Thursday, May 15, 2008
Ritter Tips - Bunker

GP swing coach Jeff Ritter knows a thing or two. In the first of a new series of swing tips JR gives advice on getting out of bunkers.  Take it away Jeff...

Bunker’s 

Easy as 1-2-3

By Jeff Ritter

Bounce

The first thing you need for good bunker play is “bounce.” Bounce is simply setting the clubface in a position to where it will enter and exit the sand with a consistent “splashing effect” versus a “digging effect.” To achieve bounce, open the clubface at address so that the scoring lines would extend just outside of your front foot (foot closer to the target). Although a sand wedge is you best play for most shots, any club with an open face creates bounce. It is not uncommon to try to play long bunker shots with a pitching wedge as long as the face is open.

Consistent Point of Entry

A bunker shot that comes out high, soft and spinning usually has a point of contact 1-2 inches behind the ball. Play your ball a little forward of center to ensure that you contact the sand first. To fine tune your impact, draw a line (2-3 feet long) in the sand perpendicular to your target line at your desired point of contact. Practice striking the line consistently. Hits ahead or behind would indicate less than quality shots.

Speed

Great bunker shots are played with a brisk, upbeat tempo. Practice striking the sand with some authority, as to throw the sand out of the bunker and onto the green. Once you experience bounce, coupled with speed, you will know what it feels like to be a master of the sand just like the guys and girls on tour.




For more on Ritter's tips check out jeffrittergolf.com




5/15/2008 9:55:48 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 

  Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Annika To Call It Day

Annika Sorenstam has announced that she’s going to knock her illustrious playing career on the head at the end of the season.

Carefully avoiding the word "retire", she called it "the r-word," Sorenstam said the time was right, even though she has three victories in eight tournaments this season and has shown signs that she could make another run at the top spot in the world rankings.

Her swansong will be the Dubai Ladies Masters in December, leaving her enough time to add the finishing touches to her wedding in January 2009 wedding.

"The reason for this decision is that I have other priorities in my life," Annika said. "This is obviously a very difficult decision for me to make, because I love this game very much. But I know it's the right one. I'm leaving the game on my own terms."

She's also leaving while still within striking distance of several records, making the timing of her announcement surprising. Her 72 victories are third to Kathy Whitworth's 88 and Mickey Wright's 82, and her 10 major championships are fourth all time, five shy of Patty Berg's record 15.


Annika Sorenstam looks at alternative careers.

She shot the only 59 in LPGA Tour history early in 2001 and followed that by overcoming a 10-stroke, final-round deficit to win the Office Depot Championship at Wilshire Country Club to tie the record for largest final-round comeback.

Yet for all of her LPGA accolades, she might be best remembered for her appearance at the Bank of America Colonial in 2003, when she became the first woman since 1945 to play in a PGA Tour event.

She missed the cut by four shots, but gained legions of fans and elevated the levels of admiration and awareness of the women's game by shooting respectable rounds of 71-74.
"It would be very difficult to find another golfer who has done as much for the LPGA Tour than Annika," LPGA Tour Commissioner Carolyn Bivens said. "History is still being written, but it's not going to be easy to erase Annika's name from the record books."

Her dominance helped forge a friendship with the dominant male golfer of this generation, and said it was "sad to see the greatest female golfer of all time step away."
"But it's nice to see Annika did it on her terms," Woodsy added.
Due to the announcement it’s natural to write the super Swede’s golfing obituary but there’s still plenty to play for.

Catching world number one Lorena Ochoa looks unlikely but after her sensational start to the season it's possible. And if anyone can do it…




5/14/2008 10:39:59 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 

  Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Kneesy Does It For Tiger

Watch out planet golf the big cat is back. Well back soon anyway.

Tiger Woods underwent arthroscopic surgery in April on his left knee, but he says he may be fit to play in the Memorial tournament, which starts on 29 May.
Woods said: "If I can't play before, then hopefully at the US Open.

The US Open, the year's second major tournament, takes place between 12-15 June at California's Torrey Pines.
Tiger also had surgery on the same knee in 1994 and 2002.
Before the latest operation, Woodsy was having another terrific year. He’s won three PGA Tour titles this season and hasn't finished out of the top five in five events this year.


Before.

Since having his surgery, Tiger missed defending his title at the Wachovia Championship. He also missed last weekend's Players Championship for the first time in his career. Sergio Garcia won The Players Championship in a playoff with Paul Goydos.
After winning, Garcia, a 28-year-old Spaniard who has had seven PGA Tour victories, had a quip about Woods not playing in the tournament.

"First of all," Garcia said, "I want to thank Tiger for not being here. That always makes things a little bit easier."
Woodsy said he did not take offense and would not use the statement for motivation when he returns to the game.

