The post Make a perfect downswing and hit more fairways. Here’s how appeared first on Golf.

The post Make a perfect downswing and hit more fairways. Here’s how appeared first on Golf.

Here’s how to practice making an on-plane downswing by better syncing your arms and body.

1. Lay down a club extending from your front foot, settle into address and place your gloved hand on your sternum, making sure your front elbow points at the target. 

2. Using only your trail arm, swing to the top, turning your upper body until your front elbow points well behind the ball. 

3. Now, the secret sauce: Shift your lower body toward the target while allowing the club to drop. This move is the exact opposite from the cast you’re probably doing now.

The goal is to keep your front elbow pointing behind the ball. If you can reach this position, all you have to do is turn through impact and release your hands. The result: big drives that never leave the target. 

Mike Malizia is a GOLF Top 100 Teacher and is the director of instruction at the Club at Admirals Cove in Jupiter, Fla.

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The post Arnold Palmer shares the secrets to hitting pure shot with long irons appeared first on Golf.

The post Arnold Palmer shares the secrets to hitting pure shot with long irons appeared first on Golf.

If you’re anything like me, hitting long irons with any sort of consistency is an uphill battle. No matter how much practice I devote to the low-lofted irons, I never seem to master the art of hitting them pure. When I find myself struggling with something in golf, I like to turn to those who make it look simple: the pros.

Pros make most things in golf look easy, but hitting long irons well is something I find extremely impressive. As we all know, being able to hit the green from distance is no easy task.

For help with the task of hitting pure long irons, we are turning to one of the all-time greats, Arnold Palmer. Back in 1969, The King joined GOLF Magazine to share some of his secrets for hitting pure long irons. Check it out below.

Palmer’s keys for hitting pure long irons

Most golfers become easily depressed when they consistently fail to get off a good shot with the long irons. And I suppose that watching me tear a ball out of a tough lie with a two-iron may depress them further! They figure they might just as well leave their long irons at home, for all the good they do. Well, it just doesn’t have to be that bad. The long irons have little loft, it’s true, but even the one-iron has just as much loft as the average three-wood. And the two and three-irons have proportionately more. Also, the long irons are much shorter sticks than the woods, so that they ought to be easier — not more difficult — to control.

Most golfers frighten themselves to death over a long iron shot before they even start. Maybe they’ve hit a poor tee shot and feel they have to make up distance with their long iron. At any rate, they’re really going to bust this one! The result — one or more of these disastrous faults: 

1. They rush their backswing, fail to complete their pivot, and get a weak, early hit with all their power dissipated well before impact. 
2. They try to take a superhuman turn, which results in lost balance and probably lost timing. 
3. They loosen their grip at the top of the swing, which means they have to re-grip on the downswing — an unnecessary and dangerous movement which often throws the clubhead off line.

Setup

The way you should play a long iron is just the reverse. Your grip must be firm, your stance secure, and your swing the same as usual.

I can’t overemphasize the importance of a good grip. Probably the most important single element in hitting a long iron comes from a grip that remains firm from start to finish. Occasionally, you might get away with looseness on the woods or short irons. You cannot, however, expect to hit the long irons successfully unless you hold on to that grip.

The stance for the long irons should not be too wide — otherwise you will restrict the full turn of the body so necessary to develop maximum power. I place my feet about shoulder-width apart and have them in a square position, parallel to the line of flight. I stand up to the ball in a comfortable position but prepared to turn easily and smoothly.

I position the ball slightly more toward the middle of my stance than for my wood shots. On the woods, you want to hit the ball near the bottom of the arc. With the irons, you must strike the ball with a downward blow, with the bottom of the arc being somewhat ahead of the ball in your divot. But my swing remains much the same for both woods and irons.

Takeaway

Getting the right start is half the battle. The hands begin the action, taking the clubhead straight back from the ball for about 12 inches. Keep your wrists firm, as early breaking of the wrists is apt to impair the smoothness of the backswing, causing the head to move. On the other hand, the one-piece backswing — with the body following the lead of the hands — will keep the head in place. There should be “no breaking of the wrists until the hands pass the right hip.

A lot of people ask me, “How far should I take the club back?” This is a difficult question, because it varies from individual to individual. When any further movement back causes you to loosen your grip, bend your left arm, or lose your balance, that’s as far back as you should go. Every player has to find out that critical point for himself.

Downswing

Coming back to the ball, I have a definite feeling of pulling the club down with my left hand. At the same time, there is a distinct weight shift to the left side. You should be able to feel the weight shifting to the left side before you start thinking of hitting the ball. This will prevent the quick un-cocking of the wrists known as “hitting from the top.” If you execute this vital first movement of the downswing correctly, then by all means, let the clubhead fly. Pulling down with the left hand sets you up properly so that you can apply the power in the right hand at the right time — as you enter the hitting area.

One of the things I think of during my swing is, “hitting under the chin.” I turn the left shoulder under the chin on the backswing. Coming through the ball, I concentrate on moving the right shoulder under the chin. I don’t allow my head to move until it is pulled up by the follow through. I like to feel that I’m keeping the right side under through the shot. So much has this become a part of my life, that I still have a high left shoulder and a low right shoulder when I take my wife out dancing!

Shot-shaping

Not every shot I hit with the long irons is a simple straightforward full swing. Sometimes you are stymied by a tree from hitting directly at the green. This calls for hitting an intentional hook or slice.

First, let me advise you not to play these shots unless you are a low handicap golfer. It’s far better to chip out onto the fairway and sacrifice one stroke than run the risk of getting into deeper trouble. But if you have a good, repeating swing, these shots should be in your bag.

For the intentional slice, open your stance and swing from outside-in. Start the club off outside the line and bring it back to the ball in the same plane, hitting as hard as possible with the left hand. For a hook, do the reverse. Close your stance and start the clubhead back inside the line. In the hitting area, allow your right hand to dominate this shot. I don’t believe in changing the grip, because you may start using a “hook”  or “slice” grip when you want a straight shot.

If you can’t go around the trouble, what about over or under? To play a low shot, I play the ball back in my stance and keep my hands in front of the clubhead throughout the swing. Make an extra effort to swing smoothly on this one, as the tendency is to jerk the shot and get only half the ball. Attempt to stay on your left side throughout the swing.

