Golf World October sampler

4 SIMPLE MOVES FOR LONGER DRIVESRYDER CUP STAR NICOLAS COLSAERTS REVEALS HIS POWER SECRETS

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PHIL MICKELSONEXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

RYDER CUP COUNTDOWN

> Why I'm the best man for the job> What I learned from Faldo & Ollie> How I'll make home advantage count

WE TALK TO TEAM CAPTAIN PAUL McGINLEY

“I had to reinvent my game to win The Open”

McILROY’S MISERY DUFNER’S JOY What’s really going on inside Rory’s world

Full round-up of the US PGA at Oak Hill

Why golf’s best player can’t win Majors any more

TIGER’S STRUGGLES

How extreme weighted putters

help you hole more

STROKE SAVERS

WALKER CUP COURSES YOU HAVE TO PLAY

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MICKELSON REINVENTED

Phil Mickelson spent the best part of two decades trying to figure out how to play links golf before realising that he needed to change his whole

approach. At Muirfield, he finally got it right, says Mark Cannizzaro.

layful but poignant, the text message came about a week after the dust had settled at Muirfield. “By the way,” it read, “I won the freaking British Open!’’ Phil Mickelson, the sender of the text,

still could not get his head around the fact that every morning when he woke up, a Claret Jug was sitting right there on his bedside table. “He sent me texts for three days after the Open had finished,” says Mickelson’s swing coach, Butch Harmon. “They said things like, ‘I don’t know if you heard, but I just won the British Open!’ I’ve known Phil a long time, and I’ve never seen him so giddy after a win.’’

Mickelson’s unbridled, boyish pleasure at being the Open Champion has been a joy to watch these past few weeks. So what if it was his fifth career Major? This one was very different to his 2004, 2006 and 2010 Masters victories and his 2005 US PGA Championship title. This was the Open Championship – the one Major that was outside his comfort zone of America, the one Major everyone said he could never win,

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C O V E R S T O R Y

October 2013 Golf World

the one Major that seemingly was impervious to his towering, spin-laden approaches, syrupy-smooth putting stroke and trademark flop shots.

“I’ve been looking at the Claret Jug when I wake up every day just to make sure that it wasn’t a dream,” says Mickelson, talking to Golf World in an exclusive one-on-one interview just three weeks after returning to California. “I love telling people and texting them. I love the fact that I’m part of the championship’s history, and that my name is on there. The British

Open has really meant a lot to me. I didn’t realise for so many years how important this Championship was to me. For years, I’ve ≥been saying it would be the greatest accomplishment of my career if I was able to

win it. You have to learn different styles of shots. You have to learn to play links golf, to play the ball low and without spin. To do all that is quite a commitment when we only play this form of

the game a couple of times a year.’’Much of Mickelson’s enthusiasm has stemmed

from the fact that his pursuit of the Claret Jug has been a long, occasionally exciting but mostly frustrating journey. In almost two decades’

worth of previous attempts prior to Muirfield, the Californian had only twice finished in the top 10 – at

Troon in 2004 when he was a shot shy of the Todd LEFT: Phil Mickelson poses with Claret Jug inside the

Muirfield clubhouse. RIGHT: Holing his birdie putt on 18.

PHIL’S SIX KEY POWER MOVESA huge shoulder coil, supported by great leg action and balance, are the keys to Phil’s prodigious hitting, says Luther Blacklock

When you have the flair, talent and courage of Phil Mickelson, you can live outside the protection of orthodoxy that lesser mortals require. Mickelson’s swing is now under the watchful eye of the world’s best coach, Claude ‘Butch’

Harmon. Harmon is, for me, the greatest living golf teacher because he knows how to impart discipline without suppressing flair. It is impossible to ride a bicycle without wobbling, yet we succeed in staying upright as we wobble in and out of balance. The golf swing is the same. It is impossible to swing mechanically perfectly. As we study Phil Mickelson’s technique over the next few pages, we can identify minor characteristics that could become faults in the average weekend warrior. The golf swing is about controlling imperfection and ‘Lefty’ is the world’s best at doing it.

PHIL MICKELSON SWING


2. MOVE AWAYWeight begins to load over a flexed left knee.

The excellent posture of the previous photo enables Mickelson to create massive width in his takeaway. Phil’s weight is obviously loading over his flexed left knee.

A very interesting characteristic of Phil’s swing is that, if anything, he has moved laterally to his left and his spine angle is leaning away from its address angle.

