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March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au THE FIRST TEE 5 To rollback or not to rollback? WHERE is it all headed? I wake up to Cristbal Del Solar, a relatively unknown US Korn Ferry Tour player shooting 57. They say the course was short. But 57!! And he parred the last three holes and had a 10-footer on the 18th for a 56. At that same event there was a 59 a couple of days later. Then Wyndam Clark shoots 60 at Pebble Beach. Yes, it was preferred lies however Pebble was playing to its full length with no run, drivers landing and stopping in their pitch marks. Almost everybody in the field who drove the ball into the 18th fairway was capable of hitting the par five green in two. From days gone by, watching previous tournaments and the great players of years past, only the longest of the long could get anywhere near the green with their second shot. Earlier that week on LIV, Australian Open champ Joaquin Niemann signs for a 59 at Mayakoba in Mexico. It’s only a month or two ago he hit a wedge into the par five finishing hole at the Australian for his second shot, twice, while winning in a playoff. Elite players today are fitter and stronger, technology is enabling them to be better in tune with their swings than ever before, however the debate will continue to rage about modern equipment, most specifically how far the ball is travelling. The golf ball goes too far they say, roll it back many argue to ensure the great courses remain relevant when played by the world’s best. Rory McIlroy was recently quoted as saying the new model of ball he has put into play goes seven or eight yards longer than his previous one. As if he needed to hit it further. But what about the other 99.9 per cent of golfers, most of whom wouldn’t drive the ball 300 metres with a cement fairway and the wind at their back? Our panel wrote about the topic in the February issue with varying responses. Depending on which side of the industry you reside the opinions greatly differ. Most have strong views one way or the other, with Michael Clayton a former Tour player, now a respected course designer, one of the most outspoken in support of a rollback. He makes perfect sense when arguing that tour players and elite amateurs driving the ball over 300-metres is the norm these days rather than the exception, while a number of the longest LPGA Tour players now hit the ball further than PUBLISHER: Sam Arthur | sam@insidegolf.com.au Outdoor Sports Publishing Pty Ltd ACN 113 836 301 ABN 30 043 104 919 PO BOX 437, Miami, QLD 4220 EDITORIAL: Editor: Rob Willis rob@insidegolf.com.au Editor-At-Large: David Newbery david@insidegolf.com.au NSW/ACT Journalist: Michael Court michael@insidegolf.com.au VIC/TAS Journalist: Michael Davis michael.davis@insidegolf.com.au QLD Journalist: Peter Owen peter.owen@outlook.com.au Design & Layout: Stacey Broomhead, Rob Kirk CONTRIBUTORS: Larry Canning, David Newbery,Tony Webeck, John Riley, Karen Lunn, Michael Cooney, Andrew Crockett Distributed to over 400 golf clubs, social golf clubs, driving ranges and retailers Australia wide every month It’s official: 37,775 Inside Golf Magazines distributed each month for the period: April 2023 to September 2023 AUSTRALIA’S MOST-READ GOLF MAGAZINE www.insidegolf.com.au Cover photos: Scott Scheffler at the Genisis Invitational in Feburary. Pic courtesy Felix A. Marquez Sports Photography Kazuma Kobori photo courtesy Golf Australia Get in touch If you have an opinion on this or any other topic in the magazine, send your letter to the editor to rob@insidegolf.com.au and you’ll be in the running to win a gripping prize. Inside Golf publishes opinion from a wide range of perspectives in the hope of promoting constructive debate about consequential questions. Greg Norman did in his prime. Clayton reasons that not only is there no more land to extend the great golf courses, he doesn’t believe it solves anything by designing the new ones to cater for the ever-increasing distances the ball is flying. On the other hand, our esteemed colleague Michael Court rationally argued a 172-metre par three at his home course is right on his driver limit, and with every metre important, why make that hole out of reach to not only him but to the senior golfers appreciating a little bit of extra distance the current golf balls provide. Do we require the pros to play one type of ball, your club and social golfers another? That opens a whole new can of worms. Who produces it, do all the pro tours in the world adopt the same ball? More questions, more complications. Golf ball manufacturers have designed and produced the modern ball under the rules and regulations currently in place, is it fair and reasonable to require them to roll it back to perform as it might have in days gone by? Clayton does say if you make a quality ball and have strong market share, chances are your rolled back ball will continue to be popular if they all play by the same rules, therefore nothing lost, nothing gained. Only difference then being a few metres here and there by the golfers who play them. But is it just about the ball? Drivers are bigger, better, more forgiving, as manufacturers pour millions of dollars into their design, irons are