THE MASTERS ISSUE
MARCH/APRIL 2025
south africa
LEAN BACK & ENJOY •SUNDAYS WITH BUTCH •LEE ELDER’S HISTORIC WEEK •MEMORABLE RULES INCIDENTS •AUGUSTA NATIONAL’S BUNKERS
TIGER WOODS EXCLUSIVE VIDEO SERIES PAGE 13
DEFENDING CHAMPION SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER
PUTTING: ARE MALLETS BETTER THAN BLADES?
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6 Editor’s Letter BY STUART MCLEAN Mind 8 Undercover Caddie WITH JOEL BEALL 10 Can anything rattle Scottie Scheffler? BY MAX ADLER
96 Sepp Straka’s swing BY DAVE ALLEN What to Play 80 After 125 rounds, say Titleist, a wedge will spin the ball about 25 percent less and produce twice as much roll-out. Ball speed (page 82) might be fundamental to producing distance, but it’s not everything. Should you use a tee on a par 3 (page 84) and should all wedges in your bag be the same model? Are Mallets (page 86) better than blades? The Masters
12 The Shot That Made Tiger Tiger BY JERRY TARDE
14 Journeys AKSHAY BHATIA, WITH KEELY LEVINS
16 Go ahead and Cry Wolf BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS
46 ‘Thank You For Coming, Mr. Elder’ BY CHRIS JONES
18 Undercover Pro WITH JOEL BEALL
20 The Speed Era Is Misunderstood BY DREW POWELL 22 How to cope with slow play BY LYNN MARRIOTT AND PIA NILSSON How to Play 26 Rock the baby! BY TONY FINAU
54 The Big Three BY JERRY TARDE
56 Three Shots You Need BY EDOARDO MOLINARI
58 Rules Incidents BY E MICHAEL JOHNSON
62 The Club That Almost Never Was BY DREW POWELL
64 Augusta’s 44 bunkers BY DEREK DUNCAN
28 Try the ‘Fitz Grip’ BY LUKE KERR-DINEEN
70 Ask the Greenkeeper
30 The Red Zone BY DAVID ARMITAGE
72 Six unforgettable Masters BY BUTCH HARMON Features 88 Naidoo’s SA Open BY STUART MCLEAN 98 Derek James ‘I have performed as Elvis & Dolly Parton’ WITH MURRAY LEYDEN 106 Where to Play The Karoo moves to Florida; Drakensberg golf
32 Check Your Grip BY DAVID LEADBETTER
34 The Core 5 power boost exercises BY RON KASPRISKE
40 Pick it clean from sand BY ALANA SWAIN
42 Payne Stewart’s tips BY LUKE KERR-DINEEN
92 Crank up your backswing BY IAIN HIGHFIELD
112 Cracking the Code BY MATT FITZPATRICK
94 Hit Lower Irons BY DAVIS THOMPSON
MARCH / APRIL 2025 tee sheet
International Affair With a field size typically around 90 players, the Masters is the smallest of the four men’s major championships, yet few tournaments promote an international field as thoroughly as the Masters, which awards exemptions to the winners of the Asia-Pacific Amateur and the Latin America Amateur. On the grounds at Augusta National, flags representing each player’s nationality fly above the scoreboard near the main entrance.
EDITOR’S LETTER E RIP Germiston Golf Club
TIGER'S VIDEO SERIES Page 13
G olf has become an increas- ingly expensive sport, not only for its participants but for clubs whose existence is under threat as a result. Our previous issue contained an article outlining how Cape Town city council is eager to shut down King David Mowbray and replace it with a “mixed-use develop- ment.” Now, another of our oldest clubs, Germiston, has had to admit financial defeat and close. It did so abruptly and without any fanfare early in March. See story on Page 110. Germiston was once a prosperous city, a manufacturing hub, and its sorry demise has contributed to the down- fall of the golf club and other sporting centres in the area, including Gosforth Park, the horse racing track which bor- dered the sixth hole before it fell victim to a changing economy years ago. In the previous century, Germiston was regarded as one of SA’s best cours- es. Bobby Locke won two of his 11 Trans- vaal Open titles there, the first as early as 1937, as did Gary Player in 1962. It was the home of the SA PGA Championship from 1966 to 1970 before it moved to the Wanderers and gained greater promi- nence as the Lexington PGA. The last Transvaal Open at Germiston was won by John Fourie in 1973. The parkland course was a golfing rarity in having a par-3 finishing hole with its green on the edge of Germis- ton Lake. The lake remains a popular aquatic centre and home to the Victoria Lake (its original name) Club, founded in 1909 which offers sailing, rowing,
and canoeing. The golf club started in 1897. Germiston was associated with the birth of the Nomads Golf Club in 1960 to “encourage and foster the develop- ment of life-long friendships” through golf. It was the early home of the Nomads, and to that effect a new dou- ble-storey clubhouse was built in the 1980s which became a white elephant. It’s an eyesore overlooking the 18th green, standing empty in recent years. Germiston’s greatest character was club professional Phil Simmons, the “Germiston Giant,” who drove the ball prodigious distances when he arrived on the Sunshine Tour in the mid-1970s. Simmons was a left-hander and with the persimmon woods and balata balls of his younger days could blast drives as far as the modern professional does today. Former Germiston member and SA Amateur champion Neville Clarke re- calls his first round with Simmons in the early 1970s. “He was a youngster like me, but a pro, and we played with club captain Terry Bloom. I didn’t know him. The club was looking for a new pro, and Andries Oosthuizen was favourite for the position. On the first hole Phil’s drive disappeared around the corner of the dogleg to the green. I had a 5-iron for my second and couldn’t believe how close Phil’s tee shot was to the green. After a few holes of this as- tonishing exhibition of long hitting Terry said to me, ‘Phil’s got the job. The members will love him.’ He was there for the next 30 years and the stories
about him are legendary.” Clarke was also a member at Kens- ington, another strong club which closed in the late 1990s to merge with Royal Johannesburg. It’s sad to lose these historic courses, yet this attrition is part of golf. Other clubs are slowly go- ing through their death throes as num- bers dwindle and costs rise. Germiston had become a shadow of its former self, in an industrial area which deterred possible investors, no longer attract- ing visiting golfers in midweek, even at R250 a round. Its membership was an elderly one, and a high average age is an issue today. The key to survival lies in a good location and younger wealthier members. Stuart McLean stuartm@morecorp.co.za
