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Two of Australian golf’s most admired figures who have provided moments we will never forget; Adam Scott takes on Jarrod Lyle in match seven of Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
Wonderful ambassadors for both golf and their country, Adam Scott and Jarrod Lyle have endeared themselves to the Australian public in vastly different ways.
Scott, the progeny of a PGA Professional, has served as something of an aspirational figure.
Blessed with a swing that draws gasps from golfers and a face that has attracted Hollywood starlets, Scott has been a consistent presence near the top of the world rankings for the past 20 years.
His status in Aussie golf was cemented when he became the first player from this country to claim the coveted Green Jacket in winning the 2013 Masters and he has been hailed for the way he has supported the PGA Tour of Australasia during his time as one of Australia’s leading professionals.
A two-time winner of the Australian PGA Championship and winner of the 2009 Australian Open at New South Wales Golf Club, Scott turned professional in 2000 and from 2001 until 2014 enjoyed a tournament victory at least once every year.
Winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship in 2001 on the European Tour, Scott’s breakthrough in America came at the 2004 Players Championship where he made a spine-tingling up-and-down at the 72nd hole to win.
One of only three Australian males to rise to No.1 in the world rankings, Scott has amassed 14 wins on the PGA TOUR including two World Golf Championships events, his most recent win coming at the Genesis Invitational in February.
Lyle emerged in emotional fashion at the 2005 Heineken Classic, his story of fighting back from leukaemia to reach the pinnacle of world golf instantly endearing him to millions of golf fans throughout the world.
Lyle was the professional that Aussie golfers could relate to. Burly by nature but possessing a surgeon’s touch around the greens, Lyle wore his heart on his sleeve and golf fans responded by holding a special place for Lyle in theirs.
Although he missed joining Craig Parry and Nick O’Hern in the playoff at Royal Melbourne in 2005, Lyle was the story of that Heineken Classic, his two wins on the Nationwide Tour in 2008 propelling him to the PGA TOUR in 2009.
Lyle spent three years on the PGA TOUR full-time but shortly after finishing fourth at the 2012 Northern Trust Open he was diagnosed with a recurrence of the acute myeloid leukaemia that he had fought off as a teen.
Tears were shed both inside the ropes and out when he returned again to play in the 2013 Australian Masters but when the cancer returned for a third time in July 2017 the mountain he would be asked to climb was simply too steep, Lyle passing away in August 2018 at just 36 years of age.
Adam Scott
Career wins: 31
Major wins: 1 (2013 Masters)
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian PGA: Won (2013, 2019)
Australian Open: Won (2009)
Jarrod Lyle
Career wins: 2
Major wins: Nil
Best finish on Australasian Tour: T3 (2005 Heineken Classic)
Australian PGA: T16 (2006 and 2008)
Australian Open: T7 (2009)
One blazed a trail for the promotion of women’s sport; the other constructed an impressive career largely out of the limelight. Jan Stephenson and Randall Vines have been drawn against each other in match six of Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
Jan Stephenson’s elevation into the World Golf Hall of Fame last year was the punctuation mark the Aussie icon needed on her playing career.
A product of Newcastle north of Sydney, Stephenson was a dominant force within the junior ranks and soon started pitting her skills against professionals with far greater experience.
Her athleticism and aggressive way of playing marked her as something out of the ordinary and in her first year as a professional claimed the 1973 Wills Australian Ladies Open.
She joined the LPGA Tour the following year and her 16 career wins still sees her ranked 35th for all-time wins on the LPGA Tour.
Three of those 16 victories were major championships yet it was Stephenson’s exploits off the golf course that brought her – and women’s golf – to the attention of the broader public.
First was the cover of Sport Magazine’s ‘Sex In Sports’ issue in May 1977, a brief romance with Donald Trump, a calendar and that now infamous photo of Stephenson in a bathtub covered by nothing more than golf balls.
It simultaneously catapulted Stephenson and the LPGA Tour itself into a new level of consciousness within the sporting world and in many ways overshadowed what she accomplished in her career.
Inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985, Stephenson won a total of 26 professional tournaments and her remarkable life has been mooted as a potential Hollywood movie with Margot Robbie in the lead role.
The career of Randall Vines could not have been a greater contrast.
The Brisbane native turned professional in 1966 and immediately took his talents to Europe. In 1967 he was runner-up at the Spanish Open and played in the Open Championship for the first time after successfully navigating qualifying.
