Tag: Cameron McCormick

‘I’m starting to have confidence again’: Webb Simpson breaks down his ace and his switch to instructor Cameron McCormick

“I’m finally on the right track. I’m healthy…I’m starting to have confidence again.”

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Webb Simpson isn’t embarrassed that he carries hybrids in his bag.

“I do love my hybrids,” he said. “My 3-iron hybrid’s been with me since 2013 and this 4-hybrid’s been with me now since 2016.”

The latter was the pick from 219 yards at the par-3 third hole at the Plantation Course at Sea Island Resort on Thursday.

“I don’t like left-to-right winds with my hybrids or woods, but it was a left-to-right wind and the 4-hybrid was only enough club if I hit it really low,” Simpson explained. “It was one of those where I had a little too much face rotation in a good way and it overdrew, so yeah, perfect club.”

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Perfect, indeed. Simpson’s ball bounced once and circled the cup for a hole-in-one, his fourth career ace on the PGA Tour.

“My target was about 15 feet right of the hole there, so I did pull it, but I did hit it good enough to where I knew it would cover on that line,” he said. “Yeah, it was a great moment, great memory.”

The one on the card propelled him to a 5-under 67 in the opening round of the RSM Classic, his 34th round in the 60s in 39 career rounds in the event. Simpson has feasted at the RSM, recording five top-10 finishes in 10 previous starts, including a pair of seconds and a third.

Simpson, who has plummeted to No. 111 in the world and hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish since last year’s RSM Classic, recently parted ways with instructor Butch Harmon and started working with Cameron McCormick, who is best known for his work with Jordan Spieth. Of moving on from Harmon, who helped Simpson reach new heights in 2020, Simpson said, “It was so hard to get to him, you know, for just one lesson and make it back to Charlotte.”

Simpson has had three lessons from McCormick, including a day shortly before the CJ Cup last month.

When asked to explain what has held him back, he said, “I think I’m going to blame myself for a couple years there I tried to hit the ball so much further that I got into a number of bad habits that it was hard to see because it happens incrementally over time. But Cameron, he pulled out a bunch of swings from 2011 and 2020 and showed those similarities, so we’re just trying to get it back to where that was.”

Simpson added: “I’m finally on the right track. I’m healthy, I feel like what I’m working on is simple for me and I’m starting to have confidence again. You know, I didn’t have that much confidence last year. It’s hard to create confidence out of nothing. I’d work on my game and I just wasn’t quite getting over the hump, but I feel like the last five, six weeks since I’ve been home, my practice sessions are different and they’re reminding me of what it used to feel like and the shots I’m hitting, the way I’m striking the golf ball. So I’m optimistic. I feel like, I’m 37, I still have a number of years of good golf in me.”

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How Daniel Berger’s aha moment led to his latest PGA Tour title

Daniel Berger suffered through a three-year victory drought that may have been crucial to his development into a world-class player.

Before Daniel Berger won the Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday, he suffered through a three-year victory drought that may go down as the most important stretch in his development into a world-class player.

Berger, 27, has been overshadowed by his fellow members of the “Class of 2011,” Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas and for good reason – they have both won majors and reached World No. 1 since turning pro. Berger has three PGA Tour victories to his credit and competed alongside Spieth and Thomas as a U.S. Presidents Cup teammate in 2017.

Just as he appeared headed to join them as a stalwart of U.S. Cup teams, Berger injured his right hand and was forced to miss time. Berger’s initial reaction was telling: “I’m thinking this is the best thing ever. I can go on the boat, I can hang out, I don’t have any responsibilities,” he said.

But two months later, he had his “aha” moment: he missed golf.

“I never thought I loved golf. I thought it was just something I was good at and it was my job,” he said on the Earn Your Edge podcast with his instructor Cameron McCormick and co-host Corey Lundberg. “The more time that went by I thought, ‘Wow, this is sad that I can’t play right now.’ I really had a perspective change when that happened and I knew from that point on that I was going to do everything I could to ensure that I was going to be as healthy as possible so I could do this game that I love.”

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He also made a significant change last year when he began working with McCormick at the 2019 Valero Texas Open after going nearly 18 months without a top-10 finish.

“It was confusing. I didn’t understand why I was doing the same things that I had been doing for years, but I wasn’t getting the results,” Berger said. “(Cameron) brought a lot of different techniques that I never was taught when I was younger, and it really improved my short game and my putting…That’s why I feel so confident with my game. I feel like I don’t have to hit the ball great to score well because my short game can hold up.”

Berger returned healthy last season and finished No. 131 on the FedEx Cup standings. He had five starts to satisfy his minor-medical exemption, and took care of business in his 2019-20 debut at the Safeway Open.

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“I was stressing harder than I ever had in my entire life over it,” he told Golfweek at the time. “I feel like a million-pound weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”

Berger has made nine of 10 cuts this season and recorded three straight top-10 finishes, including a T-4 at the Honda Classic when the golf season was suspended due to the global pandemic.

The difference in this downtime from competition compared to during his wrist injury?

He was healthy and teed it up frequently in games with fellow Tour pros Keegan Bradley, Jamie Lovemark, Jon Curran and Cameron Tringale at The Bear’s Club. Berger, who is member of courses in both Martin and Palm Beach County, said at times Palm Beach County courses were closed and Martin County courses were opened. He was able to get his golf fix at Turtle Creek Golf Club.

“It’s literally 300 yards from my house,” he said. “I’d get up in the morning, walk nine holes, and just kind of get the body moving and at least just have a rhythm for swinging the golf club, even if it wasn’t competitive or I wasn’t really focused necessarily on shooting scores. It was more about getting out there and feeling some familiarity with the game.”

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Berger’s victory at Colonial vaulted him from No. 29 in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings to No. 12. But with only the top 6 earning an automatic berth, Berger still has work to do to secure a spot on Captain Steve Stricker’s team or at least make a lasting impression for one of six picks. Berger’s win also earned him a berth in the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind, where he’s claimed his two previous Tour titles.

Former two-time U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III served as an assistant captain to Stricker at the 2017 Presidents Cup and came away impressed with Berger’s confidence and mettle.

“He was not the rookie guy sitting in the corner just trying to fit in. He wanted to be in the mix and wanted the ball. I think that’s what you see in him. He wants the ball and wants to take the shot,” Love said. “I see Daniel as a guy that you can pair with a lot of players just because he plays so well and aggressively and confidently that you — like you can trust him. You know he’s going to — he’s not going to back down.”

Not now that he’s realized he loves the game.

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