The Final Driving Tip of 2014

Yes, it's only appropriate that we end 2014 with a driving tip. This golf.com article says it will give you 10 more yards with your driver -- indeed, that it will make you longer with every club in the bag.

I found this fascinating because it's a tip that goes against the advice you hear from most teachers... but it's actually a fundamental of the classic swing from a century ago!



As you can see from the article's photo, you're trying to get the club shaft parallel to the ground at waist high rather than taking the club back so sharply inside. I routinely recommend this move -- you can check out my now notorious article on how to make a relaxed one-piece takeaway if you need proof -- but what stands out in this article is how Brad Brewer recommends you do it. He says:

Take your normal grip with your driver and then let go with the last three fingers on each hand, leaving only your thumbs and index fingers on the handle.

Yes, he's suggesting that you do his drill while holding the club with the thumb and forefinger of each hand. Ever since Hogan became the yardstick for golf teachers, this has been a no-no! Such a grip supposedly tightens the wrist and limits the free cocking and uncocking of the wrists.

However, the great Harry Vardon -- you know, the guy they named the Vardon grip after! -- recommended exactly the same thing in his 1905 book The Complete Golfer. He specifically said that the grip should be concentrated in the forefinger and thumb of each hand to improve release. There are a variety of reasons why this makes sense, but let me suggest just one...

When you want to use a flyswatter or a tack hammer -- tools which require a lot of relaxed wrist action -- don't you grip them primarily with your thumb and forefinger?

While Brewer is merely suggesting this as a drill -- and he does point out that it will feel odd at first, so don't be surprised -- you might want to consider trying it on the course once you get used to it on the range. You might be surprised at how freely your wrists move when you focus your grip in those fingers.

And with that tip, we bid farewell to 2014. Remember not to drink and drive tonight... especially if you tend to hit wild slices or duckhooks. ;-)

Golf Ball Dimples Still Can't Match the Blue Angels

I just think this is a cool video.

Golf Digest did a short article on how dimples affect the flight of a golf ball and they included this little Titleist video of Iron Byron hitting a golf ball. It looks like they used ProTracer to show the ball flight. Make sure you pay close attention to the first one; that's a normal golf ball. You can see that it flies very high and has just a slight fade. Presumably Iron Byron likes the fade for added control. ;-)

Then they go to a ball that's half-dimpled and half-smooth. (A cool-looking golf ball, to be sure!) Iron Byron hits it with the dimples on the left side of the ball, then on the right side. You get two low hard curves.

Finally they use a completely smooth ball which goes nowhere compared to the first ball. You can see how much lower the ball flight is.



The video helps explain why the ball companies spend so much time experimenting with new dimple patterns and shapes. I wonder if they'll ever be able to make the ball do barrel rolls like the Blue Angels? The only dimples the Angels need are caused by their smiles as they zip overhead.



The Blue Angels photo came from the US Navy's official blog.

The Limerick Summary: Goodbye, 2014!

Winner: The Fans

Around the wider world of golf: Nothing happened. However, I have to give a shout-out to my favorite football team, the Carolina Panthers. Despite a rough season in a less-than-impressive division, the Panthers became the first NFC South team to successfully win the division two years in a row, thus making the NFL Playoffs. If they can win three more games, they win the Super Bowl!



There's not a lot to say this week because everybody's taking the holidays off. 2014 ends this Thursday, and then we've got another week until the PGA Tour resumes their 2015 wraparound season. There really isn't much more to say, is there?

I can point to the first tournament of 2015, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, where Zach Johnson will be the defending champion... but to be honest, I doubt that even Zach is thinking too much about that this week. It's the holidays, people -- time to think about family and upcoming bills for all those expensive presents you bought them!

So I'll just drop this little generic end-of-year Limerick Summary to round out the 2014 that was:

Now we bid Twenty-Fourteen adieu
As we wait. In a weekend or two,
They’ll be golfing once more
Up on Maui’s north shore—
Kapalua, where Zach last broke through.

The photo came from a page at PGATOUR.com that will be changing in the next week or so.

Dave Pelz SHOWS You How to Pick the Right Bounce

A couple of days back I did a post on matching your sand wedge to the sand you're playing from. Today I'm going to expand that to playing off hardpan, fairway, and rough.

Here's a link to a golf.com video by Dave Pelz that actually shows you up-close how the wedge contacts the ball in different lies. (I'd embed the video but golf.com won't allow it. But I snagged the still below so you can see what he's doing.) This video is nice because Dave actually shows you how the ball lies on different types of surfaces and how the bounce affects contact with the ball when the shaft is vertical to the ground AND when the face is square or open (to get extra height).



The basic things to learn here are:

• The best contact happens when the ball contacts the club face between the 4th and 5th grooves. (Again, he actually shows what this looks like.)
• When choosing loft, the distance you want to hit the shot only matters if you can get that best contact. Otherwise, use the club that gives you best contact (or as close as you can get) and then control distance with the length of your swing.
• On hardpan you can't get the best contact, even with low bounce, so you take what you can get, which means use low bounce. Anything else results in a skulled shot.
• On tight fairways use low bounce.
• On normal fairways -- about 1/2" of grass under the ball -- use medium bounce.
• In light rough -- about 1" of grass under the ball -- use high bounce. Low bounce will go right under the ball.
• And of course you use high bounce for anything taller than light rough.

Watch the video a few times to make sure you get it. This can save you a lot of strokes from skulled or fluffed shots.

Rory's "High Altitude" Training Regimen

Today I'm linking to an article at golfdigest.com about an unusual training technique that Rory's been using. It's called hypoxia training or altitude training and -- surprise! -- it's intended to duplicate the effect of training at very high altitudes. Athletes have trained at mountaintop sports centers for decades, believing that the thinner air (and therefore reduced oxygen) will make their bodies more efficient... and thus able to perform better at sea level where there's plenty of oxygen.

Rory is one of those who is using a mask to duplicate the effect without having to go to the mountains. You can see it in this photo from the article.



This isn't something you'd want to try without a doctor's supervision -- there are definitely dangers associated with this kind of training, especially if you have certain health problems (some of them are listed in the article). But Dr. Ara Suppiah -- yes, you've seen him on GC -- says that the interval training Rory does can help most golfers because it duplicates the brief explosive power of a golf swing, even if you don't use a mask.

Why am I telling you about this?

With the New Year just a few days away, many of you will be making resolutions that affect your training methods. I just want you to be aware that there are many different types of training programs available to you, some of which you may have never even heard of. Some may seem pretty bizarre -- like hypoxia training -- but many are simple and may even be things you'll enjoy.

Take a little time to explore your options. There's no reason to choose an exercise program that makes you miserable.

And no, I don't expect to try hypoxia training any time soon.

How to Match Your Sand Wedge to the Sand

I have an old book (2002) called Turn Three Shots into Two by PGA Master Instructor Bill Moretti. It's a book on various facets of the short game, and I found some info in the section on sand play that may be news to many of you.

While most of us focus on how to play from various types of sand, we don't always realize that we're having trouble playing from different types of sand because we have the wrong sand wedge for the job. I can tell you this from experience. For a long time I thought I couldn't play from the sand until I found out I had the wrong amount of bounce for the sand at my favorite course. Once I got the right wedge, I had no more trouble.

According to Moretti, when you choose a sand wedge you need to consider the type of sand on the courses you'll be playing, the weight of the club, and the way the wedge fits in with the rest of your set. The three main design variables that you need to consider are:

• the loft (Moretti's specs are from 55 to 58 degrees, but now they can easily range from 52 to 64)
• the bounce (typically from 8 degrees or low bounce, to 13 degrees or high bounce), and
• the swingweight (D1 to D8 -- that's light to heavy -- although women's clubs can go down to C8 and I've seen men's clubs up to E2)

Swingweight is just a measure of how heavy the club head feels relative to the club's grip. A higher swingweight makes the club feel heavier at the top of the swing and slows down your change of direction.

Moretti makes the following recommendations:

• If you play a variety of courses -- that is, many different types of sand -- you should stay in the middle of those ranges for loft and swingweight.
• If you play mostly hard sand and elevated greens, pick a wedge with more loft (higher number), less bounce, and a lighter swingweight.
• If you play mostly soft sand and heavy rough, pick a wedge with less loft (lower number), more bounce, and a heavier swingweight.

