My Swing (klineka)

[klineka]

Couple things to update

First on the clubs/ball.

I switched golf balls to the Left Dash ProV1x. It seems like a great fit for me. I always need lower spin off the tee, it's about a half club longer into greens, and still gives me enough spin with chips and pitches to hit whatever shot I need. The durability is insane too, played 35 holes with one over my last two rounds and it still looked brand new until I lost it.

Hybrid is no longer. Couldn’t quite get a consistent strike and the random snap hook left was always lurking as soon as the strike drifted out towards the toe. I know it was me not the club but I couldn’t stand the lefts anymore.

Titliest fitting guy came to our club a few days ago and I had been curious about the T200 3iron. I hit a few with it and the stock HZRDUS graphite shaft, it wasn’t bad at all but I could definitely tell when I mishit it.

Then the fitter had me try the U505 3iron. When he asked if I was open to trying it I said something like “Isn’t that the game improvement one?” and he said “Just trust me and hit a few with it”. Within 5 swings I was sold. Suddenly it didn’t look as big and chunky when I started hitting rocket after rocket. It did every single thing I want a 3 iron to do.

It flies very high, forgiving, can hit it off the tee and ground, can flight it low when needed, and best of all, it doesn’t go left. He had me try to snap hook one left and it resulted in a nice tight draw, nowhere close to a hook.

Tried it with the stock shaft and their upgraded one, ended up hitting it the best with the Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-95. Ended up getting a great deal on a used one that arrived yesterday so going to go measure my numbers with it today at the range. I expect to be using this a lot for 2nd shots into par 5s, being that 230-250 club.

Hit some on the Mevo+ yesterday and the distance is exactly what I needed.

 

 

From a playing perspective, been playing pretty solid so far this season, driving and putting have been solid overall, approach shots have been good for the most part and short game wasn't great to start the year but it's been getting better lately with some more dedicated practice.

Compared to scratch over 7 rounds:

[klineka]

Let's recap how things have been going lately now that the tournaments/events I had in May are done.

Overall I'm satisfied with how I've played so far this year. Not ecstatic about it, but not disappointed either. Certainly have some things to tighten up, but I've also made some good strides and hit a ton of high quality shots.

Breaking it down by section 

Driving - This has been quite solid when I remember my swing thought and fully commit to a very specific target rather than just aiming at the fairway and hoping. Distance and quality of strike have been good.

The new U505 3 iron I put in the bag has become an absolute weapon. I hit 5/5 fairways with it at Virtues yesterday averaging 250yds over 4 shots (Removing the one outlier where I hit it 299 with a severely downhill tee shot to a downslope fairway) I need to rely on this more and stop trying to force driver when I don't have to. 

Approach - When I focus on and remember my priority piece, irons are solid. When I don't, they aren't. Go figure. Fell into some old habits over the past few rounds due to mostly playing with not much practice lately. Will be changing that over the next few weeks prior to a few upcoming events towards the end of June. 

Distances have gone up a bit, everything is about 7-10yds longer than I'm used to so that has taken a few months to fully trust on the course, but I'm getting there, I'd say like 95% of the way confident with fully trusting the yardages. Need to work on hitting partial yardages more, especially with longer irons. I'm decent at it with shorter irons but don't have the same feels and confidence with longer irons.

Wedges of 50+ yds have been pretty solid, have good feels for yardages and have done a much better job of taking the extra club and hitting lower flighted wedges that hop and stop rather than rip back when they land.

Short Game - Mixed bag here. Chipping and pitching from the fairway has been good, not quite as good out of the rough, worked on some technique yesterday with @iacas at Virtues and he thinks a thinner wedge sole should help too. I have been chipping with my 54 more lately instead of automatically grabbing my 58 and it has been good, I'm realizing I don't always need to go high and soft, mid trajectory and running works just fine most of the time.

Putting - Pretty solid overall. Have done a good job implementing my setup changes from Evolvr and trusting those. Speed control has been good, short putts have been solid, biggest thing I need to work on is being very specific with where my aim point is, especially in that makeable 6-15 foot range.

 

Couple overall takeaways that I learned from watching some better players and that don't require any additional skill to implement

• My dispersion/shot zone with Driver and long irons is bigger than I think it is. I need to do a better job aiming away from trouble/hazards and don't be afraid to lay up on a par 5 from 200+ out when there's hazards near the green. 
• I need to do a better job reading the greens prior to chipping/pitching onto them. I've hit a number of solid chips and pitches that landed where I wanted, but my landing spot wasn't correct for the pin position based on the green slopes.
• Implement the feel I have for my priority piece (especially with irons) as part of my pre-shot routine and make sure I do it every single time.

