golf

By JIM SUTTIE
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, May 31, 2007

Although there are many, many ways to swing a golf club, there is generally only one impact position that will create solid shots.

By TOM PATRI
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, May 28, 2007

Had a big treat last week. My first day at my new job was a trip to Oakmont, site of the U.S. Open starting June 14, with our head professional Jim Kidd and our owner and founder Ken Bakst.

By RICK MARTINO
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, May 21, 2007

The 17th hole at the Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass is a treat for casual and serious golf observers alike every year because it offers continuous high-risk, high reward iron play from the best players in the world.

By DAVE HACKENBERG
Toledo Blade
Thursday, May 17, 2007

Our caddies handed each of us a club or two and then asked that we wait a couple minutes before hitting, "so that we can get out a ways and into position to forecaddie."

OK, it's not an unusual request. Happens all the time. Of course, we were about to play a par 3, which made this request more than a tad unusual.

"That's going to be interesting," reigning U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy said earlier this week. "It's the most talked-about hole in the locker room these days. Everybody's been talking about it for awhile."

It is the No. 8 hole at Oakmont Country Club, where the 2007 Open will be played on June 14-17.

The par-3 eighth will play, in at least a couple of the rounds, at 288 yards.

When will the super-sizing of golf end?

Not next month and not at Oakmont, which sports a par-5 hole, No. 12, where the back tees stretch to 667 yards. That will make it the longest par 5, by 25 yards, in Open history.

"Golf courses are getting longer every year, so we're all getting quite used to seeing 500-yard par 4s and 600-plus-yard par 5s," Ogilvy said.

But are the golfers ready for a 288-yard par 3?

"We've never played one like that," he said. "That's going to be interesting."

Yours truly hit a driver, a little short and a lot left of the green in rough that could hide a small puppy. It's impossible stuff, the six-inch rough at Oakmont. Chunked it out of the spinach, managing not to sprain a wrist, and into a greenside bunker. Blasted to 20 feet and two-putted, barely breathing on the first one, for a double bogey. Felt pretty good about it, too.

Tiger Woods visited the course in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh three weeks ago. He walked to the back tee, hit a 3-wood pin high and two-putted for par.

"A nice drive-able par 4," Woods said of the eighth hole, which, of course, will become the longest par-3 hole in the history of major championship golf upon the first player hitting his tee shot there.

Mike Davis, the director of competition for the United States Golf Association, said the new back tee was built after Oakmont hosted the U.S. Amateur in 2003 and the flat-bellied college kids were hitting 4-irons and 5-irons to the hole from the championship tee box, then a mere 252 yards from the green.

"A few of us shook our heads and said we don't need shots like that in the Open," Davis said. "We thought this (288-yard) distance would put 1-irons, 3-woods, maybe even drivers back in the players' hands. If we have a few players that just cannot get it there, so be it."

Oddly enough, this may be back-to-the-future golf. Davis talks about the golden age of golf course architecture in the 1920s, when many courses had par-3 holes designed to be played with hickory-shafted drivers.

Oakmont's eighth hole played at 252 yards during the 1927 Open won by Tommy Armour. Today's golfers are armed with 80 years worth of club and ball technology, so a 36-yard expansion hardly seems absurd on a hole that otherwise presents just a moderate challenge.

The other 17 holes will be enough of a test for the Open contestants, who will face a hilly course with a fair number of blind shots, fairways that flow into drainage ditches, deep and strategically placed bunkers, sloppy rough, and, of course, Oakmont's legendary fast greens.

At least there will be no trees to get in the way. And we mean zero. Every tree in play on the interior of the course, more than 5,000, we're told, were removed during the past several years to return Oakmont to its original design as an inland links course. It is a stark contrast to what golfers who were here for the 1994 Open, won by Ernie Els, will remember.

Hosting its eight U.S. Open, Oakmont would be in any discussion regarding the toughest golf courses in America. Davis called it "the gold standard for championship golf." Club officials like to say that Oakmont punishes its members and destroys its guests. I can certainly attest to the latter.

It will be interesting to see next month just how many other guests, among them the best golfers in the world, leave with the same sentiment.

By LORNE RUBENSTEIN
Toronto Globe and Mail
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Tiger Woods remains, indisputably, golf's No. 1 player, even after Phil Mickelson's impressive win Sunday at the Players Championship. However, Mickelson surely has a chokehold on the title of the game's most enigmatic golfer.

Mickelson, 36, is exceptionally talented. That's obvious. He's won 31 PGA Tour events, including the 2004 and 2006 Masters and the 2005 PGA Championship. Yet he's accomplished so much without assembling his enormous gifts into a package for any extended period. Mickelson hasn't had a season in which he's won eight or nine tournaments, for instance. Woods has, and so, for that matter, has Vijay Singh.

Something about Mickelson puts one in mind of Greg Norman, who won 20 PGA Tour events, including two British Opens. He won the 1994 Players, so he and Mickelson share that big victory. He also won some 70 international tournaments. Norman had 128 top-10s in 321 PGA Tour events, while Mickelson has posted the exact same number in 353 tournaments. The percentages are startlingly similar.

