MAY 2025
south africa
NO 1 TEACHER MARK BLACKBURN
MOVES YOU CAN STEAL FROM TOUR PROS
FOREVER RORY A RARE LOOK AT A CAREER GRAND SLAM
ROBIN TIGER WILLIAMS • ZIMBALI LAKES • US PGA PREVIEW
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MAY 2025 tee sheet
Birdie Binge Players at the PGA Championship need to feast on holes 13 through 15 before facing Quail Hollow’s notorious Green Mile that begins with the par-4 16th. Read more about “The Last Meal” on page 86.
Features 46 Riding the Rory Coaster McIlroy at the Masters. BY DOTTIE PEPPER 56 South Africa’s Top 100 Courses BY STUART MCLEAN 78 Steal from the pros Nine moves you can do. BY MARK BLACKBURN 86 US PGA Preview Green Mile at Quail Hollow. BY DEREK DUNCAN
6 Editor’s Letter BY STUART MCLEAN Mind 8 How Much Golf Is Too Much Golf? BY JERRY TARDE 10 Journeys ROBIN WILLIAMS, WITH KEELY LEVINS
12 Undercover Pro WITH JOEL BEALL
14 Be the Hare, not the Tortoise BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS
92 Zimbali Lakes BY STUART MCLEAN
16 That thing is in my way RULES BY RON KASPRISKE
104 Sunshine Tour Review of 2024/25 season. 117 Golf Digest 75th How we got here. BY SHANE RYAN 124 The Best I Ever Did For three weeks in 1971 Lee Trevino had it all. BY JAIME DIAZ What to Play 96 Our equipment experts explain why tour players are ditching hybrids for fairway woods (page 98). When is it OK to play old golf balls – and when should you throw them out? (page 100). Every club in Christiaan Bezuidenhout’s bag (Page 102).
18 Undercover Caddie WITH JOEL BEALL
20 Ask the greenkeeper BY DREW POWELL
22 Farewell Dave Pelz BY MIKE STACHURA How to Play 28 Aberg’s indoor drill BY DREW POWELL
30 Make mid-range putts BY JAMES SIECKMANN
32 Crunch your right side BY CHERYL ANDERSON
35 The Core Workouts to get fit. BY RON KASPRISKE
38 Fix your shanks now BY DAVID LEADBETTER
40 Calvin Peete’s tips BY LUKE KERR-DINEEN
42 Flex your sand skills BY TODD ANDERSON
44 Optimise your launch BY CHRIS MAYSON
G olf Digest is celebrating its 75th anniversary, a number which should resonate with golfers. Breaking 75 is a goal of lower handicaps, and for proficient older golfers of that age it’s a realistic target to contemplate breaking your age. Elite golfers seek to first do this in their late 60s, but for most of us it’s more likely to happen in our mid- to late-70s. The trick lies in keeping our swings in shape with each passing year, but I’ve seen plenty do it because equalling or breaking your age is a source of pride for seniors. It gives extra purpose to every round you play at 75 or 85. Many stay flexible and keep hitting a long ball into their 80s -- nobody has bro- ken his age more times than Gary Player, who is deep in the thousands and adds to his tally every time he plays – and my own hero in this field is the late Terry Long, a member at Humewood who won the club championship at 77 and broke his age nearly 900 times until he stopped playing at 90. His strength was a depend- able short game, and you need to be a EDITOR’S LETTER E Breaking 75
good putter to sustain low scores as you lose distance. Long’s impressive achieve- ment was to do this at one of the windiest links on the planet. I’ve been reading Golf Digest for 50 years. At this time of year, around the majors, it used to be one of the heaviest magazines on the shelves before slim- ming down this century. I kept every is- sue I bought for decades, even though they weighed a ton and weren’t easy to store. But In 1995 that abruptly stopped. Golf Digest vanished from the country, re- placed by GD South Africa, which marks its 30th anniversary. Two GDs couldn’t compete in the local market, and no one was more upset than myself at the loss of a favourite publication. Mainly because the replacement 96-page GDSA clearly couldn’t publish all the content from a 240-page GD USA. My frustration only lasted 18 months, however. I was appointed editor of GDSA and all three of Golf Digest’s then publica- tions would arrive in welcome packages every month, more reading material than even I could handle. My challenge was to see how much of this content I could shoehorn into GDSA. Our magazine grew, topping 200 pages between 2000 and 2010. Today, the print era seems a bygone age, and I never envisaged ushering in a digital GDSA as editor. Yet the content remains the best in golf, and videos pro- vide ever more instruction and informa- tion to assist our readers. One gift of the anniversary year is a new series by Jaime Diaz, “Best I Ever Did,” which kicks off in this issue with Lee Trevino alongside an appraisal of GD’s 75 years on Page 117. Stuart McLean stuartm@morecorp.co.za
