Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i Golf Digest

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Forty years ago, Nancy Lopez was Tiger before Tiger. RANDOM TRENDS IN GOLF WE LIKE: ▶ Allowing fivesomes as long as they keep up with the group ahead. ▶ Not waiting till January to begin using the new USGA rules that won’t officially go into effect until 2019. Especially dropping from O.B. as if it were a hazard. ▶ Encouraging music to be played during a round (and ignoring the USGA rule that bans it). ▶ Pushing or pulling a cart instead of riding—Augusta University’s Broc Everett used a pushcart in winning the Men’s NCAA Championship. ▶ Adding a mammoth putting green (like Thistle Dhu at Pinehurst) or a short course (like The Sandbox at Sand Valley). I can’t help pausing this summer to remember that 40…

“Be like Tiger: Beat pressure with a relentless routine.” We all know players who seem to always get it done under pressure. More likely, they just look good by comparison with the golfers around them who are collapsing. Putting seems to exaggerate this phenomenon. When that putt on the last hole falls or doesn’t, the player’s reputation on the greens is set for life. But you can do something to boost your chance of putting well in stressful situations. Develop a pre-putt routine, and stick to it no matter what’s on the line. I don’t care if you take one practice stroke, two or none. I don’t care if you look at the hole once, twice, three times—whatever. The key is doing what feels right to you when there’s no…

▶ You’ve probably heard someone tell you to keep your head still when you’re on the green—especially if you’re trying to hole a short putt. The advice is well intended. The less you move, the less chance you will twist the putterface open or closed and miss the putt. No steering! Unfortunately, locking down your head can add a degree of tension and prevent you from making a confident, relaxed stroke. Since we’re on the subject of vision on this page, I’ve got a better way to help you control the putter as you make your stroke. Instead of thinking about keeping your head still, your swing thought should be keep my eyes still. You’ll notice right away that it has the same effect of minimizing body movement, but it…

Goal No. 1 for anyone in the gym should be to get healthier. But if you’re also interested in priming your body to play better golf, it’s time to ditch many traditional exercises and replace them with ones designed to do both, says Ben Shear, Golf Digest Fitness Advisor. Here are three to get you started. Outdo the meatheads with a smarter routine. HOW: Hold two dumbbells in the extended position of the press. Do one rep with one arm while keeping the other still. Then do one rep with the alternate arm while keeping the other in the extended position. Do two to three sets of 10 reps, each arm. WHY: In addition to strengthening your chest and arms, leaving one dumbbell extended at all times improves stability in…

As we all know, the concept of the gimme putt is anathema to the PGA Tour. When the modernized Rules of Golf are rolled out in 2019, you will not find a provision stating that tap-ins will henceforth be considered good. Nothing in golf is certain, especially on the PGA Tour. ▶ But that’s about to change. If there’s one thing I see as an absolute lock, it’s that the success of the revamped 2019 PGA Tour schedule—the dates of the FedEx Cup playoffs and season-ending Tour Championship especially—is going to be, for myriad reasons, a gimme. There are a bunch of notable changes in the tour’s new universe, not the least of which are the move of the Players Championship back to March and the PGA Championship from August…

I FEEL LIKE MY ACCURACY STATS WITH IRONS are a bit misleading. I play fairly aggressively week to week and fire at a lot of pins. So I might miss more greens than other pros, but I’m still only a few yards from the hole when I do. That being said, when I really need to hit a green in regulation, I’m confident in my swing. In winning my second consecutive U.S. Open, at Shinnecock Hills in June, only three other players hit more greens in regulation than I did—and trust me when I say that hitting greens there was like trying to stop a marble on a kitchen countertop. Here I’m going to share some of my tips on hitting better second-shot irons, a part of the game where…

We might never see another rookie season like the one Nancy Lopez had in 1978. Then 22, she won five LPGA Tour events in a row and four more before season’s end, including the LPGA Championship. To put it in perspective, the second-best rookie season in LPGA history came from Se Ri Pak in 1998, when she had four wins, including two majors. ▶ “It was a great time in my life,” Lopez recently told Golf Digest. “I was young; I had the attention of the world. I was really comfortable with people and the press—it was fun. I was hitting great shots, making putts, hearing the fans. If I had a blind shot into a green, I knew how far it was from the pin by how loud the…

