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The post How hard is it *after* instantly earning your Tour card? This pro knows appeared first on Golf.

Alex Fitzpatrick’s rise to the PGA Tour was well documented and fast.

The younger brother of 2022 U.S. Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick went from winless DP World Tour pro to PGA Tour winner and full-fledged member in the span of four weeks, thanks to his win at the Zurich Classic with Matt.

That put him straight into the field for back-to-back Signature Events in Miami and Charlotte. He didn’t have to keep playing on the DP Tour to try and earn his PGA Tour membership for 2027 and he definitely doesn’t have to go to Q-School.

In fact, Fitzpatrick is exempt on the PGA Tour through the end of 2028 now.

After such a whirlwind promotion, was the pressure on to perform after his brother helped get him PGA Tour membership?

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stotlz asked Fitzpatrick that very question.

“You know, I felt like there was a little bit of pressure to go out and show my game is good enough. Like every golfer, I wanna be on the PGA Tour and I felt like my game belonged there. So I, that’s why when you asked about sinking in it, I guess it took, it didn’t take as long as I thought.”

Fitzpatrick left little doubt that he belonged with the game’s best players. He finished T9 in Miami and held the 54-hole lead at the Truist Championship before finishing solo fourth.

After a made cut at the PGA Championship, he kept his run of fine play going last week at the Memorial with a T6 showing.

“I don’t know if that’s because maybe I feel so comfortable out here now,” Fitzpatrick continued. “But yeah, I was super happy with how I played the two weeks. And, you know, even going into Sunday in Charlotte, like I felt really comfortable. I didn’t really feel any pressure to go out and win. You know, I don’t think many people expected me to be in the last group on Sunday. So, but I also felt like my game is in a really good spot and I felt like I had a good chance to win.”

To hear more from Fitzpatrick, check out the entire episode on YouTube.

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The post These are the two most import parts of putting when testing putters | Fully Equipped appeared first on Golf.

The post These are the two most import parts of putting when testing putters | Fully Equipped appeared first on Golf.

When looking for a new putter, many golfers tend to focus, like Fully Equipped co-host Johnny Wunder, on strike and alignment.

“I look at putters like if I can aim it and I can hit it out of the middle,” Wunder said on this week’s episode.

But is that enough?

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, Wunder posed that question to PGA Tour putting coach and GOLF contributor Stephen Sweeney. Sweeney responded that there’s a bit more to it for most accomplished golfers.

“I think once you get below, certainly in a single figure handicaps, you’re definitely leaving some meat on the bone there,” he said.

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Sweeney explained that he often tells people who ask him about getting a new putter that the real keys are making putts inside of eight feet and speed control from 30 to 70 feet.

“If a PGA Tour pro makes 25-footers at a 12 percent clip rate, if a consumer only makes, or a regular golfer only makes 2 percent of their 25-footers, they’re only 10% worse than a tour pro,” Sweeney said. “I mean, there’s no other area of the game that you’d say, ‘Hey, I’m only 10 percent worse than a tour pro, right?’ But you could be legitimately — from 4 to 8 feet, — you could be 40-50 percent worse than a tour pro.”

His point is that pros make so few of their 25-footers; looking at how many 25-footers you can make with a new putter is irrelevant.

What really matters is making short putts and not three-putting long ones.

“And on distance putting, you could be 70-80 percent worse than a tour pro on your proximity,” he continued. “So that mid-range level of putting is not that important to the average golfer, but… 3 to 8 feet and then outside 30, you need something sure, you can aim, you can start online, you can hit out of the center, but there’s definitely a weight component there for the speed putting, that I think the average consumer with a 7-handicap, they don’t match that up fully to take full advantage of what they’re investing in.”

So the next time you’re looking for a new putter, don’t go trying to make 10-20 footers. Make sure you can make the shorter ones and your speed control is good on the long ones.

For more from Wunder, Sweeney and co-host Jake Morrow, listen to the full episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped here, or watch it below.

Want to overhaul your bag in 2026? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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The post Wyndham Clark hilariously trolls Canadian fans with USA hockey jersey appeared first on Golf.

The post Wyndham Clark hilariously trolls Canadian fans with USA hockey jersey appeared first on Golf.

For the first time in 44 years, the U.S. has bragging rights when it comes to hockey.

And as it turns out, Wyndham Clark isn’t keen to let any Canadian hockey fans forget about it.

On Saturday at the RBC Canadian Open, Clark took it to the Canadian golf faithful with a playful troll, reminding the fans of the hockey-obsessed TPC Toronto of the winner of this year’s Olympic hockey competition.

The scene arrived at The Rink, the hockey-themed 14th hole at the Canadian Open. The Rink is a new-ish development of the Canadian Open — a place aimed at replicating the success of the so-called “Stadium Hole” at the WM Phoenix Open. Each year, enormous grandstands are erected at “The Rink” and in recent years, players have been encouraged to play into the craziness of the crowd through all manner of goofy side-efforts. This year, the special effect is a hockey jersey for any player who wishes to wear one.

Wyndham Clark was certainly among the players interested in The Rink. He shot a 63 on Saturday, seven under, to put himself in the early afternoon lead. By the time he’d made it to the 14th, he was feeling it — and ready to have a little bit of fun of the Canadian Open faithful.

