phillyk

Well this has been a disaster of a summer, regarding playing. Played the least amount of golf in a summer since 2008. Yips on short game to partial wedges came in full hog. Full swing continued to be ok. Putting was the best part of my game. Handicap went from +2.5 to now 0.0. The number of rounds were low because I taught much more. Numbers are up over 50% from last year. A great thing but my own game was sacrificed and it annoys me a little. Short game really suffered from lack of play and practice. I had rounds where I would lay sod over the ball, from the rough with a decent lie, looking at a simple chip from barely off green uphill to a pin. It would happen several times a round. I resorted to putting or using a 2iron to chip with. Obviously the less short game shots meant full swing was good. But, if it was off a little, I was screwed. My right wrist, elbow and knee all buckled and jerked right before impact. I couldn’t stop it. Tried everything I could think of. I went through a week occasionally that something would work, but never stuck. I remember not even having a club in hand. Just looking down at the ball and knowing I was in trouble. A couple weeks ago, I watched a short game chef video on chipping and it has really helped turn my short game around. Yips aren’t completely gone, but very minimal now. Most of my issues now are distance control as the flight is slightly different. It was clear that I was too steep before. But I also realized I was decelerating quite a bit and trying to compress it for spin. Now, I’m much more neutral in setup. I’m really focusing in the very beginning of my take away and making my chest do everything there. If hands do anything to start, it will be a yip chunk or skull. I’m Trying to take shorter backswings and accelerate more through the ball without a feeling of “compressing” it. Allowing my draw biased motion to do its thing. It’s resulting in much higher ball flights which means distance control up to 75yds will have to be reworked. The ball still has plenty of spin. I’m also able to use any club now to chip with versus feeling stuck with one. My goal this off season is to try and break 60 from the forward tees at my home course. It will focus my game on tee shots and short game. Putting has become almost second nature and am not worried about it. Most of all, I need to figure out a better balance next year between work and play. Maintaining a high level of play is important to me (especially to my stress levels 😆).

I ask nearly all my students to grip in air in pre shot routine. Much easier to set in fingers.

As a Srixon staffer, I mainly use the z star xv. However, the -prov1x is a really good ball for my game. If I find other balls, I give them away to friends.

From your description, you need to work on a consistent-ish club face at impact. Most practice swings have open faces and variable paths due to the conscious thought that goes into them, so you need to swing at a ball for us to help.

My course has A LOT of tree roots that are in play. Nothing we can do about it. As a municipal, the city is very against cutting any trees down, until absolutely necessary. I didn’t know about this local rule, so good to know.

I’m not sure what the laws/rules say, but I would assume they could lose their spray license for creating hazardous conditions for people. We try to have a 30min gap from when the green is sprayed and when the first group plays on it. You certainly can’t spray when it’s windy or too wet.

SAM putt lab talks about perspective straightness putting. I did it with 6 ladies Friday. 3 needed their eye line inside the ball, 1 left, and 2 directly above. Putting, we can change posture and many things and still make a good stroke. That’s not necessarily so for full swing. Of course, if I’m using a driver/any club and standing in address, my looking at an alignment stick 10yds out along ball line will look right. Our eyes are not on ball line. I’d wonder what he would say about those that don’t use intermediate targets for alignment. Also, are people picking an intermediate target that’s 10yds in front of them? He’s right that most people don’t perspectively see straight. But i disagree that it fixes a slice.

Saw it and went to look up how Anthony is playing on LIV. Basically dead last, with a recent DQ. Not much of a story.

When it comes to set up routine in regards to alignment, I generally prefer my students to: 1) clubface, 2) chest and 3) feet. When the foot alignment happens before chest alignment, we tend to have issues. I use this example often. I did an introductory flight for flight school, as a student gave me a certificate for it. As most new flyers are, I was staring at the instruments trying to be perfect. I was doing a 30 degree turn and didn’t realize the nose dropped. It had felt normal. The instructor said I had to learn what flat/level is in the air. Kind of a funny thing to say. He said to look at the horizon and nose and recognize their relationship, in order to determine level. In golf, we see straight from behind the ball. But, when we set up to the ball, we lose what “straight” is. Have someone hold an alignment stick across your chest when you are in full set up and recognize where your lead shoulder is pointing in relation to your target.

