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The 2008 Verizon Heritage Golf Classic
The 2008 Verizon Heritage
An A-list of Past ChampionsThe “Heritage” has been an event on the PGA Tour since 1969. The first winner is a legend, Arnold Palmer. Through the 1970’s there were other great winners such as, Hale Irwin (3), Johnny Miller(2), Hubert Green(2), Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Watson. That is quite a collection of great champions. The 1980’s saw winners like, Fuzzy Zoeller(2), Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Davis Love III (5), Greg Norman, and Payne Stewert(2). The parade of great winner continues in the 1990 and into the new millennium. Last year Boo Weekly joined that group, and if history is any indication, he should have a stellar PGA career. The year before saw Aaron Baddley put on the plaid jacket. He has a lot of game, and will likely have a great career. It is a great sign for a golf course and a tournament when you have such a great list of winners. There have been 17 winners that have also won at least one major championship. You really need to play well here to win. You need to be a good ball striker, and be able to handle the wind. Harbour Town Golf Links
The golf is a Pete Dye design and truly uses the natural settings of Hilton Head Island to create a Scottish feel and style of play. Wind is typically a factor. The course is not super long, but you need to hit the ball in the right spots in order to score well. The other key to this course are the greens. They are tiny. They are 1000 square feet smaller than the average on tour. This is truly a shot maker’s course. The pros will need to shape shots both left to right and right to left. They will need to play high and low shots. Most importantly their short game will be under the most pressure, as unless they are having the best ball striking week of their life, they will face more chips and pitches than they are used to dealing with. I hope you enjoy the 2008 Verizon Heritage Golf Classic. The Heritage has been a classic almost every year, and if you want to learn the benefit of shaping shots, this is the tournament to watch. Saturday's Tour TipsPlease remember to look for the player tips before the 3rd round coverage. I will give you video analysis of the players at the top of the leader board. You can learn a lot from watching the best players in the world. I will show you what to look for and how to implement it into your golf game. After the second round of the 2008 Verizon Heritage Classic the leader board looks like this:
It certainly is a tight leader board heading into the weekend. No one has run away with the tournament, which means it should be an exciting weekend at the 2008 Verizon Heritage Classic. Boo Weekely - 2008 Verizon Heritage Weekely sits alone in second and only one shot back of Glover. There are a couple of things in his swing that are a bit of a throw back to the old school. He does one thing in particular that was very prominent before the 1990’s, but has been phased out by the modern day Tour Player. Weekley lifts his left heel on his back swing. Most players have taken this move out because they have great flexibility. They don’t need to lift their heel to make a full turn. If you have enough flexibility then I would suggest not lifting your heel at all. It is just an extra movement that does not need to be there. It can be one less thing to worry about. However, if you need to make a little bigger turn then you can lift your heel. The trick is to do it the way Weekley makes his move. When his heel comes off the ground it does not push the rest of his body up. It is used to turn and not to lift. That is a very important thing to remember. Watch how level his head stays while his heel comes off the ground. It does not go up. It stays the same as it was at address. You will also notice that he lifts his heel only at the end of his back swing to get the extra turn. Now…here is the extra benefit of lifting your heel. When you reach the top of your back swing start you downswing by re-planting your heel first. You have heard how you need to start your downswing from the ground up…well…it does not get any easier than replanting your heel. Jack Nicklaus lifted his heel and always said that his downswing trigger was to re-plant his heel. For more information on making a great back swing please click here. I personally don’t lift my heel, so that will not be featured in my on-line lessons. However, if I were to, it would be at the top of my back swing. Anthony Kim - 2008 Verizon Heritage Here is a young kid full of talent. This guy is pretty remarkable. One of the shots he hit yesterday was a massive cut around a set of trees as his second shot to a par 5. The problem was that he was aiming straight out of bounds. He stepped up and hit his cut, and the ball ended up just short of green. He then hit an awesome pitch up over the top tier with spin, and stuck it to three feet and then made that for birdie. That is a great display of shot making, short game touch, and pressure putting. He is great to watch. The video embedded shows him working on the range. He is doing a great drill to work on making a proper turn. I actually taught a woman who dropped her handicap by 12 strokes by playing all of her shots like this. He makes his back swing so that his left arm is almost parallel to the ground. Then he stops…hesitates for a second…and then completes his turn. This is a great way to make sure he is turning his arms and chest together. When you watch him this weekend, see if he turns his arms and chest at the same time for his back swing. To see more pictures on this move please click here. Stephen Ames - 2008 Verizon Heritage When you get to see Ames play this weekend you will see a player who is methodical in his approach and swing. There are a couple of things to look and try to take into your own game. The first is the how quickly he goes from his practice swing to his actual swing. The longer you wait the harder it is to repeat the practice swing. That is the point of taking a practice swing…to try and repeat it for your shot. Some sports psychologists go as far as calling the practice swing a ‘rehearsal swing’ So try and do it like Ames does by not wasting any time between the practice swing and your golf shot.The thing to watch in his golf swing is his iron play. Watch how centered he stays over the ball during his back swing for his iron shots. This allows him to have great balance during his approach shots to the green. You need great balance to hit accurate shots, and you need accurate shots to score well. Click here for more information on hitting great iron shots. I hope you enjoy the rest of the 2008 Verizon Heritage Classic. It should be a great weekend of golf. Who is going to bring home the tartan plaid jacket as champion of the tournament? Good luck with your practicing, playing, and watching. May you ‘Play Your Golf Dreams’ sooner with the help of free-golf-lessons.com. Return to the Home Page from the 2008 Verizon Heritage
Return to the Watch the Pros page from the 2008 Verizon Heritage
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