Golf Digest April 2018

Alternative #9 to the green jacket. Back when I joined Golf Digest in the late 1970s, our headquarters was in Fairfield County, Connecticut, then the comic-strip capital of the world, which explains why so many cartoonists could be found chipping around our hallways. They’d gather at a local watering hole called Mario’s, across the street from the Westport railroad station, waiting for a courier to pick up their weekly newspaper strips and board the train to King Features in New York. High jinks ensued, and golf often broke out. Dik Browne once drew his lookalike character, Hägar the Horrible, using a viking horn as a medieval mobile phone in Golf Digest’s “Guide to Slow Play” (March 1988). Stan Drake, who illustrated Blondie, Dagwood and Mr. Dithers in “The Unwritten Rules of Golf…

Apologies if you’re reading this after buying a $2,000 piece of cardio equipment. The reality is, your money could have been better spent. If you’re serious about exercising in ways that can help your golf performance, I’ve de-signed a simple cardio routine that requires little more than a pair of sneakers—and your commitment. Best part, you can even use it as a proper warm-up before a round. Start by doing forward skips like I am here. March in place, raising the left arm with the right knee and vice versa. Push yourself forward, knees and arms high and feet straight. This move primes the lower body and improves coordination—both essential to mak-ing a good swing. Do three sets of skips for 30 seconds, resting for 30 between them. Then do…

“The trick is to play the ball up but keep the shoulders square.” Individuality in golf is great. My dad, Claude Harmon, who won the Masters 70 years ago, always said he wanted to help players with-out taking away what they did naturally. The caveat was, if any of those things hurt a player’s performance, it had to go. With the driver, let’s look at a few things you need to get right. Ball position literally sets up everything. Play the ball so it’s just inside the front heel (right). That allows you to turn behind the ball, then drive forward and still catch it on the upswing. I also look at shoulder alignment. Players often reach for the ball when it’s played forward and unwittingly shift their shoulders open. The trick is…

“Changing the way you hold the club can work wonders.” There are many reasons golfers struggle when chipping, but it’s often the result of a breakdown of the wrist positions through impact. As the clubhead approaches the ball, the wrist of the trail arm flips and the wrist of the lead arm cups—often an instinctive move to try to lift the ball off the ground with some quick hand action. But when the wrists break down like this, the club gouges the ground before hitting the ball—a chunk—or the leading edge contacts the top half of the ball—a blade. So how do you prevent either from happening? Copy successful putters such as Jordan Spieth and hold the club cross-handed. That means the lead hand grips the club lower than the trail hand.…

If you’re topping your fairway woods or can’t hit them above the tree line, chances are you’re not staying in your address posture when you swing the club. If it makes you feel a little better, it’s a common fault—one that I’m going to help you correct. Before I give you a simple swing thought to get those shots soaring, let’s talk a little about why you might be struggling to hit a 3-wood off the deck. For most amateurs, it starts with the wrong mind-set. This is a stressful situation, because it’s not a shot you practice a lot or face more than a handful of times each round. You’re not used to pulling it off, and that lack of positive experience can produce anxiety that results in a bad…

“Don’t be shy: Take plenty of sand to get over a high lip.” Alternative #17 to the green jacket. This might go against your instinct when you’re in a bunker with a high lip, but the last thing you want to do is try to help the ball over the lip. When you try to force it up and over, it almost always comes out lower and slams into the face. Instead, do what I do. First, try this drill. The biggest difference between hitting out of a normal bunker and one with a high lip is the amount of sand you need to take. To get the ball up quickly, your club should strike a lot more sand, and this drill will help teach you how much. Draw a circle in the…