Tiger Woods, Golf Instructor?

Tiger Woods, virtual golf instructor? Yes, you heard it right! Woods has decided to prove to Sean Foley (or Hank Haney, Butch Harmon, take your pick) that he too can give lessons and teach the world to golf.

Golf tutelage from the greats have gone for as much as $500 an hour but now Woods can be your instructor for the price of an album downloaded from iTunes!

Load the handy, dandy "Tiger Woods My Swing" app into either an iPhone or iPod Touch, then start uploading up to ten seconds of your golf swing. Your set-up and follow-through "could be compared to any of twenty-four swings by the world No. 5."

 

 

Which swing will I be compared with? Will it be the Tiger Woods teen swing or the one-legged golf swing of U.S. Open lore?

Tiger Woods (not some avatar mind you) will offer you virtual golf tips, help you with your swing transitions and will even show you how to rebuild your swing (he's had plenty of time with this one), right from the comfort of your driving range booth!

 

Woods can now be your new Twitter buddy, your cell phone pal AND play PGA Tour 12: The Masters with you on your Wii!

 

Taking only a small amount of money out of (hopefully) a lot of people's pockets, Woods' app should be considered a bargain compared to a session with Foley!  On the flip side, Tiger is not necessarily the golfer I would choose as my muse, but he is becoming a skillful salesman.

 

Available today in the Apple App Store.

All proceeds are to benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation.

 

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Will a Bay Hill win determine the Masters Champion?

Tiger Woods' six Bay Hill victories makes him the odds-on favorite among fans and gamblers despite a drought. The long-shot of becoming a Masters champion after a win at this event is ripe to happen. Will it be Woods, or perhaps an up-and-coming golfer on the PGA Tour, that creates their opportunity at Bay Hill... and dons the Green Jacket?

Although I do not gamble on sports events (except for my $5 bet on the Kentucky Derby), I enjoy reading how analysts and betting parlors determine golf odds and event winners. Golf is a gambling game, from playing a two-dollar Nassau right down to selecting a Fantasy Golf Team and the internet is flooded with scenarios based upon performance and standings.

But, does fate (la forza del destina) sometimes play a hand in the outcome?

One statistic that caught my eye while sifting through the "information super-highway" was Justin Ray's analysis on ESPN.com. He noted that there have only been six instances since 1960 when a player won an event either one or two weeks prior to winning the Masters. It's happened just twice since 1990 and in five year increments: Tiger Woods in 2001 (The Players Championship) and Phil Mickelson in 2006 (won the BellSouth the prior week).

Could 2011 be the year that the winner at Bay Hill will also take the green jacket at Augusta?

Since this is an "Invitational", the field will be limited to one hundred and twenty golfers. There are thirty-four "under thirty" golfers and twenty-six "grizzled vets" over forty years old. A changing of the guard? Perhaps.

Here are a few possible picks to keep your eyes on at Bay Hill:

Mark Wilson is the leader in the FedExCup standings and two-time 2011 winner but has been "fading" since his early back-to-back wins.

Gary Woodland's breakout victory last week at the Transitions Championship was a learning experience for him but he could have the same fortunate bounce as Wilson.

Jhonattan Vegas is another relative newcomer with most of his events played in 2011. He has made seven cuts, his finishes are good and his scrambling stats are better than the average tour player giving him an advantage at Bay Hill.

Dustin Johnson is already a veteran on the PGA Tour and most recently placed second at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Johnson has a better 'greens in regulation' percentage than the average Tour player. With four top-ten finishes this year, Hunter Mahan also has a better-than average 'greens in regulation' percentage.

Playing the 18th hole at Bay Hill, where errant shots will be met by rocks and water, the ability of both Johnson and Mahan to land on the green in the height of competition could could provide the fans with a climactic four-day event.


Tiger Woods' Sunday 66 at the WGC-Cadillac Championship and golf instruction from Sean Foley are positive improvements towards an eventual win. On the flip side, Woods has not competed on this course since its renovation and, with current stats at 101st in putts per round (usually the deciding factor in a tournament), he's going to need to grind and hope to rejuvenate the fear factor he instills in other players.

As for my personal favorite, Phil Mickelson, he came in second place at the Farmers Insurance Open, is tied for 25th in scoring average and has made every cut so far this year. Anything can happen and usually does when Phil is in the field!
Possibilities or percentages? Fate or odds?

The 50th anniversary milestone of Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club and Lodge could very well transform a win in Orlando into a golden opportunity at Augusta.


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Is cat fight over Tiger Woods golf game justified?

Past and present golf instructors of Tiger Woods have been taking trash talk to a whole new level with commentary, tweets and barbs aimed at character defamation and criticism over the former world number-one's golf swing.

Some say that Lee Trevino innocently started the 'battle of the golf coaches' when he suggested that Tiger Woods should "get his mindset straight and quit messing with all these instructors...then his winning ways will return."

Instead of reminding Trevino that every great golfer should have a teacher to guide and assist, and probably worried that Woods would listen and clean house, Sean Foley (Woods' current tutor) pointed the proverbial finger at former coach Hank Haney stating, "There was nothing about what he was doing in his previous swing that made any sense to me," mentioning that Haney built most of his teaching career around Woods.

Isn't making a name for himself using Tiger Woods as a springboard exactly what Foley is attempting to do?

In an effort to defend himself, Hank Haney came out swinging and, since he is getting accustomed to Twitter, answered his accuser with retweets from fans such as:

"Sean Foley=Clueless"

A vocal Butch Harmon has recently chimed into the conversation perhaps standing up for Haney (?) by pointing a finger at Foley with this barb, "it's not a good idea to completely do a redo" of someone's golf swing suggesting Tiger looked a bit like a "Nationwide Tour player trying to get his card."

The harsh roundtable criticism is childish, hateful and unnecessary. Haney was a good influence on Woods, helping him to win six majors "and 45% of the events he played grabbing a top-ten finish 85% of the time during the last three years he was his coach." Sean Foley has been instructing Woods for about a year now waiting to see his influence take effect...perhaps the reason for his war of words.

Tiger Woods is silent on the subject but should he speak up? Should he tweet, "stop the fighting already because it's not good for my game or for the game of golf?"

In my opinion, golf is supposed to be a sport of positive influence, where tipping one's hat and acknowledging good play is expected; in other words, spitting, throwing clubs and harsh words should be kept off camera and/or should be worked out in a constructive way.

With Woods making the talk show circuit on Late Night and on Morning Drive, it could be that the media will help set the record straight. Perhaps Jimmy Fallon will dig in and get answers on March 16th but it's more likely both will be content to allow the feud to propagate hamming it up instead with a few holes of mini golf.

 

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