Casual Golf Shoes

The idea of spikeless golf shoes is no longer new. However, taking away the spikes was just the start. Now we have “casual” golf shoes, which are in actual fact a lot more than just golf shoes. The FootJoy Flex Spikeless Shoes (pictured) are the perfect example of blurring the line between on and off-course fashion; looking and feeling great wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. The Puma Ignite NXT Spikeless (pictured) & Spikeless DISC Shoes offer a sportier look, whilst the adidas AdiPure SP shoes tick the smart-casual “streetwear” box.

Shorts & Skorts

They’re on Tour now. In fact, they’ll be seen during practice rounds at The Open Championship for the first time ever this year (Why not on tournament days? Your guess is as good as mine). But there’s plenty of choice for everybody, from weekend warriors to clubs professionals, with Glenmuir Keble Golf Shorts offering an affordable smart look and the adidas Ultimate365 Print Shorts (pictured) providing a more casual summer look.

Daily Sports offer a superb range of eye-catching skorts for lady golfers, whilst the Under Armour Ladies Links Woven Skort is specifically engineered for golf performance.

One to Watch

As FitBits and Apple Watches become commonplace in all walks of life, golf is rolling with the times. GolfSixes saw Tour players use rangefinders for the first time in competition, but I want to focus on golf & fitness watches. Bushnell’s iON 2 and Neo Excel GPS watches have sky-rocketed in popularity recently, with its combination of advanced golf settings, fitness tracking and phone notifications. Garmin offer an extensive range of GPS watches, from the more affordable Approach S10 to the top-of-the-range Approach S60 (pictured) & S60 Premium.

Sunglasses

Oakley’s golf-specific sunglasses have drawn a lot of attention with the likes of Bubba Watson and Rafa Cabrera Bello sporting the look on the PGA Tour’s summer swing. Fitted with Prizm Golf lenses- specifically engineered for optimal golf course vision- Oakley’s sunglasses may come in a wide range of styles & colours but they all offer the same outstanding performance.

Clubs

Cobra’s F9 Speedback Driver (pictured) stole the 2019 headlines in the woods department, proving a huge success on Tour and flying off the shelves in golf clubs across the country. Meanwhile, Odyssey’s revolutionary Stroke Lab technology was a genuine game-changer with the flatsticks. Stroke Lab putters, fitted with a uniquely weighted shaft to promote feel & consistency, have dominated Tour bags and helped amateur golfers conquer the greens.

That said, Odyssey faced stiff competition from TaylorMade’s Spider X; an update on the much-loved previous Spider putters.

And finally, balls…

Titleist Pro V1 & Pro V1x won’t be knocked off their perch as the market leader any time soon. The Open Championship Pro V1 & Pro V1x balls (pictured) feature the coveted Claret Jug to make your ball stand out on the course.

However, if you’re looking for something new then the Callaway Triple Track Golf Balls may be for you. The three lines- a bold red line flanked by thinner blue lines- have been proven to optimise alignment to make that perfect putt that much easier.

Written by Joe Carabini

joe.carabini@foremostgolf.com

Redemption for the USGA?

Ridiculous rulings, calamitous courses and delusional decisions have sparked an annual tradition of complaining about the USGA prior the U.S. Open. However, this year has been lacking in moaning golfers. Just as millions of men, women & children around the world take to the golf course as a form of therapy, four rounds at Pebble Beach may be just the medicine to settle disgruntled Tour Pros.

The organisation needs redemption, and there is no better place to find redemption than this picturesque Oceanside course. Just please, please let Pebble Beach remain Pebble Beach.

What’s Been Said

Jack Nicklaus has labelled Tiger his personal favourite for the week. Sure, it’s just an opinion, but The Golden Bear knows a thing or two about golf.

The man himself claims that his strategy- unlike his body and his opponents- “hasn’t changed that much” from his legendary 15-stroke win here in 2000.

Tiger’s playing partner, Justin Rose, believes the key to any U.S. Open is not compounding errors, saying “It’s about not making doubles and triples in a U.S. Open” because “birdies are hard to find.”

Several “experts” believe this is a tougher test for Brooks Koepka than any of his Major wins, with Rich Beem describing Pebble Beach as “significantly different” to any of the courses he’s won on.

