spidermanning

Swalker – I purchased those little yellow balls, and have been using them, but I have a small backyard and I’ve been hitting them over the hosue and into the neighbors yards, so I’ve had to keep it to small chip shots, good idea though! The Recreational Golfer – Thanks for your top 10! They all seem very logical and more importantly useful for me and my game. I’ll spend some time memorizing this and hopefully some of it will sink in for me next time I’m on the course! Awmgolfer – great idea with the book, and I think you echo a bit from what others have said in terms of learning how to hit your scoring clubs to different distances. I think I’m going to book some time on Saturday and just take my wedges out to the range and hit my clubs to different points for an hour or two. Try to ingrain the different swings into myself.

Saevel – Great idea with the dowels, I don’t know if I’ve been working on too many things lately, but I try to minimize the amount of clubs I focus on and right now I’m working on Grip, Alignment & Ball position. I’m not sure if that is too much at once but I am making progress. Awmgolfer – I’m impressed that you have reached a single digit cap with a 220 drive, you will be insane once you get your distance up. Rustyredcab – I have watched some review for the Mizuno JPX-800 Pros & Mizuno JPX-800’s yerterday and both of them look like great clubs, though I think I’d rather go for the pros as I continue to work hard to improve I think they will last me longer. I’ll give your posts and review a look through, thanks! I’ve been told that I should start using video a lot more, I actually downloaded an app on my phone that will film me, play it back in slow motion and let me compare my swing to a lot of different pros. I haven’t used it too much yet, but it’s a good idea, because I’m sure like you I’ll be surprised at what I find.

TitleistWI – I’m curious on your posture if there are any specific changes you made that helped you? Mechanics I’m working on and am slowly improving, and as my swing improves so does my game. Alignment and aiming are also coming along it’s currently a big point of interest for me. I just picked up a couple alignment sticks and have started practicing with them, and am starting to understand how to aim properly with different clubs, this was a huge gap of mine. But posture I haven’t changed much at all, I’m trying to keep my chin up and back straight, make sure my feet aren’t too wide or narrow on different types of shots, but other than that I haven’t spent much time on that part of my game.

Rustyredcab – Thank you so much for your post. I really take a lot out of it. I haven’t picked Moe’s swing but I do have a model that I have just begun studying (two weeks now). So I’m encouraged to hear this worked for you and I will continue on with this. Unlearning really being the key for me, replacing old habits with new ones is a struggle but I enjoy it! Congratulations on reaching 6.1 on your cap, that’s quite the accomplishment! If you don’t mind me asking what did you used to play before the Mizuno JPX-800, and what changes have you seen since you switched from an equipment perspective? I had to laugh at the comment you made about trying to hit great shots versus avoiding hitting bad shots. On the weekend I lost at least 3 strokes from trying to save myself from a bad drive and hitting the ball to OB once and into the long grass and losing the ball twice. If I would have just taken an easy chip out to the fairway and made a good 3 rd shot I could have had a chance at par or at worst a well-played bogey. I think me realizing this and changing my approach to these situation will take a few strokes off my rounds. I don’t know my stats but putting for me easily kills my score some days, if I was a stronger putter I know that alone would have me breaking 80 from time to time. 1 putts seldom happen, 2 putts mostly, but 3 putts happen more frequently then I’d like to admit. Thanks again! Kieran – I had the same experience at the RCGA down south, he had me change to a very vertical swing with a lot of separation from my body. I tried it for a couple of months but I hated the feel of the swing. I’m playing much better since I quit seeing him and started working on it by myself.

Kieran – I have heard practice drills like hitting different clubs to the same distances, i.e. a 9i, 8i &7i all to the 150 yard flag, to teach you how to hit different clubs to different points, is that what you mean? Or are you referring more to learning your clubs such as if I hit my PW full it goes x yards, a 75% swing goes Y yards a 50% goes Z yards? Also a bit of topic, I see you are also from Calgary, have you found any good instructors around here? I tried lessons at the begging of the year but my instructor was terrible and I’m a bit jaded to them now although I do think with a good instructor they would help my game. Poser – Thanks for your post! That is too bad about your back and good luck with finding a swing that works for you. I completely agree on playing with better players to improve. I know that in the few rounds I’ve gotten to play with my boss (a single digit) this year I’ve been able to pick up a lot from him. But my normal group of golfing buddies are all shooting in the 110’s or above. It makes it hard to focus when you have such long waits between shots. I really should try to meet some stronger golfers to play with.

My question is one for the low handicappers (single digit or better ) out there who used to be mid/ high handicappers. What were some of the key things you learned about the game that enabled you to start scoring consistently in the 70’s or even 60’s. I know the biggest factor has to be simply playing more & quality practice time. But if you could be more specific on things you learned that changed your way of thinking, how you approach the game, swing, strike the ball, select clubs, hit into greens, anything really that helped you get out of the 80’s or 90’s to where you are today, I know I for one would be very interested in seeing what worked for other people and see if there are some things I could apply to my game to hopefully help me down a similar path.

What helped me this year for my slice is moving my right thumb (I'm a lefty) well left on the grip. It's a much stronger grip then I used to use and it helps me use my wrists more in my swing to close to club face, that plus choking down on the grip and having a slower smoother swing has really helped me straighten out my drives.

