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On the PGA Tour, no two practice putting routines are the same

Sun, 12 May 2013 16:24:00 GMT

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Want to putt like a PGA Tour pro? Maybe you should try copying their practice routines. There's just a slight problem. Which one?

Watch the action at the practice round of a tour event for any amount of time and you'll quickly realize that no two routines are the same. Andres Romero spent most of his time putting six footers with an alignment aide. Despite missing one in about 10 minutes, he didn't move. In contrast, Bubba Watson was all over the practice green at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday, probably not a surprise to many considering his jittery tendencies on the golf course.

Even the way these guys start practicing is all over the place. Adam Scott begins by hitting a few with just his left side. Not surprisingly, he's not nearly as accurate anchoring that long putter without any help from his right hand. On the other, um, hand, Tiger Woods has long incorporated a drill where he only uses his right hand.

The list goes on. Steve Stricker steps onto the green and promptly starts rolling -- and holing -- 50-footers. Matt Kuchar puts a tee in the ground and attempts a bunch from close range and from different angles. Jason Dufner hits putts with a 5-wood before switching back to the club he'll actually use during his round. And Angel Cabrera? Well, he doesn't seem to have a routine.

Then there's Brandt Snedeker, who starts by trying putts in the 20 to 25-foot range. Perhaps that seems a little boring, but he also happened to lead the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting last year. Hey, if it works for him. . .

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The Players: Five questions for Saturday at TPC Sawgrass

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:36:00 GMT

By Alex Myers

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Two days are in the books at TPC Sawgrass and they have produced no shortage of storylines. What are some burning questions entering Day 3? We take a look:

1. What can we expect from the final pairing?
If history is any indicator, then Tiger Woods is a heavy favorite. In 19 times being paired together, the 14-time major champion has a scoring edge of 69.84 to 71.95 over Sergio Garcia, who leads by one after 36 holes. Of course, their most famous pairing came at the 2006 British Open at Hoylake when Garcia's outfit made him look like a human banana and Woods crushed him like one. But no matter what the clothing or the result, we just hope we get to see it unfold today, which leads us to our next question. . .

2. What's the weather forecast?
Not good. After two days of perfect weather, unfortunately, the weekend looks shaky. There's a 50% chance of showers for most of the day, with 2-6 p.m. being the most likely period when TPC Sawgrass will get hit. In other words, the worst possible time.

3. Can Kevin Chappell keep this up?
Considering he's only seriously contended on the weekend once at a PGA Tour event -- losing by one shot to Brendan Steele at the 2011 Valero Texas Open -- probably not. Making things tougher is the fact the final four players teeing off at TPC Sawgrass will be Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Chappell. But if anyone in this situation ever needs inspiration, they just need to look up what happened here in 2002 when Craig Perks pulled off the monumental upset. Yeah, that Craig Perks.

4. Who is the most dangerous player not in one of the final groups?
How about Adam Scott? The Aussie is still flying high following his first major win at Augusta and he's playing well again on a course that produced the previous biggest win of his career in 2004. Scott enters Saturday four shots behind after a 68, but he could be a lot closer having played the four par 5s at even par on Friday. No Masters winner has ever finished better than T-14 at that year's Players since the tournament moved to May, but none of those guys have been as consistently good from tee to green, either.

5. Which under-the-radar guy you should root for?
Ryan Palmer is an easy choice. The three-time PGA Tour winner played the gutsiest round on Friday, firing a 69 despite finding out that one of his best friends was killed in a car accident the night before. Palmer wore the initials "CA" on his hat in honor of Clay Aderholt and was able to keep his emotions in check well enough to enter today T-6. Perhaps playing golf is his best distraction right now.

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Anchored Putting: Would You Or Wouldn't You?

Mike Stachura — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

With the decision on anchoring seemingly imminent, a question of how average golfers will respond.

Rory McIlroy's secret to major success? Adele

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:45:00 GMT

By Alex Myers

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Predictably, at his Players pre-tournament press conference, Rory McIlroy was asked about Adam Scott's quick bounceback from blowing last year's British Open to winning this year's Masters. Not as expected was the recently-turned-24-year-old's candid response to how he copes with major pressure.

