Indholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2021 i Golf Magazine

I’M A JANUARY BABY. Capricorn, if that means anything to you. So naturally I’ve tied my advancement in age over the decades to the flip of each new calendar year. And ever since I first fell in love with golf (or felt consumed by it, addicted to it—choose your phrase), my progression in human years has been paired to the unceasing belief that this is my time. Swing-path mistakes: gone. Iron contact: pure. Skins: won. I’ll admit that some years have been better than others. The point is, a constant of my life as a golfer has been associating my birthday—straight off of confetti-and-spirits-filled New Year’s celebrations—with the start of a new golf season, a reboot of the professional tours (at least until this wraparound business began) and my own…

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN you combine the forgiveness of PING’s highly popular G400 Max with the smart adjustability of the G410 Plus? You end up with a driver that does it all. For PING’s G425, it starts with a hefty 26-gram adjustable weight that can be positioned in three locations to alter shot shape—neutral, draw or fade—without sacrificing forgiveness. In fact, the average MOI increase is 14 percent across the three weight positions compared to the G410 Plus. An increase in speed and distance is achieved through a combination of PING’s crown turbulators, which are designed to reduce drag, and a proprietary T9S+ forged face that enhances face flexing. The G425 comes in a low-spin LST model, forgiving Max head and draw-biased SFT.…

FORTY GOLFERS ENJOYED a pre-Christmas dream scenario at Silverleaf Club in Arizona. For one week in mid-November, a select group of testers were given the opportunity to put the latest equipment through the paces for GOLF’s 2021 ClubTest (our forthcoming March issue). Based on feedback we received with the help of our testing partner, True Spec Golf, there’s a plethora of worthy options coming to the marketplace. That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Manufacturers have been churning out groundbreaking designs at an impressive clip. What struck us was how many products fit a large swath of handicaps. For years, “better player” irons were made almost exclusively for single-digit sticks. However, thanks to new materials and construction techniques, it’s now possible for a mid-handicapper to play a compact head shape without…

TOUR SEASON / YOUR SEASON 2021 “[2020] SET UP THE TOUR FOR THE NEXT GENERATION,” ADAM SCOTT SAYS. “THE STANDARD OF GOLF IS INCREDIBLY HIGH BECAUSE EVERYONE IS PUSHING THEMSELVES TO THE LIMIT.” It’s easy to forget now, but back in June the PGA Tour’s season was on the brink. The coronavirus pandemic had wiped out three months’ worth of tournaments, forcing the Tour to rejigger its schedule and enact a series of new safety protocols for a movable feast that travels to a different town each week. Golf was one of the first professional sports to return in a changed world, though the second tournament after the restart landed in Hilton Head, where the locals were still partying like it was 2019. The vibe was contagious. Tour caddies were…

You could make the case that the most important PGA Tour event played in 2020 was the Houston Open at the Memorial Park Golf Course, five miles from City Hall. For one thing, it was played on a true muni. Public golf is where it’s at now more than ever. Also, the Houston Open, one of the Tour’s oldest stops, showed you can have fans on hand without a Tour stop becoming a Covid-19 super-spreader event. Every organizer of every 2021 event on the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour took notice of what Houston did. Three thousand fans in and out of the gates every day, without a hitch. There will be more of that in 2021—events with limited numbers of spectators. Those spectators will wear masks. They will…

January 7–10 Sentry Tournament of Champions Kapalua Resort Kapalua, Maui, HI Defending champ: Justin Thomas January 14–17 Sony Open Waialae Country Club Honolulu, HI Defending champ: Cameron Smith January 21–24 The American Express PGA West; La Quinta Country Club, La Quinta, CA Defending champ: Andrew Landry January 28–31 Farmers Insurance Open Torrey Pines San Diego, CA Defending champ: Marc Leishman February 4–7 Waste Management Phoenix Open TPC Scottsdale Scottsdale, AZ Defending champ: Webb Simpson February 11–14 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Pebble Beach GL, Spyglass Hill CC, Monterey Peninsula CC Pebble Beach, CA Defending champ: Nick Taylor February 18–21 The Genesis Invitational Riviera Country Club Pacific Palisades, CA Defending champ: Adam Scott February 25–28 WGC-Mexico Championship Club de Golf Chapultepec Mexico City, Mexico Defending champ: Patrick Reed February 25–28 Puerto Rico…

