south africa
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
Swing Shorter, Hit It Further JON RAHM
SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST 50 NINE-HOLERS
SA OPEN STELLENBOSCH JAYDEN SCHAPER TOUR TECHNIQUE SUCCEED FROM SAND
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
4 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
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6 Editor’s Letter BY STUART MCLEAN Voices 8 The Undercover Pro WITH JOEL BEALL 10 Journeys Jayden Schaper WITH STUART MCLEAN
49 David Leadbetter Pin-high bunker shots.
50 Attack the par 4s BY ROBIN SYMES
NO 1 NINE-HOLE COURSE The Crocodile River flows between Kambaku Golf Club and the Kruger National Park, in Komatipoort close to the Mozambique border. The par-3 ninth/18th is in the foreground alongside the clubhouse. View the Top 50 rankings on Page 106.
52 Swing Analysis Daniel Berger is healthy again. BY DAVE ALLEN 66 Sand Success BY PATRICK REED Features 54 Investec SA Open Stellenbosch fits the bill. BY STUART MCLEAN 60 LIV Steyn City Exciting debut for SA fans. 68 Snatch It Back Like Rahm Forget “low and slow.” Copy the Spaniard’s short and quick backswing for more power and accuracy. BY RON KASPRISKE 76 The 2026 Majors March to September lineup. 84 Five Things the Pros Do (That You Rarely Do) These tour strategies will transform your game. BY MARK BLACKBURN Where to Play 98 Crown Jewel Belle Mare Plage Mauritius. 106 Nine-Hole Rankings Top 50 courses in South Africa. BY STUART MCLEAN What to Play 90 Should you be playing a hybrid or a fairway wood? What our testing with a swing robot and Hot List players reveals (page 92). Years after the anchoring ban, long putters are still popular on tour. Here’s how to decide if it’s right for you (page 95). Lead tape and luck figure largely across the clubs and items in Bud Cauley’s bag (page 96).
14 Fuzzy deserves better BY JERRY TARDE
16 Bogeys or Better BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS
18 Picking up your ball RULES BY RON KASPRISKE
20 ‘The Best I Ever Did’: Guy Yocom’s Interviews BY JAIME DIAZ
24 New Year resolution BY MAX ADLER
26 Edge of the World Durness GC in Scotland BY JOEL BEALL
30 Keep a clear head BY KEELY LEVINS
32 The Core Protect Your Knees. BY RON KASPRISKE 34 Hot List Preview How to Play 36 Fairway bunker BY JASON BIRNBAUM
38 Stop pulling Your Shots BY BUTCH HARMON
40 Tips from No 1 BY MARK BLACKBURN
42 Foolproof chipping Grace Kim’s method. BY KEELY LEVINS 44 Two-Minute Clinic Chip with your hybrid. BY STEVE BUZZA 46 Better by Saturday What club should you tee off with when it matters? BY ALANA SWAIN
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 5
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
EDITOR’S LETTER E Two industry giants: Clause & Nathan
Knucklebombs Don’t fall into this Trap Scheffler’s Swing Secret Keepers of the Green Most Copied Hole in Golf Every Hole at The Lido CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO VIEW OUR TOP SIX VIDEOS O’Grady, Keith Pelley, and Guy Kin- nings. Nathan established a strategic alliance with these two bodies which created a pathway for SA golfers to progress on to those tours. Locally, he personally ensured the revival of Soweto CC with the building of an 18-hole course and had the vision to create the Papwa Sewgolum Class for historically disadvantaged pros, help- ing them compete on an equal footing. He launched the Sunshine Ladies Tour, which this year boasts a schedule of eight tournaments, two co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour. “Selwyn’s contribution cannot simply be measured in years, but in the stability, credibility, and growth he helped foster,” said Abt. “His presence on the board brought wisdom, per- spective, and an unwavering focus on what is best for the tour and the people it serves.” Stuart McLean stuartm@morecorp.co.za
T he golf industry will soon say farewell to two influential figures in the history of our modern era, which began in the 1990s. They are Jeff Clause and Selwyn Nathan, who played vital roles in changing the landscape during their time and continued to do so well past retirement age. Clause arrived from Texas as the first golf director at Fancourt. A polished and articulate PGA club pro, he made an immediate impact with his genial personality and American get-up-and- go attitude. A breath of fresh air for an industry adjusting to a booming new era of golf course development. He enhanced and personalised the experi- ence of golfers who hadn’t previously been treated as VIP guests. His signifi- cant contribution to the growth of the game saw the PGA of SA present him with their top award, Club Pro of the Year, on four occasions. “Santa” had every club wanting a golf director on their staff, and many youngsters have since made it a career choice, trying to emulate their men- tor. For the last 20 years he has been the face at St Francis Links and will be retiring as CEO of that thriving golf estate at the end of February, although continuing as an ambassador. Even with a Jack Nicklaus Signature course, St Francis Links initially struggled to attract residents to this Eastern Cape holiday resort. Too windy, too iso- lated. But with his marketing skills Clause turned around that perception.
