AUGUST 2017 R38 OUTSIDE RSA: R33.33 (EXCL TAX) UNDER ARMOUR GOLF VOUCHER HOW TO PLAY / WHAT TO PLAY / WHERE TO PLAY CONTENTS 08 / 17 The SA Junior boys team finished eighth in the Junior Golf World Cup in Japan. From left, Christo Lamprecht, Luca Filippi, Garrick Higgo and Jayden Schaper. The SA girls team were sixth in their competition. COVER STORIES FEATURES 26 FITNESS PLAY YOUR BEST Are your bad habits costing you 36 RISK AND REWARD rounds of golf? 16 MR CONGENIALITY 7 TIME TO GO LOW Quail Hollow’s quick work goes The top-30 nice guys on the Score your best ever – whether it’s 28 EQUIPMENT on display for the 2017 US PGA PGA Tour. 59 or 79. By Justin Thomas The latest on single-length irons. Championship, and the 2021 27 WIN UNDER ARMOUR 10 BUTCH HARMON Presidents Cup. By Ron Whitten 30 STUFF GOLF VOUCHERS Try this to splash it out and land it close. TomTom’s new GPS watch. 62 SIGNS OF THE TIMES 32 BLACKOUT PUTTING 11 JACK NICKLAUS Autographs are worth billions 78 GALLERY How I seem to make everything. Strategy for tough openers. of dollars. By Curt Sampson South Africa’s most difficult courses. By Jordan Spieth 12 TOM WATSON 68 MUST PLAY COURSES 80 CLOSEOUT 42 ERNIE’S 100TH MAJOR Master the downhill putt. Our monthly feature has 7 courses What kind of golf hat should you wear? We look back as Ernie Els prepares you should play. for his 100th major in the PGA. 13 JIM MCLEAN By Stuart McLean Fairway woods off tight lies. THE GOLF LIFE 52 CONFIDENCE KILLS 14 ONE-SIDED ARGUMENT What if everything you’ve been Use your dominant arm to hammer 20 THE DIGEST the ball. By David Leadbetter Six passive-aggressive golf told to think is wrong? By Sam Weinman compliments. 48 YOUR PATH TO A BETTER 58 BIG-MUSCLE YOUR DRIVES SWING 22 UNDERCOVER TOUR PRO How to get the most out of your Focus on the direction you swing What we really talk about inside size for distance. By Belen Mozo the club. By Jorge Parada the ropes. With Max Adler 74 OLD SCHOOL CHIPPING 56 MAKE THE ONES THAT 24 THINK YOUNG PLAY HARD MATTER Oliver Bekker. This lost art will save you strokes. How to be a clutch putter. 20 By A J Avoli Are Trees Really 90% Air? By Rickie Fowler 2 / AUGUST 2017 / GOLFDIGEST.CO.ZA COVER PHOTO BY WALTER IOOSS JR AND THIS PAGE BY SALLY GREASLEY/GOLFRSA 23681TPumaMedia_Gol 2017-03-29T10:06:46+02:00 cents 23681T/E cents ninety9 IGNITE DISC The performance of your golf game starts from the ground up. Playing your way starts with a perfectly fi tted shoe to provide you maximum comfort and stability. PUMA’s DISC technology allows you to make micro-adjustments, providing a custom fi t and superior comfort. With premium leather and waterproof upper, IGNITE DISC shoe will keep your game strong all day long. Your feet will thank you and, ultimately, so will your score. #PLAYYOURWAY 08 / 17 Behind the Scenes EDITORIAL Editor Stuart McLean 021 417 5195 Contributing Editor Barry Havenga Head of Creative: Consumer Division Mark Serra Managing Editor: Health & Sport Division PUT THE PORTRUSH OPEN ON YOUR BUCKET LIST Chantel Kleinsmidt 021 417 5156 Designer Samantha Presence BY STUART MCLEAN, EDITOR Photographers Grant Leversha, Jamie Thom, Luke Walker olfers around the world aspire ings will be bulldozed flat to accommodate to attend one of the four the vast tented facilities the modern Open GOLF DIGEST USA Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde G majors. The Masters is usually requires. This drastic measure will secure Contributing Editor: International Ju Kuang Tan the favourite. But, getting a Royal Portrush’s permanent position on Rights Clearance - Contracts & Rights Monique Parish Director of Licensing Angie Byun badge for Augusta National is difficult, the Open rota. Tourism NI believes that Playing Editors Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, and if you’re lucky enough to obtain one, having an Open course will grow revenue Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Nick Price, it comes with a hefty price tag. from golf tourism from £32 million to Jordan Spieth, Justin Leonard, David Toms For anyone seeking to experience the £50 million by 2020. Having the Irish A licensing agreement between Advance special qualities of a major, a good one to Open at Portstewart, a links as dramatic in Publications Inc. and New Media Publishing attend would be the 148th Open Champi- appearance as Portrush, was the first step in onship at Royal Portrush GC in Northern showcasing golf on the Causeway Coast to ADVERTISING & MARKETING Ireland in 2019. It will be a rarity among a global audience. Portstewart did some Business Manager Diane Lubbe 083 391 1651 