We’re here to help. I’ve been scratch-ish—sometimes worse, sometimes better—since I was 16 years old. My current index is a +1.2, although that’s sure to bite me once the weather warms and I have to play to my late-season handicap despite early-season rust. I have played dozens of rounds with men and women who’ve told me I’m the best player they’ve ever played with. And, once they shake off the nerves, these have often blossomed into some of my favourite days on the golf course. The key is knowing what to do, and more crucially, what not to.

Here are the dos and don’ts of playing with a scratch-level player.

Don’t insist on playing the same tees

Warren Little

You’re coming from a good place—you don’t want to be a burden, and you figure having everyone in the group play from the same tees will speed up play. Only it’ll have the opposite effect: You’ll be looking for balls and hitting so many extra shots. Always be ready to step right up to the tee when it’s your turn, and any added time will be minimal.

Be very careful with your “Good shot!” shouts

Your standards for a good shot are very, very different than the scratch players. You might be thrilled every time you make solid contact with an iron from the fairway, but I can tell you from experience that hearing “Great shot!” when a ball is flying right to a bunker gets very old, very quickly.

Don’t ask him if he’s ever thought of turning pro

The difference between a scratch golfer and a touring pro is, functionally speaking, wider than the difference between you and the scratch golfer. Unless this scratch golfer is 14 years old or younger, or a highly delusional person, there is very little chance he or she will ever turn professional.

Don’t be afraid to get some action going

laflor

There’s a reason the handicap system exists, and it’s to mitigate differences between players—even if those differences are huge. Theoretically speaking you have a 50 percent chance of winning the match. Don’t be intimidated.

Do give gimmes

Some mid-handicappers I’ve played with have assumed that I’m keeping score as though I were playing a tournament, so they’ll hesitate to pick up the 18-inch par putts after a missed birdie attempt. Unless your playing partner explicitly says, “I’m going to putt everything out today,” you should absolutely kick away anything that’s within the leather. If it’s longer than that, simply look at them. Their reply will tell you how he feels about putting that one out.

Don’t offer swing advice

You might think this goes without saying but you’d be surprised. My tempo is quick, and I’ve had legitimate 15-handicaps tell me after a bad shot to “slow down” or “that looked pretty quick.” There is nothing more infuriating than hearing advice from a non-PGA professional who is significantly worse at golf than you.

Don’t ask for swing advice

Unless they’re a teaching pro, the last thing they want to do is spend an afternoon trying to help you stink less.

Play fast, but don’t rush

Andrew Redington

I’ve had playing partners visibly rush because they’re so worried about slowing everyone down—that just makes the good player in the group feel guilty. That’s not to say you shouldn’t pick up when you’re clearly headed for a quadruple bogey or worse, because you absolutely should. But take your time when you’re in the hole.

Don’t apologize for your game

You have nothing to apologize for, so hold off on the sorrys after you slice one into the trees. It doesn’t make your bad shots any less bad, and it only contributes to a sense of imbalance that you’re trying to avoid. Do you. Play your game.

Be yourself

A scratch player is good at a game—they’re not some sort of freakshow. So don’t treat them as such. Be you. Don’t be afraid to talk and shoot the breeze as you would in your normal foursome. This golfer just happens to swing a club better than your buddies do. Nothing more, nothing less.

Main Image: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

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There have been a number of incidents on the pro tours in recent years where golfers have played the wrong ball with disastrous — and expensive — consequences. Mark Hensby was assessed a 10-stroke penalty, yep 10 strokes, for playing a wrong ball in the 2021 Palmetto Championship.

In 2022, Mackenzie Hughes got hosed at the Farmers Insurance Open when a volunteer set a flag down next to a ball in the rough that turned out to be another player’s ball. He played it, took a triple after the penalty, and ended up missing the cut.

 

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We could go on, but you get the idea. You’re not alone if you’ve mistakenly played someone else’s ball. (We’ll get into incidents when a golfer intentionally plays someone else’s ball a little later in this article. That happens, too).