Tourists discovered there was a valid reason to explore the coastline east of Plettenberg Bay. When the PGA Championship was seeking a home and continued iden- tity after Covid, Clause hosted it at St Francis Links from 2021 onwards as part of the Sunshine Tour. It has been there five years. He brought the DP World Tour to this small community, who should honour him for his com- mitment, support and ambition. Nathan retires in June as Executive Director of the Sunshine Tour, with Thomas Abt, the Commissioner, as- suming all executive responsibilities. From a humble start in 1969 as an assis- tant professional, he rose to become an influential figure in world golf. Chair- man Johann Rupert said Nathan had been a cornerstone of the professional growth of the game. “Selwyn had a colourful career. What makes his contribution so enduring is that it was never limited to adminis- tration alone. He consistently used the Sunshine Tour as a platform for opportunity,” said Rupert. “His initia- tives continue to create access for our members, our development players, and women’s professional golf.” Nathan represented the tour at the founding meeting of the Internation- al Federation of PGA Tours in 1996. His longevity is such that he worked with three PGA Tour commissioners, Deane Beman, Tim Finchem and Jay Monahan, and four DP World Tour chief executives – Ken Schofield, George
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, MICHAEL NEFF, 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
EDITOR STUART MCLEAN DESIGN ELINORE DE LISLE MEDIA SALES DANIEL EGDES (daniele@morecorp.co.za)
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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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
THE UNDERCOVER PRO
My Life as a PGA Tour Fixer I didn’t lead with money and favours to silence problems SAY MY NAME AND MOST players will remember me as a middling agent, if at all. Ask agents about me, and they know the truth: I was a fixer. Maybe you’re picturing George Cloo- ney and Brad Pitt in “Wolfs” or some slick character from a John Grisham thriller. Well, I was never involved in shootouts or rolled up to crisis situa- tions in a tailored tuxedo. Hell, I wasn’t even called a “fixer.” My nickname was “mop man,” which I hated. I played football in high school and worked in the athletic department in college. Becoming an agent was a way to stay in sports and make a living. It just didn’t turn out the way I wanted. Many members of my family have worked in law enforcement, so I knew people and understood that sometimes getting things done means bending the rules. When I was grinding as an assistant at my first firm, I used those connections to help my bosses wiggle their clients out of some messes. Since I could never hold onto any marquee clients (they kept getting poached by senior agents, but that’s another story entirely) I figured out the surest path to a steady pay cheque was letting the hot- shots do their jock-sniffing while I han- dled the things the jocks didn’t want the public to sniff. Let me be clear: Among professional athletes, golfers are practi- cally choir boys. However, the cleanest are basketball players. Although there have been a few serious scandals in the NBA, this has been my experience. Golfers get themselves into sticky situa- tions on a more regular basis, and given the PGA Tour’s squeaky-clean image, both golfers and their management teams are perpetually and understand-
ably paranoid about bad publicity. That’s why there are “mop men.” One of the most sensitive cases I worked on involved a massive gambling debt. (No, not THAT famous lefthander who comes to mind when you think of betting.) Las Vegas casinos often have let celebrities rack up enormous tabs. Instead of cash, a casino might let a celebrity settle by schmoozing with its high rollers for a weekend. The golfer in this story skipped town after losing big in both a hotel card game and to an actor on the casino’s course. It was a very bad weekend that left a mess. I ended up meeting with representa- tives from both the casino and the ac- tor’s hustler-friend in Los Angeles (I wasn’t taking that meeting alone in the desert). The negotiations dragged on for three days, and there were several moments when I thought the other side might leak the whole mess to TMZ out of spite. Eventually we hammered out a deal: The player would sign over his incoming equipment endorsement to the actor and play several rounds with the casino’s biggest whales. Years later, I caught an interview where this player talked about how his wife saved him from going down a dark path. I had to laugh. Buddy, that was me who pulled your ass out of the fire. Another memorable incident was an October night shortly after the regular season. A tour player totalled his car driving like he was auditioning for “Fast & Furious.” Fortunately, it was a single- vehicle accident with no drugs, alcohol or property damage involved, and he walked away mostly unscathed. It was really the first time this young golfer had got into trouble, and he didn’t han- dle it great. When the golfer desperate- ly pleaded with the witness to not call the cops, the witness saw dollar signs. He basically told the golfer to make his silence worth his while. Within 30 minutes, I had the witness set up with courtside seats to three NBA games and dinner on the firm’s dime. I’ve mopped up a decent number of incidents that involved alcohol – not DUIs, just a golfer making a fool of himself. Then there were the affairs. The occasional cheating scandal had
to be managed quietly. In one case, we got word that a player’s wife was step- ping out on him without his knowledge. I’m not proud of this, but I went straight to the wife and showed her exactly what a post-nuptial agreement would look like if she kept up. That took care of that problem quickly. Honestly, now, looking back, most ep- isodes weren’t really that messy: missed bills or payment issues, problems golf- ers had with housing contractors, vague contract language with claims players hadn’t fulfilled certain obligations. A huge number of cases involved golfers’ kids. For a period, it felt like I was talking
ILLUSTRATION BY RAUL ALLEN
8 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
to principals or teachers once a month. Tickets, autographs, cash – almost always these little pieces of paper were enough to fix a problem. One bartender, after witnessing a golfer get rowdy at a clubhouse bar and cause a scene, want- ed a helicopter ride. Never been in one, simply wanted a joy ride. If I remember correctly, we had him up in the skies the following weekend. As you might be wondering, the an- swer is yes, I’ve fulfilled a lot of requests for Masters badges, but getting a person to play Augusta National – sorry, out of my jurisdiction. The real key in all these situations
is the negotiation. Where other agents screw up is they immediately jump to tickets, cash, etc. They have no people skills. What I realised early is whoever I was trying to silence needed to be heard. Whatever gift was coming their way, ultimately, was secondary. I got out of the business some time ago. It was too much of me doing all the hard stuff while other agents got the benefits. Now I mostly consult for events management. But I’m not going to lie, I smile whenever a scandal comes to light because I know if I was still in the business, you wouldn’t know about it. – WITH JOEL BEALL
When the golfer desperately pleaded with the guy to not call the cops, the witness saw dollar signs.
