Share Your Golfing Revelations

[Gator Hazard]

Yesterday I had some instruction and the pro told me to do something that immediately made a huge difference in my game.  I wanted to start a thread where people could share some of theirs too.

Here is mine:

The pro knows I am a relatively new golfer, so we have started out chipping a lot and then moving onto the holes to practice.  Each time so far on one hole he has me tee off with my driver.  Yesterday as he filmed my shot, he told me to put the ball more forward in my stance (I semi skied the drive shot on the one he had filmed).   I drove over to the range to split a bucket with my playing partner before we teed off and after a few warm ups was hitting my shots pretty good.  I teed up for driver and placed it further forward in my stance, swung away and fired one straight away.  My 460cc driver sounded like a howitzer cannon under the open canopy.  I was stunned, that didn't just happen did it?  Teed up another one, set up with the ball more forward, swung, and there was a miniature guided missile flying straight down the range again.  Certainly this must have been a fluke, I had hit a good drive before, even two before once in a while, but two that looked the same?  Had to be coincidence.  Put the little white ball on the tee, set up, swung, WHAM, off it took screaming down the range straight away again.  

I could not believe how that simple of an adjustment could make such a profound difference, that my AoA was too steep and all I really needed to do was put it a bit more forward so I was sweeping the ball up.

On the course, I played my driver with quite a bit of success and hit the fairway  more often than I didn't.  

 

Edited November 8, 2015 by mvmac
Title

[9wood]

The one revelation I recently received which help me with my drive was a video tip about stance. The main point was to not set up bent over more than necessary. I use to bend over to much and it effected my drive. By standing up straighter and only slightly bent over which brings the ball closer to my feet I am able to drive the ball straighter.

It also occurred to me that the majority of my shots were going right of where I intended them to go. To fix that I now line up and then move my left foot backwards about four inches. Now the majority of my drives go more towards my intended target area

[saevel25]

There have been some moments where I forgot a key piece of information from my previous lesson that helped out that I remember when practicing. Mostly it hase been getting out of my own way and doing what needs to be done to practice correctly in what I need to change for my swing. 
 

[GRCTampa]

3 hours ago, Gator Hazard said:

Yesterday I had some instruction and the pro told me to do something that immediately made a huge difference in my game.  I wanted to start a thread where people could share some of theirs too.

Here is mine:

The pro knows I am a relatively new golfer, so we have started out chipping a lot and then moving onto the holes to practice.  Each time so far on one hole he has me tee off with my driver.  Yesterday as he filmed my shot, he told me to put the ball more forward in my stance (I semi skied the drive shot on the one he had filmed).   I drove over to the range to split a bucket with my playing partner before we teed off and after a few warm ups was hitting my shots pretty good.  I teed up for driver and placed it further forward in my stance, swung away and fired one straight away.  My 460cc driver sounded like a howitzer cannon under the open canopy.  I was stunned, that didn't just happen did it?  Teed up another one, set up with the ball more forward, swung, and there was a miniature guided missile flying straight down the range again.  Certainly this must have been a fluke, I had hit a good drive before, even two before once in a while, but two that looked the same?  Had to be coincidence.  Put the little white ball on the tee, set up, swung, WHAM, off it took screaming down the range straight away again.  

I could not believe how that simple of an adjustment could make such a profound difference, that my AoA was too steep and all I really needed to do was put it a bit more forward so I was sweeping the ball up.

On the course, I played my driver with quite a bit of success and hit the fairway  more often than I didn't.  

 

Nice! Hope you continue to improve and play well. Just wondering where you received your instruction. I practice regularly at Tampa Downs an there are some excellent teaching pros there. 

[Gator Hazard]

On November 8, 2015 at 12:20:58 PM, GRCTampa said:

Nice! Hope you continue to improve and play well. Just wondering where you received your instruction. I practice regularly at Tampa Downs an there are some excellent teaching pros there. 

Thanks. I am finally starting to feel like a golfer. I had mine at Country Way GC. My instructor teaches there and another place but can't remember. So far so good with him. We will see how I progress with him. 

[Patch]

My first one would be thinking of swinging the club to right field to stay on a decent swing path. Also helped to cure my out to in swing.

Second was to learn the game from green to tee which helped me a couple years ago. It speeded up my return to the game. Its also helped some other folks I know get to a respectable game faster.

Last was recently switching to the left hand low putting grip. Saved me an average of 6 putts per round once I became use to it. 

[Club Rat]

I've made a few adjustments this past month that have made my swing more compact and I have concentrated on keeping my right elbow tucked. The changes have been from watching and reading material on TST that Erik and Mike have mentioned in many posts. Simple things like flaring the feet in my the stance slightly and my swing path takeaway have made my ball striking more consistent and achieving good shots at my targets. Next project will be increasing swing speed slightly as I've lost a few mph the past couple of seasons due to minor back aches on occasions from over swinging.

