The 75 Biggest Moments in Golf Digest History, Part II: 1970-1980

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

1970s

1970: The publication of Square-to-Square Golf Swing, a cover story and book by Golf Digest editor Dick Aultman, turns instruction upside down. The controversial mechanics are widely disputed and debated, but Golf Digest content becomes the center for new ideas in golf instruction.

Print Article: GOLF DIGEST | Golf Digest | FEBRUARY 1970

1970: Nick Seitz writes “Ben Hogan Today,” shadowing the Ice Man for a week to produce the first of what will be several iconic interviews for Golf Digest. “The year 1970 was made when 57-year-old William Benjamin Hogan, his swollen left knee squeezed into an elastic brace, limped intently out of retirement to finish ninth in the Houston Champions International and challenge briefly in the Colonial, which he has won five times. Imagine Joe DiMaggio donning his old uniform and coming off the bench to rip a grand-slam home run before a capacity crowd in Yankee Stadium and you have some idea of the drama that drenched Hogan’s performances on two of the most arduous courses in the sport.” (Seitz becomes chief editor in 1974.)

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1971: Golf Digest Instructional Schools are formed as the first national program that assembles top teachers at the best resorts for weeklong sessions for amateur golfers. Dick Aultman, Bob Toski, Jim Flick, Paul Runyan and Sam Snead highlight the teaching staff.

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1971: We declare “The Putter of the Future” with the Potato Masher on our cover. Wildy unorthodox and criticized, the putter proves to be well ahead of its time, and now from a modern perspective, it lives up to its description and looks amazingly conventional.

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1972: Jack Nicklaus authors his first instruction series with groundbreaking cartoon-style visuals (illustrated by golf pro Jim McQueen and written by Ken Bowden) called “Jack’s Lesson Tee.” In 1977, Nicklaus joins the staff as a playing editor.

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1973: Commissioner Joe Dey and commentator Howard Cosell appear on a Golf Digest cover debating the game. Cosell: “As tour commissioner, wouldn’t you like to see some kind of organized program whereby, for a given day or two, Jack Nicklaus held a clinic for youngsters in Harlem, Arnold Palmer went into Bedford Stuyvesant?” Dey: “I agree. It would be a wonderful thing.” Cosell: “Have you done any thinking about it?” Dey: “I must confess I have not.” Cosell: “If I charge you with dereliction in this regard, Joe, will you accept the charge and plead guilty?” Dey: “With a two-stroke penalty.” (The PGA Tour and George H.W. Bush founded The First Tee, a junior development program taking the game into underserved communities, two commissioners and 24 years later.)

Print Article: GOLF DIGEST | Golf Digest | APRIL 1973

1974: Henry Longhurst debuts as a columnist and so begins a tradition of publishing the best and brightest commentators on the game. Some of golf’s greatest writers follow with one column after another in Golf Digest as Peter Dobereiner, Charles Price, Joe Dey, Nick Seitz, Tom Callahan, Dave Kindred, Judy Rankin, Peter Andrews, Peter Thomson and Jaime Diaz write monthly.

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1975: We move away from straight difficulty for course rankings and toward seven criteria: shot values (doubled), design balance, resistance to scoring, memorability, aesthetics, conditioning and tradition. Courses are ranked in groups of 10, alphabetically: First Ten, Second Ten, etc.

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1976: The first pro to win Golf Digest’s National Long Driving Championship is Evan “Big Cat” Williams, and he repeats the following year. Long-drive contests had been around since the beginning of the game, but most were attached to major tournaments and won by tour pros. Golf Digest takes some credit for creating the long-drive specialist with these early nationally televised contests of strong men.

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1977: PGA Tour player Frank Beard starts a monthly column always revealing and often setting the game’s hair on fire: “Augusta’s a nice place, but it’s not heaven.” The candor and perspective direct from the source serves as the inspiration four decades later for The Undercover Pro and The Undercover Caddie series.

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1978: Tom Watson joins the staff as a playing editor and begins a run unmatched for editorial continuity, contributing instruction articles in every issue for the next four decades.

Tom Watson

Dom Furore

1980

1980: Golf Digest reaches 1 million circulation, largest of any golf publication in the world. Earlier milestones were hit with 100,000 in 1960 and 500,000 in 1970. Total paid and verified circulation in 2025 is 1,647,301.

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1980: The Golf Digest Commemorative Pro-Am launches at Newport (R.I.) Country Club in June and is won by Sam Snead. When the minimum age is officially lowered for senior pros from 55 to 50 the following year, it allows Arnold Palmer to play. Along with Leo Fraser’s Atlantic City tournament, it becomes a founding event of what’s now known as the PGA Tour Champions.

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1980: Stephen Szurlej is named as the magazine’s first staff photographer, eventually expanding to include a stable of talented shooters like Dom Furore, J.D. Cuban and Walter Iooss Jr.

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