"I'm sure Adam thinks differently to what I do in terms of when you get into that position," said McIlroy, who famously came back from a Sunday collapse at the 2011 Masters to win that year's U.S. Open by eight shots. "What do you do; what do you think; how do you feel; do you try to think of something else; do you sing a song? Whatever it is you do, everyone treats it differently. But I think you have to go through those experiences to be able to handle it better in the future."

Move aside, sports psychologists. Apparently, the key to controlling your nerves is singing a song. So what tune got McIlroy over the hump at Congressional for his first major win?

"It was Adele," the two-time major winner said, not elaborating on the specific track by the Grammy-winning singer. "I didn't sing it quite as well as her, but it played every morning on the radio, so it was a song stuck in my head this week."

Wow. Using a song that is stuck in your head to your advantage? That's impressive.

What's not as impressive is McIlroy's three missed cuts in three appearances at the Players. However, he had an equally as honest answer to the question of why he's struggled at TPC Sawgrass:

"OK, the first year I came here I was in Vegas the week before. That didn't help. The second year was my 21st birthday. That didn't help. And last year I don't have an excuse. Last year I just didn't play well."

Or perhaps he just didn't have the right song for the occasion.

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Video: Adam Scott on Adam Scott

GolfDigest.com — Fri, 03 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Still basking in his dramatic win at the Masters, Adam Scott reflected on his go-to dish, his hidden talents, and his renewed passion for golf when Golf Digest caught up with the Aussie superstar at his home in the Bahamas on April 29, 2013.

If we're to discuss growing the game, we must look at those discussing it

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:23:00 GMT

By Derek Evers

More than a week has passed. The furor has died down. Everyone within golf's inner circle is breathing a sigh of relief that Tiger Woods didn't win the Masters. And thanks to a dramatic finish by a guy with movie star good looks, there were plenty of feel-good storylines to bury the lede on Woods' drop fiasco at the Masters. But as great as Adam Scott's sudden death playoff victory over Angel Cabrera was, the game of golf could use a mulligan.

It's time we turn the camera lens on ourselves. Photo: Karim Jaafar/Getty Images

It's easy to reflect on the excitement surrounding Tiger Woods' penalty -- as many have -- from a historical perspective: What would the greats of past generations do if in his situation? Would they withdraw despite being assessed a two-stroke penalty because it would preserve golf's tradition of "values"? Did Tiger Woods miss an opportunity to grow the game?

Yet, to talk about "growing the game of golf" requires an outsider's point of view -- an outsider who views much of the dialogue around golf as an echo chamber of (mostly) white (mostly) men questioning Tiger's mistake from a preemptive position of integrity.

I won't attempt to rehash everything that occurred on Friday and Saturday at the Masters, but if you're looking for a refresher, you can start here. As Nick Faldo repeated throughout the televised coverage, the modern era has given us a lot of gray area for rules interpretations. What is not in dispute, however, is that golf owes Tiger Woods -- at the very least -- the benefit of the doubt.

For better or worse, the 14-time major champion remains the face of the game to everyone without vested interest. And yet, as a thirtysomething fan holding the remote control, I watched Fred Ridley's press conference on Saturday morning devolve into a witchhunt for a scapegoat as those being paid to cover the sport demanded to know why the world's most famous golfer wasn't being kicked out of the world's most famous golf tournament. It was enough to make you think he was but a cog in the sport, not the man solely responsible for putting their stories on the front page.

These same journalists would later pen how ratings of the final round were up 26%, yet gloss over how it peaked about an hour before the telecast ended when Tiger's round was finishing up. This, by the way, has been case in every Masters he's played in. Think Adam Scott will captivate audiences that way? By comparison, weekend ratings for the years Zach Johnson (11.9) and Trevor Immelman (11.0) won the Masters surpassed the 10.2 ratings share we enjoyed in 2013. Not coincidentally, Tiger factored prominently in both of those final rounds.

