THE WORLD’S TOP 100 NEW RANKING OF THE BEST GOLF COURSES ON THE PLANET
SEPTEMBER 2011 ISSUE 10, VOL 52
FR E E
4 WO R8 - PAG E LD 1 00 M’S TO P AG
INTERVIEWS
JASON DAY
HIS RAGS TO RICHES STORY
JOHN DALY
ROCKS THE ESTABLISHMENT
OPEN EXCLUSIVE
GET MORE DISTANCE
DRIVER BY DARREN CLARKE
WITH PETE COWEN & E WE N M U R R AY + BALL STRIKING ADVICE BY THE OPEN CHAMPION + PICK UP 17+ YARDS WITH A FITTED DRIVER + BUTCH HARMON’S 3 DRIVING RULES
NEW G PI NG’S E A R R A N GGE2 0 ‘I’VE SEEN DRUG USE ON TOUR’
THE DARK SIDE OF PRO GOLF REVEALED
THE SCIENCE OF CHOKING
AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO AVOID IT
£4.20
RIP YOUR
SEPTEMBER 2011
OPEN CHAMPION DARREN CLARKE n RICKIE FOWLER’S PITCHING TIPS n THE WORLD’S TOP 100 COURSES n GREG NORMAN n JASON DAY n JOHN DALY
GREG NORMAN
REFLECTIONS OF A SHARK
ADAM SCOTT ON PUTTING RICKIE FOWLER ON PITCHING
CHOKING
(V: To fail to perform effectively because of nervous agitation or tension, especially in an athletic contest) EVEN THE WORLD’S TOP GOLFERS HAVE ‘CHOKED’, BUT WHY DO SOME COME BACK STRONGER WHILE OTHERS DISAPPEAR INTO THE WILDERNESS?
I
WORDS BY GAVIN NEWSHAM PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGUS MURRAY
t is an affliction that’s pre-occupied the greatest of golf minds for decades, even centuries. It’s that cruel condition that dare not speak its name; that nagging, neural hiccup that can see golfers at the very peak of their powers reduced to mere shells of men. But what is choking? Why does it happen? And why does it make for such compulsive viewing? Of course, anybody who’s played golf knows just what the game can do to otherwise sane and rational people. It doesn’t just monkey with your mind but rips it out and stamps all over it. It’s the same for everyone, though, whether seasoned pro or happy hacker. Bobby Jones, for example, maintained that “competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-halfinch course... the space between your ears,” while straight-talkers like Lee Westwood are more forthright on the pressure of top level golf. “If you get into contention (at a major) you’ll find your balls in your throat,” he once said. “The trick is not to choke on them.” And therein lies the problem. How, exactly, does one begin to cope with the
kind of pressure that can flatten a man? Well, rewind to April this year and the Masters at Augusta. With a four-shot lead going into the final round, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy stood poised to make history until he crumbled catastrophically at the 10th, hooking his tee shot so wildly that he found himself contemplating a shot from a hitherto unseen part of the Augusta National course. For many players, it could have signalled untold problems, maybe even lasting psychological damage. For McIlroy though, it was the prod in the posterior he needed to make him a major winner. As he said on Twitter in the aftermath of his Augusta aberration: “You have to lose before you can win. This day will make me stronger in the end.” The contrast between the kid at the Masters and McIlroy at Congressional was marked. At Augusta on Sunday, he threeputted the 1st and his four-shot lead was gone within half an hour. Tense, tight and apparently overawed, he then disintegrated at the 10th on his way to a miserable 80. During the final round at the US Open, though, McIlroy never looked anything ➨
‘I CAN GO AS LONG AS FIVE MINUTES WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT THE OPEN NOW. . .’ DOUG SANDERS WHO MISSED A THREE-FOOT PUTT TO WIN THE OPEN AT ST ANDREWS IN 1970
THE SWING OF AN PETE COWEN, DARREN CLARKE’S COACH, ON THE SWING WHICH Darren swung the club beautifully all week at the Open; but his third round 69 on the Saturday was the platform for his victory. His control that day, in fierce winds, when many of the field were shooting in the high 70s, was fantastic to watch. It was, in my
humble opinion, one of the great rounds in the Championship’s history. Darren’s action can vary quite a bit, depending on how he’s feeling at the time, but that doesn’t always affect his ability to score well. Clarke is one of the few guys out
there, who – even when he is swinging it badly – has the raw talent to make a good score. When Darren is tired, or dare I say a tad hungover, his swing is definitely not the same. At the end of a long season, it can be a bit arms up and arms down and there’s not a lot of
B A L A N C E D AT T O P MORE WIDTH
This first position is all about Darren looking for more width. The club is outside the hands, perhaps a little more than it needs to be here.
