Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I call this Weekend 9. Think of it as a place to warm up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will have thoughts. We will have tips. We’ll have tweets. But only nine in all, though sometimes perhaps more and sometimes perhaps less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell part of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
“Golf is a game played by people. Therefore, it is a game of mistakes. Successful golfers know how to respond to mistakes.”
I’ve always liked that thought. It comes from ‘Golf Is Not A Perfect Game’, the widely read book by Dr. Bob Rotella, the famous sports psychologist. And over the past week we’ve seen some of that play out – interestingly from three golfers. There has been one revival in recent weeks. Another took place a few years from now. The third, even longer.
Then let’s take a look at what Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Anthony Kim did. And let’s try to learn. Can’t hurt.
Scottie Scheffler’s slow starting problems
What the battle was: Starts slowly. Two weeks ago, Scheffler opened at the WM Phoenix Open with a 73. Last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Scheffler opened with a 72. This week at the Genesis Invitational, more of the same: Scheffler shot a 74 in the first round.
What followed: At Phoenix, Scheffler finished in third place, and at Pebble Beach he finished in fourth place. He shot a 68 in the second round on Friday.
How he responded: Scheffler said he remained calm. And calm is not panic. And panic blows things up.
“I think these are some of the weeks you look back on,” Scheffler said Sunday, “I’m really proud that I stuck with it and didn’t give up, even though I felt like things were going against me this week. I just kept fighting, kept trying to shoot, kept trying to execute.”
He also added this: “Sometimes it’s just scoring stuff. Like we passed here on the first lap and I looked at Teddy [caddie Ted Scott] about the 15th, 16th hole and I feel like I’m doing pretty well and I’m 10 shots back. It’s a funny game. Sometimes things go the way you want and sometimes they don’t.”
Collin Morikawa’s two-year winless drought
What the battle was: Morikawa won the 2023 Zozo Championship. Then he searched for more than two years.
What followed: Morikawa won at Pebble last week.
How he responded: Morikawa said that when he was young he played golf. Then he got older and started fishing, looking for new methods. It was all in a good spirit: he wanted to win more. But one thought, he said, helped him win again: Just play golf, man.
“I think I’ve tried to make golf so perfect by hitting these shots and making these putts in a certain way,” Morikawa said Sunday, “that maybe others do it and you forget how to play the game of golf.
“I think I look back on when I was 10, 12, 15 growing up on Chevy Chase, playing 10 holes and dropping three balls, like I was playing golf.
Anthony Kim’s coach, and how an early 2000s swing sparked Sunday’s win
By means of:
Nick Piastowski
“And I’ve gone so far away from that, that creativity, that I think I started playing golf the last two days. I caught myself today even after the bogey at 5 – I was like, man, I love being in this position. Like I haven’t felt that in so long. And you feel that in the team events, you feel that here and there, but I said to myself, man, like it just felt so good to be in that position.”
“And I knew when I could convince – not convince myself, but just talk to myself in that way that I was ready. Whether it went great or not, I was ready to hit the shots, play golf and not worry about the wind, not worry about the rain, not worry about, man, if I make bogey on 8 and I’m going to try to make pars on 9 and 10 – it was very current. But I think it all comes back to how you start the day. I started the day this morning and said to myself, yeah, let’s go out and win this thing.
Anthony Kim’s 12 year absence from golf
What the battle was: Anthony Kim returned to professional golf in 2024 after a twelve-year absence. His last victory came in 2010.
What followed: On Sunday, Kim won at the LIV Golf event in Adelaide.
How he responded: I learned this from my interview this week with Matt Killen, Kim’s swing coach. Like Scheffler, they did not deviate from who he once was. They just did their best to find that again. Before an event in early January where Kim had to finish in the top three to play another season with LIV, Killen and Kim had this conversation:
“I don’t think any of us said, ‘Okay, I hope you play well.’ We were like, ‘Hey, you gotta do this. How are you going to do that?’ And he said he’s going to do it. And then going back, like what shots do you need, how are you going to do that, what information do we put in that is helpful but doesn’t take away from him being an athlete.
“And that means you let the subconscious take over. You don’t even think about positions or complex swing thoughts when you have to make a hole. … You have to play golf.”
Another instructional tip for your weekend
2. Let’s stick to the instruction. I thought the video below (in the second slide), shot after Morikawa’s victory, was good.
Another instructional tip for your weekend
3. I thought the video below was good. It came from the “All Square” show on SiriusXM and features GOLF Top 100 teacher Adam Schriber – and a conversation he once had with Michael Jordan.
One takeaway from the week that was
4. The 2024 Genesis was the last event Scheffler played with a blade putter – and since then he has won fourteen PGA Tour events with a hammer, including three majors.
Why did it help him so much?
“So hammering in where I didn’t have to line up the ball,” Scheffler said, “and it gave me a better idea of what I wanted to see, really just freed me up from where I didn’t have to line up. I was never really a guy who was super good at, like — I don’t know if lining things up is the right word, but for me, less is more typical.”
One takeaway for the weekend
5. If you’re looking for someone to watch this weekend, Njoroge Kibugu might be your player. The 22-year-old Kenyan is playing in front of his home crowd at the DP World Tour’s Magical Kenya Open – and below are two videos showing how he made it:
Tony Johnstone’s description of the recording is also good. “Oh, it’s heaven. You little beauty.”
Five stories (!) that interest me
6. I thought this story herewhich was first noticed Through My Golf Spies Brittany Olizarowiczwas interesting. It was written by 11 authors for the European Journal of Sport Science and is about carting versus walking.
7. I thought this story too herewritten by John Garlock of KVOwas interesting. It explains why firefighters in northeastern Missouri deliberately set fire to a golf course.
8. And I thought this story herewritten by Maggie Kent of 6ABCwas interesting. It describes how a woman in Roxborough, Pennsylvania, said her house is being hit by golf balls even though she doesn’t live near a golf course or driving range.
9. I thought this story here was also interesting. Written by Marc Fortier from NBC Bostondetails how a New Hampshire man was convicted after fraudulently obtaining Covid relief funds and using them to buy a golf course.
10. Let’s do 10 items! I thought this story too here was interesting. Written by Business golf newschronicles the life of Jeremy Chapman, who recently died – and was once called the ‘Tiger Woods of golf tipsters’.
What wave is on TV this weekend?
11. Let’s do 11 items! Here’s a look at golf on TV this weekend:
– Saturday
10:30 a.m. (Friday) – 3:30 a.m. ET: Honda LPGA Thailand Third Round, Golf Channel
4:30am-9am ET: Magical Kenya Open third round, Golf Channel
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET: Genesis Invitational Third Round, Golf Channel
3:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET: Genesis Invitational Third Round, CBS
– Sunday
10:30am (Saturday) – 3:30am ET: Honda LPGA Thailand Final Round, Golf Channel
3:30 – 8:30 ET: Magical Kenya Open final round, Golf Channel
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET: Genesis Invitational final round, Golf Channel
3:00 PM – 6:30 PM ET: Genesis Invitational final round, CBS
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