Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2021 i Golf Magazine

THE ROUND TOOK TWO HOURS AND 45 MINUTES. At that point, six holes felt like the right time to call it a day. None of the members of our sixsome argued. Plus, we had already blown through the three dozen balls I had passed out to the group on the first tee. A round for the ages? In some ways, yes. Your contestants: my sons, 10 and 13, who have yet to fully embrace the game; my wife; and our two South Florida chums. By my count, this group had logged three “official” rounds in their lifetime—one, admittedly, spent passing out cosmos from a golf cart during a charity event. But Belle Glade GC, a muni set among the vast sugarcane fields and mills encircling the south shores of America’s…

CHARLESTON MAY BE known as Shrimp City, but according to Chef John Ondo, the culinary mastermind at Kiawah Island’s Atlantic Room, it’s the restaurant’s seafood stew—not shrimp and grits—that should be considered the area’s most representative dish. Why? Well, in addition to the Low Country’s succulent shrimp, mussels, clams and crabmeat, the savory stew also features a curry-powder kick and Carolina Gold rice—a nod to the area’s spice-route and rice-export heritage. And like all seafood-centric offerings, it’s the sourcing that really makes the dish sing. Ondo has worked with Abundant Seafood, a local “one-boat show,” for more than 15 years. The seafood stew is the rare meal that hits that magical culinary sweet spot: an entrée that is both rich and filling yet also light and flavorful. And there’s no…

THERE ARE PLENTY of ways to generate game-changing speed. You can hit the gym and bulk up like Bryson, but not everyone is willing or able to spend the time pumping iron. A more realistic suggestion is to go lighter with your club setup to add real distance. A perfect example is XXIO’s feathery Prime lineup, which consists of metalwoods and irons built for moderate to slow swing speeds. The Prime driver ($900; 10.5 and 11 degrees), for example, features a 184-gram head—roughly 20 grams lighter than most modern driver heads—and a counterbalanced weight setup that helps ramp up momentum and gets your hands in the correct position at the top of the swing and at impact. Golfers who struggle with a slice will also appreciate the slightly draw-bias face…

THE EASIEST WAY to recognize a savvy traveler is by taking a peek at their bag. One of the more popular choices is the duffel—a smart, no-frills option that gets the job done. The trusty mainstay dates all the way back to 17th-century Europe but exploded in popularity in post–World War II America, when a surplus made them affordable and commercial flight for leisure travel became more mainstream. Nowadays, the decision to eschew more pedestrian luggage is a calculated and deliberate one. A duffel not only provides supreme over-the-shoulder portability but also a refreshing lack of fussiness. Duffel carriers seem more low-maintenance by default. Overpacking isn’t an option. The brown leather Duffel Bag ($495; fhwadsworth.com) by New York City–based FH Wadsworth is a shining example of such functionality, albeit with…

The Top 100 Courses You Can Play—what an enticing title, so full of promise! Far more encouraging than the Top 100 Courses You Can Play If You Have Friends in High Places and They Like You Well Enough. Our previous rankings of public-access courses have been confined to the United States. This time, we’ve also ventured into Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean. Expanding our reach means, for starters, you can find courses in prime condition at any time of year. If golf is meant to get us to the great outdoors, what’s greater than the Canadian Rockies? In, say, July, nothing beats that amazing Banff Springs (No. 17 on our list)-Jasper Park (No. 24)-Blackhawk (No. 94) trip (see p. 80). In freezing February, unless you’re a skier, everything does—so…

Road Trip Metro New York Bethpage Black (#5) and Red (#66; Farmingdale, NY), Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point (#95; Bronx, NY) Drive: Ideally, it’s 30 minutes from midtown Manhattan to Ferry Point and an hour to Bethpage… ideally. With traffic, it could be a lifetime, especially if the Long Island Expressway, aka “the World’s Largest Parking Lot,” isn’t exactly cooperating. Dine: There’s no shortage of iconic NYC spots, from the bagels and smoked fish at Russ & Daughters (est. 1914) to John’s Pizza (no slices!) to soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai, never mind world-class fine dining; this would require a separate Top 100 list. Diversion: This ain’t the greatest city in the world for nothing, people! Among the endless cultural possibilities, consider the New York Botanical Garden, 10 minutes…

