WGT Golf News

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By Josh Zander

"Balance Daniel son, must learn the balance!" For those of you old enough to remember the movie "The Karate Kid" you remember those infamous words of Mr. Miagi teaching his student the importance of balance. I feel like Mr. Miagi on the lesson tee sometimes as I stress balance to all my students. Balance is a fundamental you will find in all great golf swings. The swings make look different, but they all seem to finish like they are posing for the camera.

Your vestibular system and your nervous system equip you with tools for balance. Solid swing fundamentals also lead to better balance. Try this next time you go to the driving range. Don't make a backswing and simply swing from your set up into a perfect, balanced finish position. Hold it there for ten seconds to allow your brain to understand the feeling of a balanced finish. Now set up and try to swing into that finish. It's amazing how your swing plane and body motion starts to come around. Often times, as players, we get caught up in the minutia of the different parts of the swing. There is not enough time during the swing to think about all those details! Make it your goal to finish in balance and a lot of the swing faults will start to melt away.

As I mentioned in the video, slowing down your swing is not the solution to your balance problem. Slowing down may help your balance but now you are hitting it shorter. I have taught golf for 16 years and I have never had a student who wants to hit it shorter. Lets fix your golf swing and then speed it up! The average PGA Tour Player swings his driver at 112 mph. Have you noticed, they all pose at the finish while in perfect balance. Mr. Miagi would be proud!

SAN FRANCISCO (March 17, 2010) – The United States Golf Association today announced that it has entered into a long-term relationship with online high-definition golf destination World Golf Tour (WGT), putting golf on the forefront of technology and marketing innovation in the sports industry.

In this relationship, the USGA recognizes WGT as the exclusive platform provider for its virtual golf championships. Each year, the USGA and WGT will co-host a Virtual USGA Championship, enabling fans to experience "the toughest test in golf" in real time via the USGA Web site, where an official champion will be crowned. Last year's winner, Wayne Stopak, won a trip to the 2010 U.S. Open as a guest of the USGA.

In 2009, the USGA and WGT co-hosted the inaugural Virtual U.S. Open, which attracted hundreds of thousands of players from more than 180 countries. It also helped drive record visits to USOPEN.com, which provides real-time scoring updates, exclusive live video coverage and a multitude of other features designed to bring the U.S. Open alive online.

"Last year's Virtual U.S. Open exceeded expectations on all fronts: fan engagement, fan feedback, Web traffic to USOPEN.com and sponsorship involvement," said Alex Withers, the USGA's managing director of digital media. "Our partnership with World Golf Tour not only allows fans to get a greater understanding of the world-class courses hosting our national championships, but it also provides our sponsors with exposure to a highly engaged audience of golfers."

Following the success of the Virtual U.S. Open in 2009, WGT will host the 2010 USGA Virtual Championship at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club, which has hosted 14 USGA championships and will host another in 2010, the U.S. Women's Open. The 2010 USGA Virtual Championship will be available to fans at www.usga.org and via the championship Web site at www.uswomensopen.com.

In addition to the USGA Virtual Championship, WGT will develop a tribute to historic moments in golf which took place at Pebble Beach. WGT and the USGA will recreate famous shots made during previous U.S. Opens hosted at Pebble Beach so that fans can experience and truly understand the skill involved. These will be featured in the "Course" section on USOPEN.com.

"This partnership validates WGT as the leader in integrating virtual sports with live sporting events, providing strong real-world value to sports organizations and their sponsors," said YuChiang Cheng, CEO of WGT. "From day one, we set out to bring high-quality virtual golf to the masses and grow the game of golf. It‘s an honor to have the USGA look to us to bring golf's most challenging courses to the world for enjoyment."

About World Golf Tour
World Golf Tour (WGT) is the leader in virtual online sports gaming with its free-to-play browser-based HD golf destination that provides photographic 3D replicas of world class courses for play. With more than one million members worldwide, WGT enables players to compete in a free, easy-to learn and rewarding community. WGT requires no download or special plug-ins, and its patented technology offers a rich and realistic playing experience on world class golf courses. In partnership with brands such as American Express, the USGA, Pinehurst Resorts, Kiawah Island Resorts and NBC Sports, WGT has awarded more than $100,000 in products, prizes and tournament purses since its inception in 2008. For more information, please visit www.wgt.com.

About The USGA
The USGA is the national governing body of golf in the USA and Mexico. The USGA annually conducts the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Senior Open and 10 national amateur championships. It also conducts two state team championships and helps conduct the Walker Cup Match, Curtis Cup Match and World Amateur Team Championships.

The USGA also writes the Rules of Golf, conducts equipment testing, provides expert course maintenance consultations, funds research for better turf and a better environment, maintains a Handicap System®, celebrates the history of the game, and administers an ongoing "For the Good of the Game" grants program, which has allocated more than $65 million over 13 years to successful programs that bring the game's values to youths from disadvantaged backgrounds and people with disabilities. For more information about the USGA, visit www.usga.org.

MEDIA CONTACTS
USGA
Beth Murrison
(908) 234-2300
bmurrison@usga.org

World Golf Tour
Jennifer Nichols
Allison & Partners
(415) 277-4912
jnichols@allisonpr.com

By Josh Zander

I can always tell when a student has practiced well between lessons. The improvement is noticeable and that does not happen by chance. Golfers call mistakes in their golf swings "bad habits." These bad habits are just learned behaviors that have been ingrained through repetition. For better or for worse, the frequency of these behaviors encodes neural pathways forming habits.

