Masters 2024: Why Tiger Woods is using old-school golf training methods at Augusta

There were plenty of positive signs for Tiger Woods fans on Thursday, as Woods finished 1 hole under after 13 holes of the day due to weather delays. He moved well and made some shots and even on a very windy day he made some quality shots. But perhaps the best sign that Woods could be in contention over the weekend came before he even started playing.

At the start of ESPN’s first-round coverage, cameras showed Woods warming up in the stands, where he could be seen making the deliberate, repetitive motions familiar to die-hard Tiger fans. It was reflected. Let’s take a look:

Tiger works to create depth in the hips, which is key to preventing premature extension during the downswing. If your hips move closer to the target or straighten early in the downswing, you lose the spine angle and put more stress on your lower back. Also, if you extend too quickly, the club will tend to get stuck behind you, causing you to lose control. Basically, you don’t have enough room for the club to be in front of your body as your hips move towards the ball. At the height of his career resurgence in 2019, right after winning the Masters, he was seen engaging in similar moves at the Memorial Tournament. He explained what he was trying to accomplish with this iteration. That was, of course, in 2019, after spinal fusion surgery, but before a car accident severely damaged his right leg. At the time, Woods found it much easier to tense his right hip during the swing and push the club forward on the downswing. Moving on to the 2021 PNC Championship, Tiger was seen repeating the same move.

However, three years later, Tiger’s right leg was broken and grew back, and his ankle was completely healed. This made it much more difficult to put his right foot into the swing as he preferred. The problem is that her lower back always hurts, and if she doesn’t exercise properly, it will bend quickly, putting more strain on her lower back. But at the Masters on Thursday, Tiger returned to work to add depth to his hips. If Tiger could properly load his back leg in an exaggerated manner, it would not only reduce stress on his lower back, but it would also help Jon Rahm’s swing coach, Dave Phillips, call Tiger the greatest iron player of all time. He will probably regain the swing he says he lost. . . “You can really see him pulling his butt back and trying to make it look like he’s creating space,” Phillips said in 2019. “That’s a big factor in golf. And to me, that’s one of the reasons he’s the greatest iron player of all time. Phillips is the founder of Titleist’s Performance His Institute, which specializes in tailoring his golf swing to each player’s unique physical abilities.

“As long as you sit deep, you can bring his arms back in front of him and bring him back to being the greatest Ironman of all time,” Phillips said. The biggest question is whether Tiger’s right leg injury will be properly loaded, but even if his prognosis after Thursday’s game is pretty bleak, there’s no doubt he’ll be repeating his old moves again. When you think about it, Tiger fans have reason to be optimistic.

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