Struggling Tiger?
© Bill Howard
I urge all of you to read it. The article is more excellent work by Jeff Shain, the Herald's consistently good golf writer. Be sure to click and enlarge the "Anatomy of a Champion" image at the upper right of the page.
Before you go clicking merrily away to another site, I need to make two points regarding the article. The first point regards a glaring technical inaccuracy; the second is simply an opinion.
First, the technical golf swing stuff. If you aren't immersed in golf swing theory it might sail right by unnoticed. In a paragraph dealing with the length of Tiger's backswing relative to other notable players, John Daly is cited as a sort of benchmark for backswing length. The article states, "Daly's driver is often parallel to the ground at the top of his backswing." This is not true. Perpendicular to the ground is more like it.
A technical note: Having the golf club parallel to the ground at the top of your backswing is a guideline, not a rule. Many a great player has had the club slightly beyond parallel at the top. Hogan, Woods, Walter Hagen, and Bobby Jones are just a few who leap to mind. It is more difficult to square the clubface at impact if you go much beyond parallel. The classic example would be Mr. Daly. Though his drives are certainly prodigious, he is prone to radical inaccuracy when his timing is a bit off.
The second point I'd like to make is just this: We can plumb the depths of Tiger's technical superiority from now till doomsday, but what makes him who he is, is the fact that he plays the game better than anyone alive. He could very well do this with a flawed swing. Of course, it is appreciably easier for him to do it with a swing that is sound.
Now I'm done. Please go read the article.
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