Well, well, well. In the words of one of my favorite people, PGA Tour caddie Kip Henley, “Tiger ain’t done yet!” (Give him a follow on Twitter. You can thank me later). Kip has been on the Tiger train in the worst of times and it seems after this week that he might have been right all along. I have been a long-time Tiger fan and a big proponent of his quest for knowledge over the last few years, but as with anything, you can take it too far.

As I’ve always said, Tiger has the mental strength of ten Tour pros, but as we all know, he also has the body of a WWE Wrestler from an injury standpoint. Would the swings he has been trying to make actually work or was he getting too deep into mechanics and pushing his body into positions that he just could not achieve with his current physiology?

Could Tiger overcome all of this? Only time would tell, but after his performance at the Valspar Championship, it seems like he has stepped into a time machine and re-appeared as a new person with a new body — swinging his driver up to 129.2 mph.

How did this happen? Everyone is asking me and everyone is wondering. In my opinion, I have the answer and it’s one that is different than what you think. Tiger should send a big thank you to Sean Foley and Chris Como for giving him the right information that he could use to identify the swing that works and feels best for him. Now I know you are going to say, “What about Butch Harmon and Hank Haney?” Yes, they were instrumental in helping Tiger improve in the other stages of his career, but they did it with a different body than he has now. And I am not taking anything away from them, but it wasn’t the same Tiger as we see today.

Sean gave Tiger a more scientific way to understand the swing using TrackMan (with special thanks to James Leitz and his D-Plane model.) This is the information Tiger needed to practice more efficiently and more correctly work on the things that were plaguing his ball flight. Chris gave Tiger a better understanding of how the body and swing work as it pertains to the ground reaction forces and the moment of his center of gravity and pressure. It’s this information that helped supply him with more power and with less mechanical work physically. It’s the combination of these things that has put Tiger where he is now, but one thing had been missing…a clear mind on Tiger’s part.

Thus, the secret at the Valspar was using the information that these gentlemen supplied, but doing so subconsciously and just letting it happen. Like all golfers, Tiger was struggling from paralysis by over-analysis. He was hyper focused on the positions that he needed to put his body into and squashing any real “feel” and “flow” that could help him produce better swings — more relaxed swings — that produced more speed.

As indicated by his motion, whenever you get out of your own way you can swing in a way that makes the ball go a mile and it feels like you are hardly moving. This is precisely what happened to Tiger. Informational freedom coupled with a clear mind allowed Tiger to do what Tiger has always been best at: playing the game of golf, not focusing on positions and the golf swing. However, with the breakdown of his body, it was necessary for him to do so with Sean and Chris so he could get to this point he is in today.

The only problem was that Tiger couldn’t let Tiger relax about his mechanics and continued to hyper-focus on things he should have let go of a long time ago. Sometimes you just have to let it all go and just play. He’s practiced enough to put these things into his muscle memory bank, so it was just waiting to come out. When he relaxed, look what happened.

So, a note for all you golfers working on your swings and focusing too hard on your mechanics: It’s great to look at the inner-workings of your swing and focus on making changes, but remember to leave it on the range and just go play golf. It just might work for you like it has for Tiger!