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SPORTS/Uge Clarlotte $o«t
Thursday, November 2, 2006
IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR GAME
Get those lazy
houseguests busy
Your muscles are like lazy houseguests: They
just lie around, content to do nothing until you
force them to get moving. And never is this
propensity to be lazy more prevalent than
when you move the club to the top of your
swing.
Your club weighs only a few oimces, so it’s
easy to “get it to the top” by simply hoisting it
up there with no attention to creating coU. But
coU, i.e. turning your upper body more than
your hips, is essential to a powerful swing.
The rule of thumb is that to maximize your
power, you want to turn your shoulders at least
twice as much as you rotate your hips while
keeping the spine angle you started with at ad
dress.
In the first photo below. I’ve made an OK
turn, but the ratio of my hip turn to my shoul
der turn is not what it should be. I’d estimate
that I’ve turned my hips 45 degrees and my
shoulders 80 degrees—less than the 2-to-l ratio
of which I’m capable.
Everybody is a bit different in flexibility —
some might be very flexible and turn their
shoulders 100 degrees, while others are a little
stiff and turn them only 75 degrees. Some of
the tour pros, like Tiger Woods and Vijay
Singh, even exceed the 2-to-l guideline by mak
ing huge shoulder turns.
In the second photo. I’ve “doubled up” for a 2-
to-1 ratio. You can see how much more torque
I’ve produced in my coil as evidenced by the in
creased number of wrinkles in my shirt. I’U hit
my irons 10 yards more and my driver 20 yards
farther from this position than from the first
position.
To better imder stand cod, do the following
exercise: Take your normal setup and then
stand up straight, with fully extended arms so
that the club shaft is parallel to the ground.
Keeping your feet flat on the ground, make a
back swing and stop when your hands are over
your toe line. You should feel your hips turn
slightly in response to the puU of your shoul
ders. ti^en you do this, you’ll be able to sense
the tension in your back between your shoul
ders and hips. That’s the beginning of cod.
A good cod stores energy when you make
your backswing, then releases it on the forward
swing, but without a proper shoulder turn, you
can’t cod enough to generate the power you
need.
I’m cheating on my coil here, and I’ll
pay the price In loss of distance. The
ball may go straight, but it will be short •
of target.
A bigger shoulder turn translates Into
receiving the ‘1rue value” of the club,
I.e., I get the distance I plan for. Golf is
a game where surprises are not good.
Golff Insider
Els adds some sizzle
to Tour Championship
Woods, Mickelson
to skip season finale
By STAN AWTREY
Cox News Service
Atlanta
A loud cheer could be heard
/\ Sunday at East-Lake Golf
X ^Club when it was an
nounced that Ernie Els had quali
fied for the field of this week’s
Tour Championship.
Tournament director Todd
Rhinehart told a group of 750 vol
unteers at a recognition day that
“The Big Easy” had survived
some Sunday travails and earned
a spot in the PGA Tour’s grand fi
nale. The pronouncement drew
plenty of whoops and hollers.
“There were a lot of happy vol
unteers when I made that an
nouncement,” Rhinehart said.
And one happy tournament direc
tor, too.
“Ernie is a great draw, and he
really tried hard to make the Tour
Championship after he missed it
last year with his knee surgery,”
Rhinehart said. “We’re glad he’s
coming back.”
Even more important, in a field
without charismatic No. 1 Tiger
Woods and No, 3 Phil Mickelson,
Els provides more sizzle and name
recognition for the average golf
fan.
Els, a former No. 1-ranked play
er and winner of three major
championships, seemed to be play
ing himself out of Tour
Championship consideration with
a front-nine 39 during the fmal
round of the Chrysler
Championship. He changed the
momentum with an ea^e at No. 15
and a remarkable up-and-down
par from the woods at No. 18,
which sealed his invitation.
"I played a very poor front nine,
and that took me out of the tour
nament,” Els said. “But I knew I
had other stuff to take care of, and
I wanted to take care of that.”
