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And by screen, we’re not fussy. All screens are welcome here. The UHD screen in your personcave with its 65-inch wingspan. The screen on your iPhone 16, not even three inches wide. Something in between. But the question for you is do you want more golf on a screen? You have your answer and I have mine. The SoFi Center in South Florida, the venue for these prime-time indoor golf competitions, holds 1,500 people. (SoFi Stadium, a Southern California football temple, seats 70,000.) This golf play is not about bums in seats. It’s about eyes on screens.

I couldn’t look away. Not because the golf was captivating. But because we got to see some familiar people in unfamiliar settings. Tiger Woods, offering some color commentary on a league he part owns. Tiger Woods, selling.

Yes, Woods has appeared in TV commercials for nearly 30 years. But he wasn’t selling. He was saying you can drive the car I drive, wear the watch I wear, carry the credit card I carry. Now he needs us. Do we want this high-tech golf-ish thing? He seemed nervous. I cite that as a positive. Has any of us ever done anything audacious and not felt nervous about it? 

It’s wildly inventive. Anybody would say that. It was all new. Two three-man teams playing indoor golf on a Tuesday night when most of the country was in a deep freeze. There’s never been anything like it.

On that basis, there’s nothing to compare it to. Every tee shot looked like it was going to sail right off the screen like a slicing 50-yard field goal attempt. But, through the miracle of its own technology, the next thing you saw was a golf ball flying 290 yards and landing on a fairway at the Fantasy Island Golf & Country Club or some other course on an island that looks like Tahiti.

In time, these shiny new toys will become old, or at least familiar, and all that will be left is the actual competition. If anybody cares about the actual competition will depend on how much the players actually care. That’s what made Tiger at the Masters so compelling. Jack Nicklaus at a U.S. Open and Seve Ballesteros at a British Open, the same. They cared. More than cared. The fundamental problem with LIV Golf is (maybe I should speak for myself) . . . people don’t care about what actually happens. Not in large numbers. You can’t trick us into caring. Ratings will tell all. That’s why Tiger was trying so hard Tuesday night.

There can be only one opening night for a new anything. Everywhere you looked on your screen, there was something new to see. Indoor divots with real grass. A tick-tick-boom shot clock. Golf’s first indoor PA announcer, Roger Steele, calling the players to the plate with a bellow that brought to mind Oprah Winfrey. (ZANNNN-drrrrr SHOFFF-lay!) Any single TGL drive, by Xander Schauffele or anybody else, makes Alan Shepherd’s 6-iron on the moon look like child’s play.

It was easy to find. I was nervous, because the things I want to watch on TV these days are usually crazily difficult to locate, between Showtime and Netflix and Amazon Prime and Disney+ just for the Beatles documentary. By way of Tuesday-night party prep, I typed this question on my answer machine: How to watch TGL golf. The first hit took me to an ESPN website.

News

On the right side of the website’s first page there were large, expressive action shots of a bearded Scottie Scheffler, a semi-bearded Xander Schauffele and a stubbled Rory McIlroy. On the left side was a call-to-action click button to get ESPN+ for $11.99 per month. I feared coming up with yet another UN/PW one-two punch, plus the three-digit thing on the back of my credit card. Turns out, all you have to do is turn on your TV to ESPN. Duke’s rout of Pittsburgh ended, and there was Scott Van Pelt’s familiar mug in studio, going deep with Rickie Fowler of the New York club, at the SoFi Center. Nobody in golf does casual better than Rick. 

Shane Lowry looked like a wreck, and that was cool, too. He’s the big stick of the Bay Golf Club, a virtual San Francisco team. (None of its players actually lives in San Francisco, although one of the team owners, Steph Curry, works there.) Steele, the arena’s barker, called for Lowry to step in for the league’s first-ever shot. The Irishman got to the tee box with his driver and a ball and then realized he did not have a peg. And all the while, the shot clock was ticking. I could feel his jangly nerves right through our home Hitachi screen here in Philadelphia, 1,100 miles away from the indoor excitement at SoFi Center, off of PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, the main street of the modern PGA Tour. It’s a healthy thing, to get out of your comfort zone. Almost every winner of a major championship says that. Most of them have lost a major down the stretch before they win one.

Many people in golf are trying to figure out how to bring the thrill-a-minute aspect of golf’s best team event, the Ryder Cup, to other golf events. LIV Golf is trying to do that, the PGA Tour is trying to do that, amateur golf is trying to do that, TGL golf is trying to do that. The key word in the phrase team golf is the first one. I don’t know if you can go into a conference room and come out with six four-man teams, but that’s pretty much what TGL has done here. Well, you have to start somewhere. The NHL was once a new league with six teams, too. (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, New York and Toronto). TGL’s original six teams represent five American cities and one town: Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco — and Jupiter, Fla. 