Meanwhile, Norman, whose last PGA Tour win came when he was 39, should have won at least a few more majors. That's also true of Mickelson at this point, although he could win more by the time he leaves the PGA Tour.

Some majors were stolen from Norman. Bob Tway holed out from a greenside bunker on the last hole to beat Norman in the 1986 PGA Championship. Larry Mize ran in a 110-foot chip shot to beat Norman in their playoff at the 1987 Masters. Norman can hardly be faulted for those losses.

In 1989, though, Norman drove into a deep bunker during a playoff for the British Open. He basically had no shot to the green. Norman didn't think he could reach the bunker, 310 yards from the tee. The right play in hindsight was to choose a club that, no matter how well he hit it, wouldn't put him in the bunker.

Nine years later, Norman took a six-shot lead over Nick Faldo into the last round of the 1996 Masters. He shot 78 while Faldo, with whom he was playing, shot 67 to win. Norman took more and more time over shots, and got agitated. Still, Norman, as always, stood up after the bad day and faced the media. Not all players do that.

Mickelson is one who does. He flamed out a number of times before winning his first major, the 2004 Masters. But that didn't mean he was through making self-inflicted errors at critical moments. Mickelson took a one-shot lead to the final hole of last June's U.S. Open, mangled the hole and made a double bogey. Geoff Ogilvy won.

Mickelson castigated himself as "such an idiot" after his debacle. He subsequently addressed his poor decision-making when he went for the green after driving into the trees, along with his tendency to miss fairways with his driver. A month ago, Mickelson switched from his long-time instructor Rick Smith to Butch Harmon.

Mickelson was aware that Norman, guided by Harmon, had mastered driving the ball. Harmon had also helped Woods become a good enough driver during their 10 years together, before he left him for Hank Haney.

Woods doesn't drive the ball as well since leaving Harmon, although when he's on, he's really on, maybe better than ever. But Woods isn't putting the ball in play off the tee on demand. Mickelson did that on Sunday, except for drives that he hooked on the 11th and 12th holes. Still, he shot 69 and played what he called a "stress-free" round, in which he didn't have to rely on his short game and putting.

"This tells me I'm on the right path," Mickelson said after his win. "I've gotten better each day."

Mickelson will need to find the fairway from start to finish during next month's U.S. Open at the Oakmont. His goal is to eliminate one side of the course, which, he and Harmon have decided, means getting rid of unwanted hooks.

One big win with an altered swing does not mean much, but Mickelson's victory at the Players means something. He's teasing the golf world again. What might he yet accomplish?

Mickelson has had a Hall of Fame career already. But will he be remembered as the golfer who could have and should have won more majors, like Norman? Or will he win as many majors as his talent suggests he can, even in these Woods-dominated days?

Here comes summer. It should be a good one.

By RICK MARTINO
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, May 14, 2007

Today's golf courses require good wedge play if you want to enjoy low scores.

Golf course architects have the ability to move and shape as much soil as necessary to build green complexes. Just ask the PGA Tour players who survived the Tournament Players Championship at Sawgrass over the weekend following the magic that designer Pete Dye did on his renovations to the Stadium Course and the famous Island Green on No. 17.

This will not be the last time you see Dye's mastery of course design this month, as the Senior PGA Championship heads to the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island (S.C.) Golf Resort, May 24-27. The Ocean Course, which made its grand debut during one of the most famous Ryder Cups in 1991, is another masterpiece creation by Dye that he has recently "tweaked."

In order to leave you with a makeable putt, designed green complexes, such as at Sawgrass or the Ocean Course, consist of multiple terrain changes that include run-off areas, different grasses mowed at a verity of heights and greens that require controlled spin and trajectories.

First, let's focus on the ways you can control both the spin and trajectory of your wedge shots.

At impact, spin is a function of the loft of your club, the angle your club head is descending, the speed the club is traveling and the lie of your ball. In situations that require a maximum amount of spin on the ball, choose the most lofted wedge you have in your golf bag. Then, use a stroke that enables your wrists to hinge as much as possible and that you can maintain through the hit.

Also, make sure that your shaft has a forward-leaning angle, in order to have as much of a descending and accelerating forward swing that your shot will allow. This usually creates a follow through that is low and around the player.

Meanwhile, maximum trajectory is a function of the same conditions as spin, but we need to move the club quite differently. The most lofted wedge is chosen to gain the highest trajectory. So, the shaft position at impact needs to be either straight up from the ball or leaning backwards. This is arrived at by allowing your wrist hinge to fully release during impact, so that the club is traveling at the lowest rate of acceleration possible. Your finish should be high and much more on the target line.

Ideally, choose the rate of spin and launch trajectory necessary to leave yourself with a tap in putt _ just like Phil Mickelson did by using his lob wedge on a 50-foot flop shot on the 72nd hole to win the 2005 PGA Championship.