no different. A trip to the PGA Golf Show in Orlando was an eye opener and when talking to various club and ball companies, the science and technology that goes into the design is mind blowing. The industry leaders are working years ahead, pouring millions into research and design in an effort to make golf, we wont say easier, but potentially at least more enjoyable for the masses. Supporters of the rollback will say golf was never meant to be easy. We adapted when the game switched from the smaller British ball to the larger sized US ball we currently use, and we’ll figure it out if the rollback is brought into play. Golf’s governing bodies seem intent on implementing the rollback, but there will certainly be opposition before it gets over the line. Watch this space, the outcome will be interesting. 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IN THIS ISSUE PRO NEWS 7 79 80 EVENTS 19TH HOLE GOLF DIRECTORY 84 LETTERS 38 CLUB NEWS 41 TRAVEL CORPORATE FEATURE NEW PRODUCTS 65 53 74 INDUSTRY NEWS 26 BUNKER-TOBUNKER 40 PGA SHOW 72 CLUB NEWS NSW CENTRAL WEST FEATURE 68 WIN THERE is still time to enter to win four rounds of golf at world-class Hawaiian courses, while staying at an iconic five-star resort, competing in an event featuring great prizes, with a gala presentation event and nightly functions, and a player gift pack included. It’s a package valued at $6,990, and this exciting Inside Golf, Hawaii International Golf Week prize, offering a golfing experience of a lifetime, could be yours, with entries to close March 31, 2024. One lucky reader gets the chance to participate in this unique golfing event, conducted by Pacific Golf Management, where your every golfing need is taken care of and catered for. The winner receives entry into the Hawaii International Golf Week from August 18-24, 2024 and includes six nights accommodation at the Westin Hapuna Beach Hotel, four tournament rounds of golf including cart at Hapuna Beach, Mauna Lani North and South courses, a welcome function, nightly free ‘happy hour’ drinks during the tournament and a final night gala prize presentation dinner. Pacific Golf Management have long been overseeing and managing these unique golfing events, with this Inside Golf’s biggest and perhaps most exciting prize ever offered. Enter now and win a golfing experience you’ll never forget. 6 March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au DEMO DAYS 83 Fine form continues with Hoshino victory in Qatar HIS play was a feature of the Australian golfing summer, with Rikuya Hoshino pushing Min Woo Lee to the finishing line at the Australian PGA, before being edged out in a playoff against Joaquin Niemann at the Australian Open which followed. Two second placings in tournaments which were Australasian and DP World Tour joint venture events represented a strong, but perhaps somewhat frustrating start to Hoshino’s 2024 campaign. However, in early February in continuing his outstanding season on the DP World Tour, the 27-year-old Hoshino managed to claim his maiden European tour title with a victory at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in Doha. The Japanese golfer shot a closing 68, for a 14-under par total, to finish one shot ahead of France’s Ugo Coussaud, the result moving Hoshino comfortably inside the top 100 on the Official World Golf Rankings and to second place on the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai points list. COME AND WATCH SOME OF THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE WORLD AT ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COURSES IN THE WORLD. TO REGISTER FOR YOUR FREE SEASON PASS, SCAN HERE. TICKET VALID FOR ALL THREE DAYS OF THE TOURNAMENT. Hawaii International Golf Week Gale storms to Hunter Valley win Daniel Gale, the winner of the Webex Players Series Hunter Valley at the Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort. Japanese professional Rikuya Hoshino, twice a runner up in Australia, has claimed his maiden DP World Tour victory. DANIEL Gale holed a breaking three-metre putt on the 72nd green to win the Webex Players Series Hunter Valley, played at the Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort, edging out amateur Phoenix Campbell and Kiwi young gun Kazuma Kobiori for his second Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia victory this season. Wearing his trademark yellow bucket hat, Gale shot a 19-under par total to beat Queensland PGA champion Campbell by one shot, with Kobori, a three-time winner this year, a further shot behind. A birdie on the par-five 16th on the final day brought Gale level with Campbell, before his classy approach into 18 set up the winning putt. “I had just the perfect number, obviously in the rough, which actually helped, because the greens were spinning. It was the perfect number, it came off perfect,” Gale said. The $45,000 first place cheque and subsequent jump on the Order of Merit has put Gale in reach of one of the three DP World Tour cards on offer. Kobori’s recent run of success, which now includes the third place finish at the Hunter Valley event, has enhanced his Order of Merit and DP World Tour aspirations, while Campbell’s performance, where he led for 71 holes, another example of his enormous potential.
