Blog: Woods shapes his 70th career PGA TOUR victory

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Steve Williams and Tiger Woods seemed to have all the right answers Sunday.

Here we go again. Tiger Woods wins the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational to push his total to now five wins for the year. Now don't get me wrong, you know I like Tiger Woods, but I must admit I was a bit disappointed after Harrington dropped kicked his wedge into the water on the 16th hole during the final round.

Going into Sunday, I knew Harrington would give Tiger a good fight. After weathering the storm Tiger issued on the front nine with a sizzling 4-under (31), Harrington looked like he just might hold off the No. 1 player in the world. However, after the triple bogey on the 16th hole and another Woods birdie on the 18th -- it was another all too familiar story for the rest of the field with Woods winning by four shots.

This win now takes Tiger's career total to an impressive 70 wins on the PGA TOUR. Seeing Tiger is only 33 years old and is now only three behind Jack Nicklaus and 12 to Sam Snead -- I am going to go out on a limb and say he just might get there.

What Can We Learn
After Tiger won the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this spring, I broke down some of the changes that Tiger and his swing coach Hank Haney made. At times this year, some of these changes may have seemed questionable as Woods has clearly struggled with his swing from time to time. Nevertheless, Woods has stayed the course with these swing changes as they are beginning to show some real signs again towards consistent ball striking.

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Tiger Woods is able to hit several different types of shots.

One of the things Woods is able to do easier now is work the ball in both directions at different trajectories. On every shot, it seems Woods is trying to do something different with the golf ball whether its flighting it lower or higher, moving it left-to-right or right-to-left, Woods is one of the best when it comes to shaping the ball.

Shaping the ball is an art that can really help a player develop more feel with their swing. It is recommended that you should have a stock shot that you can go too and repeat but being able to shape the ball will certainly take you to another level of ball striking.

Here are a few tips to shape the ball like Tiger Woods did in Ohio this week.

Lower trajectory
On the 10th hole on Sunday, Tiger hit his patented stinger shot that gets about two feet off the ground and stays in the air forever. This is such a cool shot to watch and one that Tiger rarely misses.

When trying to flight the ball lower like this, it is recommended to play the ball slightly back from where you would normally play that particular club. During the swing it is mandatory to return the club shaft forward at impact to hit a lower trajectory shot. This will allow the lead wrist to remain flat to even slightly bowed resulting in a de-lofted face angle. This impact condition should be carried through the impact zone and cut-off to an abbreviated finish. You will see Tiger really hold the arms, hands and club shaft down to a much lower finish as the body completely rotates through.

Higher trajectory
The 8-iron Tiger hit on the 16th hole on Sunday was just unbelievable. An absolute towering shot that worked its way around the moon and right next to the hole just might have been the shot of the year.

When trying to flight the ball higher like this, it is recommended to play the ball slightly forward from where you would normally play that particular club. During the swing it is recommended to return the club shaft forward at impact like that of the lower trajectory shot but allow the arms, hands and club shaft to swing on up to a normal and much higher finish position. On the 16th hole on Sunday, Tiger really allowed for this to happen hoisting the ball well into the stratosphere.

Left to right
On Sunday, the second hole was a key hole as Tiger came out swinging with an eagle to get things rolling quickly. The key shot was his second to the par-5 where Woods hit a beautiful 5-wood that worked from left-to-right to about 25 feet.

When shaping the ball left-to-right like this, it is important we decrease the amount of club face rotation through impact. The two easiest ways you can do this is to change the way you use your lead hand through impact and/or weaken the grip. At impact, keep the lead hand "turned" through the impact zone. This means the knuckles would be more towards the sky as if you were pulling with the lead hand. This positioning of the left hand will keep the club face open through impact imparting left-to-right spin. To encourage more spin in that direction, you can also weaken the grip by turning your hands more to the left on the grip. This too will encourage less club face rotation resulting in more spin from left-to-right.

Right to left
Once again on the 18th hole at Firestone, the stage was set for another Tiger birdie to cap his 7th win at this tournament. With a back left hole location, Tiger could hit a nice little slider from right-to-left to seal his 70th PGA TOUR victory.

When shaping the ball right-to-left like this, it is important we increase the amount of club face rotation through impact. Once again, the two easiest ways you can do this is to change the way you use your lead hand through impact and/or strengthen the grip. This time at impact, keep the lead hand "rolled" through the impact zone. This means the knuckles would be more towards the ground at impact. This positioning of the left hand will keep the club face closed through impact imparting right-to-left spin. To encourage more spin in that direction, you can also strengthen the grip by turning your hands more to the right on the grip. This too will encourage more club face rotation resulting in more spin from right-to-left.

Just Because
What a great weekend in sports it was this past week. Tiger is back in full form, the Mariners are making a run at the AL Wild Card and did I just happen to see an NFL preseason game on Sunday night? I think I did as the Hall of Fame game kicked off some action in Canton, Ohio.

In addition to all this excitement in sports, I also found some time to take part in my second Kenny Chesney concert right here in Jacksonville. The guy was once again amazing as the sold out crowd never sat down for 2½ hours as he rattled off one hit after another.

Next up on the concert docket is one my favorites -- AC/DC. These guys were a staple in my time growing up in the Northwest. I can remember listening to jams like "Thunderstruck" and "Who made Who" with the 10-inch Rockfard Fosgate's booming in the back of the old Mazda B2200.

Oh those were the days -- see you next week from Hazeltine.