Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2015 i Golf Digest

In the “Father & Son” article about Davis III and Dru Love in this issue (see page 140), senior writer Guy Yocom tells a story I first heard from their late father/grandfather. Davis Love Jr. was forced by Harvey Penick to take up the clarinet (I remember it as dance lessons) because it would endow him with the most important quality in a teacher: empathy with his students. My first golf school was headed by Davis Jr., who later offered me the greatest break ever given a young golf writer. He set it up for me to spend a day with Mr. Penick at Austin Country Club in the late 1980s so I could talk to him about the notes he had accumulated in a lifetime of teaching for the…

“Grip a little tighter, and you’ll put more pop on the ball.” The old saying is definitely true: Your worst putt is better than your worst chip. So if you’re just off the green, grab that putter whenever you can. A lot of golfers do this already, but why do so many off-green putts either rocket past the hole or creep on and stop halfway there? Consider these factors that affect the pace when putting from off the green: ▶ Is the terrain uphill or downhill— or a combination? Get a read on this as you walk up.▶ Is the grass in the fringe growing toward you (makes it slower) or away from you (faster)?▶ Is the turf wet or dry, soft or firm? Wetter is slower. Firmer is faster.…

GEOFF OGILVY AGE 37 BORN Melbourne, Australia RESIDES Scottsdale STORY The 2006 U.S. Open champion won his eighth PGA Tour event last season at the Barracuda Championship. WHICH WEEK IS IT? Modern equipment varies so much from when I grew up playing. That’s made my distances change. And temperature and humidity have a great effect on our distances, too. Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach would be the shortest my ball flies. Then one week later, at the Phoenix Open, I might be hitting my 5-iron 30 yards more than I was in California. PUTTER SPECS Titleist Scotty Cameron 009 prototype, stainless finish, 35 inches, with 10-gram weights added in the head I’ve used a bunch of different putters the past two years. But I’ve finally gotten my feel right, so…

In hindsight, maybe that third bucket of range balls was a mistake. It’s OK, we all get a little overzealous when golf season begins. If the result of your practice session is a blister or three, here’s a refresher on how to deal with them (so you can go hit more range balls). 1. Drain with a sterile needle by piercing an edge, not the middle. Leave the layer of dead skin intact if possible.2. Dab antibiotic ointment on it.3. Place a padded bandage over the area. Moleskin works best if the blister is at the base of the fingers or on the palm. STICK THE LANDING In the May issue, Golf Digest fitness advisor Ben Shear unveiled an Eccentric Training program for golfers that emphasizes the often-ignored second half…

Rory McIlroy hits from a drop zone in the PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club. You just splashed one into a water hazard, and now you’re making that slow, painful march over to the drop zone to proceed under a one-stroke penalty. The last thing you want to do is make things worse with a procedural error from this spot. So don’t forget these key points. 1. The course’s committee has to enact a Local Rule designating a drop area. Don’t assume every hole with water has one. Look near the hazard for a drop zone, which is typically a circle labeled “Drop Zone” or “DZ” (above). 2. It’s usually not mandatory to use. It’s just another option when hitting into a water hazard. 3. You don’t have to stand in…

TAKING YOUR GRIP To perform it correctly, the A Swing requires a special grip. I call it the prayer grip. Why? If you hold the club up with this grip so the shaft is pointing to the sky, the hands and wrists should have a symmetrical, slightly cupped look—like you’re praying. This grip allows you to hinge and cock the wrists without rotating the clubface open going back and to generate maximum speed at impact as you release the right hand. You can hold the club with an interlocking, overlapping or baseball grip. Here’s what you need to do: 1. Set the handle of the club diagonally across the fingers and just into the palm of the left hand. The grip should sit against the crook of the forefinger. The…

Eras can be defined by the drug. Alcohol in the ’20s, acid in the ’60s, cocaine in the ’80s. Though a legal prescription, Adderall is making its claim as the substance of our time. Adults all the way down to elementary-school kids are given the stimulant to treat the impulsivity and inattentiveness of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Hordes more without prescriptions abuse the pills for partying, or secretively self-medicate to give themselves the edge they feel they need—but often with scary side effects. ▶ If Adderall can help college students cram for final exams, it follows that golfers might seek its benefits. Focus, after all, is the name of our game. To find out if it’s pervasive, I posted the following on Reddit: “Has anyone ever taken Adderall before they’ve played…

