JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
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TEE SHEET how to play . what to play . where to play . JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
Body
6 Editor’s Letter A looming catastrophe for club golfers. BY STUART MCLEAN Mind 8 Journeys Eric Cole overcame disease and a broken back. WITH KEELY LEVINS 10 Undercover Caddie Coping with verbal abuse is part of the job on the PGA Tour. WITH JOEL BEALL 12 Raising a junior golfer The author’s best advice comes from his mistakes. WITH SAM WEINMAN 14 The distance debate Rolling back ball has been a long time in the making. BY E MICHAEL JOHNSON
40 My way back How Butch helped me find my swing again. BY RICKIE FOWLER 48 Stop tossing grass, it’s dumb That, and five other golf myths debunked. BY MATTHEW RUDY 56 South Africa’s Best 9-holers Our ranking reveals the richness of our rural treasures. BY STUART MCLEAN 66 Mpumalanga’s 9-hole gems From gold prospectors to movie legends. BY STUART MCLEAN 68 Tales from high up When golfers fly private, things happen. BY THE EDITORS 78 My Magnificent Seven Favourite stay-and-play destinations. BY STUART MCLEAN 92 Sunshine Tour Review Louis remains SA’s No 1. First-time winners, lowest rounds, toughest courses.
26 Fitness Rowing is an awesome exercise for golfers. BY LUKE KERR-DINEEN
28 Stay down a beat longer Try this easy drill to prevent fat and thin shots. BY THOMAS HAWKEYE VALDEZ 82 Your Longest Year Ever Cam Young shares his prime moves to help you blister the ball. BY RON KASPRISKE 90 What’s in My Bag Cam Young is an equipment junkie. 100 Tuck Away Your Slice Try this handy drill to stop coming over the top. BY DAVIS RILEY Features
16 Fancourt projects New halfway house and 9-holer.
32 Legends of Golf Instruction
Butch Harmon shares lessons from an incomparable career. BY BUTCH HARMON 36 Meet the new No 1 Mark Blackburn reveals some of the teaching insights that propelled him to the top. BY MATTHEW RUDY
18 Durban CC’s new burn Opening delayed until March 1.
22 Golf’s Four Letter Word Have we become numb to the use of profanity? BY JERRY TARDE
24 Gimme Gimme! Holiday gift ideas for golfers.
EDITOR’S LETTER E A looming catastrophe for club golfers
E ver-improving technology has popularised golf. As one who has experienced a vastly differing quality of equipment in my lifetime, I can testify that my enjoyment factor of golf has never been greater. The clubs and balls in my bag are products I never dreamed of playing when young. Looking back, I can’t believe I persevered as a beginner. The clubs were awful, particularly the grips, and the balls prone to extreme deviations and low trajectories. Thankfully, they were cheap, because they didn’t last long, either disappearing into dense vegetation or being sliced open by an errant swipe. I had limited control over this ball – a smaller version of today’s – and this was a game where control of your ball mattered because fairways were narrower. However, one thing that didn’t concern me was the distance it travelled when struck sweetly. There were those whose feats of hitting seemed extraordinary, yet they were a minority. The rest of us struck the ball similar distances. We all played from the same tees. One tee for men, one tee for women. How the game has changed. Today it is all about how far the ball can be driven, and courses have as many as five different tees to cater for length.
beneficial for the future of golf to put a check on distance. Say 300-metre drives maximum. Yet The R&A and USGA, in their judgment, have entered dangerous territory by insisting club golfers will also have to play this new ball, starting in 2030. I hope to still be playing then, yet age will have slowed my ball speed and I don’t look forward to losing even more distance with a “shorter” ball. Some say the loss will be minimal, yet surely the point of this exercise is to take back considerable distance from the pros. It should be at least 30 metres with the driver. Anything less won’t have the desired effect. It is a mistake to inflict this upon the aging club golfer because it could create divisions. No club golfer will welcome a “lesser” ball. Come 2030 many will likely continue using current balls. Tests have shown modern balls do not deteriorate. The Pro V1 I buy today will be as effective in six years’ time. I foresee stock piling taking place. Golf ball sales could plummet in 2030. In America there are already millions using illegal equipment and playing by their own rules. That trend may just worsen and spread around the globe. Stuart McLean stuart@morecorp.co.za
We have reached the point where golf’s ruling bodies, The R&A and USGA, have decided something drastic must happen to the ball to curtail the increasing distances golfers are achieving not only off the tee with drivers, but irons too. On the Sunshine Tour there were instances of drives exceeding 400 yards (365 metres). Asking one pro about the clubs he used during a round, never more than an 8-iron into a par 4. It has taken the last 25 years for the penny to drop. In this edition we publish (Page 14) an interesting chart detailing the ball’s progress since 1972. That was when the first two-piece Top-Flite distance ball appeared. It was revolutionary for club golfers, although the Pro V1 in 2000 was the ball which transformed pro golf. I welcome a “roll back” of the ball for pros, although why it requires another four years before being implemented is mystifying. The R&A and USGA should already have been experimenting with such a ball at elite amateur level to gauge its effect. Those are their events, and they can pursue that direction without controversy. Instead, they are trying to push the commercial pro tours into doing their bidding, and it has not been well received. Most pros are averse to anything that will disrupt their ease of scoring, even though they will still be driving exceptionally far. It can only be
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MIND / JOURNEYS
‘Both of My Parents Were Pro Golfers’ I’ve overcome disease, a broken back and 13 years of playing mini-tours for peanuts By Eric Cole with Keely Levins M y six siblings and I took up most of the LPGA Tour ’s daycare room in the 1990s. My mom, Laura Baugh, would pile my siblings and me into a van, and we’d go from LPGA tourna- ment to LPGA tournament all summer. My dad, Bobby Cole, was a pro golfer too. He won two South African Opens.
