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What’s so special about Ludvig Aberg?

It’s now a year since Ludvig Aberg turned pro and in that year he has won over $10,000,000 in prize money, winning on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour. He’s played an important part in a winning Ryder Cup team, had top 10s in majors and reached number 3 in the world. Rory McIlroy calls him an “unbelievable ball striker”.

Standing at 6 feet 3 inches, he stands close to the ball to maintain his height.  His grip has a very strong left hand to control the clubface and the weak left hand controls the loft of the club.

His stance has his armpits over the balls of his feet in a relaxed position. He starts the takeaway with a hip sway to the right moving the weight back early in the swing. This stops him moving too much ahead of the ball.

The wide arc of the club stays outside the line of the swing for a long time and the clubface stays closed. He keeps his hands high at the top of the swing. Not a big hip turn but a 90 degree shoulder turn. This restricted lower body turn generates power and speed.

He starts the downswing with a hip shift driving through with the left leg generating speed into the ball. His right arm extends with a huge roll of the wrists releasing power from the body into the clubhead. Huge body extension into the follow through.

He hits the ball high and far and then slows to a well balanced finish.

What’s in his bag?

DRIVER: Titleist TSR2 (9 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X shaft

FAIRWAY WOODS: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 X; (21 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 9 X

IRONS: Titleist T100 (4-PW), with KBS Tour 130 X shafts

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (50, 54 and 60 degrees), with KBS Tour 130 X shafts

PUTTER: Odyssey White Hot Versa #1

BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

A golf writer once said that the most boring interview he ever sat through was a great player going on and on about the pros and cons of playing on poa annua grass. So, this is a test to see how soon your eyes glaze over as we have a look at some of the most common types of grass grown on golf courses. 

A course’s grass substantially affects how it plays, so let’s have a look at the playing characteristics of common grasses.

Course designers choose grasses that will thrive in the course’s particular environment.

You will often find fescue on seaside links courses. It’s a hardy, drought resistant grass that is easy to maintain and requires less watering. 

Bentgrass is normally found on courses with cooler temperatures, Inmountain areas ryegrass is often the choice. In warmer temperatures Bermuda grass.

It’s useful to recognise different golf course grasses to understand their playing characteristics, the fairway lies and the challenges they pose in the rough. 

It’s also important from a shot-making point of view to know how each grass type affects your lie and the action of the clubhead on the ball. Here are some of the main grasses:

Bent grass: This is a cool season grass with a fine leaf blade texture that is used mostly for fairways. Bent grass doesn’t thrive in hot and humid conditions and requires steady watering. On the fairways it produces tight lies. Bent grass isn’t used in the rough as it is a fine bladed grass.

Bermuda grass: A warm weather grass with broad, coarse leaf blades, it is used on both fairways and rough and grows well in tropical climes. It grows well in hot and humid conditions thriving on less water than bent grass. When maintained at fairway height Bermuda grass allow the ball to sit up well and provides a little clubhead resistance. In the rough Bermuda is stiff and wiry and will grab or twist a clubhead.

Poa Annua: This grass thrives under moist conditions. It often grows alongside fescue or bent grass. Agronomists think that it grows 40 percent quicker than bent grass and produces patchy, non-uniform fairways and rough areas. It has a short life cycle, appearing in the Spring. It has a sticky, clumpy irregular quality and because it is so fast growing and growing alongside other grasses it provides an unpredictable playing surface, particularly around the collar of the greens.

Fescue: This cool season grass has a coarse leaf blade texture and thrives by the sea. It is often found on British Isles courses and is associated with links courses. A finer version of fescue is often used by designers for the rough grass as it is easier to escape from than other cool season grasses such as blue grass tall fescue is useful as a rough grass and produces a contrast with the fairways. Fine fescue on the fairways provides a firm lie which makes the ball travel shorter distances.

Kikuyu Grass: This all season grass found on the West coast of America; it has a thick wiry blade. As a rough grass, kikuyu’s strong wiry texture will grab the clubhead. If left unmaintained it is a very difficult grass to escape from.

Ryegrass: is a cool season grass thriving under most conditions except heat and humidity. It grows quickly and is often used to overseed Bermuda grass fairways and rough areas in the winter months. As a fairway surface, ryegrass produces lush grass in a short period of time because it holds moisture well. Used for rough grass it can cause clubhead resistance.

There are four types of wind to be concerned about: tailwinds, headwinds, crosswinds and quarter winds. Each will influence your shot in a different fashion. 

A tailwind comes from behind you and blows in the general direction of your target. Spin on the ball will have less effect and it will be difficult to shape your shots by fading or drawing them. A tailwind also generally causes your shot to carry farther, especially if you get extra loft on it.

A headwind blows directly towards yiu from your target and will amplify the effects of spin. A draw or a fade will curve more than would otherwise be the case, and shots will often balloon, reducing carry. Consider using a less lofted club or playing the ball on a lower trajuectory. Don’t let a strong headwind intimidate you into overswinging.

A crosswind cuts across your line in a perpendicular fashion and will cause the ball to move to the right or left. Gauge the wind’s intensity and decide how far right or left to start the shot so the wind will push it to the target area.

A quartering wind blows toward you and cuts acriss your shot line at an angle. You will have to make both headwind and crosswinf adjustments.

When you are playing in windy conditions, you should think about your next move, Ascertain how the wind will affect the way you play the shot following the one you are about to hit. When you are putting you should carefully observe wind conditions because a strong wind can substantially affect a putt’s path to the hole. Experience and your sensitivity to this type of situatiin will enable you to develop putting touch in windy conditions. 

