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orld No.3 and PGA Tour Player of the Year Dustin Johnson will make his Middle East debut when he headlines the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, January 19-22. The big-hitting American harnessed his prodigious talent in 2016 to break through and win his first major, the U.S. Open at Oakmont with an awesome display of ball-striking, adding the WGC Bridgestone Invitational to his trophy haul and helping the USA finally recapture the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine. 

In an exclusive interview with Golf Digest Middle East, Johnson revealed that he has heard all about the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and can’t wait to tee it up in the capital. “I’m really excited about going to Abu Dhabi and playing in the Middle East for the first time. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about the golf course from all the guys who have played over there, Rickie and Rory, they think the course is great and they tell me I’m definitely going to like it.”

Dustin Johnson won the WGC-HSBC Champions in 2013 – can he add the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship to his collection?

Given the way he has played this year there are few courses that don’t set up well for one of the world’s longest hitters, but the National course at Abu Dhabi Golf Club will play to his strengths. “I won’t do too much differently,” he said when we asked what his strategy would be for tackling a new venue. “I’ll get out there and figure out the best game plan [early in the week].”

Since becoming a father, a life change that Johnson says has given him “a whole new perspective”, the South Carolina native has combined his supreme athletic prowess with a harder, more ruthless edge that has seen him banish the tag of major nearly-man and come through the toughest test of all at America’s hardest venue, the fabled Oakmont. A blue riband year also saw him add a victory at the BMW Championship during the FedEx Cup Playoffs and register a top five at the Masters and a top 10 at the Open Championship. Being part of a winning Ryder Cup team at his third attempt was the icing on the cake.

“Obviously getting my first major was very special and something I’ll never forget, walking off that 18^th green,” he said. “Winning the Ryder Cup too, it’s different being a team event where you’re playing for your country and the fans, and the guys on your team. It’s very, very special to bring home the cup. I’ve played on three teams and this is the first time we’ve won it, so it’s a very special feeling – similar I would say to the [U.S.] Open, but with the Open I’m out there playing for myself.”

Johnson overcame a rules debacle and ensuing penalty to win his first major by three strokes at Oakmont with a nerveless display

You get the distinct feeling that the newly crowned PGA Tour Player of the Year is just getting started. Johnson knows he has the talent to win multiple majors, and now he has the confidence to go with it. But right now, his sights are trained squarely on the UAE capital. “I’m proud of the way I played [in 2016] but right now I’m looking forward to coming to Abu Dhabi and I’m excited about the new year.”

Lining up against a stellar field that includes Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Masters champion Danny Willett and defending champion Rickie Fowler, Johnson won’t lack for motivation as he looks to start 2017 with a bang.

The post Interview Exclusive: Dustin Johnson can’t wait for Abu Dhabi appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Rayhan Thomas is not just the first amateur golfer to win a MENA Tour event. He’s also a poster boy for the future of golf in both India and the Middle East. In this exclusive interview with one of the most likeable and focused teenagers you could ever meet, Thomas talks pressure playoffs, his love of yoga and the sacrifices required to become one of the best 16-year-old golfers on the planet

Story by Robbie Greenfield

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 elf-confidence is the lifeblood of every top athlete, but it comes in two very different guises. With some, it manifests itself in cockiness and even arrogance. Then there’s the other form of confidence – equally strong but quiet, like a powerful current. This is the type possessed by Rayhan Thomas. When you meet Rayhan, you quickly get a feeling that this kid is going places. And at 16, his precocity goes beyond his exploits on the golf course. “What is more important: talent or hard work?” I ask him during our interview. “Hmm,” he thinks for a second. “When talent works hard, that’s a pretty good combo.”

Around two years ago, Thomas made the decision at just 14 years of age to make the most out of the considerable talent he’s been blessed with. You can’t lead a normal teenage life and work towards becoming a professional athlete at the same time. For those who try to do both, inevitably it’s the dream that dies. And so Rayhan accepted that in order to achieve his goal of becoming a top golfer, his life would have to be very different to those of his friends.

Last year, Rayhan, together with his parents John and Neena, and coach Justin Parsons, took the difficult decision to leave school and continue his studies at home through an online course that gave him the freedom to focus on golf and play tournaments without skipping classes.

The academic adjustment has been a relatively straightforward one for this bright young man, but leaving his friends behind was a wrench. “That was the biggest sacrifice I made, giving up a big part of my social life. I miss my friends a lot,” he told us during last month’s shoot. “But then when a win comes along and you get to experience that feeling, it’s worth it.”

