Ron Kaspriske

Most commerical gyms are packed with expensive equipment to, well, get you to buy a membership. It’s a logical marketing strategy, but the reality is, once you’re in the door, you’re much more likely to brush past nearly all that equipment than you are to use it. Candidly, most golfers need very little to get a good, well-rounded workout that boosts performance on the course and helps avoid injuries, says Jennifer Fleischer, one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Fitness Trainers in America. “You’d be sur…

Unilateral exercises, in which you isolate and train with just one limb, have become increasingly popular with golfers for a variety of reasons including injury prevention, correcting muscular imbalances and being able to train for power without putting too much stress on the spine. Golf Digest’s Certified Fitness Trainers often emphasize weight-bearing moves involving only one leg or arm to help their clients counter the “one-sided” nature of golf. “Whether it’s because of golf, playing other s…

If you watch professional golf on TV, you might see times when a rules official instructs a tour pro where to place a ball or where to drop it. Sometimes, both happen in a consecutive sequence of events. It might leave you a little confused as to when you should drop a ball when taking relief or when to set it gently down. Luckily, the Rules of Golf is fairly cut-and-dried when it comes to when to do either. Let’s review. The only times you would ever place a ball when taking relief is if your b…

Let’s face it. Things got ugly in Rome late last summer. Instead of sipping red wine and enjoying the 2,000-year-old architecture, some Ryder Cup participants spent their time in Italy chirping at each other. The most cringy situation, no doubt, was when Rory McIlroy exchanged words—on and off the course—with Patrick Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava (and in the process appeared to give Justin Thomas’ caddie Jim Mackay an earful too). All that less-than-gentlemanly behavior might have you wondering i…

You might not want to spend money on a gym membership or go out and buy a bunch of stuff for your gym/garage, etc. That’s fine. You don’t need a huge financial investment to get in better shape for golf, says Shawn Balow, a Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer. Balow says simple household items are often more than adequate to help improve mobility, stability, coordination and strength. And here’s proof: Balow, who works with golfers at his gym in Florida, Tampa Strength, put together a simple f…

It’s that time of year when conditions at courses around the country can make actually playing golf a bit of a challenge. Everything from trying to get a tee into frozen ground to dealing with truckloads of goose poop—let’s be honest, you sometimes have to really want to be out there to even think about a round in the winter or early spring. (We’ll excuse everyone in warm-and-sunny Florida and Arizona from this post. We’re jealous.) Back to the rest of us: This time of year, especially, mud on a…

At the start of 2023, we introduced the Golf Digest Fitness Trainer Certification. It’s a one-of-a-kind online curriculum that offers a new way to look at golf fitness and how to train average players. Among the modules in this certification is an in-depth lecture on posture from well known expert Brian Bradley of the Egoscue Method. Among many of the topics Bradley covers is how things such as activities of daily life impact your ability to swing a golf club correctly. “The big thing for golfer…

You probably don’t give this area of your body much thought when it comes to training for golf, but your neck is super important, and super involved, in any golf swing. “Golf is a neck-rotation sport,” says Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer Dee Tidwell, who trains athletes at Colorado Golf Fitness at “The Studio” in Denver. “How much you can rotate your neck can impact your backswing and downswing, and if that rotation is limited, it’s likely to be a negative impact.” If you don’t think rota…

It’s a question often asked of fitness trainers: Is yoga any good for golf? The short answer: Yes. The longer answer: Yes, but if you want to really get the most out of yoga exercises as a golfer, it’s much better to modify the traditional poses to better address the multiplanar aspect of the swing. Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer Jennifer Fleischer is a big believer in a modified golf-fitness workout inspired by yoga—so much so that she did an entire golf workout based on this concept. “I…

Most great golf destinations require at least one plane flight to reach, and even if you’re sitting in those oversized leather seats up front, there are still some bad things happening to your golfing body while you’re cruising at 30,000 feet. Did you know, for example, that commerical aircraft are pressurized to simulate conditions at 8,000 feet, not sea level? That means you’re breathing air that is likely less dense than you are used to. The air also is less humid. And the posture you’re in f…