Except for Sundays and holidays, never has a day passed when both the FedEx and UPS trucks drove by my house without stopping. My wife is a seasoned online shopper, but most of the cardboard packages left on our doorstep are for me. PGA Tour players, as you might imagine, get a lot of stuff. ▶ Every three months I get a shipment of 50 shirts, plus a few dozen pairs of pants. My clothing supplier wants me to wear the new season and encourages getting rid of the old to avoid confusion. I’ve purged entire boxes when one sponsor changes a logo. I give clothes to friends as much as I can and save certain items I especially like to wear just around the house. Still, I’m always bringing…

Check out my downswing here. I call this the delivery position. The closer you get to impact, the less you can do—or undo—before you hit the ball. You’re basically on cruise control. That said, you can monitor this position when you practice. Swing down, stop here, and check three things. 1. WEIGHT TO FRONT FOOT ▶ You can see my knees are shifting toward the target, and I’m starting to roll onto my right instep. This means I’m making a proper weight shift to my left side, which will help me strike the ball, then the ground for crisp contact. Also, I’m posting up on my left leg, pushing off the ground. That upward thrust is a major speed generator. 2. TRAIL ARM STILL BENT ▶ At this point in…

CHESSON HADLEY AGE 31 LIVES Raleigh, N.C. STORY Won 2014 Puerto Rico Open; five top-five finishes on PGA Tour in 2017-’18 CLUTCH SHOT I won the PGA Tour’s shot of the week with a 63-foot putt par save at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. I won $20,000 for my old school, the North Raleigh Christian Academy. Pretty cool. ANIMAL LOVER I’ve learned a lot about animals over the years. My wife, Amanda, says I know more about them than a tour guide at the zoo. IRONS SPECS Titleist 718 T-MB (3-iron), Mitsubishi Fubuki AX H500 shaft; Titleist 718 MB (4-iron through 9-iron), True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT X100 shafts, Golf Pride MCC 60 round grips You can get a bit lazy with more forgiving clubs. These blades keep me from…

MAKING A HOLE-IN-ONE An ace as rare as it is exciting. Mais bien sûr Champagne is in order. Let’s pick the 2005 Drappier Blanc de Blancs ($75) from the south side of the Champagne region, where white grapes are rare and wines made solely from chardonnay grapes are rarer. RECORDING YOUR BEST SCORE Focus. Determination. Positive thinking. All traits that lead to personal bests. The late Al Brounstein, founder of Diamond Creek Vineyards, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at age 64 but continued to make some of Napa Valley’s most sought-after wines until his death at 86. Raise a glass of Al’s 2011 Volcanic Hill cabernet sauvignon ($233) to unflinching dedication. WINNING THE CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP You didn’t just compete, you dominated the field and etched your name in club history. Celebrate…

“My dad called the principal and told her I would start leaving school early to focus on golf.” Last season, only 10 golfers played all 22 events on the Web.com Tour, and I was one. Because I didn’t have a home in the United States, it was always easier to go to the next event and practice. I really had only two good weeks, but one was a win in Kansas worth $117,000, which helped me get my 2018 PGA Tour card. The depth of competition has been an adjustment, but maybe I can be the first Chinese golfer to win on the PGA Tour. I DON’T WEAR A HAT, WHICH MAYBE MAKES ME LOOK YOUNGER THAN I AM—21. Several times I’ve had volunteers tell me to step off a tee…

Like most women, Jenna Yanchik wanted the wedding of her dreams. One with timeless style and the regal setting of a state affair against a backdrop of nature. Imagine her euphoria when the love of her life delivered all that and more. ▶ The “love of her life” being golf, obviously. ▶ “The Fox Chapel Golf Club was able to provide everything we wanted,” says Yanchik, 29, about the Pittsburgh club. “The course is beautiful, and the clubhouse was the perfect spot for our reception.” Jenna assures us that her husband, David, is the apple of her eye. But Jenna is a golfer—a devoted one since 7 years old—and every partner to a golf-obsessed companion knows their love is a love divided, and tested. “There was the risk of having…