In September that year – and boosted by an ace at the par-3 eighth hole in the final round – Vines won the first of two European titles at the Swiss Open, following that up with victory at the 1968 Engadine Open also in Switzerland.
Earlier that year Vines had stunned Australian golf with a 17-stroke win at the Tasmanian Open, a victory that was considered the largest winning margin in a tournament anywhere in the world.
It was the first of nine victories in Australia, two of which were unique for the formats in which they were won.
Only Colin Johnston had previously won the Australian PGA Championship in both match play and stroke play formats, Vines equalling the feat with back-to-back wins at The Lakes (stroke play) and Bonnie Doon (match play) in 1972-73.
Vines also had the honour of representing Australia at the 1973 World Cup where he and Errol Hardvigsen finished tied for seventh.
Jan Stephenson
Career wins: 26
Major wins: 3 (1981 Peter Jackson Classic, 1982 LPGA Championship, 1983 US Women’s Open)
LPGA Tour wins: 16
Women’s Australian Open: Won (1973, 1977)
Legends Tour wins: 3
Randall Vines
Career wins: 13
Major wins: Nil
Australasian Tour wins: 9
Australian PGA: Won (1972, 1973)
Australian Open: T8 (1977)
Two-time major champion David Graham is pitted against winner of 13 professional events Brad Kennedy in the fourth match of our quest to decide Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
A polarising figure for the single-minded way in which he approached his pursuit of golf perfection, David Graham constantly pushed beyond what many thought was previously possible.
At 16 years of age he became the youngest member of the Victorian PGA and 19 years later won the second of his two major championships, creating another slice of Australian golf history.
Winner of the 1979 US PGA Championship, Graham remains the only Australian to win two of America’s three majors, the manner in which he won the 1981 US Open at famed Merion Golf Club drawing high praise from players and the media.
Celebrated golf writer Herbert Warren Wind described the final round in which Graham barely missed a shot over the entire 18 holes as “a genuinely memorable performance. It has been a long time since we last saw a golfer play such brilliant, forceful, technically pure shots on the final holes of the Open.”
Such was Graham’s play on that Sunday that it drew comparisons with the legendary Ben Hogan, Hogan calling Graham himself to congratulate the first Australian winner of the US Open for “one of the best rounds of golf I have ever seen”.
Winner of the 1977 Australian Open, Graham set his sights early on taking his game to the world, his travels reflected in another unique slice of history.
Graham remains one of only five players along with Gary Player, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer and Justin Rose to win on six continents, his eight PGA TOUR wins and three in Europe supplemented by victories in Japan, Brazil and South Africa among many others.
Three times Graham was victorious in Japan, a nation that has proven to be a happy hunting ground for his opponent today, Brad Kennedy.
Winner of the New Zealand Open for a second time in March that elevated him to a career-high world ranking of 101, Kennedy took time to find his feet after turning professional in 1994.
In 2002 he finished fourth at the Volvo China Open and was runner-up at the European Tour’s Carlsberg Malaysian Open a year later.
His best year in Europe was in 2004 when Kennedy finished 96th on the Order of Merit but it has been in Japan and in Australia where most of his 13 tournament victories have come.
The 45-year-old’s first win on the Japan Golf Tour came at the 2012 Gateway to the Open Mizuno Open which he followed up a year later with a second title at the Kansai Open Golf Championship.
There was a five-year wait until his third Japan Golf Tour win at the 2018 Shigeo Nagashima Invitational Sega Sammy Cup and last year he narrowly missed out on a fourth, losing to Ryo Ishikawa in a playoff at the season-ending Golf Nippon Series JT Cup.
Regarded as one of Australia’s best putters of recent years, Kennedy has also enjoyed great success in New Zealand, winning their national Open twice, losing another in a playoff and taking out the 2016 New Zealand PGA Championship.
David Graham
Career wins: 38
Major wins: 2 (1979 US PGA Championship, 1981 US Open)
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian Open: Won (1977)
Brad Kennedy
Career wins: 13
Major wins: Nil
Australasian Tour wins: 5
Australian Open: T21 (2009)
Australian PGA: T4 (2012)
The first of our female legends enters the fray as Karrie Webb takes on two-time Australian PGA champion Eric Cremin in Match 3 to determine Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
Karrie Webb won seven major championships.
She won four of the eight majors contested in 2000-2001 and finished outside the top 10 just once in the other four, tied for 15th at the 2001 Women’s British Open.
