My Swing (Unforgiven93)

[Unforgiven93]

Thanks.  I really think what you said helped.  I have three tournaments left, hopefully I'll win one :D

[Unforgiven93]

It's been over a year and I'm back!  I'm playing the best golf of my life right now by far, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.  I have a new video, it has my driver from two angles, normal speed and slow mo, and my 7 iron from two angles normal speed and slow mo.

One thing I've noticed with my swing is after I hit the ball, I rock onto the left side of my left foot.  I know this probably isn't good, and it is probably caused by the sway in my swing.. so I worked on it a little.  The first swing of each shot in the video is normal, the second is with me trying to calm that foot down.   I noticed when I kept it steady the ball seemed to want to fade.

I've also noticed my right foot comes off the ground to release my hips way early, I don't know if that is a problem or not.  No one has ever commented on either of these two things I have mentioned, so any input would be appreciated.

I'm just looking for any thoughts really of what you guys think could improve my swing, thanks!

Sorry ahead of time for the long pauses in the slow mo videos between shots, couldn't edit them out.

I would say my current "miss" is a slight fade with irons, and the same with my driver, although on occasion I would call it more of a slice with the driver.

[nevrino]

Originally Posted by Unforgiven93

I've also noticed my right foot comes off the ground to release my hips way early, I don't know if that is a problem or not.  No one has ever commented on either of these two things I have mentioned, so any input would be appreciated.

Read the whole thread and was a bit surprised about this, compare the pics below with this thread http://thesandtrap.com/t/53724/the-ps-positions-or-as-alignments-in-the-golf-swing

and you will see that:

• Right leg is not extending enough at the backswing, you could also say hipturn in the backswing is not enough.
• Right leg gets to bent in the downswing.
• Left leg gets to extended in the downswing, the flex in it should remain until impact.

(The pics are not in perfect positions as I was just quickly printscreening from youtube to paint.)

[Unforgiven93]

My swing isn't hugely different than in the later videos in this thread nowadays, but it is a little better.  Anyway, not why I'm posting... I'm playing extremely well right now.

The differentials of my last 8 rounds: +1.1, +3.6, +1.9, +1.7, 1.1, 1.1, +1.9, +3.3.

Playing the best golf of my life by a decent amount... so my question is, should I mess with my swing? There are a few noticeably wrong things that I can work to fix, but I have big tournaments coming up and I don't want to screw up my swing.  I know it isn't perfect, but it is getting the job done right now.

[Unforgiven93]

Because of my "I hate lessons" post, I'm going to start posting here again a little, as was suggested.  I'm playing well right now... Done with tournaments for the summer sadly.

If I could hit my driver straight all the time, I think I would average around or even below 70.  Everything else is that good right now.  It is the errant drives that cost me shots.  With that being said, here are a couple driver swing videos from within the last month.  I need consistency!

I'm playing an SLDR 10.5 cranked up to 12 degrees with a stock X flex shaft.

[Lihu]

Nice swing.

[SavvySwede]

Very nice swing.

You could try pre-setting the hips a bit forward at address and the grip looks a bit strong to me but with the scores you're shooting who I am to tell you what to do?

[Unforgiven93]

Nice swing.

Lol, thanks both of you. 8 years in the making. Savvy, it's not perfect, that's why I'm looking for advice. I want to be better. So anything you can give me to try, I will appreciate. Can you show me what you mean by presetting the hips?

[SavvySwede]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Nice swing.

Lol, thanks both of you. 8 years in the making. Savvy, it's not perfect, that's why I'm looking for advice. I want to be better. So anything you can give me to try, I will appreciate.

Can you show me what you mean by presetting the hips?

Basically just shifting the left hip toward the target a little bit which creates a little more tilt at address. I found this pic online that is a good representation.

[Unforgiven93]

Basically just shifting the left hip toward the target a little bit which creates a little more tilt at address. I found this pic online that is a good representation. [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/129700/] [/URL]

Ah okay, that is what I assumed, just making sure. I'll try it out, mine do look a little off.

[Unforgiven93]

Basically just shifting the left hip toward the target a little bit which creates a little more tilt at address. I found this pic online that is a good representation. [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/129700/] [/URL]