March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au PRO NEWS 7 Unique, yet effective, Scheffler with a swing that works IT’S a distinctive golf swing, one which challenges much of what has long been written in coaching manuals. World number one Scott Scheffler makes an unconventional slash at the ball, a swing characterised by his feet slipping, sliding and moving around as the club comes into impact. However, despite how it looks, there is no question Scheffler’s swing is not only efficient, statistically speaking, it is the most effective in all of world golf. In 2023 he led the PGA TOUR in greens hit and was 12th in proximity to the hole, and nothing has changed in the early part of 2024, where after his first five events the tall Texas native is again leading the greens in regulation stats category at an incredible average of over 85 per cent, and with more greens hit this year leading to even more birdies, Scheffler is averaging in excess of six per round. Further emphasising his ability tee to green, despite finishing fourth on the final FedEx Cup points list in 2023, Scheffler’s ranked as the 110th best putter on the PGA Tour. At his most recent outing at the Genesis Invitational played at Riviera in LA, he was last in putting for those making the 36-hole cut, yet still finished the week in a tie for 10th. Running an educated eye over the Scheffler swing, Sydney-based teaching professional Glenn Whittle Rob Willis rob@insidegolf.com.au is in awe of the world number one’s ball striking prowess. “He is an amazing ball striker,” Whittle expressed. “His greens in reg and proximity to the hole with his irons, is incredible. “Everybody, me included, is fascinated by the fact that his feet lift off the ground and change position during his swing, “One interesting technical point though if you watch his swing from down the line in super slow motion, yes his right foot is off the ground pre-impact which is common for a lot of good ball strikers, especially in the Scheffler’s mind is perhaps his biggest strength. “He’s literally playing the game where nothing is interfering with anything. He’s playing with no brakes on, he’s not trying to force anything, or hold anything. “When you still frame all the golden parts of the swing on a camera, all the spots that are important, he hits them all. And then you’ve got the mind to be able to do it. He’s clearly in a mindset where he’s not too worried about it,” Barter added. In the weeks ahead Scheffler will aim to add to his six PGA Tour titles, he’ll look to defend his PLAYERS Championship at Sawgrass, before trying to add a second green jacket when he contests the Masters in early April. With a unique swing guiding his ball into the majority of fairways and onto more than four out of every five greens, whether or not his putter cooperates, he’s a hard one to bet against. Scott Scheffler, currently the premier ball striker in world golf. modern era when players are trying to drive the ball the predominant distances they do, but, if you look closely you’ll notice that his left foot doesn’t come off the ground until after impact, which is significant.” Leading teaching professional Gary Barter, who co-hosts the Back Spin Golf podcast with Inside Golf’s Larry Canning and coaches the LIV Tour’s Matt Jones, US PGA Tour player Nick Hardy, along with a long list of emerging professionals and elite amateurs, was another to have high praise for Scheffler’s ability to make his unusual swing technique work as well as it does. “We’re all fascinated with his golf swing, because to the naked eye there are arms and legs and feet going everywhere,” Barter began. “The artistic part of the game is always battling the science and so-called getting positions right. But it does prove in 2024 that unencumbered, no brakes on, get up there and swing and hit, still works. “Randy Smith, who is Scottie’s instructor, he’s had Scott since he was a young kid. He’s been asked many times about his feet moving all over the place, and Randy’s comment has been ‘he’s always done that and its not something I want to change’. “That foot slide we saw Norman have, we saw Calcavecchia have it, and now that’s become a common sight again watching Scottie play golf.” However as physically gifted as he might be, Barter believes DISTRIBUTED BY GOLF IMPORTS | 03 5277 3977 Releasing March 2024
Your experts in golf Elevate your game with the experts in golf. Scan the QR code to find your local PGA Professional or visit pga.org.au PGA Professional: Mark Stephens, Sandy Golf Links, Victoria
March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au PRO NEWS 9 IN elite sport, they say the second victory is almost as tough as breaking through for your maiden win. In golf, it sometimes takes years. Indeed, some players never win another event. Which makes the successive triumphs on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia by 22-year-old Japaneseborn New Zealander, Kazuma Kobori, before a third just a few weeks later at Castle Hill in Sydney’s northwest, extremely special. Two in row was a feat that had not been achieved since Adam Scott did it more than 10 years ago, three on the trot has historians reaching for the record books. His third victory in his 10th start also means Kobori has the same win record as Tiger Woods at the same stage of their respective professional careers. “Sounds good,” he said of hearing the statistic. “Probably need to get a few more wins under my belt, to be in the same conversation as that man, but it feels like I am on the right track.” As for comparisons to Scott, the winner of the 2013 Masters at Augusta, and we’re not saying Kobori will one day don the green Masters jacket, but his second win did come at the superbly manicured, Rosebud Country Club, often referred to as ‘the Augusta of the Mornington Peninsula’. Yes, we agree it is a long bow but…. The young Kiwi, who comes from Rangiora in Canterbury, jumped to second on the tour’s order of merit at Rosebud and maintained that standing after his victory at Castle Hill, almost Michael Davis michael.davis@insidegolf.com.au assuring Kobori of earning a DP World Tour card for next season with only two