Feeling Flush

TIGER’S IRON GAME IS (STILL) A WORK OF ART IN PROGRESS.

- Mike Adams

LET’S START WITH an important point: Tiger Woods might be the best iron player of all time. When you set the bar that high, anything less than peak performance, i.e., hitting shots like the mere mortals on either side of you on a PGA Tour range, can seem like a comedown. -Tiger’s ball-striking isn’t as good as it was when he was world No. 1 for 683 weeks, but we might not see anybody hit it like that again for 50 years. Still, Tiger’s historic willingness to change anything if he thought it could make him better is still serving him well. I can’t think of another world-class player willing to make so many big changes so many times. And that openness is what keeps him out there working and improving when he has nothing left to prove. -So where does Tiger stand after generations of swing changes and some serious damage to his body? I call his iron swing a “buffet” of the things he learned from Butch Harmon, Hank Haney, and Sean Foley. There’s a lot of good, along with a few things he could improve.

-When Tiger worked with Butch Harmon, his left-hand grip was stronger, meaning his left palm was turned more on top of the handle. That grip let him load up, then fire his lower body and launch everything through impact, which produced the power that made him so long. Butch also got him into that classic top of-backswing wrist position, where you could lay a ruler flat on the back of his hand, and it would run right down his arm. That really helped the clubface stay square.