Innehållsförteckning för January 2016 från Golf Digest

Can you gain a full shot? That’s your first question. The recovery is among the most beautiful shots in golf. That’s why I like courses where the player has the opportunity to make one. If the natural vegetation is such that you usually have no choice but to chip your ball out sideways, well, that can be boring. The great architect Donald Ross would periodically go around Pinehurst and identify spots where golfers commonly missed drives. If he saw that a tree or bush had grown so it prevented the playing of a recovery shot toward the green, he ordered it removed. Hitting a low draw or high fade, or whatever shot is available to escape, takes skill and nerve. Knowing when to try it is just a basic calculation.…

How do you miss a fairway by 50 yards? Here’s how. It makes you want to take a golf glove across the face. The dreaded double cross is when you aim down one side with the intent of curving the shot back toward the target, but it curves the other way. Right in the lumberyard. Like when a high-handicapper who plays a persistent slice aims a tee shot toward a creek or O.B. down the left side of a tight fairway, only to watch the ball start left and then curve farther left. Instant penalty. Sound all too familiar? Most likely your body turn slowed down at impact, causing your arms to race past and the clubface to snap closed. Make sure your body keeps turning through, so it leads…

I’ve just about finished my holiday shopping: three Cleveland 588 RTX wedges with an awesome black-satin finish, in 52, 56 and 60 degrees (for me); half a dozen pairs of Kentwool golf socks, which are the most comfortable golf socks I’ve ever worn but are so expensive that I buy them only as gifts (also for me); a pair of sharp-looking Ashworth Cardiff golf shoes with a two-year waterproof guarantee, on sale at Amazon (me again); plus miscellaneous stocking stuffers—mostly odds and ends that ought to come in handy (to me) during an eight-day trip to Ireland that 11 of my regular golf buddies and I are planning for May. So when friends say they have trouble buying presents, I find it hard to sympathize. The only people on my…

KEVIN KISNER AGE 31 LIVES Aiken, S.C. story Finished as a runner-up three times in 2015, moving inside the top 40 in the world. HAVING A CLEAR MIND When I’m not hanging with my wife and daughter, I love fishing and hunting. I’ll turn my phone off and just forget about golf. This winter, I’m going on a big duck-hunting trip in Louisiana with David Toms. That’ll be sweet. STRATEGIC SCHEDULE Once the West Coast swing is over, it’s time to make my move. I didn’t grow up putting on those greens, so I tend to play my best back East. I’ll plan my schedule accordingly. It worked this year: I doubled my career earnings on tour. —WITH STEPHEN HENNESSEY Photograph by Ben Walton My favorite crew Most of my…

If Johnny Miller is reading this, we hope he’s sitting down. Preferably, in the comfort of his home, while wearing his favorite pair of houndstooth-pattern pants. Johnny, there’s no easy way to say this, but when it comes to golf analysts, you’re not the people’s choice anymore. Nick Faldo overtaking Miller was one of the most noteworthy findings in Golf Digest’s latest survey of TV viewers. It wasn’t a blowout, but Faldo, the six-time major champion, received 58 percent to Miller’s 53 percent in the favorite-analyst category. (Respondents could choose multiple options.) In previous TV surveys (2002 and 1996), Miller was the dominant winner among analysts. But was it a fair fight? Miller still had plenty of support and was widely praised for his “brutal honesty,” but Faldo has four…

At home on break at the end of 1994, Nick Price handed a cut-down driver to his 3-year-old son, Greg, dropped a few balls on the ground and waited for the magic to happen. Magic happened, all right: a disappearing act from Greg. “He dropped the club, picked up his cup of Goldfish snacks and ran straight to the range picker,” says Nick, a three-time major champion and captain of the past two International Presidents Cup teams. “He loved to be driven around in that thing. Even then, golf was a little slow for Greg. He liked action.” So it went with Greg, a committed surfer, wakeboarder, kite-boarder and water-skier who at 24 only recently emerged as a typical millennial golfer. A senior at Florida Atlantic University with an unofficial…

