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

This Week: Pebble Beach and Dubai
The PGA Tour is at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am this week, while the European Tour plays the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Tiger Woods switched up his early season schedule this year and is playing at Pebble Beach. Some fans might have the impression that Woods loves Pebble Beach Golf Links; it's an iconic course, he's won this tournament before, and he dominated the 2000 U.S. Open on this course.

But this is the first time since 2002 that Woods is playing the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Scuttlebutt over the years was that Woods hated the bumpy poa annua greens at Pebble Beach; since 2002, he had only returned once for the 2010 U.S. Open. And at that Open Woods slammed the greens.

Yet, here Tiger is, playing the Pebble Pro-Am again. Go figure.

Other "name players" in the field include Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Zach Johnson, Dustin Johnson, Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvy, Ian Poulter and Nick Watney.

The defending champion is D.A. Points. And, of course, Bill Murray is among the celebrities playing. (But not everyone appreciates Murray's participation.)

The defending champ at the Dubai Desert Classic is Alvaro Quiros. Some of the bigger names in the field include Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Miguel Angel Jimenez, the Molinari brothers and Thomas Bjorn. A couple of Champions Tour players - Fred Couples and Mark O'Meara - got sponsor exemptions, as did youngster Peter Uihlein. John Daly, coming off a fourth-place finish at last week's Qatar Masters, is also entered.

Past champions and tourney trivia:
Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Dubai Desert Classic

Course photos:
Pebble Beach pictures
Emirates Golf Club

Remarkable Reversal for Kyle Stanley
Last week at the Farmers Insurance Open, Kyle Stanley - trying for his first PGA Tour victory - suffered a final-hole meltdown. Needing just a double-bogey or better to win, he made a triple-bogey 8, then lost in a playoff.

Confidence shattering? Not for Stanley.

On Sunday, Stanley got that first PGA Tour victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and he did it with one of the biggest final-round comebacks in tour history.

Stanley started the final round in Phoenix eight strokes off the lead, then fired a 65. He finished at 15-under 269, making a short but nervy winning putt of about the same length he missed a week earlier on the final hole of the Farmers.

So just a week after a horrible finish to lose, Stanley came back with a magnificent round to win. Bravo.

Stanley's comeback from 8 behind with 18 to play for the win ties for the third-biggest final-round comeback in PGA Tour history. Jack Burke Jr., Ken Venturi, Mark Lye, Hal Sutton, Chip Beck, Scott Simpson and Craig Stadler all also had wins in which they started the final round eight off the lead.

Stewart Cink won the 2004 MCI Heritage after beginning the final round nine behind.

And the recordholder in this category is Paul Lawrie, who won the 1999 British Open after beginning the final round 10 strokes behind the leader. That was the Jean Van de Velde Open. Lawrie, by the way, also won on Sunday, claiming the European Tour's Qatar Masters.

The Major Champions
We've added two new pages to About.com Golf that organize the list of major championship winners in different ways. First up is the list of major winners by year and tournament. And next up is the list of major championship winners alphabetized by golfer.

Both pages show you the full list of every winner of every men's professional major yet played. You can also click on any major listed to view the final scores and read a recap (except for a handful of British Opens - but we're working on that).

See also:
Future majors

Tournament profile pages:
1935 British Open
1932 British Open
1931 British Open

And for something completely different:
Big Break Atlantis

Effects of Using the Wrong Shaft Flex
Your clubs will work much better for you if you are swinging clubs with shafts whose flex is appropriate to your swing. And not just your swing speed, but how smooth your swing is, too.

What happens if you choose a shaft flex that doesn't match your swing - a flex that is too stiff or not stiff enough? Check out the effects of using the wrong shaft flex and see if anything sounds familiar.

See also:

This Week: Phoenix Open and Qatar Masters
The PGA Tour heads to Arizona for the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the European Tour stays in the Persian Gulf region for the Commercialbank Qatar Masters this week.

On Sunday, Kyle Stanley blew a 3-stroke lead with one hole to play at the Farmers Insurance Open, then lost the playoff to Brandt Snedeker. Stanley's chance at redemption begins this week; he, as well as Snedeker, is in the field in Phoenix.

