Aussie Golfer: The Australian Golf Blog

Stanley's heartbreak: video

2012-01-30T11:55:00.005+11:00

If you're a little sadistic or don't mind a little schadenfreude from time to time, check out the highlights of the final round from the PGA Tour's Farmers Insurance Open that finished up this morning.

Kyle Stanley was looking for his maiden tour victory and had a three shot lead going into the final hole. But he recorded a snowman which stretched the tournament where he lost to Brandt Snedeker. It's heartbreaking, and Snedeker agreed despite grabbing the winner's cheque.

McDowell's lucky bounce off the grandstand

2012-01-30T11:21:00.001+11:00

From the department of "why professional golf is easier than amateur golf", we see Graeme McDowell use the grandstand as a back board.

Robert Rock managed to hold off a fairly tame Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to record a career changing Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship yesterday.

Possibly the shot of the round went to Graeme McDowell though. He successfully used the grandstand behind the 18th green as a back board to get his golf ball next to the hole and record a birdie to finish. This came on the back of a hole-in-one earlier in the round and propelled him to a share of third place.

We should all aspire to be professional golfers. We can then use spectator facilities to get your way around a golf course.

Women's NSW Open: final round highlights

2012-01-29T23:17:00.003+11:00

See how 14-year-old Lydia Ko became the youngest ever winner of a golf tournament in the video highlights from today's final round at the Women's NSW Open.

Make sure you see Ko's tee shot to the final hole too at around the 2 minute mark of the video. She nearly nails it and gets an unlucky bounce off the pin. Impressive.

Ko becomes youngest winner of a golf tournament

2012-01-29T18:26:00.004+11:00

New Zealander Lydia Ko today made history by becoming the youngest ever winner of a professional golf tournament.

History has today been made at the Samsung/Bing Lee Women's NSW Open. Amateur golfer Lydia Ko has become the youngest ever winner of a recognised professional golf tournament by winning at only 14 years of age.

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14-year-old poised to make history at NSW Open

2012-01-28T19:33:00.001+11:00

A 14-year old amateur golfer could make history by winning the Samsung/Bing Lee Women's NSW Open tomorrow.

Lydia Ko is the world's number one ranked female amateur golfer, and at only 14-years of age she is set to become the youngest female to win a tournament on one of the five recognised women's professional tours.

This time last year, Ko had a putt on the final hole to win the same tournament but ended up three putting, gifting the tournament to Sweden's Caroline Hedwall.

The New Zeakland teenager is on target to erase the memory of last year. She posted a remarkable 8-under par 64 at Oatlands Golf Course today to lead the Samsung/Bing Lee Women's NSW Open. Lindsey Wright leads the chasing pack, four shots back at 7-under for the tournament.

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Women's NSW Open Round 2: video highlights

2012-01-28T18:38:00.001+11:00

Women's NSW Open Round 1: video highlights

2012-01-28T00:15:00.000+11:00

Rachel Bailey and Karen Lunn lead the Samsung/Bing Lee Women's NSW Open after the first round. Here are the opening round highlights from a blustery Oatlands golf course in Sydney.

Lunn and Bailey share lead at Women's NSW Open

2012-01-28T00:12:00.000+11:00

New South Wales’ Karen Lunn has continued on her great start to the year with a four-under par 68 today to share the lead with Sydney’s Rachel Bailey after the opening round of the Bing Lee / Samsung Women’s NSW Open being played at Oatlands Golf Club.

Both Lunn and Bailey sit atop of a jam packed leaderboard, with 21 players under within three of the co-leaders.

The morning players had to contend with persistent showers, while the afternoon players played in overcast and blustery conditions .

Lunn said after her round “I’ve been playing well for a while, I’m hitting the ball well, my short game is pretty sound.”

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Laid back Laura Davies looking for another major

2012-01-27T09:26:00.009+11:00

We featured a video interview with Katherine Hull earlier in the lead up to the Women's NSW Open that begins today, but there have been a few other very interesting interviews. None more so than Laura Davies.

She's no stranger to Australian shores and much like the Foo Fighters, Arj Barker and a whole host of other international entertainers, she seems to spend as much time here as she does in other countries.