As he stepped to the tee, he plucked out a fresh hockey jersey and stretch it over his shirt. But this wasn’t any normal hockey jersey. It was a Team USA, Jack Hughes No. 86 jersey in blue. It was, for the uninitiated, the exact jersey and color and player who defeated the Canadians in overtime in the gold medal game back in February. Hughes scored the “golden goal” just minutes into overtime, driving a dagger through the hearts of the Canadians and bringing a gold medal to American hockey for the first time since the 1980 “miracle on ice” in Lake Placid, NY.

Now, Clark was wearing that same jersey in front of the Canadian golf faithful, and they were having none of it. Boos rained down on Clark as he stood on the tee box with a grin and no shortage of gumption.

Those boos didn’t stop as he hit his tee shot — a stuffed approach to just five feet — nor did they stop as he strode up to the green and confidently knocked down his birdie putt.

Eventually, Clark did remove the jersey and continue on the rest of his round, and the Canadian golf faithful returned to their trademark kindness … just maybe this time with a new tournament villain.

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The post 9 tips to effortlessly shoot more stress-free low scores appeared first on Golf.

The post 9 tips to effortlessly shoot more stress-free low scores appeared first on Golf.

Ours is a famously frustrating, stressful game. Like the old joke says: It’s called “golf” because all the other four-letter words were taken. But, #$%!, it doesn’t have to be that way, at least not so often. Maybe the smoothest of the smooth are born that way. The rest of us can still produce our best selves — free flowing — at the best times by following a few simple tips.

Here are nine tips you can use to shoot more effortless low scores.

1. Make smart choices

A stress-free round isn’t a trouble-free round. You’re never going to hit every fairway and green. It’s not the bogeys that raise your blood pressure; it’s the angst of trying (and often failing) to pull off difficult recovery shots. Shot choice greatly affects our agita levels: Taking your medicine with a simple pitchout or layup instead of attempting the miraculous keeps golf a walk in the park and doubles and triples off the card.

2. Have a reliable warm-up

Does working yourself into a lather sound like the road to chill? The secret may be in the dirt, as Hogan said, but beating lots of balls is for practice sessions, not for planting the seeds for a stressless round. Keep your warm-up to one bucket, maybe even a small one, and focus on being target-oriented. It may also help to make some practice swings with your eyes closed to feel your motion and get into a relaxed groove.

3. Nail the grip

Everything in golf, including effortlessness, starts with a good grip. Choking the club to death obviously isn’t the way to begin a buttery move — but neither is a soft grip that’s more in the palms. For effortless oomph, you need to hold the club more in the fingers, which activates the wrists, a key power source. Added bonus: Doing so will help all the slicers out there to square the clubface at impact and eliminate the banana ball. Think of it as an effortless double play.

4. Develop a waggle

Sprinters burst out of the blocks, but an effortless swing isn’t a sprint — it’s more like a leisurely jog, in which you shake out your arms and legs before setting off. Develop a personalized movement as part of your pre-shot routine so that you’re not jolted from a static position. Whether it’s three little wrist wiggles or miming the first 18 inches of your takeaway, devise something that both relaxes and activates you.

5. Make a full turn

Think about all the effortless swings that are short and quick … Okay, stop, because you won’t come up with one. (Tony Finau is the exception that proves the rule.) A big, full, complete, majestic, heroic backswing is needed to store the power that you’ll soon make look like rolling off a log. This may entail some gym work on hip and upper-body flexibility; in the meantime, consider lifting your front heel off the ground to help create that needed coil.

6. Unleash from the top

At the top is where so many effortless swings jump off the bridge. After a syrupy takeaway, suddenly the brain screams, “Now kill!” The hands go hurtling down toward the ball, speed is wasted early in the swing and smooth synchronization disintegrates. To keep the nice flow and gradual acceleration that yield easy power, think about pushing into the ground with your legs to start the downswing. Don’t worry about your hands; they’ll do what they need to on their own.

7. Stick the finish

Not to get too Zen master, but it can be hard to make an effortless swing when you’re thinking about making an effortless swing. One way to overcome the dreaded “paralysis by analysis” is to think instead about getting to a very specific follow-through position. At the range, hold that follow-through position for several seconds after each swing. You’ll be surprised how well your body soon reverse engineers an effortless move to get to that spot.

8. Understand the sand

For many golfers, greenside sand is like quicksand — the more you struggle, the faster you’re swallowed up. To promote the quick wrist hinge and upright swing that makes escaping the bunker a breeze, do this drill: Stick a tee in the butt end of your grip and, during the backswing, hinge your wrists so the tee points directly at the ball. On your downswing, all you need to do is release that angle and let the clubhead glide underneath the ball to blast the ball out of the bunker.

9. Roll it like Crenshaw

Effective putting strokes are repeatable putting strokes. If a jab-and-hit pop stroke works for you, fine. But an effortless, Ben Crenshaw stroke, well, looks like a Ben Crenshaw stroke: It has a longer backswing and a shorter follow-through. This ratio promotes the solid contact that produces effortless power and fewer yippy shorties. Practice a little recoil move soon after impact, which helps shorten the through-stroke and encourages purer impact too.

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The post The PGA Tour’s unlikeliest contender had a week you can’t believe appeared first on Golf.

The post The PGA Tour’s unlikeliest contender had a week you can’t believe appeared first on Golf.

