Michelle Wie Blog

 Where? Kochi, Japan.

When? Thursday-Sunday November 24-27 

Where? Kochi Kuroshio Country Club (7,220 yards, par 72).

Total purse? $1.17 million. Winner? $234,670.

$234,670 seems a little chinsey compared to the near $1 million dollar winner’s purses in the U.S.  Maybe Michelle Wie’s presence will help future purses in Japan.

Michelle Wie will have to go up against New Zealand’s David Smail, who won the tournament last year for the second time in three years, beating American Hunter Mahan by a stroke at Ibusuki Golf Club.

Michelle is playing for the first time since she was disqualified in her pro debut, is making her sixth appearance in a male professional tournament. The field will be cut to the 60 and ties after the second round. … Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson missed the cut in the 2003 tournament, the only other time a female player has appeared in a top Japanese tour event. … Jumbo Ozaki is in the field. The 58-year-old star has a record 94 Japanese tour victories. … The tournament is in its first year at Kochi Kuroshio. … The season-ending Golf Nippon Series JT Cup is next week at Tokyo Yomiuri Country Club.

by Mike Pedersen

When training in good golf swing basics is combined with the right exercise program, the results can be nothing short of miraculous.

Take the superb performances witnessed in junior golfers like the Song sisters, Ty Tyron and Michelle Wie. The amazingly high level of performance of these very young junior golfers has often been discussed. Several theories and reasons have been brought forward. Most of them are not true. For example a common belief is that these younger golfers perform better and respond better to golf swing basics taught because of their flexibility. This is absolutely NOT TRUE.

The difference between junior golfers and adults is usually strength and not flexibility. I have personally worked with hundreds of junior golfers and I have watched in amazement as a very short period of time of doing strength exercises has yielded increases in their golf drives of as much as a whole 50 yards.

However a quick word of caution. Participating in the wrong strength training exercise programs can damage a golfer instead of improving their game.

My work with junior golfers has practically proved something to me beyond any reasonable doubt. And that is the fact that training in the correct golf swing basics at the same time that somebody is doing the right golf-specific exercises, is a very powerful way of developing and improving anybody’s game.

Without exercise the best training in the world on golf swing basics will have NO impact at all.

About The Author:
Mike Pedersen is one of the top golf fitness experts in the country, author of the Ultimate Golf Fitness Guide, and founder of several cutting-edge online golf fitness sites. Visit his new golf fitness training site at Perform Better Golf.