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Droves of new people are coming into golf; Barwon Heads Professional Jess Bramble wants to ensure their first experience of golf is a fun one.
Comparatively speaking, golf came fairly easily to Jess Bramble.
With a background playing tennis, badminton and basketball, Bramble followed her father to Swan Hill City Golf Club as a 13-year-old and discovered an instant affinity, able to hit the ball in the air almost from day one.
As such golf was fun… and she wants to share that joy with newcomers who have found their way into the game.
“I’m not going to be someone who teaches a player on the Tour but I don’t aspire to,” says Bramble, currently on maternity leave from her position as a PGA Professional at Barwon Heads Golf Club on the Bellarine Peninsula.
“I just want people enjoying golf because I think somewhere along the line we’ve forgotten that golf is a game that’s meant to be fun.
“I tell people that no one picked up a golf club and was good straight away. Just try and really encourage and be sympathetic because I understand what it was like starting out and learning new skills.
“When people come to a golf lesson for the first time, ultimately they’re very nervous about whether they are going to be able to do it.
“You can get people to enjoy that process by being social, talking to them, being friendly and encouraging and infectious with your enthusiasm for golf.
“Sometimes that can really rub off and make people feel comfortable.”
An excellent junior player whose lowest handicap as an amateur was plus-1, Bramble had plans of being a sports journalist, spent a year studying primary school teaching at Federation University in Ballarat, worked in the pro shop part-time at Murray Downs Resort and found herself working for a Swan Hill financial planner.
But it was the desire to combine her love of golf and teaching that made the PGA Membership Pathway Program an enticing proposition.
“I always entertained dreams of playing but I don’t know how realistically I took those to be honest,” she concedes.
“I’d enjoyed my teaching course at uni so I thought I could combine the two and be in golf and teach it.
“That’s when I started thinking that a traineeship might be the best way to combine those two things.”
She found a supportive mentor in Dom Azzopardi at Ballarat Golf Club and after three years was named the 2011 Victorian Trainee of the Year.
Bramble stayed on at Ballarat for a further year and from day one was focused on helping beginners to fall in love with the game.
“I love the entry-level golfer; they’re my favourite to teach,” says Bramble.
“I like to keep things really simple and clear and ultimately I just like people to have fun and I try and have a bit of humour in coaching.
“Golf can be incredibly difficult even when you’ve been playing for a long time and have some idea of what you’re doing, let alone when you’re picking it up brand new.
“I just try and show people that you can improve relatively quickly and to celebrate the small goals along the way.”
Barwon Heads is already blessed with a nine-hole short course that is all about fun and with a growing number of facilities such as nearby Thirteenth Beach and Barnbougle Dunes adding miniature versions of their primary layouts, Bramble hopes that this latest golf boom will be one that is fun-filled.
“Golf courses are becoming crazy hard and I’d rather see them go the other way, reverse this notion that the harder the golf course the better it is,” she adds.
“I’d love to see members making birdies and pars. The par 3 course is really good for that but reducing the stigma that it’s not real golf is really difficult.
“I’d love to change that perception.”
It is synonymous with junior golf in the United States but the success of the First Tee program in Hobart shows its application in Australia can be equally as effective.
It’s a simple tenet of the game of golf; count every shot and be honest in the score you keep.
But what if a teenager with no previous exposure to societal expectations such as honesty, discipline and integrity is given a nine-hole putting course and a scorecard to chart their success?
“The feedback we have received from day one is that their behaviour around the school has been better,” says Tasmania Police Senior Constable Steve Rose.
“I don’t know that I can directly attribute that to the First Tee program but certainly there has been noticeable changes in the way the kids are at school when we’re not around.”
First Tee was launched in Australia in December 2019 in conjunction with the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, the program first established in America in 1997 with nine core principles and a mandate to improve the lives of at-risk youth through the game of golf.
Tasmanian born and bred, Adam Holden completed his PGA of Australia traineeship before spending 20 years as a PGA Professional predominantly in Canada.
He returned to join the team at Tasmania Golf Club in January 2019 and after a self-confessed “grizzle phone call” to PGA Head Office in early 2020 began hearing more about First Tee and how he could introduce it in Hobart.
After undertaking the First Tee training discussions took place with local schools and two branches of the PCYC and once Holden started offering the program he found willing participants who took the lessons they learned back to school and their community.
“A big thing for me is exposing kids to the environment that golf is conducted in,” Holden explains.
“It’s a healthy environment. It’s much better than hanging around shopping malls or the streets.