Ben Kohles rose six days ago in Greenville, S.C. with a dream.

In the next three days, he thought, he’d have ample opportunity to see at least one of his golf dreams realized. Probably through a victory at that afternoon’s BMW Charity Pro-Am, where Kohles awoke with a healthy lead . But maybe through U.S. Open Final Qualifying in Maryland on Monday afternoon, where he was scheduled to play.

The whirlwind that has followed in the last six days has proved so totally disorienting, so remarkable, that Kohles never even considered the possibility he’d wake less than seven days later having achieved both of those dreams. And if that’s true, it’s impossible to believe he saw this weekend coming, where Kohles finds himself contending for his first-ever PGA Tour victory.

I mean, how could he have seen it coming? Six days ago, he wasn’t in the field.

So what happened to take Kohles from there to here, rising on Saturday morning T14 at the RBC Canadian Open? Well, it all started on Sunday evening at the BMW Charity Pro-Am, where the latest sign of Kohles’ resurgence as a 35-year-old touring pro arrived in the form of a four-shot victory. As Kohles collected his hardware, Korn Ferry Tour camera crews were rolling as he sprang into motion: Literally running from the trophy ceremony to his car, where a 90-minute drive up to Charlotte International Airport and a short flight to Washington-Reagan Airport awaited.

Kohles made his flight and arrived in Rockville, Maryland — the site of Monday’s final qualifying effort — late on Sunday night. With adrenaline still riding high, he grabbed a few choppy hours of sleep. He woke the next morning before 6 in order to make it to the golf course in time for his 8:32 a.m. tee time, and soon after, began the all-day test of guts that is U.S. Open Final Qualifying.

He might not have felt it, but Kohles’ game traveled with him to Woodmont Country Club, where he fired a 7 under score over 36 holes to clinch the second of four qualifying spots for the U.S. Open. He hustled into the scorer’s tent to the side of the range at Woodmont shortly after 7:30 p.m. — 11 hours after his opening round began — and then made a quick call back home to share the good news: It was time to book travel for Shinnecock.

“I feel like my head is still spinning,” he said. “It’s easily the craziest 24-hour stretch of my golf life.”

With his qualifying result settled, Kohles quickly jumped into action again: This time boarding a flight from Maryland up to Toronto, where he was one of the alternates for the RBC Canadian Open.

“It’s obviously not too far from next week up here, so I thought I would have a pretty good chance to get in on Monday or Tuesday,” Kohles said. “No one really withdrew.”

Eventually, on Wednesday, the phone call came — Kohles was one of the final alternates into the field at TPC Toronto. He picked up right where he left off on Thursday, firing an opening-round 67 to put himself in the mix heading into Friday. Then, his exhaustion caught up with a second-round 71. On Saturday, though, Kohles locked into form — shooting a bogey-free, five-birdie, third-round 65 to vault himself to 7 under for the tournament, good for T14 as of the time of this writing.

It was, not counting practice rounds, Kohles sixth competitive round in the last six days. Five of them have come in under par.

Time will tell of Kohles’ third-round effort was enough to push him into legitimate contention come Sunday afternoon in Toronto. But there is little doubt he’ll be playing for a hefty paycheck by the time the balls get in the air.

Come Sunday evening, there might be time for a few minutes of reflection of all the good that has come into his life over this one truly wild week. But not too many of them.

He’s due in Shinnecock on Monday.

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The post What’s up with Tiger & Phil? Questions persist as another major looms appeared first on Golf.

The post What’s up with Tiger & Phil? Questions persist as another major looms appeared first on Golf.

Now and again, a reader will write in with this existential riddle: What’s up with Tiger and Phil?

It’s beyond weird, that golf’s two most dominant figures over the past three decades have all but vanished from the sport’s landscape and even its screen-scape.

The most recent Woods update came courtesy of People magazine. (Telling.) The news was that the 15-time major champion is in a residential treatment facility outside the United States for what appears to be to a three-month stay to address his addiction issues. This return to a rehabilitation center — he sought treatment in a Mississippi facility in 2010 for addictive behavior — came in the wake of his late-March roadside arrest near his home in South Florida. Woods is expected to complete the treatment by the end of June, though he did, per People, return briefly to Florida after his girlfriend, Vanessa Trump, former daughter-in-law of the current president, announced she had breast cancer.

Tiger Woods is the last person who would want to turn himself into a character in a real-life version of “As the World Turns,” but he has. 

On Wednesday, Golf Digest reported that Mickelson’s membership at the Farms Golf Club, his longtime and regular hangout in northern San Diego County, had been revoked after “a female club employee accused the six-time major champion of inappropriate contact with her before a round of golf.” Mickelson, for some months now, has receded from public life due to, as Mickelson said on the eve of the Masters, a “personal health matter” involving a family member. In follow-up stories to the Golf Digest piece, different news outlets have cited a statement from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department saying that an investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing on Mickelson’s part and that the office would further investigate if evidence materialized.

Neither Mickelson nor Woods is in the field at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills next week. That’s not at all surprising. Woods is 50 with a body compromised by numerous surgeries, the most complicated of them following his single-vehicle car crash in Los Angeles County in February 2021. Mickelson is nearly 56 and his LIV Golf performances have been broadly mediocre from the start of league play in 2022.

