You have to make quick adjustments to your standard short-game technique to handle the added challenge. Here we’ll look at a few specialty shots that can save you in a pinch. —with peter morrice april 2016 | golfdigest india

53

bunker pl ay

YOU’RE UNDER THE LIP

••• Here your standard bunker shot won’t get the ball up fast enough to clear the bank in front of you. To hit a higher shot, you need to add loft to the clubface. Open the face significantly, then take your grip and play the ball way forward in your stance, opposite your front foot.

At address, drop your hands back a few inches so they’re behind the ball—that will add loft and help the clubhead slide through the sand.

As you swing back, turn the face more open by cupping your left wrist, feeling the toe of the club rolling to your right so it points behind you (left). From there, focus on slapping the sand a few inches behind the ball, with the clubhead skimming, not digging. You’ll pop the ball up and drop it softly on the green.

chipping

THE PIN IS WAY BACK

••• The common mistake here is using the club you usually chip with—often a wedge—and trying to carry the ball deeper into the green. That requires a longer, harder swing, which makes the shot tougher. Instead, try the hook chip with a 7- or 8-iron. Set up with your weight favoring your front foot and the ball off your rear foot. Take the club back to the inside and swing the toe over through impact, closing the face (right). You’ll create more run on the ball by adding hook spin.

You don’t have to make a longer swing to hit a longer shot. + FOOTJOY shirt, $72, pants, $65, shoes, $180 • TITLEIST hat, $27, glove, $24 • HOUSE OF FLEMING belt • ROLEX watch

54

WITH THE BALL SITTING DOWN, PICK THE CLUB STRAIGHT UP.

pitching

THE BALL IS BURIED

••• Not only do you have to play a soft shot to the green, now you have to do it from a buried lie. First, realize you’re not going to hit the ball cleanly—you have to chunk it a bit to get out of the thick grass.

Take your most lofted wedge, open the clubface, and play the ball about middle. Set more weight on your front foot, and grip the club a little firmer in your left hand. Your goal is to swing down through the shot without the toe of the clubhead passing the heel. If the toe passes, the heavy grass will grab the clubhead, and you’ll

dump it short. To minimize how much grass you catch, pick the club straight up on the backswing (above). Then feel as if you’re sticking the heel of the club into the ground. Remember, keep that left hand firm, and make sure the heel gets to the ball first. putting

YOU NEED TO MAKE IT

••• So far we’ve been talking about adjustments. But in this case, don’t change anything. When golfers have to make a putt, they slow down.

But they’re only icing themselves, like when a coach calls timeout to delay a big free throw. Pressure mounts with more

time. The grip gets tight, the stroke gets jerky—the rest you know. If your routine is one practice stroke, don’t make three. If you usually take two looks at the hole, stick with that.

And as for reading the putt, your first read is usually best.

Once you get over the ball, it’s total commitment: Pick your line (right), follow your routine and pull the trigger. To make sure your head stays still, listen for the ball to drop with your left ear. You’ll like what you hear. b utc h h armon, ranked No. 1 on Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America, works with Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Jimmy Walker, Brandt Snedeker and Natalie Gulbis.

month 2016 | golfdigest.com

55

MORE gutter credit tk

DROP

58 golfdigest india | april 2016

GOOD PRACTICERS. HERE’S HOW TO BECOME ONE. BY DARREN MAY

PUTTS

GOOD PUTTERS ARE

Two characteristics distinguish how top tour players approach putting: (1) They pay careful attention that the putter is aligned correctly and that it contacts the ball with maximum energy— a direct hit, not a glancing blow—to produce consistent roll; (2) they replicate on-course pressure when they practice, called full-process training, to learn to make putts when it matters.

Average golfers typically do neither.

To make your practice more effective, try a system I developed called Every Ball Counts that targets stroke mechanics and practice simulations. First, let’s discuss what I’m showing in the photograph here. This is a drill I have my tour players do.

Find a hole on a fairly flat section of the practice green, and plant tees in the ground in four lines, forming a giant plus sign.

Start at four feet from the hole and continue out in one-foot increments until you place five tees in each line, from four to eight feet. That’s 20 tees in all.

Drop a ball next to one of the four-foot tees, and try to hole the putt. If you make it, tap the tee halfway down. If you miss, leave the tee up. Go to another four-footer, and repeat. Putt all the four-footers first, then all the five-footers, and so on, until you’ve hit putts from every tee. You’ll feel the pressure building. When you finish, count the tees still at full height and subtract from 20. That’s your score.

Do this drill four or five times to get your average score.

The average of my tour players is 14 out of 20; players who shoot in the 90s average about 10. Keep track of your score each time, and write it down to chart your improvement.

Now turn the page, and we’ll work on your stroke mechanics.

—with roger schiffman Photographs by Dom Furore

GROOVE YOUR STROKE, THEN PUT IT TO THE Let’s get your putter on the correct path to roll the ball on line.

For starters, understand that your through-stroke will be slightly shorter than your backstroke if you apply maximum speed at impact.

In other words, the strike will slow down the putterhead.

In terms of alignment, most golfers aim to the right and cut across their putts from out to in.

This is a glancing blow and doesn’t propel the ball forward efficiently.

Just like in the full swing, you’re

what’s your style?

As I said above, most golfers cut across their putts. But some have the opposite problem, swinging the putter too much on an in-to-out path. If this is your issue, you need to reverse the positions of the alignment rods in this drill. To see which path you have, set two balls against your putterface—one on the toe and the other on the heel. Hit both balls with one stroke. If the inside ball (heel) gets to the hole first, you have a cut stroke. If the outside ball (toe) gets there first, you have a hook stroke. Set up your practice station accordingly.

trying to produce energy with minimal effort. You do that with a solid strike and a square putterface.

Given the common tendency to cut across putts, most average golfers need to feel as if they’re hitting draws with their putter, swinging the putterhead in to out.

In reality, the putter will track from slightly inside the line to straight along the line through impact.

Lay two alignment rods on the green just wider than your putterhead and parallel with each other, aimed at a hole six feet away (shown). Place them so the front end of the outside rod is even with the ball and the back end of the inside rod is even with the ball. This allows for an in-to-out stroke path.

Hit some putts from this practice station, being careful not to

+ ADIDAS shirt, $70, pants, $85, shoes, $130 • TAYLORMADE hat, $23

bump into either alignment rod.

You’ll groove an inside-to-straight stroke, just like the pros.

Take your time and be precise with this drill and the one on the previous page. Remember the name of my system: Every Ball Counts. Groove your stroke here and then test it using the 20-ball drill. This organized, measurable approach encourages skill transfer from the practice green to the course. Put in some effort, and I know you’ll drop more putts.

E TEST. THAT’S WHAT THE BEST PUTTERS DO.

gutter credit tk

darren may is director of instruction at The Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Fla., and works with Camilo Villegas and Cameron Tringale.

Photograph by First Lastname

april 2016 | golfdigest india

61

gutter credit tk

62 golfdigest.com | month 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

How Jordan Spieth almost won the Masters at 20, and how he tied the scoring record to win big at 21.

What’s next?

by ja ime d i a z to jordan spieth, the Masters is the ultimate tournament, the one he played in his imagination during solitary twilight putting sessions as a boy in Texas. ▶ His victory last year at 21 was almost perfect: wire-to-wire, tying Tiger Woods’ tournament record, three generations of family embracing him in victory, the game’s new hero. It was the springboard to threatening the calendar Grand Slam, rising to No. 1 in the world, capping his season by winning the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup, and starting a new year by winning the Hyundai Tournament of Champions by eight shots. ▶ The lasting glow of all that blurs the uneasy struggle Spieth endured after failing to hold a Photograph by Walter Iooss Jr.

uick learner masters 2016 | golfdigest india

63

64 golfdigest india | masters 2016

2014 masters Spieth’s two-stroke lead after seven holes on Sunday against Bubba Watson turned into a two-stroke deficit after nine. Above, from left: Trying to regroup at 14; tree trouble at 17 and 13.

2015 masters Below, from left: A gutsy flop shot at the 18th on Saturday to save par after a double bogey on 17; the reality of a victory sinks in; applauding the crowd after tying the record of 18-under-par 270.

Masters, but the driven 20-year-old’s attempts to stay positive couldn’t hide his disappointment. “Obviously I’ve worked my whole life to lead Augusta on Sunday, and although I feel like it’s very early in my career, and I’ll have more chances, it’s a stinger,” he said in the aftermath. “I had it in my hands, and I could have gone forward with it, and just didn’t quite make the putts.” Three days later at Hilton Head, Spieth was still downcast: “I feel like everybody else won, and I finished second.”

The words conveyed the demands that Spieth holds himself to in competition: “You have to conquer yourself, your emotions. You have to win the mental battle with yourself.” He loves Augusta for being the height of that challenge, as he explained in a confessional both rapturous and ravenous at the end of 2014.

“The Masters itself was the greatest individual tournament I’ve ever played . . . the one that I dreamt about winning as a kid,” he said. “I played it a few times in the evening when there was not a soul on the golf course.

To tee it up then, and then to see it in the final group on Sunday, where you can’t see any of the grass, just a sea of people, and kind of soak that experience in, too . . . never been able to explain what that was like to my family, friends, to anyone. Just badly want to be back there in that setting. Ben Crenshaw said, ‘You really see a man’s true emotion competing at Augusta more than anywhere else.’

I felt that was the case. That’s why it’s the best tournament I can learn from in my life. The good and the bad.”

2014: DonalD Miralle (1, 3) • DoM Furore (2)

two-stroke Sunday lead at Augusta the year before, followed by another lost lead less than a month later in the final round of the Players Championship. The outcomes at Sawgrass and Augusta, where he finished three shots behind final-round pairing partner Bubba Watson, planted doubt about the young winner’s vaunted ability to close, throwing him off stride for the rest of the season.

“Yeah, it was eating me up from the inside for a while,” Spieth acknowledged in an interview in late February. “Especially after the Players. I had assumed once I got into position there I could quickly learn from the Augusta experience, and I was wrong. You have to be in that position multiple times to learn the patience it takes, that when the breaks don’t go your way, you can still pull it off.

“I spent nights in bed thinking about those two events, how great it would have been, what they would have done for me, and if I was going to get another chance like that,” Spieth says. “You obviously assume so, but to have a chance to win the Masters and a Players Championship, you might have only a handful of those in a career, if you’re lucky. And that’s what I would really think about—did I really let a couple slip away when I should have been able to take advantage of them? And at the time it was very, very tough.”

Like any golfer, Spieth had faced setbacks before, but he always recovered quickly. The pattern was set at age 11, after Spieth lost by a stroke on the Young Guns Junior Golf Tour in Dallas when he double-bogeyed the last hole and his opponent birdied it. That hurt, but in his next tournament on that tour, two weeks later, Spieth won. He soon began winning everything, including two U.S. Junior Championships, the first in 2009 at 15. After leaving the University of Texas early to turn pro, he missed the second stage of Q school in November 2012 and seemed destined for at least a year on the Web.com Tour. But within four months, Spieth combined sponsors’ exemptions with strong performances to essentially lock up a PGA Tour playing card at 19, and he soon became the youngest tour winner in 82 years.

“Jordan has always had this ability to transcend who he was previously, to take that step up and quickly feel comfortable on a grander stage,” says Cameron McCormick, who became Spieth’s first golf coach when Jordan was 12 and remains in that role today.

But at Augusta in 2014, the wound was bigger, more public, more emotional. The golf world largely emphasized Spieth’s remarkable runner-up finish in his first

‘You have to conquer yourself, your emotions. You have to win the mental battle with yourself.’ —Jordan Spieth

2015: J.D. Cuban (1, 2) • DonalD Miralle (3)

The passage is a prime example of Spieth the talker, the explainer and, perhaps, the pleaser. In his press conferences, his often-detailed answers walk the thin line that keep him out of controversy but also reveal his thought process to a degree that’s almost unprecedented among his peers. By the standard of tour players, and especially great ones, he over-shares.

McCormick, naturally vigilant of competitive psyches, has learned to accept the candor as constructive.

“Jordan never dodges,” says the instructor. “He’s amazingly reflective, both during a round and after a round, and he likes to tell the whole story, such that it’s authentic to his experience. It’s his way of shedding light on a moment he wants to study, and he does it in a way that allows him to protect his armor.”

The process complements what McCormick believes is Spieth’s secret gift: “Jordan has an extraordinary amount of self-awareness, and I’ve always encouraged him to trust it. Early on in our relationship, he would seek reinforcement and feedback when we’d play, asking me for the answer to how to fix something, and I’d say, ‘Jordan, it’s not about me telling you what to correct.

It’s about how well you can transfer what you’ve got right now into performing well.’ I would have the information that he was seeking, but I would withhold it until after a round. I didn’t want to be the coach who stands there with a life preserver and throws it to you the first time you start to flail your arms. I was telling him, ‘You know

how to swim. You have to learn how to tell yourself to kick your feet, paddle your hands, and get yourself back to shore.’ In the context of competition, you have to be self-sufficient and do it yourself.

“Once he fully understood that—in part from accessing the petri dish of sports competition provided by his athletic parents and his friends—he embraced it and became a master adapter in the moment,” McCormick says. “He consistently makes the right adjustment—in his swing, in his strategy, in his assessment of the course environment. When we go over his rounds, he’ll explain to me the considerations, the rationale and the process for those adjustments. His self-awareness facilitates this agile adaptation. He’s not bound by the idea that ‘this is what I’m supposed to be doing, so I must keep coloring between the lines.’ He’ll audible out, color outside the lines, to a level for what he needs for ball control, and which nets out as an improvement in performance.

Which is beautiful. He’s not afraid to change, because he can always see a pinnacle that is greater than what he’s standing on.”

T

the loss at the players

hat view became blurred after the Masters and the Players in 2014. “It’s not fun being that close and having opportunities and being in the lead on Sunday and not pulling it off,” Spieth said after finishing three strokes behind Martin Kaymer, his 74 making him the only player among the top-10 finishers who did not break par. Adds McCormick: “The Players Championship was a more bitter pill to swallow than the Masters.

That made the rest of the year a bit more of an uphill climb than it should have been.”

For the rest of the season, Spieth had only two more top-10s. His performances in the remaining majors were disappointing: T-17 in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, T-36 in the Open Championship at Hoylake, a missed cut in the PGA at Valhalla. “The holes look smaller,” he conceded.

But Spieth’s process hadn’t stopped, and a breakthrough occurred after the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

Spieth and Patrick Reed were the U.S. team’s best pair, undefeated in three matches. Spieth felt the intense pressure and adrenaline of the matches reawakened something inside. But when he lost the crucial opening final-day singles match against Graeme McDowell after being 3 up on the front nine, Spieth was shaken: “I feel like I let my team down. They put me out there first, out there with a full amount of trust to get the job masters 2016 | golfdigest india

65

each piece needed to come together to get a bit more comfortable in the bigger situations, but I learned how to really close here with my head.”

‘Traditionally, golf observers overvalue the body of the car and undervalue what’s under the hood.’ —Cameron McCormick

done.” But this time he was able to absorb it more effectively. “I certainly took that singles loss hard, because it kind of compounded the two earlier in the year where I didn’t finish,” Spieth said in February. “At the same time, I do relate the success in 2015 to the Ryder Cup, because every round felt like a major championship, the emotions that run through you. With Patrick, it felt like we’d won the tournament in each of those matches. But in the singles, it was the same feeling as losing a major championship, because I was in the same position, and I just kind of let that match slip away. In the final tally it might not have made a difference, but who knows? Going out first, it could have ended up changing the entire thing. But after Gleneagles there was a break for about six weeks where I didn’t have to answer to anyone about it, and I was able to look back and say, ‘OK, what happened in these?’ My game was still there. But what made it a little harder to deal with than it should have been?

Just trying to simplify it to that. Not really looking at my statistics, but mentally. And it was just a level of patience that I needed to have. And the only way to actually validate it at that point was to win.”

Two months later, after missing a playoff by a stroke in Japan, Spieth traveled to the Australian Open. His closing 63 in blustery conditions for a six-stroke victory drew tweeted praise from then-No. 1 Rory McIlroy—You could give me another 100 rounds today at The Australian and I wouldn’t sniff 63—and will go down as one of the most important rounds of Spieth’s life. The next week, he won the Hero World Challenge at Isleworth by 10 shots.

When he returned to defend in Australia at the end of his magical 2015, Spieth reflected. “I felt like it was a very special round that was going to do something for me,” he said of his 63. “I didn’t think it would launch to the type of year that we’ve had, because

B R E A K I N G D O W N J O R DA N S P I E T H ’ S M A S T E R S W I N

How Jordan Spieth played Augusta National in rounds of 64-66-70-70

last year to tie Tiger Woods’ scoring record of 18-under-par 270, set in 1997: hole by hole

greens hit

putts

0 eagles 28 birdies 35 pars 8 bogeys 1 double bogey

108

(at the par-4 17th in the third round)

54 of 72 ranking T-2 with Justin Rose behind Ian Poulter (59 of 72) among the 55 players making the cut

by hole par

driving distance

12 under

282.63

(1.50 average), ranking third behind Dustin Johnson and Steve Stricker, 106 (1.47 average) sand saves

on the par 5s on the par 4s

ranking 44th behind leader Dustin Johnson (315.5)

on the par 3s

fairways hit

3 under 3 under

39 of 56 ranking T-20 behind leaders Ryan Moore, Mark O’Meara and Kevin Streelman (48 of 56)

66 golfdigest india | masters 2016

1 of 2 note In Spieth’s only other Masters, he finished T-2 in 2014 after rounds of 71-70-70-72—283, three strokes behind Bubba Watson.

T

“natural-born finisher”

he ability to close is clearly crucial to Spieth’s self-image as a player and probably keeps him from appreciating what is apparent to others.

“Spieth is a natural-born finisher,” says Johnny Miller.

“They come along very rarely. So many guys today seem to win by accident, but Spieth doesn’t. His game is ruled by that most important word: intent. Like Tiger, I believe he truly plays every tournament intending to win.”

But the part of Spieth’s arsenal he talks about the most is maximizing his play when he doesn’t have what he calls his “best stuff.” His riff before last year’s Tour Championship, which he went on to win by four, is particularly instructive.

“So, maybe it’s golf IQ or it’s whatever, there’s a lot of guys that have it,” he said. “I believe it’s one of my strengths. You’re going to make putts, you’re going to miss putts, you’re going to have off days, on days. I believe it comes down to when the lights are on, and you don’t have your best stuff, can you create your on days?”

To McCormick, “creating on days” is built on accepting limitations in physical play, which are variable, and maximizing mental skills, which can be more constant.

