Karzmer: These guys really are good

After an exciting week of actual “reporting” from Muirfield Village, I’m glad to get back to my comfort zone with this week’s “column.”

I was in Columbus this week covering Jason Kokrak’s “Ohio Homecoming” at the Memorial. One reality from the week is just how good these PGA Tour players actually are.

So here’s a question I get sometimes: “Jonah, you shot 62 last year. How much better can the guys on TV really be than that?” And here’s the very simple answer: Way, way, way, way, way better.

Scores are one thing. But when I had the opportunity to watch these guys up close for a week, I realized — no, I was reminded — just how controlled these PGA Tour players are in all facets of the game.

Swings

While swings can vary — Jim Furyk’s loop to Matt Kuchar’s flatness — there are a few qualities every player’s swing has: The first is tempo. Not swing speed. Tempo. Go to the range at a Tour event and watch any player. You never see a “jerky” movement.

You hear the word “effortless” used often when describing Tour swings. Ever measure your swing speed? I bet it’s not over 90 mph. Tour guys swing 115 mph to 125 mph and above. Think that takes some effort? Heck, yes. It’s because the tempo is so good that a 120 mph swing appears “effortless.”

The other constant is balance. Watch any one of these guys hit balls on the range for 10 minutes. I’ll lay 20-1 odds you won’t see even one off-balance finish. No matter what the swing looks like, the finish is the same: Balanced. The weight is on the left foot. The chest is facing the target.

High shots, punch shots, draws, fades, hit at full speed or at three quarters — every swing made out there has a balanced golfer holding the club at the end of it.

Ball Flight

This is probably the aspect of the game that 95 percent of regular golfers don’t recognize. I’ll make it personal: Say you stood next to me and watched me hit 10 consecutive shots from 150 yards out. While my stats might show that I hit the green a lot, if you actually tracked my shots, they’d all look different. One shot would draw. One would fly 144 and roll forward. One would fly 153 and spin left. One would be high. Two would be low. I’d probably “flush” one 158 and I know I’d “thin” one 146.

So I might hit the green 7, 8, maybe even 9 times. Not bad right?

Here’s the difference: The guys on the range this week, their 10 shots were all exactly the same: Same height, same trajectory, same carry yardage, same amount of spin — same everything.

And that’s not even the coolest part.

If they wanted to change any or all of the above mentioned characteristics, they could. It’s an amazing thing to watch when you know enough to recognize what they’re able to do.

The short game

Final thing I’ll mention is the real game changer. Muirfield Village is hard. And the green complexes are very hard. If you miss the green in the wrong spot here, forget about it. Unless you’re a PGA Tour player, apparently.

These guys can chip and pitch like I can’t even imagine.

A 35-yard tight-lie fairway shot? No problem. Open the wedge, accelerate just right, pick it perfectly and bam. Fly it 2 feet short of the hole, one hop and stop.

Buried in the rough? No problem. Open it up, “blast” it out with a full swing and bam. Carry just right, grab, release and tap it in.

And bunkers? Please. If they knew the ball wouldn’t plug, I think they might aim at them sometimes just for fun.

Bottom line is, even when these guys do miss a green, they always believe they can get it up and down for par.

So to wrap up this memorable week, I want to focus on a positive from what I watched with our local PGA Tour player, Warren JFK graduate Jason Kokrak.

Yes, his scores were higher than we all hoped this week. But I watched every shot and putt he hit for 36 holes and I know this: The PGA Tour is where Kokrak belongs.

He has all the qualities I talked about above. And as he continues with his sophomore year on the Tour and beyond, I know he’s only going to get more comfortable, become more confident and continue to improve and compete for years to come.

On Monday, Kokrak is in a U.S. Open qualifier. Stay tuned.

Jonah Karzmer is a former golf professional who writes a Sunday golf column for The Vindicator. In his spare time he sells commercial insurance for Huntington Insurance and loves getting feedback on his weekly columns via email at jonah.karzmer@huntington.com