Sometimes, you can’t take a full shot in these circumstances. You have to go under the trees, but the green is only 150-170 yards away. Obviously, a full, low three-iron will carry over the green. What you do is choke down a few inches on the grip, take a half-swing, and hit firmly into the ball with a “punching” action, restricting your follow through. This will produce a low trajectory and the desired distance.

In this situation, the distance can be governed by the length of your backswing and by the amount you choke the grip. As you become more skillful in controlling the club, you will be able at will to vary the length of the shot.

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The post 6 shots amateurs never practice — but they should appeared first on Golf.

The post 6 shots amateurs never practice — but they should appeared first on Golf.

It’s often said that we tend to practice only what we enjoy — and typically, those are the parts of the game we’re already good at. As a result, the average golfer rarely spends time working on the areas that need the most improvement.

Below are six types of shots that most golfers rarely practice. Give them a little time during your next practice session and you’ll be well on your way to shooting lower scores.

1. Lag putts with lots of break

Most players I see are only practicing longer putts and short putts on relatively flat surfaces — typically with just a 1- or 2-percent grade. But the putts we three-putt most often are the ones that come after a poor lag putt on more severe slopes.

To fine-tune your feel on the greens, try practicing putts over big humps, onto and across shelves, and on putts with significant break. When you do, the flatter putts will feel much easier, and the more difficult ones won’t leave you with a 10-foot comeback for par.

2. Shots from fairway bunkers

Golfers often get into trouble in fairway bunkers when they swing too hard, which causes excess movement and leads to hitting behind the ball. The key to hitting solid fairway bunker shots is all about club selection and controlled movement.

First, choose a club that gives you enough loft to comfortably clear the lip of the bunker. Then, if possible, go with one club stronger than you would normally use. This allows you to make a smoother, more controlled swing — reducing lower-body movement and improving consistency at impact.

Bunker Shots

Swinging at full power out of a bunker often leads to too much motion, making clean contact difficult. Instead, focus on a controlled swing and aim to strike the ball slightly thin. When you do this, you’ll typically make solid contact. Even if you do hit it thin, you’ll likely carry the green rather than chunking it 50 yards short.

A great drill to develop this shot is to visualize a stripe — like the one on a range ball — running around the equator of the ball. Take one or two extra clubs, aim slightly left, swing easy and focus on hitting that stripe. More often than not, you’ll catch the ball cleanly, and it will fly with a gentle left-to-right shape.

3. Shots on hilly lies

Most golfers only pay attention to the lie of the ball when it’s obviously poor, but understanding how uneven or hilly lies affect ball flight is essential for improving your game and achieving long-term success.

When facing a significant slope — whether uphill, downhill, or sidehill — it’s crucial to prioritize balance. One of the best ways to stay in control is by taking an extra club. This allows you to make a smoother, more controlled swing without having to overexert yourself, which can throw off your balance.

As a general rule, if the lie is even moderately to severely sloped, club up. Staying balanced and steady during your swing is far more important than trying to hit a full shot from an unstable position.

4. Shots with a fairway wood

Fairway woods are among the toughest clubs for the average golfer to hit consistently. The combination of a tight lie and a large clubhead often creates the urge to help the ball into the air — usually leading to mishits and inconsistent contact.

Instruction

Choosing the wrong fairway wood for the lie only makes matters worse. It’s essential to select the club that best suits the conditions in front of you. If the lie is tight and the ball is sitting low — barely above the ground — consider switching to a higher-lofted fairway wood or a hybrid. You want the ball to appear more accessible, with the clubhead sitting flush to the turf. This visual cue gives you more confidence and increases the chance of solid contact.

The key to hitting fairway woods well is keeping the takeaway long and low, and focusing on clipping the penny through impact. That mental image helps promote a clean strike and a shallow angle of attack — both critical to making solid contact off the fairway.

5. Shots from the rough

Most amateur golfers rarely practice from the rough, which means they lack an understanding of how different lies affect ball flight and control. Without experience, it’s difficult to make confident decisions when faced with tough lies. Let’s break it down into three common rough lies.

Ball sitting up
When the ball is sitting up nicely in the rough, it’s a green-light situation. You can use your normal swing, and the ball will typically react how you’re used to — though it may fly slightly farther due to the grass reducing spin and adding “flyer” distance. Be aware that the harder you swing, the more this flyer effect increases. With this in mind, consider taking a little off the swing or using a slightly less-lofted club to compensate.

Ball half exposed
This is a tricky lie. Sometimes the ball jumps; other times it comes out dead. This unpredictability is why practicing from the rough is so important to your development as a golfer. The more exposure you get to this type of lie, the better your instincts will be.

To improve your chances of solid contact from a half-exposed lie in the rough, start by steepening your angle of attack to minimize the amount of grass getting between the clubface and the ball. One way to do this is by moving the ball back in your stance about one inch, which helps promote a more descending strike. At address, try hovering the club slightly above the ground to encourage a cleaner takeaway. Lastly, focus on making a quicker, steeper backswing to help deliver the club on a sharper angle into the ball.

Ball sitting down
This is a challenging lie that requires a decision: play it safe with a pitch out, or go for something more aggressive. Loft is your best friend here. It’s better to come up short with a higher-lofted club than to risk using too little loft and watching the ball barely get out.

When faced with a ball sitting down in the rough, start by moving the ball back one inch in your stance to promote a steeper angle of attack. Aim slightly left to accommodate the more upright swing path that this adjustment creates. On the backswing, pick the club up more sharply to set yourself up for a descending blow, and then “chop” down on the ball to minimize the effect of the grass. Expect the shot to come out with a lower trajectory and extra rollout once it hits the ground.

6. Chips with fairway wood or hybrid

The fairway wood or hybrid is an excellent choice for getting up and down from just off the green, whether the lie is good, bad or tight. It’s especially useful when the pin is close to the edge of the green. As golf course architecture continues to evolve with collection areas around the green, you’ll see this shot used more and more on Tour.