And what a win it was. Last month at his home course, Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, Rayhan made history when he became the first amateur golfer to win a MENA Tour event, on the occasion of the tour’s 50th tournament. It has long ceased being a surprise to see Thomas’ name near the top of a MENA Tour leaderboard, but winning at 16 was a remarkable achievement.

Rayhan Thomas poses with the trophy at Dubai Creek, alongside Adel Zarouni, vice chairman of the Emirates Golf Federation. Mohamed Juma Buamaim, chairman of the MENA Golf Tour, Chris May, CEO of Dubai Golf, and club captain Patrick Morrow

golf in DUBAi’s David Spencer called it the ‘most significant thing to happen to golf in the Middle East since Tiger Woods hit balls off the Burj Al Arab in 2004’, and if that sounds like hyperbole, I can add that in 12 years of covering golf in the region, I’ve never seen anything to match it on a local level. Dubai has always had a flair for staging the biggest events, but watching a young Indian lad come through a junior program at the Creek, and then continue to progress to a point where at 16 he has become one of the best players on the MENA Tour, puts this region on the map not simply as one of the European Tour’s favourite stop-offs, but as a legitimate producer of exciting golfing talent.

Furthermore, this was no one-off victory on his home track. In the last five MENA Tour events, Thomas’ worst finish is a tie for eighth. Top players are able to score well on every type of golf course, and Rayhan’s runner-up and third place finishes in Thailand, together with his even more impressive win at the Scottish Boys tournament last summer, have shown that even at his young age, he has a versatile game.

The most exciting aspect though, is the scope he has for far greater improvement. Thomas will get bigger and stronger, and more technically skilled. “He’s just so good at playing the game,” says Stephen Hubner, director of golf operations at Dubai Creek. “It sounds like a simple thing to do, but we all know it’s not. Rayhan has that ability to navigate his way around a course in the fewest possible shots, and all the ball-striking prowess in the world can’t buy you that.”

In the last five MENA Tour events, Thomas’ worst finish is a tie for eighth.

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Rayhan Thomas: The Interview

Now that you’ve had time to let the achievement sink in, how do you put into words what winning on the MENA Tour means for your career?
It’s mainly about confidence. It has set a platform for the rest of the season, and going ahead it gives me plenty of confidence for the rest of the MENA Tour and the other amateur events that I’m going to play this year.

Have you been surprised by your success on the MENA Tour?
Last year did surprise me, yes. Getting into the playoff that I lost at Dubai Creek [to Jake Shepherd] and finishing in the top 15 in a few other events, it came as a bit of a shock. But this year with all the practice I had put in and the good results I had in Thailand, I expected to be able to content this time around.

Was there a particular moment during the victory that stands out?
The last full shot I hit in regulation was from the waste bunker on the right of the 18th fairway. The pin was tucked right and I knew I needed to make a birdie to win. I was going for it, I didn’t want to get into another playoff, but I pushed the shot ever so slightly and the wind took it right of the green. It pitched on the bank, hit a rock by the water hazard and bounced back onto the grass! My heart was in my mouth but in the end, a good result.

Your win created quite a stir, both on the MENA Tour and in the wider world of golf.
The reaction has been amazing from the guys on the MENA Tour who I look up to. Getting recognition from guys like Zane Scotland, Luke Joy and Jake Shepherd has meant a lot. And to have professionals like Thomas Bjorn, Chubby Chandler, Darren Clarke and other Indian golfers like Anirban Lahiri and Jeev Milkha Singh take notice on Twitter, it has been very exciting for me.

Getting recognition from guys like Zane Scotland, Luke Joy and Jake Shepherd has meant a lot.

What has been more important in your evolution as a player: learning how to hit the shots or learning how to cope with the pressure?
My Dad always said I have the shots, and I have a good imagination when it comes to playing, but I never really developed the mental stability. I guess at 15 you don’t really have that. So this year I started doing some yoga and focusing on techniques to keep calm and visualise things better. I think that has been a key to the success I’ve had this year. When I hit a bad shot, I try to accept it and move on. I can’t change what’s just happened, so there’s no point smashing my club or tossing my ball in the water. I stay calm and go ahead and play the next shot. When I’m faced with a tough shot or a pressure moment, I’ve worked hard on my inner dialogue, reminding myself that I’ve hit the shot tons of times before, that I’ve done the work and practiced enough to expect to hit a good shot. As a golfer you have to be present. I’ve worked on closing my eyes, focusing on my breathing and paying a lot of attention to the different sounds around me, to be in tune with the environment. Once I open my eyes, everything is blocked out and it’s all about the next shot.

