Innehållsförteckning för May 2019 från Golf Digest

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief We were all lucky to know Dan Jenkins. I GREW UP READING Dan Jenkins, and it shaped my life. His way with words led me and many others to a career in sports journalism. He taught us how to talk golf, write golf, drink golf, smoke golf. Mostly he taught us how to be funny, and if you can’t be funny, be fast, but preferably be both. One of the luckiest days of my career was walking into a Manhattan restaurant called Juanita’s in the fall of 1984 and walking out with Jenkins as a contributing editor. He owned the place, just like he owned golf writing. With Dan on our staff, Golf Digest attracted the best and smartest talent to our pages. David Marr and Alistair…

You might think golf balls are like gum balls—different looks, but really only one flavor. That might be why Golf Datatech research says only one in seven golfers plays the same brand every round—let alone the same model. It's time to get more committed with your choice. To guide you away from gum-ball logic, we present the 2019 Ball Hot List. We rated products based on our four criteria (Performance, Innovation, Feel and Demand) and conducted player testing at the Marriott Grande Vista Resort in Orlando. Our process includes full swings and a lot of short-game shots. Yours should, too. • We evaluated 65 entries at three prices (Over $35, $26-$35 and $25 and Under). We believe the best balls cost more because their designs don't make any compromises tee…

THE MOST ENGAGED video ever on the PGA Tour’s Facebook page doesn’t include Tiger Woods. Or Rory McIlroy. Or Jordan Spieth. Or even the goofy-swinging Ho-Sung Choi. It doesn’t feature a PGA Tour player hitting a single shot. No, its subject is Amy Bockerstette, a 20-year-old girl hitting a 6-hybrid from 117 yards into a bunker, and its three minutes dare you not to cry through your joy. Viewed across multiple channels and platforms nearly 24 million times, Bockerstette’s par full of smiles on the 16th hole during a practice round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open was a revelation. “Amy doesn’t get nervous. She gets excited.” Defending champion Gary Woodland was overwhelmed by playing partner Amy’s inspiring performance and impressive record, which includes two appearances in the Arizona state…

COMMIT TO SPEED I learned how to hit the nip-spinner when I was 13 or 14. Before then, I didn’t have the strength and swing speed to pull it off. I use a lob wedge, and to the untrained eye the motion looks similar to a flop shot. It’s a long backswing relative to how short the shot travels, and the downswing path is heavy outto-in, cutting across the ball. The difference between it and a flop is impact. With a flop, the club comes in shallow and slides under the ball. With the nip-spinner, the club comes in steep to meet the ball first, then the turf. There’s a lot of interaction between the club and the turf, so you’ll make a divot—or at least scuff the grass pretty…

Fairway: An unexplored region. Foursome: Any group of seven or more players directly in front of you on Sundays and holidays. Geezers: A legendary group of sports columnists including Jenkins, Blackie Sherrod, Jim Murray, Furman Bisher, Edwin Pope and others. Once a year they would meet somewhere, Gary Cartwright wrote, “and bitch about how firstperson-singular pronouns are ruining the business.” Hate mail: “Good hate mail is the kind that reminds you that you’ve done a decent job of writing about a golfer, a golf tournament or a golf course, hitting pretty close to the truth.” Point-misser: Clueless, ignorant observer. Rally killer: Dull media-center moderator of interviews. “For instance,” Jenkins wrote, “if a competitor might happen to say, ‘By the way, I’m divorcing my wife and marrying a set of Siamese…

IT MIGHT TAKE a little getting used to, but this is the year that golf’s major-championship schedule undergoes a significant change. As part of numerous modifications to the tour schedule, the PGA Championship moves from its traditional August dates with a visit to Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in New York May 16-19, followed by conventional timing for the U.S. Open in June and the Open Championship in July. It’s not like the PGA isn’t used to change: Over the years, the championship has been played in every month but January, March and April. Brooks Koepka, who held off Tiger Woods last year at Bellerive, is the defending champion, and Woods will be attempting to match Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus by taking the Wanamaker Trophy for the fifth time.…

Revel in an off-hours visit to the Prado. Marvel at the Duke of Alba’s palace. Dine with AD100 superstars Michael S. Smith, Fernando Caruncho, Lorenzo Castillo, and Isabel López-Quesada, subject to availability. Yes, there’s much more, from private art collections to hidden gardens, but reservations are limited. AD Destinations: Travel by Design is a new way of seeing the world, through itineraries inspired by impeccable style and beautiful design. These journeys are created in partnership with Indagare, the travel planning company whose team of experts personally scout each trip and vet every detail. For the itinerary and to sign up, visit indagare.com/AD or call 646-780-8383.…