Did you ever hear an explanation of what TGL stands for? I did not. Originally, I thought it was for Tuesdaynight Golf League (I have since learned that some of the matches also will be played on Mondays). Which brings to mind Sheryl Crow’s first album, Tuesday Night Music Club, and its big hit, All I Want to Do. You may recall the preamble:

This ain’t no disco.
It ain’t no country club, either.
This is L.A.

She could have been talking about TGL. South Florida went L.A. for a night. That’s how it seemed on our TV. There’s a fine line here. If 007 took himself too seriously, there would never have been a movie called Octopussy. TGL, the same. But neither can it appear to be a joke.

Per Wikipedia, TGL stands for Tomorrow’s Golf League, although the league itself, according to a thorough investigation by my colleague Dylan Dethier, says TGL stands only for . . . TGL.

Still, you couldn’t fault fans for assuming the acronym stands for something else: Tiger’s Golf League. Tiger does own the PIP voting. (Player Impact Program.) He is on a first-name basis with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the PIF, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, bankers to LIV (as in the Roman numerals for 54) Golf. You maybe know that Tiger has won the API (Arnold Palmer Invitational) eight times.

Woods is one of the founders of TGL, along with Rory McIlroy and Mike McCarley, a former president of Golf Channel. (AP was the GC’s OG.) That threesome — McCarley, McIroy and Woods — has a company called TMRW Sports, which is pronounced tomorrow. (Tiger’s business life is conducted as TGR Ventures.) There are no LIV golfers playing TGL golf. That is not a coincidence. TGL is owned in part by the PGA Tour. TGL has helped keep Woods and McIlroy in the PGA Tour fold. There’s a lot going on here, a lot at stake. Of course Tiger was nervous. Jay Monahan was nervous, too. 

There was a story on The Athletic’s website Tuesday that explained how TGL works. At the bottom of the article, there was a place for reader comments and the first person to post typed this:

sure, why not

“A little casual,” John McEnroe, an owner of the New York TGL team, said a couple summers ago, when an ESPN camera at Wimbledon panned by an overweight fan in a tight T-shirt.

sure, why not

A little casual but a useful way into this bold, complicated, semi-ridiculous, made-for-TV golfing entertainment.

The star of the night was DJ Khaled, the larger-than-life record producer and golf nut. In a standup interview midway through the show, he talked about what he liked about golf. “It’s like life,” he said. “It ain’t easy but it’s beautiful.” The beholder decides what beauty is. We all know that. We decide what golf is, too.

Fifty years ago, the rock critic Jon Landau heard a New Jersey band fronted by some skinny kid at the Harvard Square Theater. Landau wrote, “I saw rock and roll’s future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” The world always needs more good music. Does it need more golf on a screen?

Discuss among yourselves.

Michael Bamberger would be delighted to hear from InsideGOLF readers wherever they may be! His email: Michael.Bamberger@golf.com

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A few years ago when I interviewed Annika Sorenstam, she said something that stuck with me: “I never got tired of hitting fairways.” Smart logic.

In the era of bomb-and-gouge, the art of accuracy off the tee has lost its luster. But that’s not to say hitting fairways is unimportant. Playing from the short grass will always be easier than hacking it out of the rough. That’s why it’s imperative that you learn how to wield the driver in a way that ensures you’re keeping your ball in the fairway.

Sorenstam was excellent at this. During her career, she ranked inside the top 20 in driving accuracy eight times. Pair that with her legendary shot-making abilities and you had the makings of one of the all-time greats. It’s no wonder she’s the most decorated LPGA star of the modern era.

In the midst of her heyday, back in 2003, Sorenstam sat down with GOLF Magazine to share some of her secrets. Among them were some of her keys for pinpoint accuracy off the tee. Check ’em out below.

Annika’s driving accuracy keys

Everyone wants to know how I plan to compete with the men when my average drive goes only 265 yards. My answer: by keeping the ball in the short grass. Accuracy off the tee is one of my biggest strengths. Last year, I hit more than 80 percent of fairways on the LPGA Tour (which would have ranked second on the PGA Tour). If I do that at Colonial, I think I’ll do very well.

Most amateurs should consider thinking this way. I bet they’d score significantly lower if they made hitting fairways, instead of maximizing distance, their top priority. Even if your drive goes a long way, you can’t expect to hit many greens from the rough or from behind trees. Finding the fairway starts with striking the ball solidly, then being able to control where it goes. This is my plan for the Colonial.

Below are my three keys to hitting solid, straight drives: one for the backswing, one for squaring the clubface, and a third for tempo. Try them, along with a few bonus points I’ve included on how to score your best consistently. 

1. Focus on the trail hip

One reason I’m able to hit so many fairways is that my hips stay centered on my backswing. I simply turn my upper body over my right leg, with my hips. A smooth tempo allows this; when I swing too quickly, my right hip tends to pull up on the backswing, dropping my left shoulder. This throws my whole turn out of whack.