Here’s how to set up:

By making a putting motion, you’re allowing the extra mass and length of the club to carry the ball onto the green. With practice, you’ll find that minimal effort is required to get the ball to the surface, so I recommend sticking with the same hybrid for consistency. This way, you’ll become familiar with how the club delivers the ball, making it easier to predict the outcome.

This technique is also effective on steep hills or in medium rough, where you just need to nudge the ball slightly and let gravity do the rest. A note of caution: only use this shot for very tight pin placements near the edge of the green. Longer shots require a different set of fundamentals.

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The post Rory McIlroy’s 5 ‘game-changers’ for improving your ball striking appeared first on Golf.

The post Rory McIlroy’s 5 ‘game-changers’ for improving your ball striking appeared first on Golf.

Rory McIlroy grabbed a piece of history over the weekend. With his Masters victory in a playoff over Justin Rose, the Northern Irishman became just the sixth golfer ever to complete the career Grand Slam.

The journey to reach that milestone didn’t come easy. There were plenty of obstacles and heartbreaks along the way. Back when McIlroy completed the first three legs of the Slam in 2014, that would’ve seemed absurd to suggest. With three legs of the Slam complete in just three years, it appeared as though he’d be on golf’s Mt. Rushmore in no time. As we all know now, it wasn’t quite so easy.

In honor of McIlroy’s grand achievement, we are looking back to our October 2014 issue of GOLF Magazine when he shared his five keys for improved ball striking. If you implement them in your own games, we can’t promise you’ll win the Grand Slam — but you will be hitting the ball better than ever. Check them out below.

Rory’s 5 keys for long drives

Michael Bannon is the only coach I’ve ever had. It’s scary — he knows my swing better than I do. So when things started sliding south 18 months ago, he knew exactly what to do: Get back to the basics that rocketed me to No. 1 in he first place, using checkpoints and feels that Michael taught me when I was a little kid. Now my driver, iron and wedge swings are again on autopilot. My performance stats are about the same as last year, but I can sense a difference. Every shot feels flush. Copy my fixes and you, too, can rediscover your best swing.

Game-changer No. 1: Activate your address position

You’d think I’d be able to get into a solid address position without thinking, considering the tens of thousands of swings I’ve made in my lifetime. The truth is that it’s as easy to fall into bad habits here as it is in any other part of your swing. So l work on my address every time I practice. 

The key: Settle in so that your arms hang freely and are far enough in front of you to whip the club through the impact zone without your body getting in the way.

Michael’s fix: A sloppy setup leads to a sloppy swing. The best thing Rory did to improve his address position was to increase his hip tilt. Try this: Get into your setup with your hands on your hips and your knees flexed as shown. Use your fingers to push your hips back. Your rear end should “pop” out a bit, creating a crease in your pants just below your belt. You’re doing it correctly if your belt buckle points just beyond the ball, not straight out in front of you. The right amount of hip hinge stabilizes your turn for a tighter coil during your backswing.

Game-changer No. 2: A 1-piece takeaway

The first two feet of my swing are critical. If I start the club back on plane, I won’t have to reroute it on the way down, so I can just rip it without fearing a mis-hit. Granted, my takeaway isn’t perfect. I occasionally yank the club too far inside (then come over the top in the downswing), or “lift” it up and out (which gets me “trapped” coming down). But I can fix those flaws. 

The key: “Push” the club straight back. Picture a wall running parallel to your toe line and straight up through your hands  As you start your swing, keep your hands and the clubhead on the wall.

Gear

Michael’s fix: Get into your address position without a club, then crisscross your arms, left over right, so your palms face away from each other. Start your swing by pulling your right hand straight back. See how this forces your left shoulder to turn, and how connected your arms feel to your upper body? If you notice the same feeling when you take real swings, you’ll make a perfect takeaway.

Game-changer No. 3: Turn and load

I’m flexible enough to turn as far back as I want without discomfort. In fact, I often turn too much. I can rotate my shoulders past 90 degrees without thinking, which makes it difficult to get everything back to where it needs to be at impact. I’m not doing that as much this season. 

The key: I stop my swing when my left shoulder hits my chin. If that’s plenty of turn for me, then it’s plenty for you. If I stop my shoulder turn at 90 degrees while keeping my right knee flexed — which lets me load a lot of energy — there’s not a par 5 on earth I can’t reach in two. Your swing will feel tighter, not shorter — a great feeling to have.

Michael’s fix: We always work on limiting Rory’s turn, but you should work on rotating more — and not just your shoulders. The next time you practice, turn your lower body more than you normally would. Try to get your belt buckle to point away from the target when your reach the top. This extra hip turn is what allows your shoulders to rotate a full 90 degrees. The only rules? Keep your right knee flexed and your hands on the right side of your head. If your hands end up behind your head, you’ve lost control.

Game-changer No. 4: Hit irons with your lead knee

When I’m hitting driver, reaching a solid W top position is my only goal. If I’m good at the top, all l have to do is unwind and the ball will go far. When the ball’s on the ground instead of teed up, however, there’s an extra step. 

The key: To hit solid irons, move down and forward from the top as you unwind, so that the bottom of your swing occurs slightly in front of the ball. It’s easy to do if you start your downswing by driving your left knee toward the target, then straighten it as you approach impact. This gets your energy and swing power moving in the direction of the hit, so you leave nothing behind.

Michael’s fix: To feel the way Rory leans into his irons, make your regular backswing but allow your left heel to come off the ground as you reach the top. When you start back down, replant your left heel. Do it hard — so hard that you feel your weight move immediately to your left side. Once you plant, push off the ground with your left foot, firming up your left leg. This creates a post strong enough to support a strong turn through the ball.

Game-changer No. 5: Wedge it close with your body

If there’s one area of my game where the stats show obvious improvement, it’s my full wedges. Last year I ranked 153rd in proximity to the pin on shots from 125 to 150 yards. This year I’ve moved up 139 spots to No. 14! And I’m knocking shots from this range almost four feet closer to the hole. 

The key: Move your body and arms as a single unit. This turns your normal power swing into a control swing, and control is far more important than power from short range. Here’s a visual that’ll help: At address, your shoulders and arms form a triangle in front of your chest. Your goal? Keep the triangle intact and in front of your chest from start to finish. It helps to swing with “dead arms” and use your torso, not your legs, as the engine of your swing.

