Innehållsförteckning för June 2025 från Golf Digest

I COME WITH GOOD NEWS about the future of the game’s soul. Don’t worry, this won’t be the overwrought gushing of a former humanities major who’s been lucky to have a career in golf typing. This is real math, man. The National Golf Foundation recently completed a market study of caddying in the United States and the findings will shock anyone who assumed the old gig was dying. Total facilities with caddies have increased 65 percent since 2018, or from 775 courses up to 1,282. Much of the growth is tied to the boom of high-end development in places such as South Florida and South Carolina, yet standard facilities—defined as courses with a peak weekend green fee between $50 and $79—that offer caddies have quadrupled to 234. There’s something happening…

OWEN W ILSON AND HIS younger brother Luke have never had much of a rivalry in terms of acting. The two Hollywood stars have reveled in—and even shared—each other’s successes on screen through the years. On the golf course as of late, however, it’s a different story. “My brothers and I would be swimming, and we’d see my dad make the turn, and it would be hot in the Texas summer,” Wilson, now 56, recalls about why he was reluctant to play golf growing up in Dallas. “It was kind of intimidating as a little kid; you’re seeing these guys, and they look kinda serious.” Eventually, both of Wilson’s brothers—Luke is three years younger and Andrew, also an actor, is three years older—picked up the game, though Owen took longer…

PRO GOLF IS A BIG, UNWIELDY, ineffcient business. The rules are set by amateurs based in New Jersey and Scotland. The mega events are operated by three organizations that are not the PGA Tour, plus an independent golf club in Georgia. The tournaments are owned by unconnected nonprofits and local charities, and the workforce is largely volunteer. None of the contestants are under contract to show up. The winner puts the lowest score on the board, not the highest. As Toots Shor used to say, if you swing left, the ball goes right; if you hit down, the ball goes up; the higher the number on the club, the shorter your distance, and the winner, not the loser, pays for drinks. No wonder the Saudis can’t figure it out. Pro…

MANY GOLFERS HAVE swing faults that they can’t seem to correct no matter how hard they try. But what if they didn’t have to? The truth is, you can play golf with many bad tendencies if you match them up with the right adjustments. In the case of slicers who cut across the ball on an out-to-in path, with the upper body and arms moving “over the top” of the backswing plane as they swing down, a few adjustments can turn that move into a way to hit a serviceable drive. If you swing this way, let me help you. Play the ball up Slicers often play the ball too far back, which causes you to come over the top to try to get the ball started on line. This…

CUSTOMIZATION OF clubs to meet your individual needs is one of the great advances in golf technology. The ability to adjust everything from loft to face orientation to weight distribution gives you a chance to make clubs perform better with the attributes of your swing. The Rules of Golf addresses club alterations in a number of ways under Rule 4.1, including when you can repair them or change playing characteristics. Among the most note-worthy allowances is for a club to be repaired during a round or even used in its damaged state (if possible) without being penalized. We’ll get back to this topic in a minute. There are, however, a variety of things golfers can’t do according to the rules. For instance, golfers are prohibited from digging a wrench out…

LEE TREVINO ONCE SAID that Oakmont Country Club was so tough that it was the only course in the country that could host the U.S. Open on demand, without advance notice. The members, who play in quasi-Open conditions daily, are slightly more modest—they say they need two weeks to get ready. What happens at Oakmont during those two weeks? Not much. It’s more about what doesn’t happen: The rough isn’t mowed, and the greens are barely watered, making them even firmer than usual. The club does, however, cut the greens—Oakmont’s are often so fast that they need to be slowed down when the professionals come to town. But, a fortnight later, you have the country’s most established U.S. Open course, host to nine previous tournaments dating to 1927 (as well…

Rory and I never talked about winning the Masters. No, we talked about all the things you need to do to win the Masters. Really, we spent our time talking about what you must do to find out how good you can get. That type of self-belief is what makes a great and unique player like Rory unflappable in the most trying moments. Because he is as exceptional a competitor as he is a person, Rory embraced what the game was asking of him, what others were expecting of him, but mostly, what he was expecting from himself. One of the early things we talked about was how golf is not about playing perfectly. You must love that golf is a game of mistakes, but those mistakes can’t be the…

