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Plus Realising your driving ambitions P4-5 Þ Course designs for the future P8-9

FUTURE OF GOLFAn exclusive 16-page guide to what lies ahead for the ancient game

»ABOUT THIS SUPPLEMENTThere’s a revolution going on. From kit to kids, the Olympics to PowerPlay, the ancient game is embracing the future with unsurpassed vigour, and the young are responding in kind.

ContentsTEcHNOPHOBIANo matter how good your kit, it’s still practice makes perfect

kOrEA gIrLSIt’s the women who are leading the way in South Korea

TEE TO grEENCourse designers put the environment alongside playability

BIg IdEASCould PowerPlay open up the game to a new audience?

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In association withFUTURE OF GOLFJaCK NICKLaUS

Rory McIlroy is the man to watch right now. His breakthrough at the US Open last month was historic and breath-taking. And coming on

top of his collapse in the last round of the Masters, there was a poignancy to his eight-stroke victory at Congressional that

shows he is a quick learner. “He became a man right in front of us at the US Open,” said Jack Nicklaus. Even McIlroy’s manager

Chubby Chandler was surprised at how maturely the youngster dealt with his Masters disaster. “What’s the fuss” summed it up. There

One to watchRory McIlroy, 22Northern Ireland

would be other chances. He was determined to learn from his mistakes, whether in his defensive attitude on

the last day, or his suspect putting. McIlroy in full flow is a joy to watch.

His peers call him BMW, as in the Ultimate Driving Machine.

He also hits superb middle-iron approach shots and has a great short game. When he putts like he did at Congressional, it adds

up to a record US Open score of 16 under. Tiger Woods says McIlroy has a better swing than he did at the same age.

What Tiger effect? It just hasn’t happenedJack Nicklaus says the sport is in trouble at grassroots level, with newcomers put off by demanding courses. The solution is to make it fun and fast, he tells Alasdair reid

There is a dark look on Jack Nicklaus’s face. Those familiar features, mellowed since the days when he was the pushy kid from Columbus, Ohio, have a determined set. In the comfortable surroundings of Gleneagles, the luxury Perthshire hotel which will host the 2014 Ryder Cup on a course he designed, he looks like a man with a grievance.

“In terms of growing the game, we haven’t done a good job,” he says briskly. After a few polite remarks about the general health of tournament golf, this is an abrupt change of tack. “If you had been head of a company that had been as flat as golf has been for 10 or 20 years, you’d either be figuring out how to fix things or you wouldn’t be head of that company any more.

“In the US, we’ve lost 20 per cent of women players and 20 per cent of junior players since 2006. It’s gone down that much. We have to figure out how to bring people into the game and keep them there. A few years ago, people talked of the Tiger effect, but it hasn’t happened. It hasn’t done anything.

“The people Tiger brought in soon disappeared. And they disappeared because it was too expensive, too hard and took too long. Those are the issues.”

Strong stuff. The godfather of golf, the sport’s most admired elder statesman, Nicklaus could comfortably see out his days making bland platitudes at corporate events. But if his competitive powers have diminished, the fire that made him – in terms of majors won – the greatest player that golf has ever seen is far from being extinguished yet.

His admirers bask in his glorious past but what drives Nicklaus now, in his role as Global Ambassador for The Royal Bank of Scotland, is the thought of what golf’s future might bring. So what are his solutions to golf’s demographic problems? How can the game reinvent itself to attract a new generation?

“We have to figure out a way to bring people in and then keep them there,” he answers firmly. “You can’t have a situation where people can’t hit the ball far enough and they can’t get the ball in the hole. It drives people away and we’ve got to solve that problem.”

At the heart of it is the gulf between tournament professionals and the average club player. Nicklaus sees the chasm widening and it can no longer be closed by tweaking tee positions or narrowing fairways at 300 yards.

“When I started designing courses,

I tried to make them so that the professionals and the average players would hit the ball to the same spot,” he says. “But the pro hits it so much further now. If he is 40 yards past you at every hole, then what good is that? It just embarrasses the average player. That’s the problem we have at the moment, and it’s just not right to keep wasting money by continually changing courses.”

On this bright afternoon, the picture window behind Nicklaus frames a scene as close to paradise as golf can provide. In the foreground, the 18th fairway of Gleneagles’ Queen’s Course rolls down to the broad expanse of its final green. A little further away, the King’s Course settles like a comfortable blanket in the folds of the Scottish countryside. Off to the left, his PGA Centenary course basks in its emerald sumptuousness, almost impatient to show its glories to the world in 2014.

It would be easy to be distracted here, but Nicklaus sticks to his theme. He talks warmly of the Tee it Forward initiative, supported by the United States Golf Association and the PGA of America, which encourages average players to play off tees that in effect reduce longer courses to about 6,200

yards. He speaks of the PGA Tour’s First Tee programme, which aims to widen golf’s social reach and encourage citizenship. He praises the Scottish Golf Union’s clubgolf scheme, sponsored by RBS, which seeks to give every child in Scotland the opportunity to play the game. But his recurring theme is that golf should be a pleasure, not a chore.

The solutions, Nicklaus suggests, mean making golf fun and fast. The game needs some blue-sky thinkers. He talks of bigger holes, shorter rounds, more imaginative competitions. He asks why there can’t be 12-hole golf courses. In short, golf’s global clubhouse needs a great big welcome mat by its front door.

“We’ve got to make it quicker and easier. And we’ve got to let people feel success when they start, not years down the line. If they can have that when they take up the game, they will graduate into golf as we know it. We can’t lose them before we get them started.”

Golf may never have had a better opportunity to throw open its arms than the one offered by the sport’s introduction to the Olympics in 2016. Nicklaus believes it is a chance that must be taken. He has no time for the argument that, with four majors already,

golf does not need another elite event. He says: “Look, the US Open and The Open mean nothing in a lot of countries. What’s important is a gold medal. That will be a significant attraction in the development of the game – as important, in different ways, as the majors. We’ve got to put our best foot forward in the Olympics. And if golf stays in the Games, then its growth around the world will be tremendous.”

But what of the rest of us? What of that game far removed from gold medals and green jackets? What of that world where winning means buying a round for your partners, not another Ferrari for your mum? What’s in it for us, Jack?

Titleist doesn’t make crystal balls, but with his designer’s hat on, Nicklaus suggests pressure on land, with developers wanting to squeeze facilities into smaller spaces, might force the manufacturers into making range-limited equipment. “People have come to us with 60, 70 or 80 acres,” he says. “Why shouldn’t they have a golf course? How are you going to grow the game if you don’t have the land to do it?”

Scientists tell us that the conventional ball is already close to achieving its theoretical maximum distance. There

comes a point where it is not the deficiencies of a swing but the laws of physics that stop it going any further. However, Nicklaus suggests that club development might mean more and more players getting to that mark.

“They’re now making clubs aimed at maximising the efficiency of the swing,” he explains. “The maximum range of a golf ball might be 350 yards, but you’ll see a lot more people getting to that.”

