{"id":312,"date":"2010-08-22T17:28:44","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T22:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnstrawn.com\/?p=312"},"modified":"2010-12-15T19:55:54","modified_gmt":"2010-12-16T00:55:54","slug":"arjun-atwal-wins-wyndham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/golf\/instruction\/312\/arjun-atwal-wins-wyndham","title":{"rendered":"Arjun Atwal Wins Wyndham"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Arjun Atwal--First Indian Player to Win on PGA Tour<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Just under a year ago I watched Dale Lynch, the Australian swing guru, provide a tutorial to his latest pupil, Arjun Atwal.\u00a0 \u00a0Atwal was at a Nationwide event in Boise, Idaho, just starting to play again after a difficult recovery from torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders.\u00a0 He had aggravated the injuries trying to come back too soon, and for months could not take a full swing, let along fire the club at the ball the way any successful touring pro must.\u00a0 Yet today, August 22, 2010, Arjun Atwal is the biggest story in golf, having just won the Wyndham Championship (nee the Greater Greensboro Open) by a shot over David Toms, with a 20 under par score of 260.<\/p>\n

(See http:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/golf\/golf\/instruction\/284\/dale-lynch-at-home-on-the-range<\/a>)<\/p>\n

At 37, Atwal has now won for the first time on the PGA Tour, just days after losing his tour card when his medical exemptions expired without his having won enough to remain qualified for the all-exempt tour.\u00a0 To get into the Wyndham he first had to get through Monday qualifying at Forest Oaks, a former tournament venue.\u00a0 He carried the momentum of that success to a first round 61 at Sedgefield.\u00a0 He was tied for the lead after two rounds, three clear after the third, and one giant shot to the good after the final putt fell.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dale Lynch Shows the Way<\/p><\/div>A brilliant tactical decision led to his victory, as I saw it.\u00a0 An errant second on the par 5 fifteenth, a hole he expected to birdie, may have contributed to his decision to hit over the green from the rough nearly 200 yards from the flag on 18, after a pulled tee shot.\u00a0 \u00a0The relief he got from the grandstands on 15 actually set up a pretty good birdie chance, but he didn\u2019t quite manage the up and down, leaving the birdie putt on the lip as it ran out of steam. \u00a0But it may have planted the idea that there was relief available from the grandstands.\u00a0 After assessing his lie and the prospect of laying up where he might not have a controllable lie, he decided to fire for the grandstands on 18, then take relief and then get up and down for a winning par.\u00a0 He handled the decision with aplomb and fired right up the center of the green, the ball nestling as he had expected against the grandstand.\u00a0 There was no way to drop without hitting a slope that pushed the ball toward the green, so after two drops he was able to place the ball, giving himself an excellent lie.\u00a0 He then hit two decent shots, no more, but under the pressure he surely felt, both magnificently played.\u00a0 He dropped his putter in relief when the final putt fell.<\/p>\n

Atwal averaged almost three fewer putts per round than the field this week, which is the number of strokes per round by which he bested the field.\u00a0 He putted well, of course, but he first had to hit the ball well enough to give himself birdie putts.\u00a0 Because he was finally playing in the last group, Arjun was subject to a slow-motion swing analysis by Peter Kostis (as well as to positive comments about his rhythm by Nick Faldo in the booth, but a clear expression of doubt about his club selection for his second on 18).\u00a0 Kostis noted the steadiness of Atwal\u2019s head position, the strong release by his right side, and his wonderful tempo.\u00a0 With so much at stake, he played rock steady, walking calmly, almost always with a water bottle in one hand and a towel in the other, keeping well-hydrated and sticking to routines.<\/p>\n

Arjun\u2019s victory on the US Tour, in an event won in past years by great major champions such as Sam Snead,\u00a0 Ben Hogan, Julius Boros, Billy Casper, Ray Floyd,\u00a0and Nick Faldo (although not every victory was at Sedgefield, where Arjun won), provided a pivotal moment for Indian golf.\u00a0 Arjun\u2019s home club, Royal Calcutta, the oldest golf club in the world outside the UK, is about to undergo a major renovation to restore itself to eminence in the Indian golf scene. \u00a0(Ian Baker-Finch mentioned having played in Indian Opens there.)\u00a0 \u00a0A number of new courses by prominent international design firms have elevated Indian golf in the last several years, and the Royal is determined to catch up.\u00a0\u00a0 India\u2019s economic rivalry with China echoes across the golf course, too, and now India has trumped China with Arjun\u2019s victory, just a week after Wen-Chong Liang set the course record at Whistling Straits and\u00a0 finished tied for eighth, a brilliant result.\u00a0 Perhaps someday India and China will play a Ryder Cup-like event for national bragging rights.\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s where the trajectory of golf\u2019s future is bending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just under a year ago I watched Dale Lynch, the Australian swing guru, provide a tutorial to his latest pupil,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2980,5,9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-instruction","category-golf","category-personalities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2010\/08\/image_051.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}