Some graphs from Dr Kwon’s research. I have these posted up at my golf school. Dark Blue line is arms. You can see it maxes angular velocity in between p2 and p3, in this graph. Right foot pressure maxes at approximately the same time. These graphs are an average of the pros he has measured.

I’d say it’s more caused by starting the swing with pressure too far into the heels. Another is a misunderstanding of body rotation on the backswing, as the lead knee bends forward to “fake” a hip turn. I wouldn’t recommend many people rolling the forearms. Although some people feel that, in order to feel the release of the clubhead to square it up for impact.

A pedestrian (someone working at a vendor for the event) died this morning from traffic near Valhalla. The cops are all probably on edge trying to keep everyone safe. It sounded like it was a solid miscommunication deal. However, a cop hanging onto your vehicle yelling stop usually means stop. I can’t imagine these guys driving more than 15mph around the entrance. Either way, I hope Scottie can play well and give it another tun.

I took a closer look at my scoring. All my birdies were down wind holes. My big mess up holes were into. I play enough with wind where I’m at. It comes back to the fact I tried to do too much with the wind. I should’ve played my game, not the wind game.

Played in another US Open qualifier yesterday. Same story, sort of, as Phoenix Open pre-qualifying. I shot a +5, 75, with 5 birdies, a triple, and 7 bogies. Chipping and pitching sucks. The course was Palouse Ridge. Very fun and interesting track. They played a couple shorter par 5s as 480-500yd par 4s. But as we say, par doesn’t mean much, still need to get lowest score possible. The wind protects this golf course. Length isn’t that bad with the firmness of fairways. Driver was ok, for most part. My plan for day was my fairway finding “bunt driver.” Basically hitting it low because of the wind. Normally it comes out as a cut. Throughout the round, it slowly went into a draw. My triple was from losing one left off the tee because I was set to cut it. After that, I played for the draw and it went well. Generally, throughout the day, I overestimated how much the wind would hurt when into the wind and cross the wind. So I went a little long on my approaches throughout. Chipping and pitching lost me at minimum 4 strokes. I worked hard on it, but I’m used to soft ground. The ground was firm here and I couldn’t play it confidently. I had 11/18 GIR. Two 3 putts hurt. Had two 2 putt birdies, one was a par 4. It really wasn’t bad. I just couldn’t get comfortable with my game the whole day. I had the moments, but then I got aimy and guidey. 2 things to sum it up, continue practice on short game and trust my normal shots versus trying to play stingers and punchers when the wind picks up. Next big event, I think, is our Section PGA Championship in September, which is at a close-ish course I’m very familiar with. So I’m excited for that. Summer is dedicated to some practice but mostly teaching. I’ve had a very strong start to the year. I want to keep it going.

Why do we care about 2nd place?! He LOST!!! You win or lose. Tiger’s accomplishments are of him being the best and winning. All anyone can come up with for Jack are majors and losing but “close.”

Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy learn how much loyalty is worth in new PGA Tour equity program Players are receiving a portion of a nearly $1 billion equity share for staying loyal to the PGA Tour amid... I’ve seen several outlets posting this.

High Powered tennis cannon. 😂

How sad and forced does this look?…. I’ve intentionally stayed away from LIV vs PGAT recently as I’m exhausted by it. I want the best playing the best. It’s all Greg vs Jay marketing. Terrible. I want the best to win. I don’t care if it’s a LIV, Euro, PGAT, or Am that wins.

Take swings at a ball. You’re not allowed to proceed into the downswing until you see the club head pop out of the left corner of your eyes. Go slowly at first, then speed up the swings always waiting for the club to appear.

Welcome! I’m one of the pros at Lake Padden in Bellingham. Where do you mostly play? Were you able to get out during our recent warm weather spell?

2 76’s is tough. Got to find a way to have fun tomorrow. Use it all as motivation to perform better next time.

