How Far Can DJ Whack One? (Video)

Forgive me, but I found this little humor piece at the Golf Digest site and couldn't resist posting it. Here -- in various everyday "measurements" -- is how long DJ's longest drive this season is. (If you just want yards, it's 428.)


Personally, I find the school buses are the best unit of measure for me to visualize the distance.

The Limerick Summary: 2017 Dean & Deluca Invitational

Winner: Kevin Kisner

Around the wider world of golf: Bernhard Langer won the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, becoming the first player to win all five Champions Tour majors and winning one more CT major than Jack Nicklaus; Alex Noren shot a record-tying 62 at the BMW PGA Championship, becoming the first Swede to win the ET's flagship event; Shanshan Feng won the LPGA Volvik Championship on the LPGA; and Chan Kim won the Gate Way To The Open Mizuno Open on the Japan Golf Tour.



Although the winds did their damage during the third round of the Dean & Deluca, the final round proved to be the most difficult. With Hogan's Alley tempting the players to go low, the pressure to put up that low score proved a bit much for the leaders. The players posting the lowest scores were just a bit too far back to make a decisive move.

Even Jordan Spieth's impressive bogey-free 65 came up a stroke short, as did the 66s posted by John Rahm and Sean O'Hair, despite final-round leader Webb Simpson's stumble on the way in.

But Kevin Kisner's 66 was, to borrow the words of a certain Baby Bear, "just right."

Kisner has come painfully close to his second win so many times in the last couple of seasons, posting six Top5s just since his first win. But Sunday, his rock-steady play around Colonial was enough to put this title out of everyone else's reach. As Spieth stood on a folding chair beside the 18th green, watching to see if he'd get a chance at a playoff, Kisner calmly made two strokes with his putter to snatch away all hope.

Hogan would have been proud. And I'm proud to give Kevin his second Limerick Summary. Perhaps there will be more on the horizon if he keeps playing this way.

The back nine was brutal. It wrested
The patience from each man it tested.
But Kisner was calm
So O'Hair, Spieth and Rahm
Could say little but how they were bested.

The photo came from the wrap-up page at PGATOUR.com.

Callaway Puts Jailbreak in Some New Irons

I saw this article at the Golf Digest site earlier this week, but I'm just now posting a link to it. It's not because I expect many of you want to buy a set -- at $2000 for eight steel-shafted irons, it's a hefty price -- but because I suspect we'll be seeing this sort of tech trickle down to lower-priced irons before long.



The tech in the new Callaway Epic irons is way too complex for someone like me to explain, but this article does a pretty good job of "dumbing it down" for us laymen. It's not just a matter of incorporating the Jailbreak technology, which stiffened the framework around more flexible driver faces. There is a new cup shape around the iron face, new metal mixtures to redistribute weight removed from the traditional heavy areas, and a new design concept to shape how these innovations are combined.

As I said, I don't know that many of you will be rushing out to lay down hard cash for the irons or the new Epic hybrids, which are also described in the article. But at the very least, you know that Callaway will find ways to incorporate this tech into their less-expensive irons. It's hard to believe that the other manufacturers won't start developing their own versions if the Epic line is as successful as Callaway hopes.

We might as well get a leg up on the tech now, before it gets too complex to grasp.

Ai Miyazato to Retire

Earlier this week, it was HaNa Jang announcing she would be leaving the LPGA Tour next month. Now it's Ai Miyazato... but her announcement sounds more final.



According to articles at golfdigest.com, golfchannel.com and espn.com, Ai will be holding a press conference in Japan on Monday to announce her retirement from the LPGA at the end of this year.

Now, it's a bit unclear to me exactly what Ai has in mind. The official (but short) announcement at lpga.com simply says:

Ai Miyazato announces her retirement from the LPGA Tour at the end of the 2017 season and will hold a press conference on May 29 in Japan. There, she will share her thoughts on the decision and will thank all the people who have supported her during her 14-year professional career.

This announcement says she will retire from the LPGA, which could mean that she might play some on the JLPGA. But it also says she "will thank all the people who have supported her during her 14-year professional career."

Ai's LPGA career is only 12 years long, since 2006. She became a pro and joined the JLPGA 14 years ago, in 2004. That sounds like she's calling it quits on any tour.

In many ways, this isn't a surprise. Ai has dealt with a number of injuries over the last few years. Given that she was never a big hitter, it may have been difficult to get back in playing shape. She's also fought putting problems lately, and has only had one Top10 finish in the last two years. GC's article also notes that she's struggled with motivation -- not surprising, given the other problems she's faced.

It will be interesting to hear exactly what she says Monday. But whatever it is, the LPGA -- and golf as a whole -- is going to miss Ai Miyazato.

Dealing with Conflicting Wedge Advice (Video)

A couple days back, I posted a short game video from Lee Trevino. Lee knows what he's talking about because he has always had a great short game.

But so does Phil Mickelson. And if you watch this slideshow of Phil's chipping at the Golf Digest site, you'll get some different guidance than you will from Lee.

And if you watch this short game video from Golf Digest Best Young Teacher Brandon Stooksbury (the video below), you'll get yet another approach. Who's right? Who's wrong? What's a poor player to do?

Let me give you a few tips to help sort things out.



One thing that I noticed right off is that none of these videos is specific about which short game shot they're teaching! I can tell you that Lee is teaching a pitch shot, and Phil is teaching a flop shot, but Brandon is teaching something midway in-between.

How do I know this, you ask? Because I look for some specific clues in the slideshow and videos. You can look for these things too.

First, if possible, I look for clues about the trajectory of the shot.