“There are so many great lessons to learn in golf and it can open a lot of doors. It’s opened a lot of doors for me in life.
“It’s taught me how to communicate with adults, how to behave. I got my first part-time job after school through golf. I’ve travelled the world, do something I love, met so many great friends through golf so I see golf as a great pathway that can open doors.
“Many of these kids may not have the opportunity to play golf or be exposed to golf if it wasn’t for a program such as First Tee.”
The nine key principles espoused by First Tee are Courtesy, Judgement, Honesty, Integrity, Sportsmanship, Respect, Confidence, Responsibility and Perseverance.
Success in golf relies on all nine but it is the transference of those principles that has the greatest impact.
“If we were to do ‘Integrity’ or ‘Honesty’ as a focus for that lesson, we could do putting as the skill for the day,” Holden adds.
“We’ll do some basic technique and then set up a nine-hole putting course where they play a game and keep their score.
“We use that as an exercise in honesty and we’ll talk about how you can be more honest at home, at school or in your community.”
Senior Constable Rose facilitates kids from Huonville PCYC and Constable Ben Hughes from the Hobart PCYC and the impact reaches much further than lower scores and fluent swings.
“Our environment that we work in is with at-risk youth, kids who need a bit of a leg-up or might have some behavioural issues and perhaps haven’t been afforded the greatest start to life,” Senior Constable Rose explains.
“Part of golf etiquette is that when you play a bad shot and frustration starts to get the better of you, you take a breath, resettle and move on to the next shot.
“We’ve found that their golf has improved but also their attitude towards difficult situations that they may encounter. Rather than spitting the dummy, they’re calmer and they appreciate that you do make mistakes and the important thing is to correct those mistakes and move on.
“That’s why the schools are supportive of programs like this because the kids are going away from school and learning new skills. When they come back to school they’re coming back with a better attitude.
“Hopefully, some of those nine core principles we teach translate into their day-to-day life both at school and at home.”
It took the round of the tournament on the final day but Rockingham Golf Club Associate Joshua Herrero has successfully defended his ADH Club Car WA PGA Associate Championship crown at The Vines Golf and Country Club.
Trailing 54-hole leader Matthew Hollington (Royal Perth) by two strokes entering the final round on Tuesday, Herrero picked up birdies at two of his first three holes and was 4-under through 10 holes to surge into the lead.
He dropped a stroke at the par-3 13th but a crucial birdie at the par-3 17th saw him post 4-under 68 for a four-round total of 4-over par and the clubhouse lead.
Herrero then had to endure an anxious wait as he watched Lake Karrinyup’s Joseph Ha birdie the 16th and 17th holes to reach 5-over with the par-5 18th still to come.
Unfortunately for Ha his birdie putt on the 72nd hole slid by for a round of 2-under 70 to finish one stroke back of Herrero in outright second, Hollington (75) a further four strokes adrift in third position followed by Calum Juniper (79) from Gosnells Golf Club.
Played in superb weather across all three days, the tournament marked the ninth year in succession that it has been sponsored by ADH Club Car with the Dunsborough Lakes team led by Paris Murdock taking out Sunday’s pro-am.
The WA PGA would like to thank the following sponsors for their continued support of the event and the WA PGA Associate Championship raffle: ADH Club Car, TX Civil & Logistics, Coca Cola, Acushnet, ICAP, Lake Karrinyup Country Club, Cottesloe Golf Club, Joondalup Resort, Royal Perth Golf Club, The Vines Golf and Country Club, Wembley Golf Complex and Grand Cinemas.
Three of the PGA’s longest serving members were honoured as more than 700 years of membership gathered at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club for the annual 50 Year + PGA Member Afternoon Tea.
Recognising those PGA Members in Queensland who have had at least 50 years of PGA Membership, some of the icons of Australian golf were in attendance to acknowledge milestones achieved by Les Wilson, Gary Wright and Brian Jones.
This year marks the 70th year of membership for Wilson while both Wright and Jones bring up a half-century as PGA Members, PGA Immortal Charlie Earp, PGA Chair Rodger Davis and Life Members Randall Vines and Paul King among the attendees.
Although border restrictions and health concerns prevented Jones and Wilson from attending, Davis said it was important to continue the tradition of acknowledging such distinguished service to the game in Australia.
“At every level these three PGA Members have represented the game and their professional with the greatest of distinction,” Davis said.
“The strength of the PGA lies within its membership and to have Gary and Brian both reach 50 years and for Les to bring up 70 years are milestones that as an Association we should celebrate in the highest possible fashion.
