Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2017 i Golf Magazine

DRIVER 1) Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 816 Double Black Diamond, 9°, Aldila Rogue Silver 125 MSI shaft, X-flex, 297 yards; $400 FAIRWAY WOOD 2) Callaway XR 16 Pro, 18°, Aldila NV 2KXV shaft, 275 yards; $250 IRONS 3) PXG 0311 (3), KBS Tour Hybrid 105 shaft, X-flex; $350; Callaway X-Forged (4) and Callaway MB1 (5-PW), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts; price n/a 3-iron: 245 yards 4-iron: 225 yards 5-iron: 215 yards 6-iron: 200 yards 7-iron: 185 yards 8-iron: 175 yards 9-iron: 165 yards PW: 150 yards PUTTER 4) Odyssey White Hot RX #2; 34"; $160 BALL Callaway Chrome Soft; $40 WEDGES 5) Callaway Mack Daddy 2, 52°, 130 yards and 56°, 115 yards; $90. Titleist Vokey SM5*, 61°, 100 yards; $110. All with True Temper Dynamic Gold…

IT'S EASY TO PREDICT that Jason Day, Rory McIlroy or Dustin Johnson will win in 2017. It's a lot harder (and a lot more fun) to try to pick the non-winners who will hoist that first trophy. Well, here goes. First, about last year. My 2016 pre-season predictions weren't perfect, but my top three choices for players who would win their maiden Tour events came through: Daniel Berger, Tony Finau and Branden Grace. As for my analysis, it goes beyond scoring average, which isn't great for forecasting. It's harder to shoot 65 in a major than it is on an easy course in calm conditions. My main predictive tool is Total Strokes Gained, adjusted for the strength of the field. (If a player shoots 65 when the field average is…

Like any malady, swing faults pop up when you least expect them. And the ones that linger leave your game in critical condition. Preventive medicine can stop card-wrecking shots before they happen, so we paged the best swing doctors in the business, each of whom has his own specialty: driving, putting or chipping. Turn the page and take three tips—for longer tee shots, purer putts and crisp chips—and call for a tee time in the morning. THREE QUICK SWING CURES It doesn't take a brain surgeon to know that splitting fairways, draining putts and knocking chips close will lead to some seriously low scores. These three skills are absolute musts. Unfortunately, technical flaws can creep in all too easily. If your game starts to falter in any of these areas,…

1 ADDRESS TWO BALLS as shown, holding your sand wedge in your left hand and your lob wedge in your right. Leave about six inches between the shafts. Your goal? Strike both balls at the same time. 2 TAKE BOTH CLUBS BACK and—to feel what not to do—roll your left wrist excessively and "pick up" the club with your right hand. Either move makes the shafts cross, sending you off-plane. Here comes the chunk! 3 START AGAIN! Only this time, swing your arms back in unison—it's a smooth rotation, not a wristy lifting motion— maintaining the six-inch distance between the shafts. Do it in slow-mo if need be, and let your upper body turn. 4 AT THE END OF YOUR backswing, parallel shafts are proof that you're on-plane and ready…

Your back aches. Your spine is tight. You feel about as loose as the Tin Man without his oil can. Buck up, you big stiff! You can cheat your way to a powerful, pain-free coil simply by tweaking your stance. Just consult the foot positions at right. One is sure to waken the long driver within. Bonus: No aspirin required. 1 SQUARED UP Recommended for the uber-flexible. If you can't turn your left shoulder under your chin on your backswing, this stance isn't for you. You'll feel tight and powerless. 2 FLARED OUT Turning your right foot out "unlocks" your hips, fueling a bigger turn. The more you flare, the longer your windup will be. (Flare your left foot to free up your downswing turn.) 3 FLARED & BACK In…

You're 80 yards from the green with a perfect lie. Time to attack the flag. Then you balloon your sand wedge and—plunk!—your ball falls far short of the green. Why? Odds are, you hit your wedges much too high, whereas Tour pros "flight" the ball lower and with the right amount of spin for that one-hop-and-stop action. You can do it too. All it takes is a setup adjustment. Copy these positions—and knock it tight! CHOKE DOWN Take your grip near the steel. This "stiffens" the shaft while making it feel lighter, a combo that creates faster clubhead speed and lower launch. HAVE A BALL Your short game deserves the best, so pay a little extra and play a quality ball. Tour-caliber orbs make it much easier to hit low…

