NSW GC set for Australian Open

The 2009 Australian Open rolls around this week at New South Wales Golf Club. Your favourite news services will no doubt be bringing you all the action and Aussie Golfer will also be amongst it all week in attempt to give you a slightly different look at Australia's oldest national tournament.

Australian Open media centre. Here is where all the stories will break this week while Caddyshack is played on the big screen.

I popped down to the course today and had a look around the media centre where all your trusted news services (and some that report on the latest with Tiger Woods) will be firing off the latest scores and reports. The place runs like clockwork and the player interview area is all set for the first press conferences starting with John Daly tomorrow morning. (He was on course early this morning - video)

Press conference area ready for the arrival of John Daly, Marc Leishman, Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott.

While I was getting my first look of the facilities, players getting their first look of the NSW Golf Course were sent scurrying back to the club house as the first serious rains to hit Sydney in weeks hit. It is absolute perfect timing. Though lush and looking superb, the course will be even better for these rains and with fine, warm conditions forecast for the weekend.

I'll be blogging each day from the Open and you can follow any live news via the Aussie Golfer Twitter feed. Come to think of it, John Daly on Twitter will no doubt be giving updates too.

Related Stories
2009 Australian Open: What you need to know
Daly, Leishman and a trophy encounter
Australian Open on TV
NSW GC set for Australian Open
Video: John Daly practice round

Daly arrives in Australia, practices in his pyjamas

It is great to have John Daly back in Australia. He arrived this morning and went straight out to the New South Wales Golf Course to practice in his pyjamas. He is a shade of his former self having shed 50 kilograms via a number of different methods.

In the video below he's firing off a few balls from the 5th tee in the bright sunshine before the rains came.

This hole is a long, blind tee shot to the top of a hill. The hole then rolls down to a green place just in front of the Pacific Ocean. Not only will Daly be able to clear the hill but given a tailwind, I can see Daly getting very close to the green. It is a par-5.

Healthy and safety warning: Sunglasses should be worn while watching the following video.

Related Stories
2009 Australian Open: What you need to know
Daly, Leishman and a trophy encounter
Australian Open on TV
NSW GC set for Australian Open
Video: John Daly practice round

This murky Tiger affair

I must confess, I'm torn.

Do I make any sort of uninformed comment on the news of Tiger Woods' car accident and related rumours or dismiss the whole thing as gossip with no effect on the game of golf itself. After all, this is a golf website.

Is any of this golf? Does it have anything to do with golf? If not, do readers of Aussie Golfer even care?

The amount of press this story is receiving is extraordinary, ridiculous and inevitable. Fascination abounds that perhaps the highest paid sportsman in the world may not have the perfect life. One only needs to look at the way his life is already structured to realise that is already the case.

I have yet to see anything that remotely looks like a credible information source apart from a few police details. I'm the first to admit that things look like a dodgy scorecard and just don't add up but the idea that 90% of matter in the universe is missing doesn't seem to add up either. I bet the National Enquirer won't report on that today.

The whole affair is getting murkier and murkier thanks to more gossip and rumours. Some golf writers have argued that Tiger Woods owes everyone an explanation as whether or not his personal life is our business is now besides the point. I couldn't think of anything more to the point.

There are potential implications that may be golf related. This is arguably the greatest golfer in history so a blight on him may well become a blight on the game. and there is a danger that these truths or lies may affect his chase for more majors and status of the greatest golfer ever.

I wonder whether the story should stay in the realms of gossip sites and regular news outlets until there are any implications for the game of golf.

I'd really like to hear any thoughts on this one.

Car crashes and no shows

Tiger Woods was involved in a car crash outside of his Florida home at 2:30am this morning. According to sources his car collided with a fire hydrant at low speed but hard enough to knock him unconscious. His wife then apparently smashed the window of his car to rescue him. He has now been released from hospital and a spokeswoman said he suffered minor scratches.

Weird story? Got more questions? It has prompted many to question his driving once again and a whole host of other theories which I'm not even going to dignify by offering them up here. Twitter, The National Enquirer and The Daily Telegraph are not your perfect news sources.

Besides, it is not really golf news.

Golf news that has been proven accurate and reliable is word that Fred Couples will not play in the Australian Open this week. Vijay Singh will also not be playing in the Australian PGA the week after. It seems the long term back problems of Couples will make flying any sort of distance impossible and Vijay has had a recent knee operation, forcing him away from the golf course.

