Sweeper or Digger - Advice appreciated...

[Moleman]

My miss is a nasty, chunky fat shot..  It always has been.  I've improved a fair bit over the years with lessons and thousands of range balls but can't rid myself of the steep heavy shot with the huge divots and low margin of error..

 

I've played a few games where I try to pick/sweep the ball of the turf like I was in a fairway bunker and to be honest I get very good results, the odd ball on the thin side but no fat shots at all with a much shallower aoa.  The problem is that my brain won't accept that this is a legitimate way to play golf and so I revert to my normal steep strike and the heavy shots that comes with it..

 

My question is, are there any players out there who are sweepers and content to play that way?  It seems like I've been in a constant state of trying to perfect my swing since I started playing 4-5 years ago and I wonder is it now time to accept that my fat shot is my miss and that a mindset to sweep is the best way to counteract that??  To be fair even with an intent to sweep/pick I still brush the grass anyway..

 

I feel I'm at the stage to try to find a way to play my best golf with the swing I have rather than the constant frustrating pursuit of the perfect swing.

 

Interested in your thoughts... 

[iacas]

The best advice I can give you is to post a Member Swing thread with video so that we can see what you're really doing. Often that's very different than what you think you're doing.

That said, and to answer the question about whether you can play good golf sweeping or picking the ball, and the answer is very much yes.

[Moleman]

Thanks for the quick reply..  I've recently had a series of lessons at Bangor Golf Club (Where Rory's coach was the head pro) and I've learned an awful lot about my own swing, it was my first time on trackman and I found it very helpful indeed.  My main faults were a sway away from the ball and an fairly hefty out to in swing.. Over the course of a few months my sway has greatly improved and I've gone from 10ish degrees out to in to a couple of degrees either side of zero!  

However I can't seem to get rid of my steep tendencies no matter what I try.   I can sort of get away with it when it's dry however in the wet winter conditions my heavy shot is a killer.  When I make an effort to sweep the ball I still brush the grass but my angles seem much shallower..  I just need to content myself that this is a legitimate approach..

[imsys0042]

I am a sweeper and I don't have issues with being so.   I would like to make my short irons and wedges a little steeper because my miss will be thin.   More often than not, I hit a ball thin instead of fat.   When I am hitting the ball well I also brush the grass but don't take a divot often.

You definitely can be just as good of a player as a sweeper vs. a digger.   As my swing got better over the past year I found myself putting spin on my wedges without taking much of a divot, and/or only brushing the grass.   Nothing super like the pros, but enough where it was notice-able that the ball was spinning back.   

[DrvFrShow]

Soggy conditions are a killer especially if you're not solid in your swing. The wet grass will pull your club down into it. I wouldn't even advise taking full swings playing in that stuff. Just hit knockdowns and punch your way around the course, unless you have a perfect lie. I wouldn't even bother playing a FW wood because of too much turf interaction.

But what I'd suggest doing is practice what you were taught in your lessons. Schedule a lesson a month for follow up to keep you on track. This is what I'm doing. 

"Tony, my swing has gone to ****. Help." I made that call yesterday. It's never anything catastrophic. It's usually something minor I started doing that affected things in a major way. It usually takes about 20 swings with the club to fix it in the lesson. That little thing he showed me becomes the thing I work on for the next few weeks until my next lesson.