What Are You Working On?

[fanofsaosin]

1) Re-building swing... tried to go the stack and tilt route but didn't feel right to me so i decided to build my swing after tiger woods dynamics, besides he is one of the reasons i love this game and wanted to learn it.

2) Have distance control with my scoring clubs... b4 i was one to hit to a distance i know i could hit a full 8 or 9 iron and some times that can't be the case on some courses.

3) PUTT, PUTT, and PUTT... i rebuilt my putting grip and all I do when i have free time is to hit up practice greens and put for 2-3 hours straight. I wanna have the feeling of if i take the putter back this far it will travel this many feet.

[LongballGer]

wedges and putting.

[putput]

I am working hard on my iron game. I have a hard time understanding and controlling my swing when i find myself in the ruff. Some times I get perfect contact and I over hit it, or some times I graze it and barely move it anywhere. I want to be able to consistently know how to approach the ball and not worry that I am hitting the ball with the wrong club.

I plan on helping this by working with every club I have to understand better the trajectory and loft I can get with a simple amount of power, then work off of that when I need more or less to get a satisfactory hit.

[mirv]

i'm working on alignment. for i don't know how long, i took my stance to the ball not realizing that my shoulders were pretty open to the target. my feet, on the other hand - and i did know this, i was doing it intentionally in an attempt to mimic sam snead - were in a very closed position. well, as such, my upper and lower body were going in two totally different directions. i managed to make this work by placing the ball way back in my stance and swinging on a very exaggerated in-out path, but it failed to be hugely consistent. i'd still manage to post around the mid-80s, but it was becoming obvious i was never going to regularly get into the 70s. one day, after a friend videotaped my swing, i looked at myself and said "my god, look at my setup!"

anyway. after experimenting, i decided that the easiest way to correct it is to ditch the closed stance and get my feet going in the same line as my shoulders.

well, heh. now i'm aiming way... Way... WAY off to the left when i let myself "naturally" set up to the ball. granted i'm hitting them further and straighter than ever before, and there's absolutely no tension in my swing now, but i'm hitting them further and straighter dead left, and i'm having one mother of a time trying to learn how to re-align myself correctly to the target.

[JimmyDoesGolf]

Working on improving consistency by shortening my backswing and pairing down the motions. Ensuring club starts back on plane and the downswing starts with what feels like a shift of my right knee laterally towards my left.

[IceDave]

In my full swing I'm working on the stance, proper balance and a little bit straighter back to enable easier rotation. Also the forward swing hip rotation and head position and finishing the swing. Hope this isn't unclear og boring but it has given me more consistency as my bad shots are more on target now than extreme left/right.

In putting I'm trying to adjust my alignment, other short game isn't quite there yet as the conditions here aren't up to par.

[opie]

Getting back in shape to play. Torn rotator cuff and ankle/leg injuries from wakeboarding make golf more difficult. Played my 5th round in the last 3 years this past weekend and look forward to playing more again and getting back in the "swing"

[jambalaya]

Swing plane. I am shallowing the plane when I get to the top so I don't come in so steep. It has elminated 90% of my fat shots.

[bjw181]

Eliminating wasted movements in the swing, i.e. keeping the head still, little lateral movement.

[breezy]

1. Post what you're working on, why, what you hope to accomplish, how you're doing about it, etc.
2. Post when you begin something new, take a new approach, etc.
3. Don't reply to any posts unless your reply also accomplishes the two things listed above.

I have only been playing for 6-7 months now. In the last 4 times I have played including this past sunday, i have scored a 92-97 from the furthest tees with a slope rating of 125-127. Before, i was scoring 106-114 on the white tees. What I have been working on in the past few weeks is to try not "COACH OTHERS WHILE PLAYING." I tend to do that a lot and it really affects my game. I am also working on being more patient in every shot and as i walk i sing quietly "to myself" or hum songs to keep myself relaxed.
I am also working on my putting. I've recently been able to get almost every hole i'm playing on in two putts. What i am working on in my putting is the point of contact. sometimes when i am too tense i tend to push or brush the ball and it does not get anywhere close to the hole. I now realize that like any iron shots or drivers shots, I still need a solid hit(contact) in my putt whether its a soft hit or hard hit.

[breezy]

i also forgot to mention that i am still working on my breathing pattern when i do a "full swing." What i have noticed at the range is that when i try to add power or do a full swing, my breathing(rhythm) is all off. I don't mean to say that i need to breath at a certain time to get a good perfect hit, but breathing wrong just shows me how tense or how much i am trying when i don't necessarily need to. I'm not make a whole lot of sense but if anyone has a similar feeling, please elaborate. anyways, that is one that i am working on, relax breathing.

