Tip of the Month

By John Pallot
Director of Instruction

June 08: ONE LEGGED TIGER CAPTURES OPEN JEWEL

The sporting world will long remember and sportscasters will recount many times, the story that is Tiger’s tale of the 108th U.S. Open. In need of ACL surgery, Woods teed it up as an improbable winner, snatching victory from the grasp of an improbable challenger, the fearless and gritty, Rocco Mediate. Out of competition for two months, recuperating from arthroscopic knee surgery, with the prognosis of more surgery to come, Tiger expressed surprise at the win. “I think this is the best ever” he said. “All things considered, I don’t know how I ended up in this position.” 

Woods arrived at the 72nd hole one shot behind Mediate. He stood over a must make birdie putt to avert a shocking loss. Knee throbbing, heart pounding, thinking to himself he later said “just make a pure stroke”. And so he did. For Tiger, getting to this point was not a pretty story. In the tussle with Mediate, a 45 year old with a creaky back, Woods atypically blew a three shot lead with eight holes remaining.

Typical Tiger, he rallied and made a pressure packed four footer to cast the match to sudden death. Mediate, on the verge of one of golf’s great upsets, looked at a 20 foot birdie putt for victory on the 18th playoff hole. Pulling it slightly, he missed by a hair. Both Woods and Mediate finished at even par 71. They both finished regulation play at -1, 283, and now after an 18 hole playoff they were still all square. Going to the 91st hole for sudden death, Mediate drove left into a bunker, pulled that shot to the edge of the bleachers, chipped 18 feet past the hole and missed the par putt. “Great fight”, Woods told him as they embraced on the green.

For Woods it was his 14th Major Championship win and his 65th career PGA Tour  win, passing Ben Hogan for third all-time. Woods raised his playoff record to 15-2 and made it 14-of-14 in Majors, when he carried at least a share of the lead going into the final round. The week was filled with some of Woods' greatest moments in a Major- a 30 on the back nine Friday to get into the mix, two eagles from a combined 100 feet, a pitch in birdie Saturday to take the lead, and one of the biggest putts of his career when he holed a 12 foot birdie  with the final stroke of regulation to force the playoff.

Eight days after clinching his 14th Major title, Wood’s underwent successful reconstructive surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. “It was important to me to have the surgery as soon as possible so that I could begin the rehabilitation process” Woods said.  He also said he would require time off to rehabilitate a double stress fracture of the left tibia. “When I had the arthroscopic surgery on my left knee after the Masters, I knew my ACL was basically shot. I was just trying to get through the season. Unfortunately, for me, I developed two stress fractures during my rehabilitation and that set me back.”

This month’s tip is on putting, garnered from Tiger himself. In preparation for the Open, in deference to his physical condition, Tiger could only hit four or five balls at a time and then would have to sit because the stress fractures hurt so much. After hitting a few more balls, he’d go home for the day. Woods shared, “I wasn’t hitting a lot of balls, but worked hard on my putting.”

This tip talks about releasing the putter. Tiger mentions this frequently. Address the ball with your athletic posture. Hold the putter in your right hand (left for lefties). Hold a glove in your left hand. Now stroke some putts. If you stroke correctly the putter should swing to the inside after impact. This allows the putter to close slightly through impact. I watched Tiger rehearsing his stroke with this one-hand drill. He would take three rehearsals and it was a big part of his pre-putt routine. Try this practice swing. Give your ball tiger eyes.