Golf Digest South Africa - July/August 2024 issue including a preview of The Open Championship at Royal Troon
JULY/AUGUST 2024
south africa
DOUBLE PREVIEW The Open & Olympics
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU
GOES ALL OUT
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RISING TIDE Portmarnock’s Championship Course in Ireland leaps 25 places in our latest World’s 100 Greatest Courses ranking (page 80).
Body
6 Editor’s Letter Close calls for SA at Royal Troon. BY STUART MCLEAN Mind 10 Journeys Tom Kim. WITH KEELY LEVINS
27 Cut down your 3-putts Learn to be great from 3 and 30 feet to excel on the greens. BY CHERYL ANDERSON 31 Amp up your warm-up Don’t just start with a wedge. BY ERIC COLE 33 Stop it cold from the sand Leave it next to the hole with height and spin. BY LINDY LABAUVE 100 Swing Sequence Min Woo Lee’s key move. by luke kerr-dineen 102 What’s in My Bag Peter Malnati. WITH MICHAEL JOHNSON Features 38 Wanna Have Some Fun? Try my new method to hit smoking-high draws. BY BRYSON DECHAMBEAU 48 A Tale of Two Troons The five holes that will decide the Open Championship. BY DEREK DUNCAN 60 For Their Country The remarkable stories of five golfers who beat the odds to become Olympians. BY MATTHEW RUDY 72 How Scottie Scheffler Got So Good I watched an 8-year-old grow up to be World No 1. BY RANDY SMITH 80 World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses Our latest biennial ranking. BY DEREK DUNCAN 90 Do This, Not That Eight ways to get smarter in how you practice and play. BY MARK BLACKBURN
12 It’s not the ‘British Open’ Defending the proper name
of golf’s oldest major. BY IAN PATTINSON
14 Golf in the wild Bob Grimsdell layout re- opens in Phalaborwa. BY STUART MCLEAN 18 Undercover Caddie Pro golf’s civil war has made us rich, but at a cost. WITH JOEL BEALL
20 Are you a Jordan or a Rory? How golfers interpret the rules can say a lot about character and
sportsmanship. BY JERRY TARDE
22 Unlock your mind How to overcome common mental pitfalls. BY DREW POWELL 24 The Loop The 2024 Club Golf Olympics BY COLEMAN BENTLEY
EDITOR’S LETTER E Close calls for SA at Royal Troon
T he Open returns to the west coast of Scotland, and I associate Royal Troon and Turnberry, the two Open links in this area, with my greatest disappointments over many years of attending the championship. Ernie Els, at the height of his career in 2004, lost a four-hole playoff to American Todd Hamilton at Troon when his second claret jug in three years seemed in his grasp on the final day. Els was superb for four days (69-69- 68-68), but faltered at the death with his putting. He left several chances short of the hole, notably a golden opportunity on the 72nd green. There was Nick Price’s devastating one-shot loss to Tom Watson in the 1982 Open at Troon. Price, 25, was in new territory contending in a major. He hung around the lead from the first round until claiming it for himself on the back nine on Sunday with birdies at 10, 11 and 12. Price, in the last pairing, had a two-shot advantage over Watson, two holes ahead of him, playing the long par-4 15th into the wind. However, finding one of Troon’s deep bunkers with his second shot resulted in a double-bogey. A bogey followed at the pivotal par-3 17th, where Els also bogeyed in his playoff with Hamilton. It took Price another 10 years of rebuilding his swing to claim the first major his career so richly deserved, the 1992 PGA. At Turnberry in 1994 he captured the jug that had eluded him in 1982 – a momentous victory that delighted SA golf fans, the first by one
of our players in the Open since 1974. The 2009 Open at Turnberry, the last held there, provided another crushing moment when Watson was cruelly denied a sixth Open at the implausible age of 59. It would have been a sports story for the ages. Watson 3-putted the 72nd green and entered a playoff with Stewart Cink where the younger man overpowered his older opponent. For Cink it must have been a bitter triumph. No Open champion had ever been received so reluctantly. It has been 12 years since one of our own claimed a major – Els the 2012 Open at Royal Lytham. We had a glorious 20- year run starting in 1992 which saw six of our players win 12 majors (4 Opens, 4 US Opens, 2 Masters and 2 PGAs). There have since been occasional bursts of inspiration and close calls from Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace. Sadly, we don’t seem to have anyone today who can compete with the game’s superstars. But we’ve been in this position before. After Gary Player’s 1978 Masters success we had to wait 14 years for Price to break through and a new generation of champions to emerge. Consolation with our current predicament comes with the knowledge that in the past 50 years South Africa has won more majors (14) than any country other than the United States. Australia are next best with 11. The US have had 127 champions, although only 26 in the Open. Stuart McLean stuart@morecorp.co.za
SIX VIDEOS IN THIS ISSUE VIDEOS
Page 12 Dear Americans The Open Championship by the numbers. Page 33 Bunker tips
The modern bunker trend that tour pros are using. Page 41 Bryson DeChambeau The US Open champions answers questions from his fans. Page 49 The Open Preview Henrik Stenson recalls his thrilling duel with Phil Mickelson to win the 2016 Open at Royal Troon. They played the last 36 holes together and delivered such remarkable golf that they lapped the field. Mickelson had a first round 63, Stenson closed with a 63 for a record 20-under total of 264. Third-placed JB Holmes finished 14 back on 278. Plus, every hole at Royal Troon. Page 51 A Tale of Two Troons Every hole at Royal Troon. Page 82 World Top 100 Every hole on the Old Course at St Andrews.
