quote:Inspector Gadget: Singh's practice techniques raise eyebrows, and his game
by GLENN SHEELEY, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was dumbfounding even for his fellow PGA Tour players.
Less than 24 hours after winning the Sony Open in Hawaii, a tireless Vijay Singh was on the Torrey Pines practice range last Monday after a red-eye flight.
He had all of his toys.
While trying out a new set of Cleveland irons, Singh took a bottle of drinking water and emptied it on a small patch of grass beside a row of perfectly-formed divots. After each shot, Singh, the world's No. 1 player, held the clubhead at close range to study where the ball was impacting against the face.
"Two degrees down," he said.
Would anyone other than Singh think of adding water to the turf so that a dirt mark on the grooves of an 8-iron would be more clearly defined?
"I wanted to see if the lie was right," Singh said. "They were too upright."
By now, considering his amazing results last season -- nine victories and nearly $11 million in earnings -- people don't question anything Singh might try on the practice range. Never has so much been accomplished with water bottles and sticks. And with all those grooves and furrows carved into the grass, everyone knows who has just been there.
"It's just to keep my golf swing on the same path and plane as long as I hit balls," Singh said. "I mean, I can do the same thing without it, but it's a muscle memory for my golf swing."
Here's the routine:
- A spare golf glove goes under Singh's left arm and stays there during the session, which can run for hours, even after a tournament round. If the glove drops out, his technique is off.
"It's just to keep the rotation going," Singh said. "A lot of guys say it's to keep yourself more connected, but I think it's more rotation [of the shoulders and arms] than being connected. I think rotation is the reason why you hit good shots."
- An old shaft sticks in the ground behind him, angled precisely as that of the club he is swinging. When he takes the club back, it goes along the same path.
"The longer the club, the lower [the angle] goes," Singh said. "If it's lined up, say, for a wedge [a shorter club], I can't hit a 5-iron, because it would be way upright."
- Another shorter piece of a shaft lies in a trench, parallel to Singh's feet, as an extra alignment aid, much the same as some players place a club in front of them.
- Between shots, Singh goes to the bag for his weighted, 10-pound practice club. He swings it slowly, pausing at the top, then again close to the impact area, then finally through the downswing for yet more muscle memory assistance.
- A plastic water bottle is placed directly in line with his tee, about two feet ahead of it. When Singh makes his proper move, he swings the club to the left of the bottle. While some dirt collects on it from divot debris, Singh says he only hits the bottle maybe "once in every 100 swings."
In his typically high-pitched giggle, Singh admitted, "I whacked it totally yesterday. It does happen."
So, if you see Singh placing a piece of Waterford crystal out there instead of the water bottle, assume he is swinging the club confidently.
Singh used to put the water bottle behind him to keep from taking the club too far inside. An umbrella once took the place of the stick. It's all the same intent, to keep the swing path on plane.
"It just takes away the thought of using a video camera and then going out and checking your swing," Singh said. "I don't like working with videos because you see so many different things. Then you try to make the swing look pretty, instead of effective."
Understandably, Singh's methods have made his PGA Tour colleagues take notice. Vaughn Taylor is one of several to use the glove under the arm. Sweden's Jesper Parnevik last year started putting a basket behind him to keep his club on plane.
"When I got my hip problem, I started collapsing the left side," he said, "so my club started getting way stuck inside, and just having the basket there makes me keep the club in front of me all the time.
"[Singh] did it all year and finished first," Parnevik said, "so I thought I'd try it."
Veteran Jay Haas, 51, also has tried placing the angled shaft behind him, a la Vijay.
"I think the other guys should take some notes," Haas said, "because whatever he's doing, he's doing it right."
Haas says there's something else to learn from Singh's regimen. There's no instructor, and that's a rarity these days.
"I think that's a good message to send to some of the younger players," Haas said. "You don't need a guru out there standing over you on every swing. He's done it himself, so under pressure he knows who to rely on -- no one but himself."
Singh, who will be 42 next month, considers it the ultimate compliment to walk down the range and see others using his practice tools. He has no copyright on them.
"It's not a secret," Singh said. "They still have to go out there and produce the shots. If it can help guys out, fine. In the game of golf you don't really reinvent the wheel. It's all out there."
Copyright 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