Nicklaus is no curmudgeon, no King Lear in Footjoys. The man who defied the years when he won his 18th and last major in such dramatic fashion at Augusta in 1986 knows that time always wins in the end. On average, he reckons he plays just one round per month these days. “How can you improve doing that?” he asks. “All I hope for is that I don’t have further deterioration.”

Too modest by far. His standard – he reckons he averages 75 – is a form of decrepitude to which most of us would happily aspire. But, at 71, his passion for golf is diminished if there is no competitive element.

Besides, there are other fish to fry. Quite literally. “I’m a decent fly caster,” he smiles. “And the fish don’t know how old I am.”

We’ve got to make it quicker and easier, and let people feel success when they start

Winning ways: Nicklaus had a glittering career, facing page, and now helps children to enjoy the game in Scotland

gOINg fOr gOLdThe game is flying down to Rio to join the Olympic fold

12yOUNg STArSPutting everything into a national junior championship

14

NEW cOUrSESThe shape of things to come

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PICTURES p2: Getty Images; p4/5: Getty Images, Eyevine; p6/7: Getty Images; p8/9: Alamy, Photolibrary; p10/11: Getty Images; p12/13: Alamy, Corbis; p14: Getty Images; p15: Getty Images, Action Images.

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FUTURE OF GOLF EqUipmEnT

Matteo Manassero is a record breaker. The youngest player to win the British Amateur (and first Italian); the youngest winner of the

silver medal as the leading amateur at the Open; the youngest to make the cut at the Masters; the youngest winner in

the history of the European Tour. He was 17 when he won the Castello Masters last October and just 18 when he won the

Malaysian Open in April, making him the second youngest winner on the European Tour as well. His hero was Seve Ballesteros and he

One to watchMatteo Manassero, 18, Italy

hit chip shots in front of the great Spaniard when he was four. He watched golf on TV because it was the only way his mother could get

him to eat. The boy from Verona is very accurate but is still growing and adding length to his game. He looks natural over the ball and

gets on with it. His short game is brilliant. He has established himself in the world’s top 50 and automatically qualifies for all the

big events. He was a guest of the Molinari brothers at last year’s Ryder Cup — he could be playing in the next match, and many more.

Technology is losing its magic: so try better techniqueCan science help us hit the ball any farther? Former USGA technical director Frank Thomas says equipment isn’t going to get much better

How has technology affected the game of golf? Nobody has yet given up the game because it is too easy.

I have said this repeatedly to those who would like to rein in the tour players (whom they perceive to be hitting the ball too far and making courses obsolete) by introducing equipment rules, which affect all golfers but don’t solve the perceived problem.

The advances in technology have helped our game and Mother Nature is protecting it.

“Our longest holes are little more than a drive and a putt…” is part of a statement made by the United States Golf Association (USGA) president RH Robertson in 1902, and has been repeated in one form or another ever since. The game is no less attractive, and for 98 per cent of the golfing population we have not yet managed to make any course obsolete.

After the introduction of the Haskell ball in 1898 (the first rubber thread-wound ball), both the USGA and the R&A have been concerned about the distance the ball goes and have introduced rules to reverse this trend.

The latest was the change to the grooves, which has had no effect on performance on tour. [These changes are documented in the book From Sticks and Stones: The Evolution of Golf Equipment Rules (Frankly Publications) by the author of this article.]

The first rules designed to restrict ball distance were adopted in 1920, which limited the minimum size to 1.62in in diameter and the maximum weight to 1.62oz. The USGA adopted the 1.68in size and 1.62oz in 1932, but it took about 70 years for the R&A and USGA to agree to this common standard. The R&A and USGA are an essential part of the game, lend order to it and are responsible for its longevity.

Advanced technology and science became a significant part of the game in the mid-Sixties and this stimulated the governors of golf to look for countermeasures to control the distance the ball goes.

The Overall Distance Standard for balls has been effective, but allowing spring-like effects in clubs has markedly increased the distance on tour by about 25 to 30 yards. The rest of us have not been able to take advantage of this rules slip-up because we are not skilled enough to hit the sweet spot consistently.

Distance gains were understandably slow from 1968 to 1995; a foot a year. But this changed to about 7ft 6in a year from 1995 to 2003 because of the spring-like effect in drivers and multi-layered balls, allowing elite golfers to optimise their launch conditions to get maximum distance (see graph, right).

However, the rate of improvement has slowed to a dead stop. This is how Mother Nature is playing her part in protecting our 500-year-old game. Man-made restrictions and rules are setting limits that are only fractions below what is possible.

The average male golfer, playing off a 13 handicap, hits the ball approximately

Hit machines: one of the new generation of golf clubs is subject to robotic testing at a research centre, right.The spring-like effects in modern clubs increased distances for tour players by up to 30 yards

195 yards with his driver – but he thinks he hits the ball 230 to 240 yards, and thus attempts to play a course that is too long for him.

If we were to be more realistic, and each had less of an ego to contend with, we would probably enjoy our game more and spend less time on the course, perhaps allowing more time to enjoy an extra beer.

Technology has, in general, had a beneficial effect on the game but we

do need to spend a little more time on the practice range with a full swing lesson, and ask for a dedicated putting lesson from a PGA Certified Putting Instructor. After all, we spend about 40 per cent of our time and generate 40 to 45 per cent of our score on the green.

Because advanced technology in equipment is approaching a natural limit with regard to improving our performance, we therefore need to look elsewhere for innovations to

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How the big hitters peaked make the game more enjoyable. We must recognise that a golf ball, for example, will never bounce higher than from where it was dropped, irrespective of the introduction of any new materials or advances made in technology or ball performance.

Yes, there is still a little room left for more efficient ball aerodynamics – but very little.

With regard to further improvements in distance, we have reached, or are

very close to reaching, the optimum. Increasing club-head speed will result in increased distance, but this too is self-limiting because of the need to remain somewhere on the golf course. (See the section on shortening your driver for better scores).

Don’t even think about giving up the game because you now know that advances in technology (which will improve distance) are coming to an end. There may be no more magic,

but that doesn’t mean you should stop looking for it. After all, this search has driven us for years and is a charming part of our game.

Tradition, and the long and short of itWhile I was technical director of the USGA, I made many (6,000-plus) decisions about the conformity of clubs, balls and other devices. I was overruled on my suggestion to outlaw the long putter in 1989. The reasons are well documented in From Sticks and Stones.

Using this implement was not only difficult to accept from a traditional point of view – depending on how you define ‘‘tradition’’ – but because it is a more efficient putter, it takes some of the skill away by reducing the sources of error. The downside is that one loses feel on long putts in many cases.

We suggest to our PGA teaching professionals (who qualify as Certified Putting Instructors or CPIs) to first try to resolve the underlying problems before applying a sticking plaster to them.

The long putter has turned some bad putters into good putters but has never turned a good putter into a great putter.

For those who genuinely have the yips, I say let the decision to approve the long putter stand. I do, however, urge all golfers to seek out a PGA Certified Putting Instructor, to resolve some basic putting flaws and in so doing, build confidence on the greens, reduce their number of putts and enjoy the game more.

From tee to green: how you can hit the ball farther Playing from the fairway is always better. Because technology is no longer advancing at the same rate, we are finding it more difficult to enjoy some of the increases in distance that we have experienced over the past 20 years or so.

