The Limerick Summary: 2018 RBC Canadian Open

Winner: Dustin Johnson

Around the wider world of golf: Miguel Angel Jimenez won the Senior Open, giving him two Champions Tour majors this season; Ariya Jutanugarn won the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open on the LPGA/LET, which should also give her the #1 spot in the Rolex Rankings; Martin Trainer secured his PGA Tour card with a win at the Price Cutter Charity Championship on the Web.com Tour; Peter Campbell (a Canadian!) won the Beijing Championship on the PGA TOUR China; Kendall Dye won the Fuccillo Kia Classic of NY for her third Symetra Tour win; Justin Harding won the Royal Cup for back-to-back Asian Tour titles; and Richard McEvoy won his first European Tour title at the Porsche European Open.



It was the last time the RBC Canadian Open was to be played at Glen Abbey, and Dustin Johnson didn't want to waste the opportunity.

So the new RBC ambassador didn't. After some close calls in Canada, he ran away from the field for a three-shot victory.

There's not much to say about it, really. DJ basically played the par-5s with driver and wedge, putting him four-under on his final round with very little effort. Three more birdies (against a single bogey) turned Sunday's round into a casual stroll to victory.

A stroll interrupted by a rain delay, but we all know that DJ isn't bothered by little things like that.

The big news wasn't the win so much as what the win did for him. It gave him 19 total PGA Tour wins in his career, tied for third among active players on the main tour; made him the first player since Tiger to win at least three times in each of three consecutive years; and it vaulted him to the top of the FedExCup standings.

To be honest, DJ has won so much over the last few years that I'm running out of superlatives to describe how he plays. When his game is a little off, we all march out the "he doesn't work hard enough" talk. But when he has it all together, the rest of the field can only shake their heads and wish he'd work even less. Counting his missed cut at the Open, he's got two wins, a third place finish and a T8 in his last five events. How realistic are the complaints?

I'm not complaining, DJ. Here, have another Limerick Summary on me.

For DJ, it’s nineteen and counting;
The case for his greatness is mounting!
Ten wins in three years
Gives his fans cause to cheer
While competitors find themselves frowning!

The photo came from this page at pgatour.com.

A New Use for an Old Drill (Video)

Martin Hall originally did this Extra Credit video to teach how Nick Faldo hit a draw that would hold its flight against a stiff wind on the links. I'm going to use it to help those of you struggling to control your clubface.



At around the 1:20 mark Martin demonstrates the drill. He uses his trailing hand to hold his lead elbow against the side of his chest at impact and during the finish. I've written about this "flying lead elbow" problem before. If your lead elbow moves away from your body at impact, you can get a chicken wing move... and that's bad for clubface control. It's why a number of you can't draw the ball.

Obviously, Martin's drill will help you develop a draw if you don't have one now.

But it may be less obvious why this 'chicken wing' can also interfere with any effort to hit a fade, especially if you've seen Jordan Spieth using just such a move to create a fade. Those of you paying attention may have also noticed, however, that Spieth has a tendency to hit out-of-control banana balls as well... and that also comes from that chicken wing maneuver.

Here's why: When your lead elbow starts moving away from your side, it doesn't always move the same amount. That's a problem, people. For example, if it moves toward the ball a bit more than usual, you'll get more of an in-to-out swing than you expect... and if you're hitting a fade, you'll end up with a push-fade that can head out-of-bounds. It can also cause you to leave the clubface more open than you planned, which can create the same result.

By the same token, if your lead elbow doesn't move out as much, you might get too much forearm rotation and VOILA! instant duck-hook. If you were expecting your little fade, you get the classic double-cross. Neither of these is good for your score.

If, however, you keep your lead elbow close to your side all the way through your downswing, you create a more consistent rotation that happens in the big muscles of your lead shoulder. Unlike the smaller muscles in your wrist and forearm, you get far less variation with your shoulder movement, and that minimizes the range of variation in your clubface position.