1. Describe the attitudes toward smartphones at your home course. (a) Liberal. We post selfies from the bar and first tee 46% (b) Tolerated. There are usage restrictions that most people follow 30% (c) Transitioning. It’s way more relaxed than it used to be 21% (d) Shunned. Get caught with it, and you’re getting a letter 3% 2. During a round, my smartphone is . . . (a) In the cart 42% (b) In my bag 35% (c) In my pocket 19% (d) In my car, where it belongs 4% 3. I’m most likely to use my smartphone at the course to . . . (a) Check email or post to social media 36% (b) Track stats or watch instruction videos 29% (c) Monitor the weather or sports scores 25%…

Golf’s social. In casual rounds, who you play with and where you play is more important than how you play. That’s why I think the perfect selfie is often about everything but yourself. No one likes a picture where it feels like you’re showing off, even if that wasn’t your intention. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you might’ve noticed I often frame myself in a lower corner so that more attention is directed to my playing partners and our surroundings. Keep an eye out for moments when everyone in the group happens to be close together, like around a green or tee box. Below is a pic I grabbed of Michelle Wie and some of our buddies practicing. Spontaneous shots have more energy than staged ones where…

One of my favorite photos I ever took is a shot of the 13th hole at the Glen Golf Club in Scotland, and I took it with my iPhone. Sure, it’s hard to take a bad picture at a links course along the Scottish coast, but it’s one that has always resonated with me: a combination of perfect late-daylight, an unforgettable location and the memory of that magical 4-iron I hit. Taking a good picture during your round is easier than ever, and I have three simple tips for doing it on your smartphone. 1 Time Of Day This might be the most important element to taking a good golf-course photo. Early morning and late afternoon are the best times. That “golden light” will make colors more vibrant and the…

HYBRIDS ARE MIRACLE CLUBS for a lot of players, thanks to the center of gravity in the clubhead. Because it’s set back from the face, you can launch the ball high—and square the club—more easily than you can with a long iron, even from the rough. But just because hybrids are user-friendly doesn’t mean you don’t have to take some care in how you swing them. Tour players like Ricky Barnes, who’s demonstrating for us here, know how to make subtle adjustments in ball position and setup to promote the ball flight they want. They also know how to use the whole body to generate speed. Ricky can carry the ball 230 yards with his hybrid and flight it like a middle iron, which is useful on long par 3s…

“On holes with a lot of drama, stay in your comfort zone.” The sixth hole at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala., site of the Champions Tour’s Regions Tradition May 14-17, is one of the best natural settings for a par 5 that I know. It resembles the 13th at Augusta, in reverse, with pretty much the same strategy. It’s 565 yards from the back tee, with a creek along the right side that crosses diagonally in front of the green at about 480 yards. The good player can try to get home in two, an average golfer should make it a three-shot hole, and a very short hitter can play safely for a simple bogey. When you’re on a hole like this, know your abilities and play your game. THIS…

Here’s what jumps out at me when I see players yipping chip shots: The left arm stops dead just before impact, and the right hand flips. If this sounds familiar— you know who you are—the trick is to learn to keep your left arm moving through the shot. I have a drill that can help. Take your normal setup: stance narrow, ball just behind center, weight favoring the front foot. Then make your regular chipping stroke, except drop your right hand off the grip just before impact. Focus on keeping your left arm swinging to the target (above). With your yipping hand off the club and your lead arm moving through, you physically can’t do what yippers do. The other part of yipping is the fear that you can’t control…

An easy way to control the trajectory of a chip shot is to adjust your left hand at address. To play a high shot, I weaken my left-hand position by setting my thumb straight down the handle at address (top left). I also play the ball a little forward of center in my stance, which helps add loft to the shot. To hit a low, running chip, I strengthen my left-hand position by moving my thumb to the right side of the handle so I can see almost three knuckles on that hand when I look down at address (bottom left). I play the ball about center. These changes work to deloft the shot. The best part is that you don’t have to change your swing to get the desired…

DAVID LEADBETTER A over four decades of teaching this game, I’ve come to realize that the majority of golfers struggle to consistently play well because of issues with the backswing. For most, the conventional backswing is difficult to master and repeat, and when it goes bad, so goes the ability to synchronize the arms and the body during the swing—the most important factor in hitting consistent golf shots. If the synchronicity is off, the downswing becomes a rescue mission to get the clubface squarely on the ball. Top players through talent and practice can get by with compensations, but most golfers, if they aren’t in sync, really struggle. Knowing this, I set out to find a way to make the move to the top simpler, more efficient and easier to…