Many manufacturers are now trying hard to justify the “more distance” claims by increasing driver length – and not mentioning this in the big print. By increasing the length of a driver – some are now standard at 46½in – this will allow the golfer to increase head speed, which unfortunately comes with a decrease in control and accuracy.

Inevitably, there is a tendency to find the rough more often and several balls can be lost in a round.

The pros have access to any length driver they want but tend to select 44¾in. Jack Nicklaus’s driver was 42.63in. Many golfers have reported that moving to a 44in or choking down on a 45in driver has resulted in improved accuracy, no loss in average distance and more fun on the course.

Frank Thomas: on a golf mission…Technical director of the USGA for 26 years, Frank Thomas invented the graphite shaft in 1969 and redesigned the stimpmeter, a device used to measure the speed of greens, in 1976. He is the author of three equipment-related golf books, Just Hit It, From Sticks and Stones: The Evolution of Golf Equipment Rules and Dear Frank. In partnership with the PGA, he developed the Certified Putting Instructor Course to help golfers putt better. Visit www.franklygolf.com to read his weekly column and get free putting tips.

On the ball: from top, minimum diameter is 1.68in; Adam Scott, Vijay Singh and Robert Garrigus in action; ball aerodynamics might still be improved slightly

Technology has had a beneficial effect but we need to spend more time on the practice range

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FUTURE OF GOLF AsiA

For some time it was the women golfers of South Korea who outshone the men, with Se Ri Pak leading the way, but in 2009

YE Yang beat Tiger Woods to win the 2009 USPGA and this year KJ Choi won the Players Championship. Noh Seung-Yul

learned to play golf at the age of seven on the beach near his home — similar to Seve Ballesteros on the beach at Pedrena. Noh turned

professional in 2007 and was the rookie of the year on the Asian Tour the next year after his maiden victory in the China

Girl power drives south Korea’s Golden Age Ben Whittacker-Cook finds that women are winning an unexpected battle of the sexes

With three men ranked in the world’s top 40, South Korean golf has never had it so good. YE Yang became the country’s first major champion when he took the 2009 PGA title, while KJ Choi, a multiple winner on the PGA Tour, landed this year’s prestigious Players Championship.

Yang’s story has particular resonance for South Koreans. Having never heard of the game until he was 19, he taught himself to play by watching instructional videos. Now everyone believes they can become a golfer.

However, it’s the growth of the women’s game in South Korea that is the real success story. Currently, there are four South Korean women in the world’s top 10. And last year Na Yeon Choi topped both the LPGA money and scoring lists at the tender age of 23.Remarkably, at the prestigious LPGA Championship in June, there were 31 South Korean golfers in a field of 150.

The LPGA Tour is astute enough to stop off in South Korea every year: the Hana Bank Championship takes place at the Sky72 Golf Club in Incheon in October. The expanding Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour provides the perfect breeding ground for young players to hone their skills in front of big crowds before making the switch to the more lucrative and higher-profile tees of the United States.

Golf became South Korea’s national sport almost overnight in 1998 when Se Ri Pak won the LPGA Championship and the US Women’s Open aged just 20. Inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2007, and with career earnings of more than $11million, the five-time major winner is a superstar back home (today’s wave of

In the swing: Na Yeong Choi shows the style that took her to the top of the LPGA money list last year; far right, from top, KJ Choi, Se Ri Pak and YE Yang make their escape from the sand

Exclusive story revealed to the masses Joining a golf club costs £100,000, but China is confident that it can compete at the highest level, says Peter Foster

According to last year’s Hurun Report survey of the brand and lifestyle preferences of more than 400 Chinese millionaires, golf is the sporting pursuit of choice for China’s super-rich.

Since China began its remarkable economic transformation three decades ago, golf has emerged as a pastime for high-net-worth individuals. Businessmen can pay £100,000 for membership of exclusive clubs – with the same again wagered on a single round.

However, that elite, all-male image of the game is changing, thanks to a combination of massive investment in golf courses, a growing middle class eager to play the game and golf’s return to the Olympic roster in Brazil in 2016.

The China Golf Association (CGA) has announced a new tournament for top international amateurs and the creation of a National Team last May in a bid to nurture the kind of talent that will win Olympic medals.

“This period is very important for golf’s future,” says CGA head, Zhang Xiaoning. “Just like tennis years ago, our players must play as many competitions as possible.”

Chinese golf still has a long way to go: the country has only 100 professional women golfers, compared with 6,000 in South Korea. However, only 26 years after the opening of its first modern course, China now has more than 500 of

The long gameHow Japan is a victim of success

Japan is the second biggest golf market in the world and its thirst for the game is unquenchable. There are more than 2,300 18-hole golf courses there and hundreds of state-of-the-art, three-tier driving ranges.

However, playing golf in Japan is a study in perseverance and patience. Courses are immaculate and beautifully presented, but it’s incredibly hard to get on them.

Tee times are booked months in advance and green fees are expensive, with prices starting at around twice as much as those in the UK for a basic facility away from Tokyo.

Playing at the more exclusive places, such as the Tokyo Golf Club, is by invitation only, so many Japanese join a driving range.

Once on the tee, players are encouraged to play

quickly — not easy when there are three groups ahead of you on the same par five. It can take five hours for 18 holes, so some courses feature a track where an automated cart takes you to your next shot. The cart’s robotic voice will also tell you if you’re taking too long on a shot — as will one of the many marshals.

Including travelling time, a day’s golf can take nine hours.

them – including the world’s largest at Mission Hills in the southern city of Shenzhen, where 12 championship layouts sit side-by-side.

Former Masters champion Sir Nick Faldo is among the big names betting on China’s golfing future, both by designing courses and also in staging his Faldo Series Asia tournaments to help incubate young talent.

“China needs a hero – a Rory McIlroy or a Ryo Ishikawa – someone with good looks, great personality. That will be the really big thing that sets them off,” he recently told the Telegraph.

Dominic Wall, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club’s Asia/Pacific director, adds: “With the Olympics on the horizon, it is clear that China is starting to take the game of golf very seriously indeed. It takes 10 years to turn out an elite-level professional and I think that’s a very realistic time horizon for China.”

Champion: Faldo targets China

One to watchNoh Seung-Yul, 20, South Korea

Classic. In 2010 he was still only 18 when he won the Malaysian Open. The event also counted on the European Tour, and at the

time the South Korean teenager was the second youngest winner. It was a remarkable finish to the event, with Noh impressively

holding off the challenge of compatriot KJ Choi. Noh made a birdie with a brilliant chip from the edge of the practice range to

secure victory. “KJ has been a role model for me,” said Noh. “He has given me a lot of advice and that will help me on the world stage.”

professional players are known as the “Se Ri Kids”).

Pak was awarded the Order of Merit by the South Korean government in 1998 – the highest honour a South Korean sportsperson can receive. Her gift to the nation was to provide the inspiration for young female players, and golf is now regarded as a sensible and achievable career for thousands of ambitious girls and their parents from Seoul to Mokpo.

