But we need examples to back up such extravagant claims. This week’s Scottish Open is being played at the Renaissance Club in East Lothian, a course surrounded by famous links. Muirfield is next door. Gullane is just down the road, as is Luffness, Kilspindie and Longniddry. North Berwick is less than five miles away in the other direction, with Dunbar a little farther down the North Sea coast.

Those courses vary in standard and length, but they share one thing in common: especially in a wind, they all demand thinking and strategy that goes outside the relatively one-dimensional stuff that is professional golf around the globe. And the opening round at Renaissance was no different. A variety of players found themselves hitting a variety of shots with a variety of clubs and to a variety of distances.

“Today the par-3 sixth hole was playing 137 yards,” says Luke Donald, who shot a level-par 70. “I stood there thinking I could hit a 7-iron, which for me is a 175-yard club. The wind wasn’t blowing that hard, but it was enough to make me pause. It always makes me smile to think of Americans coming here for the first time. They will be scratching their heads thinking they don’t really know what to do in certain situations.”

Not just Americans. Russell Knox is a Florida resident these days. But he grew up in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands and played much of his golf at Nairn Dunbar on the southern shore of the Moray Firth.

“The short sixth today was great fun, even if I made a mess of it and made bogey,” says Knox, who shot 68. “I could have hit just about any club off the tee. I could have run a 5-iron in there or hit a full 8-iron. Which is what I would have done in the States. But faced with that shot growing up I wouldn’t have looked at the yardage. It would have been all about feel. I’d have stood on the tee and imagined the shot. But as a pro it’s different. I’m so into yardages I forget how to play. Sometimes, you just have to really switch off and go with what feels right.”

As you’d expect from an Open champion, Jordan Spieth knows a thing or two about links golf. But even he is always learning.

“I think you can throw pins out more than yardages,” says the Champion Golfer of 2016, who opened with a 68. “Sometimes you have to realize that hitting to 40-feet is actually a good result. And today I can think or two or three shots where, with hindsight, I would play a totally different shot. I like that aspect of links golf. And that’s the kind of stuff I’m trying to gain from this week. If I hadn’t played some links golf in Ireland last week, I had a couple of shots today that I might have messed up. I would have played different shots and been worse off. That experience and knowledge helped me for this week.”

Nicolai Hojgaard

Happily, the joys of links golf are not lost on the younger generation. Exactly how Nicolai Hojgaard had to go about achieving his round of 67 was clearly relished by the 21-year-old Dane, who next week at St Andrews will play in his second Open Championship.

“I had to think differently on a few shots today,” he said with a smile that was only slightly dampened by hearing that his identical twin brother, Rasmus, had nipped him by a shot.

“On the third, a par 5, I played the hole in a way I never would on a non-links. After my drive I was hitting a 4-iron approach from 260-metres [285 yards] and trying to roll the ball onto the green. I ended up on the front edge which was all I could hope for in that situation. Revising expectations is something you have to learn on a links.

“It was windy today and you had to avoid the bunkers,” he continued. “So sometimes the semi-rough was a good place to be. Sometimes you want to drive into the rough. That can give you a little jump on the second shot. You just have to think creatively. You have to create the feel and go with what seems right at that moment. It’s fun. And it’s a great test.”

Yes, it is, all of the above, as Donald confirmed during an eve of the championship walk around the inward half at Renaissance.

“Today it wasn’t quite blowing hard enough to provoke too much confusion,” says the former World No. 1. “But yesterday I walked the back-nine and bumped into Scottie Scheffler. He told me hit a 6-iron, a 5-iron and a 4-iron to the 14th green. And came up short with them all.”

Links golf at its best then. And its most confounding, of course.

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The post DP World Tour/PGA Tour Scottish Open provides examples aplenty of links golf at its best and most confounding appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matthew Rudy
The combination of weather and less familiar conditions (for Americans) often makes the Open Championship a contest of shot selection. If you can’t adjust for wind, moisture and topography, you’re in for a short week. We asked Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher Tony Ruggiero to describe some of the shot shapes required to succeed this week—and how you can fuse some slivers of new technique into your game—no matter where you play.