events remaining on the PGA Tour of Australasia. The top three at the end of the season win 2025 playing cards in what used to be known as the European Tour. Kobori finished at 18-under par at Rosebud to win by one shot from Malaysian women’s golfer, Ashley Lau. Veteran Mathew Goggin finished third. “They always say the first win’s hard, and I’ll tell you what, I can speak about it now that the second one’s just as hard. But I’m glad to get the job done,” Kobori said after the win at Rosebud. It was Goggin who presented the biggest challenge for the Kiwi for most of the final day, playing in the same group. Ultimately, the New Zealander led by a shot from Goggin when they reached the 18th tee, a shortish par four. Goggin hit a nice approach to 25 feet, pin high. Once Kabori dumped his second shot into the right greenside trap, it was game on. It came down to Kobori’s par putt, which was for the outright win. It rolled in dead centre. “I was very nervous as you probably saw,” Kobori said. “A few tips that my coach gave me just came back to me. I just took my time, and then the putt wasn’t difficult. It was dead straight. I had it there, and I knew it was going to drop. At Castle Hill, opening rounds of 6564 put him well and truly in the mix, before a 69 on Saturday and a 6-under par 66 in Sunday’s final round, for a 24-under par total, beat Jenny Shin by one, with the experienced Brendan Jones third. It capped off a remarkable few weeks and an amazing past 12 months, with Kobori winning the Australian Amateur, the World Amateur representing New Zealand, the Australian tour school, and now three tournaments as a pro. He only joined the pay for play ranks in November last year, with each of the three wins netting him $45,000. His maiden win came at the Webex Players’ Series Murray River at Cobram Barooga. Emigrating from Japan to New Zealand as an infant, he followed his elder sister, Momoka, into professional golf. Fittingly she was at Rosebud to greet him with a hug soon after the last putt dropped. Coletta caps off comeback with Vic Open win IT’S fair to say the one-time outstanding junior golfer, Brett Coletta, came home from the US a few years ago with his tail between his legs. He was a golfer without portfolio and literally had nowhere to tee it up. Playing on the Korn Ferry Tour, he had missed gaining a card on the PGA Tour by a whisker, only to be forced out of qualifying for the big dance by Covid. “I got Covid during qualifying school when it was really ramping up so I had to pull out. I didn’t have a category. So, I literally didn’t have anywhere to play.” Coletta was reflecting on his rollercoaster ride in the game not long after his imperious final round 65 vaulted him to the top of the leader board and victory in the Vic Open at 13th Beach on the Bellarine Peninsula. “It was pretty rough coming home from the States after getting so close. I re-evaluated my team and just started from square one again. I was lucky enough back in Australia for a few guys like Geoff Ogilvy to give me a few starts. If I go back to that time, it is a really big jump to where I am now. “I look back on the hard times and see it as experience rather than having any negatives towards it. I see it as, ‘yeah I played well in the States and got close, but at the end of the day it wasn’t for me’.’ Currently third with two events remaining, the win has put Coletta in a great spot to finish top three on the local order of merit and win a card on the DP World Tour for 2024-25. “I’m trying not to hyper-fixate on it too much,” he said. If he can finish first, he also gets his first-ever major championship start at the Open Championship this July at Royal Troon. “I feel like I’m a different person (from when he had nowhere to play), for sure,” he said. “I’m 27 now. I was only 23 at the time (when he played so well on the KFT). Definitely some sort of maturing goes on and Covid exacerbates that as well. I was stuck over there, I couldn’t get back, it was just a brutal time.” IN THE WOMEN’S VIC OPEN, Malaysia’s Ashley Lau added a huge win to her already impressive Australian summer at the 2024 Vic Open, preventing former world No.1 Jiyai Shin from becoming the first woman to successfully defend the title. In tremendous form after a second and an eighth in the previous two Webex Players Series events, Lau claimed victory when she produced the low final round of 66 which included seven birdies. “I came down here just to prepare for the upcoming Epson Tour. This is a big confidence boost. Australia holds such a special place in my heart,” she said with two arms around the Vic Open trophy. Kiwi rookie Kobori a three-time champ SMILING: After three wins in his first 10 starts as a pro, Kazuma Kobori has every reason to be pleased with himself. Michael Davis michael.davis@insidegolf.com.au COMEBACK COMPLETE: Following his win in the Vic Open, Brett Coletta is now in the box seat to claim one of three DP World Tour cards. For any stockists interested please contact State Manager Dean Woods: dean_woods@debortoli.com.au 0438 089 775 | 07 3287 2500 on the De Bortoli Online Shop (Excludes Gift Vouchers) Enter discount code “insidegolf” at checkout. 10% DISCOUNT Scan here to receive a De Bortoli is a proud partner of GMA
