See this golf course in Las Vegas, which a DJ plays non stop Kiss music and hosts trivia events about the band. We need a Freddie Mercury course here in the UK, see the next post.
Sam Snead’s swing is still the gold standard – technically as near perfect as you can get, and yet it is the beauty of his swing that makes it so outstanding. The fluid rhythm and tempo combined with the huge power that it generated.
He still holds the record for most wins on the PGA Tour – 82, two more than Tiger -which included seven majors. Here’s a picture of them together, Sam signing an autograph for young Tiger. 162 PGA Tour titles between them
Sam Snead had great longevity winning tournaments in six different decades including a 3rd place in the 1974 PGA Championship when he was 62 years old. That is some champion.
But looking at his swing, just for pleasure, I noticed something interesting. Sam Snead’s key move during the downswing is the transfer of power through his feet.
Now I’m not just a golfer, I learned to figure skate at the same young age that I began to play golf and learning the two sports side by side helped with balance and learning how the feet generate power.
So freeze framing Sam Snead’s swing as the club approaches the ball I saw how his knees were widely spread apart with the weight completely equal between the feet as he hits the ball before the knees come more together in the follow through. It’s a position you will see again and again with skaters. So next time you see Torvill and Dean on television, take a look at Jayne Torvill’s deep knee bend which enables her to move her feet so effectively. That’s the same position that Sam Snead got in his golf swing at impact.
The most intriguing golfer in the professional ranks won again on Sunday at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. Bryson Dechambeau won by seven shots, birdies at holes 1-3 to go out in 32, an eagle at 10, birdie at 11, bogey at 12 and birdies at 13, 14 and 17 for a final round 64 and a 7 stroke win. A lot of us don’t quite know what exactly he’s talking to his caddie about when they discuss the air pressure and firmness speeds or miles per hour on the speed, but whatever it is they’re talking about it’s working. This is Bryson’s first international win and his 4th victory in 9 starts, all the other starts had a top 20 finish.
There was some negativity earlier on in the week. “I’m not hitting it anywhere near my best” and by Saturday “I’m not 100% with my game”. But after the win “I was happy with my game I executed a lot of great shots. It was a lot of fun to finally hoist an international trophy”.
Although Dechambeau hasn’t yet had a top 10 finish in a major he looks set to contend this year. That is if he doesn’t lose ground by getting penalised for slow play. All this scientific over analysis of every shot is taking much too long, typically between 1minute 20 and 1 minute 45, way too long.
Take a leaf out of my book Bryson, as one who plays speedily. And like me “don’t fink” so much, it saves so much time on every shot.
Justin Rose yesterday consolidated his World No 1 position with a 2 stroke victory at the Farmers Insurance Open. It capped off a sustained run of exceptional golf. He’s had a win in Turkey, tied second in The Open, the BMW Championship and Dell Technologies and T4 in the Tour Championship which led to him winning the FedEx Cup title.
At Torrey Pines South Course Justin began the final round with a three shot lead but soon lost that in a shaky start. With bogeys on 3 of the first 5 holes he pulled himself together telling himself:
”You’re No 1 in the world for a reason so start playing like it please”.
His nearesr rivals Adam Scott and Jon Rahm weren’t gaining any ground on him so he began to grind his round out. And then he birdied 5 of the last 12 holes to hold off Scott for his 10th PGA Tour victory. And with brand new Homma clubs and a different caddie, Gareth Lord, on the bag. He said he “always felt in control, I stayed patient and never started panicking”.
Rose’s career turnaround seems to have begun when he lost the playoff to Sergio Garcia in the 2017 Masters. At this time he was 136th in strokes gained in putting. Last year he was 21st. He has worked this out and is now a complete player. He has since won 6 times in 31 starts with 3 runner ups and 3 3rd places.
Justin now heads to this week’s Saudi International on the European Tour before taking 3 weeks off. He’ll be taking with him the surfboard given to the winner of the Farmers Insurance Open. He says he doesn’t surf and doesn’t plan to start, even though he lives in Bermuda.
This week former PGA Champion Hal Sutton announced that he will be returning to the Champions Tour and playing 20 tournaments. He wants to “Quit the game correctly”. “I have unfinished business and I’m doing this for me. Failure brought me back I need to finish this the way I should have done. This last hill is a personal hill, I’ve got to find the best version of Hal.
Hal, 60, has been running his Academy outside of Houston, but began to think about returning when his fellow professionals had said they missed seeing him on tour.
It’s a long way since he won the PGA Championship and 13 other tournaments on rhe PGA Tour, when he looked like this
He has since had a mild heart attack, two hip replacements and four divorces. He is now remarried to his fifth wife. He was battered after his captaincy of the United States team at the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills, Detroit, not least by Phil Mickelson for pairing him and arch rival Tiger Woods together. During that Ryder Cup at the Opening Ceremony he couldn’t remember how many children he and current wife Ashley had together. “Four” she corrected him.
He spoke about that captaincy and the way that he had spoken to his side when they fell behind: “my job as the captain of this team is to fall somewhere between loving you and beating the shit out of you”.
Interesting.
He said that he took the failure on himself and felt that he let his whole team down. In hindsight he wouldn’t have paired Woods and Mickelson together.
”I quit the game as a failure” he said “and I’m back to finish my career and get closure on my own terms”.
The best of British luck to him. Really not sure about this unfortunate painting of him at the top. That hand is not connected to his body. It reminds me of the hand called thing that came out of the box in the TV version of the Addams Family. Either that or it’s someone else handing him a drink.
Singer Mariah Carey will make history at the Saudi International next week when she become the first female American artist ever to perform in Saudia Arabi when she appears on Thursday 31 January.
I must admit I’m not keen on the Monty’s Pythons Show any more than Colin Montgomerie is, he describes it as “bloody ridiculous” at the end of the film, because he is actually frightened of snakes even if they are just golf towels.
The reason for me is not long ago there was a youth standing outside my neighbour’s house, just standing smoking. Then I noticed he had a plastic box at his feet and something yellow and white was writhing inside it.
“Is that a snake?” I asked him.
”Nah” came the reply. “It’s two snakes”
and so it was. Two albino pythons crammed in a plastic box trying to push the lid off. Not the type of snakes that are poisonous, just the ones that crush anyone in their path. Yew. It’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t want to encounter on the golf course, let alone near your home.
I never did find out why he had them there because I ran away!
So, let’s pass over Monty’s Pythons quickly. And until Keeping Up With The Aphibarnrats is ready for production, let’s put Lawries Lorries out there.
Lawrie’s Lorries
ST LEON ROT – 15 MAY: European Tour Productions trucks during the Deutsche Bank – SAP Open, TPC of Europe, at St Leon Rot in Heidelberg, Germany on May 15, 2002. (photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
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Cleveland are the only manufacturers truck on tour which have a truck which isn’t Mercedes. The club fitters drive a Volvo FH12 460. Taylor Made, Ping and Nike have a Mercedez Benz 1851, Titelist an 1846, Callaway a V8 and Mizuno 1840. European Tour Productions and the Physio Truck are Volvo 13 litre 550 break horesepower engines.
Here’s what’s inside the Physio Truck
The various leading golf equipment brands travel thousands of miles throughout the year covering the majority of the golf courses of the Tour. The drivers are usually also the fitters, adjusting the golf clubs to the professionals of their brand’s staff, and to others without contracts.
They also provide new golf balls, bags, gloves, shoes and caps during the training days, prior to the championship. And oddly enough, despite the extreme rivalry of their brands in the market, they are like a big travelling family. They often travel in convoy and, when necessary, they help each other.
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