Hovland has talked a lot about his wedge transformation and even shared a few of his tips for improving around the green. But according to him, one of his biggest “hallelujah” moments was when he dialled in his sand game.

On a recent episode of The Smylie Show, Hovland recounted a time when he was even contemplating not competing in the Memorial Tournament, an event he won this year, because of the difficult bunkers that line nearly every fairway and green at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

“I just had no chance,” Hovland said, “In those bunkers you’re always going to be on a downslope, and if you can’t catch the ball cleanly out of the bunkers, you’re not stopping the ball on the green.”

This was a problem for Hovland, who was chunking his sand shots at the time, something that might sound familiar to many amateurs.

Hovland attempted to correct the issue by using his upper body to control the speed of the shot. But, it wasn’t until Hovland teamed up with Golf Digest Best in State Teacher Joe Mayo, his current coach, that he had his breakthrough.

Together, they reinvented Hovland’s short game approach by introducing more “spin loft” to these short touch shots. You can read a more in-depth explanation of spin loft here, but in simplest terms, Hovland began swinging down on the ball with a steeper angle of attack.

While spin loft was the cause of Hovland’s breakthrough in the bunker, he also shared a setup key that has played a crucial role in his successful sand game.

The Key: Bending his lead knee

During his interview with Smylie Kauffman, Hovland mentions how important it is that he maintains a bend in his lead knee through the finish.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Smylie Kaufman (@smyliekaufman10)

This position is worth copying because it helps keep your weight forward throughout the entire shot—which Hovland says is key to pulling off any bunker shot.

It’s hard to throw your clubface or release the club properly if your weight isn’t already forward, Hovland says.

That’s because weight in the front leg creates a fixed point for you to rotate around. Which eliminates sway from your sand shots and produces more consistent strikes.

A bent lead knee also opens up your stance, making it easier to rotate around your post leg and turn through the shot completely. A simple change that will make a big difference if you tend to hang back on bunker shots.

Lastly, bending your lead knee will increase your stability. If you watch the clip above, you’ll see how little Hovland’s head moves when he makes his swing—something most amateurs should strive for in their bunker game.

Most amateurs bob up and down when hitting sand shots, a move that’s often exaggerated under pressure. While this might feel like you’re hitting down on it, the vertical movement is actually causing you to lunge at the ball, which leads to frustrating inconsistencies from the sand. It’s probably why you chunk one then thin the next.

The post This setup key led to Viktor Hovland’s ‘hallelujah’ bunker moment appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

If you have read our previous Discover Golf editions, you should be familiar with how to hold the club, address the ball and swing the club. Now I will take you through some key points to help you use the driver as effectively as possible.

What is a driver?

The driver is the largest of all the clubs in the bag and the go to start most holes that require maximising the distance you can achieve from your swing. This is possible due to its large volume of head size, length of shaft and aided by lower lofts and lighter weight.

Understanding Low Point

Low point, in golf terminology, refers to the point in the swing arc where the clubhead is at its lowest position before it starts its upward trajectory. When hitting the driver, the position of the low point is crucial. A suitable low point helps ensure that you make contact with the ball slightly on the upswing, which is a crucial element for maximising distance and achieving an optimal launch angle.

To establish a consistent low point, focus on maintaining a shallower sweeping movement of the club through the lower part of the swing and avoiding lowering the body dramatically during the downswing, something that can be common when incorrectly trying to ‘keep the head down’ something that should be avoided. When the low point is well-managed, the driver’s loft can be utilised effectively, leading to longer and more controlled drives.

3 Keys to unlock your driver’s potential

1 Using of a tee and tee height?

Using a tee and adjusting tee height when hitting a driver in golf is essential for optimising your performance with this shot. A tee is used to elevate the golf ball above the surface providing us with a guaranteed perfect lie every time. Because of this, it is easier to launch the ball into the air as it provides the opportunity to strike the ball without making contact with the ground and assist with striking the ball more on the upward part of the clubs movement.

A useful starting point is having half of the ball above the height of the driver face, however finding the optimal tee height requires experimentation during your practice sessions. Pay attention to how different tee heights affect your contact and ball flight and adjust accordingly by either increasing the tee height or lowering it.

2 Ball Position

Next up to help create the optimal strike with the driver is the strategic placement of the golf ball in relation to the stance. Altering this will have an effect on the body positioning and if the ball is struck on the up or downswing, greatly affecting your shot outcome.

