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JUNE 2015, ISSUE 6 VOL 56 | BUILD A PERFECT SWING WITH CHARL SCHWARTZEL | HENRIK STENSON | ANONYMOUS PLAYER POLL | STEVE ELKINGTON | HYBRIDS TEST | ALGARVE MUST-PLAYS | TOP 100 ENGLAND
INSTRUCTION SPECIAL
HOW TO BUILD A
PERFECT
SWING
BY CHARL SCHWARTZEL
The Masters champion
reveals his 4 key moves
HYBRIDS TESTED
TaylorMade R15 v Ping
G30 v Adams Tight Lies
STEVE ELKINGTON
“Poulter is just a cyber
bully with a big following”
HENRIK STENSON
“I’ve learned my major
lessons. I’m ready to win”
AUSSIE RULES
Why Jason Day could be
the best matchplayer ever
DESTROYED
BY SERGIO
The Ryder Cup defeat that
stops Jim Furyk winning
THE
ANONYMOUS
PLAYER POLL
Cheating, Tiger, drugs and
playing without sleep
40 TOUR PROS
REVEAL ALL!
JUNE 2015 £4.50
ALGARVE GOLF
The 10 courses in the
region you have to play

THE WORLD
AT HIS FEET
INTERVIEW
Matt Fitzpatrick won the US Amateur and the Silver Medal at The Open in 2013. John
Huggan asks how the 20-year-old is adjusting to life as a pro in his rookie season.

MATT FITZPATRICK
Although he is not a huge
hitter by today’s standards,
Fitzpatrick has no glaring
weaknesses in his game.
Carrying his bag of balls,
Matt Fitzpatrick walked
onto the range at Muirfield
just before the 2013 Open.
“Tiger doesn’t play
Titleists,” said the man in the Nike gear.
“No, they’re for me,” said Fitzpatrick.
“He thought I was just a kid bringing
balls for Tiger to hit,” laughs the young
Yorkshireman who, in the 18 months
following his Open debut, won the US
Amateur, played in three more majors and
qualified for a European Tour card. By
any standard, it has been a meteoric rise
through golf’s often-difficult ranks.
And so it goes on. A month or so after
finishing T11 at the Tour Qualifying
School, Fitzpatrick recorded his first-ever
top-five finish at the South African Open.
So far at least, he is fulfilling all of the
learned predictions that followed his
decision to leave the University of North
Western in Chicago after only three
months and join the paid ranks.
Fitzpatrick discussed all of the above
and more with us in Abu Dhabi. Yes, he
still looks a lot like a schoolboy. But he
handles interviews like a headmaster.
Let’s start with the story so far. You seem
to have made your way onto the
European Tour in a fairly seamless
fashion. Is that a fair assessment?
It is. It has all happened very quickly. It
seems like only five minutes ago I was
winning the US Amateur. Now I’m
playing alongside the big names on the
European Tour. It’s strange to think it is
already two years since I won at Hazeltine.
It feels like ages ago. But it was a great
week and opened so many doors for me. It
gave me a lot of experience of playing at
the very top level at a young age. I will
never forget some of the practice rounds I
had at The Open, US Open and Masters.
For example?
I played with Rickie Fowler and Hunter
Mahan and Tom Watson and DA Points.
Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter too. That
was all good fun.
Are you a ‘brain picker’ or did you just
watch and learn?
Yes and no. I watch more than ask.
Although I did ask basic stuff like how
to organise my schedule, stuff like that.
I tend to go to my coaches when I have
anything a bit deeper to ask. They know
a lot more about the game
than I do.
How important for
you was winning
Fitzpatrick with the
coveted US Amateur
Championship trophy.
the US Amateur? Would you be on the
tour already if you hadn’t won it?
That’s hard to say. But it did give me such
a boost in confidence. And, as I said, I got
to play in three of the majors, as well as a
few PGA Tour events. I had to turn down
most of them but it was nice to be asked.
It was a great experience playing at the
likes of Harbour Town and Bay Hill.
What did you pick up specifically? What
was the difference between you, as a
young amateur, and the hardened tour
professional?
Nothing stood out particularly, because
they were all better than me in almost
every aspect of the game. I was at my level
and they were at theirs. But I was able to
compete. I played all four rounds at
Harbour Town and finished T-23. It was
only my third or fourth pro event and
showed me I could play at that level. It
was obvious I had to improve though. I’ve
always been that way. I look for little
things in my game that need to
get better. Hitting it longer.
Straighter. Chip, pitch and putt
better. Everything really. The
good thing is that I don’t have any
obvious weaknesses. There are
guys on tour who are miles
better than me in certain
aspects, but I’m competitive
in all areas I think.

