Today’s
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31 NEW
JUNE 2011 ISSUE 282 APR 21-MAY 18
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TODAY’S GOLFER JUNE 2011 (APRIL 21-MAY 18)
Golfer BRITAIN’S BEST-SELLING GOLF MAGAZINE
DRIVERS TESTED
H O W TO H I T
T H G I A R T S & IT LONG R IL LS 5 K IL LE R D
UR SHARPEN YOAM SHOSRTITNGGSHOTES
AT E G R EA T D EB
‘GOLF SHOULD NOT BE IN OLYMPICS’
S T O P WA HE GREEN A ROU N D T
A M ’S ST EV E C R IEWS ST RO N G V
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P L AY B E T T E R
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NEWS
INSTRUCTION
EQUIPMENT
COURSES
T R AV E L
FIRST TEE centre e c fa e ov ab in 5 .2 0 n: io at Im pact loc
RN LEAM THELD FRO0 WORIVE 201NG DPRION LOHAM 27 C AGE P
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et Face angle: square
to p ath
NEWS & INSIGHT
{ P OW E R D R I V I N G }
0 B ackspin: 1, 9 5
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B all Spe e d:
NUMBER CRUNCH The science and figures behind a 300-yard belt
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e all dream of hitting those Sunday-best 300-yard drives. And it’s possible if you can achieve a certain set of numbers! The magic numbers for this Holy Grail of golf shots – calculated using a Callaway RAZR Hawk 9.5° driver and a performance ball, like the Callaway Tour iZ – appear on the left. Under nominal atmospheric conditions at sea level, landing on a flat fairway of typical hardness at the same elevation as the tee box, these figures will see the ball carry 275 yards and run 25 for a total distance of 300 yards. Matt Cackett, Senior Director of Product Performance for Callaway, says: “A 300-yard drive can readily be achieved by golfers who have a head speed greater than 110mph and use a modern, high COR driver and a modern ball. “During impact, which typically lasts slightly less than 0.5 milliseconds, the ball will be compressed by about 0.2 inches in diameter; about 125 joules of kinetic energy is transferred to the ball. The sound amplitude of club striking the ball is typically in the range of 105 decibels – about the same as a jackhammer or symphony orchestra.” Cackett adds: “Wind plays a huge part; this same shot hit into a 10mph wind will lose 24 yards; with a 10mph tail wind it’ll be 18 yards longer.”
PRO NUMBERS
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Alvaro Quiros was the longest driver on the European Tour in 2007, 2008 and 2009. He is comfortably leading the Tour in driving distance this season with a whopping average of 317.5 yards. These are his stats from a Trackman session in Dubai. ◗ Clubhead speed 120.6mph ◗ Ball speed 181mph ◗ Smash factor 1.50 (perfect) ◗ Launch angle 10.7° ◗ Backspin 2,462rpm ◗ Carry 290.1 yards ◗ Total distance 317.4 yards TODAYSG OLFE R .CO.UK ❘ IS SUE 2 82
{I N S T R U C T I O N
S P E C I A L
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BECOME A SHORT GAME
MASTER Turn these five short game nightmare scenarios into regulation up-and-downs with this advice from TG Elite Pro Rob Watts WOR D S JOE L TA DM A N PIC T U R E S JA M E S CH E A DL E
A
ll golf courses have their no-go areas. The positions that every player knows they need to avoid at all costs, where a disastrous score is a near certainty. Yet, with one simple miscalculation or a slightly off-centre hit, your ball could unwillingly finish in one of these danger zones on or around the green. But what if you believed that par was still possible? That sinking feeling in your stomach would turn into one of anticipation for the upcoming task, a task you can now achieve thanks to these tips from TG Pro Rob Watts.
{ GA M E }
IMPROVER
SAVE PAR FROM ANY SITUATION
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1 80-foot lag putt FIND THE DUSTBIN LID FROM LONG R ANGE WITH E ASE Large greens may appear to be an inviting target for your approach shots, but find yourself on the wrong side of one and a three-putt becomes a near certainty. Often on putts of this length there
are multiple slopes or large tiers between your ball and the hole. Adopt this simple but effective plan of attack and you’ll impress your playing partners by knocking it stone dead first time.
ASSESS THE SLOPES The secret to long-range putting is to assess the slopes and the break point of the putt. Make sure you take the time to study the putt from the low side giving you a better picture of how the ball will roll.
STROKE TIPS
DRAW YOUR PUTTS Feel that you are drawing the putt from right-to-left by allowing the toe of the putter to pass the heel through impact. This helps create topspin. Regardless of the required distance, the butt end of the putter must not travel outside the stance width.
ADD TOPSPIN
PRE-SHOT ROUTINE Have your practice putting strokes behind the ball while looking at the hole. This enables you to instinctively create the correct length of swing for the distance you require.
