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Local Events: Doug Williams Shines on Hong Kong Seniors Debut

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE HONG KONG GOLF ASSOCIATION ISSUE 77

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| CONTENTS

HK Golfer Issue 77

June 2013

38 On the Cover:

Louis Oosthuizen, arguably the smoothest swinger of a golf club since his mentor Ernie Els, talks to us on page 42.

Photo by AFP

Features

Plus…

38 | Coming of Age

12 | In Focus

Doug Williams put in a classy display at Fanling last month to win the Munsingwear Hong Kong Seniors Amateur Close Championship at his first attempt.

By Alex Jenkins

42 | King Louis

Our exclusive interview with world number eight Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, which was conducted at this year’s Ballantine’s Championship in Korea.

By Alex Jenkins

48 | The Resurrection of a Classic

It has take over two decades for the US Open to return to the East Course at Merion, one of the most historic clubs in America. But the wait will be more than worth it.

By Paul Prendergast

54 | The Miracle at Merion Daniel Wong (Doug Williams); USGA (Merion Basket)

The remarkable story of Ben Hogan’s 1950 US Open win, arguably the most courageous comeback the game has ever seen.

By Dale Concannon

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HK GOLFER・JUN 2013

A pictorial review of the past 30 days – both locally, regionally and globally.

By The Editors

23 | Tee Time

Swiss watchmakers present their latest technical achievements in the newly redesigned Baselworld halls.

By Evan Rast

28 | Driving Range

The charming new Beetle Cabriolet looks set to be a sure-fire winner for Volkswagen.

By Ben Oliver

30 | Liquid Assets

We talk with winemaker Dean Hewitson, whose passion and forward-thinking approach to Australian wine has made him one of the country’s most soughtafter producers.

By Ali Nicol

64 | The Bridesmaid

34 | Tales from the Box

Colin Montgomerie, heroic Ryder Cup player, eight-time European Order of Merit champion and recent Hall of Fame inductee, famously never won a major – although he did come agonisingly close on four occasions at the US Open.

By Lewine Mair

In this new column covering the European Tour, the internationally-recognised commentator takes us through his mini-Asian swing through Korea and China.

By Julian Tutt

74 | Southern Stunner

70 | Golf & Investing / 5 Minutes With ...

Any avid collector of golfing experiences should reach into their pocket and make the trip to the luxurious Farm at Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, home to a brilliant Tom Doakdesigned track that is full of drama, originality and beauty.

By James Spence and Alex Jenkins

Timothy Tang, the locally-based pro who earned his Asian Tour card in 2011, talks about his golfing upbringing, one spectacular round at college and the investing lessons he’s learned over time.

By Alex Jenkins HKGOLFER.COM

HK Golfer

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE HONG KONG GOLF ASSOCIATION JUNE 2013 • Issue 77

Editor: Alex Jenkins email: alex.jenkins@hkgolfer.com Editorial Assistant: Cindy Kwok Playing Editor: Jean Van de Velde Senior Editor: Roy Kinnear Photo Editor: Daniel Wong Contributing Editors: Lewine Mair, Robert Lynam, Evan Rast, Ben Oliver, Julian Tutt Published by:

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74 D E PA R T M E N T S 10

HK Golfer Mailbag

18 Divots 20

Tour Talk

23 Clubhouse 36

Around the HKGA

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Ballantine’s Championship Review

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Global Tournament News

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HK Golfer Mailbag Is Guan playing too many pro events?

experience was fabulous, but particularly the golf course, which was nicely designed and in great condition. The setting, next to the ocean and mountains, was also spectacular. The fact that you can now fly direct to Danang from Hong Kong with Dragonair is also a big advantage. The only problem about the place? The whole Vietnam visa kerfuffle. Vietnam visas aren’t cheap and can require a lengthy visit to the consulate. I think this is the only issue holding the country – and this region in particular – from developing into a world-renowned tourism centre, which is an obvious shame.

R Godfrey Pok Fu Lam Editor’s reply: The same was said of Bali, and look at that place now! I agree that it can be a pain, RG, but it’s become far easier now that the three main gateways to the country – Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang – now offer a Visa on Arrival (VOA) service. The process at Danang, which is a far less busy airport than the other two, is usually a relatively painless affair.

Learn to Walk Before You Run I agree with your assessment of young Guan Tianlang in the May issue, which is why I’m worried he’s elected to accept all these invitations to play in regular PGA Tour events. What Guan did at Augusta was incredibly special. It was history making and unique.

Why would he want to dilute that achievement by continuing to play in these other events? I know he also made the cut in the Zurich Classic, but for the good of his game – and his ongoing confidence – he should return to where he belongs: the amateur ranks. Nick Faldo told him that he should turn professional after he’s gotten bored after winning everything there is to win as an amateur. This in my opinion is good advice. Guan is clearly a wonderful and talented player, but he still has a long way to go. Winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, while significant, is the only strong tournament he has won outside China. At the age of 14 he has all the time in the world. But continuing to play against the pros is in my mind reminiscent of what Michelle Wie did years ago by accepting all those offers to play against the men – and look where that got her.

Clement Ho Via email Editor’s reply: Well made points, Clement. But hadn’t you heard?

Guan is old news now following the play of two of other Chinese youngsters at the recent Volvo China Open (see page 18).

Vietnam Visas

Open Options I’ll be going to the Open Championship at Muirfield in July and am looking to play on a couple of courses in the region the week after the tournament ends. It will be my first time in Scotland.

Any recommendations?

David Ho Mid-Levels Editor’s reply: You’re really spoilt for choice in East Lothian, David; the region is packed full of brilliant courses. The obvious option would be Gullane (gullanegolfclub.com), which is within 3-wood distance of Muirfield and is home to three great links. Expect it to be busy, however, given the timing of your visit. Two other choices include North Berwick (northberwickgolfclub.com), a quirky and fun links steeped in tradition and the incredibly scenic Dunbar Golf Club (dunbar-golfclub.co.uk), which is a 35-minute drive from Muirfield and the venue for this year’s Open Championship Local Qualifying event.

We Want to Hear from You! Have something to say about an article in HK Golfer or a topic affecting golf in our area? Send your thoughts and comments to letters@hkgolfer.com. Please also include your address, contact number, email and HKGA #. The winner of the best letter will receive a bottle of Champagne Louis Roederer courtesy of Links Concept.

AFP

Thanks for your review and subsequent recommendation of Laguna Lang Co, the new course that has opened north of Danang, Vietnam. I travelled there with my family over the recent holiday and stayed on-site at the Banyan Tree. The whole 10

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HKGOLFER.COM

Local Focus Doug the Dangerous Debutant Hong Kong Golf Club member Doug Williams hits his tee shot to the par-3 seventh hole on the Old Course at Fanling during the final round of the Munsingwear Hong Kong Seniors Amateur Championship last month.

Williams, who reached the requisite age to compete in the event earlier this year, blitzed the field to win by nine shots on his debut appearance.

The tall American carded 17 pars and one birdie in a final round of 70. Joe Pethes and Tony Taylor tied for second place.

Photo by Daniel Wong

Asia Focus Maiden Win for Moon Korea’s Bae Sang-moon splashes out from a greenside bunker on his way to victory at the HP Byron Nelson Championship last month. The win was the first for the 26-year-old on the PGA Tour and he joined KJ Choi, YE Yang and Kevin Na as the only Koreans to claim victory on the world’s richest circuit. Bae fired a final round 69 to withstand the challenge of Keegan Bradley, the 2011 US PGA champion, and said: “It’s something I’ve always dreamed of, winning on the PGA Tour. It was surreal to have Mrs Nelson there and with all the history ... I was in awe, actually.”

Photo by AFP

Global Focus Bulgaria’s Clifftop Colossus Bulgaria was the unlikely setting for the Volvo World Match Play Championship, which was held last month over the dramatic Thracian Cliffs course that overlooks the Black Sea. Graeme McDowell (pictured inset) claimed his first Match Play title following a hard-fought win over Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee in the final – but the course itself proved to be the other winner, with the pros hailing it as Europe’s answer to Pebble Beach. Designed by Gary Player, Thracian Cliffs was unveiled for play in 2011 and is the first in an expected long line of new courses to open in the country.

Photos by Volvo in Golf

| DIVOTS

Volvo in Golf

Chinese Juniors Make History at National Open

Putting Brett Rumford’s runaway victory at the Volvo China Open last month to one side for a moment (see Global Tournament News), the tournament was highlighted by the performances of two of the country’s emerging young talents – both of whom would end up making history to prove there’s more to junior golf on the mainland than a certain Guan Tianlang.

First there was Ye Wo-cheng, who at the just 12 became the youngest player to ever compete at a European Tour event. Ye, who had earned his spot in the field after securing one of three qualifying spots at the Western Qualifier in Chengdu the month before, put together consecutive rounds of 79 to miss the cut by some margin. Not that Ye, a member at Hillview Golf Club in Dongguan, was disappointed.

“It was a great experience for me,” he said. “I was a bit less nervous today [in the second round], which is why I played well at the start, but I struggled a bit on the back nine. Overall, though, I’m still pretty happy with the way I played.”

But it was 16-year-old Dou Ze-cheng (pictured) who gave the galleries at Binhai Lake Golf Club in Tianjin even more to celebrate. The amateur put together opening rounds of 70 and 72 to make the cut – becoming the youngest in the tournament’s long history to do so – and then backed it up with a weekend showings of 72 and 73 to finish in a share of 33rd and earn the Rong Gaotang Award as the top Chinese player at the event.

“The goal this week was to gain experience, so it was definitely a success in that regard,” said Dou, whose bucket-hat and RayBan’s makes him instantly recognisable. “No Chinese player has won this event, so maybe it can be me in two or three years.”

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| TOUR TALK

Jiménez Marks 600th European Tour Event in Style

Donald Receives Royal Award

AFP

Luke Donald, winner of The 2011 Race to Dubai, attended Buckingham Palace last month to collect his MBE, receiving the award in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of his contributions to professional golf and his role as a global ambassador for Britain.

The MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) is an order of chivalry – established by George V in 1917 - which honors civilians and service personnel for public service and other distinctions. Donald (pictured) has been recognized globally for his accomplishments in golf, spending a cumulative 55 weeks to date at the top of the Official World Golf Rankings.

During his historic 2011 season, the Englishman was the first to top the money lists on both The European Tour and the PGA Tour. He has also has helped raise funds for the First Tee organization, an association which has to date introduced the game of golf and its inherent values to the more than seven million young people.

Numerous golfers over the years have been awarded an MBE, including the late Jessie Valentine – the mother of HKGA Chief Executive Iain Valentine – who in 1959 became the first female golfer in history to be honored. Mrs Valentine won the British Ladies Amateur Championship on three occasions (1937, 1955 and 1958).

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With a single swish of one of golf ’s most recognisable swings – not to mention that unmistakable ponytail – on the first tee of Wentworth Club’s West Course, three-time Hong Kong Open winner Miguel A ngel Jiménez joined an elite group of golfers at the BMW PGA Championship late last month as he officially made his 600th appearance on The European Tour.

The Spaniard, one of golf’s most enduring characters, becomes the sixth player in history to reach 600 appearances, joining Sam Torrance (706), Barry Lane (682), Roger Chapman (619), Eamonn Darcy (610) and Malcolm McKenzie (605) in that rarefied group.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” said Jiménez (pictured). “The game has given me an amazing life and so amazing experiences and I have enjoyed almost every minute of it. I have had some special victories and experiences and it is difficult to pick out one highlight.

“This year is my 25th year in a row on The European Tour and I have seen so much change, and so many players. I think I have survived four generations on the Tour. When I started I was playing with Seve, with Lyle and Woosnam and all those players.

“Then came Olazábal, Faldo and Monty and their generation. Then you had Clarke and Westwood guys like that. And now when I go on Tour, they are kids. Rory and all of the these young boys are children!”

Including his Fanling triumphs, Jiménez has 19 European Tour victories to his credit, amassing over €20 million along the way. He can still play, too. The 49-year-old signed off with a final-round 67 at Wentworth to finish the flagship event in a share of fourth.

HKGOLFER.COM

At the end of a great day... ... a sublime experience

As Jim Murray said in his Whisky Bible, “…A whisky that gives you the will to live !” We chose this as our first release because we had never tasted a distilled spirit at once so old – and so young. Only a taste can tell you how splendid it really is. And when it’s finished (which is very soon, now) there may not be anything like it for a while; it took us many years to find these 1,348 bottles, and it will be a long search for its successor. Meanwhile, we suggest you have a look at our cognac 1950, 478 bottles of which have just been released.

lastdrop@hkgolfer.com; (852) 3590 4153 lastdropdistillers.com

CLUB

Away from the Fairways | TEE TIME

POWERHOUSE OF TIMEKEEPERS SWISS WATCHMAKERS PRESENT THEIR LATEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE NEWLY REDESIGNED BASELWORLD HALLS, REPORTS EVAN RAST CONTINUED OVERLEAF

The all-new Rolex Yachtmaster II HKGOLFER.COM

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O Clockwise from bottom: the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, a much-talked about watch; the Heritage Chrono Blue from Tudor; the vintage-inspired Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph

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nce again, the world’s leading watchmakers convened in Basel last month to share their latest innovation to an expectant audience. Highly complicated and jewelled pieces ruled the halls, as brands presented their unique take on tourbillons, repeaters, striking mechanisms, automatons, perpetual calendars and multifunction chronographs. Historical models continued their dominance in terms of design, with a lot of attractive options available in various price-points.

The brands were re-organised via a US$455million refurbishment of the halls, designed by the same architects as the iconic Bird’s Nest in Beijing, Herzog and de Meuron. The redesign gave way to a more modern ambience and facilities, and while there were fewer exhibitors because of the smaller space – 1,460 compared to 1,815 last year – the organisers proclaimed it a move toward “quality, not quantity.”

Hall 1 is now for global brands, Hall 2 international brands, Hall 3 for jewellery and Hall 4 for the machine and supply industry. For this feature we zero in on Hall 1, were most of the watch brands were located, and the vast majority of stands had new designs.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Like the last couple of years, historical pieces were as significant part of many brands’ offerings.

One of the most talked about, even before the watch fair began was Rolex’s Cosmograph Daytona, designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the model made famous by actor and motor racing enthusiast Paul Newman. As always, many aficionados were expecting Rolex to present a special piece to commemorate the milestone, but didn’t know what it was going to look like. The first Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona came in steel with a manually wound chronograph movement. It was created in 1963 and named after the famous racetrack, and Newman famously wore one when he took up auto racing in the 1970s. His watches are what collectors now refer to as the ‘Paul Newman dial’, with block indices and crosshairs on the subdials.

The new commemorative Cosmograph Daytona comes in a 40mm platinum case, with an ‘ice-blue’ dial and a chestnut brown bezel. The colour scheme and the materials are both firsts in the collection. The tachymeter bezel comes in Rolex’s Cerachrom, and the movement is the selfwinding chronograph calibre 4130.

Tudor continues on its successful path in reviving old models with the Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue following the black and grey chronographs of 2010. Inspired by the Monte Carlo reference 7169, it comes in a brilliant blue and orange, with applied hour markers that resemble the painted tritium ones of the 1970s. The hands are filled with superluminova, The brands were and the dial features two subre-organised dials, one for small seconds, via a US$455 and the other a 45-minute counter. The bi-directional million upgrade rotating bezel comes in blue to the Basel halls, aluminium, while the rest designed by Herzog of the watch is in stainless steel. The case, at 42mm, is and de Meuron water-resistant to 150 metres.