So how do you proceed if you accidentally play a wrong ball? Under Rule 6.3c, in match play you lose the hole. In stroke play, it’s a two-shot penalty and you must correct the mistake by going back and playing your ball to finish the hole. If your ball is lost, proceed under the stroke-and-distance penalty (yes, that means a third extra stroke to your score, sorry!)

This rule is pretty easy to understand, but let’s take a slightly deeper look at a few wrong-ball scenarios that often happen. One is when opponents in match play happen to hit each other’s golf balls. The way to handle this situation is to assess the loss-of-hole penalty to the player who hit the wrong ball first. If you and your opponent aren’t sure who hit first, there is no penalty and you should play out the hole with each other’s golf balls.

And to clarify the stroke-play procedure, you’re only hit with two shots for playing a wrong ball no matter how many strokes you take on a given hole with it. However, if you start the next hole with the wrong ball, you’re disqualified. If you’re wondering why Hensby wasn’t DQd, it’s because the tournament was using Model Local Rule G-4 allowing for a two-shot penalty on each hole where the player used a wrong ball.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what happens to a golfer who intentionally plays a wrong ball and is caught, well, Rule 1.2 covers it. The cheat is banished.

The post Rules of Golf Review: I just played the wrong ball. What do I do now? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Here’s a couple of demonstrations of the grip that have popped up on my social media feeds recently. And rather than calling it the social-media-putting-grip-that’s-trendy-in-Japan, I’m officially titling it the butterfly grip, because golfers’ hands kind of resemble a butterfly when they hold the club this way.

 

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The main components of the grip basically involve clasping the ring and middle fingers of your left hand with your pinky, ring, and middle fingers of your right hand. This intertwines your fingers in a way that actually has a few benefits:

@stevejohnstonpga

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♬ original sound – Steve Johnston PGA

• It places the grip deeply in palm of both your hands, which can prevent the wrists from taking over your putting stroke.
• It tucks your elbows into your side as a result, which allows the shoulders to power your putting stroke.
• It places both hands relatively level to each other, which levels out your shoulders for a more level strike over all.
• It’s hard to squeeze too firmly with your fingers so intertwined, which keeps grip pressure soft in both hands.

Give the butterfly grip a try if you’re looking to shake up your putting, and remember who first termed it the ‘butterfly grip’ when some tour player wins with this grip in about two years and sends the method mainstream.

The post The new butterfly putting grip that’s trendy on social media, explained appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But how do you do that?

Well, this won’t be a magical elixir for everyone, but this tip from coaches Shaun Webb and Mike Granato will help you along the way.

The tip is simple, as Granato explains: “There are two clubs in your back which are delivered with a vertical shaft at impact,” he says. “Your driver and your putter.”

 

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This is something Johnny Miller talked about a lot and there are three good reasons why:

1. If you get the club shaft vertical with these two clubs in impact, it probably means your body is in a good position, too.
2. A vertical shaft at impact will mean the club is being delivered into the golf ball the way it was designed.
3. It allows a full release of energy into the clubhead.

If the club shaft is leant too far forward or backwards at impact with your putter, it’ll send the ball skidding and hopping rather than rolling. If it’s back or forward with the driver, you’ll struggle making solid contact, and generating too much backspin because if how much you’re potentially chopping down on the ball.

All of which is to say: Try to get that shaft vertical at impact, with both your driver and putter. A simple swing cue that’ll pay dividends from tee-to-green.

Main image: JD Cuban

The post One brilliantly simple tip that works with your two most important golf clubs appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Carrying wedges with too much bounce

Keyur Khamar

Although conventional wisdom says, “Bounce is your friend,” Clark sees that concept as more of a Band-Aid than reliable advice.

