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

A lot of these will be second nature to low/ mid handicappers but to others starting out they can be the difference between shooting 95 or 125! My favourites include; 1. Get a pre-shot routine and stick to it 2. If you can’t use a club consistently on the range don’t use it on the course yet. If you’re slicing every drive on the range then expect to lose a lot of balls if you take your driver out on the course! Even drop down to an Iron off the tee if that’s what it takes to keep the ball in play. 3. Play a safer shot with your provisional Nothing worse than seeing your provisional heading into OB territory as well! 4. Use that little black line on the ball to line up your putts! I was playing for about 2 years before I did this! 5. If you’re in the trees play out sideways; resist the temptation to try to hit a 3 hybrid through two trees, over a third tree, past a bunker onto the green. You are not Seve Ballesteros.

In another thread someone mentioned that a mid/high handicapper should aim at the centre of the green when pitching rather than attack the flag. Such a simple, easy to apply tip that could lower a lot of players scores immediately. So many golfers, myself included, spend hours practicing swing mechanics then go on the course and throw away shots by making stupid decisions. Has anyone else got any other simple playing tips to share?

I read somewhere that the reason for doing this is that as you are setting up about a quarter of an inch behind the ball, the club face will close slightly as it passes through that point; i.e. to hit the ball with a square club face you have to set up with a slightly open face. If you set up behind the ball with a square face you will actually be slightly closed at impact. Personally I felt that it allowed me to set up with my hands ahead of the ball but without the feeling that I was delofting the club / hooding the ball. It also seemed to encourage a more in to out swing path.

The other night my golf pro got me to address the ball with the club face slightly open . I was expecting to hit the ball right every time but the result was actually nice draws. I was still sceptical however and googled it when I got home. It didn’t take long before I found a Jack Nicklaus quote.. "I've never seen a really good player set it square or closed at address," Interested to find out other people’s views on this?

Love this.

Keep your head still during the backswing - don't sway AND Slide your hip towards the target at impact and really get the weight on your left side - don't let your weight fall back even slightly!

If you're in the rough just try and do your normal swing rather than try to hack the ball out

The ‘throwing the club’ drill is very interesting. To begin with the club will go spinning up into the air to the left of the target. However with a little practice you will soon be throwing the club low and straight. It’s very exciting when you see yourself on video and you are in the perfect impact position, with tremendous lag and the hands ahead of the ball. However the hard part is trying to repeat the swing when there’s the small matter of the ball in the way! I did the drill almost every day for 4 weeks. What it taught me was; That the correct weight shift is a very natural movement. It is simply the throwing motion that we have been doing since we were kids. You don’t even need a golf club for this drill – throw a tennis ball etc. 2. That lag is automatically created by the correct weight shift. It’s unconscious and simply a by product of the correct movement/ sequence. 3. The feeling of the club going straight through the ball rather than immediately flipping left Highly recommend this drill.

Note - I found that the ball placement on the mat makes a difference. At my range the mats are quite supple at the most common place that people hit from due to wear and tear. When I moved the ball back to the other side of the mat where it is slightly more solid I found it a lot harder to hit. It may be that the softer side of the mat is allowing the TS to get under the ball even with a flip?

I think this sums it up perfectly. Personally, I've recently changed my swing path and have been hitting a lot of fat shots. The TS is just what I need just now as it's a lot less forgiving and is forcing me to hit the ball first (or at least a lot nearer to the ball!). However people should be under no illusions that a good shot with a TS requires the hands ahead of the ball and a forward leaning shaft.