My Swing (Golfingdad)

[David in FL]

:dance:

[cipher]

That is very cool Drew, congrats!

[CarlSpackler]

  Golfingdad said:

Nothing terribly fancy ... But I'm quite fond of it. ;)

Very nice! I would be too.

[boogielicious]

  Golfingdad said:

Thanks (everybody, not just Erik ;))!!

I was very pleased with how everything LSW related worked out.  I hit many more drivers than my playing partners and than I probably would have previously.   I don't have shot zones officially plotted yet, but I have enough of a general idea that I knew what I wanted to do on every hole and was pretty confident with all of my choices.  I made several physical errors (which is to be expected) but I only made one silly strategy mistake:  Going at a right pin from 100 yards, pushing it into the short-side bunker and bogeying after a perfect drive.

One thing regarding my swing that stands out right now is that I'm missing all fairways to the left.  I hit one slight straight push yesterday (with driver) and one slight push fade in my previous round (3 wood, same course, different hole) but otherwise every missed fairway over those two rounds (11 of them) was a miss left.

Not sure if this is enough to signify a trend, but if it is, I'm happy with that.  Seems like a huge step forward for me to be always missing the same direction.

Still not "advancing" as far as Evolvr goes ... My last lesson from Stephan was the same as the previous - oh I don't know ... infinity lessons?? - but while playing, as long as I'm thinking "belt buckle to sky," things are clicking.

Again with the beer Drew?  Do you have a problem we should know about?

[Ernest Jones]

Right on GDaddy!!!! That is the Bee's Knees!

[Golfingdad]

Negatives from my tournament today:

• Put two in the water on the second hole, a par 3, and carded a 7.
• Missed putts of 1', 3', 4', 5', 8', and one or two others inside of ten feet.
• Lost a ball off a tree on my last hole - no clue where it deflected to, no idea where to even start looking - and carded a double bogey.

However, I'm more about the positives.  Those were:

• Despite a quad, a double, and 35 putts, I still shot an 83 and finished in 4th place.
• Drove the ball pretty well, and am really enjoying applying LSW techniques.  Quick example; continuously hitting driver on holes with narrow fairways.  While watching my playing partners thread the needle between the fairway bunkers, I was just blasting it over the bunkers.

My driver misses are becoming a lot less dramatic.  My next 18 holes is likely at our TST outing, so hopefully I can stay sharp until then.

[iacas]

  Golfingdad said:

Negatives from my tournament today:

Missed putts of 1'

You should spend a lot of time practicing those one-foot putts.

[Ernest Jones]

  iacas said:

You should spend a lot of time practicing those one-foot putts. ;-)

Totally, but he should practice putting them with an 8' length of lead pipe. He'll lay down more myelin that way and build up muscle memory faster.

[Golfingdad]

  iacas said:

You should spend a lot of time practicing those one-foot putts.

Yes, I definitely recall reading something about this recently.  Or was it the exact opposite??

It's funny because the only other time I've missed a putt that short in recent memory was at this course in this tournament last year.  In both cases I could say that "rushing" or being a little too "nonchalant" played at least some role, but man alive ... one foot ?!?!?!?!?  This one didn't even touch the hole!!

And despite all of my debacles I still had a chance.  Oh well ... something something candy and nuts ...

[mdl]

Wait, so you carded an 83 with a two hazard quad and a lost ball double and 35 putts.  You didn't mention any three-putts in your putting woes.  That means you lost 5 strokes on 16 holes with only one one-putt.  With 7 putts inside 10' that you missed, that means you put at least 2 full length approaches inside 10', and probably more like 1 inside 5' and 2 others between 5-10'!?  Plus 11 GIR?  That sounds like an awesome ball striking day to me!

And speaking of LSW techniques, I really do need to order the book...

[Golfingdad]

  mdl said:

Wait, so you carded an 83 with a two hazard quad and a lost ball double and 35 putts.  You didn't mention any three-putts in your putting woes.  That means you lost 5 strokes on 16 holes with only one one-putt.  With 7 putts inside 10' that you missed, that means you put at least 2 full length approaches inside 10', and probably more like 1 inside 5' and 2 others between 5-10'!?  Plus 11 GIR?  That sounds like an awesome ball striking day to me!

And speaking of LSW techniques, I really do need to order the book...

With the information I gave you, you weren't far off. I didn't mention any 3-putts but I did have 3 of them.  Two due to bad distance control on the first (this course has crazy tiered greens on about half of the holes and I left two putts woefully short going up a tier) and the third was the missed one-footer.  So, in total it was 35 putts, 3 3-putts, 4 one-putts, and 10 GIR.  Yes, the ball striking has been pretty improved for the last several weeks.

