Feel Your Swing by Loading the Shaft (Video)

In this short video Mike Malaska explains exactly what it means to "feel" your swing. It's all a function of loading the shaft, and he shows you (with a flexible shafted practice club) how it works. Once you understand this, you'll understand why the proper shaft flex is important -- if the shaft is too stiff, it won't load and you won't feel it; if the shaft is too soft, it loads too much and you can't control it -- and how it affects your sequencing.

5 Course Strategies to Cut Your Score (Video)

Maybe the video calls these "swing tips" but PGA pro Alex Elliott is giving you 5 strategy tips to help you make better shot choices out on the course. Sometimes you don't need better technique... you just need to think better.

Learning Tempo and Flow in Your Golf Swing (Video)

Chances are you've seen this approach to practicing your swing before, but Chris Ryan does a good job of helping you understand -- and feel -- the sense of a flowing golf swing that was particularly noticeable back in the age of hickory. It still works today but most of us swing too hard too fast to feel it. Give these drills a try and see if they don't help your tempo!

Identical Lofts, Different Clubs... What's the Difference? (Video)

Michael Newton is testing two clubs -- one a rescue club (think utility wood), the other a hybrid (think utility iron) -- but both have the same loft, 19°. Do they travel the same distance? How do the ball flights and general behavior differ? Does one suit your game better than the other? These are things you should know when you're choosing to add a new club to your bag.

The Ladies Get Linksy

The men (old and young) did it, now it's the ladies' turn. Welcome to the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open.

The ladies will hit the links at Dumbarnie Links at Ayrshire, Scotland. And leading the charge will be defending champion Ryann O’Toole, who made this event her first LPGA win last year.

This will, of course, be the warmup for the final women's championship of 2022, the AIG Women's Open at Muirfield. I imagine it will be hard to get their minds off that upcoming event on that legendary track but, as Ryann proved last year, there's so much to be gained from this event that none of them can afford to lose sight of the prize this week.

GC's coverage of this event begins Thursday at 10am ET and we'll get four hours of coverage.We don't get to watch links golf all that often here in the States, so the prospect of getting two more weeks' worth is awesome!

Twofer Tuesday: Rocket Mortgage Classic

Twofer Tuesday motors into Detroit, because the highway to the Playoffs runs through the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

The North Course of the Detroit Golf Club is a par-72 measuring 7370 yards... and it's a Donald Ross design that's over 100 years old. It was updated before the Tour started teeing it up in 2019 and it's proven to be a great track for first time winners. Just ask defending champion Cam Davis.

Rickie Fowler will be an interesting watch this week. Although he made the cut last week at the 3M, he actually lost ground in his race to the Playoffs, falling from 129 to 132. With only two weeks left, the pressure is on!

As usual, I see a lot of players I think will do well this week... and most of them (at least the ones I pick) will fail to do so. So what the heck, let's go chalk this week.

• Will Zalatoris is still somebody I expect to win soon. At #9 in the points list he won't have the pressure on him that many of the other 'yet-to-wins' will, so I think he may have an advantage this week.
• Patrick Cantlay sits at #6 in the points list but hasn't won a solo event in a while. He's due... so why not this week?

GC's live coverage begins Thursday at 3pm ET, and PGA TOUR LIVE's streams begin at 7am ET the same day. You can catch the streaming schedule at this link. I'm really pulling for Rickie -- eventually he's got to put four good rounds together. But will it be this week? We'll have to wait and see.

The Limerick Summary: 2022 3M Open

Winner: Tony Finau

Around the wider world of golf: Brooke Henderson became the first Canadian, male or female, to win multiple majors with her victory at the Amundi Evian Championship on the LPGA; Darren Clarke became only the fourth man to win both the regular and senior OPENs at the Senior OPEN Championship on the Champions Tour; after years of rivalry, Karrie Webb beat Annika by four at the Senior LPGA Championship on the Legends Tour; Richie Ramsay won the Cazoo Classic on the DP World Tour; David Kocher won the Price Cutter Charity Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour; Danny Walker won the Osprey Valley Open on the Mackenzie Tour; Saki Baba and Yana Wilson won the stroke play and match play divisions (respectively) of the US Girls' Junior; Erika Kikuchi won the Daito Kentaku Eheyanet Ladies on the JLPGA; and A Yeon Cho won the Hoban Seoul Shinmun Women's Classic on the KLPGA. [Thanks, IC!]

