Jamo's Blog on TheSandTrap

[EightBlue]

what is your putter loft now? most people don't have enough loft on their putter.

re: wedges, i'm a big fan of vokey for consistency

[jamo]

My putter loft is the standard 4* which doesn't seem to be a problem, the toe is just sticking way up. I like the length (plus it's easier to bend the lie than to cut it down, and i just cringe at the thought of seeing my Scotty being cut), and i like my hand position, just the lie angle is too upright.

As for the Vokeys, i have a sand wedge that i love, and before i had the Mizuno LW that i have now, i had a Nike that i loved more than any wedge i've ever had (plus, i got it for $25), and the Mizuno was the closest thing i could find to the Nike. If i have a job, and thus money, in the spring, i will definitely look at the new Vokeys.

[jamo]

With my car in the shop, I haven't played in a week or two, so i'm getting kind or antsy. Here is a list of some courses i would like to play in my life time which, hopefully, is not even close to over, so i have a lot of time. I know some are private, but i can dream, can't I?

- TPC Sawgrass- It's always my favorite course to play in the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR video games. I want to play #17, and videotape it if possible! I've heard it is pretty easy unless you play it under TOUR conditions.
- Bethpage Black- For 4 years i lived about 30 minutes away, but i wasn't good, or old enough, to play. I've driver by dozens of times since, but i've never been able to play. Sometime after college i will sleep in my car in line in the parking lot to get a tee time. Well, maybe i'll rent a car...
- Pinehurst #2- My favorite course in the Greater Boston area is a crappy little muni called George Wright golf course. It's designed by Donald Ross, as is Pinehurst, so i'd love to play his masterpiece.
- Pebble Beach/ Spy Glass Hills- Who wouldn't want to play one of the most expensive public courses in America?
- Riviera Country Club- One of the coolest looking golf courses i see them play on TOUR, i want to play through Hogan's Ally.
- Southern Hills/ Oakland Hills/ Oakmont- All very hard courses, i can never keep them straight. Southern is probably the one i want to play the most.
- TPC Scottsdale- I wonder if they keep the stands up around #16 all year long? I've only played 1 desert course in my life, and TPC seems like a really good one.
- TPC Blue Monster at Doral- It's the Blue Monster, enough said. #18 looks immaculate.
- Harbor Town- Awesome views of the ocean/bay/sea, plus it's a Nicklaus.
- Carnoustie- I want to play the 18th better than Van De Velde, or Paddy, for that matter. (or Sergio)
- St. Andrews- The birthplace of golf, not overly long, the road hole, what's not to love?
- Coeur d'Alene- If you've never heard of it, play Tiger Woods 05, stat. It has a green that you have to take a boat to. Awesome.
- East Lake- Looks like a neat course in TV, and it is really easy in video games, haha.
- The International- One of the most difficult courses in the world, and it is in MA. Not to mention they have a par 6, though it wouldn't be the first i've ever played.
- Augusta National- Bobby Jones's child, Rae's Creek, and laying up to every par 5. It would be an adventurous round, though all of these New England falls might bode well for hitting out of the pine-straw.
-Cypress Point- I've heard that it might be the hardest and best looking course on Monterey Peninsula. But, it's ultra-private.
- Rolling Oaks golf course- It's not famous, but it is where i learned to play golf on the putting green with my father when i was a kid. I lived 5 min away for 4 years but never played (i was 6). I have sledded down the hills though...

I'm sure i missed some, but there they are, my favorite golf courses that i have yet to play.

[Boyder]

As many in Scotland as I can play, particularly St. Andrews and Kilmarnok (Barassie) Golf Club (near the Home of my ancestors).

[EightBlue]

great concept. i will likely post one of my own.

definitely bring your game to harbortown; one of the hardest golf courses i've ever played.

[jamo]

I still haven't been able to play in a while (quick car update for those who read the last blog post, i got it back friday after getting a new transmission, i filled up on gas, started it up yesterday, and the whole engine is shaking. It's a problem that happened in October, and the dealer replaced a bunch of plugs, coils, ignition, etc... So i dropped it off today, and those parts they repaired should still be under warranty. And to top it all off, after i got it back from the transmission guys, i realized my steering was misaligned , so i intended to bring it back there tomorrow (they're closed on the weekends), but now i don't think i will be able to prove it was their fault, so i will likely have to pay for that. But, i digress), so here are some theories i have on the short game.

