March 31 -- The Zurich classic got underway at the TPC of Louisiana, with many of the PGA Tour players hoping for one of the final qualifying positions for the Masters which is quickly approaching in two weeks. Next week's Shell Houston Open will be the final event to precede the Masters.

The Zurich Classic was marked by rain on Saturday afternoon that forced a third of the field to complete Saturday's round early Sunday morning. My fellow Miami Hurricane Woody Austin played very well on Saturday and was tied for second with five other players at 9-under par going into the final round. John Merrick was the leader at ten under, setting up a very exciting finish because of such a tightly-bunched leader board.

By posting an early lead, Andres Romero applied a great deal of pressure to those trying to catch him. (Wireimage.com)

The PGA Tour, because of the difficult logistics of having to finish Saturday's round on Sunday morning, had to change its usually pairing policy of placing the leaders in the final groups. As it turned out, Andres Romero -- one of the five players tied at nine under at the end of the third round by nature of his early finish on Saturday -- started his final round nearly 3 hours before many of the other leaders. Romero was able to post a fine 72 hole score of 13-under. This early finish by Romero, and his ability to post such a strong score placed a great amount of pressure on the players playing -- in some cases up to 11 or 12 holes behind Romero who had finished almost 3 hours earlier! This set up a great opportunity for all of us to see, very clearly, the tremendous amount of pressure that pursuing players have to deal with knowing a score they need to reach, in this case, to catch the very talented Mr. Romero.

As we saw the drama unfold on the back nine, both Austin and Peter Lonard had the best chance to tie Romero but feel just short of what they needed to do to force a playoff. Though there were several shots which would ultimately prove important, I found two shots that struck me as critical to determining the outcome of this tournament. Both occurred on the back nine late Sunday.

1. Woody Austin's 2nd shot on #18, a fairway wood coming out of the heavy left rough - I agree with Woody's attempt to hit the shot and liked his aggressive approach here. He was playing to win and not playing for a large paycheck. The execution is where he made his mistake.

He come into the shot too level (not steep enough) causing the club head to get stuck in the heavy rough. To compound the error, the ball flight come out to low causing the ball to even get stuck in the grass.

If you he hit this same shot from the fairway the ball would have traveled at least 200 -225. The grass was so thick that it kept the lowly launched ball from ever elevating.

So here is what you must do if you are forced to hit an aggressive shot with a fairway wood over 200 yards from such a nasty lie; Take a 3 or five wood, place it back in your stance slightly. Shape your back swing very steep by picking the club up more and then literally try to hit a pop up --or sky ball -- by picturing coming straight down and trying to pop it up. Do this by moving right down underneath the ball. Hit the shot very aggressively, swing very hard and I repeat -- try to literally pop the ball up! Your grip pressure, especially in the lead hand must be a lot firmer than normal. When you execute the shot as I have described, you will be amazed how cleanly the ball flies out. You will be left thinking how did the ball go 200 yards?, I was trying to pop the ball up!!

Please practice this shot at least a half dozen times on your next practice round. You will come away you feeling great that you have added an exhilarating shot that works so well from such a difficult lie!

2. Peter Leonard's 7 foot putt on #17 - Under extreme pressure, it is everyone's tendency to leave a critical putt short -- for two reasons. A.) You are trying to be so careful and intent on hitting it on the proper line that you fail to place any focus on the distance. As a result you leave it short as Peter did. B.) You are so nervous that you become very tense, and that cuts off the freedom of motion in your arms and shoulders. Of course, this again results in a smaller swing then necessary -- and leaves a putt short.

So here is what you should focus on when you are in a must make short putt situation.

1.) Work on your breathing technique, taking deep breaths through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. 2.) Shake out the tension in your hands arms, and shoulders. 3.). Finally, while you are taking your practice swings make a mental note to hold the putter lightly, maintain your motion and make a large and long swing with your arms and putter to ensure completing the movement back and through.

As we all know, tension is the greatest crippler in golf and it causes us, in many cases, to cut off our motion; which prevents us from hitting many putts to the hole!

The Touring players are the greatest in the world and all golfers should marvel at their ability to perform so well under such intense pressure. Sometimes, they don't always come through as they'd like, but considering the circumstances, it's understandable. Oh what it must be like to try navigate your way safely back to the clubhouse, in order that we may pick up our 1.1 million dollar winning check! Wouldn't it be nice for us to find out sometime.

And of course, my heartiest congratulations to Andres Romero on his first PGA Tour Win!

Kevin Perkins is a PGA Master Professional and operates The Kevin Perkins Golf Academy at Baytree National Golf Links in Viera, Florida. Kevin has hosted and produced his own Television and Radio golf shows and co-authored the instructional Book "Golf Everyone", published by Hunter Textbooks. He may be reached at 321 213-7044 or e-mail: dkperkins4@cs.com.or visit his website at http://www.kevingperkinsgolfacadem.com