As we reported in the May issue of Golf Australia, the World Cup will be played the week after the Australian Masters, which is also being contested at Royal Melbourne, and will lead into the Australian Open at Royal Sydney Golf Club.

The US team of Gary Woodland and Matt Kuchar won the World Cup when it was last played in 2011 in China. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Organisers believe most of the world’s top-20 golfers will tee up in the biennial Cup to be played from November 21 to 24. One of the star attractions will be US Masters champion Scott, who will defend his Australian Masters title and is likely to team with either Jason Day, Geoff Ogilvy or Marc Leishman in the World Cup.

Masters champion Adam Scott will be a huige attraction for the World Cup. PHOTO: MATTHEW HARRIS/TGPL

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell has said he hopes to team up with McIlory for the tournament, which is offering the biggest purse ever played for in the history of Australian professional golf.

As part of the move, the event returns to an individual, stroke-play competition for $7 million, with a team component (adding the total scores of two-man teams) for $1 million. The qualification system for the event is similar to that which will be used in the Olympic Games, when golf returns to the program in 2016.

The field will include 60 players (no cut), with eligibility taken from the Official World Golf Ranking. Up to four players can qualify, per country, if they are in the top 15 of the ranking. Beyond No.15, up to a maximum of two players per country can qualify. If two or more players from a country qualify, then the country is eligible for team competition, with the top-two players comprising the qualified team.

The World Cup has been played three previous times in Australia, each at Royal Melbourne. The event was last played in Australia in 1988 as part of the bicentennial celebrations when the US team of Ben Crenshaw and Mark McCumber defeated the Japanese team of Masashi (Jumbo) and Tateo Ozaki to win the tournament.

“We’re thrilled that the World Cup will return to Australia, bringing this historic event to a venue, city and country that have hosted the biggest and best international sporting events for many years,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem on behalf of the International Federation of PGA Tours. “The Presidents Cup 2011 was the best in event history, thanks in no small part to the welcome provided to us by the incredible Australian sports fans, the Victorian government and the Victorian Major Events Company.

“With all of those ingredients still in place, and added to them Adam Scott’s win at the Masters Tournament in April, there is tremendous momentum and excitement for the World Cup 2013.”

Royal Melbourne will host the Australian Masters and the World Cup in consectuive weeks. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

PGA of Australia CEO Brian Thorburn said: “This is a great day for golf and a great day for Australia. The addition of the World Cup will complement an already strong swing of tournaments including the Australian PGA, Open and Masters and will significantly boost the international player prospects for these events.”

The World Cup is the fifth worldwide event sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours, joining the four World Golf Championships – Accenture Match Play Championship (Arizona, USA); Cadillac Championship (Florida, USA); Bridgestone Invitational (Ohio, USA); HSBC Champions (Shanghai, China).

Victoria has the greatest concentration of golf courses of any state in Australia. Areas like the Melbourne Sandbelt, the Mornington and Bellarine peninsulas as well as the Murray River are famous for the quality golf courses they are home to.

There are also emerging golf destinations throughout the state, including what is called the Goldfields region, with Victoria’s largest inland city, Ballarat, lying at its heart. There are several enjoyable courses to be found within 30 minutes’ drive of the historic city, but you don’t have to beat a path out of town to play the best layout the region has to offer.

Ballarat Golf Club dates back to 1895, with humble beginnings as an 11-hole course. However, this crude course lasted only two weeks as it was too short for a match or a single round and too long for a double round. It was reduced to a nine-hole course and modelled on St Andrews in Scotland.

Despite numerous changes to the course in the 115 years that followed – including the construction of an almost completely new course designed by Peter Thomson and Ross Perrett – Ballarat remains Australia’s oldest layout that is still played on part of the original course.

The Thomson and Perrett design was born out of a land deal with a local developer, which saw the exchange of land titles in 2008 and plans tabled to build the new layout on a small parcel of the original course and some adjoining land.

The fact he did win it, in extra time with an eagle on the first play-off hole, was a brilliant result for the West Australian who has struggled for good results during the past two years.

