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Big Lex

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Everything posted by Big Lex

  1. Big Lex
    Once. Well, I stopped playing, but didn't walk off. I was playing with @billchao, and on the third hole I took a swing and felt what can only be described as the sensation of a knife being buried into the base of my neck, between my shoulders. I tried one more swing after that, and realized I was done for the day. It ended up being done for the season, too. I did, however, stay with Bill and escort him around my course as he completed his round.
  2. Big Lex
    Day 64 (9/27/22). I worked on the impact preset drill. Driver, foam balls. Then went to real balls and tried to get to the same impact position from a normal address and about a 1/2 length backswing. Finished with a few minutes of the same thing with an old 2 iron.
  3. Big Lex
    I've played graphite for about 8 years...well, Aerotech i95, which are a composite including both graphite and steel fibers. I switched when I bought a set of irons at Club Champion that year, and I was able to test them side by side with other shafts. I felt like they didn't have the same spongy, springy feel as other graphite shafts. They felt closer to steel. One advantage to graphite can be the vibration reduction, which can help if you have tendonitis.
  4. Big Lex
    Day 63 (9/26/22): Indoor practice into net/screen. Impact pre-set drills, transitioning to 3/4 swings. Started with the impact pre-set, swing back to P2, swing forward to finish. Four times with foam balls, then one real ball. Then switch clubs and repeat. I did about 8 cycles of this over about 30 minutes, using most of the clubs in the bag including teed up driver. Then I switched to normal set up, and practiced a P3 length backswing and then getting to the impact position again and freezing. Did this 5-6 times then would hit a foam ball. I finished with 8 real balls, swing length about P3.5. I concentrated throughout the entire session on trying to let my lower body drive the swing. Pushing into the ground with the right leg going back, recenter, then push with the left leg into that impact position and the finish. I practiced about 45-50 minutes. The first 30 minutes were difficult but I forced myself to keep doing the present/tiny swing thing and not get ahead of myself. Quality of striking increased as the session went on. I finished really well, just flushing the last 4 shots with good direction and very little sidespin. Making progress.
  5. Big Lex
    Day 62 (9/25/22): I continued working impact drills and played 11 holes at my course. Hit some very nice iron shots and putts. Driver was bad for the first 5-6 holes then was better. Everything was on the golf course. I shot 50 for 11 holes. Finished with some strength training tonight.
  6. Big Lex
    Day 61 (9/24/22): I worked on impact position in very abbreviated swings with real golf balls. Then I played about 12 holes at PGA West Stadium Course on the simulator. That. Course. Is. Unbelievably. Difficult. Good luck if you miss a green basically anywhere. Holy moly. I’m going to Palm Springs and was planning to play it so I think I need to play it about 50 times on the sim before I go there.
  7. Big Lex
    Day 60 (9/23/22): Today I worked on impact drills in the morning, slowly, deliberately, with foam balls, and alternating between short and long clubs. Later in the day I was testing fairway woods in the store, and after that at home I practiced some 3/4 swings trying to get the impact feel. I probably had it on maybe 1/3 of the swings; when I have more time tomorrow I will set up video and look at some real swings to see how it's coming.
  8. Big Lex
    Some really great ideas in this thread. I love the things people suggested about graphics, like listing probabilities or SG type numbers...in general I would like there to be less talking, less describing, and more enriching information. I like the things they are doing with camera work, that cinematic camera for example, and would like to see more of that. I would like to see more close up club-ball interaction or even closeups of the players faces or something during the hits. These could be on replays, like they already do to some extent, just more of it or different scenarios. I don't know if it's possible to show the shot tracer but show it from the perspective of the landing area; that might be interesting to see in some situations. I went to the Texas Open in 1993 or 1994, when it was at Oak Hills (?) in San Antonio, before they moved it to the bigger course. The ropes were extremely close to the teeing areas, and there was something really cool about being that close to them, where you could see and practically feel how dynamic and powerful the movement was and so forth. It would be cool if with these new cameras there was a way to capture that. In fact, we watched Fred Couples on one tee and I remember thinking that his swing was alot more violent and powerful in person than it seemed on TV.