And those choices reflect the way you'll want to use your sand wedge:

• In the softer sand you'll want to use the bounce more so you make a shallower swing to let the club head slide under the ball.
• In the hard sand you use the bounce less so you make a steeper swing that's more like a chipping stroke.

Those are the basics. And of course there's no law that says you can carry one of each -- a high loft / low bounce wedge for short game shots off tighter lies, and a low loft / high bounce wedge for fluffier lies.

Just for the record, I originally had a 56-degree wedge with around 10 degrees of bounce. The problem was that my course had very soft sand. I went to a 52-degree wedge with 13 degrees of bounce and immediately started hitting good bunker shots.

Believe me, the right sand wedge is a truly miraculous piece of equipment.

Of course, it's possible you play something else, like a course with soft sand and deep bunkers. That would indicate a high loft / high bounce wedge, wouldn't it? But such a club is very specialized and might not get used enough to carry its weight in your set. Your local pro can get you fitted for what you need.

But at least now you know the basics of matching sand wedge to sand.

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

A Quick Red-Green Colorblindness Test

Golf Digest has an article about Jack Nicklaus being colorblind... and I mean REALLY colorblind. Like he was unable to tell which numbers were red on the leaderboards.

The article includes a video that gives you some idea what it's like to be red-green colorblind, and it has a link to an online test for red-green colorblindness. It's called the Ishihara 38 Plates CVD Test and it uses 38 pictures like this:



You've seen these before, haven't you?

Anyway, while the online test isn't perfect -- it explains why at the test page -- it can still give you an idea about whether you're affected or not. I knew I had some colorblindness -- not a lot, but it shows up if there's not enough contrast between the two colors (that is, one being darker or lighter than the other) -- and the test picked it up. You might want to try it if you're curious.

Weird Guinness World Golf Records

Most of you aren't going to be playing much golf for the next two or three days, so let's see what kinds of interesting golf info we can find to help you stay sane during the Christmas countdown, shall we?

Here's the link for a golfdigest.com article with 15 of the weirdest golf records that are verified by the Guinness World Records people. For example, here's a photo of the world's largest golf tee, measuring "30 feet, 9 inches (length); 6 feet, 3 inches (head diameter); 2 feet, 1 inch (shaft width)."



There's even a description of how the guy made it. In case you want to make one of your own, of course.

Several of the records concern hole-in-ones. There's also the world's fastest golf cart, most holes played in one day, longest golf club, longest shot hit into a moving vehicle, and various other bits of trivia with which you can amaze your friends during those boring office Christmas parties. Enjoy!

The Limerick Summary: 2014 Dubai Open

Winner: Arjun Atwal

Around the wider world of golf: Nothing to report this week that I'm aware of.



While a Darren Clarke win at the Asian Tour's Dubai Open would have been a surprise, it probably wouldn't be a bigger surprise than Arjun Atwal's win. Arjun hasn't played a full schedule on the PGA Tour since 2012... but even counting that season, he's missed the cut in more than half of his starts.

Some of that can be attributed to health problems. Arjun has had back and hip problems for at least the last two years. In 2014 he had only 4 starts on the PGA Tour (he missed 3 cuts) and one start on the European Tour (he missed that cut as well).

But this week -- this week -- in Dubai he played much better. After a slow start with a 73 he posted rounds of 65, 68 and 66 to finish at -16. He beat 19-year-old Wang Jeung-hun by a single stroke, posting a birdie on the par-5 18th when Wang could post no better than bogey.

It was Arjun's first win since his only PGA Tour win, at the 2010 Wyndham Championship.

Christmas is going to be a lot brighter for Arjun Atwal this year because he gets a nice shiny Limerick Summary to place under his tree. (Well, the win -- and prize money -- probably feels pretty good too.) Perhaps this is the harbinger of a brighter 2015 to come. Merry Christmas, Arjun!

Arjun Atwal brings much Christmas cheer
From Dubai’s final tourney this year.
Over there, he was hot
Though at home, he was not.
Could this win get his season in gear?

The photo came from the tournament wrap-up page at asiantour.com.

An Irish Surprise in Dubai

Today's post is short but it's definitely newsworthy.

Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke shot a third-round 64 at the Asian Tour's Dubai Open and is now just a single shot off the lead.



South African Jbe Kruger also shot 64, which snagged him a piece of the lead -- a four-way lead featuring Kruger, Korean Wang Jeung-hun, and Indians Arjun Atwal and Shiv Kapur. And just to make things more interesting, Wang is only 19 years old versus Clarke at 46.

You can read the Asian Tour's summary of the third round at this link and keep check on the leaderboard at this link. But this is definitely turning out to be a tournament worth following, and today's final round could end up being a very nice Christmas present for Darren Clarke.

There's Golf This Week?

Yes, believe it or not, there's golf being played this week over in Dubai. The Asian Tour event -- which apparently isn't being televised here in the States -- is the inaugural Dubai Open.



Shiv Kapur from India -- you may recognize his name, as he plays the European Tour a lot -- is tied for the lead at -7 with Thai golfer Pavit Tangkamolprasert after 2 rounds. There are a number of other Asian golfers near the lead whose names you might recognize, like Gaganjeet Bhullar and Prom Meesawat.

More familiar to American golf fans is Indian player Arjun Atwal, one of Tiger's close friends and also a PGA Tour winner -- of the Wyndham Championship, just about 30 minutes or so from where I live. Atwal is only one shot off the lead.

Some other names you might know -- players who made the cut but aren't particularly close to the lead -- include Darren Clarke, Jeev Milkha Singh, Daniel Chopra, Thaworn Wiratchant, Richard Finch, and Jbe Kruger.

Let's face it, the Asian Tour isn't big news here in America. (At least, not unless somebody like Bubba or Jordan Spieth is in the field, as they were in Japan a few weeks back.) GC may air a summary show sometime in the next week or two... or they may not; they're kinda hit-and-miss that way. Events like this often slip right under the radar, especially this close to a holiday like Christmas.

Still, if you're interested, you can read a summary of the second round here (the photo came from this article as well). You'll be able to find links to the latest articles on each round here at the Asian Tour homepage (there's also a link in my blog's sidebar under "Live Leaderboards") or you can go straight to the Dubai Open leaderboard at this link.

If you need a quick golf fix this weekend, this may be the only game in town.

Butch on Ego Mistakes

Butch Harmon has a new short article at golfdigest.com about "ego mistakes." You know, the shots you mess up because you wouldn't accept your limitations or because you're trying to prove something. Everybody makes them; even the pros do so at times.

Butch's article focuses on two especially common ones:

• not using enough club when you hit into the green and
• using too much loft when you chip and pitch around the green.

Although I'm oversimplifying here, to fix the first mistake Butch says you should take one more club and swing at something less than full speed. That will help you hit the ball more solidly.

And on the second one, he simply advises trying different clubs for shots around the green. Don't just grab your lob wedge. (Yeah, I know that's what Phil does -- he plays every shot with the same wedge. Butch knows that too. But you're not Phil yet, are you?)

He also reminds you to avoid flipping your hands at impact when pitching with a wedge. You can refer back to this post featuring a video with Paul Azinger's pitching technique if you need more help. (Butch's technical advice in this article is better for chipping than pitching, at least if your ball is sitting down a bit in the rough. Just think about all those guys stubbing pitches at the Hero World Challenge.)

I'm sure many of you will say, "This is basic stuff. I already know this." But spend any time watching players on the golf course and you'll realize that knowing what to do is different from actually doing it. Butch knows we all need reminders -- that's what makes him such a great teacher.

A Better Way to Practice

This is one of the cooler articles I've seen lately... and it originated with a clarinetist. (That's somebody who plays the clarinet, in case you wonder.) I'll 'fess up -- I found out about her work because golfdigest.com wrote about it.

Golfers often listen to music when they practice. And apparently both musicians and golfers approach practice all wrong -- at least, they do if they really want to see lasting improvement.

