October 2004

Cover Story
Damn Lies: Making the best of a bad situation
Exclusive by The Swing Doctor

The golf ball, by virtue of its shape, can bounce, roll or ricochet into some awkward spots on the golf course.
Usually, the poorer the shot you have played, the more chance you have of finding your ball in a horrible lie. But luck – rotten, stinking bad luck – can also play its part. After all, we’ve all hit a good shot and then found our next will have to be played from a shocking lie.

I’m going to show you how to play shots from a variety of bad lies. And they’re not just escape strategies, but also sensible attacking shots you can play that will advance your ball into a position commensurate with where you might have played to had you been in a good lie, so you can keep the momentum going in your round.

Accidental Hero
By Rob Ferris
Marcus Fraser couldn’t believe it. There he was, standing on the 1st tee at the Dubai Desert Classic, about to tee off with his idol, World No. 2 Ernie Els.

Ten years earlier, when the high school dropout was working in a local supermarket and delivering furniture in Corowa – the historic birthplace of Australia’s Federation on the New South Wales-Victoria border – Els was winning his first major, the US Open.

Back then, playing professional golf was the last thing on Fraser’s mind: that was the dream of his older brother, Adam. Now the 26-year-old was standing alongside Els, ready to go head-to-head with one of the modern game’s greats in his first full year on the European Tour.

Hasta La Vista Seve?
At just 47, chronic pain from an ailing back has forced Seve Ballesteros to the brink of retirement. Gordon Thomson ponders the decline of golf’s thrilling and complex champion.

Australian Open Memories:
Peter Fowler recalls
By Rob Ferris
People tuning in to the final round of last year’s Australian Open telecast from Moonah Links may have been forced to do a double take. “What’s that? Peter Fowler tied for the lead?”

At 44, “Chook”, as he is affectionately known, was aiming to chalk up his second national title – 20 years after winning his first at Kingston Heath. He eventually finished tied fourth, two shots behind Peter Lonard.

Since teeing up in his first Open in 1979, the New South Welshman has become somewhat of an Australian Open specialist, where par usually rules. In 24 starts, the man with the masterful short game has missed just two cuts.

“It doesn’t matter how I am playing, I can always raise my game for the Open,” Fowler says. “I’ve had a lean time of it this year [in Europe] but I’m looking forward to the Centenary Open. I’m targeting to peak my game for that time of the year.”

Golf Australia’s Greatest Australian Golf Holes:Victoria
Compiled by Brendan James

Royal Melbourne GC (West course)
391-metre, par-4 6th
The sharp right dogleg makes it vital that the tee shot flies at least 200 metres across dense rough and fairway traps, in order to leave the ball in the right position to approach the most difficult green at Royal Melbourne. The elevated green slopes towards the front and produces plenty of three-putts.
Brendan James says: “The simple design of this hole is its strength. Nothing overdone here … just the perfect hole for the landscape it is laid on.”

Mike Clayton says: “One of the great holes in world golf.”

US PGA Championship Review
Extra Special
By Nigel Wall
Tiger Woods might not like to hear it, but the world of professional golf is a better place when he is off his game. At least from a spectator’s viewpoint. For evidence, look no further than an enthralling 2004 US PGA Championship, where the best in the game (Tiger excepted) battled down to the wire – and beyond it – over the longest course in major championship history.

Whistling Straits’ 6,870 metres, with its fairways bordering Lake Michigan and its gnarly rough wrapping around beautiful fairway contours, proved the perfect venue to test the best pro field of the year. And the examination intensified over the final day, with the lead held or shared by three players, Justin Leonard, Chris DiMarco and Vijay Singh, before Singh prevailed in a dramatic three-hole aggregate playoff.

Singh’s last round 76, four over par, was the highest score by a winner in the history of the US PGA, and the second highest ever by a major winner behind Reg Whitcombe’s closing 78 at the 1938 British Open at Royal St George’s. The Fijian had held a one-shot overnight lead, courtesy of some precision putting that averaged 28 strokes for each of the first three rounds. But it was a different story on day four, with his putter requiring an amateur-like 34 strokes to negotiate the layout. (This was Singh’s second victory with this type of flatstick since abandoning his controversial belly putter just three weeks prior to the US PGA.)

The victory was Singh’s third major, after the 1998 US PGA and 2000 US Masters, and his fifth on the US PGA Tour for 2004.