Golf course membership is cheap compared with Japan, making the sport more accessible for families, and sponsorship for talented junior players is easier to attract than elsewhere in Asia. Men must complete two years military service in South Korea and this has been cited as one of the main reasons for the relatively lopsided success of the sexes in the professional game.

“It makes me very proud, but there is always pressure on a leader,” says Pak. “I want to show the Korean players the right way.”

Michelle Wie leads the next generation. Born in Hawaii in 1989 to South Korean parents, Wie has already won two events on the LPGA tour and shot the lowest round by a woman golfer in a men’s PGA tour event. “When you see her hit a golf ball, there’s nothing that prepares you for it. It’s just the scariest thing you’ve ever seen,” says golf legend Fred Couples.

Wie rejoins the LPGA Tour full-time in 2012 after completing her studies at Stanford University. Her blend of South Korean heritage and all-American girl means she is likely to be the face of women’s golf – on and off the fairways – for the next decade and beyond, and the role model for the next wave of South Korean golfing talent.

Golf is now regarded as a sensible and achievable career for thousands of ambitious girls

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FUTURE OF GOLF COURsE dEsiGn

Ryo Ishikawa is the rising star in Japan where he became the youngest winner of a full tour event aged 15 at the KSB Cup

in 2007. He was still an amateur and it was his first event on the Japanese tour. He has now won nine Japanese tour events,

including The Crowns tournament in 2010 with a final round of 58, thought to be the lowest score on an official tour. It came on the

same day that Rory McIlroy closed with a 62 to win his first event in America. Ishikawa, who wowed American galleries when he first

One to watchRyo Ishikawa, 19Japan

played in the States, is known as “Hanikami Oji”

(“Bashful Prince”). Ishikawa was playing at Doral in America when

the earthquake and tsunami hit his homeland. He later announced that he would donate all his prize money from this season to the

victim relief fund and also £750 for every birdie he makes. “I have enough money to spend,” he said. “I believe this is the most positive

way for me to spend money. It pains me not to be with the people of Japan as they are going through this crisis.”

Green by nature, green by design, green to the fore

The key changes Less power and more thought are the driving forces

Off the teeGolf’s arms race could be coming to a close as designers appreciate the futility of trying to counter equipment advances by making their courses longer and longer.

Instead, the trend now is to make the big hitters think long and hard before reaching for their drivers, and to give average players an experience that is more enjoyable than it is embarrassing and humiliating.

“Length is not the answer,” Jack Nicklaus says. “Sure, new courses are still longer than they would have been a few years ago, but my philosophy is to produce

a course that rewards a variety of good players. You don’t want to create monsters that drive people out of the game.”

However, it is still the case that courses are getting bigger. The Old Course at St Andrews, the mother lode of so many golf architects’ ideas, occupies 90 acres of land: a championship standard course created today would probably require close to twice that area for safety reasons alone.

“You have to take these things into account,” says Paul Kimber. “Nowadays, you can’t have a course where people are in real danger from stray shots. People ask why we can’t

It used to be easy. You stuck a hole in one corner of a field. You teed off from another. You looked to the heavens for your irrigation system. The sheep took care of the mowing.

And for a few hundred years, that was how golf worked. Now, though, the business of laying out a course involves a mind-addlingly complex combination of factors. A golf course architect has to balance the possibilities offered by the landscape with the realities of climate, levels of use, the client’s demands and, perhaps more significantly, the client’s budget.

Increasingly, environmental considerations enter the equation as well. You can create an emerald green course in the middle of a desert, but is it responsible to do so? Where will you find the water to meet its thirsty needs? How many tons of fertiliser will you have to throw at it each year?

And does the modern golfer really want to play on a course that is so patently unnatural?

An increasing number don’t. More and more players – and more and more developers for that matter – are looking for an experience more akin to the game their grandfathers and great-grandfathers played.

It’s not so long since golfers’ green credentials referred to their putting abilities, but these days they want to save the planet as well as par. They don’t want their spikes to leave a bigger carbon footprint than necessary.

Of course, designers have been claiming for years that they simply tinkered with God’s creation when they laid out a new course. Behind that spin, however, the more typical reality was that they had actually moved enough

earth to bury a medium-sized city. As you read the glossy brochures you could almost hear the rumble of the bulldozers in the background.

Gradually, the green agenda took hold. “I like to think I always thought about these things,” says Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion who backed up his stellar career as a player by founding a design company that has now overseen the creation of more than 300 courses.

“Now, what we find is that people have environmental concerns when they come to us, right at the start.

“All round, we find there is a much greater appreciation of the potential impact of a golf course on ecosystems. People want to know that you’re not doing any harm.”

St Andrews-based Paul Kimber is one of the most admired young architects in the sport. His design for Machrihanish Dunes, on Scotland’s Kintyre peninsula, has earned high praise from those who have played there, but its most remarkable aspect is that it was created entirely within an area of special scientific interest.

“There’s no question we’re dealing with more challenging sites nowadays,” Kimber explains. “The best have already been taken and you have to work with what you’re given. But I look at these things as opportunities rather than problems, especially in protected sites where sensitivity to the environment is needed. There’s a real feeling of achievement when you do a good job there.”

But the landscape of golf is changing in other areas, too. For years, the standard response to players hitting the ball further has been to lengthen courses by moving tees further back. However, an increasing number of architects appreciate that, with a finite amount of land at their disposal, that approach is limited.

The keyword of the moment is “strategy”. Having pandered to golf’s long-hitters, designers are now asking different questions of players.

“Power should be rewarded on some occasions, but harnessed on others,” Nicklaus says. “Accuracy should be rewarded. It’s about trying to get a blend, so that the shorter, more accurate players can compete.”

Thinking about the environment has become the priority when setting up a course, as Alasdair Reid explains

Tee time: length is not the answer, says Nicklaus Drama green: expect more enhanced contours

in association with

recreate places like the Old Course. The simple fact is that you wouldn’t be allowed to do that now. You look to these places

for inspiration, but if you tried to copy them you’d get shot.”

The philosophy now is to challenge the eye as

much as the strength of a player. Again, safety and speed of play come into the equation. So, too, geometry. Hit a 200-yard drive a couple of degrees off-line and you’ll be looking for your ball in light rough. Do the same with a 300-yard strike and you’ll have entered the thing in a postcode lottery.

Nicklaus and Kimber both believe big hitters should still be rewarded — just not at every hole. The modern way is to shape fairways and use strategically placed bunkers to encourage the power players to hold back. Ideally, you want fairway bunkers in places where a good amateur will

strive to be, but you still want them to have the satisfaction of taking them on. You want people to think about their shots.

“Making holes longer doesn’t make them better,” says Kimber. “You can’t make golf a slog for all but the elite players. The average social golfer is 50 years old and has a handicap of 20, so you have to make it enjoyable for someone at that level.”

EcologyTen years ago, course architects would make a token nod to ecological considerations. Now, those concerns drive their work. If a new course cannot establish its environmental

credentials early on, it will struggle to get planning permission. As public attitudes have moved on too, it might struggle to get customers as well.

“Sustainability is a big consideration now,” says Kimber. “Personally, I think that it always should have been.”