“I think amateurs play wedges with too much bounce,” he says. “Game-improvement wedges (high bounce) might mask some mistakes, but it can be very difficult to hit the correct shot with those wedges or have the ability to be versatile.” Clark continues: “Everyday players have to hit a lot of shots around the greens. To score better, I’d suggest using less of a game-improvement wedge and working on hitting a wider array of shots.”

Using shafts designed for tour pros

Jamie Squire

Just as tour players are susceptible to trying the “hot” shaft off the assembly line, so are amateurs. Most golfers, however, are not achieving tour swing speeds or swinging the club on a path that resembles what a tour pro does. As such, copying the pros in their shaft choice is a bad call, Clark says.

“Trying to use a shaft because some tour player you like uses it or because it’s expensive so it must be better is a path to poor golf,” Clark says. “I see too many golfers with shafts that are way too stiff or too heavy for them. It doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t use the same model, but a good fitting will likely result in a different flex and weight.”

Eating on course like you’re tailgating

Amateurs typically eat or drink when they’re playing, as do the pros. But unlike the pros, devouring a hot dog at the turn and washing it down with a beer doesn’t really count for keeping up your energy.

Clark’s on-course “menu” is probably a better plan of attack. “I eat often on the course but a little bit at a time,” he says. “I usually have apple sauce, which keeps my sugar levels good. I have Bobo’s Oat Bars for carbs and a little bit of protein. I always have gluten-free oat butter with jelly. Nuts and apples, too.”

You might not play like a US Open champ, but take a few tips and give your game a boost.

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Whether it’s correlation or causation, for intangible or tangible reasons is a little unclear. But a fact is a fact, so fast starts was the strategy of choice.

Which brings us to the first hole at Marco Simone.

The opening hole runs 450 yards, uphill and doglegs slightly to the left. Two different bunkers flank the fairway landing area on either side.

The European team went 11-4-13 on the hole last week, which equates to winning it 39 per cent win of the time, halving it 46 pe rcent of the time, and losing it only 14 per cent.

A nice record that probably wasn’t by coincidence.

Donald crafted an emotional and analytical strategy on this hole. He forced players to play for $100 matches on that hole during practice rounds, and three-hole money matches between themselves to help them get into an aggressive mindset early.

“As a team we knew getting off to a fast start was important,” Donald said.

But the first was also one of the key holes analytics helped sway the outcome. Shane Lowry even jokingly alluded to it during the winner’s press conference with a throwaway joke.

“All the Americans slice it,” Lowry said in jest.

That, of course, is a joke. But like many jokes, it has an kernel of truth: A vast majority of key American players tend to play left-to-right fades. Collin Morikawa, Brooks Koepka, Max Homa and Scottie Scheffler, among others. The European players, by contrast, possess more players in their ranks who either naturally or tend toward left-to-right draws. Players like Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Sepp Straka, Nicolai Hojgaard and Ludvig Aberg.

Identifying that as a noteworthy difference in an era where both sides’ players have very similar styles, the European team sought to amplify this advantage by using the grandstand surrounding the first tee to pitch the hole slightly to the left. They also grew out the rough on either sides to exaggerate misses, and Donald revealed that the first fairway was one of a number that “were pinched-in a little on the left”.

This had the effect of magnifying the natural right-to-left shape of the hole, which in theory benefitted the team.

On Sunday, it worked.

All 24 players’ first tee shots on Sunday:

Scheffler
Rahm
Morikawa
Hovland
Cantlay
Rose
Burns
Rory
Homa
Fitzpatrick
Harman
Hatton
Koepka
Aberg
Thomas
Straka
Schauffele
Hojgaard
Spieth
Lowry
Fowler
Fleetwood
Clark
Macintyre

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) October 1, 2023

The way Europeans played the hole basically divided down two lines:

Players most comfortable hitting a draw usually pulled driver and leaned on that shot shape (Fitzpatrick, Aberg, Fleetwood and Straka each did this).

“That hole just really fits my eye,” Straka said.