MORE ROUNDED SWING On very long putts, the swing arc will naturally become much more rounded to help promote over spin, which will keep the ball travelling on line. Golfers often try and keep the putterhead square to the target, resulting in the occasional duff! TODAYSG OLFE R .CO.UK â?˜ IS SUE 2 82
{T H E
TG
T W E N T Y
}
“
IT MIGHT UPSET GOLFERS BUT I DON’T THINK THE SPORT SHOULD
BE IN THE OLYMPICS…” S T E V E
C R A M
Could the three-time world record-holder last the pace against TG and add the TG20 to his impressive haul? W O R D S D AV I D C O N N O R P I C T U R E S G LY N S AT T E R L E Y, G E T T Y I M A G E S
T
he start line for the day’s big race is the first tee at De Vere’s Slaley Hall Golf & Country Club and TG’s opposition is Steve Cram – a man who was once the fastest on the planet at three separate distances. But as TG limbers up and loosens the taught hamstrings the former 1,500m world champion is immediately playing down his chances before the starter’s gun has even fired. “I’m very much a fair weather golfer,” says Cram. “In fact I haven’t picked up a club since October so I might be a little rusty.” Despite Cram’s insistence that he isn’t in record-breaking form TG is determined not to be fooled. Especially as one of the first stories he regales centres on a marathon he successfully ran a year or so back without a moment’s training. “I was only supposed to turn up and run the first mile and the last mile as a bit of a publicity thing,” said the 50-year-old. “But after the first mile I felt quite
good so I just decided to keep going and ended up running the whole thing. It wasn’t a quick time but I finished it. I hadn’t trained for it or eaten enough beforehand and I had spectators offering me jelly beans and jelly babies on the way round to boost my energy.” However, after the opening tee shots it is clear Cram is trying to fool no-one as his first two balls find a ditch not much more than 100 yards off the tee. Thankfully for Cram a lost ball in some deep, wet grass sees TG fail to capitalise and both start with an ugly blob on the card. Things get a little better on the second tee for Cram as he finds the fairway while TG’s attempt at the ‘Tiger line’ fails to pay off with yet another lost ball. This time it is Cram who fails to capitalise and a couple of poor chips mean he is unable to register a first point on the board. Not the most auspicious of starts! After such a shoddy start by both parties, the conversation inevitably turns towards golf – or in this case, the lack of it. >>
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IN ASSOCIATION WITH
PART ONE
RIP YOUR WOODS TIPS AND DRILLS FOR YOUR DRIVER, 3-WOOD AND HYBRID
YOUR
CLUBS WOODS WELCOME
Making every club as reliable as the next... We all have a club in our bag we rely on – perhaps even a little too much. We know, whatever the lie or situation, this trusty club will get us out of trouble time after time because it never lets us down. It’s a feeling that instills confidence, which in turn allows us to fully commit to the task and produce a successful shot as a result. But why should these feelings of assurance be limited to just one of the 14 clubs in our bag? The goal of our new Most Improved Golfer campaign 'Love Your Clubs' is to make every club in your bag your trusty weapon of choice, helping you to start shooting those scores you thought you could only dream of. Part One of this three-part series comes from TG Elite Teaching Pro Chris Ryan, who shows you how you can hit your driver, 3-wood and hybrid better than you ever have before! But first, give yourself a handicap tailored to your woods using the three tests over the page. Be sure to check out the ‘Love Your Clubs’ video tips online too.
Joel Tadman Instruction Editor
82 ACQUIRE YOUR HANDICAP Find yours with three range tests. 86 DRIVER: HIGH HANDICAP Master driving fundamentals. 88 DRIVER: MID HANDICAP Learn to swing on the right plane. 90 DRIVER: LOW HANDICAP How to shape the ball both ways. 94 ADJUSTABLE DRIVERS Make the most of modern tech. 98 3-WOOD: HIGH HANDICAP Set the correct spine angle. 100 3-WOOD: MID HANDICAP Stay centred for better strikes. 106 3-WOOD: LOW HANDICAP Attack the green on par 5s. 111 HYBRID: HIGH HANDICAP Practice makes perfect. 114 HYBRID: MID HANDICAP Gain extra yards from the rough. 117 HYBRID: LOW HANDICAP Recovering from fairway bunkers. 119 COURSE MANAGEMENT Pre-shot tips to avoid trouble. 121 GOLF PSYCHOLOGY Get your head straight.
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YOUR CLUBS DRIVER FADE
ALIGNMENT With the clubface aiming at the target, align the feet, hips and shoulders left to where the ball should start.
FEEL A FADE Halfway into the downswing, feel that the clubhead is in front of the hands, moving from out-to-in.
DRAW
ALIGNMENT With the clubface aligned to your target, aim your feet, hips and shoulders right to where the ball starts.