SEPTEMBER 2011 // www.golf-world.co.uk
A great position with the upper half fully wound and supporting the club, while the legs provide resistance. The 90° angle in the forearms is good and the left forearm is parallel with the spine. People talk about the ‘waiter’s tray’ position, but the forearm doesn’t have to be vertical.
R O TAT I O N
The right elbow is sliding round the ribcage as Darren starts to unwind without overtly dropping the club down. The right leg has a little more bend in it again, but it never lost the torque.
COWEN’S ANALYSIS
OPEN CHAMPION SECURED A FAMOUS VICTORY AT A WINDY ROYAL ST GEORGE’S. body movement. Everything came together early in the week at the Open, and we had a great session on the Tuesday. I think we both knew then, things had clicked into place. At that session we discussed a number of things
that will probably remain between us. What is certain is that he suddenly found the confidence to master the conditions with wonderful control and pure ball striking. The rest, as they say, is history.
G R E AT D E L I V E R Y
Everything is good here about the delivery position. He has great left shoulder control and he’s not opened his hips too much. The clubhead is a fraction behind his hands which would suggest a slight draw. The right knee and right hip are in a great position to apply the pressure.
RELEASE
O N TA R G E T
A good, full release, again with no flip of the hands, which is a fault Darren can have when his body turn gets lazy.
Delivering the club nicely down the line means that the hands haven’t had to rescue anything and he hasn’t flipped his hands at all.
www.golf-world.co.uk // SEPTEMBER 2011
REFLECTIONS WORDS BY JAIME DIAZ PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN VAN HOOK, GETTY IMAGES
GREG NORMAN MOVES AHEAD AFTER A VOLATILE CAREER LAVISHED
OF A SHARK
RICHES – AND LEFT LEFT SOME SOME BRUISES BRUISES THAT THAT ARE ARE BEAUTS. BEAUTS. HIM WITH RICHES—AND
W O P Y G O L O N H C E ,T P U NCE IS A T S I D G N I V I R D TOUR
PING’S NEW G20: FINDING A COMPROMISE As you navigate your way through your local shop’s driver section, you’ll quickly realise that the buzz words today are “adjustability,” “longer and lighter” and “aerodynamics.” All are nifty engineering tricks designed to increase your power without a single bicep curl, but an even better trick is combining several of these in the same club. That’s because adjustable features add weight, long and light shafts can be hard to control, aerodynamic shapes aren’t the most forgiving, and large faces increase drag. The solution? Compromise. “There’s definitely going to be some trade-off between forgiveness and aerodynamics,” says Brad Schweigert, Ping’s director of engineering. As an example he cites the company’s new G20 driver, which has a larger head profile than the G15 but a more aerodynamically engineered shape. “We put the emphasis on forgiveness, but we try to optimise aerodynamics within that.” See page 102 for more on Ping’s new G20 range.
SEPTEMBER 2011 // www.golf-world.co.uk
R E W R. E V E N A H T R E I S A G IS E N I T T I F , G N I M O O IS B
E G SUR WHY IT’S TIME TO RECHARGE YO U R D R I V E R – A N D YO U R G A M E
T
he driver, one might think, is dead. Seven times during the past 13 years golf’s governing bodies have issued rules designed to limit performance, including controlling the springlike effect of the face and its resistance to twisting on off-centre hits, the length of the shaft, and the volume and dimension of the clubhead. Even the height of the tee is regulated. But Nathan Morris still eagerly goes to work fitting golfers to the newest drivers. He’s not dismayed. In fact, he expects to get 15 more yards for every player who walks into his GolfTEC facility with a driver that’s four or five years old. How often does he get there? “About 90 per cent of the time,” he says. Call it a harmonic convergence – fitting technology and attitude – but even statistics indicate that more distance is possible. This year on the
PGA Tour, average driving distance is up more than four yards to 287.3 through early June, compared to the same time last year. Given the current pace, average driving distance on tour could break the 290-yard barrier by the year’s end, a first. The numbers trend the same way on the European and LPGA tours, too. Clearly the driver is back. You could quibble that the gains are relatively small or that average golfers can’t increase their driving distance by trying to be stronger, fitter and younger like Bubba Watson or Camilo Villegas. Still, driver technology might allow us to increase our driving distance just by taking advantage of the same technology – and attitude – of the game’s best players. Every fitter believes that yardage is out there for average golfers to find. Their estimated gains for an average golfer using