Always entertaining, this is a great insight into Laura Davies. She mentions he battles with the putter and he desire to grab another major victory or two despite being a veteran on the tour.

Katherine Hull starting afresh in 2012

2012-01-27T07:39:00.008+11:00

Katherine Hull is looking to regain form, starting with this week's Samsung/Bing Lee Women's NSW Open at Oatlands Golf Club in Sydney.

Australia's Katherine Hull was dominating world golf in 2008. She recorded her first ever LPGA Tour victory at the Candian Open and recorded eight Top-10s for the year.

Her 2009 season was also pretty good but she has struggled to regain the form that saw her climb into the world's Top-20 female golfers.

She's playing in this week's Samsung/Bing Lee Women's NSW Open and was interviewed in the lead up to the tournament about past success and what she's looking to achieve over the coming four weeks of tournament golf.

High expectations for England's best female golfer

2012-01-26T19:58:00.011+11:00

Melissa Reid is England's highest ranking golfer and at only 24 she already has three tournament victories under her belt. All three victories have come during the past two years on the Ladies European Tour and has meant a change in expectations ahead of 2012.

She has not only considered the best young British golfer of her generation, but was ranked in the 50 hottest female golfers of all time. For what that is worth.

Reid was interviewed this week ahead of her appearance at this week's Women's NSW Open and spoke about her expectations going into 2012 and the desire for better finishes at the majors.

PGA Tour plans spell trouble for Australian golf tournaments

2012-01-26T16:26:00.001+11:00

The PGA Tour is planning to make a full year out of their golf tour, meaning less chance of players coming to play in Australia.

Ben Everill reported today that the PGA Tour is planning a revamp of its season and qualifying school system. The changes would see tournaments played throughout the last three months of the year which directly clash with Australian golf tournaments, such as the Australian Open and Australian Masters.

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Australia's Top 100 golf courses: Golf Australia magazine

2012-01-25T15:11:00.001+11:00

Golf Australia magazine have released their 2012 list of Top 100 Australian golf courses.

The 5th hole at Royal Melbourne West

The full list was first made available in Golf Australia magazine's January edition, but now the list is available online with Royal Melbourne West occupying top spot. The list features a rating score that the judges gave to each of the courses and its interesting to note just how close Barnbougle Dunes was to taking second place, instead of Kingston Heath.

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Bubba buys the car from Dukes of Hazzard

2012-01-24T21:35:00.002+11:00

Bubba Watson takes driving to a whole new level, and buys the car from Dukes of Hazzard.

The next time a professional golfer starts whining about being forced to Paris for a golf tournament, make sure you remind them of the amount of money they can earn if they're good enough, and all the subsequent stuff they can buy.

Hey, they can even buy stuff that one wouldn't normally expect to be for sale. Like General Lee for instance, the car from The Dukes of Hazzard.

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Course Review: Victoria Golf Club

2012-01-24T10:20:00.020+11:00

Is it possible that for a golf course ranked in Australia's Top-10 and still be underrated? Victoria Golf Course may have been, but after praise from the world's number one golfer, it won't be any more.

The short, par-4 10th hole with a tricky raised green.

Very few courses in the Melbourne sandbelt region could be deemed underrated, but I can't help but feel that in the wider golfing community, Victoria Golf Club has been so. It is nearly always ranked in Australia's Top-10 golf courses but it has often sat in the shadows of the more highly ranked sand belt golf courses that lie only a few kilometres away.

Thankfully, Victoria is getting international praise after hosting the last two JBWere Australian Masters. The world's number one golfer Luke Donald for example, ranked the golf course very highly.

"I did enjoy it here and I am sure I will be back," Luke Donald said. "I probably put this in my top 10 courses, architecturally and from a design stand point."

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Tiger doesn't care to limit technology

2012-01-22T21:24:00.007+11:00

Tiger Woods answered a few questions from fans via his Twitter account on Friday and like most question and answer sessions with Woods, it was largely uninteresting.

He did have a curious comment to make about limiting golf technology but it started out in usual Woods fashion, giving mundane answers in response to questions about to preparation and putting.