What’s shocking is that neither has been a Ryder Cup captain, that neither is a regular presence as a TV pitchman, that neither is an éminence grise of the game, as Ben Hogan was in his 50s and beyond, as Arnold Palmer was, as Jack Nicklaus was and is. Golf’s long succession plan has been disrupted beyond repair here. What’s shocking is that we never see Tiger and Phil. They have vanished.

Woods, famously bland in his limited public outings through the years, typically at sporting events, is on a variety of PGA Tour committees and boards. But his pressing legal and mental-health issues, in the wake of his recent arrest, have surely superseded those commitments. Mickelson, for years and decades, has been almost goofy in his public life — his “Phireside with Phil”interview series and the rest. He had stunts, bits, comical diatribes. Those sides of the many-sided lefthanded golfer have not been seen in years as he turned from fun Phil to renegade Phil to disappeared Phil. 

Rick Reilly, in a 2008 ESPN column, wrote this:

Rooting for Tiger Woods is like rooting for Justin Timberlake to get lucky, Exxon to hit a gusher, Bill Gates to find a twenty on the sidewalk. It takes no imagination. It takes no courage. What’s the point? It’s 1-to-5 he’s going to win anyway, whether you cheer or not. Makes no difference to him. It’s like rooting for erosion.

Rooting for Phil Mickelson, on the other hand, is like rooting for the salmon to eat the bear. It takes faith. It takes forgiveness. It takes Tums. Mickelson is a roller coaster in an earthquake. One shot will be so inspired you’ll cover your mouth in astonishment. The next will be so Spam-brained you’ll slap your forehead in disbelief. It’s like watching a blind guy jaywalk across Hollywood and Vine. Your fist is in your mouth the whole way.

I bring all this up because Woods and Mickelson will play side-by-side Thursday and Friday at the U.S. Open. You must choose. You cannot root for both. It’s un-American.

Courses

Trump wants a new-look golf course in D.C. Preservationists have another idea

By: Alan Bastable

That 2008 U.S. Open was at Torrey Pines in San Diego, where both Woods and Mickelson, children of Southern California, had played often, as kids, as elite amateurs, as dominating professionals. Woods won that U.S. Open in a playoff and, per the legend of the week, on a “broken leg.” (It was more like a hairline fracture, though Woods was clearly in deep pain.) Mickelson had a T18 finish.

The “Tiger & Phil Show” couldn’t go on forever and it didn’t. In November 2009, Woods ran over a hydrant outside his home in a gated development near Orlando, after a dispute with his then-wife, Elin Nordegren. In the aftermath of that event, his private life was exposed and his public life was never the same. The 9-iron that Nordegren used to smash the windows of Woods’s Cadillac Escalade after he toppled that front-yard hydrant is one of those odd golf artifacts that is part of game’s macabre lore, famous for all the wrong reasons. 

In 2018, when the U.S. Open was last at Shinnecock Hills, Mickelson played hockey on the 13th green in the Saturday round, turning his ball into a puck and his white Odyssey putter into a hockey stick, at least for one whack of a ball in motion. Curtis Strange, on the TV broadcast, said then, “I’ve never seen anything like that from a world-class player in my life.” Strange’s real-time commentary is open to extrapolation into the off-course lives of both subjects here, Mickelson and Woods. It is also true that the two golfing giants have played, and lived, in an era of extreme scrutiny that Nicklaus and Palmer never even imagined. Nicklaus has talked about that, over the years. Still: who would have guessed any of this in 2008? Mickelson’s flatstick, on that Saturday at Shinnecock, was a blade, a cousin to the hockey stick. You remember blade putters, don’t you? As Woods used to say, Father Time is undefeated. Dusk arrives eventually for every day in the sun.

Their talent is their talent. Woods, amazingly, won the 2019 Masters at age 43. (Nicklaus won it at 46 and people still talk about that.) Mickelson, amazingly, won the 2021 PGA Championship at age 50. (Palmer never won the PGA Championship at all and people still talk about that, like it’s a missing tooth.) Both Woods and Mickelson won those majors as barrel-chested, physically imposing middle-aged men able to hit killer drives while chomping on wads of gum. (Winning while smoking, back in the day? That was once common. But while chewing gum? Not really a thing, pre-Woods. Mickelson’s gum was bright blue.) Each found a way to turn back the hands of time. Each was exuberant in victory, in every way, including in their post-tournament commentary. Now we hear from them chiefly through crafted statements on their social-media platforms, or from those who speak for them.

This is an actual quote from the recent Golf Digest report about Mickelson’s situation with the employee at his now-former club: “`Any misunderstanding has been cleared up.’”

That sentence would maybe mean something had it come directly from Mickelson, and would mean far more had it come from the club employee. But it comes from neither. It’s just another parsed statement from another PR person representing another famous person stuck in another bad spot.

Phil became Phil speaking for himself. As for Woods, his clubs did his best talking. In both cases, it’s been years since we’ve seen them do their thing. Golf has moved on. The gaping hole, in between Arnie-Jack and Tiger-Phil, will never be filled. Too much has happened, and we know too much.

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

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The post How a ‘burnerverse’ golfer went from beginner to single-digit handicap in 18 months appeared first on Golf.

The post How a ‘burnerverse’ golfer went from beginner to single-digit handicap in 18 months appeared first on Golf.

