Golfers Dream Newsletter April 2009

Auckland 14-year-old Cecilia Cho became the second youngest player to win the women’s honours at the Lion Foundation New Zealand Amateur golf championships. She held off the challenge from 12-year-old Lydia Ko (Pupuke) in what proved the youngest fi nalists in the 115-year history of the amateur championship, at Titirangi Golf Club. Western Australia’s Matt Jager, 20, proved too strong for South Africa’s Nicol van Wyk to take out the men’s title 6 and 5 for the best win of his young career. Cho, four-up after 18 holes, held off a brief comeback from Ko to win 4 and 3. The South Island Amateur champion was three weeks and three days older than Auckland’s Larissa Eruera was when she won the amateur title in 2006. Jager, who won a major tournament in Argentina last summer, was in complete control, adding touch on the greens to the pure ball-striking that he has produced during the tournament. He was 6-up after 15 holes with an eagle and four birdies before going to the break at 4-up. He pushed back out to a 6-up advantage after 24 holes and never allowed the steady South African back into the match.

• Jacks Point Resort Community, Queenstown. Approximately 15 minutes’ drive from Queenstown, and just 10 minutes from Queenstown international airport.
• Set within a 3,000 acre nature preserve on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, Jacks Point has sweeping lake and alpine vistas with a 360-degree mountainscape. The course is bounded by the Remarkables mountain range and Lake Wakatipu. It traverses through wetland to the lake edge encountering steep bluffs, indigenous vegetation and wildlife and is designed to work with nature, not against it. The fairways have been designed with minimal excavation and careful plantings to complement the natural environment.

• How to spin your wedges on command - Keep your muscles moving through impact
• If you're having problems hitting those little spinners with your wedges, perhaps your ball position or technique is off.
• I like to play the ball toward the middle of my stance on most irons, especially short irons. That helps me get my hands ahead of the ball through impact (see photo above, middle stage), which is essential for spinning it. I prefer a three-quarter swing for trajectory and distance control. I also abbreviate my follow-through to match my back swing. The key to imparting backspin on the ball is club head speed through impact. The more speed you generate, the more spin you can produce.
• Increased club head speed is created with the big muscles, not the wrists or hands, as I see so many amateurs attempting to do. They also get too steep on the back swing because they're trying to hit down on the ball to produce backspin. Keep your big muscles -- hips, chest, shoulders -- moving through impact, and you'll be able to spin it on command.