I'm a bad putter, and i have been all my life. I've steadily improved my putting as the rest of my game has improved, and it rarely hurts me, it just never helps me. I've tried mallet putters and blades, belly putters and extra short putters, but i've decided to stick to the normal length for some continuity. I've been working on my mechanics this winter, and i know i have made some improvement. I also just got my putter bent, and i can already tell it's going to help. I'm working on controlling the stroke mostly with my shoulders, rather then my prior stroke where my forearms would take over. The feeling is great on long putts, but i've yet to really make it work with short putts. I average about 1.85 putts per hole, so there is some real room for improvement.

My chipping and pitching are above average, but certainly have some room for improvements. I hit a lot of phenomenal chips and pitches, but i also hit a lot of really crappy ones. My stats look sort of bad for scrambling, but most of it is because of my lackluster putting. I hit all of my short game shots with my 60* LW, even sand shots. From the sand, i pick a spot about an inch behind the ball, and just swing for it. I make sure to follow through, to me that is really the key. When i need to hit it over a sand trap or a tree, my go to shot is the flop shot. The driving range where i have been a member the last few years has a good short game area, and a really good place to hit flops over a trap. When i need to cover a lot of green, i hit a low running draw chip. I put the ball way back, and make a sweeping draw swing to get the ball rolling fast. For my standard height pitch, i make a sort of mini S&T; swing. I keep my weight forward and modify the backswing a little to take the club straight back, which just eliminates a lot of errors that used to creep into my swing.

There is no set reasons why i hit one shot over another, it is really mostly based on what i am doing well, green speed, grass thickness, and proximity to the hole. The biggest thing, though, is that you need to be fearless. Tell yourself leaving the ball on the front collar of the green is just as bad as hitting it to the back fringe. The ball has make it to the hole to go in.

[bogeyhitter25]

No Augusta???

[jamo]

No Augusta???

That's one of the ones I forgot! There, put it in.

[jamo]

I went to Natick for the first time in about 2 and 1/2 weeks to play some golf, and the rust was immediately apparent. My swing was waaayyyy to long, and a lot of the things that i had been working on were deteriorating. I was pleased with my hip turn, and my left arm was nice and straight on the backswing, so that was good, but not much else in the positive direction. I've still got the shoulder angle to work on, though i think that i made some real progress on that today. I have a feeling that if i was playing a round today, that i would shoot about a 77, good, but not great. I was making good contact, but there would be absolutely no consistency. What frustrated me the most was my right elbow, it was just way to far away from my body. This seems to be a major culprit in how long my swing looks, but i could tell today i was also flat-out over swinging.

I did take a few videos but only face on drivers and my swing was so ugly i don't even want to put them up. So i won't....

Here are some still pics of the top of my backswing from oldest to newest. The separation is something that i've always had, apparently.
the order is by age:
1
2
3
4

Just realized the order is wrong. It is:
1
3
2
4

Oops

And focus on the angle between my right arm and my body.



Now here is Tiger Woods. (I know the angle is a little off)



I'm not too far off, but i do have a ways to go, with this and the shoulders. But, maybe it wasn't quite as bad of a session as i thought, i was, however, very frustrating. Especially putting...

Here is a video from this session. I think a possible problem may be the upper body lean towards the right?



P.S. Anybody listen the the "rapper" Lupe Fiasco? I just got some new songs by him, and they are going in a constant playlist in my car...

[jamo]

Quick update, i've been watching a lot of swings, and i think i may be exaggerating the right armpit problem. It is an issue, but a bigger issue is over-swinging. I need to improve my posture, which will improve my spine angle, which will improve my shoulders, which will improve my impact position. Slowly, of course, I realize this will take time.

[jamo]

I went to Natick again and worked on what was wrong last time with much better results. It felt like i made some real strides with my shoulders, and i also worked on enhancing my hip turn. I realized that i tend to underturn mostly with my long irons, and i start hitting it all over the face. When i make sure to make a full turn, i make much better contact. So thats about it. Here are some notes:

• Hip Turn, Hip Turn, Hip Turn
• Keep improving the shoulders
• Left arm started bending a little, gotta make sure that stops
• I've decided to shelve the right arm stuff for a while. If it becomes a problem, i'll work on it them, but for now, it really isn't bad. My hands fall beginning the downswing anyway.

