Step & Tilt: Swing Of Wheatcroft's Pro-Am Partner Goes Viral

Steve Wheatcroft thankfully recorded his playing partner's swing from Wednesday's Albertson's Boise Open pro-am. The as yet unnamed member of Wheatcroft's group stripes her drive 200 yards and is in a good place at impact.

The rest, however, is fantastic. Including the cape effect of the follow through with what I assume is just a sweater tied around her waist.

It's sort of Moe Norman meets Happy Gilmore.

The original Tweet (click on the link if the play button is stubborn and also to read the comments):

And she flushed it dead straight 🙌🏹🎯 🎥 - wheatiePGA/twitter #golfgods #flushedit @golfgodsgc

A post shared by Golf Gods (@golf_gods) on Sep 14, 2017 at 7:42pm PDT

The analysis has begun:

If Ben Hogan Met Trackman...

Guy Yocom wonders if Mr. Secrets in the Dirt Ben Hogan would have embraced Trackman and what his numbers might have said about his swing.

Talking to top instructors like Chuck Cook, David Leadbetter, Sean Foley, Charlie Epps and Joe Mayo,

The near-universal belief that Hogan swung the club slightly to the left through impact requires that his clubface not be open relative to the target. An open clubface combined with a leftward path, is a lethal combination—slice city. Thus, the teachers who voted for a -1 path, all combined it with a clubface that was at 0—perfectly square to the target line. This indicates that Hogan was, above all, a “path fader.” The very slight left-to-right fade he imposed—again, we’re talking a few yards here—was the result of his path, not an open clubface. One teacher (Leadbetter) suggested that Hogan’s clubface could have been -1, or closed to the target line. But he combines it with a path that was possibly -2, making it a safe and reasonable opinion.

I think another fun question for the group: how much would Hogan have used a Trackman? Before and after every round, or just on occasion? Or not at all?

Great Read: Pete Cowen's "My Shot"

Another stellar Guy Yocom My Shot arrives with Pete Cowen, labeled in the headline as "the best teacher no one knows."

That's a pretty fair label given that he had two major winners last year from his stable of players.

Anyhow, it's an informative look into his thinking and why a Cowen book would be a fun read. Here he explains his fee structure, that gives him 4% of a players' tournament winnings, but only for top tens:

I cover all my expenses and am available on short notice. I'm very proud of this. What other coach in the world of sports has the confidence to structure their fee schedule this way? There have been times when the results of my coaching have produced revenue for me that the players' agents felt was excessive. This led me to add a corollary to my offer: If the player leaves my camp, for any reason whatsoever, and doesn't leave a token bit of compensation in place, said player cannot come back. This happened several years ago with a very good player I was helping. A Ryder Cupper who became top 50 in the world. The player's agent rang me one day to say his player was going to "do his own thing," was leaving and choosing not to keep a bit for me intact. I warned that said player couldn't come back. Some time later, the player's performance declined. The agent phoned me, asking if I would begin working with his player again. To that I said, "You obviously weren't listening." I couldn't take the player back. But good luck to him. He's a nice lad, and still a good player.

2016: The Year Of The Pete Cowen Stable

As we put the finishing touches on a busy year,  The Telegraph's James Corrigan uses the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year's snub of Pete Cowen to highlight the instructor's stunning year.

With sidekick Mike Walker, Cowan works with an astounding list of players who had hugely successful seasons.

Corrigan explains that beyond teaching Masters winner Danny Willett and Open Champion Henrik Stenson, Cowen's deft touch extends far into some of the top success stories of the year.

Chris Wood won the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in May, so fulfilling all the potential he had shown when finishing fifth as an amateur at the 2008 Open. The Bristolian did so under the guidance of Cowen and Walker.

Matt Fitzpatrick won the £1million first prize at the DP World Tour Championship last month, beating the likes of Rory McIlroy, and so lifted this third European Tour title at just 22, younger than a fellow Englishman by the name of Sir Nick Faldo managed. Fitzpatrick has been in the Cowen stable since he was a young teen.

