My Swing (freshmanUTA)

[freshmanUTA]

 

Today was a good day, for the most part i was hitting target full speed and I was finally able to draw the ball and if I was swinging at around 75% I was actually hooking the ball quite a bit. The shot thats embedded was a bit fat but it was off a mat so it still ended up decently well. It faded a little too far to the right. 

 

I need to keep working on shallowing.

Edited April 27, 2018 by freshmanUTA

[freshmanUTA]

[iacas]

Yeah I was gonna say… that wasn't a push-draw swing. Pull-fade, straight fade… one of those.

[freshmanUTA]

9 hours ago, iacas said:

Yeah I was gonna say… that wasn't a push-draw swing. Pull-fade, straight fade… one of those.

Oh, definitely not. At full speed my shot shape is a pull-fade. At about 70-75% I can draw the ball but I neglected to record me actually drawing the ball. 

[iacas]

6 minutes ago, freshmanUTA said:

Oh, definitely not. At full speed my shot shape is a pull-fade. At about 70-75% I can draw the ball but I neglected to record me actually drawing the ball. 

Phones record in slow motion these days. I hope yours does.

[freshmanUTA]

@iacas I finally played a round today. It was a nice day and there was a slight breeze. But now that I was able to play a round with a real ball, I noticed that my shots are ballooning. My pitching wedge would carry about 100 yards and fall out of the air. For perspective, my pitching wedge normally flies 140 yards. This was happening at the range too, and I've always had a high ball flight, but I had just assumed it was because they were beat up limited flight balls. I'm already looking for more forgiving irons, I was thinking TM PSI or Nike Vapor Pro Combo, should I also be looking for a lower launching and lower spinning shaft? Moneys tight so I cant afford anything other than used sets, but I was thinking DG x100 shaft or KBS CTaper X. 

Edited May 1, 2018 by freshmanUTA

[freshmanUTA]

Another day of hard work. Hit about 100 balls total. 80 balls were 8 iron shots that I felt like wouldn’t carry farther than 25 yards, working hard on making shallow divots, if any divot at all. Towards the end of the session I hit about 10 balls with my 3 wood, working on coming in to the ball shallow and starting it right. Unfortunately my face control still isn’t entirely there with the long irons, but 3 or 4 of the 10 started pretty far right and drew back towards the target. That was full speed. I also fixed some flaws in my setup that caused poor face control and caused my whole swing path to shift more to the left. I’m trying to upload pictures, but it keeps giving me an error. I’ll try again a little later.

Ever since I stopped being stubborn and just endlessly practiced what my instructor told me, I’ve been finding something so... zen(?) about hitting balls. I used to get frustrated and pissed off that I couldn’t do a move but now I enjoy the fact that I’m out at the driving range instead of any number of other things I could be doing. A positive mindset is all it took and my swing has improved tremendously as well as my chipping, pitching and putting.

Im playing on either thursday or friday. This will be fun.

Edited May 6, 2018 by freshmanUTA

[freshmanUTA]

Decided to skip the range session today to save a little money. I'm joining a club at the end of the month so no rush to hit a ton of balls. Instead, I spent about an hour on the short game and practicing chips from all sorts of lies. Plugged, sitting up, rough, deep rough, divots and clean fairway. I did really well, and I'm quite pleased with the contact I made. Pitching and chipping has been a ton easier since I started telling myself "Distance is ____ and my landing area is ____" and repeating it while taking three practice swings then pulling the trigger. I averaged around 5 feet to the hole and even holed one of the balls that was stuck inside someones leftover divot. Pretty cool feeling.

 

BTW, heres the new setup position: 

[freshmanUTA]

Today started off really well. I put almost every ball right next to the target, and then it all went downhill. I just wasn't mentally "there," you know? Started shanking irons, fat, thin, tops you name it I hit it. I wish I would have just taken 10 minutes to collect myself but I didn't. The grass was wet so I hit a few fat and they grabbed my club and I got overly concerned about it, and started hitting them thin.

I also started getting fatigued and hungry and as soon as that happened my mind just vanished entirely. I'm very disappointed, but I know that I just need to rest for the rest of the day and hit the range again with a purpose tomorrow. Ironic that my first horrible day on the range in a while came because I did away with what was working and just aimlessly hit balls, after talking about how it was nice to swing with a purpose again... Oh well, theres always tomorrow.

