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The Golden Ticket

Inside this issue is the granddaddy of all course rankings, still recognized as the oldest and most authoritative order of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. Started in 1966, the biennial list is now the result of 50,000 ballots of 954 Golf Digest panelists over an eightyear rolling period cast not only on the 350-some courses that contend for the top 200 in the country, but also courses reviewed for our rankings of the 100 Greatest Public and Best in Each State to be announced in the June issue. These rankings are the most statistically significant in our history, but we’re on a mission to improve with a little help from our readers. Dean Knuth, known as the Pope of Slope for his decades of work on the USGA’s handicapping system and…

The Golden Ticket

Everybody wants to swing faster and hit the ball longer. But I make fewer than 20 driver swings a year where I use more than 75-percent effort. Why? The longest bombs happen when you get the right combination of launch and spin, and that comes from swinging under control and in good sequence—not from swinging harder. When you really need a long drive, you want to hit the center of the face and get that great launch. I’ll show you a couple of tips to make it happen. “Keep your feet anchored to the ground longer in the downswing.” LEVEL OUT YOUR TURN I bet you’ve heard “you need to turn more” plenty of times. I won’t disappoint. You do need to turn. But the driver works the best if swung on a…

Putt with ‘Per-fect Pace’

How many putters do you own? ▶ One ▶ Two ▶ Three to five ▶ Looking into renting a storage locker SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST READERS When your putting goes south, what’s the first fundamental to try and improve? Restore good rhythm to your stroke. Here’s a simple cadence to practice. When you make a stroke, think per-fect pace— three syllables. It’s like a pendulum ticking two beats to one. When you take the putter back, think per-fect. When you swing the putter through, think pace. Whether your stroke is long or short, the rhythm should stay the same every time. Using this cadence will help you strike the ball solidly, and smoothly. It helps eliminate any jerky or abrupt motions that can affect ball speed or the orientation of the putterface at impact, especially on longer putts. You won’t…

Putt with ‘Per-fect Pace’

“Let the hands roll to get the ball to the hole.” You might get this shot only once or twice a round, but knowing how to get up and down from a bunker on the other side of the green can really help you score. When I won the Masters in 1981, I faced a long greenside bunker shot—about 80 or 90 feet—on the 17th hole on Sunday. The flag was all the way on the back of the green, and I was in a front bunker resting on the upslope. Fortunately, I caught it just right, hit it pin high about five feet from the cup and saved par to win my second green jacket. How did I play the shot? I changed my technique from a normal greenside bunker scenario…

“Sometimes a bunker is your friend.” When I design a hole, my goal is to give golfers of all abilities a way to play it. Often I try to present three distinct options for the tee shot, escalating in difficulty. If I can do that, I figure I have nearly everybody covered. Paramount is recognizing the path down a hole that best suits your game. The perceptive player learns to identify all the choices. That way, when there’s a change in weather or circumstances, you’re ready to pounce on the opportunity to play more aggressively—or be more conservative, if that’s what the situation calls for. Let’s take the par-4 18th at The Loxahatchee Club (illustrated) in Jupiter, Fla. It’s a course I designed in 1984, and our team renovated in 2016. The prevailing…

No More Chunky Irons

The most frustrating moment in golf is… ▶ Watching the fivesome ahead fish for balls: 37% ▶ Chunking a short approach into the water: 36% ▶ Four-putting: 20% ▶ Multiple attempts to escape a bunker: 7% SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST READERS It’s frustrating when you hit a great drive and then chunk an iron from the middle of the fairway. With one lousy swing, your mind-set goes from Birdie time! to Don’t make a double bogey. Most poor contact comes from not getting off the back foot on the downswing. A lot of golfers rush the club down from the top and “throw” it at the ball instead of building momentum from the ground up. When the weight stays back, the club usually hits behind the ball. Your first move down should be shifting to your front foot,…

No More Chunky Irons

5-Minute Clinic

You aren’t always going to have your best game off the tee or into the green. Even tour players struggle sometimes. But short-game skill can turn bogeys (or worse) into pars. Feeling good about your play around the greens spreads confidence throughout your bag. Targets get a little bigger; hazards look less menacing. What’s better than halving a hole against your buddy after he hits the green in regulation, and then you knock it stiff from a greenside bunker? Nothing. Trust me. Learn the art of saving par. Dave Stockton, a Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher and two-time PGA Championship winner, teaches at Redlands Country Club in California. ‘ALWAYS READ YOUR PUTTS FROM THE LOW SIDE OF THE BREAK.’ 1 SAND PLAY Make a big enough swing in the bunker ▶ Greenside bunkers present a problem…

5-Minute Clinic

Why’d I Do That?