Couples and Singh join Allenby, Clark and Norman as major no shows for Australian golf tournaments this summer. Both the Australian Open and the Australian PGA have great fields in their own right but it seems very little has gone right in terms of promoting both tournaments with big name international players.

At least Tiger made it to Australia, for the right money. It should pay for the repairs.

How to use the broomstick putter

Let's just say you've been considering using the long putter and wondered how to use one. Aside from my mate Pete, which Australian golfer would you take advice from?

Yes, that's right. Peter Senior.

The guy completely dominated Australian golf for several summers when he converted to the long putter, beating Greg Norman regularly in the process. It sparked massive debate over the putter's legitimacy. It was no surprise that Norman expressed his disdain for it prompting Senior to reply, "Opinions are like arseholes, everyone's got one".

Last week Peter Senior qualified for full playing rights on the US Champions Tour next year, by winning the qualifying event. Never has a name been more appropriate on this tour and I'm almost sure he'll win on it. He is golfing a machine.

In honour of his great win, here is a video courtesy of the The Golf Show on Foxsports where he gives Ossie Moore a few tips on how to use the most controversial club in the bag.

Australian heartbreak at Q-School

The Australian summer of golf is well underway with several golf tournaments already played and many social golfers are starting to really fine tune their golf game. Keep in mind that while we're all having fun, many professional Australian golfers have been battling it out on the tortuous Q-School in the US in order to qualify for next years PGA tour.

The PGA Tour Q-School is a scene of heartbreak and triumph each year. James Nitties finished second to get his card last year and Y.E. Yang manged to slip in the top 25 to get his card. Already pre-qualification and the first and second qualifying stages have been held which have seen many players miss their chance at the big time.

Only last weekend Australians Brad Kennedy and Jarrod Lyle missed their spot in the final qualification event by a single shot. Kennedy had three consecutive bogeys in his final nine holes and Lyle bogeyed the last hole to see them both blow their chances.

They weren't the only Australians to miss out. Peter Lonard has lost his PGA tour card and failed to qualify and Stephen Leaney is now in the golfing wilderness after he too missed out on final qualification. It only seemed a short time ago when he was leading the US Open.

The final stage of qualifying will see 171 golfers play 108 holes of golf (six rounds) next week to try and finish in the top 25. If they do, they get a berth on the PGA Tour. Of these 171 there are 12 Australians:

Jamie Arnold	Woo Jon Lee
Adam Bland	David Lutterus
Andrew Buckle	Alistair Presnall
Gavin Coles	Aron Price
Mark Hensby	Ewan Porter
Bronson La Cassie	Ray Beaufils (a)

I notice green fees and practice balls are included with their entry fee into the tournament which is nice. These guys need all the help they can get, many careers depend upon it.

Course Review: Adelaide Shores

There are few golfing facilities in the world than can cater for the range of golfers like Adelaide Shores. As one of Adelaide's most popular public golf clubs it has two courses, a driving range, a golf academy and a pro-shop that is as good as any. The place would be almost unrecognisable to anyone who hasn't played it since Pete Ormsby (Father of Wade Ormsby) took over the management of the facility.

Many beginner golfers would have started playing golf on the Executive 60, a par-60 short course. Aussie Golfer is more familiar with the Patawalonga Course, a links style championship course which has gone through its fair share of changes over the years.

The course lies on the flatlands between the airport and the beach and when course restructuring was done in the late 1990's I just assumed they were Aussie Golfer proofing it. In fact it was the extension of the Adelaide Airport runway which brought about the changes and while the implementation of the changes weren't perfect, the design was a good one.

The last 5 years has seen the course condition improve dramatically and it has some great holes for a course that will cost you $28 to play on the weekend. The par-5 4th is an intriguing tight hole and the short par-4 7th always seems to give golfers no end of troubles.


The restructured back nine contains the best holes on the course. The 10th is a perfect short par-4 on any course. It's reachable with a good drive but brings with it more danger than a carton of West End Draught. The 15th, 16th and 17th are good tests, again giving a lot of reward for good attacking golf but can penalise if things go wrong.

It's an extremely friendly place to play golf. The area around the pro-shop is nothing like the scratchy area it was 20 years ago. The golf academy has been firmly established by Pete Ormsby and with the sort of professional golf experience he has, it would be a good place to get some lessons.