Preparing like any other event, Sean and I working efficiently RT @The_Real_McFIy5m what's hardest part about preparing for the season?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

No more lessons, still working on what he told me to do RT @DCGiesII How is the putting? Any more lessons from Stricker?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

The geeky Tiger Woods shone through for a moment;

Absolutely, probably more! New Justice League Doom coming out soon too RT @slickg720 are you as pumped as me about the dark knight rises?
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

But his response to a fan asking him about limiting the impact of technology on golf was a weird one considering he has single handedly changed the length of Augusta National, not to mention many other golf courses.

Natural progression of golf, look at how ball has changed RT @RideTheKtrain should more be done to limit the impact of technology over skill
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 20, 2012

I'm not entirely sure I agree and as Geoff Shackleford mentioned, he won't get many more fans hoping he'll break Jack Nicklaus' record with that response.

Check out this Every man's putter

2012-01-19T09:57:00.002+11:00

Questions should have been raised about Matt Every's putter.

There was a time when I used to get surprised by seeing a new style of putter in the golf store. No more. It seems there is a new crazy style putter released each week and the shapes and sizes are wilder than ever.

Matt Every was in the golf news last week thanks largely to the Golf Channel dredging up 3 month ban placed upon him by the PGA Tour. The interview was awkward when questions were asked about the incident when Every was arrested for drug (pot) possession. Charges were never laid but the relatively harmless incident was still raised in the interview.

What Golf Channel should have been asking was questions about Every's putter. The putter looks like a video cassette on the end of a stick.

The Blackhawk putter is a prototype of sorts and being is only being test-marketed in parts of Florida so they aren't freely available just yet. And even if they were, would you want one?

For the record, Every averaged 28.3 putts per round last week at the Sony Open, ranked 23rd in the field.

Segway cam added to golf coverage

2012-01-17T16:48:00.006+11:00

It seems that people are beginning to see new uses for the Segway, particularly in sports coverage.

Most Australians may have seen Ian Healy showing how (or how not) to use the Segway during the cricket last month, and it seems the golf coverage has taken a liking to the Segway as well.

In less entertaining fashion, the video below shows it being used during last week's Sony Open in Hawaii. I believe it has been used on the European Tour in the past but it is novel for the PGA Tour.

It seems ok, if not a little mundane. But I'm sure there are more fun times ahead with it. Five bucks it won't be used during the US Masters this year.

H/T Devil Ball Golf

The slope system and your handicap

2012-01-16T14:54:00.002+11:00

The Slope System won't be introduced into Australian golf until 2013, but it is somewhat of an unknown system for most Australian golfers.

It is more than likely, that even those Australian golfers who have heard of the slope system, many aren't sure of it's intricacies.

Over the next year or so, you're going to hear a lot more about the slope system and its introduction to Australian golf, but to get a nice overview you could do a lot worse than to read the article by Richard Fellner in the latest issue of Inside Golf.

To put it simply, Slope is merely an adjustment factor to make your handicap ‘portable’ from one course to another. It adds or subtracts strokes to your handicap, based upon the Course Rating at each course.

A Slippery Slope: How will the Slope System affect your handicap? is a great introduction to the new system that has been used for many years in most other golfing countries. Read it and impress fellow golfers with your knowledge of the slope system.

Ogilvy wants to play on better golf courses

2012-01-15T20:13:00.004+11:00

Geoff Ogilvy pens an article for Golf Digest from time to time and given he is one of the more interesting, articulate golfers on the PGA Tour, his thoughts are always worth a read.

This month's article, "Not all pros care about courses, but better layouts = better golf" has Ogilvy arguing that the PGA Tour should be played on better golf courses.

PGA Tour players look at golf courses the same way most people look at them. They like layouts where they tend to play well, maybe even more than the average golfer does. For amateurs the venue doesn't have quite the same effect on their ability to enjoy the day. What they shoot doesn't mean quite as much.

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Every cornered about drug related past

2012-01-14T14:32:00.008+11:00

Matt Every's arrest for drug possession resurfaces in Hawaii.

There was a non-issue that became a rather large issue on the PGA Tour this morning. Matt Every leads the Sony Open in Hawaii after two rounds. But there is a little controversy behind Matt Every that some people won't leave alone.