According to the bio on an article by Dr. Noa Kageyama at bulletproofmusician.com, Dr. Christine Carter has played at a number of places like "Carnegie Hall, the ancient cloisters in Avignon France, the Sydney Opera House, the Heritage Theatre in rural Newfoundland, and a Baroque Palace in the South of Germany. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts at Manhattan School of Music, where she now teaches the Woodwind Lab." Those are pretty good credentials.

What she says, in golfing terms, is that standing on the range and shotgunning balls with the same club until you get it right isn't an effective method for improvement. Musicians often practice the same way, playing a difficult passage over and over until they get it right. In both cases, you think you're making progress because you eventually get it right during practice. It sounds logical.

But according to Dr. Carter, "Practicing in a way that optimizes performance in the practice room does not optimize learning." That's NOT the way you actually perform, either on a stage or a golf course, so the skills don't necessarily carry over. She recommends mixing it up with what she calls a blocked or interleaved practice schedule. As Dr. Kageyama puts it in his original article:

"In a random practice schedule, the performer must keep restarting different tasks. Because beginnings are always the hardest part, it will not feel as comfortable as practicing the same thing over and over again. But this challenge lies at the heart of why random practice schedules are more effective. When we come back to a task after an intervening task, our brain must reconstruct the action plan for what we are about to do. And it is at this moment of reconstruction that our brains are the most active. More mental activity leads to greater long-term learning."

So next time you head to the practice range, don't just hit wedge after wedge, then 9-iron after 9-iron, etc. Don't hit the same club twice in a row; instead, mix them up the way you would playing a regular round of golf. If you would normally hit each club 10 times, you can still do it; just don't hit the same club twice in a row.

Dr. Kageyama's article, Why the Progress You Make in the Practice Room Seems to Disappear Overnight, can be found at this link.

And the Golf Digest summary article, You've Been Practicing Golf All Wrong, and There's Science to Prove It, can be found here. But I'd advise reading them both, as the original article is far more detailed.

Bubbaclaus. Need I Say More?

In case you missed it, here's the full version of Bubba Watson's first solo rap video -- called, appropriately enough, "Bubbaclaus."



All I can say is... it looks like Gumby's been eating the cookies and milk that were supposed to be left for Bubbaclaus. Took his bling, too. Maybe that's why Bubbaclaus didn't bring him any real golf clubs for Christmas.

Getting Stronger to Stop Your Slice

A couple of weeks back I posted a golfdigest.com video on strength training to help you finish your swing better. Apparently they're doing a number of these videos, and I found another one I really like on exercises to help you stop your slice.

There are a couple of easy exercises here -- the one-armed bent-over row and the Lateral Heisman.


The one-armed bent-over row is a standard weightlifter's exercise that's pretty easy on your back because the straight arm helps support your upper body during the workout.

I've never seen the Lateral Heisman before (so called because it duplicates the pose of the figure on the Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the US college football player voted as the athlete who best represents the excellence and spirit of the game) but I really like the looks of this exercise. Obviously you can use any weight you can hold, not just a medicine ball, and it looks like a good core strengthening movement.

Hey, many of you are stuck inside because of bad weather. Might as well get a headstart on getting in shape for next year!

The Limerick Summary: 2014 Australian PGA Championship

Winner: Greg Chalmers

Around the wider world of golf: Jason Day and Cameron Tringale won the Franklin Templeton Shootout; Bernhard and Jason Langer won the PNC Father/Son Challenge; Lee Westwood won the Thailand Golf Championship on the Asian Tour; Shanshan Feng won the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters on the LET for the second time in three years (Charley Hull won the Order of Merit and Amy Boulden won the Omega Rookie of the Year); and Branden Grace won the Alfred Dunhill Championship on the ET.



I probably could have chosen almost any tournament this past week for this post and it would have been a good choice. Shanshan Feng was nearly perfect in her win at Dubai, as were Jason Day and Cameron Tringale at the Shark Shootout. Lee Westwood made a statement of sorts with his win in Thailand, as did Branden Grace in South Africa; both have been out of the limelight for a while and their wins may be a sign of things to come. And Bernhard Langer now has a team win with both sons Stefan and Jason, leaving only Christina to make it a sweep for the Langer clan.

But the Australian PGA was the biggest event of the week and clearly had the most drama. Adam Scott was in position to defend his title at -10, at least until Greg Chalmers shot a bogey-free 64 to rocket up through the ranks and post at -11 in the clubhouse. By my count only 4 players managed to shoot in the 60s during the last round, and the next closest score was 68. Wade Ormsby and Adam could only manage 71s but that was enough to get them into a 3-way playoff.

And an epic playoff it was, too! Seven times they played the par-4 18th. Twice the trio made par. On the third time through Ormsby missed the green and settled into thick rough, from which he pulled off a miraculous par... which wasn't enough. Scott and Chalmers both made birdie -- the only birdies in the entire playoff.

Those two continued the playoff through four more holes. That's right, a 7-hole playoff where Adam's putting woes continued. It wasn't that he putted particularly bad; he just couldn't get the ball to lip into the cup for birdie. Unfortunately for him, on the seventh hole he couldn't get a par either.

Chalmers putted like a machine all day and, even though he had to work for pars during the playoff, those par putts tracked into the hole from everywhere. Early in the day he made some putts in the 50-60 foot range!

Greg Chalmers hasn't made a big name for himself in the States. He has only two wins here, and both of those are on the Web.com Tour. But he has four Australasian majors -- 2 Australian Opens and now 2 Australian PGAs. That's a pretty distinguished career for anybody so it's my pleasure to also provide him with his second Limerick Summary, to go with his 2011 Australian Open verse:

Greg sliced through the field like a razor,
His putting as straight as a laser—
At least ‘til the playoff,
Where pars were the payoff
As Scott went as cold as a glacier.

The photo came from the tournament page at pga.org.au.

How to Take Relief from an Unmovable Object

I haven't done a lot of posts about the Rules of Golf so I'm going to try and do better. Today I have a video from Michael Breed on how to take relief from an unmovable object -- in this case, a plaque in the middle of the fairway. (Could have been a sprinkler head as well.)



This one's a fairly simple matter. Just:

1. determine your nearest point of relief no closer to the hole,
2. measure one club length from that point -- again, no closer to the hole -- and
3. drop within that club length NO CLOSER TO THE HOLE. Voila! The ball is in play.

Note Michael's demonstration of the difference between a rightie and a leftie taking relief. The key is that the ball has to remain as close to its original position as possible when taking relief. In this case, that means the leftie takes relief on the opposite side of the plaque than the rightie.

I'll try to post more rules videos -- especially on taking relief, since those tend to be the most confusing problems -- as we go along.

Where to Tee It for Different Shot Shapes

I found an article at golftipsmag.com about hitting longer and straighter drives by PGA instructor Mark Greenslit that advises teeing the ball a slight distance ahead of the club face. The idea is that it ensures you're swinging up on the ball when you hit it. You can read the article for a clearer understanding, but here's the photo from the article.

However, what I found most interesting -- and potentially more helpful to many of you -- was farther down in the article in the section called Great Heights.



Essentially, this is a three-step plan for teeing the ball properly to hit the shot shape you want:

• For a draw, tee the ball higher, move it away from you, and play it farther forward in your stance.
• For a fade, tee it lower, move it closer to you, and play it farther back in your stance.
• For a straight shot, follow Mark Greenslit's tip in the article and just tee the ball a few inches ahead of your normal setup position.

This is something you can try on the range before your next match. Just hit a few practice shots using the recommended setup for the shape of tee shot you'd like to hit. If nothing else, it should help you straighten out your tee shot enough to hit the fairway more often.

Cheyenne Copies Uncle Tiger in Dubai

You can be forgiven if you didn't realize the ladies are still playing golf -- the ladies on the LET, that is. Their final tournament of 2014, the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, isn't being shown live although GC is at least showing a couple of hours from 10:30am-12:30pm ET this week. (Note that this tournament is played Wednesday through Saturday. Today's round is the third round.)

Cheyenne Woods, fresh off getting her LPGA Tour card at Q-School, zipped out to Dubai to make her first appearance in the event. (She's had an LET card during 2014, you'll remember.) And as part of her time there, she celebrated the 10th anniversary of Tiger's famous shots from the helipad on top of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, the big luxury hotel in Dubai.