  9. Big Lex
    I rarely watch interviews anymore; I find all of them boring. After about 5 years of watching sports post-game interviews, you've heard just about every question and every answer.
  10. Big Lex
    Day 59 (9/22/22): More impact preset drills. The small swings from here were great tonight. Then I tried to extend it and do some from a normal address. This was harder tonight than last night. I 32 foam balls in all over about 45 minutes of practice.
  11. Big Lex
    I was referring to strokes gained around the green, not approach the green. Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green Strokes gained: around-the-green measures player performance on any shot within 30 yards of the edge of the green. This statistic does not include any shots taken on the putting green.
  12. Big Lex
    I thought the same thing most do, that I'd want the up-and-down. Seems like a no-brainer. I looked at strokes gained out of curiosity. 2022 PGA Tour Strokes gained stats: From the tee: #1 ranked player: 1.025 SG, #100: 0.017 SG, #193 (last place): -1.5 SG. Range = 2.575 difference between first and last Around the green: #1 ranked player: 0.519 SG, #100: 0.026 SG, #193 (last place): -0.747 SG. Range = 1.266 difference between first and last. This suggests that at the tour level, a player has more to gain by improving their driving than improving their shots around the green. Thoughts?
  13. Big Lex
    Have you played Wolf Creek alot? What do you like about it? I played it once, in the spring of 2021.
  14. Big Lex
    Day 58 (9/21/22): Today I did more of the impact preset drill. Did them slower, more deliberately, with more exaggeration of the position. I used foam balls for most of it, real balls for maybe the last 8-10 reps. I did the drill with every one of my clubs at least once, including a teed up driver. I had to almost actively inhibit my upper body from moving; the thought was to drive the entire little swing with pressuring the feet into the ground. Results were better than last night. Clean contact with good face control. I finished with about 4 swings starting from a normal address, rehearsing to the impact a few times, then swinging. All of these felt like great swings, with correct lower body action, and my shoulder working more to the left after impact and no standing up/early extension. Very encouraging session.
  15. Big Lex
    It will definitely fold after 2025. It's dead in the water now.
  16. Big Lex
    Sands Point GC.
  17. Big Lex
    Day 57 (9/20/22): Today I recorded myself doing the pre-set impact drill from yesterday's lesson. Can I get into the position the teacher wants me in? Yes. If I pre-set, then take a short backswing, can I get _back_ to the position in the drill? Yes, if I'm just trying to return to the position. If I hit a ball, I get probably 80% of the openness of the preset. However, it's too hard to freeze the video at impact at normal speed to know for sure. So tomorrow I will put the recording on slow motion and work that way. Can I do it in any type of swing where I start from a normal address (no pre-set)? Nope. I tried it on about a 9-3 swing, and I get to the finish position, where the club is exiting in the right place and the trail shoulder works down and around correctly, but I do not get the hips as open relative to the shoulders at impact. Not much at all. I have to learn to move my legs and lower torso more actively or sequenced better. This is gonna be a loooong slog getting this, but I'm gonna get it.
  18. Big Lex
    I like the TM Tour Response this year. I also like the Titleist AVX. The top tier balls are great too, but they cost a little more and I can't see where they help me any. I was a GD Hot List panelist for their first few years, and I did ball testing a couple of different ways. For me, it didn't really make any difference. Either premium/top tier ball or the next one down were always fine. In the "better player" and pro testing categories, at least the years I was involved, there were also zero repeatable difference.
  19. Big Lex
    A lesson.