“I’ve been fortunate to know all three of these gentlemen for the majority of their careers and I feel very honoured that I was able to present Gary with his certificate in person.”
There is a certain level of proficiency you need as a golfer before embarking on a journey down the PGA Membership Pathway Program.
There is a playing test to pass before you begin, and to become a fully-fledged PGA Professional, there is a standard you must maintain for the three years of your study.
So it should come as little surprise that the vast majority of PGA Associates have aspirations to play the largest tours in world golf when they begin.
It wasn’t so long ago that those with professional aspirations could not play tournament golf until first completing their time in the pro shop, but the modern tendency is for elite amateurs to jump head-first into the cut-throat world of qualifying schools and tournament invitations.
But there is an option in between, and it provides a pathway to the best tournaments in the world without the anxiousness of having nothing else to fall back on.
Hailing from Geelong, Deyen Lawson understood early in the second year of his time under Steve Brody at Curlewis Golf Club that if he wanted to be an elite tour player he had to start practising like one.
The results were almost instant.
He won the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian trainee championships and in 2015 won a total of 10 times, including the Rich River Trainee Classic and CPM Southern PGA Trainee Championship.
The following year he notched three top-10 finishes in the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia events, played the China Tour in 2018 and by 2019 had a full card on the European Tour.
“I knew that by the end of the traineeship I’d know what I wanted to do,” reflects Lawson, who is currently ranked 551st in the Official World Golf Rankings and playing predominantly on the European Challenge Tour.
“You get an idea over the three years whether you want to play or coach or manage. It really shows you what you want your life and career to look like.
“Midway through the second year of my traineeship something clicked in my practice and realising that after the three years I wanted to be ready to go and play.
“I had an opportunity in my second and third year to get into a financial position where I could play for a couple of years without worrying about money as such. Give it a real crack and if worked out, good, and if it didn’t I’d go down the coaching route.
“My brother was doing his traineeship at the time as well and he said at the end of the Vic Trainee champs in 2015 that it was the first one that I’d won because I worked harder than everybody else, not because I was more talented than most of the guys that were there.”
When the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of much of the 2020 European Tour season, Lawson returned home to Australia and began coaching under Todd Sleep at The Glades Golf Club on the Gold Coast.
Coaching remains an active interest that he is likely to explore further when he has finished playing and may have inadvertently cost him a breakthrough PGA Tour of Australasia win earlier this year.
“My coach Darrell Brown has said not to help anyone because I know too much and then it will screw you over,” Lawson admits.
“I helped Andrew Evans a few weeks before he won the Queensland Open. He only took $10,000 out of my pocket, but that’s OK.
“He’d missed six cuts in a row and I was on the putting green by myself at about 5 or 6 at night and he was just watching me.
“We spoke about how terrible he’d been going and he asked me to take a look at his putting.
“You see a guy on a putting green grinding and he was down and out with his golf. It was as though he was about to break down, and we’ve all been there.
“It was just a mindset with his putting and his routine and one thing with his grip and set-up. It was keeping it simple and then a few drills.
“It was slightly a technique thing that then turns into a mental thing which is normally something that can creep in for a good player.
“He went out a couple of weeks later and won… and I came second.
“He mentioned me afterwards on his Instagram but I told him not to tell too many people.”
Thinking back, Khan Pullen can identify a few indicators that suggested this week was going to be Cam Davis’s week.
There was the window of time that allowed sports psychologist Neale Smith to spend two days with Davis at his home in Seattle working on how to remain calm under pressure.
There was a significant adjustment in the Titleist van to the face angle of his driver from 8.25 degrees to 9.5 degrees that would allow him to stay on top of the ball and confident through the downswing… and subsequently hit more fairways.
Then there was Kramer Hickok’s near miss a week earlier in an eight-hole playoff with Harris English at the Travelers Championship, the pair becoming good friends whilst playing the Canadian and Korn Ferry Tour together a few years ago.
And then there was Davis’s lust for revenge.
Having missed the cut in his two previous starts at Detroit Golf Club, Davis sent his coach back in Sydney a text message that was laced with fierce determination: ‘I’m going to get that course this week.’
A 26-year-old who spent his junior days at Roseville and then Monash Country Club on Sydney’s north shore, Davis did on Sunday in America what many had been expecting since he won the 2017 Australian Open over Jason Day and Jordan Spieth.
Davis’s breakthrough PGA TOUR title came in dramatic fashion at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, firstly playing his way into a three-man playoff with some late-hole heroics and then overcoming four near misses to secure the win on the fifth playoff hole.