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TOP SIX VIDEOS
Augusta National’s hidden details Quick Tip: Hit down on tee shots Keegan Bradley putting tips Shane Lowry’s move for long irons
The Pro VI story 25 years How tour pros play par 5s
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 / ON TOUR
Undercover Caddie Why the Masters is the most stressful tournament we work all year
PHOTOGRAPH BY BEN WALTON
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M Y KIDS SAY THAT FOR ONE of my favourite weeks of the year, I don’t seem to en- joy the Masters very much, and my wife says I’m unusually curt and anxious. They’re right, of course, but they don’t have to figure out the wind at Golden Bell. I love the Masters. It’s the Holy Grail of American golf. If you’re there, you matter. But there’s also a reason why Harbour Town, where most of us head afterwards, is beloved on tour; it’s the first time we can exhale in a week. Caddies are generally a loose bunch, but everyone is wound a little tight at Augusta National. Conversations are more formal, and we stick to our job. The club and its members treat us well, and we want to reciprocate, but we always feel like we’re being watched when we’re on the property. We know one slip-up could send us packing. It’s just hard to be comfortable, and, no, I’m not talking about the white over- alls we must wear. (For the record, I re- ally dig them, although I’ve had toaster ovens that didn’t run as hot as those suits.) What’s at stake also plays into the tension. I never get used to a missed cut there. I don’t necessarily expect my player and I to win, but it still hurts to walk away without that green jacket. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t make it to Saturday or were a shot out. That’s why every year I meet with an Augusta National caddie a few weeks before the tournament. I pepper him with questions about the changes he has seen to the course or how it’s play- ing. You would be surprised how many alterations occur each year that aren’t announced. Our meetings began with me picking up a bar tab; now it’s din- ner, and I bring him a good bottle of wine. I usually leave with a half-dozen tips, most of which my player and I would have figured out during a prac- tice round. But the Masters will make even the non-religious turn to prayer asking for the tiniest bit of help. Hav- ing intel that others might not is a shot of confidence. This is also the event where caddies
player realises everyone is watching him. Players are just as uncomfortable as we are. The best advice I’ve received about working the Masters is this: Slow down. The player, whether it’s his first Masters or 15th, will be jittery on Thursday. That’s OK; if you’re not ner- vous, it means you don’t know what you’re playing for. Still, you have to regulate those feelings. My approach is to simply walk slower. It gives the player a chance to catch his breath, to get the heart rate down. Augusta Na- tional is one of the harder walks of the year. You can physically wear yourself out if you don’t pace yourself. Players talk about the importance of blocking out noise during Masters week, and the same applies to us. I avoid social media, and if a number pops up on my phone that’s not a saved contact, I delete it because it’s likely someone looking for an extra badge to get on the grounds. When I’m away from the course, I’ll make sure the TV isn’t on the Golf Channel because you need to excuse yourself from the circus. Don’t misunderstand me. This is the best course we play and best condi- tioned. There is no parallel to how well everything is run. Augusta has no jerks in the crowd; there’s just a collective happiness to the place. It can be hard to appreciate in the moment, but I do get small windows to look around and realise, Oh yeah, I’m at the Masters. My favourite part is the 13th tee dur- ing a practice round. No patrons back there: just you, your group and se- renity staring down the most famous hole in golf. The tournament, and all its possibilities dance in your head. I never forget to remind myself, How good is this? Because it doesn’t get any better. – WITH JOEL BEALL
are leaned on the most, which might surprise you considering the Masters is the only major played at the same course annually. But those greens – no matter how many times you have played them, no putt is ever the same. It’s like trying to figure out an equa- tion, but the variables keep changing. Bubba Watson once told me nothing in golf confounds him like those greens – and he has won the green jacket twice. That’s why players are more depen- dent on us at Augusta than at any other venue; the more voices trying to figure out how to get the ball in the hole, the better. A veteran caddie gave me this advice: Respect Rae’s Creek, but don’t give it outsize influence. Everyone has heard that putts break towards the creek. I’ve seen enough evidence to know this gravitational pull is real. However, rather than factor that into the putting formula, some players The secret to reading Augusta National's greens? Mention the creek first, not last. think it’s the only factor and disregard the beautiful, chaotic matrix of the green. The secret? Mention the creek first, not last. If you note where it is last, that is the last thing going through your player’s mind, and it will sway the putt. Note it first, and the creek’s loca- tion will merely be an influence. The first year I used that advice, my player finished in the top 10 after missing the cut the previous year. A lot has been made about the roars of Augusta, and the course always has a palpable buzz no matter where you walk. What’s rarely discussed is the silence. Patrons are on their best be- haviour, so the moments when they’re supposed to be quiet can be eerily quiet. Those stretches of silence can be just as pressure-packed as hearing an explosion of cheers coming from another part of the course because the
Undercover Caddie likes to sneak pimento-cheese sandwiches into his player’s bag.
