Since Tiger Woods officially put his game in the hands of swing coach Sean Foley back in August 2010, the former ace has endlessly discussed the “process” of revamping his swing and the “progress” he was making with the changes. He has also carded a WD from this year’s Players Championship and missed the cut at the PGA Championship, although one may certainly ascribe some of his lack of success to injuries as well as swing modifications.
Lately, however, Woods has seemed to make great strides with his shot-making, firing three straight rounds in the 60s at the Frys.com Open, finishing third at the Australian Open, and finally winning a contest -- albeit an unofficial, one-on-one match-play event against Aaron Baddeley at the Presidents Cup.
Wednesday, on the eve of the Chevron World Challenge that kicks off today, Woods repeated familiar themes -- his goal was to win every tourney he played, he was gaining control of his “traj,” yada yada yada. But the ex-No. 1 sounded like a golfer who had finally grasped Foley’s lessons that incorporate flight-tracking technology and elements of Andy Plummer’s and Mike Bennett’s Stack & Tilt methodology.
“It takes some time,” Woods told reporters, “but once it kicks in, you understand the system, then it’s full go.”
Hearing Woods talk about “ball flight laws,” “D Planes,” “my attack angle was plus two,” and “the system” may make “method” haters like Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee blow a few gaskets. Plummer, not surprisingly, hailed Tiger’s new-found faith in what the S&T guys have been preaching for years.
“I’m happy, as a proponent of the system, to see him using that language,” Plummer told us by phone on Thursday. “The greatest player in the history of golf is [35] and is just now embracing the ball flight laws. Mind-blowing, right?”
Plummer and others believe that many top-level instructors fail to understand the basics of why the ball flies off the club face as it does (click here and here for detailed discussions about ball flight laws). They contend that recent technological advancements like TrackMan, a golf-radar system that measures factors such as spin rate, club speed, and launch angle -- and which Woods said he now swears by -- are proving many golf advisors’ interpretations wrong when it comes to explaining a ball’s launch and flight.
Woods helped them make their case.
“Understanding those numbers, it is relevant because it's pure numbers. There's no getting around it. They're universal. They're law,” Woods said. “Understanding those numbers and what they relate to, ball flight and what it can do and what it doesn't do....The guys who work for Sean all utilize it and understand it, the ins and outs of it, and it's kind of neat to talk numbers like that because most people probably don't really get it.”
PGA teaching pro John Graham was another instructor who was pleased with the direction Woods appeared to be heading.
“It is nice to see Tiger embracing new technology,” he told us in an e-mail Thursday. “TrackMan certainly is not an end all be all but combined with a knowledgeable instructor, it certainly helps to measure things that video and the eye can't measure.”
Woods has taken heat for enlisting the help of Foley (who, during a recent Philadelphia Section PGA meeting appearance called Plummer one of golf’s smartest teachers, according to several instructors in attendance). He may hear more criticism now that he has fully embraced his tutor’s approach.
“He’s really stepped over the line now, when he starts to talk about the system and explaining the ball flight laws,” Plummer said. “He’s wading right into the conversation that people like Sean and I have been saying for a long time -- that there’s a need for a system and the ball flight laws are wrong.”
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