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ABOUT Ever wonder what tour players and their teachers are talking about on the range? In the next episode of Golf Digest’s Undercover Lessons series, you’ll get that up-close experience with three-time tour winner Pat Perez and his instructor, Golf Digest Best Young Teacher Drew Steckel. It’s as close as you can get to the

You took care of what you thought was the hard part. You split the fairway with your best drive of the day and managed to hit the green in regulation—with a 4-iron no less! Your reward? Your ball is now above the hole, and there appears to be a pronounced left-to-right break for the ensuing

Hitting a shank is bad enough, but they tend to come in bunches. That can really mess with your mind—and your score. Anyone who tells you to forget you just rocketed one into the trees on the right has never lived with the shanks. Consider the cause. Typically, the clubface is wide open at impact,

Playing golf on a packed course can be a challenge, and I’m not just talking about finishing in time for dinner. What you do while waiting to play your next shot can make a huge difference in your round. — by David Leadbetter, with Ron Kaspriske Two things to try to avoid: (1) Don’t let

ABOUT With all the talk these days about driving distance, a better short game is still the fastest way to improve your scores. Why? Well, a couple reasons. First, you hit a lot more shots inside 50 yards than you do tee shots. Second, it’s easier to tweak the small swings than the big ones.

Let’s start with an important point: Tiger Woods might be the best iron player of all time. When you set the bar that high, anything less than peak performance, i.e., hitting shots like the mere mortals on either side of you on a PGA Tour range, can seem like a comedown. Tiger’s ball-striking isn’t as

From two fairways over, nobody would mistake Matthew Wolff’s swing for anybody else’s. The Oklahoma State star and newly-minted NCAA individual champion makes an aggressive pre-swing shift toward the target and then hoists the club vertically over his head and way across the line—pointing it way right of his target at the top. He also

When it comes to the promise of playing better golf, we freely admit that hyperbole occasionally creeps into our headlines. That said, this isn’t one of those times. You might not have Brooks Koepka’s biceps or ball-striking ability; his swagger or swing speed, but there are things he does on the golf course that you

Everyone putts poorly at times, including me. Check this out: In 2016, I missed 32 of 70 attempts from four to eight feet. That got my attention. I wasn’t giving any thought to how I wanted to approach my putting, and that had to change. I started by putting down chalk lines on a green,

People say the golf swing is all about impact. But it’s what you do before impact that determines if the strike will be any good. Getting into a solid position at the top lets you swing freely on the way down. You don’t have to fight your way back into position. Let’s look at three

ABOUT The old saying goes, “You don’t play golf swing, you play golf.” It’s an important reminder that knowing how to hit all the shots is only half the equation for being a good golfer. The other half is understanding how to navigate the course to shoot lower scores. In this video series, Golf Digest

This is one of those shots where you think to yourself, How am I gonna get anywhere near the hole? First, accept that it’s OK to hit the ball past the flag. The worst thing you can do is get too cute and have the same shot again. Second, realize that with enough loft, you

Everyone needs a tee shot they can rely on. It’s not necessarily the longest drive, it’s the one you’re sure you can put in the fairway when you can’t afford to be in the rough. I had one of those situations last year on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff with Minjee Lee at

I’ve heard it said that a chip shot is a miniature version of a full swing. I couldn’t disagree more. Some of the same fundamentals apply, sure, but chipping has way more going on. I have one basic full swing that gets me around the golf course, and I make only minor adjustments to hit

The thing about hitting fairway woods off the turf is, most golfers feel like they have to help them into the air. They look down and don’t see much loft on the clubface, and they know they want to launch the ball high, so what do they do? The classic mistakes are playing the ball

DJ does it. You do it. We all do it. Whether it’s in front of a mirror, after the elevator door closes, or just to get a giggle out of an amused toddler, making golf swings, sans club, is a long-established golf ritual. Although it might seem frivolous, you can actually improve your swing if

All too often amateurs have one basic chipping stroke, and they use it no matter the lie. I’m all for keeping it simple on standard chips, but you have to adapt to different lies. When you try to force a technique, you get in trouble. Let’s look at two common chipping scenarios: the perched lie

ABOUT If you think of the golf swing in broad terms, as one continuous movement, Jim McLean says you’re making it too hard. McLean, a top-five instructor on Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America, believes that breaking the swing into key positions is the best way to start improving your technique and playing better