Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i Golf Digest

“I would’ve preferred to be the Open champion for two years in a row the right way.” HEAR A MAN WITH A MOTHERLAND BROGUE SAY, “Yer bum’s oot the windae,” and you’d be correct to picture a pair of pale and possibly hairy hind cheeks, propped on a windowsill, senselessly exposed to greet the elements. “Your bum’s out the window” means you’re being foolish—a halfwit, a dunce, a plonker. Perhaps your initial reaction to our cover this month is that the editors of Golf Digest have their bums out a window. Why have they dressed Shane Lowry like Old Tom Morris, the original St. Andrews greenkeeper? Shane’s an Irishman, and Old Tom was a Scot, for cryin’ out loud. Their names are on the same trophy, but one beat 155…

GOLF DIGEST SCHOOLS Athletic Golf ▶ Use skills from other sports to improve your game with Golf Digest’s 50 Best Golf-Fitness Trainer Milo F. Bryant. His four-part video series is a great way to change up your regular golf workout. COURSE DESIGN Test Your Knowledge ▶ How well do you really know the most famous tracks in golf? Take our 18-hole quiz to find out how many classic courses you can identify from Google Earth’s satellite images. GD70 The Best of Golf Digest ▶ To celebrate 70 years of Golf Digest, we’re revisiting the very best literature and journalism we’ve ever published. Pictured here: “The Golfer Who Killed Osama bin Laden,” from February 2015. GOLFDIGEST.COM…

“Get yourself pre-set for a crisp, downward strike. THE BASIC CHIP from just off the green is such a simple shot, yet so many amateurs have no confidence hitting it. I can see why. They don’t play the ball in the right place, and they stand too far away from it. Let’s get these two problems fixed. First, check your ball position. Most golfers play the ball too far forward on chip shots. You want to hit down on it, so put the ball back in your stance as I’m demonstrating (right). Try my setup routine for chipping: Set your back foot across from the ball, aim the clubface where you want the shot to start, then step in with your front foot. Before you swing, lean your weight toward…

“It should feel like you’re smacking the sand with the backside of the club.” I’M HITTING MY SAND SHOTS CLOSEr now than in years past. Before the break, I was leaving them inside seven feet on average—and I was converting more, too. I think the improvement comes from the way I work on these shots, and my approach to club selection and technique. ▶ I’ve found it super useful to randomize practice. One ball, one shot—then move on to another situation. It really makes you focus and simulates what you face on the course. ▶ As far as club selection, I know most amateurs use only one club in the sand. But depending on my lie and how far I need to hit it, I’ll use anything from a lob…

“Tour players use only three fingers to control the club.” IT’S KIND OF IRONIC that in this era of golf, when practically every facet of the game can be scientifically measured for optimal performance, very little research has dealt with our only connection to the golf club—the hands. How hard should you hold the club when you swing? Should that grip pressure change during the swing? Where should the shaft lie within the hands? These are all questions that have been answered countless times by countless instructors. Yet, the advice almost always has been anecdotal. For example, Sam Snead famously said you should hold the club no tighter than if you had a baby bird in your hands. It’s a great metaphor—especially if you understand that Sam didn’t want you…

“Good players see the shot they’re about to hit.” ONE OF THE BIG differences between good players and average players is what they see as the target. As skill level increases, the target goes from the ball—simply trying to make solid contact—to where you want the ball to end up. And that transition in focus has a profound effect on how you swing. Let me explain. When the ball is your target, you’re focusing all your energy at a point halfway through the swing. Inevitably, you try to steer the clubhead into the ball, which slows down the swing and causes the body to stop rotating. But when your target is 200 yards away, you instinctively keep turning and firing your body and club through to the finish— the ball…

WHEN YOU’RE trying to make your swing better, the only thing that matters is that it looks right. You learn technique first, and then you learn what that technique feels like. Most golfers think the process is the other way around. A lot of times they think they’re doing something right based on feel, but their technique is way off. I once showed a golfer her faulty swing on video, and she denied it was her. “I don’t swing that way,” she said. Let’s flip things around. I’m going to teach you proper golf-swing technique using five drills, so you can compare how each exercise feels with what you normally sense when swinging the club. I’m guessing some of them—or maybe all of them—will feel pretty strange. If they do,…

‘FORGIVENESS SETS US FREE.’ I CAN NOW FORGIVE THOSE WHO GAVE ME UNWANTED SWING ADVICE. I’ve been using my time at home to practice meditation. I’ve ruined many rounds thinking about a cheeseburger only to find myself in the clubhouse afterward eating a bitter cheeseburger of regret. My wife, Abby, and I tried two apps: Headspace, and Oprah and Deepak’s 21-Day Meditation Experience. Here’s what I learned. ▶ YOUR WEAKNESSES IN GOLF ARE YOUR WEAKNESS IN MEDITATION. I’m famous for overthinking. The first Headspace lesson had me feel every sensation and movement while walking back and forth in a room. It’s a lesson about mindfulness, but it makes me selfconscious, and I forget how to walk. This is the exact same issue I have with my swing. ▶ DON’T OVERTHINK…

