Golf Digest

the man who sits by the door

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief BERNHARD LANGER was 15 years old when he had his first attack of the yips. Asked later how he kept up his spirits after missing two-footers, Langer replied: “I take encouragement from those rare days when I don’t four-putt.” As a misser of two-footers, I read that sentence painfully. Through the years, Langer would face four prolonged battles with the yips, the last in 1997, which should give all of us the solace of that famous Yiddish golf tip: gam zeh ya’avor. This too shall pass. I asked Bernhard the same question recently. “When you go through it, it’s depressing, disheartening,” he said. “You know if it goes on, you’ll be done. Two things helped me in those times: The knowledge that I was a good ball-striker, one of the best…

gary player & friends spare no one for a good cause

How much does a round of golf with Thomas Bjorn, or hospitality tickets to the DP World Tour Championship, fetch at charity auction? It depends, it turns out, on how creatively the auctioneer can insult a gathering of high-net-worth individuals. The scene is a black-tie gala in an English garden during a heat wave. Servers roam with trays of champagne and fruit-infused gin on ice. Earlier in the day, at the pro-am outing at Wentworth, Ian Woosnam impressed with one-arm push-ups, and Alvaro Quiros boasted sarcastically about winning his first event in two years. The indefatigable host of the Berenberg Gary Player Invitational, the Black Knight, remarked after pro Inci Mehmet piped a drive past his, “Boy, if you were married to her, you wouldn’t want to come home late.” Which is…

more greens in reg

It’s easy to be seduced by distance, especially out here on tour. I see guys like Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm fire balls for miles and think, Yeah, I’d like some of that. But one of the best pieces of advice I’ve received since turning pro came from Justin Thomas. He told me to know myself and stay true to that. I got to the PGA Tour by playing a certain way, and there’s no reason to make changes simply because the courses are longer and the competition is tougher. I listened to Justin, and in my first nine starts since joining the tour, I have a win (the Barracuda Championship in July), a second-place finish, and I haven’t missed a cut. The strength of my game is iron play. I didn’t…

is this the rookie of the year?

IT TOOK LESS THAN two months on the PGA Tour for Collin Morikawa to go from welcomed guest to full member. He earned his PGA Tour card by winning the Barracuda Championship in just his sixth start after turning professional. “It happened fast, but that was the goal,” says Morikawa, 22, a native of Los Angeles. It was fast. Morikawa, the former No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, debuted as a pro at the RBC Canadian Open in early June and finished T-14. After making the cut at the U.S. Open and the Travelers Championship, he had an amazing July. Over a 21-day span, he finished T-2 at the 3M Open, T-4 at the John Deere Classic and first at the Barracuda. “You certainly have hope of pulling something like that off,” Morikawa…

the secret to hitting power draws

“Here’s one move to improve contact, curve and distance.” Now that we’re into the NFL season, watch how quarterbacks throw, specifically how the elbow leads the hand until they release the ball. That’s a big reason they throw with power and accuracy, and it’s a motion you should copy in your swing. Discussions about the downswing usually focus on the legs and hips shifting toward the target first, before the arms and upper body get involved. I don’t disagree with that, but when golfers fire the lower body aggressively, the trail arm gets stuck behind them. Then they try to save the swing by throwing the trail hand into impact. That means an out-to-in path, contact off the toe and no power. So let’s forget about the lower body for a minute and…

chip it like you mean it

“Give it a pop, and then stop.” A LONG, FLOWING chipping stroke is never a good idea if the goal is to be consistently accurate with these shots. Take the club back too far, and you’ll be inclined to decelerate through impact and dump it.? Good chipping is all about acceleration, so let’s make sure your focus in on keeping your speed up as the clubhead meets the back of the ball. To do that, I want you to give the ball a pop with your wedge. The follow-through is short, ending just after contact. There’s no need to keep the club moving any farther. It’s ball, then turf, then stop. Focus on that short follow-through, and your club will actually be speeding up as it reaches the ball. It’s like snapping…