Golf Digest India - June 2016 by Golf Digest India

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2

RNI NO. HARENG/2016/66983 JUNE 2016 `150

THINK YOUNG | PLAY HARD

HOW TO GET YOUR

5-MINUTE CLINIC UP&DOWN FOR PAR U.S. OPEN WHY THEY CAN'T BREAK 63 8 TOUR TIPS TO LOWER SCORES

GAME BACK

JOR DAN BY

PACIFIC COAST DESIGN TÊTE-À-TÊTE

JEEV MILKHA SINGH INSIDE THE ROPES

Exclusive Official Media Partner INDIA

TiTle Code: HAReNG00969 mAy 2016 `150

Volume 1 issue 1

FUtUrists

Think Young | PlaY hard

268 Best thinGs in GoLF oUr First editors' choice awards

ricKie’s distance tips and dJ's FLop shot

india GoLF expo 2016 reView ssp chowrasia inside the ropes

a roBot naMed aFter tiGer

coUrses that GLow Lessons in VirtUaL reaLitY no More Lost BaLLs

aniL seoLeKar president, iGU

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Contents 06/16

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

U.S. Open Preview 54

▶ Gorilla in the Mist Another 7,500 trees are gone at Oakmont, leaving it barren, brawny and beautiful.

by matthew rudy 50

Why They Can’t Break 63 Revisiting Johnny Miller’s record.

My Shot: Jack Nicklaus The four-time U.S. Open champion on hovering helicopters, $12 slacks, projectile vomiting and diaper duty.

How to Ride a Hot Hand 522 words on playing better longer.

Play Your Best 15

with guy yocom

The Zen of Zinger The new man on Fox’s U.S. Open team is a big thinker who knows how to have fun.

by jaime diaz

Features 38

Cover Story: How to Get Your A-Game Back If you can match these positions, you’re on your way to making great swings.

Swing Sequence: Kevin Kisner How this PGA Tour winner came back from the brink of quitting

David Leadbetter Copy what good players do out of fairway bunkers Why’d I Do That? Here’s how to stop three-putting from long distance. by rick smith

Butch Harmon Stop slicing and add power

5-Minute Clinic: Up & Down For Par by alex fisher

by jordan spieth

12 golf digest india | june 2016

Jack Nicklaus My tips for taking the big number out of play

Equipment: Putters 7 flat sticks you need to try.

India Digest 80

European Tour Stars set new record for fastest hole in golf

Inside the ropes With Jeev Milkha Singh by bharath arvind

by mike stachura 30

What’s In My Bag Masters rookie Smylie Kaufman

Putting Who needs anchored putting? Try my Gator Clamp instead

Accuracy vs. Distance What you can learn from my refocus on driving. by luke donald

Hank Haney Develop that tour-pro touch around the greens

3 Brutal Short-Game Shots Escape these lies and leave yourself a par putt.

by paula creamer

by jaime diaz 68

by bernie najar

by ron whitten 62

8 Tour Tips to Lower Scores According to the pros and the stats.

by steve scott

The Golf Life 34

Style There’s no substitute for the classic wristwatch. by marty hackel

Our Armchair Architect Contest One winner might design a hole at Mike Keiser’s Sand Valley. by ron whitten

Rundown These 12 tips will get you through any rainy round. by david owen

The Pour Six new bottles to raise a toast by ron kaspriske

Spotlight A Guide To Golf at the Rio 2016 Olympics IGIA Award Winner-Best Driving Range in India The Joy of Giving

Louis Philippe Cup 2016 Promotional Feature

100 Players in the News

Update on Indian Golfers around the world

102 Club Round Up

Latest News from your favourite courses across India

104 Junior Golf

Update from the junior golf tours

105 Corporate Digest

A round up of corporate tournaments across the country

120 Tête-à-tête

with Pacific Coast Design

by bharath arvind 124 18 Holes

with Pankaj Munjal

Cover photograph by Walter Iooss Jr.

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120

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Editor’s Letter S

Dear Readers,

ummer is here and it is the time when we see the encouraging sights of hundreds of kids attending junior coaching programs across the country. Fabulous that all the big clubs have realized the importance of ensuring that as many youngsters as possible get a chance to try out the game. That is definitely the future. We at Golf Digest India intend to carry pictures and information about junior camps taking place anywhere in India, so if you know of one, please do write in and send us a photo and we will publish it. June is the month of the US Open which you can read all about in this issue and we wish that India’s Anirban Lahiri has a great week. In his last 5 majors, he has only missed one cut and recorded a top 5 finish, a commendable record.

Letters to the Editor

Congratulations on a fabulous job of bringing out the inaugural edition. I was missing the magazine for some time in India. You have nicely combined the international articles along with news and information of local interest such as professional, corporate and junior events. I look forward to even more articles on the local golf happenings. For sure I will read with interest the updates on the Louis Philippe Cup in your next edition.I hope that the magazine remain s not only a valuable reading companion for club golfers but also becom es a tool for spreading awareness about golf in India. I hope it becomes a platform to provide visibility to junior golfers encouraging more kids to take to the sport and resulting in more world class talent emerging from India. -Saket Mansingh, Samsung India

The pro tours in India and Asia enter a slightly slower time of year and this is when a number of players take time to work on their swings and fitness. A new feature of the summer appears to be the Indo American Professional Golf Association Tour which will see ten Indian pros doing a 8 city pro-am tour across the USA ! A commendable initiative which benefits everyone involved. In this issue of the magazine, like in the last one, we have tried to capture as much news and information about people and clubs and good things happening for the game. Once again, if your club is trying something new or rebuilding a few greens, do write to us. Its great to get feedback and letters so do keep writing. Hope you enjoy the read !

Congratulations on the new format & content and wish the team the very best for the future. May I suggest that Caddy Training; an ignored but extremely impor tant part of golf in India; needs special focus.

Write to me at rishi@teamgolfdigest.com or on Twitter @RishiNarain_

-Ashok C Bansal, Delhi

Congratulations on the new magazine and we couldnt have got a better team to lead it. The magazine was full of great info and great pictures. Perhaps it could include more of that thing that we golfers love - Equipment and Gear. Looking forward to the next issue. -Imran Baig, Member, Delhi Golf Club

contact us Subscriptions subscribe@teamgolfdigest.com Phone: +91-9999868051 Marketing & Advertising nikhil@teamgolfdigest.com Phone: +91-9999990364

14 golf digest india | june 2016

Rishi Narain Editor

team Golf DiGest inDia Editor Rishi Narain Managing Editor Bharath Arvind bharath@teamgolfdigest.com Assistant Art Director Guneet Singh Oberoi

Published and Printed by Rishi Narain on behalf of Rishi Narain Golf Management Private Limited and Printed at Thomson Press India Limited, 18-35 Mile Stone, Delhi-Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, Haryana and published from 501, Sushant Tower, Sector 56, Gurgaon-122011, Haryana. Editor Rishi Narain. Contains material reprinted by permission from Golf Digest® and Golf World®. Golf Digest India is a monthly publication of Rishi Narain Golf Management Private Limited.

edited by peter morrice

Play

Find Your Focus

Accuracy vs. Distance? Choose accuracy every time by luke donald

like many of you, the thought of hitting shots 20 or 30 yards farther led me to make changes to my swing that turned out to be more trouble than they were worth. I gained some distance, yes, but I lost a lot of accuracy, and my scoring suffered. I’ve since gone back to the way I swung the club in 2011, when I was No. 1 in the World Ranking. Now I feel like my ball-striking is pretty close to the way it used to be. The things I’m workPhotographs by J.D. Cuban

ing on now with my coach, Pat Goss, are fundamentals I’m sure can help you, too. It starts at address. Feel like you’re bending forward from your hip joints but staying tall with your chest (above). Resist the urge to tilt too far forward or sit back in your heels—I see both mistakes. Improve this part of your swing, and the other ones I’m about to show you, and you’ll put yourself in position to play your best golf. —with Ron Kaspriske june 2016 | golf digest india

Play Your Best Swing Keys a good Start iS Key to get into a great position at the top of the swing, which sets up a proper downswing, the secret is the takeaway. For me, it’s about keeping the club from moving too far to the inside and the face closing from the start. i want a blended movement, where the club stays in front of my chest as my hands hinge it upward (left). it feels a lot different than trying to make a big, deep turn away from the target, like i was doing to hit it longer. this takeaway makes it easy to hit solid shots, which is why it’s a good one to copy. Pat also gives this move to amateurs who whip the club quickly to the inside. From there, they typically re-route the club on an outto-in path coming down and hit a slice. if you start the backswing like i’m doing here, you’ll create plenty of room to swing down and hit the ball from the inside.

Stay tall to the toP when i was chasing extra yards, my upper body would drift several inches away from the target during the backswing. i was really loading up. Unfortunately, that made it harder to get the club back to the ball without some last-second adjustments. an issue for me was my head would dip as i made that big move. think of how your body drops when you wind up to throw a punch. if you squat down during the backswing, you have to straighten up before impact to get the club back to the right spot. a more consistent way to get into position at the top is to feel like you’re maintaining your head height as you rotate away from the target. there’s no drifting. Feel like you’re turning inside a tall cardboard box. you’ll generate ample energy, and more important, you’ll improve your chances of making center-face contact—which should be your no. 1 goal.

16 golf digest india | june 2016

▶ greenS in regUlation

▶ Scoring average

67.3%

65.6%

66.2%

68.9

70.6

70.7

2011

2015

2016

2011

2015

2016 s o u rc e : s h ot l i n k

Swing it long and low tour pros can hit a 7-iron 200 yards because they deloft the clubface so much through impact, it essentially turns the club into a 4-iron. again, that’s great if you’re after maximum distance, but the results of trying to deloft the club can be very inconsistent. instead, i’ve been focusing on returning the club to the ball with its proper loft. the reason i carry 14 clubs is that i want each one to hit the ball a specific distance. that’s why i’m working on swinging the club into the ball with very little shaft lean at impact (left). i want the clubhead to track through the impact zone “long and low,” meaning my swing arc stays wide and skirts the ground. a good swing thought for distance control is to try and get the shaft in line with your left arm at impact. it’s oK if the shaft is leaning a little toward the target, but the more it leans, the less control you’ll have over how far the ball goes. in the end, routinely hitting a ball pin high is going to help you a lot more than an extra 20 yards off the tee. luke donald has won five PGA Tour events and seven European Tour events and was No. 1 in the world for 56 weeks in 2011 and ’12.

+ RLX GOLF shirt, $90, pants, $98, belt, $98 FOOTJOY shoes, $280 MIZUNO visor, $22, glove $20

Play Your Best Step by Step by David Leadbetter

Golfers under age 18. Up 20% from 2010.

3 MILLION

Fairway Bunker My four keys for knocking it on the green arking your tee shot in the sand on a par 4 or par 5 doesn’t have to sentence you to a bogey or worse. You can execute fairway-bunker shots with consistency if you focus on stability at address and control during the swing. There’s one overriding swing thought you should use: Hit the ball solidly. Follow these four steps to set up success in the sand.

David Leadbetter operates 25 golf academies worldwide.

18 golf digest india | june 2016

1. StaBiLize

2. Grip Down

3. Look aHeaD

4. SHorten up

▶ twisting your feet a little into the sand will give you a good, solid foundation over the ball. also, roll your ankles inward slightly. this will prevent you from swaying during the swing. these adjustments help facilitate solid contact.

▶ Holding the club about an inch shorter makes up for the amount you dug your feet into the sand. if you don’t do that, you risk hitting behind the ball—the biggest mistake you can make in a fairway bunker.

▶ another easy way to ensure ball-first contact is to adjust your point of focus. Look at the top of the ball, or the front side of it, as you swing. keeping your focus forward will help you stay centered as you go back.

▶ instead of making a full backswing, shorten it to three-quarters. this keeps the lower body relatively still so you can swing in balance and in control and give the ball a good whack. You might even knock it close.

Photographed by J.D. Cuban at The Concession Golf Club, Bradenton, Fla.

illustrations: todd detwiler • Jos a. Bank: shirt, $115 • house of fleming: Belt

s o u r c e : n at i o n a l g o l f f o u n d at i o n

Play Your Best Curing Faults by Rick Smith

“Don’t stare at the green or your putter. Everybody knows you stubbed it.”

Why’d I Do That? You’ve got a 40-footer, but you hit it 20 feet

20 golf digest india | june 2016

e’ve all done it. You try to put a little extra pop on that long putt, and the putterhead scuffs the ground behind the ball, sending it halfway to the hole. You look down at the green, you examine the putter, you shake your head. But everyone knows . . . you stubbed it. Usually the stub comes from making a backstroke that’s too short, which forces you to really accelerate the putterhead coming through. This changes your rhythm and grip pressure. Look at Jason Day or Jordan Spieth: They take the putter back with consistent rhythm and sufficient

length for the distance of the putt. Post-impact the stroke is firm, not loose. The left wrist is in line with the puttershaft. The key move is an unrushed transition from backstroke to through-stroke. No burst of speed at the ball. And be sure not to loop the putterhead to the inside or outside as you start the forward stroke. Re-routing can cause a stub. The ideal path is slightly to the inside going back, then along the line through impact, then slightly inside again. Rick Smith is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional.

First, if you stub a putt, try not to get too embarrassed. It doesn’t happen very often, so just laugh it off and let it go. I assure you, golfers who saw it are not thinking the harsh things you think they’re thinking. Second, trust the design of your putter, and trust that gravity is working for you. Just make a stroke as if you were throwing a ball underhand—nice and smooth, back and through. Do that, and it will have plenty of length going back and generate enough power to get the putt to the hole. You won’t have to goose it on the way down. Third, develop a good pre-putt routine and make your routine more important than the outcome of the putt. I’m not so concerned about what you do in your routine, but make sure it’s easy enough to do the same way every time. The last thing is, beware of the stub on short putts, too. A lot of players roll a putt up to gimme range, then just slap at it. You’ve got to stay focused here. Don’t carelessly backhand even the shortest putt, unless you don’t mind missing ones you should have made. My experience tells me it’s easier to work on keeping your composure than it is to get used to missing short putts. —BoB Rotella, Ph.D.

Illustration by Chris Gash

Head: Peter Stemmler

hoW To heaD oFF puTTIng WoeS

Golfer’s Wish List by Butch Harmon Play Your Best What do you do when you really need to bomb a drive? ▶ Hit up on the ball ▶ Swing harder ▶ Make a bigger turn ▶ Give it the Happy Gilmore

25% 18% 13%

44%

5 HDCP

42% 34%

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source: Golf DiGest reaDers

fAke PoWer

reAL PoWer

extending your arms might feel powerful, but it leads to a slice.

Get in a closed stance, and swing out to the right for a draw.

The Power Drive Think you’re ready to rip it? Think again hen guys in particular want some extra yards, they usually stand farther from the ball and really stretch out their arms. They feel more powerful in this extended position. But the reality is, they end up producing less swing speed and hitting a weak drive to the right. Let me explain. The problem with extending your arms is, you get more bent over, and your weight moves out to your toes (above, left). When you swing from there, gravity pulls you out even farther, so you react by pulling up to save your balance. That causes the clubhead to swing across the line from out to in. You might

Photographs by J.D. Cuban

hit a strong pull, but chance are, you’re going to wipe across the ball and send it slicing. A better approach if you want more distance is to set up to hit a draw. Start with your arms relaxed and hanging comfortably from your shoulders, then take a closed stance, with your feet, hips and shoulders aimed to the right of your target (above, right). Then try to swing out to the right and hit the inside part of the ball. Think of it like a big, sweeping forehand in tennis. You’ll sling the club through and rotate your right arm over your left. That’s a draw—and that’s real power. Butch Harmon, a Golf Digest Teaching Professional, is based at Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson, Nev.

BUTCH’S BASICS

Keeping tension out of your arms at address sets up a freeflowing swing back and through. One good way to do this is to hover the club off the ground before you start (above). If you sole the clubhead behind the ball, you’ll tend to push it into the turf, which tenses up the hand and arm muscles. With the club up, you can stay relaxed and sweep the ball off the tee. No better way to launch your driver.

june 2016 | golf digest india

Play Your Best Back to Basics

‘Favor your lead foot to hit a good pitch shot.’ 5-Minute Clinic

high shot

flight control

Short-game tweaks that really pay off

Focus on the Thumb

by alex fisher utting the time in to improve your full swing is important, but for pure return on practice investment, the short game is where you’ll get the quickest deduction from your scores. You hit more of these kinds of shots than any other, and the fixes and adjustments required are things any player can handle physically. Make these changes to your pitching and chipping and spend an hour at the shortgame practice area at your course, and you’ll be hitting it closer to the hole more consistently by this weekend. Best of all, you can do it with the clubs you already have in your bag. —with matthew rudy

low shot

Alex Fisher, one of Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers, is the director of instruction at the Glacier Club in Durango, Colo.

▶ Controlling the height and spin of your pitch shots is a crucial skill if you want to consistently leave yourself makable putts. Keying on your right thumb will give you an easy focal point to switch from hitting high shots to low shots. For a high shot with backspin, swing through impact and hold off the rotation of your hands so that your right thumb stays on the right side of the handle (left, top). To produce a lower shot that has some run, make the same swing but let your hands rotate through naturally. Your right thumb will end up on the left side of the grip (left).

2 pitching setup

Stand Like a One-legged Pirate

22 golf digest india | june 2016

gutter credit tk

▶ Hanging back is a death move in pitching. You’ve probably heard that you need to keep your weight on your lead leg, but that can be hard to feel. To make it happen, set up in your normal pitching stance, then pull your trailing foot back from the target line and lift its heel off the ground. Now hit regular shots from this one-legged-pirate stance. It’s impossible to hang back when you don’t have any way to support that weight. Now you can say goodbye to hitting it fat.

Photographs by J.D. Cuban

Back to Basics

Play Your Best

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3 fault fixer

Follow it With Your Chest ▶ Many players make the same mistakes in pitching. They freeze their bodies and swing with only their arms, or they make too much of a body turn for the size of the shot. The ideal motion is in the middle. Keep your chest facing the ball and make a backswing with your arms only, then let the chest turn slightly through impact, as if it were following the trajectory of the shot. If you don’t add this chest rotation, your body will tilt away from the target at impact, and that’s a recipe for fat or bladed shots.

yes

4 distance control

Eliminate the Wrist Lever in Chipping

‘if you Keep the grip centered on your body, you increase the margin of error to execute a decent chip.’ + NIKE hat, shirt, pants, shoes

▶ The fundamentals of chipping and pitching are very similar, with one major exception: On a chip shot, you don’t need the wrists to work as an additional lever because you’re not hitting the shot as high or as far as a pitch. To do it, move your hands down to the end of the grip, and swing back and through with firm (but not locked) wrists.

5 solid contact

Find the Bounce in Your Setup ▶ The conventional way to teach chipping has been to play the ball back in the stance and lean the handle toward the target (above, left). When you inevitably stub the club into the ground, it isn’t because you decelerated or somehow made the wrong move. It’s because that setup aims the leading edge of the club at the ground. Unless you correct for that in the swing, you’re pretty much guaranteed to dig the club at impact. Keep the handle centered on your body (above, right) and your weight forward, and you’ve just created six more inches of space on the ground to make contact. june 2016 | golf digest india

Play Your Best Strategy by Jack Nicklaus

“To me, winning by one is the same as winning by 10.” Oakmont, 1962 What I learned winning my first U.S. Open n an important round, I always tried to get off to a solid—but never heroic— start. After a couple of holes the nerves leave and then you can just go play golf. Not until the 14th or 15th hole do the shots really become pressurized and you might feel those butterflies come back. Some players want to blow away the competition. They hit the gas early. Tiger was like that when he first got on tour, and today you might occassionally see Rory and others play that way. The all-out style never fit my mind. Being overconfident is when you’re most prone to mistakes. Trying to close out a match? You might do well to remember how I went up the par-4 18th at Oakmont Country Club (illustrated) in a playoff against Arnold Palmer for the 1962 U.S. Open. I was 22 and had never won a pro event. I’m still proud today that I was able to think clearly. For more on that U.S. Open, see the My Shot on page 110. —with max adler

NervOuS tee ShOt Here on the last hole of an 18-hole playoff, I’m holding a two-shot lead. Arnold’s drive splits the fairway, and I hit a pull that finds a sketchy lie in the left rough. Arnold’s away. He hits a 3-iron heavy, and it comes up short of the green. I decide to take a wedge and just play down the fairway.

caN’t gO iN here This bunker is the crux of my decision to not attempt to hit the green in regulation. If I try to carry the bunker and fail, I could leave myself with the toughest play in golf: a 50-yard bunker shot to the green. From there, I could easily miss the green with my next shot, then a chip and two putts would be a double bogey. That would open the door for Arnold to tie with a par. It doesn’t matter if my third shot is a putt, a chip or a full pitching wedge from the fairway. I choose the wedge because it’s the one shot I can guarantee to give myself.

it’s ok to peek

After my third shot finds the green, Arnold has no option but to try to chip in for birdie. In this desperation, he ends up making 6, which is irrelevant in a two-man-playoff format. Looking back, even if Arnie had hit the green with his 3-iron, I would’ve been best served playing the hole as I did, taking the chance he doesn’t make 3. Though I can’t be 100-percent certain I would have done that. Remember, I was 22. It usually takes years of dumb mistakes to learn when to switch off the ego. I wasn’t immune to that.

24 golf digest india | june 2016

I always looked at leader boards. For the average golfer, this is comparable to looking at your scorecard. I think it helps to know where you stand. If I saw some major champions charging, I needed to make birdies. If I saw players with less experience, I needed to make sure I didn’t beat myself. History told me those players were probably going to stumble coming in. Illustration by Chris O’Riley

AugustA nAtionAl/getty imAges

gOOd plaNNiNg payS Off

What the Pros Know by Hank Haney Situation: You need to knock it inside 10 feet. What shot do you want? ▶ 40-yard pitch from the fairway: 32% ▶ 40-yard pitch from light rough: 25% ▶ Greenside bunker shot: 22% ▶ Full sand wedge: 21%

Play Your Best

source: Golf DiGest reaDers

How to Get That Pro Touch Learn to pitch with your sand wedge

how many wedges do you need?

f you want to be a better player, copy what better players do. When tour pros need to hit a greenside shot that stops quickly, they almost always grab a club with a lot of loft. They make the ball stop by hitting it high more than trying to spin it. You might be nervous about the idea of using your sand wedge outside the bunkers, but it’s easier than you probably think. The sand wedge is the heaviest club in your bag, so it can power through thick lies. Provided you get the heavy flange on the back of the club involved from the start, it’ll glide through the grass instead of getting stuck.

Harry How/Getty ImaGes

You need to do two things to get comfortable with using a more-lofted club. First, be willing to open the face at least a little at address. This brings the club’s flange into play, setting up that gliding action through impact. You don’t want the leading edge to dig. The second thing is, you have to commit to making a bigger swing than you’re used to, assuming you’ve been chipping and pitching with a less-lofted club. With a sand wedge, the harder you swing, the higher the ball goes, and the more quickly it stops. That means you need to change your aim to a spot closer to your target. Give it a try.

Tour players like Phil Mickelson (left) often carry wedges with extreme loft, like a 64-degree. That makes sense if you have a killer short game and are playing courses with pins tucked near the edges of greens. But most amateurs are better off carrying a 56-degree as their most-lofted club and adding a hybrid or fairway wood to their set. Those clubs will solve more problems. 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. june 2016 | golf digest india

Play Your Best Swing Sequence hough Kevin Kisner was a four-time All-American at Georgia, the South Carolina native was slow to succeed as a tour pro and struggled to the point of almost giving up. “Three years ago, my swing had deteriorated so much I had the shanks,” Kisner says. “I was embarrassed to play practice rounds with the other players.” In desperation, he went to John Tillery,

Kevin Kisner Getting from nowhere to hardware

26 golf digest india | june 2016

a well-known teacher at Cuscowilla in Eatonton, Ga. “John saved my career,” Kisner says. Tillery remembers that first lesson: “Kevin started hitting balls, and I didn’t say anything for 30 minutes. His shots were almost hitting the bay door on the right.” They put the clubs away and talked for three hours. “Kevin comes across as a laid-back good ol’ boy, but he’s an extremely hard worker

and a very smart guy,” Tillery says. “His success last year didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. It took six months to start seeing legitimate progress in competition.” After losing three playoffs—including a four-holer against Rickie Fowler at the Players—Kisner won the RSM Classic in November. He has been in the top 5 of the FedEx points race ever since. —roger schiffman

StaBle Start

Wide off the Ball

nothing to it

“Kevin used to have a narrow stance and would never get enough pressure into his right foot, which led to spinning out,” says his teacher, John Tillery. “His strong grip and now wider stance create a slight shoulder tilt away from the target, so he catches the driver on the ascent.”

