With several collections released this year for each Major, Sun Day Red has continued this theme with the latest 'Royal Collection' which pays homage and celebrates The Open Championship, a tournament Tiger Woods has always had a particular collection to.

Winner of the tournament in 2000, 2005 and 2006, Woods' Sun Day Red brand has unveiled the new collection a week before the 2026 edition begins at Royal Birkdale, and I must say, I think it is my favorite drop from the brand this year. Dare I say it, it might be my favorite from any brand this year.

The collection features sublime little elements including corduroy pieces as well as lovely colors, with the burgundy being my particular favorite, especially on the shoes. There is also a tartan windbreaker and a reversible hoodie which the brand hasn't done before.

As usual it looks great, and I have picked out some of my favorite pieces below, including cool special edition versions of the Osprey shoes, along with classic polos, hoodies and more. I have to admit though, I need to get my hands on the long sleeve cashmere polo. and the icon cord hat, those are very cool indeed.

I remember the days when I used to stand on a tee and be asked the question: “What’s your handicap?” I’d pause awkwardly and consider how to frame my response, which was usually something along the lines of “I don’t have an official handicap, but I’ll play off 18.”

Even though I was almost always playing with friends, family or colleagues – I wasn’t able to enter competitions without an official handicap – I felt slightly uncomfortable producing a number I felt was right instead of one I knew was right.

It wasn’t my fault, of course – I stopped being a club member when I went off to university and it hasn’t been a viable option for me since then. So, in the days before the World Handicap System, my only choice was to make an educated guess if I wanted to have any sort of competitive game, whether with myself or others in my four-ball.

But if I started well, it wasn’t long before the word ‘bandit’ inevitably appeared. It was almost always in jest, but it still used to rankle me somewhat; partially because I’d never purposefully cheat and partially because I had no recourse – I didn’t have an official handicap, so my retorts would always fall on deaf ears.

This was a dilemma every non-club golfer used to face before the introduction of the WHS in January 2020. Competitive golf doesn’t just take place in official club competitions; it happens during ‘casual’ rounds with friends or at charity, work or corporate golf days.

For any sort of competition to take place – whether a four-ball better-ball match for bragging rights or a singles competition with money on the line – handicaps are required.

Before 2020, you either had to produce an unofficial number – some people’s best guesses were more accurate than others – not have any in-game matches or not compete for the prizes, none of which felt ideal.

Now, even though I’m not a golf club member, I can stand on the 1st tee and proudly bellow my official handicap index and course handicap. If people want to find fault in that – as some absolutely do – then that’s on them, not me.

'I don't care what they think'

Naturally, many club golfers absolutely still have reservations about nomadic handicaps. Some, like my colleague Elliott Heath, don’t understand why nomadic golfers even need official handicaps.

Others feel handicaps forged outside of club competitions aren’t legitimate because of a perceived lack of pressure, while more still believe non-member handicaps are more open to manipulation.

But, to be honest, I don’t care what they think. That’s their problem. I don’t cheat or manipulate – all I want to do is track every round, attempt to shoot my best score every time I set foot on the course and try to get my handicap as low as possible.

I know it happens and is probably far more common than it should be, but why anyone would put effort into falsely engineering their index up or down is beyond me.

I’m a huge advocate for submitting a scorecard every time you play and doing so elevates my enjoyment of the game. I’m out on the fairways to have fun, spend time with friends and family, get exercise and be outdoors, but I also love competing with myself and experiencing all the emotions you feel when you have a good round going.

If you’re not putting in a card, it’s not the same. Is it still fun? Of course. But has the ability to submit a handicap score every round enhanced my enjoyment of the sport? Absolutely. I have the WHS to thank for that.

What’s so good is I can put in a card even if no one else in my group is. The WHS has enabled me to get exactly what I want out of golf while not demanding others follow the same path. For nomadic golfers who are semi-competitive and don’t play as much as they’d like, it’s been a godsend.

I understand the objections people have to the system and I’m not saying they’re wrong - who am I to tell someone who thinks the WHS has ruined golf for low-handicappers how to feel? Plenty of people agree and thousands upon thousands would much prefer to go back to the previous CONGU system.

But the WHS has been a fantastic development for me. I don’t have to choose between casual and competitive; I can have both. Now, I don’t have any feelings of hollowness or invalidity if I produce a high Stableford score as I know my handicap is legitimate.

I hope those who complain endlessly about the WHS will take some comfort in learning it’s enhanced many nomadic golfers’ enjoyment of the sport.

What is the most popular golf ball on the PGA Tour this season? You probably already know the answer to this question.

Or do you? Do you know the split between the Titleist Pro V1 and Titleist Pro V1x?

And how many players use an entirely different model, another of the best premium golf ball models on the market?

The only way to get an accurate picture was to scroll down the long list of every player on the 2026 FedExCup standings (210 players at the time of writing).

Having done exactly that, here are the 10 most popular golf balls on the PGA Tour in 2026*.

*Results accurate up to but not including the John Deere Classic.

*Includes the TaylorMade TP5x Pix played by Tommy Fleetwood.
**Includes two players who currently play the Bridgestone Tour B X MindSet.

Since bursting on the scene in 2000, the Titleist Pro V1 franchise has dominated the market.

It was a golf ball ahead of its time and continues to set the standard for green-to-tee performance, consistency, and durability.

The research and development that goes into producing the number one ball in golf is significant - every Pro V1 golf ball must pass more than 90 quality checks, while the dual core Pro V1x must pass more than 120.

It’s not far off a 50/50 split between Pro V1 and Pro V1x usage on the PGA Tour, with just a handful more players currently favoring the latter - which is the slightly firmer-feeling model.

Eight years ago, Titleist also introduced a Tour-only Pro V1 Left Dot, which later became available to buy.

Designed for those seeking a lower and more penetrating flight and lower long game spin than the Pro V1, the Left Dot went on sale in the US and Canada for $55 a dozen last year, and it was limited to two dozen per customer.

It's tailored for the best of the best with high swing speeds, and has racked up 30 PGA Tour titles and two Major Championships (Henrik Stenson at The 2016 Open Championship and Patrick Reed at the 2018 Masters).

Tony Finau and Jake Knapp are just two of the eight players currently using the Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot, while four players prefer the Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash.

The Left Dash made its retail debut in 2019 after success on the professional circuits, with Bryson DeChambeau using it to win the 2024 US Open.

Titleist says the Left Dash delivers exceptionally fast ball speeds along with a higher ball flight, which is similar to the Pro V1x.

The manufacturer also claims that the Left Dash has dramatically lower spin in the long game and offers the firmest feel off the club face across its ball lineup.

Other Popular Ball Models On Tour

If you took out the Titleist Pro V1 franchise, there'd no clear most popular ball on the PGA Tour.

Srixon and Callaway also have two of its models being played on the American circuit, with both the Z-Star XV and Z-Star Diamond and Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X popular choices for some of the world's best players.

Meanwhile, 12 players in total are currently using the TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x, which is the brand's equivalent of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x.

World No. 2 Rory McIlroy plays the TP5 and Tommy Fleetwood the TP5x Pix, which he first started using as first as a practice aid.

Elsewhere, the Bridgestone Tour B X is gaining some traction on tour, with Jason Day and Chris Gotterup settling on the Mindest model.

There's just one other golf ball used on the PGA Tour, and that's the Maxfli Tour X played by Ben Griffin.

Earlier this year, at the WM Phoenix Open, the three-time PGA Tour winner debuted the brand's newest Tour X-LS ball.

Nobody goes into a round of golf looking to be an annoying playing partner – unless they're displaying shocking etiquette and purposefully trying to put someone off – but sometimes our actions unintentionally have a negative impact on others.

The next time you play, make sure you're not falling into any of these common traps...

Taking the flag out without asking

These days, players can opt to keep the flag in while putting as no longer does hitting the flag from a shot played from the green incur a penalty. But some players still automatically go up and take the flag out before people putt, without asking, when it isn’t even their putt next.

Also, there are some players who forget who likes to putt with the flag in and stand there in a world of their own away from the hole, holding the flag when they should be moving forward to replace it for the next putter.

Or there are those who collect their ball from the cup and walk away, forgetting that the next person to putt wants the flag out.

Marking using a poker chip

The idea of marking a ball is that another ball can roll over it and not get its path badly impeded, although it is always best to mark a ball such that it is not on anyone’s intended line.

So what is it with these poker chip markers, which stand proud on the putting surface and would most certainly badly impede the ball if struck?

Unsolicited advice

You may think you are being helpful, but are you? For example, someone hits their putt too hard and says to you as you settle down to play your shot: “Careful, it is a deceptively quick putt”.

But is it? Have they just hit the ball too hard and are simply looking for an excuse for their poor play? Is this green indeed somehow quicker than the others played so far? Or is that particular slope somehow steeper and trickier than it looks?

All this unsolicited advice often does is make your putt harder to play, as you now have all these uninvited thoughts running round in your head. Also, unless it is from someone on your side, it is against the rules.

Shadows

Especially on the green, be aware of where your shadow is falling. You may be well away from the golfer playing, but is your shadow falling on the line of the putt?

Moaning

We all play bad shots and we all have frustrating experiences on the golf course. You may be having a bad round and this is making you miserable. But don’t make it a miserable experience for everyone else in your group. Don’t create an awkward atmosphere. Don’t make it all about you.

Forgetting to watch other players’ shots

It can easily be done – you are worrying about your next shot, checking your scorecard to see if you get a shot on that hole, looking at the course plan on your GPS... or you have simply lost track of who is playing from where.

But it is irritating when someone playing a shot loses track of where it has gone, they ask around and everyone says: “Sorry, didn’t see it.”

I've always had a love-hate relationship with putting. As a high-handicap golfer, it's often been the source of much frustration, but the feeling of holing a putt is incredibly addictive.

My putting improved dramatically over the course of a recent winter golf rebuild and I am now playing off my lowest every handicap (20).

I wanted to share some of the best lessons and resources that have helped me along the way, from Top 50 Coaches and PGA pros, in the hope that they can also help you to improve your putting and cut your handicap in 2026.

This is by no means a comprehensive plan for everything you could ever need to work on, but of these eight great examples that I have tried in my own game, there will certainly be something in here that can help any high-handicap player.

Whether you prefer step-by-step guides, instructional videos or simple drills - we have something for you in this one-stop shop for firing up the flat stick.

8 Ways To Improve Your Putting As A High-Handicap Golfer

High-Handicapper Putting Data Analysis

Driving improvement in any area of the game is difficult if you don't assess your starting point. The latest Shot Scope data for 2026 is a great place to start, as it highlights the average performance indicators for 20- and 25-handicap golfers.

Comparing yourself against this baseline, and the ambitious target set by 10 and 15-handicappers, will help you to understand exactly what you need to work on, informing your journey through this guide to ensure you find the most suitable advice and guidance for your game personally.

The graphics below break down average putts per round, number of 3-putts per round, distance to the hole after your first putt and make percentages from different distances.

Baz used this data to determine his own pathway to progress, including a focus on putts from inside 6ft, but you can also use the stats to personalise your own journey.

Putting Fundamentals Lesson

Let's start with the essentials. If you can nail your fundamentals, you are well on your way to better performances with the putter.

Utilising the expertise of putting expert James Jankowski, as part of our article on the 7 things every golfer can do to putt better, this step-by-step guide is a great starting point for a better setup when putting:

• Isolate your lower body: Position yourself to disassociate your legs, core, and head, allowing only your shoulders, arms, and torso to control the putting motion.
• Adopt a relaxed, rounded posture: Fall slightly forward and round your upper body into the posture rather than rigidly bending at the hips. Keep your spine and shoulders soft, avoiding traditional "good posture" which creates too much muscular tension.
• Let your arms hang naturally: Keep your arms free of tension and let them hang down naturally. Without a putter in your hands, your fingers should comfortably brush somewhere around your knees.
• Keep your weight slightly toe-side: Avoid placing too much weight on your heels, as this will activate your legs. Instead, position your weight slightly toe-side on the balls of your feet to encourage your legs to stay quiet during the stroke.
• Focus on soft muscles: Ensure your shoulders, lats, and upper back stay completely soft and relaxed, giving them the freedom to move smoothly without restrictions.

8 Things Great Putters Do (That We Don't)

If you want to be a great putter, it makes sense to learn from the best... right?

Well, Jamie Donaldson certainly knows his stuff when it comes to navigating the greens, and his advice in this instructional video on the 8 things great putters do will inspire you, as it did me, to work on key aspects of your putting.

Putting Grip Case Study

As a high-handicap golfer myself, I decided to try out the claw grip. The reason I have suggested it as part of this ultimate guide to putting for high-handicappers is that the results were very interesting - despite early concerns about it's effectiveness.

Below is a case study of my investigation, but you can also watch the full procedure on the video below.

Background After a barren spell on the greens and feeling like I hadn’t holed anything of note for ages, I decided to switch things up and try something new. Flitting between multiple grips, I couldn’t settle on a contender, so I headed to Sand Moor Golf Club to put the final decision in the hands of the data.

Methodology Armed with my putter and five golf balls, I conducted a simple experiment to gather data. I hit 60 putts from six feet, broken down into 20 putts per grip. All putts were hit from the same spot on a sloping left-to-right six-footer to carefully consider the variables.

Results

The Conventional Grip: Starting with this old faithful, I was surprised by how it performed admirably. The grip felt confident, helping me hole 14 of 20 putts.

Left Hand Low Grip: Proceeding in a positive fashion, I found the bottom of the cup 13 out of 20 times. This style efficiently squared my shoulders along the target line and left me feeling pleased, meaning I didn't totally discount it.

The Claw Grip: Despite an encouraging start, a dry spell during the third set of five balls meant the fashionable claw grip only converted 9 of 20 putts. Shelved for now.

At the time, I moved away from using the claw grip as it actually produced the worst results out of the three methods tried. However, over the first ten balls the success rate was huge, so I decided to give it some time on the course to flesh out the data.

The results showed that, with some practice, this method removed much of the unwanted manipulation from my trail hand and yielded better results. My handicap has since dropped by five shots, albeit not exclusively because of the claw grip, but it has certainly been a positive factor in that improvement.

As with any putting grip, the decision is pretty personal and unique to the individual. Exploring options in practice could provide the solution to your putting woes, and like me you could soon be adopting the claw on the greens.

Step-By-Step Guide: The Claw Grip

Step 1 - The Left Hand Placement

Take your normal putting stance and using your left hand (for a right-handed golfer) grip the putter in the lifelines on the palm of your hand.

When using the claw grip for putting, the left hand is towards the top of the grip, as opposed to the lower position seen in a left-hand low putting grip. The back of your left hand should point towards the target.

Step 2 - The Right Hand Placement

Using your right hand, make a 'claw' shape using the space between your thumb and your index finger. For comfort and stability, you can press your four fingers together to form one pincer of the claw (think of a crab's claw), with the thumb forming the other.

Place your newly formed claw onto the grip of the putter underneath your left hand, with your fingers pointing towards the target side and the grip cradled in the crease.

Step 3 - The Stroke

I like to feel as though my left elbow is more tucked into my side and the stroke is really instigated from my left wrist.

The claw grip for putting is designed to take the right hand out of play, so while it's in contact with the club it shouldn't really be influencing the stroke too much.

The grip pressure is stronger in the left hand, with the right sitting more as a guide than anything else.

When certain golfers suffer are searching for how to cure the putting yips, this technique is popular antidote to administer as it limits the role of an over-dominant right hand when putting.

While the claw grip won't solve all of your putting woes, especially if you are struggling with how to read greens, it will help you to create a reliable stroke that you feel comfortable with - and that's huge!

Best Putters 2026

Having the right equipment is just as important as finding the right putting grip or improving your technique on the greens. Finding the right putter for you again comes down to personal preference, with many styles to choose from.

I switched a few years ago from a blade to a mallet putter and I've never looked back.

You only have to look at the success of the TaylorMade Spider X on the PGA Tour this season to see why the model is so popular.

I love it and couldn't imagine rolling the ball with anything else. Confidence on the greens is so important, which is why it has stayed in my bag for so long.

The video below breaks down the best putters on the market in 2026, reviewed by our expert testers under rigorous conditions, to help point you in the right direction when looking to find your next flat stick...

Line and Pace Putting Drill

This drill is super simple to set up. Grab your putter, a golf ball and three tees - then head to the practice green. The instructions are explained clearly in a step-by-step format within the video, so try it for yourself.

The idea is to increase comfort with holing putts at different speeds for different breaks. If you find this too easy or you want an additional challenge, increase the length of putt or find one with a little more slope!

Green Reading Practice

For this drill, I want you to completely take the hole out of your mind and focus instead on the start line.

So many amateurs will aim straight at the hole every time and then wonder why they are missing the putt by six feet or more. If we can read the high point of the putt correctly, and identify the start line, a challenging putt will become a lot easier.

Identifying the high point of the putt is essentially understanding where the putt will reach it's highest point and start to break most. You can do this with your feet by walking along the line with your feet straddled and feeling where the slope is most severe.

Set up a gate around three foot from your ball, measured at around one putter head's width, which is aiming directly at that high point. This is a great putting drill using tees - something every golfer has in their bag.

In the image below, I have used white markers to visualise the break of the putt. If you don't have access to these, you could use a tee or a ball marker to highlight the high point of the putt.

The aim is to practice hitting the start line effectively, allowing the ball to travel on your intended line and complete it's journey by cosying up to the hole (or going in - of course).

Pick different breaking putts, with varying severity, and you will be able to master slopes in no time at all.

Testing Yourself On The Green

As part of my winter golf rebuild, I took part in some baseline testing with PGA Pro Alex James to determine my skillset and starting point.

This gate drill was frustratingly difficult at first, but by the end I wanted to carry on setting gates up across the practice green to test my start line in different (and increasingly more difficult) circumstances.

Anyone can do this with a putter, a golf ball and a few tees, but working on your start line and marrying up the pace with that read is a great investment for any high-handicap golfer.

A halfway house is often perceived to be one of the true luxuries on a golf course. The joy of stopping for a hot or cold drink and a snack is a real treat. As such, many of the most prestigious venues across the UK and overseas are renowned for their halfway houses. Some, like Surrey’s Top 100 gem Sunningdale Golf Club, have a halfway house that’s famous for fabulous sausage baps, others are known for their homemade cakes.

However, when it comes to making a pit-stop halfway round in a competition I think they are a total nuisance. Having a halfway house slows play down considerably and causes a loss of momentum if you are playing well. For this reason, I refuse to stop at a halfway house when I’m marking a competition card. Even a quick detour to collect a coffee can be enough to completely ruin the flow of your game, affecting your swing tempo, timing and your concentration.

As an elite county golfer, trying to shoot a low score, I’m 100% focused on my round. A tour professional would never dream of stopping for a sit down snack and a drink during a tournament round. They carry energy bars, fruit, water and hydration drinks in their bags. So why, as amateurs, do we think that taking a break is a good idea?

My home club, Parkstone in Dorset, invested in building a wonderful new halfway house last year. It’s perfectly positioned so that you can access it after the seventh green, before or after hitting a tee shot at 13 and again after putting out on 15. It’s a fantastic addition but a speed of play killer! The only time I’ll use it is when I’m playing casual golf or during a fun competition like on Lady Captain’s Day when everyone in the field stops.

My attitude towards its interference in the flow of a round may be frowned upon by some club managers who want to encourage their members to use this ‘expensive-to-staff’ service, but I genuinely believe that stopping slows play down considerably and halts momentum, and the game is slow enough as it is!

And then there are our halfway house food choices. Golf is supposed to be an athletic sport, so why is it acceptable to eat a big greasy breakfast bap, a sausage roll or a slice of cake when you make a pitstop during a round of golf? We’d never dream of fuelling our body with such rubbish mid-way through a workout at the gym, yet some players stop for a bacon sarnie every single time they play.

I’ve also seen arguments ensue when one or two players in a group don’t want to stop (usually due to a shortage of time) and others do. It often means they end up having to let the group behind play through. All of this adds considerable time to their day and for working women, parents trying to rush to do the school run, and in other situations, many of us are already on the clock. We’re supposed to be trying to speed the game up - not slow it down!

Golfers often talk about the 'turn' as a reset moment. Walking from the 9th green to the 10th tee is a moment of genuine change in their round of golf - a brief pause to add up your front-9 score and reflect.

I was so convinced that making a halfway stop after the 9th hole harms your score on the next that I wanted to dig into the facts. With the help of the brilliant statistics and insights available from Shot Scope, we can see exactly how a halfway break impacts performance. The only caveat is that we don't know who actually stopped, but the results are still an eye-opener.

The metrics compared the average score over par on holes 8 and 9 (the end of the front nine) against holes 10 and 11 (the start of the back nine), broken down by handicap group. Perhaps most revealing was that hole 9 is the hardest of the four holes for almost everyone. Across all handicap groups, it consistently produces the highest average score over par.

But does the data support a genuine performance shift - for better or worse - at the start of the back nine?

Interestingly, the answer splits cleanly down skill level. Better players (scratch to 10 handicap) actually scored worse on holes 10 and 11, averaging fractionally more strokes over par on the start of the back nine than the end of the front. While these differences are tiny, they are incredibly consistent across all three groups of lower-handicap players.

However, for higher handicappers (15 to 30 handicap), the exact opposite was true. This group actually scored better at the start of the back nine, averaging fewer strokes over par on holes 10 and 11 compared to holes 8 and 9. While the effect is small on a per-hole basis, it is a consistent trend - every single handicap group from 15 to 30 shows a clear improvement after the turn.

The statistics make perfect sense. Stopping at the halfway house likely disrupts a low handicapper's concentration and breaks the flow of their round.

For a typical higher handicapper having a bad round and scoring poorly, stopping at a halfway house for a few minutes gives you the chance to regroup and perhaps approach the remaining holes with a fresh attitude and more positive mindset. It gives you the opportunity to take a few deep breaths and draw a line under a disastrous front nine.

We’ve all seen this happen during bad weather delays in televised tour championships when players get called off the course for safety because conditions become unplayable or dangerous. Players who were scoring badly get a chance to speak to their coach and regroup. They often come back out fighting, improve their score and make the cut.

Golf is a leisure sport. Most of us play at a recreational level for pleasure and there’s no doubt that a halfway house is a great addition to clubs as part of that service. I think a solution to slowing speed of play would be for the halfway house to have a system to take orders in advance of the stop, either via an app or an on-course order point at the start of hole 9.

This allows the server to prepare drinks and snacks for the upcoming group to simply grab and go. There’s no hanging about or time-wasting, so when it comes to slowing play and ruining the momentum of a round of golf they are not a scorecard killer.

So the moral is, if you take your golf seriously, choose to use a halfway hut wisely, as a grab and go stop or a leisurely luxury on a fun day out only.

I remember reading Golf Monthly editor Neil Tappin's article last year on one huge change he'd make to improve the game, and it related heavily to the introduction of more 12-hole golf courses and consequently rounds.

He talked about how it could well be the future of the game as not only would 12 holes take less time than its longer counterpart, but it would also save natural resources and ultimately take some strain off the planet - and that's certainly a message I'd endorse.

At the time, I thought: 'I wonder what it would be like to play a 12-hole course?' but seeing as there weren't any bespoke courses consisting of a dozen greens etc around near me, I didn't ponder any more than that.

Then, as luck would have it, a golf club on the edge of my home town declared it would be expanding from a nine-hole to a 12-hole course in time for summer 2026, giving me the opportunity to see what all the fuss was about.

In the meantime, other colleagues - such as Genelle Aldred - had shared their experience of playing 66% of a full round and I'd also heard about the Mad Swans franchise, which is leaning into a slightly shorter round of golf alongside other sporting activities to create a cracking weekend away for the more active among us.

Most people had spoken very positively of their 12-hole experience, but I really wanted to see it for myself. Finally, on Father's Day, I took up the chance alongside my dad.

On a very warm day in England and with tee times in shorter supply than sun cream, I managed to squeeze us on just before midday.

Ahead of my first shot, I pulled up the England Golf app and submitted my intention to provide a score for my WHS. The app said a 12-hole version was possible, so I clicked save and went from there.