Just put a circle on your scorecard? Don’t follow it with a triple There’s a statistic on the PGA Tour called Bounce Back, which indicates how well the pros recover from a bad hole. Many amateurs experience the opposite of a successful bounce back. They follow an excellent play, say a birdie or a maybe a par on a tough hole, with a train wreck on the next. Why does this happen? If you just made a great score, the tendency is to let your excitement carry to the next tee. You get jacked up, and that can cause havoc to your game. Grip pressure gets firmer, the backswing gets shorter and the transition into the downswing gets quicker. The result is a disjointed swing and poor contact. It’s no wonder you…

Why’d I Do That?

Many Irish golf fans can easily recall the gutsy performance of their 22-year-old countryman, Shane Lowry, at the 2009 Irish Open. Although an amateur, the young lad outplayed the best pros in Europe and won after a three-hole playoff with Robert Rock. He turned pro not long after, but more success came slowly. His first PGA Tour victory was at the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, and he contended at the U.S. Open last June, holding a four-shot lead on Sunday before losing by three to Dustin Johnson. Lowry navigated the tight Oakmont fairways that week by often driving it 250 yards with his trusty 2-iron. Here you can see how he handles that club, with analysis from teaching pro Neil Manchip, whose fulltime job is the National Coach of the Golfing Union of…

Finding the Fairway

“Pinch it off the tee, and the ball will really take off.” Whether it’s a tight treelined fairway or a short par 4, there are times when using your driver off the tee is unnecessary—or just plain foolish. Instead, consider using your 3-wood for better accuracy. You might lose some distance, but hitting your second shot from the fairway is going to greatly reduce your chance of making a bad score. Follow these steps to find the short grass with this club. David Leadbetter operates 34 golf academies worldwide. 1. TEE IT LOW ▶ Most 3-woods have a fairly shallow face, so you don’t need to tee the ball very high. A good height for the tee is about a quarter of an inch above the turf. This gives you the perfect lie to…

Finding the Fairway

Weight Watchers

It’s not that today’s drivers are getting lighter. It’s just that designers have gotten smarter about how they distribute weight. Yes, they’re making use of lighter titanium alloys and carbon-composite materials, but it’s how they’re using them that’s making drivers more effective than ever. The greatest innovation in drivers today is the ability to save weight in one area and use it strategically elsewhere. Redistributing weight can take many different forms: It can free up space so that the driver can feature more adjustability. It can make the heaviest part of any driver (the face) lighter so the driver can be larger and more flexible. Or it might make it possible for drivers to come equipped with the kind of on-board diagnostics that would make even a NASCAR crew chief…

Weight Watchers

What’s in My Bag

WESLEY BRYAN AGE 26 BORN Columbia, S.C. STORY Won three times on the Web.com Tour in 2016, topping the money list and securing his PGA Tour card for 2017. GAINING CONFIDENCE I was contending and started to think: OK, so my game is good enough to win. Three events later, I won. That self-confidence got me those three wins, and I’m looking for the same kind of self-belief now that I’m on the PGA Tour. WHAT IT ALL MEANS After Elizabeth and I got married in 2012, we were living in a studio apartment, and I caddied in my spare time. That’s why my success means so much to our family. Playing card When you go from having no status in 2015 to winning Web.com Tour Player of the Year in 2016, a PGA Tour credential…

