south africa
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
SOUTH AFRICA'S BEST 40 NINE-HOLERS THE STUFFIEST COUNTRY CLUBS SA OPEN AT DURBAN CC
SHOWS YOU HOW 3 MOVES TO A FASTER SWING Scottie Scheffler
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6 Editor’s Letter BY STUART MCLEAN Mind 8 ‘I hate this Golf Course!’ BY JERRY TARDE
84 Slice-proof your downswing BY DEBBIE DONIGER
86 Find more fairways BY TAYLOR MOORE
88 Copy Viktor Hovland’s move BY RON KASPRISKE What to Play 98 The TaylorMade Qi10 Max is nearly four times the size of the first steel drivers. A driver rollback (page 100) is a ‘topic of interest’ at the R&A, but likely only at the professional level. Check the specs of your irons (Page 102), because not all 7-irons are equal. Should a 9-wood replace the 5-iron in your bag (Page 104)? And every club in Harris English’s bag (Page 106). Where to Play 108 Off the beaten path James Braid and Alister Mackenzie inspired these remote links in North-East England. BY STUART McLEAN Features 46 Fully Present Practical lessons from Scottie Scheffler. BY MATTHEW RUDY 58 Nine-Hole Rankings SA's best 40 courses. BY STUART MCLEAN
10 Undercover Pro WITH MATTHEW RUDY
12 How to Play ‘Hammer’ BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS
14 Journeys JAKE ROOS, WITH STUART McLEAN
16 Undercover Caddie WITH JOEL BEALL
18 Rules Plugged lie? Know your options.
20 Threat to close KDM BY MIKE FLAX
22 Blair Atholl chases a Chinese Dragon
24 The Loop BY COLEMAN BENTLEY
26 The Majors in 2025 BY STUART MCLEAN How to Play 38 Entry point for a bunker shot BY DAVID ARMITAGE
40 Course Management BY MIKE BENDER
42 Split the Fairway BY LINN GRANT
44 Drain those 6-footers WITH CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT
70 SA Open Preview No 18 for Durban CC.
74 The Stuffiest Country Club stories we’ve ever heard BY SAM WEINMAN
54 The Science of Speed WITH DREW POWELL
56 Simple bunker advice BY PHIL MICKELSON
90 Tour pro’s little helper Nicotine is everywhere in pro golf. Does it create a competitive advantage? BY PETER MORRICE
81 Three moves to a faster swing BY TREVOR ANDERSON
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025 tee sheet
A Golfer’s Buzz Tobacco-free nicotine pouches are increasingly popular on the PGA Tour. Can this “little helper” really shave strokes. Tour-pro users, sceptics and doctors weight in on Page 90.
EDITOR’S LETTER E Let’s play more 9-hole courses
W e publish our annual ranking of the Best Nine-Hole Courses on Page 58, and exploring our beautiful country to discover them has been enriching. There are some 220 in this category, remote from major centres, mostly on the R roads. Uncovering the gems has been a fulfilling project. The 2025 ranking expands to 40 courses, and three new entries were good enough to jump straight into the top 10. This remains a work in progress because there are others still awaiting discovery. I’ve relied on tip-offs and leads to find the latest batch of newcomers. The reasoning behind having these rankings, other than rewarding excellence, is to encourage more golfers to play and support 9-holers. They are more than worthy of that support and represent an affordable alternative to the escalating green fees at Top 100 courses. Plus, they are fun to play, as good a reason as any. Many clubs are in financial straits and rely on the generosity of members to keep going. I’ve been bowled over by the love shown to courses in the middle of the “outback” by golfers needing a place to play every week. Their local course is a lifeline. A common factor uniting these 40 is that they are generally situated in areas of natural beauty and tranquil surroundings. Only three are in cities. Metropolitan, Zwartkop and Walmer. Seven are part of residential estates. The remainder are splendidly rural,
which means no bothersome traffic, and superb views. Aesthetics plays a significant role as one of the six criteria in these rankings. Magnificent scenery can transform an average design into something special. Some walks are comparable to nature trails, such as at Cathedral Peak, Thabazimbi or Springbok. Often visiting the remoter 9-hole clubs I had the course to myself. But the clubhouse was usually open, with someone behind the bar. The best clubhouses were those which attracted people from the local community, to meet up with friends for a coffee or snack, if not for golf. It was surprising how many of the smaller clubs had an operational clubhouse. Two which have become popular destinations for non-golfers seeking lunch or sundowner in a pleasant environment are those at Kambaku and Skukuza in Mpumalanga. I realised early on that the clubhouse forms a key element of the experience at 9-holers, and thus had to be part of the criteria, unlike the 18-hole rankings where a vibrant clubhouse is taken for granted. Those that were closed, likely only used on weekends, cast a shadow over any midweek visit. Conditioning varies at 9-holers, because many are certainly not mown regularly, and have limited maintenance equipment. They are best on competition days when the greens have been freshly cut. The top 10 courses are in the best shape, scoring at least 7/10, while others further
down scored as low as 4/10. The only 9-holer we know to be designed by Bob Grimsdell – Kilbarchan in Northern KwaZulu-Natal – is an excellent layout but my visits revealed disappointing levels of conditioning which did spoil the experience. Nearly all courses were accessible even when empty, but I did encounter a locked front gate at Maclear in the Transkei region of the Eastern Cape. It’s a pretty town in the hills on the R56 to Matatiele, and from the outside looked to have an attractive course. I learned why the gate was locked when a large herd of cows strolled past with their herdsman. They would have loved to be in there grazing. Stuart McLean stuartm@morecorp.co.za
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MIND / THE NEXT ONE'S GOOD
‘I Hate this Golf Course!’ The modern terms of endearment for architectural frustration By Jerry Tarde
Pete Sampras won Wimbledon that year, but it was David Duval who led the PGA Tour in hitting Greens in Regulation (GIR) with a 73.57 average. GIR may have been invented by Ben Hogan or Moe Norman or Calvin Peete, but it was first calculated officially in 1980 when Jack Nicklaus led the statis- tical category (72.11) with the highest percentage for having a ball finish on the putting surface in the number of strokes equal to par minus two. The consequence – not the tongue- in-cheek term Greens Visited in Regu- lation (GVIR) – has been around as long as golf has been played on the hardscrabble links of Great Britain
T he first time the term might have been used was at Royal St George’s in 1999 when golf’s boulevardier Jimmy Dunne was playing a casual match with his friend Frank Bren- nan while attending Wimbledon. On the long par-3 11th hole, Brennan hit a slight hook into the right side of the green and appeared satisfied with the result as he turned to put away his club.
