Another year, and another great year at the Accenture Match Play Championship! It's awesome to have a World Golf Championship event so close to home. I got some really cool signatures to add to my collection, namely Jim Furyk, the ever elusive Sergio Garcia, and Rory McIlroy. The only real big missing piece to my collection at this point is Tiger, and unless I somehow wake up 20 years younger, it's probably not happening anyway...
During the practice round I was also able to get this picture with Kelly Tilghman! Thanks for being so gracious Kelly!
The other picture I got was with Paddy. I was sure to put on my best Paddy teeth for the pic as well!
Steve and I are back out here in Marana watching the 2010 Accenture Match Play Championship! In addition to watching some good golf, we have been able to get out for a few rounds ourselves. We did Del Lago, Canoa Ranch, Arizona National, and of course, "The Pines". Here's a picture from the 17th green at Arizona National!
After we get back from this trip we'll post some videos and our recaps of the week :)
I managed to get some time today with Mark Thesing, head instructor at Whirlwind Golf Club. I met Mark a couple weeks back playing a round at Club West Golf Club. I really liked what he was accomplishing in his swing and when I found out he was an instructor I was immediately interested. Today we worked on measuring myself off the ball a little better, and finally tackling my horrible takeaway! See the pic below for an illustration of what I mean!
Monday 07 December 2009 at 11:59 am
Steve and I entered and played in our first tournament this past weekend! The Avondale Amatuer was held at Coldwater Golf Club. The format we elected to play was in the "Net" division, meaning our gross scores would be adjusted by our Handicap®.
Steve and I made it back to Dove Mountain this week for two and a half days of battle! We had our moments, but I think it's safe to say the 7800+ yard course had more. The trip was 3 days/2 nights, starting with the drive up Monday for a twilight round at Tucson National.
I got word today that the Golf Channel's latest successful show The Golf Fix will be analyzing my driver swing on the show! The show is hosted by top 50 PGA Instructor Michael Breed!
The segment was supposed to air today but did not make it into the taping due to some technical difficulties on my end (getting the high-res video to the shows producers on time).
At the end of the segment Michael graciously extended a "shout-out" to me and promised to try and get the segment in on next weeks show (8-24-2009)!
"The Golf Fix" airs on Monday nights, at 8:00 PM EST. Stay tuned, and LET'S DO THIS!
I took a little time off from golf, only got to practice a few times the entire month of May. I guess you can say I got some time to recharge the batteries, replenish the golf energy! The past few weeks I have been analyzing my swing and determining my weakest areas, identifying the areas I stand to improve the most. One thing that has always plagued me is vertical head movement. This vertical movement often results in fat shots. Another thing I have issues with is lateral lower body movement. The videos below are of me hitting a driver this past weekend, I'll use them to illustrate a few things about my current swing.
Steve and I were able to make it onto the Ritz Dove Mountain Course to play the "Match Play Configuration" a couple of weeks ago. It turns out it was the last day this option was available for play, and also the last day the private course was being booked to the public! We were able to play the course twice getting in 36 holes!
Friday 06 March 2009 at 8:03 pm
Well, last week was the much anticipated WGC-Accenture Match Play event held just northwest of Tucson at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain. I really looked forward to going as the previous year was a lot of fun and Norm and I had predicted that Tiger would return at this event (which he did). We followed his practice round and his play was outstanding. His competition rounds featured a little less control, but still fairly solid. Not bad for being out of competition for 8 months. Last year the biggest thing that I noticed with all the pros was great tempo and the sound the ball makes coming off of the club face. This year this wasn't quite as impressive as I've improved enough to make the same noise of flushness on occassion. This year, it was their work ethic that was the most impressive thing. Being there the whole week, I was able to watch the practice habits of the pros and I can tell you that they treat golf like an 8 hour a day job. Their routine usually consists of an hour and a half on the range in the morning, short game and putting for an hour, followed by a lunch break and then back to the range for another hour and a half followed by more short game. On days they play, it goes range, short game, putting, round of golf, range, putting. Prior to seeing this, I thought I practiced an insane amount. Geoff Ogilvy was unstoppable. The course was nice, but the greens are tricked out. Just tons of undulation. I'd rather see half the undulation running at 12. Here are some pictures that I took at the tournament.
Here it is, some of the footage I vowed to never let anyone see! I went through my range footage archives and threw together this video, which I call "Swing Evolution". You can clearly see the slow removal of the two-plane tendancies, and the mechanics of the one-plane swing slowly find their way into my golf swing. There was a lot of hard work in 2008, with most of the "smart" work being done mid October and on (when I tracked down Jim Hardy's miracle book!). I can't wait to see what 2009 brings!
Well the month of January really flew by! With the FBR Open in town, and the Cardinals playing in the Super Bowl, the last week especially seemed to pass quickly. I wanted to take a little time to blog on what I saw at the FBR.
With the pros, there is one key thing they pretty much all share: TEMPO. It's amazing how they all seem to be in unison at the driving range. Sure, some are a little quicker than others, but the differences are pretty minute. You don't see any of them whipping the club back violently on their takeaway. It seems they have all learned that you don't hit the ball further or straighter if you swing back quicker!
It was also interesting to observe that the longer hitters (J.B Holmes, Camillo Villegas, Anthony Kim, etc.) all have one thing in common. Very smooth takeaway, extremely stable base, then they really "let it go" as soon as they drop into the slot. They were definately not holding anything back. It is impressive to see them do this, as we all know it is extremely difficult to wratchet up the speed and still maintain your fundamentals. No mystery for these long hitters. They simply perform the same effecient motion as everyone else, only they can do it quicker through impact.
