Sam Weinman

3 weeks ago | golfdigest.com | Sam Weinman

Like an abstract painting splattered on a canvas, the skill of golf course design is easy to dismiss. A tee box, a green, a fairway and some bunkers in between. The whole time you think, Hell, I could do that. Then you dive deeper, and you realize it’s not so simple. Whenever Golf Digest publishes a new ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, as it did last week, there’s an opportunity to consider what we prize most in courses.

3 weeks ago | golfdigest.com | Sam Weinman

A match-play tournament is incomplete without a flare-up or two around gimmes. Our Golf Digest Match Play has been no exception. Some staffers are stingy with concessions, others are generous, and some are generous until they realize they shouldn’t be. In one match recently, a player stewed when his opponent rolled a putt for practice after it was conceded, and ended up missing. But at that point, the damage was done: Like toothpaste out of the tube, a gimme can’t be undone.

1 month ago | golfdigest.com | Sam Weinman

On major championship weeks, my Instagram feed is filled with golf things that I either can’t do, I shouldn’t do, or at least need to do much differently. Rory McIlroy launching high draws. Justin Thomas hitting spinny pitches. Bryson DeChambeau dialing in yardages down to the decimal point. If there is aspirational value in regular golfers studying the best players, the risk is when it leads us down a futile path. This is why I’ve learned to appreciate the mundane.

1 month ago | ryerecord.com | Sam Weinman

By Sam WeinmanWe were in his kitchen at Blind Brook Lodge, Dad in a chair, me squatting before him with a pair of scissors. “I suppose you’re going to want a tip for this,” he said. His hands were too shaky to shave on his own, and his pacemaker prevented anything electric. I held the blade of the scissors close to his neck. “By the way,” I said. “I’ve been meaning to ask about my inheritance.”We had spent 50 years trying to make each other laugh.

1 month ago | golfdigest.com | Sam Weinman

Golf compliments don’t come around often for a player of my level, but last week at my home course, I got one after sending my drive to a perfect angle into the 12th green. “Smart play,” a playing partner said. But it wasn’t. I caught the ball on the heel, which produced a low, weak fade that scuttled down the fairway. Maybe I’d be happy if that was my intent, but I dismissed it as a lucky bounce.