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
JO U RNEYS
Jayden Schaper: ‘Shane Lowry’s backup putter is in my bag; he doesn’t know.’ WITH STUART McLEAN
I AM COMPETITIVE BY NATURE, and growing up playing the junior tourna- ment circuit in South Africa my nickname among other boys and my mates was “Clutch.” They firmly believed I could pull off a crucial shot whenever required. My two momentous DP World Tour wins in December certainly came from “clutch” shots in two tense back-to-back playoffs – the first my hybrid out of the fairway bunker at Royal Johannesburg to set up an eagle putt, and then the pitch I holed at the Mauritius Open for another eagle. That bunker strike was a career best shot, and Mauritius was just insane.
tours. My swing is technically sound, and Grant assists me before events with advice regarding my game plan, align- ment, and setups. My swing is in a good place. ● ● ● Golf became such a big part of my life as a teenager that I left school (St Dunstan’s College) in Grade 9. I was not a good student, and because I was taking weeks off to play in tourna- ments, the teachers weren’t happy with my absences. That became an issue, as it was awkward having them upset with me. I completed my studies at a Tutor Centre (home schooling) which was initially on the Ebotse estate. I was joined there by Ryan Van Velzen and Casey Jarvis, who also now have DP World Tour cards, and Jordan Burnand. Coming from the same part of Gauteng, we’re all friends. ● ● ● I was 11 when I won the GolfRSA Under-13 title, in Mbombela. Dad suggested my goal should be to win all the under-age championships, and I’m the first to have achieved that. Next was Under-15s, then Under-19s. I had one last shot to win the Under-17s and pulled that off at Rustenburg. My biggest win as a junior was the 2019 Players Champion-
As a teenager I was impatient to get on to the course or the range, and that hasn’t changed. I love golf because the game is within your control; there’s no one to blame if you fail. My dad (Ryan) had a club in my hand when I was two, and at six I was competing in my first SA Kids event. Dad was a foot- baller in his youth, but back problems ended that, so he took up golf to engage with clients in his insurance business. We’re a close, grounded, church-going family, and I still live with my parents in our family home in Benoni. I travel so much during the year that it’s the best arrangement for me. ● ● ● My parents have been a huge sup- port throughout my career, encour- aging me and funding much of my travels as a junior. So special that mom (Yolanda) and dad were at Royal when I won for the first time as a professional at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. And again, the following week at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. We’ve had many family holidays in Mauritius, and I was so relaxed being there. ● ● ● I was used to winning regularly as a junior, but it took me nearly six years to win as a professional. Yet at no stage did I feel anxious about it. I always believed it would happen, and told myself to be patient. I’m a golfer who enjoys consistency, and I’d take a Top-
10 finish every week rather than being a streaky player who wins and misses cuts. I’m determined to go the distance. At Royal Johannesburg I was two-over through seven holes of my opening round, which was a shock, but I kept calm and played the back nine in 29 for a 67. That was satisfying. ● ● ● My run of good form started at the French Open last September when I found a new putter in the TaylorMade van and immediately took a liking to it. It belonged to Shane Lowry, but it was his spare putter, a backup, so I was allowed to take it. I’ve used that ever since; TaylorMade built him a re- placement. It’s a mallet Spider Tour Z with beautiful balance. I’ve never met Shane – he doesn’t play much on the DP World Tour – and he therefore doesn’t know that I appropriated his putter. My putting stats since then have been amazing. ● ● ●
ship at TPC Sawgrass. An in- vitational event, and I went to three of them. The Sta- dium is one of my favourite courses. I was an Interna- tional team member for the first Junior Presidents Cup in 2017, under the captaincy of Trevor Immelman, who I idolised as a young boy. I loved watching him swing when we went to watch the Nedbank Challenge.
JAYDEN SCHAPER
I tried a few coaches before settling down with Grant Veenstra at 13. He’s at my home club of Ebotse Links in Beno- ni, which has an unusual range in that we hit float- ing balls into a large lake. Grant travels extensively as he has several players to look after on various
DP WORLD TOUR
AGE: 24
2 WINS: ALFRED DUNHILL CHAMPIONSHIP & AFRASIA BANK MAURITIUS OPEN
LIVES: BENONI
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
JO U RNEYS
I finally made my Nedbank debut in December. I hadn’t played much competitive golf at Sun City previous- ly, so to finish tied second was one of my best weeks in golf, and the biggest cheque of my career (R9-million). It was such a cool event, and I loved the atmo- sphere. The Gary Player Country Club that week, with its small greens, was the toughest course I’ve played, mainly because of the elements. The heat, and constantly changing wind direction, were difficult factors to manage. I was thrilled to have a bogey-free final round yet couldn’t find any momentum over the last six holes to make up that one shot on (champion) Kristoffer Reitan. ● ● ● My caddie Keagan Snalam had three weeks of TV exposure during my hot run. We’re good friends, and he has been my permanent caddie the last two years. He’s two years older, also from Benoni, and travelling over- seas it’s helpful to have a mate along, especially weeks when I’m not play- ing. I got to know Keagan during Covid when everyone was into online PlaySta- tion games. In 2021 he caddied for me at Sishen, as dad wouldn’t allow me to drive there on my own. It was August, bitterly cold temperatures. Conditions among the toughest I’ve played in. Nearly won too, but I bogeyed the last to tie second. Keagan caddied for me on the Challenge Tour, but we split up. Then, at the 2024 Tour Championship
"My focus will be on gaining a PGA Tour card at the end of this year. I’m eager to play in my first major, possibly the US PGA in May."
