VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 7
RNI NO. HARENG/2016/66983 NOVEMBER 2017 `150
THINK YOUNG | PLAY HARD
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how to play. what to play. where to play.
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Contents 11/17
ArgentinA l AustrAliA l Chile l ChinA l CzeCh republiC l FinlAnd l FrAnCe l hong Kong l IndIa l indonesiA l irelAnd KoreA l MAlAysiA l MexiCo l Middle eAst l portugAl l russiA l south AFriCA l spAin l sweden l tAiwAn l thAilAnd l usA
India Digest 18
18 19
INDIANS ON A ROLL Having posted four Asian Tour victories out of 20 starts, Indian golfers are on a roll with Ajeetesh Sandhu and Gaganjeet Bhullar winning two titles in a span of three weeks last month.
24
Newsmakers Update on Indian golfers around the world
30
Junior Golf
32
Club Round-Up Updates from courses across India
34
India Learn Golf Week
42
Corporate Digest Cornerstone Cup
48
Volvo World Golf Challenge
50
Duke of Edinburgh Cup
52
Business Of Golf Industry updates
98
18 Holes with DP Singh
54
Bjørn and Atwal confirmed as EurAsia Cup Captains
58
Player Blog Danny Willett
12 golf digest india | november 2017
Bust It! Butch Harmon’s Greatest Driving Lesson The No. 1 teacher in our biennial ranking helps tour pros and weekend golfers become great drivers.
Opinion Still the One: Butch Belongs in the Hall.
Play Your Best 85
Swing Sequence: Bud Cauley Why tour pros would love to have his swing. by ron kaspriske
88
David Leadbetter Compress your irons like a pro
89
The Finish Line My trick to stay mentally sharp the entire round. by rickie fowler
Fantastic Finale For Thomas
64
Dawkins appointed First Tee CEO
by guy yocom
78
by jerry tarde
63
Gimme a Break: Green-Reading Maps Green maps gain popularity on tour.
by john feinstein
84
Presidents Cup: Anirban Saves The Blushes For Internationals
66
Wild Tales from the Ryder Cup Team Room Kuchar the prankster turns serious, Tiger shows another side and Phil tries (really tries) to get out of a DJ headlock.
with peter morrice
60
Features
34
72
91
Jack Nicklaus How to take advantage of a birdie hole
92
Tour Technique The drill you need when your swing falls apart. by so yeon ryu, no. 1 in the world
93
Stroke of Genius Make your worst putting days better. by justin thomas
94
5 New Metalwoods That Offer Forgiveness by mike stachura
95 Undercover Tour Pro
Why I decided to change my uniform. with max adler
Cover photographs courtesy: Asian Tour
Editor’s Letter Dear Golfers,
O
ne of the biggest needs in India is to establish a grassroots movement to teach more people how to play, understand, and talk golf. To this end “India Learn Golf Week” - an initiative of the Golf Industry Association (of India) - was a big step in the right direction. 27 clubs across 15 cities in India agreed to support the movement and around 7,000 students got their first taste of golf during the week of September 25 to October 1. Many of these students will continue to learn the game, though an equal number may not. However, those who don’t continue to play Write to me at rishi@teamgolfdigest.com or will go away with a better understanding of the on Twitter @RishiNarain_ game and will be able to explain some of the terminologies to ten of their friends. Based on this logic, 7,000 students will effectively educate some 70,000 people who can now read about tournament results in the newspaper or on the internet, and watch golf on TV or on their phones, with some understanding and appreciation of the game. If we carry on with “India Learn Golf Week” for another ten editions, we could get close to educating one million people about golf – a significant number. After the success of the first attempt, the prospects of the second edition, tentatively being talked about for April 2018, are bright. While writing this in scenic Adelaide, Australia, I am with the rest of the Indian senior amateur team at the Asia Pacific Senior Amateur Golf Championship. This country with a total population of 23 million (roughly the population of Delhi NCR) boasts one million regular golfers. Land is in abundance and the culture of sport is all-prevailing. A sporting awakening is on in India and hopefully, more children will get off the couch and get outdoors to play sport in one form or another. To attract more kids to golf, our clubs can create special facilities for youngsters and coaches can make their teaching less technical and more fun. The lesson is that everyone must work together to help grow the game in India. The benefits for all of us will be well worth it.
Rishi Narain
TEAM GOLF DIGEST INDIA Editor & Publisher Rishi Narain Managing Editor Rohit Bhardwaj rohit@rnsportsmarketing.com Assistant Art Director Guneet Singh Oberoi Subscriptions Monika Chhabra subscribe@teamgolfdigest.com Phone: +91-9999868051
Marketing & Advertising Nikhil Narain nikhil@rnsportsmarketing.com +91-9999990364 Parth Premi parth@rnsportsmarketing.com +91-9810455540
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-121 007, Haryana and published from 501, Sushant Tower, Sector - 56, Gurgaon - 122101, Haryana. Phone Number - 0124-2841370, 1371, 1372. 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.
14 golf digest india | november 2017
GOLF DIGEST INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS AND EDITORS-IN-CHIEF GD ArGentinA Hernán SimÓ, Jorge R. Arias AustrAliAn GD Brad Clifton GD Chile Rodrigo Soto GD ChinA Echo Ma GD CzeCh republiC Robin Drahonovsky GD FinlAnD Sami Markkanen GD FrAnCe Henry Trouillet GD honG KonG Echo Ma GD inDonesiA Irwan Hermawan GD irelAnD Linton Walsh GD KoreA Eun Jeong “EJ” Sohn GD MAlAysiA Patrick Ho GD MexiCo Rafa Quiroz GD MiDDle eAst Robbie Greenfield GD portuGAl João Morais Leitão GD russiA Fedor Gogolev GD south AFriCA Stuart McLean GD spAin Óscar Maqueda GD sweDen Oskar Åsgård GD tAiwAn Jennifer Wei GD thAilAnD Chumphol Na Takuathung GD usA Jerry Tarde
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Jack Nicklaus
Popularly known as The ‘Golden Bear’, Nicklaus is widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time. He won a record 18 Majors during his playing career and is regarded as the ultimate thinker and strategist on the golf course. He lies third on the all-time winner list on the PGA Tour behind Sam Snead and Tiger Woods with 73 titles.
Tom Watson
Watson is an eighttime Major champion, with five British Open titles to his credit, who defied age by becoming the oldest professional golfer at 60 years to lead the second and third rounds of the 2009 British Open. He topped the World Rankings from 1978 to 1982.
Butch Harmon
Harmon is best known for having been Tiger Woods’ golf coach during the prime of his career from 1993 to 2004. He has also worked with other Major champions such as Ernie Els, Stewart Cink, Greg Norman, Davis Love III, Fred Couples and Justin Leonard. Has topped many lists as the No. 1 rated golf instructor in the world.
David Leadbetter
Leadbetter, is without doubt the most celebrated golf instructor in history. His books, videos and DVD’s have sold in the millions worldwide. He came to wide notice in the 1980s when he rebuilt the swing of Nick Faldo, who then went on to win six Major championships. Apart from Faldo his students included Greg Norman (1997) and Ernie Els (1990–2008). Leadbetter changed golf instruction for all future generations from guesswork to science.
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On the Asian Tour
INDIANS ON A ROLL Having posted four Asian Tour victories out of 20 starts, Indian golfers are on a roll with Ajeetesh Sandhu and Gaganjeet Bhullar winning two titles in a span of three weeks last month. While Sandhu won the $500,000 Yeangder Tournament Players Championship, Bhullar completed Indian dominance on the Asian Tour by clinching the $500,000 Macao Open for the second time.
Prize money won
US$ 90,000 (approx. Rs 58.5 lakh)
Gaganjeet Bhullar won his eighth Asian Tour title by clinching the $500,00 Macao Open in dominating fashion
BHULLAR ON CLOUD 8 AFTER MACAO TRIUMPH Indian hotshot Gaganjeet Bhullar lifted the $500,000 Macao Open trophy for the second time in his career after closing with a threeunder 68 to complete a stunning wire-to-wire victory. The 29-year-old Bhullar fired seven birdies against two bogeys and a double-bogey to win by three shots with a 13-under 271 total (64-65-74-68) for his eighth Asian Tour victory at the Macau Golf and Country Club. Bhullar took home a winner’s prize purse of US$90,000 and became only the third player after Australian Scott Hend (2013 and 2015) and Zhang Lian-wei of China (2001-2002) to win the storied event twice since the
tournament was inaugurated in 1998. The win helped Bhullar jump to the 13th spot on the Asian Tour Order of Merit from 26th place a week prior. Did you know? l Bhullar claimed a wire-to-wire victory for the third time in his career and for the second time at the Macao Open. He won the 2012 Macao Open and 2013 Indonesia Open after leading from start to finish. l Bhullar is the first player to win eight titles on the Asian Tour before turning 30. He is also the youngest player to achieve this feat on the Asian Tour. l With this victory, Bhullar equals
18 golf digest india | november 2017
the maximum number of Asian Tour wins by Indians along side Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa. l T h a i l e g e n d T h awo r n Wiratchant holds the record with 18 victories. Thongchai Jaidee and Prayad Marksaeng sit in second and third places with 13 and 10 wins respectively. England’s Lee Westwood and Australian Scott Hend both hold nine Asian Tour titles in total. l Bhullar is the fourth Indian, after S.S.P. Chawrasia, Shiv Kapur and Ajeetesh Sandhu, to win on the Asian Tour this season out of total 20 events.
THREE INDIANS FINISH IN TOP-5 OF MACAO OPEN
After Gaganjeet Bhullar, in-form Ajeetesh Sandhu and Delhi pro Rashid Khan capped a brilliant day for the country finishing in the top-5 of the Macao Open. While Ajeetesh shared second place with Filipino ace Angelo Que, who battled to a 69. Rashid Khan returned with the day’s low round of 64 to grab a share of fifth place on a 278 total. While Ajeetesh pocketed US$43,250 for his effort, Rashid collected US$18,575.
On the Asian Tour
Did you know? l Sandhu is the 10th first-time Asian Tour winner in 2017. He is also the second player after Jazz Janewattananond to win an event without a full Tour card
SANDHU CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY WITH BREAKTHROUGH WIN
I
ndia’s Ajeetesh Sandhu gave himself the perfect early birthday present by holding his nerve to clinch his maiden Asian Tour title at the US$500,000 Yeangder Tournament Players Championship (TPC) in Taiwan. Sandhu, who turned 29 on October 9, completed a career turnaround, earning a two-year winner’s exemption on the region’s premier Tour, following his breakthrough victory at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club. After missing the mark at the Asian Tour Qualifying School earlier
l He is the third Indian to win on the Asian Tour in 2017 and the second player from his country after Gaganjeet Bhullar to win the Yeangder TPC l The Yeangder TPC is the second event in Chinese Taipei which is sponsored by the Yeangder Group. Shiv Kapur won the first tournament (Yeangder Heritage) in April, completing a clean sweep for Indian golfers in Yeangder sponsored tournaments l Sandhu took advantage of the par-five 10th hole this week where he made four birdies. In total, he accumulated 17 birdies against five bogeys l With the victory Sandhu took home US$90,000 including a two-year winner’s exemption on the Asian Tour l He won the Yeangder TPC one day before his 29th birthday l Prior to this victory, Sandhu’s best results on the Asian Tour was third at the 2011 SAIL Open in India and 2017 TAKE Solutions Masters november 2017 | golf digest india
19
On the Asian Tour in January, Sandhu had to rely on his country exemption where he made two cuts in four starts, including a third-place result at the TAKE Solutions Masters in August, prior to his breakthrough in Chinese Taipei. His triumph, however, did not come as a surprise. Sandhu showed a glimpse of his potential when he won his third professional title on his domestic circuit in February. He has never finished outside the top-15 in eight starts on his local Tour this season. Sandhu, who joined the playfor-pay ranks in 2008, took home his career’s biggest prize purse of US$90,000 and propelled to a career-high 27th place on the Order of Merit, led by Gavin Green of Malaysia with a current haul of US$527,346. “It is absolutely amazing. I thought I would be a lot more nervous than what I was but when I got back to the hotel after the third round, I received so much of support from India. So many people, including people whom I don’t know, were messaging me. That really calmed me down. “I’m proud that I managed to focus on my own game. I was just trying to hit the next shot the best that I could and I won. I had a couple of close calls at home
earlier. I guess I was saving for this win,” said the talented Indian. Sandhu closed with a 70 for a winning total of 12-under 276, which was one shot better than American Johannes Veerman, who battled to a 71 to settle for second place after taking a share of the lead in the first three rounds. Veerman, the reigning Asian Development Tour (ADT) Order of Merit champion, took pride in his commendable result despite missing out on the win. “I hope it is just a matter of ‘when’ I will win my first Asian Tour title. Look at Gavin (Green), he is my friend and he finished three times runner-up before he finally won. That just shows you that you have to keep moving forward,” said the 25-year-old Texan. Local hero Lu Wei-chih was clearly disappointed at missing out on his second Yeangder TPC title but the life warrior took solace with his third-place finish, which is his best result on the Asian Tour so far this season. “I am disappointed with how I finished and I think I could have done better if not for my three bogeys on 12, 14 and 17. But overall, it is okay and I’m still happy with the result,” said the 38-year-old Lu, a four-time Asian Tour winner and a brain tumour survivor.
“IT IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I THOUGHT I WOULD BE A LOT MORE NERVOUS THAN WHAT I WAS BUT WHEN I GOT BACK TO THE HOTEL AFTER THE THIRD ROUND, I RECEIVED SO MUCH OF SUPPORT FROM INDIA. SO MANY PEOPLE, INCLUDING PEOPLE WHOM I DON’T KNOW, WERE MESSAGING ME. THAT REALLY CALMED ME DOWN.” — AJEETESH SANDHU
Sandhu wins Japan Challenge Tour event Chandigarh golfer Ajeetesh Sandhu continued his golden run with a victory on the Japan Challenge Tour just a week after his breakthrough Asian Tour triumph. Sandhu clinched the Taiheiyo Club Challenge after beating local golfer Konosuke Nakazato in a playoff. Both finished the second and final round at six-under-par 136 before the Indian held his nerves to win on the first playoff hole and pocket Yen 1.8 million (Rs 10.4 lakh). The win helped him secure playing rights for the Japan Tour.
20 golf digest india | november 2017
Asian Tour Order of Merit After Macao Open POS
PLAYER
EARNINGS (US$)
1
Gavin Green (MAS)
$542,536.06
2
David Lipsky (USA)
$461,179.11
3
Scott Hend (AUS)
$434,029.60
4
S.S.P. Chawrasia (IND)
$340,761.61
5
Anirban Lahiri (IND)
$320,150.00
6
Phachara Khongwatmai (THA)
$301,852.41
7
Poom Saksansin (THA)
$299,678.51
8
Jazz Janewattananond (THA)
$288,975.43
9
Daisuke Kataoka (JPN)
$284,489.61
10
Prayad Marksaeng (THA)
$272,308.02
11
Juvic Pagunsan (PHI)
$232,971.27
12
Richard T. Lee (CAN)
$228,884.08
13
Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND)
$215,335.98
14
Younghan Song (KOR)
$208,231.59
15
Jason Norris (AUS)
$197,246.00
16
Carlos Pigem (ESP)
$192,413.21
17
Shiv Kapur (IND)
$182,719.62
18
K.T. Kim (KOR)
$180,466.93
19
Todd Sinnott (AUS)
$179,545.89
20
Johannes Veerman (USA)
$176,371.32
On the Asian Tour
OCTOBERFEST L-R: PGTI CEO Uttam Singh Mundy, TAKE Solutions MD HR Srinivasan and Asian Tour CEO Josh Burack
BY JOSH BURACK, Asian Tour CEO
O
ctober is a significant month for me because it has been a year since I joined the Asian Tour. I’m pleased about the many positive developments across the Tour and our organisation as a whole that we’ve accomplished together as a team since I came on board 12 months ago. Recently we announced the return of the Indonesia Open on our schedule which is very positive news for the Tour. The popular tournament will offer a prize purse of US$300,000 and will be played at the Pondok Indah Golf Course from October 26 to 29. Last year’s Indonesia Open was such a great tournament when we witnessed an exciting duel between two-time Asian Tour No. 1 Jeev Milkha Singh and eventual winner Gaganjeet Bhullar, who won his seventh title before turning 29! With the addition of the Indonesia Open on our schedule, we will have a total of 26 events with a potential of one more new event which will be announced very soon. This year, our members also shoot for a total prize pot of US$ 33.5 million. This is very solid growth for the Asian Tour in 2017 as we will stage three to four more tournaments compared to the 23 events we had in 2016. The total prize money has also grown by US$ 1.5 million and we are aiming to increase the number of tournaments for 2018! As you already know, the Asian Tour
OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS, WE WELCOMED SOME WORTHY CHAMPIONS INCLUDING RICHARD T. LEE OF CANADA AT THE SHINHAN DONGHAE OPEN IN KOREA. THE FOLLOWING WEEK DAISUKE KATAOKA OF JAPAN WON THE ASIA-PACIFIC OPEN GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP DIAMOND CUP GOLF, HIS FIRST WIN ON THE ASIAN TOUR. has strengthened our presence in Korea after reaching a five year agreement with the Korea Golf Association (KGA) for our two golf bodies to co-sanction the Kolon Korea Open and GS Caltex Maekyung Open tournaments from 2018 onwards. With the Shinhan Donghae Open also scheduled, we will have a minimum of three events in the golf hotbed of Korea from next season. 2018 also sees the return of the EurAsia Cup from 12-14 January at the Glenmarie Golf & Country Club in Kuala Lumpur. This Ryder Cup style event pits the top 12 players from Europe against the top 12 players from Asia competing for a massive US$ 4.8 million dollars. Over the last few weeks, we welcomed some worthy champions including Richard T. Lee of Canada at the Shinhan Donghae Open in Korea. It was his second victory and it came at a timely period as he just recovered from an injury. The following week Daisuke Kataoka
of Japan won the Asia-Pacific Open Golf Championship Diamond Cup Golf, his first win on the Asian Tour. It was a big relief to Kataoka, since he regained his Asian tour card that he lost by finishing outside the top-60 in 2016. After three runner-up results, Gavin Green of Malaysia secured an emphatic victory at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters. What a year it has been for the young Malaysian who is now firmly in the running to become the first player from his country to win the Order of Merit. A big congratulations also to Pat Perez who won the CIMB Classic and our member Anirban Lahiri of India who enjoyed another top-10 finish in the US$7 million tournament. Outside the ropes, we are continuing to promote the Asian Tour through other means. Recently I made a guest appearance on CNBC and I also took part on a panel discussion about golf at the Sports Matters conference. We will continue to position the Asian Tour at the forefront of the dynamic golf landscape in APAC at every opportunity. #whereitsAT november 2017 | golf digest india
21
On the Asian Tour
Thai golfing star Thongchai Jaidee
The Asian Tour Is Getting Bigger: Thongchai
T
hese days, Thongchai Jaidee is recognised by golf fans anywhere he tees up around the world. The celebrated Thai golfer has enjoyed such a glittering career that in two years’ time, he will be eligible for consideration into the World Golf Hall of Fame. As the only man in Asian golf history to win three Asian Tour Order of Merit titles, which is the pinnacle of the professional game in the region, Thongchai has also amassed 13 Asian Tour victories to date, of which four were events co-sanctioned with the European Tour. In addition, the Thai legend has claimed four more impressive victories on European soil, the last being the 100th Open de France in 2016. It is the most number of wins in Europe by any Asian golfer. When he looks back at his
career, Thongchai, who turns 48 next month, takes great pride in his achievements after rising through the ranks which included time spent as a paratrooper in the Thai army. “The Asian Tour means a lot to me. I grew up with the Asian Tour … it was the road to professional golf. The Asian Tour made me and I’ll never forget the Asian Tour. I’ll always have a bond with the Tour,” said Thongchai during the filming of the Asian Tour’s phase two of its digital #whereitsAT campaign.
“Without golf, I don’t know what I can do. The Tour has given me a lot of things. It gave me more experience and gave me a good job to earn money.” Thongchai’s success across the region means he currently leads the Asian Tour’s all-time career earnings list with over US$5.6 million in prize money while he has also amassed over €12 million on the European Tour. Not forgetting his roots, the Thai has for years now funded a golf academy for
“THE ASIAN TOUR IS GROWING EVERY YEAR. IT’S GETTING BIGGER. I HAVE A LOT OF MEMORIES. WHEN I WON IN THE MALAYSIAN OPEN IN 2004, IT CHANGED MY LIFE. IT GAVE ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO ALSO PLAY IN EUROPE. I WILL ALWAYS — THONGCHAI JAIDEE SUPPORT THE ASIAN TOUR.”
