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I guess it is no surprise to find former Tour player Aaron Oberholser seated next to our hero, Brandel Chamblee, taking his own shot at Tiger Woods’ swing and coach Sean Foley. The problem, according to Oberholser, is Tiger’s tendency to forward lean his shaft at impact with the driver, a fact that he credits Chamblee with “talking about for years”. Forget the fact that Tiger ranked 17th in total driving on the PGA Tour in 2013 while winning the money title, Vardon Trophy, Player of the Year, and returning to his #1 world ranking while winning 5 times, all in what would be considered extremely strong field events. And forget the knee surgeries and need for multiple swing changes (Oberholser should know better: he had to quit playing due to injury, which is more than we can say about Chamblee, who quit because he lost his card and didn’t want to keep trying).
Oberholser is stating the truth when he observes Tiger’s shaft lean at impact. It is clearly different from the video I shot of Tiger at the 2001 PGA when he had a much wider approach to impact with the driver and an impact that had the hands even with the ball at contact. However, it would be wise to look at the rest of the changes Tiger has made in his swing (just about everything) and perhaps ask him or Sean Foley about their general ideas regarding Trackman numbers with the driver. Of course, after years of Chamblee’s ridiculous attacks on Tiger and Foley the chance that they could ever get any decent information out of Foley or Tiger is just about zero. For Oberholser to suggest, as he does, that Tiger should call Foley and ask him how to hit up on the ball in ludicrous, and indicates that Oberholser is following closely in Chamblee’s footsteps (and obviously trying to kiss his behind) by sounding like he is stating something that Foley doesn’t work on with Tiger constantly. Everyone knows these guys use Trackman when they work together, and if you look at Tiger’s numbers (the ones that are available) you see an average launch angle of 11 degrees or so. How does that gibe with Oberholser’s claim that Tiger is presenting no more than 2 to 3 degrees of loft to the ball at impact, (a claim made even more silly by the fact that Oberholser draws his impact line inches before Tiger reaches impact)? It is a mistake made by a player with no teaching experience, the same as what we see every time Chamblee tries to do a swing analysis. Both these guys were good enough to play the Tour and to win. Neither has any teaching experience with any level of player. The claim that Tiger can’t hit the fairway because of his excessive shaft lean may have some merit, but as is usually the case, the Golf Channel guys oversimplify and try to make themselves look way smarter than they are , as is obvious in his insinuation that neither Tiger or Foley is smart enough to be constantly addressing the issue.
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