Golf Digest April 2015

On a tee shot with the wind helping, do you make any adjustments? On a tee shot with the wind helping, do you make any adjustments? SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST READERS I don’t know of any caddie-player team on the PGA Tour that competes without knowing two things: (1) The prevailing wind direction for the round and (2) the wind direction at any given moment. It’s against the rules to use a compass during a round, but you can use a weather app on your phone to find out the wind speed and direction. Don’t underestimate the importance of this in determining club selection and shot shape. Although you might know what to do into the wind—take more club and swing easier—downwind shots tend to cause players fits, because the ball often reacts counter to…

Poppy Hills might just be the coolest golf hang on 17 Mile Drive. Bacon is bacon, right? It’s a warm, salty, crunchy, chewy strip of deliciousness just about anywhere you go. Then you take a bite of the homemade bacon prepared every day at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach and . . . your world changes forever. It’s made from smoked, whole pork bellies, and it’s so good that before you can finish your last bite, you’re thinking, Can I get some to go? Is it on the lunch menu? Can I preorder for tomorrow? The man behind the bacon ($4) is Poppy’s new executive chef, Johnny De Vivo, who previously worked for two of the Monterey Peninsula’s top restaurants: La Bicyclette and Casanova. His arrival is one of several…

“The first time I played with Tiger, I shot a thousand.” IT’S A STRANGE EXPERIENCE TO BE followed by 2,500 people and be completely ignored. The crowd only cares what he does. Except for maybe 15 big names, this is what you have to accept playing in Tiger’s group. Spectators are already pushing ahead as you take your stance, and you know the stampede is going to triple in volume the moment your club strikes the ball. You’re part of a moving stadium, and people are playing full contact to get in position to watch his next shot. My wife won’t go to the course if I’m paired with him. Though she can watch on TV because I’m guaranteed airtime. As overwhelming as it can be, Big Cat does everything in his…

Amid the steel beams and industrial chic of a vast Chelsea Piers gym on the West Side of Manhattan, Rory McIlroy is right at home—high-tech fitness shirt straining across his broad back, vein-popping forearms, sharply defined jawline, curly locks cropped close. Everything is sleek, strong and stylish. McIlroy is 25, and the mop-haired, slightly puffy, rosy-cheeked cherub who a few years ago couldn’t stand on one leg for more than a few seconds is gone. ▶ McIlroy is in full workout regalia in one of his favorite cities not because he’s meeting his sport scientist/trainer, Dr. Stephen McGregor, for one of their intense 90-minute sessions, but because he’s doing a photo shoot for the brand of headphones he endorses. But when an assistant brings a spray bottle to McIlroy to…

There are two types of people on the commercial side of golf: Those who do business with Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters, and those who want to do business with the most valuable, lucrative— and private—property in the game. As a result, no one wants to be caught talking about the club or the tournament. But discussions with those who understand the business and Augusta National reveal this picture: The Masters makes a lot of money, leaves perhaps even more on the table, spends a lot of money to make its tournament better, and gives away a lot to help grow the game. In all, the Masters will generate about $115 million in revenue this year, according to Golf Digest reporting, more than a five-fold increase from the…

FROM THE TIME TIGER WOODS STARTED showing serious short-game issues at the Hero World Challenge late last year, there’s been a lot of talk about what the problem might be. ▶ He’s making a swing change. He’s rusty after taking time off to recover from back surgery. He’s stuck between an old short-game release pattern and a new one. ▶ Everybody from Brandel Chamblee to Rocco Mediate to Paul Azinger to just about every teaching pro on Twitter and Facebook has a thought about what he should do to solve the problem. ▶ Tiger has said it’s just a question of getting in more reps. Chamblee and Mediate say he’s getting too technical and needs to work with somebody “old school,” who will get him away from that. Azinger says…