Plan for the Future - Am I nuts or not?

[mmoan2]

All,

Question for anyone who cares to answer...

I purchased a Casio ZR200 to start filming my swing. From what I've read on here it's not a top flite camera, but pretty good. For $130 on craigslist I'm happy!

I want to set a target goal of two months to try and work on the little things that have always foiled my swing. I have an idea that I am going to bury everything longer than a 6 iron in a pit in my backyard for a month and only play the two par-3 courses near me where the longest hole is 185. Plus, they're $9 for 9 holes with unlimited replay. I can play 27-36 holes in 3-4 hours for $9. Lots of wedges and short irons, short game improvement, and putting. I want to basically get much better with these clubs and then pull out the longer sticks after a month or so of "camera-aided short club boot camp," so by April I can really hope for some improvements like I haven't seen in a while.

My question - does this plan make any sense, or would I just do better to continue working on my full swing with everything in the bag? Does better consistency with the short clubs translate to the longer guys, or not?

Thanks, all. I hope to have a "member swing" clip up soon that you can actually see. I'll do my best to add constructive criticism to everyone else's swings.

[Golfingdad]

If it was me in your position, I would probably just spend some more time working on the shorter clubs and more time playing that par 3 course (awesome deal, by the way!) instead of full courses, but I would definitely advise against locking up all of the longer clubs and working ONLY on the shorter clubs during that time.

The simple answer being that the shorter clubs are just easier to hit.  I would worry that you could actually play quite well with the shorter clubs while potentially, unknowingly, grooving a flaw into your swing that is masked by the shorter, easy clubs.  I'd continue to work on the longer clubs at least a little bit, just as a check/balance if you will, to make sure that any improvements I'm making are not going to set me back later.

Other than that, I think taking advantage of the opportunity to work on your approach and short game like that is a fantastic idea.

Good luck!

[dkling8]

I'd say that around 75% of my full swings on the range are with 6i-SW, because I agree that if I'm having trouble with short irons, I probably won't hit long irons/woods very well.

But, hitting a driver for 5 minutes and then returning back to a PW gives me a totally different feeling from when I was hitting the PW just a few minutes earlier. Sometimes I feel like hitting longer clubs changes some things about my swing for the better (especially tempo), and it would hurt me overall to put them away for a month.

I definitely agree with GD for the most part, except it might be good to mix in a regular length course as well. Here's an idea for playing a regular length course: you could always focus on hitting smooth 3W and hybrids off the tee, and play from the tees that puts you 6iron and in on most approach shots.

[mmoan2]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

If it was me in your position, I would probably just spend some more time working on the shorter clubs and more time playing that par 3 course (awesome deal, by the way!) instead of full courses, but I would definitely advise against locking up all of the longer clubs and working ONLY on the shorter clubs during that time.

The simple answer being that the shorter clubs are just easier to hit.  I would worry that you could actually play quite well with the shorter clubs while potentially, unknowingly, grooving a flaw into your swing that is masked by the shorter, easy clubs.  I'd continue to work on the longer clubs at least a little bit, just as a check/balance if you will, to make sure that any improvements I'm making are not going to set me back later.

Other than that, I think taking advantage of the opportunity to work on your approach and short game like that is a fantastic idea.

Good luck!

Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. I guess I was hoping that Jason Dufner would miraculously log on and say "Hey, that's what I did in college and look where I am now!" I think greatly improving a 6-iron swing fundamentally would improve my 4-iron swing as well, but coming to the 3-hybrid I use, the 3-wood and driver it would probably serve me well to at least work on them with the camera a little bit and hit them at the range every week. Thanks for the input!

[mmoan2]

Originally Posted by dkling8

I'd say that around 75% of my full swings on the range are with 6i-SW, because I agree that if I'm having trouble with short irons, I probably won't hit long irons/woods very well.

But, hitting a driver for 5 minutes and then returning back to a PW gives me a totally different feeling from when I was hitting the PW just a few minutes earlier. Sometimes I feel like hitting longer clubs changes some things about my swing for the better (especially tempo), and it would hurt me overall to put them away for a month.

I definitely agree with GD for the most part, except it might be good to mix in a regular length course as well. Here's an idea for playing a regular length course: you could always focus on hitting smooth 3W and hybrids off the tee, and play from the tees that puts you 6iron and in on most approach shots.

Good idea with the full course suggestion. Because my 3-wood is jacked up, I'll probably just play driver and not allow myself to hit anything longer than 6-iron even if I'm in the woods 240 away. I'll have to lay up and try to scramble for my life. I'm not trying to impress anyone with my scores right now, only get better. I hear you about the tempo thing, too. Cheers!