Michael’s fix: To get a feel for connecting your arm swing to your body turn on full wedges, hold a wedge in each hand at address and swing them simultaneously. The trick? Keep the shafts parallel to each other the whole way while also keeping your arms and hands in front of your chest. At the end of your backswing and your finish, both shafts should point straight up and down. If you have trouble, try feeling as though your chest turn is hitting the shot, and that your hands, arms and club are coming along for the ride.

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The post Patrick Reed is within reach of his second Masters title — and so much more appeared first on Golf.

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That’s beyond unlikely.

But here’s what the current Hong Kong Open champion and member of the 4Aces team is actually playing for on Sunday: a chance to play in next month’s PGA Championship. Are the chances remote? Yes, but they exist. And then the U.S. Open in June. And the British Open in July. Followed by …

(your inner drum roll please)

… the triumphant return of Captain America and the Ryder Cup matches at Bethpage Black on Long Island in September.

Is that not what the people want? 

Regardless, it has to be what he wants. 

News

Here’s his Aces profile right off a LIV website: “Reed’s unsmiling, ultra-focused on-course persona has led to him being one of the most misunderstood players in the modern game.”

Misunderstood or not, he has a peculiar standing at Augusta. The past champions at Augusta National are held with obvious reverence by the on-course spectators. You hear it when the players approach the 12th tee. When they walk to the 16th green. When they hole out on 18. One could say, generously, that Reed’s reception was polite and not much more. A couple of hoots as his impressive Saturday round ended with a birdie for 69. Reed’s a Texan by birth and he has lived the Lone Star State, where hooting is a way of life. He does not enjoy the status of other players with a single Masters title: a Fred Couples, a Jordan Spieth, a Jon Rahm. To borrow a favorite phrase of Reed’s favorite golfer, it is what it is.

For access to all of Michael Bamberger’s writing, join InsideGOLF today.

Reed was born in the summer of 1990. He attended Augusta University and his parents lived in Augusta when he won here in 2018, although he was estranged from them at the time. He’s had rules incidents that have played out on TV for the whole world to see. Some of his Ryder Cup gesturing could be described as way, way over-the-top. For whatever reason, Tiger Woods always seemed to like him. The quality of Reed’s golf certainly was part of it, and Reed’s me-against-the-world mentality added to it, too. When Woods was the playing captain of the 2019 Presidents Cup team, Reed was one of his captain’s picks.

Earlier in 2019, Reed, with his new green coat, bought dinner for Woods and every other living former Masters winner at the Tuesday-night Champions Dinner. This year, Reed was Scottie Scheffler’s guest. “It was different,” Reed said, commenting on Woods’s absence from the dinner this year. “You always want all the champions there. He’s a huge part of that Champions Dinner and he’s a huge part of golf.”

As a kid, Reed caught Tiger Woods at the height of Tiger’s immense powers. He was 6 when Woods won the 1997 Masters, and he was 23 when he played in his first Masters in 2014. He used to wear red shirts and black pants on Sunday, just like his hero. 

News

It was (to some) a shock to see Reed jump from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, given his allegiance to Woods, and Tiger’s loyalty to Reed. Woods’s allegiances, after all, have been to the tour on which he has won 82 times. Maybe Reed is misunderstood. Maybe that attachment to Woods is more than we might think. Reed said early Saturday night that he will likely wear black pants and a black shirt on Sunday at Augusta, with his LIV and 4Aces logos on display for all to see.

Reed, who is making his 12th Masters start, plays this course incredibly well. After his 2018 win, he’s had three top-10 finishes, and a tie for 12th last year. Reed was asked if he feels like he’s under the radar here, at this 89th Masters, despite being a past champ.

“I would say a little bit,” Reed said. Through three rounds, he’s six shots behind the leader Rory McIlroy, who is 12 under. But only two other players are ahead of Reed, Bryson DeChambeau and Corey Conners. “It’s kind of one of those things, with Rory playing the way he’s playing. I don’t mind flying under the radar and having a chance.”

He’s 34 and is No. 116 on the Official World Golf Ranking, the number deflated by the fact that his LIV play cannot improve his placement on the list. He probably has a better chance of making the U.S. Ryder Cup team than winning this Masters. That’s not really the point. The point is that Patrick Reed, whether you root for him or not, did not go LIV and disappear. Going into Sunday at the year’s first major, there are three players ahead of him, three major championships after this one, one Ryder Cup. You’re not done with him and he’s not done with us, or with golf at its best.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

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The post 7 tips for reading greens more effectively appeared first on Golf.

The post 7 tips for reading greens more effectively appeared first on Golf.

With the incredible undulation and speed of the Augusta greens on display this week, it’s a timely and important topic. Here are six practical strategies you can start using right away to improve your ability to read breaks, slopes, and subtle contours on the putting surface.

1. Don’t wait until you reach the green

Start reading the green as you approach it. Often, the slope and contours are easier to see from a distance. Ask yourself, “Where would water flow if I poured it on the green?” This can help you determine the overall tilt. Also, keep in mind that most greens are designed to slope from back to front as this helps with visibility from the fairway and drainage.

2. Approach the green so you walk past the hole

Whenever possible, park the cart or choose an approach route that forces you to walk past the hole on your way to your ball. This gives you a valuable opportunity to observe slopes, elevation changes, and distances from multiple angles. It’s often difficult to get a full sense of tilt and break from just standing behind your ball.

3. Determine if the putt Is uphill, flat or downhill first

When facing mid-to-long putts, controlling distance and speed is more important than perfecting the line. Your first task should be to assess whether your putt is uphill, downhill, or flat. This will dictate your stroke length and pace.

For example, an uphill putt will require a longer backstroke to deliver more energy, while downhill putts—like those seen at Augusta—call for a shorter, more controlled stroke. Watch how players adjust their stroke size for those lightning-fast, downhill putts.

4. Look wide to read the break

When trying to determine break direction and amount, don’t just look along the putting line. Instead, look wider—about 5 feet to the left and right of your intended line. Ask yourself, “Which side is higher?” The ball will naturally break away from the higher side.