Despite this, however, the great width of his shoulder turn is creating a massive coil over a slightly flexed left knee.

Although the knee is permitted to move a touch, it should not lose its flex. Despite a hint of sway here, Phil has initiated the coil of his torso and hips to absolute perfection.

1. ADDRESSFolded left elbow gives the club room to swing.

Ninety per cent of swing faults start at address – and the other 10 per cent start at address, too! Everything about Phil Mickelson’s swing is foretold by his address position. The best thing to copy is the way that his left shoulder is positioned much lower than his right. “Level” shoulders at address invariably force the shoulders

open (left) to the target.Phil’s inclined shoulder line

is the doorway to his massive shoulder coil. Note also how his left elbow is folded gently downwards, thus offering no obstruction whatsoever in the takeaway. His stance is also slightly closed (aiming left for a left-hander) to the target. This is no bad thing at all with the driver in your hands.

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THE MAN WITH

THE PLAN To kickstart our new series celebrating the Ryder Cup’s rich and

storied history, we met up with Europe’s captain Paul McGinley to discuss his battle plan for retaining golf’s most coved team trophy.

COUNTDOWN TO GLENEAGLES

NEW SERIES

MY GAME : IRON PL AY

SWING KEY: KEEP THE CLUBFACE SQUARE THROUGH THE BALLOnce I’ve made the adjustments to my set-up, my key swing thought for the stinger is simply to keep the face stable and square as long as I can through impact and beyond. I do not want to feel the face turning over through this shot. I like to feel that I retain the kink in the back of my right wrist as the club moves through the ball. The last thing I want is a long, flowing release because that adds loft to the clubface.

SET-UP KEY: PLACE EXTRA PRESSURE ON FRONT THIGH TO CREATE A TIGHT AND COMPACT SWINGThe key to the low stinger is hitting the ball with a delofted face and a downward, squeezing angle of attack. I achieve that by making two adjustments to my technique. First, I like to feel some extra pressure in my lead thigh. This moves the low point of the swing a touch further forward and helps anchor the swing, keeping it tight and compact. I also play the ball a little further back in my stance than a normal long-iron.

How to add the ‘stinger’ to your arsenalWhen I was learning golf as a kid, I played a lot of field hockey. It’s a game where you have a restricted swing but have to hit the ball hard. I suspect that helped me develop the quick hands that allow me to hit the ball powerfully from that downswing late-hit position. It’s probably also why I enjoy hitting the so-called ‘stinger’ shot,

which keeps the ball low and out of the wind. Essentially, it’s the same action as a hockey slap – a powerful strike from a shortened swing. And because it involves a limited release of the clubhead, it’s a shot that can work well for both tight tee shots and second shots on long par 4s or par 5s. Here’s how it works.

59 Golf World October 2013

NICOLAS COLSAERTS

‘A full, flowing release adds loft to the shot, so focus on making an abbreviated followthrough to deloft the clubface’

1. Play the ball a little further back in your stance than usual2. Feel some extra tension in your left thigh at address 3. Keep the clubface stable and square through impact4. Restrict the length of your followthrough to deloft the clubface

Your ‘stinger’ checklist

LAST MAN STANDING

The course was too tight and the grass too wild, but Jason Dufner kept his nerve to take the 95th PGA Championship. John Huggan looks back on the highs and lows of Oak Hill.

Golf World October 2013

OAK HILL 2013SPECIAL 6-PAGE US PGA REVIEW


he Open Championship of 1913 was a very different beast to the 2013 version; not least because all players had to qualify over 36 holes. And John Henry Taylor very nearly never made it through to the

championship proper, scraping through by the skin of his teeth and a single shot. In his excellent book Golf: My Life’s Work he recalls: “Most of the competitors had finished the qualifying two rounds and playing the 36th hole, I remember asking George Duncan what the qualifying score was. It came as a great shock to me that a ‘5’ was necessary at the last hole to get in.

“The last hole is not a difficult four, a driver and a pitch over the cross bunker. Most probably it was nerves, but I failed to make proper contact with my approach, and my ball ended in the bunker. From here, I dug it into some rough stuff at the back, and scuffled it out to within a couple of yards. As I faced up to it I remember saying to myself, ‘Well, Taylor my lad, there’s only one place for this and that is the bottom of the hole’. And that’s where it went after a wobble on the rim!”