where I would pay a $90 entry fee and the winner got $300. The one-day events on the Minor League Golf Tour were $150 to $200 to get in, and the winner got just under $1 000. Over the years, I won 56 times on the Minor League Golf Tour. ● ● ● I was able to pay my bills and go to Q school every year, but I wasn’t get- ting through. I was frustrated, but my parents reassured me: If you’re good enough, it can start to happen quickly. I believed in myself, so I kept going. In 2015, a group of guys at my club, Teques- ta Country Club, raised some money so I could travel to play in tournaments outside of Florida. It was hard for me to take the money, but I realised it’s OK to accept help. Getting out of Florida and playing new courses helped my game. After going to Q school six times, I final- ly got through in 2016 and earned status on the Korn Ferry Tour. The dream of reaching the PGA Tour felt new again. ● ● ● Just when I was closer to the tour than ever, I was diagnosed with a stress fracture in my back. I don’t know what caused it, but I had to stop playing. I spent 2018 teaching golf at Abacoa, a course in Jupiter. The juniors I taught were so excited about the game, and I could help them like the pros helped me when I was young. I wasn’t pursuing my dream, but I was still hap- py. I realised that if I never make it to the tour, I’ll be OK. When I started compet- ing again, I felt less pressure. ● ● ● I came back to the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020. I made about half the cuts that season. In 2022, I settled in. I had five top 10s and finished inside the top 25 to get my PGA Tour card. It felt like a reward for all the hard work and validation for everyone who had helped me. ● ● ● I got off to a rough start during my rookie season: I had COVID-19 at the Fortinet, my clubs were stolen at the Shriners, and I missed several cuts in a row, but I trusted my game. I saw enough guys get to the tour, change their games and struggle even more. After 13 years of mini-tours, I have a lot of patience. In February 2023, I almost won the Honda Classic. My dad won on the PGA Tour. It would be cool to share that with him.
All of us kids learned to play golf, but I had the most passion for it. I played a lot of golf with my mom as a kid because we hit it about the same distance. Mom was the LPGA Rookie of the Year in 1973 and played the tour for 25 years. The best thing she taught me was to work hard when you’re at the course and leave it there. If you only think about golf, you’ll get fatigued. My dad, a PGA Tour winner, worked with me on my swing. He taught me to own my swing and be aware if it changes. ● ● ● I spent junior golf learning about the game instead of playing a ton of tournaments. My mom remarried when I was a teenager, and we had a membership at Bay Hill. One of my best friends is Sam Saunders, Arnold Palm- er’s grandson. We played with a bunch of pros: Lee Janzen, Robert Damron and Dicky Pride. They helped our games develop faster than other ju- niors. We went to the range with a plan, practised wedges more than other juniors and had pre- shot routines before other kids did. ● ● ● When it came time for college, I wasn’t focused on school. I wanted to be a professional golfer. Neither of my parents went to college, but they told me to try it. Nova Southeastern Uni- versity was the first school to send me
a letter of intent. It’s a Division II pro- gramme in Fort Lauderdale. I wanted to stay in Florida; I signed it. ● ● ● I played well as a freshman, but dur- ing my second year, I felt incredibly lethargic. My body ached, and I lost a bunch of weight. I went home, think- ing rest would fix me, but I got worse. I weighed 53kg when my mom took me to the ER. I was diagnosed with two au- toimmune diseases: type 1 diabetes and Addison’s disease. ● ● ● I wear an insulin pump and blood glucose monitor. In my golf bag, I car- ry sugar-free protein bars for when my blood sugar is stable, and I have Sour Patch Kids and Starbursts for when it dips. To treat Addison’s, I take a few
pills in the morning to re- place the hormones my body doesn’t create, and I don’t have symptoms. As long as I have my medication, gear and supplies, I feel good. ● ● ●
ERIC COLE PGA TOUR AGE 35 LIVES TEQUESTA, FLORIDA.