Of course, there’s no question about Spieth’s putting prowess. “He’s a master on the green,” says Ian BakerFinch, who was described similarly in his prime. “He’s the exact opposite of mechanical. On each putt, he allows his mind and body to react to what he sees, and then he trusts what feels right. It gives him this quiet flow that all the great putters have.”

“Each time he trains and practices, he’s uncompromisingly looking for something he can improve on,” McCormick says, “but when he plays a competitive round of golf, he accepts the skills he’s got to go after it.

He’s not going to try to sort of engineer something in the course of play that he might not necessarily have. He’s aware of what he has. He can say, ‘I know I can get it around with whatever “X” I have for that day.’ And that confidence and ability becomes something that is such a strength and a huge competitive advantage.”

But Spieth’s differentiation from his peers—perhaps more than any previous No. 1—has been achieved through intangibles. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods were acknowledged to have superior mental makeups, but much of the emphasis was on their overwhelming physical prowess. Because Spieth’s abilities in terms of clubhead speed and distance are relatively modest— though his ball-striking stats are deceptively good—he has raised awareness of the importance of the head over the hands. “Traditionally, golf observers overvalue the body of the car and undervalue what’s under the hood,” McCormick says. “Jordan’s engine—the way his mind governs his play—is superb. He’s also got a lot of grit and fight in him. It’s a skill set that is so well-rounded that he’s never left without the necessary tools to make up for a physical deficiency.”

Says Nicklaus: “When he might be struggling, he does it like that’s what he’s prepared to do, like it’s a natural part of what he does. He thinks his way around the golf course so well, he makes struggling look easy. He does that most important thing: taking the game you’ve got with you that day, and doing the very best you can with it.”

The package was on full display at the beginning of 2015. “We were floating on a strong downstream current in the calm part of the river, avoiding the rocks,

STATS SHOW WHY SPIETH IS A GREAT PUTTER GETTING IT TO THE HOLE FOR A MAKE (OR NOT TOO FAR BY)

BY P E T E R J. SA N D E RS

M

y theory on putting has always been that it involves two skills: direction and distance control. The closer to the hole, direction is the key, and distance control matters very little. As one moves away from the hole, distance control becomes more important. The great putters make more long putts and three-putt less often because of their distance-control skill. ▶ Like the other key parts of the game, the frequency and severity of putting errors have a dramatic influence on scoring. I consider missing a putt inside three feet an error—PGA Tour players made 99.4 percent of their three-footers in 2015. And I have determined that a distance-control error for a tour player is the failure to lag a putt to within 10 percent of the start distance, or within three feet. These errors were responsible for 69 percent of the three-putts (or worse) on tour in 2015. I label putts that get within 7 percent as very good. ▶ For this exercise, I used 2015 putting stats for Spieth and all PGA Tour players and compared them to the stats of the past five leaders in strokes gained/putting: Aaron Baddeley (2015), Graeme McDowell (2014), Greg Chalmers (2013), Brandt Snedeker (2012) and Luke Donald (2011). ▶ The conclusion? Jordan Spieth is the best that I have seen at distance control. His prowess does not stand out by a wide margin in any one of the measures, but the fact that he excels in all of them demonstrates his excellence. The breakdown:

ALL PUTTS OF 20 FEET & GREATER ▶ Spieth was the only player with an average leave of under two feet 1.97, versus 2.31 feet for all players and 2.20 for the strokesgained leaders.

PERCENTAGE OF ONE-PUTTS ▶ Spieth finished at 12% , versus 7% for all players and 9.5% for the strokes-gained leaders.

PERCENTAGE OF THREE-PUTTS OR FOUR-PUTTS OR FIVE-PUTTS ▶ If it makes you feel any better, there were 88 four-putts and five five-putts captured

by ShotLink in 2015.

Spieth’s three-putt percentage was 5% , with an average start of 42 feet and an average leave of 5.5 feet. For all players, the three-putt percentage was 8%, with an average start of 45.4 feet and an average leave of 6.1 feet. The five strokes-gained leaders averaged 4.9%, with a start of 45.8 feet and a leave of 5.9 feet.

VERY GOOD LAGS WITHIN 7 PERCENT OF THE START, OR THREE FEET ▶ Spieth was successful 80% of the time, versus 74% for all players and 76% for strokesgained leaders.

ERRORS LEAVES OF MORE THAN 10 PERCENT OF THE START DISTANCE AND OUTSIDE OF THREE FEET Spieth’s error percentage of 14% came with an average leave of 4.8 feet.

All players averaged 20% and 5.7 feet; strokes-gained leaders averaged 18% and 5.4 feet.

PUTTS HOLED OR PAST THE HOLE ▶ Spieth holed or got the first putt past the hole 69.3% of the time, with an average leave of 2.4 feet. All players averaged 66.6% and 2.7 feet; the strokes-gained leaders averaged 64.3% and 2.6 feet.

n o t e : p e t e r j . s a n d e r s i s t h e p r e s i d e n t a n d f o u n d i n g p a r t n e r o f s h o t b y s h o t. c o m .

heading for the ocean—which was Augusta,” McCormick says. “The only issue was a slight tendency to push drives to the right, but it was resolved. His swing thought was, Here is the vector I’m in, and I want to keep this vector, and if I deviate, then I know what to look for and I can correct.”

In March, Spieth won the Valspar Championship in a playoff that included Reed, and then was second at San Antonio and Houston. When Team Spieth got to the Masters, the emphasis was on maintenance. “He did less rather than more,” McCormick says.

“Our thought was that the ball is doing what we want it to. He was not fighting anything at all.”

Spieth opened with 64 that looked to be headed for a record 62 until he bogeyed the par-5 15th. He was in full control of the tournament until a double bogey on the 17th on Saturday, where he hit driver on the downwind hole instead of 3-wood. “I was very frustrated with that decision,” Spieth says, “given I don’t want decision-making to ever cost me in an event like this.”

After a badly pushed approach to the 18th, Spieth’s four-stroke lead—and possibly his psyche—suddenly looked shaky. He responded with arguably the shot of the year, a high-risk flop from a nestled downhill lie to the tightest of pins. He clipped it perfectly, somehow stopping the ball within 10 feet, then ran in the putt for an uplifting par.

“That just took some guts,” conceded Spieth, who called the shot a “one in five . . . having been in this scenario or having been in contention enough, having been on tour for a few years, I felt comfortable enough playing that full flop. If you caught me a year and a half ago, I probably never would have played that shot in that scenario.”

Showing again how much the previous year’s loss burned, he referred, unprompted, to the “bad taste in my mouth” and how he was “trying to get some revenge on the year.”

The next day, he did. As a result, Spieth comes to this year’s Masters with a whole other mind-set.

“Now, in my mind, other than where I grew up playing, Augusta National Golf Club is the place where I have the most history in golf,” he says. “As far as experience goes, there are only a few in the field with the same or more. Being in contention twice on Sunday on the back nine, having the lead—it’s rare. So I look at it as somewhat of a homecourse advantage. Which is the coolest thing for me to say about that place.”

Spieth said he is looking for patterns among the Masters’ multiple winners, with a particular focus on the only three men— Nicklaus, Woods and Nick Faldo—to have won back-to-back.

“That’s what I want to do,” says the defending champion. “I don’t want to give that jacket back. I look at it and think, What could I have done this year to embrace it even more, not just let it sit around in a trophy case? And I want to keep it, because I feel I’ll enjoy it even more than I did the first time.” masters 2016 | golfdigest india

67

ENGINEERED TO FEEL SOFT AND FLY FAR. NIKE RZN TOUR

RORY McILROY

NIKE.COM /GOLF

ENGINEERED TO FEEL SOFT AND FLY FAR. NIKE RZN TOUR

NIKE.COM /GOLF

70 golfdigest.com Photographed

by Art Streiber on Feb.2016 23, 2016, at home in Pebble Beach. | masters

Photographs by Art Streiber

JIM NANTZ m y s h ot ● 5 6 ● p e b b l e b e ac h

masterful storyteller

on the joy of burnt toast, traveling 245 days a year, & the best Masters gift

w i t h g u y yo c o m

“hello, friends.” I’ve had fun with

that expression to satisfy the cynics, but it comes from the heart, and I don’t apologize for it. Like my dad—for whom I designed the expression during the 2002 PGA Championship, when he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease— I’ve never met a stranger. I’ve heard it said that the average person is lucky to have only a handful of true friends in their lifetime. Well, I sincerely feel I’ve got millions. John Wooden once told me, “I would rather believe in people and be disappointed some of the time than never believe and be disappointed all the time.” That pretty much sums up my outlook on people and life.

Photograph by First Lastname

masters 2016 | golfdigest india

71

on the other hand, there’s a little Jack Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces” in me. I’m a breakfast guy: three eggs scrambled, with bacon and wheat toast, burnt. The problem is, it never came back burnt. For years it would arrive limp and tan, which brought breakfast to a standstill when I sent the toast back. It was costing me 10 minutes a day, which, multiplied by six days a week, is four hours a month. That’s 48 hours—two full days—per year. My friends, time is currency. My wife, Courtney, got tired of hearing me complain about it. She found a photograph on the Internet of a kitchen toaster ejecting two slices of burnt toast. She minimized it, printed it out and had it laminated. She insisted I put it in my wallet.

When I order, I present the photo to my server. I get some strange looks, but I can assure you, the toast now arrives black and scary, just the way I like it. ●

after i shot 70 in Utah one day, my pals talked me into

●

it wasn’t the end of putting my game on display pub-

licly, however. That didn’t happen until a few years later, at the pro-am of the 1999 Byron Nelson. At a banquet early in the week, I mentioned to Byron that I was playing alongside Fred Couples in the pro-am. “I’ll come out and watch you hit your first shot,” he said. I thought— hoped—that Byron would forget about it. A ton of people were there when I went to the tee. Making it worse, the first-tee announcer gives a ridiculously long introduction that included the phrase, “Jim Nantz, the man who taught Fred Couples how to play golf.” After I pegged my ball, I notice a commotion near the tee. I glance, and the gallery is parting like Moses parting the Red Sea. Here comes Byron, who, after arriving, leans on his cane and watches me, rapt. My mind left my body. My first swing was like a trick shot, the bottom of the driver nicking the ball just enough to make it fall off the tee. After surgically removing the tee so as not to disturb the ball, I take my 3-wood and hit the ball three feet. I glance at Byron, and he’s looking around, confused, as though it might be some kind of joke. And it was a joke. After nubbing my third shot down the fairway, I stood next to one of my buddies, Tommy Spencer, and said, “After this is over, I’m announcing my retirement. I will never do this again.”

72 golfdigest india | masters 2016

‘Bryson [DeChambeau] is the one who has the capacity to utterly change golf.’

entering the U.S. Amateur Public Links. Good call, until the late Hot Rod Hundley, the former Lakers great and fellow announcer for the Utah Jazz back then, insisted on caddieing for me. After an early couple of bogeys, Hot Rod, in his full-on, hyper way, started getting on me.

“What was that? Let’s go! Get with it! You’ll never shoot 70 playing like that!” You can’t talk to a golfer that way.

I fell apart, shot a million and felt terrible that I’d disappointed Rod. Telling my buddies what I shot—and I’m not revealing it here—was no fun, either. That was the end of formal competition for me.

speaking of byron , did you know he probably was the

closest witness to Gene Sarazen’s double eagle at the 15th in the 1935 Masters? Byron told me he had driven into the right rough on the 17th hole, and Sarazen’s drive was extreme right at 15. The holes are parallel to each other.

They were within steps of one another and got into a “Do you want to go; no, you hit” discussion. Byron said he wasn’t looking when Gene swung—he was busy inspecting his own shot—but turned just in time to see it go in the hole. Kind of a neat bit of trivia there.

●

i’ve played a great deal of golf with Arnold Palmer,

including a memorable round at Augusta National in May of 2010. Arnold, a dedicated walker, was ailing from something that day and needed a cart. It was busy, and we teed off with two guests on No. 10. Arnold hits a good drive but hits his second short and right.

His pitch goes to the back of the green. From there he three-putts. He made 6. As he was coming out of his knee bend from retrieving his ball from the cup, one of the guests, brandishing a scorecard, said, “What did you make, Arnold?” Arnold gave me a quick, telling glance that said, Help me out here. As we walked to the 11th tee, I suggested to the other guest that he ride with Arnold for a while. Then, to the fellow who had the scorecard, I said quietly, “Just my two cents, but I’ve played a lot of golf with Arnold, and we never keep score. At this stage of Arnold’s life, any round—especially here, today—is so much more enjoyable when it isn’t being recorded for posterity.” The man understood, and we never saw the scorecard and pencil again. ●

the storyline heading into Augusta is the Big Three: Jordan, Rory and Jason. I respect the credentials and understand the need to label—that’s our culture. But I don’t go along with it. What if Rickie Fowler wins? Or Justin Thomas, a phenomenal talent whose game is perfectly suited for Augusta? And what about the most compelling idea of all, Bubba Watson winning his third green jacket? If that happens, Bubba passes the likes of Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros, with only Jack, Tiger and Arnold ahead of him. Bubba is playing well and is on the brink of something historic, yet he’s been subdued by the mania surrounding the Big Three. It’s incredible how we can look past a guy like that. The post-Tiger era and the digital age has turned out to be amazing, surprising, and with the well of young talent out there, a little surreal. What I know for sure is, it’s about more than those three guys. ●

phil mickelson will win the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble

Beach. I’m so confident of that, I wish I could transplant that belief into Phil’s mind so he also believes it’s a foregone conclusion. He then could play the next three U.S. Opens believing he already has one under his belt. Freed of that burden, he then could win a championship between now and Pebble in 2019 and finish his career with at least two. See how my mind works?

●

bryson dechambeau , the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, came by my house recently. Casey Reamer, the head pro at Cypress Point and a mentor to Bryson, asked if I would speak to him about the history of the Masters. It was an amazing two hours. He asked every question imaginable about every significant player in Masters history, with an emphasis on tales of amateurs such as Billy Joe Patton, Frank Stranahan, Ken Venturi and Charlie Coe. I have DVDs of all the recent Masters, and Bryson asked to borrow them, not for entertainment so much as to study hole locations, how putts break,

●

the big three and the rest have enormous influence, but

Bryson is the one who has the capacity to utterly change golf. If he were to win the Masters, think of the impact it would have on the equipment industry. [DeChambeau’s irons all are roughly 6-iron length.] His dedication to The Golfing Machine could alter our approach to instruction. It’s hard to fathom how four days in Augusta would shift the landscape of the game so radically, but it would be Tiger-like. And it would be a fulfillment of Bobby Jones’ dream of glory going to the amateur.

●

nick faldo pointed out to me what makes the Masters

different from the other majors. He said that every shot he hit there was a summation of every shot he played his whole career. As fans, we sense that. We very rarely see quick, careless swings at the Masters. Poor shots, yes, but never lax ones. Only the Masters brings that out. Nick’s observation resonated with me because that’s how I want to call the Masters. I want it to be a full reflection of all of my abilities.

●

before and after every Masters, I take time to reflect.

On Wednesday of Masters week, at around 2 p.m., I

‘The idea is to let yourself be pulled into the story.’

where players were laying up on the par 5s. This young man is obsessed with winning the Masters as an amateur. His mind works in a unique, scientific way. It all reminded me of Bert Yancey and how he constructed clay models of the greens at Augusta and studied them. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see this young man contend.

quietly slip out and walk slowly down to Amen Corner.

I linger there, gazing at the pines and the setting. I feel the ground with my feet. I absorb the spirit of it all. Five days later, on Monday, when it’s ended, I drive over to Augusta National, get a cup of coffee and watch some groups tee off No. 1. I’ll look down the 18th fairway. I kind of tie a bow on everything, then head for my car and the drive to Hilton Head. ●

last stop : The golf shop. Like everyone else, I take

home a few trinkets to give out as gifts through the year.

There are these miniature Masters-themed golf clubs that make the perfect baby gift. The best item of all is these 3-D Christmas-tree ornaments that are shiny little replicas of the Augusta National clubhouse. I’ve never given a holiday gift that is more appreciated.

●

the amount of travel I do—I was gone 245 days last

year, flying NetJets when I’m in Denver and west, commercial for everything east of that—would be too much if my family didn’t travel with me for everything from the Final Four on. My wife, Courtney; daughter, Finley [2]; and son, Jameson [two months come Masters week], go with me, and so does my oldest daughter, Caroline, when she’s on break as a student at USC. I’d point out we do it alone except when my mother-in-law comes along. Courtney is a buzz saw on these things. Here’s a stat for you: Finley flew to her first Masters at 23 days old, and by her 19th month had made 100 flights. A neat side benefit: She rarely gets those kid sicknesses. She’s built a terrific immune system.

masters 2016 | golfdigest india

73

have i planned an exclamation for the end of a tour-

ian, the legendary producer and director, tough-loved me practically to death. He yelled at me frequently, and during commercials he would get laughs from the veterans at my expense. One of my first AT&Ts, he assigned me to interview celebrities at the 17th hole. I was 26 years old and had no clue what to ask Burt Lancaster, George C. Scott and Vic Damone. I walked into the trailer and said, “Mr. Chirkinian, I don’t think I’m the right guy to be interviewing these celebrities. What should I ask them?” Venturi, Summerall and the whole crew are in there. Frank said, “Come here, son.” He got out of his chair, walked over and pointed out a tiny window.

“See that lake out there?” he said, pointing at the Pacific Ocean. “Next time you come in and ask me a silly-ass question like that, I’m going to throw you in that lake.

Now get the hell out of my office, go down to the 17th hole and talk to those people.” They all roared. I slinked out of there.

●

during the at&t in 2014, I put on a dinner in the basement of The Sardine Factory on Cannery Row in Monterey. Phil Mickelson was still traveling with the claret jug, and we filled it with a nice pinot noir from my line of wines, The Calling. When the Cup got to Nick Faldo, who has won three of those cups, he paused and said, “I’ve never done this before.” He laughed, shrugged and took a couple of swigs like everyone else. He was giddy, the exact opposite of the Nick we knew in the early 1990s. His changeover from a complete golfer—an obsessed one— into a complete person, is the most incredible personal transformation I’ve ever witnessed. ●

cbs has done every Masters since 1956, and we’ve had great success tracking down tape and kinescopes of the original broadcasts for the “Jim Nantz Remembers Augusta” that we do every year. But there is one Masters that is missing: 1956. We know they had cameras set up greenside at No. 15, then, of course, they showed the last three holes. The situation is similar to the lost tape of the first Super Bowl, in 1967. That 1956 Masters is the Holy Grail of TV golf broadcasts, and I’m hoping that it shows up in some warehouse or archive. If you come across it, give me a call. ●

the key word with my Masters special is “Remembers.”

My father passed away due to Alzheimer’s disease, and many things I do are nods to him. The Nantz National Alzheimer Center at Houston Methodist, which already is making inroads to finding treatments that will lead to a cure, is an homage to my dad.