Once you identify the high side, estimate the degree of tilt. The more severe the slope and the greater the distance, the more the ball will break.

5. Divide long putts into sections

For longer putts, the green may have multiple undulations or changing slopes. Trying to read it as one continuous break can be overwhelming. Instead, divide the putt into sections—typically the first half and the second half—and read each separately.

For instance, if the first part breaks right to left and the second part breaks left to right, they may cancel each other out. But remember, the ball breaks more as it slows near the hole, so the final few feet are especially important.

6. Don’t ignore break on short putts

Too many golfers step up to short putts assuming they’re straight. That’s a costly mistake. Almost every putt breaks to some degree, and underestimating this can lead to frustrating misses.

Take a moment to walk behind your ball and feel the slope with your feet. This quick read can help you aim more accurately and dramatically improve your short-putt conversion.

7. Use a Green Book

Tools like the GolfLogix Green Book can help you visualize breaks more clearly—even on courses you know well. These guides provide precise mapping of slopes and contours, and I’m often surprised by how much they reveal, even on familiar greens.

Improving your green reading isn’t just about seeing the break—it’s about knowing when and how to look. Practice these habits consistently, and you’ll start seeing better lines, better speed, and more putts dropping.

You can grab a GolfLogix Green Book at the link below.

GolfLogix Green Reading Book

Order customized Green Books for your golf shop, next tournament, or club event. From the front cover to unique leather covers, we will tailor the design just for you.

Buy Now from greenbooks.com

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“Because of the size of our field this year and also because of the commentary in recent weeks, the subject of pace of play is top of mind. Playing without undue delay, as the rules and the game’s traditions dictate, is an essential skill of golf at all levels. Recognizing the challenges professionals face each week, I also believe pace of play is an important element of the examination of the world’s best players. Golf is a special game because it requires us to be considerate while also being competitive. Respecting other people’s time, including, importantly, the fans who support the game, is a fundamental courtesy. Therefore, I want to encourage continued dialogue on this topic, especially at the professional levels which serve as the most visible representation of our sport.”

For Ridley, reading from a crafted statement? That is screaming. And if you need a CliffsNotes version, here it is: “Golf, at every level, is played at an obscenely slow pace and it is choking the life out of the game.”

After he read his formal statement, Ridley, per custom, took questions from reporters. You may have to cover your ears as you read this exchange:

Reporter: “I’m wondering what your reaction was on Sunday afternoon when you saw a little mite of a golfer use AimPoint, and take some time to do it. And then, having lined up her putt like that, she then went on a tour of the putt and calling in at every compass point on the way around and taking perhaps as much as two minutes. I’m wondering what your reaction to that was.

“Secondly, in view of your comments now about pace of play, I’m wondering whether in the spirit of the [club’s] great founder, who said so much about etiquette, that there’s even the thought that you might lead the way in trying to encourage these young players to get a move on.”

That is, Bob Jones.

People laughed not because it was ha-ha funny but because it was so deeply true.

Ridley’s response:

“Well, I think that example really illustrates the problem, and unfortunately, these young people are looking to their heroes who play the game each week for a living as to how they’re going to approach competitively playing the game.

‘I think it’s been a very good thing that knowledgeable people, such as Dottie Pepper, have commented on this. Recently, she made the point, which I alluded to in my comments, about respect for others, including, most particularly the people who watch the game, the fans. So I think maybe this might be a call to action that perhaps we haven’t seen in the past.

“I’ve spoken about it a number of times. We will be dealing with that issue this week. I’m not going to tell you that I’m going to be happy with the results, but I think I am encouraged that the PGA Tour is doing some things, experimenting with some timing procedures that might be a little bit more aggressive than we’ve seen in the past.

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“As it relates to the Drive, Chip & Putt, I too noticed exactly what you noticed. It’s interesting, but every phase of the competition has the same length chip and the same length putt, so it’s really not necessary to pace that off. They know how many yards that is. Nevertheless, that’s what they were doing. I think it’s safe to assume that next year at the Drive, Chip & Putt you will see some sort of time limitations placed on the competition.

“Thank you for that question.”

Translation: “The pace of place is A JOKE. We can improve the kiddie pace of play here. But until the PGA and LPGA tours makes ready-golf the norm, by way of fines or clock or through social stigma, nothing will change.”

Ridley had one more comment about pace of play:

“We’re starting out with a twosome, which always kind of helps get things moving. And that’ll put a little more pressure, I think, on the groups that follow because as long as you keep up with the group ahead of you, then you’re going to be okay, and that group is obviously going to be playing quicker.”

This is a well-meaning fantasy. The first group off, at 7:40 a.m., is the twosome of Davis Riley and Patton Kizzire. They might play in four hours. The average pace for the threesomes to follow is likely to be well over five hours. Afternoon winds and crusty greens and self-importance and years of slow-play custom only slow down the pace. On Friday, the first group of the day is a threesome.

This problem is so intractable that nothing, of course, can change in a day. No single comment by a commentator, even as one as knowledgeable as Pepper, is likely to have any impact. Would eliminating the yardage book and giving every caddie a rangefinder speed the pace of play? Yes, but it will never happen. Would Tour courses, including Augusta National, that top-out at 7,000 yards speed the pace of play? Yes, but that will never happen. Will the LPGA’s pace-of-play initiatives, announced last month and related to a shot clock and penalty strokes, improve the pace on the women’s tour? Yes, but it is unlikely to have an impact beyond it. Unless men’s professional golf as its highest levels does the same thing in a meaningful way.

Can you imagine Augusta National with officials in the forests looking at their watches?

The spirit of the great founder, Mr. Bob Jones, played at a superb pace. Of course, he learned the game from a Scotsman, in an era when golf was an ancillary part of life, not an all-day activity. Times under the pines — that does not seem Jones. And at Augusta, the question is always, What would Bob do? Ridley has a plan to get the kids to pick up the pace. The next issue will be to get the grown-ups to do the same.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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The fans and the moment put the players on edge, and the players and the moment return the favor. The ghost of Bob Jones puts everybody on edge, along with the tee shot on 18 and the prospect of a basement interview in Butler Cabin. That ghost hovers low; that chute on 18 is skinny; that basement gets crowded.