Powered by an automatic movement, the watch comes with a multicolour fabric strap or a stainless steel bracelet.

Jack Heuer, Tag Heuer’s honorary chairman, has announced his retirement at the end of the year, and to mark the occasion, he designed a new watch under the Carrera series, inspired by a vintage Heuer stopwatch and the brand’s Mikrogirder Chronograph. The 45mm Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph is fitted with the in-house 1887 movement (named after the year Edouard Heuer, HKGOLFER.COM

the company’s founder and Jack’s great grandfather, invented his famous “oscillating pinion”). The crowns and push buttons have been designed on the top of the watch because Jack is left-handed.

The Carrera Chronograph features Heuer’s signature and the family crest on the caseback.

Blancpain celebrates the 60th anniversary of its iconic Fifty Fathoms by presenting the Bathyscape, a slimmer model that belonged to the historical Fifty Fathoms family in the 1950s.

The watch comes in a stainless steel or titanium case (43mm) with a grey or black dial and a choice of NATO or two-piece sailcloth strap. While the design is vintage the construction is definitely modern, with a sapphire crystal caseback, a ceramic bezel and a Liquidmetal scale. The watch is powered by Blancpain’s automatic 1315 calibre.

ACTION-PACKED TIME With a continued focus on living better and healthier, sports watches with multiple functions are as popular as ever.

HKGOLFER.COM

Breitling’s Emergency II is a watch with a wristtype dual frequency Personal Locator Beacon (PBL) that emits a signal to help the wearer be found and rescued. The watch can be worn every day, but targets aviation and navigation personnel, mountain climbers, hikers and explorers. Originally introduced in the 1990s, the watch was the first of its kind to emit a signal using a 121.5 MHz analogue frequency. The feature can save your life, like it did an Alaskan man who was rescued from potential disaster because he activated his Breitling beacon.

The latest version has a dual frequency transmitter that alternately operates in two separate frequencies, 121.5 MHz, and 406MH, and a 52mm titanium case with a black, orange or yellow dial. The Emergency II has rechargeable battery and its own charger.

While not formally exhibiting in Basel, the English brothers that make up Bremont, Nick and Giles, presented their novelties via an evening reception. The latest addition to its CONTINUED ON PAGE 86 HK GOLFER・JUN 2013

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CLUBHOUSE | DRIVING RANGE

TOP DOWN FUN

THE CHARMING NEW BEETLE CABRIOLET LOOKS SET TO BE A SURE-FIRE WINNER FOR VOLKSWAGEN, WRITES BEN OLIVER.

I

’ve always regarded a Volkswagen cabriolet as a very Hong Kong kind of car, modern Golf underpinnings. It refreshed the perhaps for no reason other than that my father-in-law, a long-term expatriate coupe again in 2011, and this is the soft-top resident, had a Beetle cabriolet in the ‘70s and used to drive it with some version of this latest Beetle. exuberance on the roads around the Peak as a younger man, and because my It’s a much better-looking car than the wife fondly recalls being driven to swimming or tennis model it replaces, and you can lessons at the Hong Kong Country Club as a child in her really play-up the retro looks with It’s a much bettermum’s Volkswagen Rabbit cabrio, roof down in the sunshine, some of the paint and wheellooking car than singing along to a cassette of bad pop music. trim combinations, and create a the model it But these are fine, sensible cars for an urban, often warm stunning cabin by carrying some of and sunny market: small enough to cope with city traffic and those body colours into the interior replaces, and you tight parking spaces, affordable yet with a touch more prestige panels. can really playthan a Japanese brand, without the excessive engine power But underneath, the new up the retro looks of some open-topped sports cars, which you’ll never use on Beetle is entirely modern, with a Hong Kong’s busy roads, but with the ability to make the most choice of 1.2 and 1.4-litre directwith some of the of the sunshine, when it appears. injection turbocharged petrol paint and wheelThe new version of the Beetle cabriolet was the star of engines. These might sound a little trim combinations the latest Los Angeles motor show and is just going on sale small but they produce surprising now. The original Beetle design dates to the 1930s, and it power: 105PS for the smaller unit, was built continuously from 1945 to 2003, in its latter years made only in South and a massive 160PS and 240Nm of torque for America. Volkswagen introduced the ‘New Beetle’ elsewhere in 1997, based on very the 1.4; more than sufficient for Hong Kong’s

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HKGOLFER.COM

SCORECARD

Volkswagen Cabriolet 1.4 TSI How much? HK$350,000 Engine: 1,390cc, four-cylinder turbocharged

160PS at 5,800rpm

Transmission: Seven-speed

DSG automatic gearbox Performance:

0-100kph in 8.6 secs, 205kph

How heavy? 1,468kgs

roads and a perfect illustration of why such ‘downsized’ engines are a hot trend in automotive engineering right now, combining strong power with lower purchase and running costs, and lower emissions. The seven-speed DSG gearbox offers full manual control, or works as a seamless automatic – you choose.

So how does it drive? With great charm. While I’m used to driving – and reviewing in these pages – cars of considerably more potency, the Beetle cabrio wins you over with its fine ride, good build quality, neat touches–such as the wind deflector that leaves the cabin calm and unruffled with the roof down even at illegal speeds, and the pleasure you get from getting into such a striking looking car and from seeing others’ smiling reaction to it as you drive. In fact it has a better public-reactionto-price ratio than most supercars, and yet you can park it anywhere. Like I said, it’s the perfect Hong Kong transport.

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CLUBHOUSE | LIQUID ASSETS

MAN OF THE MOMENT ALI NICOL TALKS TO WINEMAKER DEAN HEWITSON, WHOSE PASSION AND FORWARD-THINKING APPROACH TO AUSTRALIAN WINE HAS MADE HIM ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S MOST SOUGHT-AFTER PRODUCERS.

T

he legendary Australian wine critic James Halliday once said that Dean Hewitson makes “wines with flair” and obviously there is a reflection of Dean himself mirrored in each and every bottle of wine he makes.

Outgoing in nature and a true lover of the great outdoors, Dean has made a mark for himself as an accomplished winemaker over the years spent toiling in the vineyards firstly on one of Australia’s great wineries, Petaluma, and now for himself at Hewitson.

But it all could have been completely different.

“I actually got accepted in to study film producing," Dean tells me as we sip one of his Old Garden Mourvedre’s in Hong Kong’s Upper House Hotel bar at Café Grey. “But then I got to the dancing and singing auditions and I thought maybe I’m in the wrong field here as I can’t dance or sing! So I looked down the list of options and winemaking was there."

The world can now breathe a collective sigh of relief that, even as it will never know if Dean was to be the next Baz Luhrmann, at least the international circle of wine lovers can feel blessed that his tone deafness and two left feet steered him in the direction to make some of Australia’s greatest wines.

“It all started at an early age,” says Dean. “My family had a couple of friends who had a very small vineyard that got pulled up on the vine pull, but prior to that as a kid I was exposed early on to wine and without that I would have probably never heard of the wine industry."

These days, Dean works on some of the oldest vineyards, and in some cases the oldest vineyards in the world. His internationally acclaimed Mourvedre, of which we taste a vertical from 1998 to 2010, is crafted from the oldest Mourvedre vines on the planet which were planted in 1853 by Friedrich Koch and are still owned by the family that originally planted the vines.

These vines are all pre-Phylloxera and Dean himself admits that having the family that has 30

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owned them for seven generations farm the Asked if having worked abroad – Dean has worked in Beaujolais, Provence, land for him is a good thing. “This is a perfect Bordeaux and Oregon – has allowed him to define his own winemaking style, Dean arrangement because after so many generations exclaims: “Oh there’s no question about that. You’ve got to travel if you’re a winemaker, they know more about the land than I ever would." so if you’re from the old world you’ve got to go to the new world and if you’re from But it wasn’t easy getting his hands on these the new world you’ve got to go to the old world, just to understand it. It helps you to now 160-year-old grape-producing understand what you’ve got, just hearing and reading vines. “I wanted to start my own business about it isn’t enough, you’ve got to go and experience it “I actually got so literally went around, saw these old and realise that they do certain things for certain reasons." vineyards and knocked on the growers Let’s consider the old and the new world. Australia accepted in to study doors," he says. “With this one in particular, has the oldest vines in the world but is regarded as new film producing. the Mourvedre, he [owner Leon Koch] world, I put to Dean. Surely it must annoy Australian But then I got to did not know me from a bar of soap – I winemakers to be considered old world when you are got a lot of "no’s" also along the way – but quite clearly one of the older wine producing countries the dancing and he said OK and he gave me a go I guess." of the modern day? singing auditions Eight rows of this rare and unique Dean’s reply is simple and enthusiastic. “It is true we and I thought maybe do make wine in the ‘new world’ but we have the oldest planting remain at Rowland Flat and from these vines is where Dean makes his vineyards in the world – it’s kind of an oxymoron if you I’m in the wrong much lauded single varietal wine called like. The fact that the Barossa Valley has the oldest Shiraz, field here as I can’t Old Garden. Geologists have confirmed Cabernet, Mourvedre, Grenache, Semillon and Riesling dance or sing!” that the Old Garden sits on what was the vineyards in the world means that we are in fact older bottom of an ancient lake, once part of than the ‘old world’! I think that message is the one that the Para River. The secret to the vines longevity is we need to highlight – Australia has the oldest vineyards in the world." their extremely long roots burrowing over 30 feet And without these great old vineyards there would be no Old Garden Mourvedre. down into the prehistoric ground.

It must be said, these wines have aged gracefully and, tasting through the different “The roots of these vines are so deep that even vintages with Dean you can see the passion he has for each wine. “There is a definite on the hottest day, while every other vine in the and obvious variation in each vintage due to the climatic conditions of each year," Barossa Valley has shut down, the Old Garden’s Dean says. “The cooler years produce wines with more elegance whilst the warmer leaves are bright and perky, tracking the sun as if years give you more intense and powerful wines.” each leaf is a radar," says Dean.

When push comes to shove, Australia may have a reputation for making massAlthough the Old Garden is a great wine from produced, easy drinking wines with little to no complexity, but this certainly isn’t great old vines, it still takes a great craftsman to craft the case with Hewitson’s wines and most definitely not the case with the Old such a respected wine. Dean has an undergraduate Garden Mourvedre. As Dean heads off to Shanghai for the next leg of his world tour degree from Roseworthy, the internationally celebrating the 160th birthday of these terrific Mourvedre vines, one is left to ponder renowned centre for excellence in dry land whether were there not more winemakers with the passion and perseverance of Dean agriculture and part of the University of Adelaide. Hewitson, would not a lot more Australian wines be up there with the best wines from Not content with just that, Dean then attained the rest of the winemaking world? his Masters degree from California’s UC Davis, the Hewitson wines are exclusively imported and distributed in Hong Kong by pinnacle of America’s centre for studying oenology Kedington Wines. Contact: info@kedwines.com; (852) 2898 9323. and winemaking.

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| TALES FROM THE BOX

The

Current

Climate

In this new column covering the European Tour, internationallyrecognised golf commentator Julian Tutt talks us through his mini-Asian swing through Korea and China.

B

Daniel Wong (Tutt); James Cheadle (Blackstone); AFP (Rumford and Howell)

allantine’s produce a very fine whisky – or so I’m told. Not being an expert I rely on my colleague Dominique Boulet, who many of you will know and who is a semi-professional expert in the ways of top-drawer Scotch. Dom is unlike my other colleague, Dougie Donnelly; a true Scotsman, Dougie is known, in his native land at least, as a teetotal (i.e. he eschews the amber nectar). This was a shame for him because when we turned up at the Ballantine’s Championship on the outskirts of Seoul in late April, the sponsor’s product was much in evidence.

Dougie certainly missed out.

The Ballantine’s was a fine championship, despite the absence of star names Dustin Johnson, his namesake Zach and Alvaro Quiros, the ridiculously long-hitting Spaniard. They were – at least their management companies said they were – too nervous about the current political situation on the Korean peninsula to travel. Fortunately, the nearest we came to seeing a mushroom cloud was the dark pall hanging over Dom after four nights of testing the sponsor’s product.

I don’t mean to make light of a potentially serious situation, but where and when players play is becoming a serious issue in golf, particularly for the European Tour. Their

Clockwise from right: the impeccably presented Blackstone Golf Club, host of this year’s Ballantine’s Championship; Brett Rumford continued his winning ways at the Volvo China Open; David Howell was guilty by his ignorance of the Rules in Tianjin 34

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counterparts across the Atlantic – and the Pacific, for that matter, given the reach of the European circuit – the PGA Tour, has always attracted and continues to attract the best players from around the world. But in the current economic climate, in Europe especially, potential sponsors are not queuing up outside Tour HQ at Wentworth begging to be allowed to cough up £2 million or so for the privilege of watching journeymen professionals line their pockets with, arguably, indecent amounts of gilt.

The legacy of pathfinders like Ballesteros, Faldo, Lyle, Woosnam and Langer is in danger of being squandered by the self-interests of many of today’s young “wannabes”. The issue of appearance money – and say it quietly! – has to be tackled before it destroys the Tour. When players who are being paid fail to turn up, what hope is there?

According to the learned Mr Boulet, the course at Blackstone Golf Club, venue for the Ballantine’s Championship, is relatively flay

by Korean standards. It should be noted that this was a judgement made by a man who spent four days viewing proceedings from the comfort of his air-conditioned commentary box. He might have seen the course: but it was from his reconnaissance in a super-intelligent, Rolls-Royce of a cart that required no human intervention at all (in Korea, the land of advanced technology, they drive themselves).

These buggies are the land equivalent of an executive jet on auto-land, but without the same sort of thrust. Having walked the course for four consecutive days I can assure you that even mountain goats would be demanding extra rates for the challenge. But well done to the seriously fit Brett Rumford. His towering 5-iron to three feet for an eagle to win the playoff opens another page in the history in the Ballantine’s history books.

From Blackstone to Binhai Lake in Tianjin, the new home of the China Open, which has been sponsored by Volvo for countless years. A flat, open course with really tricky greens and surrounds presented a totally different challenge for Rumford, but his game was tailor-made for the challenge. On Saturday, he missed nine greens in regulation and yet still made nine pars, some of them of Seve-esque proportions.

It was a brilliant master-class of chipping and putting, and it eventually gave him back-to-back wins, something no Australian has done on Tour since Jack Newton, who achieved the same feat a few years before most of the field was even born.

The odd it y of t he week was t he disqualification of England’s David Howell.

In Thursday’s opening round he hit a ball that moved after he had started his backswing. He told his playing partners, and assured them that it was within the Rules, and there was no HKGOLFER.COM

The issue of appearance money – and say it quietly! – has to be tackled before it destroys the Tour. When players who are being paid fail to turn up, what hope is there? penalty. It was only the following evening, when one of his fellow competitors casually asked a tour referee about the situation that it emerged that Howell was wrong and should have been penalised one shot. He had therefore signed for a score lower than it should have been and when he came to the course on Saturday morning he was disqualified.

Rule 14-5 (Playing a Moving Ball) states that there is no penalty “under this rule” if a player strikes a ball that moves after he has started his backswing.