Ed. note: The subject of this story is X user Upper East Side Golf (@UESgolf), a member of the golf “burnerverse.” He is referenced by his username and handle in this article in order to protect his burnerverse identity.

Upper East Side Golf is a certified golf sicko. That term gets thrown around a lot, but there are few that embody the term quite like he does.

Each morning, he wakes up around 5:30 a.m. and treks to Five Iron Golf‘s Rockefeller Center location to grind on his game. He often hits balls for 90 minutes and finishes with a lift in the gym before heading to his midtown Manhattan office to start his day job in the financial industry. On mornings when he isn’t grinding on his game in the simulator, you may find him walking the fairways of Pelham Bay golf course in the Bronx.

“I played 83 rounds in 2025,” @UESgolf says. “I’d wake up at 4:15 or 4:30 a.m., take an Uber, or drive once I got a car, go play at Pelham Bay, finish as quickly as possible, and get back to the city by 9:30 so I could go to work.”

There are golf “sickos” and there are golf sickos. @UESgolf is the latter.

Most remarkable of all, golf is a relatively new obsession for the 31-year-old. Although he is a life-long athlete, @UESgolf only picked up golf in the fall of 2024. Growing up in the golf-rich suburbs of Philadelphia, his father played the game, but @UESgolf’s focus was on lacrosse. Golf simply didn’t pique his interest.

That all changed a little over 18 months ago when he joined a group of friends for a round. After being bested by his less-athletically-gifted compatriots, he decided he to pursue golf to fulfill his competitive drive. It hasn’t taken him long to get the hang of the game. Despite a late introduction to the sport, @UESgolf has already whittled his handicap into the low single-digits, and has a clubhead speed with the driver that is well over 120 mph (seriously).

So, what’s the secret to his rapid golf improvement? I recently sat down with him to find out.

1. Focus on center contact

Like many new golfers, @UESgolf had poor clubface control when he picked up the game. Instead of chasing aesthetic swing changes in those early days, he focused on the most important skill in golf: consistently striking the center of the clubface.

Much of his practice revolved around simple feedback drills. Foot spray on the clubface to reveal strike location or a headcover near the ball to encourage a different club path. Everything he did was with the goal of teaching himself how to hit the center of the clubface.

“The biggest thing to focus on is compressing the ball and making good contact,” he says. “Even still today, a lot of what I try and do is just hit the center of the clubface.”

2. Dedicated practice

Rapid improvement doesn’t happen without serious commitment. As @UESgolf can attest, it takes dedication if you want to shave strokes off your handicap.

“I wake up at 5:30 a.m. and head to Five Iron to hit balls for an hour or two,” he says. “Then in the spring and summer, as soon as it gets warm enough for golf, which for me is about 40 to 42 degrees, I go play before work.”

Not everyone has the flexibility to dedicate that kind of time to golf, but the unfortunate truth about the game is that improvement doesn’t happen overnight. If you want to get better, you’ve got to put the work in.

3. Don’t go down too many rabbit holes

Like many who get the “golf bug,” @UESgolf spends plenty of time obsessing over his swing. But this can be a blessing and a curse. While it’s good to dedicate thought to how you swing the club, you can also drive yourself crazy if you go down too many social-media swing-tip rabbit holes.

“I was DMing with [fellow golf burner Arnie McNair] during one of those swing-rating things he was doing,” @UESgolf says. “He looked at my swing and said, ‘You’re a 6 handicap now, but you’d be a scratch golfer if you stopped doing XYZ and got off YouTube.’

“I was making all kinds of changes. I even cut down my clubs because I thought I couldn’t get around properly. I was doing all sorts of crazy stuff.’ … Eventually Arnie introduced me to Andrew McCain, who gave me a free swing evaluation, and I’ve worked with him since January.”

Not all social-media golf instruction is bad (in fact, lots of it is quite good!), but if you take every swing tip you see and apply it ad hoc, you are setting yourself up for disaster. That’s why it’s so important to have a professional take a look at your swing. Once you are diagnosed by a pro, fixing the flaws in your swing becomes much easier.

4. Mix up your practice

Becoming a better golfer isn’t just about finding better positions that look better on camera. It’s also about building a swing that is functional in on-course settings. @UESgolf understands this, which is why he incorporates a mix of block practice and variable practice into his routine.

“I’d say it’s probably about 60 percent variable and 40 percent block practice,” he says. “There are definitely days where I’m just trying to work out a kink and I’ll hit a bunch of drivers or a bunch of 7-irons. But the practice that seems to help my scoring the most is variable practice, working through different yardages and situations. Maybe I hit a 185-yard shot, then a 70-yard shot, then a 150-yard shot. That’s the kind of practice that translates best to the course.”

5. Remember to play

@UESgolf is a self-described range rat who finds beating balls “therapeutic.” But the biggest key for lowering his handicap hasn’t come in the simulator — it’s come from learning how to get the ball in the hole on the course.

“If you really want your handicap to come down, you have to play golf and learn how to score,” he says. “I learned how to shoot in the 70s from the white and blue tees. Now I’m playing farther back and it’s more challenging. Learning how to score is something you simply can’t do in a simulator.”

Golf can feel like an impossible game at times, but as @UESgolf proves, improvement is attainable with the right dedication, mindset and practice regimen.

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The post How Dormie Workshop became one of golf’s most coveted brands appeared first on Golf.