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M MIND / DIVINE NO 1
Master of His World Can anything rattle Scottie Scheffler? BY MAX ADLER
A YEAR AGO, SCOTTIE Scheffler slipped a green jacket over a peach polo and took the dais in the stately Augusta National press building. Two Masters titles in three years as casual as they come; The first sealed with a four- putt when a six-putt would’ve done, and this latest by four strokes. Familiar as all the writers were with the inex- haustible young man from Dallas, there was a renewed air of hope that this time they’d figure him out. Only a few minutes in, Scheffler in- voked his faith in response to a ques- tion not intended to be about faith. “My buddies told me this morning, my victory was secure on the cross, and that’s a pretty special feeling to know that I’m secure for forever, and it doesn’t matter if I win this tourna- ment or lose this tournament.” As much as the grandest interview room in golf can feel like church – high ceilinged, oil paintings of the club’s patron saints lining the sidewalls, a prevailing hushedness – Scheffler’s comment left an awkward pause. It’s possible golf writers are a special breed of heathen, but the decline of religious affiliation in America means wider dis- comfort when someone drops the God bomb. In the traditionally lengthy champion’s interview, there was only one follow-up to the above, two ques- tions later, when Scheffler was asked if his faith helped him cope with bad breaks such as sudden shifts of wind. Only folks with the most immature understanding of Christianity might picture a great hand from the sky shaking a tree to make one golf ball kick to the fairway and another into
the pine straw. Scheffler, same as most any athlete who thanks a higher power when the microphone is shoved in his or her face, doesn’t mean to imply he was chosen to win. Yet this is a com- mon misinterpretation from non-be- lievers. When we ask people why they are so great, and their answer involves something greater than themselves, why are we so often disappointed, or dismissive? The next week at Harbour Town brought a Monday-morning finish af- ter a stormy weekend. When Scheffler lifted his fourth trophy in five tourna- ments, he was asked how he was going to celebrate. His reply: “I’m going to get a breakfast burrito, some coffee, and I’m going to go home.” Perhaps this was when the “boring” label was most firmly affixed, but let’s remember everything that followed. Nine days after the birth of his first child, Scheffler was arrested at the PGA Championship by an overzealous po-
lice officer amid the traffic chaos that was both cause and result of a predawn pedestrian fatality. After stretching in jail, Scheffler birdied his first hole and shot 66 while his mugshot exploded across global news. If not for the in- evitable hiccup in the next round, who knows what kind of season he’d have had. As it was, he came home in 29 to win Olympic Gold, cried atop the po- dium, won the FedEx Cup plus seven other events, easily took Player of the Year honours over a guy who won two majors, then gruesomely sliced his hand preparing dinner for the occa- sion of his saviour’s birthday. A life of rental houses and rental cars has ill moments. After surgery and rehab, his first competitive round back was five under. More than hand-eye coordination, golf tests a person’s ability to retain control in the face of ever wild breaks and circumstances. It’s not boring to watch Scheffler; it’s divine.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHELLE WATT
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MIND / THE NEXT ONE’S GOOD
The Shot that Made Tiger Tiger A complete history of The Stinger BY JERRY TARDE
I f you’re a golfer, he needs no introduction. Butch Harmon is the greatest golf teacher of all time, the most outrageously under-appre- ciated figure yet to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and Tiger Woods’ coach in his formative and peak years from 1993 to 2004 – ages 17 to 28. “The way I put it,” Butch was telling me the other day in his office outside Las Vegas, “is Jack Nicklaus was the greatest champion of all time, but Tiger was the greatest player.” If Tiger didn’t fire Butch, and Butch had been his lifelong coach, like Jack
conference. Even as a kid, especially as a kid, Tiger had clubhead speed. He was reminiscent of the young Seve Ballesteros, who played hooky from school and hit 3-irons on Somo Beach, near his hometown of Pedreña, Spain. Like Seve, Tiger fell in love with golf and taught himself shotmaking with that club, from chips around the green to driving irons. “That 1-iron was probably the start of learning how to hit the ball down, plus we had balata balls back then, so learning how to take spin off it was a big thing,” he said. “The longer the ball stays in the air, the longer time it
Grout was to Nicklaus, Tiger may very well have held both titles. That’s not a knock on Hank Haney or Sean Foley or any of the coaches that came after Butch. It’s a statement of fact, and the evidence I’d offer is one shot that Butch taught Tiger because it was the key to everything. The shot that made Tiger was a knockdown 2-iron you know by an- other name: The Stinger. The origins of the shot can be traced back to a beryllium copper Ping Eye2 1-iron that he cadged from his father because Earl didn’t have the clubhead speed to “hit it in the air,” said Tiger in a 2018 press
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN SZURLEJ
