Face Facts, AJ

A top teacher says Woods is one simple fix away from dominating Pebble I recently had a wonderful playing lesson with A.J. Bonar, head professional at A.J. Golf School north of San Diego, and one of the brightest minds in golf. If you're in SoCal and struggling with ball-striking, seek him out. Unlike many golf teachers, he simplifies the swing. A.J. doesn't want his students worrying about one-piece takeaways or straight left arms. As I wrote in a Golf Magazine cover story, he teaches the golf swing from the elbows down, showing how to control the clubface with your hands and arms. It's liberating to be freed from the chains of rotating hips and transferring weight. Says A.J., "The swing comes down to opening the clubface with your hands during the backswing, and then turning it [the clubface] over through impact, like a topspin forehand in tennis. It's all about clubface position at impact. The mistake many players make, especially good players, is thinking the club moves squarely through impact. It doesn't. The face is rapidly closing, from an open position. It just feels square." Which leads us to Tiger. I asked A.J. about Woods, who has looked very mortal since returning to golf (see: hitting six of 28 fairways at Quail Hollow and missing the cut.) Can Tiger find his form in time for Pebble's pinched fairways and wiry rough? A.J. says Tiger may be closer than we think. CONNELL BARRETT Heading into the U.S. Open, Tiger's swing—by his standards—is in deep-freeze. It's looking like 2010 could be a lost season for him. If you had one hour with Tiger, what would you advise? A.J. BONAR I wouldn't need an hour. I'd need five minutes. His problem is small but easily fixed. I would say, "Cup it and kill it." End of lesson. CB: So you're saying that like Hogan's famous secret, Tiger needs to cup his left wrist. Why? AB: Tiger keeps his left wrist flat in his backswing. Here's a fact about the golf swing. To really kill the ball, the clubface has to be rotating from open to close as it goes through impact. The club is not square. It's rotating. Watch the high-speed video they show on TV. But Tiger's not opening his clubface in the backswing, like he did so well in 2000. Back then, he had the face open and could unleash the clubface through impact. To open the face, you simply cup your left wrist—meaning you bend your left hand toward your watch face, if you were wearing one. CB: How can you tell Tiger's face is square, not open, in the backswing? AB: It's subtle, so it's easily missed. Even Tiger's missing it! Here's how you tell. Look at Tiger's driver swing from recent years. At the top of his backswing, imagine a line extends from the toe of the club. Under Hank Haney, that line [with a driver] extends to about 4:00, if you imagine a clock face. That's square, not open. The ideal position at the top is [to have the toe point to] 6:00, which means the face has opened, and the club is ready to be delivered to the ball. That's closer to where Tiger is when he's in a better position at the top. CB: So your theory is that Tiger's closing his club in the backswing and making compensations through impact? AB: Exactly. I can't stress this enough, and a lot of teachers disagree: You must open the clubface in the backswing to hit the ball consistently well, because that lets you turn it loose through impact. Tiger's pre-closing his clubface, so he compensates by holding it off and blocking tee shots right. Tiger's nature is aggressive, but by failing to open his clubface by not cupping his left wrist, he's putting the clubface in a passive position. I'll put it in baseball terms. Back in 2000, Tiger was swinging for the fences. Now, it's a check swing. CB: That's a great point. As Brandel Chamblee pointed out to me, if you compare Tiger's driving distance these days to 2000, he's about the same—but that's like losing distance. Virtually ever player today who was playing in 2000 hits it 10 to 15 yards longer. Relative to his competitors, he's gotten shorter. Yet you say it's a simple fix—cup the wrist and bombs away. But how can Tiger Woods, the greatest player of his era, not know what his clubface is doing? Doesn't he know that he's failing to open the clubface? AB: Having a square clubface throughout the swing is an attractive, logical idea. To open the clubface seems... irresponsible. However, I've studied the greatest swings ever—Hogan, Nicklaus, Els, Couples—and they all have the clubface open at the top. Tiger has wonderful hands, obviously, and so much talent. Maybe being on his own, without Hank, he'll mess around on the range, find his old clubface position at the top, and rip it like he did in 2000. CB: Let's give the readers a tip. How can they check to see if they're opening the clubface properly in the backswing. And if they're not, what should they do? AB: Take your normal driver backswing and stop at the top. The toe of the club should point toward the ground, with the face pointing toward the back of your head. If you're doing that, don't change a thing. However, if the face points more toward the sky, that means you're closing the club, robbing yourself of big distance. The fix is simply to cup the left wrist during the backswing. It's a small movement, but it has a dramatic effect on the clubface. In golf, the little things make a big difference. Read more: http://blogs.golf.com/flyers/2010/06...#ixzz0qOqeaWqW

I love it how everyone could fix Tiger in two minutes with one random tweak. It's like Caruso lost his voice and a bunch of twats in the box seats are debating whether his collar's too tight.

A.J. Bonar's last name is almost the perfect way to explain his philosophy. He's an idiot, and his parents were probably idiots, and his kids will likely be idiots too.

A.J. Bonar is an idiot, enough said

If Bonar can hit the ball longer by opening and closing the wrists, I'd like to see him prove it. Opening and closing the clubface doesn't speed up the clubhead, it only rotates it, hardly anything to gain at all by doing that move.