Indice dei contenuti per February 2017 in Golf Digest

Inside this issue is the granddaddy of all course rankings, still recognized as the oldest and most authoritative order of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses. Started in 1966, the biennial list is now the result of 50,000 ballots of 954 Golf Digest panelists over an eightyear rolling period cast not only on the 350-some courses that contend for the top 200 in the country, but also courses reviewed for our rankings of the 100 Greatest Public and Best in Each State to be announced in the June issue. These rankings are the most statistically significant in our history, but we’re on a mission to improve with a little help from our readers. Dean Knuth, known as the Pope of Slope for his decades of work on the USGA’s handicapping system…

“Let the hands roll to get the ball to the hole.” You might get this shot only once or twice a round, but knowing how to get up and down from a bunker on the other side of the green can really help you score. When I won the Masters in 1981, I faced a long greenside bunker shot—about 80 or 90 feet—on the 17th hole on Sunday. The flag was all the way on the back of the green, and I was in a front bunker resting on the upslope. Fortunately, I caught it just right, hit it pin high about five feet from the cup and saved par to win my second green jacket. How did I play the shot? I changed my technique from a normal greenside…

“Pinch it off the tee, and the ball will really take off.” Whether it’s a tight treelined fairway or a short par 4, there are times when using your driver off the tee is unnecessary—or just plain foolish. Instead, consider using your 3-wood for better accuracy. You might lose some distance, but hitting your second shot from the fairway is going to greatly reduce your chance of making a bad score. Follow these steps to find the short grass with this club. David Leadbetter operates 34 golf academies worldwide. 1. TEE IT LOW ▶ Most 3-woods have a fairly shallow face, so you don’t need to tee the ball very high. A good height for the tee is about a quarter of an inch above the turf. This gives you…

‘I’m a feel player. I do a lot of things you don’t normally see.’ She hasn’t had her driver’s license for long, but Brooke Henderson, 19, already has logged time on a greens roller and a vehicle that smooths bunker sand. She testdrove both at her winter practice site, The Golf Lodge at the Quarry in Naples, Fla., courtesy of superintendent Rodney Whisman. What’s next to drive? Maybe a hockey Zamboni? That would make sense: Before becoming one of the world’s top-10 women’s golfers, Brooke played goalie on the Canadian national girls’ junior hockey team at age 14. Her father, Dave, played at the University of Toronto and once appeared in a 7Up commercial with Wayne Gretzky. Dad also was a decent golfer and passed on his knowledge of the…

New Year’s resolutions rarely stick, but maybe this one has some staying power: We asked Golf Digest Fitness Advisor Ben Shear to come up with the best golf exercises for an of-season program. No problem. He selected a dazzling dozen. First there are three to improve mobility and three to improve stability. You’re looking at those here. The other six come next month, once you’ve had a chance to work on this starter kit. In the March issue, Shear will give you three exercises for strength and three for power. In other words, once you’ve improved your stability and flexibility, you’ll be able to add the gas for more explosive shots. Are your shoulders flexible enough for the wall slide? MOBILITY 1 90-90 KNEE DROP Start with both legs bent…

MON3Y +G%LF When the 12-year deal between the United States Golf Association and Fox Sports was announced in 2013, it rocked the golf world because Fox had never televised the sport and because of the price tag, reported by Golf Digest at $1.1 billion—$93 million a year. But after two years of losses that sources say are in the tens of millions for Fox and some bumpy coverage situations, the unavoidable question arises: Is this what Fox and the USGA had in mind when they signed the landmark contract? According to sources familiar with the situation, tensions between the USGA and Fox increased after the network’s aggressive handling of rules controversies at the 2016 U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open. There was also significant dissatisfaction within the USGA, sources…

Ever wonder what your head pro makes? The superintendent? Maybe even the kid who collects the range balls? It’s impolite to ask, of course, so we’ve done the research for you. Golf in the United States is nearly a $70-billion industry. There are roughly 24 million golfers and 15,000 courses. The game employs about two million people and pays out $55.6 billion in annual wage income. From the richly compensated executives at golf’s leading associations to the minimum-wage workers who keep America’s courses in playing shape, we offer a peek into the paychecks of people in golf. $$$$$ ▶ $ Tim Finchem Outgoing commissioner, PGA Tour $5,655,352 • Wally Uihlein President and CEO, Acushnet (owner of Titleist and FootJoy) $4,978,638 (includes base salary of $995,200, plus bonus and other incentive…

