The good, the bad, the ugly

[Leftygolfer]

Well the season has started for me. I played Friday the 19th and Sat the 20th. Had a really good time both days but play was inconsistant to say the least. Here are the stats for the two days combined. Shot a sweet 90 and 89. Hit a total of 9 greens, 7 fairways, around 34 putts a round. It was pretty ugly, hit a couple OB on Friday and lost a ball on Sat. Just really wild. What is going on?? I have some ideas: 1) My alignment is totally screwed up. 2) I am not swinging the same tempo 3) I am using my wrists the wrong way and hitting the ball with severely closed or open face and hitting wild shots. All three of those things combined is not good.

I actually started off Saturday very well. I hit good shot after good shot until the 7th and then I hit a wild shot and lost a ball, made a 7, then it was a stretch of bad. I was 3 over through 6 including a 3 putt and the hardest hole on the course. I warmed up great, ball flight and contact was good, felt in control and confident. I think I lost focus on alignment and it got bad. I used to play a big pull draw and I am moving to a push draw for control and my eyes and brain are telling me I am practically looking at the target but the reality I am square. I am just going to have to focus on it and train my eyes. I think next time I play I am going to drop a club for alignment on every shot to work on retraining my eyes. I will deam it a practice round. It is hard and I am not sure why. It seems like it should be the easiest thing in golf. For me it is one of the hardest.

Now the good. I like my move right now when I don't swing like an @@@@. I hit some really high quality shots particularly with my wedges. I hit a number close after bad tee shots to give myself good looks at par. Another positive is I know I can fix this. It is still only march, going through swing changes, didn't make a putt, it is ok to play bad.

I really need a camera. I have only worked off feel my whole life and I'd like to see what I am doing. But I can't do it until I sell some old clubs and other stuff I don't use. I am also going to re-read the stack and tilt book. When I first read it I was striking the ball great. Now something has changed.

I am still confident I am going to have the best form of my life this year. I just have to work at it hard and understand better what I do and why I do it. If it was easy they wouldn't call it golf.

[iacas]

Some quick thoughts...

The camera - a Casio FC-100 is $200 and does 210 FPS at 480 x 360. Won't have to sell much to get that.

Put a stick in the ground 20 yards out on the target line and one along your foot line. The one down-range will probably feel really far right or the one on your feet really far left. Either way, do them in coordination with each other and it'll speed up your feel for what's square. (Err, reverse those as a lefty, duh.)

Something's off - a lot of people who just read the book and/or watch the DVDs overdo some things. A lot will side tilt too much (or too fast)... watch out for some of those things. Ease up on the S&T stuff you might be doing - you may be overdoing some things now.

[Leftygolfer]

Thanks for the tip Erik. I try to use the tiger/jack alignment thing when I play and when I pick a point my brain is saying NO NO NO as I step up to hit. That will help me see where I am supposed to aim. I agree I might be over doing it. I really think the problem is my alignment and if I solve that it will be better. With my wedges and shorter clubs square alignment feels good and the results are good. Off the tee it is odd feeling and look. It is hard to swing confidently with that feeling.