“The last couple of years have been very difficult,” he said after the win in Korea. “I had twins two years ago, it’s coming up to their second birthday. Go Back to China next week and back to pick them up before I go to Europe, so that’s been really testing.

“The last couple of years … trying to be the best father as I can and helping out my wife, Sally, who has been a tremendous support, it’s been very, very difficult.

“But you know what, we are through the hard part.  We are sort of through that first six months of having twins, if anyone’s experienced that, it’s possibly the hardest thing you’ll ever do.

Brett Rumford is almost lost in the crowd with the winner’s trophy. PHOTO: ONEASIA

“Now I’m just looking ahead, obviously just getting my game back to where it was in 2010 and just try and really kick on from here.  That’s what my goal is.”

He didn’t have to look too far ahead … just seven days to be precise.

Rumford, 35, shot a superb four under 68 to close out the Volvo China Open at 16 under and seal a four-stroke victory over Finland’s Mikko Ilonen at the Binhai Lake GC in Tianjin.

It was Rumford’s fifth European Tour win since turning professional in 2000 and he earned earned €407,500 ($A523,275), which is more than he had won in the previous two seasons in Europe.

“As with last week I’m kind of speechless at the moment,” he said.

“It’s quite surreal – it’s the first time I’ve actually played the week after a win so I’m more than pleased. It’s hard to get my head around it at the moment.

“I managed to get up and down when I really needed to. There are some very tight lies around the perimeters of the greens, so it was tricky. My putter was also really on song, as it was last week. It puts a lot of pressure on your opponent when you’re saving par all the time.”

Rumford’s ball-striking has been at a career high during the past two weeks. PHOTO: ONEASIA

The consecutive wins – the first by an Aussie on the European Tour since Jack Newton in 1972 – catapulted ‘Rummy’ to the No.1 ranking in the tour’s season-long Race to Dubai standings and his world ranking will now climb to a career-high spot in the low 70s, which puts him in the top-20 of those International players vying for a spot on the Presidents Cup team for later this year.

Rumford has never played in the Cup, not has he played too many major championships or World Golf Championships. All that is about to change.

He will certainly get a start in the US PGA Championship in August, but will need to move into the top-60 of the world ranking by the beginning of June to get a start in the US Open. He will then have to reach the top-50 to get a start in the Open Championship at Muirfield in July. That said, if he finishes 2013 in the top-30 of the Race To Dubai he will be exempt into the 2014 Open at Hoylake.

He can tick all these qualifying boxes with his next start on the European Tour – the limited-field Volvo World Match Play Championship in Bulgaria starting on May 16.

MODEL AND SHAFT PLAYED: TaylorMade RocketBladez 4-iron to sand wedge fitted with stiff-flex steel shafts.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: I like how these clubs feel and each iron’s overall weight, plus the thin toplines. However when I look at them – because my irons have larger clubfaces – for an offset-style iron they don’t look so much offset. That makes me a bit nervous because I would like to see more of the clubface. It’s like looking down on a ‘players’ iron.

VERDICT: Impact with the RocketBladez irons feels so sweet. You don’t feel the ball – and the ball flew at least a club further in distance. These clubs also glided through the turf like a hot knife through butter, and it really was surprising how straight the ball flew. I have a tendency to pull or hook the ball left but hitting these irons I found my normal hook disappeared. I was most impressed at being able to generate backspin off the 7-iron too.

Chipping with the wedges was also a confidence-building experience as the clean, sweet contact I found on full shots was also present in half shots. I felt like these shots were easy to control and I noted a little backspin there too. But I’m most impressed that, as a natural hooker of the ball, using offset irons didn’t produce a hook but instead my shots flew straight and with a definite forgiveness on off-centre strikes.

MODEL AND SHAFT PLAYED: TaylorMade RocketBladez 4-iron to sand wedge fitted with regular-flex graphite shafts.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: These clubs look good and feel good. My current irons don’t have graphite shafts and I can really notice the difference in weight through the shaft to the clubhead. I like the line on the longer clubs that you see when you look down on the back of the clubhead. It looks like it would help you address the ball squarely.

