Golf Digest September 2021

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‘I TAKE SATISFACTION FROM BEATING EVERYBODY MORE THAN ANYBODY KNOWS’

RYDER CUP SPECIAL WHERE THE 43RD MATCHES WILL BE WON & LOST + ALEX RIGGS ON COACHING STEPH CURRY GOLF SAUDI & THE BIG APPLE

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Tee Sheet 09/21

how to play. what to play. where to play.

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▶ how steve stricker can win back the ry d e r c u p f o r america . and h o w pa d r a i g harrington can stop him

Features 26 From New York, With Love The Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Team Series is headed to the Big Apple.

6 Editor’s Letter Welcome to the three best days in golf.

12 Cool Down Five simple stretches to ensure you’re ready for your next round.

The Starter

by matthew brookes

8 Whistling Straits The hardest course in America is a fitting canvas for the 43rd Ryder Cup matches. by kent gray

Play

14 Next Level Alex Riggs is the Dubai-based coach to (mostly above) average Joes and Janes everywhere. And a NBA superstar. by kent gray

20 The Other 90 Percent There’s always time for late bloomers to grow. by dr. bob rotella

22 Undercover Caddie Life as a looper on the LPGA Tour.

cover 30 Rock the Float Brooks Koepka sits down (in an inflatable pink flamingo) for his most significant interview yet. by matthew rudy

40 The Ryder Cup File Everything USA captain Steve Stricker must know to whip the Euros. by daniel rapaport

with joel beall

23 The Next One’s Good Big Momma and the year of big returns.

48 The Ryder Cup Dossier What European captain Padraig Harrington must do to spank the Yanks.

by jerry tarde

by john huggan

10 Tee to Green Downhill blues? Here’s how to hit it flush.

18 TaylorMade P790 The third gen P790 irons make changes inside and outside for more consistent speed.

24 Journeys Scot Robert MacIntyre fears absolutely no one.

56 Case of the Mondays The tragedies and triumphs of PGA Tour qualifying rounds.

by butch harmon

by mike stachura

with john huggan

by ryan french

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Cover photograph by Michael Schwartz

ryder cup: andrew redington/getty images • koepka: michael schwartz

by kent gray

koepka: Jacket: kenzo • t-shirt: emporio armani • pants, shoes: nike • watch: rolex • neckl aces: stephanie gottlieb • previous pages: shirt, shorts: nike

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Editor’s Letter

Unadulterated joy KENT GRAY kent.gray@motivate.ae • Twitter: @KentGrayGolf / @GolfDigestME

BOUT THIS TIME every other year I reach for my little black book.

While it’s well-thumbed and fiercely-guarded, it’s not your clichéd journal full of secrets, rather a dossier of treasured memories from the summer of 2014. Instead of phone numbers that might raise the hackles of the wife, there’s specific yardages that would only excite a golf geek, along with detailed observations of outrageous shots and magic moments that shook and shushed the entire golfing world at the time.

What a summer it was looping Royal Liverpool and the Centenary course at Gleneagles.

Finding a fresh angle that will survive the test of time (in this instance a magazine feature a month after the fact) is never easy and the theme for my maiden major as a journalist didn’t strike me until I’d negotiated security on the first morn-

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ing of the 143rd Open at Hoylake. Why not pick childhood heroes and walk a full round with each of them, cataloguing the unique sights and sounds along the way?

Tom Watson, Sir Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, with plenty of bonus Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler thrown in during that stirring final round. Four glorious days as legends at different stages of their careers wowed the Wirral.

The Open is hard to top for theatre but arriving in Scotland for the 40th Ryder Cup matches two months later didn’t so much hint at an event on another level, but scream it. I’ve never seen so many scribes and snappers, radio and TV pundits in one media centre and I’ve worked some big, global sports events. It was intimidating and hugely exciting, a bucket-list tick and I hadn’t even reached the first tee amphitheatre yet.

I arrived extra early on the Friday morning to ensure a premium space in the

stand looking directly down the par-4 1st at Gleneagles to ensure a ringside seat to the good-natured banter and clever canting. If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to witness a Ryder Cup in the flesh, you’ll know the hair-raising joy well. Getting club face on dimple is a feat in of itself in that rarefied atmosphere so imagine when Bubba Watson doubled-down by rousing the mostly enemy gallery to be anything but “Quiet Please” as he prepared for his first fourball examination in tandem with Webb Simpson. Pity for America that they’d been pitted against Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson who would go on to produce a leading narrative in Europe’s eventual 16½-11½ victory.

My little book triggers so many memories. Rose’s incredible week-long putting, Graeme McDowell’s mentorship of Victor Dubuisson and Ian Poulter’s chip-in late on Saturday as Paul McGinley’s Europeans again responded to Team USA’s morning fourball glory with their now traditional afternoon foursomes retort.

The Ryder Cup just isn’t the Ryder Cup without the Postman delivering one of his iconic double fist-pump celebrations and it proved contagious as Martin Kaymer did his own, pivotal impersonation in the singles,

“Rightly or wrongly, we were playing witness to the character assassination of one of golf’s most beloved figures.”

editor-in- chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer managing partner & group editor Ian Fairservice editor Kent Gray art director Clarkwin Cruz editorial assistant Londresa Flores instruction editors Luke Tidmarsh, Euan Bowden, Tom Ogilvie, Matthew Brookes, Alex Riggs chief commercial officer Anthony Milne publisher David Burke gener al manager - production S. Sunil Kumar assistant production manager Binu Purandaran t h e g o l f d i g e s t p u b l i c at i o n s editor-in- chief Jerry Tarde director, business development & partnerships Greg Chatzinoff international editor Ju Kuang Tan golf digest usa editor-in- chief Jerry Tarde gener al manager Chris Reynolds editorial director Max Adler executive editor Peter Morrice art director Chloe Galkin managing editors Alan P. Pittman, Ryan Herrington (News) chief pl aying editor Tiger Woods pl aying editors Phil Mickelson, Francesco Molinari, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Tom Watson

binning a chip to sink Watson on the 16th.

The first part of my Sunday was spent perched atop a giant sand dune with sweeping front nine vistas. McIlroy raced by in a flurry of seven birdies and an eagle in his first 12 holes enroute to a 5&4 humbling of Fowler. Not long afterwards, I’d hardly had time to record Matt Kuchar’s hole out for eagle on the 8th in his match against Thomas Bjørn when Patrick Reed went full Captain America by shushing the partisan gallery after draining a critical putt on the 7th en-route to a 1up win over Stenson.

It was utterly mesmerising and suddenly there was a whole lot of American red on the leaderboard. Surely the Europeans wouldn’t cough up their 10-6 Saturday night advantage?

American captain Tom Watson only wishes so. For all the on-course drama, the defining moment of the 2014 Ryder Cup was the unprompted, cringe-worthy Watson v Phil Mickelson Team USA post mortem which masqueraded as the event’s final press conference. Watson insisted “we arrived united, we depart united” but Lefty, curiously benched along with Keegan Bradley for both Saturday’s fourballs and foursomes, wasn’t having a bar of it. Rightly or wrongly, we were playing witness to

the character assassination of one of golf’s most beloved figures. I’ve never felt so uneasy or captivated by a press conference in my four decades in sports journalism and I’ve reported multiple Americas Cups where very rich men rarely cover themselves in glory.

History, in the form of Team USA’s 17-11 redemption at Hazeltine two years later, suggests the blood-letting was justified although the ‘team of individuals’ moniker returned to haunt Jim Furyk’s men in 2018 as Bjørn led Europe to a memorable 17½10½ victory at Le Golf National.

COVID-19 was the winner last year but thankfully the delayed 43rd matches will soon be upon us, albeit a year late. Steve Stricker’s Americans and Whistling Straits stand between Padraig Harrington and a 10th European triumph in the biennial event’s last 13th editions. Can Harrington’s meretricious planning help the European’s repeat the Miracle at Medinah in 2012, their last win on U.S. soil? With travel restrictions, there’s sadly no need for a little black book to take into the field at Wisconsin but there will undoubtedly be hackles raised and history made as we play witness on TV. Enjoy the greatest three days in golf.

Scan the QR Code to read, download and share the latest, and back issues, of Golf Digest Middle East.

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Whistling Straits The 43rd Ryder Cup will be decided on arguably the toughest course in America, a nod to the ancient seaside courses of Ireland nce asked if Whistling Straits might actually play too tough, legendary designer Pete Dye proffered the following: “Naah, this course is popcorn! But, sometimes people choke on popcorn.”

Sculpted along two miles of picturesque Lake Michigan shoreline in Haven, Wisconsin, Whistling Straits remains today one of the most difficult layouts in America, “golf’s version of a slaughterhouse” as a rival magazine once put it.

With more than 1000 bunkers and lush Ireland-like rough, knowing where not to miss is almost as important as the pin position on any given hole. Throw the knife-edge tension of a Ryder Cup on top and, well, good luck to the 24 players representing Team USA and Europe from September 2326. Indeed, the star of the 43rd matches could well be Pete and Alice Dye’s creation itself, a course where Vijay Singh (2004), Martin Kaymer (2010) and Jason Day (2015) were crowned major champions. As well as hosting three PGA Championships, Whistling Straits has also hosted the 2007 Senior U.S. Open won by Brad Bryant. –kent gray

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“Sometimes people choke on popcorn...”

Photograph by Gary Kellner/Getty Images

Body Tee to Green by Butch Harmon

Downhill Got You Down?

Here’s all you need to hit it flush

et me guess: You hit a lot of fat shots or drop-kicks from downhill lies. The reason is, the ground is higher behind the ball so the club tends to run into the turf too soon. To make solid contact, adjust your setup to make the downhill play like a level lie.

The first thing to understand is that the ball is going to come out lower. Figure that into your club selection, and expect the ball to roll more—and probably fade a little.

Widen your stance for more stability and sit down with your rear end, feeling heavier on your feet. Here’s the big one: Angle your front shoulder and hip downward,matching the direction of the slope. You can check the angle with the shaft of your club (below). That’s how you neutralise the downhill lie.

From there, make your normal swing because you’ve compensated with your setup. One warning: Your instinct might be to help the ball up, and that’s an absolute killer. It causes you to hang back and flip the club upward, making it more likely to catch that higher ground behind the ball. So make an extra effort to swing the club down the slope, nice and smooth (left). Do that, and those downhillers won’t be so stressful.

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—with peter morrice butch harmon is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional

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Photographs by J.D. Cuban

Faldo Course, Emirates Golf Club

Earth Course, Jumeirah Golf Estates

The best courses, the best rates Earn up to 10% back in Viya points to spend on future golf bookings and across the Viya network of hotels, golf clubs, gyms, pools and spas across Dubai.

Play Preventive Maintenance with Matthew Brookes

Cool Down Five simple stretches to ensure you’re ready for your next round E’RE REGULARLY REMINDED about the importance of a proper warm-up before putting our bodies through the rigors of a round of golf or range session. But what happens afterwards?

Cooling down is just as important. Done well, it ensures many long term benefits including improving mobility for future rounds, helping with recovery and post-round soreness as well as helping to embed any swing changes you might be working on.

All my clients receive a personal cool down routine to help them make the swing changes we are trying to achieve. Here I share five stretches which target the areas most common with physical limitation.

Hold each for 60 seconds and focus on a deep inhale through the nose and exhale through your mouth every time. Repeat each exercise on the other side where applicable. –WITH KENT GRAY

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toe touch

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Keeping your legs straight, slowly bend over from the hip and reach down as far as you can towards your toes. This is lengthening your hamstrings and will help with set-up posture.

WATCH THE VIDEO ▶ Scan the QR Code to watch Matt bring this lesson to life.

standing half lotus

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8/29/21

5:41 PM

Starting in a standing position, use your club as a balance support in your left hand. Cross your right leg over the knee of the left leg and then place your right hand on the right knee. Then push the right knee down and away from you while hinging slightly from the hip and keeping a strong straight back. Repeat on the other side. This assists with hip mobility, helping improve rotation and sequencing.

“…it ensures many long term benefits including improving mobility for future rounds.” external shoulder rotation

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Have your left arm at a right angle with the elbow pointing away from you. Place the club on the outside of your forearm and wrap your thumb around the shaft of the club. Now take a grip of the club beneath the elbow with your other hand and pull the club across your body as far as you can keeping your shoulders back and elbow up. This improves shoulder mobility which helps with club plane and release pattern through impact.

behind back overhead extension

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Place a club behind you with your right hand holding onto the grip. Now place your left hand behind you, holding onto the club. Fully extend your arm up and above your head allowing the lower hand to be pulled up. This will work on shoulder and back mobility as well as scapular stability - all vital for better rotation in the swing.

standing quad stretch

joachim guay

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This is an exercise I’m sure we have all completed sometime during our lives and although very basic, it can be very beneficial when done correctly.

Standing on your left leg, bend your right leg from the knee behind you. Pull the foot as close to your bottom as possible until a stretch is felt across the front of the leg. A little tip to make sure you’re getting everything out of this is to feel that you tuck your pelvis so your belt line is flat and not falling forward.

Another feeling is to squeeze your glutes. This exercise will help lengthen your quadriceps and hip flexors, vital for hip mobility throughout the swing.

Incorporate these stretches after every workout and you’ll be moving, feeling and playing better golf in no time.

Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

with continual hard work, lashings of on-camera charisma, a hearty sprinkle of social media know-how and just a little luck, Alex Riggs’ coaching dream is on a “ridiculously, crazy” trajectory.

by Kent Gray

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Build it and they will come.

DREAM BIG WHEN YOU GET HERE AND DUBAI CAN DELIVER ON THAT FUTURISTIC PROMISE TOO. You’ll likely be familiar with those uniquely UAE clichés, if not the reality. Just in case it doesn’t resonate, may we kindly refer you to Alex Riggs, coach to (mostly above) average Joes and Janes everywhere, even NBA superstars. More on that career slam dunk with Steph Curry later.

The 35-year-old Canadian is a case study in turning an unexpected

ex-pat life in the UAE into a thriving career built on sound institutional knowledge, an interminable work ethic and a contemporary entrepreneurial spirit.

Riggs has spent the past eight years in Dubai building his coaching credentials, the first three at the then Butch Harmon Academy and since then as a freelancer, lately based out of

Trump International Golf Club, Dubai.

A natural ease in front of camera has seen the father-of-two become a regular print and online contributor to Golf Digest Middle East and opened doors to endorsements with PXG, Hublot and Under Armour, brands normally associated with high-profile touring pros rather than driving range instructors.

That’s where Riggs is a bit different to your old-school PGA Professional.

While other teachers have dabbled in the digital realm, Riggs has easily transitioned to online tuition to the point where it is now a “huge, huge percentage of my business”. “I’ve got players in literally every country I can think of, at least 50 different countries.

Photographs by GolfPass

It's ridiculously,

They send in videos, I review it, devise a plan they can work on and then report back. It’s working really well.

“I was doing it a bit pre-COVID but now it’s very, very strong. The demand for online coaching has exploded.”

While Riggs is heartened by the uptick in beginners taking lessons in the UAE post the COVID lockdown, he’s found a happy niche with lower handicappers and fledgling professionals. The ability to easily articulate complex theory via video means he is also now being discovered by wider international audiences although his latest big break with NBC Sport’s ‘GolfPass’ came, rather ironically, via an in-person lesson.