"I think it's just poking fun," Eldrick said, possibly through gritted teeth.


After.


But anyone thinking the surgery would slow Woodsy down are likely to be disappointed. The known gym junkie seems confident. "The rehab is going well". "I've been training hard. I'm getting sick and tired of riding the bike, though. I'm chipping and putting. I'm not doing anything beyond that.”
Woods added, "Hopefully I'll start hitting balls, start progressing soon and work my way up the bag."

Looking at how he did after his last bout of surgery you’d expect business as usual. He’s won 30 times and five majors since the knee operation in 2002.





5/13/2008 11:29:08 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 
Sorenstam Wins By Seven At Michelob

Firstly apologies. At the beginning of the year we said Tiger could do the ‘Grand Slam’ and Lorena Ochoa would be all conquering on the LPGA.

It turns out we may have got a little carried away. With Tiger falling at the first hurdle the resurgence of Annika Sorenstam has put a halt towards Lorena’s march into the history books.
Sorenstam fired a five-under 66 to cruise to a seven-shot win at the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill. The former world No. 1 who went winless last year, took her third title of the season at Willamsburg, Virginia, with a 72-hole tournament-record total of 19-under 265.

"It was a very special one. I love coming here, I think it's a great golf course. I just haven't done well here in the past," said the super Swede, who picked up £115,000 for the win. "It means a lot to play well here. They've had great winners here in the past and I wanted to do something special this week."


Annika deals with the hosepipe ban in her own way.

Ochoa on the other hand, who was tied for second at halfway, slipped to joint 12th after a final round of 70.

"I was a little frustrated. It was a long week," said Ochoa. "I had trouble with the speed of the greens and they also broke more than I thought. It's time to move on to the next one because it wasn't my week."

Nice one Annika. Obviously we haven’t learnt our lesson and are thinking of some outrageous predictions for the rest of the season.

Boo Weekley to win the 2008 US Presidential race anyone?
You heard it here first.




5/13/2008 11:24:13 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 

  Monday, May 12, 2008
Sergio Stands Up

Sergio Garcia won his first PGA Tour title in three years after beating Paul Goydos in a play-off to claim the Players Championship at Sawgrass.

The Spaniard became just the second European to win the event, joining 1987 winner Sandy Lyle. Largely missing in action since a heartbreaking play-off loss to Padraig Harrington at last year's British Open, El Nino thoroughly deserved his seventh US PGA Tour triumph.


"The goal is to keep getting better and the only thing this tells me is to keep working hard and believe in myself," he said. "There have been times when you doubt yourself [but] when I believe in myself, there's not a lot of guys out there that can beat me", said the Iberian dreamboat.

One who can is Woods, who missed the tournament due to recent knee surgery. "I want to thank Tiger for not being here," Garcia said, only half jokingly.



Goydos's Australian caddie, Scott Saginac, did everything he could to get his man across the line but without a bond villainesque weather machine he couldn’t control the wind. At the penultimate hole of regulation, Saginac talked Goydos out of hitting a nine iron at the famous island-green par-three hole. Instead, Goydos hit a wedge to the heart of the green and made a safe par, so when they returned to the same hole for the play-off, the Californian chose the same club again.


Unfortunately this time the crosswind that had been whipping left-to-right all day gusted at exactly the wrong time. Goydos's ball, which looked so good while it was in the air, came up just short, into the water, effectively handing Garcia the tournament.


"He hit a great shot," said Saginac who’s been working for Goydos for five years. "… Paul thought it was good, Sergio thought it was good, we all thought it was good. And then it dropped in the water."

Gutted.

Meanwhile many of the players expected to make the Ryder Cup team were given plenty to think about after a dreadful first two days of The Players Championship left many prominent names taking an early flight home.

Open champion Padraig Harrington, world No 10 Justin Rose and recent Ryder Cup team-mates Lee Westwood, Paul Casey and Niclas Fasth missed the cut as tricky winds gusting up to 35mph around the Stadium Course at Sawgrass, in north Florida, caused havoc.

One of Faldo's predecessors, Bernhard Langer, showed he might still have another Ryder Cup appearance left in him by producing a round that he described as almost 'perfect'.


Congratulations Sergio. Even though we haven’t been able to find any quotes we’re pretty sure he did it for GOLFPUNK’s Shaun McGuckian. In GP 38 he and Owen Blackhurst argued if the Spaniard with the liquid swing would reach his undoubted potential. Shaun said ‘of course he will, watch this space’ and has been smugger than a mug of smog since Garcia’s winning putt.