The most member-centric clubs have been proactive about offering options. YOUR CLUB (and mine) is a fine place for a weekend game, a steak cooked just the way you like it and as a backdrop for a lifetime of friendships and camaraderie. But it’s also a business, and because of the unprecedented disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, business wasn’t good. A survey from the Club Management Association of America of its members found that during the first few weeks of the pandemic, the average club lost more than $140,000 in revenue—in a world where many clubs were already operating on razor-thin margins. That’s a position with which the average American club member will feel familiar. It doesn’t take a Dr. Anthony Fauci to figure out that if you’re spending upward…

“I went from a 277-yard carry off the tee to 290. That’s a big difference.” DRIVER SPECS Ping G410 LST (9°), Aldila Tour Blue 65 TX shaft, 45.25 inches, D-4 swingweight. ▶ Ping’s G30 driver was in my bag from 2013 until they came out with the G410 LST last year. That was a game-changer for me. It brought my spin down and produced faster ball speeds. I went from a 277-yard carry off the tee to 290. That’s a big difference. FAIRWAY WOODS SPECS TaylorMade M5, 15°, 43.5 inches; Ping G410, 17.5°, 42 inches; Ping G410, 21.7°, 41 inches. Project X HZRDUS Yellow Smoke 80x. ▶ I’m one of the few players on tour to carry a 7-wood. When we get to courses with heavy rough, the 7-wood is…

WHEN I’M PLAYING IN a pro-am or an outing for a sponsor, I usually struggle to explain my short-game technique if I’m put on the spot. I stand there and have to think really hard about what I do. People say I’ve got all the shots around the green anyone could ever need, but I’ve been hitting them over and over since I was 10. The motions are second nature. But I still want to be helpful, so I’ve figured out two main things I can say about my chipping. ▶ First, I’m trying to hole every chip shot. That might sound silly, but that’s the mind-set golfers should have when they walk up to their ball to take a look—even a beginner. It focuses your attention and gets you…

It’s unclear when I realized this was a terrible idea. Perhaps it was getting manhandled by a 62-year-old in a workout. Or after devouring so much protein that a Chick-fil-A ad induced nausea. Maybe when my wife, on the eve of the experiment, said, “This is a terrible idea.” Timelines are indistinct in the fog of war. ▶ This much is certain: For three months, I tried my best to be Bryson DeChambeau, replicating his physical transformation in hopes of big gains with the big stick. All in the pursuit of science. And wonder. And love of the game. OK, it was mostly vanity. THE PREMISE I’ve always been closer to Ben Hogan than Hulk Hogan on the anatomy spectrum, although I was hardly a skeleton. Think lean rather than…

WAKING UP AND REALIZING YOU HAVE TO WAIT SIX HOURS TO EAT CAN BE A DIFFICULT MENTAL HURDLE TO CLEAR. In a way, intermittent fasting has become the new CrossFit. If you take part, you’re bound by an unwritten law to tell everybody else about it. So now it’s my turn. The timing of my latest in a string of unsuccessful attempts to get healthier—including, believe it or not, a brief CrossFit phase—turned out to be fortuitous. When I started IF (that’s what the cool kids call it) in February, I had no clue the next month would begin the most inactive phase of my life. Suddenly, I was on my couch more than even my FIFA-laden final semester of college. I have friends who’ve talked about putting on the…

SHOULD BE EXPECTED THAT A GOLF championship in San Francisco could be on shaky ground. The PGA Championship was to be played in mid-May at TPC Harding Park, a city-owned, privately operated daily-fee course overlooking Lake Merced. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the championship was postponed until Aug. 6-9, though at press time questions lingered on spectator access or even a venue change. ▶ The PGA is to be the next step in turning TPC Harding Park into the Bethpage of the West Coast. That transformation has been a messy process, to be sure, but one worth detailing. Bethpage, of course, is the New York State Park complex whose Black Course has become the always reliable, always available, somewhat contentious host for championships. ▶ By hosting this year’s PGA, its…

‘Put your feet together. Swing back, and step in as you swing through the ball.’ I TOOK MY FIRST LESSON from Bob Toski more than 40 years ago in a Golf Digest School near his home in Boca Raton, Fla. My most recent lesson was a phone call this morning. He wanted to talk about the skins game at Seminole. “That boy [Dustin] Johnson, he’s going to have arthritis before he’s 50, the way he shuts the clubface at the top. Hogan said you never see a good player with a closed face. And the kid [Matthew Wolff]—that swing won’t last.” Toski says watching the match reminded him of an exhibition he played with Sam Snead in Kansas City. “This was back in the ’50s,” says Toski, now 93, 5-7…

