January 21 – New Jersey Golf Show

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – On an absolutely perfect Bermuda morning at Port Royal Golf Course, the 29th edition of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf festivities began Monday with a Champions Clinic.

Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, Open Champion Darren Clarke and PGA Champion Keegan Bradley were all on hand at the picturesque par-3 16th hole to display their world-class skills for a welcoming crowd, including a large contingent of elementary school-aged children, who were delighted when each of the players stopped by to say hello and sign some autographs.

U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy was a little late due to travel, but just as gracious when he arrived for his portion of the clinic a couple of hours later on the tee at the par-4 17th.

Along with taking in the outstanding talents of 2011’s major winners, the spectators at the Champions Clinic also served as a live studio audience.

PGA Professional Michael Breed presented each of the four major winners, asking questions about each shot as a couple of cameramen filmed segments for his popular Golf Channel show, “The Golf Fix.”

Clarke started the clinic. He hit tee shots at the daunting, but breathtaking, 235-yard par 3 that is carved into a cliff along the clearest blue water in the Atlantic Ocean.

Hitting a 4-iron off the tee, Clarke struck two shots that found the left-hand side of the green about pin-high and 30 or so feet away from the hole. Without much warm-up time beforehand, Clarke quipped, “That’s quite good!”

From there, Breed asked Clarke about his approach to playing shots in the wind. Clarke explained that he likes to keep the ball positioned farther back in his stance to deliver a steeper, more penetrating blow in order to control the trajectory of the ball, noting that controlling the trajectory is the most important aspect of a player’s game when playing in windy conditions.

Clarke showed the audience a couple of drills he uses to create the feeling of the positions he’s looking to have for swings in the wind.

Once Clarke wrapped up, the clinic moved ahead to the small fairway just in front of the 16th green. Schwartzel was there to display his chipping prowess, which was arguably his biggest asset in the final round of the 2011 Masters.

Breed noted Schwartzel’s white-hot start in that final round at Augusta National, which included a chip-in birdie at the first hole and a hole-out from the fairway for eagle at No. 3, before piecing together arguably the best finish in Masters history with four birdies in succession on the final four holes. Then, Breed asked Schwartzel to show everyone how he did it.

Schwartzel proceeded to hit a couple of chip shots, explaining to Breed and the audience that the possibilities around the green are endless when it comes to the short game. He talked about the strategy he uses, which changes on every shot. For this particular chip, Schwartzel was lining the ball up off his front heel and hitting a sand wedge into a little mound in the middle of the green and letting the ball release to the hole.

It was a difficult shot that Schwartzel made look quite easy.

Bradley then took over the clinic, armed with the belly putter that has helped him script one of the best rookie campaigns ever.

Bradley told Breed he switched to a belly putter from a conventional putter about two years ago.

“With the belly putter, the distance from your body to the ball is consistent on every stroke,” Bradley said. “That’s why I like it. You just set the end of the grip right into your belly button and then address the ball. It’s the same every time, which wasn’t the case for me with a conventional putter.”

You can’t argue with the results, either – two wins, highlighted by a major, in his first season on the PGA Tour. Of his three putts from 10 feet on Monday, Bradley holed two of them and just missed one on the right edge.

McIlroy was last to take part in the clinic and a little tardy at that. … but don’t worry. It wasn’t because of a few of those delicious Dark ‘n Stormy drinks the night before. The young star from Northern Ireland was traveling to Bermuda from a tournament in China.

He made his way to Port Royal straight from the airport after landing in Bermuda around noon. Despite flying from Hong Kong to Los Angeles to Bermuda, McIlroy wasn’t showing any signs of jetlag. His assignment for the clinic was to hit driver – a club that he was clinical with during his eight-shot victory in the U.S. Open at Congressional.

After just five warm-up shots with a mid-iron, McIlroy told Breed he was ready to step to the tee and hit driver at the par-4 17th hole.

McIlroy explained that with driver, he focuses on his balance and stability at address, standing with his feet further apart than with any other club. From there, he likes to keep the club wide on the way back to get in a solid position to unload.

McIlroy smoked one down the center of the fairway, and Breed joked, “I can’t even see that far!”

Modern golf instructors have long-forgotten the truth about negative loft – something that Michael Breed, the host of Golf Channel’s The Golf Fix , would like to change. Thirty years ago, Breed was practicing putting and had an epiphany: the ball jumped into the air immediately after impact with his putter face. Tinkering with the angle before impact produced a better result. He quickly learned that by leaning the putter shaft forward he was able to transform the loft from positive to negative and all but eliminated that pesky jump. Breed has learned that the key to fixing putting woes is to change the loft on your putter face from the standard-issue 4 degrees of positive loft to a negative three degrees.

In THE 3-DEGREE PUTTING SOLUTION: The Comprehensive, Scientifically Proven Guide to Better Putting by Michael Breed with John Steinbreder (Gotham Book, October 2011, $26, Hardcover), Breed explains the technique that golfers like Dave Stockton, Billy Casper, Horton Smith and Bobby Locke have all used successfully, but instructors have been failing to teach for decades. Breed reintroduces the forgotten truth about negative loft with the hope of providing a better short game for amateurs and pros alike.

THE 3-DEGREE PUTTING SOLUTION gives golfers less backspin on the ball, which leads to a truer roll and more consistent speed – significantly shrinking the chance on error of each putt.