IF YOU WANT to improve your putting, take advantage of your hands. I know, I know. You’ve probably been told to take your hands out of the stroke. But that doesn’t make sense. You’ve been training your hands to perform precise, coordinated movements even before you could walk, so why not let them help you putt? I’ll explain how in a moment, but first understand that great putting is all about controlling the putterface. If you can keep it square to the target longer, you’re going to roll the ball in a lot more. Start by getting behind the ball and identifying the line (above). Visualize the ball rolling on that line to the hole, and then trace that line back to where your ball is at rest. Once you…

EL TESORO PARADISO A collaboration between master distiller Don Felipe and French cognac blender Alain Royer, Paradiso is a slow summer evening in a bottle. Aged five years in cognac-soaked French oak, this old/new world hybrid is golden, butterscotchy, and perfect for porch time. $130 AVION RESERVA 44 The Reserva 44 is a labor of love, resting 43 months before transferring to special “petite barrels” that are then rotated daily for an additional month. The amber extra anejo (meaning it has aged a minimum of three years) is then poured into a fire-polished crystal bottle and shipped to you, aka the luckiest SOB alive. $130 HERRADURA ULTRA Ultra begins as a blend of anejo (aged at least a year) and extra anejo before a rigorous filtering process. The result is…

WHEN I GOT ON TOUR in 2014, I was hitting a slice off the tee. No joke. Yeah, I had plenty of power, and I knew how to play the curve, but I was a tour player who was watching his tee shots peel 30, 40 yards to the right. Over the past five years, I’ve learned why I was a slicer, and I’ve worked hard with my teacher, Boyd Summerhays, to get rid of that big curve. If you hit a slice, I think hearing about what we’ve done is really going to help you. If you make the effort to address the moves that cause a slice, you can straighten out all your shots. It won’t happen overnight, but if you’re systematic about it, the process will work.…

2018: Wrote his 23rd book, Sports Makes You Type Faster. 2017: TCU named its football press box after Jenkins, a 1953 graduate, who said, “It’s not easy being a national treasure.” Added his daughter, Sally, a columnist for the Washington Post and a best-selling author: “This probably means as much to him as anything he’s ever won, just because his heart and soul are in this stadium.” … Honored by the University of Texas with the inaugural Dan Jenkins Medals for Excellence in Sportswriting, going to Wright Thompson and the late Frank Deford… Received the Ring Lardner Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism. 2015: Earned his 10th first-place award from the Golf Writers Association of America, the most of any writer, for his column, “My (Fake) Interview with Tiger.” ……

I’M THE YOUNGEST of five brothers. Al, who is just ahead of me and was always big for his age, did most of the brotherly hazing. He invented a two-player football game he called Cut-down. We each got four downs, and on my possession he’d let me get to the equivalent of his fiveyard line, and then he’d steamroll me. It wasn’t designed so much to prevent me from scoring but rather to humiliate. Completely humiliate. When he had the ball, he’d pretend to struggle, but he’d drag me across the goal line, pumping his knees into my chin. We played in all the same sports leagues, and to get in the games I had to “play up” and overachieve. It was good for me, though I can’t say the memory…

MATT KUCHAR stood just inside the glass doors leading from the clubhouse of the Sea Island Golf Club to the putting green. It was a week before Christmas in Georgia, and Kuchar’s 11-year-old son, Cameron, was working his way through the putting course that snakes around the green. Kuchar’s smile could not have been wider. “I love the fact that both my kids love to play,” he said. “I’ve never pushed them to play or to practice. When they ask me to play or go to the range, I go. But it’s their call when we go, and their call how long we stay.” Inside the clubhouse, Kuchar’s wife, Sybi, glanced at her watch. Cameron had a dentist appointment, and Matt’s teacher, Chris O’Connell, was on his way from the…