How do you strike the balance between your studies and your golf career?
I’ve started studying from home, which is all online, so I get to travel and study at the same time. But it’s all about having a routine in place where I know what I’m doing and what I have to focus on. Whether that be practicing in the morning and studying in the afternoon, or the other way around. And of course having a Mom that’s always behind me and making sure I’m on top of things has been very important!

How big a role have your parents played in allowing you to pursue this dream?
They’ve put in a lot of time, money and effort in order to give me this opportunity. Everything from taking me to events, to the coaching that’s required and the time to practice and play. But more than that they’ve given me the values and the morals, together with the confidence that I can do something with my life and be a success if I work hard enough. There’s no one in this world that I trust more than my parents and any successes I have in golf, I owe to them.

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The expert take on Rayhan

Justin Parsons
Director of Instruction at the Butch Harmon School of Golf and Rayhan’s coach

“Rayhan has essentially been living like a professional athlete for the last 18 to 24 months. Over that time, he has become increasingly exposed to the kinds of things that professional tour players have to deal with on a daily basis, and as a result, he has made a lot of progress.

One of the big challenges we had with Rayhan was to ensure that he stayed very motivated and very realistic, based on the level of competition that was available to him. I think in the past, nobody has helped local golfers here to understand that being the best amateur in the UAE doesn’t come with any guarantees. You’re a big fish in a small pond – a top junior amateur here might not even be in the top 30 or 40 for their age group in the UK, for example. For all the facilities that we have here – and believe me they are among the best on the planet – the challenge we have is that this is a very small pool of elite talent. And as we all know, it’s competition that breeds success.

We have to help promising golfers come up through the ranks without getting caught up in the hype that builds up around them. In my own role as Ray’s coach, I have to constantly remind myself not to get carried away with what he’s achieving. We need to stay focused on his progression and his improvement. Rather than bask in his successes, we try to use them as a platform to keep moving forward, and Rayhan completely gets that. One of the first things he said to me after winning the MENA Tour event at Dubai Creek was, “so what do I need to do better?” He had just won a professional event at 16 and he was asking me how he could improve!

Rayhan won the prestigious Scottish Boys title in July

At 16, Rayhan is a brilliant golfer. But relative to what he’s going to have to be like at 19 or 20, when hopefully he’ll be preparing for that transition into the professional ranks, we still have some way to go. He’s much more consistent technically than he was a year ago, but the biggest shift in Ray has been in his attitude to every facet of his game.

I can see a scenario where he’ll get an awful lot better in the next few years. He’s still developing physically. He’s got three or four years of improving things like his body awareness, his balance and coordination. A lot of young players hit a ceiling, but more often than not that comes down to attitude. They aren’t prepared to work hard enough. That is not the case with Ray. He loves goal-setting and he loves achieving those goals.

I think Ray made a decision that he was going to be the best version of himself that he can be. He realised that would entail a different lifestyle. You need to look deeply within yourself if you want to make a career out of golf. If you choose that path of real dedication, the sacrifices you need to make in order to achieve something require missing out on the things that your friends take for granted. Rayhan has accepted that. And without that acknowledgement and drive, you really don’t have a shot at success at the highest level.

Ray loves accepting challenges, and he does his best to knock them down. One of those was to contend in three or four MENA Tour events, which he did, and he won one. That was a bonus, and a feather in his cap to go alongside his terrific win in the Scottish Boys tournament over the summer.

Rayhan will always belong to Dubai. The MENA Tour gave him a platform to develop his game, which we’ve never had before. Previously once juniors started to win Amateur Men’s Opens here, there was nowhere for them to go. Now we’ve got this amazing platform where they can take the next step on the MENA Tour. It has given elite junior golfers something to aim for and aspire to, and we can’t underestimate the job golf in DUBAi have done in building a tour with nearly 20 events and world ranking points available to its players, not to mention the chance to gain entry into some huge tournaments.

So where does Rayhan go next? Ultimately, he would love to have a successful college career in the U.S., and then earn a place on one of the main tours. There are no guarantees in golf, but the way he is going, I have every faith in him.”

Luke Joy
Professional Golfer and MENA Tour winner

“People often talk about the fine margins in golf, and it’s true. When I played the Omega Dubai Desert Classic a few years back, I realised that I wasn’t all that far off. The thing is, there are a lot of very good golfers out there who can hit ‘wow’ shots and impress people with their ball-striking. But only a small minority of those have the mindset required to compete successfully at the highest level. To see that in Rayhan at such a young age, that’s the most impressive thing about him for me.

My advice to Rayhan? Stay in control of your world.