After a couple of months, I got healthy. I didn’t return to school and turned pro instead. Why prolong the inevitable? I didn’t have any sponsors. My mom paid for Q school that first year; I didn’t get through. I played mini-tours in Florida, figuring I’d save on travel costs by playing events I could drive to. I played the Moonlight Golf Tour,
PHOTOGRAPH BY JENSEN LARSON
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 9 ISSUE X 2022 GOLF DIGEST X
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
MIND / ON TOUR M
Undercover Caddie Coping with verbal abuse is part of the job of looping on tour
W orking in sport is dif- ferent from most jobs, but it’s still a job. I’m sure some of you get chewed out by your bosses, but I doubt they talk to you the way some players talk to us. If you have played sport, you know heated exchanges among team- mates and competitors are fairly com- mon. I’m not condoning the language, but how many people really think twice about it? That doesn’t make what gets said easier to hear. Curse words, putdowns and ques- tions that are not so much questions as they are criticisms come with the job. Golf is an emotional game, and the lines between great and good and between good and losing your card are so thin that every shot feels like it has greater meaning than it should. Living on that type of edge tends to expose nerves, and sometimes that turns into negative energy directed at us. If something is our fault, we know it, and we’ll own it, but we can also get derided despite being right. Five years ago, near the end of the West Coast Swing, my player and I were doing well, but it was getting late, and we needed another birdie to make a playoff. We had an approach that I said required a good 9-iron. He wanted a soft 8. He got the last call, and the shot was way off to the right. I got an earful from my player, not because either of us was necessarily wrong but because I brought in doubt to the shot. Yes, it’s his job to commit, but you can’t be 100 percent committed on the 280-something shots you take per tournament. Doubt is always there, and though I’ve done my job, I still take the brunt of my guy’s failure. You would think that would make it more palatable. It doesn’t. No one likes to be treated that way, especially if it’s not justified. It’s not just the tone. Words really can hurt. One player who I like used to call me “dumbass” after every bad shot anytime we disagreed.
He said it in jest but also as a way of de- flection to preserve his self-confidence. If you keep hearing you’re a dumbass, you begin to think, Well, maybe I am a dumbass. This might sound a little funny, but I ended up seeing a therapist to talk about how to come to terms with it and how to stop it. I worried about how to bring this up with my player because if he didn’t react well, word would get out. Then I would be seen as weak, and my repu- tation on tour would have been done. I never had to make that call; right around the time I started talking to the thera- pist, my player got hurt. I jumped on a new bag with a guy who is a bit boring but polite and have stayed there since. There’s a reason the guys you see on TV every week aren’t the ones who are guilty of berating their loops. If a player is routinely going at a caddie – at least being caught on camera going at a cad- die – the tour will take the player aside and say, “Hey, tone it down.” It’s not because the tour cares about us; it has an image to uphold, and a superstar chewing out his bagman after a bad shot doesn’t help the brand. For some of the habitual line-crossers, the net- works know enough to cut away before showcasing anything too nasty. Let’s just say there’s a reason you never see the reaction from one under-30 super- star. The networks know if they stay on him for too long, there’s a F-bomb be- ing shot at his loop. Everyone knows this one player who is a notorious hothead. He’ll pop off on his caddie three to four times a round. That’s a hell of a lot. The thing is, this player gets annoyed at everything and ‘I ended up seeing a therapist to talk about how to come to terms with it and how to stop it.’
everyone, including himself, when he’s playing, which makes it easier for his caddie to take. They have a great relationship, and after a win a few years back this player bought his cad- die a car to say thanks. Looking like a jerk doesn’t mean you are a jerk, if you know what I mean. Conversely, there is a guy who every-
ILLUSTRATION BY GUY SHIELD
10 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
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To be completely fair, we’re not choir boys, either. We vent about our players to our fellow caddies. The next time you watch a tour event in person, if you see a caddie laughing with a ra- dio or TV on-course reporter, we likely took a friendly dig at our player’s ex- pense. Hey, we have to cope somehow. – with joel beall
Why does the caddie stay? There’s a lot of money to be made out here work- ing in the game, and for most of us, cad- dieing professionally is something we love. I was lucky because I had insight from my dad. He wasn’t a pro caddie; he worked at a bunch of clubs growing up, even as a side gig when he got married to help support the family. When I start- ed caddieing, he instilled this lesson in me early: Take it or take off . That’s al- ways in the back of my head because if I don’t want to do this anymore, I know there are hundreds that would jump at the chance to take my place.
one considers a nice dude except for the caddies. He rides his caddie hard: Noth- ing is ever his fault, and when things are going bad, boy, is he in a bad mood. The worst is that he talks massive crap behind his caddie’s back. He criticises the decisions, prep and strategy after the fact, but then goes a level deeper, ripping his caddie’s appearance, be- haviour, even his drawl. The last part is especially offensive; yeah, his caddie talks a little slow, but when the player does his impression, he makes his cad- die sound like a stereotypical hillbilly. It comes off mean-spirited, done only to put his caddie down for a cheap laugh.
Undercover Caddie says the oddest thing a player has called him is a “booger digger.”
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MIND / GOLF IQ M
I have written about my oldest son’s progress as an elite golfer. Perhaps you think this qualifies me to provide advice to other golf parents. Maybe so, but not necessarily the type you would expect. Much as my experience working in the golf industry has afforded me insight into how the game should be played and taught, the nuggets of wisdom I have relayed to my son are likely outnumbered by the mishaps I’ve made along the way. My guidance is more like a yardage book that maps out all the hazards. The least I could do is spare you the same trouble. LESSON #1 Your kid is not you The first problem with being a golf parent is that most of us are also avid golfers. As not a particularly great player, I have made the recurring mistake of projecting my golf experiences on to my son without factoring in the widening gap in our abilities. Close the face. Aim further out. Just lag it close. These are all things I’ve thought and even said while watching my kid play, which disregards more than just our different skill sets, but that he really should just figure this stuff out himself. Never mind if my advice was right or wrong. The mistake was thinking it mattered. LESSON #2 Beware hypocrisy The second problem with playing golf with my kid all these years is he’s been playing golf with me. It’s possible he recalls the day I got up-and-down from everywhere on the front nine, but he definitely remembers the time I helicoptered a wedge out of frustration into a greenside bunker. It was unreasonable for me to expect model comportment from my kid when, as a grown adult with a bond, I couldn’t always hold it together myself. The compromise then was to accept this was a process. I wanted him to try to manage his emotions better, and I would do the same, but as with golf itself, perfection was a myth.
