Innehållsförteckning för September 2019 från Golf Digest

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief A tip on the backswing: “If you can pause, you can play.” YOU ALREADY KNOW our editorial director, Max Adler, by his extraordinary writing in Golf Digest. His work helped exonerate Valentino Dixon after a wrongful murder conviction and 27 years in prison. Max also wrote two popular series, Golf Saved My Life and the Undercover Tour Pro. He plays off scratch at golf, tennis, skiing, snowboarding, music and art. I have a picture of my favorite Vermont hole hanging at home, painted by Max—it’s a blind tee shot for him, but a blind second shot for me. Before joining Golf Digest in 2006, he played Division III golf at Washington and Lee, earned a master’s in English Studies at the University of St. Andrews on a…

ALL IT TAKES is a glance at Patrick Cantlay’s performance statistics on the PGA Tour in 2019 to know what kind of year he’s having: scoring average (69.1, first), scrambling (67.3 percent, first) strokes gained/total (second), overall putting average (seventh). We could go on, but you get it. Any way you measure Cantlay’s game, you come up with positive results—and that includes wins. The California native earned his second career victory, in June, at the Memorial Tournament, and moved into the top 10 in the World Golf Ranking. “He’s in a great place now,” says his longtime coach, Jamie Mulligan. “We’ve built his game over the last 20 years on the notion that he doesn’t need to think about a lot on the course. He can just go out and…

“Your spine should tilt away from the target at impact.” THOSE STINGERS you see the pros hit on television look cool, and they’re valuable shots on a windy day, but the last thing most amateurs need is a low-trajectory tee shot. You need more hang time. Studies have proved that the slower you swing, the more you’ll benefit from a trajectory that keeps the ball in the air longer. And thanks to radar systems like TrackMan, we also know that the optimum way to increase air time is to hit up on the ball with your driver. But this notion of hitting up on it requires clarification. To catch the ball on the upswing with the driver, many golfers find themselves swinging while keeping their weight on their back foot…

“The best part of this drill is, you get a workout, too.” MANY GOLFERS think hitting it farther comes down to how fast you can swing your arms and unhinge your wrists to sling the club through impact. But there’s more to it than that, especially if you want to hit solid shots nearly every time you swing. Like any athletic activity where you have to throw or strike an object, real power comes from your legs. Just visualize Major League Baseball pitchers. They’re pushing off the mound as hard as they can before their pitching arm lets go of the ball. If they didn’t push off the rubber on the mound with their back leg, and used just their arms to create speed, their careers would be over. That’s…

There was a lot of banter and good-natured kidding. On rare occasions, golf offers up historic moments that receive so little fanfare, we don’t realize at the time how significant they really are. Such an event occurred at Cypress Point Club on Tuesday, June 11, during the week of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. In the long shadows cast by a rising sun, 16 past winners of the U.S. Open gathered to challenge what is arguably the greatest course in the world. Invited by Cypress’ consummate head professional, Casey Reamer, to serve as starter, I introduced the first of four foursomes at 7:15 a.m. There was no need for a microphone to make myself heard for a small gallery of club members. They had come to witness a group…

WHEN Gary Woodland flew to New York the day after winning the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach this past Father’s Day, he was accompanied by Craig Annis, one of the USGA’s communications executives. Annis’ job was to shepherd Woodland through a busy tour—mostly to non-sports outlets, many of whom wanted to focus on Amy Bockerstette, the young woman with Down syndrome who had become a social-media sensation and part of Woodland’s life in January. • Most of the golf world knew the story already. Woodland, as the defending champion at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix, had been asked to play a hole with Bockerstette during a Tuesday practice round. The idea had come from Special Olympics Scottsdale, which wanted to promote the story of a local athlete who had…

MANY COURSE DESIGNERS and superintendents will punish players with deep grass around the green. But some of the best courses in the world—like St. Andrews, Pinehurst No. 2 and Augusta National—offer more subtle challenges in the form of tightly mowed collection areas around their putting surfaces. ? You have a few options for how to play from these tight lies below the hole, but you better make the right choice, because picking the wrong shot from here is just as big of a mistake as making a bad swing. You might even have the same lie again! If you find yourself standing over the ball with some doubts about what to do, let me help. Fundamentally, there are three ways to play your next shot: (1) You can hit a…