However, it doesn’t absolve you from penalty under any other rule – and Rule 18-2b clearly states that if the ball moves after address there’s a one-shot penalty.

David was guilty of “a little knowledge being a dangerous thing”, and paid the price. Rather like Tiger Woods with his now infamous two-shot penalty at The Masters, David was condemned by his own honesty. Well done to them: no one would have known any different if they had not spoken up, albeit in Tiger’s case there was an element of boastfulness.

But the truth remains: both parties were guilty by their ignorance of the Rules.

It’s something that happens so often now and it beggars bel ief t hat professiona l golfers do not have a better understanding of the laws of their game. That said, the Rules are incredibly complex, and any attempt by the R&A and the USGA to simplify them has to be welcomed. Good luck!

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Weather Claims Pro HK Event The appalling weather of late has taken its toll on le coq sportif Golf Championship, which has been cancelled.

The HK$1 million professional event, which was due to be played on 24-25 June over the North Course at the Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course, was won last year by Australia’s Scott Barr (pictured), an Asian Tour regular. But the tournament’s organizer, Hong Kong Descente Trading Limited, was forced to take drastic measures after almost constant downpours affected the condition of the Gary Player-designed layout.

“The dates were fixed with consideration to the golfers’ schedules in the region as well as other parters of the championship, including the courses, sponsors, co-organizers and the media,” said Descente’s President Kenneth Lee in a prepared statement. “We are sad to inform everyone that this year’s le coq sportif Golf Championship will not be held. Despite this, we are looking forward to gathering even better resources to host an even better event in the near future.”

Lam Finds Form in the States Two-time Hong Kong Close Amateur champion is enjoying his college life in the States – and backing it up with a number of fine performances on the golf course.

Lam, 19, who enrolled at Santa Barbara City College, which is ranked as the number one community college in the country, at the end of last year, fired rounds of 68 and 69 to take medalist honours in the 36-hole Western State Conference Men’s Golf Finals at the end of April. His seven-under-par effort also helped his team, the Vaqueros, shoot a season best to win the event comfortably. SBCC finished the conference in second place behind the College of the Canyons Cougars.

“I’m really enjoying it here in Santa Barbara, it’s so beautiful – we’re really close to the Pacific Ocean,” said Lam (pictured), a Hong Kong international regular for the past five years. “We’re able to practice on some great golf courses and I’ve been playing pretty well, too. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Williams On a Roll Daniel Wong (Lam); Patrick Leung (Barr)

Just a week after his win at the Munsingwear Hong Kong Seniors Amateur Championship (see page 38), Doug Williams was in the States finishing runner-up at the Long Beach Senior Championship in California.

The event, one of the most prestigious in the region and part of the popular Long Beach Golf Festival, saw Williams card rounds of 73, 75 and a brilliant 67 on the final day, to finish just two shots behind champion Jon Levitt.

“My career as a senior golfer is starting off pretty well,” joked Williams, who turned 55 in February.

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2013 HKGA Interclub League Standings

Played

Holes Won Holes Lost

Net

Hong Kong GC

1

35

25

10

Discovery Bay GC

2

56

47

9

Shek O CC

2

52

61

-9

Clearwater Bay G&CC

1

20

30

-10

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37

HKGA | TOURNAMENTS

Man of the moment: Williams takes dead aim with a wedge during the final round of a championship in which he cruised to victory

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Coming of

Age

Doug Williams put in a classy display at Fanling last month to win the Munsingwear Hong Kong Seniors Amateur Close Championship at his first attempt, writes Alex Jenkins.

Photography by Daniel Wong

W

i lliams, who became eligible for the tournament after turning 55 in February, carded a blemish-free 70 in the closing round to finish nine shots clear of the field and will surely be rewarded with a place in the Hong Kong side for November’s AsiaPacific Senior Amateur Championship. The American was consistency personified on the final day, making 17 pars and a solitary birdie over an at-times rain-swept Old Course.

“I’m feeling my age right now,” quipped Williams, a member of the Hong Kong Golf Club, who opened up with rounds of 75 and 72. “It was a hard slog in the rain and I was out of breath on nearly every shot.”

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With his victory, Williams becomes the first player to have won both the Hong Kong Close Amateur Championship (a feat he achieved in 2006) and its senior equivalent.

Joe Pethes, one of Hong Kong’s all-time great senior players, is a three-time winner of the event. His 226 total earned him a tie for second spot and victory in the 60-64 age division

Two other Fanling members, Tony Taylor and three-time Seniors Close champion Joe Pethes, finished in a share of second, with defending champion William Chung a further 10 shots back in fourth.

Williams, whose fine amateur career to date includes a win at the 1982 Spanish Amateur Championship, was quick to point out the advantage that he and other Hong Kong Golf Club members had at this year’s event.

“The Old Course is tricky, so knowing its nuances helped for sure,” he said.

With his victory, Williams becomes the first player to have won both the Hong Kong Close Amateur Championship (a feat he achieved in 2006) and its senior equivalent, which was introduced in 2003.

“It was a pretty unspectacular round to be honest,” said Williams of his closing one-underpar effort. “But my game has been good recently and while I didn’t make many putts, I hit a lot of solid shots and hit a lot of fairways. If you’re able to keep the ball in play you’re going to score better.”

His convincing performance was made all the more remarkable after overcoming sciatic nerve pain on the eve of the championship.

“I couldn’t sleep and I could barely walk but I’m fine now,” Williams explained. “As you age you have to take care, you have to be a bit more careful. Golf is fun for me at the moment and keeping injury free is the goal.”

Munsingwear Hong Kong Seniors Amateur Close Championship 1

75 72 70

217

86 82 89

257

2= Tony Taylor

75 76 75

226

3

19 Matajiro Nagatomi

85 90 84

259

77 73 76

226

20 Ng Kwok-kuen

87 87 87

261

82 77 77

236

21= Hau Wing-wah

85 87 91

263

77 79 84

240

87 85 91

263

6= Akiyoshi Kubota

78 85 78

241

23 Ricky Leung

88 86 90

264

Chu Koon-ching

83 75 83

241

24 Youn Jae-ung

85 88 92

265

8

Motonobu Yanai

78 84 80

242

25= Cheung Mau-cheong

88 91 87

266

9

Nicky Au

82 80 82

244

90 88 88

266

10 Peter Reed

82 83 83

248

27= Brian Soo

97 83 87

267

11 Lee Kab-soo

79 80 90

249

Peter Aherne

86 86 95

267

12 Kim Dong-kyu

84 85 82

251

29 Tommy Shiu 4

92 89 88

269

13 Kam Muk-yau

87 86 79

252

30= Chow Tak-yiu

91 87 92

270

14 Pang Kin-wing

79 91 84

254

91 86 93

270

15 Brian Harris

88 90 78

256

16= Tony Lau

87 89 81

257

86 84 87

257

Joe Pethes

4

William Chung

Daniel Wong (Lam); Patrick Leung (Barr)

5

40

Doug Williams 1

2

Roderic Sage

Fursy Chung

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1 2 3 4

Masanori Yoshino

Liu Kin-leung

Wong Yick-chiu

Mao Lim-kong Denotes Division 55-59 Winner Denotes Division 60-64 Winner Denotes Division 65-69 Winner Denotes Division 70 & Over Winner

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Akiyoshi Kubota, a Discovery Bay member, in action

Defending champion William Chung blasts from a bunker during a final round of 77

Tony Taylor finished in a share of second with a total of 226

Motonobu Yanai secured a top-10 finish with a final round 80 Roderic Sage got off to a solid start with a firstround 77

Chu Koon-ching, the 2011 winner, placed tied-sixth

Doug Williams and his hard-earned silverware

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN

Champagne Louis Alex Jenkins sits down with world number eight Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, for an exclusive interview at the recent Ballantine’s Championship in Korea.

T

h ere are good times to interview a professional golfer, and there are bad ones. This was looking for all the world like the latter. Just moments earlier, Oosthuizen had missed a five-footer for par on the final hole of the second round of the Ballantine’s Championship, which was taking place at the impressive Blackstone Golf Club in Seoul’s chilly hinterland.

The South African hadn’t played badly at all – he was still very much in contention – but that bogey on 18, his only dropped shot of the round, looked for all the world to have darkened his mood. “He doesn’t look very happy, does he?” said a Ballantine’s representative helpfully as we watched him trudge off the green.

I had never met the 2010 Open champion and, to be honest, I was a little nervous after watching what had just happened. Talking to a jetlagged Afrikaner who has just three-putted from within birdie range doesn’t have all the hallmarks of a great interview. But I needn’t have worried. Oosthuizen, it would seem, likes the press – he was the first Open winner to send champagne into the media centre since Tony Lema in 1964 following his victory at St Andrews – and minutes later, up in the interview room, Oosthuizen walks in after signing his card and introduces himself with a broad smile – that famous gap-toothed grin – and a friendly handshake ...

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We’re at the Ballantine’s Championship – but coming from Mossel Bay, where you own a restaurant, you’re probably a bit more interested in wine than you are the sponsor’s product ...

[Laughs]. True! Although I did try a little bit of whisky at the Gala Dinner, which went down well. But you’re right. The restaurant we have – Route 57 – is doing well and we now have the Louis 57 range of wines. We’ve just launched the Double Eagle, which is a sweet wine, and the Open Championship, which is a shiraz. It’s a good hobby to have on the side.

I’ve got a good mate and we use his winery.

It’s all going really well and we’re now looking to take it overseas.

The big news for you over the past year has been moving your family to a base in Florida.

How difficult a decision was that to make?

It was interesting. After I won The Open I wanted to give myself a chance on the PGA Tour. You have to play with the very best in the world. The first year – in 2011 – I didn’t like it; I didn’t play very well. But I told myself to give it at least three years to see how I settled in. Then I had a great 2012 and really started loving the place and the types of golf courses. It was then that I decided to move. My kids are still very young, so it made sense to move before they started school.

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James Cheadle

All dressed up: Oosthuizen on the night of the Gala Dinner at the Ballantine’s Championship in Seoul, Korea, April 2013

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You have said before that being a part of Ernie Els’ junior foundation was instrumental in helping you make the decision to turn pro, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that you’ve started your own junior golf academy ...

That’s right, although we’re quite a bit smaller than Ernie’s foundation. We’ve got eight kids, all from around the Mossel Bay area and we go to the local schools to find kids who really want to play – who maybe can make a living out of golf one day.

It’s all about giving them opportunities to play in tournaments, which is something I benefitted so much from with Ernie. The oldest is 17 and the youngest is only 11 and they’re a great bunch.

One of our little ones just finished second in his age division at the World Junior Championship, so it’s great to see the guys playing well.

Another young golfer who is playing well and who is much in the news is China’s Guan Tianlang. What did you make of his achievements at Augusta?

Well, I saw him on the range, but I wasn’t very happy that he beat me [laughs]. He was great.

He’s not a long hitter of the ball because he’s still very young, so to play that golf course the way he had to – going in with rescues and woods into the par-4s – was something else. For a 14-year-old to make the cut – I don’t think we’re going to see that again for a while.

Obviously the Masters provided plenty of rules drama following the Tiger drop, but what are your thoughts on the slow-play penalty imposed on young Guan?

You know, there are a few things to probably look at. With Woods, I think the officials misinterpreted the rule completely. With Guan, I think it was his fourth or fifth warning, but maybe they could have handled it better by letting him play first and telling him afterwards.

He was in a situation where he’s trying to make the cut – and I think he was pretty close to the cut line at the time – so it was probably better waiting until after to have a chat with him.

But you know, this game can be tough. I don’t think it was an easy decision for [referee] John Paramor to make, but he had many warnings, so he had a chance [to speed up].

It looks like you’re going to miss the US Open because your wife is expecting your third child during the same week. How has fatherhood changed the way you approach the game?

Yeah, golf is what I do for a living but it’s definitely not everything to me. I’ve got two beautiful kids and a lovely wife and I enjoy the time we have together. They travel with me a lot, 44

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too. It’s great walking off the course and going to the house or hotel and seeing them. They don’t give a damn how my day on the course was, but it’s just a great way to relax afterwards.

The Open returns to Scotland in July for the first time since you won at St Andrews in 2010. What is it about links golf that you so enjoy?

All the different shots you can play. You’ve got five options playing it from 50 yards out. On any other golf course you’ve only got one or two options, so I like the shot-making opportunities of links golf and I’m sure Muirfield , which I have never played, is going to be a great challenge. There are not many times the defending champion has a chance to defend the Claret Jug on a course he’s won on before, which will be the case for Ernie this year, so it’ll be good be fun to see what happens.

If you’ve never played Muirfield you’ll presumably be quizzing him about the course as much as possible?

I will try and play all the practice rounds with him. It’s more about seeing the way he plays the course; seeing what clubs he takes off some of the tees. But with all the experience he’s got I’m going to make sure he shows me a few things out there for sure.

How fresh are your memories of 2010?

You almost forget what it was like until you put in the DVD and watch those final nine holes.

It’s a great memory. I haven’t actually watched it for a while but I will before Muirfield. The thing that was nice was having that lead playing 17 and 18. I was really able to take it all in.

Normally in a major that’s not the case. Like at Augusta last year. I didn’t take anything in because the last two holes and the play-off were so intense. It was great at St Andrews to be able to walk up 18 and have the luxury of being able to four or five putt and still win.

And then a lengthy session in the Jigger Inn afterwards ...

[Laughs]. Yeah, that was a great time. We left there late and then continued in the house we were staying in afterwards. There were four of us – my wife and I and two friends. Great memories. My little girl was six months old and she was sleeping upstairs while we carried on.

Where do you keep your Claret Jug? My replica is back in South Africa. I also have four half-size versions. One of those is at the restaurant, one is with my dad and the other two are at the golf club in Mossel Bay. HKGOLFER.COM

James Cheadle

Vintage Louis: Oosthuizen moments after the conclusion of this interview. “I’d love to go out and gives these old clubs a go,” he said

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2010 was the 150th anniversary of The Open and as well as the Claret Jug you were also presented with a replica of the Challenge Belt, the championship’s original trophy ...

Yes, that was a sweet deal [laughs]. The belt is in my safe back in South Africa. Whenever I’m back at the farm I’ll take it out and wear it around the place, but otherwise it’s in the safe.

Are you at all disappointed that the R&A has decided to make a few changes to the Old Course?

I’ve really got no idea of the changes, none whatsoever. I heard they were going to do something but I couldn’t tell you what [laughs].

Yeah. KT Kim [Kim Ky ung-tae] played beautifully today. I don’t want to count the number of putts he had because I had so many!

So he stands a chance. I hope guys like KJ Choi and YE Yang can get on the team. They’re both great putters and you need to putt well at Muirfield Village. But yeah, I’m really looking forward to the week, especially after missing out

How do you explain the rise in recent times of South African players? Yourself aside, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Richard Strerne, George Coetzee, Tim Clarke and Ernie Els all look like making the International side ...

All of us have to give Ernie and Retief [Goosen] the credit for winning their majors, as we all wanted to follow in their footsteps. Trevor [Immelman] came along and won at Augusta, and although he’s struggled with injuries he’s playing better now. Timmy has also come back from injuries. Me and Charl grew up together, we played junior golf together, and we’re probably going to play all the better ball matches together because we’re so comfortable in each other’s company. South Africa is a sporting nation and whenever we get in a situation to win we want to show the rest of the world that South Africa is on the map.