22 golf digest india | november 2017
underprivileged youths in his hometown of Lopburi in which he grew up in a two-storey wooden house during his childhood. Thongchai, whose first club was made from a broken five iron head stuck onto a bamboo stick, will continue to support the Asian Tour with appearances across the region. He firmly believes the Tour will maintain its exciting growth and development, which has seen it expand its footprint to new destinations such as Fiji, South Africa and New Zealand. “The Asian Tour is growing every year. It’s getting bigger,” he said. “I have a lot of memories. When I won in the Malaysian Open in 2004 (co-sanctioned with Europe), it changed my life. It gave me the opportunity to also play in Europe. I will always support the Asian Tour.”
On the Asian Tour
On The Web
Images: Asian Tour
This section showcases the social media initiatives undertaken by the Asian Tour to connect with the young and urban golf aficionados
november 2017 | golf digest india
23
Newsmakers
PLAYERS IN THE NEWS Determined Gaganjeet Shifts Base To USA
“4 EYES ARE ALWAYS BETTER THAN 2. IT’S DIFFICULT TO KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR SWING BY YOURSELF. THERE’S NOBODY TO CLEAR DOUBTS OR SUGGEST A BETTER STRATEGY OF PLAYING IN CERTAIN CONDITIONS. AFTER MY AMATEUR CAREER I WAS PRETTY MUCH ON MY OWN.” Gaganjeet Bhullar won his eighth Asian Tour title by clinching the $500,00 Macao Open in dominating fashion
24 golf digest india | november 2017
— GAGANJEET BHULLAR
Newsmakers BY ROHIT BHARDWAJ
M
aking a bold statement of commitment and ambition, seven-time Asian Tour winner Gaganjeet Bhullar has shifted base to the US to train and practice under better facilities and instruction. This is the first time that an Indian pro has shifted base to America without having already secured PGA Tour or Web.com Tour playing rights. Time will tell how Bhullar’s move pays off and whether this could be a trend for other young talented Indian pros. Over the past two decades South Korean lady pros have shifted base to USA in big numbers and this has led to their astounding dominance on the LPGA Tour. Their success may have well inspired Bhullar. For a long time, the Kapurthala born and bred was working with Peter Wolfenstetter (Thongchai Jaidee’s coach), who is based out of Germany. Bhullar then decided to move to the US where most of his family have settled. It wasn’t long before he bumped into former cop turned golf professional Noah Montgomery. At first, Bhullar was working with Noah 4-5 times in a year when there was a drought of events on the Asian Tour. Seeing the significant improvement in his performances during that time, he made the big decision to relocate to the States (Sacramento, California). “The primary objective of shifting to the US is to up my game and move to the next level. In the last two years of travelling to the US, I felt India doesn’t have the infrastructure or facilities which can help improve your skills manifold [sic]. And, let’s be honest no other country has embraced golf as the Americans have” Bhullar told Golf Digest India after his terrific wire-to-wire victory at the $500,000 Macao Open. Bhullar said that with time one begins to lose grasp of the fundamentals after playing on different surfaces every week across the world. As an 8-year-old, he trained under former national coach, and current National Golf Academy of India (NGAI), director Jesse Grewal for 3 years. Bhullar credits Grewal for helping him become the golfer he is today. However, to break into the top-50 of the world, one needs to really take their game to the next level and that kind of coaching is significantly void at present in India. “4 eyes are always better than 2. It’s difficult to keep an eye on your swing by yourself. There’s nobody to clear doubts or suggest a better strategy of playing in certain conditions. After my amateur career, I was pretty much on my own. When I was representing India in international tournaments, there was a national coach, a psychologist etc. to help you. But after that I didn’t find the right person” the Arjuna awardee elaborated. The 9-time Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) title winner met current coach Noah Montgomery through fellow Asian
Gaganjeet Bhullar with his long-time caddie Tim Cox
Gaganjeet’s International Wins Asian Tour - 8 • 2009 Indonesia President Invitational • 2010 Asian Tour International • 2012 Yeangder Tournament Players Championship • 2012 Venetian Macao Open • 2013 Indonesia Open • 2016 Shinhan Donghae Open • 2016 Bank BRI-JCB Indonesia Open • 2017 Macao Open
“GAGANJEET (BHULLAR) IS A SPECIAL PLAYER. THERE IS NO DOUBT ABOUT HIS TALENT... HIS BALL STRIKING HAS IMPROVED. HIS SET-UP IS MUCH BETTER NOW AND HE CAN GO THROUGH THE BALL MORE AGGRESSIVELY.” — NOAH MONTGOMERY Tour American professional, John Catlin. “Gaganjeet (Bhullar) is a special player. There is no doubt about his talent. The only thing we are working together is his fundamentals. His ball striking has improved. He is able to hit 300-plus yards regularly in comparison to 280 yards he was driving earlier. His set-up is much better now and he can go through the ball more aggressively. When we started working, he was ranked 855th in the world, and we improved to 150th last year – when he won two Asian Tour titles in a close period,” Noah told Golf Digest India from Sacramento. The unlimited play and practice facilities at his academy in Auburn will assist Bhullar to reach higher echelons of the golfing world. “After a certain period, golfers develop a
European Challenge Tour - 1 • 2011 Gujarat Kensville Challenge (Kensville G & CC, Ahmedabad) certain way of hitting the ball which might not be desirable. Their putting strokes don’t change much which becomes an impediment when they are playing on different surfaces and in varied weather conditions. For a professional who is aiming to move up in the world rankings, adaptability is key. At Auburn, we give each of the players a chance to practice on tougher greens: having deceptive gradients and faster surfaces. I always believe that random practice is better than block practice,” Noah explained. With his long-time partner, Tim Cox, on the bag and his eyes firmly on the remainder of events on the Asian Tour, Bhullar aims to break into the top-50 of the world in the next couple of years. He rose to World No. 85 in 2013 after his second-place finish at the $2.3 million Avantha Masters. With a perfect set-up in America, Bhullar is working towards fulfilling his true potential. november 2017 | golf digest india
25
Newsmakers
In-form Lahiri Posts Consecutive Top-10 Finish On PGA Tour Anirban Lahiri posted his second successive top10 finish on the PGA Tour with a tied 5th showing at the inaugural US$9.25 million CJ Cup at Nine Bridges in Jeju Island, South Korea. Lahiri carded a four-day total of 5-under 283, 4 strokes behind eventual winner Justin Thomas. Lahiri was in contention till Hole No. 13 (at 8-under-par when Thomas dropped a bogey) before a bogey on the 14th and a double bogey on the very next hole put paid to his chances. The finish earned him US$302,937.50 (approx. Rs 1.96 crore). Anirban rose to 15th on the FedEx Cup standings from 25th spot the previous week and jumped 7 spots to be ranked 58th in the world following his brilliant effort. Earlier, the US-based golfer began his PGA Tour season on a solid note with a top-10 finish at the $7 million CIMB Classic. Lahiri posted 67, 73, 64 and 71 in the four rounds for an overall total of 13-under 275. The Asian Tour co-sanctioned tournament helped him collect US$175,000 (approx. Rs 1.13 crore) in prize money. It also meant that Lahiri jumped 17 places to clinch the 5th spot in the Asian Tour Order of Merit.
Women’s Golf
Neha Rallies To Win Season’s 2nd Title Neha Tripathi turned in one of her best rounds of the season to rally from behind and win the 13th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour last month. It was the second title of the season for Neha, who had earlier captured the first leg at the start of the season. The 25-year-old Kolkata golfer seemingly slipped and put herself out of the race with a round of 77 on the second day but bounced back with a
five-under 67. Neha started the final round seven shots behind the second round leader, Saaniya Sharma, and sank six birdies against one sole bogey on the 10th in her 67 that gave her a total of one-over 217. On the Hero Order of Merit, Gaurika Bishnoi (Rs. 972,400) is on the top with Amandeep Drall (Rs. 906,300) second and Saaniya third with earnings of Rs. 763,000.
26 golf digest india | november 2017
TVESA BLAZES DELHI GOLF CLUB GREENS FOR VICTORY
Tvesa Malik’s impressive display in challenging weather conditions at the Delhi Golf Club helped her win the 12th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour. For 21-year-old Tvesa, who turned pro midway through this season, this was her second title in five starts. Tvesa shot the day’s best score of 73. Siddhi Kapoor (81) came second, while Saaniya Sharma (79) ended third.
Newsmakers Professional Golf Tour of India
Shubhankar Sizzles On Home Course
HARD-EARNED VICTORY FOR AMARDIP
Noida’s Amardip Sinh Malik came up with a tenacious display in the final round of the ONGC Masters 2017 to bag a hard-earned victory at his home course, the Noida Golf Course. Malik shot a four-over 76 in round four but still came through by one stroke at 12-under 276 to pocket his second title. Delhi’s Kapil Kumar carded an even-par 72 to finish runner-up at 11-under 277 at the Rs. 50 lakh event. Amardip Sinh Malik (66-66-68-76), the overnight leader by five shots, didn’t have it easy on the final day but still managed to stay ahead of the chasing pack thus ending his three-year victory drought. The 32-year-old began the day with a birdie but was then in trouble on the second where he dropped a double bogey after his putt lipped out. The local favourite dropped a couple more strokes on the 6th and 12th but continued to soak up the pressure and kept the lead. Malik survived a few nervous moments on the 18th after his drive found the trees. He sank a two and a half feet bogey putt on the last hole to seal the win.
BAISOYA DEFENDS TITLE IN STYLE
Delhi’s Honey Baisoya successfully defended his title at the PGTI Players Championship at Noida Golf Course with an emphatic nine-shot triumph. Baisoya, who completely dominated the final round, signed a card of four-under 68 that took his total to 19-under 269 for the week. The 21-year-old Honey’s second win of the season earned him a prize cheque of Rs. 4,50,000 and as a result lifted him from sixth to fourth place in the PGTI Order of Merit. Bengaluru’s C Muniyappa (70) came in second at 10-under 278 at the Rs. 30 lakh event. Baisoya said, “The Noida Golf Course is turning out to be my favourite venue as I’ve won my second title here this year. This course really suits my game. The Order of Merit title is definitely on my radar now.”
Shubhankar Sharma, the mo st experienced amongst youngsters bunched in the top-5 after round three, finally came through at his home course, the Chandigarh Golf Club, on Sunday, to bag the Rs 1 crore TAKE Open Golf Championship 2017. This is the first time that Chandigarh has hosted a PGTI event offering such prize money. Shubhankar, an Asian Tour regular, posted a clinical 5-under 67 in round four to overcome a two-shot overnight deficit and ended up with a winning total of 12-under 276 to pocket Rs 15 lakh. “I made an important change to my game today by changing my putter before the round. The new putter really helped my cause in the last round… It’s great to win at my home course and at a tournament that was sponsored by TAKE Solutions, whose MD (HR Srinivasan) sponsors me. It couldn’t have been better. I want to thank him for supporting me for the past two years,” an elated Shubhankar said later. Patna’s Aman Raj, the overnight leader by one stroke, carded a oneunder-71 in round four, to finish two shots behind the winner in second place at 10-under 278. Chandigarh’s Akshay Sharma (71) finished a creditable third at 9-under 279.
“IT’S GREAT TO WIN AT MY HOME COURSE AND AT A TOURNAMENT THAT WAS SPONSORED BY TAKE SOLUTIONS MD HR SRINIVASAN, WHO ALSO SPONSORS ME. IT COULDN’T HAVE BEEN BETTER FOR ME.” — SHUBHANKAR SHARMA TOP-10 ON PGTI ORDER OF MERIT AFTER TAKE OPEN POS
Golfer
Play
Win
Cut
Top10
Total Prize
1
Shamim Khan
13
2
13
9
2658250
2
Udayan Mane
12
2
11
5
2158851
3
Ajeetesh Sandhu
8
1
8
7
1864970
4
Khalin H Joshi
10
0
10
6
1836619
5
Honey Baisoya
11
2
10
6
1833288
6
Mukesh Kumar
10
1
10
5
1765962
7
Aman Raj
13
0
10
5
1736318
8
Amardip Sinh Malik
11
1
8
4
1600903
9
Shubhankar Sharma
2
1
2
1
1553475
10
Anura Rohana
12
1
9
4
1484036
november 2017 | golf digest india
27
Newsmakers
“Golf needs to be a fun activity to attract kids” Spanish World No. 22 Carlota Ciganda Looks Forward To Competing In The Hero Women’s Indian Open This Month
ADITI ASHOK IS A GREAT PLAYER. SHE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE AT THE TOP. 28 golf digest india | january 2017
HERO WOMEN’S INDIAN OPEN Venue: DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon Date: November 10-12 Prize Money: US$ 400,000 Winner’s Purse: US$ 60,000
Newsmakers
Carlota Ciganda loves to play a lot of sports other than golf — paddle tennis (left) and football
BY KARTHIK SWAMINATHAN
C
arlota Ciganda burst onto the scene in 2012, in her debut season, winning the Ladies European Tour (LET) Order of Merit. The Spaniard’s career has only been on the ascendancy since and, as the World No. 22 on the Rolex Rankings, she is poised to become the highest-ranked professional golfer to partake in the Hero Women’s Indian Open which commences on November 10. In a candid conversation with Golf Digest India, the 27-year-old speaks about her love for sports and her aspirations, how Spain’s arguably greatest tennis player Rafael Nadal constantly inspires her, and what she thinks about India’s latest sensation, Aditi Ashok. Excerpts:
GDI: You are the highest-ranked Spanish golfer in the world... It’s a pleasure to represent Spain wherever I go. I just love competing everywhere in the world and yes, I like to think I make all the Spanish people proud when I play.
Women’s Indian Open. What is your opinion about her game? I have played with her a few times and I think she is a great player. She is young and it is always tough in your rookie year on tour, but she has the potential to be at the top.
Golf course around the world: Valderrama, Spain Golf Course on Carlota’s wishlist: Augusta Movie: The Peaceful Warrior Actor: Brad Pitt Actress: Jennifer Aniston
GDI: How do you see the Hero Women’s Indian Open field? It’s always nice to play in Europe and I think it’s going to be a great week in India! I am very excited to play and to give my best.
Music: Reggae, Latin music
GDI: You have represented Spain in the 2016 Rio Olympics and also played an important role for Team Europe in the 2013 and 2015 Solheim Cups. What do you aim to achieve in the next couple of years? I would love to get to the top one day. I see myself up there, but obviously it’s a slow process: work hard every day, improve little things about your game, and try to find balance in life in order to enjoy it as well! But I feel very lucky to have this life. Play in the best tour, with the best players and have this life! I am very grateful!
Mid-round power snack: Banana and nuts
GDI: You are a huge Rafael Nadal fan. GDI: What needs to be done to Didn’t you ever think of taking up tennis popularise golf in a cricket-crazy instead of golf professionally? Tell us country like India? what inspired you to take up golf? I am not sure because I don’t I love Rafa Nadal! I think he is a live there! But I think it will great role model! He fights a be important to have golf lot on the court and always on TV. Also, make it easy has lots of respect for for kids and juniors to every player. I really share have access to play, his values of hard work, and make it fun. I think humility, and his neverDriver/Fairway Woods: Callaway when you are young, say-die attitude! I played Hybrid: Callaway you have other sports football, tennis and golf Irons: Callaway that can be more fun, growing up. My dad was you like running around my biggest influence and Wedges: fourteen for instance... and in I just love sports! I think it Putter: Callaway that regard, golf can teaches you many things Ball: Titleist Pro V seem slow and boring. that are good for life. So, it is important to Shoe: Adidas make it a fun activity. GDI: Aditi Ashok won the Glove: Titleist last edition of the Hero
WHAT’S IN MY BAG
Images: Ladies European Tour/Tristan Jones
CARLOTA’S FAVOURITES
Drink: Water Food: Paella Essentials in Carlota’s travel bag: Good music and headphones
Mentors/Idols: Rafael Nadal and Tiger Woods Sport apart from golf: Football Holiday destination: Kenya
Aditi Ashok hopes to retain Indian Open crown
Ladies European Tour (LET) Rookie of the Year Aditi Ashok will look to retain the Hero Women’s Indian Open title when the $400,000 event tees off at the challenging DLF Golf & Country Club in Gurgaon this month. The 11th edition of the prestigious tournament, which will be staged from November 10 to 12, will field previous champions and Order of Merit winners. Headlining the field will be the likes of Emily Kristine Pedersen (Winner - Hero Women’s Indian Open 2015), Beth Allen (Winner – LET Order of Merit 2016) and Belen Mozo (Runner-up Hero Women’s Indian Open 2016). november 2017 | golf digest india
29
Junior Golf
Dhairya Jain Takes Top Honours Dhairya Jain emerged winner of Category A Boys in the Little Master Junior Golf Tour organized qualifier for two junior events in Malaysia – AMBANK-SPORTEXCEL at Glenmarie Golf & Country Club from December 5 to 7 and Kids Golf World Championship from December 11 to 15 at Tanjong Puteri Golf Resort. The qualifier was held at Tarudhan Valley Golf Resort on October 14 and 15 with more than 30 players from age division 7 to 18 in action. Gautam Potdukhe grabbed the top honours in Category B, while Arjun Malhotra won the C+D Boys section. Amongst the girls, Simar Bal took home the winning ticket in C+D Class, while Trisha Jha won the E category.
Back-to-back wins for Rishika in IGU events Bengaluru girl Rishika Muralidhar continued her brilliant run of form by winning back-to-back Indian Golf Union (IGU) junior titles. Rishika first won the IGU Ladies and Junior Girls Championship at AEPTA in Delhi in Category C (11-13 years) by a 10 stroke margin. She then repeated her performance at the IGU Northern India Ladies & Junior Girls Golf Championship at Noida Golf Course the following week. Rishika had to battle it out in a 4-way playoff to clinch the title.
JUNIORS PITCH & PUTT TOURNAMENT AT HAMONI
In line with Hamoni’s motto of providing stateof-the-art infrastructure and affordable pricing to talented juniors, the camp hosted its inaugural Junior Pitch & Putt tournament where juniors under the age of 15 battled it out to be crowned champion in their respective categories. The Pitch & Putt concept is great for beginners as they get a first-hand feel of a golf course and how the sport is really played on it. Hamoni has tied up with most of the nearby golf courses in Delhi NCR to host its first Junior Master Series. Three tournaments will be played within 3 months over 3 different golf courses.
30 golf digest india | november 2017
Across The Country
CLUB ROUND-UP To share news on your club or updates from across the country, please email rohit@rnsportsmarketing.com Asia-Pacific Senior Amateur
Indian Seniors at Adelaide
All category winners pose after the completion of the 13th DLF Invitational Caddy Championship
Spreading Camaraderie
DLF G&CC Hosts 13th Invitational Caddy Championship The sprawling DLF Golf & Country Club (DLF G&CC) hosted the 13th DLF Invitational Caddy Championship last month. The tournament saw overwhelming participation of over 100 caddies from 35 clubs across Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Meerut, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Jaipur, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Shimla and Pune. The tournament saw first time participation from the Ganganagar Golf Club, Jammu and Kashmir Golf Club and Mathura Golf Club. Janesh Pal of DLF G&CC emerged triumphant and received a Maruti Suzuki Alto car, LED TV and a golf bag as his reward along with the winner’s trophy. First runner-
up Chote Lal, who also participated for the first time from Noida Golf Club won a Hero Honda Splendour bike and an LED TV from Samsung. Ganganagar Golf Club emerged as the overall winner as a team. Commenting on the event, Aakash Ohri, Executive Director, DLF5 said: “It is indeed an honour to host the 13th DLF Invitational Caddy Championship. Our endeavour is to make the tournament bigger and better every time… Given its current reach and the level of participation it witnesses, we are proud to note that it is the only Caddy Championship in the country of a truly national repute.”
Announcement
KGA to organise 117th All-India Amateur
The Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) will play host to India’s longest running amateur golf tournament - 117th All India Amateur Championship - from December 4 to 10. The event which is the season-ending tournament on the IGU Gentlemen’s Calendar is likely to witness top amateurs like Kshitij Naveed Kaul, Aadil Bedi, Pukhraj Singh Gill, Saarthak Chhibber and Sunit Chowrasia in action.
32 golf digest india | november 2017
The 5-member Indian contingent of Rishi Narain, KS Cheema, Vijay Kumar Bhadana, Sanjiv Kalra and Gangesh Khaitan finished fourth at the AsiaPacific Senior Amateur Championship — at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club — behind powerhouses Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It was their highest finish in many years. Anil Jule withdrew from the event due to medical reasons. The 4 best individual scores on each day were considered for the team score. Conditions were challenging as 15-30 mph winds blew on all three days of the competition. The turtleback greens were quite fast (stimpmeter reading of 13) and the hard surface made it difficult to putt. 13 countries were represented in all and it was India’s best finish since 2010 when they came third in Bangkok, Thailand.
