As the summer heat drops in the Middle East, golf season is now back in session. by harry grimshaw
the starter
6 The Home Of Golf
Few places in the world can match this historic links where golf started over 600 years ago.
8 Journeys Oihan Guillamoundeguy with harry grimshaw
10 Golf In Heaven
I finally played the Old Course. by jim nantz
12 The Golfer’s Paradox by jerry tarde
38 Snatch It Back Like Rahm
Here is what you can do to hit it like the twotime major winner. by ron kaspriske 46 PIF Global Series Delivers Drama In Houston Nuria Iturrioz late surge wins her the $2 million Aramco Houston Championship.
48 Tommy’s Tee Time In Delhi
The seven-time DP World Tour winner is returning to India. by harry grimshaw
50 Home Grown Hope Middle Eastern golfers are set for the AAC. by harry grimshaw
54 The 75 Biggest Moments in Golf Digest History by
how to play
How To Hit Low Spinning Shots by
Swing Analysis Luke Clanton by
18 Learn To Stop Skulling Your Irons by butch
Getting Out in Front of It?
Cure Your Slice
Of The Green
OCTOBER 2025
Delhi Delight
Originally established back in the 1930s, Delhi Golf Club is now playing host to the inaugural DP World India Championship. Page 48.
22 Chip It Close with Your Hybrid by steve buzza
24 Take Advantage Of An Early Tee Time by luke kerr-dineen
25 Hit More Greens from a Fairway Bunker (Yes, You!) by david leadbetter
what to play
26 A Golfers Dream eGolf Megastore delivers a world-class golfing experience in the Middle East.
28 Quick 9 With... Dean Cheesley with harry grimshaw
30 What’s In My Bag Davis Thompson with dave allen
where to play
32 Regnum Carya GC One of the standout golf courses, gracefully situated in the golfing mecca of Turkey.
34 Belek’s Golf Haven
Since opening in 2008, Carya has become one of the region’s true championship venues surrounded by luxury.
36 Ask A Super
Are you committing this common golf cart mistake? by drew powell
66 Club News
A gallery of just a handful of the local winners in the amateur circuit in the region.
Back in season, back in swing
Jon Rahm’s unique swing, Tommy Fleetwood’s Indian journey, and the Middle East’s next big stage awaits.
BY HARRY GRIMSHAW
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT this time of year in the Middle East that every golfer looks forward to. The heat finally eases, the fairways start to fill up again, and the golf season truly begins. It feels good to be back!
This October issue is a special one. Golf Digest is celebrating 75 years, and it’s a privilege for us here in the region to be part of that history. Think of all the stories, champions, and unforgettable shots that have been told over those decades. To carry that tradition forward for golfers in the Middle East is something we take real pride in.
On our cover is Spain’s Jon Rahm, a player that shines the emphasis on that there’s no single way to play this game that we all love. Rahmbo’s non textbook swing is uniquely his — and that’s why it’s already brought him two majors and a haul of trophies worldwide.
We also shine a light on Regnum Carya in Belek, Turkey, in this month’s “Where To Play.” It’s a course that blends resort comfort with a championship challenge, and it’s the kind of place that makes you want to pack your clubs and grab your passport straight away.
Closer to home, anticipation is building for the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Emirates Golf Club. It’s the greatest of stages for Asia-Pacific amateur golf,
and this year the Middle Eastern players are ready to step up and show what they can do. The opportunity to earn a spot at Augusta National and The Open raises the stakes even more for them!
And then there’s Tommy Fleetwood, the Dubai resident who feels very much part of our golfing community here. Tommy is preparing for the inaugural DP World India Championship at Delhi Golf Club and his story is another reminder of how connected the game has become across continents. As usual, we have plenty of instructional content from some of the best teachers and pros in the game, to help ease you back into competitive action.
So whether you’re getting back out on the course, following the tours, or planning your next golf trip here, I hope this issue gets you in the spirit for the golf season!
Motivate Publishing Ltd, Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London, NW1 3ER, UK
Email: motivateuk@motivate.ae
Golf Digest and How to play, what to play, where to play are
Play Your Way To Sicily
The Emirates Golf Federation is proud to o cially launch their Rocco Forte Series, open for the mid-amateur and senior categories in their 2025/26 Order of Merit.
This exciting partnership provides members with a competitive platform to showcase their talent and enjoy exclusive benefits as part of the EGF membership.
To take part and unlock the advantages of this fantastic addition, simply scan the QR code.
Benefits:
• O cial EGF Handicap (GHIN), recognised worldwide
• Discounted green fees at all UAE golf clubs
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the starter
The home of golf
Few places in the world can match this historic links
GOLF HAS BEEN PLAYED here for more than 600 years, and while technology has changed the modern game, the ground’s natural contours, vast double greens and sneaky pot bunkers ensure that strategy remains the key to success. Few places in the world can match the aura of standing on the Swilcan Bridge or facing the challenge of the Road Hole. Even with its generous fairways, the Old Course is rarely straightforward. The wind can shift in an instant, making every shot a test, and those who try to overpower it often come undone. Just look at the list of champions here; experience and touch tend to separate the champions from the rest.
This month’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship appears on the DP World Tour, as per usual. Played across three great Scottish layouts, Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St Andrews (pictured). The tournament is a unique test that blends world-class golfers with the fun of the pro-am format which includes celebrities and Hollywood stars from across the globe. Is there anywhere better than watching a Sunday sunset across the Old Course? The Home of Golf, one of the most iconic backdrops in the sport.
JOURNEYS
OIHAN GUILLAMOUNDEGUY
HOTELPLANNER TOUR
AGE: 20
PRO WINS: 2
NATIONALITY: FRENCH
Oihan Guillamoundeguy: ‘When something like this happens to you, it changes how you see life’
WITH HARRY GRIMSHAW
Istarted playing golf when I was eight years old. I used to do a lot of motocross, but I stopped because I had a heart condition. That’s when I turned to golf. I was meant to have surgery when I was 18, but I ended up needing emergency surgery at 12 because I was close to passing away. After that, I stopped motocross and carried on with golf.
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When something like this happens to you, it changes how you see life. When I’m playing golf and not playing well, I remind myself, you almost died when you were 12, just enjoy every moment. So I try to enjoy it as much as I can. Golf builds maturity, and I think that’s really important in life.
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I love the competition, and I think it’s one of the toughest sports in the world. That’s what makes me love it so much. I enjoy playing when my heart is racing in front of a crowd. It’s an amazing sensation that’s hard to describe.
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I still do a bit of motocross because I find it helps after playing a lot of tournaments back-to-back, which can be physically and mentally draining. On the bike, I can switch off and think about nothing. It’s similar on the golf course: you have to clear your head and focus only on your game. That’s the connection between the two for me.
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I turned professional at 18 on the Alps Tour, and it was a crazy experience. I played well, enjoyed so many moments, and I think turning pro early was one of the best decisions of my life because I felt ready.
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This year on the HotelPlanner Tour I finished ninth in South Africa at the
start of the season, then missed three cuts. I was playing okay, but then came fourth in Al Zorah in the UAE, which gave me a real boost. That UAE Challenge event was a turning point.
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Winning in Ireland was incredible, the best week of my life. My brother was on the bag, he still is now, and will be next year too. I played really well at Killeen Castle. To win, you have to play good golf. I had a few lucky bounces, but I just felt it was my week, and it was.
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I’m near the top of the Road to Mallorca Rankings and I’ve secured my DP World Tour card for next season. From what I’ve seen, there isn’t a huge difference between the two tours, although the courses are a bit tougher on the DP World Tour. I’m really excited and I won’t change my approach. The dream would be to win the Road to Mallorca and go into next season fully ready.
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With sport and young athletes, if you feel ready, just go for it. Enjoy your life, enjoy everything, and be kind to everyone because you never know what’s around the corner. If you play a bad round, there will always be another opportunity the next day, so don’t worry.
Golf in Heaven
I finally played The Old Course
BY JIM NANTZ
A summer Ago, mAny yeArs i n the making, I finally stood on the sacred sod of St. Andrews’ opening teeing ground for the first time. As usual, there were a few scattered onlookers on hand to watch the jittery tee shot I had long dreamed of performing. Tourists and townspeople around the Auld Grey Toon seemed grateful for the rare and balmy 70-degree day. Even Sheena Willoughby, the gracious “hostess to the world” from
the nearby Dunvegan Hotel, who knew a few of us in our group, made the short walk from her pub to take a photo.
Like multitudes before me, St. Andrews had always been a bucketlist aspiration. It’s known as the Home of Golf, but I view it more as golf’s final resting place—a true heaven on Earth. To know that for centuries, every legend of the game (alas, not Ben Hogan) had planted his feet on this same patch and challenged the landscape ahead is
heavy stuff for an old sap like me.
Mercifully, I solidly launched my opening drive down the middle, allowing me to relax and settle into an exquisite day with friends. In our foursome was Tom Spencer, my dear friend and editorial consultant at CBS Sports with whom I’ve worked on golf and football for over 30 years. Tom’s knowledge of sports is second to none and enormously impactful in every show we work. His golf skills are good enough to
A WEE WAVE
The author assumes the classic pose on the Swilcan Bridge.
have won a club championship at San Francisco Golf Club. We were graced by arguably the greatest golf historian of our time, David Normoyle. David preserves artifacts for clubs all over the world and is truly one of the most interesting conversationalists in the game. He also happens to be married to my legendary teammate, Dottie Pepper, who spent the afternoon walking all 18 holes whilst resisting the urge to strike a single shot. Lastly, there was my close buddy from Los Angeles, Dave Reneker. A past club champion and bon vivant at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, Dave had said for years that if he ever learned I had played St. Andrews for the first time without him, not to ever call him again. “Give me 24 hours notice, and I will get there from anywhere in the world,” he said. Thankfully, Dave had plenty of notice to plan the day for all of us. He had spent considerable time in St. Andrews, even living there for long stretches, all the while nurturing friendships with many of the caddies, including the one he procured for me, Alan Carlyle. You often hear people regaling others with tales of how their caddies in Scotland are such a vital part of the experience. It’s true. Alan has looped thousands of rounds
over the last five decades, so naturally I inquired about some his memorable experiences. “A few years back I caddied for a fine young player who went on to become a television presenter, like you,” Alan said. “His name was Brandel Chamblee, and when I worked for him at the 1995 Open Championship I learned a valuable lesson in communications. At the par-4 sixth hole in the opening round, he hit the blind tee shot way right. He looked at me and asked, ‘How’s that?’ I was certain he had found the gorse and a wee bit too quickly, I responded, ‘It’s dead.’ After he hit a provisional, Brandel said with fire in his eyes, ‘Don’t ever tell me it’s dead again! Give me some hope!’ You know, I never forgot that. Ever since, I gently break the bad news to my golfer with phrases like, ‘We’ll see about that one,’ or ‘Hopefully, we got a good bounce.’”
Under Alan’s stewardship, few of my shots ended up on life support, and I managed to shoot 38 going out with a wind-stiffened 46 coming home. It added up to 84 strokes with two birdies and a par on the famed 17th—The Road Hole. It was more than enough to make me happy at this stage of my life.
Once the round ended, we walked into the Royal & Ancient Clubhouse for a drink. When we presented our names to the gentleman who received us, he replied, “Mr. Nantz, we’ve been waiting some time for you.” He rummaged through his desk and found an envelope with my name on it. “It’s about time, sir,” he said. It was my R&A membership card, dated 2004.
Full disclosure, I had been to St. Andrews many times, having attended four Opens on busman’s holiday and even making a few cameos on sev -
“Mr. Nantz, we’ve been waiting some time for you.” He rummaged through his desk and found an envelope with my name on it.
eral BBC broadcasts. I had been back proudly for functions at the club and had played at surrounding courses such as North Berwick and Renaissance, but I had never played the Old Course. Who knew that there was an envelope waiting to be picked up after 20 years?
