My Swing (billchao)

[billchao]

Practiced today. Started poorly, but kept working at it (with some frustration) and it eventually got better. Remembered a part of the backswing piece was that I needed to hinge more (my right wrist tends to cock and not hinge) and that helped clean up contact; got mostly centered contact through the last bit of the session. Need to see if I can replicate it tomorrow, and the next day, and so on.

Got a "major" coming up, so I need to get this train back on track if I want to make a decent showing.

[billchao]

 

Swings from today, with the added right wrist hinge feel. Hit the ball well, not sitting too much. Almost not enough, but I think in my head I'm looking for more sit than is necessary.

Wrist hinge changes the club path so it's in line instead of over and in, but causes me to throw my hands out and roll the face more. Change in one thing affects another. What a fun game this is.

[billchao]

4 hours ago, billchao said:

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View this round on GAME GOLF

Went for a nice ride around the park today. The weather was perfect.

Well I practiced all week and even hit the range before the round and this is what I have to show for it 🤬

At least I hit my partial wedge shots pretty well.

[billchao]

Wanted to jot down a few observations from over the weekend while they're relatively fresh in my mind.

I've been hitting a pull miss with the irons. Could be a ball position or a clubface issue. It's probably just due to me rolling the hands over through impact. I'm going to try holding the face open like I'm trying to hit a cut and see if that minimizes it.

Speaking of cuts, I learned that I'm striking the ball well enough that I can hit a cut when I want to. That's useful. Actually it's satisfying and fun. I had a few shots where I needed to cut it around a tree and executed well, leaving me closer to the green than I would have if I hit the ball straight or with my stock draw.

Driver is a lingering problem. There are times where I barely make contact with the face at all. I think I'm standing too far away from the ball. I made an adjustment in the middle of my round on Sunday and the contact got much better. Miss ended up being a high pull draw, pretty much the same issue as my irons. I'll go with the new setup and the cut face feel and see how that goes.

Need to figure out my 3w. Probably going to replace it, but not until next year at the earliest. 

Need to map my partial wedge distances with the new wedges. Really enjoying them in all aspects and I wish I made the change years ago.

Need to spend more time on putting practice. Missing my intended line at times. Making up for with improved distance control, but mid-range putts are an issue.

[billchao]

Haven't uploaded a video in a while. Pieces are getting pretty good (read: automatic). Usually during a round I'll do the sit thing either too much or not enough, pretty easy to adjust on the fly. Not enough - feel the sit move. Too much - don't feel the sit move. Hitting the ball well and playing better as a result. Still need to get the driver working for me.

I've been playing from a set of tees forward of the tips (which I usually play for some reason) lately and learning how to play the game better, hybrids and irons off the tee, hitting approach shots with mid irons and stuff. I hit my irons far enough that I should re-evaluate how I approach the game and what's best for scoring, not always trying to go driver-wedge or driver-punch out-wedge.

Anyways, videos:

 

P.S. I look pretty good in blue 😉

[billchao]

I took a deeper look into how I hit the ball off the tee, especially the last five rounds I played since those rounds are where my swing changes are really starting to take. I pretty much discarded egregious mis-hits and focused on what I considered solid contact.

Driver - 60 yard dispersion width, spread fairly evenly left and right. Shot zone centers around 260 but I can carry the ball anywhere from 240-280 on a solid hit.

I'm not as bad with the driver as I think I am. Yes, I hit bad misses, but really I can do that with any club in my hands. A lot of my issues with thinking my driving is so bad stem from confirmation bias and the fact that my shots can turn in either direction and there is no pattern so the ball is always turning away from my target.

Here's an example of my perception issue: on the 18th hole at Green Knoll, I typically miss right. So I have it in my head that I always miss right with the driver on that hole. Turns out:

I'm always going to miss right if I don't draw the ball. The yellow line is way too close to the trees on the left for me to reasonably take, so the green line is what I take which affords me a bit of a pull miss. For some reason I have the idea in my head that I should be able to hit the fairway even if I don't draw the ball and I get disappointed when I hit a fade and end up on 10.

I really need to pick and choose which holes to hit driver on. There aren't that many that can accommodate my landing area. I also think I need to work on developing a shot shape with the driver. In theory (though not in reality, of course), I could cut my dispersion down by half if I only turned the ball in one direction.

3 wood - Fuhgeddaboudit.

But seriously, need to figure out why I can't hit this thing anymore.

2 hybrid - 40 yard lateral dispersion, can miss it both ways similar to driver, but tend to draw the ball more often. Distance is a little tricky, as when I hit it solidly I'll carry it about 235 off the tee, but when I miss it slightly I'm lucky to get 200 out of it. Fat shots are an issue.