Players who are natural faders of the ball dropped down to their 3-wood and hit a draw, which is a common strategy fade players use when they need to work the ball right-to-left (Viktor Hovland did this).

McIlroy, Hatton and Rahm chose the most unique route: They pulled high, hard, cut drivers, which is a go-to shot of theirs under pressure.

Regardless, you can’t argue with the results. On Sunday, when all 24 players played the hole, the Europeans hit double the amount of fairways as their opponents (six to three) and boasted a 5-2-5 record on the hole.

A clever lane cleared for lots of fast starts, with a trophy waiting for them at the end.

Main image: Patrick Smith

The post Ryder Cup 2023: Inside the ‘fast start’ strategy which won Europe the Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

He dropped a variety to crucial ones over the course of the two fourball sessions, including two match winning birdie putts, the latter of which helped him and Robert MacIntyre deliver Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth their first fourballs loss.

The moment @JustinRose99 clinched another point for Europe! #TeamEurope | #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/Als2JpuPVY

— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 30, 2023

You may have noticed that before each of those putts — and every putt Rose hits on the green — that he tucks the sleeve on his left arm into his left armpit.

It’s entirely legal (you wouldn’t be allowed to tuck an outside object into your armpit, but your own shirt is fine), and Rose does it for a good reason.

 

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As he explains: “I’m trying to make everything as simple as I can…strip away as many excess movements as possible, so I can just focus on moving the putter very cleanly, and simply,” Rose says.

Rose says his claw-putter grip is an essential ingredient to this, because it allows him to hold the putter lightly in place and let the unique balance point of his Axis 1 putter swing as it’s designed.

The shirt sleeve is the third part, because that effectively helps organise his stroke.

“I want my arms and body to move as a unit,” he says. “The shirt sleeve is a little reminder to keep that connection between my arms and chest, so everything moves as one.”

Clearly, it’s working.

Main image: Maddie Meyer/PGA of America

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Whenever amateur golfers are facing issues with contact or consistency in their swing, they almost always attribute the problem to a very small part of their golf swing rather than looking at the most obvious, and simple, solution.

A big problem for many golfers is getting their spine into proper positioning at set-up and maintaining that position throughout the swing.

The most common issue golfers have when it comes to posture is rounding their shoulders too much, trainer Kevin Duffy says. And when you think about it, it’s easy to see why.

Most of us are sitting at our desks in poor posture for at least eight hours a day, add that to the poor posture we maintain in the car and sleeping, and that’s another eight to 10 hours of us conditioning ourselves to stay in bad positioning.

“You can’t out-train the desk,” Duffy says Kevin Duffy, “but there are a couple of things players can do to improve their posture both in their swing and in their day-to-day lives.”

Duffy’s first recommendation is to avoid extended periods of time in postures that aren’t helpful toward your overall goal. One way to achieve better posture during your workday is to get a standing desk. Another way is to incorporate a couple of quick walks or stretching, like the ones below, into your daily routine.

 

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Duffy’s band exercises will combat the effects of prolonged sitting and help you maintain a better spine position throughout your swing.

Duffy recommends keeping a light band at home that you can use to do 10-12 reps a couple times a day.

He also says the key to nailing these easy exercises is completing them in a balanced position with a neutral spine. If you find that you’re swaying or rounding your shoulders, try using a lighter band or no band at all. The goal here, Duffy explains, is to open up your chest and get out of the rounded position so many of us find ourselves in throughout a majority of our day.

His next recommendation for improving golf posture, is to check that you’re hip hinging into your set-up.

Most golfers use their spine and round their shoulders when addressing the ball, but in reality they really need to be using their hips, Duffy says.

To practise getting into proper golf, stand straight with your knees slightly bent and think about hinging or sliding your hips back a few inches.

When practising this, it’s important to note that you want to keep your spine relatively straight. Too much tilt in your pelvis will create an exaggerated arch in the back which can be just as much of a problem when rotating as too much rounding in the shoulders.

