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Prepare to play your best golf by doing something now! To comment or respond to this newsletter, please click here ttucker@rochester.rr.com In This Issue - Tom's Featured Tip: Tiger's Yips - Tour Greens: - Tour Quality Synthetic Greens - Health, Wellness, Fitness: Exercise and Memory - Nutrition: Get Your Daily Essentials - Tom's Bonus Tip: Keep A Steady Head - Lesson Comments: What Students Have To Say - Sponsors: Batavia Country Club Chestnut Hill Country Club Plum Creek Driving Range and PGA AboutGolf.com Golf Simulator Click here: INDOOR GOLF LESSONS for details on how to improve your game over the winter. PLUM CREEK DRIVING RANGE IN BATAVIA, NY, IS OPEN ALL YEAR Check out the Equipment & Apparel and Simulator Course Play Specials: http://www.plumcreekdrivingrange.com Call 585-993-0930 or email Mark at plumcreek4@rochester.rr.com to reserve your simulator time! Buy Gift Certificates for Lessons Sample Gift Certificate Golf lessons - Outdoor and Indoor - are available at Plum Creek, please call me at 716 474 3005, email me at ttucker@rochester.rr.com, or visit my website at http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/lessonrates.html for details. Subscribe - http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/signup.html If you like this newsletter, please do me a favor and forward it to your friends so that they may subscribe, thanks! The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this newsletter. Tom's Featured Tip: Tiger's Yips For the sake of simplicity, all advice on swings and drills is provided from a right handed perspective; lefties .... well, you know what to do! It was another painful "Tiger Watch" for me this weekend. I can't stand to see the best player ever chunking chips like a 20 handicapper. Here's my take on what's happening with his game, specifically his chipping. First of all, it's apparent to me that his brain is stuck between two different swing techniques. Sean Foley's method had Tiger set up with more weight feathered onto his front foot, anywhere from 45% rear 55% forward, to some shots with more weight feathered forward - such as chips. This type of weight distribution produces a strike that is more downward than circular at impact. More vertical than horizontal, more Ferris wheel than merry go round. It's an overall excellent swing method that I personally favor. The downside of that swing for Tiger was a loss of perhaps 3 to 4 mph on his driver swing speed. This is relatively negligible except for the fact that Tiger's ego still wants him to be as long as the young bucks off the tee. The other negative to the Foley method, which produces a lot of shaft lean at impact on iron swings, was that Tiger wasn't controlling his distance consistently on pitch shots in the hundred yard range. His chipping, however, was fine. Chris Como's method has him set up with his weight a little more evenly distributed, probably 50% - 50%, and the weight doesn't get to the front foot as fast, or in the same manner, that it does with Foley's method. This produces a bit more driver swing speed, and perhaps more consistency on distance control for pitch shots in the 100 yard range, but it's definitely a more risky chipping method. The reason it's more risky is that it takes more precise hand eye coordination to execute a short swing strike with a more circular and flatter (merry go round) type swing, than a steeper swing angle. The Como swing also requires more timing on the release of forward shaft lean at impact. The Foley method has very little forward shaft angle release at impact - especially on chip shots. The consistency of the forward shaft position before and at impact is why I think Foley's method is superior for short pitches and chips. Allow me to qualify that last statement a little more.
They say "different strokes for different folks." I also say "different strokes for different situations". That means that I think Tiger should allow his brain and body to execute the chipping stroke that Foley taught him when the situation warrants - or perhaps for all of his chipping. He needs a more vertical stroke because he is having trouble getting the right amount of forward shaft lean with Como's method on his short game swings. In other words his shaft is getting vertical too soon, and at impact it's producing either a fattie or a thin strike. Como's method is at it's worst with deep lies or lies against the grain. Steepness rules in those situations. There's absolutely nothing wrong with blending different methods into your game. It's the smart thing to do, as long as you can flip the switch mentally to produce the swing you want to execute. Any pro should be able to pull that off. I am even seeing Tiger decelerating into his chips now, a sure sign that he has the chipping yips. Tiger has said that he has hit "thousands" of those chips in practice, which leads me to think that
I also think he needs to reacquire the "eye of the Tiger". I think the new love in his life, Lindsey Vonn, is trumping his work ethic. Tiger used to be all-in for golf, I'm not so sure that's the case anymore. Please don't take that the wrong way. I'm not against love, personally I think God's concept of inventing the female gender was a home run.:-) I'm just saying that it seems to me that as a person that was deprived of the natural process of growing up because he was so ultra focused on golf, Tiger might be affected by emotional swings in his life more than those of us that experienced a normal adolescence. That's a pretty heavy concept, and perhaps I'm thinking way beyond my pay scale, but it's how I feel. In any event, I hope Tiger gets everything straightened out in his swing and his mind, because I want to hear "the Tiger Roar" again! Comments: ttucker@rochester.rr.com Love your practice, own your