The post How Dormie Workshop became one of golf’s most coveted brands appeared first on Golf.

Eight years ago, I was looking for a cool golf gift for my husband, who happens to be a golf pro. Given the fact that he has access to just about everything, finding a unique item that he would actually use but somehow doesn’t already have has always been a real challenge. But at the time, I noticed that there was one glaring deficiency in his golf gear arsenal: a cool headcover. Simple! But I didn’t want to choose just any off-the-rack piece. I wanted his gift to be a custom creation that reflected a part of who he is.

Where could I source such an item? I knew immediately where to go: Dormie Workshop. If you’re a fan of hand-crafted, full-grain leather accessories, chances are you’ve heard of Dormie — a Canadian brand founded by three brothers (Jeff, Todd and Alex Bishop) in 2014.

Ordering my custom creation for my husband was a delightfully simple process: I emailed my preferences, received a mock design back, approved it, and waited for the final product. My husband loved it, and the headcover is still in use today — a testament to the quality, craftsmanship and service I experienced during those early years of Dormie’s business.

In the decade-plus since Dormie launched, those core service-first commitments have remained, and the brand has become ubiquitous, gaining a legion of fans with limited-edition drops, collabs and creative one-of-one designs. But what is it about Dormie that sets it apart from others in the increasingly crowded golf accessory space? A recent chat with Jeff gave me valuable insight on how the brand built a devoted fan base that continues to grow.

The origin story

Jeff and his older brother Todd had dreams of playing on the PGA Tour, and pursued a professional golf career path in their 20s. While they were grinding, they also developed a side business: a product they called Lined Up Golf. It was essentially a ball marker with a poker chip on top, and a strip of tape with a line on it. The product didn’t last, but their interest in building a business did. Attending a PGA Show in the early 2000s exposed the brothers to other disruptors in the golf space, like the surf-inspired gear from TravisMathew, which impressed them and gave them confidence that their fresh ideas could work. 

Once Jeff and Todd gave up chasing the pro-golf tour life, Jeff turned his attention to headcovers — specifically, blending heritage designs with a bit more creativity. He sourced some leather scraps from a local Nova Scotia furniture store and hired a woman from Craigslist who made sock puppets to bring his inspo drawings to life. Those scraps became the brand’s initial prototypes, and Dormie Workshop was born.

A family affair

In conversation with Jeff, it doesn’t take long to realize how much he values all the people around him. Not only do all three Bishop brothers work for Dormie, there are also multiple cousins and extended family involved in the business too. Then, there are the employees that have become like family. Dormie’s first hire, a woman named Donna, only recently retired after 10 years with the brand. Dormie’s second hire, a man named Sting, emigrated from Taiwan, graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design with Jeff’s sponsorship help, and remains with the brand to this day.

“He’s become the most integral part of the team when it comes to his creativity and his good nature,” Jeff said of Sting. “The things that we try and promote, like quality control and care, treating other people the way you want to be treated, this guy exemplifies that every single day.”

True artistry

Jeff is proud to note that Dormie Workshop currently has 17 full-time artists on staff, all of whom graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

That organic influx of creative energy enables Dormie to differentiate itself from competitors by helping clubs create truly unique identities through their accessories, rather than simply slapping a logo on an item.

Cold calls — and networking! 

In the early days, Jeff remembers Todd cold-calling Top 100 courses throughout Canada to pitch his product. Eventually, orders with with Discovery Land Co. helped put Dormie’s products on the map, as did Canadian PGA Tour player Graham DeLaet, who helped introduce Dormie’s gear on Tour.

Meetings and friendships with other movers and shakers in business and fashion like Malcolm Gosling Sr., Ralph Dunning and Tommy Armour III resulted in a solid networking pipeline and positive word of mouth.

Brand expansion

In addition to headcovers, Dormie has more than two-dozen other products on offer, from yardage books and towels to hats, ball markers and more. And more is coming. A recent belt-company acquisition led to a real estate foothold in Los Angeles — Dormie’s first U.S. headquarters, though the brand also retains a primary HQ in Nova Scotia.

“We’ve established ourselves as the premier brand in the headcover category, and we’re going to take that to other categories,” Jeff said.

What’s ahead for Dormie? Jeff envisions a future in which the Dormie brand is the umbrella for a collection of other complementary and curated brands, all under one roof, but fully vertically integrated, wherein Dormie controls its entire product lifecycle from design to point-of-sale.

Ultimately, Jeff hopes that his passion for Dormie can extend far and wide — a lofty goal, but Jeff doesn’t feel Dormie has anything left to prove.

“It’s not all about making money,” he said. “It’s about giving back to the game that has provided us a life.”

Check out some of the latest designs from Dormie Workshop below, and click on the link to buy yours now!

Shop Dormie Workshop headcovers at Fairway Jockey

Browse the whole collection here, or scroll through some of our favorites below.

