Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2019 i Golf Magazine

MY HOME COURSE IS ST. MARTINS, a short course with hilarious greens that is part of the Philadelphia Cricket Club. Donald Ross finished 10th at the 1907 U.S. Open there, won by his kid brother. I can play its nine surviving holes in an hour on my lunch break. The assistant pro there is a gent named Glenn Perri, the Muggsy Bogues of the club’s staff, small in stature, big in heart. Like other golfers out of Father Judge and LaSalle, Glenn is high orthodox in his golf practice, and you can guess his stance on shoe-changing in the parking lot. I once brought Brad Faxon to St. Martins, so he could play its circa 1895 holes. Glenn emerged from his Monopoly-piece pro shop and switched out Brad’s Tour bag…

AS A KID, YOU COUNT on Mom and Dad to wake before dawn and get everything ready for the day ahead. As a golfer, you count on a greenskeeper—and he or she may very well be counting on the new Toro Greensmaster® 1021 to get the putting surfaces, collars and tees spiffy enough for Picture Day. After your 15-footer for eagle tracks perfectly into the hole, you might even be inclined to offer up a filial hug to the man or woman behind the mower. A tip of the cap will do, promise.…

TaylorMade Original One Mini Driver A lot has changed at Taylor-Made in the last 40 years, but the company continues to place an emphasis on its metalwood technology. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of founder Gary Adams’s industry-changing Pittsburgh Persimmon metalwood, TaylorMade designers created the Original One Mini Driver. The club is closer in size to the Pittsburgh Persimmon, but it features current technology found in today’s M5 and M6 products, including TwistFace, a carbon-composite crown, titanium body and 50-gram sole plate that pushes the center of gravity deeper in the head for more forgiveness. It’s important to note that the Original One Mini Driver ($399) is not a direct replacement for any current TaylorMade driver. At 275cc, the head is noticeably smaller than a standard driver but larger than…

You pured that 8-iron. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a 7, because your lofted approach came up short and landed in the greenside bunker fronting the green. Worse yet, you found one of those soft sandy numbers, and the ball plugged. Focus, man. Pull your lob wedge—that’s a no-brainer—and pick a strategy. Should you A) set the face wide open and swing as hard as you possibly can; B) close the face and hit down, burying the clubhead in the bunker; or C) resheathe the lobber and declare an unplayable? Answer on the opposite page.…

2 Improved Pro V1s 4 Colorful Headcovers 26 Ways to Dress Up Your Iron Set 1 1 Bona Fide PING Bomber 3 Bottles to Keep Bugs at Bay Let’s cut to the chase: How is the new Pro V1 family better than previous offerings? Michael Mahoney, VP, Titleist Golf Ball Marketing: The story for 2019 is pretty simple. We deliver more speed in the Pro V1 and Pro V1x while maintaining the flight, feel, spin and, most important, the scoring performance of both models. How? MM: We went through a process where we prototyped individual aspects of the entire ball. We started to see positive results from a bunch of that prototyping work. We combined it, and the result is a new core, casing layer and cover technology that all…

FITTING YOUR PUTTER to your individual stroke is as critical as fitting your full-swing clubs. According to Golf Pride’s Bruce Miller, choosing the rightsized putter grip is a good place to start the selection process. “Larger grips often quiet the hands and wrists and work well for players who want less hand action, while smaller grips tend to activate the hands and suit those with wristier strokes.” Our advice? Follow the formula that dictates choosing a larger grip to match a stroke dominated by the larger muscles and a smaller one for a stroke controlled by the smaller muscles in the wrists and hands. If your putter stroke incorporates both sets of muscles, go the midsized route.…

