"Hello World" was how we all got introduced to Tiger Woods as a Professional Golfer back in August of 1996. Looking back it is hard to believe that in 12 short years he has won 14 major championships and 65 PGA Tour events, more than any other active player. However, we are all waiting for the return of Tiger to competitive golf after a 9 month hiatus due to reconstructive anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery on his left knee and the answer to the question "will Tiger still be Tiger?".
So, will Tiger still be Tiger? As an instructor my feeling is that everyone out on tour should be very, very scared. Yes it will take Tiger a few(maybe one) tournaments to get back into a competitive mode, but lets be realistic. Mentally, Tiger is light years ahead of his fellow competitors, so this should not be a major issue. The real question lies in his golf swing and his ability to play at the same level. I fully believe that Tiger will not only return with a stronger reconstructed knee but also a stronger, more consistent golf swing.
There are many reasons Tiger had issues with knee, many of which I do not know enough about to comment on. Remember I am the Swing Doc, not the medical Doc. But, I do know something about the golf swing and what was happening with Tigers swing that caused further problems with his knee. All great ball strikers have almost identical kinematic sequences of generating speed and transferring speed throughout their bodies. Jim Furyk's swing compared to Ernie Els swing looks extremely different on video, but when measured using 3D motion analysis their kinematic sequence is almost identical. All great ball strikers generate speed from their lower body and transfer that speed through their torso into their arms and then into the club. The key to this sequence is that each segment of the chain must slow down as the next segment continues to accelerate. Think of a whip. The first thing you do is accelerate the handle to generate speed. Then you rapidly decelerate the handle to transfer speed to the next part of the whip. THIS IS WHERE TIGER RUNS INTO A PROBLEM.
Why Tiger is different from many players is that he has the ability to generate unbelievable speed with his lower body and more importantly because of his awesome physical strength he is able to rapidly decelerate the lower body, thus transferring awesome speed to his upper body and throughout the chain. However, the amount of pressure that is put on the left leg when stabilizing this motion eventually will cause some type of injury most likely in the left hip or left knee whcih is what happened to Tiger. Because of this I fully believe that Tiger has had to build a more controlled golf swing that places less pressure on the left knee. He will need to revert to hitting more three quarter shots with less lower body motion very similar to the way he played when he was working with Butch Harmon and had his best career year in 2000. The way that Tiger chipped and putted in 2007 and the first half of 2008 allowed him to win 13 times on the PGA Tour including two majors, if he placed the ball better in the fairway during this period, he was 152nd and 165th in driving accuracy, I believe the number of wins would have been significantly higher. The underlying factor of his poor driving, I believe was excessive lower body motion and the tendency to get stuck way to often. If Tiger comes back with a more controlled swing and places an emphasis on accuracy, he will be awesome.
Tiger will be back, hopefully sooner than later and this Swing Doc truly believes that we will witness "Hello World" part 2.
So, will Tiger still be Tiger? As an instructor my feeling is that everyone out on tour should be very, very scared. Yes it will take Tiger a few(maybe one) tournaments to get back into a competitive mode, but lets be realistic. Mentally, Tiger is light years ahead of his fellow competitors, so this should not be a major issue. The real question lies in his golf swing and his ability to play at the same level. I fully believe that Tiger will not only return with a stronger reconstructed knee but also a stronger, more consistent golf swing.
There are many reasons Tiger had issues with knee, many of which I do not know enough about to comment on. Remember I am the Swing Doc, not the medical Doc. But, I do know something about the golf swing and what was happening with Tigers swing that caused further problems with his knee. All great ball strikers have almost identical kinematic sequences of generating speed and transferring speed throughout their bodies. Jim Furyk's swing compared to Ernie Els swing looks extremely different on video, but when measured using 3D motion analysis their kinematic sequence is almost identical. All great ball strikers generate speed from their lower body and transfer that speed through their torso into their arms and then into the club. The key to this sequence is that each segment of the chain must slow down as the next segment continues to accelerate. Think of a whip. The first thing you do is accelerate the handle to generate speed. Then you rapidly decelerate the handle to transfer speed to the next part of the whip. THIS IS WHERE TIGER RUNS INTO A PROBLEM.
Why Tiger is different from many players is that he has the ability to generate unbelievable speed with his lower body and more importantly because of his awesome physical strength he is able to rapidly decelerate the lower body, thus transferring awesome speed to his upper body and throughout the chain. However, the amount of pressure that is put on the left leg when stabilizing this motion eventually will cause some type of injury most likely in the left hip or left knee whcih is what happened to Tiger. Because of this I fully believe that Tiger has had to build a more controlled golf swing that places less pressure on the left knee. He will need to revert to hitting more three quarter shots with less lower body motion very similar to the way he played when he was working with Butch Harmon and had his best career year in 2000. The way that Tiger chipped and putted in 2007 and the first half of 2008 allowed him to win 13 times on the PGA Tour including two majors, if he placed the ball better in the fairway during this period, he was 152nd and 165th in driving accuracy, I believe the number of wins would have been significantly higher. The underlying factor of his poor driving, I believe was excessive lower body motion and the tendency to get stuck way to often. If Tiger comes back with a more controlled swing and places an emphasis on accuracy, he will be awesome.
Tiger will be back, hopefully sooner than later and this Swing Doc truly believes that we will witness "Hello World" part 2.