“Starting back, Kevin pushes the club down and away from him,” Tillery says. At halfway, notice Kisner’s wrist hinge and stable body position. “The club is already set, and he’s staying wide, keeping his hips directly under his torso.”

Tillery says Kisner is very mobile in his thoracic spine and shoulders. “This helps him create a full upperbody turn without much strain.” He also notes that Kisner’s knees are relatively quiet because of his mobility, not any effort to freeze them.

▶ driving accuracy

▶ greenS in regulation

70.7%

60.3%

74.2%

70.7%

66.2%

75.1%

Kevin Kisner (8th)

tour average

thomas aiken (1st)

Kevin Kisner (26th)

tour average

Bubba Watson (1st) s o u rc e : s h ot l i n k

ready to pounce

textBooK StriKe

Keeping Balance

pro-file

As Kisner’s legs initiate the downswing, his left arm is extended and his right elbow is well below his left arm, which will help him swing from the inside. “Kevin’s center is over the ball, and his knees are back to level,” Tillery says.

“Before we made the swing changes, Kevin’s left leg would straighten too early, causing him to swing to the right,” Tillery says. “Now the knee remains flexed as he stays in his tilts, and he swings the club into a straight line with his left arm. Classic impact position.”

Into the finish, the handle of the club stays closer to his body than before, Tillery says, indicating his arms are swinging more down the line than out to the right. “Improving centeredness of contact has turned his pushes into beautiful draws.”

kevin kisner 32 / 5-10 / 165 pounds aiken, S.c.

Photographs by Dom Furore

driver callaway great Big Bertha (8.5 degrees) ball titleist pro v1

june 2016 | golf digest india

Play Your Best Equipment by Mike Stachura

nike method origin ▶ The polymer-filled grooves and resin mid-layer help produce consistent distance control, but your stroke might benefit even more by an adjustable, counterbalanced grip option that lets you shift the shaft’s balance point. pric e $350/$420

Stroke Savers Seven new putters that help you strike it and roll it better

n the surface, putting is a simple thing. Or two things, actually: direction and distance. But you can’t begin to get either of those right if your stroke is an inconsistent mess. If the putter’s too

light or too heavy, for example, or if you’re fighting to return the face to square, the ball’s not going to end up in the hole. A lot of putters enhance the way the ball rolls after impact, but some of the newest putters are designed to improve your stroke before impact. Whether it’s through unusual lengths and head shapes, adjustable settings or new ideas about balance points, the coolest tools for holing more putts offer a better path to dialing in direction and distance. Here are seven worth your attention:

h a p py pu t t e r to u r m al l e t

p r i c e $350

odyssey toe up ▶ All that mass normally filling the sole has been hollowed out so the center of gravity is closer to the face. As a result, the putter features less torque and balances toe up, making it easier to square the face.

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▶ This design lets you customize the loft, lie angle and even how much the putter weighs. It also lets you tweak the aiming feature on top: The putter comes with three alignment guides.

pric e $200

28 golf digest india | june 2016

Photograph by Justin Fantl

Finding the right putter has never been easier.

directed force reno t i t le ist /s c ot t y camero n s el ect ne w p o rt m2 ▶ The classic heel-toe-weighted shape comes in a mid-mallet that works better for straight-back/straight-through strokes. The mid-layer membrane adds a soft feel to the extra-stable head. p ri ce $380

▶ A mallet improves off-center hits, but its face might be harder to square at impact. This putter balances the head weighting so the face stays square to the lie angle throughout the stroke. pric e $400

b o b by g rac e let ’ s face i t ▶ Struggling with the ban on anchoring? This mallet fits the fully legal Kucharstyle of arm-anchored putting and works if you stand sidesaddle and stroke the short ones while looking at the hole. p ri ce $275

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to u lon d e s i gn m a d is on ▶ The traditional shape might make you think of a fine piece of jewelry, but there’s meaning to the precision. The face pattern enhances sound and roll, and three sole plates help find the proper head weight for your stroke. price $400-$500

june 2016 | golf digest india

Play Your Best What’s in My Bag

One of the cool kids After I won in Vegas I got texts from Keegan Bradley (right), Graeme McDowell and David Toms. Those are guys I look up to, so that was cool.

age 24

story Won 2015 shriners Hospitals for Children Open; was in final pairing sunday at 2016 Masters. fun even in defeat The Masters was so cool. That last round really stunk, but the crowd and how loud it was, the roars, is something I won’t ever forget. I got to watch Jordan spieth and just see what it was kind of like. so I’m going to try to build on it, and I’ll see what I can do. staying on point I’m a competitor in all that I do. I was a point guard in high school in alabama, and we won a state title. What can I say? I like to win. —with e. michael johnson yards*

driver

290

3-wood

265

3-iron

238

4-iron

225

5-iron

208

6-iron

196

7-iron

183

8-iron

170

9-iron

155

138

125

110

*carry distance

specs Cleveland Classic 290, 9˚, 45 inches, Miyazaki Indigo 56 shaft, X-flex, D-4 swingweight

specs Titleist 915Fd, 15˚, 43 inches, Mitsubishi Kuro Kage XM70 shaft, X-flex, D-3 swingweight

It’s an old-school look and sets slightly open at address. I like to eliminate the left side of the course.

lives Birmingham, ala.

club

faIrWay WOOd

IrOns specs Srixon Z U45, 3- through 4-iron; Srixon Z-745 5- through 9-irons, True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts, D-3.5 swingweight, Golf Pride Tour Velvet 58 grips The utility irons give me a lower flight than hybrids. The soles on my irons are special. The way they plow through the turf is incredible. Wedges

This is a hot club. very much a second driver for me, except I can hit a bigger variety of shots. I can also get to par 5s from a long way out.

An early jump My goal this season is to be rookie of the year and play in the Tour Championship. My win in Las Vegas helped get a jump on both of those. puTTer specs Scotty Cameron by Titleist Newport 2 T10, 35 inches, 4˚ loft, 72˚ lie, Winn Dri-Tac putter grip I’ve been using this putter for eight years. I love the look, especially the topline. for some reason it always lines me up to hit it on the center.

specs Cleveland 588 RTX 2.0 (48˚), True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shaft; Cleveland 588 RTX 2.0 (52˚, 58˚, 62˚), True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 shafts I’ve used Cleveland wedges since I started playing. The 62-degree is a real weapon around the green. The 52 has higher bounce that helps on chips that need more run. Some like it tough The Srixon Z Star XV has a soft feel, but it’s really durable, too. It’s great in the wind. Some balls turn hard, but this holds its line.

A ready reminder I caddied for a friend in the 2013 U.S. Amateur and bought this ball marker/divot tool. It’s a reminder that it’s better to be playing than caddieing.

30 golf digest india | june 2016

Well-worn wedges My wedges are the favorite clubs in my bag. They tend to wear out fast, too.

All about precision To compete on the PGA Tour you need to have control of your approach shots. Sometimes when practicing I put these cones at specific distances so I can aim at a precise target. Photographs by J.D. Cuban

top left: Sam Greenwood/Getty ImaGeS • ShrInerS hoSpItalS for ChIldren open: SCott halleran • Bradley: dyl an Coulter

sMylIe kaufMan

drIver

Rules The Golf Life

Unless you get your clubs free like Bubba, take relief from this lie.

—Ron KaspRIsKe

Do you know how to handle? Determine the nearest point away from the path that allows the ball to lie and for you to stand and swing without interference. Once you’ve found the spot that provides full relief, drop within one club-length of it as long as it’s not closer to the hole. That point can’t be in a hazard, on the green, or closer to the hole when the ball lies through the green (in the rough, for example). The

dropped ball must land within one club-length of that point and not closer to the hole.

Do you intend to swing righty or lefty? This is important because it makes a difference as to where the nearest point of relief (which side of the cartpath) is located. The spot should be determined by using the club, stance, direction and swing you would have used if the obstruction had not been there.

Where is the ball located on or near the path? Don’t assume that your nearest point of relief is always on the fairway side of the path—even if the ball is closer to that side. If the nearest-point side isn’t obvious, you’re better off measuring, or you could be taking an illegal drop.

When a Path is nOt a Path You’re not entitled to relief just because a path is used by carts or walkers. It’s what the path is made of that matters. Paths that are artificially surfaced (cement, wood chips, crushed shells, etc.) are considered obstructions, and you can take relief. But if your ball winds up on a path of dirt, pine straw or trampled grass that has been created by foot traffic, there is no free relief unless that area has been marked as ground under repair. —RK

Still confused about where to take relief from an obstruction? Check out our video explanation Cartpath Confusion at video.golfdigest.com. june 2016 | golf digest india

Chris Condon/PGA ToUr/GeTTy imAGes

nowing the correct procedure for taking Off the without penalty from an artificial path K relief on a course has always perplexed golfers. Beaten It’s not as simple as searching for a spot just off the path that gives you a better lie for your next shot. Path Here’s what you need to know about getting a free drop from a cartpath (Rule 24-2). It’s hard 1 3 to flush it off cement. Here’s what 2 you should do instead

edited by ron kaspriske

Aces Wild Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to extol the greatest shot in golf

odds on ▶ Average golfer making an ace: 12,000-to-1 ▶ Low-handicapper: 5,000-to-1 ▶ Tour player: 3,000-to-1 N u m b e r o f ac e s m a d e e ac h y e a r ( e s t i m at e ) : 1 5 0 , 0 0 0

slew of high-profile holes-in-one this golf season created the kind of buzz that reinvigorates our passion for one of the game’s most coveted prizes. The most watched were the flurry of aces that occurred during Masters Week, including nine in the Par-3 Contest: Gary Player, at age 80, had one, and Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas made them back-to-back. Then there were a record three on the 16th hole during the final round. We’re still stupefied by Louis Oosthuizen’s, which went in after caroming off of J.B. Holmes’ ball. The most philanthropic was another by Fowler, which earned a $1 million payout to Ernie Els’ autism foundation. It took place at Els’ charity event at Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., in March. The two most impressive were the first and second holesin-one on a par 4 during an LPGA tournament. Ha Na Jang holed out from the tee on the 218-yard eighth during the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA, in late January. Then Minjee Lee did it on the 275-yard 16th at the Kia Classic, in March. And the most Hollywood buzzworthy went to actor Mark Wahlberg. He tweeted in

March that he used one of Rory McIlroy’s golf balls to ace the par-3 16th at Pelican Hill’s North course in Newport Beach, Calif. He holed a 9-iron from 161 yards. All of these impressive shots prompted us to check our archives and single out the best prizes ever offered for a hole-in-one. Though everything from cars to cruises have been awarded, we think seven-figure prizes are probably tops. Just ask Lee Trevino, who earned a pre-tax $1 million at the 2001 Treetops Par-3 Shootout. Jason Bohn received the same in 1992 at a million-dollar shootout. He immediately turned pro and has since played more than 300 PGA Tour events. Former NHL star Joe Sakic also picked up a cool mil after a hole-in-one in the 2011 American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. Amazingly, $1 million isn’t the largest payout ever offered. The 2014 Dubai Desert Classic featured a $2.5 million prize for anyone who aced a 359-yard par 4. It went uncollected. And, in 2000, Indianwood Golf & Country Club conducted its first Richest Day in Golf, converting the course into 18 par-3 holes, each worth $1 million for an ace. Again, no winners. Cash is king, but we also salivated over some other creative hole-in-one prizes. Andy Sulli-

van earned a trip into low-Earth orbit for his ace in the European Tour’s 2014 KLM Open. As far as we know, he has yet to take the 62-minute space flight put up by XCOR Aerospace. One tradition when making a hole-in-one is buying a drink for anyone in the clubhouse after the round. That wasn’t a problem for colorful Spanish pro Miguel Angel Jimenez. On separate occasions, he received 100 bottles of wine and 288 bottles of beer for making an ace. Jimenez, by the way, has 10 in his career, tying Hal Sutton for the most while playing in PGA Tour or European Tour events. What else has been there for the taking? In 2000, amateur Rick Kaldor of Manhattan, Kan., won a Bentley. And then there was the presidential set of clubs offered by Richard Nixon and won by Atlanta Teamster Weldon Mathis in 1973. The strangest prize was a six-ton excavator available at the 2013 Volvo Golf Champions tournament. If you weren’t aware, Golf Digest has been the steward of holes-in-one data since 1952. We offer award certificates to lucky ace-makers, and you can post a photo of it on our Hole-in-One Club website (gdacers.com). A certificate costs $10, $60 if you want it framed. Happy hunting! —cliff schrock

our definition

david cannon/gettyimages

When is a hole-in-one considered “official”? The Rules of Golf doesn’t define what validates a hole-in-one. The book makes a number of recommendations, but you won’t find “ace” listed in the Definitions section. Because we’ve been the clearinghouse for these shots for more than six decades, we believe we are uniquely qualified to define— once and for all—what makes a hole-in-one “official.” (1) Did anyone else see it? One witness is ideal to verify you didn’t stage it. But if you were playing alone,

reality can’t be ignored. The ace still counts. It’s a game of honor, remember? (2) Were you using a ball and club that comply with the Rules of Golf? (3) Were you assisted by artificial devices or unusual equipment? If so, it doesn’t count. (4) Was the ace made on a golf course? We don’t care what the yardage of the hole was, or how many holes are on the course. It counts. (5) Did you make a real effort to buy drinks for anyone in the vicinity? Let’s hope so. —CS june 2016 | golf digest india

Revolutionary Times 10 watches pushing the limits on innovation

4 Tag heueR connecTed caRReRa This android wear smartwatch deftly maintains the classic Tag heuer look. price $1,500

1 TiFFany easT wesT 2-hand Tiffany has rotated the face for a different look, but its classic numbers are still there. price $3,500

2 hubloT big bang unico sapphiRe The case is cut from a sapphire block, which is almost as scratch-resistant as diamond. price $57,900

34 golf digest india | june 2016

audemaRs pigueT Royal oak double balance wheel The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first doublebalance wheel on a single axis provides maximum stability for ultra-precise timekeeping. price $44,110

5 caRTieR calibRe de diVeR one of the thinnest dive watches on the market, this 11-millimeter model is water-resistant up to 300 meters. price $7,900 Illustration by First Lastname

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martwatches get all the buzz these days, but the classic wristwatch is still unmatched for its beauty and ingenuity. The original wearable technology first appeared in the early 1900s, when engineers turned the pocketwatch into a wrist accessory. More than 100 years later, these timepieces continue to evolve. New models from Tag Heuer and Movado are Bluetoothenabled. Rolex uses a new rubber compound for its strap to maximize comfort, and Hublot has a timepiece made almost entirely from sapphire. The next evolution in luxury watchmaking has arrived. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Marty Hackel

The classic wristwatch is unmatched for its beauty and ingenuity. 8 oRis big cRown pRopiloT calibRe 111 This watch harkens back to the first days of aviation, with numbers that are easily readable at a glance. price $5,300

9 baume & meRcieR shelby cobRa any american car fan will appreciate this nod to the 1963 shelby cobra, which won the world sports car championships 50 years ago. price $4,450

6 moVado bold moTion you can receive texts, emails or calendar events through this hewlettpackard-engineered device. price $695

7 RoleX oysTeR peRpeTual yachT-masTeR

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The rubber strap helps increase comfort and maintain the durability of a bracelet. price $24,950

10 bell & Ross bR-X1 The display looks like itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s straight out of an airplane dashboard. This aeronautic-inspired watch is built with titanium, rubber and ceramic. price $19,500

Illustration by First Lastname

Photograph by Sam Kaplan

The Golf Life Armchair Architect

The owner of Bandon Dunes wants your par 4 on his next resort.

Think I You Can Design? Create a golf hole, and we might get it built

f you play golf, there is likely a golf-course designer inside you. Now’s your chance to let that side of you out. Create the winning hole in Golf Digest’s 2016 Armchair Architect Contest, and Mike Keiser, doyen of destination golf, might just have it built at his newest resort. Keiser, of Bandon Dunes fame, is creating Sand Valley Golf Resort on a massive formation of dunes in central Wisconsin. One course, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, has been completed and will open next spring. (Shown is the par-3 fifth.) A second 18, designed by David McLay Kidd, is under construction. This is where you come in. Kidd has set aside the par-4 14th hole to perhaps be inspired by your imagination. A dramatic par 3 precedes it; a

36 golf digest india | june 2016

long par 5 follows. So you can conceive it as a short par 4 or a long one. This being pure sand, there is a lot of latitude for its shape and contours. Everything from the location and number of hazards to the size and shape of the green are undecided. Not a talented artist? Not necessary. Kidd is looking for the best concept, not the best illustration of a golf hole. The winner will win a trip to Sand

Valley to meet with Kidd during construction of the course. If you want to win, remember his advice: “Think natural, think minimal, think old school, think bounce, think contrary to modern convention.” That’s a lot to think about. Better get started. Deadline for an entry is July 15, 2016. For contest details, visit golfdigest .com/go/armchairarchitect. —ron whitten

ConTesT rules NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. To enter and for rules, go to golfdigest.com/go/armchairarchitect. The contest starts 9 a.m. EDT 5/17/16 and ends 5 p.m. EDT 7/15/16. Open to amateur designers who are legal residents of the 50 United States/Washington D.C. and Canada (excluding Quebec) 13 or older, except employees of the sponsors, their immediate families and those living in the same household. Void in Quebec, outside the 50 United States/D.C./Canada, and where prohibited. A.R.V. of travel prize (airfare, lodging) $2,000: Sponsors: Sand Valley Golf Resort and Golf Digest. Photograph by Ryan Farrow

Rundown The Golf Life

Rounds played in the United States in 2015; up 1.8% from 2014.

455 MILLION

S O U R C E : N AT I O N A L G O L F F O U N D AT I O N

June Showers? Screw that! You’re playing anyway with these helpful tips

The most important piece of equipment is rain gloves. They don’t keep your hands dry, and they don’t “work better the wetter they get.” But they absolutely prevent your clubs from slipping, even in a deluge.

If you love golf, you should love rain. It creates open tee times on crowded courses, and it keeps slowpokes and choppers at home. You have to be prepared, though. I’ve played hundreds of rounds in lousy weather, in half a dozen countries. Here’s what I’ve learned. —DaviD Owen

If you wear rain gloves, you don’t need to keep your grips dry, and that means you don’t need a towel. Leave it in the trunk. It’s going to be soaked and useless. Leave your headcovers, too.

Rain gloves are great for cleaning glasses: Each finger is like a mini chamois.

Umbrellas are more trouble than they’re worth, especially if it’s windy.

Breathability is a key term in the rainsuit world, but the second law of thermodynamics will prevent the vapor your body generates from migrating out on muggy days. So if I want to cool off, I just unzip.

In warm weather, polyester or nylon shorts are a lot more comfortable than rain pants. Your skin is 100 percent waterproof, so use it!

Wool socks keep your feet warm, but wear thin synthetic socks under them to help stay (sort of) dry.

8 9

Rainsuits also are useful on blustery days, too.

Wear rainpants as pants— only adding long johns if it’s cold. Avoid pants that have “reach-through” slits instead of pockets; those slits are like open portholes in a storm.

I’ve improved my rainsuit by adding suspenders to keep them from sliding down.

Leave the baseball cap at home—it’ll drip water on your ball when you putt. Go with a nylon rain hat. I like the Seattle Sombrero, from Outdoor Research. Zero Restriction and Galvin Green make hats for golf.

Your raingear is useless in a thunderstorm. Don’t be a hero. Head straight in.

Illustration by Eddie Guy

june 2016 | golf digest india

how to find your a-game (or get it back). by jordan spieth ▶ In the roughly 1½ seconds it takes to make a golf swing, you’re asking a lot of yourself if you’re trying to consciously monitor body and club positions. Watching video of your swing isn’t super useful, either, without a qualified instructor at your side. So what can you do? When you’re on the range or waiting to hit your next shot, one of the easiest and most informative ways to improve is to hit the pause button at various points in your swing and check what you’re doing. This will give you great feedback and help you know if you’re in the right places—or what you need to improve—to hit a solid shot. ▶ I don’t want to make this too complicated, so here I’m going to give you five spots where I want you to stop and look at your club or body. Compare them to the photos of my swing. If you’re not in a nearly identical position, check out the swing tips I provide to match your own moves to mine. The upside to this kind of practice is better ball-striking, and the confidence that comes with working on the right things. —with ron kaspriske

BETTER IN

BETTER GOLF

Photographs by Walter Iooss Jr.

MOVE extend toward the target

▶ t ec h n i q ue Make a practice swing and

MOVES

stop the club when it’s parallel to the ground in the through-swing. What you want to see is that your right arm is fully extended, the toe of the club is straight up, and the shaft is pointed a little left of your target (left). If you nail these positions, you’ll know you didn’t try to scoop the ball into the air. You maintained the maximum width of your swing arc, and the clubface went from square to closed through impact. It also shows that the club tracked back to the inside again after moving down the target line. ▶ t i p To get you in a better follow-through position, feel as if you’re really reaching out with your right arm to shake hands with someone just to the left of your target line.

june 2016 | golf digest india

‘as you go back, feel your left

2 BETTER MOVE

40 golfdigest.com | june 2016

hands over your right shoulder ▶ t ec h n i q ue Swing to the top and look over your right shoulder to

check the club’s position. The grip should be above that shoulder with the shaft pointing roughly parallel-left of your target line (below). Your right wrist should be cupped, and your left wrist flat or slightly bowed. You’re in an ideal spot to start down. ▶ t i p As you go back, feel your left shoulder moving downward and your right shoulder moving upward. Hinge your wrists so the shaft “stands up,” then falls into that parallel-left position.

shoulder moving downward and your right shoulder moving upward.’ let the clubhead lag ▶ t ec h n i q ue Pause your swing about halfway down.

You’re looking to see if the clubhead is noticeably farther from the target than your hands are (left)—that’s known as clubhead lag. Ideally, the club swings down from inside the target line, trailing the movement of the arms and body. Cameron McCormick, my coach, likes to describe this as the grip winning the race against the clubhead back to the ball. Do this, and you’ll hit it solid. ▶ t i p Coming down, feel like you maintain the top-ofbackswing relationship you created between your hands and the club for as long as you can. In other words, don’t throw away your wrist hinge too soon from the top.

MOVE

june 2016 | golf digest india

30 days to better golf Jordan Spieth’s teacher, Cameron McCormick, heads our newest online game-improvement program. In conjunction with the PGA of America, we’ll email you a tip every day for one month on topics such as driving, short game, putting and equipment. Go to golfdigest.com/go/30days to sign up, and start getting better—fast.

turn back , but don’t sway ▶ tec h n i q ue Completing the backswing is critical to storing power and keeping

your swing in sync. But how you get to the top is important. I turn back as far as I can without letting my body drift away from the target. If you sway off the ball, you’ll have to shift laterally during the downswing to get back before impact, which is tough to do consistently. So make a backswing and check to see that you’re fully coiled but haven’t drifted off the ball with your upper body (left). ▶ t i p Pretend you’ve addressed the ball with the outside of your back foot on the edge of a cliff. If you sway, you’re going over the side. That oughta keep you centered. + UNDER ARMOUR hat, $30 shirt, $65 pants, $85 belt, $40 shoes, $200

4 MOVE

gutter top: Matt credit King/getty tk iMages

‘pick a spot just in front of the ball

42 golfdigest.com | june 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

MOVE

BETTER

5 hit the ball , then the ground ▶ t ec h n i q ue Mark a spot on the ground with a tee or twig, or by

scraping a line in the grass. This represents your ball position. Now take a swing as if you were trying to hit the ball, and make sure you take a divot. Check and see where your divot started. Was it in front of the mark? That’s what you want to see to hit crisp shots and maximize distance when you’re hitting off the ground (below). If the divot started behind the mark, that’s a fat shot. If there’s no divot, that’s likely a thin one. ▶ t i p Forget about hitting the ball. Instead, pick a spot just in front of the ball on your target line and try to strike the ground right there. If you can do that, you’ll make ball-first contact without even trying.