JON RAHM FIRST LEARNED of the benefits that TaylorMade’s TP5 ball had on his mid- and short irons—more spin control with his steep descent angle—during a company photo shoot at the end of last year. But it took him nearly five months to get fully comfortable with the idea of changing from the lower spinning TP5x to the TP5. When you’re used to playing a particular ball model, it can take time to consider the idea of executing shots with something else. Once the Spaniard came around to the idea and made the switch, he found the winner’s circle in New Orleans the same week. HINDSIGHT IS 20/20. Just ask C.T. Pan, who landed the biggest win of his career at the RBC Heritage with Titleist’s 2019 Pro V1x—a ball…

WHEN IT COMES TO CUSTOMIZING irons and wedges, weekend golfers are usually limited to custom paint fills and/or stamping. Both processes can be cool, but what if you’re looking for a more polished look? A custom ferrule (a cosmetic plastic ring that’s located where the shaft meets the hosel) can add a pop of customization to your set. BB&F Co. specializes in making custom ferrules, in a variety of colors, that remind us of the classic wedge and blade irons of the past. The company takes it a step further by incorporating a mix of colors—in both standard and short-sized models—designed to please just about anyone. BB&F ferrules come in packs of ten, and while serious club tinkerers may have the tools and know-how to install them on their own,…

A GOLFING LIFER, ASKED ONCE WHAT HE LIKES BEST ABOUT THE GAME, SAID, “THE BALL IN THE AIR.” We all know how that goes. That golf ball is in the air, and you can guess where it might finish. But you can’t know. And so it was for Tom Watson, playing his second shot on the baked, short, downwind par-4 18th hole on Sunday in the 2009 British Open at Turnberry, on Scotland’s toothy west coast. He had 164 yards to the front of the green, 189 to the hole, 196 to the back, and an Adams 8-iron in his hands, hands that have launched a million shots, but few more significant than this one. If you know Watson, you know the pose: arms against his rib cage, staring the…

The 1979 Open Championship featured weather that was frigid even by the miserable standards of the Lancashire coast. Heading out for the final round at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, leader Hale Irwin fortified himself with two sweaters and what he delicately called “intimate apparel.” But Irwin, who had won the U.S. Open just a few weeks earlier, was quickly blown away by the wicked winds off the Irish Sea, finishing the round with a 78. That was three strokes better than the celebrated bad-weather grinder Tom Watson, who began the final round in eighth place but tumbled all the way to 25th. Jack Nicklaus made a run on that fateful Saturday—the Open wouldn’t finish on the Sabbath until 1980—as did the young Ben Crenshaw, but this glamorous duo was…

GOLF SCIENCE: by GOLF Technical Consultant ONCE UPON A TIME—okay, let’s call it 15 years ago—I met a golfer (I’ll leave it you to guess his name) who had played in 43 major championships (the Big 4) without winning any of them. Not one! He asked if I could help him save a quarter of a shot per round in championship play. I agreed, and off we went on a quest to find it. His one-shot (per four rounds) request came because he had missed playoff opportunities in the majors by—you guessed it—one shot. And he’d done it six different times! He reasoned that if he could have scored one stroke lower in those six events, he would have won at least one of the playoffs. He was anxious to…

Pros, hacks, weekend warriors: We’re all searching for more speed. At least we should be. More speed means more power, which increasingly is the recipe for lower scores and—most important of all—bragging rights among your friends. There are many ways to generate more speed. Recently, one of the more popular methods, even on Tour, has been the SuperSpeed Golf Training System. Each set comes with three different graphite speed-sticks fitted with increasingly heavier weights at the tip. There are multiple different sets of SuperSpeed sticks, but the four main ones—Men’s, Ladies, Senior and Junior—each retail for $200. The SuperSpeed sticks come with an accompanying training manual, which recommends using the gadgets three days a week for 10 minutes at a time. According to SuperSpeed, players typically gain between five and…