at Serengeti, I was looking for a caddie and we hooked up again. Had a good week, and we’ve been together since. ● ● ● Our family loves fast cars and mo- torsport. I recently bought my dream car, a high-performance limited edition BMW CS. My late grandfather was into motor racing, and my dad races go- karts. During Covid I also gave that a try, buying my own kart. But I was a bit reckless and there were a few crashes. I was told it wasn’t a good idea to con- tinue doing that, because of the possi- bility of injuring myself, so I’m now a spectator. ● ● ● I’ve progressed up the Race to Dubai rankings since my 2023 rookie sea- son. From 104 that year to 65 the next, and 26 last year. My focus will be on gaining a PGA Tour card at the end of this year. I’m eager to play in my first major, possibly the US PGA in May. I’d receive an invite if I won the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, but to do that I’d have to play five local events in the next two months, which would conflict with my schedule. I need to rather break into the Top 50 on the World Ranking.
Holing out for eagle on the 18th at La Réserve Golf Links to win the Mauritius Open.
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THE NEXT ONE’S GOOD
Fuzzy Zoeller Deserves a Better Score BY JERRY TARDE
Y ou would have liked Fuzzy Zoeller. He was a Louisville slugger kind of pro, one of the long drivers on the PGA Tour who fought a bad back his whole career after getting submarined in a high school basketball game. It wasn’t the last time he got undercut. I remember Dan Jenkins telling me Fuzzy laughed his way out of trouble. “It’s only my career, folks,” he quipped.
pro-am once, and he made it more fun than any pro I’ve been around. He was a family guy who loved his Hoosiers and every day took care of his wife Diane, long past the time she could remember his name. After her death in 2021, he’d get a golf cart and a Diet Coke and go fishing alone at the club he built, Covered Bridge. There’s a bromide in journalism that when you make a giant misstep, you
recalling the 1997 Masters: “Speaking to reporters in the shadow of (Tiger) Woods’ record-breaking win, Zoeller ended his interview by remarking, ‘So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it?’ As Zoeller walked away he added, ‘Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.’” Sponsors left him, death threats were made and apologies followed. He was ahead of his time: one of the first victims of cancel culture – publicly shamed and professionally punished for an offensive statement. More than a decade later, Zoeller told Guy Yocom in Golf Digest: “If people wanted me to feel the same hurt I projected on oth- ers, I’m here to tell you they got their way. I’ve cried many times. I’ve apolo- gised countless times for words said in jest that just aren’t a reflection of who I am. I have hundreds of friends, including people of colour, who will attest to that. Still, I’ve come to terms with the fact that this incident will never, ever go away.” Guy told me, “There was this sadness about him. He’d chirp happily when people came by our table but immedi- ately resume looking very sad. I think that Augusta episode broke him, and
He had a throwback style – whistling when he wasn’t smoking, vodka in hand, always with a ready wise- crack, sliding down the fire pole of life. He was golf’s Dean Martin and just as talented. Zoeller won the first sudden-death playoff for the Masters in 1979, but his greatest moment ap- peared to be in defeat. Watching Greg Norman hole a 40-foot putt on the 72nd green at Winged Foot in the 1984 US Open that he mistook for a birdie (but actually was for an improbable par) Fuzzy took the towel off his bag and waved a “white flag” of surrender. It was a noble gesture that contributed to his winning the Bob Jones Award the next year. The club wanted to put a plaque in the fairway but settled for a photo- graph in the locker room. He’d win a total of 10
he was never the same. He cried dur- ing that interview, real tears streaming down his face.” The full measure of a man is revealed when you consider
R.I.P. Two-time major champ Zoeller passed away November 2025 at age 74.
spend the rest of your days trying to bury it deeper into your obituary. Every good deed or accomplishment pushes it another paragraph lower. When Zoeller died at 74 in November, his worst mo- ment didn’t surface until the seventh paragraph of his obit. Writing on GolfDigest.com, Joel Beall put his career in perspective before
him at his best and at his worst and judge the balance of days in between. Not many in golf knew higher highs than ol’ Fuzzy – a Masters and a US Open, by gosh – and the lowest low caused by a lapse of 10 seconds. Zoeller wrote a cover story for us back in 1984 with the head- line, “Enjoy This Rude Game.” In the end, he deserved a better score.