Secret to Fred Couples’ swing Moe Norman’s swing How to pick the right fairway wood How pros calculate yardages Simple short game move pros use Behind the Lens: Tiger’s Chip-In CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE OUR TOP SIX VIDEOS The Golf Laboratories swing robot did tests on the latest TaylorMade, Callaway, Cleveland, and Cobra drivers. Two equipment experts examine the data. Watch the videos here... Is the TaylorMade Qi35 the fastest and most forgiving driver? Testing the last 3 Cobra drivers. Should you upgrade? Cleveland HiBore XL Testing the last 3 Callaway drivers. Should you upgrade? Callaway’s Elyte Triple Diamond. Cobra DS-Adapt Max-K
EDITOR STUART MCLEAN DESIGN ELINORE DE LISLE MEDIA SALES DANIEL EGDES (daniele@morecorp.co.za) GOLF DIGEST USA
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JERRY TARDE, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR MAX ADLER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR PETER MORRICE, INTERNATIONAL EDITOR JU KUANG TAN TEACHING PROFESSIONALS: TODD ANDERSON, MARK BLACKBURN, CHUCK COOK, HANK HANEY, BUTCH HARMON, ERIKA LARKIN, DAVID LEADBETTER, CAMERON MCCORMICK, JIM MCLEAN, RENEE POWELL, RANDY SMITH, RICK SMITH, DAVE STOCKTON, JOSH ZANDER PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS: AMY ALCOTT, RANDY MYERS, NICK PRICE, JUDY RANKIN, LUCIUS RICCIO, BOB ROTELLA, BEN SHEAR, RALPH SIMPSON, DR ARA SUPPIAH PLAYING EDITORS: COLLIN MORIKAWA, JORDAN SPIETH, BUBBA WATSON A LICENSING AGREEMENT BETWEEN WARNER BROTHERS DISCOVERY AND MORECORP, OWNERS OF THE PRO SHOP AND WORLD OF GOLF. WARNER BROTHERS DISCOVERY IS A GLOBAL LEADER IN REAL-LIFE ENTERTAINMENT, SERVING A PASSIONATE AUDIENCE OF SUPERFANS AROUND THE WORLD WITH CONTENT THAT INSPIRES, INFORMS AND ENTERTAINS.
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M MIND / THE NEXT ONE’S GOOD
A great wind is blowing off the sea, a source of courage or pain for golf- ers. I’m reporting from the battlefield of links golf in a howling, moaning gale on the Southwest coast of Ireland at the 16th World Invita- tional Father-Daughter Tournament. My daughter Sam and I are not accus- tomed to playing every day, and this is rattle-bottom golf – every shot chased down, every gimme putted out – and we’re loving it. My old friend Sandy Tatum once said, “Put me vertical and give me the feel of seaside turf through my spikes and I could go on forever.” As the days and weeks now pass, I want to keep that feeling alive. “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful,” said Mae West. I always preferred the sport psychology of Mark Twain: “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough.” You could say the same about playing golf with your kids – it never gets old, even when you do. This year was our first time in the tournament inspired by Jimmy Layden and Marty Carr of Ireland’s famous Carr Family. Joe B Carr was the greatest amateur in Irish history. His offspring now operate a travel com- pany, Carr Golf, and its daughter- and son-themed tournaments evoke the warm affection only a golfing dad can feel after 18 holes, a swim in the freez- ing Irish Sea and a pint of Guinness at midnight in the little pub they call “The Shebeen.” I admit that I have the stooped posture and delicate hands of a shoe salesman. Pretty reliably I aim it right and hit a soft pull hook into the middle. I learned in these pages a long time ago, “Working the ball means finishing with the same one you start with.” How Much Golf Is Too Much Golf? Tears and all, it takes a father and daughter to find the answer BY JERRY TARDE
Not so for Sam, who pummels her drives, as Bernard Darwin once described Nicklaus, “like a kicking horse.” Opposites attract; we make a great team. I had the passion but not the talent. Sam had the talent but not the passion. Should I have pushed golf more when she was younger? We played our first round with Roddy Carr, Marty’s older brother who used to manage Seve Ballesteros. Roddy advocated equal measures of opportunity and neglect: “When Seve’s son Javier was about 10, I noticed he
was hitting balls cross-handed. I said, ‘Seve, you’ve got to correct his grip.’ Seve said, ‘No, Roddy. Some day his friends will tell him he looks stupid hitting it that way, and he will figure it out for himself and be better for it.’ ” Sam has figured it out on her own. From the “up” tees that our daughters play, Sam’s ball can finish 100 yards past me on firm and fast fairways. MY GIRL Jerry and Sam Tarde pause for some hydration at The Shebeen at Waterville Golf Links.
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A MIGHTY CRAIC Participants in Ireland’s World Invitational Father-Daughter Tournament bond over golf and a swim in the freezing Irish sea.
