MARCH/APRIL 2024
south africa
YOU CAN LEARN FROM RORY WHAT
The Masters WHY WE NEED AUGUSTA RIGHT NOW WHEN WAS THE COURSE GREATEST? THE ‘ OTHER ’ JACKETS
NEW TIPS TO GET BETTER AROUND THE GREENS
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Features 30 Learn From the Best You can steal more from Rory McIlroy’s swing than
6 Editor’s Letter New book honours Bobby Locke’s legacy. BY STUART McLEAN Mind 8 Journeys Chris Bentley at Royal Johannesburg. WITH STUART MCLEAN 10 Undercover Caddie Enduring a collapse at the Masters is something you never get over. WITH JOEL BEALL 12 Pro Golf is Broken How are we going to put it back together? BY JERRY TARDE 14 The Old Course returns 15 special championship weeks for SuperSport viewers. BY STUART McLEAN 18 Backspin Gary Player’s greatest year in the majors. 20 The Loop Champions Dinner etiquette do’s and don’ts WITH COLEMAN BENTLEY Body 22 Work (Out) From Home No need for a pricey gym to keep in shape. BY RON KASPRISKE 24 How I bomb my drives Keep your spine angle behind the ball. BY DEAN BURMESTER 26 Make chipping easier Use your hybrid like a putter from tight lies. BY ALANA SWAIN
you might think. BY JIM McLEAN
42 A Beautiful Ache The surprising joys of attending the Masters in
unsettled times. BY CHRIS JONES
54 Augusta’s Other Jackets Working at the Masters has perks for days. BY DAVE SHEDLOSKI 62 In Search of the Greatest Augusta The course has evolved continuously since the first Masters in 1934. Which version was best? BY DEREK DUNCAN 72 For Rent Spending six figures on a home in Augusta during Masters week is a tradition unlike any other. BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS 84 Rebirth of an icon Durban Country Club’s renovation lifts it to new heights. BY STUART McLEAN 90 From 9 holes to 18 Scottish links template holes are a feature of the new Gowrie Farm. 92 New Short-Game Fundamentals Get better around the greens with some tips you’ve probably never heard before. BY JAMES SIECKMANN 102 Front Man Arnie-award winner Rory McIlroy carries a special burden Arnold Palmer knew all too well. BY JAIME DIAZ 108 What’s in my Bag? Rose Zhang. WITH MICHAEL JOHNSON
27 Putting secret It’s how you start on pressure putts. BY LEONA MAGUIRE
81 Attack the Wind Make these easy adjustments to hit your irons low and high. BY TALOR GOOCH
TEE SHEET how to play . what to play . where to play . MARCH/APRIL 2024
ADJUSTING AUGUSTA Holes like the
par-3 16th remind us that at Augusta National, change is constant.
EDITOR’S LETTER E New book honours legacy of Bobby Locke
U nless you’re a member at Parkview Golf Club, or have been in the company of Denis Hutchinson and Dale Hayes lately, there is little to remind us today of a South African who won the claret jug four times at the Open Championship. So I was delighted to receive a copy of a new book by Grant Winter on the one and only Bobby Locke. Titled Prince of Putters , it’s an unusual book in that it has been compiled by Winter, former golf writer for The Star, from a pile of press cuttings, photographs, cartoons and scorecards left him by Bobby’s widow Mary Locke when she died in 2000. Mary, and Bobby’s parents, had carefully collected these during Locke’s life – he first made headlines as a 9-year-old in 1927 in the Johannesburg newspapers – which ended in 1987 at age 69. His last round had been at Parkview two days earlier, and there is a statue of him outside the clubhouse. “Hutchy” was a pall-bearer at the funeral. “Bobby died at 69 because he was always determined to break 70.” The book, self-published by Winter, is a rarity because while Locke wrote his own autobiography in the 1950s, nothing of this substance (298 pages) has been written about him since. Encapsulating his career, it’s full of short stories, packed with interesting and funny anecdotes. What I liked
too were the numerous illustrations, adverts, old photos and newspaper pages. Local cartoonists of that era, Jock Leyden and Bob Connolly, sketched caricatures of him that graced newspapers and magazines. South Africans in the 1940s and 50s were proud of Bobby’s achievements – including nine SA Open victories – but unlike Gary Player, known as The Black Knight, and Ernie Els, The Big Easy, he collected some uncomplimentary monikers, notably from the American press who mocked his swing and didn’t take kindly to his successes over their star players on what was to become the PGA Tour. Old Muffin Face was one of them, and how about the Zoot-Knickered Clouter? That was a reference to the plus-fours he wore, along with linen dress shirts, buckskin shoes and a trademark white cap. English golf writer Peter Dobereiner described Locke on the course as having “the stately air of an archbishop conducting a funeral.” The book discusses the shock banning of Locke from American tournaments in 1949. There’s a quote from legendary American sports writer Grantland Rice: “Locke made the mistake of winning too many tournaments. The PGA has left a general impression it was afraid of Locke’s skill.” Stuart McLean stuart@morecorp.co.za
Prince of Putters is R290 and can be ordered by emailing grantwinter1950@gmail.com
Golf Digest SA will again be publishing the annual Top 100 Course rankings in our May issue. The first Top 50 rankings appeared in the January 1998 issue of GDSA, and that list grew to 100 in 2002. The last GDSA rankings were in 2018, before the print magazine’s closure at the end of that year. For the past four years these rankings have been the preserve of the SA Top 100 Courses website, where information and the history of 150 golf clubs is maintained. They will be announced in both Golf Digest and the website at the end of April.