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four in a row at the end of 1999, then beat Ernie Els to open maybe the great- est season ever played in the modern era.) Tiger could carry the stinger 220 yards in the air and run it another 40- 50 yards. He could hit it further than his 3-wood. It allowed him to position the ball, never getting it up in the air.” Butch says he told Tiger to “stay higher with his right side, tee it low, turn through with the right hip and shoulder, and trap the ball. Hit down with a bowed left wrist instead of a re- leasing motion and fold the left elbow, like you’re trying to hit a punch shot under a tree. Now a lot of guys hit it. Tiger made it popular, but Gary Wood- land is the best today.” While it’s hard to argue which Tiger victory is most significant – winning his first Masters by 12 strokes in 1997, the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach by 15 strokes or his dramatic comeback in the 2019 Masters – I would make the case from a technical standpoint that his greatest achievement was the 2006 Open at Hoylake, where, as Tiger put it, “I hit one driver all week, I used The Stinger countless times and won by two shots.” Writing for Golf Digest more re- cently, Tiger adds this advice: “Don’t rush the swing. Rushing restricts the backswing, and you come down too steep, the ball spins too much and up- shoots. Back in the late ’90s, I used a 2-iron almost exclusively to play this shot. Then the design of 3-woods im- proved, and I could flight it down with that club. Because I don’t hit a 2-iron or 3-wood as far as I used to, I now some- times hit The Stinger with a driver to pick up some extra yards.” Throughout his career, it was the shot he could count on. Back in the late 1970s at a Golf Digest panel meet- ing of top teachers, I remember Cary Middlecoff saying, “Having a good coach like Jack Grout is fine, but there isn’t a teacher in this room who could have kept Jack Nicklaus from winning 15 major championships.” I think Doc Middlecoff might have said the same about Tiger, but I’ll add that Tiger would have won more if he stuck with Butch, and he’d have won fewer if he didn’t have The Stinger.
2020, “I didn’t come up with the name ‘stinger.’ This very magazine gets the credit.” The term drew from the whiz- zing sound of the shot when Tiger was demonstrating it for that first instruc- tion article, photographed by Stephen Szurlej. Fearing the shot would take his head off, Szurlej retreated and set up his camera with a remote shutter on a tripod that Tiger aimed over, 30 feet (9 metres) down the line and 20 inch- es (51cm) off the ground. Tiger said, “Lower.” Szurlej dropped the camera to 36cm. Tiger said, “Lower.” The tripod was then dropped with the lens just 5cm off dead flat. “This could be close,” said Tiger. Witnesses recall the first shot missed the camera by an inch. “I taught and showed him the shot,” says Butch today. “He had the club- head speed and trajectory control to pull it off like no one before him. When he wanted to lay up off the tee, it became the greatest club in his arse- nal. I remember him bringing it out at Kapalua in the Mercedes Tournament of Champions in 2000. (Tiger had won MY GAME: TIGER WOODS In this 12-part video series, each of 10 minutes duration, you can watch Tiger's candid, straight-to-camera- commentary and detailed on-course demonstrations.
has to go crooked, so get that thing on the ground.” In the evolution of the tour swing, The Stinger represents a return to the principles of Ben Hogan’s action developed by staying more on top of a high-spinning balata ball in Texas winds. Hogan favoured control with a shut clubface, trapping the ball and taking spin off the shot. Hogan was said to “cover the ball.” One of his contemporaries and close observ- ers was the 1948 Masters champion Claude Harmon, who taught sting- ers to his sons. Butch’s brother Craig remembers their dad coaching them to hit a “push-slice” with a 2- or 3-iron; he wanted you to think “hit and stop.” A long period of swing evolution fol- lowed with tour players hanging back into a “reverse-C” finish, delivering a square clubface at impact and hit- ting the ball much higher than Hogan ever did – powerfully demonstrated by players like Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller and Tom Watson. There were always exceptions by imaginative players such as Lee Tre- vino, Doug Sanders and Paul Azinger, who had more of a sawed-off, low-and- around finish. Tiger exhibited a work ethic greater than all those players, and mindful of Hogan. He was able to combine the strength and trajec- tory of Nicklaus when he wanted it with the creativity of Trevino. As the ball evolved from “spinny” balata to the modern solid core, Tiger built his versatility on the back of The Stinger. A word about that word “stinger.” Where did it come from? It didn’t ex- ist before I wrote it on the cover of the April 2000 edition of Golf Digest for a Tiger-bylined article inside headlined somewhat breathlessly as “Tiger’s Su- personic Stinger.” You can look it up. The following week after the maga- zine was on newsstands, Tiger, Butch and the rest of the world adopted the terminology as if it had always existed. I can’t claim the inspired poetry of a Herbert Warren Wind naming Augus- ta National’s “Amen Corner” or even Sandy Tatum calling Cypress Point “the Sistine Chapel of Golf,” but I do own this small patch of epistemologi- cal origin. As Tiger himself wrote in
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EPISODE 1 My Practice EPISODE 2 My Driving EPISODE 3 My Iron Game EPISODE 4 My Short Game EPISODE 5 My Putting EPISODE 6 My Fitness EPISODE 7 My Equipment EPISODE 8 My Mental Game EPISODE 9 My Escapes EPISODE 10 My Masters Victory EPISODE 11 My Early Years EPISODE 12 Behind the Scenes
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MIND / JOURNEYS M
T he best juniors play in the US Kids World Champion- ships in Pinehurst, so my dad, Sonny, and my mom, Renu, flew us from our home in Los Angeles to North Carolina so that my sister, Rhea, and I could compete. My parents, who had grown up in London and Hong Kong, decided to raise us in North Carolina rather than chaotic Los Angeles. At the time, my dad had a tumour in his eye, and the doctors were more convenient in North Carolina. He’s blind in that eye now, but he’s doing well. the Fast Track He turned pro when many said he shouldn’t. For a year, it seemed like they were right By Akshay Bhatia with Keely Levins Akshay Bhatia Is Enjoying
