7 things to look forward to in golf in 2017
A revolutionary golf tournament, Masters Luck and the return of Tiger Woods are just some of the things we’re looking forward to in 2017.
As players tee off at the opening PGA Tour event for 2017, there is a lot of exciting golf ahead in 2017, both in the professional world and at club level golf. Australian golfers are getting better and so are our golf courses which feature in out list below.
Luck at the 2017 Masters
So far we have four Australians in the field at Augusta including Adam Scott, Jason Day and Rod Pampling, but it’s the inclusion of amateur Curtis Luck that has us intrigued ahead of the 2017 Masters Tournament (April 8 – 11).
West Australian Luck is an exciting prospect claiming the US Amateur and Asia-Pacific Amateur in 2016. At just 20-years-old, Luck appears to have a great temperament and the Masters will at the very least be great experience with two more major berths already booked for 2017; the US Open and the Open Championship.
Golf Australia handicapping
As we reported last December, as of April 1 2017 GolfLink will disappear with all handicapping operations moving over to Golf Australia. We’re excited to see where Golf Australia could take the handicapping operations. Hopefully its a better experience for all Australian golfers starting with a revamped, more user-friendly historical handicap view.
World Super 6 in Perth
Sounding like more of a cricket or darts tournament, the World Super 6 golf tournament in Perth (Feb 16 – 19) is going to be great fun to watch, not to mention revolutionary for professional golf.
American Patrick Reed and Swede Alex Noren have already signed on for the unique event which will see 24 players qualify (after three rounds of stroke play) for a series of 6-hole knockout match play to decide a winner on Sunday.
Jason Day returns to golf
The world’s number one golfer will tee it up at Kapalua this week at the Tournament of Champions and Day has said a few changes are on thew cards for 2017.
Sporting Nike Golf clothing for the first time and in his first appearance since a three-month layoff due to a back injury, Day said he may opt for a shorter swing to protect his back and go back to slower play to regain some focus over the golf ball that he claims he lost in the latter half of 2017. Few golfers have shown they can overcome adversity like Jason Day has over the past few years but doubt remains over how his back will fare in the early months of 2017.
The return of Tiger
Tiger Woods returned to tournament golf at the hit-and-giggle Hero World Challenge last December and showed signs of his past greatness. But the real test will come as he attempts to play a full season n the PGA Tour starting at the Genesis Open at the Riviera club in Los Angeles in February.
Presidents Cup in New Jersey
The International Presidents Cup team will head to Liberty National GC in New Jersey (September 26 – October 1) with renewed optimism after coming within a whisker of beating the Americans in South Korea.
It’ll still be a mighty feat to beat the Americans on home soil for the first time, but with Adam Scott, Jason Day and a surging Hideki Matsuyama leading the team, we’re as optimistic as we’ve ever been about the first International victory since 1998.
Australian golf courses are getting better and better
Australian golf courses will always be on the bucket list of international visitors thanks to the likes of Melbourne’s sandbelt courses, Barnbougle and Cape Wickham. But the quality of Australian golf courses is about to get even better with some upgrades and renovations planned for some of our other great courses.
OCCM will complete the third stage of the new-look Bonnie Doon Golf Club early in the year and King Island’s Ocean Dunes will have all 18-holes open for play this year. Tom Doak will begin working on Concord Golf Club, Gil Hanse on a big makeover of Royal Sydney and Melbourne’s often overlooked Yarra Yarra Golf Club will announce the course designer to bring it back to one of Australia’s best golf courses.
