Indholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2025 i Golf Digest

GOLF’S GREATEST TROPHY isn’t necessarily the Claret Jug, the Wannamaker, a green jacket or anything else coupled with millions of dollars and world ranking points. It’s the thing you believe you can and should win. Each time you grip a club, it sits on a shelf in the mind. For the four Jureller brothers out of Country Club of Buffalo, New York, now scattered to opposite ends of that state, Connecticut, and Georgia, the trophy is their late father’s watch. A Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust purchased by their mother in 1969 for his birthday. Did she have any inkling the power this small object would exert maintaining the family bond? Though she’s a force, too. Age 85 and texts all her children every day. Dr. Paul D. Jureller II was…

AT THE 2021 MASTERS, Bryson DeChambeau talked about the potential for a seven-foot golfer with a 145-mph swing speed and lamented, “That’s when I’m going to become obsolete.” The two-time U.S. Open champ and future World Long Drive runner-up was envisioning a new breed of golfer, but his prediction already described Karl-Anthony Towns, the NBA All-Star capable of hitting 400-yard drives. DeChambeau doesn’t have to worry about Towns taking his day job anytime soon, but the physically imposing center can launch a golf ball like few people on the planet. Even more remarkable? Unlike Bryson, Towns has never taken an actual golf lesson. “I learned a lot by trial and error,” says Towns, who was recently part of a blockbuster trade that sent him from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the…

THERE ARE TWO MAIN tilts in the golf swing. There is a forward tilt from the hip joints at address, and a side tilt of the upper body away from the target in the downswing. If you’re unable to compress the ball and hit your irons solid, there’s a good chance that you’re struggling with the latter, so let’s work on it. From the top, the feeling you want is that you’re crunching your rib cage on your right side, forming a backward-K look to your body (above). For this to happen, your right shoulder must move toward the ground while your left shoulder moves up. The average golfer tends to lose this side tilt by thrusting their trail shoulder out toward the target line, setting up a swing path that…

Q: OTHER THAN LOFT, OBVIOUSLY, SHOULD ALL MY WEDGES BE THE SAME MODEL? There is a simple answer to this question: “No.” But we don’t like simple answers because every player’s equipment journey is unique. This is why a relationship with a quality fitter is so important. First, the answers about things like loft gapping, bounce, sole grinds and even shafts are not immediately intuitive. For example, nearly every major company with a wedge line offers four to seven distinct sole grinds throughout its loft range. (Decoder rings don’t exist yet and likely never will.) Second, while many companies provide tips for picking wedges and detailed descriptions, the only real way to get it right is through a trial process on the range and short-game area, and we know that’s often…

A FLIPPING BIRDIES UP AND DOWN TWO-TONED HAT $40 This snapback gives a new meaning to getting up and down for birdie with its flipped, embroidered “Birdies” design that stylishly matches the contrast brim. B SONY XB100 BLUETOOTH WIRELESS SPEAKER $60 Waterproof and dustproof, the XB100 hangs easily from any golf bag, fits in most cupholders and produces rich bass for a compact speaker. C WHOOP 4.0 $239 for 12-month membership Through personalized coaching and 24/7 tracking of sleep, strain, recovery, stress and health biometrics, this wearable is the key to optimizing performance. D DOCKERS GO AIRWEAVE CHINO PANTS $88 These versatile golf pants are a lighter, more breathable version of classic chinos and are made with a stretchy, moisture-wicking fabric that’ll stay wrinkle-free all day. E TOMMY JOHN SECOND SKIN MID-LENGTH BOXER…

ARCHITECT JIM URBINA answers our question about which courses are worthy of being restored to their original versions. Urbina began working for Pete Dye in the 1980s and joined with Tom Doak in the 1990s to help create stalwarts such as Pacific Dunes, Old Macdonald and Sebonack. He now consults with Pasatiempo and Yeamans Hall, among others, and will begin a remodel of the Olympic Club’s Ocean Course next year. We’re in a Golden Age of restoration with clubs returning courses from the 1910s and ’20s back to their original designs. Is this good? Urbina: Not all designs should be restored faithfully. I’m lucky to have restored three or four Alister MacKenzie courses, but not every MacKenzie course should be restored because some have been altered so much by roads,…

IT IS A FUN BUT BUSY LIFE BEING A PLAYER AND a coach. I keep a full tournament schedule and serve as analytics advisor to many of the same guys I’m trying to beat. Recently, I partnered with Arccos Golf to track my game and use the Arccos platform to enhance what I’ve built. With so much information available these days, game tracking is the key to uncovering insights that can help any golfer score better. None of the players in The Showdown are individual clients, but I have access to shot data for all rounds they played in 2024 on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LIV Golf and the majors. Golf Digest asked me to provide a statistical preview of the upcoming made-for-TV match, which will pit Rory McIlroy…

