Golf Tips - Swing golftips001.blogspot.com

Sunday, September 1, 2013

McIlroy looking for the kid who won the PGA

PGA.COM August 7, 2013

.

View gallery
''I love proving people wrong,'' says Rory McIlroy about his doubters. (Getty Images)

By Doug Ferguson, Associated Press

PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- The curls no longer spilled from under his cap, a big change for Rory McIlroy. Prompted to reveal the rest of his free haircut, he removed his hat and wild brown locks sprang to life.

''Still a little bit on the top,'' he said Wednesday with an easy smile.

Only then did McIlroy resemble the Boy Wonder who dominated golf last summer, starting with his win at thePGA Championship at Kiawah Island by a record margin. He didn't walk down the fairways that week, he bounced. He was No. 1 in the world, and looked every bit the part.

McIlroy would love to rediscover that kid at Oak Hill this week.

In its place is a 24-year-old from Northern Ireland who has reason to feel much older. He hasn't won a tournament, and only once did he even come close. He has finished over par in all three majors, with only two rounds at the Open Championship. He has failed to make the cut five times this year, which includes walking off the course in the Honda Classic with sore wisdom teeth that still haven't been removed.

Among betting favorites, he was second only to Tiger Woods at the Masters at 5-to-1. For the PGA Championship, the odds are 30-to-1, higher than two players (Henrik Stenson and Brandt Snedeker) who have never won a major.

And he can't wait to get to the first tee Thursday afternoon.

Inspiration comes from videos he has been watching of his eight-shot win at Kiawah Island, along with his back-to-back FedExCup playoff wins against some of the strongest fields of the year. Some of what he noticed was technical, such as the position of his club in the swing. What really stood out was the body language.

''It's how you carry yourself. It's all that sort of stuff, your little mannerisms,'' McIlroy said. ''I guess it's just trying to remember those feelings and remember how I felt that week and trying to carry some of that into this week and just get those good, positive thoughts going.

''I think everyone sees when I walk and I'm playing well, I have that little bounce in my step.''

What would go a lot longer at Oak Hill is keeping the ball in play on a traditional, tree-lined course -- so many trees that even being in the fairway doesn't mean a clear shot at the green if the ball is slightly out of position. The greens are small and slope toward the front. Oak Hill is a hard golf course, and the evidence comes from the previous five majors held on this Donald Ross design -- only 10 players in those five majors have finished under par.

''This may be the toughest golf course, but the fairest golf course that we play,'' said Tom Watson, playing this major for the 32nd time. ''Somebody is going to win this thing, and that person is going to play awfully well, awfully good golf this week. Wish I could say that's me.''

Watson was joking. Not so funny is that the way McIlroy's year has gone, there isn't much reason to believe it could be him, either.

Most of the attention is on Woods, even though he has gone five years and 17 majors without winning one. Woods won the Bridgestone Invitational last week by seven shots, sparked by a 61 in the second round that tied his personal best. That gave Woods five wins this year, which is five more than McIlroy.

Phil Mickelson opened with a 65 in 2003 the last time thePGA Championship was played at Oak Hill until fading badly in one of his worst seasons as a pro. He is coming off an astounding win at the Open Championship, where his 66 in the final round is regarded as one of the best closing rounds in a major. If he could pick off another PGA Championship, Mickelson would be a shoo-in as PGA Tour player of the year, an award he has never won.

McIlroy, meanwhile, has been largely forgotten through ordinary play and endless questions about a season gone wrong from his opening tournament when he missed the cut in Abu Dhabi. Some of his troubles have been attributed to a wholesale equipment change, others to his decision to change management companies.

McIlroy said his switch to Nike is no longer an excuse, not with 15 tournaments under his belt. He says it has taken longer than usual to work his way out of bad habits.

''I guess every time you play and you don't play well, it sort of chips away at your confidence a little bit,'' he said.

McIlroy has gone through this before. Only a year ago, he had gone five months without a win and missed the cut in four out of five tournaments. With a spark at Firestone, he showed up at Kiawah Island and overwhelmed the strongest field in golf in ways only Woods used to do.

