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
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