Of course, she's not just there to shoot photos. She's currently T6 (-5) in the tournament, 6 shots off the -11 lead of Shanshan Feng. She's just 2 shots behind second place Charley Hull (-7), so she's actually in pretty good position to make a charge with a couple of good rounds.

I should note that Hull would be at -9 had she not doubled the par-5 18th. Her approach spun back off the green and into the lake fronting it. Even if you haven't seen the women's event, you're probably familiar with the course; it's the same one played by the ET during the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in February. This is a course where heroics are often necessary to win; last year, Pornanong Phatlum hit her wedge to 2 feet for an easy birdie and her biggest LET win. So don't be surprised if we see more drama at the 18th this week.

The third round is just getting underway as I'm writing this, and the leaderboard is crowded. Only 66 players made the cut -- that's right, the LET's championship has a cut! -- and there was a 6-way playoff for 1 spot. It should be a pretty good finish. Charley Hull leads the LET money list and Gwladys Nocera, who's second on the money list, is just a shot back.

Remember, the tape delay airs at 10:30am ET on GC.

The photo came from this article at ladieseuropeantour.com.

The Quezada Hustle

Get ready for a shocker, Big Break fans. Anthony Quezada, the jerk everybody wanted to see knocked off the show, isn't a jerk after all.

I remember -- I think it was after the third show -- thinking that Quezada was a genius. Was he really a jerk or was he just putting it on? I didn't know, but I remember thinking to myself, "Man, is this guy running a hustle on the other players or what?"

By acting like such a jerk, he made the other players want to bump him off. However, early on, the weaker players were the ones most likely to end up in the eliminations. These were the players who decided to call Quezada out, not realizing that they were playing right into his hands.

Folks, you can't run a golf hustle unless you've got the game to back it up. If Quezada really was a jerk, he was used to playing with a target on his back. Ironically, several of the players actually said that he was putting a target on his back, but didn't realize that meant he was used to playing under pressure. They were already under more pressure than they were used to... and then they chose to play against someone who was used to it. Not smart!

Of course, Quezada won the first couple of eliminations. And after that, NO ONE wanted to play him, choosing instead to pick easier targets.

Like I said, it was pure genius. Quezada's strategy allowed him to avoid most of the challenges from then on, and he took out the one or two players who still dared to take him on later in the series when the pressure was worse.

Wednesday morning he was invited to Morning Drive, where he talked briefly about his decision to "play this one differently." A couple of things to note from this clip: He had no problem at all teeing it up in front of Annika Sorenstam, and he told Annika that a young Anthony was in the crowd watching Annika the day she shot 59.



On the outside chance you didn't see Anthony's elimination on Big Break, he was in charge of his match and about to make the finals when he hit the snap hook he mentions after his first shot in the video. He got a great lie in the neighboring fairway but was left with a blind shot that required a layup. He picked a bad line and put it a water hazard. The bogey cost him a spot in the finals.

But I suspect you'll be seeing him on one of the tours soon. Anthony Quezada has game, he's not a jerk, and now we know he's got a mind for strategy. I sure wouldn't bet against him!

The photo came from the Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday's Big Break page. You might want to check out his bio there -- there's more to Anthony than you might expect.

Butch on the 30-Yard Pitch Shot

This short video is a brand new one from Butch Harmon that I found Tuesday on golfdigest.com. I'm posting it because it illustrates a specific way to use the bounce of your wedge, just like in yesterday's Azinger video.

Butch calls this shot "the clip." This is how Steve Stricker plays this kind of shot... and you know how much I like Stricker's technique.


The primary technique in this shot is the relatively wristless wide takeaway and stroke through the shot. Note that the ball is in the middle of Butch's stance so the club shaft will be vertical when he actually hits the ball. That's how you make sure you use the bounce on the club.

One last thought: Obviously this shot wouldn't work from thick rough. To get clean contact with such a wide shallow arc, you need to be playing from the short grass. From the rough you want to use your wrists more, the way Zinger does in yesterday's video.

Azinger on Pitching, Take Two

I've been fascinated by the number of golf commentators who seem worried over Tiger's pitching woes this past week. You may have heard Geoff Shackelford on Monday's Morning Drive, adding his voice to those with serious concerns.

I'm reminded of the reaction Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had to the concerns that wracked Packer Nation (that's their fans, for those of you outside the US) after the team started the season with a single win and two losses. On his weekly ESPN Milwaukee radio show he said:

"Five letters here just for everybody out there in Packer-land: R-E-L-A-X. Relax. We're going to be OK."

Since then the Packers have won 9 of their last 10 games and most football analysts expect them to make the Super Bowl in a couple of months.

Trust me, folks. Tiger will be fine. R-E-L-A-X.

But some of you may be struggling the same way Tiger (and most of the field) did this past week, so I felt it might be worthwhile to cover the basics of pitching again.

One of the most "hit" posts I've done was a summary of the pitching episode Paul Azinger did for the Golf Channel Academy series. (Here's the link if you'd like to check it out again.) In that show Zinger talked about the difference between chipping and putting, and I tried to include as much of his instruction in the post as I could.

Since Tiger was using chipping technique this past week when he probably should have been pitching, it would seem to be a simple mental mistake he needs to correct. (And let me repeat, Tiger wasn't the only one making that mistake. It's just that every one of Tiger's botched chips got TV time. Such is the burden of being Tiger.)

Ironically, GC hasn't seen fit to include any clips from Zinger's pitching show in the instructional videos at their site. But I did manage to find the following video that Zinger did several years ago. It's short but it's a very clear demonstration of the basic pitching technique he talked about on GC.



There you have it. Use the bounce of the club -- which you do by hitting the ball when the shaft is perpendicular to the ground, not leaning forward -- and keep your arms "soft" while you keep your body turning.

See? It's not so difficult. Tiger will be fine... and so will you, if you just put in a little practice time.

The Limerick Summary: 2014 Hero World Challenge

Winner: Jordan Spieth

Around the wider world of golf: Yep, there's still some golf going on around the world. Coincidentally, Gwladys Nocera won the Hero Women’s Indian Open on the LET; Padraig Harrington won the BANK BRI Indonesia Open on the Asian Tour; Lincoln Tighe won the Nanshan NSW PGA Championship on the Australasian Tour; and Danny Willett won the Nedbank Golf Challenge on the ET. Oh, and Cheyenne Woods got her LPGA card at Q-School. Marita Engzelius (winner of the Symetra Tour Championship) didn't but will get another chance on the Symetra Tour. (Tony Jesselli is still updating last-minute results over at his blog.)



Let's get this out of the way first: Tiger did okay in his first tournament back. Despite fever and short game problems (the latter seemed to affect everybody except Jordan), his swing looked free and relaxed for the first time in a long time. He was hitting it fairly long and accurate, and he made quite a few birdies -- which is NOT what happened the last few times after injury. The Masters could be quite interesting in 2015!

Now let's get to the up-and-comer of the year, Jordan Spieth. Try as I might, I couldn't get past the debates on GC and NBC about whether Jordan might be the next dominant American golfer. Of course it's too early to predict something like that, but various analysts (who shall remain nameless) kept harping on his lack of power. Despite his ability to consistently get into contention and post scores -- which is how you win tournaments, anyway -- and his clear grasp of what it takes to be a champion, they just couldn't get past his lack of length.

Here's how I see it: Forget for a moment that only he and Tiger have 3 pro wins at age 21. Forget for a moment that he nearly won at Augusta National, a course unanimously considered a bomber's track. Forget his performances in the Presidents and Ryder Cups. Forget all that.

Just remember this: In the last two weeks Jordan has beaten 8 of the world’s Top10 players on world-class courses… and done so in record-breaking fashion. (And don’t forget his runner-up finish to Bubba in Japan the week before that.)

And remember this: Jordan doesn't seem to care whether the analysts believe in him or not. (He told them as much in an interview earlier in the week.)

I have a little sign on my desk that says, "The world is moving so fast these days that the person who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it." If Jordan continues to focus on his game rather than what the so-called experts say, I suspect he's going to make them all look pretty silly over the next few years.

In the meantime, here's his second Limerick Summary in as many weeks.

