Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Golf Digest

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief This past summer my wife and I packed up the SUV and drove 939 miles from our home in Connecticut through Maine and New Brunswick to Cape Breton in Nova Scotia to play a couple of courses owned by Mike Keiser and his Canadian partner, Ben Cowan-Dewar. It was my third visit, Beth’s first, to Cabot Links resort, or what they should have called Brigadoon. Keiser is famous for his Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon: He gives Americans a wee dram of Scotland without crossing the ocean. It’s hard to believe, but Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links are even better in my book—they rank ninth and 43rd among Golf Digest’s World 100 Greatest Golf Courses (see page 66). I should add that Keiser churns out masterpieces…

Let conditions dictate your technique When it comes to chipping, you might have been told to hit down on the ball with the handle leaning toward the target at impact. Chipping this way might allow you to hit it solid, but I bet you’ll struggle controlling where the ball ends up. Instead, what I do is produce a wide swing bottom, with the club gliding along the turf and into the ball—instead of crashing down on it. This allows my club to strike the turf, yet still contact the ball low on the clubface. That’s key to producing loft and spin, and you need both to get the ball to stop where you want it to. I’ll explain. When I’m chipping from closely mowed areas, I know I can put…

A simple way to stop steering it Many times in golf instruction, the easiest way to get a player to learn a skill or correct a mistake is to have them overemphasize the movement needed to execute the task, or do the opposite of what they’re doing. I call this teaching philosophy the art of exaggeration. I use it to improve technique in all facets of the game. For example, a common issue is trying to steer the ball in play. By that, I mean the followthrough is truncated and regulated in an effort to carefully guide the ball in the right direction. This type of swing almost always has the opposite effect, and the result is a poor shot. What you should do in the through-swing is release the…

Think pull instead of push There’s an epidemic of misapplied force that is ruining thousands of swings every day. I’m talking about the concept of pushing the handle ahead of the clubhead through impact. It’s a basic piece of instruction you’ve probably heard a lot—usually as a seemingly innocent part of correcting a wristy, flippy motion in a swing. But the problem with that advice is, it ruins your ability to produce good swing speed. Try this exercise: Hold your driver in front of you with your right arm only and, from a standstill, push the handle as quickly as you can toward the target (below, left). When you do that, what happens to the head? It stays behind. Do this during a swing, and you’re essentially trying to force…

CLEVELAND CBX ‣ The light shaft, wide sole and perimeter weighting make these wedges more forgiving, just like the game-improvement irons many of us play. But the face and grooves are grabby enough even for tour-level types. PRICE $130 PING GLIDE 2.0 STEALTH ‣ These wedges use a softer steel than the original model for more responsiveness, but another neat addition is the extra half groove on the higher lofts: It’s designed to provide more contact with groove edges for extra ball spin. PRICE $150 BRIDGESTONE TOUR B XW-1 ‣ A thick pad on the back of this forged design puts more mass behind the ball for better feel. The parallel milled lines between each groove enhance surface friction for better ball contact and higher spin. PRICE $140 MIZUNO S18…

A Connecticut developer turns his back yard into something special As one of the country’s leading real-estate developers, Charles S. Cohen has overseen countless projects. But when it came to building a golf hole at his home in Greenwich, Conn., Cohen was mostly hands off, leaving it to Michael Lehrer, founder of Home Green Advantage of Armonk, N.Y., to create a massive, 11,000-squarefoot synthetic putting green. The month-long process involved 150 tons of crushed rock and stone dust for the foundation, 25 tons of sand for the bunkers, and a price tag in the low six figures. The result was one happy owner. “This is a great way to relax, practice your short game and have a good time with your family,” Cohen says. There are seven tee boxes scattered…

NICKLAUS & NORMAN TIE FOR MOST COURSES AMONG LIVING ARCHITECTS Golf digest’s third biennial ranking of the World 100 Greatest Golf Courses is truly global, showcasing brilliant layouts everywhere from Abu Dhabi to Vietnam, but not the United States. This is not a slight against courses born in the USA; Golf Digest will continue to produce biennial rankings of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses in odd-numbered years. A big part of the reason is that our two rankings are determined differently. America’s 100 Greatest is always based on evaluations by North American panelists judging courses in seven criteria. The World 100 Greatest uses a single criterion of overall greatness scored not just by Americans but also by international panelists organized by our affiliate magazines around the world. Still, if you’re…