What’s in My Bag

Brooke Henderson

‘I’m a feel player. I do a lot of things you don’t normally see.’ She hasn’t had her driver’s license for long, but Brooke Henderson, 19, already has logged time on a greens roller and a vehicle that smooths bunker sand. She testdrove both at her winter practice site, The Golf Lodge at the Quarry in Naples, Fla., courtesy of superintendent Rodney Whisman. What’s next to drive? Maybe a hockey Zamboni? That would make sense: Before becoming one of the world’s top-10 women’s golfers, Brooke played goalie on the Canadian national girls’ junior hockey team at age 14. Her father, Dave, played at the University of Toronto and once appeared in a 7Up commercial with Wayne Gretzky. Dad also was a decent golfer and passed on his knowledge of the game…

Brooke Henderson

Ask Golf Digest

Ball went down an animal hole? Take a swig and go get it! Q I hit a shot into a bunker, and it rolled into a groundhog hole inside the bunker. What’s the ruling? Jacques garaNt, MagOg, queBec A Are you sure it was a groundhog hole and not, say, a tunnel into the Upside Down? If you’re certain it was a burrowing animal, take a swig from your flask, genuflect, then reach in there for your ball and hope no one’s home. The ruling is simple, whether you retrieve your ball or have to replace it. You’ll need to drop within one club-length of the nearest point of relief from Chateau Groundhog, no nearer to the hole. Do that in the bunker, and there’s no penalty. You can drop outside the bunker,…

Ask Golf Digest

NIKE AEROLOFT HYPERADAPT, $230 RLX RALPH LAUREN SHIRT, $90, PANTS, $98; Photographs by Jeffrey Westbrook The ideal golf attire doesn’t require much thinking. Hybrid golf jackets are a good example. Throw this on to walk the dog, go to work and play a round. The jackets were made popular by RLX Ralph Lauren two years ago, and other apparel companies have followed with their versions. Why are they popular? They’re breathable, allow you to swing unencumbered and are water- and windresistant. Plus, they have cool features, like an internal smartphone pocket in this Nike jacket. STYLING BY JUDITH TREZZA • GROOMING BY RICHARD KEOGH/ABTP; Photographs by Jeffrey Westbrook…

New Year’s resolutions rarely stick, but maybe this one has some staying power: We asked Golf Digest Fitness Advisor Ben Shear to come up with the best golf exercises for an of-season program. No problem. He selected a dazzling dozen. First there are three to improve mobility and three to improve stability. You’re looking at those here. The other six come next month, once you’ve had a chance to work on this starter kit. In the March issue, Shear will give you three exercises for strength and three for power. In other words, once you’ve improved your stability and flexibility, you’ll be able to add the gas for more explosive shots. Are your shoulders flexible enough for the wall slide? MOBILITY 1 90-90 KNEE DROP Start with both legs bent to 90 degrees…

If you’re like a lot of us, you don’t run your fitness life through a trainer—you use a device on your wrist instead. Counting steps, logging running miles, calculating calories burned: You can track it all in one place. So why not do the same with your golf game? The following products allow you to get your yardages and see how many steps you took for the day, all in one place. APPLE WATCH The Apple Watch isn’t golf-centric, but download an app like the Ping Golf Workout and fuse your fitness with your golf. It tracks your steps, heart rate and golf stats, plus monitors your swing tempo and gives you yardages. $269 GARMIN APPROACH X40 It couples fitness-band benefits—like reading your heart rate, counting steps and calories burned—with yardages and automatic shot…

POWER + PRECISION OFF THE TEE INTO THE GREEN

I made two adjustments to my game last year, and it turned out to be the best season I’ve had as a pro. Three wins; my first major; I led the tour in scoring and finished in the top 10 in 15 of 22 PGA Tour events. What did I change? It started with my driver. I now almost always play a fade. I’m still driving it plenty far. I averaged 313 yards off the tee last year—but I’m hitting more fairways, and my misses are way better. I don’t snap-hook them by accident anymore. That’s the first part of my new game plan. The second is that I don’t waste those great tee shots. I spent a ton of time dialing in my short-iron distances and now go into…