Resort DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog, #7; La Romana, D.R.), Cap Cana (Punta Espada, #18; Punta Cana, D.R.), Puntacana (Corales, #90; Punta Cana, D.R.) Drive: Casa de Campo and the duo of Cap Cana/Puntacana are a little more than an hour’s drive apart. There’s no resort stay required at these properties to access the courses, but being on property does bring a discount on green fees. Dine: Legendary local spot Tipicobonao is a family-owned restaurant near the La Romana airport, showcasing delicious Dominican cuisine rich in Taíno, European and African origins. Diversion: If you’re on the island from October to December, it’s not just golf season but also Dominican Winter League baseball season. The Toros del Este play at Estadio Francisco Micheli Stadium, where the boisterous…

THE CLUB CHAMP You’re a serious golfer who prefers clean colors, classic lines, shoes with cleats and clothes that continue to look fresh round after round. Your best bet: surrounding soft hues with crispy whites. Start with the timeless, championship-ready look at left. Scan this code to browse—and buy!—this look and others in the GOLF.com Pro Shop ELEVATED CASUAL If the thought of tucking in your polo or wearing traditional spikes turns your stomach, keep cool and play on. This outfit defies convention without upsetting any of the blue bloods in your foursome. Pairing solid basics with a single stylish statement piece (like this Devereux Oasis button-down) smartly gets the job done. Scan this code to see more elegant yet casual styles in the GOLF.com Pro Shop THE WALKER When…

MANY GOLFERS STRUGGLE with striking the ball solidly and controlling the flight simply because they don’t hold the club correctly. When you get the grip wrong, your body will try to compensate and start a chain of errors that becomes incredibly hard to fix. Here’s how to do it right: 1. Grip more toward the fingers with your gloved hand. You want the grip of the club to rest at the intersection of the palm and fingers in your gloved hand. Your pinkie, ring and middle fingers should be perpendicular to the grip as they wrap around it, not angled across it. 2. The heel pad (not the thumb pad) of your gloved hand should rest on top of the grip. Then cover your gloved hand’s thumb with the lifeline…

G: Did you play golf as a young kid with your dad, Kirk Douglas? MD: My father lived in Palm Springs and he tried to get me on the golf course, but I was always intimidated. I had a wicked slice. I got him once right in the crotch, when I was about 13 or 14, and that did it for me for a while. At about 45, I took up the game with my friend Jack Nicholson. G: Every celebrity golfer I interview seems to have a Jack Nicholson story. Back in the day, who’d win in a match between you two? MD: You couldn’t be competitive with Jack because he had a unique way of scoring. Whenever he got on the green, whether he was 10 feet or…

Thank you very much for the update on one of the greatest golfers that ever lived: Kathy Whitworth (“The Soul of Whit,” March). I looped for her at the 1975 U.S. Women’s Open at Atlantic City CC. I had just graduated high school, but because I had a few years’ experience looping at Pine Valley (yes, that Pine Valley), I had just enough caddying cred to work the Open and was magically slotted to tote Kathy’s bag. Imagine a 17-year-old kid looping for the game’s greatest female player! I have a lot of great memories from that week, watching players like Sandra Palmer, JoAnne Carner, Nancy Lopez, Judy Rankin, Sally Little, etc. However, the thing that will always remain with me is the absolute class act that was Kathy Whitworth.…

THE NEXT CLASS OF INDUCTEES to the World Golf Hall of Fame includes Tiger Woods, Tim Finchem—and Marion Hollins. Miss Hollins, as she was known in her day (she died in 1941), will be the first woman course architect in the hall, where she will live for eternity alongside her friend Alister MacKenzie. MacKenzie’s masterpieces include Cypress Point and Augusta National. Both might have been lesser works were it not for Miss Hollins. The good doctor once wrote of her, “I do not know of any man who has sounder ideas.” But after Marion Hollins—unless the late Alice Dye, Pete’s wife, is someday elected—there won’t be another woman architect voted into the hall for a long time. That’s because there are so few women designers working at all today. Many…

