Monday
Jun282010

How to Drive the Ball Farther and Straighter

Follow these guidelines to become a better driver of the golf ball.

 

  1. At address, position the ball just inside the heel of your front foot.  This forward position will allow the ball to be swept off the tee, launching it at the correct angle with the right amount of backspin.  This will help you maximize both distance and control.

 

  1. Also at address, be sure your weight is evenly distributed on both feet, 50% right foot and 50% left foot.  This will make it possible for you to shift your weight correctly during your back swing which should be about 60% on your back foot at the top of the swing.

 

  1.  After you have reached the top of your back swing, keep your head very steady and do not let it move toward the target until after you have struck the ball.  It is certainly correct to shift your weight back to your left side as your start your downswing, but if your head move forward before impact you will either block the ball to the right or simply pop it up into the air.

 

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

 

Mike Wilson

Director of Instruction

The Palms Golf Club                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              



Wednesday
Jun232010

Mike Weir Wins 2010 Telus World Skins Game

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:08:00

CP


VICTORIA - Canadian Mike Weir says he saved his best shot for his last Tuesday to win a 125-yard pitch-off and $270,000 as the Telus Skins Game was decided in an extra-hole shootout.

The pitch-off was needed after the five golfers South Africa's Retief Goosen, England's Ian Poulter, Colombia's Camilo Villegas, Fred Couples of the United States and Weir did not win a single skin after nine holes.

The prize money grew to include 12 skins, nine Tuesday and three left over from Monday's nine holes.

Goosen won $75,000 on Monday with five skins and Poulter won one skin and $15,000 Monday.

"It was tough to make birdies out there," said Weir, noting the five golfers only made seven birdies Tuesday and 15 birdies Monday. "It was just that kind of a day. It was kind of tough to separate yourself. We had to go to extra holes."

The golfer from Bright's Grove, Ont., credited his win to hitting the right shot at the right time.

"That's what skins is."

Weir narrowly missed winning a $245,000 skin on the par-4 17th, but his putt hit the edge of the hole and lipped out.

Weir said he plans to take some time off before playing in the British Open next month at St. Andrews in Scotland.

Weir said he didn't know he won the pitch-off until a tournament official said his shot was about a foot-and-a-half ahead of the next closest by Villegas.

Villegas and sentimental crowd favourite Fred Couples of the United States went skinless over the two days. Couples was playing in his 11th skins game in Canada has won more than $1 million.

Weir and Poulter came closest to winning skins at earlier holes, but their missed putts had the spectators groaning.

Goosen's birdie touch cooled Tuesday, forcing the former U.S. Open champion to play from the bunkers more than he would like.

Poulter was the most animated and vocal of the golfers, often trading self-deprecating asides with spectators.

"You're killing me," said Poulter as a spectator pointed to one of his wayward drives that landed in deep grass on a hillside near the spectators.

"Why couldn't you kick it when it was still moving?" he said.

On the par-hole 13, Poulter rubbed his hands together greedily as he went for a birdie, but missed.

This was the 18th skins game in Canada and the fifth time it has been played in British Columbia.

The traditional skins format is the low score on each hole wins the prize money for that hole. If there is a tie for the low score on any hole, the money is carried over to the next hole until there is a low-score winner.

The skins money was set at: $15,000 for holes one to six; $20,000 for holes seven to 12 and $25,000 for holes 13 to 18.

Telus announced it raised $925,000 from the event to donate to the Queen Alexandra Foundation for Children in support of Jeneece Place, a proposed home away from home for children and their families who travel to Victoria for specialized pediatric treatment.

At the conclusion of the Skins Game, Telus officials said they will top up the donations to Jeneece Place to $1 million.

The Bear Mountain Resort, boasting two 36-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed courses, first opened in 2003.

The Mountain course, where the Skins Game was held, is a par-2, 7,212-yard course that offers challenging terrain and mountain-top ocean views. The par-71, 6,807-yard Valley course is less challenging and is set just above sea level.