The weather had closed in, and it was horrific, with very high winds and torrential rain lashing the links. Taylor especially wanted to win at Hoylake. Brought up on Windmill Lane, Bideford, North Devon, he considered Hoylake to be his second home.

Born on March, 19, 1871, Taylor’s father Joshua died when he was barely out of the nursery. His mother took in strangers’ washing to earn a penny, and to her eternal shame was forced to accept charity from the local church known as ‘parish pay’.

Having learned to read and write, John Henry left school aged 11 to join

his elder brother – also named Joshua – as a labourer and caddie at nearby Westward Ho! Picking up the rudiments of the game by studying those he looped for, his rise from abject poverty to acceptance in the upper strata of English society was nothing short of miraculous.

“Taylor was not only a very fine golfer,” wrote Horace Hutchinson in Country Life. “He was also a very fine man and in some respects a very remarkable man.”

Indeed he was. Playing partner to two English Kings – Edward VIII and George VI – J.H. Taylor was instrumental in founding the British PGA in 1901. Yet despite achieving success as a professional golfer, author, course designer and club manufacturer, the ever-present working class chip never quite left his shoulder.

Thankfully golf – and especially championship golf – suited his combative nature. Beating Andrew Kirkaldy in a challenge match at Royal North Devon in 1891, the Scottish professional returned to St Andrews predicting great things for the 20-year-old Englishman. “You’ll see more of Taylor,” he gushed, “and then you’ll know why he beat me and why he will beat all the best of the day...”

Blessed with powerful forearms from years of hard labour, his “hands-and-arms” approach was anything but stylish. Rarely taking the club past shoulder level, Taylor

hit the ball low with “deadly intent” and was unerringly accurate with his iron play. Ideally suited to the windswept conditions found on links courses, it surprised nobody when he won his first Open by five strokes at Sandwich in 1894.

“From first to last there was only one likely winner,” wrote Hutchinson. “His driving was so marvellous… it was said the guide flags were his only hazards!”

The following year he retained his title by four shots over Alex Herd at St Andrews, so in Muirfield in 1896 he was the man to beat. On the cusp of ‘three in a row’, Taylor was unexpectedly edged out in a play-off by Harry Vardon.

J.H. TAYLOR’S FINEST HOUR In 1913, J.H. Taylor’s fifth Open Championship victory at Hoylake elevated him to legend-like status alongside Harry Vardon and James Braid and earned his status as one of the Great Triumvirate.

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RIGHT: Harry Vardon makes an acceptance speech after winning the 1914 Open at Prestwick. FAR RIGHT: J.H. Taylor poses for a studio portrait after his first Open victory at Sandwich in 1894.

J.H. TAYLOR


Black magicWilson Staff FG Tour M3 Irons

Designed with extensive input from the likes of Padraig Harrington and Paul Lawrie, Wilson Staff’s new FG Tour M3 irons have the look, feel and workability of a forged players’ iron, while still offering some forgiveness thanks to a progressive cavity design.

The sleek clubheads are finished in a matte black PVD and made from an 8620 carbon steel, with each iron offering a slightly different feel.

Throughout the set, less weight is located near the

top-line for a lower CG but, aside from this, the progressive cavity design means each head has its mass placed differently.

The long irons feature less weight behind the impact zone for increased ball speeds and more mass in the heel and toe areas for increased forgiveness in the harder-to-hit irons.

Meanwhile, the shorter irons feature more mass behind the impact zone and a uniform thickness across the face, which combine to increase consistency and strike feedback.Price: £599 (s), £699 (g)Web: wilsonstaff.com.

See GW next month for the rest of the M3 range, including Wilson Staff’s first ever adjustable driver, fairway wood and hybrid.


T H E G A L L E R Y

Flatstick selection1. Odyssey Tank

From the counterbalance school of design, the Tank features a 400g head giving the total club an MOI some 34 per cent higher than a standard putter. This creates more stability through impact and encourages your upper body to play a more active role in the putting stroke while reducing hand and wrist action at impact.Price: £130Web: odysseygolf.com

2. TaylorMade Spider Mallet

The Spider Mallet putter is the third instalment in the TaylorMade counterbalance family of putters.

Like the Daddy Long Legs and the Spider Blade, which Justin Rose used to claim the US Open, it has a high MOI head that resists twisting at impact for more accurate and more consistent putts.Price: £159 Web: taylormadegolf.eu

3. Cleveland Classic Collection HB 7

Offering exceptional performance at an exceptional value, Cleveland’s 2013 putter range may very well make as many headlines as its trademark wedges. The new range combines traditional design with a softer, more responsive feel that enhances distance control from long range.Price: £99.99Web: clevelandgolf.com

Heel-Toe weighting maximises the MOI on the Cleveland Classic Collection HB 7 range.

