Night School

"No problem," Waldman says.

Larry Bobka is a tech expert at Titleist who makes sure the company's staff players are happy with their equipment. He has seen Stanley many times. Bobka has the eye of a savvy craftsman, and he closely watches a player's launch window—that is, the trajectory of the ball immediately after it leaves the club face. For most players, a pitching wedge will launch a ball higher than, say, a three-iron.

"But Kyle's shots all go through a tight window," Bobka says. "They don't change. I worked with a guy in 2000 who was pretty good, and he had that same tight window."

That player? Tiger Woods.