The Drive for 5...

[DrvFrShow]

Since I started the year at 24.7 and am sitting at 21.7 now.... I'm still in the running. 19.7 would be a win. My club championship on Aug 11 but i won't have enough official rounds with the club in before Aug 8 this year, so I'm not going to worry about it. I spent the day doing damage control at the driving range from my last round. It's all psychological stuff dealing with reluctance to hit down on the ball with my irons and failing to get my weight going forward enough with my irons. I can't practice as intense as i was so I had to think about what went wrong and fix it. Lack of driving with my right leg. Well that was definitely the problem. And it also showed up on my drives. Why the ball was staying playable but wasn't going anywhere? Weight shift forward. Wedges. For some stupid reason I started scooping with my wedges and they're the only clubs I was doing this with - once I felt the tempo and got my weight going forward, no more scooping. I could tell by the distance and ball flight.

It was all about getting the weight going forward, and getting that fear of hitting down out of my head. That was my piece today.

Head to the putting green - I couldn't sink a 3 foot putt reliably. My putting has about as much rust on it as a steel can left out in the rain. So I practiced sinking 3 foot putts around a hole until I had enough of that. Then I moved on to lagging. "Hit it!" Damn I'm stroking weak-assed putts. They can't get inside of 3 feet if I don't hit the ball. Worked on that for a half hour then packed it in and came home. I wouldn't give myself a one footer at this time. But I was putting better at the end than I was in the beginning.

[Jeremie Boop]

Ok, after yesterday and today I'm sitting firmly at 18.1. I'll call that a win for wanting to get down to bogey golf. At this point it's time to set a goal for the end of next year. I'm not sure what that will be yet, but thinking shooting for around 12 would be good for the amount of time I have between now and then.

[dfreuter415]

I just signed up for 5 more lessons.   I lesson for 1 less stroke, 5 stroke improvement after the 5 lessons or by 12/31/15 whichever comes first.   1st lesson was spent on drives.

Sounds like a good plan.  I know your dedication to practice along with the guidance from the lessons will prove fruitful.

Who are you taking lessons from?  Have you taken lesson from him/her before?

[rkim291968]

Sounds like a good plan.  I know your dedication to practice along with the guidance from the lessons will prove fruitful.

Who are you taking lessons from?  Have you taken lesson from him/her before?

Same instructor as before, from GolfTec.

It may be a coincidence but my last lesson was in March and HI stopped improving since then.  It's been in 16 - 19 range.   I resumed the lesson yesterday with a lesson on drive.   With golf specific workouts I have been doing, I feel strong and hits ball physically further.   But the ball trajectory has been going up, and so has the spin rate (confirmed yesterday - high 3k rpm average).   These result in pop up (or near pop up) drives that stops at/around 200 yards instead of 230+ I am expecting.   The good news is that I need to make a smaller adjustment to get it on right trajectory - head behind the ball at impact.  This was a regression since March and fixing is requires very little effort.   The next step is to adjust swing path to be more of a draw for more roll/less spin.   That will need some range practice.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfreuter415

Sounds like a good plan.  I know your dedication to practice along with the guidance from the lessons will prove fruitful.

Who are you taking lessons from?  Have you taken lesson from him/her before?

Same instructor as before, from GolfTec.

It may be a coincidence but my last lesson was in March and HI stopped improving since then.  It's been in 16 - 19 range.   I resumed the lesson yesterday with a lesson on drive.   With golf specific workouts I have been doing, I feel strong and hits ball physically further.   But the ball trajectory has been going up, and so has the spin rate (confirmed yesterday - high 3k rpm average).   These result in pop up (or near pop up) drives that stops at/around 200 yards instead of 230+ I am expecting.   The good news is that I need to make a smaller adjustment to get it on right trajectory - head behind the ball at impact.  This was a regression since March and fixing is requires very little effort.   The next step is to adjust swing path to be more of a draw for more roll/less spin.   That will need some range practice.

Is your ball setup forward as described in LSW?

[rkim291968]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkim291968

Same instructor as before, from GolfTec.

It may be a coincidence but my last lesson was in March and HI stopped improving since then.  It's been in 16 - 19 range.   I resumed the lesson yesterday with a lesson on drive.   With golf specific workouts I have been doing, I feel strong and hits ball physically further.   But the ball trajectory has been going up, and so has the spin rate (confirmed yesterday - high 3k rpm average).   These result in pop up (or near pop up) drives that stops at/around 200 yards instead of 230+ I am expecting.   The good news is that I need to make a smaller adjustment to get it on right trajectory - head behind the ball at impact.  This was a regression since March and fixing is requires very little effort.   The next step is to adjust swing path to be more of a draw for more roll/less spin.   That will need some range practice.

Is your ball setup forward as described in LSW?

Yes.   But a flaw was that at impact, my head was directly above the ball.  That is ok for irons but not so much with driver.  This was a regression from earlier driver swing.

[jetsknicks1]

Dropped one more stroke to an 18.00, that's three strokes so far. Shot an 88 today.

[DrvFrShow]

Had an upward tick of .5 in the HC as a result of my 90 from last August dropping off the 20 rounds. This has not been a very good year for me either. My 4 iron arrived today, so we'll see how that fits in the bag. I think I'll remove my 3W since I haven't been using it at all during my last few rounds.