For drivers, a great place to start is positioning the ball inside of your front heel. This placement ensures that the low point occurs just before the ball, enabling you to hit the ball on the upswing. When the ball is positioned too far forward, closer to the front foot, the low point could happen too early and potential mishits. Conversely, if the ball is too far back in your stance, the low point may occur after the ball, resulting in an overly steep angle of attack and reduced distance.

3 Width of Stance

The width of your stance plays a vital role in achieving the proper swing shape for hitting the driver effectively. A stance that is too narrow, you may have trouble staying balanced, leading to inconsistent shots., while a stance that is too wide might hinder your rotational movement and timing. 

When addressing the ball with the driver, aim for a stance that is wider than shoulder-width. This provides a stable foundation while allowing enough ability to rotate and have the body positioned suitably during the swing. The wider stance also encourages a sweeping motion, which aligns well with the shallow angle of attack required for successful driver shots.

Putting It All Together

As we discussed, the upward strike on the ball typically creates a more optimal outcome. To help with achieving this put the previous points into play and focus on maintaining a shallow, sweeping motion in the downswing. 

Putting this together and discovering the appropriate movement in the body to simulate the correct arc is to try the following drill. 

Simply by placing a headcover (a ball or an additional rubber tee) in front of the tee where your ball would sit creates feedback of where the low point is and increases the likelihood of a more upward strike. Through doing this you will start to gain awareness of the suitable body movement that avoids contacting the object, if you do it is likely that your low point is too low and too left producing a downward impact into the ball. Practise swinging through, clipping the tee, and avoiding hitting the object in front. Avoid excessive attempts to scoop the ball into the air, by shortening your arms as this can lead to inconsistent contact and reduced distance. Practising this aspect of your swing can lead to more consistent and powerful drives off the tee. 

Remember that consistency and improvement in these areas require practice and dedication. As you gain a deeper understanding of how these factors influence your shots, you’ll be better equipped to unleash the full power and potential of the driver in your golf game.

Conor Thornton is a member of the PGA Professionals team at Golf Saudi-managed Riyadh Golf Club

The post Key points on how to make the most of your tee shots appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Modern launch monitors have taught us exactly what makes the ball go where it goes, but most golfers would be smart not to get too caught up in technicalities. Decades ago, Jack Nicklaus described a simple way to shape shots, and it’s every bit as valid today.

Jack said to hit a fade—his preferred shot—aim the clubface where you want the ball to come down, and align your body to the left (for right-handers). To hit a draw, do the opposite: Aim the face where you want the ball to finish and align your body to the right. For both ball flights, swing the club where your body is aimed.

Here’s the procedure, starting with the fade (above). After sighting your target from behind the ball, step in and aim the face at the target. Next, set your feet, making sure your stance line is well to the left. (Remember, a square stance is parallel-left of the target line, so you have to be farther left than that.) Your body lines—knees, hips and shoulders—should point where your feet point. Then swing where your body is aimed. The ball will start left and curve right.

“To shape a shot, better to change your setup than your swing.”

Now, take the draw. Aim the clubface at the target, then arrange your stance and your other body lines to the right. Swing where your body is aimed, and the ball will start right and curve to the left.

What I really like about this method is, you get most of it done at address. I see golfers trying to roll the face closed for a draw or hold it open for a fade. Jack’s way is better.

• • •

Dom Furore

GOLF’S NO. 1 MISTAKE

People ask me all the time, What’s the biggest fault you see with amateur golfers? My answer: They don’t take enough club. They take the club that requires a career shot to get to the target.

Optimistic? No, more like unrealistic. You should base your club selections on the average distance you get out of your clubs. Take one more than you think you need, and then swing within yourself. Trust me, you’ll make better contact and hit your target a lot more often.

The post How to make the ball curve appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The other day I pulled nine clubs out of my golf bag and stuffed them in my trunk. Thanks to a sore back and some general frustration with my game, I wanted to play with just five. I needed a break from carrying a full bag, and getting in and out of a cart was actually worse (“You could also not play,” my wife suggested, which I assumed was a joke). Plus, I had the sense I was starting to take golf too seriously and this might help me lighten up.

Did it work? Yes. But also, no. Let me explain.

The five-club experiment

The original plan was to play with just three clubs since that would be far more restrictive and require greater creativity. But I went with five for two reasons: one, my driver has been erratic of late and I wanted the opportunity to work on it. Also, my regular golf group plays a modest four-ball Nassau that I didn’t want to disrupt. Was I already compromising the “just go out there and have fun” edict I was purporting to follow? Of course. Is my relationship with golf complicated? Exceptionally.