My Twofer Tuesday picks didn't do so well this week. I had Sahith Theegala (MC) and Maverick McNealy (T49). But what you gonna do? Players don't play well every week.

• Top10s: 22 for 80 (14 Top5, 8 Top10)
• Winners: 3 for 39
• Top20s: 34 for 80

Sir Nick Faldo predicted the end of the 3M Open halfway through the final round. "Finau's gonna win it," he said... and it shocked everyone when he was right because Tony was five back of Scott Piercy at the time.

How dramatic was that back nine? It gave us an 8-shot swing from Piercy's lead to Finau's, complete with dramatic swings among all the leaders atop the leaderboard. Unexpected shots into the numerous water hazards turned into double-bogeys and triple-bogeys, and they were capped off by Tony's unexpected 'bank shot' on the 17th, where his tee shot caromed off the grandstand and came to rest just short of the water beside the green, from which Tony made par. All those mis-hits under pressure made that final stretch totally unpredictable.

To everyone but Sir Nick, that is.

And so Tony picks up his third PGA Tour win after a bunch of runner-up finishes, along with his third Limerick Summary. Hopefully he won't forget that while counting up that huge first-place winner's check!

From five down to three shots ahead;
On nine, Tony looked to be dead.
Then they hit the homestretch
Where it might seem farfetched
But he won it, just like Faldo said!

The photo came from this page at pgatour.com.

Why Some Fast Swings Look So Slow (Video)

Ever wondered why some of the longest hitters look like they're not swinging hard at all? In this short video Peter Finch does a pretty good job of explaining why sequencing, not necessarily power, is the key to clubhead speed... and distance.

How to Putt Like Cam Smith (Videos)

There's a bit of humor to this video in that Ali Taylor can't seem to make a putt. (Give him credit though, he keeps missing on the same line so it may just be that this style doesn't suit him.) But he does give a good explanation of Cam Smith's putting technique.

And just for the record, here's Cam using that putting style back at THE PLAYERS. It does make you notice the details better after hearing Ali describe the technique, doesn't it?

The Winners of the Inaugural US Adaptive Open

I wanted to make sure I did a post about the US Adaptive Open, the first USGA event of its type which was held this week at Pinehurst #6 here in North Carolina.

Here are the overall winners, Kim Moore (female) and Simon Lee (male).

HISTORY MADE!

Kim Moore and Simon Lee are the inaugural #USAdaptiveOpen champions! pic.twitter.com/RRCznIKg8s

— USGA (@USGA) July 20, 2022

And here's the list of all the winners in all the different categories:

CATEGORY	MEN	WOMEN
ARM IMPAIRMENT	Conor Stone (IRE)	Cathy Walch (USA)
INTELLECTUAL IMPAIRMENT	Felix Norrman (SWE)	Grace Anne Braxton (USA)
LEG IMPAIRMENT	Chad Pfeifer (USA)	Kim Moore (USA)
MULTIPLE LIMB AMPUTEE	Jordan Thomas (USA)	Cindy Lawrence (USA)
NEUROLOGICAL IMPAIRMENT	Kipp Popert (ENG)	Ryanne Jackson (USA)
SEATED PLAYERS	Dennis Walters (USA)	Annie Hayes (USA)
SHORT STATURE	Kurtis Barkley (CAN)	Not contested
VISION IMPAIRMENT	Kiefer Jones (CAN)	Amanda Cunha (USA)

Golf Channel's summary of the event is at this link, if you want more information.

The USGA hopes this will help golf gain a place in the Paralympics, and it will be great if it does, but I just think it's cool that these players will finally be recognized in the USGA's Hall of Champions going forward. If we're going to say, "let's make golf inclusive," then we need to just go ahead and do it! If the rest of the world catches up to us, great.

If not, then let's blaze our own path.

And Now the Senior Major

Simultaneous with the LPGA, the Champions Tour plays their final major of 2022 -- the Senior OPEN.

We're treated to a second week of St. Andrews as the old guys get their own taste of history. [UPDATE: I don't know what I was looking at when I wrote this, but the Senior OPEN is being played at the Gleneagles course in Scotland. Wow, did I get this one wrong!] The defending champion is Stephen Dodd, but we've got some guys with experience playing at the Home of Golf -- including the 2018 Senior OPEN winner at St Andrews, Miguel Angel Jiménez.

This will definitely be a fun week.

As I suspected, GC's coverage is interwoven with the ladies' major at Evian-les-Bains. GC's Thursday coverage runs from 7am-9:30am ET, then again at 11:30am-2pm ET. It's going to be a very full week of televised golf!