●

during the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla, Gary McCord asked me, “Have you noticed something amiss with Peter? He doesn’t seem himself.” He was referring to our CBS colleague Peter Oosterhuis. “No, not at all,” I said. Gary said, “Well, keep an eye on him during dinner tonight, and let’s talk tomorrow.” I watched and listened to Peter closely and didn’t pick up on anything. That, after being close to my father throughout his struggle with Alzheimer’s. Soon after that, it become more apparent that Peter was struggling. Alzheimer’s is such an insidious disease. I’m using every tool at my disposal to fund the research necessary to help Peter. In fact, he’s being treated by a team of doctors at the Nantz Center.

74 golfdigest india | masters 2016

‘That 1956 Masters is the Holy Grail of TV golf broadcasts, and I’m hoping that it shows up in some warehouse or archive.’

when i joined the CBS golf team in 1986, Frank Chirkin-

nament in advance? It depends. When Tiger carried a nine-shot lead into the final round in 1997 and it was clear he was going to win, I imagined his final putt being played 50 years down the road. There had to be a line that summarized that for posterity. That’s how “A win for the ages!” came about, and I did plan it starting on Saturday night. When a sportswriter rather cynically asked if I planned it out, I said, “You bet your life I did.

When you saw Tiger was going to win, did you not think of your lead paragraph hours in advance? Or did you wait until the last putt fell before you started to consider it?”

I mean, come on.

●

the idea is to let yourself be pulled into the story. “The human drama of athletic competition,” as one of my heroes, Jim McKay, referred to it on his “Wide World of Sports” opener—is why we do what we do. But Greg Norman’s loss in 1996 was the rare instance where I had to divest myself emotionally. It was so painful that I actually needed to be a little clinical describing it, because it wasn’t all tragedy. On the other side, it was a huge victory for Nick Faldo. But it was largely about Greg Norman, and what impressed me about Greg was that he followed through on his commitment to play the following week.

Not only that, he invited a group of us onto his boat for dinner that Wednesday night. It was a lesson on how to take a defeat graciously. ●

the greens at Augusta are so harrowing, watching a

player get on a roll there can make him seem invincible.

Jordan Spieth, Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson can make you believe it’s impossible to putt any better. But I always knew better. One of my college roomies at Houston was a guy named John Horne from Plainview, Texas. This man was magic with the putter.

The roll, the way the ball came off the putterface, the way he’d center-cut everything, regardless of length, was unlike anything I’ve seen before or since. John’s long game wasn’t accurate, but when it comes to the greatest putter ever, I’ve got to go with the man from Plainview.

●

senior british open at Sunningdale, 2015. They’re

playing a pro-am, and I decide, after a 16-year hitatus, to make my return to public competitive golf. To come out of retirement, as it were. On the eve of the event the old terror returns, because I see Ivor Robson at the dinner, and my worst nightmare is that he’s going to introduce everyone on the first tee. My partner is Jeff Maggert, whose calm demeanor is like a balm. With people in attendance, I get on the first tee and boom one out there. I then hit my second to the par 5 on the green. It went well. I chased away a lot of demons that day. I’m not entertaining the idea of putting my game on display more.

●

so who will win the masters? Let’s see. Phil won in

2004. He won two years later, in 2006. Four later, in 2010, he won again. Now it’s 2016, six years later. Two . . . four . . . six. If the Nantz Law of Mathematical Progression follows, 2016 will again be Phil’s year.

●

in 2036, for the 100th playing of the Masters, we’ll see Phil

Mickelson serve as honorary starter alongside another retired golfer, Tiger Woods. Competing that year will be a 20-year-old sensation who will become the youngest player ever to don the green jacket. In Butler Cabin, as this historic and wonderful Masters concludes, I will say, “Congratulations, Jameson. And good-bye, friends.”

LIGHTS. CAMERA. ACTION. DRAMA ON THE WORLD STAGE

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

LIVE SCORING

LATEST HIGHLIGHTS

Follow the drama at: europeantour.com

IF AUGUSTA NATIONAL RULED THE WORLD...

Our man Jenkins on how things would change, from the presidency to airline food to litter removal by dan jenkins

The opening page dazzles you. It features a large color portrait of the president of the United States, Jim Nantz.

Jim’s welcoming letter includes some of the personally favorite things he has said on TV, and he also discusses two of his most recent executive orders.

One order deals with the progress on the nation’s new White House that is being built on Washington Road directly across from Magnolia Lane. President Nantz says in his letter, “My close friend Donald Trump is in charge of building a big wall—a great wall, he calls it—around this new White House, and he promises that the wall will have a door in it.”

The second executive order speaks to a change in holidays. We realized it wasn’t a joke when the president moved Christmas, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July to the first full week in April because that’s Masters week.

The president explains, “It eliminates confusion, and it’s the right thing to do for the thousands of Americans who, like me, have a busy schedule that involves following the Masters, a tradition unlike any other—except for Christmas, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July—and then competing in various pro-ams and member-guests.”

(By the way, the club is trademarking the phrase, “A tradition unlike any other.” Not making that one up.)

There’s a nice feature in the guide about Augusta National’s Litter Squad and the good that it does in parts of the country. A photo shows soldiers of the Litter Squad streaming across Times Square in New York City picking up garbage before it hits the streets. In the story you learn helpful advice from the leader of the New York Litter Squad, Retired Maj. Gen. Lucian Collins Patton. The squad leader says, “We strongly encourage the residents and visitors in Manhattan to defy the mayor and city council and return to their previous habit of using indoor restrooms when in need.” Internationally, the Litter Squad also has plans to see what’s going on with the Ganges.

In a full-page ad, an anonymous person has chosen to congratulate Augusta National for the effect it has had Illustration by Eddie Guy

The club’s logo is one of the iconic brands in the world, along with Apple, Coke, the Nike swoosh and Greg Norman cavorting on Instagram without a shirt.

S I SUSPECTED, proof arrived the other day that our country is now run by the Augusta National Golf Club when the 2016 Masters media guide landed on my porch weighing only slightly less than a sumo wrestler. ▶ Just thumbing through it, I quickly realized that it was going to tell me everything I wanted to know about every player who had ever competed in the Masters, including Cobie Legrange. ▶ For that matter, there’s biographical information on every fan who has attended the Masters, if only for a practice round.

This dates back to 1934 and includes a Mr. Woody Scrum of Murfreesboro, Tenn., who was apprehended on Friday, March 31, 1939, trying to sneak into the tournament dressed as Henry Picard.

on improving the airline industry. Flights have become more punctual and efficient, and a spokesman explains why: The major airlines lobbied security guards at all U.S. terminals to take a closer look at passengers boarding a plane dressed in a mask while carrying an automatic weapon, or displaying an object that appears to have a fuse attached.

Airline food, fashioned after the Champions Dinner, also got a big boost once Bubba Watson’s Roadkill ’n’ Rutabaga was taken off the menu. This was before Bubba was named ambassador to Russia. On a trip to Moscow, Bubba caused a stir when he said, “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with Red Square what can’t be fixed with a paint job in Augusta green.” It was all smoothed over after Bubba met with Vladimir Putin, who slurped a few vodkas and then wanted to compare chest hair.

In Detroit, car manufacturers have struggled to keep up with demand for The National. The car features the club’s logo, one of the iconic brands in the world, along with Apple, Coke, the Nike swoosh and Greg Norman cavorting on Instagram without a shirt.

The new national anthem, Dave Loggins’ “Augusta” theme song, is being played before athletic events, on CBS’ Masters coverage and in piano bars, driving the occasional person insane. The fitness industry was stunned when Augusta National extended its ban on running— it’s now illegal everywhere—which got a sign-off from Fred Couples, the Secretary of Health, Human Services & Sauntering. And Phil Mickelson, overseeing the Commerce Department, forced pro sports teams to cut their prices to Masters levels: $1.50 for a pimento-cheese sandwich and $4 for a beer.

Meanwhile, Congress continues to debate whether to make the Georgia drawl the nation’s official language.

And a move to ban wearing golf hats backward (dubbed the Rickie Fowler Bill) got hung up in the House when your younger representatives filibustered while wearing orange shorts, orange sandals and orange athletic supporters. There was no such conflict on the decision to deport Robert Allenby, because, well, he’s Robert Allenby.

In schools, golf has become the nation’s most popular sport, mandated for P.E. classes after dodgeball was found responsible for more concussions than football.

The Department of Transportation also has been overhauled, after the Augusta National-inspired re-routing of Berckmans Road became the first road project in history to be completed on time.

Near the end of the guide, President Nantz wishes Tiger Woods a speedy recovery from the broken leg he suffered while playing soccer with a group of children in the neighborhood. The president tells Tiger he’s looking forward to his return to the Masters and the tour to boost TV ratings like the days of old. He prays that Tiger’s return will be sometime before he’s 50 “and hitting from the reds,” which I think was meant to be a joke.

President Nantz could not resist alerting everyone to the fact that he had been honored to christen our newest aircraft carrier next month. It will be the largest warship ever launched and is proudly named the USS Jordan Spieth.

The president will christen it wearing a green jacket as he hurls a bowl of peach cobbler in the general direction of the bow. masters 2016 |

open here ▶ ▶ ▶

gutter credit tk

Photograph by First Lastname

W E I V asters

E eM h t C t I N look a pho

t

hs

by

win

ter

gutter credit tk

for n i Zoom

te a m i t n i n a

ap ogr

dan

Photograph by First Lastname

masters 2016 | golfdigest india

83

s

previous pages Tiger Woods follows his tee shot at the first hole. these pages

gutter credit tk

Spectators can escape in their own world or become part of the action.

84 golfdigest.com | month 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

gutter credit tk

Photograph by First Lastname

masters 2016 | golfdigest india

85

gutter credit tk

taking dead aim A spectator gets an unobstructed view of the Par-3 Contest.

86 golfdigest.com | month 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

gutter credit tk

Photograph by First Lastname

masters 2016 | golfdigest india

87

gutter credit tk

88 golfdigest.com | month 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

BOOK EXCERPT

What Greg Norman—and all of us— can learn from his stunning failure at the 1996 Masters By Sam Weinman

Illustrations by Quickhoney

masters 2016 | golfdigest india

89

Excerpted with permission from win at losing: harnessing the power of setbacks, copyright © 2016 by Sam Weinman, to be published

by TarcherPerigee on Dec. 27, 2016, 272 pages, $26.

ia detail work at golf digest, that tends to elicit questions about how

I got started in the game. Unlike most of my colleagues, mine was not really a golf family.

My dad played when he was younger, but he quit when he developed a debilitating case of the shanks.

My older brother played a little.

The most avid golfer was my grandfather, and he had the misfortune of being awful.

After he died, my mother, as mourners are prone to do, reflected glowingly on her father’s golf.

“Your grandfather was a wonderful golfer,” she said to me. ▶ My dad, who had played the most with Grandpa, remembered differently.

“He was terrible,” he whispered.

“He could never get the ball in the air.”

90 golfdigest india | masters 2016

Frank Williams, Norman’s agent at the time, had bet $10,000 on Norman to win at 14-to-1 odds. Offered a $100,000 buyout on Saturday night, Williams declined.

It was only in college that I started to dabble in the game, occasionally stealing off with my roommates with one set of clubs among us. We would drive 20 minutes off campus in New Hampshire to play a dinky nine-hole course named Rockingham, where no hole back then measured more than 300 yards, there were only a handful of trees, and where even in my earliest tear-up-the-turf days as a golfer, it was hard not to break 50.

You could get around Rockingham in little more than an hour, so one April afternoon in our senior year, still groggy from whatever damage we had incurred the night before, we agreed we’d sneak in a round before dark. Until then the Masters was on TV, and Greg Norman had a six-shot lead, so we settled into the couches of our grungy apartment, nursed our hangovers, and prepared to watch the man nicknamed the Great White Shark cruise to his first green jacket.

I had no particular attachment to Greg Norman, or really any golfer at that point. But Norman was an inviting figure—chiseled and confident, with an unabashed swagger—and I had paid enough attention to golf to know that the Masters was something that had narrowly eluded him for years. I was looking forward to watching him finally break through—right up until the point it was apparent he wouldn’t.

It’s probably strange to admit that the moment that truly sold me on golf was one defined by someone else’s misery. We all have a dark side. But the enjoyment for me was not so much derived from Norman’s collapse.

In fact, if at one point we thought we were going to wait until after the CBS telecast to head to the golf course, we eventually deemed his public writhing too painful to witness. When Norman splashed his tee shot in the water on the par-3 16th, all but assuring the Masters title for Nick Faldo, we decided we’d had enough; my roommate Sully clicked the TV off in disgust, and four of us filed out the door and headed to Rockingham. I was disappointed for Norman, but I remained fascinated, my head spinning like it is when you walk out of a movie filled with so many plot twists you need to confirm with others everything that happened.

Until then I was unaware golf could do that. It hadn’t occurred to me that the golf swing was essentially a living organism that could get up and leave you at a time of its choosing, or that someone who had navigated a course so skillfully one moment could flail helplessly the next.

But that, I learned later, was Greg Norman. There were times when he appeared unflappable, looking, as Dan Jenkins wrote in Golf Digest, “like the guy you send out to kill James Bond.” You wouldn’t cast a character like Norman, broad-shouldered and blond, with that Australian accent, to play the victim. And yet on so many occasions even before that Sunday, he was.

To say no golfer lost more than Norman is imprecise, because there are scores of professional golfers who don’t even sniff a chance to win major tournaments.

And besides, Norman won plenty—90 times around the world, including two Open Championships. Before Tiger Woods, Norman’s 331 weeks atop the world ranking was a record. We should all be such losers.

Still, if you define losing as standing alluringly close to a prize and failing to capture it, then Norman lost. If losing is when the prevailing emotion afterward is regret, then Norman was in a class of his own.

In 1986, Norman led all four majors heading into the final round, but he won only one, the Open at Turnberry.

In the Masters that year he had a chance to force a playoff with Jack Nicklaus, but he flared a 4-iron into the crowd on the 18th hole, made bogey and lost by one. In the PGA Championship, Norman floundered to a 40 on the back

finally over After his 78, Norman congratulated Faldo, who shot a 67 to win by five, and caddie Fanny Sunesson.

nine, then watched as Bob Tway holed out from a bunker for a birdie and the win. The cruel blows continued.

Larry Mize miraculously holed out a pitch to beat him in a playoff at the 1987 Masters. Norman lipped out a short putt to lose the 1993 PGA. In 1995, he shot 73 in the final round of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock when an even-par 70 would have won.

How could one golfer be so dominant in some spots and so vulnerable in others? The two forces would appear to be diametrically opposed, but there’s actually a strong and logical connection. Consider the heights Norman reached with his best golf. He set a record at the Players Championship when he won at 24 under par. In the final round of the 1993 Open at Royal St. George’s, he shot 64 in blustery conditions. His former instructor Butch Harmon has called that “the best round of golf I’ve ever seen in my life,” and this was said after Harmon coached Tiger Woods to eight majors from 1997-2002.

In reaching such a rarefied level, however, you risk believing you belong nowhere else. Remember the proverb “Pride goes before a fall”? Norman could have had this engraved on his wedges. Both of his children describe their father’s unwavering confidence, even against the backdrop of disappointment. “Stubbornness runs in our family,” his daughter, Morgan-Leigh, says. “He’s a Type-A person who believes he’s going to succeed more than anyone else.”

Says Peter Kostis, a golf analyst for CBS and a leading instructor: “Sometimes that stubbornness gives you the commitment to hit a brilliant shot under pressure.

Sometimes it makes you go for a shot you shouldn’t try.

I saw Greg as having that.”

At the far end of confidence is hubris, and as the game’s premier player, Norman was arguably ill-prepared for those occasions when things went awry. In recent years Norman has acknowledged he could have benefited from working with a sport psychologist to better deal with those stressful Sundays.

“During my career, when I first started playing the game, sport psychologists weren’t part of your team,” he says. “But if I had the ability to trust someone to give me advice or help me with my attitude, damn right I would have been a better player.”

What Norman needed help with most was his “contingency management”—knowing how to react when your first plan falls apart. The sport psychologist Jonathan Fader’s analogy was knowing to take a different route to work when your usual route is blocked.

“The idea is, you’ve got to have a plan for when things go wrong and you’re faced with challenges,” Fader says.

“The way I work with people is, I say we’re preparing for excellence. But you’re always going to have unwanted outcomes, so if you’re prepared for them, you’re going to arrive at the quickest path to recovery.”

By the time Norman entered his 40s, it was apparent contingency management was a skill he needed. Although the ’96 Masters was his most dramatic collapse, he has always maintained that the loss to Mize in ’87 was more devastating. It’s the major that had him weeping on the beach outside his Florida home at 3 a.m., the one he has said took four full years to get over. The climactic sequence came on the second playoff hole, the 11th, with Norman’s ball safely on the green, and Mize off near the 12th tee after missing his approach right. One hundred and 40 feet away, Mize thought he had to get down in two to have any chance of extending the playoff. Norman was pretty sure he wouldn’t. Instead, Mize holed the chip to win outright.

“That’s the one that gutted me most because I thought I was in total control,” Norman says some three masters 2016 | golfdigest india

91

N

a hint of the collapse

ine years later in the Masters, Norman shot 63 the first day, then opened up a six-shot lead through three rounds. On Saturday night, Norman bumped into the esteemed British golf writer Peter Dobereiner, then a Golf Digest contributor, in the bathroom at Augusta National.

“Well, Greg,” Dobereiner said, “not even you can f--this up now.”

But of course he did. If nine years earlier Norman was a helpless observer to Mize’s improbable chip-in, his fingerprints were all over the events of April 14, 1996, when he shot 78 to Faldo’s 67 and lost by five. To classify it properly, the outcome against Mize was a loss, and this was a failure. From a distance heading into that round, Norman again appeared in total control. He was six strokes clear of his nearest pursuers, and many of the Australian writers were busy writing their “Norman wins” stories before he had even teed off. Frank Williams, Norman’s agent at the time, was so convinced his client would cruise to victory, he had bet $10,000 on Norman to win at 14-to-1 odds. Offered a $100,000 buyout on Saturday night, Williams declined.

“It shows you what great judgment I had,” he says.

To one observer, the Sunday implosion wasn’t a surprise at all. At the beginning of the week, CBS’ Kostis noticed that Norman was experimenting with a stronger grip on the practice range. A grip change to a golfer is like learning a new language. The day after Norman’s opening 63, Kostis noticed Norman’s grip on the club had slightly weakened, and he didn’t hit the ball as precisely but still shot 69 to increase his lead to four. The trend continued in the third round. By Kostis’ accounting, Norman’s grip was back to where it was before the week began, and he was missing shots to both sides of the fairway. Thanks to his chipping and putting, he still shot 71.