Everybody wants to swing faster and hit the ball longer. But I make fewer than 20 driver swings a year where I use more than 75-percent effort. Why? The longest bombs happen when you get the right combination of launch and spin, and that comes from swinging under control and in good sequence—not from swinging harder. When you really need a long drive, you want to hit the center of the face and get that great launch. I’ll show you a couple of tips to make it happen. “Keep your feet anchored to the ground longer in the downswing.” LEVEL OUT YOUR TURN I bet you’ve heard “you need to turn more” plenty of times. I won’t disappoint. You do need to turn. But the driver works the best if…

“Sometimes a bunker is your friend.” When I design a hole, my goal is to give golfers of all abilities a way to play it. Often I try to present three distinct options for the tee shot, escalating in difficulty. If I can do that, I figure I have nearly everybody covered. Paramount is recognizing the path down a hole that best suits your game. The perceptive player learns to identify all the choices. That way, when there’s a change in weather or circumstances, you’re ready to pounce on the opportunity to play more aggressively—or be more conservative, if that’s what the situation calls for. Let’s take the par-4 18th at The Loxahatchee Club (illustrated) in Jupiter, Fla. It’s a course I designed in 1984, and our team renovated in…

Just put a circle on your scorecard? Don’t follow it with a triple There’s a statistic on the PGA Tour called Bounce Back, which indicates how well the pros recover from a bad hole. Many amateurs experience the opposite of a successful bounce back. They follow an excellent play, say a birdie or a maybe a par on a tough hole, with a train wreck on the next. Why does this happen? If you just made a great score, the tendency is to let your excitement carry to the next tee. You get jacked up, and that can cause havoc to your game. Grip pressure gets firmer, the backswing gets shorter and the transition into the downswing gets quicker. The result is a disjointed swing and poor contact. It’s no…

Ball went down an animal hole? Take a swig and go get it! Q I hit a shot into a bunker, and it rolled into a groundhog hole inside the bunker. What’s the ruling? Jacques garaNt, MagOg, queBec A Are you sure it was a groundhog hole and not, say, a tunnel into the Upside Down? If you’re certain it was a burrowing animal, take a swig from your flask, genuflect, then reach in there for your ball and hope no one’s home. The ruling is simple, whether you retrieve your ball or have to replace it. You’ll need to drop within one club-length of the nearest point of relief from Chateau Groundhog, no nearer to the hole. Do that in the bunker, and there’s no penalty. You can drop…

If you’re like a lot of us, you don’t run your fitness life through a trainer—you use a device on your wrist instead. Counting steps, logging running miles, calculating calories burned: You can track it all in one place. So why not do the same with your golf game? The following products allow you to get your yardages and see how many steps you took for the day, all in one place. APPLE WATCH The Apple Watch isn’t golf-centric, but download an app like the Ping Golf Workout and fuse your fitness with your golf. It tracks your steps, heart rate and golf stats, plus monitors your swing tempo and gives you yardages. $269 GARMIN APPROACH X40 It couples fitness-band benefits—like reading your heart rate, counting steps and calories burned—with…

MON3Y +G%LF PGA TOUR STARS TEND TO CONGREGATE in Florida, Texas and Nevada—and not just because they like fresh-squeezed orange juice, 10-gallon hats and roulette wheels. ▶ They make their homes there because of something those locations lack: state income taxes. ▶ One of the reasons that some non-American tour pros live in places like the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands is that these countries impose no income tax. Unlike U.S. citizens who must pay federal income tax on their worldwide incomes, regardless of where they live, most international players can escape nearly all income taxes in their original home country by moving to a tax haven and establishing their primary residence there. ▶ The financial benefits are huge. When you earn more than $1 million…

IT ’S EARLY TUESDAY MORNING of the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s, and Darren Clarke is a mess. He’s trudging toward the range with his head down and shoulders slumped. When he gets to me, I ask, “Are you all right, Darren?” He says, “No, I’m f------ not. I can’t hit the ball. I’m wasting my time. I might as well go home.” I had seen this before in Darren. I had talked him down off the ledge many times. I said, “Look, the weather is going to be terrible, and you’re the best bad-weather player in the world. Why would you think you’ve got no chance? Let’s have a look at you.” After watching him hit balls briefly, I gave him one thing to think about. Within two…