My first impression of it when I took it out of the box was "Wow, this is a 2 iron." I bought it for a driving iron, and I checked the loft on it compared to the loft on my dad's 1970 set and it's only one degree more than what his 2 iron was. I figure that when my driver goes wild my 3 wood will also go wild and I'll be hitting an iron off the tee. I tried the "driving irons" by Ping and Callaway and I didn't like them - not enough loft and too stiff. This will be just a little more than my 5 iron since it's part of the same set. I should be able to hit it with ease.

I'm just weird. I like hitting irons. I may even take a lesson in how to hit a long iron off the deck. It's been 45 years since I did that. Yikes.

[jetsknicks1]

Had an upward tick of .5 in the HC as a result of my 90 from last August dropping off the 20 rounds. This has not been a very good year for me either. My 4 iron arrived today, so we'll see how that fits in the bag. I think I'll remove my 3W since I haven't been using it at all during my last few rounds. My first impression of it when I took it out of the box was "Wow, this is a 2 iron." I bought it for a driving iron, and I checked the loft on it compared to the loft on my dad's 1970 set and it's only one degree more than what his 2 iron was. I figure that when my driver goes wild my 3 wood will also go wild and I'll be hitting an iron off the tee. I tried the "driving irons" by Ping and Callaway and I didn't like them - not enough loft and too stiff. This will be just a little more than my 5 iron since it's part of the same set. I should be able to hit it with ease. I'm just weird. I like hitting irons. I may even take a lesson in how to hit a long iron off the deck. It's been 45 years since I did that. Yikes.

My buddy tees off with a 4i all the time because it puts him in the fairway almost every time. I recently put the driver away and went to the 3w, it's taken 3 strokes off my HC.

[DrvFrShow]

The thing is that it's more for emergencies and damage control to get through a round until I can get to a driving range and figure out what went wrong with my driver. I don't want to give up those 30 to 40 yds. It's the difference of hitting an 9 iron or a 7 iron for my second shot on most holes, and some hole the difference between a 54 wedge and a 9 iron. That's a lot of club. And it's usually because I'm doing something fundamentally wrong like not driving hard enough with my right leg. My coach has me doing a jump move at impact for extra power and it's added another 30 yds. Timing is critical.

Also there are holes where the dogleg or water is in that position where I can't hit a driver, 3W or even a 5W, and I prefer hitting an iron off a tee over a hybrid.

[pecos24]

After the last revision I am up .5 to 30.9.  So was this the drive to add 5?

But on the plus side I am trending 29.9 after a career best round this morning.  I shot a 95  for a 24.6 diff.  I didn't hit the ball particularly well but I stayed out of trouble for the most part.

[Lihu]

After the last revision I am up .5 to 30.9.  So was this the drive to add 5?  :whistle: But on the plus side I am trending 29.9 after a career best round this morning.  I shot a 95  for a 24.6 diff.  I didn't hit the ball particularly well but I stayed out of trouble for the most part.

What is your current biggest weakness?

[DrvFrShow]

At a 30 HC, the fastest way to lower a HC is to stay out of trouble. Just keep the ball on the fairway and advance it toward the green.

[Lihu]

[QUOTE name="Lihu" url="/t/82815/the-drive-for-5/162#post_1177818"]   [QUOTE name="rkim291968" url="/t/82815/the-drive-for-5/162#post_1177808"]   Same instructor as before, from GolfTec. It may be a coincidence but my last lesson was in March and HI stopped improving since then.  It's been in 16 - 19 range.   I resumed the lesson yesterday with a lesson on drive.   With golf specific workouts I have been doing, I feel strong and hits ball physically further.   But the ball trajectory has been going up, and so has the spin rate (confirmed yesterday - high 3k rpm average).   These result in pop up (or near pop up) drives that stops at/around 200 yards instead of 230+ I am expecting.   The good news is that I need to make a smaller adjustment to get it on right trajectory - head behind the ball at impact.  This was a regression since March and fixing is requires very little effort.   The next step is to adjust swing path to be more of a draw for more roll/less spin.   That will need some range practice. [/QUOTE] Is your ball setup forward as described in LSW? [/QUOTE] Yes.   But a flaw was that at impact, my head was directly above the ball.  That is ok for irons but not so much with driver.  This was a regression from earlier driver swing.

It might be time for a swing video?

[pecos24]

What is your current biggest weakness?

Biggest weakness seems to change week to week and round to round. Right now I would say my biggest weakness is lack of solid contact/loss of distance. Which I guess would suggest I am not getting my weight shifted.

[pecos24]

At a 30 HC, the fastest way to lower a HC is to stay out of trouble. Just keep the ball on the fairway and advance it toward the green.

I think it has taken me 20+ years to figure that out!

[Lihu]

[quote name="Lihu" url="/t/82815/the-drive-for-5/150#post_1178603"] What is your current biggest weakness?

Biggest weakness seems to change week to week and round to round. Right now I would say my biggest weakness is lack of solid contact/loss of distance. Which I guess would suggest I am not getting my weight shifted.[/quote] Working on key 2 might be the thing to try?

[Fairway_CY]

My official handicap is 17.4R as of the latest revision... but my 'actual' handicap is 19.4 as of the same point.

I've still got the 'restricted' tag on my handicap because of lower tournament scores, even though the last time I played was a 2 day tournament where I posted differentials of 26.8 and 23.5, respectively.

There are 6 tournaments left on the schedule, but I have probably 3 tournaments left this season, unless I can qualify for the year-end tournament.  I'll be missing the next 2 on the schedule because of vacation and work... so I'll need to post a couple of good scores in the last 3 I'll be playing in.

I've got a lot of work to do.

CY