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| Thursday, April 25, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
 Ryder Cup... How do you explain how 12 players from six different countries can get together under the European flag every second year and play as a team with the passion that they do? America try, and Americans are probably the most patriotic nation in the World, and yet the Europeans somehow just get it right. After going 3-1 down after the first mornings play, the European fans were worried, but then came the best two sessions of golf by the European Team in the history of the Ryder Cup. They won 7 of the next 8 points. They each won two matches in the afternoon, which left the score at 10-6. The first match out on Sunday was Justin Thomas versus Rory McIlroy and Rory seemed to be in control, but Justin clawed his way back. When Rory plugged the ball in the bunker on the final hole, Justin got the first point. Paul Casey showed great heart getting half a point against US Open champion Brooks Koepka. In the first six matches the USA won 3 and tied 1 and Europe won 2, which meant that Europe needed 2½ more points out of the last final 6 matches. In fact they won 5 of the 6 to win the Ryder Cup by 17½-10½. McIlory – Thomas (1 Up) Casey – Koepka (Halved) Rose – Simpson (3 & 2) Rahm (2 & 1) - Woods Fleetwood – Finau (6 & 4) Poulter (2-Up) – Johnson Olesen (5 & 4) – Spieth Garcia (2 & 1) – Fowler Molinari (4 & 2) - Mickelson Hatton – Reed (3 & 2) Stenson (5 & 4)– Watson Noren (1 Up)– DeChambeau The Captains The two Captains were both terrific. Jim Furyk’s opening speech was sensational and both have worked extremely hard over the last two years. I was critical that Thomas Bjorn left out Matt Wallace but clearly he went for experience and I apologise – he proved himself 100% right. The USA picks scores were 2 wins, 10 losses and no halves, while the European picks went 9 wins, 4 losses and 1 half, so 9½ points versus 2 points. Well done to Thomas Bjorn and his Vice-Captains. The Players After his fantastic win in Atlanta at the Tour Championship, Tiger Woods was clearly out of sorts. Zero points for Tiger in four matches. Ridiculous. I don’t think he ever smiled. He walked and bent over very gingerly. Is his back playing up? I certainly hope not – we need Tiger and we need him healthy. Patrick Reed was also missing in action until the singles and Phil Mickelson just didn’t seem to be in the zone at all. Last week I spoke about the fact that Tiger and Phil have extremely poor Ryder Cup records – well now they are even worse. Will Phil insist on another Task Force as he did after the USA’s loss at Gleneagles? I wonder if Tiger and Phil will become Captain’s and how good a job they will do. Tigers win percentage of all Ryder Cup matches is now below 40%. He’s won 13, lost 21 and halved 3. We have all realized over the last two years that Justin Thomas is a class act and an outstanding player with no flaws in his game. He scored 4 out of 5 points for the USA. For Europe the clear stars were Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood, who won all of their team games. It was fitting that the Open Champion won the winning point when he beat Mickelson in the singles. Molinari scored 5 points, Fleetwood 4 and Poulter, Stenson and Garcia scored 3 points each. Sergio’s Singles win on Sunday makes him the top European Ryder Cup points scorer of all-time with 25½ points. Nick Faldo previously held the record with 25 points. Report Card: -
The Course Thomas Bjorn got it just right. Although an American style course, it was the set up that gave the advantage to Europe. Narrow fairways that put a premium on getting the tee shot onto the fairway and slower greens, which the American team is not used to, gave an important slight edge to the Europeans. Summary The European Team quite simply GET the Ryder Cup. It’s massive for any golfer from Europe and unfortunately the Americans have only started to get that since Europe started beating them. Tiger still doesn’t seem to buy into the event. Only one USA team member made an effort to play on the golf course before the event and that was Justin Thomas who played in this year’s French Open. With private jets, you would think that they could have strayed slightly off course before or after the Open Championship to get a sneak peak. Europe put more effort in and they get more out. Simple. Since it became Europe versus the USA in 1979 the scores have been 11 wins to Europe, 8 wins to the USA and one tie. When the ball hits back... Tiger Wood’s win in the Tour Championship sent shock waves through the golf fraternity. NBC reported that TV viewership of this year event was 206 percent up on last year! If you never watched the coverage and never saw how dramatic the crowds at the event were – just check this out…quite something to behold! Check out this video of the South African Disabled Golf Association’s Canon FSP Inter-Schools held at Zwartkop last month. Truly inspiring stuff – well-done to the players and especially to all at the SADGA for what they do for the game. Strokes Gained… The strokes-gained statistic was developed by Columbia business professor Mark Broadie. Click Here for a low-down on how it works.  • Bryson De Chambeau had back to back wins in the Northern Trust & Dell Technologies Opens (31st Aug to 2nd Sept): -“I’ve always been a guy that’s been weird and unique relative to everybody else. I’ve always gone about my business trying to do the absolute best I can. Let today’s garbage be better than yesterday’s. And so I don’t view people’s criticism as a negative thing. I actually view it as a positive thing because what people can’t understand sometimes is actually a benefit to the person that does understand it.” • Matt Fitzpatrick became the youngest Englishman to get to five European Tour victories after winning the Omega European Masters (6th to 9th Sept) at Crans-sur-Sierre GC: - “This is what I wanted to achieve this season - another win…Of all my wins I'd say that was definitely the most difficult. I didn't have my A game today, despite loving this place I just didn't play my best today. I managed to grind it out, made some crucial birdies coming in and I'm delighted. This is one of my best.” • Angela Stanford won her first major in her 18th year on Tour and became the first American to win the The Evian Championship (13th to 16th Sept) since it was made a major: - “I’m so happy for everybody at home, everybody that’s cheered for me and never gave up on me. I mean, God is funny. He catches you off guard just when you think that maybe you’re done. It’s amazing…The road hasn’t always been easy to get to this point, but it was cool today.” • Tiger Woods returned to the winners circle for the first time in five years at the TOUR Championship (20th to 23rd Sept) at East Lake GC in Atlanta: - “There was a point in time I didn't know if I'd ever do this again... to kind of get to the 80 mark is a big number. Sam (Snead) is still ahead of me. I've still got, I feel like, a chance to play some more golf and maybe I'll keep chipping away at that number and maybe surpass it. But I just think that what I've gone through and what I've dealt with, I've gotten lucky, to be honest with you. I've gotten very lucky.” • Europe took back the THE RYDER CUP (28th to 30th Sept) with a convincing victory at Le Golf National in Paris. Justin Rose sums up why they won: - “I think what Thomas did and the backroom staff did for the team is what you don't see along this line right now. You see a bunch of guys who are elated and you see a bunch of guys enjoying the situation and you see a bunch of guys having drinks to celebrate. But what this team did not do was drop their guard until this moment right here. This team was relentless in its pursuit of excellence. We ticked every box we could control all week long, whether it be recovery, nutrition, practice rounds. Our focus was unbelievable this week. Thomas didn't fill our week with pointless team meetings. He trusted us to be 12 players that would come together, and today trusted us to be 12 individuals. But 12 individuals working towards the same common goal. We didn't drop our guard all week long. We stayed on point as a group and the discipline we showed got us to this point. Now we can let our hair down and really drop our guard hard.”  • Congratulations to Adilson Da Silva who won his first title on the Asian Tour at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters at the Taiwan Golf and Country Club. He took a one shot lead into the final round and shot a 2-under 70 to win on 7-under 281. Berry Henson and Lin Wen-Tang tied for second on 6-under, with Justin Hiarding and Heungchol Joo tied for 4th on 4-under. Scott Vincent tied for 7th on 2-under and Shaun Norris tied for 9th on 1-under. • Alex Haindl won the Vodacom Origins – St Francis at St Francis Links. With bad weather in the forecast the organisers played the last two rounds in one day. That didn’t stop Haindl, who started the final round four shots back, from shooting a 5-under 67 to win by one on 12-under 204. Thirty-six hole leader Neil Schietekat tied for second alongside Jake Roos on 11-under while Jaco Ahlers; Daniel Greene and Titch Moore tied for fourth on 8-under. • Ken Tanigawa won his first PGA TOUR Champions title at the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach. He came into the final round with a two-shot lead and shot