Firestone Country Club is as good as it looks on TV, in fact it’s actually better. My first trip to Akron for the WGC was great. The course is absolutely brilliant, fair but very challenging and definitely some of the best greens I have seen. Better still are the practice facilities and in particular the two superb putting greens that they have which was brilliant for my role.
I had three players here this week Bjorn, Grace and Hoey, so it wasn’t going be a hectic week which actually made a nice change of pace.
On the Tuesday and Wednesday the main focus with all the players was to get them in tune with the pace of the greens. All 3 guys struggled a little in practice which is understandable as they are so different to what they play on in Europe and it is very hard to come over to these type of conditions and adjust straight away.
With Mike and Branden specifically we did some pace drills to really highlight and get there focus on their entry speed. A really simple drill you can do is to create a 2 foot square box (with tee pegs or a string) and place it on the fall line of a slope, so a straight putt would roll straight through the middle of the box.
Then see how many putt you can get into the box from all different distances and angles and distances. Where ever you put from the ball has to enter the side of the box closest to you. It’s a great drill to get you thinking more about pace and less about technique and gets the mind more ‘out there’ and ‘into’ the putt. It’s also fun.
Interestingly Branden was drawn with Tiger Woods for the first two rounds. On the Thurs and the Friday I did my best to watch as much as I could but it was very difficult with all the crowds there. It’s unbelievable how big a % of the gallery in the US actually only go and follow Tigers group. I’ve been to several events over the years and it’s always the same. You also get bored of the ‘Get in the hole’ chants on every shot very quickly. Brandan out played and putted Tiger over the 2 days which was great for Brandens confidence and also left Woods making some very complimentary remarks on Brandan in the press.
It was good over the tournament to be able to get out and watch the players and see how they deal with probably some of the most challenging greens the will face all year.
Over all the guys did well in that department. Mike in his first WGC event finished, Thomas finished, while Branden battled through a back injury in the final round to finish. Not a bad week and a nice warm up to the final major of the year at Kiawah Island.
