Biomechanics Of The Golf Swing- Selected Resources For Golf Tips, News And Golf Swing Biomechanics

Tiger Takes Lead Into Final Round in Abu Dhabi
Yes, Tiger Woods won the last tournament he played in 2011, and when you haven't won in two years - when you're struggling to return to form, to the form of the greatest player on the planet, from swing changes, injuries and personal troubles - any win is a good win. But Woods' win in his own Chevron World Challenge was not a tour win.

Can Woods finally get another tour win on Sunday at the European Tour's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship? He ended Saturday tied for the lead with Robert Rock at 11-under. Woods' scores have improved each round, from 70 to 69, then to 66. He had four birdies, including one on No. 18, over a back-nine 32 on Saturday.

Once again, though, Tiger's putting hasn't been great, with two rounds of 30 or more putts (including 35 in Round 1). Whether Tiger pulls out the win or not on Sunday will come down to his putting.

Rory McIlroy is among the golfers tied two strokes behind Woods and Rock, and McIlroy would be tied at the top if not for a penalty during the second round. McIlroy brushed sand out of his putting line, but unfortunately for Rory the area he brushed included the fringe. Sand is a loose impediment when it's on the green; off the green it's not, and the fringe is off the green.

Abu Dhabi scoreboard

Callaway's 2012 Lineup
Callaway Golf used its time at the ongoing PGA Merchandise Show to unwrap its lineup of new clubs and balls for 2012. The headliner was the RAZR Fit driver, which was actually first introduced a few weeks ago and featured on About.com here.

So it's the other stuff - and there is still plenty of other stuff - in the 2012 Callaway lineup that we focus on in this gallery.

That includes the RAZR X Black driver, plus multiple sets of irons, along with fairway woods, hybrids, wedges and balls. View Callaway's coming clubs for 2012.

Mallon Named 2013 Solheim Captain for US
Meg Mallon will captain the United States team at the 2013 Solheim Cup, the LPGA announced on Thursday.

The 2013 Solheim Cup takes place at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colo., Aug. 16-18.

Nobody can doubt Mallon's qualifications for the role. She's an 18-time winner on the LPGA Tour, including four major championships, who is very popular with her peers and younger players alike. She's also well-prepared for the role, having served as an assistant captain at the 2009 Solheim Cup, and as the captain for Team USA at the 2011 Junior Solheim Cup.

Mallon also played in eight Solheims, earning the second-most points (16.5) of any American golfer in the competition. Her win-loss record as a player is 13-9-7.

Team Europe has yet to name its captain for 2013.

See also:
Meg Mallon biography and career details

Big Break's Maiya Tanaka On Next 'Amazing Race'
Professional golfer Maiya Tanaka is one of the contestants on the The Amazing Race 20, the Emmy-winning CBS reality series that sends 2-person teams racing each other across the globe.

Tanaka is paired with her sister Misa as one of 11 teams on The Amazing Race 20.

The Tanaka sisters are from San Diego, Calif., and both played golf for their high school team. In fact, the two of them started their high school's golf team.

Maiya went on to play collegiately at UCLA, where her teammates included Ryann O'Toole and Tiffany Joh. Since turning pro, she has played events on the Futures Tour and Canadian Women's Tour.

But Maiya is still best-known as a contestant on the Golf Channel's Big Break franchise. Tanaka appeared in the Big Break Sandals Resorts season.

Can a golf background help Maiya perform on The Amazing Race? In the Tanakas' cast bio, Maiya says yes: "I'm competitive, have a lot of mental and physical talent and drive - I want to win!"

The Amazing Race 20 premieres on CBS on Sunday, Feb. 19.

See also:
Maiya Tanaka pictures

Bubba Busts Out All-Pink Driver for Charity
bubba watson pink driver

Bubba Watson loves pink. He's long had a pink shaft in his Ping drivers. We've seen him in pink shirts, pink pants, pink socks.

"Pink has always made me stand out," Watson says.

Now, Watson will be swinging an all-pink driver as part of a charity effort with Ping. The driver, whose clubhead is pictured in two views at right, is a Ping G20 whose clubhead carries the words "Made Exclusively for Bubba."

As part of a larger fund-raising effort called "Bubba & Friends Drive to a Million," Ping will donate $300 for every drive of more than 300 yards that Watson hits with his pink driver. Up to a maximum of 300 drives - because Bubba hits a lot of 300-yard drives, he averaged 315 yards per drive in 2011.

Money raised with the pink driver goes to Phoenix-area charities selected by Ping with Watson's input.

"... I have extra motivation to hit the ball as far as I can," Bubba said. "My goal is to make Ping pay every cent."

Bubba's pink Ping G20 driver has a loft of 8.5 degrees; a 44.5-inch True Temper Grafalloy Bi-Matrix shaft (also pink); a Ping 703 Gold grip with 10 wraps of tape under his right hand and 12 wraps under his left hand. Look for it this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.