Previous pros competing at past Canadian skins games were: Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman, John Daly, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson and Tom Watson.

Villegas, Goosen, Weir and Couples all said they are entering this year's Canadian Open later this summer.

Poulter said he won't be at the Open this year, but plans to return soon.



Tuesday
Jun012010

Ki Taek Lee - Incredible Jr. Talent

Focused freshman: La Quinta's freshman golfer 

 

Ki Taek Lee has game beyond his youth

 


 

 

PALM DESERT — Ki Taek Lee remembers exactly when his 2010 golf season turned around.  After struggling to a 6-over-par 77 in the second round of the American Junior Golf Association's Heather Farr Classic in Mesa, Ariz., on April 3, Lee skipped his usual post-round practice session.  

 “I just went to the hotel and rested and had a long, long sleep, maybe 11 hours,” Lee said with a laugh.

The next day, taking an attitude of not worrying about anything but the shot that faced him, Lee shot a 67, the best round of the day at one of the biggest junior golf events in the country.

The 15-year-old freshman at La Quinta High School has hardly slowed down since.

A torrid spring that has put Lee in Thursday's CIF-SCGA individual tournament has cemented his status as one of the elite junior players in Southern California and drawn favorable comparisons to a La Quinta star from a decade ago, PGA Tour star Anthony Kim.

“As an instructor and teaching for 23 years, seldom do you come across a kid with this kind of talent,” said Joe Simonds, the head boys' golf coach at La Quinta. “He can get the job done. And he's a great kid, a kid who really gets it.”

Lee's late-spring surge has included a slew of low scores. There were rounds of 69 and 66 to win the Desert Valley League individual championship by four shots.

 Another 69, again on a course he had never seen in Yucaipa, helped Lee push his Blackhawks team through a regional event, and yet another 69 let him cruise through individual CIF regional play.

 “My season has been going pretty great. Too bad my team's season is over,” said Lee, referring to the Blackhawks' season-ending seventh-place finish in the CIF-Southern Section team competition. “We thought we had a good chance (to advance), but I guess something fell apart. But at the beginning of the year, we had a good year, winning Palmetto (in South Carolina), winning all kinds of stuff.”

 As intriguing as Lee's ability to hit 300-yard drives is the story of how Lee and his family came to the desert. Born in South Korea, Lee first took up golf at 7.

But the next year, Lee's father closed his successful Japanese restaurant and fulfilled a long-time plan to move his family to Canada to start a new life.

Lee, his parents and his older sister moved to Winnipeg first, where he said it was “crazy cold.” After playing a junior tournament in Vancouver, the family moved there to enjoy better weather and a larger Asian community.

Five years later, when Lee had turned 14, the family moved to the desert to take advantage of the Coachella Valley's golfing community and to have better access to major junior events.

“When I met him last fall, you could just tell he was a good player,” said Mike Wilson, a teaching pro at The Palms Golf Club in La Quinta who also works with former Masters champion Mike Weir. “First of all, he's a little taller, has a little bigger stature than other kids his age. When you see him, just looking at his swing, you can tell it's an advanced swing.”

Lee ended up at La Quinta High School, the same school where Lee's favorite player, Anthony Kim, played golf his freshman and sophomore years.

“I kind of heard about Ki Taek through the grapevine. Some of our kids knew him a little bit through some AJGA events,” said Simonds. “They were talking to him about some of the other players that are playing those tournaments, they were talking about the golf team, talk about anything. Then the parents got the connection going and the next thing I know, the guys on the team said we have this guy from Canada coming, his name is Ki Taek Lee.”

Lee has already demonstrated a high-caliber game, winning his division of the fabled Callaway Junior World tournament in San Diego last summer, and tournaments where Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Kim have won trophies. And Lee has fulfilled his promise in helping the Blackhawks to a DVL title and a berth in the CIF-SS team finals.

But what is it about the 15-year-old with dual Korean-Canadan citizenship that has those around him convinced he can be special in the coming years? For Wilson, there is Lee's swing.

