Brian Manzella
Administrator
Thank Goodness!
A player with a "real" golf swing won the 107th U.S. Open golf tournament today. Another player with a "real" swing should have tied him, but lost by a stroke.
Argentina's Angel Cabrera won his first major, using a swing that I am calling a "real" golf swing. Jim Furyk, who also poseses a "real" swing, who should have played the 17th hole to his strength—a strong wedge game—finished one shot back with a valiant effort.
Tiger Woods, using a model, or copycat swing, and Aaron Baddeley, using a swing based on a gimmick "feel" and questionable science, both struck the ball poorly under the final round pressure. Tiger came up only a shot back due to his clutch short putting and steely focus. Baddeley, who's strong putting game relies on another gimmicky routine, and pre-shot visualization borders on goofy, shot a final round 80 to finish well back.
OK Brian, define all those terms.
OK Folks, I will.
A "real" swing: One that was developed in a search for proper contact and ball flight, with some emphasis on mechanics, but that yielded to their body types, personality, and tournament-tested adjustments.
A "copycat" swing: One that is based on copying someone elses swing or some model based on someone else's swing.
A "gimmick" swing: One based on a drill, or a 'feel' instead of a set of actual positions or mechanics. Could also feature a routine based on "tricking" the mind.
Jim Furyk's swing is REAL. He had a more convetional move at some point, like Lee Trevino did. Both players developed the patterns that won U.S. Opens by learning to work away from incorrect tendencies that the pattern they had used developed over time.
Tiger Woods once had such a swing. He won the 1997 Masters with it. Then Butch Harmon added some new moves, and by all accounts, improved on Tiger's "natural" swing. In my opinion—and all of this is just my opinion folks—as Tiger got further away from his '97 action and closer to Butch's ideas, he started going backward. Also Butch couldn't fix the right-to-right shot.
When Tiger went to Haney, they went FULL HANEY. Which is basically Ben Hogan trying to hit a "swing draw." That's where Tiger still is, lost in a copy mode. Don't give me the "he hit 17 greens in the 3rd round" argument. He is that good. He made it work. No such luck today. He looked like Jerry Rice trying to imitate Mark O'Meara. He almost won with his C game.
Trust me folks, Tiger's nerve in his short game is nearing the YIPS. Not his short putting, but the rest of it. I can hit 96% of all the shots Tiger hits in the short game. But, the difference is, I'd need 5 balls in a Tournament to pull off his one, and in a U.S. Open, I'd need 10. Tiger needs a mulligan half the time now, just watch the TiVo. Three years ago, he's have cut this round by 4, just on picth shots. But, I digress.
Aaron Baddeley, with his stack-and-tilt drill and feels, fell totally apart under the pressure. The TRICK to finding a pattern that you will play your best with, involves adjusting after some failures. The best palyers could do it mid-round. Aaron, who's swing is FAR from the silly positions he modeled in the stack and tilt article in Golf Digest, looked "lost in a variations" and "seems-as-if" goofy drills and feels that won him a lesser event.
This is the U.S.Open. And thank goodness Badds—a guy leaning one way on practice swings and another on his real swing, closing his eyes for extended period of time to "visualize" when all the great "visualizers" did no such thing, and using the old Bob Rotella trick of making your putting backswing before your eyes return to the ball—didn't win. It would have set golf back 20 years.
Our friend Don Villavaso, when palying with David Toms in the early 90's, watch David putt using the Rotella drill. Don, a great pressure putter for 40 years, said—and I'll never forget it—"I just couldn't buckle down when I really needed one, doing this stuff." David had luckily ditched the trick long before his made the clutch putt to win the 2001 PGA. Badds needs to ditch it quick. He is too good to use it.
Aaron, for the good of YOUR game, stop the Rotella-drill, stop closing your eyes, and stop all the S&T drills, just make a regular swing. The ONLY reason this pattern worked better is you drew a better plane line. Now figure out how to do it without looking like you are TRYING to do something. Watch the final round replay at home and study Johnny Miller's move. He wasn't trying to do anything but knock the pins down—and he did.
At the end of the day, two generations of golfers RUINED their careers copying. The first one, Hogan, the second, Nicklaus.
From a guy that wants to win the U.S. Open that'll never be—the U.S. Open TEACH OFF—just swing like you guys, and you'll both win a barrel more majors between you.
P.S. Hey Tiger, Nicklaus has 18, and he didn't copy ANYBODY!