EDITOR STUART MCLEAN DESIGN ELINORE DE LISLE MEDIA SALES RICHARD ROWE
GOLF DIGEST USA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JERRY TARDE, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR MAX ADLER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR PETER MORRICE, INTERNATIONAL EDITOR JU KUANG TAN TEACHING PROFESSIONALS: TODD ANDERSON, MARK BLACKBURN, CHUCK COOK, HANK HANEY, BUTCH HARMON, ERIKA LARKIN, DAVID LEADBETTER, CAMERON MCCORMICK, JIM MCLEAN, RENEE POWELL, RANDY SMITH, RICK SMITH, DAVE STOCKTON, JOSH ZANDER PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS: AMY ALCOTT, RANDY MYERS, NICK PRICE, JUDY RANKIN, LUCIUS RICCIO, BOB ROTELLA, BEN SHEAR, RALPH SIMPSON, DR ARA SUPPIAH
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MIND / JOURNEYS M
‘Royal is now a field of dreams’ After 11 years as CEO, Chris Bentley is leaving Royal Johannesburg to work at a private club overseas. He leaves a strong legacy at one of South Africa’s oldest clubs which is in a very different place from when he arrived. By Chris Bentley with Stuart McLean
I had been director of golf at Serengeti estate and was just 27 when appointed in 2013 as the youngest general manager in the history of Royal. My timing could not have been worse. The club was operationally in turmoil, members were unhappy, and there had been a sudden change of committee as a result. The club was flush with capital reserves, yet the funds were untouch- able, and Royal was losing millions. When I told my father of the situation, and how concerned I was – the members also weren’t too support- ive of my appointment – he advised me to take this as an opportunity. So I start- ed looking at my job more holistically. Royal Johannesburg & Kensington, as it was then known, had been the premier golf club in Gauteng for many years, with two distinguished courses, but had been overtaken by Country Club Jo- hannesburg and Bryanston CC as more desirable clubs to join, particularly be- cause of their location in the northern suburbs. It was perceived that Royal was in the wrong place in the city. That might have been the case 10 years ago, but Royal today is comparable to the movie Field of Dreams, and its famous quote, “If you build it, they will come.” Through a tremendous team effort it has evolved into a family-orientated venue with a wellness and fitness club, award-winning restaurant, and I believe is now ahead of the game. During my tenure the club received 11 international awards, and I was named PGA Professional of the Year in 2021. I’m comfortable in saying that Royal is the “Home of Golf” in South Africa. The offices of the PGA and Club Managers Association are on the premises. The club is making an annual gross profit of R8-million on a turnover of R64-million. None of our members would have operated their own businesses the way the club used to be run until 2015. There were 12 different commit- tees. The constitution was restructured to better reflect the modern commer- cial world of golf club operations. We formed a board of nine members and
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myself, with one of the first items on the agenda a 5-year master plan to ensure the future prosperity of the club. We owned land which could be sold for residential development, but agreed not to follow the usual prac- tice of the club being paid a large sum. Those windfalls often result in a club spending most of it. The members signed off an annu- ity model where the home owners in the developments would be paying income to Royal in perpetuity. New revenue coming into the club for 99 years, and no financial burden on members. It takes care of our capital expenditure, particularly an extensive fleet of hybrid maintenance machinery. In the past year another source of new money has been three Padel courts. In 2022 the opening of The Old Oak restaurant in the clubhouse. We installed solar panels on a power purchase agreement with the under- cover bays in the parking lot. There are 12 courses within a 12-min- ute drive of Royal, including our own, so in order to attract members and visitors we have to create a unique sell- ing point. We believe in protecting the history and tradition of the club while building for the future. Our main focus is on providing a premium golf experi- ence with two exceptional courses and authentic front of house service. That experience is the key to member satis- faction. We cap annual rounds at 75 000 so members aren’t pressured in obtain- ing tee times. Our membership has risen from 1 400 to 1 720 in the last four years. The leading golf clubs have to con- stantly innovate and deliver beyond expectations. Jeff Clause, CEO at St Francis Links in the Eastern Cape, has given our golf industry great ideas in hospitality in the past 30 years since he came from America to Fancourt. However, these have now become the norm, and there are other levels we can still reach to maintain sustainable luxury. At Royal on cold winter days we provide blankets in every golf cart, hot water bottles for women golfers. And a tot of Old Brown sherry after five holes at our quarter house.
feel we are one club, with no divisions, and needed one iconic symbol. Sim- ply Royal Johannesburg, with no Golf Club attachment since the club is now far more than just premium golf. There was talk of renaming the West Course the Kensington Course, and the club is exploring ways to commemorate the Kensington link. Our next project, beginning in June after I’ve left, is a three-month re- construction of the range. Royal will be the first club in Africa to introduce a Dave Pelz Wedge Collaboration. Pelz is a renowned short game coach, and is working with South African course architect Paul Jansen who has estab- lished Himalayas Golf. Artificial target greens will be built so our members can practice with purpose and develop their short game skills. It will be unique, with as little tech as possible, but will have Trackman and custom fitting solu- tions. Our range is restricted in length, so we’re discouraging the use of drivers. Another project I will leave for my successor is an approved lodge, with 40 bespoke keys, which will be built alongside the 18th hole on the West Course.