Growing The Game
GRAND SUCCESS Week-Long Initiative Ignites Interest In The Sport Across The Country
The inaugural edition of INDIA LEARN GOLF WEEK was a great success and the initiative witnessed huge participation across the country. India Learn Golf Week (ILGW) is an initiative of the Golf Industry Association (GIA), in partnership with the Indian Golf Union (IGU), the Women’s Golf Association of India (WGAI), the National Golf Association of India (NGAI), Golf Course Superintendents and Managers Association of India (GCS&MAI), as well as the Professional Golf Association (PGA) of America, and it aims to nurture the next 100,000 Indian golfers. The inaugural edition of ILGW was held pan-India between September 25 and October 1, 2017. There was encouragement from various quarters as the week-long event received support from former India cricketer and chairman of the BCCI Selection Committee Kiran More, who urged everyone to take up the sport and participate despite on-going festivities, from the David Leadbetter Academy, and from schools and top corporates.
Golden Greens, Gurgaon Individuals got lessons upon how to hold a club from top instructors like Pritam Saikia (left)
Golden Swan, Mumbai
l National-level effort becomes torchbearer for future course of action following participation from 26 clubs across 15 cities l Participation witnessed from all age groups – from 4-year-old children to 67-year-olds l Support from various corners: n Hamoni Golf Camp, Gurgaon, showcased their innovation and also organized a ‘pay and play’ tournament for juniors n Participation from David Leadbetter Academy at the Oxford Golf and Country Club made the event a success in Pune n A special clinic was organized for students from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) at Golden Swan Country Club, Mumbai, where they learned about the nuances of the sport l Aims to generate `1,500 crore revenue to the golf industry over the next five years
34 golf digest india | november 2017
"ILGW is a great initiative and should be a regular event." —Ayush Bhatia, Golden Swan Bombay Presidency Golf Club, Mumbai
27
PARTICIPATING CLUBS
7000
Chandigarh
INDIVIDUALS TOOK FIRST LESSON
Ludhiana
Delhi NCR
Jaipur
Shillong Lucknow
Kolkata Ahmedabad
15
Bhubaneshwar
Mumbai
PARTICIPATING CITIES
Bengaluru
“Our first edition of India Learn Golf Week went off extremely well. I would personally like to thank all the participating clubs for showing huge amount of enthusiasm and to all the people who came out in bug numbers to support the initiative and participate in the sport of Golf. Looking at the success of the inaugural edition, we look forward to a much bigger second edition in 2018.” — Devang D. Shah, President, GIA
SUPPORTED BY
november 2017 | golf digest india
35
Growing The Game Imperial Estate, Ludhiana
DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon
At DLF Golf & Country Club, golf enthusiasts got a chance to experience technology behind the sport
Hamoni Golf Camp, Gurgaon
“This was our first-ever initiative of this scale and we are really happy with the outcome. We hope that this becomes an annual fixture and we are able to drive even more people to participate in the game.”
— Rishi Narain, MD, RNSM
Tee Time Ventures, Bengaluru Newcomers stayed on the fairways till late hours to perfect their swing
Jaypee Greens, Greater Noida
In a busy city like Bengaluru, people experienced the game through simulators
36 golf digest india | november 2017
Kalhaar Blues & Greens, Ahmedabad
Riverside Golf Course, Nashik
Oxford Golf & Country Club, Pune
The Palms, Lucknow At Oxford, world-renowned instructors from the David Leadbetter Golf Academy offered participants their first golfing tips
Bhubaneshwar Golf Club, Orissa
november 2017 | golf digest india
37
Growing The Game
Participating Clubs
Panchkula Golf Club
Former national selection committee chairman Kiran More (L) liked the India Learn Golf Week initiative
Poona Golf Club, Pune
Name of Golf Club/Golf Facility
City
Gulmohar Greens Golf & Country Club
Ahmedabad
Kalhaar Blues & Greens
Ahmedabad
Kensville Golf & Country Club
Ahmedabad
Eagleton Golf Resorts
Bengaluru
Karnataka Golf Association
Bengaluru
Prestige Golfshire
Bengaluru
TeeTime Ventures at The Leela Palace
Bengaluru
Zion Hills
Bengaluru
Bhubneshwar Golf Club
Bhubaneswar
Golden Greens
Gurgaon
Hamoni Driving Range
Gurgaon
Karma Lakeland
Gurgaon
Rambagh Golf Club
Jaipur
Royal Jaipur Golf Club
Jaipur
Eco Park Driving Range
Kolkata
The Palms Golf Club and Resort
Lucknow
Imperial Golf Estate
Ludhiana
Bombay Presidency Golf Club
Mumbai
Golden Swan Country Club
Mumbai
Siri Fort Driving Range
New Delhi
Jaypee Greens Golf Resort
Noida
Panchkula Golf Club
Panchkula
Riverside Golf Course
Nasik
Oxford Golf & Country Club
Pune
Poona Golf Club
Pune
Shillong Golf Club
Shillong
Thank you all - a great way forward indeed!
— Champika Sayal, WGAI Secretary General
Gulmohar Greens, Ahmedabad
“Let us together create future 1000 champion Juniors like Badminton in India is creating one after the other.”
— Kaushal Bawishi, Operations Manager, Gulmohar Greens
38 golf digest india | november 2017
Rambagh Golf Club, Jaipur
Great to see the response!
— Vivek Sharma, WGAI COO
Good work Team RNGM, you have made GIA proud with your efforts.
— Mohan Subramanian, GIA Director
Eco Park, Kolkata
Royal Jaipur Golf Club
Eco Park is the first public driving range established in Kolkata
“It was a great experience to be part of the India Learn Golf Week. We were overwhelmed with the response we got from members and young students took their first golf lesson at the range as part of the initiative. This is one of the best ways to reach schools/colleges and increase number of golfers on course. What I feel is the duration of the program should be increased up to 30 days so that golf lovers can try and fix up the learning session with the coach as per their suitable time. I am looking forward to hosting it again next year.”
— Sachin Chauhan, Head – Golf Project, Royal Jaipur Golf Club november 2017 | golf digest india
39
Growing The Game
MEDIA COVERAGE Sakal Times, Pune
Asian Age, New Delhi
Ebela, Kolkata
Deccan Chronicle, B’luru Free Press Journal, Ahmedabad
Statesman, New Delhi
Palika Post, Jaipur
Charhdikala, Chandigarh
Indian Express, Chandigarh Odisha Bhaskar, Bhubaneshwar Sambad, Bhubaneshwar
40 golf digest india | november 2017
Corporate Digest Cornerstone Cup
Cornerstone Cup Attracts
500 Participants
Raju Gowda And Anand Srinivasan To Lead Indian Charge For World Amateur Golfers Championship In Kuala Lumpur
B
engaluru lads HB Raju Gowda CAT 1 (0-5) with a nett score of 38 and Anand Srinivasan CAT 2 (6-10) with a nett score of 39 will lead the Indian challenge at the World Amateur Golfers Championship to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the month of November. The results were declared after the culmination of the of the 9th Annual Cornerstone Cup Karnataka Golf Festival at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) course last month. In the other handicap categories, Uday Kumar from Delhi CAT 3: (11-15), Rajesh Joshi from Bengaluru CAT 4: (16-20) and Manish Jaiswal from Bengaluru CAT 5: (21-24) booked their spots with a nett score of 39 each to complete the Indian contingent. The four days of the Karnataka Golf Festival also saw a number of known sports personalities participating in the tournament including Kapil Dev, Karun Nair, Venkatesh Prasad, Venkatapathy Raju, Sujith Somasundar and Ashwini Nachappa, who impressed with their golf skills at the tough KGA course. Speaking on the completion of the successful 9th Annual Cornerstone Cup Karnataka Golf Festival BP Kumar Babu, Chairman and Managing Director, Cornerstone Properties, said, “I am delighted by the overwhelming response that the 9th Annual Cornerstone Cup Karnataka Golf Festival has received. This year we saw participation from all parts of the country and the level of golf was much higher than the previous edition. I would like to give my best wishes to all the qualifiers from India for the World Amateur Golfers Champinship.” The 4-day tournament saw over 500 golfers in action from all parts of the country with each day witnessing more than 100 golfers competing for the qualifying spots.
Anand Srinivasan receives the trophy from Cornerstone Properties MD BP Kumar Babu
HB Raju Gowda receives the trophy from BP Kumar Babu
"The tournament was organised very well. It was an excellent experience for me. If a tournament like this happens more often, it will be good for us to perform better. We faced an uphill task with regards to the weather conditions as due to the rain the course was very wet… It will be a new course for us and we have to explore it. We have to go there and play a practice round which will give us a better idea about formulating a strategy about how to excel on the course." KGA president Sandeep Madhavan
— Raju Gowda (Winner: 0-5 category)
“The Cornerstone Cup has been a great experience for recreational golfers like us. It makes us feel more competitive. The challenge is more of the mind – it’s a battle we fight with our own self. I am really looking forward to representing India on the big stage; competing at the World Amateur Golfers Championship.” —Uday Kumar (Winner: 11-15 category)
Venkatesh Prasad
42 golf digest india | november 2017
L-R: Anand Srinivasan, Anita Shri Shrimal, Priya Alex and David D’Souza
HB Raju Gowda
Cornerstone Cup Corporate Digest
(L-R) Former India cricketers Sujith Somasundar, Venkatapathy Raju and Venkatesh Prasad
Ashwini Nachappa, former athlete
“The conditions were really tough at KGA. It was wet, windy and the ball was not sort of moving at all. But the best part of it was that the greens were rolling pretty okay. The way the tournament was conducted over four days was great and I am still receiving congratulatory mails… I am excited to qualify for WAGC. I am going to practice a lot to give it my best shot.” L-R: Varun Berry, Shasidhar Chinta, Kapil Dev, B.P. Kumar Babu and Pranab Barua
Participants got a complimentary spa experience at the Cornerstone Lounge
— Anand Srinivasan (Winner: 6-10 category)
L-R: Karan Singhvi, Karun Nair, Nitin Sood and Ishaan Patodia
november 2017 | golf digest india
43
Corporate Digest Cornerstone Cup
Talking Golf With Kapil Dev
GDI: What is the one quality in golf which makes retired cricketers take up the sport? KD: The one thing I love about golf is that it is an individual sport. I am not competing against anybody but myself. I wanted to keep playing one sport or the other even after bidding cricket adieu. As a sportsman, its a challenge for me to play golf and I feel proud to be part of it.
Cricket legend Kapil Dev was in full flow at the Cornerstone Cup Karnataka Golf Festival
H
e is the finest fast bowling allrounder in the world with more than 5,000 runs and 434 Test wickets in his kitty. As captain, he led India to an unexpected World Cup victory in 1983 with his determination and all-round performance. He was a ruthless batsman and had the capability of taking the battle to the opposition with his natural flair. But post his retirement in 1994, Kapil Dev got hooked to golf and has been uncompromising in his praise for the sport. A 3-handicapper, Kapil is the toast of corporate amateur tournaments. The 58-year-old told Golf Digest India what inspires cricketers to take up golf after retirement and how much time he spends on the fairways after completing his round at the 9th Annual Cornerstone Cup Karnataka Golf Festival played at the Karnataka Golf Association course in Bengaluru. Excerpts from an interview:
BY ROHIT BHARDWAJ rohit@rnsportsmarketing.com 44 golf digest india | november 2017
GDI: What do you love about the Cornerstone Cup Karnataka Golf Festival? KD: As a sportsman, I like to promote all sports. One of my friends, Sasi (C. Sasidhar, MD, Krishnapatnam Port company Ltd.), invited me to play in the Cornerstone Cup. I play golf on Saturdays and Sundays and I thought instead of playing in Delhi I will play at Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) as this is a great event to be part of. GDI: As a television commentator and cricket legend you are also travelling across the country. How much time do you get to play golf out of your busy schedule? KD: I mostly play on weekends whenever I get a chance. As part of my routine I generally play a fourball with my friends. The Delhi Golf Club is the nearest to my residence but I also visit the Jaypee Greens in Greater Noida and have started playing at the revamped DLF Golf & Country Club too. DLF is a very tough course, but I like to take up challenges.
GDI: There is a general perception that golf is a rich man’s sport and that somehow restrains youngsters from taking up the sport. What needs to be done to popularise golf? KD: Golf is not for rich men as you buy clubs only once. It is in fact cheaper than cricket as you have to buy bat, helmet, gloves, elbow guard etc. every time. Here you need just one club and a bucket of balls to play in the initial period. If you check the data, almost 75-80% of the professionals playing in the country are caddy-turnedpros. They come from very humble backgrounds. So, if a caddy can play and win a tournament then anybody can play. GDI: Do you think opening up the Army courses for children will help grow the game? KD: It will be wonderful thing as many kids will get a chance to experience the sport but that depends on the Armed Forces and I can’t ask them to implement it as I am not in administrative capacity.
Cornerstone Cup Corporate Digest
CANDID CHAT
A different ball game for triple centurion Karun Nair BY DANNON MARTIS
K
arun Nair rose to fame courtesy his mammoth triple century (unbeaten 303) during the fifth Test against England last year. Not many know though that the stylish right hand batsman known for his cover drives also loves to spend time on the golf course. Karun, who loves playing different sports, got the opportunity to play golf along with the foreign players in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year. He credits his friend Karan Singhvi, an avid golfer, for helping him better his skills and for accompanying him to different golf courses. It’s been just a few months since Karun was introduced to the sport and he is certainly enjoying his time on the fairways. We caught up with him playing the 9th edition of the Cornerstone Cup Karnataka Golf Festival. The tournament also doubles up as the official qualifier for the World Amateur Golfers Championship (WAGC). The Karnataka batsman may not have won in his handicap category but he was delighted with the experience. “I enjoyed myself out there. Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) is one of the best courses in India and
I love playing here. The tournament was very well organised. I would like to thank the organisers for inviting me and I would also like to congratulate everyone involved in organising this tournament.” His love for the greens has been on the rise. “In a short period of time I got addicted to golf and whenever I am not playing cricket I tend to visit a course and play golf. Playing golf takes my mind away from the game and it relaxes me. I enjoy playing it and I am looking forward to improving my golf skills.” On being quizzed if more cricketers like him would take up golf and if he thought this was the best way to promote the sport in the country, Karun went on to say, “I think that tournaments like these (Cornerstone Cup Karnataka Golf Festival) organised in the country will lead to more awareness. The golfing facilities in the country can go a notch higher. I don’t think us cricketers playing will make too much of a difference but I think more tournaments like the Cornerstone Cup will help in growing the game of golf in India.” It was exciting to see Karun swinging a club and we hope he continues to make great strides on the golf course as well as the cricket field.
Test cricketer Karun Nair tees off at the Karnataka Golf Association for the Cornerstone Cup
“I enjoyed myself out there. Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) is one of the best courses in India and I love playing here. The tournament was very well organised. I would like to thank the organisers for inviting me.” — KARUN NAIR november 2017 | golf digest india
45
Corporate Digest Cornerstone Cup
FESTIVAL ENDS WITH A GALA The Cornerstone Cup 2017 ended with a memorable gala dinner at the Ritz-Carlton, Bengaluru, and was attended by nearly 600 guests - marking, perhaps, the biggest gathering of socialites and celebrities at a golf tournament awards dinner in the country. The jamboree was hosted by Cornerstone Properties MD & CEO, BP Kumar Babu, and guests continued to enjoy live musical performances till the wee hours of the following morning.
L-R: Dr Subroto Cariapa, Sandeep Madhavan R., Harish Kumar Shetty and Indur Hirani
Cornerstone Properties MD BP Kumar Babu (R) with K.I.Jojoe of Lexus
L-R: Vikas Sharma (Director - Operations, The Ritz-Carlton, Bengaluru), Saurabh Bharara (Director - Sales & Marketing, The Ritz-Carlton, Bengaluru) and Rishi Narain
L-R: Aishwarya Reddy, Sashidhar Chinta handing over Hole-In-One Trophy to Venkat Suri
Mr & Mrs H.C. Kishore Chandra, IPS
Sandeep Madhavan R. (L) and V. Madhu
Kush Jawahar of Featherlite
Pratap Singh (L) and Kiran Poonacha
Suresh J, MD & CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Dr N. Manjula, IAS (Director, Karnataka Tourism)
L-R: Mini Kuruvilla, Latha Shivanna and Priya Alex
46 golf digest india | november 2017
K.I. Jojoe, Executive Director, Lexus Bengaluru
Cornerstone Cup Corporate Digest
Madhu V., Govt. of Karnataka
Mr & Mrs Raju Shahani
L-R: Rishi Narain, Akshay Reddy, B.P. Kumar Babu and Indur Hirani
Mr & Mrs Kiran Ponnacha
L-R: Sujit Rathor, Sudharshan Maney, Vinod Chinnappa and R.B. Tiwari
Mr & Mrs Manish Jaiswal
Sonia Rego of Turkish Airlines The Swiss Military kiosk attracted many accessory lovers
Harish Bijoor, Brand Strategist
Kumudha Kumar Babu with Aishwarya Reddy
Participants flocked to the US Polo Assn kiosk to check out the new collection
november 2017 | golf digest india
47
Corporate Digest
Volvo World Golf Challenge
Volvo World Golf Challenge Off To A Flyer
All category winners pose with their prizes after completion of the Delhi leg at Jaypee Greens
DELHI LEG
Action during the Volvo World Golf Challenge at Jaypee Greens
T
he 2017 edition of the Volvo World Golf Challenge series commence d in emphatic fashion at Jaipur on October 7. With 110 golfers teeing off at the prestigious Rambagh Golf Club, competition was intense and Amitabh Tandon emerged victorious in the 0-15 handicap category. Vikash Bajoriya grabbed the honours in the 16-24 category. Participants had a shot at other prize categories too, such as ‘Long Drive’, ‘Straightest Drive’ and ‘Closest to Pin’, and Arjun Kuchhal, Navratan Singh Rathore and Apurv Bordia respectively - were adjudged winners. Hot on the heels of the opener, the action then moved to Jaypee Greens, Delhi, on October 13. As many as 108 golfers attended, and the action-packed day did not disappoint. Vidhit Tulshan prevailed in the 0-15 category, while Deepit Singh triumphed in the 16-24 category. Incidentally, both Vidhit and Deepit had to break ties - with Hrithik Gandhi (who lost on count back on last 9 gross score) and RS Rawal (lower handicap)
Jyoti Malhotra, Director Sales & Marketing, Volvo Auto India
Rahul Chaudhary (L) receives the Closest to Pin prize from Anil Gandhi, business head, Scandia Motors
0-15 category winner Vidhit Tulshan (L) receives his reward
48 golf digest india | november 2017
Sudeep Narayan, PR & Digital Manager, Volvo Auto India
Volvo World Golf Challenge
Corporate Digest
JAIPUR LEG
Bijoy Padmanabhan (R), Commercial Manager North & East, Qatar Airways with Rahul Bhandari
All category winners pose with their prizes after completion of the Jaipur leg at the Rambagh Golf Club
Two winners from the qualifying round in each city will compete in the National Final, slated to be held in Bengaluru on Dec. 16 WINNERS Jaipur Amitabh Tandon, Winner (0-15) Vikash Bajoria, Winner (16-24) Delhi Vidhit Tulshan, Winner (0-15) Deepit Singh, Winner (16-24)
L-R: Akshita Morani, Dr. Lal Morani, winner 0-15 category Amitabh Tandon and Amit Jain, marketing head, Volvo
respectively. Other winners on the day were Sumit Kapoor (Long Drive), Joydeep Nayar (Straightest Drive) and Rahul Choudhary (Closest to Pin). The format of play followed Double Peoria, with handicaps being adjusted on the “Double Peoria System” using “12 hidden holes”. The event next heads to Chandigarh (November 3), with Lucknow (November 10), Ahmedabad (November 18), Pune (November 24), Mumbai (December 1), Hyderabad (December 8), and Bengaluru (December 15) to follow. Two winners from the qualifying round in each city will then compete in the National Final, slated to be held at Prestige Golfshire, Bengaluru, on December 16. And victors from the National Final will play at the World Final in South Africa next year against competitors from other countries.
Volvo World Golf Challenge 2017 Schedule DATE
VENUE
October 7
Rambagh Golf Club, Jaipur
October 13
Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort, Gr. Noida
November 3
Panchkula Golf Club, Chandigarh
November 10
The Palms Golf Club & Resort, Lucknow
November 18
Kalhaar Blues & Greens, Ahmedabad
November 24
Oxford Golf & Country Club, Pune
December 1
Willingdon Sports Club, Mumbai
December 8
Hyderabad Golf Association, Hyderabad
December 15
Prestige Golfshire, Bengaluru
NATIONAL FINAL December 16
Prestige Golfshire, Bengaluru
Completed legs
november 2017 | golf digest india
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Corporate Digest
Duke of Edinburgh Cup
Taste Of Royalty For Indians Participants pose for a group picture before the start of the Duke of Edinburgh Cup World Final
T
hree Indians got a taste of royalty when they played at the private course of the royal family inside the Windsor Castle from September 24 to 28. The trio of Milesh Jamburao, Kodanram Ramaiah and Vishal Chaudhry earned their chance to play in the prestigious Duke of Edinburgh (DOE) Cup World Final in London following their stupendous performance in the Indian qualifiers. The Indians rubbed shoulders with participants from 8 countries during the event which concluded with a Royal Champagne Dinner at the Windsor Castle Ball Room. The trio got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Prince Edward during the Black Tie dinner. Charity is at the heart of the golf tournament. “The golf courses were difficult with roughs as high as 7 inches. To play in the Royal Household Golf Club inside Windsor Castle was a dream come true. It is a small course with a high degree of difficulty owing to the roughs being about 1 foot high. Teeing off at Hole no. 4 there with the Stairs of the Windsor Castle in the backdrop is an experience and feeling nothing can buy in this world,” said Milesh Jamburao. “I had a great time and the experience of
50 golf digest india | november 2017
playing at the Royal Household Golf Course was exceptional,” Vishal said later. For Ramaih the event was a great chance to meet various international golfers who raised their hands for this noble cause. “I was really fortunate to have qualified
for the DOE World Finals. The World Finals was a marvelous experience and provided me an opportunity to meet people from various countries who have contributed handsomely for the charity… The elaborate dinner at the Windsor Castle was a fantastic experience,” Ramaiah said.
