Golf Improvement Blog

I am trying to get my game ready for golf season and while it is still cold I have decided to start a consistent training routine. Instead of crafting my own based on some random golf articles available on the web, I have decided to mimic Tiger Woods’ workout.

One problem; it is a mystery. Even in a Men’s Fitness article claiming to reveal Tiger’s workout on the cover only served to add to the mystery by only releasing generalizations. Still there are key part of these generalizations that can be crafted into a Tiger-like workout.

With these hints I have crafted my own program, which is most likely very close to what Tiger does, but then again we may never know. Be advised, this regiment takes into account areas where I feel I am weak and adds a few more reps here and there. I am also in decent physical shape, but haven’t worked out since I came out of the Marine Corps (Oct 2007).

Phase 1: Stretching
I deem stretching very important to my game because I feel I lost much of my flexibility after I stopped playing golf competitively almost eight years ago. I want to get this back and so there are three different periods of stretching during my workout.

Here are some great golf stretches I can do at home and at the golf course provided by the Mayo Clinic. I also add some sitting leg stretches and also some bendover back stretches.

Phase 2: Warm Up
Stretching works great as a warm up for your warm up. For the warm up, I am going to mimic what Tiger is rumored to do. Thirty minutes on either the bike, treadmill, or stair stepper. Note: 30 minutes might be long for the beginner. It might be wiser to start with 15 minutes and work your way up to 30, always keeping a moderate pace.

Phase 3: Core Exercises
Tiger’s key in this phase is posture and balance. There is also emphasis on mimicing the golf swing.
1) Anchor two rubber band and do some simulated golf swing movements with moderate tension.
2) Medicine ball exercises- mimic the bottom half of a golf swing with a mid weight medicine ball.
3) Dumbell curls while sitting on a medicine ball with posture always in mind. The dumbells will always be will light weight so that I can achieve 20-30 reps.
4) Here is another example of a core exercise for golfers.

Phase 4: Endurance runs
Tiger is rumored to run both seven mile endurance runs and also three mile speed runs. Tiger is also rumored to workout up to six days per week and 2-3 hours at a time. An endurance run of seven mile should last between 45 to 60 minutes depending on your level of conditioning. This may not fit your work schedule due to the time consumed, but may be more suitable for a weekend workout.

I will run one endurance seven mile run per week to begin with (on a Wednesday) and two three mile speed runs on Monday and Friday. In my opinion, these speed runs should average at least one minute per mile better than your average minutes per mile on your endurance runs, hence the word “speed.”

Phase 5: Weight training
Tiger incorporates both free weights and machines into his workout.
High intensity day: Tiger is rumored to lift up to 80% of his body weight on high intensity days. For everyone else, I would recommend starting at weights you can consistently life for 20-30 reps.
3 sets of 20-30 reps Benchpress
” ” Overhead shoulder press
” ” Lat pull down Machine
” ” Squats
For more ideas on what exercises you can do visit here.

Phase 6: Cool Down
Simply repeat stretches from phase 1 and if need be, walk a moderately paced mile on the treadmill.

Disclosure: I am not a personal trainer and the above mentioned exercises work for me, but nobody knows you better than you. Also, I always recommend getting a check up by a doctor before beginning a program of any sort. Cheers!

After watching JB Holmes play really well at the Tavistock Cup, I wanted to check out his swing a bit more. I really think the reason why JB generates so much power is the torque he is able to generate so quickly. This is why he hits it just as far as Daly and doesn’t need to go past parallel. In mind mind, this makes JB more consistent because Daly’s swing is tremendously dependent on timing. Timing is important in all golf swings, but moreso with John’s due to his slight unorthodox backswing.

***On a sidenote. I am really rooting for you John. Your true fans believe in you. For the good of the game, your fans, and, more importantly, yourself please quit drinking. It has only caused you pain.

PGA Here I Come is the blog a guy named Erik and his journey to scratch golf from a 22 Handicap. His goal is to make it to the PGA Tour via Q-School

which starts next fall.

To get there, Erik saved up a bit of money and traveled to Thailand where his dollar goes farther. His blog recaps what it is like living in Thailand and golfing on some of the ranges and courses.

Erik occasionally puts up video of his swing (which you should know by now I am a huge fan of). He is pretty open to anyone offering tips.

I like this blog because I enjoy reading about the adventure Erik is on. At the end of it, even if the tour doesn’t work out he’ll have traveled the world, lived a year of his life doing something really fun, and his golf game is sure to improve. Good luck, Erik.