Jordan wanted more victories to show
For his efforts… but analysts crowed,
“He lacks power.” “He’s short.”
Jordan’s only retort
Was to beat the best… twice in a row!

The photo was snagged from this video at PGATOUR.com.

If You Think Your Golf Swing Looks a Bit Weird...

I know a lot of you think your swing should look a certain way. You want to look like Tiger or Adam or Rory or [ fill in the blank ], and it bothers you that you don't.

Perhaps today's post will get you to relax.

If the name Ted Ray sounds vaguely familiar to you, it may be from seeing the movie The Greatest Game Ever Played with Shia LaBeouf. LaBeouf played Frances Ouimet in that movie, which was about the 1913 US Open battle between the American amateur Ouimet and British professionals Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. We remember Vardon for winning one US Open and six Open Championships (he still holds the record with six), but Ray also won two majors -- one US Open (1920) and one Open Championship (1912).

BTW, Ray won that US Open at age 43, which gave him the record for being the oldest U.S. Open champion -- a record he held for 66 years until Raymond Floyd won in 1986. 

Ray had a reputation for being a bit wild with his shots. I found this video showing his "technique." Take a look...



Take a look at all the movement in his swing! I'm sure the hickory shafts Ray used contributed to his wildness, but that swing would be wild even with stiff shafts.

Next time you feel bad about your swing, take a look at this video and remember: Ted Ray won two majors with this swing. You don't need a perfect swing to play good golf.

Swing Relaxed Like Lydia Ko

This is a slo-mo video of Lydia Ko from back in April 2013, so it's over a year-and-a-half old. But it might be very informative for those of you who are struggling with getting a full shoulder turn.

I'm not going to do a lot of analysis on this today. I just want you to notice that, despite what you may hear many teachers say, Lydia doesn't try to keep her lower body locked in place with both feet flat on the ground. Just watch how quickly her hips and legs start moving when she starts her backswing. Look at how quickly her lead knee starts to bend and move behind the ball.



You don't have to immobilize your lower body to hit the ball accurately or fairly long. Lydia is only 5'5" tall but she averages 250 yards off the tee and hits 79% of her fairways. (Many of you men reading this can't do that!)

Take a tip from Lydia. You'll swing better if you stay relaxed when you swing.

Better Than It Seemed

Yeah, he's at the back of the pack. Yeah, he shot a 77. Yeah, he chipped like a rank amateur. If you want more details, you can check out this golfdigest.com article about his round.

Still, after a 4-month layoff to recoup from a bad back, I think Tiger's round was better than it seemed.



Tiger's long game got off to a rough start but looked pretty good on the back 9. He hit all the fairways there -- when do you last remember him doing that? -- and 7 of the 9 greens.

True, his chipping was horrendous. Playing partner Jason Day said he was as surprised as Tiger because his chipping seemed fine during their practice round. Perhaps it was a matter of adrenaline, but I suspect it's just the nature of swing changes.

Tiger is trying to focus more on feel now and less on mechanics but I can tell you from experience that, even if your chipping technique doesn't change, making a swing change still affects it. You get used to a certain relationship between your short game technique and your full swing technique, and any change to one makes the other feel really weird. I've always had a pretty good short game but the last time I played, it gave me fits. The swing changes I've made this year, although they actually make my full swing more like my short game swings, totally messed up the way my wrist action felt. It takes a little time to get your mind to adjust.

I thought it was kinda funny that, in the after-round media appearance, Tiger seemed a bit surprised (but happy) that his back wasn't hurting. It's easy for us to forget how much the back surgery affected Tiger and how much of a victory it is just for him to be back on the course this soon.

But I won't be surprised if Tiger's game is pretty good by Sunday. His full swing looks the most relaxed it has looked in years and, as he said, his back didn't hurt despite taking some pretty hard swings out there. Give him a couple of days to get used to the rush of competition again -- and maybe the grainy Florida grass of Isleworth -- and he may just surprise everybody by dropping a lot of rust real fast.

Getting Stronger So You Can Finish Your Swing

Yesterday I posted a golf.com video from Blair O'Neal on finishing your swing. But what if you're struggling to move that way?

Well, here's a golfdigest.com video with a couple of simple ways to strengthen your body so you can get that final turn.



Okay, just because they're simple doesn't mean they're easy. Still, you don't have to do them fast to get some good from them!

Bear in mind that when the instructions say "5 reps" it means you want to do the interval pattern 5 times. That is, you exercise for the number of seconds shown, then rest for the number of seconds shown -- that's 1 rep.

The rope jumping probably won't be too difficult for most of you. You can also try jogging in place. In either case, you'll probably find it easier to do it on a soft surface like carpet. And don't be ashamed to go slow; your leg muscles will probably take longer to adjust to the workout than your heart and lungs. At least, it always seems that way to me.

The hill climbers are TOUGH. Make sure you start out doing them slowly. If you've never done anything like them before, you can always put your hands on a chair seat instead of the floor. That's a much easier way to do them when you're starting out, and there's no shame in adjusting the exercise to better fit your abilities. (I would recommend making the rest period twice as long as the workout when you start. It's even harder than it looks.) Remember, the idea is to get stronger, not kill yourself.

There are plenty of exercises you can do as interval training, from jumping jacks to sprints around a track to weight lifting. (With weights, it's better for most people to use light weights. Work out for a given number of seconds rather than a given number of lifts, and make sure you allow longer for the rest period than for the workout.) Just pick something that you enjoy and don't overdo it, especially when you're starting out.

Yes, I believe in caution when you start a new exercise routine. You may think it's going to take you too long to get in shape if you start slowly... but then again, you can't work out at all if you hurt yourself. Just a thought...

Blair O'Neal on Finishing Your Swing

Blair O'Neal has added a Hot Tips from a Hot Golfer video over at golf.com. This one is a drill to help you make a stronger finish with your swing, which she says will help you make better shots.



The drill is simple: Place a tee in the ground a few feet in front of your ball (hers appears to be around 3 feet ahead) and then try to swing "through the tee" and into your finish. The idea is that this will keep you from making a weak swipe at the ball, as well as encouraging you to swing toward the target and make a fuller turn (which should help you square the club face).

Obviously this is a range drill and not something you'd do on the course. And I probably don't need to say this but I will: When I say to swing "through the tee" I don't mean you actually try to hit the tee. It's too far ahead of the ball! But this drill should help you if you have a tendency to get too "ball-bound" and lose your focus on the target.

A Quick Look at the "New" Tiger Swing

Today I'm just passing on a link. This is a video tweeted by the Tiger Woods Foundation showing his "new" swing. Here's a still from the video.



This post at golfdigest.com notes that Tiger appears to have a slightly wider stance and longer swing. GC showed some of Tiger's exhibition on Monday at the Hero World Challenge, and Tiger himself said he was trying to get back to some of the things he did as a teen. At any rate, it appears that Tiger and Chris Como are on track to do some things that most of his critics have wanted him to do for a while.

Does that make this a "new" swing? I don't know, but at least we'll get to see it in full flight in a couple more days.

One more quick note: The video is also embedded in the golfdigest.com post but watch the link at the top of this post, in the paragraph above the photo; it's a bigger clearer video. That's the one I took the still photo from.

The Limerick Summary: 2014 Emirates Australian Open

Winner: Jordan Spieth

Around the wider world of golf: Not a whole lot going on this week. Thaworn Wiratchant won the King’s Cup on the Asian Tour, and Sakura Yokomine won the ElleAir Ladies Open on the JLPGA (the Constructivist has details).



On occasion I make a prediction and get it right. For example, back in January 2011 I said Luke Donald was in position to have a breakout year and predicted at least one big win -- roughly two months before Donald won the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play and went on to win the money title, PGA Tour Player of the Year, and become #1 on the OWGR.

Then there was the June 2011 post where I said that a new kid named Victor Dubuisson bore watching, that "once he acclimates a bit more to Tour life, he could become an outstanding player." A couple of years later he won the 2013 Turkish Airlines Open... and he was off to the races.

But predicting a winner at a specific event isn't one of my strong suits. In fact, I've remarked more than once about the Ruthless Golf Curse affecting my picks. (You may even remember this post apologizing to Jiyai Shin and Corey Pavin for jinxing them.) So you'll understand that this victory by Jordan Spieth is particularly satisfying for me!

