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Tips & Commentary
TIGER HITS THE CANVAS: Y.E. YANG WINS IN A KNOCKOUT
There was no one more shocked than Tiger Woods as the virtually unknown Y.E. Yang convincingly won the 2009 PGA Championship.
Yang delivered the final knock-out punch with a daring birdie on the final 475-yard 18th hole. After finding the left rough off the tee, Yang hoisted a 3-hyrid over an intervening tree to within 8 feet of the pin. He then went on to sink the putt for birdie eventually winning by three after trailing by two at the start of the round—in all a five shot swing.
This all while Tiger did his best imitation of Mohamed Ali's famous “rope-a-dope” as the South Korean delivered blow after blow.
For those that are too young to remember or have forgotten the details, Mohamed Ali used the rope-a-dope strategy against the more powerful George Foreman in the now infamous Rumble-in-the-Jungle.
In the he long-anticipate fight, staged in Zaire, South Africa, Ali hung on the ropes in a protected stance allowing Frazier to pummel him like a punching bag.
Of course the genius of Ali's approach was that the unwitting Frazer, who no one accused of being overly intelligent, thought he was winning the fight.
But then suddenly, at just the right moment, Ali sprung to life eventually defeating his arm-weary opponent.
As it turned out Yang was no Frazier and Woods was no Ali—not by a long shot.
When the final bell rang Tiger was looking up from the canvas unable to continue—scoring a technical knock-out for Yang.
The punisher had been punished. The intimidator had been intimated. Woods had never been bloodied like this before by another opponent.
After the tournament was over a reporter, carefully choosing his words, made the statement that Tiger had never been in this position before and went on to ask him, how it felt. Woods deflected the question, answering in a somewhat defensive tone, that indeed he had been in that position many times before.
Tiger was of course referring to the fact that in the past he had he had been in exactly the same position before, being one shot down with one hole to go. However, that is not what the reporter meant by his question. What he was really asking was how Woods felt after being so soundly defeated.
At the start of the final round Wood's fans were confident that at the end of the tournament he would be one step closer to Nicklaus' record for major championship victories.
The expectation was that Yang, like other opponents before him, would become unglued in the final round by all that is Tiger. But Yang came out of his corner strong birding two of the first three holes. And when Woods went on to make bogey at the par-3 fourth his two-shot lead had evaporated.
Of course it is reasonable to assume that Tiger's focus may have been more on Harrington than Yang but if that was the case it was a serious mistake. Herrington eventually proved to be nothing more than a distraction after making a quadruple on the par-3 eighth effectively shooting himself out of the tournament.
Maybe Woods, like the rest of the world, underestimated Yang's talent and perseverance. Tiger commented after the round that Yang had always been a good ball-striker but it was the flat-stick that kept him from winning more.
Perhaps what Tiger failed to take into account is that when you hit it close to the pin you don't have to make every putt.
Then there was Yang, who played the final round without any expectations, considering himself a 70-1 long shot to win the tournament. But he never let up, not once; challenging the par-5's and firing at every pin.
And unlike other final round opponents it seemed that Yang was unfazed by Wood's aura of invincibility proving that his mental game was as strong as or stronger than Woods—at least for the final day of the championship.
It is hard to remember when Tiger last lost a tournament that was in his grasp but in fact it was the 1996 Quad Cities Classic. The twenty-year old Tiger Woods, who had lead after three rounds, was poised to win his first professional event. He was paired in the final round with journeyman Ed Fiori.
In front of a hometown crowd, the twenty year-old had a rough start. making a quadruple bogey at the 4th and later four-putting the 7th. Fiori went on to win the tournament shooting 67 while Tiger finished a disappointing fifth.
But this was the PGA Championship, thirteen years and countless victories later. In the post round interview Tiger told reporters that his putter was to blame for failing him down the stretch.
Others might disagree with this explanation believing that it is an oversimplification of the facts.
After two rounds this was clearly Tiger's tournament to win but somehow he let it slip from his grasp. Why?
One answer might be that his conservative third-round play carried over to the final round. As he said later his strategy was to “dump” the ball on the green, putt out and move on to the next hole as he fashioned a 1-under par 71.
It was during this round that Tiger had a chance to put distance between him and the field but instead he dropped his gloves expecting his fellow-competitors to wilt in his after-glow.