Scan this code to buy this item in the GOLF.com Pro Shop. This smallest and most affordable massager in the Theragun lineup strikes a welcomed balance between size and strength. It’s wee enough to stow in your bag but powerful enough to melt away unwanted cramps or tension that may appear midround. What the mini ($200) lacks in size, it makes up for in percussions per minute (PPM), and with three speed options, it’s also perfect for pre-round muscle warm-up and postgame recovery. The Theragun mini definitely punches above its weight.…

Drew Stoltz: You’ve got a lotta stories that are legendary. I need to know if this one is true. The year is 1980; you’d injured your ankle. George Brett: Honest to God, it’s a true story. Playing golf with a guy named George Kimball, a writer for the Boston Globe. And [pitcher] Scotty McGregor’s in town. He’s playin’ for the Orioles. We had a Saturday day game, and afterward we go out to my house. I was gonna grill somethin’. And they said, “Let’s go play a few holes.” I said, “Fine.” I had a splint on my ankle and I’m walkin’, and we had a cooler of beer, obviously. [Laughs] All of a sudden, on like the third hole, Scotty hits a ball, and I got my putter in…

EVERY MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP comes with buzz and buildup. But in the fall of 1927, as the PGA Championship approached, the air of suspense was especially thick. Walter Hagen, the 1921 PGA winner, had also claimed the crown in ’24, ’25 and ’26. Now, he had a chance at something historic: an unprecedented four straight victories in a major. No wonder the atmosphere was electric. Suspense, the time when the outcome of a contest is in doubt, is a squishy concept, tough to measure. But we’re all familiar with its effects. When a basketball team is up 30 points at the half, I usually won’t bother watching through the final buzzer. On the other hand, if the game is tight, I’m glued to my seat. The same applies to golf tournaments,…

ONE OF THE PUREST sounds in the game is the satisfying rattle of a ball marker, golf balls and tees rustling around in your pocket as you stand on the first tee in anticipation of a successful round. Golf’s necessities existing together, waiting for their call to action. You likely have a go-to marker or coin, and certainly you peg a preferred ball. But the tee on which you place that pellet is often, sadly, an afterthought, something you absentmindedly pull from your bag. Well, no longer. Western Birch Golf specializes in making unique hardwood tees that are as sturdy as they are handsome. Available in standard (2¾ inches) and tall (3¼ inches) lengths, the WBs (starting at $7 for 50) are completely customizable from base color (blond, dark, white)…

1 Pebble Beach PEBBLE BEACH, CA JACK NEVILLE/DOUGLAS GRANT, 1919 2 Pinehurst (No. 2) PINEHURST, NC DONALD ROSS, 1907 3 Pacific Dunes BANDON, OR TOM DOAK, 2001 4 Cabot Cliffs INVERNESS, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA BILL COORE/BEN CRENSHAW, 2016 5 Bethpage (Black) FARMINGDALE, NY A.W. TILLINGHAST, 1935 6 Kiawah Island (Ocean Course) KIAWAH ISLAND, SC PETE DYE, 1991 7 Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog) LA ROMANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PETE DYE, 1971 8 Bandon Trails BANDON, OR BILL COORE/BEN CRENSHAW, 2005 9 Bandon Dunes BANDON, OR DAVID MCLAY KIDD, 1999 10 TPC Sawgrass (Stadium) PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL PETE DYE, 1981 11 Whistling Straits (Straits) HAVEN, WI PETE DYE, 1998 12 Cabot Links (Links) INVERNESS, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA ROD WHITMAN, 2012 13 Pasatiempo SANTA CRUZ, CA ALISTAIR MACKENZIE, 1929 14…

