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MI Golf Holidays

MI Golf Holidays / Events

Events

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06

Dec
Thu

Hossler to arrive at Texas in January, but golf will come later

By Ryan HerringtonWhile there is still no official word on whether Texas sophomore Jordan Spieth will be back for the defending NCAA champions after the new year—he failed to advance past second stage of PGA...

06

Dec
Thu

Golf World's 2012 Newsmakers of The Year

Taking stock of 2012 by counting down the year's 25 biggest headliners.

06

Dec
Thu

Counting Down Best of Buddies-Trip Destinations. No. 9: Hilton Head Island/Savannah

In our January issue we rank America’s 36 Best Buddies-Trip Destinations, a list we created by surveying the roughly 1,100 Golf Digest course-rating panelists who produce our biennial rankings of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses.In...

06

Dec
Thu

Golf instructor Jim Flick a newsmaker in his own right

By John Strege On a warm day in late September, I ventured over to the Kingdom, as TaylorMade's testing facility in Carlsbad, Calif., is called, where the renowned instructor Jim Flick kept an office near the lesson tee on which he plied his trade in the last years of his life. A plate of food was on his desk, but he never touched it. "I'm kind of struggling with my health a little bit," he said. "But when you get to be almost 83, you're going to have some days. They've got me on some iron and I really get a reaction to food." Nothing else suggested anything was disturbingly amiss, a diagnosis apparently yet to be made. He was his typical ebullient self, thrilled to be talking about Beau Hossler, his 17-year-old protege, the reason I was there, and the subject of the story that appears in Golf World's Newsmakers issue. It might have been the last extensive interview he gave, lasting two hours and frequently and fascinatingly meandering off topic, as it did when he noted of his Wake Forest roommate, Arnold Palmer, that "he was the first player I played with who I thought willed the ball around the golf course." The conservation eventually turned to Tiger Woods, as it is wont to do in golf circles, and the swing changes he has undergone. "I wonder if he gets bored," Flick said. "I think he feels like there might be a better way. I've spent a little bit of time with him. Never really coached him. The only time I spent much time with him was 1996, I walked a practice round with he, Tom Watson and Jack [Nicklaus] at the Open at Oakland Hills. Tiger, Jack and I went into the lunch room and someone else wanted to talk to Jack, so I talked to Tiger for maybe an hour-and-a-half. Related: Golf World counts down the top 25 newsmakers of 2012 "I think Tiger feels like he needs to be motivated and I think he uses changes to do that. The truth is, in the year 2000, he [Tiger Woods] was probably the best player in the history of the game. I don't think we've ever had anybody whose concentration level is superior to Tiger's. I think he finds a way to get the maximum efficiency out of himself as a competitor. His short game is beyond belief. He had an incredible mind to find a solution for the challenge he was facing. He doesn't seem quite able to do that at the moment. "I don't like his swing as well as I did in the year 2000. To me the major difference is that he's not changing directions from the ground up as he did when he worked with Butch [Harmon]. He's changing his directions a lot more with his shoulders and his upper body. To me, he's in a lot of different positions at impact, with his chest a little more open or a little more closed. That used to never be a problem. "I've never quite understood why he changed his putting style. Jack said to me one time, 'I used to think if a putt had to me made I'd like to have the putter in my hands, but when I see some of the putts that Tiger has made...'" Flick had the distinction of working with Nicklaus after Nicklaus' long-time instructor Jack Grout died in 1989. "For me to tell you I taught Jack Nicklaus a lot of things would be an inaccurate statement," Flick said. "I think that why Jack trusted me after Mr. Grout passed was that he was seeing some fellows and they were all trying to take him down a slightly different path than what Mr. Grout had taught him. My thinking was, gosh, here's a guy that was the best player in the history of the game. Why would I not want to keep him doing the same things Mr. Grout had him doing? I would watch Mr. Grout teach Jack at Frenchmen's Creek [Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where Grout taught during the winter months]. What I told Jack was, 'why don't you let me be a set of eyes for you for what Mr. Grout did with you, as best I can, and keep you on the same path?' Related: Our archive of Jim Flick instruction material "I've been very fortunate. I've worked with 25 tour players who've won major championships. Not that I'm claiming I've helped all of them. I'm just saying I know what they thought about how they played the game and how they used their minds. I've learned a lot more from them perhaps than they've learned from me. "Tom Lehman came to me in 1990. He'd lost his tour card three times and six years later he was the best player in the world. I learned a lot working with Tom. I always say that what really helped my teaching is I'd go to the Open with Tom and Jack and I'd watch Tom hit balls and every shot he hit his eyes saw right to left. I'd go over to Jack and he'd see left to right. Here was the best player in the world and the best player in history and they used the club radically differently. You'd better damn well know what you're feeding each one of them to fit how they're using the golf club." Flick said that he considered Bob Toski "the best teacher in the history of golf by a considerable margin. The reason I say that is that Bob was the best player in the world in 1954. The guy won five times in 13 months and was the leading money winner. Most people don't know that, of course. But Bob understands what it takes to teach people and put the principals together that let you play better, not just the swing and looking good swinging, but understanding what works under pressure." He did not have the same reverence for some of the contemporary instructors, however. "Beau's dad told me he had a few golf professionals say at the Open they could do a lot better job with Beau's swing than I've done," Flick said. "You're always going to have people second-guessing what you teach and how you teach it and so on and so forth. It's the world we live in." Related: Tim Rosaforte on Flick's lasting legacy We would speak once more, about five weeks later. I left a message for him on his cell phone, regarding setting up a photo shoot with him and Hossler. He returned my call later that day and said that there would be no photo shoot. "I'm on my death bed," he said. "Cancer of the pancreas." He died six days later. Follow @JohnStrege !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

