Golf Insider - images.gocomics.com

It’s been said many times that in golf “feel and real”are often different, but when it comes to proper hip ac-tion, it’s “see and real” that often don’t match. Whatyou think you see the experts doing and what theirhips are actually doing are different.

Most golfers know they must make a hip turn intheir swing, but they aren’t sure exactly what thatmeans. I’ve found that focusing on the core area just be-hind the navel is better than trying to keep track of the hips themselves.

Here is how it works:On both sides of the core is a hip, which is a ball and socket that rotates

when you swing. The key here is that the rotational motion of the hip jointis compromised if the thigh bone(femur) is restricted during yourdownswing. If you are nailed toyour right side, your thigh bonecan’t release, and therefore, neithercan your hips.

Remember, your body seeks balance, and stacked joints (hip over knee,knee over ankle) are its natural and most powerful condition. Deviationsfrom natural balance must bebrief, well-planned and practiced,or else the probabilities that makebad golf a relentless adversarywill turn against us.

BIRDIES AND BOGEYS

IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR GAME

InsiderGolf

Dr. T.J.Tomasi is ateachingprofessionalin Port St.Lucie, Fla.Visit hisWeb site attjtomasi.com.

By T.J. TOMASI

ABOUT THE WRITER

DON’T MISS IT

Distributed by Universal Uclick. (800) 255-6734. *For release the week of March 14, 2011.

TEEING OFF

In April, the Masters champi-onship takes place for the 75th time.It started in 1934 at AugustaNational Golf Club, a golf course de-signed by Bobby Jones and AlisterMackenzie. Augusta National repre-sents all that was Jones — elegance,class and attention to detail.

There has never been such aman as Bobby Jones. Intelligent,cultured and literally a legend inhis spare time, he played golf onaverage only three months a year.He retired at 28 after having wonthe British Amateur, the BritishOpen, the U.S. Open and the U.S.Amateur all in 1930, a feat so unbe-lievable that it was dubbed the “impregnable quadrilateral.”

There are many vignettes that recall the image of the man, butmy favorite recounts Jones’ unan-nounced return to St. Andrewsafter he had retired from competi-tive golf. He and three friends de-cided to book a time at the OldCourse — no fanfare, no stringspulled, just a name in the starter’sbook to secure the tee time: RJones. Just before his time, Joneslooked out the clubhouse windowand saw a crowd gathering aroundthe first tee. “Isn’t it a shame,” heremarked, “that we decided to playa casual match during an impor-tant championship.”

As rumor of his return spread,the town of St. Andrews shut downso all could see the great Jones onemore time. Spurred on by his mostloyal fans, Jones played inspiredgolf, hitting perfect shot after per-fect shot and prompting a smallboy in the crowd to say, “Sir, youare truly a wonder!”

And that he was.

Master of class

Pointed in theright direction

For three rounds, the 2011 Honda Classicwas, well, a classic. It was played on one ofgolf ’s great courses — the Champion Courseat PGA National Resort. The wind blew, thebear trap trapped and the pros whinedabout how hard it was.

Then came Sunday, and to calm all thebruised egos, the tour set up the course sothe players could make birdies on TV. It wasso easy that one player shot 64. Mid-handicappin positions turned it into a putting contest,and the result was another boring finish.

Still, it was a battle: In a field of 76 players, 63 (83 percent) were even par orhigher. Spencer Levin, Hunter Haas andCharl Schwartzel, who shot par, each made

$102,600. Ernie Els, in 70th place, shot16 over par and made $11,286; TrevorImmelman (a former Masters Champion)finished 73rd (+18) and collected $11,001— that’s +18!

Match that against the World GolfChampionship at Doral, where 38 playersbroke par and the highest score was +10.

In the battle of the tour teachers at Doral,Butch Harmon won hands down as two ofhis students, Nick Watney and DustinJohnson, ended up first and second, respec-tively, while third-round leader HunterMahan, a student of Sean Foley’s, faded toninth, just in front of Tiger Woods, golf ’smost famous student.

GOLF BY THE NUMBERS

Really bad idea

ASK THE PRO

Q: I hit it good on the range, but when I get out there, I can’t hit it verygood. What’s the best way to change this? — R.H.

A: This is one of the most common questions I get and a difficult one to answer because I don’t know your game, but here is a sure-fire way to playbetter: Play an easier golf course.

Some architects make their golf courses too hard: water everywhere; sub-tle, wavy breaks on the greens; rough so high you can’t see your shoes twosteps off the fairway; sand everywhere. And don’t believe it when they tellyou that the sand isn’t really a penalty because it’s so easy to play out of.

The best sand player on the PGA Tour last year was Luke Donald, and hegot the ball up and down only 66 percent of the time; the LPGA leader wasNa Yeon Choi at 67 percent. In reality, each bunker is a potential scorewrecker, yet the architects keep piling them on.

The population of golfers has been stuck for quite a while at approxi-mately 26 million, even with the Tiger effect. Why aren’t more peoplegolfing? In my opinion, designers are building the courses too hard.They’re not fun to play for most golfers, especially beginners. One outof every two women who take up the game quit after 24 months — andso do a lot of men.

