Instructions

A few weeks ago, we asked some top teachers to tell you about the worst advice they’d overheard amateurs giving each other on the practice tee. Off of that, we asked three other top teachers to help fill your now-empty information bucket with good advice you can share with your friends (or, if necessary, use

It’s been a debate that has gone on almost as long as the game has been played: What is the proper distance golfers should be playing from? Of course, many Neanderthal males often insist on playing “the back tees,” almost always stretching past 6,500 yards and often measuring somewhere in the 6,800-to-7,000-yard range. Playing from

Your goal off the tee, if you’re like a lot of golfers, is to hit the ball as far as you can, anywhere in play. That’s good for some holes, but if the fairway is flanked by water or out-of-bounds—suddenly “anywhere in play” isn’t ideal. And sometimes, a good drive puts you 50 yards from

Let me first recognize that the dynamic my husband and I have on the golf course is opposite of most. More often, husbands are the better golfers, tasked with giving pointers to their wives. But my husband happens to be married to me, a former college golfer who grew up a quarter of a mile

Walk the range at a tour event and you’ll see a squadron of instructors capturing video, with the teacher and player huddling to figure out which magic adjustment might make the difference between first place and 50th on a given week. It’s certainly interesting to eavesdrop on what they’re discussing—in fact, it’s why we’ve been

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the November 2018 issue of Golf Digest. Sean Foley remembers the first time he saw Cameron Champ swing a club. It was at Foley’s academy in Orlando, and Cameron was about 14. Foley was working with many tour pros at that time, including Justin Rose and Hunter Mahan,

It’s no secret that players have a literal universe of swing tips available to them in the form of video, instruction articles online and even well-intentioned advice from friends and playing partners. But what locks up the gears is when the advice doesn’t match a player’s capabilities, comes at the wrong time—or is just plain

You might think golf workouts should focus on moves directly related to swinging the club faster, like getting a bigger shoulder turn or increasing hand and arm speed. Sure, those things can help you generate power, but there’s perhaps something even more fundamental in the distance equation: strong legs. “In all sports, it’s about the

All that time in front of computer screens isn’t just hurting your eyes. The muscles responsible for good posture—and a functional golf swing—can atrophy when you sit too long. You feel tighter, get sore easier and can’t swing like you’re capable of swinging. Even worse, the American Cancer Society says eight of the 10 most

Arccos, the stat-tracking platform that uses grip sensors and artificial intelligence to analyze individual golfer’s rounds and tendencies, expanded its offerings today to fill a gap in its putter compatibility. In cooperation with gripmaker SuperStroke, Arccos unveiled an adapter that allows its sensors to work with the company’s CounterCore and Traxion putter grips. SuperStroke’s Countercore

You can call us “old guys” on the PGA Tour Champions, but there are a lot of players out here who can still move the ball (we’d be in the top half of players on the regular tour in driving distance). Credit better equipment to a degree, but a big reason a lot of us

In an era when firm-and-fast fairways are the norm, not the exception, you’re going to have to learn how to hit good iron shots from super tight lies. It’s easier than you might think. First, you need to get in the right mind-set. You just hit the fairway—congratulations. Walk proudly to your ball, and ignore

Looking back at this summer, assess your play on the greens. Did you get the ball to the hole nearly every time you had the putter in your hands? Was your green-reading sharp? Did you sink most of the short ones? Did you have many—or any—rounds when you went all 18 holes without a three-putt?

If you were to strap a heart-rate monitor onto a tour pro’s body, you’d barely see an uptick on the display when a shot hits the sand. That’s because better players know bunker shots are easy to execute— you just have to commit. That’s the real issue with most recreational players who struggle. They can’t

The most basic goal in the golf swing is also the most basic goal in putting: Hit the ball solidly, with the center of the clubface. This concept gets a ton of attention with full swings, but almost none on the greens. When a putt comes up short, the blame goes to “didn’t hit it

It’s a testament to just how strong the crop of young, up-and-coming PGA Tour players is when they can collectively make last year’s hot player in the early season—super-long-hitting Cameron Champ—seem both old (at 24!) and old news. The five players at the top of our 2020 heat index are 22 or younger, and three

It’s easy to be seduced by distance, especially out here on tour. I see guys like Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm fire balls for miles and think, Yeah, I’d like some of that.But one of the best pieces of advice I’ve received since turning pro came from Justin Thomas. He told me to know myself

A long, flowing chipping stroke is never a good idea if the goal is to be consistently accurate with these shots. Take the club back too far, and you’ll be inclined to decelerate through impact and dump it. Good chipping is all about acceleration, so let’s make sure your focus in on keeping your speed

Now that we’re into the NFL season, watch how quarterbacks throw, specifically how the elbow leads the hand until they release the ball. That’s a big reason they throw with power and accuracy, and it’s a motion you should copy in your swing. Discussions about the downswing usually focus on the legs and hips shifting

Max Homa’s first win on the PGA Tour, the Wells Fargo Championship in May, might have been a surprise to some, but for him, it was about seven months in the making. His coach, Les Johnson, worked with him in Arizona for a couple of days late last fall after Homa made only one of

When you’re standing on the tee with your driver, I’m sure you’re not thinking about distance control. It’s all about how far can you hit it. A 3-wood is a different story. Whether you’re using it on the tee or from the fairway, you should think about hitting the ball a specific distance. That’s why

This summer, I got to experience baseball’s version of the first-tee shot. As honoree of the PGA Tour’s 2019 Houston Open, I threw out the first pitch at the Astros game on July 23. With a few deep breaths and a little advice in my head (Aim high), I chucked a pretty good one, as