HIP HOORAY! No one wants to find the thick stuff off the tee. By switching from a draw to a fade late in 2015, Johnson shot up 82 spots in the Tour's Left Rough Tendency stat while hitting more fairways. And it didn't cost him a single yard! At Oakmont, he drove it more than 30 yards longer than the field, on average. How? Check out his level hip turn. DJ knows—the more your right hip dips on your downswing, the greater the chance for a hook. HOT START Assume a "taller" posture and get the grip pointing at your buckle. NICE & WIDE For a full, wide turn, get your right hand as far away from your right ear as possible. DROP ZONE Allow your arms to fall from…

THE NEW YEAR is a time to look back and ahead. The game's future appears bright, and that's in part because of young, exciting talents like GOLF's 2016 Player of the Year, Dustin Johnson. It was a career season for Johnson. He won three times on Tour, including his breakthrough victory at Oakmont. It was there, on that final day, that he fulfilled his potential and became a major champion at last. Let's go back to that Sunday in June. Imagine the kind of pressure you have to overcome and the level of play you must maintain to win a U.S. Open. Add to that Johnson's heartbreaking history of near misses in majors. And add to that the Rules issue that hung over his head like the Sword of Damocles.…

You were 447th in the world when you won at Pebble Beach in February, your first victory in more than a decade. Was that more elation or relief? It was a relief—and disbelief. I went from not knowing where I was playing to having that completely turn around—now I was getting in all the big tournaments, a couple of majors, Augusta. It was hard to believe. What a year. Your win came with your Tour card. Was it difficult to remember which courses you tended to play well, having not been a Tour regular for several years? Oh, I remembered. I'd had a good run at Bay Hill and Hilton Head, and I'd played well at Tampa and the Memorial. You'd been in a bad slump. What changed at Pebble?…

Rules Man: My match-play partner bladed a shot over the green that hit our opponents' cart and then ricocheted into ours. I thought that if your ball hits an opponent's "equipment" you may replay the shot. The other guys argued that since the ball hit our cart as well, it's actually a two-stroke penalty on my partner. Who's right? —KEITH JOHNSON, WASHINGTON, DC Your teammate is more pinball wizard than pin-hunter. Lucky for you both, his thinned bank shot occurred in match play. Here, under Rule 19-3, your partner has the option to cancel the stroke and replay it without penalty, since the ball struck your opponents' equipment first. (If, say, the shot had miraculously deflected into the hole, you could ignore that choice and simply add a one-stroke penalty,…

PITCH SHOTS STAND STRAIGHT UP with the club in your right hand and the ball positioned in the middle of your stance. Allow your left arm to dangle against your left leg. TILT YOUR UPPER BODY to the left, sliding your left hand down the side of your leg. Keep your lower body still. Stop tilting when your fingers reach the top of your left knee. SOLE THE CLUB and take your grip. With your left shoulder below your right and more weight over your left foot, you're primed for a downward attack—and ultra-crisp contact. DRIVES WITH YOUR DRIVER, stand erect, with the club in your left hand and the ball off your left heel. Same drill, but now the goal is to tilt to the right, setting up an…

Long par 5s seem scary, but when they're downhill (and better yet, downwind), they're scoring holes. Take the par-5 18th at Kapalua's Plantation Course. Over the past two Tournament of Champions events, the Tour's second longest hole has yielded 136 birdies or better against just 12 bogeys or worse. The downhill, right-to-left design usually has the Maui trade winds at the players' backs, so it's reachable in two. Here's how to say "aloha" to birdie or eagle on long, downhill par 5s. 1 PAUSE FOR POWER At Kapalua, most pros aim up the right side and hit a draw, hoping to catch the speed slot in the middle of the fairway that can add 100 yards of roll. A trick for hitting a draw? Pause—literally—at the top of your backswing.…