4 iron - 35 yard lateral dispersion, mostly left. I turn this club left more often than any other club in the bag, which is kind of ironic considering I put it back into the bag because I kept hooking my 4h. Can hit a cut if I really try hard enough, though, so it's likely just a swing issue I'm already aware of. Carries about 205 on solid hits. Fat shots are also an issue, here.

That's pretty much it. I have a better idea of what I'm doing off the tee and have more information available for making decisions. For now that's what I need to play better golf. Long term, I need to make better contact and develop a pattern.

[boogielicious]

17 hours ago, billchao said:

I took a deeper look into how I hit the ball off the tee, especially the last five rounds I played since those rounds are where my swing changes are really starting to take. I pretty much discarded egregious mis-hits and focused on what I considered solid contact.

Driver - 60 yard dispersion width, spread fairly evenly left and right. Shot zone centers around 260 but I can carry the ball anywhere from 240-280 on a solid hit.

I'm not as bad with the driver as I think I am. Yes, I hit bad misses, but really I can do that with any club in my hands. A lot of my issues with thinking my driving is so bad stem from confirmation bias and the fact that my shots can turn in either direction and there is no pattern so the ball is always turning away from my target.

Here's an example of my perception issue: on the 18th hole at Green Knoll, I typically miss right. So I have it in my head that I always miss right with the driver on that hole. Turns out:

I'm always going to miss right if I don't draw the ball. The yellow line is way too close to the trees on the left for me to reasonably take, so the green line is what I take which affords me a bit of a pull miss. For some reason I have the idea in my head that I should be able to hit the fairway even if I don't draw the ball and I get disappointed when I hit a fade and end up on 10.

I really need to pick and choose which holes to hit driver on. There aren't that many that can accommodate my landing area. I also think I need to work on developing a shot shape with the driver. In theory (though not in reality, of course), I could cut my dispersion down by half if I only turned the ball in one direction.

3 wood - Fuhgeddaboudit.

But seriously, need to figure out why I can't hit this thing anymore.

2 hybrid - 40 yard lateral dispersion, can miss it both ways similar to driver, but tend to draw the ball more often. Distance is a little tricky, as when I hit it solidly I'll carry it about 235 off the tee, but when I miss it slightly I'm lucky to get 200 out of it. Fat shots are an issue.

4 iron - 35 yard lateral dispersion, mostly left. I turn this club left more often than any other club in the bag, which is kind of ironic considering I put it back into the bag because I kept hooking my 4h. Can hit a cut if I really try hard enough, though, so it's likely just a swing issue I'm already aware of. Carries about 205 on solid hits. Fat shots are also an issue, here.

That's pretty much it. I have a better idea of what I'm doing off the tee and have more information available for making decisions. For now that's what I need to play better golf. Long term, I need to make better contact and develop a pattern.

Is that a par 5? I would hit a shorter club to just make it over the trees onto the fairway or just to the right of the tees. It looks like the designer really wants you to do that with the tree placement.

As for the 3 wood, have you tried a 4 or 5? A 5 will get almost all the distance and be easier to hit from the fairway. I play a 4 now and am getting very comfortable with it.

[billchao]

3 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Is that a par 5?

Yea, it's a short par 5 but it's uphill the whole way. You have to hit a good tee shot in order to have a chance at hitting the green in two. I've only done it once.

3 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I would hit a shorter club to just make it over the trees onto the fairway or just to the right of the tees. It looks like the designer really wants you to do that with the tree placement.

You're talking about the trees on the left from the tee along the yellow line? You can't hit over those.

For me there's no advantage to taking a shorter club off the tee. Can't reach the green with the second shot from farther back even if I'm in the fairway. As it is now, I hope to hit the perfect drive for a chance or I end up where I usually end up on that hole and it's an iron and a partial wedge to the green anyway. Once in a while I get close to the small trees and then I have to get creative, but that's where I shine 😉

But in all honesty that doesn't happen often enough where I feel like I'm losing strokes from it. Where I end up losing strokes on that hole is trying to get as close as I can with the second shot and duffing a 3w or something when I should be playing to my strengths and hitting a 7i back onto the fairway and then taking a wedge in.

3 hours ago, boogielicious said:

As for the 3 wood, have you tried a 4 or 5? A 5 will get almost all the distance and be easier to hit from the fairway. I play a 4 now and am getting very comfortable with it.

I'm not hitting it well off the tee, either. It's not a loft issue.

