Howling Coyote

I don't know if I should reply to this subject. I am glad they were able to remove the mass, though I am surprised they didn't follow it up with chemotherapy. My wife died of lung cancer. They couldn't stage her properly. They guessed it was anywhere between stage 2a and stage 3b. Lung cancer is tricky, because there are so many vital organs nearby, that you typically can't use radiation. Surgery involves either VATS (video assisted thoracic surgery), or thoracotomy (maximum invasive surgery, you don't want this). VATS is usually reserved for people who are stage 2a or less.

How does he fall on stairs? I am an old fart, I should be the one falling.

So you'd recommend 1, with a faster tempo. I saw over the weekend, Rickie Fowler 4-putt because his 2nd and 3rd putts were lip-outs (on the 18th hole). Each time after the lip out his ball rolled quite a distance past the hole, I assume both the lip-out and distance past the hole were due to too much pace (too firm). Is this because these guy train hitting it so firm that sometimes they over do it? For me very frequently I hit it too soft. Often I am way short. The other day, twice I left the ball on the lip of the cup. I even stood there and jumped up and down hoping the ball would drop. I also hate these claims, "Well teach you how to never 3-putt again", but when I see a pro like Rickie Fowler 4-putt I know it is untrue.

Just my opinion, I think it will be a repeat of World Golf Championship-Dell Tech Match play, DJ versus John Rahm. Phil Mickelson is a wild card. If he brings his A game he will win, its just that I have not seen him play his A game in a long time.

Iacas This is the only thing that has got me greater distance. Only in like the past 3 weeks have I began doing this and it feel like the clubbed is whipping around. Before I could only hit the pitching wedge about 80 yes, now I can hit it 100 yds and in some rare instances 120 yds. I know this is crazy. What I do is I picture a little fat man, who is laughing at my swing. He has been laughing all day long at my swing. He has his back to my target and is standing next to my right leg and has a big stomach. I am angry at him and want to punch him in the stomach with the butt end of my club, on the downswing. In order to do that I have to bend (cup) my right wrist. This has the side affect of bowing the left wrist. In order to hit his stomach, I have to get low and once I hit this imaginary target, my hands slow down and I let the wrist go completely loose. The club then whips through all on its own.

I don't have a swing thread. I am not sure what one is?

iacas I have questions about putting. First I have observed a lot of people putting and have seen approximately the following types of strokes. Which do you recommend? (1) Standard follow thru method: Lower body is quiet, putt back stroke is about equal to follow thru. About 1 inch of backstroke per foot seems to work. However, I have trouble with distances greater than 20 feet. The putt does not get there unless I use one of the other types. (2) Pop stroke: A stroke with no follow thru (see Brandt Snedeker). Like all putting, the lower body is quiet. The Pop seems to transfer more complete momentum (as I have tried it and it is easy to hit it further). However, from my experience direction control is poor. (3) Wrist fling: Some golfers I have witness them flinging their wrists as they putt. I keep my wrists quiet maybe that is why I can't et distance? Ok, I have tried this method and distance control is difficult, but you can really make the ball move. (4) Noisy follow thru: Basically the same as (1) but the lower body is allowed to sway a little.

mvmac That's a really long and complicated post. The reason why I hate the driver and don't like hitting it, is because I can make progress (learn quickly) with the 3-wood, but can't with the driver. Just using the 3-wood more frequently in no time I begin to hit it 200 yds. The driver is like a that sailboat so many have joked about. A hole in the ground, where an infinite amount of time can be spent with no progress. I'll hook it, pull it left, then slice it and all way much shorter than the 3-wood. BTW. I am still digesting your post.

To me golf instruction can be very frustrating. It's like packing too much in your luggage. Say the lid does not close; its bulging out on the left side. Its easy to fix. So you go over and push it in. But now clothing is hanging out on the right side. You go back and forth never making any real progress. However, I like this (your) way of learning. For me I like video lessons, because I am not an auditory learner. I can learn by hearing the instructors words, but its better if I can listen to it several times before the full intent sinks in. Also seeing visual demonstrations of some drill, or concept, work very well with me. Then as you say go back and work on that drill until the problem is corrected.

I like the 5 "S", but this last one I thought meant defining success criteria.

About 2 1/2 years ago I did not like my golf swing. Besides lacking distance, I was coming over the top, there were to many chunked shots, shanks, bad slices, and I could not hit a draw, or make the ball curve left. I destroyed my old swing and created a new one. But for a long time, during the transition I was a lousy hitter. My swing was very uncomfortable. Now I can actually draw the ball. Ball flight actually seems to behave exactly as the professional describe.

I feel that my ball striking is better than ever. But has this lowered my score, no!!! There are several issues here. First (1) every now and then (1 in 20 hits), my ball will squirt right. (2) I will start to chunk the ball toward the end of a round like I am getting tired. This appears to be caused by drifting slightly toward the ball during the downswing. (3) my putting is inconsistent. But in terms of target line, I can be dead on target on many hits. I love it when the ball follows my target line and flies high in the sky. I do tend to hit it too high at times.

Also it is best to fix the coming over the top issue. I don't think you will ever be able to whip the club without fixing this.

Let me see if I understand. Because the ball at impact gets severely deformed both spots will appear on the club (say if I desire 1 degree inside out path), unless the spots are spaced further apart and I hit it 10 degrees inside out?