PGA Tour events – a record that’s bor- derline hall-of-fame, but not for Fuzzy. He won a couple more times on the senior tour, did a lot of hunting and fishing, but mostly retired to his home- town of New Albany, Indiana, and for 16 years hosted a tournament called the Wolf Challenge raising millions for local charities. I played with him in a
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GAME ON
Bogeys or Better ‘Bundle’ is your game if you know how to stay out of trouble BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS
A keen gambler and Golf Digest reader, Richard Ward, introduced us to a game called “Bundle,” and it seems like so much fun, we’re now shar- ing it with you. Bundle’s appeal is that it keeps you fully engaged to the very end of the round – even on bad days. Here’s how to play. NUMBER OF PLAYERS RE- QUIRED: Four. BEST FOR: Groups who carry cash, all skill levels, and players who will stay in the fight even when they are struggling. HOW TO PLAY: Each player in your fourball forks over R50 (or another agreed-upon amount) to put in the “Bundle,” so to speak. Next, a random order is established, and the No 1 player who tees off first literally holds onto the bundle of cash, which in this case would be R200. If that player hits the ball out-of-
bounds, into a penalty area, makes a double-bogey or worse or three-putts, the bundle moves to the No 2 player in the order. If any player not holding the bundle makes a birdie, the bundle also immediately moves on to the next player in the order. If none of these sce- narios occur, the bundle remains with the original player. In other words, when you have the bundle, keeping the ball in play and making bogey or better and not three-putting is the objective – also known as solid golf. The player who holds on to the bundle at the turn gets to keep half of the cash (R100 in this case). After 18, the player holding the bundle gets to keep the rest. That means for the entire round, you’re always playing for the potential of dou- bling your money (or taking home the whole bag if you’re really good). Some rounds, the bundle might switch hands only two or three times. Other rounds, it
could change two or three times on one hole. If Bundle reminds you of another game, it might be “Rabbit,” which simi- larly pays out after the ninth and 18th (though that game is all about shooting the low net score on every hole in an effort to beat the rest of the group). In Bundle, it’s all about keeping the ball in play and good lag putting. VARIATIONS: If someone makes a natural birdie, that player could steal the bundle from the holder. You could also add to the bag as the round goes on. An example would be R10 for a shot out-of- bounds or R5 for every three-putt. How you amass the cash is up to you, but even in its simplest form, this game should keep you interested from start to finish. If you have a suggestion for a golf game, and you’d like to explain it, feel free to reach out to me on X @CPowers14 .
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN DENTON
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RULES
Picking up Your Ball? Here’s how to score it for handicap purposes BY RON KASPRISKE
from the hole and you pick it up, you would add either two or three strokes to your score. The number de- pends on your ability and/or the difficulty of the hole (it’s at your discretion). Finally, if you were outside 20 me- tres, add three or four strokes (again, it’s at your discretion). In most cases, you would likely be at a maximum of net double bogey – but not always. For ex- ample, a 25-handicap gets two shots on the seven hardest holes, so a net double bogey on a par 4 could be an 8, and it could be a 9 on a par 5. Two other things to note about post- ing scores when pocketing your ball: 1) There is no limit to pick-up holes re- corded for handicap purposes provided you had a valid reason for continuing to do it. Maybe some of the greens had damage rendering them unputtable. 2) If you pick up while using a format where holing out is mandatory (a “rat- tle-bottom” tournament, for example), you’d be disqualified. RAKING IT From five feet and in, consider it holed for your handicap.
icapping rules, you must record your most likely score or net double bogey, whichever is lower, “as appropriate for the situation and depending on the format of play.” Who decides what your most likely score would have been? You have to follow guidelines set by The R&A. That score would be: • The number of strokes already taken to reach a position on a hole • The number of strokes the player would most likely require to complete the hole from that position • Any penalty strokes incurred during play of the hole You might have thought you have to take net double bogey when you pick up for handicap purposes. That’s not true. In the case of a player who knocks it stiff on a par 3 and rakes the ball, one stroke should be added to the score (so it’s a birdie). Any putt on the green from five feet or closer is considered made. If a ball is between five and 20 metres
YOU MIGHT KNOW SOME golf- ers at your club or course who have a habit of raking putts
that are not “gimmes.” They might even pick up their ball after a hole has been decided in match play, even though they still had some work to do to earn the bogey they want to put down on the card. Can you pencil in whatever number you want on a scorecard when your ball is in your pocket? If you’re playing by the official Rules of Handicapping , the answer is an emphatic “no.” Rule 3.3 covers what to do when a hole is started but you don’t hole out. Subject to other provisions in the hand-
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Our new app is landing 1 March! Download the new app and get your love for all things golf, in one convenient app!
mygolflife.co.za
75TH ANNIVERSARY
WHEN HE GETS INTERESTED in something, which happens a lot, Guy Yocom goes deep.
“There were some racy novels and even some Playboys. That was OK with my mom. She always said, ‘All reading is good.’” Such precocious literacy started Yocom on the path of an autodidact polymath. Leonardo da Vinci is the epitome of the cumbersome and of- ten loosely applied designation, and though Yocom winces at the term and especially the da Vinci reference, he is not a Cliff Clavin. He doesn’t just talk the talk. Consider that his independent research in extreme weather, one of his many passions, is credited by aficiona- dos with debunking a myth that a man who filmed the deadly 1953 Warner Robins tornado was killed. So complete is Yocom’s immersion in his cornucopia of enthusiasms that over
Given the way one of golf’s all-time interviewers has been wired – abun- dantly by nature, sparingly by nurture, dynamically in combination – it seems he’s had little choice. Sixty years ago, when he was 9, Yo- com began diving into the stacks of rejected old books his mother had brought home from her job at a com- munity donation centre. “There was every subject you could think of, but I was drawn to the unusual – UFOs, circus freaks, astrology, palm- istry, unsolved crimes,” says Yocom, leaning back in a West Haven, Con- necticut, diner, clipping his well-cho- sen words with a deliberate cadence.