Els finished tied for sixth, one
shot behind Joe Durant, who tied
for fourth with Jonathan Byrd. K.J.
Choi won the Chrysler
Championship and moved from
No. 68 to No. 26 on the money list
and into the Tour Championship
for the fourth time.
Ernie Els hits out of a trap during the Masters on April 9 in
Augusta, Ga. Els will be returning to Georgia this week to play
in the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Golfers praise course
The professionals who play
more than a few artificially eft-
hancedcouraes during the sea
son are happy to finish the
year at East Lake Golf Club’s
Botox-free classic design.
“It’s an awesome golf
course,” said Zach Johnson,
playing in his second Tour
Championship. “The history
speaks for itself with Mr.
[Bobby] Jones. It’s just a good,
classic golf course. It’s hard to
find a negative.”
The course was designed by
Tom Bendelow (1904) and
Donald Ross (1914). George
Cobb was brought in to make
changes in 1959. Reese Jones
renovated East Lake in 1994
and restored it to prominence.
■ “It’s a good golf course,”
Stewart Cink said. “The play
ers like it. The layout is fantas
tic; it’s diSicult, narrow, and
you’ve got to do it all. It’s not
just a putting contest. Your
short game really gets a work
out. It has no shortcomings as
a tournament venue.”
— StanAwtrey
“It’s the best result we could pos
sibly have,” Rhinehart said. “K.J.
has played here in the past and he’s
a great guy and Ernie battled his
way back to make it here.”
The presence of Els means
seven of the world’s top-ID ranked
players will be at East Lake: No. 2
Jim Puryk, No. 4 Adam Scott, No.
5 Vijay Singh, No. 6 Retief Goosen,
No. 7 Els, No. 8 Luke Donald and
No. 10 Geoff OgUvy Woods and
Mickelson chose not to play and
No. 9 Sergio Garcia didn’t qualify
The Tour Championship field
includes 11 first-time participants,
among them reigning U.S. Open
champion Ogilvy and likely PGA
rookie of the year Trevor
Immelman.
There are seven members of the
U.S. Ryder Cup in the event:
Furyk, David Toms, Stewart Cink,
Chad Campbell, Brett Wetterich,
Zach Johnson and J. J. Henry
Defending champion Bart Bryant,
who set a tournament scoring
record last year, did not qualify for
this year’s field.
Wetterich, second at Chrysler,
was excited about coming to
Atlanta.
“It’s your reward for playing
wen aU year,” he said. “I finally get
to experience it. I can’t wait to go
and play just to get there, and
hang out, and hopefully play some
good golf at the same time.”
Woods, a winner of his past six
individukl events, wiQ skip the
PGA Tour’s season-ending event,
taking a bit of steam from one of
professional golf’s flagship events.
“Playing seven out of nine
weeks with an additional trip to
Ireland for Ryder Cup practice
was taxing both mentally and
physically and I feel like I need an
other week away from competitive
golf,” Woods wrote on his Web
site. “Fm confident that this ex
tended break win help me to
recharge my batteries for the 2007
season.”
Nelson’s glory ‘worth the wait’
Late bloomer among
several inducted in HaU
By CRAIG DOLCH
Cox News Service
West Palm Beach, Fla.
It took Larry Nelson a lot longer
than most thought to realize a
golfer’s ultimate moment—get
ting inducted
into the World
Golf HaU of
Fame in St.
Augustine,
Fla.
But Nelson
is OK with
that. ReaUy he
is. Nelson,
after aU, wasa
late arrival
into the game.
Nelson stUl remembers sitting
in a foxhole in Vietnam when he
was 21, listening to a soldier he ad
mired for his toughness talking
about how he couldn’t wait to go
back to the United States and play
golf.
“All I was thinking about was
having a cheeseburger and a milk
shake when I got home,” Nelson
said. “But the idea of playing golf
stuck with me. Up until then, I
thou^t it was a sissy sport.”
NELSON
So he took up the game at an ad
vanced age, threw aU of his ener
gies into it and put together one of
the unlikeliest Hall of Fame ca
reers in the sport.