''I love proving people wrong,'' McIlroy said.

Ian Poulter's advice was everyone to ''give him a break.''

Poulter tied for third -- by nine shots -- last year at Kiawah Island and has watched the fall of a kid who looked one year ago that he would be on top of golf for a long time. Now it's back to Woods and Mickelson at Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, with the kid trying to claw his way back.

''I think sometimes we forget how young he is and what he's been able to achieve at a very early age,'' Poulter said. ''So the second he feels comfortable again, whether that's with his swing or equipment or whatever it is, then Rory will be winning golf tournaments. That natural swing of his doesn't just disappear overnight.''

Despite all the scrutiny -- on everything from his new equipment to new management, to girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki and moving from Northern Ireland to south Florida -- McIlroy hasn't dodged the questions for which he has no tangible answers.

''I'd definitely rather be up here talking about more positive things, but I guess that's the way it is,'' McIlroy said. ''Should you lay off me? That's not for me to decide. I'm here and I'm answering your questions and that's all I can do. As I said, it would be nicer just to sit up here, talk about some more positive things. But the way the year's gone, it's understandable why I'm not.''

Friday, August 30, 2013

Jason Dufner lights up PGA Championship with 63

Eric Adelson August 9, 2013Yahoo! Sports

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The golfer made famous by a photo of him passed out has made history by being unconscious.

Jason Dufner, the portly 36-year-old who spawned the Internet meme "Dufnering" when he dozed in front of a room of schoolchildren, bulldozed through Round 2 of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club to tie for the best round in major championship history. The Cleveland-born golfer with the classic golf name shot a 63, hit 15 of 18 greens and holed out an approach shot that would have been the moment of the day if the whole day weren't such a moment. Fridays aren't always known for buzz at these tournaments, but the blend of cult hero worship and sterling golf stirred a rain-drenched crowd into a certifiable frenzy.

Just ask "Dufs Dips," a band of Ottawa boys who drove four hours here to see their favorite pro and give him a red shirt they made with #Dufnering printed on the back. The Canadians were giddy as Dufner tore through the course with an array of perfectly-arced fades and clutch putts, stopping only to smile and tuck some tobacco into his lower lip.

"It's the lifestyle, man," raved one of the Dips in a Blue Jays cap, when asked about Dufner's appeal. He didn't elaborate about what aspect of the lifestyle, or even whether he was referring to Dufner's lifestyle or his own. No matter; on this day, the "lifestyle" was throwing darts.

Dufner did what some of the world's best golfers did not: take chances. He used driver on a course where it wasn't recommended, realizing the rains would soften and widen the fairways. Dufner's approach completely belied his soporific style, as he was fearless and aggressive all the way up until his 18-foot uphill putt for a 62, which he left short. No matter, the 63 was good enough to put him at 9-under for the tournament, two strokes in front of Jim Furyk, Matt Kucher and Adam Scott.

A group from Ottawa, Canada shows their support of Jason Dufner. (Yahoo! Sports)Dufner knew about the record, as he's a student of golf history. His Twitter icon is of the famous Hogan hole at Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia, where the U.S. Open was held this year. He refers to the historic golfer as "Mr. Hogan," even though Mr. Dufner has now torched Hogan's Oak Hill course record.

Dufner knew the all-time record for low round in a major was in reach as he worked his way up the back nine, attacking every pin as if it was a practice round. Behind the 16th green, a course official whispered, "I haven't seen any birdies here today." And Dufner promptly dropped a birdie putt. Behind the 17th hole, another course official whispered the exact same thing, and Dufner barely missed another. The final holes were that kind of difficult on Friday, and Dufner was that kind of incredible. His two-day total of 131 is a tie for the best 36 holes in PGA Championship history.

Dufner has flirted with golf destiny before. He got into a playoff at this tournament two years ago in Atlanta, and said it was the best golf he's ever played. But poor playoff putting doomed him, and he watched Keegan Bradley win his first major. Dufner tied for fourth in the U.S. Open at Merion this year, but he's only won two Tour events in seven years on tour. He's a mix of sure-shot and long-shot, and fans who love an everyman eat that up.

