Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Golf Digest

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief “The crowd, instead of cheering, fell mostly silent, mesmerized.” ONE OF THE LUCKY THINGS about our job as editors at Golf Digest is that we get to see genius up close. As we bid farewell this winter to the retiring Johnny Miller, the greatest golf analyst in television history, I’d like to share a few stories about his real genius. When I first came to Golf Digest in 1977 as an intern, I was assigned to help our editor, Nick Seitz, research a book that would be called Superstars of Golf. Each chapter profiled a different player. I talked to their coaches, caddies and parents for added color. One day I had a long interview with the late John Geertsen, then the teaching pro at San Francisco…

“Feel like your chest is on top of the ball at impact.” FOR A LOT OF GOLFERS, I know when I say don’t swing all-out with the driver, it’s a lost cause. They want to bust that thing as far down the fairway as they can. But with irons, there’s no excuse for swinging out of control, because you almost always can use a longer club. If you grab an iron you have to hit perfectly to get to the green, go back and take the next longer iron. Not using enough club on approach shots is the silliest fault I see. With the right club in your hands, you’ll swing within yourself, make better contact and hit more greens. It’s even a good idea to make a three-quarter swing,…

ON MOST PARTS of the United States, if you don’t put your clubs away in the winter, you have to make some adjustments to how you play the game. One acclimation is coping with slower, bumpier greens. First thing you should do to adjust? Smile. You’re playing golf in February, and your superintendent doesn’t have you putting on a big circle in the fairway in front of the green. Second, you’ve got to forget whatever you do for your pre-putt routine and stroke in mid-July. It’s a different game when you go to pull the flag and there’s frozen water at the bottom of the cup. Let’s start with how to read a slower green. You know how you have to practically line up with your back to the target…

The Jutanugarn sisters had one heck of a 2018. Moriya (above) picked up her first LPGA Tour victory, and sister Ariya moved to the top of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. So when they give advice on better ball-striking, it’s wise to listen. One of Moriya’s favorite drills to hit it higher and farther is as simple as it gets. Take any full-swing club and set up to the ball normally. Now adjust your feet so they are several inches wider apart, and then start hitting shots. “We call it the flat-feet drill,” Moriya says. “It helps shallow out your angle of attack, which is going to help you hit it more solidly using the club’s proper loft.” Moriya also uses this drill to slow hip rotation, which improves…

AGE 25 LIVES Jacksonville FROM Brisbane, Australia STORY Won 2017 Zurich Classic with partner Jonas Blixt, and the Australian PGA Championship in 2017 and 2018. ASIAN INFLUENCE First time I went to Q school, I missed my tee time and got DQ’d. I played in Asia and Australia instead. The experience was invaluable. CAREER SHOT My eagle on the final hole of the 2015 U.S. Open to finish T-4 was a turning point in my career. To do it under pressure was incredible. DRIVER SPECS Titleist TS2, 9.5°, 45 inches, UST Elements Platinum 6 shaft, D-3 swingweight This driver went in the bag right away. It spins a little less for me but launches at the same angle as my previous driver. The flight apex is lower, but it’s carrying…

Data on multiple personalities might lead to lower scores. WHAT GOLFER HASN’T at some point self-diagnosed as schizophrenic? “I played great on Saturday, but on Sunday it was like I’d never held a club before.” “I’ll stripe it on the range, but on the course it’s like I’m a different person.” Severe cases of multiple-personality disorder, popularized in works such as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or pretty much any movie starring Jim Carrey, are rare. But there’s growing research that suggests we all, to a degree, live with various selves. How we behave around our kids, our coworkers, our friends, strangers—after a triple bogey—indicates we are not always the same person. In Subpersonalities: The People Inside Us, the late Dr. John Rowan wrote that certain…

▶ TIGER WOODS EMPLOYS a dozens of people to help with his company TGR Ventures and charity initiatives, but when it comes to his on-site support at a tournament, the Woods entourage is surprisingly modest. He hasn’t said he’s working with a swing coach since parting with Chris Como in 2017. His mother, Kultida, and his two children are likely in his gallery at big events, but there’s no personal assistant, and his physical trainer doesn’t hang around, nor do his closest friends—an occasional exception being childhood buddy Bryon Bell, who serves as president of Woods’ golf-course design company. If Woods stays in private housing, he’ll likely bring his personal chef, who is paid to cook, not watch him play golf. Oh, and he’ll have man’s best friend in tow…

THE LIST OF SO YEON RYU’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS IS LONG. The 28-year-old from South Korea has reached World No. 1 and has made more than $10 million since joining the LPGA Tour in 2012. She has six wins, including two major championships, and was named Rookie of the Year in 2012 and co-Player of the Year in 2017. ▶ Athletes with a résumé like Ryu’s could be difficult to relate to, but talking to her is easy. Conversation flows easily on a variety of topics, including being brave when dining and learning to bridge two cultures to acquire an American sense of humor. She’s a golfer who says golf isn’t the only thing in her life, and she means it. HOW DID YOU LEARN TO PLAY GOLF? A lot of girls…