Blue Bloom

Blue Bloom A burst of tropical energy for your bag, the Blue Bloom hybrid cover pairs soft baby blue and deep teal leather in a fresh, ocean-inspired palette. Centered on the front, an embroidered blue hibiscus blooms in vivid detail, a symbol of island life and effortless style. Built to stand out and built to last, it’s made for golfers who bring sunshine to every round. Features • Premium Italian leather in baby blue and teal for a coastal feel• Detailed embroidered blue hibiscus for a bold tropical statement• Tailored hybrid fit for secure club protection• Durable craftsmanship for seasons of play• Handmade by Dormie Workshop artisans in Halifax and Los Angeles

$150.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Surfboard

Surfboard Built for the golfer who swaps tees for tide charts, The Surfboard hybrid cover channels pure wave-rider energy. Shaped in sleek premium Italian leather, it’s dressed with baby blue pinstripe appliqué reminiscent of classic longboard designs. Topping it off, a surf-inspired Dormie crest sits proudly up front, blending the spirit of golf and surf culture together. Features • Premium Italian leather for luxe feel and long-lasting durability.• Baby blue pinstripe appliqué for authentic surfboard styling• Surf-inspired Dormie crest for a coastal, laid-back identity• Tailored hybrid fit for secure club protection• Handmade by Dormie Workshop artisans in Halifax and Los Angeles

$145.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Space Pop Throwback

A classic frozen treat, loved by all and now available for your Driver, Fairway or Hybrid. Shout out to Jim Robertson for getting this design brought to life! Unique leather applique adds recognizable style Driver, Fairway, and Hybrid sizes to fit your club of choice Form-fitting design keeps cover securely fixed to your club Water and stain resistant properties for durability Cotton/Poly liner for water wicking/quick dry Constructed of 100% quality leather

$135.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Chevron Night Train Fairway

The Classics Collection; Polished enough for Private Clubs, yet rugged enough for Munis! Developed with daily use in mind for all golfers. Feel the Dormie difference with our Classics Collection. -Milled full grain leather with a natural pebble and a pull up finish-Dormie embroidered logo-Dormie Classics embossed insignia-Leather applique club identifier & chevron-Velvety smooth traditional plaid liner-Available in Driver with 1, fairway with 3, hybrid with x. -Leather color/finish will change overtime. Distinctive markings and variances in its texture and color are natural and a testament to its authenticity.

$150.00 from Fairway Jockey

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The Designated-Hitter Driver Head Cover – Brown

The original baseball glove headcover! A custom design that was too good not to share with the world. The Designated Hitter is always batting cleanup. Meticulously hand laced using only the best full grain leathers money can buy, this cover is a real Golden Glover. Driver only.  Distressed top grain leather with pull up effect Hand laced paneling Debossed Dormie branding Dormie baseball embroidered patch Velvet soft liner Driver Only

$195.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Walk Tall USA

Dormie Workshop loves supporting our neighbours to the south! This is our spin on the iconic US flag. Handcrafted in Halifax, Nova Scotia using only top grain Italian leathers, and top notch star embroidery, you can take this cover to the course and display your flag the way it was meant to- WITH PRIDE. Available in driver and fairway  size to fit your club of choice.

$155.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Dormie Money Bag Driver

The Money Bag Turn up the stakes with The Money Bag, a premium leather golf headcover that says your game isn’t just about birdies, it’s about bragging rights and walking off with your buddy’s cash. Made from Italian leather and finished with a bold dollar sign appliqué, this handcrafted golf accessory is a playful nod to all those side bets and skins games that keep the round interesting. Secure the pot, show off your style, and let everyone know you’re here to collect.   Details: Crafted from Italian leather for a rich, durable feel Hand made in our workshops in Los Angeles and Halifax Green dollar sign appliqué with “Cash Money” embroidery for that winner’s attitude Finished with a gold draw string accent and Dormie’s signature cow rivet on the back Fits all modern drivers A leather headcover that’s perfect for adding fun to your next match   Ready to cash in on your next round? Drop this luxury golf accessory in your bag and play for keeps.

$235.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Dormie Putt For Dough XL Blade

Putt For Dough XL Blade   Make every putt feel like it’s for the pot. The Putt For Dough XL Blade Putter cover from Dormie Workshop is a handcrafted leather golf headcover that pairs clean Italian leather with a bold chenille money bag patch and playful “Putt for Dough” embroidery. It’s a fresh twist on one of Dormie’s most popular betting-inspired designs, finished with our signature cow rivet and a smooth magnetic closure that keeps your flat stick secure.   Details: Made from premium white Italian leather with a soft liner to protect your putter Hand made by Dormie artisans in our Los Angeles and Halifax workshops Features a standout chenille money bag patch and “Putt for Dough” embroidery Strong magnet closure for easy access without Velcro fuss Finished with Dormie’s signature cow rivet on the tab Fits most standard and oversized blade putters snug and secure   Ready to cash in on your next round? Drop this Dormie luxury golf headcover in your bag and start rolling it with confidence.

$160.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Georgia

Georgia Georgia is all about good times with partners in crime. This handcrafted driver cover takes classic Nova Scotia tartan, and flips it into bold, sun-soaked colors, finished off with playful white piping and the Dormie palm crest. Every bit of tartan is custom cut and unique, meaning no two headcovers are the same. It’s the piece that’s always there for the road trips, beach hangs, and moments you’ll be talking about for years. Features Premium printed leather with a fresh twist on Nova Scotia tartan Hand-cut panels and racing-inspired yellow stripes for standout style Signature Dormie fit and protection for your driver Made by Dormie Workshop artisans in Halifax and Los Angeles

$150.00 from Fairway Jockey

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Dormie Bone Two Stripe Piper

