FATIHA SAHNOUNE (BETSCHER)

Welcome, bonjour, willkommen, hola, receber, ahlaan bik

My passion for golf has grown out of having being present at upwards of 25 tournaments a season that led to my work being accepted by Agency French Press, and one of the world’s leading news agencies.  I also contributed to the London Express newspaper and, more recently I have been writing for Irish Golfer Magazine.

In 2011, I was proudly accepted into the Association of Golf Writers (AGW).

My work involved travelling extensively to golf tournaments on the European, PGA, Asian and also the Australasian Tours and from what I gleaned watching and speaking with the game’s best, it ignited a passion in undertaking research and collecting golf science data as it relates to the improved performance of golfing equipment.

In attending events I would walk hole after hole and round after round inside the ropes following the likes of Tiger Woods.  My curiosity and thirst for knowledge resulted in me observing every single move, every club he was handed.   I found myself analysing both good and poor shots.  I was simply thirsty for knowledge.

This influenced me to become more curious in speaking one-on-one with not only Tiger but other top-ranked golfers along with club manufacturers, golfing engineers and the like in order to acquire encyclopaedic knowledge of facts and statistics, including cognitive data and what you don’t find in textbooks.

The desire to learn resulted in pushing me to study material science at nanoscale considering physics and chemistry as a base of understanding energy dissipation and transfer in golf equipment.

It was Tiger who I drew inspiration to design my own golf equipment that coincided with my introduction of smart materials to Bridgestone Golf resulting in 2019 with the making the most innovative golf ball using smart materials.

The desire to learn about smart materials encouraged me to design my own Smart Golf Design equipment including golf ball, putters, irons, drivers, shafts and grips, and with every item embracing functional inner and outer concepts.

I also sought to strengthen my research by studying neuroscience and rheology.

In 2017, the knowledge and data I had collected fuelled the introduction of smart materials to the golf industry, leading to the market introduction of the most successful golf ball series ever.

This has led me to teaming with Phil Scott in becominge co-founder and shareholder of Smart Golf Design (SGD LLc International). My knowledge of smart materials and innovative science practices provides SGD with the basis for smart design to achieve its golf equipment objectives.

It is why Smart Golf Design was established to take advantage of how the use of smart materials is changing the face of golf.

SGD has been enormously exciting given the use of smart material and innovative design is increasing the performance and enjoyment for all golfers

I have also studied and & attended classes in neuroscience and rheology.

BERNIE McGUIRE

This is a tale I have told often and how winning first prize in a newspaper sponsored competition led to be becoming a full-time golf journalist.

I had worked for four years on the personal staff of Neville Wran, QC and a former and sadly now deceased Premier of New South  Wales in Australia.

There was a time working on the Premier’s staff, the Premier introduced me and other members of the staff to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip during a Royal Visit to the State.

In 1986, I was offered the role of Chief Private Secretary to Mr. Ken Booth, the Treasurer of New South Wales

However my life bizarrely changed when then incumbent Labor Government lost the 1988 State Election.

The day after the Saturday election, I headed off to the final round of the Australian PGA Championship at the Riverside Oaks course to the west of Sydney.  In making his way to the exhibition area I filled out a coupon, dropped it in a box and walked away thinking nothing more about it.

Bernie and Tiger Woods chatting on the putting green at the 2012 Battle of Lake Jinsha in China.

A day later, and as I began the process of attending to the out-going Minister’s business affairs, I received a phone call from a local Sydney newspaper to advise I had won first prize in the tournament promotion of an all expenses paid trip for two to the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida.

I immediately rang my brother, Steve and popping the question:  “Hey Steve?  What are you doing on Wednesday?”

My next call was to Australian Golf Digest as I had been dabbling in a bit of part-time golf photo/journalism who arranaged for my accreditation.

That was in March 1988 and the prestigious PGA Tour’s flagship and won American Mark McCumber who stormed his way to a fours shot victory at TPC Sawgrass.

I returned to Sydney and with this taste of covering top-tournament professional golf  then taking me to my first Major, the 1989 Open Championship at Royal Troon and the first of over now 70 Majors Championships including being present in 1993 when Gene Sarazen handed Greg Norman the Claret Jug, shaking the hand of Adam Scott moments after he won the 2013 Masters and more recently also shaking the hand of Jason Day, and the 2015 PGA Championship winner.

I began as a freelancer filing for Australian-based outlets and now in an unbroken run of over 30-years I have filed to Daily Record (Scotland), the Herald Scotland, The Express (London), The Sun (London), the Telegraph (London), the Irish Independent, the Irish Star, the Irish Examiner and the agencies Associated Press, Reuters and Agency France Press.

Proudly, in 2014 I created history in becoming the first non-European born member of the Association of Golf Writers (AGW) executive in being offered the role of Secretary of the AGW.  I had become only the seventh Secretary since the AGW was founded in 1938.

I am also a proud long member of the renamed Australian Golf Media Association.  I have a Business Administration Degree (B. Bus) and I have been ‘organised’ in my golf reporting career that I would leave a golf tournament without having booked a flight or hotel room for the next.

Away from reporting on golf, I enjoy being a member at Crail Golfing Society in Scotland and teeing-up on either the Balcomie Links or Craighead Links where I continue to strive to find the shortest route off a current handicap of 16.

And golf’s seventh oldest club, and where I have been a member since 2002, has me engaged to undertake media and twitter activities.