Raising a junior golfer? This is the stuff I did wrong The author only meant well with his junior golfer, but his best advice comes from his mistakes.
By Sam Weinman
PHOTOGRAPH BY FREEPIK.COM
12 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
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you don’t end up in a puddle of tears on the seventh green. Then when my son showed enough promise came the suggestion that golf “might lead somewhere.” Both objectives miss the point. That golf can be fun is a given. I wouldn’t subject myself or anyone else to it if it didn’t provide a level of joy. But golf can also be miserable, and maddening – the type of fun that results in clubs snapped in two. Is it a path to college or a career? For a select few, sure, but the moment golf becomes about a tangible return, the edges around the game can harden. You don’t practice because you want to, but because you need to. You measure progress on a scale you don’t get to define. When my son decided he wanted to play golf in college, even I paused to ask him if he was sure it was worth it. He insisted it was, but the atmosphere around his golf grew heavier. So what is the payoff of golf? The phrase we settled on is that golf is always rewarding. It’s rewarding when it’s fun, and rewarding when it’s hard, and even when you collapse over the last two holes of a tournament and drive home in silence. The pursuit is everything. For all my bungling, it turns out there was one important way I could use myself as a model. When my son decided to channel his energy into golf, he could be assured there was a payoff that would be there long after college acceptance letters. It could be there when he’s middle aged and with a diminished swing speed, yet still counting the minutes until his next tee time. In his high school yearbook, my son wrote to me, “Dad, thank you for passing down your love of sport and not passing down your golf swing,” which might sound like an insult if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted as well. The kid deserved to play the game better than me. But if he loves the game nearly as much as I do, I must have done something right.
‘The teenage brain can only handle so much input from a parent, especially one hitting from 30 metres behind in the fairway.’
The author with his two sons, both of whom have survived his occasional missteps.
LESSON #3 There’s a difference between nudging and pushing
LESSON #4 Less is way more
As a Golf Digest editor, and the author of a book in the sports psychology realm, I am burdened with the belief my insights into golf and competing are worth sharing. Maybe they are (please keep paying attention!), but the teenage brain can only handle so much input from a parent, especially one hitting from 30 metres behind in the fairway. There was a point when I threw everything I could at my kid about course strategy and a winning mindset, before realising how much of it was just white noise. In the years since, learning to pick my spots has improved my success rate, as well as hopefully our relationship. At a tournament a few years ago he imploded over the last two holes, and when he plopped himself in the passenger seat, I had to fight the instinct to unpack what happened and what he could learn. We made the hour drive home mostly in silence. which was hard for me, but precisely what he needed. LESSON #5
If a golfer’s motivation ultimately needs to come from within, that doesn’t mean a kid has to navigate the game alone. Broadly, I believe a parent’s role is to help their child make decisions their future selves will appreciate. For young golfers, that could be outlining a path to success by connecting the player with a coach or suggesting a practice routine – all those elements that kids might not have the vision to see on their own, but you know to be helpful. Personally, if I had stopped there, that would have been best. My problem, admittedly, was when my “outlining” and “suggesting” occasionally felt more like “pressuring.” I can think of a handful of times when my son dragged himself to practice specifically because he knew that’s what I expected. Without even knowing it, I had turned chipping and putting into as much of a chore as emptying the dishwasher. A smarter approach comes from my wife, who is not a golfer but a veteran educator. Rather than tell a kid what they should do, she asks them the sort of questions that help them arrive at their own conclusions. What’s something you’d like to be better at? What do you think will help you get there? Very often the seed of the same solution is planted, but without the gnawing sense an adult put it there.
The payoff isn’t what you think
A golf dad like me has vacillated between two extremes when trying to motivate my kids, and both have pitfalls. I started by trumpeting that golf is fun, which it can be provided
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MIND / DISTANCE DEBATE M
A PROPOSAL TO ROLL BACK THE GOLF BALL AT THE ELITE LEVEL HAS BEEN A
BY E MICHAEL JOHNSON
1972 Spalding introduces the two-piece Top-Flite distance ball.
1976 The USGA’s “Iron Byron” robot measures golf balls’ initial velocities and distances. Struck at 109 miles per hour, balls must travel no further than 296 yards.
1979 TaylorMade introduces the first commercially viable metalwoods.
1984 The USGA adds “springlike effect” language to the Rules of Golf.
2004 The USGA implements rules restricting clubhead size to 460 cubic centimetres and COR (a measure of face springiness) to .822 with a test tolerance of .008.
