Golf Digest India - August 2016

RNI No. HARENG/2016/66983 AuGust 2016 `150

VolumE 1 IssuE 4

Think Young | PlaY hard

how gil hanse beat nicklaus norman player and more jordan spieth hit wedges like darts

olympics issue

inDian Trio

GoinG for GolD

plus

Vijay DiVecha TêTe-à-TêTe arjun aTwal insiDe The ropes

Aditi Ashok

SSP Chowrasia Exclusive official media Partner INDIA

Anirban Lahiri

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

tête-à-tête sociaL star paiGe spiranac Leads the innoVators and inFLUencers oF 2016

exclusive official media Partner iNdiA

Applied for IGU Sanction

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Cornerstone

Contents 08/16

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

Olympic Preview 12

16

24

Play Your Best

▶ Cover Story: Indian Trio Going for Gold

66

Torchbearers Bubba & Team USA are ready for Rio, and are playing for more than a place in history.

67

Jack Nicklaus Don’t let one mistake cost you the hole Get Off the Beach Try my game plan to escape the sand.

The Golf Life 86

87

by natalie gulbis

by jaime diaz

70

How Gil Hanse Beat Nicklaus, Norman and Player for the Rio Job

David Leadbetter Stop tension from ruining your next round

71

Why’d I Do That?

You fixated on the read and forgot about the speed.

by ron whitten

by rick smith 72

74

Swing Sequence: Zach Johnson Part grinder. Part technician.

Part bulldog Butch Harmon Don’t mess up those lucky lies in the rough

75

Hank Haney It’s all about the finish

76

5-Minute Clinic Getting ready to play golf. by corey lundberg

78

▶ +15 Yards: 15 Ways to Get There

India Digest

Style Add bright-colored shorts to your wardrobe.

10

by marty hackel

34

by rishi narain

Ask Golf Digest What’s the typical lifespan of a modern driver?

Master Your Course Here’s how to tailor your game to your home track.

Mission PGA Tour Duke of Edinburgh Charity Golf Pros who mean business 42

Business Of Golf Industry insights & updates

43

Golfing CEOs Corporate leaders making waves on and off the course

44

Players in the News Update on Indian Golfers around the world

48

Club Round Up Updates from courses across India

50

Corporate Digest After Hours Golf

by todd anderson 94

Pitching Made Simple Expand your short game with one swing. by emiliano grillo

98

New Secret: The Power Pose Best-selling author Amy Cuddy on the skill of body language. with keely levins

102 Jordan Spieth:

Hit Wedges like Darts How to control your ball flight

World Corporate Golf Challenge 54

What’s in My Bag Brooke Henderson

81

Hot List Fairway Woods

8 golf digest india | august 2016

Inside The Ropes with Arjun Atwal by bharath arvind

by mike stachura 81

Spotlight Guinness World Record IGIA Award Winner-Best New 18-hole Course

Features 88

Editor’s Letter The Olympics Issue

57

Tête-à-tête with Vijay Divecha

109 18 Holes

with Pranab Barua

Editor’s Letter T

Dear Readers,

here is little doubt that the Olympics is the most significant new development for golf so far this century.

Appropriately we have given it due weightage in this month’s issue. Especially interesting is a behind the scenes look at how the brand new golf course was awarded to little known American golf architect Gil Hanse over heavyweights like Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and others. Insight you can only get through the resources of Golf Digest. We also profile the favourite global stars to win gold. Having three Indian players qualify for Rio - Anirban Lahiri, SSP Chawrasia and Aditi Ashok is as good an entry as we could have hoped for and appropriately they grace our cover.

As always, we have world class instruction from all the biggest names in golf across several pages which should help you find those one or two tips that inspire you to lower your scores – the ultimate aim of most golfers.

Letters to the Editor

Congratulations on the newest & best Golf Digest we have seen in a long time! This is truly world class and worthy of the large attention & following that golf is attracting in India.

The span of subjects with so much local flavor is a sheer delight to those following the game here as well as in the international professional locations. The quality of print & paper combined with the depth of subjects is a whole month’s menu – there is so much more in this “classy re-birth” of the old digest.

More power to you & your talented Editorial team at Golf Digest India!

Keep them coming!

TV Mohan, Country Head & MD, Colfax Fluid Handling

You may notice we have moved the India specific coverage in front of the international content as we feel that you the reader would enjoy getting to the local news first. Good deeds, performances and important developments in Indian golf are of interest to all of us which you can find in our pages every month.

Meanwhile your positive feedback is most encouraging and we look forward to hearing from you on any topic you would like to see more of in the magazine.

We would appreciate you telling us which features you particularly like and what you feel we are missing.

Enjoy the Read !

I just got back to India from the U.S. and a copy of Golf Digest was lying on my desk! I couldn’t stop smiling while reading the Tete-a-tete interview with my views on the game expressed.

It feels great to be worded so well, I am sure a lot of people will echo my feelings. Keep up the good work!

Devang Shah, Navratna Group, Ahmedabad

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

Rishi Narain Editor

contact us Subscriptions subscribe@teamgolfdigest.com Phone: +91-9999868051 Marketing & Advertising nikhil@teamgolfdigest.com Phone: +91-9999990364 srijan@teamgolfdigest.com Phone: +91-9416252880

10 golf digest india | august 2016

team Golf DiGest inDia Editor Rishi Narain Managing Editor Bharath Arvind bharath@teamgolfdigest.com Editorial Assistant Vineet Mann vineet@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.

India Digest On The Cover

olympics issue

indian Trio

GoinG for Gold Golf returns to the Summer Games for the first time since St. Louis 1904 and the event will see 60 players in the men's and women's section each compete for medals. Anirban Lahiri, SSP Chowrasia and 18-year old Aditi Ashok will be India’s force to reckon with in our quest for Olympic Gold. By the time this magazine hits the stands, the first tee shot would have been hit and we would like to wish our Indian contingent the very best in their endeavour to bring back medals. As Anirban said in an earlier interview with Golf Digest India, ”The Olympics will do a lot for Indian golf, but only if it’s gold!”.

Here’s a deeper look at golf in the Summer Olympics.

12 golf digest india | august 2016

On The Cover

India Digest

Anirban

Lahiri (Olympic Golf Rank- 19)

(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

“An Olympic gold medal will definitely make a bigger ripple in India than a major in terms of media, government support and growing fans” august 2016 | golf digest india

13

India Digest On The Cover

SSP Chowrasia (Olympic Golf Rank- 44)

(Performance between 2014-2016) European Tour • Hero Indian Open 2016 (Co-sanctioned with Asian Tour) • Runner up- Hero India Open 2015 Asian Tour • Panasonic Open India 2014 14 golf digest india | august 2016

“This is very significant for Indian golf and for the youngsters who will watch us. I hope it inspires them to follow suit and dream big”

On The Cover

Aditi

Ashok

(Olympic Golf Rank- 56)

Career Highlights Turned Pro in 2016 Won- Ladies European Tour’s Lalla Aicha Tour School (record lowest winning score of 23-under) Amateur Wins: • St. Rule Trophy, St. Andrews, Scotland • Ladies British Amateur Stroke Play • 81st Singha Thailand Amateur • Silver Medal at the International European Ladies Amateur Championship • Only Indian golfer to have played the Asian Youth Games (2013) Youth Olympic Games (2014) and • Asian Games (2014)

Representing India at Rio 2016 Olympics will hopefully contribute to the growth of golf in India. I am excited for all of us and we have all the experience to compete and contest at the Olympic Games. Anirban is a great golfer and so is SSP Chawrasia and it is an honour to be part of this strong 3 member team.

Illustrations by Ruchin Soni

India Digest

o ly m p i c s ta r t i n g blocks when is it?

The men’s event is Aug. 11-14, and the women’s event is Aug. 17-20. Both will be played on the newly constructed Olympic Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro.

what’s the format?

Seventy-two holes of individual stroke play with no cut. There’s no team element. Essentially, it’s like a World Golf Championships event. One difference, however, is the possibility of playoffs to determine gold, silver and bronze medals.

what’s at stake?

Besides national pride and everlasting glory, the gold medalists will receive exemptions into professional majors: four tournaments for the men’s winner in 2017 and five for the women (the Evian Championship in 2016 and four majors in 2017).

how do you make the team?

If you’re just learning about this, it’s probably too late for you. The 60 players in each event will be set according to the men’s and women’s rankings on July 11. The top-15 players are exempt, with a max of four players per country.

Beyond that, each country without two or more in the top 15 gets no more than two players. As the host, Brazil is guaranteed one entrant, and Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania will each get at least one player. august 2016 | golf digest india

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i n r i o, t h e s e g o l f e r s a r e p l ay i n g f o r m o r e t h a n a p l ac e i n h i s t o ry by ja i m e d i a z

torchbearers

16 golf digest india | august 2016

Illustrations by Ben Kirchner

bubba w at s o n gutter credit tk

37 united s tat e s

henrik stenson 40 sweden

18 golfdigest.com | month 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

hose who judge athletic excellence strictly on the basis of “faster, higher, stronger” are probably doubtful that golf is good for the Olympics. But anyone who has ever included “farther, straighter, fewer” in the criteria is likely to believe that the Olympics are good for golf. ▶ How much the game will benefit by its return—after 112 years—to the world’s greatest sporting event is to be determined. With the opening ceremonies of the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5, we’re finally about to find out. ▶ The run-up to Rio hasn’t been smooth, in part because the world’s best players are used to tournament hosts acutely attuned to their preferences. But also because of real-life problems, the decision to go to Brazil has seen a lot of big names take a few extra waggles.

Players’ main points of concern: ▶ Zika, the mosquito-transmitted virus that has been connected to birth defects, has everyone’s attention, especially men and women in childbearing years. At the time of publication, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Marc Leishman and Vijay Singh all cited Zika as the reason they dropped out, and Adam Scott admitted the virus was part of his decision not to play. Jason Day—with two young children and stated plans for more—appeared to be hesitating, saying at the Memorial Tournament, “It’s difficult to say right now. We’re going to explore every avenue to make sure we make an educated decision before we go down there.” The good news is, medical officials of the local organizing committee reported that there have been no known cases of Zika among the 17,000 athletes, staff and volunteers in 44 test events over several months before the Games. And with temperatures cooling in the Brazilian winter, mosquito incubation will go down drastically. Officials are predicting fewer than two-dozen cases of Zika among the half-million people expected to visit Rio for the Games. ▶ The major-championship schedule has been jammed to fit in the Olympics.

The British Open and the PGA will be played only two weeks apart rather than the

customary four, and the FedEx Cup, which will be followed almost immediately by the Ryder Cup, will start only two weeks after the men’s event in Rio ends. This was the primary reason Scott gave for passing. ▶ A more elaborate drug-testing protocol includes blood samples in addition to the urine samples that the PGA Tour requires.

As Olympic competitors, golfers have to provide their whereabouts to officials and, from July 24 to Aug. 21, be subject to testing at any time. However, no golfers have cited the more stringent testing requirements as a reason not to play. ▶ Brazil’s political and economic turmoil might spark demonstrations that could disrupt the activities around Rio or even the competition. ▶ As for the actual golf, some players

have been lukewarm on the format—72 holes of individual medal play with no cut—for the men’s and women’s 60-player fields. Critics have called the decision an opportunity missed for variations that could’ve included match play, team play or pairs—even mixed pairs. ▶ And though they know better than to complain publicly, some pros don’t like playing when big prize money isn’t involved.

B

new blood

ut even with the obstacles, golf feels very good about the informed bet it made on itself in convincing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to bring the sport back to the Summer Games at Rio and in 2020 in Tokyo.

actually, any medal would be great. i’d take a bronze medal over a third at augusta. august 2016 | golf digest india

19

emiliano grillo 23 argentina

an argentine guy won a gold medal in tae kwon do. it had a huge impact. that sport became a big deal in my country.

Basically, the Olympics constitute golf’s ultimate “grow the game” play. The sport will be on the world’s biggest athletic stage, part of a telecast that will be viewed by as many as four billion people in more than 200 countries. Over 13 straight days, Golf Channel will provide more than 300 hours of coverage of the men and women’s

20 golf digest india | august 2016

tournaments, including 130 hours of live coverage, with the NBC golf team led by Johnny Miller, Nick Faldo, Judy Rankin and Annika Sorenstam. No-cut medal play was chosen because it would allow as many countries to be represented as possible, with as much potential exposure as possible. The goal isn’t to entertain the

hardcore fan from mature golf markets as much as it is to lure new fans—especially young people—from among the millions around the world who have always been outside golf’s tent.

Nationalism is a powerful force for growth. A recent study found that 85 countries that invest government money in sports do so only if the sport is in the Olympics. This means that after Rio, many developing nations will have a golf culture for the first time. It’s anticipated that countries obsessed by Olympic achievement—China and Russia being the largest—will make huge investments to develop high-level talent. Jack Nicklaus, who helped the International Golf Federation (IGF) present the case for golf’s inclusion to the IOC, says he wouldn’t be surprised if China, where he has built 28 courses and has 11 more in development, “within the next 20 years had five of the top-10 players in the world.”

While in India recently, Tiger Woods said that if Anirban Lahiri, a mainstay among the top 60 in the world the past two years, were to win a medal for his country, the sport would “explode” among that population of more than one billion.

LPGA golfers believe that women’s golf has the most to gain from Olympic attention, and the leading stars are committed to doing their part. Lydia Ko will represent New Zealand, and despite her teenage assault on the majors, says, “the Olympics will probably be my highest priority” in 2016. Making the South Korean women’s team has been the fiercest competition in the run-up to the Games, with as many as eight players in the top 15 on the Rolex Rankings vying for four places. LPGA Tour commissioner Mike Whan has happily begun referring to women’s golf by the prestige-enhancing label of “podium sport.” Says Stacy Lewis, who with Lexi Thompson is in line to represent Team USA: “I think we see the benefit a little bit more than the guys do.”

T

golden slams

hough the value of a gold medal in golf is yet to be quantified, the question isn’t whether it will be special, but how special. Tennis, brought back to the Olympics in 1988 amid much naysaying after an absence of more than 60 years, has become prominent.

The gold has taken on importance through its singles winners, a list that includes Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal among the men, and Steffi Graf and Venus and Serena Williams among the women. The so-called Golden Slam—the career Grand Slam plus Olympic gold, won by Agassi, Nadal,

Graf and Serena Williams—could provide record-book incentives for Tiger Woods if he were to make a future Olympic team.

And among the women, the Games could motivate Inbee Park of South Korea and Karrie Webb of Australia, who hold every major other than the Evian, which just became one three years ago. Agassi told CNN that when he and Graf brought a sampling of their trophies to “professions day” at their children’s school in Las Vegas, “all the children just want to take that gold medal. They want to hold it, they want to touch it.”

So, too, do highly ranked veterans who have never won a major. Henrik Stenson is bullish on the Olympics in part because, at 40, he isn’t sure he’ll get another chance.

“Who knows how big the Olympic gold medal will grow in history, but I think winning this first one in the modern era is something you’ll be remembered for for the rest of your life,” Stenson says.

“Actually, any medal would be great. I’d take a bronze medal over third at Augusta.”

Such an attitude is appreciated by icons wistful over an opportunity they missed.

Sorenstam had been retired for a year when she was part of the IOC presentation in 2009 and says that as she made the case for golf before the committee, she felt a strong urge to come back. Says Nicklaus: “Wouldn’t you want to win a medal for your country, and to do what’s right for the game? I think of Fred Funk telling me he wanted to make the Presidents Cup team in South Africa so bad that he’d row a boat there. Well, if I were young enough to play in this year’s Olympics, he could have dropped me off in Brazil.” Gary Player, who says he would have “given anything” to be an Olympian, is blunt in his assessment of those who won’t: “People who are not excited to play in the Olympics have just been spoiled.”

Such reaction unfairly targets Scott, who is a young father and has always represented Australia faithfully and well.

Swimming icon Dawn Fraser, winner of the 100-meter freestyle in three straight Olympics, accused her fellow Aussie of “not showing much for your country.”

Day, a countryman, knows he’ll receive even sharper criticism if he backs out.

And so does the recently engaged Rory McIlroy, who after expressing some reservations about Zika in May, 10 days later said more information had put his mind at ease and that he would play. With the diplomacy suited to his world ranking, McIlroy said, “I feel like I have a responsibility to grow the game, as part of a

group of players who can spread this game throughout the world.”

T

tacit approval

he pressure to represent and perform will always be there in the Olympics. But in the case of the golfers eligible for Rio,

the most commonly shared incentive is the anticipated thrill of being included and taking in the experience.

Traditionally considered nerdy “semiathletes” compared to team-sport stars, golfers getting to the Olympics is a little like having the cool kids in high school finally invite them to their party. Even Nicklaus

the olympics will probably be my highest priorit y [in 2016].

ly d i a k o 19 new zealand

august 2016 | golf digest india

21

betrays a bit of that thinking when his time as an outstanding high school basketball player is mentioned. “I became a golfer because, first, I was an athlete,” he says.

Arnold Palmer likes to tell about being on stage with baseball star Roger Maris before the presentation of the 1960 Hickok Belt for best athlete of the year. When Maris saw Palmer, he said derisively to the golfer, “What the hell are you doing here?” After Palmer was announced as the winner, he brushed by Maris on his way to the microphone and whispered, “What the hell are you doing here?”

Of course, today’s golfers have been athletically validated, by Woods and by disciplined training regimens that carve out lean muscle. In a role reversal, tour players are now held up as models of athletic coordination and concentration by team-sport athletes who aspire to be better at golf.

And some golfers even have Olympic roots.

Jeev Milkha Singh’s father, Milkha Singh, finished fourth for India in the 400 meters at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. The parents of Korea’s Byeong-Hun An were medalists in table tennis at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Before marrying Bubba Watson, Angie Ball was chosen for Canada’s Olympic women’s basketball team but couldn’t

winning a medal would be amazing, but what i really hope i can do is influence kids, get them to want to play. play because of injury. It’s doubtful that the golfers will feel as much like outsiders in Rio as they did in their adolescence.

Which will make it easier to do what they are really looking forward to: just hanging out. As the schedule goes, the men will get more time in the Olympic Village around the opening ceremonies, and the women around the closing ceremonies.

“Sure, the Olympics are going to elevate our sport a bit into that more athletic realm,” says Ernie Els, who at 46, was hoping a late surge might qualify him to represent South Africa. “But I’d give my left toe just to be part of the whole spectacle. I love seeing and meeting these athletes, the

22 golf digest india | august 2016

absolute best in the world. I just want to see what they’re all about and learn from them.

Can you imagine?”

J

medalists

ordan Spieth is too competitive to not make victory his priority in Rio. “Winning a gold medal has got to be up there now, in my mind, with winning a major championship,” he says. But Spieth is also a lover of sports who intends to spend time in the Olympic Village “and come in contact with some of the greats. I’d love to pick their brain. It can’t hurt at all.” And he’s another one with a soft spot for the opening ceremonies: “When I was really young, that’s how I thought of the Olympics. To be one of those athletes would be something I’d never forget, walking with the American flag there.”

Another American, Bubba Watson, is of a similar mind. “Bottom line, I want to be an Olympic athlete,” he says. “Winning a gold, or any medal, would be a bonus. But watching and meeting the other athletes— that’s going to be the growing part for who I am as a person, and who I am as an athlete. That’s the true cake, and the icing would be a medal.”

Also likely to represent the U.S. is Dustin Johnson, often acknowledged as the most gifted athlete among professional golfers.

He has consulted his future father-in-law, Wayne Gretzky, who played for Canada’s hockey team at the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano. “The thing I would look forward to most would be walking in the opening ceremonies,” Johnson says. “I think it would be awesome. I’ve talked to Wayne, and he said it’s really cool.”

Brooke Henderson, 18, was a youthhockey goalie when she began dreaming of representing Canada, as she will as a golfer in Rio. “The Olympics is something that I’ve looked forward to almost my entire life,” she says. “As a young girl, I wanted to play, and I remember watching the Winter and Summer Games and watching the athletes, and the passion, the desire, the hard work that they had put in. And I wanted to be one of those athletes.”

E

no regrets

ven with the withdrawals, it appears golf will have enough good players. The bigger question is: Will the golf that’s played matter?

“I’ve always loved the Olympics, and it’s going to be a great experience, the whole

thing,” says Sergio Garcia of Spain. “Of course winning a medal would be amazing, but what I really hope I can do is influence kids, get them to want to play golf. That’s what’s going to make our game better.”

When Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo was told that countryman Angel Cabrera was skeptical that the Olympics in Rio would grow the game in South America, saying, “I won two majors, and very little happened in my country,” the 23-year-old who has locked his spot for Rio begged to differ.

“Cabrera might not see it, but he did a lot.

More than he thinks,” Grillo says. “I know his winning the U.S. Open in 2007 really influenced me. I thought, If somebody from Argentina can do it, why not me? At the last Olympics, in London, an Argentine guy [Sebastián Eduardo Crismanich] won a gold medal in tae kwon do. It had a huge impact.

That sport became a big deal in my country.

That’s the way it works with the Olympics.”

For golf to work as an event, Rio de Janeiro has to come through, and there are legitimate worries. Then again, a lot of Summer Games have been problematic in the rush to be ready. Mexico City, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Beijing, Athens—each seemingly was overwhelmed with 11th-hour problems but ultimately all came together (Barcelona and Los Angeles, brilliantly). How golf presents itself will matter, because next year the IOC will vote on whether to continue golf in 2024, where Los Angeles is making a major bid to be the host.

“Sure, in hindsight, things took longer to get done in Rio than we expected,” says Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s chief marketing officer and vice president of the IGF. “But bottom line, the world of golf got together like it never has before to get this done. And when the players get there, at some point they are going to feel goose bumps and the hair rising on the back of their neck, and they are going to know they are at the very pinnacle of sport, and they are going to realize, ‘This is what I can do in our sport.’

And I believe they’re going to go back home and say, ‘It was worth it.’ ” If so, it will mean the Olympics will be very good for golf. Perhaps even to the point that golf will be deemed good for the Olympics.

sergio garcia 36 s pa i n

Photograph by First Lastname

month 2016 | golfdigest.com

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INSIDE TRACK

wa s g i l h a n s e ’s s e l e c t i o n a s t h e o ly m p i c c o u r s e a r c h i t e c t f a i r ? by ron whit ten

a condo developer d e l ay e d t h e o ly m p i c c o u r s e ’ s construction.

24 golf digest india | august 2016

Photographs by Dom Furore

IT

was sunday afternoon, Jan. 29, 2012, the start of a week in which architect Gil Hanse would land a career-making commission, the contract to design and build a course that would host the golf competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

In a few hours, Hanse would catch an overnight flight to Rio de Janeiro to make a presentation to the panel charged with selecting from among eight finalists. ▶ Hanse was at his home in the Philadelphia suburb of Malvern, Pa., in a bit of a tizzy. He couldn’t find his passport. He’d checked his suitcase, his office, throughout his house. He’d double-checked, triplechecked, then dumped the contents of his briefcase onto the floor. Panic set in. The biggest opportunity of his life, and he’d be turned away at the airport.