“Were it not for some phenomenal short-game work he could have shot 78 or 80, but as it was, he left the golf course with a six-shot lead,” Kostis says. “Everybody thought he was playing better, and I saw someone reverting to form who was in trouble. You can’t play any golf course with a two-way miss, and especially not Augusta National.”

On Saturday night, when walking back to the TV compound, Kostis bumped into a Golf Channel reporter who asked him what he thought of Norman’s chances in claiming his first Masters. It was a casual exchange that Kostis thought was off the record, so he said he feared Norman was in for a long day based on his erratic ballstriking in the third round. He didn’t think anything of the conversation until he showed up Sunday morning and was accosted by Frank Chirkinian, then the executive producer of CBS’ golf coverage and a good friend of Norman’s.

“Frank yells at me, ‘Did you tell the whole world that Greg was going to choke and not win the Masters? Greg wants to put his hands on your throat!’ ” Kostis recalls.

Only then did Kostis realize that his remarks about Norman’s swing made their way onto the air. That the Masters leader got wind of it and called Chirkinian to complain hours before his tee time spoke to Norman’s fragile state of mind.

“I said to Frank, ‘If all he’s got to do on the most im-

92 golfdigest india | masters 2016

‘Frank [Chirkinian] yells at me, “Did you tell the whole world that Greg was going to choke and not win the Masters? Greg wants to put his hands on your throat!” ’ —CBS’ Peter Kostis

decades later. “And that’s something I talked to my kids about. I explained to them if you think you’re in total control, expect the unexpected. When everything looks great, look for trouble.”

portant golf day of his life is call you, he’s not in a good place,’ ” Kostis says.

Twenty years later, Norman doesn’t disagree.

“I knew deep down Sunday morning I wasn’t feeling great,” Norman says. “I was completely off.”

T

a personal issue

he reasons had to do with more than a grip change.

In subsequent years, Norman has said he woke up that morning with a stiff back, which he tried to loosen by going for a long walk. But that, too, was only part of the problem. In the hours before his tee time, Norman tells me he was also grappling with a personal issue that had been pushed to the fore. The golfer’s life, with three marriages (the first of which ended in a reported $103-million divorce settlement) and a wide-ranging business, has always been complicated. Whatever it was, it was percolating enough that he sensed the day was going to be a struggle, six-shot lead or not.

“Things happen that create what you call ‘white noise,’ and you need to work to eliminate the white noise from the moment you wake up in the morning,” he says.

“I wasn’t able to do that.”

As recently as the night before, he had said all the right things about not getting ahead of himself. But then he was still pressed by reporters on what a win would mean. And there was Dobereiner saying there was no way he could lose. And then Kostis saying he still could . . .

“I imagine he was thinking about the times that he had been beaten that he shouldn’t have,” Williams says.

“If it was me, I’d be thinking, I can’t f--- this up again.”

In sports, our relationship with goals can be complicated. Because as much as we’re told to identify specific benchmarks and pursue them, the focus on the end result can be paralyzing. Born from this conflict is the golf cliché “Take it one shot at a time,” which as vapid as it sounds, is a means of steering attention away from a result and toward a process. As Dr. Michael Lardon says, the alternative to taking it one shot at a time “is you’re just trying as hard as you can to win a tournament, which can get a little overwhelming.”

“I wasn’t 100 percent prepared for the responsibility of what I had in front of me,” Norman says. “And I said to my kids after, whenever you’re in an important situation like that, you have to be so strong that you can compartmentalize all the shit that goes on in your mind. That was one moment I didn’t do it, and I paid the price deeply.”

I

panic on the range

t turns out that Harmon had given an interview that morning in which he talked about his student finally being “at peace with himself on this golf course.” Yet when Norman arrived for his warm-up session, he was a mess.

“I could feel it,” Norman says. “My swing wasn’t there, and I said to Butch I was off. And Butch said, ‘No, everything looks great.’ And I said, ‘No, Butch, it’s not great.

I can feel it.’ ” Although Harmon could immediately detect a difference, he says his objective at that point was to try to soothe the player’s nerves. When I mention the “personal issue” that Norman says he was consumed with, Harmon nods knowingly. The two men have never spoken about it, but Harmon says one day he’ll get around to asking.

“I’ve always said one night he and I were going to get drunk somewhere and I was going to say, ‘OK, what the f--- happened Sunday?’ ” Harmon says. “He’s never told [caddie Tony Navarro] and I what it was, but we knew

something was wrong because we were both standing there saying, ‘Who is this guy? This is not the guy who left last night.’ ” Norman says the day could have been salvaged had he been honest with Harmon and Navarro about what was really going on. But he never did, and by time he missed the first fairway en route to an opening bogey, there was no turning back.

“I should have turned to them both and just purged,” he says. “It would have taken 10 minutes, and it would have been over with. But I didn’t do it. So the lesson there is, don’t harbor things internally. Don’t push the elephant under the rug. Anxiety and happiness both come from within. And so you have to ask, which one do you prefer?”

The collapse was swift and painstaking. Norman’s six-shot lead was down to five by the time he walked off the first green. By the time he walked off the eighth, it was three. Then came perhaps the afternoon’s most dispiriting sequence, an approach shot to the uphill ninth that landed on the green, then began trickling back down the hill like a pebble off a roof. Another bogey, and the lead was just two. Norman looked glassy-eyed and ashen as he traversed the back nine. On the 15th hole, after Norman saw a last-gasp eagle chip spin out of the hole, he toppled over in anguish. On 18, after Faldo holed out for the win and his third Masters title, he wrapped his longtime rival in the type of sympathetic embrace you normally see at wakes. It was all over, and Norman was left to somehow make sense of everything that just happened.

In this way, he summoned his best performance of the week.

F

learning from nicklaus

or three years before I began working at Golf Digest, I worked two beats at a newspaper, the New York Rangers and golf, and I was always struck by the contrast in how players in the two sports had to account for losing. In hockey, losing is a given, even on good teams. Teams lose games, and with those losses comes an expectation that you explain yourself— who blew an assignment, what you need to do better.

Where golf is different is that the gravitational pull is almost always toward the players playing well, to the extent that you often hear golfers end interviews by saying they hope they get to talk to the press again tomorrow; in other words, they hope to shoot a low enough score to still be deemed interesting. The typical player who posts a couple of 75s, meanwhile, can go through the tournament unnoticed, head home on Friday, and only has to answer to his caddie and his wife.

The exception has always been the players at the top of the food chain: Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Norman and Tiger Woods. They all reached that esteemed level, of course, because they worked their way into contention more often than not. But even when they didn’t, there were enough microphones in their face that they had to put words to their disappointment quicker than their peers. The standard for this has always been Nicklaus, who won 18 professional majors and finished second in 19 more, and had a knack for handling both with the same level of grace.

“Sometimes you just get beat even when you play good. You’ve got no control over that,” Harmon says.

“With Greg, a lot of times things just happened to him.

But a lot he brought on, too.”

What made Norman’s media appearances Sunday night after his Masters loss so resonant is that he never hid from this reality. There was no talk of a stiff back, or a

facing questions Norman won points for dealing with the media: “I’ll wake up tomorrow still breathing, I hope.”

personal issue. He blamed no one but himself. “I screwed up,” Norman told the media. “It’s all on me. I know that, but losing the Masters is not the end of the world. I let this one get away, but I still have a pretty good life. I’ll wake up tomorrow still breathing, I hope. All these hiccups I have, they must be for a reason. All this is just a test; I just don’t know what the test is yet.”

The media session was interminable. Norman was asked about his loss in every imaginable way. Lost in all this could have been the fact that his opponent, Faldo, shot five under par to win his sixth major. “Even if I had played half-decent, it would have been a good tussle with Nick,” Norman said. “Nick played great golf. There’s no two ways about it. He played great, and I played poor.”

As cathartic a moment as it was for Norman, it was enlightening to everyone else. Watching at home was 15-year-old Adam Scott, who would succeed Norman as Australian golf’s most prominent star. At the time, Scott thought he was merely watching his hero lose a tournament. What he wouldn’t realize until later was how instructive the episode would be when he experienced his own major meltdown at the 2012 Open at Royal Lytham, where he bogeyed the last four holes to lose by one.

“You could say it was a very similar situation to me at Lytham,” Scott tells me. “You know, it’s maybe not what you want to do, walk into the media center and face questions about why you didn’t execute and why you failed.

But I definitely drew on that experience of watching Greg go through it and take it on the chin. I came away with a better understanding of what the game is about, and one thing is that you can’t be afraid to lose. You have to put yourself in that position because it’s the only way you’ll ever win.”

masters 2016 | golfdigest india

93

hat’s easy to forget now is the distance Norman traveled to get to that point. Unlike his hero Nicklaus, Norman had long had a strained relationship with the media. He was arrogant, but also defensive.

“With the press before that tournament I would say he was very confrontational,” says Williams, Norman’s former agent. “If anyone said anything he didn’t like, he’d come straight back at them in an aggressive way.”

In ’96, however, the result of being exposed in such a cruel light was that Norman for once dropped the pretense. “I thought he handled it beautifully,” Kostis says.

“I think Greg became a better person because of it. He was humbled by it and learned from it, and as a result he became more human to his fans.”

After finishing with the media, Norman had to tend to the fragile emotions of his traveling party. Everyone was in tears: his daughter, Morgan-Leigh; his thenwife, Laura; even his agent, Williams, who had seen the $140,000 payday disappear. Morgan was 13 at the time, and she remembers “watching the emotion circulate through our family. It was really tough, and yet no matter how hard it was, he was still just our dad trying to make us laugh. I don’t remember it from a golf perspective.

I just remember looking at him and thinking at the end of the day, he was going to be OK.” If there was an opportunity for Norman to drop his guard, it would have been upon boarding his plane for the ride back to Florida. Instead, seeing the assortment of red eyes staring back at him, he held firm that he would be just fine.

Williams recalls, “He came on, and he said, ‘Oh, come on, it’s just a game. Think about all the money I’ve made from hitting a little white ball from A to B. Think about all the guys who work their tails off in factories. I tell you what we’re going to do: We’re going to stay on this plane and drink it dry.’

“And so we did,” Williams continues. “I’m sure underneath it all he really wanted to lock himself in a room and mourn, but he wanted to make everyone feel better.”

F

adam scott’s breakthrough

or the first 79 years of the Masters, no Australian had won a green jacket. That looked to change on a misty Sunday in 2013, when Adam Scott entered the fourth round a shot off the lead. Greg Norman was home in Florida, watching a player he had mentored through the early years of his career. As Scott entered the final holes of his battle with Angel Cabrera, Norman called his son, Gregory, who lived down the road.

“He said, ‘Holy shit, he’s going to pull this off,’ ” Gregory recalls. “So I drove over. It was a very intense ending, and when Adam made the final putt to win, we were both in tears.”

‘I tell you what we’re going to do: We’re going to stay on this plane and drink it dry.’

—Greg Norman, on the night of the loss

W

confrontations with the media

I ask Gregory if he thinks a piece of his father was wistful that the breakthrough moment belonged to someone else.

“It’s a good question,” Gregory says. “I think a lesser man would be resentful that someone got what he wanted so badly. But my dad wasn’t that way in the slightest.

He was overcome with pride and joy.”

Norman’s happiness appears genuine these days.

He is 61, but a remarkably young 61, based not only on his still-impressive physique, but also his teenager-like sharing habits on social media. He plays competitive golf only sparingly, and instead remains immersed in his business, Great White Shark Enterprises, which has divisions for clothing, golf-course design and wine, among others.

In his post-golf life, Norman has endured his share of setbacks. He cites the 2008 financial crisis, when he had to lay off a portion of his staff, as the “most stressful thing I’ve ever done.” More recently, he had an abbreviated run as the lead analyst for Fox in its coverage of the U.S. Open, lasting just the 2015 season before the network opted to replace him.

Nonetheless, it’s hard to feel too bad for him. According to Golf Digest’s annual ranking of the top earners in golf, on and off the course, he made $12 million in 2015, putting him behind only Nicklaus, Palmer and Gary Player among former players. It’s worth noting that those three each had vastly more successful majorchampionship careers, which might lead to the conclusion that Norman would be an even richer man today had he gotten the job done better on Sundays. Maybe.

But I also think Norman’s appeal was wrapped up in the entirety of his biography, the losses included. Like I said, I’m not sure I’d have thought much of Norman had he shot two under par that Sunday at Augusta and won by three. But in losing the way that he did, I was drawn to his vulnerability as much as his talent. And I wasn’t alone in thinking this.

In the lead-up to Norman’s return to Augusta for the 1997 Masters, Golf Digest colleague Mike Stachura visited the player’s office in Jupiter, Fla., to sift through the more than 8,000 pieces of mail Norman received after his collapse against Faldo. The letters came from world leaders (President George H.W. Bush: “You did more for the game of golf in defeat than you have done in victory”), from fellow tour players (Scott Hoch, who missed his own short putt that would have won the 1989 Masters: “We know what you are going through”), and from kids (10-year-old David Tiffenberg: “We can’t always have our heart’s desire, but failing can make us stronger”). Even the mother of Larry Mize wrote to pass on her condolences. In the years since, the letters have kept coming.

Norman says he has “tens of thousands” in boxes in his home, and though the messages vary, they’re all born from the same connection.

“It’s very simple,” Norman tells me. “I stood up and embraced the failure of it all. I accepted the fact that one of the most precious things in my whole life, I didn’t get.

And in that situation, it really hit home with people.”

GOLF DIGEST is a registered trademark of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. Copyright © 2016 Golf Digest Publications. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Volume 67, Number 5. GOLF DIGEST (ISSN 0017-176X) is published monthly (except for an additional Masters issue in March and a combined issue in December/January) by Golf Digest Publications, which is a division of Condé Nast, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. Principal office: Condé Nast, One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse Jr., Chairman Emeritus; Charles H. Townsend, Chairman; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., Chief Executive Office and President; David E. Geithner, Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration 123242885-RT0001. Canada Post: Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: P.O. Box 874, Station Main, Markham, ON. L3P 8L4. Postmaster: Send all UAA to CFS (see DMM 507.1.5.2); Non-Postal and Military facilities: Send address corrections to Golf Digest, P.O. Box 37065, Boone, IA 50037-0065. For subscriptions, address adjustments or back-issue inquiries: Write to Golf Digest, P.O. Box 37065, Boone, IA 50037-0065; visit golfdigest.com; or call 800-PAR-GOLF. Please give both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. Subscribers: If the post office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business and production correspondence to: Golf Digest magazine, 20 Westport Road, Box 850, Wilton, CT 06897 or call 203-761-5100. For reprints, please email reprints@condenast.com or call Wright’s Media 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please email contentlicensing@condenast.com or 800-897-8666. How to play, what to play, where to play is a registered trademark of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. To subscribe to other Condé Nast magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.condenastdigital.com. Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 37065, Boone, IA 50037-0065, or call 800-PAR-GOLF. Golf Digest does not accept any unsolicited submissions and is not responsible for the return or loss of, or for any damage or any other injury to: unsolicited manuscripts, unsolicited artwork (including, but not limited to, drawings, photographs and transparencies), or any other unsolicited materials.

94 golfdigest india | masters 2016

The Golf Life Think Young, Play Hard

GOLF DIGEST’S WORLD 100 GREATEST GOLF COURSES 1 Royal County Down G.C. (Championship) Newcastle, Northern Ireland 2 Augusta National (Ga.) G.C. U.S.A. 3 Pine Valley (N.J.) G.C., U.S.A. 4 Cypress Point Club Pebble Beach, U.S.A. 5 Royal Dornoch G.C. (Championship), Scotland 6 Royal Melbourne G.C. (West) Black Rock, Australia 7 Shinnecock Hills G.C. Southampton, N.Y., U.S.A. 8 St. Andrews Links (Old) Scotland 9 Muirfield, Gullane, Scotland 10 Merion G.C. (East) Ardmore, Pa., U.S.A. 11 Oakmont (Pa.) C.C., U.S.A. 12 Pebble Beach G. Links, U.S.A. 13 National G. Links of America Southampton, N.Y., U.S.A. 14 Winged Foot G.C. (West) Mamaroneck, N.Y., U.S.A. 15 Fishers Island (N.Y.) Club U.S.A. 16 Cape Kidnappers Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand 17 Sand Hills G.C. Mullen, Neb., U.S.A. 18 Kingston Heath G.C. Heatherton, Australia 19 Cabot Cliffs Inverness, Canada 20 Golf de Morfontaine Mortefontaine, France 21 Hirono G.C., Hyogo, Japan 22 Trump Turnberry (Ailsa) Scotland 23 Sunningdale G.C. (Old) England 24 Cape Wickham Links King Island, Australia 25 Portmarnock G.C. (Championship), Dublin, Ireland 26 Carnoustie G. Links (Championship), Scotland 27 Royal Portrush G.C. (Dunluce), Northern Ireland 28 Seminole G.C. Juno Beach, Fla., U.S.A. 29 Ellerston G. Cse. Hunter Valley, Australia 30 New South Wales G.C. La Perouse, Australia 31 Crystal Downs C.C. Frankfort, Mich., U.S.A. 32 Chicago G.C. Wheaton, Ill., U.S.A.