So for the good of the game, architects, limit the number of bunkers,flatten the greens, widen the fairways, ban forced carries, cut the rough,and position the water out of the line of fire.

Bottom line: To increase your enjoyment, find a playing field that isuser-friendly.

(To Ask the Pro a question about golf, e-mail him at: TJInsider@aol.com.)

Many golfers have the wrong conceptof how to get the ball in the air. Theythink they must lift the ball into the airby swinging upward with their hands andarms, an idea that produces a swing thatis too vertical, making it almost impossi-ble to hit down on the ball the way theyshould. The inevitable result is a toppedor thin shot.

The reason you have to hit down on theball to get it in the air is that your clubsare designed with a certain amount ofloft built into the clubface, ranging from,say, 11 degrees for your driver to as muchas 60 degrees for your lob wedge. Themore loft in the clubface, the higher theball goes.

The key concept is that to “unlock theloft,” you have to pinch the ball againstthe ground with your clubface to take ad-vantage of the club’s loft, no matter whatclub you are hitting. And that means youhave to hit down, not up, on the ball.

THE GOLF DOCTOR

Hitting downlifts the ball up

Easy does it for most golfers

Two apparently tone-deaf Florida statepoliticians, Sen. John Thrasher and Rep.Patrick Rooney, have proposed building aJack Nicklaus Golf Trail, a string of ex-pensive golf courses in a state that al-ready has more than 1,000 golf courses.

The current budget deficit in Florida ispushing $3 billion, and cuts are about tobe made in all areas. But these two don’tget it — golf courses don’t make money,Florida already has too many as it is, andthe payback on the investment is so longthat investing in a golf course should beright next to space travel for tourists.

The new SeveSeve Ballesteros was never a great ball

striker, but he was a great player. He wasa natural swinger who came alive whenforced to create a shot, i.e., from behinda tree or over a bunker from a bad lie.That’s when his swing returned to great.But on the tee, where no creativity wasrequired, he was mired in mechanics,and his tee shots flew every which way.

Tiger Woods, whose last win was in2009, is channeling Seve off the tee, andit’s only when he gets in trouble that hisswing looks good again. In my opinion,his head is filled with Do’s and Don’ts. Helooks confused, and unless it’s a perfectday with no wind, he plays confused.

In the Saturday round at Doral (theCadillac Championship), Tiger birdiedthe first hole, then drop-kicked his driver120 yards off the second tee box, not evenmaking it to the ladies’ tees. In the Sundayround, in perfect weather with no windand nothing on the line, he shot 66 andlooked much more mentally relaxed.

Takeaway: Tiger needs to clear thedecks, fire all the help and return tobeing Tiger.

Lightningstrikes twice

What are the odds of two holes-in-onemade in the same round, one by a man, oneby a woman, AND they are playing in thesame foursome, AND they are married toeach other, AND they have two witnesses?

Joe and Karen Wilkens did exactly thaton Feb. 25 at the Woodlands Country Cluboutside of Houston. Karen made a one onthe par-3 11th hole, from 82 yards with apitching wedge, and three holes later, hus-band Joe aced the 14th hole using a 7-ironfrom 131 yards.

“When I first started doing golf courses …I designed how I thought the game should be played,

and I couldn’t understand why everyone couldn’tcarry the ball 280 yards over water. Now I think

more about how other people play than how I play.”

— Jack Nicklaus

Early in his career, Nicklaus built courses with this attitude and mostwere no fun to play at all. But as his skills began to fade, he became

more sensitive to the plight of the common golfer. Basically, hereached a point where he couldn’t play his golf courses either.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

FEEL theREAL release

GOLF SPOKEN HERE

Toe hangA measure of weightmoved toward the toeof the putter to pro-mote a stroke thatmoves on an arc.

Par paid $100,000 in Honda Classic

SkyKapLLC is a de-veloper ofGPS golf ac-cessories. Ifyou want togo high-tech,this is it:The Advisoris a wear-able audioGPS system that uses a small comput-er, voice recognition and GPS golfcourse mapping. The lightweight de-vice clips onto your collar, the golf cartor your hat or visor — quite stylish!

The Advisor responds to your voiceand gives distances to greens, bunkers,water, out-of-bounds, etc. The databasecan hold up to 2,000 golf courses —probably more than you will havetime to play!

The Advisor weighs only 2 ouncesand costs $199 at www.skykapllc.com.

While your knee is best known for itsability to bend and straighten, there isalso a slight rotational componentthat you can see here in D.J. Trahan’sswing. Through training thismovement can be conditioned tonudge the thigh toward the target,thereby releasing the hips so they canfire down the line.

Note how Trahan’s rightankle plays a role in therelease of the right thigh,which in turn releases thecore. At the finish, the left leg— both the lower and upperleg — are back in alignment.

0314_golf_insider_co.qxd:Layout 1 3/16/11 12:45 PM Page 1