Martin's drill can help you, regardless of whether you struggle with a hook or a slice. Give it a try and you'll see what I mean.

Tiffany Joh's Swing (Video)

Tiffany Joh has yet to win on the LPGA but she's leading the Ladies Scottish Open by three strokes. I don't know if she'll win but there's one thing I think you should learn from her swing. This video shows her hitting a hybrid.



There aren't many videos on YouTube of T-Joh's swing. In part, that's because she hasn't won yet. But there's a more important reason, and it's very simple:

There is nothing special about T-Joh's swing.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Tiffany doesn't have some unusual move that makes her stand out from the crowd. She's got a very good swing, and she hits the ball very solidly. This week she's playing some of the best golf of her life, and the rest of the field is struggling to catch up.

Her swing isn't the reason T-Joh hasn't won. If you look at her stats, you'll see that she doesn't hit many fairways or greens, she's not ranked very high in putting, and her scoring average is only 71.81, good enough for 81st on the Tour. That's just over 2.25 strokes behind the Tour's best, Ariya Jutanugarn... yet she's 81st on Tour! Cristie Kerr, at exactly 71.00, is 38th.

In other words, she hasn't won because she just needs to practice more. She's good enough to keep her card, but she hasn't been good enough to win. Tiffany just needs to learn how to score better.

This week she seems to have caught lightning in a bottle, at least for two rounds. Perhaps she'll get it done in Scotland, and that would be great. But she's a good lesson to everyone -- you don't need a great swing, you just need to make sure it works well most the time.

Kenny Nairn on the "Bump and Scrape" (Video)

This is one of the wildest drills I've seen in a while, but it teaches an equally weird shot. GCA coach Kenny Nairn's bizarre chipping drill is something to use in links play and perhaps on really tight, fast lies.



The drill is simple. Pull a hybrid from your bag and take your putting grip, then let go with your lead hand and just use your trailing hand to drag the clubhead back along the ground. Then, stroke your 'putt' without letting the clubhead leave the ground!

I tried this and it feels really weird. If you're like me, the clubhead is going to make a loop on the ground -- it will go back fairly straight but it will try to move closer to you on the forward stroke, creating a teardrop-shaped swing. After a little practice, I managed to create more of an arc with it -- but it does take some practice.

Of course, it gets even weirder when you try to make this shot with both hands. It doesn't get any easier with two hands -- at least, it didn't for me.

And to be honest, I can't tell you how it works because I don't have anywhere nearby where I could actually test this putting technique. This is definitely a links technique, not something you would use on a putting green.

So why am I showing you this? Well, even if you don't currently have a use for this shot, I think it might be useful to help you develop a lighter touch with your putter. The idea is to hold the club as lightly as you can while still maintaining control of the motion. To gain better control of the clubhead without gripping it too tightly, you'll have to turn your shoulders a bit more. That will also help your rhythm when you try swinging an actual putter.

The lighter you can hold your putter while maintaining control, the easier it will be to make a consistent stroke. This odd drill may be just the ticket for some of you, so give it a try and see.

The Ladies Go Scottish

The LPGA is in Scotland this week, at the same venue the men played a couple of weeks ago, for the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open.



As usual, you can get a good preview of the event at Tony Jesselli's blog. I'll just note that they're teeing it up at Gullane Golf Club, the same as the men did, only they'll be playing it at 6480 yards.

This is only the second playing of the event but Aberdeen's sponsorship has already given it a certain amount of stature, given that it's held the week before the Ricoh Women's British Open -- the same situation as the men's event, which precedes the Open Championship -- on the same course. At this point it hasn't become quite the warm-up that the men's version has, but I suspect in time that it will. There just aren't that many chances for the ladies to work on their links play, especially the week before their Open.

Of course the biggest news so far is Lexi Thompson's announcement that she's skipping this event, the Ricoh and perhaps others to "work on herself" after a particularly trying 18 months. We'll just have to wait and see what she does, but it does add to the big names skipping this event -- although there will be plenty who WILL be there.

