Welcome to Lie Detector, a Golf Digest+ series where we use an ultra-slow-motion camera to help you identify and properly execute shots from various lies. Different lies, whether they be in the fairway, rough or bunker, require different techniques, but first, you must get better at identifying the lie that you have. You’ve missed the Read more…
What happens when a natural force—and we’re not talking the explosion in “CaddyShack”—moves your ball? This is a situation that comes into play quite often, especially on seaside courses where winds can be howling. And there is a Rule that determines what should happen next. To clarify, “natural forces” does not mean shading a golf Read more…
The key to longer drives, besides making solid contact, is swinging the clubhead faster. But that doesn’t mean you have to swing harder. The smoother and more deliberate you are on the backswing, the more you’ll turn your upper body and the farther you’ll swing the club back. This not only gives you additional time to Read more…
Parents think their kids are amazing, which, of course, is part of the job. When it comes to golf, this parental pride often is in full display. You hear things like “He’s a total natural” or “She just needs to play more” or the super-charged version: “I’ve got the Next Tiger Woods.” OK, time to Read more…
It can be intimidating to take your child out to the range or the course. What if you’re too tough on them? What if you distract or slow down other groups? What if your child inherits your incurable slice? Remember that his or her attention span is shorter. A session as short as 20 minutes Read more…
You’ve heard about the kid in a candy store, but what about the junior golfer in an ice cream shop? Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg says it was enjoying the frozen delight with his dad following rounds of golf that helped spark his love for the game. Fellow countrywoman and World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam Read more…
When your kid loves golf, the toughest days are when they also kind of hate it. Water balls, tears, occasional sprints to the parking lot—there’s enough trauma available in golf for a parent to wish for something simpler. The best argument for having your kid stick it out might be how the game can help Read more…
On speedy, sloping U.S. Women’s Open greens, like the ones we’ll be playing this week at Wisconsin’s Erin Hills, you can end up hitting a lot of lag putts. You have no choice but to play defensively if you want to avoid three-putting or worse. Generally, I like the ball to end up either hole-high Read more…
It’s Match Play time in the Golf Digest offices. At the start of golf season every year, everyone in the company is randomly drawn into a big bracket. It’s a fun—and at times, heated—competition. And inevitably, it doesn’t take long for some drama to form around the subject of giving putts. Who should give whom Read more…
The results are in and the data is irrefutable: Distance is king in golf, and there’s no better time to build it than when you’re young. Left to its own devices, our bodies begin adding muscle in our late teens and through our 20s, then, conversely, begin shedding muscle mass at an increasingly rapid clip Read more…
Despite his skinny frame at 6-foot-1, 155 pounds, Luke Clanton can dunk a basketball—with two hands! That kind of athletic ability is one major reason why the 21-year-old Florida State junior—and soon-to-be PGA Tour rookie—is pound per pound one of golf’s biggest hitters. “He’s soooo athletic,” says Jeff Leishman, Clanton’s swing coach of four years. Read more…
A match-play tournament is incomplete without a flare-up or two around gimmes. Our Golf Digest Match Play has been no exception. Some staffers are stingy with concessions, others are generous, and some are generous until they realize they shouldn’t be. In one match recently, a player stewed when her opponent rolled a putt for practice after Read more…
This list of major-championship winners who swing a golf club with their lead wrist in flexion at the top of the swing (bowed, bent toward the palm) is pretty impressive. Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa—even Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino did it in their heydays. If you wonder why so Read more…
Australian Golf Digest
