Major-winning trio set for Hawaii

Zach Johnson, Adam Scott and Webb Simpson have all confirmed their participation in the upcoming Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, recently won the BMW Championship and last week beat Tiger Woods in a play-off at the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge.

Scott made history this year when he became the first Australian to win the Masters, pipping Angel Cabrera in dramatic fashion on the second play-off hole.

He went on to win the Barclays in the States before picking up consecutive tournament victories in his native Australia.

Simpson, famous for winning the 2011 US Open, recently secured his fourth PGA Tour career victory at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

As a group, Johnson, Scott and Simpson own 24 PGA Tour titles. All three finished the 2013 season ranked in the top 30 on the FedEx Cup points list, with Johnson and Scott finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

The Hyundai Tournament of Champions returns to The Plantation Course at Kapalua from January 2 to 6.

Opposites Perry, O'Hair a potent pair

Kenny Perry turned pro the year Sean O'Hair was born. 

That age difference means nothing on the golf course, though, and the two men proved it last year when they teammed to win the Franklin Templeton Shootout.

"I think it was probably my best memory of last year," O'Hair said. "We ham-and-egged it pretty good. Kenny was just rock solid and I was hitting it pretty long at the time."

"You're still hitting it long, aren't you?" Perry was quick to ask. 

The difference in Sunday's scramble format last year? Well, Perry remembers the 13th hole at Tiburon, in particular. Had they used his drive on the par 5, they'd be hitting 3-woods to the green. Instead, O'Hair's drive left a 5-iron approach. 

"So to me it's awesome because I'm a pretty straight driver and if I can just get it in the fairway and turn him loose, we're going to have a great week no matter what," Perry said. "Win, lose, whatever, it doesn't matter. We both like old cars, we talk hot rods and we just have a great time. We compliment each other very well and it's just fun, whatever. 

"We're going to stick the needle in all these other young teams and smile at them and hopefully we can beat them." 

The field for this year's Franklin Templeton Shootout features six major champions among the 24 participants. Combined, the field has won 140 PGA TOUR events, including 14 by Perry -- the recently named Champions Tour Player of the Year -- and four by O'Hair. 

"I'm going to ride the stallion here," O'Hair said. "He's obviously playing pretty well and just see how it goes. I'm just looking forward to having a fun week." 

While O'Hair has been dodging snowstorms at home in Philadelphia, Perry has been in Vero Beach working on his game at Bent Pine Golf Club, where he worked for five years before getting on the PGA TOUR in 1986.

"I came in last Monday and I was playing 36 a day with all the boys and put a lot of rounds in and lost a lot of money," Perry said. "I had to give way too many shots down there. But I played a lot of competition so I liked it. I was hoping to put the pressure on me to try to see if it will carry over and get me better and sharper for this week."

Greg Norman thinks he would have beat Tiger Woods back in his prime

It's a trend we've seen with certain golf legends who have become a bit more expressive the older they've become, saying just about anything that comes to mind as the years continue to add up.

Jack Nicklaus has been the king of this, but names like Johnny Miller and Arnold Palmer and Gary Player all come to mind as men who have become more open about stuff as the years have added up.

Welcome Greg Norman to that elite group of major champions that said something that definitely will raise an eyebrow or two around the golf world. Norman, now 58, was interviewed by David De Nunzio over at Golf.com and was asked about the prime of his golfing life and how equipment would play a factor if his prime happened to be 2013.

I'm warning you, put the hot coffee down now before you read Norman's response.

Now, before we dig into this assertion from Norman that he would probably have beat Tiger Woods let me make a point that I tend to make whenever we come across a situation like this; comparing generations in sports is ridiculous. Honestly, none of us really know how Wilt would have matched up against Shaq, or how Ruth would have hit Mariano, but debating about it is something that will never be silenced.

Norman was an incredibly accomplished golfer, winning two Open Championships and nearly winning a handful of other majors. The reason he has just two majors and not six is simple; the guy struggled to close.

