Table of contents for May 2026 - Issue 444 in Golf Australia

At DLF Golf and Country Club, beauty comes with a bite. Fairways thread between water and rock, greens sit perched and exposed, and anything slightly off line is quickly punished. Host of last month’s Hero Indian Open, won by England’s Alex Fitzpatrick, it offers no easing in; every shot demands precision from the outset. There is little room for error here. The terrain does the talking, turning even well-struck shots into uneasy waits as balls flirt with slopes, water and stone. It is less about chasing birdies and more about surviving a course that punishes anything less than exact.…

As he had done pretty much twice a week for the previous eight years, Vic Winter stepped up onto the tee of the par-3 sixth hole at Harrington Waters and surveyed the 141 metres between he and the pin. There was a time he’d have hit 7-iron. Today, though, he would pull out a hybrid. The man was nearly 97 years old, after all. He teed it up, stood over his canary-yellow Callaway Supersoft, and let rip. There was a pure strike, the launch was clean, and the ball tracked directly toward the flag. This was the last they saw of it, however. They knew it had landed on the green but after that, they couldn’t be sure. On the green, players, caddies and volunteers couldn’t find it. Winter’s caddie…

Nick Davis played 71 games for the Collingwood Magpies and 97 games for the Sydney Swans, before embarking on coaching gigs with the Swans and with NRL clubs the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Sydney Roosters, where he still works today teaching leaguies drop punts. In February of 2020, one month shy of his 40th birthday, Davis ran out for the Roosters in a Nines tournament in Perth. He even had a crack at punting in the NFL. Ask, however, which footy club Davis supports and the man is adamant: he supports no team. Because while there is no “i” in “team”, there are five in “individual brilliance”. And Davis has eyes only for one man. And that man is the grand slam man, the great man of Holywood, Northern Ireland, Rory…

For many amateur golfers, bunkers can feel like a hazard in every sense of the word – not just physically, but mentally. A single visit to the sand can unravel a scorecard and, more importantly, confidence. Bunker shots are unique in golf. They are one of the few shots where we are deliberately trying to strike the ground before the ball. That alone can feel counterintuitive, especially for players who have spent years trying to avoid hitting the ground first. A helpful visual to understand strike is this: imagine placing a second ball directly behind your actual ball. When you remove that imaginary ball, it leaves an imprint in the sand. Your task is to strike that imprint, just behind the real ball. If you do this consistently, the club…

As some readers will know, Tommy’s swing owes a lot to a practice drill that worked so well that he effectively adopted it on the course. Known as the Windmill drill, it involves swinging with straight arms – locking out the elbows, hands and wrists to allow pure core rotation to drive the movement. Of course Tommy’s swing is still a blend of arm swing and body rotation, but the shorter arm travel and dynamic body action he developed through the Windmill drill are very much in evidence in his connected, three-quarter backswing. Let’s take a closer look at how this helps him deliver his famous, consistently pure striking, and a technical change you can make to train a similar feel into your own swing. NO: TRAIL-ARM COLLAPSE In many…

We finish where we began – with a theme of contained arms moving around an aggressive core. We’ve already seen how this helps Tommy build a powerful and coordinated backswing, but his famous sawn-off finish shows those same principles are at work right to the end. As with the backswing, we can’t afford to let the arms run riot while the body stalls out; it ‘ll lead only to unstable, handsy releasing and inconsistency. Once again, those straighter arms encourage the core to contribute, and allow Tommy to retain the feeling of body/arms connection right to the finish. Here is a finish-related way to work on this more connected motion. SHORT… AND SWEET Take an 8-iron and see how far you can hit the ball without the club passing your…

As golf’s elite stage well and truly fires up overseas, it feels only right to pause and celebrate the epic summer of golf we’ve just witnessed here at home. When the PGA of Australia released its schedule last June, it promised a blockbuster season, but not even the game’s powerbrokers could have predicted just how thrilling the summer would turn out to be. Rory McIlroy’s appearance at the Australian Open was the kind of marquee moment that stops you in your tracks. His appearance, while now in the rearview mirror with another visit to come, still feels monumental; proof of the calibre of competition our shores can attract after all. However, that was only the beginning for our local game. The extraordinary LIV Adelaide tournament delivered a spectacle like few…

Long before he became a fixture at Brisbane’s Victoria Park, Jamie Brew was a Chartered Accountant at Ernst and Young. The transition from “Big Four” boardroom to a coaching bay might seem like a big leap, but for Brew, a PGA professional traineeship was the logical progression. Whether you are auditing a balance sheet or assessing a student’s setup, the goal is the same: identify fundamental flaws and build a structure that can withstand pressure. Now, with nearly 30 years’ experience as a PGA member, Brew brings that “professional’s eye” to every lesson. He understands that for a high-handicapper, the game is often a frustrating mystery of misses and mishits. His approach strips away the noise, focusing instead on “simple things done often”. From his early days as a trainee…