Speaking of Charl, and as ridiculous as it sounds, he seemed more disappointed than you were last year after you narrowly missed out at Augusta ...

AFP

The ecstasy of winning the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews in 2010 (note the Challenge Belt, top); the agony of losing to Bubba Watson for The Masters last year after the American’s miraculous escape during the play-off (opposite).

2013, of course, is a Presidents Cup year. Coming here to Korea – is that a good chance for you to catch up with a few potential teammates?

two years ago in Melbourne. I think this year we’re going to have a lot of South Africans on the team, so it’s going to be a special week.

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“Golf is what I do for a living but it’s definitely not everything to me. I’ve got two beautiful kids and a lovely wife and I enjoy the time we have together. They travel with me a lot, too, but they don’t give a damn how my day on the course was.”

[Laughs]. Well, yeah, I know he really wanted to be handing the Green Jacket over to me – that would have been something else; for two guys who grew up playing golf in South Africa to almost be involved in something like that. It was sad; it would have been a dream come true. We’ve talked about it a lot ... he’s a great friend and you never know, maybe it will happen in the future.

I know the International Team has lobbied to try and have the format for the Presidents Cup changed so that it’s the same as the Ryder Cup – ie playing for a total of 28 points instead of 34 and a reduction in the number of foursome matches – but that’s not going to be the case this time around. How important do you think that decision will prove to be?

Yeah, it would be nice to have the same system as the Ryder Cup, which allows you to have your strongest team out there every time. But I think we have a great chance anyway. All of us who look like making the team know each other and we’re going to try and play a few more practice rounds together. The team spirit is definitely there, so it’s just a matter of how much we want it.

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How well do you know Nick Price, the captain of the International side?

I’ve gotten to know him really well in the last year. Me and Charl often go up and see him – he lives quite close to us in Florida – and have a barbeque and we like to shoot clays together. He’s a great guy. Coming from Zimbabwe, he’s one of the guys we looked up to growing up. I remember watching him win all those Million Dollar events in South Africa on TV when I was little. It’s going to be great fun with him and Tony Johnstone and Mark McNulty as his assistants.

Your swing is one of the most admired in the game, with everyone from Nick Faldo to Johnny Miller raving about your rhythm. But has it always been like that?

I think my rhythm is pretty close to how it’s always been but the swing itself has changed quite a bit. I’m always working on it, sometimes with my coach Pete Cowen, trying to get rid of that wayward shot that can cost a double bogey.

At the end of the day, when you’re not swinging well you go back to your old natural swing. Sometimes that’s a good thing; sometimes it’s not. But my play at The Masters [where he missed the cut] was more down to my putting than anything else.

If you’re back at home and not got an event on, how would you spend your perfect weekend?

Watching the Miami Heat play on the Friday night and then watching my team – the Stormers – play rugby on TV on the Saturday morning. Then we’ll put something on the grill, usually some steaks, and chill out in the pool on Sunday with the kids. That’s pretty much my perfect weekend.

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| US OPEN PREVIEW

The

Resurrection of a Classic It has taken over two decades for the US Open to return to the East Course at Merion, one of the most historic clubs in America. But as Paul Prendergast explains, the wait will be more than worth it.

E Courtesy of the USGA

ven the most ardent of Merion Golf Club members thought they would never see the day when their pride and joy, the historic Dick Wilson-designed East Course, would once again grace the world stage by hosting a major championship.

Like many of the grand old layouts created in the early part of the 20th century, an era that has become known as the golden age of golf course architecture, Merion, the pundits said, had been outgrown by "developments" in the game. Modern technology and the increasingly large logistical exercise that today's professional events thrust upon a host venue had rendered Merion, situated on the outskirts of Philadelphia, obsolete; it was just too short and too small to host a fifth US Open. Fortunately, the pundits were wrong.

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Divine nine: the front nine at Merion closes with this challenging par-3

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Despite its grand history, Merion will be unfamiliar territory to most golf fans and all but a few players ... defending US Open champion Webb Simpson hadn't even been born when the championship was last staged.

Courtesy of the USGA

In the mid-1990s, this historic club took a long, hard look at itself and came to the conclusion that it would take something radical to convince the USGA that it had the wherewithal to test the world's best; it needed to tend to its famed bunkering, restore its wily greens to their former glory and embark on a significant tree removal programme. Remarkably, the club took on these changes "in-house" without the project being led or guided by a full-time course designer. The results were impressive, even to the USGA who duly granted the club the 2005 US Amateur Championship. Of the 312 players that entered, only six broke par and nobody shot better than a 69 in the stroke play portion of the event, which was eventually won by Edoardo Molinari.

Merion's membership, who knew full well that the USGA loves nothing more than when a course comes out on top, wore broad smiles: Merion was back.

Following the success of the Amateur, the USGA formally made the announcement that 50

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had traditionalists cheering: the US Open would return to Merion in 2013, adding to the memorable championships of 1934, 1950, 1971 and 1981, the last of which was claimed by Australian David Graham.

"No potential Open site had been through such rigorous review," says Craig Ammerman, a former member of both the USGA's championship and executive committees, when recalling the vote and preceding debate that took place.

It now means that this month's winner will join a roster of Merion champions that is second to none. It has also returned a sense of pride to the members of this most distinguished and traditional of clubs. "[The US Open] It's kind of in the DNA of the club," 2005 US Walker Cup Captain and Merion member Buddy Marucci says.

Olin Dutra, Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino and David Graham have all been crowned US Open champions at Merion but the venue was also the setting for the historic "Grand Slam" in 1930, achieved when Bobby Jones clinched the final at the 11th hole to win his second US Amateur at the club. Jones had earlier set himself up for a tilt at the Slam by winning the US Open, the Open Championship and the British Amateur, criss-crossing the Atlantic by ship over a four-month stretch. Jones promptly retired from tournament play following this win and a gold plaque to the right of the 11th tee commemorates the momentous occasion.

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That six-footer to win the Ryder Cup “was such a fine line between being the hero and the biggest idiot,” he says.

Despite its grand history, Merion will be unfamiliar territory to most golf fans and all but a few players who were fortunate enough to have played in the US Amateur and Walker Cup in recent years. Defending champion Webb Simpson hadn't even been born when the championship was last staged, although he did contest the 2005 Amateur, losing in a second round match to Anthony Kim. WGC-Match Play champion Matt Kuchar was celebrating his third birthday on the very day Merion last crowned a champion back in 1981.

Australian David Graham, already a major champion after winning the US PGA Championship in a play-off over Ben Crenshaw two years earlier, shot a near flawless final round 67 to defeat playing partner George Burns and a fast-finishing Bill Rogers by three strokes.

The then 33-year-old Graham’s performance that day was heralded by none other than Ben Hogan as one of the greatest final rounds in history, an accolade of the highest honour coming from the man who set the benchmark in history for shot making and ball striking. Graham hit all 18 greens in regulation and found all but the first fairway off the tee in an exhibition of control as he climbed from three strokes behind Burns to win.

Hogan himself had famously won a the 1950 US Open at Merion after returning to competitive HKGOLFER.COM

golf following the car accident that nearly claimed his life the previous year (see The Miracle at Merion on page 54).

Graham’s win upstaged the title defence of Jack Nicklaus, who was seeking a record fifth US Open title, and Tom Watson, who was at the peak of his game, bidding for a first national championship which would ultimately arrive the following year at Pebble Beach. A decade earlier, Nicklaus had lost in a play-off to Lee Trevino at Merion which has been enshrined in golfing folklore for Trevino tossing a rubber snake from his golf bag at an amused Nicklaus as they waited to tee off on the first hole.

Nicklaus had written his own chapter into the Merion history book many years earlier when, as a 20-year-old amateur, he won the inidivdual title at the 1960 World Amateur Team Championship – the Eisenhower Trophy. Nicklaus' four-round total of 269 was 13 strokes clear of his nearest challenger. The US team won the event by a record 42 strokes.

Graham’s seven-under par total in 1981 was at the time the second lowest 72-hole score in US Open history over a Merion layout that measured a little over 6,600 yards. This was in the era of wooden clubs and balata golf balls and even then, the USGA were nervous about the length of the golf course and its capacity to protect itself from the greatest players in the world.

David Graham (top) put on a putting clinic during the final round of the 1981 US Open, the last time the championship was played at Merion; red wicker baskets, rather than flags, are the order of the day at this throwback-era course HK GOLFER・JUN 2013

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Courtesy of the USGA (Merion); Getty Images (Trevino)

Clockwise from top: the famous “Quarry” hole – the 16th – at Merion; rugged bunkering is very much in evidence; Lee Trevino and his now infamous “snake” routine 52

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The Championship Committee ensured the small, undulating greens were lightening fast and the rough off the fairways and around the green complexes was thick enough to complement the property’s sandy waste and quarry areas, along with the dune grasses and ‘Scotch Broom’ that frame many of the bunkers and waste areas.

Despite their concerns, the "Old Lady" was up to the test with only five players in the field of breaking par that year.

This month, the players will still face a golf course that is considered short by modern standards – it comes in at just under 6,900 yards – despite the clubs acquisition of some neighbouring land and by broader decisions to reduce spectator movement and hospitality in some areas of the property. The fact of the matter is that with only 126 acres of room to play with, the golf course can't be lengthened any further because there is simply no room.

Changes to the course in preparation for this particular championship have been made progressively. Strategic bunkering has been added on the second, 15th and 16th, while the third sees a new tee,and will now play a backbreaking 256-yard, uphill par-3. Fairways will be narrowed to between 22 and 24 yards and the USGA will do away with an "intermediate" or a "first cut" of rough due to the prevalence of shorter holes.

“Merion is not a golf course that jumps out for the graduated rough like others because of the premium of short holes,” USGA Championship Committee Chairman Tom O’Toole said

recently. “With short holes you have to play from the fairway and if you are not, there has to be a punishment. You’re not going to see the graduated rough on the short holes.”

One idiosyncrasy of Merion, one that is sure to both charm and intrigue players and spectators alike, is the use of wicker baskets that replace

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flags on the top of the pins. The baskets have been a feature since the club opened and reputedly came about after course designer Dick Wilson, on a trip to Scotland, noticed the local sheep herders using wicker baskets atop their staffs in order to protect their lunch from the animals.

Other versions of the origin of the baskets abound and many golf courses of the era in the United States and the British Isles reportedly used them, although most spurned the idea fairly quickly.

The baskets, of course, give no help to players trying to ascertain wind direction on their approach shots.

“A lot of today’s greatest tour golfers haven’t played here, or maybe didn’t even know about Merion until it came back into the US Open lineup again,” says Hank Thompson, the USGA’s championship director. “Based on the number of tour players who came over to play Merion while they were in town for the AT&T National (in 2011) at nearby Aronimink Golf Club, I’d say there is quite a mix of curiosity and excitement.”

All of the greats in the history of the game have tested their skills under championship conditions at Merion and only the worthiest of champions have been identified on each occasion, results that have no doubt pleased the USGA over the years who justify the setup of US Open courses to achieve this singular goal. It will not be lost on the players that they face a rare opportunity to win a national championship at a truly historic venue and a wonderfully, unique golf course.

Jack Nicklaus has said that "acre for acre, Merion may be the best test of golf in the world," and it will be intriguing to watch the players of the modern era approach the challenge set by the century-old course. Will the subtleties of the layout finally be overpowered in true US Open conditions or will discipline, strategy and shot making once again reign supreme?

No matter the outcome, having a golf course of this calibre and tradition host America's national title will be a thrill for all concerned.

Particularly those who thought they'd never see it held at Merion again.

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Jack Nicklaus has said that "acre for acre, Merion may be the best test of golf in the world," and it will be intriguing to watch the players of the modern era approach the challenge set by the century-old course.

NUMBERS GAME

5 16 6,996

On completion of the 2013 championship, Merion will have hosted the US Open on this number of occasions. One of the most historic and decorated clubs in the country, Merion enjoys the distinction of hosting more USGA events (the US Open will be its 18th) than any other club in America.

I t was this many months after Ben Hogan sustained lifethreatening injuries in a car crash that he won the US Open at Merion. Hailed the greatest comeback in the history of the game, Hogan defeated Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio in an 18-hole play-off. He would go on to win another five majors for a total haul of nine to cement his legendary status.

Is the length, in yards, of the East Course at Merion. The layout, which plays to a par of 70, is the shortest course to stage a US Open since Southern Hills, was which 6,973, in 2001.

"There's going to be more birdies made at this US Open than any we have seen in recent history," said USGA Executive Director Mike Davis.

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US OPEN | LOOKING BACK

Old Golf Images

Shot for the ages: Hy Peskin's famous photo of Hogan ripping his 1-iron to the heart of the green at the last hole of regulation play in 1950. Hogan would go on to beat Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio in the next day's 18-hole play-off 54

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The

at Dale Concannon recounts the remarkable history of Ben Hogan's 1950 US Open win, arguably the most courageous comeback the game has ever seen.

I

n many ways Merion and Ben Hogan were made for each other.

In a remarkable story that could have been penned by a Hollywood scriptwriter, the game’s biggest hero returns from a life-threatening automobile accident to win one of golf’s glittering prizes over arguably the toughest course in the world. Few adjectives can truly capture the drama. No wonder it has since been named the “Miracle at Merion."

It all began on a fog-shrouded night in the early hours of the 2nd February, 1949.

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Hogan had just lost an 18-hole playoff against his long time buddy Jimmy Demaret at the Phoenix Open in Arizona. The new season was barely a month old but the price of success was already taking its toll on the reigning US Open and PGA champ.

Widely acknowledged as the world’s top golfer “Bantam Ben” had just come off consecutive victories at the Crosby and Long Beach tournaments. Nobody expected him to lose to Demaret, least of all Demaret, but lose he did. Three weeks on the road living out of a suitcase had left Hogan feeling physically tired and mentally jaded. Life had

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Old Golf Images

Hogan’s car, pictured years later, after his horrific crash in February 1949 (top); the poster for Follow the Sun (opposite), the popular Glen Ford movie which documented Hogan’s miraculous escape 56

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become a seemingly endless parade of professional tournaments and exhibition matches in backwater towns up and down the country.

Desperate for a break, Hogan made the fateful decision to drive the thousand or so miles from Phoenix back to his home in Fort Worth, Texas.

It was a journey that he and his wife Valerie would not complete. Crossing a two-lane bridge near the town of Van Horn in Culberson County, Texas, Hogan's Cadillac collided head-on with a Greyhound Bus after it swung into his lane while overtaking a slow-moving truck.

Protecting his wife Hogan took the full force of the collision which saw the engine pushed into his driver's seat. Miraculously Valerie received only minor lacerations but her husband was in a bad way. It took well over an hour for an ambulance to reach the crash site on a still fogbound Highway 80. Barely conscious he was taken to a nearby clinic for emergency treatment before being transported to El Paso Hospital 150 miles away.

Diagnosed with multiple fractures including a broken collarbone, a smashed rib, a double fracture of the pelvis and a broken ankle, internal bleeding was also suspected. Still in shock Valerie received an update on his condition later the same day – her husband was not expected to live.

Joined at his bedside by his brother, the successful Fort Worth businessman Royal Hogan,

a period of relative stability ended abruptly after blood clots begun to form in Ben's legs. Flying in a top surgeon from New Orleans named Dr Alton Ochsner, Hogan made the decision to tieoff the principal vein in both his legs which, while saving his life, opened up the terrifying possibility that he may never walk again.