“Hey, Frankie, take a look at this,” chirped Jimmy, as the ball slowly slid off the left edge of the green into a sod-faced bunker that Dunne de- scribed to me recently as resembling a World War One foxhole. “I hate this golf course,” Brennan said. “You didn’t hit the green in regula- tion,” exulted Dunne. “You visited the green in regulation.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY CARLOS AMOEDO
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inch at first, then by the foot, then many yards as it gathers speed down- hill rushing to a full wedge return – only to do it again. Another modern expression is leaving yourself “short-sided.” It was probably invented by a TV analyst to describe a short pitch over a bunker or false front to a hole location precipi- tously close to the brink. The PGA Tour used to mandate that holes be cut no nearer than five paces from the edge of a putting surface, says longtime rules expert Joe Black. The guideline on tour now is a minimum of three paces, which puts an even greater premium on accuracy. “We will usually use these types of locations on smaller greens where they fit visually to the player,” says tour official Gary Young. Exacerbating this challenge is increased green speed, now commonly 12 or 13 on the Stimp- meter in tournament play (9 or 10 in regular play) and significantly firmer subsurfaces. At the 2024 Masters, balls seemed to be bounding off greens with almost a concrete thud. Agronomic technology and mainte- nance equipment have contributed to changing the way we play much more so than the club and ball innovations that our governing bodies are trying to arrest. “We have more tools under the ground,” Hanse says. One example is the SubAir Systems being installed at many high-end courses, pumping air in or sucking water out so that greens play firmer and faster. We may not be able to guarantee you blue skies,” says SubAir’s website, “but we can ensure impeccable greens and superior field conditions. Why? Because it all starts from the roots up. That explains our company’s name and its focus. Superior surface and subsurface aeration. Optimal moisture removal. Incredible results.” We’ll be the judge of that. Frankie Brennan is no longer with us. He was a victim of September 11, but we still know the feeling he had when visiting a green in regulation or failing to clear a false front or getting gusted or short-sided in modern terms. “I hate this golf course” is what golf- ers forever have been saying when what they mean is, “I love this game.”
time president of Seminole, its capo dei capi. He credits his predecessors and membership for having a “high golf aptitude.” They want the course to play “harder the closer you get to the hole,” which is a novel concept for most American golfers. Seminole is not for tourists, he says. It’s where people come to play serious golf. “They drive right down Donald Ross Boulevard past all these fun courses in Palm Beach to beat their head against the wall at Seminole,” Pete Dye, a member, once told me. The course is known for what may or may not have been Donald Ross- designed turtleback greens. We don’t really know how much they resemble what Ross built originally in 1929 because they’ve been punched and top-dressed and blasted with sand, even scraped and reconstructed, a million times since, but today in all their convex beauty, Seminole greens reject anything but the perfectly con- ceived and executed approach shot. Sometimes even perfection – with bad luck and the vagaries of wind gusting off the Atlantic Ocean – only visits the putting surfaces. (“I was gusted,” Gil Hanse says is another 21st Century golf term.) You hear GVIR used frequently at another Donald Ross masterpiece, Pinehurst No 2, site of the 2024 US Open. Bill Coore, who did the renova- tion with Ben Crenshaw, says No 2 has the biggest differential between GIR and GVIR of any course in the United States. “Those crowned greens shed balls rather than collect them,” Coore says. “False fronts” is another architec- tural feature that has been around since Alister MacKenzie but popular- ised in the past 20 years with the addi- tion of “false sides” and “false backs.” “Those are actually misnomers,” says Ron Whitten, Golf Digest’s architecture editor emeritus. “There’s nothing false about them. They’re un-pinnable and un-puttable and classic elements of visual design like the ninth at Augusta National or the 15th at Pine Valley.” There’s little more frustrating in life than having your ball stop short on an upslope and then seeing it roll back glacially, inch by
EXACTING The greens at Seminole, like the 17th here, reject anything but a precise approach.
