September 6, 2007

FedExCup Playoffs

This week we go to Cog Hill in Illinois for the BMW Championship and for the Fedex points. This is an important tournament because there will only be 30 players who will go to the Tour Championship the next week which is the final playoff event.

With Lefty's win last week he is now sitting in the #1 position with 108,613 points. Steve Stricker is second with 106,200 and lurking in 3rd is Tiger with 103,733 ... the BMW will be a great tournament! There are a lot of GOOD players that are sitting below the 30th spot and they will really have to make some movement this week to keep in the hunt.

The winner of the FedExCup will be the player who has accumulated the most points throughout the Playoffs, not necessarily the winner of THE TOUR Championship. Each week, every player needs to finish as high as possible - not simply to stay in the field for the next event, but to have a chance to win the FedExCup.

What does this mean ... a trophy crafted by Tiffany's and $10 million to the winner and another $25 million going to the rest of the placings.

Yea, it is a big thing!

Hybrid Clubs .., what can I do with them?

Hybrid clubs or rescue clubs as they are sometimes called are supposedly easier to hit replacement clubs for your 3 or 4 irons. They are shorter and easier to hit than a long iron. They work great from the fairway and make it easy to hit a clean shot that lands softly on the green.

But a hybrid is a versatile club that can be used in many different situations besides just replacing your long iron shots. You can use them from the tee, the fairway, the rough, the fringe and even from bunkers. Learning to hit a hybrid well can save a lot of strokes off your round of golf.

From the bunker, it is the same shot your would normally take except you change your ball position to be about an inch back of your normal position. This adjustment will prevent you from topping or hittting the ball fat. Keep your feet planted and your weight centered in order to steepen your swing and ensure first ball contact. BUT, don't try this if you have a high lip on the bunker.

There are a lot of times out on the golf course that we don't want to fly the ball, but we do want to get the ball on the ground quickly and then let it run. You have more control over the ball when it is on the ground than when you fly high in the air and guess what it will do when it lands. With a hybrid, the ball starts rolling quickly, making it easy to gauge distance. With this said, you need to choke down on the club and hold it like you would your putter. The entire plan is to make a putting stroke which makes a square hit with limited wrist movement. This technique will make judging the speed and distance a lot easier.

Things I've learned this summer ... why is golf always a learning process? Maybe that's why we keep coming back to the course time after time after time.

August 10, 2007

Things Are Heating Up in Tulsa

It seems that Southern Hills and a hot August Texas summer are setting the stage for an interesting scenario at the PGA Championship. Heat index is suppose to be around 110 ...

After Woods won at the WGC - Bridgestone he should be considered a big favorite to win this week but ... Graeme Storm from England set the course on fire today and shot a 65, to be followed by Grip It and Rip It, John Daly, with a 67. Tiger is tied for 23rd place with a 71.

Tomorrow it is suppose to be 102 which can really take a toll on the body during an 18 hole round of golf. Will Daly make it or will the wheels fall off? Will Tiger move his way up the leaderboard? What about Lefty, moving up or still sitting in the starter box? And there is a lengthy list of younger players who are in the fray this week after round one, so we can really just sit back and watch.

I'm putting my money on the one who can handle the heat to take the lead. It will be the player who can maintain his course management, keep mentally alert and manage their energy level who will excel in round two. With the heat index that players will face tomorrow, these will be big factors.

I'll be watching ....

  • Kim Metsgar
  • August 10, 2007 4:53 AM

July 19, 2007

Carnoustie - A Links Golf Course

Well the Open is upon us and will the weather be a devil or an angel? On Monday's practice round Carnoustie delivered all four seasons in one day then by Tuesday she was an angel.

What does playing a links course mean? It allows the players to find a natural style or playing technique for hitting bumps and runs and to keep the ball low in the wind. Players have usually figured out that they need to take more club and they definitely have to be shot shapers and makers.

Links golf is a totally different kind of golf. Playing well at Carnoustie means you have a lot of natural ability and the knowledge to play completely different shots from what we use on our pristine, immaculately green American golf courses. Most of the tour players who don't like this course have probably had some problems reworking their game to make these changes.