His health took another dip a week later after he suffered a pulmonary embolism. Unable to catch his breath after his right lung collapsed, nursing staff admitted the only reason Hogan was alive was because of his extreme fitness before the accident.

Making a slow and painful recovery the next two months were spent all but immobile in a hospital bed. Leaving El Paso Hospital in early April, a wheelchair-bound Hogan thanked everyone who had helped saved his life. Then almost as an afterthought he told his surgeon before leaving: “Watch out for me, Doc ... I ain’t finished yet."

Transferred to a physical rehabilitation unit near his home in Forth Worth, Hogan now weighed just 119 pounds compared to his previous fighting weight of 140. Not that it mattered that much. He had made a miraculous recovery and just 59 days after he was dragged out of his Cadillac Sedan bloody and broken, William Ben Hogan finally walked through his own front door.

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That six-footer to win the Ryder Cup “was such a fine line between being the hero and the biggest idiot,” he says.

In the first week of May, Hogan asked Valerie to submit his entry for the upcoming US Open scheduled for Medinah. She laughed it off but he insisted that she make the journey to the local post office to send the telegram. Still barely able to walk she knew (and perhaps he did) that he was never going to make that particular date with destiny but a year later at Merion, the dream became an unlikely reality.

The first clue that a comeback was on the cards came after Hogan was spotted playing a few holes at Colonial Country Club in early December. Using a single-seat golf cart, the seven months in between had been spent building up strength in his battered legs – first from the embrace of his wheelchair, second from endless hours walking the street near his home. (Fearful that he would push himself too far, Valerie would often travel around the neighbourhood in a car looking for him).

His game unrecognisable, Hogan sensibly played down speculation about a return to tournament golf, telling one reporter who telephoned his home, "Don't waste your time writing about me ... people are tired hearing about Ben Hogan. They're interested in the guys HKGOLFER.COM

Diagnosed with multiple fractures including a broken collarbone, a smashed rib, a double fracture of the pelvis and a broken ankle, internal bleeding was also suspected ... Hogan was not expected to live. who are playing now. It will not be long before they forget all about me."

Two months later Hogan turned that comment on its head by returning to competitive action at the Los Angeles Open at Riviera Country Club. Affectionately known as "Hogan's Alley" after his 1948 US Open victory, he asked tournament organisers to leave his name off the starting list for as long as possible in case he was forced to withdraw. When he did finally turn up for the opening round in early January there was an audible intake of breath from the assembled crowd. Visibly underweight, the effect was made worse by a pair of loose-fitting trousers which he wore to hide the heavy linen bandages he used to aid circulation in both legs.

A nervy opening round of 73 was followed by three consecutive rounds of 69.

Matching Sam Snead's total of 280, an epic Californian rainstorm postponed the 18-hole play-off for 24 hours. Still not enough recovery time for the still aching Hogan, "Slammin' Sammy" beat him 72-76 to take the title. Talking to reporters afterwards, Snead admitted: "There are only three things I fear on a golf course – lightning, a downhill putt and Ben Hogan."

Invited to play in the Phoenix Open a week later – almost precisely 12 months after his career-threatening accident – Hogan understandably declined. Out of respect, the organisers renamed that year's tournament, the Ben Hogan Open.

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His game unrecognisable, Hogan sensibly played down speculation about a return to tournament golf, telling one reporter who telephoned his home, "Don't waste your time writing about me ... people are tired hearing about Ben Hogan."

Old Golf Images

Cemented: the plaque commemorating Hogan’s 200-plus yard approach to the 72nd hole during the 1950 US Open (top); “The Hawk” and his wife (opposite) following his victory that year 58

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In May, Hogan got his revenge on Snead by winning the Greenbrier Open in the Slammer's own back yard at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Matching the all-time world record score for a 72-hole tournament of 259 (21-underpar), he said: "I'm picking up where I left off ... " Nobody was arguing, least of all Sam Snead.

The comeback was all but complete. All that was needed now was a fairytale ending, and the 1950 US Open at Merion in June seemed a perfect fit. Having finished in a tie for fourth at The Masters, Hogan was immediately installed as the “fans favourite” to win the second major of the year.

Famous for his meticulous preparation, he surprised everyone by spending the weekend before the championship playing in the “National Celebrities (Pro-Am) Golf Tournament” in Washington DC. Happy to play the straight man to Hollywood stars like Bob Hope and Danny Kaye, he was introduced to the crowd by Attorney General Harold J McGrath who praised him for having completed “the most courageous comeback in sports ...”

Arriving at Merion Golf Club, 11 miles west

of Philadelphia, Hogan became annoyed when reporters pestered him with questions about his legs. "I feel fine" was his stock reply. But in the privacy of the home he rented off Ardmore Avenue, he expressed genuine doubts whether his limbs would hold up.

In the three days leading up to the tournament Hogan rarely ventured onto the treelined East Course. With the final two rounds played on the Saturday, and hot weather predicted for the week, he restricted the amount of practice holes to just 18 on the Tuesday and five holes on the Wednesday in an effort to preserve his strength.

Predictably there was growing speculation in the press that he had not acquired enough knowledge to make a credible challenge. What few of them knew was the “Hawk” had spent four days before his trip to Washington DC secretly mapping every inch of the testing 6,694-yard layout.

Billed as a “Battle of the Giants” between Hogan and top US money earner Snead, interest was intense. With record crowds expected the USGA took the unprecedented step of raising the total prize money from US$10,000 to US$14,900 on the eve of the championship. Not that it made any difference to the determined 37-year old Texan. Having been denied the chance to defend his title 12 months earlier he would have played for shirt buttons given the chance.

Leading the field by a single stroke after rounds of 72 and 69, Hogan cut a lonely, almost isolated figure. Striding down the Merion fairways with his eyes fixed firmly on the ground ahead of him, he rarely uttered a word to anyone other than his caddie. “He was a cold, detached artisan on the course likened by some observers to an undertaker weaving a shroud of defeat for his adversaries,” wrote author Will Grimsley some years later.

Just 16 months since his brush with death Hogan played each shot as if it were his last, which for once had a resonance of truth. “Close up you could see his face grimace with pain,” said British golf writer Percy Huggins who followed the action in 1950. “And with two rounds played on the final day, it just got worse and worse ..."

A slight stutter in his normally metronomic HKGOLFER.COM

long game on Saturday morning, saw Hogan (72) overtaken at the top of the leader board by Lloyd Mangrum (69). After a short break for lunch, part of which Hogan spent re-adjusting the thick bandages which encased his increasing aching legs, he stepped onto the first tee of the final round knowing that he could afford few mistakes.

With 15,000 fans swarming across the Pennsylvanian course, American star George Fazio was the first to post the clubhouse lead with a seven-over par total after a 70. Mangrum, the former war hero, struggled home in 76 to match him but neither man considered that enough to shut out the prowling Hogan.

But “Bantam Ben” had his own problems.

Coming off the 11th green he led by three strokes with just seven holes to play. The tournament was his for the taking but struggling badly, the Texan star fell forward after his tee shot at the 12th. Gesturing to his friend Harry Radix to join him, he clung to his shoulders like a drunk around a lamppost saying: “My God, I don't think I can finish.”

Later describing how his “legs had turned to stone” Hogan only needed to play the final four holes in one-over par to win. Suffering from poor circulation since his accident, the limp which was barely visible at the start of the week now became pronounced. Exhausted by having to play 36-holes in one day in what was only his seventh tournament in nearly a year and a half, he bogeyed 15 and 17 in quick succession.

Encouraged to “buck up” his ideas by the caddie appointed to him for the week, Hogan arrived at the 448-yard 18th hole needing a par to match Fazio and Mangrum in the clubhouse.

Finding the centre of the fairway with his drive, he summoned all his skill and experience to strike a perfect 1-iron approach over a grassed-over quarry into the heart of the raised green. “It was,” said 1949 US Open winner Cary Middlecoff, “the purest stroke I've ever seen.”

Two putts from 40 feet gave him a 74 as excited fans ran onto the green in an effort to grab his golf ball as a souvenir. Matching the 287 total of Mangrum and Fazio, an 18-hole play-off was scheduled for the following day. As for Snead, he finished the week seven strokes back and was back in Virginia giving lessons by the time they teed off.

After such drama, nobody expected – or indeed wanted – Hogan to fail. Fairytales simply do not have rotten endings, and why should this be different? But the signs were not good. The first problem facing Hogan was that someone had stolen his trusty 1-iron (or 2-iron if you believe some accounts) from the Merion locker room over night. The golf shoes he had worn all week had also gone missing and, despite an investigation by the caddie master, neither could be located.

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Finding the centre of the fairway with his drive, he summoned all his skill and experience to strike a perfect 1-iron approach over a grassedover quarry into the heart of the raised green.

“It was,” said 1949 US Open winner Cary Middlecoff, “the purest stroke I've ever seen.”

Stolen equipment aside, the biggest problem that concerned Hogan were his legs. Swollen and aching, he spent most of the previous evening soaking them in warm salt water to ease the pain.

(Hogan later admitted the most tiring part of the entire week was getting over and under the gallery ropes).

Chatting with Jimmy Demaret on Sunday morning, Hogan seemed more positive. He was still tired but his legs felt better. He even outlined a game plan which included breaking his rivals’ spirit over the front nine and hopefully cruising to victory before his physical strength gave out.

True or not it worked with Fazio who ultimately fell away with a 75. But Hogan's famous cold stare fared less well with the more experienced HK GOLFER・JUN 2013

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Old Golf Images

Laughing it off: Hogan shares a joke with Jimmy Demaret (above) after the latter wins the Phoenix Open. This photo was taken just hours before Hogan's date with destiny along a fogbound Highway 80 60

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Mangrum. Still in contention with three holes to play, “Mr Icicle” trailed Hogan by a single shot standing on the 16th green. Looking to make a strong finish he noticed a fly clinging to his ball.

Reaching down he picked it up and blew the insect away. Under PGA tournament rules, which he had been playing all year, cleaning the ball was allowed. Unfortunately for Mangrum, under the USGA rules which governed the US Open it was not. Hammered with a soul crushing two-stroke penalty, it widened the gap to three and his race was run. “Fair enough,” he said afterwards. “I will eat tomorrow no matter what happens ..." Holing a 50-foot bomb for a birdie on the 17th to go even further ahead, Hogan’s dominance was complete. Finishing with a 69, he beat Mangrum by four and Fazio by six.

The first time in US Open history that pros who made the halfway cut were assured of receiving cheque, Hogan collected his US$4,000 before retreating to a private room to remove the bandages which by now had become almost unbearable. “He was in quite a bit of pain,” recalled Fred Byrod of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“He even admitted at one point he didn't think he'd be able to continue.”

Lifting the same trophy he had claimed before his accident must have given him pause for thought. His place in golf history assured, Hogan continued to pay a high price for that fateful night in Van Horn. After Merion, he played no more than seven tournaments a year because his legs could not take the physical stress of walking 18-holes. Swelling up every time he walked any great distance, his left shoulder caused him pain right up until his death in 1997. Despite this, the record books show that he won 63 tournaments, including nine major championships – six of which came after his crash.

His inspirational life story was captured on film when Glenn Ford agreed to play him in the 1951 movie Follow the Sun. Recreating the crash and his comeback from injury it proved a popular choice at theatres all over America.

Sixty-three years on and the United States Open returns to Merion and the scene of perhaps his greatest ever triumph. As the drama unfolds on Sunday afternoon, one can only speculate if Hogan’s ghost will be looking down and wondering: “How would I have got on against these modern stars?”

My bet is very well indeed ...

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US OPEN | EQUIPMENT

of the

Gear

Greats

We’re sure to see plenty of memorable shots hit at Merion this month, but will any go down in golfing lore? Charlie Schroeder highlights some of the most famous moments in US Open history – and reveals the clubs that were used to make them happen.

Francis Ouimet

Tom Stewart Mashie 1913

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Getty Images

This year’s US Open marks the 100th anniversary of Francis Ouimet’s dramatic victory over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. After struggling early during his final round, the 20-year-old amateur bounced back to tie Vardon and Ray for first place at the end of regulation play. His big shot came on the 17th hole when he hit his Tom Stewart mashie (equivalent to today’s 5-iron) to 15 feet and drained his birdie putt.

The next day in driving rain, the “stripling scarcely out of his teens” – as the New York Times described Ouimet – played his best golf of the tournament and soundly defeated the illustrious British pros in an 18-hole play-off. Today, Ouimet is known as the “Father of Amateur Golf” in the States and historians point to his victory as the spark that ignited Americans’ interest in the game.

The USGA, conductors of America’s national championship, owns four clubs Ouimet used in the 1913 Open, including his famous mashie.

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Ben Hogan

Ben Hogan “Personal Model” 1-Iron 1950

Needing a par to get into a play-off with Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio, Ben Hogan, 16 months removed from a near fatal car crash, found himself exhausted and 200 yards from the 18th green. He pulled his “Personal Model” Ben Hogan 1-iron and hit his shot to the centre of the green and two-putted for par. The photo of Hogan in his follow through, captured by Hy Peskin (see page 54), is one of the game’s most iconic images.

It was a remarkable turnaround for a man who’d broken his collarbone and ankle and suffered a double fracture of his pelvis. (During the tournament Hogan’s legs were bandaged from his waist to his ankles). Remarkably, the Hawk’s 1-iron was stolen from his locker that night and didn’t reappear until 1982 when it was discovered in a Virginia collectors’ shop.

Nevertheless, Hogan went on to defeat Mangrum and Fazio the following day to claim his second US Open title.

Jack Nicklaus

MacGregor JNP Classic 1-Iron 1972

Associated Press (Nicklaus); Getty Images (Hogan and Watson); AFP (Woods and Mickelson)

Holding a comfortable three-shot lead heading into the 71st hole at Pebble Beach’s hellishly tough par-3 17th, Jack Nicklaus selected his MacGregor JNP Classic 1-iron and told himself not to hit the ball to the right. At the top of his swing Nicklaus did a remarkable thing: feeling a breeze blowing in off the Pacific Ocean, he made an in-swing adjustment. As he’d later put it, “My timing was so good that week.” Indeed it was.

The ball landed a few feet in front of the flagstick, bounced once, hit the pin and settled about four inches from the cup. Although not decisive in his victory, the near hole-in-one remains one of the US Open’s most memorable shots.

Tom Watson

Wilson Dynapower Sand Wedge 1982

Pebble Beach’s 17th hole is again the scene of drama as Tom Watson approached his short chip shot after watching his long iron fail to stop on the green. His caddie, Bruce Edwards, encouraged him to get it close. That was a tough proposition.

The ball was in thick fescue and on a downslope.

But Watson, who was tied with Jack Nicklaus for the lead, had bigger plans. “Get it close? Hell, I’m 62

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Tiger Woods

Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Putter going to make it,” he told Edwards.

Using a Wilson Dynapower 56-degree sand wedge he’d found in David Graham’s garage, Watson abbreviated his follow-through so the ball flew only eight feet and landed just a couple inches onto the green. From there it sped toward the hole where it rattled the pin for an unlikely birdie. After a short victory lap around the green, Watson pointed at Edwards and said, “I told you I was going to make it!”

