Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Golf Magazine

SCAN This Photo to watch a video of this lesson. HOW IT WORKS Invisible watermarks on select photos act as gateways to bonus videos. With the Digimarc app, your smartphone or tablet recognizes the watermarks and automatically delivers the content to your device. 1 Download and open the Digimarc Discover app on your smartphone or cameracapable tablet. The app is free and is available at the iTunes store for Apple devices and at the Google Play market for Android devices. 2 Position the phone four to seven inches above any photo bearing the yellow SCAN THIS PHOTO label (example, top), as if you were taking a picture (flash optional). If you have access to a Wi-Fi connection, downloads will be faster. 3 Hold the camera steady. The app will click…

WHICH JULY STORIES AND COLUMNS DREW THE MOST LETTERS? ENGLISH TEE THAT THE BRITS haven’t completely deserted common sense (despite the Brexit vote) is quite clear in the July article, “How to Be British.” Their commitment to a sensible pace of play (“three hours is seen as more than enough”) and their lack of interest in tallying scores (“treat the game as recreation, not as the bar exam”), rangefinders and, by implication, the latest technology inclubs and balls, should suggest to all of us double- digit-handicappers out there that we’re taking the game—and ourselves—a bit tooseriously. DAVE MCDOWELL,ANN ARBOR, MICH. YOU KO, GIRL! I’M JUST WRITING to tell you how much I enjoyed Marika Washchyshyn’s recent interview with Lydia Ko (“Under Pressure,” July 2017). It’s refreshing to see a sports…

For much more from Alan, go to GOLF.com/shipnuck I’VE PRETENDED to be thrilled for my friends. Through gritted teeth, I’ve added jovial comments to social media posts, and I have faked enthusiasm for all the latest in mahogany plaques. But dang it, I just can’t pretend any longer: No, I’m not happy you made a hole-in-one. No, I don’t want to hear the details. No, I don’t even want a free drink... unless I can splash it in your face. I hate every one of you who has made a hole-in-one. I’m not jealous; it’smuchdeeper than that—I’m bitter. In case you can’t tell by now, I’ve never made an ace. I’ve never even seenone. On two separate occasions friends in the group in front of me have dunked one, but…

Follow Joe Passov on Twitter@JoePassov HOT TRACKS Golden Horseshoe (Gold) Williamsburg, Va. 6,817 yards, par 71 Architects: Robert Trent Jones Sr. (1963); Rees Jones (1998, 2017) colonialwilliamsburg.com LEGENDARY historical names are indelibly linked to Colonial Williamsburg. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry all logged serious time here in Virginia’s Tidewater region during the run-up to independence. Of similar legend—at least in golf architecture circles— is Robert Trent Jones, who put Colonial Williamsburg on the golf map with his 1963 design of Golden Horseshoe’s Gold course. Jones once favorably compared his creation to Augusta National. While Trent Jones’s son Rees won’t go quite that far, he does acknowledge the stellar job that his father did with the course: “The original tailor,” he once said, “cut a great suit.” Rees would…

Follow Jessica Marksbury on Twitter @Jess_ Marksbury MUCHMORE WITH BOB Watch a video of Jessica’s full, exclusive interview with Bob at Scottsdale National Golf Club, available only at GOLF.com/roundwith We’re drinking Louis XIII Cognac, neat. It’s very nice! I had occasion to drink this for the first time about two months ago, and I’ve grown affectionate of it. We’re here at your club, Scottsdale National. What’s it like to have your own course? I get to come over here every day. And the membership is very small, so it’s wide open and pristine. Our rule book says: “There are no rules.” Seen any egregious behavior? No. Our members like being able to pick up their phone and make a call. They like to once in a while wear denim, or…

1 Loosen Up Set up to the ball normally, making sure to shake out your arms and wrists before gripping the club (tension almost forces you into a rigid, one-piece takeaway). Bend toward the ball, with your arms hanging freely, before flexing your knees. Now you’re an athlete. 2 Hinge Back the Club Without moving anything else, hinge the club straight back with your wrists, keeping the back of your left hand flat and facing away from your body. It should feel like your right wrist is flexing backwards and up. Congrats! You’ve just added a speed lever. 3 Swing Your Arms While holding the hinge established in step 2, swing your left arm back and across your chest, keeping intact the connection between your upper left arm and your…

Duffing a chip is a roundkiller, to say nothing about the embarrassment that comes with it. Swap a red face for some red numbers by striking the ground with the bounce that’s built into your wedge, not with the leading edge. Your “sole search” starts now. 1.Cover the sole of your wedge with ink using a non-permanent marker (right). Don’t worry—it’ll come off. In fact, that’s the point of this drill. 2.Hit a few chips. Your goal? To avoid overleaning the shaft through impact, a costly error that causes the leading edge to dig. My advice is to position the ball in the middle of your stance, keep your wrists firm throughout, and sync-up the movement of your arms and body. 3. You’ll know you’re correctly brushing the grass with…

