ScT1

Back in the early 90s, I hit a goose with a ball struck by a persimmon 3-wood. It stopped the ball dead in front of the green of that long par-3. So far, I've never been struck by any balls, a couple of close calls on mishit irons by playing partners, and I've had a couple of balls roll up near to me while standing out in the fairway. The most recent was a case of guy pulling his shot left at the hole next to the one I was one, the other one was the case of a guy who had been sort of jumping up and down behind my group all day long, although we weren't the problem of the tepid pace -- the course was backed all the way up. The guy should have known better, we were standing out there obviously waiting to hit our second shots from the positions of our drives, but he went ahead and hit his drive. It rolled about 5 yards past me. I pulled a broken tee out of my pocket, picked up his ball, and then teed his ball up in the fairway and left it like that. Funny enough, his group then backed off for the rest of the round, so I guess the message got through -- back off, I'm being polite enough to not stomp your ball into the ground, or steal your ball, or whack it off into the woods, but I'm giving you a polite message to not be a dick. My guess is that his playing partners probably slapped him down a bit.

Last year, I had a round which had a golf shot that I've sometimes puzzled over. It happened at the 16 hole during my best round of the year, a 10 over par 82, where I had shot 39 on the front, but after leaking some shots from holes 13 to 15, I arrived at the 16th and jokingly said to the others, "I only need birdie-birdie-eagle to break 80." My tee shot got pulled some and ended up in the light left rough, about 145 yards out to green with a tree in the way. My first thought was how I would need a 7-iron to cover the distance, or maybe a hard 8-iron, but neither of those would get the ball up enough to clear the tree. So I decided I would hit a 9-iron and try to put the best and hardest hit I could on it. Even so, I expected that it would probably at best reach the front of the green. Instead I hit the shot. The shot. There was almost a crack sound when I struck it and the ball climbed up like a rocket and zipped through a couple of leaves on the top edge of the tree and flew with a beautiful purpose towards the flagstick. It was the most beautiful looking 9-iron shot I've ever hit. It landed on the green, took one bounce forward and then stopped, just a foot and half left of the hole and a tap in birdie. Often since then I would puzzle over it. How did I hit that shot? Where did all the distance come from with how high the ball flew? Now, with the pure ball striker, I think I've pieced it together -- on that swing last year, I lagged the club like I rarely lag it. I lagged the club and it compressed the ball. I've pieced that together now after the last 3 evenings when I go out on to the lawn after work and practice hitting short pitch shots. While I've always known I should have the hands in front of the clubhead, I don't think I've done it all that consistently or well. And I've never really learned what my hands should feel, what the right index finger should feel. But the PBS has given me that feel for the first time, and last evening I began to feel it more clearly when I swung a club without the PBS too. Using the PBS and what I've learned on this site about ball flight, clubhead angle and swing path, I've also begun to have great success at a chipping game I sometimes play. From about 8 to 10 yards away from a pine tree with a trunk that's about a foot wide, I try to hit balls against the trunk. Last evening, I began to pepper that trunk with success that I've never had with such consistency. It became very simple to get my club aimed and then deliver the clubhead without flipping the hands. The result was a number of shots that bounced off the trunk and just a few that would just miss. I still don't know what's going to happen when I start trying full swings, but I feel hopeful that I've learned an important lesson about what the bottom of the swing should feel like. And if this does deliver solid ballstriking improvement, I feel little doubt that I should be able to break 80 for the first time this year.

Mine arrived yesterday. In spite of the wind and since I've got enough room to practice some shorter pitches on the lawn and seeing how many people recommend to begin with smaller swings, I went out and hit some balls using it last evening. I felt a huge difference, I've long known about the importance of lag, getting the hands through first and the clubhead following (in fact on Sunday I played a round with a couple of newbie players, saw one of them not having his hands in front on his early chips shots, advised him about that and then saw him hole out the chip shot immediately following the advice I gave him there), but I know I've often failed at it somehow. The PBS helped me feel that pressure against the right index finger, pressure which I've probably had right sometimes but never felt when swinging the club and I was impressed last evening with the clean sharp contact I began to make time after time with the short swings. Now I'll need to go to a range and try it with some fuller swings. Then I hope to play a practice round and use it. I don't expect it to be a magical cure-all for all that ails in my swing, but right now I have a good feeling that it will teach me an important lesson of the feel of the hands through the swing. I've lacked that a lot.

I think it'll be interesting to see how he does. It's far too early for us to say with any certainty on whether or not he will succeed in becoming good enough to earn a living as a touring professional, but it's an interesting experiment. Even if he doesn't becoming a good enough plus handicap to do it, there are likely things that perhaps all of us can learn with his attempt. I, for one, reading about how he started out with the short putts and being working his way out from there, that gave me the little kick in the arse to tell myself that it's time I put some more serious work in on putting and short game. Over the past year I know I've been leaving strokes out on the course because of it, because of short putts I miss, putts that scratch or better players make nearly all the time. Good luck to him. Who knows what exactly we might learn from what he ends up doing. I think it'll be interesting to see.

I'm definitely more play than practice, just tend to prefer the feel of walking the course and going from different shot to different shot. But I realize that a lot more practice, especially with short game and putting could make a big difference and would probably help me finally get that first sub 80 round. So today after work I'm heading to a course with a practice green and plan to spend a good bit of time practicing the putts 5 feet and in. I looked at the stats of PGA guys for those distances and there's no way I'm above 80% on the 3-footers. It feels like I lose a stroke every round because of a missed putt 3 feet or closer -- the PGA guys sink those over 99% of the time. I figure some good diligent practice at putting alone could maybe pick me up 2 or 3 strokes a round. Then some more work also with the short game, and there's at least another 3 strokes there if not more. I would guess there's probably 6 strokes that can be shaved off with short game and putting. That could turn one of those low 80 rounds into a high 70s round.

I've joined the forum here and placed my order for this. Order date: Mar 22, 2012 10:47 AM EDT Google order number: 651872696031241 Shipping Status Qty Item Price Not yet shipped 1 purballstriker $19.99 Tax (PA) : $0.00 Total: $19.99