It's Super Friday!

Welcome to the second weekend of February, the one that sports fans have been anticipating since last year.

Have you placed your bets on the winner of the LIV Las Vegas Invitational? What prop bets do you favor at the Waste Management Phoenix Open?

Oh, I suppose you could be interested in the Super Bowl game in Vegas, too. Will Taylor Swift make an appearance? Is there a conspiracy afoot?

But until Super Sunday, you’ve got this week’s edition of Finding the Tips.

Let’s dive in!

In this issue

• Crisp iron contact

• Rein in your slice or hook

• Trail arm magic move

• This old fart’s opinion

Crisp iron contact

Eric Cogorno revisits and adds to a drill he published in 2023 where he urges us to start with the end in mind. In that video, he had us place the club head in front of the ball and then, without any backswing, swing to the finish of the swing.

In this video, he wants us to learn how to make crispy, ball-first contact with irons whilst getting into a great impact position and following through to the target with the legs and upper body.

This is a great drill to use on the range or simulator. You’ll see immediate results.

Rein in your slice or hook

Hitting slices or hooks is a result of improper clubface angle as it relates to the club path. A straight shot results from a club face that is square to the path. If you slice, the club face is open to the path. If you hook, the face is closed to the path.

Alex Elliott helps by showing us how to set up a practice station making it easy to visualize an outside-in swing and an inside-out swing. He also reminds us how to grip the club. Then he offers key advice on how to position your clubface at address: square for someone who hooks, and slightly closed for someone who slices.

After you’ve set the clubface angle, grip the club so you can see 2½ knuckles on your lead hand (left hand for righties, right hand for lefties). This strong grip works for everyone and promotes more power.

Set up this practice station on the range or in a sim or into a net in your basement and you will be hitting more fairways come spring!

Trail arm magic move

Zach Allen walks us through how the best golfers in the world set up to the ball and how they start their downswings with their trail elbow.

This is a game changer if you are someone who swings hard but hits it a little shorter than your buddies. This change to your setup and the activation of your trail elbow at the start of the downswing will change your game forever.

In this old fart’s opinion

This past weekend was a weird one for top tier professional golf.

Both the LIV and PGA tours crowned a winner after 54 holes. LIV does that all the time, but it only happens on the PGA Tour when a round gets cancelled altogether. That happened at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (long ago known as the Bing Crosby).

Wyndham Clark won the storied event after shooting a 3^rd round 60. The 2023 US Open champion put on quite a display. With two eagles and a birdie, he was 5-under after 6 holes. He then birdied the next five holes to get to 10-under after 11. After a chip-in bogey on 12, he birdied 13 and 14 and was 11-under for the day. He parred 15 but left birdie putts just short on 16, 17 and 18.

Imagine leaving the golf course feeling like you left shots out there, even though you shot an 11-under-par score of 60 on one of the most heralded and difficult courses on the planet.

Meanwhile at LIV, Joaquin Niemann opened the Mayakoba tournament with a 59, only the second sub-60 round on that tour. At the end of play Saturday, it looked like he held a four-shot lead. But he was later assessed a two-stroke penalty for failing to take relief correctly. So, his lead was whittled to two over Jon Rahm.

As sunset came and went, Garcia and Niemann entered a sudden death playoff as a twosome when Rahm narrowly missed out on joining them.

Playing the fourth extra hole in near darkness, Niemann cemented the victory with a birdie putt from about 15 feet.

And what did the winners receive?

Joaquin Niemann added an even $4 million to his coffers. He also won a further $125,000 as his team, Torque GC, captured the team event. But I put the team winnings in the “Does-Anyone-Really-Care” category.

Wyndam Clark pocketed $3.6 million as the winner of one of the PGA’s limited field, no-cut signature events. Importantly, he also earned Official World Golf Ranking points.

There’s no doubt that LIV has some compelling and talented players, such as Rahm, Niemann, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Garcia, Tyrell Hatton and Patrick Reed. But they’ve also got a bunch of guys in the last few years of their careers who are getting much richer while their golf games keep them from competing week in and week out. Those players include Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Kevin Na, Bubba Watson, Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell and Pat Perez.

I want to put Phil Mickelson in that category, but he won the 2021 PGA and finished second at last year’s Masters. Even at 53 years of age, Lefty is still a threat to find his game at the PGA or the Masters, although not so much at the British or US Opens.

Still, I don’t miss any of the LIV guys enough to watch one of their tournaments on YouTube or the CW network. I’ve tried. It reminds me too much of the dozens of boozy, loud charity events I’ve played over the years. The players have fun, but does anyone want to watch? Not so much.

The TV coverage (after you find it) is ok but the shotgun starts and the nearly illegible on-screen scoreboards make it tough viewing. Plus, there aren’t enough fans on the course with the players to move the drama needle.

Let’s be honest. The PGA Tour has far superior TV converage. It is the home of the four majors, even though they are run somewhat independently. Beyond the majors, there are at least three tournaments that are near majors in the Tournament Players Championship at Sawgrass, the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village and the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

And LIV? It’s a good bet that even its most ardent fans would be unable to name three events and their venues. LIV simply hasn’t been around long enough for any of its tournaments to have earned legacy status. In 2024, there are only three courses on the LIV schedule that have their own cachet in pro golf – Doral in Florida, Valderrama in Spain and The Greenbrier in West Virginia.

Both tours have issues – most notably slow play that is infecting weekend golfers everywhere – but the PGA Tour is the better product.

In this old fart’s opinion.

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