Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2015 i Golf Digest

Early in the year, I like to catch up on the PGA Tour and play some golf out West for a couple of long weekends, if only to shake my Yankee cobwebs. Who knew you’re allowed to check your email on a smartphone without getting tackled in the clubhouse? I saw live music on the practice range, gym shorts on the course and hats worn indoors while eating (a double negative). My first trip was to the Madison Club in La Quinta, Calif., where I played with Phil Mickelson, who never looked so good. He’d lost about 15 pounds. For the first time ever I thought he resembled an athlete. Phil said he went gluten-free last year and sugar-free this year. His life is in balance, and he’s even been…

“Slicers hit pull-hooks when they feel like they’re aimed right.” You’ve been piping your driver all day, but now you’re facing a scary tee shot with water down the left side. As fast as you can say “quack,” you duck-hook it into the drink. What just happened? There are two types of severe misses to the left. The first one affects the 90 percent of golfers who usually play a pull-slice. The club comes from outside to in, but the face is normally open so the ball works back into play. With water on the left, these players try to start the ball farther right, but they instinctively fear going way right, so they spin the hips and shoulders left and release the club more. That sends the ball left.…

“You gotta ask my caddie for my distances. He tracks them for me!” CARLOS ORTIZ AGE 23 BORN Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico RESIDES DALLAS STORY Won three times On the Web.com Tour Last year, earning $515,403 and his PGA Tour card for 2015. NOD TO MY COUNTRY My irons, wedges and putter have white, red and green paintfills inspired by the flagDX of Mexico. I make sure they’re placed in my bag so the colors alternate. I grew up playing at Guadalajara Country Club, where Lorena Ochoa worked on her game. I’m honored to represent my country just like she did. LIFE MOVES SO FAST I’ve learned that golf is the same, at any level. It might seem crazy to be playing on the PGA Tour, just two years out of…

1 A tiny portion of your ball is touching a water-hazard margin. Is it in the hazard? 2 If part of your ball is in a water hazard, can you ground your club behind the portion outside the hazard? 3 Your shot slices into a creek defined as a lateral water hazard (with red stakes or lines). If you drop within two club-lengths of where your ball entered, trees will prevent a clear shot. But there’s nothing in the way on the opposite side of the hazard. Can you drop there? 4 Heavy rain has raised the water level in a hazard to a point where it has extended past its margins. If your ball comes to rest in water outside of the margins, can you take relief without penalty?…

It’s too easy to assume that all of today’s adjustable drivers can be tweaked to fit any player. Fact is, certain kinds of drivers—maybe even some that aren’t adjustable—will work better for your swing than others. For example, a driver with offset or a closed-face angle might help squelch your slice more than some clubheads with adjustable weights. A lightweight driver (about 300 grams or less) is going to be easier for slow-speed players to swing faster. And for the fastest swings, a driver designed to yield extremely low spin helps squeeze out a few extra yards. The more you know what you want your tee ball to do, the easier it’ll be to find a driver that does it. Here are five to add to your search. 1 COBRA…

Poppy Hills might just be the coolest golf hang on 17 Mile Drive. Bacon is bacon, right? It’s a warm, salty, crunchy, chewy strip of deliciousness just about anywhere you go. Then you take a bite of the homemade bacon prepared every day at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach and . . . your world changes forever. It’s made from smoked, whole pork bellies, and it’s so good that before you can finish your last bite, you’re thinking, Can I get some to go? Is it on the lunch menu? Can I preorder for tomorrow? The man behind the bacon ($4) is Poppy’s new executive chef, Johnny De Vivo, who previously worked for two of the Monterey Peninsula’s top restaurants: La Bicyclette and Casanova. His arrival is one…

Many tequilas are aged in oak barrels, so they’re a lot mellower. Remember that spring break on South Padre Island when you woke up at 5 a.m. in a laundromat? Just a guess, but was tequila involved? That’s unfortunate, because the alcohol mostly associated with syrupy-sweet margaritas and rapid-fire shots with salt and lime deserves a better reputation than a recollection of your worst hangover. “The quality is so much better now,” says Antonio Rodriguez, production manager for Tequila Patrón. Rodriguez, Kevin Vanegas of Tequila Herradura and bartender Krystle-Lynn Kingcade of the Añejo bar in New York City suggest you give the spirit another try. This time, order an añejo or reposado, and sip it with or without a little ice, like a single-malt scotch. If you prefer cocktails, try…