  20. Big Lex
    Day 56 (9/19/22): Took a lesson from my teacher. Decided my priority issue is to get the lower body more open at impact, and more lateral spine tilt. I've been improving this a little on my own using the Kwon drills, but the teacher wanted me to try to do some pre-set drills to get a better feeling of it, and to exaggerate it, and then work up to little swings from there. So I set up with the hips quite open but the shoulders square, right shoulder low/lateral spine tilt, hands ahead, weight forward. From there, rotate the hips to take the club back to about 9:00, then rotate through to 3. We recorded one to show that I was doing it correctly, and having the trail shoulder work more left after impact. Looked great but man it hurt getting into these positions. I did about 50-100 of these after the lesson.
  21. Big Lex
    I don't have one to share yet...but I like thinking about yours. There are all sorts of risks no matter which option you choose, and I would have accepted I'm making at least bogey and would be trying to avoid triple. So I would be trying to get on the green in no more than 2, but give myself a chance of getting on in 1 if I'm lucky. Even chipping backwards, to avoid the risks of the tree AND the pond, still leaves you with a little shot over a bunker. I think I would have hit toward the bunker and tried to get it to run through the bunker...maybe punch intentionally off the toe or hooded, sort of so it has a chance to scuttle through the sand. Hitting toward the water is just scary because it's easy to hit little shots thin.
  22. Big Lex
    Day 55 (9/18/22): I practiced a bit hitting foam balls at home, working on pivot and rhythm, then a few real balls. I was waiting to be called into work for something, but didn't know when it would happen, so I went to the golf course. I took a cart out and played. Conditions were very difficult. The course was wet and playing very slow, and the rough was thick and long, so you would hit a ball 4 steps off the fairway and lose it. Since I was playing alone, I lost alot of balls on shots that weren't really that bad. Ball striking was C- (kept it on the golf course and distance was pretty good, but not even one really flush, perfect strike), management, aiming, clubbing, etc. was A-. It's amazing how much simulator practice helps with this. I knew about how much offline I could be with each club, and so it was easy to pick clubs and aim. I had 3 shots from 40-80 yards that I hit within 12 feet of the hole. I also had a bunch of thin hits, a couple of bladed shots, awful blocks with the driver (but which weren't disasters because I was ready for them). Surprisingly, the simulator practice helped alot with short game chips and pitches, and with putting. My distance control for short game and putting was as good as I can ever remember doing. The disappointment was not being able to fix the ball striking on the course. On the simulator, if I am doing something really bad, I can usually get it moving back toward a good pattern within 10-12 swings. Not so on the golf course.
  23. Big Lex
    Day 54 (9/17/22): I practiced and played (alas, simulator again; as I worked most of the day). I was working on proper pivot, proper transition movement, rhythm, and the feel of pulling up and left on the handle through impact. Striking was not as good as last week, but still better. The path remains really solid. The pulling up feel seems to prevent me from complete ulnar deviation and unhinging, so I get more thin hits. Also, trying to work on an impact hand feel AND a transition feel is hard and when I swing at speed in the simulated rounds, I get out of sequence. I played a course at 7000 yards because I wanted to see what it was like. I did ok; shot 85 after opening with a quad on the first hole, and having several 3 putts. After the round I went back to 40 yard-ish shots with a wedge to work on the transition move and the up/left handle pull feel.
  24. Big Lex
    Day 53 (September 16, 2022): More full swing work, Kwon drill-based swings. Continuing to get very nice swing path numbers, and probably the best face to path I've had since I got this launch monitor--on maybe half of the shots. But face angle variation was higher on the bad shots, so something was creeping in there. Anyway about 1 hour of drills and ball hitting. Working this weekend but I hope to get out and play.
  25. Big Lex
    Current variant in my area seems to be causing limited respiratory symptoms, and most of them upper. I don't think our hospital has any inpatients with COVID pneumonia right now. In fact I think our only COVID inpatients are incidental positives (screening before surgery, etc.). My son had it this week and lost his voice for a day, had a headache, and lots of weakness. He was 95% better in 2 days. He had the primary series sort of late in the game, but no boosters. I had my last booster (3rd dose overall) 10 months ago. It will be interesting to see if I get any symptoms.
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