“Rory’s agent, Sean O’Flaherty, was in Dubai in November and came to see me for a lesson and one thing led to another. He liked my communication style, the content I’d been doing, and said ‘we need to get you on GolfPass’.”

That wasn’t a huge stretch given McIlroy has a financial stake in GolfPass, a direct-to-consumer membership offering he’s partnered Golf Channel and NBC in creating.

It wasn't long before Riggs was off to Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando to shoot his “Level Up Golf’ concept, a tee to green instructional series with tips and drills for high, mid and low handicappers. Chances are you’ll have seen snippets on social media, the very mechanism that brought Riggs to Dubai in 2003 not long after he’d married Claudine, herself well known in these pages as a golf fitness advisor.

Riggs will forever be grateful for the “super random” Facebook message he received eight years ago, enquiring if the newlywed couple fancied a change of scenery in Dubai given their seasonal contract in Orlando had been fulfilled.

“Outside of the U.S., Dubai is unquestionably one of the best

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places in the world to be in terms of opportunities. The demand for golf coaching is very strong."

Mentoring players at the highest level means a move to the U.S. is “inevitable at some point.” In the meantime, Riggs is happy to base himself in Dubai and travel the globe working with players, his brand partnerships and creating more creative content. As a digital native, you’ll always be able to find him online @riggsgolf, exactly how Curry, the Golden State Warriors Steph Curry

talisman and sometimes Korn Ferry Tour player, discovered the boy made good in Dubai.

“Steph Curry connected with me on Instagram then dropped me a DM. He liked my content and wanted to work together. I spent a bunch of time with him on his game in San Fran on the same trip. I did five States in five weeks including doing some work with PXG in Scottsdale.”

Yes, that quote, Riggs assures us, is as surreal to utter as it is to read.

“It’s ridiculously, crazy how things have taken off. I’m incredibly, incredibly grateful to have been given these opportunities in Dubai.

It literally opens up the world, the people you come in contact with, those opportunities rarely happen anywhere else.

“I just want to keep trying to push myself to grow as a coach and get my players better, even faster. I want to keep working with players at the highest level and I know something will happen [on the PGA Tour] if I keep going.”

So stay tuned. Or should that be logged on.

curry: christian Petersen/getty images

CRAZY HOW THINGS HAVE TAKEN OFF. DUBAI LITERALLY OPENS UP THE WORLD, THE PEOPLE YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH, THOSE OPPORTUNITIES RARELY HAPPEN ANYWHERE ELSE.

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motivatemedia.com

Play Equipment TaylorMade P790

Faster and more forgiving TaylorMade’s new P790 irons make changes inside and outside for more consistent speed by mike stachura

he third generation of TaylorMade’s P790 irons, which helped to define the “players distance” category when they were first introduced in 2017, boasts a thinner face and more than double the tungsten of its most recent version. That faster, more forgiving design is fuelled by a new, lighter urethane foam filling—Speedfoam Air—within the hollow-body design.

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THE DEEP DIVE The players’ distance iron category, one of whose primary stalwarts has been TaylorMade’s P790 since its introduction four years ago, is the fastest-growing iron segment in the game. From a

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technology standpoint, it’s easily the most interesting.

That’s probably because it’s also the most challenging. Essentially, the audience demands a somewhat compact look and single-piece forged feel of a

better players iron while craving at the same time a distance infusion usually reserved for the most game-improvement designs in the marketplace.

The players iron category is producing more irons that push the boundaries of springy faces, what’s known as the coefficient of restitution (COR). But the challenge isn’t just to inject a little more ball speed into these faces; it’s to make these faces consistently fast.

That’s exactly what’s at work with the third generation of the P790, which gets at the problem of better uniform speed and launch with changes to its distinctive internal urethane foam, the decreased and weight-saving thicknesses of the steels used both in the face and the body and more heavy tungsten than ever before in the P790 line to optimise centre of gravity and forgiveness.

Inside the hollow, multi-piece design, what was known as Speedfoam is now significantly lighter (hence, Speedfoam Air). According to Matt Bovee, TaylorMade’s senior manager of iron product creation, the new version of the lightweight urethane material, is 69 percent less dense than the original, saving about 3.5 grams that can be redistributed in the head.

“If you have a larger sweet spot, you’re also going to see better ball speeds.”

“It’s much easier to compress, much softer, much lighter,” Bovee said. “All those things we can use to our advantage in improving the design. It allows us to push the limits of the face while keeping that true forged iron-like feel.”

The foam supports a newly thinned face that now gets down to 1.5 millimetres at its thinnest points in the perimeter. The variable thickness face wraps around the sole in an L-shape. A cutthrough slot behind the face in the sole allows for optimal face deflection, especially on impacts below the centre line.

The thinner face flexes better and, according to Bovee, creates an area that features a high spring-like effect, or COR, of .800 that’s nearly a third larger than before. But the faster-flexing face is only part of the story for making the new P790 more consistently fast.

The weight savings from the new foam interior and the thinner face gets an additional boost from a thinner-walled structure in the back of the iron’s hollow-body

construction. Previously 1.6 millimetres thick, Bovee said the back wall is now just a millimetre thick. All of those elements redistribute enough mass to allow for a new 31-gram tungsten slug that is positioned a little lower and more toward the toe than in the past. That lines up the face’s most flexible centre with the centre of gravity for better energy transfer, putting more speed in an area from low heel to high toe where most shots are hit.

In other words, more consistent speed, what Bovee calls “growing the size of the sweet spot.”

“This is intelligent sweet spot design,” he said. “Because of that repositioning, we’re actually capturing more shots on the iron face. When you do that golfers are going to hit their numbers more often and that leads to more consistency.”

He also noted that because of its forgiveness, the P790 player profile has encompassed a handicap range that runs from scratch to the 20s. That will

continue with the latest version. It’s why players distance irons are resonating so much.

“I think the biggest difference in the new P790 is growing that sweet spot size because that really comes down to making a more consistent product.

If you’re hitting your number on a more regular basis, you’re going to play better golf. And if you have a larger sweet spot, you’re also going to see better ball speeds.

“It’s about giving the player something as consistent as a solid-body product but gets him or her some extra pop, too.”

Speaking of extra pop, the P790 lineup also will include a utility iron that features the same elements as the irons.

The new P790 UDI comes in a 17-degree (2-iron) loft and graphite shaft standard (Project X HZRDUS Black Smoke).

Visit egolfmegastore.com for more information Photograph courtesy TaylorMade

Play The Other 90 Percent

Make the Commitment There’s always time for latebloomers to grow by dr. bob rotella with roger schiffman

hen you look at three of the greatest athletes of the modern era—Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Tom Brady—only one was destined to be dominant in his sport from an early age. Tiger was a child prodigy: He was shooting par at age 5, and he was winning tournaments soon after. He continued to win early and often, capturing three U.S. Junior Championships and three U.S. Amateurs before winning the NCAA individual title at Stanford and then turning professional. He seemed a lock for greatness almost from the beginning because he combined his giftedness with passion and ambition. Now in his 40s, he has amassed 15 major championships and 82 PGA Tour victories.

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Illustration by Santino Calvo

Jordan didn’t make the varsity basketball team as a sophomore, then he started getting good his junior year in high school. Coach Dean Smith was criticised for taking a chance on Michael and offering him a scholarship at the University of North Carolina, where he became a star.

While playing for UNC, he made a shot that ended up being the deciding basket in an NCAA Championship game. MJ said that really lit his fire and helped him realise he could become great. And he truly dominated the NBA for more than 10 years.

Then you have Brady. Unheralded in high school, he was barely decent enough to get to the University of Michigan, where he hardly got any field time the first two years. He improved enough in his last two seasons to catch the attention of the pro scouts, but even so, Brady was only the 199th pick in the NFL draft. Six other quarterbacks were drafted before he was that year, not exactly something to cheer about. His first season with the New England Patriots was nothing special, either—the team finished 5-11. He had to be patient, and he had to have faith that his day would come. It finally did, but it took a while. Things started to fall into place for Brady during the next season. It was a grueling year with five losses, but the Pats pulled it together in the playoffs and managed to make it to the Super Bowl. There, Brady didn’t have his best game against the St. Louis Rams, but it was good enough. New England squeaked out a win, 20-17, on a 48-yard field goal on the final play of the game, and the victory launched an amazing career for Brady. During the next 18 years he went on to play in nine more Super Bowls and collected a total of seven Super Bowl rings.

Whether you are a late bloomer or a late starter, you would do well to keep Brady’s story in mind, as well as Jordan’s.

It is possible to get really good at golf, or reach whatever goals you’ve set in the game, at just about any age—if you put your mind and soul into it.

Others certainly have done it. One of the great qualities about golf is that it’s

It’s possible to get really good at golf at almost any age. not necessarily a young person’s game.

It’s truly a game for all ages. There are numerous examples of top golfers who took a very long time to get to the top.

Many late starters are people who have been successful in other endeavors. Whether you are getting into golf later in life or haven’t had much success so far, you are ready to make a major commitment now. You need to sustain a commitment. Ideally, your practice will be efficient, and you’ll put the most time and energy into the parts of your game that are the most important to lowering your score.

For many, that means concentrating on your short game and spending quality time rehearsing all the short shots on and around the green—pitches, chips, bunker shots and, of course, putting.

Legendary player Paul Runyan understood the importance of mastering all the shots around the green and wrote a book about it. One of his two PGA Championship victories came against Sam Snead, who was outdriving him by 50 yards in their 36-hole match-play final in 1938. I worked with Paul for years in the Golf Digest Schools.

He had big dreams well into his 90s and amazingly played in the Par-3 Contest at the Masters at 91! “Ninety-nine percent of the time, I beat my age,” he once said when he was in his 90s. “I can still have a terrible game and beat my age.”

According to Golf Digest, Bob Charles holds the record for most strokes under one’s age in a tournament. He shot 66 at age 76 in a European senior tour event.

The record for a non-tour event is held

by John Powell. At 86, Powell shot 64—22 strokes better than his age—in a Southern California PGA section senior tournament in 2017. Walter Morgan is the youngest player on record to shoot his age in a tournament. He shot a 60 at age 61 on the Champions Tour.

These feats point to the fact that you can always keep aspiring to lofty goals

in golf. Take the story of Larry Nelson.

The three-time major champion and Ryder Cup star didn’t even touch a golf club until he was 21. He was busy playing other sports in high school, going to college and serving in the Vietnam War. He started playing golf after returning to his native Georgia from Vietnam. While finishing up classes

at Kennesaw State, he fell in love with the game—there was a golf course right next to campus. He never played junior golf, never played collegiate golf, didn’t even play much amateur tournament golf. He taught himself by reading Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons, worked on his game with a fellow veteran and golf instructor, and practiced long and hard every day. Though he broke 70 within nine months, he didn’t qualify for the PGA Tour until he was 27. (By comparison, Tiger had won 39 PGA Tour events and eight majors by age 27.) But Nelson became one of the game’s most feared competitors, winning the 1981 and ’87 PGA Championships and the ’83 U.S.

Open. In his first two Ryder Cups, in ’79 and ’81, he compiled an unprecedented 9-0-0 record. Later, on the Champions Tour, he won 19 times. Nelson didn’t care that others had a massive head start in the game. He set his sights high, dreamed big and believed in his destiny. Then he decided to do what was necessary to make it happen.

As you can see, some athletes and a few golfers who made it big were prodigies from an early age, but many struggled and got good later in life. The point is, it’s never too late. It’s about where you go with what you’ve got and finding a way. These players all found a way. To do that you have to go on a mission. But it’s important to have fun on your mission, finding out what you can do with your talent at a game that you love.

Understand that there are expectations you put on yourself and those that other people put on you. You should care only about the goals and expectations you’ve set for yourself. If you’re a late bloomer, you have to believe you could beat some child prodigy who maybe beat you for years in an earlier life.

But now you’ve improved your skills, and part of it is realising and telling yourself, Hey, when they play you, they have unbelievable pressure because they think they’re supposed to beat you, and they’re going to really look bad if they don’t. Sure, they might have had success against you and others, but they also have pressure now. Remind yourself that the pressure is really on them, not on you. It also goes back to remembering to be process-oriented and not outcome-oriented. Make sure you’re living your own expectations and not the expectations of others.

From Make Your Next Shot Your Best Shot: The Secret to Playing Great Golf by Dr. Bob Rotella with Roger Schiffman to be published

by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Copyright © 2021

by Robert Rotella. Printed by permission. september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

21

Play On Tour

If you’re drawn to finesse and strategy, this is where it’s at.

Undercover Caddie Life as a Looper on the LPGA Tour ou won’t have job security, and you’re not going to make much money. That’s what a caddie told me when I started looping on the LPGA Tour a decade ago. I thought he was joking or perhaps trying to weed me out. Within a month I realised he was just telling it like it is.

Well, mostly. You can build tenure and make a living as an LPGA Tour caddie. If you do it right, you can have a good time in the process. But, boy, you’d better be ready to hustle.

Let’s start with the dollars. In the last full season in 2019, 14 players made $1 million or more. For context, 112 PGA Tour players earned more than a million that season. Forgive me for laughing at my fellow PGA Tour caddies anytime I hear them talk about financial hardships.

You don’t have to work for one of those 14 LPGA Tour players to make a living, but it has to be a top-50 performer. That’s roughly the cutoff for players making more than $400,000. By commission (assuming 8 percent of winnings), that translates to $32,000. We also have a weekly fee of $1,000 to $1,300, and we work 25 times a year.

You won’t have a deep retirement fund, but if you’re rooming with other caddies and not having steak dinners every night, you can get by.

As for job security, yes, caddies on the LPGA Tour get fired with greater frequency than the caddies on most men’s tours.

Some say these firings have coincided with the influx of international players, that they are quicker to get rid of caddies when things go south. It does happen, but I don’t attribute this to cultural differences.

It has to do with parenting. Many of these players are in their teens and early 20s. No matter what country you’re from, you’re going to lean heavily on your parents at this age. With fewer agents and managers in the women’s game, parents have a larger

Y

22 golfdigestme.com | september 2021

role. When players are struggling, agents aren’t as quick to blame us, but parents are; clearly their child has never failed until we were paired with them. It’s not unusual for some LPGA players to go through three to five caddies a year.

However, I’ve noticed that when players get to a certain level, they tend to show the fledgling stars the ropes, and part of that education is how to treat caddies.

Veterans, and especially league officials, know LPGA Tour players have a reputation of being caddie killers, and they’re doing their best to combat it.

Aside from money and security, there’s also the socialisation aspect, or lack of it. Players and caddies on the PGA and European tours don’t hang out as much as you might think, but on the LPGA Tour, that socialisation is almost nonexistent.

I’ve been lucky to work for several women with whom I’ve had an off-the-course rapport, but I’m the exception. It makes sense when you think about it: Most caddies are men, ranging in their late 20s to early 50s. The players are women in their late teens to early 30s. Look at your workplace; I’m guessing the cliques are more age-related than you might think.

