Golf Talk

Tiger looking forward to kicking butt again.

He’s back… Tiger ends his longest hiatus in his entire 10 year plus career, a 2.5 month getaway to enjoy his wife, Elin and new baby Sam. Tiger will be welcoming over a dozen of the top golfers in the world to compete in The Target World Challenge in Thousand Oaks California starting on Thursday. The 16 player field is an invite only tournament and all 16 players are basically your elite golfers.

Along with host, Tiger, there will be world number 3 Jim Furyk, world number 4 Steve Stricker, world number 8 Padraig Harrington and world number 10 Vijay Singh. Other notables include the loud-mouthed South African Rory Sabbatini, Masters champion Zach Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Luke Donald, Niclas Fasth, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Brett Wetterich, Mark Calcavecchia, Colin Montgomerie and Fred Couples.

With regards to playing for the first time since September, Tiger wrote on his website that he is excited to get back to the golf course and defend his title. He goes on to say that this is the ninth year of The Target World Challenge, and that he’s thrilled at the opportunity to raise funds and awareness for the kids that the Tiger Woods Foundation supports. The winner will receive a whopping $1.35 million. If Tiger wins he always gives his prize money right back to the Tiger Woods foundation. Each participant will receive at least $170,000 for participating (wow, imagine that, $175,000 for just showing up, I’m in the wrong business).

Coverage will be on the Golf Channel on Thursday/Friday and NBC on the weekend.

Tiger Woods, Target World Challenge

Retief Goosen shows us his driver swing.

With the golf news slowing to a trickle, I’ll put up a lot more swing and equipment stuff. Today we’re going to look at the swing of one of my favorite players, Retief Goosen. The Gooseman has done some swing changes but the essence of it is still the same. It’s a very smooth stroke with not a lot of extreme motion or action, in that way it’s very similar to another South African, Ernie Els.

Lets look at his setup. He’s kind of tilted forwards a little, almost like a stack and tilt swing, but not entirely. His weight is a little forward but not that forward. He has a pretty even grip, not very strong or weak.

His takeaway is on the line and smooth, not herky jerky, his head is down on the ball the whole way through and there’s very little movement in his lower body. He takes it a little farther than parallel but it’s still good. David Faherty comments that Retief sometimes has his right elbow too high, which would cause him to be way off the line.

On the downswing, his hands are very close to his body. His head is still in the same position, in fact he keeps his head down for a long time even on his follow through. His left wrist is in a very weak grip on impact, almost like he’s hitting an iron shot. Another odd thing is on the close up of his club impact, you’ll notice that he’s teed up his ball with a forwards slant.

I would imagine that with the way Retief swings it here, the ball is probably pretty low, like a line drive. He really swings his driver here like you would an iron shot. It’s very vertical with not much of a sweeping motion. Obviously it works for him.

Retief Goosen, Swingvision, golf tips

Ernie unable to close the deal, a sign of things to come?

It may be December, but some of the world’s best golfers are still working it late in the year, trying to earn some cash and gear up for next year, both the men and the ladies.

Lets start in South Africa, where Ernie Els was trying to win in his native South Africa at the Dunhill Championship (where tobacco companies can still sponsor events) but ended up looking like Phil Mickelson at Winged Foot. Els had a 2-shot lead heading into the final round and a 2-shot lead with just the 18th hole left to play. A triple bogey later, Ernie was shaking the hand of some guy named John Bickerton. Two of Ernie’s balls got wet en route to that fateful triple bogey.

Peter Lonard made it a lucky three by winning the Australian PGA title on Sunday. Lonard won the Australian PGA title in 2002 and 2004. It hasn’t been a very positive year for Lonard overall, with almost no top tens and several missed cuts all year, the win here is a positive bit of reinforcement heading into next season. Rory Sabbatini looked like had this one in the bag after co-leading the third round with American Jason Gore, but Sabbatini couldn’t close it out in the final round. Fellow Australian, Adam Scott was never really in contention.

