Everyone is asking will Tiger come back, will he win, will he win a major, is his domination over, how are his swing changes going?

Here are a few obsevations and thoughts after watching him in Abu Dhabi, his first tournament of 2012 and really getting up close and filming him on the course and on the range for the week. 

He is certainly gaining control of his new swing, we can all see that.  A few technical observations are that he starts the club back slightly more closed, which means more toe down than he used to.  It’s almost a reversal of what he did before with Hank Haney, he has a steeper shoulder turn on the backswing and is working the club up on a slightly steeper plane.  It’s an inward hand path, shaft outside his hands as he starts back, and a steeper shaft angle on the backswing.  He is fading the ball ever so slightly, on some shots he is using a lot of upper body rotation and holding off his short and mid irons, also hitting the three wood with a low tracer bullet flight, which is very very impressive!

You have to be strong to swing this way and I hope Tiger’s back and knee hold up during the year.

He still has a lot of power, great imagination around the greens, one thing I have seen in Tiger is a couple of poor pitches from around 70 yds, which he hit a bit heavy and just got on the front edge of the green, I never saw him do  this before.

You can see he exaggerates these moves on his practice swing, but when he swings it’s not as radical as this, it’s more a rehearsal of the pattern he is trying to create in his mind and body.

Can he gain control of the driver with this swing?  We will have to wait and see.  When he really needs a safe shot he is playing a fade.  During the last round in Abu Dhabi he missed a lot more fairways and greens, which after watching him on the range before the last round  this was very surprising as he looked in complete control of his swing.

At the moment everything looks very controlled and he is bedding the swing in to competetive play, maybe his best form will come in April?

Tiger certainly got the attention of the players on the range, many were sneaking a look while they were hitting balls. Tiger does have a great posture and composure, he walks round the golf course in a slow deliberate way.  Certainly when I watch Tiger playing I know I am watching a golfing legend and I cannot forget the amazing shots he has produced throughout his career and all those major wins he has.

He looks at the moment that the flair he has showed throughout his career and his freedom of swing and play is missing, his instinctiveness is not there yet, and this is obviously understandable, maybe we are going to see a more methodical player during this season?

For me the Tiger of previous years was the most exciting player I have ever seen, apart from Seve, and I started watching from the Nicklaus era,1970 onwards, to watch him attacking the course and pulling off amazing shots, fist pumps, birdies, eagles, chip ins, amazing recoveries, playing at  Augusta were magic moments, I hope they return, because whatever view you have of TigerWoods the person, the golf world needs Tiger Woods back at his best, taking on the young guns.

When a superstar in sport has problems, for whatever reason, whether physical, technical, or self inflicted, the question is can they return to where they were?  Can they return to the pinnacle of their sport, in golf at the moment we have several young golfers who have been winning titles, money lists, majors, they have not experienced defeat against Tiger.  They are not Tiger fatigued or battle scarred through consistent losses, hence in the past when he was leading after 54 holes he almost always came out victorious, his competition were beaten before they started.

Now we have many extremely fit, young and very long hitters, they are not mentally beaten golfers, they are not intimidated, they have learnt to win when Tiger was not around, and they cannot wait to beat him when he comes back, to a degree it will make their careers, they are relishing the new challenge ahead.

Tiger is also relishing the challenge of getting back to winning majors and showing everyone that he can return to the pinnacle of golf.

We all will find out if he can come back very soon, and I will be watching him closely at the WGC Matchplay in Tucson in a couple of weeks.   

I hope you can feel how excited I am about this 2012 golf season, it could be AMAZING!

David Bown PGA AA Golf Professional

Authorised Golfing Machine Instructor

contact david@bowngolf.com

07973746872

I was there filming the players and got some great footage of the top players, on the practice ground and the course, it was a very well run tournament on a really good course.

One of the highlights early in the week was when Tiger and Rory arranged to play a nine hole practice round, they got on well and were very chatty. I managed to get some super footage of drives, irons, putts, bunker shots etc, the golf legend Tiger, making a return and the young pretender with huge talent playing and practicing together, it was a priviledge to witness. I have posted some swings on Youtube and here on my website, there are a lot to see,I will keep adding to them, so keep looking!