VERDICT: I found it took me a little while to get used to the graphite shafts of the RocketBladez irons, but once I slowed my swing down and adjusted my rhythm I was able to take advantage of the benefits.

These are very forgiving irons and shots felt really good coming off the clubface – it’s basically like you’re not hitting anything at all. I confess that I didn’t want to take the 4-iron initially as I don’t normally carry one, but I did end up using it a couple of times and was getting about 180 or 185 metres out of it. I went through the back of the green on one occasion from just on 180 metres away. Through the bag, I noticed about half a club extra in distance with these irons.

I found the wedges good to pitch with and I spent more time in bunkers today than I normally do and generally came out nice and cleanly with the sand wedge.

FACTS FIGURES

SUITABILITY: All golfers.

SHAFTS: Options include the RocketFuel 85 Steel and RocketFuel 65 Graphite shafts in a variety of flexes.

SET COMPOSITION: From 3-iron to lob wedge.

LEFT-HANDED MODELS?: Yes, except for the lob wedge.

HOW MUCH?: $112.50 (steel), $125 (graphite). RocketBladez Tour irons are $135 per iron and RocketBladez Max are $190 each.

TAYLORMADE SAYS: “The Speed Pocket in our new RocketBladez irons is a once-in-a-lifetime innovation that makes every iron without it inferior by design. The Speed Pocket changes iron performance dramatically in terms of distance, trajectory and control. The way it promotes additional ball speed on mis-hits low on the face is unprecedented.

“The Speed Pocket in the 3 through 7-irons works with an advanced, ultra-thin face design to promote consistently high ball speed and distance. Seventeen-and-a-half grams of weight is strategically redistributed to lower and centre the centre of gravity location, promoting a higher launch angle, higher peak trajectory and a steep, soft-landing, quick-stopping descent angle. Fantastic feel is promoted by specially formulated polyurethane developed by 3M that fills the Speed Pocket and quiets vibration.”

Contact TaylorMade on 1800 700 011 or visit www.taylormadegolf.com.au

]]> http://www.golfaustralia.com.au/brett-rumfords-fourth-euro-tour-victory/feed/ 0 http://www.golfaustralia.com.au/9/ http://www.golfaustralia.com.au/9/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:46:16 +0000 robin http://www.golfaustralia.com.au/9/ ]]> http://www.golfaustralia.com.au/9/feed/ 0 http://www.golfaustralia.com.au/how-rory-rips-it/ http://www.golfaustralia.com.au/how-rory-rips-it/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:46:33 +0000 catherine http://www.golfaustralia.com.au/?p=6215 Have a close look at McIlory’s swing sequence and try to emulate some of the key positions of his swing – like the address position, his takeaway and release – as you stand in front of a full-length mirror. Get the idea of what that position feels like and take it to the practice range or onto the course and you will notice the difference.

Say anything you want about Michelle Wie, but she is a good sport. She’d have to be to get this close to a camel. If you have a clever caption to go with this picture, let us know about it.

Submit your caption, on the entry form below (not in the comment box), for the accompanying photo and the best entry judged by Golf Australia editors, will a pair of adidas adizero Tour shoes, worth $199. adizero Tour golf shoes are so light, it’s like wearing nothing at all. Revolutionising the fit, feel and shape of adidas golf footwear, the adizero Tour has been specially engineered to include only what is essential to perform.

Proprietary lightweight and waterproof materials combine to create the lightest, most comfortable and best performing 10-cleated Tour golf shoe that adidas has ever created.

Adidas Golf’s relentless pursuit of innovation is never-ending and its technologies bring about progressive products that look, fit, feel and perform better than any other brand.