2003 TrackMan – a Doppler-radar- based launch monitor, helps optimise the launch conditions of professional golfers. Average driving distance on the PGA Tour surges to 285.9 yards. Hank Kuehne leads at 321.4. Nine players average 300 or more, and 55 others top 290 yards.
2002 Augusta National adds more than 285 yards by extending half the holes in what is dubbed “Tigerproofing” the golf course. The USGA and R&A release a Joint Statement of Principles that puts distance firmly in the crosshairs of future regulation: “Any further significant increases in hitting distance at the highest level are undesirable.” Twenty-one players break the 400-yard barrier, including David Duval, with a 454-yarder.
2005 The USGA sends an e-mail to ball manufacturers
2006 The Ohio Golf Association conducts a tournament that requires participants to use a ball made to carry 10 to 15 yards shorter to highlight the burden on facilities to lengthen their courses.
2011 Average distance on the PGA Tour eclipses 290 yards for the first time. Five players top 310 yards, and 21 players average over 300 yards. More than 100 players have an average of more than 290 yards.
2018 After a period of
slow to flat distance increases, the PGA Tour average leaps from 290.0 in 2016 to 296.1 in 2018. Sixty golfers top the 300-yard mark.
soliciting prototype balls that fly 15 to 25 yards shorter than current USGA limits.
woods : j d cuban ; club : taylormade ; ball : robert beck / getty images ; trackman : rob carr / getty images ; st andrews : david alexander / getty images ; dechambeau : mike ehrmann / getty images
Golf’s distance debate is not new. In fact, pros and everyday golfers have been questioning the length
the golf ball goes for more than half a century. The recent proposal by the USGA and R&A to roll back the distance the golf ball goes for players at the elite-competition level was not spurred by one moment in time but rather by the cumulative effect increased distance has had on the game. Here’s a look at some of the more seminal moments that have led to this tipping point.
LONG TIME IN THE MAKING
1997 Tiger Woods wins the Masters by overpowering Augusta National. He hits pitching wedge into the par-5 15th for his second shot during the final round and requires only a 9-iron to reach the par-5 second green during the third round.
1988 For the first time, metal drivers outnumber persimmon drivers on the PGA Tour.
1990 The Open Championship is played at the Old Course at St Andrews at a length of 6 933 yards (6 394 metres).
1992 The longest recorded drive on the PGA Tour is 372 yards by Mark Calcavecchia in the first round of the NEC World Series of Golf in Akron, Ohio.
2000 Tiger Woods changes to the Nike Tour Accuracy, a multilayer, solid-core ball with a urethane cover, and wins seven of his next nine events. Titleist introduces the Pro V1 – its first multilayer, solid-core ball with a urethane cover. Within two weeks more than 100 tour pros are playing multilayer, solid- core balls with urethane covers. The average driving distance on the PGA Tour is 272.7 yards. John Daly is the leader at 301.4 yards.
1999 Chris Smith hits the
1998 New USGA president Buzz Taylor says the skill of pros combined with high-tech equipment “threaten obsolescence of many of golf’s historic venues.” At the US Open, the USGA says it is developing a test for “trampoline effect.”
first recorded 400-yard drive on the PGA Tour: a 427-yard bomb at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
2021 Bryson DeChambeau attempts to clear a lake to drive the 555- yard par-5 sixth at Bay Hill during the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He had the distance (370 yards) on one drive but was wide of the target.
2022 The Old Course at St Andrews measures 7 313 yards (6 687m) for the Open, nearly 400 yards more than in 1990. Seventy-seven players hit drives of 400 yards or more on the PGA Tour, and 723 tee shots travel 375 yards or more. Average driving distance hits an all-time high of 299.8 yards. Drives of more than 320 yards – the USGA test limit – account for nearly 20 percent of all measured tee shots
2023 The USGA and R&A announce a proposal for a Model Local Rule that can be applied in elite competitions starting in 2026. The proposal effectively would roll back the distance the golf ball travels by 15 to 20 yards. The proposal would not impact everyday golfers.
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M
MIND / FANCOURT MOVES
Fancourt Montagu has a new Halfway house Fancourt also constructing a 9-hole course adjoining The Links.
Frontal view of the Montagu’s new halfway house on the tenth tee.
Fancourt have built a new halfway house for the Montagu course, and on the
walls inside hang memorabilia belong- ing to the late John Bland, who passed away earlier in 2023 at age 77. It’s a trib- ute to one of South Africa’s finest golf- ers, who lived at Fancourt and for the past 25 years was an outstanding am- bassador for the Garden Route resort. The halfway house building is directly behind the tee of the par-5 tenth, with tables outside, and is long overdue. The previous one was either in the Fancourt clubhouse or leisure cen- tre. The back tee for 10 is on the side of the building, and the others in front. There’s a framed photo inside of Bland receiving a trophy from Ernie Els. This was the December 2001 Ernie Els Invi- tational at Fancourt. Bland’s two score- cards are framed along with the photo and worth a closer look. He opened the 36-hole event with a 10-under 62 on Outeniqua, playing the back nine in 29, and followed that with a 9-under 63 on Montagu, with a front nine of 31. He had one eagle and 17 birdies, a superlative display of golf. Bland was one of the greatest put- ters in the game, and retained that skill throughout his life. He won 21 titles on the Sunshine Tour (1970-91) and two on the European Tour, represented SA in the World Cup, then made a sensational debut on the US Senior Tour (Champi- ons Tour), winning five times in the space of 12 months from October 1995 to October 1996. His final victory came in the 2010 Wales Senior Open.