What Charley Does Charley was in “S-posture” at address, essentially arching his lower back into a stiff, straight line and getting into what’s called “excessive lumbar extension.” S-posture is the No. 1 cause of lower back pain in golfers—and also makes it more difficult to turn freely. I’d say everyone needs to avoid that. All we’ve tried to do is get Charley’s spine in a neutral position, which takes pressure off his back. That S-posture might be good for deadlifters, but not for rotational golfers. Avoid the stress of an overarched back to set yourself up for success. What You Should Do So how do you find “neutral?” Here’s a helpful acronym: ARAN. It means “arch, round, arch, neutral”—a series of moves you can perform to nail your posture every…

Even seasoned golfers don’t always understand what their club is doing at impact—or where the ball is headed immediately afterward. There’s something to be learned from Chez Reavie, one of the PGA Tour’s steadier performers, who hits an extremely reliable draw. The Common Mistake Before we began working together, Chez was a big face-flipper—he rotated the club significantly through impact. That action led to an injury that sidelined him for a significant period of time. Most people don’t understand that to hit a draw, you don’t flip your wrists or over-rotate your hands. Instead, you work your path to the right while keeping the face closed to the path but open to the target. What Chez Does After working through his injuries, Chez played it smart—he practiced and adopted the…

YOU CAN SHOOT LOWER SCORES by making the game easier. By that I mean avoiding unnecessary mistakes, like playing the ball in the wrong place in your stance with different clubs. Even pros check this constantly. (You can use the guide at left.) Another mistake you can easily avoid while taking your ball-striking to new heights is bad stance width. Turn the page to get it right. Making your stance too narrow or too wide at setup can force all sorts of difficult-to-time compensations later in your swing, some of which can become repetitive and take years to undo. It should never happen in the first place, because let’s be honest: Setting your feet in the correct position before you start the club back is probably the easiest thing you…

PROGRAMMED IN EVERY GOLFER is golf swing DNA, a specific way you’re predisposed to swinging the club, based on your unique biomechanics. Those tendencies show up in all your shots, including those around the green, which sometimes can wreak havoc on your success. Case in point: the low-and-spinning chip I’m attempting here. It’s a useful shot to have in your bag, especially into tiered greens where you need the ball to carry past the slope and then stop quickly. But without the following adjustments, you just might skull it. Here’s what to do: 1. Position the ball back in your stance, off the toes of your right foot. 2. Press your hands forward and lean the shaft toward the target. Spoiler alert: You’ll need this same lean when you make…

Colt Knost: All right. Emergency 9. First of nine questions. We ask this of everybody: movie about the life of Tony Romo—who plays you? Tony Romo: I’m going Robert Redford. He’s The Natural. Drew Stoltz: This is a weird one. If you had to enter the Colosseum, fight to the death, two-man fight, you get one of your teammates to go to battle with, who do you want? Romo: Jim Nantz. Stoltz: I don’t think Jim’s much of a scrapper. Romo: You’re missing the whole point. He’s gonna talk us out of that thing. Knost: The golden voice. Stoltz: Yeah. Put ’em to sleep. Knost: Next question. You’ve played a few PGA Tour events. When you’re done playing golf, your best finish on the PGA Tour will [eventually] be? Romo:…

64 Percentage of private golf clubs that rated their overall financial health as “great” or “good” in November 2020, up 18 percent from 2016. (SOURCE: NGF) 56 Percentage of public golf clubs that rated their overall financial health as “great” or “good” in November 2020, up 33 percent from 2016. (SOURCE: NGF) $49 The median cost of an 18-hole round of golf during peak hours in the United States. (SOURCE: NGF) Number of American golfers under the age of 30 ranked in the top 15 in the world at the end of 2020, the most since 2000. (The youngest is 21-year-old Matthew Wolff.) 19.06 Dustin Johnson’s total strokes gained at the November Masters; the 15th best of all time. 25.86 Tiger Woods’ total strokes gained at the 1997 Masters, considered…

At the end of a recent match, I noticed that my opponent had a six-inchlong golf tee affixed to his bag. I immediately claimed the match. Was I wrong? —Rob Gent, via email A: Where to begin? Freud might be, er, better equipped to answer the question of why your opponent had a six-inch-long tee, um, hung on his bag. As to the Rules, there are a few issues to consider. Once a match is final, it’s the rare situation where you can revisit the result, and it would have to involve new information becoming available to the player making the ruling request. And the player accused of using a nonconforming tee—the legal limit, per Rule 6.2b(2), is four inches, with a two-stroke penalty for the first breach and disqualification…