Oui, Oui, Ladies!

The ladies' fourth major of 2022 is here, folks. Welcome to Evian-les-Bains, France for the Amundi Evian Championship.

Minjee Lee came from 7 back last year to snag her first major at Evian, and it set off a solid run that's given her a second major (US Women's Open), the Cognizant Founders Cup and a decent argument that she's currently the best player on the LPGA.

Of course the rest of the field won't let that go unchallenged. At the very least we can expect Jin Young Ko, Nelly Korda, InGee Chun, Lydia Ko, Jennifer Kupcho, Leona Maguire, LET up-and-comer Linn Grant and several rookies to make runs at her. (To the best of my knowledge, Lexi Thompson isn't teeing it up this week.)

The hilly quirky Evian course will throw curves at the field as usual, and we'll get to see the French flair that always accompanies this event. It's just fun!

GC's live coverage is divided into two windows starting Thursday -- from 5am-7am ET and again from 9:30am-11:30am ET. (I'm guessing there's some Senior OPEN coverage around it this week.) But it's great to get some serious coverage for a ladies' major again, and I'm excited to watch this one.

Twofer Tuesday: 3M Open

Twofer Tuesday enters the final stretch before the Playoffs with a stop at the 3M Open.

TPC Twin Cities is a par-71, 7431-yard track not far north of Minnesota's Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. It features lots of gently rolling terrain with lots of water to navigate. And last year Cam Champ navigated it better than anybody, posting his third PGA Tour win with a solid 66 in the final round.

Obviously we won't see many -- if any -- of the big names this week. There are only three events left before the Playoffs and the big boys have already punched their tickets. They'll be resting up instead; Rory McIlroy said as much after THE OPEN on Sunday.

But there are still picks to be made and no real "chalk picks" to speak of. So here are my picks, given without any commentary except to say that I'm sure you'll recognize their names. I think you'll see the logic in my choice of both men.

• Sahith Theegala
• Maverick McNealy

Sahith may be tired after his flight back from Scotland, but I feel good about both picks.

GC's live coverage begins Thursday at noon ET and gives us SIX hours of coverage. And as usual PGA TOUR LIVE will have four different streams running, beginning at 7:45am ET; you can find their schedule at this link. Now it's down to crunch time for the guys who haven't locked up a spot in the Playoffs. This is when the competition gets real!

The Limerick Summary: 2022 THE OPEN

Winner: Cameron Smith

Around the wider world of golf: Chez Reavie won the Barracuda Championship, the PGA Tour's alternate field event; Paul Haley II won the Memorial Health Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour; the team of Lizette Salas and Jennifer Kupcho won the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational on the LPGA; Ina Yoon won the EverCollagen Queens Crown on the KLPGA; and Yong-Joon Bae won the Honors K • Solarago CC One Prize Invitational on the KPGA. [Thanks, IC!]

My Twofer Tuesday picks were looking good until Sunday. I had Matt Fitzpatrick (T21) and Rory McIlroy (3). But like last week, given how many good players were in the field, one of two isn't bad.

• Top10s: 22 for 78 (14 Top5, 8 Top10)
• Winners: 3 for 38
• Top20s: 34 for 78

I don't even know what to say except... man, what a way to win your first major!

All Cam Smith did was rip off five birdies in a row as he rounded the turn, then drop one final bird on the 18th to blow all the other contenders away at the 150th edition of THE OPEN at St. Andrews. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than that!

Rory's putter was cold on Sunday and even a last second eagle from Cameron Young wasn't enough to deter Cam from his goal. Fans will be talking about his final round 64 for years. Not just a great final round in the 150th playing, but a St. Andrews record as well. And he joins Jack Nicklaus as the only men to win THE PLAYERS and THE OPEN in the same year. (Can I call it the ALL CAPS sweep?) And to make it even sweeter, Jack's 1979 OPEN was also at St. Andrews and, like Cam, Jack was T3 to start the final round.

But Jack didn't get a Limerick Summary for his win. You're one-up on the Golden Bear, Cam!

Cam posted one last 64
To burst through his first OPEN door.
The week was a grind
But he came from behind—
Now the question is… how many more?

The photo came from this page at cnn.com.

Putting from Less than Perfect Lies (Video)

Mike Malaska is teaching how to putt from less than ideal lies in this short video. PLEASE NOTE that he isn't doing this where the grass is short and smooth. Rather, while the grass isn't terribly high it isn't a smooth surface either! He teaches you three different ways to play this kind of bad lie... and you don't have to be on a links course to use them.