Five years after he hit his first
shot. Nelson made the PGA Toiur.
He eventuaUy won two PGA
Championships and a U.S. Open to
earn his way into the HaU after
being bypassed on the baUot for al
most 10 years.
“Believe me, it’s been weU worth
the wait,” said Nelson, who by the
luck of his last name wUl reside
between Byron Nelson ^d Jack
Nicklaus in the HaU of Fame.
Also inducted Monday night
was another player who got a late
start into the game. Vijay Singh,
who has won three majors and 29 ,
PGA Tour titles; LPGA founding
member MarUynn Smith, who
won 21 times and served as the
LPGA president from 1957-60; 26-
time PGA Tour winner Henry
Picard; and agent and television
sports pioneer Mark McCormack.
Picard and McCormack were in
ducted posthumously
Singh didn’t join the PGA Tour
until he was 30, but he has made
up for his late arrival. Now 43, he
has won 20 titles in the past five
years, became the No. l-ranked
player in the world in 2004 and as
sured himself of his ninth consec
utive season of finishing among
the top five on the tour’s money
list.
Smith, one of the 13 founding
members of the LPGA, won aU of
her 21 titles from 1954-72. She then
turned her attention to teaching
and giving clinics, helping to start
the LPGA Teaching Division. Her
nickname, “Miss Personality” il
lustrates how she became one of
golf’s greatest ambassadors.
“Golf has been so good to me,”
Smith told The Kansas City Star.
“Fve been to aU 50 states, 36 coun
tries, met five presidents. This
game has been an incredible gift.”
Among Picard’s 26 victories
were the 1938 Masters and the 1939
PGA Championship. Beyond that,
he was considered one of the
game’s greatest teachers, credited
with the development of Ben
Hogan and for encouraging Sam
Snead to play the Tovu:
McCormack turned a hand
shake deal with Arnold Palmer
into one of sport’s hugest man
agement companies, IMG. He was
selected through the Lifetime
Achievement category
“Very few things could have
pleased me more than when I
foimd out Mark had been chosen
for induction into the World Golf
HaU of Fame,” said Palmer, who
introduced him at the ceremony
SCHEDULE
All Times EST
PGA TOUR
Tour Championship
• Site: Atlanta.
• Schedule: Thursday-Sunday
• Course: East Lake Golf Club
(7,154 yards, par 70).
• Purse: $6.5 miUion. Winner’s
share: $1.17 miUion.
• TV: ESPN (Thursday-Friday,
noon-5 p.m.), ABC (Saturday
3:30-7 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m.)
andESPN2 (Sunday noon-
1 p.m.).
LPGA TOUR/JAPAN
PGA TOUR
Mizuno Classic
• Site: Mie, Japan.
• Schedule: Friday-Simday
• Coiirse: Kashikojima
Country Club (6,506 yards, par
72).
• Purse: $1.2 mOlion. Winner’s
share: $180,000.
• TV: None.
PGA EUROPEAN TOUR
• Next event: HSBC
Champions, Nov 9-12, Sheshan
International Golf Club,
Shanghai, China.
• Last week: Ireland’s Padraig
Harrington won the European
Order of Merit with a second-
place tie in the Volvo Masters.
NATIONWIDE TOUR
• Next event: Nationwide
Tour Championship, Nov. 9-12,
The Houstonian Golf and
Country Club, Richmond,
Texas.
• Last week: Former Georgia
Tech star Bryce Molder won
his first professional title, beat
ing Boo Weekley by a stroke in
the Miccosukee Championship
in Miami. Molder earned
$90,000 in the final fuU-field
Nationwide event of the 2006
season to jump from 49th to
21st on the money list with
$202,957. The top 22 at the end
of the season earn PGA Tour
cards.