It would seem that Tiger carried this same conservative strategy forward from the third to the fourth round. Why else would he hit a three-iron off the 431-yeard second hole leaving him over 180 yards to the green—just so that he could hit an 8-iron?
That worked at Firestone's 16th during the World Golf Championship but this was #2 at Hazeltine a full week later. The magic was gone.
Later in the round Tiger did have a chance to swing the momentum in his direction. On the par-3 thirteenth Yang hit into the bunker while Tiger found the green. Yang blasted out and made a crucial putt to save par while Woods two-putted. If Tiger were to make and Yang were to miss the outcome might have been different. Maybe.
And then there was the par-4 fourteenth, where Yang chipped in for eagle besting Tiger's birdie after they had both drove the green. While this wasn't a knock-out punch it was a solid upper-cut to the body. And looking at Tiger after the ball rolled into the hole he was clearly rocked by the South Korean.
At this point, if it were indeed a boxing match, the referee would have held Tiger's gloves, looked him squarely in the eyes, and assessed his ability to continue.
At the 16th, Yang kept the pressure on, firing at the pin preciously perched on the right side of the green just a few feet from the water. The ball finished on the fringe, dangerous perched at the top of the down-slope, just a few feet from the hole. Yang later admitted that he had hit the ball a little further right than he had intended but even so, under the circumstances it was a brilliant shot.
Tiger, after finding the fairway off the tee, left his ball well away from the pin settling for a yet another two-putt.
As it turned out, Yang narrowly missed making his birdie putt which would have extend his lead to two shots with only two holes to go.
Tiger had one more chance at the 17th. After flying over the green with a seven-iron he played a difficult downhill pitch out of the thick green-side rough. His ball finished well short of the pin and Tiger was faced with a slippery downhill putt for par. Meanwhile, Yang after hitting the front part of the green had come up considerably short on his first putt.
The spot-light was now on Tiger. This was the type of putt that he had made again and again through his career—seemingly willing the ball into the hole. But not this time as both he and Yang walked off the green with bogey fours on their card. The rest is history.
There is no question that Yang deserved to win the championship—he is a great ball-striker and to the delight of Asian fans everywhere he played valiantly.
Will this breakout victory be the beginning of something big for Y.E. Yang or will his name just become the answer to another trivia question—an asterisk along the way as Tiger marches onward toward golfing immortality? That is a question only he can answer.
And for Tiger, there is no question that he will surpass Nicklaus' record for winning major championships—you can take that to the bank.
But golf fans around the world will remember that this was Tiger's tournament to win. He could have been the one standing in the middle of the ring with his hand thrust high in victory—not Yang.
Tiger must live with the full knowledge that in this instance, perhaps for the first time, he managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
This time he was not only beaten by his opponent but he beat himself. Tiger will learn from this experience and not make this mistake again.
But this one will hurt for a very long time.
Vijay needs a swing change (seriously)
Vijay Singh's timing is impeccable. He couldn't have picked a better or more profitable time to get hot.
Let's check off his recent achievements: He won the World Golf Championship in early August and then notched back-to-back victories at the Barclays and Deutsche Bank Championships just a few weeks later. That's a total of three out of six for a .500 average, good enough to make any big-league ballplayer jealous. Heck, some NFL teams would take it too. (Isn't that right, Lions fans?)
He has wrapped up the FedEx Cup — that's another cool $9 million. If that weren't enough there is an even-money chance that
he'll win "Player of the Year" honors after surpassing Tiger Woods on the money list. (The other players pick Player
of the Year, and there's nothing they respect more than the money list.)
But what's going on with Vijay's left arm? You've probably noticed that during the last three events Vijay has been sporting a white wrap that extends along his left arm from wrist to elbow. A difficult interview in the best of times, Vijay has been reluctant to discuss his injury. However, Vijay talked about it briefly after he won the Barclays.
Q: And the arm?
A: "I don't know what happened. It's been coming along, it's been two weeks. It's tendons and tendinitis and I haven't been hitting that many balls and it still hurts, so maybe I should go back to hitting a lot of balls. It just hurts, and wrap it up, it just takes away the pressure. It helps when I wrap it up."
Q: So it doesn't hurt while you're playing?
A: "No, it doesn't hurt when I hit it."