When I picked him before last week's event to get his first international win, I had no idea he would put on such a show -- such a show, in fact, that even ESPN gave him some air time. He led at -4 after round one, sat 2 strokes back at -3 after round two, was tied for the lead again at -5 after round three...

And then he obliterated the field with a bogey-free 8-under 63 in the final round, posting a total of -13 to win by 6 full shots. To make it even better, he did it on a tricky sandbelt course in swirling winds.

Other players made a number of birdies, but none could escape the inevitable bogeys. Jordan chipped and putted as if he were born to Australian golf. Grabbing a big international victory like this could be just the thing Jordan needs to get 2015 off to a fast start. (If you're interested in what was in Jordan's bag -- including the new driver and ball combo -- you can get that info in this golfdigest.com article.)

Jordan entered the week as one of the event's "Big Three" alongside Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott. By the end of the week, he stood alone amid the roaring crowd at the Australian Golf Club in Sydney. It's only fitting that he alone should receive this week's Limerick Summary:

The ground shook as crowds cheered in wonder—
An echo of Spieth’s rolling thunder!
His putter got hot
While the others’ did not,
Which pushed him up over Down Under.

The photo came from this ESPN article.

Feeling Where the Club Face Is Aimed

This little video from Mike Malaska -- he used to work with the late Jim Flick, among other teachers -- goes through some simple drills and practice techniques for learning to feel which way the club face is pointed at impact.



That's really pretty simple. You can do the "cellphone drill" during spare moments during the day, and you can practice the swing drill using plastic balls in your backyard when you can't get to the range.

One important point here that Malaska mentions at the end: When you practice with a club, swing slowly. That makes it much easier to feel where the club face is pointed because the swing is slow enough for you to recognize where your hands are pointed.

Don't underestimate the importance of simple drills like this. Watch the video several times if necessary to make sure you understand what he's telling you to do. Eye-hand coordination isn't complicated; it just takes repetition over time. If you practice, it will come.

Tough Times Down Under

The leaderboard's volatile down at the Emirates Australian Open. The winds are swirling and gusting around the Australian Golf Club in Sydney, and the players are struggling. Nearly 25 players were under par when the third round started; as I write this, a mere 7 players are in the red. The wind has knocked some really nice shots right out of the air at the green, even when the pin appears to be fairly calm.



To give you an idea of what it's been like, Rod Pampling (picture above from The Guardian's live update page) has either led or held a piece of the lead -- which is still -5 -- for most of the round, ever since he holed out for eagle on the 10th hole. (Oops, he just dropped a stroke at 17.)

At the other end of the spectrum, Rory McIlroy went triple-double on 9 and 10, dropping to +1 where he's spent most of the round since. Rory hit a drive into some nasty hay on the par-4 9th, tried to hit it out (there was no good drop available) and he drove it down into the sand, and had to take a drop anyway. That shot went way right and, despite a good shot over a tree to the green, he needed 2 putts for his 7. He managed to make a bounceback birdie on the 11th, but dropped another shot at 13. He's still +5 for the day.

Adam Scott has been battling away since a horrible start in the first round. He's currently tied with Pampling and Jordan Spieth -- who's played amazingly well for his first time on an Australian sandbelt course, even leading periodically -- at -4.

Currently Brett Rumford and Greg Chalmers -- you likely recognize both of those names, as they've played the PGA Tour quite a bit -- lead at that magical total of -5. It's only -5 after 3 full rounds of golf, the same that it was after the second round.. and the first round. THAT's how tough the course is playing.

The final round tonight should be quite a shootout. Nobody's gonna run away with this one!

Playing the Anti-Flop

Okay, Lou Guzzi doesn't call this the anti-flop... but the technique certainly doesn't sound like any flop shot I've seen before. However, this golf.com video from Guzzi is an interesting take on the standard flop shot. You just might find some use for it!



Guzzi has taken almost all of the wrist hinge out of this shot and substituted body rotation to get the bounce of the club under the ball. Here are the basics I see in the video:

• This shot uses your 60-degree wedge. This is pretty standard for a flop but if you aren't going to cock your wrists very much, that extra loft is critical.
• You also want to open the face of your wedge. Again, pretty standard for a flop.
• You really widen your stance. Looks more like he plans to hit a fairway wood than a wedge!
• The ball is positioned just inside the lead heel. Guzzi doesn't mention this, but it's clear from the video. Looks really close to where you'd play a fairway wood or even a driver.
• Hands swing back higher than normal but without really cocking your wrists. This is more like the one-piece takeaway you want to use in a full swing. Because you're turning your shoulders more, your hands (and the club) stay more "in front of you" -- or, if you prefer, you are more connected -- and the higher arm swing gives you a more upright stroke. Guzzi is using this upright plane to create some of the steepness you normally create with your wrists in a flop shot.
• The wider stance and more connected move causes a greater weight shift back and through. This gives the club head -- and, consequently, the bounce on the club -- more time to get under the ball.

Now, when you watch Guzzi hit this shot on the video it may not look as if it takes off as high as a typical flop shot. (At least it doesn't to me.) But I can see how this method could both create more spin and make it easier to get good results, since eliminating the "wrist flip" at impact should make it easier to hit the ball more consistently.

To put it another way, solid contact = more spin = more height on the shot.

At any rate, it looks like an easy way to hit a higher, softer pitch shot without a tricky-to-time wrist flip. Seems worth a little time on the practice range to me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving, and almost everyone in the USA celebrates Thanksgiving.

I said almost everyone...

[Alas, the picture of the turkey with a false nose and glasses, holding the "I'm not a turkey" sign, has vanished. Such are the realities of the internet.]

But since I'm one of those who DO celebrate, I'm taking today off. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

The Game's Still On Down Under

While we Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving this week and the European Tour takes a brief break between seasons, golf continues in the Land Down Under. The second of the Australian Big Three, the Emirates Australian Open, gets underway Thursday (that's tonight here in the USA).



The defending champion is Rory McIlroy, making his final appearance of 2014 at the event he quite literally stole from Adam Scott last year. Adam looked to be in control until Rory ran him down in the final stretch, winning with a birdie on the final hole. Adam is looking to even the score this year.

In fact, Adam requested that he and Rory be paired together the first two days, presumably to keep an eye on Rory. But the event organizers decided to keep the two separated, according to this SkySports article (from which the photo also came), simply to spread the main draws across as many groupings as possible. As Golf Australia championship director Trevor Herden told SkySports:

“It’s very tempting, but there are several considerations when pairing the strongest world-class players in the Australian Open field. And it’s for the exact reasons that the Masters, US and British Opens and the US PGA separated these two guys this season. Just like all the major championships do, we will spread out the superstars across the draw to ensure as many people as possible see them.”

Therefore, Rory will be paired with Geoff Ogilvy and Stuart Appleby in the morning wave. Adam will be paired with Jordan Spieth and last week's Australian Masters champion Nick Cullen in the afternoon.

Personally, I'll be very interested to see how Jordan does. It's his first trip to Australia and he's coming off a third-place finish in Japan last week, where he missed the playoff by a single shot. Given that Jordan's coach is Australian PGA Professional Cameron McCormick, Jordan may have a better chance than most expect. And according to the Australian PGA site, Jordan has idolized Adam for a long time and is looking forward to playing with him.

GC starts their broadcast tonight at 8pm ET. I'm looking for Jordan to get his first international win this weekend.

An Instructional Intro to Chris Como

Golf.com ran an article featuring 3 of Chris Como's past instructional videos, just to get everybody familiar with Tiger's new "swing consultant." Unfortunately none of the videos can be embedded in the post here so you'll have to click the link to see them.



BUT let me give you a correction to the notes golf.com added to one of the videos.

The first video, Hitting It Farther with Footwork, says:

Here’s a quick tip to gain extra yards with every club using only your lower body. Crank your right foot (or left if you are a lefty) clockwise into the ground to develop a powerful lower body move and stripe it off the tee.

IF YOU ARE A LEFTY, this is incorrect. Lefties need to "crank" their left foot COUNTERclockwise into the ground to get the result Chris is describing here. Having gotten twisted up myself when trying to "transpose" from rightie to leftie, I sympathize with the editors.

