Anchors Away

As we all expected, the R&A and the USGA lowered the boom on anchored putters Tuesday.  It remains to be seen what the PGA and the PGA Tour will do in response, but we can expect things to be a bit tense for a while.

In the meantime, I thought a little song parody might be appropriate. I've been working on it for a couple of months now, searching for just the right song and approach... and I think I found it!

As I've said before, I don't use an anchored putter but I don't believe they give anybody an advantage either -- in fact, I believe players have been winning on the strength of good iron play, and anchored putters are actually holding them back. It didn't take me long to decide I would write an anthem for all those maligned players who wield anchored putters.

As for the music... it's possible that some of you have never heard the song Sex and Candy by Marcy Playground. However, it's the perfect tune for this song. Perfect, I say! For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, I'm sure you'll agree after you hear it. Here's the video:



Anchors Away (with apologies to Marcy Playground)

R&A
And the USGA had a lot to say
About them belly putters
   And the way they're swung
They hate the way they're held
   And how they're swung
They're gonna make us change

Anchors away -- it's not fair
'Cause my putting makes me swear
Now they're casting devious stares at my mechanics
Mama, they're surly and they're mean, yeah
Yeah Mama, vindictive and obscene -- bigots

Now "the Man"
Is coming down on me because he don't give a damn
About my yippy putting stroke --
   My game is done
He broke my magic wand --
   My game is done
I just can't make the change

Anchors away -- it's not fair
They're not pulling out their hair
But they're casting devious stares at my mechanics
Mama, they're surly and they're mean, yeah
Yeah Mama, vindictive and obscene -- bigots
Yeah, Hannibal Lecters on the green, yeah

Anchors away -- don't they care
That my game's in disrepair
While they're casting devious stares at my mechanics
Mama, they're surly and they're mean -- bigots
Yeah Mama, vindictive and obscene
They're Hannibal Lecters on the green, yeah
Their meddling just makes me blaspheme

Maybe Jake Trout will decide to record this one! It's got greatness written all over it...

Today's the Day

Just a reminder that the R&A and the USGA are going to announce their decision on anchored putting today. And if they make the choice I expect them to make, I'll have a surprise -- hopefully an entertaining one -- on Wednesday.

I believe the announcement is supposed to be made at 8am ET today and will be carried live on GC's Morning Drive. Let's see what they do...

The Limerick Summary: 2013 HP Byron Nelson Championship

Winner: Sang-Moon Bae

Around the wider world of golf: There were several first-time winners besides Bae this week -- Peter Uihlein won the Madeira Islands Open, the alternate ET event; Jennifer Johnson won the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic; Giulia Molinaro won the Friends of Mission Charity Classic on the Symetra Tour; Mark Anderson won the BMW Charity Pro-Am on the Web.com Tour; and Jorge Fernandez-Valdes won the Mundo Maya Open on the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica. Among the "repeat offenders," Matthew Griffin won the SK Telecom Open on the OneAsia Tour; Graeme McDowell won the Volvo World Match Play Championship on the ET; and Adilson da Silva won the Zambia Sugar Open on the Sunshine Tour.



You might as well get used to the name Sang-Moon Bae if you don't know it already. It was just a matter of time before he got his first win on the US tour -- he's won several times overseas -- and now that he's done it once, he should be able to figure out how to do it again.

And again. And again.

Of course, there's no guarantee of that. There never is in this game. But he's come close before, a couple of times -- the second time he lost in a playoff. And while his final eleven holes Sunday weren't exactly stellar -- 3-over par -- his blistering first seven holes (four-under) more than offset the rough finish. And given how difficult the course played, what with the 25mph winds and all, it's hard to be too hard on a first-timer.

You can be forgiven if you expected Keegan Bradley to win. After his course record 60 on Thursday, his eventual triumph -- on a course where he's won before -- seemed a virtual certainty. But as I said, there's no such thing in this game. I suspect Keegan just tried too hard.

Oh well. The two will probably get many more chances to battle in the coming years. In the meantime, this week's Limerick Summary salutes the youngster who won their first war:

Though Bradley led starting the day,
The first to the finish was Bae.
Four-under in seven,
Moon’s final eleven
Holes couldn’t snatch this win away.