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on your target line and try to strike the ground right there.’

june 2016 | golf digest india

best swing on tour Michael DoDge/getty iMages • scott: Uniqlo: shirt, $20; titleist: hat, $28; FootJoy: glove, $28

and 7 more bests It’s easy to make some seat-of-the-pants calls on who’s the best on the PGA Tour in various categories, such as Jordan Spieth as the best clutch putter or Phil Mickelson as the short-game wizard. But what do the statistics actually say? We commissioned Dean Knuth, who developed the USGA’s Course Rating and Slope systems, to calculate combinations of tour stats during the last two seasons. Take putting, for example: Knuth created a four-stat formula and went back to the beginning of 2014. In the end, we wanted to be able to definitively say who ranks as the game’s greatest in eight skill areas. ▶ Some of the results won’t surprise you, but others are less obvious. Jason Day might hit parabolic bombs off the tee, but he’s the best at recovering from trouble, as evidenced by some clutch iron shots from the rough and bunker up-and-downs during recent wins. So then, who is the best driver? Best bunker player? Best finisher? Read on, and check out their tips. Last thing: We polled 50 PGA Tour players on the same categories. It’s interesting to see what the pros think versus what the stats say. —with matthew rudy

winner adam scott

▶ There might be no finer experience at a PGA Tour event than to park yourself behind Adam Scott at the practice tee and watch him make one syrupy swing after another. So it’s hard to believe when Scott says he has bad swing days. The possessor of the tour’s finest action, as measured by a variety of precision and distance metrics, struggles when his famously smooth swing gets quick at the transition from backswing to downswing. Scott’s fix? Visualizing somebody else’s swing. “When you really have to slow down, that can be hard to do out on the course,” Scott says. “I think of the slowest rhythm I can when I’m out of sequence—[LPGA player] Inbee Park’s backswing. Keep thinking about that, and you can start to get control over your rhythm again.” player picks 1 Adam Scott 2 Louis Oosthuizen 3 Justin Rose

june 2016 | golf digest india

best driver dustin johnson ▶ Dialing up a cool 350 yards on command is a great starting point for any best-of discussion, but Dustin Johnson wins the driving crown for his combination of length, accuracy and willingness to hit driver in the most pressure-packed situations. We all

remember the missed putt that cost D.J. a spot in a U.S. Open playoff last year, but what about the perfect 355-yard laser that left him just a 5-iron into the 600-yard 18th? Johnson says it’s a matter of finding your right speed. “Swinging out of control won’t help you, but

the opposite is just as much of a problem. If you’re standing over a shot and not sure where it’s going to go, you’re using the wrong club. If you go slow and try to steer it, your body is probably going to freeze. That’s either a slap-hook or a no-release slice.”

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player picks 1 Rory McIlroy T-2 Dustin Johnson T-2 Adam Scott T-2 Bubba Watson

46 golf digest india | june 2016

johnson: adidas: shirt, $60, pants, $70; taylormade: glove, $22 • na: titleist: hat, $27

johnson: stan badz/pga tour • stenson: kevin c. cox/getty images • na: scott halleran/getty images

best bunker player kevin na ▶ Kevin Na isn’t one of the tour’s longest hitters, and he has middle-of-the-pack ball-striking and putting numbers. But the 13-year PGA Tour pro has a refined short game, highlighted by his bunker skills. Years of bird-dogging 20-handicappers during pro-am rounds has helped him perfect his go-to tip for sand strugglers. “Most players who have trouble in the sand are too level with their shoulders,” Na says. “They don’t get the bounce on the bottom of the club involved. When you set up, tilt so you feel like your left shoulder is pointed at the sky. Then you can swing through the sand instead of down into it.”

best iron player henrik stenson

player picks 1 K.J. Choi 2 Luke Donald 3 Jordan Spieth

▶ Walking down the range at a tour event is an unrelenting stripe show. Everybody hits it great. But the players know there is a ballstriking hierarchy, and many of them would point to Henrik Stenson as the player who puts a different kind of hit on the ball. It even sounds different coming from the 6-foot-2 Swede’s irons. Part of it is built-in athleticism

player picks 1 Adam Scott 2 Henrik Stenson 3 Sergio Garcia

stenson: hugo boss green: shirt, $135, pants, $155, belt, $115; Footjoy: shoes, $300, glove, $25

and coordination from a lifetime of soccer and table tennis, but Stenson says his iron play relies on consistency. “Posture is a big thing. If you go at it hard, your tendency is to make a big upper-body move. But if you do that and stand up out of your posture, you’re going to lose that consistency you need to hit the ball in the center of the face.” june 2016 | golf digest india

best wedge player justin rose

best trouble player jason day ▶ His long-and-high tee shots are particularly awe-inspiring, but it’s Day’s measurables in a variety of bounce-back and trouble-shot categories that make him stand out. He’s wellknown for his immersive pre-shot routine, so it isn’t a surprise that Day pegs mental approach on trouble shots as a more important factor than technique. “You have to be completely involved in the shot and go through the process of what you normally do. It doesn’t change because of the situation,” Day says. “I’ve always enjoyed being in that moment when you have high pressure. You have to embrace those uncomfortable moments, and know that even if you’re unsuccessful, you’re learning and getting better for the next time.”

▶ The defining moment of Rose’s career came with a long iron in his hand at the 2013 U.S. Open, when he conquered Merion’s brutal finishing holes to beat Phil Mickelson and Jason Day by two shots. But Rose’s most underrated skill is his wedge work, which takes pressure off his driving and putting. Rose says his precision with the short clubs comes from keeping the low point of the swing in precisely the same place. “Feel like you’re staying centered over the ball, like you’re really on top of it. If you can keep your lower body quiet and swing ‘on top of it,’ you’re going to produce consistent contact, which is the main element of controlling how far you hit the ball.”

player picks 1 Bubba Watson 2 Phil Mickelson

best finisher bubba watson

player picks 1 Zach Johnson 2 Steve Stricker 3 Luke Donald

▶ Watch 20 seconds of Bubba Watson during competition, and you’ll see a fidgety, active guy. You might not guess that he’s the tour’s most cold-blooded finisher. A big part of his prowess comes from a willingness to try shots other players wouldn’t even pull out on a practice-round dare, such as the right-turn wedge shot in his 2012 Masters playoff win against Louis Oosthuizen. The

other key element of closing in a stroke-play situation is the ability to block out the outside world. “You don’t know what the guys in the group behind you are doing. It’s not like you can watch TV and see what they’re doing,” Watson says. “You just have to keep grinding. Head-to-head, when the other player makes a mistake, you can play a little safer, play more conservative.”

player picks 1 Jordan Spieth 2 Rory McIlroy 3 Tiger Woods

rose: ashworth: shirt, $90, pants, $90; taylormade: hat, $26, glove, $22 • watson: oakley: shirt, $70, pants, $85; ping: visor; richard mille: watch

day: tom pennington/getty images • rose: richard heathcote/getty images • watson: chris condon/pga tour day: adidas: shirt, $70, pants, $85, shoes, $230; taylormade: hat, $26, glove, $22

3 Jordan Spieth

best putter jordan spieth ▶ Jordan Spieth made a mile of crucial putts last year on his way to the best season on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods’ apex. And it wasn’t just birdies. No player saved more crucial par putts from distances of 12 feet and out. Spieth’s secret is a dead-calm rou-

tine and precise distance control—things any player can learn. His favorite drill is something called Leap Frog, which he practices with coach Cameron McCormick. “Place a ball marker on the green about five feet away, on a slight downhill or sideslope,” Spieth

says. “The goal is to hit a putt that stops no more than six inches past that mark. But that’s only half of the challenge: Practice until you can predict right after impact if you did what you were trying to do. As you get better, you can increase the distance.”

usga/simon bruty • spieth: under armour: hat, $30, shirt, $85, pants, $70, belt, $20

player picks 1 Jordan Spieth 2 Brandt Snedeker 3 Kevin Kisner

Additional reporting by Dave Shedloski and E. Michael Johnson

june 2016 | golf digest india

3 brutal shor Photographs by Dom Furore

by b e r n i e n a ja r w i t h m at t h e w r u dy

get yourself a putt for par 1 deep-grass pitch

2 super-tight lie

3 long bunker shot

Thick-rough lies often lead to one of two bad swings: (1) a wild chop at the ball or (2) a halfhearted effort that gets the clubhead tangled. To do it right, use your sand wedge and make a punchy swing—long going back and short through. Take a few practice swings in a similar lie to feel the resistance of the grass. You’ll have to tighten your grip to stabilize the clubhead and counteract the tendency for the grass to grab and close the face. A few previews will give you a good feel.

When the grass is mowed really short around the green, a lot of players reach for the putter. But you can hit pitches from firm lies if you follow one cardinal rule: Don’t let the shaft lean too far forward. That tilts the leading edge at the ground and makes it easy to stub it. Instead, set the clubface open, shaft straight up, and play the ball centered in your stance. Swing in a wide arc that bottoms out at impact without gouging much turf. You’ll produce a decent shot even if you hit it a touch fat or thin.

A 25- or 30-yard bunker shot gives most amateurs fits because the standard explosion with a 56-degree wedge goes only 10 or 15 yards. Instead of trying to add distance by picking the ball clean with your sand wedge, switch to a longer club—up to an 8-iron—and use your normal greensideexplosion technique. As long as you open the face slightly, there’s plenty of loft for height and bounce on the bottom of those clubs to get a good result. You should be able to hit an 8-iron explosion shot up to 40 yards.

bernie na jar, No. 1 teacher in Maryland on Golf Digest’s Best Teachers by State, is director of instruction at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills. + UNDER ARMOUR pants ALLEN EDMONDS shoes

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rt-game shots june 2016 | golf digest india

how to keep a streak alive

B y Pa u l a C r e a m e r

with max adler

When your game starts clicking, you want it to last. The better the golfer, the longer he or she can keep a hot streak going. An average tour pro might play well for three to four weeks in a row, but sometimes we see the world’s best go strong for three to four months. It’s hard to remember Jordan Spieth or Inbee Park carding an over-par round last season. Most weekend golfers, on the other hand, would be happy to string together three or four satisfying rounds. Ironically, the first step to keeping a streak alive is to forget it ever started. Great golfers have extreme short-term memories. At the 2005 Solheim Cup, when I made seven birdies in 13 holes

safer to stay away from the right bunker. You weren’t asking other people to read your putts. You saw the shot, committed to it, and hit. So what if it should’ve been a 7-iron instead of a 6-iron, and now your ball is over the back of the green? Embrace the challenge of getting it up and down. This kind of confident, firstinstinct mind-set pays off in the long run. Some golfers passively hope to keep playing well, but others actively seek to understand why, so they can make it last. I know very few serious players who don’t keep a journal of swing thoughts in their golf bag. I always jot down two thoughts from my “bible” on a sticky note and put it in my scorecard holder. My most recent

to win my singles match against Laura Davies, 7 and 5, possibly the hottest two hours of my career, I wasn’t counting them up. To say I was staying in the present is a cliché, but it’s true. A better way to think about it is, you get to reinvent yourself on every shot. Whether you’re in the middle of a fairway or behind a bush, each shot is a fresh and positive challenge. Never stand over the ball thinking about the swing that put you there. Another key is to practice trusting your first instinct. That can be hard to sustain, but I bet if you remember a period when you were playing well, that’s exactly what you were doing. You weren’t hemming and hawing over which club to hit. You weren’t looking 15 feet left of the flag and then deciding—maybe on the downswing—that 25 feet would be

ones were, Turn left shoulder over right knee and Slow transition. My last secret to riding momentum is to love what my coach Gary Gilchrist and I call “functional golf.” This means being OK with shots that find the light rough or the wrong section of the green. When most golfers struggle, they tend to put even higher expectations on themselves to hit perfect shots. A lot of the time our eyes and hands are going to feel a little off—that’s just golf. It’s no reason to believe a streak can’t start, or continue. With a little luck and some smart course management, you never know what you might end up shooting.

522

words on playing better longer 52 golf digest india | june 2016

paula creamer, a Golf Digest Playing Editor, ranks eighth on the LPGA Tour in birdies and 14th in scoring average. Photograph by Dom Furore

june 2016 | golf digest india

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a n o t h e r 7, 5 0 0 t r e e s a r e g o n e at o a k m o n t, l e a v i n g i t b a r r e n ,

54 golf golfdigest.com digest india| |month june 2016 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

2016 u.s. open oakmont

dom furore

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br awny & be autiful | by ron whit ten |

Photograph by First Lastname

month june 2016 2016| |golf golfdigest.com digest india

hat’s the saying? We can’t see the forest for the trees? In the case of Oakmont Country Club, which June 16-19 hosts a record ninth U.S. Open, we can’t see the forest for the lack of trees. The last time the Open visited Oakmont, in 2007, when Angel Cabrera won by a stroke—Tiger Woods missed a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole, and Jim Furyk bogeyed the 17th after trying to drive the short par 4—the course had been so clear-cut that we proclaimed Mighty Oakmont had returned to its roots. “Its one-of-akind character has been reclaimed, restored and revitalized by astonishing tree removal,” we wrote. “It’s back to the barren look and brazen playing characteristics it had when it hosted its first U.S. Open, in 1927.” Back then we reported more than 5,000 trees had been removed along Oakmont’s fairways, widening the panoramas and highlighting ferocious bunkering and deep drainage ditches that had previously been obscured beneath foliage. John Zimmers Jr., Oakmont’s course superintendent, now

56 golf digest india | june 2016

confirms that crews actually removed about 7,000 trees before the 2007 Open. But here’s a surprising footnote: Since 2007, Zimmers and his team have removed another 7,500 trees. These days, from the veranda on Oakmont’s clubhouse, one can see some portion of every hole, a view all the way to the flag of the hilltop third green at the far northeastern corner of the property. What’s more, if you didn’t know the Pennsylvania Turnpike existed—it separates holes 2 through 8 from the rest of the course—you wouldn’t sense it from today’s view. Because the turnpike is recessed, it’s merely a horizontal shadow, barely noticeable. When dense rows of trees were on either side, they had emphasized its existence. In the process of chain-sawing away 60 years of growth, Oakmont’s dramatic topography has been fully revealed. Without a backdrop, the front-to-back slopes of the first, sixth and 10th greens are obvious. (For this year’s Open, the back of the sixth green has been expanded, providing new pin placements, and at 12 two bunkers were

removed and one was expanded. Those are the only major architectural changes to the course, which will play at par 70 and 7,219 yards, down 11 yards from 2007.) Elsewhere, hills look steeper and distances more deceiving. The downhill, par-5 12th now seems like it should be reachable in two even at 667 yards, though it’s not the longest hole in U.S. Open history—the 16th at Olympic Club in San Francisco beats it by three yards. when oakmont le ads, others follow

hy does this tree removal matter? Because Oakmont is the standard for American championship golf. Besides U.S. Opens, it has been the site of five U.S. Amateurs, three PGA Championships and two U.S. Women’s Opens. Much of what happens at Oakmont affects the game. After all, it had fast greens decades before they became fashionable. Those swift greens caused the Stimpmeter to be created in the late 1930s, and whether that’s a positive or nega-

tive, the Stimpmeter measurements of green speeds are here to stay at many, many clubs. For this year’s Open, the United States Golf Association wants Oakmont’s greens rolling at 14 feet on a Stimpmeter, the same speed they measured in 2007. A near-universal high regard for Oakmont makes controversy acceptable. In 2007, the USGA played the par-3 eighth from a new back tee, stretching the hole to as much as 300 yards for the final round. (After acing the hole in a practice round at 288 yards, Trevor Immelman was asked if he saw the ball go into the hole and replied, “We couldn’t see that far.”) At nearly any other club, a 300-yard par 3 would be considered a joke if not a travesty, but because it happened at Oakmont, a number of golf architects subsequently embraced the idea of an extremely long championship tee on a one-shot hole to require champion players to use a metal wood to reach the green. Oakmont gave architects cover to fight technology with an extreme measure. The tree-removal program at Oakmont might well be this storied club’s finest contribution to the game of golf. It reversed a trend it had helped start in the 1950s, the “beautification” of inland American courses by a sanctioned program of constant and misguided planting of trees funded by green committees and membership drives. Thumb through Oakmont’s tournament program from 1962—the year 22-year-old Jack Nicklaus won his first professional major, indeed his first professional tournament, in a playoff over Arnold Palmer—and what jumps out are aerial photos showing hole after hole dotted with saplings. Plus seven advertisements for tree nurseries. It’s no wonder that the USGA subsequently selected Minnesota’s Hazeltine National for the 1970 U.S. Open, despite cries that the eight-year-old course looked far too immature to host a national champion-

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pre vio u s pages: the church pe ws bunker bet ween the par-4 third and par-5 fo urth holes. left: the par-4 ninth and clubho u se . b e l o w : t h e h a l f w ay h o u s e .

Photograph by First Lastname

ship. Hazeltine at that time didn’t look any younger than Oakmont. Hazeltine, site of the 2016 Ryder Cup Sept. 30Oct. 2, now has towering hardwoods on many holes. Oakmont was leafy green for U.S. Opens in 1973, 1983 and 1994, but then the club stopped planting trees and started removing them in bunches. Quietly, at first, and strictly to improve the health of turf normally blanketed in shade. Then-superintendent Mark Kuhns, with the approval of his 18-member green committee, had a crew assemble at 4 a.m. Under truck lights, they’d set down tarps, chop down a tree, cut it up, haul it off, grind the stump to ground level, vacuum up wood chips and leaves, then slap sod over it. By dawn, they’d be finished, and golfers playing the hole were none the wiser. Kuhns removed almost 500 trees that way until one day a caddie pointed out a gaping void to an influential club member. It quickly became a contentious issue among the membership. There were meetings, threatened petitions and the specter of a lawsuit. Some called Kuhns “The Butcher of Oakmont” to his face. But the greencommittee members doubled down, campaigning that Oakmont’s trees should be removed because they were contrary to the original concept of founder H.C. Fownes. Among the evidence they presented: a 1938 Grantland Rice article, which referenced Oakmont as a links as famed as St. Andrews; a 1949 aerial of Oakmont showing scant trees; and a 1994 Golf Digest article critical of Please turn to page 60

ta l e o f t h e ta p e hole

yards

par

482

340

426

609

382

194

479

288 (252)

477

out

3,677

462 (440)

379

632 (667)

183

358

500

231

313

484

3,542

total

7,219

2016 u.s. open oakmont

2007 scoring stats

June 16, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (FS1), 5-8 p.m. (Fox) June 17, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (FS1), 5-8 p.m. (Fox) June 18, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (Fox) June 19, 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (Fox) 2007 u.s. open top finishes • Angel Cabrera 69-71-76-69—285 (+5) • Jim Furyk 71-75-70-70—286 (+6) • Tiger Woods 71-74-69-72—286 (+6) • Niclas Fasth 71-71-75-70—287 (+7) • David Toms 72-72-73-72—289 (+9) • Bubba Watson 70-71-74-74—289 (+9) • Nick Dougherty 68-77-74-71—290 (+10) • Scott Verplank 73-71-74-72—290 (+10) • Jerry Kelly 74-71-73-72—290 (+10) • Justin Rose 71-71-73-76—291 (+11) • Stephen Ames 73-69-73-76—291 (+11) • Paul Casey 77-66-72-76—291 (+11) other selected finishes • Brandt Snedeker 71-73-77-74—295 (+15) • Ian Poulter 72-77-72-77—298 (+18) • Zach Johnson 76-74-76-74—300 (+20) • Ernie Els 73-76-74-78—301 (+21) • Jason Dufner 71-75-79-80—305 (+25) among those missing the cut • Phil Mickelson (74-77) • Sergio Garcia (79-75) • Henrik Stenson (79-76) leaders by rounds • • • •

Round Round Round Round

1, 2, 3, 4,

Nick Dougherty, -2 Angel Cabrera, E Aaron Baddeley, +2 Cabrera, +5

rounds in the 80s • Aaron Baddeley led Tiger Woods by two strokes entering the final round but triple-bogeyed the first hole and finished T-13 after an 80, one of 60 rounds in the 80s in 2007. The breakdown in scoring: 80 (17 times), 81 (15), 82 (8), 83 (6), 84 (5), 85 (4), 86 (3), 87 (1), 89 (1).

2007 stat leaders Driving distance, George McNeill, 311.4 yards; fairways hit, Fred Funk, 41; greens in regulation, Tiger Woods, 49; putts, Niclas Fasth, 114; birdies, Geoff Ogilvy, 14; bogeys, McNeill, 26; double bogeys/others, Jason Dufner, 8/0. oakmont’s other u.s. opens 1994 After finishing at five-under-par 279, Ernie Els won a 20-hole playoff. Els and Loren Roberts shot 74s to eliminate Colin Montgomerie (78) before Els’ birdie on the second hole of sudden death. 1983 Larry Nelson holed a 62-foot putt after play resumed Monday morning and won at four-under 280. 1973 Johnny Miller’s final-round 63 put his winning total at five-under 279. 1962 Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer finished at one-under 283 before Nicklaus won the playoff, 71-74. 1953 Ben Hogan won $5,000 with a total of fiveunder 283. 1935 Sam Parks Jr. won at 11-over 299. 1927 Tommy Armour and Harry Cooper tied at 13-over 301 before Armour won the playoff, 76-79. oakmont’s u.s. women’s opens 2010 Paula Creamer shot a final-round 69 to win by four strokes at three-under 281. 1992 Patty Sheehan and Juli Inkster tied at four-under 280 before Sheehan won the playoff, 72-74. oakmont’s u.s. amateurs 2003 Australia’s Nick Flanagan beat Casey Wittenberg on the 37th hole. 1969 Steve Melnyk won by five strokes in stroke play (286). 1938 Willie Turnesa beat B. Patrick Abbott, 8&7. 1925 Bobby Jones beat Watts Gunn, 8&7. 1919 S. Davidson Herron defeated Jones, 5&4. oakmont’s pga championships 1978 After tying Jerry Pate and Tom Watson at eight-under 274, John Mahaffey won with a birdie on the second playoff hole. 1951 Sam Snead beat Walter Burkemo, 7&6. 1922 Gene Sarazen beat Emmet French, 4&3. future u.s. open venues 2017 Erin (Wis.) Hills 2018 Shinnecock Hills G.C. / Southampton, N.Y. 2019 Pebble Beach G. Links 2020 Winged Foot G.C. / Mamaroneck, N.Y. 2021 Torrey Pines G. Cse. (South) / La Jolla, Calif. 2022 The Country Club / Brookline, Mass. 2023 Los Angeles Country Club (North) 2024 Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort & C.C.

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television (edt)

The field scoring average was 75.72. Tour pros tend to beat up par 5s, but the 609-yard fourth (5.06) and the 667-yard 12th (5.41) both played over par. The easiest hole was the 358-yard 14th (4.05), and the hardest was the 484-yard 18th (4.60).

2016 u.s. open oakmont

58 golf digest india | june 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

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a r e m a i n i n g s e n t i n e l at t h e 4 2 6 -ya r d t h i r d h o l e .

