‘tiger’s heels stay close to the ground.he’s doing a much better jobrotating and leveraging like in his prime.’▶ When Tiger worked with
Butch Harmon, his left-hand
grip was stronger, meaning
his left palm was turned more
on top of the handle. That
grip let him load up, then fire
his lower body and launch
everything through impact,
which produced the power that
made him so long. Butch also
got him into that classic top-
of-backswing wrist position,
where you could lay a ruler flat
on the back of his hand, and it
would run right down his arm.
That really helped the clubface
stay square.
With Hank Haney, Tiger’s
left-hand grip moved to a more
neutral position, because
they wanted to make it easier
to work the ball in either
direction. And by adjusting his
right hand so the palm faced
the target more, Hank helped
Tiger stop taking the club
across the line (pointing to the
right of the target) at the top.
Tiger had better control when
the shaft was facing closer to
parallel with the target line.He also was able to keep the
club in front of his torso on the
downswing—more control.
Under Sean Foley, the left
hand got a little stronger
again, which helped Tiger
start using the ground more
effectively. His grip and swing
are a blend now. He’s using
Butch’s left-hand position,
Hank’s right-hand position and
Sean’s leveraging move with
the ground. The result? This
season he’s back near the top
in greens in regulation and has
some of the tour’s best long-
iron stats. His short-iron stats
are trailing, but that’s a result
of how well he’s shallowing
the club into impact. Beingshallow is great for longer
irons, but you need a steeper
downswing with shorter clubs
to control distance. His short-
iron struggles also could be the
result of finding his long game.
He’s actually hitting it far—and
relatively straight—for the
first time in a decade, so his
off-speed shots need more fine-
tuning. I have no doubt that
with more reps, as he likes to
say, he’ll dial them in.
It seems like we’re talking
a lot about his grip—but we
should be. The grip change last
year was a big deal, because it
lets Tiger get back to what he
does best: The weaker right-
hand position helps keep the▶ blended grip
You can see influences of past coaching in the way he holds
the club now. His left-hand position is strong (Butch Harmon)
and his right-hand position is weaker (Hank Haney).◀ shallowing out
Tiger has gotten so good with
his longer irons, because he has
shallowed the angle of attack into
the ball. The only problem is that
shallowing doesn’t work as well
with shorter irons, so he’ll have to
make adjustments for off-speed
approaches closer to the green.
june 2019 | golfdigest.com 65