Duke of Edinburgh Cup
Corporate Digest
L-R: Indian qualifiers Milesh Jamburao, Vishal Chaudhry and Kodanram Ramaiah prior to the opening round at the Windsor Castle course
Cup About the Duke of Edinburl gh international series
The Duke of Edinburgh Cup –an annua nage and has of golf events is a charity with Royal Patro with the very years 16 over for y ssfull succe ng runni been the World year Each . 2001 in gal first event held in Portu the Royal Family at Finals are played at the private course of Windsor Castle, London.
World Final Experience
e Hotel l Welcome dinner at The Beaumont Estat l Golf Rounds: i) The Buckinghamshire Golf Club ii) Mill Ride Golf Club the grounds of iii) The Royal Household Golf Club in e Castl Windsor giving dinner in the l Royal Champagne reception and prize e Castl sor Wind of s ment Apart State
Milesh Jamburao poses in front of the Royal Household Golf Club
Prince Edward (L) interacts with Indian participants at the Black Tie dinner
november 2017 | golf digest india
51
Business of Golf
IGU appoints new Director General
“As I have grown in my involvement with the game of golf, from professional golfer to golf course designer, I have come to value more and more the role of golf course superintendents.” — Ernie Els
Ernie Els To Receive Old Tom Morris Award E rnie Els, a four-time Major champion, member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and founder of the Els for Autism Foundation, will be the recipient of the 2018 Old Tom Morris (OTM) Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). Els also founded The Ernie Els Foundation in 1999 in his
homeland of South Africa and then joined forces with the Fancourt Hotel and Golf Estate to establish The Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation to help identify under-privileged teens who show talent in golf and give them a chance to reach their full potential in sport and education. GCSAA’s highest honour, the OTM Award has been
Canadian Mitchell Appointed New Captain of R&A Golf Club
presented annually since 1983 to an individual, who through a lifetime commitment to the game of golf, has helped to mould the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris. Morris, a four-time Open Championship winner, was the long-time superintendent at St. Andrews in Scotland until his death in 1908.
The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews appointed Bruce Mitchell as captain, the club announced. He is the first Canadian to be made captain of the ‘Home of Golf’. Mitchell started his year in office with a drive at precisely 8 am as a cannon fired alongside the tee. A large crowd including past captains of the club gathered to watch the ceremony. As well as being captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, Mitchell will also serve in an ambassadorial role for The R&A to support its work in developing golf around the world. He will attend R&A championships in the professional and amateur game. A renowned businessman, now based in Toronto, Mitchell is the Founder, Owner and President of Permian Industries, a management and holding company with sole or significant shareholdings in two food companies and two computer software providers. He became a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1988 and in 2001 won both The Queen Victoria Jubilee Vase and The Royal Sydney Plate. Aged 71, he resides in Toronto with his wife, Vladka.
52 golf digest india | november 2017
The Indian Golf union (IGU) has appointed Major General B. Bhushan as the new Director General of the national sports federation after Wing Commander Arun Singh left office two months back. The sport’s amateur body is still searching for suitable individuals to be appointed as Director – Business Development and Director – Golf Operations. The details of eligibility criteria can be found on the IGU website – indiangolfunion.org.
2018 Indian Open dates announced
The highest prize money event in the country, US$ 1.75 million Indian Open, will be staged from March 8 to 11, 2018. The venue is yet to be announced. The last three editions of the European Tour event have been won by Indians. The 2015 edition saw Anirban Lahiri clinch the top honours after beating compatriot SSP Chawrasia in a playoff at the Delhi Golf Club. Chawrasia went on to win the next two editions in swashbuckling fashion at the Delhi Golf Club and super challenging DLF Golf & Country Club respectively.
Wally Uihlein To Retire As Acushnet President In December
Wally Uihlein, one of the golf industry’s most influential individuals for more than four decades, is set to retire from his post as President and Chief Executive Officer of Acushnet. Uihlein, who started with Acushnet in 1976 and has been the senior golf executive since 1995, will stand down at the end of the year. A frequent visitor to Asia, he will remain on the Acushnet Board of Directors and also become Advisor to the Chairman. Acushnet are the manufacturers of the No. 1 golf ball brand Titleist. Under Uihlein, Titleist became popular among all top professionals including Indian pros such as Gaganjeet Bhullar and Chikkarangappa S., besides PGA Tour stars like Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott. Acushnet also announced that its Board of Directors has appointed David Maher, Acushnet’s current Chief Operating Officer, to succeed Uihlein as President and CEO, effective upon Uihlein’s retirement.
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On the European Tour
TOUR SNIPPETS European Tour announces 2018 schedule The European Tour has announced its full schedule for 2018 which features three new tournaments in Belgium, Oman and the Philippines. Starting at the UBS Hong Kong Open, from November 23-26, the 2018 Race to Dubai will take place in 30 different countries, and will include eight Rolex Series events each with a minimum prize fund of US$7million. The first two of these Rolex Series events will take place in consecutive weeks in May, with the Italian Open moving to a new date (May 31-June 3). The HNA Open de France, at the 2018 Ryder Cup venue Le Golf National (June 28-July 1), will once again launch an impressive mid-summer run of Rolex Series events, followed by the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Ballyliffin (July 5-8) and the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at Gullane Golf Club (July 12-15) in the three weeks immediately prior to The Open at Carnoustie. A trio of Rolex Series events will also conclude the 2018 campaign, with the Turkish Airlines Open (November 1-4) and the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, (November 8-11) followed by the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai (November 15-18) when the 2018 Race to Dubai champion will be crowned.
HATTON WINS AGAIN ON HISTORIC DAY AT ST ANDREWS Tyrrell Hatton became the first man to successfully defend the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship as he held off the charge of Ross Fisher, who broke the Old Course record on a historic day at St Andrews. Hatton entered the day with a fiveshot lead and extended his bogey-free run to 55 holes as he got to 24-under and finished three shots ahead of fellow Englishman Fisher.
The 2010 Ryder Cup player made 11 birdies in a stunning 61 that is the lowest of over 13,300 professional rounds at the Old Course as both men entered history books on an unforgettable afternoon. Fisher’s 11-under-par effort was the second time an Open Championship venue saw its course record broken during the week after Tommy Fleetwood fired a 63 at Carnoustie a few days back.
ILONEN MAKES HISTORIC 1,000TH ACE
Pulkkanen wins thriller in Kazakhstan Tapio Pulkkanen fought hard to claim his maiden European Challenge Tour title by overcoming Chase Koepka in a three-hole play-off at the Kazakhstan Open. The Finn started the day one shot behind overnight leader Erik van Rooyen but managed to overtake his playing partner after three birdies over the front nine at Nurtau Golf Club. The big-hitting 27-year-old continued to make light work of the par-fives at the Almaty course, adding three further gains over the par-five 10th, 13th and 17th to sign for a closing round of 68 and a 17-under-par total. Already safe in the clubhouse on 17-under par was American Koepka after his own superb score of 66, leading to a play-off in Kazakhstan – just the second in the event’s 12-year history.
54 golf digest india | november 2017
It finally happened. Mikko Ilonen’s holein-one on the 14th hole at the KLM Open is the 1,000th hole-in-one in European Tour history. The ace occurred at 9.10am local time during the rain-delayed opening round at The Dutch. The 14th hole is playing host to a Beat The Pro challenge all week but Ilonen gave his amateur no chance to hitting it closer after making his second career hole-in-one on Tour. With the milestone finally being
reached, we look back the history of the ace on the European Tour. Following a barren first season in the European Tour’s inaugural year in 1972, when no aces were recorded, there were seven in the 1973 campaign, with little-known Englishman Cyril Pennington claiming the honour of making the first official European Tour hole-in-one during pre-qualifying for the 1973 Benson & Hedges Match Play Championship at Hillside.
On the European Tour Indian-origin American Julian Suri claimed his maiden European Title in Denmark
“I AM DELIGHTED TO BE NAMED THE HILTON EUROPEAN TOUR GOLFER OF THE MONTH FOR AUGUST. IT’S BEEN A CRAZY YEAR FOR ME AND EVERYTHING HAS HAPPENED SO QUICKLY. TO WIN ON THE EUROPEAN TOUR WAS A DREAM COME TRUE.” — JULIAN SURI
Suri named August Golfer Of The Month American Julian Suri has been named the Hilton European Tour Golfer of the Month for August after claiming his maiden European Tour title in impressive fashion at Made in Denmark. The 26-year-old completed his meteoric rise through the European ranks after he stormed to a four-stroke win at Himmerland
Golf and Spa Resort courtesy of a spectacular final round 64, just three months after claiming his first title on the Challenge Tour. His remarkable performance on the last day in Denmark included five birdies on the front nine followed by two more on the way home for a flawless 7-under round, giving him a 19-under total, with David Horsey of
England the closest contender on 15-under. “I am delighted to be named the Hilton European Tour Golfer of the Month for August,” said the New York born player. “It’s been a crazy year for me and everything has happened so quickly. To win on the European Tour was a dream come true and it was incredible to do it at such a great tournament as Made in Denmark.”
Dennis on the double at the Dutch
“IT FEELS GREAT TO WIN AGAIN. ITALY WAS FANTASTIC, IT WAS GOOD TO GET THAT FIRST WIN IN. BUT WITH THAT BEING A 36-HOLE EVENT, YOU ALWAYS WANT TO DO IT ON THE LAST DAY OVER 54 HOLES AND I HAVE DONE THAT.” — CLARK DENNIS
Clark Dennis claimed his second European Senior Tour title as he battled to a onestroke victory at the inaugural Dutch Masters. The American, in his first season on the European circuit after earning his card at Senior Tour Qualifying School in February, started the day one shot behind overnight leader Carl Mason, who was chasing a record 26th over-50s title. The 51-year-old, who carded opening rounds of 69-72 at The Dutch, home of the KLM Open and a European Tour Destination, signed for a blemish-free final round of 70, with his sole birdie coming on the par-five sixth hole. After winning the Senior Italian Open presented by Villaverde over 36 holes in September, after the final round was abandoned due to rain, Dennis was delighted to secure his first Senior Tour title over three rounds. “It feels great to win again,” said Dennis. “Italy was fantastic, it was good to get that first win in. But with that being a 36-hole event, you always want to do it on the last day over 54 holes and I have done that.” november 2017 | golf digest india
55
On the European Tour
Bjørn and Atwal confirmed as EurAsia Cup Captains Thomas Bjørn
T
homas Bjørn and Arjun Atwal have been announced as respective captains of Team Europe and Team Asia when the EurAsia Cup presented by DRB-HICOM returns to Glenmarie Golf and Country Club in Malaysia, from January 12 to 14, 2018. The third staging of the biennial tournament, which was also hosted at the same Kuala Lumpur-based course in 2014 and 2016, will see the 12-man teams contest six fourball matches on Friday and 6 foursomes matches on Saturday, before 12 singles matches determine the winning team on Sunday. Europe went on to record a comprehensive 18½-5½ win in the last edition of the tournament in 2016, lifting the trophy outright for the first time after the inaugural event, featuring ten-man teams, ended in a 10-10 tie in 2014. For Bjørn, it will be his first captaincy assignment since
taking the helm of Continental Europe in the 2009 Seve Trophy and is likely to provide perfect preparation for the Dane ahead of the 2018 Ryder Cup in France. For Atwal, it will be his first time in the captaincy role. Bjørn said: “I am delighted and honoured to be the captain of the European EurAsia Cup team and I am very much looking forward to the challenge that will await us in January from what I am sure will be a strong Asian team on home soil. “I was lucky enough to be a member of the European Team for the first EurAsia Cup in 2014 and I have seen the event grow and develop since then. We have some of the best golfers in the world in Europe and I am relishing the opportunity to work closely with them as individuals and as a team to try and ensure we keep the trophy in Europe.” The same feeling of excitement is echoed by Atwal, an eight-time Asian Tour champion, three-time European Tour winner and a winner on
“I AM PROUD TO CAPTAIN TEAM ASIA IN THIS VERY SPECIAL EVENT. I EXPECT TO LEAD A STRONG AND CONFIDENT TEAM AGAINST EUROPE SO I’LL DO MY BEST TO INSPIRE TEAM ASIA... I HOPE THE MALAYSIAN PUBLIC WILL COME OUT IN FULL FORCE TO SUPPORT TEAM ASIA!” — ARJUN ATWAL, ASIA CAPTAIN 56 golf digest india | november 2017
Arjun Atwal
QUALIFICATION CRITERIA – TEAM EUROPE The European Team competing in the 2018 EurAsia Cup shall comprise the following European Tour Members:-
(a) The leading 10 available European Members from the final 2017 Race to Dubai Rankings (b) The Captain, Thomas Bjørn, will choose the remaining two European Members in the week commencing Monday, November 20
QUALIFICATION CRITERIA – TEAM ASIA
The Asian Team competing in the 2018 EurAsia Cup shall comprise the following Asian Tour Members:(a) Top-4 available players from the Asian Tour Order of Merit as on November 27 (b) Top-4 available players from the Official World Golf Rankings as on November 27 (c) The Captain, Arjun Atwal, will choose the remaining 4 Asian Members in the week commencing Monday, November 27 the PGA Tour, as he looks to showcase the strength of Asian golf as his team chases a maiden win at the EurAsia Cup. The 44-year-old, who won the Asian Tour Order of Merit in 2003, said: “I am proud to captain Team Asia in this very special event. I expect to lead a strong and confident team against Europe so I’ll do my best to inspire Team Asia. “With a long personal association with Malaysia, I would like to thank the Government of Malaysia, DRB-HICOM and Tun Ahmad Sarji for their continued support of the EurAsia Cup. I am really looking forward to the
event in January and hope that the Malaysian public will come out in full force to support Team Asia!” Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, said: “We are delighted to be able to announce the third staging of the EurAsia Cup today, an event which is growing in stature and one which players from both sides very much look forward to. Having worked closely with Thomas Bjørn since I took office, I have seen his passion and commitment to Europe and our Tour first hand and I know he will be an excellent captain as we defend the trophy.”
On the European Tour
Paul Dunne (R) celebrates with his caddy after winning the British Masters
Dunne Holds Off McIlroy To Win British Masters
P
aul Dunne produced a fantastic closing 61 to hold off a late charge from Rory McIlroy and win his first European Tour title at the British Masters supported by Sky Sports. The Irishman turned in 30 to lead by three at Close House Golf Club and looked to be cruising to victory before World No. 6 McIlroy birdied 5 of his last 7 holes in a 63 to get to 17-under. That gave Dunne a 1-shot lead with two to play but a birdie on the 17th eased the pressure and the 24-year-old chipped in on the last for a 20-under-par total and a 3-shot victory. Swede Robert Karlsson rolled back the years to finish third on 16-under, two shots ahead of
countryman David Lingmerth, local favourite Graeme Storm and German Florian Fritsch. Dunne had a stellar amateur career, playing in the Walker Cup and leading the 2015 Open Championship after 54 holes but this is his first professional win in his 51st European Tour event, having lost out in a play-off to Edoardo Molinari at the Trophée Hassan II earlier this April. “It’s kind of a sense of relief to prove it to myself that I can get it done,” he said. “I feel like I’ve got a bit tougher mentally and I get excited to go out and look at the leaderboard, rather than trying to look at position.”
Hero Challenge Results Match One: Sergio Garcia def. Miguel Ángel Jiménez Match Two: Bernd Wiesberger def. Danny Willett Match Three: Lee Westwood def. Ross Fisher Match Four: Martin Kaymer def. Matthew Fitzpatrick Semi-Final One: Sergio Garcia def. Bernd Wiesberger Semi-Final Two: Lee Westwood def. Martin Kaymer Final: Lee Westwood def. Sergio Garcia
Westwood delighted by success of British Masters Tournament host Lee Westwood was rightly proud of the success of the 2017 British Masters supported by Sky Sports after huge crowds came out to support the event at Close House. The decision to take the European Tour golf back to the north east of England for the first time in 15 years proved an inspired one, with 68,298 people attending the British Masters across a six day period. They were treated to some superb entertainment, with highlights including Westwood’s victory in Tuesday night’s Hero Challenge, innovative broadcast coverage and, of course, a spectacular finish as Paul Dunne chipped in on the last to hold off Rory McIlroy. It was a fitting way to round-off
Westwood’s role as tournament host, with McIlroy and Masters Champion Sergio Garcia among the star names who came out to join the Englishman in the field and celebrate a player who has made an immense contribution to European golf, winning 23 times on the European Tour and playing in 10 Ryder Cups. “I think it’s been a great week,” said Westwood. “We had a really exciting finish with Paul winning and the whole tournament was great. We had nearly 70,000 people come along and support us. I think that’s brilliant. It’s the best attendance since we’ve brought the tournament back. I’m delighted with that but I had a funny feeling people in the northeast would support it well.”
L-R: Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Sergio Garcia, Hero Challenge winner Lee Westwood, Ross Fisher, Hero MotoCorp CMD & CEO Pawan Munjal, Danny Willett, Mathew Fitzpatrick, Bernd Wiesberger and Martin Kaymer
november 2017 | golf digest india
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On the European Tour Jordan Spieth helps newly-crowned Augusta Masters champion Danny Willett put on the Green Jacket
Player Blog
Danny Willett
In one of the most revealing, candid player blogs yet, which feature regularly on europeantour.com, Danny Willett writes about all the highs and the lows and keeping everything in perspective. Well, where do I start? It’s been a pretty wild 18 months. I look back at Augusta last year, how everything came together, and it was the climax of two years of very good golf. I had won twice in the run up to the Masters and got myself into the top-15 in the world and had a lot of confidence by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about winning the Masters. I think about nearly every shot that week. I remember how I felt at each point throughout the week. It’s amazing how you get the same feelings on weeks when you win or do well. Clearly it’s not easy to replicate that feeling but once you’ve had them, you’ll let them go and that week in April was unforgettable to say the least. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about winning the Masters. What’s funny is that we, as golfers, spend so much time practicing for those moments, working on our swings, those chip shots, pressure putts, how to deal with being in contention mentally but no one ever really
prepares you for what happens next, after you achieve greatness like that. Ultimately I’ll be able to look back on that day and be thankful for all that it has given me but it’s not always easier dealing with the aftermath. Golf is a strange sport. When you’re playing well, it seems very easy but when you’re struggling it feels like all the time on the range makes no difference out on the course. That can be a hard challenge to deal with mentally, especially when you’re travelling week-to-week trying to find that form against some of the best players and toughest courses in the world. There’s been quite a few low points over the last few months. At the end of 2016 I was in contention in the Race to Dubai and I just didn’t want to play golf. Think about that. It’s utterly ridiculous. I had entered the HSBC Champions in China, Turkey, Nedbank and Dubai – four of the biggest tournaments of the year – and I didn’t want to play. I just didn’t feel good enough to compete. So I had a few options. I could
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Danny Willett with his wife Nic
withdraw and pass up the chance to play in those events and a chance to win the Race to Dubai or I could play and work my butt off to try and find some form. It was hard and I didn’t play great but I finished 11th at Nedbank and ultimately finished runnerup in the Race to Dubai, for the second straight year. By the time 2017 rolled around, my goal was to build towards Augusta so that a) I was playing well and could put up a good defence; and b) I could enjoy everything that came with returning to Augusta and driving down Magnolia Lane with a green jacket on. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but the Champions Dinner on the Tuesday night was a real eye opener for me. Sitting around a table full of these legends of the game, all telling stories of Arnold Palmer and Augusta, it really inspired me and gave me the boost I needed to look for help. Nic, my wife, has been huge in this journey as well. I know, for a while there, I wasn’t a great person to be around.