If you want socialisation, look to your fellow caddies. There are two groups—golf

nerds and pub crawlers. Those are your two options after work: Find a local course to get some swings in or find the nearest tap, preferably near a TV. Maybe because we’re all in the same situation more so than our PGA Tour colleagues, everyone gets along really well.

Another important point: You must be professional. I was told this unequivocally when I started, and I remember being offended. Did my fellow caddie think I wasn’t taking this seriously? I did my homework on the course, got my players’ numbers dialed in. But I quickly found out what he was talking about. The PGA Tour occasionally resembles what you see in your weekend game—dirty jokes, horseplay, “boys-will-be-boys” stuff— but the LPGA Tour is more like an office environment. You have to be on your best behavior. The LPGA prides itself in being a family experience, and that includes us.

So why do I do it? Frankly, being on the LPGA Tour is more enjoyable. There’s pressure but no real spotlight. The women are easier to deal with than PGA Tour players.

The egos aren’t there. We travel to as many cool and exotic places as the men, and the LPGA Tour really does its best to make everyone— players, caddies, officials, fans— feel like part of a family.

The game is also purer. There’s more strategy than just bombing it 350 yards. Don’t get me wrong— these women hit it farther than 98 percent of male amateur golfers. But if you’re drawn to finesse and strategy, this is where it’s at.

Selfishly, caddies have a bigger role here. Because the players are younger, they’re more willing to listen, more eager to seek help. I’ve had wins on major tours with men and women, and I swear on my 7-iron, winning with my LPGA player was more fulfilling. You hear “we” a lot now in the professional game, and often that’s overblown. But on the LPGA Tour, it really is a team. Forget money and security; I want to feel like I’m part of something that matters. Isn’t that ultimately what everyone is chasing?

—with joel beall Illustration by Juliette Toma

The Next One’s Good

Play

Big Momma and a Change in Direction by jerry tarde

his has been a season of comebacks. The sport got an assist from the pandemic as new and old golfers doubled down on their play—it started in 2020 and continues this year. The industry has benefited in every metric of participation and consumption. I give you two examples: If you invested $1,000 in Callaway stock last March, you could have sold it for about $5,000 this spring. TaylorMade was purchased from Adidas for $425 million in 2017 and sold for more than $1.7 billion this year.

On course, the most dramatic comeback was in the 36-hole final of the Amateur Championship at Nairn, Scotland, when Laird Shepherd found himself 8 down after 17 holes. He was still 4 down with four to play, won them all, and then triumphed on the second extra hole. A year ago, Laird and his girlfriend, Chloe Goadby, were working in a call centre for Tesco, the British supermarket. She went on to win the 2021 Women’s Amateur Championship, too. How’s that for a power couple turnabout?

Another type of comeback could be credited to Jon Rahm, who WD’d with a six-stroke lead after three rounds of the Memorial Tournament, testing positive for COVID. Two weeks later, after testing negative, he won the U.S. Open. (A month later, he had to withdraw from the Olympics after another positive test.)

Not to pick on anyone, but golfers should be first in line to get vaccinated and boostered if necessary. Let’s keep the game’s momentum going.

Phil Mickelson’s PGA Championship could be termed a comeback of sorts, but Phil would say he never left. It’s a scientific fact that male left-handers have a life expectancy 10 years shorter than righties (five years shorter for females), but Mickelson seems to defy all

Darren Carroll/USGa

T

the odds. And golf is the only thing he does left-handed.

Maybe the most significant comebacks occurred at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Brooklawn Country Club in Connecticut. Annika Sorenstam, 50, who had stepped away from competitive golf in 2008 after 90 international pro wins, regained her dominance with a wire-to-wire, eight-stroke victory.

What Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are to men’s golf, Mickey Wright and Annika are to the women’s game—all-time bests, the edge depending on your age.

My favourite comeback of the year belonged to JoAnne Carner, who missed the cut at Brooklawn with rounds of 8279, matching and beating her age. She had hip-replacement surgery at the end of 2019. That and the pandemic kept her out of golf for 14 months. I talked to JoAnne, who was at her condo in Florida, double-vaccinated and healthy, but still working on her game.

She plays out of Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach, which holds, she says, more pro titles than any other club—easy when membership has included JoAnne, Sam Snead, Mickey Wright, Louise Suggs, Beth Daniel, Meg Mallon and Gary Woodland. As a teenager, then JoAnne Gunderson had learned her grip from mimicking pictures of Snead, and later Sam brought her to Pine Tree for lessons. She’d stand behind him as he worked his way through the bag and let his effortless tempo wash over her. “I was always more of a slugger,” she tells me, “so his tempo was my medicine.

▶ ageless wonder JoAnne Carner, 82, is the oldest to play in a USGA championship.

“Then he’d say about four words and that was all I needed. Sam didn’t get credit for it, but he had a great eye. He was the first to notice my tendency to hang on the right foot and not fold my left arm coming through. Getting to my left side is still what I work on.”

Watching Annika and JoAnne at the Women’s Senior Open reminds us again how much more we could learn from the LPGA, even 82-year-olds. “All the women pros have great timing and hit it a long way now,” Carner says.

“You don’t need the brute strength of [Bryson] DeChambeau.”

“How can we learn that timing?” I ask.

The question brings her back to those days with Sam. “My best tip,” she says, “was to swing to the top of the backswing and hold it for two or three seconds before releasing down and through the ball. You do that in practice, not when you play: Pause before changing direction. It’s especially important in competition, when everybody speeds up. It even works in putting. Most poor putters rush the change of direction. That’s the key: Finish the backswing first.”

I thanked her for the lesson and for all the good memories Big Momma has given us. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed golf all my life,” she says. “I find it still amuses me, even when I play or practice alone.”

It’s one of the eternal joys of golf: No matter our age, we’re all working on a comeback. september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

23

robert macintyre european tour age 25 world ranking 49 lives oban, scotland

Journeys

Play

“I played Dustin Johnson next. . . . I knew I had him worried.”

Robert MacIntyre The young Scot who fears no one ’ve heard golfers say they “lived” on their local course when they were kids. Well, I literally did. My childhood home is next to Glencruitten Golf Club in Oban, Scotland. My dad is the greenkeeper and played off a plus-1 handicap at his best.

From my bedroom to the 12th tee is 18 yards. It was easy for me to play a few holes late in the evening when I was growing up.

I

Glencruitten is 4,471 yards, par 62.

But it’s a course you need to know.

There are blind shots up, over and around hills. It’s the reason iron play is my strength. You can be 160 yards out and hitting a 6-iron that has to be high, low, hooked or sliced. You need a great imagination to do well there. ●●●

My parents have fostered young kids for a long time, a home life that has given me perspective. I remember the first time we fostered, a wee boy and girl. When my mother went to give the boy a hug, he backed off, which shocked me. He had obviously been abused. At first, he and his sister would “steal” food from the fridge and store it in their rooms. They clearly hadn’t been fed properly. That opened my eyes. Before that, I used to be stroppy on the course—not much anymore. ●●●

Shinty is a cross between field hockey and legalised violence. It’s a stickand-ball game played mainly on the ground. You can take full swings and use both sides of the stick. It’s a Highland sport played first by the clans. My papa played until he was in his 50s. I stopped at 17 only because I was worried about my hands. If I could earn a living playing shinty, I’m not sure I’d be a golfer. ●●●

From an early age I was good at golf.

In 2013, I won the Scottish Boys Stroke Play Championship and the Scottish Youths Championship. Two years later I won the Scottish Amateur. In 2016, I lost in the final of the British Amateur.

When I was 16, I played in the Dunhill Photograph by John Loomis

Links Championship as an amateur.

That gave me a taste of what tour golf was like, and I realised I wasn’t far short.

I knew then I wanted to be a pro golfer. ●●●

I went to college at McNeese State University in Louisiana. I wasn’t keen at first. Going to America was too big a step for a wee boy from Oban. But coach Austin Burk had watched me play for Scotland in the European Team Championship and liked what he saw. I told him I’d need a full scholarship, which he offered. That made it real. My mum told me to go for it. She said I’d regret it if I didn’t give it a shot. She was right. It was a brilliant experience. ●●●

I was homesick, but my golf was improving. I made friends. I learned how to survive by myself. But after three semesters I felt like I had hit a wall.

I wasn’t getting to play in big enough tournaments. It was nothing personal, but I was chasing something more.

I told the coach I wouldn’t be back after Christmas at home in Scotland. ●●●

The 2017 Walker Cup at Los Angeles Country Club was my last event as an amateur. I played Cameron Champ and couldn’t believe how far he hit it. One drive must have been 100 yards ahead of me. But he lost the hole when I stiffed my approach. I won 6 and 4. We played again a day later and halved our match. ●●●

I shot 79 in my first event as a professional, in a mini-tour event. That night I texted my manager, Iain Stoddart: “We’ve all got to start somewhere.”

That message is still in his phone. The next day I shot two or three under, then I broke the course record in the third round. I ended up missing a playoff by a shot. Then I won the next week. ●●●

At European Tour Q school, I couldn’t keep my driver on the planet. I was slicing everything, so I went with it. The ball was traveling 340 but going only 280. It was the only way I could keep drives in play. I made the cut, which got me status on the Challenge Tour. The next year I finished 12th on the money list to get my European Tour card. ●●●

For a practice round at the 2019 Open at Portrush, I put my name on the starting sheet. When I looked at it again, Ian Poulter had signed up next to me. Playing with someone of Ian’s stature would have placed me outside my comfort zone. It’s fine not being comfortable in the heat of battle, but when it’s something I can control, I want to be comfortable. If I’m not, I’m not going to prepare well. So I pulled out. It was me taking a step back to take two forward.

I ended up finishing sixth. It is still the best week I’ve ever had on a golf course. ●●●

When I beat Kevin Na at the World Match Play, I felt I had arrived. I played Dustin Johnson next. I was up early, but I knew he wasn’t going to go away. It actually gave me a boost when he holed a putt for birdie to win the 17th hole and made a fist-pump. I knew I had him worried. We ended all square. ●●●

Before the Masters, everyone was telling me how much I would love Augusta National. They were right. It’s a course where you have to “see” shots. I grew up doing that. I wasn’t surprised I finished T-12 to earn a Masters spot next year. I could have done better. It’s a place you have to know. Now I do.

—WITH JOHN HUGGAN september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

25

ARAMCO TEAM SERIES

FROM NY, WITH im shifflett, the head professional at New York’s Glen Oaks Club since 2001, isn’t a huge fan of the comparison but the lofty billing has proved impossible to shake. ▶ The private layout in the village of Old Westbury has been described as “the Augusta of the North” thanks to its leafy routing and superb conditioning. ▶ Originally designed by Joe Finger when the club moved to new land on the northern shores of Long Island in 1971, the former PGA Tour venue underwent a major renovation to its current state in the early 2010s. It has been compared to the home of The Masters ever since.

“I know people say that, but I just don’t like that expression,” said Shifflett. “It certainly wasn’t our intent when we renovated.”

Intention or not, the course will undoubtedly draw more praise when its makes its bow as a Ladies European Tour (LET) venue with the third leg of the Aramco Team Series (ATS) confirmed there from October 14-16.

The LETs best are in for a treat, as PGA Tour winner Scott Brown discovered during his first visit in 2017. For context, Brown is a native of Augusta, Ga., and knows Augusta National well.

26 golfdigestme.com | september 2021

glen oaks club: courtesy of the club • aramco team series: tristan jones/let

THE PIONEERING ARAMCO TEAM SERIES IS HEADED TO LEAFY LONG ISLAND

▶ maiden victory Alison Lee points the way to NY after claiming her first pro win in Spain

▶ glen oaks has been described as the “Augusta of the north”

Four years on, it is now home to the penultimate leg of the ATS, four $1 million events in London, Sotogrande (Spain), New York and King Abdullah Economic City (Nov.1012) incorporating team and individual events over 54 holes.

The teams are decided by an NFLstyle draft system where 36 designated captains pick another professional before being randomly allocated a third pro teammate. The teams are then completed by an amateur, in New York after a ‘Team Up’ pre-qualifier. ▶ sotogrange success Ashleigh Buhai and her winning team from round two

“IT’S A FABULOUS GOLF COURSE, SIMILAR TO AUGUSTA NATIONAL…” It means a vital putt in the race for the $800,000 team prize fund could fall to an amateur. The remaining $200,000 is shared among the leading individuals.

Team Buhai - featuring South Africans Ashleigh Buhai and Stacy Lee Bregman, Englishwoman Hayley Davis and Spanish amateur Ignacio Morillo (pictured left) - won the second team’s title following a playoff in Sotogrande last month.

American Alison Lee waltz away with individual title – by five strokes from Buhai - for her maiden victory as a professional.

World Ranking and Race to Costa del Sol ranking points are on the line in each of the ATS events. Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul, the ATS London runner-up, led the LET’s season-long Costa del Sol points list at the time of press. aramcoteamseries.com

28 golfdigestme.com | september 2021

glen oaks club: courtesy of the club • aramco team series: tristan jones/let

“It’s a fabulous golf course, similar (in style) to Augusta National in that you have to play shots to certain quadrants of the greens,” Brown told PGA Tour.com at the time. “It’s not crazy tight [nor is Augusta National] and it’s fun to play. The greens are firm and you have a lot of options for shots around the greens.”

Glen Oaks previously hosted the PGA Tour’s 2017 FedEx Cup playoff opener, The Northern Trust, when Dustin Johnson edged Jordan Spieth in a playoff.

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INTERVIEW BY

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x golf digest | issue x . 2021

Photograph by First Lastname

AN EXCLUSIVE POOLSIDE INTERVIEW WITH THE BRAZEN

BROOKS KOEPKA

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

MICHAEL SCHWARTZ

Photograph by First Lastname

issue x . 2021 | golf digest

x

Brooks Koepka doesn’t look like a stonecold killer. The 31-year-old four-time major champion comes in all smiles, wearing a t-shirt and shorts and has a collection of formal clothes on hangers over his right shoulder. His right knee is puffy, misshapen and has a prominent scar—a leftover from a freak accident in March when a bad step turned into a dislocated kneecap, and his lower right leg turned unnaturally to the side. Then again, maybe it would take an assassin to do what Koepka did when he looked down. He straightened his leg and jammed the kneecap back in place, shattering it in the process—which required surgery to reconnect his patellar tendon to the bone remnant. His matter-of-fact recounting of that event before the photo shoot for this story is consistent with the player who has let his clubs do most of the talking for 15 top-10s in majors since 2015. If you aren’t paying attention, he says, that’s on you.

In a wide-ranging conversation that represents his most substantial interview as a pro, Koepka discusses the emotional makeup of the modern professional athlete, the physical and mental skills necessary to win, being in the fray during iconic wins by Tiger Woods at the 2019 Masters and Phil Mickelson at the 2021 PGA and the unique challenges presented by the Ryder Cup. Your bag doesn’t look like the standard tour-player setup—no big logo and an eclectic mix of clubs from several companies, including one that doesn’t exist anymore.

I’m not a guy that switches. Dustin [Johnson] says he doesn’t switch, but he switches the most out of anybody I’ve ever seen. You might not think it’s a switch, but he’ll have, like, five drivers with him for the week. He’s always switching putters, or a 3-iron and 5-wood combo.

