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19th Hole

Tiger Woods breaks down his famous ‘Nine Window’ warm-up drill

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Tiger Woods is widely considered to be the best iron player of all time, and the magic behind his ‘Nine Window’ warm-up drill has long intrigued golf fans.

In a video uploaded recently by TaylorMade, the 15-time major champion gave a fantastic in-depth breakdown of the routine to TM Rep Chris Trott.

In the vid, Woods demonstrates how he pulls off the shots, which comprises of three straight iron shots, three draws, and three fades, all with a low, mid and high trajectory. 

Here are a few highlights, but make sure to check out the video in full below.

How to hit the ball low, medium and high (2:38)

TW: “Obviously, the easiest thing to do is play the ball back in your stance (for the low trajectory). That adds an element of a draw to it, so for me to hit a low-straight one like that, I move the ball maybe half a ball back in my stance. But I do stand closer to it to get me on top of the golf ball. And then, from there, I really concentrate on my follow-through to determine how high I want to hit it.

So my dad used to say, want to hit one low? Have your hands stop around rib high. Want to hit it a little higher? Have them stop about shoulder height. Want to hit the highest shot you possibly can? Make sure your hands finish above your head.”

On the shaped shots (3:55)

CT: “Do you ever manipulate handle position in relation to ball position? So, handle forward for draw, handle back for fade?”

TW: “Absolutely not. I do it all with my hands and my clubface. I’ve never even thought about hand and shaft angle and all that stuff; I don’t understand it.”

Tiger also stressed how each shot, regardless of whether it’s a draw or fade, is always center strike.

On Visualisation and how Nine Windows helps in competition (5:35)

CT: This is a range session, but the visualisation you will go through, I’ve heard you talk about red flag and turn it, we’re into the cut shots now, would you go middle of the green and turn it, and pick a start line and pick a defined finish line?

TW (Points to small ball on edge of green): “So I’ll start this golf ball at that little ball there and then cut it to the right palm tree. 

When I get into a tournament situation, under the gun, I don’t think of anything but that (Nine windows). Now, do I do a hell of a lot of position work? Yes. In front of a mirror or on the range? Yes. But if I have to hit a shot now, to play this shot in a tournament, how I talked you through that little cut, where I need that ball to start off at that little ball and end at the tree, that’s all how I’m looking at this golf shot and feeling it.”

How the Nine Windows drill relates to his putting (8:04)

TW: “That’s how I putt. I put to the picture. All this information, I’m taking it into account, and then I’m putting to a picture, or I’m hitting my shot to my picture. So that gets rid of all mechanical thoughts. I just put all the information in, and the shot I want to hit, and how far I want it to go, what trajectory you want and then it’s all on my feel.” 

Watch the full video below.

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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