Fulton: Toms makes up for lack of distance with control

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Toms win at the Crowne Plaza Invitational was his first in nearly five years.

Well you have to feel good about David Toms getting his win at the Crowne Plaza Invitational after what transpired one week earlier at THE PLAYERS Championship. His son was pretty shaken up after the playoff at TPC Sawgrass, so that was quite a lesson for him to see his dad fight back with two 62s on Thursday and Friday at Colonial.

Toms is not long off the tee but very accurate when it comes to hitting lots of fairways and greens. On the PGA TOUR, if you are short, you can't be crooked, as this combination isn't going to get you very far. Toms proves that even though the bombers are winning a lot of the tournaments on the PGA TOUR, there are still venues like TPC Sawgrass and Colonial that really give everyone a chance to win the tournament.

In order to be accurate like Toms you must have full control of the club face. Learning to control the club face is critical when learning to control the ball flight. What's important to understand is the angle of the club face has a lot to do with not only the starting direction of the golf ball but also the curve.

One of the ways Toms controls his ball flight is to hit a little fade. Over the last two weeks, we have been treated to some great little cut shots where the ball has fallen nicely out of the sky to the right onto the fairway or the green. A little fade is certainly a shot that can be controlled easier for a lot of us -- especially if you are struggling with a hook.

Here are a few things we can learn from how Toms hits this effective little fade.

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1. Takeaway -- The key move for Toms during the backswing is he allows the club head to the stay in front of him during the initial takeaway. A key checkpoint for this is when the club shaft reaches parallel to the ground, the club head is in-line with his hands or slightly in front of them to the outside.

One of the most common errors during the backswing is the club head gets too far to the inside. When this happens, the clubface often times stays closed to the arc which can lead to lots of pulls or low lefts with the driver.

2. Downswing -- Toms does a great job of keeping the club out in front of him on the downswing. This is a term you hear a lot with TOUR players because a lot of them work to not get the club too much behind them on the downswing, as this will lead to compensation at impact with the hands decreasing accuracy.

Once again, the checkpoint here is when the club shaft reaches parallel to the ground. At this point, the club head should be back in-line with the hands so the entire club shaft is parallel to the target line. This is a great position to be in order to deliver the club head back to impact with very little compensation with the hands.

3. Impact to Post-Impact -- Even into his 40s, Toms can still rotate his hips so well through the hitting area. At impact, Toms hips are clearly open in relationship to the target line. Not only is this a power source for Toms, it also allows him to swing the golf club back to the inside during post-impact.

One of the key moves when trying to hit a fade is keeping the club moving back to the left after impact. If your hips are not turning, then this can be very difficult thing to achieve. Often times when players are struggling with hitting hooks to the left, you have to get them to swing more to the left through post-impact in order to not hook it. Conversely, general speaking when players are slicing the golf ball to the right, at some point you have to teach to swing more to the right. This can be a very challenging barrier to overcome but one that is important to understand when trying to control the curve of the golf ball.

Just Because

Once again, congratulations to Toms for his great play over the last two weeks and also, props to Charlie Wi for his stellar play over the last two tournaments as well. Toms story is a great one as he has fought back from injury and has really re-ignited his career. I have always thought Toms is a great player for so many amateurs to watch play the game. Not only can we learn from his swing from an accuracy standpoint but also the way he manages the golf course.

Players like Toms, Luke Donald, Corey Pavin, Fred Funk, etc are all players that don't hit it long but know how to get it from point A to point B over and over again. They do this very strategically and they play the golf course in a manner that is very different from the guys that are 40-60 yards longer off the tee. Although it would be nice to hit the ball over 300 yards off the tee like Bubba Watson, the reality is that most of us will not, therefore when we get the opportunity to watch players like Toms play the game, there is simply more we can relate to not only from a technique standpoint but how to get ourselves around the golf course.