06

Dec
Thu

Sean Foley: The Law Of The Draw

Video: Top-ranked teacher Sean Foley shares some new research that will help you the ball with ease in no time.

06

Dec
Thu

David Leadbetter: Fix Your Slice

Video: Golf Digest teaching professional David Leadbetter explains how to cure a case of 'the rights'.

06

Dec
Thu

10 Stupidest Golf Gifts

John Strege lists 10 gifts that might not be on your list.

05

Dec
Wed

Video: A candid Tiger Woods discusses race in golf at age 14

By Alex Myers Interview footage of a 14-year-old Tiger Woods has surfaced thanks to Trans World Sport. As part of a 20th-anniversary celebration, the company is looking back at intereviews conducted with young athletes who went onto stardom. The profile took place at Woods' family home in Cypress, Calif., in November, 1990: The highlights are some very candid quotes from Woods concerning race and golf. "Every time I go to a major country club, you can always feel it, you can always sense it," Woods said, referring to racism. "People are always staring at you. 'What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here.'" Related: The Tiger Woods timeline However, he goes onto acknowledge that because of his race, he could become an even bigger worldwide figure. "Since I'm black, it might be even bigger than Jack Nicklaus. I might be even bigger than him -- to the blacks," said Woods, who has rarely singled out any part of his multi-racial background. "I might be sort of like a Michael Jordan in basketball. Something like that." Of course, Woods did become a global icon like Jordan. He even took the baton from "His Airness" as Nike's top pitchman, though in this older footage, his Swoosh socks clash with Reebok sneakers. But seeing Tiger as a carefree kid playing Nintendo with pictures of Jack Nicklaus hanging in his room, and not as an image-conscious man, is quite refreshing. Related: Tiger Woods is the web's most-searched athlete Tiger's late father, Earl, is also featured in the video. Not surprisingly, he doesn't hold back when assessing his precocious son's talent. "Jack Nicklaus was taught golf from the tee to the green," Earl Woods said. "I didn't believe in that. I taught Tiger golf from the green back to the tee. So Tiger's short game is in place right now and it is as good, if not better, than most of the tour players right now." Nearly two decades later, you could say the same thing. Follow @AlexMyers3 !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

05

Dec
Wed

USGA stays in house for new technical leader

By Mike Stachura When U.S. Golf Association Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge announced his upcoming retirement last month, he was highly complimentary of his staff at the USGA Research and Test Center and said his successor...

05

Dec
Wed

Mitsubishi Rayon America acquires Aldila

By E. Michael JohnsonAfter several weeks of rumblings that it might be for sale, Aldila has entered into a merger agreement with Mitsubishi Rayon America. The move was unanimously approved by Aldila's board ofdirectors. The board...