I hope you enjoyed The Match between Tiger and Phil, I know that I did! I have read a number of different reviews saying that they were underwhelmed with the level of golf. Now I can agree with the fact that they didn’t play as well as people wanted them to play, but I don’t think that ruined the experience at all for viewers. The fact that the players were mic’d up was the best part about the entire match! In this article,I am going to write about some of the things that I heard and how I think what they said could help you with your game.

Stock Fade- On one of the par 3s Phil was talking to his caddy and they were discussing the yardage, he said: “I think it is a stock fade distance”. This is important is for the better player because you can alter the distance the shot goes by shaping your shot. For example, you hit a 7 iron 150 yards “stock shot” if you play a fade the shot would go 145 yards, and if you hit a draw the shot would go 155 yards. This is important because very rarely will you have just a full “stock” shot into a hole. By understanding that you can add or subtract yardages by shaping shots, this could better assist you in hitting shots the correct distance.

Fall Line- When Phil was reading his birdie putt on the front nine he and his caddy were discussing the read. They mentioned it looks like the putt is going down the fall line. Understanding this term and what it means can assist in helping you read greens. Every hole location has a fall line. A fall line is the straight putt from downhill and uphill. If you can find the straight putt or the fall line, it helps determine what your ball will do in relation to that straight putt. For example, if you find the fall line and your ball is to the right on the down hill side of the fall line, the ball will curve back down the fall line, allowing you to now know that your putt will break from left to right. How much the ball curves depends on how far from that fall line your putt is. Knowing this idea can help you read putts and better understand where your putt will break to.

Side Sauce- On the short par 4 the players bet a million dollars to the player that holed out from the fairway. When walking to their golf ball Phil was talking to the reporter telling the reporter that he plans on putting side sauce on the ball only to see that the ball is sitting in the rough. Tiger began to laugh and say he is not putting side sauce on that ball. The reason that Phil couldn’t put side sauce on the ball is because of the lack of friction Phil is able to get on the ball due to the ball being in the rough. When your golf ball is in the rough, there is grass that will be trapped in between your golf ball and club face, leading to less spin. It is harder to curve the ball out of the rough and harder to get the ball to spin out of the rough due to a lack of friction. When in the rough, play the correct shot based on how the ball might or might not curve.

Bottle Neck- Late in the match Phil was discussing club selection for a tee shot on a par 4. He was discussing that didn’t feel comfortable hitting his driver or 3 wood he because the hole bottlenecked in the location where he would hit those clubs, but he said he could rip a 2 iron all he wants to the largest part of the fairway and be in good shape. I believe this is an important example that you should not automatically grab a driver on every par 4 or par 5, beacuse it might not be the correct club. Architects design holes with landing areas in mind and depending on the tees that you are playing from the distance to that spot will change. So in Phil’s case the tees that he was playing from and the distance to the largest part of the fairway, it made more sense for him to hit the 2 iron. Chose the correct club for the hole you are playing to give you the best shot to make a good score.

Tigers chip in- On the 17th hole Phil was within 10 feet with an opportunity to chip in and Tiger hit what he thought was a great shot, but it was just a bit long and snuggled up against the edge of the green and the rough, the shot he hit from there was really cool to watch! He had a very narrow stance, took less loft, played the ball back in his stance and had a steep backswing and a stabbing like motion into the ball. Well, what happened next was vintage Tiger in the clutch, HE MADE IT! This shot is a shot that I think can really help a lot of players in that exact same lie. When the ball is right against the collar the ball has a significant amount of grass in between the ball and the club face, making it very difficult to play a high lofted shot from there. By taking less loft and having a chopping like motion, you create a steeper angle of attack, helping get as much of the club on the ball as possible. By playing it low you have the most amount of control and it will react like a putt.

I really enjoyed watching The Match! I believe being able to listen to the players discuss shots was the most important part of the match. By seeing their tactics and ways in which they go about things really gives golfers an inside perspective on how they should approach shots.

I hope this article helps.

Give it a try!