Let’s face it: we all wish we swung the golf club like Tommy Fleetwood. His action may lack the classic lines of a Tiger or the balletic drama of a Rory, but there is something in his compact, punchy motion that makes us feel we are witnessing pure golfing technique in action, the swing stripped down to its bare essentials. Immense power, soft draw, eerie consistency… it’s all there; and all from a guy measuring just 5ft 11in and weighing in at under 12 stone. So how does he do it? And what can we mere golfing mortals take from his action to fire more distance and control into our own games? TG Elite coach and YouTube star Chris Ryan is here to give you the answers. “Of course Tommy…

The transition is instrumental in setting up the downswing’s path, and Tommy exhibits two key change-of-direction traits that ensure he attacks the ball powerfully from inside the ball-target line – a path that in turn sets up a powerful draw shape. His moves contrast sharply with the typical amateur start down, which tends to throw the club outside the path to deliver an out-to-in, slicing impact. Addressing each of Tommy’s traits, here are two drills that will help you reverse that pattern… and find Tommy’s. DRILL 1: TRAIL ELBOW/TRAIL HIP This first exercise picks up where we left off in part two, with a backswing constructed around the feeling of a more extended trail arm. Tommy’s first move down sees his trail arm gain flex with the elbow working downwards,…

PING Scottsdale TEC (Tour Elevated Concepts) putters are designed and influenced by work with Tour players and research conducted by the innovation team in the PING Putting Lab. The striking new look sets the putters apart while introducing an exciting new alignment technology to help golfers sink more putts. The Scottsdale TEC putters were developed using a proven eye tracking technique known as Quiet Eye. This new alignment technology, called Eye-Q, provides a unique focal point on the top rail of Scottsdale TEC putters. Using this dot focal point and a long alignment line, players can ‘quiet’ their eyes before their stroke. The dot provides a clear, discrete anchor for the golfer’s gaze, making it easier to maintain a stable fixation right when they need it. This stability is critical…

It was with mixed emotions that this sometimes jaded, sometimes cynical viewer of all things golf took in the climax to the recent Players Championship. The closing holes on the TPC Sawgrass course, laden with water hazards (never “penalty areas”), necessarily reduce the margin of error by dint of the proximity enjoyed by the liquid refreshments and the ultimate targets. So things are always likely to happen. Bad things more than good, if history is to be our guide. The half-century or so of this “almost major” is littered with late disasters, balls disappearing below the surface at regular intervals. For the shallower thinkers among us – those who desire such “excitement” – there has always been plenty to be had. This time round, eventual champion Cameron Young was rightly…

At first glance, Tommy does not seem to have a truly orthodox set-up. Sure, the basics are there – great lines, perfect balance, hips over ankles, ideal distance from the ball – but his back and upper body are a lot more rounded than we tend to see in the text books, and even out on tour. The main learning we can take from this is that good posture can be a personal thing. Tommy’s rounded upper back at address is a natural position for him, possibly caused by being a tall kid for his age and hunching around his friends. But as we can see, it is no obstacle to playing great golf. In fact we could argue that it helps – and here’s why… THE PROBLEM WITH ‘CORRECT’…

Here we see Tommy in full flow, and one of the most striking things about this position is how low his trail shoulder is. Most top players demonstrate some shoulder tilt – lead shoulder higher, trail shoulder lower – as they swing through impact, But Tommy’s is lower than most. As we will see, this is a move that helps him deliver a rare blend of power and control. If you can create a little more tilt in your shoulders through the strike, you can give your own swing a welcome boost at just the right time. WHY A ‘LOW’ TRAIL SHOULDER IS A POWER MOVE To get to grips with why a lower trail shoulder through the strike is a desirable thing, set up to a ball with a…

Wilson Golf has upgraded its bag lineup with the addition of the 1914 Carry™ bag, engineered for golfers who demand performance and purpose without compromising style. Weighing just 5 lbs and crafted with premium weather-resistant PU leather, the 1914 Carry™ is lightweight yet exceptionally durable, delivering a refined look and unmatched versatility for any course and every condition. Thoughtfully designed for superior organisation and comfort, its plush microfiber-lined top with PU leather cushioning protects clubs while maintaining a clean, sophisticated aesthetic. A reinforced integrated top and durable carbon fibre legs ensure stability and long-lasting performance round after round. The 7.5” x 7.0” top offers premium organisation with a 4-way divider system that keeps clubs protected and perfectly arranged. Six strategically placed pockets, including intuitive storage options such as a magnetic…

The Chevron Championship will be run and won just a few days after this particular edition of this esteemed journal hits the shelves, but it still needed to be written. There is a case which is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore on the LPGA Tour: the continued rise of Australia’s female talent on the world’s premier circuit. Start at the top. Hannah Green, Minjee Lee and Grace Kim are shaping the conversation around this championship, which moves to a new venue in Memorial Park GC in Houston, Texas. Green has won her past three starts at the time of writing and will arrive at the Chevron as one of the most in-form players on the planet. Her tee-to-green consistency is turning strong performances into emphatic victories; as a fan, there…