Felt good. Going to keep doing it. I think it will help me keep my head steady and behind the ball through impact. So this isn't the place to post this, but I don't want to start a new thread... I'm thinking about following a dream of at least being competitive on mini tours. If I'm decently successful there then who knows. If I don't do it right after college I probably won't have a chance. I've played golf for 8 years, only taken it seriously since around the time I made this "my swing" thread (4 years). Currently in school for mechanical engineering and minoring in physics, so I don't get hardly any time to play during the school year... Every summer, I start at about a 3 or a 4 handicap, and in about 2.5 months I get down to an 80% tournament score based handicap around where I am now (last summer I got to +1.8, this summer I've played less but I'm to +1.6 right now). I've never had the opportunity to play for more than about 4 months straight. I'm thinking about moving somewhere south after I graduate, and giving myself 1 year of golf being my full time job. Just to see if it is even possible. I've never played very much compared to the good players and I will always regret it if I don't figure out how good I could have been. I'm concerned that I don't have the ability to go really low like other people though. You ask any normal +1.6 and they will tell you they have shot 63 or something. I've never had the knack for going really low. My best round still is -5 on an easy course, -4 twice in tournaments on decently tough courses. I tend to shoot decent scores on hard courses (72-75) that end up being scratch because of such a high course rating. But rarely super low. I hope that will come with time... I'm getting better at going low though, slowly. I've had a -4 and -3 in tournaments this summer, and probably 3 around that number not in tournaments. I'm mostly talking to myself here, trying to get up the courage to actually try this. Literally everyone I ask tells me I should. It will cost me a lot of money, but, like I said earlier, if I don't do it now I'll probably never get a chance. If you have any thoughts feel free to weigh in.

[SavvySwede]

Glad to hear it was helpful. If you can take a year or so to try the mini-tours, I'd say you should definitely give it a chance. Even if you fail you'll come out of it with some great stories you can tell for the rest of your life.

[Unforgiven93]

Glad to hear it was helpful. If you can take a year or so to try the mini-tours, I'd say you should definitely give it a chance. Even if you fail you'll come out of it with some great stories you can tell for the rest of your life.

That's exactly how I feel. I know the guys even on mini tours are incredible and I may not succeed at all. But I'm going to graduate with a great degree from a great school with a good GPA, so I should be able to take a year off after college and still get a job. I'm just not a risk taker (off the golf course that is :P) and this is a big risk.

[ZappyAd]

Can't help you with determining if it's a good idea or not but one thing that does seem like a good idea is to have a plan. Reading Pete's thread (nosevi) it is good to get a realistic idea of the level you would need to achieve and a strategy for getting to that level from where you are now. You should be able to do that without committing to anything and better understand if a year is enough time to give it a realistic chance of making it happen.

[Unforgiven93]

Can't help you with determining if it's a good idea or not but one thing that does seem like a good idea is to have a plan. Reading Pete's thread (nosevi) it is good to get a realistic idea of the level you would need to achieve and a strategy for getting to that level from where you are now. You should be able to do that without committing to anything and better understand if a year is enough time to give it a realistic chance of making it happen.

Why can't you help me decide if it is a good idea or not? If you were in my position, what would you do? Or if you were giving advice to your friend what would you say? The plan part is a good point. I probably get back to +2 so quickly every summer because I've been there before. Taking it to the next level would probably take a lot longer and a lot more strategy. I've never had any kind of practice plan or anything before. I've always just hit balls, practiced chipping and putting, and played. I don't do drills, I don't practice a lot of new things, just repeat old things. I still have a year and a half left of school, so I have a lot of time to figure this all out.

[mvmac]

Yeah I agree you could get your hips bumped forward a few more inches.

With the swing I'd like to see you turn your left shoulder and left hip more "down and across".

Your shoulders turn a little shallow...

Which leads you to be somewhat under-rotated on the backswing and will create some complications on the downswing, especially with the longer clubs.

So here's what I recommend.

- Bump the hips a little forward at address.

- On the backswing allow the left knee to gain flex and move inward. Same thing with the left shoulder, down and in. Keep that torso moving.

Good drill for you. Load the right arm from 1-2 then make a big turn. "Carry" the arms to the top of the backswing using the pivot.

[Unforgiven93]

Mvmac, thanks for all of that. I appreciate it. I glad I finally have some stuff to work on. I've really just been trying to improve some basic things for the last few years, it'll be nice to try some new stuff for once.

[Unforgiven93]

These are my summer results from tournaments.  10 tournament rounds, average yardage 6961, average course rating 73.94, average slope 142.8.

Tourney finishes: 1st (even par 144), 3rd (-3 69), T19 (+3, 75), T30 (+9, 73-77-73-74), and a MC.

	par 3	par 4	par5	total score
holes played	40	100	40	180
eagle	0	0	2
birdie	6	14	13
par	24	55	17
bogey	8	26	8
dbogey	1	5	0
tbogey	1	0	0
to par	+7	+22	-9	20
average	3.175	4.22	4.775	74

	percentages
	par 3	par 4	par 5
holes played	40
eagle	0%	0%	5%
birdie	15%	14%	33%
par	60%	55%	43%
bogey	20%	26%	20%
dbogey	3%	5%	0%
tbogey	3%	0%	0%

Really need to work on my par 4 scoring.  It is mostly off the tee that causes me to make bad scores.  If I could hit the fairway I think I would average under par, as I said earlier.