However, once we'd reached the 12th (and final) hole on the course, it wasn't possible to submit a score and I was forced to tap 'did not attempt' on the remaining six holes.

I was ten over par at that stage and pretty pleased, despite having chained six pars together from the second. Yet, because I'd 'not attempted' so many holes, the app says I've scored * rather than a number.

I'm not highlighting this to have a dig at iGolf or the club itself, I only mentioned it to highlight whether golf is really ready for 12 holes if a basic problem like this is happening?

Another issue I found with the whole experience - and it should be reiterated it was very warm and the course was rammed - was that it took us three hours to complete 12 holes. That's clearly far too slow and not far off what it can take to do the full set.

Playing a shorter round should obviously take less time, that's one of the key positives its supporters promote. Yet if 12 holes is taking that long when a course is busy, you might as well stay out for the full 18, right?

As you can probably tell by now, I'm not on board with the 12-hole round at this stage and it will take a good deal of convincing for me to come around. The final issue I discovered is that I came off the course having no real sense of how well I'd scored.

I knew I'd played quite well until the clubhouse was near and the thought of a nice cold pint took my head elsewhere, but as for my score - is 58 good? What's par at this stage? What should a 16-handicapper like myself be on through 12 holes? I have absolutely no idea.

My 12-hole debut left a lot to be desired, it must be said. I can certainly appreciate the potential positives of the format and respect it will work for a lot of other people, yet I just couldn't see that it will work for me.

Don't get me wrong, I had a great time playing golf with my dad, but I'm not sure 12 holes is the future of golf.

Baz is in red hot form right now. After picking a winner in each of the last two weeks, in the form of Haeran Ryu (Women's PGA Championship) and Chris Gotterup (John Deere Classic), he now sets his sights on the hat-trick in Scotland!

Rory McIlroy headlines the field at the Scottish Open, along with World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, but there is a plethora of top talent on show so the event is sure to be as incredible as ever.

With an interesting odds board this week, Baz and the betting panel at Golf Monthly HQ really have their work cut out to find the value (and more importantly another winner).

Below, Baz shares his best bets for the Scottish Open 2026 at the Renaissance Club...

Scottish Open 2026 Betting Tips

Bazza's Best Bets

Top Tip: Matt Fitzpatrick To Win @ BetMGM

Matt Fitzpatrick is having a phenomenal season. In 2026, he has taken his tally of PGA Tour wins to five, but back on British soil it's perhaps more pertinent to consider the fact he is also a 10-time DP World Tour Winner.

One of those wins came at the 2023 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, highlighting a strong ability to contend on links courses. He also tied 4th in both the Scottish Open and Open Championship last season, so relevant course and correlating form is no issue.

Fitzpatrick has one of the best short games in the world right now too, which will certainly help around the Renaissance Club, but with two top-4 finishes in his last three starts I believe Matt is trending towards something special to end his season.

Next Best Tip: Kristoffer Reitan To Win @ BetMGM

Kristoffer Reitan took to PGA Tour life pretty seamlessly on debut this season, winning the Truist Championship on just his 12th start. Before that, he was runner-up at the Zurich Classic and posted a top-10 in Texas - so excitement is high for his future Stateside.

However, back in Europe, Reitan's form on the DP World Tour in the last 18 months has also not been too shabby. He won the Nedbank in December 2025, and the Soudal Open just seven months earlier, but he also posted six other top-5 finishes including two runner-ups.

Two of those top-5 finishes came in Scotland, at the Nexo Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which is very encouraging. Reitan finished T13 in this event last season, but he looks to have improved again and I can see him contending.

Value Tip: Brian Harman To Win @ BetMGM

Brian Harman may not have been the most popular Open Champion in history when winning in 2023, but man was his performance impressive.

Harman's ability to plot his way around and control his ball flight in tricky conditions means he has really kicked on with his links golf form in recent years. Harman was T10 at the Open last year, and T21 at the Scottish Open the year before that, but in 2023 he took home the Claret Jug the week after a T12 in this event.

He has been very consistent this year, missing just three cuts in 17 starts, but a T32 at the US Open last month is perhaps the most encouraging sign that he might just be rounding into some form as he heads across the pond.

Golf Monthly Betting Panel Picks

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Pick One: Wyndham Clark To Win @ BetMGM

Arguably, Clark is one of the best golfers in the world right now, securing two victories in his last five starts, one of which was the US Open.

He hasn't finished outside T11th in those five starts and, last year, that's exactly where he finished at the Genesis Scottish Open.

In fact, the T11th finish at The Renaissance Club in 2025 was one of his best results, indicating we could see similar this time around.

Pick Two: Marco Penge To Win @ BetMGM

Penge returned to action at last week's BMW International Open and, following time off from the game, he ended the tournament in a share of ninth spot.

Finishing runner-up in this event last year, Penge has great course form and, although he hasn't settled in to life in the US, he is back in Europe, where we have seen him play some of his best golf.

Both his and Clark's games match the layout, so I'm expecting them to go well this week.

Pick One: Wyndham Clark To Win @ BetMGM

Wyndham Clark's last five results read: Win, 3rd, T11th, Win, T5th. His putting stats have been extremely good in that time, too, and he is a big hitter.

That's a list of ingredients which could go a long way to making Clark an ideal choice this week.

Add in a T5th at The Open and a T11th at the Scottish Open last year as well as top-25s at each of his four appearances at The Renaissance Club and you're looking at a great choice on paper. Let's hope he goes out there and proves it.

Pick Two: Tyrrell Hatton To Win @ BetMGM

Hatton has really grown into a fantastic links player with three top-10s and four top-25s at The Open or Scottish Open in his career - and that doesn't even mention his three Alfred Dunhill Links Championship wins.

Coming off the back of a victory at LIV Golf Andalucia and a T7th at the US Open, where he's putted really well, I feel like Hatton is a really smart choice to be a sleeper pick this week.

He's a long hitter, superb ball-striker and he's naturally a top putter. A Clark-Hatton duel on Sunday would be ideal, and it could happen!

Pick One: Scottie Scheffler To Win @ BetMGM

Scheffler has not had his best season but he is still the undisputed best golfer in the world, and he arrives in Scotland in much better form after a T4th at the US Open and a 2nd-place finish at the Travelers.

The World No.1 finished T8th here last year before winning the Claret Jug and I see no reason why he can't replicate that or go even better. He's certainly not the best value pick, but he's my pick to win.

Pick One: Aaron Rai To Win @ BetMGM

The Englishman is priced high this week despite winning here in 2020 and finishing 4th two years ago. Having recently won a Major and following it up with a T11 at the US Open, I think Rai is well placed to contend again this week at the Renaissance Club.

Golf Monthly Betting Panel Tipping Record

When it comes to golf equipment marketing, the narrative around wedges usually revolves around terms like ‘micro-grooves,’ ‘CG Optimization,’ or ‘all-over face texturing.’ Every January, we are promised more RPMs, lower and more controlled launch angles, and the magical ability to stop a ball on a dime from the deepest rough.

But if you spend enough time looking closely at the bags of top amateurs, mini-tour grinders, and even a few stubborn tour pros, you'll spot something fascinating. When it comes to the short game, newer isn't always better.

Artistry around the greens is dictated entirely by head shape, turf interaction, and pure tactile feel - elements that, in my humble opinion, reached peak perfection decades ago.

Furthermore, while drivers and irons have benefited immensely from multi-material construction and artificial intelligence, wedges remain humble blocks of steel. Once the master craftsmen of the industry perfected the geometry of a wedge sole, modern technology essentially hit a wall of diminishing returns.

Here are the five iconic wedges that, in my opinion, have never truly been topped.

1. Cleveland Tour Action Reg. 588 (1988)

Before 1988, wedges were often treated as blocky, uninspired extensions of a standard iron set. Roger Cleveland changed the trajectory of short-game design forever with the release of the Tour Action Reg. 588.

This club brought the classic teardrop profile to the masses. It featured a perfectly straight leading edge that flowed seamlessly into the hosel, offering a clean, confidence-inspiring look at address that virtually every modern wedge manufacturer still copies today.

Though the original was a cast wedge (they subsequently made some forged versions), Cleveland utilized a soft form of carbon steel that provided a legendary, muted feel at impact.

It became the blueprint for one of the most successful wedge franchises in golf history. Decades later, purists still scour used bins and online auction sites looking for original 588s because the visual profile behind the ball remains completely flawless to many.

2. Ping Eye2 (1982)

If the Cleveland 588 represents traditional beauty, the 1982 Ping Eye2 is the ultimate functional rebel. Designed by Karsten Solheim, its high-toe profile, extreme perimeter weighting, and scooped sole looked radically different from anything else on the market.

Yet, its performance out of heavy rough and bunkers remains arguably unmatched to this day. The wide, heavily bounced sole essentially refused to dig, acting as an insurance policy against the dreaded chunked pitch shot.

The real legend of the Eye2, however, lies in its aggressive U-grooves. They generated so much raw, biting spin that they sparked a massive legal battle between Ping and the USGA. Decades later, during the 2010 season, when the governing bodies implemented strict new groove regulations, a legal loophole protected pre-1990 Ping Eye2 wedges.

This prompted superstars like Phil Mickelson and John Daly to famously put these vintage wedges back into their bags at major championships, proving that a design from 1982 could still outperform anything the modern era had to offer.

3. Callaway Forged (2002)

When legendary designer Roger Cleveland transitioned to Callaway in the late 1990s, he was tasked with elevating the brand's short-game pedigree. His definitive statement, for me, arrived in 2002 with the Callaway Forged wedge lineup.

Most famous in its striking, matte-black ‘Vintage’ finish - which intentionally rusted over time to eliminate glare and add a raw texture - this club was forged from ultra-soft carbon steel. It offered a buttery, cohesive feel that many modern wedges struggle to replicate.

What made the 2002 Callaway Forged truly unbeatable was its versatile sole grind. It allowed elite players to lay the clubface completely flat and wide open for towering flop shots, all without raising the leading edge off the ground.

On a more personal note, I always absolutely loved the transition from head to hosel in this particular model, with a severely pinched-in hosel section making the head look somewhat dainty. Coupled with the most beautifully rounded profile, there are few wedges ever made that I would prefer to look down on.

4. Nike Forged (2002)

Released during the golden era of Nike Golf’s aggressive push into premium hardware, the 2002 Nike Forged wedges were absolute works of art. Crafted under the watchful eye of master club maker Tom Stites, these wedges were targeted strictly at purists and better players.

Nike utilized a unique two-step precision ‘squeeze-forging’ process with soft 1030 carbon steel. By aligning the metal's grain under immense pressure, they successfully eliminated any hot spots or dead zones on the face, a critical factor when trying to manage the subtleties of a delicate 40-yard pitch shot.

The standout feature was the signature 'drop-away heel' grind. By removing excess material from the trailing heel, Nike gave golfers total freedom to manipulate the face on tight lies without unwanted bounce getting in the way.

Boasting a clean, minimalist aesthetic heavily inspired by the exact preferences of Tiger Woods, it remains a masterpiece of pure feedback and control.

5. Vokey 200 Series (2000)

Before the ‘Spin Milled’ franchise completely took over the market, Bob Vokey cemented Titleist’s absolute dominance in the wedge category with the 200 Series at the turn of the millennium.

Available in Chrome, Black Nickel, and a highly sought-after Raw finish, the 200 Series featured a classic, slightly compact teardrop shape. What set it apart was a subtle trailing edge ribbon cut across the back of the sole. This minor relief grind kept the back of the club from dragging or snagging through turf, ensuring an incredibly clean, crisp release at impact.

The geometry of the 200 Series was so perfect that it served as the blueprint for many of Titleist’s modern wedge grinds.

Tour pros were so fiercely loyal to these heads that they frequently revolted when asked to upgrade. Most famously, short-game maestro Steve Stricker kept his trusty Vokey 200 Series 60-degree wedge in play for nearly fifteen years, refusing to replace the club that defined his legendary precision around the greens.

Why Haven't They Been Beaten?

The primary reason these vintage wedges still hold their own - and in some cases, beat modern club design - comes down to a massive regulatory shift. In 2010, the USGA and R&A instituted strict limits on groove volume and edge sharpness to stop players from easily gouging balls out of deep rough with excessive spin.

Modern wedges are legally bound by these tighter restrictions. However, well-maintained vintage wedges designed prior to 2010 feature aggressive, deep "box" grooves that are fully legal for recreational club golfers.

Out of a wet or thick lie, an old-school Nike Forged or Ping Eye2 will literally bite and spin the ball harder than a brand-new, premium wedge straight off the pro shop shelf.

Beyond the rules, wedge design is entirely a game of geometry and human touch. There are no flexible faces, carbon fiber crowns, or speed pockets to engineer here. Once the master craftsmen of the late '80s and early 2000s perfected the ideal head shapes and sole grinds, manufacturers reached peak performance.

If you happen to have one of these five classics stashed away in your garage, clean it up and put it back in the bag - your short game, and your wallet, will thank you.

Golf can be a dangerous sport, but it’s often the less obvious threats that cause medical emergencies on the course. Heat is a major killer. Fortunately, if you’re prepared, you can easily avoid heat exhaustion, which brings on dizziness, nausea, and muscle cramps, and the even more severe threat of heat stroke, where worst-case scenarios include unconsciousness and death.

Here are my 5 survival tips for playing golf when the temperature skyrockets…

Consider Your Tee Time

Golfers are creatures of habit. If they always play on a Monday at midday, they’re going to damn well play on a Monday at midday. But listen to the warnings on the weather forecast. If the weather man is saying the temperature and UV levels are off the charts, perhaps rethink your usual Monday routine.

Can you adapt? Are you choosing the best time of day to play golf? Can you manage an early or late tee time? The type of golf you play can also be adapted in extreme heat and there is no need to say yes to playing in everything.

The hottest day on record may not be the time for the monthly medal and I believe golf clubs have a responsibility to cancel some competition golf so members don’t even have the option.

Keep It Cool

Now you’d think common sense should prevail, but it’s incredible how many golfers do very little pre-game prep at any time, let alone in a heatwave. Preparation is everything if you want to stay hydrated and keep your core temperature down during your round.

Get set the night before, freeze some bottles of hydrating drinks In the morning, fill insulated water bottles with cold water, add a few ice cubes, and if you have decent bottles, they’ll stay icy.

Talking of staying hydrated, remember that preparation for playing golf, or in fact any activity in hot weather, begins way before you step out into the sun.

Pre-hydrate the day before and the morning of the round using electrolytes, and ensure that you continue to hydrate long into the evening after you’ve played. Try to keep alcohol consumption down, as the main goal is to stay hydrated and not have a hangover!

Lower your body temperature before you head out with a cold shower, ice plunge if your club has a spa, or simply eat a crushed ice drink. Your core will be cooler to begin with and this will help massively.

A cooling towel is an essential bit of kit in my golf bag for hot days. The material keeps you cool and you can constantly re-wet it with cold water from your water bottle. Look at cyclists or people in the building trade, they often have tricks to keep them cool when they’re outside in the sun with nowhere to hide. A roofer friend of mine swears by a wet towel round the back of his neck to keep him from overheating. This is proven to cool the body temperature and prevent melting.

A handheld fan is also a game changer, or even a fan that loops around your neck and blows air at you whilst you are putting or walking to and from a buggy.

Do Not Carry

Please don’t carry in hot weather… the less you exert yourself the better. Go for efficiency and use an electric or push trolley, or even better, book a cart. This will be your sanctuary when it is roasting. The roof will act as a sun shade and also enable you to carry an ice box full of cool hydrating goodies on board.

Flipping the windscreen down to half open will allow what breeze there is to flow into your face. You can attach fans to the sides and keep sun cream and water facial spritz at hand. Trust me, if you’re able to hire a cart then do it. You’ll then rejoice about your golf afterwards rather than moan about how much you melted.

Cover Up

The temptation to slap the sunscreen on and bare as much flesh as possible on the course is high when temperatures are on the up, but covering up with long sleeve UV protective clothing can keep you cooler.

The fabrics these days are extremely intelligent and will wick moisture away from your body, keep you at an optimum temperature and bounce the sun’s rays off. The heat of the sun can quite literally cook you, especially as it heats the ground you walk on, so the heat gets you from above and below.

Wear breathable golf shoes, light colours and a wide brim hat. Sunglasses will prevent headaches and eye strain. It goes without saying that a high factor sunscreen on any skin that is exposed is non-negotiable. Remember that golfers carry a much higher risk of developing skin cancers. According to Skincancer.org, on average it has been estimated that professional golfers receive 217 times the amount of ultraviolet

(UV) radiation needed to cause a sunburn over the course of the year. So cover up as much as you can, there is no such thing as a safe tan.

With this in mind, seek the shade. If you’re playing a tree-lined course, walk in the shade as much as possible and park your buggy or trolley in the shade. Utilise a sunshade umbrella when playing, there are some great lightweight brollies on the market. If you haven’t got one of those, then use a good old-fashioned giant golf umbrella to create a protective canopy over your head while you trundle your trolley along.

Be Efficient

Cut down the amount of your pre-game warm-up. Reduce the usual bucket of balls before playing to some stretching, chipping and putting. Artificial grass is one of the biggest causes of hotspots in towns and cities, and guess what is covering your practice area? The heat bounces off the fake grass and will literally bake you from below.

I’d advise against the range and instead find a shady spot to chip. The less you exert yourself, the longer you’ll survive out there. So conserve energy and be sensible about how you move about on the course.

No running back to get your putter from the bag after that bunker shot, take your putter with you. Be prepared and think ahead. Play Ready Golf. Leave your bag at the back of the green on the way to the next tee, all the usual stuff that helps play move along at a decent pace.

We all love playing golf, but there will be days where it will quite simply be too hot. When this happens, think about booking an air conditioned simulator or finding a cool shaded range that has full cover. Setting up a fan in a bay is ideal, this can still be great for your game. Nobody enjoys heatstroke, but follow these rules and here’s hoping you’ll avoid it.

It's been a pretty good year for me on the golf course. I've dragged my handicap index down a couple of notches and I managed the win of my life back in April.

But, results aside, I'm just really enjoying play the game at the moment. Don't get me wrong, there's still room for improvement as a 16-handicapper - especially in relation to my putting - but I'm loving the grind and it's a lot of fun to be out there.

So when the chance to compete in an upcoming iGolf Open arose, I thought 'yeah, count me in!' I'd heard great things about the events and I was excited to play in my first proper golf competition as an adult.

At the same time, it made me think back to the last time I'd played an organized event. I was very much a junior golfer and they hadn't always gone to plan, let's say. Maybe I hadn't handled myself in the best way possible and I certainly hadn't produced my best stuff.

Then again, plenty of time has passed since and I'm a far better player now. But what about between the ears? Some would say not a lot has changed...

With hopes of another memorable day ahead of me, I thought I'd make the most of my job and speak to a handful of the very best to see if they could help me out.

I really hope the following advice is not only beneficial to me, but also to you as well. These are tips or bits of advice which we can all use in any competition, or even a casual round for that matter.

I asked five former or current professionals for one piece of advice ahead of my tournament debut as an adult. Here's who they are and what they said.

DAVID HOWELL: BE GREAT COMPANY

David Howell is a former pro who holds the record for the most number of tournament starts on the DP World Tour - 726. He is also a former World No.9, has seven pro victories and is a two-time Ryder Cup winner.

Younger viewers may be more familiar with him as a commentator on Sky Sports' golf coverage - and an excellent one at that.

Here is his advice: "If you're playing with strangers you will most likely have some nerves, which is lovely as it shows you care, so it's best to acknowledge them and see them as a real treat. Not many people do anything that makes them nervous, so you're already one up.

"Not many play well in competition to start with, so keep expectations low and set out with the goal of being great company for your playing partners.

"What does that mean? Play at a good speed, play in good humor, take an interest in your playing partner's game and try your best.

"If you can do those four things then your game will be enjoyable and you will probably play well too."

JAMES NICHOLAS: COSMIC INSIGNIFICANCE

James Nicholas is a rising star in golf with one Korn Ferry Tour title to his name this year and a spot booked at The Open Championship later this month.

Nicholas has played in two US Opens previously and seems likely to reach the PGA Tour very soon. He's also very active on social media, giving fans a really detailed look at what being a pro is like.

His advice was simple: "Honestly, just go for it! I think remembering the fact that no one will remember who we are in 100 years should help calm the nerves and allow you to excel.

"I call it cosmic insignificance. It's almost belittling the moment to allow you to do your best."

PIERS BERRINGTON: EMBRACE AND ENJOY

Piers Berrington is another young talent with bags of ability and a great head on his shoulders. The Englishman plays on the Clutch Tour currently and has managed 10 wins as a pro so far on various circuits.

With aspirations to reach the HotelPlanner Tour very soon before progressing up to the DP World Tour, Berrington has the right attitude to make it happen.

In an interview earlier this summer, he told me: "I would embrace the pressure. A lot of people get scared and worried and think like "oh my god, I'm really nervous." Good. We get nervous every time we hit a first tee shot of a tournament because it means something to you.

"Everybody's nervous. Every great athlete gets nervous. So I think embrace the nerves. You're meant to be nervous, you've never played in an event. I would be worried if you weren't nervous.

"Nerves are good. Just control your breathing. Give yourself a clear mind on what you want to do and where you want to hit it and do it. It's as clear as that.

"And then enjoy it. I think a lot of guys, they put too much pressure on themselves to do well at these events and that's not... golf doesn't work like that.

"You don't win every week. So if you won last week you're probably not going to win next week. You might do, but if you play bad, it is what it is.

"Enjoy the experience, enjoy the day, especially if it's a golf course you might never play again. If you make eight on hole four, who cares? You've now got hole five - go make a birdie or go make a par.

"Don't live in the past. There's too much bad luck in this game, so when you can control your outlook and your mood then you'll have a good day."

SAM DE'ATH: NOTHING NEEDS TO CHANGE

Full disclosure, Sam is a colleague of mine. But he used to be a pro and he's one of the best golfers I've ever seen.

That opinion is backed up by the fact he won multiple events during his time in the US college system, he was nominated for the Jack Nicklaus Collegiate Player of the Year and he's a three-time All-American and Conference team of the year player.

Now a key cog in the Hampshire first team, Sam's best advice is as follows: "Tournament golf is just golf with the word tournament in front of it. Nothing else changes, so go out there and play as you would on any other given day.

"Try to enjoy playing the game as much as possible, because it’s one of those crazy sports where there are far more bad times than good.

"Embrace hitting a good shot and congratulate yourself for it; vice versa, stay calm when you hit a bad one. Everyone does it, and it’s ok to acknowledge it, but it’s so important to remain committed and confident heading into the shot after.

"Lastly, simplify the game, because overthinking and thinking of outcome and technique for 4.5 hours will just drain you.

"Aim for the largest part of the fairway and the centre of the green. When it comes to putting, try to just get the pace control correct. You’re far more likely to two-putt or even hole a putt if your pace is right. If it’s off, it doesn’t matter how good your line is, the ball won’t have a chance."

JOE FERGUSON: DON'T BE OUTCOME-FOCUSED

To bring the advice session home is another wise owl who also happens to be a colleague of mine, Joe Ferguson.

Fans of 'Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show' will be well aware of Joe's background already, but for the rest of you, Joe competed in various England Boy's and Men's squads as an amateur before turning pro.

Once in the paid ranks, he competed on the PGA EuroPro Tour for several years while also making a couple of European Tour starts.

Nowadays, he is more likely to be seen on the GB&I PGA Pro circuit when he's not presenting Kick Point with our colleague, Dan Parker.

Given his years of experience and good success, I tend to listen to Joe when he gives me advice, and I think you should to. Here's what he said about playing better tournament golf.

"Stay away from being outcome focused. Everything amateurs say to me about events seem to be centered around outcomes relating to score, what the winner gets, what people will think etc, and that is distinctly unhelpful psychology!

"To be at your best, you need to be very focused on the individual task at hand, not a wider task of score and result.

"Golf is just a series of individual problems that need solving (shots). Solve each problem as best as you can and add that up at then end of the day!

"Also, in the nicest way possible, no one cares as much as you about this! Relax and enjoy the day!"