It's funny because I have enough experience (and confidence right now) to not have gotten too dejected by the quad.  It happened on the second hole, 155 yard par 3 to what is, effectively, an island green.  Very poor push with a 9 iron (downwind) into one of the beautiful waterfalls.  My drop in the drop zone found its way into a small, sand filled divot and I let myself get psyched out and chunked it into the water again.  Hit it on, two putt, 7.  But I took a deep breath, told myself that I can relax now and play like I'm capable and I'll be fine.  Hit the ball good the entire rest of the day but over the course of the following 6 holes I:  3 putted, missed 4' birdie putt, 3 putted (the one footer), missed a 12 footer for par by one revolution after hitting a bump, missed a 3 footer for par, missed a 5 footer for par.  Had another 3 putt later on, and was close on a couple of birdie tries.  If putts were falling I could have still won, even with the quad and double!  (Winner shot 78)

My main takeaway, though, is that other than the one 9-iron, I struck the ball pretty decent all day.  And I played smart all day.  I believe that I attempted the correct shot (accept maybe the DZ shot out of the divot) every time.  Didn't execute them all perfectly, but made the right decisions, and I think that's why I still shot a halfway decent score.  If I could just have that one 9-iron back, then I would have searched a heck of a lot harder for my mystery ball on the last hole, and finished right up there. :)

[mdl]

  Golfingdad said:

It's funny because I have enough experience (and confidence right now) to not have gotten too dejected by the quad.

Yeah it's fun when you've got your attitude down and are hitting the ball well enough that even total scores you don't love feel like good or at least promising rounds (instead of like you're never going to learn to play well and did well to grind out your decent score with poor ball striking).  My only round since the baby was like that actually.  Will spare the details given it's your thread, but I hit +8 on the first 5 holes with no warm up then carded an 87 and felt a LOT better about the last 13 holes than +7 over 13 holes could feel like, both decision and execution wise.

It's become something I bring up here on threads about mental game.  Control your attitude, be confident and consistent in your decisions and routine, and then focus on the positives.  Maybe I hit an ugly duck hook OB, then put up a 6 on a tough par 4 with a solid drive, a 6i approach to 20', and a two-putt with a gimme.  That's a great hole – two great shots and solid putting – after one crappy shot.  I know everyone says focus on the current shot only, but this even helps me round to round.  If I have a string of rounds with disappointing scores, if I stew on that and then start my next round with some bad holes I might lose my mental game for the whole round.  If I left my last round thinking about the good shots and being encouraged by the good signs in my swing and approach, I'm much more likely to maintain a good mental game for the next round as well.

[Golfingdad]

My first attempt at creating a shot zone:

Just looking to see if ya'll think I drew the correct oval, location and size??

[Lihu]

  Golfingdad said:

My first attempt at creating a shot zone:

Just looking to see if ya'll think I drew the correct oval, location and size??

What are the two outliers? Were they what you deem to be usable shots? Also, were they a pull and a fade?

What did you use to take the data?

Aside from my questions, it looks like the plot fits the chart.

[billchao]

  Golfingdad said:

My first attempt at creating a shot zone: [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/102388/] [/URL] Just looking to see if ya'll think I drew the correct oval, location and size??

Looks good to me. I'm curious, where was the x?

[Golfingdad]

  Lihu said:

What are the two outliers? Were they what you deem to be usable shots? Also, were they a pull and a fade? What did you use to take the data? Aside from my questions, it looks like the plot fits the chart.

[quote name="billchao" url="/t/60622/my-swing-golfingdad/390#post_1024169"] Looks good to me. I'm curious, where was the x?[/quote]I will repost later with the x and the scale as well. This was done very crudely ... With me just watching the ball as it lands and guesstimating it's coordinates.

[Lihu]

  Golfingdad said:

I will repost later with the x and the scale as well. This was done very crudely ... With me just watching the ball as it lands and guesstimating it's coordinates.

Thanks, I was just wondering, because I have no idea how I'm really going to do it.

I might need to get a little creative. Such as making a trip to RD in Irvine to get my coordinates on the hitting bays? I bring in one club at a time and "test" out other clubs while there? Another alternative is to pay for the $19 fitting at Golfsmith and spend an hour or so getting my shots mapped? One more possibility might be to hit balls on the course when it is not so busy, and use a rangefinder to map out the distances.

Let me know whatever you decide to do, I might just need to mirror your actions.

[mdl]

Wait.  Is getting an accurate scatter plot with multiple clubs and a large-ish sample size a requirement for implementing LSW approaches?!