Two playoff defeats though to Gary Player in significant tournaments were to cast an edge of regret on his career. The first was in the 1981 SA Open at Royal Johannesburg, after 21 playoff holes, and the other the 1997 Senior British Open at Royal Portrush. Bland was thus denied both a SA Open title (he never won it) and a major champi- onship. He was a runner-up three times in the Senior Open. New 9 holes at Fancourt Construction is underway on a full- sized 9-holer at Fancourt on the site of the Bramble Hill public 18-holer which closed in about 2010. It was ranked in the Golf Digest Top 100 from 2005 to 2009 and bordered The Links at
Fancourt with its own clubhouse. After closing it first became a practice facility, and then four holes were re- tained as part of the Fancourt Academy. One of these runs between The Links at Fancourt clubhouse and the practice facility for The Links. The 9-holer has been designed by Sean Quinn, and earthworks are be- ing done by experienced George-based contractor Philip Basson. Quinn works for Jack Nicklaus Design, before that Golf Data. His original design work in this country includes Katberg (Eastern Cape), Clarens (Free State), and The Club at Steyn City in Gauteng. Basson, now recovered from major surgery earlier in 2023, earned his repu- tation in the industry by rebuilding all 18 greens at George around the turn of the century. He’s worked with design- ers such as Danie Obermeyer (King- swood, Boschenmeer and Robertson), Phil Jacobs (in China) and Peter Mat- kovich, at Pinnacle Point. “The 9-holer will have something of a links theme to the design, with long grass and mound- ing. Extra tees will be built so it can be played as a Par 3 layout,” said Basson. Work is due to be completed by the end of summer, and it may open to- wards the end of 2024. Five new holes, on undulating land alongside The Links at Fancourt clubhouse, will be built and the existing four Bramble Hill holes modernised.
Memorabilia from the late John Bland hangs in the halfway house.
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WE ARE THE DIFFERENCE
Zebula Golf Estate & Spa, Limpopo 01 - 04 FEB 2024
St. Francis Links, Eastern Cape 29 - 03 MAR 2024
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MIND / COURSE DESIGN M
DURBAN CC’S NEW BURN Upgrade of Durban Country Club is virtually done, but course will only open on March 1.
WINDING ROOND THE COURSE The surprising size of the new winding burn at Durban CC, shown here fronting the 10th (centre) and 13th greens (left) has been a talking point of the course’s upgrade. Top left of picture is the redesigned sixth hole.
The new greens on the par-5 third (front right) and the par-3 fourth (centre).
T he reopening of durban Country Club following its major upgrade has been delayed until the end of February. DCC members were originally told they would be playing the course in December, but drone images show that while it might be playable, the upgrade is far from complete in terms of its grow-in. “We believe that waiting another couple of months is the sensible thing to do,” said DCC general manager Don Gammon. “It’s a great disappointment for the members, yet they thankfully understand that this is something that cannot be rushed. We’ve been plagued by wet weather that has slowed down the work, and we would like to present a quality finished product on re-opening rather than one that receives criticism.” The course was closed in May 2023 and Golf Data, the company responsible for the redesign and rebuild of the iconic layout, had been given seven months to have it ready for play. That was a tight schedule, considering 18 new greens had to be shaped and planted, plus new bunkers and tees, and other earthworks. An additional project was the building of a Scottish links-type burn around several holes to mitigate against future flooding of the course. The R30-million upgrade was precipitated by the devasting floods of
That is a shallow burn, the one at DCC is deeper and resembles a proper water hazard in places, notably around the front of the par-5 tenth green. No 10 and No 13, a short par 4s, are the holes where playability and challenge are most directly affected by the burn. No 13 is now all about risk- reward. Longer hitters must carry the burn to reach the green with their tee shot, a carry of some 280 metres, while a layup needs to be accurate as the burn encroaches the left side of the fairway. The burn is also in play at four other holes, Nos 7-9-11-14. Another feature of the upgrade is the planting of bent grass on the greens for the first time in preference to either paspalum or cynodon used previously, and which were considered best to cope with the intense Durban heat and humidity from January to March. Length has been added here and there to the course, although only 150 metres extra to the overall distance, taking it to 6 300 metres from the championship tees, most of that going on two par-5s, Nos 8 and 14, which will now play 540 metres to a new green site. The par-4 sixth has been shortened from 322 to 295 metres. Green shapes are radically different. In another bow to the Old Course the design of the new par-3 15th green copies elements of its famous 11th.
