If you want to improve your putting, take advantage of your hands. I know, I know. You’ve probably been told to take your hands out of the stroke. But that doesn’t make sense. You’ve been training your hands to perform precise, coordinated movements even before you could walk, so why not let them help you
Instructions
The view from every tee box is different, so when you’ve got a driver in your hands, it’s useful to know how to play more than one type of shot. Good news: You don’t have to be a pro to hit a variety of them. I’ll teach you three, starting with the one you’re probably
For years, 43 inches was the standard length of a driver. Now, the driver you buy from the store is more than 45 inches—which is designed to help you hit it farther. But the longer the club gets, the less responsive it is to your effort to make it swing. Choking up on the handle
As a former world long-drive champion, I often hear from regular golfers that they’ll never come close to being able to swing like me. Not true. You can. If you copy even a little of my technique, the ball is going to come off the face of your driver hotter than ever. Try these things
ABOUT Whether it’s a 100-mile-per-hour fastball, a slap shot from the blue line or a knockout punch, the most explosive moves in sports come after there is a buildup of energy. That’s certainly true in golf, where a big, fully wound backswing results in a faster, better synchronized through-swing. That’s the jumping-off point for this
ABOUT As a kid, Luke Donald pretended he was Hall of Famer Seve Ballesteros and tried to save par from every conceivable spot around the greens. As a pro, Luke used those practice sessions to help get to the top of the PGA Tour in just about every short-game statistic over 18-plus seasons. Now you
AUGUSTS, Ga. — Yes, you’ve already heard about Augusta member Jeff Knox, the decorated amateur who holds the course record of 61 from the member tees and gets the call to play as a marker when the field goes to an odd number after the cut. But what exactly makes the 56-year-old charitable foundation executive
Nothing about Ian Poulter’s statistical profile says he should be a Ryder Cup hero, 17-time winner or occupant on the first page of the Masters leaderboard after two rounds. But the 43-year-old followed his first-round 68 with a 71 to sit two shots behind the leaders, and he did it with a swing that not
ABOUT What does one of the tour’s bombers do on the range—driver after driver into the stratosphere? Hardly. Justin Thomas reveals that he spends up to 80 percent of his warm-up time hitting 8-iron or less. Like all long hitters, he knows his explosive natural power will get him closer to the green than most
They do everything they can to make the Masters feel like a throwback to the 1950s. But one look at early first round leader Justin Harding’s putting stroke and it’s clear we’re not in the golf’s misty “golden era” anymore. Harding rolls his ball Bernhard Langer style, with a long-handled putter extending up to the
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Each year the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals showcases some of the best 7- to 15-year-old golfers from across the United States and Canada. As they rip driver down the range at Augusta National, chip on the practice green and putt on the 18th green, it’s hard to watch and not
When I meet golfers who’ve been struggling with a slice since day one, I know I’m going to have some fun. Why? Because I can straighten their ball flight, even teach them to hit a draw, in a matter of minutes. Getting in the correct positions is easy. Beating a slice is ultimately about commitment
The inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur has its first champion: Jennifer Kupcho. The powerful senior at Wake Forest, ranked No. 1 in the latest World Amateur Golf Ranking, shot five-under 67 at Augusta National in the final round to win by four strokes over Maria Fassi. And if you watch Kupcho’s swing, you can see
ABOUT The hero shots in golf might seem to be the monster drives and piercing irons that check up next to the pin, but the ones that most affect your scores come within 50 yards of the green. In this six-part video program, Butch Harmon demonstrates what average golfers can do to become proficient with
Greenside bunkers have always been one of my favorite places to be on a golf course. As a kid, I pretended to be Seve Ballesteros and would try to get the ball out of all kinds of difficult lies in the sand. It was fun, but I’m guessing many of you might not feel the
When I got on tour in 2014, I was hitting a slice off the tee. No joke. Yeah, I had plenty of power, and I knew how to play the curve, but I was a tour player who was watching his tee shots peel 30, 40 yards to the right. Over the past five years,
Usually the area around a green is level with or lower than the putting surface. But sometimes you’ll find your ball on a mound near the green, leaving you with a downhill chip. Sure, it was a lucky break that the hill kept your ball within chipping distance. But now what? This atypical lie presents
Good golf is about playing as many par 3s as you can. What does that mean? In addition to the actual par 3s on the course, your goal should be to have a reasonable “par 3” to the green after your tee shot on par 4s (or second shot on par 5s). If you drive