Playing Blind Tee Shots (Video)

Mike Malaska has a few tips on how to play blind tee shots, which are especially common in links golf and at THE OPEN this week. One quick note: the tips only take about half the video, the rest is about giveaways at Malaska Golf. But short videos are great when the tips are solid.

Is Ping's New ChipR Something Worth Trying? (Video)

We've all seen the chipper clubs that claim to solve all your chipping problems... but now Ping has actually created one of their own called the ChipR. Rick Shiels put it through its paces, comparing it to both a putter and a 9-iron (the ChipR has 9-iron loft) and tells you what it can and can't do. I found the video very informative and learned a lot about chippers that I didn't know before.

Another Alternate Format Event

This is the week for alternate format tournaments. We get team play on the LPGA and Modified Stableford at the Barracuda Championship, the PGA Tour's alternate field event.

The Barracuda is played in Lake Tahoe CO, 6000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains, so the nearly 7500-yard course won't play nearly as long as the yardage indicates. And that makes this venue -- the Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood Course) -- a near perfect spot for the points-based format of Modified Stableford. If you've watched this event before, you know that scores can change rapidly with as many as 8 points offered (for an albatross), pars gaining no points, and a worst-case -3 points for double-bogey or worse.

And this is the first time the Barracuda is a co-sponsored event, with 50 DP World players in the field. It all sets up to create a truly competitive event with a lot on the line for a lot of players.

GC's live coverage begins today (Thursday) at 6pm ET. And as with the LPGA event, this will be a great watch if you don't have Peacock to watch the late action at THE OPEN.

The LPGA Teams Up

While the men head off for their final major of the year, the LPGA starts their final stretch of the year with a fun event, the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational.

Think of this as the LPGA's version of the Zurich Classic and you won't be far off. The girls pair up for a 72-hole stroke play event to start their final run at majors and big events, and it's fun the same way the Zurich is for the guys.

Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn are the defending champions.

The Midland MI event also got another boost this week as Dow announced the event would be sponsored through 2029, one of the longest extensions currently active on the LPGA. It just marks another step in the LPGA's efforts to make the women's game as relevant as the men's.

GC's live coverage begins Thursday Wednesday at 3pm ET. For those of you without Peacock, this will be a pleasant watch between the end of USA's coverage of THE OPEN and GC's review show after coverage.

Twofer Tuesday: THE OPEN

Twofer Tuesday makes the short trip from the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland to St. Andrews for, what else? The 150th playing of THE OPEN.

Yes, two words say it all: ST. ANDREWS. Anytime the legendary Home of Golf hosts THE OPEN, it's a special event. And with this being the 150th anniversary, it's truly historic.

Historic things happen at St. Andrews all the time, so I'm hoping my picks this week will be two of them!

This is a tricky week to pick winners simply because it looks like they'll be getting mostly good weather in Scotland. At this point that means incredibly fast conditions -- Matt Fitzpatrick said some of the regulars told him they couldn't ever remember the course being so fast -- and if you add a little wind plus the notoriously unreliable "rub of the green," there's no telling what might happen.

I'm really pulling for Tiger this week and I do like Will Zalatoris's chances, but I've narrowed my picks to three possibles. They are Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele. I won't give reasons for this group simply because if you've been watching golf this year -- or even just the last month or so -- you know exactly why they're the players I'm choosing from.

But I can only pick two. So my choices are...

• Rory McIlroy
• Matt Fitzpatrick

Why not Xander? Simply because he's won his last two starts and I'm not sure he's going to have the energy to go three in a row. But I hate to leave him out after that awesome performance in the Scottish Open last week.

Thursday's live coverage is spread across Peacock (1:30am-4am ET) and then moves to USA (4am-3pm ET). I don't know what else to say except that this week could end up being really epic!

The Limerick Summary: 2022 Genesis Scottish Open

Winner: Xander Schauffele

Around the wider world of golf: Jerry Kelly won the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship on the Champions Tour; Trey Mullinax won the Barbasol Championship, the PGA Tour's alternate field event; Lucy Li won the Twin Bridges Championship on the Epson Tour; Ga Eun Song won the KLPGA'S DAEBO hausD Open; and Yuna Nishimura won the JLPGA's Nippon Ham Ladies Classic. [Thanks, IC!]

Okay, I'll take the finishes of my Twofer Tuesday picks this week. I had Matt Fitzpatrick (T6) and Ryan Fox (T47). Given how many good players were in the field, one of two isn't bad.