DUSTIN JOHNSON has always been a great golfer. He just wasn’t “legendary.” At least not yet. All the difficult stuff—from driving a ball 350 yards to dunking a basketball—Johnson could do with ease. What failed him at the very highest level in the early parts of his professional career were the tasks that couldn’t be solved with innate talent: getting wedge shots close. This was a problem, because when you hit the ball as far as Johnson, you end up with a lot of wedges in your hand. And if you’re not scoring with those clubs, you’re neutralizing your biggest strength with self-enforced errors. So Johnson got serious. He bought a Trackman, and with his coach, Top 100 Teacher Claude Harmon III, went to work. At the range, Harmon would…

IMPROVING YOUR STROKE requires practice, but it doesn’t need to be hard work. With just a little time and effort each day for one month, you can whip your putting into super-solid shape. To help you do just that, we partnered with Perfect Practice, maker of the two practice aids featured here, both available at proshop.golf.com. We promise: more birdies await.…

Last May, the future of golf was uncertain, and across the globe travel plans were put on hold. A little more than a year later, the world is healing, the vaccines are rolling and your bucket list golf destinations are patiently waiting for you and your buddies to arrive (p. 74). All you need (besides your favorite mask) is a trusty travel bag. We’re loving this function-over-fuss Alpha Travel Cover from Ogio. Available in three sizes and colors, it’s durable, protective and easy to roll from one trip to the next to the next to the next…. ($280; ogio.com) You’ll find everything you could possibly need to pack up, get away and go play at proshop.golf.com…

$1.98 MILLIONCollin Morikawa’s winner’s check at the 2020 PGA Championship. LOWEST WEEKEND TOTALS IN MAJOR HISTORY 2020 PGA (Harding Park) 129 Collin Morikawa -11 1977 British Open (Turnberry) 130 Tom Watson -10 1975 Masters (Augusta) 131 Johnny Miller -13 1983 U.S. Open (Oakmont) 132 Larry Nelson -10 (Strokes under par for last two rounds) $55,000Dow Finsterwald’s winner’s check at the 1958 PGA at Llanerch CC, the first held under a strokeplay format. –20Jason Day’s score relative to par in the 2015 PGA at Whistling Straits, the lowest ever for a winner. 2Consecutive runner-up finishes for Dustin Johnson at the PGA (2019, 2020), the first player with back-to-back runner-ups since Jack Nicklaus in 1963, ’64. (SOURCE: PGA OF AMERICA) 78The average second-round score at the windswept 2012 PGA at Kiawah, the…

HE WAS A BARREL-CHESTED, good-natured fellow who oozed testosterone and breathed as if every gulp of air was a cleansing breath. He had a gravelly voice, and after growling a sentence he would repeat the gist of what he’d just said. On Seinfeld they might have called him the Twice Talker or the Double Speaker, but in the caddie yard we called him Rob Kaufman Rob Kaufman the guy who says everything twice twice.1 Rob Kaufman Rob Kaufman had some doozies in his arsenal. When any putt came up just short, he would scold himself and the ball with a rousing cheer used by fans of a local high school’s team. “A little harder, Penn Charter! A little har-der!”2 If Rob Kaufman Rob Kaufman smoked a drive, his robust phraseology,…

GOLF.COM / THE BEST STUFF IN THE GAME 43 Golf balls in four categories to help you get more out of your game with every club in your bag 184 The weight, in grams, of the XXIO Prime driver clubhead (20g less than standard) for an instant swing speed boost 11 Fantastic-feeling and pure rolling new putter models from the house of PING 6 Yards of extra distance reported by one GOLF ClubTester after switching to the new Miura PI-401 iron 4 Precisely engineered Callaway combination iron sets that provide the best of all worlds THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS? That’s not nearly enough for us hyper-personalized folks nowadays. We want the best of every world. When it comes to, say, Chinese food, that’s easy—you get the pu-pu platter or,…

PING’S NEW 2021 PUTTERS may look clean and stealthy from address, but they’re packed with technology in their faces to help golfers roll the ball better. Most noticeably, the dual-durometer face inserts use shallow grooves to produce consistent speeds across the face. Also, the face inserts use a special weight-saving Pebax elastomer that provides a soft feel and greater feedback for the player. The saved weight allowed PING to make other areas of the putterhead heavier in order to boost forgiveness on mishits. For example, high-density tungsten weights have been placed in the heel and toe sections to increase MOI (moment of inertia, a measure of forgiveness). The 2021 lineup consists of 11 eye-catching models, ranging from classic blades to oversize modern mallets, so golfers can find their perfect match.…