EDITOR STUART MCLEAN DESIGN ELINORE DE LISLE MEDIA SALES RICHARD ROWE
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MIND / JOURNEYS
‘I Was the Youngest One Out There’ College scouts weren’t coming after me. I thought turning pro at 15 was the best way to develop my game the fastest By Tom Kim, with Keely Levins M y real name is joo hyung. As a child, I loved Thomas the Tank Engine so much that I had people call me Thomas. It evolved into Tom. Even my older brother calls me Tom. My family moved to Australia after living in South Korea and briefly in China. My parents wanted us to learn English. (It’s one of three languages I speak now.) I played cricket, basketball, Australian football, but nothing clicked until I tried golf at age 6. It came naturally to me. Even though my dad was a mini-tour pro turned teaching pro, golf was never forced on me. But golf was the one thing I never got sick of.
book travel now, I remind myself I don’t have to book the cheapest flight. I can stay in a hotel that’s closer to the course, even if it’s more expensive. ● ● ● After half a season on the Asian Tour, COVID hit. The Asian Tour didn’t play for almost two years. I went back to Ko- rea and competed on the Korean Tour in 2020 and 2021. It was nice to stay in one place. Being comfortable, knowing where home is, where I can practice, eat and sleep, that makes me feel refreshed and mentally clear on the course. ● ● ● While in Korea, I had one goal: pre- pare for Korn Ferry Q school. But somehow, when I got there, I didn’t make it through. At the start of the 2022 season, I had status only on the Asian Tour. But in the next eight months, my whole life changed. ● ● ● I got a spot in the Scottish Open and finished third. Then I made the cut at the Open. I accepted special temporary status on the PGA Tour. A few weeks later, I finished seventh in Detroit. The next week I won Wynd- ham. After the post-round obligations, I got back to my hotel, lay down in bed and tried to soak in what it feels like to be a winner on the PGA Tour, to realise a lifelong dream. I didn’t close my eyes until 1 in the morning – the adrenalin kept me up. I’d earned full PGA Tour status, a spot in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and a place on the International team for the Presidents Cup. ● ● ● My parents couldn’t believe I won at first. But they keep me grounded. They said, “Enjoy it a little bit but not to the point where you forget about the past.” They know what I’ve done is great, and what I’m going to do next will be even better. ● ● ● Of all the advice my dad has given me, my favourite is: Give it my best now so that when I retire, I won’t feel guilty; I won’t feel like there’s anything else I could have done. My mom stands by that mentality, too. That’s how I’ve been living. If I keep going like this, I know I won’t have any regrets. I’ll know I’ll have done everything I possibly could have done.
The cost of living in Australia was rising, so our family chose to move home to Asia. My parents decided that the Philippines was the best place for our family and my golf. I was 13 when we moved there. My parents home-schooled me so that I could play as much golf as possible. In the Phil-
Tour Q school. I didn’t make it through Q school but got status by winning three times on the developmental tour. ● ● ● I was the youngest one out there. I was proud of that. I was also one of the smallest guys in every tournament. I was short off the tee. Often I was hit-
ippines, golf isn’t a huge sport. I was lucky; one of the best clubs in the Phil- ippines asked me to play for its team, which gave me full access to the club’s
ting two clubs more into the green than the guys I played with. Figuring out how to beat them helped me im- prove my accuracy. I got so good with my long irons
TOM KIM PGA TOUR AGE 22 FROM SOUTH KOREA
facilities. I remember being so excited that I had a place I could practice. That’s when I got serious about developing my game and turning professional. I’m one of only two players to make it out of that system onto a world-ranking tour. ● ● ● I was 15 when I turned pro. I’d won all of the big amateur tournaments in the Philippines. College scouts weren’t coming after me, and my goal was al- ways to turn pro, so I decided to do it early. I thought it’d be the best way to develop my game the fastest. We moved to Thailand because I could play there professionally while I waited to turn 16, the minimum age to compete in Asian
that they became more reliable than my short irons. Even now, I’m never shaky with a long iron in my hand. ● ● ● One of my parents always travelled with me, usually my dad. He caddied for me; we were doing everything we could to save money. I had no financial security. You’re playing for like $50 000 purses. I had to play well just to ensure I could keep playing the next week. I heard guys talk about treating them- selves to big dinners after good tourna- ments; I never did that. I was worried about breaking even. I don’t have to think about that kind of thing anymore, but you never forget that. Even when I
PHOTOGRAPH BY GABE L’HEUREUX
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MIND / CHAMPIONSHIPS
WATCH
ONLINE
The Open Championship by the numbers.