I’d spend ten hours in a day working hard on my game and not getting the results and I’d come home in a bad mood and I just wouldn’t be the person I wanted to be. Luckily, we have a great and honest relationship and she knows when to tell me to wind my neck in and get on with things and when to just give me space. Again, through everything over the last couple of years, the good and bad, my family have been amazing. So where do things go from here? All I can say is I’m working hard to ensure they go up. I know I’ve achieved something that 99 per cent of players will never get to experience but there is still a lot I want to do. I’ve never won the Race to Dubai having come close twice. That’s something I want to do. But ultimately, I want to know that every day I spent working on this game I was working to get better and never gave up. Ultimately, I’m a husband, I’m a father (I have another kid coming in December) and I have a Green Jacket hanging up at home. I’m pretty lucky and I never forget that. images: EuropEan tour/gEtty imagEs
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On the PGA Tour
Anirban Saves The Blushes For Internationals
The Indian Put Up A Valiant Effort At This Year’s Presidents Cup To Exorcise Ghosts Of 2015
A
t the 2017 Presidents Cup, the International team entered the final day out of contention. Quite simply, the 12 players representing eight different countries didn’t score enough points during the first three days of competition to overcome the long odds and produce a miraculous finish at the biennial tournament. For a while, though, it looked like the U.S. team would clinch the Cup prior to the final day of singles. India’s Anirban Lahiri and South Korea’s Si Woo Kim made sure that didn’t happen. The Internationals were able to stave off defeat on Saturday when Lahiri and Kim battled back for a 1-up win over Americans Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell that kept the match alive. Just for that alone, Lahiri and Kim received a standing ovation from their teammates when they walked into the team room. “As hard as this week has been, as well as the Americans have played, we haven’t had enough blue on the board,” Lahiri said following Saturday’s play. “We wanted to try our heart out and try to bring a point home, and we are happy we managed to do that in the end. “The Americans have played so well,” Lahiri continued, resigned to his second loss in as many Presidents Cup appearances. “You know, we are all trying our best. Let’s not take any credit away from [the Americans]. They are a well-oiled machine. But sometimes, everything is stacked against you. Sometimes you fall short.” The Internationals entered the final day needing to win all 12 singles matches to wrest the Presidents Cup away from the United States. The Internationals won the day with 7.5 points, leaving the final score 19-11. Lahiri halved his match with Kevin Kisner, giving Lahiri a 1-1-1 record for his three matches. American Daniel Berger sealed the final outcome when he won the fourth singles match on Sunday with a 2-and-1 win over Kim, giving the United States its seventh consecutive victory in the biennial matches. “We all knew today was going to be a better day than the others,” International team captain Nick Price said at the conclusion of the tournament. “These guys got out and put their hearts and souls into today. I think it’s going to leave a much better taste in our mouth than what happened Saturday.” The United States went 6-1-1 on that third day after not winning a foursomes match Saturday morning and the Lahiri-Kim four-ball win in the afternoon the only bright spot. “I was disappointed that I couldn’t get the full point,” said Lahiri after tying with Kisner in his singles match. “I played really badly in the middle part of the round.” Lahiri explained his bogeys during that bad stretch were due to unforced errors and poor club selection. “I really lost my concentration in the middle there. I made some quick swings and bad selections in terms of what clubs to hit,” Lahiri added. “I lost my concentration, but then I just tried to fight as hard as I can.” Lahiri also had to go through
“THIS IS A JUGGERNAUT OF A U.S. TEAM... EVERY TIME WE HAD ANY MOMENTUM EARLY ON IN THE ROUNDS, THEY WOULD SHUT OUR MOMENTUM DOWN.” — NICK PRICE
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Team International’s Anirban Lahiri guides partner Si Woo Kim of Korea during Saturday’s four-ball game against USA’s Kevin Chappell and Charley Hoffman
On the PGA Tour
“WE WANTED TO TRY OUR HEART OUT AND TRY TO BRING A POINT HOME, AND WE ARE HAPPY WEED TO TRY OUR HEART OUT AND TRY TO BRING A POINT HOME, AND WE ARE HAPPY WE MANAGED TO DO THAT IN THE END” — ANIRBAN LAHIRI TEAM USA
Scoring Summary
TEAM INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SINGLES Kevin Chappell
HALVED 2&1
WIN
Jason Day
Justin Thomas
3&1
WIN
Hideki Matsuyama
1 UP
WIN
Charl Schwartzel
1 UP
WIN
Louis Oosthuizen
Daniel Berger
WIN
Matt Kuchar Patrick Reed Above: Team International’s Branden Grace halved his Singles match against World No. 1 Dustin Johnson of USA during the Presidents Cup Left: Team International captain Nick Price (L) takes a selfie with India’s Anirban Lahiri Below: L-R: Former US Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama graced the Presidents Cup biennial event
Marc Leishman
Charley Hoffman
2&1
Si Woo Kim
Dustin Johnson
HALVED
Brooks Koepka
3&2
WIN
Adam Scott
Jordan Spieth
2&1
WIN
Jhonattan Vegas
Kevin Kisner
Branden Grace
HALVED
Anirban Lahiri
Phil Mickelson
WIN
2&1
Adam Hadwin
Rickie Fowler
WIN
6&4
Emiliano Grillo
SATURDAY AFTERNOON FOUR-BALL Patrick Reed / Jordan Spieth
WIN
Daniel Berger / Justin Thomas
WIN
Kevin Chappell / Charley Hoffman Brooks Koepka / Dustin Johnson
2&1
Louis Oosthuizen / Jason Day
3&2
Jhonattan Vegas / Hideki Matsuyama
1 UP
WIN
3&2
WIN
Anirban Lahiri / Si Woo Kim
Marc Leishman / Branden Grace
US PRESIDENTS GRACE BIENNIAL EVENT
For the first time in history, three former U.S. Presidents and Honorary Chairmen of the Presidents Cup attended the Presidents Cup. On September 28, President Bill Clinton (Honorary Chairman in 2000), President George W. Bush (Honorary Chairman in 2005) and President Barack Obama (Honorary Chairman in 2011 and 2013) attended the ceremonial elements on the No. 1 tee to commemorate the start of the biennial matches between a team from the U.S. and an International squad made up of players from outside Europe. The last time more than one former President attended the event was in 2005, when former presidents Clinton and George H.W. Bush were present at the matches held at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia. november 2017 | golf digest india
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On the PGA Tour L-R: Team USA’s Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell along with Team International’s Anirban Lahiri and Charl Schwartzel prior to their Four-ball tie
a bit of controversy on the first day when officials ruled the team of Lahiri and Charl Schwartzel losers of the first hole of their four-ball match against Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell after Lahiri finished the hole and then went to the bunker to hit a practice shot. Rules allow players to practice putts or simulate non-putting strokes once a hole is completed, but actual shots from hazards or bunkers are prohibited. That ruling that disqualified Lahiri from the next hole — in this case No. 3 — forced Schwartzel to play the hole alone. Another interesting side note was the battle between Branden Grace and Dustin Johnson. With the Presidents Cup outcome already decided, Grace did his best to win for reasons other than the obvious. A halved match would leave Johnson at 4-0-1 for the week. Grace’s 5-0-0 mark in 2015 is still the standard for this event. Grace trailed for 13 of the first 16 holes against Johnson but squared the match on the 17th by striking an approach shot to within 12 feet that was conceded for a birdie. Both players parred the final hole, Grace two-putting from 43 feet and Johnson unable to make his 20-foot birdie. “Always knew it was going to be a tough match, just a grind,” Grace said. “[Johnson] got off to a good start. I think he was 3- or 4-under through five holes. I was on the back foot from the beginning. Grinded it out toward the end. My main goal was not to give him the 5-0,” Grace said. “I’m the last one to do it, and I thought to myself, I’m going to try my hardest for him not to do it, and he fell short.” Johnson finished the week with four match wins, no losses and the lone tie, with Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler both going 3-0-1. Oosthuizen led the International team with a 2-2-1 record. Grace went 1-2-2 and Schwartzel was 1-2-0. “This is a juggernaut of a U.S. team,” Price said. “I think we all knew that going into this week. And every time we had any momentum early on in the rounds, they would shut our momentum down. These guys were firing on all eight cylinders, and it was tough to watch, especially being on the receiving end of it.” The U.S. team leads the biennial competition 10-1-1.
“ALWAYS KNEW IT WAS GOING TO BE A TOUGH MATCH, JUST A GRIND. [JOHNSON] GOT OFF TO A GOOD START. I THINK HE WAS 3- OR 4-UNDER THROUGH FIVE HOLES. I WAS ON THE BACK FOOT FROM THE BEGINNING. GRINDED IT OUT TOWARD THE END.”
— BRANDEN GRACE
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TEAM USA
Scoring Summary
TEAM INTERNATIONAL
SATURDAY MORNING FOURSOMES Jordan Spieth / Patrick Reed
WIN
Matt Kuchar / Dustin Johnson
WIN
Kevin Kisner / Phil Mickelson
WIN
Rickie Fowler / Justin Thomas
4&3
Marc Leishman / Jason Day
4&3
Adam Hadwin / Adam Scott
2&1
Emiliano Grillo / Jhonattan Vegas
HALVED
Branden Grace / Louis Oosthuizen
FRIDAY FOUR-BALL Patrick Reed / Jordan Spieth Justin Thomas / Rickie Fowler
WIN
Kevin Kisner / Phil Mickelson
WIN
Charley Hoffman / Kevin Chappell
WIN
Brooks Koepka / Dustin Johnson
WIN
HALVED
Adam Hadwin / Hideki Matsuyama
3&2
Branden Grace / Louis Oosthuizen
1 UP
Marc Leishman / Jason Day
6&5
Anirban Lahiri / Charl Schwartzel
3&2
Jhonattan Vegas / Adam Scott
THURSDAY FOURSOMES Justin Thomas / Rickie Fowler
WIN
Matt Kuchar / Dustin Johnson
WIN
Patrick Reed / Jordan Spieth
WIN
Daniel Berger / Brooks Koepka Phil Mickelson / Kevin Kisner
6&4
Charl Schwartzel / Hideki Matsuyama
1 UP
Jhonattan Vegas / Adam Scott
5&4
Emiliano Grillo / Si Woo Kim
3&1 HALVED
WIN
Branden Grace / Louis Oosthuizen Marc Leishman / Jason Day
On the PGA Tour
Fantastic Finale For Thomas A
mere one stroke kept Justin Thomas from having a really good day. As it was, Thomas’ Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia, wasn’t too shabby. At the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club, Thomas finished second to rising star Xander Schauffele, who won his second tournament of the season in what has turned into an improbable late-year run. Meanwhile, Thomas had plenty of reasons to smile. His runnerup performance was still enough to earn him the FedEx Cup and the US $10 million bonus that goes with the silver cup. As it was, Thomas almost pulled off the daily double, coming oh-so close to winning the TOUR Championship, too. On the par-5 18th hole at East Lake, after making birdies at Nos. 16 and 17, Thomas faced a 24 1/2-foot putt for birdie that would have broken him from a tie with Schauffele, who was playing in the group behind. Thomas read the big-breaking, right-to-left putt well, with the ball tracking toward the hole all the way before just sliding underneath the cup. As he putted for birdie, he already had locked up the FedEx Cup. A birdie at 18 would have been frosting. On the 18th hole, knowing a birdie would win him the tournament, Schauffele hit his
Justin Thomas
THOMAS’ HAUL FROM THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP WAS THE $945,000 SECOND-PLACE CHECK ALONG WITH THE $10 MILLION BONUS. ALL TOLD, HIS 2016-17 PRIZE-MONEY HAUL ON THE PGA TOUR WAS $19,921,560 (APPROX. RS. 129.30 CRORE). second shot into the par 5 to the front of the green. He chipped to 2 1/2 feet with that distance left for birdie. When his putt caught the left side of the hole, circled around and finally dropped, he had win No. 2 of the year—to go with The Greenbrier Classic
title he won in July. Schauffele’s strong performance in Atlanta also moved him to third in the FedEx Cup behind only Thomas and Jordan Spieth. It’s been quite the year for the 24-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, who played his college
JUSTIN THOMAS NAMED PGA TOUR PLAYER OF THE YEAR Justin Thomas had quite a season, and the only thing missing from his resume was the Jack Nicklaus Award. He can now check that box, as well. In a remarkable season that saw Thomas successfully defend a title in Malaysia, win back-to-back tournaments in Hawaii — shooting 59 in one of the rounds — winning his first Major championship, taking home the FedEx Cup and playing for the winning US Presidents Cup team, earning
Xander Schauffele
Player of the Year honours is only fitting and a nice finish to the justcompleted season. The PGA TOUR announced October 4 that Thomas is the 2017 PGA TOUR Player of the Year as voted on by the TOUR’s membership. Thomas edged Dustin Johnson, Hideki Matsuyama and Spieth, who also appeared on the ballot. “On behalf of the PGA TOUR, our congratulations to Justin Thomas on being voted the
golf at the University of Alabama and noted the magnitude of winning the FedExCup. “It’s awesome just because I feel like I played so well this year. I was consistent—a lot of great weeks and great memories even,” Thomas said. Thomas’ haul from the Tour Championship was the $945,000 second-place check along with the $10 million bonus. All told, his 2016-17 prize-money haul on the PGA Tour was $19,921,560 (approx. Rs. 129.30 crore).
PGA TOUR Player of the Year by his peers,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “With five remarkable wins and his season-long consistency that resulted in the FedEx Cup title, Justin is a deserving winner of PGA TOUR Player of the Year.” Thomas joined Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth as the only players since 1960 to capture five wins, including a Major, in a season before age 25.
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On the PGA Tour
TOUR SNIPPETS
DAWKINS APPOINTED FIRST TEE CEO Keith Dawkins, an executive for Viacom’s Nickelodeon, will become The First Tee’s next CEO. Former U.S. President George W. Bush, The First Tee’s Honorary Chairman, welcomed Dawkins to the position September 29 at Liberty National Golf Club, site of the 2017 Presidents Cup, alongside The First Tee Chairman Tim Finchem, who introduced Dawkins to the organization’s Trustees during a breakfast meeting. Dawkins will replace current CEO, Joe Louis Barrow, Jr., who is set to retire at the end of 2017. “The First Tee is a very effective and very necessary program for our nation’s youth and future,” President Bush remarked. “I’m proud to be the Honorary Chairman and to have worked with Joe Barrow, and I thank him for his leadership over the years. I
congratulate Keith Dawkins and look forward to working with him. The First Tee, and thousands of young people, will benefit from his energy and experience.” Dawkins will begin his role with The First Tee October 16 as incoming CEO, and he will officially take the reins as CEO upon Barrow’s retirement, January 1, 2018. Dawkins will report to the World Golf Foundation Board and The First Tee Advisory Board. “Keith is a dynamic leader who brings a suite of assets to the position, most notably a proven track record of forming high-level and lasting partnerships, organizational management and innovation, and a commitment to diversity and inclusion,” said Finchem, recently retired as PGA TOUR Commissioner.
Claire Dawkins (L) with former US President George W. Bush
2019 PRESIDENTS CUP PRIMED FOR DECEMBER 9 PGA TOUR RENEWS Golf fans already knew the 2019 Presidents Cup would be in Australia. Now they also know when. Tournament officials announc e d September 25 that the 2019 Presidents Cup will be held December 9 to 15, 2019 at the prestigious and historic Royal Melbourne Golf Club. The return to Melbourne, Australia, will mark the third time in the biennial event’s 25-year history. The Presidents Cup was previously held in Melbourne in 1998 and 2011, also at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club. No other international venue has hosted a Presidents Cup more than once. Melbourne also holds the distinction as the site of the lone International team’s victory in 1998, which saw Peter Thomson’s International Team defeat Jack Nicklaus’ U.S. team, 20.5 to 11.5. In 2011, Fred Couples led the U.S. team to a 19-15 win over Greg Norman and the Internationals. The 1998
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event was also held in December, a date that traditionally works well with other golf tournaments held in Australia. The Royal Melbourne Golf Club is the oldest golf club in Australia, founded in 1891. It moved to its current location in 1926, becoming the anchor of what is now known as the Sandbelt. The gem of Australian golf, the Royal Melbourne Golf Club has two courses, both ranked in the World’s Top 100, which were designed by the legendary Alister MacKenzie. In 1959, in order to host the first of many international tournaments, 12 holes of the West Course and six from the East Course were combined to create what is known as the Composite Course, which also hosted the 2013 World Cup of Golf, won by Jason Day and Adam Scott. Royal Melbourne has hosted f o u r Wo r l d Cups overall, and was also the site of the 1959, 1972 and 1988 tournaments.
TWITTER DEAL
The PGA TOUR has renewed its agreement with Twitter to be the exclusive global platform to distribute, on a free basis, more than 70 hours of live competition from PGA TOUR LIVE across 31 tournaments during the 201718 PGA TOUR Season. Twitter will begin live streaming at the CareerBuilder Challenge on January 18 and conclude its service at the seasonending TOUR Championship in September. Consistent with 2017, coverage will typically include the first 60 to 90 minutes from the early Thursday and Friday morning hours of PGA TOUR LIVE’s Over-The-Top subscription window, on a global basis. Additionally, for 2018 Twitter will also exclusively distribute the TOUR’s live 360 video coverage for select holes at top-tier PGA TOUR events, including the Presidents Cup, the 16th hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the famed 17th hole at THE PLAYERS Championship, stemming from the TOUR’s recent virtualreality deal with Intel. “We have seen tremendous growth of PGA TOUR LIVE during our streaming partnership with Twitter,” said Rick Anderson, Chief Media Officer of the PGA TOUR. The live coverage will be available globally to Twitter’s logged-in and logged-out audience and can be found at PGATOURLIVE.twitter.com and via @ PGATOUR. Images: PGA Tour
FOLLOW THE RACE FOR THE FEDEXCUP ALL SEASON LONG
COVERAGE AVAILABLE ON
© 2017 PGA TOUR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Player appearance subject to change.
E M M IG
K A E R B A E GREEN MAPS GAIN POPULARITY ON TOUR, AND THE TECHNOLOGY COULD HELP YOU SINK A BIG PUTT ON YOUR COURSE BY GUY YOCOM
D
ustin johnson sized up the 17-foot putt for par on the 72nd hole in every possible way. He read it from behind the ball, then from behind the hole, then the side view, crouching at every stop. As Jordan Spieth, the man he shared the lead with, looked on, Johnson took one more look from behind the ball. Nothing to do now but move in and make the stroke, right? ▜ Only it wasn’t the final look. In a scene presented to viewers virtually every week, Johnson’s caddie and brother, Austin, moved in and opened the folding book that contained a highly detailed map of the green. What they saw clearly gave them pause, because they pointed and conferred for 20 seconds. Finally, one minute and 50 seconds after Johnson had first replaced his ball, he struck the putt. The ball moved left, crept back to the right, then straightened, caught the edge and fell in, eliciting a rare air-punch from Johnson. He went on to win the 2017 Northern Trust FedEx Cup Playoff event and the $1.6 million first prize.
the strackaline green map of the front-of-green h o l e l o c at i o n at torrey pines south: the red and green l i n e s i n d i c at e straight putts, red for downhill, green for uphill.