The 32-year-old went on to birdie 18 for a two-stroke victory over Nicklaus. Of his eight major wins, it was his only US Open. Today, the Wilson wedge is on display at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

2000 & 2008

What was more remarkable, Tiger Woods’ 15-shot victory at the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach or his dramatic 2008 win at Torrey Pines that he pulled off on a broken leg? Hard to say. Each is amazing in its own right. In both, Woods, arguably the best putter of all time, wielded his Scotty Cameron Newport 2 blade.

While the rest of the field struggled at Pebble, Tiger made an incredible 21 birdies en route to his record-breaking score of 12-under par (later broken by Rory McIlroy’s stellar 16-under par route at Congressional in 2011). At Torrey, eight years later, Woods birdied 13 holes (including a dramatic 15-footer on the 72nd hole) and eagled three others to force a play-off with Rocco Mediate. He won the next day.

Incredibly Woods, who’s won 13 of his 14 majors with the Newport 2, changed putters at the 2010 Open Championship at St Andrews. Today, he plays Nike’s Method 001. Conspiracy theorists claim that he made the switch because Nike was the only sponsor to stick with him during his infidelity scandal.

WAYWARD DRIVER: PHIL MICKELSON Callaway Fusion FT-3 Driver 2006 “I am such an idiot.” That’s how Phil Mickelson summed himself up in a post-round press conference after the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot. Holding a one-shot lead heading into the 72nd hole, Mickelson only needed a par to win. Having hit just two fairways all day, you’d think Lefty would have pulled his 4-wood (he wasn’t carrying a 3-wood) and knocked it down the fairway. Nope. He opted for his Callaway Fusion FT-3 driver and cut it so hard his ball careened off a hospitality tent.

From there things got downright surreal. His next shot, a 3-iron, hit a tree and advanced only 25 yards and his third landed in a greenside bunker. He blasted out and eventually made a double bogey six. Ugh. Just writing about it gives me agita. Geoff Ogilvy won the tournament, which would have been Phil’s third consecutive major victory.

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US OPEN | COLIN MONTGOMERIE

The

Bridesmaid Colin Montgomerie, heroic Ryder Cup player, eight-time European Order of Merit champion and recent Hall of Fame inductee, famously never won a major – although he did come agonisingly close on four occasions at the US Open, writes Lewine Mair.

E

Every time the US Open comes around, some well-meaning soul will remind Colin Montgomerie of those occasions – there were four of them – when he missed out on winning that major by the proverbial whisker.

European Tour Order of Merits. At the same time, he accepted that the player’s Ryder Cup record – Montgomerie never lost a single in his eight appearances – was similarly impressive. However, especially in the case of the latter, he made it plain that any amount of wins in a Ryder Cup context could not compare with a ‘major’ triumph.

“In the Ryder Cup, he said during a visit to Loch Lomond a day or so after he had made his feelings public, “you only have to beat one person on a single day. In a major, you have to beat 150 odd players over four days ... There is no comparison.”

AFP

This year, the Scot might find such recollections altogether more painful than usual for, had he succeeded in seizing any one of those opportunities, he could well have avoided the latest ‘Monty controversy’. Or, to play it safe, what was the latest controversy in this inimitable character’s life when this magazine went to press.

On the same May day as Montgomerie was admitted to the World Golf Hall of Fame, Tony Jacklin, a former Open and US Open champion, declared that Hall of Fame honours should go only to those who had won majors.

While stressing that he had “nothing personal” against Montgomerie, he said that the Scot did not belong in that company. In his eyes, the only “worthy” players were those who were major winners.

Jacklin did not deny that Montgomerie, the 2005 Hong Kong Open champion, had done something pretty special in winning eight

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So close: Monty reacts to a missed putt during the 1997 US Open at Congressional; the Scotsman (inset) making his acceptance speech into the World Golf Hall of Fame last month HKGOLFER.COM

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Back in 1992, Jack Nicklaus actually congratulated Monty both to his face and on TV for becoming the first Briton to capture the title in 22 years after he carded a brilliant final-round 70 in high winds.

AFP

Jacklin, who reminded his audience that Raymond Floyd shared his sentiments, said that his vote – all Hall of Famers have a vote – had gone to Ian Woosnam, the 1991 Masters champion.

That said, Jacklin moved on to the hub of the matter; the thing that would seem to have riled him and the other over 50s rather more than anything else about Montgomerie’s new status.

Where he and the other seniors had had to work their tails off to get into the Champions Tour in the States, Monty, thanks to his Hall of Fame credentials, was how an automatic qualifier for that particular little goldmine.

You would have to suspect that the senior contingent might well have been inclined to let the matter lie had not Monty made the somewhat rash comment that he was taking aim at a Grand Slam of senior majors.

Tom Watson, rather than Jacklin, was the first to speak out on that front.

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While this quintuple Open champion conceded that it would make for a ‘major’ story when Montgomerie joined the Champions Tour, he none the less wasted no time in indicating that he might find the senior scenario a whole lot tougher than he thought.

“I fully expect Colin to play well out here as he still drives the ball great and can hole putts, too,” said Watson, who won the Hong Kong Open title in 1992, 13 years before Montgomerie.

“But the question for Colin and others like him is, ‘Can they dominate the Tour?’ The only two to have done that in the Tour’s history are Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin.”

Monty does have this habit of putting his foot in it – of that there is no doubt. Only last year, he made the mistake of putting himself forward for a second stint at the Ryder Cup captaincy when he would have done better to keep a dignified silence and see if they, the committee, came to him. After all, there was every reason to suppose that they might. He had done a first-class job in every respect in winning at Celtic Manor in 2010 and it would have been madness not to take him into account when they were pondering on who would be best for Gleneagles, a venue which is no more than 10 minutes away from his home.

In the event, the mere fact that he had HKGOLFER.COM

indicated that he was the man for the job seemed to galvanise the minds of those who felt that the role should not be hogged by one individual. Not at a time when there were too many players with sound captaincy credentials for too few Ryder Cups. Monty could not have been more generous when the post was given to Paul McGinley but the coverage of events had not been the best from his point of view.

Going back to the vexed question of how he qualified for the Hall of Fame without winning a major, how close did he get in those aforementioned US Opens?

Back in 1992, Jack Nicklaus actually congratulated him both to his face and on TV for being the first Briton to capture the title in 22 years. (Jacklin won his US Open in 1970).

Montgomerie had posted a last-round 70 for an aggregate of 288 which, given the high winds at Pebble Beach, looked like an unassailable tally.

Then came Tom Kite and Jeff Sluman, playing together and involved in an skirmish so intense that the elements were only of secondary import.

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Both men overtook the luckless Monty, with Kite finishing first and Sluman second.

“I don’t,” Montgomerie would say later, “harbour any ill will towards Nicklaus for what he said. I was pretty damned positive that I had won and thousands of others shared that view.”

Two years later, in 1994, he pulled up on the same 279 tally as Loren Roberts and Ernie Els, a situation which paved the way for the following morning’s 18-hole play-off. On this occasion, as he has since admitted, he donned a dark shirt which did not marry with the sticky heat. He was hot and bothered even before he began par, double-bogey, double-bogey on his way to the 78 which had him missing sudden-death between Roberts and Els by four shots.

Els won that day and he would defeat Montgomerie again at Congressional in 1997.

Monty’s mistake that year was to wait for the crowd to calm down at the 18th before he tackled the five-footer he needed on the nearby 17th green to stay level with the South African.

When it came to him that the crowd were not

Monty was a stalwart for Europe during countless Ryder Cups, seen here celebrating at the 2006 match at Celtic Manor with Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey (top); letting things slide at the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot, where he squandered his best – and probably last – chance of major success HK GOLFER・JUN 2013

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Winged Foot in 2006 was more painful. He will tell you that the biggest ‘if only’ attached to his eventual loss to Geoff Ogilvy was his choice of a 7-iron for his approach into the green.

AFP

Another runner-up finish came at the 2005 Open Championship at St Andrews, although Tiger Woods was really in a class of his own on that particular week 68

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remotely interested in keeping a respectful silence for overseas players, it was too late.

“By the time I felt ready to putt,” remembered the Scot, “the doubts you can have over any length of putt if you stand over it for long enough had caught up with me.” He missed and Els won by one.

Winged Foot in 2006 was more painful. He will tell you that the biggest ‘if only’ attached to his eventual loss to Geoff Ogilvy was his choice of a 7-iron for his approach into the green after a brilliant drive. He miscued and ended up with a six when a par four would have given him the win he craved.

Away from the US Open, a holed 30-footer from Steve Elkington did for Monty in the USPGA of 1995, while he also had a second place behind Tiger Woods in the 2005 Open at St Andrews. Mind you, it was not a close second.

Though he was in the picture over the first half of the final round, Tiger gave him a mauling over the back, eventually winning by five.

The main thrust of Montgomerie’s excellent speech on the night of his Hall of Fame Ceremony came as no surprise. It was about those lost majors, the ones that got away. “I’ve enjoyed thoroughly my exploits in major championships but I just haven’t been fortunate, or whatever it takes,” he began.

“There’s always a time when fortune comes into the mix, whether it be for you or against your opponent and it so happens that I haven’t had the fortune to walk through the door. It has been ajar many a time. I just haven’t been able to walk through it.”

The door to the Hall of Fame is another thing again. Though Jacklin and Floyd, to name just two, may not have voted for him, 51 per cent did. And maybe, just maybe, that 51 per cent were taking into account the fact that Monty makes more waves than many of those who have a major or majors under their belts.

The invitation landed on his doormat and there is surely no one so curmudgeonly as to think he should have turned it down.

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TOURNAMENTS | BALLANTINE’S CHAMPIONSHIP

Tasting Success Brett Rumford tames Blackstone course and overcomes top field to claim the sixth edition of the Ballantine's Championship in Korea.

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nspired by Adam Scott’s Masters victory, Australian Brett Rumford sank a four-foot eagle putt on the first play-off hole to win the Ballantine’s Championship at Blackstone Golf Club in Korea late April.

James Cheadle

Earlier, Scotland’s Peter Whiteford faced a similar-length birdie putt on the last hole to win in regulation play, but missed it to card a 69 and join a playoff with Rumford and fellow Australian Marcus Fraser, who had each shot 68 to finish 11-under (277).

Frenchman Romain Wattel (69) finished fourth on nine-under, one ahead of tournament drawcard Louis Oosthuizen (69), the 2010 Open champion.

While Whiteford was signing his card, Rumford made a phone call to swing coach Pete Cowen in England to help him regroup following tee-shots into the trees on holes 17 and 18. After practicing on the first tee, Rumford’s

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fresh ‘swing thought’ helped him drive long and straight on the 543-yard, par-five 18th sudden-death.

He then struck a tournament-winning 5-iron to four feet for an eagle putt he needed to sink, with Whiteford holing his seven-foot birdie putt and Fraser, the 2010 winner, only left with a short birdie putt.

It was a whirlwind final hour for Rumford, who had led for much of the day after firing six birdies on the front nine, which followed five straight birdies at the end of his third round that put him two off the pace and in Sunday’s penultimate group.

Rumford, who followed a bogey on 13 with a birdie on 14, held a two-shot lead heading to the par-four 17th, but a wayward tee-shot led to a penalty drop and a double-bogey that left him 11-under with playing partner Fraser and Whiteford.

Another tee-shot into the trees on 18 meant he needed to sink an eight-foot putt at 18 just to save par, before the Australian benefited from Cowen’s wise words to regroup for a fourth European Tour win and first since the 2007 Omega European Masters.

“It's an honour to win the Ballantine's Championship, but it was an absolute rollercoaster ride of emotions out there this afternoon,” said Rumford, the father of young twins.

“The last five holes from the third round and the first nine holes today put me into position, but one shot can really turn events, and obviously 17 proved that.

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To the victor go the spoils: Rumford collects his fourth piece of European Tour silverware following his dramatic eagle in the play-off; Kim Kyungtae, Paul Lawrie and Bae Sang-moon (opposite) shake their stuff at the Ballantine’s Championship Gala Dinner HKGOLFER.COM

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“It's an honour to win the Ballantine's Championship, but it was an absolute rollercoaster ride of emotions out there this afternoon.”

James Cheadle

Clockwise from bottom: 2010 champion Marcus Fraser and Scotland’s Peter Whiteford tied for second after losing to Rumford in sudden-death; Louis Oosthuizen, the highest ranked player in the field, was brilliant in spells but couldn’t sustain his championship challenge; Rumford with the trophy – and a very special bottle: the Ballantine’s Championship Blend

Peter [Whiteford] had the opportunity to close out the tournament, so obviously hard luck for him, but that opened up the door once again.

“I battled with my driver constantly, so I had a quick word with Pete, hit five or six balls off the first tee and it obviously did the trick.”

The 35-year-old admitted that Scott’s win at Augusta two weeks earlier had inspired many Australians, and said it added a sub-plot to his battle with Fraser throughout the final day.

“Adam Scott has been a huge inspiration, and obviously Greg Norman before that. ‘Scotty’ is such a fantastic role model for all Australians.

He really is a downtoearth, typical Australian, represents everything that we are as a country, so he certainly inspired me, for sure,” Rumford said. “‘Frase’ kept the pressure there all day, so full credit to him. All the respect in the world to him.

He's been playing great golf for such a long while and has always played well around here. But we’re all fiercely competitive, us Australians, so although there was a bit of banter, it was business for most of the day.”

Fraser was unable to capitalise on the opportunities while Rumford was in trouble, but the Melbourne-based 34-year-old was full of praise for his friend’s decisive five-iron in the playoff, even congratulating his compatriot after the shot.

“I got beaten by some pretty good golf today.

That was pretty impressive, that shot into the play-off hole. He'd easily agree it's one of the best shots he's ever hit. To eagle to win a tournament is pretty impressive, so full credit to him,” said the soft-spoken Fraser, who carded a bogey-free final round.

“All you can do is give yourself chances and hopefully you take them. I played the playoff hole really well, hit the second shot a little bit left and hit a great chip to about a foot. That wasn't good enough, but we are big boys and we'll get over it.”

Playing in the final flight, Whiteford had watched all the drama unfold on 17 and 18.

After setting himself up with a delightful chip to four feet at the last, the 32-year-old Scot was unable to convert and will continue to bid for a first European Tour victory to add to his three Challenge Tour wins.

“Guys like me don't get many chances to win tournaments, and whatever it was, four or five feet, I hit a decent putt and didn't go in,” Whiteford said. “But to be fair, at least we got

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beat by a three on the last and didn't throw it away. Brett deserves it in the playoff there.”

Oosthuizen birdied his last two holes for a closing 69 to match his opening-round score on his Ballantine’s Championship debut. Although disappointed with his form on the undulating greens, the South African’s performance will be remembered for a stunning six-under front nine on Thursday, featuring birdies in his first four holes.

“I'm going to take a lot of positives out of it. I probably haven't hit the ball this good in a while. After my first nine, my first round, I struggled on the greens and couldn't really make anything,” said the 2010 Open Champion.

“Today, I just wanted to get a good number in there to at least put my name up on the leaderboard. I had two bad tee shots on 13 and that hole cost me fiveover for the last two days.

A bit unfortunate about that hole, but all in all, it has been a very positive week.”

Thai star Thongchai Jaidee, a five-time European Tour winner, equalled the course record of 65 to share sixth on seven-under with Korean Kim Hyung-sung (67), Scot Stephen Gallacher (68), Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal (73) and Sweden’s Alex Noren (74), the thirdround leader.

