The members of Golf Digest's newest 50 Best Teachers list are building their reputations and profiles in different and less-traditional ways

Golf is a game of honor and integrity. But let's face it, sometimes in order to play this great game of honor and integrity, you need to be less than honest. What does one do when it's 80 degrees and sunny and you've just been asked to be a fourth? Here are seven airtight excuses

As apex predators — and ferocious and snappy ones at that — alligators basically live their lives doing what they want and going where they please. Now and again they’ll get suspicious about doorbells or time-travel here from the Jurassic period, but mostly they do their own primal, intimidating thing. Most of them don’t even ask before eating your dog.
Yet as a former resident of a coastal island that was swarming with gators (and poisonous snakes, and enormous flying cockroaches, and enormous regular cockroaches — seriously who builds a town in a swamp?), I confess that I generally believed the arrival of an alligator to be a negative, something that indicated it was probably time to consider sprinting in the opposite direction, generally while flailing my arms and/or shrieking AIEEEEEEEEEE! (Incidentally, running away from them is pointless, it’s an urban — or swamp — myth and will only make you look ridiculous in the last few moments before you’re devoured by an alligator.)
But not..

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) Eun-Hee Ji had a 6-under 66 on Thursday to take a three-stroke lead after the first round of the LPGA’s Taiwan Championship.

Ji got off to a strong start with back-to-back birdies at the Miramar Golf Country Club, and added four more to finish the round clear of fellow South Korean Sei Young Kim, Megan Khang and Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand.

Lydia Ko was in a group of five tied for fifth after a 70 that included three bogeys and five birdies.

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Top-ranked So Yeon Ryu and No. 2 Sung Hyun Park struggled to find their rhythm. Ryu finished with a 73 for a share of 23rd place, and Park was 4 over.

Defending champion Ha Na Jang struggled in an opening round of 81.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) Eun-Hee Ji carded a 6-under 66 to take a three-stroke lead after the first round of the Taiwan Championship on a rainy Thursday.

Ji got off to a strong start with back-to-back birdies at the Miramar Resort and Country Club, and added four more to finish the bogey-free round clear of fellow South Koreans Sei Young Kim and Megan Khang, and Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand.

Ji, yet to win this year, didn’t mind the bad weather as she hit 10 of 14 fairways.

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”I changed my swings a little bit,” Ji said. ”My caddie is helping me a lot. It’s like more information for wind and club choosing. That’s everything.”

Kim had five birdies and two bogeys. Ariya surprised herself in weather she didn’t expect to play well in. Khang, who was paired with Stacy Lewis and Sarah Jane Smith, was satisfied given the conditions and said it helped to play with a good group.

”That definitely helped get this round going,” Khang said. ”You play better when you’r..

JEJU, South Korea (AP) Justin Thomas had two eagles on his front nine and finished with a 9-under 63 to take a three-stroke lead Thursday after the first round of the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges, the first official PGA Tour tournament staged in South Korea.

Thomas started with a bogey at 10 but made amends with eagles on the par-5 12th and 18th holes around four straight birdies from No. 14-17 to turn in 29. He added three more birdies and a bogey to hold his margin.

”It was kind of a weird day,” Thomas said. ”It started off with a really, really bad bogey. And then I had a seven-hole stretch there where I basically kind of went unconscious. That was pretty much most of my round.”

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Thomas has won the CIMB Classic in Malaysia twice – in 2015 and 2016 – and says he is comfortable playing overseas.

”It’s still golf,” Thomas said. ”It doesn’t matter where you are and I know that it is very cliche and easier said than done but you just have to take advantage o..

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (AP) The PGA Tour is bringing a regular tournament to Kentucky for the first time in nearly 60 years.

The Barbasol Championship is leaving Alabama next summer for the Keene Trace Golf Club just outside Lexington. The tournament is July 19-22 and is held the same week as the British Open. As an opposite-field event, the winner does not get an invitation to the Masters and the prize fund is only $3.5 million.

The tournament began in 2015 at the RTJ Trail’s Grand National in Opelika, Alabama.

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Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville hosted the PGA Championship three times and the Ryder Cup in 2008. But the last regular PGA Tour stop in Kentucky was the Kentucky Derby Open from 1957 to 1959. That’s where Gary Player won his first PGA Tour event in 1958.

A select group of the world’s top golfers, including Justin Thomas, Adam Scott and Jason Day, are among 29 of the top 50 players from last season’s final FedExCup standings in the field this week at the inaugural CJ Cup, the PGA Tour’s first-ever event in South Korea.

A roster of just 78 players will compete beginning Thursday at the Nine Bridges Golf Club on Jeju Island, South Korea, for a total purse of $9.25 million, with $1.6 million and 500 FedExCup points going to the winner of this no-cut event.

The CJ Cup is a 72-hole stroke play event made up predominantly of PGA Tour players (there were 60 allowed in the field), with additional competitors coming from a variety of Korea PGA and Asian Tour exemptions. PGA Tour members will earn official FedExCup points as part of the 2017-2018 season.

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This tournament is the third event of the 2017-18 PGA Tour season and is part of eight competitions during the fall of 2017 and the second of three consecutive ..

A rare visit to where the Kennedys tee it up.

We haven't heard much from K.J. Choi on the course in recent years, but boy, do we wish we could hear more of him off it. You see, not only is the eight-time PGA Tour winner a great golfer, but he's also got a tremendous set of pipes. And on Wednesday, we got a small taste of his silky-smooth voice that has some people (us) dubbing him the Frank Sinatra of South Korea. Have a listen:
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Strong stuff. And we like how he uses a golf tee as a microphone. Of course, we have no clue what Choi is crooning about, but he sounds fantastic. And we know he's in a great mood with the PGA Tour playing its first official tournament in Choi's native South Korea this week, the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges.
Choi's singing first caught our attention in 2015 when Danny Lee shared this video of him singing at what looked to be some sort of swanky event:
https://twitter.com/dannygolf72/status/656042693621977088
What a gift. Is there a “South Korea's Got Talent” ..