From a good lie in the middle of a fairway bunker, I'll make the same swing as I do from an average fairway lie. I'll dig my feet in slightly and keep my lower body stable so I won't slip, but I don't change my club selection or setup. It's only when the ball is sitting down in the sand that I'll make some modifications.
I almost never hit a shot all out, and I make a conscious effort to swing my long clubs just as I do my wedges. Keep this in mind when hitting your fairway woods.
The beauty is, while you're working on chipping, you're also working on driving. This is because the bottoms of both swings - the area around impact - are identical.
For me, I always think about keeping my upper body relaxed, my hips level, and my right side down on the turn. If I work on nailing those three things at every practice, I hope that by the time I get into a race situation I can stay completely focused on the task at hand, and the rest will happen naturally.
The key in shooting any good round is to give yourself some chances and, tomorrow, if my swinging is feeling any good, I'll have some chances. But, if it's not, then I'll have to give myself those 15- to 20-footers and hope I can make those.
My constant prayer, these days, as I start my backswing is, 'Oh, please let me swing slowly.' The trouble is that sometimes I wonder whether I swing at all; whether I am not strictly a chopper.
I would say that my downswing mirrors the path of my backswing pretty closely.
Going to a one-plane swing method has made me a much more consistent player. Even when I'm not on, I never get very far off.
When I was getting overly 'droppy,' that's when I was hitting shots left and right. That's what we were doing, so maybe if my swing was a touch flatter, I wouldn't drop the club as much.
The funny thing about the golf swing is that you try to alter it and end up with the same faults as you've had all your life.
I created a little thing with my hands, just to create a more consistent plane to backspin balls, and obviously growing into your body helps. It's kind of complicated, more about starting the barrel flat and then creating a movement - flat to up, I guess - going towards the pitcher.
I'm a very analytical guy, I like to study my swing, I like to study what my back foot is doing, my elbow, whatever it might be, and there's a lot of guys nowadays that are like that. That's the trend of the game, that's the way the game has gone.
My posture is changing constantly with different length clubs. I have to. Whether it's subconscious or not I'm still changing. That's going to put another variable. I said, 'Why can't we make the lengths all the same?'
I can remember back to my early tour days when some fellows didn't think I'd last too long. Nothing physical - they said it was my swing. Some said it was too much of a 'muscle swing' to stand the test of time. One fellow predicted I wouldn't get past 30 out there.
Swing your swing. I know, I did.