In the foursomes competition, we used her drive on Waterville’s long par-5 fifth hole; then I bunted my 5-wood between the grassy dunes; with 130 yards
left, Sam lofted an 8-iron that rolled straight into the cup. Dads know how to cry, and my eyes got a little misty seeing her make a net albatross. It was the second time that week I wept. The first was when the tour- nament field took a morning swim in Ballinskelligs Bay with a water temper- ature of 14 degrees Celsius. It’s a Carr tradition; they swim every morning of every month no matter where they travel. Between us, Sam’s the aquatic athlete; I’m more of a tea bag than a swimmer. You know the sea is cold if the air feels warm when you get out, but we’re loving every minute of this marathon. Sam and I follow two practice rounds with three straight tournament days. It’s the most consecutive golf she has ever played, but she can’t get enough. “We’re coming back next year and bringing (my sister) Lauren,” said Sam. “Too much golf, when it’s with your dad, is just about right.” Marty showed me an email he got from a friend of a friend who took an 11-day golf trip. Ted and Fred Heldring had organised their own father-son event as they’ve done every year for the past 12 summers. They often go to Bandon Dunes and play 72 holes in a day, not a typo. This July they went to Scotland for the first time and played from dawn till dark: 36 holes the first three days, then 54 holes for five consecutive days, then 36 twice, and 54 on their last day. Ted, 62, and Fred, 32, walked 28 rounds in 11 days, carry- ing their own bags every round, except for two when they took a caddie. Fred sorted out the tee times and drove their rental car. They played Gullane (1, 2 and 3), North Berwick, Elie (five times), the Old Course, the New (four times), Castle, Jubilee (twice), Lundin Links, Leven, Crail, Panmure, Carnoustie, Cruden Bay, Dornoch (twice), Nairn,
I called them from Ireland to ask what their secret was. Ted said they changed their socks and shoes after every round. That’s a lot of socks, I thought. It had to be something more. Their highlight, they said, was playing the Old Course at 6.40am on a Saturday with two Royal and Ancient Golf Club members, who invited them into the storied Big Room for a couple of Bloody Marys. They said, “It was a magical experience.” The magic, I learned from my rounds with Sam, is not about how much you play or even where you play. It is all about who you play with. Fathers play- ing links golf with sons or daughters get a glimpse of their mortality while still feeling they can go on forever, and be- cause you know you can’t, my advice is to do it now.
Golspie and Brora. Marty said, “In 35 years in the golf travel business I’ve nev- er seen such an aggressive itinerary.” Who are these guys? Ted spent most of his career at JP Morgan before retiring to teach finance and com- mercial banking at DePaul University in Chicago. Fred is a financial consul- tant for Ernst & Young in Philadelphia. They seem like normal guys. They could be you. ‘The magic, I learned from my rounds with Sam, is not about how much you play or where you play. It is all about who you play with.’
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MIND / JOURNEYS M
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Robin Tiger Williams ‘I Donated My Winnings to My Competitors’
WITH KEELY LEVINS
I CAN’T TELL YOU THE NUMBER OF YOUTUBE VIDEOS I’VE WATCHED of Tiger Woods, the man who inspired my middle name. I’d get in trouble when I was supposed to be studying because I had golf on my iPad. He was a massive inspiration to me not only because he won so much but by how many lives he impacted through golf. I knew from a young age that I wanted to play golf and help people in a positive way.
the Vusi Ngubeni Q School, for non- white players. After decades of apart- heid, inequality between races is still prevalent in South Africa. The Vusi Q school is less expensive and provides an opportunity for players who might not otherwise be able to afford to play. I won it in 2023. ● ● ● What I saw on the Sunshine Tour was shocking. At one tournament, I saw a bunch of players sleeping on the course. They told me they had taken a four-day bus trip to get there and had no money for a hotel room, let alone food. They came from humble means, had no sponsors and were missing cuts. It was heartbreaking. ● ● ● We came up with a way to help these players. I donated almost all my win- nings, my dad contributed from his dental practice and my sponsor put money in, too, to help pay for things like yardage books and flights. When I rented a car for a tournament, I’d get a van to take as many guys with me as I could. We wanted them to be able to showcase their skills. I saw guys make the cut for the first time. We really made a difference. ● ● ● I was Rookie of the Year in the 2023- 2024 season – and second on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit which earned me DP World Tour status for 2025. It’s been my dream to get to the PGA Tour ever since I was 8 years old. I want to be one of the best players in the world, but if I’m not able to impact people’s lives in a positive way, then that success would be worthless to me. I want to inspire the next generation and make golf more accessible to peo- ple who don’t have the opportunity to play this sport I love so much.
see a coach. We met Iain Highfield, a sports psychol- ogist, who went to work at Bishops Gate Golf Academy in Florida. He organised a scholarship for me, so I went to the academy at 12 years old and spent a few years getting private coaching. All that professional training helped my game a ton. ● ● ●
I was born in Stellen- bosch in September 2001. My dad tried to name me after cricketer Sachin Ten- dulkar, but my mom vetoed it. My dad loved golf, so he named me after Tiger. Golf wasn’t big among our family and friends, so when I was christened, everyone in the church wondered why my parents named me after an animal. ● ● ●
ROBIN TIGER WILLIAMS TWO WINS ON SUNSHINE TOUR
AGE: 23
LIVES: PETERBOROUGH, ENGLAND
I met Tiger at the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris, when representing Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup. One coach yelled, “What’s your middle name?” while I was shaking Tiger’s hand, and I told him. Tiger laughed and said, “No way.” I thanked him for being such an inspiration to me, and he joked that just because I was playing for Europe he hoped I was still cheering for him to go 5-0. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. ● ● ● In 2019 I went to Florida State Uni- versity because I knew the assistant coach. Then COVID hit, and since I knew I’d have some mini-tour oppor- tunities, I turned pro in 2021. I tried for a Challenge Tour card but failed. I went back to South Africa to try and play the Sunshine Tour but missed get- ting through the 2022 Q school by one shot. Every day, I wondered if I’d made a mistake; Did I turn pro too early? ● ● ● The Sunshine Tour has two Q schools, the standard Q school and