A high MOI head means the putter’s face is less likely to twist, leading to straighter and more consistent putts. Traditionally, to achieve a high MOI head you needed a mallet design with a lot of perimeter weighting, but modern counterbalanced designs encourage mallet

performance with blade-like feel.This effect is achieved by

making the compact heads heavier, rather than deeper or wider. This can be seen in Odyssey’s Tank putters, where the long options have a total weight that is 32% heavier, resulting in an MOI that is 109%

higher than a standard putter.However, simply adding head

weight would reduce feedback. To tackle this, TaylorMade, for example, have balanced the total weight by putting 358g in the head, 122g in the shaft and 130g in the grip, making the club feel stable rather than bottom heavy.

Heavy heads won’t be for everyone though, and so Cleveland’s more traditional range will still have its place. The blades gain their MOI from heel-toe weighting, while a deeper, rougher milling process provides longer face contact with the ball to increase strike feedback.

HOW IT WORKS

1 2 3

Set sternum two inches ahead of the

ball to tilt your spine towards the target.

Maintain your height as you swing

your arms down through impact.

Swing your arms up into your backswing, keeping your lower body fairly passive.

Finish fully onto your right toe with your right shoulder outside your left.

M I D - H A N D I C A P L E S S O N

While many golfers can successfully escape from fairway bunkers, judging distance accurately and hitting the ball the full distance you require is a different

matter altogether. This is a low margin for error shot since, if you catch the ball even slightly heavy, the resistance of the sand can dramatically reduce the speed of a

fast-moving clubhead through impact, taking many yards off your shot. Here are two ways of ensuring that you hit these tricky shots nice and cleanly.

Two ways to play fairway bunker shots

OPTION 1 THE TRADITIONAL FAIRWAY BUNKER TECHNIQUEYour goal is to hit the ball as close as possible to the same yardage as you would from the fairway. Many amateurs try to help the ball up into air, often hanging back on their right side through impact. The key, however, is hitting down slightly through the ball. To achieve this, play the ball just forwards of centre in a square stance – this shot is all about ensuring the low point of your swing is just after the ball. With this shot, your strike needs to be very precise, so the emphasis is on clipping the ball neatly off the top of the sand. The more you try to push from the ground with your lower body to generate power, the more likely you are to lose height through impact and mis-hit the shot. Instead, swing more with your arms.


T H E R A N G E

OPTION 2 OPEN THE CLUBFACE ON A LESS-LOFTED CLUB When you can’t quite reach the green because you have to take a lofted iron to clear a lip, think about using a slightly less-lofted club and opening the face a little. This brings the bounce of the club into play and will help the clubhead skim through the sand. Play the ball forward in your stance, too. This will help you launch the ball higher. Finally, open your stance a little. These changes will help you hit the ball higher as well as further out of the sand.


Site of the first 12 Open Championships, Prestwick’s idiosyncratic layout offers a glimpse into how golf was played 100 years ago. Jock Howard tells the story.

Historical PrestwickT here are few more intimidating

places to stand than on the 1st tee at Prestwick Golf Club. A couple

of yards behind you, you can feel the gaze of the Secretary. The fairway is only just visible and seems impossibly narrow. Thick heather flanks the left side of the hole and, no matter how hard you try to ignore it, you cannot help but notice the Ayr-Glasgow railway line, running tight (very tight) all the way down the right side. A low, stone wall is very poor protection

indeed against a tight, nervy and sliced, first tee shot of the day.

Despite the obvious challenges, Bernard Darwin is said to have witnessed an eagle at this 346-yard par-4 opener by someone who managed to hit the railway line twice. The first shot rebounded into the middle of the fairway, and the second shot rebounded into the hole! The fact that Darwin never wrote about it may suggest it is more folklore than reality.

Darwin loved Prestwick, probably more

than any other course in the world. “A man is probably less likely to be contradicted in lauding Prestwick than in singing the praises of any other course in Christendom,” he wrote. “One might almost say that Prestwick has no enemies. To say of a human being that he has no enemies is almost to insinuate that he is just a little bit colourless and insipid, but those adjectives have certainly no application to Prestwick, which has a very decided character of its own.”

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Golf World October sampler