SOME PLAYERS RELY on a single driver swing. Not me. I have two: the Bullet and the Bomb. Sometimes there’s a need to get everything you can out of a drive, or there’s no real risk in airing one out— obviously, that’s when I hit the Bomb. But more often, you’re standing on a tee box that doesn’t fit your eye, or you’re in a situation where just getting it somewhere in the fairway is important—that’s when I go with the Bullet. I’ll show you the adjustments I make to hit these two shots, so you can expand your arsenal. 1. PIERCE THE AIR WHEN I WAS 13, I watched PGA Tour pro Will MacKenzie hitting these incredibly low, little chip drivers. He showed me how he did it, and,…

‣ “I know a lot of amateurs are concerned with controlling distance when they chip, but that’s putting the cart before the horse for most of them,” says Chris O’Connell, Kuchar’s swing coach. Instead, O’Connell says focus on crisp contact. “Think of it this way: If you can’t master contact, then there’s no way of knowing how much energy you need to hit the ball a specific distance.” The first thing to practice is making your swing bottom as wide as Kuchar’s. Let the clubhead glide along the turf even after it strikes the ball. “Come in wide and stay wide,” O’Connell says. Once you can do that routinely, it’s time to vary conditions. The reason Kuchar is one of the game’s best chippers is because he practices from all…

We’ve all been there: of the fairway, wanting to get the ball back in play. Problem is, there’s a tree directly between you and your great escape. The tree is too tall to go over and too thick to curve a shot around it. You’re only option is to hit a low runner under the branches. How do you do it? Take a lower-lofted club and make an easier, less-thanfull swing. This is guaranteed to lower the trajectory of the ball—that’s the easy part. The tricky part is knowing what club is going to keep the ball under the branches, but get it airborne enough to reach safety in the short grass. The only way to truly know that is practice. You’re going to have to work on this shot,…

You’ve played enough golf to know that you don’t have the same issues as the guy hitting balls next to you. But there are two things you both want: longer drives and lower scores. This month in our video-instruction hub, aka the Golf Digest Schools, we launch two series: “The Science of Speed” and “Scoring 101: The 5 Requirements.” Here are two Golf Digest Best Young Teachers— Mike Jacobs and Adam Kolloff— at the top of their games. Jacobs teaches you the essential truths about distance, and Kolloff presents the quickest ways to bring down your scores. Each series ($9.99) contains five extended video lessons, with tips, fixes and drills you can access anywhere and everywhere you want. For more on these new programs, go to golfdigest.com/golf-digest-schools.…

Q I would like to putt like Jordan Spieth. I’m curious about his lefthand- low grip. Can you explain what he’s doing? FREDRIK ODQVIST, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN A We want to putt like him, too! There must be some magic potion for always making that 25-footer when you really need it. As for the technical aspects of Spieth’s cross-handed grip, the young Texan overlaps his right index and middle fingers over the ring and pinkie knuckles of his left hand. (The more common methods of going left-hand low are to place all 10 fingers directly on the handle or overlap just the top index finger.) “Jordan does this because he’s actually lefthanded, so the more he can feel the putter in his left hand, the better his touch and control,” says…

HAVING WATCHED TIGER WOODS TEST EQUIPMENT IN 2003 and given the opportunity again this December, I was eager to find out how his approach had changed. It turns out, it hasn’t. Instead of projecting as a 42-year-old seeking a magic elixir to boost his aging game, Woods displayed the same exacting attention he did as a 27-year-old at the peak of his powers. This was Woods’ first official testing session since joining TaylorMade in January 2017, and he and the company’s research and development team spent nearly two hours on the range at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla., minutely analyzing his equipment specs. ‣ “That’s a lot higher,” Woods called out on his first swing with a TW prototype, muscle-back blade 6-iron, comparing it to the ball flight…