HSBC opening ceremony

I look forward to seeing more of this during the coming season, which I believe could be a sensational year, and if these players are coming down the last nine holes in a major and we can include Westwood, Donald, Scott, Garcia, Kaymer, Day, Webb Simpson etc etc, it is what we all want to see.

They made the game look very easy ,it was a very long course, 7,500 yds and thick rough, the power they have at their disposal is phenomenal and can overpower a golf course, but to win a tournament you still have to pick the right club, judge the conditions, control your distances, hole putts and retain your concentration, accept a poor shot or bad bounce and the occasional penalty shots, and keep it going for seventy two holes. 

The winner Robert Rock played so well under the pressure of playing with Tiger Woods and many people believed Tiger would win, me included, I watched them both warm up and go through their practice routines, Robert Rock looked solid, but Tiger looked more impressive and was controlling the flight of the ball so well, it looked a formality, well sport and golf is never that as we know. 

The standard of golf on the European Tour is so good, the strength in depth, new players coming through, the quality of the courses, it is a great product and I shall be watching till the final event in The Race to Dubai season. 

It was a brilliant way to start the 2012 European tour and see close up, the return of the TIGER !

David Bown PGA AA Golf Professional

Authorised Golfing Machine Instructor

 contact david@bowngolf.com

07973 746872

But as luck has it, a great opportunity has arisen for me to go to Abu Dhabi and Dubai to see the HSBC golf tournament, its Tigers first tour event of the year and world no 1 Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy are all playing so its a bigeee!

Will be great to see Tiger close up and his swing changes, and I also really hope we get a close tournament with Tiger, Rory, Lee and Luke all playing well and a real finale, it just happens so rarely when the top two or three players in the world are battling it out over the final eighteen holes,

This of course is a great opportunity to get some hi speed video footage of all the worlds best  after some winter tuning and I will be there filming everyone of them.

Will have them posted up on my website when I return.

Take a look on Sky sports they are covering the event from Jan 26 th to 29th and see some great golf.

CONTACT  david@bowngolf

07973 746872

I spent some time at the GASP systems stand, thanks to Steve and Mervyn, which have some really good products for video coaching, I use GASP LAB and can vouch for their equipment and their customer service. A great new product is their teaching app for IPHONE which you can download from ITUNES.

It has a drawing program and a tools menu so you can draw lines on to your video, it is really helpful when I just want to highlight something to my pupil on the range quickly.

They also have golf drills which you can access, you can see my teaching drills on the app, which I know will help you improve your golf. 

As part of the PGA TRADESHOW were a number of seminars which we could attend, the speakers were top in their fields and  they were very educational. 

To maintain my Advanced  PGA status I have to maintain a certain number of points to keep that AA status, this means that you attend seminars to gain points each year, and you are willing to learn and keep improving your level of expertise, and that you are aware of new research and keeping up to date with all the latest technology. Its a great addition to the other areas I use to upgrade my skills and knowledge, this game is like peeling the layers of an onion, there is always another layer, and there are always more questions ! 

I chose three speakers to see, the first was Michael Hebron a PGA of AMERICA golf professional, who has written many books, and won many accolades for his work as a teaching professional, I had not seen Michael since the PGA of America teaching summits that he organised in the nineties in San Francisco and New Orleans, it was nice to speak to him again.

His seminar was called Neuro Learning, how the brain learns, not only in golf training but in learning anything.

It is a huge subject and was a subject that as a teacher is so important, if I can help you learn more quickly and simply, so your brain can take in the skills in a more natural way, rather than thinking about various components as you swing the club, that would greatly enhance my teaching and coaching skills and your learning.

My second seminar was by Jamie Edwards and it was basically about communication and developing our own skills, which was very useful, Jamie had a lot of enthusiasm for his subject and again it was very useable not only for my business, but for life as well.

My third seminar was with Fredrik Tuxen of TRACKMAN, he has developed a system for tracking the flight of the golf ball and its the number one ball flight monitor in the industry.

TRACKMAN now delivers ball flight analysis information which was previously before TRACKMAN, a kind of guesstimate of what happened when the clubface contacts the ball, and how it reacts during flight. 

