Golf Digest Issue 6, 2022

THE 2017 FILM “THE DISASTER ARTIST” is the true story of an independently wealthy and eccentric aspiring actor who, in response to being rejected by Hollywood at all levels, funds and stars in his own movie. His inexperience is illustrated by bizarre decisions, like buying instead of renting all the camera equipment. Despite a highly problematic script and distressed atmosphere on set, a cast and crew of respected professionals stay on because their outsize paychecks continue to clear. The result is the worst movie ever made. For folks who like pro golf the way it is, it’s natural to dismiss the LIV Tour as similarly doomed. Just a convergence of ego and money, it’ll be a matter of time before its backers realize you can’t start at the top and move…

THE PRESIDENTS CUP IS NEAR, which is a good time to discuss team events. It’s an honor to go to the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. It means you’re with a player who had a good year, you made good money and you likely have job security. It means you matter. But how much these team events matter to us varies. The Ryder Cup has always had a kick to it, but now players treat it with a solemnity seen only at the majors. Caddies for the American and International sides used to view the Presidents Cup as a burden. I know this because I’ve worked both sides. One year my International player said I didn’t have to go with him if I wanted the week off. Today, making a Presidents…

NO ONE IN MY FAMILY PLAYS GOLF. It wasn’t a popular sport in the small city of Ratchaburi in Thailand where I grew up. As a child, I was sick a lot. It wasn’t anything serious, but I got colds constantly. A doctor told my dad, Montree, and my mom, Siriwan, that I needed to play a sport—either golf or tennis—so I’d be outside, and I could control my own schedule. We watched golf on TV, and I chose that over tennis. Tennis requires too much running. My dad found a teacher in Bangkok. It was an hour drive each way, so we went on the weekends. My dad owns a carwash, and my mom is a hairdresser. They worked around their schedules to take me. I liked golf immediately. It…

COLLIN MORIKAWA HAS A FOOT GUY. No, seriously. The 25-year-old two-time major champion employs two trainers to design his fitness regimen—one of whom, Rian Chab, focuses on Morikawa’s feet. “If we relate it to the human gait cycle, the foot should pronate and supinate,” Chab says. “If it gets stuck in any of those positions, it can negatively impact how the body moves. It’s not to say that the feet are the problem, but if the feet are neglected, other swing adjustments you make above might not stick as well as they could.” Welcome to the modern world of elite professional golf, which is more of a team experience than ever. The pro game has long been synonymous with rugged individualism, and it remains true that only one person hits the…

NATE BARGATZE TELLS jokes for a living, but it’s hard to imagine someone being more serious about golf. In addition to avidly playing and practicing amid a jam-packed touring schedule, he has gone as far as seeking professional help during a tournament. “Jason Day told me to club up, and I told him I’m playing in the Tennessee mid-am, ‘Is this illegal?’” Bargatze recalls with a laugh about texting his friend and former World No. 1. “He goes, ‘I mean, it’s wildly illegal.’ He’s like, ‘You can’t text professional golfers during a mid-amateur!’ But it was CO-VID, so I called him my virtual caddie.” Bargatze, 43, has worked hard at trying to become a great golfer. After getting into the game in his 20s, he describes his 30s as “a hard run…

ON THE SURFACE, a leadership job at a country club might not seem so different today than it was even in the 1960s. Some clubs still chase after those “simpler” times when golf was the ultimate priority, men wore jackets instead of denim and the menu in the dining room offered whatever you wanted provided it was steak, chicken or fish. But the reality is very different. Tastes were evolving even before the pandemic turned the past two years into a work-from-home experiment for many club members. A general manager is now essentially running seven businesses—a retail shop, pool, restaurant, maintenance facility, banquet hall, fitness center and entertainment venue—for groups that range from busy professionals with young kids to retirees. Head pros must keep those groups happy with fewer assistant pros…