Imagine the scenario – You’ve hit a tee shot that is headed perilously close to a fairway bunker. You watch on anxiously.

It bounces a couple of times, does a “wall of death” move around the edge and spins out over the top – safely beyond the trap.

You’re feeling your luck is clearly in as you walk down to play your second shot. The golfing gods are smiling on you.

But your good humour fades somewhat when you see the lie of your ball. The ball is not in the bunker; it’s beyond it as you thought. But the area around the trap has been reasonably recently renovated, the surrounds of the bunker have been re-turfed.

The weather over the last few weeks has been dry and the turf has struggled to bed in properly and knit together. Your ball has come to rest in a rather deep seem between two cuts of turf.

You look around desperately for signs of ground under repair (GUR), but there are none. Surely though you automatically get relief for this scenario…. Do you? What do the Rules say?

Not automatically. If the area has not been marked as ground under repair, there would be no relief under Rule 16.1 – Abnormal course conditions.

There are some situations on course that are deemed ground under repair, even if not marked by the committee – a hole made by committee or maintenance staff in setting up or maintaining the course (not aeration holes) for example. And grass cuttings or other material piled for later removal.

Seams of cut turf are not included though.

But don’t give up on relief just yet, there is a chance that the committee has a local rule in place. If the committee is using Model Local Rule F-7, you would get free relief from a seam of cut turf.

It says that if a player’s ball lies in or touches a seam of cut turf or a seam interferes with the player’s area of intended swing, they may take relief from the general area or the putting green as per Rules 16.1b or 16.1d.

The local rule does not give relief if the seam of cut turf only interferes with your stance.

If the local rule is in place, then you would be entitled to free relief – one club length from the nearest point (reference point) where the seam no longer interferes with your lie or intended swing, no closer to the hole.

If there is no local rule in place, there is no relief from a seam of cut turf and you must play the ball as it lies.

Golf Rules Quiz

While we all know of Harry Colt, James Braid, and in the modern era Ebert and Mackenzie, there are some significant golf course architects whose work is appreciated but whose name is not. Tom Williamson was the head professional at Golf Monthly Top 100 favourite, Hollinwell Golf Club, for more than 50 years. He also designed and contributed to the development of many courses in the region.

Here, we take a glimpse at the portfolio of this lesser-known but surprisingly prolific golf course architect from the East Midlands.

Coxmoor

• GF: 18 holes: £120
• W: coxmoorgolfclub.co.uk

A Nottinghamshire near-neighbour of Hollinwell, Coxmoor enjoys a similar, very attractive setting. Founded just before the Great War, today's design was developed in the 1930s by Tom Williamson, assisted by the club's professional, at which point there were no trees on site. Subsequently, birch, beech and pine grew to define the challenge, though much has been done more recently to restore its heathland look and feel.

Stretching to over 6,800 yards from the very back tees, there are five par 5s to raise the prospect of a birdie or two, although its elevated location means wind can be a feature. A young Matt Fitzpatrick won the Boys' Amateur here in 2012, a year before the club's centenary. Coxmoor is unquestionably one of the best golf courses in the Midlands.

Newark

• GF: 18 holes: £40wd, £50we
• W: newarkgolfclub.co.uk

Williamson advised on this Nottinghamshire club's initial course when it was founded in 1901, and then again some 30 years later when a move was made to its current site, just east of the A1. His design, with some modifications in the 1970s by Donald Steel and some later bunker remodelling, endures.

The level, tree-lined layout has four short holes, which come before and after the three par 5s, themselves all between the 6th and 11th. The new owners since 2024 have invested heavily both on and off the course in the run-up to its 125th celebrations.

Radcliffe-on-Trent

• GF: 18 holes: £40-£65
• W: radcliffeontrentgc.co.uk

Originally a nine-hole course but expanded by Williamson to 18 in 1925, this enjoyable parkland course lies just east of Nottingham. Land was lost to road redevelopment in the early 1970s, but the payback for this was a larger acreage, which afforded Frank Pennink the opportunity to carry out a redesign at the same time as introducing some new holes.

Of particular note are the two back-nine par 3s at 11 and 17, both played, hopefully, over water. Another feature is the par-5 12th that works its way along the edge of the course to a green hiding round to the left.

Wollaton Park

• GF: 18 holes: £80 Sun-Fri
• W: wollatonparkgolfclub.com

A couple of miles from Nottingham Castle, in a central yet very suburban setting, Wollaton Park is an attractive and well-maintained design running through an old but still populated deer park. The gently rolling land offers up delightful views as you play through striking specimen trees, and there are occasional glimpses of Wollaton Hall, a magnificent Elizabethan country house dating back to the 1580s.

The early holes are easy-walking before the uphill short 8th leads you to slightly more undulating ground, with a lake coming into view at the far end.

Worksop

• GF: 18 holes: £85
• W: worksopgolfclub.com

While UK&I Top 200 course Lindrick lies to the north of town, Worksop itself is a very different, tree-lined alternative immediately to the south. Williamson designed a nine-hole layout when the club relocated in 1914. This was expanded in 1925, since when many changes have been made.

Williamson was granted honorary membership in 1921, and the club's most famous son is Lee Westwood. As at Lindrick, the course finishes with a short hole, but here, a slice may involve a close encounter with the clubhouse!

In recent seasons, the golf equipment industry has witnessed a fascinating rise of the mini driver. Manufacturers have aggressively rushed to fill a gap in the market with retail heads hovering between 280cc to 340cc, engineered to deliver more control than a standard driver and more raw distance than a traditional 3-wood.

Yet, an intriguing counter-trend is emerging among elite players on professional tours. Instead of adopting purpose-built, out-of-the-box mini drivers, players like Neal Shipley and Ben Silverman are taking customization into their own hands, assembling high-MOI clubs labelled "Thrivers" - full-sized driver heads shortened to 3-wood specifications.

The Pro Perspective: Retaining Maximum Forgiveness

When rising star Neal Shipley showed up at the Valspar Championship testing a unique alternative tee weapon, it wasn't a standard retail mini driver. Instead, Shipley and his team configured a full-sized 460cc Ping G440 Max driver head, cranked the loft up to 12 degrees, and paired it with a short, 43-inch shaft - the playing length of a standard 3-wood.

Shipley’s rationale exposes the inherent engineering compromise of standard retail mini drivers. “One thing with the mini driver is that they’re a smaller head and less forgiving,” Shipley explained to GolfWRX.

“But with this Max head, it has a really big head that’s on a really short shaft, so you can kind of feel really confident on it. I feel like it’s really straight.”

For Shipley, this build is an indispensable "situational club" and a pure fairway finder on tighter tracks where carrying a ball 300 yards introduces unnecessary risk, but hitting a controlled 280-yard bullet into a precise landing zone is optimal.

Solving the Ultimate 3-Wood Dilemma

PGA Tour veteran Ben Silverman deploys an almost identical strategic blueprint, utilizing a ‘dual driver’ configuration. At the top of his bag sits his primary driver, complemented immediately by his homemade ‘Thriver ’- an older Ping G410 driver head set at 12 degrees of loft and built to 3-wood length with a cut-down Accra TourZ RPG 400 Series shaft.

For Silverman, the experiment was born out of a perpetual frustration with the modern 3-wood. He discovered that a 3-wood optimized to fly beautifully off the turf spun excessively when struck from a tee, while a low-spinning tee-monster was virtually impossible to execute cleanly from a tight fairway lie.

Recognizing that he rarely required a 3-wood for hero shots off the ground, he optimized entirely for the tee box. By anchoring a 460cc head onto a shortened shaft, he constructed an ultra-reliable secondary weapon.

Silverman noted that the larger, older driver head naturally generated the extra spin he desired - consistently in the 3000s rpm range - giving him the unique ability to comfortably control and curve the ball into narrow fairways while maintaining center-face contact every single time.

Why Build Rather Than Buy?

The decision of Tour professionals to reject commercial mini drivers in favor of custom-built ‘Thrivers’ highlights a major distinction in clubhead design: the physics of Moment of Inertia (MOI). Retail mini drivers intentionally shrink the footprint to roughly 300cc to preserve the theoretical ability to use the club effectively off the turf.

However, if a player plans to use the club exclusively off a tee peg, shrinking the head offers zero engineering benefits. By maintaining a maximum 460cc driver footprint, Shipley and Silverman retain massive MOI benefit and an expansive sweet spot that standard mini drivers simply cannot replicate.

They achieve the shorter, high-control arc of a 3-wood without sacrificing the catastrophic-miss protection of a modern Max driver.

The Cheat Code for the Average Golfer

While this tactical calibration is gaining massive traction on Tour, the underlying physics potentially represent an even bigger breakthrough for the average amateur golfer. The standard modern driver has ballooned to an average retail length of 45.5 to 46 inches. Manufacturers do this to maximize potential clubhead speed, but the compromise is often devastating for mid-to-high handicappers, resulting in erratic strikes and exaggerated offline misses.

For the everyday player, building a DIY 'Thriver' by shortening a high-loft, high-forgiveness driver head (such as a 10.5° or 12° Max model) to sub-43.5 inches is a legitimate competitive edge.

Commercial mini drivers can actually be intimidating to amateurs because their smaller profiles still require relatively precise, highly consistent striking. A custom ‘Thriver’ completely solves this. The large 460cc face offers a massive visual safety net at address, while the shortened shaft dramatically enhances the player's ability to strike the sweet spot.

Furthermore, many players will actually spin a ‘Thriver’ set up more off the floor than a conventional 3-wood due to the vertical strike location. With the deeper-faced driver head, impact will naturally occur lower in the face (relative to the CG) than with a shallower mini-driver, generally resulting in a slightly lower launch but with significantly higher spin.

Conclusion

The custom ‘Thriver’ projects of Neal Shipley and Ben Silverman illustrate a profound lesson in golf equipment philosophy: out-of-the-box trends rarely beat tailored engineering. By scaling down the length of the shaft while scaling up the forgiveness of the clubhead, players at every level can neutralize tight fairways, maximize strike consistency, and discover an ultra-reliable alternative off the tee.

Ready Golf has been introduced to speed up play and I am hundred percent certain that this has worked. This efficient approach to playing the game is encouraged by golf’s governing bodies and golf clubs, provided it is done in a safe, respectful manner.

But is it gently stripping away golf etiquette and skipping over manners and safety on the course? If not applied correctly I would say it’s having an adverse effect.

The ground rules for Ready Golf are:

On the tee box, whoever is ready and in the box first goes first - not the person who scored lowest or won the last hole.

On the fairway players who are ready take their shots, not players who are further away and not ready.

Players should hit their own shots before searching for playing partners balls in rough/hazards.

Ready Golf doesn’t give you an immediate entitlement to play your shot whenever you fancy it. It does not give you permission to hit your shot over your playing partners heads, or indeed fly up to the green in your buggy when you’re playing partners have not even hit their approach shots. Common sense and respect for others should prevail at all times. I just don’t think the ground rules are being explained to new golfers. There’s more emphasis on rushing around the course.

I believe you can play Ready Golf and still maintain etiquette, but I fear many new golfers are entering the game where it’s a bit of a free-for-all when it comes to who hits when. With a panicked rush to hit a shot as soon as possible, it’s easy to miss out on the enjoyment of watching a playing partner hit a personal best shot, you miss the ability to acknowledge a great shot and say well played.

By constantly being in your own bubble and playing your shot when you’re ready, you are often unaware of what the other golfers in your group are doing. Have they lost their ball? Have they taken a few extra stabs at the ball in the rough? You don’t know, you haven’t watched it.

So although ready golf is designed to speed up play, sometimes it can have the opposite effect because if you’re not paying attention to where your mate's ball went, they’re now going to spend ages searching.

Golf should be more about teamwork. Although you are playing an individual sport you’re playing together, therefore you’re in it together, you should be looking out for your teammates or playing partners and you should be aware of how they’re doing and what they’re doing.

Ready Golf as a mixed fourball is tricky. Picture this, the guys have already teed off and are striding up the hole chasing their fastest round. For women, it often feels a rush to get to the forward tees and hit their shots.

I’ve experienced men walking up the fairway before we’ve teed off on numerous occasions. They’re not actually communicating in any way or even acknowledging each other’s shots at this point.

I feel like we miss out on camaraderie and banter as the game feels a bit disjointed. Not to mention, quite frankly, it can be dangerous. In my experience women are very good at ready golf as they have to play more shots so always have to be ready.

I also believe Ready Golf needs to be applied differently depending on if you’re playing stableford, medal or matchplay. When there are rules of golf resulting in penalties for playing out of turn, applying Ready Golf without first agreeing the ground rules in a competitive round of golf can have consequences. I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments box below.

If Ready Golf is not explained correctly, we risk losing golfing manners and losing so much of the qualities of a game. One of the reasons I encourage juniors to take up this sport is because golf is one of the best games for kids to play to teach them etiquette and sportsmanship. It teaches them respect for their playing partners and good manners.

Yes, it’s a singular game as a general rule, but you are so aware of what the people you are playing with are doing that you are courteous towards them and at no point do you ignore them. I fear often with ready golf it’s easy for players to become quite isolated during a round.

So let’s lay down the ground rules shall we? If you are ready to go and your playing partner is not, give them a shout and say “I’m just gonna go and hit my shot .”

If you’ve lost your ball in the woods and your playing partner is ready to hit, tell them to play, but don’t carry on looking for your ball. Pause while they hit their shot so at least you can acknowledge where their ball has gone and then continue your search.

When you’re on the green I believe playing ready golf doesn’t necessarily speed up play and traditional honours should still apply. If you have putted up to the hole and you’re close, ask if you can knock the ball in. Don’t walk across your playing partner’s line to knock the ball in because you’re ready, they may be about to mark their ball.

If a golfer has stuffed it into the bunker and is struggling to get out, then absolutely continue to putt. But do it safely and respectfully. I do feel that when your playing partner arrives on the green and you’ve already finished the hole it rushes them.

Honours on the tee should remain if a player has had a brilliant hole previously. A birdie or personal best should warrant acknowledgement and invitation to tee off first if they’re indeed ready, if they’re not, they will turn down the invitation. Simple.

Let’s talk about safety. Yes, hitting your shot when you’re ready to play has its advantages and it has certainly sped up play, often reducing rounds to under four hours. But it’s an accident waiting to happen if not applied correctly.

I constantly hear accounts of balls landing beside or past players who are waiting on the fairway. The rush to get the ball in play off the tee causes lack of thought to the players ahead.

Though Ready Golf is a fairly recent recommendation, common sense is not always prevailing. Fairly new golfers are tending to assume it’s just the norm to hit shots over each other’s heads and I’ve seen this all too many times recently out on the golf course.

Golf is still a very dangerous sport and those almost blinkered by thinking “I’m ready, I’m just gonna play” will have a bit of tunnel vision and be focused so much on the speed of play that they forget about safety.

So unless you’re extremely confident that you can hit your golf ball over your playing partner's head when they’ve headed up the hole, I would say don’t do it.

If you're the golfer rushing ahead to speed up play, think about the effect that your actions are having on the golfer you’ve now silently challenged to miss you. The worry of potentially hitting a golfer ahead off putting for some players.

All of this misuse of ready golf can be cleared up by simply agreeing on ground rules before you tee off. Play at a good pace, be respectful and be safe. That would be my Ready Golf motto. Ready Golf is brilliant, but just constantly remind yourselves that manners and safety are still hugely important.

Like many amateur golfers, I look forward to playing golf for days before I actually tee it up.

I am very fortunate as part of my job to play lots of golf as part of my job, at some of the best courses in the UK, but sadly my enjoyment of the round itself can be marred by a number of factors.

Sometimes it's slow play, other times it's my inconsistent ball striking, but more often it's senseless comments from other golfers.

Below, I share six examples that rile me up on the golf course - and one custom that makes me crazy in the clubhouse!

6 Comments That Rile Me Up On The Golf Course

I am almost certain you will have heard many of these on the course or around the golf club, but I am also sure you will have some great examples of your own.

This could be like a form of therapy, in a way, so why not share them in the comments box at the bottom of this article? Let's create the ultimate guide to golfing lunacy - it will be fun, I promise.

1. What's your handicap again?

You know my handicap. I just told you on the first tee box when we exchanged cards and worked out how many shots I get.

Yes - I am not very good at golf. Yes - I sometimes play better than my high handicap.

But, please do not question my integrity with your back-handed digs.

You only need to take a glance at my WHS handicap record, which is readily available for your inspection, to see the wild inconsistency that has earned me my high-handicapper badge.

I put a card in every single round, mainly in pursuit of cutting my handicap in 2026, so the index really couldn't be more accurate.

I don't care about winning enough to cheat in a club match or social competition, so get back in your lane and worry playing better golf - or I, the hacker, will beat you and that will make you even more cross.

2. The early congratulation

Is there anything more annoying that an early congratulation on the golf course?

The ball has literally just left the clubface and you already hear... "great shot".

As my inevitable slice attacks the ball flight and the wind kicks it further into the trees down the right - my blood pressure begins to rise.

The awkwardness of the recovery or the silence that follows is toe-curling. In fact, your playing partner then saying "it looked good early" or "that's a bad break" makes it 10-times worse.

It wasn't a bad break, it was a rubbish shot. Just wait a few more seconds before sharing your feedback and reserve the praise for the one occasion per round where I actually flush it.

3. it's still you

Chances are if you hear the phrase 'still you', something has gone wrong somewhere.

What I don't need is the reminder of that fact. I know it's still me. I can see it's still me.

It's the equivalent of saying mind your head after you've banged it or don't forget your keys after door has just shut behind you - unnecessary and unhelpful.

4. We are playing a match

Playing a match doesn't entitle you to be obnoxious.

Why should that give you the right to take an age over every putt or refuse to let our two-ball through when we are right up your backside for the entire front-nine?

Let's take a dose of perspective here. You aren't playing on the PGA Tour, you aren't battling it out for a Major Championship, so get over yourself and let others enjoy their golf around you.

In my opinion, everyone is equal on the golf course. Whether you are a good player, a beginner, playing a match or having a friendly knock. Simple principles should govern us all.

Be polite, be respectful of each other and keep up with the pace of play (or move out of the way).

5. I'm Waiting For The Green

I've been playing golf for a few years now and I can recall one occasion where the person who said "I am waiting for the green to clear" has actually gone on to hit the green.

In fact, I could count on one hand the amount of times the people on the green would have been even remotely in danger.

Waiting five minutes to then slice it 30 yards right of the fairway or duff it 125 yards down the middle is more likely the result after making that statement. I mean, make better decisions people. Slow play is a thing.

6. What's the rush?

You'll notice that many of these examples centre around my biggest bugbear, slow play on the golf course.

I like to play fast, which I am aware isn't the same for everyone, but a pedestrian pace of play impacts everyone.

Being late home to help with the kids is one thing, but waiting five minutes over every shot also has a direct negative impact on the scoring and enjoyment of others.

You might be someone who can spend all day at the golf club, with no other commitments and plenty of time for five beers in the clubhouse, but that isn't the case for everyone.

It's not about rushing, it's just about being considerate of others time and enjoyment of the game.

Infuriating Clubhouse Custom

The ritual judgement of people as they walk into the clubhouse is something that I am yet to experience in any other business, organisation or establishment anywhere else.

It's like that scene in the famous film 'An American Werewolf in London' where the backpackers walk into a pub and everyone stares in complete silence.

If you are lucky, the locals won't bother you. If you aren't, you might get an earful about your shoes, clothing, hat, mobile phone or a myriad of other things that would be totally normal in any other building within a 50 miles radius.

Let's get something right, we aren't still living in the 1920s. Fewer people were suits to work now, almost everyone owns a pair of trainers and mobile phones have been a thing for almost four decades.

So, if I walk in wearing shorts, with my clean golf shoes on, that are designed to be worn both on and off the course, and my mobile phone in my hand - I really don't expect to receive a lecture about it.

Fortunately, I've never experienced this at my home club - so at least I am safe there.

Outside of a wedding or a funeral, I'd be surprised to be asked to wear a shirt, tie and jacket. So, I certainly will not be changing into my formals for some food or a drink after a round of golf. How ridiculous.

My feelings are that if I can wear it at the restaurant down the road or in the bars in town, I should be able to wear it in the clubhouse.

After all, is it not a space for golfers to go to relax and enjoy a few drinks after their round? Drop the formalities, lose the silent stare and let's all get on with our lives.

The 4th of July is always a big celebration, but 2026 is even bigger. As we celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States of America, we're about to see A LOT of red, white and blue out there - be that at whatever party you're attending, at your local supermarket or even on the golf course.

We've seen brands tap into the stars and stripes around the Ryder Cup every two years, but they are going all out in 2026 for the 250th birthday - many of the best golf shoes on the market have had makeover, be that some of both the best spiked golf shoes and best spikeless golf shoes.

Not only are these shoes easy on the eye, these new colorways also allow you to show some national pride. From some of the best FootJoy shoes to highlights from the best adidas golf shoes, I think you'll find at least one of the twelve shoes I've included below that catches your eye.

Sometimes we go down a bit of a rabbit hole with our equipment chat. Actually, this happens quite often, which you probably know if you’re a regular Kick Point listener.

Recently, someone asked what clubs you’d have in the bag if you could have no more than one model from each brand - and very little work was carried out for the next two hours.

After much deliberation, and on the basis that we made this unique 14-club lineup suitable for most golfers (there are one or two exceptions), here’s what the team has agreed on.

Fancy killing an hour or two of your time? Have this discussion with your golfing pals and let us know your lineup by leaving a comment in the box below.

No doubt you’ll also find it hard to leave certain clubs out, especially if you’ve always been loyal to just one brand - but that’s the idea…

Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D

This wasn’t a difficult choice. The TaylorMade Qi4D is, quite frankly, an outstanding driver, boasting a winning combination of clubhead speed and stability.

The true innovation in the Qi4D lies in its relentless pursuit of speed, which is clearly where TaylorMade has invested heavily - and it showed during testing.

For Joe, our driver expert, it gave him 1.5 mph more clubhead speed than any other driver he tested during the 2026 launch season, which equated to between 5-8 yards of additional carry.

Another notable improvement on the Qi35 was the feel, which Joe says is “spot on”, and the tour-inspired head profile, with a look that should appeal to a very wide range of players.

It’s the “total package” and one you can read more about in our guide to the best drivers 2026.

Fairway Wood: Cobra Optm X

“I’m calling it now. This will be the most underrated fairway wood of 2026.”

That's what fairway wood reviewer Sam De’Ath said at the start of the year, adding that the Cobra Optm X fairway wood was a “superb all-rounder”.

Although the LS version provides the fastest ball speeds, it’s the X that should suit the most golfers, offering a balanced combination of fast speed and forgiveness.

The LS model looks a touch more compact at address, too, so we’re putting the X in the bag for that little extra confidence boost.

Together with an adjustable weighting system, the Cobra Optm X features an adjustable hosel, which allows for 33 unique loft and lie settings, a dream for players who like to tinker in between playing different courses.

Hybrid: Callaway Quantum Max

The Callaway Quantum Max hybrid is a well-rounded performer that makes a pretty good job of balancing forgiveness and workability - and it’s this standard version that gets the nod for our bag.

With its bold, modern appearance and clean lines, it boasts plenty of shelf appeal - plus it packs plenty of punch, with lots of height and distance.

One of the key technical stories here is the Speed Wave 2.0. By pushing weight low and forward in the head, the technology helps increase ball speed while maintaining stable, predictable launch conditions.

Not everyone will like the glossy crown finish, but the black and gray headcover complements the club nicely.

Irons: Mizuno Pro S3

When it comes to irons, we've broken our own rule and put the exceptionally premium-looking Mizuno Pro S3 irons in the bag, aimed at the low-handicap player and accomplished ball striker.

A compact profile, shorter blade length and straighter lines than normally found on Mizuno irons offer a refreshing look.

As for the feel, simply outstanding.

Looks have played their part in the inclusion of these irons, too, as you would expect.

“Sensational” is the word Joe uses. “From the shelf appeal perspective, the Pro S3 is about as clean as it gets.”

You’ll know about it if you don’t quite catch one, but who cares? Just look at them.