In July 2010, Every was arrested after police were called to a hotel room a few days before the John Deere Classic PGA Tour. It was reported that there were people in the room with Every smoking marijuana and while he was not smoking, he was charged with possession but the charges were ultimately dropped.

Every was suspended by the PGA Tour for three months soon after the arrest and was told to not speak of the suspension.

It seems a few people haven't forgotten the ultimately harmless episode in Every's past and the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman cornered him during his post-round interview today.

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Tips for airline travel with golf clubs in Australia

2012-01-12T11:39:00.017+11:00

Summarising the small print for travelling with golf clubs on Australia's domestic airlines.

Like every other Christmas, I travel interstate to see family and take the golf clubs along. I got a rude shock this year when I checked in my bags at Qantas to find that the rules concerning travelling with golf clubs have changed.

Qantas now have a "1 piece of check-in baggage only" rule which means that even if your golf clubs and baggage is under your total baggage weight limit, you must still pay to check-in the extra piece of baggage.

I'll clarify what this means. Let's say your golf bag weighs 12kg and your bag weighs 10kg. If you check both items in, you will be forced to pay extra ($30) for an additional piece of baggage even though you are still under the allowed 23kg weight limit.

With this in mind and the confusion we have regarding baggage allowance each time we travel with a different airline, I thought it is a good time to review the rules for travelling with golf clubs on Australia's domestic airlines; Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar and Tiger Airways. All rules are outlined for travelling regular economy class.

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Tiger Woods video game gets a new swing

2012-01-11T10:38:00.000+11:00

The new Tiger Woods PGA Tour game is on its way, with (finally) a change to the way you swing the golf club.

The Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game has been plodding along over the last few years with a few new aspects such as Ryder Cup play, the US Masters experience and generally looking more and more realistic.

The game play itself has never really changed though and often makes for some fairly mindless hours flicking the controls back and through. Rounds in the 50's are never out of the question.

After watching the newly released Tiger Woods PGA Tour trailer video below, it looked like more of the same. Nice and and pretty, but much of the same.

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Baker-Finch lists his favourite golf courses

2012-01-11T07:53:00.015+11:00

Baker-Finch names Melbourne sandbelt courses in his favourite golf courses.

The January 2012 issue of Golf Vacations magazine that hit the shelves last week features a nice article with Ian Baker-Finch listing his favourite Australian and International golf courses.

Last year, Golf Vacations ran an article that featured Greg Norman's favourite golf courses he has designed. Here though, Baker-Finch's list isn't limited in any way and his number one golf course comes from the Melbourne sandbelt.

“I would rate the composite course at Royal Melbourne as the best in the world when it’s in the kind of condition it was in for the recent Presidents Cup,” says Baker-Finch.

“But as far as stand-alone layouts go, I’m sticking with Kingston Heath, an old favourite that I believe is the best course in Australia. This is down to its design aesthetics, exceptional year-round conditioning and quite possibly some of the best green complexes in the world.”

And as far as International courses go:

“Augusta is the most difficult course in the world to get a tee time. Enjoy the Masters telecast this year because it’s the closest you are ever likely to get.” Baker-Finch said.

Check out the full article in the latest issue of Golf Vacations magazine. It is the one with Jack's Point on the front cover, which must mean a good golf magazine in my books.

Luke Donald sparks talk of slow play on PGA Tour

2012-01-10T12:36:00.021+11:00

It's not that hard, be ready when it's your turn. Slow play is killing our sport
— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) January 9, 2012

You may not know it, but the PGA Tour kicked off this week. Luke Donald then sparked up some conversation about slow play..

With barely an off-season, the PGA Tour ridiculously starts the season on the first weekend in January at the Kapalua Golf Course in Hawaii. Steve Stricker won the Hyundai tournament of Champions this week by three shots, from Scot Martin Laird but there was a lot of other talk going on about slow play.

Early in the week, lots was said about the golfers who don't turn up to play this event. All players who won on the PGA Tour last year were eligible, but with barely any time for some of these golfers to rest after a year of golf, is it really that surprising that some decided to sit the week out? Who could really blame Adam Scott for wanting to spend a few more weeks with his feet up?

It turns out there is also another reason some golfers may wish to avoid the PGA Tour. Slow play.

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