The two quarter-houses – at the fifth and 13th tee boxes – were meant to replace the halfway house when we upgraded the East Course in 2017. A grab-and-go which would speed up the pace of play. The concept lasted five months. The members hated this and I listened to their complaints. I hadn’t understood how passionate South African golfers are about sitting down for a meal after nine holes. I backed down and we returned to having half- way in the clubhouse. One of the most momentous de- cisions at Royal was to remove the Kensington name from the title in 2022. Royal had merged with Kensington Golf Club in the late 1990s, and there was no question it was the right thing to rename the club Royal Johannes- burg & Kensington. But 25 years on we 25 years on we feel we are one club, with no divisions, and needed one iconic symbol.
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MIND / ON TOUR M
Undercover Caddie Enduring a collapse at the Masters is something you never get over
ILLUSTRATION BY AVINASH WEERASEKERA
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W e understood the finality. My player had been a professional for some time, and al- though he and his game had aged well, he knew there wasn’t much time left to compete. He knew he didn’t have much of a track record at Augusta National. Yet that year, on that week, he went low. We didn’t have the lead, but we had a real shot. At this stage of his career, it was likely going to be the only one we would get. It’s no secret that some pros don’t love the game the way fans do. You can get jaded by the business, the travel, the defeats and the reality that you’re not as good as you think. That wasn’t my player. He loved everything about golf, especially the Masters. He knew its his- tory and how lucky he was to play in it. One year he missed the cut and decided to stay for the weekend and watch it as a fan, which isn’t something you often see. I think that’s what hurt his perfor- mance over the years; he wanted it too much and played outside himself. However, one year everything clicked. Friday was flawless; in tough conditions, he had total control over his game. Saturday was another good day, and when we departed that eve- ning, I believed he was mentally ready for the final 18. My adrenaline was flow- ing, too; I had to remind myself to eat dinner around 10pm. My grandpa used to take me to the Masters when I was in high school, and I wanted a win for him and for my parents, who helped me out financially during the early lean years. I also wanted the win for myself; cad- dieing has given me a nice life, but I still felt judged by some friends and past ro- mantic relationships who never quite understood why I got into this or who looked at caddieing as a servant job. A win, I believed, would provide the vali- dation I wanted from them. My player was a good person, but he could be passionate, and sometimes that would rub people the wrong way. I loved it. I knew it wasn’t personal; he just held himself and others to a high standard and hated falling short of it, but on that Sunday, when he showed up to the course, he was as muted as he had ever been. His friends noticed
told me he barely remembers what hap- pened after the Masters. The first thing he recalls is throwing his wife a birth- day party, and that was a week before the Fourth of July. More than any other event, the Mas- ters is what he wanted, and he felt that was gone forever. It turned out that week wasn’t our only chance. We contended a few more times at major championships. But we were never as close as that week, which is why that one sticks with us. People ask how my life would have changed if we had won. I’m not sure. Maybe I would have a nicer apartment, but I’m on the road so much I don’t have time for a house, and my place still suits me. Heaven for- bid I lose my job and don’t get it back, I’m comfortable enough where I’m not getting evicted. Also, I don’t need that validation from anyone anymore. A win would certainly be sweet, but I’m at a point in my life where I know just being in contention for the Masters is a thing to be proud of. For him I know the road that went untravelled. It would have changed his retirement. He got into broadcast- ing for a bit, and without much formal training he was sharp. He understood that with his playing résumé – good and respectable but far from great – he had a ceiling as to how far he could go. Most guys in the booth have a major to their names. Even as he was trying to move on, he told me, he couldn’t; his past was dictating his future. We are no longer together fulltime, and though I still have a fulltime gig on tour, I’ve picked up his bag on occasion during my off weeks. Still, that week at Augusta is never far off. He told me he was once at a country club outing, and someone asked if he could sign a flag. He said sure, only to be handed a Masters flag, and looking at it felt like a gut punch. “It still hurts,” he told me. – with joel beall
it too; they thought it was an attempt to play it cool. Personally, I think he was reacting to the gravity of what was ahead. Think what it would be like to work your entire life for one goal, and it was now on the line. We didn’t play great on the front, but the score was good, and the lead- ers were struggling, so we were able to chip away at our deficit. Then it happened – to protect the innocent I won’t say where it started or what we made or how we made it – but we went from firmly in contention to needing some magic in a hurry. I’m not trying to dramatise his reaction, but truth- fully, when he handed me his putter, I thought he was in a state of shock. ‘When he handed me his putter, I thought he was in shock.’ I wish I could tell you I gave him some rah-rah speech. I didn’t. I thought the best way to move forward was to act like it didn’t happen. Besides, every hole at Augusta commands your full attention. Also, that wasn’t the type of relation- ship I had with my player, and I worried it would be forced. I’ve often wondered, however, if that situation called for a little red-ass from me to get him back in the game. I don’t think it would have made a difference, but keeping the sta- tus quo clearly didn’t help, either. The magic didn’t happen. We walked away with par on a hole where we had a good look at birdie. It felt like we gave another shot back; then my player came completely undone. We barely made it off 18 before his eyes filled with tears, and he cried when he saw his mom 20 minutes later. It was the only time in two decades of good times and bad that I saw him cry. We finished in the top 10, but we were wrecked afterwards. It took me a few weeks to get over what happened. My player was in a funk for months. At one point his agent asked me if I thought he was depressed. Years later, my player
Undercover Caddie says it’s not the col- lapse that hurts, it’s being helpless to stop it.
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M MIND / THE NEXT ONE'S GOOD
Pro Golf Is Broken How are we going to put it back together?
