Experimenting with the forward press..

[cougar978]

Through two tournaments this year, I have yet to put together anything respectable, and I feel I'm having balance issues on my follow-through, causing me to block long irons and pull short irons and wedges. I went to the simulator at Golf Galaxy yesterday and started fooling around with a 60/40 forward press (I normally set up 40/60 and do a full transfer from the top). The forward press appears to have helped my ball-striking, as the demo club I was using was getting plastic marks near the center of the club on each shot, and I averaged about 210 yds with their demo Mizuno muscle blade 6-iron, with less than 10 yards average deviation to the right. Now I know that's going to translate to approximately 185-190 with my Pro Combo set in real-life circumstances, but I was so excited I went out in front of the house last night and did slow-motion forward press swings with my 2,4,6,and 8-irons, and had very few balance or alignment issues.

A couple questions for those who use the forward press:

1) Do you use it because it's a more dependable swing?

2) Will you get the same results with woods?

3) Is it a viable option for greenside bunker play, or should I keep 40/60 distribution? I use Harvey Penick's method from his Little Red Book for sand play, and it's served me well, but I have issues controlling distance on occasion.

I apologize for going off about the country club set last night - I have had two straight stressful days at the office, and the fact that I've worked all winter to get my game in tournament form and I'm laying an egg so far this season frustrates the hell out of me.