It is always a challenge and a wonderful experience if they just immerse themselves in the natural beauty of these courses that are on oceanside sand dunes that were formed by a receding sea and covered with fertile soil from a river estuary. It is beautiful when you remember the beginnings of the game of golf.

Golf in some form, not what we play today, goes back to Carnoustie in 1527. Later there was a 10-hole course fixed upon the links between 1839 and 1842 and around 1867 it finally developed into 18 holes. The course you see today is virtually the same as it was laid out in 1926 to have tougher finishing holes and more yardage -- and yet manages to withstand the test of time.

As we watch the Open this year, I hope we will all view the course as the home of our passion for a game that can delight, thrill and humble us ... every time we step out on a course to play.

July 6, 2007

Life on the beach...Sand Traps

It is the day after Independence Day and I hope everyone had a great holiday. A lot of us probably went to the golf course and we might have been a bit rusty since we've had so much rain and maybe made a poor shot or two that put us "on the beach" or in the sand trap.

Being on the beach is not fun and especially if it is one around the green. These shots can run your score up in a hurry because you have to get it out of the sand, make it pop straight up too to clear the lip, and then keep it close to the hole for a makeable putt.

We don't have to fear these shots; just make some adjustments and it is up, out and just a short putt.

What are these adjustments?

1. Open the clubface wide (about 30 degrees)
2. Take a wide stance for stability and play the ball inside the heel of your front foot
3. Squat down a little at address
4. Make a 3/4 backswing, swing into the sand about an inch behind the ball
5. Take a full turn against a stable body
6. Face the target at the finish

With a little practice, these shots will become much easier and lower your score.

Practice makes perfect and it also makes for lower scores.

Hit 'em straight and long!

P.S. ... how will fatherhood affect Tiger? Let us know what you think.

June 22, 2007

Loosing Your Grip

It's mid June and we are all going to weekend tournaments and playing 9 hole scrambles at various courses. By this time in the season we are playing fairly good golf and have our techniques pretty much set for the season...and then it happens.

You take your club back and realize that you have lost your grip and then scramble to regrip which causes the clubhead to get out of alignment and when you strike the ball, nobody knows where it is going!

Most of the time we lose our grips at the top of the swing and even though we should not grip a club too tightly, I have a some pointers for maintaining control of the club.

1. Wrap the last three fingers of you left hand fairly firmly around the club's butt end.
2. Apply some slight pressure with your left thumb as you place the lifeline of the right palm upon it.
3. Apply some pressure from your right index finger as it pushes against the shaft, sealing your grip.

One of the first things I remember somebody telling me when I first started trying to learn the game of golf, which is a never ending process, was to place two or three blades of grass between the fleshy heel of the left hand then put the rest over the left thumb, extended down the shaft, to be trapped by the fleshy part of your right hand as you place it over the left.

Try this using a wedge and hit some shots to make sure your hands are in the same place when you complete the swing as they were at address. This means you did not lose the blades of grass during your swing. This will help with hands-on control.

I still do this when the wheels fall off on my golf swing and most of the time it is where my hands are that are causing the problem.

June 19, 2007

The Long Shot!

When the final round of the U. S. Open kicked off Sunday, Angel Cabrera was not on any list as a possible winner...he had not ever even won a major tournament yet, so Tiger Woods was the expected winner.

I had said from day one it would be Tiger Woods or Jim Furyk, but Sunday's outcome just shows that "on any given day, any player can win."

Cabrera toughed it out on probably one of the hardest courses possible and faltered a time or two but continued through his 18 holes and posted his score.

Tiger and Furyk knew what they needed to do...birdie, birdie to force a playoff or birdie, birdie, birdie to win.

Tiger's magic wand, his putter, sputtered and he came up one stroke short of the victory. Jim Furyk is the runner up again.

I wonder if Angel Cabrera had a special blanket to cover up the trophy when he went to bed that night...do you think he stared at that trophy all night long?