Tabla de contenidos para October/November 2024 en Golf Digest

I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE crushing the singles scene. Not to say they aren’t handsome, charming fellas who wouldn’t have met such desirable women in due time, but the Internet has no doubt hastened the efficiency and rapidity with which they land dates. When it comes to overachieving, it’s also a new era for being a golfer. Like dating apps, so do golf collectives—powered by digital connectivity—land tee times for users with various understandings. Any private club member can download Thousand Greens, set up a profile, and essentially swipe right to set up golf games. The most expensive tier of membership is only $249 per year. Promptly reimburse your host for guest fees and don’t act like a sociopath, and there’s no limit to where you might play. The Friars…

WHEN YOU’RE IN THE “real world” and somebody doesn’t pay you for a service provided, your options are straightforward. Send a letter or two, knock on some doors and maybe even file a lawsuit. It will probably come as no surprise that professional golf at the top level is not the real world. My central income has always been teaching regular, recreational players, probably like yourself. Coaching tour players used to be a nice-to-have bonus, but now it can be life-changing if the player is at the very top. If I’m getting paid a percentage—I’ve seen coaches take anything from three percent to 10—and your player has a top-10 season on the PGA Tour or LIV, we’re talking seven figures. That’s serious business. The gusher of money that has come into…

I HAVE THE UNLIKELIEST GOLF friend that you need to meet, because a round of golf with him will change your life. Or at least inspire you to look at the world differently. Jim Yong Kim was born in 1959 in Korea, one of the poorest countries in the world at the time. His father was a dentist, and when Jim was 5 years old, his family moved to Muscatine, Iowa, right next to a golf course. That’s where most good stories begin. He started playing at nine years old and got down to scratch. “I loved the game, just crazy about it,” he says. I’ll have to cut short his resume, but to give you an idea, he was president of his high school class, quarterback of his football…

AT PGA TOUR EVENT, very little a player does is left to chance, especially when it comes to a pre-round warm-up. Unless the range is completely packed and there are no options, a player is going to do whatever he can to set a stage that lets him get his preparation done fully and comfortably. For example: Virtually every player would prefer to hit into the wind in a warm-up, because doing so provides faster feedback on how the ball is flighting and curving. If the predominant breeze is across the range, the goal becomes getting to the side of the tee that lets the player hit his preferred shot shape—so it curves into that wind as much as possible. If there’s no wind, the priority is to favor the…

STEVE OTTO, THE R&A’S chief technology officer and one of the keepers of the 100-year study of driving distance, says the plan to roll back distance through a shorter golf ball, formally announced late in 2023 and scheduled to be implemented in 2028-’30, has been a deliberate, scientifically rigorous process. In turn, any potential decision to roll back the driver would be just as robust and one that’s still on the ruling body’s mind. (The USGA is the governing body for the United States and Mexico, and the Royal & Ancient governs the rest of the world.) Otto addressed attendees at the 2024 World Scientific Congress of Golf at England’s Loughborough University in July during a talk that detailed the scientific efforts behind the R&A’s research across all phases of…

Q: I SEE A LOT OF PGA TOUR PLAYERS USING 7-WOODS. I HAVE ONE, TOO, AND IT’S TERRIFIC. GIVEN THAT, SHOULD I LOOK AT A 9-WOOD TO REPLACE MY 5-IRON, WHICH I HAVE TROUBLE HITTING CONSISTENTLY? My friend, you have come to the right place. One of us recently made that very switch and has been extremely pleased with the results. The 9-wood is easier to hit, goes way higher and powers through the rough. It’s also a club you can use from the tee on at least one par 3. However, what makes a 9-wood easier to hit? For starters, a 9-wood imparts more spin than an iron or hybrid. This allows the ball to fly higher and can help you hold a green from longer distances. It performs the…

WHAT TO EXPECT At first impression, the new Karoo Course at Cabot Citrus Farms in Florida strikes chords of both familiarity and otherness. With its washes of sand, nibbled-on bunker edges and burbling swaths of turf, it is of the moment in golf architecture—a clear branch off the tree of Sand Hills and Bandon Dunes, nurtured in the sun of Sand Valley, Streamsong and Ohoopee with a distant genetic chromosome from Pinehurst. It is also alien, a torn and riven landscape of vertigo-inducing obfuscation plied with hidden pathways, orphaned pines, trap doors and scabrous, sulfur-smoking pits. The phantasmic Karoo landscape comes from the imagination of architect Kyle Franz, who designed it the Pine Barrens over the top of course at the former World Woods Golf Club near Brooksville, Fla., an…

