What Are You Working On? - Page 49

1)  Rotating hips and really clearing them out of the way.

2)  Ball striking.  I'm trying my best to go an entire 18 hole round without hitting a shot fat, thin, or on the toe with any club.  It has really caused me to slow down, get tight, and focus.  I have yet to be successful in my quest of 18 holes without a contact hiccup, but my scores are better.  My misses are not as far off.

Got fed up this weekend with how slack I've gotten about practicing. There's no way I'm gonna make any real progress by playing 9 or 18 once a week.

Started today - Hit 135 balls at a 4' ring from 30 yards (I measured it out) I would hit about 20-25 with my 48*, then 52*, then 56*.

I was focusing mostly on ball striking.

Just Joined!

I am working on driving off the tee.  This is my weakness in my golf game, so I am doing everything I can to improve my swing.

I was at an indoor range last Saturday on the launch monitors and found what I hope will help get my driving more consistent.  I noticed that during my 'regular' swing, my hands were pretty low at the top of the backswing, maybe in a 'laid off' position.  My clubhead speed was in the mid to high 90's, but my shots were primarily weak fades that finished well right of the target and only averaged 245 or so.  I worked to get my hands higher at the top of the backswing - not going any farther relative to the club being just shy of parallel to the ground - which produced clubhead speeds just at or above 100.  My shot pattern tightened up and I started seeing a nice draw on good swings.  The ball marks on the face of the driver (gotta love those R-11's and how they give excellent feedback on where you're striking it on the clubface) really tightened up towards the center.  To top it off, my average moved up to around 275, with a couple of drives exceeding 300 yards.  

Next step is to take it to a 'live' range this afternoon and see how it plays out, plus I have a professional lesson with video swing analysis.

I've been working on:

1. Keeping my weight on the inside right leg on the back swing

2. Full turn

3. Letting my clubs "rest" on my right arm and keeping the elbow close to body and keeping everything "attached".

Goal: To break 80 by the end of this year or by early next.

Cardiac rehab, from Heart attack, trying to get build back up before winter plus I have a tournament to attend Mid September that I don't plan on missing.

total swing rebuild.  I'm now focused on shoulder turn, and my coach said I do nothing else until I get beyond this point.  I'm making pretty significant changes that align to some to the LAWs theory.  In terms of shoulder, I'm Width and switching to a short 3-9 swing (at least for the time being).  Then we'll go back to hips.  This has already corrected my upper torso and head movement :)

100 balls earlier today and the consistency of ball performance is beginning to be observed.

The connection between my brain and my body ain't on the Tony Romo level...

I am keeping my bag 10 feet away on the range and forcing myself to change clubs every swing.  The mental exercise to go thru my "check down" list on every swing is quite difficult, it makes me organize my brain and improve the connection between mind and body. 

Well I just got back from the range and breaking in my new irons(Callaway Razr X Black). They are definitely nice, I'll do a review once I hit them a few more times and play a round. 

Anyways, here's my problems based on how I hit my irons this time around, already I hit them much better than my old ones and I know these are going to be big game improvers for me. 

Still a few things 

-Hitting the 5 and 4 iron more consistently. I know how, but I top them more than my short irons and slice them sometimes even if I hit them. Need to just practice. 

-Hitting the driver. What happened?! I couldn't hit a single decent drive today, granted I only took 5 drives, but only one even went a reasonable distance and it was too low in the air. I think this may have just been a problem with the range I was practicing on, you have to hit your drives from the grassy area in front of the turf practice tees, and it's really bumpy so I couldn't get my stance correct. Will spend some time practicing. 

-Short game, needs big work. I really need to practice chipping for like a few hours, my chips are all over the place and don't really have enough consistency. My few practice pitches seemed better though. As usual my putting is fine, and I even sunk my farthest putt today, I would estimate it about 20-30 foot putt maybe longer. I seriously need to set aside a solid hour for chipping practice.

and finally

-Bunker play. I was never that good, I can get the ball out but consistency is a big problem. I usually drop it on the green, but then it just rolls too much and ends up hitting the rough. Sometimes I make contact with the ball instead of the sand and I fly it out of the bunker past the green. More bunker practice seems the key.

Big things right now are soft left arm and rhythm and lots of right arm slam.  Always working on keeping hip and shoulder tilts in check, sequencing preserved, alignment, grip and wrist action consistent though.  So the reality is I'm working on a lot.  I'm also working on letting it all go on the course.  It's nice knowing I'm doing all the right things and that I only need to do them better.

1. Not too much sway or lower-body movement on back swing

2. Clearing hips through impact.  Took a video lesson off a groupon and by far the biggest thing i learned was how much my lower body was moving in the wrong ways compared to pro swings.  already seen a huge bump in consistency with my irons; still getting used to it with driver and partial wedges.

Just took delivery of a loft and lie machine - so I'm working on my clubs. Old school lofts so as to hit pitch shots with a pitching wedge and long shots with my long irons. Tweaking lie angles - because I can. A great looking BeCu Hogan wedge might finally be playable. Best $$$ on golf I've spent in a long time.

Tem-po, tem-po, tem-po!

Starting with the putter, through the wedges, irons, and woods.  As of right now, I feel like I have finally "figured out" my putting stroke - I have avoided 3-putting over my last few rounds completely.  My chipping, pitching, and overall wedge play have also improved, and I now feel confident that I can control distance with those tricky 40-50-60 yard half-wedge shots. Irons and woods are still WIP.

I'm working on regaining mobility after hurting my back.

The Doc says no swinging! so I'm stretching and strengthening,

it's a slow process and I can't wait to get back out there

and do a little putting, to start. Ugh!

Finding balance between - 8 hrs. a day Monday-Friday at my job, going to the gym, commitments with church, spending time with my wife, work around the house, practicing and playing golf, and trying to rest somewhere in all this.......

Right now I'm working on my putting. I have my iron game and drives under control.

My putting is weak though, and I need to put at least an hour a day to it..

Hardest part is just to take action. I know what I should be doing, but I constantly find myself doing other things that I know I shouldn't do...

Cycling through my lesson cards from this summer.

This spring and summer I had a series of four lessons with the same pro. I morphed from hand drop to hip trigger for my swing, and developed more into hip rotation than hip drive - a more swinging gate movement.

I'm getting better contact and distance with my irons when I'm "in the zone," and with less physical effort.

I got a summary of each lesson on an index card, plus two video clips, and I plan to cycle through the lesson cards during the winter to make sure I've got everything in place.

Big problem now is the long clubs - especially fairway woods and hybrids. Ball flies longer and straighter if I swing smoothly with follow-through rather than smashing at it. When I play, I'm having a couple of good holes, then a couple of bad (or terrible) holes with the longer clubs. Old habits die hard!