ery cut. I wasn’t making money, and I was burning myself out. The pan- demic, as awful as it was, saved me. Tournaments were shut down. I had to go home and figure it out. I started working with Chase Duncan. He’s like a second dad. We structured my practice and added shots to my game. Off the tee, I learned how to hit it low, a draw, and get extra carry. Before, I had only one stock driver shot. He and my men- tal coach, Greg Cartin, helped me see you need to still feel OK after losing. In junior golf, I had success. In pro golf, I fail all the time. I had to learn about my- self to survive it. That process made me mature a lot. Failing helped me learn. Winning helps, too. ● ● ● A lot was stacked against me before my Korn Ferry win in the Bahamas in 2022, when I became the third teen- ager to win on that tour. Three weeks before, I dislocated my shoulder play- ing pickleball. My doctors wanted me to wait, but the pain wasn’t too bad. Be- fore we left, my friend and former cad- die, Jonas Hillyard, tested positive for COVID. My girlfriend, Presleigh Schul- tz, doesn’t play golf, but she was com- ing anyway, so I asked her to caddie. We met through Instagram in 2021. I sent her a message without having met her. She was at Texas A&M and came to the Texas Open. We’re now engaged. ● ● ● She’s a calm, happy person. We have this joke where we ask, “Are you ner- vous?” when we’re sitting on a plane and things like that. The other person laughs and says, “No.” Throughout the final round we kept it light by ask- ing each other, “Are you nervous?” She got to feel the tension inside the ropes when a win was on the line. We’ll be tell- ing people about that week forever. ● ● ● When I turned pro, I didn’t know how hard it was going to be. That first vic- tory restored my self-belief. In 2023 I received special temporary PGA Tour member status after a second place at the Puerto Rico Open. Then I won in July at the Barracuda Championship the same week all the big-name players were competing in the Open at Hoylake. Last year I achieved a dream of playing in all four major championships.
I got my first PGA Tour start at the 2019 Valspar Championship in Tam- pa on a sponsor’s exemption. I was 17, an amateur. I missed the cut, but I had self-belief. I also had data on every as- pect of my game, thanks to TrackMan. I had a good swing coach, George Gankas.
We moved to Wake Forest when I was 10. I started loving golf then. I liked being outside, and I wasn’t a big kid, so I appreciated that there was no contact. I wore my golf clothes to school so that I could go straight to the course. Everyone knew me as the golf kid. ● ● ●
I watched Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and Matt Wolff all turn pro and be- lieved I needed to do the same. I turned pro later that year thinking I was ready, but I was wrong. ● ● ●
We lived five minutes from a course. My sister went on to play college golf at Queens Univer- sity in Charlotte. She and I played together a lot. There were kids to play
AKSHAY BHATIA PGA TOUR WON 2023 BARRACUDA CHAMPS, 2024 TEXAS OPEN AGE 23 LIVES JUPITER, FLORIDA
When I turned pro instead of going to college, a lot of people said it was a bad idea, but my family stuck with me. My parents have sacrificed a lot. My dad stopped working and travelled with me during junior golf. My mom worked a lot to support the house and my golf. We still wouldn’t get a lot of family time when I was home because my mom was working so much. When I turned pro, my sister travelled with me. She rented cars and booked ho- tels because I wasn’t old enough. We sacrificed a normal family life, but we believed it was worth it. I have now re- paid my mom. ● ● ● My first year as a pro, I missed ev-
with, too. I played in tournaments with older kids. I wasn’t a long hitter, so I had to be creative. I got around big carries by playing to other tee boxes. I was hit- ting driver off the deck when no other kids were doing it. ● ● ● I stopped going to in-person school in sixth grade and switched to on- line. I was on the road too much. I start- ed dominating junior golf. I became the first high schooler to compete for Team USA in the Walker Cup (2019). I had al- ready played for USA teams in the Ju- nior Presidents Cup (2017) and Junior Ryder Cup (2018). I was always in con- tention, and I knew how to win. ● ● ●
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN LOOMIS
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MIND / GAME ON M
Try the gambling game where confidence is king BY CHRISTOPHER POWERS Go Ahead and Cry Wolf
are no honours to determine the order of play and the Wolf always goes last. For example, if the order is A, B, C and D and the D player is the Wolf on the first hole, then C would be the Wolf on the second hole, and so on. After four holes, the order snakes back around to its original lineup. As the Wolf, you have some deci- sions to make. The main one is wheth- er to choose a partner from the other three players in the group for that hole or to play against everyone else. You can choose to play alone before or after everyone has hit their tee shots (after is usually the wise choice), or you can choose a playing partner after seeing his or her tee shot. HERE’S THE WRINKLE: Once a player tees off, you have to pick that golfer as a partner before the next player tees off, or you no longer have that player as an option. If you don’t choose Player A after he or she tees off, you’re now down to Player B or C as a potential partner for the hole. Or if all three golfers hit poor shots and you’re about to stripe one down the fairway, that might be the perfect opportunity to be the Wolf. Go ahead and howl! The most common way to score the game is, if the Wolf wins the hole alone, that player gets two or three points (three encourages more brav- ery). If one of the other players is the low scorer on the hole, they all get one point. If you choose a partner and win, you each get a point. Ties are usu- ally a wash, but sometimes Wolves are penalised for going alone and halving a hole. Points are paid out at the end of the round from the top down, so if you’re last, you’re paying the three other players the difference between your total and theirs. VARIATIONS: Perhaps once a round, you can refuse to partner with the Wolf. In another version, the Wolf can go solo before anyone hits and that doubles the wager. In a three- player version, the player who hits the second-best tee shot of the group is automatically the Wolf.
