Incredible Short Game Shots from the WGC

MARANA, AZ: The Accenture World Golf Championship (WGC) match play tournament ran all last week and concluded with Jason Day winning the overall title last Sunday. In addition to seeing players hitting drivers and 3-metals over 300 yards (for example, driving 343 yard par 4s) spectators (I was one of them) saw unbelievable short-game shots in all the matches. A collection of the shots are shown in the video above.

There were a couples things I learned from watching the short-game clinic that was being put on: (1) The best players calibrated their shots by taking enough practice swings to get a feel for distance while looking at the hole and then moved into position and hit the shot quickly without freezing over the ball. (2) Most of the shots were played with a square- or even closed-face 60-degree wedge. Very few flop shots were played except to get out of thick rough. (3) The same approach was used for putting: take enough practice swings while looking at the hole to calibrate distance then get up to the ball and hit the putt.

Some of the players who were not only long off the tee but also had great short games: Victor Dubuisson, Jason Day, Ernie Els, and Rickie Fowler--the four finalists. There has to be a lesson here somewhere!