My Swing (Dr. Strangeclub)

My game went seriously south during late July and early August.  I started hitting the ball just horrible.  I admit that I don't practice at all any more, just beat it around 9 holes at a time or play in scrambles, so it isn't surprising things would slip away, but I thought I'd pass on a few things that I had to "repair" to get my ball striking back in order.

A.  My plane had become to high.  As Hogan suggests, the club should idealy be beneath the plane at the top.  When I started at the ball, the club shaft would be out of alignment with the force of the turn back to the ball and I had to "flop" it back under to correct it back into the hitting area.  Admittedly, people like Jim Furyk and Fred Couples have this under control, but it was a killer for me.

B.  I had started closing the clubface at the top.  The automatic reaction to this was to open the clubface at the bottom -- unpredictably.  I started hitting a lot of thin, weak fades.  It's important (at least in my world) to keep the face aligned with the plane, so that the downswing has the heel leading and the toe trailing on plane.  This also eliminates torque on the clubface/shaft, so that the clubface meets the ball square at impact.

Fixing just these two things has completely restored my ball striking!  I admit, desperation was setting in! I think these are fairly common errors (if you can really call them that), even among the lower handicappers.  Everything is much more efficient on plane -- and easier!