ALLEN TERRELL (College coach, director of coaching at Dustin Johnson Golf School) [At a tournament] during his sophomore year, he double-bogeyed the first hole, so he's 2-over. Then we had a weather delay. He comes out [after] and eagles the next hole, then birdies the next five and wins his first event. That's the kind of competitor he is. KEITH SBARBARO (Vice president at TaylorMade) When DJ first came to TaylorMade headquarters [in 2007], I set us up with a round of golf with Phil [Mickelson]. On the fifth hole, into the wind, Phil and I hit a good one, and Dustin hits his about 18 yards farther. DJ shoots 31 on the front and is 1-up on Phil. This college kid was not at all intimidated playing with a…

Relaunching the venerable King name has been a boon to Cobra. The hits keep coming with F7 and F7+ drivers, which boast adjustability features and built-in smart technology. The King F7 has 5 percent more face area than the King F6, to help on off-center hits. The larger crown (made from "TeXtreme" carbon fiber) weighs 8 grams less than before, while an updated sole design uses three movable weights (one is 12 grams; the other two are 2 grams each) to dial in the CG. Place the heavy one in the back-center position for a higher trajectory and more forgiveness; the forward location for a lower, more penetrating flight and less spin; or the heel for draw bias. The forged titanium face is now thinner, for a bigger sweet zone…

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FOR MORE INSTRUCTION THAT FITS YOUR GAME, GO TO GOLF.COM HIGH HANDICAPPER You have potential but must fix some fundamental swing flaws. CHIP AWAY YOUR THREE-PUTTS Before you blame your putting stroke for every three-putt, take a closer look at your short game—in particular, your chipping and wedge play. If the average length of your first putt is greater than 20 feet, you're not hitting your short shots close enough to the hole, which puts a ton of stress on your putting game. Work on the following chipping drill in practice and you should quickly be able to cut your leave distance to under 10 feet, which will make two-putts a whole lot easier. First, lay your golf bag down about 18 inches in front of your ball, and without…

GAME CHANGERS I'M JUST WRITING TO THANK YOU for the amazing Justin Rose instruction story ("Be Clutch, Have Fun, Go Low," November). Two of Justin's four tips exactly describe the problems I've had with my game. For starters, I've never had a preshot routine. Same with rushing to get to the course—I'm almost never on time, but Justin's "swing your driver like a 7-iron tip" has really worked when I get to the first tee late. It helps slow me down, and it keeps me in the zone. This was exactly the kind of instruction story that makes it worth subscribing to your magazine. —FRED NAGELFEUER, VIA E-MAIL RULES RUMINATIONS PETER KOSTIS IS MY HERO! His recent column ("It's Tome for a Change") captured all of the frustrations that many…

DEAR JAY, I hope you're enjoying sitting at my desk. (Feel free to take the phone book and two pillows off the chair.) Anyway, since I created the Presidents Cup, it only seems right that I follow the tradition of U.S. presidents and leave a note for my successor. So let me start with my regrets: The private jet is far too pedestrian. Try to get a deal on Air Force One; no doubt Trump will want a bigger plane. Maybe as a sweetener you could give him some passes to our luxury suite at the WGC-Mexico Championship. And speaking of politics, I would encourage you to continue the Tour's policy of donating money to both parties. No matter who's in power, we need to be able to secure a…

I DON'T BELIEVE in God. Don't believe in the afterlife. Don't believe things happen that can't be explained. At least I didn't. Until I heard about this. It's the story of a perfectly ordinary guy named Bob (Big Bergy) Bergeson. Perfectly ordinary, that is, except for the odd fact that he seemed to be perfectly loved by everybody. Big Bergy was the happiest dentist you ever met. Every morning in Billings, Montana, he rarely made it past breakfast without gushing, "Every day's a bonus day!" And that's how he lived, as though life was some sort of forgotten present he got to reopen every day. "I loved him like a dad," says John Moscrip, a friend of Big Bergy's son, Robb (Little Bergy). "He was just one of the greatest…

To steady your stroke, take a wider, more hunched-over stance and grip down on the handle. A GENTLE BREEZE is one thing, but in severe winds, golf becomes an exercise in frustration. A gust from the gods can blow a "perfect" shot into a hazard or carry it over the green. High winds affect your putts, too—and not just the roll of your ball. A 30 mph blast can blow your putterhead off line and knock your body off balance. I remember one blustery round watching Payne Stewart six-putt from 40 feet. The wind was so strong that his ball made a U-turn away from the hole and returned to its starting spot. Only someone with Stewart's easygoing demeanor could have taken it in stride, as he did. You can't…

