K.J Choi Chrysler Championship

K.J Choi won the Chrysler Championship at Innisbrook in Tampa in fine style today. This was K.J's fourth US Tour win and makes him the first Asian golfer to win four times on the US Tour. K.J opened with a 20 foot eagle putt on the first hole and no-player got any closer than two shots fromhis lead throughout the day. We have worked very hard on changing his posture, backswing plane and posture through the ball. For this all to come together and K.J hit the ball so strong and straight in a couple of months is great testiment to his physical and mental talent. K.J is a pleasure to work with, he has an incredible work ethic and focus on what he wants to achieve in golf. K.J has now qualified for the Tour Championship next week and the Mercedes Championship in Kapalua in January. Stuart Appleby finished nicely with a 2 under 69 and finish at a 1 under total and around 30th place. Apples made two triple bogies in the first round and a double in the last. Take those bad holes out and he would have been right there in the mix on the weekend. We are happy with his game as he started to drive the ball with more confidence. We are looking forward to the Tour Championship next week at Eastlake in Atlanta. The fairways are very narrow and the course calls for quite afew mid and long irons. Nick Flanagan was tied 9th going into the last round at Miami on the Nationwide Tour. Unfortunately Nick got off to a bad start and never recovered finishing 2 over for the day at 5 under and a tie for 25th. Next week Nick is rooming with me late in the week and we will practice and work hard getting him ready for the final event at the Nationwide Tour Championship in Houston the week after.

The Golf Channel

Stuart Appleby and I shot seven segments for Academy Live on the Golf Channel yesterday. The show was aired last night and will be replayed a few more times this week. In this photo we are demonstrating a 3 target pitching drill that Stuart does every week for his pitching distance control. This week we are in Tampa Florida for the Chrysler Championship. The Copperhead course at Innisbrook is one of our favorite tracks on Tour. It is a wonderful traditional design and a great test of golf with quick firm greens and ver good bunkering. Today we had a practice round with Craig Parry and K J Choi. This is Craig's last event in the USA as a full member. He is heading to Japan next year to play a full season as he is still exempt because of his Japan Open win a few years ago. Stuart and K J both hit the ball and putted very well today and we are looking forward to a great week. Nick Flanagan drove down from South Carolina afer the Nationwide event. He got to Stuart's place at Isleworth at 10.30pm after a 6 hour drive and slept on the couch. We worked on his putting stroke for a couple of hours before he drove down to Miami for the second last event of the year. Nick needs a couple of top 5 finishes or better to secure his PGA Tour card next year. He is hitting the ball well and need to just flat out go and make a bunch of birdies in these two events.

K.J. Choi

K.J Choi worked for a full day today on everything from short putting to driver. We mainly worked on technique with his full swing, concentrating mainly on a big muscle take away and then setting the club on plane. K.J has always had a tendacy to start his back swing with his hands and the club would set on to flat a plane. In the photo K.J is working on his speed putting. In this drill, called the ladder drill he has to hit 3 putts in a putter length semi circle behind the hole to move up the ladder. If he leaves one short or outside the zone, he goes back down the ladder ( just like the board game Snakes and Ladders). There are 4 steps to the ladder at 5,7,9 and 11 yards. We complete this drill from up hill, down hill, left to right and right to left. This might take up to an hour some days. The result is always great touch with more long putts made and very few 3 putts from poor speed.

The Speed Stik

I visited the Speedstik factory in Omaha and met with the president of Speedstik Juan Elizondo on Friday. I was very impressed with the engineering and precision tolerences that goes into every Speedstik made. In the photo we are looking at the new baseball line that is about to be released. We are bringing the Speedstik to Australia in the next few weeks and it will be available for purchase through www.golf.com.au. The Speedstik is a fantastic training tool for developing power, correcting plane, swing motion and timing problems. We use the Speedstik as a part of their power training programs with Stuart Appleby and K.J Choi. I am now in Houston Texas for two days working with K.J Choi before we head to Orlando on Monday for the Disney PGA Tour event next week, where both Stuart and K.J will be playing and doing their best to chalk up a win before the end of the Tour.

The road to the US PGA Tour

Nick Flanagan shot a 77 on Thursday and a 69 on Friday to miss the cut by 1 shot at the Nationwide in Midland Texas. Nick had a 2pm tee time on Thursday and the wind was very strong in the afternoon. Unfortunately I felt he made only 3 key errors on the front 9 that set his round up and had him 4 over par early. The main error was on the 3rd hole, where after two nice pars to start he hit a 5 iron short in the water for 2 on a par 5 and made bogey when he was in perfect position for a birdie. He fought back well over the last 27 holes and missed the cut by just a solitary 1 shot. I feel every aspect of his game is in good shape now and with 3 tournaments to go before the end of the season I expect he will have a very strong finish to the year and give himself a shot at the top 20 on the money list. If he doesn't make top 20, but finishes in the top 35, he gets to come back to Palm Springs for the Tour School final in December where the top 30 finishers over the 6 round final secure their US PGA Tour cards.

Nick Flanagan

We worked well and had a thorough practice session today. Nick and I got to the course by 7.30 and hit a few balls for a warm up. He then played 18 holes with Michael Sim, Aaron Price and Tim Wilkinson. The guys played a match to keep them focussed and the standard was hot, with 17 holes either birdied or eagled. After lunch we practiced bunkers and chipping for an hour and worked mainly on his routine and focus during the shot. His mind has been wandering and he has been a little negative on these short shots. We then hit full shots for two hours and worked on the timing of his release. I felt from Nick's feedback that he has been a fraction late with his arms in the downswing and has been very wristy through impact to catch the club head up. We worked on maintaining his right wrist angle through impact and the shots started coming of the club more solid and with a better trajectory. We finished up with an hour of speed putting and when we left the course at 6.30pm Nick was exhausted. I reinforced that, this is a standard days work if he really wants to be as good as the guys on the US PGA Tour and as a famous football coach once said 'talent is nine tenths of nothing' The same applies equally in golf.

The Nationwide Tour

I arrived at Midland Texas this afternoon after the usual 20 plus hour journey. There are five more Nationwide events for the year. The top twenty players on the order of merit will earn a full card on the PGA Tour next year. There are a bunch of Aussies in contention for the top twenty. Paul Sheehan and Gavin Coles are virtually a lock. Andrew Buckle and Jarrod Lyle are just in the twenty and Nick Flanagan who I am working with this week is 25th. Every shot counts and the tension at this end of the season is always apparent as players are trying to position themselves with a Tour to play next year. All the Aussies stick together on this tour and help and encourage each other at every opportunity. If one or more succeed at this level it works as inspiration for more to follow. We had dinner tonight at the Outback Steakhouse with a group of 12 Aussie players and caddies. I will be working with Nick until Friday. If Nick makes it into the top 20, he will be the 3rd youngest Australian to earn his US Tour card, behind Aaron Badderley and Adam Scott.

The Amex WGC

Tiger extended his PGA Tour victory streak to six in a row with an eight shot win at the Amex WGC at the Grove Resort in England. More importantly from my point of view, Stuart Appleby played his way back in to form after a four week lay off back in Australia. Stuart shot a final round 66 to finish 11 under sixth and notch up his 5th top ten to go with his two wins this year. Apples is coming back to Melbourne for another week to practice before we go back to the USA for the last three events finishing at the Tour Championship. I will head back next week to spend 3 days with Nick Flanagan at Midland Texas on the Nationwide Tour and 2 days working with K.J. Choi at his home in Houston. Then fly to Orlando to catch up with Stuart at the Disney, which is the first of the final three events on the US Tour this year.