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month june 2016 2016| |golf golfdigest.com digest india

2016

Continued from page 57

an ex ample of su stainabilit y

or this year’s Open, the USGA plans to highlight Oakmont’s treeremoval program as another facet of sustainability. After all, instead of replacing the trees with lush, maintained turf that would demand additional water and chemicals, many areas of former forest are now covered in tall fescues that need little maintenance and turn bronze and wavy in later summer. (Trivia note: Though other bunkers at Oakmont are edged by a bluegrass-ryegrass mix of maintained rough, the huge Church Pews bunker between the third and fourth holes has each pew planted in unmaintained fescue, because the club believes the famed hazard deserved a distinctive look.) Other grand American courses have removed pointless trees in the past decade and a half, and some were chopping and pruning even before Oakmont’s extensive clearcutting became public. But had Oakmont not succeeded in its effort in such a dramatic, visual manner, and had that effort not been well-received (finally) by its membership and those who study and promote golf-course architecture, it’s doubtful that similar programs would have occurred at such prominent clubs as Olympic and Oak Hill. The nearly treeless Oakmont is an extreme example, a total reversal of the sentiment that trees belong on a golf course, because its heritage didn’t rely on aerial hazards whatsoever. Other clubs are more content to retain some trees for safety or aesthetic purposes, which is fine. But the lesson of Oakmont is that every club should reexamine its landscape. Most would find many of their trees superfluous and, as at Oakmont, the character of their layouts would improve once those trees are removed.

60 golf digest india | june 2016

b ob ford to sign off

hrough 37 years and multiple majors as Oakmont’s head professional, Bob Ford has been as much a fixture at the club as the Church Pews bunker or the sprawling, Tudor-style clubhouse. This June’s Open, Oakmont’s record ninth, will be Ford’s fourth—and his finale at the historic club. For the past 16 years Ford, 62, has been doing enviable double duty at two of the country’s most prestigious private clubs: summers at Oakmont in the Pittsburgh suburbs and winters at Seminole in Juno Beach, Fla. But come year’s end, Ford will step aside from the position he has held at Oakmont since 1979. Ford started as a 19-yearold working the month of the 1973 U.S. Open for Lew Worsham, the 1947 Open champion who preceded him as Oakmont’s pro. Ford recalls being “dumbfounded’’ seeing the scores being posted next to Johnny Miller’s name. “That Sunday was quite a scene,’’ Ford says. “I do recall saying to Mr. Worsham, ‘I think they’ve run out of black numbers [for the leader boards]; all they’re putting up for Mr. Miller are red numbers.’ And he said, ‘No, son, I think he’s making birdies out there.’ ’’ In the 1980s, Ford took the trifecta of top awards from the PGA of America: merchandiser of the year (1985), golf professional of the year (1987) and player of the year (1988). In 1983, as a competitor in the Open at Oakmont, Ford tied for 26th place, the best finish for a host pro since Claude Harmon at Winged Foot in 1959. No host

the ultimate club pro pro has qualified, let alone made the cut, in a U.S. Open since Ford’s 12-over-par showing. Thanks to a mail-order operation that the USGA later emulated, Ford cleared more that week than the champion, Larry Nelson. “Well, Larry made $72,000 for winning that Open, and I would say that we exceeded that,’’ Ford says with a laugh. Today, with the USGA taking charge of all aspects of the Open, including merchandising, Ford and his staff will run the range for the pros during the week and take turns as starters on the first and 10th holes. He also might contribute to Fox’s TV coverage. Each year Ford hosts a dinner and a golf outing for former assistants at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. Forty to 50 have gone on to head-professional positions. Ford still calls each one of them on their birthdays. “It’s kind of his trademark,’’ says his successor at Oakmont, Devin Gee, 30. “His lesson book is filled with birthday reminders five days a week.’’ Gee says Ford has the rare ability to “influence but remain neutral.’’ That trait came in handy during Oakmont’s tree-removal project during the early 2000s. Ford says it was the biggest controversy at the club during his tenure, but not for him: “If I was talking to a member who wanted the trees cut down, I’d say, ‘Yeah, let’s cut ’em down.’ And if I was talking to a member who didn’t want them cut down, I’d say, ‘I don’t want those guys cutting them down.’ ” So why is Ford giving up a gig at Oakmont and keeping the Seminole job? “I’ve been at Oakmont for 42 years, and doing Oakmont and Seminole together has been quite a task,” he says. “Oakmont is just so busy 24/7, it’s a family country club that is very active, and I think they’re just ready for a young, enthusiastic guy with a lot of energy.’’ Ford plans to become a regular dues-paying member at Oakmont after he retires there. Oakmont golf chairman Bruce McGough says a send-off is planned at the end of September, with all of Ford’s former assistants invited back for the occasion. “He’ll be around; he’s just a phone call away for Devin,” McGough says, “but we want Devin to be his own guy.’’ Just as Ford was, achieving legendary status guided by a simple philosophy: “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.’’ —peter m c cleery

courtesy of bob ford

the prettification of the course (“Has the Old Bully Lost its Punch?” June 1994). Eventually a majority of the members came around, but although they grudgingly allowed Kuhns to continue some tree removal, they refused to allocate additional funds. He had to squeeze the expenses from his normal operating budget, and as a result other areas of the course suffered a bit. In late 1999, Kuhns moved to Baltusrol, site of this year’s PGA Championship, and Zimmers took his place. He stepped up the tree removal, tying many expenses to club capital projects to cover costs. By 2002, the effects were so dramatic it warranted a follow-up story in Golf Digest (“Mission: Unpopular” October 2002). The story quoted Tom Meeks, then the USGA’s senior director of rules and competition: “If any club thinks they would be hurting themselves by cutting down a few trees, go look at Oakmont and see what they’ve done. They are the leaders in the clubhouse.”

u.s. open oakmont

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why hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t anyone broken the record j o h n n y m i l l e r s e t at o a k m o n t ? by jaime diaz

2016 u.s. open oakmont

i f y o u a p p r e c i at e m e ta p h o r , t h e b e s t o n e i n g o l f i s C h a r l e s Price’s tightrope: “Tournament golf is when they raise the rope to 60 2016 feet,” he wrote. “Championship golf is when they take the net away.” u.s. open But if you prefer numbers, consider this: Since 1977, there have been 29 oakmont scores of 60 or better in regular PGA Tour events (23 60s and six 59s). In the four major championships each year since 1973, the lowest score—shot 27 times— is 63. ▶ In a regular tournament, 63 doesn’t get much attention. At the 2014 Humana Challenge, Patrick Reed shot three consecutive 63s. But if that number is shot “when they take the net away,” we pay attention. ▶ Forty-three years ago, Johnny Miller fired the first 63 in a major, at the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont, where the championship returns in June. Ever since, no one has done better. Or, as we shall see, as well.

64 golf digest india | june 2016

(see chart), nine didn’t even finish in the top 10. And only six won. bre aking d own miller’s 63

miller needed 29 putts—a threep u t t at t h e e i g h t h “ c h a n g e d m e from nervous to determined.”

man have achieved the feat twice—included a three-putt from 15 feet and a missed eight-footer on the 17th. In the final round of the 1995 PGA at Riviera, Brad Faxon missed three putts of five feet or less. In the 2010 British Open, Rory McIlroy missed a five-footer for birdie on the Road Hole. Isao Aoki had only 24 putts in shooting eight under at Muirfield in 1980, but they included three missed six-footers for birdies. A month before, playing two groups ahead of Nicklaus in the U.S. Open, Tom Weiskopf didn’t birdie either of Baltusrol’s closing par 5s in his 63. Perhaps the player with the least regret is the most recent one to shoot 63 in a major, Hiroshi Iwata, at last year’s PGA at Whistling Straits. Iwata shot 29 on his closing nine, playing the last eight holes in seven under par, and made a scrambling par on his last hole, the 520-yard, par-4 18th. He hit only 10 of 18 greens, had 22 putts and made birdies from off the green three times. But even Iwata had a bogey, on the par-4 ninth, the one time he failed to get up and down. Iwata went on to finish T-21, which points to the random nature of hot rounds, even in majors. Of the 63-shooters in majors

hich gets us back to Miller. He was 26 when he won at Oakmont, yet to embark on his January 1974 through January 1975 run of 10 victories—the last three by margins of eight, 14 and nine strokes—that would establish him as a historic golfer whose capacity for “hot” has been matched only by Woods. But the seeds were planted with Miller’s 63, which still has more bona fides than any other. It was shot in the championship designed to be the hardest. The place was Oakmont, historically the toughest of all U.S. Open sites, which was then a par 71 (35-36), not the par 70 it first became in 2007. It was shot in the last round, one Miller started six strokes behind the leader, trailing a pack of 12 golfers that included Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Player, Nicklaus, Julius Boros, Gene Littler, Weiskopf and Jerry Heard. Miller took the lead on the back nine, ending his round with two birdie putts that lipped out. All told, it’s why the first 63 remains the best. Miller will tell you about it. His frequent references to the round—especially as a commentator—have caused a backlash. When he says things like, “I mean, it was sort of an easy 63—pretty pure,” Miller, now 69, seems a victim of “the older I get, the better I used to be” syndrome. But his playing partner that day at Oakmont, Miller Barber, said, “It very easily could have been 60.” A closer look reveals Miller’s round has mostly been underappreciated. a l ate swing key

fter a third-round 76 that left him discouraged, Miller found a swing key late in his warm-up before the final round after he heard a voice in his head say clearly, “Open your stance way up.” “It wasn’t a suggestion, it was a command,” says Miller, who has a mystical streak he says emanates from a long line of artistic people on his father’s side. On the other hand, after the round he said he had used the same thought before shooting 63 in the fourth round of the Bob Hope Des-

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The score of 62 in a major has been threatened numerous times, almost as often by those who ended up not shooting 63 than by those who did. It looked like it might fall in the first round of last year’s Masters, when Jordan Spieth was eight under par through 14 holes. But instead of birdieing the par-5 15th, historically the easiest hole at Augusta National, he bogeyed it and finished with a 64. Then at St. Andrews, where fears of the modern game making the Old Course irrelevant have intensified over the past decade, David Lingmerth went out in 29 in the first round. But he came back in 40. On those occasions where it seemed 63 was certain to be broken, something improbable on the 18th green kept it safe: ▶ In 1980, Jack Nicklaus missed a three-footer for 62 in the first round of the U.S. Open at Baltusrol, telling The New York Times’ Dave Anderson last year, “I just totally choked.” ▶ In 1986, Greg Norman three-putted from 28 feet at Turnberry in the British Open, missing a five-foot comebacker that also made him the only player to shoot 63 in a major with three bogeys. ▶ On the same hole at Turnberry in 1977, Mark Hayes drove into a pot bunker and missed a six-footer for par. ▶ At the 2013 PGA Championship at Oak Hill, Jason Dufner left his 10-footer for birdie two feet short. ▶ Tiger Woods’ 18-footer at Southern Hills in the 2007 PGA lipped out so cruelly he said his score was “62½.” ▶ Nick Price’s 30-footer for birdie at Augusta in 1986 went so far down, going all around the cup, that he surmises “Bobby Jones’ hand came up and popped it out.” Of course, in golf, no matter what, the player believes he left something out there. “Someday, someone will birdie every hole for 54 and complain about an eagle putt that didn’t go in,” says Gary Player, not surprisingly the oldest to shoot 63 when he did it at 48 in the 1984 PGA at Shoal Creek. “I made a helluva lot of birdie putts that day. But the 12-footer I missed at the last stays in my mind.” Even record rounds—maybe especially record rounds—have couldas and shouldas. Only 12 of the 27 63s in majors were achieved without a bogey. Vijay Singh’s 63 in the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields—only he and Nor-

‘It wasn’t lIke I was unconscIous on the greens or chIppIng In. . . It wasn’t lIke I started hIttIng weIrd shots and scrambled to make par. I just kept hIttIng It at the flag.’ ert Classic four months earlier, when he finished T-2 with Nicklaus in Palmer’s last PGA Tour victory. “I had a tendency to close my stance,” Miller says, “and that adjustment did two things: It restricted my backswing, which could get a little long, and freed up my downswing so that I started firing my body much faster. I let my feet point way left, but my shoulders and the club were aimed right at the flag.” Miller missed only two fairways—his pulled tee shot on the 603-yard 12th hole was his sole encounter with deep rough, and he made an improbable birdie there after hitting a 4-iron to 14 feet. But otherwise playing from short grass, one of history’s supreme iron players hit all 18 greens, many with long irons. Nine of his full iron shots finished within 15 feet of the hole, four of them getting inside six feet. He had 29 putts—leaving him only 34 tee-to-green shots; he hit the then-par-5 ninth in two—including a threeputt from 30 feet on the par-3 eighth hole. Amazingly, after the round Miller said the memory of a 7-iron shank he had hit on the 16th hole at Pebble Beach in a playoff with Nicklaus the year before had preyed on his mind. “Don’t shank—I was thinking that on almost every iron shot,” he said. Still, it was indeed an easy 63. taking on the do ubters

lenty of contrarians have sought to diminish Miller ’s round through two common but erroneous assumptions. The first is that Oakmont played inordinately easy because it stayed soaked by rain and a malfunctioning sprinkler system that was, depending on the account, either left on all night before the start of the tournament or before the last round. Author Adam Lazarus and Steve Schlossman, a professor in the history department at Carnegie Mellon University, have refuted those claims with research for their 2010 book Chasing Greatness: Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer, and the Miracle at Oakmont. The authors point out that Oakmont, which lies in a valley near the Allegheny River, is often damp but because of superb drainage and conditioning rarely stays soggy for long. The only appreciable rain occurred on Saturday morning, causing the third round to be delayed by two hours. A malfunction did cause a new sprinkler system to go on accidentally, but it was some-

2016 u.s. open oakmont

the majors’ 63 club ▶ Players have shot 63 in a major 27 times but have won only six of those tournaments: masters player

year (rd.)

to par/course

finish (versus winner)

Nick Price Greg Norman

1986 (3) 1996 (1)

-9 Augusta National -9 Augusta National

5 (lost to Jack Nicklaus by three) 2 (lost to Nick Faldo by five)

1973 1980 1980 2003

-8 -7 -7 -7

Oakmont Baltusrol Baltusrol Olympia Fields

won by one stroke won by two 37 (lost to Nicklaus by 17) T-20 (lost to Jim Furyk by 11)

(2) (3) (2) (3) (4) (2) (4) (1)

-7 -8 -7 -9 -7 -7 -7 -9

Turnberry Muirfield Turnberry St. Andrews Royal Birkdale Royal St. George’s Royal St. George’s St. Andrews

T-9 (lost to Tom Watson by 16) T-12 (lost to Watson by 13) won by five T-12 (lost to Faldo by 10) T-5 (lost to Ian Baker-Finch by five) 2 (lost to Greg Norman by two) 12 (lost to Norman by nine) T-3 (lost to Louis Oosthuizen by eight)

(2) (1) (2) (2) (1) (4) (3) (2) (3) (2) (1) (2) (2)

-7 -7 -9 -8 -8 -8 -9 -7 -7 -7 -7 -7 -9

Firestone Southern Hills Shoal Creek Inverness Riviera Riviera Valhalla Atlanta Athletic Baltusrol Southern Hills Atlanta Athletic Oak Hill Whistling Straits

2 (lost to Nicklaus by two) won by three T-2 (lost to Lee Trevino by four) 4 (lost to Paul Azinger by two) T-54 (lost to Steve Elkington by 16) 5 (lost to Elkington by four) T-4 (lost to Tiger Woods by six) T-22 (lost to David Toms by 13) T-2 (lost to Phil Mickelson by one) won by two T-12 (lost to Keegan Bradley by seven) won by two T-21 (lost to Jason Day by 13)

u.s. open Johnny Miller Jack Nicklaus Tom Weiskopf Vijay Singh

(4) (1) (1) (2)

open championship Mark Hayes Isao Aoki Greg Norman Paul Broadhurst Jodie Mudd Nick Faldo Payne Stewart Rory McIlroy

1977 1980 1986 1990 1991 1993 1993 2010

pga championship Bruce Crampton Raymond Floyd Gary Player Vijay Singh Michael Bradley Brad Faxon Jose M. Olazabal Mark O’Meara Thomas Bjorn Tiger Woods Steve Stricker Jason Dufner Hiroshi Iwata

1975 1982 1984 1993 1995 1995 2000 2001 2005 2007 2011 2013 2015

june 2016 | golf digest india

‘In baseball, the fences have stayed the same or been moved In. In golf, we move the fences back.’

66 golf digest india | june 2016

one, says he hopes the score lasts through his lifetime. “I’m very proud that I finished off my 63 with one of the best 2-irons of my life, from 210 yards,” he said of his final shot in the second round at St. George’s in 1993. “Today that’s a 5- or 6-iron for these guys. I feel like I played in an era when the challenge was greater, and that will be easier to forget if the number goes lower.” At the same time, all acknowledged that the main reason the scoring barrier has existed so long is because major-championship setups have continued to get more difficult, ostensibly to keep up with the progress of modern golf, marked by increased distance, improved technique, more aggressive playing style and deeper fields. Golf has the ability to change the playing field more than any other sport. As statistician Lucius Riccio, a professor of analytics at Columbia University, says, “In baseball, the fences have stayed the same or been moved in. In golf, we move the fences back.” The USGA’s Mike Davis and Kerry Haigh, who is in charge of the setup for the PGA Championship, acknowledge there is an eversmaller margin of error in finding the balance between sufficiently challenging the players and making the course unfair. Both say they would applaud the first 62 in a major, but Davis adds that although he isn’t trying to prevent scores of 63 or lower, he doesn’t want a U.S. Open setup to invite them, either. “Many years after Johnny shot his 63 at Oakmont, I asked P.J. Boatwright [longtime USGA executive director of rules and competitions] if the very difficult setup the next year at Winged Foot was a direct reaction to that round,” Davis says. “P.J. smiled and said, ‘Well, I can tell you this: After that, we weren’t trying to make the golf courses easier.’ ” Riccio identified some conditions that would make a 62 in a major more probable: ▶ A wet day at the PGA Championship, which has given up the most 63s (13). ▶ A windless round at a British Open links. ▶ A first-time major venue (like Erin Hills at next year’s U.S. Open), where difficulty could be overestimated. ▶ The first or second round rather than the more pressurized weekend (or, if on the weekend, by someone toward the back of the pack). ▶ A par 70. Of course, none of these conditions existed for Miller. Which is why as the years go by, his satisfaction with the round grows. “I knew I had something special, but I hadn’t quite gotten it out,” he says. “When you finally manage to play golf the way you know you can under great pressure, that’s what feels the best, that’s what changes you as a player, that’s what stays with you. That was the best round I ever played, and, I gotta say it, the best round I ever saw.” No brag, just fact. Miller’s stands as the finest round of golf ever played. When the first 62 in a major is finally shot, may it be as good as the first 63.

usga archive

time in the pre-dawn hours of Friday. Frantic USGA officials directed workers to use every towel available to try to blot the moisture. By Friday and Saturday afternoons, Oakmont was back to playing close to normal, and the scores reflected as much. Bottom line, Miller played a full-blooded U.S. Open setup on which only three other players broke 70 in the final round: Lanny Wadkins with a 65, —lucius riccio, ph.d. and Nicklaus and Ralph Johnston with 68s. of low rounds in majors, his two 63s joined by The second charge is that Miller was so three 64s (two of them in the last round, both far back starting the fourth round he could of them in the British Open). freewheel without pressure. That might have “I was an extremely good driver of the been true at the start, but when he walked golf ball, so I’d hit that club where others off the fifth tee after birdies on the first four wouldn’t and put myself in positions where holes, Miller knew he was only two strokes I could be really aggressive,” Norman says. behind the leaders as they prepared to tee off. “At the same time, my short game gave me The television analyst who introduced a cushion when I shot at pins. All that was the word “choke” to golf commentary conmore pronounced in majors.” cedes that as a player, “pressure was my Norman prefers his second round at weakness,” and he began putting tentativeTurnberry in 1986, when he won his first of ly on the next four greens, leaving four birdtwo British Opens. On a gray and blustery ie putts short, the final one leading to the day in which the average score was over 74, three-putt at the eighth. “That was good, in Norman missed only one green and hit both a way,” he says, “because it got me mad and par 5s in two to shoot 63. He has no regrets changed me from nervous to determined.” about charging his first putt on the 18th. The rest of the round, Miller remained a “I thought I was going to make the putt, ball-striking machine who putted assertwhich was the thinking that got ively, starting with a two-putt me so far under par,” he says. “I birdie on the ninth. didn’t think about my score on “I’m proud of the way I the second putt, I just missed it.” finished,” says Miller, who 2016 Still, the failure to properly finish birdied the 11th, 12th, 13th u.s. open off such an otherwise supreme and 15th holes—the last three oakmont effort could be considered a miwith 4-iron approaches—to crocosm of Norman’s career. shoot 31 on the more difficult All non-winning 63s are nine. His totals for the day: unsung, but the most consequential and nine birdies, eight pars and the lone bogey. dramatic among them belongs to Faxon in “It wasn’t like I was unconscious on the the final round of the 1995 PGA at Riviera. greens or chipping in,” he says. “I admit Faxon began the day focused on the low I choked a lot on the greens, but I never number he would need to finish in at least choked tee to green. Down the stretch, it a tie for sixth, which would give him enough wasn’t like I started hitting weird shots and points to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team in scrambled to make par. I just kept hitting it the final qualifying round. at the flag. And on 18, which is a great drivWith an inspired attitude and using a ing hole, I wasn’t trying to milk it down the confident sensation of connection at the top fairway. That was my best drive of the day, of his swing that he’d worked on with David over 300 yards, my most aggressive swing, Leadbetter, Faxon played the front nine in 120 miles per hour with a D-9 driver.” 28, tying the all-time nine-hole score for a major, set by Denis Durnian at the 1983 Britalmost nine strokes g ained ish Open at Royal Birkdale. Faxon hit the tee to green first 17 greens and putted even more brilliantly than normal despite the three misses n 2014, David Barrett of Golf World from short range. After a mediocre chip on determined that, by applying Shotthe 18th hole, he faced a curling 12-footer he Link’s “strokes gained tee to green” figured he had to have. metric retroactively, Miller’s round is “I think the Ryder Cup definitely took the standard for ball-striking over 18 holes. away any pressure from shooting 63,” says Based on the distances his approaches Faxon, who finished fifth to make the U.S. finished from the hole, Miller gained 8.90 team. “The ball and the sweet spot on my strokes on the field tee to green, better than putter just sort of melted together, and I the 8.71 Jim Furyk achieved in his 59 at the poured it in.” 2013 BMW Championship. “That was nice to hear,” says Miller, letting the finality of empirical data speak for itself. comparing a 62 to a 63 Among the other 63s in majors that have been rated, Norman’s opening round at o one interviewed for this story the 1996 Masters is the next-best in strokes expressed any doubt that 62 (or gained tee to green (6.71). In golf history, lower) will be shot in a major Norman has the most impressive collection relatively soon. But Faldo, for

Putting by Steve Scott

Play Your Best

“Attention, yippers: My grip starts with the right hand already flipped.”

adidas: shirt, $75, pants, $85, shoes, $190, belt, $50

Anchoring, Schmankering Who needs anchored putting? Try my Gator Clamp instead e all know the USGA has made it illegal to anchor the club to your body during the putting stroke. But what a lot of golfers don’t know is how they’re going to putt if they’ve been anchoring and now can’t. Three years ago I came up with a grip that helps stabilize the stroke, like anchoring does. I call it the Gator Clamp because you use your right hand to clamp the top of the grip against your left forearm (above). Your right hand looks like an alligator chomping on your left arm.