The day’s final act was the most meaningful part of all. Led by Alan, the caddies asked our group to join them at The St. Andrews Golf Club off the 18th. There, over another drink, we were riveted by their stories from nearly 100 years of combined service shepherding golfers around their magical office. As we left, the caddies marked the occasion by presenting a St. Andrews flag signed by the four of them. I consider it one of my greatest golf mementos in an ever-growing collection and a treasured reminder of my maiden voyage around heaven’s course.
The Golfer’s Paradox
We chase perfection but bond through failure
BY JERRY TARDE
IAM QUITE CANDIDLY A dreadful golfer,” said Willie Geist, the TV Everyman who I invited to cover the 2011 Masters for Golf Digest. He was questioning whether he deserved the assignment. “I only really play at the public nine-hole on Shelter Island (N.Y.), where the Caesar salad in the clubhouse gets more grooming than the fairways.” Golfers by nature are putdown artists.
I was reminded of this when I was flipping channels and heard Willie effusing about golf now that he’s rediscovered the game playing with his 16-year-old son George. “I find it sometimes meditative, more often maddening, but really, really hard,” he said, “and that’s what I like about it. You’re with your son or your buddy. It’s four hours. You’re outside in the sunlight, you’re hanging out, you’re actually talking. Nobody’s on their phone. So I’ve come to fall in love with it the last couple of years.” Wait, but that’s not the point.
Willie’s conversation turned to his guest, the journalist Jim VandeHei, who’s asked if he plays golf. “Yeah, I do. I’m terrible,” he said. “I like golfing but I really do suck at it.”
And there it is: the universal confession of all golfers. We’re dreadful, we’re terrible. Despite loving the game, we suck at it. Why are golfers as a species so compelled always to proclaim our suckage?
Earlier this year, Viktor Hovland said he “sucks” and in the next round shot 65 at Pebble Beach. “One day I’m great, the next day I suck—that’s golf,” said John Daly. DJ Steve Porter not surprisingly did a compilation rap with Charles Barkley titled, “I Suck at Golf.” Tim Schantz, who is the CEO of Troon Golf, said to me the other day: “I don’t understand it. I meet hundreds of people every year, and 99 percent of them say the same thing: ‘Oh, I play,’ they say, ‘but I suck at it.’”
Fishermen don’t say, “Oh, I fish, but I never catch anything.” Neither do skiers or tennis players. You never hear, “I ski, but I’m lousy at it.” Or “I play tennis, but I stink.” Runners don’t say, “Yeah, I run, but I fall down a lot.” You don’t hear boaters or race-car drivers or amateur pilots admit it either. You’d probably sprint in the other direction if they did. So why do golfers revel in saying how bad they are?
When you say you’re not very good, maybe you’re just acknowledging it before someone sees for himself. You’re really saying, I hold myself to higher standards in other parts of life, but in golf I come up short. I asked the golf coach Jason Goldsmith, who works with Justin Rose. “We’re already negotiating the bet,” he said. Social humility is an inside joke—we’re laughing at ourselves.
Maybe it’s because golf is the most brutally honest sport there is. It lives in cold, hard numbers. Your failures are exposed bare on every shot, in every score, and there’s no hiding behind teammates. There’s all this time for observation and self-assessment. “I am what I am, and that’s self-deprecat-
ing,” said Michael Bloomberg, who has accomplished so much in life yet holds a 22.0 handicap index. Bill Gates is a 20.9, and it’s there for the world to see on GHIN.
“Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.” That quote, which used to be painted on our office wall in New York, is widely attributed to Arnold Palmer. The first time I saw it, I had to smile. I knew Arnold Palmer. I used to play golf with him, and there’s no way Arnold ever said that. Arnold didn’t use adverbs. He spoke in declarative sentences. I never heard him say, “I suck at golf,” but I could imagine him saying it. He knew the universal struggle that’s an essential part of the game’s identity. We play the only sport where the best in the world can look like the worst, and the worst in the world can hit a shot as good as the best. Arnie knew better than anyone: there’s solidarity through suffering.
When you admit you suck, what you’re really saying is, “Hey, I’m part of the tribe. I’m a golfer.”
THE KING’S MADNESS Palmer knew the frustration that haunts all golfers.
“When
flighting a low, spinning wedge into a green, first visualise that you’re launching the ball under a tree limb. Then when you swing, take a thin dollar-bill divot. This ensures you deliver the correct loft and angle to pull off the shot.”
-MATT
WILSON, GOLF DIGEST BEST YOUNG TEACHER, BALTUSROL GOLF CLUB, SPRINGFIELD, NEW JERSEY.
PHOTOGRAPH
EDITED BY RON KASPRISKE
Step on It!
Far from stocky, Luke Clanton squeezes all he can out of his driver swing
BY DAVE ALLEN
DESPITE HIS MODEST frame of 6-foot-1, 155 pounds, Luke Clanton can dunk a basketball—with two hands! That kind of athletic ability is one reason why the world’s top-ranked amateur and soon-to-be PGA Tour rookie is pound per pound one of golf’s longest hitters.
“He’s soooo athletic,” says his swing coach of four years, Jeff Leishman.
“He’s got very quick fast-twitch muscles. He can sprint fast, jump well— all those are contributing factors.”
In his first handful of appearances on the PGA Tour this season, Clanton, 21, a junior at Florida State, ranked in
the top 10 in clubhead speed (124.3 miles per hour) and ball speed (184.7 mph) and was 12th in driving distance (317.2 yards). An aberration? Hardly, Leishman says. Clanton averaged 313 yards per drive in eight PGA Tour starts in 2024, part of a dazzling summer that included two runner-up finishes. Having accrued enough points through the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, he will make his official pro debut following FSU’s spring season, which ends in late May.
Clanton’s athleticism—a combination of rotational, lateral and vertical action—is very noticeable in the
above driver swing. At the top of the backswing ( above, fourth image ), his right hip pocket is barely visible and he’s fully loaded into his right side. Then in a blink, his hips go from about 50 degrees closed to 50 degrees open (above, sixth image). That’s the whipfast rotation fueling his power.
“The lateral movement is a transfer of pressure to his front side on the downswing,” says Leishman, one of Golf Digest’s Best Teachers in Florida. “The vertical is Luke pushing down and then up off the ground with his lead foot, which is very common today with golfers who are moving very fast.”
TRI-PLANAR POWER
Rotational, lateral and vertical energy are on full display in Clanton’s swing.
To get a feel for the same downswing movement Clanton makes, Leishman says to pretend you’re standing on a bathroom scale and try to make your weight go above its normal reading. “You have to really push down hard into your lead foot, like you’re stomping down on that foot,” he says.
Clanton says his main swing thought is to bow his left wrist at the top of the backswing, which helps shallow his path and square the clubface on the
downswing. “It makes me think I can swing as far left as I want and the ball won’t overcut,” says Clanton, whose preferred shot shape is a fade. “It almost feels like I’m hitting a draw, although it’s always going to cut a bit.”
Clanton’s desired swing path is slightly out to in through impact. When it gets too much to the left, he says his contact and ball speed suffer.
“That’s about the only thing mechanical we work on today besides centeredness of strike,” Leishman says. “We want to get where he can tap into his athleticism, and isn’t too cluttered with technical thoughts.”
Learn to Stop Skulling Your Irons
You have to trust that down means up
BY BUTCH HARMON
THE INSTINCT TO HELP the ball into the air on iron shots is understandable—the ball is sitting on the ground and you want to hit it way up. But trying to lift the ball often produces the opposite—low, skulled shots— because the clubhead is rising at impact and catching the top part of the ball.
Until you trust that the loft on the clubface will send the ball up when you make solid contact, trying to lift it can be a tough habit to break. If you want to go cold turkey, focus on this:
• Make sure the ball is not too far forward
• Shift to your front side to start the downswing
• Lean the shaft toward the target at impact
COVER IT UP
From the top down, shift forward to cover the ball with your chest.
Sometimes the simple fix is ball position. To make solid contact on iron shots, play the ball no more than a few inches inside your front heel. Lifters tend to let the ball creep forward. Moving it back will help you hit the ball first, then the turf as you shift forward on the downswing. Next, you have to be sure you’re actually making that forward shift and not getting stuck on your back foot. On the backswing, you turn behind the ball, so you have to drive your body toward the target on the downswing to create a downward strike. A good visual is that your chest is “on top of the ball” or “covering it” at impact.
The last task is to keep your hands leading the clubhead into impact, which is the opposite of trying to lift the ball by flipping the club upward. Keeping your hands ahead is how you hit with the shaft leaning toward the target and squeeze the ball off the turf for a crisp strike (above).
Here is a practice drill I give players who are fi ghting the instinct to lift the ball into the air with a scooping motion, which causes the skull. Take your normal stance with a short iron, but before you swing, angle your back knee toward your front knee, letting your trail heel come off the ground. Make some practice swings, then hit some half- and threequarter shots from this stance, with your weight staying on your front foot.
You’ll start to feel what it’s like to hit down on the ball, even taking a divot after impact. When you strike it flush, you’ll see there’s plenty of loft on the clubface to send the ball up. Groove that feeling of hitting down and trusting the loft will do the work.
—WITH PETER MORRICE
BUTCH HARMON heads Golf Digest’s list of the Legends of Golf Instruction.
Getting Out in Front of It?
Use these three moves so sliding won’t ruin your round
BY MARK BLACKBURN
SLIDING
DURING THE downswing is one of the most common tendencies I see from amateur golfers. If your body shifts too far toward the target as the club comes down, you’ll likely hit thin shots, heel strikes, pushes and snap hooks.
How do you know if you’re sliding? Have someone video your swing with the lens facing your chest at address. When you watch the clip, imagine a vertical line drawn up through your lead leg. On the downswing, your pelvis will move excessively toward the target and your lead leg will drift well ahead of that line (small photo, below).
It’s good to bump your hips slightly
toward the target in the downswing, but if you overdo it, your contact will suffer. The good news is, you can still play decent golf with a slide if you add three moves I’m going to show you.
Adjust your ball position
To counteract this, address the ball further forward than normal. If you typically play your iron shots in the middle of your stance, make sure your ball position is now closer to your lead foot. It might feel too far forward, but when you slide, the club will meet the ball in the perfect spot.
Close the face earlier
BUMP IT
If your hips shift a bit, that’s OK, but don’t overdo it.
When you slide in the downswing, your body gets too far ahead of the ball, and that shifts the ball’s position further back in your stance. This forces your club to travel on a path from way inside the target line to outside of it in the through-swing. That’s why sliders hit a lot of pushes and hooks off the heel.
You might have been told to have the shaft of your irons leaning toward the target at impact. That’s usually good advice. However, if you’re a slider, you will naturally have a lot of shaft lean when the club strikes the ball. If you try to add more, your contact will suffer. Instead, work on closing the clubface as you come into the ball. This will help you make contact in the sweet spot and turn your shots into baby draws. To do this, focus on the logo on your glove. As you come down into impact, feel like the back of the glove is pointing more downward. That will help you close the clubface earlier. Notice how the clubface is pointing more toward the ball as I approach impact (left).
Finish high
With your ball position more forward and the clubface closing, you’re almost ready to hit a nice pushdraw. The last step is to feel a full release of the club into a high finish position. Allow your trail forearm (right for righties) to roll over your lead forearm and feel like you’re swinging the club out to the target. This release will get the club travelling from inside to out with a face that is slightly closed to the path—the perfect recipe to make your slide a more effective move.
—WITH DREW POWELL
MARK BLACKBURN, No. 1 on Golf Digest’s list of the 50 Best Teachers in America, is based at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama.
Cure Your Slice at the Start
The fi rst few feet going back really make a difference BY
TODD ANDERSON
STARE IT DOWN
As you start back, keep your club “looking” at the ball.