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Opening image: Jamie Squire/getty imageS • LeFt: StrackaLine • right: Deane Beman
It was a triumph not only for Johnson but for the phenomenon of green-mapping books, and technology in general. The growing proliferation of the maps—it’s estimated that as many as 95 percent of PGA Tour players or their caddies use them, and they increasingly are available to amateurs in print and digital form—has spurred great curiosity. People want to know how players use them, the business, distribution and technology behind them, their future and whether they’re healthy for the game. They’ve been present in some semblance of their current form since 2008, but with almost every top player in the world using them—Marc Leishman, who won the BMW Championship, was the only player at the Tour Championship who did not reference one in some way—golfers want to know more. To start, green maps are modern technology at its most advanced, on a par with launch monitors, swinganalysis tools and club and ball technology. The process begins by placing an optical scanning laser directly on or close to the green. Some scanners cost about $120,000 and are used to take impressions of oil rigs, industrial spaces and even car-accident scenes. The unit shoots a laser beam at a mirror that is spinning rapidly within the housing of the device. Millions of beams, reflected by the mirror, are projected onto the landscape of the green, scanning as the device rotates to encompass the entire surface. As each beam is redirected at the green, it is measured precisely. Very precisely. Minute differences in height are measured and fed into storage. Typically, three million to four million bits of data are collected, all in the 10 minutes it takes to scan a green. “The lasers can easily pick up a small coin from 100 feet away,” says Michael Mayerle, president of JMS Geomatics, the company that measures courses for the PGA Tour’s ShotLink program. “Discerning green height is well within its capacity. But when we shoot at an area that is on a plane similar to the scanner perched atop a tripod—a sharp falloff at the front of a green, say—we’ll move the device and shoot the green from an additional angle.” Once the data is collected, it is placed on an electronic template, or outline of the green. Mark Long, for many years the caddie for Fred Funk, is a green-mapping pioneer who has provided maps for the majority of PGA Tour players through his company, Tour Sherpa Inc. (examples are at longyardage.com). Long carefully measures the dimensions of the green using a GPS device, creates the outline, then uses special software to express the laser-scan data as the arrows, contours and sometimes numbers you see on a green map. “The first green I mapped was at Shinnecock Hills for the 2004 U.S. Open,” says Long, 53, who also is the PGA Tour’s leading provider of yardage books, including those for most important USGA championships. “At that time, I measured probably 50 locations on each green with a scanner I wouldn’t use for that purpose now. Today the data points are in the millions.” Long pointed his cursor on a folder containing raw data for a typical green and clicked on “properties.” It was nine gigabytes. Jim Stracka, founder and CEO of StrackaLine, the other leading distributor of green maps for PGA Tour pros and producer of maps for 200 Division I college teams, says the outlines of the greens must be precise for the maps to accurately depict every detail. “On courses
yes, pros used to play without knowing the yardages
B
efore there were green maps, there were yardage books. And their history runs deeper, and traces a more circuitous path, than any current player on the PGA Tour probably would imagine—or remember. In the late 1940s, a talented Southern California amateur named Gene Andrews began pacing off yardages from course landmarks to the center of the greens. A Walker Cup player and 1954 U.S. Public Links champion, Andrews swore by his method and its ability to aid in club selection, and he tried to spread the gospel to fellow amateurs. Few listened, let alone obeyed. Unknown to Andrews, playing by yardage was being developed independently in Bethesda, Md., by a 17-year-old named Deane Beman. Yes, that Deane Beman. The future commissioner of the PGA Tour, completely unaware of what Andrews was doing, actually jotted down yardages on his scorecard at the 1955 U.S. Open at Olympic. It’s what’s known as “multiple discovery.” “I used to go to a football field and practice taking three-foot steps so I could put them in as yardages next to holes on my scorecard,” says Beman, retired and living in Ponte Vedra Beach. “I got to where I was rarely off on the 100-yard distance by more than a couple of yards. I’d walk courses in advance, measuring from trees, sprinkler-head couplers and corners of bunkers.” At the Walker Cup in 1959, Beman showed his method to one of his teammates, a beefy teenager named Jack Nicklaus. “Jack used to scoff at my writing
down yardages,” Beman says. “He wasn’t interested at all. Then, at the 1961 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, he started copying my numbers onto his scorecard. He never looked back. Jack was a heck of a lot more influential than I was—after he turned pro, a lot of players started sending out their caddies to get yardages.” The phenomenon wasn’t particularly organized or systematic. But it turned a slight corner when Ernest (Creamy) Carolan, who caddied for Arnold Palmer, began laminating the pages of his books, spreading their popularity and raising the standard for accuracy. “By 1972, it really started to take off,” says Steve Hulka, who caddied for David Graham during that period. “I recall groups of caddies, four or five of us at once, getting yardages together and sharing the information. Everybody used a yardage book. Eyeballing was dead.” The commercialization began, according to Hulka, in 1976, when caddie George Lucas began selling his hand-drawn, meticulously crafted books for $5. It’s Lucas who drew in colorful rejoinders in his books, such as “J.I.C.Y.R.F.U” (Just In Case You Really F--- Up) to indicate awkward places. The turning point came in 1996, when caddie Cayce Kerr began measuring with a Swarovski laser he acquired in Europe, selling models to players and caddies—at an escalated price. “That changed everything,” Hulka says. “The laser doesn’t lie, so the old-school methods of walking with a calibrated wheel or using fishing line were gone forever. What’s funny is, George Lucas found a cheaper Bushnell model in a Cabela’s catalog, which sort of destroyed Cayce’s little side business.” Yardage books as we know them today appeared in 2003, when Mark Long began distributing them through his company, Tour Sherpa. There are a few holdouts on the green maps, but to every player, the modern yardage book rates second only to a player’s clubs in importance. —gy
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such as the ones at Bandon Dunes, there sometimes can be little delineation between the green and the fairway,” he says. “In those cases, we’ll place balls along the edges of the greens, knowing our laser scanner will offer a sharp contrast along those margins.”
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nonstop job: “it's not a normal life”
nce the data is gathered, the real work of compiling the books begins. Joe Duplantis, who began caddieing on tour in 1998 but now works primarily distributing books for StrackaLine, produces fresh green-map books for as many as 40 tour players five days a week, one for practice and pro-am rounds and one for each tournament round. After retrieving the next day’s pin sheets at approximately 8 p.m., Duplantis heads for his hotel room, where he establishes an office that is mind-blowing in scale. “Each week I pack a collapsible desk, four printers, loads of paper and ink, industrial paper cutters and a few other odds and ends,” says Duplantis, 44. “One of the most important items is a coffee press, so I won’t have to go out.” The work typically goes until 1 a.m. “It can take longer,” Duplantis says. “One night I set my alarm for 5 a.m., and when it went off, I was still awake, preparing the books.” He is at the course by 5:15 a.m., where he places a book in players’ lockers. When players start arriving, Duplantis does bits of follow-up work—billing, gathering orders, taking notes on player preferences, chugging coffee—before going back to the hotel at 11 a.m. to crash. “I sleep in three-hour stints,” he says. “It feels like I’m working a ton of half-shifts at 7-Eleven. It’s not a normal life. When the calendar year wraps up, I’ll have worked 45 tournaments. There’s no day off, really, because on Sunday nights, I’m driving my equipment with the car I’ve leased to the next town.” Long’s lifestyle is similarly irregular, though his model is significantly different because of the time he spends keeping his famous yardage books up to date. “I literally haven’t taken a full day off in five years,” he says. “I love to play, but I haven’t played 18 holes since January 2016.” Long’s Tour Sherpa green maps have a comfortable lead in sales over StrackaLine. He charges players $150 per week for his books, which are highly accurate but not updated daily. Customization is available, but at a premium. On only a couple of occasions, at a player’s request, Long says he has sold a $5,000 green-mapping book that offers a stunning amount of detail. “I really don’t want to describe what they show exactly,” he says, “but each one took hours to compile.” One of Long’s selling points is the fact that he updates the dimensions of the greens at tournament sites every year, noting that greens change in size (they usually contract) because of grass encroachment, changes in mowing patterns and sand being blasted onto the surface from bunkers.
‘I WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE STRAIGHT PUTTS ARE. AND I REALLY WANT TO KNOW HOW THE BALL IS GOING TO KICK AFTER IT LANDS.’ —DUSTIN JOHNSON 70 golf digest india | november 2017
StrackaLine charges more: $300 a week. For that, players receive customized books that show in magnified detail the green features in immediate proximity to the hole. Some players want numbers indicating degrees of slope next to their arrows, some do not. Some want their arrows densely packed, or displayed in a wider circumference around the hole. A standard feature the StrackaLine books offers is a series of lines indicating where the straight putts are on every hole. “We show inside-the-hole lines from five, 10, or in the case of Graeme McDowell, even 20 feet,” Duplantis says. “We adjust the presentations to fit the player’s preference.”
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help on the greens (and fairways)
hat leads to the next aspect, which is how players and their caddies actually use the books. There is great variation here. The presumption, born out by what we see on TV, is that players and/or their caddies use them strictly on the greens. But Dustin Johnson points out that he uses them primarily from the fairway. “When you see us checking our yardage book, we’re usually looking at the green [map] just as hard,” he says. “I want to know where the straight putts are. And I really want to know how the ball is going to kick after it lands.” Jordan Spieth is largely in the fairway-use camp, too. “He’s looking not only at the slope where the ball will land and bounce, but sometimes even the grain so he knows how the ball will run out,” says his teacher, Cameron McCormick, as Spieth hit balls on the range at TPC Boston. But Spieth and his caddie, Michael Greller, clearly use them on the greens. There was an instance earlier this year where Spieth, who frequently thinks out loud, was overheard saying as he approached a putt, “Trust the book . . . trust the book!” Zach Johnson also is a green-map reader from the fairway. “Putting is one of my strengths, and I want to leave myself as straight a putt as I can,” he says. Once on the green, players use the books selectively. Most don’t consult it on every putt. “They help me mainly on putts that look fairly straight,” says Anirban Lahiri, who in September appeared in his second Presidents Cup. “The map often will tell me if I should favor one edge or the other.” Players also consult the maps in different sequences, most doing conventional, eyeball reads first, then going to the book last. “I still think green-reading is an art,” says Jason Dufner. “There’s break, speed and aim. I check the book to confirm what I see already, or to help if, say, I think a putt might be a little downhill.” Stewart Cink and his caddie, Taylor Ford, prefer this sequence, too. “Ninety percent of the time I just want the book to confirm what I see already,” Cink says. “The green maps have limitations. They don’t show footprints. They don’t tell you if it’s early or late in the day. You’re putting over a living, breathing surface with all kinds of variables. The books are merely a fine-tuning of information.” Dufner says the books sometimes convey incorrect information. Long says this can happen when the hole location isn’t precise. “A lot can happen if the hole is charted even a couple of feet differently than what’s conveyed on the map,” he says. Duplantis says improved hole locations provided by the PGA Tour will remedy this. But Long says players sometimes don’t plot the location of the ball on the green correctly in relation to the hole, what he calls “operator error.” Players and caddies don’t always consult the books together. Patrick Reed frequently goes to the book, but his caddie, Kessler Karain, chooses to ignore it. “I trust my eyes and instincts,” says Karain, the brother of Reed’s wife, Justine. “To me, the guides take away from that. When Patrick sees something in the book I don’t see, we’ll consult. But I’m confident in my senses.”
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how your course can be mapped
he use of green maps on the PGA Tour leaves the impression they are available only to the pros. In fact, green maps of many courses, including tour courses like Torrey Pines and notable ones such as Cherry Hills and Bethpage, are available for purchase and download at sites like strackaline.com. A few others—PGA National, East Lake and Riviera are good examples—have sold green-map books over the counter. There are holdouts. No modern, laser-scanned green map of Augusta National is known to exist. It doesn’t mean that their greens haven’t been laser-scanned and mapped extensively; when the 11th green was washed away by a flood in 1990, the club used measures taken by a theodolite laser to restore them. “A course like Augusta probably has been measured down to the last pine needle,” Mayerle says. You also won’t find green maps for exclusive, old-world citadels such as Merion, which hasn’t been mapped since the 2013 U.S. Open, or San Francisco Golf Club, which doesn’t even sell yardage books. Any course can have its greens mapped. If a course agrees to purchase 100 StrackaLine books for $15, the company will come in and do a complete mapping. It amounts to a $1,500 charge, which the course can recoup by selling books to its members and visitors. Jim Stracka touts other upsides: “It’s very helpful for superintendents for pin-setting, being able to cut the holes where there can be less traffic,” he says. “It provides a record in case a green needs to be modified or rebuilt.” For his end, Stracka gets to sell the books through his website. “We’re adding roughly 10 new courses a week,” he says. “We have two full-time engineers who do nothing but map courses.” Commercially, the most innovative offering is presented through GolfLogix, for years a well-known player in the mobile GPS yardageguide market. Through its app, GolfLogix recently launched access to green maps of close to 1,500 courses, and plans on bringing the number to 10,000 by 2018. Users can view green contours on the green and from a fairway perspective. Access to the maps will cost $49.99, though PGA club pros will get them for free on request. “They’re fun to use and are going to save you strokes,” says Pete Charleston, president of GolfLogix. “But one aspect we’re excited about is how they’ll speed up play.”
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do the maps make play slower or faster?
h, the pace-of-play issue. We referenced earlier how Dustin Johnson spent an additional 20 seconds consulting his green-map book on the 18th green at the Northern Trust. That decisive putt notwithstanding, tour players have not routinely surpassed the 40 seconds allowed on a putt per tour guidelines. “As I’ve gotten used to the books and what to look for, I’m referencing them much more quickly,” Cink says. “I rarely look at a map for more than a few seconds, but it’s a legitimate concern. Those small time blocks can add up.” He adds, with a laugh, “If you see us going to the book on our third putt, it’s time to call us out.” Long and Charleston say that everyday amateurs having green information immediately makes the maps a timesaver. “You’re going to see less walking up to the hole and back on 60-footers, less plumbbobbing and pacing around in general,” Charleston says. Adds Long: “There are presentations coming in map designs in the very near future that unequivocally will speed up play.” The maps have a few detractors. Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller expressed broad displeasure with them during the Honda Classic, pointing to time spent and the impression that players are becoming reliant on them. It’s worth noting that Nicklaus held a dim view of yardage books until he actually used one (see accompanying story), and Miller in his prime was known for having his caddie, Andy Martinez, give him yardages down to the half yard. The fact that green books have not gained traction on the PGA Tour Champions might indicate a generational shift. “There’s no market there,” Long says.
‘I STILL THINK GREEN-READING IS AN ART. THERE’S BREAK, SPEED AND AIM. I CHECK THE BOOK TO CONFIRM WHAT I SEE ALREADY.' —JASON DUFNER Among players on the PGA Tour, Adam Scott, Ian Poulter, Lucas Glover and Luke Donald have gone on record as disliking them. Scott and Poulter have said they should be banned. The art of putting has been lost, Poulter tweeted in March. If you can’t read a green, that’s your fault. He also said they slow down play. But Duplantis says that each of those players—or at least their caddies—use or have used them. And it can be noted that Poulter, after winning the WGC-Match Play in 2010, later tweeted about how “useful” the green books had been.
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usga, r&a “concerned”
he largest issue, however, is the feeling that with their extraordinarily precise information, the books might be chipping away at the skill and the fundamental challenges of the game. In May, the USGA and R&A issued a statement that said, in part, “We are concerned about the rapid development of increasingly detailed materials that players are using to help with reading greens during a round.” Reading the greens with our senses is “an essential part of the skill of putting.” The USGA is choosing not to comment about what it has discovered or if other implications of the maps—say, their effect on pace of play—are being considered. “To be honest, the Rules of Golf department feels uncomfortable discussing it, as it could taint the process,” says Janeen Driscoll, the USGA’s public-relations director. The prevailing feeling on tour is that the status quo with green books will be deemed acceptable. “It’s hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube,” Cink says. “When it comes down to it, green maps really are an extension of yardage books. I don’t see a rollback coming.” The tour players who expressed disfavor with the concept early in 2017 have been largely silent of late. With input from Long and other green-mapping wizards, there might be important clues as to the possibilities. “At the pace technology is moving, I believe in five years it will be possible to aim your phone at the surface of the green and have it point specifically where to aim your putt,” Long says. And technology experts say the next iterations of apps will be able to give advice on how hard to hit it. Adds Mayerle, who provided green-contour information for the old Links LS computer golf games: “It’s inevitable that the information in green books will be used in virtual reality. You and your buddies putting against Jordan Spieth—live—from a ‘green’ where a week earlier he holed a monster putt to win a major. It could make green books as we know them now almost seem Stone Age by comparison.” Depending on your point of view, that’s either the coolest thing possible, or another scary leap into the future. november 2017 | golf digest india
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WEB EUR
book excerpt
Inside the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine From the book The First Major by John Feinstein, copyright Š 2017 by John Feinstein, published by arrangement with an imprint of The Knopf Doubleday Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 320 pages, $28.95.
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BEAT ROPE!
kuchar the prankster turns serious, tiger shows another side, and phil tries (really tries) to get out of a dj headlock by john feinstein
november 2017 | golf digest india
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Mickelson and kuchar: TiMoThy a . cl ary/aFP/GeTTy iMaGes
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att kuchar was the court jester of the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup team, though most golf fans never would have known that. ▶ “His image with the public is a hundred percent different than who he really is,” says Zach Johnson, a close friend. “He smiles and says all the right things, and then you get behind closed doors, and he’s the devil.” ▶ Johnson meant that in an endearing way. He was a frequent victim of Kuchar’s plots, often opening his locker to find some kind of poster—sometimes of a man, sometimes of a woman, usually without any clothes on—hanging prominently from the door. Kuchar’s hope was that Johnson might open his locker in the presence of a media member or perhaps a pro-am partner and be forced to explain himself. ▶ Johnson’s explanation was always quite simple: Kuchar. ▶ Kuchar has a wide, everpresent smile, one that earned him the nickname Smilin’ Matt, and has long been a fan favorite because of that smile and his easygoing manner. Beneath it, though, Kuchar is not only a nonstop prankster, he’s one of the brighter, more thoughtful people in the game. ▶ Phil Mickelson, wary of Kuchar’s antics, tries to avoid verbal combat with him. “He’s too quick,” Mickelson says. “I’m good. I’m very good. But I never beat him.” ▶ Several years earlier, Mickelson had showed up at a tournament wearing custom-made alligator shoes that were a shade of Augusta National green. He walked onto the range and began loosening up. Kuchar was right next to him. ▶“What are those?” Kuchar asked, pointing at the shoes. ▶ “These?” Mickelson answered. “These are shoes you can only get after you’ve won three Masters.” ▶ Mickelson grinned. He’d played his trump card. ▶ “Well, if that’s the case,” Kuchar said, turning away to resume his warm-up, “I hope I win only two.”
“something special”
reed and Woods: scoTT halleran/PGa oF aMerica/GeTTy iMaGes • Mcilroy and reed: andreW redinGTon/GeTTy iMaGes • shirT: handouT
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uchar and Mickelson teamed up in Saturday afternoon’s four-balls at Hazeltine to defeat Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer, helping the U.S. team take a 9½-6½ lead entering Sunday’s singles. After the day’s play had ended, Kuchar announced to his captains and teammates that he had “something special planned for tonight” once they were back at the hotel. Everyone was convinced this was another Kuchar prank. U.S. captain Davis Love III had planned a relatively informal evening that would include a lot of non-team members. “Once you’re back at the hotel, you kind of come out of the zone,” he told his team. “Which is a good thing. You can’t sit around all night thinking about what may or may not happen the next day. It’ll wear you out.” Mike Eruzione, the captain of the 1980 Miracle on Ice U.S. Olympic hockey team at Lake Placid, would be there. Darius Rucker, a huge golf fan whom all the players knew, would sing a few songs. The ex-captains would be around, and, as always, the wives/ partners and caddies would be in the room. No one was completely certain just how serious Kuchar was about his plan. “I’m not sure we wanted to know,” Johnson says, laughing. Love had encouraged the various celebrities and ex-captains to make themselves at home in the team room during the week. “I wanted things to happen spontaneously,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be like, ‘OK, at 8 o’clock on Thursday, Jack Nicklaus is going to speak.’ ” Eruzione brought hockey jerseys for all the players to the team room Saturday night. They had USA on the front and the players’ names on the back. Then he spoke about the importance of understanding the moment, reminding the players what U.S. coach Herb Brooks had told his team before it played the Soviet Union in the most important hockey game ever played, on Feb. 22, 1980: “You were all born for this moment.”
phil mickelson is used to being p r a n k e d b y m at t k u c h a r , b u t t h e y teamed up for a win; a dirty joke f r o m t i g e r w o o d s h e l p e d p at r i c k r e e d lo o s e n u p b e fo r e fac i n g ro ry m c i l r o y.
AT ONE POINT, JACK NICKLAUS POKED HIS HEAD IN THE DOOR, SAW WHAT WAS GOING ON AND SAID, ‘JUST KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING —IN HERE AND ON THE GOLF COURSE.’ Rucker got up and told the players how much their friendship meant to him. “I want you to know,” he said, “that anytime any of you need me to come and play in one of your charity events, I’m there. Anytime, anyplace. I’ll play golf, I’ll play music, whatever you want or need.”