Also, my camera's battery died after i took my first video and it was really crowded so it is only from my waist up, but here it is:

[jamo]

I've been watching some recent videos of mine, and it looks like i'm making progress on the shoulders. In the above video the farther shoulders looks above the closer one, thought some of that could be because of the low camera angle. I think in an effort to optimize the shoulders, my upper body is tilting (sorry S&T; guys, i can't think of a better word. Maybe leaning?) towards the target. When i don't do that, the swing shortens, and the right elbow becomes closer to the ribs. This swing is actually a pretty good example of that.

[jamo]

Went to Natick this morning, and my main focus was on the shoulders. I think i made some really good progress, especially with the irons, as exhibited (I hope/think) by the 6 Iron back view. You will see that my swing is very very long, and my right elbow separates a lot, but I decided to really focus on the shoulders. I figure my next few sessions will be focused on the same thing, and by then it will start to get ingrained into my swing. I didn't make quite the same step up with the driver, but that will come.

6 Iron back


6 Iron Head-on


Driver back

Note: The shoulders actually might be a little better than i first thought, the swing is just so long it breaks down.

Driver Head-on


I think a reason for the long swing might be that it looks like i am leaning distinctly forward at the top, also my head has actually moved forward, so that's something to watch.

Here is a still picture from the 6 iron video. It isn't quite at the top, but this is where i want the top to be. Here i hit pretty much all of the positions. The shoulders are angled, the right elbow is in a good position, and it isn't too long. The club is right on plane.


Now here is that swing compared to one from October.

[jamo]

This link sort of sums up what i've been working on.

[jamo]

I went to Natick again yesterday, and it was a fairly good day. I spent the whole time trying to shorten my swing. Making what felt like a 1/8 swing, and realizing that it was still past parallel (slight hyperbole). I made some progress, but it just felt weird. I did take a few videos, but i'm not going to put them up because I made a change at the end that felt like it was a big change, but I couldn't get any video of it because there were too many people by then. The swing felt good, but different, so I'll have to try it again next time and film it to see it's real merit. I'm going to try to get to Forekicks on Friday, but they close at 3 so it's going to be tough.

[jamo]

I went to Forekicks yesterday to get some practice where I could see a little where the ball was going. I was also working on some things, mostly a shorter swing and I was experimenting with weight forward. meh. I didn't like it. Contact was alright, no better than normally, but the club was constantly open or closed, and my impact positions was near identical, I was just taking a more awkward route to get there. As you will see with the following videos, my swing got much shorter. I have to keep doing some testing, but it could be a result of weight forward. I doubt it because I was focusing really hard on shortening my swing, but you never know. The shoulders were on the back-burner, but the my right elbow was in good positions all day, as shown on the video. What I didn't like was my finish. Terrible. My arms never got extended, and as a result I'm sure my power suffered. If you manage to stop it when the club is parallel to the ground over my head in the follow through, you can see how compact my body is, especially my arms. So I have some things to work on.

One more Note: I've been messing with my stance. Narrowing it a a bit and turning both of my feet in to the left. My right foot tends to fray out to the right, and my left foot tends to be perpendicular to the target but I want to open it a bit.

• Shoulders.
• Keep the swing short.
• Soon I need to try to work on my left arm at impact. If I can't replicate it in my swing fairly quickly, I'll wait until I can take a lesson in the summer.
• Improve the follow through. This I think is a result of the weight forward feeling that I was looking (successfully) to achieve.
• Hip turn, left arm, right elbow all good. Keep them that way.

For the videos, ignore my sister saying "vamos" or "go" at the beginning of every video. I need that tripod.

6 Iron Back


6 Iron Head-on


Driver Back


Driver Head-on

[RIduffer]

Nice work. Definitely looks like the club is well controlled at top of backswing, especially in clips 2 and 4.

[jamo]

I went to Forekicks again today, and was focused on 2 things, swing length and the follow-through. I think I really made a lot of progress on the follow-through, and I tested 2 different types. The first one I stood straight up after hitting the ball, like I normally do, and the second one I was leaning a little towards the ball, like a lot of people do. They second one felt a little better because I was a little more connected. Also, the swing stayed nice and short the whole day. I don't have any videos because my sister wouldn't come, but I'm close to getting a job, so I may get a tripod. I made a couple swings in an attempt to straighten my left arm at impact, to no avail. I also messed around with to different weight positions, one weight forward, and one where my weight was directly centered. There wasn't really much of a difference, but that is sort of what I expected off the mats, grass might be a different story.