Tiger Woods Swing Changes Missing the Fairway

Tiger Woods only hit half of the fairways during the last round of the British. It continues a long trend and it cost him another tournament. Now I've heard countless opinions why Tiger can't seem to find the fairways. However, I've read the most ridiculous one recently in an article from that sports powerhouse, ESPN. In a nutshell, the writer places most of the blame on Tiger's equipment. That's fine, but incredulously, he manages to pen over 1,000 words explaining the reasons behind Tiger's golf woes without even mentioning Tiger's dramatic swing changes. Can you believe that? How can anyone miss something so obvious and important? Well, someone who doesn't know what they're writing about, that's who.

While I agree that equipment is a big factor in golf performance, I think that it is relatively minor in Tiger's case. Here are some reasons:

• Tiger is still missing fairways with a Titleist PT 3-wood that he has used for more than 6 years.
• Tiger rarely hits his 2-iron "stinger" off the tee anymore, a shot that always hit the fairway. Now, when he does hit it, a fairway isn't guaranteed.
• Tiger went back to the Titleist 975D driver last year at the Battle of The Bridges, only to miss even more fairways.
• Tiger has an exit clause in his Nike equipment contract that allows him to play any equipment that he wants. So why would he play with any equipment that wasn't best suited for him? Tiger was seen using drivers from other manufacturers (Taylormade, Titleist, etc.) during the "silly"-season last year, so he clearly utilizes this exit clause.

Conclusion from this golf blog: It's the swing, stupid.

My favorite channel recently confirmed Tiger's dramatic swing changes. They compared Tiger's God-like swing of 2001 vs. his current swing. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so check out the next 3,000+ words:



If Tiger was missing fairways with the swing that he had before, then, maybe, his equipment would be to blame. But, as these pictures clearly illustrate, his swing is not the same.

The most dramatic change is Tiger's position at the top. What do you think?