If you are that kind of player who likes to work the ball and demands superior feel, you might find that the shorter blade length makes it a little easier to manipulate the face and create a variety of shot shapes and trajectories.

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM11

There were numerous wedge models in this conversation, but the team were pretty unanimous on the scoring clubs. Vokeys.

Although the performance gains over the SM10 wedges are subtle, the refined aesthetics and improved GC make the Titleist Vokey SM11 wedges the most complete and premium-looking wedge system the manufacturer has ever produced.

Vokey loyalists will have immediately noticed that the branding has moved from the back to the hosel, creating a more minimalist look.

Furthermore, the refined banner strip on the back is a nod to the previous Vokey WedgeWorks models.

For Sam, our wedges expert, the flight control is where the progressive CG really shines - and the feel, he says, is sensational. We’ll put three of those in the bag, all with the raw finish.

Putter: L.A.B. Golf DF3i

Sam also knows his putters, and didn't hesitate when it came to which model would make it into this bag - it's one of the many L.A.B. Golf models that he's tested.

The brand has become a major player in the putter market, challenging established giants such as Odyssey and Scotty Cameron.

Although this is certainly a unique putter, the only real criticism of the original DF3 was that the ball came off a touch softly for some.

The L.A.B. Golf DF3i has been designed to correct this by replacing the face with a fly-milled stainless-steel insert bonded to the 6061 aircraft aluminium body, the same one found in the Oz.1i putter.

Not too confident over the shorties? Although the large footprint will likely take a little getting used to, the near automatic squaring of the DF3i's face makes it especially prolific from short range.

Ball: Srixon Z-Star Diamond

What about a golf ball? With several brands left to choose from, we eventually agreed on the Srixon Z-Star Diamond, which just edged out the Bridgestone Tour B X.

For Joel, the Diamond is arguably the pick of the bunch when it comes to total performance from Srixon’s premium balls lineup.

Fast and low spinning with the driver, it provides extreme spin with wedges as well as a soft yet responsive feel through the bag.

It was the model that five-time Major champion Brooks Koepka played when he signed with the brand in 2021, and sits between the Z-Star and Z-Star XV in terms of its feel and spin profile.

Club lineup and ball selection complete, with no brand used twice - and a pretty impressive arsenal it is too.

Do you agree with our selections? Got any of these clubs in your bag? Let us know in the comments below.

“Where were you actually aiming?” As a high-handicap golfer I think that this is one of the daftest questions my playing partners ask me after I’ve missed the target by several fairways (regular occurrence) or landed an approach shot on the green (twice, maybe!).

Don’t get me wrong, my partners aren’t stupid for asking, and the question is a perfectly reasonable one. The daftness rests firmly with me because, although I’d likely answer ‘somewhere in the vague direction of the fairway/green/flag’, it doesn’t matter.

Right now, the idea of actually aiming my golf shot and expecting it to get close to that place is anathema to me. You’d be better off asking me to predict this week’s winning lottery numbers.

Fortunately, Top 50 Coach Josh Mayo was on hand to help me with how to aim in the most recent of my three golf lessons with him... using something called the Parallax Paradox.

A Parallax Paradox Lesson Solved My Golf Alignment Issue

This is why I snort/laughed when my coach Josh Mayo asked me exactly the above early on in my third lesson at Windmill Leisure and Golf in Bristol, England.

I’d, yet again, unleashed a glorious hook from the tee box. The right-to-left flight of so many of my balls is something that Josh and I worked on in my last lesson, when he tried to address my strong grip with the help of a $10 training aid.

To give Josh credit, the learnings and subsequent practice following that lesson have seen an improvement but, as many of you other high-handicappers out there will know, one good shot can be followed by at least four absolute stinkers. Luckily, today Josh has a plan.

“Ball flight and direction are determined by four key factors: where you aim - pre-swing, and then the angle of the club face at impact, the path the club travels through the ball and the strike location,” says Josh.

“In the last lesson we looked at the club face angle, so you already know that you need to work on that, but I’ve got a great exercise to help with your aim.”

Josh tells me that my target is to hit over a black box on a pole out on the range. (As this is one of the reassuringly expensive Trackman radars I assume he’s confident my aim won’t improve that much in the next 30-minutes or so!).

“Show me how you’d aim at the box, and then hit a shot.” I address the ball, take a couple of looks at the target, swing, miss. A couple more goes and the Trackman radar is unthreatened.

Josh grabs a yellow alignment stick attached to a metal base and places it at the edge of the tee platform.

“Stand behind the yellow stick and tell me where to move it so that it’s in line with the target.” After a few left a bits, right a bits, I’m happy with my aim and Josh places a ball in line with the stick.

“Right, now address the ball and look at the stick. Is it still in line with the target?” Erm, absolutely not.

When I address the ball, look at the stick and then the target, the radar box has moved to the left. “That’s all down to parallax error,” explains Josh with the help of a diagram.

I get a bit excited here because, as a keen amateur photographer I'm aware of parallax from using rangefinder style cameras. No, they're not like golf rangefinders...

Put simply, when addressing the ball and then looking at your target, you’re looking at it from an angle and no longer straight on.

So, you need to adjust your aim to account for this difference, otherwise you'll likely find that you ball doesn't head quite where you want it to..

“So, I want you to stand with your body aligned parallel to the yellow stick and not the radar box and aim at the stick.” Says Josh.

I look at the stick. “Hit the yellow stick, go!” And what do you know? I hit the thin yellow stick at the first time of asking and the ball heads in the direction of the target. Even better, Josh was filming me (video below) and my glory has been captured for posterity!

Of course, my elation was short-lived, as I never hit the stick again. Even after Josh added a thick section of foam swimming noodle to create his (possibly) patent pending ‘noodle stick’.

“Adding the ‘noodle’ will help you better visualise what side you miss,” says Josh. “And align your body parallel to the target line rather than directly at the target.

This will force you to focus on where the club face is pointing and how the club path is moving to get to the target.”

“This drill will help build a physical ‘feel’ and routine for your aim,” adds Josh. “It’ll also encourage you to have a more structured approach at the range.

Try practicing with the same club and target to establish your routine. And then change clubs and targets which will help readjust your brain and aim, which is how you’ll need to play on the course.’

On the course, the routine obviously needs to be different. I’ll stand behind the ball and look at the ultimate target and then pick a much closer target like a different coloured patch of fairway or divot mark that also lines up with the green/flag/not-the-bunker.

That’s what I’ll then aim at when I address the ball. Or I might just stick a swimming noodle in my bag – that’s allowed in the rules right?

Breaking 90 in golf is hard. There is a reason so many amateurs fail to get over the line, but I am not prepared to lay down and accept that fate just yet.

There are data-proven ways to break 90, as well as certain shots that high-handicappers need, but so much of overcoming this hurdle is psychological. The fact is, I need to do a bit of work on improving my mental resilience.

So, in a sort of therapeutic way, I decided to share with you 5 things you can only relate to if you've never broken 90 - in the hope that it builds community, creates a feeling of acceptance and relights the fire for my on-going pursuit...

5 Things You Can Only Relate To If You've Never Broken 90

This list of observations, experiences and general frustrations are things I have picked up on my own journey to breaking 90, which I still haven't yet completed, but if you have some of your own that I have missed - drop them in the comments box below.

Writing this certainly made me feel better about my lacklustre performances on the course, but there is always room for a few more relatable reasons that evidence how the golfing gods are punishing me for something.

1. 'Jeckyll And Hyde' Phenomenon

In my pursuit of a sub-90 score, one of the biggest frustrations I have encountered is a 'Jekyll and Hyde' phenomenon that plagues my scoring.

If you look at my front-nine and back-nine score from any particular round, you could be excused for thinking that two different people have teed it up over the course of the full 18 holes.

One guy is a decent golfer who makes a few pars and goes round in 43, while the other is a chopper who, it appears, has never picked up a golf club in his life and hacks his way to a 52.

I'm either left frustrated that I didn't shoot better on the front after a recovery on the back, or I am dejectedly sipping my pint in the clubhouse after I threw away a golden opportunity to reach the milestone down the stretch.

The most irritating part is I have no idea when either will make an appearance, but both seem pretty content to collaborate in causing me pain and misery on the golf course.

2. Turning Into Archimedes Himself

Four holes to go. Closing stretch officially entered.

All of a sudden, I turn into Archimedes himself as I make an intellectual breakthrough in working out exactly what I still need to do in order to break 90.

Combinations flash in front of my very eyes as I process the different scoring variations that lead to the magical land of scoring in the 80s.

A score of 47 on the front and a score of 26 on the first five holes of the back-nine means I have 16 shots to play with.

Three gross pars and a nett par should do the trick, but if I could turn that nett par into a nett birdie I can then afford to make a nett par instead of one of the gross pars.

You catch my drift. A flash of light and I'm back in the room, but now I have forgotten how to swing a golf club. At least the maths was right.

3. The Blow-Up Hole

Clearly, golfers of any ability can have a blow-up hole - but I would wager that few do it quite as spectacularly as me (or other high-handicap golfers).

Recently, I was on my way towards my best ever front-nine. A series of gross pars and bogeys meant I needed a bogey down the par-4 9th to score 43 and give myself a great chance of breaking 90 for the first time ever.

Anyone who has played golf at Sand Moor Golf Club will attest to the fact that the 9th tee box is the most stunning location on the course, with views of the reservoir and dramatic 16th fairway, but sadly - it's also flanked by white stakes.

"I know, I'll play it safe and get the halfway hut with a great chance on the back-nine", I thought.

"Iron for safety, Baz. Anywhere down the left".

Cue shank of said 'safety' club straight out of bounds. Re-tee, still seething about my incompetence, and proceed to do exactly the same thing. Fantastic.

So, that five I needed now required me to hole out from the tee - on a 350-yard+ par 4. If I told you I made a nine, I would be protecting myself and my ego. So, read into that what you will.

4. Range Confidence

I am a flusher on the range. There, I said it!

I know many people think the same, but if you watched me off that lovely flat mat with a 70-yard wide range in front of me, you'd think I was a single-figure golfer (probably).

Get me onto the course, however, and things take a turn for the worse. Suddenly, I look like a chopper desperately trying to piece together a decent score.

Now, before you point out the psychology of hitting on the range vs the course and point out that there are a number of perfectly logical reasons as to why this happens - I know all of that already.

I'm just saying... it's annoying.

5. Not Losing A Ball Celebrations

Trying to break 90 has been a long and arduous journey, which has yet shown no sign of ending - apart from when I shot 86 with an asterisk on a non-counting course.

So, in the interest of maintaining a degree of sanity, you have to celebrate the small wins.

One such victory is playing a whole round without losing a golf ball. For many 'good' golfers, this might seem a little pathetic.

Well, I made enough deposits into the water, trees and long rough of a variety of courses over the years to be considered a major shareholder in second-hand golf ball businesses - so I am taking the W.

Let's face it, the life expectancy of the treasured full round golf ball is limited anyway. I'll be playing again in a few days time.

The club championship should be the biggest event on any golf club’s calendar. Establishing and celebrating the best golfer of the year is a fundamental reason for running and being part of a golf club.

But what is the best way to find the most deserving golfer? Should clubs use a stroke play format, like the biggest events in elite professional golf?

Or should they use a format that’s favoured in the top-level amateur competitions, a mixture of stroke play and match play?

Or, maybe the club championship should be straight match play…

What are your thoughts on the best club championship format? Let us know in the comments below.

When travelling around the UK, and further afield, you’ll find no set format for the club championship. But it would seem the most common is to hold a stroke play qualifier leading into a match-play knockout phase.

There is, of course, no right or wrong and there is something to be said for stroke play and match play. Some clubs favour a full match play format for the following reasons:

Firstly, having a little more variety might be welcome. If the championship is match play, it’s a nice break from the steady run of stroke play club medals and Stablefords.

On tour, there is a reluctance to include match play events – lesser-known players can knock out the big names with a stellar performance, and the latter stages can be less star-studded and that has an impact on TV viewing figures. Sponsors don’t like that.

But, at club level, is it not refreshing for a few more members to have a chance of making an impact and getting their name on the board?

More often than not, the best players will prevail, but the occasional upset would keep things interesting. A multi-round stroke-play event might be too much for a slightly higher-handicap player to come out on top, but in match play, they might just have a chance.

I like the idea. But, for me, stroke play is the only way to sort the wheat from the chaff and find the club’s true 'champion golfer for the year'. The vagaries of match play are too great. In stroke play the cream will always rise to the top.

Over four rounds of stroke play, there is no doubt the victor has earned the honour of being club champion. They have beaten the field to take the title.

And one of the great things about a stroke play championship is that more members will be involved competitively to the very end of the event.

There might be a finals day when the last round of the men’s, women’s, juniors and senior’s championships are all played.

That means more people around the club to watch the final stages, better atmosphere and more chance of a party afterwards.

Most clubs have knockout tournaments, and these have an important place. Always throwing up some unlikely results, they’re great fun, but should be used to find 'match play' rather than 'club' champions.

'The best way to decide the club champion'

What about mixing the two though? As mentioned, many clubs have a stroke play qualifying element to their championship. Perhaps 36-holes with the top 16 progressing to the match play stages.

That’s what the highest-level amateur championships of Britain and the USA do (with more participants of course.) You must excel at both stroke play and match play to claim the win.

The problem I have with that format at club level is that, when it comes to the final, it’s just two players on the course. Unless the membership is interested and involved, there might be little support and involvement – how many will realistically come out simply to spectate?

In my opinion, 72 holes of stroke play is the best way to decide the club champion for the year. The winner must display consistency over four rounds and make few mistakes.

Like in pro events, there might be a midway cut, but there will still be a number of participants right at the end. That means more people will be involved, both as players and as interested spectators (friends and family members).

You should get a good crowd around the final green to see the club champion crowned for the year. That champion will have thoroughly deserved the plaudits and the celebrations that follow.

The best format for a club championship is multi-round stroke play.

Swaying in the golf swing is a common issue for amateur golfers, but it's also a direct cause of inconsistent ball striking.

If you want to shoot lower scores and cut your handicap in 2026, identifying and addressing a sway in the golf swing is super important.

Ben Emerson is a PGA Fellow Professional who has more than two decades of experience coaching amateurs and professionals to play better golf, specialising in the fundamentals of movement and how to build an efficient golf swing from the ground up.

In this article and instructional video, Ben helps one of our readers to stop swaying in the golf swing with a great golf lesson that centres around the best ball striking tips...

Swaying In The Golf Swing

Single-figure golfer Neil visited our Game-Changer Clinic after suffering with inconsistent strikes.

It's a problem that plagues the games of many amateur golfers, irrespective of their ability level, but it's often caused by ineffective footwork in the golf swing.

After watching Neil in the studio, Ben quickly identified the fault and provided an actionable plan to fix it – one you can also use to improve the consistency of your strike via better footwork.

Swaying: What Is It?

Swaying – the fault Neil arrived with – is when the trail hip moves away from the ball instead of turning behind you in the backswing.

It's not the upper body moving, it's the lower half. Specifically for Neil, it was his right hip moving up.

If you move away from the ball (sway), you have to move back again to make good contact. This creates far too many moving parts for club golfers to achieve any degree of consistency in the strike.

How To Identify A Sway

Any amateur can identify this fault by recording their swing face-on - which something every golfers should do at the driving range. Stop the video at the top and draw a line along your spine.

If your spine angle (and your head) have tilted towards the target as you seek to retain balance after shifting your centre of gravity laterally, instead of remaining loaded directly above the hips, you've likely swayed off the ball.

How To Fix A Sway

To fix the issue, I needed to stabilise Neil's trail foot in the backswing. We achieved this by placing a force pedal (or you can use a tennis ball cut in half) under that foot.

I encouraged Neil to squeeze into the pedal as he swung back to help him get off that foot and push towards the target side in the downswing, when the weight shift occurs.

To stop moving away from the target in the backswing, we needed to create a blocker, and the best way for Neil to do this was to push hard into the inside of his trail foot.

Another way to try to prevent a sway is to imagine you're swinging with your feet and legs inside a barrel.

You want that rotation in the backswing to exist within the perimeters of the barrel, without your trail hip bumping into the wood. Another drill we tried was for me to loop a band around Neil's waist and pull.

Any hint of swaying rather than rotating would allow me to pull Neil over towards me. A big lateral movement in the backswing is not good for controlling the low point, which impacts strike location and consistency.

When you have a card in hand there is nowhere to hide. Everyone will be able to see how terrible at golf you really are! You scored 6 on that short par-3? Hmm, are you sure that was just a bad day and not a true reflection of your game? Golf is very hard, maybe you should try Pickle Ball? You should give up on the 12th now and NR…

If those spiralling, chaotic thoughts sound in any way familiar, this article is for you. As a golfer who played to a high level as an amateur and now a golf coach with over 20 years experience, I know how it feels to get the scorecard nerves and have seen over and over again how the fear of a scorecard can wreak havoc on people’s enjoyment of the game. Here are my top 5 tips for navigating scorecard nerves.

Understand And Accept

You are nervous because you care and it means something. Feeling anxious does not make you weak, it makes you human and means you are challenging yourself by doing things outside of your comfort zone.

Understanding that nerves are normal and actually good, is the first step in freeing you from thinking of them as a negative thing. So accept and embrace the nerves, it makes completing the challenge all that bit sweeter.

It’s The Hope That Kills You

Or rather in golf, it’s the expectation, and there is no other sport I’ve come across where the gap between people’s expectations of what they think they ‘should’ be able to do and ‘can’ actually do are bigger.

Golf doesn’t care if you were hitting it well at the range yesterday, it doesn’t care if you used to be really good a few years ago, golf only cares about the here and now and will quickly highlight any weak areas of your game. Remember goals are good, expectations will weigh you down. So be realistic about what you’d like to achieve.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is the process of gradually and repeatedly facing the situations, thoughts or feelings that make you anxious instead of avoiding them. Over time, your brain learns that the situation is not as dangerous as it is first believed and the anxiety about it begins to lose its power.

An example of this is often people who are scared of spiders, following the steps of first being in the same room as one, to then being closer, to then building up to holding one. Just as someone with a fear of spiders might gradually learn to hold one, you can learn to become comfortable with scorecards by facing the discomfort rather than avoiding it.

Like being in the same room as a spider, start slowly by setting yourself small challenges; keeping your score for 6 holes during a round. Having a friend mark your card for 9. Entering more 9-hole competitions. You will undoubtedly experience some bad scores that make you feel uncomfortable, but you will also start to feel less anxious about it because you have experienced the nerves, done it anyway and realised it is just another part of the game.

Stay On Task

There’s a reason why the best golfers in the world have set pre-shot routines. A routine gives your mind something to focus on and acts as an anchor when nerves start to build.

Think of your attention like a torch, wherever you point and shine the light is where your attention goes, so shine it on what you are trying to do. That’s not to say you won’t still have nerves but bringing your attention back to the task in hand keeps the mind busy and gives you less time to let doubts creep in. Being able to focus is a skill and one of the most powerful tools to have when playing golf under pressure.

There Is The Possibility…

Scorecard golf might not be for you. For many golfers, keeping score and competing is what golf is all about, it is certainly the traditional image of the game. But golf has changed, nowadays there are more ways than ever to enjoy the game and not all of them revolve around scorecards and competition.

Playing socially with friends, driving range and simulator golf, or just being outside and hitting balls are all ways golf is enjoyed. So if keeping score consistently causes stress, takes away your enjoyment and is not something you want to overcome, that is absolutely more than okay and good that you know that about yourself. Find the version of the game that makes you happy and keeps you coming back.

Parting Thoughts

The scorecard is often treated as a judgment of our ability, but in reality it’s simply a record of one day’s golf. The problem isn’t usually the numbers on the card, it's the stories we attach to them. We worry about what a bad score says about us, what others might think, or whether we’ve lived up to our own expectations. It is also always worth remembering that other people care very little about your golf and far more about their own!

So the more we can separate our self worth from our score, the more freedom we give ourselves to enjoy the game. Golf will always contain uncertainty, mistakes and the occasional disaster hole. That’s the nature of the game and what makes it so challenging.

The most important point with all of this is to remember you are meant to be playing for fun, this is where you are spending your precious leisure time. If the pursuit of scorecard golf makes you nervous in an excited way, embrace the tips above, but if it doesn’t light your candle, find and embrace the golf that does.

Sandburn Hall

• Par 73, 6,518 yards
• GF: £45wd, £55we
• Stay & Play: packages available
• W: sandburnhall.co.uk

The Golf

Over the last few years, I have somewhat belatedly become a devotee of Yorkshire golf. It was therefore a very pleasant surprise to stumble across this fine young course, peacefully situated not far from York, midway between three Golf Monthly Top 100 giants: Alwoodley and Moortown to the west; Ganton to the east.

Running over an expansive plot, the course opened in 2005 and has more recently received significant improvements courtesy of Martin Ebert. Playing in mid-April following such a wet start to the year, I was extremely impressed by its presentation and the attention to detail.

The back nine bunkering was fully upgraded last winter and is very impressive, with the front nine scheduled for later this year. Water comes into play on about a third of the holes, including the fine par-3 6th where I contrived to miss a very makeable birdie putt, and the risk-reward par 5s at 12 and 17. You may also be tempted by some of the region's more famous and historic courses, but just on its own, Sandburn Hall certainly ticks more than enough golfing boxes.

The hotel

Family-owned and run, the 40-room hotel opened five years ago and perfectly reflects the barn style of its farming heritage, but with all mod-cons. Architecturally attractive, with varied and very tastefully furnished accommodation, it's a peaceful and reviving place to stay.

I greatly enjoyed my dinners in the adjacent Tykes restaurant, which is exactly my kind of place – informal but smart, the friendliest service and a delicious and reasonably priced menu offering freshly cooked delights. Breakfast was equally good, and I'd happily return with a group of golfing friends as part of a tour. Sandburn Hall may not yet be fully on the travelling golfer's radar, but it certainly deserves to be.

Best Deal

The Sunday Driver package starts from £150pp to include a £30 dinner allowance, accommodation, full English or continental breakfast, and two 18-hole rounds (based on two sharing a Signature Room and subject to availability).

As the Golf Monthly putter tester, I have managed to get my hands on a lot of different flat-sticks over the last few years. It seems this area of the golf club market has truly exploded, with seemingly every brand now offering blades, mid-mallets, high MOI putters, zero torque designs, and everything in between.

Basically every shape and size is covered, and there are great options in all categories, which makes purchasing a new model pretty tricky. How do you filter down to the model you want? Well, this is where I come in to try and help you out. I have picked out 17 of my top picks for 2026 below, and if you want more information, then please scroll down a bit further to check out my full video on this guide.

A bit more on my testing first. All of the models below have been put through their paces so I can get a true understanding of how they perform, how they feel, how easy they are to use, and so on. I do this by using the putters as much as possible in my everyday golfing life, both on the course and the putting green, completing multiple practice drills. So without further ado, my top picks for 2026...

As I mentioned earlier, for a bit more in-depth explanation on each please check out my full video below where I go into everything in a bit more detail.

For more golf shoe buying advice, I would also recommend taking a look at our guides on the best putters, best blade putters or best mallet putters.

When the opportunity arose to visit probably the most remote location in Golf Monthly’s Top 100 UK & Ireland golf courses, I very much jumped at it. The location itself is Another Place, The Machrie, situated on the Hebridean island of Islay.

Undoubtedly you would’ve recognised the name of the island for its whisky-rich heritage, more on that later, but the course itself is growing in stature and worldwide acclaim after its upgrade by Tour pro DJ Russell. Having seen images of the course before attending, I was very much looking forward to the experience…

Golf on Islay dates back to Willie Campbell’s original Machrie Links in 1891, but as mentioned, after Russell’s ‘few tweaks’ turned into a wholesale upgrade, the course took on a whole new meaning.

It now presents itself as a masterpiece in this writer’s opinion, working its way over a rumpled and yet natural-feeling landscape, delivering stunning views out to the Atlantic and the beach which is a stones throw away on much of the front-nine.