The shot-making was breath-taking; the putts that skated by time after time heart-wrenching.
Yet behind it all Davis put into practice the mental training he and Smith had been honing for two years until victory was his.
“That’s the most composed under pressure I’ve ever seen him,” said Pullen, who became Davis’s coach when he was 16 shortly after inviting him to a Golf Australia talent identification camp in Melbourne during his time as National Coach.
“His body language, not over-reacting to shots, the rhythm of his walk and his patience through that playoff was the best I’ve ever seen.
“That was the final little hurdle for him to win, having that composure when it really, really mattered.
“You don’t hit it that well if you’re not that composed and mentally you’re not in the right spot, especially in those situations.
“It was pretty amazing to watch.”
Following the Memorial Tournament in early June, Davis didn’t touch a club for two weeks before picking them back up again a week ago and inviting Smith to spend the weekend working on his mental approach.
Smith is a proponent of establishing routines for players to come into a shot and then a routine to leave it and Davis admitted that he leaned on that as the tournament reached its crescendo.
“We did a lot of work on just routine, and that sort of stuff is really what you fall back on,” said Davis, whose previous best finish on the PGA TOUR came with a third-place finish at The American Express in January and is projected to rise from 134 to No.67 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
“I don’t really have any experiences in the past that kind of prepared me for it. Australian Open back years ago now was similar in that I didn’t really know where I stood when I was coming down the last couple of holes and I was able to hit some good ones and get across the line.
“I wasn’t thinking about that, though. I was just thinking about all the things that I had done all this week leading up to that point and just tried to keep it going.
“It was just putting all that stuff on repeat.
“There’s definitely room for nerves to set in if you do start kind of letting your mind wander, but I felt like I was really deliberate and did a good job of that. That kept me going all the way through each hole of the playoff and at the end of regulation as well.”
Recognising that his charge had got off to a nervy start, Pullen thought first that a bogey at the par-3 ninth might stall his progress and then a three-putt bogey from 36 feet at the par-4 16th might have ended it for good.
But his brilliant bunker shot and exquisite execution on the 72nd hole brought to the world’s attention what Pullen first saw a decade ago.
“He always had this x-factor about him,” Pullen added.
“I caddied for him in a match at the Interstate Series and being inside the ropes with him you could really tell his passion for the sport. He just really loved to play, loved to compete.
“And he just had this little x-factor about him that I thought really separated him.”
As for how this will change Davis’s life, his coach has one simple request.
“Hopefully he’ll get Cam Davis more than Cam Smith now because they still get that wrong half the time,” Pullen said.
“Hopefully he’s formed his own identity now.”
For graduates of the PGA Membership Pathway Program and their indentured professionals, 2020 presented some challenges that didn’t come with a roadmap to navigate.
In Victoria in particular, various periods of lockdown meant that there was a physical disconnect between Associates and their workplace, but Director of Golf at Kingston Heath went out of his way to ensure that Lachlan Kenny and the golf operations team were actively engaged throughout.
“During lockdown Justin was always very active in making sure that we had something to do or could be involved with any changes or processes made from an operational perspective and also club perspective,” explains Kenny, who completed the PGA Membership Pathway Program at the end of 2020.
“Whilst everyone was locked up so to speak, we were working quite diligently throughout that lockdown period.
“From a support point of view, he always made sure that all of us had the ability to stay connected which was a massive boost.”
The mentorship that is a feature of the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program was crucial in Kenny’s career development.
His father Andrew has been the General Manager at Pelican Waters on the Sunshine Coast and Heritage Golf and Country Club in Melbourne and his family are close friends with former ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia player Heath Reed.
When Kenny moved to Melbourne to advance his playing career he sought the counsel of Ben Bunny at Ranfurlie Golf Club and found a mentor in Burrage at Kingston Heath who would provide clarity around his career prospects within the golf industry.
“Heath always taught me to work hard and if I was going to give something a go to give it my all,” Kenny explains.
“Ben Bunny at Ranfurlie was always a shoulder to lean upon and run ideas past, especially while I was looking at playing. He was a great coach and definitely helped with my coaching to membership.
“Justin has been at Kingston Heath for 18 years and really invested his time into me, ensuring that if I had any questions or concerns to voice that to him.
“That’s where the communication side really came to life with myself. If there was an issue, rather than stewing on it, to talk it through. He was always very supportive with any ideas or challenges that we had in the workplace and how we could work through those.
