The World Golf Championships Match Play tournament is underway, and there were some interesting matchups in the first round.

This tournament is comprised of the top 64 players on the world rankings list. Tiger Woods is No. 1 and Phil Mickelson is No. 2, but the rest of the players of the world are the ones to watch. These are players who are not household names, and you rarely get to see them. If you watch The Golf Channel at all, you might recognize some of them.

A few of the players to watch are guys like Martin Kaymer, Henrik Stenson, Richard Sterne and Niclas Fasth. These players are stalwarts on the European Tour and have a lot of game.

I like to watch Kaymer. He swings the club so effortlessly, but with such great power. I am not sure, but he looks like he might be a “stack and tilt” guy. That means that at address he puts more weight on his left leg and leaves it there through the swing.

It is a very interesting method, and I have been trying some of it for a while. But I’m not quite sure I am there yet with it. If this is something you would like to investigate, just Google it on the Web. There are quite a few sites and information on this new teaching philosophy.

The first round of the world match play tournament is over, and Tiger plays the last four holes like 5-under par to win 1-up. Match play is so exciting because the players somewhat have a go-for-broke attitude and are not worried about their actual score but more about what their opponent is doing.

Good advice in match play has always been to play the golf course, not your opponent. But that is really hard to do when you are a couple holes down with only a few to play.

Speaking of playing, I am headed down to Sea Island, Ga., this Saturday to play in the Sea Island Invitational at the Sea Island Golf Resort. My good friend Will Hutter is the golf professional at this five-star golf resort, which has three resort courses and two private courses on St. Simons Island. The courses and resort are built on an old cotton plantation that is owned by the Jones family.

The tournament is 54 holes and will be played over the three resort courses, Seaside, Plantation and the Retreat course. The Seaside and Plantation courses are ranked in the top 100 modern courses. Seaside typically is the more difficult, but it seems like Plantation is harder to score on.

Sea Island also boasts some of the best teachers in golf. Davis Love III plays out of and resides there, along with his longtime teacher, Jack Lumpkin.

I’ll report back next week on the Sea Island trip and hope to post a few pictures from the tournament.

Jeff Schroeder
PGA Professional
Brickyard Crossing