When my tempo gets quick, I think about turning my shoulders back level, like I’m steadying the wings of an airplane. This encourages my right hip to rotate, rather than lift. With my right hip fully turned, I can make a big shoulder turn to the top.

Try this: As you swing the club back, think of turning your hips within an imaginary cylinder the width of your stance; don’t let your right hip slide past your right foot. To train my hips to move in this fashion, I sometimes practice with an umbrella stuck in the ground just outside my right foot. The object is to turn my right hip without bumping the umbrella. If my hip sways at all, it will hit the umbrella.

2. Follow the ball

My head does not stay down after impact; it follows the ball. That’s not just an idiosyncrasy. As I swing through, I’m turning my head with my body, releasing both to the target simultaneously.

This head swivel may look unusual, but it’s been very effective — some call it my signature move. For one, it helps me release the clubhead more with my arms and body, so I don’t have to rely so much on the timing of my hands to square the clubface. Second, it changes my focus from the ball to the target, so all of my swing’s energy is directed to where I want to hit the ball. After impact, it feels like the club, my body, and even my head are chasing the ball.

Try this: I used to have a reverse-C finish, so my swing coach, Henri Reis, suggested this drill. To encourage my weight to shift left on the downswing, he had me hit balls turning my head to the target before impact. It worked so well getting rid of my reverse C, I made it a part of my normal swing. 

Try it yourself, especially if your weight tends to fall back at impact and you make inconsistent contact. Hit some wedges, letting your eyes track forward instead of trying to keep your head down. You’ll feel a better shift to your left side and square the face for straighter shots.

3. Groove your tempo

My caddie, Terry McNamara, tells me to “swing six” any time he sees my tempo quickening. Ona scale of 1 to 10, six is my speed limit for my driver. Any more than that, and I start to lose control.

Find a swing tempo with your driver that allows you to swing in control. Swing harder than six if you like, as long as you’re able to maintain your balance. You should finish with your weight on the outside of  your front foot and your back foot on its toes. Don’t go beyond your balance threshold; if you do, you’ll lose accuracy. To start in balance, distribute your weight evenly on the balls of your feet. You want to feel stable in every direction — front, back, left, and right. Then, as Terry reminds me, simply “swing six.”

Try this: If you finish in balance, with your body in a relatively straight line over your front foot, chances are you had good balance during the swing. And a balanced swing gives you the best chance to make square contact. The next time you play, rate your finish position from 1 to 10 on each drive — 1 for falling over and 10 for perfect balance. This drill will get you thinking about your finish and balance, which will ultimately keep you in the fairway. 

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But there are certain Band-Aids or quick fixes you can put to use. Or as GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joe Hallett puts it, there is a “pull this in case of emergency” lever he likes to teach his students.

“When you are playing and it starts to feel a little bit like the wheels are coming off, it’s very easy to say, go to a three-quarter swing,” says Hallett, while at GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers Summit at Cabot Citrus Farms earlier this month. “If you look at some of the best players in history, like Tiger when he was playing his best, the club didn’t get to parallel. But the secret to going to the three-quarter swing is to make three-quarter practice swings.”

Hallett explains that while the three-quarter swing is a good technique to use on a poor ball-striking day, most amateurs might think they are doing it but are actually taking full practice swings anyway. There’s a big difference, and it’s important you are doing it the right way.

“Make your practice swing three-quarters and do it with your feet very close together,” Hallett says, adding that they should be about six inches apart. “It forces you to keep balance and timing. That little simple thing of the feet together and a three-quarter swing, if you can do that without falling over, it promotes balance and timing and now you can walk into that shot and have half a chance at hitting it.”

When you’re ready to hit the shot, Hallett says take your normal setup and then use the three-quarter swing. The shorter swing will minimize movement and minimize the length of the swing, which means the face will stay square a little longer.

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Gary Player is known as many things — major champion, world traveler, unparalleled storyteller — but one that sometimes get overlooked is elite bunker player. While his game was tidy all around throughout his career, his bunker play often stood out.

That’s a concept that’s foreign to most recreational players. Bunkers are seen as scorecard killers for most weekend warriors, and they look to avoid them at all costs.

That wasn’t the case for the Black Knight. While he may not have been aiming for the bunkers, he sure wasn’t timid once he found himself in the sand.

This success can be attributed to a fearless attitude and exquisite technique. And while we can’t teach Player’s fearlessness, we can give you some insight into his technique.

Check out below some of Player’s best secrets from the sand from the March 1989 issue of GOLF Magazine.

Gary Player’s bunker secrets

I’m honored that many great players and teachers consider me the best bunker player ever. I’m too modest to agree, but such a ranking would put me in esteemed company.

My own list of sand geniuses includes some well-known players, such as Bobby Locke, Julius Boros, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Seve Ballesteros. I also count Jerry Barber, Norman von Nida and Doug Ford among the lesser-known, but no less skilled, masters of sand. 

