Tiger Woods at the Players’ Championship 2013
A chip shot on the 16th hole, round 3 – where Tiger made up-and-down for birdie
The frequently-asked question is: Will Tiger match Jack Nicklaus’ Majors’ records? The answer: not unless he can execute each shot with more precision – because the competition, once left far behind him in a cloud of awe, is now getting younger, as Tiger ages, and is no longer intimidated by him.
His chip-shot swing in biomechanical (kinematic) terms – imitate it to feel what I mean. The arms remain straight, the left side of the body drops down from ankle to knee to shoulders (ie the entire left side) during the backswing, and there is a slight wrist-cock. Result? His club is way outside the target line.
Now, with little time remaining to reroute the club so that it can arrive at the ball from the inside, PLUS the fact that the dropped left side of his body must lift (in order for the right side to be below the left), he pulls his arms and thus club sharply in. He cuts across even this tiny chip shot. AND to worsen the problem, he stands out of posture too early (and so misses a square impact in both vertical and horizontal directions) , thus increasing the amount of glancing-blow quality-of-impact of club and ball.
This causes a tremendous amount of inconsistency in ball-flight, with differing amounts of spin and differing amounts of across-the-ball-ness.
He now leaves himself a long-ish putt, which fortunately for himself he makes. Can he sink putts of that length 10 times out of 10? As Majors’ level pressure piles on?
No Minimalist Golf Swing – not enough Majors, Mr Woods.
Anyone reading this please try to do a bicep curl either behind your back or to your side. Sure you can do it. Is it as efficient as when you do it in front of your body? No. Your elbow is bent by the biceps (among other muscles), and is designed to bend in the sagittal (forwards and backwards direction) plane.
I rest my case. Enjoy the rest of your non-Minimalist Swing golf career, Tiger, and never know how good your ball-striking could’ve been. Most of the world in content with mediocrity, anyway. So, it seems are you. What kind of Majors wins would they be, playing defensive golf and never even using a driver?
