Well, not so much, but the good news is, Eldrick “Tiger” Woods is finally coming back to the PGA tour, making his post-knee-injury debut at the Accenture Match Play Championship on February 25.
This could not have come at possibly better timing for the tour. Not only do they get to welcome Tiger back at a premier event, but they also get to do it with relatively little competition from other sports, including college basketball and Major League Baseball. Not only that, but Tiger’s return sets the stage for showdown with Padraig Harringon this April at Augusta, where the Harrington will be trying to complete the third leg of his “Paddy Slam”.
Making things even juicier is Phil Mickelson at the Northern Trust Open; if he manages to capitalize on his first round score, we could also be looking at a great Phil-Tiger showdown.
Is your golf season over? Thinking about how to get better for next year?
If you are, you might want to try the “twist”. Brought to us by our friends at the Arkansas Democrat, the twist is an easy and portable exercise for building your core, which can lead to longer drives and more enjoyable rounds.
1. Select a medium-weight medicine ball and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. (If you don’t have a weighted ball, use any medium-weight object that’s easy to grasp. )
2. Lean your upper body forward as though you were in a golf stance.
3. Extend your arms out in front of your chest while holding the medicine ball as if it were a club.
4. Rotate to the right (as a right-handed golfer would ) while bringing the medicine ball along the same arc as a golf swing.
5. Pause for three to five seconds as the ball reaches shoulder height.
6. Reverse the rotation as if you are swinging the club ( slowly ) and again, pause when the ball reaches shoulder height. (It will be over your left shoulder at this point. )
7. Maintain good forward posture throughout the exercise and perform eight “swings” while pausing over each shoulder.
Now in it’s second year, the FedEx Cup still seems to be a work in progress. It’s been delivering some great golf, but with Tiger Woods absence, controversy over golfers skipping events, complaints about how the money’s awarded, and well, you know, every other sporting event competing with it, it’s safe to say they haven’t worked out all the kinks.
I’m here to help, so I’ve comeup with some suggestions to help Tim Finchem make his new playoff system better.
Stop Calling It a Playoff - When was the last time you saw a team skip a playoff game and play the next week? Oh yeah, that’s right, that never happened because it was a PLAYOFF. That means playing all the games.
Go Head to Head - TV people might not like it because they think it appeals only to golf die-hards, but who else is watching golf the olympics, football, and baseball going on? Besides, Tiger and Rocco went head to head and it went pretty OK. Either match or stroke play is fine by me.
Make the Last Tournament Matter - If Vijay won the BMW Championship, he could have played the last tournament of the FedEx cup with a croquet mallet and a rubber hose and he still would have won the championship. Something’s just not right about that. The last event needs to matter.
Line Up Better Known Tracks - I couldn’t care less about the TPC at Boston, and I live in the area. That’s not good for the page. The FedEx Cup needs to beef up its lineup with at least a couple well-known courses like Pebble Beach, Pinehurst, Bethpage Black, or Riviera.
Keep the USGA As Far Away As Possible - The last thing the FedEx cup needs is a US Open setup. Set the courses up for scoring, and let the pros get into a shooting match.
Take Away My Calculator - You know what’s not good for good TV? Math.
Win and You’re In - Want to get into the FedEx Cup? You better win.
Give the Trophy a Cool Name - All respect to FedEx, but the cup needs a better name, preferably one that includes one or more of the game’s greatest players like Nicklaus or Palmer.
Stick a Fork In It - How can you have a tour finale if the tour doesn’t end?
Steal a Page from the NCAA Tournament - Cut the Fedex Cup from four weeks to two by having four simultaneous regional tournaments in the first week (similar to the opening rounds of March Madness). The top 5-10 golfers from each region would advance to a championship consisting of head-to-head stroke or match play. The last person standing is the winner.
I better check my email to see if Tim Finchem’s asked me for my input yet.
Few things in golf suck more than watching your shots cutting weakly to the right and not knowing what’s causing the problem.
