Golf Digest December 2017/ January 2018

Golf Digest Playing Editor Jordan Spieth invited Max Adler, who works with Jordan on his instruction articles, and me to play in his annual partners event at Dallas National Golf Club in October. Normally you get to play only a handful of holes with Jordan as he rotates through the other groups, but this time he was my partner for the whole round. You’d think that would be a great advantage in the competition, but Jordan plays his home club as a plus-9 handicap, meaning he has to give nine shots back to the course. Par for him is 63. He made a birdie on the first hole, but it only counted as a par. Hard to get used to that. What kind of guy is he? You’d really like him.…

“I tend to play better when there’s no need for small talk.” In almost a decade of having my tour card, I’ve really had only one skirmish with another pro. A notoriously slow player once accused me of taking my clubs out of my bag early and distracting him. I think this was just an excuse for him to back off the ball. In the scoring trailer, he wouldn’t let it go and insinuated that I’d tried to rattle him on purpose. The third member of our group, a devout Christian, told this guy that if he ever acted like this again, he’d punch him in the face. The slowpoke and I have since made up, though our next round was a bit chilly. When I confronted him about not wanting to…

First things first: If you were disappointed with your last round, your last few rounds, heck, your last golf season—it’s time to let it go. You’ve got to put things behind you when you’re not having the successes you want. Case in point: I shot 65-65 in the first two rounds of the Memorial Tournament in 2017 but followed with a 77 on Saturday— a huge letdown. Determined not to let it happen again on Sunday, I got the bad feelings out of my system by hitting balls and putting for a bit. Next day, I shot 68 and won the tournament. See what I’m saying? Quickly write off your bad days and reboot your game with the fundamentals. That’s what I want to share with you here. If you…

The biggest mistake golfers make from the fairway is not taking enough club. Whether it’s an ego thing or not knowing their distances, so many golfers are doomed to miss greens before they step up to the ball. How do you know if you’re guilty of this? The simple answer is, you’re hitting the ball solid, and it’s coming up short. But more likely, you’re swinging out of control, because you subconsciously know you don’t have the right stick. With the longer clubs, trying to add power usually means a fat shot. You rush the downswing and never get your weight to your front side, so you crash into the ground behind the ball. Take an extra club, and focus on shifting your lower body toward the target to start the…

Playing on a course after a big soaker presents all kinds of challenges—thick rough, mud balls, slower greens, etc.—and one that bothers many is a bunker with firm, packed sand. Too often, golfers mistakenly use their standard greenside technique, only to watch the ball rocket over the green or plug into the lip. If the surface is more like cement than sugar, make these adjustments. When you address the ball with your sand wedge or lob wedge, do not open the face. The club will interact with the sand somewhat like hitting off a cartpath. It’s going to bounce off the surface, not dig, so keeping the face square helps avoid skulling the ball three fairways over. Your downswing needs to be steeper for the same reason, so adjust your stance…

Byeong Hun (Ben) An is a name you probably should know. Not just for the fact that in 2009, at 17, he became the youngest U.S. Amateur champion. And not because he won the 2015 BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour with a record score of 21 under par. Remember Big Ben because, now in his second full season on the PGA Tour, he’s on the verge of becoming one of the game’s elite players, says his coach, David Leadbetter. “Definitely one to watch,” says Leadbetter, who started working with the Koreanborn golfer in 2005 when An’s family moved to Florida. “He knows it’s within his power to play world-class golf.” Ranked 76th in the world through October 2017, An can use his size (6-foot-2, 210 pounds) to overpower many golf…