[iacas]

On 5/9/2018 at 12:06 AM, freshmanUTA said:

Decided to skip the range session today to save a little money. I'm joining a club at the end of the month so no rush to hit a ton of balls. Instead, I spent about an hour on the short game and practicing chips from all sorts of lies. Plugged, sitting up, rough, deep rough, divots and clean fairway. I did really well, and I'm quite pleased with the contact I made. Pitching and chipping has been a ton easier since I started telling myself "Distance is ____ and my landing area is ____" and repeating it while taking three practice swings then pulling the trigger. I averaged around 5 feet to the hole and even holed one of the balls that was stuck inside someones leftover divot. Pretty cool feeling.

 

BTW, heres the new setup position: 

Ball position is a bit too far back. Grip looks likely palmy.

[freshmanUTA]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

Ball position is a bit too far back. Grip looks likely palmy.

That's an 8 iron, should I put it about one or two more balls forward? My instructor changed my grip a few weeks back, and he liked the way that it looked. I usually let my fingers wrap around the club first then close my fingers into a fist.

My main swing feel for now is right palm facing the ground on the takeaway and feeling my left wrist almost do a reverse motor cycle rev. I think thats flexion? And my ultimate goal with a swing is starting it about a yard right of a target at 25ish yards and getting it to draw back while either not taking a divot at all or taking a very shallow divot. 

This is pretty much exactly what my practice swing will feel like then I hit a shot that goes about 25 yards. Throughout the session I'll go longer and longer until I start getting steep and taking deep divots and then I'll dial back distance.

Edited May 11, 2018 by freshmanUTA

[freshmanUTA]

Since I have a tournament coming up I wanted to do a hole by hole analysis of what I'm expecting to do. I'm playing from the blue tees and teeing off at 10:54am. The first thing I decided to do before the tournament is leave my driver in the car. It's not worth the risk of pulling it out. Too many short par 4's I'll try to get overly aggressive on and wind up with large numbers.

Hole 1, Par 4 302y:

Hole 1 is pretty easy. I'm going to throw a 3 wood on the right fairway in line with the green. Only 204 to carry the water. If the pin is anywhere but the left side of the green, I'm going flag hunting. I cant afford to miss the green left or its about a 15 foot uphill chip or even worse, I could be in water.

Hole 2, Par 4 325y:

Hole 2 is a tester. If I'm feeling confident I can try to carry my 3 wood over the bunker on the left side of the fairway. Its 248 to carry. Since it will still be early in the round, I'm going to hit a 4 iron into the fairway just behind the bunkers. The first bunker is 230 to reach so my 4 iron should leave me about 10 yards short of the bunker on the right side. I'm aiming at the left rough and fading it back to the center. The green is sloped pretty heavily to the left and long is a decent miss. I'm going to aim my approach shot at the fat part of the green no matter where the pin is.

Hole 3, Par 3 148y:

The wind is going to be a big factor in my tee shot. If it's heavy, I'll hit a knockdown 8 iron right into the heart of the green. If theres little to no wind, I can afford to go flag hunting as long as I don't come up short.

Hole 4, Par 5 495:

Hole 4 is very short for a par 5. A good tee shot with my 3 wood will leave around 140 in and no matter where the flag is I'm looking to hit the front fat part of the green. If I can get on in 2 I might be able to get a birdie, or even an eagle and get my round going really well, really quickly. 

Hole 5, Par 4 338y:

I'm going to aim at the left half of the split fairway. Specifically the rough on that side. It's not too long of rough and I really don't want to even think about the water. A good tee shot leaves an easy approach shot from inside 100 yards. The green slopes towards me on the approach so unless the pin is on the right side of the green I'm going to try to get close.

Hole 6, Par 3 148y:

I'll find out which tee box I play from on Saturday, but my strategy changes depending on which tee box I'm going from. The bunkers are in play unless I'm teeing from the far east tees, so I'm going to aim at the middle of the green and try to hit the right yardage. Really trying to escape here with a 4 or less.

Hole 7, Par 5 525y:

Tight fairway. I'm going to hit a 3 wood into the fairway. My next shot will be roughly an 8 iron short of the fairway bunker, and hopefully will leave my with 120 in to the green. This green slopes towards the water so I'm just hoping to get on the green and 2 putt for par.

