Worldcom Classic - The Heritage of GolfChange of direction helps Andrade 04/14/01[an error occurred while processing this directive] <BR><FONT SIZE=5>  Change of direction helps Andrade  </FONT><p> <P><font size=2><I>Web posted  <FONT SIZE=2>Saturday, April 14, 2001</FONT><BR>  <P></I></font><FONT SIZE=2> </FONT> <P><FONT SIZE=2><B>  By <A HREF=mailto:astastny@savannahnow.com?subject=Tim Guidera>Timothy Guidera</a>  </B><BR>  <I><A HREF="http://www.savannahnow.com">Savannah Morning News</a></I>  <P></FONT> <FONT SIZE =3>  HILTON HEAD ISLAND -- Billy Andrade had one of those tough backward shots Thursday that not too long ago could have stopped a good round of golf cold for him.<P> It wasn't as if he had to hit it from the green toward the tee or anything. He had to hit it from the right to the left. And two years ago, those two things would have been about the same to him.<P> You see, Andrade is a cutter by birth, a guy whose natural shot is a bit of a slice. That's kind of like being left-handed or blue-eyed. You don't choose it; it chooses you.<P> As the nation's top-ranked junior golfer in 1981, as an Arnold Palmer Scholarship winner at Wake Forest and as a 12-year PGA Tour veteran, he saw every shot left to right. Each swing would start with him picking out a target to the left of where he wanted his ball to go, and the good ones ended up with the ball sliding over there.<P> <TABLE WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=Left VSPACE=5 HSPACE=5 CELLPADDING=5> <TR><TD VALIGN=BOTTOM ALIGN=MIDDLE><A HREF="/images/041401/andrade.jpg"> <MCC PHOTO1> <IMG alt="photo: Worldcom Classic" SRC="/images/041401/andradeLR.jpg" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=138 HSPACE=0 VSPACE=6 align=left BORDER=0> </MCC PHOTO> </a><br></TD></TR> <TR><TD CELLPADDING=3 VALIGN=TOP ALIGN=LEFT><center><hr width=60% noshade></center> <font size=2> <MCC CAPTION> 2000 Invensys Classic champion Billy Andrade watches a putt at the 2001 WorldCom Classic </MCC CAPTION> <center><font size=1><I><MCC CREDIT></MCC CREDIT></I></font><center><hr width=60% noshade></center></TD></TR></TABLE> There are only two problems with that. Andrade is now a 14-year PGA Tour veteran. And he's living in a right-to-left golf world.<P> With professional golf becoming increasingly macho-minded and distance-crazed, if you're not hitting a draw these days, you're not hitting anything. The kind of shot that flies from right to left with overspin for a right-handed player is a sign of strength and a source of length.<P> And it once was more than a challenge for Andrade.<P> "I needed to make the change, probably early in my career," he says, "probably when I was getting ready to turn pro."<P> He didn't because the only teacher he had as a young player never told him to. But he thinks now that Davis Love Jr. was getting ready to suggest it before he died prematurely in a plane crash in 1988.<P> Instead, Andrade was then without a swing coach for a few years before settling on Rick Smith, who allowed his cutting to continue until he settled into "17 months of just horrible golf."<P> Prior to last season, he began working with Billy Harmon. And the brother of Tiger Woods' coach Butch Harmon is helping Andrade turn over a new ball flight, which for a golfer is like trying to change fingerprints.<P> It would be about as significant a switch as a NASCAR driver going from standard shift to automatic. Or a batter changing sides at the plate.<P> Not something you often see done at a sport's highest level. And something that is rarely done with good results.<P> "I had to kind of relearn the game a different way," says Andrade. "You try it and then you say, 'Oh, screw it, I'm going back to what I used to do,' because you know you can do that."<P> Besides, Billy the Cutter was not exactly the kind of guy who had to get his ball retriever re-gripped twice a year.<P> He had won three Tour events playing left to right, including his first two back-to-back in 1991. That had not been done in 12 years at the time and has not been done since. And he had remained on Tour for a decade, which might just be the toughest thing to do in sports.<P> But golf was passing him by as quickly as long hitters went by his left-to-right drives on the fly.<P> So, after struggling through most of the 1998 season, he decided to cross over to golf's other side and, in the difficult process of doing do, promptly finished 118th on the '99 money list. If he didn't have such a strong short game, he might've just been finished, period.<P> "I would take some lessons from Billy, and then the next week I would be right in the fire playing out here," Andrade said. "My problem was, every time I felt good leaving the practice tee, I'd get paired with Tiger Woods or David Duval. I would always be playing in the featured pairing, So I could never hide."<P> Then, around the middle of last year, Andrade's new game started to come out of hiding.<P> He shot 63 in the third round to win the Invensys Classic in Las Vegas and move from 159th to 43rd on the money list, the greatest one-week improvement in Tour history. And he has continued his rebound this season, tying for 12th place in the Mercedes Championships, finishing fourth at the Sony Open in Hawaii and earning a tie for eighth at the Genuity Championship.<P> Oh, and that tough shot Thursday? Andrade got up there and stiffed it.<P> On Harbour Town's par-3 17th hole, the one with all the water to the left, he pulled out a 6-iron, hit a perfect little shot that followed his new closed-parenthesis flight pattern and stuck it within three feet of the cup.<P> He kicked that in for his second straight birdie and then added three more in a row to shoot 67, which got him to 9-under par and into a tie for second place midway through the 2001 WorldCom Classic. And it helped pile on a little more evidence that it's not only his golf ball that is moving in the right direction now.<P> "The changes I have made, I'm starting to see the progress," said Andrade, whose best Heritage finish was a tie for 16th 11 years ago. "I'm still a work in progress. I'm not anywhere close, but I am getting there."<P> This week at Harbour Town could help Andrade get a little closer to being a finished work, the way a Heritage win has made many pretty good players more complete.<P> If he's in it at the end Sunday, he'll come to the two toughest holes on the course and have the exact shot he'll need to play on both of them. Rather than having to hang his ball out over the marsh to the left of Nos. 17 and 18 and slice it back in, he'll be able to draw on his new routine.<P> And, if he were to pull off those shots, there would be only one way for him to look at his game. And it would be all right.<P> Morning News sports columnist Tim Guidera can be reached at 652-0352.<P>  </FONT>[an error occurred while processing this directive]