Thank you for the message I really appreciate it. I think I will take your advice and go see a teaching pro first, have him look at my swing and ask him if he thinks I should go for a fitting right away or wait for a bit while I continue to work on my swing. I don’t think my swing is where it needs to be yet, but it’s coming along and I plan to continue working at it, I guess I’ll see what he says. Thanks!!

I was at the range last night and I ran into a guy I used to work with and we got to talking. Found out he is the club champion and has been now for 4 years running. I asked if he didn’t mind taking a look at my swing and see if he see’s anything. I bought a new hybrid last week (Adams Pro Black 20 degree) and I love the club but I’m having problems hitting it consistently. I’m struggling a bit on the alignment of the club, I’m not quite sure when it is square to my target, the slight offset on the club is going to take me a bit of time to understand at address. So I’ve been playing with it, opening and closing it a bit and the ball goes left or right depending on that. Anyways I setup and thought the club was square and I hit to flush, the ball exploded of the club face but ended up going well right of my target line. I’ve been struggling with this issue on my irons as well. Everyone once and awhile I catch the ball clean and it explodes off the club at least 10 yards further than normal and tracks to the right. Most of the time the ball flight is pretty straight or even a small fade (slice on an off day) but this shot comes out of nowhere every once and awhile. I asked him if he saw anything and he said my alignment, grip and swing all looked great and he thinks my shafts may need to be looked at. The shaft in my hybrid is the voodoo stiff flex that comes with the Adams and the shafts in my irons are the standard shaft that came with last years Cobra SZ. He then introduced me to a friend of his that conveniently inside the club house at the time. He owns his own shop in town and does shaft fittings, he said give him a call and he will set me up. So thanks for reading the background behind my question. What my question is first has anyone had to deal with this issue before, the exploding shot to the right? Second on shaft fittings, I feel my swing is improving a lot this year, I’m now consistently driving the ball 280 – 310 yards, I’m having far fewer miss hits with my irons, starting to create backspin with them and hitting a lot more greens. But I also know I have a ways to go, I’m still a 12 handicapper, and there are a lot of flaws in my game. My swing will need to be tweaked and improved quite a bit more for me to find the consistency I’m looking for, and because of that is it too early for me to be thinking about shaft fittings, or is this something I should be jumping on? Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

I like the idea, I’ve thought about doing that before. Pretend the range is an 18 hour course and approach it as such. That way you are continuously switch up your clubs and targets just as if you were on the course. A side question to this, for when I am out on the range tomorrow does anyone have a good drill to help improve ball striking? I know the one comment was pick one thing and focus on that while on the range. My biggest issue right now is hitting the ball consistently. I quite often I hit fat or even thin shots. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks guys for all the input! I think first I need to go take a look at all of these clubs and try hitting them. From what we have talked about I do have a couple of favourites now in mind that I’ll probably narrow it down to and then see which one feels better for me. I’m also going to consider replacing my PW with an Eidolon wedge down the road .

I have a question for you guys about the range. I have most of tomorrow off and would like to go spend at least a few hours hitting balls. I played last night and had a lot of frustration with my game due to inconsistency, and feel I need to just go hit balls for a while to work some things out. So my questions to you guys is, what do you do on the range when you practice to keep it challenging and interesting? Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t love going to the range, but after about an hour I start to either want to go out on the course or call it. I’m curious what others do to keep themselves in it.

I'm pretty sure it's not difficult for them to fit a used club. I asked the guy at my shop if he could do the same to my old one and he said sure. But that's the thing with wedges and grooves, I think they loose their bite after awhile.

Fair enough, if they are a last year model they are probably harder to find now. I did find some online though for like you said $89. Same with the black. If you were to pick from the two which would you go with?

Golf4ever – One of the things I’m very curious about, and might discover when I got and hit them myself is what the differences between the CG14 and Vokey’s are? Because of where the wife works I can get a very good deal on the CG14’s, but not the Vokey’s. So if they are both fairly equal, that makes my decision much easier. WUTiger – I’m curious that the Gold Inserts have the old zip grooves that spin more, would that not be a benefit for me? I’m mean I’m no pro golfer and don’t need to worry about those rules so would it be a bad idea for me to use the Gold? Tws1098 – I used to play the NXT’s a lot, because the price was very good for the ball I felt. But I didn’t get a lot of stopping power around the green with them. I think I need to keep working on my swing to really take the ball to it’s limits though, so it’s probably good for what I need, but I’ll be curious to see how that develops as my ball striking improves. Mike French – Thanks for the link! It’s very interesting where they are going with the idea. They sell a four pack of wedges and I’d be able to replace my pitching wedge with one of their clubs, which is an idea I really like. My 46 degree wedge doesn’t need to be nearly as offset as it is, and I think I would have much more control over it if it was more of a bladed club. Which is why I’ve always been interesting in a combo set of irons. The article really made me think it would be awesome if Cleveland, Nike, Titlelist etc… made 46 or 47 degree wedge, because myself personally I’m more confident going with a company I know versus something that is more unproven in my eyes. Although I’m sure they make a incredible club.