In a competition that looks like the Solheim Cup, except this time it’s Asia vs. everyone else, Team Asia closed out the last day of competition 15-9 to claim back-to-back Lexus Cup titles over Team International. Korean Se Ri Pak captained team Asia to the win, but was sidelined herself due to shoulder pain. Annika Sorenstam captained the international team that featured young stars in Morgan Pressel, Maria Hjorth, and Brittany Lincicome. South Koreans Jee Young Lee, Seon Hwa Lee and In-Kyung Kim keyed early wins to build an insurmountable lead heading into the afternoon matches.

Ernie Els, Peter Lonard.

Elin Nordegren wins her lawsuit over fake nude photos.

Tiger and his wife Elin Woods scored a major victory, this time it was in court and not on the course. While the Ryder Cup was being played in Ireland last year, an Irish magazine called the Dubliner published an article and accompanying photo of a supposed nude Elin Nordegren. Except that it was Elin Nordegren at all. Elin, a former model, has not been photographed nude anywhere at anytime. Elin sued the magazine and today the magazine admitted guilt and agreed to pay around $180,000 in damages. Tiger and Elin have agreed to donate all the proceeds to breast cancer research.

Good on Tiger and Elin, I don’t think there is anyplace for that. The worst part of it was that the pictures weren’t even of Elin. If they were at least real, legit nude photos of Elin, you couldn’t accuse the magazine of fraud, just bad taste. Because the pictures were of someone else that the magazine claimed was Elin, they were fraudulent. People bought the magazine thinking they were seeing pictures of a nude Elin but instead got duped and got nude pictures of a look a like.

As for getting a voyeur shot of Elin naked, I think that’s nearly impossible. The way Tiger and Elin live in their barricaded premises in Florida, you’d probably get shot before getting closer the one kilometer of the Woods’ residence.

I think that was one of the reasons why Tiger and his wife decided to release photos of baby Sam on their website very early on. The only way to really combat these paparazzi photographers is to release your own photos. You decide which photos get released to satisfy the public’s desire to see you. The more you try to hide and not show yourself, the more they want to take your picture.

Tiger Woods, Elin Nordegren

Lie angle is important.

Do you pull your short irons but hit your long irons straight? Want to know why? Most likely what is happening is that the toe of your club is pointing up. The lie angle which is the angle between the club and the ground should be flat on impact. Now that sounds obvious but it’s slightly more complicated than that.

When you start at address, the toe of your club should be pointing up. But on the takeaway and downswing, the flex of the shaft, and the movement of your arms and hands will most likely bring the club back to a position where the club is parallel to the ground and thus having the correct lie angle. Now, if you keep your hands a little too close to your body, you will probably have the toe pointed up on impact which will create an improper lie angle and thus result in a pull. If you extend your arms a little to straight, the opposite will happen, namely the toe will be pointed a little down and the toe of the club will hit the ground before the heel and you will push the ball instead.

The reason why this affects your short irons more is because of the loft angle. The higher the loft angle, the more severe the pull or push will be when the lie angle is incorrect. That’s not to say that lie angle is unimportant for your long irons, but it is more relevant with your wedges and short irons.

Finally, it’s important while playing on the course to see what kind of lie you are playing on. If the ball is on a hill, you will probably pull the ball because the toe will be pointed up when you impact. If the ball is on a downhill slope from where you stand, you will probably push the ball because the toe is pointed down when you impact.

This video below is from Ralph Maltby who tells you more about the lie angle concept and why it is important.

lie angle, loft angle

Michelle Wie is once again the richest woman in golf.

What would a month be without the obligatory Michelle Wie news insert. A report from Forbes Magazine states that Michelle Wie made the top 20 richest people in the world under 25. Michelle comes in at number four, with a cool $19 million. Michelle was barely beaten by tennis superstar Maria Sharapova.