The photo is from the tournament page at PGATOUR.com.

Hit DOWN on Your Driver?

I found this cool little Golf Digest video from Sean Foley that will sound really odd to many of you. Seems Sean wants you to hit down with your driver while most teachers want you to swing up. Why does he say that? Take a look:



This video may help you understand why teachers often seem to give conflicting instruction. Although Foley says you're hitting down, what he means is that your hands stay ahead of the club head through impact off a tee just like they do when you're hitting a shot off the ground. You aren't really hitting down so much as making sure you don't flip your hands at impact. Swinging this way will help you finish your turn through the ball.

What Sean doesn't say -- but you need to know -- is that this technique works with the ball teed up farther forward in your stance than he's teaching in this video. Use the position he teaches here to get used to hitting solid controlled drives. (It's also good for use in the wind.) Then, once you feel comfortable hitting this shot, start inching the tee forward. Using this technique, you'll automatically start hitting upward on the ball without changing your swing; the ball position will take care of the upward angle for you.

This is a good way to learn how to hit solid drives since it doesn't require any change from your regular swing to get good results.

And Another One Gone, and Another One Gone

Yesterday I said I would have written about the Volvo World Match Play Championship if Poulter's loss meant he was out of the tournament. Guess what I'm writing about today?

The Big One bit the dust!

Ian Poulter, who would be cast as Conan the Barbarian if Conan's Atlantean weapon was a putter, lost both of his matches in round robin play. First Thongchai Jaidee smote him (I'm continuing the sword analogy here) then Thomas Aiken hacked him into tiny pieces and sent him home in a little box. It's hard to believe he got beaten so quickly.

At least he won't need that viper anti-venom anymore. Who plans to play golf in a snake pit, anyway? (The Copperhead Course doesn't count. That Snake Pit is just a publicity ploy.)

I think it's worth noting, however, that both Jaidee and Aiken made the round of 16. I'm going to assume that their Poulter pounding is a commentary on how well they're both playing, and that it means they both have a good chance of winning this thing.

One other player who got bounced was Thorbjorn Olesen, who I thought would have a good chance here. With his determination (as well as his T6 at the Masters) he seemed to be custom-built for the Volvo. The Thunder Bear will make no noise at this tournament, however.

Although defending champion Nicolas Colsaerts is still alive, I'm looking for Graeme McDowell to come out on top this week. Despite his poor showings at Augusta and THE PLAYERS, he's looked really good at the WGCs and he has a win plus 3 other Top5s this season. I think a good match play event is just what the doctor ordered for Graeme.

And if not... well, we can play that Queen song over and over and over. It never gets old, does it?

Another One Bites the Dust

Another scoring record, that is. Keegan Bradley's 60 (-10) at TPC Four Seasons Resort was the big news in golf Thursday. Granted, Thongchai Jaidee's 3&2 victory over Ian Poulter -- IAN POULTER, OF ALL PEOPLE! -- was impressive, but the Volvo World Match Play starts out with round robin play so Poults wasn't eliminated. If he had been, I'd probably be writing about that.

But Bradley stole everybody's thunder on Thursday. He made 10 birdies, an eagle, and 2 bogeys. Think about that, folks... if he hadn't made those bogeys, he'd have posted a 58 in a Tour event! According to an article by Mike McAllister:

Twenty-eight rounds of 60 have been shot on the PGA TOUR. Of those, ShotLink has hole-by-hole scores of the 21 rounds since 1983. Bradley's 60 is the first to include two bogeys.

As Darth Vader once said, "Impressive. Very impressive."

Perhaps most interesting was Keegan's mindset. I've pulled a couple of comments from his post-round interview. First, his answer to the question,"When did you start thinking about 59?"

Um, I didn't‑‑ I've played rounds before, one in particular Nationwide Tour when I was 9‑under after 14, and it was par 7 and I was thinking about it, but today I finished eagle, birdie, birdie so it didn't cross my mind very much, It did in the fairway, I hit a 136 yards, I hit a wedge, it was going right at it. And it crossed my mind for a second, and it would be unbelievable if I buried this! (Laughter.) But I had 3 feet to shoot 60. I was actually very nervous, uncomfortable over it and thank God I made it.

