The 75 Biggest Moments in Golf Digest History, Part V: 2007-2023

Nobody likes listening to a golfer go through his or her entire round shot by shot, but allow us some indulgence as we near the end of our 75th anniversary year. We were very selective. To choose the 75 moments that tell our story—from a naval officer named Bill Davis getting a taste for magazine publishing after writing an account of a kamikaze attack, to our current position within global sports leader TNT Sports—we discarded stories and episodes that were merely popular or fun in favor of those that had lasting effect. An editorial moment had to ripple for years afterward in the way Golf Digest operated, the golf world or even media at large. That’s why senior editor John P. May quietly deciding in 1961 to try photographing Ben Hogan with an 8-millimeter motion camera, which birthed our interactive and digitized modern swing sequence analyses, gets the same nod of importance as when we upended tempers at the PGA Merchandise Show in 2004 with our first Hot List ranking of clubs. We also didn’t spare our embarrassments, such as when in 2010 the cover story “10 Tips Obama can take from Tiger” landed the same week revelations of Woods’ personal life busted the Internet and a fire hydrant.

Thank you for being a member of the Golf Digest community. We hope you enjoy the stroll down memory lane of this special club that predates us all.

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Max Adler, Editorial Director

The 75 Biggest Moments in Golf Digest History: 1940-1969 / 1970-1980 / 1981-1992 / 1994-2006 / 2007-2023

2000s

2007: Tiger Woods opines that a 10-handicapper couldn’t break 100 at a U.S. Open venue. We take the bait and partner with the USGA and NBC Sports the following year to create the first Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge on the 7,643-yard Torrey Pines course in San Diego where Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (2.2 handicap index) shot a 13-over-par 84; pop star Justin Timberlake (6.6) shot 98; then-Today Show host Matt Lauer (6.2) shot 100 and our everyman John Atkinson (8.1)—chosen from a pool of 56,354 (the U.S. Open that year had 8,544 entries)—shot 114. Despite failing to break 100, Atkinson was an extraordinary winner who played courageously while suffering from inoperable lung cancer; he died a year later but left an impression on everyone who witnessed his quest. We did it again the next two years at Bethpage Black and Pebble Beach and continued to prove Tiger right.

Scott Halleran

2009: Dan Jenkins begins tweeting from the Open Championship and a new genre enters golf writing. Called “the hostile voice of a previous generation” by David Ogrin, the Ancient Twitterer would be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame for a lifetime achievement in journalism in 2012.

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Darren Carroll

2009: Golf Digest launches environmental awards and continues the commitment to sustainability today in partnership with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards.

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2010s

2010: “10 Tips Obama Can Take From Tiger” is the lead coverline accompanying an artist’s rendering of then President Barack Obama getting caddie help reading a putt from the World No. 1. The issue was shipped two weeks before the scandal of Woods’ marital infidelities made headlines when he drove into a fire hydrant. As Woods’ reputation had changed dramatically by the time the issue hit newsstands, the tongue-in-cheek story about what a top athlete can teach about resilience and image-management was regarded as strikingly tone-deaf, if not hilariously wrong.

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2012: We publish Valentino Dixon’s story in Max Adler’s series “Golf Saved My Life.” Sentenced to life in prison, Dixon claims to have been wrongfully convicted of murder and began specializing in golf art after the Attica warden requested a picture of the 12th hole at Augusta National. This article and ensuing efforts by Adler and Georgetown University help reopen the investigation. When the sentence is vacated in 2018, the New York Times runs the headline “How Golf Digest and College Students Helped Free a Man Convicted of Murder.” That spring, Dixon attends the Masters on a Golf Digest press credential to draw No. 12 from life. (Adler becomes editor of the magazine in 2019.)

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2013: Golf Digest ranks “The Good Guys” for the first time. Steve Stricker, Brandt Snedeker and Rickie Fowler finished 1-2-3 in an extensive survey of locker-room attendants, courtesy-car drivers, rules officials, volunteers and media types. Many iterations on the franchise would follow, and companies like Aneel Bhusri’s Workday used the list as a basis for hiring corporate ambassadors. Never has simply being nice paid off so well.