Obviously, all $19 million dollars came from her endorsements as Michelle not only did not win a single tournament this season, struggled to finish most tournaments or make the cut. Chief among Michelle’s sponsors include NIKE and Sony. If I am any of her sponsors, I can’t be happy right now with the way Michelle has played. After shelling out millions of dollars, they have barely anything to show for. What does the Michelle Wie brand have to offer that is worth any value at all? She quits, she lies, and she generally is a crybaby. Those are great values to promote, that is a brand I want my product on. The face of Michelle Wie is NIKE and Sony, companies that quit when things go bad, lie to their customers, and complain to anyone who would listen.

You can easily see why all the other ladies on tour resent Michelle. She is by far the richest person playing on the LPGA and she has earned exactly none of it. There are ladies out there that are going gangbusters trying to secure enough money so they can eat and sleep in a bed and probably have just as much ability as Michelle. The money is out there, but it’s being spent in all the wrong places. Then you have the veterans, like Annika Sorenstam who have paved the way for players like Michelle. It probably took Annika 10 or 15 years to make as much money as Michelle has made in one year, and yet Michelle walks around as if she can do whatever the hell she wants to.

Michelle may have all the money, but she’ll never have the respect until she starts to prove it on the course.

Michelle Wie

Tiger likes to change his clubs regularly.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Tiger Woods is considering changes to which clubs are in his bag. In an interview with a Florida newspaper, Tiger said he usually changes his irons every 9-10 months. Tiger went on to say that wedges and 8-irons take a lot of pounding so he changes them even more often. The only thing that Tiger has not changed is his putter. Tiger has used the same putter since 1999.

We know that Tiger has flip-flopped drivers. First with his Titlelist driver, moving to a NIKE driver (his title sponsor), then moving back to the Titlelist (much to the chagrin of NIKE Golf executives). Tiger has not been shy to shed a club despite his sponsorship deals in order to find the perfect fit. Tiger said in the past he has used a 2-iron in his 20s after using a 1-iron in his teen years.

Myself, I used to change clubs about once every two years. First it was just to get with the latest technology, whether that was hybrids, or graphite shafts, etc… But as my swing as settled in the past three years or so, I’ve stuck with the same set of clubs. I just think that once you’ve settled into a swing, the clubs you are using are very much a part of that swing. When you change clubs, inevitably you have to adjust your swing to the different weight, length and grip of the new club. Now, you can get clubs that exactly the same weight, length and grip, but a different club will still feel different. About the only thing that I change on a regular basis nowadays is the ball. I haven’t found one particular one yet that I think is far better than others, I’ve used Titlelist, NIKE, Top Flite, Mizuno and more. The one big difference is to make sure you use new balls each round, once you’ve used a ball for the majority of a round, the ridges have been worn off and so you don’t get the same spin with a well-used ball.

Tiger Woods

See how his head is behind the ball.

Staying behind the ball is a good tip for all you beginners out there struggling to hit your iron shots in the air. It prevents one of the most common swing problems, namely the reverse pivot which results in those low line drives.

So what does it exactly mean to be “behind the ball”? What it means is to keep the plane of your head behind the plane of where the ball is during your takeaway of the swing. Then on your downswing, you want to come down on the ball by dropping your right shoulder (left shoulder if you are a lefty). By doing so, you create a strong rotation using your shoulders and the power of your upper body will allow you to smash the club into the ground. By smashing the club into the ground and creating a solid divot, you will use the loft of the iron club to hit the ball in air with the correct trajectory.

You can always tell a good golfer by the way he or she hits their iron shots. In fact, you can just listen and hear a good iron shot. The sound of a good iron shot is one which you hear a thump of the club hitting the ground followed immediately by a thwack of the club hitting the ball. If you just hear a thump, that is what we call hitting the ball fat, or chunking it. Basically the ball will go in the air but about one quarter the distance it should. If you just hear the thwack, that is what we call hitting the all thin. Basically, the ball will do a worm on the ground and go about one half the distance.

In terms of the trajectory, you want a nice inverted parabolic curve. You’ll see some people and they’ll hit their iron shots and the ball does a line drive, or pops straight up in the air. These are both undesirable because on the line drive, where the ball lands is unpredictable. On the pop up, you lose a lot of distance.