and Ireland, where you’ve always had to watch till your ball stopped rolling. “I fell in love with that idea,” Dunne was saying now. “Brown is beauti- ful – the links courses always knew that. Firm, brown and fast is the ideal surface for golf. I remember an old pro telling me, ‘You don’t want to be hitting into a bowl of pudding.’ ” Jimmy Dunne is recognised at all the great golf clubs of the world – and not just for negotiating a framework agreement that his minions can’t fin- ish off – but he is especially known at Seminole Golf Club in Florida where being “de-greened” is held to an archi- tectural art form. Dunne is the long-
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M MIND / UNDERCOVER PRO
ILLUSTRATION BY CHLOE ZOLAW
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W HEN YOU’RE IN THE “real world” and some- body doesn’t pay you for a service provided, your options are straightforward. Send a letter or two, knock on some doors and maybe even file a lawsuit. It will probably come as no surprise that professional golf at the top level is not the real world. My central income has always been teaching regular, recreational players, probably like yourself. Coaching tour players used to be a nice-to-have bonus, but now it can be life-changing if the player is at the very top. If I’m getting paid a percentage – I’ve seen coaches take anything from three percent to 10 – and your player has a top-10 season on the PGA Tour or LIV, we’re talking seven figures. That’s serious business. The gusher of money that has come into the game over the last few years has made the deals between players and coaches much more formal. Players like Tiger Woods have long had contracts with coaches (complete with non-disclosure agreements), and that practice is now spreading. A big-time golfer nowadays already has an agent in college for NIL deals and is teeing it up for the first time as a professional with an equally professional team of contracted subcontractors in place. But what happens when it’s not quite that clean? When nothing is written down, and you’re counting on a handshake from somebody with a
sounded good and it would be taken care of shortly, and he left to play in some events overseas where I wasn’t travelling. Fast forward a month and some great finishes – and plenty of exchanged texts, swing videos and remote range sessions – and I thought I’d be getting a five-figure wire transfer. Instead, I got a series of increasingly vague texts that ended with one where he said he had got some good stuff from another coach, and we’d maybe get together again down the line sometime. As a golfer, if you become known as a guy who doesn’t pay off his bets, you quickly become a solo artist during practice rounds. The same solidarity doesn’t exist among coaches. Confronting a player directly about money at an event would be a quick way to cost yourself opportunities to work with other players. And there’s a zero percent chance other coaches would hear of somebody getting stiffed by a golfer and then refuse to work with that golfer out of a sense of principle. Fact is, I don’t teach from high ground. I’ve worked with players who are known to be tight with money or have a (deserved) reputation for being jerks to tournament staff, abusive to caddies and hard on coaches. It’s one thing to talk tough about your morals when you’re watching something on TV, and another when you might have the chance to put your kids through college if a player you coach makes it to the Tour Championship. Money talks. Just ask the guys who went to LIV. Or their coaches. Making $4 million for winning a three-round event is nice work, as is collecting six figures for doing the coaching. The next time I saw the player who stiffed me, I was on the range at an event working with another client. I thought it might be awkward, but it certainly wasn’t for him. He shook my hand and asked me how everything was going. I’m not ashamed to say I acted like nothing was wrong and wished him luck that week. And if he texted me tomorrow asking for a look, I’d say yes. I’ll just make sure I get things in writing. – WITH MATTHEW RUDY
Get It In Writing Handshake deals with tour pros are sketch
generally good reputation? I found out the hard way.
I knew one player casually through mutual friends. When he was going through some particularly bad struggles, he texted to see if he could come see me during an off week at my home club. I was happy to look, and he paid me my normal full day rate at the end of the afternoon with a personal cheque. The next few weeks he played better, and he texted to see if I would be willing to work with him regularly. The next time we met up, I told him my normal deal – a retainer up front against expenses and four percent of earnings, paid monthly. He said that
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M MIND / GAME ON
Raise the stakes on your Saturday-morning game BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS Drop the Hammer
each hole will be worth, as each one is considered a separate match. For this example, let’s say you agree to play each hole for R10. Once the match starts, players can hammer opponents at any point, which doubles the bet. The idea is to hammer the other side when it’s in trouble and you feel like you have a good chance of winning the hole. If Player A tees off first and pipes one down the middle and Player B pulls one into the left rough behind a tree, it would be in Player A’s best interest to hammer Player B, making the hole now worth R20. Possession of the hammer then shifts to Player B (Player A can’t hammer twice in a row). If Player B hits a hero shot from the left rough
Looking to spice up your normal match-play wager? There’s a fun way to do it, and it’s
onto the green, he or she can hammer Player A back, making the hole worth R40. Player B also can opt to save the hammer for later. It’s Player B’s to use at any point. Once a hole is completed, the stakes return to R10. VARIATIONS: You could let the value of a hole carry over if it’s halved, just like a skins game. Another wild version is “air hammer,” where you only can double the bet when your opponent’s ball is in the air or after a putt is struck. You might recall seeing this wrinkle on full display in a Season 1 episode of Netflix’s “Full Swing,” featuring a high- stakes match between Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. In their match, any birdie or better also doubled the bet!
