pound puppy

That sounds to me like he's saying you have no control over the amount of fade or draw you produce. Your swing has certain characteristics and that is that. Find out what you have and learn to live with it. Suppose I need 5 yards of fade and I naturally have 25 yards of fade? Do I just live with it? Not likely. For years, I went between a nice fade on good days to a severe slice on bad days. In the last two years, I've converted to hitting a fairly well controlled draw on demand, simply by changing my body and club alignment.

I will admit that everything I can find on the subject does indeed say that face angle is the most important part of launch path. For some reason it looks like the vectored forces would favor the swing path because of the high speed. I guess not.

I saw the video and what he seems to be saying is that when I want to start the ball down the right side of the fairway and draw it back to the middle, I should square the club face with the right side of the fairway because that will be the launch path, regardless of swing path. Is that right, and if it is, how does one control the amount of draw? By adjusting the in~out angle of the swing?

Look up the Jimmy Ballard video on Youtube where he explains how to draw the ball without all the grip, swing, rotation, etc changes that everyone suggests. He explains it in less than two minutes, there are no swing changes, and his method works for me.

I don't have time to look it up, but my guess is that where you drop your ball will be more dependent on "nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole" than it will on whether theh drop happens to improve your lie.

I think it was Lee Travino who said, "Drive for show, putt for dough...but if you can't drive, you won't be putting for much dough". Lee was the Yogi Berra of golf.

I agree with phillyk. You can control a nice smooth flowing swing much better and much more consistently. For most people, increasing swing speed means just swinging harder, and that makes things hard to repeat, which is the key.

Give his method a try. As you can tell by what's going on in the PGA, not every instructor is for every golfer. If he can teach you how to do what he does, it might improve your game. Edited I just watched the videos that Zeph posted (thanks) and the instructor may technically be right but I think he is forgetting that the path of the swing has an instant effect on the ball direction, either left or right of center, but side spin takes time to work. His slow motion swings prove his point but are not imparting realistically proportionally forces to the ball. Simple vectoring tells me that, if the face is open 10*, roughly 81% of the force on the ball is on the swing line (with a square face giving 100% force) with 19% going to side spin. I wonder how the instructor in the video would teach hitting a draw from the right edge to the middle of the fairway. It seems that he would say to square your club face with the right side of the fairway...but then what? How does he plan on getting the ball to work back to the left?

I shredded my right rotor cuff muscles about three years ago and believe me, your arm will get no where near horozontal...in front or to the side, if you damaged yours. It is also my experience that the rotor cuff isn't used much, if at all in the golf swing. Sadly I played the same after the injury as before. ;-( The first test they did on me was to have me face a wall from about 18 inches away, put my fingers on the wall and walk them up like a spider. If you can do that without wetting your pants, you may have another problem. One thing for sure, if it were something effecting MY golf swing, I'd have it checked by a doctor because certain injuries CAN destroy your golf game. Good luck.

Here's what I see in my own game when a new person joins. If the newbie is AT my level, I tend to push things just a bit physically...a bit harder swing to try go gain an edge. This MAY get me through the round 1 or 2 strokes better than my average round. If the newbie is WAY BETTER than my, I tend to try to play my game smarter to keep from throwing away strokes with bad decisions. I spend that extra 5 or 6 seconds it takes to make a last second alignment check, or take an extra practice swing. This MAY get me through the round 1 or 2 strokes better than my average round. If the newbie has a HIGHER HANDICAP than me, I tend to relax and maybe try some shots that I don't normally use in a close round...you know the one, a low draw under a tree limb, over water, and sand, into a hard fade wind, to a rock hard green, from 125 yards. ;-) This MAY get me through the round 1 or 2 shots better than my average round. Or not. Regardless of outcome, I like playing with different people of any skill level. I've played courses that periodically had manditory random group selection so it wasn't the same guys playing with the same guys all the time...and it prevents someone stacking a team. Those nights were fun to play.

I use a cheap, light nylon sleeve "walking" bag with 5 or six clubs, a towel, and some balls. The normal bag on my cart probably weighs at least 45#...14 clubs, a couple dozen balls, towels, various brushes and club cleaning thingies, dozens of tees of various lengths, first aid kit, sun screen, 2 pair of socks, laser range finder, etc...just the essentials.

Try going to a sporting goods store and buying a set (4) of the fiberglass poles used in cheap dome tents. I think the set I have cost less than $10. You can also go to a home store and buy water pipe insulation sticks which are made out of foam rubber and are about 1 1/4 inch in diameter and won't hurt your club if you hit it. I think they come in 3 or 4 foot lengths and are very cheap. I also posted pictures in my profile of two training aids I saw advertised and made them myself for a lot less than MSRP. Cheap is good. :-)

I'm betting that if you try to extend your backswing, you'll develop more swing plane problems, at least for a while. You may be able to do flexability exercises to help, but if you try to force your turn beyond what your body is comfortable with, you'll have problems.

My game lives or dies by the high lob/flop shot inside of 60 yards because of the nature of my home course. I always carry a 60* wedge, and sometimes a 65*, depending on conditions. I've learned to aim slightly short and to the left of the pin, and let the natural side spin move the ball to the right when it hits. It takes practice...LOTS OF PRACTICE. In any given week, I'll practice my lob/flop shots ten times more that I do drives.

Thanks for the input. I did find some more information on the incident and I think it was ruled that the ball was not in motion when his putter hit it. The ball would be replaced next to the hole with a 1 stroke penalty. Either way, better him than me...which it usually is. :-(

I own 11 and found it a way to make it through midwest winters, at best. I ordered a gizmo called a Chicken Stick that lets you put the Wii controler on a very much shortened golf shaft, complete with Golf Pride grip. It makes the game a lot more fun and playable by adding distance to your shots. The entire thing is short enough to swing in a room with a 7" ceiling (I'm 5'10"). A couple things I'd like to see in a new version would be an on-demand shot tracer for any shot, like in the "club tuner" section of 11, and a better view of the ball in flight.

Don't worry, Dark Hunter, it will get worse. I once had a round of 31 on the front, 50 on the back. It was a nine hole course so it was the same holes twice.

I use the course markers but inside of 200 yrds, I use the laser for such things as distance to front or back of green so I know a general minimum and maximum range.

Here's one to test you. On the Golf Channel the other night they had videos of unusual happenings and this was one of them: A guy has a short putt for what I took as being the win. As the ball eases up to the hole, the guy flips his putter in the air in celebration. The ball lips out. The guy freaks out. He drops the putter and the grip hits the ball. I figure that was 1 stroke penalty. In his attempt to grab the putter before it hits the ball, the guy gets the shaft between his feet and trips. When he falls down, he falls on the ball. I figure that would be a 2 stroke penalty if taken by itself. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that, regardless of what happens, you can only be penalized 3 strokes. Anyone know about this one?

I'm your speed freak's worst nightmare. I'm that SOB who wipes his clubs after ever shot and puts the head cover back on before moving down the fairway. My group all use carts so we don't have any problem with someone walking out ahead of everyone else. I've played with people who almost wanted to run from hole to hole. These were the kind of nervous Nelly who stands with their hand on the flag stick when you're trying to chip on. The best thing about them is that they are usually easy to beat if you throw them off their tempo. If I were you, I'd either tell speedy to find another group to play with, or make his round so slow and miserable that he'd find a different group on his own.