My Swing (Lucius Wooding)

[LuciusWooding]

I've been Playing Golf for: 2 years as of this May. I'm 22 years of age and not part of a college team or any league or anything. No lessons thus far.

My current handicap index or average score is: I could usually manage around bogey golf and make a few pars, but I think I'm about to cut a lot of strokes this season, just haven't been able to play yet.

My typical ball flight is: I've been trying to hit a low draw, but this season I've changed to a high pull fade with just about every club, as it's given me consistency and power.

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: I've been catching the ball on the toe on my bad swings, resulting in pulls. I also tend to make errors with ball position and setup with shorter clubs as I'm still working on finding the ideal place to play from.

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Videos:

*I just rotated them both, they'll be viewable at about 12:15.

PW, 3 iron, driver DTL:

PW, 5 iron, driver FO:

In all the videos, I'm about 4-5 stalls to the right of the yellow yardage markers which mark the center of the range. I'm aiming down the left somewhat as if the signs are the left fairway, hitting a pull fade. The ideal spot to land is about my average distance away, around 10-30 feet to the right of the signs. Landing in line with the signs would be a straight pull and I'm about 25 feet to the right of the signs. Since the range uses limited flight balls, slight headwind and I'm in about 40 degree weather, I'm carrying my driver only 240-250 at this range (in the first few trees) and the irons lose from 20 to 30 yards from average. I'm getting about 6-7 seconds of hangtime with most shots with the range balls with lots of height. Everything was a controlled swing, around 85 percent or so and what I'd hit on the course. I've been able to hit this shape from shot #1 each time I've gone back to practice, suggesting it's consistent for me.

Not the best camera, but you can see the flight decently on the DTL vids, as well as the yardage markers stretching out. My friend is not quite the steadiest hand either.

-I'm hitting up (and to the left) on the driver aggressively, pointing my stance a fair bit left with the ball really far forward. I can't hit consistently any other way atm, but I feel confident the driver will cut back comfortably. This trajectory is pretty flat and center contact, but if I hit higher on the face it will go a bit too high. 45 inches is treating me pretty well so far, I might not cut it down.

-I'm hitting my wedges and short irons a bit poorly here, given a combination of poor setup and not being diligent with my swing thoughts. I see a slight flip in the PW FO video, but the shot would fly 125ish (flew 110 in bad conditions) with high launch and spin under normal conditions. I didn't set it far enough from my body, didn't focus on the sweet spot at setup, and set it too far forward. FO shot flew 110 with the correct shape but high, DTL flew a bit farther but landed up against the signs 20 feet left of my perfect target, a slight pull. Neither shot was a birdie, exactly, but they were both playable and solid hits so I included them.

-I'm happy with my driver and long irons, I got my driver and 3i on my first take, hit a bit of a thin 5i before this one. The driver  top of backswing position in FO is just about textbook by my regard, as is the impact. The 3i and both drivers all landed within 3 yards of my ideal line, though they look a bit left in the video. Can't judge what distances I was getting, but the flight was great and I was hitting it consistently.

-My backswing goes off a bit too far inside, which I used to do a lot more honestly. I still do it to some degree here, but I'm much more on plane on the downswing. A big part of this is my ball position being maybe a bit close to me, but I might need to draw it if I moved the ball farther out and back.

-Bit of a short follow through on everything, my thought right now is to hold off the face and turn my body fully. Too much more followthrough makes me think wristy on the backswing and gets me way out of rhythm. My old backswing was past parallel and without the tight body rotation, and I pulled my eyes off the ball. Now I use my vision to set my limits on my backswing, resulting in better contact.

-I know I need a haircut. I keep shaking my head after the shot because it's in my eyes and I can't pick up the ball very well... I'm not telling it to get to the right or anything like that. At least it's not an IER cap. :P

I said I'd post if Tuffluck did, but since Tuffluck hasn't posted his, I didn't include older swings since I want this to actually help me rather than amuse others. Any feedback is welcome.

[logman]

Alright LW!!, Good speed, good plane, The only thing I can see is you look a bit timid on the ball. Keep it going !

[Stretch]

Some great potential there!

Do you mind rehosting the videos on YouTube please, so I can pull them into Analyzr to biggify and slow down a bit?

[LuciusWooding]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Some great potential there!

Do you mind rehosting the videos on YouTube please, so I can pull them into Analyzr to biggify and slow down a bit?