AN OPEN FIT FOR A KING Arnold Palmer and caddie Tip Anderson at St Andrews in 1960.
Dear Americans, The Open Is Not ‘The British’ A former chairman of the R&A defends the proper name of golf’s oldest major By Ian Pattinson
A merican Friends – “the winner of the gold medal and the Champion Golfer of the Year is . . . ” These are the words used by the chief executive of the R&A to introduce the new Open Champion each July, just before the claret jug is presented. The winner of “The Open” is so declared! Strange as this may seem, both history and logic explain what many Americans may feel is a quaint, even archaic, idiosyncratic and... er, British ritual. But please don’t call our championship “the British Open” or worse still, “the British” because it’s just plain wrong. Why? Let’s start at the beginning. First, the words engraved on the
outer lip of the claret jug simply read: “The Golf Champion Trophy.” Hence the winner, as the recipient of that trophy, is announced as the “Champion Golfer.” Second, let’s remember that the first playing of the championship in 1860 was 35 years before the first US Open, 56 years before the first PGA Championship and 74 years before the first Masters Tournament. The expression “major” in its current meaning had not been minted, and so in 1860, the competition for the original “challenge belt” was the only championship around and was known simply as “the Championship.” The next year, organisers declared that the event should “be open to the whole
world,” but not until 1872 – when the claret jug replaced the belt given to Young Tom Morris for his three straight wins – did the Royal and Ancient first make a reference to “the Open Championship.” The expression “British Open” is not historically, geographically or politically accurate. You see, “British” just means “relating to Great Britain,” but Great Britain is a grand name we invented for a small island (comprising England, Scotland and Wales) in the north Atlantic ocean, off the northwest coast of mainland Europe. Northern Ireland (which has hosted two great Opens and is due another in 2025) is part of the island of Ireland, and although NI is part of the United Kingdom, it
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is actually not part of Great Britain. By referring to our championship as the “British Open,” the contribution of Northern Ireland is inadvertently obliterated. Please do not be tempted to call it “the UK Open!” If there is an analogy, think about implying Alaska or Hawaii are not part of the United States. That wouldn’t be polite! However subtle this may all seem, golf fans in Great Britain and Northern Ireland remain mystified as to why some Americans insist on incorrectly name-checking The Open as the “British Open” or even “the British.” Neither the owners of the claret jug (the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews) nor the R&A (which now runs the championship) have ever called it by either name. Consider this: No true golf fan would ever consider referring to “the American Open” or “the US Masters” (worse still, the “Masters Championship”) or even the “American PGA Championship,” as each of these great majors has another relatable but distinctively different name by which it is properly known. Why does the same not apply to the oldest major of them all? Prestwick Golf Club, as the originally dominant venue, hosted the first 12 Opens, but a good starting point around the styling of the Open is 1919, when a meeting of the Associated Clubs then involved in staging the Championship concluded that the “Royal and Ancient Golf Club be asked to accept the management of the Championship and the custody of the Challenge Cup.” By March 1920, the newly formed Royal and Ancient Championship Committee met to lay out the conditions for “the Competition for the Championship Challenge Trophy,” and in other parts of the minutes of that meeting, reference was made to “the Champion[1]ship” and “the Open Championship.” Clearly in the minds of the leaders of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the event, which they now owned, was the “Open Championship.” It was not, never had been (and never would be) “the British Open,” a title neither contemplated nor even mentioned. By 1927, the official programme designated the event as the “Open Golf Championship.” By 1933, it was “The Open Championship,” and a post- championship booklet in 1946 was
American players as it is today. In the 40 years to 2000, more than twice as many nations are represented in the list of Open winners than in the list of US Open winners. Even allowing for American strength in depth of field, that statistic is significant. Around the time of the 1966 Open – the first to be televised live in the United States – the Royal and Ancient Golf Club asked Mark McCormack to negotiate its TV rights, which within 10 years would include Japan. He understood the commercial potential for registering the Open Championship name and negotiated a worldwide agency of a trademark using – for the first time – the expression “British Open” for use in some limited overseas markets. However, the realisation that such a name might suit overseas TV but not the United Kingdom was emphatic. Successive championship committees have been resolute in keeping faith with the original brand, even when some great American winners did not. Contrastingly, golfers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland have always correctly referred to their championship as “the Open.” It’s true that the name on the cover of printed souvenir programmes has changed over the years. It moved from “The Open Golf Championship” to “The Open Championship” in 1995, before arriving at “The Open” in 2003. But mis-namings by recent Champion Golfers, including Collin Morikawa (2021) and Cameron Smith (2022), have ensured the discussion continues. In not one minute of any relevant committee meeting of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, nor its successor as organiser, the R&A, does the adjective “British” ever appear when describing the championship. So come on, Americans. We will always name your three majors properly and respectfully; in exchange all we ask is the same for our Open, the Open. We may once have invaded your country, but you eventually repelled us and rightly so. Surely we are all over that spot of local difficulty? Just remember that our nation invented golf, and we shared it with you. That must mean something! IAN PATTINSON is a former chairman of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the R&A .
