Tennessee

Well, after only one day on this wonderful site, it has become totally apparent to me that after 58 years of playing golf, and being a scratch player through most of my 20's, at the tender age of 65 I obviously don't know a doggone thing about this sport, and should just stay off this wonderful outlet of complete knowledge of golf. I bow to all your complete and absolute intelligence.

The analysis is great, but before you all condemn me, remember that I said "if the video was taken without seeing the ball". And I did say that both swings were not poor - quite the opposite, they are both well grooved swings. They obviously are both top shelf pros, for years now. But let me ask this: Can you name me one top 100 swing coach, starting out with a fairly new golfer, or even a fairly aged amateur, who would endorse and/or install the huge S loop that is in Furyk's backswing? Or would they try to get you to take it out? Would any top 100 teacher endorse the over the top swing of Watson in an amateur? Or would they try to get you to do more of a traditional swing, and eliminate the huge slice that often accompanies Watson's ball flight? My experience, after filming myself, was to see an over the top swing much like Watson's. Not his power, obviously, nor control, but I did have his fade and slice. When I tried to correct it, I could not do it by myself. The pro I visited in the simulator made the minor adjustments to my stance, arms and body turn which brought the club down on the backswing just enough to eliminate my slice, and add distance to my shots. As a matter of fact, I now for the first time in my life have a baby draw on command as my usual shot, and if I want the cut, I simply let the club rise back to the top a bit, and there it is, like magic. I used to do a lot of grip changing, and hooding or opening the face, but not anymore. My only remaining problem is sometimes I have too much draw or pull - I have to watch out how much I drop that backswing. Both Furyk and Watson outstanding professionals who have grooved wonderful swings that work for them. But my point was simply...I do not know of one teacher who would try to have any student emulate those swings, unless they came to that teacher with them intact, grooved, and hitting the ball very well before the first lesson. Dat's all I was sayin'!!

Truth is, if you took a video of Jim Furyk or Bubba Watson without the ball in the video, most would say they both must suck. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth. That is why after taking video of myself to analyze my swing, and spending about three months in the tank trying to "fix" things, I ended up in a simulator with a pro telling me simply what I was doing wrong. His eyes were much quicker and more effective than any camera. I cannot swing like the pros. I accept that. All I want to do as a senior golfer is put the ball 200-220 down the middle and have a decent approach shot close to or on the green. Pitching and putting are mostly mind games to me, but it is that first few hundred yards where I want to keep it on the short stuff.

In my humble experience, the game is won or lost by approach shots to the green, not necessarily the short game per se. Jack Nicklaus once said that most pros reach the green in the same amount of strokes, hence the game comes down to mainly putting. For me, nothing could be more from the truth with modern balls, clubs and longer courses. It is now the approach section of the game in my mind that determines the win or loss and where the ball lands on the green due to the greatness of that approach shot, be it 60 yards or 160 yards. One of my recent best shots was a screaming low hit from about 154 with my 7 iron. It never got much more than ten feet off the ground, but rolled and rolled up to about 10 feet from the pin. From there I missed my birdie putt by two inches, but got my par easily. My playing partner was so shook up he bogeyed the hole when he missed his second on the fairway and flubbed it. And you might think you have some great shots, then you run into that really old guy who hits a driver off the tee 175 yards, a three wood 175 yards, one 9 or PW onto the green, and one putts for his par, over and over and over until you are ground into the dirt like old corn husks. Been there, suffered that!

Just wanted to say hello, and glad I found The Sand Trap. Don't have too much time to post. Am officially retired, but I still run a woodworking shop and other things, plus of course play golf! Thanks, and glad to be here!