I'd prefer not to upload them onto Youtube, but I'd be happy to send or post the original (not rotated) vids at full resolution in AVI format if it's possible, that's part of the quality loss since I had to rotate them. Unfortunately Google is evil and I'd also rather not have my friends who don't play golf get bombarded with this video.

Yeah, the version embedded here looks like I shot it with a 90's cell phone, but the version hosted on Vimeo is OK. It lets you see the ball flight on the DTL videos, as well as a not awful framerate. The camera isn't great anyway, so I doubt it'd look much better.

Would the download link in Vimeo work for you, or are MOV files no good with your software or it only lets you DL the compressed version? It may have not been enabled for others by default, I just set it to allow downloads.

If there's no other option I'd rather upload to Youtube than limit the help I can get. I seem to only be able to post videos under 5 seconds as .zips...

[Stretch]

Understood. No worries. I'll PM you.

[Stretch]

OK, not going for a coherent narrative here, just want to highlight a few things you may want to think about.

First, the good. You have terrific extension in your downswing -- you tuck your hips up underneath you and post onto the front leg beautifully, getting your hands through really high. It's almost Seve-esque and truly unusual to see in a double digit handicap. A lot of other good things have to be happening beforehand for you to look like this!

Second, with the recognition that that camera is not fixed and jumps around a fair bit, you appear to keep a nice steady head and to have solid impact alignments, which together would suggest to me that you're capable of playing well below your current index.

Now for a few cavils.

Your club face is quite shut at the top, which is probably a result of your grip and wrist conditions, neither of which we can really see in the video. It's not the end of the world, but will tend to make it harder for you to control the start line consistently.

Most of the time, this is an indication that the grip is too much in your left palm and needs to be more in the fingers. See this picture from Mike in another recent thread.

I think you could also do better with your knee linkage. Widen your stance a little bit, flare your back foot out a touch and try and keep the distance between your knees the same in the backswing instead of letting it reduce from address to the top as shown below on the left.

To do that you are going to need to feel a little more flex in the left knee towards the toe. If you get it right, you'll start seeing a little daylight there where the circle is. This is going to give you a more stable platform to hit from and help you have a more consistent path.

Hope some of this is helpful to you. And, again, you have a swing that I think has a ton of potential. Clean up a couple of things, practice the right way and you're going to get better really fast!

[LuciusWooding]

Originally Posted by Stretch

First, the good. You have terrific extension in your downswing -- you tuck your hips up underneath you and post onto the front leg beautifully, getting your hands through really high. It's almost Seve-esque and truly unusual to see in a double digit handicap. A lot of other good things have to be happening beforehand for you to look like this!

-I've always been absurdly flexible, but I've been trying to stop myself from utilizing it as much. One thing flexibility does is it allows me to hit every key position in the swing with terrible form and results that don't resemble the model. But once I started getting more efficient, it has given me the ability to get that extension and power. I'm also putting the ball farther forward than many, since I'm hitting a high fade, so it makes a longer swing and finish than playing from the middle of my stance.

Anyway, I sucked at scoring last season and I sucked on 80% of my full shots. And I never got to play much, either. I could hit the occasional shot that impressed people, but now I'm getting to the point it's happening on 75% or so of my shots, and the misses are changed from shanks and fat shots that barely leave the tee sometimes to thin or pulls off the toe, which are flying nearly as far making them a hell of a lot more playable, like a stroke a hole or more. So I won't need a GIR just to make par this year, and I might be able to use my short game to actually save something worth saving. And my putting's a lot better, almost as much as my full swing.

Second, with the recognition that that camera is not fixed and jumps around a fair bit, you appear to keep a nice steady head and to have solid impact alignments, which together would suggest to me that you're capable of playing well below your current index.

-I've been working a lot on the steady head, especially killing my overswing. Much of it's just wrist stability and eye contact with the ball that I was sacrificing last year to take the club back absolutely as far as I could. I could manage a position that made Bubba look like an old man, and John Daly look like even more of an old man. Then there was the fact I was so far in to out my swing plane needed to be shifted outside a lot, leading to a lot better alignments and not needing a 30 yard push to get a decent flight.

Your club face is quite shut at the top, which is probably a result of your grip and wrist conditions, neither of which we can really see in the video. It's not the end of the world, but will tend to make it harder for you to control the start line consistently.