Around the world, the biggest environmental issue in golf has been the excessive use of water. Aside from the amount used to irrigate fairways and greens, ponds and fountains became almost standard in new developments. For many architects, however, those days have now gone.

Brown is the new green

as far as Kimber is concerned. Golf course owners and developers — and golfers themselves — will have to accept that lush and verdant fairways cannot remain the norm.

“You’ll see a move towards different types of grasses in the years ahead, varieties that can tolerate drought conditions. The traditional British links fescues are just about ideal as they can cope with a shortage of rain and then bounce back.

“In other countries, you might start to see the use of varieties that are more salt-tolerant, so that courses don’t have to use expensive desalination equipment.

“We need to minimise the irrigated areas on courses, so you can expect the overall look to change in the coming years.”

As courses move towards more outlying coastal and rural locations, architects are frequently having to work within specific conservation requirements. However, Kimber believes that pockets of rare flora and fauna add to sites, lending them a character that other places do not have.

GreensNo part of a golf course is subject to such close scrutiny as its greens. In keeping with the return to a more ragged look

around the rest of the course, the fashion for immaculate putting surfaces is likely to wane in the coming years.

In part, the change will be driven by courses becoming shorter and less brutal from tee to green. If par is to be protected,

then the defences will go up on the greens.

Kimber expects greens to have more dramatic contours, although he also says they will not be set up to produce the super-fast surfaces that have become popular today.

“The obsession with getting faster and faster greens has meant that designers had to specify flat greens,” Kimber explains. “Otherwise, the course would just be unplayable. I expect we’ll see a move towards the grass being kept longer.

“In environmental terms that is a benefit. If greens are not being mown to within an inch of their lives, they require less water.”

Bunker bustersJust as ponds began to proliferate in golf design a few years ago, so too did bunkers. And just as the water was there purely for decoration, there wasn’t much point behind the tons of sand either. Many were located in places that suggested they were there for purely aesthetic reasons, rather than as a challenge to players.

With course owners taking a closer interest in maintenance costs, that pattern is already starting to change.

“Bunkers are resource sponges,” Kimber explains. “On a foot-by-foot basis they are more expensive to look after than any

other part of the course. People have also come to expect that bunkers will be in perfect condition, which only raises the cost of looking after them.”

Kimber believes that the hazards of the future will be just that — hazardous.

“Of course you want to have a few bunkers,” he says, “but if you have more than 50 on a course then you have to ask yourself what they’re all doing there. They should only be put in places where they could be important to the shot.”

Kimber predicts more imaginative features and challenges, such as rocks and dry stream beds, will creep into the game.

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FUTURE OF GOLF NEw GamEs

Started playing golf at the age of three but his main interest was dirt-bike racing, which his father Rod, who owns a trucking

company, took part in. Rickie gave up biking in high school after an accident and a couple of broken bones in his foot. His decision to

concentrate on golf was a good one as he became one of the best college players in America and one of the best amateurs in the world.

He failed to win in his rookie season on the PGA tour in America last year, but he did finish as a runner-up twice and made his

One to watchRickie Fowler, 22America

debut in the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor. There, in a stunning finale, he won the last three holes to

get a half against Edoardo Molinari and set up the thrilling climax in which Graeme McDowell clinched victory for Europe. Fowler plays an

exciting brand of golf and always wears bright colours, including orange on Sundays in honour of his college, Oklahoma State. He

joined the pop world earlier this year with the Golf Boys, also featuring Ben Crane, Hunter Mahan and Bubba Watson.

Here’s to the power of ninePowerPlay is proving to be a winner, where men and women compete equally, says Ben Whittacker-Cook

The game of golf has never been healthier. As an industry it generates billions of pounds in revenue globally, employs hundreds of thousands of people and satisfies the competitive urge for millions of players around the world every day of the week.

China has been cited as golf’s next hot spot and the sport’s inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games schedule will see its popularity soar to even greater heights. However, some of the more traditional aspects of the game are under threat as innovators seek new and exciting ways to broaden its appeal.

There have been plenty of alternatives to the traditional 18-hole format over the decades. Street golf was a brief hit in France as recently as 2009, as players made the narrow backstreets of Paris their fairways and greens. Target golf involves chipping a golf ball into a variety of nets and baskets dotted around a large outdoor space – good for improving your short game but hardly a true alternative to a round of golf.

More outlandish ideas have included disc golf – where players attempt to complete a course by throwing a Frisbee the fewest number of times – and speed golf, which features all the elements of a “normal” round of golf. It began in California in the late Seventies and still has a loyal following more than 30 years later. Players carry five or six clubs and attempt to get round the course as quickly, and in as few shots, as possible. The winning score is calculated by adding the number of strokes to the total time it takes to complete 18 holes.

Purists would argue that it’s impossible to improve on the original, but golf is still an expensive and time-consuming pastime for many. However, the new concept of PowerPlay golf is generating genuine excitement around the world.

The idea was devised by former Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup captain Peter McEvoy. Rounds are played over nine holes and each green features two flags – a white flag and a black PowerPlay flag. Each player must select three PowerPlays in their first eight holes, nominating which flag they intend to aim for before teeing off.

Points are awarded after each hole – players score double points for a net birdie or better on a black flag PowerPlay hole. Scoring is by the Stableford points system and the “joker” aspect of the black flag option creates instant rewards and penalties. On the ninth and final hole, players can go for a bonus “PowerPlay”, which offers a severe points deduction if they shoot over par.

More than 500 golf clubs around the

mental game. PowerPlay golf is going to teach amateur golfers a great deal about when to take a risk and when to shoot for a par,” he adds.

It has a code of unique rules and etiquette to appeal to the traditionalists; PowerPlay golf can be played off a handicap allowance, golfers playing to the white flag putt out before black flag players, and a player can replace the ball to the nearest point of relief if the

non-target flag is obstructing the hole. Golf shoes need to be worn as the game is played at “proper” golf clubs, and junior players and golf virgins can grasp the basic elements of the game, as well as learning the subtleties of shot selection and green reading.

The notion that 18-hole golf could ever be overtaken by something else may seem far-fetched, but there is a window of opportunity for a newer and

fresher alternative to sit alongside the traditional game.

In 2003, cricket purists said the Twenty20 game would be just a short-lived experiment. Now it is played professionally by all the Test-playing nations and has its own world cup tournament.

The PowerPlay initiative is backed by some big hitters in the game. IMG and the English Golf Union are partners, and

PowerPlay recently announced its 500th affiliated course. Friends and club mates can set up their own leagues under the format and a world championship event is planned.

More PowerPlay events are scheduled this year in Asia and the United States, and more are being planned globally for next year.

There’s room on the fairway for golf’s little brother after all.

Open minded: right, PowerPlay, with its two-flag system, is proving a winner. Other ideas have included street golf, centre right, and disc golf, far right

In 2003, cricket purists said Twenty20 would be short-lived. Now it has its own world cup

world have signed up to the new two-flag format and the game has been endorsed by several top professional players. It’s hoped that PowerPlay can do for golf what Twenty20 did for cricket. Each round takes about two hours and is therefore more television-friendly than a full-blown, four-day competition.