“When you improve your position at address, you’ll improve your ability to rotate,” Duffy says.

Kevin Duffy

Learning to hip hinge will help you create a bigger turn in your backswing, improve your weight transfer and allow you to incorporate the larger muscles you need to create more power in your swing.

Duffy’s final recommendation is to learn diaphragmatic breathing.

“Chest breathing causes a shortening of the traps and can increase stress,” Duffy says.

This is bad for two reasons: not only will you have more tension in your trapezius muscles, but Duffy explains that the body stores stress in unique ways and that can wreak havoc on your posture and back health as well. Common stress stores for females are in the upper shoulder blades and trapezius muscles, while male stress stores are typically in the low back.

Duffy suggests using a simple box breathing technique to achieve proper belly breathing. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, release for four seconds and hold again for four seconds before starting the cycle over again. Placing your hands on your stomach as you practise this can help you focus on breathing from your diaphragm as opposed to your chest.

Belly breathing is key because it reduces tension in players’ traps and back while also helping them regulate their nervous system when they’re under stress, Duffy says.

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The importance of having a pre-shot routine is often discussed, but there is another process that elite golfers go through before each approach shot. If you get to your ball, laser the distance, pull a club and step in, you’re missing an essential step to dialling in your iron play.

Before you start your pre-shot routine, you need to go through a pre-shot checklist.

Iron play is one of the biggest distinguishing factors between golfers, especially good amateurs and pros. Look at the graphic below and you’ll notice a steep increase in proximity to the hole as a player’s handicap increases.

Golf Digest

To improve your iron play, strive to improve your distance control. To do that, you need to get specific with your numbers. Often, amateurs will simply get a number to the pin, grab their club for that distance and hit the shot. If the shot is playing a little uphill or into the wind, they might take one more club. If there is trouble long, amateurs might try and “take some off” and swing a little easier.

The problem with this process is it lacks specificity. What happens when, for example, you’re playing a downhill shot that is into the wind, and there is trouble long. The downhill will make the ball travel farther, but the wind will hold it up. And don’t forget that you want to stay below the hole. How can you properly account for these factors and hit a committed shot with all that information floating around?

Instead, use a pre-shot checklist to arrive at one specific number that you are trying to carry your ball. On a calm day, a flat lie and no trouble around the green, that number might be the exact number to the flag. More often, however, the distance you want to carry the ball and the total distance will be different, often drastically so. Here’s how you should break it down.

Matt Marriott

1. How far to the flag?
Determine how far away you are from the hole. This is your starting number. As an example, let’s say you’re 150 yards from the pin.

2. Where do I want to land it?
This is where you account for how firm the greens are and where the trouble is. If the pin is tucked in the back of the green and there is trouble long, take five yards off. Your new number is 145. Also consider how far your ball will bounce when it hits the green. If the greens are firm, take off another five yards, bringing your effective carry number down to 140.

3. Is it uphill or downhill?
For this example, let’s say you’re playing to a green set above you. You estimate it to be playing five yards uphill, so your new number is 145.

4. Evaluate the wind
Adjust your carry number based on how hard the wind is blowing. If there is a lot of help or hurt, this could be as much as 10-20 yards. For our example, let’s say you’re playing slightly downwind. Adjust your number back to 140 for the five yards of helping breeze.

5. Read the lie
Finally, examine your lie. If you’re in the fairway, there likely won’t be much to add or subtract here, but if you’re in the rough, look for a flyer lie. Those happen when you have a decent lie, but there is grass between the ball and the club, which will cause the ball to have less spin and come out hot. Subtract five or 10 yards. If the ball is sitting well down, and you think it might come out dead, add 10 yards. In our case, we’re in the fairway, so we’re sticking with our 140-yard number.

This may seem like a lot, but once you make it a habit, you’ll work through these factors in less than 30 seconds. Consider our example — we have a 150-yard shot, but we’re only trying to land the ball 140 yards. This number takes into account all the factors above. When you step into the ball, forget the number to the flag and focus only on your adjusted carry number.