96 golfdigest india | april 2016

33 Barnbougle Dunes Bridport, Australia 34 Muirfield Village G.C. Dublin, Ohio, U.S.A. 35 Royal Birkdale G.C. Southport, England 36 Oak Hill C.C. (East) Rochester, N.Y., U.S.A. 37 Shanqin Bay G.C. Hainan Island, China 38 Oakland Hills C.C. (South) Bloomfield Hills, Mich., U.S.A. 39 Bandon (Ore.) Dunes G. Resort (Pacific Dunes), U.S.A. 40 Barnbougle Lost Farm Bridport, Australia 41 St. George’s G. and C.C. Etobicoke, Canada 42 The Country Club (Clyde/Squirrel) Chestnut Hill, Mass., U.S.A. 43 Fancourt (Links) George, South Africa 44 Kiawah Island (S.C.) G. Resort (Ocean), U.S.A. 45 Royal St. George’s G.C. Sandwich, England 46 Yas Links Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 47 Royal Porthcawl G.C., Wales 48 Wade Hampton G.C. Cashiers, N.C., U.S.A. 49 Kauri Cliffs Northland, New Zealand 50 North Berwick G.C., Scotland 51 Whistling Straits (Straits) Haven, Wis., U.S.A. 52 Diamante G.C. (Dunes) Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 53 Friar’s Head Baiting Hollow, N.Y., U.S.A. 54 Trump International G. Links, Aberdeen, Scotland 55 Royal Melbourne G.C. (East) Black Rock, Australia 56 Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog) La Romana, Dominican Republic 57 Riviera C.C. Pacific Palisades, Calif., U.S.A. 58 Sentosa G.C. (Serapong) Singapore 59 Prairie Dunes C.C. Hutchinson, Kan., U.S.A. 60 Los Angeles C.C. (North) U.S.A. 61 Swinley Forest G.C. Ascot, England 62 The Alotian Club Roland, Ark. U.S.A. 63 Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort (No. 2), U.S.A. 64 Kawana Hotel G. Cse. (Fuji) Shizuoka, Japan 65 Lahinch G.C. (Old), Ireland 66 National G.C. of Canada Woodbridge, Canada 67 Southern Hills C.C. Tulsa, U.S.A. 68 Gozzer Ranch G. & Lake C. Harrison, Idaho, U.S.A. 69 Kingsbarns G. Links St. Andrews, Scotland 70 Cabo del Sol (Ocean) Los Cabos, Mexico

71 Valderrama G.C. Sotogrande, Spain 72 The Honors Course Ooltewah, Tenn., U.S.A. 73 Shadow Creek North Las Vegas, Nev., U.S.A. 74 The Bluffs Ho Tram Strip Ho Tram, Vietnam 75 Spring City G. & Lake Resort (Lake), Kunming, China 76 Punta Espada G.C. Cap Cana, Dominican Republic 77 Olympic Club (Lake) San Francisco, U.S.A. 78 Club de Golf Memphrémagog Magog, Canada 79 The Club at Nine Bridges Jeju Island, South Korea 80 Peachtree G.C. Atlanta, U.S.A. 81 San Francisco G.C., U.S.A. 82 Royal Lytham & St. Annes G.C., England 83 The Els Club Teluk Datai Kedah, Malaysia 84 Nirwana Bali G.C. Tabanan, Indonesia 85 Tokyo G.C., Sayama City, Japan 86 Sheshan International G.C. Shanghai, China 87 The National G.C. (Old) Cape Schanck, Australia 88 Leopard Creek C.C. Malelane, South Africa 89 The Golf Club New Albany, Ohio, U.S.A. 90 Bandon (Ore.) Dunes G. Resort (Bandon Dunes), U.S.A. 91 Machrihanish G.C. Campbeltown, Scotland 92 Sunningdale G.C. (New) England 93 Cabot Links Inverness, Canada 94 Sebonack G.C. Southampton, N.Y., U.S.A. 95 Emirates G.C. (Majlis) Dubai, United Arab Emirates 96 Naruo G.C., Hyogo, Japan 97 Jumeirah G. Estates (Earth) Dubai, United Arab Emirates 98 Querencia G.C. Los Cabos, Mexico 99 Gary Player C.C. Sun City, South Africa 100 G.C. Olgiata, Rome, Italy

FOR PHOTOS & COURSE descriptions of Golf Digest’s World 100 Greatest by Architecture Editor Ron Whitten and rankings of courses in 206 countries, please see golfdigest.com/go/planetgolf.

THE NON-100 The case for unrated short courses—the ones you play with new friends by dav i d o w e n cullen golf club in scotland is just over 4,600 yards from the tips, but good luck trying to break the par of 63.

Matthew haRRis / tgpl

uring 25 years of semiobsession with golf, I’ve played roughly half the World 100 Greatest Golf Courses, mostly on assignment for this magazine. Like any conscientious golf tourist, I have quibbles with the list. (Why isn’t Enniscrone on it?) But my main reaction, as I crossed off names with an orange highlighter, was that greatness alone is a fallible guide to pleasure. I also realized that some of my favorite unlisted courses share what I assume to be an automatic disqualification: extreme shortness.

Length is overvalued in golf design. Many of the older courses on the World 100 have been stretched in recent years, sometimes by hundreds of yards, as greens committees and architects have struggled to foil the big hitters. But the counterintuitive truth is that adding length merely increases the advantage of length: The only real way to “Tigerproof” a golf hole, paradoxically, is to make it

shorter. Shortness is a great equalizer, in part because short holes reward golf skills that power players tend to neglect.

Cullen Golf Club— not to be confused with Gullane Golf Club—is just over 4,600 yards long from the longest tees, yet it’s a course I have sometimes dreamt about. It’s in northeastern Scotland, roughly 50 miles across the Moray Firth from Royal Dornoch (No. 5) and about the same distance overland in the opposite direction from Trump International (No. 54). Old Tom Morris

laid out Cullen’s original nine holes in 1870, and the pro at a nearby club squeezed in nine more in 1905. The routing crosses itself repeatedly, includes blind shots marked with painted arrows, and exploits geological oddities that, in their own way, are as stirring as the fjords of Cape Kidnappers (No. 16): turf-skirted rock formations the size of apartment buildings; a clifftop “marine platform” that you play up to, over, back across and down from.

Cullen doesn’t receive many visitors from the United States.

The next American to sign the clubhouse guestbook after I first did, in 2007, was me again, a year later.

But you should go if you have the chance.

Par is 63. If the wind is blowing, you won’t come close.

Formby Golf Club (another quibble) is six miles south of Royal Birkdale (No. 35), on the remarkable stretch of linksland that runs along the coast of northeastern England between Royal Liverpool (ahem) and Royal Lytham (No. 82). One of the many remarkable facts about Formby is that it encircles a second terrific course, Formby Ladies, which was founded in 1896 and is one of the world’s vanishingly tiny number of true women’s golf clubs. The course was designed by Willie Park and Harry S. Colt, and it’s as challenging as the big course, though in a different way. “You told me it was 5,300 yards long,” a man who

april 2016 | golfdigest india

Michael cohen/getty iMages • RlX golf: shiRt, $90, pants, $165 • footjoy: shoes • sRiXon: hat, $35

D

played in a tournament there once said; “you didn’t tell me it was one yard wide.” There’s ballswallowing heather on both courses, but the women have more of it, and they let it grow both taller and closer to the fairways. Two members and I got stuck behind three visiting men, who ignored us until the 11th, when we snuck past them while they searched for lost drives.

We finished an hour before they did and watched from the front room of the women’s clubhouse, known locally as the Monkey House, as they staggered in.

Rankings aside, the best golf courses, always, are the ones you play with friends, including friends you met that day on the first tee—and for me the best of those is my home course, which has just nine holes and, if you go around twice, is only slightly longer than Formby Ladies.

Soon after I took up golf, in my mid-30s, I joined a second club, with a much longer course, because I couldn’t believe that nine short holes could possibly contain my game. But I quit the big club six or seven years later, following a major clubhouse renovation, after realizing that the only thing in my new locker was its key, which I had never picked up. So now I’m stuck playing most of my rounds on the greatest golf course in the world.

97

India Digest On the European Tour

European Tour Top 25 Under 25 With the successes of 22 year old Brandon Stone and 21 year old Haydn Porteous at the beginning of the year at the BMW SA Open and Joburg Open respectively, we decided to turn the spotlight on the young guns set to make a major impression on the European Tour over the coming years.

COUNTING DOWN 25-11

25

Dominic Foos; Age: 18

20

Moritz Lampert; Age: 23

15

Paul Dunne; Age: 21

24

Max Orrin; Age: 21

19

Joakim Lagergren; Age: 24

14

Romain Wattel; Age: 24

23

Callum Shinkwin; Age: 22

18

Borja Virto Astudillo; Age: 24

13

Ricardo Gouveia; Age: 24

22

Clément Sordet; Age: 22

17

Renato Paratore; Age: 19

12

Matteo Manassero; Age: 22

21

Marcus Kinhult; Age: 19

16

Nathan Holman; Age: 24

11

Eddie Pepperell; Age: 24

THE TOP 10

10

G

Gary Stal Age: 23

ary Stal Stunned the golfing world in January 2015 when he came from eight shots back to pip US Open Champion Martin Kaymer to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship title. A final round seven under par 65 gave Stal his first European Tour victory with a 19 under par total, one ahead of Kaymer and two in front of then World Number One Rory McIlroy en route to a career-best 41st place in The 2015 Race to Dubai.

9

Tyrrell Hatton Age: 24

8

Li Hao-Tong Age: 20

W O ith ten top ten finishes – including a runnerup spot at the 2014 Joburg Open – and more than €2m in earnings over his first two seasons at this level, Tyrrell Hatton has taken to the European Tour like a duck to water after graduating from the Challenge Tour back in 2013. Impressed in his first American Major appearance with a tied 25th place at Whistling Straits.

100 golfdigest india | april 2016

nly a birdie from Kiradech Aphibarnrat at the first extra hole during a suddendeath play-off stopped talented Chinese Li HaoTong making the Shenzhen International his maiden European Tour title and he again demonstrated his massive potential by finishing sixth in the Volvo China Open and tied seventh at the WGC-HSBC Champions later in the year.

7

T

Lucas Bjerregaard Age: 24

he athletic Dane, who won the Nordic League in 2012 before two seasons on the Challenge Tour, enjoyed a solid rookie campaign on the European Tour in 2014 after successfully negotiating the Q-School and finished last season 34th in The Race to Dubai – in part thanks to his Hong Kong heroics.

Bjerregaard won widespread praise for his performance in the 2015 UBS Hong Kong Open, where he finished second after going toe-to-toe with Major Champion Justin Rose over the weekend.

Big-hitting, brawny, Bjerregaard has all the makings of a European Tour champ.

6

F

Haydn Porteous Age: 21

our rounds in the 60s proved enough for 21 year old South African Haydn Porteous to claim a maiden European Tour title at last week’s Joburg Open as he secured a two-shot triumph over compatriot Zander Lombard in Johannesburg and with it, Porteous became the third youngest South African winner in European Tour history after only Charl Schwartzel and Anton Haig. After winning the Barclays Kenya Open last year on the Challenge Tour, Porteous already had fully exempt status on the second tier but with this victory he’s been fast-tracked to The European Tour.

Photographs by Getty Images

THE BIG 5

On the European Tour

3

5

Tommy Fleetwood; Age: 24

4

India Digest

Brandon Stone; Age: 22 Brandon Stone celebrates a birdie putt on the final round of the BMW SA Open

Tommy Fleetwood during the final round of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters

A

lready a household name, Tommy Fleetwood is still very much poised to break out in big style – and it might well be this year.

The 24 year old Englishman, who became the youngest winner of the Challenge Tour Rankings back in 2011, has been supremely consistent over the last three years, finishing no worse than 26th in The Race to Dubai and making his breakthrough win at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in 2013.

Thomas Pieters; Age: 23

Thomas Pieters during the first round at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic

A

fter losing out to evergreen Miguel Angel Jimenez in a play-off at the Open de Espana during an impressive rookie campaign, Thomas Pieters won twice in consecutive appearances in 2015, first at the D+D Real Czech Masters in August and then a fortnight later at the KLM Open. Still just 23, the Pieters was long tipped as ‘one for the future’ after the Belgian overcame World Number One Jordan Spieth and former amateur Number One Patrick Cantlay en route to winning the NCAA Division I Golf Championship in his sophomore year at the University of Illinois and 2015 was undoubtedly his breakthrough year after coming through the Q-School in 2013.

Photographs by Getty Images

2

B

randon Stone had an agonising wait to see if his sixth place finish in the season-ending NBO Golf Classic Grand Final would prove enough to claim a place in The 2016 Race to Dubai and the South African eventually claimed the 14th of 15 cards on offer. Son of a Sunshine Tour pro and grandson of another South African national golfer, he held on for his maiden title at the BMW SA Open despite a rollercoaster final day in which the 22 year old made seven birdies and six bogeys. Had a successful college career in the States for the University of Texas, where he was named NCAA Freshman of the Year in 2013.

Matt Fitzpatrick; Age: 21

Matthew Fitzpatrick during the second round at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic

A

fter coming through the Qualifying School at the tail end of 2014, former World Amateur Number One and 2013 US Amateur Champion Matt Fitzpatrick burst onto the European Tour with a hugely consistent first campaign last year, in which he amassed a staggering ten top ten finishes including a breakthrough wire-to-wire win at the British Masters in the autumn. Fitzpatrick came inches away from a 59 a few weeks earlier at the KLM Open while a successful two-point debut for Europe at the EurAsia Cup last week will not have done the young Englishman’s chances of securing a maiden Ryder Cup appearance later in the year any harm whatsoever.

1

Byeong Hun An; Age: 24

Byeong Hun An at the BMW PGA Championship in 2015

O

ur number one on the list of top 25 under 25s on The European Tour, Byeong Hun An also fulfilled the promise he demonstrated in winning the US Amateur in 2009 by becoming just the second rookie in history to claim the esteemed BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last May. ‘Ben’, as he is commonly known, made a highly impressive finish to the 2015 campaign, too, finishing in the top four in three of the four Final Series events to pip Matt Fitzpatrick to the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award. At 29th in the Official World Golf Ranking, An is already a major force in the game, which begs the question…what next for the talented Korean?

april 2016 | golfdigest india

101

India Digest On the European Tour

Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy during the 2015 PGA Championship

O

Reasons to be excited for the 2016 European Tour Season With a new year of European Tour golf well underway, europeantour.com picks out some mouth-watering moments to look forward to in 2016.

102 golfdigest india | april 2016

THE MAJOR SEASON r should that read Jordan Spieth versus Rory McIlroy? And don’t you dare forget Jason Day either! Or, for that matter, Branden Grace or Dustin Johnson or Louis Oosthuizen or Justin Rose or a myriad of other players.

In a year-long game of World Number One hot potato, the top spot changed hands no fewer than eight times between Spieth, Day and McIlroy in 2015 – more than any other year in the history of the Official World Golf Ranking – while the battle for golf’s big four events was also as engaging, as enthralling as ever.

This April, McIlroy will once again aim to complete the Career Grand Slam by triumphing in the Masters Tournament with the Green Jacket still the only Major accolade missing from the his mantelpiece. Since letting the title slip from his grasp back in 2011, the Holywood native has finished inside the top ten in each of the last two years while his lengthy and accurate game has long been tipped for success at Augusta National. Could this be his year?

Meanwhile, the world will be watching and waiting to see if Number One Spieth can follow-up his annus mirabilis with a third Major victory in 2016 as the US Open returns to Oakmont in Pennsylvania for a record ninth time (no course has hosted the American National Open more times), The Open heads back to Royal Troon (where six Americans have lifted the Claret Jug starting with Arnold Palmer in 1962), and the US PGA revisits Baltusrol in New Jersey (the site of Phil Mickelson’s second of five Major triumphs).

Elsewhere, will Australian Day find that Major victories are a lot like London buses and bag his second in quick succession after that agonising wait for his first win? Or can big-hitting American Dustin Johnson finally get the Major monkey off his back after ten top ten finishes in golf’s Big Four, including three last year.

Another man to watch out for will be Grace, who sprang to global prominence with near misses at both the US Open and US PGA in 2015, while his compatriot and 2010 Open winner Oosthuizen also claimed two runner-up finishes last year. And we haven’t even mentioned England’s Rose, whose 34 under par cumulative score for the 2015 Major season was the lowest ever by a player who didn’t win one of the grand old quartet. Roll on April.

On the European Tour

India Digest

T Team Europe celebrates during the 2014 Ryder Cup

THE RYDER CUP here will be contrasting motivations at play when Darren Clarke and Davis Love III lead out their respective European and United States sides for the 41st Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minnesota come late September.

For Love, the mission is clear: avoid a fate of skippering two defeats in four years and achieve redemption from painful memories of the Miracle of Medinah.

For Clarke, the crux of the assignment will simply be to follow in the footsteps of Colin Montgomerie, of Jose Maria Olazabal, and of Paul McGinley in continuing the rich vein of form which has seen Team Europe prevail in six of the last seven matches.

However, with something of a changing of the guard in progress on this side the pond and the ominous form of the likes of Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Johnson and Patrick Reed and co. on the other, this year’s biennial clash is sure to provide plenty of drama once again.

Anyone’s game.

I

THE 100TH OPEN DE FRANCE t is 110 years since the first Open de France, making the historic event the oldest of all National Opens in Continental Europe – and this year the tournament promises to be bigger and better than ever before.

Celebrating its centenary edition in 2016, the 100th Open de France was handed increased prominence when it was decided that the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational – which is scheduled for the same week in early July – would not be sanctioned this year.

A world-class field is expected to assemble at spectacular Le Golf National on the outskirts of Versailles from June 30-July 3, with the tournament counting as two events played in The 2016 Race to Dubai, an enhanced prize fund of €3.5m and an increase in Ryder Cup World and European Points on offer.

Le Golf National Golf Club in Paris

T Rio 2016 Olympic Games Venues Construction in Progress, Rio de Janeiro

T

THE OLYMPICS he world’s best golfers, competing at the world’s leading international sporting event – it hardly needs any introduction.

Golf returns to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years this summer with excitement already building for Rio 2016 in August.

Think shiny gold, silver and bronze, think national anthems blaring out, think emotionally charged medal ceremonies and, most importantly, think of 60 players all battling for top spot on the podium in a 72-hole stroke play contest across a sporting landscape that will be as exhilarating as it will be unfamiliar. Sounds impressive, right?

The two year qualifying period, which began in July 2014, will see no more than four players from any particular country qualify.

Leading American light Spieth has already described the event as like a “fifth major”, so expect to see a mad rush to qualify over the coming months.

THE NEW FINAL SERIES urkey. South Africa. Dubai. From four events to three, the cream of the crop from the 2016 European Tour membership will contest in a revamped end-of-season swing, which will see the likes of reigning Race to Dubai champ McIlroy competing for prize funds totalling a whopping $22 million.

After starting at the Turkish Airlines Open from November 3-6, the Final Series will move to stunning Sun City for the second time in this campaign as the Nedbank Golf Challenge joins the elite series of season-ending tournaments for the first time in 2016.

The hugely popular event, which will move from its traditional December spot in the calendar to November 10-13, will provide the prelude to the Race to Dubai finale at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, which will be held once again at European Tour Destination Jumeirah Golf Estates from November 17-20.

Danny Willett pushed Rory all the way in 2015, and with so much talent in the 2016 Race to Dubai, the battle for the Harry Vardon trophy will be as competitive and fierce as ever. Bring it on.

The WGC-HSBC Champions (October 27-30) will no longer be part of the Final Series, with the tournament instead joining the WGC-Cadillac Championship and the WGC-Dell Match Play as part of the regular Race to Dubai season.

