Grumpter

That seems odd to hit your 5i 150-160 and then your 5 wood only 160. I would expect 190-195 would be the average 5w for someone hitting a 5i about 155.

Hard to tell without a video but as a guess I would say it could be you are lifting your head early or are swinging with too quick a tempo. It's amazing how much keeping your head down and not overswinging can improve your swing. Stare at the back of the ball and make a smooth swing.

I third the "don't trust range balls distance". Also, we have one local course that measures to the back of the green. Of course they don't mention that they measure to the back you have to figure it out for yourself or be forwarned.

It was sweltering here last night but I did manage to hit a small bucket (about 40 balls) before the fear of metling set in. There was nobody to watch my swing so I had to concentrate to try to be sure I was not casting. The first few hits were little draws out on the toe as usual. I was fairly confident after a few more hits casting was not the problem. Turns out it was simple, something I had forgotten over the past few years of not playing much. I started swinging a little slower and keeping my eyes focused on the back of ball much longer than normal after impact. By the end of the bucket I had hit about 15 in a row near the sweet spot with decent distance, direction and ball flight. I'll need to reinforce it a few more times before I call it a solution but it looks promising. I really didn't think it was possible for me to swing too hard with the way my back has been.

I will have someone take a look while I am practicing at home. It is possible that I am casting but for the last few years I have had a slightly inside out swing due to back problems. Went from a big slice to a nice little draw. I only played 1 round last year, due to the back, so I have probably changed my swing a little from what it used to be. I thought it might be due to the weighting on my current clubs but I pulled out an older set and was doing the same thing.

I used to struggle with the same distances. I would have much rather been 125 yards out than 75. I would either decelerate a 3/4 backswing or try to muscle through a swing guessing at where I needed to take the backswing. This caused much inconsistency with my shots. The breakthrough for me came when I changed my thinking from "how hard do I need to hit this" or "how much do I need to take off the shot" to simply "how much of a backswing do I need". I practiced taking backswings where my left arm was parallel to the ground then tried a swing at roughly 6 inches below that. The key for me was swinging normally (accelerating at the speed of a normal shot), not decelerating or trying to muscle through the shot. By taking a normal shot (left arm parallel to ground) I was able to get the feel of the acceleration I wanted for the shot with the backswing 6 inches below that. Alternating back and forth until I felt comfortable. Once you get the first In between shot down it's easier to then decrease the backswing yet another 6 inches or so. Find the spots in your backswing that you feel are 1/4 swing, 1/2 swing and 3/4 swing. Once you know how far those go you can fine tune even more by going slightly over or under a 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 swing.

Quote: They should have gotten Aggasi to do the test. He's been practicing the "running shot" since long before Happy came along.

Gilmore keeps the back foot planted. Nice slow motion at 2:29 of this vid

Here is me at the range tonight. Took 5 normal swings without any swing thoughts and 4 of the 5 hit the toe of the club, 1 of the 5 was just toward the toe of the club. Next I tried hitting just inside the hosel which resulted in a pretty consistent pattern towards the toe of the club. Lastly I swung trying to intentionally hit the ball off the hosel (mark closest to the hosel). Anyone have some tips on how to correct missing this badly? The hooks are hurting what little game I have left.