THE GOLDEN TIGER

Remember the fairy tale where the villagers trying to steal the feathers of the Golden Goose became stuck to the goose and to each other forcing them to trail behind the goose wherever it went in a conga-line of the greedy, congealed together by their own self-interest.

And you can imagine the length of the conga-line behind the first billion dollar athlete so it’s not surprising that after the fall, Tigers management firm, IMG, set to work to re-invent their Golden Tiger. To watch his handlers work is a blueprint for marketers current and future, especially those that specialize in fallen angles. Just as the battle plans of Alexander the Great are studied at West Point so IMG’s plan which I have named “Back from Perdition” will be taught at Wharton.

In my opinion the plan is as follows:

Step one: Know the history of your public: "We are a society of second chances.” Says Tigers IMG agent “That's been proven over the years.”

Step 2:  Take the current temperature of your public.

Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg took a poll that he says shows Tigers market appeal to be "very powerful, positive, positive results."

Step 3: Pound away at the concept of redemption to appeal to the religious population and emphasize ‘rehabilitation’ to those who either know someone who has problems or themselves have problems. These two cover about everyone in the world – a good place to start if you need to market your man.

Says his agent.. “We want to be part of the redemption, rehabilitation… And he [Tiger] knows that. He's comfortable with it. And he's going to do that."

Step 4: Exploit the element of transformation: change everything about Tiger so he’s not the same man who did the bad things – he’s been to therapy, he’s changed his swing, his personal life has radically changed with his divorce, he’s now friendly and open, he tweets, he has a new kid-coach his own age, he smiles – he even dresses differently giving him a new, trendy, more ‘in’ look. With this make-up team, Shaq O’Neal could be an undercover cop.

    Still the logic is forcing -- The general public was against the old Tiger, but here is the new Tiger. The ironic part is that, in the midst of all this newness, Tiger has to find a way to play like the old Tiger --- and this of course is the hair pin turn on the road back from perdition.

The Last of the Great Players?

I have never seen a great player so dependent on others as Tiger Woods. The really Great ones in the past like Hogan and Snead didn’t need to be continually shored up like a rickety house that fears the next gust of wind. They learned what they needed to early on, and then relied on themselves. Golf history is filled with a lot of good players but only a few Great ones and no coach makes a player Great. Great is special and nobody can give you ‘special.’

 But I am afraid for Tiger because you can fritter ‘special’ away – I hope he hasn’t but I fear he has. He’ll be very good again, he will, of course, win again but he may not be Great again – and Tiger-2000 was Great.

Michael Wie might have been Great but spent way too much time being shaped by her handlers. She is still young with gobs of talent, but can she shake herself free?  

And what in the world could be so wrong with Phil Mickelson’s game that he needs 24/7 care from a short game guru, two different putting coaches with different theories and a full time swing coach the name of which has changed three or four times since Mickelson came out of college. Unfortunately over-coaching and micro management have dimmed Michelson’s Great promise. I do think that his current coach, Butch Harmon, is good for him because he understands the game. When Tiger turned pro he wisely chose Harmon as a coach. The wrong coach could have ruined Tiger but instead Harmon made him better. Why? I think Harmon is old enough to have been around the Greats including his father – if Mickelson had gone to Harmon first I think he would have been better off..  

Follow the Money

There is so much money at stake now -- and I’m not talking just about prize money that makes a player aim for the center of the green [no pun intended], I’m talking about the money that is spun off  by the system of modern big time golf – the agents, corporations, college recruiters, the PGA Tour, TV, teachers – an entire industry of ‘developers’ searching for the next project. Greatness isn’t allowed to grow anymore; it’s forced through an IV feed. The parents see a condo in Fla. The agent sees two condos, one in Florida and one in Scottsdale; the coach sees his name in headlines with his own TV show and the corporate alchemists, they see their paper turned into gold.

Because of the money Tiger-2000 may be the last of golf’s Great players.

HOW IS YOUR SWING?

Looks like I will have the honor of fixing the World's Worst Swing.

 

 

 " Golf.com is having a contest and we want to see your worst shot.  We're guessing that the champion will be able to benefit from a few swing tips, so the winner will have his or her swing, video analyzed by GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teacher T. J. Tomasi"

Click or paste this link to read more and to see the video:

 

 

Golf.com wants to see your worst golf shot


Read more: http://search.golf.com/site/results.html?Ntt=worst+shot#ixzz15AQFi5T2

BIRTHDAY BOY

TJ's birthday (which is today) was surprised by a combination celebration.  He has written his syndicated newspaper golf page for over 11 years and as you can see by the cake, that is a lot of pages to come up with new ideas on a weekly basis.

Happy Birthday and congratulations

I love you,  June and the kids (Billy, Willie, Tillie and Heidi

Greenside Bunker Shot

 

Your ball is in the middle of a greenside bunker.

Assuming that you have a decent lie in the sand it’s time for a good old garden-variety sand shot where you open your stance, aim the clubface at the target then swing down your open shoulder line and ---- most of the time the average player who knows all this pulls the ball way left of the pin. Why is this mistake so common and how can you correct it?

A lot of golf instruction either glosses over or completely ignores the one thing that you really have to remember when you’re trying to hit a ball out of the sand: always open the club face before you finalize your grip on the club. If you take your grip first and then just roll your arms to the right to open the clubface to the ball, your arms will simply roll back to the left through impact, which will return the clubface to square, or, even worse, close the face – hence the pull.

Here’s how to avoid this problem. When you first grip your club in the bunker assuming you are right handed, turn your hands well to the left on the handle of your sand wedge. You literally want the thumb on your left hand to be sitting on the left side of the grip; then your right hand should come over the top of the handle and join the left as it normally would. Now, just turn your left thumb (and the handle of the club) back to the right so that it’s sitting in a normal position on the top of the club.  

With your weight anchored on your left foot throughout the swing, use only upper-body rotation to move the club—don’t allow your right forearm to finish on top of your left forearm, as you would in a normal swing. Let your chest swing the club back along your shoulder line and then simply continue this rotation through impact to a full, high finish. The key, once again, is to not allow your forearms to rotate.  The ball should ride up and out of the bunker on a wave of sand.

                 The clubface is open with the right hand in a weak position but his forearms arms haven’t been rotated at address to get this done. Because he’s opened the face the correct way, it will stay open at impact allowing him to spin the ball.  

Now all he has to do is cock his wrists and keep

his knee flex.