IT TOOK A WHILE FOR ME TO LOVE THE OPEN. I mostly blame the clock. For ex–West Coasters like myself, the thing started just too dang early. You’ll forgive me for not responding favorably to the pounding buzz of an alarm clock set to 6:00 AM PDT on a Saturday or Sunday to watch golfers ply their trade on courses I knew nothing about in weather that, even from 5,500 miles away, cooed “go back to bed.” On the mornings I obliged the buzzer, the telecast didn’t help. Instead of the well-recognized views of Amen Corner and the likes of Pebble, Winged Foot and Oakmont, it beamed visions of massive TV cranes dotting 2-D landscapes, as in some post-apocalyptic scene depicting golf after the machines take over. Even from overhead…

Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports NYPD old-timers still speak with awe about the day Kojak went undercover on the PGA Tour and improbably opened with a 68 at the 1980 Westchester Classic. NOT THIS MONTH IN GOLF HISTORY This month in 1955: In an effort to become more competitive at the Ryder Cup following Great Britain’s seventh consecutive loss to Team USA, captain Dai Rees announces that his team will no longer limit eligibility to guys named Neville and Nigel. This month in 2005: While on his 285-foot, $70 million yacht Aussie Rules, Greg Norman walks out of the main cabin, looks up at the sky and cries, “I lost all four majors in a playoff, God! C’mon!” He then realizes he’s on his 285-foot, $70 million yacht, turns to his…

“It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and thus the time for tall glasses and tall bottles.”MICHAEL CORCORAN’S AFFINITY FOR A WELL-MADE HIGHBALL IS MATCHED ONLY BY HIS AFFINITY FOR NOVELTY T-SHIRTS AND NOW, A BRIEF personal style moment: I am today for the first time wearing a black T-shirt from Gus O’Connor’s Pub in Doolin, Ireland. It has been sitting on a shelf since September, patiently awaiting the day when it would take its place in the starting lineup alongside the Kool-Aid man (must be red), Cookie Monster (must be blue) and assorted others that I wear almost daily, and that amuse me and often total strangers but never my wife, who still shakes her head every time she realizes she’s married to a six-year-old. I am bald, and not…

OCT. 2000 Billy Andrade wins the Invensys Classic—the first-ever win by a Pro V1 player. MAR. 2001 Becomes best-selling golf ball in the marketplace. It’s been the best-selling golf ball every month since then. JUNE 2001 Retief Goosen wins U.S. Open. It’s the first of 38 majors for Pro V1 on the PGA Tour, as of press time. MAR. 2003 Debut of the improved Pro V1 and the first Pro V1x model. MAR. 2019 For the first time ever, Pro V1 and Pro V1x are available in yellow. It’s now played across every worldwide professional tour.…

LIKE ALL ODYSSEY STROKE LAB PUTTERS, the Tuttle (pictured) features a unique weighting system designed to improve the quality and consistency of your stroke. The secret’s in the shaft—a lightweight multi-material design (roughly 40g less than standard) with a steel tip and composite body. Most of the Tuttle shaft’s weight is concentrated in the tip, for a smoother motion. The weight saved is placed in the sole via two weights, while 30g is added to the grip end. According to Odyssey’s research, the counterweighted design promotes more consistency in direction, ball speed and stroke time. Odyssey’s White Hot Microhinge face insert further improves overall performance by promoting a smoother roll. Stroke Lab tech is available in 18 head/hosel combos. You’ll find it in the bags of Phil Mickelson and Francesco…

A QUICK WAY TO MAKE YOUR golf bag look snappier is to dress up your woods with custom headcovers. Seamus Golf makes a wide variety of patterned-wool models well as some that mix leather and Pendleton® wool. They even got a line of head covers that look like NBA jerseys. If you’re chasing a vintage look, Iliac Golf’s headcovers feature luxurious leather in a bevy of classic forms—each of which are expected to age and develop a distinguished patina and feel. Next are the handknit, 100-percent worsted wool headcovers made by Jan Craig Headcovers. Available in a variety of designs and colors, you can customize your own look using the website’s design generator. Finally, Daphne’s Headcovers, the company that makes Tiger’s “Frank,” offers a huge selection of designs including animals,…