a four or five-year-old driver he hasn’t been fitted for? From 10 yards all the way up to 50 yards. What’s getting clubfitters excited (and what should have you knocking down their doors) are the advancements that make it easier for every golfer to swing faster and produce more consistent on-centre contact. The resulting confidence could multiply the effects beyond what physics might otherwise suggest. Call it driver swagger. “One thing we’ve seen is that if players hit newer drivers on the launch monitor and see results, their clubhead speeds increase as they continue to hit,” says Alan Hocknell, Callaway’s senior vice president of research and development. “We’ve seen that on tour, and with average players. There’s an exuberance factor that allows people to swing harder once they see the results.” Drivers today are only slightly better ➨ www.golf-world.co.uk // SEPTEMBER 2011
SEPTEMBER 2011 // www.golf-world.co.uk
DALY EXPRESS
IT’S 20 YEARS SINCE AN UNKNOWN ROOKIE WITH A BOOMING DRIVE AND BAD HAIRCUT ROCKED UP AT CROOKED STICK AND LET THE BIG DOG EAT…
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t’s 5pm on Wednesday, August 7, 1991 and rookie PGA Tour pro John Daly is busy doing nothing at home in Dardanelle, Arkansas. Despite entering that week’s PGA Championship at Indiana’s Crooked Stick, he had found himself as only the ninth reserve – or ‘alternate’ – for the final Major of the season and with little or no hope of getting a place in the field had given his caddie, Dave Beighle, the week off, while he headed home to hang out and maybe hit a few balls with his Dad. The phone rings. It’s the PGA. There’s good news – of sorts. Daly is now first alternate. Kenny Perry, Ronnie Black and a bunch of other guys have all pulled out. A few have injuries. One has a poorly motherin-law and, in Lee Trevino’s case, it’s simply the extreme length of the Crooked Stick course that has made his mind up for him. That night and with the start of the tournament just 15 hours away, Daly and his fiancée, Bettye, jump in her new BMW and drive the 450 miles north-east to Indianapolis on the off-chance that somebody somewhere will, for whatever reason, decide to withdraw. A long, tiring night passes slowly, and eight hours later, the two arrive, looking a touch red-eyed and worse for wear, at the Radisson Hotel in Carmel. There’s a message waiting. During the night, the Zimbabwean Nick Price has pulled out of the PGA to be with his pregnant wife, Sue, who has gone into labour with their first child. Sue Price’s labour pain would be John Daly’s gain… There’s a moment in the goofball golf comedy Caddyshack when Carl Spackler, the
WORDS BY GAVIN NEWSHAM PHOTOGRAPH BY AP
airhead greenkeeper at the Bushwood Country Club played by Bill Murray, is busy hacking the heads off the bedding plants, daydreaming of one day taking the Masters by storm. “Cinderella story, outta nowhere,” he mumbles. “Tears in his eyes, I guess, as he lines up this last shot. He’s got about 195 yards left. Looks like he’s got about an 8-iron…” It’s not known whether Carl Spackler was the poster of choice on the bedroom wall of the young John Patrick Daly but everything about his golf game, from the
‘PEOPLE ASK HOW I COACHED JOHN. THE TRUTH IS, I JUST DROVE HIM TO MEETS’ unorthodox swing and questionable dress sense, right down to the ludicrously long 8-iron, point to some prototype Daly. After all, here was a kid who was outdriving adults when he was barely in his teens, the rising star of the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) and a fully-fledged State Champion at just 17. A kid, more importantly, that only ever wanted to play golf. Born in Carmichael, California, but raised in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town of Dardenelle, at the foot of Ozark mountains, Daly had started playing golf at the age of three when he smashed the living room window with a full-blooded blow with a cut-down 8-iron. Three years later, his construction worker dad, Jim, had
decided it was high time he had his own sticks and bought a second-hand set of fullsize Jack Nicklaus Golden Bears from a colleague at the Arkansas One Nuclear Plant for fifty bucks, presenting them to his son for his 6th birthday. Rather than have them cut down, though, Jim just let his son get on with it. Because the clubs were far too big for him, Daly was, initially at least, powerless to prevent himself swinging it back too far, the net result being the birth of his unique overswing, where the clubhead goes so far past parallel at the top that it almost clatters his left ankle. It would be a swing that stuck with Daly throughout his formative years and way beyond. As a student at Helias High School, for instance, his coach Ray Hentges gave up trying to teach his star pupil. “People asked me how I coached John Daly,” he shrugs. “Truth is, I just drove him to meets.” Later, when Daly hooked up with Rick Ross, the club professional at his local nine-hole Bay Ridge Golf Club, he found Daly equally headstrong. “[He’d ask] ‘How do you hit a cut shot?’” recalls Ross. “And his backswing would go and the club would touch his left ankle. [I’d say] ‘You don’t ➨ www.golf-world.co.uk // SEPTEMBER 2011
BY R I C K I E F OW L E R
PITCH IT CLOSE TO ANY
HERE’S THREE SHOTS THAT WILL HELP YOU GET UP AND DOWN MORE OFTEN. WITH MAX ADLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOM FURORE
Anyone can get up and down from 40 yards. It’s a simple motion where you keep your lower body quiet and just flow the club back and through with about a quarter swing. Yet this shot – the simple pitch – drives everybody mad sometimes, even pros.