For more information visit the website www.adidasgolf.com or call 1800 700 011

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Competition is open to Australian residents only. Starts 23 April, 2013 and ends 29 April, 2013. This is a game of skill and entrants must finish answer in 25 words or less: “What’s the first thing that comes into your head when you think of Denmark?” The most creative answers will win. 15 winners will receive a double pass to see The Hunt. Total prize pool value $450. Entries will be judged on 30 April, 2013 at nextmedia Level 6, 207 Pacific Hwy, St Leonards NSW 2065. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. All email addresses collected in the entry form will be added to the Yen Newsletter database. You may unsubscribe from this free service at any time. Winners will be announced in the ‘Winners’ section of the Yen website and prizes will be sent to the postal address provided on the entry form or contacted via email about collection.

Image: James Cheadle

Dustin Johnson has the world at his feet – a bulging bank balance, a killer golf swing and a gorgeous girlfriend. The only thing that could make his world even better would be a Masters victory.

It’s time to strip away that veneer of calculated reserve. Just admit it. You want to be Dustin Johnson. You want to pull out that TaylorMade R1 driver with the 45-inch Fujikura Motore Fuel 2.0 X shaft, put that TaylorMade Penta TP5 ball in your crosshairs, launch it at a frightening 305 kilometres per hour (48 km/hr faster than the US PGA Tour average) and watch it fall to the earth 320 metres away.

You want to be able to dunk a basketball in your bare feet, throw a baseball 145 km/hr, launch your jet ski four metres in the air on a yacht wake, do a standing broad jump that puts you in the 93rd percentile among NBA players and do a three-cone agility drill that puts you in the 80th percentile among NFL skill-position players – things that inspire Keith Sbarbaro, TaylorMade’s vice president of PGA Tour operations, to call Johnson “the best athlete ever to play professional golf”.

You want to exude cool with the soul patch, the long sideburns, the ripped abs and the girl on your arm – especially if she’s model/actress/singer Paulina Gretzky, daughter of ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, or either of the drop-dead lookers who preceded her: Amanda Caulder and Natalie Gulbis.

You want to be coached by Butch Harmon, even though you know he could be really tough on you – such as when he chastised Johnson for his lethargic practice habits, saying: “Every other guy in the top-10 outworks him.”

You want the good life. Dustin Johnson’s life.

He knows he’s as fortunate as David Feherty is funny. And he claims that’s one of the primary reasons why he hasn’t gone ballistic when circumstances have gone south.

Like when Tiger Woods stole his caddie. In September 2011, after sacking Steve Williams, Tiger prowled into Johnson’s camp and scooped up Joe LaCava. It wasn’t like Johnson was a chump – he was the world No.5 golfer at the time, while Woods was still trying to resuscitate his life and career after a fire hydrant had the audacity to get in the way of his Escalade at 2:25am on November 27, 2009.

Harmon, who may or may not have had an axe to grind after being ditched by Tiger in 2002, ripped Tiger for not calling Johnson and asking if he could talk to LaCava, and said that although he was disappointed, he was “not surprised”.

Johnson’s reaction? No big deal.

Johnson exudes plenty of cool on and off the golf course. His easy-going nature has endeared him to fans and attractive women. He had a long relationship with Amanda Caulder (top) before going out with LPGA player Natalie Gulbis (middle). He is now linked with Paulina Gretzky (bottom), the daughter of ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Image: Getty Images

“I spoke to Tiger about it,” he said at the time. “There’s no hard feelings at all. Joe got offered Tiger’s job, so he took it. I can’t blame the guy. He can do what he wants.”

More famous was Johnson’s reaction after being approached by rules official David Price on the 18th green at Whistling Straits seconds after putting out in the final round of the 2010 US PGA Championship. Asked if he had grounded his club in the bunker on his second shot, Johnson said he wasn’t sure. When they viewed it on video together, Johnson concluded he had grounded his club, and Price informed him that he had to claim a two-stroke penalty that would keep him out of a play-off with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson.

