Michael Kim in July on the Open Championship.
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Michael Kim screen-shot the thirteenth gap at TPC River Highlands, drew in a blue ‘L’ and a crimson ‘T,’ wrote a few phrases and posted all of it to the positioning previously generally known as Twitter. All of it, presumably, took a couple of minutes.
But the return was great. In the method, the PGA Tour pro:
— Opened up a debate doubtless as outdated as golf itself.
— Got a former Ryder Cup captain, together with a few others, to agree with him.
— Got folks to say in any other case. After all, Jack Nicklaus as soon as mentioned as a lot.
— Livened issues up on a late November Saturday afternoon. As of a day later, his submit had captured a whopping 1.1 million views.
Not dangerous.
As for the topic?
Playing with bother — which Kim wrote you shouldn’t shrink back from on a gap. Which, after all, would additionally imply that you simply shouldn’t at all times play away from it.
Let’s begin right here with Kim, who’s change into a must-follow within the golf Twitter world. In his submit, he used the thirteenth at TPC River Highlands for instance. The double dogleg gap — first proper, then left — has water alongside a lot of the proper aspect of the golf green, and Kim marked that with the crimson “T.”
He then positioned the blue “L” simply to the left of the difficulty. That the place he hoped his right-to-left tee shot would drop.
Here was his rationale:
“Don’t always just aim to the other side of the trouble,” Kim wrote. “That is usually harder as a result of you may’t miss it to the aspect with the difficulty however you additionally don’t have room to the aspect ur aiming at. If there’s bother on the precise, extra instances than not, I’ll goal fairly shut to the water and if something overdo my draw and I’ll have a lot of the fairway to play with.
“For ex. Hole 13 at vacationers. I’ll goal on the Red T and take a look at to find yourself on the blue L.
“Try it out next time ur on the range. Make ur own fairway, pick a side with water, aim it near the water and curve it away from the water.”
Here, you in all probability have one thought. Kim knew it, too. He added a follow-up post.
“I’m WELL aware that many of you struggle to curve it on command,” he mentioned. “That’s why I put try it on the range first.”
Fair sufficient. And the feedback got here. Including one from Padraig Harrington, a three-time main winner and the 2021 European Ryder Cup captain.
He agreed with Kim.
“Michael is so right here,” wrote Harrington, who’s additionally been a great sharer of golf knowledge over social media. “Go on to the course when it’s quiet and try both options, if possible with a number of balls/clubs and see what works for you. I know in the above scenario if I’m aiming left away from the water I often swing with the unintentional thought of don’t go right. Aiming left,trying not to go right will always end to far left( doublecross) At least aiming right and then trying not to hit it right ends up left of water and maybe still in fairway. Clearly what ever target you pick, if you execute it with perfect mental focus it is good too.”
And extra feedback got here. You in all probability have a few simply whereas studying this.
It’s right here, although, the place we’ll revisit a second from final 12 months’s Memorial — the place Nicklaus, the match’s host, and Nick Faldo, the then-head analyst for CBS, had the identical dialog.
In brief, Faldo additionally mentioned it’s best to play towards bother. And Nicklaus disagreed.
Here’s what this creator wrote on the time:
…
The dialog began with Billy Horschel — who leads by 5 heading into Sunday — on the tee on the 186-yard, par-3 sixteenth at Muirfield Village. His pin was reduce 12 toes in on the inexperienced’s left aspect (and 39 toes in from the entrance), and a few yards left of the outlet was a lake. In query, primarily, was whether or not Horschel, who’s right-handed, ought to flirt with the water and take a look at to get in shut. Or play away from bother.
Jack?
“I would be playing right at the middle of the green,” mentioned Nicklaus, the match’s host and the course’s founder. “I would let the ball turn a little bit left. But I don’t think you should be playing left to right in there.”
“Why wouldn’t you fade it in there, Jack?” requested Faldo, now an analyst with CBS. “I would think that’s the hold-off. One-yard fade.”
“I don’t ever aim the ball into trouble,” Nicklaus mentioned. “Period.”
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“Don’t ever aim the ball at the trouble,” Faldo mentioned.
“Don’t ever aim the ball at trouble,” Nicklaus mentioned. “Don’t ever aim the ball at out of bounds. Don’t ever aim the ball at a lake. You always aim away from it. And if you have to play back towards it, make sure that you can’t hook it enough to get there or make sure you can’t fade it enough to get to it.”
Said analyst Frank Nobilo: “This is a good discussion. There’s 24 majors up there.”
Indeed. At this level, announcer Jim Nantz requested Faldo if he ever geared toward bother.
“Mr. [Ben] Hogan said you aimed at the trouble and then worked it off the trouble,” Faldo mentioned. “Like you’d aim it at the lake and fade it off it.”
“If you were sure you were going to do that,” Nicklaus mentioned.
“Yeah, if you trust your …” Faldo started.
“And that’s what I did,” Nicklaus mentioned. “I thought I was pretty good at what I did, but I didn’t trust it that much.”
“You could have done a lot better than those 19 seconds,” joked Faldo, a reference to Nicklaus’ variety of runner-up finishes in majors.
“Yeah, I know,” Nicklaus mentioned. “That’s when I aimed at the trouble.”
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“So you’d work it with no fear of overdoing it? You never flew it over?” Faldo mentioned.
“What I tried to do was not ever put pressure or make myself nervous,” Nicklaus mentioned. “I tried to keep comfortable.”
***
All good things.
So, who’s proper?
Here’s saying everybody.
We’ll take the simple manner out right here, nevertheless it’s maybe the precise one. Really, it’s a matter of choice. It takes braveness to look hazard within the eye. And ability, as Kim famous.
But there’s a potential payout in doing so.
All this thanks to some phrases and a image. Who knew?