MOST SLICERS ARE doomed from the get-go. On the takeaway, they roll their forearms and fan the clubface open, cupping the lead wrist (the left wrist for righties). Once they do that, the wrist will likely remain cupped and the club fanned at the top of the backswing, all but ensuring a poor downswing path and an open face at impact—slice city. Fortunately, you can easily remedy this backswing-breaking mistake at home or on the range, and it doesn’t require hitting a single golf ball. All you need is another set of eyes, so to speak. Tee up a ball at driver height and make a slow rehearsal of your takeaway. As you do that, imagine there is an extra pair of eyeballs attached to the face of your driver and that they stare at the ball for the first few feet of your backswing ( top photo, right ). Practice this a bunch of times until you get a feel for how your hands and arms are working and where the club is tracking.
As long as the clubface is looking at the ball during the first few feet of the takeaway, your lead forearm won’t roll, and the wrist will remain flat and angled down at the ground. So will the clubface, staying in a square position. Also, the clubhead will stay outside your hands on a much better path away from the ball. Simply complete your turn to the top, keeping that lead wrist in line with the forearm (right), and your days of flaring drives will be over. —WITH DAVE ALLEN
TODD ANDERSON, one of Golf Digest’s Legends of Golf Instruction, teaches at the PGA Tour Performance Centre at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.
Rub of the Green
Can you check for moisture before you putt?
BY RON KASPRISKE
BACK IN 2019, THE RULES
became a lot friendlier in terms of what you can and can’t do on a putting green. For example, if a ball on the green moves after you’ve addressed it, whether you accidentally caused the ball to move or natural forces such as the wind did it, there is no penalty (Rule 13.1d). That wasn’t always the case.
You’re also allowed to “tidy” a green, removing loose impediments any way you see fit (Shop-Vac, anyone?), as well as repair damage such as spike marks.
All of this is intended to make arguably the most important part of the game more equitable. There’s nothing worse than worrying about a ball moving on a green on a gusty day or seeing it track toward the cup only to have it re-routed by someone’s unrepaired footprint.
However, there are some things you still need to be aware of when it comes to the putting green and committing a penalties. This brings us to the scenario of checking to see if all that rain from the night before has made the surface you’re about to roll a putt on damp and slow. Can you put your hand down to check for moisture?
In a word: Yes.
Rule 13.1e says that during a round or while play is stopped under temporary suspension, a player must not deliberately rub the surface of a green or roll a ball on it to test conditions. Where things get a little confusing is that the act of putting your hand down on a green to see if it’s wet is not considered testing conditions. To be clear, there is
OVERNIGHT RAIN?
“What constitutes testing can be a grey area. An example: When someone removes sand from a green by sweeping it.”
no penalty if you check for moisture by touching the putting surface. However, if you run your hand back and forth on the green to see how grainy or firm it is, you would be a violation of Rule 13 and that comes with a twostroke penalty in stroke play or loss of
Water could slow down your putt. It’s OK to check.
hole in match play. (However, it’s OK to rub your ball on the green to clean off mud or grass.)
Some argue that what constitutes testing can be a grey area. An example: When someone removes sand from a green by sweeping it with his or her hand. While that person literally is rubbing the green, it’s being done as an act of cleaning up the surface and not as a way of gauging the speed or firmness of it. If that player happens to glean a little information about his or her ensuing putt, there is nothing in the rule book that says it’s a violation of Rule 13.
Chip It Close with Your Hybrid
This smart play is easy to execute
BY STEVE BUZZA
YOU MIGHT HAVE PURCHASED a hybrid to replace a longer iron on full-swing shots, but did you know it can be nearly as useful as a wedge around the greens? The mass of the clubhead makes it an effective tool for chipping in a number of common scenarios, provided you know how to use it. Here are the simple steps you need to get up and down with your hybrid. —WITH RON KASPRISKE
STEP ONE: GRIP DOWN, WAY DOWN
• Hold the club with your dominant hand first
• Position that hand all the way down to the shaft
• Add your gloved hand, fitting the hands together
• Use your putting grip if you like
STEP TWO:
COZY UP TO IT
• Address the ball as you normally would for a chip
• Now move in closer so the shaft becomes nearly vertical
• Let the heel of the clubhead come off the ground
STEP
THREE:
LEAN TOWARD THE TARGET
• Play the ball in the middle of your stance
• Bring in your feet so they are nearly touching
• Tilt your upper body toward the target so the shaft leans forward
STEP FOUR:
POP IT LIKE A PUTT
• Rehearse a putting motion
• Take a normal-length backstroke
• Hit the ball with a “pop”
• Stop the through-stroke just after impact
STEVE BUZZA, one of Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers in America, is director of instruction at Brook Hollow Golf Club in Dallas.
Wake-Up Call
Take advantage of an early tee time with Brad Faxon’s smart tip for reading greens
BY LUKE KERR-DINEEN
EI GHT-TIME PGA TOUR
winner Brad Faxon made a lot of putts over the course of his career. He led the PGA Tour in putting average in three different seasons. Now in retirement, he’s helping other golfers make more. Faxon is a putting instructor at Jupiter Hills Club in Florida and is often sought out by PGA Tour players for advice—most notably Rory McIlroy, a student of Faxon’s since 2018.
Before the final round of the Masters in April, Faxon said he saw McIlroy’s 4-year-old daughter playing with a ball and club and suggested Rory learn from it and practice “putting like a child; get that child-like enthusiasm.”
Whether or not McIlroy took that advice to heart, he did putt well enough to become the sixth player in history to win the career grand slam with his victory at Augusta.
VAPOUR TRAILS
Putting on a dewy green is a teaching moment.
For the rest of us, Faxon’s Instagram page is a prime resource for more putting tips. On that account, Faxon shared some advice from when he was a caddie on how to read greens. He would watch his players before their rounds and carefully monitor the trails their golf balls made on the dew of the practice green. You can do it, too, if you have an earlymorning tee time—and even just a few reps on a wet green can provide some great feedback that will improve your putting quickly.
Here are two of the biggest things it can help with, Faxon explains:
It helps you understand the breakspeed relationship
One of the trickiest things about reading greens is that there’s no right or wrong way to do it. How you read the break is dependent on the speed you hit the ball. If you think about it, every putt is a straight putt if you smack the ball hard enough. Jokes aside, a putt hit firmer will break less than one hit softer, so matching the break to your speed is the trick, he says. Examining the dew line can help you better understand this cause-and-effect relationship—and use it to your advantage.
“I’d often practice hitting the same putt at different speeds—slow, medium, fast,” Faxon says. “It gets more flow into your stroke and allows you to putt with more freedom.”
The dew line also clearly reveals how much break you need to play at various speeds, he says.
It helps you visualise the entire line
Many good putters talk about seeing the path the ball needs to take all the way from their spot to the cup. Some see a channel, others a fine line, Faxon says.
The dew line is a literal representation of how this could look in your mind’s eye, so even if you’re playing later in the day, you can tap into the visual. It gets your mind away from swing mechanics, too.
“That’s the image I still see every time I hit a putt,” Faxon says. “Use it to see if you can find the line and speed that fits your eye—and you’ll make more.”
Hit More Greens from a Fairway Bunker (Yes, You!)
Make these shots a lot easier with this self-help guide
BY DAVID LEADBETTER
IF YOU PARK YOUR DRIVE in a fairway bunker, what’s your mind-set for the next shot? Just advance it up the fairway? Just get it out? Hello, double bogey? I get it. Fairway-bunker shots are among the least practiced, mostly because it’s hard to find a spot to work on them. I’m also guessing your expectation of getting on the green is fairly low (the PGA Tour average was just over 50 percent last year). Let’s see if you can help yourself boost your
confidence—and odds—of success. Start by getting in a more stable stance. Widen your feet and lean your ankles inward. You can even dig in if the sand is soft—all of this helps keep you from swaying or slipping as you swing. Also helping you make better contact with these shots are to grip down on the club and play the ball so your sternum is a touch ahead of it. Finally, stand a little taller over the ball. That will really help you clip it off the sand. Now here are a few swing thoughts:
Assuming you can clear the lip with a club that can easily reach the green (it’s best to club up from the sand), playing a fade gives you the best chance of knocking it on. A fade encourages a steeper club path, which helps with ball-first contact, and the open clubface in relation to your swing path helps get the ball up. Now focus on making a smooth, three-quarter swing. Keep your chest more on top of the ball and your lower body quiet (above, left). If you get comfortable with this stance and these swing thoughts, your confidence from the sand will soar.
CHECK YOUR STERNUM Set up so your shirt buttons are a touch ahead of the ball (above).
—WITH RON KASPRISKE
David Leadbetter is one of Golf Digest’s Legends of Golf Instruction.
EDITED BY HARRY GRIMSHAW
A Golfers Dream
eGolf Megastore delivers a world-class golfing experience, offering custom club fitting, advanced technology, and access to the latest equipment from top brands here in the Middle East. Through its platform, golfers of all levels receive expert guidance, optimised club setups, and personalised recommendations to improve performance and enjoy the game to the fullest.
Quick 9 with... Dean Cheesley
Celebrating 10 years of eGolf Megastore Al Quoz, the largest golf store in the Middle East. WITH HARRY GRIMSHAW
Dean, as CEO, what do you remember most about the early days of opening eGolf Megastore Al Quoz? It brings back a lot of memories. I remember walking into an empty space, completely shell and core, but realising right away that we could transform it into something the UAE golfing scene needed. A two-level setup made perfect sense, club fitting and assembly upstairs, apparel and footwear downstairs. Fast forward ten years, and that approach has stood the test of time, presenting a true multi-brand golf retail experience.
When you first started eGolf, did you think you would be celebrating 10 years, and receiving compliments from the likes of Rory McIlroy, referring to the club build set-up as “better than a tour truck”? At the time, I never imagined what things would look like a decade later. We were simply a small, tight-knit team setting out to build something, and we’ve kept having fun along the way as the team has grown. I feel fortunate every day to do what I love, combining business with the game I’ve loved since childhood and sharing it with a team of good people. Rory’s remarks made that journey feel all the more rewarding.
When you look back, what’s been the single biggest change in the golf retail landscape over the past decade? The biggest change I’ve witnessed is how fashion has reshaped golf apparel. Where performance brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma and Under Armour once held the majority a decade ago, we now see golfers gravitating toward more stylish and high-end labels. Lululemon, G/FORE, Greyson, J.Lindeberg, Peter Millar, SUNDAY RED and BOSS have become standout per-
DEAN CHEESLEY looks back on the past decade and whats coming ahead.
formers globally, and very much to the same extent locally. We’re looking forward to launching Tiger Woods’ SUN DAY RED to the market in 2026.
eGolf has built a reputation around club fitting and assembly. How important has that been to your growth? Club fitting and assembly have been at the heart of eGolf’s identity since day one, and they remain a driving force behind our operation. Since the beginning, we’ve always invested heavily in fitting technology and machinery, and our entire ethos has been to provide consumers with the opportunity to compare every available brand on the market, not limiting them to the big 4. That variety has been the major shift in the UAE golf retail landscape over the past decade, as consumers require choice.
What moment or achievement over the past 10 years stands out to you personally? While no single moment stands above the rest, scaling the organisation from a small eCommerce store
to a multi-store international organisation has been incredibly meaningful to me.
How do you balance instore experience with the growth of online retail?
The key to our in-store experience is consistency. Every new store must operate like our first Al Quoz location, built on service, product range and trusted advice. While our online retail continues to grow year on year, it can’t keep pace with the growth rate of our physical stores. Golf will always be a touch-and-feel sport, and that places natural limits on digital growth.
Which product category has had the biggest impact on golfers in the last 10 years? Without doubt, club fitting. Ten years ago, most players bought clubs off the rack. Now, with the number of head and shaft combinations available and the use of universal adapter fittings, we fit golfers to clubs that match their swing, helping them enjoy the game more.
