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AFTER a
woeful US Open experience, Artemio Murakami admitted he
needs to polish flaws in his game to compete at the
global level. And these are primarily his driving
distance and short game accuracy.
Greenside Chip interviewed more than a dozen
personalities in the golf industry and each gave his own
assessment of Murakami’s stint in the US Open (all of
them requested anonymity, though).
To
summarize what everybody opined, Greenside Chip is using
Murakami’s first name, Artemio, as an acronym of sorts
for what he needs to be better.
A is for
appetite to win. Murakami is a fighter and highly
competitive. But not everyone agrees. “He could do
better than that. He still does not possess the killer
instinct,” one golf director said.
R is for
reforming his swing. Maybe Murakami could employ
Frankie Miñoza’s coach Roger Retuerto. Remember that
Retuerto fixed the bugs on Miñoza’s swing plane last
year. The result was a second RP Open crown for Minoza.
T is for
trimming down. Murakami is a bit on the chubby side and
there’s a big tendency that he’ll tire out easily. His
first-round 79 had much promise but a dismal 82 on the
next day indicated he might be fatigued, and that made
him miss the cut.
E is for
emulating Miñoza. It was Minoza who prodded Murakami to
again take up golf when he undecided to turn pro. The
24-year-old Asian Tour player caddied Miñoza during that
break. “Frankie would often tell me that I could hit the
ball as good, if not better, than the guys on the Tour,
and that I should be playing competitively again. The
way he plays, the way he thinks, his attitude on the
golf course, everything was spot-on. He influenced me to
start playing golf again, and he’s my mentor,” said
Murakami.
Well
said. Now practice what Miñoza preached.
M is for
more time at the range. If he hopes to add more
distance off his drives, the driving range would be the
best place. Whether he is leading or not in a
tournament, Minoza heads to the range after a completed
round. There, he would hit a few buckets with the use
of a gadget (a band that restricts loose arm movement)
that would strengthen and provide accuracy to his
drives.
I is for
investing in joining tournaments outside the Asian
Tour. Murakami should not only play in Asian Tour
events. There are other tournaments in the US which he
could join and use as springboard to gain experience.
O is for
overcoming the fear of playing against the world’s top
and elite players. He won’t admit it but he was
starstruck as he saw guys like Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh,
Phil Mickelson and others. He knows he can hold his
own—as long as he shows the game he is capable of.
The
Inaugural at
Manila Golf
Manila
Golf Club, in partnership with Mercedes-Benz, hosted The
Inaugural over the weekend for select members and their
dependents so much so that they could see the
transformation of the course to an all-weather
championship layout.
The
new-look Manila Golf Club par-71 course is now equipped
with a state-of-the-art computerized irrigation system
that recycles water from its 25-million-gallon lakes and
tributaries.
Manila
Golf is one of the few clubs in the country to have a
water-recycling plant that cleans and recycles effluent
water wastes, which is not only very economical and
environment-friendly but also prevents depleting our
aquifers.
A
Mercedes-Benz C-Class 200 Avantgarde was staked as a
hole-in-one prize in the one-day event, courtesy of CATS
Motors Inc., on the par-three, 167-yard Hole No. 14. It
was almost won by Bobby Kanapi (his ball went past the
cup) and Maning Te (his ball settled 10 inches off the
hole). |
