Deryck Griffith

I'm with you on this...I think he'll give it several chances in 2015 when he's ready to come back but if in those several chances throughout 2015 he isn't progressing, at all, I'll definitely take your 50/50.

I agree. I do think however that Lucas Glover's shot just before that went into the water (and hopped out incredibly) psyched out JB and he chickened out after seeing that shot. If he walks up to his ball, zones in and doesn't see that shot Glover hit, I willing to bet he goes for it.

1. What to work on? I would work on a less erect position of his back so he can lean slightly more forward at address with more rounded shoulders so his hands can hang down more freely. Flare his feet On his backswing, have him "feel" like his right forearm is staying straighter for longer Have him feel like the face of the club is facing the ball for longer from P1 to P2 and P3. Have feel feel like he is pushing off with the inner part of his right foot when he starts initiating the downswing 2. Why? The less erect position of his back will allow the arms to hang more freely and release the tension he has at address The flaring of his feet will allow him to have more hip turn (with the right foot flared) and make it easier to shift his weight forward (with the left foot flared). The right forearm feeling like it is staying straighter for longer will give him more width (his right elbow collapses badly and early) and the feel of a straighter right forearm will help to stop the incredible amount of external forearm rotation he has early in the backswing which moves the clubface inside the hands and not inline with the hands in P2. Pushing off with the Inner part of his right foot will give him the feel to push forward and GET his weight forward so he has a much better diagonal sweetspot path to the ball on the downswing WHICH, will also help his inline impact and throw his path more to the right turning the pulls into straight shots, and push draws. Straight draws that land left of his target will be progress even though it's missing left because the path indicates that he is moving his weight forward vs. now where he isn't and throwing the path over the top and pulling. 3. How? Use my hands to get him into the more rounded shoulder position Show him how much to flare his feet Right arm only takeaways with the golf where he keeps his right forearm straight and keeps the clubface pointing at the ball for longer "rather than" external rotating like he is doing now. Ask him to take a swing to the top and hold it there. I will then proceed to take a club and push with the grip end of the club, his belt buckle so that he "feels" what getting his weight forward feels like. In pushing his belt buckle, he will also "feel" the sensation of getting the club into the diagonal sweetpath position or as some say, "the slot."

Welcome to the forum! I'm from Toronto myself. Where are you? Enjoy and feel free to post your thoughts and opinions :)

Tiger isn't dating your daughter and won't be and kudos to protecting her from a person who has made mistakes. I would do so also. But, Tiger is also a professional golfer and that is a separate to his personal life. As it pertains to his personal life, you have no knowledge of what drove him to make the mistakes he did. Was it the lost of his father? Was it the immense pressure he had to deal with? Was it that he never had an adolescent life because it was always golf, all the time from the minute he was born and he "acted" out in a manner to relive from the anger within him that no one could ever understand? Money and success doesn't always equate to happiness and I am willing to bet Tiger wasn't truly happy deep down inside even though he was hoisting 6-8 trophies a year on the golf course. (Speaking of child prodigies, think Michael Jackson and how his adolescent life was ripped from him due to music). These types of things create scars and or holes in a young mans soul that you or I have no idea of understanding. I myself am speculating and don't know either so it would be judgemental for me to come to solid conclusions. All I can base my theories on are life and how experiences in life affect people. If someone is abused constantly as a child, and they abuse when they become older, is it right for me to fully judge when that person when they didn't have the loving and caring family that I did? What they did to abuse in their adult life is wrong and should be punished but there is a fundamental reason to the crime and that is something I try to understand to prevent myself from being overly judgemental. We can certainly agree that what he did was wrong AND agree that the price he paid was warranted. But the reason for what he did isn't black and white. There is a LOT of gray that we have to at least consider... Going back to golf, Tiger has a long enough resume that shows his integrity in the game. Without question, he is the most filmed / watched Golfer in history. If his "golfing" integrity (which again, is separate from his personal life) was in question, we would have come to that conclusion a LONG time ago considering the overbearing exposure he gets and that we have been forced fed in seeing. I think he is injured and I think he wants to play 1 and 2, has to play because his sponsors who are paying a shitload of money need him to play. When as a sponsor you are paying millions, there are VERY strong expectations to justify those millions. Believe you me, Tiger doesn't want to walk off the course. 1 because the pressure to perform from his sponsors alone is a gargantuan weight on his shoulders and 2, because his legacy is being ripped to shreds by threads like this. Based on those facts, I vote he is 100% injured and HAD to walk off to not risk any future of him having to force retirement due to irreparable damage from trying to "gut it out" as people are suggesting he isn't willing to do. Back injuries end the careers of ALL professional athletes no matter what the sport. Tiger knows this and knows that if he dicks around with "this" specific injury, he is guaranteed finished. Just my opinion.