“His natural power and natural swing of his body motion haven't changed at all,” Wilson said of his work with Lee. “The way his hands and arms work in the backswing, we have changed that a little. He was too steep with his shoulder angle. So we have worked hard to get a different pivot point for the backswing.”

For Simonds, Lee's work ethic and maturity seem far beyond the average freshman.

“He works an hour and a half or two hours on his short game, then we have our practice or matches if we have them,” Simonds said of Lee's routine. “Then he goes home, does his dinner and maybe some studies, then goes back to the COD driving range and works on it again. That's every day.”

Simonds also talks about how Lee is constantly learning from other players, such as during last week's CIF-SS individual finals. Lee played with Patrick Cantlay, a senior at Servite High School in Anaheim and the No. 2 ranked boys' golfer in the country. Simonds said he watched Lee observe how Cantlay played his round.

“I knew he was good, but I learned something about him,” Lee said of watching Cantlay. “Nice, steady play. It's all about the short game. That's my attitude toward people. It's golf. You play your own game. You don't play anyone else, just the golf course. When I see a great player, I try to learn something.”

Or maybe the comparisons with Kim, a three-time tour winner who won the CIF-SS individual title for La Quinta in 2001, come from Lee's Korean background and his plan, even as a freshman, to make it to the PGA Tour someday. But that someday isn't before he leaves La Quinta High School. At least that's not the plan yet.

“This year, I'm still going to focus on junior tournaments, junior events,” Lee said. “Next year, I'll start playing more amateur events, maybe pro events as an amateur. I definitely want to go to college, and if I turn pro I can't play in college. I definitely want to experience college.”

“This year, I'm still going to focus on junior tournaments, junior events,” Lee said. “Next year, I'll start playing more amateur events, maybe pro events as an amateur. I definitely want to go to college, and if I turn pro I can't play in college. I definitely want to experience college.”

“He just wanted to make money. There was no reason to go to college,” Lee said. “If I am at that point like, winning a U.S. Amateur, winning on the European Tour, if I am at that point, I might have to think about turning pro. But that's a huge, different step. As of now, the plan is step by step, go to a decent Division I university and it's still not too late after that. I'll be like 21 or so.”

One thing Lee isn't planning on is a college degree.

“Especially when you have Korean parents, it's different,” Lee said. “Right now, I'm not thinking about graduating college. Just go and experience it and determine if I can develop my golf skills. I'm going to college to decide if I am ready for the PGA.

“Maybe my senior year (in high school), I might try to do Q-school, PGA qualifying,” he added. “That's two and a half years. That's my plan for now. But it might get changed next year.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

Tuesday
May252010

Fundamentals of Teaching

 

Director of instruction Mike Wilson works with La Quinta resident Greg Mokler on the driving range at The Palms Golf Club on Thursday in La Quinta. Wilson is one of many top-tier golf instructors in the valley. (Marilyn Chung, The Desert Sun)


 

 

Tuesday
Apr272010

How to Set Up for Better Chipping

 

To become a consistent chipper of the ball you must have a good set up.  By having a proper set up you will be able to rotate through the shot with your ankles, hips and shoulders while keeping your hands out the swing.   

Common Faults 

  1. Weight centered or on back foot
  2. Wide stance
  3. Top of the grip behind the ball at address
  4. Ball too far forward
  5. Stance too open, or feet aimed too far to the left of the target 

Proper Chipping Set up 

  1. At least 60% of weight on front foot
  2. Feet close together, 2 to 3 inches apart
  3. Top of the grip slightly forward of the ball
  4. Ball in the middle of the stance or slightly back of middle
  5. Stance slightly open at address

 

The most important part of the set up is the narrow stance, because a wide stance will limit your rotation and cause you to sway or move laterally.

 

Reminder:  If your hands and wrists are active during your chip shot, and you are always mis-hitting the ball, determine to fix your set up first and I’m sure you will be happy with the results.

 

Mike Wilson

Director of Instruction

The Palms Golf Club