a level par 72. He closed with 35-foot putt for eagle that saw him win by one over Kirk Triplett and Marco Dawson on 10-under 205. Duffy Waldorf was fourth on 8-under. David Frost tied for 17th on 3-under. • Joint overnight leader, Michael Pfeifer won his maiden IGT title at the IGT Witbank Open at the Witbank Golf Club. He shot a final round 6-under 66 that saw him win by two on 11-under 209. England’s Jeff Inglis finished second on 9-under while Kyle Barker and Ruan Groenwald tied for third on 5-under. Brandon Pieters and his amateur partner Hennie Kruger won the Pro-Am Competition with a 13-under 59 on Saturday. • The European Tour First Stage Section C Qualifiers were held last week with Gary Hurley winning on 9-under 279 at Frilford Heath in Abingdon in the United Kingdom. South African Mathew Rushton tied for 6th on 5-under. Leandro Marelli won on 19-under 269 at the Bogogno Golf Resort in Italy. South African’s Tyrone Ryan & Rouke van der Spuy tied for 7th on 14-under and for 17th on 9-under respectively. They will progress through to the Second Stage. • Bryanston Country Club’s Craig Kamps won the North West Senior Open at Orkney. He shot rounds of 69-70 to win by three on 5-under 139. Morgan Phillips and Brian Chernotsky tied for second on 2-under. William Skinner was fourth on 2-over. • The biggest money earners in sport – 1st - Floyd Mayweather ($285 million); 2nd – Lionel Mesi ($111 million); 3rd – Christiano Ronaldo ($108 million); 16th – Tiger Woods ($43,5 million; $ 1,3 = prizemoney); 22nd - Phil Mickelson ($41,3 million; $4,3 = prizemoney); 23rd – Jordan Spieth ($41,2 million; $11,2 = prizemoney); 26th – Rory McIlroy ($37,7 million; $3,7 = prizemoney); 66th – Justin Thomas ($26 million; $21 = prizemoney) • Who’s up this week? (Please note that this is the entry list as at Monday & is subject to change) • PGA TOUR - Safeway Open – Dylan Frittelli; Tyrone van Aswegen • EUROPEAN TOUR – Alfred Dunhill Links Championship – Louis Oosthuizen; Branden Grace; Ernie Els; Trevor Immelman; Dean Burmester; Haydn Porteous; Darren Fichardt; Brandon Stone; George Coetzee; Richard Sterne; Thomas Aiken; Zander Lombard; Erik van Rooyen; Jacques Kruyswijk; Justin Walters; Jaco van Zyl; Ulrich van der Berg; Kyle McClatchie; JC Ritchie; Oliver Bekker; Okkie Strydom; Louis De Jager; Jaco Ahlers; Jean-Paul Strydom; Keith Horne; Christiaan Bezuidenhout • LPGA – UL International Crown
 If you are a TV golf viewer you will have heard all the American commentators talking about Bryson DeChambeau and his one-length irons. This is not new. One length irons first came out in the seventies, then in the eighties Tommy Armour marketed a set of them. Both times the concept never gained traction, but this time around it’s different, because it was Bryson who made up his own set of clubs, with all the irons being a 6-iron in length. He used them and was convinced that they worked for him. Bryson was contracted to Cobra, so they made them up for him and tested them. They were so convinced about them that they started marketing them to golfers worldwide. The concept does make a lot of sense because you can address every iron shot exactly the same way, which would surely increase your consistency. When the length of the clubs vary, so do the lies of the clubs. Length also determines distance, so with the one-length irons all the lies are the same and the lofts are stronger to compensate for the lack of shaft length on the long irons.
These clubs are definitely worth a try and remember that if your iron set starts with a 4-iron, that’s only one inch longer than your 6-iron, so it’s more important that you are as comfortable with the short irons. Since Bryson’s two wins in the FedEx Cup play-offs, Cobra SA has sold 57 sets of one-length irons. Just image how excited you would be if these were the clubs that took 4 or 5 shots off your handicap! 
Dale Hayes Golf appreciates the ongoing support of City Lodge & SkyNet.  This month Elsabe Hefer looks at how your set up can dictate a few reactions in your swing. A good set up will have a good reaction and a poor set up will produce a poor reaction. This week she looks at the effect of sitting too much in your heels.
Elsabe Hefer is a Fellow Member of the PGA; a former Gauteng North PGA Teacher of the Year and PGA Top 20 Teacher. She is the Head Teaching Professional at Zwartkop Country Club.
 European Tour, Sunshine Tour, PGA and LPGA Tour Schedules. Take a look at all the events plus the international golfing events coming up soon.
Ryder Cup... “One minute you’re bleeding. The next minute you’re hemorrhaging. The next minute you’re painting the Mona Lisa.” - Mac O’Grady | ||||||||||||||||||
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