IN DIFFERENT WAYS, Dustin Johnson is all about distance. Sheer physicality makes him a man apart. ▶ He’s a clear winner of the genetic sweepstakes: long and sinewy at 6-4 and 208 pounds, wide and narrow in the right places, with a loose-limbed walk that, like the boy from Ipanema, “swings so cool and sways so gentle.” His trainer, Joey Diovisalvi, says, “Whatever he does, DJ is like a prototype. When he’s in the pool doing flip turns, he looks like Michael Phelps. Playing basketball, he’s got a stroke like an NBA shooting guard. On a road bike, he could be wearing the yellow jersey. He’ll perform a very technical Olympic lift with perfect form. He could do a triathlon tomorrow. As far as golf, his biomechanical efficiency makes him…

With all the understandable cynicism about performance-enhancing drugs in sports, there’s one bright side to the persistent public doubting of the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy: People have pretty much stopped saying golfers aren’t real athletes. Critics contend that the tour’s policy, which began in 2008, should be at least as stringent as those of other big-time sports, and several developments have ratcheted up the talking points. The tour’s insistence on not disclosing violations and suspensions for recreational drugs probably made the recent six-month leave of absence by Dustin Johnson a never-to-be-resolved mystery. (Earlier this year, Johnson denied a golf.com report that he tested positive for cocaine for a second time.) The situation helped prompt the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to castigate the tour for its “secrets”…

▶ ▶ ▶ county stadium in milwaukee, Packers game, and it’s freezing. I’m broadcasting the game, and the second half is taking forever. The bathroom is a mile away, and I’ve really got to go. My teeth are floating. There’s a timeout, and someone hands me an empty soda bottle. I knock it out of his hand and soldier on. There’s another timeout, and I continue to suffer. The two-minute warning comes; there’s still not time. At this point I’m jumping up and down and pressing my knees together. The game resumes, and then there’s another timeout with seconds to play. There’s a woman stage manager in the booth, and I point to the door and say, “Out.” Someone brings in a trash can and lines it with a plastic…

ONE ● Sort your apps logically so you don’t waste time. My favorites go on the dock and bottom two rows of the main screen. Above those rows use folders for your favorite categories—like golf! TWO ● Disable app push notifications in your phone’s settings. They do an excellent job of draining your phone’s battery life. THREE ● When taking a photo, tap and hold on any part of the screen to focus on that area. Doing this will also adjust the exposure to ensure your subject is properly lit. FOUR ● Only need to use your phone on the course to take photos? Then set it to airplane mode. This saves your battery and turns off distracting alerts. FIVE ● Know your shortcuts. On my iPhone, for example, I…

People are always amazed at how far and straight I drive the ball given my size. #ThingsIGetaLot PebbleBeach, @Cypressgolf, @Spyglass in 2 days. Upgrade to 1st on @DeltaAir would make this perfect #prayforme Stock 8-iron now 188, down from 195. Weak loft! Get them checked, people #orhitthegym Won fourth club ch. @DriftingPines today. Beat Bill Schlesinger again. Bill, your day will come #gotlucky #toughopponent Five days at Masters and Berckmans Place w/ @DPenebscott @WilliamTrader. Good to be back in own bed, though.…

I am pathological about checking my phone—so bad that in the time since I started writing this sentence, I’ve checked it three . . . make that four times. Some of this I can blame on my job as Editor for GolfDigest.com, where the news cycle can be about as long as an elevator ride. But when I described my phone dependency to Dr. Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University who has written extensively about our use of technology, he says this behavior is a function of “wanting to reduce anxiety.” Which sounds about right: If there are emails and texts piling up on my phone like snow on a parked car, I can’t stand the idea of not knowing about it. But it’s not just dread,…

This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. The way you walk into a shot matters because it affects your accuracy. A lot of amateurs mistakenly approach the ball from the side, or they start from behind it but then go wide and come in from the side anyway. The more you walk in on an angle, the greater your chances for misalignment. For right-handed golfers, the target will appear to the right of where it actually is. Compounding this problem, many average golfers settle into their address position with their bodies before they aim the clubface. That can really throw off your alignment. If you want to improve your accuracy, walk into a shot the way most pros do. They come in from behind the ball,…

Chances are, you’ve never thought about this, but setting up with your head tilted to the left can cause a variety of swing problems. It’s something I see all the time in pictures that golfers send me on Twitter—a kind of “Nicklaus” effect. But just because Jack turned his head a little before he started the club back doesn’t mean you should. For starters, if you tilt your head, it’s harder to turn your shoulders, which usually leads to a choppy downswing. Also, tilting to the left here can promote tilting to the right on the downswing, which causes the club to bottom out too soon. Your sense of equilibrium is controlled by staying level to the horizon. Keeping your eyes level will help you stay in balance. Hank Haney…