I played here as a junior, during university and many more times since with golf tragics, social golfers and friends just wanting to give the game a go. It's not a stuffy, incredibly hard championship course but a place you can take your kids to learn the game or take your golfing buddies and have a good day out. It's a rare place where all golfers can be this comfortable.

Other course reviews

Gerringong, NSW

Mt.Lofty, SA

Glenmore Heritage, NSW

Lake Karrinyup, WA

Norman expects fast rounds of golf

Greg Norman sat down in the commentary booth during the first round of the Dubai World Championship last week. Norman was there to provide some thoughts on the course the European tour professionals were playing, the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates - a course he designed.

After reading the "Sign of the Times" article in Australian Golf Digest recently I wonder just how much "design" famous golfers are actually doing other than adding their name to the golf course. However, Norman did have a few interesting things to say about the course (which has had its fair share of criticism) but it was his comments on the speed of play got my attention.

Slow play is the bane of golf. Like bad driving, no one likes it but no one admits to doing it. I wrote an article recently lamenting the death of the four hour round of golf and the drop in standards. Many golfers consider four an a half hour rounds good going. A tragedy.

Norman mentioned he had to do some redesigns to his original "resort course" plan in order to hold a European Tour tournament. But he did not want to do them at the expense of the club members and residents who play on it for 51 weeks of the year.

"I didn't want them to be playing six hour rounds of golf. I wanted them to still play the course in three hours fifty, three hours forty-five."

Whoa! Did everyone hear that?! Listen up modern golfer, the Great White Shark expects three hour forty-five minute rounds of golf!

What a pleasure it was to hear. Greg Norman has a lot to say on a lot of things but this is one of the first great things he has said in a long time. We just need Tiger Woods to repeat it and the golf world may be a better and quicker place.

Could we pay him to say it?

2010 Golf Course Guide

The 2010 edition of the Australian Golf Course Guide has just been released. It gives a state by state guide and map to nearly every course in Australia covering swish, private courses to your local goat track.

In addition, the book has over $10,000 worth of savings across many golf courses covering green fees and stay and play packages. Some discounts cover more than the cost of the book itself!

The guide has been a staple on many Christmas wish lists and I highly recommended getting yourself one if you don't know anyone nice enough to buy one for you. Look out for them in your local bookstore, pro shop or purchase one online through the ausgolf website.

Hugh Grant blames golf for being single

Here's a peek at what the game of golf can do to you. Hugh Grant has blamed golf for his current single status. He said the game has overtaken him like an addiction which has left little time for pursuing the fairer sex.

“When you say to a girl ‘I play golf’ her eyes glaze over. I do feel guilty about my golf. You know you’re a sad case when you spend your spare time reading books on putting or going on YouTube to watch slow motion golf swings,” he said.

“I’ll get out of bed in the middle of the night and practise my swing in front of a mirror. I’m obsessed and it’s destroying my life. Golf is an addiction,” he added.

Golf is certainly a more respectable pursuit than some of his previous ones. Given enough time and money, I'm sure many of us would attempt to court the very same fickle muse.

Golf snippets

Here's some golf stories you may have missed this week:

• The Australian Open has finally received some good news. After news of Tim Clark and Greg Norman withdrawing from the event, they've secured former US Masters winner, Fred Couples to grace the fairways of NSW Golf Course. The Open will now feature both ends of the American golf swinging spectrum. Fred Couples on one end and John Daly on the other.
  
  
• Aussie Golfer didn't get to see any of the Channel Nine golf coverage last weekend but some guy named Leaping Larry at The Age hooks into the commentary team. I heard from enough disgruntled fans to know McGuire and company weren't great.
  
  
• Greg Norman and Tom Watson have recieved special exemptions for the British Open. After their performances over the last two years, the R&A have changed the age rule so that former champions who finish in the top 10 in the previous five Opens get a five-year exemption, regardless of age. Worth keeping in mind.
  
  
• Michelle Wie won her first professional tournament last weekend. I personally don't think this was ever in doubt. She just had too much pressure piled on her too early. A good advertisement for the Twitter and golf combination. One of her tweets after winning: "wooooOoooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo".

BMX, skateboarding and golf

From the department of "organising random things at once" comes A Kodak Walk in the Park. Albert Park Golf Course in Melbourne will host the day of craziness on December 19 featuring a day of live music, BMX, skateboarding and golf. Yes, thats right. Live music, BMX, skateboarding.......and golf.