Of Webb’s 41 career wins on the LPGA Tour 13 came across just two seasons from 1999-2000. In comparison, fellow Queenslander Greg Norman won 20 times during his career on the PGA TOUR.
The Women’s World Rankings weren’t established until February 2006, a year in which Webb played in 21 events, won five, was runner-up three times and top-10 on 13 occasions to rise as high as No.2 in the world.
If we measured our best players purely by tournament wins alone the case for Webb as our greatest ever is a compelling one.
Whether it was her naturally shy demeanour or the lack of exposure afforded women’s sport in general 20 years ago, Webb’s glittering career struggled to garner the widespread recognition within the Australian public that it undoubtedly deserved.
From the time she became the youngest ever winner of the Women’s British Open in 1995 we almost expected Webb to win every time she teed it up, and were somewhat shocked when she didn’t.
Like so many of our greats, Webb’s influence has carried through into the next generation, the establishment of the Karrie Webb Series and Scholarship providing the likes of Minjee Lee and Hannah Green with invaluable insight and exposure to the elite level of women’s professional golf whilst still amateurs finding their way.
Another prolific winner in an era of highly-talented Australian professionals was Eric Cremin.
Cremin stunned Australian golf when he claimed the 1937 Australian PGA Championship whilst still an assistant professional at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney, winning the NSW PGA that same year and both events again the following year, the only player to ever achieve the unique feat.
His playing career was stalled by World War II but when it resumed it did so in spectacular fashion.
Runner-up in the Australian PGA on seven occasions between 1946 and 1962, Cremin won the 1949 Australian Open at The Australian and was ninth at the 1951 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
Renowned for his putting, Cremin won a host of state PGAs and Opens against the likes of Norman von Nida, Ossie Pickworth, Kel Nagle and good friend Alan Murray, the last of his 28 professional wins coming at the 1960 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament.
Australia’s Greatest Golfer | Match 3?️
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) April 14, 2020
Follow @PGAofAustralia & https://t.co/8tUxMHCgi8 to vote as we give you the chance to vote for our best Aussie in a decorated class of 64 greats.
Karrie Webb
Career wins: 57
Major wins: 7 (1999 du Maurier Classic, 2000 Nabisco Championship, US Women’s Open, 2001 McDonald’s LPGA Championship, US Women’s Open, 2002 Weetabix Women’s British Open, 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship)
LPGA Tour wins: 41
Women’s Australian Open: Won (2000, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2014)
Australian Ladies Masters: Won (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013)
Eric Cremin
Career wins: 28
Major wins: Nil
Australasian Tour wins: 28
Australian Open: Won (1949)
Australian PGA: Won (1937, 1938)
In the second of our matches to determine Australia’s Greatest Golfer, long-time world No.1 Greg Norman faces off against a man with wins in four successive decades, Stewart Ginn.
It would appear to be some cruel twist of irony that we put Greg Norman up against Stewart Ginn on the same date 24 years on from his most heartbreaking Masters moment as we continue our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
It was April 14, 1996 that Norman began the final round of The Masters with a six-stroke advantage yet with all of Australia collectively holding their breath, collapsed in spectacular fashion to finish four strokes behind Nick Faldo.
A two-time British Open champion and world No.1 for an incredible 331 weeks, we have come to associate Norman’s career not by his triumphs but by the gut-wrenching defeats.
As golf fans pored over Masters highlights last week, one young US golf writer had the temerity to suggest that he had never seen Norman play a good round of golf, highlights serving as a reminder of how many majors the Great White Shark could have won in his career.
But for those few crushing defeats there were countless other rounds and tournaments where Norman played simply breathtaking golf.
His 64 in the final round of the 1993 British Open at Royal St George’s stands today as one of the best in championship history, Norman himself admitting that the only shot he mis-hit all day was a short putt at the 17th hole.
A year later Norman again put one of golf’s strongest fields to the sword, opening with a 9-under par round of 63 and setting new records for 36, 54 and 72-hole scores as he won THE PLAYERS Championship by six strokes.
Back in Australia, Norman was a tour de force from the time he won the 1976 West Lakes Classic until the 1998 Greg Norman Holden International and beyond.
Crowds rivalling that of major championships poured into Australian golf courses simply to see Norman play, his magnetism and standing in world golf helping to bring the world’s best to our shores to face the Shark in his own waters.
Former Australian Golf Union supremo Colin Phillips once said that Australian golf would surge again when the next Greg Norman came along; the truth is we may never see a force of nature of his type ever again.