Not taking the easy way out With junior golfers, my first focus is on attitude. Physically, kids are ever-changing, so I’ll take a scrawny 10-year-old who wants to get better over the bigger, stronger kid who’s just going through the motions. My Three-Strike Challenge is always operating in the back of my mind. First, I ask them to show up with some time before a lesson or clinic to hit balls, chip, putt, etc. Some kids come an hour early. If they roll in just before we start—or late!—that’s strike one. Second, I’ll give them a challenge during the lesson that I know they’ll struggle with, like hitting a hook or pitching a ball that stops at a certain target. If they get mopey or try a few times and…

When your kid loves golf, the toughest days are when they also kind of hate it. Water balls, tears, occasional sprints to the parking lot—there’s enough trauma available in golf for a parent to wish for something simpler. The best argument for having your kid stick it out might be how the game can help kids navigate everything else in life. David Yeager’s best-seller, 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People, isn’t specifically about golf. The University of Texas psychology professor’s book is a deeply researched exploration into the developing adolescent brain, how it responds to challenges and stress, and why certain messages resonate with kids more than others. For a book that isn’t about golf, a lot of it feels like it’s about golf. “I am never…

1. Apogee Club, Hobe Sound, Fla. A 55 acre, 360-degree range with elevated tee boxes and intricately designed bunkers and greens at the brand-new Apogee (above) will open soon. Stephen Sweeney, one of the leading putting instructors on tour, helped the club design an “AimPoint” green to help members learn to putt using the popular method. 2. Pine Valley G.C., Clementon, N.J. There used to be a helicopter pad on the far side of the range, but now it’s double-sided and about 400 yards across with target greens measured daily from each hitting station. Short-game areas beside the big range offer six putting greens and assorted practice bunkers. 3. Metedeconk National G.C., Jackson, N.J. The 55-acre facility includes multiple target greens and replica fairway routings, so every shot can be rehearsed. A…

Tough Test or Torture? We asked Golf Digest+ members: “Should the USGA strive to have the U.S. Open be won at even par?” U.S. OPEN HISTORY IS RICH with iconic moments—look no further than Bryson DeChambeau’s clinching 55-yard bunker shot a year ago at Pinehurst. But along with this esteemed history are USGA setup controversies and gaffes, like the glass putting greens at Shinnecock in 2004 (and 2018) or the wobbly fescue greens at Chambers Bay in 2015. While the U.S. Open has long identified itself as the toughest test in golf, many fans believe that on occasion the USGA takes the playing conditions too far in an effort to see winning scores close to even par (though the USGA has never publicly admitted to having a targeted winning score).…

TUESDAYS OUT HERE ON the PGA Tour are typically when guys like to get money games in. Wednesdays, too. It depends how schedules line up, when guys get in and how they are feeling about their games. There are also guys who stick to themselves and prefer to prepare alone, but for many of us, the best way to get tournament-ready is to put something on the line, even if it’s just for nine holes. I think back to my time on the Korn Ferry Tour. I remember very specifically an event where I played a practice round by myself, and I just putted mindlessly, and then I got on the first hole the next day and realized, I never even read a putt yesterday. I had no idea how…

IN EARLY MARCH, SHORTLY after the conclusion of the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing, I paid a visit to Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii to catch my breath and perform a bit of ambassadorial work for the resort. I anticipated sort of a busman’s holiday featuring some work, a little golf and a lot of sleep, the latter two of which are in short supply at CBS Sports during the long NFL and early PGA Tour seasons. What transpired was one of the more sentimental golf experiences I’ve had in years. Joining our group on the first tee of the famed Mauna Kea Golf Course was Robert Trent Jones Jr., 85, one of the great course architects of all time, who just completed a restoration of the…

ALL GOLFERS LOVE TO see their tee shots flying high down the fairway, but sometimes high is too high. It’s true that some nice hang time off the tee is a key ingredient in overall driving distance, but if your trajectory balloons, you’re giving up some serious yards. If this is happening to you, I’ve got a few simple checks you need to make: one at address and two as you start the downswing. • Make sure you don’t tee the ball too high • Start the downswing from the ground up • Don’t get stuck on your back foot When it comes to tee height, a good rule is that half of the ball should be above the top edge of your driver when you set the club down.…

