GlasgowsGreen

Thanks guys

My next question is should I stick with this ball flight or should I try to correct it in anyway?

I have a pretty consistent ball flight with my irons: the ball starts straight then fades to the right. To compensate for this I aim 10-15 yards to the left of my target (depending on the length of my club). Can anyone please tell me what's causing this ball flight? My gut feeling is that I'm swinging on an inside path but the club face is slightly open at impact?

For me, learning golf is all about perseverance. It would be great to go back in time and only do the things that worked! Unfortunately that’s not possible; all we can do is keep working at it through the good times and the bad. There were countless times when I went up the wrong path; when I wrongly thought I had the drill that was going to transform my swing or the tip that was going to make every shot go straight. The best thing I did was persevere and understand that at times I was going to have to get worse in order to get better. Non-golfers will never understand what it’s like to spend years working at something and still look like you started yesterday. We’ve all had those nights on the range where you shank and slice every shot! Can you imagine any other sport where someone so experienced could perform so pitifully? On two occasions I literally had my foot on my 5 iron about to snap it on the range. I’d had enough! Fortunately I didn’t. The first time I beat my friends I was left with an 180 yard approach on the 18 th . I took my 5 iron out and played the perfect shot under pressure onto the green, where I made par and won for the first time. It’s little moments like that which make it all worthwhile in the end.

Comments and advice are welcome!

As you can see I still struggle with the early release! It's usually not quite as bad as this though! I've been working on keeping my weight more even on the backswing to stop me swaying to the right. On the downswing I have been working at sliding my weight left and finishing well balanced on my left heel.

Here's my swing over a year and a half later..

I've tried putting tape just behind the ball and it works really well. You can quickly reuse the same bit of tape over and over again as well so it's actually pretty convenient. Another method is putting tape about 6 inches in front of the ball. You then hit the ball and try and take the tape away as well. This is excellent way of intuitively stopping yourself from flipping and ensuring that you take a divot after contact.

I'll give that a try, thanks!

I now shoot under 100 and I believe once the season starts I will break 90 for the first time. I've got a DTL on my iphone and I'll hopefully upload tonight. I actually don't have an official handicap yet purely as I don't play medals and tend to play a lot of different courses as a visitor. I regularly shoot around 45 on my local par 33 and my record is 40. I hit balls for 30 minutes on the short range and I only visibly duffed one. On the proper range I'd expect to see a few push fades and the odd hook. However I know what you mean about letting you focus on making changes without worrying about the ball flight, and I certainly focused on getting nice crisp contact. Thanks for the comments

I’ve come across an indoor golf centre in Glasgow, Scotland which is very conveniently located for me. It has a chipping area with bunker, a separate putting green and a 30 yard range. http://www.indoorgolfacademies.co.uk/facilities The short game is something I neglect badly. The range I normally go to is well protected from the elements but the short game area is obviously outdoor and a no go area in bad weather or winter evenings. The thought of getting consistent short game practice is very appealing. It looks great but I’m wondering if a 30 yard range is really any use? My bad shot is a push fade. On this range though every shot has hit the net before you can see it’s true flight! I’m guessing that indoor artificial greens are perfectly fine for chipping and putting – is that generally the case? Interested to hear the views of people who have used similar facilities?

In the past I actively worked at shifting my weight onto my right side on the back swing. I would brace on my right leg however to prevent me from swaying to the right. This was the advice of my first golf pro. My current Pro however has advised against this. He wants me to have my weight evenly balanced at the top of the backswing (or even still slightly on the left). The reason being that even though I thought I was bracing on my right leg I was actually slightly swaying slightly to the right. This was a killer in terms of consistency. I now concentrate on keeping my head ‘still’ and my weight even balanced on both sides until I get to the top of my backswing. It made an immediate improvement on my ball striking but I felt that I missed that ‘loaded’ feeling I got from shifting to the right. I then came across a quote from Bobby Jones on this subject; “It is my definite opinion that there need be no shifting of the weight from the left foot to the right during the backstroke. I have examined numbers of photographs of the very best players and I have been able to find no case in which such a shifting was perceptible; there should occur during the hitting stroke a pronounced shift from right to left” What’s the general consensus on this?

Amen to that!

Thanks for that I'll give it a look. I also found 'Golfs Not A Game Of Perfect' to be a great book for similar type advice