GolfCentral Daily: 2010-03-07

Monday, March 8, 2010

Bloggy Underfoot: Great To Be Back

Its great to be back for another season. In preparation for a successful year I’ve removed the fire hydrant from outside the gate, chopped down the tree in the front lawn and cut up all my wife’s clubs with an angle grinder! It promises to be an awesome year with drama on and off the course. By the end of it we’ll know if Europe brought the Ryder Cup home, if Rory climbed the Major podium and most intriguingly if Tiger got Booed.

As well as the old favourites such as bet your balls we’ve got some cool new features for 2010. We have enlisted world clubmaker of the year Derek Murray from Foregolf to give us the low down on the latest advances in equipment and keep us up to speed with what’s happening on the tour truck. Derek gets clubs, shafts and gear to test literally a year before they arrive on the market so if something is coming, we’ll know first.

We’ve also teamed up with Titleist Performance Institute graduate Wayne O’Callaghan to get us fit for golf. TPI is used by loads of PGA pro’s including Padraig Harrington and we’ve been delving into his exercise regime to bring you some really useful tips to increase your mobility and range of motion. It’s truly amazing the difference some simple drills make in increasing power and accuracy.

This year I want to hear from you too. If you are one of those enjoying the €3 Friday night pints in Rosses Point or have witnessed any other golfing wonders, get a pic on your phone and whack it to me on examinerspindoc@eircom.net.

So get those clubs out of the shed, remove the four month old banana from your bag and put a fresh layer of Skuff Kote on your skates because its all systems go for 2010 with The SpinDoctor.

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Bet Your Balls: WGC CA Championship 2010 Preview and Tips

Early odds from betfair.

WGC - CA Championship

Doral Golf Resort & Spa (7266 Yards)

A Marriott Resort - Doral, Florida, USA

11 Mar 2010 - 14 Mar 2010

Past Winners

2009 Phil MICKELSON (-19)

2008 Geoff OGILVY (-17)

2007 Tiger WOODS (-10)

Retief Goosen 22/1

Something good is happening with Retief Goosen lately. He’s finally starting to shoot under par final rounds again and got to the quarter final of WGC, only losing out to red hot Camilo. Goosen added four consecutive top 10 finishes in towards the end of the 2009 season and started his 2010 campaign in January with three consecutive top 10 finishes. He finished sixth at the SBS Championship, fourth at the Sony Open in Hawaii and ninth at the Qatar Masters. The Goose knows the course inside out with a best finish of joint second in 2008 behind Geoff Ogilvy. Virtual Bet €10 each way

Retief as Didier Cuche

Camilo Villegas 16/1

We tipped Camilo to win on the blog last week and he duly obliged. Whether he has the stamina to keep his form going for one more week is debateable following an epic WGC matchplay week, a top 10 in Arizona, a dash back to Bogota to promote a Champions Tour event and then a win at The Honda. We know he can win two weeks in a row as he proved at the end of 2008 winning the BMW and Tour Championship. Camilo has previous on the Blue Monster too finishing fifth in last years staging. He also narrowly lost out to Tiger on his debut on this course at the Ford Championship in 2006. Virtual Bet €10 each way

Camilo: Where did she hide my hairdryer

Vijay Singh 40/1

If you’re looking for a rollercoaster ride this week, stick an each way bet on Vijay Singh. Tee to green he was back to his best at the Honda, but he struggled with the pace of his full length putter. Nothing that practice cant fix however and if there’s one man you can count on to practice, its Vijay. Many criticised his punishing training and legendary regime which he continued to engage in too soon after his arthroscopic knee surgery last year. Vijay tied for second here in 2008 and finished 11^th in 2007. He has also played the course many times when it hosted the Ford Championship, with a notable third in 2005. Virtual Bet €10 each way

Vijay: Think I’ll go back to the long putter

Best Of The Rest

There’s a case to be made for several guys in this top class field. Take Nick Watney (40/1) who came within a roll of a playoff last year. He has performed consistently in his six starts this year with two top tens. And what about Phil Mickelson (8/1) last years champion who makes just his fifth appearance of the year at Doral. His best result to date coming tied eight at the AT&T at Pebble Beach. His win last year atoned for a second place finish to Tiger Woods back in 2005 at the Ford Championship. Jim Furyk (20/1) is another who has had a solid yet unspectacular start to the season with three top 25 finishes. He came third last year after tying second in 2008. Furyk is a proven WGC performer with a total of nine top 10’s since the inception of the series. Virtual Bet €5 each way on these.

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What’s In The Bag Lee Westwood

Vital Stats

Residence: Worksop, England

Date of birth: 24/04/1973

Place of birth: Worksop, England

Height and weight: 6ft Family: Wife: Laurae (m. 1999); Children: Samuel Bevan (2001), Poppy Grace (2004)

Turned Pro: 1993 (plus 4)

European Tour wins: 20

PGA tour wins: 1

Ratings

Power

Longest Drive: 363 yards

Average Drive: 299.8 yards

Rank: 9th

Accuracy

Fairway Hit %: 64.3%-rank 53

Greens in Regulation %: 74.8- rank 14

Putting

Putts per round: 29.7

Putts per hole: 1.65

Rank: 71

Biography

Lee Westwood is the reigning European Number One having won the inaugural Race to Dubai with a breath-taking victory in the Dubai World Championship. The win earned him the €830,675 and a further €996,810 for topping The Race to Dubai Bonus Pool, taking his 2009 season earnings to a record €4,237,762. Lee also won his sponsors event last season, the Oceanico Portugal Masters, ending a run of three play-off defeats, two near misses in Majors and an amazing 26 top-tens since his previous victory in 2007. Off the course, Lee knows how to party too, he celebrated his Race win with a massive party in Dubai followed by two more back in England. A lifelong fan of Nottingham Forest, Lee always keeps track of their games on Slingbox.