Vijay's obsessive practice habits are legendary. He reminds me of Ben Hogan, who found his swing secret "in the dirt." In the sheer number of balls hit Vijay probably surpassed "The Hawk" long ago.
So why has Vijay suddenly developed a case of tendinitis now? In the interview he speculates that perhaps he's just been practicing too much. This would seem to be a plausible theory as tendinitis is an overuse injury.
But I think that there is another underlying reason for his injury — the action of Vijay's right hand through impact. As many observers have noted, Vijay's right hand momentarily flies off the grip through impact and then reconnects with his left hand post-impact.
As a teacher, I have seen this "wrap-around" move before. It is unique to better players whose release is right-side dominated. But make no mistake — this is a swing fault which would result in a vicious hook for most players!
In fact, it was this same tendency that Hogan fought in his swing. Hogan discovered that if he supinated his left wrist at impact he could effectively hold off the toe of the club. This move, together with a series of other measures, mitigated the hook that plagued Hogan in his early years.
Vijay employs a different approach from Hogan to fight the same swing fault. Instead of supinating his left wrist, Vijay uses his left forearm to block the rotation of the club through impact and into the finish. And yes, there is no question that he does it well. Very well!
But there is always a price to pay for compensations (which incidentally require constant practice to manage and depend on impeccable timing and tempo). I believe it's this compensation that has led to Vijay's mysterious case of tendinitis. While his injury may subside during the off-season with rest and medication, the central question is: What about the future?
Will the tendinitis resurface again when he resumes his former practice regimen? While I wish him the best, I'm afraid that it might. As the 45-year old Fijian moves forward he will undoubtedly find that his body is not as resilient as in the past -- injuries take longer to heal and are more likely to reoccur — the curse of advancing age.
Should Vijay consider eliminating this swing fault? The answer to that question is a resounding "yes" -- especially if his injury moves to the more serious category of chronic. We'll just have to wait and see what the mercurial Vijay does next. If he needs help I'm always available. Vijay, just pick up the phone -- I think you can afford my rates!
Guaranteed! Lower your score by 5 strokes right now
Would you like to shoot a lower score the next time you play? I don't know a single player who wouldn't emphatically answer "Yes!"
Here's the challenge: Play just one round of golf strictly adhering to my plan and if your handicap is 15 or higher, you will instantly lower your average score by a minimum of five shots. My plan will also work for you if your handicap is below 15 but the results might not be as dramatic.
In general I've found that people attempt to make up for their poor shots by attempting shots that a professional wouldn't even consider. As a result they put themselves into situations that almost ensure a higher score.
The key to lowering your score is to manage the level of risk that you take on every shot. Here are eight simple keys to lower your score right now:
1. When approaching the green with an iron take one more club, especially on par 3s. Typically people overestimate the distance that they can hit the ball and come up short of the green by 10 or even 20 yards.
2. On your approach shots aim for the center of the green regardless of where the hole is located. In most cases you'll never have more than a 20-foot putt, and you'll avoid short-siding yourself or leaving the ball in an adjacent bunker.
3. When you have a putt of more than 15 feet, forget about trying to make it. That's when you most often run it past the hole and miss the comebacker. Be content with lagging the ball near the hole so that you can be assured of making your next putt. And guess what? From time to time the ball will actually fall in.
4. Don't try to cut the corner on a dogleg hole. This is a low-percentage play at best and if you make a mistake it can be disastrous. Instead, play a shot to the corner of the dogleg so that you have an unobstructed shot to the green, even if it's a little longer.
5. You're playing your tee shot on a short par-4 with bunkers on either side of the fairway. You could reach both of the bunkers with your drive if you miss the fairway. Don't just pull out your driver and hope to thread the ball down the middle of the fairway. The smarter approach is to select a shorter club and take the bunkers out of play. While you will have a longer shot into the green you won't have to negotiate a difficult bunker shot if you make a mistake.
6. At some point you will hit a tee shot into serious trouble on either side of the fairway. The best approach is to pitch the ball back into the middle of the fairway without attempting to advance it forward. We all hate to "take our medicine," but it's often the smartest play.
7. If you play par 5s with the hope that you can reach the green in two, you'll often leave yourself with a difficult approach shot of 40 yards or less -- one of the most challenging shots in golf even for a very accomplished player. A better strategy is to play your second shot to a comfortable distance where you can hit a full shot into the green.