Though, if I had a choice between hitting it fat or hitting it thin, I would go with thin because at least the ball has the distance even though you don’t know where it will end up.

Here is a good clip from the familiar Steve Bishop on staying behind the ball.

staying behind the ball

Tommy “Two-Gloves” is now living the dream.

Twenty five lucky souls made it through the biggest test in golf, Q School, and have earned their PGA tour cards for the 2008 season. Congratulations to,

Frank Lickliter II
Brett Rumford
Chris Stroud
Jin Park
Jason Allred
Yong-Eun Yang
Tag Ridings
Todd Demsey
Brad Adamonis
Travis Perkins
Parker McLachlin
Kent Jones
Cody Freeman
Kenneth Ferrie
Tim Wilkinson
Kevin Streelman
Dustin Johnson
Duffy Waldorf
Richard S. Johnson
Jim McGovern
Carlos Franco
Tommy Gainey
Bob Sowards
John Merrick
Alejandro Canizares
David Lutterus

One name you’ll notice right away is Tommy Gainey. Yes, that is indeed, Tommy “Two-gloves” Gainey from the Big Break. I wrote about Tommy Two-Gloves before and I just think he’s a down to earth good guy and well-deserving of making it to the big tour. Tommy has the unorthodox grip that has no overlap between hands and therefore he uses two gloves, hence the name, Tommy Two-Gloves.

Frank Lickliter led for most of the rounds, and he led all they way. Other familiar faces include Duffy Waldorf, Carlos Franco, Jim McGovern. Dustin Johnson is supposed to have tremendous upside given his collegiate success. Notable players that missed include Bob May, Bubba Dickerson, Harrison Frazar and Skip Kendall.

It really is the toughest test in golf, this and the Amateur PGA Championship. And most of it more mental than anything. It’s a grueling endurance test that takes you to the limit to see exactly what you’re made of.

Surprisingly though, graduates of the Nationwide Tour on average have more success on the PGA Tour than qualifiers that go through Q School.

Q School, Tommy two gloves Gainey

Lickliter leads heading into the final stage of Q School.

There are a bunch of news items going on in the world of golf so I’ll just brief you all on some of the storylines on this Sunday,

Frank Lickliter II was even-stevens at the Orange County National and currently has a three-stroke lead following four of six rounds in the U.S. PGA Tour National Qualifying Tournament on Saturday. With only 25 of the top finishers going on to earn 2008 U.S. PGA Tour cards the competition remains fierce. However not all is lost as players finishing between 24 and 50 will get full Nationwide Tour exemptions. All of the remaining players from the 166-man field will receive conditional Nationwide Tour status.

On the women’s side, Jane Park completed her 4-under 68 fourth round at the LPGA International to take a commanding 6-shot lead heading into the fifth round of the U.S. LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament. Only the top 17 players on Sunday after the fifth round will earn 2008 U.S. LPGA Tour cards, while the next 35 will receive conditional status. Unlike the men, the women’s field was narrowed to 70 players for the final round.

Englishman Richard Finch won the New Zealand Open on Sunday for his first professional victory of his career. Finch shot an even-par 72, good enough for a 3-shot margin of victory over Steven Bowditch and Paul Sheehan. The New Zealand Open is officially sanctioned by the European and Australasian tours. Finch’s final score was 14-under 274 total on The Hills course.

American Bryan Saltus finished with a solid 5-under final round to win the first ever Cambodian Open on Sunday. Saltus finished with a total score of 17-under 271 to win by 3-shots over Adam Groom of Australia. Saltus earned $47,550 for his first place finish.

Finally, Tim Rosaforte, the Golf Channel insider is reporting that Don McGuire, a high level VP at the Golf Channel has left his position. This is significant because McGuire orchestrated the move to bring live PGA Tour coverage to the Golf Channel. President Page Thompson said they were looking to go in a different direction. Speculation seems to indicate that the PGA Tour coverage may end with McGuire’s departure. This would really be a shame if true as the Golf Channel really did a good job covering the PGA Tour events, the ones that the networks didn’t pick up.

Q School, New Zealand Open