My grip is working pretty well at the moment, but I'm currently holding off my wrists a lot. Though everything works perfect when I turn my body hard through the impact area and beyond and hold off my wrists (my 2 swing thoughts atm), and also provide a very full finish because I'm using my power late, I can see how it's not ideal. I might show a better shot of my grip next time I record, but I am aware it's supposed to be in the fingers; it's my intention to keep it there, so it may be something I play with a bit.

I think you could also do better with your knee linkage. Widen your stance a little bit, flare your back foot out a touch and try and keep the distance between your knees the same in the backswing instead of letting it reduce from address to the top as shown below on the left.

This is something I've heard discussed but never thought much about. My stance is about a foot's width narrower than it has been, partially to keep me in balance and partially because I hit up on the driver and don't shift my weight as much, which maybe got transferred to the irons. I've been hitting balls with my feet together with everything from wedges to the driver and getting great results, so I've been going a little less wide on my stance. I can see my front knee is working in towards the center of my stance a bit though.

Flaring out the back foot would tend to make the path more in to out, encourage more of a slide, and allow more of a turn on the backswing, wouldn't it?  The reason I usually do it like this is because if I extend my rear leg with much of a wider stance, I can't get any leverage with it on the downswing, either towards my target or off the ground. Keeping it a little bent keeps it loaded, and lets me get my weight off it as my hips open smoothly.

To do that you are going to need to feel a little more flex in the left knee towards the toe. If you get it right, you'll start seeing a little daylight there where the circle is. This is going to give you a more stable platform to hit from and help you have a more consistent path.

Hope some of this is helpful to you. And, again, you have a swing that I think has a ton of potential. Clean up a couple of things, practice the right way and you're going to get better really fast!

Thanks for the feedback, it's certainly helpful. Getting better really fast is the goal here, I want to get out this week and play already to see what I'll shoot. I don't see why I couldn't shoot under a 70 on my local par 60, and that's putting somewhat poorly with no birdies. I'm sick of having potential. Lots of bad players have potential. I'll sell you some of that potential for a few trophies or something!

[tmf9]

Seems like you are a little timid, and you don't really get your weight transfered to your front foot as well as you might want.  Try to get that weight shifted to your front foot more on the downswing, and follow through.  Im guessing your misses tend to be weak and right?

[LuciusWooding]

Originally Posted by tmf9

Seems like you are a little timid, and you don't really get your weight transfered to your front foot as well as you might want.  Try to get that weight shifted to your front foot more on the downswing, and follow through.  Im guessing your misses tend to be weak and right?

I can see your point in the 2 swings with the PW, I fully admit I was hitting my PW and 9 like crap that day. I was timid since it was the third take with the same club, where every other shot was a single take without a practice shot. I had to focus on my 2-3 swing thoughts very intensely to ensure I made crisp contact on a full swing. If anything I was playing it a bit too much like a pitch shot, standing too close and upright, not enough AoA, too much hand action late.

I still have only had 3-400 reps with the new swing. At first, it was my takeaway I had to focus on, currently that's working ok but I still have to worry about my rhythm and the length of swing, keeping my central vision focused on the ball, as well as holding off my wrists and the exact sensation of unleashing power with my core and upper arms that works best with this setup. If I just try to replicate the fade every time, it works pretty well.

Hopefully when I'm a bit more automatic with this swing I can just worry about the level of power I want and calculating my setup for the shot.

Luckily Stretch used my long irons for most of his analysis, which I think were my best swings. Made me look a bit better. The driver is working great in terms of results, but I think the iron swing is better.

My misses are usually either a bit thin or pulls that don't fade, usually courtesy of a nice toe strike. Anything other than that is 99% a setup error or an attempt to play some sort of absurd shot to see if it will work, both totally mental mistakes that I can prevent if I'm playing seriously.

And tomorrow we're getting several inches of snow here. So much for practicing, I guess. I really wanted to make some progress while the other locals are still hibernating and not lose any momentum...

[LuciusWooding]

I've been practicing at the range and played twice now, so I have some sense of how things are progressing. I had a hard time rekindling my pull fade since I posted the videos, especially hitting my short irons and wedges badly. I moved the ball and my hands out from my body a good bit, getting the lie angle through the ground flatter. I moved the ball back a touch, set up more centered, and brought the club back feeling less to the outside, which I've done on purpose. The new ball position meant an inside-feeling takeaway could be on plane and I got more extension and shallower attack angle from moving the ball away. I no longer need to consciously hold off my club to hit a decent ball. I also learned to draw my driver and hybrid, as well as my long irons. Always could make them hook but I had trouble not pulling the shot and also getting proper launch. Since then I've gone to a draw for everything except specialty shots.