Bone & White Two Stripe Piper Available in Driver, Fairway & Hybrid Clean, crisp, and effortlessly classic. The Bone & White Two Stripe Piper brings a soft neutral base to the bold structure of our signature two-stripe design. Crafted with a bone-toned corrected grain leather base, this cover features matching white appliqué stripes and white Italian leather piping for a sleek, tonal finish. As part of the Essentials Collection, this piece is all about versatility—designed to integrate seamlessly with your current setup or help you build a timeless look from the ground up. The corrected grain leather offers a beautiful feel with stain resistance, long-lasting wear, and light-fast color that holds up round after round. Handmade by our team of artisans at Dormie Workshop, this is a go-to leather golf headcover that feels as good as it looks. Features Full Grain Leather – Premium durability with a clean, smooth finish Velvety Soft Liners – Gentle protection for your clubs Handmade by Dormie Workshop Artisans – Built with pride in our Halifax and LA workshops Designed to complement all Dormie golf headcovers Available in Driver, Fairway and Hybrid sizes

$125.00 from Fairway Jockey

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The post How Dormie Workshop became one of golf’s most coveted brands appeared first on Golf.

The post Why this year’s U.S. Open will be the most connected experience ever appeared first on Golf.

The post Why this year’s U.S. Open will be the most connected experience ever appeared first on Golf.

This content was first published in Golf Journal, a quarterly print publication exclusively for USGA Members. To be among the first to receive Golf Journal and to learn how you can ensure a strong future for the game, become a USGA Member today!

Few sports create space for connection quite like golf. Over several hours and 18 holes, players walk together, talk together and experience the highs and lows of competition side by side.

That same spirit extends well outside the ropes.

At the U.S. Open, the fan experience is powered not only by technology, but by the people behind the technology — hundreds of professionals including USGA staff, vendors and partners with wide-ranging expertise, working in lockstep toward a shared goal: delivering an unforgettable championship for fans on site and around the world.

A golf course is unlike almost any other environment when it comes to technology. The infrastructure must be designed, built and operated from the ground up. Then come the digital arteries: miles of network cabling that connect everything from leaderboards to ticketing, WiFi and mobile services. And we do it carefully – routing around heavy equipment, golf course maintenance crews and even the occasional curious gopher — through secure, resilient pathways designed to perform under the pressure of championship week.

This year, we are taking that resiliency even further.

News

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By: James Colgan

Our network design now provides multiple internal paths to critical locations throughout the property, ensuring greater reliability and faster recovery should issues arise. For the more than 200,000 fans who will attend the U.S. Open, this means a more reliable digital backbone that supports true “street-to-seat” convenience: faster entry, smoother transactions and a fully connected experience from arrival to final putt.

Speed and capacity matter, too.

In partnership with Cisco, we are expanding WiFi 7 technology across key areas of the championship. These next-generation access points deliver connection speeds up to four times greater than previous generations and are designed to perform in the most densely populated environments.

All this infrastructure sets the stage for what fans ultimately experience through the USGA mobile app. This year, the app will employ artificial intelligence to deliver a truly personalized “Your U.S. Open” experience. Fans will be able to follow their favorite players more closely, receive AI-driven insights and watch video highlights intelligently clipped and curated to match their interests.

In the end, the most important network at the U.S. Open isn’t measured in bandwidth or latency, but in trust. Championship week is intense, unforgiving and relentlessly real-time – there is no pause button when the gates open and the crowds arrive.

When technology performs seamlessly, it’s because teams across disciplines are communicating clearly, supporting one another and responding as one. Just like the game itself, delivering a U.S. Open experience is about connection.

The post Why this year’s U.S. Open will be the most connected experience ever appeared first on Golf.

The post Never hit a slice again with this simple swing thought appeared first on Golf.

The post Never hit a slice again with this simple swing thought appeared first on Golf.

Anyone who’s battled a stubborn slice knows how frustrating it is to watch your drives veer off to the right. Beyond sending your ball into trouble, a slice robs you of both distance and control, turning your driver into one of the most intimidating clubs in your bag. As a result, many amateurs end up benching one of their biggest weapons on the course.

But you don’t have to sacrifice distance to find more fairways. As David Armitage, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher, explains in the video below, all you need is a simple swing cue to improve your sequencing and straighten out your drives.

Keep your back to the target to fix your slice

According to Armitage, one of the biggest causes of a slice is the upper body opening up too early. 

“What I see a lot of is people opening up too early, trying to create too much power with their upper body, and that just gets them way open and the clubface doesn’t get a chance to release,” Armitage says.

This often looks like players spinning their shoulders towards the target from the top of the backswing, resulting in an open clubface and an out-to-in swing path, which sends the ball way right. 

To combat this, Armitage borrows a classic swing tip from Jack Nicklaus. The tip is simple: keep your back to the target for as long as possible as you transition to the downswing. It’s a simple cue that Nicklaus still shares with golfers today, and one that can have a big impact on your ball flight.

Don’t mistake this feeling for a pause at the top, though. 

“It’s not a stop, it’s a sequence,” Armitage says. 

The goal is simply to keep your upper body from outracing your lower body. By keeping your chest and shoulders closed for a fraction of a second longer, you give the club time to fall naturally into the downswing and approach the ball from the inside. From there, the clubface can release more freely through impact instead of staying open and sending the ball sailing right.

The post Never hit a slice again with this simple swing thought appeared first on Golf.