Stanley should talk to Robert Garrigus about final-hole meltdowns and how to forget about them. At the 2010 St. Jude Classic, Garrigus also blew a 3-stroke lead at the last hole when trying to notch his first PGA Tour win, then lost in a playoff. But just a few months later, Garrigus got that first win, and he's played well since. A loss such as Stanley endured last week can cripple a golfer's confidence, but as Garrigus has shown, it doesn't have to.

Also in the field in Phoenix are Phil Mickelson, trying to rebound from a missed cut in San Diego last week; the defending champ, Mark Wilson; plus Keegan Bradley, Fred Couples, Rickie Fowler, Bill Haas, Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Ian Poulter, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson.

The Qatar Masters has another strong field, although it doesn't include Robert Rock. Rock, the winner of the Abu Dhabi Championship last week, isn't playing. But Qatar's defending champ, Thomas Bjorn, is.

The field also includes Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Jason Day, Graeme McDowell, K.J. Choi, Hunter Mahan, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Retief Goosen and Matteo Manassero.

Check our tournament pages for more info, including the lists of past champions, from each event:

14-Year-Old Wins Women's NSW Open, Breaking Age Record
Amateur Lydia Ko is only 14 years old, but she's been turning heads for a couple years already. One year ago, in the New South Wales Open on the ALPG Tour, Ko finished one stroke behind the winner, Catherine Hedwall.

That was Hedwall's first victory as a pro, and Hedwall went on to win the LET Rookie of the Year Award.

This year, Ko made sure not to fall just short. At age 14, she won the title at the New South Wales Open by four strokes over runner-up Becky Morgan.

In so doing, Ko became the youngest-ever winner - male or female - of a significant professional tournament. The previous youngest winner of a women's tournament was Amy Yang, who was 16 1/2 when she won the LET- and ALPG-sanctioned ANZ Ladies Masters in 2006.

The previous overall recordholder was Ryo Ishikawa, who was 15 years, 8 months old when he won the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup on the Japan Tour in 2007.

The 2012 NSW Open didn't have the strongest field, but there were "name" players: Ko beat Lindsey Wright by five, Katherine Hull by six, Melissa Reid by 13 and Laura Davies by 14.

Ko had rounds of 69, 64, and 69, to finish at 14-under 202.

Not surprisingly, Ko is the No. 1-ranked amateur in women's golf. Earlier this month, she became the first-ever golfer to hold the women's Australian Amateur, New Zealand Amateur, Australian Strokeplay and New Zealand Strokeplay titles simultaneously. Her current handicap is +5.5, according to her website.

Ko was born in Korea but her family moved to New Zealand in 2003 to find better weather in which Ko could practice golf. According to an Associated Press article, Ko will play in about 30 tournaments this year. Most of those will be amateur events, but she will be playing the Australian Masters and LPGA Australian Open over the coming two weeks.

Rock Rolls Over Tiger In Abu Dhabi
Tiger Woods hasn't won a European or PGA Tour tournament in more than two years, and Robert Rock (and his hair) have made Woods wait at least two more weeks.

Rock won the European Tour's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on Sunday by one stroke over Rory McIlroy, with Woods among a group tied for third, two behind Rock.

Woods and Rock shared the third-round lead, but in the final round Rock carded a 2-under 70 to Woods' even-par 72. Woods started the back nine with a bogey, then made eight straight pars to the finish.

Woods won in his last start of 2011, at his own Chevron World Challenge. But that short-field tournament is not a tour event. Tiger's last win in an official tour tournament was at the 2009 JB Were Masters in Australia, an Australasian Tour tournament co-sponsored by the European Tour. Woods' last PGA Tour victory was the 2009 BMW Championship.

But for the most part, Woods' swing looked great in Abu Dhabi this week, just as it did a little more than a month ago when Tiger won the Chevron. Putting remains an issue. It's probably the case that Woods is about to be a regular winner again; it's definitely the case that he's going to be regularly in contention again going forward.

Woods' next opportunity is in two weeks at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

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

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