Change Swing or Not

[marrsh28]

I'm a self-taught golfer that can shoot in the 80s when I'm playing well. Tee to green I'm pretty consistent but my chipping and putting need a lot of work. Recently, I went to the driving range and was hitting some balls when a pro approached me and asked if I wanted to look at my swing on video. I took a few swings with the pro watching and then we looked at my video. He found two major flaws in my swing. 1st, he noticed my head moved downwards during the backswing and was not steady. Second, he noticed that my downswing was overly steep and I was not dropping my hands into the slot. Despite the faults, I generally hit the ball pretty straight. My question is, should I try and fix these swing faults now, in the middle of the season, or wait and take a bunch of lessons during the winter? I'm worried that if I take lessons now it will be a rough summer because the pro recommended some pretty radical changes to my swing. Anybody have any input?

[saevel25]

i would work on the head moving down in the backswing, the slot is a subjective thing, but if its at the upper part of the slot then that is fine. His definition of the slot might be different, he might like a shallower swing plane. As long as it close don't mess with it if it works.

[nuck81]

If you hit pretty good why change unless you have tour aspirations but even those guys have faults in their swing. The key is getting your own swing, and then trusting it. To be honest if you work on your chipping and putting, you'll lose five to ten more strokes a round, which is more than you'll ever gain by changing your swing.

[marrsh28]

Nuck81. That's exactly what I'm thinking. This guy was trying to tell me that my game would radically improve if I made these changes. The thing is, I've always been a decent ball striker and can't imagine I get that much better with the changes he suggested. I think I'll spend my time on the practice green...

[nuck81]

They make money by giving lessons, so I see his motivation. But you won't gain much other than losing confidence and having too many swing thoughts. I've scaled back my range sessions lately and been spending several hours at the green a day. This weekend I dropped three more strokes off the back nine all because of my chipping.

I think I'll break 90 in the next month.....

[iacas]

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I've not met too many 12.0 handicappers who strike the ball solidly and lose ALL of their strokes on their short game.

You may be the exception that proves the rule, but if I were you I'd take a good hard look at how well you actually strike the ball relative to someone of a better handicap. If you're happy to keep striking the ball the way you do, I agree, don't get lessons. If you want to strike the ball better, take lessons if you trust what the guy has to say.

[kilbyman]

I think I'd get the lessons, for sure. Or at the least post a video here. And remember, the Golf Evolution academy has the Evolvr concept which is worth checking out. I'm with iacas... if you get your approach shots close to the pin, short game is minimized in importance.

[saevel25]

Being a 12 handicap, i bet you hit about 6 GIR per round. Thats 33%, Pro's are twice that amount, given they play on courses with slopes of 140+, i think pebble beach was at 148 or something like that for the US open. You can always improve your ball striking. If your messing up with your shortgame, then you are missing greens, ie ball striking.

But i do agree, find someone you are comfortable with as a pro.

[nuck81]

Short game is never minimized in importance. Who cares if you can make the green in two if you three putt? Who cares if you can drive within twenty yards if you pitch back and forth across the green three times? Who cares if you're 7 iron approach lands just on the fringe if you can't chip it closer than 15 foot? Who cares if you peg the pin when it's set up as a sucker flag and your ball rolls off the green when the good play was to pitch to the plateu?