Casey

Thanks Chiral, do you think having the feeling of "hands higher" on the backswing could accomplish getting a steeper shoulder turn? I agree that I am much too flat and this is resulting in much bigger draws than I want. Right now my stock shot is producing about a 10-15 yard draw and I'd like to tighten that up and get it down to 5 yards if possible.

Here's a little update. Coming a lot more in to out now, usually between 3*-5* in to out according to this simulator. Worked on my setup standing a little further from the ball and weight more in the middle of my feet rather than out on the toes. My driver woes have been cured since I first posted with improvements and installing a heavier shaft and I am now working on maintaining consistency with both the driver and irons. Still working on shortening that backswing...I feel like it looks longer than it really is because I do this weird little wrist flip right before the transition which I'm really trying to get rid of. Old habits die hard. Well, anywho...

Try to get a video up, the slideshow is pretty cool though. Looks like you have a very nice swing. One thing that I notice is that it seems like your head might be moving around a little bit, check this link out for steady head drill (key #1) http://thesandtrap.com/t/61376/5sk-video-thread/36#post_806958

Here is my thought process before any swing: (blank mind)

I like your swing a lot. It has some great elements that I think give you a lot of potential. The setup and tempo are awesome in my opinion. It looks like you have great flexibility too. While I'm not a low handicap or anything, I see a few small things you might work on. A couple things I could add, that I have had problems with myself. The picture illustrates both of these points: 1. At the top of the backswing, you have a little too much shoulder turn. This is causing your head to get pulled to your right, and the ball is no longer in the center of your vision. Keeping a steady head is key in consistency in striking the ball. Another thing is the over rotation causes your trail elbow to end up behind your body and in a tough position to get back around to the ball without going over the top. An easy fix is to feel like your right elbow is staying attached to your right rib cage at the top of the backswing. Of course it won't actually be there, but this exaggerated feeling will help you prevent over-rotation of the shoulders. 2. From the picture, you can see at the top of the backswing your weight is "tipping" towards the target. This is caused by an over rotation of the hips and tilting your spine towards the target. Its not terrible and it may also have something to do with the big shoulder turn, but you don't want your weight going towards the target on the backswing. This means that to get any energy into your swing you must then move your weight away from the target and then towards the target again all in the downswing. This is hard to do. To fix this, look at the top of your backswing from down the line. You will see that your left knee is kicking in towards the ball. While a little bit of this is not bad, too much causes the over rotation of the hips. Try not to let it kick so far in. Try to feel as if you are pivoting around a central point, keeping your spine angle at address throughout the backswing. This will prevent your weight from tipping forward at the top of the backswing. I think those are a few things to try that might help in starting to get rid of that slice. Your swing looks very similar to mine and these are things that I have struggled with a lot, and have had the same slicing problem. I feel ya.

Just hit your grandfather's clubs, take them to the range, play a round with them. If you like them better and you play better with them than your r7's, then keep using your grandfather's. It doesn't matter what classification the shaft falls into if you play better or like them better.

I live in Minnesota...don't even get me started on the snow. We finally got a snowblower a couple winters ago, don't know how we ever got along without it.

I totally empathize with you on playing worse on the range than on the course. Not sure what it is. I think I have much better tempo on the course than on the range because I am more concerned with executing a shot than with just hitting balls to hit balls. As far as par 3's, definitely just a mental road block that you will move past as you get better. Focus on your tempo and not on the other things going on around you. Make sure you have enough club, maybe if it is a 150 yard hole and you usually hit your 8 iron that distance, try using your 7 iron but making it an 80% swing with nice tempo. This will prevent overswinging which I find can cause a lot of issues. Smoooooothhh is the name of the game on those par 3's.

I went to Golf Galaxy for a driver fitting last saturday night. It was at about 7:00, half an hour before close. There was only one other person in the store besides me, so the fitter paid very good attention to me. Gave me a few tips while I was hitting, had me try multiple shaft/head combos, and even let my step-dad who was there with me hit with a few different drivers. I ended up not even purchasing anything because we decided that my swing didn't warrant spending money on an upgraded shaft quite yet. He was super helpful and I look forward to working with him again. Of course, this is an experience with one individual and is not representative of all GG fitters out there, but go there, try it and see if you find a guy you like and trust. Can't hurt.

I like to use a 7i in those types of situations. More loft and shorter shaft so you can control it better, and you can still get that distance to run it up the front of the green.

Well, there will be a difference from the R7's because they are different clubs. However, if those RAC TP's came in both forged and cast options, and you played both, you wouldn't notice much difference.

What do you mean you're not getting the shaft thing? I'm saying, along with others who have said the same thing, that the shafts that come stock with many clones (or at least the ones I have used) are not high quality whatsoever. Therefore, yes, you can purchase better quality aftermarket shafts, but if you go that route you will most likely be spending as much money as you would just buying an OEM set of clubs in the first place. Get it now?

For my first set of clubs I received a set of turbo power clones of callaway's x18 model for christmas. I have played both my clones and the real x18's, and I will say that I felt I played better with the x18's than I ever did with the clones. I can definitely agree with other posters in this thread that have said that shafts on clones are absolutely terrible. The shafts on my turbo powers are downright flimsy, and every time I hit a ball it feels like I am mining with a pickaxe or something, not a good feeling. The heads are fine, but get new shafts asap.

I disagree. Hitting a draw is just as likely to go further left than intended as it to not go as far left as intended. If you consider an objective target line, i.e. not exactly where you align but where you plan the ball to end up, you are just as apt to miss on either side of that line with a draw as you are to miss left or right when attempting to hit "straight." It is actually possible to hit a ball perfectly straight. If you hit the ball in a vacuum (devoid of all matter except for you, your club, and the ball) and with no determining factors other than the angle of the club face and the club path (no wind, for example), it is possible to hit a ball straight. To do this, you would simply need the club path to be parallel with the target line at impact, with the club face exactly perpendicular to the club path/target line at impact. Obviously when out on the course there are an infinite number of other factors that affect ball flight, so yes you are 100% correct in saying that it's pretty much impossible to hit a ball exactly straight. Furthermore, to explain why a draw will go farther than a fade, it has to do with centrifugal force. When you rotate your body, your arms swing out in an arc basically, if you looked straight down at yourself swinging and followed your hands, they would make a half-circle path as you swing. If you think about how to hit a fade - slightly out to in club path with a slightly open face - your club/arms are not traveling on the same circular path as the rotation of your body is, so you are losing some of the centrifugal force generated by your body rotation. If you hit a draw, your hands are more likely to be in sync with the rotation of your body, so the swing has more of the force generated by that rotation and voila! Draw goes further than fade.