Tabla de contenidos para October/November 2023 en Golf Digest

A LOT OF JUNIOR GOLFERS DREAM about playing in college—traveling to top courses, training in state-of-the-art facilities, getting keys to the magic gear closet—but it has become increasingly competitive to earn a spot on a university roster. In 2020, only 6 percent of male high school golfers went on to play in college, down from 10 percent a decade ago. For female golfers, the trend is similar. With 3.4 million juniors now playing golf in the United States (a 36-percent increase since the pandemic) coaches will have an even larger pool to recruit from. Throw in the skewed perspectives that can result from social-media comparisons, and it is understandable that more high schoolers are feeling anxious about their chances. How do you really know if you have what it takes to…

WITHOUT A college draft in golf, players who harbor professional aspirations have no obligation to attend college. For years, pundits have speculated about when top junior golfers might begin to forgo the college experience as they do in some other sports. Yet golf remains unique. It rewards the kind of rounded skill set college provides. There are exceptions, of course, but often the game’s best players are those who spent their college years refining their games, forming competitive bonds with teammates and earning degrees. It’s a way of maturing the mind and having a backup plan if professional dreams aren’t realized. With that in mind, Golf Digest asked a variety of PGA Tour players who each earned their degree a question: How can future college golfers savor and maximize the…

AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH OF Pamela Liebman playing golf at Trump Bedminster shows her taking a phone call—while taking a swing. Keep in mind, this was no small task before the days of Bluetooth, and it required a playing partner to hold the long cord connecting Liebman’s phone to her headphones while she hit the shot. Such is life sometimes when you’re a real estate mogul and self-proclaimed “deal junkie.” As Alec Baldwin’s character in “Glengarry Glen Ross” says, “Always be closing.” Modern technology has made playing golf with such a hectic career easier, although a similar story about Liebman has become popular around the offices of the Corcoran Group, where she has worked for nearly four decades and served as the president and CEO since 2000. It involves her making…

DEMPSEY AND FIRPO Irvine, California—a master-planned city in Orange County—is known for its universities, its shopping-mall expanses and its proximity to Disneyland. About 45 minutes from downtown L.A. by car, it’s galaxies away in terms of temperament. Family oriented, with an emphasis on close community and competitive schools, Irvine is the sort of place that cultivates talent and prizes hard work. It also has a solid golf scene—23 public and private courses within a half-hour drive, a robust incubator. Soon, if all goes to plan, it will also be known for Rose Zhang. It’s a sultry July day in Manhattan, and Zhang and I are taking in the sights at the Whitney Museum on the Hudson River. Among the most celebrated amateur golfers in the history of the sport, Zhang…

THE EASIEST PATH to college golf has coaches flocking to you with scholarships in hand. It’s also the least likely. More often, players should expect to take at least the first step. If you’re not quite sure what that means, don’t worry. Most college golfers didn’t have a clue when they started out, either. A good first exercise is to research and construct a list of schools you want to consider. How big a school do you want? Where is it located? What is its academic profile and what are your areas of specialty? These are just some of the qualities worth weighing before asking if the practice range has grass or mats. Casting a wide net is encouraged but so is getting a sense of where you might fit in.…

THE BEAUTY OF college is that there’s always an extracurricular activity to match your interest. If you want to play golf, but you’re not good enough to make the varsity team or you don’t want the sport to consume your life, club golf could be the way to go. Like varsity golf, club golf provides competition among schools. It’s an opportunity to be part of a team in a new home, make friends with students in other majors and keep your “golf career” going without a big time commitment. “A lot of high school golfers don’t know about club golf, and if they did, they’d have a great reason to bring their clubs to the dorm,” says Branden Thompson, commissioner of the PGA National Collegiate Club Golf Association (NCCGA). “It’s an…

THERE ARE TIMES WHEN just getting a drive in the short grass is the priority. Windy days come to mind, or tight landing areas. Even super-long par 3s. When you need a tee shot you can rely on, try my go to technique to produce a lower ball flight that stays in play. Think of this as a “blanket drive,” because when you swing, you should feel like you’re “covering” the ball (above). I want my chest to stay over the top of the ball through the hitting area. Honestly, it’s more like an iron shot than a standard drive. You play the ball a touch farther back than normal in your stance, tee it a little lower, and grip down for more control. When you swing, commit to it.…