That is the one thing that Woods has over anyone else in the history of the game, so saying that a guy who was known to be a choker on the big stage would take out a guy that, in his prime, never missed an opportunity to close out a major if he had it seems a bit silly.

Still, I guess when you're someone as talented as Norman, holding yourself in rarified air is a part of the job of being a living legend. I don't fault Norman for thinking he could compete with the best in the world a generation later, but I'm pretty sure most of us know how that would have turned out.

On the Mark: Zach's exclamation point

2013 saw a number of incredible shots, so it only seemed fitting that it ended with one of the standout par saves of the year.

Always a gritty competitor, Zach Johnson delivered a wedge shot for the ages when he holed out (from 58 yards) for a par on the final hole. It forced a playoff with tournament host Tiger Woods which Johnson eventually won.

There were a couple of lessons we can learn from Zach’s very timely wedge shot. Before we address the technical aspects of how to hit the mid-range wedge shot consistently, I want to highlight a very important mind-set lesson:

In my opinion Zach’s reaction to his failed second shot played a critical part in him hitting the forthcoming pitch shot successfully. After dunking his second shot in the greenside hazard – Zach’s poorest shot of the day – he smiled, looked up at the heavens, passed his club on to his caddie and strolled on down toward the drop zone from where he would hit his fourth shot. There was no visible emotional or physical reaction to the failure whatsoever.

His response was imperative as it allowed him to remain positive and focused, even though it appeared as if he had handed Tiger the victory. In truth though, Johnson still had a wedge shot for a par. Albeit improbable, a par was still possible.

Remember always that each golf shot brings with it new possibilities and in order to give yourself the best chance for success, each shot requires a positive and engaged mindset. Remember also that every shot you hit is only as good as the next one. So that next shot should not be clouded by a poor attitude from prior failures.

With regard to the technique required to hit mid-range wedge shots consistently well, there are a few principles to apply:

It goes without saying that your ball position and posture should be on the money. Do not go to sleep on the ball position – it should be located around the center of the stance to help ensure a slightly descending strike.

Favor the leading side with your body-weight. I would recommend that about 60-70 percent of the weight be set over the lead foot. Added to that, use the buttons on your shirt as a reference – throughout the swing, strive to keep the buttons, or your nose, over the ball. If you want to make more of a descending strike then keep the buttons in front of the ball throughout the swing.

Finally, make a more abbreviated swing. I would recommend a swing where the arms travel no further than about 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock on an imaginary clock-face. You can allow the wrists to hinge and swing the club further but keeping the arm-swing short (parallel with the ground) allows the club to swing more in front of the pivot. Keeping the arm-swing controlled and in front of the body makes it possible to keep the clubface square without too much hand action.

Just as an added thought, I am a big believer in the arm-swing and the body pivot operating as a marriage with each providing equal impetus to the movement. In my opinion there is no way that the body pivot can adequately drive the swing consistently. To control the clubhead speed and hence trajectory and distance I believe that the arms should swing and the body should pivot in support. Every great swinger and wedge player I have spoken to over the years has echoed that very sentiment.

So check your ball position and posture; stabilize your torso over the ball and then swing your arms in a controlled fashion around a supporting pivot and you too should be able to hit wedge shots consistently close to the target.

Robinson Cano And Phil Mickelson: Famous Faces Of A Growing Tax War Between The States

The year 2013 may go down in history as pivotal in the battle between the states to attract businesses and high-income earners because of local tax advantages. Five news stories highlight the shift that is occurring across the nation as taxpayers and legislators recognize that tax policy matters in the lives of every American.

This week that battle played out in real-time, with media around the country reporting All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano’s decision to leave the New York Yankees for the Seattle Mariners. According to this report by Bloomberg, Cano will earn a staggering $42 million more if he decides to make the great state of Washington his home. Not only will Cano benefit from living in a state with no income tax, but he will now benefit from playing in a division that includes two teams based in the no-state income state of Texas: the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros.

