Interesting Tiger driver observations from Memorial

[CanadianAMFTeachPro]

Interesting Tiger observations from Memorial. His 87.5% Fairways hit ties his best ever fairways performance. Lots of Twirls of the Golf Club after impact! Peter Kostis made an interesting point that he thought that the extra loft on the driver allowed Tiger to stay on top more at impact and not fall back and slide to try and get the less lofted club airborne.

The stumbling block I thinks for most golfers is the dramatic difference in learning different attack angles going from irons to woods. Historically, most top players have either been exceptional long club players or exceptional short club players. Nicklaus was an outstanding driver and long iron player but an average wedge player. Olazabal is a wonderful iron player but a poor (by Tour standards) driver of the ball. This is due to a comfort in attack angle. Perhaps we keep the attack angle similar (move ball position forward slightly and weaken grip) but keep the covering feel of the torso similar to the irons. Interesting!

By adding some loft to the driver and I suspect using a different shaft, Tiger has found a way to turn his driver swing into more of an iron attack and hit more fairways. He has already done this in the past by using his stinger 3 wood and long irons to find fairways, perhaps now with the driver.

 

[kc8kir]

I read an article a while back about a custom club fitter that had been having amazing success with his clients (mostly good players, low handicappers, some college players) fitting them with 15 degree drivers with X stiff shafts. He reasoned very similarly that it produced the ability to have similar feel in angle of attack, yet achieve good launch numbers.

 

[CanadianAMFTeachPro]

Neat. Makes a lot of sense.

 

[Richie3Jack]

What loft is Tiger playing with now?




3JACK

 

[ggsjpc]

I thought Tiger has always hit down on his driver to produce a lower flight.

 

[wpfisher]

I agree with why he may have went to the extra loft. I will say most of his drives were with 3 wood or less. He would hit 87% of fairways every week leaving the driver in the bag.

 

[btp]

He said on an interview that he was playing a 10 degree, but then in the same interview said it was a 9.5.

 

[vjsinger]

I agree with why he may have went to the extra loft. I will say most of his drives were with 3 wood or less. He would hit 87% of fairways every week leaving the driver in the bag.

No..this week, his swing was better, on occasion...when trying to hit a straight ball, or a draw, or a high trajectory shot. Seems Tiger still thinks you need to "lay the club off" to hit a fade. It will be interesting when he plays the open when the fairways are 20 yards wide on average. Hopefully, he stays away from his cut.

 

[Zztop]

No..this week, his swing was better, on occasion...when trying to hit a straight ball, or a draw, or a high trajectory shot. Seems Tiger still thinks you need to "lay the club off" to hit a fade. It will be interesting when he plays the open when the fairways are 20 yards wide on average. Hopefully, he stays away from his cut.

Didn't Tiger win the Open before at Beth Page? I think Tiger knows how to hit a fade, and i know he knows how to WIN! What counts is: that he knows, not what we think, he knows.

 

[vjsinger]

Didn't Tiger win the Open before at Beth Page? I think Tiger knows how to hit a fade, and i know he knows how to WIN! What counts is: that he knows, not what we think, he knows.

Tiger did not hit very many cuts today off the tee...I was there, I saw almost all of the shots. He did cut many iron shots though, but not much at curvature at all. He hit a whole lot of dead straight shots off the tee..even with the driver. My point. I see el' Tigre trying to manipulate the curvature of the golf ball with his arm swing mostly. What I see is..when trying to hit a fade he takes it way outside, lays it off, then backs up a little on the shot and really tries to swing left. Im saying he doesn't need to hang back, and I think most on this site would agree....or maybe not. What do you think ZZ??

 

[vjsinger]

What loft is Tiger playing with now?




3JACK

He said in an interview he is using a 10.

 

[Zztop]

Tiger did not hit very many cuts today off the tee...I was there, I saw almost all of the shots. He did cut many iron shots though, but not much at curvature at all. He hit a whole lot of dead straight shots off the tee..even with the driver. My point. I see el' Tigre trying to manipulate the curvature of the golf ball with his arm swing mostly. What I see is..when trying to hit a fade he takes it way outside, lays it off, then backs up a little on the shot and really tries to swing left. Im saying he doesn't need to hang back, and I think most on this site would agree....or maybe not. What do you think ZZ??

