10 Reasons to buy the latest issue
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10 Reasons to buy the latest issue of TG, Featuring the ultimate robot golf ball test
A note from the editor: The benefits of golf for your physical health are well documented. Based on my own experiences tracking my activity this year over numerous 18-hole rounds, I walk almost six miles (but a bit like a drill sergeant, going left, right, left, right…), do more than 12,000 steps and burn around 1,400 calories.
That’s way more than a 30-minute gym session – and it’s miles more fun! What’s also become more apparent, though, is how golf is fantastic for your mental wellbeing, too. The R&A has been spreading the word that golf can improve your health and happiness, with ideas such as the first Golf & Health Week.
Its chief executive, Martin Slumbers, said: “It is important that we continue to promote golf as an activity that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities and demonstrate that playing golf can provide significant benefits for the health and wellbeing of those who participate in the sport.”
The Golf Foundation has also been working hard in this area, launching Unleash Your Drive – a programme to help build mental toughness in young people. Mental toughness is a measure of people’s ability to deal with stress in life and evaluates confidence, ability to address and cope with challenges, emotional control and commitment. Several groups of 11 to 16 year olds were evaluated at the beginning and end of the programme, which teaches techniques such as breathing and visualisation alongside traditional golf skills. In just 10 weeks, youngsters showed an average 20 per cent increase in their mental resilience. They said that being mentally tougher helped them perform better, feel happier and address stressful situations.
Most significantly, all the youngsters used the techniques they had learnt during their golf coaching in everyday life; at home, at school and in exams. One youngster told us he was now “better at golf and life”. These fantastic stories are the reasons we’ve put together our first ever “Wellness Issue”, which celebrates why golf is good for you; it all starts on p39.
Chris Jones, Editor
GOLF BALLS TEST
We flew to Arizona to spend a week on PXG’s £250,000 test robot hitting golf balls. With 500,000+ pieces of data, 1260 shots, 21 balls, it’s the most insightful golf balls test we’ve ever created.
Some will argue golfer’s aren’t robots, and there’s no element of ‘feel’. But experience tells us the only true way to accurately see the difference between each ball’s performance is a repeatable swing and a consistently accurate impact location, which no human tester can produce.
Our test took a week to do, six months to plan and we were talking about it for a year before getting the thumbs-up from PXG. Read our latest issue to find out how we did it, and what we learned.
Read and learn from the men who are in charge of the Fitness & Medical truck on the European Tour
Rob Hillman and Dr Andrew Murray are the two men responsible for improving the health and fitness of over 400 Tour pros. And now they want to improve yours too!
Hillman, who is the director of the Physiotherapy Unit and Performance Institute, heads up a team of physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors and sports therapists who travel 30,000km a year across Europe, Asia and even into Africa. The hard part, Hillman admits, is getting the truck – which doubles as a gym and medical practice at tournaments – from A to B. He shares the same space with Dr Andrew Murray, chief medical officer for the European Tour and Ryder Cup Europe, who he reckons might be the fittest man on tour.
Find out all about the truck, the men who work on it, and their best tips to help improve your golf fitness.
Spin Instruction
The impressive regulation of spin in the latest generation of golf balls – together with modern driver technology – means we have never had more assistance in optimising driver spin, launch and distance. However, equipment can only help you get the best out of what you currently have. To fully optimise your driving performance, you need to work on your swing too. Here, TG Top 50 Coach Garret Johnston teaches you how to fuse technique with ball and driver technology to take your distance off the tee to a new level.
Big Interview: Beef
Andrew Johnston has spent months suffering in silence, missing tournaments and crying at others. But thanks to the help of his fiancée – and psychology – he’s rediscovered his love for golf, and now he wants to help others do the same.
49 Brilliant Stay & Play Autumn Deals
Inside seven GB&I regions find 49 brilliant options to have a night away and play some cracking courses, from Carnoustie to Trevose in Scotland and England to Slieve Russell and Tenby in Ireland and Wales.
Inside this month’s Gear
TaylorMade’s highest tech iron to date, new wedges from Cleveland and TaylorMade, and a look at the best trolley bags on the market right now.
My Life in Golf: Trevor Nelson
‘The Stuffiness has to go… or it won’t survive’: DJ Trevor Nelson features in this month’s My Life in Golf, and talks about the best – and the worst – things about golf.
How Golf Saved My Life
A new book, Mulligan, features 18 golfers who demonstrate how the power of the human spirit can move people to achieve their goals, despite significant obstacles. Here are just five of those truly inspiring stories…
Inspirational Story: Nick Edmund
Nick Edmund has walked nearly 2,000 miles carrying his golf bag around Scotland and Ireland. He’s played the 4th hole on 85 of the best courses, each time flying the flag (quite literally) for fellow cancer sufferers and raising money to fight the disease.
Competitions
In this month’s issue of TG, find out how to win a Powakaddy Dri-Edition Cart Bag, and a Luxury Golf break at Woburn.
