Golf Digest June 2015

If you’re struggling with greenside bunker shots, I’ll bet you have misconceptions about two parts of the technique that’s commonly taught: opening the clubface and hitting behind the ball. Opening the face adds loft and bounce, which are critical in the bunkers. You need bounce to glide the clubhead through the sand, and loft is what sends the ball up and out. Many golfers try to open the face by pushing their hands forward at address. This actually takes bounce off the club and can lead to all kinds of bad shots. It also causes the clubface to point to the right. To compensate for that, you have to make an adjustment with your body, shifting your body lines well left of the target, and then swing the clubhead out to…

Can you squeeze out a few more yards driving it down the shiny side? Fifty years ago, when golf-course mowers had the wingspan of a Piper Cub, fairways were quickly cut down one side and up the other. The half that was mowed toward the green looked shiny, and the other half darker. In the 1970s, smaller, lightweight mowers were used for tighter cuts. Superintendents suddenly became artists, mowing stripes and even checkerboard patterns on their holes. But in recent years, some have reverted to the “half-and-half” method, saying diagonal stripes require constant turns in rough, damaging it. Others say the older method concentrates wear and tear in front of greens. So we asked our panel of experts: Is half-and-half mowing or striping patterns better? And can we get more roll…

Davis Love III and Dru Love have been exaggerating that peculiar Love strut lately, their backs more erect than usual, skinny chests puffed out farther, the bounce in the knees a little deeper. ▶ “Duck-footed and awkward,” Dru says. ▶ “Tall and goofy,” says Davis. ▶ Maybe we should all walk like that. On Feb. 24, hours before Davis was named the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for 2016, Dru, a sophomore at Alabama, won his first college golf tournament, the Puerto Rico Classic. It was a “Field of Dreams” moment every family wishes could happen to them, serendipity run amok. With Father’s Day approaching— it falls on Sunday of the U.S. Open, as it always does—it’s nice to look at the Loves and see what every parent should be shooting…

This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. The way you walk into a shot matters because it affects your accuracy. A lot of amateurs mistakenly approach the ball from the side, or they start from behind it but then go wide and come in from the side anyway. The more you walk in on an angle, the greater your chances for misalignment. For right-handed golfers, the target will appear to the right of where it actually is. Compounding this problem, many average golfers settle into their address position with their bodies before they aim the clubface. That can really throw off your alignment. If you want to improve your accuracy, walk into a shot the way most pros do. They come in from behind the ball, on…

When it comes to today’s golf balls, “soft” might be more ubiquitous than white. It doesn’t matter if they’re designed for the world’s best players or average choppers, soft is where it’s at. As one manufacturer told us: “We had to change all the balls on our range because no one wanted to hit a firm ball anymore.” In a survey of avid golfers by Golf Datatech, “feel” was cited as the most important factor in golf-ball playability over spin, durability and distance. That’s good news because feel has always been a critical part of how we evaluate golf balls for our annual Hot List. For 2015, this included extensive player testing at the Marriott Grande Vista in Orlando. (We black out all brand markings to keep it fair.) The…

I don’t think I’ve ever played the same iron shot twice, even on the range. Every shot has something new—a slight change in the lie, wind direction or how you feel over the ball. I’m German, but I’m not as technical as you might think. I’m a feel player. I’ll hit a draw or fade, vary the spin, go high or low. I play the shot that “speaks to me” at the time. A good example came during the third round of the U.S. Open last year. On the par-5 fifth hole, I drove it into one of Pinehurst’s sandy areas. I had a downhill lie, 205 yards, with an opening to the green. I could have played the shot any number of ways but chose to hit it low and…