TG_342_PREVIEW

TODAY’S GOLFER JANUARY 2016 (NOVEMBER 26-DECEMBER 28) 342
JAN 2016 ISSUE 342 NOV 26-DEC 28 £4.50
Winter golf
essentials
Caddie
secrets
From Bedford to
Bangkok, with Ian
Poulter’s bag man
WWW.TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK
n Chips over bunkers n Drives with OB
right n That shot after a shank... & more
Clues from
your clubs
Your kit reveals where
you could improve
10 rules
of driving
By Greg Norman

DRIVING
More launch, more yards
Focus on your upper body to create more height and longer drives
Fault: Loss of distance via low launch.
Fix: Keep the chest behind the ball
through impact to send the ball higher.
One of the key things launch monitors
have shown us is where distance comes
from. By revealing how impact conditions
like angle of attack affect ball flight, they
have given us a better understanding of
the technique we need to hit the ball
further. For the vast majority of golfers,
longer drives mean launching the ball
higher. The good news for us is that while
phrases like launch angle and dynamic
loft sound complicated, achieving a
higher launch is actually very simple.
Here, I’ll show how a simple focus on
your upper body can help you launch it
higher, and hit it further.
Kick a football
When a striker balloons it
over the bar, pundits groan
“he leaned back as he struck
the ball”. When your chest
or sternum is behind the
object you’re striking, you will
inevitably hit it up. While that
position may not be great for
strikers, it’s perfect for golfers
trying to hit the driver higher.
Lean back and let rip
Set up to promote this leant-back
impact, with the ball opposite your lead
heel and your trail shoulder lower. During
the swing, fix that thought of a footballer
leaning back in your head. As you swing
down, aim to increase the feeling by
leaning back through impact to send the
ball up and out on a high launch.
TG TOP 50
KEVIN FLYNN
TOURNERBURY GC, HANTS
Fellow of the
PGA and a
European
Golf
Development
Consultant.
30 ISSUE 342 TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK

Fault
Fixer
Shoot at the clouds
If I gave you two golf balls
and asked you to hit one at
the clouds and the other
along the ground, you
would instinctively develop
two different techniques
to create those outcomes,
the first sweeping upward
on the ball and the second
squeezing down.
High finish
One positive side effect of shooting
for the clouds is that you will find it
easier to make the full, free-flowing
followthrough that is the hallmark of
a powerful, high launch.
Let it fly
To develop your own
high launch, think
simply of sending the
ball to the sky. Do this
and that leant-away
impact position, your
sternum behind the ball,
will take care of itself.
MORE TIPS ONLINE
www.todaysgolfer.co.uk/tips
TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK ISSUE 342 31

‘With the
technology
they have now,
I’d have been
hitting it 340
yards, easily’
80 ISSUE 342 TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK

10 RULES
Greg Norman on...
Great drives
The Great White Shark was one of the greatest players of all-time with the
big dog. He tells you how to gain power and accuracy – at the same time
WORDS ROB Mc GARR PICTURES MARK NEWCOMBE, GETTY IMAGES
reg Norman is one of the best
G drivers in golf history. Don’t just take
our word for it, take Nick Price’s:
“The best driver I ever saw was Greg
Norman,” says the Zimbabwean.
Norman spent more than 300 weeks as
the number one golfer in the world, topping
the World Golf Rankings for seven years and
winning 86 tournaments. During that time, his
greatest weapon was his length and accuracy
off the tee, which was enough to intimidate
opponents, especially when he could carry his
ball beyond where theirs had finished.
If you want to bomb it long and straight,
just follow The Shark’s 10 bits of advice…
1The first thing you’ve got to do is visualise
your shot. Whether you want to take on
the aggressive play or not, it’s up to you and
how you’re feeling at that moment. You’ve got
to decide what you want to do so you can
fully commit to it.
2You’ve got to know where not to hit it.
Don’t just try to hit it down the middle of
the fairway. To me, it’s about using all of the
fairway, not just half of it. If there’s trouble
down the left and your natural shot shape is
left to right – as mine was – aim down the left
and take that side out of play. It’s not being
negative; it’s using the layout of the course to
your advantage.
3I like to ‘spot target’. When you’ve
visualised your shot, you know where you
want the ball to end up. You can then pick a
target in the distance you want the ball to
head towards that will let it finish where you
want it to finish.
4I always vary the tee height depending
on the type of shot I am trying to hit.
Teeing it higher or lower is one of the easiest
ways to change the shot you hit, because it
changes your impact with the ball and the
spin you put on it.
5The last word I say to myself before
I start my swing is ‘rhythm’. The first 18-
24 inches of the backswing is the most
important part of the swing. That’s where you
set the club. If you take it away for the first 18
inches with rhythm, the position takes care of
itself. You just keep rotating the body and the
club will find the right position.
6Try to maintain your triangle as long as
possible. At address, there’s a triangle
formed between your arms and your chest.
The longer I keep that triangle intact, the
more extension I get. You should have the
same swing with your driver as the rest of
your clubs. People talk about a ‘driver swing’
and an ‘iron swing’, but I don’t know why
you’d want to have two swings to work on –
it’s hard enough getting one right! You want to
replicate your standard swing as much as you
can, whether you’re hitting a 300-yard drive
or a 100-yard wedge.
7My power all came from my hips. I have
a move called ‘right pocket back, right
pocket forward’. You pull the right pocket
back in the takeaway and push it forward in
your downswing. The harder I wanted to hit
the ball, the more I pulled my right pocket
back. Then I pushed my right pocket forward,
through the back of the ball. I could crank it
up by 15-20 per cent, just by getting that extra
clubhead speed with body rotation. You’re not
trying to speed up your arms; they speed up
automatically with your body.
8It works for anybody. I look at amateur
golfers, and too many times their right
pocket stops at impact – or even before
impact. Keep that right pocket moving
forward towards the ball and you’ll pick up
more distance and accuracy – I guarantee it.
9With the technology they have now, I’d
have been hitting it 340 yards, easily.
I tested my old equipment against the
modern gear and the difference was 48 yards.
That said, don’t change your
10 equipment for the sake of it. I’m using
a lot of the same specifications today as
I have for the last 30 or 40 years. The grips
are the same and my shafts are the same
length. If you find something that works, stick
with it. Tiger Woods is struggling with his driver,
but he can hit his 3-wood 300 yards and
straight. If I were him, I’d try to replicate the
specification from my 3-wood in my driver.
TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK ISSUE 342 81

BEERS,
BIRDIES
& BANTER
TG spent a day quizzing best mates Darren Clarke and
Lee Westwood. Some of the answers were safe to print...
WORDS ROB Mc GARR PICTURES HOWARD BOYLAN, GETTY IMAGES
ee Westwood and Darren Clarke (or
L ‘Wetwood’ and ‘Clarkey’ as they refer
to each other) have been close friends
for longer than Jordan Spieth has been alive.
They’re always on hand when there’s an
opportunity to mock the other, the barbecue is
being lit or a nice cold beer is cracked open.
But it’s not all jokes and jibes. They are the
second most successful partnership in Ryder
Cup history, taking down the likes of Tiger
Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Jim Furyk,
Mark O’Meara and Tom Lehman, among others.
Clarke has a Major under his belt – the 2011
Open at Royal St George’s – while Westwood is
a former world number one.
Get the two of them together and set the tape
recorder running and the result is an
entertaining insight into their relationship with
each other and the game they both love. And
some of it was even safe to print…
Who hits it the furthest out of the two of you?
DC: Him. I’m older than him, though.
LW: It’s debatable, really.
DC: We used to be very similar.
LW: We’re probably such good Ryder Cup
partners – especially foursomes – because we
hit it almost exactly the same distance.
And who’s got the better short game?
LW: Him, no question. He’s got a short game.
That puts him streets ahead.
DC: I’ll take the Fifth Amendment on this one!
LW: I’m better at putting from long range.
Especially around bunkers…
DC: He’s better at putting in all respects. If
there’s a big important putt, we’d want him on it.
Who’s stronger in the gym?
LW: There’s not a lot in it, really.
DC: We’d be pretty close. We’ve both had our
spells of getting bigger, getting stronger and
all that.
What’s the strongest part of your game?
DC: Mental.
LW: [Interrupting] He is. He is mental.
DC: [Laughs] The strongest part of my game
➔
62 ISSUE 342 TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK

CLARKE v WESTWOOD
In charge
Might one
captain the
other in Ryder
Cup 2016?

Bag for life
Mundy has
25 years’
caddying
experience.
68 ISSUE 342 TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK

TERRY MUNDY
The man
behind
the bag
Terry Mundy has been Ian Poulter’s right-hand man for nearly a
decade. He lifts the lid on what life is really like inside the ropes
WORDS ROB Mc GARR PICTURES ANGUS MURRAY, GETTY IMAGES
n the past, anyone with two
I
shoulders and the ability to grunt,
“Aye, a seven’ll get there” could be a
caddie. But things have changed. The role of
caddie is now a highly technical, respected,
and, in some cases, well remunerated one. In a
world where one shot can cost you hundreds
of thousands, the top professionals
acknowledge that golf is a two-man game, and
having the right man on the bag can be the
difference between a missed cut and a
tournament win.
“The top-100 players have fairly high
demands about what they want from their
caddie,” says Poulter. “Terry is part of the new
breed of caddie. He adopts the same attitude
to professionalism that I do. We think the same
way about the game. He follows the same
thought processes as me and has the same
work ethic. The more he knows
about a course, the more he
can step in and be confident
enough to say if he thinks
I might be about to
do the wrong
thing. He is
absolutely not a
‘yes man’. He has a
strong character and
is not afraid to voice an opinion. We have
become good mates. I almost spend more
time with him than I do my wife!”
Having chopped and changed caddies
during his first few years on Tour, Poulter has
found his man in Mundy and stuck with him.
This season will be their 10th together, so it
seems the perfect time to sit down with the
48-year-old and find out what life is like on the
other side of the bag. Unlike occasionally tightlipped
Tour Pros, Mundy was happy to talk
about the preparation that goes into a
tournament, how you can save shots with
better strategy, and what happens when he
makes a mistake…
How did you get into caddying?
I’ve been caddying since 1989. I used to work
as a printer and I lived in
Bletchley, down the road from
Woburn. I used to drink in a pub
in Brickhill and over the years
I got to know a few players
and caddies. Alicia Dibos
turned up for The Ford
Ladies Classic one year
without a caddie, so
I said I’d do it. I was a
half-decent golfer, so
I understood the game. I did that for a couple of
years, just doing the odd week here and there,
and then redundancies came up at the printing
firm. My plan was to take redundancy, have a
bit of fun travelling around Europe caddying for
six months, and then get back into printing.
What changed?
I got a little bit of success quite early. In my
third or fourth tournament, we finished second
and I picked up a nice cheque. I thought, ‘Hang
on, if I get a good player and do that regularly,
I could earn more at this than I do printing’.
I got a couple of decent results early on, and
then got offered a job with Alison Nicholas,
who was one of the top players on the Ladies’
Tour at the time. The results were even better
with her, and so were the cheques. I worked for
Trish Johnson, Laura Davies and a few other
female golfers, did a bit of work on the
European Tour with Jonathan Lomas and
Ignacio Garrido, and then hooked up with Ian.
How good a golfer were you? Do you still play
the game?
I played off three. I was never good enough to
consider playing the game for a living, but
I played in club scratch teams and stuff like
that. I play to about six or seven now, but most
➔
TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK ISSUE 342 69

PATRICK REED
It’s good to be
BAD
US superstar Patrick Reed doesn’t care
whether you love him – or hate him
WORDS GARRETT JOHNSTON PICTURES GETTY IMAGES
want people to know who I am,” says Patrick
I Reed. He shouldn’t have too many concerns on
that front. The 25-year-old from San Antonio, Texas,
only turned pro four years ago, but his short career has
already made countless headlines, cementing his role as
golf’s biggest bad boy.
He’s been accused of cheating in college events and
stealing from fellow students. He was expelled from his first
college after two arrests for underage drinking, forced to
apologise after directing a profanity-laced homophobic slur
at himself following a three-putt during a PGA Tour event in
Shanghai, and became the pantomime villain at Gleneagles
after repeatedly antagonising the home fans.
But, of course, those headlines don’t tell the full story, and
Reed’s on-course performances are reason enough for
people to know his name. After making his PGA Tour debut
in 2011, Reed secured starts in 12 events during 2012,
mainly through the incredibly competitive Monday prequalifying.
Having earned those spots, he proved he
warranted them, making seven cuts and taking home over
$300,000. At the end of that season, he went through every
round of Q School to secure a PGA Tour card for 2013, when
he would win his first title – the Wyndham Championship in
a play-off against a little-known fellow Texan going by the
name of Jordan Spieth.
2014 saw two more wins – the WGC-Cadillac
Championship, where Reed beat Bubba Watson and Jamie
Donaldson by one shot – and a dominant performance at
the Humana Challenge, where Reed set a PGA Tour record
for most strokes under par through 54 holes. Three rounds
of 63 saw him 27-under-par on Saturday evening. Those
victories made Reed only the fifth golfer to earn three PGA
Tour wins before his 24th birthday, joining Tiger Woods, Phil
Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia. You can since
add Jordan Spieth’s name to that list, of course.
But Reed is not content being a footnote amongst big
names. He has a burning desire to be the main man, and
anyone who stands in his way should be prepared for one
hell of a fight.
We caught up with him after the third-round of the BMW
Championship. While most of us would be pretty content
having signed for a 69, Reed went straight to the range for
45 minutes honing his game. Satisfied with his work, he was
in relaxed but focused mood as he chatted about everything
from beating Spieth, past controversies, Ryder Cups, and
mac and cheese… ➔
TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK ISSUE 342 43

COBRA
Return of the King
Two new multi-adjustable drivers bear Cobra’s legendary moniker
obra made headlines a month
C
ago when it resurrected the
legendary King name in its new
Ltd driver. That club, with its unique
SpacePort technology, was Cobra’s top-ofthe-range
driver for 2016, with a price tag
to match. Now the King moniker has been
applied to two more models featuring
tons of adjustability – but with sub-£300
rrps. Both let you change your launch
conditions, in very different ways.
Cobra King F6+ £299
Cobra says the F6+ is its longest, most
adjustable driver to date. In a first for golf,
the F6+ has a carbon sole track. This,
along with a carbon crown, allowed
Cobra’s engineers to save 18g of mass to
use in a sliding weight which will change
the launch conditions.
It can be moved to five positions, from
just behind the face (for lower spin and
launch) to the back of the head (to
increase MOI and forgiveness).
We were among the first people in
Europe to test the F6+, and our first
impression was that it’s a solid club with
simple tech that works (watch the video
at www.todaysgolfer.co.uk/cobraf6)
TG test pro Chris Ryan hit the F6+ on a
launch monitor and saw a 2.8° increase in
launch angle with the weight at the back.
This extra launch increased his carry
distance by 10 yards, which demonstrates
Cobra F6+
An 18g sole
weight is located in
a carbon track and
lets you move the
centre of gravity
from front to back.
84 ISSUE 342 TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK

the importance of setting up such a
high-tech driver properly to suit your
swing characteristics.
That’s not all the technology either.
There’s also a super-hot variable
thickness 8-1-1 titanium face, a speed
channel around the perimeter of the
face and a MYFLY8 adjustable hosel,
which lets you tune the loft, lie and shot
bias to your own game.
Cobra King F6 £249
The F6 doesn’t have the sliding weight
on the sole, but it does feature the
ability to move the centre of gravity
using a moveable weight.
This 10g plug can be switched
between front and back locations to
offer either a penetrating ball flight with
more run or a towering shot shape for
Cobra F6
There’s no sliding
track, so the 10g
weight can be
switched from
front to back to
alter launch.
maximum carry distance. When we got
it on a launch monitor, pro tester Chris
Ryan hit the F6 with the weight in both
its forward and back positions. An
increase of 1.8° in launch angle with the
weight in the rear port added an extra
five yards of carry.
Like the F6+, Cobra’s weight-saving
tech comes into play with a lightweight
titanium crown, a variable thickness
8-1-1 titanium face and speed channel
allowing extra weight to be positioned to
increase MOI and ball speeds.
● Details: Cobra F6+ £299. Stock
shaft: Matrix Black Tie 65M4. Cobra
King F6 £249. Stock shaft: Matrix Red
Tie 60Q4. Both models are available
with black, blue or white crowns.
www.cobragolf.co.uk
New
Gear
Cobra King F6
fairway, £179
Cobra has designed the F6 fairways to
match both drivers. A 20g sole weight can
be switched between either a front or back
location allowing you to tune spin, launch
and shot trajectory to your own game.
There’s also a speed channel around the
clubface and an adjustable hosel means
you can tailor lofts, lies and shot bias.
● Details: 3-4F (adjustable 13°-16°); 5-6F
(17°-20°); 7-8F (21°-24°).
Both F6 drivers are available with black, blue or white crowns,
while the thin, lightweight titanium face features the
next generation of Cobra’s “E9” zoning, which uses variable
thicknesses to create a larger sweetspot across the entire face.
Cobra King F6
hybrid, £149
The sole weight in the hybrid is located to
increase MOI and forgiveness. Both fairway
and hybrid are cast 17-4 stainless steel
heads and feature springy carpenter steel
faces to maximise ball speeds. Hybrid only
available in black.
● Details: Lofts 2-3H (adjustable 16°-19°);
2-4H (19°-22°); 4-5H (22°-25°). Stock
shaft: Matrix Red Tie HQ4.
TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK ISSUE 342 85

Courses
& Travel
WHERE TO PLAY AT
HOME AND ABROAD
EDITED BY KEVIN BROWN
Burhill Old
Proof a great
round in Surrey
doesn’t have to
break the bank .

REGIONAL GUIDE
Surrey’s hidden value
If you thought quality golf in the county meant exorbitant green fees, think again
WORDS KEVIN BROWN
f you’re looking for quality inland
I golf, Surrey is the place to go: the
classiest of London suburbia is rife
with stunning inland courses of the heathland,
parkland and downland variety guaranteeing
the best inland golf in the country.
You’ve got the trinity of the famous Ws –
Woking, Worplesdon and West Hill – not to
mention the even more famous and historic
Wentworth and Walton Heath with a handful
of simply sensational courses between them.
However, all this amazing world-class action
comes at a rather hefty price – usually
handsomely three-figures plus... though these
days, since the new owners moved in at
Wentworth, visitors can’t get a game even if
they are prepared to cough up over £300!
But don’t despair: Surrey isn’t solely about
courses requiring you to take out a second
mortgage in order to tee it up. Look past those
high-profile clubs and you’ll discover an
impressive array of hidden gems which
provide unbelievable value… considerably
less than three figures and, in many cases,
hovering well below the £50 mark. You can
even play some, such as Guildford – home to
a wonderful downland layout and the oldest
club (1886) in the county – for £30 if you’ve
got a 2-FORE!-1 voucher and you can’t get
much better or fairer than that. ➔