8. Leave your lob wedge in the bag when you're approaching the green from the fairway because it is difficult to predict the exact distance that your shot will fly. With the lob wedge, you may make the occasional great shot, but more often than not you'll find yourself well short of the pin. Your sand wedge is a better choice than your lob wedge because it is easier to find the right distance with less loft rather than more. Plus, the sand wedge has more bounce, which will gives you an increased margin of error should you hit it fat.
Try my plan the next time you play and let me know how it goes. If you don't shoot five strokes lower than your normal score, I'll refund the cost of this column!
Lorena Ochoa's big swing flaw (and maybe yours too!)
As a loyal Minnesotan, I went to the U.S. Women's Open at the Interlachen Country Club outside Minneapolis
during the Tuesday practice rounds. You can't skip a major championship when it happens in your home state.
Plus, Interlachen is an important course in the game's history –- it's where Bobby Jones finished the third leg of his Grand Slam in 1930.
It was a great tournament, the course was in pristine condition, and a great opportunity for me to see the swings of the top women golfers up close, and of course I took particular notice of the swing of the world's No. 1 women golfer, Lorena Ochoa.
There's no question that Ochoa is a great player and a solid ball-striker. The average golfer would do well to copy the fundamentals of her powerful swing with one major exception -- the position of her eyes and the angle of her head throughout the downswing and at impact.
When Ochoa begins the downswing she cocks her head and her eyes to the right. As a teacher, I have seen this move before in less accomplished golfers who are attempting to swing more from the inside on the downswing. This move gives them some level of comfort, changing their perspective of the target line.
While these players may succeed in swinging more "inside-out" there are some negative consequences:
1. The body is in balance only when the ears are level so when you cock your head, you lose balance.
2. When the head is cocked to the right the rear shoulder naturally drops and the front shoulder is elevated. The head is the heaviest part of the body, so when it is out of position it effects the balance and structure of the rest of the body.
3. In a target sport the eyes play a key role in where the propelled object is delivered. Ochoa's eyes probably point 20 yards to the right of the target.
People who are very talented can do things that other people can't. In this regard, Lorena breaks all the rules – she's a clear example of how sheer talent can overcome even the worst swing flaw. I can't imagine anyone else doing what she does -- to be that much to the right and that far off balance -- and come through with the right structure and balance on her feet. She succeeds despite making these mistakes.
If you think you might have the same swing flaw -- a good indication is that your most common mis-hit is a weak flare to the right -- the brim of your cap can help you fix it. When you swing, try to keep the brim of your cap level with the horizon throughout the swing. If your brim stays level, that means your head stayed level.
But don't feel too bad if you have to work on this: you're obviously in excellent company!
There was no one more shocked than Tiger Woods as the virtually unknown Y.E. Yang convincingly won the 2009 PGA Championship.
Yang delivered the final knock-out punch with a daring birdie on the final 475-yard 18th hole. After finding the left rough off the tee, Yang hoisted a 3-hyrid over an intervening tree to within 8 feet of the pin. He then went on to sink the putt for birdie eventually winning by three after trailing by two at the start of the round—in all a five shot swing.
This all while Tiger did his best imitation of Mohamed Ali's famous “rope-a-dope” as the South Korean delivered blow after blow.
For those that are too young to remember or have forgotten the details, Mohamed Ali used the rope-a-dope strategy against the more powerful George Foreman in the now infamous Rumble-in-the-Jungle.
In the he long-anticipate fight, staged in Zaire, South Africa, Ali hung on the ropes in a protected stance allowing Frazier to pummel him like a punching bag.
As it turned out Yang was no Frazier and Woods was no Ali—not by a long shot.
When the final bell rang Tiger was looking up from the canvas unable to continue—scoring a technical knock-out for Yang.
The punisher had been punished. The intimidator had been intimated. Woods had never been bloodied like this before by another opponent.
After the tournament was over a reporter, carefully choosing his words, made the statement that Tiger had never been in this position before and went on to ask him, how it felt. Woods deflected the question, answering in a somewhat defensive tone, that indeed he had been in that position many times before.
Tiger was of course referring to the fact that in the past he had he had been in exactly the same position before, being one shot down with one hole to go. However, that is not what the reporter meant by his question. What he was really asking was how Woods felt after being so soundly defeated.
At the start of the final round Wood's fans were confident that at the end of the tournament he would be one step closer to Nicklaus' record for major championship victories.
