NOW OPEN TO GUEST GOLFERS FREE R699 PP* NATIONAL GOLF PUBLICATION NOVEMBER 2019 FIND OUT MORE INSIDE! CHECK-UP FROM THE NECK UP THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR Here are a few practical tips to remain in the slower, take a slower practice swing etc. peaceful warrior zone without swinging to Next time you watch a golf tournament, try to emotional extremes: • Stretch. When you’re tense and stressed, spot the players who demonstrate the best your muscles tend to contract and become less temperaments through all the ups and downs IF YOU ARE TOO LAID-BACK OR INDIFFERENT: oxygenated. By stretching, you’re easing blood of their rounds. You will notice that they are and oxygen back into the muscles, which gives decidedly assertive on the one hand, and • Set mini challenges or goals for yourself. Take you a sense of relief and well-being. Shaking your simultaneously calm and composed on the playful side-bets for the next few holes with your hands and arms also helps. Sam Snead once said, other - never overly aggressive on the one hand caddy or playing partner. This re-focuses you on “When I’m stressed or over-anxious, I shake my nor sloppy or slack on the other. Top performers the here and now, and creates some new energy hands and become as loose as a goose.” maintain an exquisite balance between a fighting for the job at hand. spirit and a serene demeanour. Cesar Millan, the Whether your emotional energy is too low or too famous dog whisperer called it “Calm Assertive.” • Walk faster, shoulders back and chin up. The high, one of the best ways to bring it back to the This is also the best bearing to have during a simple act of physically walking faster and more zone of performance is to concentrate with full round of golf. Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, assertively will tell your mind that you mean attention on the task at hand. The best overall Lexi Thompson and the current LPGA world no. 1, business. strategy is to become TASK-FOCUSED. Both South Korean Jin Young Ko, are prime examples extremes of over-excitement and sloppiness take of calm assertive players. • Pump your fists, or brace your forearms. By away your ability to reason and think logically and getting blood into your hands and more energy systematically. They are self-centered states, not There is a long-standing and often-proven law flow into your arm muscles will energise you to a task-centered, and one of the best antidotes is to in sport science, called the Yerkes-Dodson law, higher level of arousal. become absorbed in the next shot with a step-by named after its two developers. It states that step pre-shot procedure. Sticking to a systematic there is a direct relationship between emotional IF YOU’RE TOO EXCITED OR OVER-STRESSED: and step-by-step routine, where your focus is or physiological arousal and performance. on the job of “where” (my target) and “how” (my Performance increases with increased arousal • Learn how to breathe properly. Tom Watson said ideal move), will bring you into the zone of calm- or emotional intensity, but only up to a point. “When I learned how to breathe, I learned how to assertive, peaceful warrior, and the ideal state When levels of arousal become too high and you win.” Two recent studies from Leiden University that makes peak performance possible. become over-excited or stressed, performance in 2018 and Brussels University in 2019 show decreases. On the other hand, if you are too laid that a breathing cycle of 4 counts in through the back or lackadaisical, lacking enthusiasm and nose and 8 counts out through pierced lips has an - DR DEON VAN ZYL determination, your performance levels will also immediate effect on the vagus nerve which helps [email protected] be inadequate. Ideally, you need to place yourself with mental calmness and physical relaxation. right in the middle between the two extremes, and Clinical Psychologist and former Associate Professor your performance will be at its peak. • Do everything in slow motion This is another at the University of Pretoria. He’s been working in the one of the great Tom Watson’s best tips for when field of Golf Psychology since the early 1980’s, and you’re over-stressed. Walk slower, tee the ball up assisted many of our top golfers and teams. 2 3 Top professionals returning to Leopard Creek ALFRED DUNHILL The magnificent Leopard Creek Country Club will once again welcome the finest professionals from the Sunshine Tour and European Tour for the 2019 Alfred Dunhill Championship from 28 November to 1 December. CHAMPIONSHIP The Alfred Dunhill Championship, co-sanctioned by both the Sunshine Tour and European Tour, will make for a thrilling finale to the South African golf year as it follows the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player as the final tournament played on South African fairways in 2019. And the prestigious tournament also tees off the European Tour’s new 2020 season. Since 2000 the Alfred Dunhill Championship has occupied a premier place in world golf with a list of past champions including Major winners and former world number ones in Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Charl Schwartzel and Ernie Els. G R A B A T E E Schwartzel holds the record for the most Alfred Dunhill Championship titles of four, while fellow South African D O W N S O U T H U P C O M I N G Branden Grace remains the only S O U T H B R O O M G O L F C L U B T O U R N A M E N T S player to have won both the Alfred Dunhill Championship and its partner tournament, the Alfred Dunhill Links F U L L M E M B E R S H I P I N C L U D I N G H A N D I C A P I n t e r n a t i o n a l Championship in Scotland. A F F I L I A T I O N R 5 2 5 0 S h o o t - o u t ( T e a m s o f 4 ) American David Lipsky won the V I R T U A L S O C I A L M E M B E R S H I P - H A N D I C A P C A R D 2018 Alfred Dunhill Championship R 1 3 6 0 , P L A Y M E M B E R S R A T E S O N A F R I D A Y A N D 1 5 & 1 6 F e b 2 0 2 0 — by two strokes on his debut in the S U N D A Y S a t B / B S t a b l e f o r d tournament, thereby claiming his & S u n d a y A l l i a n c e second European Tour title. This year the Alfred Dunhill Championship will also be following the lead of The Open Championship in radically reducing single-use L a d i e s C l a s s i c plastic at the tournament. A new 1 0 - 1 2 M a y 2 0 2 0 partnership with Bluewater, Refill Co and Consol, the first of its kind on the Sunshine Tour, will encourage fans M e n s C l a s s i c and golfers to purchase Alfred Dunhill 6 - 1 0 J u l y 2 0 2 0 Championship-branded glass bottles Sunday afternoon- Out Of Season- Kids play free , at the course, or bring their own reusable bottles, which they can refill parents joining play members rates free of charge at various points on the golf course. p l a y @ s o u t h b r o o m g o l f c l u b . c o . z a | 0 3 9 3 1 6 6 0 2 6 | w w w . s o u t h b r o o m g o l f c l u b . c o . z a 4 I have played over 160 courses across several countries, and the soil (and climate) variation has been great. I have played courses in areas of black clay soils (Rustenburg, Akasia, Standerton to name a few), where a layer of loamy red sand is often required for the fairways, so that enough grass cover can be maintained. I SOIL AND GOLF have played in Gambia, West Africa, where the hot dry conditions and sandy soils mean that players take along a plastic mat and the “greens” are actually “browns”, where sand is mixed with oil and swept for each player to chip and putt. I have played on small platteland courses where the soils have been so shallow that “placing” to find a patch of grass can be as much as a metre, and I have played on courses where (despite being an avid golfer), my thought has been that the soils have such high potential for agriculture that a golf course should never have been built there. What is the conclusion to all of this? Hopefully, the realization that soil is a precious resource that provides the basis for many aspects of our lives, including golf courses. We need to understand the soil variation and to take care of whatever soils we have.