Golf Digest and Golf Magazine: The Rant

[Mors Ab Alto]

I have playing golf for about 5 years now, and like any of my previous obsessions, I completely emmersed myself into it. This included buying every publication with the word "Golf" in the title, but over the years only 2 have remained at the right hand of my throne: Golf Digest and Golf Magazine. Each month I waited with baited breath for the stork in a USPS uniform to delivery my newest baby, and each month I fawned over the newest issue like a loving parent. Well, it took 5 years, but I have come to the realization that my 2 children are basically ugly, misinformed, contradicting, greedy idiots. It's a hard truth to come to grips with, but it's true.

This is no sudden revelation. I have kept every issue (over 120) in my garage as sort of a time capsule of golf history, and since I am moving this week, I have had to start packing up my house. So like a good husband, I moved some boxes around for about 10 minutes and proceeded to go through my collection. There were numerous covers boasting how you could "Buy a better game" (last month's GM said exactly that), how there were secrets inside that would add 10, 15 nay! 25 yards to your drives, and other such BS.

Well friends, I have had it. I could care less that for only one mortgage payment I can purchase unnecessary clubs that will make me look like I can play, but won't really help. I hate that a 150 page magazine has 50 pages of crap I could care less about, such as last month's "Best New Courses You Can Play" (unless you make less than $60K, which we in the military do). Honestly, I am not planning on dropping $1500 on a 3 day golf trip, so I don't care where I should eat while NOT on vacation. And I love the contradictory advice bestowed up us by teaching pros who make more per hour than should be leagally allowed unless you are saving lives. Maybe there should be a magazine called "Golf Tips" where they offer nothing but bad instructive advice (oh wait, I think there is).

Unfortunately, there are aspects of each magazine that I DO like: David Fehrety in GM is always the first page I turn to, and some of the articles and player prifiles are awesome, especially those dealing with golf history (I have learned quite a bit about how Palmer and Nicklaus figure into the great scheme of things that I was ignorant to before). But sadly, this has proven too little in my decision to not renew my subscriptions.

And if you have read all the way to this point, well then either you have feelings one way or the other on this subject, or you are really, really bored. Either way, I'd like to see if anyone else out there feels the same as I do.

[demon]

I havent had a subscription to GD in 7 years, I can get more information off of the internet than any magazine has.

[Mors Ab Alto]

Originally Posted by demon

I havent had a subscription to GD in 7 years, I can get more information off of the internet than any magazine has.

As silly as it may sound, I have gotten some of the best advice on the golf course by guys I can regularly beat. It's the reason I changed to a stronger grip and changed my putting grip. I now hit the ball better and putt really well. Can't remember the last thing that I read in either of these magazines that has stuck.

[Bravo]

I take both Golf Magazine as well as Golf Digest. I ignore the instruction tips but love the In-Depth articles they feature from time to time.

I wouldn't have learned about Moe Norman were it not for GD...never heard of him and the article was facinating and educational.

BTW, like many here, I get my subscriptions on ebay for next to nothing....

[warbirdlover]

I agree on those two magazines. I do like the "what's in the bag" stuff and the articles but NOT the fixes. I used to buy into all that and had my swing so "tied up" thinking about this little pinky and that elbow in addition to the angle of the right toe. Bull. The only magazine I've just started a subscription to is Golf World. I used to like it for the articles on the pros and NO "tips" to gain 23 yards on drives etc etc

[Lemonhead]

Once I figured out the Lemonhead 6, I also noticed how useless the tips are. I have a subscription to Golf Magazine which is Throne material. Most of the info is completely useless to me. For example, the equipment reviews where one guy will say club A is great and but club B punishes off-center hits, while another guy will say Club B is gret and Club A punishes off-center hits.

In my short golf history, I have realized that 99% of the information about what club is great and what club sucks, what technique is great, and what technique sucks pretty much is a waste of time. The 1% is when they talk about the basics. There just isn't a magic tip that's going to take your game to scratch or give you 20yds, or straighten out your slice. The basics of the game and practice get your index down.

Tomorrow marks my 1yr anniversary from the first time I played the game. I'm now a 14 index. I spent plenty of time at the range and took 2 lessons. I analyzed what I was doing right and wrong and distilled it down to my Lemonhead 6. The funny thing is that my Lemonhead 6 are the basics. When I do all 6 things, I'll hit the ball solid and straight.

The worst thing one can do, is to lie to yourself and believe that the problem is that you have the wrong set of clubs, or that the problem is that the fairway grass isn't cut just right, or the greens are Bermuda rather than Bent grass, or that the moon isn't in the 7th house, or that the sun is slightly more yellow today, or that your mother didn't breast feed you as a child, or that ... well, you get the idea. Be honest, it isn't the club, the turf, or your lack of breast milk as an infant. The problem is that you are not executing a basic swing correctly.

I do enjoy, the various course "reviews" that are more ads for the resort. It's golf porn....

Lemonhead

[Mors Ab Alto]

That's what I used to call these magazines, my "porn". But much like real porn, I have found it's much easier to go on the internet for what I need.

[Lemonhead]

TMI. Don't need those images in my head! :-)

Lemonhead

[limpalong]

GM and GD have become nothing but advertising. Most of the magazines' pages are travel guides to exotic places. What little is used as club review seems to give benefit to those companies that advertise heavily in the publications.

