Posted 10-26-2009Hello from China
Greetings from Singapore, where this week we play the Barclays Singapore Open. It’s hot here again as it usually is this time of year, but Sentosa Golf Club is a wonderful venue and we have some of the best players in the world the entered, including Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington, so it figures to be another great week.
Next week I’m playing the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, which is now a World Golf Championship event. I’m convinced that’s a great thing for our tours. It gives us one of the strongest possible fields in the fastest growing and potentially largest market. With golf becoming an Olympic sport, with China’s commitment to the Olympics and to golf, I believe the exposure of the world’s best players competing in Shanghai will drive the game in that country and throughout Asia.
I’m excited about the way I’m playing. It’s been fun to finish the year strong with a win at the Tour Championship and a good performance at the Presidents Cup.
A lot has been said about my work with Dave Stockton prior to the Tour Championship and I’m so glad we had that time together. Dave was a great putter, and talking with him reinforced what I knew to be true about putting and the short game. It reaffirmed what I talked about in my short game DVD, the need for a scientific understanding as well as an artistic approach for short game success.
In the DVD I talk about training my eyes for alignment, the importance of putter face alignment, the importance of reading the green properly. But to make putts in competition or away from the practice green you must develop solid fundamentals and practice properly but you also have to have feel and creativity to bring that short game out. That was the combination that I was lacking as the season wore on, and that I realized again with Dave.
It’s made a big difference and now I’m really looking forward to these two weeks, some serious time off, and a big year in 2010.
I’m also excited about the release Tuesday of the companion book to the DVD, Phil Mickelson: Secrets to the Short Game. Guy Yocum and T.R. Reinman did a fine job on the writing and Golf Digest photographers Dom Furore and J.D. Cuban did in still photos what Terry Jastrow did in the video, which was a big success, too.
My thanks to go to them and to Golf Digest for the great support they lent to the video and the book and, as always to you for your interest and support.
Phil