‘The Best I Ever Did’ How writer Guy Yocom mastered the golf interview BY JAIME DIAZ
20 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
PHOTOGRAPH BY J D CUBAN
The normally voluble Yocom was si- lently rapt at such moments, thrilled to let the fruits of his labour and skill spill forth. “These special golfers, I wanted to know what drove them from the in- side,” he says. “Most of them had a hard shell to keep the world out and their feelings in, so the interview was often an exercise in getting underneath that. I wanted our session to have the feel of a last will and testament, a summation of what was true in their life.” No surprise that when a famous golfer dies, obitu- ary writers lean hard on My Shot. Yocom developed the interviewer’s skill for quick adaptation early in life. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Yo- com’s birth parents married and di- vorced each other three times, his mother marrying another three times and his father twice more. Growing up, Yocom lived among constantly chang- ing versions of blended families. In response, Yocom became a “free- range kid. I was out of the house a lot, looking for something I guess I wasn’t getting there. As long as my mom knew where I was, I might stay at other kids’ houses three or four days at a time. Par- ents of my friends usually liked having me around. I was keeping their kids busy, I was respectful, and I could keep conversations going with some of the offbeat information I had picked up, which felt good.” As a teenager, Yocom missed a year of high school because of a difficult re- lationship with a stepfather. Essentially on his own and needing money, he took on miserable jobs like packing eggs in a chicken-harvesting plant and keeping a sewage station tank called the Digester unclogged. “I have an affinity for ragtag people who grew up like I did, and sometimes they for me,” he says. “I remember do- ing a My Shot with Hale Irwin, and as he was recounting his hardscrabble childhood in Baxter Springs, Kansas, he paused a moment, looked me right in the eye, and said, ‘You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?’” But Yocom’s path also had early posi- tives. He fondly remembers preschool years when his mother, Leona, taught him phonics and soon had him read- ing pages along with her. “I was blessed
Mike O’Malley, structured the sequence of answers as a bouncy, digressive monologue that kept the reader want- ing more. The mix included punchy one-liners, like Billy Casper’s answer to what hippopotamus tastes like: “Not surprisingly, it’s very watery.” Or Boo Weekley’s incomplete recollec- tion of being knocked out cold by the first punch thrown by a boxing orang- utan: “I woke up bleeding in the back of a friend’s pickup truck.” Or JoAnne Carner’s conditional decision after the death of her husband never to marry again: “That will change when Sean Connery calls.” From the greats, there were weighty insights. Said Jack Nicklaus, “There are more good players today. There were more great players in my day.” Mickey Wright’s loving description of a perfect 2-iron she hit in 1957 at age 22, followed “I wanted our session to have the feeling of a last will and testament, a summation of what was true in their life.” by the haunting reflection that “I spent the rest of my career trying to duplicate the feel of that shot,” closes the book on golf’s innate elusiveness. Because most subjects had lived a lot of life, many of My Shot’s most pow- erful moments dealt with mortality. Hubert Green recounted how a nurse he had grown to hate for her gruffness held his hand and cried with him as he endured chemotherapy for throat cancer. Doug Sanders, in terrible pain from a neck condition but wanting to avoid the stigma of suicide, explained how he arranged his own contract kill- ing (he called it off after successful cor- rective surgery). Larry Nelson recalled the terror he felt in Vietnam when a large group of enemy soldiers rustled through the jungle only a few yards away while the rest of his platoon was asleep. He knew that a comrade startled awake would mean annihilation.
the decades he’s ac- cumulated a collec- tion of whimsically adjacent ephemera. In support of his ex- tensive knowledge of World War II’s Pa- cific theatre, Yocom
CURIOUS MINDS Yocom talks wedges with Phil Mickelson in 2003. The two bonded
over many subjects.
owns a vial of volcanic black sand from a landing beach at Iwo Jima. His fasci- nation with vintage clarinets was en- riched by acquiring handwritten notes by a legendary master of the instru- ment, Artie Shaw. The magnificence of racing thoroughbreds giving their all led him to obtain a strand of hair from Secretariat’s mane. A JFK obsessive, he has preserved a sliver of wood from a picket fence that conspiracy theorists believe marked the spot where shots were fired on the grassy knoll. “Great conversation starters,” says Yocom, whose delight in lively discus- sions always makes him the most reluc- tant party to let them end. Of course, he’s most knowledgeable about the subject that’s given him an illustrious career. Still a Golf Digest contributor after his 36-year full-time tenure ended in 2020, Yocom’s award- winning body of work has covered ev- ery area of the game, from instruction to the rules to profiles to historical ret- rospectives. He’s also collaborated on books with Jackie Burke, Johnny Mill- er, Phil Mickelson, Corey Pavin, and David Graham and helped ghost-write “Tiger Woods’ “How I Play Golf.” Yocom made his most enduring mark with My Shot, a collection of 125 inti- mate one-on-one interviews in which a who’s who (and the occasional who’s that) of golf allowed our benevolent provocateur to steer them towards the real and revealing. Running from 2002 to 2020, My Shot stands as the most successful long-term series in the his- tory of Golf Digest and what Yocom calls the best he ever did. By going deep – with intense prepa- ration, curiosity, and an instinct for the right question in the right tone at the right moment – Yocom elicited stories and reflections that produced wisdom, humour, regret, confession and idiosyncrasies. For the length of the series, an equally immersed editor,
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 21
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
75TH ANNIVERSARY
allowed him to choose his subjects. The first My Shot was with Sam Snead, four months be- fore his death at age 89. Gone was any sadness at what Snead fell short of accom- plishing, replaced by a peace reflected in his explanation of how in his later years he could put deer and other wild crea- tures he encountered in the woods at ease. “All I do is look at them softly and move in a slow, kind way,” said golf’s Nature Boy. Yocom’s sessions with oth- er greats often created a bond, leading to treasured esoter- ica: beautifully handwritten notes from Mickey Wright, a Wilson 8802 putter from Lee Trevino and a finely textured aluminium Swiss Army knife that Jackie Burke had non- chalantly put in his palm as a keepsake. Conversely, Yocom gifted Mickelson mercury dimes from his coin collec- tion, which Phil used as ball markers while winning the 2006 Masters. From Moe Nor- man, who could hit one iden-