By Jerry Tarde
T he first book I remember my father reading was Situ- ation Golf by Arnold Palmer. The first golf tournament I remember watching was the 1972 US Open at Pebble Beach won by Jack Nicklaus. In the way only sporting he- roes speak to you, I’ve been rooting for pro golf my whole life, so take this as a lover’s lament, not the grieving of a cynic: Pro golf is broken, and I’m wor- ried about how it can be put back together. We shouldn’t be surprised by the inquiry because it follows a familiar pattern. Bret Stephens in The New York Times wrote that “brokenness has be- come the defining feature of much of American life: broken families, broken public schools, broken small towns and inner cities, broken universities, broken health care, broken media, bro-
ken churches, broken borders, broken government.” Why shouldn’t pro golf be broken? We thought the PGA Tour was in- vincible until it wasn’t. We watched every other industry undergo disrup- tion while pro golf only upticked con- tinuously. Tournament prize money increased year after year despite recessions, wars, scandals, pandemics and all forms of economic turbulence. Ever since World War Two, pro golf built its foundation on five principles: (1) The top players like Arnie and Jack always put the game above themselves. (2) Golfers are accountable to their performance – nothing’s guaranteed. (3) The pro tours are kept in check and balance by the four independent gov- erning bodies controlling the major championships and acting in the best interests of the game. (4) Pro golf is
underpinned by charity; that’s why hundreds of volunteers show up every week to help run the tournaments. (5) The game’s leaders – not always, but generally – have used the time- honoured Masters strategy of leaving money on the table in exchange for control and sustainability. It began to break down when suspect morals and unlimited resources tested the first two principles. Some top play- ers saw themselves as victims of in- come disparity and thought they were not only entitled to the growing prize money, but it wasn’t enough. Defections and betrayal followed. The PGA Tour and LIV Golf fell into what historians have called Thucydides Trap. “It was the rise of Athens and the fear it instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable,” wrote the Ancient Greek general Thucydides. When a newcomer
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BEN WALTON
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the PGA Tour is only the tip of the ice- berg. Recreational golf is the 99 percent below the surface, and it’s incredibly healthy. All the leading indicators of participation are showing sustain- able growth in the United States. It’s more diverse; the business is stronger; golf-course construction has started to reverse its decades of decline, and new variations on the old game are attract- ing kids and women at record levels. What Covid started, remote work and a strengthening US economy ensures. Just look at the latest study released by the National Golf Foundation: • Rounds played are up 20 percent since the start of the pandemic (2020), an all-time record at 531 million. • About 93 percent of golfers expect to play as much or more in 2024. • “Green-grass” participation hit 26.6 million last year – the biggest single- year jump since the Tiger Slam (2001). • On-course participation growth since Covid shows increases in play by youth (up 40 percent), people of colour (up 27 percent) and women (up 25 percent). • Sixty percent of the growth since 2019 has been female participation. • Latent demand among non-golfers’ interest in taking up the game has hit a record 22.4 million. • Alternative forms like Topgolf are up 130 percent, driving a record num- ber of total golfers to 45 million, and people with this off-course experience are five to six times more interested in playing on-course golf, portending even better news for the game’s future. • Here’s the one I like best: A Stanford University analysis of vehicle and phone GPS data suggests the increase in rounds played has been powered by Monday-Thursday play. Don’t tell your boss, but early-week tee times are fuel- ling the boom. The view here then is that the ama- teurs will help bail out the pros. The new tour can expect years of disruption, but the five original principles that guided the professional game since World War Two will prevail. I think it was Churchill who said, “You can always count on golfers to do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else.”
threatens authority, war is only averted with deft statecraft. Curiously, given the short-game touch of its stars, the PGA Tour doesn’t do deft. That’s how we got to where we are. Our immutable conscience will always cause us to struggle with the resolution of pro golf’s circumstance, but as Tiger Woods taught us, “It is what it is.” Power and money will be consoli- dated. Private equity and the Saudis will bring change and a new world order. The question remains, can all this brokenness get fixed? It’s undeniable that we have a messy, uneconomical system. Two organisa- tions based in New Jersey and Scotland make the rules; neither is a pro tour. Maybe the most influential governing body is a private golf club in Georgia. If pro golf were starting over, we would have one governance structure, one back office and the best golfers play- ing against each other more often. But I don’t think the PGA Tour’s new money realises you can’t get from here to there. If PGA Tour Enterprises is a for-profit venture, will the players and the in- vestors continue to care about charity and the communities that have always supported pro golf? It’s telling that none of the investors are members of Augusta National, meaning part of the golf establishment. The bet is that they’re smarter than everybody who has run pro golf all these years, and that will be painful to see play out. Market forces determine what some- thing’s worth, but an outside influence like the Saudi Public Investment Fund seems to have artificially inflated tour pros’ value, and they now think they’re worth that much. Maybe they are and maybe they aren’t, but we’ll see a reck- oning in a couple of years. There are two schools of thought: Some pros think they’re being exploit- ed by the major championships, which return only 10 to 20 percent of revenue to the pros. The reality is that the ma- jors probably could afford to pay back $30 million in purses (rather than the current $20 million) but nowhere near the 50-percent return the pros or new investors think they deserve. The other school of thought was expressed by a young major champion who said pri- vately: “You gotta be kidding! I’d pay to lay in a major; they don’t have to pay me. Win one and it’s life changing – you’ve made your career.” I’d hate to see the US Open or Open Championship go the
