RANGE WORK
Left: Kevin Streelman’s small adjustment on the range after two lackluster rounds in the 2014 Travelers Championship brought him a third-round 64 on Saturday and a trophy on Sunday. Right: Brant Snedeker wasn’t happy with his performance at the start of 2013, so he hit the range until he figured it out and proceeded to finish second, joint second and first
2015 Masters), with such a minute adjustment. Streelman shook his head. “Usually, fixes are so small. Ball position, probably simple stuff. But the hard part is finding it on the range.” There are those times, like with Streelman or Blixt, when the light comes on fairly quickly. Then there are those times, as Woods showed Harmon, when you need to pound ball after ball, bucket after bucket, until you get it. That’s where Ben Curtis was during the 2008 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. “I was on the driving range for two hours because I couldn’t hit a freaking driver,” Curtis said. “I was panicking after my practice round. I had shot like 3 under playing the back nine, and the I think I shot 44 on the front nine. I went straight to the range and started banging drivers, nothing but drivers.” It’s not a blueprint Curtis deeply believes in. Like a lot of players, he said he doesn’t prescribe such a rigorous approach; the feeling is, you should head to the range with a specific purpose, one swing thought. But at that particular time, on the eve of the season’s final major, and with it being the last week to earn qualifying points for the Ryder Cup, Curtis saw no other options. “A lot of times [banging driver after driver] doesn’t work very well, but I found a little key and I was able to groove it,” Curtis said. “I went out and played really well [tied for second] and made the Ryder Cup team.” Curtis’ search for a swing fix was born 202
THE MEMORIAL
out of a sense of panic. Brandt Snedeker’s discovery in early 2013 came wrapped in pure frustration. The personable Snedeker had opened nicely at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, a share of 13th, when he surprisingly played poorly at the Humana. It didn’t make sense to Snedeker, who annually piles up great tournaments on the West Coast Swing, so when he arrived at Torrey Pines he moved right to the practice range. “I seem to always be one swing thought away,” he said. “Especially early in the year.” “I didn’t play particularly well [at the Humana], and I had this one swing thought on the range. Finally, it clicked.” Snedeker went on a tear—he was second at the Farmers Insurance Open, tied for second at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, then he won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. “That one swing thought stayed with me for a month and I played great,” Snedeker said. “Then I got hurt.” The record shows that Snedeker came back from a few weeks off to finish T-6 at the Masters, then T-8 at THE PLAYERS, only it doesn’t reflect that he returned minus that “one swing thought.” Why? “I couldn’t really remember what it was, but it never worked again,” he said, shaking his head. “I know. Crazy. I don’t know what changed.”
PGA TOUR IMAGES (2)
in his next three starts.