The more relaxed format also allows for men and women to play together, without losing the competitive edge. Current US Open champion Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and 2010 US Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer all played together at the launch event at The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales in May.

Ian Poulter, the World Matchplay champion, said: “We are all in the entertainment business and this sounds like a big step forward in that regard.”

“Our pilot schemes and extensive research suggest that PowerPlay golf will be extremely popular among lady golfers,” says McEvoy. “We are committed to including female tour players in future televised events and firmly believe the format will be a real hit with lady golfers at amateur level.”

Three women finished in the first three places on the PowerPlay leader board, suggesting the format is a genuine contender for mixed professional golf.

Men and women playing professionally together has been toyed with in the past.

Annika Sorenstam, Michelle Wie and Laura Davies have all played in individual events on the PGA and European tours, while Canada’s Isabelle Beisiegel became the first female golfer

to earn a playing card on the Canadian Professional Golf tour in May.

The three-hour PowerPlay tournament was broadcast to more than 30 countries and transmitted live on Sky Sports in the UK. The format enables broadcasters to televise a complete golf tournament in a very short time frame and the hope is that it will create new audiences for the sport.

PowerPlay’s own research suggests that more than 70 per cent of golfers would watch and play a shorter form of the game.

So does PowerPlay golf offer a genuine alternative to 18-hole golf?

“Amateur golfers don’t realise how important course management is,” says Gary Player. “Jack [Nicklaus] and Tiger [Woods] won majors with excellent course management and a strong

we are in the entertainment business and this sounds like a big step forward in that regard

In association with

FUTURE OF GOLF OLympics

After the retirements of Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa, the women’s game needed a new star and it now seems apparent that it

is Yani Tseng. At the LPGA Championship last month, Tseng won her fourth major championship by a massive

10 strokes, becoming the youngest woman to claim four majors at the age of 22. It was her second LPGA title, while she has also won the

Kraft Nabisco Championship and the Ricoh-Women’s British Open last year at Royal Birkdale. She only needs to win the US Women’s

One to watchYani Tseng, 22Taiwan

Open to complete a grand slam. Tseng moved into Sorenstam’s old house in Orlando and is filling up the Swede’s huge trophy cabinet.

Tseng took a bottle of wine round to Sorenstam’s new house to

introduce herself and pick the 10-majors winner’s brains.

“Yani is the new face of the LPGA and is improving all the time,” Sorenstam said. “Apart from her golf game, we should applaud her

mental abilities to be able to play well in the majors, which is when it really matters. I think she can get even better.”

The name is Rio: Olympic exposure should grow the sport — especially in Brazil

coming in from the cold at last in Rio de JaneiroThe key to Olympics re-entry was the backing of the pro players, says Mike PattendenIt spent a century lost in the rough but golf has finally returned to the Olympic fold and will tee off once again in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro. It has been a long route back for the game which featured in 1900 and 1904 and failed in attempts to return for London 2012, but in October 2009 the IOC voted to restore its status along with rugby sevens in five years’ time.

It took a few key elements to drop into place to make the dream possible, not least that golf itself was finally fully behind the concept.

“The Olympic movement made it clear that it had to attract the top players,” says Peter Dawson, chief executive of the R&A, joint secretary of the International Golf Federation and one of the main forces in driving the

governments, which enables the game to gain access to resources and funding not available before.

“I spoke to 22 former Eastern Bloc countries in Russia two months ago and there was tremendous interest in developing relations with their various national Olympic committees and sports ministers to examine the structures which will grow golf in their countries.”

Golf has much to offer the Olympics, not least its commercial clout. “Golf is one of the few sports with genuine global reach commercially – this is what many of the sponsors involved with the game are investing in,” says Dominic Curran, deputy managing director of Synergy, a marketing consultancy that has sports marketing interests in both the Olympics and golf.

“The Olympics can only increase this reach for the game, especially in emerging markets.”

Last month it was announced that NBC had retained the US Olympic television rights in a four-games deal to 2020 worth nearly $4.4 billion, a small increase on the last package

deal in 2003 but one that comes during an economic downturn.

Brazil currently has 110 courses but new ones are already planned, not least at the Olympic venue at Barra da Tijuca where two separate competitions will be held for men and women. The top 15 in the world will automatically qualify with the rest coming from the rankings with a maximum of two players from each country that does not already have two or more players in the leading 15.

Brazil is hoping to put a good show on home turf despite 32-year-old Alexandre Rocha, its leading golfer, standing outside the top 100 players.

“We have other players coming through,” says Orra, “but, importantly, we are already seeing more amateurs turn professional. So, in five years’ time you will see more pros from Brazil in the major tournaments. Everyone wants to play at the Olympics.”

And for those home-grown doubters unsure about a sport as rich and established as golf appearing on the Olympic roster, the prospect of Rory McIlroy holing out for gold in Rio should help dispel any reservations.

in Europe and America, it was the prospect of growing the game in other territories that swung the IOC committee and the pro tour, which had initially seemed intransigent about the schedule interrupting its big events.

“The real driving force came from so many countries who were members of the IGF saying that if golf was an Olympic sport, the exposure and support would be immeasurably increased,” says Dawson.

“It would be the biggest growth initiative possible and while the game has grown it has much further to go, especially in Asia and South America.”

Golf already has 60 million players in 120 countries but is hoping for fresh impetus in new territories, not least in Brazil. In a country where football is a religion, there are currently only 25,000 golfers in a population of 203 million, but this is now set to change, says Rachid Orra, president of the Brazilian Golf Federation. “It is making a huge difference because we became a part of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, which means we can work with other sporting confederations that are successful.

“The media has already started to pay more attention to golf. There is coverage in the newspapers and on TV, which interests more sponsors.”

Tennis, which was re-elected to the Games in 1988, offers a useful parallel to what might happen. While it struggled to attract top players in Seoul, all the big names now compete and the game has grown accordingly.

In America, the sport dropped to 13 million recreational players in the Eighties from its peak in the Seventies but shot up to 30 million in 2009. It now ranks as the fourth most popular sport internationally, with an estimated 100 million participants thanks to the International Tennis Federation using a significant proportion of Olympic money to develop the sport in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Golf is hoping to see a similar response and Scanlon is sure that the process is already underway. “We are seeing a reaction already. One trend is the number of national governing bodies who are becoming affiliated with their national Olympic committees. With that comes recognition from their

successful bid. “There was some scepticism among the men in the past. Eventually the pro game saw the benefits and came round, meaning we could talk with one voice to the IOC.”

Many of the game’s biggest stars threw their support behind the bid, including Colin Montgomerie, who spoke before the vote in Lausanne, and three-time major-winner Padraig Harrington, who went on to predict: “Olympic gold will become the most important award in golf, and I don’t believe it will take that long.”

It took a reorganisation of golfing administration to swing it. Golf historically has not had a global organisation, so 10 years ago the old World Amateur Golf Council changed its name to the International Golf Federation and became the body recognised by the IOC.

“It was a prerequisite that there was a central international body the IOC could deal with,” says Antony Scanlon, executive director of the IGF. “By having the professional bodies within the federation everyone is clearly behind it.”

