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5. Woods in neutral
Tiger Woods opened the Northern Trust with an even-par 71, rarely looking at an approach shot he felt comfortable over.
- AP Report…”Professional golfers will tell you they had a “perfect number” to the flagstick after knocking an approach shot close, the yardage to said flagstick fitting precisely to the club in hand.”
- “That cherished pre-shot data triggers confidence and trumps caution, allowing players to attack rather than protect, to swing fully and freely instead of trying to manipulate the distance with less than a full swing.”
- “Tiger Woods received no such numbers at soggy Ridgewood Country Club in Thursday’s first round of the Northern Trust, the first leg of the FedExCup. With players allowed to lift, clean and place their ball in the fairway because of the damp conditions, Woods still was unable to control the flight and distance of his shots into the greens.”
- “Just didn’t have the situations where I had the full club and I could go ahead and take a rip at it and start being aggressive and going after these flags,” said Woods, who is 20th in the FedExCup standings. “I kept having to play a little defensive because I was taking more club, trying to shape it and take spin off. Just one of those days.”
6. Why your practice swing doesn’t translate
Ah, one of golf’s eternal mysteries! Tim Mitchell explores why your “perfect” practice swing often doesn’t translate when you actually step up to the ball.
- In short, Mitchell says your practice swing probably isn’t so perfect, and it may be a good indicator of the root flaw in your golf swing. “Look at what your club face is doing at impact. Study where the bottom of your swing arc is. Is the bottom of your arc where you want it to be when you’re taking practice swings? Are you taking practice swings starting where your ball position would be for the given shot? Look how you deliver your golf club. Is it on your desired swing path? Is it with your desired angle of attack? Study these components to ensure that your practice swing has an opportunity to perform more efficiently, and ultimately replicate your real swing.”
- “The moral of this story: there are always reasons why your perfect practice swing doesn’t show up when you’re trying to execute your real swing, including the pressure to actually perform! But, if you fix the root cause of your swing and actually use a practice swing that works for the shot you want to hit, then you can replicate your practice swing and hit better shots, even under pressure.”
Mitchell’s full explainer.
7. Island Green
Aptly named, indeed. Golf Digest’s Christopher Powers filed a look at arguably the most interestingly named member of the PGA Tour’s internship program.
- “A soon-to-be junior at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina who says his mom just wanted to name her son “something different,” Green heard through students and advisors about the tour’s internship program. With a little bit of golf in his background (Green was part of The First Tee of Greater Charlotte when he was younger), he gave it a shot and applied, unaware of the connection of his name to the tour’s flagship event.”
- “I think we taught Island more about the island green during the interview process then he knew beforehand,” said Jim Clarke, the tour’s Senior Director of Human Resources who also oversees the internship program.
- “According to Clarke, no one knew Island’s name when going through the first round of applications, the committee looking initially at blind resumes with no names or schools, just backgrounds and essays.”
- “No one at the tour even knew until we started announcing the class,” Clarke said. “This wasn’t something that came from [PGA Tour commissioner] Jay Monahan like, ‘Hey, we need this guy to be here.’ When I called Island’s manager at first, he picked up and said What’s his real name? I said, I know, he’s going to get a lot of that this summer. But we go through applications, essays, a pre-recorded series of video questions they have to answer and then a live Skype call. So that helps narrow everything down, and outside of our admissions committee, people didn’t know we had an Island Green in the mix.”
8. For your viewing pleasure
GolfWRX’s resident equipment geek, Brian Knudson put together a handy 5-minute video tutorial on how to stamp and paint fill wedges. If you’ve ever wondered how it’s done, fire up Knudson’s 101-level guide.
9. New details in Woods-Mickelson match
Credit to Redditor babbage_ct for the scoop on the Woods-Mickelson playoff format, or lack thereof. Reportedly, the other possibility was a game of ping-pong.
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19th Hole2 weeks ago
19th Hole2 weeks ago