Anyway, the five clubs I chose: driver, 6-iron, 9-iron, 56-degree wedge, putter. In that arrangement, the biggest gap by far was the 70 or so yards between my driver and 6-iron, but that really wasn’t the hardest part. More on that in a bit.

Where it helped

Early in my round, it was apparent how the limitations of my bag could oddly play to my advantage. The first hole of my club is a beefy par 4. Even with a good drive, I’m usually left with more than 200 yards in, but with only a 6-iron in my bag, I was absolved of the delusion I could get home. Instead, I smoothed an approach to 35 yards short of the green, pitched to 10 feet, and lipped out a par putt.

Most of the front nine played out in a similar fashion. My ball striking is a wildcard even with access to all of my clubs, but my short game keeps me competitive, so I was content to deliver balls to strategic sports short of greens and take my chances from there. The fun was in trying to solve a new puzzle — choking down on 6-irons, bumping 9-irons, or trying to muscle 5 extra yards out of a sand wedge. If I was faring worse on the scorecard, it wasn’t by much, and the benefits were apparent. In mindfulness practices, they call this “beginner’s mind,” in which you approach an endeavour with fresh eyes and without preconceived expectations. For someone who plays a decent amount of golf at the same course, this was an opportunity to play the game from a different perspective. If you find yourself stuck in a similar rut, I recommend it.

And yet …

Where it hurt

There is a reason golf is played with 14 clubs. Ask tour players about the regrettable tendencies of their pro-am partners, and many cite that they don’t take enough club. The mid-handicapper often confuses the ability to hit a 6-iron 165 yards with the ability to do so consistently, which I’d say is pretty stupid if I wasn’t guilty of the same thing. Now take nine clubs out of your bag, and your room for error is pared even more. If I am capable of manufacturing a decent score with a limited set, it’s contingent on me hitting each of those five clubs well every time, which in my decades of playing golf has happened precisely … never. The strain builds, and suddenly this innocuous experiment of playing with fewer clubs had me gripping a 9-iron too tight and trying to fly it 140 yards over a bunker. Spoiler alert: I wound up in the bunker. In this case, I didn’t take enough clubs because I didn’t have enough clubs.

Lesson learned: Frame success differently

The mistake of my experiment was not in setting a goal, but perhaps making it unrealistic. I had a target score that wasn’t so far removed from my normal range, and I was trying to compete in a match at roughly the same level (my playing partners allotted me one extra stroke a side). Now factor in a stiff back, and I made things too hard for myself … which led to frustration … which was supposedly the thing I was trying to avoid.

Testing yourself is good for your golf, and so is trying to breathe life into your routine. It’s when the two pursuits aren’t aligned that things get sideways. I am going to play with five clubs again soon, but next time it will be without a hard target or a goal of trying to figure out my swing. In hindsight, the fewer clubs in your bag, the fewer thoughts should be in your head as well.

The post Can playing with just five clubs make you better? Here’s what I learned appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Much as my experience working in the golf industry has afforded me insight into how the game should be played and taught, the nuggets of wisdom I have relayed to my son are likely outnumbered by the missteps I’ve made along the way. My guidance is more like a yardage book that maps out all the hazards. The least I could do is try to spare you the same trouble.

Lesson #1: Your kid is not you

The first problem with being a golf parent is that most of us are also avid golfers. This can be true in other sports—I still play hockey, which my youngest son does as well— but those sports tend to evolve into different forms over time. But golf is always essentially the same game, and as not a particularly great player, I have made the recurring mistake of projecting my golf experiences onto my son without factoring in the widening gap in our abilities. Close the face. Aim further out. Just lag it close. These are all things I’ve thought and even said while watching my kid play, which disregards more than just our different skill sets, but that he really should just figure this stuff out himself. Never mind if my advice was right or wrong. The mistake was thinking it mattered.

Lesson #2: Beware hypocrisy

The second problem with playing golf with my kid all these years is he’s been playing golf with me. It’s possible he recalls the day I got up and down from everywhere on the front nine, but he definitely remembers the time I helicoptered a wedge out of frustration into a greenside bunker. It was unreasonable for me to expect model comportment from my kid when, as a grown adult with a mortgage, I couldn’t always hold it together myself. The compromise then was to accept this was a process. I wanted him to try to manage his emotions better, and I would do the same, but as with golf itself, perfection was a myth.

Lesson #3: There’s a difference between nudging and pushing

If a golfer’s motivation ultimately needs to come from within, that doesn’t mean a kid has to navigate the game alone. Broadly, I believe a parent’s role is to help their child make decisions their future selves will appreciate. For young golfers, that could be outlining a path to success by connecting the player with a coach, or suggesting a practice routine—all those elements that kids might not have the vision to see on their own, but you know to be helpful.