It's been a big week for Bubba. He also purchased the original "General Lee" car used in the television The Dukes of Hazzard.

(Photo courtesy of Ping Golf)

Poll: What's In Store for Woods in 2012?
Tiger Woods tees off his 2012 season this week at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. He ended 2011 by winning his own tournament, the Chevron World Challenge - his first victory in more than two years.

Which leads us to our question: How do you think Woods will fare in 2012?

This Week: Tiger Returns, Not At Torrey But In Abu Dhabi
Two big tournaments on the docket this week: the Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour and the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on the European Tour.

And the big story going into these events is the return of Tiger Woods. This is the week Woods has typically started his season in recent years, but he's doing it this year at a different tournament.

The Farmers Insurance Open has been Woods' season-opener recently, and with good reason: Woods has dominated that tournament, and on its golf course, Torrey Pines. But in 2012, Woods is beginning not in California, but in Abu Dhabi.

Perhaps the fact that Woods had his worst finish ever at Torrey Pines last year has something to do with that. (Woods finished tied for 44th there in 2011; he had never finished lower than 10th at Torrey Pines before. And Woods had won his previous five appearances at that course - four Farmer Insurance Opens and one U.S. Open.)

Or maybe it's just the lure of a hefty appearance fee. Woods isn't the only PGA Tour regular who is passing up the Farmers for a guaranteed paycheck in Abu Dhabi; Jason Day and K.J. Choi are playing the Euro Tour this week, too.

Others in the Abu Dhabi field include Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Sergio Garcia and Matteo Manassero. Martin Kaymer is the defending champion, winning in 2011 by six strokes over runner-up Rory McIlroy. Kaymer and McIlroy are back, too.

But the Farmers Insurance Open has a good field, as well. The defending champ there is Bubba Watson, who birdied the last hole in 2011 to beat Phil Mickelson. Watson and Mickelson are in the field, which also includes, among others, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Bill Haas, Ryo Ishikawa, Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan, Geoff Ogilvy, Justin Rose and Nick Watney. Ernie Els makes his first PGA Tour start of the year this week. And J.B. Holmes returns several months after undergoing brain surgery.

For more on each event, see our tournament pages:

Making the Right Choice in Shaft Flex
Shaft flex is often an overlooked element in choosing the right golf equipment - or, if not overlooked, then misunderstood. If you're a beginning golfer, how do you know what flex to choose for the shafts in your golf clubs? This article is an introduction to the subject that gives you a few things to consider when deciding on shaft flex.

See also:
What are the effects of using an improper shaft flex?

How Course, Swing Type Changes Bounce Requirements
When you buy new wedges, bounce angle is one of the factors that (probably) goes into your choice. Do you need wedges with a lot of bounce, or with little bounce?

That depends on a couple things. One is the type of swing you have; something else to consider are the conditions at your home course. If you have a certain type of swing, and certain conditions exist at your regular course, you'll want to go with more bounce; or less bounce if the opposite factors exist.

So what are those factors? See our FAQ, "Do Course Conditions and Swing Type Influence How Much Bounce I Need on Wedges?"

Related:
What is bounce?

This Week: Humana Challenge, the New Hope
There is no Hope on the 2012 PGA Tour. But there is a Humana Challenge, and the tournament that has always been associated with legendary entertainer Bob Hope now has new hope for success.

The Bob Hope Classic was first played in 1960 as the Palm Springs Golf Classic. Hope, one of the biggest starts in the world, was the tournament host, bringing his celebrity friends to the California desert each year for a 5-round pro-am that rotated among multiple courses, and in which the amateurs played four rounds.

Hope's name was added to the tournament in 1965, and remained there ever since - even after Hope's death in 2003 - until this year. Now, the full name of the tournament is Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation.

It's the first time since 2008 this event has had a tournament sponsor. And the tournament came close to folding during that sponsorless time period. Can the arrival of Humana as a title sponsor and involvement of former President Bill Clinton help restore some of this event's past cachet? Well, it's a start.

The name change isn't the only change. To make the tournament more appealing to the pros, the Humana Challenge will be the standard four rounds (72 holes) rather than five rounds going forward. And golfers will rotate among three courses (two of them at the same facility) rather than four.

Hope's name isn't entirely absent, however: The winner of the Humana Challenge will receive the Bob Hope Trophy.

Phil Mickelson begins his 2012 season this week at the Humana Challenge, and Greg Norman is also showing up. Why Norman? He's buddies with President Clinton.

Also in the field are Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Anthony Kim, David Toms and last week's winner Johnson Wagner. Bill Haas lost in a playoff at last year's Bob Hope Classic, a beginning to what was a breakout year for Haas, and he's back, too. The defending champion is Jhonattan Vegas.

See our Humana Challenge tournament page for the list of past champions and more tourney info and trivia.

See also:
Bob Hope quotes about golf

Golf Resources