The Masters might make you think of azaleas in bloom, Amen Corner or the green jacket, but it makes me think about hitting sky-high iron shots. That’s the only way to get the ball close to some of the pins at Augusta, especially when you’ve got a 6-iron or longer into the green. Flighting the ball higher makes my carry distances more predictable and gets the ball to stop quicker—two major control factors. That really helped me win the Farmers Insurance Open in February. Torrey’s greens were so firm, I needed to drop my irons in softly. There are several things you can do at address and during the swing to create a higher trajectory. And the beauty is, you can pick the adjustments that work best with your current…

THE BACK NINE AT AUGUSTA NATIONAL DESERVES ALL THE GLORY IT GETS. All that water. All that drama. All those fantastic finishes. But consider the beguiling opening nine, as displayed here by Nathan Fox, the latest illustrator to provide first impressions of the place and the people that make the Masters. ▶ The truth is, the front started as the back: After the inaugural Augusta National Invitation Tournament, the nines were reversed. The change, in part, was required by topography: Frost is slower to dissipate on the lower portion of the course, requiring the shift so morning rounds could start on time. The result? To our eye, timeless.…

WHAT CAN YOU TAKE FROM RORY ’S SWING? Based on his work with instructor Michael Bannon and trainer Steve McGregor, here are five concepts Rory has focused on—and how they can work for you. 1 PERFECT THE FIRST FEW FEET In 2012-’13, Rory got in the habit of starting the club back to the outside. To compensate, he would sometimes drop it too far to the inside on the downswing. In fixing this move, he’d overdo it the other way: a big insideto-outside move. “I want him to swing his hands straight back for the first few feet, with the clubface looking at the ball, then let his body rotation take the club behind him,” Bannon says. Try Rory’s two-step drill: Swing the club back to hip high with your…

I M’ O NLY 5-3 AND 100 POUNDS, but I hit my driver about 230 yards. My 7-iron flies 130 yards. I was wondering, what if tomorrow I woke up with superhuman powers and suddenly was 100 yards longer off the tee and 50 yards longer with the irons? That would be the coolest thing. I think my handicap would be five strokes lower. Instead of being a plus-3.1, I’d be a plus-8. Maybe I’d be as good as Bubba Watson. I WATCH MORE MEN’S GOLF on TV than women’s golf, only because there’s more of it to watch. The men seem to be on all the time. Why is that? I don’t think it’s very fair. NONE OF MY FRIENDS in California watched the Drive, Chip and Putt on…

IF YOU GET A CHANCE TO SEE the Stanford University women’s golf team play, one thing you’ll notice is that they’ve got guts. They’re not afraid to try tough shots in competition. I helped their coach, Anne Walker, lead the team to the Pac-12 conference championship last year, and this year’s team is equally gifted. I asked some of their top players to recall a gutsy shot they hit in a tournament and demonstrate it. I’ll explain what they did to execute these shots, because you, too, have to face them from time to time. Now you’ll be able to pull them off. STIFFING THE 40-YARD BUNKER SHOT At the Stanford Intercollegiate in October, Quirine was looking at a 40-yard bunker shot to a back-left pin to save par on…

It’s nice being good enough to have options around the greens, but I usually end up playing a shot that’s well within my wheelhouse. In the first round of the Tour Championship last year, on the par-4 17th hole, I faced an up-anddown from just short of the green. The hole was cut in the back, just over a ridge. I could have flopped it, played a bump-and-run or even putted it. In the end I went with a trusted shot—my “driving spinner.” Playing the ball back in my stance, I banged it low and firm into the ridge with my 59-degree wedge. The ball bounced once, checked, then rolled in for a birdie. I shot 66, and tied for fourth. The key to that shot: minimal wrist break (below),…

