50 Things That Changed Golf

Every time elite professional golfers are asked to come together in a team format, it comes with the awkward adjustment of needing to think about more than themselves. What’s often overlooked is how much golf requires an inordinate amount of self-interest. From how golfers practice, to the time they spend away from home, to even their choice to pursue an individual over a team sport, Shane Ryan explains why even the best-intentioned golfers need to be selfish to succeed.

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There is no worse tag in golf than that of a cheater. In a game that prides itself on honor and self-policing, the players who betray that trust even once struggle to restore their reputation. In the aftermath of an incident in a qualifier tournament, Alex Myers looks at the particulars of the case, but also the wider world of cheating in golf—how often it happens, why it happens, and why it's so counter to golf's core principles.

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For most golfers out there, the scores we shoot have little tangible significance. We maintain a handicap, maybe play for a few bucks, but otherwise, no one really cares but us. And yet for many golfers, the difference between 80 and 79 is a landmark milestone. On this week’s episode, Sam Weinman and Shane Ryan discuss their respective quests to break 80. They consult with pros, sports psychologists, and some of the golfers they play with, to understand what’s been holding them back, what they need to make it happen, and what it will signify to them if it does. 

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In the 1930’s and 1940’s, when women’s amateur golf was the premiere women’s golf circuit, some players became stars. One was Marion Miley, who won just about every major amateur event available to her. But her career came to a tragic end in the middle of the night in the Lexington Country Club apartments where she lived with her mother. In the decades that followed, Marion’s story has been forgotten. Keely Levins dives into Marion’s story and how author Beverly Bell set out to ensure Marion’s story would be remembered forever.

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The golf world has been awash with news about the threat LIV Golf poses to the traditional framework of the professional game. In far shorter supply is clarity about where this all might be headed. In this episode, Dan Rapaport explores the origins of the PGA Tour-LIV rivalry as well as the turbulent present to help understand how the situation could resolve, and why it might not anytime soon.

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Can a 40-year-old golfer really overhaul his golf game in just 12 weeks? That's what we set out to learn. This spring, Golf Digest's Alex Myers embarked on an intense program overseen by experts to address every element of his sagging game—from his swing, to his body, to his mind—to see what type of change was possible. In this episode of Local Knowledge, Myers describes the process, the staggering results, and even how this sort of program could lead to a breakthrough of your own.

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To understand why St. Andrews' Old Course is not just the "Home of Golf," but also the most significant golf ​course in the world, it's important to understand just how much of the game's history has run through this unique seaside layout. From the course's deceptive complexity to its seminal moments, Dan Rapaport outlines everything that makes the Old Course so vital to the game's identity, and why the Open Championship there this week comes at a fractious but opportune moment.

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Golf's major championships are when the stakes are highest, and how the best players in the game are measured. But the downside of putting so much emphasis on four weeks a year is it risks undermining the rest of the golf calendar. In this episode, Alex Myers examines how the men's major championships evolved to become the mega-events they are today, and the unexpected challenges that dynamic presents.

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No tournament in golf appeals to the dreamer more than the U.S. Open, where a qualifying process puts journeymen, club pros and even schoolteachers just three rounds away from a spot in the field next to the game’s elite. On the eve of the U.S. Open at The Country Club outside Boston, Dan Rapaport examines the U.S. Open qualifying process, explains why it remains one of golf’s most intriguing opportunities, and dives into some of the incredible tales that arise out of it every year.

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When Title IX was enacted in 1972, it was hard to imagine its influence could still be felt in golf a half-century later. But the landmark legislation not only ushered in a new wave of women golfers, those golfers went on to raise golfers of their own. On the eve of the U.S. Women's Open, Keely Levins examines what the golf landscape was like for women before Title IX, and the myriad ways it's been reshaped in the decades since.

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