way of the AIG Women’s Open with title sponsors, but it may be necessary for the governing bodies to continue to ser- vice the world game with handicapping, agronomy and amateur competition. The PGA of America faces a different challenge. With the DP (European) Tour and PGA Tour under one roof, the play- ers might implicitly boycott the Ryder Cup unless the PGA of America turns over control. Commissioner Jay Mona- han’s a nice guy, but he has a fiduciary responsibility to call PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh and say, “Sorry, pal, but you’re going to sell us the Ryder Cup, and here’s what we’re going to pay.” Flush with private-equity ‘Recreational golf is the 99 percent below the surface, and it’s incredibly healthy .’ cash, would it be a surprise if the PGA Tour also bought the PGA Champion- ship? Maybe the club pros still get to wear their red plaid jackets and march in the TV parade, but have we seen the last of these majors played under PGA of America ownership? What else will the PGA Tour buy? Be- sides giving $1 billion in equity to the players who remained loyal to the tour, they’ll probably start buying up the rights to tournaments. Only a handful of the current 40-plus PGA Tour events are owned by the PGA Tour, and none of the majors are. If the tour owns the event and the arenas, there may be more profit. Gambling is uncharted territory, but investors believe owning golf betting will pay off. Media rights fees are another matter. Pay TV is un- der stress as revenue has declined seven percent annually with the shift from cable to streaming. Live sports may be the lifeblood of media but the deep dark secret is that pro golf’s a minor sport that doesn’t draw the audiences or drive the subscriptions of the NFL, NBA, col- lege football, the Olympics or Premier League. Will big new media still value little old golf? (Full disclosure: Golf Digest’s owner, Warner Bros. Discovery, might be one of those bidders.) But all the question marks are about pro golf, not the game we play. If the brokenness gets fixed, it’ll be because
Jerry Tarde’s favourite golf stat: The National Dog Show attracts twice the TV audience as the Masters.
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MIND / TELEVISION M The Old Course Returns with a major to delight its fans 15 special championship weeks for SuperSport viewers from April to September.
By Stuart McLean
ANCIENT LAND The Old Course’s
fourth green and the town of St Andrews.
W e are into golf’s “Major Season” and 2024 offers consider- ably more than usual for those devotees of SuperSport’s 213 channel. There are 15 special cham- pionship weeks ahead for viewers, beginning with the Masters in April and concluding in late September with the Presidents Cup. An unprecedented
for women, two for seniors, and two popular team matchplay contests. Other than Augusta National and the Masters, previewed in this issue, two iconic venues stand out from the crowd this year. The men’s US Open returns to Pinehurst No 2 after 10 years, and the Women’s Open to the Old Course. It’s only the third time women have played an Open at St Andrews (previous
nine major tournaments in 11 weeks from June 13 to August 25. The 50th anniversary of The Players Championship, with its thrilling final round, was a fabulous appetiser for the televisual feast that awaits. Super- Sport will have coverage of golf at the Olympic Games in Paris, a women’s major at the Old Course in St Andrews, plus four majors for men, another four
PHOTO BY DOM FURORE
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tree lines. Martin Kaymer won the US Open on 9-under 271, putting when- ever he missed a green, compared to Campbell’s 280 in 2005. A big saving on irrigation was an additional outcome for a course ranked No 29 in Golf Di- gest’s 100 Greatest American Courses. It is now a favoured venue for the USGA who have confirmed Pinehurst for fu- ture Opens in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047. There are no newcomers among the men’s major venues this year, as there was last year with Los Angeles CC hosting the US Open. The PGA Championship returns in May to a Jack Nicklaus design, Valhalla, the aptly named scene in 2014 of Rory McIlroy’s last major title. Astonishing that he hasn’t won a ma- jor in 10 years, although he has had 20 top-10s. Valhalla, ranked No 87 in Golf Digest’s 100 Greatest American Cours- es, is one of two Nicklaus courses to have hosted a major, the other being Shoal Creek in Alabama. VALHALLA RETURN FOR RORY MCILROY The PGA of America purchased the Kentucky course in 2000 (selling it in 2022), which explains why they keep going back there. It has seen thrilling action hosting the 1996 PGA (Mark Brooks), 2000 PGA (Tiger Woods), 2008 Ryder Cup, and 2014 PGA (McIlroy completed the 72nd hole in the dark to win by one from Phil Mickelson).
tionally challenging greens complexes, yet the US Golf Association gave it a wide berth as a championship venue until 1994 when it staged the US Senior Open, won by the late Simon Hobday. That was followed by its first US Open in 1999 (Payne Stewart) and another in 2005 which should have been won by Retief Goosen but fell unexpectedly into the hands of New Zealander Mi- chael Campbell. Goosen, the defending champion, had a 3-shot lead entering the final round, but Pinehurst No 2 punished his unusually loose shots on Sunday. He shot an 11-over 81 and didn’t finish in the top 10. Victory would have given him three US Opens in five years, in other words legendary status. No 2 was upgraded by the design duo of Ben Crenshaw & Bill Coore in 2010, prior to the 2014 US Open. They ripped out all the rough and established sandy wastelands between the fairways and The PGA Championship returns in May to a Jack Nicklaus design, Valhalla, the aptly named scene in 2014 of Rory McIlroy’s last major title.
