My Swing (saevel25)

[saevel25]

Played 9 holes tonight. The course I played was a rock. You could throw the ball down onto the green and it would bounce 1-2 feet in the air. 

Driver: After having two practice sessions with out snap hooking it, I got the snap hooks again. I figured it out one the last few holes. More shallow feel at a4, and swing out at the ball with the turn. 

Irons: If I actually gave myself a chance to have a normal shot I might be able to assess this better. I had to play out of the trees all afternoon. 

Pitching/Distance Wedges: Getting better

I like were things are heading. They feel like they are heading towards better shots. 

 

[saevel25]

Played in a scramble today. I haven't swung a club since last weekend, since I tweaked my back. I struggled a bit with my swing. Not horrible, but not great.

The driver was the biggest issue. Too many hooks left. It was either really good, or left. On the good shots the swings felt shorter and I felt like I swung out more at the ball. 

Irons were OK. Too many strikes on the toe. I could swing out at the ball more. 

Distance wedges were pretty solid. Putting was good. 

The bad my 6 iron broke . I was trying to hit a chippy 6 iron and struck the ball really well, but the shaft snapped right below the ferrel. 

[saevel25]

7 iron DTL

 

Hybrid - DTL

On this swing I was trying to stop the club from continuing to get long past A4. So, I figured that the opposite of letting it break down at A4 would be to feel like the club is pointing straight up or behind me. This is the result of feeling like I am trying to point the club straight behind me at A3-ish. Contact wasn't good, but the swing stopped at parallel. 

On a side note. The driver is out of the bag for the rest of the year. No way I can trust it to not hurt my game. My worst hybrid shots are way better than my worst driver shots. I can keep my hybrid in play much more often.

Pitching was kinda OK today. The pitching got to steep and I wasn't using the bounce effectively. I tried to get back to turning the body better. I was faking the turn by looking up and not turning. 

[saevel25]

7 Iron

Same old swing. Turn rates are better thought. 

 

DTL - Backswing Practice

I have a feeling that even though the club is flatter at A3.5 that the way the club head travels is counter productive. It still loops around and want's to go to the right. I can't seem to figure out how to route the club head so it helps in getting a flatter swing path here. 

 

 

[saevel25]

Shot a 41 with an 8 on a par 4 and a 5 on a par 3. The par 4 was strange. I almost missed the ball with my hybrid off the tee. The bottom of the club took a slight divot about 1.5 inches inside the ball. Then I proceeded to hit the same toe shot on my next shot. By that time I had dense trees between me and the green. 

The par 3 was a duff pitch and a missed short putt 

Besides that I had 7 pars. 

My tendency is to toe a lot of shots. I am even hitting my pitches way out on the toe. 

[saevel25]

7 Iron - DTL
I don't know what made me think of this feel, but I went with it. I tried to feel more weight under my left foot, but also that my left hit felt a bit further back. More like I was squatting into my left hip. It wasn't much on camera, but I was just a feeling. I also try to feel more pressure under my left foot through out the swing. It seemed to help getting the hips open at A7, and keep me from goat humping.

Driver - DTL
Meh, over swinging is a big issue again.  That's probably the most open my hips and shoulders have been at A7. 

 

[saevel25]

Played at Northstar in Sunbury Ohio today. I struck the ball better today. I tried to hit a lot of easy drivers today to keep it in play and for the most part this let me have good looks at the green (hit 50% of them). I didn't putt particularly good today (36 putts). I struggled with short left to right putts, and it seems golf gives you more of the putts you don't hit well. 

On 8/18/2017 at 9:38 PM, saevel25 said:

7 Iron - DTL
I don't know what made me think of this feel, but I went with it. I tried to feel more weight under my left foot, but also that my left hip felt a bit further back.

This continue to works well for me. Also, working on swinging out a tad more with it. 

Now I just need to work on my short game again 

[saevel25]

Played 9 tonight. Didn't score well because of my putter and my short game. The long game feels good. Irons are getting being more solidly struck. Good start lines, very neutral ball flight. Driver feels good. I feel like I can swing out more when I want to, which is good. I feel like I am turning better. I just didn't read the greens well tonight. Distance control was pretty good. 

Lots of work to come on the short game. I need to stop hitting them on the toe. 

[Grizvok]

On 8/20/2017 at 5:06 PM, saevel25 said:

Played at Northstar in Sunbury Ohio today. I struck the ball better today. I tried to hit a lot of easy drivers today to keep it in play and for the most part this let me have good looks at the green (hit 50% of them). I didn't putt particularly good today (36 putts). I struggled with short left to right putts, and it seems golf gives you more of the putts you don't hit well. 

This continue to works well for me. Also, working on swinging out a tad more with it. 

Now I just need to work on my short game again 

I know what you mean about having the left hip a bit further back. You gave me solid advice about working on my centered pivot and turn and while further practicing the motion I think at some point I just kept going too far left with the hip. Instead of sway the wrong way I was simply getting too much sway going to the left. Centered really has been the key word for me when it comes to the turn.

[saevel25]

Played 9 today. Shockingly my distance wedge game disappeared on me. It's been pretty solid all year. Basically I wasn't turning my body well enough. 