“I think, big picture, you still had the right champions every single time.” Jordan Spieth said when discussing the USGA controversies of recent years. The Texan had not been shy in criticising decisions in the past, so perhaps this is a sign of a new tune from the players.

It’s All So Obvious

When trying to predict any golf tournament, you’re usually looking at who has a strong case for winning. It’s quite rare for there to be an obvious candidate, especially in a Major. The 2019 U.S. Open almost offers too many obvious candidates. Brooks Koepka has won the last two, as well as the last two PGA Championships. Dustin Johnson is World No. 1 and a U.S. Open Champion. Rory McIlroy just won by seven shots in Canada. Jordan Spieth is a serial Major winner and is bang in form. Tiger Woods won by 15 strokes here in the 2000 U.S. Open.

You find yourself desperately and unsuccessfully scrambling for a reason that half the field won’t win. There are too many “obvious” winners. To bet on one of them would be to bet against the rest, and that would be simply ludicrous.

Patrick Cantlay and Matt Kuchar have emerged as potential candidates due to their supreme bogey avoidance, but it seems unlikely that this will play as big a role at Pebble Beach as previous years.

If the USGA can’t get it right at Pebble Beach with perhaps the greatest and deepest pool of talent ever, they never will.

I expect to see a display of great golf on a great golf course. It’s as simple as that.

Written by Joe Carabini

joe.carabini@foremostgolf.com

GolfSixes

What Happened?

While England surprised nobody by topping Group A, Thailand surprised many by topping Group B ahead of Sweden, defending champions Ireland and England Women. Australia needed a nearest-the-pin challenge to overcome Germany Women by a mere 19 inches, with nothing to separate them after three Group C matches and a playoff hole.

Thailand’s team was made up of 49-year-old Thongchai Jaidee and 20-year-old Phachara Khongwatmai, and a hole-in-one over the swimming pool on the sixth (the first in the tournament’s history) by Jaidee to beat Ireland kick-started a Thai domination of the knockouts; cruising past Scotland and eking past Spain before beating England’s Paul Waring & Tom Lewis in a nearest-the-pin challenge on the second playoff hole.

Pros & Cons

There is no questioning the fun side of GolfSixes. But how exactly do you balance fun with competition? Where do you draw the line?

Personally, I enjoyed the tournament. There were a lot of smiles, great sportsmanship and awesome fans. However, I never found myself quite as invested in the competition as I felt I should’ve been. I know that it was meant to be less formal than traditional European Tour events, but I don’t think this has to take away the “edge”. I fully support the European Tour in trying something new, so I wouldn’t criticise a single thing that was trialled in Portugal, but if it were up to me you wouldn’t see a top-level golf tournament decided by a nearest-the-pin challenge in future.

Canadian Open

Rory McIlroy dominated. The Northern Irishman matched his best-ever score of 61 in the final round at Hamilton Golf & Country Club. He opened with a 3-under 67 before going one better the next day as Brandt Snedeker shot 60 and Canadian Ben Silverman carded a 61 on home soil. McIlroy got going on the weekend, though, with a bogey-free 64 to tie for top spot with Matt Kuchar and Webb Simpson on -13. Home favourite Adam Hadwin (-12) entered Sunday at T4, closely followed by fellow countryman Mackenzie Hughes (-9). Graeme McDowell’s Saturday 70 kept him on 8-under as he chased a Top-10 to qualify for The Open Championship at Royal Portrush in his childhood hometown.

Rory wasted no time in breaking away at the top, with back-to-back birdies opening up a two-shot lead after two holes. In the blink of an eye it was five birdies in 7 holes. Then came a stretch of four consecutive birdies between 11 and 14 to reach 9-under for the round and -22 for the tournament. With the title all-but wrapped up, he bogeyed the 16^th. How does he respond? With an outrageous approach to set up an eagle on 17, of course. A closing bogey made it a seven-stroke lead.

McIlroy wasn’t the only Northern Irishman celebrating on the 18^th, as McDowell sunk a sublime 30-footer at the death to qualify for The Open and return home.

Written by Joe Carabini

joe.carabini@foremostgolf.com

GolfSixes, now officially GolfSixes Cascais, will run over Friday and Saturday this week.  The two-day, six-hole Greensomes matchplay tournament will be broadcast free-to-air on BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website in an attempt to attract attention to a new brand of golf.

What is GolfSixes?