Photographs by Dom Furore

(Truth is, it’s the Gator Clamp because I played for Florida, and we Gators love our mascot.) You might remember me playing Tiger Woods in the 1996 U.S. Amateur final. Why didn’t I turn pro? Actually I did, but I struggled with my putting. I’ve had some form of the yips since I was 19. So it was a long road of yip remedies that brought me to the Gator Clamp. To give it a try, start with a slightly longer putter, called a mid-length putter (see page 46 for some new models). Place the butt of the grip against your left

forearm. This will arch your left wrist slightly and get the grip running up the lifeline of your left palm, both of which stabilize the putterface. This also will tilt the shaft toward the target, so it’s good to get a putter with some loft—mine has 6 degrees. But the big difference is how the right hand goes on. Most lousy putting comes from the right hand pronating, or releasing, too much through impact. So clamp that right hand against the left forearm, with the butt of the grip sandwiched in between. Now the right hand is in a fully flipped position from the start— you can’t yip it from there. As you swing the putter back and through, let the right arm act as a piston. That’s all there is to it. It’s a great alternative to anchoring, but it can help any golfer.

Steve Scott, 38, is the head professional at Paramount Country Club in New City, N.Y.

june 2016 | golf digest india

Distractions,

Distractions

four-time u.s. open champion jack nicklaus on hovering helicopters, $12 slacks, projectile vomiting and diaper duty with guy yocom

2016

u.s. open oakmont

m y s h ot 76 north

pa l m b e a c h

68 golf digest india | june 2016

gutter credit tk

florida

Photograph by First Lastname

gutter credit tk

nothing like a dock out back fo r h av i n g f u n o n t h e wat e r .

Photographs by Dom Furore

the u.s. open was always no. 1 for me. I’m an American,

and it’s the championship of my country. Of the majors, the British Open was No. 2 because it entailed the rest of the world. The PGA was No. 3 because I’m a professional, and to be the best of what I do for a living, that stands for a lot. That leaves the Masters in an interesting position. It always was my favorite tournament to play. Bob Jones was my hero, and I’ve had too many great experiences there to count. But it isn’t a championship exactly, so on that count it doesn’t surpass the other three. It doesn’t even have the word “championship” in its name. The Masters is unique in that it performs the greatest service to the game of all the majors and stands for far more than just crowning a winner. It has a small international field. So it’s hard to fit into a ranking. I’ll say this: If you conducted a poll among players now on tour, they’d rate the Masters the No. 1 tournament in golf. 2016

u.s. open oakmont

oakmont might be the most difficult

●●●

course in the United States. Not the hardest in the world—Carnoustie gets that honor— but in America it’s right up there, tied maybe with Winged Foot. Its difficulty is the sum of a lot of things you can’t see on TV. There are no lakes to speak of, no bodies of water. But there are little man-made farm ditches everywhere you can hit into very easily. The hole designs are tempting and can lead to trouble. There are the greens, which aren’t wildly undulating but have very severe tilt. To hit it close, you have to curve your irons in both directions, plus hit them high and low. The greens are tough, extremely firm. No greens repel rain like Oakmont greens. The water just rolls off them because of the pitch, and within an hour they’re firm again. The bunkers are difficult, and throughout the whole course, there just isn’t much letup.

i first saw oakmont two weeks before the ’62 U.S. Open. I played a few practice rounds and knew it was perfect for me. I then played in the Thunderbird Classic Invitational at Upper Montclair in New Jersey, finishing second by a shot to Gene Littler thanks to him making a 35-footer for eagle on the last hole. It was my third second-place finish of the year. When Barbara and I drove across Pennsylvania on Sunday night, I never felt so motivated. I’d come so close at the Open in 1960 and ’61. By 1962 I was a better player in every way. I arrived there feeling it was my tournament to win. ●●●

●●●

oakmont is famous for its furrowed bunkers, though someone told me recently that only the greenside bunkers were furrowed for the 1962 U.S. Open there. My memory is fuzzy on that because I thought they were all lightly furrowed. I knew after my practice rounds I needed to avoid Oakmont’s bunkers at all cost. It wasn’t just the furrowing. The sand was river sand, very heavy and really difficult to play from. You couldn’t spin the ball coming out of them. I especially avoided the Church Pews bunker that comes into play on the third and fourth holes. Over the years—I played in U.S. Opens at Oakmont in 1962, ’73, ’83 and ’94—every time I saw someone hit into the Church Pews, they ended up playing out sideways. Which was fair. Bunkers are places you’re supposed to avoid. ●●●

starting at age 13 , when I played in my first U.S. Junior, I developed my playing style specifically to suit USGA setups. I’m talking courses the way Joe Dey, the executive director of the USGA back then, wanted them. Generous rough bordering narrow, closecut fairways. Rough around the greens. Very firm, fast greens. A complete examination. The one aspect I had trouble with was deep

70 golf digest india | june 2016

‘I took very lIttle notIce of trees unless they really came Into play. I had blInders on. I saw faIrways and greens.’ rough around the greens, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be overcome. Hale Irwin was a master at the short shot from rough, and there were others. The idea that rough negates skill is a myth. Because my back from age 19 on couldn’t withstand chipping balls for hours, I worked around it. I figured if I could hit 15 greens per round—my back was fine practicing full-swing shots—it would remove pressure on my short game. Because I was a good putter from 10 feet and in, I survived not being the best chipper from tall grass. USGA setups like the ones at Oakmont played to my strengths.

at oakmont it quickly became apparent that my length was an advantage. My distance gave me shorter clubs into those firm greens. How far did I hit it back then? It’s hard to equate the distances to how far players hit the ball today, but I could hit it 300 yards under normal conditions when I needed to. I knocked a lot of balls out of round. I always started a round with three MacGregor Tourney wound balata balls. I marked them using a pencil, two little indentations, actually, on each side of the number. That’s how soft the covers were. I’d play a hole with a ball, knock it out of round, then put it in my bag to “rest.” Over the course of half an hour, it would regain its shape. While it rested, I’d rotate in another ball. ●●●

even arnold would probably tell you that in

those days he was not a particularly straight driver. Believe it or not, his best driving days were still ahead of him. But he was a spectacular recovery player. On many U.S. Open courses—Winged Foot, Oak Hill and Olympic, for instance—the setups worked a little against Arnold. Winged Foot, in particular, didn’t prune its trees. They weren’t only numerous, they were thick, full and the branches hung almost to the ground. Combine that with the rough, and recoveries can be impossible. This hurt Arnold more than it hurt me. His recoveries after poor drives were graceful, athletic and thrilling. But

there were courses that took that away. Look, I like trees. There’s a place for them. They’re beautiful. I like how they can frame holes and can serve a strategic purpose. But you have to allow for recoveries. ●●●

a lot of the drastic changes in Oak-

mont’s appearance—adding trees and taking them away is a good example—I didn’t notice when I was playing. I took very little notice of trees unless they really came into play. I had blinders on. I saw fairways and greens. the greens were quick, too—for their time. They ran probably only eight or nine on the Stimpmeter [they’re expected to be at 14 for this year’s Open], but when you’re accustomed to slower greens, that can seem pretty fast. Downhill putts were especially treacherous. The greens were a blend of older strains of bentgrass and several strains of Poa annua, and when you putted downhill with the grain, the ball could really get away from

was one of the great men I’ve ever known, except, some might say, for three hours on Saturday afternoons—and for a few hours at Oakmont, when he overheard fans saying bad things about one of the Nicklauses. We were his people. ●●●

i’ve always said that although I might have

had to fight Arnie’s Army, I never had to fight Arnold. When we were both represented by IMG, we flew everywhere together. The two of us and our wives played a ton of bridge on those flights. We talked for hours, shared our lives, had a lot of laughs. After my nice season in 1962, Arnold and I played in the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas in January 1963. Arnold said, “Jack, you have to learn how to shoot craps.” So Arnold gives me a tutorial and proceeds to lose $3,000. In 1963 dollars, it was a good pile of money. I liked to kid Arnold that he taught me exactly what not to do at the craps table.

‘frankIe avalon apparently yelled, “the kId puked!” ’ you. But I loved fast greens. At Oakmont, I didn’t three-putt once the first three rounds. I three-putted the first hole of the fourth round, then didn’t three-putt again. Arnold three-putted a number of times, as I recall, which was uncharacteristic of him. Back then Arnold seemed to make everything. ●●●

oakmont is in western Pennsylvania. Ar-

nold is from the area, so obviously the fans were on his side. I’ve always said I never heard anything the fans might have yelled at me. At Baltusrol [the 1967 U.S. Open], I did notice a few signs saying things that weren’t very nice. Arnie’s Army traveled a long way to do that. But at Oakmont there were no signs, and in the world I was operating in, no bad yelling. Crowds never bothered me anyway, even when I played basketball in high school—trust me, Ohio has some loud fans. At Oakmont I was a 22-year-old kid trying to play golf, and that’s all I was aware of. For all I knew, they were rooting for me. Either way, I sealed everything out.

●●●

i’ll tell you who didn’t seal it out: Woody Hayes, the legendary football coach at Ohio State. At Oakmont, he and my dad walked together, heard the bad stuff, and Woody eventually had enough. He went to confront one of the fans, and my dad had to hold him back. Woody, remember, was not only the football coach, he was a family friend. He lived only a few blocks from my dad’s drugstore and followed my career closely. It’s Woody who discouraged me from playing football and told me to stick to golf. He

a tournament supervisor on the PGA Tour, was very good about it. “Jack, I know I just penalized you, but I’m trying to help you,” he said. “You’ve got to be ready when it’s your turn.” I learned a great lesson from that. I was penalized one other time during my career but eventually became a faster player by learning to be respectful of my playing partners, at the same time preparing myself for the next shot. ●●●

i never let outside stuff bother me.

Many years after Oakmont, when Greg Norman was at his peak, his former wife, Laura, complained to Barbara about negative articles written about her husband. “I put them in front of Greg, and he just gets so irate,” she said. Barbara said, “Why do you show them to him? Whenever I read something unkind about Jack, I did all I could to keep the newspaper away from him.” Laura caught on, and it made their lives a little easier. You can’t control what the media says, but Barbara was good at screening what I saw. ●●●

●●●

it’s easy for players younger than Tiger

Woods to have the impression that golf in the early ’60s was a second-tier sport, but at the majors especially, the crowds were huge. At the Masters, British Open and certain tour events, they were close to today’s numbers. Not across the board, but at times. Media was smaller then—no Internet and less TV—but newspaper coverage was thorough. At certain events, when the tour came, it was the biggest show in town.

arnold and i were paired together the first two rounds at Oakmont. I started the championship with three straight birdies, but Arnold came back. After 36 holes he was tied for the lead with Bob Rosburg, and I was three strokes back. Three strokes is nothing on a course like Oakmont. It’s hard for the leaders to keep it going. Looking ahead at the 36-hole finish on Saturday, I didn’t change anything. ●●●

on the first hole of the fourth round, I have a 25-foot birdie putt. As I’m lining up the putt, a helicopter is filming and camps maybe the galleries were egged on by the over our heads. It’s déjà vu for me, because fact I was a slow player. I admit it. I’m sure I at the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, on the was slow at Oakmont. It was hard for me to fourth hole of the final round, a helicopter begin preparing to hit until it was my turn to flew in and stayed over our heads. I’m sweatplay. I actually thought I was being considing it out trying to beat Ben Hogan and many erate by refusing to walk around preparing others, and this helicopter won’t go away. while another player was hitting. But I was I had to play and three-putted. too slow, and nothing could Two years later, I’m fighting for make me speed up. Later that the U.S. Open again, and here same year, at Portland, I finalcomes another helicopter. Sure ly got penalized for slow play, 2016 enough, I three-putt—my only which I was a little indignant u.s. open three-putt in 90 holes that week. about because I was playing oakmont with Billy Casper and Bruce ●●● Crampton, who weren’t exacti was still selling insurance ly speed demons. Joe Black, on the side in 1962. There was no guarantee I was going to make a lot of money playing golf. I was partners in an agency with my buddy, Bob Hoag. After that year I didn’t do any more selling, though I did make an occasional phone call for Bob. But we did do business into the 1970s. ●●●

‘I’ve always saId that although I mIght have fought arnIe’s army, I never had to fIght arnold.’

●●●

phil rodgers was the other top young pro from my amateur class in ’62, and he started june 2016 | golf digest india

out hot the first round at Oakmont. Then, at the par-4 17th, he hit into a little evergreen tree, had a tough time getting out, and made 8. Arnold and I tied in regulation at one under par, Phil finished at one over. If he’d parred the 17th—it was less than 300 yards—he would have won by two. ●●●

in 1962 , I stood a hair under six feet and weighed 200 pounds. But I had a 34½-inch waist. I might have looked heavy next to Arnold, but I was in good shape. I played a lot of recreational basketball when I was at home in Columbus. On the golf course I never got tired. I walked fast, and I could walk forever. The 36-hole finish didn’t faze me. ●●●

maybe the tight-fitting white shirt and

$12 pair of slacks I wore made me look heavier. The slacks were sort of an olivegreen, gray color. They almost looked like Army fatigues. At Oakmont, I wore them on Saturday. I was running good, so why change them for Sunday? Every time I tell that story, Barbara interrupts and points out that I at least changed into a fresh shirt. But the pants, I joke that I stood them up in the corner of our room at night and put them on the next day. They were my lucky pants.

●●●

‘in 1962, i stood a hair under six feet and weighed 200 pounds. but i had a 34½-inch waist. i might have looked heavy standing next to arnold, but i was in good shape.’ ●●●

the saturday night before the playoff, Frankie Avalon performed at our hotel. He was a huge star at the time, and unfortunately we didn’t make the show. Sunday morning, before the playoff, my mother took Jackie down to the coffee shop for breakfast. Frankie Avalon was there, eating and greeting guests. Jackie was what some would call a “spitter”—he had a way of projectile vomiting that was spectacular even for a 9-month-old. As Frankie Avalon looked on, Jackie spit up violently, even for him. It went everywhere. Frankie Avalon apparently yelled, “The kid puked!” It was quite a scene. Over the years I’ve forgotten many details of the playoff with Arnold. But I will never forget the story of Jackie’s introduction to Frankie Avalon, 2016 and vice versa.

arnold and i wound up tied after 72 holes. He had a 10-footer to win but just ●●● u.s. open missed on the high side. That it wasn’t the only advenoakmont set up an 18-hole playoff for ture with little Jackie. BarSunday. That week, Arnold bara would take him down to stayed at his home in Latrobe. the coffee shop in the mornBarbara, Jackie and I stayed at a hotel—I ings when I had an early tee time, so think it was a Holiday Inn. Some felt that I could get a little extra sleep. She Arnold had an advantage, sleeping in his came back to the room one morning to own bed, but a hotel gave me peace of mind. report that Jackie had pulled a tablecloth There were no family distractions—unless from their table, taking every water glass, cofyou want to call Barbara looking after ninefee cup, plate, piece of silverware and ketchup month-old Jackie a distraction. bottle with it. It was a little stressful for Barbara, but thanks to her, I slept well. Actually, I always slept well when she traveled with me. It wasn’t unusual for me to sleep nine or 10 hours a night. ●●●

i won the playoff . I went out to an early

lead, Arnold came back on the back nine, but I held on. The playoff scores were 74 for Arnold and 71 for me, but it was closer than that. I went to the last hole (see page 32) with a two-stroke lead, and after Arnold missed a putt for par—I had a two-footer to win it—he made a one-handed wave at the bogey putt, missed and made double. So I won by three, though it was more like two.

●●●

arnold , after three-putting more than 10

times during the week, probably wishes he could have that tournament back. We all have

72 golf digest india | june 2016

them. I know there are several U.S. Opens I wouldn’t mind having back, starting with Merion in 1971, when I left two shots in bunkers in the first three holes of my playoff with Lee Trevino. There was Pebble Beach in 1982, when Watson chipped in on the 17th hole to beat me. I’d like a do-over on that one, just so I could make Tom retry that chip. And also the 22-foot putt he made at the last, which, had it not gone in, would’ve gone several feet by the hole. ●●●

on dec. 10, 1962, I received the official USGA U.S. Open film. It had a scene of me putting on the 13th hole of the playoff. After I missed the putt, I reached down and picked up my cigarette and stuck it in my mouth. So there I am, this cigarette dangling from my mouth as I tapped in. I thought it looked awful. I thought, That is the worst example of being a role model for youth I’ve ever seen. I never smoked another cigarette on the golf course. In fact, I phoned L&M, the cigarette brand Arnold and I both had contracts with, and canceled then and there. I sent them their money back. It was years before I stopped smoking completely, but on the golf course, that was the end. ●●●

not every u.s. open was a home run for me. Congressional in 1964. Bellerive in 1965. Hazeltine, Champions, Southern Hills . . . some weeks you just don’t have it. That included Oakmont in 1973. My memory is hitting into the rough a lot. I didn’t hit many greens—if any—from the tall stuff. ●●●

the win changed a lot of things, but not ev-

erything and not right away. Barbara and I still drove a car to tournaments with Jackie in the back. The diaper pail we packed around was a nightmare. After I won the 1964 Phoenix Open, we were asked to hang around and celebrate. Barbara said “I’m sorry, but we really need to get to a laundromat.” An hour later, there I am, sitting in a laundromat, reading the newspaper while Barbara tends to Jackie’s diapers.

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june 2016 | golf digest india

ZEN ZIN GER the

2016 u.s. open oakmont

the new man on foxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s u.s. open team is a big thinker who knows how to have fun

74 golf digest india | june 2016

gutter credit tk

by jaime diaz

Photograph by First Lastname

gutter credit tk

Photograph by First Lastname

month 2016Photographs 75 by Bob Croslin | golfdigest.com

2016 u.s. open oakmont

It’s the end of dinner with Toni, his wife of 34 years, and a guest at Pier 22, a quick boat trip from Azinger’s waterfront home in Bradenton. Spread before him are the remnants of a giant platter of sushi, including the Zinger Roll, which also works as a term for one of the namesake’s verbal runs. After a yawn, he embarks on another. “You know, for the first time I can feel myself getting old,” Azinger says. Despite his boyishness, this mild lament is a reminder that he has been a cancer survivor for 22 years. “When I run now, it’s stiff, not athletic. If someone tosses something to me kind of low, I’m not even going for it. On the fifth tee at the Concession Club there’s a bowl of apples, and if one’s a little soft after the first bite, I used to show off by throwing it all the way over a pond. Now when I throw it, it splashes. I’m a retired person. Heck, I’m a grandfather.” But Azinger has always taken much of his energy from his interaction with other people—entertaining them with a story, empathizing, sharing an enthusiasm. His connection with his audience is why his laugh/ cry eulogy for his friend Payne Stewart qualifies in golf history as a moment. He has given our waitress, whose father is a Maryland crabber, a detailed tutorial on how to use the crustacean to catch tarpon. After polishing off a dessert of cobbler with ice cream and rising in an emphatic, evening-ending stretch, Azinger is momentarily exasperated to see two smiling men coming toward him. One is the restaurant owner, Hugh Miller, the other Bill Carollo, a former NFL referee now the director of officiating for the Big Ten. If Azinger had a quick hi/goodbye in mind, he fails miserably, because within a minute he’s engaged, helpless against his nature. With Miller, he talks about boats and how to refine the Zinger Roll, and he asks

76 golf digest india | june 2016

gutter credit tk

aul azinger doesn’t look it, but he’s beat. It’s a rare condition for the still-lean 56-year-old, but he has been up since dawn, spending most of the day fishing alone for snook and redfish in Tampa Bay, then taking his customized World War II replica motorcycle through its paces, crisscrossing the shimmering towers of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

‘I TOLD [BERT YANCEY], “I DON’T KNOW IF I CAN HANDLE IT. I GET SO NERVOUS.” HE SAID, “YOU WANT TO BE SO NERVOUS YOU CAN’T SPIT.” ’ Carollo about pro football trash-talking. This spurs a 10-minute story from Azinger about playing in a pro-am with retired players Emmitt Smith, Marcus Allen and Vencie Glenn. Azinger does all three voices in various uncensored scenarios, a veritable Richard Pryor routine. Half an hour later, everyone exits laughing. The man is a connector—smart, interesting, often hilarious. “His ERQ [Emotional Relationship Quotient] is off the charts,” says Dr. Ron Braund, a clinical therapist and corporate team-building consultant who co-authored Azinger’s book about captaining the winning 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team, Cracking the Code. “He is exceptional at reading people and situations and just making anyone he comes in contact with feel special. When I’m in Paul’s world, there’s hardly a time when I’m not thinking, Wow, this is fun.” It’s why the winner of the 1993 PGA Championship and 12 PGA Tour events was so popular with peers on and off the course, why his U.S. team at Valhalla had chemistry, and why he has emerged as a star in the television booth, first at ABC, then ESPN and the BBC, and now in his first U.S. Open as lead analyst for Fox. His appeal is as a big kid— and an old head.

zinger goes zoom

t says a lot about Azinger’s charm that he wears well, because he’s an obsessive with a hyperactive mind. All his life, once he locks in on things that interest him, he’s immersed in the deepest of dives, always emerging as something far closer to expert than dilettante. Take motorcycles. He has seven in his garage but has owned about three dozen, most of them in the past 10 years. Azinger used to find desolate back roads in Florida’s

person adventure ever told at a golf press conference. Azinger loves cards—his mother, Jean, who passed away at 86 in March, was a tournament-level bridge player—and began playing Texas Hold ’em in card clubs. Although he says he never got in a game where the buy-in was more than a few hundred dollars, Azinger played in the televised World Series of Poker in 2006 and 2008 while backed by a sponsor. “If you pay attention, you can see tendencies and mannerisms in players and pick up tells,” he says. “But no matter how good you are, there’s still luck that you can’t control. And I had a problem with players who try to provoke you with punk behavior. Those guys knew I couldn’t come back at them, especially on TV, because I’ll be the one who looks bad. So I’ve eased back on poker.” His pastimes illustrate two of the main Azinger traits. One is attention to detail. Says Blackmar, who has known Azinger since their mini-tour days in the early 1980s: “We get each other because we’re both borderline OCD, but Paul turns his into stories. He just notices so much about people and the things he’s learning, and his enthusiasm and sense of humor make him magnetic.” The other is competitiveness. “Paul just wanted it more than any player I’ve ever worked with,” says Dr. Jim Suttie, Azinger’s former coach at Brevard Community College in 1979. Suttie’s work in shortening Azfishing , foosball and p oker inger’s swing helped turn him from a raw player who couldn’t break 80 two days in a zinger is even more avid as a fishrow to a winner on the PGA Tour by 1987. erman. He grew up on the water. Consider Azinger’s run-in with a man in his His late father, Ralph, owned a neighborhood a few years ago. “I was on my small marina in Sarasota, and Azbike at night with my brights on, and this inger has a dock behind his house with two guy in a pickup took offense and drove real boats, a big one and a little one. He unabashfast right at me, then got out of edly brags about his prowhis car, started cussing me out ess, though he concedes that in this drunk voice. And then he among all golfers, Andy Bean pulled into his driveway. I had and Phil Blackmar are better. 2016 to get even, and now I’d seen On his dock, Azinger suddenly u.s. open where he lived, so for more than interrupts a pantomime of oakmont a year, every time I drove past various fancy casts and tales of his house I would throw a water bounteous catches to point out bottle on his driveway. He had a distant but quivering dark to notice, but I never got caught. spot on the water and says, I don’t know, it made me feel better.” “Watch this, bro.” In a few seconds, several Admittedly, Azinger’s pastimes are submullet fly out of the sea in unison. “Isn’t that stitutes for his most intense obsession: 35 awesome?” he says with wonder. years of tournament golf as a professional. Azinger also retains passionate but But Azinger’s enthusiasm for posting a score tenuous ties to foosball and poker. A recbegan to wane when his game went into dereational player of the former as a kid, cline in the early 2000s. He stopped playing Azinger hungered to get better and was the regular tour full-time after 2006, transimentored by his former caddie, Ted Scott tioning more to television. The only times he (now Bubba Watson’s longtime man), who has played in 50-and-over golf was in 2010, was a world-champion doubles player in the when he entered four tournaments and had tabletop sport in the early 2000s. Azinger’s a best finish of T-21. description of a sojourn to an underground tournament outside Louisville on the Saturday before the 2008 Ryder Cup, which he described as “a crack house for foosball players” devoid of “a stick of furniture” and “like ‘Silence of the Lambs’, walking into that basement,” might be the most artfully embellished—and incongruous—first-

interior to go fast, though he says that he has received only one moving violation on his motorcycles. When the BMW International Open, which Azinger won twice, asked him to attend a media day for its 25th-anniversary tournament, he requested and received as his fee the company’s best touring motorcycle, along with two days on its test track for instruction from a professional driver. Azinger decelerated in 2010—ostensibly his rookie year on the PGA Tour Champions—after a driver made a left turn in front of him on a Bradenton street. (The driver was cited for failing to yield.) He was forced to lay the bike down, breaking his left foot and three ribs. After recovering, he broke another rib the next year when he fell off his dirt bike in a remote area of phosphate pits in central Florida. He didn’t tell Toni about it, making up excuses for several weeks about why he winced whenever she hugged him. And in 2013, he tore up his left shoulder in another street accident when a young driver decided to stop in front of him. Now he takes longer, slower trips all over his home state and up and down the Eastern seaboard, his cellphone wired into his helmet. He maintains a goal of completing the Trans-America Trail, a grueling, nearly 5,000-mile, mostly off-road trek stretching from North Carolina to Oregon.