Despite being a hugely popular sport

Olympic gold will become the most important award in golf, and that won’t take long

George S Lyon Golf’s last Olympian

Golf’s longest-reigning champion will finally have to step down after 112 years in 2016. Canadian George S Lyon won the gold at the 1904 St Louis Olympics. He sunk his winning putt in drizzle to defeat the American amateur champion Chandler Egan by three up with two to play at the Glen Eco Country Club in St Louis.

At 46, Lyon was twice Egan’s age and ranks as one of the oldest Olympic winners ever. In fact, the Canadian amateur champion and captain of Lambton Golf Club had only taken up the game eight years previously, having made an improbable switch — he had set a Canadian record at pole vault and was a double centurion at cricket. All of which helped

cement Lyon’s reputation as a colourful eccentric. He chose to walk on his hands to receive the trophy at the presentation ceremony, a trick he was often given to perform between holes.

He died in 1938. However, it was revealed that his medal — which is on display at Rosedale Golf Club, Toronto — is a replica, prompting a hunt for the original and a documentary about him.

in association with

180,000 children in P5 [Year 4] have picked up a set of clubs under the initiative, which receives £500,000 of Government funding annually.

“In some cases, youngsters who began clubgolf a few years ago have progressed through to the Scottish Golf Academy programme as well as our national squads. And who knows – some of those young sportsmen and women could go on to become this country’s golf stars of the future – perhaps even turning out for the European Ryder Cup team and the Solheim Cup team.”

The clubgolf programme is a partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, Scottish Ladies’ Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA), Golf Foundation and sportscotland, funded by the Scottish Government.

The programme is also supported by EventScotland and the European Tour, as well as many of Scotland’s leading professionals including Colin Montgomerie, Paul Lawrie and Catriona Matthew. It aims to introduce Scotland’s children to golf and create a development pathway from entry level to the

highest levels of achievement, enabling increased access to golf, higher participation levels, improved standards of performance and sustained growth.

And it has delivered on its Ryder Cup pledge by introducing more than 180,000 children to golf to date. Each year 12,000 children, including 3,000 girls, go through club coaching programmes. Meanwhile, 311 clubs and facilities have been recruited to deliver clubgolf coaching programmes and train more than 1,400 qualified volunteer coaches who are active in clubs.

Joining this initiative is part of RBS’s firm commitment to deliver and promote meaningful grassroots and community programmes. Other initiatives include the launch of Girls in Golf, which was developed to address a clubgolf target to increase the number of girls taking part in the sport.

Also, the Disability Golf Club model was established to demonstrate how the clubgolf pathway can be used to provide

FUTURE OF GOLF JUniOR GOLF

Carly Booth was just 11 when she became the youngest ladies club champion in Britain at Dunblane New. Collecting such titles became

a habit. While aged 12 she played alongside Sandy Lyle in a pro-am at the British Masters. She was a top junior in Europe and spent

time at David Leadbetter’s academy in Florida. But she never had to leave home to play as her father Wally, a Commonwealth

Games silver medal-winning wrestler, built a mini course on their farm near Comrie for the exclusive use of Carly and her

One to watchCarly Booth, 19Scotland

RBS puts faith in young talentA youth initiative has been launched by Scotland’s First Minister and playing legend nicklaus, writes Andrew Graham The world of golf is looking firmly to the future as a new collaboration between The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Scottish Golf works to develop the country’s next generation of junior players.

Launched at Gleneagles by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus and Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond, The Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed a three-year partnership with Scottish Golf to support its national junior golf programme, clubgolf.

The programme was launched in 2003 as part of Scotland’s successful bid to stage the Ryder Cup in 2014. It aims to introduce every primary school child to golf by the age of nine. This collaboration will see RBS provide further infrastructure and support for the scheme, which is also benefiting from the backing of the bank’s global ambassador, Jack Nicklaus, who designed the Gleneagles course that will host the Ryder Cup in three years’ time.

Nicklaus said: “I’m passionate about the future of our game and introducing golf to juniors, providing access, equipment, instruction and the opportunity to enjoy the game. With the backing of RBS, clubgolf has been created to help ensure that future generations of players from Scotland, the home of golf, are enjoying our game.”

With more than 100 years’ history of supporting golf in Scotland, RBS is now proud to support the future of golf at a local community level. Last year this initiative saw 37,000 youngsters try the sport, made possible by more than 1,400 qualified coaches from more than 300 local golf clubs.

Mr Salmond said: “This sponsorship deal between The Royal Bank of Scotland and Scottish Golf to further fund and promote clubgolf over the next three years is continued evidence of the commitment business is making to sport.

“Scotland’s future golfing prowess will owe much to getting young people interested in the sport as early as possible. Today, clubgolf is doing just that – giving primary school youngsters the chance to pick up some clubs, gain some confidence and then go on to be coached at clubs by qualified volunteers and pros. We are introducing record numbers of young people to the game.

“Since the initiative began,

Keen to learn: children try out their golfing skills, top; Jack Nicklaus with some enthusiastic youngsters, above

in association with

access to golf for children with a disability. Meanwhile, a Social Inclusion Pilot was conducted to demonstrate how clubgolf can help to meet the challenging objective to increase sports participation in socially

deprived communities.As part of the programme,

The RBS Junior Club of the Year Awards will be created to recognise and reward those clubs making an outstanding contribution to the development of the game in their local community.

Jackie Davidson, clubgolf manager, said: “We are delighted to bring RBS on board as the official sponsor of clubgolf. Its support and investment provides a significant boost for the programme and will not only help us achieve our target of introducing golf to every nine-year-old in Scotland by 2014 but will also further enable us to support clubs in retaining and growing junior membership. The partnership with RBS will also help raise the profile of clubgolf among a

brother Wallace, a Walker Cup player and now also a professional. Carly was 15 when she became the youngest player for Great

Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup, playing at St Andrews in 2008. She then became the youngest Scot to join the Ladies

European Tour at the age of 17. Booth has been compared to Michelle Wie, the Hawaiian who played against the top men as

a schoolgirl, but is content to build her game on the women’s circuit rather than trying to take on the men.

Graham Otway tours the globe to reveal how 10 outstanding new courses are incorporating the design concepts of the future

1Sheshan international Shanghai, China

A spectacular parkland layout on the outskirts of Shanghai, Sheshan has played host to the Tournament of Champions for the past six years – and attracted favourable comments from Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson.

Given the skyscrapers and traffic of nearby Shanghai, it is more than just a tranquil parkland escape for visiting businessmen. Local businessmen use it, too, judging by the multi million-dollar mansions occupying a mini island site in a lake by the 14th hole.

From a golfing point of view, the finishing stretch of holes has the standard par four, par three, par five layout. But they create a brilliant challenge that makes visiting Sheshan special. The par four is driveable off the front tee, but the ball has to be threaded through bunkers. A deep gully awaits any shot overhit to the right at the 17th, and the approach shot to water at the last is not for the faint-hearted.

2PGA Catalunya (Stadium Course) Gerona, Spain

In their heydays on the European professional circuit, Neil Coles and Angel Gallardo were two of the more colourful characters. No wonder then that their combined wit has created a golfing gem, the Stadium Course at the PGA Catalunya Resort. It is so devilishly hard that the pair irreverently recommend that handicap golfers should only ply their skills on the resort’s secondary Tour course.