Rayhan is naturally talented, but he’s also applying himself accordingly. And it’s really, really hard to do that at 16. It takes so much discipline. There’s a misconception that golf is a soft, cozy profession. It’s tough and it’s very lonely. It’s really important to build that little team around you. You see that at every tournament. Each player has a team of four or five people around them, and Rayhan is already building that. Having supportive parents who aren’t too pushy is massive, and Ray has that too.

My advice for Rayhan? To keep doing his own thing. He’s going to get pulled all over the place. He’s going to have a lot of people advising him, and pushing him to do stuff. But he has to stay in control of his world. He’s an awesome chap, and he holds himself fantastically well. I think he has a very bright future ahead of him.”

Mohamed Juma Buamaim
Vice-chairman and CEO of golf in DUBAi

“I first got to hear about Rayhan through his achievements in the Dubai Golf Trophy and there’s no doubt that he’s very talented. He’s a special case, not only because of that talent but because he has a very good family who take care of him. They don’t push, but they support him, emotionally and financially. They are going about it the right way.

When Rayhan played earlier this year in Thailand, he travelled without his parents and the [golf in DUBAi] team looked after him. But if you walked into the spike bar after a round, you always saw Rayhan at the top of the table, holding court! He’s with guys like Zane Scotland and Lee Corfield – seasoned pros – and he’s talking to them with confidence. He can handle it all, and yet still he’s not rushing anything.

The whole approach he has is very impressive, and that comes down to the way you conduct yourself as well. The other players on the tour sit and listen to Rayhan because they view him as an equal. And I hope that one day, we have an Arab boy who comes through and emulates what he has done.

Do I think this will happen? I hope so, but truly, until things change I don’t believe it can. The way things are; it’s tough to see a kid from the Arab world emerge like Rayhan has done in the next five years. Perhaps in Morocco it’s possible, but they have their own difficulties. The easy opportunities afforded to the Arab players are a frustration for me. They should have to earn their stripes, like Rayhan is doing.

If we look at the Moroccans for instance, some of them have tremendous talent. But their failure is that they haven’t integrated enough. They have played against each other, but not enough against international opposition. To succeed at the top level, you have to test yourself in every conceivable situation and against every level of opponent. And Arab golfers haven’t done that. The Arab golf federations have to ask themselves: what is it they really want to achieve? By spending all this money, is it just to have a national team? Should the national team remain amateurs? Everything is geared towards the national team, like other Olympic sports, but golf is different. It’s very difficult to have four good professional golfers from any given Arab country in the next 10 years. So you have to support the individuals. This fixation with team competition is the wrong way to go about developing elite talent.

Arab golfers will not succeed without being put head-to-head with players of all nationalities. It’s the only way they will get the discipline required to achieve something. This business of handing out things for free isn’t going to get us anywhere. You can have all the best facilities and the best coaches, but without discipline it means nothing.

No matter who you are, as an up-and-coming golfer you have to win big at each level before progressing. You will not be ready to turn pro unless you’ve won at every level as an amateur. And the professional world of golf will simply overwhelm those who aren’t prepared for it.

In my opinion, the golf federations need a rethink. They need to go away from this idea that it’s an amateur body. There’s no shortage of money here. If we were a poor country, then of course you could understand it. But we’re not; we have the funds and we have the facilities, and now the MENA Tour provides the platform. So there’s really no excuse not to bring kids through.

As for Rayhan, I admire the fact he’s focused equally on his golf and his studies. He’s building a great foundation. What we need is a college here in the UAE where kids can study and play golf at the same time. The MENA Golf Tour has provided the competitive platform, but there’s still a lot to be done to ensure that we continue to develop players like Rayhan in the future.”

The post Rayhan Thomas: The Making of a MENA Tour Star appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Related: Bryson DeChambeau: The man who could change golf

The post Video: Bryson DeChambeau interview appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

U.S. Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau is not just one of the brightest prospects in golf, but a man who has rejected its age-old conventions to devise a new (and potentially revolutionary) way of playing it. We caught up with this remarkable American amateur during last month’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

ryson DeChambeau is a man of contrasts. Going by Hollywood movie stereotypes, he looks like the college jock and thinks like that character’s archenemy, the math nerd. He is both a scientist and an artist; an individualist with great style and an obsessive tinkerer who fixates on the smallest micro-detail that might yield a crucial edge. The man with his own ‘lab’ is no ordinary amateur golfer. He began his Middle East adventure on this year’s Desert Swing as a self-confessed intern, but by the time we met him for an exclusive interview on the Tuesday of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, this remarkable 22-year-old from California had become one of the hottest topics in golf. Put simply, DeChambeau has the potential to be a game-changer. And his story is just beginning.