What excites you most about the next decade for eGolf Megastore? We’ve recently welcomed two new majority shareholders, Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah and Mohammed Farooq. Their passion for the sport and their alignment with our vision present us with a great opportunity to innovate and evolve the retail landscape with some new projects on the horizon.
And finally, when you do get time to play, what’s your go-to course in the region? That’s tough, as most courses here offer something unique. I was a founding member of The Els Club, so it will always be a favourite. The DP World Tour locations are solid all year round, and especially so when they are presented in tournament week conditions.
GULF BUSINESS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Gerald Lawless
LEADER AWARDS
GULF BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR
GULF BUSINESS COMPANY OF THE YEAR Miral Group
BANKING LEADER OF THE YEAR
Rola Abu Manneh CEO, UAE, Middle East and Pakistan, Standard Chartered
ENERGY LEADER OF THE YEAR
Rasso Bartenschlager General Manager, Al Masaood Power
HEALTHCARE LEADER OF THE YEAR
Dr. Craig R. Cook CEO, The Brain & Performance Centre, a DP World company
HOSPITALITY LEADER OF THE YEAR
Joe Nassoura General Manager, Fairmont Dubai
INVESTMENT LEADER OF THE YEAR
Bal Krishen Rathore Chairman, Century Financial Group
LOGISTICS LEADER OF THE YEAR
Tarek Sultan Chairman, Agility Global
Rola Abu Manneh CEO, UAE, Middle East and Pakistan, Standard Chartered Bank
COMPANY AWARDS
BANKING COMPANY OF THE YEAR RAKBANK
ENERGY COMPANY OF THE YEAR
GE Vernova
HEALTHCARE COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Aster DM Healthcare
HOSPITALITY COMPANY OF THE YEAR
FIVE Hotels and Resorts
EDITOR’S CHOICE COMPANY AWARDS
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION COMPANY OF THE YEAR Etihad Salam Telecom Company
FINTECH PROVIDER OF THE YEAR OKX
MICE PROVIDER OF THE YEAR
REAL ESTATE LEADER OF THE YEAR
Yousuf Fakhruddin CEO, Fakhruddin Properties
RETAIL LEADER OF THE YEAR
John Hadden CEO, Alshaya Group
INVESTMENT COMPANY OF THE YEAR
AIX Investment Group
LOGISTICS COMPANY OF THE YEAR
AD Ports Group
REAL ESTATE COMPANY OF THE YEAR
RETAIL COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Dubai Duty Free
TECHNOLOGY LEADER OF THE YEAR
Andreas Hassellöf Founder and CEO, Ombori
TOURISM LEADER OF THE YEAR
Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi Group CEO, Miral Group
TRANSPORT LEADER OF THE YEAR
Refad Real Estate Investment and Development Company
TECHNOLOGY COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Crowe Mak
TOURISM COMPANY OF THE YEAR Miral Group
TRANSPORT COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Thrifty Car Rental
SEE THE EVENT COVERAGE
Adel Mardini CEO, Jetex
Tahaluf
EDITOR’S CHOICE LEADER AWARDS
LEGACY IN LEADERSHIP
Masih Imtiaz CEO, Imtiaz Developments
CROSS-BORDER BUSINESS ICON OF THE YEAR
Capt. Pradeep Singh CEO and Founder, Karma Realty Developers
DISRUPTIVE LEADER OF THE YEAR
Dr Ali Asgar Fakhruddin CEO, Sterling Group
VISIONARY LEADER OF THE YEAR
Ankur Aggarwal Chairman and Founder, BNW Developments
WOMAN LEADER OF THE YEAR
Mila Semeshkina CEO and Founder, WE Convention
DISRUPTIVE COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Ultima Chain
FAMILY BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Al Khayyat Investments (AKI)
AGE 25
LIVES
St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA.
STORY
Former World No. 1
Amateur set a John Deere Classic scoring record of 28-under for his first PGA Tour victory last July. Playing in his first Masters this year.
LOCKED IN
My game took off last summer after I got a Trackman and switched to Titleist irons. The Trackman lets me dial in my numbers, so when I get on the course, it’s simply creating the feeling I need to hit the ball whatever distance I want.
After the FedEx Cup Playoffs last year, I started messing around with the GT3. I got it dialed in and played with it in Las Vegas, and I’ve been rolling with it ever since. I like the acoustics of this one better than the TSR3. It sounds a little more muffled. I’m getting faster ball speeds, too, which is always good, and I haven’t lost any dispersion.
WEDGES
SPECS Titleist Vokey SM10, 46°/10, True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft; Titleist Vokey SM10, 50°/08, 54°/08, 60°/04, True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts I’m comfortable with the T grind on my 60° on any type of grass. I can lay the club flat and hit a big flop shot and don’t feel like I’m going to bounce it into the ball, which is great. The M grind on my 54° helps with more into-the-grain shots, as that grind goes through the turf a little better.
With the 7-wood I can hit a high cut, or if I need to go after one, I can swing hard, and it’s not going to spin up on me. Off the tee, I can put the ball in the middle of my stance and hit a flighted one that’s going to roll out. I’m able to hit whatever shot I want with it.
PUTTER
SPECS Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Mini Slant, 36 inches, 2° loft, SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol Tour grip
Since this was photographed, I started transitioning back to the OG 7S slant neck putter that I used to win the John Deere Classic last July. I used it the majority of last year and had a lot of success with it. I just wanted to go back to what feels good and is familiar to me. I putted with a similar putter in college and have been rolling with the OG since my Korn Ferry days.
IRONS
SPECS (4-iron): Titleist T150, True Temper Dynamic Gold Mid Tour Issue X100 shaft; (5-9) Titleist 620 MB, True Temper Dynamic Gold Mid Tour Issue X100 shaft, Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord 58R grips I switched to the 620 MB irons last April. Since this was photographed, I’ve added the T150 4-iron. The head-shaft combo on the MBs helps me get the right spin numbers and yardage gaps.
WINDOW FINDER
I’ve been playing the Pro V1 since my junior year at Georgia. It hits all the right windows, and I like that it doesn’t spin too much on me
USA! USA! This headcover is from the 2021 Walker Cup matches. What a cool experience! Hopefully I can represent the U.S. again, in the Ryder Cup
HOME COOKIN’ When I graduated college, my cousins gave me this yardage book cover. Embroidered on it is the crumb pie my grandmother used to make
where to play
EDITED BY HARRY GRIMSHAW
Regnum Carya Golf Club is just one of the standout golf courses, situated in the golfing haven of Belek, Turkey.
This oasis enchants golf enthusiasts with its meticulous design and artistry, crowned by an enchanting 18-hole floodlit golf course. Notably, it proudly holds the distinction of being Europe’s inaugural floodlit golf course and holds a place of honour among the 100 best golf clubs in the world. It also held the stage for four DP World Tour Turkish Airlines Open tournaments, where international golf stars showcased their talent.
Belek’s Golf Haven
Turkey’s premier Heathland course, Regnum Carya Golf Club, is home to world-class tournaments
BY HARRY GRIMSHAW
REGNUM CARYA GOLF
CLUB in Antalya’s Belek region has carved out a unique place in Turkey’s golfing landscape. As the first heathland-style course built on the Mediterranean coast, it brought a touch of classic design to a part of the world better known for sun-soaked resort golf. Set across natural sand hills and framed by heather, it offers a layout that feels distinctly different from anything else in the region.
Since opening in 2008, Carya has become one of the country’s true championship venues. Regnum Carya, the luxury resort that surrounds the course, has played a central role in promoting the game by hosting some of the biggest tournaments in Europe.
TESTING LAYOUT
The course was designed by Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the architectural firm founded by fivetime Open champion Peter Thomson.
The Turkish Airlines Open, part of the DP World Tour, attracted top international fields and shone a spotlight on Antalya as a serious golfing destination. The resort also stages Europe’s largest pro-am, the Regnum Carya ProAm, which draws hundreds of players each year and has become a highlight of the golfing calendar.
The course was designed by Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the architectural firm founded by five-time Open champion Peter Thomson. His influence can be seen in the natural flow of the routing, the strategic placement of bunkers, and the way the course demands both accuracy and imagination. It’s a layout that tests the best players while still being accessible and enjoyable for visitors of all abilities.
Away from the fairways, Carya has invested heavily in facilities that enhance the experience. The Academy’s Performance Lab is fitted with advanced technology to help golfers understand and improve their swings, while a team of PGA-qualified professionals provides coaching tailored to every level of player. The elegant clubhouse, complete with a well-stocked pro shop, gives the venue the polish and atmosphere you’d expect from one of Europe’s leading golf resorts.
Carya has grown into far more than just a course. It’s become a focal point for golf in Turkey, blending championship pedigree with first-class hospitality. For many, it’s the course that defines Belek’s continual rise as a premier golf destination.
KEY HOLES
3RD HOLE
Par 4 – 455 yards
Decision time! The easiest tee shot is right of the trees in the middle of the fairway, but it leaves you with a more difficult approach. If you dare, go left of the trees for a better approach angle to the green. The name of the hole “Dire Straits” is inspired by the two different fairways which the golfer can aim at from the tee. Both have advantages – but can also lead to trouble.
8TH HOLE
Par 3 – 188 yards
One to remember! Don’t be seduced by the beauty of this hole as this short and spectacular par 3 still puts up a fight! Be careful attacking a pin on the left side of the green. The name of this hole “The Siren” is inspired by the Sirens who used their beauty and songs to captivate the interest of men. As a golfer you must be careful not to be distracted by the beauty – but keep focussed on the challenge that lies ahead!
18TH HOLE
Par 5 – 445 yards
Almost home. There is room enough on the fairway to hit a big drive, but you must favour the right side of the fairway, to avoid rolling into the water. Your second shot demands focus before trying to reach the final green which sits slightly elevated in a beautiful natural green location surrounded by old pine trees.
Are You Committing This Common Golf Cart Mistake?
Superintendents call it their ‘worst nightmare,’ and it’s easily avoidable
BY DREW POWELL
Replace your divots, fix your ball marks, rake the sand. Golfers know the basics of course maintenance etiquette yet are still making a common error that one superintendent calls his “worst nightmare.” You’ll often see the grass around cart paths is often dead or nonexistent, the result of golfers leaving two wheels on the path and two off.
Why is this such a common mistake, what damage does it cause and why should golfers care? Those are the questions we put to two top supers: Jason Meersman of the Patterson Club in Connecticut, and Paul Dotti of Arcola Country Club in New Jersey.
Golf Digest: Jason, I’ve seen so much damage around cart paths recently, what’s going on?
Meersman: Oh, my gosh, it drives me up a wall. You could have a hat that has a picture of a golf cart half on and half off a cart path. It’s a superintendent’s worst nightmare.
The issue usually happens around turns. The cart path turns at the apex,
CUTTING
CORNERS Stay on the path to avoid ripping up the turf.
and that’s where people will cheat. They’re always trying to get from point A to point B to as quickly as possible. We’re like cows, so we’re going to go from point A to point B unless something interferes with us.
Golf Digest: Paul, do you notice this issue as well?
Dotti: Yeah, absolutely. You’ll often see curbing around the tees and greens to try and prevent that from happening, but especially around those areas, that’s where golfers tend to want to just pull two wheels off the path for some reason. I don’t know why it happens, but it is definitely a concern.
The issue with it is that over time on a course that has a lot of carts, you’re going to start to get a dirt strip along the edge. Essentially, the cart path creeps out a few feet, and it’s usually just dirt because the ground is so compacted from the carts. Then, that area doesn’t get irrigated properly and since it’s com-
pacted, the grass won’t grow back. It’s a baffling thing, I don’t know why people do it. When people go to their houses, they don’t pull two wheels off their driveway, but when they’re in a golf cart, they do it. It’s really bizarre. Golf Digest: What can superintendents do to try and get golfers to stay completely on the path?
Meersman : Some supers will put stakes at the apex of turns to try and prevent golfers from cutting the corner. If you don’t have those, then golfers will just cut the corner.
