Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2025 i Golf Digest

LIKE GOLF, TIME IS ALSO a zero-sum game. Every time we tee it up comes at the expense of two other important things: family and work. It’s really only a certain, but considerable, segment of golfers that should feel what I’m talking about. The young are aware of guilt as an abstraction if at all, and rightly so. For the old, golf is a beautiful game that keeps them young. But for a lot of golfers in the middle of life, even if their conscience (and their partner) knows the game’s virtues to be true—exercise, fresh air, fellowship, total concentration on a hard thing displacing life’s stresses, even business networking—it doesn’t make the pencil that keeps your calendar any less sharp. “Oh, you’re playing golf again … You’ll be back…

BRAD FAXON ALWAYS SEEMED to be two different players, each on parallel but dramatically divergent paths that never seemed to intersect. One was easy, capable of wondrous eye-hand artistry. The other had a dogged, fitful struggle whose triumphs put him in the conversation for best bad ball striker in golf history. With short shots, and especially with the putter, the lanky New Englander cut a graceful figure whose movements were relaxed and confident. His rhythmic stroke made him a perennial PGA Tour statistical leader on the greens and one of the best putters the game has ever seen. With long shots, however, especially the driver, Faxon’s movements took on an artificiality that undermined his athleticism. His swing was somewhat cramped and disconnected compared to the best ball-strikers. In his more…

THE INSTINCT TO HELP the ball into the air on iron shots is understandable—the ball is sitting on the ground and you want to hit it way up. But trying to lift the ball often produces the opposite—low, skulled shots—because the clubhead is rising at impact and catching the top part of the ball. Until you trust that the loft on the clubface will send the ball up when you make solid contact, trying to lift it can be a tough habit to break. If you want to go cold turkey, focus on this: • Make sure the ball is not too far forward • Shift to your front side to start the downswing • Lean the shaft toward the target at impact Sometimes the simple fix is ball position.…

GOLF HAS ALWAYS BEEN grounded in good sportsmanship. There are all sorts of examples of respectable conduct naturally occurring during a round—things such as agreeing to play out of turn when it has no bearing on the outcome, tending the flag for a group, or helping an opponent find his or her ball. Most matches start and end with handshakes (even when you want to strangle someone with your putter). All of this is great for the game, but it turns out there are times when trying to be nice or polite actually can land a golfer or golfers in violation of the Rules of Golf. For instance, before a round starts—so there are no hard feelings if one side of a match is a little stingier than the other…

If you’re like many golfers, you might haphazardly flick broken pegs to the side of the tee markers or in the rough. But sometimes the smallest things can cause bigger headaches for grounds crews. We asked Brandon Coe, the golf course superintendent at Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley, Mass., where we should throw our tee stubs. Golf Digest: Brandon, where do you think golfers should discard their broken tees? Coe: I don’t think there’s a perfect answer for it. It’s going to differ from golf course to golf course. In a perfect world, if you have a good maintenance budget and you have proper staff, if you’re going out daily and you’re collecting tees on the tee box, that would be perfect. The majority of clubs are probably better…

THE FIRST ITEM THE YOUNG MAN STOLE FROM AUGUSTA NATIONAL WAS A GREEN AND WHITE GOLF TOWEL. This was just after the 2007 Masters, when he had come to understand it was customary for warehouse employees to take one or two small things—a hat, a flag, a shirt, a mug emblazoned with the iconic club logo—from piles designated for destruction. The 22-year-old was a college dropout whose previous job was waiting tables at nearby West Lake Country Club. So was set into motion the most brazen thefts the game has ever known. On March 19, 2025, Richard Brendan Globensky, an Evans, Ga., native who goes by Brendan, was sentenced to 12 months in prison. He got off light because he never wasted anyone’s time denying his guilt, voluntarily sold his…