‘British Open’ is not historically, geographically or politically accurate
simply entitled “Open Reflections.” (Interestingly, there were 28 entries from overseas, including 10 from the United States, one of whom, Sam Snead, prevailed over the Old Course in his only appearance.) In the post-World War Two years, the field gradually became more international, and perhaps this contributed to Americans using “British” to differentiate the championship from their own. Of course, no one did more for the Open than Arnold Palmer, who, to secure his place in the pantheon of the greats, gave it special attention from the era beginning in 1960. As one of only four Americans in the field, he was just beaten into second place by the Centenary Open Champion, Australian Kel Nagle, before winning the next two Opens himself. Not only did this spark more interest in the Open from other US professionals with international aspirations, it raised the profile and cemented the reputation of the Open as, well, more “open” at a time when securing entry to the US Open was not as easy for non-
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DESTINATIONS / BA-PHALABORWA
Ba-Phalaborwa, the old Hans Merensky, is open again and remains GOLF IN THE
years. Locals are delighted to have a golf course again, and membership is growing. Over the past decade I had heard sad stories about Hans Merensky’s deterioration under private ownership. It was ranked as one of the Top 20 courses in South Africa until 2005, a bucket-list destination going back to the 1970s when it first caught the imagination of local golfers. By 2005 the place had already start- ed changing shape, with estate homes being built alongside some of the fair- ways (unobtrusive though, tucked away in the bush). Before that, golfers could feel quite alone in the far reaches of the course. I experienced a sense of that
oday, it’s a fairly common occurrence in South Africa to encounter wild animals on a golf course, but at Ba-Phalaborwa in the
grunt throughout the day in the large water hole behind the 16th green, and while I was playing two croco- diles stayed for hours basking in the winter sun some 30 metres from the 17th green. I had noticed them early in my round playing the fourth hole. Any water hole has to be approached with caution, as there just might be a croc lurking in its depths. It had been more than 20 years since I had last visited the old Hans Me- rensky Country Club, now renamed Ba-Phalaborwa, and I travelled there with anticipation on hearing that the course had been re-opened in May having been closed for at least two
far north of the country it feels very different from anywhere else. With 18 holes bordering the fence of the Kruger Park there’s a sense while playing golf that you’re intruding on their territory, rather than the other way around. Stray any distance off the fairway into the dusty bushveld and you’re walk- ing on parched red earth that’s full of hoof prints, evidence of a multitude of animals passing through. Hippos
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The green of the sixth hole, guarded by its new bunkers. It is a 399-metre stroke 1. Right, from top: The Mafunyane Trophy, presented to the winner of the Palabora Classic on the Sunshine Tour; the old Hans Merensky tee boards still stand; the temporary clubhouse with a sign commemorating the late Leon Pappas, golf pro for many decades.
a wonderful golf experience. By Stuart McLean WILD
ing the property with the intention of reviving it as a resort destination. First step has been re-opening the course and establishing a temporary club- house. There’s a range facility. By March 2025, in time for the region’s annual Marula Festival, the main club- house will be open for business, and there will be a limited number of rooms available for guests. More rooms will be opened during 2025, leading up to the full opening of the hotel and spa by December 2025. The only upgrade to the course has been the building of attractive new bunkers by Michael Scholz of Bunker Armour. The white sand provides a
quiet remoteness on the fourth green, up against the park fence, while play- ing 18 on my own. I did have a golf cart, though, whereas this always used to be a course where golfers walked. I stayed in one of those homes for a few days, on the fifth fairway, and it was a relaxing and tranquil experi- ence. Most of the other homes were empty, and there were more animals on the fairways than golfers, even on a Saturday. It’s only dirt roads away from the clubhouse area, which added to the attractiveness of the environment. Hans Merensky’s downfall began when South Africa was awarded the FIFA World Cup in 2004. The new
owner mistakenly believed there would be an influx of foreign visitors to the area during the 2010 tournament, and went on a building spree around the clubhouse to accommodate them. The folly of that decision can be seen today playing No 11, a 498-metre par 5. Empty thatch-roofed double-storey buildings with hundreds of rooms line the left side of the hole. All that development did adversely affect the special atmo- sphere that once existed. There used to be chalets on his hole where golfers could stay and braai if they wished. Indalo Hotels & Leisure, in col- laboration with the Ba-Phalaborwa municipality, are busy rehabilitat-
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DESTINATIONS / BA-PHALABORWA
each play differently in terms of club selection. There’s a shorter 4 of 338 metres, No 14, yet this is slightly uphill and the fairway turns left between tall trees towards a beautiful green site. The opening holes on each nine, medium par 4s, go down a slope to similarly shaped greens, and No 9 and 18, longer par 4s, play uphill, which makes for a tough finish. No 18 has a man-made water feature right of the green which I couldn’t remember.