He paused. “But if you lose tomorrow, I’m charging you full price.” Then it was Zach Johnson’s turn. He passed out shirts that said simply: MAKE TIGER GREAT AGAIN. He had spotted them online a few weeks earlier and bought them for everyone on the team. Every player and vice captain put one on. Love had told Woods earlier in the week that there would come a moment for him to talk to the team—but that it shouldn’t be forced. “It’ll just happen,” he said. “You’ll know when it’s time.” With everyone in the room yelling “Speech!” Woods knew it was time. He told the players how much it had meant to him to be part of the team as a vice captain, how much he had enjoyed everything that had gone into the week, and how close he now felt to each of them. “It was a cool thing,” Mickelson said later. “I think Tiger had been heading in the direction of being one of the guys for a while, but the week at Hazeltine really put it over the top. . . . He’s not the same guy he was all those years ago, when everything he’d been taught by his dad said, ‘Don’t give any of your secrets away.’ Now he’s willing to share pretty much anything he thinks will help us win.” Earlier in the week, in a car going from the golf course to the hotel, Mickelson and Woods had engaged in the sort of good-natured grief-giving exchange no one had ever dreamed they would witness. “Can’t wait to see you back on tour,” Mickelson said at one point. “I just hope you can find the planet off the tee again sometime soon.” “Found it enough to win 14 and 79, didn’t I?” Woods answered, referring to his haul of major victories and PGA Tour wins. Mickelson also had a gift to give to his teammates: dog tags. Each had the player’s name on it and the word Beginning. Mickelson had always maintained that Hazeltine would be the beginning of a new era for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. He wanted to give the other players one more reminder of that. november 2017 | golf digest india
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“half the room— at least—was crying”
rickie fowler in a victory
inally, after the celebrity speeches and the gift-giving, it was Kuchar’s turn. The idea for the presentation had come to Kuchar after a birthday dinner he had attended eight years earlier at the home of Seth Waugh, the former CEO of Deutsche Bank, a longtime PGA Tour sponsor. “He just said, ‘OK, this is a family tradition,’ and started going around the room,” Kuchar remembered. “It really made you think. It was actually pretty cool.” Kuchar had made the idea a part of his Thanksgiving family dinner. Now he wanted it to be part of Saturday night at the Ryder Cup. He brought in a white board and placed it in front of the room. He stood before his teammates with none of the usual Kuchar “gotcha” in his voice or his demeanor. “I want each of you to tell me two things in your life that you’re really grateful for,” he said. “You aren’t allowed to say friends, family or health. We’re all grateful for those things, and we all understand how important they are. I want other things. I want things you’re thinking about right now sitting in this room tonight.” It took a moment for everyone in the room to realize Kuchar was serious. If there was any doubt, he proved it by starting. “I talked about how much I loved golf and how grateful I was I could play golf for a living,” he said. “I’d also thought about something Phil had said at the Presidents Cup in Korea. He talked about how cool it was that the captains and vice captains thought enough of him to make him a captain’s pick even though he hadn’t made the team on points. That resonated with me—especially after Davis made me a captain’s pick.” Bubba Watson talked at length about why it was so important for him to be part of the team as a vice captain after not getting picked and went on emotionally about how much it meant to him that his father had lived long enough to see him play in the Ryder Cup in 2010. “I think it made all of us stop and realize how lucky we were to be sitting there getting ready to try to win the Ryder Cup the next day,” Brandt Snedeker says. “It was really pretty cool.” Snedeker followed Watson. He began by thanking him for all the input and support he’d given him all week. Then he talked about how fortunate he felt to be in this moment and how important it was to him to make sure not to let anyone down the next day: Love, Mickelson, the other players and captains, including past captains. Then Snedeker pulled out his phone. A hockey fan, he had read a book a few years earlier by Mike Babcock about coaching the Canadian Olympic team in 2010 under near-
brandt snedeker added a finishing
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c e l e b r at i o n t h at w e n t v i r a l ;
‘TIGER HAD BEEN HEADING IN THE DIRECTION OF BEING ONE OF THE GUYS FOR A WHILE, BUT THE WEEK AT HAZELTINE REALLY PUT IT OVER THE TOP.’ —PHIL MICKELSON ly unbearable pressure because the Games were in Vancouver. The book was called Leave No Doubt: A Credo for Chasing Your Dreams, and in it, Babcock had referenced a quote his coaching mentor, Scotty Bowman, had passed on to him. It came from Chuck Swindoll, a pastor/ radio talk-show host. “I keep it in my phone,” Snedeker explained, “because it helps me to pull it out and read it again when I really feel like I’m under pressure.” He began to read: “ ‘The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It will make or break a company, a church, a home.’ ” Here, Snedeker added three of his own words: “or a team.”
“That’s when I started to lose it,” he said later. He tried to continue that night. “ ‘The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. . . . We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.’ ” By now, Snedeker had lost it completely. He handed the phone to his wife, Mandy, and she finished for him. “ ‘We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. . . . We are in charge of our attitudes.’ ” Mandy’s voice was quavering at the finish, but she got through it. By now, many in the room were crying. Steve Stricker was next. He was already crying when he stood up. He said about four words and broke down completely. “Because that’s what I do,” Stricker said later, laughing. “By the time they got to me, half the room—at least—was crying. I got up, started to talk, and lost it. Not only am I not sure what I said, I’m not sure anyone understood what I said. But the whole thing was great.” “Instead of feeling the pressure that we knew was coming the next day, we all felt great,” says Zach Johnson. “I think that’s exactly what Kooch was going for.” Kuchar stood at the board throughout, writing down what each person was thankful for until he’d filled several pages. At one point, Nicklaus poked his head in the door, saw what was going on and said, “Just keep doing what you’re doing—in here and on the golf course.”
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tiger gives reed a surprise
unday morning, Patrick Reed was more nervous than he had ever been. He was, after all, Captain America, and in that role it was his job to slay Captain Europe—Rory McIlroy—in the opening match. “I was tight on the range,” Reed said. “Really tight. I didn’t like the way I was hitting the ball, and I knew it was nerves. I was telling myself to calm down and just get ready to play, but it wasn’t working.” Woods was on the range, watching Reed and Jordan Spieth—whom he had taken to describing as “my guys” because they had been in his pod all week—warm up. He could see that Reed wasn’t quite himself. “Hey, Patrick,” he said. “Come here a minute.”
FOWLER: ScOtt HaLLERan/PGa OF amERica/GEtty imaGES • SHiRt: HandOut
touch to a t-shirt after the win.
“I thought sure he was going to give me a pep talk, say something about my swing or about just relaxing and not trying too hard,” Reed says. “I walked over there. He had his arms folded. I waited. He looked really serious. “And then he told me a dirty joke.” Woods is well-known among the players for telling and enjoying dirty jokes. So-called locker-room humor is not limited to male athletes. One of the all-time-best dirty-joke tellers among the jock set was Chris Evert, the girl-next-door tennis immortal. No one looked more demure or proper than Evert. No one loved a good down-and-dirty joke more than she did. When Woods told Reed the joke, his face never changing expression, Reed broke up. “It was actually the perfect thing to do,” Reed said later. “It just broke the tension. I went back to hitting balls, and all of a sudden I was loose as could be. I was ready.” Reed and McIlroy went on to play one of the most emotional matches in Ryder Cup history. McIlroy made four straight birdies on 5 through 8 . . . and lost ground. “How great is this?” McIlroy said at one point. “I mean, how great is this?” Added Reed after he’d prevailed, 1 up, before a raucous crowd: “No way could you hear anything.” The best-played match of the day for all 18 holes, however, was Mickelson versus Garcia. Although there was plenty of very public negative history in the Garcia-Woods relationship, Sergio and Mickelson weren’t buddies, either. Their match was played with very little talk or “nice shots” between them, even though there were plenty of nice shots. Mickelson and Garcia made 19 birdies between them: 10 by Mickelson and nine by Garcia. Mickelson made the only bogey, three-putting the par-5 11th. Remarkably, Mickelson shot 63 while playing the four par 5s in even par. With the match tied, both men birdied the last two holes, Mickelson rolling in a 22-footer on 18 and Garcia halving the match with a 15-footer. The only question left was who would have the honor of clinching the Cup. Lee Westwood had to hole his bunker shot for a birdie and hope Ryan Moore missed his putt, or the Ryder Cup would be over. Westwood didn’t come close. The Ryder Cup was coming back to the United States.
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“phil looked pretty beat up”
oth teams partied until close to dawn on Monday. There was, to say the least, a lot of drinking in both team rooms. At one point, Mickelson and Dustin Johnson got into an argument about whether Phil could get out of a DJ headlock. “No chance, dude,” Johnson said, finding the notion almost laughable.
“Let’s find out,” Mickelson insisted. Everyone gathered around, and Mickelson tried to get loose. No luck. He insisted on trying again. No luck. Then, again. Same result. “By the time it was over,” Stricker said, “Phil looked pretty beat up. He had no shot.” That didn’t deter Mickelson. He kept insisting that this time he’d get loose. “What can I tell you?” Mickelson said later. “I thought I could do it.” He couldn’t. europe joins the party
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t was closing in on 11 o’clock when Rory McIlroy suggested to European captain Darren Clarke that it was time to go and pay tribute to the winners. Clarke and McIlroy led the way across the lobby to where the Americans were partying. When they walked in, Clarke found Love and said, “Your team room is a lot nicer than ours.” “Home-court advantage,” Love said. The first thing McIlroy noticed was what Love was wearing: a onesie that said USA on it. Rickie Fowler had brought a number of onesies for himself and the USA ones for the rest of the team. In victory—fueled by the alcohol—Love had agreed to wear one. The second thing McIlroy noticed was the T-shirt Snedeker was wearing. “We’d all been given shirts at the beginning of the week that said Beat Europe on them,” Snedeker says. “When we got back to the hotel, I took mine, found a Sharpie, and wrote WE on top of the Beat Europe. Then I put it on.” When McIlroy saw the T-shirt, he reached into his pocket for a Sharpie of his own—golfers almost always carry a Sharpie to be prepared to sign autographs—walked over to Snedeker, and, under the WE Beat Europe, wrote, For the first time in a decade! European vice captain Ian Poulter was right behind him. He turned Snedeker around, and on the back of the shirt wrote, I didn’t hit a f------ shot! “I promise you that T-shirt is in a safe place,” Snedeker says. Someone found a microphone, and Clarke told everyone in the room what a great week it had been and how honored he had been to lead Europe and to compete with the Americans. Then everyone broke into small groups, and the toasts and the alcohol flowed. “I’m sure I had a great time,” Westwood says, “but I don’t remember much about it.” McIlroy found Woods near the bar, and the two began to give each other putting lessons. Stricker and vice captain Jim Furyk stood watching. “There was such a feeling of pride,” Stricker says. “I’ve always been bothered by the fact that people said we didn’t get along
in the team room in the past, and Europe did, and that’s why they won. I never felt that way. But the younger guys on this team were really friends—close friends. You could see that even before we got to Hazeltine, and it was such an important part of the week.” Woods and McIlroy gave up on trying to teach each other how to putt, and McIlroy found himself at the bar drinking shots with Sybi Kuchar. “I lost, as best I can remember,” McIlroy says. “The girl can drink.” Matt Kuchar, watching his wife and McIlroy, had his Kuchar grin firmly in place. “It was just nice to see Sybi so relaxed and to see the camaraderie between the two teams,” he says. “I was loving it.” Midnight came and went. On one side of the patio, Snedeker, Spieth, Woods, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Notah Begay were smoking victory cigars. “It was kind of funny to see Jordan smoking a cigar,” Snedeker says. At the other end of the patio, Mickelson, Clarke and Love sat, drinks in hand, reliving past Ryder Cups. As Love listened to Mickelson and Clarke, he couldn’t help but enjoy the moment. “That might have been the highlight of the whole week for me,” Love said. “Look, I’m a little corny sometimes, but I sat there listening to the two of them, and I honestly thought to myself, This is what Sam Ryder had in mind all those years ago, a competition where the two teams fight like crazy to win and, when it’s over, they go raise a pint to one another and share the experience.” “I don’t think there are two men I respect more than I respect Davis and Phil,” Clarke says. “They’re very different, but all three of us share a lot in common. I remember at Medinah, when we got word the American players just couldn’t deal with seeing all of us that night, we all understood completely. Then I looked up, and there was Davis, coming to the room because he felt, as the captain, he had to come in and congratulate us. He’s such a class act—in victory, in defeat— all the time. Of all the people I’ve known, no one has ever put others ahead of himself more than Davis. “He stood up and talked to all of us briefly that night—which is what inspired me to do the same at Hazeltine,” Clarke says. “When he was finished [on that Sunday night at Medinah], I walked over to him, put my arm around him and said, ‘What the hell were you thinking today with that lineup?’ He looked at me for a second, and then he realized I was joking, and he started to laugh. That’s what I wanted that night—to see him laugh. I knew how devastated he was. I wanted to try to lighten the load a little bit.” Now, four years later, they all laughed well into the night. november 2017 | golf digest india
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the no. 1 teacher in our biennial ranking helps tour pros and weekend golfers alike become great drivers
you’re next
BUTCH HARMON’S DRIVING LESSON driving the ball well carries extra importance. Not only does it set you up to play a hole, but I bet you have an emotional attachment to the driver: Good driving days are your favorite days. You’re not alone. Some of the top players in the world feel the same way. We all step up on certain holes and want so bad to hit a great tee shot. Sometimes it’s because the hole is difficult, or the right drive might lead to a birdie chance. The trouble is, most golfers equate great driving with distance. And trying for distance often leads to your worst drives, just when you need your best. Instead, pick a shot that favors position over power, and then follow a plan to hit it. Let’s talk about some situations where you press for a killer drive—and how to get one. —with peter morrice
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Photographs by Dom Furore
gutter credit tk
Photograph by First Lastname
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short holes
SWING TO A DISTANCE you step up on short par 4s and your instinct is to get as close to the green as possible, so you whale away with your driver. That’s OK for good players, but golfers less skilled with wedges need to look at the shot they’re leaving themselves. If you’re playing a 300-yard hole and you drive it 240, the remaining 60-yard shot can be one of the toughest. Add in a small green or deep front bunker—common features on short par 4s—and you can make a big number fast. The trick on these holes is to drive the ball to your favorite wedge yardage. For some players, it’s a full wedge, like 110 yards, or a three-quarter shot of 80 or 90 yards. Then you look at the length of the hole (300) and subtract your favorite distance (110) to figure out what you want from your tee shot. In this case, covering 190 yards might mean hitting a hybrid or long iron. Then just commit to covering that yardage, not swinging like you have a driver in your hands. You’ll make more birdies that way than trying to pitch it close from an awkward distance nearer the green.
Greg Norman beat the bend ▶ When I worked with Greg in the ’90s, he was hitting a persimmon driver 300-plus yards and could put it in the correct side of the fairway. He was the best driver I’d ever seen. But sometimes his spine would tilt back a little on the downswing, and he’d
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get a reverse-C look in his posture as he went through. So one thing we worked on was keeping him more on top of the ball at impact, with his spine not backing up. There wasn’t a whole lot to fix in Greg’s driving, but we did some good work on that move.
DaviD Cannon/Getty iMaGes
from my player files
Mike ehrMann/Getty iMaGes
from my player files
Rickie Fowler learned to stick the takeaway ▶ Rickie used to drag the grip end of the club too far inside on the takeaway, with the clubhead to the outside. That required him to re-route the club coming down, and he’d swing too inside-out. So we came up with a drill where he’d make swings stopping
uphill drives
SET UP A HIGH LAUNCH
at hip high, checking that the shaft was parallel to his toe line. Then Rickie would return the clubhead to the ball and start his swing. Sound familiar? That checkpoint is now part of his pre-swing routine, and he has become one of the tour’s best drivers.
this one’s a classic. You see the fairway rising in front of you and think you have to help the ball up. So what do you do? You play the ball way forward in your stance or hang back and flip your hands upward at impact. These moves are not reliable and often lead to topped drives or hitting the ground behind
the ball—the dreaded drop-kick. It’s true, you want to create more carry on uphill shots, but you have to do it the right way. Take your normal address (above, left), then move your back foot four or five inches to your right, widening your stance (above, right). This will angle your upper body a little more away from the target. You’ll make
a good turn and be able to shift forward coming down and still be behind the ball so you can hit up on it slightly. That upswing hit creates a high launch. Remember, the tee box of an uphill hole is as level as any other; no need to adjust your swing. Just set up behind the ball a touch, and you’ll get more carry.
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‘on tee shots that fit your eye, don’t just aim straight and fire away.’ Dustin Johnson eliminated one side ▶ In 2015, Dustin went to a fade off the tee, and his entire game changed. He took the left miss out by aiming a little left and letting the ball slide right. I showed him the Nicklaus way of hitting a fade: Aim the clubface where you want the ball to finish, then
when it fits your eye
LET THE SHOT HAPPEN
when you come to a hole that bends in the direction that your drives naturally curve, you think, Finally, a hole made for me. Well, you have to be careful, because the situation is tempting you to hit the hero shot. If you’re a fade player, you look at a dogleg-right hole and want to just rip it. The problem is, if you aim straight
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align your body to the left of that. That let Dustin be as aggressive as he wanted with no fear of the hook. It’s not a big curve to the right. I call it a “slider fade,” like Lee Trevino hit—except 50 yards farther. When Dustin’s driving it well, nobody can beat him.
and over-fade your drive into the inside corner of the dogleg, that’s where the worst trouble is. You’ve just turned your dream hole into a nightmare. To play a hole that matches your shot shape, aim at the outside corner of the dogleg and give your tee shot room to work back toward the middle. If you’re a fade player on that dogleg-right,
here’s the procedure: First, aim the clubface at the left edge of the fairway (above, left); then, set your body lines—feet, hips, shoulders—parallel to the line the face is on (above, right). Now you can make your normal swing—no steering!—and your preferred shot shape will move the ball into perfect position.
chRIS condon/PGa toUR
from my player files
long holes
HIT IT BETTER, NOT HARDER i started this article by saying that swinging for maximum distance gets you in trouble. But the reality is, some holes require your longest drive for you to have a chance to make a good score. There are acceptable ways to increase distance, ways that don’t expose you to wild misses. You need the discipline to follow a plan, not just swing harder. First, realize that the best way to turn speed into distance is to hit the ball with the middle of the clubface—and that comes from staying in control. Be deliberate on the backswing; give yourself time to wind up before you start down. Your instinct might be to go harder from the top, but that’ll cause you to waste your speed too soon. Make your downswing from the ground up: Shift your lower body toward the target, keeping your shoulders turned, and let the club fall to the inside. Then you can accelerate through and get the distance you need.
Stacy ReveRe/Getty ImaGeS
from my player files
Gary Woodland stopped jumping at it ▶ Gary is a super athlete with great speed. He used to get too aggressive with his body starting down, which made the swing too narrow. The club would drop behind him, causing blocks and hooks. We came up with a practice drill where he swings his
driver to the top, then pauses for a beat before starting down. This has helped him stop adding wrist hinge from the top— called down-cocking—which is what makes the swing narrow. It’s a great lesson for golfers who have fast body action.
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Opinion
●●●
why do pros come to you?
They know I’m not going to change what they do naturally; I’m just going to make it better. I don’t believe there’s one way to do it. The fact that I was on tour for three years indicates I know what they go through.
●●●
how much did you charge for your first lesson?
$20 for a half hour in 1966, the year after I got out of Vietnam. ●●●
and now? $1,500 an hour, and
Still The One: Butch Belongs in the Hall by jerry tarde Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Golf Digest USA
couldn’t find Butch Harmon in the World Golf Hall of Fame, so I went looking for him. ▶ The last time I saw Butch, he was ranked No. 1 by his peers as the game’s best teacher (see page 67). The distance between him and the next best has grown like Secretariat in the Belmont Stakes. A better comparison might be Tiger Woods in the 2000 U.S. Open—he won by 15; Butch was coaching him at the time. Harmon, age 74, has been at the top of the biennial teacher ranking for the past 18 years. His run exceeds even Greg Norman’s and Tiger’s No. 1 World Golf Ranking stretch, so I’ll stop right there in defending why he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. ▶ It doesn’t help that he’s not a member of the PGA of America, though he’s spent a lifetime helping PGA members. But in the horse-trading that goes on to decide who gets in, he hasn’t had the support that the only other pure teacher in the hall, Harvey Penick, got from heavyweights Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Davis Love Jr. whispering in the old commissioner’s
I
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everybody’s the same—an amateur off the street or a tour pro.
●●●
you brought greg norman, tiger and now dustin johnson to no. 1 in the world. why couldn’t you get it done for phil? Bad timing. Phil
won 42 tournaments and five majors in the Tiger era— nobody’s close to that.
●●●
what’s the worst advice teachers give students?
Modern teachers want you to hold your hips and turn your shoulders 90 degrees, restricting the hip turn. That’s why you see so many sore backs on tour. ●●●
alternative career? A standup comedian or a car salesman. It takes b.s. to do both of them. ●●●
who’s the third-best golfer in history? Hogan would be
the third one. In no special order. And right next to them, I’d put Trevino. ●●●
what was trevino’s x factor? His genius was figuring
out a swing that he could make consistently, which he called a push fade, but really it went
straight and slid to the right. Golf is a game of repetition. As long as you get the club square on the right path, you can play golf; it doesn’t matter what it looks like. ●●●
what’s the best advice you can give to a parent?
The worst advice is to tell kids how good they are. Only a fraction of a fraction of 1 percent get to the PGA Tour. Don’t fill their heads with false dreams. The best thing I can tell parents is, get the hell out of the way. Tiger Woods’ father turned him over to me when he was 17. Earl said, “I’ll make a deal with you: I won’t try to teach him to play golf if you won’t try to be his dad.” ●●●
speaking of tiger, do you see him coming back? Honestly,
I don’t. But I sure wish by some miracle his body would get healthy again. If you look at the 18 wins on tour this year by players under the age of 25, they’re all out there because they watched him as kids. ●●●
what do you remember from those times? When Tiger was
hitting balls at a tournament and a player was hitting balls next to him on the range, if Tiger took out his driver, the other pro would put his driver away. ●●●
you’re a dog person. why?
Unconditional love that I’d never experienced as a kid. When I come home after being gone five minutes, five days or five weeks, they’re so happy to see you. Christy got me into dogs. We used to have labs. Now we have an Australian goldendoodle, Heidi. I can’t imagine life without a dog. ●●●
what else would we learn from your wife? Christy is
the only person in the world who calls me by my real name, Claude. She always says, “I can’t call a grown man Butch.” ●●●
what do you think of this month’s cover? I wish the hell
I could get there more often.