[billchao]

I've been doing something right lately.

If I can cut the Off the Tee number down by a stroke, the Approach number goes down by at least a stroke.

[dennyjones]

Would love to have your short game!  Keep up the good work!

[billchao]

8 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

Would love to have your short game!  Keep up the good work!

Thanks! I'm not as good around the greens as I think I could be. A lot of that SG Short Game number comes from the 40-100 yard area where I'm pretty good.

But you've broken 80... I'd like one of those right about now 😃

[billchao]

Going over my videos for my NC 2019 application vlog (still a work in progress, it's way too long as is) has shown me my best drives are pull fades and my misses right are straight fades. Interesting. Path must be up and left. I need to get the face more consistently closed to the target.

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, billchao said:

Going over my videos for my NC 2019 application vlog (still a work in progress, it's way too long as is) has shown me my best drives are pull fades and my misses right are straight fades. Interesting. Path must be up and left. I need to get the face more consistently closed to the target.

Twist. Palmar flexion.

[billchao]

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

Twist. Palmar flexion.

Makes sense, thanks.

[billchao]

Practiced a little today, checked out the film. Not doing the sit move well. Thought I was because I've been heeling the ball on occasion, but it explains the fat shots - not getting weight forward at times. Hit a bunch of fat approach shots and topped drivers over the weekend. Didn't make any sense then, but it does now.

Thought about my short game issues too and I realized I've been opening my stance a lot again without moving the ball forward to go with it. That should be easy to fix.

[billchao]

19 minutes ago, billchao said:

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View this round on GAME GOLF

Nice bounce back round for me. Thought for a bit there I was going to get through the round with one ball, but that dream died on 15. Drove the ball well today, despite putting myself behind several trees. Kept pulling my iron shots though and partial wedges weren't good at all today. Pitched and chipped very well. Putt well, with a caveat: excellent from 30' and in, but >30' I couldn't hit the ball hard enough cleanly for good distance control.

Wanted to break this down a little bit more in detail.

Driving - Sit move. I can do it as much as I want it seems. Quality of strike is good from there, just a matter of clubface control and contact that dictates the result. Hit a couple of big sweeping toe draws that were still in play. Very happy with the way I drove the ball today.

Irons - Contact is great when I'm not hitting them fat, though I hit a bunch of pulls today. I think the pulls come from early IR of my right shoulder or the hands rolling over from A6-A8. Either way it's a clubface control issue. Need to feel the face stay open through impact, then I hit my intended line with a baby draw or fade. Fat shots need to go away, though. Swaying back a little bit (as I've always done) in the backswing and not getting enough weight forward at times.

Partial Wedges - Kind of the same as the irons. Strange that these were a strength in my game up until a couple of weeks ago. Might just be regressing to the mean. Having some low point control issues with these.

Short Game - I was right about ball position. Pitched and chipped very well today.

Putting - Made more than my share of mid-range putts. Had some issues with contact on longer putts as I mentioned above. I toed them with too much loft at impact and the ball would hop and skip and then die well short of the hole. This happened twice today and both times I was able to make the resulting 8-10' putt, but that's not exactly a reliable way to lag putt. I really need to focus on quality contact on long putts.

[billchao]

15 minutes ago, billchao said:

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View this round on GAME GOLF

I was cruising for a bit, then my driver started to fail me. By the 16th I was completely gassed (91°F, real feel 103°F and no beer to hydrate with). I didn't want to break 80 anyway 🙄

Remembered something about my priority piece last night and used the feel all day to good results up until fatigue set in.

Also just realized I was one hole away from no sixes. Damn.

Swing feel is to bend the left knee more in the backswing. Makes the sit move more automatic and I think it keeps me more centered in my backswing. This is the second time I "remembered" this now, which means I need to make a better effort of incorporating it into my practice. Hit the irons and partial wedges much better today than I did yesterday.

Another good day around the greens. It was definitely a ball position issue. Didn't putt as well as I did yesterday, but still pretty good. Plus I really can't expect to putt much better than I did yesterday.

Another thing I learned today is that a 4i is too low lofted to be my troubleshot low hook club. Tried it twice and both times it barely got off the ground and didn't go as far as I wanted. Remembered yesterday that I hit a good punch hook with a 5i on the 1st hole, so I did it with the 5i again on the 18th today when the situation called for it. 5i is definitely the right club for me for a low hook.

Still need to learn a low cut.

[iacas]

4 hours ago, billchao said:

Still need to learn a low cut.

When you figure that one out let me know how. Tough to hit down more on a club while also swinging left enough.