Hole 8, Par 4 335y:

Fairway bunkers galore so I'm just trying to hit a 3 wood that will find the fairway. Ideally I want to leave myself 95ish yards in. If I pull that off, I'll be short of the farthest fairway bunker and past all the others. The green slopes away from the water and left is a good miss. I'm going to aim at the left side of the green and hope they put the pin in the back.

Hole 9, Par 4 385y:

My 3 wood should stay short of the water so I'll just try to get it in the fairway. The green has a false front and slopes away from the water. I'm going to aim at the back of the green because going long is miles better than going short, short-left, or short-right.

Hole 10, Par 5 500y:

A 3 wood clears me of all the fairway bunkers. I should be able to keep it in the fairway. Then, a solid 9 iron will put me in perfect position to go flag hunting. Unless, the flag is on the left side. No bueno. If that's the case, I'm aiming for the middle and trying to escape with a par.

Hole 11, Par 4 310y:

7 or 6 iron off the tee. Yes, really. I could easily go for it with my driver, but too much is at stake. Safe play is to be short of any and all trouble. Leaves me 125 into the green and this green is pretty receptive so I can be more aggressive with my distance.

Hole 12, Par 3 195y:

This green is really big, I'm just trying to aim at the middle and get it on the green and get out with par. 176 to carry the water so at the bare minimum I need a 6 iron.

Hole 13, Par 5 520y:

3 wood off the tee into the fairway. This green is the smallest of all the par 5's so I'm just going to hit a 9 iron into the fairway and leave myself 120 yards in. Then I'm aiming for the middle-right of the green where it is the fattest.

Hole 14, Par 3 150y:

The green is large and soft. They added a few bunkers on the right, so I really want to avoid them at all cost. I'm planning on just getting the ball on the green, but I can be more aggressive since it is a larger green.

Hole 15, Par 4 329y:

Another 3 wood off the tee. It'll leave me well clear of the fairway bunkers. I cant miss right as the rough is really long and the green is pretty severely sloped towards the left. Aiming for the middle of the green is my smartest play.

Hole 16, Par 4 390y:

It's rated as the easiest hole on the course, but I cant get sloppy. A 3 wood into the fairway leaves me about 120 in. The green is almost perfectly shaped to match my shot zone so I'm aiming for the middle and should be able to get away with par here.

Hole 17, Par 3 185y:

It looks easy, but the green has a sever slope. I'm looking to get my ball on the green and get out with a 4 or less.

Hole 18, Par 5 525y:

The hardest tee shot on the course. I'm going to hit about a 4 iron off the tee. Should leave me well short of all the trouble. Then its another 4 iron into the fairway and I should have around 120 into the green. I'm just trying to get the ball on the green and get out of this hole with a par. 

 

I'm playing this tournament very defensively. People tend to get too aggressive on this course and thats really when the big numbers come into play. If I can stick to my game plan I should get out of here with an 85 or less.

[freshmanUTA]

Before my tournament I shot 3 straight rounds of 88,87,88 and since my tournament I haven't shot under 100. Today I was 22 over after 5 holes. I just can't hit the ball in bounds. I'll hit a driver OB or into water , then tee off an iron, hit it OB, and again, and again. Even from the fairway I just hook everything left OB. Then when I aim to the right to compensate I push it OB or into water right. I had 3 holes with scores higher than 9 today and I walked off the course before I even finished 9 holes. I'm just over, and done with it at this point.

[iacas]

32 minutes ago, freshmanUTA said:

I'm just over, and done with it at this point.

Sorry to hear that.

When you/If you decide to come back:

• Take some actual, good, high-speed video from the right angles.
• Post it here.
• Listen and do what I or @mvmac tell you to do.
• Work at it.

Every problem has a solution. Particularly in the golf swing.

[freshmanUTA]

22 hours ago, iacas said:

Sorry to hear that.

When you/If you decide to come back:

• Take some actual, good, high-speed video from the right angles.
• Post it here.
• Listen and do what I or @mvmac tell you to do.
• Work at it.

Every problem has a solution. Particularly in the golf swing.