March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au PRO NEWS 10 Steven Alker – a Kiwi star on the PGA Tour Champions STEVEN Alker joined the PGA Tour Champions two and half years ago following a modest PGA Tour career. And he’s been on a roll ever since. The 52-yearold Kiwi now has eight PGA Tour Champions titles (as of press time), performed strongly in the inaugural World Champions Cup in December against major stars like Bernhard Langer and Steve Stricker, then won the 2024 season opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. Alker sat down with IG shortly before his Mitsubishi win in Hawaii. You won twice in 2023, what are your goals for this season? Yeah, I think it’s just a matter of staying hungry and trying to chase those victories. Sometimes you just don’t know when they’re going to come. You feel like your game’s coming around and you’re in a really good place like I was a few times in 2023 and you don’t get wins. I got a lot of second place finishes last season. I think you’ve just got to stay patient, you’ve got to keep plodding away, and just keep focusing on putting yourself in a position to win, and if you do that enough times I feel like the wins are going to come. I’ve just got to keep working on the things that are going well for me, on and off the golf course as far as golf and fitness and I think the small improvements and small gains here and there-that’s what I like. The small things makes a big difference in the end. Certain times of the year, like at major championships, those small things will come into play and work themselves out. How do you improve in those small areas? When I go back to 2022, looking at my stats... everything is top 5. That was a really good year and I look at it as a benchmark (4 wins). Hopefully I can get above that benchmark. In 2023, my wedge game wasn’t quite as good-but my length had come in handy. With length, it’s all about maintaining. A mile an hour here and there. The key is that right now I know I’m long enough to compete out here. As I get older if I can maintain that distance, that’s what’s important. By Garrett Johnston Speaking of maintaining, Bernhard Langer has done a great job of it. What have you learned from him? Whenever we’re playing together it’s hard not to watch Bernhard play. Sometimes I’ll catch myself watching him too closely and then I go ‘come on’, we’ve got to focus on our own game now.’ If he’s not playing well, he puts the time in. Even when he’s playing well, he’s still working on his putting and short game all the time. And he’s always working on his fitness. He was there at the end to congratulate me when I won the Schwab Cup in 2022. Ernie was there as well. These guys are Hall of Famers. It’s not until after you have a great year that you sit down and realise how good it was, and have those guys congratulate you that you realise it was extra special. You were the leading point-earner for Team International at the inaugural World Champions Cup in December. What was that experience like for you? Everyone on the team made my wife and I feel welcome and encouraged us. It’s nerve wracking in those team events. To have that first tee memories with the guys and leading the team out, that’s what was extra special for me. Ernie told me on Saturday night “I’m sending you out first in Sunday singles, let’s put some points up on the board early.” I thought, ok, I better get it done. You then took down the PGA Tour Champions player of the year Steve Stricker It did feel good. You want to win your sessions. To beat Stricker was great. To have a team event be so close and to have it come down to the last hole was amazing. To put points on the board first and let the guys behind me see that, was a heck of a lot of fun. You were a journeyman for decades, now you’re winning at a high rate against major champions, what do you chalk up your success to? You can’t zero it down to one thing. A major contributing factor was I’ve kept my game in shape and I kept playing, and my body was in good shape. And I think the biggest thing was being inspired and wanting to play on the PGA Tour Champions and having a second chance. It’s a chance to do it properly, try and make something of this career. As long as I grinded on the Korn Ferry and only played three years on the PGA Tour, and played the European tour-all of that grinding that got me to this position, I just thought ‘well come on, this is another chance.’ I really, really wanted to come out and do well and compete with these Champions Tour guys. Has there been a moment of validation out here for you amongst the superstars like Fred Couples? I think ultimately it was that first win. When I first came out I Monday-qualified. I kept top ‘tening’, and just kept playing my way in. That first win at TimberTech proved to me that maybe I belong out here. It sounds cocky and I don’t like to sound that way. Then I got 2nd to Mickelson in the Schwab Cup Championship and that just kind of fueled 2022 (4 wins). You never know what you’re going to come out with in that first full year. I started in Hawaii on a course I hadn’t seen. To come out and lose in a playoff to Miguel Angel Jimenez told me I felt validated and that I got a comfort factor, hopefully earned respect and then it snowballed that year. A year ago, you lost your caddie Sam Workman to cancer, what did he mean? We built this relationship going from the bottom of the bottom. From struggling on the Korn Ferry, missing cuts to getting on the Champions Tour and winning majors. Alker opens 2024 with a win in Hawaii FOLLOWING his interview with Inside Golf’s Garrett Johnston, Steven Alker continued on his winning ways with a victory at the PGA Tour’s season opening event in Hawaii. Alker totaled a tournament-record equaling 25-under par, a score which included a last day 63 a round in which the Kiwi hit all 18 greens in regulation. It was his eighth PGA Tour Champions victory. Then winning the Schwab Cup. We went from lows to highs. It was special times for both of us. His passing was so sudden. We got to know his family and still stay in touch. That was a tough couple of months. He was a great man. Your son Ben caddied last year for one week at the Insperity Invitational and you won. How did that feel? I don’t even know how that came together (laughs). I think my wife Tanya put us together that week. I always thought it would be nice for my son to caddie for me in an event and I think he had an off week from school. I just thought, ‘well why not? Let’s give it a shot.’ Ben had no golf experience at all, but he had a great attitude. I just taught him the simple stuff like just getting a yardage book and he kept up. I chose the clubs and it was just a great experience. It was an amazing father/son time. We had so many friends out there and winning that championship having my son on the bag, you can’t really ask much more than that, it was extra special. Steven Alker, a winner on the PGA Tour Champions at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii. Alker has taken his game to a new level since joining the over-50’s tour.
