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A few weeks ago, I met Tony up in New York where we played 18 holes and took some shots of his swing on the course (you can watch that video on the website). Since then Tony had me come down to Dallas where we met and worked at the new Trinity Forest Golf Club, site of next year’s Byron Nelson Classic. Tony was excited about the suggestions I had made after our first encounter (we actually met four years ago but he has been injured pretty much the whole time since then) and had started hitting the ball better. As you will see he has eliminated a lot of the excess movement in his address and trigger motion, but we still have some work to do to simplify the backswing plane. I came to realize that part of the problem was in Tony’s grip and clubface position at address: he had the face a fair amount open before starting his swing, which I believe influenced the way the clubhead moved out away from him and got flat of the plane at P3. It was a big change to have the face more square at address, and when he got his hands a bit higher as well the takeaway improved markedly. He shot 68-75-70 in one of Wisconsin’s major amateur events but had to withdraw after 9 holes the last round as they played 36 the last day, and with Tony’s back the way it is and the State Match starting the next day he decided to bag it. He was 2 under when he retired and would have finished 15th at that number, not bad for an all-star NFL QB coming off 3 years of major injuries. Tony has a lot of talent but high-level golf requires experience, and hopefully he will retain his great attitude no matter the initial results. Great athletes have extra high expectations, and it will be part of my job to help Tony stay on a track that will keep him improving while he learns to compete on the course.
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