The Science of Speed Sports biomechanist Dr. Sasho MacKenzie reveals the best—and worst—ways to increase distance Why is it that when we swing our hardest, the ball often flies even shorter than normal? The issue is when we try to increase distance, we don’t understand the moves necessary to crank up clubhead speed. This paradox is what we discussed with one of golf’s leading biomechanists and founder of The Stack speed training system, Dr. Sasho MacKenzie, on a recent Golf Digest Happy Hour, our webinar series offered exclusively for Golf Digest+ members. The following excerpt has been lightly edited for clarity and concision. What are some common speed-killing moves? The big one is casting from the top. If you decide to uncock your wrists and get the clubhead going really…

WITH GOLF SEASON in its quiet period, it’s time to review how you hold the club. This might be one of the toughest adjustments to work on but necessary if you’re making this common mistake with your grip. Take a look at this golf glove that I’ve drawn some lines on to illustrate the problem (small photo, right). Many golfers hold the club with the handle mostly in the palm of their gloved hand, across the red lines. When you hold the club predominantly in your palm, you can’t release it properly in the down-swing. Not only does that make it much harder to square the clubface at impact, it also restricts your ability to give the shot some “pop,” because you don’t have enough energy to release at the…

THEY SAY BUNKERS ARE intended to add a half-stroke penalty to your score. Perhaps, but not all bunker lies are of the half-stroke variety. You might hit a high wedge or a skulled iron into a green that embeds in the sand like it landed in pudding. A fried-egg lie or a ball that is nearly completely buried might give you pause as to what to do next, especially if you have a high lip in front of you. One option, you might wonder, is can you take an unplayable lie, add a penalty stroke, and drop outside the bunker using Rule 19? The answer is no. If you take an unplayable (and a stroke penalty), you must drop in the bunker on back-on-the-line relief or lateral relief. The simplest…

LOOKING TO SPICE UP your normal match-play wager? There’s a fun way to do it, and it’s a game even the pros love. It’s time to learn “Hammer,” a sometimes cruel game where stakes can get very high very quickly by preying on crappy shots. If “Hammer” is on the agenda, we suggest a stop at an ATM on your way to the course. NUMBER OF PLAYERS REQUIRED: 2 or 4 BEST FOR: Players who like to dial up the pressure on their opponent and/or get in other golfers’ heads. HOW TO PLAY: Hammer is about as simple as it gets. Its foundation is basic match play, but you and your opponent/s need to decide how much each hole will be worth, as each one is considered a separate match.…

IN DRIVER FITTING, THE GUIDing principle is that ball speed is the most important factor. This seems pretty obvious: Make the ball go faster, and it’s always going to go farther. Generally, this should be your mantra, but although ball speed might be fundamental to producing distance, it’s not everything. Some results from our Hot List driver testing show players getting more distance from shots that didn’t yield the highest ball speed. What gives? Well, overall distance is ultimately about the right combination of three ball-flight and swing characteristics: Ball speed is first, but launch angle (higher rather than lower) and optimal spin rate for a given launch angle are the key secondary contributors. In effect, they allow you to maximize your potential for a certain ball speed. Get those…

Of the nine courses architect Mike Strantz designed or redesigned before his death in 2005, Tot Hill Farm in central North Carolina often felt like the forgotten stepchild. Opened in 2000, the design is packed with Strantz’s mind-bending architecture of Silly Putty greens and blind shots, but its rural location and rough topography often dragged down the conditions and design integrity. Tot Hill Farm has a new gleam following a two-year reclamation project that’s pared away 20 years of tree overgrowth, restored lost bunkers, and converted the struggling bentgrass greens to sturdier zoysia. The changes pull open the curtain on the intoxicating landscape of exposed rock, streams and forested nooks and crannies that originally inspired Strantz’s most playful creation. Rates for 2025 are $135, plus carts.…

IF YOU’VE NEVER DRIVEN through the Sandhills region of Nebraska, you haven’t seen one of the world’s most extraordinary golf landscapes. It’s understandable if you haven’t. There’s little reason for anyone who isn’t a rancher or a golf pilgrim to delve into the 20,000 square miles of heaving, grass-covered dunes that cover the northwest and north-central part of the state, most of which has only been observed by cattle, cowboys and birds. The dunes are staggering in their size and relentlessness. Many rise 100 feet or more, and that’s just what can be witnessed from the numbingly straight perimeters of county roads that bracket the land every 30 or 60 miles. What lies beyond is almost unfathomable. Golfers—at least those outside Nebraska—knew next to nothing of this territory until 1995…