If I am one of the greats, it’s for one simple reason: No bunker shot has ever scared me, and none ever will. The key to this bravado is practice.

I’ve practiced and experimented from hundreds of lies with various swings, in effect creating a data bank in my memory that I can call on no matter what kind of sand shot I’m facing. Just as important, I’ve developed my imagination to the point that I’m confident I can think my way out of any bunker, no matter how tough the lie.

I think you get the message: There are no shortcuts; you must practice. Start with the basics — which are outlined below — then climb the ladder of experience, adding tougher shots to your repertoire.

The basics

First things first: There’s a club designed specifically for bunkers, so use it. A sand wedge should have a big sole, with its leading edge actually higher than the back of the flange. This angle is called “bounce.” Wedges vary in their amount of bounce, with the greater the bounce usually for softer sand. The sole will slide into the sand, pushing it up and throwing out the ball.

Which raises another key point: Except when hitting with a club other than the sand wedge — in a fairway bunker, for example — the club doesn’t hit the ball. The club hits the sand, which moves the ball. If you don’t understand this, you’ll have trouble with all the advice that follows.

I said before confidence is important to sand play. Approach every bunker shot with the feeling that you’re going to hole it. Magnify your confidence by using your basic swing, merely modifying it for particular situations.

The setup

In a greenside bunker, take an open stance: Aim your feet, knees, hips and shoulders left of the target. (Don’t dig your feet in too deeply, otherwise you’ll restrict leg action and disturb your balance.) And open the clubface to make entry into the sand easier.

The open stance will force you to swing outside the line going back and across the ball coming down. This puts cut-spin on the ball, so it will fly left-to-right. Compensate for that by aiming left of the target. But only hours of practice will teach how how far left to aim, with the length of the swing dependent on the shot at hand.

For shorter shots, open your stance and the clubface more; this creates a higher, shorter shot. For longer shots, set your body and the club closer to square.

The swing

While you should use your | basic swing technique, some modifications are necessary. 

Facing a clean lie — when the ball sits up on the sand — your swing should be more shallow, almost U-shaped. Put about 60 percent of your weight on the left foot and swing the club primarily with your arms.

When the ball is at all buried, make an up-and-down, V-shaped swing. Set the clubface square; put 75 percent of your weight on the left foot; cock the wrists early in the backswing and pull the club down with your hands.

Once you’ve mastered these two shots, try them in other situations. For example, a V-shaped swing is helpful for a very short sand shot; the same action that “knifes” the ball from a buried lie also pops it up so it lands and stops quickly. The U-shaped swing is good for longer bunker shots when you must make a fuller motion.

Ball position also can help. You can hit a higher shot by playing the ball forward in your stance, starting ing with your hands behind and keeping more weight on your right foot. Reverse those steps for a low shot (which also rolls more after landing).

As your experience and confidence grow, you should experiment. In a low-lipped bunker from just off the green, try putting the ball out. The putter also might get the call when facing a steep downhill shot off hard sand.

I’m against chipping from greenside sand. Trying to nip the ball is a low-percentage shot, and you’re likely to stub it, hit it fat or catch it thin. Don’t do it.

Fairway bunkers

First, use a club with enough loft to get over the lip; even if you end up short of the green, at least you’ll be out of the trap. Second, hit the ball cleanly; don’t hit the sand. Third, when hitting a fairway wood, focus on the front of the ball; this encourages a sweeping hit. Now it’s up to you.

Practice, build your confidence in the sand, and your entire game will improve.

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Next time you practice, position a ball just off your back foot as you see I’ve done here. Set up like normal and swing.

Using your peripheral vision as you start down, use the second ball as a guide for your clubhead, making sure it stays behind the ball instead of moving in front of it (as in away from you).

The trick is to allow your trail arm to elongate while keeping the bend in your trail wrist (i.e., how it’s set at the top) for as long as possible.

Clubhead behind hand path: no slice and plenty of power.  

Give it a try.

David Woods is a GOLF Top 100 Teacher and the CEO of ProSENDR Golf.

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Set up like normal but with a second ball placed roughly two clubhead widths in front of the one you’re actually going to hit. The goal here, as you can probably imagine, is to hit the first ball and miss the second, something that’ll be difficult to do if you swing over the top.

Before you start, reach down and touch your trail leg as a reminder to hang back on your trail side longer as you start down from the top. When you actually swing, think, Flat through impact, not steep, feeling just a touch of hang-back  and that the club is moving up.

Keep in mind that these are indeed feels — i.e., you never want to “hang back” when hit – ting an iron. Sometimes you learn faster when making exaggerated swings. Try it.

Jason Birnbaum is a GOLF Top 100 Teacher who is the director of instruction at Manhattan Woods Golf Academy in West Nyack, N.Y

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1. Set up to the ball as normal. Whatever the yardage, grab one more club than you think you need and grip down on the handle as you see above.