a game even the pros love. It’s time to learn “Hammer,” a sometimes cruel game where stakes can get very high very quickly by preying on crappy shots. If “Hammer” is on the agenda, we suggest a stop at an ATM on your way to the course. NUMBER OF PLAYERS REQUIRED: 2 or 4 BEST FOR: Players who like to dial up the pressure on their opponent and/or get in other golfers’ heads. HOW TO PLAY: Hammer is about as simple as it gets. Its foundation is basic match play, but you and your opponent/s need to decide how much
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MIND / JOURNEYS
‘I was proud of Aldrich at Sun City’ Caddying in the Nedbank Challenge came naturally to me after 20 years of playing tournament golf as a pro. By Jake Roos, with Stuart McLean I PLAYED MY VERY LAST EVENT ON THE SUNSHINE TOUR in the Vodacom Origins Final at Oubaai in November. I then had to resign my membership of the tour to caddie for Aldrich Potgieter in the Nedbank Challenge just two weeks later. You cannot play on the tour and moonlight as a caddie for other players. Aldrich and I are both members at Pinnacle Point in Mossel Bay, so know each other well from playing golf there together. He had asked me previously to caddie for him at Q School in America, which I had to turn down, and then approached me again late last year about being his bagman at Sun City. His American caddie couldn’t make the trip due to other priorities.
that winning the trophy would be momentous for his career. He was in control on Sunday until thinning that bunker shot at 12 over the green and making a triple-bogey six. Any tee shot ending in that bunker is badly out of position, and he had 25 to 30 metres to the pin, a tough distance to judge. In hindsight he could have played conser- vatively for a bogey, but I was hesitant to suggest that and sound negative. He was pumped up and confident. ● ● ● Aldrich was a bit rattled by that, see- ing a comfortable lead evaporate in one hole, but fought back with birdie at 14 to retake the lead. The last four holes are such a tough finishing stretch, yet his only real error was a weak tee shot at 16, another par 3 where he was bunkered. The first three days he had been two-under for the par 3s but played them four-over on Sunday. At 18 his tee shot was in the right rough, and we knew it would be difficult to hold the green from 200 metres out. He played that shot perfectly with a 9-iron and the ball still went over the green! They had become so firm on Sunday. ● ● ● I did have some experience of cad- dying before the tournament – for fellow SA pros in America when
It was a heartbreaking moment when Aldrich missed that par putt on the final green and realised his dream of winning the NGC was over. He didn’t show it, but I knew he was hurting, and the next week at Leopard Creek in the Alfred Dunhill Championship you could see he was deflated. Yet we began the week at Sun City with no expectations, and achieving what he did as such a young rookie on tour was exceptional. ● ● ● What surprised me was that Aldrich had had little previous exposure to Sun City. At the beginning of the week, we decided on dinner at a restaurant in the Entertainment Centre. “Where’s that?” he asked, which made me laugh at first, until I realised he was being serious. He had only been there once before as a junior. The way the Gary Player Country Club played that week, dry and firm, did not favour his long game, yet he showed what a calm tem- perament he has by coping all weekend long with the lead. I was proud of him. He hit great shots under the gun. ● ● ● The Nedbank Challenge no longer gets the strong fields it had in its heyday, but remains a big event for South Africans, and Aldrich knew
playing Monday qualifiers on the Korn Ferry Tour. The agreement was that if one of us got into a tournament, another would caddie for him. I cad- died for Tyrone van Aswegen and Chris Swanepoel. As a player on tour, I did my own yardages as that was my style, so I felt comfortable doing that job for Aldrich. However, the heavy weight of his bag – four water bottles included – was a shock in the practice rounds. But once the tournament began, I was pumped up with adrenalin. I wasn’t as fit as I could have been though, as for the past four years much of the social golf I’ve played has been in a cart at Pinnacle Point. ● ● ● I had been told before the tourna- ment that Sun City is a “graveyard” for caddies because of the way the wind constantly switches direction. This results in mis-clubbing, and you can be as much as two or three clubs out if you get it wrong. You don’t see that much wind watching the tournament on TV, but it is a big factor. It was blus- tery on Sunday and those conditions, plus the general firmness of the course, was why the winning score (5-under 283) was the highest since David Frost shot 4-under in 1990. ● ● ●
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his second shot – but it can also result in wide misses if he gets it even slightly wrong. When Aldrich is on with the driver he’s unbeatable. I believe he’s going to be our next great superstar. ● ● ● I won six times on the Sunshine Tour between 2008 and 2013, including the Cape Town Open and Zimbabwe Open. What is unusual is that I won the first five of them in playoffs, and the Zimbabwe Open by one shot. And, to show how fickle pro golf can be, after winning those six tournaments I then lost five consecutive playoffs between 2014 and 2021. I beat Justin Harding in a playoff at the 2012 Lombard Insur- ance Classic in Swaziland, and six years
later he beat me at the sixth extra hole in the same tournament. ● ● ● To sustain your career as a tour pro- fessional in SA you do need to up- grade and play one of the bigger overseas tours where you can earn substantial prizemoney. The Sun- shine Tour has done exceptionally well recently with bigger purses and tour- naments throughout the year, but it remains a stepping stone for younger players to advance elsewhere. It’s what I call a “graduation” tour. It’s perfect for youngsters, but unless they eventually move out of their comfort zone to the DP World Tour or elsewhere they are not going to become wealthy or test their