[TomDonS]

I am currently working on getting my hips as open/pointing at target as possible at impact, if you look at swing videos of the "great" ball strikers their hips are all the way through at impact. I am SO close while still striping the ball in the process. It's nice to be able to make swing changes and not effect scoring. (RARE)

[JetFan1983]

So I broke 90 about five weeks ago for the 1st time and have done it couple times since them; however, my scores yo-yo like crazy. I hate being inconsistent, so I decided to change my swing and my practice regiment. I used to never go to the range; I only played practice rounds. While this dramatically improved my short game, my full shots weren't very good. When I mishit a shot, I didn't have the opportunity to figure out why because I had to keep the pace of play up.

My quest is now for increased distance and better technique with my irons. No more rounds of golf for at least a month. From now on, the only place golf exists is at the grass range.

My old swing had the ability to break 90, but that's about it. I had plateaued with it. I'm hoping my new swing will have the strength to break 80. So far it's been absolutely grueling, and I go home from the range every day bitter and pissed off. My lower body turns too much on the backswing, and I'm not fast enough to get my hips turned back in time at impact. My clubhead lag is poor and I can't get my hands ahead of the ball at impact with regularity. I've been shanking a lot, and it's been very frustrating. I still have that awful head dip thing that I've been battling for six weeks now, but I've reduced it a decent amount.

So for the next several weeks or months or however long it takes, I'm going to have to have great discipline. If I do, it will pay off for the rest of my life. If I get lazy or defeated, I will just have my old swing for that much longer. No more driver, five wood, or 3-5 iron work. The focus will be solely on full shots with my sand wedge to six iron. I'll practice putting, chipping, short pitch shots, and bunker shots, but that's it. The rest of my free time will be devoted to the scoring clubs.

It was over 80 degrees here tonight, and I was almost at the point of passing out because I was hitting so many balls. I'm trying to relax before each shot and really focus, but when I get frustrated, I tend to just fire away at shots like a madman. It's wasteful and I have to stop doing that. I think that the point I've reached right now has been the most frustrating period in my golf game- even more so than the days when I was a total beginner. I expect a lot from myself, and I tend to beat myself up when things go badly. I've had two bad range sessions in a row, but I just have to suck it up and move on to the next one.

I'll let you know how it goes in a month or so. The fundamentals have been and still are my focus, but damn it is this game cruel. May 1st will be my one year anniversary with golf, although I've really only played 8-9 months if you don't count the winter when I didn't play once. I feel like I hit my driver and woods fairly well and I like my short game, but it's my iron play that really kills me. I know that once I can consistently compress the ball with my PW-3 iron I will become a very strong player. I'm no longer settling for my 100 yard PW 3/4 shots. Wish me luck. Or better yet: pray

[breezy]

So I broke 90 about five weeks ago for the 1st time and have done it couple times since them; however, my scores yo-yo like crazy. I hate being inconsistent, so I decided to change my swing and my practice regiment. I used to never go to the range; I only played practice rounds. While this dramatically improved my short game, my full shots weren't very good. When I mishit a shot, I didn't have the opportunity to figure out why because I had to keep the pace of play up.

good luck... i look forward to seeing your progression in the next month.

[MiniMoe]

I work on my mental attitude more than anything. Sometimes my give-a-snit is gone and I have to work on getting that back.

[opie]

Always working on aiming correctly

Sticking to a pre-shot routine

[Range King]

I started to take lessons, hoping to get consistency into my game.
First session was already a slam dunk:
Instructor changed my backswing, so I am on a much flatter plane and hit my balls from inside out.

So I am working on implementing the new backswing. When I execute my backswing correctly, my left arm is across my chest, the clubface is neither open nor closed, and my left arm is straight like a train track.

When I do a very controlled back and downswing, I am drawing the ball a lot, and that is soooo nice.

I am still having trouble with the transition from backswing to downswing. I tend to start it with my arms. This leads again to the root of all evil --> swinging over the top.

Another thing I am working on is my shot alignment.
Either I was always compensating for my pulls, coming form the over-the-top swing, or my eye-brain connection is somehow buggy. When I dont pay explicit attention to my shot alignment, I am aiming WAY right. (Almost like 2 o'clock, instead of 12 o'clock)
So I am implementing a pre-shot routine, and looking for in between targets to get my alignment ready for the sweet draws.

[ZaPPPa]

- Keeping my right hand from pushing over the top.
- Get my left shoulder up on impact
- Turning over hands better
- Weight shift
- Putting!

Went to the range today and had a good session with the driver. Really focussed on hitting 'towards second base' resulting in some nice ball flight and several balls resting at the back fence.

Also tried new clubs on big Demo day at local course and settled on Mizuno MX-200, though the MP-52's look pretty tempting as well. One thing is for sure that I need stiff shafts.