Dotti: Exactly. You’ve got to put some kind of curbing or stakes. An issue with stakes, though, is that they quickly become labour intensive to move when you’re trying to mow. If you don’t move them, they’ll get run over by the mowers, so we have to get them out of the way.
Some supers will put a layer of brick pavers over the area that’s been damaged by the carts. That expands the cart path a little further. But what you’ll notice is that golfers will just go a little further off the brick paver, so you get the same issue.
SNATCH IT BACK
By Ron Kaspriske
Photographs by Andrew Hetherington
Forget Low & Slow
LIKE RAHM
his will take a little patience, but please bear with us: Many elite swing coaches and biomechanists agree that if you want better sequencing in your swing and to hit the ball further, copy the short and quick way Jon Rahm takes the club back. The reason? You probably can’t. Merely trying to copy Rahm’s snappy action can promote good things, which we’ll explain in more detail later. Moving faster on the takeaway can be a real breakthrough for average golfers who struggle with the kinematic sequence of a golf swing and how to deliver real speed into the ball. But first, a little story from Rahm to help set this up:
Rahm never gave much thought to how quick he takes the club back until he played in the BMW PGA Championship a few years ago. The DP World Tour had set up a special camera on the 11th tee at Wentworth Club in England and captured footage of Rahm’s swing and the swing of Justin Rose, his playing partner. Then they replayed the swings side by side.
“By the time Justin Rose made impact, my ball was already 150 yards off the tee,” Rahm says, laughing. “It’s funny; I never want to think about it, but my wife compares it to Andy Roddick’s serve in tennis—short and quick—and there’s a lot less that can go wrong because of it.”
Kelley Rahm makes an important point, and it’s something you can learn a lot from if you’re looking to hit it further and straighter. Although you
might not possess Rahm’s strength or his incredible hand-eye coordination, and although you might not practice six days a week for hours at a time, simply trying to copy how he takes the club back can do wonders for your power and consistency.
“low and slow,” might not be the way to take the club back. We’ve got some data that might surprise you—and some tips to help you really take advantage of it.
RAHM’S BACKSWING
Here’s a simple take from Rahm’s swing coach, Dave Phillips: “It’s true that the longer you swing the club, the more time you have to put energy into it. But the longer the average golfer swings the club, the more issues can creep in. If you just want to strike the ball better, ramp up the time you take the club back, like Jon, and change direction quicker.”
I t takes Jon 0.41 seconds to get the shaft parallel to the ground and 0.70 to the top. Amateurs are about halfway back in 0.75, GEARS Golf says.
Read on if you’re intrigued by this idea that the old golf-swing cliche,
Even though you can’t copy Rahm, here’s why you should try
The reason Rahm’s backswing is short and quick goes back to how he compensated for a birth defect. He describes it as a “club foot,” and although it was corrected in childhood through a series of procedures, his right leg is shorter and his right foot is smaller than his left leg and left foot.
When it came to swinging a club, his childhood coach, Eduardo Celles, figured Rahm would have an easier time managing it with a shorter backswing.
“When they broke my foot and got
it back in the correct alignment, they had to cast it and keep recasting it, so it developed slower than my left leg,” Rahm says. “And so the limitation of my right ankle sort of dictated how far I should take the club back to stay in control of my swing.
“I mean, I can take the club back to parallel. If I wanted to be a long-drive champion, I could probably get there, but my accuracy disappears.”
That’s why Celles got Rahm to stop his backswing when the club is still pointing relatively skyward. But before he gets to that spot, he’s already changing direction with his lower body and moving aggressively down and toward the target.
It’s a move that happens in a flash and is fueled by Rahm’s strong hands and powerful 6-foot-3, 250-pound body. If you tried to copy him, you’d likely not be able to stop the club in the same spot—and that’s the real secret to why Rahm’s quick-and-short backswing could be the key to better ball-striking for you, Phillips says.
Most amateurs rush into the downswing before fully completing the backswing windup. Worse, they start down with their arms and club instead of initiating the move into the ball with the lower body. When trying to copy Rahm’s move (even though you likely can’t duplicate it), you force yourself to complete the backswing with your upper body while simultaneously starting the downswing with your legs and hips. Your body is going in two directions at once—just like a pro. It’s similar to cracking a towel or whip. Your hand is still moving away from what you are trying to strike as your arm goes forward, creating the “snap.”
The numbers don’t lie
Your golf instructor might have told you to take your time starting back in the hopes you wouldn’t rush and ruin the sequencing of the swing. But do you think that’s how most pros do it? Data provided by Michael Neff of GEARS Golf in Portland, Oregan, shows that tour pros start back quick, reaching a point in the swing where the lead arm is parallel to the ground in only 0.62 seconds on average (Jon Rahm’s time is 0.53) “Jon is definitely one of the fastest in the takeaway among the players we’ve tested,” Michael says.
BY THE TIME JUSTIN ROSE MADE IMPACT WITH THE BALL, MY
BALL WAS 150 YARDS OFF THE TEE.”
How do those times compare to the move of an average Saturday-morning golfer? Neff says their lead arm hits that mark in 0.75 seconds—and Rahm already is done with his backswing by then (0.70).
Furthermore, the cadence is often the opposite of an elite golfer, says Tyler Standifird, a college professor in biomechanics and an advisor for SuperSpeed Golf. Amateurs typically swing slow going back, jerk the club at the top and then decelerate into the ball. Elite golfers start back fast, slow down near the top and then ramp up again on the way down. It’s slow-fastslow (bad) versus fast-slow-fast (good).
In a test conducted for Golf Digest, Standifird timed the takeaways of 17 “solid college golfers” and 17 average players with Handicap Indexes ranging from 10 to 25. What he found was that the average time it took the better players to reach the arm-parallel point was 0.28 faster than the regular golfers. “Not one good player was slower than 0.60,” he says.
To get faster off the ball, it’s important to understand how to grip the club, Rahm says. “At address, you want your hands to be loose because if they get tight, you instinctively start to get tight in other parts of your body, restricting your takeaway. You don’t want the club to be too loose, though. You should feel in control because when you swing down you’ll be squeezing hard.”
Jon Rahm’s drill for you
If you ever get the privilege of playing with Rahm at an event or elsewhere, just know he’s not going to say
a word about your swing—and what’s wrong with it—unless you ask. “Gosh, no, I would never,” says Rahm, the LIV Golf Individual Champion in 2024 and 2025. His Legion XIII squad also won the ‘25 team championship.
“But I do have a drill that I use, one that came from my coach as a kid, that I give if they ask for my help.”
The drill: “Grab a 6-iron and swing it back until you feel like your hands are at hip height,” Rahm says. “When you get to that spot, hit the shot at full speed.”
After a handful of reps, you’ll start to understand how this abbreviated-backswing drill gets you to use your body to generate power and speed, creating the whip-like action where the club is still moving away from the target while your lower body is shifting toward it.
“There’s a disassociation between the lower body and upper body, and it creates a lot of energy,” Rahm says. “I teach this drill when I see people slow and out of sync. If you don’t use your hips, there is no power in the swing.
“It’s funny because when I tell people about the drill and ask them to take it back only until their hands are hip high, they actually take it back much further than that. But it’s this change of direction that gets them swinging much better.”
At the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, California, where Phillips also works with average golfers, they have a drill called the “pelvic punch” that is similar to what Rahm teaches, and it also gets the body engaged correctly.
Again using a mid-iron, Phillips has students set the club’s shaft in the backswing where it is roughly parallel
IT WILL GET TO A POINT WHERE IT DOESN’T FEEL FAST.”
with the ground. From this “starting point,” they have to swing down and hit shots. The positive results are almost immediate, he says. “It’s hip height to hip height. “They have to use their legs to do it. There’s no other way.”
Sold on this idea? Then here’s more you can do to swing like Rahm
Elderly golfers tend to lose leg strength first, Phillips says, so it’s a good idea to enhance your backswing work with some exercises.
“I would protect the back, engaging the core and leg muscles,” he says. “If you lose core strength, you’ll start arching with your back and go into reverse spine angle. That is a problem with a lot of amateurs, ones that lack strength or are hypermobile.”
Phillips also recommends you walk as much as you can. “Golf carts ruin leg strength,” he says. He also says to do 50 “air squats” a day for a month. To perform, extend your arms in front of you for balance and just drop down bending from the knees. Go as low as you can without feeling pain.
“You’d be shocked how strong your legs and glutes will get,” he says.
Two other exercises that are great are deadbugs, which strengthen your ab muscles, and bridges for glute strength.
Oh, and Rahm wants to leave you with one more thought about all of this: “Don’t think too much.”
“I’m swinging my best when I have zero swing thoughts,” he says. “You can have one, but that’s it. Maybe do a little forward press before you start back with the club. After that, let your body subconsciously react to this quicker, shorter backswing.
“Ideally it will get to a point where it doesn’t feel fast. It just feels normal.”
Spain’s Nuria Iturrioz clinched her fifth Ladies European Tour (LET) title with a two-stroke victory at the Golf Saudi-backed Aramco Houston Championship after breaking clear of a tight leaderboard with three birdies in her last five holes.
The ever-smiling Iturrioz, who began the final round one shot behind fellow Spaniard and overnight leader Carlota Ciganda, fired a four-under-par 68 in the third and final round at Golfcrest Country Club to post a winning total of 13-under 203.
PIF GLOBAL SERIES DELIVERS DRAMA IN HOUSTON
NURIA ITURRIOZ LATE SURGE WINS HER THE $2 MILLION ARAMCO HOUSTON CHAMPIONSHIP
Golf Saudi ambassador Ciganda was never able to fully recover from a damaging double-bogey six at the ninth, where she lost her ball after her tee shot sailed into a treeline, and she closed with a 71 while England’s Charley Hull, also a Golf Saudi ambassador, signed off with a 67 to share second with Ciganda.
Four players held at least a share of the lead during the final day at the
fourth and penultimate PIF Global Series event of the year, but it was Iturrioz who came through with timely birdies at the 14, 15th and 17th.
She very nearly birdied the par-4 18th from just off the green but her putt pulled up inches short before she tapped in for par.
“I’m really happy,” a jubilant Iturrioz said. “It’s hard for me to show my feelings in English … but this means a lot. I’m really proud. I’ve been working a lot with my coach this year, and I’ve had chances before. This one is also for him, because it’s been a big team effort.”
The Spaniard’s previous LET wins came at the 2016 and 2019 Lalla Meryem Cup, the 2019 Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic and the 2023 La Sella Open, but her victory at the Aramco Houston Championship is the biggest of her career, given that the Golf Saudi-backed PIF Global Series events offer the largest purses on the LET outside the five major championships.
In the Team event, Team Kouskova broke clear of a tightly bunched leaderboard to clinch victory after April Angurasaranee sensationally rolled in a 24-foot birdie putt from just off the 18th green.
Although a few teams had a chance to catch Team Kouskova, Thai Angurasaranee’s timely birdie ultimately made the difference and victory was secured by just one shot with an aggregate total of 32-under.
The winning team, captained by Czech Republic’s Sara Kouskova, also featured Slovenia’s Ana Belac and Denmark’s Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen. For Kouskova, it was a second PIF Global
Series team title this year as she had captained a different lineup to victory at the Aramco Korea Championship in May, and it was her third team win in all – having been a member of Ciganda’s triumphant line-up in Riyadh in 2023.
Away from the on-course action, Golf Saudi’s clinics finished the week with 355 young players receiving expert advice from teams of qualified coaches.
Through an initiative with the Trees For Houston non-profit organisation, five trees were donated to the local community for every birdie scored at the par-5 14th and the week’s total of 120, including eagles, will mean a healthy addition of 600 trees around Greater Houston.
With a prize purse of $2 million, the penultimate stop of the PIF Global Series underlined the Series’ mission to empower women, spark investment, and leave a lasting community legacy.
