Ryo Ishikawa Last year, you were voted the Most Valuable Player on the Japan Golf Tour for the fifth year in a row. What are your thoughts on your 2011 season, which was your fourth year as a pro golfer? Ryo Ishikawa:I don’t think that I left much of an impression, personally. In fact, the strongest feeling that I have from 2011 is that I couldn’t win anything. It really drove home the fact that this is a difficult sport … Continue reading →

If 2011 was an exciting year for golf, 2012 promises even more thrills and spills with Tiger Woods back to his winning ways and the Ryder Cup looming in September. Here’s what the ParGolf team predicts will transpire in the coming season Tiger’s Year of Reckoning It doesn’t take much to derail a career. Lee Westwood’s lengthy break from golf after the birth of his first son in 2001 almost cost him his. In the case of Tiger Woods, it … Continue reading →

Golfing goes on in Thailand with only a handful of courses affected by the floods - By Mark siegel Perception is one thing; reality is often very different. So it was with the flooding that affected a large area of countryside near Bangkok in October and November. To outsiders, the perception was that the inundation – as real and damaging as it was for many communities – had halted play on many of Thailand’s 260 golf courses and that it would … Continue reading →

Showcasing 18 superb golf holes from around the country that typify the adage that length does not matter. Length, in golf, does not always matter. You need not necessarily be a long hitter to shoot good scores, relying instead on astute course management and short game skills to tame courses no matter what their length. The same goes for golf courses. Sprinkled around the country are holes that more than make up for what they lack in yards with outstanding design features. Some … Continue reading →

I’ve been having the yips for as long as I can bother to remember and it is the four-footers that drive the most painful stakes into my heart. To think that in the last 15 years, although the number of golfers may have exploded along with the advancement of golf equipment technology, the average score of the club hacker has yet to improve. Why is that? Now, try and digest this basic statistic that most tend to overlook: MORE THAN … Continue reading →

If Henry Ford was the man who set in motion the automotive trade and Alfred Nobel who ignited the explosives industry, then American lawyer Mark H McCormack can certainly be credited with pioneering a new field that today spans the globe – the sports management and marketing business, making millionaires out of modern sportsmen and women, bringing untold riches to sports bodies, exploiting each and every facet of sport where there is a profit centre or revenue stream to be … Continue reading →

Meet Germany’s best-kept secret, a six-foot bombshell with killer skills. By syama ramasamy Hers may not exactly be a name that immediately triggers bells (you may remember her from the ‘Babes & Hunks’ segment in ParGolf’s December 2009 issue), but once you’ve met the sweet yet incredibly alluring Sandra Gal (pronounced ‘gahl’), chances are you won’t forget her anytime soon. (And yes, I’m straight, really – cross my heart.) I’d never met her up-close before, so naturally I was pretty … Continue reading →

Best & Worst of 2011 To say it’s been an eventful year for golf is putting it mildly. ParGolf’s editors and contributors look back on a memorable season, selecting their best and worst moments of a year that threw up a slew of surprises from start to finish               Magnificent Masters I’ve seen some terrific Masters finishes. Jack Nicklaus’ final nine holes in 1986 was magical, just incredible stuff. As was Nick Faldo’s Sunday demolition of Greg Norman in 1996. Tiger’s win in … Continue reading →

The 35-minute route down the Cheras Highway was direct and unimpaired with cumbersome traffic. As we made our entry into the road connecting us to the clubhouse, the shade of lush overhanging trees provided us with a sense of serenity and we knew that we were destined for a delightful afternoon. I arrived at Impian Golf & Country Club with some anticipation as I had grapevine knowledge that the greens were touted as among the top five in Malaysia. Apart … Continue reading →

Natalie Gulbis not only looks hot but is one of the nicest and most approachable golfers on tour – and the LPGA’s ‘glam girl’ certainly enhanced that reputation when she visited the TaylorMade-adidas Golf Franchisee Store at 32 Square in Petaling Jaya a few days before the start of the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia. Billed as “An Afternoon with Natalie Gulbis”, the event was put together with some style and panache by the hardworking team at TaylorMade-adidas Golf Malaysia. The … Continue reading →

MELVIN POI PREVIEWS THE LATEST GOLF STUFF FOR 2012 Twelve months ago, you could buy your driver in any colour of your choice – so long as you chose black. That all changed in 2011. 2011 was the year when whites invaded the greens. The year when white became the new black. The year a white dude displaced the black one atop the world rankings. 2011 was the year when the colour white got cool. The white-headed R11 driver, along … Continue reading →

ParGolf’s HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED, DROOL-WORTHY PAGES ARE BACK, PEOPLE! BUCKLE UP, AND ENJOY A SIZZLING RIDE ACROSS 20 OF GOLF’S HOTTEST. SOPHIE HORN Age: 25 Height: 5′ 7″ Residence: London Marital Status: Single Possibly the hottest player golf has ever seen, Sophie Horn was Norfolk County Champion three years running, and won the Under-21 title at age 15. A 4-handicapper, the multi-talented Brit became GQ Magazine’s resident golf expert in July this year, contributing articles, interviews, reviews and instruction.     OLIVER … Continue reading →

TaylorMade Golf recently unveiled three new forged iron models,each created with major input from tour pros and boasting distinctlydifferent characteristics: the Tour Preferred MB,Tour Preferred MC and Tour Preferred CB.Each of the three new models blendsclassic forged irons features withmodern performance benefits. Allthree models feature a new precisionweighting part that guaranteesconsistent swing weight throughoutthe set and an optimal CG in eachclubhead.The Tour Preferred MB and TourPreferred MC are both forged modelscreated using a state-of-the-art shapingprocess and six-step forging procedure forpure … Continue reading →

Henry, the lanky pentagenarian who regularly outdrives all of us younger, more brutish and decidedly shorter folks, takes a look at the index one par four seventh hole and declares, “I think I am going to cross it.” “We’re only one up, you know,” I wisely refer to the current score we have in our ongoing wager against the two other guys, which includes the mandatory ringgits but more importantly, the massively important bragging rights. “Ya, but I have a good feeling today. … Continue reading →