2. Remove your lead hand from the grip and place it on your lead thigh.

3. With the help of your hand, push at least 65 percent of your weight over to your front leg. It should feel like you’re leaning a bit toward the target.

4. Without moving anything else, place your lead hand back on the grip. This setup ensures a proper delivery and crisp contact without having to manipulate loft or your hands.

When you go to swing, simply turn your belly back and through, making sure the shaft of the club points at your midsection from start to finish. Experiment with different wedges and backswing lengths to create an inventory of distances. Now, you’re a player.

Scott Munroe is a GOLF Top 100 Teacher who teaches at the Boca Raton Club in Boca Raton, Fla., and Nantucket GC in Siasconset, Mass.

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Grab any iron from your bag and fold it up over your trail shoulder, keeping your elbows in tight to your sides. Have a buddy place an alignment rod across the inside of both elbows. (You can do this by yourself, too, after you hinge the club up.) Important: Make sure the rod sits parallel to the ground and adjust as necessary.

Now, make a mock backswing by turning and then extending your arms. Again, check that the rod is parallel to the ground and not tilted or has slid off. This is perfect for 90 percent of rec golfers. From here, you’ll avoid coming into the ball too steeply (potential slice) or too far from the inside (potential push or hook).

To learn more from Jake Thurm or to book a lesson, visit jakethurm.com.

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We convened GOLF senior writers Dylan Dethier and Sean Zak to break down if the event was a success, where it lacked and what it means for the future of the pro game. 

Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier): Sean, it’s the morning after the Crypto.com Showdown and two things are stuck in my head. The first is that, no matter how many times he makes ’em, Charles Barkley’s jokes about losing money gambling get me every single time. They’ll show a shot of the Vegas skyline, Chuck will say something like, “I paid for three of them buildings. Dealer says double on 11 and gives you 14 every time,” and I will grin. And the second is a tweet that has stuck in my head. LIV Golf sent it alongside a picture of the four of them: “The game of golf, and its fans, won tonight”.

Look, I know this match came with the stated intention of giving a little something back to the fans. But now that we’re on the other side of The Showdown I can’t help but read that and roll my eyes. I can think of a bunch of winners of this match, and I want to get into them. But I’m not sure “the game of golf” is high up there. So I’ll ask you: Was “the game” last night’s biggest winner? And, if not, who was?

Sean Zak (@sean_zak): Firstly, that LIV tweet aligns with basically every bit of LIV communication from the last three seasons: everything they touch is not just good, it’s also for good, for fans, for the game’s best interests. The always-rosey lens through which LIV views itself is exhausting because it’s not always rooted in reality. (For context, I’ve been to five LIV tournaments, and will go to more!) 

But to your question, I found it to be a win having these four golfers competing against one other outside the months of April, May, June and July. As it turned out, this competition was nothing special. Brooks and Bryson struggled to establish any momentum against Rory and Scottie, and the match never once felt close. Still, it was worth a try.

Ironically, I think the biggest winner may have been the largely silent PGA Tour, which was hesitant to embrace this match to begin with. While I don’t believe this, the result is fodder for golf fans who think LIV players have lost some mph off their fastballs. Can you think of other winners?

Dethier: It’s funny you say the PGA Tour, though you make a good point — but I was going to start by saying that LIV can actually claim some small victory here. They embraced The Showdown. They clearly saw it as a win to get their players repping their league in front of a primetime national audience. There’s a reason the PGA Tour wasn’t crazy about this, and that’s because they had far more to lose than to gain by their top two stars giving LIV’s stars a big platform, while LIV had the chance to present itself on equal footing. LIV also had Charles Barkley chiding golf’s divide on the broadcast. And LIV even bought into the event as a sponsor, upping its brand exposure. That’s some sort of win.

But I guess I’m not wholly convinced by my own argument. Not only did its guys get smoked, LIV’s biggest wins continue to come outside the confines of LIV itself. Think Koepka’s 2023 PGA win, or DeChambeau’s 2024 U.S. Open, or even his massive YouTube viewership. So I’d make another winner “meaningful golf events.” As this match dragged on into the night and the four competitors looked increasingly chillier every time they jumped in their golf carts, it was a reminder that even with four of the game’s biggest stars, it’s the setting and the context that make a golf tournament, and we won’t see that until the new year.

Finally, I’d say that mostly it was these four individual players who won — with Rory and Scottie a clear 1-2. Their crypto wallets won. And their ability to stage an event outside the confines of the PGA Tour or LIV was a player-empowerment muscle-flex. Now if Scottie can just figure out what to do with his winnings…

Sean, what was your favorite part of the night? And what wasn’t?