june 2016 | golf digest india

He still practices at several courses in the Bradenton/Sarasota area, and he doesn’t rule out a return to competition. But at the moment, Azinger is more fulfilled by working with young players like LPGA star Jessica Korda, mini-tour player Sean Jacklin (son of Tony), and Parker McLachlin, who after time with several teachers is trying to make his way back to the PGA Tour at 36 by allowing Azinger to guide him back to his natural swing. “Paul embraces the uniqueness of individuals,” says McLachlin, who first met Azinger at age 13. “He had a homemade swing, which forced him to figure out what would work under the gun and what didn’t. It’s like he took mental notes that cataloged all the trials and errors, which he can communicate in this really engaging, simple way. And you never forget that he played at the very highest level. More than most teachers, he knows that a bad shot is way more often a mental breakdown than a swing breakdown. All of that together sets him apart.”

smack-talking te acher

n teaching mode, Azinger is fully switched on, telling stories of players he has known, relating his experiences, preaching vivid visualization techniques and demonstrating his all-time arsenal of wedge shots. He also becomes even more playful and youthful. During playing lessons, he likes to set up a shot with tour-tested smack, like “I’m hitting it so good I have to apologize to the sweet spot,” or, “This right here is why I don’t play by myself. Because what’s coming is too good not to share with my friends.” “I love that stuff,” he says. “If I hit a terrible shot, it’s so funny. But it’s also a way to challenge myself to show off, and if I hit a good one, I can strut a little.” Of course, Azinger misses strutting on the big stage, something that in retrospect he was groomed for. His mother was a multiple club champion who once chipped in three times during an exhibition with Patty Berg. “She was an intense competitor,” Azinger says of his mom, “and she loved to watch me play.” Ralph Azinger, who passed away at 82 in 2013, was a decorated Air Force combat veteran who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and he was a major source of encouragement for his son. “He would always tell me that Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson were born in a sequence of 10year gaps, and because I was 10 years younger than Watson, I was part of the continuum. Even when I wasn’t much of a player, he got me to believe it. I had this unrealistic con-

78 golf digest india | june 2016

fidence.” Adds Suttie: “Paul had something Azinger is still working it all out. Fisheven when his scores didn’t warrant it. We ing boats and motorcycles give him the thought we should encourage him by telling solitude to think. Toni, who used to ride him how good he really was, and he’d just on the back during some of Paul’s motorsay, ‘Yeah, I’m that good.’ ” cycle excursions, still joins him for fishAzinger credits Suttie and the late John ing. “We don’t talk out there hardly at all,” Redman with giving him a simple model on she says. “That’s Paul’s time to slow down, which to build a swing, and he never varied which he needs.” from it. “But I took it deep with the mental It’s also where Azinger frames his best approach,” he says of learning deep-breathstuff for television, coming up with coming techniques and progressive muscle rements like, “Tiger Woods doesn’t need a laxation with boxing trainer Mac McKee. lesson. He needs a conversation.” Or ques“Ultimately,” he says, “that was my edge.” tions like, “Does the PGA Tour have a reguOlder players liked to help him, somelation flagstick?” Like Johnny Miller—who thing that Azinger fondly remembers as he in 2004 wrote of Azinger, “I think he has the pays it forward. “I took to Zinger because he potential to be a better TV announcer than had moxie, and I believed in him because of any other golfer, active or retired”—being a how hard he worked,” Lee Trevino says. “He thought leader helps fill the void left by no played a lot like me, with a strong grip and longer competing. an open stance, and he faded the ball. We Mark Loomis, the coordinating producer pushed the ball at the target, with very little of Fox’s golf telecasts, was instrumental in hand movement at the bottom. It’s the type hiring Azinger at ABC in 2006, and after of motion you can groove.” Greg Norman and Fox parted ways early The late Bert Yancey was another menthis year, initiated a reunion. “As a player, tor. Azinger says, “I told him, ‘I don’t know I noticed how comfortable Paul was in beif I can handle it. I get so nering honest with his answers,” vous.’ He said, ‘You want to Loomis says. “And then I learned be so nervous you can’t spit.’ that he thinks about everything And that idea that nervousin golf and loves to talk about it. 2016 ness and pressure can actually He’s reached the stage where he u.s. open make you better if you accept drives the broadcast, and he’s the oakmont them, it changed me. From kind of leader who makes everythen on, I never made a nickel one around him better. Paul is a when I wasn’t nervous makglue guy.” ing it. What it comes down to Adds Peter Alliss, the dean is how you answer the crucial question: Can of commentators, who became friends you swing with certainty when the pressure with Azinger at ABC and still works with is highest?” him on the BBC’s Masters telecasts: “Well, Azinger couldn’t quite control it when Paul knows how to hit the ball and play, he he lost the British Open in 1987 to his future knows how to think, he’s got an opinion, broadcast partner at ABC, Nick Faldo. But and he knows how to express it. That’s a lot, Azinger became more clutch, evolving into but he also possesses a charm and a distinct the emotional heart of three consecutive character. He’s been through some things, Ryder Cup teams. The Europeans became and it gives him perspective.” so conscious of him that Seve Ballesteros The “things” Azinger went through will called the U.S. team “11 nice guys and Paul focus a man. “Several times during chemo, Azinger.” In singles, Azinger beat BallesteI had to sign a waiver that said the drugs I ros in 1989, Jose Maria Olazabal in 1991, and was taking could give me cancer again in halved with Faldo in 1993. the future,” he says. “So not that I live with dread, but you know, when it’s really humid, battling cancer I don’t mind the sweat on my back, and when it’s cold, I don’t mind the chill. I’m very apnly a week later, what had been a preciative. I just try to pay attention to everypersistent pain in his right shoulthing, and have fun.” der was diagnosed as lymphoma, As Azinger rode over the Skyway Bridge and Azinger underwent an intense at sunset, he stood up on his foot pegs and regimen of chemotherapy. When he came looked out at the bay, checking tide lines back to the game in late 1994, he was different. for clues on where to fish the next day. But “I’ve always been a chip-on-the-shoulder his helmet also tilted up for a long look at guy when I played,” he says, “but cancer the towers in the fading light. Clearly, he kind of chipped away at the chip.” He manwas paying attention, and having fun. aged to win one more time, by seven shots at the 2000 Sony Open, three months after Stewart’s death. Azinger is proud that he made another Ryder Cup team and another Presidents Cup team, but he never won again. “Bottom line, after cancer, I just didn’t want to spend any time doing things that I knew were going to piss me off,” he says. “And missing four-footers pisses me off.”

India Digest On the European Tour

Andrew Johnston of England (R) shakes hands with Sergio Garcia after winning the Open de Espana at Real Club Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain

Sergio Garcia heralded a successful week both on and off the course as his foundation hosted the Real Club Valderrama Open de España. Andrew Johnston eventually prevailed at Valderrama at one over, the first time a regular European Tour event has been won with an over par total for 20 years, but Garcia pushed the Englishman close with a closing 67. The home fans were excited by the prospect of a Spanish win as Garcia, who started the day seven shots off the lead, made the turn in 32 and moved into a share of the lead with birdies on the 16th and 17th.

A closing bogey saw him set the clubhouse target a three over and, while that did not prove enough for victory, the 36 year old still secured his 11th top ten finish at Valderrama in 12 European Tour events. Garcia's Foundation, which was set up in 2002, was raising money and awareness for the Asociación Espanola Contra el Cancer (AECC), the largest cancer charity based in Spain. Over €66,000 was raised and that will provide accommodation for families whilst their children are undergoing cancer treatment.

european tour introduces isps Handa pressure putt sHowdown

he stars of the European Tour will showcase their skills and performance under pressure in an innovative new, made-for-TV challenge which will be introduced at the BMW PGA Championship. The ISPS HANDA Pressure Putt Showdown will feature star players and celebrities battling it out on the putting green for a £10,000 prize which will be donated to charity, with music and audience participation adding to the atmosphere. The unique format is designed to bring a whole new level of fan interaction and entertainment to European Tour events, as part of Chief Executive Keith Pelley’s strategy to raise the profile of the tour by engaging fans and players alike with exciting new ideas. The Pressure Putt Showdown will make its debut on the eve of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club and will also take place at three subsequent events – the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, the British Masters Supported by Sky Sports and one other. The inaugural Showdown, at the European Tour’s headquarters in Surrey, will put eight teams of two – one European Tour star and one celebrity

80 golf digest india | june 2016

partner - in the spotlight and will begin with each team putting from a distance of three feet. If both players miss, they will be eliminated before the successful teams move a foot further away from the hole and the battle resumes. As the background music adds to the pressure and excitement, the successful teams will continue to move further away from the hole until a winner is declared.

PhotograPh by ross Kinnaird/getty iMages

PhotograPh by Matthew Lewis/getty iMages

Host sergio Hails open de españa success

PhotograPh by andrew redington/getty iMages

On the European Tour

India Digest

Jeunghun Wang of Korea celebrates after winning the Trophee Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, Morocco

Korea highs for young guns on European Tour

eunghun Wang became the second young Korean in the space of three weeks to win on the European Tour after the 20 year old’s dramatic playoff triumph at the Trophée Hassan II, as the Asian nation’s star continues to rise on the world golfing stage. He followed it up the very next week to win the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open in stunning fashion by pipping leader Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh in the final round. The Rolex Rankings, the equivalent in the female golfing world to the Official World Golf Ranking, paints a very clear picture as to the dominant nation in the ladies’ game right now. Five of the top ten are from Korea and, while the dominant leader and one of the biggest sensations in world sport right now – Lydia Ko – is from New Zealand, the 19 year old was born in Seoul. The question those in the inner circles of the world game have been asking for some time now is, when will the men’s game follow suit?

YE Yang was thE pionEEr for KorEan golfErs, downing tigEr woods to win thE 2009 Uspga Championship and inspirE a nation with a popUlation of ovEr 50 million to piCK Up a golf ClUb and shoot for thE stars Wang’s success in Morocco may have come as a surprise to many observers – he was only playing his 14th European Tour event and was a sponsor’s invite – but after Soomin Lee emerged from the shadows to win comfortably at the Shenzhen International three weeks ago, how many more times must we be surprised before we begin to take these young Korean hot shots seriously? Byeong-hunAn’s rise through the ranks of European golf may not have been quite as meteoric, having spent three years on the Challenge Tour before making his break-

through, but he remains the eldest of the last three Korean winners on the European Tour - at the ripe old age of 23 and 255 days when he soared to the BMW PGA Championship title last year. Jin Yeong, the last Korean to win before An’s six-shot victory at Wentworth, was just 12 days older when he shocked the field at the 2013 Perth International, while Seungyul Noh is the youngest Korean winner in European Tour history, winning aged just 18 years and 282 days. The five Koreans that now hold full European Tour Membership sets a new record. Meanwhile, there now sit 11 Koreans in the top 200 of the Official World Golf Ranking – at the end of 2006 there were only six. Of course, YE Yang was the pioneer for Korean golfers, downing Tiger Woods to win the 2009 USPGA Championship and inspire a nation with a population of over 50 million to pick up a golf club and shoot for the stars. It is surely only a matter of time now before another Korean follows in the footsteps of Asia’s Major trailblazer. june 2016 | golf digest india

India Digest On the European Tour

PhotograPh by Lintao Zhang/getty images

Tours share landmark week in morocco

History was at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam when the European Tour and the Ladies European Tour both stage events at the stunning venue near the Moroccan coast. The men teed it up on the Red Course in the Trophée Hassan II while over on the Blue Course the women competed in the LallaMeryem Cup as the two Tours come together at one venue for the first time. It was not the last time that the men and the women will share the same venue this season, as they will all be brought together in Rio de Janeiro in August when golf returns to the Olympic Games for the first time in 112 years. While the men's and women's events will be played in different weeks in Brazil, the two tournaments ran concurrently in Morocco, and European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley was understandably excited by the prospect of further cooperation in the future.

PhotograPh by andrew redington/getty images

Lee claims maiden title after Shenzhen showdown

Jeunghun Wang holed three remarkable putts on the 18th green to see off Nacho Elvira after extra holes on a dramatic final day at the Trophée Hassan II in Morocco. The Korean had to hole an 18 foot effort on the 72nd hole to force a playoff after Spain’s Elvira had also birdied the last following an excellent approach to within a couple of feet. Elvira then looked to be in control of the first extra hole when he reached the par five 18th in two, but Wang made a 50 foot birdie effort and then converted from 20 feet for a winning gain when the pair replayed the hole. The finish was fitting of a thrilling final round where the lead changed hands regularly, with difficult conditions and a testing Royal Golf Dar Es Salam layout creating a war of attrition.

The Korean had To hole an 18 fooT efforT on The 72nd hole To force a play-off afTer Spain’S elvira had alSo birdied The laST following an excellenT approach To wiThin a couple of feeT 82 golf digest india | june 2016

PhotograPh by Lintao Zhang/getty images

wang holds off elvira To land firsT win

Soomin Lee went wire-to-wire at the Shenzhen International to claim his first European Tour title at Genzon Golf Club. Lee, Alexander Levy, Lee Slattery, JoostLuiten, Brandon Stone and Scott Hend all had a chance to take the crown, with just one shot separating the six players as the weather-delayed event came down to a day five shootout. The South Korean began the day in a share of top spot with five holes to play and a birdie on the 16th followed by an eagle on the next helped him sign for a closing 71 and get to 16 under. That gave him a two-shot victory over Luiten and Stone and banished the memory of the Maybank Championship Malaysia, where he came into the final round with a three-shot lead but made two double-bogeys in his last three holes to finish in a share of second.

On the European Tour India Digest

Li claims home win at the

PhotograPh by Lintao Zhang/getty images

Volvo China Open

i Haotong delighted the home fans at Topwin Golf and Country Club as he fired a closing bogey-free 64 to become the second consecutive Chinese winner of the Volvo China Open. The 20 year old began the day two shots behind Felipe Aguilar and Lucas Bjerregaard but with a large home gallery cheering on his every shot, he reeled in the Chilean and held a share of the lead as he stood on the 17th tee. The win makes China the first country to have players win the event in successive years after Wu Ashun's triumph last campaign and also gives the world's

lihaS a million dollar Smile, a winning golf Swing andhaS The world aT hiS feeT. having given Several SignS of hiS conSiderable abiliTy in The laST 12 monThS - noT leaST hiS Top Ten finiSh in The wgc-hSbc championS laTe laST year li iS becoming a SuperSTar in china most populous nation a record fourth victory, one more than Australia and England. Lihas a million dollar smile, a winning golf swing andhas the world (or certainly one sixth of its population) at his feet. Having given several signs of his considerable ability in the last 12 months - not least his top

ten finish in the WGC-HSBC Champions late last year - Li is becoming a superstar in China, a country which doesn’t take its home-grown international success stories lightly.Li has a long way to go yet if he is to reach those heights, but there is no doubting he possesses all the ingredients.

Now, with a full European Tour exemption secured, he will turn his attention to the Official World Golf Ranking and qualifying for the Olympic Games. Sealing a place in Rio would crank his superstar rating up another notch in China, where Olympic medals are enough to ensure you never have to pay for a round at the bar ever again. Li Haotong is making a massive breakthrough for the game of golf in China, breaking down barriers and attracting huge new audiences in the world’s most populous nation. Now it’s time for the world to sit up and take notice.

june 2016 | golf digest india

India Digest On the European Tour

EuropEan Tour sTars sET nEw rEcord for fasTEsT holE in golf With four-man Spanish, Danish and French teams led respectively by Open de España tournament host Sergio Garcia, Thorbjørn Olesen and Raphaël Jacquelin, the European Tour and Access All Areas set some of the European Tour's finest a challenge play the 500-yard par five fourth at iconic Valderrama in a relay format in the quickest

time possible and with it - attempt to break a Guinness World Records title. Garcia captained a Spanish squad featuring compatriots Rafa Cabrera Bello, Pablo Larrazábal and Nacho Elvira, while Olesen led a Danish team completed by Lucas Bjerregaard, Morten Ørum Madsen and Lasse Jensen. Finally, Jacquelin had a squad featuring Alex

Levy, Gregory Havret and Romain Wattel. With 68 seconds to beat, who prevailed? Could anyone get that coveted Guinness World Records title? Sounds like fun right? It was. For the full video and more Access All Areas features, check out the European Tour’s YouTube page.

Check out the superb Getty Images snaps from the challenge. Rafa Cabrera Bello dismounts during Team Spain's attempt.

Romain Wattel makes a dash for it after hitting the tee shot for Team France.

Lasse Jensen celebrates a strong Danish bid.

High stakes...

No time to waste for Spain's Pablo Larrazábal.

84 golf digest india | june 2016

Allez!!

Morten Ă&#x2DC;rum Madsen and Danish captain ThorbjĂ¸rn Olesen flying high after a dramatic finish.

Team Denmark all smiles on the fourth at Valderrama.

Huge celebrations for Team France.

The big moment as Guinness World Records adjudicator Anna Orford announces the results...

...as France are formally inducted into the Guinness World Records with a spectacular time of 34.8 seconds. Allez les bleus!

PhotograPhs getty Images

june 2016 | golf digest india

India Digest Inside The Ropes

Inside the Ropes with

Jeev Milkha Singh Inarguably the most successful golfer India has produced; Jeev Milkha Singh has over 13 International career wins to his name. Jeev achieved a career high World Ranking of 28 in 2009, the highest by an Indian golfer till date. In 2007, he became the first Indian to play the Masters Tournament and in 2016 was made Captain of the Asian Team at the Eurasia Cup- again becoming the first Indian to do so. Jeev has 4 European Tour wins, 5 Asian Tour wins and 4 on the Japan Golf Tour to his credit. His list of accolades is long and distinguished and includes the Padma Shri from the Government of India in 2007 for his contribution to sport. Golf Digest India caught up with Jeev before he teed off at the BMW PGA Championship.

By Bharath Arvind 86 golf digest india | june 2016

Photograph by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Inside The Ropes

India Digest

At the Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open 2016

june 2016 | golf digest india

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I have cut down on the tournaments I play. I used to play about 35-40 tournament a year. Now I plan to bring it down by about 5 weeks in a year, so still playing a lot but definitely less than I used to.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

88 golf digest india | june 2016

Photograph by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

India Digest Inside The Ropes

Inside The Ropes

India Digest

I am still nervous on the first tee, still excited to hit that opening shot even after so many years. 1

After your last win at the 2012 Scottish Open, there have been some injuries – how has the recovery been? Injuries are always tough for a player. It’s more of a mental set back than a physical set back. Golf is all about the mental game essentially. As of now, I’m pretty fine and healthy and feeling good about my game and looking forward to the rest of the season.

You’ve had a great run for over twenty years playing all across the world. How has your travel schedule changed? I have cut down on the tournaments I play. I used to play about 35-40 tournament a year. Now I plan to bring it down by about 5 weeks in a year, so still playing a lot but definitely less than I used to. I am trying to spend more time with my family and make the most of it by playing limited amount of tournaments and hopefully do well and get ready for the Senior Tour which is in five years!

Describe a day in the life of Jeev Milkha Singh? During Season I try to wake up about three hours before my tee-time. I have my coffee, have a hot shower and get ready for the day. I carry a Yoga mat and a roller with me wherever I am in the world and spend about 45 minutes practising yoga. That includes stretching, surya namaskars and meditation. I then head off to the golf course about an hour and a half before my tee-time to warm up. After the round, I practice a little bit and then head back to the room for a hot shower and do my yoga routine again for about 25-30 minutes. I head to the gym about thrice a week and after the gym its early dinner before 8pm irrespective of which part of the world I am in. After dinner I unwind by watching a movie or something on youtube, check emails, catch up on phone calls and then call it an early night. Off Season My day starts pretty similarly. So after the morning yoga or gym, I come back and love spending time with my family and my two Labradors. I love dogs so I enjoy spending time with them and make the most of it when I am around. I enjoy home cooked

food as well. Evening, I go practise by hitting about a 100 balls or play a few holes with my friends. Once I get back home, I get a drink with my dad and have an early dinner and call it night.

How old is your son now and is he taking to the game? Harjai is six years old now and gives it a good whack at the Chandigarh Golf Association driving range near our house so he’s basically having fun with it right now.

What needs to happen for you to get back in the thick of things regularly at tournaments? I really think it’s a question of time. I have been playing well and feeling good about my game. This game is such that you never know which week it all just comes together and I am just waiting for that week to happen. I know I’m working hard on all aspects of my game and feel good. Sometimes the harder you try or push yourself especially when you’re playing well, the game gets further away from you. So it’s essentially a waiting game now on which week it’s all going to come together and I know this year it’s going to happen!

What advice do you have for the youngsters? The most important thing for a golfer is to be honest in your practise. You have to do quality practise and not quantity. You have to be hungry and have that drive from within, nobody can push you to desire it. Your parents can drive you to the golf course but if you are going to spend your time chatting with friends or be on the phone and not working on aspects of your game then it’s of no use. You’ve got to feel that you want to play golf and have the hunger and desire to get better and better. Parents can introduce you to the game but after that it is about what level or standard of the game you want to reach.

‘The most important thing for a golfer is to be honest in your practise. You have to do quality practice and not quantity. You have to be hungry and have that drive from within, nobody can push you to desire it.‘

I have been very fortunate as have some other players who have made a career out doing what we love. There is nothing better than having a profession that pays you and that you love doing every single day. I am still nervous on the first tee, still excited to hit that opening shot even after so many years. The day I stop feeling that is the day I will have to do something else.

How do we grow the number of golfers in India? The first thing is that we need more public driving ranges which will make the game more accessible to the common man. For example the house help or my driver whose son wants to play golf, just can’t simply because he is not going to be able to afford a membership at a club to even begin practising. But why shouldn’t he be able to? If we had more public ranges, we will have a greater number of players emerging. Once that starts happening, there will automatically be more competition and the standard will improve. The next thing is that we need to have more public golf courses because that will allow kids to test what they have practiced at the range. Once this happens, we will have a lot more depth in the number of golfers we produce. This will lead to more sponsors showing interest and there will be more money in the game. Right now sponsorship is purely coming from people who love the game and want to keep it alive in India even if it isn’t making commercial sense to them. This is their way of giving back to the game.

With the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open 2012 Trophy june 2016 | golf digest india

India Digest Inside The Ropes

I try to play atleast one or two tournaments in India, so that I can hopefully contribute to the growth of the game As Captain - Team Asia with Darren Clarke Captain Team Europe at the Eurasia Cup 2016

Jeev’s favourites’ Golf course in India Chandigarh Golf Club my home course Golf course around the world Augusta National GC

Photograph by Getty Images

Movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Now, we need to make this game more attractive to sponsors who will put money into golf because it gives them the mileage they are looking for.