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SEPTEMBER 2011 // www.golf-world.co.uk
No matter where the flag is, I like to think about making the same little backswing, with my grip light so the weight of the clubhead hinges my wrists. If I want to vary the height, I need to make only slight adjustments in my set-up and release. If the
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pin’s at the front of the green, there’s a set-up to hit the ball higher and stop it fast. If the pin’s back, there’s a set-up to hit it lower and let it run. When all you have to do is adjust your set-up and picture your finish position, your mind can stay clear during the shot.
FLAG
3 S E T- U P S FOR 3 HOLE L O C AT I O N S
1 SP TAI T CNHDA R D
This is the shot to master before you start messing around with different trajectories. It’s also what to hit when the pin is in the middle of the green. In this set-up you want the ball in the middle of your stance (pin middle, ball middle – easy to remember). Set your hands slightly ahead to give the shaft some forward lean. Then just flow that heavy wedge back until your wrists start to hinge. Feel a pause, then swing through like it’s a normal impact. At the finish, I’ve released a medium amount so the clubhead is just ahead of my hands (opposite page, left).
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2 LPOI TWC H
When the pin is back, play the ball in the back of your stance, about even with your right instep. Here you want the most shaft lean, so bring your hands pretty far forward, close to your left thigh. I might narrow my stance to move weight to my left side, but what I really want to focus on is keeping my hands ahead of the clubhead all the way to the finish. This low, limited release makes it easy to control how far the ball will run out (opposite page, right).
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© GOLF DIGEST
3 HP IITGCHH
For front hole locations position the ball in the front of your stance. Open the clubface to add some loft, bringing your hands back so they’re in line with the ball. The shaft should point straight down. In my finish, I let the clubhead release fully so it gets at least to waist high (this page, far left). This will shoot the ball up so it can settle fast. Now just make the putt.
THE DAY EVERYTHING CHANGED JASON DAY STARTED PLAYING GOLF WITH A 3-WOOD FOUND AT THE LOCAL DUMP. HIS FATHER DIED WHEN HE WAS 11 AND HE WENT OFF THE RAILS. SO HIS MOTHER SOLD THEIR HOUSE TO SEND HIM TO A BETTER SCHOOL TO DEVELOP A TALENT FOR GOLF THAT HAS TAKEN HIM INTO THE WORLD’S TOP 10 WORDS BY JOSH MASSOUD AND JOCK HOWARD PHOTOGRAPHY BY TAYLORMADE, GETTY IMAGES
Q
uestions like this are never easy to ask, let alone answer. “So, tell us about your dad. He died when you were young didn’t he?” It’s impossible to know how Aussie golfing wonderkind Jason Day will react. He might have chirped on about “taking down” Tiger Woods a few years ago, but there may be some topics even the most boisterous of mouths refuse to address.
SEPTEMBER 2011 // www.golf-world.co.uk
There’s barely a pause before the 23-yearold replies. “It was quick. Dad had stomach pains and he went to see a doctor but they didn’t find anything. He went again and they found the cancer had spread too far. He was gone in about a month.” The son of two battling meat workers from Queensland’s south-east, Day was 11 when Alvin died. His dream of conquering the golfing world had barely left the tee, when this tragic gust of misfortune grabbed ➨
TOP 100 GOLF COU RSES IN
THE WORLD
Inside
THE DESIGNERS
NICKLAUS, PHILLIPS, McLAY KIDD, PLAYER & MORE SHARE THEIR DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES
F U T U R E S TA R S
WE ASSESS WHERE IN THE WORLD THE NEXT GREAT COURSES MIGHT COME FROM