Innehållsförteckning för November 2020 från Golf Digest

PUT ASIDE for a moment any envy you feel toward the smattering of essential personnel and Augusta National members about to enjoy what essentially will be a private Masters this November. The atmosphere might resemble a high school golf match, but the winner of this year’s green jacket will be a very real and deserving champion who gets to hang something like a collector’s edition in his closet. It’ll be special for those at home, too. As the broadcasts of the fanless majors of 2020 have shown, clearer shots of venues like TPC Harding Park and Winged Foot are pretty sweet. The way a green sits in the land or how one fairway peeks at another through the trees has long been blocked by grandstands and galleries. This year more…

WHEN I’M HOME with my coach, Randy Smith, at Royal Oaks in Dallas, we have one joke we’ve kept going ever since I turned pro in 2018. “Hit it like a robot,” he’ll say. I’ll respond, “Just like a robot.” Then I’ll do what I’ve always done—make the ball curve and change trajectory to match what I see in my mind. Tour golf is supposed to be about making the same swing time after time to produce a consistent ball flight, right? Well, that’s not the way I play. I’m not a robot—I shape shots. When the Texas Amateur was at Royal Oaks in 2010, I made it into the field as a 14-year-old. I was so small, I had to hit driver into the 205-yard 16th. It killed me…

WHEN YOUR SWING gets off track, sometimes trying harder just isn’t enough. You have to jolt the system and re-train your body to move correctly. The best way to do that is to practice swinging in slow motion. Going slower makes it easierto see and feel the proper positions during the swing. Let’s look at two common issues. If you’re slicing off the tee, you’re probably cutting across the ball from out to in with an open clubface. Try making slow-motion swings, feeling the club staying to the inside on the downswing and then releasing outward. Imagine you’re hitting the inside-back part of the ball, and watch the club’s toe rotate up as you go through. Groove this, and you’ll swing more in to out with the face closing. If…

A legal energy supplement is mistaken for cocaine. PLAY YOUR REGULAR round 30 minutes too slowly or get sharp with a staff member, and you can expect to receive the standard phase-one punishment at a private club. You’ll get a letter. In one posh Midwest suburb, getting a letter took on new meaning when the club and some of its board members got served with a lawsuit over supposedly tawdry behavior during the club’s signature event. A guest of the club (we’ll call him Frank, because to be, um, frank, he’s gotten enough notoriety from the experience) found out he had been prohibited from the grounds for allegedly using cocaine while teeing it up in the prestigious annual team competition. He sued the club, two of its board members—and the…

DRIVER SPECS TaylorMade SIM, 9°, Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 60 TX shaft, 44.5 inches. I know if a driver is right for me when I’m waggling it. If I feel it matches up to me, then it frees up my swing. I need a driver that is workable. Can I hit a low cut? Can I hit a low draw? Can I elevate it to ride the wind? Those things are important. FAIRWAY WOODS SPECS TaylorMade M5, 15°; TaylorMade M3 2017, 19°, Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX shafts. These two fairway woods give me the ability to hit a lot of different shots. It’s amazing how far the 3-woods go these days. I find that it’s easier for me to turn the 3-wood over than the driver. If it’s firm, sometimes…

COUNTLESS WORDS have been written attempting to decode what makes Augusta National the object of such fascination and fantasy. As broad or specific as these explorations can be, the genius of Augusta’s architecture can almost always be traced to the dynamism of its green complexes. Augusta National’s greens didn’t start out the way they are now—not most of them, at least. The greens Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones conceived in the early 1930s have evolved—or been rebuilt or relocated—in response to advancements in technology and agronomy, the modern demands of the professional game during the Masters, and even because of personal proclivities. But as they changed, they gained a reputation as avatars of perfection, the game’s best. Much of that mythology (which dates to at least the first Masters telecast…

Editor-in-Chief It’s very hard to think of Augusta’s 13th as more than a tricky par 4. THERE’S something about the symphony of a par 5 that makes it greater than the sum of its shots. It requires more forward thinking, more self-restraint and sufferance, risk and reward at once. It can be cataclysmic like Sam Snead’s triple-bogey 8 when all he needed was a par on the last hole in the 1939 U.S. Open, or heroic like a 5 on the 18th at Pebble Beach any day of the week. I was standing on the green of Pine Valley’s behemoth uphill 15th hole, measuring over 600 yards, about 15 years ago, when the second shot of the club’s pro, David Clark, bounded onto the putting surface, stopped and glacially rolled…

The course plays atop a starburst of low bluffs in the southwest Missouri Ozarks. IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING. That’s not a reference to the three-and-a-half-years of construction and grow-in for Payne’s Valley, the newest resort course at Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, Mo. Rather, it has been 14 years since public golfers began waiting to play a course designed by Tiger Woods. Woods founded his design company, TGR Design, in 2006. But because of his schedule, the desire to be selective of the few projects he signs onto and a devastating financial crisis, only two TGR courses have been completed—the El Cardonal course at Diamante Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, and Bluejack National, a private course in Texas. Payne’s Valley, which opened to non-resort guests in late September…

I CAN’T TELL YOU how many times I’ve seen amateur golfers step into a greenside bunker and prepare for the shot like they’re following an assembly guide from Ikea. You can almost see the thought bubbles above their head: open stance, open clubface, hit an inch or two behind the ball, etc. It often gets to the point where focusing on the number of adjustments ruins their chance at success. If you’re looking for a better way to play from the sand, I’ve got good news: Just about everything you’ve been told about how to hit these shots can be altered to make it simpler. I’ll teach you some hacks to make your bunker play more successful. “Simplicity leads to consistency.” MYTH 1 YOU HAVE TO OPEN THE CLUBFACE WIDE…

