Innehållsförteckning för September 2016 från Golf Digest

This is a story of two soldiers and a golf course. The first time I ever heard of Christopher Nowak, USMC Retired, was when Pete Bevacqua marked his ball with a challenge coin bearing his name. “Hey, take a look at this,” said Pete, who is the CEO of the PGA of America. It resembled a poker chip with Nowak’s name on one side and this slogan on the other: Sweat Dries, Blood Clots & Bones Heal. Chicks Dig Scars. Now that’s a business card, I said. Actually, a challenge coin is a medallion with the insignia or emblem of a military group. Traditionally they’re offered to prove membership or share with special friends. If you can’t produce one when challenged, you have to buy the next round of drinks.…

SHANE LOWRY AGE 29 LIVES Clara, Ireland. STORY Won 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Runner-up at 2016 U.S. Open. LIFE-CHANGING WIN It’s hard to believe it’s been seven years since I won the Irish Open as an amateur. It was a dream come true for sure and a real life-changer. The two-year exemption let me figure out what it takes to play against the best golfers in the world. BRING IT ON I prefer tough courses like at the U.S. Open. It’s where I feel most comfortable. I like when you shoot one under par and feel like that was a really good score. What yardage book? I don’t carry a yardage book. I trust my caddie on yardages. He gets it wrong only a couple times per round. National pride I’m…

It has been 10 years since the USGA allowed distance-measuring devices on the course if a Local Rule is enacted. Their popularity with golfers led to a surge of innovative and versatile products that are all primarily designed to answer one of golf’s age-old questions: How far? Here’s a rundown of the newest DMDs. What do you usually rely on to gauge distance? ▶ Laser: 37% ▶ GPS: 22% ▶ Sprinkler head: 19% ▶ Just eyeball it: 22% SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST R EADERS 1 ARCCOS DRIVER Put this sensor in your driver grip, and an app tracks the distance and accuracy of your tee shots. Another fun feature: It lets you compete against the drives of other users. It’ll even handicap the competition by factoring average tee-shot distance. $80, OPTIONAL…

There was a time—not too long ago— when the golf shop was segregated: Older guys browsed in one section, younger guys in another. Not anymore. Today’s shirts have universal appeal because material technology has made them moisture-wicking, breathable, stretchable and wrinkle-free. A modern golf outfit begins with one of these new shirts.…

Design integrity be damned. Hazeltine National has been re-routed for the Ryder Cup. Golf architects often lay out designs in the manner of a symphonic composition, in varying movements, a gentle sonata to open, then a series of bold holes intermixed with quieter ones, intensity building on the back nine to achieve a crescendo on the final holes. Officials who run golf championships are pretty much tonedeaf to such subtleties. They think nothing of reconfiguring an 18 for logistical reasons, with little regard to the ebb and flow of the original design. The 7,628-yard Hazeltine National Golf Club is a perfect example. For the 2016 Ryder Cup, officials have set it up so competitors will play the first four holes, then skip over to the normal back nine for the…

▶ If you want to play better golf and lower your handicap, you need a plan. A goal without a plan is just a dream, and that’s where most people end up with their games. They’re dreaming. ▶ Instead, how about taking action and figuring out what it’s going to take to improve? That process starts with identifying your biggest miss— the one that causes the worst problems round after round. Unless you address that issue now, you’re going to be pretty much the same golfer next summer as you are today. ▶ Here we’re going to talk about five of the common big misses in golf, and what you can do to overcome each of them. Fix your big miss and stay out of trouble, and your scores will…

The last couple seasons I’ve hit the ball more solid than ever. Instead of constantly trying different swing thoughts, I’ve worked with Butch Harmon to really focus my approach. With my posture at address, I always confirm that my chin is high. If your chin is stuck on your chest, there’s no room for the front shoulder to turn under it, so you’ll tend to tilt toward the target instead of loading onto your back leg. My thought on the backswing is to stay wide. A lot of average golfers get hung up on keeping the right elbow tucked to the body. At the top of the swing, all that matters with the right elbow, Butch says, is that it points down. Swing your hands as far from your body…

What’s your inner dialogue after a poor shot from the rough? ▶ Swung way too hard: 39% ▶ Should’ve wedged it out: 37% ▶ Should’ve improved my lie: 14% ▶ It’s all the super’s fault: 10% SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST R EADERS Sometimes it happens even when the ball is sitting fine. Long grass wraps around the hosel of the club as it comes into impact and yanks the toe over, causing the ball to dart left. It also doesn’t go very far, because the closed face kills the flight. Typically, the ball takes a few skips in the rough up ahead and disappears. Now you’ve got the same shot all over again. Here’s how to make this one better: ▶ Grip firmer. A more secure hold will help stabilize the…

“There’s often a side where you absolutely cannot miss.” The punchbowl green is a classic design feature that you see scattered all over the world. The 16th at National Golf Links of America in New York has one of the more famous on this side of the pond. The punchbowl name is plainly descriptive: The green is the bottom, and rising high on three— or maybe all four—sides is a round collar that collects wayward shots and funnels them onto the green. Originally, greens were built like this to better retain moisture for the grass to stay hydrated. The Scots and Irish looked for natural depressions in the land where rainfall gathered and whipping winds and the rising sun didn’t dry the ground as quickly. Nowadays, irrigation systems are so…