A player with a "real" golf swing won the 107th U.S. Open golf tournament today. Another player with a "real" swing should have tied him, but lost by a stroke.
Argentina's Angel Cabrera won his first major, using a swing that I am calling a "real" golf swing. Jim Furyk, who also poseses a "real" swing, who should have played the 17th hole to his strength—a strong wedge game—finished one shot back with a valiant effort.
Tiger Woods, using a model, or copycat swing, and Aaron Baddeley, using a swing based on a gimmick "feel" and questionable science, both struck the ball poorly under the final round pressure. Tiger came up only a shot back due to his clutch short putting and steely focus. Baddeley, who's strong putting game relies on another gimmicky routine, and pre-shot visualization borders on goofy, shot a final round 80 to finish well back.
OK Brian, define all those terms.
OK Folks, I will.
A "real" swing: One that was developed in a search for proper contact and ball flight, with some emphasis on mechanics, but that yielded to their body types, personality, and tournament-tested adjustments.
A "copycat" swing: One that is based on copying someone elses swing or some model based on someone else's swing.
A "gimmick" swing: One based on a drill, or a 'feel' instead of a set of actual positions or mechanics. Could also feature a routine based on "tricking" the mind.
Jim Furyk's swing is REAL. He had a more convetional move at some point, like Lee Trevino did. Both players developed the patterns that won U.S. Opens by learning to work away from incorrect tendencies that the pattern they had used developed over time.
Tiger Woods once had such a swing. He won the 1997 Masters with it. Then Butch Harmon added some new moves, and by all accounts, improved on Tiger's "natural" swing. In my opinion—and all of this is just my opinion folks—as Tiger got further away from his '97 action and closer to Butch's ideas, he started going backward. Also Butch couldn't fix the right-to-right shot.
When Tiger went to Haney, they went FULL HANEY. Which is basically Ben Hogan trying to hit a "swing draw." That's where Tiger still is, lost in a copy mode. Don't give me the "he hit 17 greens in the 3rd round" argument. He is that good. He made it work. No such luck today. He looked like Jerry Rice trying to imitate Mark O'Meara. He almost won with his C game.
Trust me folks, Tiger's nerve in his short game is nearing the YIPS. Not his short putting, but the rest of it. I can hit 96% of all the shots Tiger hits in the short game. But, the difference is, I'd need 5 balls in a Tournament to pull off his one, and in a U.S. Open, I'd need 10. Tiger needs a mulligan half the time now, just watch the TiVo. Three years ago, he's have cut this round by 4, just on picth shots. But, I digress.
Aaron Baddeley, with his stack-and-tilt drill and feels, fell totally apart under the pressure. The TRICK to finding a pattern that you will play your best with, involves adjusting after some failures. The best palyers could do it mid-round. Aaron, who's swing is FAR from the silly positions he modeled in the stack and tilt article in Golf Digest, looked "lost in a variations" and "seems-as-if" goofy drills and feels that won him a lesser event.
This is the U.S.Open. And thank goodness Badds—a guy leaning one way on practice swings and another on his real swing, closing his eyes for extended period of time to "visualize" when all the great "visualizers" did no such thing, and using the old Bob Rotella trick of making your putting backswing before your eyes return to the ball—didn't win. It would have set golf back 20 years.
Our friend Don Villavaso, when palying with David Toms in the early 90's, watch David putt using the Rotella drill. Don, a great pressure putter for 40 years, said—and I'll never forget it—"I just couldn't buckle down when I really needed one, doing this stuff." David had luckily ditched the trick long before his made the clutch putt to win the 2001 PGA. Badds needs to ditch it quick. He is too good to use it.
Aaron, for the good of YOUR game, stop the Rotella-drill, stop closing your eyes, and stop all the S&T drills, just make a regular swing. The ONLY reason this pattern worked better is you drew a better plane line. Now figure out how to do it without looking like you are TRYING to do something. Watch the final round replay at home and study Johnny Miller's move. He wasn't trying to do anything but knock the pins down—and he did.
At the end of the day, two generations of golfers RUINED their careers copying. The first one, Hogan, the second, Nicklaus.
From a guy that wants to win the U.S. Open that'll never be—the U.S. Open TEACH OFF—just swing like you guys, and you'll both win a barrel more majors between you.
P.S. Hey Tiger, Nicklaus has 18, and he didn't copy ANYBODY!