distinctive new look to the course and the bunker shaping enhances the greens complexes. Some bunkers are surprisingly substantial. The major- ity guard the greens, although here and there they strategically frame the fairways. The greens are slowly coming back to how they used to be in better times, and are quickening up, although still slow by the standard of Gauteng courses. The fairways at this time of year are dry and bare but very playable. My rounds were enjoyable despite that because the course is one of Bob Grimsdell’s best designs. There’s an excellent flow to the routing through softly undulating terrain. At 6 393 metres from the Rhino tees it’s not a long course, reflecting its age, and broad fairways means you can keep hitting driver all the way round other than on the 3s. It didn’t have a Course Rating or Slope, but a GolfRSA team were due to visit during July for that purpose. Curiously, three of the 3s (2-8-17) are virtually alongside each other, utilising the water holes in that area of the course, and each is an excellent challenge.
There are back-to-back par 5s at No 4 and 5, both playing longer than they look as they climb uphill to their respective greens. They are followed by two memorable 4s, with No 6 a natural stroke 1 that requires a perfectly placed long drive down the left side of the fair- way to create an opening to the green. A big tree on the right blocks anything average. The par 4s are mostly of a simi- lar length, between 354 and 411 metres, yet the changing terrain means they
The par-4 ninth green, with part of the old clubhouse behind.
No 8 is one of a challenging set of par 3s at Ba-Phalaborwa.
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RORY McILROY TIGER WOODS NELLY KORDA SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER
© 2024 Taylor Made Golf Company, Inc.
M MIND / ON TOUR
Professional golf’s civil war has made us rich but at a cost Undercover Caddie
ILLUSTRATION BY KLAUS KREMMERZ
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W e don’t care – not anymore, at least. That’s probably not the answer fans expect to hear from caddies about the battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but, like many of you, we are fatigued with the daily drama. Though it affects our livelihoods, it’s hard to get worked up over something we have no say in. Before coming off as ungrateful, let me say this: No one has benefited more from the recent cash infusion into golf than caddies. The players? Please. I hate the narrative of the haves and have nots when it comes to players; it’s the haves and have mores. Most of the players complaining are not superstars, which makes the noise even more deafening. Caddies have seen the trickle-down benefits from the higher purses. On the PGA Tour last year, 26 guys made more than $6 million, meaning caddies for those players (assuming they worked the entire year) made at least half a million. Sixty-two players made more than $3 million, so a quarter-mil is a safe assumption for their loops. Five years before, the number of players that reached those thresholds were five and 29. Hell, Ted Scott has made more money in the past two years working for Scottie Scheffler than many pro athletes. It’s not generational wealth, but it is wealth, and those who say money doesn’t buy happiness have never been poor. I’ve been with multiple guys who finished in the top 10 on the money list, and I’m in a much better position now with a player who, well, we’re not close to the top 10 in earnings. For the first time, being a caddie is a sound financial decision. But with our newly padded bank accounts comes a cost: The job is not as fun as it once was. There’s too much talk about greed, power and control. The state of pro golf remains the top discussion, and you can’t escape it. (Note to all pro-am contestants: If you want to turn off your pro, ask him what he thinks of all this on the first hole, which I’ve now seen half a dozen times.) Also, caddies have been even more sidelined when it comes to what “matters” with the sport because for all the talk about
before the new season because his player promised a bonus that would get him through the unemployed months. Unfortunately, months went by, and the bonus never came. Fast forward to LIV, and my friend, still looking for a bag, got work on the other circuit. Later that summer, he found out his old player’s family had been telling other players not to pick my friend up and that the PGA Tour would strongly discourage it given the LIV ties. My friend ended up losing an opportunity to grab a job from a player who is consistently in the FedEx Cup Playoffs; he had been contacted by a player’s agent and had come to an agreement, but the final call never came. He attributes that drop to those whispers. As for LIV, one of my fellow caddies discussed in this column why working on LIV during its inaugural season was one of the best decisions he made. Two years later, most of those perks are gone, including having travel expenses covered. Some team captains, like Brooks Koepka, take good care of their caddies. Brooks is loyal to his looper, Ricky Elliott, and whatever you think about Brooks, he doesn’t treat Ricky like a butler. That grace extends to the rest of the caddies on his team. It’s not the standard, and though the guaranteed money remains a selling point, a lot of players are not paying out the 8- to 10-percent cuts like players often do on the PGA Tour. While we’re here, many say the framework agreement between the Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour took away some of the stigma that comes with defecting to LIV, yet I have plenty of friends on LIV who still feel like they’ve been excommunicated from the game. So, yeah, we really don’t care who wins golf’s tug of war. No matter who comes out on top, we know we’re the ones that will ultimately have to carry the rope away. – with joel beall