5/12/2008 5:17:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 

  Friday, May 09, 2008
Tanzanian Golf

News from around Planet Golf. When I saw a golf headline with word Tanzania featured it tickled my interest. You see I’m Tanzanian and still have loads of family still living in the jewel of East Africa. Swelling with pride I read on hoping o bring you news about how the next big thing I was gutted to find out that the article was about how our lady golfers were far from brilliant. Ho hum, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
 
“Tanzanian golf trio of Betty Malaba, Sophia Viggo and Hawa Wanyeche returned home from Cairo yesterday where they competed in the ninth edition of the All Africa Challenge Golf Trophy held at Katameya Heights Golf Club.

The Tanzania team finished at the eight position out of 17 countries that competed in the 54 holes team event.

Only Wanyeche and Viggo managed to post their scores in the Tanzanian kitty for the entire three rounds as Malaba dropped out at early stages.



Tanzania posted a three-day scores of 168, 171, 175 for a total cumulative 514 strokes to tie with Cote d'Ivoire.

However, Malaba was a stand in player after teenager Ayne Magombe had made an eleventh hour pullout citing education commitments.
South Africa retained the title as it has always been the case with a three rounds combined score of 431.

Hosts Egypt, finished second behind eventual champions South Africa, edging Zimbabwe by 13 strokes.

Kenya which was earlier said to be best placed among East African teams in the event , crushed out at a shocking fifth position.
Malaba said the major reason for poor performance was toughness of the course that has numerous water pools and bouncy greens.
"The course was tough and full of hazards," said Malaba who competed in the inaugural event held in Harare's Chapman Golf Club in 1992.”

Maybe it was lost in translation but I didn’t think we’d done that bad.

To find out more about golf in Tanzania check out www.thecitizen.co.tz and search for golf.    




5/9/2008 2:00:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 

  Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Roddio Drive

We asked our Equipment Editor Daniel Owen for a sneak peak at something new on the golf scene. We were expecting 25 words on a ball with no dimples but he's really trumped himself with a breakdown of the latest shafts. He really knows his stuff that boy.

"As the 'Knig of Culbs', I get really excited about the geeky things that other golfer's wouldn't. One of those things is driver shafts. I recently got fitted into one of these new Roddio models.


Made in Japan by Daiwa, these boy's really understand graphite from their work with fishing rods. The Roddio shafts feature  Pentacross which is a method of weaving carbon in a four directional axis, which minimises vibration's from the driver.

They also reduce side-spin, which is great if like me you're a little wayward. There's two ranges the BA, and WA, which stands for body action and wrist action, depending on how you deliver the club to the ball. More importantly than any of the techy details, they look amazing. The WA line features a white top half and a coloured underside, while the BA has a chrome top. Check out www.roddio.co.uk for more details soon."




5/7/2008 12:30:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 
What's Next?

Golf's everyman being interviewed while he plays a round at Murder Rock Golf Club in Branson, Missouri. Shirtless and shoeless, with a cigarette in his mouth, of course.

Classic Big John.

We're sure many a club captain would be having kittens if you tried to get on their course dressed like this. It does look fun though.

Like JD says, "Don't underestimate the fat guy."



5/7/2008 12:17:25 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 

  Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Just In

The TaylorMade Tour Truck


TaylorMade are the number one played in drivers, fairway woods, and irons on the European Tour, so it's fair to say they've got a lot of players to look after every week. So they've gone and got themselves a brand new truck. A really, really, big truck. At any one time it holds 7000 shafts, 4000 grips, 2,500 clubheads, 500 caps, and 100 pairs of shoes. More importantly they can watch Super Saturday wherever they are in Europe with their signal seeking Sky box.




5/6/2008 2:41:37 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 

  Monday, May 05, 2008
Creamer Triumphs In Oklahoma

Lorena Ochoa was denied her place in history by Paula Creamer’s win at SemGroup Championship in Oklahoma.

The 21 year old, who’s known for her love of pink, sank an eight-foot birdie putt on the second play-off hole to beat Juli Inkster.

Ochoa, who fired a final-round 69, was attempting to win an LPGA-record fifth event in a row but failed to overtake Creamer and Inkster.

After shooting a final-round 72 to finish two under par, Paula twice missed putts at the 18th before holing at the 10th for her sixth LPGA crown.


"It's not easy being me, it is funny though."

"I'm done, I'm mentally done right now," said Creamer.

2007’s ‘Lady Staunch of Staunchness’, Laura Davies, was 12 over despite a round of 69, while Catriona Matthew and Johanna Head finished seven over.

Inkster, at 47 bidding to become the oldest winner in LPGA history, rolled in a dramatic 72nd-hole putt to force the play-off after her final round 70.

But Juli’s push for a 32nd LPGA title - eight of them before Creamer was even born - ended on the third play-off hole as her par was bettered by Creamer's birdie.




5/5/2008 2:36:02 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #  Comments [0] 


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