There were critical comments passed about Aldrich’s short-game technique on Sunday, but he has very good hands and you can’t call it a weakness of his game. However, he does get a bit steep going back, and I think he can work on his pitching tech- nique, to have something he can rely on under pressure. His main weapon is the driver, and on Sunday at Sun City he was only able to use it on three holes, 9-10-17, because he hits it so far and we didn’t want to risk bad bounces going into the bush. He has an incredible clubhead speed of 130 miles per hour (208kph), which is a huge advantage – as I witnessed at No 9 on Saturday when he had a wedge into the island green for
games when anxiety levels are ramped up. Youngsters must chase hard for 10 years before settling down. I know how competitive an environment this is to make a living. If you don’t keep improving, you will
JAKE ROOS WON 16 PRO TOURNAMENTS AGE 44 LIVES MOSSEL BAY
be overtaken by a new wave of fearless youngsters joining the tour every year. ● ● ● Our players are fortunate to have four European Challenge Tour events in SA to start the year – at Zebula, Pe- canwood, Royal Cape and Fancourt. Perfect timing. Win one of those and it’s a pathway to securing a DP World Tour card. I won twice on the Challenge Tour, in Kenya and Germany, and gained my European Tour card in 2015. However, by then I had started a family and hav- ing those responsibilities does affect your playing career. You can no longer wing it as a single person. Living in the Western Cape for support reasons was also to my detriment as my coach, Doug Wood, was in Gauteng, and practising is not as easy in the Cape as it is on the highveld where many of the tourna- ments are played. ● ● ● Tournament golf is in my blood, and it’s an addiction. I miss the challenge and the amazing places I’ve been to. I was 44 when I played my final tourna- ment, and I’m glad the stress is over, and I don’t have to rely solely on golf for an income. I’m a partner in a funeral business in Mossel Bay. I hope though to get another opportunity to caddie for Aldrich at the Nedbank Challenge.
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MIND / ON TOUR M
Undercover Caddie We make plenty of mistakes, but some are worse than others
C OME WITH ME as I travel back to one of the biggest Oh, crap! moments of my career. My player was heading to a sponsor event after a Wednesday prac- tice round during a tournament week. Usually this is something he’ll do by himself, but this time he invited me. As part of the event, he did a short clinic, so we brought his clubs. The night
left my player’s clubs in the banged-up rental car. In the hours from realisation until I recovered them, I thought my ca- reer might be over. When I eventually got to the course with the bag (on time, I should add), my player took one look at me and said, “You start doing under- ground fight clubs? Because you look like s---.” I couldn’t tell him . . . and I still haven’t.
went well, but as we were leaving, we had trouble with the courtesy car. It was late, so I volunteered to exchange the car, and my player hitched a ride with another player at the event. I switched rental cars and headed to my hotel, looking forward to sleep- ing in for the next day’s afternoon tee time. One problem: In the middle of the night, I woke up in a panic because I had
ILLUSTRATION BY REMIE GEOFFROI
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I woke up in a panic because I had left my player’s clubs in the banged-up rental car. know, I think we need some time off to get right. Why don’t you go home, then we’ll get back after it fresh.” The caddie thought his guy was taking a week off, especially with a major championship coming up, so he flew home to Florida rather than to the next tour stop in Tex- as. When the caddie got off the plane, he got a text from his player to meet at the course on Monday afternoon. The cad- die then realised his player meant take Sunday afternoon off, not the week. Other mistakes are more common, like giving a bad yardage. This happens for a few reasons. Sometimes we have the wrong pin sheet for the day. Luckily, we’re usually able to figure this out by the first green, although I had a buddy go nine holes before realising his mis- take – and his player still was under par for the round! We can also give a bad yardage if we get flipped around. At the Players Championship one year, I told my player on our opening hole the number to clear the bunker on the right side of the green. Any moron could have looked up and realised there was no number on the right side of the green. I was looking at the 10th hole, and we were on No 1. A third reason we occasionally give a bad number? Well, the seasons can be long, the days can be hot, and sudden- ly two plus two equals five. It happens to me at least once a year. Most of the time my player catches on. A few times he hasn’t, including once when a shot with a 5-iron that should have been a 7-iron hit a spectator in the kneecap. Somehow, we still saved par, although I’m sure my player would not say “we.” Another mistake that happens fre- quently is handing the player the wrong club. Lots of players have irons that are essentially the same clubhead but bent to different degrees. Some guys switch out wedges quite a bit, so we acciden- tally pull the wrong one all the time. Another common faux pas is leaving
