Buy clubs with a high-tech advantage

Pros of my era had to make do with a primitive form of club-fitting. Those of us who lasted long enough eventually got to experience a high-tech version of it. We went from one extreme to the other.

When I turned pro in the 1970s, getting your gear in order was a matter of luck and feel. We had True Temper shafts with a Dynamic Gold stiffness rating—everything else was a mystery. Any time you set a new club down or gave it a waggle your senses would go into overdrive. How did it feel?How did every edge and angle look to your eye?All you had were your instincts. These days I go through one session with the TaylorMade club-fitting crew and come out with a spot-on set of clubs.

I made a statement once that 90 percent of all golfers play with clubs that don’t fit them. That was before I signed with TaylorMade and went through their testing and fitting program. Now I would estimate it’s 99 percent. People say, “I’m not good enough to need fitted clubs.” They see a new set on the display rack, it’s all lovely and shiny, and they figure it’s got to be good.

In the early days I had a trick for testing driver shafts. I would loosen up on the practice tee then start hitting two-iron shots. When the two-irons were flying perfectly, I would grab the first driver and swing. If the ball flew just like my two-iron shots—plus a little height and carry—then that driver was a keeper. If not, it was the club’s fault, because when two-irons are going well your golf swing is where it should be.

The three-wood was the trickiest club to fit yourself for. Probably because it’s the longest club that you strike the ground with. That combination seems to put the biggest demand on the shaft.

I also used to regrip my own clubs, right there in the garden shed with a can of petrol to wet down the tape and dissolve it, so it would stick. The job took forever, because I used cord grips and I had to get the cords lined up just right. What a mess that all was. Once it was finished I took pains to make the grips last as long as possible. I would wash them religiously to get the dirt and oils out, and when I practiced I would hit even-numbered irons on even days and odd-numbered irons on odd days, to make sure the grips wore evenly.

But as I say, much has changed. Nowadays, getting gear that fits you is a high-tech process that is no-mess and no-guess. Any keen golfer who’s been putting it off should bite the bullet and get himself custom-fit.

Give a roar for low scores

Global economic woes have affected just about everybody and everything, which makes me wonder if it could influence course setup at the Masters. Spectator sports provide a necessary distraction from stress and worry—it was during the Great Depression that sports really came of age. Few events can outdo the Masters at bringing thrills and excitement to a great number of people, if only the course would be set up in a certain way. The alternative is four days of grim-faced golfers hitting the safest possible shots.

What I hope for at Augusta is a course setup that switches the players on. When the caddie backs away you want some adrenaline flowing in the player’s veins. That’s what leads to career shots and amazing birdies and sends roars through the pines. At Augusta, it also leads to double-bogeys, depending on whether the shot is pulled off or not. There shouldn’t be any fear about the course getting beat up and scores being too low. It’s a shame that the final-round 67 I shot to win the ’96 Masters has been matched by only one winner since then—Mark O’Meara, way back in 1998. When we shot those Sunday 67s, and when Jack Nicklaus closed with a 65 in 1986, no one said it was bad for the tournament. Players in a Masters field possess a vast repertoire of shots, but are we seeing it?Are we seeing the guts and guile that championship golf is all about?In such hard times, it would be nice for golf to bring some joy to the world.

Woods: 'I just ran out of gas'

Tiger Woods

ATLANTA – Through 13 holes Tiger Woods had rallied to put himself just two strokes out of second place and 5 under par at the Tour Championship only to give back all of his good work with a sloppy closing stretch.

Woods played his final five holes in 6 over par, including a double-bogey-6 at the 14th and a triple-bogey-7 at the 17th, to finish with a 71 and a 4-over-par total that left him tied for last after 36 holes.

“I put everything I had into that start and didn’t have anything left at the end,” Woods said. “I just ran out of gas.”

The world No. 1 made his first birdie of the week at the third hole and added two more before the turn to battle back to even par after an opening 73. Two more birdies at Nos. 12 and 13 moved him to 2 under and into a tie for eighth place, but he pulled his tee shot left at the 14th and needed three more shots to reach the green.

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After failing to birdie the par-5 15th hole, Woods pulled his drive into the water left at 17, left his fourth and fifth shots short of the green and dropped some 13 strokes out of the lead with the triple bogey.

“My legs are tired and I didn’t rotate through the shot,” Woods said of his drive at the 17th hole.

Friday marked the first time Woods has posted back-to-back over-par rounds at East Lake since 2003.

Woods: Round 1 greens were slower than expected

Tiger Woods
ATLANTA – Although Tiger Woods declined interviews after his opening-round 73 at the Tour Championship, on Friday he said his 34-putt total on Day 1 had more to do with the speed of East Lake’s greens than his stroke.

“I missed everything on the high side. The greens were much slower than what I thought they would be, and I missed every putt on the high side, except for the putt at the first hole,” said Woods, who took 28 putts on Day 2 on his way to a 1-over 71.

“Today they were quicker starting out, and I took that into account and tried to make sure they got on the lower lines. I didn't give as much credit to the green as I did yesterday, and it ended up working.”

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Thursday was also just his seventh round as a professional where he failed to convert a birdie putt, which he remedied at the third when he made a 10-footer on Friday.

“It was finally nice to make a birdie in, what was that, 21 holes?” Woods smiled.

Bradley's last shot at victory in 2013 season

ATLANTA – Now that the PGA of America has abandoned the slogan “Glory’s Last Shot” for the year’s final major, maybe the Tour Championship can start using it.

Keegan Bradley is among those in this week’s 30-man field still searching for his first victory of the year – and this is, of course, his last shot to claim it.

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“I'm disappointed I haven't got one,” he said after a second-round 65 vaulted him up the leaderboard. “But I did a good job today of giving myself at least a chance on the weekend.”

As for the differences between Friday’s round and his opening 2-over 72, Bradley claimed they weren’t as far off as the scores indicate.

“I just hit some more putts, and I hit a bunch more 3-woods off the tee today. I was hitting it in the rough a little bit. It's great to shoot that number around here because this is a tough track.”