Lessons Learned at Augusta National I was so excited to play the Masters back in November. Coming off my U.S. Open win at Winged Foot the month prior, I really did like my chances at Augusta National. The T34 was a disappointment, but looking back on that week, it’s obvious that I wasn’t feeling my best physically. Truth be told, I was feeling pretty darn tired as soon I stepped on the grounds. But, hey—no excuses. I certainly made enough birdies to win (18). I just made too many mistakes. Lesson: No matter how far you hit it, golf is still very much about missing in the right spots and holing putts—two things I did a great job of at Winged Foot and maybe got a little loose with at…

GOLF: Hey, Danielle. You ready to play a golf hole with us? Danielle Kang: Sure. G: How far do you hit driver? DK: It really varies—from 220 to 260. G: What’s the most nervous you’ve ever been on a tee shot? DK: 18th hole at [the 2017] KPMG, final round. G: And you won. DK: Yes. G: What is your favorite sport to watch besides golf? DK: Probably hockey. G: What is the craziest food you’ve ever eaten? DK: Probably cobra. G: What did it taste like? DK: Chicken-and-fish hybrid. It was delicious. G: Of all the people you’ve met, who has made you the most starstruck? DK: I was raised in Westlake Village, playing out of Sherwood Country Club. I’ve met a lot of people. I met Will Smith…

TITLEIST’S NEW TSi2 AND TSi3 DRIVERS launched in mid-October, but they’ve already made big waves on the PGA Tour, with the game’s best taking to the new tech in droves. Titleist says its patent-pending ATI 425 driver face design translates to more ball speed for golfers. We didn’t just want to take their word for it, though, so we put the new TSi drivers to the test. Recently, senior equipment editor Andrew Tursky (two-handicap) and 8AM Golf content creator DJ Lantz (zero-handicap) hit the new drivers at True Spec Golf in Scottsdale, Ariz., and captured launch data on a Foresight Sports GCQuad launch monitor. For the test, Tursky and Lantz hit Titleist’s old TS2 and TS3 drivers (released in 2018) against Titleist’s new set. The same shaft was used in…

SIFT THROUGH the countless new clubs currently in the marketplace and you’ll find the word “MOI” attached to many of them. The acronym stands for “Moment of Inertia,” a measurement (grams per centimeter squared) that reveals how resistant a clubhead is to twisting at impact. The higher the MOI, the more stable and forgiving the head will be, especially on mishits that find the heel or toe. While most golfers relate MOI only to driver designs, it can actually be helpful on all clubs through the bag. The higher the MOI in your irons, the more stable they become at impact and the better chance you have of hitting them on line and the correct distance. Even when it comes to putters, high-MOI mallet designs (or blade styles with heel-and-toe…

Whether or not you gamble, you can bet on this: Live wagering on golf is set to change the way you track your favorite players. No more sitting, waiting and hoping for a highlight. Customized content—that’s what’s coming. You determine what you watch and when. Just a twinkling of an idea two years ago, when the Tour greenlighted gambling on its events, the concept was first tested at the 2019 Masters and again at the curtailed 2020 Players, only to be fine-tuned further at the 2020 Masters, with the slickest streaming ever offered of every shot by every player. But make no mistake as to the long-term target market. Live wagering on action as it happens is a multi-billion-dollar biz. To tap its full potential, coverage has to keep up.…

George Gankas was giving a lesson in his usual spot at the corner of Westlake Golf Course’s modest range when something caught his eye. The kid one mat over had a really weird swing. It was the summer of 2012 and Gankas, an up-and-coming instructor with a diehard Los Angeles–area fan base, was suddenly distracted. He watched one swing, then another, just to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Then he paused his lesson. “He turns and goes, ‘Are you for real?’ ” the kid remembers now. “I’m like, ‘What?’ “He goes, ‘Do you actually swing like that?’ “I’m like, ‘Yeah. That’s my swing.’ Matthew Wolff’s move, even at age 13, would have piqued the interest of any swing coach. But it would have set off some alarm bells, too.…

PGA Teacher of the Year Jan.-Feb. 2021 IT'S not always easy, when one door closes, to recognize where the next one might open. PGA Tour coach and GOLF Top 100 Teacher Mark Blackburn remembers a few quite literal doors very well. There was the side door and clattering garage doors of the maintenance shed at Gunter’s Landing GC in northern Alabama. Blackburn spent his late-’90s mini-tour days relentlessly working on his game at the course, sleeping in the shed’s loft and slipping in and out of that side door for the occasional late-night pint. “The thing is,” Blackburn says, “if you went out on a Friday or Saturday night, the crew still had to mow the greens the next morning. So they rolled up those garage doors at about 5…