Breed also offers readers information on grip, posture, and alignment. He addresses matters of club path, face angle and tempo. He provides tips on the best putter for golfers of all levels, and includes practice drills and dozens of photographs and illustrations.

THE 3-DEGREE PUTTING SOLUTION will revolutionize the short game of today’s golfers.

Contact: Beth Parker
212-366-2213
Beth.parker@us.penguingroup.com

DUBLIN, Ohio – In the past month, the medical diagnoses were coming fast and furious for Shaun Micheel.

He was told he needed a spinal tap because he might have multiple sclerosis. He spent two days in a neurology clinic with an enlarged left carotid artery before stroke or aneurysm was ruled out. Dizziness, face-tingling and headaches were deemed caused by Meniere’s disease, which affects the inner ear. He had tubes put in for that, but the prescribed anti-seizure medication made him feel worse, so he eventually stopped taking it.

Then there’s the ringing in his ears, which he said he’s experienced for the past three years.

“After all the other stuff that’s been going on, the ear-ringing is the least of my worries,” Micheel said.

Because even as Micheel was trying to keep his 42-year body from betraying him, the 2003 PGA champion couldn’t find a reason to keep playing professional golf. He no longer enjoyed going to work.

He’d lost his inspiration last October when his mother, Donna Micheel, passed away at age 64 from lung cancer that had spread to her liver and brain. They’d spoken on the phone at least once a day when he was on the road.

Micheel, a Memphis, Tenn., resident, poured all of his mental energy into playing last year for her and earned more than $1 million, his most since 2006, when he finished second at the PGA at Medinah.

He was ready to walk away.

He’d told his wife Stephanie that he might quit, might look for another way to support her and their two children, Dade (7), and Marin (4). His kids kept asking if he made the cut, even though he suspects they don’t know what that means. They wondered when he was going to bring home another trophy to go with the lone one from Oak Hill.

“Those are tough questions to answer. They don’t quite understand how difficult it is and how great these guys are out here,” Micheel said.

Coming into this week’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club, he’d missed five consecutive cuts, counting his withdrawal due to a headache with a hole to play in the second round of the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.

But the Monday before the Players Championship last month, he had a 90-minute lesson with Michael Breed, host of the Golf Channel show The Golf Fix. Breed’s tip that he concentrate on one thing – cut spin, which gets his right shoulder through the ball – might have cured what Micheel’s doctors couldn’t.

This week, when Breed’s lesson finally clicked, Micheel’s physical ailments and all his life’s dramas seemed a little less dramatic.

Thanks to a TV guy.

Playing in his seventh Memorial, Micheel turned in his best round at Muirfield Village on Saturday, his third-round 67 leaving him tied for fifth, 5 strokes off the lead of Steve Stricker.

“My ball’s flying straight again,” Micheel said.

“It’s good to see him playing well,” said Micheel’s caddie since 2010, Stephen “Stick” Johnson, who has been his friend for 18 years. Johnson, his wife Mitzi and Stephanie Micheel went to law school together at the University of Memphis and Mitzi Johnson opened a law practice there with Stephanie Micheel.

“It would be nice to have a nice steady life,” Johnson said of Micheel’s travails. “That’s what golf is. Nobody’s life is steady.”

Especially not for Micheel, whose career was thrown off its axis by a diagnosis of low testosterone in 2004, then the tour’s institution of a drug testing policy in the summer of 2008. To take the medication he needs, Micheel must apply for a therapeutic use exemption, which requires he go off the drug for periods of six to eight weeks about every two years. He needed to apply for another exemption for the diuretics he takes for the ear-ringing.

Then came shoulder surgery for a torn labrum in June, 2009, two months after his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

That rocked his world the most, especially when she was too sick last year to come see him play at the St. Jude Classic in his hometown, where he finished fourth. He also took fourth at the John Deere Classic. He carded a double eagle in the final round of the U.S. Open, only the second in the tournament’s history, and dedicated the shot to Donna Micheel.

He knows coping with the death of a parent is common on tour. Although some of his peers used golf to help them cope with their grief, Micheel found no solace between the ropes.

“There’s no escape out there,” Micheel said. “I thought that would be the case for a while. For those who say they can forget about all that out there, I think they’re lying to you.

“The ropes are only a barrier between me and the crowd and I’ve visited the crowd far too often this year. Those thoughts of her stay with you.”

Micheel said he still hasn’t found someone to take her place and isn’t really sure if that’s what he needs.

“My whole career I’ve played for myself, my caddie and my family,” he said. “It’s not enough to play for myself any more. Maybe I’m playing for my dad. Other than the obvious, I’m playing for my job.

“I’m not one to give up, really. But you have to look yourself in the mirror and be excited about coming out here to play and I hadn’t been. I can find other jobs if I quit playing golf.”

Micheel talked so freely about his medical issues that they almost sounded like his solace. No wonder this seemingly tortured soul has embraced the one bit of help he’s found – from a TV guy.

James Vargas fired a final round 65 on Sunday and finished 21- under.  He caught fire on the back nine, nailing birdies on three of his final four holes!  Vargas never looked back en route to his 3rd victory this season.

Host of The Golf Channel’s The Golf Fix with Michael Breed will be appearing today at the Long Island Golf Show.  Come out and meet Michael at 12:00 & 3:00 PM at The Suffolk County Community College.