I still have a Nike 3-iron. That’s five years old. I still play an SM4 Vokey wedge. What are they on now? SM8? My putter has been in for a year and a half, but I’ve had the same model since 2008.

32 golfdigestme.com | september 2021

Is that part of taking variables out?

If it works, why mess with it? I haven’t tested a driver or 3-wood shaft in seven years. Here’s a funny story: At Oakmont the year Dustin won, I took a practice swing with my Nike driver and took a chunk out of the turf. It was a terrible practice swing—and graphite gets weak over time— and the shaft snapped under the grip. I call Blake [Smith, Koepka’s agent since Koepka turned professional in 2012] and say, “I need you to go in my locker and grab another driver.” I hit 3-wood off the tee, and I’m walking, and I see a kid up there, and I say, “Here you go,” and give him the driver. My dad starts talking to him and makes friends with this kid and his dad. I didn’t think of it at the time, but you can just unscrew the head, and I had made like $3 million using that driver. Claude [Harmon III, Koepka’s coach at the time] says, “You have to get that driver back.” My dad chimes in, “No, no, no, we gave it to that kid.” Claude says, “That driver is perfect” and basically goes and snatches it from the kid. We tell the kid, “We swear we’ll send you another driver.” It gets shipped out, and the day after that, Nike stopped making clubs. Claude did the right thing because let’s be real, not every head is the same. I used that driver head for the rest of the year.

Do you think there’s still an artistry to this sport? Is the tour filled with mostly bombers, or can players control spin and trajectory like in the olden days?

There’s both. Modern architects want to make courses longer to defend against length, but I always laugh because the best par 3s in the world—the hardest par 3s we play— are the ones that are around 150 yards, where you give us choices. Perfect example is No. 11 at Royal St. George’s. It’s a massive green with a little back shelf. Difficult hole when the wind is blowing. From the back tee, it’s 235 to the middle, and the front tee is like 170 to the middle. The wind was pumping in pretty much every day, and the harder shot was the shorter shot. From the back, it’s 3-iron all day.

A 3-iron isn’t affected by the wind that much. Let’s be real.

With 3-iron, I can’t tell you if I’ve hit it five yards too short or five yards too far. But with a 7-iron? If it comes in with a little too much spin, or not enough spin, there’s a big gap there. You’re trying to do more with that shot.

It’s a shot that entices you to take a risk.

The best designs are the ones where you must control your spin and control your flight. Like 12 at Augusta. When I hit it into the water on Sunday the year Tiger won, I hit a good shot with a hair too much spin. It probably went eight feet higher than a normal one. What does that wind do? It just eats it up. I mean, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t aiming at the centre of the green. I was three shots back, and I had to make a move. Second place isn’t very good for me. I gotta go at it, Wardrobe stylist: Emily Bess • Locations by: locationresources.com

and I can live with the result. That’s the beauty of the artistry in that design process that was created years ago. But it’s less about creativity now and more about length.

When you have stretches where you aren’t playing well, is missing a cut a tragedy?

There have been times when I’ve walked off the course and thought, Hey, this ain’t a bad cut to miss. People aren’t going to agree with that. When you’ve played three or four tournaments in a row, you can sense when you’re tired.

Everyone around you can sense it because the atmosphere trickles down. [Missing the cut] saves you a little bit. You can take Saturday off and clear your mind.

You’re 31. You’ve had wrist surgeries and a big knee surgery this year. You’re physically not the same guy you were when you were 20. Is the future coming faster than you might have expected?

Mentally, I still think I’m 21. But the past three years, there’s the realisation I’m not that young person anymore who can go Jet Ski or wakeboard or whatever. Getting out of bed now takes 30 minutes to get going. You have to change your lifestyle. I probably packed on 10 to 15 pounds after the knee surgery because I can’t be as active as I was. I can’t go run. I’m never going to be able to run again. You’re parking closer to the door than before and all that. I’ve had to switch up the way I eat and train. When I was 25, my metabolism was a hell of a lot faster than it is now. I could eat anything.

Now I eat more anti-inflammatory foods so that I can feel better. There are certain meals the chef will prepare when it’s early versus late because I have a long time or short time before I can eat again. I can go full speed on a bike, but I’m not going to be riding down to Miami like Camilo Villegas did back in the day.

I’ve heard you say you made dramatic lifestyle changes in the past literally on the spot—whether it was changing your diet or stopping drinking when you were in college so you could focus on your game.

Absolutely. Flip a switch. I don’t know where it comes from, but I have no problem turning off my phone or shutting certain people off. My best friends, we have this massive group chat, and I used to read all the text messages. When I got done playing, there’d be 500, and I’d go through them all. Now I’m like, no, I’m not going to do that. Shoot, it’s easier for me when I’m on the road. The only thing I care about is playing good golf. How am I going to do it? Good sleep, rest, eat, practice and work out. That’s it. Everything else is an afterthought. When I’m in a majorchampionship week, it’s even more amplified. I’m going to the course and getting my work done. It’s the primary reason I’m sitting here. I can separate things. When I get between the ropes, nothing else matters. Nothing.

Has that made relationships hard to sustain?

Every great athlete struggles with that compared to a normal person. My family relationships aren’t as good as they would be if I were a normal person. Sometimes I come home on an off week, and I know my parents want to see me, but for two or three days, I need to decompress and get out of that mode, or I’m going to stay in it. That makes it hard to have friends or dating or family. What makes it even harder for some players is that it’s difficult for them to say no. Over the past few years, I’ve found that because I’ve grown into myself, and I’m genuinely happy inside, it’s easier to say no. That’s hard for some people to hear,

‘IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS I’VE BEEN ABLE TO

OWN WHO I AM

AND FIND THAT HAPPINESS.’

especially my parents or my brother [Chase]. I don’t get to see my brother as much as I’d like because he’s on his own grind. I don’t have the relationships in my life that I would want, but I want to be the best golfer I can be. So for another 10 years it’s just going to be what it is, and that’s the sacrifice you make when you’re on the extreme end when it comes to the mental side.

Sounds like your circle has gotten smaller. I’d imagine it’s people who can accept the dynamic you just described.

Yep. What has really helped me is that they’re normal guys. They keep me grounded. I mean, if I go out and shoot 74, if I were to go back and read that group text, it’d be “Man, this guy can’t putt. . . . He sucks. . . . Get him off my TV screen. I’m tired of watching this shit.” You have to have those real people in your life.

Did you watch the Naomi Osaka documentary?

I did.

It made me sad because it seemed like she had the capacity to say no and exert more control over her life, but she wouldn’t or couldn’t. She didn’t have people around her telling her the truth.

To be honest, there have been times when Blake has been like, “Bro, you need to chill.” Jena [Sims, Koepka’s fiancee] is the same way. I felt bad for [Osaka] in the same way you did. I remember the scene where her trainer came to her and said, “Hey, maybe every month we as a group should sit down and voice what’s going on.” And she was like, “I don’t really have a voice.” That was interesting because you know how she always referred to herself as a vessel?

Sometimes you have to be strong enough to have that voice inside yourself and be the authoritative figure.

Sometimes you have to sit back, listen and take the criticism. I really liked what Giannis [Antetokounmpo] said: When you’re thinking about the past, that’s ego.

That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard because when you start thinking of mistakes or screw ups or how you missed that shot or this shot, that’s just your ego being hurt. If you keep staying in the present, you’re fine.

The other part of it is that you can’t look too far into the future. There’s a fine little balance in there.

You’re surrounded by mechanisms—social media, this interview, television coverage—that are designed to remind you about the past and ask you about ongoing beefs with certain players or get you to speculate about the future. How do you stay balanced?

That’s sport. That’s your job. What did Marshawn Lynch say? Take care of your mentals? Your mind is just as important as your body. No athlete is ever 100 percent. But I’m there to play golf and play the best I can. There are going to be days when I suck, and there’s nobody more embarrassed about that than me. Sometimes, walking through september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

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34 golfdigestme.com | september 2021

‘I JUST SHOW UP AND

WIN THE THING.

I REMEMBER THINKING, IT’S THAT EASY? REALLY?’

didn’t want to imitate Dustin and do things exactly the way he did, but I pulled from him and pulled from G-Mac. Now things start to come together, and it’s like, OK, I’ve figured this out. To this day, I’ll watch other guys and how they go about things and kind of snag from this guy or take from an athlete in another sport. Like, say, the step-on-your-throat mentality. There’s a small opening, and you see a sliver of hope. What do you do with it? That comes from the more athletic side, right? When you’re around successful people, it rubs off on you, and you make it your own.

Do you still get angry or just channel it differently?

It’s more about not showing it outwardly and turning it into a positive. Before, I might pull a wedge and miss the green, and I’d think, What the hell! You’re a hundred out and miss the green, but you can hit the fairway from 300 yards? And I would seethe inwardly for three holes. Now? I hit that shot, and I think, OK. That was embarrassing.

Everyone here is laughing at me. I can hear the crowd snickering. All right, well, watch this.

What was it like at Augusta in 2019, when the entire place was going crazy for Tiger on Sunday? Do you feed off that kind of energy when it’s going away from you?

There’s more noise in silence. What was that play where Auburn caught that field goal Alabama tried and ran it all the way back for a touchdown with no time left? I’m pretty sure that aside from the Auburn guys, you could’ve heard a pin drop—and that’s all they wanted. To me, that’s cheering. The fans at Augusta, they’re so respectful, but for Tiger? The cheering is 50 times bigger than anybody else.

And in the moment, I want that silence.

Tiger said something in his press conference afterward that was rare for him. He singled you out as the one name on the leader board he was watching because he knew you weren’t going to go away.

I never heard that. I’ve been around him so much, and I respect everything he’s accomplished. In my mind, he’s the best player to ever play the game, and it isn’t close. But when I’m playing, I don’t care. He’s in my way.

Does it bother you when you don’t get the same kind of energy from the crowd when you’re the leader?

It used to. I couldn’t understand it. But now I’m happy enough. Outside golf, I have everything I want. I’m on the right path. Hopefully in a few years, we’ll get to have kids.

Even if I shoot 75, I come home to people I love. I finally understand that I’m not perfect, and I’m not going to play perfect. I just need to get the most out of what I’m doing that day. Good, bad, ugly. Doesn’t matter. There’s that satisfaction that you can say, Look, I had nothing, but I gave it everything, and I can leave it on the table.

Process versus outcome.

Exactly.

koepka: jacket: hugo boss • shirt: emporio armani • jeans: ag • watch: rolex • neckl ace: stephanie gottlieb

the fans when they’re giving it to you, the eyes go down a little bit because you don’t want to make eye contact with anybody. At the same time, you have to be strong enough on the inside to say, that’s just one day in my whole life.

That’s not me. Your sport can’t define you. That’s something else I found interesting in the Osaka documentary: She didn’t seem to have any hobbies or friends to keep her grounded. That makes me realise even more who I am because I have those friends who just view me as me.

I wonder if Tiger had anybody like that in his life. I don’t know if he relaxed for 10 years.

I’d say that’s right. The way I’m wired, I’m all on or all off.

Maybe I didn’t understand that the first 25 years of my life, but in the past five years I’ve been able to own who I am and find that happiness. I don’t know if that’s because of Jena or because I understand more of how things work, but you mature a little more. I can’t put my finger on it. But when it comes together, and you see what works, you say, this is the program, and I’m going to stick with it.

What’s one example?

When I first got out here, I was a hothead. In college, it was always the stand bag legs that gave you away. Mine were always bent. My college coach, Trey Jones, always said the bag doesn’t represent you. It represents everybody else who has come through Florida State and everybody who is going to come through Florida State. One time I missed a green with a wedge, and I chucked the wedge at the bag, and it hit the leg. The bag leg bent. When I looked up, I’ll never forget. I see him sprint, and I’m thinking, How am I going to fix this bag in five seconds before he gets here?

Another time, we’re playing an event at our home course, and I make a terrible 5 on the first hole, and on the second hole, I plug it in the bunker. My body language is just so bad, and I’m staring down at my shoes, thinking, Why am I out here? Trey was walking with me, and he said, if you’re going to look down at your shoes, I’m going to write something on them so every time you get down you realise what a big blank you are. I mean, he gave me an earful.

They were pretty tough on me, but I needed it.

How long did it take for that to sink in?

Maybe three or four years. I was like, I really need to change. At Tampa in 2014, Blake and I were talking, and I was like, “Man, I just wish I could be more like Dustin on the golf course.” My whole thing was, I was going to find out how he did it. Dustin had a shot where he had to punch it out, and it hit the lip of the curb and bounced up and kind of went back to where it was. And he laughed!

I’ll never forget that moment. I turned to Blake and said, “How does he laugh at that? I’d have gone ballistic.” Blake says, we’ll talk to him and find out. I started asking him things, and he probably didn’t even know I was watching him—because, if I’m honest, I don’t like making myself feel vulnerable. He’s maybe the best athlete in the world at letting things roll off his back. My caddie, Ricky Elliott, is best friends with Graeme McDowell, and he’d say the same things. Graeme would tell you he’s not the most talented guy in the world, but he figures out how to get the best out of his game and each shot, hit the correct shot and where to place it, and to move on to the next one.

You won your first PGA Tour event early the next season, in Phoenix.

I just started taking things and piecing them together. I

▶ match play Koepka and fiancee Jena Sims have been together since 2017.

36 golfdigestme.com | september 2021

It sounds like a demanding week.

It is. I make sure during tournament weeks that whether it be sponsors or whatever, there can’t be any distractions.

But there are meetings and team building, and you’re whisked away for a lot of things like pictures and all that.

It’s more demanding than I’m used to, and there’s a lot of emotion there, so by Sunday, you’re just dead. It’s just maybe not in my DNA, the team sports thing.

You caused a stir when you showed up at the Open Championship and said you hadn’t touched a club in two weeks.

You can practice and still suck. You can get worse if you try too hard or whatever it might be. In sport, I think it’s way more mental than you can ever understand.

Is that why you don’t have a regular swing coach?

That goes back to the last five years or so—owning who you are. I own my golf swing. I can take off as many days as I want. I can practice as long as I want, and my swing is probably not going to change.

shirts, pants, shoes: nike

You aren’t a guy who has always said what’s on your mind. When you hurt your knee, people didn’t know the extent of it. When you look back, are you content with the amount that you’ve revealed to people?

As my personal life goes, there are snippets people see, whether from my social or Jena’s. You have to let some people in. Being out there, I’m just me. You can hate me for it or love me for it. I don’t care about your opinion of me.

For virtually all of your career, you get to set the schedule and make the rules and be responsible for your own performance. How does that mesh with the Ryder Cup experience? Is it strange being on a team?

It’s different. It’s hectic. It’s a bit odd, if I’m honest. I don’t want to say it’s a bad week. We’re just so individualized, and everybody has their routine and a different way of doing things, and now, it’s like, OK, we have to have a meeting at this time or go do this or go do that. It’s the opposite of what happens during a major week. If I break down a major week, it’s so chill. You wouldn’t even believe me. I go to the course. I play nine holes. I go work out.

Other than that, I’m sitting and watching TV, taking my mind off golf with relaxing stuff. The physical part, I can handle. The mental side, you have to be able to turn it off.

Sometimes, the power comes from being able to turn it on.