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PERFECTLY BALANCED: THE 2013 BALLANTINE'S CHAMPIONSHIP BLEND In addition to taking home the Ballantine’s Championship Trophy, Rumford also took away a prize money cheque for €367,500 (about US$487,000) and a rare bottle of Ballantine’s 2013 Championship Blend, co-created by 2012 champion Bernd Wiesberger and Ballantine’s Master Blender Sandy Hyslop. Rumford received the first of only 10 bottles produced, none of which will be sold.

Since the inaugural event in 2008, Ballantine's has established the unique tradition of producing an exclusive Championship Blend each year, with Hyslop guiding the previous winner through tasting of extremely rate and high quality grain and malt whiskies to assess which flavours he prefers before carefully blending the golfer's selection – and it will be Rumford's turn in 2014.

Wiesberger aside, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell and Marcus Fraser have all been granted the same privilege in previous years.

Austrian Wiesberger, who claimed the Ballantine's Championship by five shots last year for his first European Tour victory, said of his whisky creation: "It was really interesting. A lot like learning about wine and tasting different flavours. They let me pick whichever flavours I wanted and I went with something rougher, more rustic, with an oak-flavour. Nothing too fruity. They just bottled them recently, so I'm hoping to get mine soon, but I don't plan to ever open it. It's something so unique and special to keep that I can't see myself ever wanting to open it."

Ballantine's official tasting notes describe Wiesberger's creation as "silky smooth with fantastic creamy toffee / fudge flavours complemented perfectly by a delicate nutty, oaky background."

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Courtesy of the Farm at Cape Kidnappers

GOLF ATRAVEL Player’s Guide

Bird’s eye view: an aerial shot of the stupendous back nine at Cape Kidnappers, without question one of the most greatest courses in the southern hemisphere 74

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Southern Stunner

Any avid collector of golfing experiences should reach into their pocket and make the trip to the luxurious Farm at Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, home to a brilliant Tom Doak-designed track that is full of drama, originality and beauty, writes James Spence and Alex Jenkins.

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h e lon ge st d r ive at C ap e Kidnappers is that between the public road and the clubhouse.

It takes a full 15 minutes to get from the gate to the cluster of luxury lodge buildings that accommodate and dine those fortunate enough to find themselves staying at this most wonderful of retreats – a journey that takes you through a sheep and cattle station and bush land. This degree of seclusion means that the golf course flows over pristine land, wedged between a working farm and the towering cliffs of the cape.

The back nine extends along several spectacular HKGOLFER.COM

fingers of land, separated by deep gullies that dip down to the sea. From these points you can look beyond the cliffs and along the shore line across the wine country of Hawke’s Bay and, at the other end, the art deco township of Napier.

Incidentally, Cape Kidnappers was so named after Captain Cook’s Tahitian translator was nabbed, but later released, by local Maori after HMS Endevour made landfall there in October 1769. Naturally enough I suppose, the translator in question was delighted to be rid of the place.

Nearly 250 years later I stayed for two nights and didn’t want to leave.

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Doak has been at the vanguard of the mission to return some degree of penalty to landing in sand, and the bunkers at Cape Kidnappers are certainly best avoided.

Courtesy of the Farm at Cape Kidnappers

Clockwise from top: the splendid fifth hole, which asks plenty of questions from the tee; the early holes – here at the par-5 second – are every bit as enjoyable as the spectacular closing stretch; the simply clubhouse as viewed from the 10th fairway; accommodations at Cape Kidnappers are first rate 76

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The owner – American hedge fund billionaire Julian Robertson who also owns the equally well regarded Kauri Cliffs course north of Auckland – and renowned architect Tom Doak, in recognition of the nature of the land have deliberately retained a rugged feel to the course and its surrounds. There is no superfluity. The tees are marked with simple wooden pegs; the clubhouse, though decidedly upscale within, is compact and roofed in the local style with corrugated metal.

The scale of the landscape and generosity of lands available for the layout makes the fairways seem small my comparison. This is a visual distortion that must be dispelled in the golfer’s mind as you need plenty of confidence to hit out at the targets here. The fairways are wider than they look – indeed, they can be considered generous – which makes a great deal of sense. Most will travel a long way and spend a lot of dollars for the opportunity to play here: Cape Kidnappers, while comfortably one of the finest courses in the southern hemisphere is mostly about fun. If the rhythm clicks, it becomes one of the most exhilarating driving courses in the world.

All of the drives have merit but the following might be a list of favourites: the fifth offers a

choice to drive either side of a set of fairway bunkers. The seventh encourages you to hit hard enough to mount a crest and steal some yards.

The 10th runs down to the sea and calls for a long ball that scours the right side of the fairway. The 12th, named ‘Infinity’ presents a version of just that, a slightly crowned fairway extends a long way left and right and the hole’s flag is just visible in the middle of this most appealing of panoramas.

There are other quirks, too, for this is not a regulation par 72 layout. The par 71 is configured as 35,36 and interestingly two of the par-5s on the back nine (the 15th and 16th) are in sequence to take advantage of the long and elongated sweep up to a headland point and back. On most days it’s on the 16th that there’s more to relish. Even though the second shot is played uphill, this is a shorter and less dangerous hole for most players.

The 15th, the aptly-named ‘Pirate’s Plank’, is long (550 yards from even the white tee) and one of the narrowest holes on the course, with a 200foot cliff protecting the entire left side. Doak, in his player notes, writes “four short and straight shots will win the hole more often than not.” I know I won’t be the only one when I confess that, on reflection – and three balls later – four 6-irons perhaps was the better strategy.

The main talking points of the 7,119-yard course, however, are the bunkers and the greens.

Doak has been at the vanguard of the mission to return some degree of penalty to landing in sand, and the bunkers at Cape Kidnappers are distinguished by their rugged, irregular shaping and tufty fringes. Needless to say, they are HKGOLFER.COM

best avoided. The pot bunker that protects the green at the 14th, one of the greatest short par4s that I have ever played, would be sporting a sash and tiara if there were a world pageant for such hazards. The bunker itself is tiny but the catchment area that feeds into this devilish pit is large and incorporates part of the green itself and reminiscent of the “Road Hole” bunker on the Old Course at St Andrews.

There are few straight putts out on the irregular shaped greens. Each one is quite distinctive and many are memorable. There’s one from the right side of the green at the par3 sixth that has to be aimed a whole farmhouse right of the flag. The bowl shape is a common green feature at many old world courses but rare in new designs, so it is a joy to see it used on the 18th, itself an idiosyncratic finishing hole where the partly occluded green peeps at you sheltered by a mound on the left.

Doak, whose reputation since designing Cape Kidnappers in 2004 and his Pacific Dunes course at Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast has skyrocketed, has created a course of great drama, interest, originality and beauty. From the critical standpoint it exposes much of the work of former tour pros turned “celebrity” designers as dull and derivative. In an industry noted for its gigantic egos and questionable sense of taste, Doak is a distinctly different and intelligent architect.

Any avid collector of golfing experiences should reach into their pocket and make the admittedly lengthy trip to the North Island to play this course. It is both beautiful and compelling.

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TRIP PLANNER GREEN FEES (HIGH SEASON)

DINING

NZ$385 (approximately HK$2,400), excluding 15% GST. High season runs from October through April. Low season rates drop by NZ$100. Caddies, which are recommended for the first round at least, cost NZ$60 plus tip. Carts are available – and many guests do decide to drive their way around the course – but given that Cape Kidnappers is on e of th e world ’s great walk ing courses, our recommendation is to eschew motorized assistance.

Cape Kidnappers prides itself on its dining experience, and for good reason. Head Chef Tim Pickering aims to source his produce as locally as possible and the results are regularly spectacular. The dinner menu changes nightly and features the finest New Zealand lamb and beef, as well as seafood. This being one of the country’s most famous winegrowing regions, the Lodge’s wine cellar overflows with any number of superb offerings. Both breakfast and dinner (although not wine) is included in the room tariff, as is cocktail hour, which begins at 6.30pm. During cocktails and dinner, gentlemen are required to wear a jacket.

Courtesy of the Farm at Cape Kidnappers

WHERE TO STAY

It’s hard to pick the most beautiful spot at Cape Kidnappers, but the 12th green is one of several contenders 78

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There are 22 lodge suites – ranging from the 500 sq ft Hilltop Suite to the 708 sq ft Lodge Suite – and all are sublime, offering 180-degree sweeping views of the farm, golf course and Pacific Ocean. Decorated in what I would describe as a ‘Hamptons’ style (visitors from the United States make up the majority of the guests here), each suite features roomcontrolled air conditioning, high-speed wireless internet, a flatscreen TV and DVD combo (mine was hidden behind a wall painting), a spacious bathroom, a walk-in closet and a fully stocked complimentary mini-bar. While you don’t have to be a lodge guest to play the course, an overnight stay on site is well worth the splurge.

The 5-star spa features three treatment rooms and treatments galore, while horse riding, quad biking and mountain biking rounds out the onsite activities.

GETTING THERE Air New Zealand (airnewzealand.com.hk), the nation’s award-winning flag carrier, operates regular direct flights to Napier/Hastings airport from Auckland (flying time: one hour); Cape Kidnappers is a 40-minute drive from there.

Air New Zealand flies nonstop between Hong Kong and Auckland seven times a week (flying time: 10 hours, 55 mins) . The carrier is also a codeshare partner with Cathay Pacific, which also operates daily nonstop flights between the two cities.

CONTACTS The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, 446 Clifton Road, Te Awanga, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

Web: capekidnappers.com; Tel: (64) 6 875 1900

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MEMBERSHIP | SPONSORED FEATURE

Yarra Yarra Golf Club A look at the membership opportunities at one of Australia’s most revered and historic courses.

A UNIQUE GOLFING OPPORTUNITY AWAITS YOU Melbourne’s famous ‘Sandbelt’ golf courses are renowned and revered throughout the golfing world for their blend of sandy soil, moderate climate, and unique international course designs.

Located in the heart of the famous Melbourne ‘Sandbelt’, and less than 20km from the Melbourne CBD, the Yarra Yarra Golf Club has existed and challenged the amateur and some of the world’s best professional golfers for more than one hundred years.

From its earliest days in 1898, the Yarra Yarra Golf Club has been a big part of Melbourne’s golfing history. The primary architect of this renowned Melbourne ‘Sandbelt’ golf course was Alex Russell who, in 1926, had formed a partnership with the famed Alister MacKenzie during his brief visit to Australia. Today, it remains substantially the same as the original layout and, like all great golf courses; it has stood the test of time and consistently rated in the top Australian courses since its opening.

It is also well documented in course architect Tom Doak’s publication “Confidential Guide” – a review of the architecture of the best courses on the planet, that the four par threes at Yarra Yarra are rated seventh (the only course in this category in the southern hemisphere). The par three 11th hole (described by Peter Thomson as a “national treasure”) is invariably in the experts’ collection of the best eighteen holes in Australia.

Many of the world’s great professional golfers have competed in tournaments hosted at Yarra Yarra; from the early years of Walter Hagen, “Babe” Didrickson and Joe Kirkwood, plus one of the greatest golfers of the 20th century, Gary Player, who won his first substantial professional purse at the Yarra Yarra Golf Club in the 1956 Ampol Tournament, to Australian legends such as Peter Thomson and then Johnny Miller, Greg Norman and Ian Baker-Finch. In more recent times Karrie Webb, Annika Sorensten, Jan Stephenson, Rachel Hetherington, and local golfing stars of today that include Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby, both of whom launched their professional careers from their membership as amateurs at the Club, have graced the fairways of Yarra Yarra.

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The Yarra Yarra Golf Club has been awarded the best Pro Am Tournament Course by the Victorian Professional Golfers Association on several occasions throughout its history, recognising the difficulty and consistently high standard of presentation of the golf course, which is known for its beautiful tree-lined fairways with extremely subtle and sloping, firm greens. The most recent was awarded to the Club at this year’s Golf Awards Gala Dinner.

The practice facilities at Yarra Yarra are outstanding and include great practice bunkers, a pitching green, driving range and warm up nets, with two practice putting greens providing the perfect areas to work on your game.

The Clubhouse greets you and your guests with the charm and service of one of Melbourne’s most beautiful and friendly golf clubs. The classic architecture, traditional atmosphere and friendly service will satisfy all your hospitality needs. In addition, the function rooms can cater for varying numbers of guests and the lounges and conference facilities give you a perfect ‘home’ venue for business meetings and seminars.

The Members’ Bar, overlooking the 18th fairway and practice putting green, offers HKGOLFER.COM

MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES: TPR (TRANSFERABLE PLAYING RIGHTS) Suitable for individuals who are new to or do not permanently reside in Melbourne. The advantages of TPR membership are: • Immediate entry (no waiting periods) • Access to full membership with seven day playing rights.

• No entrance / joining fees.

• Applicants must hold a recognised handicap (Australian or International).

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP The feature of Corporate Membership is that it has been designed to maximise the benefit to your organisation in providing golf and entertainment facilities for company staff and their guests with access to one of Melbourne’s best ‘Sandbelt Courses’.

It provides you with an opportunity to host corporate golf days, corporate functions and events, from small to larger numbers of clients and staff, all at a very special location.

The benefits of the Corporate Membership include: • Seven day playing rights and membership privileges for two (2) organisation nominees.

• Up to four (4) nominee changes per Corporate Membership term.

• Special pricing on guest green fee packages, corporate golf days, event management, golf lessons, conference facilities and other services.

• Membership admittance for up to two (2) nominees at the end of the Corporate Membership term.

• Membership is for a three year term.

FULL MEMBER ACCESS This is an ideal membership for persons seeking to play golf with their family and friends who are already members at Yarra Yarra: • M e m b e r sh i p o f f e r s si x d a y p l a y i n g r i g ht s (Sunday to Friday).

• Access to all clubhouse and course facilities.

• Applicants must be introduced by two current members of the Club.

• Waiting periods may apply.

For fur ther details on these unique and limited membership oppor tunities, please co nt a c t t h e M e m b e r sh i p a n d M a r ke t i n g M ana g e r, M e lin da B e cha z o n + 61 3 9575 0575 or email membership@yarrayarra.com. au or General Manager, Ian Robertson email manager@yarrayarra.com.au For information on the Yarra Yarra Golf Club and Club activities and services visit our website, yarrayarra.com.au

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the perfect location for a casual drink and lunch with your guests.

The Golf Shop offers a large range of golf clothing and equipment to suit your every need, plus our PGA qualified teaching professionals provide lessons and advice on how to improve your game.

Event assistance is available from our experienced and professional Hospitality, Administration and Golf Operations Teams. All clubhouse facilities are available for both private and corporate events.

GOLFING MEMBERSHIP OPPORTUNITY The Yarra Yarra Golf Club has a limited number of membership opportunities available across its membership categories. We have vacancies in TPR membership (Transferable Playing Rights) and Corporate membership, plus limited Full Member access (only available to applicants who reside in Melbourne). Please see the sidebar for details.

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GLOBAL TOURNAMENT NEWS

PGA TOUR WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIP Quail Hollow Club, North Carolina 2-5 May , US$6.7 million

ERNST'S MAIDEN WIN

Derek Ernst earned his first PGA Tour victory to secure a place in the following week’s PLAYERS Championship. Ranked 1,207th in the world before the tournament, the 23-year old kept his cool by beating Englishman David Lynn on the first hole of a sudden-death play-off. Phil Mickelson, who was in control for much of the tournament, bogeyed two of the last three holes to only secure third.