“Your life will have meaning for years and centuries to come.” IN A SEA OF NAVY BLAZERS, the electric blue suit belongs to the actor Chris Tucker. Along with a couple hundred “golf people” gathered in the ballroom at The Links at Spanish Bay, Tucker is there to support his pal Lee Elder for getting the Bob Jones Award. Recognizing those whose sportsmanship and character exemplify the ideals of the game, it’s the only USGA honor harder to win than the U.S. Open. Jim Nantz speaks first, his sonorous boom halting progress on the salads. He says Elder’s life ought to be a movie: One of 10 children, orphaned when he was 9, a caddie who improbably rose to compete and win on the PGA Tour under the duress of…

“Resist the urge to dig. Ball forward, and slide under it.” WHEN MOST GOLFERS climb into a greenside bunker, it’s like an out-of-body experience. They lose all sense of what they need to do, fear takes over, and a few hacks later… triple bogey. The good news is, most of the mistakes I see come at address, and those are the easy ones to fix. A lot of golfers play the ball back and push their hands ahead. Typical miss: chunk. Others set up tilting away from the target. Typical miss: skull. So let’s check your setup. First, open the clubface. That adds loft and helps the club slide through the sand. Rotate the face open, then grip with your top hand, setting your thumb on the top of the…

Many of No. 4’s bunkers now flow into native-sand areas, looking like sugar bowls tipped over. NORMALLY A NEWLY remodeled layout like Pinehurst No. 4 would need seasoning and study before anyone would declare it to be a great golf course. But thanks to the kingmakers at the United States Golf Association, the year-old Gil Hanse redesign has been declared the equivalent of the resort’s storied championship venue, Pinehurst No. USGA officials selected No. 4 and No. 2 to host the 2019 U.S. Amateur Aug. 12-18. Not just the stroke-play qualifying rounds—the amateur field has more than 300 players, so two courses are always needed—but the championship final round, too. The early rounds of match play will all be on No. 2, but the climactic 36-hole Sunday finale will be…

SOON AFTER GARY WOODLAND and the Bockerstette family finished their appearance on “The Today Show” on June 18, her parents, Joe and Jenny, were stopped by someone from the show as they were preparing to leave. “I’m not even sure what it was about,” Joe says, laughing now at the memory. “We talked for a couple of minutes, and we looked up—Gary and Amy were gone.” Woodland had insisted on having some time to hang out with Amy after the show. “It wasn’t like we were panicked or anything,” Joe says. “We just wondered where they’d gone.” The Bockerstettes found Woodland and their 20-year-old-daughter sitting on a bench, talking and laughing. “They were just having fun,” Joe says. “I kind of thought, Typical Gary.” And typical Amy. She has never…

DURING HIS FIRST 18 YEARS as a PGA professional, Greg Fitzgerald lived in fear. Fear of being found out, fear of being judged—or worse—shunned by his fellow PGA members and the game he devoted his life to. All because he’s a gay man. On his way to becoming the head professional at The Institute, a private club in Morgan Hill, Calif., and a member of the Northern California Section of the PGA of America (NCPGA), Fitzgerald has never met another gay male golf pro who is out. The isolation he felt kept him from telling people who he was and led him to live a double life. But now those two worlds are about to intersect, and Fitzgerald is understandably a little anxious. It’s June 25, and Fitzgerald is at…

WHEN THE FOUNDERS OF NEWPORT COUNTRY CLUB set out to build a clubhouse in the 1890s, they held a design competition, which, in a signal of the commission’s desirability, attracted more than 40 submissions from architects around the world. The winning entry was from an American in Paris, a young, socially connected architect of great promise, Whitney Warren. Having recently completed his studies at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, in France, the country club would be the first commission of what was to become an illustrious career. (Warren would later be on the team that designed New York’s Grand Central Terminal.) Drawing from his education in France, he designed the clubhouse in the manner of a French chateau, with symmetrical wings flanking a central pavilion. Situated on the course’s highest…

“Keep your feet planted until the ball is gone.” IT’S ONE OF THE BEST moments in golf—hitting a green after winding up in a fairway bunker. If you want to do it more often, you’ve got to make some adjustments. The first is a reality check. There are times when it’s just not going to happen. A ball close to the lip or in a slightly plugged lie probably should be wedged back into the fairway. But there are many times when a lie in the sand is good, and the lip can be easily cleared. That’s when you should go for the green. My father and swing coach, Jeff Hatton, taught me how to hit it flush from fairway sand years ago. Here’s what he told me. First, select…