Photograph by Joe Puglise
IllustratIon: tIm l ahan
ear. The only way to get it done is for his career-making students like Tiger and Greg and Phil Mickelson getting in the new commissioner’s ear. Sooner rather than later. I found Butch at home outside Las Vegas, with his wife, Christy, and their dog, Heidi (a longer version of this Q&A appears on golfdigest.com):
Play Bud Cauley ‘There are a lot of tour pros who would love to have his swing’ by ron kaspriske
Photographs by Dom Furore
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▶ strokes gained/tee to green
▶ carry distance
.815
.075
1.966
281.3 YDS.
278.4 YDS.
305.3 YDS.
Bud Cauley (29th)
Tour average
Dustin Johnson (1st)
Bud Cauley (76th)
Tour average
Rory McIlroy (1st)
source: shotlink
our screws and a few bad memories. That’s all that remains to remind Bud Cauley he tore the labrum in his left shoulder. Despite missing 15 months of pro golf after surgery in 2014, and needing a one-time medical exemption to keep play-
F
Conventional Wisdom Cauley’s textbook swing is starting to pay off
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ing on the PGA Tour, Cauley is once again showing signs of the potential he flashed as a rookie in 2012, when he had six top-10 finishes in five months. “It took over a year of rehab for it to start to feel normal again, but right now I’m
swinging the same as I did before the injury,” Cauley says. “I’ve been hitting it pretty well, and this season was encouraging.” Cauley’s 2017 season ended at the BMW Championship, when a T-27 finish wasn’t enough to vault him into the top 30 in the
STRIKE A POSE
BUILDING FORCE
STEADY AND READY
Although Cauley’s setup looks great, says his coach, Matt Killen, it requires constant monitoring: weight distribution, ball position and the alignment of the feet, hips, chest and clubface relative to the shot he’s trying to hit. The hands and sternum start back in line; he’s focused on creating width, Killen says.
To coil his body significantly, you can see that Cauley lets his lower body move in the same direction as his torso, Killen says. “Note how his right knee is higher than the left when he’s halfway back,” Killen says. “He’s not trying to limit the lower body from turning. Most great players do not limit hip turn.”
Look at his head at address and compare it to the next three photos. It has tilted slightly, but it’s still centered, Killen says. Amateur tip: A steady head promotes solid contact. Like many great ball-strikers, Cauley also has turned his shoulders roughly 90 degrees by the time his left arm gets parallel to the ground.
Swing Sequence
Play Your Best
“You’re gonna see more of him.” —Matt Killen FedEx Cup points race and a spot at the coveted Tour Championship. He finished 65th in the standings but nearly equaled his 2012 season performance with five top-10s. The Florida native and former University of Alabama player had some of the best ball-
striking stats on tour in 2017, finishing 29th in strokes gained/tee to green and 11th in strokes gained/approach the green. “Would I have liked to have done better? Sure.” Cauley says. “So I’ll keep working.” Part of his success comes from having a
technically sound swing, the kind that’s fun to watch—especially with the driver, says his coach, Matt Killen. “There are a lot of tour pros who would love to have his swing,” he says. “It’s an aggressive move, but it’s not wild. He knows how to generate power.”
POWER COMBO
PUSHING UP
CONTROLLED CHAOS
PRO-FILE
As he starts the downswing, he presses into the ground, evidenced by the increase in knee flex, Killen says. At the same time, his hips are opening. That combination creates a lot of power. “This is when he ‘lays the shaft down,’ ” Killen says, “allowing him to swing from inside-out and hit a small draw.”
“Look at his belt line,” Killen says. “You can see the belt is rising as his hips open. He’s pushing up.” The slight tilt away from the target at impact is created by the hips moving forward while the upper body stays back. “This is very common among the bombers on tour,” Killen says. “It allows him to hit up on the ball.”
Cauley might appear to be in a quiet, perfectly balanced finish, but a lot happened before this point, Killen says. The force he created in the downswing caused his feet to noticeably move from start to finish— especially the left. “A powerful driver swing is an aggressive motion,” Killen says.
bud cauley 27 / 5-7 / 160 pounds Jacksonville driver Titleist 917 D2 ball Titleist Pro V1
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Drill Your Iron Shots It’s all about the approach
1. SET IT
2. COVER IT
3. LEAN IT
4. DRILL IT
f you’re near a pro who’s hitting an iron shot off the fairway, one thing you might notice is the sound it makes. A compressed ball off the center of an iron’s face creates this distinctive noise as it cuts through the air, like a burst of steam releasing from a pressure cooker. If you want your shots to sound like that, you’ve got to hit down on the ball. That’s key. Here are four steps— including a drill—to make it happen. —with ron kaspriske
▶ Being in good position to compress the ball starts with improving your setup. You can help yourself hit down on the ball by favoring your left leg a little more than normal at address. Also, let the shaft lean slightly forward so the butt end is closer to your target than the clubhead.
▶ When you swing, feel like your chest stays on top of the ball instead of being more upright. This will steepen your angle of attack, making for better contact. When I simulate impact and hang a club down from my sternum, it should be pointing just in front of the ball.
▶ That forward shaft lean you had at address should be even more pronounced as you contact the ball. It’s often described as letting the hands lead. In other words, the clubhead should trail the grip end of the club until just after the ball is struck.
▶ Here’s a great practice drill that can be modified into a swing image when you play. Place a tee on the ground a few inches behind the ball’s position. When you hit shots, strike the ball but not the tee. Do that, and you’ll hear that magic sound the pros create.
I
David Leadbetter operates 34 golf academies worldwide.
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Photographs by J.D. Cuban
illustrations left: todd detwiler • top: tim l ahan
Play Your Best Step by Step by David Leadbetter
Strategy by Jack Nicklaus Play Your Best
“When a birdie hole comes along, you’ve got to take advantage.” PLAY IT YOUR WAY A front hole location makes this par 4 play even shorter, inviting more players to have a go. With this green opening on the left, the ideal shot is a fade for righties. But don’t feel pressure to go against your natural shot shape. If you like to draw it, aim at the middle of the green and work it in. Most important is to hit your drive solid to give yourself a chance.
DON’T BACK DOWN
KEEP ON THE CORRECT SIDE OF THE SWALE The bottom of the swale is six feet lower than the rest of the green. From there it’s a challenging two-putt to any cup above, but doable if you focus on distance control. If you lay up off the tee, you’ll have a short approach, so you should have enough control to hit the correct tier. The worst mistake is to be in a bunker that leaves the swale between you and the hole. Then it’s an exacting shot to get the next one close.
With the flag tucked in this back-right corner, time to lay up, right? Not so fast. This actually is a very gettable hole location. You can attempt to carry the bunker in front, or aim for the left half of the green and use the pitch of the swale to feed the ball all the way back. Finish almost anywhere on this green and you’re guaranteed an uphill putt to a cup in a flat area. Even a mediocre first putt from long range should get you to at least 15 feet— about the same length of a stellar wedge had you conservatively laid up.
my final major moment
he 14th hole on the Outlaw course at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale (illustrated), a course I designed in 2003, is a downhill par 4 with a big green that measures just 255 yards from the middle tees and 338 yards at the tips. It’s what I call a relief hole, or one that’s easy to par and fun to play. I bet your course has one or two holes likes this. If you’re serious about scoring, a par here should feel almost like a disappointment. This hole is set up to make birdie. If you’ve got the firepower to get on or near the green with the tee shot, don’t just bash away. Study
T
the hole location to figure out the best way for you to attack on that day. This is why we’ve cut away the tee boxes and the fairway from the drawing above. Your focus should be squarely on the green complex. The hole’s main protectors are four bunkers and a swale—or the large depression in the green. Especially in fast conditions, it can be tricky to judge the pace of a putt or chip across the swale, but this feature is also there to help. Like a catcher’s mitt, it collects shots coming in hot from long range, so you can try for that eagle with a putter in your hand. —with max adler
▶ The most famous swale in the game is the Valley of Sin, which is a deep depression that occupies the fairway and the front-left portion of the 18th green at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. In the 2005 Open Championship, playing the last hole of my last major, my drive settled there. The turf was firm and fast, and the cup was cut just over the swale. I sure wasn’t going to leave it short, so I putted my ball about 15 feet past the cup and made the one coming back for birdie and an even-par round of 72. I got a round of applause I’ll never forget. Illustration by Chris O’Riley
Darren Carroll
Attack Mode Making hay on a drivable par 4
Play Your Best Tour Technique
Photograph by Walter Iooss Jr.
Photograph by First Lastname
The Finish Line My trick to stay mentally sharp the entire round by rickie fowler ost of the mistakes you’ll make in a round of golf are mental, not physical. I know, you’re thinking that’s an easy thing for a tour player to say— we all have pretty much honed a good swing. But I’d argue that if you reach a level where you hit a number of solid shots every round, what’s holding you back from hitting more is mostly in your head and not some urgent technical flaw. When I look back on a round, my bad shots are almost always the ones where I wasn’t fully committed. I can remember the tinge of doubt I felt over the ball, or that the vision of how I wanted the ball to fly wasn’t fully crystallized in my mind. As a result, I’m something less than totally aggressive through the shot, and the clubface wavers. I can only kick myself for not having backed off and reset. A lot of people think the mental part of sports is inscrutable and can’t really be taught, but I disagree. It comes out in physical ways, and in golf, there’s no clearer evidence of what’s going on in a person’s mind than how they finish a swing. If you’re feeling the least bit tentative, it’ll look that way. If you’re wild and unfocused, that’s obvious, too. Using the body to train the brain might sound like reverse-engineering, but it works. By making a perfect finish my primary goal, it helps ensure my commitment. What I consider to be a perfect finish, by the way, is what you see here: chest fully rotated, head released, eyes on target and absolutely zero wobble in my body or club. I arrive sharp as a statue. In your next round, try to finish swings holding a crisp pose. You might be surprised how hard it is to end every swing like this, but it’s the simplest way to actually see and evaluate your mental game. Which, if you’re breaking 90, is pretty much the whole game.
illustration: tim l ahan
M
—with max adler Rickie Fowler has four wins on the PGA Tour and is second in scoring average (69.05).
Photograph by First Lastname
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Play Your Best Tour Technique
▶ greens in regulation
76.8%
68.7%
So Yeon Ryu (4th)
Tour average
78.3%
Lexi Thompson (1st) source: lpg a tour
ith two wins and two second-place finishes—and moving to No. 1 in the world in the Rolex ranking— I’m having the best year of my career. But that doesn’t mean my golf swing is always perfect. There are times when I’m not hitting it nearly as well as I want. That’s when I go back to the range. A drill I use to turn things around can help you get your swing back, too. My instructor, Cameron McCormick, showed me this Stomping Drill. You might know Cameron because of his work with Jordan Spieth. I love this drill because it can improve your timing, balance, weight shift, footwork and more. I have a bad habit of letting my body rotate toward the target too soon when I hit irons, but this drill helps hold off that rotation. Delaying that rotation also can cure a slice, because it improves swing path. You won’t cut across the ball as much. Here’s how it works: Grab an iron and get in your address posture with your feet close together. As you start your backswing, take a sidestep away from the target with your back foot. Then, as you reach the top of your backswing, lift your front foot up (left) and sidestep toward the target, planting that foot again before swinging down into the ball. Sidestepping with each foot trains you to shift your weight correctly. It also helps complete the backswing before starting the downswing, great for syncing things up. As a bonus, it helps you feel how to push off the ground to generate more power. It’s going to take a little practice to do this drill correctly, so go slow at first. But it will help you get your swing back. —with keely levins
W
Stomp it Out The drill you need when your swing falls apart by so yeon ryu
So Yeon Ryu has five wins on the LPGA Tour and is the No. 1 player in the world.
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Photograph by J.D. Cuban
Tour Technique Play Your Best
▶ putting (per hole) average
1.694
1.776
1.847
Justin Thomas (1st)
2017 PGA Tour average
Ryan Palmer (180th) sourCe: shotlinK
▶ fedex cup victory bonus $10,000,000
he big difference this year—winning five times, my first major (PGA Championship) and the FedEx Cup—was working hard on my putting consistency. I’ve always been a streaky putter. My great putting days are really great. But it’s about the bad putting days. You look at Jordan, Rickie or Tiger in his prime; their version of putting bad versus a guy ranked 100th on tour in putting is just so different. So I worked on making those bad days better. First, when I practice, I put a mirror on the green with a line on it and put a ball on that line. Then I stand over the ball and make sure my eyes also are on that line with my left eye over the ball. I’m left-eye dominant. Having your eye line correct is going to make you a lot more accurate. I also check that the putterface is square to that line and my posture and body alignment are consistent. Finally, I pay attention to my feet. I’ll explain that in a second. Another change, my preputt routine is shorter. I no longer take a practice stroke. I just step in and go before doubt can set in. I also have a shorter stroke. It’s the same on both sides of the ball, but the overall length is shorter because it’s easier to control. I mentioned my feet, because it’s important to feel as stable as possible in your lower body when you hit a putt. I want my feet gripping the ground, so my body doesn’t drift when I make a stroke. As far as practice, I worked hard on putts over 10 feet. Making ones from long range, or at least getting them a lot closer to the hole, is going to make you a better player. One way to do that is randomize your practice. Keep changing the distance you hit putts, with a focus on speed control. Success at any level comes from not taking this part of the game for granted.
$19,921,560
—with brian wacker
Stroke of Genius Make your worst putting days better by justin thomas
it was a very good year Money isn’t everything, or so they say, but it’s hard to ignore all those zeroes Justin Thomas added to his bank account throughout 2017. Here’s a breakdown. —bw
▶ pga tour regular season $7,094,741 ▶ fedex cup playoffs
▶ total
$2,826,819
Kevin C. Cox/Getty imaGes (2)
T
Play Your Best Equipment
A club for every weakness. to u r e d ge e xot i c s c bx
cob r a f-m a x
▶ Better players looking for a lowspin fairway wood might benefit from this construction. It includes a titanium face fused to a high-strength steel body. A lightweight carbon-composite piece in the rear of the sole allows more weight to be placed forward.
▶ This fairway wood provides full service for the flaws of average golfers. Helpful features include a lighter swingweight, anti-slice bias, higher lofts and larger, more comfortable grips. A thin, high-strength steel face insert gives distance a boost. pri c e $200
p r i c e $350
t it leist 818 h 1
ca l l away g b b e pi c star
It’s Personal These metalwoods can fix your flaws ou might think that all metalwoods are designed to do the same thing: launch it high with low spin. In a way they are, but they go about it in different ways. The newest metalwoods target certain types of swings: (1) big hitters who need shots to launch with less spin; (2) slower swingers who need more clubhead speed; and (3) hitters who need a straighter ball flight. Whether it’s less weight or redistributed internal mass, most new metalwoods are player-specific. So start your search knowing your weaknesses, and make a purchase based on how a new club can correct what’s wrong. Here are five fixes worth considering. —mike stachura
▶ This ultralight driver is designed for golfers with slower swing speeds and features the same distance technology found in the standard Epic—including two rods that join the crown and sole to help the face flex across a larger area.
▶ The H2 is preferred by tour players, but the H1 here offers something for the rest of us. The latest version is more stable on off-center hits and is designed for golfers who hit their hybrids with more of a sweeping motion than a downward strike. pri c e $280
pr i c e $700
Y
94 golf digest india | november 2017
pin g g400 sf tec ▶ We don’t just hit slices with our drivers, so the G400 line has a heelweighted fairway-wood option. A high-strength steel face provides extra flexing for more distance, and the slightly larger head size offers forgiveness on mis-hits. pri c e $270
Photograph by Ryan Zimmerman
Undercover Tour Pro Why I decided to change my uniform he smartest move I made last season was dropping my clothing deal. I was getting paid 15 grand a year to wear a particular brand, and it wasn’t worth the aggravation. I’ve never been picky about clothes, but this stuff I genuinely didn’t care for. The colors were a bit electric for my taste, and something about the fit of the sleeves was off—tight in the armpits. I’d receive a new box of 20 shirts and a dozen pairs of pants every few months, and with almost every other shipment there was an issue. A logo would be mis-stitched or in the wrong spot, or some of the clothes were the wrong size. They’d promise to fix it and deliver a new batch to my hotel right away. Two tournaments later, the box arrives . . . on a Friday.
T
A clothing deal for a very top player could be a million or more, but unless your name is Jason Day or Sergio Garcia, most of the clothing-only deals are worth about the same, which is low five figures. And unlike deals for clubs and balls, where you can unlock bonuses with high finishes and wins, the marketing budgets of most smaller clothing lines are fixed. Still, they’re not shy about asking for multiple days of your time, either to shoot advertisements or do promotional events with their clients. I get that it’s a tough business, but the objectives of these companies are sometimes hard to discern. Each is looking for a player whose image tells their brand’s “story,” whatever that means. Understandably, I guess, a lot of clothing companies would rather have their guy look good and play bad than the other way around. After taxes, that 15 grand becomes more like nine, which isn’t a lot of cash to wear stuff that you’re not in love with. I spend just about my whole life in golf clothes, probably more than triple the time any other athlete spends in his uniform. It’s important to feel good about what you’re wearing. I know some players who are in love with being treated like a model. They get really excited when their new clothes arrive and obsess about what belt to pair with which outfit. They’ll sit at their locker and have a 30-minute phone conversation with their clothing rep. Some guys will wear a shirt once and then give it away. Then again, I know some guys who will go through 100 white shirts a year not because they’re prima donnas, but because they sweat like pigs. You never know when you’re going to catch fire and suddenly get a lot of air time. Those are valuable minutes and seconds, and you can’t let down your sponsors by looking scrubby. A loose thread or some sunscreen discoloration on your collar looks bad in high-def. Last season, right before the playoffs started, I sent an email to the head of a company whose clothes I really like. I asked him to send me some gear for the FedEx Cup and promised I would wear his line all of the next season for free. I’m not exactly cut like Camilo Villegas, but I’ve won on the PGA Tour and I’m friendly and carry myself with dignity. To get me for the cost of product was a good deal for him. Plus, he doesn’t have to go through my agent. He can just email me directly about anything. So far it’s been seamless. And it’s a good deal for me. So what if I left 15 grand on the table? I can make that up feeling comfortable over one swing. —with max adler
Illustration by Eddie Guy
top: tim l ahan
Mr. X On The Tee
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18 Holes with DP Singh
“Would Love To See Anirban In World Top-10” A passionate golfer who tees off at least five times a week, his busy schedule notwithstanding, SARA International MD, DP Singh, certainly knows his way around the green. He also doubles up as the honorary Consul General of Albania in India. Hailing from a family of civil servants, Singh had values such as discipline, hard work, and integrity ingrained at a very young age which not only aided him in the sport he cares about, but also in his day job. A recipient of multiple golfing trophies, Singh is equally keen on his other passion – philanthropy. He spoke to Golf Digest India on his passion for golf. Excerpts: GDI: What is your home club?
1 Home is where the heart is! I play at Delhi
Golf Club (DGC), Qutub Golf Course (QGC) and DLF Golf & Country Club.
GDI: When did you start playing golf?
2 I was introduced to golf by Indian Open
champion Raj Kumar Pitamber in 1977.
GDI: What do you love about the
3 game?
The song ‘The green green grass of home’ always comes to mind! I love the greenery. Meeting and making friends is another activity that I enjoy and look forward to. GDI: Who do you play golf with most
4 often?
I have 3 fourballs, and all of them are great fun to play with. To name one, would be unfair to the others. GDI: How about your dream fourball? 5 Michelle Wie, Sharmila Nicollet, Aditi Ashok and me! GDI: Favourite golf course in India 6 and abroad Royal Springs Golf Course, Srinagar, and Lake View Golf Course, Kunming. GDI: How often do you get to play?
7 Five times a week, and I am still an 18
handicapper!
GDI: Your thoughts on doing business
8 on the golf course?
Zero! Making friends, yes, but I never play with the thought of doing a business deal GDI: Favourite male and female
9 golfers
I keenly follow Anirban Lahiri and Aditi Ashok, and I would like to see them in the Top-10 of the world rankings.
98 golf digest india | november 2017
“I KEENLY FOLLOW ANIRBAN LAHIRI AND ADITI ASHOK, AND I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THEM IN TOP-10 OF WORLD RANKINGS.” GDI: Do you use any golf apps on your
10 phone?
I use Golf Caddy, a great application. GDI: Your current handicap?
11 18, and it has been so for a long time! GDI: Your lowest handicap? 12 14, on and off GDI: On an average, how long do you
13 drive the ball?
I would say 220 yards. There was a time when it used to be 240, but not now. GDI: Describe your most memorable
14 golfing experience
This happened at Sun City in South Africa. It was probably the 5th hole of a Par-4 with a dog-leg to right. The ball went left instead,
next to a watering hole with crocodiles all around! The same course is home to zebras and ostriches too. GDI: Your favourite holiday
15 destination
Anywhere in the hills, with pine trees and a golf course. That said, safaris remain my top yearly sojourn. GDI: Favourite dish on your home
16 course
Grilled toast with ginger, only at Delhi Golf Club.
17 GDI: Mid-round power snack Masala Tea! GDI: Favourite 19th hole drink
18 No drinks, I need to rush back to my wife! Total Number of pages (including cover pages) is 100 Monthly Magazine, RNI N0. HARENG/2016/66983
RNI N0. HARENG/2016/66983