Tiger's comments on alignment regarding Stack and Tilt / Sean Foley

[majorchamp]

So in the post round conference with Tiger yesterday, he mentioned how he is struggling to shape his shots now that he is hitting it straighter due to compressing the ball more and "correctly swinging" as he said, which surprised me given his level of expertise.

But since some people on this forum are more experienced with the Stack and Tilt properties, how do his comments of someone transitioning to a stack and tilt based swing sound? Are they spot on?

[CuppedTin]

Is Tiger transforming to S&T?

[michaeljames92]

Sean Foley's pattern is very similar to Andy and Mike's.

Originally Posted by CuppedTin

Is Tiger transforming to S&T?

[iacas]

I think it's partly real/true and it's partly a bunch of hogwash.

For example, consider the guy who slices the ball 30 yards every time with his driver. His swing kinda sucks (perhaps), he's not compressing the ball, and yet he is able to play relatively good golf because he knows his ball is going to curve 30 yards every time. Think... Bruce Lietzke. Then consider Tiger, who's close to playing the ball straight, but he misses his path a little to the side each time. Great for compressing the ball, but you can't easily play a baby draw if it sometimes fades a few yards or play a baby fade if it sometimes draws a few yards.

But mostly I think it's simply about Tiger doing what good athletes have to do - make excuses and blame external things while subtly talking themselves up to build confidence.

I watched a lot of his shots and talked to some trusted people in person. A lot of his missed drives simply didn't have enough curve. He'd play a push-draw that pushed but didn't draw. Or he'd play a fade (kind of a straight fade they said) that would start straight but never fade back.

Then he'd hit some terrible ones when it looked like he tried to force a ball flight rather than realize he's really close and his ball simply isn't going to move much in one direction or the other.

[mattttt25]

He sounded pretty honest in the interview I saw.  Said he kept falling back into his old patterns, which is something we can all relate to.

[allin]

I took it pretty much as eric. Tiger just hasn't adjusted to the amount of curve he is now getting or missing by a small amount.

[MiniBlueDragon]

I took it that he's used to a large curve on his shots but when they've been bad shots they're just less of a curve.

With StackAndFoley his normal shot is a push draw or pull-slice but when it's a bad shot he loses all curve and ends up hitting a straight pull or push which is getting him in trouble.

[Deryck Griffith]

I've always wondered why Tiger never played a "tighter" straighter ball flight.

I guess it's his DNA. When you grow up hitting dozens of shots, you start to see the game in curves and changing that way of thinking will take some time.

[Zeph]

Why does he not trust his alignment? Changing your aim is a natural adjustment when you are changing the curve of the shot. He says he's not used to the ball curving less, but why is it so difficult to aim a little more to the left or right? If he keeps hitting the ball into the rough all day, it shouldn't take too many shots to see if aiming more straight ahead works.