After your last putt drops on the 18th, it’s possible the rest of your day proceeds exactly like a tour pro’s—from the 1970s, that is. Some sequence of burger, shower, cocktail to cap a long walk in the sun. Maybe a few pulls on a heater with deep thoughts about how you could do better tomorrow. Or is your post-round routine closer to the athletic discipline and professionalism modeled by today’s pros, who might practice again, work out, stretch, ice bathe and dine per their nutritionist and other things most weekend golfers never think to do. The 19th hole in professional golf has undergone a revolution over the decades. To get a better sense of how and when this happened, listen to these tour pros past and present in their…

FIRST, THERE WAS THE Bomb-and-Gouge era, which emerged as statistics proved the importance of driving distance. In turn, new technologies, fitness regimens and swing techniques allowed players to swing faster than ever. Now we’ve just entered a new age in golf—the Speed-Plus era. Among the leaders of this new generation are Gordon Sargent, the former top-ranked amateur and current senior at Vanderbilt, and 6-foot-8 newly turned professional Christo Lamprecht, both of whom register ball speeds over 190 miles per hour. What makes this era different? For one, these leaders aren’t outliers. Nearly everyone in elite amateur golf boasts speed. What was once considered fast—say, 175 mph ball speed—is now barely average in the college ranks. But this new generation is misunderstood. If the Bomb-and-Gouge era of the past decade was…

MANY TOUR PLAYERS learn how to sling draws from an early age because it’s a shortcut to more distance. However, executing a big power hook depends a lot on precision timing, so many pros eventually curtail this shot shape for something easier to repeat. Just ask Chris Kirk. “I’ve always moved the ball from right to left,” says Kirk, 39, who started his 14th season on the PGA Tour last January with his sixth victory—arguably his biggest—at The Sentry in Kapalua, Hawaii. “When I was younger, in college, it was drawing a lot more. You could call it a ‘sling hook.’ But as I’ve gotten older and my swing has gotten a little better, I don’t sling it as much [for control].” Kirk’s long-time swing coach, Golf Digest 50 Best…

Stay in the Groove You might love that beat-up wedge in your bag, but there comes a time when the grooves get so worn that the club just doesn’t work as designed. Titleist says that after 125 rounds, a current wedge—like this Titleist Vokey Design SM10—will spin the ball about 25 percent less and produce more than twice as much roll-out. Another industry rule is that when your grips seem ready to be changed, it’s likely time for new wedges, too. Don’t get on the wrong side of the spin cycle.…

THE FUN ACTIVITY OF Monday morning quarter-backing exists in every facet of sports, even golf course rankings. Though in the case of rankings, it’s more like decades-later quarterbacking. Golf-course enthusiasts often look back on long-ago lists of course rankings and ask, “What were they thinking?” A perusal of lists from the 1970s, ’80s or ’90s will commonly reveal high-charting courses that now seem unremarkable or have faded into obscurity. Just as interesting is analyzing the courses that were once neglected. One of the most peculiar examples in Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest Courses rankings is the omission, until 1985, of National Golf Links of America, the current No. 7 course. When it opened in 1911, NGLA was considered to be the most important course built in the U.S., the first…

One by one, four of golf’s biggest stars took their assigned places in a driving range teaching bay cramped by photo equipment and an anxious crew. At the risk of offending any of these titans, each worthy of top billing, we list them in alphabetical order—Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffer. They had assembled to take a family-style portrait, but the spectacle of seeing them together was a reminder that pro golf has been anything but one big happy family these past few years. “it’s great looking in your eyes,” a posing Koepka said to DeChambeau. “It’s my favorite thing,” DeChambeau deadpanned, the camera clicking and strobes firing. “We’ve definitely been around each other too much the past few days,” a laughing Scheffer interjected. Scheffer was referring…

The press conference at the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic in May looked like any of the hundreds the tour conducts over a long season. A composed player in a Callaway hat gave polished answers at the podium, even tossing in a chestnut about no tournament really starting until the back nine on Sunday. However, the star of that show wasn’t a PGA Tour veteran or even an up-and-comer from the Korn Ferry Tour making a spot start in one of the tour’s lower-tier events. It was a 16-year-old amateur who made the cut in his PGA Tour debut just a few months after officially being able to drive. Besides being an immediate contender for the best name in competitive golf, Blades Brown is one of a group of talented…

Any golfer will tell you the game is rarely a walk in the park. But in Scotland’s capital, it has always been exactly that. Nearly every visitor to Edinburgh sees the famous castle at the end of The Royal Mile. The 11th century architectural wonder is hard to miss, perched on volcanic rock in the center of the city. In its shadow to the south is an open area of grass densely bordered by coffiee shops, bars and four-story residences. Think New York’s Central Park. Tens of thousands of people walk through this area every day. Yet most are unaware of the Bruntsfield Short Hole Golf Course here, and its rare history. “I’m not the story, the story is out there,” says Jimmy Robertson, age 79, pointing across the rumpled…