Jump to content
IGNORED

Anyone Just Accept Their Swing?


Note: This thread is 2009 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, David in FL said:

I’ve been told that my swing looks like somebody who is trying to kill a snake with a stick.

I’m just not willing to put in the time and effort necessary to change it to the point that I will improve significantly. It is what it is.  I accept it and simply enjoy the game.  

I admire this outlook. I probably could’ve been like this had I never used video. Seeing how inefficient and ridiculous my swing was made me see how much power I was wasting. I like your swing analogy. Unfortunately mine looks like I’m trying to start a stubborn lawn mower.

:ping: G25 Driver Stiff :ping: G20 3W, 5W :ping: S55 4-W (aerotech steel fiber 110g shafts) :ping: Tour Wedges 50*, 54*, 58* :nike: Method Putter Floating clubs: :edel: 54* trapper wedge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

2 hours ago, David in FL said:

I’ve been told that my swing looks like somebody who is trying to kill a snake with a stick. 

Ha, I recently described my "old" swings as follows: 

Ever see someone get tasered? Now imagine them holding a golf club...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I have taken three sets of lesson at $500 each in my younger days but I'm 66 now and have had three back surgeries. Yes I have accepted my swing. I have always fought a strong fade / slice with my driver so I put it away, I use my 3W almost all the time on par 4s and 5s which I can hit the hell out of. I get like 200 yards, 9 times out of 10 straight, so I can be putting for par as long as my iron and wedge play is on. I have taken lessons on chipping which have helped a lot. What I do need to keep working on is putting and mostly reading the greens. Three putts drive me nuts! I shoot in the high eighties, low nineties so I enjoy the game and don't get so pissed off anymore.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


At 66, I've decided to try and accept my swing and concentrate instead on making bad shots a little better. I know I have some quirks in my swing that given my desire / time availability will probably not improve dramatically. What I can work on: short game, putting, course management and better fitted equipment are now my main focus. I have read LSW several times and am working to put those concepts into play. Started the season at a 16 index and have lowered it to a 13 as the season begins to wind down in Chicago. Goal is to get back to a 10 by the end of next year.

As one earlier comment said, its nice to spend four hours with friends but a heck of a lot more fun to do it while you are playing good golf!

 

Just an older guy with 7 or 8  clubs and a MacKenzie Walker bag

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

On ‎9‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 12:10 PM, Vinsk said:

Absolutely true for me. It’s my problem but this is why I can’t accept my swing. I’ve said it before but I honestly do not enjoy the ‘scenery, the chit chat with friends, the fresh air’ If I’m playing awful. I can do all the above mentioned in a dozen different ways. I’m on a golf course to play golf and chasing after shanks won’t be mitigated by a colorful bird in a tree. Hell I'm likely to kill the poor thing with my 7i hosel rocket. 

I'm the same way.  I do enjoy all of the ancillary stuff but only to a point and it can't override my performance or lack thereof.  Wish I could.  I'd probably score better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I have accepted my swing. I had a swing that made everyone I played remark on how great it looked. I started telling them to stop saying that. My drives were 140 yard slices, it took me three shots on short par 4's to get to the green let alone on it, and I was using driver on 150 yard par 3's. Lessons and drills did nothing. There is some swing thing I was just not understanding, implementing, whatever. So one day I decided to just figure out how to hit the ball with the swing I have.

I went to the driving range and played around with ball position and setup. And know what? I now have the distance to reach par 4's in regulation. I don't have to worry the swing will breakdown under pressure because it is my swing. The ball just gets in the way at the right moment. The swing doesn't look textbook but I don't care. My alignment is not square but I don't care. The ball gets hit when the clubface is aligned with the path and that is all that is necessary. I now just practice to tighten up my dispersion and course management. I enjoy the game more, because I am playing golf now, not worrying about hitting the ball.

Edited by gjunkie57
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • 1 month later...

 

I don’t know if I’ll ever totally accept my swing, but I have definitely tried to move from the “find my perfect swing” mentality to the “cleanup my current swing” mentality.

Years ago I went through a swing overhaul that took a tremendous amount of work, but was totally worth the effort. When I was done I was able to hit it longer, higher and more consistently with less effort. But I had to put in a couple of hundred hours of practice to make this happen, and my game got much worse before it got better. I was an assistant pro at the time, so I had the time - it was sort of my job. :)

At this point though I don’t have the time or inclination to overhaul anything (normal non-golf job, kids, etc.), and it doesn’t sound like you’re interested in putting in that kind of work either. What I would recommend is to try and understand what your big mistake is, and figure out what you need to do to mitigate against it.

