{"id":715,"date":"2011-02-13T06:08:25","date_gmt":"2011-02-13T06:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janinajacobs.com\/?p=715"},"modified":"2011-02-13T06:08:25","modified_gmt":"2011-02-13T06:08:25","slug":"mayakoba-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/golf\/instruction\/715\/mayakoba-magic","title":{"rendered":"Mayakoba Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Marcos Zuazu, Director of Instruction at the Jim McLean Golf School, Fairmont Mayakoba<\/p><\/div>\n

As a low handicapper with a pretty decent swing, it is always interesting to see what a golf instructor will say to improve my game.\u00a0\u00a0 In the past, I’ve walked away from clinics with not a lot of helpful information.<\/p>\n

But not this time.\u00a0 Not from the excellent instructors at Fairmont’s Mayakoba Resort, which will host the PGA professionals during the Mayakoba Golf Classic, February 23-27, along the breathtakingly beautiful Riviera Maya.<\/p>\n

Dashing Spaniard and Director of Instruction at the on-premise Jim McLean Golf School, Marcos Zuazu knows his stuff.\u00a0 Utilizing video frame-by-frame split-screens, Zuazu plots your swing next to your favorite player’s and comes up with comparisons as well as fixes.<\/p>\n

Looking at Annika’s swing next to mine, there were many similarities but two glaring faults were producing what I term a ‘power leak’…..and not very Annika-like. \u00a0 Zuazu spotted them immediately.\u00a0\u00a0 My left shoulder raised up noticeably on the backswing and that, coupled with an unwieldy right elbow chicken-winging out and depleting a strong wrist angle into the impact zone was enough to rob my power reserves.\u00a0\u00a0 Two tips later, the difference was remarkable, with more solidly struck shots.<\/p>\n

Coaching the short game, instructor David Lopez provided a fix for pitch and run shots which I sometimes would chunk or skull.\u00a0 Deceleration can always be a culprit, but in this case, David changed my set-up:\u00a0 ball back in the stance, eyes almost over the ball with my body crowding the shot, hands pressed forward – with a more closed club face.\u00a0 Put a simple putting stroke on it, gauge the distance, and I was good to go.<\/p>\n

I was able to try out both of these techniques playing the first few holes of the Greg Norman-designed El Camaleon golf course.\u00a0 On number 1, a superb par-5 complete with a ‘cenote’, or prehistoric cave uncovered – and left hauntingly open –\u00a0 while excavating the fairway during construction, my third shot was a few yards off the green.\u00a0 Taking advantage of the opportunity to try my new chipping technique, I easily rolled the shot about a foot from the cup.\u00a0 Playing partner Kevin Sebulski, Fairmont’s Director of Golf, picked up the ball and gave me my putt as I credited his staff with the shot.<\/p>\n

On the third hole, the longest par-4 on the course, my second shot was about 6 feet off the left side of the green.\u00a0 This time, I opted to putt, leaving the ball inches from the hole.\u00a0 Again, Kevin picked up the ball and said, “Was that in your short game lesson too?”<\/p>\n

I replied, “Nope.\u00a0 That one was all me!<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Contact the Fairmont Mayakoba at +52.984.206.3000 or via e-mail at mayakoba@fairmont.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three well spent hours learning two swing techniques equals one superbly enjoyable round of golf at an engaging golf destination near the Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2227,5,9,17],"tags":[1378,5076,5077],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fairmont-hotels","category-instruction","category-golf","category-courses-and-travel","tag-fairmont-mayakoba","tag-mclean-golf-schools","tag-el-camaleon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2011\/02\/Marcos-Zuazu.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}