‘‘I don’t step on the course and picture myself as a black golfer. I’m simply a golfer.” “I’m a regimented person. I know exactly what I’m going to do before I get to the course.” Mariah Stackhouse was home-schooled during her junior-high years. Because both of her parents worked, she was left each day with a stack of textbooks and assignments that had to be completed by a self-imposed deadline of 1 p.m. Miss that deadline and she would be cutting into practice time on the golf course—and that simply wasn’t going to happen. “I didn’t think it was weird to be left to do things myself,” she says. “It made me more responsible. More driven.” Leaving it solely up to your child to learn algebra might be hard to…

Contrary to popular belief, a swing with a quick tempo is not disastrous, as long as you have good rhythm. Confused? Let’s take a closer look. Musicians will tell you there’s a difference between tempo and rhythm—and knowing how to tell them apart is crucial. Tempo is time-based. It comes from the Latin tempus. You might have heard the saying tempus fugit, which translates to “time flies.” Tempo is speed, and it can be fast, medium or slow. Rhythm, on the other hand, is defined by a recurring pattern or synchronization. It’s not speed but how things flow together. In golf terms, think of a choppy or smooth swing from start to finish. That’s rhythm. The truth is, I don’t care how fast or slow you swing. There have been…

The old saying about keeping your eye on the ball was actually a cue some instructors used to help golfers maintain their shoulder tilt from setup through impact. Unfortunately, it has been misinterpreted over the years to mean you should keep your head down and dead still when you swing. Doing that leads to a restricted motion back and through—and poor shots. So what should your head be doing? Well, it’s a bit of personal preference. Jack Nicklaus liked to tilt his head away from the target before taking the club back, like he was staring at the ball with his left eye only. That allowed him to make a freer backswing. Other players, like Annika Sorenstam, let their heads rotate toward the target during the downswing to help them…

You’re playing in an event being decided by a chip-off. What do you hope for? ▶ Cushy lie in the rough: 36% ▶ 8-iron bump-and-run: 33% ▶ Pitch over sand: 26% ▶ Match of cards instead: 5% SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST R EADERS If you’re struggling to consistently hit good chip shots, you might want to copy the simple technique many pros use. They eliminate extraneous handand-wrist action to create a more reliable chipping motion. This “wristless” shot is so easy to execute, I did it without crushing one of my trademark hats (above). Learn to do it in four simple steps. David Leadbetter operates 25 golf academies worldwide. 1. NARROW YOUR STANCE ▶ Set up with your body aligned slightly left of the target and your weight favoring your front…

Q Which produces more distance: a lighter club swung at a fast speed, or a heavier club swung at a slow speed? ROBERT PRINGLE, DAYTON, NEV. A It’s pretty much a stalemate. Robot testing has shown that though a lighter club can be swung faster—a key ingredient in distance— a heavier club produces more collision energy, and that also makes the ball go far. (We should disclose that Bernhard Langer was not the robot used in testing.) So what does this mean for you? Just like JoJo handing out roses on “The Bachelorette,” picking a driver has to come from the heart. Tom Olsavsky, one of those R&D guys at Cobra Puma Golf, says if you tend to swing out of your shoes, go heavy. But if you can’t do…

To get golf ’s full effect, you need an objective and an organized herd. TWENTY YEARS AGO, the greenkeeper at my home course donated a trophy for a new tournament, which we called the Superintendent’s Cup. He and our head pro served as nonplaying captains, and they had a private, late-night negotiation during which they divided the people who had signed up into two mixed teams: 16 players each, plus subs. The competition lasted four days over two fall weekends, and each round had a different format: best-ball, two-person scramble, alternate-shot, singles. The first day was a blowout for the pro’s team, 10½-1½, and he and the greenkeeper worried that they had misjudged the rosters. But the scoring gap narrowed during the three remaining rounds, and on the final hole…

All week at the U.S. Open at CordeValle—where I just won my first major—I was working on two things with my putting: staying down and fully committing to every putt. Reading the putt on 16 during the final round, tied for the lead, my brother, Luke, and I picked a line we liked: a ball out left. I committed to that line completely, and just let it roll. That mind-set helped me drop the putt and take the lead. I’m never mechanical with my putting when I play. It’s just this ball in that hole. But your putting has to be grounded in some mechanics. I’ve worked with Dave Stockton, and he’s big on the left hand (for righties with a traditional grip) being the aim hand. So the left…

WHEN PETER WALSH walks down the street of his adopted hometown of Middleburg, Va., children will occasionally stop and stare up at his empty shirt-sleeve and ask, “What happened to your arm?” ▶ Walsh will smile and respond, “God took it. He needed an extra hand.” ▶ A native of Ireland and onetime renowned steeplechase jockey, Walsh competed in races like Great Britain’s dangerous Grand National steeplechase over huge jumps at Aintree as well as all the best races in Europe and America. He also loved to play golf, a game he took up after moving to the United States, along with riding the horses he trains as a farm manager on a Northern Virginia estate. This past January, Walsh made what he insisted was not such a difficult decision…