2012 'Shocking' Ryder Cup Review

Wow! What a great a great Ryder Cup and an amazing Sunday of golf. A truly stunning result and certainly one of my top five most memorable golf broadcasts. I wanted to share of few of my impressions from the week. Here goes:

• Ian Poulter: I have always enjoyed Ian's 'confidence' - some might call it arrogance, but I've never seen it that way and I have also thought him to be a top player and competitor. Everything I believed about Ian James Poulter has now been tripled! He, (virtually) single-handedly, won the cup for Europe with his five closing birdies on Saturday. Those five holes and that win for Europe allowed them to hang on to a glimmer of hope for Sunday and without that glimmer they don't get the job done. He now owns the best all time Ryder Cup record for players who have played in at least 15 matches - that says something about IJP.
• Phil Mickelson: While I have never been a fan of Phil, this weekend I finally packed up my things and climbed on his bandwagon. One of the coolest things I witnessed all week was Phil clapping for Justin Rose when he hit a good shot or holed a long putt. He played with fire, he played beautifully, and above all else he was a true gentleman.
• Keegan Bradley: This guy is for real. He has tremendous heart and just like Poulter, has the make up to be a fantastic competitor for many years to come in the Ryder Cup. I did not get the benefit to the sideways look at putts and the twitchy, start stop pre-shot routine has got to go. I was glad I had the golf recorded so I could fast forward while he got ready to hit a shot....
• Jose Maria Olazabal: It was great for Ollie to get the win and it was obvious on his face how often he thought of his friend and mentor Seve Ballesteros. Seve truly was the 13th amn and I believe his influence played a laregr than appreciated role in the European victory. I enjoyed JMO's post victory quote: "All men die, but not all men live. Today you made me feel alive again!"
• Should Davis Love III get the blame? Completely ridiculous! If one putt or chip goes in for the US squad on Sunday the result is completely flipped and he's a hero.
• Bubba on the 1st tee: Perhaps one of my favorite moments of the event! I got chills the first time I saw it and I hope (believe) he has started a trend in the matches that will continue for a long time. You saw him do it first! Great stuff.

• Giving putts and conceding matches: Francesco Molinari was instructed in the 18th fairway to win the hole by Ollie. In my view there is a difference in retaining the Cup and winning the Cup. Same celebration and 'same' outcome, but winning is always better. I honestly don't think I would have given TW his putt either....
• Spirit of the matches: This Ryder Cup was contended by two excellent teams where many of the players seemed to be in form. The matches were great theater and the players conducted themselves in a classy fashion. I did not see anything that I thought to be underhanded.
• Sour grapes: The European team is sour when they lose and their fans claim gamesmanship and unsporting conduct when they lose (see Brookline '99). The US team and their fans are no different (see Medinah '12). Nobody enjoys losing - it's human nature and I'm okay with that.
• Top players on each team: For the Euro squad it must be Poulter who also gets Man of the Ryder Cup in my books. On Saturday afternoon he loaded up the whole event on his back and said watch this...A nod must also go to Rory McIlroy who played some incredible golf and carried the 'World No. 1' flag beautifully. For the Americans there were a few superstars: Jason Dufner, who just continues to get better; Keegan Bradley who fired up Phil and played liked a man possessed; and Phil, who not only played with passion again, but owned the 'classy moment' of the week. Dustin Johnson also quietly went 3-0.
• Duds: For the Euro team G-Mac and Westwood performed below expectations and for the US it can only be TW and Stricker who earned a measly half point out of 8 opportunities.
• Was this a 'miracle' comeback? No, not really. If you run the odds on a team coming back from a 10-6 deficit going in to Sunday you come out with a 19% chance. Even though it's only happened once before, not a miracle at all.
• Don't count your chickens: Here's an interesting piece written by ESPN's Gene Wojchiechowski on Saturday evening. Gene has been taking a beating for this one.....

In total I absolutely loved the event and it once again proves that the game of golf is in good shape. There are more than enough great players and characters to carry the game without Tiger being what he once was.

The Driver and Distance (Part 1)

We all want to hit the ball straight and far of the tee don't we?  In more technical terms our goals with the driver are to achieve the highest ball speed possible (distance), along with the desired flight pattern (accuracy).  We want cake and we want to eat it too!  There are numerous elements built into most drivers that often assist us in achieving these goals, yet so many of these small factors almost go unnoticed.  Almost...

Factors in driver technology that influence distance are: length of club; shaft weight; head weight; loft; face material and thickness (CoR) and roll (vertical gear effect).  Distance comes from our ability to convert clubhead speed into ball speed - often referred to as smash factor.  Smash factor is an indicator of our efficiency at impact - are we getting out what we (our driver included!) are putting in?