The final hole Friday was proof. He striped his drive and had 203 yards from the middle of the fairway. Stuck between a five-iron and a six, he went with the latter and let adrenaline do its work. Then he unleashed one of the most beautiful shots you'll ever see, a rainbow bending to the left and then back to the right, up against the blue sky and then the packed grandstand. The ball landed just below the hole and the crowd exploded in not only cheers, but giggles. The guy just had it. Overhead, a plane carried a huge banner saying, "Y'all Look Hungry." It was all just too perfect.

The missed putt will probably gnaw at him, but he'd already made a lifetime memory for the Dips. The boys found Jason's wife, Amanda, and gave her the shirt. She thanked them and then went to wait for her husband. Tiger Woods' swing coach, Sean Foley, walked up to her and said, "What's up, Mrs. Duf"? He noticed the shirt and she smiled as she mentioned the boys.

"They were pumped!" she said.

For the next several minutes she waited with the gift until Dufner came out to do his flurry of interviews. "It's tough to chase history," he explained to reporters in his deadpan way. "I'm not usually the first to do anything."

The boys were a few dozen feet away, hanging along a fence by the putting green, chanting, "63! 63! 63!" He grinned and waved, as always spending just enough energy to complete the task.

Moments later, in front of the clubhouse, officials hurried to put up another rope. "Dufner's coming!" one elderly woman shouted, as if it was the president. He emerged from a door and grinned again. "Jason!" one fan said, "can I have an autograph?!"

"Jason!" the fan said again, "can I have a 63?!"

Dufner got into a golf cart and slouched against the seat with his arms tucked by his sides – the exact pose that started a viral sensation.

This time, though, he was wide awake.

Dufner's record round surpasses his hero, Hogan

PGA.COM August 9, 2013

.

View gallery
“I obviously had a fantastic day today," said Jason Dufner on Friday. (Montana Pritchard/The PGA of …

By T.J. Auclair, PGA.com Interactive Producer

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - On a special afternoon at the 95th PGA Championship Friday, Jason Dufner tied one record and broke another.

In conditions that were absolutely perfect for scoring after heavy rains softened Oak Hill Country Club's greens and allowed players to take dead aim, Dufner threw dart after dart en route to a major championship record-tying low round of 7-under 63.

Through 36 holes, Dufner holds a two-shot advantage over the trio of Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar and Jim Furyk at 9-under 131.

On the 18th hole, Dufner left short a 12-foot birdie try for what could have been a 62. Instead, he very shakily knocked in the par putt for the 63, a new course record at Oak Hill.

"I obviously had a fantastic day today in a major championship, chased a little bit of history," Dufner said. "Came up a little short on that last putt, but all in all I'm excited. The position I'm in, the golf course has obviously yielded some low scores and I'm looking forward to continuing good play here on the weekend."

Dufner's bogey-free round got off to a smashing start. With 105 yards left into the second hole, Dufner sent a sand wedge high in the air, over the top of the pin and into a backstop on the green. From there, the ball bit into the grass and zipped back about 30 feet before finding the bottom of the hole for an unlikely eagle.

"I had 105 to the pin, a little bit downwind, and I took a sand wedge and I knew I could be aggressive, because you kind of have a backstop there, and with a sand wedge, you know you're going to spin it," said Dufner, who also set a new 36-hole PGA Championship scoring record at 131. "And it actually probably flew about close to 115 and had almost 30 feet of backspin. So it was a good number, a good fit, hit a good shot and got a little lucky. You can't see it at all. I had already given the club back to my caddie. That's how long it took to come back. When I turned back to the hole, they went nuts, it was a pretty neat experience."

Dufner's assault on Oak Hill continued with birdies on the par-5 fourth hole - where he holed a 35-footer - and the par-4 fifth hole. He made the turn at 4 under with his outward 31.

The birdies kept coming on the back nine, too. Dufner birdied the 11th, 13th and 16th holes all on putts inside of 12 feet.