Your thoughts on how the Olympics can be leveraged ? I definitely hope that Anirban Lahiri, SSP Chowrasia and Aditi Ashok, who will most likely represent India, do well. Once they do well, the government should put the money to make sure we start preparing for the next Olympics. I also think the IGU and the PGTI should leverage the Olympics and especially the players, by ensuring they receive good media attention which will help spread the awareness of the game and the fact that India is participating in golf in the Olympics.

The Indian pro tour is facing a tough time finding sponsors – any ideas for them? I think they are in a better position than they were last year. One thing they should focus on is to ensure that more top players play in India. That will make it more attractive to the sponsors. This includes players like me. I try to play atleast one or two tournaments in India, so that I can hopefully contribute to the growth of the game in some way. I also

think that the players need to be more vocal and make the effort to thank the sponsors or their guests thereby creating a better image for the game on the whole. That would be their way of giving back to the sport and once that starts happening the sponsors will feel good about the event and the players and will agree to sponsor more events for a longer period of time. That word of mouth will spread to other sponsors who will start taking notice of the sport and the benefits they can derive from it.

Music I love Jagjit Singh

Superstitions None

Which sponsors and companies are you associated with? I have been very fortunate to have support from a lot of people in my career. Rolex has been fantastic. My sponsor from Japan, GMA, has been great. Pawan Munjal of Hero Group has been really fantastic not just for me but for the game. UPS, Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist who have helped me with golf balls. Colmar, an Italian company as well. All these companies who have helped me out have been fantastic. I am very thankful to each and every one of them because they have contributed to me being where I am today. The beauty is that they never stopped believing in me and that’s a very good message for everybody that it’s not over yet!

‘I definitely hope that Anirban Lahiri, SSP Chowrasia and Aditi Ashok, who will most likely represent India, do well. Once they do well, the government should put the money to make sure we start preparing for the next Olympics. ‘ 90 golf digest india | june 2016

Drink Japanese Single MaltYamazaki 18-years Food Tandoori

Essentials in your travel bag Laptop, Phone, chargers, toiletries, passport, tickets & papers needed Mid-round power snack? Banana Golf Course on your wishlist None really Mentors My dad (Milkha Singh) and Fred Couples Sport apart from golf None really, I enjoy watching movies Holiday destination Crans- Montana, Switzerland What are you a sucker for? Movies and spending time with the family

Spotlight

A Guide To Golf at the Rio 2016 Olympics

The 2016 Summer Olympics take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from August 5- 21, 2016. Golf makes its way back into the mecca of sporting events after a 112 year hiatus and will feature women’s and men’s individual events. Here’s a snapshot of what you need to know for golf in Rio 2016.

India Digest

New Olympic Golf Course, Rio de Janeiro built within the Reserva de Marapen di in the Barra da Tijuca zone often simply called Barra

Qualification System

The Women’s and Men’s Competitions will each be comprised of exactly 60 athletes respectively: 59 qualifying through the Olympic Golf Rankings (OGR) and 1 Host Country place. OGR ranking points can be earned during the period beginning 14 July 2014 and up to and including 11 July 2016. The top-15 world-ranked players will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top-15, players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top-15.

Format of Play

72-holes of individual stroke play scheduled over four consecutive days . Scores are cumulative from round to round. The athlete with the lowest aggregate score wins. In the event of a tie for first, second or third place, a play-off or multiple play-offs shall be conducted for the purpose of determining the gold, silver and bronze medal winners.

Probable Indian Contingent

Based on Olymic Golf Rankings (OGR ) as on May 23, 2016

Men

Anirban Lahiri

OGR Rank- 24

(Performance between 2014-2016)

European Tour • Winner- Maybank Malaysian Open 2015 (Wco-sanctioned with Asian Tour) • Winner- Indian Open 2015 (co-sanctioned with Asian Tour) Asian Tour • Winner- CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters 2014 • Winner- Venetian Macau Open 2014 Women

Aditi Ashok

OGR Rank- 58 Turned Pro: 2016 Career Highlights • Won- Ladies European Tour’s Lalla Aicha Tour School 2015 (record lowest winning score of 23-under)

SSP Chowrasia

OGR Rank- 42

(Performance between 2014-2016)

European Tour • Hero Indian Open 2016 (Cosanctioned with Asian Tour) • Runner up- Hero India Open 2015 Asian Tour • Panasonic Open India 2014

Amateur Wins: • St. Rule Trophy 2015, St. Andrews, Scotland • Ladies British Amateur Stroke Play Championship 2015 • 81st Singha Thailand Amateur Championship 2015 • Silver Medal at the International European Ladies Amateur 2015 Championship.

june 2016 | golf digest india

India Digest Spotlight

Learn to drive

IGIA AwArds 2016 Best Driving Range in India

Hamoni Golf Camp, Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest standalone golf training facility, has an impressive list of features to make newcomers enthusiastic about the game and help existing golfers improve their handicap. It won the Indian Golf Industry Association (IGIA)Best Driving Range in India award at the India Golf Expo 2016. The IGIA Awards are judged by a jury of industry stalwarts & involves an online poll open to the entire golfing community in India. GDI takes a closer look at the facility. In 2014 golf enthusiast & pro golfer Manish Goyal along with his brother-in-law Ritwik Kejriwal decided to put their passion for golf and their 16 acre private farm to good use to attract more people to the game they loved. And Voila! Hamoni Golf Camp was born with the idea to promote the game and make it easily accessible for people to learn. The thought was to have no dress code, no memberships or restrictions and provide equipment to ensure that people found it friendly and easy to take up the game. Kudos to them for the novel idea! Path

Target Greens

Practice Bays

Porta Toilet (M) 1 2

Practice Chipping Green Bunkers Ball Counter

7 3 8

ACE PEN

Grass Bays

Chipping

Hamoni Lodge 3

Events Corner

Guestsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Porta Toilets (M/F)

HGC Entry Gate

Entry Hut

Parking

Changing Room Parking Porta Toilet (M/F)

getting there: CK Farm, Sector 23A, Gurgaon, opposite Maruti factory timingS: 6 am to 9 pm daily (Monday closed) ContaCt: +91-124-6526777 92 golf digest india | june 2016

Spotlight

The Digest

Quick Facts  105 driving Bays  night Golf  9 target greens  19 Bunkers  4 practice greens for putting and chipping  9 hole pitch & putt course  Certified Golf instructors (Abhishek Ahlawat)  outdoor Fitness Zone  the piano Man Garden Café  Junior programs  ladies programs  Corporate Clinics & Workshops  Swing Studio (Coming Soon)  pro Shop (Coming Soon)

“WinninG the AWArd For the BeSt drivinG rAnGe in the Country Within tWo yeArS oF eStABliShMent iS thrillinG. We Would liKe to thAnK our pAtronS Who Believed And voted For uS. it looKS to Be An exCitinG yeAr AheAd For GroWinG the GAMe oF GolF By MAKinG it More ACCeSSiBle And AFFordABle For the people. our Motto iS SiMple And We Abhishek AhlAwAt, Director of Golf WAnt everyone to Believe in it- #GolFiSForMe” Photographs Courtesy Hamoni Golf Camp

june 2016 | golf digest india

India Digest Spotlight

The Joy of Giving

Participants Anant Haksar & Soni M Singh (L) Shiraz Singh, Lady Captain, Delhi Golf Club presents a Lucky Draw prize to Meena Khanna

he 3rdÂ Caddies Welfare Trust (CWT) Charity Members Golf Tournament was hosted at the Delhi Golf Club in April with the enthusiastic participation 350 members. The CWT is committed to improving the lives of caddies and their families, focusing primarily on health, skill development and economic sustenance. Chaired by Siddharth Shriram, along with four club members, the Trust reaches out to corporates, individuals, well-wishers and the community at large to raise funds for the cause. The Trust has also committed to holding an annual event for caddies, across clubs in India.

All Smiles at the Registration Desk

Eligibility criteria for caddies

CWT organises dental examinations for caddies, courtesy Clove Dental

Eye check ups for the caddies

Taiwan's Ambassador, Tien CK hands over a ticket to Taiwan courtesy China Airlines to veteran golfer Ashok Malik

94 golf digest india | june 2016

Anit Mehrotra of SGDC hands over a voucher to the First Lady of the Embassy of Taiwan

While CWT is a pan India initiative, the focus currently is on Delhi. In order for caddies to be eligible to be beneficiaries of the CWT they are required to: purchase Life Insurance (CWT arranges a preferential group rate of under Rs. 200); must comply with the attendance criteria i.e. minimum rounds caddied each month and must be alcohol and drug free.

Benefits to Caddies

Each registered caddy is eligible for Medical Insurance for themselves, spouse and two children (the 2015-16 figures show 1750 individuals covered); any OPD expenses incurred up to a certain amount; ex-gratia subsidies paid to those unable to caddy for 3 months+ due to illness; comprehensive eye and dental camps with paid-up follow up treatment of cataracts; teeth replacement etc; incentives for children of caddies enrolled in graduate or post-graduate courses; retired caddies receive an annual subsidy; clothing in the form of jackets, t-shirts, shawls; blankets; necessary durables at a third of the cost, the rest is borne by the manufacturer and the Trust.

CWT Trustees hand over a subsidy cheque to a Delhi Golf Club caddy. All caddies received sweaters for the winter

CWT Trustee Col R.S. (Billy) Bedi & DGC President Rajesh Dhingra admire the winners trophy

India Digest Promotional Feature-Louis Philippe Cup 2016

r rdnaamyen, t Foolu e tou PGTI,

72 h the ved by 1.2 Cr, appro rse of Rs. u r p o has a e highest f c i th t s me any do ment a n r u to ia in Ind

erhaps the most sought after Tournament on the domestic professional golf circuit is the Louis Philippe Cup which on a per player basis is the richest event on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) calendar. The tournament attracts India's top professional as well as the crème of the sports fraternity, accomplished former athletes, celebrities, corporates and czars from the fashion and lifestyle realm. 24 players representing 8 city teams, battle it out for the coveted Louis Philippe Cup at the Karnataka Golf Association on 30th May – 4th June 2016. The fifth edition witnesses a strong cast of India’s elite professionals from the Asian Tour and PGTI led by SSP Chowrasia, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Rahil Gangjee, to name a few. A star studded Gala Dinner presented by The Man and SBI Wealth Management will be hosted at ITC Gardenia followed by the Louis Philippe Cup Etihad Pro – Am the following morning. In attendance will be celebrities like R Madhavan, Nandita Shweta, Mani Ratnam, Ashish Ballal and Murali Karthik to name a few. The glamorous event symbolizes elegance and panache exuded by the stars who dazzle the evening and walk the ramp with an air of excellence that Louis Philippe characterizes.

R. Madhavan

Syed Kirmani

Kapil Dev

Ajit Agarkar

96 golf digest india | june 2016

Rahil Gangjee & Papa CJ

Meghana Gaonkar, Prasad Bidappa & Parul Yadav

India's top lady professionals will add to the competitive spirit while celebrities will dazzle the crowd with their golfing skills at the Etihad Pro-Am.

TEAMS The Eight city teams are • Navratna Ahmedabad • Zion Hills Bengaluru • Dev Chandigarh • TAke Chennai • Jaypee Greens Greater Noida • DLF – The Crest Gurgaon • NSports Hyderabad • Laqshya Mumbai

Team Prize Money Distribution PoSiTioN

Nikki Ponnappa

PRiZe MoNeY 1ST 36 Lacs 2ND 24 Lacs 3RD 18 Lacs 4TH 12 Lacs 5TH 9 Lacs 6TH 7Lacs 7TH 5.5Lacs 8th 4.5 Lacs Lowest indiviual Score 3 Lacs Manager-Winning Team 1 Lac ToTAL iNR 1.2 Crores

Sharmila Nicollet

Ankita Tiwana

Vani Kapoor

Schedule 2016

Neha Tripathi

May 27-29

ls Training Camp at Zion Hil nty Golf Cou

May 30

Practice Round at kGA Gala Dinner at iTC Gardenia

May 31

Pro-Am

June 1

Round 1

June 2

Round 2

June 3

Round 3

June 4

Final Round & Prize Ceremony

}

kGA, Bengaluru

Charu Sharma june 2016 | golf digest india

India Digest Promotional Feature-Louis Philippe Cup 2016

The Introduction of Team Managers

A 3 day training camp for all teams with their respective team managers will be held at Zion Hills Golf County in preparation for the tournament. The introduction of team managers (senior pro golf coaches) this year serves to boost team morale, camaraderie and strategize the team’s game plan. Here's a look at the managers and what they have to say.

Devang Shah

Tarun Sardesai

Jayanan Satagopal

His passion and love for golf & business led him to develop one of India’s Best Golf Courses, Kalhaar Blues & Greens in Ahmedabad. His constant motivation and mentoring has led Team Navratna Ahmedabad to win three out of the four editions of the Louis Philippe Cup. Devang is also part of the Navratna Ahmedabad Intercity Pro-Am team and has been instrumental in leading the team to three straight titles in as many years.

Tarun was coach at KGA from 2004-2013 and then setup the TSG Academy at Zion Hills Golf County, Bengaluru in 2013. He played professional golf from 1999-2004 and was affiliated with KGA. Some notable players at his academy are Sharmila Nicollet and Trishul Chinnappa.

Jayanan has been coaching at the TNGF Golf Academy, Chennai since 2005. He has played as an Amateur since 1990 and after turning coach has worked to nurture Junior talent in Chennai. Jayanan is also a Tournament Director for the IGU amateur, juniors and ladies events. He is a National Golf Academy of India (NGAI) ‘A’ Certified instructor.

Owner & Team Manager

Your thoughts on the team? We have the same team from last year. Why change something that isn't broken and going in as defending champions the other teams will be vary of us! What would you do to improve your team’s chances of winning? Going in as Defending champions to the same course with the same players who are in good knick, we give ourselves a very good chance of winning it for a fourth time. I don't think we can go in with the underdogs tag anymore!

Team Manager

Your thoughts on the team? I think we have a great team this year with all three players playing some of their best golf. Rahil and Dharma are now based in Bangalore and both play a lot of golf at the KGA. One could almost say we have home course advantage. Abhijit has already won this year on tour and is in very good form. His length will be quite an advantage at the KGA which will be playing long due to the rains. What would you do to improve your team’s chances of winning? I think the key to winning at the KGA would be to get good reads on the putts. We will be working a lot on green reading strategies.

Rahul Ganapathy Team Manager

Rahul was one of India’s best junior, amateur and professional golfers achieving the number 1 rank in all of the above. He came into prominence after winning the 1999-2000 All-India Amateurs title, thus becoming the tournament's first south Indian champion. The highlight of his professional career, was the round of ‘12-under 60’, at Digboi Assam, which still stands as the best score by an Indian. Rahul began his full time teaching career in 2010 and is now, ‘Director & Head of Instruction, Clover Greens Golf Academy, Bengaluru. He is also a brand ambassador for HONMA.

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Team Manager

Your thoughts on the team? Brilliant combination What would you do to improve your team’s chances of winning? These guys know how to be winners and I don't want to get in between and try to reinvent the wheel. Every player has the game to be a winner. My job is to bring them together!

Your thoughts on the team? Hyderabad is the latest addition to the Louis Philippe Cup and it was time they came on boardbecause of the growing golfing culture in the city. The team composition is perfect. All three players come with strong pedigree putting us amongst the favourites in the tournament. What would you do to improve your team’s chances of winning? I have known all three players well and the idea is to work on each players strength to get the best out of them. That would be the key to winning the tournament!

Promotional Feature-Louis Philippe Cup 2016 India Digest

Divakar Vasu

Vijay Divecha

Karan Bindra

Having been a professional cricketer for over 20 years, Divakar brings a wealth of experience on managing and motivating a successful team, essential to this format of golf. A single handicap golfer, he lends his expertise to TAKE Solutions as their Sports Director and will bring his extensive knowledge on team sports to the golf course with his philosophy of letting the players explore their own abilities and keeping them focused. Vasu also oversees TAKE Solutions' sport initiatives across professional golf.

In 2000, Divecha left a lucrative corporate job to become a teaching professional at age 40. He now runs The Eagleton Golf Academy, Bengaluru and coaches the likes of Anirban Lahiri, Chikkarangappa and Udayan Mane to name a few.

As a professional, Karan played on the tour from 1995 till 2005 and started teaching in 1997. He is a Class ‘A’ certified teaching professional from the National Golf Academy of India (NGAI) and runs India’s leading Golf Academy at DLF as well as a golf related business. He played competitive junior and amateur golf, representing India in international tournaments.

Team Manager

Your thoughts on the team? It is a pleasure to be with a talented group of professionals, who are very different, but at the same time very caring and helpful towards each other even while competing in the same sport. They feed off each others' success . What would you do to improve your team’s chances of winning? Will let them explore their own abilities and let them stay focused and motivated.

Team Manager

Your thoughts on the team? I think our team is a blend of experience and youth. Since this is a team championship everyone will need to contribute to stay in the race to the top. I am pretty confident that we will be in contention on the final day. What would you do to improve your team’s chances of winning? Our team is going to be together from the 27th which gives us plenty of time to bond and for me to put the boys at ease. To improve our chances of winning my advise to them would be to play to their strengths and to play freely.

Team Manager

Your thoughts on the team? Ashok, Shubhankar and Manu have been supported by the DLF Golf & Country Club as its brand ambassadors for many years now and all three have shown considerable improvement in their games and rankings. Shubhankar particularly has been in stellar form winning multiple times in the last few months. Ashok also bagged a title recently and with Manu being at the threshold of taking a quantum leap in his career, the DLF Crest team looks stronger than ever.

Bamby Randhawa Team Manager

Bamby has been coaching in Bengaluru since 1999 and is affiliated with the KGA/ ASK Academy. Bamby utilizes modern teaching aids like Trackman in his training and is also a trained Honma Club fitter. A certified Sam Putting Lab teacher and ambassador for Pudu golf clothing, Bamby recently received the “Best Teaching Professional” Award at the TAKE Solutions India Golf Awards 2016. As a player, he has won on the Junior, Amateur and Professional tours in India.

Your thoughts on the team? I am thrilled to be a part of this team. Having an experienced veteran like Mukesh, an Asian tour winner like Chiragh and the young blood of Abhinav, we are bound to be a powerful force. What would you do to improve your team’s chances of winning? We need to make better decisions on the course as it involves a trade-off between risk and reward. Victories almost never happen with below average ball striking. Our strategy will be to find fairways off the tee, so we can get approach shots closer to the hole on the big KGA greens and beat the field with strokes gained in putting. june 2016 | golf digest india

India Digest Players in the News

Players IN the News

LAdies europeAn Tour

18-year old Aditi Ashok of Bangalore who turned professional at the start of 2016, played her third Ladies European Tour event at the Lalla Meryem Cup at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, Morocco. Aditi finished T21 at five over par thru 72-holes. The event was won by rookie Nuria Iturrios of Spain with a score of 11-under par. The following week Aditi finished T27 in the Buick Championship held at Shanghai Qizhong Garden Golf, China. Earned: €6,525 in Morocco and €5,384 in China

European Tour

Aditi shares a light moment with her father Ashok

Shiv Kapur of Delhi finished T59 with a score of 10-over par at the Trophée Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, Morocco. The 34-year old’s third round of 7-over par set him off the pace at the event which was won in a dramatic playoff by 20-year old Korean Jeunghun Wang at 5-under par. Earned: €4,125 for his effort in Morocco.

AfrAsiA BAnk MAuriTius open

Kolkata’s Rahil Gangjee secured his second Top 10 finish of the season at the European Tour, Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour tri-sanctioned event. His score of three over par saw him finish T7 and nine shots behind winner Jeunghun Wang of Korea. Only Wang and Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rahman (runner up) finished in red figures in a tournament that saw heavy winds posing trouble for the players. Earned: US$ 26, 381 in Mauritius.

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u.s. open 2016

Anirban Lahiri will feature in the year’s second major, the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club from June 16-19. He is currently (as on May 24) ranked 56 in the Official World Golf Rankings. The top 60 in the world automatically qualify. He will be joined by other Asian’s - Korea’s K.T. Kim and Thai duo Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Thongchai Jaidee. This will be the 28-year old's second U.S. Open and 9th major appearance. Earlier in April, Lahiri finished T42 at the year’s first major- The Masters.

Players in the News India Digest

indiAn goLf union The 2016 IGU Chandigarh Ladies & Junior Girls Championship held at Chandigarh Golf Club saw 15-year old Diksha Dagar of Haryana claim the 54-hole tournament with a score of 3-over par. She was three shots clear of runner up Ridhima Dilawari of Delhi. 14 -ye a r ol d Harshjeet Singh Sethie of Delhi won the IGU YES Bank Rajasthan Junior Boys Championship with a score of 17-over par over 72-holes. He was closely followed by 11-year old Shubham Jaglan who finished runner up two strokes behind. 17-year old Jay Pandya of Gujarat won the IGU YES Bank Uttar Pradesh Junior Boys Championship with a score of 17-under par over 72-holes. The event held at The Palms Golf Club, Lucknow saw Delhi's Kshitij Naveed Kaul finish as runner up two strokes behind. Delhiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Arjun Prasad beat Haryanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Yuvraj Sandhu in a playoff to win the Northern India Amateur Golf Championship at Delhi Golf Club. The duo were tied at 1-over par after 72-holes. Shubham Narain also from Delhi finished 1 stroke behind to claim third place. The trio of Diksha Dagar, Gaurika Bishnoi and Tvesa Malik finished T10 at the Queen Sirikit Cup (Asia Pacific Amateur Ladies Golf Team Championship) at The Ora Country Club, Korea. A total of 14 teams consisting of three member each participated in the event. Diksha also finished T17 in the individual category out of more than 40 golfers.

L-R: Manisha Jaitha (Team Manager), Tvesa Malik, Gaurika Bishnoi, Diksha Dagar & Amandeep Johl (High Performance Coach)

Chiragh Kumar on his way to victory at the Panasonic Open India 2015

AsiAn Tour

Delhi Golf Club set to host Panasonic Open India in November. Asian Tour announces a strong second half for the season

June to December Schedule: June 30-July 3: Yeangder Tournament Players Championship, Linkou International GCC, Taipei, US $500,000

July 28-31: King's Cup, Phoenix Gold GCC, Pattaya, US $750,000

sept 1-4: Omega European Masters, Crans-sur-Sierre GC, Crans Montana, US $3 million

sept 22-25: Asia Pacific Open Mitsubishi Diamond Cup, Ibaraki CC, West Course, US $1.3 million

sept 29-Oct 2: Mercuries Taiwan Masters, Taiwan GCC, US $800,000

sept 29-Oct 2: Shinhan Donghae Open, Bears Best Cheongna GC, US $1 million

Oct 6-9: Indonesian Masters presented by Zurich, Royale Jakarta GC, US $750,000

Oct 13-16: Venetian Macao Open, Macau GCC, US $1 million

Oct 20-23: CIMB Classic, Kuala Lumpur GCC, US $7 million

Oct 27-30: WGC-HSBC Champions, Sheshan International GC, US $9.5 million

Nov 3-6: Panasonic Open India, Delhi GC, US $400,000

Nov 10-13: Resorts World Manila Masters, Manila Southwoods GCC, US $1 million

Nov 24-27: WGC World Cup of Golf, Kingston Heath Golf Club, Melbourne, US $8 million

Dec 8-11: UBS Hong Kong Open, Hong Kong GC, US $2 million

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India Digest Club Round Up

ClUb RoUnd Up

Initiative

Green Meadows Golf Academy- Community Golf

In 2008, Shri. Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, inaugurated a 9-hole golf course which was included as part of a public park in the Valley of Wildflower Hill Garden on the outskirts of Rajkot, Gujarat. The course, run by Green Meadows Golf Academy (GMGA), is one of India’s first Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to bring golf to a public park and make it accessible to people of all walks of life. The course covers 40 acres of the 80 acres park which is open throughout the year for everyone who wishes to enjoy the green space or even try their hand at golf. The Par-31 course accredited by the Indian Golf Union offers a separate putting and chipping area, a club house, amphitheatre, boating facilities and plenty of activities for children in the play area. This truly is a unique PPP model whereby affordable golfing is made possible by integrating golf into a public park where maintenance of the park is paid for by park entry fees (INR 20/ adult) and golf. The natural lake provides water throughout the year which is also harvested in reserve wells across the park.