NAIL YOUR ADDRESS Two keys to Patrick’s setup are balance and aim. Make sure your weight is evenly distributed between both feet, and even more important, between your heels and toes. TURN YOUR TRUNKA huge key for Patrick is to keep his rock-solid setup intact by rotating his trunk around this framework while syncing up his arms and body (as he’s done in the photo at right). OWN THE CLUBTwo things determine what the ball does: shaft movement and clubface position. Like Patrick, learn to control what the club is doing at every step of your swing.…

Where The Game Meets The Good Life (WAY) UP IN THE AIR Beating the late summer heat by heading for cooler elevations is a tradition that dates back to the early days of North American golf. Since the 1880s, pleasantly warm days, cool nights and, yes, extra distance on your drives have been the prime attractions of teeing it up in the mountains. Toss in spectacular scenery, a dizzying variety of lies and the pleasing puzzle of clubbing down (but by how much?), and it’s easy to see why mountaintop golf is an experience like no other. Here’s a quartet of high-country destinations that check all the right boxes. The Broadmoor Colorado Springs, Colo. Elevation: 6,230 feet The Golf:With 18 holes created by Donald Ross, another 18 by Robert Trent…

You’ve probably been told countless times to hit two to three inches behind the ball from the sand. That’s great if you generate a lot of clubhead speed, but if you’re not as strong as you used to be, you might hit the shot a little fat—and leave it in the bunker. There’s an easier way, and it doesn’t involve taking that much sand. Here’s how it works. Make your normal swing, but instead of worrying about where the clubhead should enter the sand, simply think about sliding it under the ball and letting the club’s loft carry the ball up and out. To do this, soften your lead elbow and cup—that is, slightly bend back—your leading wrist after impact. This will allow the clubhead to pass your hands early,…

BALL Callaway Chrome Soft; $40 DRIVER 1)PXG 0811X, 9°, Graphite Design Tour AD MT 5 shaft, S-flex, 255 yards; $850 FAIRWAY WOODS 2)PXG 0341X, 15°, Graphite Design Tour AD DP 6 S shaft, 220 yards; PXG 0341, 18°, Graphite Design Tour AD DI 5 SR shaft, 205 yards; $650 each HYBRIDS 3)PXG 0317, 19°, 195 yards and 22°, 185 yards. Both with Graphite Design Tour AD DI 75 R shafts; $400 each IRONS 4)PXG 0311 Xtreme Dark, 5-PW, UST Mamiya Recoil 670 F4 shafts, S-flex; $3,600 for set of 8 5-iron: 168 yards 6-iron: 158 yards 7-iron: 148 yards 8-iron: 138 yards 9-iron: 128 yards PW: 112 yards WEDGES 5)PXG 0311 Xtreme Dark Sierra, 54° (bent to 53°), 85 yards and 58°, 65 yards. Both with UST Mamiya Recoil 670…

Follow Dave Pelz on Twitter @pelz_golf DON’T WORRY— you’re not the only one who struggles in the super-short stuff. Shots from tight lies, particularly pitches requiring less than full power, challenge golfers at every skill level, including many PGA and LPGA Tour players. And for good reason—these are really difficult shots with a really small margin for error. Understanding the parameters of a problem is the first step in turning a weakness in your game into a strength, so let’s define what we mean by tight lie. My definition of a tight lie is when the golf ball is sitting with an eighth of an inch or less space beneath it, on a surface so firm you can’t take a normal divot. From such a lie, there are two optimal…

MOUNTAIN MAN With so many golfers cooling off at higher elevations in August and September, I asked Tour winner Tony Finau to name his favorite mountain course. “Soldier Hollow (Gold),” said the Utah native of this layout 45 miles east of Salt Lake City. “I have good memories of winning the State Amateur there [in 2006]. The greens are always good, and for a mountain course it has a lot of character.” The course also played host to the 2012 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship. BRAE NEW WORLD The best under-the-radar course in 2017 is Stoatin Brae (Gaelic for “Grand Hill”) in Augusta, Mich., two hours west of Detroit. The sixth course from Jon Scott and his family at their Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort is a design…

Powered by the Top 100 Teachers in America You have noticeable errors in your swing. Who doesn’t? Unfortunately, any attempt you make to correct them leads to even greater disaster. It’s like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube—you finish one side only to jumble the other five. The solution? Attack diseases, not symptoms. On the following pages, Top 100 Teacher Tim Cooke unravels the common weekend-player mistake of standing up through impact and shows why applying the “obvious” fix—staying bent forward— is akin to that pattern-killing turn of the Cube that stymied you as a kid. No cheats required: Here’s the solution, in three easy steps. 29 Proven Ways to Shoot Your Best Scores Ever!…