swing, own your health, Tom Tour Greens: Tour Quality Synthetic Greens For Superb Short Game Practice Would you like your short game to progress from bad to good? How about from good to great! Would you like to have a short game practice area in the privacy of your yard for practice and for friendly competition with your kids, your wife, and your friends? Perhaps even a friendly wager or two at home parties? Click here for Tour Greens Photo Gallery If the thought of having a beautiful tour quality practice green in your yard appeals to you, you're in luck. In addition to my golf instruction business, I am also the exclusive Western New York sales associate for Tour Greens Western New York. With Tour Greens you can experience the ultimate home short game practice solution. Read what Tour Pro's Fred Couples, Rich Beem, Boo Weekly, Blake Adams, and Chris DiMarco have to say about their Tour Greens. You all know me well enough to know that I don't affiliate with any product that I don't have a passionate belief in. These greens are the real deal. They are extremely durable - they can even withstand our challenging WNY winters. For more information and a photo gallery of installed residential Tour Greens, please click here: Tour Greens Photos and Information, and feel free to call, text, or email me for more information. Comments: ttucker@rochester.rr.com Love your practice, own your swing, own your health, Tom Health, Wellness, Fitness: Exercise and Memory Disclaimer: DO NOT PERFORM ANY STRENUOUS PHYSICAL EXERCISE LIKE THE ONE LISTED BELOW, WITHOUT CONSULTING YOUR DOCTOR. University of British Columbia research found that strength training strengthens our associative memory, the memory that helps us link names to faces. They also found that aerobic exercise helps to improve episodic memory. Episodic memory refers to the memory of an event or "episode". They also found that both types of memory increase blood flow to the brain, particularly the hippocampus area of the brain, where memories are stored. They also found that exercise stimulates growth factors in our brain which can make our brain healthier. So ... pump some iron to help you remember the name of "old what's his name", and add some cardio to help you remember where you got into trouble on your most difficult golf hole, then don't hit it there again. Comments: ttucker@rochester.rr.com Love your practice, own your swing, own your health, Tom Nutrition: Get Your Daily Essentials Do you lack energy, sleep poorly, or feel generally lousy a lot of the time? If that describes you, maybe it's time to try the Isotonix Daily Essentials Kit supplements that I personally use daily. If you haven't tried them yet, why the heck not? Note that they are called Daily Essentials - not Daily Optionals - for a reason! Simply said - if our body doesn't make it, we need to take it. These all-natural supplements have made a profound difference in my health. I used to take high blood pressure and cholesterol medication, and I now have normal blood pressure and normal cholesterol levels and take none of those medications anymore. In fact, all of my blood work is perfect. The only change I made to get off these medications was taking my Daily Essentials, and that's not even why I started taking them, it was a side benefit. I started taking it to increase my energy, and it did that too! Why the heck not give it a try? How to take your Isotonix Daily Essentials For more information or to buy your Isotonix Daily Essentials Kit, click here. And when you check out, make sure to enter 10OFFMA in the discount code box to get the 10% discount that I offer to family, friends, and newsletter subscribers. Comments: ttucker@rochester.rr.com Love your practice, own your swing, own your health, Tom Tom's Bonus Tip: Keep A Steady Head For the sake of simplicity, all advice on swings and drills is provided from a right handed perspective; lefties .... well, you know what to do! The key to keeping a steady head for all of your swings is to eliminate lateral movement. It's fine to rotate your head or to move it downward, but you need to eliminate the lateral motion or swaying of your head at all costs. Comments: ttucker@rochester.rr.com Love your practice, own your swing, own your health, Tom Golf Lessons I conduct lessons at The Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility there's a link for Plum Creek info here: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/ Lessons are available for all ages and skill levels, please contact me - Tom Tucker - at (716) 474 3005 or email me at ttucker@rochester.rr.com for more information. Outdoor Lessons Details and Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/lessonrates.html Indoor Lessons Details and Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html Driver Fitting Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html Testimonials: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/testimonials.html Sponsors Plum Creek Driving Range and Simulator Outdoor range and play indoor golf on any of our 40 Simulator Courses. Call 585-993-0930 or email Mark at plumcreek4@rochester.rr.com to reserve time for simulator play or practice! Batavia Country Club Great rates, the best greens in WNY, Golf Digest Four Star rating for public courses to play in New York State. Make tee times online in season www.bataviacc.com (585) 343-7600 Chestnut Hill CC Great rates, 20 minutes East of Buffalo, NY . All the best, Tom Tucker Teaching Pro, Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility WGTF ' "Top 100 Golf Teacher" USGTF Class "A" Teaching Professional Cell: (716) 474-3005 Email: ttucker@rochester.rr.com http://www.TomTuckerGolf.com http://www.usgtf.com/top_100_wgtf.html "There are no substitutes in the quest for perfection!" ~ Ben Hogan |
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