My dad, a scratch handicap, taught me to play golf as soon as I could grip a club. I was obsessed with it and hit balls in the living room with plastic clubs. When 8, we moved to the UK, where we joined the local golf club (Peterborough Milton) and started training. My dad and I woke at 4.30, made hot chocolate and hit balls into a net in our backyard. After school, I went to the range. After work at his dental practice, my dad would join me, and we’d be there until dark. ● ● ● I was terrible at first and could bare- ly hit the ball, but I got better quickly and played local junior tournaments and then the US Kids European Cham- pionships in Scotland. I finished dead last. I went out to watch the older kids to see what I could learn. They were better at everything. I was far behind. I needed to keep working hard. ● ● ● Sometimes we’d drive 10 hours to
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM SHAW
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Finding Out Your News on TV
– most of us genuinely have no idea. The real conversations are happen- ing among a select few, and they’re keeping everything close to the vest. It makes me laugh when people call us a “player-run organisation” because, honestly, most of us players seem to have about as much say in what’s happening as the average golf fan. Internal communication has never been the tour’s strong suit, and I get why. We’re a travelling circus – setting up shop at a different course every week. Each tournament has its own
T HESE DAYS I’M GLUED TO golf coverage more than ever, and I know a lot of players who would say the same. It’s not because we’re suddenly more interest- ed in watching ourselves on TV. We’re doing it because the media has liter- ally become our best shot at figuring
out what’s going on with our own tour. It’s infuriating. Mostly, it’s all this business with the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. When reporters ask us what we know about these ongoing talks and we don’t have any answers, it’s not that we’re not playing dumb
ILLUSTRATION BY CHLOE ZOLA
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MIND / UNDERCOVER PRO M
June 6 is a date that comes up in every player conversation about this stuff. And look, I understand why the initial talks with PIF had to be kept quiet. You can’t negotiate effectively with 150 people in the room. But what I can’t wrap my head around is why we’re still so removed. How are we supposed to feel confident about the future of our tour when we don’t even know what it’s going to look like? I’ve talked about this with other athletes at my club – baseball play- ers, basketball players, football play- ers. Their situations are a bit different since their leagues usually communi- cate through teams. They haven’t faced anything quite like our rival league situation with LIV Golf, but they deal with plenty of other headaches, like trade rumours. It’s become this whole industry of speculation that can really mess with players’ heads. One NBA player told me about a GM who delib- erately spreads fake trade rumours to his staff just to see if they leak to the press. Maybe that GM thinks it’s clev- er, but imagine being a player whose kids are asking if they need to switch schools because of a made-up rumour. What’s the fix? Regular emails would be a start, even if half of us never open them. A monthly conference call would go a long way. I’m hopeful about this new business leader position the tour is creating – maybe they’ll un- derstand that our frustration could be solved just by keeping us in the loop. The tour could also set up some re- gional meetings where we could talk face-to-face about what’s happening. Maybe create some kind of secure platform where we could get updates and share feedback. Mostly, they just need to start treating us like actual stakeholders in our own organisation, rather than outsiders looking in. Until then, we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing – piecing together the future of our tour from media re- ports and whispered conversations on the range. It’s not ideal, but at least it’s something. And maybe, just may- be, someone in tour leadership will eventually realise that keeping your own players in the dark isn’t exactly a winning strategy. – WITH JOEL BEALL
media account to follow several “in- sider” accounts. I’ve tried to tell him those accounts are mostly just crazy conspiracy theorists, but it’s no use. Let me be clear – I’m not a big name in golf. I don’t expect Jay Monahan to have me on speed dial. But here’s what drives me crazy: Unless you’re one of the top stars, tour leadership isn’t go- ing to talk to you. Even the guys who sit on our player boards often seem just as in the dark as the rest of us. Instead, all the communication seems to flow towards tournament sponsors and the agencies running events. Now, a lot of these agencies also manage players, which you’d think would help. But by the time information filters down to a player like me, it’s been through so many people it’s like that old game of telephone we played as kids. It gets complicated with golf media, too. You’ve got some writers who are “Even the guys who sit on our player boards often seem just as in the dark as the rest of us.” basically just repeating whatever tour officials tell them without doing their own digging. Others seem to toe the tour line because their company has some kind of partnership deal. Still, even that imperfect information is better than what we typically get through official channels – which is basically radio silence. The first time I heard about the tour planning to shrink field sizes and cut back on tour cards was last summer after reading Adam Schupak in Golf- week. I tried reaching out to several tour folks to get the real story – crick- ets. Asked a player representative who said, “Yeah, they’re talking about it, but nothing’s set in stone.” Then I called a media person I trust who flat-out told me it was already a done deal. People outside our organisa- tion knew more about major changes affecting our careers than we did.
army of employees and volunteers run- ning the show. Our “office” is basically a locker room we barely use and a driv- ing range where we’re focused on, you know, practising. With only a handful of player meetings a year, there’s no real system for keeping us in the loop. Before the LIV Golf saga, we mostly relied on locker room gossip, and it was hard enough then to separate fact from fiction. Now? I feel like I can believe everything and trust nothing. There’s one prominent player, someone I call a friend, who set up a separate social-
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MIND / GAME ON M
Try Rabbit, the game where it pays to stay out in front BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS Be the Hare, Not the Tortoise N OT EVERY GAMBLING game has to require a wire transfer from the Caymans to cover losses. Some involve VARIATIONS: As soon as the Rabbit is caught, the title transfers to the new low golfer, skipping the step of having to set it free before claiming it. on ensuing holes is tied (by any play- ers in the group), that player still is the Rabbit.