RICHARD THALER IN THE MOVIE “The Big Short”—based on Michael Lewis’ book of the same name, about the collapse of the global financial system in 2007-’08—the singer Selena Gomez and the University of Chicago economist Richard H. Thaler explain the “hot-hand fallacy” as it applies to the Wall Street weapons of mass destruction known as synthetic collateralized debt obligations. The scene takes place at a blackjack table in a casino. Gomez is dealt an ace and a 10— blackjack—and therefore can’t lose. During the filming, she at first didn’t react to her cards, and Thaler pointed out that a real player with an unbeatable hand would at least have cracked a smile. So, in the take that appears in the movie, Gomez and Thaler exchange high-fives, and the extras crowding…

I hear a lot of people say to shift all your weight away from the target when you take the club back and then shift it back to your front side on the way through. I’m sure that works for some, but my swing doesn’t have a lot of lateral movement. Mine’s more about rotation. I think it’s because I grew up playing baseball, where you start your swing with your weight already on the back foot and then you just step and turn, getting the bat to move its fastest as it strikes the ball. I took what I learned in baseball and applied it to my golf swing. The benefit, I’ve found, is that it makes it easier to find the sweet spot on the clubface and create…

I see this a lot: Golfers roll a bunch of 10- or 15-footers before they tee off, then they have to putt one clear across the green on the first hole. What happens? They usually three-putt because they have no feel for distance. The quick fix is to practice lag putts before you head out, but you also need to know the keys to effective long putting. Let’s take a look. Golfers are often told to lock their wrists when they putt and control the stroke with their shoulders. That might work for short and mid-length putts, but from long range it leads to a stiff motion and no feel. By feel, I mean distance control: the ability to look at a putt, make a few practice strokes, and then…

“Pulling the grip up whips the clubhead into the ball.” How to use it from the rough We’ve got it made. Used to be that if you wanted to hit a fairly long shot into a green from the rough, you’d have to pray you swung your 3-iron just right. There was little margin for error. Nowadays, while our 3-irons are collecting dust, we’ve got hybrids to do this job more reliably—provided you make a few adjustments from your normal swing. The first is the way you hold the club. You’ve got to make sure the face doesn’t twist open or closed as it passes through the grass. That’s why you should grip it firmly with the last three fingers of your glove hand like I am here (above). The…

IS YOUR VALENTINE THE ONE FOR YOU? 1. You arrive home after a poor round. Your partner: A. Reminds you that it’s just a game. B. Gently suggests giving away your clubs to free up closet space. C. Says, “Get back out there and practice! And don’t come home until that driver swing is grooved.” 2. You want to take a five-day buddies golf trip to Ireland. Your partner says: A. “Fine, as long as you can get your electronicmonitoring bracelet through Customs.” B. “If you go, let me know the address where you’re staying so I can ship your stuff there, because we’re done!” C. “Only five days? Is that enough time to hit Scotland, too?” 3. You’re attached to a 15-year-old golf shirt. Your partner would: A. Be…

MORE THAN ANY OTHER PLAYER IN HISTORY, Tiger Woods at his peak refuted the adage that no golfer gets it all. The image of that once-supreme completist from the century’s first decade remains indelible and continues to magnify light onto every part of the game—especially the elements that constitute greatness. ▸ Those who can perceive and convey that last piece with the most precision are the elders in an ultra-exclusive fraternity that includes Woods as a junior member. So as Tiger embarked on his latest comeback—begun remarkably free of back pain and with correspondingly surprising success at the Hero World Challenge— Golf Digest sat down with five of the best: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo. ▸ All are multiple major winners—collectively their total is…

1 What’s your idea of a perfect round? Three good friends, nice weather, and two birdies. Second choice: out by myself on an empty course, late afternoon, hitting two balls. Peace. 2 What’s your go-to shot, the one you know you can pull off? Tap-in from one inch. 3 What’s the shot that keeps you up at night? Long bunker shot, downhill lie. 4 What’s the best part of your game? Banter. 5 Best tip you ever got? A bunker shot is just another golf shot. 6 Where in the world would you like to go with your golf clubs? Augusta. 7 What is it that golfers don’t understand? Most people play tees that are too long for them. And not everyone in the foursome should play the same tees.…