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Even without his trademark flat cap (which he reserves for tournament days only), Bryson DeChambeau carries an aura that belies his amateur status. We meet him at the entrance to the driving range at Emirates Golf Club, and everything we’ve heard about DeChambeau being a true gentleman is confirmed within the first 30 seconds.

Most top golfers are perfectly pleasant to deal with, but their interactions with the media tend to have a going-through-the-motions feel to them. Not Bryson. Unfailingly polite, alert and engaging, he comes across as a man who has never spent a day bored in his life.

Bryson DeChambeau displays his unique set of Edel Golf irons on the first tee of the Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club
Photo by Farooq Salik

Along with possessing a bottomless well of self-belief, DeChambeau is humble. He’s content to be the intern for now, despite the fact that he lit up the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on day one with a sparkling round of 64, and shot a 65 at Yas Links to beat every single pro in the field in the Abu Dhabi Invitational. When asked to name the highlight of his trip, neither of those rounds gets the nod. “Playing golf with Rory [McIlroy] was incredible,” he replies, without hesitation.

DeChambeau was paired with the World No.3 in the third round at Abu Dhabi, shooting a 78 to McIlroy’s 70, and the fact that he would cite his worst score of the entire Desert Swing as the most valuable experience gives a good insight into his character.

“I learned a lot [from playing with Rory]. What impressed me about him was the fact he was able to stay calm and collected, no matter the situation, and that’s something I wasn’t able to do,” he admits. “I was definitely a little upbeat and my rhythm got out. It wasn’t so much a case of being nervous, it was a case of getting thrown out of my rhythm and not being comfortable in that situation. Although I didn’t play my best [on the weekend in Abu Dhabi] I learned a lot from the experience and that’s what being an intern is all about.”

Related: Bryson DeChambeau interview

Having either held or been one shot off the lead for the duration of the first two days, DeChambeau would eventually finish in a tie for 54th at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, before heading to Doha for the Qatar Masters and also make the cut there. His unbeaten 65 in the Abu Dhabi Invitational at Yas Links was followed by his best performance of the stretch at Emirates Golf Club, where he posted rounds of 70, 69, 68 and 69 to reach 12-under par and finish the Desert Classic in a tie for 18th place.

Finishing the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on 12-under, DeChambeau was awarded the low amateur prize

If the 22-year-old was looking for evidence that he is ready to make the transition into the professional ranks, he got more than enough over these three weeks. But before he relinquishes his amateur status, there is the small matter of Augusta National and the Masters, a tournament DeChambeau has been obsessing about since he became the fifth golfer in history to win the NCAA and U.S. Amateur Championships in the same season (he’s in decent company: the other four are Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore). 

At the mere mention of the Masters, DeChambeau’s face lights up. “I’m reading books on Augusta almost every day, getting to know Bobby Jones’ story and how he came to build Augusta National, and all the things that had to be right for that golf course to be made and for the Masters to happen. The history of that tournament is incredible, with all the great champions, and hopefully one day my name will be up there [with them] but that’s down the road. It’s something that I’m never going to worry about or think about until it happens, if it does. It’s all about the journey for me.”

This is DeChambeau’s philosophy in a nutshell. Like any dedicated scientist, he is all about the process, not the goal. No stone is left unturned in his quest to become the world’s best golfer, and it’s this approach, coupled with some astonishingly original thinking, that led DeChambeau to an equipment change that he believes could revolutionise the industry.

“Back in 2011, my coach Mike Schy gave me this book called The Golfing Machine and  told me: ‘If you want to improve and learn the golf swing for yourself, then read this’,” DeChambeau recalls. He must have told this story many times already, but his eyes twinkle like a kid who has just made an amazing discovery and can’t wait to tell the first person they meet. DeChambeau had been deferential when talking about his experience of playing the European Tour. Now, he is animated. “Through this journey of learning different ins and outs of this book, I came across this motion called The Zero Shifting Motion, it’s in Chapter 10, Section 7a, and by zero shifting, what that means is you swing on a single plane,” he says.

Swinging on a single plane is easier said than done, but you won’t find a swing on tour that gets as close to it as DeChambeau’s. Even those who aren’t well versed in golf technique would quickly spot the quirks in his move. At set-up, his arms are extended so that they form a near straight line with the club shaft, as opposed to the conventional method of letting the arms hang down and the club protrude at anything between a 40 to 45 degree angle. It’s this starting point that allows him to make the one-plane swing because he returns the shaft to that exact position at impact.