In August, during this interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, U.S. golfer Phil Mickelson reiterated his concern about the high income taxes levied on earnings of corporations and individuals. Mickelson’s statement – that California’s high tax rates are not “making me want to go out and work harder” – clearly supports the trade-off that exists between income tax policy and government revenues. As the stories of Mickelson and Cano reveal, a lower tax rate encourages work, output, and employment, plus it provides an incentive to increase these activities.

Art Laffer and Stephen Moore laid out the proof that tax policies matter years ago in their groundbreaking book, Rich States Poor States, now published annually and in its sixth edition. Since that time, states around the country have debated which tax policies provide the best incentive for economic growth and job creation, and workers have considered tax rates when deciding where to live.

In addition to Cano’s big win in his deal with the Mariners, this year ends on a fiscal high-note for 18 states that made significant changes to their tax structures that will lay the foundation for future growth. Here’s a quick look at three states presently enacting pro-growth tax policies that will attract workers and employers: North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.

North Carolina will place $500 million back into the pockets of its workers and employers in the next two years. They will do this thanks to legislation passed that has flattened out the state’s income tax rates, reduced tax rates across all income levels, lowered the corporate income tax rate, eliminated the death tax, broadened the sales tax base, and that has completely wiped out several other taxes.

Ohio cut a whopping $2.7 billion in taxes between now and 2016, including a 10% cut in personal income tax for all earners, a deduction for LLCs on their first $250,000 of annual taxable income, and an increase and broadening of sales taxes. All in all, Ohio’s legislature is moving $650 million back into real economic activity.Wisconsin simplified its tax code by eliminating 17 special-interest tax deductions, plus it reduced the number of tax brackets from four to three. In addition, all earners will see a reduction in tax rates.

State-level momentum for pro-growth tax policy is building across the country, with one-quarter of the states enacting meaningful tax laws that allow workers and employers to keep more of their earnings. If this trend continues and states like Nebraska and Missouri, where elected officials are pushing for enlightened tax policies of their own, there will be little doubt that it’s all happening in the states.

Who was best player around the globe?

Tiger Woods took PGA TOUR honors. Henrik Stenson was the choice of the European Tour.

But if there was a worldwide player of the year chosen for 2014 Stenson likely would have gotten the nod in voting of his peers.

The Swede is the first player to win the FedExCup on the PGA TOUR and the Race to Dubai in Europe. Stenson did it was dramatic flair, too -- winning the season-ending events on both sides of the Atlantic, the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola and the DP World Tour Championship.

"For me the way he played golf the back end of the year was simply sensational," Ian Poulter said. "His consistency was incredible. He delivered when he needed to deliver.

"He had done it at the FedExCup and he had done it in Dubai, and to win both those events when he had to, very impressive to me."

Lee Westwood, who will team with his good friend Poulter at the Franklin Templeton Shootout this week, could see the case for both Stenson and Woods, who won five times in his first 11 events of the season.

"Maybe it's not fair to say Henrik was the Player of the Year because in the first part of the year he didn't do so much but the second part of the year he exploded, but Tiger was dominant in the first part of the year and then the second part of the year, although he probably didn't play that much, he didn't seem to win that much, either," Westwood said.

"It's been a strange year, it's almost been a year of two halves."

Sean O'Hair, who teams with Kenny Perry -- recently names the Champions Tour Player of the Year -- to defend their title at the Franklin Templeton Shootout, says it's hard to argue against Woods. But Stenson would get his vote for the POY if golf around the globe was taken into account.

"It's kind of hard to argue that he got Player of the Year," O'Hair said of Woods. "My opinion is I don't really think you have to, but you look at what Stenson did worldwide after winning the FedEx and then winning the European Race to Dubai, that's incredible and that is extremely hard to do.