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FEEL A DRAW Halfway into the downswing, feel that the clubhead tracks inside the hands, moving from in-to-out.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
SHOT SHAPING
The three different methods For golfers trying to shoot in the 70s, shaping the ball from the tee can be a huge advantage in positioning the ball correctly. There are three ways in which we can shape the ball through the air: through the set-up, through feel or through release.
DRAW & FADES Tee height and stance changes DRAW SET-UP
FADE RELEASE Holding the face open to the path of the club through impact helps start the ball left and turn it back in the air.
9-0 HANDICAP WOODS
TEE IT HIGH AND BACK When attempting to hit a draw shape, tee the ball fractionally higher than normal and move the ball back in the stance slightly. The extra height allows the club to track more on an inside path and the toe to overtake the heel through impact. This combination of club path and face rotation creates the right-to-left spin on the ball. Teeing the ball up on the left of the tee box gives you more of an angle to create this shape too.
FADE SET-UP
DRAW RELEASE Rotation of the forearms and clubface with the club exiting wide left helps generate draw spin.
TEE IT LOW AND FORWARD In addition to your alignment changes, tee the ball slightly lower than normal. This will naturally cause you to get a little steeper in the downswing increasing your chances of hitting a fade shot. Moving the ball forward in the stance slightly helps the club strike the ball as it is moving left, which, providing the clubface is pointing at the target, will help create left-to-right fade spin.
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EQUIPMENT GREAT LOOKS There is also a Tour version of the Diablo Octane Black that has an all-black head.
RAW POWER The Burner SuperFast 2.0 boasted the longest average carry on test.
CALLAWAY DIABLO OCTANE BLACK £249
TAYLORMADE BURNER SUPERFAST 2.0 £249
STRENGTH AND LENGTH IN ABUNDANCE
WHITE HOT DRIVER LIVES UP TO THE HYPE
Lofts: 8.5° (Tour), 9.5°, 10.5°, 11.5° (non-Tour), 13.5° (non-Tour) Web: www.callawaygolf.com Tel: 0800 096 4591
Lofts: 10.5°, 12°, 14° Web: www.taylormadegolf.eu Tel: 08000 728 624
Callaway's new Diablo Octane Black continued the firm's proud reputation in this test. Callaway engineers have used a material they call Forged Composite which they say is lighter and stronger than titanium. In fact, the light crown and longer shaft combine to make the new Diablo product on average eight yards longer than the previous Diablo Edge model. Tester Darren was a big fan of the aesthetics, and duly awarded maximum marks in this category as well as reporting back a five out of five rating for feel, sound and forgiveness too. Jon also liked the look of the crown, although preferred the Tour model at address with the graphic design of the normal version giving way to a super-slick black finish. Chris struggled a little with the consistency, and this ultimately set the club back a little in the final reckoning. This undoubtedly is a quality club at a competitive price.
If you thought our impressive coverage of TaylorMade’s new white-headed woods at the start of the year was just hype you were sorely mistaken. The SuperFast was sensational, and only Bryan was slightly put off by the head colour. Tipping the scales at 279g, this is the lightest driver the company have ever produced, and the test team recorded some great results – Chris was very long with it, and his average carry of 286 yards (on a dismal day!) was comfortably his longest. The new headshape and inverted cone technology means the driver’s sweetspot is the largest of any TaylorMade driver and a super-tight consistency rate from three of the four testers helped to illustrate this, although the boys did actually mark it down for forgiveness – it just shows how important and useful the likes of Trackman is when it comes to seeing what works for you. The head colour is certainly different, but Darren felt the white head actually made it easier to align.
THE VERDICT
THE VERDICT
Looks: 3.9 Feel: 4.6 Sound: 4.6 Forgiveness: 4 Consistency: 3.5 Distance: 4.5 RATING:HHHHH
Looks: 4.5 Feel: 4.1 Sound: 4.1 Forgiveness: 3.1 Consistency: 4.5 Distance: 5 RATING:HHHHH
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THE TEST
SLICE KILLER The K15 looks good and will go a long way to eliminate a horrid slice.
DRIVERS
BLACK BELT The sleek black head on the Machspeed Black looks great at address.
T H E TG
PING K15 £269
NIKE MACHSPEED BLACK £240
BRONZE AWARDS
PING'S PRODUCTS CONTINUE TO PERFORM
SLICK DESIGN, SUPERB SPEED, GREAT FEEL
Lofts: 9.5°, 10.5°, 12° Web: www.ping.com Tel: 01427 619 224
Lofts: 8.5°, 9.5°, 10.5°, 11.5°, HL Web: www.nikegolf.eu Tel: 0800 056 1640
Lots of us are afflicted with something we like to call “a gentle fade” but when it turns into a “card-wrecking slice”, it can get a little infuriating to say the least! The new K15 has been engineered with 10 per cent of the head mass in the heel, making it considerably easier to square the head at impact, thus eliminating the dreaded slice. If you do struggle to contain a slice, this is arguably the best driver out there and it doesn’t look horrendous, unlike many 'anti-slice' drivers. Pro Chris did say it looked toed in, but said it was a great product for a game-improver. He also awarded it full marks in the feel and sound categories. Darren felt it was confidenceboosting at address while Bryan said he would have no problem putting it in the bag. Jon likened its forgiveness to the impressive G15. As you’d expect from Ping, another top quality product rolls off the conveyor belt.