Wind can play havoc with your game. When you are playing in difficukt wind conditions everyone’s score will go up, Remember the advice “when it’s breezy, swing easy”.

So, how do course architects factor in the wind when designing a course? 

Wind is like an invisible hazard on the golf course. When the architect designs the course wind conditions play a material part in how the course is laid out. Prevailing, seasonal and even storm wind patterns are taken into account. They will influence the route of the holes and the configuration of features of the course. 

If the prevailing wind blows from east to west, the way that the fairways slope will minimise the prevailing wind’s effect. Greens might be tipped from west to east to counteract the east-west prevailing wind. A long par 4 wouldn’t be laid out in the position where it plays into a prevailing wind as it would play too long.

Sometimes seasonal and storm winds that blow in different directions other than the prevailing wind presenting a formidable playing challenge. Take extra care to determine if the wind is coming from an unusual direction and factor this in to your playing strategy. If you’re playing away from your home course taking the advice of the club professionals before your round is 10 minutes time well spent so that you know the wind direction on each hole.

Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive Officer of the R&A, and Fred Ridley, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club have clarified reports suggesting the Open Championship and the Masters are considering adjusting their qualification criteria to create exemptions for LIV golfers to qualify for those major championships based on their performance in LIV tournaments.

“As I’ve stated a number of times, our conditions are designed in a way to create pathways for the very best players in the world to compete for the Open Championship next year at Royal Troon,” Slumbers told reporters last week in Australia before the start of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, whose winner earns exemptions into the Open and the Masters.

“I would say, though, there has been some speculation in the media recently on the topic that you’re raising, and I would say that it is completely off the mark. I would like to make it very clear that exemptions for the Open, we do not discuss them with anyone, and nor would we at any point in time.

“I think it’s very important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that the Open is intended to be open to everybody, but you earn your place in the field and through exemptions, and that won’t change.”

*I would like to make it very clear that exemptions for the Open, we do not discuss them with anyone, and nor would we at any point in time.”

Ridley offered a similar, but slightly more open, response regarding the Masters.

“As you recall last year, there was some speculation as to whether or not we would invite LIV golfers, and we stayed true to our qualification criteria and we invited everyone who was eligible, Ridley said. “And so, while we do not at this time anticipate making any changes in 2024, we do always look at them, and we will continue to do that.

“So, I would just answer by saying that our qualifications are very much dynamic and we adjust to what we feel is the best interests of the tournament representing the best players in the world, so we always look at that”

The Masters is an invitational with its own qualifying criteria as well as special exemptions. The Open Championship provides spots through designated events on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour as well as through 36-hole qualifying tournaments.

The mess continues.

As part of the stratedic alliance between the PGA Tour (CEO Jay Monahan left) and DP World Tour (CEO Keith Pelley right) playing rights on each tour will be awarded to players from the other.

Any DP World Tour player not otherwise exempt finishing in the top 10 will be offered PGA Tour membership.

The players outside the top 125 on the PGA Tour, losing their cards next year places 126-200 will be offered a new category of membership on the DP World Tour.

If they play four or more tournaments outside the majors can qualify for the DP World Rour playoffs.

Tour pro Eddie Pepperell said on a podcast this week” I personally think it’s a disaster for the DP World Tour.

“I can’t think of any good business that tries to not retain its ‘clients’ if you like. Just give the best ones away. That makes no sense to me.

“But from the players’ perspective, who all have frankly ambitions to play on the biggest stage, which now clearly is the PGA Tour, it’s good for them.

“To me it doesn’t seem sustainable that the Tour can continue to operate successfully while giving away its best players. I’m afraid I don’t like it at all.”

What a mess this all is. The “Framework Agreement” between the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV seems to have been put on hold while it is investigated by the US Congress. Now other companies are offering to buy in to the business.

From Golf Digest

The PGA Tour has rejected a private equity offer from one of the most powerful entities in sports.

It is no secret that several companies are vying to provide financial backing to the PGA Tour amid the tour’s ongoing discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, calling into question if the PIF deal will ultimately come to fruition. Endeavor, the parent company the WWE, the UFC, and sports agency IMG, and which has a market value of close to $10 billion, was one of the primary interested investors. Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel confirmed his company’s bid just weeks ago. “We are in the sports business,” Emanuel said earlier in October. “I’m an avid golfer. It’s one of the great sports. I love it”.

However, Endeavour were turned down.

We’re big fans of golf, and we’ll continue to champion the PGA Tour,” Endeavor’s Mark Shapiro said, “but we’re not going to be an investor at any level.”

Other entities include the Fenway Sports Group (which owns the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Premier League team Liverpool F.C.) and the investment firm KKR & Co.

Earlier this month the PGA Tour acknowledged these discussions in a memo to its membership. “We remain focused on reaching a Definitive Agreement with PIF and the DP World Tour, but not surprisingly, these negotiations have resulted in unsolicited outreach and proposals from a number of other interested investors,” the PGA Tour’s Jason Gore wrote in the memo, which has been obtained by Golf Digest. “All of this activity reinforces the Tour’s strong position and our potential for growth.”

The framework between the tour and PIF calls for a new agreement to be completed by the end of the year, although both sides can agree to extend the deadline. Outside obstacles remain for the PGA Tour-PIF partnership. The U.S. Senate opened an investigation into the pending deal, citing that the alliance “raises concerns about the Saudi government’s role in influencing this effort and the risks posed by a foreign government entity assuming control over a cherished American institution.” The deal could be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which analyzes mergers regarding potential threats to the nation’s security. Additionally, the tour continues to be under an antitrust probe by the U.S. Department of Justice, and PIF’s investment into the tour is expected to fall under this investigation.