A birdie putt at No. 17 just missed the hole - both Dufner and playing partner Steve Stricker reacted as though they thought it was in - and then, of course, that last chance for an unprecedented 62 that was short at No. 18.

Dufner wasn't disappointed though. He was delighted - as delighted as Dufner will let on - to become the 24th player in major championship history to shoot 63.

Making the moment all the more special was the fact that Dufner edged out Curtis Strange, Webb Simpson and his idol, Ben Hogan, for the new Oak Hill course record.

"I've been a great follower of Mr. Hogan and everything that he's done," Dufner said. "We played at Merion this year for the first time; I was so excited to be there. Dating back to when he won the U.S. Open there and all the history and the plaque there; and then to come to a great course like Oak Hill where he holds the course record and has played numerous rounds here, had great relationships with the Harmons; and to knock his course record off is kind of a tip of my cap to him, and it will be definitely something that I can always look back on when I'm finished playing that I accomplished."

Column: 'John Daly of Asia' makes his mark at PGA

Column: 'John Daly of Asia' makes his mark at PGA
JIM LITKE (AP Sports Columnist) August 9, 2013AP - Sports

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- I'm thinking of changing my name to Justin Timberlake.

And why not? People in Thailand change their names for good luck all the time, or so I'm told.

That bit of knowledge was imparted cheerfully by Kiradech Aphibarnrat outside the clubhouse Friday at Oak Hill, where he had just signed for a 1-over 71 that left him 1 under for the PGA Championship and eight shots behind leader Jason Dufner.

His name, for example, used to be Anujit Hirunratanakorn, at least until he was 16. That's when Kiradech's family ventured to a monastery in northern Thailand for the renaming ceremony. Oddly enough, both his former and current names translate into English as ''bright.''

But in golfing circles, the charming, portly 24-year-old is known as a two-time Junior World champion, or more recently, the ''John Daly of Asia.''

''I played with him two times,'' Kiradech said. ''He's a good guy said we swing very similarly.''

The resemblance, however, doesn't end there. Kiradech shares Daly's go-for-broke course management style. Until a closing run of three bogeys in the last five holes, he was at 4 under and zooming up the leaderboard. What made the fall tougher to take was how well Kiradech recovered from an early bout of nerves.

''After four or five holes, my hands were shaking ... before every shot,'' he recalled. ''Every time on Friday, you have to make the cut. I feel I cannot make any mistakes, that I have to be perfect.''

For some of his golfing predecessors, that was quite literally the case. Most of the Thais who preceded Kiradech onto the European and Asian tours picked up the game after working as caddies, often with clubs they had to assemble from discarded iron heads and grips.

Kiradech, on the other hand, grew up comfortably and took up golf at age 8 after tagging along behind his father on the course. Every time there was a tournament, the two stayed behind to watch the trophies being presented. It didn't take long for the son to get his hands on a few of his own.

''My dad said if I play golf well, he will let someone else do my homework,'' Kiradech recalled, smiling mischievously.

As if he needed further reinforcement, Kiradech won the Junior World Championship in consecutive years, 2003-04, then turned pro in 2008. He won a mini-tour event the following year and his first big-league tournament on the Asian tour in 2011. His real breakthrough, though, came in March, on the European Tourat the Malaysian Open, a tournament shortened to 54 holes due to thunderstorms - a victory Kiradech admitted he might not have secured had it gone the distance.

It wasn't just nerves working against him again, though Kiradech acknowledges those were frayed. There was also the fatigue of lugging his large frame up and down the hills on the course in steamy weather. He's listed at 5-foot-10 and 210, but his agent, Pimporn Rojsattarat, pegs his weight at closer to 260.

''I don't work out a lot. I just try to play good golf. You don't have to have a good body for that,'' Kiradech explained, with typical good humor, while playing last weekend in the Bridgestone, where he tied for 40th.

He didn't set himself a target score for Oak Hill, but after Kiradech shot 68 in the opening round, he candidly admitted the weight of expectations settled across his broad shoulders.