The only way to chase down the Rab- bit is for another player to also win a hole outright, in which case the Rab- bit is now free to be won again (you can’t steal it from someone). If another player wins a hole after the Rabbit is free, that golfer now is the carrot-eater. This game is played on both nines, so the player who holds the title after the ninth wins whatever amount of money was determined before the round. A new game then starts on the back nine with a second winner coming after the 18th. If no one is the Rabbit after the ninth, the game continues, and the winner on 18 gets both pots of cash. No one is the Rabbit on 18? You can decide how to divvy the wager, if at all.
relatively low stakes and yet are still a lot of fun to play. “Rabbit” falls into this category. Here’s what you need to know. NUMBER OF PLAYERS REQUIRED: 2 to 4 BEST FOR: Either the casual or serious gambler. Folks who want to add a fun little side game, though it can also be the main game. HOW TO PLAY: Rabbit gets its name be- cause you have to chase the golfer who is the first to have the lowest score on a hole outright – he or she is the Rabbit. If handicaps are involved, that would be the low net score of the group. After that person wins a hole, if the low score
Another variation makes it much more difficult to catch the bunny by adding “legs.” Let’s say Player A wins the first and second holes outright. Player A would now have “two legs” of the Rabbit, meaning the other play- ers in the group would have to win two holes just to set it free again. This re- wards the player who gets off to a fast start, stays on a hot streak and is the clear pacesetter. Big leads are great. Just watch out for that tortoise late on the back nine! If you have another game or some on-course wagering you’d recommend, message me on Twitter/X @Cpowers14.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GLYN KIRK/GETTY IMAGES
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M
MIND / RULES REVIEW
W ATCH PRO GOLF long enough and you’ll be amazed at some of the breaks players seem to get thanks to the construc- tion of grandstands, hospitality tents, TV towers and more. In fact, it’s not all that unusual for tour pros to take tem- porary immovable obstructions (TIOs) into consideration when playing shots. One example came from Jordan Spi- eth in the Texas Open last year. Trying to escape a dicey lie in a penalty area That Thing is in My Way Do I get relief from an electrical box? The pros do, right? BY RON KASPRISKE
on the 18th hole at TPC San Antonio during the third round, Spieth pur- posely hit his third shot into the gut- ter of the clubhouse left of the green, knowing that the building was not out of bounds. He got the relief drop, which then put his ball behind a score- board on his line to the hole. That al- lowed him to take free relief, because a scoreboard is considered a TIO on the PGA Tour. That scoreboard relief gave him a clean shot into the green, and he knocked it on. As it turns out, he made a double bogey, but those crafty moves nearly helped him save par. If you were watching or just read about it, you might be wondering why pros get free relief for stuff like that but you can’t move your ball without pen- alty when there’s an irrigation-control box (above) or some other permanent structure between it and the hole. Rule 16 covers abnormal course conditions including immovable obstructions (not temporary ). Examples of obstruc- tions include cement cart paths, ball
washers and even the halfway house at the turn. As long as your ball is any- where on the course except for a pen- alty area, the rule states that you are allowed one club-length of free relief from the obstruction. When you drop, your ball can’t be closer to the hole and it must be in the general area of the course. But there’s the catch: This relief applies only if the immovable obstruction interferes with your ball, stance or swing. Notice the rule didn’t mention line of play? That type of relief is available only when a temporary immovable obstruction is on the intended line and Model Local Rule F-23 has been enacted. The logic is that these objects the pros have to deal with wouldn’t be there for any other reason but the tour- nament, so it’s unfair to make players navigate them. The takeaway might be that while it can seem like pros are getting out- rageous relief without penalties, they are just taking advantage of the rules.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF TORO
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M MIND / ON TOUR
A few times each year a story will emerge about a cheating scandal in pro golf. That is not a lot when you consider how many shots are televised and that fans have cameras on their phones waiting to catch the slightest bit of impropriety. When I was caddieing on tour more than 30 years ago, there weren’t many cameras, and no one had
Undercover Caddie My player wouldn’t stop cheating, so I quit
ILLUSTRATION BY SIMON BAILLY
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away mid-round. I felt like we both left that conversation with an un- derstanding. Clearly, he didn’t; three months later, he was doing the heel- behind-the-ball crap again during a Florida event. I didn’t walk away mid- round, but I quit after the tournament. I couldn’t stand by and watch some- one cheat. I know what you’re think- ing: Why didn’t I speak up? It’s not a caddie’s place to call rules infractions, even on his own player. However, I overvalued my worth. I thought I’d be able to get another full- time bag. Instead, I spent most of the season on part-time or fill-in duty, all with guys well below the calibre of the player I had left. Part of me wondered if my old player had put the word out on me or if his management spread false rumours about the split. Looking back, I think it was just bad luck, and maybe hubris on my part. The next year I got a regular bag, but he lasted only two seasons on tour before losing his card. I spent one more year hopping from bag to bag before I quit and got a normal 9-to-5 job running a golf-training pro- gramme in the United States. I recently retired and now work at a club looping when they get low on caddies. Hey, it’s what I know, and I’m good at it. That guy I left had a very good career. No major victories, and I’m guessing most fans under 40 don’t know his name, but he had a bunch of wins and is doing just fine in retire- ment. I have no idea if he kept cheating when I left; I never was paired with him in another round, and I never heard any rumblings that he was doing the things I witnessed. Does the decision weigh on me? I didn’t leave life-changing money, but I missed out on quite a bit of it. I know I passed on that financial security for a clear conscience, and I’m sure I could have retired a lot earlier, which is tough to take. At least my integrity is intact. – WITH JOEL BEALL