"I think as far as world Tours is concerned, I think Stenson was well-deserving of the Player of the Year for all tours. The year that he had is just incredible, very similar to Luke Donald winning both Orders of Merit and the money list. That's my opinion."

Mandela Championship radiates nation's loss

Talk about apropos. How about the European Tour’s Nelson Mandela Championship being held the same week as memorial services for the iconic leader? The tournament is in its second year and is being staged in Durban, South Africa, about 300 miles southwest of Johannesburg, where ceremonies have been held for Mandela, the former South African president and Nobel laureate who died Dec. 5.

Although Mandela’s connection to sports was more with World Cup rugby and World Cup soccer, he appreciated golf and South Africa’s rich history in the game.

• Recap the rain-shortened first day of the Nelson Mandela Championship right here.

John Hahn, the former Kent State standout who is attempting to make his way in pro golf via the European Tour this year, felt the sense of loss as he prepared to play in this week’s tournament. “It’s a somber time for the nation,” Hahn said via text. “People seem to be carrying on with their lives, same as usual, but there is an eerie feeling of something missing.”

Hahn and his fellow competitors observed a one-minute moment of silence at a break during Wednesday’s pro-am, and he confirmed that it is an impactful time, almost as if he’s part of history.

Another American can commiserate because before he settled into a career as a top-echelon caddie. Jimmy Johnson was a professional player who spent 17 winters in South Africa. “When I started playing over there in 1979, Mandela was in prison,” Johnson said. “When I left (1994-95), he was president.”

Johnson’s interest at the time was strictly to earn a living playing professional golf and in those years earned many of the Sunshine Tour participants' spots on the international blacklist. The anti-apartheid movement was something Johnson experienced first-hand by playing in South Africa, where he became great friends with many of his competitors, notably Nick Price, for whom Johnson later caddied.

Johnson, who was in South Africa in 1991 when Mandela was released from prison after 27 years, had a great sense of the political landscape in those years. “The country would have erupted if it weren’t for Mandela,” Johnson said. “He was the glue; he was the bridge.”

Johnson finished eighth on the Sunshine Tour’s Order of Merit in 1993-94 – his best finish being a T-8 in the Zimbabwe Open – and experienced the nation’s joy when Mandela was elected its first black president.

Johnson, Scott and Simpson commit to Hyundai Tournament of Champions

Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii – Just three weeks remain before the 2014 Hyundai Tournament of Champions kicks off on The Plantation Course at Kapalua, and the field is shaping up quickly. Three of the game’s biggest names will be starting 2014 in Maui, including Zach Johnson, Adam Scott and Webb Simpson. Each player won an official PGA TOUR event during the 2013 calendar year to qualify for the winners-only Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Zach Johnson’s second career PGA TOUR win came at The Masters Tournament in 2007, and he has since collected eight more PGA TOUR victories, bringing his career total to 10. Johnson’s recent success includes winning the 2013 BMW Championship to qualify for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, as well as his playoff victory over Tiger Woods at last week’s Northwestern Mutual World Challenge (not an official PGA TOUR event).

Adam Scott made history in April 2013 when he became the first Australian to win The Masters Tournament. Scott won his major in dramatic finish with a birdie on the second playoff hole to defeat Angel Cabrera. Scott enjoyed additional success late in 2013 with another victory at the first FedExCup Playoffs event, The Barclays. He returned home to Australia where he won the Australian PGA Championship and the Talisker Master, finished second to Rory McIlroy at the Emirates Australian Open, and third at the ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf where he and teammate Jason Day won the team competition.

2011 U.S. Open winner, Webb Simpson recently picked up his fourth PGA TOUR career victory at the 2014 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Earlier this year, Simpson helped the United States Team to victory in The Presidents Cup 2013 after being selected by Fred Couples as a Captain’s Pick. This will be Simpson’s third consecutive year playing in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions; his best finish was T3 in 2013.