Whether you’re throwing a punch, smashing a forehand winner in tennis or launching a hockey puck into the net through the five hole, these activities all have one thing in common with the golf swing—they’re hip driven. For success in many sports, getting the hips moving correctly with speed and power is crucial. In golf, a lack of hip mobility and strength can lead to swaying or sliding. Lateral movement of the body to and from the target isn’t necessarily awful. In fact, some really good golfer…

It’s that time of year when many people start to think about getting in better shape. This is especially true of golfers in cold-weather climates who now have extra hours to spend on their bodies while they wait for warmer days. With that said, Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer Ryan Faust has some simple advice and a handful of exercises to get you going if you’re new to the gym (or haven’t been in quite some time). Before he gives you a short-and-sweet workout, Faust wants to cover some gen…

It seems a little crazy, but it’s true. Say you just three-putted from six feet. And say, three-putting from six feet makes you a little angry (just a little). And say, you slam your putter against something hard and it bends. Then, here’s the crazy part: The orientation of the face changed just enough that if you wanted to keep using it during the round, it would actually make you a better putter. Can you still use the, ahem, new-and-improved putter? The answer is … you betcha! Rule 4.1(2) addr…

Looking back on your year of golf, did you have any rules “incidents” that you’re still dwelling on? Hopefully not, but some of the best golfers out there probably can’t say the same. There were dozens of issues in major and minor tournaments in 2023 that left hard feelings and some uncomfortable, memory-sticking moments. Here now, then, is our annual collection of the biggest rules issues of the past year. Suffice it to say, they’re all strong reminders that even the golfers who play the most (…

On first glance, you might roll your eyes at this, but the more you think about it, the more this product makes a lot of sense for golfers or gymgoers. (Or both!) MIVA Recovery is a water bottle and a foam roller. Why does it make sense? First, think about the environment. In an era when golf courses are trying to reduce pollution by eliminating single-use plastic water bottles, going to the golf course with your own reusable container is responsible and economical. Of course, make sure your gol…

If you study golf’s longest drivers over the past 30 years, you’ll likely notice some easy-to-recognize similarities in how those players generate power. One of these “similarity buckets” is a long-and-loose action, which you see from players such as John Daly, Laura Davies, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and one of the longest golfers on the planet, former hockey player Jamie Sadlowski (below). These players generate power by taking the clubhead away from the ball an extraordinary distance, and t…

You probably read the headline above and wondered how could it possibly not be a penalty when you’re opponent purposely stops your golf ball from rolling. Well, you’re mostly right. In almost every case, it is a penalty when your opponent does this. It’s loss of hole in match play, and in stroke play, the player would get hit with a two-shot penalty for violating this rule. It doesn’t matter, too, if they physically stopped it or if he or she used something else to stop it. Furthermore, you can’…

We’ve got an assignment for you: Check out these rules scenarios involving practice during a round. Can you identify which are penalties under the Rules of Golf—specifically Rule 5.5—and which are permissible? 1. Your opponent in a match is across the fairway waiting to play his next shot. While the group in front of you clears, he gets out a foam golf ball from his bag and starts hitting chips back and forth. 2. As the players in your foursome clear the tee and start toward their balls, one of…

Whoops, your ball is in a penalty area. Tough break. Although you probably still refer to it as a water hazard, it’s important to know that the official name change to “penalty area” back in 2019 should give you a clue that the options for your next stroke have changed a bit. Rule 17 in the Rules of Golf covers what you can and can’t do. First, know that you can always attempt to play your shot in a penalty area. And it’s no longer a penalty if you ground your club before you do. So feel free to…

Most golfers know that a player is responsible for the actions of his or her caddie, including times when the caddie does things that run counter to the Rules of Golf. It’s a team thing (Rule 10.3), as amateur Segundo Oliva Pinto learned painfully when he was bounced in the third round at the 2020 U.S. Amateur after his caddie mistakenly swiped sand in a bunker with his hand. But what happens when someone else helps you out during the round? For example, what if you see someone pick up your ball…