My Swing (PaddyMac)

[PaddyMac]

My dilemma,

I’ve being playing 1 year now and I recently played a round with a local golf pro whom I asked for advice after. He said to pop into the shop and he’d give me access to the trackman. When I did get in we hit 5 shots with 7i (Carry 130 m) then another 5 with 5i then 5 with the Driver. He said being able to consistently hit the irons I have (Titleist 712cb) to be honest he wouldn’t change too much. He said my swing may be a little quirky coming across the top and in too steep but the fact that the ball was going straight each time with no real offline bias and that the spin numbers were low, Smash factor good and a swing speed of 97 on the driver he was inclined to leave well enough alone. He said the 22 HC was due in his opinion to bad course management/shot decisions and under 80m at the greenside.

So my question after you’ve had a chance to see my swing would you recommend lessons/swing change now which could as he put it alter my spin rate/smash factor and leave me worse off at the moment or keep going as is.

I know at 47 I’m no Tiger Woods and can’t see myself going much lower than mid teens when all the practice pays off ...but what is your honest opinion.

Thanks to everyone in advance for any helpful comments/ suggestions etc

I've been Playing Golf for: 13 months
My current handicap index or average score is: HC 22
 

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Edited August 23, 2017 by billchao
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[JxQx]

I think it really depends on what your goals are in golf and how much time you have/willing to put into golf. If you wanna lower your handicap a bit and shoot lower scores you may be able to do that just through course management. If you are trying to get to scratch, lessons are probably going to be in order. I would say try implementing some more strict course management and see where you are at, then decide if you need/want lessons.

[PaddyMac]

1 hour ago, JxQx said:

I think it really depends on what your goals are in golf and how much time you have/willing to put into golf. If you wanna lower your handicap a bit and shoot lower scores you may be able to do that just through course management.

that's more or less what the pro said. I explained that as much as I love the game and have become addicted playing as often as I can (probably 9 hole's twice a week evening and 18 on the weekend) realistically I would be very happy to get to mid teens if I could. He replied that my swing should easily get me there so why change it. But equally I don't want to develop a bad swing now that I will have to try and unlearn later, if you know what I mean.

[PaddyMac]

16 hours ago, JxQx said:

I think it really depends on what your goals are in golf

I was thinking about what you said and your 100% right.. I know in the greater scheme of things my swing is not great but the pro wasn't inclined to have me change it because as I spoke to him i gave him the impression that I was happy just playing as I was. The more I thought about it the last few days I know now that golf means  more to me than that... time to get the books out and practice... thanks again

[RandallT]

Good call.

The best part of golf for me (I'm just over 50 now) is the process of improving. I don't think I'd enjoy just going out and getting by with a swing that is so unsound, as I was doing just a few years ago.

I'm no instructor, but I can tell immediately (no offense) that you have some serious work to do. If you look at the swing as 5 basic things that good players do (see some links here ):

1. Steady head- nope, your head movement is likely indicative of inconsistent strikes
2. Weight forward- not really
3. Inline condition at impact- nope, you're flipping
4. Diagonal sweetspot path- you're coming over the top, as you say
5. I won't even address the 5th, because from little I know, it's more advanced, and you've got lots of work to do on the first 4, that even if I knew enough to comment and you were good on this, it would be pure luck.

I'll leave it to experts to suggest a specific focus, but from my experiences, the start of your journey will be along the lines of getting your backswing to be a much more centered pivot. Stop the sway back of the hips, stop the head movement- stuff along those lines. 

Well, that and getting better posture and making sure your grip are ok.

I mainly wanted to give you the scope of the changes ahead and encourage you to set about fixing them. My experience is that it's a brick by brick thing. Don't get too overwhelmed and don't feel rushed. Focus on one thing at a time, and get it right. Continue to play through it all too. 

I have found golf much more rewarding when learning how to improve, rather than just going out and playing, making the same mistakes over and over and over. 

[JxQx]

On 8/24/2017 at 5:40 AM, PaddyMac said:

I was thinking about what you said and your 100% right.. I know in the greater scheme of things my swing is not great but the pro wasn't inclined to have me change it because as I spoke to him i gave him the impression that I was happy just playing as I was. The more I thought about it the last few days I know now that golf means  more to me than that... time to get the books out and practice... thanks again

You're welcome! A couple recommendations I would make are to pick up a copy of lowest score wins, it has a ton of good information in it about course management and how to score better. Also if you're going down the lessons route make sure to do research on the instructor and ask a lot of questions, it's easy to end up with a pro that does not teach very well (happened to me when I was younger) which can waste a lot of your time and money.

Another thing to do is to get into the habit of recording your swing at the range, what you feel like you are doing and what you actually are doing can be drastically different. Plus if you are paying a lot for lessons you wanna make sure you are making the right changes and not falling back into old habits which the video assist in that. 

[Dakota Atkinson]

Looks like your backswing goes pretty far inside, then you kinda come over the top and swing way left. I would would make sure you're gripping the club correctly, then focus on making sure your weight is forward and swing more right. Find a spot out significantly right of where your target is and feel like you're throwing your hands towards it during the swing, see if that helps. Once you starting hitting straight, don't exaggerate it so much, because your body will get used to swinging in-out and then you'll start hitting hooks if you visualize it like that. But it helps me when I am swinging left. As far as keeping weight forward, there's loads of tips/videos/drills on that on here. Key # 2

[PaddyMac]

On 8/24/2017 at 0:11 PM, RandallT said:

Good call.

I'm no instructor, but I can tell immediately (no offense) that you have some serious work to do. If you look at the swing as 5 basic things that good players do (see some links here ):

 

Cheers for the links/feedback and encouragement... I appreciate the replay and definitely no offense taken.. as I'm trying to learn it's only with the help others I can notice these things.

 

7 hours ago, Dakota Atkinson said:

 

Cheers Dakota, appreciate the reply/feedback...