1 OGDEN, UTAH Not everyone can travel to Scotland or Ireland, but if you want to know what it’s like to play in fierce winds, a viable alternative is a sporty nine-hole muny 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. To visit El Monte Golf Course is to tread in a land tilted on some unworldly axis. Many trees on the property are slanted permanently to the west at a 20-degree angle. Sturdy fence posts, meant to never give an inch, lean in the same fashion. Even the rustic clubhouse appears to cant toward the setting sun. The prime mover is a 45-mile-per-hour wind that roars out of Ogden Canyon each morning during the warmer months. We say “wind,” singular, because it doesn’t gust so much as scream a steady…

1 Are the most expensive golf balls really that much better than the less-expensive ones? Yes. Premium multilayer balls with urethane covers generally are superior because they perform well throughout the bag. On wedge shots, for example, they spin more because of the soft urethane cover, and off the tee they have the same distance-producing characteristics as firmer Surlyn balls. Do the less-expensive balls travel a little farther and straighter off the tee? They can, but when we tested both types of balls at average-golfer swing speeds, the difference was almost negligible: six yards, usually less. The real advantage of urethanecover balls is the extra spin, feel and control they offer on shots near the green. If you have a decent short game, these balls might be worth the extra…

One of my roles at Golf Digest is testing new ideas to find out whether adopting them will ruin your life. I’ve gone to golf school, changed equipment, taken putting lessons and tried to learn to swing like Moe Norman, among other things. My most successful project was my “midlife makeover,” a decade ago, because in exchange for a few days of instruction, from Shelby Futch, I received 10 years (and counting!) of dramatically improved golf. Recently, the editors decided that I should put all that at risk by allowing David Leadbetter to help me learn his new A Swing— which you can read about in detail beginning on page 86 and in his book of the same name. Submitting to Leadbetter isn’t actually very risky. I watched him work…

1. ADRESS ▶ The A Swing starts from a fairly standard setup. One difference is, the right foot is pulled back, creating a closed stance. Everything else is aligned parallel with the target line. Closing the stance helps get the club on the correct plane in the downswing. 2. TA KEA WAY ▶ The first move off the ball is very simple and is initiated largely by the core muscles coiling the torso away from the target. The clubhead tracks back outside the hands, and the right arm stays above the left. 3. BA CKSWING ▶ As the left arm reaches parallel to the ground, the right wrist is hinging and moving the shaft onto a steep angle. This is a real difference of the A Swing—working the shaft into…

CHAMBERS BAY SHOWS OFF ITS NEW LOOK AFTER THE MINING DAYS. HERE, THE PAR-3 15TH WITH THE LONE TREE ON THE COURSE. USOP EN15 USOP EN15 CHAMBERS BAY is unknown by most, unproven to many, and undeniably a strange concoction. Why is it positioned to set so many U.S. Open records? The players have yet to tee off, but the 2015 U.S. Open, the first in the Pacific Northwest, is already making history. A decade ago the course, as improbable and unconventional as they come, didn’t exist. Now it’s hosting the U.S. Open? Inconceivable. ▶ If it hasn’t happened before in an Open, it’s probably happening June 18-21 at Chambers Bay. 1 IT’S THE FIRST U.S. OPEN TO BE CONTESTED IN A SAND BOX. Chambers Bay lies in an old…

1 In 2014, Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson has all but settled on Bill Haas as his final captain’s pick until Webb Simpson sends Watson a 4 a.m. text message that changes his mind the day of the team announcement. Simpson wins half a point in the two matches he plays, and the Cup ends in a five-point loss for the United States. 2 During a rain delay at the 2014 PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy is waiting for play to resume when he reaches for his phone. Just as he is typing in his passcode—4589—a camera shifts to McIlroy and reveals it to the world. “Passcode changed,” Rory tweets minutes later. “Now time to play some golf!” 3 At the 2012 Ryder Cup, McIlroy mixes up his time zones, sets…

As best I can tell there are only three possible reasons that you would need to have a phone on the golf course: 1 You’re the president. Not of a company, of a country. This country. 2 Your wife is past her due date to give birth to your first child, and you’re playing in the final group in the final round of the U.S. Open. Maybe the Masters. Definitely not the PGA . 3 You are on fire. Not three birdies in a row “on fire.” No, literally on fire. Short of that, and I mean this with all due respect, shut that damn thing off, take it to your car and shove it up your glove compartment. If you’re expecting a call that important, then you obviously think…