Johnson and Scott were also members of The Presidents Cup 2013 teams this fall at Muirfield Village in Columbus, Ohio. As a group, Johnson, Scott and Simpson own 24 PGA TOUR victories and have played on 11 The Presidents Cup teams and 4 Ryder Cup teams. All three finished the 2013 season ranked in the top 30 on the FedExCup points list, with Johnson and Scott finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Hyundai Tournament of Champions returns to The Plantation Course at Kapalua from Jan. 2-6, 2014. For tickets and tournament information, please visit PGATOUR.com/Hyundai.

AskLav: Looking back at 2013, ahead to 2014

Here’s a depressing fact: The 2013-14 PGA Tour season will resume in 22 days, barring, of course, another onslaught of hellacious winds, freak snowstorms, derechos and seemingly everything but locust attacks. 

Seriously – 22 days. That’s barely enough time to roll out all of this end-of-the-year content, crank out season-preview stories, buy and return gifts, and then board a flight bound for Kapalua.

So it follows that this will be the final #AskLav mailbag of the year, because, really, we’re left with little choice. There aren’t many Thursdays remaining in 2013. But before diving into your mailbag questions, here are one scribe’s reflections on the year that was: 

• That Tiger Woods won five times and still wasn’t the clear-cut choice for Player of the Year choice tells me two things: 1.) He continues to be judged by the absurdly high standards that he set; and 2.) The quality of golf this year, worldwide, was incredible.

• Never covered a tournament quite like the WGC-Match Play. That week I had the early shift, meaning I covered the tournament Tuesday-Friday while another writer (in this case, the inimitable Rex Hoggard) stayed for the weekend when the field was cut to eight players. That was the plan, anyway. Mother Nature clearly had other ideas, and soon about four inches fell on the otherwise forgettable Dove Mountain course. There were snowball fights, dudes sledding on pizza boxes and long lines for hot chocolate. The warmest jackets we packed were fleece pullovers, and I ended up covering only a round and a half before heading to the airport. Needless to say, the Match Play is not on my 2014 tournament wish list. 

• The course I most wanted to play this year: National Golf Links of America. The host site for the Walker Cup matches is truly spectacular, and an ideal course for a match-play event. Let’s hope it’s not another 91 years before NGLA stages another high-profile tournament.

• Best Tour stop if you like food (which I do): Zurich Classic. Gained nine pounds this April after eating fried seafood platters, barbecued shrimp and succulent chargrilled oysters. And, yes, I’m drooling as I type this. 

• What did we learn from the Tiger-Sergio spat this year at the Players? When provoked, TW always seeks and destroys.

• The top 5 in the world ranking as of this writing is Tiger, Scott, Big Stense, Rosey and Phil. At this time next year, I think it will look like this: Tiger, Scott, Rory, Big Stense, Jason Day.

• One of the great thrills of the year was catching up with Jim Furyk’s group to follow his bid for 59 in Chicago. For all of his meltdowns in the past few years, he showed a lot of stones by stuffing that gap-wedge shot to kick-in range.

• Yes, Merion was tricked out for this year’s U.S. Open. It was possible, maybe even likely, to snap a wrist while hitting out of that rough. The average player couldn’t get home with driver-driver on 18. But man, what an awesome collection of holes. 

• Watching Rory McIlroy in San Antonio, I was convinced that he’d turn it around and win soon thereafter. His strut was back, but so, too, were the titanium-denting drives and rock-solid stroke. Yeah, that didn’t quite pan out – he didn’t win for another 34 weeks. 

• For what it’s worth, I was behind the first green at Conway Farms, staring right at Tiger, when his ball apparently moved in the pine needles. This new video rule is a good one – there was no way that movement was discernible to the naked eye.

• Precisely half of my rounds played this year were during GolfChannel.com’s 11-day adventure in Scotland – 126 holes in five days. My best round of the year (73) was in a tournament the day before my wedding. My worst (85) was the first round after my nuptials. Coincidence?