On the cards is a pro golf event featuring some of Australia's best men and women golfers in a 9 hole shoot out for some fairly decent prize money. Sarah Kemp, Nikki Campbell, Alistair Presnell and Cameron Percy will all be competing.

Alongside the golf the skateboarders will compete on the biggest vertical ramp in the southern hemisphere, the BMX riders will compete on 600 tonnes of dirt dumped next to the first tee and bands including You Am I, Kisschasey and Dallas Crane will perform on the main stage!

Taking golf to the kids. This could be really cool, I mean....gnarly. Go!

Reebok Pump commercial with Greg Norman

It has been all pretty serious and Tiger-ish around here of late so let's throw it all out of whack with this bit of retro craziness from the guy that used to be as big as Tiger.

Here Greg Norman stars in an advertisement for Reebok pump golf shoes from 1991. I had a pair of Reebok pumps for the basketball court but never realised they released a version for the golf course. The commercial is so corny it is hard to believe it was from the 90s and not the 80s.

Other golf commercials:
Callaway commercial
Tiger's return: Nike commercial
FedEx Cup commercial
Duelin' Drivers

Tiger wins, but what have we learned?

Photo courtesy of FoxSports and Craig Borrow

Tiger Woods won the 2009 Australian Masters today to take home the crystalware and don the gold jacket. He managed to make birdies when needed and Greg Chalmers, James Nitties and Jason Dufner couldn't match him. They join a very long list of golfers.

It was pretty amazing to see the world's number one golfer stroll Australian fairways once more a real treat to see him wear the gold jacket. A major part of the Australian golf summer for the last 20 years and won by a long list of great golfers from all over the world.

You'll find the tournament dissected and reported in many places across the Internet and you probably don't need one more tournament wrap. But what have we learned from the crazy week?

• Melbourne can put on a sporting event, any major event for that matter. I'm over the whole Sydney versus Melbourne rivalry but have to say, the city could hold the British Open without anyone realising it wasn't in the UK.
• Just because a kebab may cost $7 on Lygon Street doesn't mean it won't cost around $10 at the golf.
• Australia has just as many idiots as any other country willing to yell 'get in the hole!' to Tiger.
• Australia also has a number of golf fans who are willing to tell them to shut up.
• Tiger at his worst is even par.
• Adam Scott may soon be back to his best. See Australian Open in a few weeks.
• I have no hesitation now in saying it was $3 million well spent by the Victorian government and golf management. The atmosphere around the fully booked out city of Melbourne was extraordinary.
• James Nitties is an unashamed Tiger lover. He admits he'll never be as good as Tiger at golf but with a nickname of 'Shagger' he may well be better than Tiger at something else.

Keep it rough, just rough

The Australian Masters is underway in Melbourne and James Nitties, Brandan Grace and Tiger Woods lead the way and it was a pleasure to watch. If you weren't at the course you would not have seen Tiger's round live thanks to some great pre-programming from Channel Nine and FoxSports but tomorrow's afternoon round will be shown live.

It is great to be amongst such an amazing golf atmosphere but I always get the biggest kick out of the Australian golf summer which is played on golf courses where the rough is just rough, not to some ridiculous length where Craig Parry could go missing.

The implications reveal themselves around the green. No longer can you miss a green by a metre and expect to play it onto the green from a metre. The ball bounces away and the golfers out at Kingston Heath yesterday including Tiger of course, were then forced to play longer chip shots from much tighter lies.

The sandbelt courses are always cut like this - modeled on the links golf design. We saw a lot of birdies yesterday and shots we're not used to seeing on the PGA Tour. It shows you can keep golf entertaining and challenging for the professionals without growing the rough to stupid lengths. Course designers take note.

Appleby's honour

Peter Stone's weekend golf article contains just too much juicy golf stuff not to be commented on.

He reports on Stuart Appleby who is in Australia to play in the Masters this week and attend a golf clinic for the Appleby junior golf program on Wednesday. Stone writes:

This year, Appleby has experienced his worst year on the PGA Tour since 1996 and is 134th on the money list with just next week's Children's Miracle Network Classic remaining to break into the top 125 for full exempt status next year.

But, Appleby has chosen not to play in order to honour his promise to the Masters. He will have limited exempt status on the PGA Tour next year for finishing between 126 and 150 on the money list. That will guarantee him about 15 starts.