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2014: Paulina Gretzky, daughter of the hockey great, models a May cover story about fitness. The choice of the social media sexpot and then fiancée (now wife) of tour pro Dustin Johnson prompts Stacy Lewis to become a leading voice of LPGA Tour players who criticize the magazine for being on the wrong side of a conversation about respect and representation in women’s sports that continues today. As the issue immediately preceding a magazine redesign geared to attract a new and more youthful audience, an amount of success was measured in the media attention the cover received.

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2016: Arnold Palmer dies. Ten weeks later Golf Digest publishes its first SIP (special interest publication) solely devoted to a single subject. An essay on Palmer’s life and legacy accompanies a collection of his best instruction lessons, swing analysis and more. The premium paper and larger format is devoted the next month to the inauguration of Donald Trump, “Golfer-in-Chief,” and becomes a model for future SIP subjects, including Travel, Style, Tiger Woods and The Hot List.

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2017: Erin Hills hosts the U.S. Open, won by Brooks Koepka, and it’s the first major championship played on a course designed by a Golf Digest editor. Architecture editor Ron Whitten’s collaboration with longtime friends Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry was built in 2006 to bring affordable daily-fee golf to rural Wisconsin. To date, it has hosted five USGA events, including the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open, with five more USGA amateur championships to come between 2027 and 2039.

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2017: “Every Hole at Pine Valley” is Golf Digest’s first drone video with 18-hole commentary. Dozens of “Every Hole” videos follow with many of the greatest courses in the world, from Cypress Point and Seminole to Tara Iti in New Zealand and Royal County Down in Northern Ireland—each a masterpiece shot by photographer Carlos Amoeda and coordinated by executive producer Christian Iooss.

2018: Our video-on-demand instruction portal, Golf Digest Schools, goes live. A highlight is the first episode of “Undercover Lessons,” 37 unedited and unscripted minutes of Playing Editor Jordan Spieth hitting balls on the range alongside his coach, Cameron McCormick. The novel treatment effectively transports viewers to the VIPs-only side of a tour practice range.

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2019: Discovery Inc. buys Golf Digest and soon merges with Warner Brothers, creating opportunities for collaborations for massive general audiences, such as The Match on TNT Sports. After a decade in Evanston, Ill., and 55 years in Connecticut, Golf Digest editorial headquarters moves a few dozen blocks uptown from One World Trade Center to 230 Park Avenue South in lower Manhattan.

2019: Golf Digest’s Instagram account surpasses 1 million followers on Nov. 22. Formatted to the palm of one’s hand, the steady blend of world-class photography, breaking news, viral moments and engaging instructional content reflects a growing digital audience and our ability to connect with golfers of every generation.

2020s

2020: The COVID-19 pandemic leads to unprecedented disruptions to daily life to curtail the spread of the new virus, but this period also presents a unique opportunity for golf, the rare activity that had been identified as safe and social, albeit with new precautions. Golf Digest’s reporting in the early days of the pandemic and in ensuing months provides consistent guidance on how the game can be enjoyed by experienced golfers as well as new players.

Ramsey Cardy

Kevin C. Cox

Rob Carr

Jamie Squire

2022: Course Search with more than 18,000 courses goes live, allowing users to filter itineraries based on location, price, reviews and standing in Golf Digest rankings.

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2022: We find PGA Tour pro Morgan Hoffmann in the jungles of Costa Rica directing his own non-Western treatments for muscular dystrophy. The profile by staff writer Dan Rapaport and photographer Adam Glanzman features brief but affecting video clips of Hoffmann doing yoga, surfing, chipping with his dog—woven with text—to usher a new era of multimedia storytelling.

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Adam Glanzman

2023: The entire Golf Digest archive, every article and ad of every issue from our beginning in 1950, is uploaded and made searchable to Golf Digest+ members. The leatherbound volumes that sag the shelves of longtime editors take on a more nostalgic patina.