But for me, I get power from turning it off. That’s been a huge, huge thing for me that I really haven’t understood until the past five or six years of my career.

Right about when you started winning majors.

It comes from understanding who you are.

But, as you said, at a major, you’re only concerned about yourself. At the Ryder Cup, that dynamic is different.

It’s tough. There are times where I’m like, I won my match.

I did my job. What do you want from me? I know how to take responsibility for the shots I hit every week. Now, somebody else hit a bad shot and left me in a bad spot, and I know this hole is a loss. That’s new, and you have to change the way you think about things. You go from an individual sport all the time to a team sport one week a year. It’s so far from my normal routine. I can barely see my [personal] team. It’s hard to even go to the gym. At the Presidents Cup in New York, we had to go to the gym at 5 a.m. to get it in. We went to the Equinox, and it was me, Dustin and Tiger, and we come back and go to a team meeting. Under regular conditions, I take naps a lot. I might take an hour, hour-and-a-half nap, or just chill on the couch and watch “SportsCentre,” before rounds, after rounds, whatever. There’s no time to do that at the Ryder Cup. There’s no time to decompress.

A genius-level captain would say, “We’re not changing anything from your regular routine.”

For sure. If I was ever to be named a captain, one of the things I’d do is get the caddies more involved. I thought it was weird in France that there was a sign on the door that said, “No caddies allowed.” As a captain, it might be tough to get into a player’s brain, but it’s easier to get into a caddie’s brain, and that’s the next guy in line. Like, if you want to understand how it went, go talk to Ricky [Elliott] because sometimes I can’t even articulate what I’m doing or how things are going. He’s the best guy to talk to about how I’m feeling. There are times when I respond to people asking me if I’m OK by saying, “Yeah, I’m good,” but I’m not good! I’m not feeling right. And he’ll tell you.

the brooks swing fix Plenty of players dive into launch-monitor data.

Brooks Koepka isn’t one of them. His improvement strategy comes from checking a series of fundamentals one at a time like posture, grip and alignment. “Last year, when I played bad because of my knee, I wasn’t addressing the ball well, and my weight was a little off. I compensated by changing my posture, and then I started changing things with my grip.” But when you change multiple things, he says, you’re not able to isolate what is making you better (or worse). The takeaway?

Record your swing when you’re playing great, and when you’re struggling, adjust one variable at a time as needed. “If you’re standing there thinking about a bunch of different things you have to do, your odds are going to go way down.” —M.R.

The first Ryder Cup I covered was 1995 at Oak Hill, and walking with the singles match between Seve Ballesteros and Tom Lehman was a masterclass from Seve in gamesmanship and competitiveness. Seve didn’t have the game, so he knew he needed a different weapon to bring to that fight. Is gamesmanship a dying art?

No. How do you use it?

It’s a state of mind. A lot of times when I go to the course, I don’t know who I’m playing with or even my tee time. I just know it’s in the afternoon. A great example of gamesmanship is what Phil did to me at the PGA. I got trounced on that one. I thought it was pretty good what he was doing.

Give me an example.

His body language. I don’t want to give it away, but I didn’t handle it well. You’ll have to ask him about it. I think he knew what he was doing. It wasn’t the reason I lost. I lost because I didn’t play well enough. It was tough for me to get

into a rhythm, and the timing of how things were going.

I could see [what he was doing] because I know it. I do it.

How? I know it when I walk into a room. I’ve been this way since I was a kid. Maybe Jena comes home, and I ask her how her day was, I notice that her nail polish has changed, or she’s moved her rings or bracelets. Nuances. I’m aware of little things. Are you fidgeting over something? Are you taking a bit longer over something? Are you reacting to something maybe I said? I mean, I’ve got no problem saying I’ve done it. In the middle of the round.

We’re not talking about dirty stuff, like making noise to distract somebody.

No. That’s uncalled for. A lot of guys don’t like to say the word “shank” during a round. I don’t care. I’ve said it before. I’ll say, “Hey, didn’t somebody shank one here?”

Some guys will hear that and crumble. I’m not saying that’s my go-to, but you can tell some guys are just . . .

Are you saying golfers might not be as tough as athletes in other sports?

Golf isn’t really a sport where you trash talk, but I can trash talk with the best of them. I don’t want to say gamesmanship is trash talk, but it borders the line. If I go with my buddies, what I say to them is completely different. Every bad shot, you’re going to hear about it. On tour, it’s more the little things. But the reality is, I take satisfaction from beating everybody more than anybody knows. I take so much satisfaction that there’s something wrong in my head about it. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, it’s so intense. I might not always show it, but I’m so intense inside at wanting to beat the living crap out of you at whatever we’re doing. It eats me up inside. We could be playing pingpong or cornhole or whatever. I just want to embarrass you.

If golf wasn’t the “gentleman’s” sport it is, I would trash september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

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‘SECOND? SPORTS ARE MADE TO HAVE A

WINNER AND A LOSER.

shirt, shoes, sungl asses: nike • pants: david august • watch: rolex • neckl ace: stephanie gottlieb

YOU’RE ONE OR THE OTHER.’

talk my entire way through it. I’d love to be in the NFL and just stand over you like Tyrann Mathieu does after a tackle.

But part of that is being able to take it too.

I love it. Come at me all you want. There’s a Kobe quote: “They don’t hate the good ones. They hate the great ones.”

A lot of people get pissed off at the truth, so they don’t like the trash talk. When you’re at the top, you’re going to have people hate you because you’re so good at what you do. When you dive deep into those words, you understand it’s coming from jealousy. I’ve been there. There are times when I’ve come off the course, and I’m jealous because somebody has won a couple of times, and I think, I know I’m better than them. I’m so jealous! You feel that burn and that competitiveness, and it just wills you to go farther. It keeps you going and gets you ready for the next time.

Is there a line?

One of the biggest things now is that people have the hardest time taking accountability. You hear people say they want to hear the truth. But when you tell the truth, it hurts. Most people aren’t ready for it. What was that quote I heard? Sometimes the bully is telling you the truth?

Sometimes you need to look in the mirror. I know there have been times in my life where it’s been hard to accept the truth. I know it, and I don’t want to hear it. Sometimes the things I say get misconstrued. You might hear the way I speak, my monotone, and hear that instead of what I’m saying. I’m dry, and I try to be very chill. That’s just who I am. I don’t try to get too high or too low.

David Duval changed his body, worked relentlessly, got to World No. 1 and won the Open Championship. Then he looked around and asked himself, Is this all there is? He struggled to find something else to go after. How do you find what to go after next?

I had kind of a similar moment, where it was, It can’t be this easy, can it? This was in 2018. I was playing the best in the world. I’m No. 1. I truly believe I’m the best. I go to Korea, haven’t touched a club in three weeks, and I just show up and win the thing. I remember thinking, It’s that easy? Really? And then you fall a little bit. The only difference is, I got humbled because I got hurt. That brought me back to reality. Then you see yourself fall in the world rankings, and then you say, No, I’m going to get back. Then I got it back and lost it again and then got it back and won the PGA. After that, it was tough to figure out what else to do. I understand where he was coming from with that. But I figured out it’s not being the best in the world. It’s about being the best you can be. I might be the best in the world, but I’m not the best I can be—so what’s the point? You have to find the internal fire and just light it again.

That’s what is so interesting about Tiger in 2019. He clearly wasn’t the best player in the world again. He wasn’t peak Tiger Woods.

But if you ask him, he believed he was the best player there.

He wasn’t the Tiger Woods of 10 years ago, but he extracted every bit out of the Tiger Woods that was at the 2019 Masters. That has to be satisfying. I mean, I hope when I’m 45, that happens to me. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in golf. It sucked in the moment. Don’t get me wrong. But I’m good at removing myself from the situation when everything’s done and looking at things, and that’s maybe the coolest thing that’s happened in golf besides that chip in he had on 16. To me, it’s the most memorable, aside from getting absolutely trounced on.

Where does what Phil did at the PGA rate?

I don’t know why, but it was different. Phil’s not Tiger.

We’re sitting and listening to the coverage on Saturday night, and it was Brandel [Chamblee] and Justin [Leonard], and they were talking about if Phil won, would it bring him into the top 10 players of all time. I thought, F___ that, he’s top 10 all time already. Now he’s just moved up a couple of spots or whatever. I probably have him at five. But Tiger is in a league of his own. I felt like I gave everything I have with Tiger [at the 2019 Masters], and that shot on 12 killed me, but I was three or four shots back, and I had to do something. I followed up with an eagle and almost made another eagle. I gave him everything I had, and Tiger took it. With Phil, I didn’t feel like I gave him any run for his money for 12 or 13 holes. I didn’t push him.

That’s a credit to him, where I think some of his gamesmanship came into play. I have no problem looking in the mirror and saying, I gave it my all, and it just wasn’t good enough. Think about Phil, always being second fiddle to Tiger. Imagine if he had been born 10 years earlier or 10 years later. He probably has four or five more majors and 15 more wins, which is crazy to think about. Part of me feels bad for Phil, but the only reason he’s as rich and famous as he is is because of Tiger. That’s the same thing for our generation.

That might be the one downside to the Tiger effect. You could finish 50th in money for 15 years, make enough cuts to qualify for the full tour pension and have $50 million.

That’s insane.

People would take that career.

It comes down to what you want. Do you want to have security or greatness? What makes that person happy? Do you want to be the person who plays 15 years and never misses a cut but never wins or the person who misses seven cuts a year and wins every year? Different people want different things. What satisfies you doesn’t satisfy me. I know what I want.

Has Tiger set the bar out of reach?

In my mind, I’m going to catch him on majors. I believe that. I don’t see any reason that can stop me. I’m 31. I have another 14 years left. If I win one a year, I got Jack. People misconstrue that as being cocky. No, that’s just my belief. If I don’t have that belief, I shouldn’t be out there. If you don’t think you can win, why the hell are you teeing it up? Yeah, I’m just going for second place this week. There’s a lot of that on tour. Even elite players are very happy with that. Second? Sports are made to have a winner and a loser. You’re one or the other. september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

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FL AG HI GH

rates the United Anthony Kim celeb tory at the 2008 States’ 16½-11½ vic Louisville. Left: in lla Match at Valha in ted Rory McIlroy Patrick Reed defea . tch ma s gle sin a drama-filled 2016

THE

P U C R E RYD FILE ERICAN EVERYTHING AM RICKER MUST T S E V E T S IN A T CAP HE EUROS KNOW TO WHIP T

27 Established in 19

iel Rapaport Compiled by Dan

september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

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CHOOSE WISELY

VICTORY IS OURS

The Americans edged ½, in 14½ Europe, 14½-13 1991’s “War by the Shore.”

42 golfdigestme.com | september 2021

chalk (Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tony Finau, Bryson Dechambeau) because those guys were playing well—on Americanstyle courses. In France, the fairways were as wide as a hotel hallway and, except for Tony, those boys were awful. We’d have been better off playing assistant captains Matt Kuchar and Zach Johnson.

For pairings, don’t pull a Hal Sutton and pair two superstars who don’t care for each other because you think it’s intimidating. The team of Tiger and Phil only fired up the Euros, and if

that team loses, you’re in trouble. Ask the guys who they want to play with, and mitigate personality conflicts. In 2012, ZJ was so freaked out by how quiet Jason Dufner was that Davis Love III had to tell Duf to speak up a little. They went 2-1 that week.

The order you trot out matters most in singles. In 2012, DL3 led with Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson because they like to play fast. They were nervous, had a bad start, and Europe pulled off a stunning comeback. The lesson? Go with your hot players first.

BAD MATCH

Hal Sutton’s pairing of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the 2004 Cup backfired when they lost both their matches while inspiring the Europeans.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE The 12 men on your team will be—how should I put this—more particular than the boys of past teams. Each player has a traveling entourage these days: caddie, swing coach, putting guy, mental guru, agent, sandwich maker and the “physio”—which used to be a European word, but apparently it sounds fancier than “trainer,” so they all use it. These guys are the stars of their own shows because they can afford to be. Some haven’t heard the word “no” in years. This makes Ryder Cup week tricky. It’s your job to get them to leave their egos at the mansion and lean into the team dynamic.

Your instinct will be to tell the prima donnas to put themselves second for a week, but that’s not how millennials work. They need a common cause. That’s

previous pages: kim: harry how/getty images • reed: mike ehrmann/pga of america/getty images

The first big decision you’ll have to make is what to do with those six captain’s picks you get because of the pandemic’s disruption to the point system. I don’t envy you. They didn’t even exist until Raymond Floyd’s captaincy in 1989, and I thought Paul Azinger was flat-out nuts that he asked for four in ’08.

Speaking of Zinger, he gets credit for all the personality stuff, but Dave Stockton went the psyche route first at Kiawah in ’91. He and psychologist Deborah Graham profiled his team and settled on picks they thought would mesh. Your job is to be sure every player has at least one potential partner. If a guy no one likes makes the team on points, you best use a pick to find someone who can tolerate him.

Unlike the Europeans, we don’t have many players with winning experience, so select guys who are playing well and fit the course. Sounds simple, but Jim Furyk failed to do this in 2018. He went full

IF ANY CLOTHING BECOMES THE STORY, YOU’RE IN TROUBLE

tiger: al messerschmidt/wireimage/getty images • fans, sutton: david cannon/allsport

Let’s address the rainsuit in the room.

What happened in 2010 was a disaster.

Granted, a two-foot-thick cube of steel wouldn’t have kept all the water out that week in Wales, but a rainsuit has one job: Keep the person wearing it dry. Those didn’t do it, and they looked terrible while not doing it—like something a mid-’80s Indiana University Hoosiers basketball team would wear.

Lisa Pavin surely had nothing but pure intentions, and she’s not to blame for our loss that week, but we can’t afford a repeat of that sartorial quagmire.

Ryder Cup apparel has come a long way. In 1975, Arnie’s team gifted the Euros new FootJoys because they felt bad about how crummy their shoes were. Our guys used to show up, find some clothes in their locker—medium, large or extra-large—and put them on. If they didn’t fit, it was no biggie. Tiger’s pants were always too big because that guy has the skinniest legs in American history, and we’d all laugh about it. Now, it’s no joking matter. Players are used to having custom-fit clothes, which are way too tight if you ask me.

Get the clothes they’re going to wear during Ryder Cup week into their hands months in advance. The fine folks from Ralph Lauren will have four or five staffers on site to address any last-

minute fit issues, but everything should be handled well before then.

As far as designs go—the simpler, the better. Out-there shirts, like the pictureframe getups we wore in ’99, become iconic only if they’re worn during victory.

If you lose, it’s going to go down in infamy. Red, white and blue complement each other wonderfully. Check the 2019 Presidents Cup team for inspiration.

They wore a whole bunch of solid colors and looked sharp.

As for your threads, avoid pulling a Sutton. Hal showed up to the first tee on Friday in 2004 wearing a cowboy hat and immediately gave the Euros a caricatured mascot to unite against: the beer-drinkin’, dip-chewin’, horseridin’ Yankee. In related news, the boys went to bed that night down 6½-1½. On home soil.

what made Paul Azinger’s “pod” system of 2008, modeled after the Navy SEALS, so genius. He profiled each of his guys and separated them into three groups of four based on personality types: the Aggressives, the Steadies and the Rednecks, and he communicated with each pod differently. Imagine politely telling Anthony Kim, an Aggressive, to “hang in there, buddy!” He’d tell you to f-off. Zinger challenged him directly on the 14th hole at Valhalla that week: “I thought you were gonna show off for me today? You ain’t showing me shit!” That fired Kim up beyond belief. But if you said that to Ben Curtis, a Steady, he might start tearing up. Know your audience.

