FlyingKiwi

Hi, I just joined this club a few months ago (great club, if you live in the area in CA I recommend checking it out). Just wondering if any other sandtrappers belong? If so, let me know and perhaps we can meet up for a round. Donovan

I spent about $2500 or so with Golftec. While I saw some improvement during the lessons, it was still very inconsistent. Yes, watching it on video is great but IMHO they spend too much time worrying about all the stats and not enough time about impact position. I think a big part of GolfTec is that it gets you out to practice. You're paying a lot and get drills, so you want to try and make the most of it, which will lead to improvement. Personally, I didn't find it worth the money and I have seen much bigger improvement from reading the S&T; book.

Hi Rusty, I wish mats would show impact better, so it is hard to say. However, there's a big difference in feel for me when I hit it just slightly fat. I can definitely feel it when I hit it fat, and of course thin shots are very clear. I've also found that having a better impact position greatly reduces the chances of hitting it fat. If you don't flip, it's less likely to release it into the ground after all. When I go from mats with the TS to grass with a normal club, fat shots are very rare. YMMV of course but for me it is the best training aid I've ever used. I liked it so much I've sent one to my dad and my uncle. Worth a try at least! Donovan

Rusty, I use it mainly on mats. On grass it is too hard too judge whether I actually hit the top of the club. At our club we have grass and mats. I usually warm up, take the tour striker to the mat area then move on to the grass area with my normal clubs. It's been a great aid for me. Donovan

Heh, I was just going to recommend that book. Fun book to read, even though I got to believe that his biggest issue was mental. Reading his follow-up book about playing in Ireland, his general attitude just struck me the wrong way. You are going to play on a course with a green fee deposit box and just because you can get away with not paying, you don't pay? That seems very much against the integrity of golf! That said, Paper Tiger was great.

I think we all struggle(d) with this. When I joined a club about 6 weeks ago, I was stripping it on the range then was very inconsistent on the course. Just not the same type of contact as on the range. Not a great introduction to the course. It was slightly embarrassing. Towards the end of the round I started swinging more freely and then went to the range afterwards to see if I could figure out the difference. For me the big breakthrough was that on the range, I would rotate my head a little to the right (looking behind the ball). It just keeps my body nicely centered on the backswing, and thus really helping contact. Whereas if I keep my head straight (keeping too focused on the ball), I get a slight reverse pivot which causes very inconsistent contact. Needless to say, on the course I would be so focused on the ball that I would be in a not so great position at the top. Once I figured that out, my ball striking has improved immensely on the course. Before I never was able to take the driver out, but with that adjustment I happily take it out. Good luck!

Great post. I've recently gone from high 90s to low 80s (was one over after 9 today but those 9 where in the middle of a round bookended with doubles), and can definitely agree with the disciplined practice on where you are deficient. Liked your perspective about how hitting long and short is still a miss. What worked for me though, ironically, was giving up on lessons. I tried Golftec ($2500 down the drain) and other instructions. What helped me was reading the Stack and Tilt book. It gave me a much better understanding of ball flight laws, and this has saved me many shots. To each their own, but if it is not a S&T; instructor, I am not using them. Unfortunately the instructor we have around here charges $250 an hour which is just too much for me. Just tinkering by myself and reading iacas' posts (thanks for those!) really helps as well though. I also used the Tourstriker and loved it. Great tool and my distance increased substantially. I know some people said the distances you listed sounded more realistic, and that's about where I was hitting before the Tourstriker. Here's a list of my iron distances before and after the TS (not that the distances are that great with the longer irons). Before - After SW: 90 - 115 PW: 110 - 130 9i: 120 - 145 8i: 135 - 160 7i: 145 - 170 6i: 155 - 180 5: 165 - 190 4: 175 - 200 3: 185 - 215 My ball flight is straighter and compresses better. For putting Phil's book helped, and for everything I loved Stan Utley's books. The best putting tip was from this forum: the balls breaks on the way to the apex so add a little more break. Has made a big difference. Anyway, thanks again for your post and good luck breaking 80! Still trying to do that myself! Soon hopefully :)

Oh, do I hear you there! Two years ago I decided to get more serious about learning golf instead of just going to the range, and hoping I'd break a 100 once in a while. So I signed up for Golf Tec, and did that for close to a year. Man, that was a waste of time and money. Swing maybe 10 times during a lesson and nothing that I could actually repeat. It all looked pretty good by their rotation numbers, but still hitting the ball fat most of the time. Very frustrating. During one of the practice sessions I started experimenting with keeping my weight more forward and the results were encouraging. Still, it felt a little like cheating on my instructor. After the lessons were finished, I decided enough was enough and clearly this swing was not working. I saw the S&T; commercials on TV, read the Golf Digest article and went to the range. First ball I hit (6 iron) went a 170 yards (maybe 140 yards before) and the compression felt fantastic. I was hooked like never before. About 5 weeks later I broke 90 for the first time. Gone was the slice, and suddenly there was a nice draw. Due to a lack of playing, I did stay stuck in the low nineties and then earlier this season I picked up the S&T; book again (I had a copy last year but gave it away to my dad who needed it too!). In addition to the book, I bought the TourStriker Pro (7 iron) and The Impact Zone. While my rounds are still seesawing, I am pretty consistently in the mid to high 80s now. Yesterday I played 9 holes at my new club, and shot 40 for the first time in my life. I've also been reading the Stan Utley's short game books, which has helped immensely. Read the S&T; book for sure. For $10, the Impact Zone is worth reading I think. Both books helped me get a much better understanding of the swing and ball flights. I can actually work the ball a little now, and enough to get around most trees. As for range vs course, I think the main difference is that on the range it is easy to focus on your swing and not worry about the ball. Target, swing, success. On the course, I find I generally stay too focused on the ball, which causes the swing pattern to change dramatically from the range. When I don't focus on the ball and just focus on a smooth takeaway, it takes care of itself. Easier said than done though. Anyway, I agree with the other post that said that thinking 'you suck' versus 'what can I learn from that' is another key ingredient. Obviously we want to score well, but I'd suggest playing it one shot at a time. Thinking it through, hitting it and learning from it. Then, regardless of your score, you are playing golf instead of merely scoring golf. You'll have more fun and the scores will start dropping as a result from learning. One final comment re S&T.; The last few weeks I've been playing the Nullarbor course in Australia with my dad. He's not a great golfer (100-110) but he was hitting the ball pretty straight all week, just no distance. When we got to Perth, I asked him if he would indulge and go to the range and try S&T; for a session (he never read the book I gave him!). If it didn't work, he should forget all of it and go back to his normal (not terribly effective) swing. As we got the range, I had him a bunch of 5 irons. They went 125 yards on 'good' hits. I took a video of it, and he had a massive weight shift to the right on his back swing. So I started with him trying to start more centered. After a few shanks, he hit one solid. It flew 160 yards (I know, nothing spectacular but major improvement nonetheless). As we followed through the steps, he started hitting nice draws. I added the tee in front of the ball, and he started compressing the ball. Within 15 minutes, he went from hitting 125 yards to consistently hitting 175 yards. I think it was the best birthday present I could have given him because he was grinning the remainder two days of my visit. We played golf the final day, and although his score did not magically improve overnight, the quality of his shots did. One of his friends joined us and said he'd never seen my dad hit the ball so well. I know this forum is S&T; heavy - and with good reason. I spent thousands on instruction from PGA professionals to little avail and just more frustration ("I have all these lessons and I still cannot beat my friends!"). The $25 for the S&T; book is the best investment you can make, and it will improve your game and enjoyment. Good luck!