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If we’re going to be brutally honest, ball fitting is more important than most average golfers think. Yet unlike every other kind of equipment fitting in the game, it’s simply impossible for most average golfers to do properly. Because the right golf ball for you involves a series of metrics unique to you that might involve everything from price to durability, let alone performance, feel and even look on every type of shot you hit from tee to green. Moreover, those are your metrics. The next golfer in line will have a completely different set of demands.

Not only that, it takes time. While an indoor launch monitor may tell you a few things about initial ball speed, launch and spin on your full shots, when it comes to how one ball might perform differently than another, we wouldn’t pay a lot of attention to things like distance, or even maximum height or landing angle. In many cases, those are projections based on a generalised ball flight trajectory algorithm — in other words, certain elements like the aerodynamic effects of a certain dimple pattern compared to another or how a softer ball might react differently than a firmer ball on an off-centre hit. And whatever data that might be generated from a full-swing tee shot or 7-iron approach on a launch monitor, that doesn’t cover the entire spectrum of shots that are going to determine differences that might matter to you.

Certainly, fitting initiatives from the major ball companies are helpful, and Ping’s Ballnamic app is an excellent deep dive to narrow the impossibly large field of golf balls and player types and preferences. But, ultimately, there is no substitute for taking a few leading candidates and putting them through the paces of how you play an actual hole or three.

That’s why a good first step in your search for a new ball should be an honest self-evaluation of your needs measured against your capabilities. We are reminded of the golf ball insider who once asked a bunch of senior golfers why they were playing a tour-level golf ball when a different model might get them a little more distance, higher flight and maybe better accuracy. “Simple,” the leader of the oldsters said. “We know with our limited speed, we’re going to hit the tee ball somewhere out there that’s going to be findable, and then were going to hit a second shot somewhere toward the green. But it’s the next shot, that pitch or chip or bunker shot, that’s going to determine our score. That tour ball gives us the best option to hit that third shot the best that we can.”

Moral of the story: The best ball for you is the one that enables you to enjoy the hole the most by optimising the shot that’s most important to you. For some that may be a big tee shot, for others it could be a low, checking pitch. But the only way anyone finds that out is to get out on the course.

Here are some general guidelines for things to look for in your next ball, from tee to green. (And truth be told, our advice is to start from the green and work your way back. A ball that answers your short-game demands is the best first step toward improving your score.)

PUTTER
Roll long and short putts to give you the sound feedback you need. If aligning the sidestamp is important to you, make sure the look suits your eye.

GREENSIDE
Spend most of your time here, and hit all the short-game shots you normally play. Spin and distance should be consistent and predictable.

HALF-WEDGE
You might not have this shot often, but if you have a controlled, checking shot in your repertoire, you’ll only be able to do it with the right urethane-cover ball.

FULL IRON
Hit shots from a distance you’re confident attacking the green. Watch for trajectory height and whether you can control it. Are well-struck shots stopping the way you want them to?

DRIVER
Given most golfers’ inconsistency, this area might not be a game-changer. If you see something here, make sure you’re not compromised elsewhere.

One final reminder: The least-expensive two-piece balls might be longer than the most expensive multilayer, urethane-cover golf balls. That’s almost exclusively what they’re designed to do. Still, when we had players at two swing speeds hit both kinds of balls, we found the distance advantage was small at best, almost irrelevant. A 110mph swinger found the cheaper, two-piece “distance” ball to be about five yards longer than the more expensive, multilayer urethane cover ball played on tour. But for a more average male golfer swing speed of 90mph, we barely saw a yard difference between the two balls. Where the difference becomes substantial is when you look at greenside spin. The urethane cover ball was spinning 30 per cent more than the two-piece distance balls. That’s the difference between a controllable shot and one where the ball prevents you from getting a well-played greenside shot from stopping quick enough for a short putt.

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