Personally, if I had stopped there, that would have been best. My problem, admittedly, was when my “outlining” and “suggesting” occasionally felt more like “pressuring.” I can think of a handful of times when my son dragged himself to practice specifically because he knew that’s what I expected. Without even knowing it, I had turned chipping and putting into as much of a chore as emptying the dishwasher.

The teenage brain can only handle so much input from a parent, especially one hitting from 30 yards behind in the fairway.

A smarter approach comes from my wife, who is not a golfer but a veteran educator. Rather than tell a kid what they should do, she asks them the sort of questions that help them arrive at their own conclusions. What’s something you’d like to be better at? What do you think will help you get there? Very often the seed of the same solution is planted, but without the gnawing sense an adult put it there.

Lesson #4: Less is way more

As a Golf Digest editor, and the author of a book in the sports psychology realm, I am burdened with the belief my insights into golf and competing are worth sharing. Maybe they are (please keep paying attention!), but the teenage brain can only handle so much input from a parent, especially one hitting from 30 yards behind in the fairway.

There was a point when I threw everything I could at my kid about course strategy and a winning mindset, before realizing how much of it was just white noise. In the years since, learning to pick my spots has improved my success rate, as well as hopefully our relationship. At a tournament a few years ago he imploded over the last two holes, and when he plopped himself in the passenger seat, I had to fight the instinct to unpack what happened and what he could learn. We made the hour drive home mostly in silence. which was hard for me, but precisely what he needed.

Lesson #5: The payoff isn’t what you think

A golf dad like me has vacillated between two extremes when trying to motivate my kids, and both have pitfalls. I started by trumpeting that golf is fun, which it can be provided you don’t end up in a puddle of tears on the seventh green. Then when my son showed enough promise came the suggestion that golf “might lead somewhere.” Both objectives miss the point.

That golf can be fun is a given. I wouldn’t subject myself or anyone else to it if it didn’t provide a level of joy. But golf can also be miserable, and maddening—the type of fun that results in clubs snapped in two.

The author with his two sons, both of whom have survived his occasional missteps.

Is it a path to college or a career? For a select few, sure, but the moment golf becomes about a tangible return, the edges around the game can harden. You don’t practice because you want to, but because you need to. You measure progress on a scale you don’t get to define. When my son decided he wanted to play golf in college, even I paused to ask him if he was sure it was worth it. He insisted it was, but the atmosphere around his golf grew heavier.

So what is the payoff of golf? The phrase we settled on is that golf is always rewarding. It’s rewarding when it’s fun, and rewarding when it’s hard, and even when you collapse over the last two holes of a tournament and drive home in silence. The pursuit is everything.

For all my bungling, it turns out there was one important way I could use myself as a model. When my son decided to channel his energy into golf, he could be assured there was a payoff that would be there long after college acceptance letters. It could be there when he’s middle-aged and with a diminished swing speed, yet still counting the minutes until his next tee time. In his high school yearbook, my son wrote to me, “Dad, thank you for passing down your love of sports and not passing down your golf swing,” which might sound like an insult if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted as well. The kid deserved to play the game better than me. But if he loves the game nearly as much as I do, I must have done something right.

The post Raising a junior golfer? This is the stuff I did wrong appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But pros, they take a completely different approach. As I wrote about with Jon Rahm in the U.S. Open, pros are constantly practising their putting using different games, or drills.

Why you should play more putting games

There are a few reasons why pros are so into the idea of playing putting games:

• It gives them a sense of competition.
• It helps them practice their putting under pressure.
• It’s a form of random practice, which prevents you from mindlessly practicing the same thing over and over again, which obviously is not what happens on the golf course.

Playing little games and drills does all of these things. It’s not a big change to make to your practice routine, but it’s one which you honestly might find quite fun. And better yet, it’ll improve your putting.

A few games to try…

One of my favourite drills is a ladder drill, which is pretty simple: You start with a short putt (three feet, say) and if you make that, you move backwards (to six feet, say). If you make that one, you move further and further back. That’s good for short putting, just like another short-putting drill: Surround the hole with lots of golf balls and make all of them in a row.

If you’re struggling with distance control on longer putts, Golf Digest Top 50 coach Chuck Cook showcases a common one: Setting your ball about 30 feet away, and placing a club about two feet beyond the hole. Your goal is to get three golf balls to stop past (or in) the hole and between the club.