What’s In The Bag Lee Westwood (Lee Westwood witb 2010)

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The Adare Manor Fourball Quiz

To celebrate being back we have a cracking prize of a fourball at Adare Manor, venue of the JP McManus Pro-Am on July 5^th/6^th. To enter text your answers with name and address to 087-3140467 or e-mail them to examinerspindoc@eircom.net. If you’re not lucky enough to win don’t forget you can still play Adare and get a free two day pass for the Pro-Am for €80. Full details on www.adaremanor.com.

1. Who chipped in to win the 1987 Masters?

2. What country is Camilo Villegas from?

3. What is currently the world’s number one female golfer?

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Video Of The Week: Camilo Villegas SpiderMan el Hombre Araña del green

Ever wondered where Camilo Villegas got the name “SpiderMan” or el Hombre Araña del green in Spanish? All is revealed below

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Wayne’s World Of Fitness- Over The Top

Swing Fault: The golf term “over the top” relates to one of golf’s most common swing faults. It is where the upper body starts the downswing by throwing the club head outside of the intended swing plane, with the club head approaching the ball in an out-to-in motion. This creates a pull if the clubface is square or a slice if it is open at impact. This action can rob golfers of power.

Cause: This action can be caused by the over dominance of the upper body during the downswing and might be caused by the golfers inability to separate the lower body from the upper body. If there is any reduced spinal and hip mobility it can cause limited pelvis to thorax separation.

Drill: A great exercise to practice is trunk rotation narrow base. Sit on a swiss ball (or chair) with the feet together. Cross the arms and hold a brush handle or club across your chest. Rotate the shoulders back and forth keeping your lower body still. Doing this regularly will increase your range of rotation.

with Wayne O’Callaghan PGA Pro and TPI fitness instructor

www.wayneocallaghangolf.com

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On The Tour Truck with Derek Murray from foregolf.ie

As far as drivers are concerned 2010 is all about distance and carry.

One of the best driver finds this year is from an unexpected source and has already won on Tour this year with Ian Poulter winning the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship using his new wonder stick.

Cobra Golf have released the ZL (Zero-Limits) driver which after some testing on the truck has the lowest spin rates with highest launch angles we have ever seen. Having low spin and high launch makes this driver superb in the wind and very, very long off the tee. The trick with this club is to use 1 degree more loft than you usually go for and thanks to the adjustable hosel the head can be opened or closed to suit the different ball flight requirements. www.cobragolf.com for more information and www.foregolf.ie

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Tailored Shorts: Golf News You May Have Missed

Rory’s Time Machine

Rory McIlroy paid a visit recently to the famous watchmaker Audemars Piguet near Geneva in Switzerland. While there he got the full “how do they do it” tour of the watchmaking process and even ordered the new Limited Edition Grand Prix watch which is 18 carat pink gold and comes with a receipt for $50,000. Rory reckons one model can even “tell the sunrise and sunset of wherever you are in the world”. I wonder is there’s a Tiger version that can remember hotel room numbers anywhere in the world!

Tiger Tales

Assuming you know what’s been going on the Tiger Woods saga, here is the latest. Woods is now back at home after a week of family counselling in Arizona. He has started back into a routine that includes fitness and hitting balls for the first time since the Australian Masters in November, 15 weeks ago. No word yet on Woods’ return to competition but Jack Nicklaus last week commented that he expected Woods to play at least once before Augusta.

Woods has been hitting balls on the range at Isleworth, almost within site of the fire hydrant and tree that changed his life. Meanwhile Stevie Williams has been on NZ TV, claiming ignorance of Tiger’s off course activities. "I'm a straight-up sort of person. If I had known something was going on, the whistle would have been blown." Whether Williams was referring to a moral metaphorical ‘whistle’ or the type that a trainer might use to encourage his lads to ‘get stuck in’ is unclear.

TopGolfer

TopGolfer, an innovative new golf website aimed at single figure golfers was launched last week. The TopGolfer Tour incorporates thirty scratch cups around the country, the first of which will take place at Fota Island on Sunday March 21st. The initiative aims to provide low handicap golfers with a series of competitive events and an online community of their own. The Tour will run from March until September with events spread throughout the four provinces. The winner of each event will receive an invite to compete in the TopGolfer Tour Championship, a three day finale which will take place at the end of October. For more info visit www.topgolfer.ie

Greg Rita

Greg Rita the former PGA tour caddie has died on his birthday at the age of 54. Rita was on the bag for Curtis Strange when he won back to back US Open titles in 1989 and 1990 and won his third major with John Daly at St. Andrews in 1995. He also had a spell with David Duval when he was at the height of his powers. Rita collapsed at a Champions Tour event in September 2007, and had surgery to remove a brain tumour two months later.