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'Plugged' with Phil Rust.

'Don't Go Left' with Mark Webber. 

Will he come back or won’t he? The golf world seems to be depending on it! I like Tiger, in fact when he is playing I want him to win all the time. Now that he has been back in action for nearly a year I’m not convinced from what I have seen. There are many reasons why his form has not been up to his usual standards, the main problem in my opinion is he is searching for perfection.

When Tiger burst on to the scene he was pretty raw, he could be erractic but was also brilliant. He swung the club how it felt natural to do so and was very creative in his shot making. In 2000 he had possibly the best year anybody has had on any tour, he was working with Butch Harmon and his chase towards Jack’s record seemed inevitable.

Around 04 he switched coaches to Hank Haney and this is where I think his issues started. He had great success with Hank but he was starting to become very mechanical and technique orientated. He lost a lot of his natural flair and his fairway statistics got worse and worse.

Fast forward to after his crash and subsequent personal issues he has been having and understandably his golf suffered because of it. Since his return we have not seen anything that suggests he is going to dominate golf again. He has put together one or two good rounds per event but these have failed to get him into contention on Sunday (save for his own Target Challenge). The most alarming statistic is his driving accuracy, it often fails to get over 50%. He is now working with Sean Foley who has a fairly different approach to the golf swing then what Tiger has had previously. His swing is looking more and more unnatural and very mechanical. He still hasn’t come to grips with these changes and often comments in post round interviews that he has trouble trusting his swing.

Now in complete contrast to Tiger, Phil Mickleson (of whom I am certainly NOT Fan #1 ) has come out and said he is done working on his swing. Phil is a good example of just going out and hitting it, doesn’t worry how it looks. He lets it fly and is currently having a good start to the year. I’d like to see Tiger adopt the same attitude, get on the course, set up square to the target then just clear the mind and hit the ball. I want to see him free up and lose the mechanical swing that just doesn’t look right. Then hopefully I can see Tiger start winning again!

Phil. 

How do I hit the ball further??

This is a very common question that I get asked here at The Golf House. What's my answer to this you might be wondering… it's not ‘try swinging harder’ as many people think you need to do in order to gain more distance.

The key to distance is hitting the ball with a square clubface… it's THAT simple. The ball speed that you generate from a shot hit directly in the centre of the clubface is substantially greater than that from a shot hit even just a fraction off-centre. In most modern drivers, you lose at least 10% of ball speed from a shot that misses the centre of the clubface by as little as 2cm. Obviously the further you are from the sweet-spot, the greater the loss of ball speed.

So all we need to know now is how to hit the ball with a square clubface… EASY! Make sure that the driver you are using is CORRECTLY FITTED FOR YOU! There are so many shaft options nowadays that there really is a shaft that suits every type of golfer. There are shafts to help hit the ball higher, to help hit it lower, that encourage a draw, that encourage a fade and so on… There are also ultra-light shafts that help slower swingers get the clubface back to square or super-heavy shafts that help fast swingers maintain a square face through impact. Couple this with choosing the correct loft – anywhere between 7.5 to 16 degrees – and you really will put yourself in the best position to hit better, longer drives.

Pop in and see me or one of the guys anytime to check out whether your driver is setup correctly to give you the best chance of hitting the ball longer.

Mark.