Golf Digest Issue 1, 2022

I HAVE AN IDEA for Clint Eastwood’s next movie. The 91-year-old directs and stars as a canny superintendent who single-handedly maintains a golf course on a remote island across six decades, cultivating the love of generations of members in a changing world while contending with the ghost of a predecessor who died in the same modest, club-appointed quarters in which he lives. And it’s all based on a true story. I’ll pitch it to Eastwood at The Arnies, where he, Brandt Snedeker and Morgan Pressel are being honored for philanthropy in the spirit of Arnold Palmer (see page 86). While these golfers have used fame to give back, it’s also important to recognize a guy like Dave Denison, who epitomizes the kind of anonymous, humble people who quietly make this game…

IT STARTS with the nickname: Bones. Even by the lofty standards of caddie handles, that is pretty darn strong. Rest assured, though, we are talking about a man—Jim (Bones) Mackay, who has returned from broadcasting to team with Justin Thomas—who is way more than a moniker. Any caddie under 45 has been influenced by Bones. He changed the landscape of the profession simply by the conversations he had with Phil Mickelson. Those two were on television all the time, and caddies heard their exchanges even more intently than fans. It was a master class in communication skills. What we heard was not a caddie who was subservient but someone who was on equal footing with his player when talking over a shot while keeping his ego out of the way to…

ONE OF THE biggest architectural stories of 2021 was the substantial renovation of three former U.S. Open and PGA Championship venues: Baltusrol’s Lower Course, Congressional’s Blue Course and Oakland Hills’ South Course. For clubs with a pedigree for hosting major championships, this is something that happens every 10 or 15 years as they examine what’s necessary to keep their courses relevant as tournament sites and attractive to the governing bodies that parcel out assignments. These days, the transformation that courses must go through for the USGA and PGA of America to deem them capable of hosting their events usually includes building new championship tees, shifting and rebuilding bunkers and installing innovative grasses and irrigation systems. The host organizations, working to coordinate pristine yet demanding setups and fearful of losing tournament days…

FOR NEARLY TWO DECADES, CC Sabathia was one of the most imposing players in Major League Baseball, a 6-foot-6, 300-plus-pound southpaw who looked more like an NFL offensive lineman on the mound. But opposing batters would have undoubtedly felt more at ease if they only knew what was going through the burly hurler’s mind when he had the ball. “You ever seen ‘Finding Nemo’ where Dory is saying ‘Just keep swimming, just keep swimming’?” Sabathia asks. “I’d always tell myself, ‘Just keep pitching, just keep pitching.’ A lot of times I’d be singing that song in my head.” Sabathia’s golf mantra might as well be, “Just keep swinging, just keep swinging.” The former pitcher is spending more time than ever on the course—he just doesn’t spend much time when it’s his turn…

THIS WATERCOLOR—a man practicing his stroke in the enclosure of an upscale garden—is untitled and undated. It was painted around 1950 and might be the first artwork of a Black golfer by a Black artist. “Black Americans have played the game since the 1880s but for decades were invisible to most Americans,” says Rand Jerris, who oversees the USGA Golf Museum and Library in New Jersey. “Surviving photographs or illustrations of these pioneers typically reflect white perspectives, and most early representations border on being offensive.” Jerris acquired this painting (and another) for the museum collection after stumbling across an eBay listing. The artist, Dox Thrash, is a figure of some significance. Born to a domestic worker in rural Georgia in 1893, he made his way north as a teen, working in…

I was raised on No. 12 at Eagle Trace Golf Course in Coral Springs, Fla., with my brother, Nick, and sister, Lexi. We could play as much golf as we wanted, and we did. Lexi has always done her thing—that’s probably why she’s so good—but we’d pull her into sibling competitions. We’re a family back at the house, but when it comes to competition, there wasn’t much fun. It’s intense. Nick’s 10 years older, so I grew up seeing him play on the PGA Tour, and Lexi, two years younger, is obviously incredible. It got hard when people asked, “When is it going to be you out there?” Sometimes I wish people would talk about it less, but it doesn’t bother me anymore. I’m so proud of what they’ve done. When…