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Big Play

who: TigerWoods

what: 112-yardwedge to three feet

where: 442-yardpar-4 14th hole at East Lake Golf Club

when: Final roundof the Tour Championship

why: Woods flushesirons and hits so many stiff, as he did at 14 on Sunday, because he traps theball better than anybody else. He hits down so his club face contacts the ballfirst and then the turf. At impact Woods squeezes the ball between the clubface and the turf, and doing so produces perfect trajectory and backspin. Italso adds distance because his downward arc delofts the face by a halfclub.

STEVE'S TIP

To Pure Irons, TryMy Two-Tee Drill

To compress the ball instead of scooping, you must hit the ball first, not theturf. Practice by putting a tee two inches in back of the clubhead with the teesticking up a quarter of an inch. Put another tee two inches ahead of the balland three quarters of an inch above ground (inset top). Swing so you miss theback tee, hit the ball and knock the forward tee into the air, leaving a divotin front of where the ball had been sitting (inset bottom).

Bosdosh teaches atthe Members Club at Four Streams in Beallsville, Md.

...And AnotherThing

"Why all the fuss over whether Woods has dumped Hank Haney as his teacher?He'd win as much with Elin as his instructor. "

GOLF MAGAZINE TOP 100 TEACHERS POLL

Where should Tiger Woods turn for a coach?

Stick with Hank Haney ...37%

Return to Butch Harmon ...10%

Go it alone ...53%

"Since he decided to go it alone a while back,Woods has been less mechanical."

-TED SHEFTICTED SHEFTIC LEARNING CENTER

The Rory Reader

Rory Sabbatini may have won only once (Colonial) thisseason, but he was the media's player of the year by a mile, creating headlinesfor being voted the least popular playing partner on Tour in an SI poll of hispeers, dissing the state of Tiger Woods's game and suggesting that anyone whoskipped a FedEx Cup playoff event should be ineligible for the $10 millionfirst prize. Here are Sabbatini's greatest hits of 2007.

May 10 "Twenty-five percent of the guys on Tour saythe player they wouldn't want to play with is me. There's probably 25 percent Iwouldn't want to play golf with. You can pick your battles, but I'm not outhere to make friends. I'm out to win golf tournaments."

May 10 "When people play with Tiger, they stand andwatch the show and not participate. I'm not someone to watch the show. I'mthere to participate to win. I want to be paired with Tiger in the lastgroup."

May 10 "I've seen Tiger when he hits the ball well,and I've seen Tiger when there is not a facet of his game that you look at andyou're not amazed. But I think Sunday he struggled. He had to battle for thatwin, and I think that made me realize, you know, he is as beatable asever."

May 10 "I've seen [Tiger] when he figures it out.It's scary. I don't want to see that anymore. I like the new Tiger. I'm waitingfor him to have kids to really test his patience."

May 11 "I never intended [previous comments] as adig at Tiger. I stated that I want to compete against him."

Aug. 4 "I'm saying what I think. I speak my mind,and that's the way it is."

Aug. 23 "[Tiger's missing the Barclays] is adisappointment because the whole purpose of this new system was to try andcreate an atmosphere that would draw everybody to the final four events of theyear. Obviously it's kind of backfired in that sense by Tiger skipping thefirst event."

Aug. 23 "Change it so that you definitely have theincentive to play all four. . . . [If] you play three, you only get 75 percentof the $10 million, or you play two, you get 50 percent. Make it somethingwhere you want the $10 million and have to play for it."

Aug. 23 "I started being confident when I was aboutfour. [Then I] was actually a lot worse. I've kind of toned it down."

Aug. 29 "The way I look at it is, hey, if you havesomething to say and you don't have the guts to say it to my face, then keepyour mouth quiet."

Aug. 29 "People always say they want somethingdifferent. You get me, you get something different, and then they burn you forit. So what do you want? Do you want different or do you want the usualfraternal player out here? You guys need to pick and choose what you want. Ifyou want your generic standard answer, hey, I can spend all day long here andtalk generic answer with you. But that's not the person I am. You know, if thesituation continues where people continue to burn me and manipulate what I sayinto what they want to turn it into, I'm not going to bother talking."

SIX PHOTOS

COURTESY OF NBC (WOODS); ERICK W. RASCO (TEES, DIVOT, BACKGROUND, BOSDOSH, 3); MICHAEL J. LEBRECHT II/1DEUCE3 PHOTOGRAPHY (SABBATINI); MIKE EHRMANN (WOODS BOTTOM)