After three girls, we were excited to be having a boy. Our house was so happy and chaotic then, that it wasn’t until Jason turned 3 that we suspected anything was wrong. So what if he wasn’t talking yet? Maybe he was just being polite. Autism. My husband, Denny, and I cried the night we got the diagnosis. After looking it up in the encyclopedia (this was pre-Internet), we worked into the morning condensing three years of home movies into a 13-minute clip for the doctor, who wanted a history. What had been under our noses suddenly was clear. The obsessive-compulsive behavior, the tics, the regression, the mystery unwrapped like the presents Jason wouldn’t on Christmas morning. We saw countless doctors. Our bookshelves filled with three-ring binders as we tried…

MOST AMATEURS I PLAY WITH understand the fundamentals of pitching and chipping. They know to set up in a slightly open stance and to favor the front foot. They know they should accelerate through impact and let the loft on the clubface provide the height and spin they need to stop the ball close. They understand all of this, yet they still hit some really bad short-game shots. Why? I think it’s because they get caught up in trying to control the distance the ball goes without really knowing how to do it. On short shots, they decelerate and dump it. On longer ones, they swing too wildly and skull it. Assuming your technique is fairly sound, I’m going to give you my blueprint for distance control around the greens.…

During the offseason, I play a lot with my amateur buddies in Atlanta. I have a big edge in the short game, and bunker play in particular. These tips are for them—they know who they are—and for you, too. (1) At address, lean to your front side. Push 80 percent of your weight to your forward leg, enough that you feel pressure in the thigh. That sets up a descending blow. A lot of golfers hang on the back foot, sensing they need to help the ball up. But you’ve got to hit down. (2) With the clubface slightly open, take the club back to the outside. Then swing down on an out-to-in path, but not too steep. You don’t want to dig. You’re looking for a sliding action. Let…

RIGHT HIP DOWN At address, Danny Willett likes to have the ball under his left shoulder, pre-setting a slightly upward strike. “When he struggles, his right hip gets too high, causing his hips to point left,” says his swing coach, Mike Walker. “Getting the right hip lower is a good thought for most players with the driver.” HOLD OFF THE HINGE Willett hinges his wrists earlier on the backswing than most tour players do. “We’ve inherited that,” Walker says. “We’re working on making him longer with his right arm and keeping his wrists quieter on the takeaway.” That added extension will help Willett load the club correctly and unload it more efficiently. QUIET LOWER BODY Getting to the top, Willett elevates his left arm for more extension. “If you looked…

A shorter finish means you took enough club and geared down. Generally speaking, avoid trying to hit your short irons hard. The more aggressively you swing, the more height you’re likely to create with those lofted clubs, so the ball will tend to go a shorter distance. If you’re lucky, you might get to the front of the green—that’s why you see so many approach shots come up short of the flag. There’s a much more effective and reliable way to hit your short irons. Start by following these simple steps. David Leadbetter operates 25 golf academies worldwide. 1. MAKE THE SMART CHOICE ▶ Club selection is Step One to controlling distance. Let’s say you’re 90 yards out, and you know that’s the maximum you can hit your sand wedge.…

Most commercial gyms offer a variety of equipment designed to make your body leaner and your heart stronger. But which cardiovascular-training machine is the best for golfers? We asked a dozen golf-fitness experts, and nine out of 12 ranked the treadmill first or second. “The best piece depends on the individual,” says Golf Digest fitness advisor Ben Shear. “But the treadmill is great for golfers because walking is such a huge part of the game. It can simulate hill walking and be used for steady-state cardio training or high-intensity interval training.” Adds Golf Digest fitness advisor Ralph Simpson: “It also gets the nod for versatility and specificity. You can increase speed, elevation, train laterally or backward. Its only knock would be that golfers with lower-limb issues should use something with…

Welcome to the Family Issue. This is my son, Dash Day, who is 3½. He loves to hit balls. We’re not at the big course just yet, but I’m looking forward to all the rounds we’ll play together. Golf Digest asked me to share what we’ve been working on. Mainly, I just try to keep it fun, but there are certain things I do that might help you teach your rug rat. No matter what ages you have at home, you’ll find useful information on equipment and trips, plus stories from the tour and more in the coming pages. Although rounds with friends are special, there’s nothing quite like golf when it’s blood on blood. — WITH MAX ADLER I WAS KIND OF PUSHED INTO GOLF . . . MY…