A video posted by Golf Digest Middle East (@golfdigestme) on Jan 23, 2016 at 3:33am PST

“When I started to swing on one plane and tried it with different clubs in my bag, I soon realised that it wasn’t going to work because I was having to change my body posture based on those angles,” he says. “I kept thinking to myself, there has to be a way to do it, and eventually I came to the conclusion, why don’t we try making all my irons the same length?”

Like all the most profound ideas, it’s a concept that’s striking in its simplicity. You scratch your head and wonder, ‘how has no one thought of that before?’ But turning the idea into a reality was anything but straightforward.

“The first thing I said to Mike was: ‘This could
potentially change the game’.”

“We took an old Henry Griffiths set that was all mangled and mashed up, and it didn’t have the right head weights but it was really close, so we said, ‘let’s take the heads and make them exactly the way we want’. Because all the head weights have to be the same – for me that’s 278 grams, which is pretty much a 7-iron. We got the pitching wedge ground down to 278, and the 3-iron lead taped-up. It took us about two weeks to do it in this old golf shop and by the time we had finished, every single one of my clubs, from sand wedge to 3-iron, was the length of a 7-iron.”

By far the most unique set of golf clubs you will find on any professional driving range

As DeChambeau retells the story, it’s difficult to resist the urge to grab his clubs and run straight to the driving range. “I remember the first time I went out to test them,” he says, brimming with pride. “On my first shot I had 160 yards in, an 8-iron. Now obviously that’s relatively close to a 7-iron, but it went the exact number [it needed to] and I thought, ‘that’s progress’. On the next hole I had 210 yards and I’ll never forget the next shot. I pulled out a 5-iron and knew this was the moment of truth. It seemed like an eternity that that golf ball was in the air, and sure enough it landed right next to the hole. And the first thing I said to Mike was: ‘this could potentially change the game’.”

DeChambeau’s current set of Edel Golf irons look like nothing else you would find on a tour driving range. Extra thick grips allow him to grip more in the palm of the hands, which in turn helps prevent unnecessary wrist cock in his backswing. He is unwavering in his belief that same-length sets could help amateurs. But would you also need to have DeChambeau’s talent for swinging a club in order to make them work? Not according to the man himself.

“The swing I’ve built is based on my own body mechanics. I wouldn’t necessarily advise others to do it, because everyone’s body is different and it may not be efficient for you to swing on my plane. If I tried to swing like Ben Hogan, clearly that wouldn’t be as efficient for me as the motion I‘ve got,” he explains. “But the single club length idea works for anybody across the board; you don’t have to have my single plane motion. The idea stands up on its own. And it works especially well for beginners.”

Bryson demonstrates his left-handed skills during the Desert Classic’s Stars and Stripes clinic

Golf loses many people who initially take up the game because reaching a level where you can go and enjoy being out on the course is difficult and time consuming. DeChambeau believes that single length sets could see the sport retain a much greater percentage of new players. And this isn’t some fad he will ditch when the major club manufacturers queue up to acquire his signature in a few months time. This is a path that will last his entire career, and whatever clubmaker he works with in the future will need to build them accordingly. As for the woods (he currently uses standard length driver, 3-wood and hybrid), DeChambeau says it’s an area he’s still looking into. “At the moment, there are equipment laws that need to be factored in and I haven’t been able to build a shorter driver that goes farther than 270 yards,” he explains. As for the first club David Edel ever built for him, his putter, well, it won’t surprise you to learn that this is also a custom-made one-off.

Like any dedicated scientist, Bryson DeChambeau is all about
the process, not the goal.

“We designed a putter that was very geometrically simple and squared off, so that I could see lines very easily. There’s nothing on the top, it’s just a matte black finish, which eradicates shadows and other weird shapes. No lines, no curves, nothing on this putter. I think that’s why guys keep chopping and changing putters, because they see things differently depending on the day and light.”

Simply put, there isn’t a single facet of the game that Bryson DeChambeau does not have a theory on (and probably a unique one). From his ‘krank-driver’ swing that ups his clubhead speed from 113 to 125mph, adding anything up to 40 yards more distance off the tee, to his percentage risk matrix of each golf shot, the grasp he has over his technique at the tender age of 22 is scary. But an area that he admits still requires improvement is his tournament play.

“I’m working on this passage in chapter 14 of The Golfing Machine, where it states that there needs to be a non-emotional execution of a golf shot. I still have an emotional side of me when I’m playing golf, which is fun and exciting, to get a little fire in you.”