Unfortunately, this accurately sums up my last few practice sessions. I went to the driving range feeling absolutely great, only to see that great feeling evaporate into frustration and the sound golf balls make when they hit the trunk of a tree.
It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally did, I was messing up my swing the very second I started. In other words, my takeaway was awful.
Rather than starting my backswing on plane, I’d pivot to the right, making it impossible square up the clubhead and basically setting my swing up to fail.
Here are some great videos to help you keep from doing what I did and guaranteeing your swing will fail.
Did the people surrounding Michelle Wie finally get it, or did they just finally run out of people to indulge them?
Either way, the result is the same, the Hawaiian Hammer is going to Q school.
Michelle couldn’t finish in the top 80 on the money list this year, so according to the rules of the LPGA, she has to qualify for her card.
Call me crazy, but this is probably the best thing that could have possibly happened for her; finally, she has a real opportunity to earn her chops and prove to fans and her competitors she belongs.
For crying in the mud, the woman hasn’t won anything in golf since she was three-freaking-eighteen! Hopefully this stint in the Q-school will give her a chance to focus on her game and let go of all the distractions that are threatening to swallow up her career before it even begins.
I was watching his slow-motion swing sequence on PGATour.com and was particularly impressed at how wide his swing is. As you can see from the image below, Mickelson keeps his right-arm straight well after starting his backswing.
Why is a wide backswing key to hitting the ball further down the fairway?
The wider your swing (ie, the greater the distance between the clubhead and your chest) the farther the clubhead travels. Thanks to physics, this increased distance traveled by the clubhead translates into greater clubhead speed on the downswing, which translates into a longer ball flight.
How to get more swing width?
I’ve been doing some research on increasing my swing width for extra distance, and here are some of the things I have been trying:
Straight right arm on the backswing- This is tricky because you don’t want to separate your body from your hands, but the longer you can keep your right arm straight on the backswing, the wider your swing.
Wait before hinging wrists - As with the straight arm, the longer you can go in the backswing, the wider your swing arc will be.
Weight shift/body rotation - Turning your arms instead of your body is a great way to kill swing width and distance. Proper rotation and weight shift minimizes the work done by your arms, and preserves valuable width.
This question occurred to me earlier today as I was getting excited for this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship. Sure, he’s won a couple times this year, and had a couple good finishes in majors, but when has the last time Lefty really made a splash in a big golf tournament?
Was it a year ago at this very tournament?
Everybody in the world, including me, thought that once Tiger was sidelined by his leg injury, Phil would feast in Tiger’s absence. Safe to say, that hasn’t happened. Since Tiger left, Mickelson has played in four tournaments, tying for 19th at the Open, fourth at the Bridgestone, seventh at the PGA, and 19th again at the Barclays.
Is this really the record of the second-best player in the world? Compare how he has done to Anthony Kim or Padraig Harrington.
I love Lefty as much as anyone, but looking at these numbers, and his age, it’s getting harder and harder to keep from wondering if we’ve already seen the best of Phil Mickelson.
Hey did you hear this thing about the LPGA threatening to suspend players who fail an English proficiency test?
I’m not sure about you, but this has got to be one of the dumbest things I have heard in a long, long time.
Does the LPGA need to make sure it’s players can speak English to help with sponsors? Absolutely. Is the LPGA completely in its rights to require its players to speak English? Yes again, couldn’t agree more.
Still, this is an awful idea.
Ask the average sports fan about their impression of the LPGA - what do you think they’ll say? Do you think they’ll talk about Annika, Paula, or Natalie? Or do you think their impression, if they have one at all, is based in that lesbian nonsense from the eighties and nineties?
Unfortunately, I know what my answer is; I’ve seen the looks of people when they realize how different the actual LPGA is from what they thought it was.
So now the LPGA goes ahead and makes this big announcement? They actually call attention to this issue of language. Doesn’t sound like the smartest way to fix a problem if you ask me.