A lot of people may skim past this point but I think it is an excellent point to make. Hitting that pin on #15 at the masters and then all of the aftermath of how he botched the rules I think was an incredible turning point in his "Tigeresque" comeback. If he doesn't hit that flag and does win the Masters, it would have given him a HUGE amount of momentum that we probably would still be benefiting from as fans today. In sport, momentum is everything and trying to gain that back is a huge feat, especially if you aren't at your full powers which Tiger isn't. It's mind blowing to me how many little key events have struck Tiger ever since 2009. It's almost like the "Evil Eye" is tailing him and screwing around with his ability to have progress without issues. Some may say it's Karma? Maybe it is but I'll say this, if his career comes to an end like this (pretty much overnight), it'll be an end in to the likes of Bo Jackson. We never saw Bo's full potential but we did see Tiger's and to have it snatched away seemingly overnight will be a tragic state of affairs. Personally, I don't think he will retire or officially announce retirement. Everything he does going forward is contingent on his back. He even said it himself, all of the other injuries he had he could play through at a high level but with the back, it's a totally different beast. He is right. Tiger is stuck right now. Is it the back or is the swing what's causing the back issue? With those questions lingering, he is going to have a hell of a difficult time to figure what direction to go. We will have to sit back and wait to see what happens as either way, it's going to make for a tremendous movie in the future.

It's all mental right now and his biggest challenge going forward will be overcoming that. That said, it is VERY early. We will see where he is at by the summer if he continues to stay healthy. It'll be interesting how he plays next week where he has a bit more room to miss off of the tee.

Swing looks pretty good. Not too much difference from the Foley swing but his hands are certainly higher at the top and it "looks like" he is hinging his wrists later in the back swing to allow, I guess, the back swing to be wider / longer. That's what it looks like but I could be wrong plus, the camera angle isn't the greatest.

The end of the swing is defined by the individuals swing and what works best for them. The end position and or length will then be decided between the golfer and instructor (in person or online ie. Golf Evolution). However, I think what can be agreed upon across the board and going to Erik's point in Post #2 and #4 is that many golfers go WAY past all the "varied shorter back swing lengths" that exist.

I would be willing to bet the added distance is mostly from more center club face contact with the ball. A lot of people forget the power of center contact on the club face and how that makes a tremendous difference in distance. So you can have a shorter back swing and even though you may "feel" or literally aren't swinging as fast, your distance will be the same or further because the aforementioned shorter back swing will give you (everyone) the best opportunity to hit the ball with the center of the club face more often. Sometimes when I glance at people's clubs; drivers, fairway woods, etc and glance at the clubs that you can tell they've had for a long time (more wear marks due to being older), the wear on the face of the club is all over the place - the toe, heel, skymarks, low, literally all over the club face. Getting a swing into a shorter position (albeit the right short position) could certainly get the wear marks to be more in the center equating to maximum distance and improved accuracy.

Not under any circumstance is it acceptable to purposely hit into a group, no matter how slow, clueless or ignorant they may be. If you hit someone and they die, you will be screwed for the rest of your life. It isn't worth it. You are better off catching up to them somehow and having a discussion about their slow play OR contacting the clubhouse to have a Marshall come and try to speed up the pace.

I'm not too sure if sit-ups are the best thing you should be doing to loosen up your back .....

This is a good find... I played baseball at a high level and never liked using doughnuts on my bat while in the on deck circle. Similar to what the article has explained, I would always feel like my swing was "off' or "weird" after taking several big hacks with the doughnut on so I always figured it would be best to take those swings normally with my bat and stretch out prior to entering the batters box. That being the case, in golf I've never attempted to use any weighted objects. 1, because I am already happy with my swing speed and 2, being how complex the golf swing is, I don't want anything to interfere with it prior to a round; especially, trying to swing a heavy club of some sort that could easily throw my mechanics off. If people want to find speed in their swing, they are better off doing gym work like plyometrics / core exercises using medicine balls, etc. Or if the objective is to just warm up prior to the round, instead of using a weighted club, spend the 20 minutes you would air swinging the weighted club in stretching. Most people have never "really" properly stretched and when you actually to properly stretch, you really feel loose which (of course) helps with freedom in the swing.

Firstly, that's a really nice hole of what it appears to be a wonderful golf course. Very cool. Secondly, I can certainly see what you mean by this example. To hit a shot that far to the left to either curve to that house and or travel on a straight line to said house would be incredibly difficult and only accomplished by the strongest golfers who hit the ball far enough to get it there (that also depends on the tee box you are playing from. If someone decided to tee it forward on that hole, maybe they can reach? What's the yardage on that hole and to carry the water anyway?) That said, it's a single example and I play courses all of the time that would have another 5-6 or more houses (from the house in your picture above) as neighbors that line all the way down on the left (or right) closer to the tee box (bear's best in Vegas which I just played is a great example of that. So is TPC Last Vegas which I also just played). And surprisingly, I've have seen many of those houses without netting protection which blows my mind and what the OP should consider doing to his house for protection.