GOT STONES? Wolf is the type of game where bravery can really be rewarded.
O ne of the best “let’s play something differ- ent today” money games is Wolf, which has a little bit of everything – strategy, pressure, teamwork, bravery, you name it. NUMBER OF PLAYERS REQUIRED: Wolf can be played with three players, but the game works best for four.
BEST FOR: Anyone looking for a break from the norm, golfers who don’t like to rely on others, golfers who do like to rely on others, players who enjoy deeper strategy – oh, and gamblers. HOW TO PLAY: On each hole, one of the players in the fourball is the (lone) Wolf, and that designation rotates from hole to hole. In this game, there
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MIND / THE UNDERCOVER PRO M
The Secret Language on Tour
but have a good enough year where they can take the autumn months off to go to as many Bulldog games as possi- ble. Hell, in his first Team USA appear- ance in 2017, Kevin Kisner asked Steve Stricker to sit out one of the Presidents Cup sessions to watch the Georgia game. Kisner got his wish. Auburn isn’t far behind. If you’re from Texas, you got the fever twice as bad, because most are Dallas Cowboys backers, too. My only hot take is Alabama fans – sorry, JT – tend to be frontrunners. Let’s see how many continue to support in the post- Nick Saban era. One story for the road. A then-young- er player (who has since made himself a nice career out here) was trying to make an impression on Jack Nicklaus at the old Honda Classic, angling for a sponsor’s exemption at the Memorial. This player sidles up to Nicklaus on the range and tries to talk Ohio State football, thinking this is the way in. Jack was kind but eventually tells the player, sorry, I don’t really follow the Buckeyes. Ten minutes later, Nicklaus is talking Florida State football to sev- eral caddies. The player overhears this and thinks, “What have I done to offend Jack?” Didn’t take long for that player to learn that Nicklaus’s grandson, Nick O’Leary, was a Seminole tight end that year. – WITH JOEL BEALL
I tell rookies, “Get to know ball.”
There is a lot of dead time in golf. PGA Tour rounds are always over five hours, plus
becoming better friends. Football was one of the few things bringing people together, and I was blowing it and feel- ing left out. So, my third year with full status, I started following my alma ma- ter, along with the sport at large. I did deep dives on Reddit team pages. That year I made more friends than my pre- vious six years as a professional. Now, when rookies ask me for advice, the first thing I tell them: Get to know ball. Counter to what you might assume, a lot of European and international golfers are knowledgeable about foot- ball, having gone to college in the United States and eagerly assimilated themselves socially. School always starts in autumn, and what subject is a smart kid going to learn if he wants to make friends and maybe meet his homecoming queen? Who has the most passionate base on tour? Them Georgia boys are crazy. We like to joke that their main goal is not to make the Tour Championship
there’s warm-up, cool-down, practice, meals, hanging in the locker room. It’s a day. We love golf, but it is our job, and I am sure you don’t just talk about work at your place of work. We need a dis- traction, and the No 1 distraction out here is American football. If you made a heat map of where PGA Tour golfers were born, the Amer- ican south would be on fire. Even more tour players went to college in this re- gion, where college football is religion. I grew up out west and stayed there for college. Although it was Division 1, we were far from a pigskin powerhouse. I had a lot of friends from my AJGA days that came from southern backgrounds or migrated to SEC towns, but football was never a big discussion during ju- nior and college golf. Granted, there is not much talking at those levels. When you are a kid, you tend to take golf too seriously. All to say, I was not prepared for how significantly football would dominate life when I turned pro. Crazy thing is, it’s not necessarily the games. It’s all the talk about spring practices, the schedules, conference realignments, which players are going to break out, which coaches are on the hot seat. And, my word, the recruiting. These football nuts know more about prospects their schools might sign than I do about my nephews. When I first got on tour, I was some- what vocal that I didn’t care about football. I found out I was missing out on text threads and watch par-
ties, which I didn’t mind at first be- cause, hey, I wasn’t a football fan. But those groups end- ed up taking vaca- tions together and
GROUND GAME College football dominates chat inside the ropes on the PGA Tour.