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golf digest india | august 2016

the 11th hole will be 4 8 8 ya r d s f o r t h e m e n and 420 for the women i n g o l f ’ s o ly m p i c r e t u r n .

His wife, Tracey, calmly placed a few phone calls, then informed him of a change in plans. He would head to New York City in the morning, obtain a replacement passport and catch a flight to Rio from there.

On the road by 4:30 a.m., Hanse was almost the first in line at the New York passport office in SoHo at 7. Three hours later, he had a new passport in hand.

But there was still the visa issue. He rushed to the Brazilian consulate in Midtown Manhattan, where his office assistant, Andrea Lynch, was holding him a place in line. Luckily, the ambassador in charge was a golf fan. Hanse was escorted to his office, where they talked golf, and within an hour, Hanse had a visa.

He headed to Kennedy airport to catch his overnight flight to Rio, praying there would be no delay. The plane took off on time. Hanse slept fitfully and reached his hotel at 11:30 a.m., just enough time to shower, dress, grab a sandwich and rush to the main conference room where he and his presentation colleagues, LPGA Hall of Famer Amy Alcott and environmental-

ist Owen Larkin, would make their joint presentation. Hanse was still on edge as he entered the room, barely acknowledging well-wishers. He was led to the side of a U-shape table where place cards indicated the seating arrangements. Hanse looked down at his. It read, “Gil Hansen.”

He laughed out loud. The tension was broken. He relaxed as he settled into his pitch. Hanse, of course, got the job. But that’s how close he came to not even being considered.

Or was it? There are those among the organizations of the seven other golf-design firms that competed for the Olympic commission who believe that Hanse was secretly the four-judge panel’s choice from the outset, and had he not made his appointed time, he would have been allowed an interview at a later date, just to maintain the appearance of an objective competition.

But there are also those who are certain that Hanse was the darkest of dark horses and was a compromise pick after the panel had deadlocked over support of two other candidates. Both opinions, we will find, are wrong.

I

THe FIeLD

f one had been handicapping the field at the start of the presentations, even money would have been placed on the two architects generating the most buzz, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak.

Nicklaus, arguably the greatest player of all time and a highly successful course architect of global impact, was teaming with Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, arguably the game’s greatest female player, who has a modest course-design business. The pairing made perfect sense because the two had campaigned together for inclusion of golf in the Olympics, a decision made by the International Olympic Committee in October 2009, the same session at which it awarded the 2016 Games to Rio. Word of the Nicklaus-Sorenstam union caused some rivals to sign up a prominent female partner. Greg Norman joined with Lorena Ochoa of Mexico. Fellow Australian Peter Thomson enlisted his country’s greatest female star, Karrie Webb. Robert Trent Jones Jr. made overtures to a young Brazilian LPGA player, but when that fizzled, he teamed with a veteran male professional

golfer from Brazil, Mario Gonzalez. Alcott, who had met Hanse during his remodeling of Los Angeles Country Club, called him and offered to team up. Hanse agreed to have her serve as a consultant but insisted on bidding for the job solely in his name.

Doak, with an international reputation from layouts such as Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, was reluctant to enter the competition. But he was persuaded to do so by his longtime friend, Brazilian financier Arminio Fraga, who would be one of the four judges. Doak sent in his application and, upon hearing he’d been selected as a finalist from 29 applicants, announced the news in his 2011 Christmas card, which featured a photo of Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue.

When the eight finalists visited Rio on Dec. 11 for their only formal opportunity to inspect the proposed site, some were miffed that NBC/Golf Channel television cameras seemed to focus on Doak (and, by association, on Hanse, Doak’s former design associate, who walked some portions of the land with Doak).

If so, it’s probably because Doak was

when green is gold What convinced us to honor the new Rio Olympic Golf Course with Golf Digest’s Green Star Award was a family of burrowing owls. These 10-inch long creatures carved out a home in, of all places, the face of a bunker left of the ninth green. It’s the perfect symbol of how golf can work in harmony with nature.

We were also swayed by the February 2016 report from Rio de Janeiro’s Department of Justice, which concluded the creation of the golf course has increased biodiversity in the area. Opponents were certain a swamp, known as Marapendi Lagoon, was being despoiled by the course, but the environmental-impact report established the opposite.

Native vegetation has increased by 167 percent, and the number of animal species in the locale has more than doubled since June 2013.

Rio’s Olympic course is the first international layout to receive our annual award for outstanding environmental practices, and the first Green Star recipient designed and

built under rigid sustainability guidelines. Architect Gil Hanse was given an abandoned sand mine turned into an illegal dump. Restrictions were so harsh that he wasn’t allowed to spray chemicals to kill unwanted vegetation, so crews hand-pulled 80 acres of weeds. He could neither import nor remove any soil from the property, so workers dug down to find decent sand for tees, greens, fairway contours and framing dunes, expanding natural ponds in the process.

Drought-tolerant Zeon zoysia grass was sprigged everywhere

burrowing owls h av e m a d e a home in hanse’s new bunker.

but on the greens, which are Seashore paspalum, a hedge against the possibility that pure groundwater might someday become brackish from the nearby Atlantic. Maintaining the turf is a major task for course superintendent Neil Cleverly, who has no access to slow-release fertilizers used on American courses, so he creates his nutrients and applies them

with organic materials like liquid molasses to keep them from leaching through the sand too quickly. He’s prohibited from using herbicides and can use only agricultural fungicides and insecticides, which he applies sparingly.

A once-dead parcel of land is now lively with all sorts of fauna. Monkeys live in the cashew trees behind the 12th green. Yacare caimans (cousins of the crocodile) have been seen in the ponds. Sandpipers run the fairways, and egrets soar overhead. The far roughs are home to capybaras, which look like large hedgehogs.

There are also the owls.

There are families elsewhere on the course, including a waste area dotted by cactus (yes, tropical cactus) between the 11th and 12th holes, but it’s the owls on No. 9 that captured our fancy. How did such tiny creatures tunnel such a big hole? Whether the owls maintain residency once golf activity begins in August is uncertain, but Cleverly and Rio 2016 officials don’t intend to involuntarily evict them. After all, the rules of golf have provisions for relief from holes of burrowing animals. —RW

august 2016 | golf digest india

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ross perrett was very vocal in his frustration that officials wouldn’t allow more than four hours to examine the propert y. one of the few recognizable faces on the property. Nicklaus didn’t attend (citing a scheduling conflict) and instead sent a team consisting of his son Jack Jr., design associate Chris Cochran and agronomist Jon Scott. Finalists Norman and Gary Player also sent design associates. Trent Jones Jr. did attend and was filmed sitting atop a sand pile sketching a proposed green on a notepad.

Peter Thomson didn’t show, but his design partner, Ross Perrett, was there and after the session was very vocal in his frustration that officials wouldn’t allow more than four hours to examine the property.

He had intended to spend a week or more on the site before preparing a design.

What Perrett and the others weren’t told was that acquisition of the land was still under negotiation, and they were lucky to have been granted four hours.

In June 2011, when the Rio 2016 Olympic Organizing Committee rejected the city’s two private clubs and proposed a public course be constructed for the Olympics, it struck a tentative deal with billionaire developer Pasquale Mauro. Mauro would

sell the city a parcel of land in the Barra da Tijuca district of Rio (the locale of most of the Olympic facilities) and fund construction of the course in exchange for favorable zoning that would allow him to develop the surrounding land with luxury high-rise condominiums. But in December, the temperamental Mauro (whose gruff demeanor has led some in Rio to nickname him “Tony Soprano”) was holding out for more favorable terms. One afternoon’s access to the site was all he granted.

All plans and support documents had to be filed in less than 30 days. The eight companies returned home to spend the holidays skipping festivities to prepare their designs and sales pitches. The original invitation to bid on the job had set out broad parameters: “a state-of-the-art championship golf course for the Olympic Games . . . a public facility catering to the emerging Rio golf market, with specific focus on youth play and programs to grow the game . . . respecting the environmental and sustainable goals of Rio 2016 . . . easily walked and conducive to speedy play . . . designed to minimize construction costs

the designcontest finalists, in the order they presented their bids: g a ry p l ay e r , greg norman, gil hanse, m a rt i n h aw t r e e , jack nickl aus, tom doak , robert trent jones jr. and peter thomson.

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Here’s the dilemma Gil Hanse faced building the Olympic Golf Course, a municipal layout required to double as a championship venue. Defend par too strenuously, and he’d be accused of providing something too tough for public consumption. Err on the side of playability, and he’d be labeled a pastry chef who produces only cream puffs.

To balance his design, Hanse did what the greatest golf architects have done for more than a century: He sought to test a professional golfer’s mental acumen and physical skills with a course that looks simple but contains complexities not readily apparent.

As Hanse explained to an audience at a USGA Golf Architecture Symposium in April 2015, he’d tried to emulate the philosophy of the great Sandbelt courses like Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath in Australia.

Given a mined-out sand pit, he said, he’d built a course with “extreme width, tightly maintained turf throughout, surrounded by native scrub and sand. Off the back tees, players must carry sections of scrubby waste. From the forward tees, not so much.”

Because recovery shots, he added, are “the soul of the game,” his aim in shaping greens and their surrounds was “to keep the golfer engaged and hopeful,” borrowing a phrase coined by his friend Mark Parsinen.

Tightly mowed pockets of grass next to greens do that. Ridiculously deep bunkers and multiple water hazards do not.

The Olympic course boasts options, options, options. Greens are slanted and canted, many positioned on diagonals, so certain hole locations require precise tee shots to provide unobstructed angles.

Green contours vary from slight to bold, providing the sort of variety that makes the course set-up man an architect-du-jour.

Fairway bunkers are scattered about, often guarding premium landing zones. Mounds within fairways obscure views of some greens. Humps and swales pose awkward fairway lies.

After walking the course (it won’t open for public play until after the Olympics), I concluded it was the kind I would enjoy playing over and over. If only it were a bit closer to my home.

That does not, however, mean that it

Player: Stan Badz/PGa tour • norman: ChriS Condon/PGa tour • hanSe, doak: SCott halleran/Getty imaGeS • hawtree: CourteSy of trumPGolfSCotland.Com • niCklauS: d diPaSuPil/filmmaGiC/Getty imaGeS • JoneS: david Cannon/Getty imaGeS • thomSon: matthew lewiS/Getty imaGeS

w i l l a n o ly m p i a n s h o o t 5 8 ?

w i t h n o t r a d i t i o n a l r o u g h , t h e c h a l l e n g e w i l l b e p o s e d b y b u n k e r s , n at i v e s c r u b a n d w i n d .

will be a strong venue for the Olympics.

The problem is, the maxims about great golf design no longer apply. The game has changed that much.

Don’t take it from me. I defer to golf architect Steve Smyers, a lifelong lowhandicap player who served for years on the executive committee of the USGA, where he officiated at many amateur and professional events.

“The problem of designing with strategic lines and angles,” he says, “is that professional golfers no longer play that way, and haven’t for quite some time.

“Their swing speeds are so fast that they can hit the ball extremely high with considerable spin. They don’t worry about an ideal line. You can’t hide a pin from them.

They know precise distances with their clubs and can stop the ball quickly.

“The only way to challenge tour players is with rough,” Smyers says. “Not deep rough, but light rough, just enough to cover at least half the ball. Then they have a harder time getting spin and hit a lot of flyers. Light rough puts a premium on the drive and can bring the ground game into play on approach shots.”

But there will be no rough for the Olympic competitions. With such wide fairways, it’ll be a green light for the world’s best to go long off the tees and take aim at flags. The par-71 layout can’t be stretched that much, either. It will measure just 7,128 yards for the men’s event, and 6,245 yards for the women.

The question is, are golf fans more entertained by birdies or bogeys? Two years ago at the U.S. Open, Pinehurst No. 2 had wide, tight fairways with no rough, just sandscapes, and Martin Kaymer opened with rounds of 65-65 to set the 36-hole scoring record and won by eight. Last year the USGA narrowed the gigantic fairways of Chambers Bay using modest but sticky rough, and Jordan Spieth won at five under par.

Of course, wind can fluster even the greatest golfers. During Rio’s winter months (July through September), it can get very gusty. Part of Hanse’s decision to provide wide fairways was to keep the course playable in extremely windy conditions.

Many involved with Olympic golf have openly expressed the hope that the wind will blow during the competitions. But it’s not likely

to do so for four straight rounds or two straight weeks.

There are also the closing three holes, which Hanse fashioned as a last-turn, dashto-the-tape finish. The 16th is a 303-yard, drivable par 4 (264 yards for the women), with an hourglass green tucked behind a high knob. The 133/120-yard 17th, with a wide, U-shape green, is the shortest par 3 on the course. The 571/509-yard 18th plays as a slight dogleg left, with plenty of fairway bunkers and some fascinating bumps and knobs just short of the green, but expect this par 5 to be reached in two by many.

Hanse says he’d be delighted if a player were to go eagle-birdie-eagle and leapfrog the field to the top of the podium. “Whenever you design a golf course, you want to understand that it can yield good scoring,” he says. “You want to build a golf course so that if a player is hitting good shots, he or she is rewarded.”

So, yes, I think some players will go extremely low. But there’s nothing wrong with that. This is, after all, the Olympics, where world-class athletes are expected to establish records. —RW august 2016 | golf digest india

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and to be efficient in its maintenance and golf operations.”

Most of the eight firms would spend at least $75,000 on their presentations, and two reportedly spent more than $100,000, all for a job with a set design fee of $300,000.

(All these firms are accustomed to working for high-six-figure or even seven-figure fees.)

Taxes to Brazil alone would take a third.

Travel expenses would be reimbursed, but the winning architect had to agree to establish a subsidiary office in Rio within three months of selection and have a Brazilian partner to execute a landscaping program.

Each applicant also agreed to a nondisclosure agreement—at a hefty penalty of $100,000—about the selection process.

It’s little wonder some design firms chose not to compete. Partners Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw felt the requirement to accommodate spectator flow would compromise any design they might propose.

Rees Jones, long considered “The Open Doctor” for his work on U.S. Open venues, chose not to enter. The design firm of Hurdzan/Fry Environmental Golf Design (since split into separate companies) didn’t enter, despite the fact it already had a branch office in Brazil. Tom Fazio didn’t enter, probably just as well, as his chances would have been spoiled by Nick Faldo, who publicly proposed that Fazio prepare a routing on which he and 17 other professional golf legends would design one hole apiece.

If a camel is a horse designed by committee, what do you call a golf course designed by committee? A gamble.

The finalists, according to several sources, weren’t motivated by money.

Most figured the venture would be a financial loss and entered the competition with the desire to help grow golf via Olympic exposure. If that led to future design jobs in new parts of the world, well, there’s nothing wrong with that.

T

the trials

he official presentations were made in Rio on Tuesday, Jan. 31, and Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012.

The four judges were Fraga, as a representative of the Rio 2016 Golf Advisory Committee; Carlos Arthur Nuzman, president of Rio 2016 as well as a member of Brazil’s first Olympic volleyball team, in 1964; Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio; and Peter Dawson, then the executive director of the R&A, and the president of the International Golf Federation (IGF), which would handle the inside-the-ropes conduct of the Olympic tournaments.

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At the last minute, Paes announced he was too busy to attend. (There was talk the politician got cold feet and wanted distance from a project that could become controversial.) He sent a substitute, urban architect Augusto Ivan, who was introduced as an environmental advisor to Paes. Several observers noticed Ivan never made eye contact with any presenter and seemed to have little interest. One, noting that he asked no questions, dubbed him “Clarence Thomas,”

filled existing lakes and created a lake next to an environmentally protected lagoon on the south edge of the site. One rival, who examined the routing, which had been left in a room unguarded, scoffed at its plethora of parallel holes and called it, “a package of sausages.”

After Tuesday lunch came Hanse Golf Course Design Inc. As with the other presentations, Hanse was limited to 45 minutes and no more than three speakers.

one rival, who examined greg norman’s routing, scoffed at its plethora of parallel holes and called it ‘a package of sausages.’ after the Supreme Court justice who went 10 years without asking a question. Another had the impression that Ivan didn’t understand English.

The contestants waited their turns in the lobby. Martin Hawtree had known Hanse since 1988, when the latter had traveled to England to study courses and worked for the Hawtree firm, then headed

by Martin’s father, Fred. Others were meeting for the first time. Until that week, neither Norman or Player had met Doak.

The presentations were to be made in alphabetical order, but in a convoluted fashion, using not an architect’s last name, but the first letter of his firm’s name. So Gary Player Design went first on Tuesday morning. The legendary South African emphasized how he had promoted golf around the world and in Brazil through past tournament appearances. His firm’s design emulated the Olympics logo—five interlocking rings—using a series of crescent ponds across the site.

After Player came Greg Norman Golf Course Design. When Norman entered the conference room, he had to be disheartened to see Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s chief marketing officer and newly appointed vice president of the IGF, sitting alongside the judges. Norman had long-standing disagreements with the PGA Tour, dating to 1994, when he’d proposed a world golf tour, only to have the tour’s commissioner, Tim Finchem, shoot down the idea, then later appropriate it as the World Golf Championships. With a tour representative in the room, Norman likely felt his chances were diminished.

Norman’s design was unique because it

He explained that his inspiration for his design on Rio’s sandy site were the courses found in the Sandbelt around Melbourne, Australia. (Hanse had never been to Australia; he would first visit Melbourne the next winter.) Alcott spoke on her grass-roots introduction to golf and her passion for growing the game, and Larkin on sustainability practices. To conclude, Hanse offered a short film. Former USGA executive director David Fay came on-screen and provided an enthusiastic endorsement of Hanse.

When other firms later learned of the Fay video, they cried foul. Fay was no off-the-street private citizen; he was the past joint secretary of the IGF with Peter Dawson. One observer called Fay “a thumb on the scale.” One suggested that Hanse should have been disqualified for exceeding the spirit of the three-presenter limit.

“This is the Olympics,” the person said.

“You have to abide by the rules in the Olympics.”

Following Hanse was Hawtree Ltd., consisting of Martin (a third-generation course architect) and his associate Marc Westenborg. Some considered Hawtree a favorite of Dawson because the two had worked together on several revisions of British Open courses. But Dawson offered no hint of favoritism. Perhaps because Hawtree was soft-spoken and mild-mannered, or that his presentation was late in the day, few recall much about it.

Thus ended the first day. The next morning, Nicklaus Design was first on the card. Jack presented an animated video of his proposed design with computergenerated flyovers of each hole. He narrated it with such authority that one would

have thought the course was already built.

Sorenstam followed with her vision of a women’s test, followed briefly by Scott on agronomics. At the conclusion, some of the Brazilian contingent asked Jack and Annika for their autographs.

Then came Renaissance Golf Design, Doak’s firm. His focus was on Rio 2016’s stated desire to promote youth golf. Setting aside a section of the land for an academy course, he said, would gobble up so much acreage that it would be hard to create a course of championship length, say 7,500 yards. So he proposed designing two opening holes, a long par 4 and a long par 5, that would double as a nine-hole junior course.

After the Olympics, those first two holes would be taken out of play and become the permanent junior course, and two other shorter holes, built elsewhere on the property, would be put into play to complete a public 18. Ed Mate of the Colorado Golf Association spoke on the junior program at the Doak-designed CommonGround Golf Club in Aurora, Colo., and Brian Schneider was introduced as the Doak associate who would be in charge of constructing the Olympic course.

The first afternoon session was Robert Trent Jones II, with Trent Jones Jr., his partner Bruce Charlton and Mario Gonzalez. Their proposal was a unique reversible 18, allowing the IGF to conduct the men’s competition in one direction and the women’s in the other to spread out wear and tear of divots and ball marks. They, too, presented a computer-generated animation, showing how certain holes would look in each direction and from various TV camera angles. Dawson seemed particularly

clockwise fashion, the other counterclockwise, both concluding at a clubhouse in the center of the property. One observer later termed it the most technically impressive plan of the bunch. The competition thus concluded.

According to the rules, the judges would reconvene Thursday morning in a private session and announce a winner by Friday.

Some camps, like those of Nicklaus and Norman, flew home. Others stuck around for two more days, anxious to hear if their man had won.

T

the verdict

here were at least 15 people in the room Friday morning, but substitute judge Ivan was a noshow. Perhaps the mayor’s office hadn’t told him he needed to attend the deliberations. The other three judges sat down with Votaw, leading some to speculate that Votaw was actually a secret fourth judge. He was not, but he did participate in the discussions.

No vote was taken. Instead, the group discussed the merits and concerns of each architect’s proposed design. Fraga then tried to focus his colleagues’ attention on Doak and Hanse.

What the other judges, and most of the competitors, didn’t know was that Fraga had known Doak and Hanse since the early 1990s, when, after getting his Ph.D. from Princeton, he lived in New Jersey and worked for a George Soros hedge fund.

Fraga admired the architecture of both, but especially Doak’s. In 2010, Fraga became enamored with the environmentally sensitive

what the other judges, and most of the competitors, didn’t know was that one of the judges had known doak and hanse since the early 1990s. interested in the concept and asked several questions. But at the conclusion, Dawson sank a dagger into the heart of Team Jones.

“Seems too complicated,” he announced.

The last of the eight was the Thomson Perrett group. Thomson, the five-time Open champion, explained that their plan was based on the routing of Muirfield (where he’d never won an Open), with one nine in

Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., where Hanse was preparing a remodeling plan.

In late 2010, a year before the design competition was announced, Fraga flew Hanse and Larkin to Rio, showed them the property and asked if a sustainable, Vineyard-type course could be built upon it. They said it could.

It’s that visit (casually revealed in a 2012 interview by Larkin) that led some to conclude that Hanse was being groomed as the pick from the very beginning. But it’s a dubious argument because Fraga flew Doak down in early 2011 for a tour of the site. Nicklaus also saw the site in early 2011, as did Perrett and Trent Jones Jr. Long before the formal competition was announced, these architects and others were doing what they normally do to find work: schmoozing potential clients, in this case, the city of Rio, the Brazilian Golf Federation and Rio 2016.

But here’s more fodder for conspiracy theorists: When Hanse was making his Monday dash to New York City for a new passport and visa, he called Fraga en route.

Fraga was able to grease the skids at the Brazilian consulate by informing the ambassador that a famous golf-course architect was headed his way.

On decision day, Fraga still favored Doak, with Hanse as his fallback position.

Votaw, however, didn’t think Nicklaus should be dismissed so lightly. Jack was a global ambassador to the game. His brand was known worldwide and would generate enormous interest in the Olympics and beyond, when the course would need tourist play to generate income.