I’ll go out on a limb and estimate that 80 percent of recreational golfers are slicers; for a right-hander, the left-to-right miss is certainly more common than the alternative. The Common Mistake Why do we slice? If you’re like the majority of golfers, it starts with your takeaway: You bring the club inside on the way back and then loop over the top in transition, creating that outside-to-inside action at impact that, combined with an open clubface, puts slice spin on the ball. One way to hit a draw is to do the exact opposite! How? By following the example of 2003 Masters champ Mike Weir. What Mike Does Whether you watched Mike Weir win the Masters or saw him contend recently on the PGA Tour Champions, he did so…

Let’s get this out of the way: I’m not a golf instructor. I’m not even a golfer, unless you count family putt-putt outings. I’m a life coach. My job is to help people set goals and achieve them. I know enough golfers to know that you probably have something you want to achieve. And I know that setting goals mindfully gives you a much greater chance for success. Here’s how. Get SMART Setting a goal is as easy as putting pen to paper. Setting the right goal, in the right way, takes thought. For a solid foundation, golf coaches preach the importance of GPA: Grip, Posture, Alignment. (Remember: I know golfers.) For solid goal setting, life coaches have SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. Specific means very specific, not “I…

Well, it might hurt a little. As Mel Reid humbly admitted to us in November, she is one of the fittest people in all of golf. And she lived up to the billing on camera just a couple minutes later. While it might be a bit too much to work out like her, just a derivative of her moves would go a long way for anyone’s game. Trainer Ken Macdonald of Lifetime Performance has worked with Reid for two years, and many of the moves he asks her to do can be done with nothing more than body weight and open space. In those moments when the gym isn’t open—like during a pandemic!—or when you don’t have time for a proper warm-up, keep these moves top of mind. They’ll improve…

Dr. Greg Cartin (@gc3greg) Q: What’s a sound strategy for staying in the game when I’m playing with a maddeningly slow partner? —S. Morris, Saginaw, Mich. A: Playing with a slow partner is no different from any other distraction: It’s a circumstance outside of our power in which we have no control. But you do have a choice. You can choose not to play or figure out a way to play along with the distraction. This puts you back in control! And instead of getting frustrated or angry, try leaning into the distraction. What I mean is, invite the feeling, use it as a signal that your attention isn’t where it needs to be and gently guide it back. This is what we call awareness. Without it, we respond to…

DANIEL BERGER is the epitome of the modern professional. He’s an athlete who would look just as comfortable on a basketball court as he does on the golf course. But as valuable as raw athleticism is, it’s not enough to survive on the PGA Tour. Berger’s emergence into the top 15 of the Official World Golf Ranking is in large part due to his improvement around the greens. His deft short-game touch complements his power from the tee and fairway. Up your sand save game from Berger’s own progression by following the five steps here. Brady Riggs is the director of instruction at the Four Seasons Resort in Hualalai, Hawaii. STATS: 2020 SEASON* *17 events; 64 total rounds…

We’ve seen our fair share of wireless speakers. This one, however, checks all the boxes—and then some. Rokform’s G-ROK is state of the art, high-powered and super sounding. Best of all, it’s built to take a beating (sort of like that last bucket of range balls you plowed through) with tough construction and a welcome amount of heft. We really like the powerful magnet built into the casing that allows you to slap the G-ROK anywhere on your cart for game-changing amplification. One charge gets you 24 hours of play. ($100; rokform.com) —Tim Reilly Discover hundreds of top-end electronics and great golf buys for every type of player at proshop.golf.com…

ALL THE RIGHT STUFF Visit proshop.golf.com to purchase grips from these manufacturers or any one of hundreds of products on our Best of Everything lists.…

WHEN JIM HERMAN teed off on the 178-yard, par-3 16th hole of the final round at the 2020 Wyndham Championship, he trailed the leader Billy Horschel by one stroke. Herman knocked his tee shot to five feet. His birdie putt missed and rolled four feet past the hole. Was his putt too aggressive? You’ve heard it claimed that the optimal distance a missed putt should roll past the hole is between one and one and a half feet. I wanted to put that conventional wisdom to the test. PGA Tour pros are some of the best putters in the world, so I looked at millions of their putts in the ShotLink database to see what they actually do and what the rest of us might learn from them. Some of…