I keep my technique around the greens as simple as possible. Maybe that’s why I finished second on the PGA Tour in 2018 in scrambling from the rough—though I’m not so sure being in greenside rough more than 100 times last year was a good thing. Still, it’s nice to know that missing a green doesn’t mean I’ve taken par—or even birdie—out of play. While you’re working on your game this winter, my advice is to spend a little more time on your pitch shots. It’s going to pay off when your golf season is in full swing. Every time your opponents think they’re going to win a hole because they’re on the green and you’re not, you’re going to pitch it stone dead and tap in for at least…

There are few things more gratifying in golf than the feeling of striking the ball in the center of the clubface. For a lot of golfers it happens so infrequently, they get this feeling of surprised excitement when they pure one. Others do it so often, they seem puzzled when they miss. The former group is mainly populated by those who tend to hit shots high on the clubface near the toe. The latter group will miss low on the heel. No matter which category you’re in, I have a way to fix your problem quickly so you can get back to enjoying that feeling of sweet-spot golf. Turn the page to find out how. “Can’t find the center of the clubface? Try swinging slower.” IF YOU PUSH THE BALL…

HE HAS BUILT A CAREER out of making people laugh, starting as a child actor on TV’s “Silver Spoons” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and now as host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” But there’s one thing you won’t catch Alfonso Ribeiro joking about: golf. ▶ Ribeiro takes the game seriously. He plays three times a week and sets aside five to six hours on a fourth day just for practice. ▶ “I’m a very technical player,” says Ribeiro, who won TV’s “Dancing with the Stars” competition in 2014. “Before I step on the first tee, I know what club I’m going to hit, the angle of my second shot. I have a game plan for every hole. That’s how I live my life. I reverse-engineer everything.” Ribeiro’s Handicap…

I COME FROM A BIG FAMILY. I have three brothers and two sisters, but I’m the only golfer. They all tried, but they got bored. They like soccer. ▶ There’s a picture of me before I could walk, and I was holding a plastic golf club. I started playing golf because of my dad. He just plays for fun. We lived inside a golf community in Santiago, Chile. Every day after school, I went and played. Now I’m 20, and I’ve never stopped. MY PARENTS ARE GREAT ATHLETES. My mom played field hockey for Chile’s national team. It’s really popular in Chile. She jokes that she’s why I’m good at golf. My dad was a basketball player in college. I USED TO DO TRACK AND FIELD, BUT I DIDN’T LIKE…

▶ By now you’ve probably heard of Valentino Dixon, the golfscape artist who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit before being exonerated in September 2018. The tragic errors that led to his conviction—not Dixon’s romantic life—have dominated the media attention. However, there is a woman, and theirs might be the longest-distance relationship in the world. Louise is an Australian who happened upon Dixon’s art on the Internet. Initially unaware he was in jail, she reached out, and through letters, the two fell in love before knowing what the other looked like. They got married in 2002, and Louise spent the next four years living near Attica Correctional Facility in New York and visited as often as allowed. But she overstayed her visa and was forced…

▶ TIGER WENT 142 CONSECUTIVE PGA TOUR EVENTS WITHOUT MISSING A CUT FROM 1998 TO 2005, WHICH BROKE BYRON NELSON’S PREVIOUS RECORD OF 113. ▶ TIGER POSTED ONE SCORE HIGHER THAN 73 DURING HIS HISTORIC 2000 CAMPAIGN. THAT WAS AN OPENING 75 AT THE MASTERS ON HIS WAY TO A T-5, THE ONLY MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP HE DIDN’T WIN THAT YEAR. ▶ TIGER HAS WON 11 PGA PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARDS IN THE 70 YEARS OF ITS EXISTENCE. TOM WATSON IS SECOND WITH SIX. ▶ TIGER IS THE ONLY PLAYER TO WIN THE U.S. OPEN, THE U.S. AMATEUR AND THE U.S. JUNIOR. HE HAS WON EACH THREE TIMES. ▶ TIGER LOST “THE MATCH” TO PHIL MICKELSON, BUT HIS BIGGEST STATEMENT AS A PRO IN THAT FORMAT LIVES ON: A 9-AND-8…

