Category: Trap Five

Golf can be broken down into all sorts of things – wrist cock, spine angle, short game, long irons, trouble play, mental aspects, rules and their benefits and penalties, and so on. For this week’s Trap Five, we’ve broken the game of golf into five main areas – the mental game, iron play, chipping/pitching, driving, and putting – and ranked them in order along with the single best tip we can think of to help you with that aspect of the game.

Quick, before you look, which order do you think they came in?

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Golf is a game of honor. It’s the only real sport in which players routinely call penalties on themselves, and the only real sport without referees. While the NFL abides by the policy that “you don’t break a rule unless you get caught,” golf abides by the policies set forth by the USGA and R&A. Sure, there are some bad seeds out there, but by and large, golfers simply follow the rules.

That does not mean, however, that there are some really bad rules. This week in Trap Five, we’re going to take a look at the five dumbest rules in golf. See if you agree…

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Last week we took a look at the best players to have won only one major. The list included the likes of Toms Kite and Lehman, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, and Phil Mickelson.

This week we’re going to switch gears a bit and talk about the worst players to have won a major. Of course, to even play in a major, you’ve got to be a good golfer – hacks aren’t invited to The Masters or the British Open, you see – so we’re not begrudging anyone their abilities. However, we are looking at their careers compared to their fellow PGA Tour major winners. These, then, are the worst players to have been great at least once.

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Golf has long had a title, “Best Player Never to Win a Major” (or BPNTWAM). Kinder souls prefer the label “Best Player Yet to Win a Major” (BWYTWAM), but the core truth remains: good golfers who have yet to break through to capture a Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, or PGA Championship.

Once players get the monkey off their back, why, they’re home free, right? Not so fast. This week’s Trap Five counts down the best players who have won only one major. Sure, the monkey may be off their back, but he’s still clinging to their ankles.

Winning one major demonstrates both skill and a bit of luck, but luck favors the prepared. Which active players are the best to have happened upon the confluence of skill and luck only once? Read on to find out.

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They say you drive for show and putt for dough, so that would make the putter many player’s “money club,” right? This week, we’re going to look at famous money clubs.

Putters, as we all know, come in many shapes and sizes. Putters can be shaped like Futura Phantoms or the Ping Docs and look perfectly normal sitting next to a Ping Answer or a Bullseye. Putters may be the most personal instrument in a player’s bag, with everything from the lie angle, face angle, grip, shaft length, and weight coming into play and combining to give that magical sensation – feel – to the player.

When the tournament is on the line, what famous putters stroked some famous putts? Find out in this week’s edition of Trap Five.

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They say you drive for show and putt for dough, so that would make the putter many player’s “money club,” right? This week, we’re going to look at famous money clubs.

Putters, as we all know, come in many shapes and sizes. Putters can be shaped like Futura Phantoms or the Ping Docs and look perfectly normal sitting next to a Ping Answer or a Bullseye. Putters may be the most personal instrument in a player’s bag, with everything from the lie angle, face angle, grip, shaft length, and weight coming into play and combining to give that magical sensation – feel – to the player.

When the tournament is on the line, what famous putters stroked some famous putts? Find out in this week’s edition of Trap Five.

Continue reading “Most Famous Putters”

This week, we’re going to take a look at something near and dear to The Sand Trap’s heart: the best pressure-packed bunker shots in golf’s history.

Finding a bunker in a tough competition is never a good thing, but in some cases, it can be a great thing if the player possesses the muster, courage, and willpower to hole the shot. With PGA Tour sand save averages hovering around 50%, pros are only getting up and down once for every two attempts. Holing a bunker shot, though not rare, is far from commonplace.

It’s even less common when the pressure of having a major championship on the line weighs on a player’s shoulders as he steps down into the bunker and digs his feet into the sand. These five shots stand out from the rest in history.

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With The Memorial coming up this week, I started thinking about the great events on the PGA Tour schedule each year that aren’t considered major championships. The four majors are of course The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship. These four tournaments are obviously the best and most important each year and for great reason. The following is a list of events I feel are just a small step behind the major championships but still very special to all the PGA Tour players. There is only room for five, so some great tournaments missed the cut including the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Mercedes Championship, Bank of America Colonial, and the upstart Wachovia Championship.

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When Tiger Woods missed the cut at the Byron Nelson Championship two weeks ago, I started thinking of his incredible consecutive cut streak. After realizing how great it was, I also started thinking of some other great PGA Tour records. So the following is a list of PGA Tour records that are the most incredible in my opinion. You won’t find the record for most money won on the PGA Tour because the legends of golf didn’t have a fair shot at that one. And Tiger’s four major championships in a row didn’t make the cut either.

Continue reading “Most Remarkable PGA Tour Records”