BUY THIS BOOK! Find out everything you wanted to know about the release in World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame member Jim Hardy’s latest book, The Release: Golf’s Moment of Truth, available in hardcover and Kindle editions on Amazon.com, or straight from the legend himself at planetruthgolf.com ($26, 244 pages). ONE MOVE TO UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL Matching your release to your swing adds yards in a hurry When golfers hear the term “release,” they automatically think of what the club, arms and hands do after impact. In reality, the release begins as soon as your hands reach waist height in the downswing and continues until your hands reach waist height on the target side of impact (see Rory, right). In fact, it’s the pre-delivery part of the release (what happens before…

PRESENTED BY FULL SWING SIMULATOR Two-time U.S. Open host Bethpage Black begins with a bang: a 430-yard par 4 that dogs wildly right to a green that slopes hard from back to front. Lucas Glover made double here in the opening round of the 2009 Open, en route to a two-stroke win over Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Ricky Barnes. I’m guessing that Glover didn’t see that coming, but therein lies the goal when tackling tough openers: survival. (Indeed, Glover birdied the hole the following day.) Here’s how to take your lumps with a smile—and save strokes so you can go low as the course gets a little friendlier. 1 THINK: “SLOW” The first tee at Bethpage Black is perched above the fairway, providing a bird’s-eye view of the torment…

Philly-based finance executive Gary Daniels, 63, is a stud. How many golfers can claim to hold regular and senior champion titles simultaneously—at three clubs? “Golf is my game,” says Daniels, a 1-handicapper. “But I found a new gear after eliminating the left miss, and I have Top 100 Teacher John Dunigan (White Manor C.C., Malvern, Pa.) to thank for that.” As Gary explains, he often held the face shut during his takeaway, then simply hoisted the club to the top. “Now,” Dunigan says, “he allows the face to rotate slightly, which encourages him to turn his shoulders instead of lifting his arms.” It’s a two-turn move that can make you longer and straighter.…

Regardless of how you voted in the presidential election, tequila is an import we all can celebrate. Katie Schnurr (below), a certified tequila specialist at Arizona’s highest-rated Mexican restaurant—La Hacienda by Richard Sandoval, at the Fairmont Scot tsdale Princess—explains the allure. “For a long time, tequila had a bad rap,” she says. “It was the party-spirit, shot-glass, salt-andlime, hangover thing. Today, drinking and discussing tequila is just as sophisticated as talking about wine or whiskey.” Schnurr touts itsbenefits (“only60caloriesa shot”) and assures us that “as long as you’re drinking a pure, quality tequila”—it will say 100 percentagave azul (blue agave) on the bottle—“you won’t get that hangover you had in college or Cabo or Vegas.” Arizona’s “tequila goddess” notes that 95 percent of true tequila hails from the Mexican state…

PGA TOUR PLAYER Patrick Reed has a quasi-rep as a trashtalking, crowd-hushing, take-noprisoners bad boy who sometimes oversteps his bounds. Call it Patrick being Patrick. I like it. In an era where outright passion often takes a back seat to dollars and deals, Reed is a fire-breathing gust of fresh air. For all its dull-khaki looks and choking traditions, golf is emotional, and Reed gets that. His zeal in polishing off a furnace-hot Rory McIlroy in the Sunday singles matchesat lastyear’sRyderCupdidn’tbother the tens of thousands stress-testing the stands at Hazeltine. Nor should it upset us the week of the Travelers. Winning may solve everything, but there’s more to this San Antonio–born spur than meets the eye. On p. 68, the five-time Tour winner shares his thoughts on beating Old Man…

The Most Important Things in Golf This Month You have four top-10s this season, including the U.S. Open at Erin Hills. How meaningful is it to have a good performance in a major when it comes to jump-starting the remainder of the season? To play against one of the best fields and know that my game is where it should be—I’m excited about that. I think I’m headed in the right direction, and down the home stretch and in the playoffs, I’m expecting a lot more from myself. Definitely trying to get another “W” this year. You had a hand problem early in the year, which must have been frustrating. Yeah, it flared up right at the Masters. It was something I’d never dealt with before, kind of a random…

You can watch video rulings featuring Rules Guy himself! Go to GOLF.com/rules-guy Dear Rules Guy: During a tournament, I hit a wayward drive. Unsure if I’d find it, I announced that I’d hit another and play it if my first was lost. It wasn’t, but the committee later penalized me after a fellow competitor told them that I had given the definition of “provisional” but not the p-word itself. Seriously? —JOE HUBISZ, BRADFORD, N.H. Seriously. Decision 27-2a/1 states that a player’s statement either must mention “provisional ball” or make clear that he is proceeding under Rule 27-2a. Variations on “I think that’s lost— I’m reloading” don’t cut it. You need to be specific; otherwise, you’ve proceeded under stroke and distance, as your original ball is now considered lost. Specific announcements…