425 As in G425—PING’s stellar new driver 1 Cool crewneck you’ll never take off 2 Titleist drivers that deliver on their promise of more ball speed 8 Socks that keep you dry—and stylish—no matter the weather 27 Things we found in Abe Ancer’s bag CALLAWAY GOLF CHIEF DESIGNER Roger Cleveland is a legend. He designed his first club in 1981–82 and has been crafting wedges for Callaway since 1997. Not only is he one of the principal authorities on wedge design, performance and fitting, he’s worked with some of the game’s best players, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods included. Basically, when Roger talks about the short game, it’s best to listen. Recently, ahead of the launch of Callaway’s new Mack Daddy CB wedge, GOLF picked Cleveland’s brain on all things wedges. Here are six nuggets…

By this item and peruse hundreds of must-have pullovers, pants and tops at proshop.golf.com THERE ARE FEW THINGS in life more worthy of universal approval than the crewneck sweatshirt. It’s a hardworking garment that can be made appropriate for just about every setting. Have dinner with the in-laws? Add a starched collar underneath and you’re set. Donned as is, it’s a perfect embodiment of lounge-around-the-house athleisure: comfy and cozy but spared from the derision that a hoodie occasionally faces these days. If you’re looking for a crewneck that’s destined to become you’re new favorite staple, the folks at Johnnie-O, a golf and lifestyle apparel company that bills its goods as “West Coast prep,” have you covered. The Pamlico raglan sweatshirt ($88) boasts a cotton and polyblend fabric, a soft, fleecy…

DID YOU KNOW? ANCER ENDED HIS OU CAREER WITH THE SECOND LOWEST SCORING AVERAGE IN SOONER HISTORY (72.4), SECOND ONLY TO ANTHONY KIM.…

The new Tour MIM irons and hundreds of other clubs available at proshop.golf.com TO CREATE ITS NEW KING TOUR MIM IRONS, Cobra starts with a stainless-steel powder that’s heated to insanely high temperatures. Here’s how it works. Two years ago, Cobra revealed that its King MIM wedges were made using a metal-injection molding process previously reserved for smaller components, such as tiny tungsten weights. After proving the MIM process was successful in manufacturing entire wedge heads, Cobra is now using the same process with its new King Tour irons. The Cobra King Tour irons are created by heating a mixture of 304 stainless-steel metal powder at temperatures as high as 1,340 degrees Celsius. (That’s more than 140 degrees higher than standard irons forgings.) The heated mixture then gets injected into…

The 2020 season is destined to be remembered for the Great Distance Chase, during which birdies and bogeys took a backseat to clubhead speed miles per hour and calories consumed. It was undeniably entertaining to watch Bryson DeChambeau reshape our notion of how the game can be played, and he pushed everyone from Rory McIlroy to Matt Wolff to Tony Finau to Dustin Johnson to keep up. But the explosion of 350-plusyard drives threw into sharp relief just how thoroughly modern athletes—with their optimized gear, swing technique, training methods and diets—have overwhelmed the game’s ancient playing fields. And so I predict 2021 will be when the ruling bodies bite back, in a long-overdue bid to restore balance to a game that should be a mix of power and finesse, and…

(MAY 20–23) PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Kiawah Island Golf Resort (Ocean Course) Last major hosted: 2012 PGA Championship KIAWAH ISLAND, SC U.S. No. 31 From storied British links to majestic West Coast munis and every style of architecture in between, the venues for the top events of 2021 stand unsurpassed in their variety and beauty, a showcase for the game in all its glorious forms. So let the fireworks begin. In May, the Ocean Course at Kiawah, a modernist marvel and seaside monster, will welcome the PGA Championship for the second time. Torrey Pines is on the docket, too. The site of Tiger Woods’ broken-legged heroics at the 2008 U.S. Open, San Diego’s prized city-run track has been tapped for our national championship again. The Olympic Club and Southern Hills are no…

Part of my philosophy is to make the least invasive adjustments possible. Teachers should meet their students where they already are. Except when it comes to the setup. Here, there’s no cutting corners, even on Tour. The Common Mistake Like many golfers, Charley Hoffman was battling lower back issues. I knew I could install one change that would help his game and his back at the same time: getting his setup back to a neutral position.…