The other is his answer to the question, "How many places do you hold or share a course record, to your knowledge?"

I'm not 100% sure but probably four or five. It depends on if they still stand from when I was younger. Shooting a course record is pretty unbelievable at an event like this, considering the history and the players that have won and the players that have played here before me.

It's awesome. I was thinking a little bit of Phil today when he shot 60 at Phoenix. I was thinking about how, you know, I wanted to shoot 60, to at least compete with him a little bit with that one. For whatever reason I was thinking about it. I like to beat him every time I can, at anything, but it was a special day. I enjoyed the day.

Okaaaay... he wasn't thinking about shooting 59, he was thinking about beating Phil. I'm sure of it now -- that boy's deranged!

But I suppose you have to do something unusual if you want to get your second win at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. It certainly got Keegan off on the right foot. (Of course, if Phil tries to compete with Keegan at the U.S. Open... I wonder...)

Choosing Between Fairway Woods and Hybrids

Josh Blagden of golfbidder.co.uk was kind enough to provide me with this article on whether to choose a hybrid or a fairway wood for various kinds of shots. I thought you guys might find it helpful.

Golfers of all levels have long struggled with the long-iron conundrum. For many players, long irons are difficult to hit well even with modern clubfaces, because of their very small club faces and their equally small sweet spots. The extremely low trajectory of a long iron, caused by its low loft, as well as the longer club length makes it unsuitable for tighter lies, ‘punching’ out from underneath trees and playing from the rough.

Consequently, players tend to avoid having these clubs in their golf bag and favour fairway woods with a larger sweet spot. The extra mass in the head makes it easier to get the ball airborne and travel greater distances than long irons.

Fairway woods were the only alternative to long irons for decades, until the demand for hybrids exploded from 2004. The hybrid was designed to combine the accuracy and versatility of a long iron with the distance and forgiveness of a fairway wood.

In terms of design, a hybrid head is very similar to a fairway wood with a shallow, slightly convex face, but the loft of the hybrid head is generally higher than either the wood or the iron. Hybrid clubs can be a great option for a variety of different shots, and can even make great chippers near the edge of the green.

Many tour pros started including hybrids in their bags, as did golfers of all levels. The advantages of using hybrids became clear, in terms of their versatility and effectiveness out the rough. However, their weaknesses were exposed too. Fewer hybrids appear in tour bags nowadays as the more powerful pros have come to recognise they are not as effective in windy conditions, nor do they offer the ability to work the ball nearly as well as long iron replacements.

But recreational golfers generally find these long iron replacements as hard to use as standard long irons. They will use hybrids and fairway woods and, in most cases, they will find hybrids easier to swing than fairway woods. The key is in knowing which club is more effective for the situation.

How does a player choose which club between a fairway wood and hybrid?

The type of shot you can play is often determined by your lie, and the lie can dictate which type of club you should use.

• From the fairway, both woods and hybrids have their places. Hybrids launch the ball higher and straighter, helping it stop more quickly on the green, while fairway woods make it easier to curve the ball and get some roll for a little extra distance.
• In light rough, a fairway wood such as a 3-wood may be a better choice, as its flat bottom skims the low grass easily, yet a hybrid may be a better choice in thicker rough as the heavier but more compact clubhead can cut better through the longer grass.
• From a fairway bunker, the hybrid’s lofting ability makes it a better selection than a wood.

It is important to make the right club choice as it can vastly improve your game and lower your score. You need to look no further than Chinese teenage golf sensation Guan Tianglang, who made history at the 2013 Masters as the youngest ever player to compete at a major, aged just fourteen. Whilst the majority of his competitors were using a combination of long irons and fairway woods on the uncompromising 7435 yard course at Augusta, Guan opted to hit his fairway shots on the long par-4s and par-5s using fairway woods in order to compensate for the distance he lacked. As a result of his club choices, he successfully became the youngest player ever to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.

But unlike Guan, the majority of us are not afforded the luxury of changing clubs depending on conditions. That makes it even more important to make the right decision when choosing between a fairway wood and hybrid as a long iron replacement.