tee. Yet my player squatted over the ball, acting like he was examining a scuffed-up area on the green (this was back in the day when you couldn’t repair spike marks, kids) as he dug his heels behind the ball, improving his lie. When he rose from the position, suddenly I could see the number on his ball, which I couldn’t before. He nearly holed the shot and made par. This was on a Saturday; that shot kept us in con- tention, and we had a solid finish. There was no doubt in my mind what I had witnessed, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a one-off. Dur- ing the next two months, I noticed he had other tricks. Everyone knows the move where a player takes a practice backswing behind the ball to clear a path in the rough. My guy had an in- teresting spin on this stunt. He would stand behind his ball and perpendicu- lar to it while he was swinging. It was a There was no doubt in my mind what I had witnessed, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a one-off. move that, while exponentially riskier because of possible contact with the ball, seemed more inconspicuous to his competitors. I also noticed he was liberal when marking his ball on the green, often moving the ball to the side of his marker to avoid any imper- fections on the green that were in his line. It only made a slight difference, but at that level, a slight difference can be worth thousands of dollars. I confronted him about it at a hit- and-giggle a few months later in his home country. I thought we had a good relationship and that he would take my word not as condemnation but as concern. I genuinely think he is a decent person, which is why I was shocked at what I saw. I could tell by how flustered he was that he knew he was caught. At one point he even said I didn’t know the Rules of Golf. I told him I didn’t tell anyone, but if I sensed he was cheating again, I would walk
a phone in his or her pocket. Unless it was egregious, whatever happened usually went unpublished. I know because I saw cheating regularly, and it made me quit my job. I spent close to a decade on the PGA and European tours during the 1980s and ’90s. In those days, it wasn’t that hard to pick up a loose bag. I was a good amateur and had a few college friends turn pro, so I bounced around with them. I tagged along with one guy to Europe, but he eventually flamed out after a few years. I jumped on an up-and-comer’s bag, and within a year we won our first event. Because he was good – and more importantly, because the money was so much better – we decided to head to the PGA Tour the next season. I’m naive and certainly not the most observant, but I still know the game, and I thought I knew people. Yet one time, after a good finish in Europe, I was on a train to the next tournament eight hours away. As caddies do, we shared a cabin, and as we were load- ing up, someone noticed a bodega in the station. “You’re buying,” one of the caddies said to me, “since you guys took money from us.” During the ride, the caddie accused my player of cheating when he got around the green, saying he would bend over his ball in the rough like he was reading the break, only to use the heels of his shoes to pat down the grass and make for an easier chip. I brushed it off; neither I nor my player was European, so I thought it could be a bit of xenophobia. My player could also be a bit theatrical af- ter good shots and bad, which didn’t help, either. I wasn’t worried, especial- ly because none of the other caddies had heard or seen anything like that, but that’s not something you forget. Though it took a while to prove, I ulti- mately discovered the caddie was tell- ing the truth: My player was a cheater. A few years later, we were playing in the old Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic in Virginia. We were short-sided and in a brutal lie – the exact situation the caddie from the train had described. If you gave us a bogey, I would have gladly said yes and moved to the next
Undercover Caddie says cheating isn’t common in pro golf, or players are very sneaky.
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MIND / ASK A GREENKEEPER M
PLACES, PLEASE Where you leave
a rake can make a big difference for maintenance staff.
N EARLY EVERY GOLFER understands it’s their re- sponsibility to rake a bun- ker after they hit from it, but what should they do after that? Should they place the rake inside or outside the bunker? That’s the question we put to Shan- non Wheeler, director of agronomy at The Plantation at Ponte Vedra Beach. Wheeler has worked at the Plantation for four years after serving as the su- perintendent at the nearby Dye’s Val- ley course at TPC Sawgrass. Golf Digest: Shannon, where should golfers place bunker rakes? Wheeler: The main thing is that the USGA recommends they go outside and out of the way. With a tour event, you’ve got a lot less rakes on the golf course and so generally they would not place them anywhere a shot could end up. No matter if it’s a fairway bunker or Should I Leave Bunker Rakes Inside or Outside the Sand? BY DREW POWELL
to play a shot? Wheeler: Typically, if I’m in a bunker, I walk and grab the rake then walk back to the shortest point of entrance to get into my ball. That’s a big thing. Some bunkers are a nightmare to get in and out of, so it’s important to go to the eas- iest point of entrance and exit. Don’t walk in on a lip because if you’re in a soft sea, you could collapse a bunker edge by walking on it. If the rake is left in the bunker, though, I’m possibly walking through more of the bunker to get the rake, and so I’ve got more sand to rake. You’re making it harder on yourself. Anything else worth mentioning? Wheeler: All in all, at the end of the day, I just want players to rake the bunker. We still see unraked bunkers from time to time. If your demo is typically more casual players, sometimes they’ll think it’s the job of the maintenance staff to rake. We put a note out every six months or so from the green committee saying, “Hey, remember to fix your ball marks, rake your bunkers, fill your divots.” It’s always a moving target.