It was a misguided argument in the context of the Olympics. Nuzman made it clear that Rio 2016 didn’t need a marquee name because Rio 2016 was the marquee. If you want your brand displayed at the Olympics, you pay the IOC, it doesn’t pay you.

Votaw played his last trump card.

Nicklaus had privately told PGA Tour representatives he felt so strongly about the importance of golf in the Olympics that he’d be willing to waive his design fee. Jack had not mentioned that in his presentation to the judges, so Votaw believed he should make them aware of the offer.

The offer backfired. One Brazilian thought Nicklaus was implying that Brazil needed charity. Another judge thought Nicklaus was trying to force their hand by making an offer they couldn’t refuse without facing public ridicule. How could anyone pass up an offer to have Jack Nicklaus design their course for free?

Dawson, who had seemingly supported Votaw during much of the Nicklaus discussion, abruptly turned the focus back to Doak, telling the group he didn’t particularly care for Doak’s proposed design.

Taking the first two holes out of play after the Olympics made no sense—golfers who would travel to Rio in the future would want to play the Olympic Golf Course, not august 2016 | golf digest india

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some variation or substitute.

Fraga had to concede that he, too, found Doak’s design awkward, and for a moment, it appeared that after rejecting Nicklaus on the basis that marketing shouldn’t be a factor in the decision, the judges were now going to make the choice based on marketing.

But Fraga then asked, what if he could broker a deal where Doak and Hanse would collaborate on the design?

Fraga had secretly talked in advance with Hanse and Doak, separately, about such a collaboration. Hanse had indicated he would be willing but doubted that Doak would be. Doak wasn’t receptive. He’d been down that road several times, having

him a name like Nicklaus or Norman that would help him sell real estate. The IOC didn’t want to reveal the name until the land deal was in place. (The worst-case scenario was that Mauro would stonewall and the city would be forced to condemn the land to obtain it, something Mayor Paes absolutely wanted to avoid.)

Mauro never did sell the land to the city. Instead, after protracted negotiations, he agreed to lease the land to the city for a (surprisingly short) period of 20 years. He subsequently delayed the course-construction funds for nearly two years, at the same time starting construction on several highrise condos overlooking the site.

on tuesday, march 6, hanse was at the pga tour event in miami to be formally introduced as the architect retained to remodel doral’s famed blue monster course. collaborated with Nicklaus at Sebonack, for instance. The only way he would ever agree to such an arrangement was with a guarantee that he’d have the final say on every decision, and he didn’t think Hanse would agree to that. But Fraga didn’t mention any of this to his fellow judges. He simply said he thought he could convince the two that, for the good of the game, they should team up.

But why do we need Doak?

Dawson asked.

Fraga conceded the point. If they couldn’t have a Doak course, at least they’d get a Hanse one. Nuzman agreed with Fraga, and without taking a formal vote, Hanse was the pick.

But no announcement was made that Friday. Instead, the contestants were notified by text and email to head home; the announcement was being postponed a month to allow the judges to first inform the IOC. That was a bit of a smokescreen. Sources tell us the delay was because the land deal with Mauro still hadn’t been reached. Mauro had never been in favor of an architectselection process. He didn’t consider golf architects to be artists, just employees. You hire the one who’ll work the cheapest, and then move on.

But because there had been a selection process, some were concerned that Mauro would be upset that the judges hadn’t given

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On Tuesday, March 6, Hanse was at the PGA Tour event in Miami to be formally introduced as the architect retained to remodel Doral’s famed Blue Monster Course.

An NBC/Golf Channel camera crew told Hanse the choice of the Rio 2016 architect would be announced at 7:30 the next morning and asked him to be available so they could film his reaction.

He was told the other designers would also be covered by camera crews. (False—no other architect was even contacted by a camera crew.)

Hanse met with technicians at 6:30 a.m. to be wired for sound. Seven-thirty came and went, then 8:30, then 9:30. (It was a precursor, Hanse later said, of the countless delays that would plague the course construction.) Behind the scenes, Mike McCarley, president of Golf Channel, was scrambling to determine the delay. He learned that Nuzman, who was to make the announcement, didn’t have Hanse’s cellphone number. McCarley relayed the number to Nuzman’s office. At 10:30 a.m., after sitting for four hours in the Doral lobby, Hanse got the call from Gustavo Nascimento, a spokesman for Rio 2016 more fluent in English than Nuzman, informing him of his selection. It was not totally unexpected, but still an overwhelming moment.

No official notification was received by anyone at the other seven design firms.

Most heard of the choice through news reports and social media.

After the announcement, the IGF issued a press release suggesting that an important factor in the selection of Hanse was his offer to relocate his family to Rio to devote his total attention to the job. It implied that no other architect made such a commitment. That was incorrect. In his presentation, Trent Jones Jr. had also offered to move there.

Of the other six, only Doak was pointedly asked during his presentation if he’d be willing to relocate to Rio. Doak said that wasn’t how he operated, that his associate Schneider would be on site full-time and Doak would visit frequently during construction, remaining at the course for weeks at a time when certain tasks, like shaping the greens, required him.

Hanse did move with his wife and youngest daughter to Rio in 2013, but after the project stalled for a variety of reasons, they moved back to Pennsylvania. When construction finally started in late 2014, his shapers moved to Rio, and Hanse flew in and out.

Around Christmas 2012, some nine months after he’d been awarded the commission, Hanse was home in Malvern.

The weather had turned bitterly cold, so he grabbed his heavy winter overcoat out of a closet, slipped it on, dug into his pocket for his gloves and . . . pulled out his passport.

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India Digest Spotlight

Etching India’s name in the Guinness World Records In June, Siddharth Naik and Brijesh Patel set a Guinness World Record by playing 315 holes (17.5 rounds) in 12 hours at Kalhaar Blues & Greens, Ahmedabad Brijesh Patel

T

he duo teed off at 5:45am at the Jack Nicklaus designed course which is adorned with numerous bunkers and water hazards. The 18- hole championship course is one of the longest in the country playing at over 7400 yards.

Siddharth & Brijesh played 17 rounds of 18-holes and 1 round of 9-holes in a cart and in doing so became the only amateur golfers in the world to have achieved this feat.

‘What’s next?!?!’ they said to each other as they hugged on the final hole to cheers from the gallery of friends and well-wishers who were setting off the fireworks! The previous record was set in 2011 by a Japanese duo who completed 261 holes in 12 hours at Kyowa Country Club, Japan.

Naik, who sold his manufacturing business (electric motors) last year, was diag-

Siddharth Naik

nosed with Cancer of the Unknown Primary in 2015. His chemotherapy has stopped and he keeps himself healthy through fitness, yoga and Ayurveda. This has completely changed his outlook on life and renewed his passion for golf which he claims has helped him deal with it both mentally and physically. This makes the record setting endeavour even more remarkable!

Brijesh runs a successful graphic design & printing business in Ahmedabad and the duo are active campaigners for caddy welfare and promotion of golf in schools in their region.

What’s exceptional is the level of meticulous planning and attention to detail with which the Ahmedabadi duo prepared themselves. We take a closer look at their record breaking feat.

Fun Fact: The 5th round was their fastest completed in 37 Min 40 Sec. This is the officially the fastest round ever played in this format.

34 golf digest india | august 2016

Guinness World Record Format

Alternate Shot with Cart Minimum required course length- 6100 yards

LimcaBook Record

The duo simultaneously created a Limca Book Record by playing 360 holes ( 20 rounds of 18 holes) in one day as they continued to play for a total of 13hrs 44mins (after having already achieved the Guinness Record which was adjudged for 12 hours) beating their own record of 182 holes set in 2014.

In 2015, they had set a record by playing across 10 courses in Ahmedabad in an alternate-shot format in one day

Spotlight

The Digest

A week prior they ensured that their bodies were well rested and maintained an easy diet of khichdi and simple food to avoid acidity or indigestion

How they did it?

Yardages & Pin Positions



l Played white tees ranging from 6200-6300 yards l Pin positions selected to reduce walking time l Played safe to avoid hazards

Carts

 l New carts used every 2 rounds for better

acceleration & braking

l Cart drivers were used

Team Effort



l Supported by 26 staff & caddies along with 19 friends

& family members

l Balls teed up & kept ready on each hole l Caddies picked up holed out balls

“As recreational club golfers one should do innovative things that excite oneself & others and help in popularising the game. The monthly medal rounds are always going to be there.”

“Everything fell in place and our game just clicked that day. People tell me that when they were watching the live streamed videos on twitter it looked so easy and smooth. But the end result is crazy! 360 holes..20 rounds of golf in one day... I too cant believe it!”.

SiddharthNaik

“We did it! It was a relief on the last hole, as all the hard work and planning had paid off. Now we will attempt the 50-50-30” Brijesh Patel

l Fore caddy used on each hole

l Several practice rounds (3 continuous rounds)

What’s Next

50-50-30 i.e. play 50 golf courses across 50 cities in 30 days. The duo are looking for support and sponsors.

You can reach them by writing to us at bharath@teamgolfdigest.com

l 10 walky talkies

l F&B setup to keep them hydrated & energized. Dry

rolls, finger food & water on the go.

l Loo breaks minimized in order to cut time!

Diet & Exercise



Siddharth- Started practicing yoga and worked on cardio exercises over the previous two months Brijesh- Began jogging and brisk walking twice a day 20 days prior to the attempt

A Team Affair

The record breaking moment

august 2016 | golf digest india

35

India Digest Spotlight

Setting the bar high DLF Golf & Country Club – Gary Player Design

IGIA AwArds 2016 Best New 18 Hole course in India

The pavillion The picturesque 5th hole island green

T

he Gary Player Course at DLF Golf & Country Club is an 18-hole, Par-72 course boasting a massive 7654 yards from the championship tees. This signature design was fully opened in October 2015 and is the second course at the DLF Golf & Country Club. It won the Indian Golf Industry Association (IGIA) Best New 18-hole course 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.

The new course has already successfully hosted its first International tournament- the Hero Women’s Indian Open 2015, a Ladies European Tour event, amongst various other corporate golf events.

The course has two large lakes, big land forms, large undulating greens and unique style bunkering amongst its various features. The front nine offers a par-3 with an island green while the closing holes are built around a quarry and a large lake with massive rock formations. The rugged Aravali Range offers a dramatic backdrop to the course. The course is strategically designed to offer a challenge to golfers of all levels.

The club also consists of a superb sports complex which includes tennis courts, squash courts, a swimming pool and a health club.

The course is complimented by the finest and the most hi-tech ‘Performance Center’ in the country offering a variety of teaching programs and aids for golfers 36 golf digest india | august 2016

Spotlight

The Digest

The majestic clubhouse called ‘the Pavilion’ overlooks the lakes on the 9th and 18th hole. This 3 sided glass walled structure offers a bar, restaurant and plush lockers. Besides the spectacular view it offers a dining experience comparable to the best in the world

august 2016 | golf digest india

37

India Digest Spotlight

Seattle 27th August 2016

Mission: PGA Tour

The Indo-American Professional Golf Association (IAPGA) aims to help Indian Professionals get on the PGA Tour New York City 9th September 2016 Columbus 23rd August 2016

San Francisco 28th August 2016

Los Angeles 30th August 2016

Professional Golfer, Arjun Atwal became the first Indian native to earn a PGA Tour card back in 2004 and went on to become the first Indian to win on the PGA Tour in 2010. Anirban Lahiri recorded the highest finish by an Indian in a Major at the 2015 PGA Championship (T5). An increasing number of Indian professionals are proving that they have what it takes to play against the best in the world.

With that in mind, The Indo-American Professional Golf Association (theiapga.org), a non-profit, umbrella network of golf leagues in the US is organizing its third season across the continental U.S. & is recognized by the Indian Golf Union- the apex body of Golf in India.

38 golf digest india | august 2016

Washington D.C. September 6

Dallas 3rd September 2016

Houston 1st September 2016

About IAPGA Tour 2016

Over 10 professional golfers from India will tour the U.S across eight cities playing various courses and engaging with the Indo-American community through ProAm’s and events. The IAPGA Tour aims to help pros get accustomed to the conditions on foreign soil and prep them for the rigors of professional golf in the U.S. The pros will play four Qualifying events among other Pro-Am rounds and the top 2 golfers in these qualifying rounds will win an all-expenses paid participation in the Q-School of Web.com tour. Web.com tour is the feeder tour for PGA tour- the holy grail of international pro golf.

Tour Schedule Date

City

Golf Course

August 23

Columbus

Little Turtle G.C.

August 27

Seattle

Redmond Ridge G.C.

August 28

San Francisco

The Bridges G.C.

August 30

Los Angeles

Angeles G.C.

September 1

Houston

Shadow Hawk

September 3

Dallas

The Tribute

September 6

Washington D.C.

TBC

September 9

New York

Trump National G.C.

Spotlight

The Digest

Gurbaaz Mann

“The goal for the IAPGA was to create the right kind of environment for the players to prepare for PGA Tour Q school. The idea was to give players the exposure to different conditions and turf in the United States, competitive practice during ‘Off season’ in Asia due to monsoons, the ability to source equipment and services of experts in the game and finally, a way to raise the funds to meet the expenses of Qualifying school.”

– Gurbaaz Mann, Founder & Promoter, IAPGA

The IAPGA 2015 team

Meet the Participants of IAPGA 2016

The golf professionals were invited on the basis of their ranking world-wide and their availability of time to present themselves on a world stage.

Abhijit Chaddha

Gunvir Rana

Deepinder Khullar

Rahul Bajaj

Amardip Malik

Karan Taunk

Angad Cheema

Syed Saqib Ahmed

Mandeo Pathania

The large Indo-American community spread across the U.S has contributed significantly to the initiative over the past two years and is expected to engage in a bigger way this year.

Contributions are welcome & can be made online at theiapga.org august 2016 | golf digest india

39

India Digest Spotlight

Bengaluru Golfers to tee up at

Windsor Castle The Duke of Edinburgh Cup –an annual international series of golf events is a charity with Royal Patronage dedicated to helping young people worldwide by providing support in health, education and welfare. The Event has been running successfully for over 15 years now and the very first event was held in Portugal in 2001. Nine countries are taking part in the 2016 edition.

The Duke of Edinburgh Cup – an annual international series of charity golf events with Royal Patronage has been running successfully for over 15 years with the very first event held in Portugal in 2001. The 2016 edition will see participation from nine countries including India.

India Qualifiers

The 5th edition of the India qualifiers had commenced with the Madhavrao Scindia Charity Golf Tournament at DLF G&CC, Gurgaon in April.

The second Indian qualifier will be held at The Prestige Golfshire, Bengaluru on Saturday, August 27. The winning team of two from this qualifier will join their countrymen from Delhi at the World Finals at Windsor Castle.

Bengaluru’s largest charity golf tournament will see proceeds benefit Christel House India which helps young people by providing education and jobs.

The World Finals experience A once in a life time

l Family’s l A round of golf at the British Roya of Windnds grou the e private course insid sor Castle. er with l Black Tie Royal Champagne Dinn ard Prince Edw sancl The only golf tournament in the world in Brita t Grea of ily Fam tioned by the Royal

To participate, contact Indur Hirani: indur@rngolf.com | +91 9845045484

40 golf digest india | august 2016

Prince Edward with Dr. Kratish Bopanna

L-R: Dr. Kratish Bopanna, Charu Narain & Shashank Bantwal at the Black Tie dinner

PhotograPghs (bottom & middle) Courtesy FotograFiCa

The 2015 Indian Team at the private course of the Royal Family at Windsor Castle, UK L-R: Dhananjaya Das, Arun Murugappan, Dr. Kratish Bopanna & Shashank Bantwal

Spotlight

India Digest

Pros Who Mean Business Golf Digest India talks to pros & former pros whose penchant for entrepreneurship made them successful off the course as well.

This is a series of features on pros who have established their own businesses. To share your story, please email bharath@teamgolfdigest.com

Vivek Bhandari Turned Pro Year: 1995 Home Club: Delhi Golf Club

Vivek Bhandari has been around for quite a few years on the Indian professional golfing circuit (far too many if you ask him!)- 18 to be exact. With 6 tournament wins to his name, Vivek remembers winning the 1997 Honda SIEL Indian PGA at Army GC, Delhi as his favourite career achievement.

Using course management skills learned while negotiating the narrow fairways of Delhi Golf Club, Vivek made a leap to a while collar job in 2013 as Senior Consultant at DeVere Group – the largest consultancy firm in the offshore market – helping clients take control of their finances and manage their investments.

Vivek who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Southern California, met his potential employers on the golf course and felt that he could use golf to connect with the right clientele. Few weeks later he got certified by SEBI, the regulatory body and joined DeVere Group to grow the business in India.

Even though his profession has now changed and he gets to spend more time with the family, Golf hasn’t taken a back seat.

“A bad day on a course beats a good day at office” he says.

Vivek still plays every week at DGC with his regular fourball – tour pros Gaurav Ghei, Naman Dawar & Manav Jaini.

“Every week they take my money and every week they refuse to give me strokes. So whatever money I earn in my job, I end up giving to these guys.”, jokes Vivek.

Business mantra l Keep Selling. Embrace your inner salesman. l Sky is the limit.

oyal Manish: 20G 12 Turned Pro Year F Golf Home Club: DL ub Cl & Country

Passion: Giving back to the game by constructing a state of the art golf facility accessible to everyone As a pro, Manish felt that India has untapped talent and needed a platform to experience the game. This thought led him to set up Hamoni Golf Driving Range in Gurgaon with a vision to make the game more accessible and affordable to people.

His passion for the sport pushed him to convince his family to transform their 16-acre ancestral property in the middle of Gurgaon into the 105 bay Hamoni Golf Driving Range in 2014 (featured in Golf Digest India June Issue). Manish left no stone unturned and Hamoni includes night golf, a 9-hole Pitch & Putt course, outdoor fitness zone, Garden Café, a pro shop and swing studio on its way very soon. Manish also plays on the MENA Golf Tour, Dubai He oversees infrastructure at Hamoni and with the success of this venture dreams of a chain of driving ranges around India.

Manish has built a strong operations team that shares his vision and passion of providing all facilities to golfers to improve their skills.

Business mantra l Be passionate about what you believe l Work hard to achieve your goals

august 2016 | golf digest india

41

India Digest Business of Golf

Business of Golf Features industry insights & updates from India & across the globe. To contribute updates on events, conferences or other happenings email bharath@teamgolfdigest.com Meet Joh n

lz Vo

An American Pro in India

THE ASIAN TOUR AND THE EUROPEAN TOUR ANNOUNCE ‘STRATEGIC ALLIANCE’ In July, the Asian Tour and the E u r o p e a n To u r a n n o u n c e d a ‘Strategic Alliance’ which officially ratifies the relationship between the two Tours. The ‘Strategic Alliance’ follows on from a detailed period of exclusive negotiations between the two organisations, which began last August, and whose joint vision laid the groundwork for today’s announcement.

The formalisation of the partnership will see the two Tours now work together to develop professional golf in Asia – from a new joint office in Singapore – combining commercial and marketing resources to explore and maximise opportunities for both Tours not only across the continent of Asia, but globally.

For members of both Tours this important development will also see a significant exchange of playing opportunities. The Tours will, however, retain their own separate identity in terms of brand and logo, and will still be managed by their own individual Boards.

Today ’s announcement is a meaningful new chapter in the partnership between the two Tours which began in February 1999 when the first co-sanctioned tournament – the Malaysian Open – was staged at Saujana Golf and Country Club in Kuala Lumpur.

Since then, there have been 95

42 golf digest india | august 2016

co-sanctioned tournaments, with a further 14 events tri-sanctioned with either the Sunshine Tour or PGA Tour of Australasia.

Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, said: “Following successful discussions over the past year to develop our joint vision, we are delighted to announce this ‘Strategic Alliance’ which we believe will be of immense benefit to both organisations.

“We have enjoyed a very strong and prosperous relationship with the Asian Tour over the past 17 years, and this formalises that partnership, representing an exciting new era in our association.”

Kyi Hla Han, Commissioner of the Asian Tour, said: “The Asian Tour is delighted to formalise our ‘Strategic Alliance’ with the European Tour. This is a very positive step forward in our desire to further grow professional golf in Asia and around the world and we believe it will also greatly enhance the careers of our membership, who have embraced this exciting development.

“We are also confident a greater collaboration between the Asian Tour and European Tour will deliver a stronger product to our partners and appeal to new sponsors to get involved with the game. The future looks very exciting for the Asian Tour and European Tour.”

Source: Asian Tour

John fell in love with India when he first landed at ITC Classic Golf Resort, Gurgaon in the midnineties. The American who has called India home for over two decades has one of the most unique journeys to the Golf industry. After being a musician and entertainer for a greater part of his life, John got into the golf industry through his friend Brad Doren, a golf pro, who was a regular at the bar where John worked after his last band split up.

Brad invited John to work at Killearn Country Club, FL, USA and this is where it all started for John Volz- the golf guy! It was here that he learned all about golf operations and teaching and joined PGA of America’s apprentice program.

Brad, who John fondly refers to as his mentor, was also responsible for getting him the opportunity to travel to India and work at Classic Golf Resort, Gurgaon where he spent 10 years.

John was instrumental in bringing in the service culture which Classic is well known for today. He ensured that caddies took pride in their roles and received the respect they so thoroughly deservesetting a benchmark for the Indian golf industry to follow. The end result is that golfers who visit the club have a truly memorable five star experience.

After a decade at Classic, John took on reigns as GM at Boulder Hills Golf Club, Hyderabad where he spent a little over 3 years. Prior to joining RCGC in 2012 as Golf Director, John also set up his own consulting firm, JovoGolf. At RCGC, he was instructed to help improve the teaching and caddie experience, run the tournament programs and improve the daily golfing experience at the club- something which is evident even today.

Now, John is plying his trade at the Imperial Golf Estates in Ludhiana enjoying the work of setting up systems, programs and getting the club ready for golf. He will also serve as the Head Golf Professional. John is married to Sudha and they have two lovely children- Agastya and Shantanu. We wish John and his family the very best!

Business Of Golf

India Digest

Ceo’s in the news Updates on golfing corporates making waves on and off the course. To share updates with us email bharath@teamgolfdigest.com

Merger

Making Moves Mohit Talwar a keen golfer is at the helm of the merger of two indian life insurance giants, HDFC Life & Max Life. This deal upon successful completion will be India’s largest M&A in the life insurance space.

Mohit plays most weekends and enjoys memberships at DLF G&CC, Delhi GC & KGA.