March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au PRO NEWS 12 Grace embraces the golfing spotlight ON a practice fairway at the idyllic Kapalua Resort in Maui, Grace Kim is hard at work. But this is not a usual day for the young Australian who has been on a rapid rise in women’s golf over the past 18 months, winning on the LPGA Tour for the first time and jumping well inside the top 100 on the world rankings. Instead of honing her skills by hitting dozens, or even hundreds, of practice balls, our country’s latest first-time winner on one of the major tours has transformed from Grace the golfer to Grace the golf model, facing the cameras on a huge content day for her partner adidas. A full round of golf is not even on the schedule for this trip. In a show of her growing status in the game, the global sportswear company has chosen the self-confessed “westie” from Sydney as one of the faces for the reveal of the latest iteration of its TOUR360 golf shoes. On this trip to Hawaii, unlike her last when she had a breakthrough win as an LPGA Tour rookie at the Lotte Championship last April, Kim is sharing the spotlight with a couple of male superstars of the game, Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Aberg. “This is part of professional golf that the fans don’t often see and it’s actually something I love to do,” the 23-year-old Kim said. “I don’t often get the chance to get pampered. It’s cool to be the star of the show and having people doing your hair and your make-up. “To be here in Hawaii doing this, with people like Collin and Ludvig, is unbelievable and a real privilege.” Paul Munnings Golf Australia The president of adidas golf, Jeff Leinhart, is as equally impressed with what the former Australian Amateur champion brings off the course as her on-course talents, describing Kim as a “true pro” in the way she approaches everything about the game. The company has partnered with Kim since she turned professional. “One of the things we look for in our athletes is not just how they’re doing on the course, which is obviously extremely important, but what they’re like when they’re away from playing the game,” he said. “She’s the type of person we want to be associated with.” Hitting practice balls and working on her golf game returned soon enough for Kim after her brief Maui sojourn. She has her goals set for 2024 and one she knows will take plenty of good golf to achieve is making the Australian team for the Olympic Games in Paris. Minjee Lee and Hannah Green, the 2020 Olympians, are currently locked into the two spots on the women’s team, determined by positions on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, and have a sizeable gap on their challengers. Ranked fifth in mid-February, Lee is a clearcut Australian No.1, while Green (No.28) will need to hold off a chasing pack headed by two of the game’s rising stars in Kim (No.74) and Steph Kyriacou (No.75). “It’s on my mind,” Kim said of earning a trip to Paris. “Getting the chance to represent Australia at the Olympics would be a huge opportunity and a huge honour, But I’ve got a lot to do in the next few months to have a chance of making the team. “Hopefully I can get a few good results, one big result would definitely help.” And that’s the connection to another goal - backing up her rookie season victory with more good golf, contending more often and hopefully making it win No.2 on the LPGA Tour. “Knowing that I’ve done it once before, just the thought of ‘I know I can do it again’ is at the back of my mind, whether it’s a major or a regular LPGA tournament,” she said. “Definitely, the expectations have risen. I at least want to give it my all every week. “I’m not a beginner now, I’ve done it before and know what it’s like to be on Tour for the whole season. I know what to expect, the courses we’re playing on. Hopefully I can do a better job performance-wise this year. “Winning or not, as long as you’re better than the previous year, I’d say that’s being successful,” Lee added. *The writer was a guest of adidas in Hawaii. As a face for the adidas brand, Kim was joined in Hawaii by Swedish young gun Ludvig Aberg. Grace Kim fronted the cameras in launching the new adidas golf shoes. tee-off in africa 2024 • Kruger National Park Game Drive • Leopard Creek Golf Course • Cape Town City & Table Mountain Tour • Seal island cruise, Chapmans Peak • Pearl Valley Golf Course • Cape Winelands • Arabella Golf Course • Outeniqua Golf Course • Pinnacle Point Golf Course • Links Golf Course • Pezula Golf Course • Private Transfers ... And much much more!!! 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March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au PRO NEWS 14 ‘President’ Shane living the dream in the ‘White House’ HIS peers on the Legends Tour call him the ‘President’ and his home the ‘White House’. Meet Shane O’Brien, a senior PGA Tour of Australia touring professional who travels around the country in his double-decker bus that has all the creature comforts – bedrooms, kitchen, dining and lounge area, bathroom, office and plenty of storage space. And the bus has a fully-powered solar system. “The bus is my principal residence and I move around depending on where the tour is being played,” the 59-year-old told Inside Golf. “If you are going to play the Legends Tour fulltime there is no better way to do it. I go from town-to-town and most golf clubs are very supportive and allow me to park in their carpark.” Mind you, there was one carpark issue that caused a stir, but I’ll come to that later. When O’Brien arrived on tour almost a decade ago fellow pros were quick to give him the moniker ‘President’ and call his bus the ‘White House’. “Some of the boys laughingly call it the White House on wheels because it’s white and so they refer to me as the President,” the former David Newbery david@insidegolf.com.au golf operations manager at Casino Golf Club explained. “Playing the Legends Tour is great fun. I get to hang out with legends like Peter Senior, Mike Harwood, Peter Fowler – all the guys that influenced golf in Australia in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. “These guys had a massive influence on the shape of golf in Australia and it’s great to have dinner and rumble with them. “The Legends Tour rekindled my interest in playing again after I took an extended break and I’m having a ball.” O’Brien says his playing highlight, so far, was winning the Legends Tour’s Claremont pro-am in Tasmania a few years ago and he remains the event’s defending champion. “We haven’t played that event since,” he laughed. A knee injury has curtailed the number of