Colored dots let you know if a ball comes in something other than white PREMIUM Bridgestone Tour B X $45/dozen Designed with the help of Bryson De-Chambeau, the new Tour B X golf balls are made for fast swingers (over 105 mph of driver speed) who also want peak short-game performance. A new Reactiv urethane cover helps decrease spin and boost speed on long shots while increasing spin when you’re around the greens. Bridgestone Tour B XS $45/dozen Tiger Woods knows exactly what he’s looking for, and he helped design the new Tour B XS to match his preferences. As such, the new Tour B XS is built with a Reactiv cover that’s slightly softer for maximum greenside control yet still provides distance thanks to a Gradational Compression core. Bridgestone…

The PGA Championship returns to the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island on May 20 to 23, nine years after a young Rory McIlroy won the first Wanamaker Trophy contested by the sea in South Carolina—and 30 years since Kiawah had its big reveal as host of a hotly contested Ryder Cup. The Ocean Course has been a big-time venue since its inception, and the route to this year’s championship is a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon–type journey to the very first PGA Championship in 1916 and back again, with a lot of zigzagging among past champs—and through the Midwest, thanks to Pete Dye and another guy from Ohio you might recognize. 2012 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Kiawah Island (Ocean Course) Winner: Rory McIlroy McIlroy was sweating it out down the stretch of…

If you’re generating too much sidespin on your putts, you’re going to struggle everywhere on the green, no matter how far you are from the hole (and even if your read is perfect). Getting your putts rolling end over end is a recipe for making more birdies, and the MyRoll two-color golf balls from Eyeline Golf ($20; eyelinegolf.com) is a simple way to do just that. How do you use them? Set up the golf ball so that the red line is pointing at the hole and contrasting colors are on either side of it. Hit putts, and if the colors start to blend together you’ll know the putterface isn’t square. If the colors on the ball remain separated, the ball is rolling end over end with minimal sidespin and…

NO GOLFER ON TOUR, before or since, has clocked a higher fairways hit percentage than Calvin Peete during the 1983 season (84.55 percent). But while that season may have been his high point, his unprecedented ability to keep his ball in the fairway spanned 10 years (see chart, below) and makes him statistically the straightest driver in PGA Tour history. How did he do it? We delved into the video archives and found that Peete primarily relied on two basic keys: 1. Good balance Balance, Peete says, is the first and most important key to accurate drives. If your balance is off, the direction of your club will be too. Without a good foundation, you’ll be costing yourself both distance and accuracy. “Good balance throughout the golf swing is so…

Sometimes you can find training aids for your swing in the unlikeliest of items. Exhibit A: the iconic Frisbee. Hold the disk in your hands so it mimics the clubface, then get into golf posture. Slowly take the Frisbee back as in a real backswing and pause at the top (1). As you start back down (you can do this in slow motion), note how the disk changes its orientation (2) and stop at impact. The disk—and your left wrist—should return to the same spot as if at address, with the flat top of the Frisbee facing the target. If you can take these clubface principles to the course, the quality of your contact will skyrocket—sort of like that Frisbee. Mike Perpich teaches at River-Pines Golf in Johns Creek, Ga.…

I’VE LOOKED AT SWING DATA for GOLFTEC for the better part of two decades, giving us a great understanding of, among many things, what separates good players from those who constantly struggle with technique. One of the many data points we look at when analyzing swings is hip sway at the top of the backswing. It’s such a critical factor that often it’s the first thing we look at when diagnosing a new player’s improvement plan. Hip sway, in the most basic terms, is the difference between your hip position at the top of the backswing (closer or farther from the target) and its position at address. Trust me: Players hips always move one way or the other. At GOLFTEC we’ve found that the best golfers move their hips slightly…