When amateurs are told they have to strike the sand behind the ball to get out of a greenside bunker, many interpret that to mean they should dig under the ball. As a result, they end up swinging too deeply into the sand, and the ball doesn’t get out. You want your wedge to slide, not dig, through the sand. Follow these steps to play it correctly. 1. TURN THE FACE OPEN To help your wedge glide through the sand instead of dig, open the face before gripping the club. Also, aim a couple of inches behind the ball. That’s where you wan. 2. DON’T GO BACK SHORT You need some rhythm and power to get the ball out, so take the club back fully. Don’t worry that a big…

“Take 30 minutes to warm up, 15 short game, 15 full swing.” When you warm up before you play, do you hit shots with a purpose? That is, once you’ve loosened up, do you practice the shots that give you the most trouble on the course you’re about to play? The right prep will help your scoring. Here’s an example as I look forward to playing in my 42nd Masters. Augusta National is very long, and I know I’ll have to hit a number of hybrid clubs on approach shots. So I’ll practice hard with my hybrids to make sure I have them under control and can hit them a little higher than normal to hold Augusta’s speedy greens. In my warm-up, I’ll try some hybrids until I hit a…

“The first time I played with Tiger, I shot a thousand.” IT’S A STRANGE EXPERIENCE TO BE followed by 2,500 people and be completely ignored. The crowd only cares what he does. Except for maybe 15 big names, this is what you have to accept playing in Tiger’s group. Spectators are already pushing ahead as you take your stance, and you know the stampede is going to triple in volume the moment your club strikes the ball. You’re part of a moving stadium, and people are playing full contact to get in position to watch his next shot. My wife won’t go to the course if I’m paired with him. Though she can watch on TV because I’m guaranteed airtime. As overwhelming as it can be, Big Cat does everything…

There are enemies out to destroy our golf courses, all sorts of critters that like to gobble the grass, usually from the bottom up, and all sorts of diseases that can quickly move in on a hot, humid day and wipe out entire greens. The industry has developed lowimpact programs to combat these forces, but sometimes the only solution is a chemical one. So we asked our panel of expert superintendents: Should we be concerned for our health if we see the maintenance crew—sometimes dressed like they just came from a lunar landing—spraying the golf course on the day we play? The answer is no. The products are applied by statecertified applicators using properly calibrated equipment in accordance with the product and local, state and federal laws. However, some people…

1 OLD MONEY Turpis Divites JOB: Enjoying inherited fortune. RANGE: The coasts (Augusta, Pine Valley, Fishers Island, Round Hill, Cypress Point, Seminole). MARKINGS: Bucket hat, tucked-in Pima-cotton shirt and Bills Khakis. FootJoy saddle shoes with anklets. Two tiny logos: one on the hat, another on the breast of the shirt. High-end irons well-used and half a dozen seasons old, but meticulously maintained. Vintage blade putter. CHARACTERISTICS: Refers to good shots as “tidy.” USGA Handicap Index is scrupulously maintained. Game of choice is $10 nassau. Doesn’t answer any job questions directly. (“I’m in the markets,” “My family was in the tea business.”) Has an American Express black card but never uses it. 2 HEDGE-FUND MANAGER Stropha Rex JOB: Directing a portfolio of private investments using aggressive, highly proprietary strategies and collecting…

Q: How is it possible that I played more than 30 rounds last year, and I got worse? My handicap is going up! MATT BISCHOFF, NEW YORK CITY A What can we say? Golf can be cruel. But as long as you’re having fun, don’t worry about your number. Just think of all the extra strokes you’ll get in nassaus. You’ll be raking in the cash. Besides, you’re not alone. Golf Digest handicap expert Dean Knuth says most people finish the season within two shots—better or worse—of their Index at the beginning of the year. One big exception is Zhong (Amy) Gibbs, 43, of Wimberley, Texas. Playing as much as five times a week in 2014, Zhong’s Index plummeted from 28.8 to 6.8. Her 22-shot improvement was attested by Andrew…