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MIND / ANALYSIS M The Bomb-and- Gouge Era is Over Golf’s next stars are longer than ever, but this new speed generation is misunderstood BY DREW POWELL
diminishing returns. As it turns out, distance control and wedge play are emerging as the difference between a solid amateur and an elite tour player. One leader in shifting this narra- tive is Scott Fawcett, who founded the course-management system DECADE Golf and works with numerous PGA Tour pros. Fawcett has long maintained that speed is the most important factor to lowering scores, but he acknowledg- es that the data shows a “speed boiling point” after which you get less benefit and would be better off working on your game in other areas, like wedge play. “I’ve always said that about 190 to 195 mph ball speed is the maximum us- able ball speed to be any good at golf,” Fawcett says. “It’s a very fine line, even at 190. The kids are right. If they’re in that 182-185 range, that’s good enough.” If players get too long, which Fawcett says is about 190 mph ball speed, “The shot pattern is too wide. It’s not func- tional on any course. The ball’s in the air too long.”
F irst, there was the Bomb-and-Gouge era, which emerged as statistics proved the importance of driving distance. In turn, new technologies, fit- ness regimens and swing techniques al- lowed players to swing faster than ever. Now we’ve just entered a new age in golf – the Speed-Plus era. Among the leaders of this new generation are Gordon Sargent, the former top- ranked amateur and current senior at Vanderbilt, and 6-foot-8 newly turned professional Christo Lamprecht, both of whom register ball speeds over 190
miles per hour. What makes this era different? For one, these leaders aren’t outliers. Near- ly everyone in elite amateur golf boasts speed. What was once considered fast – say, 175 mph ball speed – is now barely average in the college ranks. But this new generation is misunder- stood. If the Bomb-and-Gouge era of the past decade was about maximising distance at whatever cost, Speed Plus players are more thoroughly informed by statistics, which concede that while distance is the most important factor to lowering your score, it comes with
FAST START Sargent earned his tour card while still in college through PGA Tour University.
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Aside from being difficult to control, the longest players also see decreased benefit when they find the fairway. Citing strokes-gained creator Mark Broadie’s book Every Shot Counts, Fawcett explains that the difference in tour scoring average from the fairway at 180 yards vs 140 yards is 0.17 shots. The difference in that same 40-yard margin when you go from 120 yards to 80 yards, however, is only a tenth of a shot. “I’d rather you be 80 yards away than 120, but it’s not that big of a deal,” he says. The Speed-Plus generation is em- bracing this strategy, not only because they buy into the analytics but because many of them have seen it in practice by playing PGA Tour events. One guy who has watched plenty of the best players recently is Luke Clanton, who reached No 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking in part by recording three top-10 finish- es on the PGA Tour last summer. Clan- ton acknowledges that while he used to train for speed, he now focuses more on precision. “I played with Scottie (Scheffler) in a practice round at Pinehurst,” Clanton says. “On the first hole he hit this feath- ery pitching wedge to a front right pin, and I’m like, that’s the difference. It just shows you how the difference between amateur and pro golf is the wedges and putting. It’s the biggest thing for sure.” Palmer Jackson, who has been ranked as high as 36th in the WAGR, says he chose to go back to Notre Dame for a fifth season of college golf last year specifically to improve with his shorter clubs. “What I learned over five years is that there’s a lot of guys that have speed,” Jackson says. “There are not a lot of guys that have incredible wedge play. I think that’s what separates good from great.” Duke senior Luke Sample, a semifinal- ist at the 2024 British Amateur, echoes a similar sentiment. “Speed’s definitely something that’s been part of my train- ing over the years,” he says. “It comes and goes. Recently I haven’t spent as much time working on speed and more just trying to build a strong golf swing that can hold up under pressure.” If all this makes it seem like the next generation has had enough of the race for speed, not so. Each of the three play- ers mentioned is longer than most and
can reach more than 180 mph of ball speed. So where does that leave those players who may not already have above-average length? Bryan Kim, who won the 2023 US Junior Amateur and competed in the 2024 US Open, feels like he’s in the middle of the pack, averaging low 170s ball speed. With that in mind, he speed trains by “loading my right side a little more.” Ratchanon “TK” Chantananu- wat won an Asian Tour event at 15 and is a freshman at Stanford. Having played on the Asian Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf, he sees reason to get longer. “I don’t necessarily struggle, but I could definitely use more (speed),” Chantananuwat says. “On the Asian Tour, I’m at least average, if not above average, but when I play against the LIV guys, like Matt Wolff, he was out- driving me by 40 (yards). That’s not OK. I’m definitely trying to build speed.” Kim and Chantananuwat are still trying to reach the speed boiling point. “If you’re in your mid-20s and want a long career and you’re 170 ball speed, you need to find some speed quickly,” Fawcett says. But, again, even for these players, it’s not a reckless pursuit. “You have to make sure your swing is cor- rect at all times when you’re doing it,” Chantananuwat says of speed training. “That’s the only way you can swing faster without damaging the swing.” Fawcett agrees with this approach and cites one of his clients, PGA Tour play- er Max Greyserman, who has picked up 10-20 yards by speed training in a way that keeps his technique intact. According to Fawcett, Greyserman hits 10 balls a few times a week as hard as he can. Then, he’ll hit two “cruiser” shots with a smooth pace. Statistics isn’t the only factor shaping the Speed-Plus generation’s approach. Improved college practice facilities, many of which have launch monitors, dozens of targets and the ability for players to practice with the same pre- mium balls they use on course have all allowed players to sharpen their wedge games better than any previous generation. All of this is what makes the Speed- Plus generation so compelling, even if to this point they have been largely misunderstood. This is a speed-minded