The fifth and final event in the PIF Global Series calendar will be the Aramco China Championship, which takes place at Mission Hills China, Shenzhen from 6-8 November.
Charley Hull finished in a tie for second place
Iturrioz’s victory was the biggest of her career
Golf Saudi ambassador Carlota Ciganda
The victorious team captained by Sara Kouskova
THE SEVEN-TIME DP WORLD TOUR WINNER IS RETURNING TO INDIA
BY HARRY GRIMSHAW
TOMMY’S TEE TIME IN DELHI
TOMMY FLEETWOOD
is back in India, nine years after last teeing off at Delhi Golf Club, for the inaugural $4 million DP World India Championship, running from October 16-19.
Fleetwood, a seven-time DP World Tour winner and Olympic silver medallist, has fond memories of India. Early in his days, he tied for ninth at the 2011 Gujarat Kensville Challenge and added another top-ten at the 2013 Avantha Masters. His last appearance at Delhi Golf Club came in 2016 at the Hero Indian Open.
The DP World India Championship features the largest prize fund ever offered for a DP World Tour event in India and marks a significant moment for professional golf in the country, headlined by Fleetwood, a DP World Global Ambassador.
“I’m proud to represent a brand that understands the true meaning of growing the game that I love,” Fleetwood said. “Being able to take this big new event to India is proof that they fulfil their goals and give not only the players new opportunities but the people of India a great tournament on their doorstep showcasing the beautiful country to the world.”
Fleetwood, who was named as a DP World Global Ambassador in June 2024, emphasized the importance of India on the DP World Tour. “The sport in India is constantly growing, and it’s an important place where we have to be playing golf and visiting.
“BEING ABLE TO TAKE THIS BIG NEW EVENT TO INDIA IS PROOF THAT THEY FULFIL THEIR GOALS AND GIVE NOT ONLY THE PLAYERS NEW OPPORTUNITIES BUT THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, A GREAT TOURNAMENT ON THEIR DOORSTEP SHOWCASING THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY TO THE WORLD.”
“DP World have been such an important figure in professional golf for a long time, and something like this shows they continue to grow and progress the game.
“They are such huge supporters of our sport… it’s fantastic to see them help grow the game in India with this new event.”
Fleetwood is no stranger himself in growing the game. He has established the Tommy Fleetwood Academy Dubai at Jumeirah Golf Estates where he is a member and now resides with his family after relocating here in 2022.
The 34-year-old is looking forward to returning to Delhi this month, both on and off the course. “It’s such an amazing place—the people, the food. I’m looking forward to soaking it all in. But mainly I’m aiming to play some good golf and entertain the Indian fans at an important point in the season.
“Delhi Golf Club is tight, challenging, and strategic. It’s a great leveller, where players with all styles of play can contend, which should make for an exciting week.”
The championship has attracted a world-class field, including career Grand Slam winner Rory McIlroy, 2019 Open Champion Shane Lowry, two-time DP World Tour winner Viktor Hovland, and homegrown star Shubhankar Sharma. Co-sanctioned with the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), it follows the 2025 Hero Indian Open’s success and positions India as a premier destination for international golf.
As the eighth of nine events in the ‘Back 9’ phase of the 2025 Race to Dubai, the DP World India Championship will play a crucial role in shaping the final standings ahead of the DP World Tour Play-Offs, made up of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Earth course.
Fleetwood, who topped the Race to Dubai rankings to become European Number One in 2017, and won the recent TOUR Championship on the PGA Tour, has won multiple prestigious events in the region, including two Abu Dhabi HSBC Championships and the Dubai Invitational. His return to India promises to be a colourful blend of competition, cultural celebration, and a continued push to grow the game in a key market for golf.
TOMMY IN INDIA
2016 Hero Indian Open (T67)
DP World Tour – Delhi Golf Club
2013 Avantha Masters (T9)
DP World Tour – Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort
2012 Avantha Masters (T83)
DP World Tour – DLF Golf & Country Club
2011 Gujarat Kensville Challenge (T9)
HotelPlanner Tour – Kensville Golf and Country Club
BY HARRY GRIMSHAW
HOME GROWN HOPE
Middle Eastern golfers are ready to make their mark in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Emirates Golf Club
HE 2025 ASIA-PACIFIC AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP (AAC) returns to the United Arab Emirates this month, but this time on the iconic Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club, bringing together top amateur golfers from across the Asia-Pacific region.
With the UAE hosting the event for only the second time—four years after the championship was staged at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club—the spotlight will also be shining on the growing roster of Middle Eastern talent competing in the event.
Since its creation in 2009, the AAC has become a vital stepping stone for aspiring golfers across the region. Past champions and competitors have gone on to succed on the world’s biggest stages, including Hideki Matsuyama, Cameron Smith, Si Woo Kim, and Min Woo Lee. The alumni of the tournament have amassed over 150 wins across the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
This year’s championship will unfold on one of the most recognisable layouts in the Middle East. The Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club was the first grass course in the region when it opened in 1988, designed by Karl Litten at a time when the idea of desert golf seemed far-fetched. Today, framed by Dubai’s glittering skyline, it stands as a symbol of the city’s place in global golf.
The Majlis is best known as host of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour, where the roll of champions includes Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Seve Ballesteros, and Ernie Els, who famously holds the course record of 61.
“Bringing the collection of talent from across the Asia-Pacific region to Emirates Golf Club will be an honour,” said General Abdullah Al Hashmi, President of the Emirates Golf Federation and Vice President of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation.
“We have seen firsthand the growth of golf and a number of prestigious tournaments in the United Arab Emirates over the years and we are excited for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur to continue that legacy.”
Nineteen golfers from eight Middle Eastern countries are confirmed for the 16th edition of the AAC, where the winner will earn an exemption into the 2026 Masters and The Open, while the runner-up secures their place in Open Final Qualifying. Iran will be represented by Ebrahim Nouri,
ABOVE: The winner will earn an exemption into the 2026 Masters and The Open
RIGHT: General Abdullah Al Hashmi, President of the Emirates Golf Federation
OPPOSITE PAGE: The Majlis Golf Course at Emirates Golf Club awaits
‘It’s amazing to have this event again at home. I didn’t expect it to be so soon hosting again. It’s incredible.’
—AHMAD SKAIK
while Zaidoon Zakaria will fly the flag for Iraq. Jordan fields four competitors—Mousa Shana’ah, Mohammad Alrawashdeh, Salem Alabdallat, and Mousa’s brother, Hashem — while Lebanon’s team includes Rachid Akl and Geoffrey Laklak.
Oman’s contingent features Azaan Al Rumhy and Ahmed Al Wahaibi, Qatar’s squad includes Saleh Ali Alkaabi and Ali Abdulla Al Shahrani, and Saudi Arabia is represented by Ali Alsakha and Khalid Saud Al Faisal. The host country will have five homegrown players—Ahmad Skaik, Sam Mullane, Jonathan Selvaraj, Abdulla Kalbat, and Rayan Ahmed—bringing local support to the championship.
Among them, Skaik remains the standout figure. At 28, he has been the face of Emirati golf for nearly a decade, carrying the experience of representing his country at the Eisenhower Trophy and Asian Games. This will be his sixth start in the AAC, as he enters it on the back of a string of impressive results.
His year began with a dominant 15-stroke victory at the GCC Championship in Saudi Arabia. He then became the first UAE national to make the cut at a HotelPlanner Tour event, the UAE Challenge. Skaik has also performed strongly in regional amateur events, with top-five finishes in the Montgomerie Golf Club Dubai Amateur Open and the Arab Golf Federation’s Cedars Golf Championship.
“It’s amazing to have this event again at home,” Skaik said. “I didn’t expect it to be so soon hosting again because we had it in 2021 at Dubai Creek. It’s incredible!”
Back in 2021, Skaik had the honour of hitting the opening tee shot of the championship and went on to make the cut for the first time. That memory, he says, still fuels him today. “When I hit the opening tee shot in 2021, I was very nervous but excited at the same time.
“It gave me confidence because it was my best performance in the AAC and I had missed the cuts in previous editions. To do it at home in Dubai was like a dream, so hopefully this time we will go for even better things.”
The reward of a place in The Masters and The Open hangs over the field, but Skaik insists focus is key. “To have the opportunity to compete in The Masters or The Open is a dream. But I have to control my emotions and just focus on the tournament and think of it as just a normal tournament. Everything that comes from that is just a bonus.”
For Lebanon, Geoffrey Laklak represents the next generation. Making his second AAC start, the 17-year-old has already gained valuable experience since his debut. “From my first start at the AAC I’m happy and comfortable coming into my second,” he said.
“I put more pressure on myself than I needed the first time, but now that I’ve been there and played against some of the best, I know I can compete amongst them.”
Laklak has made international waves over the past year, with appearances in the Junior World Championships in San Diego, the Royal Junior in Japan, and the Florida Junior Match Play, where he advanced to the round of 32. In November 2024, he also represented
Lebanon in the Pan Arab Championship in the UAE.
A win at a World Amateur Golf Ranking event in Lebanon earlier this year has given him a timely boost. “I’m super happy to have won the Lebanese Open and I’m very confident in my abilities to compete against the best in the world in the AAC,” he said.
“All I want to do is represent Lebanon to the fullest extent that I can. I want to show Lebanon’s determination on the course as well now.”
Few players in the field have shown more rapid growth than Jordan’s Mousa Shana’ah. The 18-year-old is making his fourth AAC appearance, building on the progress he displayed in Japan last year. After struggling in 2023 in Australia, where he missed the cut, Shana’ah rebounded with rounds of 76 and 71 to advance into the weekend at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba.
PAGE:
FAR LEFT:
LEFT:
Mousa Shana’ah from Jordan won 14 WAGR titles in 2024 alone
BELOW:
Keita
“It showed me that preparation and focus really does pay off,” he said. “I didn’t change my game, I just executed better and stayed patient. That experience gave me confidence that I can compete anywhere.”
Shana’ah has been a dominant figure in regional amateur golf, collecting 14 World Amateur Golf Ranking titles across the UAE and Oman in 2024 alone. Earlier this year, he added another win in Oman and tested himself internationally at the U.S. Junior Amateur for the second time.
“My game has evolved a lot since my debut,” he said. “I’ve learned how to stay calm under pressure and trust my swing no matter the situation. I’m more consistent, and mentally I don’t overthink—I just go play.”
Though he grew up in Dubai, Shana’ah says he takes pride in playing under Jordan’s flag. “Despite being brought up in Dubai, it’s always great to perform for Jordan and the Arab region. It adds extra energy. But at the end of the day, I’m trying to focus on executing my game.”
For the Middle Eastern players, the 2025 AAC offers a platform to test their skills against the best amateurs from the Asia-Pacific region while inspiring the next generation of golfers in their home countries. For the UAE, hosting the event on the Majlis Course reinforces its status as a hub for golf in the Middle East.
With the opening tee shot set for October 23 and four days of competitive golf ahead, all eyes will be on Emirates Golf Club.
OPPOSITE
Ahmad Skaik of the UAE is making his sixth start in the AAC
Lebanon’s Geoffrey Laklak, aged 17, won his home open earlier this year
Nakajima on his way to winning the 2021 AAC at Dubai Creek
75 GOLF DIGEST HISTORY
BIGGEST MOMENTS IN
BY THE EDITORS
ILLUSTRATION BY THE SPORTING PRESS
May in Our Navy magazine, which becomes the inspiration for a magazine called Golf Digest.
1944: A Naval officer named Bill Davis oversees a battery of six antiaircraft guns on Oct. 29, when a Japanese kamikaze fighter takes out one of his gun tubs. Bill publishes a story about the crew’s heroism the following
1950: Golf Digest is founded out of a bedroom in
so that both thumbs point down the shaft. Take a firm grip. Not light and not tight.” Since its founding every male winner of every major championship has bylined at least one instruction article in Golf Digest, except Ed Furgol, the 1954 U.S. Open champion, and no one remembers why not him.