''I was quite proud,'' he said. ''I was able to see myself on TV. A friend called and told me, ''They're talking about you on the Golf Channel.'''

After Friday, unfortunately, not so much.

Starting out in a fuchsia shirt and white pants, Kiradech was hard to miss. But the small gallery he garnered while shooting 34 on his first nine had dwindled to his manager and a handful of family members not long after he made the turn. He hit just two fairways on the back, and like the John Daly of America, tried powering his way out of trouble.

''My game is very good, but I have to learn more,'' he said.

By that, he presumably meant patience, a quality that Pimporn recognizes doesn't come naturally to 24-year-olds. Especially someone like Kiradech, who spent a year or two racing cars before giving up the circuit to grateful tears from his mother.

''Sometimes,'' said Pimporn, who represents more than three dozen promising Thai golfers, ''we have to instruct the caddie to slow Kiradech down.

''He is like many young men,'' she added. ''He likes to do everything fast.''

--

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and follow him at www.twitter.com/JimLitke

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Woods' year changed after distraction at Masters

DOUG FERGUSON (AP Golf Writer) August 13, 2013AP - Sports

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- Imagine how different it might have been for Tiger Woods if not for one perfect shot.

Major championships always have a signature moment. The 20-foot birdie putt by Adam Scott on the 18th hole atAugusta National that led to a green jacket. The pure 4-iron that Justin Rose hit into the 18th at Merion. Phil Mickelson's 3-wood onto the 17th green at Muirfield. Jason Dufner's wedge to a dangerous pin on the fifth hole at Oak Hill that stopped a foot from the cup.

The defining moment in another major-less season forWoods was his wedge on the 15th hole in the second round of the Masters.

It hit the pin and shattered his calm.

One inch to the right or to the left and he most likely would have had an easy birdie and the outright lead. Instead, the ball caromed off the green and into the water, setting off a wild chain of events that put Woods into the middle of a controversy that wasn't his doing except for inadvertently taking the wrong drop.

Information leaked to ESPN and Golf Channel didn't help. For two hours, all anyone knew was that Woods was being penalized two shots for the incorrect drop, and thus signed an incorrect scorecard, but he would not be disqualified.

There was outrage, and rightly so. Some of that lingered even after Augusta National offered a reasonable explanation that its decision was based on Rule 33-7, which gives a committee discretion to waive disqualification. In this case, the club said it could have - and should have - talked to Woods before he signed his card. Whether the club let him off the hook is a separate debate. Either way, Woods was seen as the central character in a conspiracy.

Can one shot really make that much of a difference?

There's no way to know how the Masters or the rest of his season would have unfolded. But this much was clear. Those who have spent years around Woods at golf tournaments noticed a sharp change in his outlook in the month leading to the first major of the year.

When he won at Doral, there was an undeniable sense of peace about Woods that had been missing since the scandal in his personal life at the end of 2009. That serenity was evident again at Bay Hill, even as he revealed a relationship with Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, and he went on to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational with ease.

Woods never looked the same after the Masters, despite winning his next start at The Players Championship.

None of this can be proved, of course. He did have an elbow injury that kept him out of two tournaments this summer. And it's impossible to say what's going on inside someone's head, especially a golfer, and especially someone like Woods.

Even so, few other sports rely so heavily on inner calm. Woods talked about that after his two biggest blowouts in majors - his 12-shot win at the Masters and 15-shot win at the U.S. Open.

''There comes a point in time when you feel tranquil, when you feel calm. You feel at ease with yourself. And those weeks, I felt that way,'' he said after the 2000 U.S. Open win at Pebble Beach. ''I felt very at ease with myself. And for some reason, things just flowed. And no matter what you do, good or bad, it really doesn't get to you.''

There is nothing wrong with his game, even as it remains subject to intense scrutiny.

Woods has five wins this year, which includes two World Golf Championships and The Players Championships. That's a career for some players. Yes, he tends to win on the same courses, but maybe that's because he plays the same courses on his limited schedule.

But there was something about the majors this year that brought out a different player.