Padraig Harrington wound back the years when prevailing at the Portugal Masters, the 45-year-old’s first win on the European Tour since the USPGA in 2008. Yes, Harrington is coached by Cowen. As is Thomas Pieters, the Belgian who, at Hazeltine in September, became the first European in Ryder Cup history to record four points on his debut.

Take That Barkley: "He looks more like he’s giving a Charades clue than making a golf swing"

While Charles Barkley's backswing hitch/pause/dance move will always be tough to top, Jack Van Meerbeeck manages to add himself to the Golf Swing HOF with a move that looks a tad painful!

Tom Stinkney at GolfDigest.com with the analysis of a swing that once broke 80.

Jack’s swing actually starts out pretty routine, but when his hands get about chest high, things get nutty. He flips his wrists over his right shoulder, and the shaft goes upside down and dips toward at the ball. I have to pause and say, anytime your hands block your view of the ball at the top of the backswing, something very special is happening. He looks more like he’s giving a Charades clue than making a golf swing, but the man finds a way to get back to the ball—and that’s all that matters.

And it repeats!

Here goes...

This is the swing of 58-year-old Jack Van Meerbeck. More on it at GolfDigest.com.

A video posted by Sam Weinman (@samweinman) on Sep 1, 2016 at 6:58am PDT

R.I.P. Manuel de la Torre

Thanks to the readers who sent in Gary D'Amato's obituary of Manuel de la Torre, golf instructor extraordinaire who passed away at 94. The man who helped thousands also worked with Carol Mann and Tommy Aaron.

He sounds like quite the instructor:

He eschewed modern teaching philosophies that focused on specific body positions and movements. Though he could talk in great detail about the geometry and physics of the swing, his method was based on the simple concept of swinging the club toward the target.

"You don't think about your elbow when you're brushing your teeth," de la Torre said in a 2015 interview with the Journal Sentinel. "And yet, you're very successful at brushing your teeth. But this is what happens with golf. People are not concerned enough with what they have to do with the club. They focus either on the body or the ball, and neither of those things produces consistency.

Top Players Will Be Relieved: Brandel Offers You His Wish List

There is nothing a top golfer loves more than advice from analysts, so I'm sure Brandel Chamblee's constructively (kind of) critical look at certain players will be received with as much joy as today's Orlando storm.

Here's some rainy day reading for you chaps...

To Jason Day: I would have him watch videos of Sam Snead’s golf swing and think of being “oily” in transition.

That's about the only way you want to be oily.

To Rory Mcilroy: I would have him practice putting with just his right hand, a la Tiger Woods in his prime. Rory talks about wanting less right hand in his stroke; I would argue he needs more. Much more.

Much safer than questioning his love of the gym. Everybody loves a good putting tip!

To Bubba Watson: I would ask him to read Arnold Palmer’s biography. Bubba has a king’s talent; he needs a peasant’s perspective.

Peasant? Is Mr. Palmer having cash flow problems we don't know about?

To Justin Rose: I would stick him in a room and make him watch Lee Trevino and Bobby Jones on a loop. Specifically, the way they get “into a shot” with their feet and hands always in motion so that the backswing begins almost as a rebound of that motion. Rose is too good to be that stiff-looking before he swings a club.

Well, he is British.

To Adam Scott: I would have him round his shoulders just a hint at address to take a little of the tension away that is present before he begins his swing. There is a generational poverty in this particular part of the address position amongst today’s Tour players and it is particularly noticeable in Adam.

There isn't much generational poverty in Adam's life right now, as far as I can tell.

Video: The Story Of Plainfield's Wes Mensing

Tim Rosaforte looks at the short but prolific life of instructor Wes Mensing, who died in January at 27 but left his legacy at Plainfield (site of this week's Barclays) and beyond with his many students.

The moving and beautifully told 8-minute feature:

Video: Sir Charles Barkley Is Cured!

We all know the Charles Barkley swing hitch...and have watched it over and over again.

But proving there is hope for humanity (or at the very least, golfers), Sir Charles unveiled his revamped swing at the American Century Celebrity Championship in Tahoe where he's a last place staple.

TMZ with the video:

"Golf pros are like chiropractors.They want you to keep coming back."

Corey Kilgannon with a fun NY Times Sunday profile of golf instructor Mario Calmi from North Woodmere Golf Course, a nine-holer near Kennedy International Airport.

