There are plenty of fitness routines that come with the promise of tightening your abs, improving your cardiovascular health, shaving 20 pounds off your mid-section and making you feel 10 years younger. But this isn’t one of them. This one is all about the exercises that can make you a better golfer without having to
Instructions
Most amateurs struggle to manufacture different shots off the tee, particularly if they go against the player’s natural shot shape. One reason is, they make it too complicated. When it comes time to hit a draw, they might alter their alignment, ball position, grip, clubface aim—you name it. The tweaks can be endless. But as
Perhaps it’s a reflection of golf’s youth movement or a new spike in the game’s popularity, but whatever the reason, we believe there are more talented golf instructors under the age of 40 than ever before. Back in 2008, when we debuted our biennial list, we identified 20 teachers in their 20s and 30s who
There are so many things golfers can learn from Collin Morikawa, which is why we’re proud to call the young star our new Golf Digest Playing Editor. The 23-year-old has been successful at every level—including an illustrious amateur career, earning his PGA Tour card in just two months after turning pro, then his incredible 22-event stretch
A common fault among average golfers is hanging back on the downswing and flipping the club at the ball. It usually results in a loss of power, poor contact and a nasty slice. Try this exercise from top trainer Tyler Campbell to groove a proper weight shift and develop more speed by learning to push
Imagine you have a big walk-in closet where you store all your golf skills. On the shelves and hangers you keep your abilities to split a tight, tree-lined fairway with your driver, hit a long iron off a tight lie, and execute a downhill pitch over water—all the shots that make most amateurs feel uneasy.
Next time you get to a par 3, compare the divots on the back tee to the ones on the closer tees. You should see two differences: Divot holes from better players start past the ball (you can usually tell where the tee was), and they point to the target. The ones from less-skilled players
Admit it. You’ve spent hours at the practice range, hitting ball after ball with your pitching wedge or 9-iron, looking for that pure contact tour players seem to achieve effortlessly. You’ve sped up your swing, slowed it down, and done all kinds of things with your hands, all in an effort to make the ball
If all it took was to have a multiple-major-winning father to guarantee PGA Tour stardom for a son, you’d have heard much more about the Nicklauses, Players, Floyds and Millers who aspired to play high-level professional golf. Charlie Woods isn’t going to get there on pure pedigree. But if you can draw lessons from a
ORLANDO — The entire golf world’s eyes seem to fixed on the swing of a pre-teen. During Thursday’s pro-am for the PNC, Charlie’s athletic and powerful swing sparked multiple comparisons to the swing of a young Tiger. Woods spoke in detail with Golf Digest about his son’s move, and how it compares to how he
We know, we know. You don’t even want to talk about the shanks for fear bringing the subject up will cause you to catch them. But like it or not, you might find yourself in a situation where you’re going to want to know a solution. Though awful, the plague of the shanks is curable.
When you think of a U.S. Open, tough-to-hit fairways and difficult conditions likely come to mind. Players this week will face an added challenge: Adjusting to some of the biggest greens in competitive golf over the course of one round, while playing a much smaller set of putting surfaces in the second. This week’s U.S.
Even the most accurate guys on the PGA Tour are missing fairways on at least 25 percent of their tee shots. That means we all have to know how to hit good approach shots out of the rough. Part of it is recognizing how the ball is going to come out based on the lie.
Give your driving distance a boost using this two-for-one exercise from New York-based trainer Kurt Ellis. This full-body move works both the adductor (hip) muscles and thoracic spine to help you create a stable center and rotate more effectively. Translation: longer drives. The first part of Ellis’ stretch improves flexibility in your adductors, which help
The pandemic caused many lapsed golfers to pick up their clubs again, but our favorite returning player might be Joseph Maguire, a high school freshman from Port Washington, N.Y. Joseph is autistic, and this past year has been especially lonely and difficult for him with less access to teachers, coaches and friends. Although Joseph didn’t
I can always tell when golfers are nervous in the sand: They make no body turn through the shot—it’s just a fast swipe with the hands. And when the hands get active, they tend to close the clubface, which makes the leading edge dig. You want to do just the opposite: Slide the clubhead through
Mackenzie Stroh When Nelly Korda won her first LPGA Tour event in 2018, she matched a feat her sister, Jessica, had already accomplished. Together, the two became one set of just three sisters who have won on the LPGA Tour, the other two being Annika and Charlotta Sorenstam and Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn. With five
Most golfers know, when you can’t keep your driver from slicing, it’s hard to shoot a decent score. Every hole becomes a recovery mission, and that can get old fast—real fast. You might know that an open clubface is what causes the slice, but you might not know how to fix it or, even better,