rain gear out of the bag. You leave it out only if you’re 100 percent sure it’s not going to rain. The problem is, it’s amaz- ing how often it rains when the forecast says there’s little chance. Aside from getting your player soaked, you can oc- casionally run into trouble because a lot of sponsors pay to have their names on a player’s clothing, rain gear included. To see those logos soaked, or worse, covered in a jacket provided by the tournament, can get a player in trouble with his backers. We also need to be careful with how we frame a putt. If a putt is going to be slow, we can’t say, “Don’t leave it short” because the player could then blow it by the hole. Instead, we might say, “This one is a bit uphill.” The details matter. Only a handful of mistakes are un- forgivable, like having 15 clubs in the bag, not packing enough balls or acci- dentally causing a rules issue (such as lining up a player when the player is taking a stance). While we’re here, no, Brooks Koepka shouldn’t have been pe- nalised for caddie Ricky Elliott mouth- ing the word “five” to Gary Woodland and Woodland’s caddie, Brennan Little, at the 2023 Masters. While soliciting ad- vice is a clear violation of the rules, it happens all the time. One rules issue caddies do cause, especially on the LPGA Tour and mini-tours, is accidentally putting the bag next to the wrong ball. Unlike the PGA Tour, these circuits don’t have as many marshals, so we can get mixed up. I’ve seen this at least half a dozen times, usually when pitching out of deep rough by the green. You might think that’s the player’s mistake, but the player is thinking about the next shot. It’s our job to know which ball is the right one. As you can see, caddies make plen- ty of mistakes – but not all are equal. Anytime I give a bad yardage, I always think, Hell, at least I’m here. Apparent- ly, for some of us, that’s half the battle. – WITH JOEL BEALL
Like any profession, mistakes hap- pen in our line of work. If your player is a reasonable person, he or she will understand that. The key is making sure the mistakes are not catastrophic. One time, I was with a player I’d only been with for a few weeks, and we were at the old playoff event at Liberty Na- tional. During a practice round my player had some betting action going with a friend. We got to a drivable par 4, and my guy wanted to give it a rip, but I talked him out of it. I told him the last time I worked at the event I saw a ridge on the green ricochet everything long and left, which is dead. I told him it was better to try to make birdie by lay- ing up, and he listened. His opponent then hit a wood onto the green to 25 feet. The ball hadn’t even stopped roll- ing before the opponent and his caddie were laughing at us. It turned out that “ridge” had been removed in between the tour’s visits to Liberty National. I didn’t lose my player the match, but he made me buy dinner. In a US Open qualifier, I once saw a caddie (who, in this person’s defence, was not a full-time caddie) knock over the entire bag into a pond. Balls fell out, and the player had to try to fish out as many as he could. At one World Golf Championship, a caddie took an iron out of his player’s bag to stretch his back only to accidentally snap the club. Another time, a prank went awry. On the then-Nationwide Tour, a cad- die attempted to “ice” his player. This was during the national craze of hiding a Smirnoff Ice in the hopes an unsus- pecting victim would find the sugary alcoholic drink and be forced to chug it on the spot. Well, the player found the Smirnoff Ice . . . right in front of his girl- friend and her parents. Word eventual- ly got back to tournament officials that a player had pulled out alcohol on a tee box. Amazingly, the caddie did not get fired. I do not know if the same could be said of the player and his girlfriend. The best story, however, comes from a former roommate I had on the road. Early one Sunday morning, the player and caddie were going to be done well before the final group went off. It had been a rough few weeks for the player. After they finished, the player pulled the caddie aside and told him, “You
Undercover Caddie says if you tip down for mistakes, you should tip up for a flawless job, too.
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M MIND / RULES
T HEY SAY BUNKERS ARE intended to add a half- stroke penalty to your score. Perhaps, but not all bunker lies are of the half-stroke variety. You might hit a high wedge or a skulled iron into a green that embeds in the sand like it landed in pudding. A fried-egg Plugged Lie? If you take an unplayable, know your options BY RON KASPRISKE
lie or a ball that is nearly completely buried might give you pause as to what to do next, especially if you have a high lip in front of you. One option, you might wonder, is can you take an unplayable lie, add a penalty stroke, and drop outside the bunker using Rule 19? The answer is no . If you take an unplayable (and a stroke penalty), you must drop in the bunker on back- on-the-line relief or lateral relief. The simplest thing is to find a good spot within a two-club-lengths relief area, no closer to the hole, and drop. You also can go back and replay from the previous spot (stroke-and-distance penalty), but that likely will sting more. However, if you’re willing to absorb
a two-stroke penalty , you can take back-on-the-line relief outside the bunker. We’ll explain how. Picture an imaginary line that extends from the hole through the point where your ball plugged in the bunker. Now extend that line away from the hole behind the bunker as far back as you want and drop anywhere on it. The spot where the ball first touches the ground when dropped creates a relief area one club- length in any direction, so it doesn’t have to stay perfectly on the line. Why would you go with this costly option? In match play, you probably wouldn’t unless your opponent is in big trouble, too. In stroke play, it might save you from trying to repeatedly hack out of a steep-faced bunker.
DEEP IMPACT Some bunker shots are the type that are better not taken.