You can learn more about wedge play and the rest of the golf game during May's PGA Free Lesson Month. Log on to www.playgolfamerica.com and use the zip code search engine to find a PGA Professional near you who is offering free 10 minute lessons to players from beginners to advanced all month long.

(Rick Martino is director of instruction at the PGA Learning Center in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Golf Tips is a feature of Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal.)

By RICK MARTINO
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, May 07, 2007

This past week, two of the greatest sports stars of our lifetime got together for a round of golf at the celebrity Pro-Am at the Wachovia Championship in North Carolina. The pairing of Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan was a dream team combination never before seen in public.

The two players are close friends and fellow members at Medinah Country Club in Chicago, where Woods was extended an honorary invitation to join following his 2006 PGA Championship, after he mastered his wedge play at the course to capture the victory running away. Jordan, who has a very good golf game in his own right, was also in the gallery as Tiger's guest during last year's Ryder Cup at the K Club in Ireland.

I mentioned last week that golf course conditions and the type of clubs that are used have changed wedge play from the player of the early part of last century to today.

When selecting wedges, today's players must consider the length and trajectories of the shots that they need to play. The first decision will be how many wedges to carry.

Standard lofts available from most manufacturers range from 46 degrees to 64 degrees. Clubs can then be altered if these lofts are not the right fit.

The gap of distance between each full swing wedge shot is how a decision is best made for which wedge to play.

In making this choice, first determine the full-swing distance for your 9-iron. Any distance less then the range of this club is the area where you should use your wedges.

Meanwhile, the distance gap between every other iron should remain the same as from your 9-iron to pitching wedge.

How many wedges you can carry and still maintain the 14-club limit determines the gap between each of your wedges.

We have already determined that the pitching wedge length is one club less then your 9-iron. The most lofted wedge is the one that is a player's preference for high close shots around the greens. Divide the distance of your pitching wedge full shot from your most lofted wedge full shot. This is the distance your gap wedges will need to cover. So, the more wedges a player carries, the closer the distance.

Now that the wedges have been chosen, a player must develop the shots necessary to cover all the different yardages and trajectories in order to play in as few strokes as possible.

To learn more about the wedge game and the entire game of golf, I invite you to take part in PGA Free Lesson Month throughout May, where you can receive a free 10-minute lesson from a PGA Golf Professional. Use the zip code search on PlayGolfAmerica.com to find the nearest PGA Professional offering a free lesson.

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(Rick Martino is director of instruction at the PGA Learning Center in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Golf Tips is a feature of Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal.)

By JIM SUTTIE
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, May 04, 2007

So many golfers are looking for that secret move that will make their golf ball go long and straight. There is no secret move. There are only fundamentals to work on. Although all swings are different you can learn quite a bit from your ball's flight.

Golf in many ways is a game of opposites. For example, if you swing left, your ball goes to the right. If you swing to the right, your ball goes left. Or, if you swing up, the ball tops or goes along the ground. If a person swings down too steeply the ball goes up. What a game!

If you understand the physics of impact you can often correct yourself. But, remember the face angle at impact has the biggest influence on your ball's flight. Wherever your face is pointed at impact is where the ball will go. Impact is a result of the interaction of the swing path and the face angle at impact.

Let me give you an example. If you are a slicer your swing path moves left across the target line, but the face angle is open to the path or aimed to the right at impact. Golfers who have this pattern hit slices, pulls and tops. A good correction for you would be to strengthen your grip, (turn it to the right) lower or flatten your swing, hit inside out on the downswing and release the club. Just swing from 7 to 1 and allow the club to release or turn over will do wonders for your slice. In any event, the face angle must be fixed first before the swing path will get better.

My advice for a slicer is try to get the toe of the club to the ball first. The slicer should hook the ball as much as possible. This will subconsciously make you swing out to the right (e.g. 1 o'clock) to get rid of the hook.

Another example might be what a hooker's golf club looks like at impact. A hooker's clubface is lined up left of the swing path as the swing path is moving to the right. An inveterate hooker might weaken his grip, (turn it to the left) swing more upright, swing to the left, through impact and hold off the release.

Or, what if you hit the ball too high? A highball hitter's club is laid back at impact. This is a result of a long and high swing and a casting right-handed motion from the top of the swing. This leaves the weight on the right leg at impact. This makes the club head pass the hands at impact. Good corrections for the high ball flight would be to lower and shorten your swing, move your weight to the left side coming down and feel like the hands are ahead of the club head at impact.

The next time you are on the range study your ball flight. Let your ball flight lead to some changes you can make at impact.

(Dr. Jim Suttie, the 2000 PGA Teacher of the Year, is director of instruction at The Club at TwinEagles in North Naples, Fla. and at Cog Hill Golf Club in Lemont, Ill. Dr. Suttie is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher and coaches the Florida Gulf Coast University men's golf team. E-mail him at jmsuttie@aol.com or go online to www.jimsuttie.com.)