The expectation was that Yang, like other opponents before him, would become unglued in the final round by all that is Tiger. But Yang came out of his corner strong birding two of the first three holes. And when Woods went on to make bogey at the par-3 fourth his two-shot lead had evaporated.
Of course it is reasonable to assume that Tiger's focus may have been more on Harrington than Yang but if that was the case it was a serious mistake. Herrington eventually proved to be nothing more than a distraction after making a quadruple on the par-3 eighth effectively shooting himself out of the tournament.
Maybe Woods, like the rest of the world, underestimated Yang's talent and perseverance. Tiger commented after the round that Yang had always been a good ball-striker but it was the flat-stick that kept him from winning more.
Perhaps what Tiger failed to take into account is that when you hit it close to the pin you don't have to make every putt.
Then there was Yang, who played the final round without any expectations, considering himself a 70-1 long shot to win the tournament. But he never let up, not once; challenging the par-5's and firing at every pin.
And unlike other final round opponents it seemed that Yang was unfazed by Wood's aura of invincibility proving that his mental game was as strong as or stronger than Woods—at least for the final day of the championship.
It is hard to remember when Tiger last lost a tournament that was in his grasp but in fact it was the 1996 Quad Cities Classic. The twenty-year old Tiger Woods, who had lead after three rounds, was poised to win his first professional event. He was paired in the final round with journeyman Ed Fiori.
In front of a hometown crowd, the twenty year-old had a rough start. making a quadruple bogey at the 4th and later four-putting the 7th. Fiori went on to win the tournament shooting 67 while Tiger finished a disappointing fifth.
But this was the PGA Championship, thirteen years and countless victories later. In the post round interview Tiger told reporters that his putter was to blame for failing him down the stretch.
Others might disagree with this explanation believing that it is an oversimplification of the facts.
After two rounds this was clearly Tiger's tournament to win but somehow he let it slip from his grasp. Why?
One answer might be that his conservative third-round play carried over to the final round. As he said later his strategy was to “dump” the ball on the green, putt out and move on to the next hole as he fashioned a 1-under par 71.
It was during this round that Tiger had a chance to put distance between him and the field but instead he dropped his gloves expecting his fellow-competitors to wilt in his after-glow.
It would seem that Tiger carried this same conservative strategy forward from the third to the fourth round. Why else would he hit a three-iron off the 431-yeard second hole leaving him over 180 yards to the green—just so that he could hit an 8-iron?
That worked at Firestone's 16th during the World Golf Championship but this was #2 at Hazeltine a full week later. The magic was gone.
Later in the round Tiger did have a chance to swing the momentum in his direction. On the par-3 thirteenth Yang hit into the bunker while Tiger found the green. Yang blasted out and made a crucial putt to save par while Woods two-putted. If Tiger were to make and Yang were to miss the outcome might have been different. Maybe.
And then there was the par-4 fourteenth, where Yang chipped in for eagle besting Tiger's birdie after they had both drove the green. While this wasn't a knock-out punch it was a solid upper-cut to the body. And looking at Tiger after the ball rolled into the hole he was clearly rocked by the South Korean.
At this point, if it were indeed a boxing match, the referee would have held Tiger's gloves, looked him squarely in the eyes, and assessed his ability to continue.
At the 16th, Yang kept the pressure on, firing at the pin preciously perched on the right side of the green just a few feet from the water. The ball finished on the fringe, dangerous perched at the top of the down-slope, just a few feet from the hole. Yang later admitted that he had hit the ball a little further right than he had intended but even so, under the circumstances it was a brilliant shot.
Tiger, after finding the fairway off the tee, left his ball well away from the pin settling for a yet another two-putt.
As it turned out, Yang narrowly missed making his birdie putt which would have extend his lead to two shots with only two holes to go.
Tiger had one more chance at the 17th. After flying over the green with a seven-iron he played a difficult downhill pitch out of the thick green-side rough. His ball finished well short of the pin and Tiger was faced with a slippery downhill putt for par. Meanwhile, Yang after hitting the front part of the green had come up considerably short on his first putt.
The spot-light was now on Tiger. This was the type of putt that he had made again and again through his career—seemingly willing the ball into the hole. But not this time as both he and Yang walked off the green with bogey fours on their card. The rest is history.