1952: The first Hollywood celebrity appears on the cover—comedian Red Skelton. Others will follow, in order: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Jayne Mansfield, Debbie Reynolds, George Gobel, Perry Como, Jackie Gleason, Jack Nicholson, Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon, Mark Wahlberg, Joe Pesci, Colin Jost and DJ Khaled.
Evanston, Ill. The original investment is $2,000; the first issue is pocket-size, 20 pages and sells for 15 cents. The following year, Bill Davis is joined by co-founders Jack Barnett and Howard R. Gill Jr., classmates from New Trier High School and Northwestern University. “Bill was always more equal than the rest of us,” Barnett said.
1950: Golf Digest publishes its first instructional advice. In putting: “Grasp the putter
1952: We start the Hole-inOne Clearinghouse, a onestop centre for obtaining all the available prizes for making an ace. “We were getting calls every day from club pros asking where’s the case drinks for my member’s ace,” Davis said. In its first year, 1,421 aces were recorded. Golf Digest becomes widely quoted for setting the odds for an average golfer making a hole-in-one at 1 in 12,500–about as mathematically rare as getting hit by lightning.
1953: Dwight Eisenhower becomes the first U.S. President to appear on our cover. That spring, he had taken a trip to Augusta National with friends and was barraged by questions about his game. “There ought to be a law against asking a person what he shot,” he reportedly said. Sympathetic and inspired, the magazine’s editors create
an oversized campaign button as a publicity stunt— “Don’t Ask What I Shot!”— that Ike proudly wears. Over 100,000 people write to get a free button while we collect their information in hopes of selling them subscriptions. In ensuing years, Golf Digest would mount campaigns to stop slow play, play the ball down, support junior golf, take a caddie, bring back walking and “Be Nice to Monty.”
1955: Golf Digest introduces the Most Improved Golfer program for weekend golfers. It becomes our trademark as the editors often quote Ben Hogan as saying, “The real fun of golf is in improving.” Instruction becomes synonymous with Golf Digest as we create monthly franchises like Instant Lessons, The Primer, Tour Tips, How to Break 100/90/80 and Game Plan.
1956: We pick Cary Middlecoff to win the U.S. Open and he does—a rare example of accurate golf prognostication, the exception proving the game’s unpredictability.
known for their success as teachers. The Panel makes stars of Jim Flick, Eddie Merrins, Davis Love Jr., Peter Kostis, Butch Harmon, Jim McLean, Hank Haney, Rick Smith, Mark Blackburn and many others through the years. Rather than promoting one way to play the game, Golf Digest becomes a forum for the best thinking about technique and strategy.
1961: Senior Editor John P. May photographs Ben Hogan with an 8-millimeter motion camera and publishes the grainy images, leading to decades of technological innovation that captures swings from every direction (including underneath a plexiglass platform).
1962: Sam Snead and Byron Nelson formally begin their association with Golf Digest that will continue the rest of their lives. The Player Editor role is created and filled with the best current players in the game as Golf Digest signs exclusive contracts with the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Billy Casper, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Seve Ballesteros, Johnny Miller, Jerry Pate, Nancy Lopez, Amy Alcott, Nick Faldo, Nick Price, Annika Sorenstam, Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth and Collin Morikawa.
publishing America’s 200 Toughest Golf Courses after a mapmaker asks for a list. This evolves into America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses— what quickly becomes the standard for measuring golf architecture worldwide. The USGA and PGA of America begin to use our rankings to identify championship sites.
1966: Charles Price writes “Golfingly Yours, The Haig,” giving a glimpse of the old days when sportswriters travelled with the game’s heroes: “It was characteristic of Walter Hagen that he was referred to as The Haig, for there was something extraordinary about the man, something grandiose about the way he refused to do anything the way anyone else might. Last year, at 72, he went to New York City from his home in Traverse City, to undergo an operation for cancer of the throat.
He entered the hospital by telling a joke about Heaven to a priest as he ascended to his room in an elevator.”
1969: The New York Times Co. purchases Golf Digest for $3 million but leaves the team in place.
1970
1970: The publication of Square-to-Square Golf Swing, a cover story and book by Golf Digest editor Dick Aultman, turns instruction upside down. The controversial mechanics are widely disputed and debated, but Golf Digest content becomes the centre for new ideas in golf instruction.
1960: The Golf Digest Professional Panel is formed and joined by Bob Toski. It begins a process of recognising teaching professionals as distinct from tour players as the ideal coaches for recreational golfers, and we begin to identify club pros who are
1962: The magazine changes size from 8-1/4-by-5-1/2 inches to standard size 8-1/4by-11-1/8. The issue price increases to 50 cents in February, and the offices move from Evanston to Norwalk in November.
1966: We pioneer golf course rankings by
SAM SNEAD
1970: Nick Seitz writes “Ben Hogan Today” shadowing the Ice Man for a week to produce the first of what will be several iconic interviews for Golf Digest. “The year 1970 was made when 57-year-old William Benjamin Hogan, his swollen left knee squeezed into an elastic brace, limped intently out of retirement to finish ninth in the Houston Champions International and challenge briefly in the Colonial, which he has won five times. Imagine Joe DiMaggio donning his old uniform and coming off the bench to rip a grand-slam home run before a capacity crowd in Yankee Stadium and you have some idea of the drama that drenched Hogan’s performances on two of the
most arduous courses in the sport.” (Seitz becomes chief editor in 1974.)
1971: Golf Digest
Instructional Schools are formed as the first national program that assembles top teachers at the best resorts for weeklong sessions for amateur golfers. Dick Aultman, Bob Toski, Jim Flick, Paul Runyan and Sam Snead highlight the teaching staff.
1971: We declare “The Putter of the Future” with the Potato Masher on our cover. Wildy unorthodox and criticised, the putter proves to be well ahead of its time, and now from a modern perspective, it lives up to its description and looks amazingly conventional.
1972: Jack Nicklaus authors his first instruction series with groundbreaking cartoon-style visuals (illustrated by golf pro Jim McQueen and written by Ken Bowden) called “Jack’s Lesson Tee,” and in 1977 Nicklaus joins the staff as a playing editor.
1973: Commissioner Joe Dey and commentator Howard Cosell appear on a Golf Digest cover debating the game. Cosell: “As tour commissioner, wouldn’t you like to see some kind of organised program whereby, for a given day or two, Jack Nicklaus held a clinic for youngsters in Harlem, Arnold Palmer went into Bedford Stuyvesant?”
Dey: “I agree. It would
be a wonderful thing.”
Cosell: “Have you done any thinking about it?” Dey: “I must confess I have not.”
Cosell: “If I charge you with dereliction in this regard, Joe, will you accept the charge and plead guilty?”
Dey: “With a two-stroke penalty.” (The PGA Tour and George H.W. Bush founded The First Tee, a junior development program taking the game into underserved communities, two commissioners and 24 years later.)
1974: Henry Longhurst debuts as a columnist and so begins a tradition of publishing the best and brightest commentators on the game. Some of golf’s greatest writers follow with
one column after another in Golf Digest as Peter Dobereiner, Charles Price, Joe Dey, Nick Seitz, Tom Callahan, Dave Kindred, Judy Rankin, Peter Andrews, Peter Thomson and Jaime Diaz write monthly.
1975: We move away from straight difficulty for course rankings and toward seven criteria: shot values (doubled), design balance, resistance to scoring, memorability, aesthetics, conditioning and tradition. Courses are ranked in groups of 10, alphabetically: First Ten, Second Ten, etc.
1976: The first pro to win Golf Digest’s National Long Driving Championship is Evan "Big Cat" Williams, and he repeats the following year. Long-drive contests had been around since the beginning of the game, but most were attached to major tournaments and won by tour pros. Golf Digest takes some credit for creating the long-drive specialist with these early nationally televised contests of strong men.
1977: PGA Tour player Frank Beard starts a monthly column always revealing and often setting the game’s hair on fire: “Augusta’s a nice place, but it’s not heaven.” The candor and perspective direct from the source serves as the inspiration four decades later for The Undercover Pro and The Undercover Caddie series.
1978: Tom Watson joins the staff as a playing editor and begins a run unmatched for editorial continuity, contributing instruction articles in every issue for the next four decades.
1980
1980: Golf Digest reaches 1 million circulation, largest of any golf publication in the world. Earlier milestones were hit with 100,000 in 1960 and 500,000 in 1970. Total paid and verified circulation in 2025 is 1,647,301.
1980: The Golf Digest Commemorative Pro-Am launches at Newport (R.I.) Country Club in June and is won by Sam Snead. When the minimum age is officially lowered for senior pros from 55 to 50 the following year, it allows Arnold Palmer to play. Along with Leo
Fraser’s Atlantic City tournament, it becomes a founding event of what’s now known as the PGA Tour Champions.
1980: Stephen Szurlej is named as the magazine’s first staff photographer, eventually expanding to include a stable of talented shooters like Dom Furore, J.D. Cuban and Walter Iooss Jr.
1981: Jerry Tarde describes the famed Merion East Course as a three-act play in a preview of the U.S. Open—the first six holes as a drama, the middle seven “short” holes as a comedy and the last five “long” holes as a tragedy. The analogy becomes part of the club’s historic narrative.
1981: The first mention of Tiger Woods appears in
Golf Digest. Entitled “He’s Incredible,” the article says: “Initially exposed to golf at the age of six months, when he sat in a highchair and watched his dad hitting balls into a net in the garage, Tiger went to a driving range at 18 months and hit his first bucket of balls. Then he returned home, had his bottle and took a nap.”
1984: We publish our first Best New Courses of the Year awards citing SentryWorld in Wisconsin (public) and Oyster Bay in South Carolina (resort). Best New becomes equally popular as America’s 100 Greatest, especially over the next decade and a half when the number of courses built in America reaches one a day.
1984: Herbert Warren Wind reveals for the first time how he came to name Augusta National’s 11th, 12th and 13th holes after a song (“No Shouting on the Amen Corner”) from the less popular side of a recording by Chicago clarinetist Milton (Mezz) Mezzrow.
1984: The poet laureate Peter Dobereiner writes a column about the man already being called The Shark in his second year on tour, entitled “Will Greg Norman Reach Superstardom?”—“I will wager my Scottish castle that Norman will win at least one major championship. Beyond that I would prefer to hedge my bets.” (Norman won two.)
1984: Jerry Tarde becomes chief editor at 28, and his first hires are Dan Jenkins as exclusive columnist and
major championship writer and Ron Whitten as senior editor of architecture.
1985: “We Found Him,” announces the headline to a story ending Golf Digest’s Search for America’s Worst Avid Golfer. Pittsburgh grocer Angelo Spagnolo shoots 257 over 18 grueling holes on the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course using “strict rules of golf” under the scrutiny of Deane Beman, the nation’s press and television coverage on all three networks’ evening news shows.
1987: Our first Armchair Architect Contest challenges readers to design their own hole using a detailed topographical map of a fictional plot of land. More than 20,000 enter, including an 11-yearold named Tiger Woods. The winner is Robert R. Reilly, a retired dentist living in Boynton Beach, Florida. Another entry is filed by Mike Keiser, the Chicagobased greeting-card magnate who would protest not winning to architecture editor Ron Whitten but go on to develop the masterpieces known as Bandon Dunes, Cabot Cape Bretton and Sand Valley.
March 1989: Golf Digest purchases Golf World with Dick Taylor as editor. The weekly becomes the news division of Golf Digest and later fuels a website and digital platforms with boundless content about every aspect of the pro, amateur and recreational game.
1989: Teaching pro John Elliott dons shorts on our cover, the first male to do so.