events O’Brien plays these days, but when he was playing the tour full-time, he was averaging 30,000 to 40,000 kilometres per year and spent more than 200 days on the road. “The bus really only costs me money when it moves,” he said. “Fuel is my major cost. If you go away for two weeks you might spend $1200-$1400 on fuel, but two weeks’ accommodation along with everything else you end up paying more.” Along with the good times, O’Brien has had the odd mishap like getting bogged, having a trailer detach from the bus on the highway and the engine seize costing him $20,000 to rebuild. “If you ask the boys what their memory of the ‘White House’ is, they would say it was blocking the carpark at Moonah Links so people couldn’t get in,” O’Brien said sheepishly. Still, he finds driving long distances therapeutic, that is until “some idiot cuts me off and I have to hit the brakes”. “I have been all the way up to Cairns and Port Douglas and I’ve been down to South Australia and from Adelaide up through the centre of Australia to Alice Springs and on to Darwin. I’ve done the run across the Northern Territory to Darwin three times. “I have covered most of the east coast, but not Western Australia. That’s something I’m planning to do. “It’s so much fun driving around going from place-to-place,” he added. “Part of the charm of having your own accommodation on wheels is that where in the past you’d race past places and haven’t had time to smell the roses. “I now pull into some remote spots up the east coast. I have seen some beautiful places that I wouldn’t normally have stopped at. “You find a spot and camp near the beach, have dinner and enjoy the view. “I’m living the dream.” If a man’s home is his castle, then Shane’s abode is his palace. Shane O’Brien’s ‘White House’ with all the creature comforts. ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Shane O’Brien (right) with fellow Legends Tour players (l to r) Bryan Milligan, Denis Brosnan and David Hill at St Clair in New Zealand. AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST PRO SHOP NETWORK scan the code or visit oncoursegolf.com.au Find local lessons and the latest gear. Over 70 Pro Shops in one online space.
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March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au PRO NEWS 16 Cromer returns to the tournament scene THERE are fewer prouder clubs in Sydney than Cromer on Sydney’s northern beaches. So it was a watershed moment when the club returned to the tournament spotlight late in 2023 by hosting the BMW NSW Senior PGA Championship, an important event on the Legends Tour. It was the first time in many years that Cromer had hosted such a prestigious tournament and the course was pristine with the event taking place just after their club championships. Cromer’s team quickly swung into action to prepare for the task of providing a challenging course for 60 senior professional golfers and smoothly deliver a memorable event for sponsors, guests, visiting players and members. Col Crawford BMW, the naming rights sponsor, showcased a range of electric vehicles on-course and the 20 additional sponsors also activated their tees to create an impressive tournament atmosphere. Early preparations had been underway for some weeks to finalise course projects, gradual preparation of greens, testing and refreshing bunker conditions, and cleaning up vegetation waste. The course was closed for play the the Sunday before the event to Michael Court michael@insidegolf.com.au allow the final preparations to be completed: penultimate cutting of greens, final cutting of the fairways, a complete mowing of the rough, blowing and vacuuming leaf debris, final grooming of bunkers, filling sand boxes, checking course markings, placing tee markers and erecting sponsor banners and marketing collateral. The course team was supplemented by course volunteers, and they were all still working hard as preliminary event activities commenced in the late Sunday afternoon. Pro-am event activities kicked off in earnest on Sunday around 4pm with a ‘shoot-out’ on the eighth hole. Around a dozen of the club’s juniors opened proceedings with a 70-metre challenge to a tricky mid-green hole location - one shot each and nearest to the hole wins a golf bag. This was followed by the professionals, who played to the same pin from around 100m and a tighter angle from the left side of the fairway. About 30 players tried their hand with varying degrees of success. After an entertaining contest in front a large gallery in the clubhouse, on the balcony and in front of the pro shop, the cheque went to Mark Gilson with a great shot to around 1.5m. After the shootout, the event sponsors and players were entertained in the clubhouse with paella, canapes and snacks, live music and a welcome by club president, Sonia Adams, to formally open the event. All was in readiness for the first round of play the following day. The professionals played two rounds of stroke on the Monday and Tuesday. Each professional was accompanied by three amateurs and together they played a team stableford (two best scores counted) in a shotgun start on each of the mornings and afternoons. Altogether over the two days 424 players teed up and after each round they enjoyed an excellent threecourse lunch (or dinner for the afternoon fields). With the greens firm and running over 12 on the stimp, the 60 professionals in the field found Cromer a handful. On the Monday only six players bettered par with Scott Barr leading with a four-under round of 66, one stroke ahead of Perry Parker. The Tuesday dawned overcast and an unexpected downpour at 6:30am flooded the greens forcing a one-hour delay to the start of the morning round. This created some logistical issues for the transition between morning and afternoon shotgun starts, but the club and volunteer teams swung into action to efficiently handle the challenge. The going for golfers was tougher on the Tuesday with only four players WORTHY WINNER: Andre Stolz took home the winners’ cheque from the NSW Senior PGA Championship to cap Cromer Golf Club’s return to the tournament scene. under par, all on one-under, and seven players on even par. Despite an untimely double-bogey on his second last hole, former US Tour winner Andre Stolz shot a 69 to back up his 70 on Monday to finish on a total of 139, one-under par, and take the winner’s cheque, one stroke ahead of Barr, the round one leader. Feedback on the event from the professionals and the PGA was positive and the success of the event was a credit to the Cromer club supported by the many member volunteers before and during the event.