As Norman emerged in the mid-1970s Stewart Ginn was established as one of the country’s finest players.
Runner-up to Randall Vines when the Australian PGA Championship reverted to a matchplay format for one year in 1973, Ginn was one of the trailblazers who forged their careers in Europe and on the Asian circuit, winning the Malaysian Open twice and on the Japan Golf Tour on one occasion.
Recording his first tournament victory at the 1983 Tasmanian Open, Ginn enjoyed success throughout the world, winning the Martini International on the European Tour, the 1979 New Zealand Open and 1992 Indian Open before embarking on a stellar senior career.
Along with Peter Thomson and Graham Marsh Ginn is one of only three Aussies to win a senior major championship, claiming the 2002 Ford Senior Players Championship, and also enjoyed victory on the European Seniors Tour, winning the 2008 Azores Senior Open, 25 years after his first professional victory.
Greg Norman
Career wins: 89
Major wins: 2 (British Open 1986, 1993)
Australasian Tour wins: 32
Australian Open: Won (1980, 1985, 1987, 1995, 1996)
Australian PGA: Won (1984, 1985)
Stewart Ginn
Career wins: 19
Senior Major wins: 1 (Senior Players Championship 2002)
Australasian Tour wins: 11
Australian Open: 6th (1981)
Australian PGA: Won (1979)
In the opening match of our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer we pit two Peters against each other, the incomparable Peter Thomson and the irrepressible Peter McWhinney.
His moniker of ‘Five Times’ only goes part of the way to describing the extraordinary accomplishments and contribution that Peter Thomson made to the game of golf in this country.
Winner of the British Open Championship in three straight years from 1954, Thomson added a fourth in 1958 and fifth in 1965 but it was his sustained mastery of British links that remains unparalleled.
Starting with his tie for sixth in his Open Championship debut in 1951, Thomson finished outside the top 10 on just three occasions in the subsequent 21 years, either on top of the leaderboard or just one spot behind every year from 1952 until 1958.
Perhaps even more remarkable was that for many of those championships he would pen a column for The Age newspaper in Melbourne at the completion of the day’s play.
His accomplishments on the golf course included 10 national Open wins – including the Australian Open on three occasions – and the 1967 Australian PGA Championship but he was just as prolific off it.
Thomson was an acclaimed golf course architect, imprinting his design philosophy on more than 250 courses in some 30 countries, pot bunkers that are so often a feature of golf in Britain transferred to all corners of the globe.
President of the PGA of Australia from 1962 until 1994, Thomson’s influence on generations of players was profound, his legacy one of excellence and humility.
Peter McWhinney’s resume shows just one Australian tour win – the 1983 Queensland PGA Championship – and the 1996 Tsuruya Open on the Japan Golf Tour yet in a golden era for Australian golf his name was a regular feature on Aussie leaderboards.
In 1992 alone McWhinney was on the verge of completing one of the great performances in Australian tournament history yet on three separate occasions went home without the trophy.
At the Australian PGA Championship he finished three shots behind Craig Parry at Concord Golf Club, was runner-up to Steve Elkington at the Australian Open at The Lakes Golf Club and was then defeated by Mike Clayton in the final of the Australian Matchplay Championship, all in the space of just a few months.
McWhinney would finish runner-up in the Australian Open again in 1995 in dramatic fashion, Greg Norman draining a monster birdie putt at the 71st hole on his way to a two-shot victory.
Popular amongst fans for his knockabout nature, perhaps McWhinney’s greatest contribution to professional golf in Australia was leading the campaign to allow the provision of short socks to be worn during pro-am tournaments.
Peter Thomson
Career wins: 95
Major wins: 5 (British Open 1954-56, 1958, 1965)
Australasian Tour wins: 44
Australian Open: Won (1951, 1967, 1972)
Australian PGA: Won (1967)
Peter McWhinney
Career wins: 2
Major wins: Nil
Australasian Tour wins: 1 (1983 Qld PGA)
Australian Open: Runner-up (1992, 1995)
Australian PGA: Runner-up (1992)
From Thursday Fox Sports will show a repeat of Adam Scott’s 2013 Masters triumph; Australian legend Rodger Davis was looking forward to being in Augusta this week to see the Queenslander secure a second green jacket.
Just hours after golf’s governing bodies announced a proposed schedule of events for later in the year in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown, Davis backed the move of The Masters to mid-November.
Provided tournament golf can resume, that is when Scott will take a shot at a second victory at Augusta National Golf Club alongside Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith and US Mid-Amateur champion Lukas Michel.