Now there is proof.

Basically the ball reacts to the angle of the face with an iron to the ratio of 75% and to the path of the club 25%, with a driver its more 85% clubface and 15% path. Which before we were led to believe that the path of the club had a much larger effect on the starting direction of the ball.

This subject is pretty technical and there are many parameters that influence ball flight, but as a coach we need to know what influences there are on the ball flight of our students, as it can only make us better in helping our pupils improve, and that is why I attend these conferences.

When a student comes for to me for help, I feel I need to have the facts to help that person improve, not myths and assumptions, and we have an amazing amount of technology and information at our disposal to help golfers.

There is of course with all this training and knowledge a proviso, as coaches we must make sure we do not overload our golfers with all this data.

An analogy is like being a doctor, a doctor is trained over many years and has accumulated vast amounts of expertise in different fields, but when you go to see your doctor does he tell you everything he has learned about  the subject you are wanting help with?

NO.

I know you just want to get better, but you also want a doctor who has experience, and you can trust, and they might give you their best advice, but in my experience I would not just accept what they say without asking questions and doing some research as well.  

So he uses his experience and knowledge and gives you as much information as you desire, or as much as he feels is appropriate that will help you get better, and if he cannot, he refers you to the appropriate expert in that field that can help, a consultant.

So find yourself a PGA golf professional with that experience and  the education that enables him to deliver what you require from your lesson in a way that delivers the improvements you want, and teaches in a clear, structured and informed way.

You are then on your way to better golf and building a great relationship with a very important person to you, your golf coach!

Contact me on 07973746872

email david@bowngolf.com

The TOUR STRIKER  is a superb training aid because it is designed to work when your hands and clubshaft are forward of the ball at impact, and it gives you the feel of striking a downward blow and encourages you to take a divot after the ball.

If you flick your wrists or scoop trying to lift the ball the club is designed in such a way that you will hit the ball sole of the club, and the ball will not get airbourne.

All the great ball strikers have the shaft of their club leaning forward at impact to varying degrees.

So if you lack power in your shots, hit thin or fat shots and lack consistency the TOUR STRIKER is for you, which means EVERYONE can benefit from using one.

I got my supply recently and have personally tried the 56 deg wedge, the eight iron and the seven iron and immediately the club makes you more aware of keeping your hands leading through impact, and I have hit shots and demonstrated this to my students and they work, the shot flies normally and it swings like a regular iron.

A great addition to my teaching armoury and  they are now in my teaching bag and my students really like them, I can highly recommend the club.

If you would like to try the TOUR STRIKER and buy one, I have ladies clubs, wedges, seven irons and eight irons, please contact me as I do have them in stock.

Contact me on.

david@bowngolf

tel 07973 746872

He was a very focused golfer who was always trying to get everything out of his game that he could,  he set about improving his technique with David Leadbetter, so he could be more consistent & win majors & he did achieve that goal, winning three US Masters, 1996 & two back to back  1989 ,1990 & three Open titles 1987,1990,1992. He came second in the PGA 1992 & US.OPEN 1988. He had 40 professional wins & was in eleven Ryder Cup teams & is the current highest points scorer in Ryder Cup history with 25 pts, & is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Nick Faldo was knighted by the Queen in 2009

He was known for his accurate iron play, particularly his long irons, and he was an excellent putter.

I have a good face on view of Nick playing an iron while preparing for the World Matchplay tournament held at Wenrworth, I hope you enjoy it.

Seve at Wentworth

The great Seve Ballesteros what a player, he had charisma, magic, you just had to watch him play because you never knew what was going to happen, something magical usually did !  

My opportunity of watching Seve was at Wentworth in the eighties at the World Matchplay tournament played in October, all the superstars of golf played in the tournament then, I remember watching Nicklaus, Player, Watson, Miller, Trevino, Norman, Faldo, Graham, Marsh, Irwin, , these players were heroes, and there was an aura about Nicklaus, Player,Trevino, Miller etc, but none of these players had the charisma, flair and pure magnetism of Seve Ballesteros !