Yet, despite every panicked cry about the state of the game, when given the opportunity to showcase the inclusion we want to believe golf employs, we step all over ourselves in an attempt to show how righteous we are.

Deadspin's Drew Magary accurately summed up the culpability when saying "Golf's self-congratulating rule-keeping is dumb. . . To anyone existing outside of that bubble, golf has a reputation for being elitist, racist, sexist, wasteful, expensive, and dickish -- a game played by cheaters, liars, crooks, frauds, and brats. It has no more integrity than any other sport, and this little Tiger episode has forcefully demonstrated the disconnect between how golf people feel about their sport and the reality of how it's played and by whom."

"Nicklaus and Jones would've withdrawn," tweeted one reporter. Another blamed the disconnect on a younger generation that doesn't feel a responsibility to adhere to golf's traditions. And Saturday's live telecast opened with 30-minutes of Jim Nantz in the Butler Cabin explaining why Tiger Woods was allowed to keep playing, paying no mind to the fact that Woods was actually on the course at that time. As someone following the story all morning, it seemed redundant. As a casual fan who was forced to wait until 3pm to see live coverage, it played out like water torture. It was enough to make you turn off the TV and go outside... And we might have... If Tiger Woods wasn't playing.

When the joy over Australia's first Masters victory subsides, and the conversation returns to the state of the game, I would implore everyone who reports on golf for a living to imagine themselves as someone who lives outside of golf's "bubble" fraternity -- and there are many -- watching the television coverage and seeing the game's only true superstar getting interrogated for hitting not one, but two shots of impeccable precision. In essence, for doing what he is paid millions of dollars to do. Even in loss, Tiger Woods demonstrated he is still the best at wielding a stick at a little white ball, and that is all anyone outside the game cares about.

-- Derek Evers is a Contributing Editor for GolfDigest.com.

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Out With The Old: Last-minute equipment tweaks common, even at majors

Derek Evers — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:41:00 GMT

By E. Michael Johnson Draw it up: Tianlang Guan played two new fairway woods. Photo by David Cannon/Getty ImagesYou might think players would be reluctant to make equipment changes at the year's first major....

The Coolest Golfers Of All Time

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

As Fred Couples enters the Hall of Fame, we salute those golfers who have that certain something

Big In Japan: Uniqlo hit the jackpot when it signed Adam Scott

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:40:00 GMT

By Marty Hackel

Thrilling as Adam Scott's victory was in his native Australia, there were some very happy golf fans in Japan, too. Just days before the Masters, Tokyo-based retail giant Uniqlo (you-NEE-klo) signed on as one of Scott's sponsors. Scott wore the company's shirts, pants, belts and logo all week. Even his underwear was Uniqlo! The company produces its clothing and sells it exclusively at reasonable prices.

You can wear Uniqlo designs all the time -- on and off course -- so to me that's additional value. I've shopped at Uniqlo's spacious store in New York City's SoHo neighborhood, and the clothing is modern and very stylish. The company, with 1,200 stores worldwide, will open its seventh U.S. store, in New York, April 19. You can also shop online at uniqlo.com.

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Inside Golf World Podcast: How We Cover The Masters

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:20:00 GMT

By Ryan Herrington

Dorothy Parker famously professed, "I hate writing. I love having written."

Trust us when we say we know the feeling.

A blank computer screen can be one of the scarier sights for any journalist, particularly when you're assigned the main piece at the year's biggest tournament. In this week's Inside Golf World Podcast, Golf World contributing writer Jim Moriarty discusses what went in to reporting and writing the game story from the 77th Masters, which chronicled Adam Scott's playoff victory over Angel Cabrera.

Of course, the week that was at Augusta National saw more storylines play out than simply Scott becoming the first Australian to win a green jacket.

Moriarty details how he went about keeping the various subplots (slow-play warnings, illegal ball drops, etc.) organized so that come Sunday night--and into Monday morning--he was able to craft a cogent, entertaining look at the year's first major.

Listen to the podcast
Subscribe to the Inside Golf World series in iTunes

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