iterations were in 2007 and 2013), and the championship has the potential to be one of the year’s viewing highlights. The women’s game is currently better suited than the men to an Old Course contest, as Pebble Beach was in 2023 for the Women’s US Open. The time- less attributes and challenges of these classic courses have been diminished by today’s power game, as we witnessed in the 2022 men’s Open at St Andrews when the Old Course’s firm fairways allowed for 300-metre plus drives and eliminated many of its quirky challeng- es. A winning score of 20-under 268 by Cameron Smith says it all. When the Old Course was first used for the Women’s Open in 2007, competitors played from the original championship tees laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1873. The course measured 6 070 metres and the Road Hole 17th was played as a par 5. Every hazard was in play for the women, and the winning total by Lorena Ochoa was five-under 287, which was two shots more than Bobby Jones scored in the 1927 Open. WOMEN USED OLD TOM MORRIS TEES In 2013, it was just 30 metres longer and American Stacy Lewis triumphed on 280, the Road Hole reverting to a 4. Significantly she finished her final round with a birdie 3 at the Road Hole and 3 at 18. Today’s women golfers are consid- erably longer off the tee than their predecessors from a decade earlier, and hopefully the R&A will test them accordingly by setting up the Old Course at around 6 300, which would be the same distance it played for the men’s Opens in 1990 and 1995, won by Nick Faldo and John Daly respectively. Pinehurst in North Carolina is regarded as the leading golf resort in the United States, having nine courses (No 10 by Tom Doak is due to open this year), and in June will be hosting its fourth US Open at the Donald Ross-designed No 2, an historical masterpiece. It was opened in 1907, and Ross tinkered with its design until his death in 1948. Its reputation is built on excep- RETIEF GOOSEN’S FINAL ROUND 81
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Valhalla is a Nicklaus design.
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Eight years after Royal Troon’s mem- orable duel between Henrik Stenson and Mickelson (a record winning score of 264), The Open returns in July to this west coast Scottish links with one of the trickiest short holes in championship golf, the Postage Stamp, No 8. Just 110 metres, but with an extremely narrow green, guarded by five bunkers (two with vertical faces), it is comparable to the island green 17th at TPC Sawgrass in its ability to worry the world’s best players and entertain the galleries. The wind blows across the hole, amping up the difficulty. Scotland is the place to be for three consecutive weeks in July, with the Scottish Open returning to the Renais- sance Club, and The Senior Open being played at Carnoustie. Northern Ireland hosts the Open in 2025 at Royal Portrush, and there’s a special Irish Open being played in September this year at Royal County Down, recognised as the No 1 course in the world outside the United States. The Irish Open has only been held there once before in the last 85 years, and that was in 2015, so this will be a momentous occasion for those who love classic links golf. SuperSport’s coverage of all five of the women’s majors has improved im- measurably in recent years, and these championships are more likely to in- troduce us to unfamiliar courses. This year the US Open goes to Lancaster CC. A William Flynn design, it flies under the radar compared to more famous Pennsylvania clubs such as Oakmont and Merion, and Lancaster ranks only No 7 in the state by Golf Digest. It did host the 2015 Women’s Open (In Gee Chun), but nothing on the men’s side. Sahalee, a course in the Pacific Northwest which has faded into obscu- rity, hosts the Women’s PGA in June. With narrow fairways framed by tower- ing trees, it once hosted the men’s PGA Championship (1998), the site of Vijay Singh’s first of three major victories. The women’s biennial Solheim Cup match between Europe and the USA, which saw a thrilling tie in Spain last year, will be played again this year to OFFBEAT VENUES FOR WOMEN’S MAJORS
WOMEN’S PGA Sahalee in the Pacific Northwest.
avoid future clashes with the Ryder Cup. It will compete instead with the Presidents Cup in September. The Sol- heim Cup is at Robert Trent Jones GC, outside Washington DC, where the inaugural Presidents Cup was played in 1994 and three times subsequently. President Obama was a club member. Canada will host the International and USA men’s teams at Royal Montreal, so the Presidents Cup will not venture outside North America. The last match to do so was in 2019 in Australia, and the next one in 2028 will again be to Australia, about the only other coun- try that can financially afford to stage it. Of the 14 matches played, just two have deviated from the North America- Australia axis, in South Africa in 2003 and Korea in 2015. PRESIDENTS CUP AT ROYAL MONTREAL When the match was last at Royal Montreal in 2007 there were four SA players in the 12-man International team under the captaincy of Gary Player – Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbati- ni and Trevor Immelman. Currently, two South Africans, Christiaan Bezuiden- hout and Erik van Rooyen, are in the mix for selection, although they will have to keep on performing strongly to break into a team captained by Canadian Mark Weir, the former Masters champion. He will have six wildcard selections but will likely favour his own countrymen. One of America’s oldest courses, Newport Country Club, is hosting the US Senior Open in June. Situated in America’s smallest state, Rhode Island, south of Boston, it was the
first club to host the US Amateur and US Open in 1895, on a 9-hole layout, so has historical significance. Newport was one of the five founding clubs of the USGA. To celebrate the centennial, in 1995, the US Amateur returned, and was won by Tiger Woods. Then, in 2006, it was the turn of the US Women’s Open (Annika Sorenstam) to visit. It will be interesting to see which South African men and women qualify as our representatives for the Olympics in
US SENIOR OPEN Newport CC was one of the first courses in the US.
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Buhai will be our best medal hope. She played at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 but missed Tokyo. The fields are limited to 60 players each, with two SA men likely qualifying. We had Bezuidenhout and Garrick Higgo in 2021, Brandon Stone and Jaco van Zyl in 2016.