Memberships (Unlimited Rounds)

Walk-in's: INR 200/round

Indiviuals: INR 27,000/year Students & Juniors: INR 12,000/year • Rounds are permitted from 6 am to 11 am daily • Coaching from 4 pm to 6 pm • Clubs available on rent.

Launched

Golf Academy in Shillong

The North East region’s first golf academy was launched at the Shillong Golf Course. The Meghalaya Golf Promoters Society Academy (MGPSA) was inaugurated by AL Hek (Hon’ble Minister – Health & Family Welfare) and Venkatesh Prasad – (Former Cricketer) along with AH Scott Lyngdoh (Former Minister) and Board Member, Shillong Golf Club and Indrajit Bhalotia (Former National Golf Champion). The academy is setup in association with Protouch Golf Academy, Kolkata with the mission to promote Junior golf in the region. The academy has a National Golf Academy of India (NGAI) certified head coach assisted by two local coaches trained by Indrajit Bhalotia and NGAI ‘A’ certified coach Rukmini Mehta. Fees for Junior Golfers at INR 2900/month inclusive of equipment,membership fees etc.

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L-R: Gaurav Bajaj, Daniel Jyrwa, Al Hek, AH Scott, Param Singh, Venkatesh Prasad & Batkupar Synren

Club Round Up

India Digest

Tradition

MGC Vs BGC Inter Club In 1878, the first Inter-Club competition between Madras Gymkhana Club (MGC) and Bangalore Golf Club (BGC) was hosted at BGC. It remains to this date the world’s oldest such continuing competition between two golf clubs. This tradition is honoured twice each year when twelve golfers from each team compete for bragging rights & honour. The tournament is hosted in rotation by each club every six months and accompanied by 8 senior members from each team who also participate. Played in the Ryder Cup format with six foursomes on Saturday and 12 singles on Sunday, a team needs 9.5 points to win, or if holding the trophy, 9 points to retain it.

Steeped in tradition • Visiting team hits the first tee shot • Rookies make a speech at the presentation ceremony • All players drink from the Cup at the end of the tournament

G. Suresh, Captain, MGC & R. Viswanath, Captain, BGC with the Trophy

The 138th Inter-Club Matchplay Teams, MGC (Green) & The winning team- BGC (Yellow)

Initiative

Caddy Golf League 2016

The third annual Caddy Golf League 2016, conceived by Ahmedabad golfers Brijesh Patel & Siddharth Naik in 2014, saw a total participation of 58 caddies from Kensville Golf & Country Club, Gulmohar Greens Golf & Country Club and Kalhaar Blues & Greens in Ahmedabad. The idea behind the league is to give back to the caddies every year through the support of golf clubs in the region. The stroke play tournament is played over three consecutive Mondays at the end of April and early May. One round in each course is played with final round at Kalhaar Blues & Greens. Prize Money: Winner INR 50,000; Runner-Up INR 12,500; Second Runner-Up INR 8000

L-R: Balaji Gorpade (Runner-up), Prahalad Patel (Winner) and Arjun Kanchan (Second runner-up)

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India Digest Junior Golf

Future Superstars Little Master Junior Golf Tour (LMJGT)

held the Future Champions Golf (FCG) International Junior Championship qualifier at JP Wishtown, Noida by which players qualify to play the tournament in San Diego on July 4-8. Over 30 juniors from the Delhi NCR area participated across six age categories for boys & girls. The top 3 players from each category were eligible to enter the International tournament in U.S.A. The International tournament will see juniors under the age of 8 playing 9-holes each day while the 9-18 age categories will play 18-holes a day.

The Champions Junior Golf Tour (CJGT)

organized the IGU CHAMPIONS NORTH ZONE Tournament as part of the Sub Jr. & Jr. Feeder Tour. The Links Challenge was held at Golden Greens Golf Club, Gurgaon and had over 92 juniors between the ages of 7-17 playing 54 holes over 3 days. The CJGT, managed by Romit Bose, places age specific tees on the course so that the kids in each age group play an appropriate yardage, which allows them to hit greens in regulation. This ensures a fair scoring opportunity for all ages and helps build the mental approach & strategy for the game at an early age.

BOYS A DIVISION 15-18: 1ST: KARAN MEHTO 2ND: TAJINDER S. HAYER BOYS B DIVISION 13-14: 1ST: SARANSH YADAV 2ND: AKSHANSH YADAV 3RD: DEEPAK BOYS C DIVISION 11-12: 1ST: ZORAVAR S. STAR 2ND: AMAL JHA 3RD: PARTHA JAIN BOYS D DIVISION 9-10: 1ST: KIAN NAGPAL 2ND: NAMAN ANAND 3RD: VIR MARWAH GIRLS D DIVISION 9-10 1ST: RAGINI NAVET

WINNER (7-8 age group) DAKSH KAUSHIK

WINNER (7-8 age group) ZARA ANAND

BOYS E DIVISION 7-8: 1ST: PAWAN P. DHAIRAM 2ND: CAMERON VIRK 3RD: RANVEER MITROO BOYS F DIVISION 6 & UNDER: 1ST: ARAVVIR BACHAL 2ND: AAYAAN SARDANA

WINNER (9-10 age group) JUJHAR SINGH

WINNER (11-12 age group) TUSHAR PANNU

WINNER (11-12 age group) JIA KATARIA

WINNER (15-17 Age Group) JOTPRAKASH SINGH

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WINNER (13-17 Age Group) RIYA YADAV

Faisal Qureshi of LMJGT with the winners

Corporate Digest

India Digest

Audi quattro Cup 2016

The Audi quattro Cup, in its 26th year this season worldwide, has become one of the most distinguished amateur golf tournaments around the world bringing together over 90,000 golfers from 54 countries. The Indian circuit engaged over 1200 golfers in ten cities. 24 winners from the qualifying rounds will now battle it out at the National Final in Black Mountain Golf Club, Hua Hin from July 7th-10th for a chance to represent corporate India as a team of two at the World Finals in Barcelona, Spain in September. City

Winners

BENGALURU

Karan Singhvi & V Theertha Prasad

Winner Mumbai Salil Murthy

Hitesh Joshi & K Chandra Prakash KOLKATA

Amit Daga & Rajiv Pasari

AHMEDABAD

Mukesh Panchal & Sandip Ambalia

BHUBANESWAR

Devesh Sinha & Tapan Mohanty

CHANDIGARH

Shiv Kumar Gupta & Subhash Goel

CHENNAI

R Sriram & Pratap Moturi

HYDERABAD

K Raghu & Ahmed Ali Khan

JAIPUR

Amit Mathur & Jaswant Meel

PUNE

Bhushan Musale & Vaibhav Dwivedi

PATNA

Vivek Vishal & Pallavi Bhartia

Govind Singh Atwal & Rajib Ghose

Joe King, Brand Director, Audi India with Bhubaneswar winners, Devesh Sinha & Tapan Mohanty

Brand Ambassador Sharmila Nicollet with the participants

The Precious Cup

The Sixth edition of the Precious Golf Cup was held at Qutub Golf Club, Delhi and saw 76 ladies participate. The tournament was played in a stableford format across two handicap categories. A prize ceremony dinner was held at Pullman Aerocity with over 250 of Delhi’s prominent socialites in attendance.

Winner Delhi Ravi Burman

Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup 2016

The Mumbai & Delhi qualifiers of the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup were held at Bombay Presidency Golf Club & Classic Golf Resort, Gurgaon respectively. Over 200 amateurs participated in the qualifiers which saw the winners seal their spots in the World Finals to be held in Antalya, Turkey later this year. The World Finals will witness golfers from over 60 countries participating through qualifiers held in over 100 cities across the world.

tegory (0-18) Handicap ca HWANG Winner – M S JNI KHANNA SA Up Runner bove) tegory (19 &A Handicap ca I IAM AL Winner – MAR NDANA NAIR Runner Up - VA SINGH ore – SHIRAZ Best Gross Sc LEE r – HYUN SUK Overall Winne

june 2016 | golf digest india

105

India Digest Corporate Digest

The Knights all set to Tee-Off

The Knights Who Golf

The 2nd Gionee Knight Golf tournament was held at Royal Calcutta Golf Club and saw the stars of Kolkataâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s IPL team- The Kolkata Knight Riders in full swing. The charity event aimed at raising proceeds for underprivileged children suffering from cancer and being treated in various hospitals across the city, saw over 100 junior golfers get up close with their cricketing heroes. Star players Colin Munro, Chris Lynn, Morne Morkel, Jason Holder, Manan Sharma, Brad Hogg & Venky Mysore, CEO & MD, Kolkata Knight Riders enthralled the crowds with their golfing skills. Simon Katich celebrates a putt

L-R: Jacques Kallis, Mohan Tayel, Capt. Sameer K., Shashidhar Reddy

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Sunil Narine

Mark Boucher

Corporate Digest

India Digest

This was also a welcome and relaxing session for the players and Head Coach, Jacques Kallis who discussed his teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance over a game of golf. An avid golfer, the legendary South-African cricketer was seen chatting with his team and relaxing at the greens. Budding young golfers at RCGC were not only excited to meet their favorite cricketers but were also enthralled by their golfing skills.

L-R: Timir Baran Acharyya, Regional Director, Gionee India, Jacques Kallis & Venky Mysore, CEO & MD, Kolkata Knight Riders

Piyush Chawla

Surya Kumar Yadav & Anurag Chirimar, Director, Siti Cable Venky Mysore & Mohan Tayel

Rohan Shroff receving the Closest to Pin prize from Khun Isra Stapanaseth, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand

Mark Boucher led the winning team

Yusuf Pathan signing autographs for young KKR fans

june 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest Corporate Digest

World Corporate Championship Rolls Along Bengaluru qualifiers

Pranab Barua, Business Director, Madura Fashions & Lifestyle; Sanjay Kamtam, CEO, Votary Softech Solutions & Vishal Dhupar, Director South Asia-Sales & Marketing, Nvidia Graphics

Anil Sama, COO, Intel Mobile Communications India, & R N Koushik, VP & Head commercial, Infosys

Anita Thakur, Dhruv Satya & Vikram Gill of Central Park giving a prize to Charmaine Steventon

Anongnart Ly

108 golf digest india | june 2016

David Hopcroft, GM, Le Meridien

The third and final qualifying leg of the BMR World Corporate Golf Challenge was held at Prestige Golfshire. Over 200 golfers battled it out in Bengaluru for 8 qualifying spots in the National final. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a look at the winners of the Bengaluru leg. WCGC is the biggest international corporate golf team event worldwide involving more than 7500 corporate executives in 40 countries. India has had an illustrious history at the WCGC and is the defending champion courtesy the pair of Shashidhar Reddy and Sonam Chugh from Hyderabad who won the 2015 World Corporate Golf Challenge in Portugal. India made its competitive debut in WCGC in 1999.

Gurdeep Virdi, Senior Manager, Accenture & Somprabh Singh, Head-Design and Technology, Titan

Amit Khansaheb, Partner, BMR Legal

Corporate Digest

Day1

Andrew Tye of IPL Team-Gujarat Lions

India Digest

Winners-Bengaluru qualifiers

Prize

Names

Winning Team

manohar Reddy Baddam Siva Reddy- 69 Points

RunneR uP Team

Patricia Simone Curero Puttaraju Bn - 68 Points

CiSCO CLOSeST TO Pin

Dayanidhi

SHaRDa LOngeST DRiVe

Vasu merugu

inDian TeRRain STRaigHTeST DRiVe

g S Thimmaiah

inDian TeRRain PLaYeR OF THe DaY

Toshiyuki Kasai

Day2 Prize

Names

Winning Team

Sujith Somasundar Raj arasu- 71 Points

RunneR uP Team

Raghu Varma Rajeev Sarda - 71 Points

CiSCO CLOSeST TO Pin

Col. Rajesh Parmar

SHaRDa LOngeST DRiVe

nipun Sharma

inDian TeRRain STRaigHTeST DRiVe

Zuber ahmed

inDian TeRRain PLaYeR OF THe DaY

David D'Souza

Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India

Toshiyuki Kasai, President & CEO, Epson India

David D'souza, MD, Garden City Fashions

Priya Alex, Director Zealtec Energy

Dwayne Smith of IPL TeamGujarat Lions

june 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest Corporate Digest

Agarkar Set To Represent India NatioNal FiNal The National Final of the the BMR World Corporate Golf Challenge was held at Prestige Golfshire, Bengaluru and saw 24 golfers who qualified from Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru compete to represent corporate India at the World Finals in Cascais, Portugal from June 2126. The winning team of Shabbir Rawjee & former cricketer Ajit Agarkar will now look to defend India's title in Portugal. India are defending champions courtesy the pair of Shashidhar Reddy and Sonam Chugh from Hyderabad who won the 2015 World Corporate Golf Challenge.

Pawan Puri, Hero Motors

Shabbir Rawjee & former cricketer Ajit Agarkar winners of the BMR World Corporate Golf Challenge India

Mukesh Butani, Chairman – BMR Advisors, ‘I am delighted with the success of WCGC India and would like to congratulate the winners Ajit Agarkar and Shabbir Rawjee. Our journey has been an exciting one that started in April with the Delhi qualifiers. The World Corporate Golf Challenge India has been a venture that we are proud to be associated with, reaching out to so many corporate golfers and generating stupendous mileage overall. The tournament proved to be a win-win for all who were associated with, exemplifying sportsmanship and healthy competition.’

L-R: Rishi Narain with the finalists- Prabhjot Cheema, Patricia Simone, Bhupinder Singh, Manohar Reddy, Gautam Gupta, Siva Reddy, Chirag Paul, Vinam Jain, Akshay Puri, Vipan Sharma, Arunjit Sodhi, Raj Arasu, Shabbir Rawjee, Tarun Bali, Rajeev Sarda, Pawan Puri, Ajit Agarkar, Sujith Somasunder

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India Digest Tête-à-tête

Tête-à-tête with

Pacific Coast Design

Pacific Coast Design (PCD), are world renowned golf course architects from Australia spearheaded by Phil Ryan and Paul Reeves. Veterans of the industry and the most notable golf course architects in India, PCD has built over 15 golf courses across India over the past two decades. One of their most iconic works is the Oxford Golf & Country Club which converted a rough hilly terrain to an award winning championship golf course and one of India’s best. Golf Digest India caught up with PCD at the recently concluded India Golf Expo 2016 in Gurgaon. By Bharath Arvind

il Ryan Vincent Pinto & Ph L-R: Paul Reeves,

120 golf digest india | june 2016

The trend of more community golf is going to be the way of the future and also help grow the game

Tête-à-tête

India Digest

Oxford Golf & Country Club, Pune

When did PCD commence operations in India?

Phil: In 1993, Pacific Coast Design got its first project in India. We started designing the Eagleton Golf Resort (Eagleton Golf Village at the time) in Bengaluru. At around the same time we also got the contract to upgrade the Pune Club Golf Course which was essentially a sand scraped golf course without any grass. These got us off the ground in India and incidentally we are now doing the second round of renovation at the Pune Club course. Keep in mind that at the time, Pune Club was all constructed by hand with a very limited budget and it was all just rock. We had to dig drainage trenches by hand while removing rock, so what we achieved in those days was good but now with technology upgrades and more access to better quality equipment we take a great interest in going back and enhancing the course to suit modern times. We have been able to do a good job there with a limited INR 5 crore budget, a challenge, but something we take great pride in. We knew that the base of the greens were good, so we just had to take off the top and the root mat and reshape the greens a bit and now we have a whole new golf course. We have completed 9-holes which will open for play in two to three months and the remaining nine will be complete and ready for play by the end of 2016. We also just completed the renovation of the Delhi Golf Club’s 9-hole Peacock course which has been open for play after the Indian Open and all the members seem to love it.

What do you envisage as the future for golf projects in India?

Phil: When we first got into India there were a number of courses that wanted upgradation. We did the J.C.Wadiyar Golf Course in Mysore, then the Bangalore Golf Club as well. The redevelopment projects were great but there was also tremendous potential for further development. We had a real visionary in Ashok Kumar who got Eagleton up and running. He didn’t necessary have the finances to do it but went ahead with it none the less. He created that sort of culture of looking at residences and golf differently. Now, while we will have a number of bigger golf courses being built, a large number of smaller courses are springing up across the country. The trend of more community golf is going to be the way of the future and also help grow the game. june 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest Tête-à-tête

Blue Ridge Golf Course, Pune

Paul: One thing I have learned in over nine years working in India is that you can’t really make any predictions! I agree with Phil that the smaller courses are attractive and offer other benefits such as residential developments so they will definitely grow. However, there will always be enough visionaries who will want to build larger courses of international standards. Take Blue Ridge Golf Course in Pune for example, it is India’s first community golf project and a shining example of what developers should benchmark against. It is a very efficient use of land and very marketable because almost every apartment has a view of the golf course. We also just built a community golf course at the Uplands project in Ahmedabad. In Kolkata we are working on a 9-hole executive course which is community oriented in the middle of the old Batanagar factory on the river. At the same time we are also working on a full 18-hole championship course in Sri City, Chennai – work will commence after the monsoons but it’s all been designed and ready to implement. So, there are still people

122 golf digest india | june 2016

who have different visions for golf courses. I also think in India we haven’t totally taken to the resort model which we have seen in other parts of the world, so someone might work out a viable business model for it.

What constraints have you faced while working in India?

Paul: Land is definitely a constraint for developers especially with the premium it demands. So asking a developer to set aside a large tract of land to develop a golf course is certainly a challenge but at the same time developers are required to set aside green spaces. In doing so if that green space becomes sustainable and revenue generating then it helps to maintain that land and attracts more people. Phil: As Paul said, sustainability is the key word. A course can have fabulous bunkers and water bodies and lush fairways but if it isn’t financially sustainable then you will see a large number of these projects getting abandoned, which we have seen in the recent past. A project has to be looked at in

a sustainable manner right from land allocation, resource allocations and reusing resources and taking it all the way to completion and finally operating it. That’s actually the key area that we work with our clients on. Not as much on how a bunker or green is going to look etc. that’s a given. From day 1 we have to ensure the viability and sustainability of the project. We have spent a lot of time working this out. Take for example the grass. All the grass that we use on our golf courses now is sourced in India. We are the only ones who have collected numerous samples of grass and tested them to identify the best mix to use for the Indian climatic conditions. Where a course that uses imported grass has to water everyday, our Indian grasses only need to be watered once a week. All this helps sustainability and viability. Paul: We have also spent a lot of time and effort in training the course superintendents and greenskeeping staff. The idea is not to charge for this sort of training, we do it more to raise the skill level which helps everyone

Tête-à-tête

India Digest

Select Courses designed by PCD  18 Hole new Courses

Uplands Community Golf Course, Ahmedabad

grow and maintain better golf courses. This is a social responsibility that we as an organization have undertaken. We use Skype and Facetime a lot with our clients and also the staff to keep the training on. The idea is to get them to work through their processes on identifying issues and together we work out a solution. Less dependency on external experts if the skillsets exist in house!

How do you see the community golf model being sustainable?

Phil: The idea is similar to how residents in a community pay to use the club gym, swimming pool, tennis courts etc. So now they will have a golf course for which they can pay a nominal fee and play. If a resident just wants to walk along the course or enjoy sitting on the grass with the kids in the evening, they can do that and watch golfers play. This will reduce the barrier to entry for newcomers and demystify the game for them. It also ensures adequate revenue for the developer to maintain the green space. Paul: This makes golf a part of someone’s lifestyle. They don’t necessarily have to play the game but will be close to it and that in itself helps grow the sport and reduce the stigma associated with understanding the game. This happens a lot in the west or even Australia, where there are numerous residential golf communities but maybe only about 30% of the residents actually play golf. They are in it for the green space and the quality of Photographs Courtesy Pacific Coast Design

Eagleton Golf Resort, Bangalore Oxford Golf , Pune Clover Greens, Bangalore Eagleburg Golf Club, Mysore (under construction)  Kharghar Valley GC, Navi Mumbai (partially open)    

life. A golf course doesn’t need to be long to be good, you can build a smaller course but still provide the same challenge and entertainment for golfers of all skill levels.

Key areas to be address for further development in India?

Paul: I think it’s pretty bullet proof now with the skill levels that exist and the quality of equipment on hand. Technical expertise in areas of irrigation etc. is phenomenal and at par with international standards.I suppose the only thing we are really grappling with is some of the chemicals that need to be imported but other than that it is pretty water tight in India now. Phil: The whole expat aura is gone now, all skills and requirements are here in India. From a macro level, we still have issues with developers who want to factor in golf into their projects without knowing the kind of resources and requirements it warrants. Some developers are trying to build golf courses where they shouldn’t and they are being allowed to do so, but that will come back to haunt them sooner or later, just as we have seen in China. Like we mentioned earlier, getting people to think in a sustainable manner both environmentally and financially is paramount right now. I believe that through more educational seminars and with events like the India Golf Expo, these can be addressed and India is poised to grow.

 9 Hole new courses

 Karma Lakelands, Delhi  Unitech Golf and Country Club, Greater Noida  Kimmane Resort, Shimoga  Royal Jaipur GC, Jaipur

 Community Golf Courses

 Blue Ridge, Pune, ( 9 hole par 3, Driving Range)  Golf City, Savroli (18 holes par 3), Under construction  Calcutta Riverside (9 holes executive) Under construction  Uniworld CityGreater Noida (9 hole par 3)  Uniworld Gurgaon (6 hole par 3)

 18 Hole re-design     

Poona Golf Club – Pune Bangalore GC – Bangalore JW Golf Club - Mysore Chikmagular GC - Chikmagular Kashmir Golf Club (under construction)

 9 hole re-design

 Delhi Golf Club – Peacock Course  Tollygunge GC – Kolkata (6 holes reconstructed)

june 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest 18 Holes with Pankaj Munjal 1

When did you start playing golf? 1992 at Delhi Golf Club

What do you love most about playing golf? Meeting friends, being outdoors and connecting with nature

Who forms your regular Fourball? Lawrence School buddies and other golfing buddies

Your favourite Fourball? Played with them recently at DLF GC- Chekitan Sawhney, Pavan Puri and Arunjit Sodhi

Your favourite Pro golfer? Colin Montgomerie

Favourite golf course â&#x20AC;&#x201C; In India & abroad? India- DLF Golf & Country Club Abroad- Pebble Beach Golf Links

How often do you play golf? Once a month

Thoughts on doing business on the golf course? You get an official feeling of the board room and at the same time you break the ice!

Your most memorable experience on the course? Playing with Colin Montgomerie and getting tips on the game

Do you use any golf apps or gadgets? A lot of apps for swing analysis and I used special grips as well

The most scenic course you have played? PGA Centenary Course (Gleneagles) in Scotland which was formerly called the Monarchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Course.

Lowest handicap you have had? Lowest handicap was 8.

What golf apparel/equipment brands do you lean towards? Honma and Ashworth

On an average, how long do you drive the ball? 250 yards

Your dream car? Aston Martin... But I have all my dream cars now!

What is your Favourite holiday destination? Palm Desert, California

What is your Favourite dish at your home course? Basel leaf chicken

Favourite 19th hole drink? Coconut Water or any fresh juice

Holes with Pankaj Munjal Chairman & MD, Hero Cycles

Sponsors the Annual Madhavrao Scindia Charity Golf (10th consecutive year) & organized the Hero Cycles Golf Cup with Colin Montogerie at DGC in 2014

YOU GET AN OFFICIAL FEELING OF THE BOARD ROOM AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU BREAK THE ICE! 124 golf digest india | june 2016

Total Number of pages (including cover pages) is 128 Monthly Magazine, RNI N0. HARENG/2016/66983

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