NEW TO 100 GREATEST 76 Myopia Hunt Club, Massachusetts 79 Monterey Peninsula C.C. (Dunes), California 89 Sleepy Hollow C.C., New York 98 Old Town Club, North Carolina DROPPING TO SECOND 100 GREATEST 101 Eagle Point G.C., North Carolina 105 Laurel Valley G.C., Pennsylvania 113 Flint Hills National G.C., Kansas 117 Sahalee C.C. (South/North), Washington NEW TO SECOND 100 GREATEST 110 Sand Valley, Wisconsin 111 Stone Eagle, California 114 Bluejack National, Texas 115 Quail Hollow, North Carolina 116 Baltimore C.C. (East), Maryland 119 Piping Rock, New York 139 Ridgewood (East/West), New Jersey 145 Mammoth Dunes, Wisconsin 157 St. Louis C.C. 169 Streamsong (Black), Florida 174 Mountain Lake, Florida 176 Tradition, California 177 Shelter Harbor, Rhode Island 180 Gamble Sands, Washington 182 The Ridge at Back Brook, New Jersey 183 Westchester (West),…

MY PHILOSOPHY on the tee box is probably different than yours. I’m guessing you’re looking to get the ball out there as far as you can. I get it—it’s fun to rip driver. But over the past few seasons on the PGA Tour, I’ve moved on from that mentality and believe it’s better to find the fairway than to try to crush it. My driving accuracy has improved every year since 2012, and I’m now hitting fairways at better than a 70-percent clip. And I haven’t lost that much distance (296-yard average in 2018). How’s my strategy paying off? I had my most succesful year on tour in 2018 in terms of earnings. If you’re tired of spraying drives and want to score better, read on for my advice for…

“You don’t have to swing harder to hit a sand shot farther.” Long greenside bunker shots, more than 20 yards, can prove troublesome if you try to play them similar to a shorter bunker shot. Simply taking your regular sand club—a 60- or 56-degree wedge—and making a harder swing is not the way to go. The extra effort often leads to the club digging deeper into the sand, which causes the ball to come up way short, sometimes still in the bunker. If you want your shot to cover the distance to the hole, it’s important to take a shallow divot of sand. But before I give you a tip on how to do that, let’s talk club selection. My advice is to use a club with less loft—perhaps a…

“Through the fringe, bouncing beats rolling—less friction.” MAYBE YOU’VE GOTTEN wise and are putting instead of chipping these little shots from just off the green. Great! The problem is, you’re probably using your putter. If you have only five or six feet of fringe to get through, the putter makes sense. But as you get farther out, putting with a hybrid is the better play. Think about it: How often do you feel like you smash a putt from off the green and it still comes up short? That’s because when you use a putter, which has only a few degrees of loft, you roll the ball over all that grass between you and the green. That creates friction between the ball and the ground, taking energy off the shot.…

FOR MORE THAN a quarter century, I was fortunate to play golf with President George H.W. Bush dozens of times, usually while visiting the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. With the passing of this great man and mentor, I feel at least one story can be told that pretty much encapsulates the man who carried the virtues of life—and golf—with every breath. In 2005, President Bush served as co-chair with President Bill Clinton for tsunami-relief efforts in Southeast Asia. It was a partnership that raised $1.5 billion in aid. During this time a friendship developed between the former political rivals, and together they decided to secretly get together on a social basis that summer. Somehow, they chose me to be their “intermediary”—as they called it—for their two-day, two-night mini-vacation in…

▶ Tiger Woods turned 43 at the end of 2018, which might be retirement age in most sports, but not golf. Key achievements of the post-43 set: Oldest golfers to win a major championship 48 Julius Boros 1968 PGA Championship 46 Old Tom Morris 1867 Open Championship Jack Nicklaus 1986 Masters 45 Jerry Barber 1961 PGA Championship Hale Irwin 1990 U.S. Open 44 Lee Trevino 1984 PGA Championship Roberto De Vicenzo 1967 Open Championship Harry Vardon 1914 Open Championship 43 Raymond Floyd 1986 U.S. Open Ted Ray 1920 U.S. Open Old Tom Morris 1864 Open Championship Julius Boros 1963 U.S. Open Ben Crenshaw 1995 Masters Phil Mickelson 2013 Open Championship Oldest golfers to almost win a major 59 Tom Watson had an eight-foot putt to win the 2009 Open Championship…

1. SHOT VALUES How well do the holes pose a variety of risks and rewards and equally test length, accuracy and finesse? 2. RESISTANCE TO SCORING How difficult, while still being fair, is the course for a scratch player from the back tees? 3. DESIGN VARIETY How varied are the holes in differing lengths, configurations, hazard placements, green shapes and green contours? 4. MEMORABILITY How well do the design features provide individuality to each hole yet a collective continuity to the entire 18? 5. AESTHETICS How well do the scenic values of the course add to the pleasure of a round? 6. CONDITIONING How firm, fast and rolling were the fairways, how firm yet receptive were the greens and how true were the roll of putts on the day you…