Among the things that should evoke pity in all but the stoniest hearts is the earnestness with which some athletes who ain’t come to Ohio State to play school* will, later in life, refer to the institution as The Ohio State University. Surely, a handful do this ironically, but it’s hard to shake the impression that to many the “The” is a point of pride. The university itself insists on using the The, too. Perhaps it’s just clever marketing, but if you aren’t from Ohio or didn’t attend the school, it’s rather sad, really, to listen to someone who thinks that emphasis on a definite article is their bona fides, when the true effect is to reveal they are a bit too aware of the perception that the school and…

It’s hard to imagine that a full year has gone by since I won the Open Championship at Carnoustie. To be honest, the thought of returning as defending champion—this year, at Royal Portrush, and as the first Italian ever to win a major—makes me emotional. It will be a proud moment for me, but also a sad one because I might have to return the Claret Jug! It’s been quite nice to have it at home, and I’d like to keep it that way. RUN-UP TO THE OPEN Professional golf is so competitive that you never fully expect to win a tournament, but it was not a shock to me that I played well at Carnoustie. Heading into the week, I was in great form. Two months earlier, I’d won…

As an Irish–American Catholic growing up in Philadelphia, I was informed at an early age that Jameson was the Irish whiskey Catholics drank, and that I dare not drink Bushmills, the devil water of Protestants. Fortunately for me, I followed that rule about as closely as I followed actual religious dogma—which is to say, not at all. If you ever catch me in any house of worship, I’ll be the one in the coffn. If you want further proof of my heresy, here it is: Black Bushmills is not only the best off-the-shelf Irish whiskey, it’s the best from anywhere. (It’s fun to think that if I’d said any of this 400 years ago, I’d have been burned alive!) Other Irish whiskeys are very fine as well, so there’s no…

THE RANGE AT A PGA TOUR event is a busy place. Among the crowd are caddies, coaches, agents, fitness trainers, mental gurus, Trackman reps, clubfitters, assistants, etc. At the center of it all is the modern-day Tour pro, who often couldn’t care less about the hordes gathered around them. Not many players command this kind of attention the way four-time major winner Rory McIlroy does, and for good reason: Rory’s swing is the kind that makes even his competitors stop, watch and take notice. “It’s impressive,” Jason Day says of Rory’s swing. “How do you get that kind of power out of that body?” McIlroy’s freewheeling golf motion has become his hallmark, and it’s produced some astonishing results over the years. McIlroy, 30, has finished 1st, 11th, 1st, 2nd, 8th,…

The angle of the clubface influences the direction of the ball more than anything else, so controlling the clubface goes hand in hand with controlling ball flight. A lot of golfers throw this control away early in the backswing; they twist the clubface open or shut, which throws off their timing and sequencing. When the face rotates too soon or too late, it causes hiccups later in the swing, because things have to reorganize to get back to running in the right order. The pros control the clubface by keeping their bodies engaged; everything becomes one big clubface. When I want to give my students a clearer picture of how their clubface is moving on the backswing, I’ll hand them something big, like the steering wheel I’m holding at left.…

Performing a few squat exercises as part of your warm-up routine is a great way to help loosen up your hips, knees and ankles before teeing off. You want these joints activated—along with the muscles that power them—because you’re about to rely on your lower body for stability and power for the next four and a half hours. Squats are also great for your core, shoulders and back, and are proven to help improve both your posture and mobility. You might even burn off a few calories from that doughnut you had on your way to the course! STEP 1. Grab hold of a stretching pole, a golf cart or even your driver to stabilize yourself. Stand tall with your head facing forward, your chest up and out. Place your…

I’M OFTEN ASKED WHY I WORK in golf and why I left behind a 30-year career in investment banking to move into sport. My answer is always the same: I love golf and want to play my part in positively shaping its future. Golf has so much to offer and, perhaps more than any other sport, provides so many of the life benefits that we have increasingly come to regard as essential in modern-day living. Research shows the significant benefits that golf can bring in terms of both physical and mental well-being. It encourages us to socialise and compete as we build friendships. Most of all, it requires honesty and integrity and teaches all of us, young and old, truly character-building values such as patience and humility. So what excites…

