Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2017 i Golf Digest

T here’s something about shots from 30 to 60 yards that give a lot of golfers fits. The biggest problem is making a backswing that’s too long, and then, in fear of hitting the shot too far, slowing the club down as it approaches the ball. The typical result is contact with the ground behind the ball—the dreaded fat shot. If this is your issue, here are four ways to make your pitching swing foolproof— or fat-proof, if you prefer. David Leadbetter operates 34 golf academies worldwide. 1. CHOOSE WISELY ? You’ll have a lot more success if you use a wedge with the right amount of bounce. Bounce references a design feature that helps wedges produce crisp shots no matter the lie. For most lies, an adequate amount is 10…

B ecause of my success on the windy links courses in the United Kingdom, I get asked a lot about how to hit the driver lower when a strong breeze is in your face. My response: Why would you want to hit it lower? If you hit a solid drive at your normal trajectory, it’s going to go just as far, if not farther, than if you tried to play it low into the wind. There are only two scenarios where it makes good sense to hit your driver lower than normal. The first is when you know the ball is going to run a long way once it hits the fairway. The second is when the wind is really blowing across the fairway, and it’s going to greatly affect your…

F airway bunkers don’t have to be intimidating. To recover from here, all you need to do is adjust your setup, make a balanced-andsmooth swing, and hit the ball before your club makes contact with the sand. Let me walk you through the process: First, select a club one longer than you’d normally use from this distance, but make sure it can get the ball over the lip. Next, open the clubface to add loft to the shot and to help you avoid digging into the sand. Tension is a killer, too, so grip it lightly to free up your swing. The ball should be centered in your stance and your hands and clubshaft in line with it. Oh, and don’t ground your club. It’s against the rules. As you make…

Nice catch I love getting away from the course to do some fishing. I caught this six-pounder in April on a small lake in east Texas. In the offseason, I’m either hunting or catching red fish and speckled trout. CODY GRIBBLE age 26 lives Dallas story Member of 2012 NCAA-champion Texas Longhorns; won 2016 Sanderson Farms Championship. hard worker After freshman year I was burned out on playing golf, so I worked at Brook Hollow Golf Club mowing fairways and cutting cups. It was therapeutic, and I’ll probably do it again at some point. It was that much fun. tough choice The NCAA will be my greatest achievement of all time—more than my first tour win. It’s something I get chills just talking about now. I can’t see how that…

E veryone wants to hit the ball farther. That’s easy to understand. Length makes it easier to score. But if you’re looking at pure clubhead speed as your indicator for how far—and how well—you’re hitting shots, you’re missing an important part of the story. I’ve been lucky enough to have the same great coach since I was 13. That’s when Pete Cowen came to Belgium to run a program for up-and-coming junior players. Pete told me from the beginning the goal was to have a swing that would hold up under the most stressful situations; one that consistently put pressure on the ball and didn’t require lots of manipulation with the hands. So that’s what we practiced. I spent years learning how to create pressure with my shoulders, and then transmit…

TIGER WOODS ONCE SEEMED INVINCIBLE before he became the latest and perhaps most powerful proof that no one is. Now, like everyone else, all Woods has is hope. ? Nevertheless, Woods’ fans had a lot of it coming into 2017. The 14-time major champion, who had just tour tournaments in five weeks. But when he missed the cut in the first one at Torrey Pines and then withdrew in Dubai, citing back spasms after an opening 77, hope gave way to hurt. At the Champions Dinner before the Masters, which marked his fifth straight missed major, Woods told Jack Nicklaus about his debilitating back pain. Nicklaus implored Woods to see his longtime physical therapist, and Woods had one session with Pete Egoscue, but four days later underwent fusion surgery on…

W hen Tiger Woods won the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, it was his 13th professional major-championship victory and his fifth in his 12 most recent Grand Slam events. Those dozen majors also included a runner-up finish, two T-2s, a T-3 and a T-4. Yeah, Tiger was on a bit of a roll. In Golf Digest’s January 2008 issue, we attempted to predict when Woods might surpass Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 professional major titles. Our reasoning at the time: 2008 Tiger had finished T-3 and T-2 at the previous two Masters, so we figured he would win the next one, for his fifth green jacket, and that year’s U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, where he had been dominant. That would have run his total to 15. 2009 We didn’t…

