"He wants to swing like Hogan, flat, but his left wrist is flat and his thumbs are not UNDER the shaft like Hogan's."
/At the end of last week's SI Roundtable, Gary Van Sickle and I noted Brandel Chamblee's emergence as golf's version of John McEnroe, and he really backs it up on the post Deutsche Bank edition of the weekly get together.
There's way too much good stuff to post, including Jim Herre addressing Tiger blowing off Jimmy Roberts after a 63. But the Chamblee perspective is more important for discussion purposes:
Van Sickle: The chic story to write now is whether Tiger's competition is weak, compared to Jack's battles with Arnie, Player, Trevino, Miller and Watson. The world rankings might back up that theory — before the Deutsche Bank it was Paul Casey 3, Stricker 4, Kenny Perry 5 and Stenson 6. Not exactly murderer's row in majors.
Chamblee: Tiger has also lost a lot of his intimidation factor. He no longer blows it by everybody, and when you play from the same place as everybody it is hard to blow the field away. He can't swing hard anymore because he fears the driver and plays away from it. He makes careless mistakes that keep him within reach and make him look human and make putts much more important because his leads are never as large.
And Brandel can expect an email sometime soon after this...
Chamblee: In my opinion, it's not an equipment issue, it's a swing issue, pure and simple. He wants to swing like Hogan, flat, but his left wrist is flat and his thumbs are not UNDER the shaft like Hogan's. It's funny how people try to copy Hogan and just swing flatter. Hogan said the secret was cupping the left wrist, which gets the thumbs under the shaft. Having said all that, if Tiger wants to copy a swing, it should Byron Nelson, who matched Hogan's control but didn't have to work nearly as hard.