MOHIT TALWAR, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MAx FINANCIAL SERVICES & MAx INDIA VICE CHAIRMAN, MAx VENTURES & INDUSTRIES

Launch

GAURAV SINGH, – GENERAL MANAGER, COURTYARD BY MARRIOT AND FAIRFIELD BY MARRIOTT

“Being an ex-banker from ANZ Grindlays & Standard Chartered Bank, this sport resonates with the financial sector fraternity. I began in the nineties and just loved the sport. I have enjoyed playing at many prestigious golf courses in India & abroad.”

VINEY SINGH TAkES OVER THE REIGNS AT FABINDIA AS DIRECTOR & CEO

Previously MD, Max Hypermarkets, Viney a long time golfer, was responsible for building the SPAR brand in India.

Viney has been a regular at KGA, Bengaluru and shifts base to Delhi in August.

"I'm playing less golf now because of my schedule and with the move to Delhi I'm not sure where I will be on weekends but yes I've always enjoyed the game and many of my close friendships have been formed on the course "

BG’s features modern interiors, refreshing cocktails and grills for the perfect experience

Gaurav who is a single handicapper & member of Jorhat Gymkhana Club, Assam recently launched BG’s – a casual, relaxed poolside al fresco bistro at the Fairfield by Marriott Bengaluru.

BG’s promises to be the perfect destination to unwind after a long day’s work.

“I started very young, playing from the age of 5 and have grown up to love the game. I try to play as often as I can”

august 2016 | golf digest india

43

India Digest Players in the News

ASIAN TOUR

Players iN the News

Gaganjeet Bhullar found some relief with his Tied 13th finish at Yeangder Tournament Players Championship. The US$ 500,000 event was played at Linkou International Golf & Country Club, Chinese Taipei. Bhullar finished with a total of 8 under par 280 thru 72-holes while Chikkarangapppa & Chiragh Kumar were tied T34 at 4 under par. Gurgaon’s Shubhankar Sharma finished T38 along with Rahil Gangjee while Himmat Rai ended up tied 50th. Carlos Pigem from Spain was crowned champion finishing 12 under par 276 after defeating Japan’s Shunya Takeyasu in a play-off.

ASIAN DEVELOPMENT TOUR Chikka secured a top 10 finish at the Taifong Open played at Taifong Golf & Country Club, Chinese Taipei in July.

The two time Take India Masters winner on Asian Development Tour (ADT) recorded a total of 3 under par 213 to grab a 9th place finish and US$ 3056 at the weather shortened tournament.

Shubhankar Sharma & Bengaluru’s Khalin Joshi finished T20 & T26 respectively.

American Johannes Veerman captured his maiden ADT title after defeating local hope Wang Wei-lun on the second playoff hole after being tied at 6 under 210 in regulation play.

44 golf digest india | august 2016

World Golf ChampionshipsBridgestone Invitational

Anirban Lahiri finished Tied 33rd finish at the World Golf Championships- Bridgestone Invitational. The US$ 9,500,000 tournament played at Firestone Country Club - Akron, Ohio saw Baan open with a 2 under par 68 on Day 1 followed by 4 over 74 & 3 over 73 on Day 2 & 3 respectively. Anirban finished the tournament at T33 with an even par score on the final day for a total of 5 over 285. He took home US$76,000 taking his earnings to US$ 835,171 for the season. Anirban has made 16 cuts in 20 starts this season on the PGA Tour with one top 10 finish at DEAN & DELUCA Invitational in June where he finished T6.

Anirban looks to be on course to retain his PGA Tour card for the next season.

Players in the News India Digest

Indian Golf Union Circuit IGU TELANGANA LADIES OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP Delhi Girls came on top at the IGU Telangana Ladies Open Championship played at Hyderabad Golf Association.

The 54-hole tournament was cut short by inclement weather to 36 Holes. Gaurika Bishnoi secured her victory with a score of 5 over par 147 edging Diksha Dagar by 1 stroke who finished in 2nd place followed

by Ridhima Dilawari in 3rd place at 8 over par 150.

IGU SOUTHERN INDIA LADIES & JUNIOR GIRLS AMATEUR GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP IGU Southern India Ladies & Junior Girls Amateur Golf Championship played at Coimbatore Golf Club saw Delhi’s Ridhima Dilawari crowned champion with a total score of 8 over par 224 over 54-holes. Diksha Dagar (+12; 228) & Sifat Sagoo (+18; 234) finished in 2nd & 3rd place respectively in the combined Category.

IGU-YES BANK TAMIL NADU JUNIOR BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP Shreyas Chandra of Karnataka emerged champion at IGU-YES Bank Tamil Nadu Junior Boys Championship with a score of 6 over par 294. Delhi’s Saarthak Chibber secured a runner up place while Chandigarh’s Karandeep Kochhar finished 3rd at the event played at Coimbatore Golf Club.

IGU YES BANK TELENGANA JUNIOR BOYS GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP With a total score of 1 over 285, Gurgaon’s Manav Bais took home the winners trophy at the event played at Hyderabad Golf Association. Not too far behind were Kartik Shamra & Karandeep Kochar who finished at 5 over 289 for a tied 2nd place finish.

UShA DGC JUNIORS GOLF ChAMPIONShIP 2016

The 10th edition of USHA DGC Juniors Golf Championship 2016 finished on a high note when Karan Pratap singh kept his cool and finished off with a two-under 70 final round, to finish at 1 over 289, winning the Category A Boys section by ten strokes ahead of Sunhit Bishnoi at Delhi Golf Club.

In Category B Girls, Himadari Singh lifted the trophy ahead of Yavnika Duhan.

Results Correction From July Edition IGU ARMy LADIES & JUNIOR GIRLS GOLF ChAMPIONShIP

The results of ladies category of the IGU Army Ladies & Junior Girls Golf Championship held at AEPTA course in Delhi were incorrectly stated in the July issue. It was mentioned that Anisha Padukone won the event whereas we would like to inform readers that it was indeed Gaurika Bishnoi who won the ladies category with a score of 4 over par in the 54 hole tournament. Ridhima Dilawari finished as Runner-up one shot behind. Anisha Padukone finished third at 7 over par.

Women’s Professional Golf Tour

VANI-ShING wITh ThE TROPhIES!

Vani Kapoor came up with yet another scintillating performance to win the 9th Leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour (HWPGT) at the Clover Greens Golf Course, Bengaluru. Vani carded a 1 under 70 on the final day for a total of 6-under par 207 to clinch her fifth title of the season. She has been in a phenomenal form and has now shot eight consecutive under par rounds on the tour starting from round 2 of Leg 7 at Classic Golf Resort, Gurgaon in March. Gauri Monga finished second with a total of 4-over par 217, followed by Amandeep Drall and Saaniya Sharma in third and fourth positions respectively with scores of 219 and 222.

AMANDEEP DRALL wINS hER 2ND TITLE IN 2016!

Chandigarh’s Amandeep Drall won the 10th leg of the HWPGT played over three days at KGA, Bengaluru.

Amandeep won the title with a margin of 11 shots in a wire to wire victory to return with an overall score of three-under 213. This is her second win in 2016 after claiming the title at Oxford Golf Resort, Pune in March besides claiming four topthree finishes. She has now moved to the fourth spot in the HWPGT Order of Merit with earnings of Rs. 6,33,534. Neha Tripathi who finished in 2nd place with 8 over par 224, is now leading the Order of Merit with total earnings of Rs. 7,12,433 toppling Vani Kapoor who has bagged Rs. 6,98,200 this season.

Indians shine at World Stars of Junior Golf 2016 11-year old wonderkid Shubham Jaglan finished runner-up at the World Stars of Junior Golf 2016 at 8 under par 205. He finished six strokes behind Wit Pitipat of Thailand in 11-12 age category over 54 holes. Shubham will take his good form to the World Junior Golf Championship at Pinehurst in North Carolina in August.

Chandigarh’s Aadil Bedi, also finished runner-up in the 15 - 16 age category at 7 under par 206 over 54 holes. Bedi led the championship for the first two days with 13 birdies but eventually lost the title by 2 strokes to Canadian Marco Trstenjak.

august 2016 | golf digest india

45

India Digest Players in the News

The 145th Open Championship

By Dave Shedlocki

TROON, Scotland—Henrik Stenson submitted the round of his life on Sunday, July 17th at Royal Troon.

It was a round for the history books, too. And he needed it.

Emerging from one of the most exquisite and impeccably played head-to-head battles in the annals of major-championship golf, Stenson scorched the soft turf of Troon for an eightunder-par 63 to hold off Phil Mickelson and capture the 145th Open Championship for his first major title.

Mickelson reeled off a bogeyfree 65 and tied Greg Norman’s 72-hole scoring record in the championship at 267, only to watch Stenson bury 10 birdies in a stunning putting display to win by three at 264. Stenson joined Johnny Miller, who closed with a 63 while winning the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont, in shooting the lowest final-round score in a major by a champion. The 6-foot2 Swede also tied the major-championship scoring record in relation to par of 20 under that Jason Day set in last year’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

“I played close to flawless golf and got

46 golf digest india | august 2016

beat,” said Mickelson, who passed Arnold Palmer with his 11th runner-up finish in a major, second behind Jack Nicklaus’ 19.

Coincidentally, Mickelson’s last victory was the 2013 Open at Muirfield, where he beat Stenson by three shots.

The two-man battle was reminiscent of the 1977 Open’s famed Duel in the Sun, in which Tom Watson defeated Nicklaus

by a shot at Turnberry with a closing 65. In that one, thirdplace Hubert Green finished 10 strokes behind the Golden Bear.

The scoring disparity was even greater in this remake, with bronze medalist J.B. Holmes 11 adrift of Lefty.

“I knew he would be there pushing me all the way,” said Stenson, 40, who broke through in his 42nd major-championship start to become the first male golfer from Sweden to win a major. “We both played some great golf. It makes it even more special to beat a competitor like Phil.”

Though he doesn’t have Mickelson’s resume, Stenson, now No. 5 in the World Ranking, has unquestioned competitive chops. Almost 15 years ago to the day, Stenson walked off the K Club in Dublin, Ireland, after nine holes at the European Open, having lost all confidence in his golf swing, particularly with long clubs. Later

Players in the News India Digest

that season he began rebuilding under instructor Pete Cowen, who helped Stenson develop a swing “that would stand up under pressure.”

The pressure was unrelenting on the breezy links at Troon, but Stenson never blinked, even after three-putting the first hole Sunday to lose the his one-stroke 54-hole lead when Mickelson birdied. But Stenson birdied the next two holes and never trailed again. Stenson finally created some daylight when he sank a 20-foot birdie on No. 14 and followed with a 45-footer from the fringe on 15, where he abandoned his usual stoicism with a ferocious fist pump.

Winning two weeks before in Germany at the BMW International Open gave Stenson the confidence to close this one out. He told his wife, Emma, on Saturday night, “I know I can do this. Phil knows I can do this. I won’t back down."

After winning $1.54 million on Sunday, Stenson said, “It’s not something you want to run around and shout, but I felt like this was going to be my turn. I think that was the extra self-belief that made me go all the way this week.”

In addition to Cowen, putting coach Phil Kenyon, with whom Stenson reunited in 2014, played a key role in the victory as Stenson led the field in greens in regulation and used it to convert a championshipbest 25 birdies. There was no question that Stenson’s ball-striking was better than anyone else in the field—explaining how he shot or equaled the low round on Friday (65) and Saturday (68). Yet there was more than a little satisfaction that his putter this time wasn’t going to let him down.

Afterward, Stenson dedicated the victory to his late friend Mike Gerbich. Gerbich, one of Stenson’s strongest supporters after they met in Dubai several years ago, died of cancer Wednesday in the United States.

Another telling moment during the final round came on the seventh hole when Stenson’s caddie, Gareth Lord, lit up a cigarette. Lord had promised Stenson he would stop smoking if his boss ever won a major.

When Stenson noticed Lord puffing away, he told him, “You better enjoy that cigarette.”

Stenson’s rocky road has included other bumps—notably a slump after the loss of an estimated $8 million in a 2009 Ponzi scheme by investment banker Allen Stanford.

Stenson sank as low as 230th in the world before winning both the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour and the Race to Dubai on the European Tour in 2013.

“That second slump was nothing compared to the one I had in the early 2000s,” Stenson said. “I managed to put my game back together, and with a lot of hard work and a lot of help from my team and support from my family and friends and everyone else.

“If I didn’t believe,” he added, “I wouldn't be sitting here.”

PhotograPh by ross Kinnaird/r&a/r&a via getty images Presented by golf digest

Champion Golfer of the Year Henrik Stenson thanks the fans in the 18th grandstand at Royal Troon for their support after a historic Sunday finish to the 145th Open Championship. august 2016 | golf digest india

47

India Digest Club Round Up

ClUb RoUnd Up To share news on your club or updates from across the country, please email bharath@teamgolfdigest.com

Promoting Junior Golf

Romit Bose and Rohtas Singh explain the basic of putting

Delhi Golf Club

Often referred to as the ‘nursery of Indian golf’, the Delhi Golf Club’s popular Junior Training Program (JTP) kicked off mid-May, with almost 200 kids coached for forty days by Nonita Lall Qureshi, Ajai Gupta, Jasjit Singh and Vikram Sethi. Beginners, intermediates and advanced groups were exposed to all elements of the game from bunkers, putting, chipping, long drive, pitching, rules and etiquette.

Now in its 30th year, the JTP has seen over 5000 kids take part and has provided the platform to discover several notable champions over the years with 12-year old Shubham Jaglan being the most recent. Last month Shubham won the 2016 European Junior Championship in Scotland by a staggering 13 shots!

Early support from Som Datt Builders, Lacoste and Bristol Hotel Gurgaon had kept the JTP alive and flourishing. In 2006, DGC member, Siddharth Shriram and his company Usha International agreed to sponsor the program for ten years giving it the boost it needed. In a recent communication, Mr. Shriram, endorsed by his children Krishna and Chhaya who have taken up the reins of the company, has further committed to sponsorship for another five years!

Usha has sponsored not only the DGC Junior Training Program but also the DGC Junior & Sub-Junior Golf Tournament. This is in addition to Usha’s support of the annual DGC Ladies Amateur Championship for over three decades. Great initiative & support from a true lover of the game..

Contributed by Gaby Juneja, Delhi Golf Club

Long time supporter of the JTP- Siddharth Shriram of Usha International

Like father like son - Gaurav Ghei (left) & son Raghav; Vivek Bhandari with son Shiv

Chhaya Shriram, Usha International (in center) with coach Nonita Lall Qureshi & Anil Kashyap at the prize distribution

48 golf digest india | august 2016

Club Round Up

India Digest

Growing the Game Inspiring Junior Golfers to follow their dreams

Zion Hills Golf County, Bengalaru

Saanvi Somu Zion Hills Golf County and Head Professional Tarun Sardesai have taken on the mantle of helping eight year old Saanvi follow her dream of becoming a professional golfer.

The Bengaluru girl’s love for the game began when she watched her grandfather, Girish playing golf. In 2013, noticing her interest in the game, Girish enrolled her under the eminent coach Tarun Sardesai. Within a short span of time, she picked up the basics and soon started playing 18 holes along with her senior mates.

Saanvi’s routine involves playing the course at least twice a week and regular practice at the range for five days a week. A student of The Brigade School she has been invited to participate in the US Kids Golf World Championship to be held in Pinehurst, North Caroline in August. We wish this talented youngster the very best and hope she continues to bring laurels to herself & the country.

Eagleton Golf Resort, Bengalaru & GolfNext Academy, Mumbai

Gauri Kharade Another promising youngster moves to Eagleton Golf Resort to sharpen her skills. 14-year old Gauri Kharade from Mumbai was hooked to the game at the age of 7 when she saw it in a fleeting glimpse on TV. Seeing this passion, a good friend of her father’s, former cricketer Karsan Ghavri introduced them to the GolfNext Academy in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Suresh Nanda- Director and coaches Benny D’Costa, Suresh Vasudevan & Manohar Dhavde. Thus began her formal training in golf. Ever since then, her parents Mitali, a trained classical singer & Suresh, a sports writer, have dedicated their lives to ensuring that Mitali pursues her dream of playing professional golf. Gauri and Mitali moved to Bengaluru in 2015 and enrolled at the Eagleton Golf Academy under the aegis of Coach Vijay Divecha. Gauri is now in her first full year on the IGU circuit and already notched up a couple of wins in the junior category. She pursues her education at the same time through Pune’s Mother Theresa School (absent schooling) and appears only for half-yearly and yearly exams.

Commendable effort on the part of the family, coaches, clubs and school involved to help her realize her dream.

Redevelopment

Kashmir Golf Club

The redevelopment of the Kashmir Golf Course, Srinagar commenced in June this year.

The golf course was inundated by over twelve feet of water during floods in September 2014 and had been closed ever since. The construction of the new golf course involves a complete reshaping and reconstruction of all golf features to create a great golf course that will far better manage heavy rainfall.

Open to Play

Poona Club Golf Course

The first nine holes of the “under renovation” 18 holes at Poona Club Golf Course have opened for play with members really enjoying the new layout. Holes 1 to 18 have all-new greens along with new bunkering on every hole. Over the 18 holes 225 trucks of topsoil have been added to increase shape & movement which in turn greatly assists drainage across the golf course. The back nine has also been grassed and is due to open in September (2016) when all 18 holes will be back in play. A really great effort by the Club and its team to complete such a renovation in 12 months.

The work is being undertaken

by J&K Bank as part of its social responsibility program. Pacific Coast Design is the appointed designer while Alert Golf Management Services led by Consultant Rakesh Sharma will oversee the project.

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India Digest Corporate Digest

Sujith Somasundar, Former Cricketer with T. Sukumar- Vice President, Epson India

Host of the evening Virender Razdan, GM & Area Manager Bengaluru, ITC Gardenia

After Hours Golf The ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru hosted a lively evening for the golfing & social circle to watch the live coverage of The 145th Open Championship played at Royal Troon, Scotland.

The evening saw over 275 guests wine, dine & try their hands on the golf simulator and win prizes in a putting contest. The evening was aptly kept alive by the highly competitive third round of The Open. Here’s a glimpse of the evening.

Himanshu Sanwalka, Regional Director and Head Commercial Banking-South India (Corporate Banking), HSBC with Amisha Vashistha Runner Up, Women's Simulator Contest

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Ravi Garyali and Vita Zinna of TORO

Asian Tour regular Rahil Gangjee with Awanish Kumar, Virtual Partner and Marketing Manager, Cisco Systems

Enjoying the evening: Irfan Vazirally & Sheema Chanchani

Corporate Digest

India Digest

The ladies enjoying the Putting Contest

Anil Valluri, President, Netapp with Runner-up of the Men's Putting ContestNaresh Shah, President- Enterprise Group India R&D, Hewlett Packard India

Nooralla Patel, Golf Operations Manager, Prestige Golfshire (Winner Men's Putting Contest) with Parag Amalnerkar, Netapp

Virender Razdan with Mrs. Shubha Sarda Winner, Women's Putting Contest

L-R: Indur Hirani with Jagdeep Shokeen, Sudipta Paul and Deepak M of Creyate

august 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest Corporate Digest Ajit Agarkar and Shabbir Rawjee represented India at the World Finals of the World Corporate Golf Challenge in Cascais, Portugal

“For a golfer, no experience can be better than representing your country on the world stage among so many good golfers from various countries. I have enjoyed every bit of it and will always cherish this opportunity. We are happy to finish with a strong performance after a disappointing start on the first day. It was my utmost pleasure to have Ajit Agarkar as my partner.� -Shabbir Rawjee

Indians Finish Strong in Portugal

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Corporate Digest

India Digest

F

ormer Indian seamer, Ajit Agarkar along with his team mate Shabbir Rawjee finished Tied 5th out of 38 teams at the World Finals of World Corporate Golf Challenge held at Oitavos Dunes Links, Cascais just outside Lisbon, Portugal on June 23 & 24.

Agarkar and Rawjee, playing off handicaps 17 and 19 respectively had a tough first day as they finished Tied 21st with 47 stableford points in testing windy conditions with undulating greens. The second day saw a remarkable comeback from the Indians with Ajit scoring 33 points & Shabbir following suit with another 30 points.

This catapulted Team India to Tied 5th position on the final day with a combined total of 110 stableford points.

Team China triumphed with 123 stableford points.

Over 6,300 corporate executives representing 3,150 teams competed for the coveted trophy in qualifiers across 35+ countries in 5 continents. The World Final saw a total 76 golfers in teams of two, battle it out for the coveted Trophy at the prestigious Oitavos Dunes Links- ranked 58th in the world. WCGC is the biggest international corporate golf team event worldwide.

In 2015, Team India comprising of Shashidhar Reddy and Sonam Chugh from Hyderabad won the event in Portugal. India made its competitive debut in WCGC in 1999 and 2016 marks the 17th year of its contention at the world stage.

Speaking after the tournament, Ajit Agarkar said, “It was a fantastic experience here in Portugal. It took us a day to get accustomed to the conditions but eventually on second day, Shabbir & I both produced some good golf to bring us closer to being in contention. We are happy with our performance. After so many years, it felt good to be part of Team India�

Rishi Narain Sports Marketing was felicitated with the longest running licensee award having been associated with the event since 2004 august 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest Inside The Ropes

Inside the Ropes with

photograph: getty images

ARjun ATwAl

In 2004, Arjun Atwal became the first Indian born player to earn a PGA Tour card. Atwal received tremendous accolades when he defeated Webb Simpson in a playoff at the 2008 Chattanooga Classic on the Nationwide Tour (currently web.com tour). In 2010 he went on to become the first Indian born player to win an event on the PGA Tour at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina.

One of the flag bearers of Indian golf, Arjun has won three times on the European Tour and five times on the Asian tour including the 2014 Dubai Open. The 2003 Asian Order of Merit Winner is one of few Indian golfers to have spent a majority of his career sharpening his skills in the U.S.A. Golf Digest India caught up with Arjun on the phone from Florida to find out the latest from him.

By Bharath Arvind & Vineet Mann

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Inside The Ropes

India Digest

My wedge play has never been better and my putting continues to be solid. I play to my strengths now 1

When did you move to Orlando and how are you liking it there?

I moved to Orlando at the end of 2003. I had won the Asian money list that year so decided to go to the Nationwide Tour Q-School and then during the second stage I moved to Orlando. It’s absolutely perfect here as far as golf is concerned.

Arjun Atwal with his caddy Surya during the Hero Indian Open 2016

2

You have a knack of winning when you get in contention – what is your secret?

I think I feel comfortable whenever I am in that position. A lot of players get nervous when they see that they have a chance of winning. I am not afraid of winning. I have prepared myself for that for a long time. We golfers have a very low winning percentage and don’t get to be in that winning position very often. So when I actually do get that opportunity, I don’t let anything get in my way.

3

You’ve been playing a lot in Asia in 2016. Is it tough doing all that travel?