Here is Erik’s latest swing, give him some tips:

**Update:
Tiger as well as all affected players were flown on a private jet from Miami to Orlando and by helicopter landing right on the golf course. Tiger landed at 1242pm, teeing of less than an hour later. He must’ve been bushed, but Isleworth still had a great day.

As most of you know, the WGC CA Championships will be completed tomorrow (Monday) with the leaders still having nine holes to play. What is interesting is that some of the players are also supposed to play at the Tavistock Cup in Orlando on Monday as well.

A press release today from the Tavistock Cup states they are pushing back their start times 2.5 hours to account for the WGC delay. Still, this only allows Tiger Woods two hours and ten minutes to get from Miami to Orlando and on the first tee at 142pm. Tiger is slated to go out in the first group with John Cook as his playing partner.

Other players who are going to have to beat feet to Orlando from Miami are Retief Goosen (230pm tee time), Nick O’Hern (218 tee time), and Daniel Chopra (206pm tee time). Justin Rose was able to finish today and will most likely only be a bit tired when he tees it up tomorrow. Ben Curtis is also scheduled to play and he is traveling back from the Puerto Rico Open tonight. I imagine he’ll also be dragging.

Congrats to Greg Kraft on winning the Puerto Rico Open. I am sure he is on cloud nine after going through all he has in the last few years.

I am really looking forward to Sunday on the PGA TOUR. Sure, I’ll flip to basketball at commercials, but let’s face it Tiger is playing and he is behind. My hope is that Ogilvie challenges Tiger and we have a finish as exciting as last week at Bay Hill.

I was also quite entertained watching the Puerto Rico Open. There are some great young players and these secondary tournaments allow for a glimpse at who else can play. It is notable that Ryan Blaum is in contention. He was a former 1st team all-american at Duke in ‘05, but holds no status on any tour this year. He was a Monday qualifier for this event and is playing with a lot of confidence. Bo Van Pelt seems to be stringing together some good rounds and I’ll be happy for either player to win.

For all of you who have watched their brackets blow up, give golf a chance tomorrow.

Finding great golf content on the web is pretty easy, if you know where to look. Let’s look at some great sources:

YouTube
Simply typing in “golf” into the YouTube search function yields a variety of golf videos. You can find videos of swings, trickshots, comediens, etc.

Technorati
You somehow happened upon this blog and hopefully enjoy the content I produce. I am not the only golf blogger producing content, but to search for golf on blogs requires a good search engine. You could use Google’s blog search capability, but I recommend Technorati as it is a recognized leader in blog search and aggregation. You are sure to find some great golf blogs.

Delicious
Delicious is a great bookmarking site where you can tag and save all the web pages you find interesting. To find great golf links others have done much of the work for you in tagging their bookmarks “golf.” So, all you must do is visit Delicious and type in the word “golf” in their search feature and the results will be links the public has bookmarked and tagged “golf.”

There are also a variety of social networks for golfers, but that is a whole other post. Let me know if this post helped you find great golf content and if you need more ideas, leave a comment and maybe I’ll make a post out of it.

Cheers.

I came across this product demonstration and was very impressed by what they are able to do with the insert that was created for the new MacGregor putters. I especially love that they were able to directly compare with competitive putters to show the difference. I have been playing with an old Odyssey mallet putter for quite a while and might be in the market for a new putter soon. I also have a Titleist Teryllium that I put in the bag on occasion.

This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. Robin Williams is one of the greats. Enjoy.

The Tiger lovefest continues. I am going to have to go with Tiger for this weeks event at Doral. Other players seem to wet themselves when Tiger gets within five shots, so until someone steps up to the plate, I am keeping my bets on Tiger.

I would also watch out for Sean O’Hair. He has been playing well of late and I get the feeling he might be the one to step up in the near future. Obviously, he didn’t do it last week, but I think all the ingredients are there.

I watched the first episode of Tiger 360 tonight on the Golf Channel. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy the program, but it turned out pretty well. I enjoyed the round by round recaps and the graph of Tiger’s position throughout the four rounds.

At commercial I began to ponder what a phenomenon Tiger is. He now has an entire show dedicated to him on an all golf network. For one, I don’t think anyone in the NFL could match Tiger’s superstardom and secondly, the NFL network is only available in certain households and has no where near the distribution of The Golf Channel. Amazing.

Note: For those that were under a rock over the weekend, I have included the clip of Tiger’s winning putt at the 2008 Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational.