Table of contents for Nov 2025 - Issue 438 in Golf Australia

Over the years, Golf Australia has become more than just a magazine – you’ve come to know us as a trusted companion for stories that matter, insights which help your game and photography that brings courses to life. Much of this legacy is thanks to our former Editor Brendan James, whose sharp eye and storytelling finesse still grace these pages whenever we can call on him. We like to think this magazine continues to be a valuable asset for golfers everywhere – whether you’re battling your local layout while chasing personal best scores, or hitting the open road with your favourite humans in search of new fairways and hidden gems. In this particular edition, our coverage is as diverse as it is practical. We feature excellent work from Matt Cleary,…

Tasmania has built itself into one of the world’s most compelling golf destinations. And there is more brewing south of Bass Strait. Barnbougle’s windswept dunes have consistently warranted global acclaim, and Seven Mile Beach has turned heads before it has even been born. Soon, Country Club Tasmania will step into the spotlight. The Launceston venue is in the midst of a $20 million transformation, designed to make it a championship hub and a place where locals and visitors can enjoy a different style of golf compared to some other Tasmanian headline-stealers. New practice facilities, a mini-golf precinct and upgrades across the property are reshaping the venue into something unique for Tasmania. At the heart of that vision stands Ricky Thomas Ponting. One of Tasmania’s icons, and arguably this country’s greatest…

Generally, a sound technique is also the most anatomically correct. Golfers who report pain from swinging a golf club are almost always finding positions that do not make for solid golf shots, and the ‘sway’ is a good example. We can define the sway as a backswing slide, laterally, away from the target. In technical terms it’s a far cry from the more centred and rotational motion we would look for in the backswing; and besides causing a range of striking issues, it puts unwanted and dangerous strain through the trail hip and lower back. Here is an exercise that will help. Always consult a qualified physician before starting any new fitness regimen, and stop at once if the exercise is causing you pain. Very much a lateral drift, the sway…

Can you imagine getting paid for taking a golf lesson from the legendary Ben Hogan? Actor Glenn Ford (right), whose stance is corrected by the maestro in this image, was happy to fit right into that category. Here, Ford is receiving pointers on how to portray the famed golfer in the 1951 dramatisation of the life story of Hogan, Follow The Sun. Some big-name golfers played themselves in the movie, including Sam Snead, Cary Middlecoff, Jimmy Demaret and Grantland Rice.…

Each session begins with a brief sit-down consultation to understand your goals and what equipment is currently in the bag. You’ll then get into your work on the simulators, hitting shots with your clubs while Trackman and Club Champion’s AI Fitter CoPilot capture key metrics like distance, spin, and accuracy. Next, you’ll test a variety of different club heads and shafts from over 65,000 combinations. Your master fitter uses both data and feedback to find the ideal setup for your swing. Once dialed in, your specs are used in our hand-built club process to ensure your new clubs perform exactly as they did in the fitting bay. Every purchase is backed by Club Champion’s Perfect Fit Guarantee and industry-leading support. Club Champion Difference: Tour-Level Technology: TrackMan, AI Fitter CoPilot, SAM…

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: I find there are few better feelings as a golfer than peeling the plastic off the face of a new set of irons. From your first ever full set, to doing it for the 5th, 10th, 100th time. It is an instant serotonin boost which never gets old. The new Titleist T-Series range is a phenomenal looking club, from the brand new T100s through to the T350s. At first look, the new T-Series irons reinforce Titleist’s design philosophy of clean, compact shaping. Each model progresses logically in size: the T100 and T150 remain traditional in profile, while the T250 and T350 introduce more topline and sole width without straying too far from a players’ silhouette. The transitions are deliberate, which makes blending sets straightforward. In testing, the standout…

Walk into any golf shop these days and you’ll see racks upon racks of gleaming drivers, irons, hybrids and wedges; each promising more distance, forgiveness or control than the last. For decades, golfers bought clubs the way they might buy a pair of shoes: off the rack, by size and style, with maybe a quick waggle in the shop before handing over the credit card. But in 2025, that approach looks as outdated as persimmon woods and balata balls. The modern golfer is increasingly turning to custom club-fitting, where technology, expertise and careful analysis come together to match equipment to swing. And the impact is profound. “Properly fitted clubs can make a huge difference,” says Alex Dudley-Bateman, Leadership Club Technician at Acushnet Australia, parent company of Titleist. “I sometimes compare…

In contrast with the outside-the-ropes bedlam which dominated the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in late September, the 2025 Walker Cup matches between Great Britain and Ireland’s best 10 amateur golfers and those from the United States was billed as an oh-so civilised occasion. Held at the oh-so exclusive Cypress Point club, on the oh-so picturesque Monterey Peninsula, in oh-so cool Northern California, this clash between Old World and New was billed as golf at its absolute best. In many ways it was, of course. Cypress Point is a truly unique course; the Alister Mackenzie-designed layout a throwback to a time when golf at the highest level was a nuanced game; one filled with a wide range of shot-making, laced with touch and feel and imagination. Only 6600 yards in…

Australia may be the Lilliput of golf alongside the U.S PGA and DP World Tours, but the nation’s best players are giants. One of them, Greg Norman, among only three Australian men to win two or more majors alongside Peter “Five Times” Thomson and David Graham (also two), believes that Australia will continue to produce champion golfers. “Australia holds its own given our population.” Norman told Golf Australia magazine. “I am never worried about us producing extremely good golfing talent.” So, what does Norman think about the future of Australian golf on and off the field, given the minnow status of the Australasian Tour? “This question has never gone away for the 45 years I have been in the game, on and off the golf course,” Norman said. “Australia punches…

SCAN HERE TO SEE THIS TIP IN ACTION During my career, I’ve had the opportunity to play golf with so many of Australia’s great sports people – and they’re all crazy about the game. Formula One drivers, tennis players, cricketers, footballers; so many of them play golf every chance they get. Put it this way: the largest item of luggage carried on a cricket tour by the Australian team is their golf clubs. What I’ve found in talking to these athletes is that the basic fundamentals of a golf swing apply to so many other sports as well. I have broken it down to four immutable, fundamental laws. The number-one law in all ball games is: watch the ball. Tennis players watch the ball on to the racquet. Cricketers watch…

How would you describe a great golf swing? When I ask golfers this, the same adjectives pop up time and again – ‘flowing’, ‘confident’, ‘effortlessly powerful’. But when I ask them to describe their own swings, I get a very different list! There’s no question the typical club player struggles to find the freedom, timing and coordination that appear to come so easily to the expert. We could spend all day debating why that is; but for a better use of our time, let’s focus on what we can do to get those desirable traits into your action. My 21-day Challenge offers just that. It’s a chance for the struggling golfer to reset, to learn some new concepts and ideas that will allow them to replace that stuttering, uncertain, misfiring…

Players at all levels of our great and beloved game will benefit from having their golf clubs – and golf ball – fitted to their swing and body. As time has gone on, the fitting process has become more thorough. Launch monitors and other modern tech have advanced the fitting process, maximising the attention to detail to aspects like lie angle, shaft options, bounce and loft. Every base is covered down to the ground. Over the following pages, some of the most significant golf and fitting brands showcase how they do their thing. See how the process can help you find the missing piece of the puzzle and lower your scores with a better fit.…

PING’s fitting philosophy began with Karsten Solheim’s colour code chart, which matched lie angle and club length to a golfer’s height and wrist-to-floor measurement. Decades later, the chart remains central to the process, now enhanced by ball tracking and data capture for even greater precision. Professionally fitted clubs, tailored to body, swing, and preference, continue to unlock better performance. Behind this is the PING Golf Science team; engineers and researchers focused on constant improvement. Whether at a PING Fitting Studio or with a certified fitter, every session is designed to be precise, educational, and personal. Both indoor and outdoor fittings useTrackMan and techniques validated at the PING Proving Grounds to ensure consistency. The process follows a systematic “process of elimination,” narrowing choices until the two best-performing clubs remain. From there,…

ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND: Dustin Johnson cut a familiar figure as he strode across the Old Course during a practice round ahead of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. With the storied clubhouse looming behind him and the wide fairways stretching ahead, Johnson looked relaxed yet purposeful – an image of a modern star walking in step with golf’s most hallowed ground. ROSTOCK, GERMANY: WINSTON golf provided a striking stage for the Senior Open, its manicured fairways and rolling greens sitting quietly against the northern German landscape. On the third day of play, the course revealed both its beauty and its challenge – broad vistas, subtle undulations and a tranquillity which belied the competitive intensity within the ropes. WE’VE HEARD OF SHOTGUN STARTS, BUT … If the Mike Judge movie Idiocracy taught…

Great news, wasn’t it? On top of Rory McIlroy signing up for the next two Australian Opens, the statement from Augusta National that the winner of our national title will be invited to the Masters Tournament only serves to further elevate the stature of what should be one of golf’s most important events. Throw in a return to our best course, Royal Melbourne, for the first time since 1991 and it is clear that, in contrast with a year ago when the Australian Open was being roundly criticised, the championship is on the rise. Exciting times are ahead. All of which had me overcome with a bout of nostalgia. My own relationship with the Australian Open goes back as far as 1984. As a seven-year old, I was at Royal…

Pressure in golf comes in many forms. It might show up as pre-round anxiety – using your current energy on an undesirable future outcome. It might be first-tee jitters, when your hands shake as you try to tee the ball up, your body tightens like a python constricting around you, and you feel the judgment of every eye upon you. It might be the back nine, especially the final few holes where the stakes feel highest. It could be standing over a short putt on the 18th green and watching it slide by to lose by a single. If you’ve ever played competitive golf for anything worth winning, you’ve felt the manifestations of pressure. The key to coping with it is understanding it. And harnessing it. So, why does it…

We all know the qualities of a great golf swing – rhythm, power, coordination, balance, timing. But for so many golfers, these qualities seem almost impossible to find. Why? Because more often than not, the pursuit of the positions that are supposed to deliver them jams us up instead. What we often need is a less technical, more instinctive way of training great mechanics… and thanks to the concept of swinging a rope, we have one. Picture swinging a club-length of rope around you… or better yet, find some rope and cut it to size. The simple intention of creating speed and momentum in the swinging rope will develop a range of benefits: ◼ Overuse the hands, arms and wrists and the rope goes slack. You are forced to engage…

That’s why Titleist continues to invest as much in fitting as it does in crafting the game’s most trusted products. The updated 2025 range – led by the new T-Series irons has been designed to help golfers control the golf ball. But the product alone is only half the story. For Titleist, it’s the fitting process that makes the difference. Titleist sport some of the best fitters across the industry. This network of experts utilises advanced tools such as Trackman to make sure golfers are optimising club performance and fine-tuning set composition. The 3Ds of fitting Jonathan Law, Titleist’s Golf Club Fitting Leader, says the focus is on three key areas. The Three’ Ds’. These are foundational performance metrics that define how well iron set-ups and scoring club combinations work…

But there’s one piece of gear that’s in play on every single shot — the golf ball. Choosing the right one can make a bigger difference to your scores than you might think. That’s why ball fitting has become an essential part of the modern game, helping players of all levels hit it further, find more fairways and ultimately, lower their scores. Bridgestone Golf has long been a leader in this space. Since pioneering ball fitting back in 2006, the company has fitted more than 4.4 million golfers into the right ball for their game — more than anyone else. It’s a number that highlights not just their expertise, but also the demand from players who want to squeeze every bit of performance out of their equipment. And the truth…