Yes. I am now 43. It was much easier to do when I was in my 20’s or 30’s. Over the years I have picked up some injuries that converted into chronic ones. Now I ensure that I travel for about three to four tournaments in a row.

At my age it takes three or four days to recover from jet lag which is hard on the body.

But yes still trying to push hard and still trying to play good golf.

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photograph by bharath arvind

Do you also play the Web.com Tour?

No. I get a few starts on PGA Tour with my conditional card having been a past winner and am happy with that for now. I played seven tournaments last year and hope to play about six to seven tournaments this year including the Wyndham Championship.

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How do you stay fit and try to keep up with the youngsters off the tee?

I maintain a decent level of fitness and work on my core. I try to keep myself injury free and avoid hardcore training. I am focusing on keeping my back supple and if I do pick up some strains I try and remain strong and keep going. Recently, I started practicing yoga and try to keep my body flexible rather than focus too much on muscle strength. I have given up on keeping up with youngster as I am not getting any younger myself. My wedge play has never been better and my putting continues to be solid. I play to my strengths now.

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How do you see your next 5 – 10 years and what are you goals?

I definitely would like to win again on the PGA tour and for that I need to stay healthy

‘I played seven tournaments last year and hope to play about six to seven tournaments this year including the Wyndham Championship. ‘

and fit. That’s my goal for the next couple of years.

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Do you have a regular caddy in Asia and USA? How important is a regular caddy at that level?

I think it depends on individual. Personally I am fine without fix caddies. Some players need that familiarity and mental reassurance. There are routine things that their caddies do for them. I am okay with whoever just august 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest Inside The Ropes

photograph: getty Images

I started practicing yoga and try to keep my body flexible rather than focus too much on muscle strength

picks my bag and tells me yardages. Since I have a conditional PGA Tour card my caddie still picks up other bags when I am not competing. In Asia- Surya caddies for me and he was at the Indian Open 2016 as well. Otherwise in India, Ali Jaan is my regular caddy.

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Do you still practice occasionally with Tiger? How is he recovering?

Tiger moved to Jupiter Island a few years ago so we get to play about once or twice a year together now. He is doing better but not yet a 100 % fit. He is being wise by not rushing into coming back. It is essential that he takes his time and returns when he is ready.

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The IAPGA (Indo-American Professional Golf Association) is a new initiative to help Indian pros get to the PGA Tour . Your thoughts?

Every Indian professional golfer should have this goal. The PGA Tour has the best players in the world and is the best tour in the world.

It is the Holy Grail of golf. Like any other job wouldn’t you want to perform amongst the best in the world? That’s the league that everyone should aspire to reach.

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Your thoughts on Anirban Lahiri on the PGA Tour and your advice to him?

Anirban is a youngster with a mature head on his shoulders. I don’t think much advice is needed but have told him that he can call me anytime. He is doing well for himself and will continue to do so. He has got the right attitude. I wish him the very best.

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What needs to be done in India for us to churn out more champion golfers at the world stage?

The most important aspect that requires a lot of attention is infrastructure. The current setup for juniors, amateurs & even professionals is just poor to say the least.

I think the government has to get involved on a big scale as Indian players over the years have shown enough merit to deserve the right kind of infrastructure and practice facilities.

Currently, there are few private Indian companies who are doing a great job out of their own passion and love for the sport. Naturally, any sportsperson would need world class facilities to compete at the interna-

tional level. If you look at Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa, myself, Anirban Lahiri and SSP Chowrasia– we all have managed to make a living out of golf on our expense and I personally believe that if government intervenes in the right way golf can be the next big sport to come out of the country.

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What is your advice for youngsters and those aspiring for a pro career?

Just stay focused and keep pushing yourself.

Try to get better with each passing day.

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In what way would you contribute to develop golf in India?

I definitely want to help underprivileged kids who can’t afford to be introduced to the game. There is tremendous talent which is untapped and I really want them to have an opportunity to experience the game. Shubham Jaglan is a fine example coming out of rural India and there are many more like him out there. Government support will go a long way in making this happen sustainably.

Tête-à-tête

Tête-à-tête with

Vijay Divecha

India Digest

His love for golf began in 1962 at the age of seven when he accompanied his father to the golf course. Over the past two decades he has dedicated his life to raising, mentoring & coaching the next generation of champion golfers in India. At 40, he gave up a lucrative corporate job and began life as a golf coach. Divecha teaches at the Eagleton Golf Academy, Bengaluru and his most prominent student is 2015 Asian Tour No. 1 - Anirban Lahiri. Divecha has worked with Anirban since 2002 and since 2004 with 2015 PGTI Order of Merit winner Chikkarangappa & more recently 2015 PGTI Emerging Player of the Year Udayan Mane. Golf Digest India caught up with coach Divecha at the Louis Philippe Cup in Bengaluru to get his thoughts on the game.

By Bharath Arvind

august 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest Tête-à-tête As Coach of the Jaypee Greens Greater Noida Team at the Louis Philippe Cup 2016 with Shamin Khan, Mandeo Pathania & Udayan Mane

How would you say the existing infrastructure and framework for golf coaching & grassroots development is?

Let me start with a bit of background from the past. As far as coaching is concerned it was completely unorganized as we had no formal education program to produce coaches.

Since its inception in 2004, The National Golf Academy of India (NGAI) put an organized system in place for certification and education of coaches. There is obviously so much more we can do. In the past, people who coached at clubs were not really asked about their qualifications.

Now, clubs are more aware and ask for certifications and only if you are qualified can you coach.

So that’s a huge step forward.

However, in my personal opinion, it’s like getting a degree in college. Certification is a good thing to have but it is only a starting point. I talk to coaches in our educational programs and tell them that they are now at the starting point of the race but it’s now time to run it. These are

personal initiatives that coaches have to take for themselves to enhance their skills. Seminars and educational programs are good and they always make you better. However, the ability to pass on the technical knowledge & skills to your students in as simple a way as possible is a very personal skill that each coach must develop.

The ability to pass on the technical knowledge & skills to your students in as simple a way as possible is a very personal skill that each coach must develop

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Another area is that we need to have more practice facilities.

Most clubs feel that there are space constraints for practice facilities but if you want to grow the game it is important to set aside enough space in every golf club for practise facilities...for putting, for the short game and for the long game. If we want the game to grow and if we want more golfers to play the game and improve, practise facilities are part of the infrastructure needed. Essentially 90% of golfers in any club don’t take lessons. That should tell us that we need more people to use practise facilities if they are made available.

The way forward to grow the game?

We need to do a lot of grassroots level development.

This includes bringing new people into the game, creating new facilities for these people to be introduced to the game and finding other solutions to increase the growth. We can’t do much about what was done in

the past and our current situation. However we can influence the future and I think it’s a responsibility that everyone involved with the game must undertake. Essentially promoting the game amongst juniors and the next generation. Every club in the country must feel the need to run a junior program throughout the year.

Once new kids are brought into the game, a pathway to take them forward should be provided. It becomes the role of every golf club and every golfer if you really look at it. Grassroot level development also includes bringing other adults into the game at whatever age. We are a young country and I don’t see any problem in bringing 25-30 year olds into the game. Not everybody is going to take golf up as a career but if they play golf for the rest of their lives, we are growing the game!

We must make many of our coaches specialize in grassroot s development and ofcourse they must get as much if not more respect and pay than coaches who work with elite players. Right

Tête-à-tête

India Digest

We need to incorporate the field of sports science into our athlete development programs.

This includes a sports medicine doctor, physios, trainers, nutritionists and sports psychologists to name a few

Sharpening the Saw: Coach Vijay Divecha with Anirbhan Lahiri

How are you coaching Anirban now that he is in America?

I meet Anirban roughly every two months. Based on our schedules either he comes here or I visit him. I normally go to work with him only when he takes time off from tournaments and not during a tournament. now we only honor coaches who are working with elite players.

What a specialized grassroot level coach does is so important for the game. You won’t have elite players if they weren’t brought into the game by these coaches.

Even to have an Anirban Lahiri or Jeev Milkha Singh for example, they would have been introduced to the game somewhere and by someone. That is grassroot development. This is the way forward as I see it.

How do we ensure that we keep producing more champion golfers competing with the best in the world?

If anyone wants to excel in any sport, they have to be passionate about it. To become a champion, you must really believe in yourself and be fearless. The reason I say this is because I hear this

What a specialized grassroot level coach does is so important for the game. You won’t have elite players if they weren’t brought into the game by these coaches quite often from players. They don’t want to change anything because changes take time. The way I see it is that maybe they don’t know how to make the change. It’s making a change to find the next level of your game.

That is the hallmark of developing a champion’s mindset.

A champion is never satisfied.

They want to find the next level of their craft all the time. The coach’s job is to show them the next level and the player’s job is to fearless work towards attaining that level.

What areas in teaching & coaching do you feel need to be strengthened?

We need to incorporate the field of sports science into our athlete development programs.

This includes a sports medicine doctor, physios, trainers, nutritionists and sports psychologists to name a few. We need to build a team around the athlete which is like a support system for their development. This is where sports science contributes to ensuring that there are no injuries and optimum fitness

and endurance levels are maintained. Ofcourse we don’t have control over contact injuries or accidents but we can control wear and tear related injuries through training, fitness and endurance.

As I mentioned earlier the first thing is that you need to have passion for the sport.

Support from the family is essential because I don’t know anyone who has done it without family support. Have strong self believe and most importantly ensure that you work with a coach over a longer period. If you look at any of the young players now like Jordan Spieth or Jason Day, they have worked with the same coach for a long time. So it is important to find somebody who will take you to where you want to go. There are always exceptions but most of the top players in the world have that strong bond with their coach.

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India Digest On the European Tour

Jaidee Eases To Victory In Paris

Thongchai Jaidee claimed his eighth European Tour title as he cruised to a comfortable victory at the 100th Open de France.

The Thai was a picture of consistency over the weekend at Le Golf National, carding two consecutive rounds of 68 to get to 11 under thanks to a run of 39 bogey-free holes, and claiming a four-shot triumph over Italy's Francesco Molinari, who carded the low round of the day with a 66.

World Number Four Rory McIlroy finished at six under with a closing 71 and Brandon Stone, Alex Noren, CallumShinkwin and Richard Sterne earned their places at the Open Championship by finishing in the top 12.

Jaidee's victory marks the first time that the European Tour has had seven Asian victories in the same season, with the 46 year old also becoming the oldest winner in Open de France history, beating 2010 champion Miguel Angel JimĂŠnez by 58 days.

He came into the final day with a twoshot lead and extended that to five on three occasions as the chasing pack failed to put him under any great pressure and a closing bogey on the toughest hole on Tour last year failed to take the gloss off a fine victory.

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Lowry: I’m Good Enough To Win A Major

Shane Lowry has no doubt he is good enough to win a Major Championship after coming close to winning his first at the US Open at Oakmont Country Club, eventually finishing in a tie for second.

The Irishman headed into the final round with a four-shot lead but three bogeys saw him fall a shot behind Dustin Johnson at the turn before he dropped a further shot on the tenth.

There was then some confusion as the leading players were informed that Johnson may face a one-shot penalty after his ball moved on the fifth green, and when Lowry stood on the 14th tee, he was back in a tie for the lead.

But he then three-putted three greens in a row and when Johnson birdied the last in brilliant fashion, the shot penalty he was later given proved largely irrelevant as the American prevailed by three shots.

Lowry found it hard to hide his disappointment in the moments after walking off the final green but he vowed to learn from the experience and use it as a springboard into a busy summer.

On the European Tour India Digest

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Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Open de France

The 100th edition of the historic Open de France was an historic occasion, and europeantour.com has delved into the stories behind the centenary to bring you some little known facts about the old event.

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The Open de France is the seventh tournament to join ‘The 100 Club’ This year the Open de France joined a select band of revered golf events to have been played 100 times. Only six other national Open Championships worldwide have reached a century of stagings – The Open Championship, US Open, Canadian Open, Australian Open, South African Open and Argentine Open.

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This tournament is the second most defended event in European Tour history The 2015 winner Bernd Wiesberger was this year looking to become the sixth player to make a successful defence of his title since the event became part of the European Tour schedule in 1972. Englishman Peter Oosterhuis triumphed in back-to-back years in 1973-74, legendary Spaniard Seve Ballesteros followed suit in 1985-86, Sir Nick Faldo won twice at Club de Golf Chantilly in as many years in 1988-89, Jean-François Remesy delighted the home faithful at Le Golf National in 2004-05, while, in recent years, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell also achieved the special feat in 2013-14.

3

Seve Ballesteros’ 1986 win was extra special As prefaced by the above nugget, Seve is one of five players to have defended the Open de France title but that is not where the Pedreña native’s record breaking feats end in this tournament.

With four Open de France wins to his name (1977, 1982, 1985 and 1986), only Aubrey Boomer has won more with five victories between 1921 and 1931, but the European Tour legend truly saved his best until last. In 1986, Seve became the first player to successfully defend a European PhotograPh by getty Images

Tour title by winning both in wire-to-wire fashion, while his triumph at La Boulie 30 years ago also marked his third win in as many events after also taking top spot at the Irish Open and Johnnie Walker Monte Carlo Open in the preceding two weeks. He remains the last player to win three consecutive events on the European Tour.

Legendary.

4

Le Golf National is the most used venue in Open de France history This year marked the 24th edition of the Open de France to be staged across the Albatros course at Le Golf National, situated on the outskirts of Versailles near the French capital of Paris.

5

Only one amateur has ever won the Open de France Over the 99 previous editions, Englishman Cyril Tolley remains the only amateur to have won the Open de France. Tolley claimed victory on two occasions, famously holding off 11-time Major Champion Walter Hagen in 1924 before securing a second triumph four years later.

6

The par threes on L’Albatros are no pushover…

Quite remarkably, there had previously not been a single hole-in-one made at the Open de France since the 2008 event, until Paul Dunne and Lucas Bjerregaard managed the feat at this year’s event, making just five in this entire century

7

However, there are still plenty of birdies to be found at Le Golf National Sweden’s Mårten Olander made a staggering eight birdies on the bounce during the first round of the Open de France back in 2002. Olander is one of just ten

players to jointly hold the record for most consecutive birdies in a single round on the European Tour in a glittering list that features the likes of Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam and Darren Clarke.

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Philippe Porquier holds an unwanted European Tour record from this event From the sublime to the ridiculous. Spare a thought for poor Philippe Porquier, the man in possession of one of the most infamous statistics in European Tour history. During the 1978 edition of the event at La Baule Golf Club, Frenchman Porquier took 20 shots to complete the par five 13th after a number of mishits and lost balls. That remains the most strokes ever taken on a single hole and three more than ‘next best’ – Chris Gane at Gleneagles in 2003 and Andrey Pavlov at the 2015 Lyoness Open. Oh, and if you’re wondering what 15 over par on a single hole is called, it’s a quindecuple bogey.

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The 18th at Le Golf National was the hardest hole on the European Tour in 2015 Water, water everywhere. The final four holes at the host venue never fail to provide a thrilling finish with plenty of the wet stuff making for excitement galore. But it is the closing hole of The 2018 Ryder Cup venue that tops the lot. At an average score of 4.60, the 470-yard par four ranked hardest of any hole played in the 2015 Race to Dubai with just three birdies made there on the final day 12 months ago – one, fittingly, by winner Wiesberger. Tough school.

Frenchman Marcel Dallemagne remains the only player to have won this old trophy three years in a row after returning victorious at Saint-Germain in 1936, Chantilly in 1937 and Fourqueux in 1938.

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Sir Henry Cotton brought the event back with a bang after the Second World War When the tournament resumed in 1946 following six blank years due to the global conflict, Sir Henry Cotton won his first of two successive Open de France titles, romping to a massive 15-stroke victory over Belgium’s Flory Van Donck at Saint-Cloud.

That remains the biggest winning margin in the long history of the event.

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The long-serving trophy was first awarded in 1909 After back-to-back wins for Massy in the first two editions, legendary golfer John Henry Taylor travelled to La Boulie in 1908 to secure his first of two successive Open de France titles. In 1909, the five-time Open Champion became the first to lift the historic trophy that is still awarded to the winner today. The impressive silver trophy is known as the Stoïber Cup after Edward George Stoïber, a wealthy American who was pivotal in the creation of ‘Golf de Paris’ – the group responsible for founding what remains the most revered golf event in Continental Europe – the Open de France.

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Just one player has won the Open de France three years in a row Not Seve, not Sir Nick Faldo, nor even the aforementioned, five-time winning Boomer. august 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest On the European Tour

Super Swede SealS ScottiSh SucceSS

Alex Noren held his nerve at Castle Stuart Golf Links to win his fifth European Tour title at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.

All four of his previous victories had come when he held the 54-hole lead and he maintained that record as he was briefly caught but never overtaken on a dramatic final day in the Highlands.

A closing two under par 70 got the

Swede to 14 under and handed him a oneshot victory over Tyrrell Hatton, with Nicolas Colsaerts, Danny Lee and MatteoManassero a shot further back.

Colsaerts, Hatton, Manassero and local favourite Richie Ramsay all earned themselves a place in at the Open Championship at Royal Troon by virtue of their top 12 finishes.

The win represents the first time No-

ren has won in consecutive seasons after his victory in the 2015 Nordea Masters and continues his remarkable comeback after missing most of the 2014 season with wrist injuries.

StenSon makeS it a perfect ten in Germany HenrikStenson won his tenth European Tour title as he held his nerve down the stretch to claim a three-shot victory at the BMW International Open at Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof.

The Swede had to tackle 36 holes on Sunday after rain delays prevented him from taking to the course on day three and he signed for a third-round 67 in the morning to open up a one-shot lead.

He made three bogeys in five holes from the sixth in round four, though, and when South Africa's Darren Fichardt made a third birdie of the day on the 13th, the lead was shared.

But Stenson had birdied all four of the par fives in the morning and he took advantage of the 13th and 15th again before driving the 17th for another birdie and a 17 under total.

The victory is a fifth top-six finish in eight European Tour events this season and also a second win in this event following his triumph in 2006 and a case of third time lucky after finishing in second place the past two seasons.

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On the European Tour India Digest

Top five players

to follow on Instagram Following on from our top five players to follow on Twitter article, the European Tour Social Media Manager Jamie Kennedy highlights five players you might want to add on Instagram.

Earlier this year, Instagram overtook Twitter for monthly active users. With almost 500 million people now using the app every month, it’s clear to see why many golfers use it to showcase their life on Tour. Here are five guys that do it very well.

HenrikStenson ThorbjørnOlesen

He may seem like a serious professional golfer a lot of the time but HenrikStenson has one of the best senses of humour on Tour and that comes across in a lot of what he posts on Instagram. Lots of tournament updates and photos from practice rounds but with a good sprinkle of life at home with the Stensons and the occasional example of his dry wit.

Byeong Hun An

He was Rookie of the Year last year and it seems Byeong Hun An, or Ben An, is making just as much of a name for himself off the course as he is on. From sharing a video of the fast greens at Oakmont to showing off the hidden TV in his hotel room, the 24 year is very active on Instagram and keeps his 3,000 followers entertained at all times.

PhotograPh by getty Images

Simply put, ThorbjørnOlesen is one of the coolest players on Tour.

With a silky smooth swing, smart style and a big smile, it’s easy to see why he’s racked up nearly 30,000 Instagram followers. Thunderbear, as he’s known, loves sharing a photo of wherever he is in the world or simply just show of his ever-growing shoe collection. Regardless, the 26 year is worth a follow.

Max Kieffer

Max Kieffer is part of a group of young Europeans on the verge of breaking through on the European Tour. At 25 years old he made 22 straight cuts last season and made more birdies than anyone else in 2015. As for his Instagram account, it is full of swing videos, practice dayactivities and life away from the course. Whether he’s rubbing shoulders with German football legends, working out at the gym or just hanging out on the Swilican Bridge, it will be on Max’s Instagram. Follow him now, thank us later.

Felipe Aguilar

Chile’s Felipe Aguilar is rarely seen on Tour without a smile on face. The 41 year old has won twice on the European Tour and has taken his impressive game to social media in recent months. You can always rely on Felipe to post a video of a key shot or hole at a tournament or perhaps show off his incredible fitness with some photos from a recent Ironman competition.

august 2016 | golf digest india

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India Digest On the European Tour

World class field confirmed for

Senior Open Championship

A

total of 28 Major Champions, with a remarkable haul of 67 Major titles between them, will head a world class field for the 30th anniversary of the Senior Open Championship Presented

by Rolex at Carnoustie later this month.

Legends of the game from all over the world will assemble in Scotland, the Home of Golf, from July 21-24 to compete for one of the most coveted titles in senior golf.

The exempt field is packed with global champions and Ryder Cup players who are set to light up the famous Carnoustie’s links as the culmination of three glorious weeks of international golf in Scotland.

The statistics back up the claim for the 2016 field to be among the best assembled for

Legends of the game from aLL over the worLd wiLL assembLe in scotLand, the home of goLf, from JuLy 21-24 to compete for one of the most coveted titLes in senior goLf. the Senior Open Championship since the event was inaugurated at Turnberry in 1987.

There are 15 winners of regular Majors taking part with 27 wins between them; 19 Senior Major winners with 40 victories between them. Of that elite group six players – Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, Mark O’Meara, Craig Stadler and Tom Watson – have won Majors at both levels.

American Marco Dawson, who captured the title in dramatic fashion at Sunningdale last year, defends the championship alongside six other former winners in Couples, Russ

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Cochran, Langer, NoburuSugai, Watson and Mark Wiebe.

No fewer than 26 Ryder Cup players from Europe and the United States are in the field, which also reunites seven European Senior Tour Number Ones in Roger Chapman, Peter Fowler, Carl Mason, Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance, Paul Wesselingh and Ian Woosnam.

In total, there are 47 players competing at Carnoustie who won on the European Tour, accumulating 302 victories along the way, and 36 European Senior Tour champions.

Langer returns to Carnoustie in the knowledge that he already

has a win under his belt over the challenging links, having held off Corey Pavin to win the Senior Open Championship on its last visit in 2010. Watson and Woosnam can also boast titles there, the American having won The Open on his debut in 1975 and the Welshman having claimed the Scottish Open title in 1996.

Among the rookies set to make their debut in the Senior Open are two former Open Champions in John Daly and Todd Hamilton, who will play at Royal Troon in The Open the previous week alongside Calcavecchia, Dawson, Lehman, Sandy Lyle, O’Meara and Montgomerie, who qualified to compete over his home course. Also returning to competition is Jean Van de Velde, who came so close to success in The Open at Carnoustie in 1999 and who turned

On the European Tour India Digest

Olympics await for Challenge Tour’s Kofstad and Fox

I

t was a day of high drama in the final round of the D+D REAL Slovakia Challengefinished with double celebrations for EspenKofstad as he won the tournament to seal a place in the field at this summer’s Olympic Games.

