These Guys Are Good - Part One

Last week marked the return of the British Masters to the European Tour, and as this it is the nearest event to where I live I decided to make the trip to spectate at Woburn. The first thing most people notice is the length of tour courses, with the Marquess' course at Woburn playing at around 7200 yards. However the length of the Marquess' course is not the only challenge, it is tree-lined putting a premium on driving accuracy and the greens are undulating. This makes it a test of all components of a player's game.

The main lesson I learnt from watching some of the best players in the world was just how accurate these players are. The winner of the tournament, Matthew Fitzpatrick, hit 80.4% of fairways throughout the week, the equivalent of just over 11 per round. I was even more impressed with the players' accuracy with the irons as I watched them fire right at pins I for now can only imagine going straight at.

Something I have never been able to pick up on television is the shot shaping of tour players. We are so used to hearing that certain players prefer hitting a draw or a fade but I had not realised what this meant in reality. When a five handicap player says they hit a fade, they normally mean about 20 yards of movement in the air, whereas when a tour player says they hit a fade they mean 5 or 10 yards of movement. This gives them far more choices in terms of shot selection. For me the dogleg left second at Woburn looked like it had to be a draw off the tee. The reason for this is I while I can hit a draw or a fade, I struggle to control the amount of draw or fade and I would be worried about losing the ball too far right with a fade. However some touring professionals who are more comfortable working the left to right still hit a fade on this hole because they are only moving it a relatively small amount from left to right.

While watching on the practice range I saw first hand the many different techniques and ball flights from tour players. Peter Hanson could be seen hitting the ball long and straight, while Johan Edfors was working a high draw. Miguel Angle Jimenez has a much flatter swing than others and Luke Donald looks far more controlled in his tempo. The common factor with all the players is they have consistent swings in which they trust. They are all comfortable with their swings are trust that they work for them. From the point of a consistent swing they can then use small changes in equipment to fine tune their performance. This is in contrast to most amateurs who are often trying to make swing changes and wishing their swing was different to how it currently is rather than trusting what they have.

These are some of my observations of the long game of the best players' around and I will continue tomorrow with some observations on their short game and course management.

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