It Takes Two Speed Plus players have different swings for their driver and wedges
Compartmentalisation is important to become a great player. What the
era, yes, but players also have a certain artificial wisdom that usually only comes after years of professional me- diocrity, marred by poor wedge play. For that, they have analytics experts like Fawcett, Broadie and Lou Stagner to thank. As one feathery Scottie Scheffler short iron dropping pin high proved to Clanton, and as the statistics confirm to others, “That’s the difference.” best driver does, technically, isn’t the same as what the best wedge player does. If you look at Tiger Woods when he first came out, he was a horrific wedge player. Then when he shortened his action and got a little wider with not as much wrist set (shown above), he really improved. As soon as you start swinging hard with a wedge, you’ve got big problems. — Mark Blackburn, Golf Digest’s No 1 Teacher in America BLACKBURN’S DRIVER KEYS: 1. Full wrist set in backswing 2. Higher hands at the top 3. Allow your lead heel to lift in backswing BLACKBURN’S WEDGE KEYS: 1. Lean shaft towards target at address 2. Limited wrist set in backswing 3. Stay centred, rotate torso and pelvis
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MIND / COURSE MANAGEMENT M
T HE FINAL ROUND OF the Farmers Insurance Open in January took well over five hours to complete, drawing the ire of on-course TV commenta- tor Dottie Pepper, who said: “I think we need a new word to talk about this pace-of-play issue, and it’s respect. Respect for your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it. It’s just got to get better.” Pepper might as well have been speaking for all of us, as slow play is a major issue at every level of golf. Should you be victimised by slow play during your next round, have a strate- gy in place to remain in control of your physical, mental and emotional state. Here are three things we recommend to remain even-keeled and not allow golf’s snails to spoil your round. 1 KEEP YOURSELF BUSY Instead of getting annoyed at the group in front of you, look away and do some- thing to prevent negative emotions from boiling up. Talk to one of your playing partners about a recent trip or what you plan to have for dinner. If you’re not a talker, scroll through pictures of your loved ones on your phone. We’ve had players entertain themselves by counting the dimples on their ball or doodling in their yard- age books. The point is, keep yourself entertained. 2 RESTART YOUR ENGINES When it’s nearing your time to finally tee off – say, about a minute or two out – start getting loose. If you’ve been sit- ting around in a cart or standing still for several minutes, your body is liable Getting Slow-Played? Here’s How to Cope Use these three strategies when waiting becomes a real issue BY LYNN MARRIOTT AND PIA NILSSON
to get tight, and it’s easy to lose your feel and sequence of motion. The hips are especially vulnerable. An effective stretch is standing leg circles. Brace yourself with a club or the cart and make circular motions with each hip and leg. This works the inner thighs, hip abductors and glutes and helps get these important muscles ready to perform again. 3 STICK TO YOUR ROUTINE Most important, do not tee the ball up until it’s your turn. The worst thing you can do is peg it and then spend several minutes thinking about the shot while
waiting to hit. This disrupts the sequencing and timing of
WHILE WE’RE YOUNG! Lynn ( left ) and Pia will get you through this slog.
your pre-shot routine, which begins when you’re committing to your de- cision. Keep your good-performance routine consistent, no matter what – and make sure your body is activated before you get back into “play mode.” – WITH DAVE ALLEN LYNN MARRIOTT AND PIA NILSSON, two of Golf Digest’s Legends of Golf Instruction, are co-founders of VISION54 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
PHOTOGRAPH BY J D CUBAN
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“My best bunker advice? Get into a nice, wide base in your setup, low handle. Then pretend you’re rocking a baby , meaning, swing like there’s a baby in your arms. When you take the club back, you want the baby’s head (your right palm) to be facing you. Going through, you also want the head (right palm) facing you. Oh, and swing smooth. You don’t want to wake the baby!” –TONY FINAU
EDITED BY RON KASPRISKE how to play
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RATTLE BOTTOM
Trending: Try the ‘Fitz Grip’ Matt, and some other pros, have a new way to make more putts BY LUKE KERR-DINEEN
TRADITIONALLY, MOST golfers putt with the standard reverse-overlap grip. They curl
their lead finger over the pinky and ring fingers of the dominant hand. However, more and more tour pros are ditching the traditional overlap, instead choos- ing to extend the lead finger of their lead hand (left finger for right-handed golfers) straight down the grip, like you see Matt Fitzpatrick doing here ( right ). Among the other players doing this now are Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Nick Taylor and Matt Wallace. “It tends to firm up the lead wrist, which will reduce hinging and promote better face control,” says Bill Smittle, a putting coach and one of Golf Digest’s Best Teachers in North Carolina. “It also brings your hands closer together and your wrist joints into alignment. It means your forearm plane is more neu- tral. When one hand is lower than the other, whatever hand is on the bottom is usually more extended, which then puts your forearms out of alignment.” When your left finger is extended down the grip, your left wrist starts to feel like a wall, Smittle says, and you can release your right hand as much as you want in the through-stroke without worrying about it sending the ball off line. In fact, it really doesn’t matter how you hold the putter with the right hand when using this style, in-
cluding the “claw” and “paintbrush” methods. The left hand remains in complete control, Smittle says, and that’s key to sinking more of those mid-range putts.
BRACE FOR IMPACT The left wrist needs to be firm for a true roll.
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