March 2024 www.insidegolf.com.au PRO NEWS 17 Mikayla dares to dream about a pro career WHEN Mikayla Dahl was just 14 and playing in a charity event on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she went within a few centimetres of winning a new car, her tee shot coming up marginally short on a hole that offered a prize of a $61,000 BMW 2 Series coupe for a hole-in-one. Mikayla was probably a tad disappointed for a moment, before brushing aside the near miss and getting on with her round. But the incident would have given her a glimpse of the riches that golf can deliver to the game’s very best players. Almost from the moment Mikayla took her first tentative swing of a golf club with her dad Steve seven years ago at Pine Rivers, on Brisbane’s north side, she’s dared to dream about becoming a golf professional. Her game improved rapidly, and last year she stamped herself as a junior of rare potential when she won the Northern Territory Open at Darwin, and the Graeme Miller Junior Masters on the Sunshine Coast. But it was her efforts in Tasmania in January that elevated Mikayla from being just another promising youngster to a junior golfer of the highest calibre. In the space of just a few days, she won two 72-hole tournaments – the Tasmanian Junior Amateur at Claremont and the Tasmanian Junior Masters at Tasmania Golf Club. By Peter Owen Bosio shines at Castle Hill Webex JUSTICE Bosio, the friend and rival of young gun Mikayla Dyal, provided another example of her enormous potential with an eye-catching performance at the Webex Players Series event played at Castle Hill in Sydney’s northwest. Bosio shot a 15-under par four-round total, good for a tie for 13th in the tournament which matches male and female professionals and elite amateurs. Returning four rounds in the 60’s around the par 72 Castle Hill course, Bosio was the second-best women’s performer, behind just professional Jenny Shin who was second to eventual winner Kazuma Kobori. The 20-year-old from Caboolture Golf Club on the Queensland Sunshine Coast won the Keperra Bowl and South Australian Amateur titles late in 2023 and was recently fifth at the Australian Women’s Amateur Championship. In the Tasmanian Junior Amateur she had rounds of 70, 72, 68 and 71 for a 72-hole total of seven-under-par 281 for a five-stroke victory. That same week she shot scores of 77, 74, 70 and 77 for a 10-stroke romp in the Tassie Junior Masters. On both occasions the unfortunate runnerup was fellow Queenslander Ionna Muir, who has been battling it out with Mikayla in junior tournaments for years. Not only did Mikayla show her remarkable skill in Tasmania’s top two junior events, but also her focus and stamina. Both events were played over just two days, meaning Mikayla and her fellow competitors were required to play eight rounds of golf over just four days. “It was certainly the best golf I’ve ever played,” said Mikayla, who is still just 16. She gives credit for her improvement to coach Richard Woodhouse, who she says has instilled into her the need to consistently hit fairways and greens. “We’ve been doing different drills and it seems to be working,” she said. Woodhouse coaches Justice Bosio, Australia’s top-ranked female amateur and Mikayla’s close friend and role model. Both are members of Caboolture Golf Club, though Mikayla also holds memberships at Keperra and Nudgee. Bosio has announced plans to turn professional by year’s end, and Mikayla is hoping she can follow in her footsteps – her goal becoming so much more realistic after her exploits in Tasmania. She plans to play as many junior events this year as she can, perhaps focusing on the Glasshouse Mountains Junior Tour, where Bosio honed her game for several years. Mikayla hopes to compete in this year’s Australian Open and is keen to get a start in the Master of the Amateurs, an event to which she had to turn down an invitation this year because she was committed to the South Australian Junior Masters. She’s also looking forward to contesting the Australian Junior Amateur at Gosnells Golf Club, near Perth, in April. “Western Australia is the only state where I haven’t played,” she said. Justice Bosio turned in an outstanding performance at the Webex Players Series event at Castle Hill. Mikayla Dyal shows the style that has made her a champion junior. https://www.parmaker.com
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