General news - Golf News

Honest schoolboy returns his golf trophy after realising he’d made a mistake on his scorecard

Written by Rob McGarr on Friday 18 March 2016

It seems barely a week goes by without sport being dragged into the mire of another cheating scandal. Thankfully, golf tends to be largely immune from the issues facing tennis, athletics, cycling and football at the moment, but it’s still nice to have moments that reassert golf’s position as arguably the most honest sport going. The latest involves seven-year-old Yago Horno...

12 reasons to pick up the new issue of Today’s Golfer

Thursday 17 March 2016

It’s massive! Our new issue is so thick, it stands up on its own – and comes with a free 2016 R&A Rules Book What Gear 2016 Your guide to more than 300 new clubs on sale this year. Beat your slice for good It’s the ultimate slice guide – why it happens, key moves to sort it and reader swing flaws...

Fantasy Golf 2016 is underway!

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Fantasy Golf is back for a sixth season and it promises to be bigger and better than ever. Thousands of you signed up last year, with Shane Mills claiming top spot and a holiday to La Manga Club in Spain. This year, we’ve revamped the rules and have some bumper prizes, including trips to Majorca, Sicily, Belek and La Manga. To...

Instruction from Adam Scott

Monday 7 March 2016

Adam Scott is the hottest player on the planet right now after bagging the WGC Cadillac Championship last night for his second win in as many weeks. The win will lift the Aussie from No.9 to No.6 in the world and makes him the favourite to win a second green jacket at Augusta National next month. “I’ve used my experience to my...

This 11-year-old bunked off school to play golf with Tiger Woods, beat him, and got a hole-in-one

Written by Rob McGarr on Thursday 3 March 2016

Bunking off school always seems like a great idea, but the reality rarely lives up to the expectation. You spend the whole day on edge, worrying that your teacher is going to realise that the note you wrote from your mum has suspiciously similar grammatical errors to your homework, or that when your dad innocently asks how your day went...

Who’s better: Jordan Spieth or Lionel Messi?

Written by Rob McGarr on Wednesday 2 March 2016

That might seem like a silly question, but it’s exactly the question being asked by the Laureus World Sports Awards, for which the nominations have just been announced. The annual awards ceremony honours remarkable individuals and teams from the world of sport, along with celebrating the greatest sporting achievements of the last year. This year’s shortlist for the Laureus World Sportsman of...

Different golf coaches will tell you different things – so how do you know who to trust?

Written by Denis Pugh, PGA Master professional and coach to Francesco Molinari and Ross Fisher on Wednesday 2 March 2016

Views on how the golf swing works are like stories about near holes-in-one – everyone has one, and no-one really wants to listen to anyone else’s. When the PGA manual was being reviewed in 2001, I was invited to sit on the coaching committee. We all did our best to come up with a ‘common acceptance’, but the differing personal beliefs...

Celebrity golf swings – reviewed and rated

Written by Today's Golfer on Wednesday 2 March 2016

They entertain millions on the TV and radio. They have won Champions League and Premier League titles. They have sold out worldwide tours. They have millions of followers on Twitter. But when they get on the golf course, some of Britain’s most famous celebrities still have a lot to learn. We asked TG Top 50 coach Adrian Bishop to cast his...

Meet Britain’s most improved golfers

Written by Rob McGarr on Tuesday 1 March 2016

If there’s one thing we’d all like to do, it’s improve our handicap. Golf is the only sport where a single number tells the world how good – or bad – you are. It’s a question of pride. It doesn’t matter what car you’ve got waiting in the club car park, how expensive your clothes are, or how new your...

Michael Vaughan: golf needs to try something similar to Twenty20 cricket

Written by James Henderson on Tuesday 1 March 2016

Leading England to victory in the 2005 Ashes, their first victory for 18 years, earned Michael Vaughan not only an OBE, but a place in the heart of every English cricket fan. It was the highlight of a decade-long international career that saw Vaughan notch 7,701 runs, including 18 Test centuries. Injuries and a drop in form forced Vaughan to hang...

What should you eat during a round of golf to help you play your best?