• It seems to be fashionable these days for club companies to stretch the length of their drivers to 46 inches and claim that they are "superfast".  The laws of physics indicate they are faster, but in my hands any speed gains are sacrificed with a loss of control.  Ben Hogan used a driver that was 42.5 inches long and nowhere have I ever read that he was a short hitter.  Personally I am not a fan of anything over 45 inches as this seems to be my threshold where distance decreases and control and centerdness of hit diminishes. I believe beginning golfers could use a 43 inch driver with far better results.
• Over the last decade shaft technology has come a long way and the most notable upgrade has been shaft weight.  Miyazaki makes an incredible 39 Series driver shaft that can be as light as 44 grams - if you you cannot swing that faster then we have a problem.  Barring feel and control issues I am a big fan of lightweight shaft technology and know it is something we should all take advantage of - even Keegan Bradley did.
• In pursuit of the "lighter is faster" formula a few companies have sought to reduce the weight of the clubhead.  Cleveland Golf has their Ultralight line of drivers that are the lightest on the market today.  A little known fact is that we could actually hit the ball further with a heavier clubhead (with speed being equal).  By increasing the mass ratio of clubhead to ball you can increase ball speed, however the problem here is that as you increase weight you decrease speed, so once again there is a threshold to consider.  The good news is the club companies have done all the research for us and most driver heads fall somewhere between 197 and 212 grams - something we can all manage.
• The loft of your driver is something that should be determined by an expert (someone who does this for a living!) fitter.  A nice option with the new adjustable heads is that you can now alter the loft of your club without buying a whole new club. The more loft you introduce to the ball at impact the more spin and less ball speed you will create.  The lower the loft, the more ball speed. One problem however - we would like to get the ball in the air and so, once again, there is a trade off.  When it comes to loft, where possible, I encourage a golfer to go with less loft and show them how to overcome the reduction in launch angle by learning how to hit up on the ball.  The golfer does most of the work here, but a reduction in loft can help with distance.
• The coefficient of restitution (CoR) is the spring like effect the face has when it collides with the golf ball.  As you  might expect the highest CoR on the face is in the center with lower numbers working out from the there.  Golf's governing bodies have made it a rule that this spring like effect cannot be higher than 0.83 and as a result all club companies have made sure that their equipment is right up against the limit.
• The final, and perhaps most interesting, factor that increases the distance your driver makes the ball go is due to roll - no not roll on the ground, but roll on the face.  Roll is the curvature of the face from top to bottom or crown to sole. Manufacturers include roll into the face design in order to create vertical gear effect on hits that are below or above center.  A ball that is struck above center will actually spin less due to gear effect and as a result launch high with low spin - a winning formula for the long ball.  Of course balls hit low on the face will spin more, but they more than likely need a little more air time. Please see Part 2 of this article for a full explanation of gear effect.
• I know of no face design or treatment that increases distance - unless you're working the Chapstick for more than just your lips!

The most efficient a golfer could be with the big stick would be to have a clubhead and shaft that fits them in every way, hit the ball from the inside with an ascending blow and strike the ball slightly above the center of the face and a touch towards the toe.  The reason to favor the toe -  the toe of a driver travels about 14% faster than the heel of the club!

I love this PGATour stat that measures how efficient each player on tour is with the driver.  It quantifies  a player's average distance divided by their average swing speed. It also shows each players average swing speed - an interesting read.

Check back soon to learn about what the driver can do for your accuracy....

Keegan's Winning Bag

Here is Keegan Bradley's equipment:

Driver - Cleveland UltraLite TL310 10.5° driver with a Miyazaki Kusala 61 shaft.  The Miyazaki shafts have been a great hit with new technology that has allowed the shaft to become lighter yet maintain the stiffer flex required by tour professionals. 

Fairway - Cleveland FL 14° fairway wood with a Miyazaki Kusala 83 shaft.  The golf club is 30-grams lighter than most other fairway woods and therefore offers more clubhead speed.

Hybrids -  Cleveland Launcher DST 18° with a Project X XHB6 shaft and a Cleveland Mashie TM3 20.5° with a Miyazaki C Kua 105 shaft.

Irons - Cleveland CG7 Tour irons (4-PW) with X-100 True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue shafts.  The tour issue shafts are slightly heavier and stiffer than regular issue.

Wedges - Cleveland CG14 with lofts of 52° and 58°, fitted with S-400 True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue shafts.  The CG14’s are in fact older wedges that have been brought back into the market - I like his personalized "Irish" addition to them.

Putter - Odyssey White Hot XG Sabretooth mid-length putter.  Bradley is the first golfer to win a major with a long (belly or chest) putter.

Ball - Srixon Z-Star.  Interestingly, four different ball brands won Majors in 2011.