Tradition or Punishment? We asked our members: Should golfers who make a hole-in-one have to buy everyone drinks? THE ODDS OF AN AVERAGE golfer making a hole-in-one on a par-3 is 1 in 12,500—close to as mathematically rare as being struck by lightning. You would think this nearly impossible feat would be accompanied by a reward, but instead, our game’s tradition stipulates that the lucky player foots the bill for as many lucky patrons as happen to be in the clubhouse bar at the time. According to the Golf Digest+ community, perhaps this tradition should be retired. What follows are the results of our members’ responses to the question: “Should golfers who make a hole-in-one have to buy everyone drinks?” —PAUL DETRE Team “Yes” (31 percent) Mark Ohlson, Wilsonville, Ore.:…

THE PGA TOUR ANNOUNCED at the Players Championship that it is cracking down on slow play. The tour execs say they are going to publicly release the names of slow-play offenders and even assess penalty strokes. Great ideas, but what hasn’t been said is what’s causing all the five-hour-plus rounds. IT’S THE SHORT GAME. Ever notice how fans and even some players are quick to roll their eyes when someone freezes over a tee shot? Everybody watching is thinking, Come on, hit the ball already! But put that same golfer on the green and suddenly we’re all patience and understanding. Nobody bats an eye when a guy spends three minutes reading a putt from every angle. Dustin Johnson is the classic example. Tee-to-green, the dude is a blur. He hits…

DESPITE HIS MODEST frame of 6-foot-1, 155 pounds, Luke Clanton can dunk a basketball—with two hands! That kind of athletic ability is one reason why the world’s top-ranked amateur and soon-to-be PGA Tour rookie is pound per pound one of golf’s longest hitters. “He’s soooo athletic,” says his swing coach of four years, Jeff Leishman. “He’s got very quick fast-twitch muscles. He can sprint fast, jump well—all those are contributing factors.” In his first handful of appearances on the PGA Tour this season, Clanton, 21, a junior at Florida State, ranked in the top 10 in clubhead speed (124.3 miles per hour) and ball speed (184.7 mph) and was 12th in driving distance (317.2 yards). An aberration? Hardly, Leishman says. Clanton averaged 313 yards per drive in eight PGA Tour…

BEFORE GETTING INTO the nuances of Chicago, here is a quick refresher on Stableford scoring (Rule 21.1). An eagle or two under a fixed score on any hole is worth four points. A birdie or one under is worth three. A par is two and a bogey one. Now let’s talk about Chicago, a game that puts a fun twist on that format and is designed for players of all handicaps. NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Up to you. BEST FOR: Groups with varying skill levels, good scorekeepers, players who can avoid double bogey, players who like to go it alone … and birdie machines. HOW TO PLAY: All players are given a “quota” they must meet based on their handicap and a base number of 39. If your course handicap is…

Hot List 2025: Golf Balls THE GOLF BALL, WITHOUT question the most used and least considered piece of equipment in your bag, might just be the missing piece that could complete your game—even if you’re Rory McIlroy. The future hall of famer switched balls at the beginning of this year almost by chance, realizing after some idle chip shots that the softer TaylorMade TP5 might enhance more of his game than the firmer TP5x he had been playing for years. While many elements can be credited for his hot start this season, the only one that impacted every shot was the golf ball. McIlroy found his way to the right ball somewhat accidentally, but we think our golf ball Hot List lends a measure of intentionality to your search for…

There’s always been a quietly attractive selection of golf courses in the Florida panhandle, but the opening this spring of 18 new holes at the Watersound Club near Panama City Beach is cause for reassessment of this golf destination. Known as The Third, designed by Mark and Davis Love III with lead architect Scot Sherman, it expands through several hundred acres of sandy pine and scrub with features inspired by the courses of Melbourne’s Sand Belt. Visitors who stay at the new 75-room Camp Creek Inn will have access to The Third, the Tom Fazio-designed Camp Creek and Greg Norman’s nearby Shark’s Tooth.–DEREK DUNCAN…

SINCE QUAIL HOLLOW HOSTS an annual PGA Tour event, we have a lot of data on what it takes to succeed there. Look at past winners of the event and you’ll notice that great players tend to rise to the top more often than at other courses. That’s because elite players tend to excel in the three areas that Quail Hollow rewards the most. With the help of Arccos Pro Insights, here’s why these three stats are key to success at this year’s PGA Championship. Driving distance: Quail Hollow favors long hitters more than any other course on the PGA Tour. At more than 7,500 yards, the course is much longer than the average PGA Tour venue, meaning it will be even tougher for shorter players to contend. The penalty…