Twice a participant at The Masters in 1988 and 1992, Davis watched Scott’s pulsating 2013 playoff win over Angel Cabrera from his Gold Coast home and, seven years on, believed that the 39-year-old was in position to repeat the feat.
“That year was being replicated this year,” said Davis, the current Chairman of the PGA of Australia.
“He won the Aussie Masters out here in the summer and then the next year he played well at Riviera (T10 at the Northern Trust Open) and had another good result in Florida (T3 at WGC-Cadillac Championship).
“Riviera in particular is a great warm-up for The Masters and tee-to-green wise he was playing so well. I was thinking, Here we go again, he could knock over a second Masters this year.
“And I was supposed to be there this year so I was really looking forward to it.”
Prior to Scott’s breakthrough, Augusta National had developed into a picturesque place of heartache for Aussie golfers.
Dating back to Jim Ferrier’s runner-up in finish in 1950, Aussies had come tantalisingly close to a green jacket for more than 60 years without success until Scott produced two of the greatest putts of his life at the 72nd hole and first hole of the playoff to enter Australian sporting immortality.
Dismissive of any notion of an Aussie curse at Augusta – “I don’t believe in it, I’m not really that sort of person” – Davis praised Scott for the way he shared his history-making accomplishment with the Australian public.
“What he did for Australian golf that year was just unbelievable,” said Davis, Scott returning that summer and winning the Australian PGA Championship, Australian Masters and finishing second at the Australian Open.
“He did everything that was asked of him in terms of promotions and what have you and in fact, in some ways, I thought he most probably did too much.
“He was at every function he could be at and did a great job as an ambassador for Australian golf and as an ambassador for The Masters.”
Starting at 7am on Thursday morning, Fox Sports will be replaying each of the four rounds of the 2013 Masters on Fox Sports 503 followed each day by replays of last year’s victory by Tiger Woods.
2013 Round 1: Thursday 7-11am
2013 Round 2: Friday 7-11am
2013 Round 3: Saturday 7-11am
2013 Round 4: Sunday 7-11am
It’s far from business as usual but Australia’s golf clubs are doing the best they can to provide golfers with an outlet for some sense of normalcy as restrictions on Australians during the coronavirus outbreak continue to strengthen.
Last Thursday’s Yowani Pro-Am in the ACT was the final event on the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series before the PGA of Australia postponed its entire tournament schedule. Golf Australia has been forced to cancel the Australian Junior Championships, Junior Interstate Series and Australian Interstate Series scheduled for April and May.
Restrictions announced by the Australian Government on Sunday mean that all pubs, licensed clubs, bars, restaurants and cafes (dining in), cinemas, casinos, places of worship, gyms and indoor sporting venues had to close by midday on Monday, effectively closing all golf clubhouse operations.
“Like everyone in the community, our PGA Professionals are adapting as quickly and as best they can in these extremely difficult times,” said PGA of Australia CEO Gavin Kirkman.
“Our PGA Professionals will always have the best interests of members and guests at their courses at heart and we trust that they can continue to provide playing opportunities in the safest manner possible.
“But we will of course adjust any recommendations based on the advice we receive from the Government and health experts.”
The playing of golf can continue for the most part but clubs are having to take unprecedented measures to ensure their members can continue to take to the fairways.
Peninsula-Kingswood Golf Club began taking the temperature of members entering the facility on Sunday while Parkwood Golf Course on the Gold Coast issued an e-mail on Monday outlining exactly the steps that must be taken for those who wish to continue to play golf.
In addition to cashless transactions only, Parkwood is limiting cart use to one rider per cart and implementing a number of local rules such as pins remaining in the cup at all times, balls to be retrieved in the cup by a gloved hand only and all bunkers to be treated as GUR and rakes removed completely.
“We understand these steps are a large change from our normal operations, but we must ensure they are followed at all times to ensure the safety of our staff, members, guests and community,” the club said in its email.
Play is also continuing in North Queensland but under amended provisions.
Club presentations have been cancelled and carts have been restricted to one person only but Maryborough Golf Club Professional Kurt Watts believes golf can continue to be a safe outlet for people to get important exercise.
“We are a sport that promotes social distancing naturally,” Watts told the Fraser Coast Chronicle.
“The golfing community are being urged to use common sense and follow the guidelines.”