“Those three as PGA Members were definitely big mentors for myself.”
Recognising that staff turnover at Kingston Heath is minimal, Kenny and Burrage began evaluating opportunities elsewhere when a twist of fate opened the way for a return to where Kenny’s traineeship had begun.
Another Melbourne lockdown delayed his start date by a week but the doors open again Kenny will be employed as the Golf Operations Manager at Settlers Run Golf and Country Club.
“Throughout the last year I worked out that I wanted to transition out of playing and into club management and golf operations,” said Kenny, who began the Member Pathway Program at Settlers Run before moving to Kingston Heath with the club’s full blessing.
“Towards the end of my traineeship I sat down with Justin and we talked through the avenues I wanted to work into and openly discussing areas that I can work into outside of Kingston Heath.
“I knew from a little way out that a move was necessary and he was fully supportive of talking through the pros and cons of each avenue that I wanted to go down.
“The opportunity came up at Settlers Run where I originally started my traineeship and I jumped at it.”
Courtesy of his mentors along the way, Kenny now understands how he wants to impact the facilities he works at throughout his career, starting at Settlers Run.
“Whatever which operation you are in, a level of attentiveness and service has no price,” says Kenny.
“It’s all down to effort and making sure that members and anyone attending the club feels welcome. “I’ll still learn how to deal with people management but it’s taking ownership of everyone’s accountability to ensure that anyone waking through the door is going to have an enjoyable experience.
“Hopefully that will help to grow the game of golf.”
South Australian Chris Duke has earned a shot at a second PGA Professionals Championship Final victory after taking out the PGA Professionals Championship of SA at Glenelg Golf Club on Monday.
The national champion at Hamilton Island Golf Club in 2016, Duke’s round of even-par 71 was good enough to secure a one-shot win from Glenelg’s own Connor Chant with Samuel Hughes in third spot with a round of 2-over 73.
With his win Duke secured his sixth appearance at the Championship Final where he not only won five years ago but also held a one-stroke advantage going into the final round in 2018.
The Championship Final will be played at Hamilton Island Golf Club from September 3-5 and South Australia will be represented by Duke and Chant while Michael Clough has secured automatic entry into the 2021 Australian PGA Senior Championship at Richmond Golf Club in November after taking out the over-50 seniors category with a round of 4-over 75.
As the daughter of a PGA Professional, Chantal Hodson knew little more than golf in her formative years.
When she and her brother Reece would return him from school when Bruce was the Head Professional at Kangaroo Valley Golf and Country Club in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, the golf course was their playground.
Even when the family moved to Bathurst in the Central West of NSW, Bruce built a range on the property so that golf was always on hand.
Encouraged by her father and sick of following Reece around as he played in junior golf tournaments, Chantal started playing competitively, making such an impression that by 14 she was invited to play Junior Pennants for The Australian Golf Club in Sydney.
After completing school her father hooked her up with an old mate in Bill Exten at New South Wales Golf Club but midway through her three-year traineeship Chantal could feel a shift in the path she wanted her career in golf to take.
“When I was doing my traineeship I had the opportunity to coach quite a bit so I was really at a crossroads for a long time in what I wanted to do in terms of coaching or going down the management stream,” says Chantal, who is currently employed as the Manager of Golf Operations at Royal Sydney Golf Club.
“It was a really hard decision because I like both so much and there’s obviously such a huge market for a female coach in the current climate.
“That’s the beauty of the trainee program. You’ve got so many different avenues that you can take and work out exactly what you want to do.
“It was a hard decision for a long time but once I got the job at Royal Sydney it was pretty clear that I wanted to move into the management side of things and progress down that line.
“I certainly had a couple of different options up my sleeve and been lucky enough to work at a really good club and in a position to progress and move forward with my career.”
Given her father’s 50-year association with the PGA, it was a pathway with obvious appeal for Chantal once she completed schooling in Bathurst.
“At the time I’d come out of school and played so much golf that I was actually a little bit burnt out,” Chantal explains.
“At a younger age I probably just assumed that I’d go overseas and play on tour but when I thought about the trainee program – Dad always spoke so highly of the PGA – it just seemed to make sense.
“I worked casually at Antill Park under Bret Chappell for a year and then the position came up at New South.
“At that time Bill was running the business within a big club and he ran that business really well. HIs 2IC had just left so I was lucky to be given quite a lot of responsibility early and progressed in my role quite quickly.
“I had the opportunity to coach and I was part of the launch of the cadet program and was on the committee for that when it started and helped facilitate and coach that.
