freshmanUTA

Welp, got too cocky talking about not shooting scores above 78. Just shot a pair of 80’s this weekend. Seemed like I couldn’t stop shutting the face and hooking the ball, but my actual strikes were really good. My short game saved me from a god awful score when I missed nearly every green in both rounds. Golf has a funny way of humbling you when you start to get over-confident.

Absolutely. This video was at the beginning of my range session today, and it seems that issue is exaggerated when I hit off mats. I’ve been working very hard at focusing on clean contact and hitting the target and less on actual mechanics this summer. In fact I haven’t even recorded my swing since the middle of September, and I was in a much better spot then. The bottom line is that my hands are just way too far behind me. I’ve been working in the mirror and was working a bit on the range of trying to figure out what makes my position at the top look like justin thomas and trying to exaggerate that feeling while hitting balls. I’m going to need to get a video of the position I’m feeling I get to and what my swing looks like ATM. I didn’t get to record any more swings after my mechanics session because it started raining and was freezing cold so I was trying to just leave. These were meant to be separate posts: Just another update. Dropped my handicap from 4.2 in july to 2.7 now. My scores are going lower and I haven’t had a score higher than 78 since the end of august and I play twice a week. My contact with all clubs his improved an insane amount and my dispersion with my driver is the best it’s ever been. The 7 iron is a bit thin. The main issue I have in my swing ATM is that my hands are getting too far behind me up to the top of the swing. I’ve been trying to exaggerate feeling like Justin Thomas and how he swings basically straight up. I never took the PGA PAT, i was cancelled due to covid. I played the course anyway in the beginning of august and shot a pair of 80’s which wouldn’t have gotten me though. Thats it for now.

Surely the entire club is illegal because it’s shaped like an object other than a golf club

Im still working hard at not having my elbow being stuck behind me. I’ve made a little bit of progress, but I’m still working. My shot pattern has turned from a push fade to a straight push or even a draw. I don’t really like drawing the ball because it brings a left miss in, and I hate missing left. I get more power with less effort with the shallow swing though, so I think i’m just going to sit the face a tad open at address and just stick with the push fade. Everything but the driver and 3 wood have been really consistent but the driver and 3 wood are a two way miss at the moment and I hate that.

Thanks. I will mess around with this. What do you suggest I try? Should I try like a belt or a towel under the armpit or something to keep my arm connected? Also about the posture, I’ve always felt that my mid to upper back is rounded too much. Are you sure that’s fine? I’ve just always seen most players, especially the better players, having a much straighter back. Heres mine: Heres Rory’s: I know I need to straighten up my posture when i’m away from the course as I have a really rounded neck and shoulders even when i’m standing up straight, and my doctor has mentioned that some of the neck pain I experience is from constantly being hunched over like that. But that’s completely different from the golf swing. If you say that’s good posture then I definitely take your word for it and I won’t worry too much about trying to straighten my back.

Im still struggling with toe contact, and I’m not sure why. My typical ballflight has become a push fade. I typically just aim left of my target and the ball starts on or slightly right of where i’m aiming and drifts right. The toe contact is really consistent and I just honestly have no clue what to fix it. I can’t see my instructor for a while because he’s stopped giving lessons during the pandemic, and I don’t want to ask the head pro at my course to look at mine so I’m coming here to see if anyone’s got ideas. Side note, I have terrible posture. I’m studying programming in school so I’m constantly hunched over my computer at my desk and it’s ruining my upper backs posture. I also desperately need to lose weight as I haven’t done anything to manage it and it’s getting out of hand. I have a feeling that Improving my posture might help with contact but I really have no clue.

Even Par through 9. Man what a rush. I wasn’t even hitting the ball that well and I doubled the first hole. I had a few good chips, two good approaches and a couple good bounces to help make par but I guess we’re allowed that now and then.

I think you misunderstood what I wrote. The course isn’t allowed to do group lessons at the moment, were waiting for the okay from the city. We were supposed to get the okay to start on June 1st but they pushed it back another 10 days so we’ll hear on the 11th. At the moment are only allowed to do private lessons and we have to abide by all of the requirements for the virus. Masks, no touching and sanitizing any training aids that may have been used. It’s weird because our clubhouse isn’t even fully open yet we’re allowed to teach and interact with members and local juniors. One of the juniors who came in for a lesson kills the ball and he’s considering doing long drive when he’s older. He’s 5’5 and maybe 130 soaking wet but he swings over 120 mph and gets ball speeds over 170 at 15 years old!!! He absolutely pounds the ball.