LEADERS
WORLD RANKINGS
1. Tiger Woods 21.96
2. Jim Furyk 8.83
3. Phil Mickelson 8.22
4. Adam Scott 6.95
5. Vijay Singh 6.55
6. Retief Goosen 6.18
7. Ernie Els 6.06
8. Luke Donald 5.84
9. Sergio Garcia 5.79
10. Geoff Ogilvy 5.51
11. P. Harrington 5.05
12. Henrik Stenson 4.67
13. T. Immelman 4.58
14. David Howell 4.54
15. Paul Casey 4.22
16. Davis Love III 4,17
17. David Toms 4.15
18. C. Montgomerie 4.03
19. Chris DiMarco 3.87
20. J.OIazabal 3,81
MONEY LEADERS
PGATOUR
Player Money
1. Tiger Woods $9,941,563
2. Jim Furyk $6,483,316
3. Vijay Singh $4,387,416
4. Phil Mickelson $4,256,505
5. Geoff Ogilvy K228,869
6. Adam Scott $3,808,858
7. T. Immelman $3,578,189
8. Stuart Appleby $3,287,657
9. Luke Donald $2,911,408
10. B. Wetterich $2,904,885
LPGATOUR
Player Money
1. Lorena Ochoa $2,342,872
2. A. Sorenstam $1,906,126
3. KarrieWebb $1,889,613
4. Cristie Kerr $1,539,501
5. MiHyunKim $1,308,616
CHAMPIONS TOUR
Player Money
1. Jay Haas $2,420,227
2. Loren Roberts $2,365,395
3. Brad Bryant $1,692,417
4. Tom Kite $1,643,348
5. Gi! Morgan $1,525,050
THE GOLF DOCTOR
Try turning both shoulders to ensure proper form
We’ve established that your muscles don’t like to
stretch, and while it may be wrong, it’s much easier to
just cheat on the shoulder turn and simply lift the club
up to the top of your swing.
Here’s a way to ensure a complete shoulder turn: Turn
both shoulders. To make sure both shoulders turn prop-
' erly, you’ll need to keep them moving at a 90-degree angle
to your spine. When you do, your target shoulder moves
down under your chin while your rear shoulder moves
up behind your neck.
To get the feel of how to turn your shoulders correctly,
first stand upright so your shoulders form a perpendicu
lar line with your spine, level to the groimd. Then place a
club across your shoulders and anchor it with your
hands. This represents your shoulder line.
Next, bend from the waist into your golf posture and
turn your shoulders so the club slants toward the
ground. The idea is to keep your shoulders perpendicu
lar to your spine as they turn both back and through the
ball.
The key is to avoid making an effort to move your front
shoulder down to the ball, a swing error known as a
shoulder tilt. When you tilt your front shoulder down,
your weight stays on your front leg and never gets be
hind the baU.
Another temptation is to level your shoulders to the
ground as you turn in your backswing. This straightens
your spine and destroys your posture and relationship to
the ball.
Here’s a good checkpoint for your shoulder turn: Both
at the top of your swing and just after impact, the line
connecting your shoulders is slanted so it points over the
baU to a point just outside the target line.
— T.J. Tomasi
ASK THE PRO
•Q: I’m about to buy a set of
used clubs, and the guy says
they’re offset, which is (ac
cording to him) just what I
need since I’m a beginner. Is
offset good for me at this
stage?—R.A.
A: There are two club head
designs that can influence
your baU flight: non-offset,
where the leading edge of the
clubface and the neck are in
line, and offset, where the lead
ing edge is behind the neck of
the clubhead. The non-offset
configuration hits the baU
lower and is more anti-hook
while the offset produces a
higher baU flight and cuts
down on your slice tendencies.
As a beginner, offset is prob
ably the way to go. You’ll hit it
higher because the center of
gravity is farther behind the
shaft, and since your hands
are more in front of the club-
face, it gives you more time to
square the clubface at impact,
reducing the tendency to slice
the ball.
The key then is to be proper
ly fitted for both your woods
and irons when it comes to off
set.
GeneraUy speaking, it is not
a good idea to mix offset and
non-offset clubs.
If you have offset irons, you
should have offset woods and
vice versa.
Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate for Cox News Service. (800) 255-6734. ’For release the week of October 30, 2006.