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MIND / TOP 100 COURSES M
Cape Town needs its golf courses King David Mowbray’s future threatened by city council
By Mike Flax
M ID-SUMMER IN CAPE Town is a golfer's paradise with its sunny days and late sunsets. The city boasts a variety of outstanding courses, each offering a unique challenge and breathtaking views that are drawcards for golfers from around the world. There has been a boost in golf tourism since the Covid pandemic. The international golf tourism market is expected to grow significantly from $24.6 billion to $41 billion by 2030. And South Africa is positioning itself to capitalise on this growth. The SA Tourism Services Association (Satsa) recently launched a golf tourism chapter within its structures. Last year Wesgro published a survey and analysis on golf tourism in the Western Cape, highlighting the province’s popularity among visitors from Germany, the United Kingdom, United States, and Switzerland. Factors that tourists highlighted as motivation for coming here were the scenic courses, proximity of courses to other tourist destinations, and "unique cultural experiences." In a country in dire need of jobs, tourism offers a true economic boost. The industry creates many service opportunities, but also has a significant multiplier effect, meaning initial spending by visitors generates additional economic activity and job creation in other sectors. In this context it is noteworthy that the demand for golfing facilities in Cape Town currently exceeds supply. No new course has been built in the city for 25 years, other than a Par 3 Course at Hazendal wine estate. The last course to be opened was Atlantic Beach in 2000. And in that time the city lost King David Golf Club with its 18 holes. Considering this, the last thing Cape
as significant economic drivers. The economic value of a club like KDM is considerable. At least 25 000 rounds are played on its greens each year by visitors. This is apart from the services it offers to 1500 members, who come from all corners of the city. As a destination the club is uniquely placed within the geography of Cape Town. Its central location is close to many tourist attractions. There is easy access from the N2 highway and it is 10 minutes from the city centre. And few courses offer such a glorious backdrop of mountain views, large ponds, indigenous greenery and wind- sculpted tree canopies. Apart from these unique characteris- tics, the course is an asset as one option of an impressive city and provincial Golf clubs are too often overlooked as significant economic drivers.
Town should do is further reduce its golf offering. This would compromise the expanding income stream and job creation that comes from golf tourism. As the realities of urban growth be- come pressing, cities often look to golf club properties as a source of land for development. Large developments of all types in and around Cape Town are certainly important. However, they should not be pursued if the loss out- weighs what they might gain. Expand- ing the local economy and combating unemployment is as important as cre- ating housing opportunities. This issue is once again a point of intense discussion, as the City of Cape Town have announced they are consid- ering demolishing King David Mowbray Golf Club and raising a large mixed-use development on its green space. The situation surrounding King David Mowbray shows why it is necessary to think carefully about the city's varied assets. And not only because there are spaces more fitting for mixed-use developments. The truth is golf clubs are too often overlooked
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Cape Town's unique recreational spirit: a passionate cross-cultural group enjoying activities together in an attractive landscape. Often what is missed in the debate about appropriate land use in Cape Town is that golf courses, as large spaces, are not necessarily the preserve of the elite, as often presumed. These spaces are incorrectly considered to be the bloated white elephants of the urban landscape. They are, in fact, hard-working economic, heritage and environmental assets. Disagreements about what and when to develop will always be part of a dynamic city such as Cape Town, but as the summer surge of golfing visitors takes place, it is a good time to
golf offering. A competitive selection of varied golfing choices is needed to take advantage of the golf tourism market. Even when foreign tourists, who spend considerable amounts thanks to a favourable exchange rate, are re- moved from the equation, golf clubs have local economic value. They are in- stitutions that offer work, often through restaurants and other hospitality func- tions. KDM employs 100 dedicated staff members and provides a livelihood to almost as many families. What sets the Western Cape apart as a golfing destination is not only its scenery and favourable climate, but our country’s rich golfing heritage, a foundation built by legendary players like Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. Historic courses such as KDM are an integral part of this heritage. The original course was improved upon by famed course architect and golfing pioneer Bob Grimsdell. It hosted
the South African Open seven times between 1932 and 1987. What often moves visitors is that the club’s long history tells the story of unity and acceptance. The unification of the King David and Mowbray golf clubs in January 2016, and its incorporation of Cape Peninsula GC members, brought previously disadvantaged communities together. This golfing space is a monument to sport overcoming our divided past. The former Mowbray GC had a proud history beginning in 1910. The former King David GC members were largely from the Jewish community, a club founded in the 1950s when Jews were not welcome at premier clubs. With the incorporation of Cape Peninsula GC members, the new KDM GC became a truly diverse community, bringing together players from a variety of racial and economic backgrounds, whether from the city bowl, cape flats, or southern suburbs. It encapsulates
reflect seriously on the value of our golf courses as unique economic drivers, tourist attractions, and job creators.
Mike Flax is Chairperson of King David Mowbray GC
KING DAVID MOWBRAY The clubhouse (left) and the par-3 16th with Devil’s Peak as a backdrop. King David Mowbray is No 84 in the Golf Digest rankings.
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MIND / TOP 100 COURSES M
King of the Tips golf day.