[JKolya]

I have had several "a ha" moments over the last few years. Most were things that I theoretically knew, but as we know "feel is not real," so my a ha moments were realizing that I was not doing what I thought I was. 

My moments have been arms only to proper backswing; steep to shallowing out backswing and downswing; cooking of wrist without additional rotation; low hands, among others. 

My most recent realization is feeling like I am standing up on my backswing. I have to feel less dynamic as I had to much movement (head dipping, leaning in). The feeling has led to fewer fat shots. Along with this is dropping my arms on the downswing in contrast to dropping my right shoulder and lifting up my left shoulder. This led me to be too steep and/or hit the ground first. 

 

[DaveP043]

Mine is simple, and I relearn it several times every year.  Simply put, I've learned that swinging longer and/or harder does not produce better results.  A "regular" swing with good mechanics will produce more solid contact, straighter shots, and often more distance than trying to get absolutely everything out of a swing.  However, knowing this  and being able to resist the "big swing" temptation are two different things.

[mdl]

29 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Mine is simple, and I relearn it several times every year.  Simply put, I've learned that swinging longer and/or harder does not produce better results.  A "regular" swing with good mechanics will produce more solid contact, straighter shots, and often more distance than trying to get absolutely everything out of a swing.  However, knowing this  and being able to resist the "big swing" temptation are two different things.

Haha.  Right there with you.

A big one for me recently has been that spine angle and where you point your chest has a big effect on club face closure.  Like the more I point my chest down towards the ball, as opposed to up towards the horizon, the more I close the club face by impact.  

[Lihu]

I haven't had one single moment where it was a revelation, but I would say that this entire year has been a little bit of a revelation. It's taken me a lot longer to get to the point where I can just start to learn to swing.

I was talking to someone who works at the range I go to regarding this subject, and concluded that there is no single thing that has improved my swing or hitting or the direction that I hit. What's worse is that I only feel like I'm just barely ready to start the journey.

Seems like a steep uphill battle. . .

[DaveP043]

If your index is really 11, you're already doing a lot of things right!

[Gator Hazard]

41 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Mine is simple, and I relearn it several times every year.  Simply put, I've learned that swinging longer and/or harder does not produce better results.  A "regular" swing with good mechanics will produce more solid contact, straighter shots, and often more distance than trying to get absolutely everything out of a swing.  However, knowing this  and being able to resist the "big swing" temptation are two different things.

I have noticed that as well, whenever I try and crush it, anything can happen.  However, there have been several times where I slowed down to not put too much on the ball and wound up hitting it further than when I swing faster, frustrating for the immediate shot but was a good thing to learn.  

9 minutes ago, mdl said:

Haha.  Right there with you.

A big one for me recently has been that spine angle and where you point your chest has a big effect on club face closure.  Like the more I point my chest down towards the ball, as opposed to up towards the horizon, the more I close the club face by impact.  

That is an interesting piece of information, never really thought about it specifically like that.  I will have to take notice of that next time I pick up a club and see how it relates to my swing.

[mdl]

2 minutes ago, Gator Hazard said:

That is an interesting piece of information, never really thought about it specifically like that.  I will have to take notice of that next time I pick up a club and see how it relates to my swing.

Don't quote me on that!  I'd only swear by it for myself with my current swing.  But in general you definitely hear pros talk about "covering" the ball or point their chest at the ball or the like, so it seems there's definitely something there at least.

[Gator Hazard]

6 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

If your index is really 11, you're already doing a lot of things right!

I was thinking the same thing.  What I would give to be an 11 hcp!  Lihu the Modest.  :)

[Lihu]

16 minutes ago, Gator Hazard said:

I was thinking the same thing.  What I would give to be an 11 hcp!  Lihu the Modest.  :)

No, I'm far from modest. . .but getting humbled really fast. . .

The thing is, there are some really good golfers that I didn't notice how well they hit before. Now that I have hit one or two good balls, I can see that these folks are really good because they hit that ball almost all the time on the range. I've played with some of them on the course and they're really good. It's kind of boring watching them hit fairways (or first cut) 250+ yards away , then make the approach from the correct fairway all the time. I feel like if I happen to make a near green from the next fairway over I should be penalized or something. Seeing enough people striking the ball well really puts things into perspective. . .I'd say that I know a well struck ball when I see one, but just can't do it.

Hey, that's a revelation!

[imsys0042]

Where you are doesn't matter.   A good shot from 250 out is better than a lousy one from 60 yards.

[SavvySwede]

57 minutes ago, imsys0042 said:

Where you are doesn't matter.   A good shot from 250 out is better than a lousy one from 60 yards.

No way. From 60 yards a lousy shot would still be closer to the hole. Secondly, of course "where you are matters" because statistically you are much less likely to hit a lousy shot from 60 yards.