Golf Digest August 2015

Marie Bos made her historic ace on the 154-yard 10th hole at Pacific Dunes. Happiness in a Shot Chairman and Editor-in-Chief A young woman playing in the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship made a hole-in-one, and her reaction was so typical. She first lamented the shot off the clubhead, but then it bounced and began to roll left toward the hole. Someone shouted, “Go in!” And it did. Nonplussed, she calmly picked up her tee, then realized what had happened, did a little dance and hugged her partner in joy. All captured by television cameras (see golfdigest.com/go/marieace). The happiest shot in golf is without doubt the hole-in-one. A 12,000-to-one shot for the average golfer. What made this one even more special was that the acer is one of our own: Marie Bos, the…

WHAT YOU DO during the backswing has a major impact on how well you hit the ball, so I spend a lot of time refining that part of my swing. If you set the club in a good position at the top, odds are you’re going to make an effective downswing and hit the ball the way you want to hit it. The two backswing moves I work on with my coach, Cameron McCormick, are things I bet can help your game. First, make a good, athletic turn off the ball, and second, swing the club more around your body. Let me show you how. —WITH RON KASPRISKE NECKTIE DRILL Hang a club from your chest and turn so the club points to your back foot. IMPROVE YOUR TURN WITH A SOLID RIGHT…

Tour players make such good contact on iron shots because they stay grounded as they swing down and through the impact zone. There’s not a lot of body sway, and they certainly don’t rise out of their address posture the way many amateurs do to try to help the ball into the air. You might have heard the terms “covering the ball” or “staying on top of it.” They mean feeling like your chest is pointing at the ball through impact. A great drill to reinforce that feel is to hit shots off a downhill lie. You don’t want the slope to be so severe that it throws off your balance, but it should give you the feeling that your front leg is firmly planted on the ground when you swing…

There you are in a fairway bunker, 160 out. No big deal, right? Nice little 5-iron. But you catch it thin, and the ball crashes into the lip and rolls back down to your feet. There are two things to remember before trying this shot: (1) Take more loft. If the yardage calls for a 5-iron but there’s a lip to get over, you probably need a 7 or an 8. It’s better to get out and be short of the green than to risk the ball coming back at you. (2) Stay grounded. Great fairwaybunker players have a stable lower body throughout the shot and a slight forward lean of the shaft at impact. That provides a downward strike for solid contact. Players who have a lot of body action…

One of the hallmarks of my new A Swing is that it improves the flow of what is often an awkward transition move from backswing to downswing. An easy way to understand this is to visualize what a hitter does as a pitch approaches home plate: He steps toward the ball, and the bat drops from a steep position into a much shallower one. To get your club to fall onto the proper plane as you start down, follow these four steps. David Leadbetter is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional. 1. SWING IT BACK STEEP The plane of the A Swing halfway back is very upright— the shaft nearly matches the spine angle. I’ve found it’s easier to get the club on plane coming down if it starts from a steeper backswing. This…

For most golfers, the draw is the power shot. You can generate more clubhead speed with less effort and achieve a more direct hit when the club comes down from inside the target line. Compared to the outside-in slice swing, a draw compresses the ball better and produces more roll. But three out of four golfers struggle with a persistent slice. If that’s you, I have a simple plan to help you hit it straighter. First, we’ll fix your out-to-in swing path, then we’ll fix your open clubface at impact. Start with two alignment rods. Place one under your feet and parallel to your target line and one at a 45-degree angle behind the ball (above). Set up and swing to the top. Stop halfway down and imagine a line across your…