Here’s Francesco Molinari, Sunday morn, 2019 Masters, putting on his work clothes with a two-shot lead. Dark pants, off-white shirt — this is not a flashy man. He looks at himself in a mirror and an involuntary question crosses his mind: How would these colors go with the world’s most famous green sport coat? “Of course, you don’t want to think about that,” Molinari said in an interview several months after that Masters. “But you do.”

You haven’t hit a shot and the tourney is playing with your head.

For a player in contention, the claustrophobia can set in on the first tee. No, before that. It can set in on the practice green behind the first tee. No, before even that. It can start in the clubhouse. Yep, there. You can’t breathe, your skin is clammy and an obsessive plea is running through your head like a Norfolk Southern freight train chugging through downtown Augusta: Please don’t look at me.

This isn’t everybody, but it is a couple dozen players, early on Sunday afternoon: You’ve been to the range and now you’re in the clubhouse, only to use the loo. The clock is ticking toward your tee time, toward Jim Nantz’s syrupy 2 p.m. greeting (Grammy’s watching at home), toward 7 p.m. and the start of 60 Minutes, when this peculiar and exquisite torture will be over and the wait for next year will begin.

And now there’s this nice clubby man in his green coat looking your way. His wife in her yellow floral shirt, looking your way. Their semi-grown kids tagging along like prep-school Mini-Mes. And your worst fear is coming true: The guy is talking to you. He’s saying some wildly appropriate thing like, “Good luck out there today. We’re rooting for ya.” You really don’t know or care what he’s saying. You’re shrinking into yourself.

You know who you are. You’re Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, various others in Category 1. You’re excitable and emotional, and this Sunday-at-Augusta, I-can’t-breathe thing is in your DNA. Or maybe you’re in Category 2, with Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau, excitable and emotional like your brethren in C1 but more determined to hide it. You are not in Category 3, with Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka and Cameron Young and others who can make the Leaders on Parade walk from nine green to 10 tee and barely feel a thing.

But Tiger, man — what gives? You’ve done the Sunday-at-the-Masters thing 24 times. On most of those Sundays, you have killed your pre-round warm-up. You’ve looked good on the putting green. But then you make that walk through that allée of people from the practice green to the first tee and something happens.

We get it. It’s intimidating. You’re surrounded, on that tee. Both sides of the fairway are lined with fans, some with binoculars, and they’re staring holes through you. There are members and guests on the second-floor porch in the clubhouse standing and watching. You’re perspiring, and we really do get it. The real, this-counts world is crashing in and there’s nowhere to hide. Your record, your experience, your exemplary warm-up suddenly don’t mean a thing. In that setting, Tiger Woods would hit, at least on a few memorable occasions, some of the most wildly offline shots you could ever imagine. Sunday at Augusta. You can say this without having a doctorate in clinical psychology: It had to be the stress.

If you have one, as Bhrett McCabe does, you can say a lot more. McCabe is a psychologist who tells the golfers he works with — Jon Rahm, Sam Burns, Billy Horschel — that they need to start thinking about Sunday long before the tournament begins. “By Sunday, it’s too late,” McCabe said recently. “Sunday at the Masters is Alabama and Michigan at the Rose Bowl. It’s an elevated experience.”

On the 6th hole, the downhill par 3, everybody — players, caddies, Pinkertons, fans, tournament officials, camera operators — comes together in the name of ball-in-the-air awe. The green is 100 feet below the tee and the pin is on a wee shelf in the back right. The face-meets-ball acoustics are perfect, but it doesn’t matter, because now that ball is in the air with a mind of its own. For about four seconds, there are thousands of eyeballs on a single golf ball and nobody is saying boo. “There’s total, complete silence,” Jim “Bones” Mackay, the former caddie and now NBC Sports on-course reporter, said recently. “It’s so intense.” And it is. Everybody is in the moment. There are no cellphones. There are no distractions. There’s nothing but that ball in the air.

The next par 3, the short 12th, is even more intense, because, by now, it’s getting late. The fellas come off the 11th green and look left (all together now) to see what the flag on 12 is doing. What the players don’t want to do is look straight ahead at the 12th tee. That’s because the box is small and the crowd is thick. Thick and almost too respectful: the opera-house clapping for contenders and past champions, the deathly silence when a player is over his ball. You don’t like the tee height but you really don’t want to start over. The tension can mess with you. “Twelve,” said Tom Watson, “is the most stressful shot on the golf course.” Does Tom Watson strike you as the sort of person who uses that word casually?

Then there are two moments of exquisite privacy, for the players and their caddies, the 12th green and the 13th tee. On 12, you can actually hear a birdie putt (rare) go in. That’s because the nearest cheering spectators are almost 200 yards away and it takes a split second for their hysteria to reach you.

Then your last break of the day, in the back-of-the-box privacy of the 13th tee. You could practically shout over to somebody playing next door at the Country Club and ask for a hot dog. There’s a restroom back there, the last best one of the day. There’s a bench. There’s often a wait. You might eat something, drink something, do a deep-breath thing. You’re literally in the shadows. For a brief while there, nobody can see you. Then you reemerge into the afternoon sunshine. For the rest of the day, you’re on display, like a movie star at an awards show. It’s showtime, Augusta-style.

You rinse one, playing into the 15th green, and the gallery in the grandstand offers a mournful play-by-play chorus, hope segueing into despair: Oh! Ooh-oh-oh-oh? Urrrrrr.

And sometimes — sometimes — the players become fans. The players, every last one of them, grew up watching the tourney. They know what it’s like, to be a fan. On Masters Sunday, they hear what the spectators hear. Brooks Koepka, Ian Poulter and Webb Simpson were on the 17th tee when Woods played his tee shot on the par-3 16th, when Woods was contending for his fifth coat. Verne was calling it on CBS for Grammy at home, and Michael Phelps, lanky retired swimmer, was about six feet behind Woods, in the first row of spectators, separated from the action by a thin rope. Tiger’s ball took the green’s slope and started trickling down the hill and for a while there it looked and sounded like it might go in. Koepka and Poulter and Simpson heard it all. Walking down 17, Koepka said, “That was f—ing awesome.” Koepka. You wouldn’t think it.