TV cameras showed Johnson in the scorer’s trailer, calmly turning his pencil upside down and erasing the bogey he had marked for the 18th hole. When he met the media in the clubhouse, he acted like he had just finished an hour of yoga. Never blamed officials. Or even questioned them. He didn’t realise he was even in a bunker – because it had been trampled by thousands of spectators who were surrounding him – but he said he had violated a rule. When one reporter suggested that the Wanamaker Trophy had been stolen from him, he said, “Maybe a little bit. But that’s how it goes.”

That’s how it goes?

Johnson plays his approach from a sandy lie to the 72nd green at the 2010 PGA Championship. right: Minutes later official David Price informs Johnson of his rules infraction and two-stroke penalty, costing him a spot in a play-off.

Johnson was already at the airport by the time Kaymer finished off Watson in the play-off. A few hours later, he was back at his waterfront home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he was greeted by his sheepdog, Max, and some friends. They had dinner and drinks. He watched 15 minutes of coverage on the Golf Channel, turned it off, went to bed, got up the next morning and spent most of the day on his eight-metre Sea Pro boat, wakeboarding and draining some beers.

In the aftermath, Johnson’s e-mail and mobile phone were jammed with messages from friends and fans. And by mid-morning that day, his website had entries from 370 fans – when he’d normally get a few per day. He still has a book of encouraging comments, many from complete strangers.

From a popularity standpoint, the Whistling Straits heartache may have been the best thing that ever happened to Johnson. Everybody always knew he had the game. What they learned that day was that he had uncommon grace. Johnson became a highly sympathetic figure and Price the legalistic Pharisee.

Later that year, Johnson and Price found themselves with rooms on the same floor at Celtic Manor during the Ryder Cup. Price, embarrassed to find himself in the elevator with Johnson, awkwardly tried to apologise, saying how badly he felt for Johnson. But Johnson looked him straight in the eyes and said, “There are no hard feelings.”

Price has never forgotten Johnson’s civility and grace. Johnson just shrugs when you ask him about it.

“I was pissed [off] at Whistling Straits,” he says, “but I wasn’t that mad. Shit happens. Looking back on it, I don’t think I did anything wrong or I made a bad decision, because I didn’t think I was in the bunker. It’s golf. It’s the rules of golf. What can I do? I can’t argue it. I can’t get mad about it. I did it. It’s just one of those things.”

You ask him if he has a measure of inner pride for the way he dealt with the disaster.

“For sure,” he says. “I think I did a great job handling it. I got a lot of fans from the way I handled it. Golf is a gentleman’s game. I try to handle myself like a gentleman.”

Official David Price informs Johnson of his rules infraction and two-stroke penalty, costing him a spot in a play-off. Image: Getty Images

Johnson says he’s never been filled with rage about anything in his life. He says his parents and grandmother instilled in him a perspective that has never left him.

“I kind of grew up that way,” he says of his upbringing in Columbia, South Carolina. “I try not to ever worry about things I can’t control. That’s just kind of how I do things.“I get mad. I just probably don’t show it. I get pissed [off] when I’m on the course. I just won’t show it. That’s how I was taught. It’s OK to get mad. Just don’t let everyone else know you’re mad. Just growing up playing golf, I played with kids who pitched fits when they were playing, and I definitely didn’t want to look like they did, so I just never did it. Breaking clubs, throwing clubs … I just don’t do it.

“I live a pretty good life, so for me to get angry about some little things that happen is kind of petty. I have a lot else to look forward to.”

Especially after starting the year with a four-stroke victory over Steve Stricker in the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions – a victory that vaulted Johnson to No.14 in the world golf ranking.

He’ll take a lot of momentum into The Masters, a tournament that has confounded him, even though his game appears to be so suited for Augusta National that Phil Mickelson says, “There’s no reason Dustin shouldn’t win more than one Masters in his career.” Lefty should know. He has three green jackets in his closet.

Johnson grew up just 122km from Augusta. He went to a few Masters as a kid and cheered for Davis Love III and Fred Couples. He’d go back to his home course and pretend that he was putting to win The Masters. Later, while attending Coastal Carolina University, he went back to Augusta and followed Woods’ group, studying how the four-time Masters champ attacked each hole and navigated the treacherous greens.