I've also been more conscious of my weight shift and hitting down more on my irons as a result of going to a draw. tmf9, I have been shifting my weight better as you suggested, since it helps get the loft down and lets me hit down aggressively. It's happening because I'm not trying to hit towering fades at this point, as much as I'd love to have that ballflight it doesn't work in the wind and it hasn't been repeatable when I don't feel I have my full power due to fatigue or lack of focus.

Speaking of the weight shift, Stretch, I've been trying to work on the knee linkage bit without overdoing it. I don't think I considered it fully when you first suggested it; I figured it was more of a cosmetic piece and helped you feel you needed to shift to get through the ball. I can see how it would help a draw and getting the club more delofted, but now I've been using it as a swing thought to help me set my hips perfectly in the transition for a more on plane swing with the draw pattern. I was also gripping a bit strong, so I made my grip a touch weaker in the right hand and made it a bit less handsy and presumably got my clubface less shut at the top.

I just played this morning, and I'm happy to report I've been hitting much better irons, though the woods and putter decided to take a vacation. Totally nutted a bunch today including my first shot of the round, and hit almost half the greens. Aside from my terrible display of chipping and truly sorrowful putting, I hit my irons with a really nice draw. In fact, almost every short iron was a push draw, and none of my off the toe misses or pulls, from my PW to my 5i. Some of my mishits were thin but almost all got far enough and though my cone was less than ideal in terms of size, I liked that all my shots were in it that I tried to draw. I got one really lucky holeout for birdie and a bunch of pars, most of which could have been better. So I agree with both your suggestions and they seem to be giving me major results in my iron game. The woods will need some work and maybe a few adjustments, but half the bag is really promising right now if I can commit to my swing and play the correct shot.

But I putted like absolute crap today. I think part of it was the condition of the greens, I swear I couldn't stop a putt or chip within 3 feet of the hole if I tried, I didn't get the lines perfect, but I really felt the speed was killing my chances at 2 putting, even from within 30 feet. Could have shot about 10 strokes lower with better putting, another 5 from my suddenly vanished short game.

[LuciusWooding]

It's been almost a year and I haven't taken too much video, but I have a small tripod coming to record myself at the range by attaching my phone to my bag. I got the chance to go to a range today so even though it sucks and costs me money I took the chance. I haven't hit any of my own clubs in a while.

My brother can't hold a camera to save his life. I took more videos today but most of them were upside down and I think that's his thumb in the corner... I apologize for the quality and I know how to record better angles than this, unfortunately I didn't have a way of filming myself today. The next time I go to my usual range, after the snow melts, I'll get more clubs and more angles as well as more types of shots. This time it's short and sweet.

This is a push draw at the yellow flag, I believe this is a 6 iron but it could be a 4. I was trying to get keys 2 and 4 working, since I've recently worked my right elbow to a bit better position so I can use my right side more for power. This also lets me rotate my hips a bit faster as long as my right arm keeps up. Being able to rotate hard and move my weight is something I couldn't do this year up to now without hitting the ball low and/or left. I want to use about this club path and hit high slight pushes that curve both ways as needed to reduce the difference in mechanics because both draws and fades are required at my course to hit all the greens. That way I can open the face or leave it where it will draw and not need to change my grip or swing much. Not sure what will happen with the driver but I'd rather take being able to hit my 3 wood and both ways off the tee consistently and being solid with my irons. I'll leave my woods and short wedges for when I can practice more.

My swing was too much from the left side up to now so it tended to produce pull paths and require low fades to get around the course consistently. I've had trouble drawing the ball with power before winter hit but this one is nice and high and right on line. Limited flight balls aren't ideal for determining trajectory but this was about an ideal strike for me.

Most of the work I've done in the past months has been learning to play my course a bit better and getting a bit better accuracy; I had good power last summer and hit a nice high draw but my dispersion was pretty wide at times and I struggled with partial shots and shorter distances, an area I have improved over time. I don't mind hitting fades but I want better power and easier contact which should be helped by hitting in to out out.

So I welcome comments and questions, but I would also like feedback as to whether this swing is a good model for me, and what may need to be changed or monitored. I think this is marginally better than my older videos but it feels a bit more neutral and efficient. I didn't have to work as hard to keep the ball on line here as I did in the older videos.