And finally…

Some other milestones to look out for in 2016… · The 10th edition of the Portugal Masters (October 20-23) · The 25th anniversary of the first Nordea Masters (June 2-5) · The 30th year of Volvo sponsorship (Volvo China Open – April 28-May 1) · The 90th edition of the Open de Espana (April 14-17) · The 70th consecutive playing at Crans-surSierre Golf Club (Omega European Masters – September 1-4) · The 25th Omega Dubai Desert Classic to be played at Emirates Golf Club (February 4-7) · 25 years since Ian Woosnam won the Masters · 20 years since Sir Nick Faldo made a famous comeback to win his third and final Masters april 2016 | golfdigest india

103

India Digest On the European Tour

Tournament Preview REAL CLUB VALDERRAMA OPEN DE ESPAÑA

T

he Open de España, one of the most historic tournaments on The European Tour; Real Club Valderrama, one of the most iconic venues in the world of golf; and Sergio Garcia, one of Spain’s most celebrated golfing sons, will come together to stage the Real Club Valderrama Open de España, hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation, from April 14-17.

The €2 million tournament will be the first tournament of the 2016 season to be played on European soil and besides the support of the Royal Spanish Golf Federation and Real Club Valderrama, the tournament also has the full backing of Garcia, the 11 time European Tour champion and five time Ryder Cup winner, who will assume the role of tournament host.

It will be the first time that the legendary Andalucian venue has staged Spain’s national Open, a tournament

whose history stretches all the way back to its first playing in Madrid in 1912. Since 1972, it has also been a feature of every season on The European Tour and has seen some of golf’s greatest names get their hands on the trophy.

Amongst those are Major Champions Seve Ballesteros, Sir Nick Faldo, Padraig Harrington, Bernhard Langer, Arnold Palmer and Charl Schwartzel alongside European Number Ones Robert Karlsson and Colin Montgomerie.

Four Spaniards, aside from Ballesteros, have also claimed the title since 1972 – Antonio Garrido (1972), Alvaro Quiros (2010), Miguel Angel Jiménez (2014) and Garcia himself in 2002.

Real Club Valderrama already shares a proud history with The European Tour, most notably through its hosting of The Ryder Cup in 1997, when golf’s greatest team event was staged in Continental Europe for the first time.

104 golfdigest india | april 2016

WU EXCITED BY TITLE DEFENCE IN VOLVO CHINA OPEN

D

efending champion Wu Ashun, the world’s highest-ranked Chinese golfer, will head the wealth of Chinese talent at the Volvo China Open in April.

The 22nd edition of the event is set to take place at Topwin Golf and Country Club in Beijing from April 28 to May 1, when Wu will attempt to become the first player to win back-to-back titles in the event.

In 2015, the 30 year old held off David Howell to win by one shot at Tomson Pudong Shanghai Golf Club, becoming the first Chinese champion on the European Tour since Liang Wenchong in 2007. He later won the European Tour Hilton Golfer of the Month award, and the triumph provided a significant driving force in the development of golf in China.

On the European Tour

India Digest

European Tour Round up FRASER CLAIMS DRAMATIC WIN IN MALAYSIA

M

arcus Fraser gave a shortgame master-class as he carded a closing 68 to win the inaugural Maybank Championship Malaysia after a dramatic finish at Royal Selangor Golf Club.

The Australian was two shots behind Soomin Lee as he stood on the 16th tee but a doublebogey from the South Korean coupled with a nearly-holed chip opened the door for Fraser to win a third European Tour title.

A clutch ten-foot putt on the 17th kept the 37 year old in a share of the lead at 15 under going up the last and when Lee double-bogeyed again, a par was enough to make Fraser the first winner of the Maybank Championship Malaysia Tiger Trophy.

Fraser had a seven-year gap between his first win at the 2003 BMW Russian Open and his second at the Ballantine's Championship, and returns to the winner's circle once again five years and 302 days after that victory in South Korea.

EUROPEAN TOUR ANNOUNCES NEW MEASURES TO COMBAT SLOW PLAY

T

he European Tour took the first step towards combatting the issue of slow play in the game of golf by adopting a new Pace of Play policy. The policy splits pace of play observation into two types, ‘monitoring’ and ‘timing’, and follows Chief Executive Keith Pelley’s pledge to address the ‘critical’ issue, made at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai last November.

It came into effect at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and thereafter at all tournaments sanctioned solely by The European Tour.

Pelley said: “As I said last year, slow play is a critical part of our game and we are determined to take the lead in combatting it.

This initiative is the first step. Our new policy will help identify the slow players and will allow our faster players, who have never had a problem, to feel less pressured by the rules officials. We believe this measure will help keep groups in position on the golf course and, in doing that, shave up to 15 minutes per group per round. This will help make golf more appealing and engaging to our fans, both at the course itself or watching on television.”

KING LOUIS REIGNS IN PERTH

L

ouis Oosthuizen eased to victory at the ISPS HANDA Perth International to claim an eighth European Tour title at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

The South African went into the final day with a three-shot lead and, while he was briefly caught on the front nine, the South African cruised to a closing 71 to finish on 16 under, one shot ahead of Frenchman Alexander Levy.

Local favourite Jason Scrivener had been the man to rein in Oosthuizen earlier and he signed for a 69 to finish third, with Grégory Bourdy and Peter Uihlein a further shot back on 13 under.

The win saw the 2010 Open Championship winner move ahead of countryman Branden Grace and back into fourth place for South African wins on the European Tour, and makes it six wins in 11 events for the Rainbow Nation this season. "This is a great start building up towards Augusta. I'll take a lot out of this week and things that we've done.", said Oosthuizen.

GARY PLAYER NAMED AS HOST OF NEDBANK GOLF CHALLENGE

G

ary Player, one of the greatest golfers of all time, will be the official host of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, the second leg of the European Tour’s Final Series. The Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player will be played at the Gary Player Golf and Country Club in Sun City, South Africa from November 10-13, 2016, 35 years after the man himself designed the course.

Player was only the third player after Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen to win all four Major Championships, the career grand slam, a feat later matched by Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Since its inception in 1981, the tournament has attracted some of the game’s greatest players, and its list of champions includes the late Seve Ballesteros, former world number ones Nick Price, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, as well as South African Ernie Els.

april 2016 | golfdigest india

105

India Digest Spotlight

U.S. GROOMED

GOLFERS

EXCEL IN INDIA

Priyanshu Singh Age – 19 Born - Gurgaon Started Golf – Age 12 College - Nova Southeastern University, Florida World Amateur Golf Ranking - 341 Other Passions – Yoga & Water skiing

Priyanshu holding the NCAA National Champion trophy with his teammates

19

-year-old Priyanshu Singh, born in Gurgaon and raised in Florida, a regular on the US Collegiate Golf Championships defeated Delhi’s Kshitj Naved Kaul to clinch India’s most prestigious All-India Amateur Championship at Classic Golf Resort, Manesar in December, 2015.

A trend is being established of Indian golfers honing their skills abroad and returning to India to perform exceedingly well.

Priyanshu who plays college golf for Nova Southeastern University, Florida being the latest example.

A few years ago, a young 14 year old Rigel Fernandes from Bengaluru returned to India to play his maiden tournament in the country at the Indian Golf Union All India Junior Golf Tournament and proceeded to make waves by winning the B category (Under 15)

108 golfdigest india | april 2016

I strive to get better at my trade by all means, and there's nothing that I put ahead of golf. I just want to get better and better, move higher and higher in the world rankings. Winning our country's national amateur championship boosts my confidence like nothing else, and gives me more opportunities to compete at higher levels of this game, so I'm working towards that now.

Earned - Entry to the prestigious 2016 Hero Indian Open

by a whopping 13 shots. The 19 year old Rigel honed his skills at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida working with Coach Jay Denton and dreams of playing on the PGA Tour one day.

Another success story is that of 23 year old Sarosh Adi. Born in Dallas, Texas, he grew up with World No #1 Jordan Spieth as childhood friends playing golf and traveling to tournaments together. Sarosh is currently playing college golf for Texas Christan University in his Senior Year and was seen in action at the Hero Indian Open 2016 thanks to a special exemption.

Priyanshu started playing golf at Aravali Golf Course, Faridabad when he was 12. On identifying his interest and talent for the game, his parents enrolled him into an academy in Orlando to hone his skills. “When I was 15 I managed to talk my parents into

letting me to go this golf academy in Orlando for 6 months just as a trial run. Over the period of those months, something just clicked in me that completely changed how I viewed golf. I was and have been more motivated, dedicated to the sport ever since”, said Priyanshu.

Priyanshu impressed in U.S. Junior events and soon coaches started taking notice of him. He decided to pass on NCAA Division 1 colleges like Michigan and Ohio & eventually made the decision to play Division 2 golf for Nova Southeastern University.

2015 was a monumental year in his career as his university won the NCAA national championship as a team and was ranked #1 in the nation for the majority of the year. Priyanshu was named one of the top 5 freshmen in the country, and his world rankings soared as well.

Spotlight

Sarosh Adi Age – 23 Born – Dallas, Texas College – Texas Christian University Golfweek World Amateur Ranking–132

Rigel Fernandes Age – 19 Born – Bangalore College – University of South Florida World Amateur Golf Ranking – 99

19

Rigel (Third from right) with his teammates

year old Rigel Fernandes was born in Bangalore, his parents are from Mangalore. He moved to the US when he was only 10 years old to attend the IMG golf academy in Florida.

He said, “I believe looking back it was a great decision for me to come here because it helped me grow as a golfer but also made me more mature as a person. When it came time to pick a university, I wanted to stay in Florida because I wanted to be close to my coach and be in very nice weather.” His coach Jay Denton has had a great impact on him and has shaped his progress very well and is his coaching him currently as well.

He picked the University of South Florida because of the great team they had as well as a great academic program. The golf team has done great in the last two years, ending last year ranked #8 in the nation. Rigel’s team at the University also includes Chase Koepka, brother of PGA Tour winner Brooks Koepka.

“I hope to one day return to India and play golf. I want to be a professional after I earn my college degree so playing in the Indian Open would be a dream come true for me. My immediate goals is to focus on getting my degree and continue to develop as a golfer. I've been working hard on my short game and thats the area I will need to improve to make it to the next level. My long term goal is to be the best player in the world on the PGA Tour one day”.

India Digest

23

year old Sarosh Adi was born in Dallas, Texas and spent his formative years in the United States where his parents moved to nearly 30 years ago to pursue their master’s degrees. Sarosh’s family have always maintained strong ties with India both personally and professionally through their successful technology business WorldLink. A proud Zoroastrian, he was raised to understand and appreciate the culture and traditions associated with the Zoroastrian religion and India.

Adi is currently a senior and captain of the high-ranking Division I golf team at his college, TCU, in Fort Worth, Texas. As his career develops he will continue to give back to India through the Adi Family Foundation.

Sarosh made his Indian debut at the Hero Indian Open 2016. After Adi turns professional in June, he aims to compete in a full schedule of PGA Tour sanctioned events on the way to becoming a full-time PGA Tour member.

april 2016 | golfdigest india

109

䌀䠀䄀刀䤀吀夀 䈀䔀䜀䤀一匀 䄀吀 䠀伀䴀䔀Ⰰ 䈀唀吀 䤀吀 匀䠀伀唀䰀䐀一ꐀ吀 䔀一䐀 吀䠀䔀刀䔀Ⰰ 䈀刀䤀一䜀 䤀吀 吀伀 䄀 䜀伀䰀䘀 䌀伀唀刀匀䔀

䬀漀氀欀愀琀愀 䬀渀椀最栀琀 刀椀搀攀爀猀 琀攀攀搀 漀昀昀 眀椀琀栀 䬀渀椀最栀琀 䜀漀氀昀 ㈀ ㄀㔀

䬀一䤀䜀䠀吀 䜀伀䰀䘀 ㈀ ㄀㘀 䤀匀 一伀圀 䄀 䴀䔀䜀䄀 䔀嘀䔀一吀

吀栀椀猀 礀攀愀爀Ⰰ 瀀氀愀礀 愀渀搀 氀椀瘀攀 琀栀攀 搀爀攀愀洀 漀昀 最漀氀ǻ渀最 眀椀琀栀 猀漀洀攀 漀昀 琀栀攀 氀攀最攀渀搀愀爀礀 挀爀椀挀欀攀琀攀爀猀 漀昀 䬀漀氀欀愀琀愀 䬀渀椀最栀琀 刀椀搀攀爀猀 愀渀搀 愀氀猀漀 挀漀渀琀爀椀戀甀琀攀 昀漀爀 愀 最漀漀搀 挀愀甀猀攀

匀䔀䄀匀伀一 䤀䤀 嘀攀渀甀攀ⴀ 刀漀礀愀氀 䌀愀氀挀甀琀琀愀 䜀漀氀昀 䌀氀甀戀Ⰰ 䬀漀氀欀愀琀愀 漀渀 吀栀甀爀猀搀愀礀Ⰰ 㔀琀栀 䴀愀礀 ㈀ ㄀㘀Ⰰ 匀栀漀琀最甀渀 猀琀愀爀琀 愀琀 ㄀㈀ 渀漀漀渀 匀琀愀爀 愀瀀瀀攀愀爀愀渀挀攀 䨀愀挀焀甀攀猀 䬀愀氀氀椀猀Ⰰ 圀愀猀椀洀 䄀欀爀愀洀Ⰰ 䴀漀爀渀攀 䴀漀爀欀攀氀Ⰰ 䈀爀愀搀 䠀漀最最Ⰰ 䴀愀渀椀猀栀 倀愀渀搀攀礀Ⰰ 刀漀戀椀渀 唀琀栀愀瀀瀀愀Ⰰ 䌀漀氀椀渀 䴀甀渀爀漀 愀渀搀 洀愀渀礀 洀漀爀攀⸀ 䔀砀挀氀甀猀椀瘀攀 倀甀琀琀椀渀最 䌀栀愀洀瀀椀漀渀猀栀椀瀀 瀀愀爀琀椀挀椀瀀愀渀琀猀 䜀愀甀琀愀洀 䜀愀洀戀栀椀爀Ⰰ 夀甀猀甀昀 倀愀琀栀愀渀Ⰰ 倀椀礀甀猀栀 䌀栀愀眀氀愀Ⰰ 匀甀爀礀愀 䬀甀洀愀爀 夀愀搀愀瘀Ⰰ 唀洀攀猀栀 夀愀搀愀瘀 愀渀搀 洀愀渀礀 洀漀爀攀⸀ 䠀椀最栀氀椀最栀琀猀 䰀漀渀最攀猀琀 搀爀椀瘀攀 瀀爀椀稀攀Ⰰ 䌀氀漀猀攀猀琀 琀漀 瀀椀渀 瀀爀椀稀攀Ⰰ 搀椀渀渀攀爀 ☀ 瀀栀漀琀漀 漀瀀瀀漀爀琀甀渀椀琀椀攀猀 眀椀琀栀 䬀漀氀欀愀琀愀 䬀渀椀最栀琀 刀椀搀攀爀猀 栀攀爀漀攀猀Ⰰ 愀渀搀 愀 挀栀愀渀挀攀 琀漀 眀椀渀 䬀䬀刀 洀愀琀挀栀 栀漀猀瀀椀琀愀氀椀琀礀 琀椀挀欀攀琀猀⸀ 䘀漀爀 猀瀀漀渀猀漀爀猀栀椀瀀猀 愀渀搀 瀀愀爀琀椀挀椀瀀愀琀椀漀渀Ⰰ 瀀氀攀愀猀攀 挀漀渀琀愀挀琀 刀愀搀栀椀欀愀 䴀攀栀琀愀Ⰰ 䬀䬀刀 ⴀ ⬀㤀㄀ⴀ㤀㠀㤀㤀㄀㐀㌀㔀㘀㘀 ⠀爀愀搀栀椀欀愀欀欀爀㈀ ㄀㘀䀀最洀愀椀氀⸀挀漀洀⤀ 倀爀愀琀攀攀欀 䌀栀愀琀甀爀瘀攀搀椀Ⰰ 刀一䜀䴀 ⴀ ⬀㤀㄀ⴀ㠀㄀㌀ 㔀㐀㐀㤀㜀 ⠀瀀爀愀琀攀攀欀䀀爀渀最漀氀昀⸀挀漀洀⤀

PLAYE

PLAYER NEW (Photo: Asian Tour)

(Photo: Tourism Authority of Thailand)

ANNOUNCED - VANI KAPOOR APPOINTED AS THAILAND GOLF AMBASSADOR he Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) announced the appointment of Thailand’s golf ambassador in India - Vani Kapoor at an event in New Delhi. This is another accolade for the #1 ranked player on the Women’s Golf Association of India (WGAI) Tour. 22 year old Vani capped off a remarkable 2015 in which she won 5 times on the Hero Professional Women’s Golf Tour thereby defending her Hero Order of Merit title. Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor said, “It is great to have Vani as Thailand’s Golf Ambassador in India, she will be an icon for both male and female golfers here, we thank her and wish her all the best.”

T

Aditi Ashok (Photo: Tristan Jones Photography)

F

APPOINTED - JEEV MILKHA SINGH ON ASIAN TOUR BOARD ollowing a Board of Director’s meeting in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, the Asian Tour announced that Jeev Milkha Singh would be part of a new eight-man board, featuring four players & four non-playing members. The other players on the board are Zhang Lian-wei (China), Pariya Junhasavasdikul (Thailand) and Mardan Mamat (Singapore). Asian Tour also announced that Indonesian businessman Jimmy Masrin will take over as Chairman of the Board with immediate effect. Further, The Board also agreed to resume discussions with the European Tour following the recent announcement on a proposed partnership between the two Tours. This appointment is recognition of the respect players have for Jeev, who was earlier named captain of the Asian Team for the EurAsia Cup in their contest against Europe at the start of 2016.

TURNING PRO- ADITI ASHOK MAKES HER PROFESSIONAL DEBUT; ON HER WAY TO THE OLYMPICS eenage sensation Aditi Ashok made her first start as a professional golfer at the Oates Victorian Open held at the 13th Beach Golf Links, Victoria, Australia in February. The 17 year old Aditi fared better than her compatriots, finishing a very creditable T-31.

2015 was a breakthrough year for the golfer from Bengaluru with 4 wins on the International amateur stage. She capped off the season in perfect fashion becoming the first Indian to win a Ladies European Tour’s Qualifying Tournament thereby earning her Ladies European Tour Card for the 2016 season. Aditi currently finds herself in the Top 60 of the International Golf Federation (IGF) Olympic Rankings for Women and would be eligible to compete at the Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro in August. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has restricted the IGF to a field of 60 players for each of the men’s and women’s competition. The IGF will utilise the official world golf rankings to create the Olympic golf rankings as a method of determining eligibility.

T

CHAMPION – 17 YEAR OLD ARJUN PRASAD WINS FALDO SERIES ASIA GRAND FINAL 17 year old Arjun Prasad from Delhi scripted a remarkable tale to win the 10th Faldo Series Asia Grand Final at the Faldo Course, Mission Hills Dongguan, China. Arjun set Arjun Prasad with the tone early on in his first round, recovering from a rough start where he was 4 over Sir Nick Faldo par after the first 8 holes to finish the day 3 under par covering the back 9 in 30 strokes.