I’VE COME TO ACCEPT I’M NOT ONE OF THE LONGEST GUYS ON TOUR, so if I’m going to beat guys who are 20 to 30 yards longer off the tee—like I did at the 2015 RSM Classic and the 2017 Dean & DeLuca Invitational—I have to keep the ball in the fairway. My stats prove that. Heading into the British Open in July, I was 35 under par on approaches from the fairway between 50 and 175 yards. In the same range from the rough, I was 14 over. That’s a big difference. Being a solid driver means having more than one way to find the fairway. I’m going to teach you four, one for each type of wind condition. Pair the correct play with that wind, and you’ll be…

Every bad result in golf can be traced back to a root cause. If you’re struggling to hit accurate drives, the issue is a lack of clubface control. Many amateurs start their backswings by whipping the driver way inside the target line and opening the face. From there, they re-route the club on a looping path that comes into the ball from outside the target line—the classic over-the-top move—with an open face in relation to the path. You can guess what happens next. The ball slices right of the target. If by some luck or last-second adjustment they can close the face, the ball flies on a straight line but left of the target. How many times have you heard another golfer get frustrated after setting up to hit a…

1950s IMPERIAL HEADWEAR The Lady Liberty Performance Rope Cap, $30 RAY-BAN Wayfarer Sunglasses, $193 ORIGINAL PENGUIN GOLF In the Clubhouse Golf Polo, $79 BONOBOS Highland Golf Pant, $108 G/FORE Brogue Kiltie Gallivanter Golf Shoes, $325 1960s BAILEY OF HOLLYWOOD Elliott Fedora, $60 RAY-BAN Clubmaster Sunglasses, $153 ORIGINAL PENGUIN GOLF Pete’s Sky’s Up Printed Polo (available in October), $89 J.LINDEBERG Ives Micro Stretch Pants, $160 GOLD TOE Men’s Premium Crew Socks, $8 ECCO Men’s Golf Lux Shoes, $300 1970s MATTE GREY Island Trucker Hat, $35 PUMA Suede Eyewear, $159 BRADLEY ALLAN Color Block Polo, $89 ORIGINAL PENGUIN GOLF The Heritage Plaid Pant (available in October), $99 GOLD TOE Men’s Premium Crew Socks, $8 G/FORE Cruiser Golf Shoes, $250 1980s MATTE GREY Hole-in-one Visor, $35 TED BAKER Golf Polo, $149 DEVEREUX Rush…

GOLF Digest is aware of fewer than two dozen individuals who have played every course on our ranking of America’s 100 Greatest. They ticked them off over lifetimes largely well spent, and the grillrooms of this country have heard their stories. All are or were Golf Digest course-rating panelists—the card-carrying, often quite tan, pencil-wielding, low-handicap data-bots we’ve trained in the scientific art (or artful science, if you prefer) of evaluating shot values, design variety, aesthetics and other categories since 1966, and whose legion is now 1,500 strong. We compile the scores of all our rating panelists to update this ranking biennially, and so the list is ever-changing. When new courses receive the honor, some panelists are quicker than others about staying current. Being a completist is hard work. Just ask…

Forget holding the rings or preparing a speech. The most crucial responsibility of the best man is planning the golf. Though simple in premise, the execution is anything but. We give you nine rules for teeing it up on the big day. 1 Plan far in advance. Not all clubs allow the party to play. If a round isn’t accessible at the wedding venue, grab a tee time close to the ceremony or hotel. 2 Be liberal with the invitations. This is not a groomsmen-only outing. Include both sides. 3 Book an extra group. Chances are a few stragglers with F.O.M.O. will want to play at the last minute. 4 With a diverse collection of friends and family, don’t be afraid to mix up the pairings. However, make sure the…

From my parents’ old house, high above the White Cliffs of Dover, you could look out across the English Channel on sunny days and see the outline of the French coast. I used to imagine that somewhere beyond the horizon there was a French version of me, a bon viveur enjoying better weather, better clothes, better friends: chic, debonair, nonchalant, hanging out in cafés and brasseries, quaffing aperitifs, maybe Champagne, living with elan and panache; living le vie en rose. This alternate life could be glimpsed on family motoring holidays in the Loire Valley or the Dordogne, or cycling through France one summer en route to Madrid, or selling drinks on the topless beaches of Saint-Tropez another summer, or on weekends in Paris (“It’s all so French,” a visitor said…