The photo came from this Business Insider article which chronicles the debate that's already begun in golf circles. (This article also includes the notorious "jumping off the diving board" video you may have heard about.) Como is a relative unknown in the golf community at large -- although he's been recognized as a top teacher by both Golf Magazine and Golf Digest -- and a huge chorus of voices are claiming this is going to be a disaster for Tiger.

Maybe it will, but one thing makes me think things will be okay. Tiger has yet to use the words "swing coach" or anything similar to describe Como's duties. Tiger says he's a "consultant" and some believe that Tiger simply wants his input to help him avoid bad mechanics that might hurt his back or knee. Given that Tiger's friend Notah Begay knows them both and believes it's a good match -- and knowing how much trouble Notah's had with back problems -- there's a good chance that this will work out just fine.

At any rate, I guess we'll all get a better idea when Tiger shows up at the Hero World Challenge next week.

The Limerick Summary: 2014 CME Group Tour Championship

Winner: Lydia Ko

Around the wider world of golf: Mardan Mamat won the Resorts World Manila Masters on the Asian Tour; Hideki Matsuyama won the Dunlop Phoenix Open on the Japan Tour; Henrik Stenson successfully defended his title at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai on the ET; Nick Cullen won the BetEasy Masters on the Australasian Tour; amateur Ssu-Chia Cheng won the Xiamen Open on the LET; and Sakura Yokomine won the ElleAir Ladies Open on the JLPGA (the Constructivist has details).



Sunday the Kobra struck and struck hard... but if we're honest, it appears that no one really expected it.

Going into the CME Group Tour Championship the big buzz was around Stacy Lewis and Inbee Park, the two leaders in... well, in just about everything. Lewis and Park were expected to duel it out down the stretch for:

• the tournament title,
• the $1mil CME Race to the Globe,
• the money title,
• the scoring title (aka the Vare Trophy), and
• the Rolex Player of the Year Award.

Lewis and Park were 1 and 2, respectively, in just about every category. There was also some talk about Michelle Wie, at 4 in the Race to the Globe, perhaps winning the tournament and the big bucks.

Nobody was talking about Lydia Ko at all.

The big battle never materialized. Both Lewis and Park struggled, although Lewis did enough to win the money title, Vare Trophy, and POY Award. Those were the ones she said were most important to her, and she did make history by winning all three -- the first American to do so since Betsy King way back in 1993.

Wie managed to get herself in position to win the tournament and the money but just didn't have enough juice to get it done. In fact, none of the Top9 who had the potential to take it all seemed able to mount a charge...

All except the Kobra, that is. She not only played well enough to lock up the Globe, she clearly had her sights on the tournament victory as well. She, Julieta Granada (who had won the old ADT Tour Championship with the $1mil first prize), and Carlota Ciganda (with no LPGA victories but three on the LET) finished in a tie and went to a playoff.

Granada faltered on the second playoff hole when her par putt barely slipped by, and Ciganda's nerves apparently got to her with a bad approach on the fourth playoff hole. The Kobra, by comparison, put her tee shots in basically the same spot each time down... and the same on her approach shots. Her final birdie putt stopped a mere inch or two short of the cup, giving her the title and $1.5mil.

Only the Top3 points getters got bonus money. They were:

1. Lydia Ko, with $1mil
2. Stacy Lewis, with $150k
3. Michelle Wie, with $100k

And Lydia set a number of records this season. Among them, she became the youngest Rookie of the Year in LPGA history. She also continues to rewrite the record books for the youngest multiple tournament winner ever on any tour. The PGA Tour's youngest one-time winner is 19 years old; the LPGA has one other ont-time winner at 18. Lydia has 5 LPGA wins and she's still just 17!

So now Lydia can head back to New Zealand for a well-deserved rest. But before she goes, I hope she takes time to pack a Limerick Summary along with all her other prizes!

She’s something that golf’s never seen
With five wins—but she’s not yet eighteen!
Though too young for a beer,
Ko’s top rookie this year
Plus she ran off with all of the green!

The photo came from this photo page at LPGA.com.

The Harmon Hook Fix Might Fix Your Slice Too

Yes, on Saturday Tiger made news by announcing his new "swing consultant" Chris Como and Suzy Whaley made history by becoming the PGA of America's first-ever female officer (and ultimately first female president). But everybody's talking about those things so why don't we look at some swing help today?

I saw this golf.com video by the Harmon brothers and immediately went, "WOW! Why don't more teachers stress this swing basic?" First take a look at this lesson on how to stop a duck hook -- which I know doesn't trouble most of you -- and then I'll point out the important lesson that may help you slicers as well.



Okay, here's the simple thing that you may not have caught the first time through: Your wrist position at address should match your wrist position at the top of your backswing. Flat wrist at address, flat wrist at top; cupped wrist at address, cupped wrist at top.

Let's use this to troubleshoot things a bit. First, the extremes:

• If you have a strong grip and a flat (or bowed) wrist, you're going to get a hook shot shape.
• If you have a weak grip and a cupped wrist, you're going to get a slice shot shape.

But many of you are changing in the midst of your swing:

• If you have a flat wrist at setup and a cupped wrist at the top, you're OPENING the clubface and will likely hit a SLICE.
• If you have a cupped wrist at setup and a flat (or bowed) wrist at the top, you're CLOSING the clubface and will likely hit a HOOK.

If you're having trouble getting the shot shape you want, check these wrist positions. And of course, you want to keep the same wrist position at setup, at the top, and at impact. Get all three to match and you'll have a much better chance of figuring out how to get the ball to curve the way you want... and do it consistently.

Michelle Wie Mounts a Charge While Adam Scott Struggles

WIND. Some golfers dread it while others see it as an ally. For players with the ability to work their ball through the wind, a gusty day provides a unique opportunity -- a chance to make up ground on the rest of the field, perhaps even separate themselves.



For Michelle Wie, the winds whipping around the Tiburon course in Florida did just that. Although the field managed to shoot lower scores on Friday -- a full shot lower despite the tougher winds -- Michelle managed to follow up Thursday's frustrating round of par with a 5-under 67. She rocketed up the leaderboard into a tie for fourth in the tournament, giving herself a chance to win the million dollar CME Globe. In fact, for a while she was in first place in that race... until a struggling Stacy Lewis managed to make a birdie on the 17th hole to regain the top spot. (Stacy is T15, at -1.)

Currently, Carlota Ciganda and Julieta Granada are tied for the lead in the tournament at -7. Stacy Lewis is first in the race for the $1mil, the POY award, and the Vare Trophy for scoring. Inbee Park is struggling along a couple of shots behind her.

Given how well Michelle plays in the wind, she could very well be leading by the end of play today.

Meanwhile, down at the BetEasy Masters on the Australasian Tour, Adam Scott's bid for a third gold jacket hit a snag during the third round. Although Scott says he felt that he hit the ball better during Saturday's round, his score didn't show it. Starting the day 6 shots behind the leaders he went out in 2-over and came back in 3-under, improving his total score by only 1 stroke to -4 (T9) -- not enough to catch the leaders (Michael Wright sits at -9, but Wright still has 4 holes to play at the time of this writing).

Granted, Adam has only 8 players ahead of him which makes his task somewhat easier. Let's face it -- if the winds continue and Adam plays a great final round, a win still might be doable. But 3 of those ahead of him have posted rounds in the mid-60s and, although Wright is struggling a bit in the third round, he looks pretty solid. And they expect more wind for the final round.

I don't like Adam's chances all that well. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that James Nitties sits at -6 after a 5-under round, and I have a feeling he just may be due.

It's amazing how much the wind can change the complexion of an event... and in this case, it just might be blowing some favorites right out of contention.

Pete Cowen's Basic Chipping Technique

I assume that most of you know who Pete Cowen is. He works with a lot of European pros -- Henrik Stenson is one you might have heard of! -- and many in the golf industry consider him one of the two or three best instructors on the planet.

Today I've got a short video where Pete teaches you basic chipping technique. This is really simple, folks, and I think you'll find it very helpful if you're having problems.