AVERAGE GOLFERS SET up in greenside bunkers in two common ways. Some turn the clubface wide open and stand open. Others are afraid to open the face, so they set it square and stand closed. Both these setups are problematic. The open player can deliver too much loft, and the closed player can dig too much. Control and consistency suffer. Instead, here’s a better way to get the face and your body ready for a great shot. As you step in, rotate the clubface open about 10 degrees and then take your grip. Walk up to the ball and set your trail foot down with your body open to the target. On this shot (right), my target is the flagstick, but that’s not always the case. Place your front foot…

ONE OF THE BIGGEST differentiators between pros and average golfers is chipping skill. Last year, the best player on the PGA Tour in scrambling, which means making par or better after missing a green, was Xander Schauffele. He did it 302 times (70.7 percent). The worst player in that stat category (I won’t mention his name) still got up and down half the time. There’s no question in my mind that if you got even a little better at chipping, it would have a noticeable impact on your handicap. If this is an area of concern for you, there are probably a few things holding you back—and I’ll touch on them all—but I’d bet how you use your hands is a big issue. First, let’s briefly discuss the mental aspects…

PRE-COVID, MANY CLUBS had no waitlists. For those with an extended process, provided you were a decent person or didn’t show any of your indecencies to the admissions committee, you could expect to wait a few years at most. Now some of those lists have waits upwards of seven years, with the added indignity of restricted golf privileges when you finally get in. Are there ways to game out how long you’ll sit on the bench? Like many great things in life, the short answer is it depends. Waiting lists for private clubs are generally better in the south, tougher in the north. Metropolitan areas, be they New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, Los Angeles or San Francisco remain tough by that most basic law of supply and demand: fewer…

Golf, like baseball, is a game of failure. Shots that don’t come out the way we envision always outnumber those that do, and unsatisfying rounds tend to triple those in which we play well. Considering how rare it is for any of us to consistently play to our expectations, it’s almost miraculous that people don’t walk away from golf more often than they do. The last several editions of Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, including the 2025-2026 ranking, reflect a growing shift toward more “option-friendly” designs. Many courses that a different generation may have considered too easy or not demanding enough for tournament play have risen on our list. Some are older courses that have been renovated to emphasize their strategic rather than penal qualities, with remodels focused…

It can be intimidating to take your child out to the range or the course. What if you’re too tough on them? What if you distract or slow down other groups? What if your child inherits your incurable slice? Remember that his or her attention span is shorter. A session as short as 20 minutes might be perfect. How to spend that time? Brian Burgwyn, a U.S. Kids Master Kids Coach, says gamify our practice. “Sometimes, the best way to practice is where they don’t realize that they’re practicing.” A classic game to play with your kid on the practice green is tic-tac-toe because it teaches aim, speed control and strategy. All you need is something to mark the boxes with, like tees, string or chalk, and you’re in business.…

OAKMONT IS THE EPITOME of a U.S. Open course: The rough is very penal, and the green speeds are among the fastest you’ll ever see. U.S. Opens almost always favor elite ball-strikers, and the statistics show that it is more important than usual to have a great week from tee to green. Since shot-by-shot data for Oakmont is limited, as the last U.S. Open there was in 2016, I’ve used Arccos Pro Insights to analyze the skills required to win the U.S. Open that will translate well to Oakmont. Driving accuracy: Oakmont has very thick rough and narrow fairways, meaning accuracy off the tee will be rewarded more than usual. In the last four U.S. Opens, 70 percent of players’ strokes gained/off the tee were because of accuracy and just…

MEASURING CADDIE CREDIT in pro golf is a subjective exercise. Few moments are as clearcut as Steve Williams calling Tiger Woods off a bounced-in sand wedge from deep rough in favor of a risky, nuked and spinning lob wedge on the 72nd hole of the 2008 U.S. Open, setting up the most momentous 12-footer ever. Usually, only the two people involved really know what the caddie provided, and even for them, there’s an element of mystery. However, no ambiguity exists about what transpired between Ernie Els and Cayce Kerr following the first hole of the 2016 Masters. While calling Els’ six-putt from three feet an unforgettable moment in golf history might be a stretch, labeling it the hardest to erase from memory wouldn’t be. Whether on the original CBS telecast…