He also comments on Jack Nicklaus' appearance at the Australian Open in 1975 when Kerry Packer took over the management of the event and paid Jack some appearance money.

Nicklaus asked Packer what prizemoney was on offer that week and, when told, Nicklaus immediately added his fee to the purse, which brought total prizemoney to $35,000.

Here is the full Peter Stone article.

Australian Masters live leaderboard

Looking for live scores for the 2009 Australian Masters at Kingston Heath? Here's a few links to live scoreboards:

Australian PGA Tour website live leaderboard

European Tour live leaderboard

Who can beat Tiger ?

The JBWere Australian Masters is now almost upon us and it is hard to recall a bigger build up to a golf tournament held in Australia. The Tiger frenzy has been so crazy even the Britney Spears fans must be wondering why their idol is not gracing the front page of the newspapers.

There are concerns over the galleries surrounding Tiger this week. The incidents in China concerning cameras has some cause for concern and subsequently all cameras and phones are banned. There is also concerns over whether the smallish Kingston Heath course can adequately cope with the large galleries. Galleries this size won't be anything new to Tiger but the course will be.

As usual he'll be short priced favourite to win. You have to stop and remind ourselves just how amazing that is in a sport such as golf.

But is there anyone else a chance to beat him? I'd like to say Mat Goggin could threaten but his end to the year hasn't been great and John Daly may again struggle on this tight layout. Here are few guys that may be a chance.

Marc Leishman
There was a barely a player on the PGA Tour who finished better than he did this year and he is favourite to be named rookie of the year. He went from battling for his tour card to playing with Tiger Woods in the final FedEx Cup playoff featuring the Top 30 players in the space of four weeks. He can bomb it big and is not afraid to attack. He looks to thrive under pressure and could be a big threat after finishing 8th here last year. Australia's next great hope #2.

Michael Sim
Sim should have won in Australia last year. He led the Masters last year after 54 holes before a final round blow outs ruined his chances and backed up well at the Australian Open before again finishing poorly. He's over any injuries he carried with him back then and his Nationwide Tour year has shown he can close out golf tournaments now. Australia's next great hope #1.

Geoff Ogilvy
This time last week I would not have mentioned the man but his performance in China was very good. His last two rounds were very good and the Victorian often plays well in his home town.

Jason Dufner
This guy made over $2 million on the PGA Tour this year with six top-10 finishes and was first choice on many occasions...no make that second choice, in my fantasy golf team. The Americans tend to struggle first time out on Australian courses but he has been out to Australia a few times when playing on the Nationwide Tour and could be one to watch.

Rod Pampling
Pamps is back to defend his golf jacket and has had a pretty good finish to the year. He'll know this course well and be familiar with positioning off the tee. He's always a threat on home soil will feature on Sunday.

Tim Clark
When doesn't this guy put himself in a position to win? Just such a solid player and this tight layout will suit him perfectly. He finished third last year with a third round 76 against his name. I can see the South African winning this and will be completely undaunted going up against Tiger on Sunday.

Also watch for: PGA Tour regular James Nitties and 2010 PGA Tour card holder, Cameron Percy.

Tiger talks

After his practice round at Kingston Heath this morning, Tiger Woods gave his first media conference to a packed house. Victorian Premier John Brumby introduced him. You would think the US President had flown in or something.

You know Woods has been here three times before right?

Here's the full press conference, bear with it, Brumby does stop talking after a while.

2009 Australian Masters on TV

It is going to be a hot weekend in Melbourne with thunderstorms forecast for Sunday. If you don't have a ticket to the Australian Masters, can't make it to Melbourne or just looking to take in the action on the box here is what you need to know.

All four rounds of the 2009 Australian Masters are live on FoxSports and Channel Nine here in Australia this week. FoxSports brings with it a full interactive telecast along with live internet streaming from the 15th hole at Kingston Heath.

FoxSports and Channel Nine
Thursday 12th November 12:30pm - 5:30pm
Friday 13th November 12:00pm - 5:30pm
Saturday 14th November 12:30pm - 5:30pm
Sunday 15th November 12:30pm - 5:30pm

If you're looking to listen on the radio or streaming on the internet I'd recommend SEN Radio who will no doubt have excellent coverage over all our rounds.