Zak: My favorite part of the night was any time the players were caught speaking to each other, their caddies, themselves, etc., and not the broadcast team. We have seen nearly a dozen iterations of modern, made-for-TV matches and the singular through-line that each has proven is the words, actions, thoughts, insights that come naturally during a match are the most fascinating part. When Scottie and Rory are analyzing a high hook over a tree. When they’re yapping about creatine. When Brooks and Bryson discuss firmness of the greens and where they’re trying to place shots. All of these things came out naturally. 

But I’d like to make an important distinction: THERE WEREN’T ENOUGH OF THESE MOMENTS. 

For how much this match was billed as one rival tour’s best vs. another’s, there was zero banter about the divide in golf. There was zero trash talk about the issues and elements that have separated these guys. Brooks Koepka is one of the most confident-bordering-on-cocky golfers who has ever lived. We got nothing of that emotion from him. (It didn’t help that he played poorly.) 

I think two things have to happen for these matches to peak: 1) players need to be more comfortable talking out loud while they play, just as broadcasts need to devise a better way to capture every word, and 2) if we’re going to promote these matches as fierce competition — like this one was! — then the actors need to help us believe it. Apologies for being long-winded on this one, but it’s my strongest thought on the night. And should serve as a warning/lesson to the forthcoming TGL: WE NEED THE PLAYERS TO SPEAK, NOT JUST PLAY GOLF. 

News

[deep exhale]

Was there any element you were particularly inspired by? Or, if not, something you felt was lacking? 

Dethier: I can’t tell if I’m in the minority or not here but on the whole I’d call this a successful event. Like, I enjoyed the watch. It was golf-first, the broadcast had its moments, Shadow Creek is a weird, fascinating place in a very Vegas way, and I was a fan of the format, too, which reset after four holes instead of taking us into a blowout. It was solid background viewing.

That said, you’re completely right about the best stuff being the banter and also about us not getting enough of that. I think this is really, really tough — how do you force interaction without making it forced? — but I actually think one way to do it might just be to mic up the guys but cut their connection to the broadcasters. Take a lesson from YouTube golf. No more earpieces except maybe when they’re in their golf cart. Let all four talk to each other instead. Lean into that piece of it.

The alternative would be getting Phil and Barkley on the mic and letting ‘em run wild.

Last question, Sean: does anything about this or [gestures vaguely] other stuff happening in golf have you feeling encouraged about a deal coming together?

Zak: I wonder if these matches had a hyperactive on-course reporter who could jump in to relay questions (from the broadcasters) at any time — I’m thinking Colt Knost lobbing in fun bits we’re all asking ourselves — if that might get them going…

Anyway, I’m encouraged (despite largely anonymous sourcing) that Bloomberg reported a deal was progressing. I choose to believe a deal can be made by March 1 (or within the first 100 days of the next presidency!), looking forward to 2026 as the beginning of reintegration of the Koepka, Rahm, Niemann types back into PGA Tour events. I’m not encouraged by the recent LIV signings, though, because they’re golfers I’ve never heard of. 

I think it’s encouraging that Rory McIlroy helped push this match into existence because he was taking reintegration into his own hands a bit. And he got the best golfer on the planet to join him. And they got the most visible golfer in the world to acknowledge how they want a future together. That all might be a bit too semantic for tired, annoyed, lusting golf fans, but like I wrote last week, at this point I’ll take it. 

Dethier: There are certainly signs. It seems like the PGA Tour’s new CEO position and LIV Golf’s new CEO position point toward a new future, one with a friendlier relationship between the tours. But while I’m optimistic by nature, I admit I still don’t quite see how that fixes everything. There are — well, forget it. This is a chat about a fun match with four fun golfers. I’d welcome another one.

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The post Jack Nicklaus reveals the secrets to fearless putting appeared first on Golf.

The post Jack Nicklaus reveals the secrets to fearless putting appeared first on Golf.

Good golf requires great mental discipline, and no element of the sport requires more mental fortitude than putting. When you’ve got confidence on the greens, the cup begins to look like a basketball hoop. But when you’re struggling, it can feel like trying to putt into a thimble.

Just about every tournament victory ends on the greens. Whether it’s a 15-footer to clip your opponent by one, or a two-putt to close out a dominant victory, it all ends on the greens.

That in mind, it’s crucial that you can handle your nerves with your wand in hand. If you’ve got sweaty palms and shaky hands standing over the ball, it’s tough to sink a putt. To be a great putter, you must be fearless.

There may be no more undaunted putter in the history of the game than Jack Nicklaus. Over the course of his legendary career, the Golden Bear won 18 major titles — and much of that success can be attributed to excellent pressure putting.

In 1994, Nicklaus joined GOLF Magazine to share some tips on becoming a fearless putter. You can check them out below.

Jack Nicklaus’ tips for fearless putting

The common wisdom is that putting ability declines with age. The analysts point to great champions whose green skills deteriorated late in their careers. Some of the great champions themselves have blamed inferior putting for making them less competitive as they grew older.