The stadium is built on wooded hillsides, with several lakes coming into play greenside at the bottom of the slopes. The beauty of their design is that, from the tees, the holes are well laid out visually. However, with many subtle dog-legs, drives have to be shaped.

Gallardo and Coles are right: it is only the best golfers who can produce a left-to-right or a right-to-left shot to order. Those that can’t are either left playing out of trees or picking balls out of water.

3 Castle Stuart inverness, Scotland

The magnificent views from the southern bank of the Moray Firth are a constant distraction, and the generous fairways on the relatively short 7,050yd layout can be very deceptive. But the traditional links layout is a true test of skill. So much so that, when it was announced as the venue for this year’s Scottish Open, it attracted an entry from triple Major-winner Padraig Harrington who had boycotted the tournament for years when it was held on the equally scenic but parkland layout at Loch Lomond.

The Irishman instantly recognised a course that would provide him with practice for The Open Championship a week later. The fairways may be wide, but just hitting them is not the key to a good round. The entrances to the small greens are narrow and inaccessible from many parts of the fairways. Castle Stuart is already a course with a good reputation, which could grow to legendary status.

4 Oreti Sands invercargill, new Zealand

The Kiwi golfing tradition stretches back to the late-19th century when Scottish settlers decided much of New Zealand’s tree-lined hills and mountainsides reminded them of the land they had left behind. But it

was only recently that a basic golf layout on the southern tip of the South Island was upgraded into a high-class 18-hole course that is now officially the southernmost golfing venue on the globe.

The new layout was designed by former New Zealand tour golfer Greg Turner, who says: “ The original course had three or four holes in the middle of the back nine that really let it down. Now, I think we can safely say that there’s no aspect of the course that’s a letdown.”

Because of its remoteness, Oreti Sands must be one of golf’s most well-kept secrets. Of course, New Zealand is a day-long flight away from Europe. But with relatively low green fees and one of the world’s other great hidden gems, Balmacewen, just about three hours up the road in Dunedin, the journey would be very worthwhile.

5 Celtic Manor (Twenty Ten Course) newport, Wales

There is something special about playing the Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor, mainly because it was built specifically to host the Ryder Cup – and was the scene of Europe’s narrow one-point victory over America. Treading the same fairways as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy has to be a thrill, and attempting shots

that tested the world’s best players for three days is a great challenge.

Most memorable is the finishing stretch of holes, from the dog-leg par four 15th through to the 18th, where the final shot of the day is over water to a raised green. Every yard of it is an experience.

6 Chambers Bay University Place, Washington, USA

First-time visitors to Chambers Bay, below, (voted the top new public golf course in the United States by Golf magazine), could be forgiven for thinking they were stepping out onto a piece of traditional links land transported all the way from Ireland more than 5,000 miles away.

Although once the site of an old gravel mine, it now boasts giant sand dunes, rumpled fairways, stunning sea views and unpredictable weather. And, at more than 7,500yd, it is an immense test of stamina, given that motorised buggies are banned (unless you have an existing medical condition).

But at least that allows players to enjoy the stunning surroundings: the impressive views start at the first tee with a huge dune off to the right and the backdrop of the water of Puget Sound. The par three ninth is particularly memorable, as it involves driving across a ravine to a green contoured like a wavy potato crisp.

7 Barnbougle Dunes & Lost Farm Bridport, Tasmania, Australia

New courses are often treated with suspicion by golfers steeped in the sport’s great traditions. So to find two new layouts in one complex, both of which are universally acclaimed, is rare. But Barnbougle Dunes and its new neighbour, Lost Farm, fall into that category.

The two courses are different in many ways, and comparing one with the other is difficult. Where Barnbougle Dunes offers one visually spectacular hole after another, Lost Farm combines the spectacular with holes that place the

highest possible value on good strategy from tee to green.

Lost Farm features 20 holes, all of which are playable during a round. And while the Dunes sticks mainly to the Tasmanian coastline, Lost Farm has fairways that run both along the coast and move inland.

8 Saadiyat Beach Abu Dhabi, UAE

The huge advances in modern golf-club and ball technologies have allowed even moderate golfers to add length to their game. Consequently, course designers have, over the past decade, tended to build layouts closer to 7,000yd than the 6,000yd courses that were considered long 40 years ago.

But with Saadiyat Beach, South African golfing legend Gary Player has tried to cater for all tastes. Likely to be included on the European Tour’s professional rota, from the back tees it measures 7,806yd, which is colossal by any standards; off the front markers (for newcomers to the game), it can be played at 5,290yd.

Built on the Emirate’s coastline, the course very much has a links feel to it, but Player has also included three artificial lakes, and a total of 67 bunkers – many of them huge – to make it a very tough golfing test.

9 Finca Cortesin Casares, Spain

To walk on foot around Finca Cortesin in southern Spain requires the stamina of a fell walker: there can be up to a quarter of a mile between greens and tees. Even the practice ground has a drop of some 30ft in altitude from the hitting zone to the landing area. However, played with the aid of a buggy, it offers a wide variety of challenging holes.

None of the holes bears any resemblance to the others, but many

of them will leave the visitor with a lasting impression. The 10th is a great 220yd par three, played from a

high tee, which requires battling the prevailing wind to avoid a bunker to the left of the green; the course’s signature hole, the 13th, has a brook which meanders twice across the fairway and requires accurate and strategic club selection to avoid taking the plunge.

After a round at Finca Cortesin there is one last treat to look forward to: the cuisine in the five-star Schilo resort is excellent.

10 Bro Hof Slott Stockholm, Sweden

Situated on the stunning shore of Lake Malaren, a huge fjord, it’s hardly surprising that one of the main challenges of Bro Hof Slot is avoiding the water hazards. And that is a task made no easier by the sheer length of the course, which from the very back tees is close to 8,000yd.

Even the pros can forget playing par fours that are nothing more than a drive and wedge. Rescue clubs and three woods are often needed, and even where the water is not involved there are huge American-style bunkers to be avoided.

By contouring holes around the water, the designers have created some memorable risk/reward situations, particularly at the dog-leg 15th, where, by taking on the carry over water, it is possible to reach the green at the par five in two. And, with a large variety of tee positions, the 18th can be either a driveable par four or a much longer test, depending on the set-up for the day.

much wider audience with the aim of attracting even more youngsters, schools, clubs and volunteers into what is already a hugely successful grassroots sport initiative.”

Meanwhile, there are various coaching roles that support clubgolf, with opportunities for teachers, volunteers and golf professionals to get involved. People who wish to volunteer to be coaches at their golf club or facility can become trained and licensed through the PGA.

David Webb, head of brand at RBS, said: “We have changed our approach to sponsorship at RBS. Delivering benefits to the communities we work in now underpins all our sponsorship activity and ultimately that’s good for business too.

“The clubgolf programme in partnership with Scottish Golf serves as further notice of our commitment to use our rich heritage in the sport to drive a better future for young golfers.”

For more information, visit www.clubgolfscotland-youth.co.uk

The shape of things to come

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