• I can see that Lee's shot is flying pretty high when he hits it, and I can see that he and Billy are quite a distance away from the green. Lee is also using a lob wedge; I could tell that when I ran the video full screen.
• I can see that Phil's shot is shooting almost straight up in the air (the final slide shows all the pictures in sequence), and the text on the second slide says he's using 60° and 64° wedges.
• I can see that Brandon's shot looks to be flying about the same height as Lee's, but I can see from another section of the video (just keep reading) that he's using a lob wedge like Phil and Lee.

Although all three men are using lob wedges of some sort, the trajectories are slightly different. Those differences are explained as I gather other info.

Second, you need to note the stance. Lee and Phil both use an open stance, Brandon uses a square stance. (Lee doesn't say his stance is open, but you can see it in the down-the-line shots of both him and Billy Andrade.) If you open your stance, you also have to open the clubface. Otherwise you'll pull all your shots.

Third, check the ball position. Lee says to place it back in your stance, Phil has the ball opposite his lead heel, and Brandon say to place it forward although he actually has the ball just ahead of center, as you can see in the video.

Let me make a quick note about playing the ball back in an open stance. It sounds funny but, with an open stance, your stance is effectively narrower than the same width in a straight stance, so the ball is actually closer to the middle of your stance. If that doesn't make sense to you, let me know in the comments and I'll do a post to explain it. For now, just take my word.

But you can't stop with just knowing the ball position...

Fourth, you have to check weight distribution at setup. If your weight is more on your lead foot, the ball is probably being played farther forward. With a more balanced weight distribution, the ball position is going to be farther back. Phil has 99% of his weight on his lead foot, according to the text on slide #3. Lee has his weight more on his lead foot, but not nearly as much as Phil. And Brandon's weight is nearly equal on both feet. (You can tell from Lee and Brandon's videos.)

Finally, you have to check how the hands and arms move when compared to the ball position. And this is where it can get tricky. Check these out:

• We'll start with Brandon this time. Brandon specifically says not to bend your lead elbow and pull the club across the ball. That's because his stance is square. He lets his arms and shoulders work as a unit, without any manipulation, and the turn of his shoulders provides a very quiet swing where his wrists don't bend forward or back. The weight of the club pulls his hands straight out so his wrists don't flip or bend. He's playing a "straight" shot, and the ball is in the standard mid-stance position for a straight shot.
• Lee is the exact opposite. You can see him bend his lead elbow somewhat dramatically as he swings along the aimline of his open stance, and finishes with his bent lead elbow close to his side. He's "cutting across" the ball.
• And Phil? Although he plays from an open stance, he tries to swing straight down the line for as long as possible. The result is that he actually "chicken-wings" a bit, as you can see in the final slide's swing sequence.

These are all things you need to take note of whenever you try swing techniques that are different from what you normally do. Differences in address position make a huge difference in how the swing works, as do extra hand and elbow activity. All of these affect when you actually contact the ball during your swing, and therefore it changes what you're trying to do when you hit it.

Hope that helps you know what to look for when exploring any new golf techniques.

Congratulations, Lady Sun Devils!

In case you didn't hear, the Arizona State Lady Sun Devils won a record 8th National Division 1 Golf title, defeating the Northwestern Wildcats 3-1-1 in match play Wednesday.



And Arizona State senior Monica Vaughn was the NCAA individual champion as well. The Sun Devils cleaned up this year!

But I also send congratulations to the Wildcats. This was only their sixth appearance in this tournament, and their first time making it to the finals. That's definitely something to be proud of!

And now we get ready for the men to fight it out this weekend...

HaNa Jang Is Leaving the LPGA Tour

In case you missed the news, HaNa Jang is leaving the LPGA Tour next month and will focus on the KLPGA Tour.



The reason? A simple one, one that's becoming a bigger consideration for both men and women on all the golf tours -- family. LPGA.com quoted her thus:

"I thought being world number one was the only goal in my life and that was where my happiness comes from," said the 25-year-old, a four-time winner on the LPGA Tour. "But I realized there are many more important things than that.

"Even though I won four times (on the LPGA Tour), I still felt empty inside. I made this decision because being with my family is more important to me than being the world's top golfer."

Golfchannel.com further expanded on her quotes:

"I made up my mind after seeing my mother, who's close to 70, lead such a lonely life here," Jang said. "I thought being the best in the world was my only goal. But from now on, I'll spend as much time with my mother as I can." 

Both golfchannel.com and golfweek.com also noted that Jang has had some emotional upheavals to deal with as well. Besides the well-documented accident involving In Gee Chun -- which Chun says the two have largely dealt with -- there was criticism from the Korean press and fans over the Beyonce dance celebration at the HSBC Women's Champions, which they thought came too soon after the accident. That caused her more distress than we here in the US realized.

As I said, this isn't the first time we've seen family reasons affect a player's tour decisions. Jiyai Shinn comes to mind, having left the LPGA to spend more time at home in South Korea. Both Annika and Lorena left the LPGA to start families. Several of the PGA Tour players have taken or are taking time off from their tour to deal with family problems when, in years past, they might have tried to maintain at least some kind of schedule.

Like Jang, an increasing number of players are finding that the urge to be Number One -- whatever that happens to mean for that player -- simply isn't as satisfying as they thought it would be. And perhaps the increased prize money has made that sort of decision easier to make. Add in the never-an-off-season grind of professional golf, and it's not so surprising that players are making these decisions.

Hopefully HaNa Jang's decision will bring her the peace she's looking for. And maybe we'll get lucky -- maybe she'll find that she can still play some LPGA events after all.