The driver stinger: Beat the wind from below

Tiger made the term “stinger” famous with his low, bullet 2-irons that he used to slice up Open venues like a scalpel. His technique was to play the ball slightly back and keep his weight on his front side through the swing, while feeling like his hands didn’t go up much past his chest. A lot of players have never seen a 2-iron, but it doesn’t mean that shot is obsolete.

Here, Joaquin Niemann is hitting it with a driver at the Genesis Invitational on a day when the wind was howling and he wanted to keep it out of the breeze. He did something any player can do when less height would work better. Instead of moving the ball back (like you’ve always been told to hit it low), he moves it slightly toward the target, which forces him to turn through and get his chest over the ball to hit it. That move promotes the delofting that makes this shot work.

Here’s Niemann executing the shot:

The launch: Getting natural height

Driver technology is awesome, and it really helps you hit it far and straight. But even with all the help, you need to make sure you’re getting set up to launch the ball correctly. You can see here that Brandon Hagy makes a subtle movement with his shoulders before he hits, letting the trail shoulder drop lower. By setting his shoulders and posture the way he does, he’s pre-setting the way the club will come through the ball—which means he won’t have to do anything extra with his hands. That’s a big thing tour players understand that average golfers miss. Trying to yank the club around to make the shot do what you want is not a recipe for consistency. This little pre-set move gets Brandon’s posture just right, and he’s able to turn into his right hip on the backswing and avoid backing up on the downswing. The result is big bombs, naturally.

Watch how Hagy does that below:

Flighted irons: Make your approaches wind resistant

Ruggiero spent five years working with Lucas Glover, and Ruggiero says he’s as good as anyone he’s ever seen at hitting his irons with controlled low trajectory. He does it with every club, and the goal is to flight and shape the shot to match what he needs in each situation. Does that mean you need to try to punch a bunch of iron shots next time you play? Not necessarily. What you should do is start thinking about how height affects your shots along with distance and curve, he says.

One huge side benefit of that process? Glover hits this controlled height shot by playing the ball back and staying centered over the shot and staying in his posture. If all you did was substitute a center ball position and did those other things, you’d actually hit it higher and harder! When your low point is consistently in the same place, you’re going to hit better shots.

Watch how Glover does it below:

The off-speed shot: Turning some power off

One of the biggest misconceptions you’ll hear about playing in windy conditions comes when players want to hit a shot with less than full speed. Oftentimes what you’ll see—even from tour players (but not from Cam Champ here!)—is that they’ll make the same size backswing, but then slow things down in the downswing. But that deceleration move usually messes up the sequencing of the swing and you get bad contact. Let’s say you have a shot where you want to control the distance and spin in the wind and make sure you hit the fairway. Instead of slowing your downswing or making less of a pivot, choke down on the grip a little and make a shorter backswing. Then make your same, aggressive downswing—just with less swing size.

Here’s Champ pulling off the shot:

The power fade: Take one side out of play

Dustin Johnson does a lot of things the average player just can’t do—like play with that huge bend in his wrists and effortlessly hold off his release and still bomb it 320. But the more important thing to take away from the shot shape you see here is that DJ built his swing in a way that makes sure he doesn’t miss in two directions. For years, he used to hit about as many draws as he did fades. The draws went way longer, but every once in a while, one of the draws would go off the world. Butch Harmon asked him why he bothered with that shot when the fade was reliable and plenty long. Dustin decided to hit virtually all fades, and here he is ranked No. 1 in the world.

Your goal for 2021 should be to work on clubface control to the point where your directional mistake is entirely predictable. That’s the first step to really good golf.

Here’s DJ controlling his tee shots:

The laser: Add roll to your drives

Yes, Bryson DeChambeau stirs up a lot of conversation. But regardless of what you think about him, he’s incredible in how hard he works to optimize launch with his body, his technique and his equipment. Using a driver with five degrees of loft, he smashes that relatively flat face with an upward attack angle, producing tee shots that look more like laser beams than those soaring home runs your favorite power hitter sends into the upper deck.

It remains to be seen how soggy St. George’s will accommodate shots that come in with a steep landing angle, but Bryson’s roll out plays anywhere. What does that mean for you? Go get a fitting to make sure your driver is producing the ideal combination of loft and spin. And don’t be afraid to change to a ball that gives you more bounding runners, even if it’s at the expense of some iron spin. If you’re two clubs closer to the green, descent angle will more than offset that loss.