I had golf magazines accumulated from 10 to 15 years. Tossed most of them a year ago. It was fun, from time to time, to see how redundant they were. Same tips... over and over and over. It I had purchased every suggested item that would give me another 8-10 yards, I'd be setting records on the long-drive tour. Had all the tips taken 2 to 3 strokes off my game, I'd be shooting 59's every weekend!

Take the money you spend on GM and GD and invest in a subscription to Golf World. Weekly (most of the year) so you get your "fix" much more often. Excellent articles on equipment and tourneys. To me, much more usefull than anything I've seen recently in GM or GD.

[emc]

GD has a few good articles. I like the WITB of the pros, the David Owen (?) column, Johnny Miller and the Tiger Tips. The interviews are interesting also. But most of that stuff is on the net so I don't bother buying it.

[Mors Ab Alto]

Originally Posted by emc

GD has a few good articles. I like the WITB of the pros, the David Owen (?) column, Johnny Miller and the Tiger Tips. The interviews are interesting also. But most of that stuff is on the net so I don't bother buying it.

I remember the WITB section being my favorite part. As far as reading it on the internet, part of the awesomeness of ascending my throne was that it was one of the only times I was guaranteed not to be disturbed, and my golf mags were there to help me pass the time. I used to look forward to it.

By the way, are you ashamed of your Titleist gear? Is that why you make it almost impossible to read with that bright yellow font? Ha!

[HighTopFade]

Golf Digest is great reading. Especially since it was free with a purchase of Softspikes. Another golf publication I thought was pretty entertaining was Golf Punk.

[cypressperch]

nickel, so I do not subscribe to any golf mags. I go to the library when some of you younger guys are at work, and I look through the golf mags. I have said elsewhere that I believe a lot of writing contradicts other writing. If Jim Flick writes something, it seldom is of use to me because his focus is more on the arms and hands rather than the big muscles. The only thing of his that I have incorporated is to have an awareness of the clubhead during the swing, (mainly when practicing, I would add).

I know some like Hardy, but I refuse to consider any writing that says one set of principles applies to the one-plane swing, that anything not on one plane has to be a two-plane swing, and that different principles apply to all of those different two-plane swing. I know that David Toms follows some one-plane principles in his obviously two-plane swing. Example: Toms, Cypressperch, and other golfers have two-plane swings and square the clubface at impact thinking about the shoulders doing the squaring with the arms, wrists, hands following the lead of the shoulders. Those small muscles might very well fine-tune the squaring process, but a well-timed shoulder turn will square the club face to the target line at impact. I would further argue that if one is squaring the clubface with the hands, etc. , that they ar more likely to be striking at the ball than hitting through the ball.

So if you are following John Jacobs as your guru, you might get thrown off track reading something by Hardy or influenced by Hardy. I know Hardy takes his hat off to Jacobs, but Hardy is not nearly as flexible as Jacobs on what we can be thinking about our swings. Dividing the golf swing into two separate swings would seem to be a way to simplifying the golf swing, but like just about everything in golf, logic doesn't quite work. If something I read in a golf mag does not fit the Jacobs method which is quite simple (two turns and a swish), I do not consider it.

Short game stuff is more often of use than full swing stuff. With putting, if it is talking about something that involves those real long putters, an arc in the stroke rather than keeping the face square both back and through, anything other than a conventional grip----I cannot use that and I certainly do not go out and devote time practicing such. I have done that and it invariably throws my "good stroke" off.

And I do not really care to hear how great Tiger Woods is! Good grief, if someone doesn't realize that by now, we have a true slow learner on our hands. I truly believe that Golf Digest glorifies Tiger so much because they have a vested interest in doing so. I will always stick to the idea that no single golfer is bigger than the game itself. Not Jones, Hogan, Jack, Tiger, no one. I do not think that any of these proud greats ever allowed their heads to get so big that they thought they were bigger than the game. That they didn't will always be to their eternal credit. Golf Digest is on the verge of becoming Tiger Digest. Just joking, but they are close to making Tiger the same as Golf. What then happens to Golf when there is no Tiger? I believe this country has become more commercialized than in the past and as a result Tiger is more idolized than in the past. True, Tiger has yet to have a parade in New York City, but if they could, Golf Digest would have a parade every month or so. And what about Tiger Week?

Who dat saying I grind axe too much? Sorry. Sincerely, Cypressperch

[Mors Ab Alto]

Originally Posted by cypressperch

nickel, so I do not subscribe to any golf mags ... Who dat saying I grind axe too much? Sorry. Sincerely, Cypressperch

OK, first of all, wow. Just wow. That was amazing. On a slightly different tangent, but wow. While reading this rantifc bit of prose, I spent half of the time deciding which accent to give your writing in my head (chose scholarly Englishman holding a pipe and wearing a corduroy blazer with patches on the elbows) and the other half being grateful that my new job allows me to surf the internet insteda of doing real work.

Thank you sir.

[emc]

Originally Posted by Mors Ab Alto

I remember the WITB section being my favorite part. As far as reading it on the internet, part of the awesomeness of ascending my throne was that it was one of the only times I was guaranteed not to be disturbed, and my golf mags were there to help me pass the time. I used to look forward to it.

By the way, are you ashamed of your Titleist gear? Is that why you make it almost impossible to read with that bright yellow font? Ha!

I'm proud of it so I wanted it to stand out! I actually changed it before I read this post.