M ost golf holes, particularly the ones I design, give options. There’s a friendly route for the beginner and a riskier route where the reward forces the more skilled player to a decision. But some holes don’t offer much. They’re just plain tough, and your ability to execute shots on them makes or breaks your day. Designers often save this sort of challenge for the 18th. The 494-yard, par-4 finish at Quail Hollow Club, site of this year’s PGA Championship, is a great example. Designed by George Cobb and later altered by Tom Fazio, the 18th gets bogeyed a lot but birdied by those swinging with confidence. Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler made 3 here to seal their first victories on the PGA Tour. When you get to the last tee…

How often a golfer who scores between 95 and 100 gets up and down for par. source: game golf 8% M y dad, Claude Harmon, had a great line for his students about aim: “If you aim at nothing, you’re always going to hit it.” To get a handle on where your shots are going, focus on starting direction. Here’s a drill I’ve been using a lot lately with my players. Take three alignment poles and set one parallel to your target line between your feet and the ball. Stick the other two in the ground five to 10 yards in front of you and two to three feet apart, creating a window on your target line. You can adjust the gap based on how easy it is for you to…

The focus is on thinner, lighter and sleeker designs. T o say that metalwoods have more room for improvement than any other club might seem confusing. After all, the USGA has set up more roadblocks on drivers, fairway woods and hybrids than any other clubs in the bag. But the largest clubs actually have more design options for increasing distance, forgiveness and flight. In fact, our longest-hitting clubs can get bigger or smaller or not change their looks at all and still improve. How? With thinner, lighter crowns, sleeker shapes and internal weighting that optimizes your launch. But the biggest improvement might be to your self-confidence. Here are four new models to consider. ping g400 driver ? The G400 is a tad smaller than the G, making it sleeker aerodynamically. But…

When we’re at the U.S. Open, dealing with the fastest greens of the year, you’ll often hear the TV commentators say we need good feel for the speed if we’re going to avoid three-putting. That’s true, but feel is something you’re going to have only if you practice a lot—especially on fast greens. What doesn’t require nearly as much work is learning to read the break. Putting comes down to two things: speed and break. And there’s nothing like trusting your line to make you put a confident stroke on a putt. Even if you don’t have the speed quite right, a good read and good stroke will help you get it down in no more than two. And you never know, you might sneak a few in on your…

I’ve been looking for Tiger Woods’ “enablers” since that latest brush with roadside gravel and pathos. I was about ready to declare them unfindable when all of a sudden I turned a corner, and there they were. It’s I. It’s we. By the way, it’s you in particular. We’re all enablers. Sixty-three million Americans enabled Donald Trump, and now he is alone and can’t be told anything. A few more million Americans (but 10 fewer states) enabled Hillary Clinton, who along with her party forgot the words of John F. Kennedy (“the torch has been passed to a new generation . . . ”) and instead passed it back to an old generation because that’s where the money, not to mention the ambition, was. In my time, I was a…

O N the afternoon of Sunday, May 8, 2016, even before James Hahn had defeated Roberto Castro on the first hole of sudden death to win the Wells Fargo Championship at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club, crews were busy on the front nine, preparing the course for the 2017 PGA Championship. Not by trimming tree limbs or spreading fertilizer, but by removing all the sand from bunkers and preparing the greens to be gassed, stripping all the grass from them. The next day, bulldozers moved in to rip apart three holes on the front nine and one on the back. Chainsaws were soon fired up, and clusters of tall pines came tumbling down. Were they mad? The PGA, to be played Aug. 10-13, was only 15 months away. The year preceding a…

O ut here on the PGA Tour, we’re constantly put in situations where—to carry a bunker or water hazard, set up a par 5 in two, or even drive a green on a par 4—we have to crank it up. Don’t get me wrong. I’m usually looking to make a swing with good tempo, hit the ball as straight as possible, and hope to find a little effortless power. But there are times when that’s not enough. Sometimes I have to step on the driver. That’s what you want to know about here, I’m guessing. When I need 20 extra yards, how do I get it? There’s a little more to it than swinging harder. Actually, having the thought of swing harder will probably produce a shorter shot than your normal…

“Pivoting your head reduce tension.” 0 ow many times have you been told to keep your head down when hitting chips and short pitches, but you still hit them fat? And the more fixated you are on this swing tip, the worse things get. Turns out, it's not you, it's the advice. The thought of keeping your head down creates tension in your hands and arms, which re· stricts you from swinging the club through the ball and into a balanced and controlled finish with your weight on your left foot. If you're struggling to execute these shots, here's one thought I'd like you to con centrate on instead: Track the ball with your eyes. This will make you rotate your head toward the target during the through-swing. Allowing your…

Problem getting up and down? It’s likely not your putting. A ccording to statistics from Game Golf, the in-round stat tracker, the average 90sshooter gets up and down from the sand less than one in 10 times. The average 100-shooter converts less than one in 20 times, and the average 110-shooter is successful about one in 100 times, or about as often as a tour player rakes a bunker. So what’s the problem? Well, maybe our putting isn’t so great, but the real culprit is what’s happening in the sand. Or more likely, what’s not happening, as in the ball getting out of the bunker. We certainly encourage you to work on your technique, but immediate help is available. The five specialty wedges on this page have heavy soles and high…

Was playing from the forward tees embarrassing? Not in the least! I DON’T LIKE GOLF. IF I CAN’T DO IT RIGHT AWAY, I DON’T LIKE IT. -meryl streep I’D LOVE TO SEE YOU BE BAD AT GOLF. I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU BE BAD AT SOMETHING. IT WOULD BE VERY COMFORTING. -hugh grant THE LUXE LIFE over-the-top golf club perks east valley country club, gyeonggi-do, south korea A female caddie leads calisthenics on the first tee, then serves as a chauffeur, driving a fiveperson cart with all four players’ bags. kinloch golf club, manakin-sabot, va. The club will perform a car detailing for guests while they’re on the course or in the clubhouse. shanqin bay golf club, hainan island, china “Shadow service” includes two caddies per player (one at the…

People in the U.S. expected to die from melanoma in 2017, according to skincancer.org. 10,000 screen test Generally speaking, wearing any sunscreen is better than none at all. But many products come with ingredients that are bad for you, says the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit health-research organization. Look for titanium dioxide or zinc oxide on your sunscreen’s list of active ingredients. If it lists anything other than those two things, don’t say we didn’t warn you. spray away Good news for golfers: For years, physical blockers titanium dioxide and zinc oxide could be found only in lotion form. But several companies now offer these effective and highly recommended screens in sprays, making it more convenient for golfers to cover skin and reapply often. One caveat: Do not inhale while…

PHIL Mickelson has long been known as golf’s consummate escape artist. His signature flop shot has turned innumerable misdirected approaches into tap-in pars. When his drive on the 13th hole at Augusta National in the final round of the 2010 Masters settled on pine straw, Mickelson fired a 6-iron between two trees and onto the green, setting up a birdie that would lead to his third green jacket. Yet all of those salvaged pars and dazzling birdies might pale next to the way Mickelson extricated himself from legal trouble earlier this year. In a trial that unfolded in a Manhattan courthouse, Mickelson was implicated in a three-way insider-trading scandal that ended with the two other principals facing many years in prison. Mickelson’s fate? He just walked away—and he didn’t even have…

IN FALL 2011, GOLF STATISTICIAN PETER SANDERS ARRIVED, BRIEFCASE IN HAND, AT A HOUSE RENTED BY ZACH JOHNSON IN ST. SIMONS ISLAND, GA. AT JOHNSON’S INVITATION, SANDERS WAS TO SHOW TRENDS AND ANOMALIES BURIED amid Johnson’s 600-plus performance stats measured by the PGA Tour’s ShotLink system. Then, incorporating measures of his own creation—the “secret sauce,” as Sanders puts it—he would recommend playing and practice strategies that would give Johnson and his seven-member team an edge as he entered the midway point of his career. “My presentation began at 8 p.m.,” says Sanders, the founder of shotbyshot.com, a statistics-analysis firm that serves tour players as well as golf instructors, coaches and amateurs. “At midnight, I was still answering questions.” Johnson, it turned out, liked stats homework. He enrolled at Drake University…