Although the clubhouse has closed, member rounds remain strong at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club on the Gold Coast under revised playing conditions with preferred lies in bunkers so golfers don’t touch rakes, pins staying in at all times and players scoring their own cards.
There are few more isolated courses in Australia than Cape Wickham Golf Links on King Island and it too remains open for play although bookings are essential.
“We can assure those who do visit that we have implemented strict hygiene protocols to protect patrons and staff,” the club said in a post on Instagram.
“We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our patrons, tour operators, staff and the local King Island community for your ongoing support.”
Curlewis Golf Club on the Bellarine Peninsula was forced to close its hospitality operations on Monday to remain in line with the State and Federal Government directives but will continue to operate the golf course, driving range bays and mini golf until further notice.
“As deeply upsetting as this is for our awesome hospitality teams we are committed to do whatever it takes to keep our great community and country safe in this time of unprecedented crisis,” Curlewis posted on Instagram.
“Please be respectful of our great team during this time of uncertainty.
“We appreciate your support and understanding.”
Given the Government advice to close all non-essential services to help restrict the spread of the virus, Pacific Dunes at Port Stephens in New South Wales made the decision to close its doors completely on Monday.
“The decision to close has been made with the purpose of stopping the spread of this virus, keeping staff, golf members, residents and visitors SAFE,” Pacific Dunes said in an e-mail distributed on Monday.
“At this point in time we have no firm date as to when we will be re-opening. We will update you with any new information as soon as there are any changes.
“Golf members, we are very aware that you pay membership fees in good faith in advance for access to play golf. We are not shying away from this and trust that you understand these unique circumstances are unprecedented and in time will be working on what this will look like for the future of golf members.”
When it comes to wedges, the best players of the past 40 years have trusted one man more than any other.
Bob Vokey’s career in golf club design progressed to the point where he was appointed chief designer for Titleist’s range of wedges, the Vokey wedge brand growing to become one of golf’s most trusted and recognised. A special guest at the PGA Golf Expo last year, Vokey shared his insights into an industry that has changed significantly and revealed which is the favourite wedge in his bag. With Tony Webeck
My passion for wedges goes back to the old Dyna-Power days and the old MacGregor Expeditor. They were get-out-of-jail clubs at that time. A true pitching wedge had different shots you could hit with them. Pitching wedges today, because of the strengthening, they have just evolved to be a 10-iron or an 11-iron. It’s not a true pitching wedge in the set. What we’ve done with the Titleist clubs, the 46 and 52 may have lofts of a pitching wedge but the design is with the creativity of a scoring wedge.
We used to get by with two wedges. The pitching wedge was a versatile wedge that allowed you to hit all sorts of different shots and then the sand wedge was used mainly for bunkers and the rough. But as the game evolved these players got so fantastic in being able to manipulate those particular clubs out of the bunkers that they made the greens tougher. Undulating, pot bunkers, they made it so you needed a lot of different shots. Players wanted more loft for greenside shots but with a wide sole they could not hit the shots that they needed to hit. So what evolved was a narrow-sole sand wedge with a little bit more bounce. That is the science of it but there is also an art to it as well.
I’d say it’s more of a challenge to design a wedge now than when I started. When I used to do wedges, I’d find the centre of gravity by balancing a model on my finger. Was that a science? It was an old science, but it worked.
My dad said to me, ‘Son, if you don’t love what you’re doing, quit, or you’ll never be a success.’ I worked my hiney off. I remember driving my 295,000-mile Datsun B210, sleeping in a sleeping bag in my 1,100-foot golf shop in Vista, California. I was fortunate a lot of players would come in because it was right by La Costa.
I did everything by eye, by feel, the old-fashioned way with a toolmaker by hand, which would take months to do. Now I give all these measurements to an engineer, who puts them into the computer and I can see this clubhead moving around on the screen. Ten years before it would take me two weeks to come up with a prototype; he does a playable prototype overnight. That’s the way it’s being done right now. I did it the hard way but that’s what we had to do to learn, and we learned a lot from doing it the old-fashioned way.
I’ve got what I call my go-to guys. Guys like Tom Pernice, Charley Hoffman, Ben Crane, they will come to the TPI test centre and I’ll have all these wedges waiting for them to hit and I’ll go back and do a little grind, a tweak here, a tweak there and we’ll go and hit them. That’s how it all started many, many years ago.