Watch one of those Bryson lasers below:

The safe play: Mastering long irons off the tee

Not to harp on Tiger, but he really was incredible in how he was able to plot his way around a course and execute his plan. When he won at St. Andrews without hitting in a single bunker, you noticed that he teed the ball really low on every shot. You can see that’s what Collin Morikawa is doing below, too. Morikawa is a real artist with shapes and trajectories, and he knows that a low tee promotes that downward impact with the hands slightly ahead. He’s taking loft off the face, turning a 6-iron effectively into a 4-iron. He can take off speed and spin and get the ball running on the ground. Another great feel you can take from this clip? When you hit your shots, get your trail shoulder and trail hip to move down and around past where the ball was right after impact. When your upper or lower body stall out, you aren’t pivoting and producing the easy speed that makes these shots seem so routine for players like Morikawa.

Watch Morikawa’s move below:

The post 7 shots tour pros will play at The Open—and how average golfers can master them appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Rayhan Thomas is to put his important end-of-school-year exams on ice to tee it up in the 122nd British Amateur Championship.

The 17-year-old had originally planned to play ‘The Amateur’ at Royal St. George’s GC and Prince’s GC from June 19 before learning the historic event clashed with his 10th grade exams. But the overtures of the Indian Golf Union and the understanding of his online school tutors means the Dubai-based teen is now definitely headed for the famous stretch of golfing coastline in Sandwich, Kent.

“The Indian Golf Union want to take me and three other players to the British Amateur so we spoke to the school and I can do the exams after I get back. I’m really looing forward to playing at Royal St. George’s,” Thomas told GolfDigestMe.com of the famed Open Championship venue.

The Amateur was first contested in 1885 at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) where 44 players played a series of matches before A F Macfie overcame Royal & Ancient clubmate Horace Hutchinson 7&6 in the final. Nowdays it is one of the world’s most prestigious amateur championships involving 288 players over six days of mixed stroke and matchplay.

Thomas’ goal is to survive the opening 36-holes of strokeplay qualifying and then take it “round-by-round” in the matchplay which is contested by the leading 64 players.

“Links golf is my favourite type of golf just because you have to hit so many different types of shots instead of the high ball. While it’s not the standard golf played on the European Tour it definitely helps you develop your game and become a more all round player,” the dual Dubai Creek/Emirates GC member said.

After The Amateur and his exams are done, Thomas’ schedule will ramp up as he counts down to representing the International team at September’s Junior Presidents Cup which will be played just days before the senior version, also at Liberty National in New Jersey.

He will definitely play the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship in Kansas in July and possibly the British Boys’ (under-18) again the following month. There is also the not so small matter of defending his historic Dubai Creek MENA Tour title and another MENA Tour stop at The Els Club, Dubai before the exciting Presidents Cup opportunity.

Thomas is happy with his game after back-to-back top 30s in Thailand which followed a T13 finish at the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley GC near Augusta National. After all the travelling and competition, he was glad to be back on the range Wednesday honing his swing with coach Justin Parsons at the Butch Harmon School of Golf in Dubai.

“We are working a little on shallowing him out [Thomas’ swing plane] and the way that he uses his shoulders in particular to complete his backswing. This will give him a nice, neutral ball flight,” said Parsons.

“We have also talked about getting a slightly lighter, stronger 2 iron in the bag which may be very useful around a links course.”

New U.S. Masters champion Sergio Garcia (1998), fellow Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal (1984) and Italian star Matteo Manaserro (2009) are modern winners of The Amateur.

Bobby Jones won the title at St. Andrews in 1930 as part of his famous “Grand Slam”. John Ball, with eight wins, holds the record for the most British amateur titles and became the first English winner in 1890. In the modern era, Sir Michael Bonallack won five times between 1961 and 1970.

Hampshire 21-year-old Scott Gregory won the 121st title with a 2&1 victory over Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre at Royal Porthcawl in Wales last June.

Royal St George’s will host The Amateur Championship for the 14th time in its history in 2017.

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