The reasonable handshake opener gives you an indication of what’s to come as you crest a hill for your second shot where you immediately get a view out to the sea. The par-5 2nd continues this journey as it wedges itself between river and beach, and then from here onwards the front-nine elevates itself to unforgettable levels.

The 5th in particular starts a run of five holes that are as fun a stretch as I can remember, and this was despite the driving wind and rain I played in over two days. The 5th is a long-ish par 4 which starts with a deceptive tee shot.

One large bunker sits in your eye-line but find the fairway and your 2nd shot is stunning. Played over rolling, downhill terrain, you have to navigate a gigantic dune on the right hand side, and two menacing little bunkers on the left. The green is undulating and a real test as well, so I took my par and moved on very quickly.

All playing along the coast, the 6th, 7th and 8th holes are three very fun short par 4s all of which offer the chance to make birdies with their risk-reward nature, but high scores can easily be made if you end up in the wrong spots. The cavernous swale leading up to the 8th hole in particular is somewhere to avoid.

A suitable end to the front nine, from an elevated tee and playing towards the sea, the par-3 9th green nestles among the sandy dune scrapes with the beach and views of the distant mountains in the background.

The back nine moves further inland as it threads through the sandy hills with the dogleg par-5 12th hole and par-3 14th in particular being my favourites. At the latter, I hit pitching wedge on the first day and 4-iron the second, giving you an indication of the wind strength and the directional pot luck you may be faced with.

The best way I can describe The Machrie is it is a rollercoaster and real voyage of discovery. The purists will enjoy the blind and semi-blind shots, while I think it is also playable for different levels, provided you pick the right tees.

It is simply a magnificent place to play, and thought-provoking too, with several strategic choices to be made as you make your way round.

Romantically, I think the course also gives you the opportunity to simply appreciate where you are and the majesty of it. Having lived in a city for many years now, this trip and golf course reminded me just how appealing this kind of landscape is to experience.

To scratch your golfing itch further, there is a fine short game area, superb six-hole Wee course, three putting greens and the new ‘Hebrides’ social course, which is the ideal fun place to putt with a beer in your hand. All in all, The Machrie is one excellent golf facility worth the trek to Islay alone even without the allure of the many distilleries.

Off-course excellence

Not only did the golf course get a major redevelopment, but the hotel did as well, turning it into an excellent 43-room facility. Featuring a variety of rooms, suites and family lodges, they are comfortably furnished and all of them feature views of the golf course, the peat plains, the Mull of Oa or the Atlantic Ocean.

The hotel itself has a wide range of facilities as well including an outside sauna and hot tub garden, a very cool screening room which was showing World Cup football during my stay, an art collection and a games room.

You can even borrow a Land Rover Discovery to explore the island. Finally, there is an outstanding restaurant, the 18 Restaurant & Bar, which is brimming with fresh island produce and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Of course, fresh seafood features heavily, with my personal favorite meal being the fillet of hake and crab risotto, along with pomme Anna, a delightful potato dish with truffle and Parmesan. The scallops were also sublime and I got to experience Haggis for the first time as well. I must say I did enjoy it with bacon and sausages.

The whisky lovers among you will know all about the island of Islay already, but for the uninitiated, Islay is home to 10 well-known distilleries.

I was lucky enough to do a Tour of the Bruichladdich distillery, which was very interesting indeed given I knew nothing about the process or history of the drink – testament to our tour guide Ruby, whose enthusiasm was infectious.

The three tastings at the end certainly helped as well, with the Port Charlotte in particular speaking to me nicely.

How to get there

Daily flights to Islay from Glasgow with Loganair take 25 minutes. You can also take the ferry from Kennacraig on Kintyre into Port Askaig further north, from where you can also get a short ferry crossing to Jura. Islay airport is a five-minute drive from Another Place, The Machrie.

It’s official: women’s golf is experiencing an unprecedented global surge. According to the National Golf Foundation, the United States has seen a staggering 45% rise in the number of female golfers since 2020. This momentum is mirrored across the Atlantic; England Golf reported that in 2025, female players submitted over 151,000 additional scores, a 14% increase that underscores a growing community.

However, does this surge in numbers mean there is now a clear pathway from a beginner to full club membership and regular, committed play? In all honesty, I’m not so sure.

Bridging the Gap

From my experience, only a few golf courses manage the beginner-to-member transition really well. For most clubs, the standard offering is a short course of lessons and a six-week academy membership. While this provides off-peak access to the course, the majority of club competitions remain stubbornly mid-week.

Equally challenging is the cultural barrier: new golfers often aren’t deemed "real" golfers by the existing membership unless they are playing 18 holes every time they go out. I long for a world where women can learn the game, inevitably get hooked, and then be offered flexible, diverse ways to pursue their golfing journey.

I asked a group of women in both the US and the UK about their experiences, and the feedback was mixed. Are you a woman who got into golf, excited by the prospect of a lifetime sport, only to be disappointed by a complete lack of a next step?

One woman shared a brutally honest perspective:

"The answer is no; beginners are not really welcome at all, though the club would deny this. It launches occasional, half-hearted attempts at recruiting new women members, but success is generally limited to existing golfers who are medium-to-low handicappers.

“We are a century behind the times equality-wise. Any woman who pushes for change is punished with banishment from cliques and sidelined for committee roles. The 'backbench' traditional men are bad enough, but I'm ashamed to note that the worst enemies of beginners at my club are often the existing women members themselves."

Without a clear pathway, I frequently find myself unable to answer the desperate questions from women in my group lessons: “What next? How do I actually go and play golf on a course? I haven’t got all day, I’ve got three hours maximum. How do I make this work?”

It’s been embarrassing at times to simply say, "Unfortunately, you can’t do it here. Why not pop down the road to the nine-hole course that does it really well, or stick to the par-3 course?" It often feels like the traditional sport is not set up for women unless they are retired and have hours of leisure time.

The Financial Case for Flex-Memberships

Some clubs might look at this problem and wonder, “Is it worth it? What’s it going to do for our revenue? We have a waiting list, so why should we alter things for groups who only want to play nine holes?”

I’ll tell you why: New women golfers spend money. Working women buy lunches, look for venues to hold meetings, host parties, and organise social gatherings. Furthermore, women usually manage the family diary; get them involved, and they will bring their children, the future members of your club. A short-form academy membership utilising off-peak times injects reliable revenue into quieter slots in the club diary.

Here is the framework that forward-thinking facilities are already using brilliantly:

An Active Beginner Community: Group coaching blended seamlessly with on-course lessons.

A Dedicated 9-Hole Membership: A tier that differentiates itself from full membership purely by format and time, not status.

Accessible Competitive Formats: Nine-hole competitions, knockouts, and small team events that foster camaraderie in a social playing environment.

Clubs Doing It Brilliantly

Jo Shorrocks, a board member at Bigbury Golf Club in Devon, notes: "We’ve been really successful in getting women into golf, which is why England Golf chose us as a pilot club for their 'Women’s Growth Initiative.' This is largely due to an open-minded Board, enthusiastic volunteers, and a progressive Pro who understands that women are a different, highly valuable proposition."

Bigbury’s highly successful two-year pathway works like this:

Year 1 (Get Into Golf): An off-peak membership offered at a fraction of the full cost. Women can play after 1:00 PM on any day of the week, playing as many holes as they feel comfortable with once the Pro deems them course-ready. 75% of their beginners took up this option.

Year 2 (Integration Membership): Still off-peak and heavily discounted, but introducing structured social events, on-course competitions, and handicap support. Almost all Year 1 members progressed to Year 2 - in fact, one of those beginners is playing in the 36-hole Club Championship today!

Innovative thinking is saving the game elsewhere, too. At Bishops Stortford Golf Club in Hertfordshire, Barbara Tucker won the "Women’s Initiative" award at the 2024 Women in Golf Awards. The Blue Course scheme she created in 2014 boasted shorter tees, group lessons, free facility use, and a buddy system. Today, the majority of the club's ladies' committee started their journeys through that very scheme.

Meanwhile, at Highpost Golf Club in Salisbury, Debbie Rock began her journey through a "Women Into Golf" (WIG) program. She just finished her year as the first female Club Captain in the club’s 104-year history. Compare that to a less supportive club experience shared by another golfer:

"Our club runs a 'Get Into Golf' for six weeks, followed by members taking newbies out for four holes a few times. But there’s nothing to progress on afterward. It’s hard to play with other beginners because no one knows what they’re doing, and if you don’t own clubs yet, you literally can't play."

Proven Frameworks To Adopt

A modern 9-hole section must be trusted and respected. Alternatively, clubs can offer a flexible credit system where points are deducted depending on when and how many holes are played, a system Goodwood in West Sussex has used with massive success.

Goodwood’s Copse facility features six short par-3 holes, making it the ultimate playground for beginners to master their short game before seamlessly transitioning to a quick nine holes from the forward tees on The Park course.

Flagged by several US golfers, Operation 36 is a structured, six-level programme designed to take a beginner from their very first round to the formal tees. Golfers start playing nine holes from just 25 yards out from the green. Once they can shoot a 36 or better from that distance, they move back to the next yardage marker.

This model tackles a massive industry problem: 70% of beginners who try golf ultimately quit because they feel lost and discouraged. Frameworks like Operation 36 give pros a reliable revenue stream and facilities a structured way to retain players. As LPGA & PGA Coach Maggie Simons puts it: "Operation 36 is the backbone of my programming. It gives golfers a clear roadmap to improvement, no matter their goals."

Finding The Tribe

Whether it’s the 'Ladies Masters Scheme' I utilised back in the early 2000s at Hamptworth Golf & Country Club in Wiltshire, or the incredibly popular 'Happy Hour' Tuesday evening league at Hillcrest Country Club in Indianapolis (which regularly sees over 40 women participating in clinics and social play), success always comes down to community and connection.

Whatever a club decides to do, the most important thing is that a clear, visible pathway exists. If you are a member of a club that doesn't actively encourage beginners, start asking why. If you are a beginner, don’t wait around for the perfect invitation. Book a playing lesson, tee up from the fairway with a friend, and ask your club what they can offer.

If your local club doesn't give you the answer you're looking for, leverage the digital communities available to us today. Platforms like Women Who Golf, Skratch Women, the Women’s Golf Lounge, and the UK Women’s Golf Community are the perfect places to find your tribe, get nomadic playing opportunities and safely fall in love with this fantastic sport.

Well, last week turned out to be frustrating and fantastic in equal measure.

Scheffler just lost out in a playoff to deny us a double-winning week, as Baz also tipped KPMG Women's PGA Championship winner Haeran Ryu on the Golf Monthly Tour Issue podcast - exclusively for the listeners.

You can watch this week's episode below, with Baz and the expert betting panel sharing their analysis and opinion on the upcoming tour action as well as their top tips.

This week, attention turns to the John Deere Classic and an interesting field headlined by Jordan Spieth.

With plenty of value throughout the board, Baz has once again crunched the numbers and followed the trends to pick three selections at TPC Deere Run...

John Deere Classic 2026 Betting Tips

Bazza's Best Bets

Top Tip: Chris Gotterup To Win @ BetMGM

Chris Gotterup started 2026 with two wins, a top-10 and two top-20s in his first eight starts, but you could argue he has gone off the boil a little in the last couple of months. Just one top-10 in his last seven starts doesn’t tell the full story, however, and I believe this a great opportunity for him to get back on track.

Gotterup ranks 26th on the PGA Tour for birdie or better percentage, but he also has already shot 65 or better on 10 different occasions this season. We know he can go low, he has the length to dismantle this course (as long as he finds the fairway) and he is a great putter on L93 Bentgrass surfaces.

The 4-time PGA Tour winner already has a 4th place finish in this event and a 10th place finish at the correlating TPC Twin Cities - so I fancy him to contend this week.

Next Best Tip: Pierceson Coody To Win @ BetMGM

Pierceson Coody was on the cusp of winning a first PGA Tour title at the start of this season, finishing second at the Farmers Insurance Open and 10th the following week in Phoenix, but after a solid T22 finish at the US Open I believe he could be about to hit form again.

Coody has modest form at TPC Deere Run, with a T30 finish in his first of two PGA Tour appearances, but his correlating course form points to improvements at the John Deere Classic.

He was 3rd at the 3M Open last year and T18 at the American Express in 2026, both of which often descend into similar birdie-fest style shootouts.

The greens at TPC Twin Cities and TPC Summerlin are very similar to those at TPC Deere Run, so it was encouraging to see him rank 2nd for SG: Putting at the last edition of the Shriners and 14th last season in the same measure at the 3M Open.

Value Tip: Ben Kohles To Win @ BetMGM

This pick might seem a little left field, but stick with me. Kohles has been playing some great golf on the Korn Ferry Tour and when he has stepped up to the PGA Tour recently he has certainly caught my eye.

A T29 at the RBC Canadian Open came through a very strong and consistent performance, but he then followed that up with a T23 finish at the US Open.

His stats this season are also seriously impressive on the KFT, ranking 1st for SG: Tee To Green, 2nd for SG: Approach, 2nd for driving accuracy and 6th for bogey avoidance.

That’s the perfect profile for TPC Deere Run, where he has shot a 65 and a 66 in his last two appearances, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make a run at a big price.

Golf Monthly Betting Panel Picks

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Pick One: Jacob Bridgeman To Win @ BetMGM

Although the American has struggled for form a little since his Genesis Invitational win, Bridgeman has produced some good results recently, highlighted by a T11th at the RBC Canadian Open and T39th at the US Open.

These events possessed much stronger fields, whereas the John Deere Classic doesn’t. What’s more, Bridgeman finished T5th in this event last year, carding four rounds in the 60s, indicating to me good course form.

Pick Two: Rico Hoey To Win @ BetMGM

Not to jinx myself but, whenever I’ve backed Hoey, he’s played well, so I’m hoping this week is the same on a course that suits his game nicely.

Finishing T11th last year, with four rounds in the 60s, Hoey is excellent tee-to-green so, if he can get the putter firing, I expect another good performance. He may have missed the cut in Canada, but he had back-to-back top 20s in the two starts prior.

Pick One: Ben Griffin To Win @ BetMGM

Ben Griffin is one of the standout names in this undoubted future Challenger Series event, and he ticks all of the boxes I like to see around TPC Deere Run.

He's a strong driver of the ball with a usually dynamite short game, and making birdies will be hugely important this week. Griffin is also playing his third week in a row, which I consider to be the sweet spot for being tuned up but still well-rested.

He's finished T17th and T10th most recently, so he's in good form. I like what I see from a typically safe bet at any PGA Tour event.

Pick Two: Tom Kim To Win @ BetMGM

This feels like a pretty big risk given his year as a whole, but everything I saw from Tom Kim at the US Open made me want to believe the South Korean might be rediscovering some form at a great time.

Kim has gained strokes in each of his three most recent starts on the greens and in terms of approach play, too, so he could easily continue that upwards trajectory and rediscover some more form in a slightly weaker field than usual.

Although he missed the cut here last year, he was all over the place with driver in hand. Those issues seem to have been resolved, so I'm optimistic Kim can right those wrongs and feature on the first page of the leaderboard.

Golf Monthly Betting Panel Tipping Record

We have both written many times, and still genuinely believe, that there is so much wonderfully varied golf throughout the UK&I that, should you be so inclined, you would never need to leave. There are about 3,000 courses, of which we have between us played around 40%, including the entire Top 100 in the UK & Ireland.

We are constantly adding new and very delightful entries to our swelling spreadsheets. However, we have also both been lucky enough to travel extensively for Golf Monthly, sampling golf, sights and experiences you would never encounter at home, much of which has informed our thoughts in this video on golf course design misconceptions.

We recently put our heads together and realised we'd now played in 57 countries – not just obvious golfing strongholds like the best golf courses in Spain, Portugal and the States, but also others more off the beaten track. One of our more complex - and unresolved - discussions was around what actually constitutes a country.

Take the beautiful Tierra del Sol course in Aruba, for example. This tropical Caribbean island is often described as a country, but also comes under the auspices of The Netherlands.

Closer to home, we both know golfers who tend not to think of the UK as separate countries but rather one glorious golfing whole. Try explaining that to anyone at an England-Scotland rugby match or screaming at the TV! Then there are the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, both self-governing British Crown Dependencies but not countries as such, and not part of the UK.

But for the sake of this article, we believe we've played in about 57 different ‘countries', depending on how you interpret such anomalies! Here, we each take a look at five of the more unusual, impressive or simply less well-known trips we have enjoyed and how they have enriched our golfing lives...

Bulgaria

Rob - While moonlighting for Volvo at its tour events, I visited Bulgaria in 2013 for the penultimate World Matchplay Tournament at Gary Player's Thracian Cliffs. Set on the western shores of the Black Sea, its relative inaccessibility may be why this is not yet a bucket-list destination. Its outrageously visual and dramatic layout is one of the most exciting I have ever played. I had no choice but to include it in a feature on my favourite ten courses.

Nearby, I greatly enjoyed the appallingly named but otherwise lovely BlackSeaRama – another Player design – and Ian Woosnam's adjacent Lighthouse. They would combine to make a brilliant tour, and I returned to the country in 2019 to play at the fine resort of Pravets, under an hour from Sofia.

The Netherlands

Rob - A real advantage of golf in The Netherlands is that you can take your car. Despite an immaculate pedigree, it's still not well-known as a golfing destination and I think this is simply because its historic and more prestigious clubs are really not too fussed about marketing their many delights.

On one trip, I enjoyed the best of the old (Utrecht de Pan… spell it as you wish; there are many variations) and the best of the new (The International). I loved the 27 holes at Kennemer, where Colt designed the original 18, and Hilversum was great, Colt again, and very tight off the tee. If you're after informal and local, then Houtrak, Purmerend and Zaanse are all well worth a visit.

Greece

Jeremy - My solitary trip to Greece came in 2022 when I was invited to the Olazabal and Friends Charity Pro-Am at Costa Navarino in the Messinia region of a country that, perhaps surprisingly, still has just ten golf courses. The Spaniard's two new layouts had opened there earlier that year and this is surely one of Europe's most spectacular golf destinations.

His International Olympic Academy Course enjoys a stirring back-nine run along an inland cliff edge with mesmerising ocean views, while the Hills course plays past old olive trees, ancient rock walls and stunning ravines in the Kinigou Hills. It was a real thrill to finally get some time with Jose Maria, who had always proved quite an elusive interview target for individual journalists hoping for a chat. Perseverance rewarded!

Norway

Jeremy - You've probably drooled over the photos and, following my 2015 trip to the Lofoten Islands in the 68th parallel of northern latitude in Norway, I can confirm that Lofoten Links is almost certainly the most dramatic golfing canvas over which I have ever played. Yes, it took three flights and half an hour by road to get there, but boy, was it worth it. Lush green oases of fairway and green weave through deep-coloured rocks and lakes, wedged between the Arctic and the rugged mountains.

The visual drama carries on hole after hole and there is a deep sense of admiration for the imagination that led to a golf course being created in this unimaginably spectacular, yet at times hostile, landscape. I've not yet returned to play elsewhere in Norway, but the love affair with the country that this trip triggered has seen the family spend the week before Christmas in Tromso for the last two years. This must surely be the only world Top 100 golf course where you can play under the midnight sun.

Finland

Jeremy - Finland has around 190 courses and my only visit came in 2014 with a game at Linna Golf an hour from Helsinki, ranked No.1 in the country in some lists. I remember feeling at home immediately as, slightly to my surprise, it felt similar to UK courses such as Woburn, Gleneagles and even Swinley Forest right from the opener, a beautiful uphill par 4 playing through stands of pine and birch.

The trees often frame holes from a respectful distance rather than too claustrophobically, so you reap the benefits of their beauty without having to venture in among them too often. My trip continued with a ferry across the Baltic to Estonia, one of two east European countries I've played in. Poland is the other.

Kenya

Rob - I jumped at the chance to fly to Nairobi where the colonial background means there is real history at some of the clubs. Muthaiga dates back to 1913 and was a regular host of the Kenya Open, won by no less a legend than Seve Ballesteros in 1978. I greatly enjoyed Sigona, designed by Tom Simpson in 1938, plus the excellent course at Windsor Golf Hotel, with its monkeys and yellow-billed kites going about their business paying scant attention to the golf.

My favourite was Great Rift Valley up near Lake Naivasha where I enjoyed two days of sensory overload thanks to the challenging course and the magnificent wildlife, including zebras, giraffes and an encounter with a pod of hippos out on the lake. If you fancy combining golf with safari, this is exactly the country for it.

South Africa

Jeremy - My only visit to the continent of Africa happened by accident when a colleague was called up for jury service and I was drafted in. I was already due in Abu Dhabi the week after, so it ended up being my longest ever trip for Golf Monthly, flying to Durban then on to the Middle East before returning home 12 days later. I was there to cover the 2013 Volvo Golf Champions event at Durban Country Club and play three rounds in KwaZulu-Natal province at Selborne Park, Prince's Grant and Cotswold Downs.

After golf at Selborne, photographer Kevin Murray and I were plied with more Springboks than were wise (Amarula layered over Creme de Menthe in a chilled shot glass) and were treated to an impromptu table-side Ladysmith Black Mambazo-style performance from the bar staff. The course at Prince's Grant enjoys excellent ocean views, while the 5th at Cotswold Downs is the steepest drop-hole par 3 I've ever played.

Japan

Jeremy - In 2018, a decade after my time in the equipment editor's chair, I got called back for a trip to Japan to visit the Honma plant around the time of Justin Rose's short-lived dalliance with the brand. Part of the trip took us on the famous Shinkansen 'bullet train' to Atami, then on to Kawana, where we played the resort's world top 100-ranked Fuji course.

The dramatic opener plunges down 100ft to the fairway and the visual drama never lets up with several holes along the clifftops, although Mount Fuji was sadly partly shrouded in mist. Our friendly female caddie looked after all four bags on one power-assisted trolley and, once or twice, our transport from green to tee involved a driverless buggy. An incredible experience.

Vietnam

Rob - Asia and the Far East offer some of the most exotic golf in the world and I had a wonderful time exploring the central-eastern coastal region of Vietnam around Da Nang. Delicious local food was the hors d'oeuvres to a banquet of golf that included coastal games at Nick Faldo's dreamy Laguna Lang Co, Robert Trent Jones Junior's amazing Hoiana Shores and the Nicklaus and Norman courses at Legend DaNang.

Slightly inland, I also loved the Luke Donald design at Ba Na Hills and a stay-and-play at Colin's eponymous Montgomerie Links. Together, the five offered unbelievable variety, endless new and different experiences, and as much entertainment as you could possibly wish for on one golf trip. My visit here prompted me to wonder whether this is the most exotic coastline in golf?

New Zealand

Rob - I visited this staggeringly beautiful country to cover the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Wellington. It's an exceptionally long way to go, but the juicy carrot dangling before me was the opportunity to explore the North Island and play a handful of its best courses.

We started at the host venue, a sumptuous course that I absolutely loved, and from here flew up the east coast to spend two nights at Cape Kidnappers, a dream come true. Moving inland to The Kinloch Club and Wairakei near Lake Taupo, both excellent, we ended up at Auckland and Windross Farm. The scenery, the golf, the wine… this will live with me as one of, if not the, best trips of my golfing life.

The Numbers

So for completeness, here are our various counts at the time of preparing this article in May, 2026. As you might expect, they are still creeping up...!

The 154th Open Championship is not far away and to celebrate what should be a brilliant tournament at Royal Birkdale, Loch Lomond Whiskies has unveiled two limited-edition single malts which are perfect for the whiskey connoisseur you know. (Or maybe you want them for yourself...)

The two malts are The Open Course Collection (£195, 46.9% ABV), and The Open Special Edition (£45, 46% ABV), with both featuring really cool, eye-catching packaging. It is worth acknowledging that only 3,000 bottles of the Course Collection will be available worldwide so I'm confident they will be a sought after piece of Open memorabilia, and a delicious one at that.

If you are unaware of the brand, Loch Lomond Whiskies is an award-winning independent distiller which has not only been making whiskies since 1814, but has been producing special edition collections for The Open Championship for a number of years now.

As mentioned there are two malts to choose from here and I've included some notes on the nose, taste and finish below so you can really get an understanding of each whisky.

