Instruction blog: How Tiger found the fairways

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Tiger Woods hit every fairway in the final round at Muirfield Village.

What Happened
What a difference a couple of weeks: Tiger Woods went from trying to land the driver somewhere between the frontage roads surrounding the golf course to striping his newly lofted driver right down the center sprinkler lines of the Murfield Village fairways.

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PGA TOUR Golf Academy's Travis Fulton analyzes Tiger Woods' victory in the Memorial on the the PGA TOUR Network (XM 146, SIRIUS 209). Click to listen The Student Manual will walk you through the "Building Block Approach" as taught at all TOUR Academies. Learn the proper steps on building an efficient full swing and short game. Buy the manual

Tiger absolutely littered the fairways all week to the tune of 49 for 56, including an impressive 14 for 14 on Sunday. It had been almost six years since he hit every fairway in a single round. With his driver bumped up to 10 degrees of loft, Tiger turned his driver from a glaring weakness into the catapult that launched an extraordinary Sunday round to capture The Memorial tournament and his 67th official PGA TOUR title.

Woods sealed his final round 65 with two towering birdies on the 17th and 18th to hold off Jim Furyk by a shot. In addition to great driving, Woods was generally firing on all cylinders in Ohio. With such an impressive win, Woods seems to be close to 100 percent and is certainly the clear favorite for the U.S. Open in next week.

What Can You Learn
When was the last time you hit a short pitch and then quickly let go of the club with your right hand shortly after impact? Tiger certainly makes these difficult shots look easy around the greens, and like so many times in the past, he can just simply turn it on when he has to. With his timely eagle on the 11th hole on Sunday, Tiger kept the heat on the leaders as he climbed to within one shot of the lead.

Tiger's short game looked great all week, and his putting stroke seems to be getting very close where you begin to think he is going to make everything. With Tiger's short game evolving back to form -- combined with the world's best player hitting the majority of fairways -- you begin to sense something special could be coming up in this summer's major championships.

It is remarkable just how much Tiger has improved with his driver from just a couple of weeks ago. One of the keys at The Memorial was the overall improvement in "timing" with Tiger's swing.

Timing in the golf swing can be measured at the swing's low point, which is defined as the outside of the lead shoulder -- for a right-handed golfer, this would be the left shoulder. When the swing reaches this point in the swing just after impact, there should be a straight line from the left shoulder down the left arm and continuing to the club head. This straight line from the left shoulder to the club head is the definition of good timing.

This is a critical key in Tiger's swing. To achieve this position there are a number of things that must occur including a good sequence with the body pivot to the proper motion of the arms and hands. For Tiger, two things really help him achieve the proper timing to line everything up at the low point.

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Tiger's left arm covers his right shoulder at the top of the swing.

1. Left arm -- One of the subtle changes this week for Tiger was the position in his left arm. It appeared to be a little more upright at the top of the backswing. With the left arm more upright, Tiger is able to swing his lead arm more down in front of the body during the downswing resulting in improved timing at the low point.

One of the things that Tiger will struggle with from time to time is getting the left arm too far behind the body during the downswing. This will force him to save it with his hands at impact. If he doesn't recover quickly, Tiger hits the big push to the right that we have been accustomed to seeing so far this year.

With the improved left arm at the top it appears Tiger is now working his arm swing much more in front of his body on the downswing and into an impact position that needs no extra savings.

A good checkpoint at the top of the swing for the left arm is to have it cover the right shoulder when viewed from along the extended target line. If the left arm is too upright you will see the right shoulder between the arms and if it's too flat then the right shoulder will appear over the left arm. Most golfers err with the left arm getting too upright. This leads to a very steep angle of attack coming into impact.

2. Head Level -- Another key for Tiger is keeping his head level on the downswing and through impact. Sometimes when Tiger is struggling you will see his head move significantly down on the downswing which then causes him to move the left shoulder back and up to make room for the arms to swing through. This week, Tiger seemed to keep the head more level on the downswing. This allowed him to rotate through impact aggressively resulting in much more consistent contact and greatly improved accuracy.

You will often see amateur golfers let their head not only move down, but also forward and in front of the ball. This move starting the downswing really makes it difficult to control the clubface at impact. On the downswing, it is recommended for not only the head to stay at the same height, but also behind the ball to promote the proper timing to the swing's low point.

Achieving good timing in your golf swing is a result of many things. Positioning the left arm where it covers the right shoulder at the top of the swing while keeping your head level and behind the ball will certainly lead to improved timing just as it has for Tiger Woods.

Just Because
Is it just me, or have you had enough of another Brett Favre comeback? Being a big sports fan and all, I just don't like it when I see these athletes retire and come back, retire and come back. At this time last year, I wrote a "Just Because" about how great a player Brett Favre was and how great he was for the game of football. This year and another potential comeback in the near future, I am simply annoyed and wish it would just go away.

Perhaps I am a little bitter for all the difficult playoff losses Favre and the Packers used to give my Seahawks. Oh, I can remember like it was yesterday. Favre scrambling all over the place in the snow and chucking a hail mary over his head as he falls to the ground that somehow finds the hands of his receiver in the end zone. If he wants to keep playing, maybe Favre can talk the NFL into following in the footsteps of the PGA TOUR and starting their own Flag Football Senior Tour. Then we wouldn't have to worry about spending the entire summer wondering what helmet he's going to wear every September.

Or -- better yet -- give me a call, Brett, and we'll work on your golf game. Enough with the pigskin. Time to play the real sport of a lifetime: Golf.

For ways Travis can help your game, click here.