[mvmac]

I don't mind hitting fades but I want better power and easier contact which should be helped by hitting in to out out.

Right arm/elbow is too close to your right side. Even for guys that have the left arm matching the shoulder pitch at A4 there is still going to be 4-5 inches from the elbow to the rib cage.

Here's what I recommend to create some space between the right elbow/rib cage and space from the shaft to your right shoulder. Help you create some more speed, you're basically swinging "around your belt buckle" on both sides of the ball.

Make some practice swings checking these positions first. At A3, check that the shaft to left arm is in the 90-100 degree range (left pic). As you go from A3-4, feel like that angle doesn't change, it will but feel like it doesn't. To do this, when you go from A3-4, feel like your pivot "carries" the arms/hands up and back. Then make slow swings rehearsing it. Going to help get the right elbow away from your side and give you a chance to create more speed.

[LuciusWooding]

As you go from A3-4, feel like that angle doesn't change, it will but feel like it doesn't. To do this, when you go from A3-4, feel like your pivot "carries" the arms/hands up and back.

@mvmac , I worked on this piece a bit, and I must say it blows my mind to know the move that so many pros do. I knew my A4 looked a good bit off of every model I used regardless of their swing style. I've studied their swings but never knew how to get my hands higher without going off plane. I used to stop lifting my arms too early and did too much folding of the right arm; I watched Zach's swing and finally saw that he's raising his hand path much more dramatically in the last part of his backswing than I initially thought. It looked more like a loop in the swing from certain angles, so I didn't focus on the last bit of the backswing and sort of assumed the transition was of greater importance.

Right elbow more forward has been a thought of mine for the last few weeks but this piece allows me to make use of a much longer turn and is a lot easier to get the right side involved. I can also feel a lot better control through the hitting area and I hit better positions on the backswing without changing much else.

I looked at your post the other day and tried to wrap my head around the suggested move, and I needed to close my laptop and walk away for a bit because it wasn't clear to me. So I took a couple videos yesterday to get the elbow up and trawled up everything on the subject to try and study up. I'm a bit close to the camera but it's at hip height and along my toes, and this is the only place in my tiny house this angle is possible.

^Yesterday, all my swings looked consistently like this at the top no matter what I did. I get more clearance with my right elbow here, but the club is in a bad position and I couldn't fix it with changing grip or wrist angles. The head is a bit tilted because I was constantly looking at the club but otherwise it's a bit better than the previous position. For one thing, the right shoulder is not quite poking out from the DTL view like the range videos. I also got the necessary depth and a full turn. Didn't feel very "slotted" and it felt like I didn't have a clear spot to shoot for.

I looked at the videos and rethought the move and tried again today.

^Today, as anyone can see my hands are a lot higher and I still have some depth. The clubhead passed through the hands on the way back and my hips and shoulders are well turned. My lead arm is generally at around 1 o'clock from a FO/mirror view and almost my whole left forearm is above my shoulders. My grip and where the club points could use some work but I think I can fuss over that when I hit balls. For the most part the change was pretty intuitive once I understood what I wasn't doing. It helps the most on my longer clubs, which were in need of some help recently.

So, am I on the right track? Please correct or comment on anything posted since I want to get this change right. Thank you very much for the advice and I can't wait for the range at my course to open.

[mvmac]

Yes definitely better, hope this helps

[LuciusWooding]

Another couple days at the range, and I've gotten some video that doesn't shake around. Snow's in the forecast again it seems so I took advantage of a couple nice days to test out this change.

So basically I went Saturday and stunk it up, couldn't get good contact with the exception of a couple swings. Part of it was that I stood close to the ball all day because the new backswing positions still felt very steep to me. My belt buckle ended up pointed way left, over 90˚ left of target because of how much I needed to clear them, and unsurprisingly due to swinging so far inward to get to the ball, my good shots were large fades, not within my cone at all.

Not perfect camera work but I know now how far back to set it up. Still, I was getting the A4 position reasonably improved despite a change in ball position being necessary. Keep in mind that this was the best of the lot, in terms of result. But all my backswings looked about like this, my hands were a bit closer to my body at times. I needed to make a couple compensations including moving off the ball and moving my head a bit at times.

I wasn't too thrilled with the results but I worked in a mirror at home to make sure I was hanging my arms a little farther out, and it helped me feel a little better spacing on the downswing.