Every single grind that we have in the line right now came from the best players in the world. And not just in the United States. I would go over to the British Open all the time and I had a lot of very good Australian pros that I worked with. I was with Adam Scott at Medinah just this year and he was showing me a lot of different things and we were talking about a lot of different things. Geoff Ogilvy is another of my go-to guys. I’d bring Geoff prototypes five years before SM6 came out and then a few years ago when I gave him a SM6 to try he says, ‘Isn’t that the one you showed me at Torrey Pines about five years ago?’ Yes, because that’s how long it took us to work with the SM6 with the progressive centre of gravity.
In 2012 I was at Olympic in San Francisco and Adam was in the bunker. He’s a great bunker player and he had this 260-08 at that particular time, a wedge we had way back when. He wasn’t liking it and I told him to hit something. I told him not to look at the sole and hit it. Next thing you know it’s popping out and he’s asking to look at the sole. I tell him no. He hits some shots from the rough, some from the fairway. Finally I let him look at it and it happened to be the K Grind with a little bit wider sole. He said to me, ‘I can’t hit his club.’ But he put it in play, he played well and it was a 6-degree K.
Two weeks before the 2013 Masters he gives me a call. ‘Voke, can you give me one with a little bit more bounce.’ I sent him one that was 10-degree K and he won the Masters with it. And it’s still in his bag today.
Working with tour players, they basically knew what they wanted and I was able to advise them and get their feedback. Working with the avid golfer, it’s a little bit more involved.
I talk to them. Sometimes when people come to me they can be a little nervous so I try to relieve the player’s anxiety when they come in to be fit. I’ll give them a little explanation as to what bounce is, what grinds are and let them know the importance of their feedback. I can only fit that person – tour player included – if they tell me how it feels. I don’t care what anyone says, the closer you get to the green, the greater variety of shot-making comes into being. That’s where feel is.
I’ll look and analyse the equipment they’re coming in with. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? Take all of that into account. You can ask all sorts of questions that will help when you are fitting them for bounce, loft and grind. Their handicap will tell you a lot so have to take all of that into account before you even go out and hit a shot.
Lee Trevino would say all the time that the wedges are the most important clubs in your bag. Tour players such as Padraig Harrington and Adam Scott, very good tour players, hit 12 greens a round. There’s an opportunity to get up and down so very often and they’re up and down in par or under par. The weekend golfer is still out there trying to hit that dog-gone 300-yard drive.
I go to driving ranges and I see people hitting drivers and yet there’s nobody over at the short game area. I honestly feel like this is the low-hanging fruit in a player’s bag. With a little bit of coaching and the proper loft, lie and bounce, he has the clubhead speed to hit all those shots around the green. With these little guys right here and the proper fit you can save one heck of a lot of shots.
A funny thing happens too; his putting improves. His putting is so much better because he’s hitting those shots closer to the hole. The best players in the world might hit 12 greens but they’re up and down in par, or under. When they’ve got that wedge in their hand they’re thinking, I’m going to make it.
On any given day I might have seven wedges in my bag. I don’t carry just 14 clubs, I don’t worry about that. I’m a hack, I don’t worry about that stuff! I’m testing! I’ve got to test product.
If I had my bag set up properly I use that pitching wedge and then I go to a 48, a 52, a 56 and a 60. I look at that ‘P’ and to me that’s a 9-iron. My 56 is my go-to wedge. My 60 is almost brand new. I’m a 56 player and I’m an advocate of the 56 wedge as the most important wedge in our bag. It’s fun to take the 56 out and hit all the shots. It’s a very, very high percentage shot. You go to your lobber, when you start laying that face open, you better be hitting a thousand balls a day to make it work. I tell everybody to use that sand wedge. It should be your go-to club.
The wedge is the funnest club in golf. Once you get your confidence you can improve a player so much working with the wedges. Working on your short game versus showing them how to hit that driver. Wedges are where it’s at.
The Western Australian Golf Industry is pleased to announce the finalists for the upcoming Golf Industry Awards Night to be held at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on Friday 20th March 2020.
Represented by the PGA of Australia, GolfWA, Golf Course Superintendants Association of WA and Golf Management Australia (WA), the WA Golf Industry Awards Night acknowledges the achievements the finalists have accomplished throughout 2019.
With more nominations than ever before, it was encouraging to see so many individuals recognised for their tireless efforts in assisting the growth and development of golf within the state of Western Australia. Having all areas of the industry being represented by the governing bodies, the night is truly an evening that is dedicated to personalities that are involved in the game whether it be playing or teaching the game, managing facilities that allow it to be experienced or those that volunteer their time and instil so much of their passion toward assisting where needed. To book your tickets or for further details, please click here or alternatively contact the PGA (WA) Office on 08 6430 8100 or via email [email protected].