Well, it hasn’t happened to me so far. And I don’t see any reason why it ever should, as long as my competitive fires keep burning fiercely.

Granted, I haven’t putted these past few years quite as well as I did at my peak, but that had nothing to do with “nerves,” or vision problems, or declining mechanical skills, or any of the usual excuses for age-related inferior green work.

The only reason I putted a little less well than I used to was the extra pressure I subjected myself to as a result of hitting fewer greens in regulation and not getting the ball as close to the hole as in my best years. Whereas once I knew I only had to make a certain percentage of putts to win, during the long, lean spell I increasingly felt I needed to make everything I looked at to have any chance. However, had my tee-to-green skills matched those of my peak years, I’m certain my putting would have been equally good.

It’s in your head

If you think the above statement is further proof of the old adage that putting is all in the mind, you’re dead right. Believe you can knock them in the hole and you’ll knock ’em in. Believe you can’t and you won’t.

When I started on the Tour in 1962, there were a lot of what you might call “real men” out there who had come up the hard way and who, deep down, seemed to look upon putting as sort of a sissified part of the game. It was macho to be a great “shotmaker”-to crush out big drives, drill long-irons tight to the hole, draw and fade the ball at will-but a little wimpish to make low scores mostly with the short stick. Many of those players’ putting skills declined severely as they aged. I believe their attitude had a big bearing on that.

To become and remain a good putter, you have to accept putting’s huge role in golf, you have to like putting, and you have to want to do it very well.

A couple of statistics might help you with all of those challenges. The last time I checked, 43 percent of the strokes expended on the PGA Tour were putts. “Par” for players making a good living out there was under 30 putts per round.

The fear factor

“Boy,” you’ll hear on any golf tour in the world, “that guy is an unbelievable putter! He’s absolutely the best out here!”

Being a get-along person, I just smile to myself at such comments, but what I really want is to ask, “What’s he won?”

There are many great strokers of the ball in tournament golf. But players who can get the ball into the hole time after time after time when it matters the most — when you’re either going to win or lose right now — are a much rarer species. 

They, of course, are the top winners.

Last year’s Masters champion Bernhard Langer is perhaps the best current example of the dif-ference between a “wonderful putter” in the technical sense and a player with great ability to get the ball in the hole when it matters. At least twice, Bernhard has suffered from the yips about as badly as a golfer can, resulting in an ungainly-looking technique worked out by and unique unto himself. But, year after year, he’s also one of the winningest golfers in the world.

What’s at play here, of course, is the fear factor.

Because putting is the most precision-oriented, most delicate, and most decisive act in golf, fear of losing— or, even more commonly, fear of winning — grabs tightest and most destructively on the greens.

Instruction

Thus the best putters aren’t, as so many people seem to suppose, the finest technicians or the smoothest strokers. The best putters are the golfers who, over and over and over, make the putts they absolutely have to make in order to win the game’s top tournaments — Bob Jones, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Ray Floyd, Seve Ballesteros, and Nick Faldo.

Did they all have wonderful putting techniques? No, sir. Did they all have strong, steady stomachs, steady nerves and great hearts? You bet! And that’s what made them great putters.

Learn from your mistakes

Are those qualities of courage and resolve innate gifts, or can they be acquired? Although some will do better than others, I believe anyone can build up his inner resources by learning from his mistakes.

One of the best examples of a golfer doing that is Tom Watson. When he was very young, Tom had the chance to win a number of major championships but lost them all down the stretch. He was accused of choking, but what he lacked was experience and self-insight, not guts.

Many people in Tom’s situation would have accepted second-best and gone on performing at that level. Watson was made of sterner stuff. Each time he failed he thought hard about why, then tried the next time he got into a winning position to feed off what he had learned about himself and his game. Most of the mistakes were in the management of his tee-to-green play, but some, like over-aggression or under-aggression under pressure, were in his putting. When he’d finally put all the pieces of the puzzle together, his confidence had grown to a point where, especially on the greens, he believed he couldn’t fail. And, of course, he then became the best player in the world for a decade or more.

The chief reaction among amateurs to poor putting, it seems to me, is exasperation, combined with a sort of vague hope that, by some kind of mini-miracle, it will all have gotten better by the next time they play. Without analyzing and learning from their mistakes, I doubt that it ever will.

Are those qualities of courage and resolve innate gifts, or can they be acquired? Although some will do better than others, I believe anyone can build up his inner resources by learning from his mistakes.

One of the best examples of a golfer doing that is Tom Watson. When he was very young, Tom had the chance to win a number of major championships but lost them all down the stretch. He was accused of choking, but what he lacked was experience and self-insight, not guts.