There is no question that Yang deserved to win the championship—he is a great ball-striker and to the delight of Asian fans everywhere he played valiantly.
Will this breakout victory be the beginning of something big for Y.E. Yang or will his name just become the answer to another trivia question—an asterisk along the way as Tiger marches onward toward golfing immortality? That is a question only he can answer.
And for Tiger, there is no question that he will surpass Nicklaus' record for winning major championships—you can take that to the bank.
But golf fans around the world will remember that this was Tiger's tournament to win. He could have been the one standing in the middle of the ring with his hand thrust high in victory—not Yang.
Tiger must live with the full knowledge that in this instance, perhaps for the first time, he managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
This time he was not only beaten by his opponent but he beat himself. Tiger will learn from this experience and not make this mistake again.
But this one will hurt for a very long time.
Vijay needs a swing change (seriously)
Vijay Singh's timing is impeccable. He couldn't have picked a better or more profitable time to get hot.
Let's check off his recent achievements: He won the World Golf Championship in early August and then notched back-to-back victories at the Barclays and Deutsche Bank Championships just a few weeks later. That's a total of three out of six for a .500 average, good enough to make any big-league ballplayer jealous. Heck, some NFL teams would take it too. (Isn't that right, Lions fans?)
But what's going on with Vijay's left arm? You've probably noticed that during the last three events Vijay has been sporting a white wrap that extends along his left arm from wrist to elbow. A difficult interview in the best of times, Vijay has been reluctant to discuss his injury. However, Vijay talked about it briefly after he won the Barclays.
Q: And the arm?
A: "I don't know what happened. It's been coming along, it's been two weeks. It's tendons and tendinitis and I haven't been hitting that many balls and it still hurts, so maybe I should go back to hitting a lot of balls. It just hurts, and wrap it up, it just takes away the pressure. It helps when I wrap it up."
Q: So it doesn't hurt while you're playing?
A: "No, it doesn't hurt when I hit it."
Vijay's obsessive practice habits are legendary. He reminds me of Ben Hogan, who found his swing secret "in the dirt." In the sheer number of balls hit Vijay probably surpassed "The Hawk" long ago.
So why has Vijay suddenly developed a case of tendinitis now? In the interview he speculates that perhaps he's just been practicing too much. This would seem to be a plausible theory as tendinitis is an overuse injury.
But I think that there is another underlying reason for his injury — the action of Vijay's right hand through impact. As many observers have noted, Vijay's right hand momentarily flies off the grip through impact and then reconnects with his left hand post-impact.
As a teacher, I have seen this "wrap-around" move before. It is unique to better players whose release is right-side dominated. But make no mistake — this is a swing fault which would result in a vicious hook for most players!
In fact, it was this same tendency that Hogan fought in his swing. Hogan discovered that if he supinated his left wrist at impact he could effectively hold off the toe of the club. This move, together with a series of other measures, mitigated the hook that plagued Hogan in his early years.
Vijay employs a different approach from Hogan to fight the same swing fault. Instead of supinating his left wrist, Vijay uses his left forearm to block the rotation of the club through impact and into the finish. And yes, there is no question that he does it well. Very well!
But there is always a price to pay for compensations (which incidentally require constant practice to manage and depend on impeccable timing and tempo). I believe it's this compensation that has led to Vijay's mysterious case of tendinitis. While his injury may subside during the off-season with rest and medication, the central question is: What about the future?
Will the tendinitis resurface again when he resumes his former practice regimen? While I wish him the best, I'm afraid that it might. As the 45-year old Fijian moves forward he will undoubtedly find that his body is not as resilient as in the past -- injuries take longer to heal and are more likely to reoccur — the curse of advancing age.
Should Vijay consider eliminating this swing fault? The answer to that question is a resounding "yes" -- especially if his injury moves to the more serious category of chronic. We'll just have to wait and see what the mercurial Vijay does next. If he needs help I'm always available. Vijay, just pick up the phone -- I think you can afford my rates!
Guaranteed! Lower your score by 5 strokes right now
Would you like to shoot a lower score the next time you play? I don't know a single player who wouldn't emphatically answer "Yes!"
Here's the challenge: Play just one round of golf strictly adhering to my plan and if your handicap is 15 or higher, you will instantly lower your average score by a minimum of five shots. My plan will also work for you if your handicap is below 15 but the results might not be as dramatic.