I really don't know what Tiger does or doesn't do, I just marvel at how great the Players on tour are at playing this great game, i just enjoy watching them perform. It is definitely an inner and outer struggle, probably the hardest game/sport to perform under exteme pressure! Love it oh i do think Tigers the best at it, namely handling the PRESSURE!

 

[vjsinger]

I really don't know what Tiger does or doesn't do, I just marvel at how great the Players on tour are at playing this great game, i just enjoy watching them perform. It is definitely an inner and outer struggle, probably the hardest game/sport to perform under exteme pressure! Love it

Me too. How he struck the ball today was amazing. Im not sure Ill ever see, and hear a greater thing in golf in my life. I wish most of you guys could have been there today and saw and heard what I did today. I could not believe the sound Tiger made today when striking the ball. It sounded worlds different than when I saw him play a practice round earlier in the week...AWESOME. Ill never, ever forget what I saw and heard today, AMAZING.

 

[Zztop]

Me too. How he struck the ball today was amazing. Im not sure Ill ever see, and hear a greater thing in golf in my life. I wish most of you guys could have been there today and saw and heard what I did today. I could not believe the sound Tiger made today when striking the ball. It sounded worlds different than when I saw him play a practice round earlier in the week...AWESOME. Ill never, ever forget what I saw and heard today, AMAZING.

Apparently i'll never hear that sound when i play, so i've been told

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

He went up .5* in loft from 9.5* to 10.0*; if anything this would add some spin to his drives (all else being equal) and would equate to a straighter ball flight (same shaft btw).

Also, how many drivers did he hit in 4 days? Anyone know?

 

[fronesis]

I don't have an exact number, but I did watch all his rounds. I think he was hitting driver about 4 or 5 times per round, as he hit it on all the par 5s, or at least 3 of them, and he also occasionally hit it in long par 4s. On Thursday, the one fairway he missed was on 18 with a 3 wood. On Saturday, I know he was one inch into the first cut on the second par 5 on the back 9, so that would have been a "missed" fairway with a driver. I never saw him hit a driver wide right or left.

There's a lot of proper criticisms of Kostis around here, and I usually completely agree with it. But I think he got this one right. It looks like that with the extra loft, Tiger isn't trying so hard to get underneath the ball and crush it. He's just staying through and on top of it, and hitting some amazingly straight drives.

 

[kc8kir]

Kostis' comment was right, but for all the wrong reasons and motivations. You can "stay behind it", have axis tilt, and crush the ball accurately. Staying "on top of it" is just another term for "reduced impact axis tilt"... something that fits with Tiger's swing trending towards very centered, swing-around-your head model. In other words, he is fitting the driver to the swing he is attempting to accomplish so he doesn't have to compensate his impact position dramatically to get decent launch numbers.

I really fear for Tiger falling into the "heady centered" gimmick. They make a big deal out of the head drop, but as far as I see it, the head drop is the power squat move (I call it "the crunch"... because it looks like a power ab move into impact). Don't destroy THAT! Slowly, Tiger's swing is being made less dynamic. Gimme back the 2000 - 2001 swing. That was gorgeous, smooth, and only required slight tweaking to enable its full potential.
Tiger says he is slowly loosing distance because of age. Bull. With his flexibility and strength, the dude could be a long drive competitor. What he is loosing is his dynamic pivot.

Get a little bit of lateral freedom back before that impact zone becomes narrower than a Necco wafer!

 

[GPM1985]

Maybe Tiger needs some Pattern 13. I just think that he should avoid trying to hit the driver like an iron.

 

[Shot Limit]

Whatever he did, yesterday it worked for him. Hit all his fairways and won.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

Honestly guys even at his level .5* increase in loft really isn't going to make that large of a difference. It will help increase the launch and spin SLIGHTLY and it just might have been enough to increase Tiger's confidence to drive it better. How often have you found "the right combo" and just couldn't miss?

IMO just like he did after the British; his setup and backswing tweaks were the difference not the .5* difference in loft.

EDIT: changed loft to launch