Calmi combines his love of food with his instruction, and as he says it's not for everyone.

“Hey, I’m Italian — we know how to use bricks and tomatoes,” said Mr. Calmi, who keeps a narrow garden along the side of the range to grow his tomatoes, supported with stakes made of — what else — broken golf club shafts.

For the arugula he grows, Mr. Calmi has bottles of olive oil stashed on shelves in his teaching shed next to golf equipment, and a bottle of balsamic vinegar in his golf cart.

“It’s an Italian thing, we do food,” said Mr. Calmi, lighting his charcoal barbecue, another daily ritual, to grill some cheeseburgers. Then he made cappuccinos in the shed, to have with the fresh cannoli he brings daily.

“My students come hungry because they know I’m all about food,” he said. “Teaching golf is like cooking. You can’t learn golf from a recipe. You have to teach by feel. You add a little garlic and you stop and taste it.”

Mr. Calmi charges $100 an hour, or $60 for 30 minutes, which includes a video swing analysis he emails to students immediately after the lesson for further study.

“A lot of my students don’t come back, which is good,” Mr. Calmi said.

“Golf pros are like chiropractors. They want you to keep coming back. But I tell my students, ‘I’m going to teach you so good, you don’t have to come back.’ ”

Video: Padraig Going Happy Gilmore With A Caveat...

I can see doing the Happy Gilmore thing as a footwork drill or to help with timing or any number of swing issues.

But with a rubber-band around the knees? While you're contending in a tour event? With people watching?Were all the straitjackets taken?

Here's Morning Drive's live range coverage of Padraig Harrington before his Honda Classic third round 71. Could this be another former multiple major winner in a few years?

Update on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 at 08:13 AM by Geoff

**Jim McCabe with a nice assessment of Harrington's win and this regarding the drills seen above:

QUOTABLE II: “I use it to activate my left glutes.” – Harrington, talking about a blue elastic ring that he wears around his legs during his practice routine.

Harmon Brother: Tiger In Denial About His Yips

Former PGA President Ted Bishop tackles Tiger Woods and his yips in a special to golf.com.

I know the Tiger True Believers are struggling with this concept, but denial is a powerful thing. However, Bishop lays out a couple of thoughts here via Bill Harmon, brother of Tiger’s former coach Butch and respected teacher his ownself: the only way to overcome something as powerful as the yips is to first admit that you have them. And in the "process" of watching a hero to many go through what so many have experienced, Woods has inadvertently helped some.

Bishop quotes Harmon:

“There are very few pros who don’t think that Tiger has the yips around the greens,” Harmon said. “The first step in solving the problem is admitting that you have a problem. That is not a weakness, but a strength.

“I don’t buy all of this release stuff. In the last two events that he has played in he had the two worst cases of yips I’ve ever seen from a Tour pro and this coming from arguably the greatest short-game player ever. I’ve had -- and sometimes still do -- the yips pitching. I know what it is when I see it. It will be interesting to see where he goes with it because as he said, he’s doing it in a public forum.”

Bishop also shares this that he used as a way to overcome the yips with short putts.

I sought the help of another teacher, who recommended that I position the ball logo facing the sky and the number to the left, or forward as a right-handed putter would look down at it. He told me to never take my eyes off the number throughout the stroke to promote acceleration. It took so much concentration to do that, my mind didn’t have room for negative thoughts. It worked, and today I consider putting the strength of my game.

Meanwhile Mark Lamport-Stokes looks at the issues for Woods and talks to folks like Dr. Joe Parent, who doesn't see flinches and therefore won't call this the yips. But he does offer this very vivid picture of what any longtime Tiger admirer sees missing from the pre-shot routine.

Parent, a PGA Tour instructor who is author of the book "Zen Putting: Mastering the Mental Game on the Greens", felt Woods' biggest problem with his chipping was an inability to picture his desired shot.

"He was a master of the short game," said Parent. "He would make these practice swings with such freedom and you could tell all he was doing was tuning his system into the picture he had in mind. And then he walked up and just produced that picture.

"I'm not even sure he knows what picture he's got in mind now."