Starting struggling with the driver again. Sometimes the big hook just creeps in. It went to my irons also. Lots of over draws with contact to the toe side of the irons. I was able to fix it by feeling more umbrella feel, and arms more in front of the body at A3. If my short game didn't die on me I would have shot even par on the last 4 holes. 

Short game is still bad. I try to get good contact, but it's a struggle. Back to the short game area tomorrow. 

[saevel25]

Played 18 today. 

Driver: C-

Irons: B+

Distance Wedges: B

Pitching: B-

[saevel25]

Range Update
Pitching - getting better. Using a bit more neutral grip set up. Making sure I am not forward pressing the club. Pivoting better. 

Distance Wedge - No consistency at shortening the swing. I tried hitting a 56 degree wedge 80 yards. I can hit the ball 95-100 yards over and over, but 80 yards is a no go. I either hit it 95-100 or I chunk it. Any feel of the club shorter than A3 leads to major inconsistencies. 

Irons - Struggle for consistency.  I struggle to not aim my body right. When I lay down alignment sticks I find I am pulling my irons way left. When I try to swing out at the ball more I either chunk it or shank it. I tried hitting more chippy type shots, but I pull those even further left than my normal swings. Like 50-60 yards left of target. 

Sigh

[billchao]

13 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Distance Wedge - No consistency at shortening the swing. I tried hitting a 56 degree wedge 80 yards. I can hit the ball 95-100 yards over and over, but 80 yards is a no go. I either hit it 95-100 or I chunk it. Any feel of the club shorter than A3 leads to major inconsistencies. 

Are you trying to find an 80 yard swing or just working on feeling partial swings with a short club in your hands?

I've found that I'm better at hitting certain yardages with one particular club instead of the others so over time I just stopped using the other clubs. For example, 75 is in my wheelhouse for a partial 50° but I can't hit it consistently with a 56°.

[saevel25]

41 minutes ago, billchao said:

Are you trying to find an 80 yard swing or just working on feeling partial swings with a short club in your hands?

I've found that I'm better at hitting certain yardages with one particular club instead of the others so over time I just stopped using the other clubs. For example, 75 is in my wheelhouse for a partial 50° but I can't hit it consistently with a 56°.

Just learning to swing to certain backswing lengths. I find it hard to find any consistency at any swing length shorter than A3. Maybe it is because I hinge the wrists late. 

[mdl]

Your mileage may vary, but I have the same problem trying to hit shorter than A3 with a "regular" but cut down swing.  I've transitioned over to playing those kind of partial shots only with my interpretation of the quickie pitching video pitching style: float loading, paint brush feel, quieter lower body, etc.  I've found I can use that style/feel swing pretty much all the way up to A3 and hit the ball ~80% of full swing distance with the wedges.  Personally I'm way more consistent that way rather than trying to use a full swing feel but just stopping at A2.6 or whatever.

One other thing I've played around with but haven't really tried to game yet is the Spieth version of distance control.  Instead of Pelz style shifting the back swing length, always take the same 80-90% backswing with the wedges, but control distance with how far your follow through goes.  Like, if you want to truly stop your swing at A8, you have to swing much slower and smoother, and will hit the ball not as far.  That's an option I've been considering for shots more in the 70-90% range, sort of a slightly different way to think about the flighting the ball advice in that very useful thread here.

[iacas]

17 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Just learning to swing to certain backswing lengths. I find it hard to find any consistency at any swing length shorter than A3. Maybe it is because I hinge the wrists late. 

Unlikely. You'd just have a shorter distance than someone who hinged the wrists a bit more.

I think a lot of your issues are in your head. I think that if you hit a shot 20 yards, and then 22, and then 24, and then 26, and kept slowly working up… you'd find that you would do okay. Until you started to over-think stuff.

I refuse to believe you lack the talent to make a half or 3/4 swing with a wedge and hit it solidly. So either you're making excuses for yourself ("oh, I hinge it late, so… that's why I can't do it") or you're just getting in your own way (your head/mind). I'd bet a lot it's NOT the former.

#toughlove

[saevel25]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

So either you're making excuses for yourself ("oh, I hinge it late, so… that's why I can't do it") or you're just getting in your own way (your head/mind). I'd bet a lot it's NOT the former.

I might have been making an excuse, but I was more so curious about it. It just feels strange stopping the club short of a certain point in my backswing, when I am using normal swing mechanics (not pitching or chipping).

Hinging to pitch is fine. I can probably hit a pitch shot 60-70 yards max with a SW. There is that 70-95 yard shot that requires the backswing to be shorter. When I try to make that swing the club feels like it's parallel to the ground. When the club feels like that it doesn't produce good shots. Maybe it really is just a confidence thing.

I tried many times to hit that shot. If I do make good contact, it either comes out much lower than the 95 yard shot, and typically pulls left. Or, the shot ends up being a chunk.

I'll keep at it. Maybe its just getting use to swinging the club shorter.

[GolfLug]

@saevel25, maybe try a no wrist hinge swing for the 3/4 wedge? Basically have a slight lean in the shaft at set up but don't hinge. Let the arm/chest unit control the arc back and forth. Long term it may not be the best (and look a little silly) but in the short term it may help reduce 'bottom of the arc' confusion by providing a larger shallow range. It might let you come through impact with a bit more assurance and zip.