Time to Change Your Strategy? A Lesson From Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods is famous for changing his swing, even though it can take months -- sometimes years -- for the changes to pay off. He did it once back in 1997 only a year after he turned pro, then again after the 2002 PGA Championship. Both times, his performance slipped for awhile before it eventually improved. Now, apparently, he's planning to reprogram his swing again.
You see the same kind of thing on the Nationwide level. Right about now, a lot of guys are willing to throw out the habits and equipment they've been using all season just to try to gain a slight edge.
We're only eight tournaments away from the end of the season and only the top 25 earners on the Money List (which ranks us according to our earnings to date) will qualify for the PGA. Needless to say, there's a huge sense of urgency in the air.
Everyone gets a bit more self interested and guys will do whatever they can to shave one shot off a round. Sometimes they'll suddenly change caddies or they'll try changing clubs every day of the week trying to find a miracle.
Sometimes, I think this makes sense. If you've been playing terribly all season, then you have nothing to lose so you might as well experiment. Or if you've got your PGA Tour Card in the bag, you can afford to mix it up a little bit. I'm not in either situation.
I'm ranked 43rd at $98,240. (If you want to read about how I bring in the rest of the revenue I need to pay my way on the Nationwide Tour, check out this post.) Chris Kirk is leading the list right now with $400,475. Once you move up to the PGA, the purses get a whole lot bigger. (Tiger ranks as the all-time highest earner on the PGA Money List at $94 million.)
Too often, though, I see guys on tour making big changes when they have no business doing so. I had a buddy on the Nationwide Tour who then went on to qualify for the PGA. In his rookie year on the PGA, he decided to change his swing so that he could hit the ball further. Now he can't even find his ball. So he's back on the Nationwide Tour, he's stuck with his new swing, and he's struggling. Why would you change a swing that worked well enough to get you on the PGA Tour in the first place?
There are only so many things you can do to improve your game at this point in the season. Plus, if you become obsessed with making changes in hopes of finding a miracle, you're doing it for the wrong reason and in my experience, it will only distract you from playing good golf.
But I'm no Tiger -- and neither are you.
(Photo courtesy of Flickr/Keith Allison, CC 2.0)