Many people in Tom’s situation would have accepted second-best and gone on performing at that level. Watson was made of sterner stuff. Each time he failed he thought hard about why, then tried the next time he got into a winning position to feed off what he had learned about himself and his game. Most of the mistakes were in the management of his tee-to-green play, but some, like over-aggression or under-aggression under pressure, were in his putting. When he’d finally put all the pieces of the puzzle together, his confidence had grown to a point where, especially on the greens, he believed he couldn’t fail. And, of course, he then became the best player in the world for a decade or more.

The chief reaction among amateurs to poor putting, it seems to me, is exasperation, combined with a sort of vague hope that, by some kind of mini-miracle, it will all have gotten better by the next time they play. Without analyzing and learning from their mistakes, I doubt that it ever will.

Because the advice about the basic techniques of putting is sp readily available from so many sources, my focus here will be on what long experience has taught me are the most crucial factors in accurately rolling a golf ball across a green.

Grip

So long as they allow you to swing the face of the putter squarely through the ball traveling directly along your intended target line at impact, the mechanics of your putting grip are immaterial. Experiment until you achieve comfort, repeatability, and effectiveness. When you do, even if your grip looks “funny” to others, stick with it. Silence any nay-sayers by mentioning Langer.

More important than the configuration of your hands on the putter is the pressure in them. Whether you hold the putter tightly, loosely, or somewhere in between is of much less consequence than equalizing the pressure in each hand, then sustaining the same amount of pressure throughout the stroke.

News

Change your grip pressure and most likely you involuntarily change both the pace and the path of the putter head. Grip tight at address then ease up during the stroke and you’ll tend to over-accelerate the putterhead and pull the ball left. Hold loosely at address then tighten during the stroke and you’ll tend to decelerate and shove the putterhead and the ball to the right. Even if you avoid major errors of speed and line, you will be less consistent than you’d like on the greens.

Achieving equal grip pressure in both hands at address, then sustaining it throughout the stroke, has been a putting key of mine for many years. If you’re not already using it, I think it could have a beneficial effect on your green work.

Setup

As with grip mechanics, I think how you arrange your- self at address for putting is, with a couple of exceptions, pretty inconsequential, so long as it promotes swinging the face of the putter squarely through the ball and direct- ly along your intended target line at impact. Being comfortable and stress-free, or well balanced, over the ball will help you achieve that. The exceptions concern your eye-line at address.

Most good putters over the years have set up with their eyes either directly over the ball, which also posi- tions them over the intended starting line of the putt, or, as in my case, behind the ball but still over the target line. The reason for this is, when the eyes are positioned to the inside of the target line, there’s a tendency to stroke excessively from in-to-out and push the ball; and, conversely, to stroke from out-to-in and pull putts when the eyes are positioned beyond the target line.

Your other equally important optical goal should be to set your eyes parallel to the putt’s starting line, rather than angled to its right or left through an inclination or canting of the head at address. Even though you’ll hear or read less about this factor than the previous one, in my experience it can have an equal bearing on how you stroke the ball. Align your eyes right of the target line and you’ll tend to stroke too much from inside to out and push putts. Align your eyes left of the target line and you’ll risk doing the opposite-pull putts by swinging the putter head from out to in.

I recommend that, as I do, you constantly check both of these important optical elements in practice. And you should certainly look to them first whenever, for no obvious reason, you begin missing more than your share of putts.

Stroke

Over the years I’ve tried every kind of putting stroke known to man, but have always gone back to the technique that felt the most natural to me, and with which I was most successful from my earliest golf days. If I’m right in believing that most other top players have followed the same pattern, then the lesson is clear: Find out through trial and error what works best for you as a unique individual, then stay with it.

There are basically three ways to stroke a golf ball with a putter. One is with a swinging of the arms, hands, and putter as a single unit motivated by a back-and-through rocking motion of the shoulders while everything else stays relatively still. Another is with hinging and unhinging of the wrists, while as in the shoulder stroke, the rest of the body stays comparatively still. The third, which always in the end has worked best for me, involves a combination of the other two techniques.

I can describe my stroking action fairly simply. A slight targetward motion or forward-pressing of my hands serves as a “trigger” for backward swinging of my arms, combined with some hinging or cocking of my wrists, the amount in each case depending on the length of the putt.

A slight forward-press of my hands serves as a “trigger” for my backswing, combined with some hinging to cocking of my wrists, the amount in each case depending on the length of the putt. 

On shorter putts, from the end of the backswing I simply pull the butterhead through the ball with my hands and forearms with very little or no release of my wrists.

On longer putts, the distinct hitting motion of my right hand causes my left wrist to “break” or hinge targetward a little bit after impact. I believe this breaking of the left wrist through or after impact to be less than ideal theo- retically, but have gone along with it because fighting it does more harm than good to my sense of “touch.”

Why do I keep coming back to this method? I’ve always believed that golfers putt best when they are able to “feel the ball to the hole.” Although it can badly frustrate me at times, the action I’ve described lets me do that more often and better than any of the others I’ve tried.

You need to find the type of stroke that does the same for you.

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