Nick Faldo said before the British Open that Woods was ''not in a good mental place.'' For some reason, this became news. Jack Nicklaus effectively suggested the same thing in a Golf Channel interview during the final round of the PGA Championship. Nicklaus said Woods was swinging the club a week earlier at Firestone ''as well as I've ever seen him swing it,'' and that his swing wasn't quite the same as he got deeper into the PGA Championship, and further behind on the leaderboard.

Nicklaus said it was ''between his ears.''

''You start losing confidence,'' he said. ''You try to do something you can't do it and then it frustrates you. We all go through those things.''

More telling was a prediction from Geoff Ogilvy, who finished the British Open around lunchtime Sunday and was asked to handicap the final round. Ogilvy thought Muirfield was set up perfectly for Woods, who was two shots behind. The course was yellow and fast, the kind of conditions on which Woods thrives in links golf. His only caveat was that Woods could not afford to lose ground early because it would put too much stress on him. That's about how it unfolded. Woods had a couple of three-putt bogeys early and it was a fight the rest of the way.

Woods hasn't had a mental coach since he was an amateur, and he doesn't need one now. He doesn't need someone to show him clips of Yoda before a major for inspiration. He doesn't need to hear a tired message to, ''Trust your swing.''

He needs the peace he had in March. And he has to find that himself.

US tour dismisses reports of European acquisition

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem answers questions during a news conference at the AT&T National golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club, Wednesday, June 29, 2011, in Newtown Square, Pa. (AP Photo/Barbara Johnston)

August 13, 2013AP - Sports

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem says two British newspaperreports of a bid to take over the European Tour are inaccurate.

The Telegraph and The Daily Mail reported Tuesday that thePGA Tour made an ''audacious'' bid to acquire the European Tour.

Finchem said three years ago that men's professional golf might one day have a world tour, though he did not say how that would take shape or when. He says the International Federation of PGA Tours has worked together to create the World Golf Championships and to help get golf back into the Olympics.

He says the tours continue to explore ''collaborative efforts.''

Keith Waters, the chief operating officer of the European Tour, told the BBC that the notion of the U.S. tour acquiring the European Tour is incorrect.

PGA champ Jason Dufner back on Manhattan rooftops

MELISSA MURPHY (AP Sports Writer) August 13, 2013AP - Sports

NEW YORK (AP) -- The last time Jason Dufner was on a Manhattan rooftop, he was down on one knee proposing to his future wife.

On Tuesday, Dufner was hoisting the PGA Championshiptrophy on top of the Empire State Building, two days after winning his first major.

The Alabama golfer proposed at a restaurant overlooking the Hudson River amid fireworks on the Fourth of July in 2011.

''It was very romantic,'' Amanda Dufner said. ''He is not a romantic person at all, so I was very shocked.''

She was on the green to embrace him Sunday after the final round at Oak Hill in Pittsford, N.Y. Amanda said her stoic husband, who managed to crack a smile and pump his fist after the victory, didn't say much.

''It was so crazy, it all just kind of flew by,'' she said. ''We were both kind of in shock. I told him he deserved it, it was his time.''

Dufner beat Jim Furyk by two strokes, highlighting a week in which he shot a 63 in the second round to tie a major championship record.

''I was just excited that the round was over and that I was going to be able to lift the trophy,'' said Dufner, with a laugh. ''It was a long week, you've really got to grind. You're really exhausted by the end of it.''

The 36-year-old Dufner earned a measure of redemption after blowing a four-shot lead at the 2011 PGA Championship in Atlanta and losing in a playoff to Keegan Bradley.

''I had a chance to win the thing,'' he said. ''I was just hoping I'd have another chance to win one.''

In the final round, he drew on the lessons from his other majors.

''The experience of being in that situation, knowing how you're going to feel, how the field is going to respond, how the golf course is going to play, what shots you're going to need,'' Dufner said. ''All that stuff adds up.''

Coming up for Dufner are the FedEx Cup playoffs and the President's Cup in October. The Dufners - who were married in May 2012 in Auburn, Ala. - will take a vacation and hit the beach this fall.