Figure out what makes each guy comfortable.

If one wants an extra hour for practice, like Zach

ALL HAT NO CATTLE ?

Captain Hal Sutton wore this on the first day of the 2004 Match, but the Euros rolled to an 18½-9½ victory.

Johnson did after 2010, oblige. Have the weight room ready. If they want their physio, bring their physio. Also, these guys are neurotic about food.

Back in the day, you could just put out a buffet.

Now? Everyone’s got their thing. Tiger hates garlic.

DeChambeau’s gonna want protein shakes. Jordan Spieth loves guacamole. Avoid raw fish, especially in Wisconsin—too much potential for disaster.

Never stop telling these guys how good they are. You’re a cheerleader, not a critic. If you want a guy to go out first against his will, tell him it’s because he’s playing the best. When you’re telling a guy he’s sitting, say it’s because he looks a bit tired, and you can’t afford to have a player of his quality less than 100 percent. You’re going to feel like a brown-noser. It’s part of the gig.

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WAR NO MOR E

Mark O’Meara, Payne Stewart, Dave Stockton and Corey Pavin celebrate at Kiawah in 1991.

The suits will tell you with a straight face that the Ryder Cup should have a neutral course setup.

Perhaps they slept through the last matches in France, or they think the super at Le Golf National just happened to make the fairways three yards wide and the rough knee-high by chance. Toying with the course to benefit your team—historically, we hit it farther and more crooked, the Euros are shorter and straighter—is absolutely, positively fair game. We just caught wind of it later than the Euros did. An old U.S. captain asked Tony Jacklin if he’d doctored the setup during his captaincy.

His response? “You’re damned right I did!”

After we got a lil’ frisky in ’08, they wrote a clause in the Captain’s Agreement to prohibit any last-minute screwery by taking control away from the host captain the Monday before tournament week, 11 days before the first ball is struck.

After that, “all daily decisions related to course preparation, including frequency of height of mowing and tee and hole locations, will be taken by the Match Committee alone.”

All I see there is that you do have control up until the Monday before tournament week. That’s more than enough time to make your intentions known to the lovely superintendent. Buy him a bottle of his favourite bourbon and discuss your

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vision for the course over a glass of it. Make him your best friend. Back in ’08, Paul Azinger cosied up so close to Mark Wilson, the old superintendent at Valhalla, that the guy named his dog Zinger (and last I heard that dog’s still kickin’!). Azinger told Wilson months before the Cup that he considered him an integral part of the underdog U.S. team’s chances.

There were six guys on our team that year who could fly it, say, 302 yards. What did Azinger do? He put the tees to where 302 carried the bunkers, and he put no rough on the other side of them. Hell, he had two branches cut down to make J.B. Holmes’ life easier. Bar set.

Davis Love III kept this going in ’16 at Hazeltine but did so in an understated manner, as is his nature. He told Kerry Haigh, the setup chief for the PGA of America, to err on the easier side when it came to pin locations.

His logic: We want birdies. Even if they make birdie to match, it’s a positive for us because birdies get the crowds going. I don’t know if it’s possible to produce a bunch of birdies at Whistling Straits unless y’all play the forward tees, but do your best. Make it wide. Cut the rough. Set easy pins. Go all out.

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YOU HAVE HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE—USE IT

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AZINGER GROUPED HIS PLAYERS BY PERSONALITY TYPE: THE AGGRESSIVES, THE STEADIES AND THE REDNECKS.

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MAKE IT FEEL HUGE The kids won’t remember, but for a while no one really gave a crap about the Ryder Cup. Remember, Tom Weiskopf decided he’d rather go biggame hunting than play in 1977. It wasn’t until Jack Nicklaus got beat at his own place, Muirfield Village in 1987, that we really started to take things seriously. The War by the Shore in ’91 took things to a new level. Now it’s the biggest spectacle in our sport, and it’s your job to make it feel even bigger than that.

That’s how you get the players to buy in without offering $2 million for first place.

Everything has to be first class—including the gifts you give the players. Stewart Cink still talks about the bike Tom Lehman gave him in ’06. We’ve had so many cool speakers come into the team room that guys have come to expect it now, and it contributes to the grandness of it all. One priceless moment that jumps to mind is when Michael Phelps was giving the boys a pep talk in ’16, and Matt Kuchar pops up and puts his arm around him and goes “Not everyone knows what it means to be an Olympian!”

One of the other boys called out: “Hey, Michael—that thing Kuch has on, it’s called a

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bronze medal.” Said Phelps: “I think I might have one of those—in a relay.”

We’ve had Coach Mike Krzyzewski in there, and even uber-chill Dustin Johnson was fired up after that one.

Lehman set us up with the New England Patriots ahead of Hazeltine. The guys got a priceless lesson by watching Tom Brady interact with his teammates. Davis Love III brought in both president Bushes, which brought Amy Mickelson to tears. You won’t have to beg Michael Jordan to come around. Trust me.

Still, the best moments come organically from the Ryder Cup fraternity—not some athlete or celebrity’s planned speech. Before the flight over to the Belfry in ’93, Tom Watson looked at his team and told them, “You’re about to go on one of the great golfing adventures of your career.” The simplicity of it struck a note. The team was ready to run through a wall, and no U.S. team has won in Europe since those boys did.

You’ll have access to Tiger, whether or not he’s there in person. He loves to help, and the guys idolise him. Anything he says is going to inspire them. Keep that in mind.

Oh, and one more thing about the team room: The pingpong table is a nonnegotiable amenity.

POWER COUPLE

Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus propelled the U.S. team to victory in the 1971 Match.

september 2021 issue| xgolfdigestme.com . 2021 | golf digest 45 x

Weird stuff happens during the Ryder Cup. It’s why the fans love it so much—a break from the monotony of 72-hole, stroke-play events, where crowds politely clap and players tip their caps.

Dave Stockton probably had the craziest experience of all in 1991. First, a limo crash injured Steve Pate two days before the Match began. Once it started, Paul Azinger and Seve Ballesteros nearly came to blows. Then Ray Floyd and Seve almost came to blows.

Dave hated the term “War by the Shore,” but that’s what it was, and no amount of planning prepares you for off-the-wall stuff like that.

It’s your job to contain the chaos. If there are any squabbles—like, say, Patrick Reed feeling betrayed by Spieth or Brooks and DJ coming to blows—address it head-on, before the

media finds out. You don’t need anything blowing up on Twitter.

Don’t give the Euros bulletin-board material.

On the eve of that ’91 Cup, two promotional videos were shown. Team USA’s lasted 20 minutes. The Euros’ video barely made it five. As you might imagine, they were not pleased.

We all owe Danny Willett’s brother a thank you for calling out our fans in ’16, which only made them want to yell louder. Lavish the Euros with praise in every interview you can. There’s no one quite like Seve that you have to contend with, but make sure not to piss off Sergio or Poulter.

The focus needs to be on golf. A point hammered home after ’14 by the task force—funny enough, that’s become a taboo term—was that the PGA of America was running our guys ragged by dragging them to events every night. You don’t want them feeling like their golf routine changes

ACCEPT THAT WHICH YOU CANNOT CONTROL The worst part about being a captain is that you’re not a player. You won’t hit a single shot, which limits your ability to directly impact the matches. You can follow every direction I’ve given you, endear yourself to

for this one week.

Encourage the guys to interact with the crowd if they want, but make it clear they don’t have to.

There’s no right or wrong answer. Remind them that no matter how loud or contentious it gets, it’s golf. There’s no one playing defense, no one stopping you from stuffing that 8-iron to two feet.

BOMBS AWAY

Justin Leonard celebrates after holing a long birdie putt on the 17th green during the final day of the 1999 Match at The Country Club in Brookline.

the players and still lose. Tom Kite took all the blame in 1997, but Tiger, Justin Leonard and Phil couldn’t make a putt all week. Conversely, the Euros couldn’t stand their captain that week, and yet Seve bathed in compliments about his leadership.

Speaking of Tiger, he was a no-brainer pick in ’18.

Might’ve been the best, most consistent player coming into the Cup. Then, the week before the matches, he won his first event in more than five years and turned up to France looking like a zombie. That’s out of your control. Guys who are playing great coming in hit a wall, and guys who are struggling kick it into gear.

There’s an element of randomness to this game. You’re going to feel helpless as you watch European putts fall and American putts lip-out. Once the first tee shot is hit in every session, all you can do is sit back and hope.

The role of the captain is to put your team in position to win. If you don’t, be ready to take the blame—like, all of it. It’s the role of a leader. Win or lose, savor every second of the experience. It’s the honor of a lifetime.

WHAT A RUSH Fans storm the 18th after Team USA’s dramatic final-day comeback at the 1999 Ryder Cup.

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leonard: rusty jarrett/allsport • fans: stephen munday/allsport

MANAGE THE CHAOS

Exclusive paintings, sculptures and photography from award-winning international artists.

Painting by Jassim Al Awadhi

The 50th Anniversary Arabian Falcon Navigator Clock

by David Galbraith Photograph by Anthony Lamb

Liddington Clock

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SM IL ES

A N D SH U SH

ES Ian Poulter and Tomm y Fleetwood celebrate E urope’s 17½-10½ v ictory in th e 2018 Match in F rance; Ror y McIlroy (right) has a career re cord of 11-9-4 in fi ve Cups.

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THE

RY D E R CUP D OSSIER EVERYTHING EUROPEAN CAPTA PADRAIG HARRINGTON MUST IN KNOW T O S PA N K T H E YA N K S Established in 19 27

Compiled by John Huggan

LEAD FROM THE FRONT

Faldo’s captaincy. Every player needs to know where he sits within the overall strategy. That didn’t happen in 2008.

The conclusion? Do what comes naturally—captain as you played. Woosnam is perhaps the best example of that approach. He didn’t make it tense with long meetings. He didn’t give his men loads of information.

What he did give them was confidence and clarity. On the eve of the Match, he told them everyone was going to play the next day, no matter what the score.

That assurance gave

those in the lower half of the team a huge boost.

Woosie wasn’t speaking to Monty when he said those words; it was a brilliant strategy. You have to manage the players off the course as much as you have to manage them on it.

One last thing: Don’t get carried away with yourself.

Many say the captain is only as good as the team. Brian Huggett feels that way. In 1977, he said he wasn’t a great captain because he didn’t have a good team.

Just a thought to keep in mind amid all the adulation coming your way.

DOWN AND OUT

Nick Faldo took heat for his tactical decisions and lack of communication with players during Europe’s resounding defeat in the 2008 Cup.

THE TEAMS BEHIND THE TEAM

SUPPORT SYSTEM

Treat caddies as equals and ask them about the mind-set of their players.

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This is the part of the job where you listen. Behind every great team lurks maybe three “others”—the assistant captains, the caddies and the WAGS (wives and girlfriends). You need to pay heed to them all.

Fun has to be a big part of any Ryder Cup. The craic in the camp has to be good, not just for the players but for the caddies, too. Creating a fun, good-natured atmosphere is something that needs thought. It doesn’t just happen. It has to be provoked. The picking of the vice captains is part of it. But it’s mostly about “positioning” people around the team who will lighten the mood and create amusing banter.

Dealing with the wives and girlfriends has to be managed well. Embrace the wives but in a low-key

previous pages: poulter, fleetwood: richard heathcote/ getty images • mcilroy: mike ehrmann/getty images

There is no one way to captain a Ryder Cup team.

Look at how the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam went about their business. They were all different. But they were all effective, and they all won. But given how badly Europe performed at Valhalla in 2008, it is surely difficult to deny the captain’s importance. “I’m not sure there is any need for a playbook,” says one player on that well-beaten team. “All we really have to do is look at what Nick Faldo did as captain. Then do the opposite.”

Still, the most important part of the job is equally apparent: clear and concise communication with the players. Make it your business to know the members of your team inside out, back to front and upside down. Not just their ability as players but their personalities.

That was one of the biggest criticisms of

FEELING GOOD IN THE TEAM ROOM

faldo: david cannon/getty images • poulter and caddie: jamie squire/getty images • pl ane: central press/hulton archive/getty images

History is on your side here. By almost every account, European team rooms have been home to some of the happiest groups in any sport. That’s something to be proud of. Keep doing what your predecessors have been doing. Create the atmosphere that welcomes rookies and feels familiar to the experienced.

It’s not just the team room that matters. In 2016, captain Darren Clarke did a great job of personalising the bedrooms. In each one, there were pictures that meant a lot to each player.

In Englishman Chris Woods’ room there was a huge photograph of him standing in front of the Clifton suspension bridge in his hometown of Bristol. That provided a huge boost to his ego and confidence. He realised he wasn’t there just to play for himself, a fact underlined by the iPad on his bed. In it were video messages from friends and family. It was goosebumps stuff—and a great idea.

It is the ambience of the team room that matters most though. You need to create a cosy place players can call home. In 2004, Bernhard Langer held his first team meeting of the week in a generic boardroom in a hotel. It was a rare mistake by the most meticulous of men. There was no energy in that room; it could have been anywhere.

Langer’s slip-up was odd; Sam Torrance had shown him how two years earlier. The Scot’s meetings were no

more than 10 minutes. And they were in his bedroom. Players were lying on the bed and sitting on the floor. That feeling of intimacy worked and was something McGinley recreated in 2014. There was a U-shape couch in the team room. Strong imagery and energetic quotes dotted the walls. One was from Seve. But no player was featured more than any other.

Stephen Gallacher and Rory McIlroy had the same number of pictures.

Behind the podium was a scroll on which the score from every Ryder Cup was highlighted with the winner’s flag.

The players could see Europe had won seven of the previous nine matches. But the rest of the list was dominated by the stars and stripes. The point was obvious: Europe was the underdog, which is exactly the psychological position you want your guys to be in.

way. The players need calmness, and the wives are part of that. The caddies, too. Make sure they have the same quality clothes as the players. Give them a team room with the same food. Hold a meeting with them every night. Pick their brains.

They are worth listening to.

In 2004 at Oakland Hills, caddie Mick Donaghy was working for Ian Poulter. Ian wasn’t playing the first morning, but Donaghy was watching guys tee off, and they were out way too early. They had too long to wait in that highly charged atmosphere.

So Donaghy told Ian to arrive on the first tee with no more than 30 seconds to go. It was tee up and go so that Poulter didn’t stand there with too much to think about. Again, great advice.

Still, the most important members and sources

COME TOGETHER

The 1963 European team members and their wives depart for Atlanta and the 15th playing of the Ryder Cup Matches.

of information among your back-up teams are clearly your assistants. It’s safe to assume you have picked men you know well and can trust to tell you things you need to hear, want to hear and, on occasion, don’t want to hear.

It is a role that has grown and multiplied over the years, not because there was a particular problem. It is more to do with the notion that, at every Ryder Cup, things have to be done better than last time. That is a key attitude. Although things may or may not have improved, the effort to do so should be made across the board. Maybe the only downside of more assistants is that the team room has to expand. There is a danger of guys getting “lost.” More is not necessarily a good thing. Keep that in mind.