If you're in the USA, where the Golf Channel graces your TV, you'll get it live as well but at the sort of hours Australians are used to watching Tiger:

Golf Channel (USA)
Wednesday 12th November 10:00 PM - 1:00 AM
Thursday 12th November 10:00 PM - 1:00 AM

Friday 12th November 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Saturday 12th November 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Play Australian Fantasy Golf

The PGA of Australia Fantasy Golf competition has been launched and will run over the next 6 weeks of the Australian golf calendar.

Short as it is, this should be a lot of fun and Aussie Golfer readers are encouraged to sign up and join our own Aussie Golfer league!

Here's what you'll need to do:

1) Go to Join the PGA of Australia Fantasy Golf competition
2) Register your new team, select "I want to join an existing private league" and enter KSC2P4N873 in the league number field.

If you think you can top the Aussie Golfer league there's a swag of golf goodies on offer including a dozen Srixon Z-Star golf balls, Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore DVD's, caps and much more (Australian residents only).

All this in addition to the Srixon golf clubs and bag on offer by the PGA of Australia!

Australian Masters Facts and Quotes

Start the mayhem.

Tiger Woods arrives in Australia this morning to play the Australian Masters at Kingston Heath.

To get the ball rolling, here's a few facts about the Australian Masters and a few things recent and not so recent quotes.

• Only five players from the northern hemisphere have ever won the event: Gene Littler (1980), Bernard Langer (1985), Mark O'Meara (1986), Colin Montgomerie 2001) and Justin Rose (2006).
• Greg Norman has worn the golf jacket six times. Next best is Craig Parry with three wins.
• Tiger Woods has previously played in the Australian Masters. He played in 1997 where he finished a tie for 8th, seven shots behind winner Peter Lonard.
• The slogan for the first Australian Masters was "A New Tradition". It's been "The Tradition Continues" ever since.

"Oh sweet Jesus."
Golf fan on online forum after hearing the news Eddie McGuire will be heading the Channel Nine Australian Masters coverage.

"...But all of the courses I've seen down there in Melbourne, I've always loved the bunkering, some of the best bunkering in the world."
Tiger Woods

"It's not like a typical golf course he's used to playing,...It will have to be a restrained Tiger. If he just cracks driver, he'll be in trouble."
Current Australian Masters champ, Rod Pampling.

"I'm going to run a golf tournament and call it the Australian Masters. It will be an unashamed copy of the US Masters at Augusta. We'll play it at the same venue at the same time every year. We'll hand out a jacket to the winner."
David Inglis in 1978, founder of the Australian Masters.

Australian golf needs a hero

Sightings of the Tasmanian Tiger are reported in the Australian media from time to time and interest in the extinct marsupial peaks for a few days with plans to clone the animal from extracted DNA. The story comes and goes quicker than you can say "What's with Robert Allenby's putting?" and I wonder if the sudden interest in golf due to sightings of a different Tiger in Australia next week will come and go just as quickly.

The Victorian government claims the money to lure Tiger Woods to the Australian Masters will quickly repay itself, generating major tourism dollars and cementing Melbourne as a world sporting capital. At the moment it is difficult to disagree. It appears a fine investment for the state and the country but what about the for game of golf?

With the Melbourne Cup out of the way, golf will be on the front of newspapers for a few weeks. The golf courses of Melbourne have never been busier with a major spike in bookings and tickets to the golf tournament itself sold out a month ago. Even $10 tickets to watch Tuesday's pro-am are selling well and according to reports, many wealthy business men are throwing wads of money around like John Daly throws cameras, in order to play in Tiger's group.

FoxSports as official broadcasting partner of the Masters will introduce a level of golf television never before seen in Australia and now Kylie Minogue is claiming to be a golf addict leading some to speculate that golf is sexy right now. Kylie's recent fascination with the game may not be as a result of the appearance of Tiger Woods but the rest of the hype certainly is.

There is no way the same level of interest will continue once Tiger has left the country but for the sake of Australian golf, now it is a mighty fine time for an Australian golfer to step up and become our next sporting hero. Greg Norman's shadow is a hard one to step out of, especially with his hat on. He is still in the news, on and off the course and even non-golfers tend to take interest when his name is mentioned. Let's face it, the golf world takes notice when Norman is in the news.

If you believed what was said by golf experts five years ago, Adam Scott or Aaron Baddeley would be Australia's golf pin-up boys right now. Geoff Ogilvy has the US Open under his belt but has failed to make a mark on the general sporting public and now high expectations are placed on the shoulders of Michael Sim.