Either way, there are lots of options out there, and whichever one you choose, you’ll be better off for it.

The post Why pros are obsessed with this kind of putting practise appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“The King” might not have written down the rules, but he offered a lot of clues along the way. From golf courses, grillrooms, boardrooms, banquet halls, pressrooms, exhibition tents and on TV, he revealed how to absorb and enjoy all the benefits the game can provide. And there has been nobody better at paying it forward. Here are 10 things we learned from Arnold, on and off the course.

1. INVENT A SYSTEM, THEN OWN IT

“System” in golf usually describes a connect-the-dots, full-swing method. To Arnold, it meant something else. “It’s a whole way of playing,” he said.

It included the fundamentals but also the intangibles, like how far you hit each iron, your tendencies on side slopes and downslopes, and how to play in the wind or to stay calm under pressure. Arnold thought a system could partially be taught but that it mainly was self-discovered. “When you saw me gripping and regripping the club on the tee and taking a bunch of waggles, I was thinking about how I was going to play the shot,” he said. “It was part of my system and was a lot better than dwelling on how important the situation was.”

2. ALWAYS DRESS THE PART

Around the Bay Hill Club in Orlando—where the PGA Tour plays the Arnold Palmer Invitational each year—Arnold was known to not wear socks with his loafers. On the flip side of this nontraditional style choice, he loathed beards, hats worn backwards or indoors and shirts left untucked. He was a principled dresser and always a trendsetter. In the 1960s, he rocked a navy-blue cardigan like nobody else. In the ‘70s, he went with bat-wing collars and mod patterns, and in the ‘80s, hard-collar shirts with long plackets. Even in recent decades, his look commanded attention. He had quirks, too, favouring pink shirts and breaking out a new pair of golf shoes every week of competition. But he was basically old school. “The neatly appointed golfer,” he told Golf Digest in 2008, “is like a businessman or someone headed to church: He gives the impression he thinks the course and the people there are special.”

3. REMEMBER THE KIDS

The defining moment of a 2013 Golf Digest cover shoot with Arnold and supermodel Kate Upton had little to do with either celebrity. It was Arnold who brought the shoot to a halt while he bragged about the golf game of his granddaughter Anna Wears, then 16. How she drove it 240 yards, was breaking 80, and was the most athletic of all the grandchildren. On and on he went until photographer Walter Iooss Jr. had to ask Arnold to get back on his mark. Young people got Arnold’s attention. No athlete signed more autographs for young fans, endorsed more youth initiatives, and put in more calls of support. A small example of his largesse: In 1984, when Arnold was turning down far more endorsements than he was accepting, he agreed to lend his name to P. Bryon Polakoff’s children’s book Arnold Palmer and the Golfin’ Dolphin. Then there’s the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, a highly regarded pediatric hospital that was a passion of Arnold’s since it opened in 1989. His foundation donates to many causes, but the common denominator is that they’re all for young people.

4. WALK, AND WALK SOME MORE

If for no other reason, than he intensely disliked golf carts, it’s doubtful any human walked more miles on the course than Arnold. To him, it was as intrinsic to the game as swinging the club. He did it for health and enjoyment but also to help him play better. When tour pro Casey Martin, born with a syndrome that eventually required his leg be amputated, went to court to be allowed to ride in PGA Tour events, Arnold reluctantly—but firmly—took a stand for walking. Arnold never voluntarily rode during competition as a senior and lobbied against the use of carts on the senior tour. He enjoyed incredible vitality for almost all of his 87 years. There are crazier notions than to assume walking had something to do with that.

5. A GOOD GRIP COMES FIRST

Butch Harmon has long maintained that the Vardon Trophy—a bronze-coloured statue of two hands holding a club that goes to the PGA Tour player with the lowest scoring average—was modelled from a cast of Arnold’s grip. It is linear perfection, golf’s equivalent of a silhouetted Jerry West as the logo for the NBA. Arnold never denied or confirmed the rumor, but it’s true that for years, his grip was the envy of other players. Position-wise, neither hand shaded toward weak or strong, the Vs of both hands aiming at his right ear. Arnold was given the grip at age 3 by his father, along with the directive, “Don’t ever change it, boy.”

So gripping properly became second nature to Arnold, and he took immense pride in it. His grip was a perfect model for aspiring golfers a half-century ago—and is to this day.

Photo by Walter Iooss Jr.