Not through crusading, but solid reporting, her book The Unplayable Lie, published by Golf Digest and Pocket Books, changes the game at a time when it desperately needed to change.
than 60 years, Harvey has compiled notes and observations about golf in a slender volume with a red cover. Intended as a teaching tool for his son Tinsley, who followed him as head professional at the Austin Texas Country Club, he never lets anyone else read his writing. Now, for the first time in print, we share excerpts from Mr. Penick’s Little Red Book.” It rises to the top of The New York Times best-seller list and becomes the best-selling golf book of all time.
1994: Tiger Woods appears on the cover for the first time and joins as playing editor three years later. To date, his image has been on 35 of our covers, though his most impactful content might be the 2019 YouTube release of his video series “Tiger Woods: My Game,” a collaboration with Golf Digest and GOLFTV, in which Woods provided rare insights into his training, course strategy and shotmaking.
1990: Contributing Editor Marcia Chambers writes a two-part series on the revolution in private clubs focusing on discriminatory membership practices against women and people of colour. It leads to explosive revelations at Shoal Creek (“We don’t discriminate against anybody except the Blacks”) that cause momentous changes throughout golf’s top organisations, private clubs and competitive event venues. The series earns a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association.
1991: Founder Bill Davis dies of ALS at 68. He once told an editorial assemblage that if they didn’t cost the company $1 million a year by incurring the wrath of a major advertiser, they probably weren’t doing their jobs.
1991: John Daly wins the PGA championship and eagerly explains he learned to play by reading instruction articles in Golf Digest.
1992: Tom Kite introduces a book excerpt that upends golf publishing: “For more
1996: GolfDigest.com launches as an uneven, pixelated experiment primarily as a place to sell subscriptions and store overflow content. With time, the website emerges as a destination with a distinct voice and viewpoint that can embrace the multimedia capability of the Internet. Over the next decade, greater bandwidth leads to video lessons from top players, interactive extensions of Hot List equipment reviews and minute-by-minute dispatches from writers at majors.
1997: The July Issue is the best-selling of all time with a 59.71 percent sell-through
JERRY TARDE
DAN JENKINS
TIGER'S ARMCHAIR ARCHITECT ENTRY
rate on the newsstand and total sales of 195,000–largest of any golf periodical in history. Who was on the cover? Nobody. It was an illustration of a spinning golf ball with the cover line: “How to Fix Your Slice.”
1997: Senior writer Tom Callahan spends a month in Vietnam searching for Earl Woods’ best friend Tiger Phong who disappeared in a post-war “re-education camp” in the 1970s. Earl named his son in the hope that he would become world famous and lead the two old
warriors to reunite. Callahan comes back with an even more incredible cover story: “The Spirit of Tiger Woods.”
1998: Our first ranking of Golfing CEOs places Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems as No. 1 and Jack Welch of GE as No. 2. The two low handicappers set up a series of challenge matches, invite each other to join their boards, and do a billion-dollar deal within months of Golf Digest publishing the list. Executive compensation expert Graef Crystal sees a correlation
between the CEO’s competence on the golf course and their companies’ stock performance. As quoted in the New York Times, Crystal says: “For all the different factors I’ve tested as possible links for predicting which CEO's are going to perform well or poorly, this is certainly one of the oddest— but also the strongest—I've seen. There's got to be something here.”
1998: A new cover slogan: “How to play, what to play, where to play”—suggested
by technical consultant Art Chou—becomes a retroactive mission statement that will define the brand for three quarters of a century.
1998: Long-time and valued contributing teacher Davis Love Jr. dies tragically in a private plane crash on November 14 en route to a Golf Digest Schools meeting.
1999: Golf Digest’s June issue is the first to break the 300-page mark, weighing in at 302.
2000
2000: Golf Digest names “The Stinger” in a cover story about the quintessential low, running tee shot taught by Butch Harmon and popularised by Tiger Woods.
2000: Golf Digest unveils its 50 Best Teachers ranking with David Leadbetter voted No. 1 by his peers. “You create power by coiling your upper body on the backswing,” he advises, “then feel the stretch increase momentarily before the arms swing down.” The following year, Butch Harmon is ranked No. 1 by his peers—a title he does not relinquish for the next 23 years when he moves to a new Legends of Instruction award in January 2024 (Mark Blackburn is voted into the new top spot).
2001: Condé Nast buys Golf Digest in June and Si Newhouse infuses the established brand with a new sense of design, art, photography, literature, fashion and style—what the editors respectfully call “fabulousness.”
2001: Golf Digest acquires Golf for Women in November, names Susan Reed as editor and doubles down on women’s golf. The highly acclaimed title gets nominated for a National Magazine Award for its coverage of men’s-only exclusionary policies but su ers financial losses and is shuttered in 2008.
2002: Guy Yocom’s fabled “My Shot” series begins with Sam Snead, who takes on dark rum, mean dogs, terrorism—and why he could have beaten Tiger Woods. The series delivers life and golf philosophy of Lee Trevino to Evel Knievel and becomes the best-read section of the magazine for years to come.
2004: The first Hot List— ratings of every new driver, fairway wood, iron, wedge and putter at the PGA Merchandise Show—is published and rocks the golf industry. Equipment editors Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson preside over sprawling coverage of technical innovation that ranges from perimeterweighted irons, metal and oversized woods, the Pro V1 golf ball and countless
iterations of implements that test the limits of the rules.
2006: Golf Digest Index, a separate magazine for elite golfers, begins as a quarterly. Deutsche Bank exec (and later PGA of America CEO) Seth Waugh graces the cover. The idea: Every serious golfer has an index, and we’re all three degrees of separation from getting an invite to play Augusta National—that is, you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who can get you on anywhere. The magazine folds in May 2009, another victim of the Great Recession.
2007: Tiger Woods opines that a 10 handicapper couldn’t break 100 at a U.S. Open venue. We take the bait and partner with the USGA and NBC Sports the following year to create the
first Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge on the 7,643yard Torrey Pines course in San Diego where Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (2.2 handicap index) shot a 13-over-par 84; pop star Justin Timberlake (6.6) shot 98; then-Today Show host Matt Lauer (6.2) shot 100, and our everyman John Atkinson (8.1)—chosen from a pool of 56,354 (the U.S. Open that year had 8,544 entries)—shot 114. Despite failing to break 100, Atkinson was an extraordinary winner who played courageously while su ering from inoperable lung cancer; he died a year later but left an impression on everyone who witnessed his quest. We did it again the next two years at Bethpage Black and Pebble Beach and continued to prove Tiger right.
2008: Golf Digest Middle East launches with Justin Timberlake on the cover. The then 27-year-old reached an agreement to endorse and play Callaway equipment.
2009: Dan Jenkins begins tweeting from the Open Championship and a new genre enters golf writing. Called “the hostile voice of a previous generation,” by David Ogrin, the Ancient Twitterer would be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame for a lifetime achievement in journalism in 2012.
2009: Golf Digest launches environmental awards and continues the commitment to sustainability today in partnership with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards.
2010
2010: “10 Tips Obama Can Take From Tiger” is the lead coverline accompanying an artist’s rendering of the current president getting caddie help reading a putt from the World No. 1. The issue was shipped two weeks before the scandal of Woods’ marital infidelities made headlines when he drove into a fire hydrant. As Woods’ reputation had changed dramatically by the time the issue hit newsstands, the tonguein-cheek story about what a top athlete can teach about resilience and imagemanagement was regarded as strikingly tone-deaf, if not hilariously wrong.
Brandt Snedeker and Rickie Fowler finished 1-2-3 in an extensive survey of lockerroom attendants, courtesycar drivers, rules officials, volunteers and media types. Many iterations on the franchise would follow, and companies like Aneel Bhusri’s Workday used the list as a basis for hiring corporate ambassadors. Never has simply being nice paid off so well.
continues today. As the issue immediately preceding a magazine redesign geared to attract a new and more youthful audience, an amount of success was measured in the media attention the cover received.
2012: We publish Valentino Dixon’s story in Max Adler’s series “Golf Saved My Life.” Sentenced to life in prison, Dixon claims to have been wrongfully convicted of murder and began specialising in golf art after the Attica warden requested a picture of the 12th hole at Augusta National. This article and ensuing efforts by Adler and the University of Georgetown help reopen the investigation. When the sentence is vacated in 2018, The New York Times runs the headline “How Golf Digest and College Students Helped Free a Man Convicted of Murder.” That spring, Dixon attends the Masters on a Golf Digest press credential to draw No. 12 from life. (Adler becomes editor of the magazine in 2019.)
2013: Golf Digest ranks “The Good Guys” for the first time. Steve Stricker,
2014: Paulina Gretzky, daughter of the hockey great, models a May cover story about fitness. The choice of the social media star and then fiancée (now wife) of tour pro Dustin Johnson prompts Stacy Lewis to become a leading voice of LPGA Tour players who criticise the magazine for being on the wrong side of a conversation about respect and representation in women’s sports that
2016: Golf Digest Middle East goes online. Over the past decade, the website now has on average 75,000 unique useres per month and growing! Not forgetting the other social media channels; 19,000 + Instagram, 13,000 + Facebook and over 2.5 million views on our YouTube channel to date.
2017: Erin Hills hosts the U.S. Open, won by Brooks Koepka, and it's the first major championship played on a course designed by a Golf Digest editor. Architecture editor Ron
Whitten’s collaboration with longtime friends Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry was built in 2006 to bring affordable daily fee golf to rural Wisconsin. To date it has hosted five USGA events, including the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open.
2017: “Every Hole at Pine Valley” is Golf Digest’s first drone video with 18-hole commentary. Dozens of “Every Hole” videos follow with many of the greatest courses in the world, from Cypress Point and Seminole to Tara Iti in New Zealand and Royal County Down in Northern Ireland—each a masterpiece shot by photographer Carlos Amoeda
and coordinated by executive producer Christian Iooss.
2018: Our video-on-demand instruction portal, Golf Digest Schools, goes live
A highlight is the first episode of "Undercover Lessons," 37 unedited and unscripted minutes of Playing Editor Jordan Spieth hitting balls on the range alongside his coach, Cameron McCormick. The novel treatment effectively transports viewers to the VIPs-only side of a tour practice range.
2019: Discovery Inc. buys Golf Digest and soon merges with Warner Brothers, creating opportunities for
ability to connect with golfers of every generation.
2020
2020: The Covid-19 pandemic leads to unprecedented disruptions to daily life to curtail the spread of the new virus, but this period also presents a unique opportunity for golf, the rare activity that had been identified as safe and social, albeit with new precautions. Golf Digest’s reporting in the early days of the pandemic and in ensuing months provides consistent guidance on how the game can be enjoyed by experienced golfers as well as new players.
collaborations for massive general audiences, such as The Match on TNT Sports. After a decade in Evanston, Illinois, and 55 years in Connecticut, Golf Digest editorial headquarters moves a few dozen blocks uptown from One World Trade Center to 230 Park Avenue South in lower Manhattan.
2019: Golf Digest’s Instagram account surpasses 1 million followers on November 22. Formatted to the palm of one’s hand, the steady blend of worldclass photography, breaking news, viral moments and engaging instructional content reflects a growing digital audience and our
2022: Golf Digest Middle East launches in Arabic. In January of 2022 the world's first Arabic golf magazine is launched as the game gains in popularity throughout the Middle East and beyond. It has printed 12 specific issues to date in collaboration with Golf Saudi.
2022: Course Search with over 18,000 courses goes live, allowing users to filter itineraries based on location, price, reviews and standing in Golf Digest rankings.
2023: The entire Golf Digest archive, every article and ad of every issue from 1950, is uploaded and made searchable to Golf Digest+ members. The leatherbound volumes that sag the shelves of longtime editors take on a more nostalgic patina.
Hanief Sallie
Mediclinic Summer Open Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club, Sharjah, UAE
Afzaal Ahmad & Zi Hao Su
DG Lincoln Pro Am Emirates Golf Club, Dubai, UAE
Siddharth Shivaram & Aryan Siddharth
After Summer Open
Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting and Golf Club, Al Ain, UAE