Is anyone capable of carrying Australian golf post-Tigerfest?

What do they need to do?

Start by beating Tiger Woods in a playoff at Kingston Heath next week. Better still win by four or five shots. Be self-depreciating in your winning speech and thank only human beings. This won't be enough to be fully welcomed as our newest sporting hero and you may need to go on to win the Australian Open or the Australian PGA just to make sure we all noticed. There have been enough gold medal Olympians to know beating the best once doesn't mean you automatically qualify for sporting folklore, Steven Bradbury aside.

We're a fickle mob. A few PGA Tour wins early next year will be needed to help your status but you're probably going to have to say something controversial (not necessarily wrong) to stir the pot and create more headlines. Say something about American golfers not travelling much these days. Maybe say something about how a younger golfer is too big for his boots and maybe go out with a model or something. Perhaps see what Kate Hudson is up to these days.

There have been a few Australian golfers that have fulfilled some of these criteria already but there is one more thing that will need to be accomplished. I think you know where I'm going with this. You will need to win the US Masters.

It is easier for an Australian to say no to a game of backyard cricket than it is to win the US Masters. In a recent interview Jack Newton, who almost pipped Seve Ballesteros for the green jacket in 1980 thinks the short game of the Australian golfers is not good enough. So get to work. Hit the putting and chipping green soon after you've phoned Kate. And don't even think about leading after three rounds and throwing it all away.

Golf may then rise to new levels in Australia and you will be our new golfing hero until we deem fit to rip into something about your demeanour that has been annoying us for a while. Michael Sim looks the pick of the bunch but we have seen young Aussies rise and fall before. Golf will always be a welcome, accessible pastime in Australia but without a new golfing hero I can't see it becoming anything more once Tiger leaves our shores. Maybe we should preserve The Shark's DNA. Let's make a deal, if we don't have a golfing hero in five years we clone him. With enhanced final round nerves of course.

Stuart Appleby's website

Australian golfers tend to punch above their weight on the world stage but when it comes to marketing themselves and running their own websites, they don't do too well.

There are a few exceptions however as I mentioned with Adam Scott's website a few months ago. Remember him?

I've recently been checking out Stuart Appleby's website and must say it's pretty good. Appleby's been on Twitter lately and he's got some nice videos on his site. His walk-through of the 10th at Riviera Country Club is worth watching. It made me realise the hundreds of things that go through a professional golfers mind. In the end, the hole kinda creeped me out. It sounds far too dangerous for a budding amateur to be taking on.

He looks like he has this game all figured out. How is it he is struggling to retain his PGA Tour card?!

P.S. Stuart Appleby on Twitter

Things you CAN do on a golf course

Barry Rhodes is a golf rules guru. No question. In March 2008, Barry became the first person to achieve a 100% correct mark on the public Advanced Rules of Golf Course examination, run by the PGA in their headquarters at The Belfry, West Midlands, UK.

We'll check in with Barry from time to time to get the absolute rulings on different scenarios you may encounter on the golf course.

In the meantime, I'd like to present to you a list Barry published a few weeks on things you CAN do on a golf course.

Under the Rules of Golf you may;

1. Have a flagstick attended even when your ball is in a bunker, or on the apron of the green - Rule 17-1.
2. Look into someone’s golf bag to identify which club they are using for their stroke - Decision 8-1/10.
3. Use the back, or the toe, of the clubhead to strike the ball - Decision 14-1/1.
4. Ask anyone the distance from any point A to any point B - Information on distance is not advice, Definition of Advice.
5. Ground your club on a bridge situated in a water hazard - Decision 13-4/30.
6. Lay a club, or clubs, in a bunker before you make a stroke at your ball lying in that bunker - Exception 1(b) to Rule 13-4.
7. Wrap a towel or handkerchief around the grip to assist in gripping your club on a wet day - Rule 14-3c.
8. Replace your ball where it was, under penalty of one stroke, when you have just putted past the hole and into a bunker - Rule 27-1a.
9. Use the toe of your putter to mark your ball – Decision 20-1/16.

This article was written by Barry Rhodes, author of the book '999 Questions on the Rules of Golf' who blogs on miscellaneous content on the Rules of Golf at http://www.barryrhodes.com.

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Callaway commercial

Here's a new commercial from Callaway. They didn't give me anything to put it up on here - I just thought it was funny.