6. HIT THE BALL HARD

It started when he was 7, when a woman at Latrobe (Pa.) Country Club named Mrs Fritz paid Arnold a nickel to drive her ball over a ditch on the sixth hole. For the next 80 years, Arnold rarely spared himself physically on any shot. The violence of his driver swing led to a balanced but contorted follow-through, and he took huge divots on iron shots. When Arnold played from a tree stump at the 1963 U.S. Open at Brookline, he sent splinters flying. He preached what he practised: Keep the head still, turn the shoulders as far as they’ll go and finish with the hands high above the left shoulder. But he also issued a warning: “Swinging all-out is good. Swinging beyond all-out usually leads to disaster.”

7. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DRIVER

Through good times and bad, Arnold’s game was married to the driver. He hit the most famous drive in the game’s history: a Herculean bomb on the par-4 first hole at Cherry Hills outside of Denver that found the green and fueled his victory at the 1960 U.S. Open. “When I drove the ball well, I was usually tough to beat because my game flowed off that,” he said. Hundreds of his drivers, persimmon and metal, line the shelves of a modified maintenance barn at Latrobe. Arnold was a powerful driver and wanted ordinary players to taste power, too. In 2000, he controversially backed a nonconforming driver.

Photo by Bob Thomas/Getty Images

8. ACCEPT THE GAME’S MYSTERIES

A dark counterpoint to Arnold’s driver blast at Cherry Hills was a series of snap-hooked tee shots on the back nine at The Olympic Club in the 1966 U.S. Open, which led to an incoming 39, a blown seven-shot lead, and the title going to Billy Casper. It wasn’t the only time Arnold’s game left him. He lost the 1961 Masters to Gary Player with a double bogey on the final hole. The lesson learned is sometimes you lose your game, and there’s little you can do about it. “When the train leaves the tracks, it’s rare you can get it back on track again,” he told Golf Digest in 2007. “It’s very hard—impossible, really—to reverse your thinking and go back to the frame of mind you were in just a couple holes before. I’m not sure we’ll ever figure out an answer.”

9. IMITATE YOUR HEROES

Arnold’s swing model when he was a boy in the 1930s was Byron Nelson, and he pored over the instruction book Byron Nelson’s Winning Golf. When he finally met Nelson, who was already famous for his proficient ball striking, Lord Byron’s sportsmanship and unfailing politeness gave Arnold even more to imitate. Later, a generation of young golfers copied Arnold’s pants-hitching, go-for-broke style. Today, when tour pros like Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler sign hats and programs, they sometimes mention how they’re following Arnold’s lead.

10. GET IT TO THE HOLE

“The worst thing you can do is leave a putt short,” Arnold said. In his prime, he charged them all. In the final round of the 1960 Masters, he banged a birdie putt on No. 16 off the flagstick. He then rammed home a 20-footer for birdie on 17, and rapped in a four-footer for another birdie at the last to win by a shot. That’s just one example of his aggressive putting. Even when the three-footers stopped falling late in his career, he defended his style. “Get the ball to the hole no matter what,” he said. “If you do that, you’ll at least give it a chance to go in, which, if I’m not mistaken, is the object of the game.” Simple, sound advice from The King.

(Editor’s Note: This article was originally published after Arnold Palmer’s death in 2016.)

The post Arnold Palmer: 10 rules for a golf life appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

I’d love my daughter to love golf, but I’m also scared. I’ve seen too many junior golfers’ passion for the game get smothered by their parents’ own well-intentioned love of golf. I really, really don’t want to be that parent.

It made being on the ground at the PNC Championship last week hit a little harder. Here was a group of some of the most successful players in the game who both loved golf themselves and had fostered a love of the game in their child.

“I think that being a parent in any sport is about being supportive and being encouraging,” Tiger Woods said earlier in the week, when I asked him what the secret is to being a good golf dad. “Being a parent, you always want to be the protector and guider of them and teach them skills that they will need in life when you’re not around. And so that’s the most important thing about being a parent.”

Jordan Spieth, age 15, during the 2008 Junior Ryder Cup at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green. Mike Ehrmann

Create a good ‘environment’

Jordan Spieth was another player in the PNC field. He isn’t too far removed from the junior golf scene (he is still only 29) and a new dad himself (son Sammy is 13 months old), so I asked him the same question: What makes a good golf dad?

“Give them opportunity, make them set goals, create scenarios where they’re gonna be able to learn to love what they’re doing on their own,” Spieth said. “Put your kid in positions where they have high quality individuals around them to learn from. I think that’s probably as important as anything. That’s what my dad [Shawn, who Jordan teamed with at the PNC] did for me. I had a lot of individuals around me who were good kids that created competition.”