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51

HAN DLE WITH CARE

Captain Paul McGinley deftly managed his players’ egos in winning the 2014 Cup in Scotland.

Stuff happens at Ryder Cups, stuff you often can’t plan for, even when things are going well. As far back as 1957, when the then-Great Britain side last beat the Americans, preparations for the singles were disrupted by team member Harry Weetman. The big Englishman took exception to being dropped by skipper Dai Rees and publicly announced he would never again play under the wee Welshman’s captaincy. Cue negative headlines and distractions at the wrong time.

Twenty years later, the final Great Britain and Ireland team captain, Brian Huggett, fell out with former Open and U.S. Open champion Tony Jacklin. The key, however, is that their problems were kept from the rest of the side. Only afterward did they hear that there was an issue.

No good can come of disputes within the camp.

They happen though. In 2014, captain Paul McGinley was careful not to take sides in a lawsuit featuring teammates and fellow Irishmen Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell on opposite ends of the argument. Follow McGinley’s lead. Be Switzerland when things like that crop up.

Most recently, of course, there was the case of Danny Willett’s older brother, who penned what can only be described as an anti-American column in a magazine just before the 2016

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matches at Hazeltine. It was a diatribe that saw captain Darren Clarke’s pre-match planning descend into disarray. Meant to play in the opening foursomes, the younger Willett was benched and then a long way from his best form when he did appear.

As for those things you can control, perhaps the biggest is not allowing the members of your team to get caught up in all the “other stuff ” that goes on in Ryder Cup week. There are a few don’ts to take note of here.

Don’t “over team” things during Ryder Cup week. Don’t bond too much. Don’t have too much craic. Don’t have too many games of pingpong. Don’t all have dinner at the same time. Don’t create too much of a pally atmosphere. That’s not what goes on from week to week on tour. That’s not the sort of environment in which everyone has excelled to make the team. So why should it happen at the Ryder Cup? The players are individuals playing an individual sport. They are trained to be selfish.

You want that. Any softening of that approach, and you can lose the dynamic that got them there in the first place. Preserve the selfish attitude they have in tournament play.

jamie squire/getty images

CREATE ORDER WITHIN CHAOS

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ALL FOR ONE? NO, ALL FOR 12 ACTUALLY As the owner of one yourself, you’ll be aware of the need to gently massage the collection of large egos. To be fair, European teams have done a great job on the bonding front.

Any of the almost inevitable personality clashes have been papered over nicely.

It’s all about a simple principle really: No stars. Treat everyone the same. Ah, but not necessarily. The real key is finding the right ways to treat each player.

Collin Montgomerie was a perfect example. As you know, even in his pomp the big man was a notoriously fragile character. But he was also one of the best players for the Old World squad. So everything was done to get him feeling like a million dollars. If he was feeling good and making all the right noises, it would trickle down to the rest of the team. He ended up playing great on five winning teams.

It was important to get him going. The feeling here is that Jon Rahm is your guy to fill that role.

Another common issue is the possibility of a captain’s pick feeling like he hasn’t really merited his place on the team. You need to watch

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out for the warning signs here. Back in 2010 at Celtic Manor, assistant captain Paul McGinley flagged up the fact that Luke Donald wasn’t really engaged in practice. So he was given a bit of TLC. On the eve of the Cup, captain Monty walked a par 5 with his arm on Luke’s shoulder. It was made clear to him how important he was to the team. Luke ended up the top-scorer on the European team that week.

So forget this “12 equals” nonsense when dealing with your players. Treat them all as individuals, but don’t include any of them—even your best performer—in any of your selection decisions. They don’t need that responsibility.

Think about it. If you ask three people who you should pick or pair, you are more than likely to get three different answers.

There are other implications, none of them positive. Let’s say the guy your star recommends doesn’t play well and loses. He is then going to feel responsible.

Conversely, if you ask top players what to do and you don’t do it, their noses are going to be out of joint. They might think you didn’t have respect for their opinions.

That’s why you should tell your players you won’t be asking for any advice. Stick to your vice captains for that.

EMOTIONAL LEADER

Jon Rahm, who defeated Tiger Woods, 2&1, in his 2018 singles match, is a vital player for Team Europe.

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christian petersen/getty images

FORGET THIS ‘12 EQUALS’ NONSENSE. TREAT THEM ALL AS INDIVIDUALS. JUST DON’T INCLUDE THEM IN SELECTION DECISIONS.

Come closer. I need to keep my voice down. As has become clear over the years, course setup is the Ryder Cup’s dark art, used by captains on both sides to emphasise and exaggerate home advantage. It nearly always works, as recent results show. It will surely be used again this year.

Steve Stricker isn’t stupid. With an unprecedented six picks because of the pandemic’s disruption to the point system, he can choose half his team to suit course conditions he has been manipulating for months. My money is on wide fairways, not much rough and soft greens, which will allow the likes of DeChambeau, Johnson, Thomas and Koepka to whale away with impunity.

You have been warned.

My mind goes to Le Golf National in 2018 and

Steve Stricker standing with captain Jim Furyk and assistants Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar. All four had games that were better suited for the penal course setup than any American playing that week. We can assume he took note of that ludicrous situation.

Without saying anything publicly in 2014, Paul McGinley asked for Gleneagles to be set up as it would be for a European Tour event with different fairway widths and a second cut of semi-rough before the heavy stuff. In the end, McGinley wasn’t involved in the course setup. All he did was tell his players what to expect.

Other captains have been more specific.

At The Belfry in 2002, Sam Torrance offset the American advantage off the tee by growing rough just beyond fairway bunkers at around the 285-yard mark.

Ian Woosnam followed that lead in 2006 at the

PICKS, PAIRS AND PLAYS With only two Ryder rookies likely to be automatic qualifiers, use your three captain’s picks to add winning experience. Thomas Bjorn’s four wildcards—Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey and Ian Poulter— won 9½ points in Paris in 2018. These gents know how to win and won’t be intimidated.

K Club in Ireland. He had a few extra trees installed on the corner of doglegs, and fairways were narrowed— all to take the driver out of the hands of the longerhitting Americans. Also, green speeds were set at 11 on the Stimpmeter, just a little bit slower than the PGA Tour norm.

You can’t indulge any of the above this year, of course. But know for sure that Whistling Straits is unlikely to play to typical European strengths.

HOME - FIELD ADVANTAGE

Expect Whistling Straits to play to the strengths of Team USA— wider fairways, less rough and soft greens.

When it comes to the doubles matches, pairing like-minded individuals with similar games is the way to go in foursomes and four-balls. You’d be crazy to mess with a formula that has produced so much recent success. But silly mistakes have been made. For goodness sake, don’t mess up like Bernard Gallacher did in 1995 at Oak Hill. He sent Per-Ulrik Johansson and Bernhard Langer out late one morning, then early after lunch. They had only 25 minutes between matches and played a right load of rubbish after lunch. Still, weird things happen, so don’t be panicked by a loss.

Should every member of your side play on day one? The generous view is that everyone “deserves a game.” But not necessarily. The collective good is what matters. Don’t pander to egos. Be ruthless. Then there is the order of singles. If you’re chasing, go with your in-form guys early. In 2002, Sam Torrance sent out Monty, Sergio and Darren Clarke 1-2-3. In contrast, the Americans placed their strengths—Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods—in the last two games. Too late.

Sergio Garcia, Europe’s all-time leading scorer, has 25½ points in nine Ryder Cups.

OLÉ OLÉ OLÉ

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gary kellner/pga of america via getty images • harry how/getty images

COURSE SETUP

x golf digest | issue 7 . 2021

▶ go low or go home From left: John Greco, Sean Goshert and Kevin Huff vie for a spot in the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship in August.

Greco made it through.

THE TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS OF PGA TOUR QUALIFYING ROUNDS

BY RYAN FRENCH • PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK DAVIS issue 7 . 2021 | golf digest

x

TODD BALKIN FROM AVERAGE JOE TO THE SHOW

As a kid, I was a golf nerd. I pored over the scores and prize-money lists in newspapers and golf magazines.

The Internet only expanded my nerdiness. After I finished college my dad and I took annual trips to caddie on a mini-tour. I became friends with some of the players, and it led to other caddieing opportunities on the now Korn Ferry Tour and at Monday qualifiers. I love seeing what the players go through—the sacrifice they make to chase their dreams is astounding.

Three years ago I started @acaseofthegolf1 on Twitter to tell those stories, and I’m lucky to have turned it into a living at The Fire Pit Collective. At age 44, I’m living my dream. When Golf Digest asked me to share some of my favourite Monday-qualifier moments from covering them the past three years, I was happy to oblige. I hope you enjoy them. —R.F. 58 golfdigestme.com | september 2021

Todd Balkin has managed a pizza restaurant and served as an assistant pro at a club in Texas giving lessons and picking up range balls. Now he sells insurance. Once he teed it up in a PGA Tour event.

There is nothing in professional sports quite like a Monday qualifier.

There isn’t a free-throw contest each Monday to see if you can suit up for the Los Angeles Lakers for a game. Major League Baseball doesn’t conduct a home-run derby to give fans a chance to play for the Yankees for one night. There has never been a stickhandling competition to line up at centre for the Detroit Red Wings. In golf, a Monday qualifier is essentially the equivalent of those things.

If you have a Handicap Index of 2.0 or better and are willing to pay $450 to play a mediocre course, you can play in a Monday qualifier. On the PGA Tour, you have to get through a pre-qualifier to play in the Monday qualifier, but that’s not the case for the Korn Ferry Tour. No one checks your résumé, and you don’t have to be a former college All-American. Once you are entered, just shoot one of the best four scores of the day, and you’re on the PGA Tour for the week, playing for a million dollars. You can be an everyday Joe. You can be Todd Balkin.

The Sunday before the Monday qualifier for the 2019 Byron Nelson, Balkin could not play a practice round because he had to open the golf shop to give a few lessons. Like most assistant pros, he was working 50-plus hours a week. It’s not an ideal way to prepare to play against former PGA and Korn Ferry tour winners. Balkin had shot 69 in the pre-qualifier (the minimum that usually gets a player through) to advance to the Monday.

The next morning, he headed out to play, hoping the caddie he brought who had played the course could help.

He did, and Balkin birdied two of the last three holes. The final putt was a 15-footer that curled in for a 67, and when he turned in his card, he was in a qualifying position. The last few groups came in, and no one matched the 67. He was in the Byron Nelson.

“No matter what happens, I’ll always have the practice round with

▶ working for the weekend Qualifiers are generally played at a course near the PGA Tour site on the Monday before the tournament begins.

Sendo [John Senden], Rafa [Rafael Cabrera-Bello] and Tom [Tom Hoge],” Balkin said. “They were great.”

Balkin shot 75-74 and missed the cut by nine but said he isn’t sure it mattered. “The whole thing was an amazing experience,” he said.

“I soaked up every second of it.”

Balkin might never tee it up in a PGA Tour event again and probably doesn’t have the talent to play professionally, but he can show his kids his player credentials and tell them about the week he walked the same fairways as golf’s best.

JAY AND REYE MCLUEN TWO NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES

In Jay McLuen’s journey to the PGA Tour, both he and his wife, Reye, have been clinically dead.

On Oct. 7, 2017, Jay was watching TV with his two young children.

Another trip to Q school was days away when his heart stopped. Jay went into cardiac arrest. Fortunately Reye was home, and she called 911.

The paramedics revived him. On the way to the hospital, his heart stopped again. It would take seven tries with the defibrillator to revive him, but he survived and ended up needing a pacemaker. “I’ve yet to be in an event where I’m not the leading pacemaker,” Jays jokes.

After a recovery of about six months, he slowly resumed his dream of playing on the PGA Tour.

But then tragedy struck again. Jay was out on his brush hog in May 2020 when he ran over some barbed wire, and it wrapped around the machine’s blades. After notifying Reye and putting the tractor up on hydraulic jacks, they climbed under the

machine to cut the barbed wire away.

Then one of the jacks gave way, leaving Jay and Reye pinned underneath.

Jay screamed for his 7-year-old daughter, Miller, to get the neighbor.

The neighbor used his tractor to lift the brush hog off of them. Jay was not injured, but Reye was purple. She had stopped breathing. The neighbor was trained in CPR, and with Jay’s help, they revived her. An ambulance transferred her to the hospital. Reye had a collapsed lung, and there were moments when the medical staff wasn’t sure she would make it.

In September 2020, during a practice round for the Sanderson Farms Monday qualifier, Jay walked off the course, frustrated with his game. The range session that followed didn’t produce better results. Expectations for the next day were low, and then golf happened. Jay shot a 66 that ended with a spot in the Sanderson Farms

THERE ISN’T A FREETHROW CONTEST EACH MONDAY TO SEE IF YOU CAN SUIT UP FOR THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS. Championship. He made the cut and finished 63rd, but with no status he continues to chase Mondays.

For Jay, 41, and Reye, life seems normal again, and everything they have been through has tempered Jay’s outlook. “When you’ve performed CPR on your wife,” he says, “10-footers for par don’t seem as important.” september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

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COREY CONNERS AN UNLIKELY CHAIN OF EVENTS

Corey Conners became the first player since 2010 and only the fourth in PGA Tour history to win after Monday qualifying at the Valero Texas Open in 2019, but that is only a part of the story. His career highlight to that point almost didn’t happen.

At the Corales Puntacana event the week before the Valero, Conners was near the cut line on Friday. The course was playing relatively easy, and he just needed to play the closing nine holes in one under. He had some opportunities, but his putting cost him, and he shot one over, missing

the cut by two. It was the most critical missed cut of his career. If he had made the cut, he would not have been able to catch a flight to get to the Valero Monday qualifier. (He had conditional status on the PGA Tour at the time, so he would try to Monday qualify for any tournaments for which he wasn’t exempt.)

Conners quickly changed his flight to make it to Texas. Chase Hanna, another player in the Valero Monday qualifier, had hit a second shot on the par-5 13th that left him about two feet for eagle, which would put him at five under. This was the first year you could leave the flagstick in while putting, and Hanna went to finish with the pin still in. The flag must

have been leaning toward him, and somehow his eagle putt stayed out.

A player in his group after the round said, “I couldn’t believe it happened.”

Hanna took the flag out, tapped in for birdie and finished at four under par.

Conners came to the last hole at three under needing a birdie to get into a playoff. The 18th at The Club at Sonterra is a difficult 416-yard dogleg par 4. Only seven players birdied it, and 20 made bogey. An average drive and approach left Conners 30 feet downhill for birdie. Miss the putt, and it was on to the next Monday; make it and join five others in a playoff. He made it.

The six would tee off together with only one getting the final spot,

▶ only the lonely You won’t find many fans or caddies at Monday qualifiers.

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hardly great odds. On the first playoff hole, Conners hit a wedge to six feet.

He watched as each of the other five players missed their birdie tries.

Conners then stepped up and made the putt, ending the playoff.

That Sunday, Conners, then 27, became the first player since Arjun Atwal at the 2010 Wyndham Championship to win on the PGA Tour after Monday qualifying. His final-round of sixunder 66 included 10 birdies to offset a string of four straight bogeys.