POWER + PRECISION OFF THE TEE INTO THE GREEN

AMERICA’S 100 GREATEST GOLF COURSES & 100 MORE

Bill Love, a soft-spoken East Coast golf architect, has been a consultant to the Olympic Club in California. He started well before its most recent U.S. Open in 2012 and has continued to revise the club’s famed Lake Course, ranked No. 31 on Golf Digest’s 2017-’18 list of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, up from No. 33 two years ago. Most recently he reshaped bunkers on several holes. Golf Digest panelists who evaluated the course praised his work (“significant improvements” . . . “spectacular new eighth hole” . . . “huge upgrade”), but one panelist decried the new “cresting wave” style of bunkers as not in keeping with its original 1920s architecture. Another commented that it was akin to “changing the hairstyle of the Mona Lisa,” and a third called…

AMERICA’S 100 GREATEST GOLF COURSES & 100 MORE

HAZARDOUS MATERIAL

A lot of golfers think hitting it into a fairway bunker is a sentence to a big number. But that doesn’t have to be the case. No matter whether your ball is up against the lip, on a downhill slope, or resting in the middle, make these simple adjustments and you’ll have a fighting chance at getting out and saving a shot or two. —with ron kaspriske AGAINST THE LIP The key to this lie on the left side of the bunker is to shallow your downswing, so you can get the ball up and clear the lip. To do that, swing into the ball more from inside the target line. Also tilt the shoulders a little more, so your left shoulder is higher than the right. Don’t worry if your weight…

HAZARDOUS MATERIAL

TH3 RULE$ ARE CHANG ÷ING

MON3Y +G%LF SHORTLY AFTER THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, when the golf economy was running hot, Nike chairman and co-founder Phil Knight was asked at the annual stockholders’ meeting if the company could have found a better way to spend $100 million than by extending Tiger Woods’ contract for five years at $20 million a year. “No, it couldn’t,” Knight replied emphatically and, in terms of words, economically. ▶ When Knight said that in September 2000 at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Ore., it had a ring of truth. Woods had just won three consecutive major championships—the U.S. Open by 15 strokes, the Open Championship by eight and the PGA Championship in a thrilling playoff. Seven months later, he would complete the Tiger Slam at the 2001 Masters, becoming the first…

TH3 RULE$ ARE CHANG ÷ING

MAK1NG S3NSE OF F%X + THE U$GA

MON3Y +G%LF When the 12-year deal between the United States Golf Association and Fox Sports was announced in 2013, it rocked the golf world because Fox had never televised the sport and because of the price tag, reported by Golf Digest at $1.1 billion—$93 million a year. But after two years of losses that sources say are in the tens of millions for Fox and some bumpy coverage situations, the unavoidable question arises: Is this what Fox and the USGA had in mind when they signed the landmark contract? According to sources familiar with the situation, tensions between the USGA and Fox increased after the network’s aggressive handling of rules controversies at the 2016 U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open. There was also significant dissatisfaction within the USGA, sources say, over the…

MAK1NG S3NSE OF F%X + THE U$GA

UND3R COVER T%UR PRO

MON3Y +G%LF Idon’t think it’s fair to name names, so all I’ll say is, there’s a player, a guy who had a great rookie season this year, who might not have ever made it to the PGA Tour if not for financial assistance from another player. He was on the mini-tours and out of money when a veteran gave him 15 grand to keep going. Enough to keep entering tournaments and eat something other than fast-food. ▶ Whether it was because the veteran believed in his talent, or because they’re from the same home state, who knows? All I know is, the first time they were paired together, playing for real money on TV, the handful of us who were aware of the story recognized how unique it was. ▶ Most…

UND3R COVER T%UR PRO

POOL1NG RES%URCES AT AUGU$TA NATIONAL

I n the late 1960s, Clifford Roberts—Augusta National’s co-founder and its chairman until his death, in 1977—told Jackson Stephens, a member, that the crowds at the Masters Par-3 Contest had become so large that patrons were having a hard time getting past the fourth green. Stephens said that Roberts might be able to reduce the bottleneck if he moved the greenside bunker from behind the green to the right side, between the putting surface and the pond. “Cliff didn’t say a word,” Stephens told me in 1997 (when he was the chairman). “He just grunted.” That summer, though, Roberts moved the bunker—and sent Stephens the bill. “It was for something like $2,600,” Stephens said. “Cliff had signed it, and there was a PS: ‘By God, you were right.’ ” Stories like…