GARY WOODLAND’S BALL speed hit 197 miles per hour during one range session this year, something he hadn’t produced since joining the PGA Tour in 2009. Making that accomplishment more remarkable is that Woodland turned 40 last year and is less than two years removed from having surgery to extract a lesion on his brain. “I’m living close to 190 miles per hour now,” says Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open champion. “I’m hitting it as far as I was when I was 25, which is awesome.” Woodland, who currently ranks in the top 10 on the PGA Tour in clubhead speed (125.8 mph) and ball speed (185 mph), credits his swing coach, Randy Smith, for reinvigorating his driving game. Smith helped restore the athleticism in Woodland’s swing and, more importantly,…

Baby Drivers Mark Twain once said, “A baby is an inestimable blessing.” Whether that holds true for everyday players using the baby—or mini—drivers popping up on tour and on retail shelves is a different thing altogether. The recent mini-driver craze has been a trend (or a fad, depending on your viewpoint) more than a decade in the making. Ever since Phil Mickelson unleashed the Callaway “Phrankenwood” at the 2013 Masters and followed it by using a 13-degree version of the company’s X Hot 3Deep in winning the Open Championship at Muirfield later that year, smaller drivers have been something of a thing, albeit on and off. Equipment manufacturers, mostly TaylorMade, have dabbled in the mini driver game in the marketplace with limited success. Now, however, it seems almost everyone wants…

When the U.S. Open last visited Erin Hills in 2017, the United States Golf Association expected the course to play like the brawny, 7,800-yard inland links it usually does with wind ripping across the Kettle Moraine sand hills west of Milwaukee. Instead, the wind took leave, and Brooks Koepka won with a score of 272, 16 strokes under par. The USGA hopes for a more characteristic Erin Hills for the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open, May 29-June 1. Ferocious wind isn’t needed, just enough of the typical gusts that detour balls and bring into play the deep bunkers that protect the natural green sites. This year’s open at Erin Hills will mark the ninth time since 2000 the Women’s Open has been held on a public-access course—to see where it lands…

REPORTING FROM INSIDE THE ROPES AT The Masters is the greatest professional privilege in televised golf. CBS began the practice only this decade. Even as a professional on the LPGA Tour for 17 years—I played on six U.S. Solheim Cup teams and won 17 tournaments, including the Dinah Shore twice—the things I see at the Masters astonish me, and none of the 10 Masters I’ve worked as a CBS announcer quite compares to the one we just saw. The 2025 Sunday matchup of Rory McIlroy vs. Bryson DeChambeau, the great supporting cast who had chances until late and all the chaotic ups and downs made it the most thrilling Masters I’ve been to. A friend irreverently referred to it as “bipolar golf,” while I called it the “Rorycoaster.” Neither of…

You’ve heard about the kid in a candy store, but what about the junior golfer in an ice cream shop? Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg says it was enjoying the frozen delight with his dad following rounds of golf that helped spark his love for the game. Fellow countrywoman and World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam recalls enjoying plenty of ice cream at the golf course growing up, the memory of which today still “brings a smile to my face,” she says. Perks to incentivize a child to practice or play can create fun associations. Sport psychologists agree, however, that not all rewards are created equal, and understanding how to properly motivate a junior golfer can be the difference between burnout and lifelong enjoyment. Dr. Beth Brown played collegiate golf before…

AS HE HEADED FOR THE 17TH TEE, TOM WATSON WAS TIED FOR THE LEAD. MOMENTS EARLIER JACK NICKLAUS HAD FINISHED UNCHARACTERISTICALLY. HIS SLOPPY PAR AT 18 CAPPED OFF A 3-UNDER-PAR 69. One of the great aphorisms of modern PGA Tour history is that Nicklaus never missed putts in the clutch, that if you had one putt to make and you could select anyone to play it for you, the axiomatic choice would be Jack Nicklaus. Not this time. On this day it was the putter that betrayed the man frequently referred to as the greatest flatstick practitioner of them all. On both 16 and 17 Nicklaus inexplicably left birdie putts short. Then, on the 72nd hole, Nicklaus faced an imminently makeable 15-foot birdie putt, one that could have put meaningful…