Written by Rob McGarr on Tuesday 1 March 2016

Ever found yourself praying that the halfway hut is open, despite only being on the third hole? How many times have you struggled up the 18th with legs that feel like you’ve run a marathon? The reason is simple: a round of golf can burn as many as 2,000 calories. If you’re not eating the right things, at the right...

James Nesbitt is absolutely mad about golf, but he still can’t break 80…

Written by Joe Downes on Monday 29 February 2016

“Every year I’m determined this is going to be the year when I get much better,” says actor James Nesbitt. The 51-year-old actor from County Antrim is golf-mad, but his busy working schedule doesn’t allow him as much chance as he’d like to hit the links. Do you play golf with many other actors? There weren’t that many keen golfers on the...

Training advice from the man who helped Darren Clarke double his strength

Written by Stuart Hood on Monday 29 February 2016

Darren Clarke was horrified when he saw a picture of himself playing in the 2013 Dunhill Links Championship. “I thought, ‘Christ, I’m fat,’” he recalls. The following week, he started working with Dublin-based fitness guru Jamie Myerscough. Within a couple of months, Clarke had lost two stone and within nine months he declared himself “four stone lighter, twice as strong and mentally...

How many shots could Ian Poulter’s caddie save YOU?

Written by Hans Seeberg & Joe Downes on Friday 26 February 2016

Earlier this week, we brought you an interview with Ian Poulter’s caddie, Terry Mundy, lifting the lid on exactly what life is like as a caddie on tour. During that interview, Mundy also offered some tips that he insisted would help amateurs save several shots per round. Now, we’ve decided to take things one step further and put him to...

We took part in the world’s biggest amateur golf tournament

Written by Rob McGarr on Friday 26 February 2016

The Myrtle Beach World Amateur Handicap Championship sees 3,400 golfers compete to become world champion. Our man was one of them… It’s not every day you find yourself up against 3,399 other golfers, from 34 countries, over 72 holes. Nor is it that often you get to compete for the title of “world champion”. Winning the Myrtle Beach World Amateur Championship...

Damon Hill talks golf, including the day he played with Seve

Written by Joe Downes on Friday 26 February 2016

Former Formula One world champion Damon Hill talks about playing golf with Seve Ballesteros, managing his overswing, and how golf, like racing, runs in the family… When did you take up golf? I started playing golf when I was about 10 or 11. It runs in the family. I’ve got a photograph of my granddad playing golf in the 1920s when he...

See how your stats compare to the PGA Tour average

Written by Rob McGarr on Thursday 25 February 2016

You probably know that Rory McIlroy hits it further than you, but do you know how many fairways the average PGA Tour pro hits – and how that compares to golfers of your standard? Stat-tracking device GameGolf analysed 170,000 rounds from golfers of all abilities, so now you can see how your scores and stats compare to the pros, and to...

Rory McIlroy spends a lot of time in the gym.

Should golfers lift weights?

Written by Rob McGarr on Wednesday 24 February 2016

Should golfers lift weights? It’s a debate that’s been around for years, brought back into the spotlight recently when Brandel Chamblee voiced concerns about the type of physical training Rory McIlroy has been doing. “I think more than anything of what Tiger Woods did early in his career with his game was just an example of how good a human being can...

Forget “drive for show, putt for dough” – it’s not putting that’s letting you down

Written by Denis Pugh, PGA Master professional and coach to Francesco Molinari and Ross Fisher on Friday 19 February 2016

Golf stats have evolved from the early days of fairways hit, greens in regulation and number of putts. The sophisticated and comprehensive stats on offer these days play a huge role in influencing the way Tour pros practise, strategise, and play. The PGA Tour uses ShotLink to track every shot hit during their events. Players use this data to analyse how...

What do real golfers say about getting custom fitted for golf clubs?

Written by Rob McGarr on Thursday 18 February 2016

Getting custom fit for golf clubs is a bit like upgrading to Sky HD from the standard resolution. Everyone who has done it will tell you that the difference is remarkable, it’s well worth the money, and that once you’ve done it you’ll never be able to go back. But when you’re sat there, watching the perfectly acceptable standard definition, it...