UNTIL I WALKED INTO JON TATTERSALL’S Fusion ATL instruction facility six months ago, I had swung a golf club maybe 10 or 20 times in my entire life, mostly at imaginary home invaders and the occasional housefly. But I had putted thousands of times. Who hasn’t putted thousands of times? In my small hometown, the only place you ever took a date was to mini-golf. Over the years, I’ve taken loads of pride in my resistance to golf, but I’ve always loved putting. I guess I just never considered putting…golf. To my surprise, coach Tattersall agrees. “Golfing and putting are so different from each other that they’re hardly even the same sport,” he says. “Frankly, most of the best golfers I know legitimately hate putting.” Ben Hogan once actually argued…

Creative Director, CAVU Venture Partners Handicap: 15 You strike us as a fun guy to have in a foursome. I definitely try to be easygoing out there, but I’m also super-determined. I’ll laugh at myself if I three-putt, but make no mistake—I was totally trying to drain that first putt. So it’s win or nothing? That’s not why I play. Golf reveals our faults and insecurities in a very compelling way. I find so many parallels between the way I handle hardships on the course and how I manage them in my job and in my relationships. It sounds sappy, but it’s true: Playing golf has helped me become a better human. Has golf also, in a strange way, helped you become a better dresser? I take my golf aesthetic…

SINCE THE OUTSTANDING G410 Plus driver came out earlier this year, along with the SFT model, a lot of golfers have been wondering what happened to the lower-spinning LST that’s usually a part of any PING driver family. The delay was simply because company engineers couldn’t actually beat the existing G400 LST model’s performance, until now. In comparison to the previous (and very popular) G400 LST, the G410 LST ($500) features a slightly larger 450cc clubhead for added MOI (3 percent more) and stability on off-center hits. The new LST also has the same moveable weight design as the standard G410 Plus model, which allows players to move the CG location between three positions on the perimeter of the clubhead. Compared with the Plus driver, the G410 LST reduces spin…

THERE ARE FEW THINGS THAT CAN HAPPEN in the game of golf that move the needle like Tiger Woods winning a major. His Masters victory has the Bridgestone Tour B XS model played by the 15-time major champion selling like hotcakes. In fact, according to Dan Murphy, President and CEO of Bridgestone Golf, activity on social platforms was up more than 250 percent versus last year’s Masters, including more than 200 percent on Twitter, 400 percent on Facebook and 200 percent on Instagram. In addition, the activity on Bridgestone’s website was up more than 200 percent. Not surprisingly, Tiger’s preferred Tour B XS has quickly become Bridgestone’s top-selling Tour B model, which was once ranked third behind both the Tour B RX and RXS. So, what’s the difference between the…

1. HAVE SOME WEATHERPROOF GEAR AT THE READY. Rain and wind are always a possibility. I look for a lightweight, noise-free jacket that supports mobility throughout the swing. 2. THINK “LAYERS.” Some days go from wintry to warm (and vice-versa). That’s why I always pack a vest. On chillier rounds I’ll go with a hybrid jacket, with an insulated core and knit sleeves. You get warmth without sacrificing motion. 3. PUMP THE BASE Use lightweight pieces as a base layer to accommodate heavier outer pieces. You can’t go wrong with a navy or dark-blue polo. It’ll match whatever you throw over it.…

WHAT DO YOU DO AFTER A CAREER-DEFINING SEASON? IF YOU’RE DETERMINED TO REPEAT IT LIKE FRANCESCO IS BENT ON DOING, YOU LOAD UP ON NEW GEAR. The clubs Francesco Molinari used to power his way to victory in the Open Championship last summer aren’t the ones he’ll use in his attempt to defend his title in mid-July. After years of experimenting with various brands (beginning from the time his prior gear patron, Nike Golf, ceased manufacturing clubs in 2016), Molinari went full Callaway at the beginning of this calendar year, with the deal becoming official just before the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March. Talk about hot starts: Molinari won that week at Bay Hill and followed it with a drive to the semis in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play…