Whenever I evaluate a golfer’s ability, I first check for a proper grip and a balanced, athletic setup. Then I watch the footwork, which ultimately determines how efficiently the player creates clubhead speed. Proper footwork is a necessity for consistency and power, and there’s a sequence you should strive for. Start with your center of gravity directly between the balls of your feet. Then as you take the club back, let your weight transfer slightly to the inside of your right foot and eventually toward the heel. As you start the downswing, plant your left heel firmly to initiate the forward rotation of your hips. Replanting the left heel is an important lesson that my teacher, Stan Thirsk, taught me when I was growing up. It allows you to accelerate…

A lot of what determines whether you hit a good or bad shot happens at address. The simplest thing is ball position. If you get the ball in the right spot, good things tend to fall into place. Get it in the wrong spot, and things fall apart. I like keeping the ball in the same position for all clubs on standard full shots. Start with the driver: Play it in line with your shirt logo, and drop your right foot away from the target in a wide stance (below, left). This sets up an upward strike. For a middle iron, don’t move your right foot out as wide and keep the ball in the same place relative to your front foot. This narrower stance puts you more on top…

ALL TOGETHER Maintain the relationship between your hands and chest as you go back and through. Commentators analyzing tour pros have a phrase they use to describe a certain good-player mistake: They call it “getting stuck.” It’s a colorful term, but I’m not sure if regular golfers—like those I go back and forth with on Twitter— know what it means. The easiest way to picture it is to compare it to the opposite problem: a slicer coming over the top. In that move, the player swings the club down from the outside on a steep angle. Getting stuck is coming from too far inside and behind the body. The upper body obstructs or interferes with the club’s path to the ball. The most common reason players get stuck is, they…

“If you don’t have cartpaths, you’ll have dirt.” We all talk the talk, but most of us don’t walk the walk. We use a golf cart, even if we’re physically able to hoof 18 holes with ease. It’s habit, custom and usually part of the golf fee. We don’t really mind carts, but we really don’t like cartpaths—especially paved ones. We don’t want to see them, don’t want to use them and absolutely hate it when we’re required to stay on them. Worse still is when one of our majestic tee shots caroms off the pavement and ends up out-of-bounds. So we asked our panel of top-flight superintendents: Do we absolutely need these trails of tears? And if the answer is yes, why can’t they be soft and out of…

1 You place a tee in the ground to help mark the area where you intend to drop and then let the ball fall. The ball lands and stops in the drop area, but not before skimming the tee. Should you re-drop? 2 Watching your opponent take a drop, you see he holds the ball at shoulder height but flicks his wrist as he lets the ball fall, putting extra spin on it. If you call him out for doing that, can he correct the mistake without penalty? 3 Before taking a drop, you grab another ball from your bag and drop it to see what the outcome might be when it’s time to do it for real. Is this allowed? 4 A bush within the proper drop area catches…

BROOKS KOEPKA has decided he’s ready for his close-up. ▶ It seems overdue. At 25, Koepka is not only prominent among the leading 20-somethings who are taking over golf, he possesses a differentiating supercharger: Only he and Tony Finau reached 129 miles per hour in clubhead speed in PGA Tour events last year. ▶ Koepka can temper his power with a knack— honed on pro circuits in Europe—for creatively varying the force and flight of his iron shots. After winning four times on the Old World’s developmental Challenge Tour (by a total of 23 strokes), he achieved breakthrough wins in Turkey on the European Tour and last February at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. On his way to reaching 12th in the world, the native of South Florida demonstrated explosiveness…

TINA: When Phil and I were little and Tim was just starting to walk, Mom would head out at night to her monthly PTA meeting. While she was gone, Dad would build an obstacle course around the house. You know those tall, flexible poles with flags on them people put on the backs of their bicycles? Dad put them up all over the place. He’d lay them across the arms of couches and chairs for us to jump over, dive under and go around. There was a chin-up bar. Dad would time us, and I had the edge because I was in gymnastics and was more agile than Phil. He’d get so frustrated. Just when he figured out a way to get under the pole quicker and get close to…