We're drinking protein smoothies today. They're from Garden of Life. It's called a "raw meal"—a blend of essential nutrients for the day. I admire your commitment to health and fitness. Do you cook for yourself on Tour? Yeah, I try to get hotel rooms that have their own kitchens. It's nice to go on the course and eat real meals instead of having a bar or some nuts and berries. You played college golf at Oklahoma State, a factory for future PGA Tour players. What was that like? It was awesome. The coaches know that if you go to school there, you want to be on the PGA Tour, so there was no structure in practice. You just go and do what you need to do, because they trusted that…

1 COMMIT! Every read Patrick makes is spot-on— or that's what he tells himself. There's power in trust. If you think you nailed the read, you're more likely to make a good stroke. Confidence can be more important than good mechanics. 2 READ WITH YOUR FEET The feet are great at detecting slope and speed, as Reed well knows. If the ground under your spikes is soft or spongy, expect a slower roll. Firmer turf? Look for a much bigger rollout. 3 LEARN TO ADJUST On longer putts, Patrick opts for more of a "feel" read, which is mostly about distance. From inside 15 feet, he's more precise, visualizing the path from ball to cup—then rolling it right on that line. Think "Short putt, tighter read." 4 CHECK THE GRAIN…

For the second straight year, Jordan Spieth led the Tour in Putts per Round and Putting Average. Obviously, his "look-at-the-hole" technique works. It's time you gave it a try. Just keep the following in mind. NO DON'T rotate your body and head to look at the hole. Notice how this error pulls your shoulders off plane. This putt has no choice but to miss to the left. YES DO swivel your head toward the target, tracing a line from the ball to the hole with your eyes. You should feel as though you're cocking your chin to the left. Notice how this keeps your shoulders on-plane. This putt is going drain-o!…

Today's drivers get lots of ink—stay tuned in March for our annual ClubTest—but most of the impressive technologies engineered into them also find their way into their smaller brethren. What's more, some high-tech fairway woods provide nearly the same COR as do drivers. That means you just might launch a 3-wood as far as you hit the big dog. As for adjustability, today's fairway woods can be tweaked for CG location, trajectory, spin rate, shot bias and loft. Here are eight hard-hitting new models to help you find more fairways and even reach some par 5s in two. CALLAWAY BIG BERTHA FUSION $250; GOLF.com/callaway This club has the need for speed. Callaway's forged face cup, made of high-strength Carpenter 455 stainless steel, amps up ball speed across the hitting area.…

IN THE 2000S, anyone who watched Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy came away mesmerized by the New Zealand mountain scenery. Billionaire real estate developer Julian Robertson provided a similarly awe-inspiring visual experience for golfers when, in 2008, NBC aired the "Young Guns" shootout from his stunning Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers courses. That came on the heels of Kiwi Michael Campbell's thrilling win at the 2005 U.S. Open. New Zealand was, for a time, H-O-T hot. Now, for reasons new and old, it's time to return. As Gandalf himself (actor Ian McKellen) said, "How can New Zealand not bewitch anyone who visits?" Here are just a few enticements to help make the 6,200-plus-mile, 13-hour trek from the U.S. west coast to the Land of the Long White Cloud…

BY THE DOG DAYS of 2005, Gene Sauers—an old-school, wet-a-line Georgia-boy touring pro with a country-club mullet and a near-perfect homemade swing—had had enough. He was a 21-year-old kid when he joined the Tour in 1984, and for a long time he led the life. Dinners with his buddies on Saturday nights. Looking up his payday in USA Today on Monday mornings. Good times. But did he really appreciate his good fortune? He'll tell you: Probably not. Sauers won workingman's tournaments in 1986, "89 and "90. He contended at the 1992 PGA Championship. Ten years later, he won the Tour stop in Calgary. But then came 2005. The year, for him, was short and dismal. His game was bad and his attitude worse. He missed the cut in Reno in…