Follow Mark Broadie on Twitter@MarkBroadie BACK IN MAY, Hank Haney DM’ed me on Twitter. “Justin Thomas is ranked 151 in scrambling and 39 in strokes gained around the green,” he wrote. “Why is there such a difference with some players between their scrambling stat and SG around the green?” A few weeks later, Brandel Chamblee also tweeted me: “Why is Rory McIlroy ranked second in scrambling yet only 182 in SG around the green?” The simple answer to both is, “Apples and oranges.” People often mistakenly think scrambling measures wedge play and putting alone. By definition, it measures how often a player scores par or better when missing a green in regulation— but that scoring doesn’t always involve a wedge. Consider the following: On a par 4, a player hits…

Billy Horschel has never been afraid to share his opinions, and on Tour the University of Florida alum dons a Ralph Lauren RLX wardrobe that also speaks for itself. At the 2013 U.S. Open, Horschel was in contention on Sunday, and he made a big sartorial splash that day by wearing blue and white octopus-print pants. Billy’s the kind of golfer who’s not afraid of the spotlight, and his choice of apparel reflects his fondness for trendy cuts and tailoring brought together in a bright, modern package. Ralph Lauren’s latest collection features a cool color palette of navy blue, white and countryclub- ready deco prints—a perfect look for a late-summer round, or simply a late-evening cocktail at the club. ralphlauren.com…

If you tend to break tees when hitting driver, your swing is most likely too steep, and that means you’re leaving yards on the table by failing to ascend through impact. Try a wider stance, with the ball positioned off your left heel, and tilt your spine away from the target. While making shin-level practice swings, envision that you must clear an imaginary stand of trees directly on your target line. Combining these setup keys with an image of launching the ball high will help you graze the tee instead of snapping it—and help you break your distance barrier. Michael Hunt, Bayonne G.C., Bayonne, N.J.…

Your shots aren’t going where you want them to, largely because you’re not returning the face to square at impact. A tennis racquet can help. How? Its large head makes it easy to see how the “face” is angled at all times—what we in the business call “critical feedback.” With the racquet in your left hand only, channel your inner Nadal and make a backhand return. Rotate in a mini-backswing (photos below), then swing the racquet through as you rotate forward. At impact, the face of the racquet should point at the target, with your hips open 45 degrees and your shoulders open about 20 degrees. Finish at waist height, then add your right hand to the grip. If your right hand can’t reach, you’ve failed to rotate enough. With…

OCTOBER GOLF GEAR STAND BAG $180 Customization isn’t just for clubs. This stand bag from the Arizona-based company features an “Accessorail” pocket attachment system (using clips and heavy-duty Velcro) that allows you to easily configure the bag according to your needs. Add-ons include a tablet holder, cooler, sunglass holder and Bluetooth speaker, as well as pockets for apparel, tees and balls. The preconfigured bag (pictured) with seven pockets in gray, black or white is $180. The “hub” is $100, while attachments run $9 to $30. octobergolfgear.com OGIO CIRRUS $200 Ogio’s lightest stand bag checks in at 3.2 pounds. A standout feature is the “Fit Disc” self-adjusting dualstrap system, which provides a custom fit and distributes the bag’s weight evenly across your shoulders. There’s also a seven-way top with a dedicated…

Struggling to reel in that seemingly permanent slice of yours? Here’s a quick fix that doesn’t require any major swing adjustments, just a change to your clubface. It’s as simple as that! Take your normal stance and grip and lift the club up in front of you so that the shaft is parallel to the ground. Now, open your hands and, using only your fingers, rotate the face in a counterclockwise direction so that the toe of the club points to 11 o’clock. Next, close your hands on the grip and lower the clubhead down behind the ball. Then swing away. The closed face position will look unusual at first, but you should immediately see your ball flight straighten out and perhaps even curve from right to left. After a…

THEY SAY THAT death comes like a thief in the night, but that wasn’t the case for Marshall Jacobs, the 94-yearoldWisconsinitewhodiedwhilewatching golf, live at Erin Hills, on the warm, still Friday afternoon of the U.S. Open. “This outing could kill him,” the son, Bill Jacobs, told his sister, Patti Loftin. Patti was in Milwaukee, visiting from Plano, Texas. Their mother, married to their father for 68 years, had died several days earlier. “It could,” Patti said. “Are you okay with that?” “Very much so,” Bill said. “This is what he wants to do.” Bill pushed his golf-loving father’s wheelchair to a perch by the sixth green. Marshall, a quiet son of the Greatest Generation, watched Steve Stricker make a three-footer for par, nodded off in his wheelchair, “and never woke…