greenside bunker, the rakes at an event will always be outside the bunker and not in line with where your shot and the hole would be. But we tend not to put them com- pletely outside of the field of play dur- ing recreational rounds just because the ease of the member or the players getting to the rake. You want to make it easy to keep play going, but also we tend to have way more rakes out than we would if you had an actual event. So, out of the way and equidistant apart is what we like. I like them out of the bunker and the primary reason is, and I joke with our members, they should be out of the bunker because the handle is green. So you don’t see them. But the real reason is our grounds crews only touch the outside areas of a bunker once or twice a week, depend- ing on season. During the offseason, we might only mow it once a week, or might not even mow it at all. During growing season, we can sometimes mow those areas twice a week. The rakes get moved around enough from the membership using them dur- ing the day that we don’t see any areas where the grass has a depression or the yellow underneath them. Golfers should make it as easy as they can on crews. What advice would you have for golfers on where they should enter the bunker
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MIND / FAREWELL M A Genial Genius Dave Pelz was an icon of short-game improvement BY MIKE STACHURA
D ave Pelz may have Been regarded as one of the most important short-game teachers and golf research- ers in the history of the game, but in practical terms, his engaging attitude, his comprehensive knowledge and even his distinctive wide-brimmed hat made him into a kind of golf evangelist, pushing not only the greatest players in the game but millions of average golfers towards a broader commitment to get- ting good in the short game, the fastest way to improve your score. It’s no won- der one of his most popular books was called simply Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible. Pelz died after a lengthy battle with cancer in March at his home in Texas. He was 85. Pelz went to Indiana University on a four-year golf scholarship where he studied physics, and while he had hoped for a pro career, he came face- to-face with the fact that he “kept get- ting beaten by other Big Ten golfers, especially a kid from Ohio State named Nicklaus.” He then spent 14 years as a research scientist at NASA, honing the skills that he would bring to under- standing the simple complexities of the short game. Pelz’s research elevated the importance of the short game with his detailed study showing how nearly 80 percent of the shots lost to par are played within 100 yards of the hole. Pelz’s impact was vast and diverse. He designed golf clubs and training aids; his Putting Tutor with aiming line and marbles remains a tour put- ting green staple. His three-ball putter, a solution for aim and alignment prob- lems based on his research, became the inspiration for Odyssey’s legend- ary 2-Ball putter. He wrote books ( Short
Game Bible, Putt Like the Pros and Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible were all top sellers) and hundreds of articles as a contribu- tor to Golf Magazine for 35 years. He opened a short-game school that taught thousands of players his secrets of the game. He advised tour players from Tom Kite to Phil Mickelson, imbuing them with a sense that everyone else was thinking about the path to great- ness in the wrong way. Indeed, it was Pelz’s suggestion to Kite that led him to add a fourth wedge, setting Kite on a pace that resulted in his major triumph at the 1992 US Open. There’s hardly a tour player anywhere who is not carry- ing four wedges now, and most average golfers increasingly do the same today. But Pelz was advocating it in the 1980s. “I have so many things to say about this incredible man,” Mickelson said in a social-media post. “I owe so much of my success to the many things he taught me, and he lives on as I share those same insights to numerous other golfers.” Pelz’s inquisitiveness was contagious and compelling. He saw things that didn’t make sense initially and then got to their root causes. He thought differently about the putting grip, counterbalancing it by choking down
a full hand’s width or more from the butt. He analysed relentlessly wheth- er players should hit chip shots with the flagstick in or
BIG THINKERS Phil teamed with Pelz in 2003 and won his first major a year later.
out. He discovered late in the day the effect of foot traffic around the hole that caused otherwise sure makes to miss, the so-called Lumpy Donut ef- fect. In a way, his research opened the door for the value of statistically under- standing all aspects of the game, the strokes-gained analytics that has made professional golfers smarter about what leads to success. His mission was a distinctive mix of science and coaching, and he had a genial way of showing his students a smarter approach to enjoy the game more. It was a process focused on im- proving in the area of the game that was the easiest to practice. Pelz came to be known by legions of golfers for his 15- year series on Golf Channel, “The Dave Pelz Scoring Game Show.” As Pelz often said on those episodes, “You can play a lot of good golf if you’ve got a good short game, but remember, practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID CANNON/GETTY IMAGES
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LEARN MORE On www.worldofgolf.co.za
“When flighting a low, spinning wedge into a green, first visualise that you’re launching the ball under a tree limb. Then when you swing, take a thin dollar-bill divot. This ensures you deliver the correct loft and angle to pull off the shot.”
-MATT WILSON, GOLF DIGEST BEST YOUNG TEACHER, BALTUSROL GOLF CLUB, SPRINGFIELD, NEW JERSEY
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EDITED BY RON KASPRISKE how to play
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 27
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES FARRELL
COPY THAT!
MAKE ROOM FOR THE CLUB Aberg keeps his pelvis back to stripe the ball.