So I packed up my bag and went Monday, alone this time, and hit a fair quantity of balls without very high expectations. I left out some of my clubs to work on my more important ones and focused especially on the 6 iron as that's my reference club in most videos.

The first shot is a 6 iron, it ends up pretty straight but it's a highish push draw. The second is my 2h which is a low pull fade, slightly thin.

I wasn't having an easy time with contact again at first, and it took me a while before I worked out a consistent setup and shot with which I could play actual golf. It turned out I was best served by closing my stance slightly and putting the ball forward. My theory is it allows my arms more space to work, especially the right arm which seems to be the one that can make my swing either sucky or powerful.

The shot du jour was a draw, maybe a bit big and sometimes starting a touch more to the left. In fact, I was utterly hopeless when it came down to hitting a fade. I had literally about a 0% success rate with any of my shots unless I tried to draw it. There were a handful of shots that ended up fading anyway, but generally they were with my woods only and they were a nice playable flight, though a bit bewildering. I've never had trouble fading the ball lately but it seems I've totally lost that shot. In theory I should be able to open my stance and aim the clubface to the right, then make my normal swing.

At the end of the session I was hitting it pretty well with my pitching wedge, 6 iron, 3 iron, 2h and oddly enough my driver. Usually I hit my long clubs rubbish off the deck unless I'm having a good day but today I did better, partially because of aiming to the right and therefore shallowing my downswing a bit. I was hitting my pitching wedge very high and pretty solid, but it was disconcerting that I wasn't hitting it from an open stance like I usually do. In fact, the more I closed and narrowed my stance the better the contact. It still spun, even my 3 irons were going high and checking up despite playing a slight pull draw. In fact, I was playing short game shots and I found that my contact was way better from a closed stance.

Based on how well my short game practice went, I'd say I had the tools to shoot under 90 if I played today, but I'm still not consistent enough to shoot in the low 80s most likely and I lacked any sort of shotmaking aside from how hard I hit it. On my course I'd need to rely on both shot shapes at times to hit all the greens, so having a single stock shot that I can't trust enough to send it down the treeline would mean laying up 3-4 times.

So while I'm glad my game is not in complete ruins due to the long layoff, I am still in need of improvement.

[mvmac]

Based on how well my short game practice went, I'd say I had the tools to shoot under 90 if I played today, but I'm still not consistent enough to shoot in the low 80s most likely and I lacked any sort of shotmaking aside from how hard I hit it. On my course I'd need to rely on both shot shapes at times to hit all the greens, so having a single stock shot that I can't trust enough to send it down the treeline would mean laying up 3-4 times.

Just so you know a majority of pros rely on one shot pattern for 85-90% of their shots. I would recommend getting good at "owning" a pattern. If you can aim 5-10 feet right of every target, start it close to 5-10 yards right of the target and curve it a predictable amount, you'll play better golf than trying to "work" the ball.

[LuciusWooding]

Just so you know a majority of pros rely on one shot pattern for 85-90% of their shots. I would recommend getting good at "owning" a pattern. If you can aim 5-10 feet right of every target, start it close to 5-10 yards right of the target and curve it a predictable amount, you'll play better golf than trying to "work" the ball.

I am aware of that, and it's not as though I would be mixing in fades when I have a clear shot. That would be like shooting free throws left handed for no reason; your point is well taken.

I don't normally change shapes due to wind or hazards or anything. The 3 or 4 holes a round that force a shot shape have tight, tree lined fairways and the target gets pretty small if you want to leave a clear second shot, on some holes being in the rough with a good angle is ideal for me. This will be more important for the back tees, which I dread not because of their length, but because of the tight tee boxes back there. I just won't have a chance to hit all the greens unless I can hit a 2h or more with either shape off the tee.

So hitting the fade isn't my priority right now, especially since I can manage it off the tee by hitting up, but I have a few weeks at least to get comfortable hitting the draw. I suspect that once my swing starts feeling more "neutral", I should be able to make some minor setup changes to accommodate different trajectories and shapes.

[mvmac]

I suspect that once my swing starts feeling more "neutral", I should be able to make some minor setup changes to accommodate different trajectories and shapes.

Sounds good.

Just to be clear, I'm not against hitting different shots on the course, sometimes you need to, just think players can be distracted by it. They struggle with contact and worry about being able to work it both ways so they can get to different hole locations. Well, you know how we feel about that