Ritchie Smith, the longtime swing coach of Min Woo Lee and his major-winning sister, Minjee, describes Min Woo as “a squiggle.” Whereas Minjee is a straight line—organized and disciplined—Min Woo is creative, playful and unpredictable. It makes sense then that Min Woo’s ascension to the PGA Tour was somewhat unexpected. “I didn’t necessarily love golf when I was younger,” Lee says. “I quit for a year when I was 11 because I thought it was a boring, old-man’s sport. I really liked soccer, [Australian Rules] football, taekwondo and lifting weights. I enjoyed them much more than golf.” It was only when Lee learned to crank up his driver speed and hit the ball longer than older kids that he started thinking about a future in the sport. He would quickly…

Flight School Top teacher Michael Breed explains how understanding curve can improve our swings ONE DIFFICULT ASPECT OF golf is that the solutions to many of our misses are counterintuitive. To help us better understand our common swing faults, we held a Golf Digest Happy Hour with Michael Breed, who is ranked among Golf Digest’s 10 best teachers in America. The live webinar was offered exclusively for Golf Digest+ members. The following Q&A selected from the Happy Hour has been lightly edited for clarity and concision. Are there any misconceptions that golfers have about finding a repeatable ball flight? Most of you struggle because you’re chasing the perfect golf swing, but the perfect swing isn’t necessarily the same for everybody, and it is absolutely not a straight golf shot. Many…

PATIENCE AND PLANNING are two words golfers at the highest level lean on when they play a golf course. For artists at the highest level, painting one isn’t much different. Aimee Smith has learned a lot about both of those activities in recent years. The Nashville-based artist had never stepped foot on a course until 12 years ago, but now she makes her living by creating them on canvases, a process that can take months and countless careful brushstrokes. In between, she discovered a true—albeit unexpected—love for the game. “I’m a nerd, so I delved into it with the history of the courses and the architects,” Smith says. “I was fascinated by that aspect, and so it just made sense to paint golf courses. I had a few friends reach…

BYEONG HUN “BEN” AN HAD just built a new house and become a first-time dad. His personal life couldn’t have been better. But then following the 2020-’21 PGA Tour season, he lost his tour card. It was a devastating blow for a man who in 2009—at age 17—became the youngest player to win the U.S. Amateur. Not sure what to do, An contemplated taking some time off. His coach, Sean Foley, whom An had hired just a few months earlier, thought it was time for a frank conversation. “I said, ‘Benny, it’s time we’re deeply honest with each other. Your attitude hasn’t been good enough,’ ” says Foley, who has coached several top tour pros including Tiger Woods. “I told him, ‘For the next three months we’re going to do…

THE UPHILL PAR-4,  478-yard 15th hole at Bethpage Black (pictured here), site of next year’s Ryder Cup Matches, was the toughest hole relative to par in all three majors contested there. The hole almost always plays into the wind, and the final 200 yards ascends to a green 50 feet above the fairway. Not all uphill par 4s play the same, but you’ll avoid big scores on most of them if you stick to these sensible strategies. Adjust your stance and swing Before you play the hole, here are a few swing tips for uphill lies. The tendency is to mistakenly hang back, hoping to lift the ball into the air. To combat this, maintain pressure on the inside of your trail foot as you turn back against it, and start…

A STEEP, LEFTWARD downswing path, coupled with an open clubface, is one of the biggest contributors to hitting a weak slice. The club moves too much across the body, from outside the target line to inside of it, making it tough to keep the ball from curving way to the right. To get the face and club in a functional impact position, a slicer usually starts the downswing by either spinning the hips or upper body open—or both—and flicking the club outward. Instead, you want to feel like the club is coming into impact more from behind you and your arms are dropping down and then moving out to the right of your target through impact. The following drill will do just that and get your swing direction back on track.…

Architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. fields a question about the importance of trees on golf courses. Jones Jr. began designing courses with his father, Robert Trent Jones, in the 1960s and has built more than 200 in countries around the world, including Chambers Bay in Washington and Hogs Head in County Kerry, Ireland. Golf Digest: In the past two decades there has been a major movement among architects and clubs to remove trees from their landscapes, typified by dramatic deforestations at places like Oakmont and Congressional’s Blue Course. There are valid agronomical reasons for it, but do you believe tree removal has gone too far? Jones: Yes. When it comes to clear-cutting trees for views, it can be overdone. Superintendents have rightly been concerned about too much shade on the…

Our latest list of the Best Young Teachers in America stands at an all-time high of 191, including 59 newcomers. This impressive group of instructors under 40 represents the unprecedented growth of golf in recent years. ▶ What makes them stand out? Most notably their passion for making regular golfers better, but there’s a lot more to it than just a love of the game. These teachers are equally adept at giving lessons using 3-D imagery as they are with an alignment rod and an impact bag. ▶ They teach from one end of the country to the other at private clubs, golf resorts, driving ranges, municipal courses, indoor simulator facilities and online. ▶ Here we will reveal their names and give you a taste of their abilities as some…