I’ll recount this round more specifically, then answer your question. 1) hit normal, first tee shot, duck hookish drive left of fw. Hit a low, below the trees, 95yd 52 wedge to inside 10ft. Missed the putt. 2) cut drive, still missed ever so slightly left of fw. Put approach to 3ft, made birdie. 3) 2iron to mid fairway, had 130 in and hit pw barely over the green (within 20ft of pin). Hit a putt from the rough as it was straight downhill, made par. 4) par 3, hit front edge of green after a high toe chunk of a tee shot. Couldn’t get up and down. 5) par 5, perfect drive, left with 200 or so in. Missed green to the right but pin high, chipped to a tap in. 6) par 3 missed green short right, chip hit the pin and stopped close. 7) par 5, good drive, had 5iron in, missed slightly right but carried the bunker. 2 putt birdie 8- Good drive, missed fairway, but it’s a short hole and ended short right of green. 65yd pitch to inside 10ft. made the putt. 9) pounded the drive, approach from 45yds ended up inches from the hole. Birdie 10) missed drive right into the trees, punched out, had 105yds in and put my 56 to 4ft and made par. Key par there. 11) par 5, drive missed right of fw but still fine, hit 4iron to inside 20ft, 2 putt birdie. 12) par 3, thought i hit it perfect, bit landed mid green and spun to front. Had a tough uphill putt from 40ft or so. Made par. 13) par 5, good drive but slightly left of fw, hit 2iron to pin high right of green. Chip to 5ft, made the slider for birdie. 14) 315yd par 4, drove green (must have had a lucky kick, I’ve been plugging in front approach all winter), ended within 15ft and made the putt for eagle. 15) cut 2iron down left side fw, tucked right pin so did my normal draw off it to middle of green. Had 25-30ft, made par. 16) par 3, 150yds, tucked right pin again, hit 15-20ft away, made par. 17) hit hooky 2iron, but ok in left rough, had 100yds in slightly downwind, hit my 60 8ft past, made birdie. 18) hit 2iron hard down right but hit trees and kicked, luckily, slightly left back into fairway, had 130yds in and had my 52 to 4ft, made birdie. That is 7/14 fairways and 14/18 greens. Basically the driver was hit well, and for the most part, not in trouble and leaving short wedges in. From there I hit wedges really well, including many of the chip/pitch distances. When my game is around even par, there’s definitely no putts made and approaches aren’t as close. Mid to upper 60s means better approaches and some putts. Low 60s is good approaches with more putts made. Certainly making birdies on the 4 par 5s is important as well as making virtually no bogies. I’ve said it before about my game but when my driver is doing good, I’m doing good. If it’s not, I’m not. My full/partial wedges are the best part of my game. Pitching/chipping is getting a ton better. Putting is a lot better but variable depending on conditions. The game just happens to be aligning more the last few months.

Since the pre-qualifier, the game has remained ok, but my area got hit hard by snow/ice. So, greens went to crap at nearly every course around me. Hard to want to play good when you know there’s no trusting the line. It’s as bad or worse than aerified greens because of bumps and the speed changes between dormant/yellow grass and green grass. Plus maintenance won’t touch them, for good reason, until growth starts again. However, for some reason, today went well putting. Wasn’t thinking today would be special at all. Hit good approaches on 1 and 2, and only converted hole 2 for birdie. Bogeyed 4 after a mediocre chip. However, my short game really did well other than 4. Ended with 1 bogey, 9 birdies and an eagle to tie my PR of 62! 32/30 were the 9’s. Birdied all par 5’s but only got on in 2 on 3 of them, but the third shots were all easy enough chips. Drove the par 4, 14th and made the 15ft putt to go -8. Finished birdie birdie on 17 and 18 with 2 good approach shots. Crazy how a month ago I shot a series of crazy low scores, and now I popped another. Of course, I didn’t want them to end, but didn’t think today would happen at all. I think posting season starts March 1st. It’ll be interesting if I keep scoring like this. Handicap will drop a lot.

How many balls do you hit while looking for a more successful ball flight/result vs how many balls do you hit while exaggerating/focusing on feels to get a better motion? How many practice motions do you perform before each ball hit? In your video from today, you can see the flat shoulder plane start to develop in the first foot or two of clubhead takeaway. Your left hip is shooting towards the ball fast in that time period, which makes it hard to maintain postural bend in the backswing. Post a vlog of a practice or two, not just individual swings. That way there’s more accountability to practice correctly. It’s hard, even for really good golfers, to practice the right way for a whole session. In swing improvements can definitely take months to years to make. Learn to practice so that you can play when that white stuff goes away.

For shafts, as the stiffness increases (torque decreases), the weight increases. Elite shafts, more money, give option of keeping weight low with the lower torque. It certainly isn’t always the case. But if I want to keep the weight around 62g and find torque around 3.0, there is basically nothing unless you want to spend $300. Most people would never need an expensive shaft. The $50 ones are just fine. As skill and driver distance goes up and you want to get the right launch numbers, you may have to buy a more expensive shaft that fits you best.