player who turned his attention to golf after suffering a career-ending injury. “They have no targets, no alignment aids. It’s just bad, bad, bad, bad. The goal is to give them some structure. That’s the lowest-hanging fruit.” The lazy habits ingrained at the typi- cal range are often traced to the mis- conception that dropping a bucket of balls at your feet and swinging away can only help. In fact, Golf Digest Best Young Teacher Will Robins says the rea- son golfers of the 1940s and 1950s used their practice time more constructively is because they had no other choice. “Back then a Trackman was a shag bag,” says Robins. “You went out to a field, and you put your umbrella out there, and you hit at that target, and you learned your distances to your um- brella and your towel. Everything had a purpose because you're like, ‘I have to go and pick this thing up. I have to go and find it afterwards.’ We’ve totally taken that away with the driving range. There's just absolutely no accountabil- ity there.” M ay has plenty of gadgets at his disposal at The Grove. But his best tool in measuring accountability is the four wooden stakes. After I complete the wedge- control drill, May calls over Chinese tour pro Yuxin Lin to demonstrate his version. Lin is 24, has twice played in the Masters after wins in the Asian- Pacific Amateur Championship, and now plays the Korn Ferry Tour. May tightens the stakes to limit Lin’s target to a small shelf in the back left quadrant of the green; this dispersion is based on the average of the best wedge player in golf. Lin lands his first shot within the stakes, but it trundles off. The next shot hits and spins back. Through ev- ery missed shot, Lin appears unfazed. Eventually, Lin sticks a ball to pin high, two feet from the flag. “When you first start teaching and that client's failing, you want to help them straight away,” May says. “We're used to getting in there and stopping the bleeding, but we’re trying to help them be a little more creative and imag- inative without being so conscious of their mechanics.” It is not a coincidence that the backdrop for this exercise is a golf club founded by Michael Jordan. The Grove’s ornate touches underscore
THE GOOD, THE BAD,AND THE UGLY The measure of a good short game isn’t just executing chips and pitches; it’s also overcoming difficult lies. This drill tests your ability to save par from challenging positions. YOU’LL NEED A green with a tucked pin, a wedge, a putter, three golf balls. STEPS 1 . Identify a spot on a short- game area hole or golf hole with limited space to chip to. 2. Identify three different lies – one good, one challenging and one inordinately difficult. 3. Drop a golf ball in each lie and play the hole out from there. 4. Tabulate your score over 9 balls. Score to beat: A tour pro with a dialled short game might get up-and-down two- thirds of the time, producing a score of 21.
Jordan’s status as a living icon, but the practice area reflects how he became one. As a basketball player, Jordan em- phasised “self-discovery,” which was only possible through resistance. He became a better jump shooter when the lanes to the basket started to close, and he became a better passer once defenders began to challenge his shot. This emphasis on self-discovery is how May designs his training sessions. “Confidence in Michael Jordan’s view is not hoping you can do something. It’s knowing you can do something,” May says. “That doesn’t happen if you don’t train without a sufficient level of discomfort.” May’s connection to Jordan can be traced to another basketball legend. In the early 2000s, he was working at Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, New York, and giving lessons to Larry Brown, the Hall of Fame coach who won both an NCAA title with Kansas and an NBA crown with the Detroit Pistons. During one lesson, the basketball coach mentioned he viewed himself as an “execution coach.” He sought not just to teach players skills, but how to ap-
SCORE TO BEAT
Middle-handicappers should try to break 30.
104 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025
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