Personally, I'm anxious to see how Laura Davies does after her dominating victory at the Senior Women's US Open.

You can check out the official website here. This link is for the LPGA's leaderboard for the event. And while the event starts in less than two-and-a-half hours from the time I'm writing this, GC's coverage begins at 9:30am ET today (Thursday), between their coverage windows for the Senior Open.

My "5 to Watch" at the Senior Open

It's the final major of the year for the old guys, the Senior Open, and of course I can't let it go by without making an effort to pick the winner. I had Molinari in my "5 to Watch" last week, so perhaps I can do at least that well this week.



The Senior Open will be played at St. Andrews this year, which should get the blood of all the seniors pumping! We should expect another hard and fast course, with around a 15mph wind (if current conditions hold). So let's get to it and make some picks.

• Everybody has Bernhard Langer, the defending champion, as the favorite this week... and with good reason. Langer's 3-under finish at Carnoustie against the youngsters shows that he's in good form and ready for tough conditions. But did last week's challenge tire him too much to compete this week? I wouldn't bet on it, but it's possible.
• Although he missed the cut at Carnoustie by a shot, I like the fact that Tom Lehman has already played some competitive links golf going into this week, plus he has a win this season. Add the wider fairways at St. Andrews to the mix and you could be looking at a good chance for Lehman to pick up this major.
• Paul Broadhurst won this event back in 2016 -- at Carnoustie, ironically -- and has picked up another major this season (along with a 'regular' win), so he certainly knows how to get it done on the links. Like Langer, he's another player in good form entering this event.
• Miguel Angel Jimenez has been playing pretty well all season, and he did win the Regions Tradition earlier this year. Worldwide, he's got a lot of Top10s this season. You know he'd like to add an Open to those figures.
• And for my flier, I'm taking Brandel Chamblee. I know Brandel hasn't played competitively in a decade, but he did go through qualifying to play this event which means his game is in pretty good shape. The video footage I saw of his play in the qualifier looked solid as well, and -- as with Lehman -- I think the wider fairways at St. Andrews might give him some confidence.

I have to go with Langer, of course, simply because he has the scoring this season -- and especially last week -- to back him up. But I think Chamblee might place pretty well also. Since he doesn't have any competitive rounds under his belt, I think he may play more conservatively than the others... and that could help him play better than most expect.

The Champions Tour website says the coverage starts Thursday morning at 7am ET on GC.

Denis Pugh on More Consistent Ballstriking (Video)

Francesco Molinari just won the Open, so of course I have a video from his coach Denis Pugh. In this video Pugh is trying to help a player hit the ball more consistently.



Pugh wants -- as I do -- for you to learn how to turn without sliding. When you slide too much toward the target, you do all kinds of crazy things like change your spine angle, change your body position relative to your ball position, and throw your balance off. If you want more consistency, you need to stop that!

As you can see from the video, what Pugh tries to get this student to do is open his legs as he turns through the ball. (That's why he sticks the club shaft between his legs and holds it against the inside of his trailing thigh.) However, you can't hit balls with someone holding a club between your legs, but you can learn this move by using a drill.

Fortunately I have one for you. It's been on my blog for over seven years, and here's a link to it. It's called the Basketball Drill, and it's very simple. You hold a basketball between your knees, and you try to drop the ball during your downswing by moving your lead knee forward -- that gives you the hip opening move that you try to create when you slide -- while your trailing knee doesn't move so much. It minimizes lateral movement toward the target while still letting you unwind your hips as quickly as you can.

I think you'll find this drill actually lets you create more hip speed than the slide does because you don't waste energy pushing your body forward. But -- and this is important -- it DOES allow you to create a weight shift, which moves you toward the target a little but not enough to change your body's position relative to the ball. As a result, you get more consistent contact.

A simple but very effective drill. It may not turn you into Francesco Molinari (that's a matter of practice) but it will teach you the basics of a solid move into the ball.