Joining the Norwegian in Rio will be Ryan Fox, whose tied fourth finish was just enough to edge out Mike Hendry, who himself had finished fourth overnight in Japan to set Fox the target of finishing seventh or better.

For much of the day, and with the qualification deadline falling after this tournament at Penati Golf Resort, it looked like neither would get in, with Kofstad’s equation even simpler, but tougher – only a top two finish would suffice.

PhotograPh by getty Images

but in dramatic styLe, the big-hitting Kiwi made staggering bacK-to-bacK eagLes on hoLes 14 and 15 – the 783-yard par six, the Longest hoLe in europe – to picK up four shots and Leap up the Leaderboard.

A flurry of late birdies saw the 29 year old reach 17 under par overall and set a clubhouse lead that RomainLangasque could only tie, so when the pair set off for a playoff – won by Kofstad on the second extra hole – his spot in Rio was already guaranteed.

Fox, however, was floundering. On a hot

still day, and with Porteous having already shown that scoring was possible, the 29 year old played par golf from the third hole until the 14th, consequently moving backwards through the field as birdies dropped elsewhere.

But in dramatic style, the big-hitting Kiwi made staggering back-to-back eagles on holes 14 and 15 – the 783-yard par six, the longest hole in Europe – to pick up four shots and leap up the leaderboard.

Though he missed birdie chances coming in, his 15 under par total was enough for tied fourth, and his Olympic involvement will add another chapter to the remarkable Fox family sporting history, becoming as he will the third generation to represent his country. august 2016 | golf digest india

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Play Your Best Strategy by Jack Nicklaus

“If you miss a shot here, you can’t make it up.”

Twice Bitten Don’t go from bad to worse altusrol Golf Club, which this summer hosts the PGA Championship for the second time, has a bunch of great holes. But I’d say the par-5 17th on the Lower Course (illustrated) is the most strategically interesting.

Right away, the yardage lets you know this is a true three-shotter.

It’s 647 yards from the championship tees with an uphill finish to the green, so only gorillas have any chance of knocking it on in two.

(John Daly was the first to do it, during the 1993 U.S. Open.) Most par 5s allow you to make up for a weak shot with a strong one, but that luxury doesn’t exist here. Miss the tee shot, and the hole effectively becomes a par 6. Botch the lay-up, too, and it’s a par 7. The reason is the four cross bunkers that divide the fairway.

They’re the foundation of what I call a “progressive-penalty design.” This is a concept I’ve used in many par 5s I’ve built. Basically, an early mistake stays with you the entire hole.

—with max adler

B

STeer clear If you’re in any of these bunkers, it’s impossible to reach the green. So unless you’re confident you can clear them, the play is to lay up just short, staying in the fairway. You can’t get home from there, either—that’s why getting into a position where you can’t carry them is like a oneshot penalty. But if you lay back safely, you can advance the ball precisely and go flag-hunting on your next shot. lay up wiTh a purpoSe The right side of this fairway leaves the best angle in. The line of this approach runs the full length of the green without challenging the left greenside bunkers. It should’ve taken two big shots or three prudent ones to get here. Hit this next shot tight, because holing a putt is the only way to gain ground on a hole like this one.

my blue heaven

On the tee box of a long hole, most golfers reflexively reach for the driver. They see a lot of yards between them and the green, and figure it’s best to bite off as big a chunk as possible right from the start. But on this hole, you don’t want to miss the fairway. To carry the four cross bunkers with the second shot, it’s imperative to have a clean lie so you can put all of a fairway wood or hybrid on the ball. Being 15 or 20 yards farther ahead is useless if you’re handcuffed in the rough. Off the tee, a 3-wood or a controlled driver swing is smart.

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Baltusrol’s 17th is the site of one of my sweetest memories.

In the final round of the 1980 U.S. Open, I sank a 22-footer to match birdies with Isao Aoki and stay one ahead of him. I hadn’t won in two years and had even talked with Barbara about quitting. This victory quashed that notion, and I went on to win the PGA that summer at Oak Hill.

Illustration by Chris O’Riley

John Kelly/Getty ImaGes

ThiNk oNe move ahead

edited by peter morrice

Play

Get Off the Beach How to plan your escape by natalie gulbis

y technique in greenside bunkers comes courtesy of Butch Harmon. With his advice over the years, I’ve boiled this shot down to a few easy steps that make getting out of the sand routine for me. I’ll share them with you here—and show you my favorite bunker drill.

I posed for these photos at Corona del Mar State Beach in Southern California because I wanted to emphasize that bunker play shouldn’t be scary. OK, maybe it’s no day at the beach, but you shouldn’t feel like getting in the sand sentences you to a double or triple. Here’s how I get out.

—with Ron KaspRisKe

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Photographs by J.D. Cuban

august 2016 | golf digest india

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Play Your Best Bunkers StartINg lINeS

hINge the cluB up once you get into a stance where you’re aligned left but the clubface is pointing to the right, dig your feet into the sand a little for stability. there’s no need to take the club back any farther than you see here, with the left arm about parallel to the ground.

Notice that my left wrist has hinged the club upward and is a little cupped—that’s keeping the face open for extra loft. You should take the club back with medium grip pressure because you’ll need some strength to skim the club through the sand without losing control of it.

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First, let’s look at my favorite drill because it helps to understand the geometry of bunker play. the line between my feet represents ball position: just ahead of center. the line behind the ball—where I’m hovering the club—is where I’ll contact the sand when I swing. remember, you want to skim through the sand under the ball. this is the one shot where you don’t want direct contact. the line that looks like the top of the letter t is my target line. Notice my feet are aligned left of my target, but my clubface is pointing right of it. I have to open the face to get the ball up in a hurry and to help the club skim through the sand. a square face would dig too deeply. I’m aligned left to counteract the orientation of the open face. Now I can hit the ball at my target instead of it shooting off to the right. It’s also easier to finish the swing from an open stance.

Back to my drill: From a good setup, practice thumping the sand on that line behind the ball and keeping the clubhead moving through. get a feel for this skimming action without a ball first, then re-draw this practice station and hit actual bunker shots.

“The best swing thought in the sand?

Keep your speed up.”

accelerate through Your goal is to enter the sand about two inches behind the ball. once you do that, the most important part of bunker technique comes into play: keeping the club moving. Swing down and through, sliding the clubhead right down your target line. the swing key that’s going to help you most in the bunkers is: Keep your speed up. Most amateurs I see let the club slow down or stop as soon as it strikes the sand. Don’t be afraid you’ll hit this shot too far. trust that if you swing the clubhead into the sand behind the ball, it’ll propel the ball out high and soft and somewhere near the hole. Maybe it’ll become a day at the beach after all.

Natalie gulbis has played the LPGA Tour since 2002 and has almost $5 million in earnings.

+ ADIDAS shirt, $60, skort, $65, shoes, $110 TAYLORMADE hat, $26, glove, $22

Play Your Best Step by Step by David Leadbetter

22% 18% 18%

42%

What makes you the 5 HDCP most nervous? ▶ Must-make putt ▶ Approach over water ▶ Any bunker ▶ The pro watching

42% 34%

Toughen up Stop tension from ruining your next round hether it’s first-tee jitters, the deciding shot on 18 or a round with the new boss, you might be destined for failure before you even take the club back.

Anxiety can prevent you from making a full and fluid swing and can corrupt good mechanics. The key is to recognize when it’s happening so you can deal with it. Here are four steps you should try.

W

1. Hover iT

2. SofTen up

3. open WiDe

4. exHALe

▶ When you sole the club on the ground, you’ll tend to push down on it.

That increases the tension in your hand and arm muscles. instead, hover the clubhead an inch or so above the turf.

▶ Stop worrying about your grip pressure. focus on how relaxed your arms feel at address. The arms are the real culprits when the swing gets short and fast, especially on full shots. A good swing thought over the ball is, Soft arms.

▶ This one might sound silly, but it really works.

Address the ball with your mouth open and your tongue pressed against the roof of your mouth. This will dissipate a lot of tension in your neck and shoulders.

▶ To activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which induces a state of calm, you should breathe slowly and steadily over the ball. one last exhale before you take the club back will help put you in the ideal mode to perform.

David Leadbetter is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional.

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Photograph by J.D. Cuban

JOS A . BANK: SHIRT, $115 • CALL AWAY: GLOVE, $25 • HOUSE OF FLEMING: BELT • ROLEX: WATCH

source: Golf DiGest reaDers

Curing Faults by Rick Smith

Play Your Best

Falling in love with the line is a dangerous thing.

neveR SkIp The pRevIeWS The brain doesn’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined.

I’ve tested this by studying brain maps of golfers imagining making a putt and other golfers actually hitting the putt. The pattern in the brain is the same, only the activity is higher during the real putt.

Also, the brain uses the image you create as a template for the real putt. So imagine it first, then do it.

—Debbie Crews, Ph.D.

Why’d I Do That?

You fixated on the read and forgot about the speed

Illustration by Chris Gash

acing a long putt with a lot of break, you know that getting down in two is usually just fine. But you’re really seeing the line on this one, so you step in thinking you could make it. As soon as you hit the putt, you realize it’s way short.

There’s a term for what you just did: “falling in love with the line.”

You concentrated so hard on the break, you neglected the speed.

When I was a kid, my brother and I would practice putting for hours while we waited to get on a packed golf course. We learned

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by trial and error that distance control is more important than direction on long putts. Even the ones with a lot of break—the putts we hit from one end of the practice green to the other.

Phil Mickelson, who I worked with for years, has a great drill for pace. He places three balls 40 feet from a hole, three at 50 and three at 60. From 40 feet, all three putts need to finish within a club-length of the hole. Then he moves to 50 feet, then 60. The balls can finish left or right—the distance is the key. Give it a try.

When Tiger was Tiger, he made some of the most ridiculous long putts, at just the right time.

In the 2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, he came to the 72nd green tied for the lead with Bart Bryant at nine under.

Tiger had a slick, downhill 24-footer sliding to the right.

He poured it in the high side with perfect speed, giving us another classic Tiger moment (above).

The win was his fifth in a row that year.

Rick Smith is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional.

august 2016 | golf digest india

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Head: Peter Stemmler • woodS: CHarleS l aberge

SmaCkDoWn aT Bay hIll

Play Your Best Swing Sequence ach Johnson was a successful tour player long before he won the Open Championship at St. Andrews last July at age 39, surviving a playoff with Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen. Johnson already had won 11 PGA Tour events, including the 2007 Masters. But on the Old Course, his great driving, solid approach play and sheer determination lifted him to a new level.

Z

Zach Johnson Part grinder.

Part technician.

Part bulldog

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When Johnson holed a sliding 30-footer for birdie in front of the R&A clubhouse to get into the four-hole playoff, it showed his grit.

It wasn’t always that good. Johnson was not the best player on his high school team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And he didn’t play No. 1 at Drake. After college, he bounced around the mini-tours with his super-strong grip and short swing. When he started working

with Mike Bender in 2000, his game got better. Over the next 15 years, it got a lot better.

But Bender was careful. For example, he never changed that grip. “The grip only determines how the release squares the face,” he says. “Zach might hit it farther with a weaker grip, but he likes being in the fairway.”

With two major wins and still going strong, who could blame him? —roger schiffman

geTTing behind iT

plenTy oF hinge

wide beaTS long

Zach Johnson sets up with his upper body back and right shoulder low, promoting an upward strike. “Many amateurs have their shoulders too level,” says his teacher, Mike Bender.

“You could draw a straight line from Zach’s left shoulder to the ball, and his hands are slightly behind it.”

“You can see the wrists hinging early,” Bender says.

Johnson’s clubshaft and left arm form a 90-degree angle—the classic L position—at halfway back. “This helps him keep his hands and shoulder turn in sync, which promotes consistency,” Bender says.

Johnson exhibits great width with the arms, which Bender says is more important than swing length.

“Also, the left foot staying flat minimizes lower-body motion, keeps the swing short and increases coil.”

Note Zach’s right elbow is below his left arm, setting up a downswing from the inside.

▶ driving accuracy

64.6%

Zach Johnson (46th)

▶ approacheS: 75-100 yardS

60.5%

74.3%

Tour average

Thomas aiken (1st)

12’5”

Zach Johnson (3rd)

17’11”

9’7”

Tour average

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

ready The whip

a STeady gaZe

no rollover

pro-File

With the clubhead lagging and the left wrist flat, Johnson looks like Ben Hogan here. “As the lower body starts forward, the left shoulder is working up and the right shoulder down,” Bender says.

“Zach’s tremendous lag is created by his arm and hand acceleration toward the ball.”

Johnson’s head is well behind the ball at impact. “His eye line is the same as at the top—parallel to the target line,” Bender says. “The hands and club go where the eyes are looking. He keeps his eyes right on line, which keeps the club perfectly on plane.”

“Zach keeps the shaft and his right arm in a straight line as long as anybody in the game,” Bender says, emphasizing that the face stays square for a long time. “With such a strong grip, Zach can’t allow his wrists to rotate excessively. And that great balance at the finish is just a result of swinging in sync.”

zach johnson 40 / 5-11 / 164 pounds St. Simons island, ga. driver pXg 0811X prototype 9.25 degrees ball Titleist pro v1x + OAKLEY shirt, $70, pants, $75, belt, $50 FOOTJOY shoes, $170, glove, $25

Photographs by Dom Furore

Play Your Best Golfer’s Wish List by Butch Harmon

ou miss the fairway by a yard or two and find yourself with a perched lie in the first cut. Sweet, right?

You feel like you could launch a driver off that lie. The challenge is that if you take your normal swing, you risk sliding under the ball and making contact on the top part of the clubface. There’s no power there. You get kind of a sickening, hollow impact, and the ball comes out with no zip.

The reason that happens is, when you drive your legs on the downswing, it causes the clubhead to move down into the

Y

turf. That’s great when you have a normal lie, but when the ball is fluffed up, you have to make a few adjustments.

First, stand taller at address and hold the clubhead up at the level of the ball (inset, left). Take your normal backswing, then make a quieter shift with your lower body as you start down.

Stay tall through the strike and get the sensation that your arms swing past you (below). You want to make more of a sweeping motion to deliver the center of the clubface to the ball. I know it goes against what you’ve been told—hit down and through— but this is a special case.

Get it right, and you can use about any club from this lie, even the driver. Just remember, stand tall and keep your legs quiet.

BUTCH’S BASICS

When golfers face a tight lie in the fairway, they tend to hang back and try to help the ball up. That’s a killer—they either hit behind it or catch it thin.

You want your weight to move in the direction the club is swinging.

Club goes back, weight goes back; club moves forward, weight moves forward. That’s how you make solid contact.

Butch Harmon runs his school at Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson, Nev.

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Photographs by J.D. Cuban

footjoy: shirt, $75, pants, $85, shoes, $180 • titleist: hat, $27, glove, $24 • house of fleming: belt • rolex: watch • illustration: zohar l azar

Don’t Blow a Lucky Lie Swing quietly from the first cut

What the Pros Know by Hank Haney

%

Play Your Best

If it’s very rainy and windy, I’m more likely to . . . ▶ Lose my match: 13% ▶ See no difference: 17% ▶ Win my match: 32% ▶ Stay home and brew tea: 38% source: Golf DiGest reaDers

Don’t Cheat Your Finish You won’t get far if you stop short

big key to getting the bottom of your swing in the right place—which is how you make solid contact—is to complete your turn through the shot. That means getting your belt buckle to move around and point to the target. You can try to fake it and flip your arms up and around after impact, but to do it right, you need to keep turning and shift your weight to your front leg. Your back leg is a kickstand for balance.

A

What happens if you don’t get all the way there? It puts the bottom of your swing arc farther back, probably behind the ball.

Unless you make some other compensation in your swing, you’re going to mis-hit the shot.

To feel the right movement, take some deliberate, half-speed swings, making sure to rotate through and finish with your back foot turned up on its toes.

You should be able to lift that foot off the ground for a second and tap it back down (left). If you can’t, it means you didn’t get all your weight through.

A great added benefit of this toe-tap drill is that it helps with your timing. Why do tour players’ swings look so smooth?

Those guys get their hands, arms and bodies working together in the downswing. A full, balanced finish is a huge part of that.

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

should the heel come up?

toe-taPPing Make a full turn through, and you should be able to lift your back foot.

Photograph by J.D. Cuban

watson: Chris Condon/PGa toUr

I’ve always been in favor of creating as big a swing arc as possible. If that means turning your hips a lot and letting the heel of your front foot come off the ground, that’s fine. If you decide to copy Bubba Watson (above) and let your heel really come up, you have to be careful not to pull out of your posture. If you lose your address posture, it’s tough to hit the ball square with any kind of consistency. You can always experiment with a little less heel lift.

august 2016 | golf digest india

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Play Your Best Back to Basics

5-Minute Clinic

full wedge

1 distance control

How to prepare to play

Build yardage windows

by corey lundberg ssuming you didn’t come screeching into the parking lot five minutes before you’re supposed to tee off, it’s a good idea to make some swings and roll a few putts prior to your round.

But rather than working your way through the bag hitting shots with all your clubs as you wait to go, I’ve developed a better pre-round routine for you. These five little tasks will put you in the right frame of mind and prepare your body so you can play your best. All you need are a few alignment rods and a handful of tees, and you can cycle through this warm-up in 15 minutes or less. Let’s go through it together.

A

—with ron kaspriske

Corey Lundberg, a Golf Digest Best Young Teacher, is based at Altus Performance in Dallas.

half wedge

▶ Start the warm-up with short shots.

Not only will that gradually get your body ready for the bigger swings, it’ll activate your feel.

Grab your highest-lofted wedge and hit a few with a full swing (left, top) and a few with a half swing (bottom). Notice the difference in how far the ball goes. Now you’ve bookended your distances for one of your wedges.

Do this with all your short clubs to identify a yardage window for each.

As long as you finish the swing, you’ll know the club and swing you need to get pin-high from short range.

2 precision chipping

Get it close a variety of ways

76 golf digest india | august 2016

gutter credit tk

▶ Chipping requires more precision than approach shots. You can dial in your touch before a round by playing a game called Leap Frog. Hit a chip from just off the green trying to land it past the fringe and with enough force to get to the hole.

Then hit another a little farther onto the green, also getting it to the hole (right).

Repeat this process several times, and you’ll find you need to vary trajectory and swing length to keep the game going. Changing clubs also helps.

Photographs by J.D. Cuban

Back to Basics

Play Your Best

3 driving consistency

Groove a tee shot du jour ▶ Tee a ball and place an alignment rod on the ground in front of it on the target line. If your typical ball flight curves to the left, lay a second rod angled 20 or so degrees right of the target (left). If your ball curves right, angle the second rod 20 degrees left. Create goal posts with two more rods (the red and blue rods).

I call this the Curve Cone.

Try to hit drives through the posts that curve toward the target without crossing the target line. Struggling? Adjust for any ball-flight tendency when you play.

4 center-face contact

Find the sweet spot with your irons

+ DUNNING shirt, $79 FOOTJOY shoes, $170 UNIQLO pants, belt

‘Don’t waste warm-up time trying to fix your swing. go through a routine that will help you Dial in your feel for the Day.’

5 three-putt avoidance

Practice with consequences ▶ Make every stroke count on the practice green. A great way to do that is with my par-5 game. Set balls at distances of four feet, seven feet and 30 feet from a cup (above). Your goal is to hole all three balls in five strokes or less.

This drill gets you focused on making putts instead of mindlessly rapping them toward the hole. The two closer putts are in the range where you should be making more than you miss, and the long putt is one you can’t afford to leave too far from the hole. The long one will help improve your feel for distance before you play. august 2016 | golf digest india

77

illustration: zohar l azar

▶ One element of ball-striking that’s often overlooked is the ability to consistently hit shots in the center of the face—no matter the lie. To prep your iron play, place a ball on a low tee and push in several more tees around the back half of the ball’s position (right). Hit several shots, with the clubhead starting behind one of the tees. Try to make center-face contact from each position.

This is a great way to improve your awareness of the clubface’s position in the downswing. It will help you make great contact with the ball, regardless of lie.

gutter credit tk

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Equipment by Mike Stachura

29% 24% 22%

51%

53%

Play Your Best

Golfers interested in purchasing 5 in the next 12 months: this club ▶ Driver ▶ Wedges ▶ Irons ▶ Putter ▶ Fairway Woods HDCP

42% 34%

s o u r c e : G o l f D atat e c h

Power Prescription 15 ways to get 15 yards right now f you’re like us, you’ve reached the point where what you really need more than anything in your life is 15 more yards. Like now. Forget about lessons, diet or exercise.

Those things take time. You want something you can order online or shop for on QVC. You want a Phil Mickelson kind of insider-trading distance tip that you can cash in before Saturday morning. Pills, voodoo, an injection of any kind, whatever it takes, but you need those pop-ups to start turning into home runs, pronto.

So we surveyed equipment experts, including some of Golf Digest’s 100 Best Clubfitters, to find instant cures to boost your performance. Maybe each one isn’t for you, but trying out two or three or even four will likely save your season and have you walking a little taller.

I

1 get with a fitter and a launch monitor.

A good clubfitter and a launch monitor will identify parameters like ball speed, launch angle and spin to isolate your shortcomings.

For example, TrackMan’s Optimizer can show your ideal ranges for ball speed, spin and launch angle. To boost distance, many golfers need a launch angle of 12 degrees or more. That often means more loft on your driver, not less. Having a spin rate below 3,000 revolutions per minute can help, too.

2 eliminate one side of the course.

You can’t hit it far if you’re afraid of missing shots left and right. An adjustable driver can counteract an excessive slice or hook, allowing you to swing without Photograph by Mark Hooper

fear of your usual miss. For most average golfers, “having more weight toward the heel of the driver will help promote better spin rate, which helps distance,” says Brandon Collier of Pure Performance Golf in Naples, Fla.

3 get rid of those short tees.

Tee height might be the cheapest way to help you hit it farther. Tee it up so half the ball is above the driver’s crown, and play the ball slightly forward of your front heel. This yields an upward angle of attack, higher launch and less spin. Our testing with Golf Laboratories Inc.’s mobile swing robot, LDRIC, showed that teeing the ball this high yielded 17 more yards than when the top of the ball was below the crown. Adding a forward ball position (just an

inch forward from inside the front heel) saw a 20-yard gain.

Swing tip: Don’t lunge at the ball; swing through it.

while. Also, if you opt for the 3-wood off the tee, it might be easier to hit straighter, and it might just roll out as far as where your wild driver shots finish in the rough.

4 fix your face angle.

You can quibble with how a closed face angle looks, but not how it works. For typical golfers, a closed face angle adds loft, and it helps shots that fade stay more on-line and roll more. For better players, a slightly open face angle instills confidence.