Senior Account Executive Elna Coetzer 082 971 9715 majors in that the Open is returning to bulldozing of their own to get this Advertising Co-ordinator Michelle Koetenberg this part of the UK for the first time in 68 European Tour event, flattening their old Advertising Designer Marcus Viljoen years. Since it was last there in 1951 (Bobby clubhouse, and building a new enormous SUBSCRIPTIONS & BACK COPIES Locke was the defending champion), the edifice. The NI government played its part Magsathome Contact Centre: majors have only been played in the US, by constructing new roads, and you can 36 Old Mill Street, Ndabeni, Cape Town , 7405 Scotland and England. now reach Portrush from Belfast in 90 Tel: 087 405 2004 Fax: 086 670 4101 The R&A have long observed a strict minutes. It’s three hours from Dublin. With Email: [email protected] rota of links courses for the Open – five in a train station at Portrush, big crowds can be Web: www.magsathome.co.za FOREIGN Subscriptions: +27 21 045 1809 Scotland and four in England – so there was expected at the Open. DIGITAL Subscriptions: MYSUBS really no need to add another. But Royal A visitor green fee at Royal Portrush is 0861 697 827 / mysubs.co.za Portrush is such a fabled championship R3 200 (£190), and the fourballs of PUBLISHING TEAM links that it didn’t take much persuading American and Japanese tourists roll out Managing Director Aileen Lamb for The R&A to reconsider the logistics of every day in summer. It’s a friendly club. Group Account Director: Health & Sport Division hosting an Open there, and then agree to it The starter informed me there had been Cat Anderson Production Manager Shirley Quinlan when their demands were met. The success 87 applications that day for caddies. The of Irish golfers Padraig Harrington, Darren club only has 60 caddies to call upon, so Clarke and Rory McIlroy in winning the nearly half were doing double shifts, claret jug must have influenced their morning and afternoon. It’s all feeding much-lauded decision. the local economy. McIlroy holds the Portrush course record, Royal Portrush will be an exciting addi- a remarkable 61 at age 16 in 2005, with a tion to the Open rota, because it is a visually Published by New Media Publishing (Pty) Ltd, back nine of 28, in the North of Ireland thrilling links at which to play and view New Media House, 19 Bree Street, Cape Town 8001 PO Box 440, Green Point, Cape Town 8051 Amateur. Portrush is a small seaside resort, golf. The rugged, undulating terrain is the Telephone: 021 417 1111 where golf has been an attraction for more challenge, so the course only has 62 bunkers, E-mail: [email protected] than a century, and I was fortunate to be fewer than any other links on the rota. The Web: www.newmediapub.co.za there on the eve of the recent Irish Open at two new holes at the far end of the course, Chief Financial Officer Mark Oaten nearby Portstewart. My visit coincided with Nos 7 and 8, have been built amidst giant Executive Directors Irna van Zyl, John Psillos Chief Executive Officer Bridget McCarney the opening of two spectacular new holes dunes on part of the neighbouring Valley on Royal Portrush’s Dunluce Links. One of Links. This is where Graeme McDowell Reproduction New Media Publishing the conditions of taking the Open back honed his golfing skills as a member of to NI was that the club had to agree to the Rathmore GC, a working man’s club. elimination of the two bland finishing holes, 17 and 18, which had served the club well for many decades. The old 16th is now the 18th; sadly you can’t see the green from the clubhouse. [email protected] These two holes and their surround- All rights reserved. Whereas precautions have been taken to ensure the accuracy of information, neither the editor, publisher nor New Media Publishing can be held liable for any inaccuracies, injury or damages that may arise. The opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect those of the publisher. 4 / AUGUST 2017 / GOLFDIGEST.CO.ZA “Keep your drive special.” Rickie Fowler We are proud to support Rickie Fowler and the 2017 PGA Championship. Dedicated to the #PerfectDrive. www.facebook.com/MercedesBenzGolf MB_AZ_Golf_PGA_210x275_Golf_Digest_SouthAfrica_ICv2_RZ.indd 1 21.06.17 17:27 SUBSCRIBE PRINT GOLF DIGEST MAGAZINE 30% R319 FOR OFF 12 ISSUES A discount of 30%. Pay once-off R319 or two six-monthly installments of R159.50. 4 WAYS TO 1 CALL 087 405 2004 3 SMS “GD” to 40573 2 EMAIL [email protected] 4 WEB www.golfdigest.co.za SUBSCRIBE or www.magsathome.co.za DIGITAL GOLF DIGEST DIGITAL 50% R228 FOR OFF 12 ISSUES R19 per issue - 50% off the cover price.