How many putters do you own? ▶ One ▶ Two ▶ Three to five ▶ Looking into renting a storage locker SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST READERS When your putting goes south, what’s the first fundamental to try and improve? Restore good rhythm to your stroke. Here’s a simple cadence to practice. When you make a stroke, think per-fect pace— three syllables. It’s like a pendulum ticking two beats to one. When you take the putter back, think per-fect. When you swing the putter through, think pace. Whether your stroke is long or short, the rhythm should stay the same every time. Using this cadence will help you strike the ball solidly, and smoothly. It helps eliminate any jerky or abrupt motions that can affect ball speed or the orientation of the…

The most frustrating moment in golf is… ▶ Watching the fivesome ahead fish for balls: 37% ▶ Chunking a short approach into the water: 36% ▶ Four-putting: 20% ▶ Multiple attempts to escape a bunker: 7% SOURCE: GOLF DIGEST READERS It’s frustrating when you hit a great drive and then chunk an iron from the middle of the fairway. With one lousy swing, your mind-set goes from Birdie time! to Don’t make a double bogey. Most poor contact comes from not getting off the back foot on the downswing. A lot of golfers rush the club down from the top and “throw” it at the ball instead of building momentum from the ground up. When the weight stays back, the club usually hits behind the ball. Your first move down…

WESLEY BRYAN AGE 26 BORN Columbia, S.C. STORY Won three times on the Web.com Tour in 2016, topping the money list and securing his PGA Tour card for 2017. GAINING CONFIDENCE I was contending and started to think: OK, so my game is good enough to win. Three events later, I won. That self-confidence got me those three wins, and I’m looking for the same kind of self-belief now that I’m on the PGA Tour. WHAT IT ALL MEANS After Elizabeth and I got married in 2012, we were living in a studio apartment, and I caddied in my spare time. That’s why my success means so much to our family. Playing card When you go from having no status in 2015 to winning Web.com Tour Player of the Year…

The ideal golf attire doesn’t require much thinking. Hybrid golf jackets are a good example. Throw this on to walk the dog, go to work and play a round. The jackets were made popular by RLX Ralph Lauren two years ago, and other apparel companies have followed with their versions. Why are they popular? They’re breathable, allow you to swing unencumbered and are water- and windresistant. Plus, they have cool features, like an internal smartphone pocket in this Nike jacket.…

I made two adjustments to my game last year, and it turned out to be the best season I’ve had as a pro. Three wins; my first major; I led the tour in scoring and finished in the top 10 in 15 of 22 PGA Tour events. What did I change? It started with my driver. I now almost always play a fade. I’m still driving it plenty far. I averaged 313 yards off the tee last year—but I’m hitting more fairways, and my misses are way better. I don’t snap-hook them by accident anymore. That’s the first part of my new game plan. The second is that I don’t waste those great tee shots. I spent a ton of time dialing in my short-iron distances and now go into…

MON3Y +G%LF SHORTLY AFTER THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, when the golf economy was running hot, Nike chairman and co-founder Phil Knight was asked at the annual stockholders’ meeting if the company could have found a better way to spend $100 million than by extending Tiger Woods’ contract for five years at $20 million a year. “No, it couldn’t,” Knight replied emphatically and, in terms of words, economically. ▶ When Knight said that in September 2000 at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Ore., it had a ring of truth. Woods had just won three consecutive major championships—the U.S. Open by 15 strokes, the Open Championship by eight and the PGA Championship in a thrilling playoff. Seven months later, he would complete the Tiger Slam at the 2001 Masters, becoming the…

Tour pros have it tough at tax time. Well, their tax preparers do, anyway. Golf pros compete for prize money in multiple states, and those states expect to take their cut in taxes. This means that, in addition to their federal 1040s, players are supposed to file tax returns in each state where they play. Most states these days make tournaments withhold state taxes from players’ winnings, says Jim Palsa, a CPA who handles taxes for a PGA Tour professional. Palsa gets a notice from the PGA Tour every month telling him how much the player made, and where. He can see which states don’t withhold—Virginia and Alabama are two. Could he maybe just . . . forget to file those state returns? “Our feeling has always been to file…