There was no looking back as Arjun went from strength to strength with a second round 1 under par 71 & a closing round of 6 under par 66, 2 strokes clear off runner up Atiruj Winaicharoenchai of Thailand. 18 year old Shubham Narain was placed 9th. Arjun becomes the third Indian to win the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final, emulating the feat achieved by Rashid Khan in 2007 & Abhijit Singh Chadha in 2011. Faldo Series past winners include multiple Major Champions Rory McIlroy and Yani Tseng.

112 golfdigest india | april 2016

WINNERS – FEROZ ALI MOLLAH, SHUBHANKAR SHARMA, AJEETESH SANDHU VICTORIOUS ON THE PROFESSIONAL GOLF TOUR OF INDIA (PGTI)

Ajeetesh Sandhu with the Golconda Masters 2016 Trophy

G

urgaon’s Shubhankar Sharma, won the inaugural (INR 30 Lakh) Kolkatta Classic by one stroke over Shankar Das and Khalin Joshi clinching his second victory of the season. Earlier he was runner-up at the Golconda Masters and also recorded a win at the INR 30 Lakh PGTI Players Championship presented by Eagleton – The Golf Resort the previous week.

Shubhankar, who is in great form following his highest finish ever on the Asian Tour (3rd at Bashundara Bangladesh Open) said, “I did well with the irons today even though I think, I wasn't at my best. It was tense out there towards the end. I thought Khalin will easily win but I got lucky when he double bogeyed at the last.”

(EARNINGS: INR 13 LAKHS as on March 28)

Shubhankar Sharma

V

eteran 46 year old Feroz Ali Mollah of Kolkata bagged a victory at the season opening INR 60 Lakh CIAL Cochin Masters and ended a 5 year title drought in the process (2011 Aircel PGTI Players Championship). Feroz Ali shot rounds of 70, 68, 73 and 69 to end up with a winning total of eightunder-280 in the opening event of PGTI’s landmark 10th season. Delighted to have rediscovered lost form, Feroz said, “I dedicate this win to my wife and two kids.

I was really hungry for a win since a long time. I thought I’ll give my family a gift this year by winning an event since they hadn’t seen me win in ages,” (EARNINGS: INR 11.3 LAKHS as on March 28)

Shiv Kapur at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship (Photo : Getty Images)

Feroz Ali Mollah

Photos : PGTI

C

handigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu recorded a dominant wire to wire victory in the INR 40 Lakh Golconda Masters at Hyderabad Golf Club. The 27 year old made it a memorable week for himself with a final round of sixunder-65 that took his total to 23-under-261 and helped him finish with a victory margin of four strokes. Having recorded his first win since the 2012 DLF Masters, Ajeetesh said, “I’m glad to finally get over the line after such a long time.

It is very satisfying to record a wire-to-wire win. It’s been a special week as I also registered my best tournament score and my best single round score of nine-under in the first round” (EARNINGS: INR 8.3 LAKHS as on March 28)

NEWSMAKERS

WSMAKERS

TOURNAMENT WATCH - GOOD START TO THE SEASON FOR INDIANS ON ASIAN, EUROPEAN TOURS SP Chawrasia of Kolkata put in an impressive performance to record his first Hero Indian Open win by 2 shots over Anirban Lahiri and Korean Jeunghun Wang. Earlier, Chawrasia registered a 5th place finish at the $ 750,000 (INR 5 Crore) Leopalace 21 Myanmar Open on the Asian Tour.

‘SSP’, who has finished 4th (2015) and 11th (2014) on the Asian Tour Order of Merit in the past two seasons is looking to surpass his 2015 earnings of $343,272 (INR 2.35 Crore), earning $276,660 (INR 1.83 Cr.) at the Hero Indian Open and $27,862 (INR 19 Lakh) for his effort in Myanmar.

S

Rahil Gangjee finished 10th at the Hero Indian Open following a solid 9th place finished at the Asian Tour-European Tour co-sanctioned $3,000,000 (INR 20 Crore) Maybank Championship Malaysia earlier in the year. He pocketed $28,884 (INR 19 Lakhs) at the Indian Open and $60,800 (INR 42 Lakh) for his effort in Malaysia.

3rd placed Shubhankar Sharma, 4th placed Chikkarangappa, 9th placed Shankar Das & Gaganjeet Bhullar formed an Indian quartet that finished in the Top 10 at the Asian Tour’s $300,000 (INR 2 Crore) Bashundhara Bangladesh Open in February. .

SSP Chawrasia during the Hero Indian Open (Photo : Bharath Arvind)

Shubhankar Sharma during the final round of the Bangladesh Open (Photo : Asian Tour)

Shiv Kapur finished a creditable 10th at the Hero Indian Open at his home course. Shiv got the ball rolling for the Indians in 2016 as he made the most of a Sponsor’s invite and finished 11th at the $2.7 Million (INR 18.5 Crore) Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on the European Tour. Shiv was also the highest placed Indian at the $1.25 Million (INR 8.5 Crore) ISPS Handa Perth International (T-29), held at the Lake Karrinyup Golf Club, Perth. This marked the first time the Asian Tour returned to Australia after a gap of 7 years. This strong start to the season will help Shiv who is looking at regaining his playing rights on the European Tour.

Rashid Khan finished a solid 6th at the Hero Indian Open five shots behind winner SSP Chawrasia.

Rashid pocketed $46,646 (INR 31 Lakhs) for his efforts at home and will look to pick up the rest of the season with this strong finish.

april 2016 | golfdigest india

113

India Digest Club Round Up

COMPLETED

T

CLUB RO DELHI GOLF CLUB GETS A NEW PEACOCK

he Delhi Golf Club completed the redevelopment of the short Par 31, 2060 yard Peacock Nine Course which opened for play in following the Hero Indian Open. Golfers can expect a tougher course with the older flatter layout redesigned with sand bunkers and undulations.

The 3rd hole at DGC’s Peacock Nine

AWARDED

T

INDIA’S BEST GOLF COURSE IN 2015-KALHAAR BLUES & GREENS, AHMEDABAD

he 7425 yards, Par 72 layout, 'Nicklaus Design’ course was voted ‘India’s Best Golf Course 2015’ at the World Golf Awards in Portugal. World Golf Awards is a part of the World Travel Awards, which celebrated its 22nd anniversary last year. Kalhaar was awarded this accolade based on votes by professionals working within the golf travel and tourism industry – senior executives, travel buyers, tour operators, agents and media professionals. Developed by the Navratna Group, the course complies with the United States Golf Association (USGA) specifications as well as the stringent and exacting standards of 'Nicklaus Design'.

The course is spread over 175 acres and is one of the longest Championship golf courses in India.

NOW OPEN

J

JAYPEE GREENS WISHTOWN NOIDA OPENS FOR PLAY

aypee Wishtown Noida has opened its 18 hole 4987 yard, Par 67 course and the 9 hole 1342 yard Par 3 course to non-residents of the town on weekends and Mondays. Adding to the beauty, the 18 hole course features 9 water bodies, 62 bunkers and 2 practice putting greens. The courses are built exclusively for resident members of Jaypee Wishtown and have been designed by Canadian Graham Cooke. Approximately 5000 residences around the course will be occupied by April 2016 with a total of 40,000 units up for grabs. The clubhouse will be ready by 2017 with a complete array of facilities including tennis courts, indoor games and a world class spa to name a few.

116 golfdigest india | april 2016

Club Round Up

OUND UP Original Cardboard Tees used at Poona Club Golf Course until 1992 prior to the first renovation

REDEVELOPMENT

A

India Digest

A MAKEOVER FOR POONA CLUB

second renovation is underway at the Pune Club Golf Course with an all-new playing surface to look forward to. Bermuda grass will adorn the fairways and greens and new bunkers will ensure an enjoyable golfing experience. With a new irrigation and drainage system the course should be able to better cater to the monsoons and ensure great playing conditions all year round. The renovation of the front 9 which started in early 2015 will be ready for play in April 2016, a record time.

Bold Steps by older clubs to upgrade their courses is a healthy sign for Indian Golf.

INITIATIVE

T

3RD ANNUAL CADDIE GOLF LEAGUE TO TEE OFF IN APRIL

he 3rd annual edition of the Caddie Golf League 2016 is set to tee off on April 18 at Kensville Golf & Country Club, Ahmedabad. The event is played over three consecutive Mondays and will see members of the golf community in Ahmedabad come together to support the unsung heroes of golf – the caddies. This year’s event will feature three rounds of competition in Ahmedabad with the second round on April 25 at Gulmohar Greens & Country Club and the final round played at Kalhaar Blues & Greens on May 2.

The League began in 2014 as a unique, non-profit initiative by golfers Brijesh Patel and Siddharth Naik supported by Anush Iyer and Siddharth Laheri.

Encourgement for caddies to play is important in their training and will result in higher service standards. We hope to see more caddy events in 2016.

RECOGNITION

O

ISHWAR ACHANTA ONLY ASIAN ON R&A RULES COMMITTEE

ver the years, the Indian Golf Union (IGU) has been developing competent referees to help administer national and international tournaments in India. The IGU conducts referee certification programs in association with the R&A every year. The lead on this has been Ishwar Achanta who was further recognized in 2010 by being appointed to the 12 member Advisory Board of the R&A Rules Committee as the official representative of the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC). He is the only Indian to have been appointed to the committee since its inception in 1951. Other members on the board include representatives from the South American Golf Federation, European Golf Association and the Ladies Golf Union to name a few. He also has the distinction of being the first Indian to referee at The Open, a feat he achieved in 2005 at St. Andrews, Scotland- The home of Golf.

april 2016 | golfdigest india

117

India Digest Upcoming Events

Jeev Milkha Singh receives the IGIA Lifetime Achievement Award from Aakash Ohri (President, IGIA)

India Golf Expo 2016 APRIL 20-21 Shaping the future of Indian Golf

T

he 5th Annual India Golf Expo 2016 (IGE 2016) – South Asia’s largest exposition for golf – will be held from April 20-21 at DLF Club 5, Gurgaon.

With the increasing popularity of the game and its significant impact on tourism and the economy, golf has garnered stupendous penetration and has ushered in a new era of growth in South Asia. The two day expo is a gathering of industry experts, golf course architects & designers, golf course developers, captains & representatives of golf clubs, teaching professionals and corporates from

all across the world.

Organized by the Indian Golf Industry Association (IGIA), a non-profit organization, and supported by the Indian Golf Union (IGU) and Golf Course Superintendents & Managers Association of India (GCSMAI), the IGE aims to grow the potential of Golf not only as a sport but also as a necessary mechanism that can boost the tourism industry in India.

This mega ensemble of Indian golf features a two day seminar with experts from around the world addressing the immi-

nent needs of the golf industry in India i.e.

Growing the Game, Golf Course Development, Golf Tourism & Best practices in Club Management.

This is the place to be for everything golf.

Whether you are a golfer or looking to get into the game, whether you’re a club management professional or a real estate developer, IGE 2016 promises to tickle everyone’s pallet.

Visit www.indiagolfexpo.com for more details.

Select Speakers at IGE 2016

Gregg Patterson, General Manager, The Beach Club, Los Angeles

Iain Roberts, Executive Director, Mission Hills Golf Club, China

118 golfdigest india | april 2016

Harish Bijoor, Marketing Guru

Anil Seolekar, President, Indian Golf Union

James Prusa, Director, Golf Courses & Laboratory SKY72 Golf - Korea

Upcoming Events WHAT TO EXPECT AT IGE 2016 • 2 Day Exhibition featuring Golf’s leading brands • 2 Day IGIA conference for Industry professionals, experts, developers & golf clubs • 2 Day IGU-GCSMAI Turfcare conference for course superintendents & managers • 2 Day IGU-NGAI conference for Teaching Professionals • Networking Lunches, Dinners & Cocktails • Awards Ceremony honoring clubs & top professionals INDIA GOLF EXPO IN NUMBERS • 2011 - Year of Establishment • 411 - No. of Delegates who attended IGE 2015 • 2022 - No. of visitors at IGE 2015 • 36 - Number of exhibitors at IGE 2016 • 50% Growth in exhibition space booked at IGE 2016

TEST NEW CLUBS @ IGE 2016

Golf tourism to India has not been exploited to its true potential. The ministry is keen on promoting Golf for the development of the overall ecosystem of tourism and would like to emulate the success of neighboring countries like Thailand, Malaysia and UAE. Shri. Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism

9am- 8pm Daily

• Visitors may walk in free to avail exclusive deals & offers at the giant Pro Shop featuring Titleist, Footjoy, Nike, TaylorMade, Callaway, Cleveland, Druh & U.S.Kids Golf • Putting & Chipping competitions with numerous prizes • Golf Simulators to test your golfing skills

VAPOR FLY INR 28,500 VAPOR PRO INR 31,500 NIKE LAUNCHES VAPOR FLY CLUBS IN INDIA ike launched its latest series of clubs, the ‘Vapor Fly’ at Jaypee Wishtown, Noida in an event attended by a number of golfers who loved the feel of the new clubs. The Vapor Fly series, designed to provide an overall higher launch angle, is the culmination of years of work from the teams at The Oven - Nike Golf’s research and design facility. The golfers particularly loved the adjustability on the clubs and the 3 wood especially was a big hit. At the event, Nike also launched a new golf ball titled ‘RZN’ which will be available in red & white as well as platinum & black. Full technical specifications and prices will be available in next month’s annual Golf Digest Hot List* Try out the new NIKE Vapor and other Clubs at IGE 2016

N

Walk-in visitors Info (Free Entry to Expo)

April 20-21 | DLF Club 5, Gurgoan

India Digest

The India Golf Expo is a way of representing India’s presence in the global golf industry. Currently, there are 15-25 courses under construction across India and with an outlay of over Rs. 5000 crore, 50 new courses are expected to be built in the near future.

Mr. Aakash Ohri, President, Indian Golf Industry Association and Executive Director, Business Development, DLF

EXHIBITOR SNAPSHOT Over 30 world renowned companies will be on display at IGE 2016 TORO Club Car

Rainbird Ernie Elss Design

John Deere YAMAHA

Ransomes Jacobsen Scottish Development International

S

cotland, represented by Scottish Development International (SDI) is exhibiting at the India Golf Expo 2016 with a view to not only promote Scotland as the ‘Home of Golf’ in India and as a destination of choice for the Indian golfers, but also to provide a platform for promoting Scottish golf related products like equipment, clothing & textiles and food & drink. The team will share best practices in sustainability around greenskeeping and course design, golf course architecture, teaching methods and government golf initiatives to grow the game in India. Scottish Development International (SDI) is the international arm of Scotland’s enterprise agencies, operating in around 20 countries across the world with over 40 offices. Also present will be the St. Andrews Links Trust which manages the 7 public courses (including the iconic Old Course) and a number of additional facilities including a golf academy, three clubhouses and five shops including the Tom Morris Shop, the oldest golf shop in the world. There are also strong historical links between the two countries, with India being the first country outside of Great Britain to take up the game of golf. The Royal Calcutta Golf Club which was established in 1829 is the oldest club in India and the first outside of Great Britain. april 2016 | golfdigest india

119

India Digest Corporate Golf

Team Ahmedabad Tigers 'The Mightiest Golf Gang in India'

Golf Gang Wars

G

olf Gangwars 2015-16, a National Golf Team Championship event that witnesses the congregation of top amateur golfers vying for the top spot every year concluded its 5th edition at the grand finale held at Pattana Golf Club & Resort, Thailand. Team Ahmedabad Tigers captained by Devang Shah (Jt. MD, Navratana Group) emerged victorious and were crowned 'Mightiest Golf Gang in India' for the third consecutive year. Team Ravi's Ruffians from Gurgaon, led by Siddharth Sangwan (Kornferry Future Step) finished runners-up. The National Final saw 7 teams who qualified from Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Noida and Gurgaon battle it out over two days.

The B School Masters

I

ndian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad reigned supreme at the IIM Masters 2016. The 11th edition of this event was held at the Classic Golf Resort, Gurgaon in March. Over 100 notable alumni from IIM Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore and Lucknow took to the greens in the annual event. Sachin Johri (MD, IDFC Alternatives), Shashank Sinha (CEO, Strides Shasun) & Indeevar Krishna (Head-Customer Service, Bharti Airtel) won the 0-14, 15-18 & 19 and above handicap categories respectively. Other winners included Siddhant Khosla (Director, Times Group) for best gross Stableford score & Gaurav Seth (Partner, Odgers Berndtson) ended as best nett Stableford winner.

PHOTO CAPTION : (Bottom L-R) Ragesh Vasa, Rajiv Vasa, Devang Shah (Warlord), Rajiv Tanna, Paras Adukia.

(Top L-R) Parthiv Mehta, Asit Shah, Pranav Shah, Aditya Shah, Jyotin Gor.

Indo-Nippon Golf Cup JAPANESE BUSINESS COMMUNITY IN FULL FORCE AT 12TH INDO-NIPPON GOLF CUP

I His excellency Hon’ble Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador of Japan to India & Rahul Sharma, Founder & President – Indo Nippon Golf Cup

120 golfdigest india | april 2016

n the aftermath of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan that saw India-Japan relations being upgraded to the level of 'Special Strategic Global Partnership', the Japanese Business Community was out in large numbers at the 12th annual Edition of the IndoNippon Golf Cup. Hiroyuki Fukui of ITOCHU India Pvt. Ltd reigned supreme at the event that saw 78 Japanese & 30 Indian golfers tee off at the Golden Greens Golf Club, Gurgaon. His Excellency, Hon’ble Mr. Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador of Japan to India graced the networking dinner, held at ASSOCHAM House. Other distinguished guests included Mr. Isomata Akio of Embassy of Japan, Mr. Masazumi Konishi of Sojitz India, Mr. Kazuhara Kono of JCCII; Mr. Masasaki Sakakida of Mitsubishi Corporation of India, Mr. Masaki Nishiwaki of Honda Cars India, Mr. Satoshi Fujitsu of Yokohama India, Mr. Katsuya Okihiro of Sumitomo Corporation India, Mr. Rajiv Kumar, Director - Ministry of Environment & Forest and Mr. Santosh Kumar, Director - Ministry of Commerce.

India Digest Junior Golf

Future Superstars Junior Golf Little Master Juni or (Young golfers sh Golf Tour ow great camaraderie & sp or tsmanship)

T

he Little Master Junior Golf Tour is founded by for mer Internationa l Amateur Faisal Qureshi whose wife Nonita Lall Qu re shi has a 6 time All Indi a Ladies Amateur been Champion.

The Tour held its 3rd event of the season in Punjab at Panc hk event was a quali ula Golf Club. This fier event for the Pepsi Little People’s Go lf Championship. interschool com An petition was also held during the event. Ov er 40 players com peted at the event.