FROM THE TIME TIGER WOODS STARTED showing serious short-game issues at the Hero World Challenge late last year, there’s been a lot of talk about what the problem might be. ▶ He’s making a swing change. He’s rusty after taking time off to recover from back surgery. He’s stuck between an old short-game release pattern and a new one. ▶ Everybody from Brandel Chamblee to Rocco Mediate to Paul Azinger to just about every teaching pro on Twitter and Facebook has a thought about what he should do to solve the problem. ▶ Tiger has said it’s just a question of getting in more reps. Chamblee and Mediate say he’s getting too technical and needs to work with somebody “old school,” who will get him away from that. Azinger says…

emember when golf shoes were like combat boots, and you wondered how many rounds it would take to break in a new pair? Had to be at least as far back as 2012. That year, the lightest entry in the Golf Digest Shoe Guide weighed more than 12 ounces. This year, the lightest shoe weighs 25 percent less than that, and the vibe has gotten demonstrably less uptight. Still, that weight shift isn’t without real athletic performance, neatly combining flexibility with stability. We call it “athletic.” Spikeless or not, “casual” no longer means noncompetitive. 1 PUMA TITANTOUR NASA definitely knows how to regulate temperature in a piece of wearable gear. Puma put the technology NASA uses in spacesuits in the insole of this shoe, so your feet won’t overheat, sweat…

On a tee shot with the wind helping, do you make any adjustments? On a tee shot with the wind helping, do you make any adjustments? SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST READERS I don’t know of any caddie-player team on the PGA Tour that competes without knowing two things: (1) The prevailing wind direction for the round and (2) the wind direction at any given moment. It’s against the rules to use a compass during a round, but you can use a weather app on your phone to find out the wind speed and direction. Don’t underestimate the importance of this in determining club selection and shot shape. Although you might know what to do into the wind—take more club and swing easier—downwind shots tend to cause players fits, because the ball…

THE FAULT Standing up in the backswing causes a flat shoulder turn. THE FIX Retain the same spine angle you set at address. Even the best address position can get derailed by a common backswing mistake sent to me on Twitter all the time. When you set up, you establish a certain amount of forward bend from your hips, which creates an angle between your spine and lower body. If you want to hit the ground in the right spot and get the right amount of it— two keys to hitting solid shots—you need to retain the posture you set at address all the way through impact. Instead of turning the shoulders around the original spine angle, many amateur golfers stand up out of their posture and turn their shoulders…

“I’m hoping I get asked to play a golfer. . . this brother will be prepared.” ABOUT ROCKMOND The 42-year-old native of the San Francisco Bay Area just finished his role as Dennis Abbott on “The Mentalist.” He’s also known for recurring roles on “Sons of Anarchy,” “Prison Break,” “The Game” and “Soul Food.” Dunbar began playing golf in 1998 when he moved to Los Angeles. “My friends from college, we’d all play [Rancho Park] over on Pico Boulevard. I was unemployed. We all were. It was a way to pass time until one of us got a job. But now I’m hooked on it.” I was in Canada about 10 years ago shooting episodes of Showtime’s “Soul Food.” I had just played golf and broke 90 for the first…

‘IF HE KNEW THIS WAS MY CAR, WE’D BOTH BE BURIED IN A COTTON FIELD AND NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN.’ Editor’s note: As Charlie Sifford drifted into the twilight of his life, he began missing the little things. He rued having to give up cigars. He longed for the days of simply feeling good, especially after a heart procedure in 2006. “There’s a lot I miss and a lot I don’t,” he told me that year when I interviewed him for Golf Digest. One thing Sifford didn’t miss was his experience in the early 1960s trying to break through the PGA of America’s Caucasianonly clause and become the first African-American golfer to play the PGA Tour. Racist shouts and murmurs never did subside. The death threats he received were real.…

Amid the steel beams and industrial chic of a vast Chelsea Piers gym on the West Side of Manhattan, Rory McIlroy is right at home—high-tech fitness shirt straining across his broad back, vein-popping forearms, sharply defined jawline, curly locks cropped close. Everything is sleek, strong and stylish. McIlroy is 25, and the mop-haired, slightly puffy, rosy-cheeked cherub who a few years ago couldn’t stand on one leg for more than a few seconds is gone. ▶ McIlroy is in full workout regalia in one of his favorite cities not because he’s meeting his sport scientist/trainer, Dr. Stephen McGregor, for one of their intense 90-minute sessions, but because he’s doing a photo shoot for the brand of headphones he endorses. But when an assistant brings a spray bottle to McIlroy to…