The Open Course Collection

• Nose: Toasted oak, apple, ginger and vanilla.
• Taste: Toffee, pineapple, lemon, cinnamon spice, with red berries and dried fruits from the Tawny Port casks.
• Finish: Long with warming oak spice, dried fruit sweetness and soft smoke.

The Open Special Edition

• Nose: Dark berries, redcurrant and citrus zest with vanilla, honey and soft malt.  
• Taste: Blackberry, raspberry and peach syrup, layered with crisp apple, toffee sweetness and gentle spice. A subtle thread of smoke runs through the palate.
• Finish: Medium length with lingering berry sweetness, soft oak spice and light, smoky warmth.

Some other small details I want to mention here -

The packaging on the Course Collection features every Championship venue, date and winner, from Prestwick in 1860 through to Royal Portrush in 2025. Whilst the Special Collection was actually created in collaboration with Colin Montgomerie, a Scottish golfer who requires little introduction.

Finally not only can you buy the malts above, but if you are lucky enough to be attending The Open you will be able to purchase both malts at the Loch Lomond Whiskies stand at Royal Birkdale throughout Championship week.

Many amatuer golfers dream of getting down to scratch in their lifetime - but the elusive goal is not easy to achieve.

The journey is often arduous and fraught with challenges, but perhaps understanding the gap between the pinnacle of the amateur game and the world of tour golf will act as inspiration in your journey to cut your handicap in 2026.

The question is, comparatively speaking, just how good are the players on the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour?

With the help of the latest data from Shot Scope, one of the leaders when it comes to performance analysis tech, we're much closer to finding out the answers. In the video and article below, we break down the data and share the findings.

But, in order to make this comparison, we need a representative for the amateur community - so let’s put our best foot forward and submit a scratch golfer as tribute…

Scratch Golfers vs Tour Pros: The Data

Let's start off at the tee with the driver. A scratch golfer has a driving distance performance average, which removes anomalies, of 285 yards.

This is 17 yards shorter than the average PGA Tour player who drives the ball 302 yards, but much longer than the LPGA Tour player average of 263 yards.

When it comes to tee-shot accuracy though, a scratch golfer falls well short, only finding 48% of fairways with a driver, while for a PGA Tour player, it's 58.45%. For an LPGA Tour player, it jumps up to 67.5%.

Now, let's move on to the greens in regulation. It won't surprise you to know that tour players perform better here, too.

A PGA Tour and LPGA Tour player hit 66% of greens on average, while a scratch golfer only hits 52%.

A scratch golfer's average proximity to the hole on approach shots is also much higher at 62 feet versus 37 feet for a PGA Tour player.

Around the green, the pros are better at scrambling too. A scratch golfer gets up and down 54% of the time from within 50 yards of the green. For PGA Tour players, that rises to 60.72% while LPGA Tour players are at 57.4%.

The differences with a putter are not as stark as the other areas of the course. A scratch player has on average 29.9 putts per round. For a PGA Tour player, it's 28.76 and for an average LPGA Tour player, it's 29.55.

A scratch golfer does fall foul of more three-putts per round, but not by much, at 0.8 versus 0.67 for the LPGA Tour and 0.48 for the PGA Tour.

From short range, Shot Scope scratch golfers hole out from between six to nine feet 48% of the time.

PGA Tour players make their putts from six feet 71% of the time and from nine feet 47% of the time. So, they are clearly more prolific from this crucial holing-out range.

I mean, I never said it would be pretty. This detailed breakdown of how scratch golfers compare with tour players shows the vast and perhaps surprising gap between the two levels.

Getting to scratch is only the start of the (very difficult) journey, the ascent to the summit is something else entirely.

Valentine Delon made the final of The Women's Amateur Championship and is a member of the Virginia Tech women's golf team.

Get to know her better with these facts below...

Valentine Delon Facts

1. Delon was born in Paris, France

2. Daughter of Antoine and Laetitia Delon, Valentine's father is actually the captain of the French men's golf national team

3. She attended Diagonale Paris High School, before moving to Virginia Tech University

4. Earning a number of amateur titles, one of the most prestigious came in 2024, when Delon became the French Ladies Champion

5. She competed for France at the 2023 European Girls' Team Championship

6. In 2018, she attended the Ryder Cup in Paris and was actually handed Tiger Woods' golf ball by caddie, Joe LaCava

7. In 2023, she enrolled at Virginia Tech University, majoring in business and economics

8. In October of that year, Delon kicked a field goal during the half time of a Virginia Tech American Football game, earning $250 in the process.

9. Although she hasn't won individually at collegiate level, Delon has produced some good results, including a runner-up finish at the Schooner Fall Classic.

10. In 2025, the Frenchwoman competed in her first professional event as an amateur, claiming a T10th result at the Jabra Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour

11. From an early age, Delon suffered with scoliosis and underwent surgery a few months after the diagnosis, having to relearn how to walk in the process

12. At The Women's Amateur Championship, the Frenchwoman made it to the final after numerous dominant displays in the match play portion of the event

This western county doesn’t rank among the most prolifically featured on my 'courses played' spreadsheet with a mere six, despite my venturing down there annually while my wife’s work takes her to Butlin’s in Minehead.

This year I resolved to remedy things by taking my clubs and finally revisiting the links at Minehead and West Somerset, next door to Butlin’s, after a 40-year gap, while also adding a couple of newbies to my tally.

Some of them rate among the best golf courses in Somerset, a county where the splendid Championship links at Burnham & Berrow is the only entry in the Golf Monthly UK&I Top 100 course rankings.

On a breezy but bright spring day I stopped off at Cricket St Thomas on my journey down to play a hilltop course that boasts nine holes designed by JH Taylor in 1932 and nine more added in the early 1990s.

There have been a few other changes along the way, not least the name, having formerly been called Windwhistle until 2014 when new owners took over.

More recent changes have included the former 90˚ dogleg-right par-5 1st morphing into two holes, with the old 1st green now found on the tempting short par-4 2nd. More changes are afoot with three former holes currently being remodelled ready for their return.

Some holes left me stumped, others offered decent bail-out options and one or two of the views bowled me over, especially from the 1st and 4th greens and the 10th tee. After a couple of early wides (okay... enough is enough with the cricket punathon), I settled down and played quite nicely.

Heading out I really liked the 4th, which eases gently right, although the wind off the left pushing everything towards OOB made it quite testing for a fader.

Coming home, the duo at 10 and 11 stood out, first a short, gettable downhill par 4 with wonderful distant views, then an uphiller past a pine forest, where the tricky approach becomes all the harder if your drive ends up in the large fairway crater, as it is blind from there

Down on the coast

Next day, I made my first non-vehicular arrival at a golf club since I played King James VI in Perth in 2019, where the island course is accessed on foot via the railway bridge from a public car park.

Here, I strolled along the promenade to the pro shop where former tour pro, John Bickerton, now works. Some 18 years ago I played with John and two readers at Hanbury Manor and watched him shoot a casual 63 without batting an eyelid.

I remembered one or two things from 40 years ago , especially the par-3 10th at the very far end and the tough closing 209-yarder by the clubhouse.

I was joined by golf director, Paddy Maclennan, who proved an excellent host on a course that, perhaps helpfully midway through a golf trip, offers virtually nothing in the way of hills.

What it did offer was a testing two- to three-club wind that made most of the outward half difficult, especially the 9th and 10th holes at the far end. You had to take advantage of the two short downwind par 4s on the front nine at the 3rd, with its gently valleyed green, and the 6th, and fortunately I was able to coax a birdie out of the former.

Coming home, the wind was mostly helping and one of the best things about this homeward run is that several tees are set right by the beach, so there are always therapeutic views to savour if the golf game has gone a little south.

The highlight for me coming home was another birdie on 15 – best green complex on the course for me - after a woeful tee shot and spectacular second to 3ft, although Paddy then cheekily hit his approach to 9ins.

It would be only fair to also mention that he made two textbook eagles in six holes (11th and 16th) to give him something to dine out on for weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed my return visit to Minehead and the links was in great condition for early April

A unique golfing landscape

Finally, I enjoyed a game in glorious shirtsleeve weather at Taunton & Pickeridge, an hour from Minehead, which dates back to 1892 and boasts a layout originally created by Herbert Fowler, who was also a founding member.

The middle part of the course here plays through and over land formerly used for lime mining a couple of centuries ago, leaving behind a landscape of unusual hollows and mounds that, on certain holes, may sometimes influence where your ball goes on landing (good and bad) and leave you rapidly try to master or remember how to play from a variety of sloping lies.

The course has a lovely, away-from-it-all feel and despite only being just over 6,100 from the tips presents you with a number of long, testing par 4s such as 4, 7 and 11 and a shock-to-the-system 233-yard par 3 at 14.

That lunar or links-like landscape first comes to the fore on the 4th and 5th, while the 9th fairway could be lifted and placed on Royal St George’s 225 miles away and wouldn’t look remotely out of place there.

On the 11th hole, more of that sunken terrain awaits on the approach if you don’t quite catch it, and two dogleg-left holes stand out on the run for home – first the short par-4 15th, where reasonable hitters who can turn it over may be able to knock it on, and then the memorable 17th, a much longer hole that turns 90˚ around two ponds on the apex.

Long hitters can knock it over these, while the very longest may just drive the green over the trees. My watch told me the direct route was 320 yards against 442 on the card, and there’s even a bell by the green so the big boys know when it’s safe to launch one at 45˚ to the route mere mortals have to take.

Play
Cricket St Thomas
Par 68, 5,246 yards
Green fees: £42wd, £46we (twilight £26-£30)

Minehead and West Somerset
Par 72, 6,215 yards
Green fees: £48wd, £58we (twilight £25-£39)

Taunton and Pickeridge
Par 69, 6,119 yards
Green fees: £50-£70 (twilight £35)

Stay
The Old Ship Aground
Quay St, Minehead, TA24 5UL
W: theoldship aground.com

(Prices correct at time of publication in June 2026)

A consistently good short game requires more than a 'one size fits all' approach.

A stock shot around the green is great to have, but being able to vary your flight with wedges is a great way to shoot lower scores and cut your handicap in 2026.

In this short game clinic, Top 50 Coach Alex Buckner shares a simple system for altering trajectory when pitching and chipping - which centres on simple setup changes that any golfer can make at address.

Alex coaches top tour players, like three-time DP World Tour winner Marco Penge, but he also helped countless amateurs to improve their short game - now, it's your turn!

A lot of club players don't understand why they launch their wedges a certain way. Often, it's inconsistency in their setup.

Here, you can see the ball is forward in my stance, my weight is stacked on my trail side and I'm tilted to my right. There is no shaft lean.

These are all elements that launch the ball high. If you launch it high and come up short, you may want to change a few things. In the wind, especially, it's not usually the right shot, as it's harder to control.

Most club players struggle to launch their wedges low, which is what I'm set up to do here. I've adopted a steeper position with my body, my weight is slightly forward, and I'm not tilted behind the ball.

In fact, my body has a slight tilt towards the target. The ball is back in my stance, and my hands are forward. Note the shaft lean here.

By making these few changes to the address position, I'm altering the attack angle and moving the low point forward so the ball launches low.

Depending on the scenario, you may want to launch it high or low. For example, picture a front flag, downwind on a hard green, versus playing into the wind to a back flag.

The former scenario best suits a higher trajectory, and the latter a lower one.

The best pitchers can hit their yardages in multiple ways. Practise hitting from 50-100 yards with two different flights to help you master your distance control and learn how to adapt your trajectory.

I love playing golf with friends, my regular golfing crew, because it’s comfortable, fun, and a zero pressure situation. I know what to expect from everyone, and they know what to expect from me. But, recently I’ve said yes to playing in a few events with people I don’t know, and it’s had an unexpected outcome on my golf game: improving my overall mindset on the golf course.

I’ve written about my struggles with nerves and performance pressure. Playing with people I don’t know typically brings out the worst nerves in me, so I generally avoided it and stuck to what felt comfortable as I worked on different techniques to stay focused and remain calm during important rounds. But, I’ve heard over and over that you must put yourself in uncomfortable situations to improve.

So, I decided to give it a try. And guess what? It works. What historically brought out the worst on-course anxiety in me has actually helped my mental game. Plus, I met some lovely new golfing friends. If any of you are hesitant to join a new league, or say yes to a foursome of strangers, here are five ways it’s helped me (the queen of nervous golf energy), and maybe you’ll benefit, too.

Being More Aware of Where I Need to Focus

When I’m anxious, my tee shots struggle. That’s become blatantly obvious to me over the past year. For a while, knowing that fact was harming me. I would get up to the tee thinking there was a good chance I’d hit the ball into the water. That might be the worst mindset to have in golf because too often those worries become self-fulfilling prophecies!

I spoke to another golfer who suggested that instead of thinking about my bad shot, use the information to my benefit and adjust. I did just that. Being able to pinpoint that weakness has been so beneficial. If I’m feeling off or extra nervous, I put my driver away and use a club I’m most confident with, even if I’m giving up some distance, to make sure I have a playable ball on the first couple holes.

Accepting Bad Rounds As Part Of The Process

I read a book called The Confidence Code that talked about failing fast to move forward, and I think this is the perfect example of that concept. It’s almost like getting what you were most afraid of out of your system so you can move on.

I know that playing with new people makes me rush my golf swing, which I tend to do when I’m nervous, so instead of getting down on myself after a mishit, I pre-accepted that I would probably have multiple bad holes. It’s not giving up, but just accepting that it’s possible.

My goal was not to break any personal records. Instead, I tried to slow down, focus only on each shot and do my best in a situation where I would no doubt be tempted to focus on all the outside factors instead of my target. With that mindset, it took that feeling of performance pressure off and helped me shrug off all those mishits, knowing that even the worst holes would help me improve long term.

Setting Goals Unrelated To My Score

I don’t like to play a round without any goal, especially, as I mentioned in my second point, if a low score isn’t it. Small goals, like focusing on weight shift, exhaling before I swing, or not rushing my putting routine, help me stay focused from one hole to the next. My tendency is to focus on those new people watching my golf swing instead of my actual golf swing. To help, I’ve dialled in my pre-shot routine. I have a target and a swing thought to focus on.

During a recent golf outing, I made a small goal for myself that no matter what kind of shot it was, good or bad, I would take my time and complete my pre-shot routine on the next one. If I can do that before each shot, I’ve accomplished my goal and can feel good about it. Plus, it helps me hit better shots anyway!

Challenging Myself is a Big Confidence Booster

What started off as an insecurity has made me a stronger golfer. Playing with people who I previously labeled as intimidating, and having a great time, gave me the confidence that I can still pull off a decent round when I’m feeling that nervous energy. By knowing where I struggle and being able to adjust, I trust myself more now than ever to hold it together and be able to come back after a slow start.

During a recent three-day women’s tournament, I was playing with one friend and two women I had never met before. We ended up winning our flight and coming in third overall. I didn’t play well the first day. But, I trusted that I could turn it around the next day, and I did. Where one of us lacked, another made up for it. We all added value in our own ways. I would never have had that experience if I hadn’t trusted myself.

Expanding My Golf Circle

I’m a member at a private club, so I typically play only on my course with people I know, but now that I’ve put myself out there and joined up with other women who love golf as much as I do, I’m really looking forward to playing in different events and meeting more golfers.

At a recent guest day at my club, my partner and I struggled to find two guests available to play. We ended up getting paired with two women who I’d never met before. I’m so grateful for that day because now I have two new friends, members at another club, who I can reach out to for other guest days both at my home course and theirs.

Golf is the ultimate connector. A shared passion that brings people together who otherwise wouldn’t have met. That’s something I’ve learned to embrace, not shy away from, and it’s changed my whole outlook about the game.

Whitchurch is one of several clubs dotted around the northern suburbs of Cardiff, the Welsh capital, in this instance very close to where the M4 joins the A470, Wales' longest road.

This trunk route stretches all the way up to Llandudno, 186 miles away on the north coast, hitting the North Wales Expressway not far from the fine links at Conwy Golf Club, a fixture in the Golf Monthly Next 100.

The club was founded in 1914 and initially played over a nine-hole layout until it was extended to 18 holes in 1923. A young Ian Woosnam won the Welsh Professional Championship 40 years ago in 1986 at Whitchurch and Nigel Edwards, who played on four GB&I Walker Cup teams before captaining the side three times, is a member. He was victorious twice as a player and twice as a captain.

The green, green grass

You only need to look at Google maps to appreciate what an oasis the course here represents among Cardiff's northern residential suburbs of Whitchurch, Pantmawr and Rhiwbina, some five miles from the city centre.

Unusually, the first couple of holes – a testing downhill par 3 where water lurks, then a short gentle dogleg right – loop back to the clubhouse, from where a high-tech screen system then tells you when it is safe to tackle the blind tee shot on the par-5 3rd.

After another hole playing out along Pantmawr Road, this time a short par 4, you turn back for one of the best front-nine holes, the 432-yard 5th, which plays down, then up and round to the left to a very attractive and well-bunkered green.

The par-5 8th, playing in the opposite direction again, will prove a real test for faders and slicers as the fairway slopes down markedly from left to right, meaning that the right-hand trees must see more than their fair share of golfing action over the course of a season.

Chances and challenges

The excellent short par-4 9th and gettable par-5 10th then both play in a similar direction down towards the houses, with the latter offering a real birdie chance to help offset some of the tougher tests ahead.

You make your way back up on 11 and 12 to the tee of the lovely, downhill short par-3 13th near the clubhouse, where three sizable bunkers await anything short, left or right.

The run for home starts from an elevated tee on 14, which means that it won't necessarily play as long as its 433 yards on the card, although precision is undoubtedly required to safely navigate the trees on both sides.

A long par 3 then precedes two short par 4s before a suitably stout closing hole flanking the A470, which rises gently towards a testingly sloping green.

Essentials
Pantmawr Road, Whitchurch, Cardiff, CF14 7TD
Stats: par 71, 6,268 yards
Green Fees: £75wd and Sun after 11am; £225 weekday fourball

(prices correct at time of publication in June 2026)

Matt Fitzpatrick is a Major Champion and a 5-time PGA Tour winner, but he also has the best short game on the planet in 2026.

The Englishman ranks 1st for Strokes Gained: Around The Green over the past twelve months and he uses a very interesting method to achieve that success - cross-handed chipping.

So, if the world's best is blazing a trail with this lesser-seen technique, surely it can help you to sharpen up around the greens, right?

According to PGA pro Ged Walters, who has more than three decades of experience coaching golfers of all abilities, many amateur golfers would benefit from trying cross-handed chipping.

Improving your short game is a key way to shoot lower scores and cut your handicap in 2026, so Ged has broken down the technique and provided a simple to follow guide which can help you follow in Fitzpatrick's footsteps.

I even tried cross-handed chipping for myself, which you can see in the video below, and I loved the results...

Cross-Handed Chipping: PGA Pro Guide

Cross-handed chipping is a great way to prevent the trail hand taking over, which is a common amateur fault that leads to a scoopy action when using a conventional grip.

Many golfers try to help the ball in the air when chipping, but the reality is the club is designed to do all the hard work for you.

In the image here, I'm having to chip over a bunker to the green and this would scare some club golfers into stabbing at the ball to get it airborne.

But the cross-handed chipping method helps to keep everything connected and stable throughout the swing, often leading to better results for players who struggle with their short game.

To try cross-handed chipping, place your left hand below your right on the grip and stand closer to the ball, with the shaft more upright and your stance fairly narrow.

Place 70% of your weight onto your lead foot at address and keep it there throughout the swing.

Take the club away on what feels like a straight line, even though there will be a natural arc to it, and deliver it back on the same line in the downswing.

Allow a small amount of chest rotation throughout the downswing, maintaining connection between arms and chest as you move into impact and through to the finish.

A great drill when practising cross-handed chipping is to use your shirt to maintain connection. Tuck it under your lead armpit at address and focus on maintaining pressure there throughout the swing.

If you release your shirt from under your arm, you have lost connection and increased the risk of topping or thinning your chips.

You could also use a headcover or glove in practice, which can give you instant visual feedback, as the training aid will drop to the ground if you lose connection.

It’s infuriating. You hit a perfect drive, march off the tee with a spring in your step, and then arrive at your ball only to see it has nestled down in an unrepaired divot.

It’s less of a problem for the pros who have the know-how to escape poor lies - just pop the ball back in the stance a little to encourage a steeper angle of attack and get that ball-first strike.

Playing from difficult lies is all part of the game, of course, and something we should all learn how to do.

However, if you come to rest in a huge crater (a slight exaggeration, maybe), you have every right to feel a little unfortunate (and angry).

Never mind that, of greater importance is the effect it has on the condition of the golf course, and the extra work it creates for the greenkeepers.

I’ve travelled fairly extensively around the UK this year, playing golf up and down the country, and I’m seeing more unrepaired divots than ever before.

So, why is this the case?

It’s a question I’ve put to many of the golfers I’ve played with, both members and casual players.

At the top of the list, I believe, is mixed messaging. “I’ve always thought it’s the job of the greenkeepers,” one person told me, adding that he believed that was their request at his club, because they would ensure it was replaced properly.

Very honest.

In fairness, maybe some greenkeepers prefer to do this job themselves, as they know they can replace divots correctly, therefore ensuring that it knits nicely back together.

Speak to most greenkeepers, though, and they’ll tell you that they’d rather be focusing their efforts elsewhere and that repairing a divot is actually really simple.

When a nice, clean slice of turf is taken - i.e., it’s still intact with its soil and roots - you should just replace it and then use your feet to apply a bit of pressure and smooth it out.

To help the healing process, it's also important to place the divot back in the correct orientation, too.

However, when a divot separates into lots of parts, you can do more harm than good by attempting to stamp all the little pieces back into place - it just won’t re-root to the ground.

Lots of clubs will provide a divot mix for these situations, where the job is on you to fill the hole evenly to just below and nearly level with the turf surface.

I suspect that in lots of cases, there’s still a lack of awareness around the correct procedure and what you should and shouldn’t do when you create a divot.

Some courses in the UK have artisan sections, which are made up of members who will typically pay a reduced rate but provide unpaid manual labor to help maintain the course.

And a fine job they do, too, which is something I’ve witnessed at my home club, Formby Golf Club in Merseyside.

Does having an artisan section give you the freedom to leave your divots where they lie? I would suggest not, for the longer that piece of turf is left loose, the less chance it has of knitting back together.

Perhaps the increase in the number of unrepaired divots - and I should stress that this is just my own general observation - is down to an influx of new players.

I’m not blaming beginners. Maybe golf clubs aren’t doing a good enough job of reminding members and visitors of the etiquette around repairing divots and pitch marks.

I’ve seen some players replace divots on the tees, which also suggests there is some confusion around the dos and don’ts.

Either use some divot mix or leave it for the greenkeepers, because no one wants to be teeing up their ball on a wobbly bit of turf or lose their footing on a loose divot.

In many cases, however, it’s laziness - experienced golfers who should know better, but leave the job for someone else to do. It’s the equivalent of littering.

An unrepaired divot can take months to heal. They also tend to leave unsightly scars, and create unfavorable playing conditions. Basically, we all suffer.

If you're one of the guilty ones, consider yourself told off. See some walk on without repairing theirs… have a quiet word.

End of lecture.

As golf days begin appearing in diaries, golfers tend to fall into two camps: those who are looking forward to the day out and those who have only just remembered they agreed to play in it.

Golf clubs are dusted off, old golf shoes are unearthed from the back of cupboards, and people who haven't swung a club for months, sometimes years, start wondering how on earth they will make it around 18 holes. As a full time coach I receive many phone calls that goes something like this:

“I’ve got a golf day coming up and haven’t touched a club since last summer.”

“My company golf day is in a few weeks and I don’t want to embarrass myself.

“I’ve got a golf day on Friday. Help!”

At the other end of the spectrum are people who have attended a golf day as a non-golfer, watched clients, colleagues or friends enjoying themselves, and thought: “I’d quite like to be part of this next year.” They may be complete beginners who have never owned a set of clubs, never had a lesson and have little idea where to start.

The good news is that whether you’re dusting off a set of clubs after a long break or picking up a golf club for the very first time, the principles are surprisingly similar.