WHEN PGA TOUR PLAYER Sam Ryder found himself 6 over par through eight holes in the first round of the Honda Classic, he knew he needed to do something to change his mojo. He had sometimes used oral nicotine pouches to rev up for gym workouts or on the range before super-early tee times. So he popped one in and went to the next tee. Ryder birdied six of the last 10 holes, following his front-nine 40 with a 31 on the back. “I needed a little jolt there, and I went on a nice run. I left the pouch in for the rest of the round,” Ryder says. “There are times like that when you don’t feel like you’re clicking, and nicotine can help. I’m not going to do…

EACH FALL, GOLFERS invoke the “leaf rule” to lobby for a free drop when they can’t find their ball under a pile of foliage. Some use it as a concession to appease a frustrated opponent. Others claim it as justification for avoiding their own lost-ball penalty, emphatically asserting the Rules of Golf supports it. Is it an official rule? Yes, in some instances. It takes some explaining. Irrespective of the official rules, the act of taking a free drop after losing a ball in a spot where it should be found seems logical. Why should you receive the same penalty as someone who just sliced one out-of-bounds? Unfortunately, in many cases the rules are not so lenient. Rule 18.2 states that “your ball is lost if not found in three…

A LOT OF MISSES WITH your shorter irons are a result of hitting the ball too high. I should know: I’m a high-ball hitter, and I’ve been working with my coach, Eric Eshleman, to flight my irons down more. I want to keep them out of the wind as much as possible—and so should you to take advantage of your proximity to the hole. Next time you’re at the range, grab your 7-iron or 8-iron and hit some shots with these key things in mind: 1) Stand a little taller at address with more weight on your left side than than normal and the ball roughly center in your stance; 2) take the club back without your weight noticeably shifting into your right foot (near right); and 3) make a three-quarter…

Size Matters More than four decades ago, the first steel drivers like the so-called “Pittsburgh Persimmon” from TaylorMade were barely the size of today’s hybrids. Today, the TaylorMade Qi10 Max is nearly four times the size, its forgiveness has tripled and much of its face trampolines balls faster than dead-solid hits did a generation ago. Still, after all that Brobdingnagian growth, tour players are less likely to hit a fairway than they were when drivers were made of wood. Such is progress.…

Even the most beautiful paintings need to be touched up. This summer, Hudson National Golf Club, an alluring Tom Fazio design overlooking the Hudson River 40 miles north of Manhattan, completed a renovation that touched every element of the course. The work, carried out by Fazio and his team, focused on complicating driving decisions for longer players by adding and adjusting bunkers and fairway shapes. Each green was rebuilt, and several have been redesigned with expansions and new short-grass surrounds. Opened in 1996, Hudson National has been a fixture on the second half of Golf Digest’s ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Courses since 2005—the renovation could set it up for a leap forward.…

RISK/REWARD HOLES ARE exactly as they’re described. They present golfers with choices and ask them to make decisions about how to play the hole based on a calculation of what tactic might give them the most realistic chance of making a low score. That choice is to risk hitting a shot over or around a hazard—usually a bunker, water feature or some other form of penalty area—to gain an advantage on the next shot—usually a shorter or more open approach to a green, a better lie or a better view. Pull it off and you have your reward. Fail, and it’s time to pay the piper. Most courses in the U.S. don’t present clear choices. They simply require golfers to hit the ball straight. Anywhere in the fairway is good,…

THE NEIGHBORHOODS AROUND Bay Hill Club in Orlando are notoriously maze-like, and on a March morning in 1999, I couldn’t find Payne Stewart’s house. He lived just off the 12th tee of the course, and I’d been to his home before, but somehow was looking on the wrong side of the street. Suddenly a barefoot guy in shorts and a t-shirt sprang into the street and slapped the hood of my rental car, waving his arms and yelling as though warning of a washed-out bridge. It was Stewart, of course, as theatrical and extroverted as you saw on TV. When Stewart comes to mind, I don’t see the celebration when he holed the putt on the final hole at Pinehurst to win the 1999 U.S. Open. I see that snippet…

Both inflation and golf’s surging demand have contributed to rising green fees, which the National Golf Foundation says have climbed 16 percent cumulatively in the U.S. over the past four years. To help you find more bang for your buck, we tasked our 1,800+ courserating panelists to identify the best value courses in the country—courses combining compelling architecture with reasonable green fees. 1. Bethpage State Park (Black) Farmingdale, N.Y. New York State resident: $44-80 Non-resident: $88-160 2. The Golf Courses of Lawsonia (Links) Green Lake, Wis. $70-135 3. Rustic Canyon G. Cse. Moorpark, Calif. $24-104 4. Pacific Grove Golf Links California $44-82 5. Wild Horse G.C. Gothenburg, Neb. $61-75 6. George Wright G. Cse. Hyde Park, Mass. Boston resident: $46-55 Non-resident: $55-62 7. Charleston Municipal G. Cse. South Carolina Charleston…