Due to Matt Kuchar's great play of late and recent win at the Turning Stone Resort Championship there have been requests to do a video blog of his golf swing. In this second part, I discuss some of the finer points on what Matt and I worked on over the past year.

What a surprising Open championship with Tiger missing the cut and Tom Watson leading heading into the final round! It has been a great week weather-wise and the final day today is no exception. Unfortunately, Matt Kuchar missed the cut so we have had the last two days off. Yesterday we ventured up to Prestwick to play. Prestwick is rich in golf history having hosted the first 12 British Opens with Old Tom and Young Tom Morris winning eight of those. The golf course is entirely different than those days with the exception being #17. It is a 390 yard tight hole with heather on both sides of the fairway. From there you are faced with a blind second with a forced carry over a large bunker fronting the green. Being on the same grounds where the British Open originated was quite the experience. Today I am in for a real test as we head up to play Troon with the famous Postage Stamp par 3.

We are currently en route to Glasgow, Scotland where it is 5AM, six hours ahead of CST. We left the Moline, IL airport a little late, departing at 9:30PM Sunday evening. The duration of the flight is 6 hours 45 minutes which puts us into Glasgow at 10:15AM Monday morning. The John Deere charters a plane for players, wives, and caddies to entice players to compete in the John Deere Classic prior to heading over for The British Open. This year 23 players took advantage of the all first class seat, direct flight charter. The John Deere picks up the tab for the flight and players make a donation to the John Deere charities for every seat they book. We have a star-studded group on board! Players on board include current U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, current John Deere Classic & Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial champion Steve Stricker, current Travelers Championship champion Kenny Perry, Quail Hollow champ Sean O’Hair. Also on board are 2004 British Open champion Todd Hamilton, 1998 British Open champion Mark O’Meara, and 1996 British Open champion Tom Lehman among others.

Sorry it has been a while since we’ve put up a blog post. The summer months are busy times for me as Jim Hardy spends much deserved time with his family in Colorado. I wanted to give you all an idea of what I will be up to over the next couple weeks. I have quite a busy, but exciting travel schedule coming up. On Monday night I will be traveling to the John Deere in the Quad Cities to work with Scott McCarron and Matt Weibring. As you know, Matt is a student of mine and Jim is Scott’s instructor. When Jim is unavailable I assist with his students. Another student of mine, Matt Kuchar, may also play. However, at this time he is unsure as his wife just delivered their second baby boy. Prior to leaving I will be spending the day with Peter Jacobsen in Dallas as he continues to work his way back from multiple surgeries.

Last week, the PGA TOUR was in Dallas for the HP Byron Nelson Classic. Jim Hardy came into town Monday through Wednesday to work with Scott McCarron and Tom Pernice Jr. I had Matt Kuchar and Matt Weibring playing in the event. Both Jim and Matt Kuchar stayed at my house and we had golf “bootcamp” for 3 days. Scott McCarron had a terrific week finishing T4th. What was more impressive is that he finished an amazing 1st in Driving Accuracy (76.8% with narrow fairways) and 1st in Greens In Regulation (81.9%)! That rarely ever happens because when a player is hitting his driver well, his irons aren’t as good and vice versa. Why? If a swing is more “shallow”, the player will hit the driver, hybrids, short irons, and clubs teed up or with a fluffy lie very well. If a swing is more “steep”, the player will hit the middle irons, long irons, and clubs off of tight lies very well. On TOUR, we usually see great iron players and great drivers, but we seldom see a player that excels at both. A golfer only hits both well when his swing is perfectly neutral. Scott is swinging as well as he ever has in his career and his golf swing is perfectly neutral. He can hit all of his golf clubs, as evidenced by the statistics. That is why Scott’s performance was so impressive.