No range time? No problem. The uber-talented Swede has a great way to practice your swing at home BY DREW POWELL Drill to Slot Your Swing Use Ludvig Aberg’s Indoor
GROWING UP, RISING Swedish golf star Ludvig Aberg had a pow- erful but not-so-reliable swing be-
cause of a fault known as “early extension.” His hips would move towards the ball in the downswing and that forced him to alter his club’s path back to the ball. He’d try to save the shot with fast hand action to square the clubface, but when his timing was off, he’d hook it way off line. “That’s still my tendency today. I get a little bit on the inside, and then I’ll just flip my hands,” he says. To work on this issue, which also is a common one among amateur players, Aberg turned to an at-home drill: “During the wintertime when we were back home, I would be inside and I had a chair next to my butt, and I would always try to feel the pressure on the chair (as I swung),” he says. On the backswing, Aberg would feel his right glute (butt) muscles press into the chair. As he started down, he would feel the left-side glutes stay back and push against the chair. Doing this over and over reinforces the feeling that your hips should stay back as you swing, clearing room for you to slot your club’s path into the ball from inside the target line, he says. Do that, and there’s no need to hope you can square the club- face with your hands.
TIPS FROM THE TOP
The way you’re reading them might be hurting you BY JAMES SIECKMANN Make More Mid-Range Putts
IT’S A BLEND You can’t
pick a line without also determining the speed.
THE MOST COMMON com- plaint I hear from golfers at my academy is, “I don’t make
point the ball should roll into the hole – I call it the front door. I put down two sleeves of balls around the hole to form a gateway (above). I’m trying to get the ball to roll through that gate before it drops. 2 CHECK THE SLOPE MIDWAY On the walk back to your ball or marker, stop at the mid-point between it and the hole to see if it’s an uphill or down- hill putt. It should be obvious from this side view. 3 VISUALISE THE ‘ACTION TRACK’ Keeping the entry point (the front door) in mind, go to your ball and visualise an “action track.” It’s the path the ball should take on its way to the hole.
4 PICK YOUR START LINE Instead of projecting a line or target out by the cup, choose something within a few feet of your ball to roll over or roll past. That start line is your “near target” and the front door is your “far target.” This image of the “near target” and “far target” requires one exact speed. If held adequately, it will govern your subconscious and allow you to react athletically, getting the right pace on the ball. Follow these four steps and you will hole more of these difference- maker putts. – WITH RON KASPRISKE JAMES SIECKMANN, one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America, is based at Shadow Ridge Country Club in Omaha, Nebraska.
enough putts from eight to 20 feet.” I call these putts “difference makers,” be- cause they really do impact your score. To have success with them, it’s all about matching the line of the putt with the proper speed. If you’re simply standing behind the ball and picking a start line for these putts, you’re going to miss a lot more than you make – reading them this way tells you nothing about the speed you need. Instead, use my pre- putt routine. 1 FIND THE ENTRY POINT Stand on the opposite side of the cup from your putt and picture the entry
PHOTOGRAPH BY DOM FURORE
30 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
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BORED OF ONLY PRACTICING FLAT PUTTS?
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OVER 90% OF YOUR PUTTS ON THE COURSE ARE AFFECTED BY SLOPE. WITH AIRBREAK, MAKE YOUR PRACTICE MORE LIKE THE REAL THING! LEARN TO READ SLOPES, PLAY BREAK & SHOOT LOWER SCORES.
TIPS FROM THE TOP
Crunch Your Right Side Groove this important side tilt to hit your iron shots better than ever BY CHERYL ANDERSON
THERE ARE TWO MAIN tilts in the golf swing. There is a forward tilt from the hip
towards the ground while your left shoul- der moves up. The average golfer tends to lose this side tilt by thrusting their trail shoulder out towards the target line, set- ting up a swing path that causes a slice or pull and generally poor contact. Read on for a couple of drills to help you improve your downswing. – WITH DAVE ALLEN CHERYL ANDERSON, one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America, is director of instruction at the Mike Bender Golf Academy in Lake Mary, Florida.
joints at address, and a side tilt of the upper body away from the target in the downswing. If you’re unable to com- press the ball and hit your irons solid, there’s a good chance that you’re strug- gling with the latter, so let’s work on it. From the top, the feeling you want is that you’re crunching your rib cage on your right side, forming a backward-K look to your body (above). For this to happen, your right shoulder must move
PHOTOGRAPHS BY J D CUBAN
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SQUEEZE THE BALL
The first step is to put yourself in position to side tilt. That means making a good backswing where the arms have structure. At the top, your elbows should point towards the ground like mine are here ( left ). A great way to rehearse this is to grab a softball and wedge it between your forearms at address. Now swing to the top, gently applying pressure to the softball to prevent it from falling. You’ll need to keep your right elbow relatively tight to your body to do it. If it flares and the ball drops, you are no longer in position to transition properly and maintain side tilt. Keep practising your backswing with the ball until this elbows-down position at the top becomes a habit. Then you’re ready for my second drill.
TOSS A FRISBEE
Take note of my halfway- down position here ( right ). See how my right elbow is tucked in close to my body? That can only happen if my right shoulder is moving towards the ground, not out towards the ball. A great way to groove this elbow- in position is to take a Frisbee in your trail hand and toss it sidearm, like you’re skipping stones across a pond. To do this, you must keep your right elbow tight to your body while shifting your lower body forward ( far right ). If you can recreate this action in the downswing, you’ll be in better position to hit your iron shots flush. And there’s nothing like the feeling of pure contact.
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