• Top10s: 21 for 76 (13 Top5, 8 Top10)
• Winners: 3 for 37
• Top20s: 33 for 76

After a less than impressive +2 on Thursday, all Xander Schauffele did was shoot the lowest score in the field on Friday, tie the lowest score on Saturday... and grind out an even par round on Sunday to get the win in Scotland. Several players made runs at him -- the closest was Kurt Kitayama, who finished a single stroke back -- but Xander got it done again.

He's now arguably the hottest player on Tour, having racked up four wins in the last year -- his last two starts, the Travelers Championship and the Genesis Scottish Open; his team win with Patrick Cantlay at the Zurich Classic; and oh yes, there was that little matter of the gold medal at the Olympics last summer. Suddenly he's nearly doubled his Tour wins -- he's got seven now -- and he'll debut at #5 on the OWGR this week.

And most importantly, he's picked up four Limerick Summaries this season. Yeah, I know Scheffler's got four as well... but Xander's got a gold one.

An even par round, that was all.
But Xander continued to brawl…
So he stayed in the game
And the end was the same
As in Hartford—another windfall!

The photo came from this page at pgatour.com.

The "Widen Your Swing" Drill (Video)

This is an interesting drill. While Russell says it's intended to eliminate a cupped wrist, it does so by teaching you how to create more width in your swing. And the great thing is that not only can you do it inside while you watch TV, but all you need is a length of string. It's one of those drills that can help you correct a number of problems at once... and do it simply by teaching you how the correct move feels.

Taking Your Short Game from the Range to the Course (Video)

Paige explains a game she uses to make her range practice as close to the real thing as possible, then explains how she uses it to identify areas she needs to work on. The game only requires two clubs, your putter and the wedge you use mostly for your pitching and chipping.

Of course, if you like to use a variety of clubs for chipping, there's no reason you can't use all of them to play this game. Sure beats just repetitively hitting chips!

And Then There's the PGA Tour's Alternate Field Event

It's a busy week in golf. I've covered three events so far and still haven't done the PGA Tour's alternate field event, the Barbasol Championship. Well, let's fix that today.

Here's the quick lowdown:

• The event is played just south of Lexington, Kentucky.
• The Keene Trace Golf Club is a 7328 yard par-72 course.
• This is a co-sponsored event between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. It's the first time for that arrangement.
• If not already qualified, the winner grabs a spot at THE OPEN.
• The defending champion is Seamus Power.

And since one round is already in the books, I should add that Canadian Adam Svensson shot 10-under 62 to lead after the first round.

GC's live coverage for Friday starts at 4pm ET. The field looks to be pretty strong for an alternate field event, so you might want to take a peek at the action.

The Stars of the LET Continue Their Ascent

The word estrella means 'star' in Spanish, and this week the LET tees it up at the Estrella Damm Ladies Open near Barcelona, Spain.

Somehow, when I did my roundup of golf results on Monday, I missed Maja Stark's victory at the Amundi German Masters on Sunday. I get to rectify that error today because Maja is the defending champion at this week's event, giving her the chance to go back-to-back on the LET.

And no, it's not lost on me that the defending champion is Maja STARk.

It should come as no surprise that Maja is leading the Race to Costa del Sol Rankings after her win last week. She has two wins this season but she's about 150 points ahead of the player in second place, Linn Grant, who has three wins. (The difference is Top10s, plus Maja has two runner-ups.) Both players are from Sweden and are good friends, hoping to make the Solheim Cup and be paired together.

Of course they aren't the only players in the field. Carlotta Ciganda heads a group of 18 Spanish players in the field, which also includes recent winners Manon de Roey from Belgium, Meghan MacLaren from England and Lee-Anne Pace from South Africa.

As is common these days for the LET, it's not easy to see them live, especially here in the US. But you can follow the action on @LETGolf on Instagram and Twitter, and on the Ladies European Tour Facebook page and YouTube channel. (The hashtag is #RaiseOurGame #EDLO2022.)

The Next Champions Tour Major

Next week is THE OPEN. But this week we get the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship, a major with even more capitalized letters.

I think everyone is at least somewhat familiar with this event, simply because of the venue -- Firestone Country Club in Akron OH, the site of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the NEC World Series of Golf, three PGA Championships and several other events over the decades. It's no surprise that the Champions Tour players look forward to this event, as most of them are very familiar with it... and many still have a score to settle with it.