Paris at Ryder Cup venue Le Golf Na- tional in the first two weeks of August. Only one South African has ever won an Olympic medal in golf, and that was Rory Sabbatini, who claimed silver representing Slovakia at the 2021 Games in Tokyo. This year Ashleigh
GOLF’S MAJOR EVENTS IN 2024 APRIL (2) Masters, Augusta National, Georgia, April 11-14 Jon Rahm, 2023 won $3.24 million Chevron Championship, Carlton MAY (2) PGA Championship, Valhalla, Louisville, Kentucky, May 16-19 Brooks Koepka, 2023 $3.15 million US Women’s Open, Lancaster CC, Pennsylvania, May 30-June 2 Allisen Corpuz, 2023 $2 million Woods, Texas, April 18-21 Lilia Vu, 2023 $765 000 JUNE (3) US Open, Pinehurst (No 2), North Carolina, June 13-16 Wyndham Clark, 2023 $3.6 million Women’s PGA Championship, Sahalee, Seattle, June 20-23 Ruoning Yin, 2023 $1.5 million US Senior Open, Newport CC, Rhode Island, June 27-30 Bernhard Langer, 2023 $720 000 JULY (3) The Evian Championship, Evian Resort, France, July 11-14 Celine Boutier, 2023 $1 million Open Championship, Royal Troon, Scotland, July 18-21 Brian Harman, 2023 $3 million The Senior Open, Carnoustie, Scotland, July 25-28 Alex Cejka, 2023 $447 800 AUGUST (3) Men’s Olympic Games, Le Golf National, Paris, August 1-4 Xander Schauffele 2021 Women’s Olympic Games, Le Golf National, Paris, August 8-11 Nelly Korda, 2021 Women’s Open Championship, Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland, August 22-25 Lilia Vu, 2023 $1.35 million SEPTEMBER (2) Solheim Cup, Robert Trent Jones GC, Virginia, September 13-15 Team Europe Presidents Cup, Royal Montreal, Canada, September 26-29 Team USA
PRESIDENTS CUP Royal Montreal in Canada.
“ c h ( a
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T his year is the 50th an- niversary of Gary Player’s greatest year in the majors, the only occasion he won two in the same year. He claimed a green jacket (or coat as it was called then) at Augusta National on April 14, and claret jug at Royal Lytham on July 13. It is fascinating to watch the two-hour CBS TV coverage of the final round of the 1974 Masters on YouTube. It came on air as the final pairing played to the ninth green. Click here to watch. Gary, aged 38, had shot 66 on Satur- day to be in this Easter Sunday pair- ing with Dave Stockton, the 1970 PGA champion. They were a vivid contrast, Gary wearing his trademark black outfit with black shoes and white cap, Stockton a bright yellow shirt, with paler yellow slacks. Other protagonists in a tense final nine holes were Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf and Hale Irwin. Six players were within a shot of the lead at one stage. The apparel reflected the decade, lots of checks and stripes, as did the long hair and smoking cigarettes. Men in the galleries were dressed much like the players. Not a pair of shorts to be seen. Players wore an array of headgear with no branding. Several were bare headed, including Nicklaus and a youthful Ben Crenshaw. When Nicklaus tees off at 13 it’s revealing to see a ball-washer be- hind him and bits of other course fur- niture you wouldn’t see today. The players showed little emotion. Gary would touch his cap when he holed a birdie putt. A handshake with his caddie at the end. Although Nick- laus did leap skywards when sinking an eagle putt on 13. It looked a very different game to the one we watch today where there is a barrage of birdies. Drives with persim- mon woods were generally straight but 50 years ago Gary wins the Masters and Open By Stuart McLean
removed his right shoe to shake out the sand. Nicklaus kept his right shoe on, but removed the sock, while submerg- ing his foot in the water hazard at 15, where he made a spectacular save. A thunderstorm was brewing as Gary putted out on 18 for a 10-under total of 278 (two ahead of Stockton and Weis- kopf), with a commentator talking about lightning in the area. No sirens and suspension of play back then. In 1974, Gary was still the only non- American to have won the Masters. It was in 1980 that Seve Ballesteros be- came the second. There’s an amusing moment at the end of the telecast in the Butler Cabin when Gary is helped into his new green blazer by 1973 champion Tommy Aaron. It’s on the large size, and Gary quips, “I haven’t found one that fits me yet.” Two months after the Masters, the US Open was at Winged Foot in New York, and Gary held a share of the 36- hole lead before shooting 77-73 on the weekend. He finished T-8 in one of the highest scoring modern majors, Irwin winning on +7. Then came the Open at Royal Lytham in Lancashire. In fierce winds, Gary led from the first round onwards in a dom- inating display (69-68-75-70) where he never relinquished the lead. Only three other players broke 70 all week. Even with three late bogeys in the final round, he won by four from English- man Peter Oosterhuis, with Nicklaus third on +3, becoming one of only three men to have lifted the claret jug in three different decades. This was the first Open where the larger-sized American ball was made compulsory. The final major of 1974 was the PGA Championship at Tanglewood in North
not long. Gary struck the longest drive of the final round on 15 and still had a fairway wood for his second to clear the pond short of the green. In 1974 the telecast is mostly of play- ers scrambling for pars other than on 13 and 15, the two par 5s. More putts were missed than holed, not surprising with small-headed putters and slow, grainy Bermuda greens. They were running at a sluggish 8 on the stimpmeter. Play- ers struck firm putts, and they didn’t run much past the hole. Bent grass was only introduced at Augusta in 1980. The Bermuda greens were also firm and difficult to hold, so players were over- shooting greens with their approaches. The par-3 16th was a tiger at 173 me- tres. Same Sunday pin in the left back corner as today, but players were miss- ing left in the water or greenside bunker. Curiosities include players keeping their glove on to putt, including Nick- laus, and dropping balls over their right
shoulder for a penalty. Ev- eryone had Augusta caddies assigned to them. A caddie in white overalls was posted at each green to instantly fix pitch marks, so the players never had to worry about finding them. Gary was in two green- side bunkers on the back nine, and both times failed to get up and down despite being the world’s best from the sand. On the tenth he
Carolina in August, and Gary was again in contention after a second round 64. He fin- ished seventh. This was only one of two years in which he had top-10 finishes in all four majors, the other being 1963. Gary’s stroke average for the four majors was 70.8. Nick- laus was 71.2. In September 1974 Gary and Jack were among 13 golfers inducted into the new World Golf Hall of Fame.