 

I'm making plenty of birdies, in 2024 I'm averaging 2.4 per round, but I'm also making plenty of bogeys or worse, averaging 5.81 bogeys or worse per round. A lot of the bogeys are sloppy silly ones that could be avoided and that better players simply don't make. Better aiming on long approach shots and more attention around the greens should help quite a bit towards reducing the bogeys per round.

 

Main things to work on over the next few weeks

• Film iron swing and get back to mirror work at home/gym and more partial reps. When I was hitting my irons the best a month or so ago I was doing mirror work daily.
• Pick very specific targets with tee shots and rely on 3iron more often especially when I can hit it and still have a short wedge in my hand (which is most par 4s at the yardages I normally play).
• Figure out what wedge setup I want to go with to replace my 54 and 58, Vokeys and RTX are at the top of my list. Leaning towards Vokey 54-10S and 58-12D grinds at the moment, those seem like good fits for what I use each of those clubs for.
• Continue to practice chipping with my 54 and short game shots from the rough with both wedges.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, klineka said:

• Figure out what wedge setup I want to go with to replace my 54 and 58, Vokeys and RTX are at the top of my list. Leaning towards Vokey 54-10S and 58-12D grinds at the moment, those seem like good fits for what I use each of those clubs for.

I don't generally like Vokeys. His Tour grinds are fine, but most of the retail ones are too wide or have too little bounce, without much heel/toe relief.

[klineka]

22 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't generally like Vokeys. His Tour grinds are fine, but most of the retail ones are too wide or have too little bounce, without much heel/toe relief.

Gotcha. Good to know. I'll have to test them.Any other specific models/grinds from major OEMs (not Edel) that you like and/or have a good blend of narrow sole but enough bounce? I said Non Edel just so I'd be able to test in person/have a variety of buying options

Edited June 4, 2024 by klineka

[iacas]

I don't know… The TaylorMade Tiger Woods grinds were decent. I like narrow soles with a lot of bounce (lots of camber) and good heel/toe relief.

[klineka]

Go figure. Within 2 filmed swings I was able to get back on track with my full swing priority piece and the ball-striking immediately improved. 

More mirror reps, more static holds as part of my pre-shot routine, no excuses for me to revert now. 

 

Got some solid short game practice in too, focused on shorter backswing and letting the clubhead fall into the ball. Ball popped up high and soft out of the rough when I did it right. Also practiced bumping my 54 into an upslope and letting it release onto the green, just learning how to hit various trajectories to the same flag.

Going to keep making incremental improvements with the short game and building brick by brick.

[iacas]

It was like 80% reverted, huh? 🙂 (But yeah, it's easier to get it back than to do it the first time, fer sure.)

[klineka]

19 minutes ago, iacas said:

It was like 80% reverted, huh? 🙂 (But yeah, it's easier to get it back than to do it the first time, fer sure.)

Yeah I was equally surprised at both how much it had reverted but then how quickly it came back. 

I know it's not fully "fixed", but I now know how much I need to stay on top of it to keep it from reverting back that badly again.

[GolfLug]

Have a few different wedges. Haven't seen the latest but Callaway C-Grind (2022) seems to have the least amount of bounce real estate I have seen on anything. 

[klineka]

14 minutes ago, GolfLug said:

Have a few different wedges. Haven't seen the latest but Callaway C-Grind (2022) seems to have the least amount of bounce real estate I have seen on anything. 

The 8 degrees of bounce that comes with the C-grind scares me a bit. 

It does look like they have an X-Grind that has 12 bounce but a narrower sole along with heel and toe relief so maybe that one is worth looking into for me. 

Although I wouldn't mind moving away from Callaway wedges for now as I've had some model of Callaway wedges for the last 5+ years and am ready to look down at something different.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, klineka said:

The 8 degrees of bounce that comes with the C-grind scares me a bit. 

Scares you because it’s too much? My 60 has over 20° of bounce and the shot I hit on 17 at Virtues was with 12 or 14 (Ryan’s club).

[klineka]

5 minutes ago, iacas said:

Scares you because it’s too much? My 60 has over 20° of bounce and the shot I hit on 17 at Virtues was with 12 or 14 (Ryan’s club).

No, too little. I plan to be in that 12-14 range for a lob wedge too. 

That current 58 I have is 12 bounce but just with a really wide sole. 

Edited June 5, 2024 by klineka

[iacas]

Yeah normally the really wide soles are lower bounce because the width is "fake bounce." Maybe it's not 12 but they wanted to market the "effective bounce" or something.

[GolfLug]

6 hours ago, klineka said:

The 8 degrees of bounce that comes with the C-grind scares me a bit. 

56-10. It's fine. Our grass is not super plush so I don't get super good contact with high bounce, but that's just me (picker/sweeper). I actually like it for the toe relief more than the heel relief.