WHY AGE GRACEFULLY, WHEN YOU CAN AGE SUCCESSFULLY? Our bodies can be younger or older than our actual age depending upon diet, lifestyle choices and physical activity. This is called biological age, which could be different than the age on your driver’s license, which is called chronological age. A recent study of over 900 adults who were tracked for 12 years, from ages 26-38, showed that people who were aging faster, meaning that their biological age was higher than their chronological age, were not as healthy or physically fit. This group was also more likely to show cognitive decline and was at a greater risk for agerelated health conditions. A growing body of research demonstrates that the keys to aging successfully are a combination of exercising regularly, keeping engaged with…

THE VIEW FROM EVERY tee box is different, so when you’ve got a driver in your hands, it’s useful to know how to play more than one type of shot. Good news: You don’t have to be a pro to hit a variety of them. I’ll teach you three, starting with the one you’re probably most interested in: the power shot. To pick up some extra yardage with your driver, you don’t have to swing harder than usual. Instead, address the ball with more weight on your back foot, about 70 percent (above). It creates a more solid base, so you can maintain balance and increase the chance of hitting the ball in the sweet spot. This stance also will help you catch the ball on the upswing provided you…

MARTIN TRAINER Rookie, PGA Tour winner AGE 28 LIVES San Francisco HEADING SOUTH FOR YOUR FOURTH season of PGA Tour Latinoamérica isn’t a good feeling. There are worse things than waking up and playing golf, obviously, but it means being away from home and not making money. Few vocations have that combo. A lot of new pros stay in the United States all summer and wait for Web.com qualifying—what everybody now calls Q school—in the fall. There’s no hope of profit on the Lat Am. It’s just a season points race for the top spot to get full Web.com status, with some guaranteed starts for the next guys. You’re competing for the chance to have a job. “You have to be kind of delusional to pursue pro golf.” IT FELT…

HOW TO GET UP AND DOWN THE SPICY WAY I’VE HEARD IT SAID that a chip shot is a miniature version of a full swing. I couldn’t disagree more. Some of the same fundamentals apply, sure, but chipping has way more going on. I have one basic full swing that gets me around the golf course, and I make only minor adjustments to hit draws and fades, low shots and high. On the other hand, I have at least 10 chipping motions—and I’m constantly learning and exploring new ones. I believe there’s no such thing as a standard chip, and that you should always be brave and try to execute the shot that the situation and lie demand. What shot offers the best chance of getting close to the hole?…

On friendships: “I like people who like me.” On being a writer: “It’s all I ever wanted to do.” On opinions: “Sportswriters needn’t be as objective as courthouse reporters, by the way, and the best ones never were, never are.” On whether he enjoyed being controversial: “No, I just take pride in being right.” On whether he ever suffered from writer’s block: “I had three kids in private schools in Manhattan at the same time, and then I had them all in college at the same time. I didn’t have time for writer’s block.” On writing novels: “I know how it’s going to start and how it’s going to end, but I like to surprise myself along the way.” On covering 68 consecutive Masters and a total of 232 majors:…

WHAT IS THE VICE WAY? NO MIDDLE MAN SOPHISTICATED TECHNOLOGY UNIQUE DESIGN HALF THE PRICE Vice Golf´s philosophy of cutting out the middle man and selling directly to customers online revolutionized the pricing and distribution process of the industry, however, the performance of the balls remains equally crucial in the purchasing decision process of the golfer. That´s why the Germany-based manufacturer has remastered their portfolio of premium quality golf balls in preparation of the new golfing season. With the highest aspirations, they have taken their cast urethane premium models Vice PRO, PRO SOFT and PRO PLUS and improved their core and outer cover, resulting in significantly enhanced playability, performance and durability across the board. To further differentiate the premium models, the three-piece Vice PRO SOFT´s overall compression of 65 suits…

MILLER BARBER’S backswing resembled the opening of an umbrella in the wind. DOUG SANDERS swung it back so short, he could hit drivers out of a crowded elevator. JIM FURYK was described as an Octopoda falling from a tree. HUBERT GREEN swung like he was pulling up his socks. WALTER HAGEN swayed, SAM SNEAD squatted, JOHN DALY dipped, NANCY LOPEZ paused, CURTIS STRANGE rocked, RAYMOND FLOYD minced, JACK NICKLAUS chicken-winged, LEE TREVINO gave it a spin, GREG NORMAN’S feet came off the ground, and FRED COUPLES let go at impact. But the king of golf idiosyncrasies had to be the swashbuckling ARNOLD PALMER and his whirlybird follow-through. Arnie’s left arm practically levitated with the force of his finish, flipping around the shaft so fiercely it pointed at the target. At…