VJ and the Pole

[6bee1dee]

Just read this on the GC website, a story by George Wite about Jasper good showing in the Hope. He mentioned VJ working with a pole behind his right shoulder. Here it is in part:

He had hip surgery back in 2001, and bad swing habits gradually crept into what was always a quick whip-whip action. He never could figure out what exactly was the problem. But recently he noticed Vijay Singh at his second home - on the range. And he noticed a pole that Vijay had placed behind his right shoulder, forcing him to swing around it to hit the ball.
“I did my own version of it,” said Parnevik. “I just put a big basket behind there and kept hitting, because it felt like when I got my hip problem that I started collapsing the left side. So my club starting getting way stuck inside.

“And just having the basket there makes me keep the club in front of me all the time. So I've just been hitting thousands and thousands of balls that way. I'm hitting a nice cut now again.”

What is this all about?

 

[southpaw]

Leave it to a reporter to screw up when describing what a golfer does on the range. Vijay puts a shaft in the ground parallel to his foot line, about three feet behind him, so that he can get the shaft more on plane on the way down, rather than stuck inside. The shaft in the ground forces Vijay to have his club pointed at the target line at the last parallel, not right of it. To do this, he must turn his left side out of the way earlier, rather than sliding too much laterally or collapsing his left leg and leaving the club stuck too far inside. Jesper is doing the same thing, but with a range bucket.

 

[Reegs9966]

Southpaw,

I'm curious as to how and where he sticks the shaft in the ground. Is it on his toe line, target line, or other line? How is the shaft stuck in the ground? Is it angled in any direction or sticking straight into the ground?

Thanks

 

[southpaw]

The shaft is stuck in the ground about two or three feet behind him, most likely on the target line, at the same lie angle as the club he's using.

 

[hue]

I have got video footage of him using the shaft when practicing on the practice ground at Wentworth . I think he uses it as you would use a plane board.