DAVE PELZ MAY HAVE BEEN regarded as one of the most important short-game teachers and golf researchers in the history of the game, but in practical terms, his engaging attitude, his comprehensive knowledge and even his distinctive wide-brimmed hat made him into a kind of golf evangelist, pushing not only the greatest players in the game but millions of average golfers toward a broader commitment to getting good in the short game, the fastest way to improve your score. It’s no wonder one of his most popular books was called simply Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible. Pelz died after a lengthy battle with cancer in March at his home in Dripping Springs, Texas. He was 85. He is survived by his wife, JoAnn, their five children and nine grandchildren. Pelz…

GOOD PUTTING COMES down to attitude. I played basketball all four years of high school. I’m 5-foot-9. While I didn’t look like the most menacing guy on the court, I became a very effective defensive player because of my attitude more than anything else. I said to myself, This guy isn’t getting by me. That’s the same attitude I bring to each putt. I think, I’m going to make this putt. I don’t care if it’s 70 feet or seven feet, I’m going to make it. That said, I have to read it correctly. I choose my line by creating a painting in my head. I look at the ball and then the cup, imagining the line the ball will have to travel to get to the hole. Is it…

IF YOU WERE TO RANK THE two things that golfers want most for their golf swings, they’d probably say more power is No. 1, but a not-so-distant second is better tempo and rhythm. If putting a smoother swing on the ball is your goal, then you should listen to what one of the best ball-strikers in the game has to say about it—eight-time PGA Tour winner Patrick Cantlay. His qualified advice starts with taking extra time as you transition from backswing to downswing. At a recent clinic, Cantlay said it feels like he’s “waiting” a beat before starting down, like his club comes to a complete pause at the top of the swing (above) even though he knows it doesn’t truly stop. The feeling of an unrushed transition is the…

WE GET IT. ALL OF THE enticing new clubs on this year’s Hot List have you jonesing for an upgrade. You’re also no doubt aware that the first step is consulting a qualified clubfitter to get you dialed in for that new driver or set of irons. Is now the right time of year to get fit? If you’re looking for a firm answer that May or July or October is the ideal time for a clubfitting, understand that it’s more of a discussion than a directive. “Number one, golf is an imperfect game, and we as human beings are imperfect, and fitting is an imperfect science,” says Chris Marchini, director of golf experience at Golf Galaxy and lead fitter for the Hot List, “so a ‘perfect’ time of year…

THE FINAL THREE HOLES at Quail Hollow Club, site of this May’s PGA Championship in Charlotte, are notoriously known as the “Green Mile,” a reference to the color of the floor that death row inmates walk on the way to the electric chair in the Stephen King novel and movie of the same name. Many PGA Tour professionals sympathize with the analogy when trying to complete their rounds during the annual Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow: their fate can often feel inevitable as strokes melt away on the unforgiving par-4/par-3/par-4 trilogy that can measure a combined 1,270 yards with water hazards nestling against each green. The feeling only intensifies under the pressure of a major, as it did in 2017, the first time Quail Hollow hosted the PGA Championship…

1. The Olympic Club San Francisco In 1950, The Olympic Club had a pace-of-play problem. The culprit? A lack of on-course concessions meant hungry golfers had to step across the street to the Hot Dog Bills stand for a mid-round bite. The joint’s signature burgerdog—a hamburger shaped to fit a hot dog bun—became so popular that the club soon invited Hot Dog Bills to set up on club property. Today, golfers can fill up on burgerdogs at one of three stands around the club’s 45 holes. 2. Pine Valley G.C. Clementon, N.J. Legend has it that one member suggested to club president John Arthur Brown that the club should build a water tower disguised as a Dutch-inspired windmill. Brown agreed and sent the member the bill. Today, the structure between…