Man, I’m stopping by here to just say that tomorrow is my first day off since starting, and I love this job. I’m having an insane amount of fun interacting with members, shadowing and helping out with the few lessons we’ve had and starting soon we’re going to be giving junior group lessons and I’m gonna be in charge of them. The club is still weary about doing more than private lessons because of the Corona Virus restrictions, but I’m hoping we can get group lessons going as helping people improve has been loads of fun. I can’t thank everyone on this forum enough for helping me out, there’s so much valuable information here and it’s given me such an advantage when teaching, and I’ve been able to bounce ideas off the head pro and he’s been shocked at how much I know.

Wow, is that true? That’s crazy. I guess I have to work harder than I ever have. I’ve been focusing a lot on driving/tee shots in general and wedges from any range. The course I’m qualifying at is not easy by any means, but my length off the tee gives me an advantage that I want to utilize to the max. I wasn’t aware you could become an apprentice before the PAT, but I know that my position is based on me passing the PAT within 1 year from my first attempt, so I’m hoping I can at least give it a really solid go the first time and not embarrass myself. I have a tendency to get in my own head and start hitting bad shots. Thank you. I appreciate the kind words. Honestly, no. There’s enough wooded land there that if a ball does go through it’s not going to hit anything or anyone. None have ever gone through, except the one that popped through and made the hole to begin with. I recorded this in slow motion but for the life of me i can’t get it to upload to youtube in slow motion, I’ll post again if I figure it out. I’m just taking a 60% swing trying to emphasize shallowing the club out. I start my first day as an Assistant Pro on Monday and right off the bat I’m shadowing the Head Pro in a lesson with the club champion and then we’re heading out for a playing lesson with a junior golfer. In between that I’m going to be learning the ropes of the management side of the golf course, I’m excited but really nervous as well.

76 during a job interview! I was interviewing to be an Assistant Golf Professional and played lights out. Driving was spot on, Iron play was good and my short game saved my ass quite a few times. I had 2 birdies, a few too many bogeys and I missed a few putts for key putts to save par, but I got the job!

Cool news! I have accepted a job as an Assistant Professional working under a PGA professional and will be working to pass the PAT on July 31st, and hopefully begin the PGM program. At the moment my position is only temporary based on my performance on the PAT, but I have been working hard on my swing and all aspects of my game. After dropping my handicap to 5.8 last year, and tying my personal best of 76 in a round of golf with the head professional, I feel confident I have the ability to pass. I start 2 weeks from Monday and I’m looking forward to it!

I ran the idea of toe contact being because my head is moving away from the ball on the downswing through my coach and he says it’s a very real possibility so I should take a few swings where i feel like i’m intentionally getting closer to the ball at impact. My heads still moving a bit but it’s very subtly moving away from the target less than it was before. I guess I just need to keep working on the feeling. This is with the 7 iron and I haven’t had any issue with contact, but when I was swinging with my 5 iron I noticed that regardless of being thin or not the contact was generally in the center of the clubface rather than off the toe.

Ping iBlades. They’re not off the smooth part of the face, but definitely off the toe. It’s the weirdest thing I know.

I don’t know what’s going on, but every single club other than my 7 iron since working on shallowing the club are toed shots. But, the weird part is that they feel really pure. Like, club twirl and don’t watch the shot cause i think it’s really good level pure. Then I look at the club and it’s right out of the toe side of the grooves. I’ve attached a photo of the wear pattern on my 7 iron and my 8 iron. My 8 iron pattern is typical of the pattern of the rest of my clubs.It trends high and towards the toe, but most are very solid. But they feel absolutely no different than the shots that I hit that are straight out of the toe of the club, other than the fact that the ball flies shorter and tends to go too far left. 7: 8: Its a bit harder to see on the 8 but you can still see it’s out of the toe. Like I said, these shots feel great, as if I middled the ball perfect, but they fly shorter and tend to go too far left.