Let me call your attention to one particular point. Pete says your wrists can only hinge four ways. He demonstrates them quickly in this video, starting around the :12 second mark. Here are the four ways (his terms for them are in parentheses):

1. Up (wrist cock)
2. Down (downcock)
3. Backward (hinge back)
4. Forward (hinge forward)

He says that, during a chip, your trail hand hinges BACKWARD ONLY (no up or down) and your lead hand just kind of goes along for the ride. (Although the lead hand is moving with the trail hand, the lead wrist doesn't really have to hinge to do it. Try it and see.) Just be sure to move both hands together; that will keep you from flipping your hands at impact.

This is a very classic method of chipping, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how simple it is to get good results this way.

You're welcome. ;-)

Does Tiger Have a Case?

Ever since Golf Digest published the Dan Jenkins piece My (Fake) Interview with Tiger and Tiger made it clear that he didn't like it at The Players' Tribune, a debate has been going on. Some of it concerns the fairness of the Jenkins piece while some concerns the legality. Does Tiger have any recourse if he doesn't get the apology he'd like?

To put it simply, no, he doesn't. But since this particular issue may be in the news for a while, you might like to know the hows and whys behind that answer. In this post I'm going to give you a quick lesson in the legal aspects of parody and satire. After all, you don't need to be a lawyer or even stay at a Holiday Inn to understand this stuff.

All you need is an authoritative website -- in this case, the very impressive site of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.



First -- and this doesn't come from the rcfp.org website -- parody is generally humorous and focuses on form while satire tends to be less humorous and focuses more on a topic or person. Some of the comments made about the Jenkins article have protested that it isn't even funny, but satirists are rarely after a laugh.

A classic example of satire is A Modest Proposal (you can read it for free at this Project Gutenberg page), written in 1729 by Jonathan Swift, who is probably better known for Gulliver's Travels -- which is itself, according to Wikipedia, both "a satire on human nature and a parody of the 'travellers' tales' literary sub-genre."

In the same way, the Jenkins piece is both satire and parody -- a satire on Tiger's behavior (or at least the Jenkins perception of it) and a parody of magazine interviews.

About A Modest Proposal Wikipedia says, "This satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as Irish policy in general." Even now Swift's "proposal" -- which suggests that starving Irish beggars sell their babies to the rich as food -- remains a remarkably disturbing read, with very little humor. You can imagine how it was received when it was first published!

What Jenkins has done with his "interview" is mount a personal attack on Tiger, much the same way Swift attacked the uncaring members of Irish society in his day. It's not meant to be funny; it's meant to hurt. It's no secret that Jenkins has been, shall we say, a longtime antagonist where Tiger is concerned, and his pet peeve has been Tiger's refusal to grant him an interview -- hence, the interview format.

The question becomes, does this in some way classify as libel? The Reporters Committee site has a page called Protection for Satire and Parody, which says in part:

Satire and parody are important forms of political commentary that rely on blurring the line between truth and outrageousness to attack, scorn and ridicule public figures. Although they may be offensive and intentionally injurious, these statements contain constitutionally protected ideas and opinions, provided a reasonable reader would not mistake the statements as describing actual facts. Put another way, subjects of even the most biting satire or criticism cannot successfully sue unless the irreverent comments contain a provably false fact. Moreover, public officials and figures must prove that the defendant published the statement with actual malice.

Note that the comments may be "offensive and intentionally injurious" but still be protected under the First Amendment.

Another page, Avoiding Libel in Satire, lists a number of steps that a writer or publisher can take to make sure they're protected -- among them, making it clear from the outset that the piece in question would never be mistaken for a literal truth (a condition also referred to in the above quote). Among the other things Golf Digest did, they included the word fake in the article title, which certainly fulfills this criterium.

A particularly interesting page is called Defining "Actual Malice." (That page links from the final words in the quote.) The US Supreme Court defines actual malice as either purposely or negligently printing lies (aka "reckless disregard for the truth"). Interestingly, the page lists a number of things which do NOT constitute actual malice, and these include:

• ill will or intent to harm
• extreme deviation from professional standards
• publication of a story to increase circulation

So in the end, even if you believe Dan Jenkins wrote the piece because he "had it in for" Tiger, or that he wrote it solely to boost magazine sales, or just that it was an unprofessional thing to do, the fact remains that he was totally within his rights to write the piece and Golf Digest was totally within their rights to publish it... and there is nothing Tiger can do about it.

Of course, that doesn't mean Jenkins should have written it... but that's why the debate will go on.

The photo comes from this ESPN story about the "interview."

The Final European Tour Event of the Season

Before I get on with the post... In case you hadn't heard, the LPGA has named the new sponsor for their first major of the year, formerly called the Kraft Nabisco Championship. It will now be known as the ANA Inspiration, will be sponsored by All Nippon Airways (one of Japan's largest airline companies, which now becomes the official airline of the LPGA), and will still be played at the same course in Rancho Mirage CA. You can read more details in this article from The Desert Sun.



It's finally here. It may be a bit anticlimactic -- after all, Rory pretty much had the Race to Dubai locked up a couple of weeks ago -- but there's still a trophy, some big bucks, and serious bragging rights up for grabs at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.

Most of the big names are there, so you'll get to see many of your favorite players from around the world. Everybody from Rory and Henrik and Justin to Lee Westwood and "the Most Interesting Golfer in the World" is teeing it up. According to europeantour.com, there are 21 different countries represented.

There are only two Americans there, but both are Tour winners -- David Lipsky won the Omega European Masters earlier this year, and of course Brooks Koepka won the Turkish Airlines Open just this past week. (Bear in mind that only 29 of the 60 players in the field won this year, so that's saying something.) Koepka is also one of the only two rookies to make the event.

GC begins 5-hour coverage in the middle of the night tonight (that's super-early on Thursday morning) for those of us here in the USA at 3am ET. If you're like me and have no intentions of staying up that late, you can catch a shorter version at a more normal 10am ET Thursday morning. ;-)

A Variety of Newsy Tidbits

Just thought I'd collect a few things I've heard over the past few days and link to some more in-depth info about them (if available). All-in-all, I've got 6 short announcements you may have missed.

First of all, during the final round of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, GC's Tom Abbott did confirm that Suzann Pettersen is now working with Butch Harmon. I noted that she had left longtime teacher David Leadbetter a few weeks back and wondered if Suzann was working with Butch last week, but now we know for sure. Given the dramatic change Rickie Fowler has seen in just one year, this change could have a major effect on next year's LPGA results.

Tim Rosaforte mentioned several bits on Monday's Morning Drive. One note is that Tiger is working on his swing by himself for now -- although he's been bouncing ideas off Notah Begay III, which has been common knowledge for weeks -- but also that Tiger has apparently been trimming down as well. Some will suspect it's a result of all the criticism he's received for getting "too big" while others speculate that it may be a result of the swing he's building.

If Rosaforte is correct, I suspect it's the latter; when LeBron James left the Miami Heat to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, he also trimmed down because he expected to play a different position with the Cavs. Rosaforte theorized that Tiger might be going back to the way he swung when he first came on Tour. Should be interesting when he shows up at his own event in early December!

Also mentioned is that Dustin Johnson expects to return to the Tour for the Farmers Insurance Open in February, assuming his fiance delivers their new baby in time. You can read a more detailed piece about DJ in this golfdigest.com blog post; while Rosaforte says this date also coincides with the rumored 6-month suspension, it appears DJ has made some serious life changes in the meantime. If so, the leave was worth it.

Lost in all the excitement last week was the news that Augusta National has added a third female member -- this time, it's IBM CEO Virginia (Ginni) Rometty.

Another bit of buzz concerns the tweet Greg Norman sent Ian Poulter after he missed that putt to tie Brooks Koepka in Turkey. ("Mate noticed something in your putting when I watched you yesterday. Easy fix.") You can check out the entire conversation on this thread at Ian's Twitter account. And yes, Ian says he wants the help.

This last one is also from Rosaforte, about Phil Mickelson's off-season training routine. Apparently Phil has lost 10 pounds and added 6mph to his swing, with plans to lose 20 pounds and add 10mph once he's done. If Phil and Tiger can both get in shape to compete with Rory next year... WOW!

I think that covers the most important bits I've heard... and now you've heard them too.