April 2022 which left Durban CC in a right old mess. It was a distressing time for the club in what was their centenary year. It is estimated that more than 200 million litres of water drowned DCC over a 10-day period of heavy rainfall from April 10 to 20, something like 300 millimetres on April 11 alone, wreaking catastrophic damage. Some holes were submerged for months, and the irrigation system was destroyed. Golf Data’s vision proposal for the renovation was to refine and enhance the course to a standard that will enable the club to maintain its status as one of the world’s leading courses. To respect and accentuate iconic features of the 100-year-old layout. Golf Digest ranked it No 97 in the 2022-23 World Top 100 outside the United States. A new strategic dimension to Country Club has come in the form of the burn winding through the lower-lying holes at the far end of the course from the clubhouse. An attenuation dam was dug on the site of the club’s rubbish dump between the fifth and seventh holes to provide the water for the burn. However, the extent of the burn is possibly far greater than members envisaged, as the image on the previous pages illustrates. It’s not a narrow burn which golfers could leap over, but something akin in width to the Swilcan Burn on the Old Course at St Andrews.
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STABILITY
FOR THE WIN
AVAILABLE NOW
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 21
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MIND / THE NEXT ONE’S GOOD M Golf’s Four Letter Word Have we become %$#@*!& numb to the use of profanity? By Jerry Tarde
M y old boss Nick Seitz used to tell the story of going to lunch with Ben Hogan at Shady Oaks Coun- try Club in Fort Worth. When the club manager came over to their table, Hogan introduced him to Nick. “This guy has 15 kids,” Hogan said. Inscruta- bly, he added, “ Effed himself right out of a seat in the station wagon.” I always liked that story. It said so much about Hogan and his saltiness. There’s a similar one about Bobby Jones, who was negotiating a book deal with his publisher, which had offered him an insulting advance fee. “ Ahhh wouldn’t walk across the effin ’ street for faaahv thousand dollaaahs ,” Jones famously said in his languorous Geor- gia drawl. Of course, neither man actually used the euphemism. They said the word and probably said it often among friends and confidantes but not in public, not in the final round of a major with crowds of young people around them and certainly not on television. It was a different time, you might say.
a round of golf. It’s the most versatile word in the language of sport. An ex- pert on the international game, Peter Dobereiner once told me that no golfer ever became great until he learned to swear in English, or maybe Anglo- Saxon. However, there has been a noted uptick in the use of the word on the PGA Tour. Sometimes it can be used colour- fully or even dexterously. After a hor- rendous round in the year’s first major, Tommy Bolt was overheard fuming: “ Eff the Masters. Eff Augusta National. And eff the crippled son of a bitch who built this effin ’ place.” Offensive in so many ways, the sheer universality was breathtaking. Jim Dent exhibited a particular cleverness that followed him from the PGA Tour to the seniors. After flushing an approach shot that appeared to be flying over the green, he yelled, “Get down, mother f___er.” A tour official was dispatched to discuss what used to be a violation of the code of conduct. When interrogated, Dent said that he had been misheard. “What I said was, ‘Get down, mother-father!’ ” Then ex-
tantrums were once described by the Financial Times as “louder and more richly worded than many of Lenny Bruce’s best performances.” Most of the time now on the PGA Tour it’s used as a substitute for cleverness. It’s banal, just plain crude, and, when said within earshot of family television, shameful. Does it raise your brand val- ue? Is your agent proud of you? Would you want your kids to hear? I remember taking my 11-year-old daughter to the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot where we watched Ian Poulter badly pull his drive into the left trees and shout the word at full volume. I looked down, and Lauren’s eyes were like dinner plates. The Saudis can have him. Tiger Woods might hold the TV record, but then again he has logged more minutes of air time, and lately he has been on good behaviour, so he gets a pass. Arnold Palmer was discreet if nothing else, and he was a lot else. I’m not saying Jack Nicklaus is an angel, but I’ve got recordings of more than 20 hours of one-on-one interviews I did with him from over the years and, goodness gracious, he didn’t use the word once. I’ve been told it’s a generational thing. Am I offended or angered? No, I’m just saddened that another stan- dard has been lowered. I look at sepia pictures of old tournaments, and every man in the gallery is wearing a coat, tie and fedora; the women are in dresses and pearls. They weren’t all rich folks either. Adults wore leather shoes, not sneakers or flip-flops. I know I’m out of touch, but nobody looks good in those silly jogger pants and flat-brim caps. We need to attract younger and more diverse audiences, but is this the way to do it? When Harry Styles plays golf, he wears a collared shirt. What tipped the balance for me and makes it a subject with currency is the
I don’t know about that. When I play in PGA Tour pro-ams these days, the thought invariably occurs to me that the language has become looser, to put it mildly. You almost don’t see a missed shot played with- out the obligatory f-word being muttered or some- times clearly stated.
plained: “In my family, it’s appropriate to honour both parents when you’ve hit a good shot.” Our recollec- tion is that his sentence was commuted. Phil Mickelson’s use of “scary mother-fathers” in reference to the Saudi tour
Jerry Tarde is on the board of a new museum in Washington, D.C.,
that promotes literacy called Planet Word.