It’s been compared to cricket’s Twenty20 format, but it’s so much more than that. The comparisons are understandable though, with it being a sped-up version of the sport in a less formal manner. There will be three 6-hole group stage matches on Friday, followed by 6-hole quarter, semi & final matches on Saturday.

The format will be “greensomes”, whereby both teammates tee off, before choosing one ball to complete the hole with; alternating shots from that point. The less formal manner includes the legalisation of range finders (an attempt to speed up play), allowing players to wear shorts and a final hole which coincides with a swimming pool and plays to the tune of a live DJ. Finally, in a growing trend across all Tours, two of the competing teams will be England Women and Germany Women.

What’s the Point?

Golf needs to grow. It needs more players, more viewers and more exposure. Some of the most cited reasons for a lack of new interest in the game? Slow play, outdated rules and a lack of diversity. This tournament addresses all of these issues, and BBC’s digital coverage provides the perfect opportunity to showcase this.

On the Tee

Group A features England, Scotland, India and hosts Portugal. Tom Lewis & Paul Waring of England enter the tournament as joint-favourites, while Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher & David law is the only team in which both players have wins this year. Group B consists of defending Champions Ireland, Sweden, Thailand and England Women. Ireland’s Paul Dunne & Gavin Moynihan are considered a front-runner again, but Alex Bjork & Joakim Lagergren of Sweden is my pick for the week. England’s Meghan MacLaren has earned deserved plaudits for speaking out against inequality in the sport, but it was her golf that did the talking as she finished runner-up in the Jordan Mixed Open; proving the ability of herself and her female counterparts to compete alongside the men. MacLaren will play alongside Florentyna Parker.

Australia, France, Wales & Germany Women make up Group C. Scott Hend & Wade Ormsby give the Aussies a strong chance, and France’s Matthieu Pavon, playing with Romain Wattel, is one of the headline names. Finally, Group D has been touted as the toughest pool with South Africa, Italy, Spain & Denmark. George Coetzee & Brandon Stone of South Africa is honestly the strongest duo, but Nacho Elvira is a decent partner for Jorge Campillo, who boasts five Top-3 finishes and a win this season.

This will be the third edition of GolfSixes, but each year the European Tour continues to innovate and experiment. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t, but ultimately this is developing golf. And besides, it should be fun!

Written by Joe Carabini

joe.carabini@foremostgolf.com

Women’s Golf Day is back, and this year it’s bigger than ever! 2019 marks just the fourth edition of the annual event, but, courtesy of a deal with the ANNIKA Foundation, this year’s event promises to be the best yet.

The Story So Far

In three years, the one-day celebration has made its way to over 900 golf venues across 52 different; reaching a whopping 50,000 women & girls around the world. This includes people with a lifelong affection for the game and absolute beginners alike, with events ranging from first-time training sessions to 18 holes for females golfers (and non-golfers!) of all ages.

However, when Elisa Gaudet founded WGD in 2016, it was not solely based around getting ladies out on the course. In fact, the official Women’s Golf Day website suggests a four-hour event consisting of two hours of golf and two hours of socialising. The first two hours may revolve around lessons on the driving range or in chipping & putting, or alternatively a 9-hole round. Meanwhile, the second half could be a simple sit-down-and-chat that allows beginners and experienced golfers to intermingle, or a host venue may arrange for speakers and visitors to provide information and entertainment.

What Next?

Swedish golf legend Annika Sorenstam called Women’s Golf Day “inspiring” as an initiative that echoes her desire to “share my passion for the game”. It should come as no surprise, then, that the ANNIKA Foundation has pledged its support to growing the initiative via its globally-recognised brand. Year upon year, the day has grown in popularity, not least thanks to the universal reach of social media. Whilst attaching arguably the most prestigious name in women’s golf to the initiative is a huge boost regardless, there is one other very important factor that Sorenstam brings to the table: European influence.

Whilst the 240 locations advertised on the Women’s Golf Day Location Finder (see link below) is very impressive, only 11 of those locations can be found in Europe as opposed to 228 in North America (Ile aux Cerfs Golf Club in Mauritius are flying the lone flag for the rest of the world… Obviously). Previously, we could only hope for the European figure to rise. Now, with Annika on board, that hope edges nearer expectation.

Click here for the Women’s Golf Day Locations (https://womensgolfday.com/locations)

Written by Joe Carabini

joe.carabini@foremostgolf.com