A Lesson Learned: The
2008 Sony Open
By Ben Alexander, PGA Professional Director of Instruction,
Poppy Hills Golf Club
This week's Sony Open In Hawaii is one of those tournaments that
just ooze pageantry, history, and celebration. As the first
full-field event of the year, it's a great way to start each
season.
Last year I wrote an article about the Sony Open and the only
story that I, or anyone for that matter, could write about was
the wonderful and refreshing performance of Taddd Fujikawa and
how fun he was to watch. He was a sixteen year old who didn't
have a care in the world and was having so much fun just being
out there. Eveyrone remembers Taddd, but do you remember who
won? Exactly. (It was David Toms). Well, what a difference a
year makes.
Tadd has turned pro at the early age of seventeen and his
results were dramatically different this time around. What is
the difference? As I see it, it's the pressure. It's not about
just having fun anymomre, it's now about the money and trying to
go up against the best players in the world. That's a lot of
expectations, especially for a young kid, and it's not a
surprise he failed to make the cut.
This also happens when your regular foursome plays on Saturday
morning and the bet goes from a Pepsi to a complete lunch. Its
not the amount of the bet but the pressure to perform, that gets
a lot of us. Even the best players feel that pressure as we all
saw this week in the Sony Open.
The Tour players, of course, deal with some other elements that
make the pressure that much stronger. This week, it was two
things that jumped out at me; the narrow fairways and the strong
winds that came in for the weekend. On Thursday and Friday the
conditions weren't so bad and the scoring reflected that. But by
Saturday, the gusts came in and the scores were higher as was
the frustration level of many of the players. The Tour pros are
so good that they can feel pretty comfortable with narrow
fairways, but when you add a strong unpredictable wind, it's
going to lead to a lot of misjudged and errant shots.
Playing into the wind is an inexact science and in large part, a
sheer guessing game. Once you get a correct yardage to your
target, it's now time to guess how many clubs you need to add to
get your ball there. Professionals call this a one-club wind,
two-club wind, etc. Once you have made your best guess of what
club to hit, you now need to control your ball flight. This
means you want to keep it down so it is less affected by the
wind that is blowing in your face. To do this keep your hands
below shoulder height on the back swing and on the follow thru.
Play the ball back in the stance a little and make sure at
impact you get at least 80% of your weight on your forward foot
at impact.
For the PGA Tour players this week at the Sony Open, the
guessing proved to be more art than science as many shots sailed
over greens or came up well short. And of course, this then
leads to other problems. For example, I noticed many of the
players seemed to struggle with the thick bermuda rough at
Wailae Golf Course, especially around the greens.
When you get near the greens, here is a formula for the short
game: putt it first, chip it second and pitch it up in the air
as a last resort. I think some of the players at the Sony would
have been better suited to have followed that considering the
strong wind blowing.
And speaking of the grass, it seemed to me that some of the
players were having a hard time figuring out the speed of the
greens there. This is not surprising. The greens for the Sony
Open are bermuda grass greens. Many of the PGA Tour players are
from areas of the country where they have bent grass greens and
of course the ball rolls much faster on bent grass. You'll
usually see a fair number of players arrive early or spend extra
time practicing their putting when they play somewhere with
bermuda greens. That's another lesson for all of us. When going
somewhere new to play, show up early and spend some time getting
used to the conditions for that facility. It will almost always
serve you well.