POOL1NG RES%URCES AT AUGU$TA NATIONAL

WHAT P3OPLE IN G%LF MAKE

Ever wonder what your head pro makes? The superintendent? Maybe even the kid who collects the range balls? It’s impolite to ask, of course, so we’ve done the research for you. Golf in the United States is nearly a $70-billion industry. There are roughly 24 million golfers and 15,000 courses. The game employs about two million people and pays out $55.6 billion in annual wage income. From the richly compensated executives at golf’s leading associations to the minimum-wage workers who keep America’s courses in playing shape, we offer a peek into the paychecks of people in golf. $$$$$ ▶ $ Tim Finchem Outgoing commissioner, PGA Tour $5,655,352 • Wally Uihlein President and CEO, Acushnet (owner of Titleist and FootJoy) $4,978,638 (includes base salary of $995,200, plus bonus and other incentive pay) • Oliver (Chip)…

WHAT P3OPLE IN G%LF MAKE

TH3 FACT$ %N TAX

MON3Y +G%LF PGA TOUR STARS TEND TO CONGREGATE in Florida, Texas and Nevada—and not just because they like fresh-squeezed orange juice, 10-gallon hats and roulette wheels. ▶ They make their homes there because of something those locations lack: state income taxes. ▶ One of the reasons that some non-American tour pros live in places like the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands is that these countries impose no income tax. Unlike U.S. citizens who must pay federal income tax on their worldwide incomes, regardless of where they live, most international players can escape nearly all income taxes in their original home country by moving to a tax haven and establishing their primary residence there. ▶ The financial benefits are huge. When you earn more than $1 million a…

TH3 FACT$ %N TAX

TAXING TASK FILING FOR TOUR PROS

Tour pros have it tough at tax time. Well, their tax preparers do, anyway. Golf pros compete for prize money in multiple states, and those states expect to take their cut in taxes. This means that, in addition to their federal 1040s, players are supposed to file tax returns in each state where they play. Most states these days make tournaments withhold state taxes from players’ winnings, says Jim Palsa, a CPA who handles taxes for a PGA Tour professional. Palsa gets a notice from the PGA Tour every month telling him how much the player made, and where. He can see which states don’t withhold—Virginia and Alabama are two. Could he maybe just . . . forget to file those state returns? “Our feeling has always been to file everywhere,”…

CHIPPING IT (OLD SCHOOL)

▶ Over time, a simple method for getting the ball from of the green to the flagstick fell out of favor. I rarely see anyone chip like the late Hall of Fame golfer Paul Runyan. That’s a shame because this technique will make you more accurate around the greens with a lot less practice. Once you master the setup and learn to make a rhythmic stroke—like putting— you’ll start getting up and down more often. Let me show you how to chip old school. SCENARIO + SELECTION ▶ Although you can use this shot in a lot of spots, it’s not all-purpose. Use this technique when you are no more than five yards from the green in the fringe or rough. Because this shot requires a stroke of consistent length and speed,…

CHIPPING IT (OLD SCHOOL)

TO THE SWING DR. S+ARS PETE COWEN

IT ’S EARLY TUESDAY MORNING of the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s, and Darren Clarke is a mess. He’s trudging toward the range with his head down and shoulders slumped. When he gets to me, I ask, “Are you all right, Darren?” He says, “No, I’m f------ not. I can’t hit the ball. I’m wasting my time. I might as well go home.” I had seen this before in Darren. I had talked him down off the ledge many times. I said, “Look, the weather is going to be terrible, and you’re the best bad-weather player in the world. Why would you think you’ve got no chance? Let’s have a look at you.” After watching him hit balls briefly, I gave him one thing to think about. Within two…

TO THE SWING DR. S+ARS PETE COWEN

If you needed yet another reason to get excited about the 2017 season, golf’s governing bodies have supplied it. With their blessing, courses and tournament committees can enact a Local Rule that says if you, your caddie, your partner or your equipment (or that of your opponent) accidentally move a ball or ball marker on the putting green, there’s no penalty, and the ball should be replaced. ▶ You read that right. Rules-makers did something really good for the game, and the reaction from professional tournament organizers has been extremely positive: All the major pro tours and the Masters Tournament said they will use the rule in 2017. ▶ This Local Rule was announced by the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews…

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