Reflecting on his wild week, it was a missed cut, a missed tap-in and an unlikely 30-foot bomb that changed his career. The week after his victory, Conners teed it up at Augusta National for the Masters Tournament.

▶ fire at the flag It takes a score of 66 or better, on average, to Monday qualify for the PGA Tour.

BRADY SHARP RULES-INFRACTION HEARTBREAK

Brady Sharp had finally made it back.

After three surgeries in 10 months for Crohn’s disease and another to remove a non-cancerous tumor in 2016, Sharp had Monday qualified for his second Korn Ferry Tour start. It was about to end a few holes in when he had to call a rules official.

Sharp, now 35, turned professional 15 years ago after playing two years of community college golf. He took a job at Walla Walla (Wash.) Country Club and worked in the golf shop and didn’t think playing full time was a possibility.

“It just seemed that something was always in the way; mostly it was financial,” Sharp says. Some members at Walla Walla funded him for three years, and after enduring the struggles that almost all professionals go through, he finally broke through in 2018 at the Monday qualifier for the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship. He would miss the cut, but it was an encouraging step.

Then Sharp got sick. Crohn’s disease causes inflammation of your digestive tract and can result in severe pain, weight loss and malnutrition. After a long recovery, Sharp returned to Walla Walla and slowly got his game back.

Eventually he felt confident enough to play some mini-tour events. Then in 2020, he shot a 64 to once again qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship.

In almost every developmentaltour tournament that pros play, range finders are allowed. They are even permitted in Monday qualifiers. Sharp reached for his on the first hole of the Utah Championship and used it again on the second hole when it hit him.

Range finders are not allowed in Korn Ferry Tour events.

“I just had a brain lock,” he says.

“I play in so many events that allow them—it was just automatic.”

Although no one saw him use the range finder, Sharp called for a rules official, and they discussed what happened. The penalty for using it?

Disqualification. Six holes into his second-ever Korn Ferry Tour start, it was over.

Sharp is still chasing the dream of making it to the tour.

OF THOSE PLAYERS WHO MONDAY QUALIFY FOR THE PGA TOUR, LESS THAN A THIRD MAKE THE CUT.

september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

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ANDRES ECHAVARRIA THE DESPAIR OF FALLING SHORT

On one side of the green, Donnie Trosper and his caddie were screaming, hugging and celebrating that they had just earned a chance to play his first PGA Tour event in his hometown.

On the other side, Andres Echavarria was distraught.

Only four players leave a Monday qualifier happy, and the closer you get to succeeding, the worse it feels to not make it. Echavarria doesn’t have any tour status. The only way he can get into a PGA Tour event is to qualify. His 67 was good enough to get him into a

▶ sweating it out Mondays are all about posting a low score and hoping it holds up.

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four-for-one playoff for a spot in the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July 2020.

The playoff was exceptional. Echavarria made a 15-footer—punctuated by a fist pump—on the first hole and then had an amazing up and down from a dirt patch on the second hole to extend the playoff. Then Echavarria had a five-footer for par to extend the playoff to a fourth hole, but this time he missed. Echavarria bent over and covered his face with his hands.

The chance to tee it up for more than a million dollars just slipped by. As with most Monday qualifiers, there are few fans; during the pandemic there have been even fewer. Only five saw this drama unfold, and the third hole, a short par 4 over a small creek at Katke Golf Course in Big Rapids, Mich., is a long way from the clubhouse. It is even farther after missing a putt that ended a chance to play in a tour event.

Trosper and his caddie were shouting and high-fiving. Trosper turned on his phone, and his screen lit up with congratulatory texts.

Echavarria, 33, was walking with his caddie; he was hanging his head and shaking it. Neither said a word.

Playoffs for Monday qualifiers are a place of two extremes. Win? Play for the opportunity of a lifetime. Lose?

Wonder where professional golf will take you tomorrow. I approached him, and before I spoke a word, he said, “Not now, Ryan.”

I watched him walk to his car, silently load his clubs and climb into the driver’s seat. There was no plan.

Maybe he would fly home and play a mini-tour event. “I’m sorry I walked past you; I was just so upset—still am kinda.” That was the text message I got from Echavarria a few hours later.

He didn’t need to apologize.

CHASING QUALIFIERS IS EXPENSIVE. INCLUDING TRAVEL AND ENTRY FEES, IT’S MORE THAN $1,000 FOR 18 HOLES.

▶ youth and experience Monday qualifiers are a mix of newcomers like Akshay Bhatia, 19 (right), and former tour pros like Andrew Yun, 30 (middle).

MATT SHORT MAKING A CAREER OF MONDAYS

Matt Short was recruited to play basketball at Lees-McRae, a small Division II school in North Carolina.

There was just one problem: The coach Randy Unger was out of basketball scholarships. However, turns out Unger was also the golf coach, and he asked Short if he had ever played. Short had but only a few times before turning 17, when he started to take it seriously. Parts of his game were good, but when you pick up the game at 17, the chances of being competitive in college are slim.

The odds of playing professionally are even slimmer, although Hall of Famer Larry Nelson, who took up golf at 21 and won three majors, is a notable exception. The plan for Short was to play both sports in the first year and switch to basketball full time when a scholarship became available.

Then Short fell in love with golf.

Instead of sticking with basketball after his first year, he focused on golf and dedicated his life to getting to the PGA Tour. Short found a swing coach, refined his action and beat thousands of range balls weekly.

If you were to name a mini-tour in the southern United States, Short has probably played it and more than likely won on it. For 13 years, he drove the backroads of the Carolinas playing on the GPro Tour, Carolina Mountain Tour, SwingThought Tour and playing Monday qualifiers.

In a podcast with Short, 37, I asked him how many Monday qualifiers he had played before the PGA Tour’s 2019 Wells Fargo Championship.

“I try not to count,” Short says. “I really have no idea—probably over a 100, and I had never made one.”

That would change on that Monday.

A long putt for birdie on the final hole gave him a 68, not often good enough for a Monday qualifier, but the course was playing difficult that day.

When you have waited 13 years

for your first PGA Tour start, the hours-long wait for scores to come in at a Monday qualifier can be excruciatingly nerve-racking.

“Probably the longest wait of my life,” Short says. But the 68 held up, and Short got his first start, and then he made the cut.

Short went to his next Monday qualifier on the Korn Ferry Tour, got through and made the cut. Two weeks later, another Monday and another success. These are the moments that keep the dream alive, a glimmer of hope that he can play with the best.

Short had a lot of success on the mini-tour circuit, enough to eek out a living, but it wasn’t easy.

Today you can still find Short driving to mini-tour events in the Carolinas.

“I’m like a poker player: I’m all in,” Short says when asked if he has ever considered giving up his dream.

Look at the field for an upcoming Monday qualifier, and Matt Short is probably there. september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

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▶ opportunity lost Justin Warren missed an 18-inch putt to get into a playoff for the final qualifying spot of the Barracuda Championship.

DOC REDMAN REDEMPTION AFTER A SLOW START

There are advantages to being a U.S. Amateur champion. PGA Tour exemptions await once you turn pro. Doc Redman, the 2017 champion, received six but wasn’t able to play well in them. Then came four starts and three missed cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour.

The benefits started disappearing.

Redman would go on to miss at qualifying school for the Korn Ferry Tour. Next was Q school for PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Heading into the third round, he was in position to get his card.

But on the par-5 17th, he made a 10 that included a ball out-of-bounds. It resulted in a back-nine 43 that added up to a 78. The final round wasn’t much better, and he had missed again. Redman was in danger of not having status on any major tours a year after turning pro.

Monday qualifiers take place far off the professional golf path, often at courses in small towns near that week’s tour event. Outside of a few girlfriends or parents, there are almost no fans. The Rocket Mortgage Monday qualifier in 2019 was no different.

It was being played in Washington, Mich. Redman did not have a single fan follow him that day.

I had caddied in that Monday qualifier and was hanging around the scoring area with 10 or so players as we watched the head pro handwrite scores on the leader board. Redman walked up, and his two-eagle, sevenbirdie and one-bogey 62 was posted.

Nobody clapped; some players left, knowing his score bumped them out.

Redman talked quickly with the official on-site, made a few calls, picked up his bag and walked to his car. With no fanfare, Redman had just earned a chance to change his career.

He then shot 68-67-67-67 in the Rocket Mortgage Classic to finish second and secure his PGA Tour status.

One round had given the former U.S. Amateur champion a path back, and he took advantage of it.

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BRUCE (B.J.) DOUCETT THE INSURANCE SALESMAN

“I’m not paying to play Torrey [Pines].

I’m only going to play it if I get into a tour event,” is what Bruce (B.J.) Doucett told his friends. At the time, he was a financial advisor and an insurance salesman. It seemed unlikely he would ever play Torrey Pines.

Doucett had an excellent college golf career at the University of California, Riverside. The obvious transition would have been to turn pro after college. Instead, he put his clubs away and didn’t touch them for a few years.

“Life got in the way,” he says.

Then the fire returned, and he started playing again. His job allowed him to take clients out to play, sell some insurance and work on his game.

Eventually, his hard work started to show, and people at his club noticed.

He added a few course records, all while still working full time.

There are exceptional players at nearly every club, and plenty of members tell them they should turn pro. Most of these players have no shot at making it.

Professional golf has chewed up some of the world’s top-ranked amateurs, let alone an insurance salesmen.

Members at Doucett’s club decided to fund him if he wanted to turn pro.

The decision wasn’t easy. Doucett was married, he had a good job, and he and his wife wanted to start a family. After much discussion, he decided he would do it. His first PGA Tour Monday qualifier would be for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

The Monday qualifier for this tournament typically features one of the best fields of the year. In 2019, the field had a combined $177 million in career tour earnings, 47 Korn Ferry Tour wins and 24 PGA Tour victories. Doucette did not have a one dollar of that $177 million—not even a start on the Korn Ferry and PGA tours.

Then he shot a 67 early in the day and had to wait.

“I refreshed the leader board on my phone at least a thousand times,” he says laughing. But his score was good enough, and he was one of the four to get through. Three months after leaving his job as a salesman, he was going to play on the PGA Tour.

That Thursday, Doucett got to play Torrey Pines for the first time, and he didn’t have to pay. He posted rounds of 72-75 to miss the cut.

This year Doucett, 32, is planning to give qualifying school a shot, but the birth of his first child has kept him near home. Regardless, his dream of playing the PGA Tour hasn’t wavered.

“I got to give it all I have,” he says.

CHIP MCDANIEL PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

“Are you sure it’s Chip McDaniel?

He played in the U.S. Open yesterday at Pebble Beach.” I sent that text to a person on-site at the 2019 Travelers Championship Monday qualifier being played in Connecticut. It was McDaniel, known as Mr. Monday for

▶ mobile home Life chasing Monday qualifiers often includes living out of your car.

his success at Monday qualifiers, and how he got there was extraordinary.

McDaniel, 25, earned his spot in the U.S. Open via a sectional qualifier.

He made the cut at Pebble Beach but struggled Saturday and shot 76, leading to an early tee time for Sunday.

That is when he and his brother, Todd, thought they might be able to make it to the Travelers Championship Monday qualifier in Connecticut. The plan

included a shuttle, a red-eye flight, a rental car and some luck. They weren’t sure they could pull it off, but they would try.

McDaniel’s final round at the U.S. Open on Sunday finished at around noon California time. Two hours later, he was in a shuttle headed to the San Francisco airport, roughly a two-hour drive. His 9 p.m. flight was on time, and he and his caddie were on board. McDaniel was able to get in a few hours of sleep, but as is typical of air travel, it was interrupted frequently by drink carts and seatmates. At 5 a.m.

Eastern Time, the pair landed in Boston. With his caddie driving, they made a quick detour through a McDonald’s drive-through for breakfast and then headed to Ellington, Conn., where the Monday qualifier was being played.

McDaniel squeezed in another small nap in the two-hour drive to Ellington. They arrived in time to hit a few range balls. He walked onto the first tee at 9:17 a.m., 17 hours after— and 3,130 miles away from—his final round at the U.S. Open.

After grinding through the most significant tournament of his life, flying across the country, and with little sleep, there was almost no way he was going to play well. But he was about to live up to his nickname—Mr. Monday.

McDaniel had earned the name after Monday qualifying four times, not to mention sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open. He birdied the first hole and shot 67. His reward was a spot in the biggest playoff of the year. Nine players for the final three spots. The playoff would last three holes.

“Chip is through” read the text I received from the person following the playoff for me at the qualifier.

I stared at my phone in disbelief.

Mr. Monday had done it again.

A HANDICAP INDEX OF 2.0 AND A $450 ENTRY FEE IS ALL IT TAKES TO PLAY IN A MONDAY QUALIFIER. september 2021 | golfdigestme.com

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▶ on to the show It takes only one great round to get in front of the cameras.

Mark Baldwin made the Barracuda Championship.

STEVE ALLAN UNABLE TO QUIT THE DREAM

“If I were playing poorly, it would be easy to give up, but I’m so close.”

Steve Allan won on the European Tour in 1998 and on the Australasia Tour in 2002. In 1999, he was ranked among the top 100 in the world. He played on the PGA Tour for parts of eight seasons. But in 2009, he missed 16 of 17 cuts and lost his card. Twelve years later, he is still trying to get it back. He played on the Korn Ferry Tour with mixed results until 2017.

After that, he has played where he could, when he could, some back home in Australia, but mostly in Monday qualifiers.

It’s expensive to chase Monday qualifiers. Including travel costs and entry fees it’s more than $1,000 just to play 18 holes. Allan, 47, and his wife have three children, and it’s difficult to spend that type of money continuously.

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“It’s so hard financially, but I’m playing so well, but at some point, you have to stop; I have a family.”

Allan has played in countless Mondays. “It’s in the hundreds,” he says.

He has played well but with little success. In 2019, he went 0 for 23 and shot over par just four times; he missed in a playoff twice and by one in another three. Late last summer in back-toback Mondays he made 15 birdies, did not make a single bogey, shot 64 in both, and still didn’t qualify.

Then some hope. Allan got through three of four PGA Tour Monday qualifiers in late 2019. Unfortunately, he missed the cut each time. “Those weeks are so expensive,” he says. “You pay for a caddie, hotel and car for the week, and when you don’t make the cut, it really kills you financially.”

Players will do anything they can to save a few dollars. Last summer, Allan drove across the country with his family in their van instead of flying. They stayed at friends’ or relatives’ houses to save on hotel costs. I called Steve

STEVE ALLAN HAS PLAYED HUNDREDS OF QUALIFIERS. ‘IT WOULD BE EASY TO GIVE UP, BUT I’M SO CLOSE.’ for this story to ask him what his plans were now. Like most players without status, he wasn’t sure.

“It’s a week-to-week thing,” he says.

During our conversation, Allan was honest and realistic; he might stop now and try again for the Champions Tour at 50. Then the next week while doing some research for the first few Monday qualifiers of 2021, I noticed a familiar name. Guess who was registered for all of them? Steve Allan. His wife, Bridget, is Steve’s biggest supporter. You can often find her with the kids walking the fairways of a Monday qualifier, hoping her husband will finally realise a lifelong dream.

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