“I pretended I was playing each shot at home against my friends.” EDITOR’S NOTE Sophia Popov wasn’t supposed to be in the field at the AIG Women’s British Open, let alone win it. Ranked 304th in the world and a member of the Symetra Tour, which is a developmental tour for the LPGA, Popov wasa last-minute addition to the Open after finishing T-9 at the Marathon LPGA Classic. And she got into that tournament only because many international players were not traveling for competition as a result of the pandemic. Talk about a turn of events. Popov, 28, the first German woman to win a major, lost 25 pounds in a battle with Lyme disease three years ago. And last year, after a long slump, she thought about giving up…

MATH WE DON’T HATE BOX-OFFICE BIRDIES (AND BOGEYS) CADDYSHACK II $11.8 MILLION LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE $39.5 MILLION CADDYSHACK $39.8 MILLION HAPPY GILMORE $41.2 MILLION TIN CUP $75.8 MILLION THE BEST GOLFTHEMED HALLOWEEN COSTUMES FOR 2020 Wolf with a Matt name tag Shirtless muscle suit with Kangol cap Ripped pants Tom Brady Barista Phil Big John and Little John (couples costume) Pilgrim in a green sportcoat 6 GOLF PATRONS WE CAN’T BELIEVE WE MISS 1. TIGER ONESIE GUY 2. FIRST NAME BABA, LAST NAME BOOEY 3. MIDDLE-AGE MAN IN HEAD-TO-TOE RICKIE FOWLER ORANGE 4. GUY WHO NEEDS TO BE THE FIRST TO EVERY WAYWARD DRIVE 5. B-CELEBRITY CBS THINKS IS AN A-CELEBRITY 6. THE VIGILANTE RULES OFFICIAL “Happiness is a long walk with a putter.”—Greg Norman THE HACK’S ACTUAL YARDAGE…

MINUTES BEFORE Kamille Dimayuga, a senior from Buena Park, Calif., was set to tee off to defend her girls’ individual title in the 2020 High School Golf National Invitational in Pinehurst, the skies opened up.? Dimayuga, who is committed to play at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, had just gone through an efficient warm-up, hitting beautiful, high draws through the bag. She was excited to be playing at Pinehurst, her first time there, and didn’t appear nervous, though, when asked, confessed she was. “The nerves don’t go away, it’s just a matter of how I handle them,” she said. What are her tricks? Dimayuga giggled. “I just grew up a little bit.” Then she collected herself and, on command, seemed to do that very thing: “I don’t fear making…

The latest metal woods from Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist’s new TSi family feature several innovative club head styles. Before you approach the tee, you’ll need to make sure you have the right driver for your bag. That’s where you can trust the Certified Fitters at Golf Galaxy. There are dozens of driver options out there. We’ll fit one perfectly for your game. Contact your local Golf Galaxy today to schedule a fitting and lesson. GolfGalaxy.com…

“It’s harder to play in front of a handful of fans than 5,000 of them.” WHAT’S IT LIKE on tour without fans? You came to the right place. I’ve seen what the players have said, and though I’m not calling them liars, they aren’t being honest, either. In their defense, what are players supposed to say? We’re glad fans are at home. They’re pests. This makes our jobs so less demanding. Come on. No one is that boneheaded. But it’s the truth. Listen, everyone misses fans. Most players are alphas; they enjoy entertaining you, and there’s no drug that feels as good as doing what you love and getting loved for it. On the caddie front, no one ever accused us of being introverted souls. But the fact is, life…

CLEVELAND HB SOFT PREMIER The face-milling is matched to each head style in the line for consistent roll and distance across the face. There are grips for arcing or straight-back-and-through stroke types. $160 CALLAWAY BIG BERTHA B21 Slicers need forgiveness and low spin. But too much of one, and it loses the other. This driver achieves both through its large face, front-, rear- and heel-weighting and composite crown. $500 TAYLORMADE SPIDER FCG Blades differ from mallets not only in shape, but in the center of gravity’s proximity to the face. This mallet mimics a blade’s forward feel but adds forgiveness and alignment benefits. $350 TITLEIST TSI2 Titleist has a new family of drivers that uses a titanium alloy developed for military body armor. The result is a hotter face that…

Five green jackets, and many more fond memories. LOST IN THE TALK of an autumn Masters played with no patrons is the fact this edition marks an important milestone. When defending champion Tiger Woods is introduced on the first tee on Thursday, Nov. 12, it will mark the 25th anniversary of his first appearance at Augusta, in 1995. I’ve been fortunate to visit with him numerous times over the years, frequently in Butler Cabin when Tiger had just won one of his five green jackets or was presenting a jacket to his successor. To evidence his changing thoughts and perspectives, I revisited those interviews and selected some of our more revealing exchanges. TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1995 AGE 19 People say you can help young African-Americans who want to take up…

NO OTHER GOLFER elicits myth, legend and anecdotal storytelling like Tiger Woods. Usually the stories entail some lesser-known evidence of his golf genius—an unreal display of power here, a touch of imagination there and competitive fire everywhere. If the punch lines share a common theme, it’s that Tiger does things with a golf club that ordinary humans can’t do.? But it’s not just his golf. Many stories provide a peek behind the curtain and reveal Tiger the person—his values, attitudes, lifestyle, simple likes and dislikes and his relationships with family and friends. A lot of stories don’t reveal everything, and instead are cryptic parables left to our interpretation. They only deepen the mystery of what Tiger thinks and how he sees the world.? The stories are numerous already and are…