One year I went with my video camera and was filming the players and I went down to the practice ground and there was Seve just about to start hitting balls, there were barriers all round, but here was a great opportunity to film the man himself, I got up the courage to  ask him if I could video him, he replied yes and told me where to stand. That is how I got such a great view of his swing down the line ! 

There are a few things to comment on, firstly the sound when he hit the ball, I hope you can here a bit of that, and his divots were so square , he moved so freely and fluidly during his swing,his rhythm, it was a gracefulness, but he had huge power as well, plus an amazing touch around the greens, with the looks of a hollywood actor, what a combination !

Here is a clip of Seve using a short iron, I was very fortunate because I filmed him hitting many shots from the same position, from wedge to driver, from the caddie leaving him the balls to start, to Seve finishing with his caddie collecting them all and just hitting a few more wedges at the end.

It was a great day for me, and he will be remembered by me as a golfing genius, and that I managed to see up close his remarkable talent !

I hope you all enjoy this clip, I just want to keep watching it !

I ask all my higher handicap golfers and my beginners this question.

Where do you want the club & your hands to be when you strike the ball ?

Answer they give is ” I want to return the club to my address alignment at contact or impact ”

Well if that is what you believe then you are certainly achieving your goal !

But it is totally wrong! No wonder golfers are not improving, they do not understand the alignments required  at impact for a powerful shot .

To hit longer,crisper & more consistant iron shots you need your hands leading the clubhead into the ball , with the shaft leaning forward at impact, not hands inline, & certainly not behind the ball at impact !

There is a new training aid sweeping America its called the Tour Striker, and this club gives you the hands forward impact, because if you do not do this you cannot strike the ball at all ! Here is the link to the video.My students are eagerly awaiting delivery of their clubs! I will be writing a review on the Tour Striker soon !

He told me he had played for one year, and had a few golf lessons, his average scores are around the one hundred mark.

I asked him what he wanted out of his golf lesson, he told me he wanted to fix his slice and hit the ball further.

Not an unusual request down on the driving range!

He hit a few golf shots and yes, they all sliced a long way, very high, losing a lot of distance.

The Cause

Derek  had put so much effort into moving, to try and get more clubhead speed, he moved his whole upper body way too much, both going back and through.

The reason this was happening was because he thought incorrectly that he had to use the strength from his arms and shoulders, to generate more distance, so he then gripped the club to tightly and made his upper body dominate his downswing, making the club wipe across the ball from out to in.

Derek was so keen to work with me and improve we had six sessions in five days working on full swing, chipping, putting, and bunker shots.

He was very focused and asked many questions. He was a great student to work with, and he got great results.

The Correction

I worked on getting him to hold the club in a more relaxed way, getting the tension out of his shoulders, forearms and wrists, he was so tight!

A key thought for Derek was to feel softer in his wrists, this took some getting used too as before he had no wrist hinge to speak of, because he was so tight, just a massive turn of his upper body on his backswing, and a corresponding twist on his downswing.

Also, having a feeling of letting his arms just fall down at the start of his downswing, this helped him keep the club on the desired  plane into the impact zone, and helped him resist pushing with his upper body, creating that twist.

During our last session Derek was hitting his eight iron, six iron and his 17 deg hybrid either straight or with a slight draw, his ball flight was lower.  He had increased his distance considerably and was not exhausted after hitting sixty balls! 

I was very impressed with his results, his striking of the ball was much crisper, and a good twenty five yards longer, and there was more to come. 

As Derek left I congratulated him on what he had achieved and asked him when he was going to play next & try his new swing?

He replied I am playing tomorrow at St Georges Hill, and playing Walton Heath a few days later!

Great stuff Derek.  Enjoy your golf!                                                                                                           

   email david@bowngolf.com

  tel       07973746872

A few of my coaching drills from www.bowngolf.com are now featured on the new app from Gasp Systems, its the GASP Golf Swing Mobile app.

Its a great way to work on your game when you are out and about on the range, you can have your coach right there with you, so you never forget, what you need to do !

Technology is amazing now, so much new innovation and development all the time, and things change so fast!

Lesson to learn

One thing to remember though is that we humans take a bit longer to change and evolve, so when you are working on improving your game be patient, work to your intended plan , stay focused, keep working on the basic keys, not quick fixes and you will improve your golf