Woods won that year, six years ago. That’s how it goes every year. One guy wins. The other players, pretty much, get out fast, returning to their lives and their regrets, getting ahead of the crowds, leaving the hysteria behind.

Until next April.

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Statistically speaking, the two most difficult holes at Augusta National, consulting stats that go all the way back to 1942, are Nos. 10 (0.298 str0kes above par) and 11 (0.304). Add in the peril that awaits on No. 12 (a 150-yard par 4 that plays just as difficult as the 240-yard par-3 4th, according to the numbers) and it’s not hard to accept that getting off to a good start at Augusta National, especially on Sunday, is often more important than how you finish. But, in a word, it is hard.

Any golf fan knows what the leaders need to do on Nos. 13 and 15 (two of the most beautiful — and birdie-able — par 5s in major championship golf ), but for many decades those watching on TV could only see the back nine. Today, thankfully, you can see it all, and, if you watch closely this year, you’ll realize that the front nine — specifically, the first five holes — are the ones that truly make or break a player’s chances.

Adam Scott, the 2013 champion knows. In a recent interview with GOLF’s Claire Rogers, the Aussie revealed that the most nerve-racking shot in golf, year-in and year-out, is the first at Augusta. And that’s on Thursday.

I’m lucky in that my primary teaching location, Fusion ATL, is, as the name suggests, Augusta-adjacent in Atlanta. Many of my students are Augusta National members. I’ve coached some of the guys you have seen or will see play for a green jacket. And I’ve had the honor of playing there many times. Like many of my GOLF Top 100 Teacher colleagues, I know the place well. And each time I visit or walk with a player/student, I’m reminded of the same thing: The holes most fans know the least about are the ones they need to get to know better. They’re nasty. And they hit you right from the start.

No. 1: Tea Olive (Par-4)

Most golf courses open with somewhat of a “warm handshake.” Tee it up and have fun. Augusta doesn’t. The opener is a killer and has become increasingly difficult over the years with the addition of a few extra yards — and a lot of trees.

The view is nice: When you look to your left, you see the expanse of most of the entire property. Phenomenal. As you turn your gaze back to the fairway … well, not so nice.

The trees begin roughly 150 yards off the tee box, and the hole gently moves to the right. But I wouldn’t call it a dogleg, because the tee shot is pretty much straight. The best golfers in the world now can hit high fades without blinking, as six-time winner Jack Nicklaus did. Maybe you’ve heard that Augusta National favors a draw player. Not anymore. Big, long fades are the shots du jour come April in Georgia. No. 1 is a medium-length par 4 by today’s major standards, but, as you watch in person or from your couch, count how many players use anything but driver off the first tee. You’ll use the fingers only on one hand.

The bunker on the right side of the fairway on No. 1, like many bunkers at Augusta, has very clean edges. But it’s deep, which limits your options when going for the green if and when you find it. Point is, there isn’t much bailout on ANGC’s opener.

Players who get conservative off the tee are left with an extremely long second. No fun. But, say a player hits a great drive. They’re in the fairway staring at a mid-iron to the green. Here’s where you first learn what Augusta’s all about. The greens look big, as the one on No. 1 does, but really they’re only as big as the area directly surrounding the pin. Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones — geniuses. 

Par is birdie on this hole. Players who card four here are likely to gain a half shot on the entire field over four days. Maybe that doesn’t seem like a lot, but it adds up. And this is just the opener. 

No. 2: Pink Dogwood (Par-5)

On to the 2nd, Pink Dogwood. Beautiful sounding name. Beautiful hole. From the tee box you think it’s a dogleg, but it isn’t. You’ve got to hit it pretty straight off the tee — then the dogleg comes into play.

It’s a par 5. It’s early in the round. It’s potentially a birdie hole for sure. But it’s also tricky. There’s a creek that runs along the left-hand side of the hole that most fans don’t know about. But the bunker on the right—that’s the scary thing. As you stand on the tee, it’s the only thing you really see. Smart players, many of whom have green jackets in their closets, have approached the tee shot on No. 2 with the same thought: Be aggressive, but choose a conservative target. Sounds simple, but this kind of game management takes discipline. The best line: just off the left edge of the bunker. If the ball draws a little, great. If it doesn’t—and if you’re long enough—no biggie either. But for years players have thought they needed to carve something special here. You don’t. Watch Bryson or Ludvig: They’ll just pound it here.

No. 3: Flowering Peach (Par-4)

The 3rd hole at Augusta, Flowering Peach, is a fantastic, short-ish par 4. What’ll be interesting to watch this year is that the tree in the right half of the fairway is no longer there (thanks to Hurricane Helene). It was, for years, the only thing players had to worry about.

When I first played Augusta, decades ago, nobody hit driver on No. 3. Not only because of that tree but the bunkers on the left, which loomed just in driver range. In many ways, the inherent danger has probably messed up a few players over the years, derailing their chances of winning at Augusta on what should be a very simple hole. This year, take note of how many players hit pitch shots into the 3rd green. We all know how Augusta has tried to “Tiger-proof ” the course, but here’s an example where length is your friend, not some unique ability to carve a fairway wood or long iron to avoid the bunkers or the tree that may or may not be there come this Masters. Today’s players realize that hitting it as close to the green — instead of laying up to a preferred yardage — is the best route to a green jacket, especially on No. 3.

No. 4: Flowering Crabapple (Par-3)

Players reach the first par 3 at Augusta National on No. 4. The name of the hole is Flowering Crab Apple. Perfect, because it sounds sweet, but crab apples are actually very sour. It plays 240 yards — driver for you and me, but, for the competitors, it’s more like a 4- or 5-iron. Again, here’s where power pays off. If you had to guess which par 3, the 240-yard 4th or the 155- yard 12th, has the lower scoring aver – age, what would you guess? I’ll spare you the Google search: The average score on each hole since 1942 is exactly the same, give or take a decimal point.

No. 5: Magnolia (Par-4)

Now, No. 5. Players are about an hour into their rounds. Nobody used to talk about the 5th until ANGC significantly lengthened it a few years back, adding some 40 yards. For years it was a hole that simply was the one you played after No. 4 and before you teed off on No. 6.