Unfortunately, you cannot change a habit, but you can build a new one. Just think about how you tie your shoes. You have learned this behavior and although you may learn a better way to tie your shoes, your brain will not forget the old way. The key is how do we make the desired motion the dominant habit.

Practicing the new motion will eventually make it the dominant habit. Just make sure you are practicing correctly because you don't want to ingrain the wrong habit. There is a fabulous book entitled The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle that talks about "deep practice". Deep practice involves going slowly, understanding mistakes and overcoming them on your path to building expertise. It helps to have an instructor give you feedback as you perform the new motion in order to understand what the mistake is and how to make the proper adjustment.

So in the meantime, what can we do yo make the new motion appear on the golf course? Students often are frustrated because they can't take the swing they performed in the lesson or practice tee onto the golf course. This is because the old dominant habit takes over. The only way to get the new habit to appear is to rehearse the motion where you can see and feel what you are trying to do, and then hit the ball within a few seconds. In other words, as my mentor Jim Hardy says, "recency will trump frequency" if you hit the ball within 30 seconds of the rehearsal. It is also crucial that no extraneous thoughts enter your mind between the rehearsal and the execution of the shot. There are many distractions on the golf course and if your brain wanders, you will revert to the dominant habit.

Lastly, it is important to understand your game in order to know what to practice. This is why I co-founded www.mysmartgolf.com. It is a way for you to chart your golf statistics and receive feedback as to where you need help. Understanding your game will help you and your instructor make your lesson and practice time more efficient.

WGT.com will be unavailable starting at 11PM Pacific Time on Monday, March 15 for about 3 hours. Please be sure to save your games before this time. This is a system maintenance downtime, not a product release so no visible changes will occur after the site is back up.

Some recent replay highlights for you to enjoy:

• Slam dunk by Jakestanfill7 to win a ready-go
• Awesome save from the sand by plim
• Hole out on St Andrews #7 by Flyinturtle in high wind
• And just for fun, Andyson crosses the Swilcan Bridge on the Old Course

WGT.com will be unavailable starting at 10PM Pacific Time on Sunday, March 14 for about 2 hours. Please be sure to save your games before this time. This is a system maintenance downtime, not a product release so no visible changes will occur after the site is back up.

Please join us in congratulating the 10 winners of the December SkyCaddie Challenge, chosen by random drawing!

TAISTO
atbone
cycleman1
roava
Morano2003
Jesusdyd4u
mwfreeman7
Pinhigh132128
Willie42477
Yoda1407

These lucky WGT players each won a SkyCaddie SG5 Rangefinder with a one-year Eagle Subscription worth $450 in total.  Check out our tournaments for more opportunities to win a SkyCaddie, trips to famous courses, golf gear, and more awesome prizes.

By WGTniv

It is recommended that you clear your Flash and Browser cache every time we release a Product Update. If you haven't cleared your Flash and Browser caches since our last release, then chances are you might be experiencing some slower load times and/or load manager errors, especially during the start of the game.

To fix these problems:

1. Click --->  Optimize Your WGT Experience
2. Follow the instructions at the bottom to clear your Flash & Browser caches.
3. Restart your browser and try again!

When you clear your Flash and Browser cache you are deleting the game files and settings that are stored on your PC. That means during your very first game you will experience longer than normal wait times while your PC re-downloads the necessary course and game files. That also means you will need to reset any in-game options such as graphics quality and reflections before you tee off for your first round.

You should NOT clear your caches every day or every week. That will only cause you more headache because you will constantly be downloading game assets. You should only clear caches when we release a Product Update or if you start to experience prolonged loading issues.

A foursome is only as strong as its weakest link, so be sure to point any players that you see having loading issues to this blog for help. Helping them helps everyone!

Hit 'em well!

By Stephanie Wei

In three starts on the 50-plus tour, Fred Couples has two straight wins. Firing a final round six-under 65, he breezed his way to victory by four strokes at the Toshiba Classic.

Freddie's scoring average on the Champions Tour is 65.67 and hasn't carded anything over a 68 all season. In the event he didn't win, he placed second. Also in the two tournaments he's played on the PGA Tour, he finished T14 at the Waste Management Open and T37 at the Northern Trust Open. Impressive for, you know, an old guy.

And look out—there are a few others on the senior tour who can still compete with the young guys, like Tom Lehman and Tom Watson who finished T3 and T5, respectively. The 60-year-old Watson shot 62 on Sunday and we all remember what he did at Turnberry last year (let's hope he gets that US Open exemption, too!). Lehman has placed T14 and T16 in two starts on the PGA Tour—Phil Mickelson also has two top-20 finishes.

When was the last time it was so much fun to watch a bunch of old dudes hobble around the course? Probably not since the days when Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Chi Chi Rodriguez dominated in the early 90s.

What's more interesting is that Couples, Lehman and Watson could potentially win on the big boys tour this year, too. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last player to win after his Champions Tour debut was Fred Funk in the 2007 Mayakoba Golf Classic.

I put my money on Couples to be the next.