In general I've found that people attempt to make up for their poor shots by attempting shots that a professional wouldn't even consider. As a result they put themselves into situations that almost ensure a higher score.
The key to lowering your score is to manage the level of risk that you take on every shot. Here are eight simple keys to lower your score right now:
1. When approaching the green with an iron take one more club, especially on par 3s. Typically people overestimate the distance that they can hit the ball and come up short of the green by 10 or even 20 yards.
2. On your approach shots aim for the center of the green regardless of where the hole is located. In most cases you'll never have more than a 20-foot putt, and you'll avoid short-siding yourself or leaving the ball in an adjacent bunker.
3. When you have a putt of more than 15 feet, forget about trying to make it. That's when you most often run it past the hole and miss the comebacker. Be content with lagging the ball near the hole so that you can be assured of making your next putt. And guess what? From time to time the ball will actually fall in.
4. Don't try to cut the corner on a dogleg hole. This is a low-percentage play at best and if you make a mistake it can be disastrous. Instead, play a shot to the corner of the dogleg so that you have an unobstructed shot to the green, even if it's a little longer.
5. You're playing your tee shot on a short par-4 with bunkers on either side of the fairway. You could reach both of the bunkers with your drive if you miss the fairway. Don't just pull out your driver and hope to thread the ball down the middle of the fairway. The smarter approach is to select a shorter club and take the bunkers out of play. While you will have a longer shot into the green you won't have to negotiate a difficult bunker shot if you make a mistake.
6. At some point you will hit a tee shot into serious trouble on either side of the fairway. The best approach is to pitch the ball back into the middle of the fairway without attempting to advance it forward. We all hate to "take our medicine," but it's often the smartest play.
7. If you play par 5s with the hope that you can reach the green in two, you'll often leave yourself with a difficult approach shot of 40 yards or less -- one of the most challenging shots in golf even for a very accomplished player. A better strategy is to play your second shot to a comfortable distance where you can hit a full shot into the green.
8. Leave your lob wedge in the bag when you're approaching the green from the fairway because it is difficult to predict the exact distance that your shot will fly. With the lob wedge, you may make the occasional great shot, but more often than not you'll find yourself well short of the pin. Your sand wedge is a better choice than your lob wedge because it is easier to find the right distance with less loft rather than more. Plus, the sand wedge has more bounce, which will gives you an increased margin of error should you hit it fat.
Try my plan the next time you play and let me know how it goes. If you don't shoot five strokes lower than your normal score, I'll refund the cost of this column!
Lorena Ochoa's big swing flaw (and maybe yours too!)
It was a great tournament, the course was in pristine condition, and a great opportunity for me to see the swings of the top women golfers up close, and of course I took particular notice of the swing of the world's No. 1 women golfer, Lorena Ochoa.
There's no question that Ochoa is a great player and a solid ball-striker. The average golfer would do well to copy the fundamentals of her powerful swing with one major exception -- the position of her eyes and the angle of her head throughout the downswing and at impact.
When Ochoa begins the downswing she cocks her head and her eyes to the right. As a teacher, I have seen this move before in less accomplished golfers who are attempting to swing more from the inside on the downswing. This move gives them some level of comfort, changing their perspective of the target line.
While these players may succeed in swinging more "inside-out" there are some negative consequences:
1. The body is in balance only when the ears are level so when you cock your head, you lose balance.
2. When the head is cocked to the right the rear shoulder naturally drops and the front shoulder is elevated. The head is the heaviest part of the body, so when it is out of position it effects the balance and structure of the rest of the body.
3. In a target sport the eyes play a key role in where the propelled object is delivered. Ochoa's eyes probably point 20 yards to the right of the target.
People who are very talented can do things that other people can't. In this regard, Lorena breaks all the rules – she's a clear example of how sheer talent can overcome even the worst swing flaw. I can't imagine anyone else doing what she does -- to be that much to the right and that far off balance -- and come through with the right structure and balance on her feet. She succeeds despite making these mistakes.
If you think you might have the same swing flaw -- a good indication is that your most common mis-hit is a weak flare to the right -- the brim of your cap can help you fix it. When you swing, try to keep the brim of your cap level with the horizon throughout the swing. If your brim stays level, that means your head stayed level.
But don't feel too bad if you have to work on this: you're obviously in excellent company!