“But at the end of the day, I would love to be a guy that can hit a shot based on zero emotion. You have to have imagination out there and the ability to perform on the spot. And if you look at guys like Tiger, Rory and Jordan, they’ve been able to play their best golf under the biggest spotlight. If you can do that, you can reach another level.”    

One fan’s poetic message board tribute to DeChambeau at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic

It doesn’t take long in his company to believe in Bryson DeChambeau’s ability to get there. And as his fame grows, so too will the single length philosophy for which he is the solo flagbearer. Where his career goes from here will be pivotal in determining whether this is to translate into a real equipment revolution that can change the way the average golfer plays the game. But this is no burden for Bryson.

“I’m all about the journey and the process, what’s tomorrow going to hold for me?” he says with a shrug. “I’m focused on the next shot at hand, and trying to get better right now. All that other stuff is pie in the sky.”

Bryson DeChambeau is the Golf Scientist, an artist and a throwback to Payne Stewart all rolled into one. Get ready to hear a lot more about him.

The post Bryson DeChambeau: The man who could change golf appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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With Robbie Greenfield
Photos by Farooq Salik

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ary Player turned 80 this month, but not even that landmark birthday could tempt him into some wistful reflection. The capacity to dwell on past achievements really isn’t part of Player’s DNA.

Most normal octogenarians are content to take life at a fairly sedate pace, but this rather exceptional man has been racking up abnormal achievements for over 63 years and is not about to let a number stop him.

The day we met the nine-time major winner last month had been a textbook Gary Player day. It had begun in Abu Dhabi, where he entertained dignitaries, hosted a press conference and  held court while announcing the launch of February’s Gary Player Invitational at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club. He arrived at the Golf Digest Middle East offices in trademark all black attire, not a hair on his head out of place and the twinkle in his eyes as bright and engaging as ever. When we got the ball rolling by inviting him to look back on his favourite achievements, he replied with a smile: “I may be 80 but I feel 50. And I still have a lot left to do.”

Player had flown in from the U.S. the previous day, but normal human afflictions like jetlag and tiredness just bounce off him. An hour-and-a-half into our scheduled hour, he was leg-pressing Claudine Foong, our fitness editor, and admonishing Tiger Woods for bulking up too much. He then, of course, headed straight for the gym. In this exclusive interview, Player tackles golf’s new era, the art of being a superstar and the next big record he’s desperate to break.

As you turn 80, tell us what achievement you’re most proud of?
The one I savour the most is being the only golfer to win both grand slams, the one on the regular tour and the one on the senior [Champions] tour. Maybe the grand slam on the senior tour was a greater effort, because you have to do it after the age of 50. There are five of us who did it on the regular tour, and I’m the only one who did it on the senior tour, so it must be harder. Nicklaus, Palmer, Trevino and Watson – all those guys tried it. But I think the reason I was able to do it was because when I was 50, I was in almost the same condition physically, through working out, than I was when I was 25.

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You’re here to launch the Gary Player invitational at Saadiyat next February. What makes the event so special?
Having struggled and been poor as a young person, I always vowed that I would do something for the poor. And this will be a very exciting event. We’ll bring many top professionals from both the men’s and women’s games, top celebrities and businessmen. We’ve had a great reception from the local government officials and sheikhs, and I can’t wait to host the event next year. I would imagine the government or Sports Council may choose something to do with youth, but it will be up to them to decide the beneficiary. We’ve now raised $60 million worldwide through the Gary Player Invitationals in South Africa, China, UK and America, so we’ve changed the lives of thousands of people. As for Abu Dhabi, it’s a place I have great affection for.

Is your charity work a big part of what keeps you going?
It’s not easy to travel extensively around the world when you get to 80, and I’ve been doing it for 63 years now. The travel does get more tiresome as you get older, but our dream is to raise $100 million before I pack it up, and if I stay well, I think we’ll achieve that, because other countries are very interested in hosting the Invitational. They see how we change the lives of unfortunate people and they want to be involved.

What causes mean the most to you?
It’s difficult to pinpoint specifically. President Nelson Mandela, our great father in South Africa and the most incredible human being; he and I worked for many years together and raised a lot of money for young black children. Our theme generally as a company has been education. We want to educate young people because education is the light. In some cases we’ve gone into villages, where old ladies are collecting all the papers in the village to keep it clean, having the papers recycled, turning it into money, planting trees, turning that into money, buying bicycles for young children where they ride to school. Aeroplanes going into villages and picking up people who are sick and would otherwise die, and flying them to a Gary Player ward in Cape Town. There are many different ways in which we are involved, but overall, it starts with education.