Tiger Woods

1 Derek Ernst

USA

67 71 72 70

280 US$1,206,000

2 David Lynn

ENG

71 68 71 70

280

US$723,600

3 Phil Mickelson

USA

68 67 73 73

281

US$455,600

TPC Four Seasons Resort, Texas 16-19 May, US$6.7 million

4= Robert Karlsson

SWE

69 72 69 72

282

US$294,800

MOON LAUNCH

ENG

70 68 72 72

282

US$294,800

6= Ryan Moore

USA

67 75 68 73

283

US$216,912

Kyle Stanley

USA

74 68 73 68

283

US$216,912

Kevin Streelman

USA

68 72 71 72

283

US$216,912

Bo Van Pelt

USA

74 70 68 71

283

US$216,912

10= Ross Fisher

ENG

70 71 73 70

284

US$148,516

Lee Westwood

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP TPC Sawgrass, Florida 9-12 May, US$9.5 million

TRIUMPHANT TIGER

Tiger Woods finished strong to conclude a dramatic final day at TPC Sawgrass and claim his second PLAYERS Championship. Woods recaptured the lead on 16 after a double bogey on the 14th to clinch his fourth PGA Tour victory of the 2013 campaign and 78th career Tour win. His win was assured after Sergio Garcia found a watery grave at the famous 17th hole, which features an island green.

USA

67 67 71 70

275

US$1,710,000

2= Kevin Streelman

USA

69 70 71 67

277

US$709,333

David Lingmerth

SWE

68 68 69 72

277

US$709,333

Jeff Maggert

USA

70 71 66 70

277

US$709,333

5= Martin Laird

SCO

71 67 73 67

278

US$346,750

Ryan Palmer

USA

67 69 70 72

278

US$346,750

Henrik Stenson

SWE

68 67 71 72

278

US$346,750

8= Ben Crane

USA

69 71 72 69

281

US$ 237,500

Sergio Garcia

ESP

68 65 72 76

281

US$237,500

Marc Leishman

AUS

72 66 71 72

281

US$237,500

Sang-Moon Bae collected his first PGA Tour win in Dallas with a superb final-round 69 to edge out Keegan Bradley for the Byron Nelson Championship. Bradley's challenge faltered after poor shots on the 16th and 17th, which set up a comfortable two-shot victory for Bae to go with his 11 international victories on the Japan, Korea and Asian tours. The win moves Bae into contention for a Presidents Cup berth.

1 Sang-Moon Bae

KOR

66 66 66 69

267 US$1,206,000

2 Keegan Bradley

USA

60 69 68 72

269

US$723,600

3 Charl Schwartzel

RSA

63 70 69 68

270

US$455,600

4 Justin Bolli

USA

69 69 68 65

271

US$321,600

5= Morgan Hoffmann

USA

69 71 66 66

272

US$244,550

Martin Kaymer

GER

68 67 69 68

272

US$244,550

Scott Piercy

USA

66 68 66 72

272

US$244,550

8= Charley Hoffman

USA

68 68 70 67

273

US$201,000

USA

69 64 69 71

273

US$201,000

CAN

67 67 70 70

274

US$174,200

John Huh

10= Graham DeLaet

Bae Sang-moon

AFP

1 Tiger Woods

HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

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GLOBAL TOURNAMENT NEWS

EUROPEAN TOUR

Brett Rumford

VOLVO CHINA OPEN Binhai Lake GC, China 2-5 May, RMB20 million

RUMFORD CRUISES TO VICTORY

Brett Rumford shot a final round of 68 to secure a comfortable victory at Binhai Lake Golf Club in Tianjin. The 36-year-old became the first Australian in 41 years to win back-to-back European Tour titles. Rumford's closest challenger, Mikko Ilonen, dropped shots on the 13th and 14th, allowing the Aussie, who was victorious at the Ballantine’s Championship the week before, to ease to victory.

1 Brett Rumford

AUS

68 67 69 68

272

€407,906

2 Mikko Ilonen

FIN

69 63 73 71

276

€271,938

3 Victor Dubuisson

FRA

71 72 66 68

277

€153,210

4 Robert-Jan Derksen

NED

66 70 73 69

278

€122,372

5= Pablo Larrazabal

ESP

71 66 69 73

279

€94,716

Ricardo Santos

POR

70 72 68 69

279

€94,716

7 Andreas Hartø

DEN

72 71 70 67

280

€73,423

8= Felipe Aguilar

CHI

71 73 68 69

281

€52,498

Thomas Bjorn

DEN

70 73 68 70

281

€52,498

Paul Casey

ENG

71 68 72 70

281

€52,498

Advertise!

In Hong Kong's Premier Golf Magazine write to

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3590 4153

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85

Omega’s Speedmaster Moonwatch, ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ gets its name from its black U-2 collection, which was launched in 2010, is zirconium oxide ceramic dial and black ceramic the U-2 Chronometer, U-2/BL, which unlike its 44.25mm case. The dial features applied indices predecessors, has a see-through caseback. The and hands in 18k white gold, and two blackened watch is an evolution of the brand’s MBI and MBII counters, one for hours and minutes and the watches, originally designed for pilots of U-2 spy other for subseconds. The date is displayed on a planes and drawing inspiration from Martin-Baker window at 6 o’clock. fighter jet ejection seats.

The timepiece has been present on all six Developed to withstand extreme conditions, NASA lunar missions since its launch in 1957. In the new version comes with a blue dial 2011, Omega revamped and barrels, and has been stress tested the watch with a new to meet the requirements of U-2 crews, co-axial movement and There were an taking the watches up to 100,000 feet, design, now astounding number bicompax and in -50 degrees temperatures. both present in the Dark Originally launched in 2007, Rolex’s of black dialled Side of the Moon. The Yachtmaster II is now available for the model is fitted with the timepieces on show first time in 904L steel. The Cerachrom in-house automatic at Baselworld, bezel insert comes in blue. Inside the chronograph Calibre 44mm Oyster case is the calibre 4161, each one more 9300, visible through the an automatic mechanical regatta sapphire crystal caseback. interesting than chronograph whose countdown can The bezel, made from the next be programmed from 1 to 10 minutes, polished black ceramic, and a mechanical memory that resets has the Speedmaster’s with the countdown duration last used. signature tachymeter scale, inscribed in matte chromium nitride. The watch is water-resistant to 50 metres, has a 50-hour power reserve and has an anti-magnetic function.

Arnold & Son presented the HM Perpetual There were an astounding number of black Moon, a watch with a black guilloche dial dialled timepieces on show at Baselworld, each highlighting a moonphase indicator with an one more interesting than the next.

11.2mm three-dimensional sculpted moon, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25

Clockwise from top: the Blancpain Bathyscape; Breitling’s Emergency II; the new U-2/BL from Bremont; Omega’s Speedmaster Moonwatch; the GMT Master II from Rolex; Arnold & Son presented the HM Perpetual Moon 86

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BLACK IS BACK

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initially hand-engraved then copied for the series.

An addition to its Royal Collection, the timepiece is inspired by the early part of John Arnold’s life and the watches he produced for court of King George III.

The 42mm ‘Modern’ model comes in stainless steel, while the ‘Elegant’ model comes in 18k red gold with a blue guilloche dial and moon disk with golden stars. The ‘Classic’ model comes in 18k red gold with a cream-coloured dial and blue guilloche moon disk. The watches are powered by the in-house Calibre A&S 1512, a handwound moonphase with only a day’s deviation in every 122 years. One push on the corrector sets it again for another 122 years.

A sports watch with a black lacquer dial, Rolex’s GMT Master II Reference 116710BLNR has a twotone bezel that for the first time comes in blue and black. While we’ve seen many versions of the GMT Master II before, this one is special because of its patented Cerachrom bezel, the special process required to create the two-toned ceramic. The bezel comes in one piece, and starts completely blue, and while still porous the black colour is added. The numerals are made of a thin layer of platinum, and the bezel itself is diamond polished.

The watch comes in a 40mm stainless steel case, with appliques and hands in 18k white gold.

GENTLEMAN’S ARMOURY If there were a fashion runway in the halls of Baselworld, these stylish watches would be the first ones to be featured.

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Clockwise from top: the latest in the new line of Calatrava watches from Patek Philippe; Breguet’s La Musicale; the latest in a long line of the Day-Date from Rolex; Jaquet Droz’s The Charming Bird; the Brighella from Bulgari’s Commedia dell’ Arte series

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Patek Phlippe presented a new range of Calatrava watches featuring an invisible hinge on its dust cover. The classic timepiece with reference 5227 features a small cover that shields the see-through caseback, but with a hinge that makes it invisible. The dust cover is opened via a small lip. The 39mm timepiece is fitted with the self-winding calibre 324SC, and is available in 18k yellow, white or rose gold, with matching hour markers and hands. Hand-stitched alligator straps come in chocolate brown, black and dark brown.

Breguet’s La Musicale comes in a 48mm 18k white gold case, with a rotating platinumcoated dial beautifully hand-engraved with rose detail. The watch, fitted with the self-winding movement incorporating an escapement as well as a balance spring both made in silicon, plays a crystal toned version of “The Thieving Magpie” overture by Rossini, either on demand or at a desired time. The patented mechanism has a disc carrying the pins instead of the traditional music box cylinder and alternately acts on the 15 metal teeth of the comb.

A metallic glass membrane, engine–turned by hand, placed beneath the movement and serving to amplify the frequencies required to emit the tune, sets the finishing touch. The back of the watch’s case, protected with Liquidmetal, is drilled with several openings designed to ensure optimal

sound transmission. The model is also fitted with magnets isolated within a cage to eliminate background noise.

Rolex presents six colourful versions to the Day-Date range, across three different gold cases, and with matching leather straps. The cases come in 18k yellow, white or Everose gold, with green or cognac matched with yellow gold, blue or cherry with white gold and chocolate or rhodium for the Everose models. The watches come at 36mm and are powered with the automatic calibre 3155 with instantaneous day and date displays.

SPECIAL DELIVERY With sales of higher priced watches growing at a faster pace than less expensive ones, companies are focusing on extraordinar y functions and aesthetic.

Pierre Jaquet Droz always used birds in his timepieces, whether purely decorative or as automatons. This year, Jaquet Droz celebrates its 275th anniversary with its limited edition, The Charming Bird, a watch with a miniature automaton bird in a bubble of sapphire crystal.

A mechanical function creates the bird song in an open movement architecture that makes the mechanism visible from within. The timepiece

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comes in a 47mm white gold case featuring black, charcoal-grey and transparent elements.

The watch is a follow-up to last year’s equally impressive Bird Repeater, also with an automaton and a minute repeater complication, the fourth instalment to the brand’s watchmaking saga that began in 2010.

Bulgari’s Commedia dell’ Arte series depicts scenes from a classic Italian painting from the 16th century, showing masked actors in a palace performing in a play, with musical instruments.

The three most famous characters of this tradition, Brighella, Pucella and Harlequin are the focal points of each watch. The dials and scenes are fully painted and embossed by hand, and when the minute repeater is activated, the figures come alive against the backdrop. The watch, fitted with the BVL 618 calibre, features a cathedral gong minute repeater with two hammers. The gongs are unique in that they are longer than standard, which generates a deeper sound.

The mechanism is housed in a case crafted from 18k white gold and Magsonic, a special alloy that optimizes the resonance of the piece. The minute repeater slide piece is located at 10 o’clock.

The time is shown via a retrograde minute display and a jumping hour window at 6 o’clock. The Commedia dell’Arte series is a numbered limited edition consisting of just eight pieces each.

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GOLF & INVESTING | 5 MINUTES WITH ...

Timothy Tang For golfers and investors out there, you might find golf and investing share a lot of similar attributes. In this, the second in a series of interviews presented by Charles Schwab, Hong Kong, Ltd., Timothy Tang – the locally-based pro who earned his Asian Tour card in 2011 – talks about his golfing upbringing, one spectacular round at college and the investing lessons he’s learned over time.

What connections do you see between golf and investing?

Who would be in your dream fourball?

For me, entering a tournament is an investment in itself. I have to choose the events I play in wisely in order to give myself the best possible opportunity to do well and succeed. Having a game plan in both golf and investing is extremely important.

That’s easy – my dad, my uncle and Tiger Woods. I grew up watching Tiger win majors and he’s still brilliant to see. I really do idolise him.

When did you start playing?

How do you maintain focus during a round?

I started at the age of 12 in Charleston, South Carolina. My dad and uncle took up the game, and I got involved through them. It was very much a family activity. I got down to a five handicap after about a year and I first broke 70 when I was 14.

Before I play a tournament round I always come up with a game plan. Maintaining focus can be difficult, and it’s what separates the great players from the good ones. When I play I just try and focus on my plan and not let myself get too up or down emotionally.

How often do you play?

If I’m not playing in a tournament I try and play at least three times a week. I like to play on a variety of courses, which is possible to do in and around Shenzhen.

What’s been your best ever round?

I once had a 60, which was 12-under, during my college days at a place called Charleston Municipal Golf Course. It was a wild round. I had seven birdies, an eagle and a double eagle (albatross) after I holed my second shot to a par-5. It was a short hole – only around 450 yards or so – and I slam-dunked a sand wedge for a two. I wasn’t really keeping track of my score, so I didn’t think too much about missing a 15-foot birdie putt on the last. It was only afterwards that I realised that the putt was for a 59!

Asian Tour (Tang); AFP (Torrey Pines)

Do you have a favourite course?

The Hong Kong Golf Club during the week of the Hong Kong Open.

I love how they combine holes from the New and Eden courses to create a composite; the condition is always great. At the last Hong Kong Open, which was won by Miguel Angel Jiménez, I made the cut thanks largely to a second round of 67. That was a great thrill. My favourite course outside Hong Kong is the South Course at Torrey Pines (pictured) in California.

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How would you describe your overall investment philosophy?

I’m quite an attacking player on the golf course – but I’m a bit more conservative when it comes to investing. I definitely see investing as a long term – rather than short term – venture.

What key lessons have you learned through your personal investing experiences?

You need to k now what you’re get t ing yourself into, which means you have to have a plan; you have to have done your research.

Weighing up the risks versus the potential rewards will give you t he best possible opportunity to prosper. But just like in golf, if something doesn’t come off as well as you hoped it would, you have to accept the decisions you made that led to that situation.

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GREAT GOLF STARTS WITH GREAT ADVICE

Hank Haney PGA Teaching Pro

When it comes to golf and investing, everyone can use a little help from the pros.

For more on the connection between golf and Investing, visit www.schwab.com.hk/golf

Schwab Investors Centre: Suites 1607-1611, ICBC Tower, No.3 Garden Road, Hong Kong | +852-2101-0511

EXPERT IN U.S. INVESTING This material is issued by Charles Schwab, Hong Kong, Ltd. and has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong.

Charles Schwab, Hong Kong, Ltd. is registered with the Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC") to carry out the regulated activities in dealing in securities, advising on securities and advising on futures contracts under registration CE number ADV256. Š2012 Charles Schwab, Hong Kong, Ltd. All rights reserved. (0312-1952/CSHK - 1171)