with a great memory. What- ever I would read would stay with me,” he says. “Stories, made up or factual, would really affect me, and they al- ways have.” Yocom’s fortunes changed after high school when he got a job as a greenkeeper at Rose Park Golf Course, a gritty muny near his house. He had first gone there only to find lost balls to sell to the pro shop, but the new job en- abled him to try golf for free. It wasn’t long before the former Little League short- stop was breaking 80. His frequent playing partner was the son of the pro, Robbie Potter, who was preparing to enter Weber State. He want- ed Guy to join him and urged Yocom’s father, Bob, a truck driver and part-time boxing judge, to cover the $162-per- quarter tuition. “Robbie said, ‘Please, Mr Yocom, you have to let Guy go to Weber with me. He’s way smarter than the rest of us,’” Yocom recalls. “I think because my dad liked that Robbie was a clean-cut kid, he said yes. I became the first person in my immediate family to at- tend college, and my world opened.”
HIS SHOT From humble beginnings, Yocom rose to interview golf’s greats.
pared,” he says, “but gradually I realised how my background gave me some advantages.” Yocom’s eye for the unusual and ease with people soon had him regaling co-workers with
tical straight shot after another better than any golfer who ever lived, Yocom has several worn photos of Norman swinging that the shy and possibly au- tistic Canadian had carried in his wallet. “I guess Moe was my favourite My Shot,” Yocom says. “He was so guarded but had so much inside. It was a delicate process to get him to feel comfortable enough to trust me. I did little things like sit close to him and let our arms touch. I’d speak calmly, making eye con- tact, which was hard for Moe. When he opened up, that was thrilling. “You know, people want to be under- stood, especially if they’ve been outliers and felt misunderstood and they want to better understand themselves. That was a big part of the willingness to do the My Shots, and my role was to help that happen. The more time goes by, the more grateful I am that I got that chance.” So are we.
stories from his road assignments. Also included were verbatim reenactments of George C Scott’s five-minute open- ing address to the troops in “Patton” or rollicking paragraphs from PG Wode- house’s short story “Chester Forgets Himself.” At major championships, Yo- com would humour writing heroes like Dan Jenkins, Tom Callahan and George Plimpton with his favourite passages from their work. Yocom also impressed with his work, especially with an in-depth oral histo- ry on the 20th anniversary of the 1975 Masters. When he suggested adapting the approach of Esquire magazine’s “What I’ve Learned” column to golf, the editors were confident Yocom would come back with something special and
Yocom majored in journalism, joined the school paper, and eventually be- came the sports editor with a tuition waiver. Upon graduation he was hired full-time at the Ogden Standard-Exam- iner, where golf became his favourite beat. When he called about a job at Golf Digest, he was told there were no open- ings but to keep trying. “I became a very squeaky wheel and finally one day they said yes.” His first day at the offices in Norwalk, Connecticut, was June 8, 1984. “A week later I was at the US Open at Winged Foot with a media credential. Golf had become my yellow brick road.” Not that he didn’t suffer some cul- ture shock. “I was around all these East Coast English majors and felt so unpre-
PHOTOGRAPH BY DOM FURORE
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V OICES
My New Year’s Golf Resolution Let’s all play more foursomes BY MAX ADLER
FOR 2026, I HAVE A GOLF GOAL that’s right up there with weight loss, reading the clas-
sics and saving money. The dividends stand to be lifechanging if I can only muster the discipline. I’m talking about playing more four- somes, of course. True alternate-shot. Like so many people in our society ob- sessed with success, I can struggle with being too self-centred, so what health- ier way to check the ego than to fully enmesh my golf game with another? By comparison, foursomes make fourball – casually referred to as “bet- terball” or when the lowest individual score of two partners counts for each hole – hardly seem like a team game. Like soccer or cricket or businesses where individual performance is sec- ondary, a footnote even, in foursomes you’re truly sharing and passing the ball. Whether you leave your partner a kick-in bird or plugged in a bunker, emotionally you live and die double while hitting half the shots. As a bonus, golf becomes a two-and-a-half-hour game. When played knowledgeably by pairs waiting ahead in landing zones to hit approaches, four golfers leapfrog- ging around in less than two hours is not unheard of. Sticking to this resolution won’t be easy. Most courses aren’t operated to accommodate this much faster format. Also, our buddies, same as us, with busy lives, don’t want to settle for anything less than what they think is the full golf experience. But courses could offer discounted rates at designated times, making up for it on the ledger with faster pace of play. If you can convince your regular group to try it just once, they’ll see how fun it is when the good shots feel twice
as good and the bad shots sting twice as bad. Obviously, on trips to special courses you’ll want to play your own ball, but at your home track you’ve lapped a thousand times, mix it up. Many clubs in the British Isles are “two-ball clubs.” At Royal Wimbledon, Aldeburgh, Swinley Forest, Muirfield, and so on, usually just two balls are in play. What we think of as “regular golf” is played in twosomes, and when there are four golfers, it’s alternate-shot. From an early age and across a range of skill levels, the rhythm of foursomes is embedded in their psyche. In the United States, we get psyched out. The only country club foursomes I’ve wit- nessed in the US were as a caddie in an annual husband-and-wife tournament quietly dubbed The Divorce Open. Ad- ministrators openly acknowledged the psychological strain of romantic part- ners leaving one another sidehill four- footers but made no effort to change the gestalt of the event. For our elite male golfers, the inno- vative Zurich Classic in New Orleans went to teams in 2017, but otherwise it’s just once every two years in the Ryder, Presidents, Solheim, Walker and Cur- tis Cups. Like cannon fodder, we send out our finest in a format with which they are unfamiliar and are never sur- prised to see them gunned down. The script we saw at Bethpage is well-worn: Even if we lose in fourball, we’re con-
fident we’ll storm back in the Sunday singles which em- bodies our rugged individualism.
