One of golf's oldest cheats tricks is to sole a club behind the ball in the rough and then "decide ... for improving the conditions affecting his next stroke. Please don't get any bright ideas ...

Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com ... I put the ball in the same exact place in relation to the marks on the yard stick. This ball position will varies for every club.

As you chip the ball onto ... the next stroke, like you did when you hit a chip shot after dropping in the wrong place and then tapping down on the bruised grass. The Rules of Golf explains ...

We can blame the tours and we can blame players but, as Steve Carroll argues, our clubs can do quite a lot to cure the cancer ...

Last season, Rory McIlroy used TaylorMade's TP5x ball, a five-piece ball that has a large rubber core, three mantle layers and a soft urethane cover. It's TaylorMade's firmest ball and should produce ...