Blog: Tiger's swing looked good with new knee

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Travis Fulton says it doesn't appear that Tiger's knee surgery has affected the consistency of his swing.

Happy Groundhog Day! Excuse me, I meant Happy Fourth of July as Tiger Woods wins again at the AT&T National hosted by... you guessed it: Tiger Woods. It might as well have been Groundhog Day and it seems like every time I wake up another Tiger win is on the cover of the sports section.

In fact, we're now up to 68 times that Tiger Woods has won on the PGA TOUR and quickly closing in on Jack Nicklaus's 73 and Sam Snead's 81 career victories.

If being the host of a PGA TOUR event isn't enough, Tiger played great all week as well and did just enough on Sunday to hold off the charging Hunter Mahan who shot an extraordinary 62 to finish one-shot behind. With three wins in 2009 -- which all have come on his final start before each major championship -- I am going to go out on a limb and predict Woods to be the favorite at The Open Championship across the pond in two weeks.

Listen to Travis Fulton

PGA TOUR Golf Academy's Travis Fulton breaks down the keys to Tiger Woods' win on the PGA TOUR Network (XM 146, SIRIUS 209). Click to listen

What Can We Learn
As golf fans we are blessed to be right hear, right now, to watch Woods career unfold over the past decade and I know I never stop learning from watching Woods. Over the years I have confessed how big of a Tiger fan I am; as I not only cheer him on, but find myself trying to do so many things like him. For example, often times with my own game I try to swing like him, hit impossible short game shots like him, I even stopped my downswing mid-way down the other day for no apparent reason. And it's not just me.

I see thousands of golfers at the TOUR Academies all across the country doing the same things and much more. For example, a student this weekend asked me, "How do I hit the Tiger 2-iron stinger?" We discussed and went through all the components -- I even threw in the patented twirl of the club at the end for no extra charge.

Later that day I watched this same student let go of the club with his left hand after hitting every short game shot out of the rough just like Tiger did a couple of weeks ago at The Memorial.

I hear teachers using him as an example all the time, from how he walks, how he talks to even how he blinks (we try to draw the line there). Nevertheless, Woods has taken over and has left us all speechless. By the way, he is winning tournaments at twice the rate of the greatest players in the history of the game who came before him winning 29 percent of his starts! Tiger has an effect on not only everybody he plays with but everybody who is watching as well. He is contagious and makes things seem so easy to the point that we too can do things like him.

Throughout his career, I have always admired how the world's greatest player has continued to make changes and work on his game. I have heard time and time again that he "just wants to get better". After winning the Masters in 1997 by 12 shots, Tiger made his first significant swing change with his long-time coach Butch Harmon.

Again, after winning the Masters by 12 shots -- all is good, right? Not for Tiger -- things needed to improve.

Under Harmon's tutelage, Tiger was able to improve his swing and approach to the game resulting in numerous victories and major championships including a U.S. Open victory by 15 shots in 2000. So I guess he did get better! Like so many other teacher-student relationships on TOUR, Butch and Tiger parted ways but Tiger's pursuit of improvement continued.

In 2004, Tiger switched to Hank Haney as his swing coach. The two mapped out a plan for Tiger to continue to get better by changing his swing to become more consistent. With Tiger's knee surgery now a thing of the past, perhaps we are getting our first look on how consistent Tiger's swing can be.

One of the keys to Tiger's swing now is his ability to hit against a firm left leg. With a broken down left knee in the past, Tiger wasn't able to hit against the left side as well as he would've liked resulting in compensations with the hands at impact to correct for earlier swing positions. With his left knee surgically improved, Tiger is able to synchronize his arms and hands better with the rotation of his body to impact without any last second manipulations.

This concept between squaring the clubface in conjunction with the rotation of the body rather than with the hands independently is one difference you will find between professionals and amateurs. Now with a strong left side at impact, Tiger is a great example of someone who rotates through the hitting area while keeping his hands more passive. This is a key ingredient to Tiger's swing and perhaps could be the final piece of the puzzle that has come from the work Haney and Woods have done with Tiger's backswing.

One of the major changes Haney made with Tiger is setting the clubface square at the top, rather than closed. One of the misses for Tiger through his 20s was a nasty hook. This was the result of the clubface being closed at the top of the backswing. You will often see Tiger rehearse his new clubface position at the top during his pre-shot routine where he exaggerates opening the clubface. The end result sees clubface angle match the back of his left hand and forearm in a perfectly square position.

Many golfers struggle with an impact condition where the body stalls out and the right hand takes over effectively throwing the clubhead at the ball. This is a common error and really disrupts a good impact position robbing power and accuracy. Learning to keep the hands more passive and use the body's rotation to deliver the clubface is definitely a more powerful and consistent approach to striking a golf ball. With a healthy left knee like Tiger's, you too can learn to keep your hands passive and use the body more to create a more repeatable impact.

A good drill to help feel this is to put an extension on a 9-iron. Currently, there are numerous swing devices out that will extend the golf club approximately a grip's length. Make some little swings keeping the extension from hitting the body as you enter the impact zone. To achieve this you will notice how the trail wrist must stay bent with the body rotating to deliver the club face to impact. If you flip it with the trail wrist the extension will hit the side of your body before impact.

Learn to hit some short shots first keeping the extension off the body until after impact. This will give you a great sense for the how the body moves through the hitting area with a more passive approach to the hands.

Just Because
Alright, enough with Tiger let's talk about Brett Farve some more -- Not!

What a crazy week it has been with what seems like so many sudden deaths including the King of Pop -- Michael Jackson. Like or dislike him Michael Jackson was certainly one of the icons of our time. It is just amazing how many Michael Jackson fans there are as the guy sold more records then anybody in the history of music. These fans were from all over the world which consisted of mostly admitted fans but like so many other artists, he had his share of closet fans as well.

You know who you are. Isn't it funny how we all have those CDs in that special case you get out when you are the only one in the car? You would never admit to anyone you actually listen to some of these artists but you know it's true. I see it all the time people cruising down the street using the steering wheel as the high hat and the right knee as the snare drum. I always think to myself, "I wonder what they are listening too?"

I always hide my special case under the driver seat and God forbid anyone catches sight of some of these artists. Early in Michael Jackson's career he was out in the open in the big case with jams like "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough", "Rock With You" and "Billie Jean", however when things started to get a little weird he transferred to under the seat. Regardless, his music was incredible and in a time where we are watching history being made with Roger Federer's 15th major title passing the great Pete Sampras and Tiger Woods now just four major's away from catching Jack Nicklaus; it seems hard to believe that we will ever see an artist again that will even come close to what Michael Jackson accomplished in the music world.