It’s a chance to appreciate anew the game on foot. GOLF’S RETURN to walking, at least in the motorized cart-centric U.S. market, might be an isolated moment dictated by the necessity of the times. But it’s also a chance to appreciate anew the game on foot and maybe embrace walking as an aspect at least as central to the golf experience as, well, what carts were just six months ago. Quaint, perhaps. Retro cool, in a way. To some, maybe an inconvenience. Nevertheless, walking brought golf back quicker than any other previously “normal” activity. Whether it was in the chilly Midwest or sunny Texas and Florida, walkers were everywhere, many likely rediscovering the way they first came to the game. Walking golf made social distancing natural, not something to be…

Leading instructor and fitness expert Lance Gill says walking is an important contributing factor to playing better golf. Here he breaks down how your steps can improve your swing: • When your lead foot is about to hit the ground, your hip is in a similar position to how it is at your address position. Also, the ankle is in what’s called “dorsiflexion.” Proper dorsiflexion helps you maintain ideal posture during the swing. • On the forward stride with your left foot, the right arm swings forward in a cross-rotational pattern. That activates the core muscles, extending from the right shoulder through the abdomen and down into the left leg. That rotational movement mimics what happens in the backswing and downswing. • When the spine gets to a vertical position, your body has…

With kids, homes and divorces, guys were already living paycheck to paycheck before the pandemic hit. I BLAME MYSELF. Over beers at La Quinta this year, a group of us were sharing our goals for 2020. After 15 straight seasons of nonstop work, I said all I wanted was a vacation. Let that be a lesson: Never speak things into existence. In my defense, I wasn’t embellishing. I’ve spent half my time hauling a bag, the other half helping my dad and brother with their businesses. Mostly with accounting—what can I say, caddies are good with numbers—but the occasional physical labor as well. Between tour life and those gigs, there’s been zero me time, to the point where I sold my condo five years ago. It’s been the road or…

“There are no pictures on a scorecard, so don’t be ashamed of this play.” 1 Always think first, Can I putt it? When there’s no rough or obstacle between you and the hole, it’s probably your best option. 2 Focus on speed more than the break. A putt that misses the mark but stops pin-high is a good effort. You’d certainly take a chip that finished there, right? 3 Read the part of the putt that’s on the green first. That’s your baseline to judge speed. Then add to the length of your stroke depending on how much ground the ball has to cover before getting to the green. 4 Leave the pin in. Even before the pandemic, this was the smarter choice. 5 Bigger heads are better. Putters that…

THE WEDGE looks simple enough—crude but traditionally beautiful as golf tools go. Still, it can’t compete with the thrill of lighting up a launch monitor with a new driver. But data from Arccos, the stat-tracking game analyzer, suggests what average golfers likely already knew: Their short games could use some help. Based on nine million shots in the past year, Arccos data found that average golfers miss the green nearly twice as often as single-digit-handicappers from the sand or chipping and pitching inside 50 yards. That’s why wedge designers continue to optimize the center of gravity (CG), sole grinds and groove edges. But those improvements are valid only if the shape is still classic cool, says Jeff Brunski, Cleveland’s vice president of R&D. Cleveland’s new RTX Zip-Core is noteworthy because…

The PGA will be a tribute to a hometown favorite. KEN VENTURI’S stature as “the voice of golf” lasted 35 years, making him the longest-tenured lead analyst in sports television history His final broadcast was Sunday, June 2, 2002, at the Kemper Open outside of Washington, D.C., and just down the road from Congressional Country Club, the scene of his greatest triumph. As we neared sign-off, I told Ken that as long as I worked CBS golf telecasts, he would remain always by my side. An emotional Ken looked into the camera and replied, “The greatest reward in life is to be remembered. Thank you for remembering me. May God bless you, and may God bless America.” This August, when the golf world is scheduled to arrive at TPC Harding…

ON THE COURSE, WHEN MY FOCUS STARTS TO DRIFT, I TAP INTO THE YOGA MIND-SET, AND I FEEL MORE CONTENT. I’ve always wanted to be someone who loves yoga. But taking occasional classes and getting reminded of my lack of flexibility and general Zen was more annoying than doing no yoga at all. Which is why when quarantine started and our gym closed, I decided to finally give yoga a sustained try. I was able to find some great classes online for free. I’d heard of CorePower Yoga and people’s cultish love of it, so I gave it a go. I’ve been a believer in Peloton since getting acquainted with its spin bike years ago, and the company has yoga classes on its workout app. If you search “yoga” on…

I found solace (assisted by a tremendous mount of revisionist history) that the weight was really just a means to an end, the end being increased distance. I hopped back on the simulator in late May. Just me, a mat, an electronic screen and destiny. I was terrified. I was ready. I imagine it’s the same feeling a bull rider has in the bucking chute, waiting for the gate to come flying open. When the first ball raised from the artificial turf, I unleashed three months of fury. After 20 swings, I was drenched. Spent. But the numbers, those sweet, sweet numbers, delivered good tidings: 296.6 yards (285.1-yard carry), 174.2 mph ball speed, 117.8 head speed. Hallelujah. I think I teared up, marking the first time I’ve had a golf-related…