19HI-New Home Simulator-How Much Improvement?

[NeedAJoker]

Change of plans, I am jumping on an earlier flight today so no time to get to the range.  I will be out of town for business the next 3 days, but the weather looks good for the weekend so I will do an update with some stats and video when I get home.

Kevin

 

[NeedAJoker]

Posting Myswings as promised:

Thanks,

Kevin

[NeedAJoker]

I started a private blog as I like to post daily, sometimes more as I have new thoughts, so I didn't want to keep bombarding the boards with my thread always being at the top.  I have gotten so much from these boards that I want to keep everyone in the loop though, so I will keep updating this as long as anyone is still interested.

Things had been progressing nicely, scores were coming down a bit, but in May I got a bit complacent with my practice, just started beating balls at the range, and it really was showcased when I made a trip down to Portland, OR to visit and play with my buddies(2hcp's) at the end of May.  Similar to before the Vegas trip in December, I tried really hard, practiced a ton in hopes that I finally could play well with my friends and show them all the progress I had made. I mean since I last played with them, I broke 90, broke 80, and surely I might even be able to take some cash off them in skins. Well, in those 3 days and 45 holes, I think I maybe hit 5 good shots total.  It was really defeating, and I couldn't keep the ball in play.  Went 45, 92, 92.  My game felt like it did middle of 2015.  100's of hours of study and practice, well in excess of $9k+ spent in the last 12 months, and I wasn't a lick better than before.

The next week, I went to play a mountain course by our lake cabin in Idaho, and same thing, just awful.  Lost probably 8-10 balls.  After that round, I vowed to change everything and get back to disciplined practice. So I did.

I broke out the camera and tripod, and started taking good video again, and low and behold, a few of my old crappy moves crept back into my swing.  My very first lesson a few years ago, my first priority piece was minimize lateral sway. 

June 9th, 2016, 2 years after that lesson. Seriously?:

This ended up being such a root of awful things, and once I made a very disciplined effort to minimize it and really turn away from the ball, all the other things I have been working on with swing plane, takeaway, open impact, etc all finally fell into place and I started hitting the ball better than ever, by far.  I was actually really surprised how fast it came together, that move was just killing me and I was losing all my angles on my shift back to the ball, stalling and then dumping it fat.  

Since the changes, June has been great, and my Handicap has dropped from about 15.5 at the start of June, to 13.7 as of my round yesterday.  The past two days I have played 18 at a local course, and the results are a perfect picture of where my game is at right now:

Monday

49/40-89- Front 9 was terrible, but had 7 pars on the back 9 and had my then career best 9 pars for the round. My irons and wedges are really dialed for me, hitting most greens/fringe from <175, leaving myself an average of 12-15 feet.  My problem this round was putting, I simply couldn't make a putt, and missed a ton of birdie attempts, leaving them 4 feet short, and then 3 putting.  Of those 7 pars on the back, 3 or 4 were 5ft or less bird putts and I missed everyone on the edge.  

Tuesday

-40/45-85- I started just where I left off, 5 GIR's, 6 pars on the way to a 40 on the front.  Sweet, my last 18 holes have been played at 80, and it was the front and back of the same course, so that was cool.  Onto the back 9 and things went to hell.  Duffed shots, a few slices off the planet off the tee, not good.  Overall I ended up with my now career best 10 pars, but had 8 GIR's with birdie putts and missed every one of them.  All 2 putts.  Some were <8ft too, so that sucks. Had 4 doubles on the back to kill what was likely my way to my second round in the 70's.

Summary

-Things are coming together, I can truly feel how close things are, and I think a few more putting practice rounds, and just a little bit of work to groove some swing thoughts so I don't have so many standing over the ball will help a lot.  I am going to take some really good videos tomorrow after I rest today and will throw them up in MySwing thread.  

Thanks for reading.

Kevin

 

 

 

 

[NeedAJoker]

Wanted to post a quick update as I just walked off my best round ever, 78!  I am pumped, but at the same time a bit bummed as I had a triple on the front blocked out by trees twice, and then proceeded to bogey 16, 17 and 18.  I knew I shot a 39 on the front and was having a great back, but I wasn't really even thinking about breaking 80 again so that wasn't what got to me unless it was subconscious.  Short game was dialed all round, taking a ton of pressure off my putting, but just got a little pull-y on the last few holes and couldn't make the putts.

Speaking of putting, after my last post I was browsing some putting threads and got on one talking about using Left Hand Low.  I never have tried anything besides conventional, but I hit a few putts on my little practice mat and they were going dead straight so I put it in play today with literally 30 putts ever that way and I putted better than I ever have.  The ball just seems to stick straight on my intended line like it is on a track and it never deviates.  Can't wait to see what I will be able to do once I start practicing it.

Oh what could have been, but isn't that why we love this game so damn much?  I can't wait to play again.

Happy Holiday Weekend to everyone!

Kevin