The TG Gear Team thought the new Machspeed Black might go down well when it came to the big test and we weren’t disappointed. Nike always try to stay at the forefront of design and their aim was to reduce the amount of drag a driver head generates to create more clubhead speed and therefore longer drives. Jon got on particularly well with the product, raving about the look of the head and the superb feel it generated. But it wasn’t just the subjective categories where it performed for our man, as he notched up his longest average carry of the test, with 248 yards being recorded. Bryan thought it was an incredibly easy club to hit and tight consistency rates from both him and Jon suggested this was a forgiving beast. It’s also worth knowing that if you were a fan of the squareheaded drivers that Nike still offer this option.
THE VERDICT
THE VERDICT
Looks: 3.9 Feel: 4.8 Sound: 4.5 Forgiveness: 4.6 Consistency: 4 Distance: 4 RATING:HHHHH
Looks: 3.8 Feel: 4.5 Sound: 4.6 Forgiveness: 4.3 Consistency: 4.5 Distance: 5 RATING:HHHHH
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COURSES { H O M E C OU N T I E S }
THEOF T BES TAIN I BR
GOOD NEIGHBOURS Berkshire & Buckinghamshire have some of Britain’s finest courses… and despite being close to London, they don’t all cost a fortune to play WOR D S K EV I N BROW N
COURSE PLANNER You’ll find Woburn on the county borders, Goring near Reading, The Berkshire and Mill Ride near Ascot, Stoke Park close to Windsor, and Magnolia Park 10 miles from Oxford.
BE ST OF BRITAIN
BERKS & BUCKS
Let’s face it, when you think of golf in this corner of the country you automatically think of prestigious venues and exorbitant green fees. True, there are a number of top-end tracks who charge three figures for the undoubted privilege of playing. The highly-priced premier layouts include the likes of Stoke Park, Swinley Forest, Bearwood Lakes, Woburn and The Berkshire, The Buckinghamshire and The Lambourne Club. Berkshire is ‘royal’ country after all with Her Majesty’s second home, Windsor Castle, being just off the M4, so it is probably right and fitting that some of the golf is fit for royalty and the well-heeled. But, on the other side of the pound coin, you’ll find more than 20 2-FORE!-1 courses across the counties, offering half-price green fees. So you can play quality courses in this area without breaking the bank. Berkshire in particular is a big 2-FORE!-1 area with 14 courses in the scheme including the impressive Caversham Heath, Sand Martins and Club at Mapledurham as well as Datchet, a superb nine-holer near Windsor. Donnington Grove and Donnington Valley are excellent stay-and-plays and horse racing followers will be attracted by the layouts at Royal Ascot and Newbury Racecourse GC. There are hidden gems too: both Denham and Beaconsfield, a classy pair of Harry Colt tracks, comfortably fall into this category while, also in Buckinghamshire, we can thoroughly recommend Wycombe Heights – home of both a challenging, undulating parkland course and a tantalisingly tricky 18-hole, par-3 layout. 1. WOBURN G&CC Marquess: Par 72, 6,329 yards. Duke’s: Par 72, 6,554 yards. Duchess: Par 72, 6,442 yards
SEE 1000s OF COURSE PICTURES & SCORECARDS AT TG ONLINE
Britain’s answer to Augusta National sits serenely on the Buckinghamshire/Bedfordshire border. The only 54-hole venue in the UK to have three courses (Marquess, Duke’s & Duchess) ranked in Britain’s Top 100 Courses, Woburn has only been in existence for just over three decades but during that time it’s staged nearly 50 European Tour-sanctioned tournaments. Most of the professional tournaments were played on the Duke’s though nowadays the layout plays second fiddle to the Marquess. All three courses are densely-populated by mature timber though generally-speaking there’s more room on the Marquess which also features the only water at Woburn (par-4 12th). However, it’s still the delightful Duke’s which tickles most golfers’ fancy – particularly when it comes to the breathtaking par-3 3rd. A swish new clubhouse should make Woburn even more desirable. ◗VITAL STATISTICS
Location: Little Brickhill, half-a-mile east of the A5. Contact: 01908 370756 or visit www.discoverwoburn.co.uk Green fees: Mon-Fri: £110 (Duke’s & Duchess), £125 (Marquess). TODAYSG OLFE R .CO.UK ❘ IS SUE 2 82