The aim isn’t to become a scratch golfer overnight. It’s to build enough confidence and consistency to enjoy yourself, contribute to your team and feel comfortable stepping onto the first tee. Now how you prepare depends entirely on how much time you have available. Here are my top tips for any golfers with a golf day looming…

Complete Beginner

Recommended Preparation Time: 3 Months

Three months gives a complete beginner enough time to learn the fundamentals, build some confidence and feel comfortable on the golf course. It’s not about becoming a great golfer in that time frame; it’s about reaching the point where you can enjoy the day, keep moving and surprise yourself with some decent shots along the way.

In three months, with a lesson every couple of weeks and a bit of practice in between, most beginners can:

Learn the basics

Grip, posture and setup, correct ball positions and what each club does will help build your foundational knowledge.

Get the ball airborne consistently

A ball in the air does tend to travel further and is far more satisfying.

Develop a reliable tee shot

By reliable I mean 3/5 more or less go where you want them to, and this isn’t about distance, it’s very much about keeping the ball in play.

Understand the key rules and etiquette

Watch some YouTube videos, but most importantly try to get some real experience out on the course. This part of the game can feel a bit of a faff but if you are unconfident about rules and etiquette, this can distract you from the shots and task at hand.

Gain enough confidence to play without feeling overwhelmed

This will come from on-course experience and knowing what to do and when. If you can’t get to the course, even practicing on a range with ball tracking technology and virtual golf will be useful.

To help you achieve the above though, there will have to be some backstage work going on too, such as obtaining a decent set of clubs that suit your ability. You can do that by splashing the cash and getting custom fit for some brand new ones, or if you are on a budget, look to have a secondhand set customised for you.

You will also need to research and plan where and how often you can practice and find someone who can start taking you out on the course to learn the basics of etiquette.

I absolutely love coaching beginners and always do all I can to help those new to the game obtain the equipment and experience they need and have seen many people progress from having never picked up a golf club to happy golfers in this time frame.

Haven’t Touched A Club For Years

Recommended Preparation Time: 1 Month

This is probably the most common type of golfer I see and I can usually tell how close the golf day is by their sense of urgency, panic and the state of their bag and clubs. The good news is that they are in the right place, as having a golf lesson first is always the best idea. It can avoid the pain of trying to get things sorted yourself and can save hours of frustration. The goal is to:

Brush up on the basics

A good grip, setup and posture can work wonders for producing consistent swings.

Prioritise strike consistency over perfect technique

Getting the feeling of the ball off the clubface and keeping the ball in play is way more important than smacking it a long way but ending up two fairways across. This is as much for you as it is for your playing partners, no one enjoys spending the day constantly looking for golf balls.

Check your equipment

Golf equipment technology has come a long way, year to year you will not see much difference, but if it has been more than five years, it is well worth trying some new options. If your clubs are okay, check the grips. New grips are a great way to freshen up a set.

It’s not just about the clubs though. Try on your golf shoes, are they still comfortable? Treat yourself to some of the best golf balls and a fresh glove. If your bag is sun faded and there are remnants of decomposed food, a mouldy banana is the classic, then it’s time to check the bag wall of your local golf shop.

Chip, chip, chip, putt, putt, putt!!

It’s the short game shots that add up quickly. Practicing them will undoubtedly make the biggest difference to your score and contribution to the day.

Get out on the course

Pry yourself from the driving range and get out there, if possible play at least one or two rounds before the big day. The course will quickly expose any areas that need some work and remind you that fairways, rough and bunkers exist.

Remember what the day is about

It is meant to be fun, a day out for everybody, not just you, so make sure you manage yourself and your expectations. Nobody is expecting perfection and nobody will care how good you used to be. Stay in the here and now, hit a few good shots and enjoy the social.

I’ve Got A Golf Day This Friday And I’m Hitting It Terribly!

The first thing is to take a deep breath. If you have been playing badly there is a good chance you are overthinking, overreacting and overcorrecting each bad shot. Having a golf lesson doesn’t have to mean swing surgery. Explain to the pro your situation. I regularly help golfers get course ready by making the most of what they have got by focusing on the following;

Control the Controllables

Even if you have a terrible grip, a pro won’t move anything to make it uncomfortable. Just an adjustment on grip pressure can have a profound impact on the swing, as can a tweak with the setup.

Find the Strike

Simple soft half swings to find the middle of the club are a great way to gain confidence and this works particularly well with the driver if you are struggling to hit it straight. Once comfortable, build up to fuller, softer swings and then onto full speed normal swings.

Practice the shots you will need

Find out what tees you will be playing from and practice the par-3 tee shots. Look at the distances of the longer holes and work out what clubs you will likely need for your second shots if you hit an okay drive. This type of focused practice is a great way to take some of the fear out of the unknown, as you will have practiced for what you will potentially face.

As above, remember you are part of a team and the whole day is not focused on your performance. Everyone will be far more focused on themselves to care too much about what you’re doing.

Final Thoughts

So, whether you are beginner, returner or in last minute panic prep mode, there are things you can do to increase your chances of having a nice day and that’s what it’s all about.

Focusing on the simple things, the marginal gains, will do wonders for helping you to feel confident for the day. Golf really is the game of the unexpected and it is often those moments that make it memorable and fun; the thinned chip that went in, the terrible bounce off a tree, a 30 foot putt rolled in, the five attempts to get out of a bunker.

We’ve all had and understand those moments, it’s part of what makes it so fun! Try your best to keep the ball moving forward and if things don’t go to plan, don’t be the golfer who lets it ruin the day. Everyone is giving up their time to be there. The golfers people enjoy spending a day with aren’t always the best players. They are the ones who keep things in perspective, celebrate the good shots, laugh off the bad ones and contribute to the atmosphere of the occasion.

We all want to get better and lower our scores, and while practising any part of your game is going to help, it’s important to know how you can make the greatest improvements in the quickest time, so you can deliver your focus there and work more efficiently.

If you’ve only got a limited amount of time to work on your game, you want to spend it targeting something that’s going to have the biggest possible positive impact on your scoring.

Thanks to the data and insights provided by Shot Scope, we’ve pinpointed five types of shot where you will see the biggest rewards from your hard work and commitment to get better and knock shots off your scores.

1. Fairway-finder off the tee

It all starts with hitting the fairway off the tee. The Shot Scope stats tell us that hitting the short grass compared to a fairway bunker saves half a shot, and the gains are even bigger if you’re avoiding tee shots heading out of bounds or into penalty areas.

Having a consistent shot with the driver that you can rely on hitting accurately will set you up for the rest of the hole.

We need to make some changes from a normal driver set-up. First, tee the ball down lower. I would normally have about half the ball above the top of the clubhead, but for this shot I want the top of the ball in line with the top of the clubhead or just a fraction higher.

From there, narrow the stance a little to naturally reduce the length of the backswing and grip down a little to gain a bit more control. I want to swing at 75% because we’re going for control rather than power. The ball flight will naturally come down, which gets the ball on the ground and running a bit quicker, which is easier to control and keep in play.

2. The Long Approach Shot

It’s very obvious that if you hit more greens in regulation then your scores are going to come down, and this distance where a lot of handicap golfers will be hitting long irons and hybrids makes a big difference. A typical 15-handicapper will hit the green 15% of the time from 150-200 yards, while that doubles to 30% for a five-handicapper.

I see a lot of golfers trying to help the ball up in the air with long irons because they’re looking down at a pretty flat clubface, which means their weight stays back. You want to get your weight moving forward through the shot, so you’re hitting down and striking ball then turf.

I like to use a drill where you get a feel for shifting your weight back and through by stepping your left foot back towards your right foot as you swing back and stepping towards the target with your left and then right foot as you swing down and through (vice versa for left-handers).

This is an exaggerated version to build the right feelings. Then you can just lift your front foot as you swing back and lift your back foot as you swing through. For your actual swing while hitting shots, you want to feel the pressure transfer into your back foot as you take the club away, then once the club goes out of view you start moving your weight back to the target to really get through the ball.

There are also clubs that can help you. Hybrids and lofted fairway woods are more forgiving and produce a higher ball flight than long irons. I think most golfers would benefit from using these clubs for this type of shot, but you still need to get your weight forward. Anything that makes the game easier is a good thing.

3. Pitch shots inside 75 yards

These are the types of shots you’ll face a lot – whether it’s attacking for birdie on par 5s and shorter par 4s, or scrambling for par on long par 4s or if you’ve been out of position – and the difference to your score between a good or bad pitch can often be two strokes or more.

The Shot Scope data reveals that the average 20-handicapper only hits the green 49% of the time from 50-75 yards. You’re usually missing greens from this kind of range because of a poor strike.

I have a system to help with distance control and strike. For a standard pitch, I want the ball to be relatively central in my stance, and my feet relatively narrow, with the hands slightly forwards.

If I want to change the length and trajectory of the shot, I put the ball a bit further forward for a higher shot and a bit further back for a lower shot. As I want to hit the ball a bit further for each ball position, I would increase the width of my stance to allow me to make a slightly bigger swing.

You can build your feel and calibrate your distances to each of these different set-ups by doing a ladder drill where you use one swing length and gradually increase the width of your stance to hit the ball slightly further each time. Do this with the three different ball positions and you’ll have a wide range of different pitch shots that you can hit simply and consistently.

4. Long approach putts

Reducing three-putts is vital for saving shots. The average 25-handicapper has 5.8 three-putts in a round, while that’s 3.5 for 15-handicappers and just 1.5 for five-handicappers. A big part of avoiding three-putts is lagging long-range putts to easy tap-in range, and distance control is key to that.

Speed is so crucial when putting. We want a constant and consistent swinging clubhead to control speed. The last thing we want is a swing that’s too short and accelerating through the ball, or too long and decelerating. I like to use the leapfrog drill.

Give yourself a long putt and try to hit one ball a third of the way, the second ball two thirds and the final ball all the way to the hole. You do that by keeping the same tempo but changing the length of the stroke. Consistency and control also come from striking the putt out the center of the face – and that gets harder as the putt and the stroke gets longer.

A good drill for this is to use a tee gate just slightly wider that your putter head. Hit puts with the ball in the middle of the gate and if your clubhead passes through then you’ll strike the ball out the middle.

5. Holing-out inside six feet

The shots saved and lost here are more obvious than anywhere else, because we’re all expecting to hole them and one shot has definitely slipped away if you don’t. Shot Scope data shows that from 3-6 feet a 20-handicapper is only holing 55% of their putts, a 10-handicapper is 65%, and it’s still what most people would consider a surprisingly low 76% for scratch players. You’re not going to hole them all, but you want drain more than your fair share.

It’s all about alignment. As we get closer to the hole, alignment becomes more important. I took my son to the BMW PGA Championship. He got some balls from the players and every single one of them had a line on it. The idea of the line is to aim it where you want your ball to start, and then you align the putter head to the line on the ball.

If you hit the ball squarely then that ball will start on-line, roll end over end and go in the hole if you’ve aimed it in the right place. This also gives you great feedback because a wobbly line shows you haven’t struck it squarely and a miss with your intended start line and good speed indicates a misread, which you can learn from.

Many of us are tinkerers when it comes to our golf equipment, constantly changing things to find the secret to lower scores. I usually like to keep my kit consistent but after a particularly barren spell on the greens, I decided to try the TaylorMade TP5 Stripe ball and the results blew me away.

Why am I telling you this? Well because it highlighted a crucial mistake I was making on the greens. It’s also on offer this Amazon Prime Day at 16% off, so it’s the perfect time to cash in and start knocking in more putts.

After a couple of very frustrating rounds on the greens I decided to actually film myself hitting some putts and what I saw completely shocked me. Now obviously when you’re stood over the ball you’re trying to aim the putter at your intended target, so on a straight putt I’m trying to get the small line on my L.A.B Golf DF3 putter lined up with the middle of the hole.

This is exactly what I thought I was doing, that was until I watched the video back and noticed I wasn’t doing that at all. In fact I was aiming significantly right of my intended target and pulling the ball back online.

So I needed some visual feedback or assistance on what straight or perfect alignment actually looked like and the TP5 Stripe is the perfect solution. The vivid cues train your eyes to see what straight actually looks like and you then have the framework to match your putter’s sightline to it. It feels like cheating, frankly, but it’s allowed under the Rules of Golf and nearly every tour pro uses a line of some sort on their ball to help them.

I put it in play on the course and the results were immediate. I got so frustrated with how I was putting during a competition that I started using it mid round. It was the 11th hole I believe where having holed nothing up until that point I then nonchalantly rolled in a 15-footer for birdie with about 18 inches of break, followed by a 9-foot putt for par on the following hole. Clearly, there was something in this.

I’ve stuck with it ever since and it has been working really well. I only use it from around 12 feet and in - anything outside of that there are too many other variables that negate its effectiveness and it’s harder to see if it’s pointing where you want to from further away.

It still looks off sometimes so I’m still learning to trust it, but it has undoubtedly simplified my approach in that my sole focus is to line up the line on my putter with the lines on the ball and hit the ball along it, especially on short putts where the pace control is almost automatic or subconscious.

Another added benefit is that the TP5 is an excellent all-round golf ball that even back-to-back Masters champion Rory McIlroy recently switched to. So if it's good enough for him...

TaylorMade has since released a new version of the TP5 and TP5x Stripe ball for 2026 but I think many golfers would benefit from the wider, for visually obvious stripe on this previous version. Don’t forget you can use it off the tee too!

Amateur golfers often wonder how best to use their time before a round or organise their practice in general.

Turning up and machine-gunning through a bucket of balls is something you should never do on the driving range, but sadly so many amateur golfers totally neglect their short game in favour of more time with big stick in hand.

But, if you want to cut your handicap in 2026, you need to flip the script. Our short game clinic and ultimate putting improvement guide are a great place to start, as they provide top tips from expert coaches, but you still need a clear routine to follow.

In order to help you put together a consistent and effective 30-minute short-game practice routine, we reached out to a Top 50 Coach with more than 30 years of experience helping golfers to shoot lower scores.

Below, Keith shares how committing to half an hour of practice time can seriously sharpen up your short game...

30-Minute Short Game Practice Routine

Short Putting

When faced with a short putt, focus on a specific point at the back of the hole, commit to a ‘followthrough and hold' position and be more conscious of where your follow-through ends.

It's a bit like a full swing – if you focus on where it needs to finish, the journey can take care of itself. Avoid anything too technical just before you play.

A simple drill to narrow your focus is to reduce the size of the hole with tee pegs to get you really focused on the centre of the hole – two at the front, just wide enough to get the ball through, and one at the back as a target.

Instead of trying to hit the hole, which is just over 4ins wide, focus centrally on something as small as the stem of a tee peg. You then have 2ins either side in case you pull or push it.

Here, our intention is to hit the back of the hole. So, hold the follow-through and be aware of where the putter finishes. You will find you accelerate to that point, which will help you to keep the putter face on line and squarer for longer.

Long Putts

In preparation for your round, and assuming that you are comfortable with the mechanics of your putting stroke, you need to create a feel for, and rapport with, your target.

A great drill for long putts is to look at the hole while swinging the putter backwards and forwards in your practice strokes.

This builds your natural awareness of the distance to the hole through your eyes and is more effective than staring down at the ball with an occasional look.

Our eyes are pivotal when it comes to aiming and judging distance. If you're throwing a dart or rolling a ball on a bowling green, your eyes are the most important thing. We all have an in-built skill to judge distance through our eyes.

Try and get away from worrying about the length of your stroke too much. Instead, stare at that target and build up a visual for what a 40ft putt requires. When you take your practice swings, stare at the hole and swing the putter.

You're not actually analysing how you're swinging that club. Rather, you are analysing subconsciously through your eyes how far away the hole is. So, establish a rapport with the target and then step straight in and execute.

Ball Above Your Feet

It's important that you don't just practise your chipping from perfect lies, as you'll get all sorts of lies out on the golf course. It's therefore important to learn how to manage slopes.

When the ball is above your feet, keep it simple. Stand a bit further away as it becomes a slightly flatter action, and get right down to the bottom of the grip to naturally shorten the club.

Now you've factored in that the ball is a few inches above you. Also, lower your hands slightly so the toe doesn't dig into the slope.

Now, just make the usual move with the torso as you've taken care of impact by gripping down. Favour the balls of your feet with your weight as it's easy to sit into your heels due to the slope. Finally, allow for the ball to move a little left.

As with any awkward lie, focus on maintaining stability for a decent contact. Be realistic with expectations and what constitutes a good shot from this lie.

Ball Below Your Feet

This lie is quite awkward. You don't want to put your weight on your toes because it will feel like you're toppling down the hill, so people generally sit in their heels, which straightens the spine angle.

It's almost impossible to get the club back to the ball properly then. Instead, tilt a bit more from your hips to lower yourself a little and hold the grip at full length.

You need to get the shaft as tall as possible to avoid the heel making contact with the slope, as this can flip the toe of the club over.

Lob Shot

This is a risky shot as it involves additional moving parts. You can stand slightly open or square if you're more comfortable.

Many golfers tend to complicate things and, if you're a bit worried about a shank, opening yourself up means an across-the-line hit, which increases the risk.

This is one of the few shots where you don't want the club releasing via rotation of your forearms.

Try and keep your glove's logo pointing skywards so it stays above the other hand. This will keep loft on the clubface.

Hinge your wrists to get the club steeper in the backswing and to create an aggressive angle of attack for added height and flight.

Push down on the butt of the club with your gloved hand to promote the hinge motion. It's a longer swing, so commit through the ball and keep the upper body rotating into a full-ish finish.

Greenside Bunker Shot

The only interaction you have with the sand as you prepare to play from a bunker is through your feet, and this will give you your first impression of what that sand is like.

Then it's about securing your stance – it's a longer swing than a standard chip and you don't want to slip. How much you lower yourself into the sand with your feet (top left photo) will automatically set your divot's depth – the low point of your swing.

I would then recommend the line drill, which is all about whether or not you can direct the club onto the desired point of impact in the sand behind the ball. Can you hit that spot with a bit of energy and keep the energy going?

You won't get any better feedback than this. If you hit one fat, it will be behind the line. If you don't hit the line at all, you know you've thinned it.

The depth of divot will also highlight how you are swinging it. So, practise your ability to hit a certain point by drawing a line in the practice bunker and trying to make contact as close to it as possible.

Chip And Release

This is all about ‘collecting' the ball, with the follow-through and finish position crucial.

Stand tall with the toe of the club more in contact with the ground than the heel. Adopt a narrow stance with weight favouring your lead leg, ball slightly back and hands down the grip.

Take enough loft to carry any fringe or obstacle, but with the strength of loft to give you your desired roll/release. Then rock your shoulders, with hands and arms simply moving with the shoulders.

Having the toe down minimises contact with the ground. It won't impact your follow-through unless you decelerate, hence why rocking the shoulders is pivotal.

Not everybody can ‘get' the feeling of the shoulders going up and down, so think about moving the V of your forearms. It's all about getting your forearms going backwards and forwards in that V, with minimal hand/wrist action.

When it comes to my opinion about the World Handicap System (WHS) I feel a little like my voice has been swept under the carpet somewhat. The ‘not that same old argument again’ opposition. I feel like a right-wing politician whose opinion on the effect the WHS has had on destroying the great traditions of the game is so controversial, and against the majority vote, that I’m rarely allowed to voice it.

I’ve been told to ‘put up and shut up’ countless times over the last six years, but the truth is that nothing has changed. Everything that was wrong about the introduction of the WHS right from its global inception in 2020 is still wrong. Our golf clubs are even more full of over-handicapped bandits who win all the competitions.

Single-figure golfers, like me, are still only competing for one or two opportunities to win a year, usually in a scratch event. Opens are still being won with ridiculously good scores. Scores that before the WHS were inconceivable - they just didn’t exist. These crazy high scores have even filtered down into our county and club competitions now, the ‘major’ pieces of silverware are nearly always won by players who were formerly off a semi-decent low-to-mid handicap (like a 12) who are now playing off something as much as 10 digits higher in the twenties.

The result is they only need one or two good games a year, when they tap into all those former good player skills they still have in their armoury, to record a remarkable points score in the high forties and fifties. Just writing those numbers makes me angry. It’s a complete farce.

In effect, to have any hope of contending in the same competitions as these players, I’d have to shoot 10-under my handicap. I play off a handicap index of 1.3, so what you’re asking me to do is shoot sixty! It’s totally ludicrous. If I was that good I’d be out on tour!

Players who share the same sentiment as me have started to boycott the Opens this year by refusing to enter them. I heard from one of the most wonderful local clubs (where a full-price green fee would be over £100 a round) that they had to cancel their Open this year due to low entry take-up. How very sad.

Personally, I’ve still carried on taking part and putting my entry money in the pot, marking competition cards twice a week at the two courses I play, and yes I’ll play in Opens if I’m asked to join a team for a fun away day out. In the last nine months alone I’ve recorded 20 competition rounds. My handicap index has barely fluctuated because my scores have been steady, rather than spectacular, and I have won one piece of silverware.

I’m not a pot hunter, but I am competitive. The point of golf is that it’s a sport that we are taking part in to try to win. Yes, it’s fun and sociable, but if you’re a single-figure player then part of the fun of competition is trying to win. And the sad truth is that the game is now rewarding the mediocre players who don’t put in the work.

The ones who only mark the occasional scorecard because they mainly play social golf. Those who, on paper, are protecting their handicap (some deliberately but most accidentally.) The ones who aren’t really following the WHS rules of the system by marking enough cards. They hardly submit cards at all.

According to WHS guidance these “regular informal” rounds, such as roll-ups, should be classed as “organised competitions” with scores returned by players. I never, ever see this happening.

As a result the new WHS system rarely rewards the players who are actively trying their very hardest to improve. Those players who spend time on the range, work on their short game skills, take lessons and practice. We are now like the forgotten players at our clubs. The ones who formerly used to win multiple board competitions every year due to our consistency, back when a score of 37, 38, 39 points was enough. Even carding the odd 40 points, which was occasionally achievable.

But now the winning scores are seldom less than 40 points. And with a hundred players in the field on trophy days there’s almost no chance of winning, as quite a few of them will be playing off falsely high handicaps. Don’t even get me started on society handicaps - they are even more wildly wrong!

I had a long conversation with England Golf on this subject two years ago, after I wrote about the WHS for the second time. They were adamant that it was each golf club’s individual responsibility to ensure that the bandits had their handicaps cut on general play. Sure, there are probably a few examples of golfers who have been cut on general play by handicap committees if they still exist or club managers if they don’t, but most of the time the crazy good scores get ignored, or even worse, applauded. They are just seen as the new ‘norm’.

In fact, the majority of golfers I speak to don’t want a handicap cut - they want to go up! Where has the pride in a low handicap gone? I know of several women who I play golf with who have gone into the club office and asked for their handicaps to be put up! I'd love to hear your comments on WHS in the comments box below.

They’re the ones who’ve simply realised that they can no longer compete. Yet they are also the ones who can’t be bothered to mark countless scorecards, especially extra day cards that count for nothing, to help their handicap go up. I suppose you could call them lazy but these players really do exist and it makes a mockery of the game.

Naturally, many of you reading this will be thinking, well if she has such strong opinions of the WHS system why doesn’t she suggest a solution? Quite frankly, I’ve gone over this time and time again in my head and I just can’t find one, other than to go back to the way things were. The world simply doesn’t work like that - we never go back.

The trouble is that the WHS and handicaps are self-regulating. It requires us to be honest enough about our ability level and say if we think we are over-handicapped. To do something about it. Personally, I’d be totally embarrassed if I used to play off a half decent handicap and had gone wildly up, but was now winning club competitions and opens with outrageous scores. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be the case. Because the problem is so widespread and has penetrated every ability level now that it’s virtually impossible to change, unless the governing bodies intervene.

As for me, I’m having to find new ways of making the game fun. The lure of winning the ‘one division’ competition has long gone. I accept that when I enter these tournaments I’m not going to stand a chance of winning. So instead, I’m competing for my own personal pride of shooting a good score.