These days, everybody’s looking for more power and speed. How else are you going to keep up with your buddies—not to mention the guys and gals on TV? The game’s getting faster. Learn from Kevin Chappell to keep pace. The Common Mistake Previously, Kevin tended to “slide” on his downswing, shifting his weight too far forward (as in toward the target; photo right). What’s wrong with that? Basically, it meant that at times Kevin, and the millions of recreational golfers who make this move, was missing out on maximizing his downswing rotation, which we know through research is critical for consistent power creation. By sliding, you’ll struggle to get enough power out of your downswing. Who wants that? What Kevin Does Some of your downswing speed comes from rotating your…

I’ve worked with more than 100 Tour players, and I’d estimate that 80 percent have highly specific, mapped-out goals for each season. To my mind, this gives them a competitive advantage versus loosely held aspirations like “I’d like to keep my card” or “I want to play in the majors.” My work with PGA Tour professionals on goal setting usually happens between seasons—which is where a lot of amateurs are right now. Little-known fact: Tour pros have their own private, behind-the-curtain stat site that offers a granular look at performance. The players I coach often ask me to take a deep dive there and find areas they can shave a quarter of a stroke here and there off their scoring average. It doesn’t sound like much, but a shot a…

PEOPLE LIKE to talk about a “wraparound season,” but we all know golf ’s calendar doesn’t really flip until we catch a glimpse of humpbacks breaching on national TV. The whales take their annual network star turn just after New Year, when the PGA Tour kicks off its west-of-the-West-Coast swing at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, on the leeward side of Maui, where the coastal eye candy is tough to beat. For any golfer huddled in a winterized home—or pretty much any golfer, anywhere—the imagery of palm trees swaying in the trade winds and Tour pros draining birdies in floral-patterned shirts while large aquatic mammals frolic in the background is a form of torture and temptation. Ah, Hawaii. Why don’t I live there? How quickly can I get there? Where…

WANT TO IMPROVE your putting from home? This 30-day challenge from GOLF Top 100 Teacher Kevin Weeks will have you rolling it like a pro. For an added challenge, try to do each day’s challenge in a row. If you miss one, start again.…

IF YOU’VE SPENT TIME watching long-drive competitors, you’ll see that most of them get their hands extremely high at the top of the backswing with the club well past parallel. What you don’t see is the force they’re creating to achieve this position. While it may be that you lack the flexibility or strength to swing like a long-drive competitor, there’s a simple drill to help develop a stronger and more powerful motion. Grip the club as normal with your left hand but instead of interlocking or overlapping your right grip, use a double-overlap hold where your right hand covers both the index and middle fingers on your left (photo, below). This grip accentuates the feel of your right hand pushing your lead arm into a higher position at the…

WHEN WAIALAE COUNTRY CLUB hosts the Sony Open in January, viewers will be able to feast their eyes on the signature 17th, a classic Redan-style oceanside par 3 that clocks in at 189 yards. But while we’re watching comfortably from home, the players will have to figure out how to navigate those early-season Hawaiian breezes. If No. 17 (No. 8 for members) is playing into the wind, here’s how we’d recommend tackling this signature shot. 1. Take more club. Trust me: even more club than you think. There’s a reason “swing it easy when it’s breezy” became a thing. If you swing extra hard into the wind, you’re likely to add extra spin to your shot and watch it balloon high and off-line. Take two or three clubs more instead…

WE CARE A LOT about your game here at GOLF, which is why, rolling into 2021, we’ve launched a new column called “Play Smart.” It focuses on the science behind game improvement and publishes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on GOLF.com. The column spans all manner of game improvement, and recently we’ve taken a keen interest in the science of warming up. Here are two nuggets to chew on for starters. 1. Don’t ignore the stretch. Golfers often find themselves rush-ing to the first tee, stretching for a moment or two and then letting it rip. But depending on how you stretch, you could be doing more harm than good. A much-cited 2009 study by the smart folks at the Stephen F. Austin State University found that static stretching—like reaching…

THE FOUNDATION OF THE SWING is the backswing. The way you take the club to the top determines the path your clubface comes into the ball, so it’s important to nail this portion of your motion. According to Hall of Famer and six-time major winner Lee Trevino, many recreational players either lift the club too early, causing the path to be too far outside, or suck the club into their body, making the path too far inside. The proper takeaway moves the clubhead directly behind the ball—picture it following the target line. The Merry Mex’s takeaway would make any golfer happy; it’s a perfect model to follow if you want to see what the correct moves look like. Trevino’s key swing thought was to start his takeaway by keeping his…