LET’S FACE IT: It’s pretty hard to walk around the UK without tripping over something “royal.” You can find “royal” car washes, laundromats, pizza joints and beauty salons all over the British Isles, and we’re guessing that few of those business owners go to work decked out in a crown, robe and scepter. What you may not know is that those proprietors actually do have to get permission from the British government to use the word “royal” (or “king,” “queen,” “prince/princess,” “duke/duchess” and “his/her majesty”) as a part of their firm’s name. Golf courses, it turns out, aren’t exempt from the Crown’s steely gaze. According to Scott Macpherson’s 2013 book, Golf’s Royal Clubs, the practice of adding a “Royal” prefix to a club’s name began in Scotland in the 1830s,…

IRELAND. There is no country where the golfers are more keen or more hospitable than in Ireland, and the friendliness with which the inhabitants welcome their guests is only equalled by the earnestness with which they endeavor, and very often successfully, to beat them. It is a fine country for a golfing holiday, and this fact is now so thoroughly appreciated that Englishmen and Scotsmen pour over to the Irish courses every summer, and more especially to the particular course on which the Irish Championship is being played for. At this meeting may be had fierce golf, tempered by a proper measure of cheerfulness, on which those who have played in it—sad to say I am not one of them—are never weary of descanting. Portrush has many claims to fame,…

IT’S NEVER A GOOD FEELING when, after you’ve striped a drive right down the middle, you get to your lie only to discover that there’s a large chunk of mud attached to one side of your ball. For years I had heard that mud on the ball causes it to do crazy things in the air, but I was never sure. Since the best way to build clarity about a theory is to test it, I did, at my school at the Club at Savannah Harbor in Savannah, Ga. Here’s a sampling of what I found:…

I’ve been toying with the claw grip for quite some time. I used it in April and May of 2016 before I switched back to a regular style. I really wanted to switch for good around the 2016 Ryder Cup, but that’s a tough week to introduce a new grip. Now I wish I had! [Team USA won, 17-11. —Eds.] Here’s how it can work for you. STEP 1: Get into your setup. When you’re comfortable, open your right palm. Rotate your hand so that your fingers are on top of the handle (photo, below). Secure the grip with your thumb. Step 2: Keep your grip pressure very light and think of your left arm as the main driver of your stroke (I hit a lot of left-hand-only putts in…

KING OF COOL Seve was the golfer we all wanted to be, and not just because of his syrupy swing tempo. It was his style! A classic white polo with a blue sweater was his winning color combination. Think Tiger was the first to don a certain look on Sundays? Nah, Seve was way ahead! FULL EXTENSION No chicken wing here! Ballesteros has fully released and rotated his arms, with his left folding to create speed. It’s a full, flowing finish worthy of the maestro. Seve would alter his finish dramatically depending on what shot he was hitting. Swashbuckling Seve, I can see it now…Olè! TILT AND ROTATE Seve is tilted back due to an unstable lower body, but he still has a great rotary look in his upper torso,…

During his four decades on the big screen, Dennis Quaid has starred in some of the most beloved sports films ever made: Breaking Away (cycling), The Rookie (baseball), Any Given Sunday (football). But his true passion has always been golf. At 65, the actor is as busy as ever, with three movies this year alone. We spoke to him from the set of Billy Bob Thornton’s Amazon series Goliath. Your handicap has been reported as everything from a six to a one. Where is it these days? Right now, I’m an eight. I was a 0.6 at one time, really until October 2007. Then I had twins, and that was the end of that. You were once named “the best celebrity golfer in Hollywood.” That’s complete BS. I can’t tell…