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mr 4C SPORTS/tEfte Charlotte ^o«t Thursday, February 1,2007 LOPEZ BIRDIES AND BOGIES A litde more golf, a little less ‘celebs’ Jeff Babineau, deputy editor for Golf World, commented on the first day of the recent Bob Hope Desert Classic as follows: “Judging simply by the amoimt of airtime Golf Channel gave certain players, and not having seen a score- board, I’m guessing George Lopez has to be lead ing —by at least three shots.” And it got worse as the tournament went on until, on the last nine holes, where the action should speak for itself, Lopez was there to speak for it. Golf isn’t that funny and neither are the celebrities the networks tout. You’re safe from the boredom bug when you follow a celeb in person because you can simply leave and follow some else, but when you’re forced to watch Ray Romano or George Lopez trying to be funny for hours on end, the boredom index is off the charts. The problem is that most of the celebs are “celebs,” meaning that their “fame” needs a bit of explaining: “Here we are with Tom Chrisman, star of the off-Broadway musical ‘Get the Hammer, Mama, There's a Fly on Papa’s Head.’” Or “Let’s go out to 16 where Johnny Ant, the saxophonist for the Dead Mackerals, is get ting ready to play his seventh shot.” While ftere are a few true celebrities, such as Clint Eastwood and Oscar de la Hoya, who need little introduction, most need a mini biography for identification. Here are a few who were in the field: • Joe Kernen, T'7 host/financial commentator • Craig T. Nelson, actor • Burt Rutan, creator of SpaceShipOne subor bital rocket plane • Boris Said, race car driver • Mossimo GiannuUi, fashion designer • Tom Dreesen, comedian • Toby Dawson, Olympic skier • Carson Daly TV host • Anthony Anderson, actor/comedian The point is not that the Hope wasn’t exciting this year—it was. And it raised a bunch for charity it was well-presented by the Golf Channel. It was a very well-run tournament. So why do they have to oversell the celebs? DID YOU KNOW? Tiger’s on a roll With his victory last week in the Buick Invitational in San Diego, Tiger Woods ran his PGA Tour winning streak to seven. Woods’ streak is the second-longest in tour history, behind only Byron Nelson’s record . 11 in 1945. SCHEDULE All times Eastern PGA EUROPEAN TOUR Dubai Desert Classic • Site: Dubai, United Arab Emirates. • Schedule: Thursday-Sunday • Course: Emirates Golf Club, Majlis Course (7,264 yards, par 72). • Purse: $2.4 million. Winner’s share: $400,000. • TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Saturday- Sunday 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 6:30-9 p.m.). PGA TOUR FBR Open • Site: Scottsdale, Ariz. • Schedule: Thursday-Sunday. • Course: TPC Scottsdale (7,216 yards, par 71). Purse: $6 million. Winner’s share: $1.08 mUlion. • TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m., 8:30-11:30 p.m.) and NBC (Saturday-Sunday 3-6 p.m.). GOLF AUSTRALIA/ALPG TOUR/ LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR Women’s Australian Open • Site: Sydney, Australia. • Course: Royal Sydney Golf Club (6,275 yards, par 72). • Purse: $386,400. Winner’s share: TBA. • TV: None. LPGA TOUR • Next event: SBS Open at Turtle Bay Feb. 15-17, Turtle Bay Resort, Palmer Course, Kahuku, Hawaii. CHAMPIONS TOUR • Next event: Allianz Championship, Feb. 9-11, The Old Course at Broken Sound, Boca Raton, Fla. NATIONWIDE TOUR • Next event: Jacob’s Creek Open, Feb. 15-18, Kooyonga Golf Club, Adelaide, Australia. Insider BylJ.TOMASI IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR GAME Preventing PULL ABOUTTHE WRITER Dr. T.J. Tomasi is a teaching professional at Nantucket Golf Club on Nantucket Island, Mass. To ask him a question about golf, e-mail him at: TJInsider@aol.com. T he biggest difference between the pro and amateur swing is hip ro tation. The majority of golfers have about half the hip rotation of skilled players because most start the downswing with their shoulders. Granted, maximum power is created when your right side whirls target- ward, but only after your arms have dropped the clubhead down into posi tion at the start of your downswing. Starting your shoulder rotation too soon forces the club out toward the tar get line. It’s a prime cause of the error called “over-the-top,” where shots start way left of target frien either fade, hook or go straight, depending on the face position at impact. Since the laws of physics allow you only one fast point per downswing, you’d better save it for impact. To con serve yoiu power, allow your front hip to rotate as your weight shifts to your front foot. This gives your front hip time to lead the sequence to impact— front hip leads the front shoulder, front shoulder leads the hands, hands lead the clubhead. A slow front hip, i.e. one that doesn’t start on time (and one that doesn’t keep rotating), will be “caught” before impact by a fast back shoulder And there you have the anatomy of the pull. With me guiding his back shoulder, this student rotates his left side sooner and more aggressively while his back shoulder moves down, not around, setting up the “Golden Sequence.” This positions the clubhead behind the shoulders where it belongs. A slow front side “produces” a fast trail side, where the shoulders overtake the hips. When this happens, the club is dragged across the ball, causing the pull. Here I’m holding a shaft against a puller’s back shoulder so it stays back and moves down to start the downswing. The correct sequence The correct sequence has a dynamic quality As soon as your wei^t hits your front hip joint, the hip is prepared to act as the axis of rota tion for your down swing. Now all you have to do is keep everything moving, with no at tempt to manipulate the club. The feister you rotate your core, the more power you generate. This is how you pro duce the “Golden Sequence,” where the lead hip is chased by the lead shoulder, which is chased by the hands, which “in turn” are chased by the clubhead. on and aim/alignment until the ball goes to tar get. GOLF FITNESS Get the kinks out Here are some exercises you can do just before you tee off. As always, please consult your doctor before you try them out. Take care of the bends It’s not as bad as it sounds. Bend forward, ever so gently from your waist and grasp your ankles. If you need to, flex your knees, but don’t bounce and strain. Let your neck and arms relax. Now straighten your knees until you feel a comfortable stretch in the backs of your legs. Hold this for 10 to 15 seconds, then let go of your ankles and slowly raise yourself up, bend ing your knees as you straighten your trunk. Is that a body in your trunk? This move will help loosen the trunk of your body Standing with your back to a tree or a golf cart, rotate yoiu: upper body to the right so you can grab hold of the tree or cart with both hands without moving your feet. Look over your left shoulder as you do this. You can increase the tension by pulling yourself around a little farther with your hands. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds, then repeat with the other side. Most golfers can use a little side action Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and raise your right arm above your head. Keeping your knees slightly flexed, lean to your left and slide your left hand down the outside of your left thi^ to just above yoiu: knee. You should feel a comfortable stretch along the right side of your torso. Hold it for 10 to 15 seconds, then repeat on the other side. GOLF BYTHE NUMBERS 266 PAVIN The number of yards Corey Pavin | averaged off the tee in 2006. Even though he was ranked 196th on the PGA Tour in , driving distance, Pavin managed to' win the 2006 U.S. Bank Championship and over $1.3 million. Also at the bottom of the long- drive charts were moneymakers Brad Faxon (195th at 270 yards), who made 13 of 26 cuts and over half a million dollars ($1.7 million in 2005 and a win at Hartford); Fred Funk (194th at 273 yards), who in ’06 made 24 of 28 cuts and won over $1.5 million; and Paul Goydos {192nd at 274 yards), winner of this year’s Sony Open and $940,000. With all the frantic hype about the long ball ruining the game, it’s nice to take a deep breath and look at the facts now and then. TEEING OFF Mental warning system can help your golf game There is a “checker” in your brain that gives a final OK to whatever it is you’re about to do. “It may act as an alarm system, activating a ‘worry circuit’... a part of the (brain) that helps in switch ing gears from one thought to another,” says Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, a research scien tist at UCLA School of Medicine specializing in the treatment of obsessive-com pulsive disorder (OCD). But the brain can become “stuck in gear" and send bogus messages that some thing is wrong. When a per son is healthy the checker, or “ringmaster,” in your frontal lobe screens out these bogus warnings. However, when the frontal lobe is injured, the person can be afflicted by “tyrannical obsessions,” as Schwartz calls them. Let’s say that just before you leave the house you think, “Did I turn the iron off?” which is a valuable “No Signal” that helps you avoid starting a fire. Your ringmas ter tells you that you did turn it off, and away you go. If you’re obsessive-compul sive, however, you keep re ceiving the No Signal. In this case, you can’t generate per mission to leave the house be cause you have to keep check ing to make sure the iron is off. When your warning sys tem is stuck on No, it be comes almost impossible to fimction, as your internal world boomerangs back on it self in a reverberating circuit of No’s. The opposite occurs when the checker is for some rea son obliterated. Absent a cen sor, antisocial behavior can result, ranging in severity from unpleasant to socio- pathic. Obviously, the health of our internal warning system is important to the quality of life we lead. By understand ing how this message system works, we can improve all as pects of our life, including golf. All golfers, from high hand- icappers to PGA Tour pros, experience No Signals — warnings from your brain that something is wrong. While they’re not nearly as serious as OCD messages. No Signals can ruin your golf game. The feeling produced by playing golf in a “state of No,” where you’re inundated by No Signals, varies from person to person, but it’s an anxious feeling about the shot at hand that can become • a self-fulfilling prophesy The fear can cause the bad shot. Next week, I’U outline how . Dr. Schwartz’s intervention techniques for OCD patients can be applied to your golf game. GOLF SPOKEN HERE Apron The grassy area surrounding the puttit^ surface, aka fringe. The area surrounding the putting green is cut to a height lower than the fairway but not as short as the green itseE DON’T MISS IT A primer on rules, etiquette If you need to have the rules and etiquette of golf simplified for you, then Don’t Miss John Companiotte’s new book, aptly titled “Golf Rules & Etiquette Simplified.” He’s a veteran golf writer who helps you understand the rules, especially if you’re a be ginner. He also includes insider tips and strategies, such as avoiding unnecessary penalties, determining when to declare the ball unplayable, and finding relief from water hazards. The books is published by McGraw Hill and is avail able for less than $10 at www.amazon.com. QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Yep, the streak was a lot of pressure. The best way to deal with pressure is to regulate your breathing. You get excited when you breathe faster, and as you breathe faster you swing faster. That’s not good. So you have to slow your walk, and take deep, slow breaths. That lets you keep your rhythm. ” Byron Nelson (1912-2006), golfing legend ASK THE PRO Q: I don't have the time to take my clubs to a fitter and check my lies. Is there any way I can do it myself? —M. W, from the Web A: Here is a quick way to determine if your lie angle suits you: Draw a half-inch straight line on the ball. At address, position it so the line is vertical and facing the center of your clubface. Hit a shot using a 6-iron and look at the mark the line has left on your club- face. If it is vertical, your lie is correct: if it slants away from you, it’s flat and toward you, it’s too up right. To remember which is which, place your left index finger across the middle of your right hand — it represents the line on the ball while your right palm is the clubface. When you tilt your ri^t hand downward so your fingers point at the ground (repre senting a lie that’s too flat), your left index finger moves away from you. It moves toward you when you tilt your hand upward (too upright). (To Ask the Pro a ques tion about golf, e-mail him at: TJInsider@aoLcom.)
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Feb. 1, 2007, edition 1
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