TAKING TURNS True alternate- shot can play twice as fun and twice as fast.
During the two years I lived in Scot- land, we played foursomes often, part- ly to quicken the pace in inclement weather as well as to avoid the hassle and haggle of strokes. Provided four golfers are in a reasonable range, pair- ing the A with the D and the B with the C generally makes it equitable, same as in padel or tennis. The capricious na- ture of foursomes tends to overwhelm the handicap system. What if the USGA created new cham- pionships for foursomes to go along with the ones it smartly established for men’s and women’s fourball in 2015? States and clubs would support it by creating their own tournaments, and our next generation would grow up more comfortable taking turns. Four- somes is also a great format for an avid golfer to teach a beginner. Oh, and let’s have none of this modi- fied Pinehurst crap, where both part- ners hit drives and then choose the best one and alternate from there. It’s a shame that this gutless format is named after our nation’s golf mecca. “What’d you shoot?” Too often an obscene question. Join me in my quest of self-improvement and you, too, can have a perfect reason not to answer.
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BOOK EXCERPT
Choosing the Edge of the World
Durness Golf Club super Alistair Morrison could’ve worked anywhere BY JOEL BEALL
editor’s note: How can a no-frills golf trip to the ancient Highlands help one better understand the modern prob- lems in which professional golf finds itself mired? Golf Digest Senior Writer Joel Beall discovers many provoking answers in his book, Playing Dirty: Rediscovering Golf’s Soul in Scotland in an Age of Sportswashing and Civil War. The following is excerpted with the permission of Back Nine Press. Shop the hardcover edition, 256 pages, at back9press.com/beall.
through a tapestry of windswept mar- ram grass and an- cient, polished rock, a landscape conducive to only golf and the occasional grazing sheep, though wire
WORKING HARD Alistair Morrison is one of two
employees running a
remote nine- hole course.
fences thoughtfully protect the greens and tees from wandering flocks. Just 100 players call it home, including the handful of Highlands members who make their trips once or twice a year through the countryside. In keeping with its modest scale, the club operates with two employees, one of whom is Alistair Morrison. He is a prodigy. At 32 he has already been the head greenskeeper for a de- cade strong. He apprenticed at Brora, the Highlands gem roughly two hours southeast, the type of post that bestows the next opportunity of his choosing. Morrison, who grew up in Durness, de- cided to go home. “It was always in the back of my mind,” Morrison says. “When I saw it come available, I jumped at it. That I was young and naïve helped.” It’s his dream position, working at the course that introduced him to the game, but it is hard work. Morrison’s days be- gin before dawn, when the dew clings to the fescue and the only sound is the distant crash of North Atlantic waves. From early March through late Octo- ber, he is tethered to these nine holes – mowing greens, hand-cutting cups as the sun climbs higher, repairing divots and bunkers battered by coastal winds and hackers, and trimming the native grasses that frame each hole. Between maintenance runs, he an- swers emails, updates social media and
Durness Golf Club is out of the way, and that’s the point. It’s as far northwest as the
mainland will go, and we know this thanks to a sign that greets us in the car park that says as much. In this country that’s speckled with golf courses seem- ingly around every corner, the nearest golf course to Durness is a long 96 kilo- metres away down a frighteningly nar- row road. The area has been inhabited since pre-historic times, and a variety of Viking artifacts were discovered in a cave not long ago, yet the current popu- lation of the village hovers around 350, and the natural beauty nods that the land has not been spoiled or tamed by man. There are a few inns, a pub that’s open in the summer, and a youth hostel near a cave. It’s the type of town you go to when you don’t want to be found. The Durness links is young by Scot- tish standards, having opened in the 1980s under the vision of three local enthusiasts, yet it possesses the time- less veneer and charm typically found in James Braid’s storied designs. The North Atlantic commands attention on almost every hole, its steel-blue waters providing ambience as the links weaves
coordinates with visiting groups. During peak season, 14-hour days are the norm. While others might call it a thankless position, Morrison sees the effort as an extension of himself – though there are moments when even he questions the wisdom of being a one-man army at the edge of the world. “There’s definitely attachment to it, but it requires all or nothing,” Morri- son says. “There aren’t many people in this part of the country, yet we’re the only thing in roughly two hours in any
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