For example, my #1 driver flaw is that I sometimes slide to the left too much on the downswing and don’t stay behind the ball, resulting in a high-right shot (aka a slice). I certainly make a lot of other mistakes, but this is the one that hurts me the most. When I do get the time to practice, this is what I primarily focus on, though I do try to chip and putt more than working on the full swing.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites


Note: This thread is 2009 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Want to join this community?

    We'd love to have you!

    Sign Up
  • TST Partners

    TourStriker PlaneMate
    Golfer's Journal
    ShotScope
    The Stack System
    FlightScope Mevo
    Direct: Mevo, Mevo+, and Pro Package.

    Coupon Codes (save 10-15%): "IACAS" for Mevo/Stack, "IACASPLUS" for Mevo+/Pro Package, and "THESANDTRAP" for ShotScope.
  • Posts

    • Did LIV pros cross ‘etiquette’ line at Masters? 3-time major winner has thought Did LIV Golf pros cross an “etiquette” line last month at the Masters? Three-time major winner Padraig Harrington has a thought. I do not mind cursing. I rather see some emotion on the course and honest reactions to bad shots or what not. I didn't catch it being a TON of cursing in this Masters. It was not noticeable. 
    • I had to think about this topic for a while. I don't tend to remember specific details about my putts, but a few do stand out in my mind so I guess they're worth noting. I don't know that I'd call them my favorite but it's close enough. #18 at Spooky Brook Might be the hardest 4' putt I've ever had. Pin was back right and I hit my third shot just to the right of it. The green slopes fairly severely back to front. I read the green but I knew the putt anyway as I've seen it before. I told the guys I was playing with that the putt was it was going to break almost 3' and if it doesn't go in I'd have a longer coming back up for par than I was looking at. It went in. #12 at Quail Brook I'm not even sure how to describe this green properly. It's not quite a two-tiered green, but the back and front are separated by a ridge that goes across the middle of it, with the green sloping harder off the front than the back. You can generally putt from the front to a back hole location but good luck keeping the ball on the green if you putt from back to front. On this particular day, I was looking at the latter. I had to putt up into the apron due to how the ball was going to break and that helped slow the ball down enough to hit the hole at the perfect speed. One of the rare birdies I've seen on that hole. #2 at Hyatt Hills Short par 5. This makes the list because it's the first eagle putt I've ever made, which funny enough happened the day after the first eagle I've ever made. I've made two eagles in all my life and they came on back to back days. I wasn't even planning on playing golf - it was a Monday - but I was doing some work at the place I used to work at when I was younger and catching up with some of the guys I've known for years. They were going out to play in the afternoon and had a spot available. I used to see these guys every day for years but we've never played together, so I said I'm in. I hit a really good approach shot into slope that separated the two tiers on the green and spun the ball closer to the hole. Had roughly 8' left to the hole, a downhill right to left breaker. One of the guys said, "You've got to make this, I've never seen an eagle before," and I said, "I've never made an eagle putt before." And then I made it. #17 at Stoneleigh @GolfLug's post reminded me of my own heroics on #17 a couple of years ago. The hole was back left, in the bottom tier. I hit my approach short of the green and flubbed my chip so it stayed on the top tier. I read how the putt was going to break after the ramp (is that what you call it?), then read my putt up to that point. It needed to basically die at that point because if it hit the slope with any kind of speed, it would long past the hole and possibly off the green. I hit the putt perfectly and holed the 40-footer center cup. #6 at Meadow at Neshanic Valley, #15 in the Round This was during the stroke play qualifier of my tournament. It might be a little bit of recency bias and I hit some really good long putts in the four rounds I played, but this 7-footer was my favorite putt of the entire tournament. The hole was cut on the top of a ridge. I hit my tee shot short right but hit a pretty good chip just long and below the hole. Play had backed up at this point, with the ladies waiting on the tee while we were finishing up. I hit the putt just a hair on the high side and it curled around the hole, fell back a couple of inches and stopped on lip. We all looked at it incredulously, "How does that not fall in?" Before I took my first step towards the hole, the ball must have thought the same thing and decided to drop.