Your design company has 325 golf courses worldwide. how has the business changed, and what does its future hold?
It’s changed dramatically, with the machinery that you have now you can do golf courses quickly and in a very sophisticated manner. Technology has gotten better and better. We’re finding different kinds of grasses growing in areas we thought we’d never see. I built my own nine-hole golf course at home on my farm in South Africa with one machine and three people! You could never have done that in the old days. But we’ve got to be very careful that we don’t build golf courses that the average golfer doesn’t play. The weekend golfer is the heart of the game, and we’ve got to build courses that cater [to that type of player]. We need to cut the ball back for professional golf and leave things as they are for amateur golf. We’ve got to get more people participating, and to do that we’ve got to work with young people to get them into golf. If you look at most sports, you’re finished by the age of 35. Other sports are play and away, golf is play and stay. At 80 years of age I still average 70 on a normal golf course. The game offers enormous longevity.

Where does Saadiyat Beach rank among your favourites in the black knight portfolio?
It’s one of my dearest favourites because it has magnificent holes along the ocean, interspersed with the desert setting. There’s a great balance to the golf course. They have a wonderful practice facility there. And Abu Dhabi is such a fantastic place to visit in the winter, especially if you’re coming from Europe. I’d love to see us get some young champion from the Middle East, and it will happen. As long as we can encourage young people to take it up at school. Diabetes has become a chronic problem here, so we’ve got to make sure the message gets home so that trend is reversed.

Is it fair to say that 2015 marked the start of a new era for golf?
Very much so. We’ve got three wonderful young champions, with  a host of others knocking at the door. Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day are wonderful young men, are great ambassadors and they all take their gym work extremely seriously. But anybody could all of sudden pop up like a mushroom and be No.1. Competition is a great asset, and an essential ingredient in life. Professional golf has never been so healthy, so now we’ve got to put all our efforts into the average person playing golf. Rounds are going down, and we need to make them faster, cheaper and shorter, if necessary.

Of Rory, Jordan and Jason, whose game do you like the most?
I’d rank the swings as Jason Day number one, Rory McIlroy number two and Jordan Spieth number three. In putting, I’d put Jordan at number one, and the other two tied. You’re talking about the toss of a coin. I can’t tell you who will be the best – they’re all so close. And it’s so healthy to see this. This rivalry is going to inspire them to work harder and continue to raise the bar, and that will be fantastic for the public to watch.

At that level does it boil down to how well they handle pressure?
There’s a little thing called ‘it’. Nobody can define exactly why certain people become stars or superstars. No one can describe it, or package it, otherwise everyone would become outstanding. In my opinion, being able to accept things in adversity and being able to perform best under pressure, are the defining characteristics of the true greats. Many players are outstanding in practice rounds. Take a man like Tom Watson, who is a superstar, and he never won for 10 years. Or David Duval, who was No.1 in the world. He couldn’t win again. And now Tiger, it will be interesting to see what will happen with him. Can he come back and win majors again? Well, this is the great debate of the era and it’s going to be fascinating to watch. A man who was on the verge of becoming the greatest player that ever lived and had won the U.S. Open by 15 shots, suddenly goes and has lessons, and from that day onwards his game has gone downhill. I’m a big Tiger Woods fan and we need him to come back. I hope he comes back, but he’s got a monumental challenge on his hands, particularly having had three knee operations and now, two back operations.

How refreshing was it to see Jordan Spieth’s knack for scoring take the focus away from power hitting?
The most overrated thing in golf today is long hitting – it’s all people talk about! But it’s not long hitting that wins a golf tournament, it’s what happens from 100 yards and in. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, if you look at their stats as far as accuracy off the tee is concerned, are probably as bad as anybody that’s ever played elite golf. And yet they were numbers one and two for the best part of a decade. I saw Seve Ballesteros in 1986 at the Masters, leading the tournament, and he hit a drive over 300 yards on the 15th hole. He hit the next shot in the water and at the same time, Nicklaus holed a long putt on 17 and went on to win. Beware the man who’s the great putter!

During your major-winning days were Jack and Arnold a particular focus for you?
Did you pay more attention to what they were doing in a tournament than other players? We had different styles. We were concerned with working out what suited us. I did a lot of mind training and a lot of physical training, and I think that’s why my game is still good today. When I was doing it all those years ago, only two of us on tour worked out with weight training, and we were known as nuts. We took a lot of criticism, and now today they have a travelling gym following all tours – the ladies too, are working out, and let me tell you these ladies are playing magnificent golf. They’re hitting the ball a long way.

The post Breaking 70 at Eighty appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.