Now, it’s a breath-taker. It’s beautiful, but it’s hard. Like Nos. 10 and 11, the goal here is to simply hold serve, which is what each of the top-five finishers (Scheffler, Åberg, Fleetwood, Homa and Morikawa) did at last year’s Masters. (DeChambeau, who placed sixth, actually birdied the thing.) At one point in tournament history, players statistically carded an average of par on this hole. Since the changes, it’s now, coincidentally, the fifth hardest hole at ANGC, averaging 0.266 strokes over par.

So how to win a green jacket? As ever, dominate the par 5s. Make it through Amen Corner. And now … manage what’s the most unheralded and least-known part of the course: the starting five. They offer no mercy and few roars. They favor length over shot-shaping. My advice? Bet on a bomber.

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When the Eisenhower Tree, a tall pine on 17 that was smack-dab in slicing range for the president’s tee shots, was fatally damaged in a 2014 ice storm, there was a wake for it. Billy Payne, then the club’s chairman, offered a solemn statement in a news release that read like a quote in an obit. The tree itself was an organ donor. Its wood was used in a remodeling project of the club’s legendary wine cellar.

In a far more consequential way, Payne’s successor, Fred Ridley, has had his share of tree issues, too, most particularly after Hurricane Helene raced through Augusta in late September. The club’s highest priority, Ridley said in the storm’s immediate aftermath, was to help the thousands of Augustans whose lives were turned upside-down by the wind and rain Helene brought to Richmond County. The picture painted through recent interviews, with a meteorologist and a handful of Augustans from different walks of life, reveals a post-storm city that will never fully recover, just as downtown Augusta never fully recovered from a 1970 race riot.

Reforestation projects are best measured in half-century reports. Tens of thousands of downed trees across Augusta have contributed to the despair. For a hot city like Augusta with air-quality issues and regular heat-advisory warnings — all through late spring, summer and early fall there are numerous days when the afternoon high is way north of 90 degrees — trees are life-sustaining.

What the January wildfires were to Pacific Palisades, in Los Angeles, Helene was to Augusta. In the grand scheme of things, moving the 2025 Genesis Invitational from Riviera to Torrey Pines is of no consequence. Of course, if you’re the host of that tournament, as Tiger Woods is, you can’t not be consumed by the fire’s disruption. But Woods sounded all the right notes as the fires raged, just as Ridley did in the immediate aftermath of Helene.

Those events brought to mind the 1989 Oakland-San Francisco World Series, disrupted by a fatal earthquake. Fay Vincent, baseball’s new commissioner, said then, “Our modest little game doesn’t mean much at this time.” But the show, always, does go on. After a 10-day delay, the series continued. The A’s won in four. Ludvig Aberg won the old L.A. Open in San Diego. By Sunday night, an exhausted player will be wearing a green coat in Butler Cabin at the conclusion of this 90th Masters, and nobody will be talking about downed trees and Helene’s wrath.

But Augusta’s tree issues won’t get tabled. That will be true at Augusta National, at neighboring Augusta Country Club, at the Augusta Municipal Golf Course and across the thousands of acres managed by Augusta’s Parks & Recreation department. For the first time in years, you can see the roof of the Augusta National clubhouse from the halfway house beyond the seventh green at the Augusta Country Club, a half-mile or so away. Does it matter? Of course not. But it is a thing.

The Country Club has a gorgeous, playable Old South course (zoysia fairways) that is at the center of Augusta’s upper-crust social life. (Very social.) The club lost approximately 1,000 trees in the storm, and now there are glimpses of its younger neighbor, on the other side of Rae’s Creek. Before last fall’s 100-year storm, the far end of the driving range at the Country Club was defined by a wall of stately trees. Now there are holes in that wall, and you can see some of the modest homes of Augusta’s historic Sand Hills neighborhood. Jim Dent grew up in Sand Hills, as did many old-time Augusta Country Club and Augusta National caddies.

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A few miles away, The Patch — the Augusta muni — lost even more trees, maybe as many as 2,000, by one estimate. There has been a minimal amount of tree work there because the Patch (nicknamed for a vegetable garden near its pro shop) has been closed since Jan. 1. The course is undergoing a soup-to-nuts renovation project that is part of a philanthropic effort spearheaded by the Augusta National leadership. There are Patch regulars who are dubious about this ambitious project for a modest city-owned course. They liked the course, in all its tilted-fairway, tree-choked funkiness, as it was. Regardless, Helene rendered the course changed forever. There now will be fewer opportunities to make a “barky,” a par after hitting a tree, first cousin to the sandy.

As for Augusta National, the consensus ballpark number of lost trees by way of Helene is 900. Of course, Augusta being Augusta, a precise number will never be known. In the years after Tiger Woods’s 12-shot win at the 1997 Masters, the club would highlight the planting of a tree here and a tree there, in the name of strategy. It added up to 23 trees, something like that. Woods has said over the years that it seems more like a thousand. Trees define the tee shots on 2 and 3. The tee shots on 11 and 18 emerge from a corridor of trees. You could airmail your tee shot in 12 into a stand of trees. It’s been done before.

There are homeowners in Richmond County and the counties that surround it who want to blame Augusta National for the long waits they have endured to get tree-removal crews to their homes. They believe that Augusta National, with its deep pockets, bought up all the local talent in its efforts to remove and replace felled trees.

It’s a theory, but not likely a true one. Augusta National, with its deep rainy-day funds and national database, brought in crews from all over the country to get the course ready for member play and for this 90th Masters.

Across Augusta, it’s a sport, talking about what goes on at “the National,” and behind its boundary walls, made from cement painted green and white, metal chain-link fences covered by green tarps and thousands of trees, some hardwoods, most of them pines, all of them offering shade, oxygen and privacy. The tee markers at Augusta are made from notched hickory limbs. Ike’s nemesis tree was a loblolly. The massive old tree between the backdoor of the clubhouse and the first tee is a live oak. The long driveway that takes you from Washington Road to the clubhouse is lined by magnolias. Trees are sacred at Augusta National.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com

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