    • I don't remember a ton of putts, but I've thought about this a bit and came up with 2 good ones. #5 at Mid-South: 2017 Newport Cup I remember the putt pretty well, but the surrounding details are a little hazy. I believe this was in my singles match against @cipher, and it was a hole he was stroking on. I had hit a mediocre approach to the front of the green and had what must have been a 50 foot putt to a back pin. If I remember correctly, @cipher was pretty close for an easy par at worst. I had @mvmac help me out with a read, which ended up being a great read by him. Hit the putt and jarred it for birdie. It was perfect speed, too, would have been an easy 2 putt if it hadn't gone in. I think we ended up tying for the hole. But I rarely make putts that long, and doing it to steal half a hole was really nice. #3 Fox Hollow (Links): 2023 Match Play This was on the third extra hole of a scratch match against a legitimate 0 handicapper. We had tied after 18 holes and traded pars on the first two extra holes. On the third extra hole, he had about 30 feet for birdie; I had about 25. We were on pretty much the exact same line. He missed his putt just on the low side, and I conceded the par. I felt good over this putt - I knew the break well and just needed good speed. I hit a great (not perfect) putt, and BAM, back of the cup for the victory on the 21st hole. I will say that the speed wasn't great, as it would have been a few feet past if it didn't hit the cup. But I wanted to give the ball a chance and take a bit of break out of it. I went on to win the match play tournament, which is my only tournament victory in a scratch event.
    • there will be lots of changes.  i mean, look at newey past, each team fell off a cliff when he moved on i think max is the magic bullet   if red bull loses him then whee are they going for drivers?   lots of young talent but he is a proven winner and i’m sure top engineers love to work with him  
    • I too, like @GolfLug, remember great wedge, iron shots, or my missed putts, more than my made putts. My most memorable recently, would be: #17 Old Course St. Andrews (last year) I had been putting awful all day (I started 3 putt, 4 putt, 3 putt, 3 putt), but found a putting stroke on the back 9 and was 1 under on the back going into 16 and of course I 3-putted it for a bogey. Got to 17 and my playing partner just hit it into the hotel, so I went a little more left and decided to not try and hit it over the hotel.  And as soon as my ball was in the air, I heard one of the other caddies do the chicken noise.  LOL My shot was a little more left than I wanted, about 185 yards, I hit a 6-iron and it was drawing right at the flag.  The pin was just to the right of he bunker and towards the front of the green. My ball hit short (and just missed going into said bunker) and stopped about 15 feet left of the hole. Had a little left to right break and as soon as I hit it, I knew it was in.  Birdie on the road hole, looked at the caddie and said not bad for a Chicken.  Parred 18 (missed 10 foot birdie putt) for a 35 on the back 9 at the Old Course. #18 Springfield G&CC Last year while playing in our season long match play event, my partner and I get the 18th hole needing to win the match to move on into the knockout round.  We are tied going into 18.  A tie and we lose on overall points by .5.  Our teaching pro is on the other team (very good golfer), so we were pretty sure we needed a birdie to have a chance to win the match, I hit on of the best drives I hit all day and had about 135 yards to the pin, but it was in a place where you didn't really want to be long.  So I hit a PW and it landed just short of the flag but released about 12 feet past the hole, so have a devilish putt coming back down the hill.  Our competitors were away and the pro missed his birdie putt by inches, I thought it was in when he hit it.  So after reading the putt, which probably had a 2 cup left to right break, I made the putt to win the match.   #15 Springfield G&CC A few years back, was playing in the first round of the Club Championship (against the previous years runner-up) and my putter was balky all day.  Got to the 15 hole, 2nd Par 5 on back, and was 3-down with 4 to play.  We both hit good drives, both hit good second shots and we both hit decent 3rd shots.  I was about 15 feet and he was just a hair longer.  He missed his putt, I had another slider putt down the hill, with about a foot of right to left break and made the putt.  I birded the next hole, to go 1 down, but not a memorable putt as I only needed a bogey to beat him on that hole, he had all kinds of issues going on.  Lost on 17, as he birdied it, right after I missed mine to lose 2&1.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to TST! Signing up is free, and you'll see fewer ads and can talk with fellow golf enthusiasts! By using TST, you agree to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, and our Guidelines.

The popup will be closed in 10 seconds...