The Little Master s Junior Golf To sanctioned by th ur is e Inidan Golf Un ion and supported by DL F and Audi.

(World Sta rs of

Junior Golf Qualifier, Pa nchkula GC )

m(Oakley Cha or ni pions Ju Matchplay ships Champion an 2015, Tarudh y) Valle

(Champion s Winter Cha llenge, Qut ab Golf Cours e)

122 golfdigest india | april 2016

Junior The Champions Golf Tour

F

, The Champiounded in 2009 Tour (CJGT) lf ons Junior Go nent of the po m co al tic cri a is ment lop ve De lf Go or Juni Golf. se Bo it m Ro by Program run lfers go ior jun e giv It is designed to &a e nc rie pe ex ive strong competit of the spirit ng di an rst de un mature d in. the game is playe 51 junior golf be There have en Champions Jue th tournaments on l date comprising nior Golf Tour til s and over a 1000 off tee 00 30 of over s ior jun g in prize winn Golf Tournaor ni Ju ns Champio 6 different in ted uc ments are cond the ages of m fro ing age groups rang t to participate ge rs ye pla e Th 5 – 17. e mats of the gam in the various for ent exam rn tou le ab lu and gain va lay, Stableford, perience: Strokep all, es, 4-ball betterb Bogey, Foursom Matchplay.

Corporate Golf

India Digest

Vishal Makar Winner - Pune

Mercedes Trophy 2016

Mercedes Trophy in numbers 12 – Cities 16th – Annual Edition in India 23 – Rounds of Qualifiers 40 – Finalists 50 – Countries participate worldwide 2500 – Participants in India 60,000 – Participants Worldwide

N

ow in its 16th annual edition in India, the MercedesTrophy featured 25 days of qualifiers engaging nearly 2500 golfers. Globally approximately 60,000 golfers from across 50 countries battle it out, making it one of the world’s largest amateur sporting events.

Mercedes Trophy 2016 Winners Ahmedabad – Vikram Patel Bengaluru – Sujith Somasundar, Vinay Sal, Peter Prem, HB Rajugowda, Sanjay Sanghani, Venkat Suri Bhubaneswar – Shaunak Parikh Roland Folger, MD & CEO, MBIL felicitates Sachin Khanna, Winner-Mumbai

Chennai – Nilesh Kumar Coimbatore – Pradeep Rajaram

The 40 winners from the qualifying rounds held in 12 cities – Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Delhi compete at the National Finals at Oxford Golf Resort, Pune held from 30th March 1st April, 2016.

Three Winners from the National Finals will further progress to the MercedesTrophy World Finals – Stuttgart, Germany in September 2016 to compete against winners from all over the world.

Chandigarh – Rajat Seth, Uvie Kahai, Arjan Singh Jaggi, Vivek Sharma

Delhi NCR – Arvind Nair, Gurpreet Singh Chadha, Rajeev Mittal, Gaurav Yadav, Rummy Chhabra, Simran Singh Sachdev, Vinam Jain, Karamvir Yadav, Amit Misra, Anil Sethi, Jayveer Atwal Hyderabad – Bharat Chandra, Anantha Sridhar Reddy Jaipur – Atul Bahri Kolkata – Harmeet Sahney, Deven Shah, Sandeep Poddar, Nikhilesh Kumar

Sanjay Sanghani, Winner-Bengaluru

Mumbai - Sachin Khanna, Ashok Mohan Advani, Ajit Parmar, Anoop Patel Dilip Dandekar, K Gupta Pune – Vishal Makar, Manish Jaitha

april 2016 | golfdigest india

123

India Digest Tête-à-tête

Tête-à-tête with

Ernie Els

Former World No.1, Ernie Els is one of the most prolific winners of his generation. With over 70 professional career victories, including four Major Championships, two World Golf Championships and a record seven World Matchplay titles he was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011. Golf Digest India caught up with Ernie to learn more about his passion to design breathtaking courses and penchant for exploring the wonderful and fascinating world of wine.

Q

When did you first start thinking about designing golf courses and how long after that did you actually start designing your first course?

“I remember it being on my mind right at the start of my pro career. It’s one of those common topics you chat about sometimes with other players as you compete on all the beautiful courses that we’re fortunate enough to play. But as it happened, the opportunity didn’t come along until just after I’d won my second US Open in 1997, when we worked on a new course in Maryland in the US called Whiskey Creek. Soon after that we joined forces with Nicklaus Design, which was a wonderful initiation into golf course design, just to be able to work with a legend such as Mr Nicklaus.

“All along, though, we had it in mind to set up our own standalone design business and we finally realised that dream in 2000. Now, here we are with a collection of award winning courses open for play around the world and at least as many again in various stages of planning and construction. It’s exciting times for us. This is something I have a real passion for and I can see myself designing golf courses for the rest of my life.”

Q

What is your overall design philosophy?

“I don’t believe that applying a signature design right across the board is something that can ever work. Golf course design or should I say good golf course design is way more complex than that. For me, the first time

124 golfdigest india | april 2016

you set foot on a property is a special moment and that’s when all the influences come to bear. As a designer you straight away start mentally bringing those all together to create an overall picture. Every project is unique in that way, but I’m always looking to create something inspiring, something cohesive, something memorable, something that suits its environment. I also take inspiration from elements of some of my favourite golf courses around the world, old and new.

“So as I said, every project is different. But still there are certain specific principles that I would say are integral to the Ernie Els Design philosophy: l Sound strategic shot values and hazard placement. You can’t ignore the fundamentals; that’s the hook on which you hang the whole design. l A golf course should look comfortable in its surroundings and give the appearance that it belongs in its natural environment. l As golf course designers we have a duty to balance the needs of our client with the needs of the environment…and be respectful of both. There will always be solutions that work for both sides and I think our expertise in that area is one of the reasons we’ve been awarded projects in environmentally sensitive areas such as Langkawi in Malaysia and at the upcoming project in Croatia on the stunning Adriatic coastline. l A golf course should test the best, but also be playable for golfers of all standards.

“All in all, I’ve found golf course design to be an amazing process and the interest-

ing thing is, your design instinct never totally switches off. It’s on all the time! I might be playing a tournament somewhere and see a little feature, maybe the shape or the relationship of a bunker within a greens’ complex, and think to myself ‘hey, that would work at a particular site’. It’s an incredibly inspiring and rewarding business.”

Q

The Els Club Teluk Datai won the best new course in 2014 and was recently included on Golf Digest’s Top-100 Courses in the World list. You also just won Designer of the Year at the World Golf Awards. What was it about the course that you feel was the most outstanding feature or factor in the award?

“Thanks. That was a great honour for us. The landscape that we had to work with for The Els Club Teluk Datai is blessed with outstanding natural beauty - honestly it’s one of the most breathtaking settings that I have ever seen on Photographs by Ernie Els Design

Tête-à-tête

The Digest

The Els Club Teluk Datai, Malaysia on the Island of Langkawi.

Voted Best New Golf Course in the World 2014 at the World Golf Awards

my golfing travels. We knew that in our design we had to make the most of that and ensure that visitors would be blown away by the golf course and also the views, which they have been!

“Interestingly, one standout design feature is we don’t have any bunkers on the golf course. Part of the logic behind that was the tropical rainforest climate would make maintenance of bunkers a huge challenge, but also we felt that the rainforest in itself created its own challenges and a beauty that we didn’t want to detract from in any way. Going ‘bunkerless' is a neat solution, strategically, practically and aesthetically.

“Looking back, it was a really fantastic project to be involved with from start to finish.

We were blessed to work with some wonderful people - the guys that worked the golf course, Troon Golf, all our friends in Malaysia and at Themed Attractions Resorts & Hotels - and together we’ve delivered a truly spectacular Photographs by Ernie Els Design

product. We had the official opening in 2014, in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen of Malaysia and actually we played nine holes together, which was a great honour. I can’t wait to get back there.”

Q

In India, with land being such a precious commodity, most developers can only build 9 hole courses – what’s your view on that?

“I say great! If you look at golf course design as an art form, which I believe you should, then you have to work with the canvas you’re given.

I’ve seen some stunning 9-hole courses with innovative design touches, sound strategic values and good hazard placement. Almost all of the significant things you look for in an 18hole course can be achieved in a 9hole course, but still it’s more of a challenge. That’s where the designer really earns his return on investment; he’s got to be very creative and clever with space.”

Q

What other formats of golf could you recommend for Indian real estate developers?

“Actually, I was going to respond in your last question by mentioning the Els Performance Golf Academy & Short Course, which is relevant here too. We just launched our first facility on the outskirts of Hanoi in Vietnam on a 30-acre purpose built site. That’s a great solution if, as you say, land is such a precious commodity. You can have an academy and a short course; with its clever use of land that’s attractive for many developers in areas where land cost or getting large pieces of land that a traditional 18-hole requires is not possible, particularly near city centres.

“We’ve had discussions within our team and we believe that the growth of golf estates and resorts will only really be possible in the suburb environs of India’s biggest cities. We are considering a few master planned communities for The Els Club Estates premier april 2016 | golfdigest india

125

India Digest Tête-à-têtê

Sunset over the Els Design- Albany Resort Golf Course, Bahamas

lifestyle living and championship length golf courses. As your readers probably know, we are very fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s best quality developers and look to the same criteria when evaluating opportunities in India. Water and resource usage is obviously a key element as well and we are very mindful of that, particularly where infrastructure is challenged or overstretched.

I always keep a close eye on making sure we develop and design for the area, developer

“We’ve had discussions within our team and we believe that the growth of golf estates and resorts will only really be possible in the suburb environs of India’s biggest cities. and what the piece of land provides. It would be irresponsible for us to design something non-sustainable.”

Q

Does your company do redesign or refurbishment of older courses?

“Absolutely. Wentworth’s iconic West Course is our most high profile renovation and modernisation project. The Els Club Teluk Datai was also a renovation of an existing layout, albeit on a much more dramatic scale than Wentworth. We also have other renovation projects on our books. We see this as an exciting growth area for our business.”

126 golfdigest india | april 2016

Q

How can a developer best recoup his investment in a marquee brand name like yours or Nicklaus, etc?

“That’s one of the areas where we feel Ernie Els Design has a significant edge over many of its competitors. There’s more to a successful development than simply the golf course. You need added brand value and we can bring that in several key areas.

With the developments we have done so far with the likes of Four Seasons in Mauritius or Hyatt in South Africa and others we have enhanced property sales, investment, hotel occupancy and values on par or better than others; but it comes down to execution and quality and we enjoy working with the best in the business. We’ve got the Els Club Estates, Founders Membership programs with The Els Clubs, the Els Performance Golf Academy, The Big Easy Winebar & Grill, Ernie Els Wines and Ernie Els Clothing Collection.

“Our partners see the value in Els Design as a brand, setting the standards for golf in the regions we’re building in and using our brand as a tool to help drive tourism to the region. That is our ex-perience at The Els Club in Malaysia, where the media attention surrounding the opening and the awards generated a big spike in business and interest.

And this year our Els Club Malaysia business model will further expand, with the opening of two sensational new properties in the southern state of Johor, with the 27-hole Els Club Desaru Coast and the 18-hole Els Club Desaru Valley. This is just the beginning of what we believe will complete an unrivalled golfing proposition for our Founder Members and clients in South East Asia.”

Q

Do you get involved in the clubhouse design and what are one or two key points in club-house design that can help maximize revenues?

“I have a solid hospitality team that assists clients on nearly all facets of their development for our premier Els Club Estate developments, from area planning, master planning, and programming on the clubhouse. While the outside of the buildings may all look different around the world, what is important is to have the same DNA inside; with great interior design, amenity package and planning.

We would always want to share our expertise and give input into that side of things. We have a lot of knowledge to share and wouldn’t want our development partners making the typical mistakes.

“For instance, in our experience, there was a tendency in the last decade to think bigger is better on clubhouse sizes; that clearly is not the case. As an owner, you need to look at revenue generating space versus back-of-house and service areas. If there is a hotel within the environs, we need to understand what back-of-house services can be shared to find operational synergies. I want our clubs to feel comfortable and high quality. I really dislike soulless rooms that have no ‘life’ inside. Often when the public and members spaces are too large or don’t flow right from an operational point of view, you end up with many dead areas. I feel it’s time for clubhouses to now evolve and be designed to service the next generation, which often times means 3-generation families sharing the same memberships after all, we want our Els Clubs to be a happy, fun and busy place. Golf is tough enough!

Photographs by Ernie Els Design

Tête-à-têtê

India Digest

shaping, irrigation and agronomy being really key.

“We have one of the industry leading construction specifications and all our plan documentation is incredibly detailed. We also provide a full-time onsite Design Coordinator who basically lives near the site and ensures that my design intents and the nuances of what I want are implemented. It is a huge benefit having one of our guys on site, as it saves the developer time and money, as decisions can be taken quickly. My right-hand man, Greg Letsche, also is on site every 6-8 weeks or so during construction.”

Q

Do you always travel to all your design sites or is there an extra fee for that?

“I’m hands on throughout the design process; it’s just the way I like to do business, any business. So yes, I get personally involved in site visits. That would be agreed and accounted for in the initial design fees. I cannot put my name on something I have not been a part of – and, to be honest, it provides the developer huge value beyond just the design. You cannot discount the increased visibility, media value and greater market confidence of having regular personal visits.”

Q

What criteria do you typically look for when agreeing to take on a project proposed by a de veloper?

“Quality is what it’s all about for us. That’s been our way ever since we started the business 16 years ago; we want to partner with the best and create the best. I think our portfolio of courses reflects that commitment.”

Q

Anything in the pipeline for India?

such as clothing in the Pro Shop, specifically our range of golfing apparel from the Ernie Els Collection, and of course our entire wine portfolio can be made available throughout the clubhouse and its various bars and restaurants. All of these things not only generate revenue but they also add something to the overall customer experience, that vibe someone gets when they spend a day at a golf club.

It’s hard to put a price on that.”

“We’ve been involved in some exciting conversations with potential partners and we can definitely see some real potential in the country. Obviously the recognition myself and our firm have achieved over the past few years, with ‘Golf Designer of the Year’, ‘World’s Best New Golf Course’ and The Els Club Teluk Datai being the first course in our design portfolio to feature on Golf Digest’s prestigious top-100 list, is big for us. It means we are attracting interest from a new wave of developers that see the inclusion of not only our work, but brand as bringing immense value. That’s valid not just in India, but obviously all around the world.”

Q

Q

The Gunung Matchincang mountain forms the backdrop to Hole #13 at The Els club Teluk Datai, Malaysia

“Anyway, one quite recent initiative is locating a Big Easy Winebar & Grill in the clubhouse and that’s worked extremely well, for instance at The Els Club Dubai, with it winning best Food & Beverage outlet at the 2015 Middle East Golf Awards. We’re introducing another Big Easy Winebar & Grill at The Els Club Malaysia later this year and would recommend this as a positive initiative for any of our partners.

“And as I said before, we can offer other significant Els brand synergies in other areas,

“Anyway, one quite recent initiative is locating a Big Easy Winebar & Grill in the clubhouse and that’s worked extremely well

Photographs by Ernie Els Design

How closely does your company supervise the actual construction?

Do you look for a PMC (Project Management) partner preferably especially in new markets?

“This is so important, as sub-standard construction or poor supervision can really cause long-term cost and reputational damage for the developer and for us. So we help our clients every step of the way through the process, from helping select the right construction team, while ensuring we work with local labour whenever we can. Obviously there are specialised areas to build a golf course, with

How has the wine business been for you in India?

“It is obviously an attractive market due to the size of population and growth of popularity of wine. The import duty on foreign wines is quite high, but we have a balanced and diverse portfolio of wines now and I think looking ahead that’s going to make a difference especially in such markets. I know the guys are actively seeking out opportunities and from my own experiences during various trips to India that there is definitely a keen interest due to the quality of our product.” april 2016 | golfdigest india

127

India Digest 18 Holes with H.R. Srinivasan

Holes with H.R. Srinivasan Vice Chairman & Managing Director, TAKE Solutions Home Club: Madras Gymkhana

Sponsors 5 Indian Professionals : SSP Chawrasia, Chikkarangappa, Khalin Joshi, Shubhankar Sharma & Abhishek Jha

1

When did you start playing golf?

2000

2

What do you love most about playing golf?

Great camaraderie in wonderful surroundings. You meet lots of interesting people with a phenomenal opportunity to network.

3

How often do you get to play golf?

6-8 times a month, though I would love to play more often.

8

Your thoughts on doing business on the golf course?

I have often heard of this but I personally have not experienced it much. Golf gives an excellent opportunity to network in an informal setting with the possibility of being able to use these networks outside. However in my case, I believe it is better to leave serious business deals to the office and not the course.

Who forms your regular Fourball?

In Chennai – Sumanth Subramaniam, D Vasu, Hemant Sinha In Singapore – Bhaskar G, Arjun Dosaj, Samir Bedi

4

How about your dream Fourball?

Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Kapil Dev with myself

5

Name your favourite Gentleman & Lady Pro golfers?

Gentleman - Indian – SSP Chawrasia, Jeev Milkha Singh International – Jordan Spieth, Brandt Snedeker Ladies – Lydia Ko, Paula Creamer

6

7

Favourite golf course – In India & abroad?

Muirfield Village, Jack Nicklaus’ home course – Ohio because of the sensational and challenging course in which you have to think before every shot. In India, it is Jaypee Greens, Noida because of the fantastic course layout and facilities – always well maintained and in pristine condition.

130 golfdigest india | april 2016

9

10

11

Describe your most memorable experience on the course?

There are many, one being the YPO Rest of the World Vs. YPO USA game (the President’s Cup) at the Fancourt Links, South Africa which we won.

Do you use any golf apps on your phone? Any gadgets to improve your game?

I use Golf Shot Plus. It is a phenomenal app that comes pre-loaded with many courses. It also gives an accurate measure of distance, complete with profiles of the course layout, hazards etc.

The most scenic course you have played?

TPC Jasna Polana at Princeton, New Jersey

12

Current handicap? Lowest handicap you have had?

Current is 10.7 Lowest handicap – 5.4

13

What apparel brands do you wear on the course?

Boss, Nike and Under Armour

14

On an average, how long do you drive the ball?

270 yards

15

What attributes do you look for in a golfer before you sponsor him/ her?

1) The ability and potential to play well and represent the country 2) Conduct on and off the course 3) Ability to carry our brand.

16

What is your favourite holiday destination?

Scotland. Besides golf, the “after golf” life is also good. It is also a place of great scenic beauty.

17

What is your favourite dish at your home course?

Omlette or an omelette sandwich, which is easy to grab, bite and move on with the game.

18

Favourite 19th hole drink?

Chilled Vodka, preferably Beluga.

World's Golf Course Designer of the Year

World's Best New Golf Course