August 25, 2008 -- It's playoff time. After 37 events during the regular season, an approximate 250 contestants have been narrowed down to the top 144 players. Now, within four events, that field will be reduced each week until an overall FedExCup champion is crowned in Atlanta at THE TOUR Championship.

As expected, the competition was intense for week one - keep in mind these guys are playing for a share of the $35-million bonus pool and a $10-million first-place payout. It's amazing how that can motivate you, consider Hunter Mahan's 62 on Thursday and Steve Stricker's 64 on Friday. They, however, would not figure in the mix come the back nine Sunday. That spotlight was reserved for Sergio Garcia, Vijay Singh and Kevin Sutherland - as each tried to lay claim to a victory in the first week of these playoffs. Ironically, seventy-two holes were not enough to decide a winner and the first week of the FedExCup playoffs required - well, a playoff. And it the end, it was Vijay Singh walking away with the Barclays trophy - as he has done three times before.

Vijay hit 73.6% of his greens in regulation for the week which put him in a tie for 6th and positioned him to win. If you look at Vijay's stats you can see he is a very solid ball striker -- he averages 67.56% GIR for the year,which ranks him 15th on Tour. So why does he hit his irons so well? One reason is that he uses a proper swing path. For this week's Lesson Learned, I am going to focus on the path of the Vijay's golf club -- specifically at the point when we see the exit of the club shaft past impact.

I hear from many amateurs that they want to have a high finish, just like they see on television -- and there is nothing wrong with that. The problem usually comes from how they get there. In their attempt to finish high, they have a tendency to come up out of their spine angle and then swing the club straight up eliminating any release of the hands or club head. This leads to thin or topped shots that travel to the right.

Let's look at Vijay Singh's swing (below). Vijay is hitting 7-iron on the left and a 4-iron on the right. The bottom red line is the address plane and the top red line is the shoulder plane. Notice the angle of the club shaft, which is highlighted in green, halfway between impact and finish position for both swings. The angle of the shaft almost matches the tilt of his shoulders, and swings through the middle of the two red lines.

If you look closely and extend the green line to the ground you will notice that the line crosses over Vijay's target line. I have watched many players struggle to hit crisp irons shots because at this position in the swing the club shaft is pointing straight to the sky.

As the swing moves forward we now see the high arm swing of Vijay, just before he finishes, that so many golfers covet. But remember that the shaft has to exit properly to complete the swing path, before you attempt to achieve a high arm finish.

One drill you can use is to make a three-quarter practice swing and hold your finish. Look at the angle of the club shaft when you reach the three-quarter finish position. If done properly the handle of the club should point down towards your target line and you should be able to see the back of your right hand (left hand if you are a left handed golfer). Please also remember to maintain your spine angle when you do this.

Scott Maier is the Teaching Professional at Birnam Wood Golf Club in Santa Barbara California. Prior to working at Birnam Wood Scott was a Master Instructor for the Jim McLean Golf School at PGA West. He has also earned is PGA specialty certification in instruction.