I t’s the longest golf course in South Africa by some distance, but now Blair Atholl in Gauteng is aiming to become the longest in the world. “The club is seriously considering this move, with the approval of Gary Player, our course designer, as a marketing tool to bring international exposure to Blair Atholl Golf & Equestrian Estate,” says Director of Golf and PGA Master Professional Paul Marks. The world’s longest par 72 course, recognised by Guinness World Records, is at 3 100 metres in the remote Chinese Himalayas. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yunnan Province), opened in 2001, is said to be 7 816 metres. At that altitude it’s also the world’s second highest course, meaning the golf ball is going to travel even further than it does on the highveld. It has possibly the world’s longest par 5, measured at 650 metres. Planet Golf website describes it as being “poorly conceived, with some crazy holes, and just one redeeming feature, its location.” Blair Atholl’s longest hole from the black tees is the 594-metre 13th, and the course plays 7 527 metres from these tees. It includes the Blair Mile, three consecutive par 4s from No 14 to 16 which measure a cumulative 1 509 metres and are thought to be the world’s longest trio of 4s. “We have the space on our property to build new tees on most holes and gain the extra distance necessary to Blair Atholl Chases a Chinese Dragon Gary Player would like to have world’s longest golf course.
medal competition from the tips, and Marks sets the course up using pin positions from the final round of the SA Open, which makes the layout doubly hard. “It’s 18 holes medal, but for those who lose golf balls, or rack up high numbers on a hole, and have a ‘No Return,’ there is a backup Stableford section. The highest score we’ve had returned on the day is 127. What a trooper!” The club also has an annual King of the Tips individual Stableford day for members, one of the club’s ‘majors,’ where the winner receives a tartan jacket along with the trophy. The women members play from the silver tees at 6 478 metres. Blair Atholl is hosting the Sunshine Ladies Tour for the first time in March, the R1-million Platinum Ladies Open. The women professionals will be using the club’s bronze tees at a more playable 5 823 metres. ENJOY EXTRA SHOTS If your handicap index is 7.0, you will have a course handicap of 15 from the black tees at Blair Atholl. There are seven holes over 500 metres in length from the tips, and the five par 3s measure 189-222-215-213-180. Gives your fairway metals and hybrids a good workout.
surpass Jade Dragon,” says Marks. “Gary’s former designer Phil Jacobs has been out with me on our course, and recommended where we could stretch holes. He’s also been looking at design improvements on Gary’s behalf. On a recent visit, Gary produced sketches of possible changes he would like to see.” Blair Atholl, No 4 in the 2024 Golf Digest Top 100 rankings, is the longest course to have hosted a DP World Tour tournament, the 2022 and 2023 SA Opens, won respectively by Thriston Lawrence and Dean Burmester. Burmester’s winning score of 11-under- par 277 was among the highest on the DP World Tour in the 2023/24 season. “Blair Atholl is often perceived as a private club off limits to visitors unless they are guests of members,” says Marks. “That is not the case. We welcome visitors and have a certain number of tee times available for them every week, not only Tuesday to Thursday, but on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Visitors can book online.” The visitor green fee has increased to R2 000, which includes a shared golf cart and halfway house. That venue on the banks of the Crocodile River is rated No 1 in South Africa. Golfers love to challenge themselves from Blair Atholl’s back tees, and every November for the past five years there’s been a tournament called “The Battle of the Blair Beast,” open to the first 88 players who wish to participate. It’s a
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YOUR GAME
MIND / THE LOOP M
Does This Hole-in-one Count? Our trusty ace-o-meter has the answer
By Coleman Bentley
WHILE PLAYING A NINE-HOLE PAR-3 COURSE
DURING A ROUND CUT SHORT BY WEATHER/EMERGENCY
DURING TOURNAMENT PLAY WITH A FREE BMW ON THE LINE
WHILE PLAYING SOLO
DURING FOURSOMES PLAY, YOUR TEE SHOT
DURING A SIMULATOR ROUND
IF YOU OWN THE COURSE
DURING FOURSOMES PLAY, YOUR PARTNER’S TEE SHOT
AFTER KICKING OFF A TREE, CART OR OTHER SOLID OBJECT
ON A PROVISIONAL
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ADAM HAYES
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MIND / TELEVISION M
Three classic Open venues to savour at ‘majors’ Oakmont, Portrush & Bethpage are a trio to challenge the best.
By Stuart McLean
O ne of the all-time great courses in major championship history will be again hosting the US Open in 2025. Oakmont Country Club, near Pittsburgh in Pennsylva- nia, is where Ernie Els claimed his first major title at the 1994 US Open. That was South African golf’s Annus Mi- rabilis, with Els winning the US Open in June, then Nick Price enjoying suc- cess at The Open in July and US PGA in August. Three consecutive major wins by players from one country other than America. The only time it has hap- pened in a modern Grand Slam year. A US Open at Oakmont, and Open
nations, and McIlroy suffered a bad start at each, 77 at Oakmont and 79 at Portrush. On the other hand, McIlroy must be looking forward to the US PGA return- ing to Quail Hollow in North Carolina, a course where he has already won four times. Worldwide TV viewership of golf is said to have been declining substan- tially in recent years, mainly because its entertainment value has become diluted. There’s a variety of reasons to blame for this lack of interest – among them, the disruption caused by LIV Golf, the steady weakening of the DP World Tour, and modern technology
Championship at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, will highlight the 2025 “Major Season” which begins in March with The Players Championship and culminates in the Ryder Cup at the end of September at one of best courses to have hosted this match in its 98-year history, Bethpage Black out- side New York. For those backing Rory McIlroy to win a long-awaited fifth major trophy in 2025 – his first since 2014 – it might concern his fans to learn that of the 12 cuts he has missed in 62 major appear- ances beginning in 2009, two were at Oakmont in 2016 and Royal Portrush in 2019. They are formidable exami-
PHOTO BY DOM FURORE
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