Jordan Spieth with dad Shawn. Ben Jared

The mistake to avoid

If you want your child to share your love for the game, Spieth says to put them in an opportunity to fall in love with it, surrounded by good people, then wait to see if it happens. It’s not always easy to take that hands-off approach, but it’s essential to help your child create a healthy relationship with the game. In some ways, that came easy for Jordan’s father, Shawn, who was a baseball player in college and wasn’t closely involved with golf.

“I didn’t grow up playing the game,” Shawn says. “I couldn’t really tell how good he was until he shot eight- or nine-under on the back nine of a short course one day. We came in, he’s got a five- or six-stroke lead, guys have been playing golf their whole life. I thought: ‘Maybe he’s pretty good.’”

“I was never pushed to do anything,” Jordan adds.

“If I was forced into it, I wouldn’t have loved it the way I do. You have to fall in love with the work on your own because it’s not always gonna be easy.”

RELATED: Jordan Spieth turning pro was a lot riskier than you think
A++ for Spieth at Presidents Cup

Once they do start taking the game seriously, helping your child learn to set goals is another skill Spieth says he’d recommend to any golf parent.

“When I got serious about it, my dad would tell me to go write down my goals. He’d say: ‘What are your goals? OK, If those are your goals, I’m willing to support you through it, but you’ve gotta stay committed to these then, and that’s your choice.’”

It’s something Spieth does to this day and said it was perhaps the best thing his dad did for him as a junior golfer.

“[As a junior] when I was getting lazy or doing the wrong thing, Dad was there to point out my own goals I had set for myself,” Spieth says. “It’s why I think in life in general, it’s a good idea to write down goals.”

The post Jordan Spieth says this is the biggest mistake golf parents make appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

1. Let the lie dictate your shot

When you approach your ball after your tee shot, the first thing you should do is evaluate your lie. If you’re in the fairway, you can proceed as normal. But if your ball is in the rough, take a good look at your lie. A flier — a ball that’s sitting on top of the grass — may help you hit the green. But if you find your ball sitting down, Butch says to remember that loft is your friend.

“Take a very lofted club. The loft on the club will help me jump the ball out of the grass. The strategy is to get the ball back in play and give yourself a chance for the next one.”
— Butch Harmon

[divider] [/divider]

2. Get your number to the middle

So many amateur golfers shoot the number to the pin, pick the corresponding club and don’t think about much else. Strange, Butch says, because pro golfers almost do the opposite.

“The flags they shoot at when they have the proper number, meaning the number they’re comfortable with for the club they want to hit. If they don’t have that number, they’ll dump it in the middle of the green.”
— Butch Harmon

Butch goes on to say that your default should be just that: get your number to the middle and play to it.

[divider] [/divider]

3. Find the ‘no go’ zone first

No golfer goes into a shot planning on hitting a bad one. Yet the smartest golfers plan for that eventuality anyway. When approaching the green, Butch says to identify where you least want to go and work backwards from there. He uses an example of a pin tucked on the left side of the green.

“Missing left, that’s the no-go zone, don’t even look at it. Pick a smartly conservative target behind the green that will give you room for error.”
— Butch Harmon

[divider] [/divider]

4. Study the slope

This is something many golfers do already, but it’s worth reiterating. Sometimes golfers get so laser-focused on the pin that they forget their surroundings, even when they may help you. Using the example of a right-to-left sloping green, with the pin tucked left, Butch explains that your best chance of getting your ball close isn’t by aiming straight at the pin, but using the slope.

“Aiming at the middle of the green and letting the ball take the slope will actually give you a better chance of a birdie putt than going straight at the flag.”
— Butch Harmon

[divider] [/divider]

5. Pick a target behind the green

You’ve probably heard the phrase “aim small, miss small.” It’s useful advice, but it can also be difficult when you’re aiming for bigger, wide-open spaces like the middle of the green.

“I’m aiming at that bushy tree in the distance. I know if I start my ball right there, when it lands, it will release down towards the hole.”
— Butch Harmon

[divider] [/divider]

Butch Harmon. JD Cuban

6. Take an extra club

Amateur golfers under-club themselves all the time, Butch says. There’s simply no point lying to yourself about how far you hit the golf ball — unless you like missing the ball short. It doesn’t matter how far you hit it, it matters that you know how far you hit it. If you’re not sure, then when in doubt, club up.