AS IT TURNS OUT, PGA TOUR rookie Davis Thompson shares more in common with Davis Love III than just his first name. Both are tall—Thompson is 6-foot-4, and World Golf Hall of Famer Love stands 6-foot-3—and both reside in St. Simons Island, Ga. In fact, Thompson’s father, Todd, is tournament director for The RSM Classic, which is hosted by Love and his foundation. Both players can also crush it, largely because of the ultra-wide swing arc and leverage they create at the top of their backswings, says Eric Eshleman, who has been coaching Thompson since he was 12 years old. The height of the club-head and the distance between Thompson’s hands and left toe (above, fourth image), Eshleman says, is reminiscent of Love, one of the game’s longest hitters in…

I left a five-footer an inch short in a playoff at a 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Monday qualifier. In the car I started yelling, slamming my hand on the steering wheel. Why am I playing? I can’t even get through a Monday! A month later, my conditional status got me into the field at the Lincoln Land Championship. I took a red-eye and drove three hours to get there. Thankfully I made it because I almost won. My dad, Kevin, is from China, and my mom, Julie, is from Indonesia. They both came to the United States after university for better opportunities. They met in dental school in California, moved to Oregon and have had their own practice for the past 26 years. My family is incredibly hard-working, but they…

THE WORK OF a golf-course superintendent is as much about artistry as it is agronomy, so Josh Smith’s hobby isn’t that far out there. When he isn’t spending 60 hours a week keeping Orinda Country Club looking proper in the San Francisco Bay area, Smith creates his handmade FlagBags, giving golfers a tangible—and durable—way to commemorate the most important courses in their lives. Smith repurposes “experienced” pin flags that have flown over some of the most iconic courses in the world into golf bags that take advantage of the flags’ virtually indestructible nylon. It’s a usable keepsake that you don’t have to worry about shrinking in the dryer or staining with some wayward mustard at the halfway house. It started in 2019, when Smith got a box of tournament flags.…

Myth 1: Qualifying is fair It’s reasonable to assume that the players who shoot the lowest scores in intrateam qualifying for a college tournament will always play in that tournament, but it can get complicated and emotional. Depending on the team, qualifying is generally two or three rounds to determine the five golfers who will play in an upcoming tournament. If a team is small or the top five players are obvious, qualifying might not happen at all. Players with a pattern of playing great in qualifying and shooting big numbers in tournaments will often sit. If a player performed well at a tournament the year before and didn’t qualify for it the next season, he might get an opportunity. A coach may even be persuaded to reward a player…

AGE 29 LIVES Scottsdale STORY Won two events in 2023, including the U.S. Open. AMATEUR MISTAKE A mistake I see amateurs make is using wedges that have too much bounce. These“game-improvement” wedges might help mis-hits, but they make it difficult to hit the correct shot. I’d suggest using a wedge with less bounce—the angle between the leading edge and the lowest point of the sole—and work on executing the proper shots. —WITH E. MICHAEL JOHNSON CLUB YARDS* DRIVER 310 3-WOOD 280 3-IRON 250 4-IRON 230 5-IRON 217 6-IRON 202 7-IRON 188 8-IRON 171 9-IRON 163 PW 146 51˚WEDGE 132 55˚WEDGE 118 59.5˚WEDGE 102 * CARRY DISTANCE DRIVER SPECS Titleist TSi3, 9°, Accra TZ Six ST 60 M5 shaft. Since this was photographed, I’ve switched to Titleist’s TSR3 with a Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green…

1 Bunker shot out of a buried lie in clear view of the clubhouse patio at lunch hour. 2 Tee shot in front of the foursome that your partner just convinced to let you play through. 3 Punch-out from the wrong fairway while the group on that hole waits for you to clear. 4 Shot six inches from the cartpath with a new set of irons. 5 First shot of a playoff after drinking at the 19th hole waiting for the other scores to come in. 6 Chip from a downhill lie with the parking lot 15 yards behind the green. 7 The provisional after you just shanked one dead right into what looks like poison ivy. 8 Approach shot on 18 when you’re pacing for a career round. 9…