PLAYING BY
NUMBERS
Edoardo Molinari has used Mark Broadie’s Every Shot Counts book to transform the
way he works on his game – and he believes it can help you, too, says John Huggan.
Drive for show and putt for dough. It’s
one of the oldest clichés in golf, but it
turns out that it isn’t even actually
true. In fact, research from American
professor Mark Broadie in his book
Every Shot Counts proves the long game (shots outside
100 yards) accounts for two-thirds of your score.
And it’s a theory that former Ryder Cup player
Edoardo Molinari wholeheartedly buys into.
The 34-year-old Italian, who possesses an
engineering degree from the University of Torino, is
convinced that long game prowess is the real key to
ultimate success in golf and this has prompted him
to alter his practice and preparation radically. His
argument, backed up by undeniable statistics, is
pretty persuasive.
“If the short game is everything, why was it Seve
couldn’t play at tour level for the last few years of his
career?” asks Molinari. “And look at the guys who
have been number one in the world over the last 20
years or so. Only Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and
Vijay Singh have been there for any significant
length of time. Martin Kaymer, Luke Donald
and Lee Westwood all stayed at the top for
only a year or so. But here’s the thing. Five of
those six have great long games. Only Luke
has a superior short game. And he made it
to number one by holing ‘every’ putt for
a year, which is not a sustainable
formula for success.”
Molinari has some other
questions too. “If you had to play
against a tour pro for £100,
would you play from five feet
away, from just off the green,
from 100 yards out, from 200 yards over water, or
with a driver on a long hole?” he continues. “You
would go for the five-foot putt and work outwards
away from the hole. So would almost everyone
because the shorter the shot, the more chance the
inferior player has. I could easily miss the five-foot
putt a 24-handicapper has just made. But there is no
way I will lose to him hitting a long iron over water.”
Molinari makes a good point. While a certain
proficiency in the short game is obviously a
prerequisite for success at the highest level, the most
impressive thing about most of the game’s true elite
is how they hit the ball. Look at Rory, Adam Scott,
Henrik Stenson, Jason Day and Justin Rose: none is
the best putter on tour. But they are all right up
there in the world rankings. When Stenson won the
DP World Tour Championship at the end of last
year he hit 68 greens from 72 and hit 95% of the
fairways. In other words, he won with his long game.
“I met Mark Broadie in 2011,” says Molinari.
“It was shocking to learn that some of the players
supposed to be the best putters were not at the top
of his list statistically [Broadie invented the strokes
gained – putting statistic now widely used on
the PGA Tour]. Mark takes the average
number of putts from every distance – for
example, from eight feet it is 1.5 –
then gauges everyone against that. So
if I make an eight-foot putt I gain
half-a-shot on the field. If I miss,
I lose half-a-shot.
“Another example: the tour
average from 33 feet is two putts.
If I make one from there I gain
one shot on the field. If I take
June 2015 Golf World 61

TOUR-PROVEN DIS
TEST
GOLF WORLD
We test three market-leading hybrids from TaylorMade, Ping and Adams to see which
ADAMS TIGHT LIES
Key technology: Dual slots in
sole and crown, Tri-Sole design.
Lofts: 17°, 19°, 22°, 25°, 28°
Price: £129
TAYLORMADE R15
Key technology: Sole weight,
white crown, adjustable hosel.
Lofts: 17°, 19°, 21°, 24°
Price: £189
Despite the fact that the hybrid – a club
that combines the performance attributes
of both a fairway wood and an iron – is a
relatively recent technological innovation,
the genre has already evolved several
times since its inception by TaylorMade back in 2003.
The original Rescue club, as its name suggests, was
created purely and simply to help extricate the golf
ball from troublesome situations. Designed primarily
as an alternative to a 2-iron or 3-iron, the general
concept was that the wider sole of the Rescue club
would slide through longer grass, scrappy lies and sand
more easily than the thin, unforgiving blade of a longiron.
Shots would also launch higher for more control

EQUIPMENT
TANCE HYBRIDS
produces the ultimate combination of distance, accuracy, forgiveness and versatility.
PING G30
Key technology: Adjustable
sole weight, heat-treated face.
Lofts: 17°, 19°, 22°, 26°, 30°
Price: £175
– an attribute that became increasingly desirable with
the evolution of the modern, low-spinning golf ball.
Despite the concept being slow to take off in the
UK, the widespread popularity of hybrids in the
American market and their widespread adoption by
PGA Tour players during the past five years has
almost rendered the long-iron obsolete. As a result,
hybrids have become a mainstream equipment
category in their own right rather than a niche and
novelty game-improvement product.
Although a lack of product knowledge has
historically created a certain level of confusion around
the purchasing process, up until recently selecting a
hybrid was relatively straightforward. You either

How to drive it
long & straight
Better technique, a pre-shot routine and a fitted shaft will maximise your driving.
Watch the modern tour professional smack
a drive and it’s hard not to be seduced by
the power on display. Hitting the ball a
long way is of course a key ingredient off
the tee, but we need to remember it is not
the only part. Strong hitting needs to be
supplemented by accuracy and strategy if
you are to get the most from your driver
and lower your scores.
Here, we reveal a truly effective drill to
help you hit the ball further; but we’ll also
improve your driving performance from
three other angles – accuracy, focus and
equipment. This overall approach will help
you achieve genuine and lasting progress.
BY ENRIC
LOPEZ
Head pro at PGA
Catalunya, Spain