WINNING THE MASTERS AND OPEN IN SAME YEAR 1953 Ben Hogan
1962 Arnold Palmer 1966 Jack Nicklaus 1974 Gary Player 1977 Tom Watson 1990 Nick Faldo 1998 Mark O’Meara 2005 Tiger Woods
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Champions Dinner Etiquette Do’s and Don’ts Manners are everything at Augusta National – especially at the dinner table By Coleman Bentley
DON’T DISCUSS PGA TOUR-PIF POLITICS AT THE TABLE. DO TELL JOKES INTO ONLY THE GOOD EARS OF THE HONORARY STARTERS. DON’T GET CAUGHT WITH A NON-CONFORMING BUTTER KNIFE.
DO REMOVE YOUR RANGEGOATS HAT IN THE DINING ROOM. DON’T ANCHOR YOUR SALAD FORK.
DON’T DREDGE UP FOUR- DECADES-OLD CHEATING ALLEGATIONS. DO FOLD YOUR NAPKIN INTO AN AZALEA WHEN YOU HEAD TO THE LAVATORY.
DO REMEMBER THE DRESS CODE: JACKET AND TIE. DON’T PRACTICE AIMPOINT WITH YOUR PEAS. DO LET THE GUY WHO JUST GOT A $300-MILLION PAYDAY PICK UP THE CHEQUE.
DO CHEW WITH YOUR MOUTH CLOSED EVEN WHILE TIGER RECOUNTS HIS 16TH- HOLE CHIP-IN.
DON’T SNEAK IN YOUR OWN WAFFLE HOUSE.
ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL BYERS
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WORK (OUT) FROM HOME
No need for a pricey gym membership to get in golf shape By Ron Kaspriske
Commercial gyms are packed with expensive equip- ment to, well, get you to buy a
membership. It’s a logical marketing strategy, but the reality is, once you’re in the door, you’re much more likely to brush past nearly all that equipment than you are to use it. Candidly, most golfers need very lit- tle to get a good, well-rounded workout that boosts performance on the course and helps avoid injuries, says Jennifer Fleischer, one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Fitness Trainers in America. “You’d be surprised how far you can get with a pair of dumbbells, a medicine ball and a resistance band,” she says. “Even doing body-weight exercises with no equipment is super helpful.” If you’ve been cleared for exercise by a medical professional, here are two things to consider when building a workout, Fleischer says. The first is to include training from four subcat- egories: pushes (think bench presses or squats), pulls (rows, arm curls, etc.), core strengthening (planks, bird dogs) and lower-body training (deadlifts, lunges). The second is a programme that encompasses all three planes of motion. Exercises that have you moving forward and backward, side to side or rotationally – or a blend of all three planes. To get you started with your programme, Fleischer ( right ) demonstrates three moves that meet many of these guidelines while requir- ing less than R2 000 of gym equipment. JENNIFER FLEISCHER , who trains in the San Francisco Bay area, is a Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer.
SINGLE-LEG, TABLETOP CHEST PRESSES Lie back on a bench or ottoman with your head and upper back fully sup- ported but most of your body suspended off the ground like a tabletop. Extend one leg and perform a rep by pushing straight up with the dumbbells. Keep your hips from sagging and do several reps alternating the extended leg. This enhances power and stability in the swing and strengthens key areas, includ- ing the chest, core, glutes and hamstrings.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY KAARE IVERSON
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SPLIT-STANCE MEDICINE-BALL CHOPS Get into a split stance and hold a medicine ball near the hip of the trail leg. From this stance, rotate your torso and raise your arms until the ball is on the opposite side of your body at about head height. Then reverse the motion until the ball is returned to the start position. Do several reps, then switch hand and leg positions and re- peat the “chops” in the opposite direction. This exercise improves lower-body stability and allows you to swing a club across your body under control. MORE HELP TO CUSTOMISE YOUR WORKOUTS
Perhaps the worst word in fitness is “routine,” says top trainer Jennifer Fleischer. It evokes feelings of boredom and discouragement and might lead you back to the couch. To combat this, Fleischer has designed a variety of programmes in her new video series on Golf Digest: “Custom Golf Workouts.” Whether you have 15 minutes or an hour, there are several circuits to meet your goals (and time constraints). Mix and match any of the exercises to keep your body fit and your workouts fresh. Check out the full programme with Fleischer’s step-by-step videos at golfdigest. com/customgolfworkouts.
COILING SLIDE BACKS Get into your golf posture, feet together, and step on a band while holding one end with one hand so that it’s taut. Perform a backward lunge with the opposite leg while hoisting the band upwards and rotating at the same time towards the pulling arm – then return to the start. Do several reps, switch hand and leg positions and repeat. This exercise improves coordination and function between the actions of the lower and upper body during the swing.
Warm-Up | GolfDigest.com Circut No. 1 | Golf Digest Circuit No. 2 | Golf Digest Circuit No. 3 | Golf Digest Cool-down | Golf Digest
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