reimagining what pro golf should be, caddies are not part of the discussion. For example, earlier this year, my player and I were with two other player- caddie combos in a practice round, and one of the players has serious sway with the PGA Tour. This player-leader was going on and on about the tour’s new partner, the Strategic Sports Group, how players are finally going to have a say in how the tour is run, how forward- thinking the tour will be, blah, blah, blah. This blabbering went on for three holes. Eventually, this player turned to the third caddie in the group, who has been out here for decades, and asked what the caddie thought. “I’m just waiting for y’all to talk about someone besides yourselves,” the caddie said in a Southern drawl. Everyone laughed, but us caddies, well, we laughed for a different reason. After the round, the quick-draw caddie shook his head and told me, “They have no idea. They’re the CEO complaining about first-world problems to the mailroom clerk.” I understand why some paint this as a war between good and evil. Given all the things Saudi Arabia has been accused of, I understand the hesitation towards LIV and the worry of that money coming into the tour, but caddies have a somewhat different view. It wasn’t long ago that caddies were in a lawsuit against the PGA Tour. We were forced to wear bibs that displayed tournament sponsors, and we didn’t get any cut of the money. If we protested, we were threatened with tour expulsion. We were also asking for simple health care benefits. Not until Jay Monahan took over did the tour finally start to treat us like human beings, but we still don’t get a cut of those bibs. We have a ton of hurt feelings on our side towards tour leadership. Players are being forced to pledge allegiance to one tour or another, but we are loyal to our players, and that’s it. Heck, even that can be misplaced loyalty. One of my friends was let go by a big-name player. They had a good run together, but the relationship – as they tend to do in this business – had run its course. There was nothing acrimonious at first; my friend took a short sabbatical
Undercover Caddie once spent his FedEx Cup bonus on a vacation, where his wallet was stolen.
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MIND / THE NEXT ONE’S GOOD
O ne of the marvels of golf is the imprecision of the rules and, as a result, the frequent need for judg- ment calls. No other pursuit except perhaps marriage reveals character and sportsmanship so wantonly as golf. Two events have thrown the game’s top players into this cauldron of public dis- course. Surprisingly, neither has any- How golfers interpret the rules can say a lot about character and sportsmanship By Jerry Tarde Are You a Jordan or a Rory?
thing to do with private equity or public investment funds. The first was the USGA’s decision to give Tiger Woods its highest honour, the Bob Jones Award for Sportsman- ship. Woods has a playing record and popularity proportionate with Jones at his peak, but the announcement met with mixed reviews. The Bob Jones doesn’t necessarily go to the game’s greatest players – plenty have not mea- sured up. Sam Snead, Billy Casper, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman, Seve Balleste- ros and Nick Faldo never got it. John- ny Miller didn’t get it until he was 76, and Gene Sarazen had to wait until his 90th birthday. Some Hall of Famers are judged to be a little rough around the edges by golf’s gentry. Phil Mickelson is the only person to have turned it down, and now he’ll never see a second chance. Sorry DJ, Brooksy, Patrick and
Bryson, but it’s hard to conceive of any LIV player getting it – except maybe, when all is forgiven, Jon Rahm. Some past winners might elicit sur- prise as their accomplishments had nothing to do with what happened on the golf course – like the entertainers Chi Chi Rodriguez, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. I like that 20 women have won the Bob Jones, and not a single token among them. I was there when the English amateur Maureen Garrett inexplicably showed up in full kabuki costume to claim her award in 1983. A few have been players recognised for singular acts of sportsmanship (Tom Kite calling a penalty for a moved ball no one else saw, or Fuzzy Zoeller waving a towel in mock surrender) and others got it for a lifetime spirit (Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, no explana- tion necessary). “You might as well
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Having been in this position my- self many times, I know my own “lying eyes” honestly tend to see whatever is the most advantageous route even when science and logic might challenge its likelihood. This is also the rationale people use when finding loopholes in the tax code. However, McIlroy said he believed in karma; as a fellow Irish Catholic, I understand the intertwining of con- science and consequence. All three of these players – Rory, Jordan, Viktor – might one day be candidates for the Bob Jones Award. Although tense in the moment, the
praise a man for not robbing a bank as to praise him for playing by the rules,” Jones said. A Masters green jacket might make you a prince of the church, but the Bob Jones Award confers sainthood. Occasionally, you get a head- scratcher. I remember bumping into Nicklaus at a US Open dinner when he shook hands with the Bob Jones honoree and immediately turned to me and said, “What he win it for?” Does anyone really meet the full measure of the immortal Bob Jones, who knew unimaginable success in youth only to suffer the cruellest
incident ended amica- bly. Both Hovland and Spieth dashed from the scene without comment after the round, but Rory took the high road and declared: “Jordan was just trying to make sure that I was doing the right thing.” These situations recall an opinion piece Peter Dobereiner wrote in April 1984 headlined: “The Rules: Are you a Tom or a Gary?” It was during the first televised Skins Game when Tom Watson accused Gary Player of
disease stealing his body and leaving his mind untouched within it? “As a young man he stood up to just about the best that life can of- fer, which is not easy, and later he stood up with equal grace to just about the worst,” wrote Herbert Warren Wind, who got it in 1995. Is Tiger really wor- thy? It’s a judgment call. To quote Hum- phrey Bogart’s descrip- tion of Claude Rains in “Casablanca”: “He’s just like any other man only
Jerry Tarde, who served on the Bob Jones Award committee for 25 years, thinks the next one shouldn’t go to a pro but to the Bandon Dunes dreamer Mike Keiser.