Players naturally want to close the face coming into the ball to square it at impact.

That face rotation encourages clubhead speed.

5 get lighter shafts to increase swing speed.

Lighter shafts in your driver and irons can increase your swing speed. But consult a clubfitter first. Says Woody Lashen of Pete’s Golf in Mineola, N.Y.: “Lowering the weight of the shaft can help older players get back some of their distance, but keeping the same flex maintains their accuracy.”

7 find a driver that lowers ball spin.

Launch angle is more important for golfers with slow swing speeds, but reducing spin is vital for fast-swingers. Less spin on tee shots means they’ll land hotter. A Golf Digest test showed that tee shots landing at a flatter angle (less than 42 degrees), even though they carried slightly shorter, produced 17 more yards.

8 it’s not just the loft on your driver that needs a boost.

Increase the loft on your lowest-lofted fairway wood for a better launch angle, says Dan Sueltz of D’Lance Golf in Englewood, Colo. Most average players, particularly women and seniors, can’t get their fairway woods in the air: “A 4-wood or even a longer-shafted 5-wood is better for those golfers.”

6 choose a straighter club off the tee.

Foresight Sports GC2 launch monitor’s simulation program found that shots that land in the fairway roll three times as far as those that land in the rough. At average swing speeds that’s an 18-yard advantage for balls that land in the short grass. What this means is, you need a driver you can hit straight consistently, not just one that goes really long once in a

9 strengthen your iron lofts.

Wait, what? Average golfers might need lower or stronger lofts throughout their irons.

That’s because they add loft at impact, says Collier, turning a 7-iron into an 8- or 9-iron.

That’s a more glancing blow. A fix is to get a clubfitter to bend

august 2016 | golf digest india

79

Play Your Best Equipment

Reclaim the distance you’re missing in just minutes. your iron lofts a degree strong.

“For those who swing outside to in and add loft at impact, a slightly stronger loft will help them gain distance,” he says.

from the green, your new irons might let you hit 9-iron instead of 8-iron. So you’ve effectively gotten longer with your tee shot.

13 10 match your iron’s sole to your swing.

The bottom of your irons is a key to getting more distance.

For example, a steeper swing requires a wider sole and a higher bounce angle for the club to move cleanly through the ground. “Not having clean contact through the turf can decrease ball speed,” says Nick Sherburne of Club Champion in Chicago. “A sole that cleans up a player’s impact will lead to more speed into the ball.”

11 your wedges are the wrong loft, too.

Many average golfers scoop the ball with their hands at impact. That added loft makes for a glancing blow that can really throw off your wedge distances.

Lower wedge lofts can help, like a 50-degree model instead of a 52-degree. Says Sueltz: “You can get some of that distance back without changing your swing.”

12 get new irons.

You don’t have to hit your tee shot longer to get a shorter club into the green. Get new irons instead. Today’s irons with faces that flex like drivers are often a club longer than previous models.

So even if your same tee shot still leaves you 140 yards

buy cheaper balls.

A Bridgestone study found that switching from a multilayer, urethane-covered ball to a less-expensive multilayer, Surlyn-covered ball yields about 12 more yards with the driver and six more yards of carry with the irons. Warning: A ball with a Surlyn cover won’t check up around the greens like a ball with a urethane cover.

14 wear the right shoes.

Your shoes could be slowing down your swing. FootJoy’s research and its new fitting program, which works with a foot-pressure mat, have found that matching the right kind of shoe (flexible or structured, for example) to a golfer’s footwork showed gains of as much as three miles per hour in swing speed.

15 change those old grips.

You’re wasting energy and slowing your swing by squeezing those grips that haven’t been changed in more than a year. Fresh grips mean less tension and more distance. A Golf Pride study found that swing speeds improved by more than two miles per hour when a player replaced an old grip with a new version of the same grip.

80 golf digest india | august 2016

golf digest tested

What are the benefits of low-spin drivers? ▶ We’ve heard plenty about how today’s drivers reduce spin.

Now some models are touting extremely low spin, designed for high-swing-speed golfers who prefer a smaller clubhead that’s often heavier. But we wondered what you’re really giving up. With the help of the Golf Laboratories swing robot, LDRIC, we compared low-spin and standard models of several drivers at three swing speeds: 80 miles per hour (seniors and better women), 95 (average men) and 110 (elite). The lowspin drivers reduced spin by an average of 18 percent overall and as much as 25 percent at the highest speeds. Still, because at lower speeds spin is less crucial to distance than launch angle, the low-spin drivers only produced about three more yards in distance at 80 and 95 mph. At 110 mph,

the low-spin drivers saw a more significant eight-yard boost.

Curiously and perhaps because robots are not people, mishits in our test lost about the same distance for both kinds of drivers. So should we all be playing an ultra-low-spin driver?

Well, there are more qualities that make a driver forgiving than off-center-hit performance.

For example, a larger head, lighter weight driver with a draw bias might help average slicers produce more playable tee shots. Things like consistency of swing and trajectory, even feel, might be as important as any launch-monitor numbers.

Says Callaway’s metalwoods R&D director, Evan Gibbs: “It’s recognizing which characteristics in a driver are important to you and working with a fitter to find the club that optimizes those.” —ms Illustration by James Yang

What’s in My bag

Play Your Best

equipment: j.d. cuban • rhett: KevorK djansezian/Getty imaGes for dcp • baseball: courtesy of phillies • caddie: matt roberts/Getty imaGes • GretzKy: bruce bennett studios/Getty imaGes

Jamming out I love country music. Reba McEntire, George Strait and Thomas Rhett (right) are my favorites.

brooke henderson age 18 lives smiths Falls, ontario story Won 2016 kPMG Women’s PGA Championship in a playoff over Lydia ko. wave your flag When they announced golf was back in the olympics, I wasn’t close to qualifying. It motivated me to play my best and make the team. The last golfer to win the gold medal was a Canadian, George Lyon. so it’d be super cool to bring the gold back home. athletic genes I gave up hockey when I was 12. I was a goalie like my dad, who played in college. I’m not sure if playing hockey has helped me in golf. but I take a rip at the ball like a slap shot!

—with stephen hennessey

Put a smile on If you see me on tour, I’m usually smiling.

But more important, I enjoy making others smile, which is why my autograph has a smile!

drIVer

PuTTer

specs Ping G (9˚), Ping TFC 419 shaft, S-flex, 48 inches, D-8 swingweight

specs Ping Scottsdale TR Craz-E putter, 33.5 inches, 3˚ loft, 23˚ lie

For me, it’s all about generating speed. Last year, I switched to a 48-inch shaft—longer than most—which has given me a ton of extra distance.

FAIrWAy Woods specs Ping G Stretch 3 (13˚, Ping Alta shaft, S-flex, 43.5 inches, D-5 swingweight), Ping G30 (18˚, Ping TFC-419 shaft, S-flex, 41.5 inches) When I need to reach a par 5 in two, I go to this longer-length 3-wood. hybrId specs Ping G30 (22˚), Fujikura Pro 73TS shaft I use this club a lot on long par 3s, a long par 4 or even par 5s. It sets up nice and cuts through the turf.

I switched from the putter pictured here to Ping’s Vault oslo at the kPMG PGA. both are half an inch longer than standard to help smooth out my stroke.

Batter up! I’ve done some cool things on the LPGA Tour the past two years.

Throwing the first pitch at a Phillies game was one of my favorites.

Irons

WedGes

specs 5-iron through pitching wedge: Ping i, Ping CFS shafts, S-flex, Ping ID8 grips

specs Ping Glide, 50˚, 54˚, 58˚, Ping CFS shafts, cut a half-inch

My lie angles are 2.25˚ flat in my irons and my wedges.

I’ve found this combo matches my swing and lets me make consistent contact. I didn’t think about lie angles until I got on tour.

Maybe it’s worth checking yours, too.

I love a lot of colors and staying flashy. so Ping repainted every iron and wedge a different color. It’s just a way to have some fun with my bag. My short game is an area I’ve focused on this year, so these clubs have been getting a lot of use this season!

The Great One Getting a phone call from Wayne Gretzky after my win last year was such a treat.

As a former hockey player, it meant a lot!

Sister, sister Growing up, I idolized my older sister, Brittany, so it’s great to have her caddie for me. She also plays professionally, so I’ll carry her bag, too. We know each other better than anyone. golf digest india

81

Hot List Equipment

callaway

callaway

▶ Great Big Bertha

▶ Big Bertha Alpha 816 

performance  

look / sound / feel    ½

performance   

look / sound / feel 

innovation  ½

demand   

innovation   

demand 

callaway ▶ XR16/Pro performance  ½ innovation  ½ look / sound / feel  demand  

cobra ▶ King F6 performance   innovation   look / sound / feel   demand ½

82 golf digest india | august 2016

Fairway woods Distance comes in all shapes and sizes by k e e ly l e v in s

pINg ▶G performance   ½ innovation   ½ look / sound / feel   ½ demand   

TaylorMaDE ▶ M1 performance    innovation    look / sound / feel    demand   ½

cobra

NIKE

▶ King LTD

▶ Vapor Fly

performance ½

performance ½

look / sound / feel ½

innovation ½

innovation ½

demand ½

look / sound / feel ½ demand 

Hot List Fairway Woods

37% 28%

39%

49%

Percentage of serious golfers5 who carry two fairway woods, by handicap. ▶ 21+42% ▶ 16-20 34% ▶ 11-15 ▶ 0-10 HDCP

s o u r c e : g o l f d atat ec h

TAYLORMADE ▶ M2 performance  ½ innovation  ½

TiTLEisT ▶ 915F/915Fd

look / sound / feel  ½

performance 

demand  

innovation ½ look / sound / feel ½ demand ½

MizunO

YOnEX

TOuR EDgE

▶ JPX EZ

▶ Exotics EX9/Tour

performance 

look / sound / feel 

innovation 

demand 

▶ Ezone XPG

performance   

performance   ½

innovation   

innovation  ½

look / sound / feel   

look / sound / feel 

demand 

demand ½

84 golf digest india | august 2016

Percentage of serious golfers who don’t use a fairway wood. s o u r c e : g o l f d atat ec h

CALLAWAY BIG BERTHA ALPHA 816  $300 VERDICT Callaway’s most technically rich fairway wood has moving, meaningful parts even beyond its adjustable hosel. A weight-saving composite crown and a wraparound cup face boost ball speed and forgiveness. Extra golfgeek cool, though, are the weights in the sole that let you tune spin and launch.

COMMENTS (L) The ball flight got there, stayed there and kept going.

(M) It might be for better players, but it went even when I didn’t nail it.

PRICE

and forgiveness. Throw in the wraparound face and larger size, and you’ve got more room to miss and still get playable distance.

COMMENTS (L) Perfect size. The shallow face makes it easy to hit off the turf. (M) Driver in sheep’s clothing: good distance, but as easy to hit as a 3-wood.

$240 The two weights on the sole can turn this into two clubs. Placing the 20-gram tungsten weight forward produces a boring ball flight with less spin. If you don’t feel like being a hero, flip the three-gram weight in front for a higher trajectory and a heck of a lot more forgiveness.

COMMENTS (L) The ball jumps off the face. (M) Looks sharp, and the low profile gave me confidence at address. Has a subtle yet explosive sound.

VERDICT

$250 This club builds on Callaway’s notable forgiveness technology. The head is larger and more stable, with a springlike face that wraps around the crown and sole, and there’s still that turf-riding Warbird soleplate. The five lofts, three of which adjust across 14 to 22 degrees, help find the right configuration for your set.

COMMENTS (L) I felt like I could be aggressive or swing smooth if I wanted.

(H) Understated looks, but this thing is a beast. I don’t play a 3-wood, but I love the trajectory with this one.

VERDICT

CALLAWAY XR16/PRO $230/$250 This club features the thinnest cast crown Callaway has ever made. That matters for you because it pushes the center of gravity lower, giving you a higher launch

PRICE

VERDICT

TAYLORMADE M1 VERDICT

NIKE VAPOR FLY $250 Designers thinned out multiple areas in the face, crown and sole to save weight and increase distance. That weight has been redistributed low and around the outside of the sole through Nike’s trademark cavity design for extra forgiveness.

Also improved are shots hit lower on the face, thanks to a wider leading edge and a deeper, more flexible sole channel.

COMMENTS (L) It seems like a players club that’s easy to hit. (H) A little higher ball flight, but the distance doesn’t suffer.

$270 If you can’t get your fairway woods up in the air the way you’d like, Ping has a solution. Engineers lowered the leading edge so that your impact position is 12 percent higher and your center of gravity is lower. Both of those mean you can launch the ball higher without any swing changes. A hot, high-strength steel face also helps.

COMMENTS (M) It has that

$300 That seethrough portal on the sole will get your attention, but its mass and location do

PRICE

VERDICT

PRICE

$280 Turns out not all sole channels are created equal. That slot in the Titliest fairway wood might look just like the one in the driver, but it isn’t. It’s narrower, deeper and positioned closer to the face for better flexing and more spin control. Of the two models, the more compact Fd produces a lower ball flight that spins less.

COMMENTS (L) The head shape is perfectly compact, and the ball flight was very controllable. (M) I like the traditional look. Hits were solid and efficient.

PRICE

VERDICT

VERDICT

$250 Those ridges on the sole aren’t exactly like the slots that you’ve seen on other clubs. Sure, they help the face flex at impact for more distance. But they’re also shallower and wrap around the heel and toe to provide more mass that’s lower within the head and more perimeter weighted for higher launch and forgiveness.

COMMENTS (L) Flight mid to high and penetrating.

Anybody could use this club. (H) The name doesn’t lie. It’s easy. You’re getting a ton of forgiveness.

VERDICT

$250 It has the same kind of composite crown as the M1, but flip it over and you’ll see the difference. Instead of movable weights, there’s a channel that stretches the width of the face. It increases ball speed and launch angle.

It also helps the all-toocommon fairway wood miss: the low, thin shot.

COMMENTS (L) Has that typical sweet feel of an old wood, with today’s forgiveness technology. (M) A muted sound, but you still feel the hot face.

VERDICT

VERDICT

TOUR EDGE EXOTICS EX9/TOUR

PRICE

PRICE

PRICE

TITLEIST 915F/915Fd

$230/$300 These fairway woods focus on speed at impact, both at the ball and through the turf. It starts with two hot faces: ultra-high-strength steel on the EX9 and titanium on the Tour. Speed through the ground starts with all those ripples on the soles.

They improve turf interaction. The fairway (or rough) that you’re hitting from is never perfectly flat, so why should your sole be?

COMMENTS (L) Has a nice pop. Didn’t have to try to kill it to get it to work. (M) Piercing flight and cuts through the turf well. The wavy sole seems to help from the fairway.

MIZUNO JPX EZ

TAYLORMADE M2

PING G

COBRA KING LTD

$300 This is the most adjustable fairway wood TaylorMade has ever made. Between the sliding weights (to tweak ball flight left or right) and the 4-degree range of lofts on the hosel, you can create just about any flight you want.

Also notable is the carboncomposite crown, which lowers the center of gravity so shots launch with more energy and less spin.

COMMENTS (L) Make sure you take advantage of the weights. They can’t help you if you don’t use them.

(M) Good, penetrating, aggressive flight.

PRICE

VERDICT

PRICE

PRICE

straight, high ball flight that doesn’t balloon. (H) Love the low-profile head.

It has an awesome woodbat home-run sound.

PRICE

COBRA KING F6

CALLAWAY GREAT BIG BERTHA

the real work, lowering the center of gravity for less spin and a better energy transfer. The portal also saves weight to allow room for a tungsten internal weight to boost ball speed at impact. Finally, it lets you look inside to see the high-strength steel face.

COMMENTS (L) Sneaky long. (M) I liked the midtrajectory flight. (H) Glides across the turf and makes good contact.

4

YONEX EZONE XPG $230 Twenty grams of tungsten powder in the butt of the grip counterbalances the club. Yeah, you read that right—counterbalancing isn’t just for putters. The grip weight shifts the balance point closer to your hands to bolster your control of the club for more swing speed. The lighter composite crown frees up weight to lower the center of gravity for a higher launch, and the adjustable hosel alters loft by plus or minus 1.5 degrees across eight settings.

COMMENTS (L) Nice compact head; sits clean at address. (M) Forgiving, and I got good height. (H) Perfect trajectory to give you optimal distance.

PRICE

VERDICT

(l) low-handicapper | (m) middle-handicapper | (h) high-handicapper

The Golf Life Style by Marty Hackel

Salute Your Shorts Why brighter is better this summer t’s officially hot, and though the guys on the PGA Tour can’t wear shorts, most of us frequently do. Before you show some leg, though, make sure to get the color and fit right.

Khaki is safe but a bit boring. Instead, look for bold colors with a trim, modern fit. Add variety to your shorts to give your oufits more pop. Here are six to get you started.

I

1 ▶ Unsure about the type of shorts you should buy? These shorts from Under Armour can work for almost anyone. A soft, stretch fabric provides comfort and mobility, and the new moisture-wicking system is a plus. under armour $65

▶ For occasions when a dressier option is desired—or for golfers who dress more formally— these patterned shorts pair nicely with a variety of solid shirts. greg norman for tasso elba $55

3

▶ Made from a lightweight material, these shorts have a stretch waistband and air-flow pockets for maximum comfort. They also come in 17 colors. adidas $65

86 golf digest india | august 2016

4

▶ Corduroy shorts for golf? Absolutely. After going through the wash a couple times, these shorts, available in three colors, get softer and more comfortable. b. draddy $98

5

▶ Light colors, like the baby blue seen here, are versatile because you can match a variety of colored shirts with them. greg norman collection $55

6

▶ Want something a little edgy? Oakley’s camoand-striped shorts push the style limits. These might be popular for #SpringBreak2017. oakley $75

Photographs by Weston Wells

adidas: shoes, $150 • dunhill: shirt, $125 Beltology: Belt, $65 • under arMour: socks, $10

2

Ask Golf Digest The Golf Life

things we wish tv golf commentators would stop saying: 5. A putt rolling “end over end.”

A sphere has no “end.”

4. That was a “gutsy” play. Banging down doors in Kandahar takes guts. Finishing T-13 in San Antonio? Not so much.

3. “That’s not what he wanted to do there.”

Can you see our thought bubble?

1. “Fairway metal.”

Jack Finnelly, chicagO

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz . . . Huh? What? Oh, sorry, we just dozed off waiting for the threesome of Kevin Na, Jim Furyk and Ben Crane to finish their round. You could fly from Los Angeles to Miami in the same amount of time. It’s true that many professional golfers are slower than an Oldsmobile with its left-turn signal perpetually blinking, but there is a time limit to hit a shot on all the pro tours. Essentially, players have 40 seconds, although an extra 10 or 20 seconds is often granted to the first golfer in a group to play certain holes.

However, keep in mind that the root of slow play isn’t the time it takes a golfer to play a stroke, it’s the time taken between those strokes. We’re talking to you, Mr. Sit-in-the-golf-cart-untilit’s-your-turn guy! Can you tell we just saw four groups on the 15th hole?

A

Illustration by Brian Cronin

Q. Why are handicap holes odd numbers on the front nine and even on the back?

Tim Fleishman, Oldsmar, Fla. ▶▶▶

You really wanna know? How much money ya got on you?

No, seriously. The answer to this question focuses on match play and how much cheddar is on the line. Our handicap guru, Dean Knuth, says, “Handicap strokes are meant to be equalizers in matches. Putting the odd strokes on the front and even ones on the back distributes the handicap strokes more evenly.” But wait, there’s more!

The USGA Handicap System Manual also recommends that the No. 1 or No. 2 handicap holes shouldn’t be the first or 18th on a course, and if the back nine of a course is a lot harder than the front, the odd-even handicapping system can be flipped. It also recommends that you wait 15 minutes after eating before getting back in the pool.

Q. What’s the typical lifespan of a modern driver? rishi kadawar, sTamFOrd, cOnn. ▶▶▶

Assuming it eats a well-balanced diet, gets eight hours of sleep each night and works out to the “Brazilian Butt Lift” exercise DVD three times a week, there’s no reason a driver can’t enjoy a long and fruitful life. Our equipment guys cringe about that.

They’d rather you get a new driver at the same rate you change your car’s oil. But today’s drivers can take a beating. A recent test showed drivers stood up to a minimum of 2,000 strikes at 125 miles per hour before they had to take a titanium timeout. That’s about 142 rounds. If you swing as slow as we do, that number could jump to 20,000 strikes. If you play once a week for 20 years, you’d still have some life left on your driver.

quick hit q. Is there a campaign to get golfers to stop spitting the shells of sunflower seeds on greens?

A. No.

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

august 2016 | golf digest india

87

getty images

Q

The rules say a shot must be played without undue delay. But what does that mean? Is there an actual time limit to play a shot in a pro tournament?

2. That ball has “gotta get down.” Unless it was hit from the International Space Station, it will.

lEaRN youR by to d d a n d e rs o n Most of us play the majority of our rounds on one course. In fact, the USGA says golfers posting for handicaps in 2015 marked their scores as “home” 74.4 percent of the time. You probably don’t think much about that, except maybe to wonder why you keep messing up the same holes. The good news is, with a little analysis you can tailor your game to your course, or fill a gap that’s killing your scores—three-quarters of the time! ▶ For example, if your course is lined by trees, you might need to drive the ball straighter.

If you feel like you have a mile into every green, it’s smart to work on

88 golf digest india | august 2016

your fairway woods and hybrids. If your greens have crazy slopes, you’d better know how to read break. This magazine offers a ton of great instruction, but it’s usually up to you to decide if the tips apply to your game. Here we’ll help you pick and choose based on where you play. ▶ Work your way through this article, and you’ll start to understand what your course is asking of you—and start answering the call more often. This is why teaching pros give playing lessons: They want to help students improve on their home course.

So consider this your first playing lesson. —with peter morrice

Photographs by J.D. Cuban

to play couRsE

if you struggle to reach the green in two shots on most of the par 4s, you need . . .

driving distance Power comes from

of the swing. We call that

hitting from the

“dropping in the slot.” Then

inside out. To do that, your

you can take advantage of

lower body has to start the

the energy created by your

downswing—that’s what

body turn. The rotation

keeps the club to the inside.

throws your arms and club

Your hips shift toward the

out to the ball (left).

target and start to unwind,

right arm goes from short

and then your arms and

as it drops down, to long as

club through the ball.

it extends through impact.

As the lower body rotates,

if you have to hit a recovery shot after your drive three or more times a round, you need . . .

driving accuracy Understand that

Wherever that hand is

the position of the

facing, that’s where the

clubface at impact has the

clubface is pointing. This

biggest influence on where

image works great because

the ball goes. That’s most

face position is a tough

evident on tee shots.

thing to feel. For straighter

First, check your grip.

tee shots, imagine that the

When you look down at

logo on the back of your

address, you should see at

glove at impact is pointing

least two knuckles of your

on a line parallel to your

left hand (for righties). The

target line (right).