Our wonderful Lady Captain, who writes a weekly e-newsletter to the section, has taken to adding in the ‘lowest gross score’ as a mention. Not because that player wins any prize money, a trophy or gets on a competition board for acclaim, but simply because she acknowledges that if we shoot a level par round of golf and get 36 points, then it should be applauded. That, along with my continued pursuit of getting down to a scratch handicap, for the time being is enough satisfaction for me until something might be done.

For years, ‘tee it high, let it fly’ has been a golfing proverb many of us have lived by in hopes of maximising distance when hitting a driver. But does this one-size-fits-all approach to hitting the ball further actually carry any truth or is there more to this old adage?

As someone who plays golf in varying conditions throughout the calendar year and often plays around with tee height, I wanted to run a test to see just how much tee height influences driver performance.

I gathered my Foresight Sports GC3 launch monitor and six different heights of castle tees, ranging from 1-inch green tee to a 2 ¾ inch orange tee and took them to the Golf Monthly Performance Lab in order to see what the data actually says and eliminate any external variables.

The Experiment

For this test, I hit 5 drives with each off the specific tee heights and took the averages in order to reach a conclusion. The heights of the tees tested were as follows:

Green - 1", Red - 1.25", Blue - 1.5", White - 2", Pink - 2.25", Orange - 2.75".

I was looking closely at how tee height affected key metrics, including ball speed, spin rate, peak height, carry distance, and total distance.

The Low Tees

Starting with the lowest tee in my experiment - the 1-inch Green tee, and straight away it felt like a compromised setup, where the ball almost appeared as though it was on the deck. For this experiment, I was using Titleist Pro V1 golf balls and my TaylorMade Qi4D driver, which, like many of the best drivers on the market these days, is 460cc, and so naturally I was likely to see the strike somewhat low on the clubface.

The numbers reflected this struggle. My ball speed clocked in at 155.9 mph, and the spin rate was incredibly low at 1949 rpm, with the peak height measuring a mere 58 feet. The result? A shorter (for my standard) 258-yard carry and 284 yards total.

Moving slightly up to the 1 ¼-inch Red tee clawed back some of the ball speed I had lost on the shortest tee (160.6 mph) and moved the spin into a far more playable window of 2475 rpm, enhancing the total distance up to 293 yards.

The Middle Ground

As we moved into the middle ground of tee heights, the 1 ½-inch Blue and 2-inch White things started to stabilize, and I saw the metrics fall much closer to what I would typically see when using my 'standard' tee height (half a ball above the crown of the driver). My ball speeds settled in the 161 mph range, and the carry distances consistently hovered in the low 270s.

This is the height of tee where a lot of amateur golfers tend to live, where finding the center of the clubface requires little manipulation and simply returning the club to the address position at impact - easier said than done, I’m aware. The club did seem to find the center of the face fairly consistently, albeit, I knew there was still meat left on the bone.

The Sweet Spot

When I moved to the 2 ¼-inch Pink tee, that’s when I really saw the performance leap, and I felt truly back in my comfort zone. This height provided the absolute perfect recipe for my specific launch conditions and angle of attack - typically hitting the ball around 3 to 4° on the up with the driver.

My ball speed jumped to the highest that I’d seen so far in the session (162.8 mph), but more importantly, I was striking the ball ever so slightly higher on the face, which dropped the spin rate down to a far more efficient 2349 rpm. Due to the height of the tee, I was able to launch and fly the ball higher (104 feet peak height), and it was this combination of launch and spin that saw my yardage creep up to where I would like to see it out on the golf course.

My carry jumped to 283.7 yards, and the total distance maxed out at a massive 304.9 yards. By simply moving from a 1-inch tee to a 2 ¼-inch tee, I gained a staggering 25 yards of carry and 20 yards of total distance. No change in the driver, shaft, or clubhead speed (all between 111-113mph), simply teeing the ball up at a different height, saw me pick up yardage that most golfers would kill for!

The Tipping Point

Now I’ve hit what I would consider my usual/fairly optimum launch conditions with the 2 ¼-inch, I thought, surely I could only make more gains by using the tallest tee - the 2 ¾-inch Orange tee?

This is where I truly felt as though I’d busted the ‘tee it high and let it fly’ mantra. When I pegged it up to 2 ¾ inches, I all of a sudden really struggled to find consistency in strike and began changing my swing to compensate and try to make solid contact. In order not to just strike the ball off the top of the head, my mechanics shifted, and the data showed exactly that.

My ball speed dropped slightly, but it was the spin that was the real killer. My spin rate spiked to 2750 rpm, and the ball reached an average peak height of 125 feet. While you would think I could hit more up on the ball, effectively dropping spin, I found myself actually hitting slightly down on the ball to purely ensure contact, which was what was causing the spin to actually creep up.

Because I was searching for strike, I wasn’t hitting the ball efficiently, spinning it up and causing the ball to fly too high, which saw my carry number fall to 277.3 yards. The total also then plummeted to 297.3 yards - over 7 yards shorter than the Pink tee.

The Verdict

So, how much does tee height matter? The answer is quite simply, a lot.

I think the most important takeaway from this test is that while the ball speed gradually rose, as did the carry and total distances, there was clearly an optimal tee height for me and that will be the case for all golfers as we all swing the club differently. For some, that may be a higher tee, and for those with a more downward attack angle, it could be a lower tee.

What I found, though, was that there was a point of diminishing returns. Once I took the test to the highest tee after finding some really solid numbers with the pink tee, I struggled with strike and consistency, and that ultimately robbed me of distance.

So, the next time you head out to the driving range or for some practice on the golf course, don't just blindly grab a handful of tees and peg it at a random height. Spend some time experimenting with different tee heights and study the ball flights and the distances you’re hitting it, even better if you can spend some time analysing reliable data on one of the best launch monitors.

Recent PGA Championship winner, Aaron Rai, uses a pink castle tee, as he’s found that height gives him optimal launch conditions and allows him to consistently tee it up at the same height without guessing how far he’s actually pushing a regular tee into the ground.

Find the tee height that gives you that perfect high-launch, low-spin window as well as the most centered strikes, and once you find your version of the 2 ¼-inch Pink tee, stick to it. It’s the easiest (and most affordable) route to consistently longer distance you’ll ever gain.

Getting old is a pain. It’s lots of pains actually, a new one most days. One of the biggest pains I’ve noticed in the last couple of years as I move into my late 40s is that I’ve started to lose distance on the golf course.

It seemingly happened suddenly but no doubt it crept up on me and I just didn’t notice, until it was significant enough to notice.

But I wasn’t getting past bunkers I previously wouldn’t think about. I was hitting more club into par-3s than before, despite using irons with softer shafts and a little more forgiveness.

‘This is it,’ I thought. ‘This is old age beginning. I better get used to it and adapt.’ I was sort of alright with that – One can still make birdies hitting longer clubs into greens.

Losing distance doesn’t prevent you getting better around the greens (I certainly need some improvement there). I just reckoned on developing different skills to hitting a long ball.

A few weeks ago I played with a pal of mine, for the first time in a year or so, who is a very good player. A former professional and now a +4 handicapper. He’s always been a great swinger of the club and a long hitter.

But during our medal round, I was taken aback by how far he was striping it. The 5^th hole at my club Banchory is 366 yards on the flat. It was slightly downwind (not much,) and he drove it to the heart of the green. I (and the group ahead who were putting) were astounded.

It wasn’t a one-off – he was hitting it a long way with every club, all the way round. I was trailing miles behind and felt like a weak and feeble old mannie.

After the game in the clubhouse bar, I asked him what had happened. He seemed to have gained 25 yards off the tee since the last time we played.

His answer – The Stack System speed trainer. It’s a tool Matt Fitzpatrick used to help him gain the extra yardage he needed to become a world-beater. A number of other top pros have used it.

My pal reckons he has gained at least 10mph of ball speed with driver and is now averaging over 170mph… that’s quick enough for amateur golf!

I wondered if he had done anything else, other fitness, weight training etc. But no, nothing was changed to his routines other than using the Stack and the accompanying training programme.

I went straight home and ordered one.

I should say – this is not an advertorial. I paid for this piece of equipment and nobody has asked me to try it. There are other options on the market – Rypstick, SuperSpeed Golf… I’m sure they do the same thing… I just opted for Stack as that was what my mate had!

Have you gone through a speed training programme? Are you using a similar tool? If so, let me know in the comments box below.

Basically, the Stack is a sensor on the end of a shaft with interchangeable metal weights. As I say, there are plenty of similar weighted “clubs” on the market that either help you swing faster or gain a better rhythm, depending on their design.

The key thing about the Stack System is the associated app and the training programme that comes with it.

With the package you also get a speed radar that will pair with the app on your mobile device to send data about your swing so you can chart your progress.

The training starts with a baseline session. I’ve just been doing these in my garden – as the image above shows! I stick the speed radar and my phone on an old bucket on the lawn and just swing away in front of them! I do put golf shoes on as you need good grip, and it’s a good idea to wear a glove as your hands can get sweaty… It’s quite hard work.

You complete a warm-up – it’s 16 minutes and involves quite a bit of challenging stretching. I should say, it is absolutely crucial to the whole process. It’s amazing how much better you can swing after warming up properly…. No wonder the pros do it!

You then follow the instructions, completing sets of swings with different weight configurations to show where you are to start with. I was not impressive. A baseline driver head speed of 93mph…

I must confess, at that point, I wasn’t fully sure what I was doing so I don’t think I gave absolute commitment to swinging as hard as I could, but it gave somewhere to start.

You then begin to follow the programme, completing a session every three days or so. You go through the warmup and then do the weighted swing repetitions.

You are encouraged to give these swings (near) max intensity and sometimes to give the swing max intensity, to the point where you’re almost losing your balance.

The idea is to convince your brain that your body can move faster and, by doing so, you engrain that speed.

I’ve only been doing it for a couple of weeks, but I can already notice a difference on the course.

My numbers have gone up and after just seven sessions, my potential driver speed has increased to 104mph. My potential distance with driver has gone up from 256 yards to 280 yards… That is potential of course and, you have to take into account that, as with anything, you get more proficient at swinging the Stack itself as you do more sessions.

But - I played a match on Tuesday night, and I have no doubt I was hitting the ball a good 10 yards further from the tee. My playing partner commented on it.

I am also hitting it further through the bag… Just a little, but a couple or three yards with a 7-iron I reckon.

I can see from ball speeds at the range that I have gone from 108mph with a 7-iron to 111mph on average. That’s a pretty big jump in just two weeks.

I think there are two key reasons for it. One, the regular stretching. That obviously helps your body to move more freely and to make faster movements.

Secondly, I think swinging the weighted club encourages you to use the larger muscles in your upper body and legs. To shift the (up to 300g) weights effectively, you must engage core muscles, not simply thrash at it with your arms.

I am now standing on the tee thinking – how would I swing the Stack here. I would make a full shoulder turn back and rotate completely through it, driving the shaft and the club with my upper back, my core and my legs.

I don’t think it’s really about the weight training. It’s about convincing your body to make a powerful swing, making it feel natural to commit fully and to power through the ball.

This is my initial report, and it could just be the honeymoon period. But, at the moment, I’m convinced it’s working. It’s been proven to work by Matt Fitzpatrick, my buddy off +4 and others I’ve read testaments from online.

It makes sense – train your body to move faster and you will have the potential to hit the ball further. I’d rather spend my money on becoming physically more able to hit the ball longer distances than wasting it on “new” technologies that might (or might not) gain you a yard or too.

Later in the year, when I’ve completed more of the training programme, I’ll report back again and be completely honest about whether I have moved on from the 104mph driver potential head speed, whether that translates to hitting it further on course, and by how much… Watch this space!

The US Open is now in our rear-view mirror and there is no time to breathe as we head straight to another PGA Tour signature event in the form of the Travelers Championship.

Rory McIlroy is planning to skip his third signature event of the season, but there is still a strong field on show including World No.1 Scottie Scheffler.

Anyone who listened to the Golf Monthly Tour Issue podcast this week, which you can see in the video below, will know that I believe the value to be in a group of players priced +4000 or higher.

I want to highlight JJ Spaun, JT Poston, Aaron Rai and Justin Rose, who are all great prices this week and options that I will certainly be exploring on a course that rewards consistently solid ball striking, but for my best bets card I've punted for four names that I believe can get the job done at TPC River Highlands...

Travelers Championship 2026 Betting Tips

Bazza's Best Bets

Top Tip: Scottie Scheffler To Win @ BetMGM

Obvious, right? Well, in my defence, it's hard to make a case for him not to win this week.

It's been a while for Scheffler since his last win, at least by his standards, as he hasn't handled a trophy for 12 events.

That 'barren' spell does include six top-four finishes including two runner-ups, however, and his course form at TPC River Highlands suggests he will likely be that close again.

In his last three starts here he has won in a play-off and finished inside the top-6 on the two other occasions.

His form on correlating courses, like Sedgefield Country Club and East Lake, is also fantastic and I would be gobsmacked if he wasn't in the top-5 by the end of play on Sunday.

Next Best Tip: Si Woo Kim To Win @ BetMGM

Si Woo Kim has been threatening to win all season and I believe he could finally get over the line this week.

The South Korean star has posted two runner-up finishes and a pair of third place efforts in his 17 starts this season so far, but he has also been inside the top-10 on eight occasions.

We know that Si Woo plays his best golf on courses where the scoring goes low and he can fill up the scorecard with birdies, but he is also an incredibly accurate driver of the golf ball.

That is crucial at TPC River Highlands, so this should be a course he excels on. Bizarrely, his course form isn't great, other than a T11 a number of years ago, but he is playing some of his best golf right now and I fancy him to buck that trend.

He won the Wyndham Championship on a course with great correlation, so we know you can do it, Si Woo!

Value Tip 1: Alex Fitzpatrick To Win @ BetMGM

Alex Fitzpatrick has taken to life on the PGA Tour like a duck to water - and it looks like he is having a fantastic time.

He has made seven PGA Tour starts which include a win, a top-5, two top-10s and two top-25s. That run of great form covered three signature events and two Majors, on some very tough golf courses, so he has already shown his immense potential on this stage.

He ranks 7th for driving accuracy, 10th for SG: Approach and 11th for SG: Tee To Green in the last three months, so has the perfect profile for the TPC River Highlands test.

I am so confident that Alex Fitzpatrick will get a win by the end of 2026, I just hope I am on him when he inevitably gets over the line.

Value Tip 2: Ryan Gerard To Win @ BetMGM

Ryan Gerard will be disappointed not to have won at the Memorial Tournament on one of the toughest golf courses outside the Major Championships.

He was sublime at Muirfield Village, but that's not his only great performance this year. He was second again at the opening event of the year in Hawaii and the week after at the American Express - so has three runner-up finishes on his CV in 2026.

I will forgive him a missed cut at the US Open on a tough track because TPC River Highlands should suit him down to the ground.

He is a fairly accurate driver of the ball who hits plenty of greens in regulation and putts well, so should have no problem setting up the necessary birdie opportunities, but can he take the chances when they present themselves?

Encouragingly he ranks 10th for birdie average on the PGA Tour this season, so we could see him go close once again.

Golf Monthly Betting Panel Picks

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Pick One: Scottie Scheffler To Win @ BetMGM

For Golf Monthly Tour Issue podcast listeners, you'll know this is my first Scheffler pick of the year - and I am backing the World No.1 as I simply feel like it has been far too long since his last win.

Scheffler once again did not have his best stuff last week at Shinnecock but he still managed a T4, and I think the reprieve of playing TPC River Highlands could allow him to go very low.

His record here over the last four years is very good, T6-1-T4-T13, and I see no reason why they won't continue this time around.

Pick One: Rickie Fowler To Win @ BetMGM

Fowler has three top-10s in Signature Events this year and I'm hoping he can make it four this week despite three consecutive missed cuts.

He only missed the cut on the number at Shinnecock so his game is clearly not too far off, and like Scheffler I think he will enjoy lower-scoring conditons this week.

The six-time PGA Tour winner has a decent recent record at The Travelers, including a T13 in 2023.

Pick One: Collin Morikawa To Win @ BetMGM

Although he has struggled with injury since claiming victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Morikawa is starting to find form, registering a top 30 finish at the RBC Canadian Open and US Open.

He looked like his old self at Shinnecock Hills, highlighted by a five-under second round. Admittedly, he played poorly at the Travelers Championship last year, but he did finish T13th in 2024, with the venue suiting his game of accuracy over power.

Pick Two: Ryan Fox To Win @ BetMGM

Fox's form has been slightly under the radar of late, with a T23rd at the US Open following a T8th at the RBC Canadian Open. He also finished T27th and T35th in his two starts before that, indicating form is there.

Finishing T17th last year, the New Zealander is an excellent ball striker and his all-round game is extremely solid, which puts him in good stead this week. He is also not shy of making birdies, a key metric for the scoreable TPC River Highlands.

Pick One: Xander Schauffele To Win @ BetMGM

The key metrics this week will be approach play and quality of putting, both of which I feel comfortable backing Schauffele to excel at over at TPC River Highlands.

His SG stats in both categories are strong this term and at previous performances here.

Schauffele has already won the Travelers before (2022), so he obviously likes the place, and he appears to have a knack for navigating the course efficiently with four more top-20s in his seven starts.

Coming off a solid US Open showing, I want to see Schauffele open his shoulders this week.

Pick Two: Kurt Kitayama To Win @ BetMGM

For similar reasons, and with the caveat that our sleeper picks must be outside the +4000 range, I think Kurt Kitayama is a genuine slept-on name at the Travelers.

The American has gained strokes in terms of approach in every single one of his 14 performances prior to the US Open and has largely been putting very well, too.

Encouraging results in two other recent events in the north east tells me he likes this area of the US, so watch out for Kitayama this week as he hopefully posts another quiet top-10 in a Signature Event.

He's already had three this term, including a T2nd at the Genesis Invitational.

Golf Monthly Betting Panel Tipping Record

Competition format

Do you want a team event or one for individuals? A team event promotes camaraderie and helps break the ice as everyone playing together is on the same side. It is also a way to hide someone who is not that able.

For example, a format which involves teams of four golfers where the best two scores count on each hole involves all the players, but also allows two players to do badly on a hole without necessarily affecting the team score.

A compromise could be to have a team competition, with each player also keeping an individual score, as there will also be prizes awarded for best individual scores. Thus a player who is playing well, but their other teammates are not, does not have to resent this as they still have the chance of individual glory.

Scoring format

Stableford is the most popular format. It allows players to have bad holes without severely damaging their score. It also promotes quick play as players can pick up once they can no longer score points on a hole.

Nearest the pin competition

Pin in this phrase means flag. The player who hits their tee shot nearest to the flag on a given hole wins. But, to count, their shot must finish on the green.

Host golf clubs will often help choose the hole. The hole needs to be short enough that all the field can reach the green, so it will be a par 3 and not a long par 3 at that.

As, to count, the ball has to rest on the green, it also ideally played to green where the hole is cut on the putting surface in a reasonably central position – if it is markedly to one side can lead to situations where the nearest ball does not actually count as it is off the green.

Often the hole chosen is the most fun, or the signature par 3. If there is not an obvious such hole, then one later in the round is often chosen to maintain competitive interest for players who have faded from contention in the main competition.

A variation is a ‘nearest the pin in 2’ competition. This would be played on a short par 4 and the winner is the player whose ball is nearest the flag after two shots have been played.

Longest drive competition

This is awarded to the longest drive on a given hole with the proviso that the drive has to come to rest on the fairway. The host club will advise which hole to choose, but it has to be a long, straight hole where the usual tactic to play that hole is to hit the ball as far as possible off the tee.

As a fun addition to the longest drive contest – or even a separate competition – players could be asked to hit in the style of Happy Gilmore.

Straightest drive competition

There is a painted line, or a string or rope, marking the centre line of the fairway, from which measurements are taken. Drives have to have at least reached the starting point of this line for the shot to count. This requires some co-operation with the host venue in advance.

Extra charity donations

If you are running a charity day to raise money, you may wish to incorporate some revenue earners for the charity beyond the entry fee.

For example, you may choose to sell Mulligans when the players sign in. A Mulligan allows a player to choose to replay one shot during their round immediately after it has been played.

Or you may nominate some occurrence during the round that if it happens the player is invited to make a donation to the charity. This could be hitting the ball into a specific bunker, or failing to hit the green on the shortest par 3.

Out of bounds (OOB) may be defined in a number of ways – white stakes, lines on the ground, fences, walls, railings. We give you the lowdown on out of bounds within the Rules of golf.

However it is defined, if your ball has strayed beyond the limits of the course, the first thing to remember is that there is no option within the Rules to drop a ball under penalty at the point where your ball crossed the OOB line, as you could with a penalty area.

If your ball is definitely out of bounds, under Rule 18.2 you must play another ball from where you last played, under penalty of stroke and distance (Rule 14.6), whether from the tee or fairway or any other spot. So, if it was your tee-shot that had gone OOB, you would now be playing three off the tee.

If you are uncertain whether your ball has gone out of bounds, you can declare that you are playing a provisional ball (Rule 18.3).

And, to play a provisional you must clearly state this intention. You must announce before making the stroke that you are playing a ball as a provisional, or make a statement to indicate that is your intention. If you don’t, the second ball you hit will become the ball in play.

A ball is in bounds if it lies on or touches the ground or anything else (such as any natural or artificial object) inside the boundary edge. If it’s in the air above the boundary edge, suspended in a bush for instance, if any part of the ball overhangs the course, it’s in!

There are exceptions when you may substitute another ball when it is known or virtually certain what has happened.

If you know your ball came to rest in bounds but it was moved out of bounds by an outside influence – say you saw a dog pick it up and run away with it before dropping it out of bounds. In that instance, you place that or another ball back on the spot where it was originally and play on without penalty.

Where out of bounds is defined by white stakes or a fence, the out of bounds line runs between the nearest inside points at ground level of the stakes or fence posts.

If white stakes are used at intervals, the out of bounds line is the direct line from the course side edge of one stake to the next.

When a line on the ground is used, the line itself is out of bounds. However, a ball is deemed in bounds even if a small part of it lies on the course side of the boundary line.

Golf Rules Quiz

Bryson DeChambeau has consistently been one of the biggest hitters in the world over many years.

His aggressive approach off the tee has clearly yielded positive results in Majors, evidenced by a win at The US Open in 2021 and 2024, plus a pair of runner-up finishes in the PGA Championship, but his results on the biggest stage haven't been great of late.

Back-to-back Major missed cuts meant that enthusiasm about his chances this week had wained a little, however he quickly reminded people of his class with an impressive opening round 70 at Shinnecock Hills.

After seeing his position on the leaderboard, I was almost certain he would have taken advantage of the wide fairways and settled into full send mode – but I was shocked to find that no fewer than 12 players had outdriven him...

12 Players Outdriving Bryson DeChambeau At The US Open 2026

For reference, Bryson DeChambeau ranks 2nd for driving distance over the past two seasons combined - highlighting his ability to consistently launch it past his competitors.

Only Aldrich Potgieter hits it further, on average, so seeing 12 names above him in the driving distance stats at the US Open is a little perplexing.

Michael Brennan currently leads the way off the tee in terms of length, with an average of 322.4 yards.

The next name on the list might not be one you are familiar with, but I have a feeling we will be seeing plenty more of amateur Marek Fleming after an impressive opening round display where he averaged 321.4 yards off the tee.

In the bronze medal position currently is Jake Knapp (318.7), someone we know has the ability to contend with the biggest hitters in the game. He is followed by Alejandro Tosti (318.4) and the first round leader Wyndham Clark (316.6).

Rounding out the top-10, we have the usual suspects of Chris Gotterup (316.2), Jon Rahm (314.3), Min Woo Lee (314.4), Nicolai Hojgaard (313.8) and, perhaps more surprisingly, Patrick Cantlay (312.3).

Jordan Spieth (311.4) and Dustin Johnson (310.2) even rolled back the years to outhit Bryson in round one, who posted a respectable average of 310 yards exactly.

Bryson may be utilising a different strategy to tackle Shinnecock Hills this week - perhaps taking less club and focusing on finding the fairway.

Given the width of the fairways, however, I would be surprised if that tactic continued when the winds settled down.