The finalists for their respective awards (in alphabetical order) are:
Volunteer of the Year Award Finalists (Proudly sponsored by Bowra & O’Dea)
| Jodie Chubb | Joondalup Golf Club |
| Rob Haines | Joondalup Golf and Country Club |
| Owen Nuttridge | Dunsborough Lakes Golf Club |
| Lyndell Olivier | Royal Perth Golf Club |
| Mal Rigoll | Busselton Golf Club |
| Adrian Thornton | Rockingham Golf Club |
Employee of the Year Award Finalists (Proudly sponsored by MiClub)
| Matija Balic | Royal Perth Golf Club |
| Dave Brennan | Bunbury Golf Club |
| Ross Davis | Busselton Golf Club |
| Idris Evans | The Western Australian Golf Club |
| Sam Hodge | Joondalup Golf and Country Club |
| Tony Howell | Mosman Park Golf Club |
Outstanding Game Development of the Year Award Finalists
| Mark Batten | Ten Golf Secret Harbour |
| Ackzel Donaldson | Joondalup Golf and Country Club |
| Kerrod Gray | Joondalup Golf and Country Club |
| Alex McKay | Mount Lawley Golf Club |
| Adam Smith | Como Secondary College |
| Mark Tibbles | The Vines Golf and Country Club |
Metropolitan Golf Course of the Year Finalists (Proudly sponsored by ADH Club Car)
| Cottesloe Golf Club |
| Joondalup Golf and Country Club |
| Meadow Springs Country Club |
Regional Golf Course of the Year Finalists (Proudly sponsored by ADH Club Car)
| Bunbury Golf Club |
| Kalgoorlie Golf Club |
Metropolitan Golf Facility of the Year Award Finalists
| Joondalup Country Club |
| Mandurah Country Club |
| The Western Australia Golf Club |
| Wanneroo Golf Club |
| Wembley Golf Complex |
Regional Golf Facility of the Year Award Finalists
| Bunbury Golf Club |
| Pinjarra Golf Club |
Tournament of the Year Award Finalists (Proudly sponsored by Golf Car World)
| Mack Hall TSA Cottesloe Open, Cottesloe Golf Club |
| Mitchell and Brown Spalding Park Open, Spalding Park Golf Club |
| Nexus Risk Services Southwest Open, Bunbury Golf Club |
| Nexus Risk Group WA Open, Cottesloe Golf Club. |
| TX Civil and Logistics WA PGA Championship, Kalgoorlie Golf Course |
Pro-Am of the Year Award Finalists
| ADH Club Car Joondalup Legends Pro Am |
| The British Sausage Ham & Bacon Co Busselton Pro-Am |
| The Metal West Lakelands Pro-Am |
| Urban Quarter Dunsborough Lakes Golf Club Pro Am, Dunsborough Lakes GC. |
| WA Hino Pro-Am (The Western Australia Golf Club) |
Hilary Lawler Club Professional of the Year Award Finalists
| Damian Chatterley | Lakelands Country Club |
| Matthew Heath | Pinjarra Golf Club |
| Peter Maidment | Mount Lawley Golf Club |
| Tristan McCallum | Seaview Golf Club |
| Correy Price | Busselton Golf Club |
PGA Coach of the Year Finalists
| Nicholas D’avoine | Lake Karrinyup Country Club/Golf Box |
| Kerrod Gray | Joondalup Golf and Country Club |
| Ritchie Smith | Royal Fremantle Golf Club |
PGA Trainee Graduates
| Ethan Andrews | Lakelands Country Club |
| Michael Lewis | Carramar Golf Course |
| Courtney Martin | Wembley Golf Course |
| Jessica Speechley | Joondalup Golf & Country Club |
| Cameron Vale | Carramar Golf Course |
Superintendents of the Year Award Finalists (Proudly sponsored by McIntosh & Son and Jacobsen)
| Oliver Bell | Dunsborough Lakes Golf Club |
| Patrick Casey | Kalgoorlie Golf Course |
| Idris Evans | The Western Australian Golf Club |
| Jason Kelly | Royal Fremantle Golf Club |
| Ashley Watson | Joondalup Golf and Country Club |
Apprentice of the Year Finalists
| Connor Butlion | Bunbury Golf Club |
| Mitchell Clay | Mandurah Country Club |