The defending champion is Steve Stricker, who won this thing by 6 last year before that mystery disease ended his season a few months later. He's still considered the favorite this year -- understandable given how well he's played since returning to action.

And probably the biggest storyline this year is the Champions Tour debut of Justin Leonard. He's not leaving his job at Golf Channel but, depending on how well he does this week and in a few other events he's planning to play, we may not see him on the analysts' desk as much for a while.

GC's live coverage begins Thursday at 1:30pm ET. It starts right after their coverage of the Genesis Scottish Open, so it'll be easy to remember, right?

Twofer Tuesday: Genesis Scottish Open

Twofer Tuesday heads across the pond a week before THE OPEN both to get acclimated to the time change and to catch the Genesis Scottish Open.

This year the Scottish Open is co-sponsored by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, which is only fair since both tours typically have so many players in the event. It's not just a warmup for THE OPEN; it's a high-prestige event as well. Min Woo Lee (that's Minjee's brother, btw) is the defending champion and he'll have his hands full this week for sure.

For my picks this week I'm going a bit outside the box... although admittedly not too far.

• My first pick is Ryan Fox. He's been tearing it up on the DP World Tour with a win, three runner-ups and a third in the last few months. I don't know if he'll win but he looks like a contender to me.
• And of course I have to take Matt Fitzpatrick again. He lost in a playoff here last year and he's coming off a US Open win. That sounds like a good pick to me!

GC's live coverage starts Thursday at 8:30am ET and PGA TOUR LIVE starts streaming at 2:30am ET (check the schedule on this page). We've got two weeks of links golf coming up and I can't wait!

The Limerick Summary: 2022 John Deere Classic

Winner: J.T. Poston

Around the wider world of golf: Adrian Meronk became the first-ever Polish winner on the DP World Tour at the Horizon Irish Open; Zecheng Dou won The Ascendant on the Korn Ferry Tour; Brian Carlson won the Prince Edward Island Open on the MacKenzie Tour; the Internationals beat the USA 33-27 at the Arnold Palmer Cup; Junggon Hwang won the Asiad CC Busan Open on the KPGA; Jin Hee Im won the McCol Mona Park Open on the KLPGA; and Serena Aoki won the Shiseido Ladies Open on the JLPGA. [Thanks, IC!]

I got pretty good showings from my Twofer Tuesday picks this week. I had Sahith Theegala (T16) and Denny McCarthy (T6). A Top10 and a Top20 -- I'll take that!

• Top10s: 20 for 74 (13 Top5, 7 Top10)
• Winners: 3 for 36
• Top20s: 32 for 74

There's not much I can add to J.T. Poston's win at the John Deere Classic. He's only the third player to win wire-to-wire, he never gave up the lead Sunday despite putts refusing to drop, and he picked up an invite to THE OPEN at St Andrews as well.

I'd say that's pretty much the whole enchilada. It's no wonder that, after a fairly unemotional week of even-keeled play, he finally started to break down at interviews about what he accomplished. As he put it, "I was just trying to breathe. I was really. I think there were a lot of nerves, a lot more than the first few days. I was just battling through them."

Getting the win, of course, is great and certainly what he was thinking about all week. But the icing on the cake is getting that invite to St Andrews, a tournament and a course he's always wanted to play. Hopefully he'll enjoy showing off his newest Limerick Summary to all the other players there.

Wire-to-wire, that’s what he did.
It seemed like the hole had a lid
On Sunday, it’s true.
But when J.T. was through
He had locked up his St. Andrews bid.

The photo came from this page at pgatour.com.

Swinging with Hip Problems (Video)

I know Todd Kolb says this swing technique is for senior golfers, but I've been struggling with sciatica for several months now and have been exploring a similar technique. This is a good explanation of the adjustments you need to make when hip problems are making it hard to swing without pain, and the drill he includes at the end will help you figure out the least painful way to keep playing and still create swing speed.

How to Practice a Figure-8 Swing (Video)

While I don't usually recommend a figure-8 swing, I realize that many players are curious about it and are interested in trying it. However, I haven't seen a lot of clear instruction on how to practice it. Mike Malaska did this short video on how to create the move properly. If you're having trouble with your swing and want to try a different approach, I see no reason why you shouldn't give it a try.

The Correct Way to Hit UP on Your Driver (Video)

I like this drill because it teaches you how to get more distance with your current driver rather than buying a new one. And the drill is something you can do in your living room while you watch TV -- no broken furniture! It's a win-win situation.