It makes no sense to anybody – especially Johnson – that his best finish in three tries is a tie for 38th. He has a tied eighth at the US Open, three straight top-14 finishes at the Open Championship and two top-10s at the PGA Championship.

In 2009, he became just the second player in Masters history to get back-to-back eagles when he scorched the 13th and 14th holes. But he stumbled home to a 73 and finished 11 strokes behind winner Angel Cabrera.

“It surprises me a little bit because I really like the golf course,” he says. “I’ve played pretty well there. It’s just really tough. The greens are tough. It’s tough to putt around there. It really is. If you miss it in the wrong spots, you can’t get up and down.

Johnson opened his 2013 season with success in Hawaii. Image: Getty Images

“I feel really good there. I’ve usually played two good rounds and two OK rounds – and that’s going to give you a finish of about 30th. I just can’t put four good rounds together there. But the more you play there, the more comfortable you get, and the easier it gets.”

We know one thing about the 28-year-old Johnson: the words ‘intimidated’ and ‘rattled’ and ‘flustered’ are not part of his vocabulary. He doesn’t think them, speak them or feel them. He’s as loose as them come. So loose that his manager, David Winkle, says, “I swear he was dipped in Teflon at birth.”

That became very apparent at the Ryder Cup last September as he won all three of his matches – and was one of only three Americans to  win a final-day singles match as they systematically squandered a 10-6 lead in a shocking collapse.
Says Mickelson, “I like his game and I like being around him. He’s a fun guy to be around. He’s very easygoing. He’s very resilient. He doesn’t let stuff bother him, and that’s probably a good thing.”

The expectations are for Johnson to take the next step this year. It’s nice that he’s a freakish athlete with bombshell girlfriends and booming drives. Now when does he truly harness the potential and win a major?  Then again, he’s played in just 16 of them. Nick Faldo needed 22 of them. Nick Price needed 36. And Mickelson – in one of golf’s truly odd statistics – needed 47 of them.

Time is on Johnson’s side.

Commonly when players slice we see the left arm bent at impact (pic 1), which is commonly known as chicken winging, rather than seeing a full extension delivering maximum power (pic 2).Slicers generally have an outside-to-inside the target line swing path (pic 3), where the clubface will remain open, which significantly reduces the chance of clean contact and hitting straight shots.

Image: Brendan James

Try this swing drill to learn the correct arm sequence to help promote more arc and release in your swing path.

Adopt your normal address position and grip the club but this time, separate or split your hands on the grip so there is a gap between them (pic 4), making sure the thumbs
are to the side of the grip too, as this will encourage more wrist hinge. Hover the clubhead about 30 centimetres above the ground.

Image: Brendan James

Start your backswing and stop once your hands are at hip level (pic 5). You should strive to have your right arm bent and your left arm extended (for right-handers), which will resemble an ‘L’ shape with the club shaft. A good reference point is to have the butt of the shaft pointing about 60 centimetres behind the ball on the target line to achieve the ideal wrist angle and for the club to remain on the correct shaft plane.

You now want to swap the ‘L’ shape from your trailing side to your left side to improve the release. Turn your body through impact, extending your arms as to simulate the hit then allowing them to fold on the target side of your body (pic 6).

Image: Brendan James

The folding on the through swing needs special attention. The left arm must fold and rotate concisely after impact so that it will encourage the clubhead release. An appropriate swing thought would be left elbow points downward (on the target side ‘L’). Your arms also need to stay out in front of the body during the swing.

Give this drill a go as it will help reduce your slice movement through impact and lead to straighter shots.

If your slice persists then send through some footage of your swing for an online video analysis to danielblackwellgolf@hotmail.com

Daniel Blackwell is a AAA-rated PGA of Australia professional based at Royal Hobart Golf Club, Tasmania, and is the coach of the Tasmania Junior Team. For lessons, call the pro shop on (03) 6248 6108 or on 0401 782 829.