“A wide arc sets up more speed and a high launch.” THE OLD SWING TIP, “down means up,” suggests that you should try to hit down on the ball for more height. That might work if you have speed, but for most golfers, down means down. In other words, line drives that don’t hold the green. To boost trajectory, you need a higher launch and more backspin. How do you get a higher launch? You hit more into the ball and less down on it, and that comes from swinging on a wider arc. The resulting strike is more level, so you make contact lower on the ball—below its equator—and launch it higher. Swinging wide also increases speed, which is the key producer of backspin. How? A wide swing going…

NOT ALL 7-IRONS ARE ALIKE. We’re not talking about shape or even materials. We’re talking about loft—for all of golf eternity the most basic building block to determine ball flight. Some club-makers keep lowering the “standard loft” of their 7-irons in a race for more distance. (The 7-iron is what most golfers test first when shopping for new irons.) That means some 7-irons today might be 6 degrees stronger than other 7-irons. If you haven’t tried new irons in a while, some of these 7-irons might have the loft of your current 5-iron. But to be fair, other design characteristics have changed, too. For example, using materials to lower the center of gravity and thin faces to increase ball speed and height means stronger-lofted 7-irons can produce trajectories like traditional…

THE DEVOTED GOLFER IS AN ANGUISHED SOUL WHO HAS LEARNED A LOT ABOUT PUTTING, JUST AS AN AVALANCHE VICTIM HAS LEARNED A LOT ABOUT SNOW.—DAN JENKINS COLLEGES GOLF NUTS SHOULD CONSIDER APPLYING TO AUGUSTA STATE We don’t need to explain. AUBURN Five words: Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. OHIO STATE Jack’s alma mater boasts two Alister MacKenzie designs. ANYWHERE IN FLORIDA It’s easier to join a golf club than a fraternity/sorority. OREGON INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY Heard of Bandon Dunes? YALE If you prefer Biarritz to beer, this is your place. FAMOUS TEACHERS, AND WHAT THEY’D BE LIKE AS GOLF INSTRUCTORS MR. MIYAGI Karate Kid Assigns menial household tasks under the guise it will help your short game. BILL BELICHICK New England Patriots Fiercely secretive, he hides players behind black…

A Absolutely. Although it wouldn’t have affected his score (he needed to take a free drop off the green, no closer to the correct hole), your friend pulled off a feat exponentially more difficult than a hole-in-one. Will it ever be duplicated? Unlikely. Rather than buy drinks, he ought to go out and water the tree, then send a box of chocolates to the superintendent for the kind hole location. Finally he should have the ball mounted and placed behind the bar, with a small plaque describing the feat: the ultimate conversation starter. Many of the women on the LPGA Tour use magnetic clips on their visors to hold their ball markers, yet none of the men on the PGA Tour do. Is there a rule that prevents the men from…

A NUMBER OF FIRSTS IN 1986 THROUGH THE YEARS it seems that many have been left with the impression I was not a fan of the Masters. That’s dead wrong. I loved playing Augusta. What I did hate, however, were the powers in charge and their attitudes. My first Masters was 1986. I rented a house and invited many of my friends to come enjoy the week. I loved having them all there. The idea that I could give something back to my friends was special to me, and through the years we might play three-on-three hoops until 3 a.m., when someone would threaten to call the police. That week in ’86 I was hitting the ball worse than a pig with persimmon, but in this game you just go…

CLASSIC Augusta (Ga.) National G.C. When horticulturalist Dennis Redmond built a plantation house in the 1850s, he made a prescient choice of materials, creating one of the first poured-concrete structures in the South and giving it the durability to live on as Augusta’s clubhouse. Baltusrol G.C., Springfield, N.J. Now a National Historic Landmark, the clubhouse, a Tudor Revival masterpiece, was designed in 1910 by Chester H. Kirk after the original clubhouse—the former house of a New Jersey farmer, Baltus Roll—was destroyed in a fire. Congressional C.C. Bethesda, Md. Designed in 1924 by Philip M. Julien, the Spanish Colonial Revival-style clubhouse has made additions over the years but has done a great job at maintaining its relationship with the golf course. The Country Club Chestnut Hill, Mass. In 1882, a group…