“I was lucky enough to have access to coaching and Bill had the confidence in me to give me the time to coach and the time to practise and play.
“We had a great working relationship and he gave me the leeway to teach and I had a fair bit of responsibility which was good for my growth.
“I’ve been quite fortunate with my career and the timing of it all.”
Although Chantal has gravitated toward the management area of the golf industry, she doesn’t want to ever lose direct connection with the game and the people that play it.
“Director of Golf at a private club is the goal,” Chantal says.
“Management is the domain that I found my feet in but I love the relationship with members and always want to keep that.
“The ability to go and play golf, do the odd clinic and coaching component, club-fitting, all that sort of stuff I still really enjoy and that close relationship with golf.”
Applications for the PGA Membership Pathway Program open on July 1. For more information, visit pga.org.au/education.
Two weeks ago, ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner Brad Kennedy was informed that he was exempt into this week’s US Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Here Kennedy’s coach and Sanctuary Cove PGA Professional Michael Jones explains what has happened since and their hopes and expectations for a strong showing. With Tony Webeck.
It was a big change when we found out. Brad went from playing the Japan Golf Tour with a start at The Open Championship to being exempt into the US Open and another likely start at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational. He might even play a couple of Korn Ferry Tour events while he is in the US. It snowballed rather quickly and we’ve had a fair few conversations about preparation and how to stay fresh.
I spoke to Brad on Tuesday morning and Torrey Pines is set up pretty challenging, as you’d expect. Fairways that are 22 yards wide, rough that is two-foot thick and where the ball drops to the bottom. It’s one of the tougher courses that Brad has played but we’re putting a game-plan together for how best to tackle it.
At any big tournament the big danger is running your race before it even begins. Preservation of mental energy is crucial so that you can get to the first tee on Thursday with some energy on board. These kinds of tournaments are the highest level we have in golf so if all your wits are not about you it is hard work. The key is stay healthy and mentally fresh while he works on his game.
Around a course such as Torrey Pines the short game is a very important component along with hitting the fairway. Finding the fairway is going to be the No.1 priority because Brad said that if you’re in the rough, you might as well just grab a wedge and hack it out.
Coming from Japan to the US Open, obviously the golf course is a lot different. There are a lot of people around and the golf course is set-up unbelievably well. The greens are immaculate and the fairways look like they’ve got vacuum cleaners on them. He said it’s pretty easy to work out that this is one of the biggest golf tournaments in the world.
The traditional style of golf course in Japan is not overly long but the fairways are so tight you can barely fit a ball down them. At the Japan Open they set the course up next to impossible which by all reports is very similar to a US Open set-up. Brad likes to play a hard golf course. He excels mentally when he has to make sure his ball’s going exactly where he needs it to go. He doesn’t like when bombers can hit it 350 left or right and still have a swing.
Sherwood Country Club where they played the ZOZO Championship last year was a 7,700-yard golf course and not that different to Torrey Pines. He said in a text that they’re not going to hit you off the back chocks and put you in the hardest pins in rounds one and two but by round three or four all bets are off. If they shoot 6 or 7-under, that might be a winning score. I know the USGA won’t want to see too many 65s around there so it’s going to be a real grind and mental test. Brad’s very good mentally in his strategy and his decision-making is excellent.
Shishido Hills Country Club is a 7,700 yard golf course where they play the Japan Tour Championship and Brad’s played really well there including finishing runner-up in 2015. He plays really good par golf, gets the odd birdie here and there and is quite competitive. That’s going to be the mindset for this week and why the mental energy is going to be one of the most important factors.
On Monday afternoon he spent time on the putting green working on his speed control and touch around the greens. He says some of the pin positions that they will get them in will certainly test your nervous system. He’s heard that keeping the ball below the hole is a big thing at Torrey Pines; if you get above the hole the greens are pretty quick.
The big thing for Brad the past few years is that he has got used to playing in world-class events where the best are in attendance. Whether it be the ZOZO, the British Open, any of the big ones in Japan, it’s not new to him that Dustin will walk by or Louis is on the putting green. He’s seen them all before and to a certain degree he’s competed. He’ll be rising to the challenge that’s for sure.
As his coach, I’m just proud that he has got to this level of golf. You’re trying to get the person you’re coaching to the highest level they can reach. I caddied for Brad at The Open at Royal Lytham in 2012 and been to a few of the bigger tournaments but the US Open is one that I’m sure, in the back of his head, he was hoping he’d have the chance to play for the challenge and the severity of it all.