I didn't legitimately mean, "done." I just need a break. I've been putting hard work in a few days a week at the range and the range work is and has been good, in fact my swing has gotten better. I'm just having issues. I don't know if I'm swinging to hard or what but I just need a week or two to relax and get recharged. I get free golf since I work at a course now, so I'd be a fool to walk away entirely with this gift.

Theres a tournament at the end of the month that I'd really like to play in so I'm gonna walk away for a week or maybe two and then get back to work. I just need some time off. I think everyone goes through this at some point. Before, I'd get pissed because I'd stop working on things and go back to back habits, now I'm pissed because my work paid off for a while and right now I'm just at an uncomfortable point in my full swing where I just don't have the clubface feel fully down. It's not a contact issue for the most part, sure sometimes I'll hit it fat and thin but, right now it's just a face control issue that I can't seem to resolve. I'm probably just thinking too much about it.

It was dumb of me to phrase it the way I did. I'm not quitting, I mean I was literally winning my tournament by 3 strokes, and I truly believe I can win. Plus, with driver and 3 wood my contact is better than it's ever been. I just need to take a step back and re-evaluate everything. And when I come back I'm going to take a lesson with the guy I've been working with, and see what he thinks is next to work on.

I'll go to the range in the next coming days and try to get a much better video to post here. I need to invest in a tripod and a holder for my phone to make it easier.

[freshmanUTA]

I had a really busy weekend so couldn't fit range time. I'm planning on going tomorrow after work. If not, I'll try to sneak in 9 holes or so and record my swing on the course. It probably wont be as good of an angle, But I'll try my best. In regards to my game, my putting has actually become a strength. If I start the ball on its line I can hole putts. However, my wedges and long clubs have been wrecking my scores. I played a couple holes today after work but it was soggy and to be honest I think I was doing more harm to the course than normal so I stopped. Hook is still there, though not as bad. I experimented with weakening my right hand grip and that helped a bit but felt too awkward to hit well and I hit a few fat. Maybe that will help with face control? No way to tell till I record the swing though, so I'll check back when I record it.

[freshmanUTA]

It’s been a while. I’ve still been working on my swing but I noticed that I was starting to get a little too obsessed with watching instruction videos and I was starting to self diagnose. I found an instructor and have been working on my swing a lot. I consistently strike the ball now, and rarely lose balls out of bounds(my largest goal). 

Today I made a commitment to myself and improvement, I went and got custom fit for a driver, and a replacement for my favorite hybrid. I was fit for a Ping G410 9° with a Tinsei Orange shaft. I knew immediately after switching to the Tinsei Orange and Ping G410 combo was the one. I made what felt like a mediocre swing and got the best result of the day both on simulator and watching the ball itself. I proceeded to hit about 10 more with the exact same pattern, starting a tiny bit left and fading about 5 yards right of where I aim. The last shot was the one that completely sold me because I made a swing that felt about as bad as i could possibly hit it and it went the same distance as my average distance and only went slightly more to the right. 

I got fit for a G410 19° Hybrid and that has a Tinsei Blue shaft. I was hitting about 60% of the greens from 240 away and that’s the exact distance I bought the original hybrid to cover.

I still don’t have video so I hate to tease you, but this year is going to be different. I already shot one of the lowest scores of my life on a D1 collegiate course in the blistering cold wind. I am confident with my swing now. I’m learning my yardages better and learning to control the trajectory at will. It’s becoming just as fun to practice as it is to ply. Now that I don’t fill my mind with swing tips I know what to work on and have gotten to a point where on my best days I hit the ball with a little fade and on my worst days I pull the ball straight about 4-5 yards. Even when I’m not swinging well i’m able to find a common swing pattern unlike before.

Just wanted to update 🙂

[freshmanUTA]

Still working. My misses are getting better, though I've been developing a new issue. I have extremely inconsistent distances. Some days I can hit my 7 iron 180 consistently when needed, and others i struggle to get 160 out of it. The same goes for the driver. Some days I hit it 240 and others I jump back up to my expected 290 or so. Its a weird issue that I'm working on fixing. The issue seems to be that I consistently let the clubhead "release" too early. I don't have any actual physical control since it happens so quickly at such a late point in the swing but I've really been working on emphasizing the feeling of lagging the club. 

I will try to upload a video of my caddy view swing to show what I mean. My goal is to get to a 5 handicap this year. I'll update more as the year progresses.