It is this part that I am concerned with. And in reality, as it pertains to seeing it through and the principle of it all, at the end of the day, the golfing public wasn't fully aware of all of that was happening, the golfing public really doesn't give a damn and lastly with it being fully publicized, it kind of in a way has been brought onto himself and now he, and only he will have to deal with it while trying to change golf history. So if he truly doesn't care about the money as you say, pay the settlement. Horizon has lost anyway because one of the greatest players in history is no longer their client. It's like a divorce and what someone told me one time who had a friend that went through a TERRIBLE and expensive one - Find out immediately what she wants and throw a little more on top just for good measure to make it completely go away. In the long run, you will be MUCH better off and it's cheaper (I've never been married but thought it was great advice, lol)

Considering the scale of money that's involved here, I don't know why Rory just doesn't settle with Horizon for the 2M or so they want to make it go away and just move on with his life... If this drags on for much longer, I'm sure the Lawyer fees won't fall far from that amount anyway?

Houses on golf course are obviously never "in the line of play." They are out of play were most of the amateur golfing population potentially can and will hit a stray shot. I myself have hit and seen some pretty bad shots (that weren't intended to be reckless) that have gone WELL out of play and well within the range of a house that's "out of play."

Exactly. What's wrong with being proactive rather than reactive and putting up the net? There are very clear and "understood" risks to buying a house on a golf course?

There are a couple of interesting points this guy has made in those links but it's pretty unfair for this guy to go on his rant the first tournament Tiger has played since the summer. That's way to easy to do. Tiger and Chris are still in the very early stages of their work together. This stuff as everyone knows takes time and to rip it apart the FIRST tourney back is uncalled for.

You have to keep in mind (since you aren't that much of a golfer) that the average est. drive is around 200 yards or more. 200 yards is 600 feet away. That is quite a bit of distance to know exactly if your errant shot actually hit a house and if it did hit a house, which house it was that was hit (especially if there are obstruction(s) in front of the house - trees, fences, etc). If someone bangs a Tee Shot 250 yards, that 750 feet. In my experience, most people cringe on the idea of hitting a house and understand that it's terrible. I've never played with anyone who accidentally hit a ball in the direction of houses and didn't care or thought it "wasn't a big deal." But that's just me and maybe I hang around exceptionally good people or only have met good people when playing with strangers. All of that said, considering where you bought, I would recommend that you be proactive rather than reactive and invest in netting that will protect your house. Buying a house is one of the most (if not the most) important investments in someones life. It would be good/smart to invest in the protection necessary to protect that investment.

Who was the most famous Tour Pro back then that you played with?

This is great news! I wish her all of the success on the LPGA. It's going to be really cool to see "Woods" on the leaderboards of the LPGA.

I don't see anything wrong with the coat? It's a stylish coat. Have you ever stepped into Zara lately? Lot's of coats in that store that look similar to that one (I have one similar myself). He's European and the Euro's usually roll with style. Good for him, hopefully he enjoyed himself at the game.

Part of the 7 year drought has a lot to do with a particular and famous Fire Hydrant. After that whole debacle, a myriad of injuries lurked and in spite of that, he still was able to pull out 8 wins in 2012 & 2013. And like I said, two of those wins were in Major Championship fields...Yes, the Major"less" drought is long but moving forward from today (with the hope of good health), I just can't see how he is done. There is a lot of time left. Phil Mickelson is almost 5 years Tiger senior and no one says he's done? (and he has a serious case, while under control with meds, of arthritis).

The premature statement is you saying he's "done." Everyone seems to have VERY short memories. We have seen this Deja Vu Scenario with Tiger 3-4 times over already with him to then see him progress to Win and WIN a LOT. When Tiger first left Hank to go to Butch, the vitriol that existed at that time (which was smack in his prime) was HUGE. What followed was a lot of BAD BAD shots (again, this was during his prime), a very weak (for Tiger's standards at the TIME) 2004/2005 and Vijay during that time over a couple of years taking the #1 player in the world spot. It took Tiger almost two years to get that new Haney swing in check, regain his #1 status and start winning again. Sean Foley, same thing but a little different. Everyone Endorsed Foley's methods initially but Tiger struggled and had some terrible shots early on also. Foley got a bit of a tough card because Tiger was beat up for a long portion of their time together but besides that point, Tiger won 5 times in 2013 (3 times the year previous to that) with two of those wins in 2013 being the Players (Major field) and the WGC Bridgestone. That wasn't too shabby if you ask me. This current state of Tiger's game is what we all have seen before. Give it some time man before you make premature statements.