seemed to be unabashedly published in every media outlet and has contrib- uted to this normalising of the word. I think it was his actions more than his language that caused Phil to be suspended, but at least he claimed it was off the record. Nor is the LPGA Tour exempt. My longtime favourite was the Swede Helen Alfredsson, whose legendary
The word is still vulgar slang accord- ing to the dictionary. It means to have sex with someone or damage some- thing or, evidently, miss a putt. It can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, an ad- verb or a gerund invaluable with a golf club in your hands. It’s an interjection signifying pain, pleasure or self-loath- ing, which on the PGA Tour sounds like
ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL BYERS
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A tour pro committed multiple profanities and was approached by an official the following week. When confronted, the player pointed to an old guy in the gallery and said it was his fault. “That’s my father,” he said. “Ask him what he thinks.” When the rap sheet was explained, Dad replied, “I think you should fine the pr___.” One writer specialising in this genre was Dorothy Parker, who was the Tom- my Bolt of the Algonquin Round Table. She once refused a call from her editor complaining that the copy for an article assignment was late. “Tell him,” she said, “I’m too effin ’ busy, and vice versa.” If you’re going to use it, be as clever as Hogan.
episode that dealt with LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy jokingly said, “ Eff you, Phil (Mickelson)” and took some backlash from fans. Unlike live telecasts where a slip of the tongue dies with the week- end, these Netflix shows will live on forever, like a bad tattoo. I know the PGA Tour has fines and penalties for conduct unbecoming a professional, and they’re not made public. There’s one current player who has been fined so many times, he offered to give a tour official a pre- loaded debit card with $100 000 and was told, “Not enough – at this rate, you’ll be out of credit by the end of the month.” Anger management is pre- scribed in some cases.
Netflix series “Full Swing,” which gives us a look behind the curtain at PGA Tour stars. We hear the word used on camera by even goody-two-shoes like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. Dustin Johnson uses it to describe his golf cart in the opening sequence of the first episode. Golf carts can perform many functions nowadays, but that, I didn’t think, was one of them. In episode 2, Brooks Koepka is the guy you wouldn’t want in a drinking game. In a 40-minute show he shared with Scottie Scheffler, I scored it 9 for Brooksie and 0 for Scottie. Guess who comes off better? Whose shirt would you rather plaster your financial ser- vices logo on? You get the idea. In a later
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MIND / THE LOOP M
What Your Golf Gift Says About Your Relationship ’Tis the season of giving, so make sure your present sends the right message By Coleman Bentley
TRAINING AIDS, PUTTING MATS, INSTRUCTION SUBSCRIPTIONS WE CARE ABOUT YOU, AND IT’S TIME YOU GET HELP.
NOVELTY GOLF TIE I GOT YOU IN THE OFFICE SECRET SANTA AND RECALL HEARING YOU TALK ABOUT GOLF ONE TIME.
GOLF-THEMED BABY ONESIE BELOVED SPOUSE, THIS IS A REMINDER THAT YOU WILL SOON BE PLAYING A LOT LESS GOLF.
BALL MARKERS, DIVOT-REPAIR TOOLS, SPARE GLOVES I FORGOT TO GET YOU ANYTHING BUT FOUND THIS IN MY BAG.
THAT NEW DRIVER I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH . . . AND I’M VERY SORRY.
FLAGS, POSTERS, PRO-SHOP GLASSWARE IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO MOVE OUT AND DECORATE YOUR OWN PLACE.
MASTERS TICKETS THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, DAD.
A DOZEN PRO V1S YOU’RE LIKE A BROTHER TO ME . . . NOW STOP ASKING TO BORROW BALLS.
LOGOED GOLF SHIRT FROM BUDDIES TRIP WE MISSED YOU OUT THERE. MAYBE NEXT YEAR.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAVID SENIOR
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BODY / FITNESS B
I love golf, and I hate working out. Which is unfortunate, because working out is good for your game. Getting stronger and more flexible can make your swing better and improve your health off the course, too. It's been hard for me to square these two things – my desires to be a better golfer and healthier person without working out. But I've stumbled upon one thing that has helped. Rowing. I'm not rowing on water but rather committed to workouts on a Hydrow row- ing machine I set up in my garage. I've found them strangely enjoyable, for a few reasons: I like not having to row for ages to get in a heart-racing workout. I can go faster or slower, and after each workout I feel it in some crucial golf muscles, from my legs to my shoulders. And all of that aside, there's something about the act of rowing that feels, for lack of a better word, golf-y. Curious about all this, I called a couple of rowing coaches, Nick Karwoski and Laine Maher, who are also avid recreational golfers. The perfect people to help me unpack all this. Could it be that rowing is a top tier exercise for golfers? They certainly think so. Here's why. ROWING IS AN AWESOME EXERCISE FOR GOLFERS Two experts explain why By Luke Kerr-Dineen
IT HITS SOME KEY GOLF MUSCLES
Golf swings are difficult to do well because they require many different muscles. If there's a weakness or inflexibility in one area of your body, it can disrupt
the entire chain of your swing. The same is true with rowing, a motion which, by most estimates, hits up to 86 percent of your muscles – including some impor- tant ones for golfers. "The biggest areas (in rowing) are the glutes in your legs, because essentially you're doing a horizontal squat with ev- ery stroke, loosening your hip flexors," says Karwoski. "The rowing motion starts using the significantly bigger, stronger muscles in your legs, then you transfer through your core and finish with those biceps, triceps, shoulders and lats." All those muscles play an equally ac- tive role in swinging the club. Rowing can help strengthen, loosen, and acti- vate all those areas. But that's not where the similarities end.
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