“Very seldom do I see players take enough club, they take the club they need to hit absolutely perfectly. One of the best strategies I can give you is, if you think it’s a 7-iron, take a 6. If it’s a 6, take a 5.”
— Butch Harmon

[divider] [/divider]

MORE: Claude Harmon III on life inside the LIV Golf ‘family’

7. Sometimes laying up is best

Sometimes, you’ll encounter a shot you simply don’t like the look of. Maybe there’s water or a bunker — or both — short of the green, and your swing isn’t feeling great that day. Rather than forcing yourself to hit a shot that feels uncomfortable, Butch says to listen to what your emotions are telling you and choose a different path.

“Take a wedge, lay up, that way you can pitch it on and still give yourself a chance to make a par. If you use the right strategy, you’ll be able to avoid those high numbers.”
— Butch Harmon

[divider] [/divider]

8. Bogeys won’t kill you — doubles and triples do

A common theme in all Butch’s advice so far is to think about the shot after the one you’re about to hit. Your goal is to leave yourself a low-stress next shot. That’s true when you’re in the middle of the fairway, Butch says, and even more important when you’ve missed the short grass.

“What you’re trying to do is take double-bogey and triple-bogey out of play,” Butch says. “That’s your main goal, getting yourself out of trouble and back into play.”
— Butch Harmon

[divider] [/divider]

9. Don’t be a hero

Along those lines, Butch’s best advice can be summarised simply.

“Don’t be a hero! You’ll end up being a zero. Play the right shot.”
— Butch Harmon

It’s tempting to ignore it, especially after you’ve hit a good drive and smell blood in the water. But good golf is boring golf, and it’s not the spectacularly good shots that lead to good scores. It’s knowing how to avoid the spectacularly bad ones.

[divider] [/divider]

10. Remember the goal

And finally it’s worth remembering the advice Butch started with, and returns to frequently throughout: check your ego. It doesn’t matter how you get there, all that matters is that you arrive at the destination safely. Your scorecard will thank you for it.

“There’s only a box that requires a number in it, not a ‘how you did it’.”
— Butch Harmon

[divider] [/divider]

Good advice from the best coach around that the rest of us would do well to follow.

You may also like:
Get your FREE November issue of Golf Digest Middle East here
Crunch time on the LPGA Tour season
Morikawa on his struggles during 2022
Claude Harmon III on life inside the LIV Golf ‘family’
Rahm and Fox set to join Rory at DP World Tour Championship
Shergo Al Kurdi on life as a LIV Golf alternate
Kiradech set for Asian Tour return
Muscat is a must-see for a stay & play on the UAE’s doorstep
R&A reiterates stance on Turnberry
New date for Irish Open on 2023 calendar
Who won what over the course of LIV Golf’s first season
Scotland’s ghost course is a golfing mystery
The seven ‘scariest’ moments in golf
Atthaya becomes world No. 1 at age 19
Harrison Crowe claims Asia-Pacific Amateur
WATCH: Highlights from the LIV Golf finale
Wrapping up Year 1 for LIV Golf 
DJ pulls the final Punch at LIV Golf Team Championship

The post 10 tips from Butch Harmon that will eliminate your blow-up holes appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

This most likely occurs when there’s a weak link in your “Power Chain”. The chain is made of three links: the legs, core and upper body. If there is a weakness within one of these links, then energy created from the ground won’t necessarily make it into the ball at impact. Here are three exercises that’ll help increase the power.

1. Kneeling Overhead Slam
With the use of a slam ball, start in a kneeling position grasping the ball. Now lift the ball above your head feeling a lengthening in the abdominals. You should feel a shortening and contraction in the abdominals as you slam the ball down into the ground as hard as you can.

2. Lying Chest Pass
Start in a lying position with a soft medicine ball between both hands, sitting on your chest. From this position we are going to throw the ball vertically into the air above you. It pays to make a couple lighter throws first just to get the coordination and timing of the throw correct. Once confident, find your rhythm and employ a minimal pause between each throw.

3. Cable Step And Turn
Set the cable machine at chest height then take one step away, keeping your chest facing the machine and arms stretched. It’s important to note that the same width between your chest and hands is kept throughout this movement. With your feet starting together, take one step away from the machine and then rotate the shoulders away from the machine. Return to starting position and repeat on the other leg.

Never go too heavy with any of these exercises; good form when performing at speed is of utmost importance. We are looking for a fast movement and anything too heavy will slow you down. Complete each exercise as a single set with 10 reps, 4 sets and 60 seconds rest. If you’d like to go a little harder, make it a giant set and repeat each exercise one after the other with a two minute rest after each set.

Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

The post Understand golf’s power chain and how to avoid a weak link in your swing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.