Now that we can measure impact conditions with launch monitors, we’re able to clearly see the difference between the strike of a pro versus that of a typical amateur. One thing that jumps off the screen is the difference in dynamic loft. Think of it as “delivered loft,” meaning the orientation of the clubface as it meets the ball. For full iron shots including distance wedges, technology confirms that most amateurs deliver the club with too much loft into impact when compared to skilled players. Many amateurs attempt to scoop the ball off the turf and leave the face open, which leads to poor contact. To hit your iron shots more like a pro – lowering your dynamic loft – close the clubface earlier in your downswing and have the shaft leaning towards the target as the club meets the ball. To get a feel for this move, cradle a golf ball in your lead hand and mimic a swing. The goal is to have your knuckles down as that hand approaches the ball and remain like that into the follow-through (above). If you have the ball “cradled” with your lead wrist bowed, you’ve got the move to lower your impact loft. Re-create that feeling when you go back to hitting shots off the turf. – WITH RON KASPRISKE JOANNA COE is one of Golf Digest’s Best Teachers in Pennsylvania. She is director of instruction at Merion GC. WHAT TECHNOLOGY HAS TAUGHT ME LOWER YOUR DYNAMIC LOFT FOR PURE CONTACT BY JOANNA COE
illegally moving some grass to hit a chip shot. Keep in mind: Player (1966) and Watson (1987) have won Bob Jones Awards. Both men were honest practitioners of the rules, but one consistently went right up to the line in taking advantage of his options, and the other asked where “the line” was and kept as far from it as humanly possible. Dobereiner wrote: “Player looks upon the rules as the golfer’s Bill of Rights. Con- versely, Watson sees the rules as the Ten Commandments.” We all fluctuate between these pillars of faith as we chase our ball around the course. Depending on where you fall on the spectrum, you may be happy or sad to find Rory depicted as Gary Player and Jordan as Tom Wat- son or even Tiger Woods held up against the standard of Bob Jones. Golf is a game of judgment calls, and that’s what makes the playing so special.
more so.” Although Woods’ integrity has never been questioned in com- petition, it’s the full measure of his probity and evasion off the course that gives pause. It might be unfair, but his agent and team share in the total judgment. The other ruling that had us sec- ond-guessing occurred at The Play- ers in an odd six-minute passion play when Rory McIlroy, among the leaders, drove it into a water hazard on the seventh hole during the first round and was cross-examined in real-time on television by his fellow players, Jordan Spieth and Viktor Hovland. The question was wheth- er the ball entered above or below the hazard line, affecting where he could drop, nearer the green or well back. It didn’t matter – or maybe it did – as he double-bogeyed the hole after Spieth and Hovland ultimately yielded that, in the absence of video footage, it must be the player who makes the judgment call.
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MIND / MEMBERS’ TEE
Unlock your mind How to overcome common mental pitfalls. By Drew Powell
W e can learn to think like the best players in the world, but as sport psychologist Dr Bhrett McCabe explains, there are numerous landmines, or mental mistakes, that we commonly make on the course that cause our scores to suffer. Many of us get frustrated when we can’t take our range game to the course. How do we fix that? One of the biggest concepts I teach is called capability and capacity. We are all capable of something. Scottie Scheffler and players on the PGA Tour have high capabilities, but when they play, they’re not going to have 100 percent of their toolset. They may be tired, or they may have a group they don’t like or they may be hitting it so good that their distances are long by a few metres and it’s disconcerting. If you could put your finger on a scanner and it said, “Okay, you’ve got 78 percent of your abilities today,” most
people would say, “Oh, man, I hope I have my driver.” Most players are trying to find the 22 percent that is missing. As a result, they’re out there messing with their swing and trying to find a groove. The best players are focusing on the 78 percent that they have, so they make adjustments like downshifting to a fairway finder off the tee. Why are par putts seemingly easier to make than birdie putts? There was an article written 15 years ago by some University of Pennsylvania Wharton business school professors. The title of the article was, “Is Tiger Woods Loss Averse?” They found that Woods made more par putts than he did birdie putts from the same distance after controlling for all factors. A few years later, I challenged a statistician to figure out why that was. He found that players tend to miss birdie putts short. It’s natural for the mind, as you’re walking up to a 12-footer for birdie, to think, I’d like to make birdie, but what I
don’t want is to have a three-putt. When you’ve got a par putt, what are you thinking? I’m making this son of a gun or nothing. You tend to lock in, and you reduce the amount of choices that are available on your decision. Now, if you could look at a birdie putt the same way you look at a par putt, then you’ve cracked the code, but we can’t. Is a three-putt worth the risk to make a birdie? That’s a hard decision to make. How can I settle my nerves on the first tee in an important round? What are you feeling on the first tee? I need to get off to a good start. I’ve got to get it all. I don’t try to suppress those emotions. Let them come in. We experience them, and then we just let them pass. Identify what you are trying to do, and turn to your go-to fairway- finder shot. Pick a clear target. Accept how you feel, and verbalise the shot you want to hit. I don’t want you to feel calm. I want you to feel connected to your process.
ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID JUNKIN
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THE LOOP L
The 2024 Golf Club Olympics As golf takes centre stage in Paris, host some games of your own at your golf club By Coleman Bentley
BUNKER LONG JUMP
CART-BAG DEADLIFT
RANGE-PICKER SHARPSHOOTING
“STOP-HITTING-INTO-OUR-GROUP” WRESTLING
WATER (HAZARD) POLO
PUTTING-LINE GYMNASTICS
CART-ROPE HURDLES
FLAGSTICK JAVELIN
“I-FORGOT-MY-WEDGE-ON-THE-LAST- GREEN” 400M SPRINT
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANTHONY CALVERT
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BODY / PUTTING
CUT DOWN YOUR THREE-PUTTS Learn to be great from three and 30 feet to excel on the greens By Cheryl Anderson
how often do you get really upset for two-putting a hole? Probably not often, but
THREE-FOOT PUTTS READ, AIM AND COMMIT
cough up three shots on the green and you’re liable to lose your mind. A three- putt stays with you, and too many of them will be a real round-wrecker. Consider: The average PGA Tour player three-putts just once every 36 holes. That might be asking a lot of an amateur, but think how many strokes you’d save if you three-putted only once or twice every 18 holes. The secret to three-putting less is to become exceptionally good at two distances – three and 30 feet. Why these two? Because you have to know how to lag it close and then convert the real shorties. Let me help you with that. – with dave allen
• Many amateurs struggle from short range because they don’t practice these putts – ever! To make matters worse, they don’t go through the process of reading these putts and aiming properly on the course. As a result, the brain doesn’t know what to do. Confusion and doubt start to creep in, and once that happens, it’s very hard to put a good stroke on the ball. As a drill, take 10 balls and space them evenly around the hole in a three-foot circle. Start at the first ball, read the break, aim the logo or line on the ball at your starting line
(above), commit to the read, and make a stroke. Once you hole all 10 putts, spread the balls in a four-foot circle around the hole and repeat. The goal, besides making as many putts as you can, is to get in the habit of reading and aiming on every attempt, which is going to give your brain the information it needs so that you can make a decisive stroke. Now you might think this exercise is really boring – and it can be — but if you just do this as little as 15 minutes per week, you’ll become much more comfortable over these knee-knockers.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JD CUBAN
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30-FOOT PUTTS CREATE BETTER SYMMETRY IN YOUR STROKE
• Thirty feet is where most amateurs typically start three- putting. Their big mistake is not so much with the read, but with speed control. They take the putter back short and slow, then accelerate quickly through the ball with a lengthy follow-through. As a result, the ball comes off with too much speed. I tell my students to be like a minivan coming through impact – not a Ferrari – and to use the length of their backswing to dictate the speed and distance the ball travels. The putter should accelerate naturally
into the ball because of its weight and gravity, like a wrecking ball. You don’t need to add any speed to it. Studies on tempo show that the best putting strokes have a 2-to-1 ratio – or two beats going back, one beat going forward into impact. The stroke length also is symmetrical, which helps prevent too much acceleration. For a drill, place a ball 30 feet from a hole and stick two tees in the ground equidistant from the ball. Swing the putterhead to the back tee and then to the forward tee ( below ). As you do this, choose an easy-to-remember
name that has a ratio of two syllables to one, such as “In-bee Park” or “Ti- ger Woods,” and mouth the words “In-bee” or “Ti-ger” on the backswing and “Park” or “Woods” into the ball. Get the rhythm and length of your stroke down pat, and soon your long putts will routinely cosy up to the hole, and your three-putts will be a thing of the past. CHERYL ANDERSON , one of Golf Digest's 50 Best Teachers in America, is the director of instruction at the Mike Bender Golf Academy in Florida
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