Vs formed by your thumb and forefinger of both

don’t make this mistake If your logo is pointing up

hands should point just

at impact, your right hand

inside your right shoulder.

is scooping, and your left

With a good grip, think of

wrist cupping. Focus on

the back of your left hand

keeping that left wrist flat—

as a mirror of the clubface.

and that logo facing out.

90 golf digest india | august 2016

A good feeling is that your

pulling your upper body

it creates an outward force

don’t make this mistake A lot of golfers make an

on the arms. This is the

aggressive upper-body

slinging action you see

move to start down. That

in long hitters. To get it,

throws the club to the

you have to let your arms

outside prematurely. Think,

simply drop from the top

shift, turn, then sling.

if most of your shots

if most of your shots

into the greens are outside

from the fairway are from

of iron distance, you need . . .

uneven ground, you need . . .

woods/hybrids

sidehill lies

Making thin contact with

Here’s the key concept for

the longer clubs from the

sidehill lies: The ball will

fairway produces low shots that

go in the direction of the slope.

don’t reach the green. The design

So when the ball is below your

of fairway woods and hybrids puts

feet, it’ll tend to go right; when it’s

more loft toward the top of the

above your feet, it’ll go left. The

clubface, so you need to get the

main thing is setting up correctly

bottom edge of the club below

and adjusting your aim.

the bottom of the ball to make

At address, make sure the

contact higher on the face.

clubhead is flat on the turf—with

The feeling you want is, you shift

the toe and heel, front edge and

to your front side and then extend

back edge all touching the ground.

your arms and swing the clubhead

With the ball above you, grip

low through the shot. Keep it low

down, aim right, and swing more

after the strike, with your arms

around your body. With the ball

staying long. Try to maintain

below you, bend over more, aim

through impact the triangle

left, and swing more up and down.

formed by your arms (right).

It’s also a good idea to shorten your swing for control (below).

don’t make this mistake Falling back on your right foot and trying to help the ball up creates

don’t make this mistake Never fight the slope. Sole the

those thin hits. Make sure you

clubhead flush to the ground, and

shift left and extend those arms.

stay in your posture as you swing.

if most of your shots

Think of it as a shoulder-to-

into the greens are with

shoulder swing: Swing to shoulder

7-iron or less, you need . . .

height back and through (above).

short irons/wedges

more weight on your front foot.

Play the ball middle, and set At impact, make sure your weight

Good players know the

is left and your hands are ahead

critical skill on short

of the ball. That’s a downward

approaches is distance control.

strike. You’ll see more consistent

Inconsistent contact can produce

yardages with these clubs.

a 9-iron of 120 yards on one hole and 135 the next. The key is to

don’t make this mistake Never try to blast your short

compress the ball the same way

irons. More speed often leads to

every time, which is easier to

a higher trajectory and a harder

do with a three-quarter motion.

time controlling distance.

if most of your greens are raised or have closely mowed chipping areas, you need . . .

bump-and-runs A lot of modern courses feature elevated greens with shaved banks (right). Your first choice for getting up these hills should be the putter or your putting stroke with a hybrid or fairway wood. But what if the turf is bumpy or wet? Then the safe play is bouncing an 8- or 9-iron up to the green.

To bounce it, play the ball just back of center, push your hands ahead, and lean your upper body toward the target. Make enough swing back and through to land the ball half to two-thirds of the way up the hill, depending on the firmness of the ground. don’t make this mistake Yes, you can lob the ball onto the green—but that’s the riskiest shot.

Only do it if you have a perfect lie and the nerve to pull it off. if you have to pitch over

if you end up in the sand after

trouble more than three

missing the green several

times a round, you need . . .

times a round, you need . . .

lob shots

greenside bunkers

When you miss the green on some courses, you have

The best pros average 2.3 strokes to get in the

deep rough or a bunker between

hole from greenside bunkers, so

you and the hole. That’s when

getting down in three is a good

you have no choice but to play a

goal for most amateurs. The key is

lob shot. First thing you need to

controlling where you splash the

realize is, you’re already out of

sand. You want it to be up by your

position. Your priority is to get

front foot, not back in your stance.

your next shot on the green, even

To position your splash forward,

if it’s 15 or 20 feet past the hole.

play the ball off your front foot

Don’t get cute with it.

and set more weight left. A good

Using your most-lofted wedge,

tip is to angle your right knee

turn the face open, then take

in, even raising your right heel

your grip. Aim your body left, and

an inch off the sand (left). That

visualize the ball flying all the way

will pre-set your entry point in

to the hole. The swing is simple:

the sand farther forward. To

Fold your right arm going back,

judge distance, use a 3-to-1 ratio

then straighten it going through

compared to a pitch shot from

(above). Make sure you keep the

the grass: A 10-yard sand shot

face pointing skyward as you

requires a swing that would send

thump the ground under the ball.

the ball 30 yards from the fairway.

don’t make this mistake Most golfers don’t hit these shots

don’t make this mistake If you play the ball too far back, you

hard enough. You have tons of loft

have to get behind it during the

working for you, so give it some

swing to splash it out. Play it up,

swing and try to fly it to the hole.

lean forward and swing away.

92 august 2016 |

if you routinely face

if you routinely face

putts that break more than

putts that are longer than

three feet, you need . . .

30 feet, you need . . .

big breakers

lag putting

The first thing to do on

The standard advice to putt

breaking putts is visualize

with your shoulders doesn’t

the entire arc of the putt and

work for the long ones, where you

picture where the ball would enter

need a little wrist action for more

the hole. You want to give it a

power. The putterhead has to

chance to drop in on the high side.

swing behind the grip more on

Then find the apex, or outside

longer putts. That loading of the

point, of the break. That’s where

club will provide a little release

you should be starting the ball.

through impact so you can apply

Imagine a gate or post at the

more energy to the ball.

apex (below). You’re like a slalom

You want to feel that you’re

skier turning around a gate, and

letting your right wrist bend more

just like in skiing, speed is the

(or your left wrist flatten) as you

critical issue. If you give the putt

swing the putter back. The hands

more pace, it won’t break as

should never swing outside the

much; give it less, and it’ll break

body; in other words, they never

more. But you’re always working

go past the back leg (left). If you

around that apex. As you stand

need more power, just hinge your

over the ball, track your eyes

wrists more, and always let the

through the apex to where the ball

putter accelerate through.

should enter the hole.

don’t make this mistake Locking your wrists and rocking

don’t make this mistake Most golfers don’t commit to

your shoulders causes excessive

enough break. When they look

body movement and leads to

up, they subconsciously adjust

inconsistent contact with the ball.

their aim toward the hole. If you’re

Allow your wrists to hinge, and

missing on the low side, try making

you’ll naturally stay steadier.

your last look only at the apex.

todd anderson, , a Golf Digest Teaching Professional, has worked with many tour players, including Billy Horschel, Justin Leonard, Brandt Snedeker and Nick Watney. + POLO GOLF shirt, $90, pants, $85, belt, $85 PING hat, $24 FOOTJOY shoes, $300 BRIDGESTONE glove, $24

gutter credit tk

pitching ma 94 golfdigest.com | month 2016

Photograph by First Lastname

made simple expand your short game with one swing by emiliano grillo

it’s a work in progress, but I’m focused on improving my short game. I know it’s going to help me compete on the PGA Tour. It definitely helped me win in my rookie debut last October at the Frys.com Open.

Where I grew up in Argentina there were a lot of bare lies in the fairways, so I didn’t spend time practicing all kinds of greenside shots. I didn’t have to. I could just bump the ball onto the greens. Out here on tour, we have to hit so many different shots, controlling height and spin, to get the ball close. Working with my coach, James Sieckmann, we’ve developed a short-game strategy that can help you, too. The best part? You don’t need tons of practice to put it in play. In short, instead of using one club with many different swings, use many clubs with one basic swing.

To hit all the different shots I need on tour, I adjust my ball position, how much I lean the shaft toward the target, and the amount I open the clubface. But the important thing is, the motion stays the same. That’s what you need to focus on. You can hit virtually any pitch shot with ease just by picking the right club. — w i t h r o n k a s p r i s k e

gutter credit tk

s t r at e g y ▶ Let’s start with club selection. Use your pitching wedge when you’ve got a lot of green to work with and no obstacles in front of you. If you have to carry something, like a sprinkler head or some rough, but you still need a bit of rollout on the green, switch to a gap wedge. As the obstacles get bigger or the hole gets closer to you, go to your sand or lob wedge. To organize your planning, ask yourself two questions: (1) How far do I need to fly the ball to land it on the green? (2) How softly does it have to land to stop near the hole? The answers will steer you to the right club.

On the next page I’ll show you the swing to use no matter what club you choose.

Photographs by J.D. Cuban

august 2016 | golf digest india

95

setup ▶ Here I’m demonstrating what the setup looks like when I’m hitting it high with my 60-degree wedge. A lot of people will tell you that the higher you want the ball to fly, the farther forward in your stance you should play it. But for consistency, it’s better if you address the ball just forward of center in your stance for all your pitch shots. Let the loft on the clubface produce the desired trajectory.

Make sure you set up with everything in an open position. That means the clubface should be pointing a little right of the target, but the alignment of your feet, hips and shoulders should be left of the target (left). I’ll explain in a bit why it’s important to open the face. Opening your body helps you swing the clubhead through impact with its intended loft. If you started square, you’d likely deloft the club at impact and dig the leading edge into the turf. That’s why so many amateurs dump it short on pitch shots.

b ac ks w i n g

gutter credit tk

▶ It’s important to keep the clubface from closing as you take the club back.

When you practice, check that it stays open as the clubshaft gets about parallel to the ground. At that point, you want the toe of the club pointing toward the sky (right). If the clubface is pointing down when you look back to check, the club is delofted. Hinging your wrists upward also will help keep the face open, but you don’t need to add a lot of wrist action.

Also, remember that you’ll rarely hit a pitch shot that’s more than about 40 yards, so don’t feel like you’ve got to make a big turn off the ball. It should feel as if you’re swinging back mostly with your arms. Think of it as a soft and smooth motion—not jerky or forced.

Photograph by First Lastname

downswing ▶ Unlike the backswing, you should feel active with your body as you swing down to the ball. Your overall goal is to set the club in an open position at address, keep it that way going back, and then rotate your body toward the target to complete the shot. There should be very little hand or wrist movement in the throughswing (left). Just keep your chest turning toward the target and let the clubhead swing down the line.

I mentioned earlier that starting with an open clubface is important. Not only does it help get the ball up quickly, but the bulged sole is designed to make wedges very forgiving. It allows them to skim along the turf—not dig—and hoist the ball into the air even if the clubhead bottoms out a little behind it.

One thing you can do to make sure you strike the ball crisply is to look at the turf slightly in front of the ball as you swing. This will make it easier to put the swing bottom in the right spot: just ahead of the ball. Assuming you chose the right wedge for the job, you should be in great position to get up and down.

k e e p yo u r hands and wrists pa s s i v e a s yo u s w i n g through. gutter credit tk

grillo, 23, has one win on the pga tour and will represent argentina in the olympics.

+ CALLAWAY shirt, $50, pants, $75, glove, $25 BELT59 belt FOOTJOY shoes, $300

august 2016 | golf digest india

97

gutter credit tk

power Photograph by First Lastname

poses gutter credit tk

best-selling author amy cuddy on the skill of body language Photograph by First Lastname

august 2016 | golf digest india

99

q

Your TED Talk and your book focus on power posing.

What do we need to know?

People tend to think body language is about communicating with others, not with the self. Body language is really about what your body is saying to you, not what you’re saying to other people. When you use your body to respond to situations, especially stressful situations, in a powerful way, it becomes selfreinforcing. I deal with this a lot in business settings, but elite athletes know it’s true.

Sport-psychology studies show that posture influences a person’s performance.

100 golf digest india | august 2016

q

What does it look like to respond powerfully?

q

How does that work to make you ready to play your best?

Power is about taking up space.

The ultimate power pose is what gymnasts do right before their routines, when their arms and heads go up. That pose is the universal sign of power and pride and victory. I’m not saying you should be doing that on the golf course. Anything that takes up space will work. When you’re just standing, make sure you have your feet set wide apart and your hands on your hips. When someone else is hitting, don’t hunch over.

Take up space.

It’s the same when you’re walking between shots. You can be powerful then, too. Expansive movement is as important as expansive posture. So take long strides when you walk, swing your arms. You want to move boldly and put some vertical bounce in your step. Carry yourself with your shoulders back and down instead of slumping or pinning your arms down.

No matter what shot you’ve just hit, try to keep yourself from tensing up. Remember to breathe deeply and slowly. This is a time for you to be secretly doing golfer yoga. You’ll be preparing to perform while everyone else is thinking about the last shot—or the next shot—or just talking.

We know that standing and moving with some purpose makes you feel powerful. Study after study shows that.

And when you feel powerful, all of a sudden you see challenges not as threats but as opportunities. You’re much more likely to want to compete. Your executive function is better, so you can think more clearly.

Your working memory is better. You’re not second-guessing yourself so much. You’re more able to be present and to focus on what’s in front of you instead of what you fear might be happening.

q

It’s easy to get frustrated after a bad shot. What happens when you let yourself slip into a non-powerful pose?

There aren’t many people who are going to play golf and not feel a little competitive.

It’s almost impossible to do it recreationally and not want to do it well. But you’re

photographs by getty images

editor’s note Amy Cuddy, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and associate professor at Harvard Business School. Her 2012 TED Talk, “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are,” has been viewed 34 million times.

Published in December 2015, her best-selling book Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges analyzes how posture affects performance. Assistant Editor Keely Levins interviewed Cuddy on her theories and how they apply to golf.

not going to play well if you’re focused on winning. You want to do it well? Fine. The first thing you have to do is stop focusing on getting the best score. When you focus on winning or score, your body goes into a fight-or-flight mode. You’re feeling threatened, and when you feel threatened, your nervous system is no longer about performance. It’s now about getting you out of that situation. That completely undermines your ability to play well.

When you’re in this threatened state and feeling powerless, your heart rate can go through the roof, which is the last thing you want. Your cognition takes a nose dive.

You lose your ability to focus on a goal.

You lose creativity, your view of optimism, your self-confidence, and you’re less likely to take risks. These are all things that you need in a round of golf, and you’ve just lost them. You even lose the ability to see objects from a perspective other than your own. Say your shot has ended up behind some trees. If that makes you feel threatened or anxious, you’re not able to see alternative perspectives. You’re less likely to hit a good shot when there are obstacles, because you don’t have the creativity or perspective necessary to do it.

q

It’d be impossible to play well with all of those negative things going on. How do you pull out of that spiral?

You need to be sturdy, strong and super calm. There are two categories of things that will get you there. One is your body posture, which we’ve just talked about.

Anything where you start to curl into a ball, even if it’s subtle, is the worst thing you can do. Whenever you have any small failure, stop yourself from collapsing, because collapsing will only make you feel worse.

Two is your mind-set. You need to focus on little nudges as goals instead of scorebased goals. Something where you get lots of tries, like I’m going to make sure I finish my swing today. Focusing on score does not make you a better golfer. Focusing on the movement itself, in that exact moment, that’s what can make you a better golfer.

You’re going to gradually get better, but it’s not a perfect linear relationship. You’ll have some ups and downs as you go, and that’s OK. The funny thing is, if you focus on those little nudges, the pieces start to come together, and you have a cognitive memory and a muscle memory of doing it well. Ultimately, it will be easier to get to that thing you wanted, which was shooting a low score or winning.

you need to focus on little nudges as goals instead of score-based goals. something where you get lots of tries, like i’m going

to make sure i finish my swing today.

q

There’s so much added pressure in golf because when you’re hitting, everyone has stopped and is looking at you. That’s not a stage most people are used to being on in their day-to-day lives.

Right. When you’re creating all the action, like you do in golf, it’s so much more nerveracking. You’re setting everything up yourself. To handle that, you need to first get in your power pose. And you need to think about self-nudging, how you’re going to be better at it each time. You’ve got to believe that you’re going to get better incrementally. That’s how humans work. You don’t just say, I’m gonna kill it tomorrow, and then have that happen. Maybe that works in the movies, but not in real life.

That’s why New Year’s resolutions fail: The goal is usually way too big and way too distant. Think of a round of golf, a whole day of being out there, there are a million things happening. If your goal is to win or shoot a certain score, there are a million opportunities to fail between the start and the finish.

And every time you fail on the small scale, you feel like you’ve failed overall. And that’s why people sometimes end up thinking, I can’t do this. I quit.

q

What kinds of goals should golfers be setting?

They need to be process-based goals. You have to focus on the process, not on some concrete outcome. Even if it’s a little concrete outcome, the process is so much more important. For example, I’m a skier. I try to focus on small goals like making beautiful turns, not getting down the mountain faster. I want to make fewer stops on the way down. I want to get through a section I find intimidating as if it were any other part of the mountain. There are so many positive things to focus on, and I’m sure it’s the same for golf.

q

Golfers are pulled out of that good mind-set because it’s easy to get discouraged, either by others playing better or the difficulty of the course. How can they stay positive?

Situations where you feel like you’re being judged and where the stakes feel high make you feel powerless. Now, you choose to construe things that way. Yes, we’re being judged. We’re always judging each other.

How much do you want to focus on that?

It’s up to you. But you’re not being judged as harshly as you think you are. And the stakes feel high because you’re focusing on outcomes too much. The stakes really aren’t high. Tomorrow you’re going to be the same person. In the end, the game of golf is not going to change who you are.

q

In golf you have to quickly bounce back. If you hit a bad shot, you have maybe a minute before you need to get back up there and make another swing. Isn’t that tough?

It is. Athletes who do well have low cortisol [a hormone that helps the body handle stress] reactivity, which means it doesn’t spike. When people lose, their testosterone [which affects competitiveness] drops very quickly, and their cortisol tends to spike.

So, if you do something poorly and you construe it as failure, that’s going to cause your testosterone to drop. You’re going to lose your general sense of being able to play and do well. So it’s about how you construe it. When you do have something go wrong, you can say, OK, that didn’t go well, but I’ve got another chance at it in a minute.

If you think about every bad shot definitively as a failure, that’s really going to hurt your performance.

q

If you’re able to get yourself to a place where you’re focused on the process, what do you do when you actually feel like you’ve mastered one of your small goals?

You celebrate it. You have to. And a lot of that comes down to whom you’re with, too.

You have to be with people who make you comfortable, who aren’t too competitive about it, who will celebrate with you. When I’m skiing, and I feel like I just got through some expert terrain, I want to say, “That was great. I made it!” It’s good to do that.

august 2016 | golf digest india

101

knock it down

Generally speaking, you don’t want to hit a wedge shot higher than it’s necessary to carry an obstacle or stop it near the hole. Sending the ball sky-high just makes it harder to be accurate. This philosophy certainly holds true when you play in the wind. When I prep for the British Open, I spend time working on hitting lower shots into those firm and undulating greens. Not only do I want to keep the ball from getting knocked down too soon when I’m going into the wind, I want to get it to check up on the green when the breeze is behind me.

To accomplish either of these things, you need to make the right club selection and alter your normal full-swing technique. I’ll walk you through it. — w i t h ro n k a s p r i s k e

my keys to hitting wedge shots like darts by jordan spieth

how to change yo ur setup You want to lower the trajectory of the shot, but you still need a decent amount of backspin so you can stop the ball on the green. For spin, you need a higher-lofted club, such as a sand or lob wedge, but those clubs also increase trajectory. What to do?

To keep the shot down with a high-lofted wedge, play the ball farther back in your stance than normal—nearly in line with your back foot.

balance and to prevent overswinging. Staying in control leads to solid contact for predictable ball flight and spin.

how to change yo ur swing Your main swing thought should be, Keep the handle leaning toward the target through the impact zone. This will deloft the club a lot— picture hitting a wedge shot with an 8-iron. Feel like your left hand is holding off the release of the club. Do that, and your swing will have a short finish, like I’m demonstrating here.

Body rotation also is important: You don’t need much going back, but you want plenty going forward. Finish with your belt buckle and chest facing the target.

If you focus on rotating toward the target while keeping the clubshaft leaning forward, you’ll hit those knockdown wedges stiff. + UNDER ARMOUR shirt, $65, pants, $80, belt, $40, glove, $22, shoes, $200

Photographs by Walter Iooss Jr.

knock it tight

Also, set up in a narrow stance to maintain

august 2016 | golf digest india

103

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18 Holes with Pranab Barua

1

When did you start playing golf?

About 25 years ago. Wish I had started young

2

What do you love most about the game?

The challenge of hitting the ball straight and taking deep breaths of fresh air when you don’t

3

Who forms your regular Fourball?

Arun Chopra, Manveen Gill, Dr. Mohan Gowda

4

Dream Fourball?

Rory Mcilroy, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh

5

Favourite Pro golfer?

Ganganjeet Bhullar for the simplicity of his swing and his humility

6

Favourite golf course – In India & abroad?

KGA, Bengaluru & St. Andrews-The Home of Golf

7

How often do you play?

Not enough. Twice or thrice a month

8

Thoughts on doing business on the course?

Bad Idea. Leads to bad business decisions and bad (worse) golf

9

Most memorable experience on the course?

My only 2 good shots in my golfing career !! A hole in one last year on the 4th Hole and a 220 yard third shot on the 9th hole with a five iron, landing next to the pin.

Both at KGA

10

Do you use any apps or gadgets to improve your game?

No. Nothing can improve my game!!

11

The most scenic course you have played?

Have played in only a limited number of courses. So Ooty Golf course is the one I would choose amongst the ones I have played

12

Lowest handicap you have had?

I think my handicap had dropped to 16 or 17 some 10/15 years ago. Now its back to 20 where it belongs

13

What golf apparel/equipment brands do you lean towards?

Golf Apparel is mostly Callaway or Puma and my golf sets are Yahama and Egg (PRGR)

14

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

Currently, around 230/240yards

15

Dream car?

Mercedes S63. Mind blowing.

16

Favourite holiday destination?

London

17

Favourite dish at your home course?

Appam and Stew

18

Favourite 19th hole drink?

Dancing Coffee at KGA

Total Number of pages (including cover pages) is 112 Monthly Magazine, RNI N0. HARENG/2016/66983

India Digest

Holes with Pranab Barua

Business Director, Madura Fashion & Lifestyle Title sponsors of the Louis Philippe Cup - India’s only Pro Golf League

I love the challenge of hIttIng the ball straIght and takIng deep breaths of fresh aIr when I don’t august 2016 | golf digest india

109

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