OCEANDJJACK

The further you move away from the hole, the less important the task is at hand. If you are a great putter, this forgives many faults in other areas of your game. Putting is foremost the most important, followed by chipping, followed by iron shots, and lastly the driver. Learning how to play from the hole outwards is the best way to practice in my opinion. This I submit as a general overview of how to approach your practice time. If you have a defined weakness, such as approach shots from 150 yards to the green, then by all means do what it takes to fix this. I find that approach shots can save you strokes if you can get the ball close enough to let you one putt. This is an important part of scoring, especially on par fives. Practicing out of sand traps is another area where lots of stokes can be saved. Sand play is easy when you know how. Take the time to get this one right, otherwise you will cost yourself lots of stokes. My point is to practice specific types of shots, like sand saves. Each person has different set of issues and, should spend more time in the areas which will have him/her the most strokes. If you can't get off the tee, then use a 3 wood or mid iron when playing. When practicing, spend more time with the driver.

Since 50% of all golf scoring is on the green, it seems that you should allow for 50% of your time to putting. Then spend the next block of time, say 30% to chipping and shots from 100 yards in. The remaining time should be split between iron play and the driver. The putting and chipping require a sense of touch, and that requires much more practice than full shots, which do not require a sense of touch. Scoring is all about the short game. You drive for show, and putt for dough! A full swing should be the easiest thing to master, and should not take a long time to keep sharp. Chipping and putting will kill your score faster than an occasional errant drive or dumped iron shot. No one mentioned course management, making a wise club selection, or trying to maintain your energy and concentration levels for the entire 18 holes. You should devote some time to learning how to play smart around the course. Learn when to layup and not to go for it. Learn if you are better off with rolling the ball on the ground, versus flying it to the objective. Learn when not to use a driver. Place your concentration on the first three and last three holes. This is where you lose the most strokes during a round. At the end of the day, golf is a thinking mans game, not an athletic event. You can learn to score with a crappy swing, good course management, and a good putting stroke.

If Patrick57 agrees with me, kudos to Patrick. I have not read any of his posting. All I can say is, if Patrick and I are saying the same thing, then, I think it wise to pay attention!

I think you know better than that! It starts with waggle of the left hand. Do you know how to infuse life into the clubhead, and then follow it easily with the left arm and then shoulder? Their is a definite technique to be used. Read my posts, again, and again, until you get the message and understand it. Then go to the range with your left hand and discover the truth about the golf swing. I am only trying to broadcast the hidden truth about the pendulum swing. In my opinion, if you want to hit straight and far, more consistently than ever, then, give this a try. My golfing partner asked me how I was able to git so many fairways and greens in regulation. I told him. He listened, and gave it a try. His first few attempts had terrible results. He did not quit. By the next hole he began to get it. By the next hole after that, he was hitting longer and straighter with his driver. His improvement did not take weeks, months or years. It took three holes!

I try to share with you my road to much, much better golf. If my comments seemed arrogant, then I would call that projection on your part. For me, I don't care one hoot what you, or anyone else thinks. I don't have to prove anything to anyone. You can dismiss my posts, and all I can say is, too bad for you. I am bringing my forty years of golfing experience to bear on my comments. What do you bring to the party? Current thinking does not make it correct thinking. Golf is evolving and not always for the better in my opinion. I don't know whether my comments were related to old threads or not. I don't frankly care. You obviously don't understand my posts, or have any inkling of trying to understand them. These are not my ideas. They are the ideas of great golfing thinkers. I am also a golf author, with my work published in the UK, US, and Canada.

I don't believe you can become and accountant, as an example, by watching one work, or a surgeon, or for that matter a golfer. Learning how to play golf is a journey, to me, of one of discovery. You must learn on your own, not by mechanics, but by feel, trial and error, and finding your balance as you swing. I concede there are many paths to learning a golf swing. Some take years to master for the average golfer. I don't believe this has to be so. As far as weight transfer is concerned. If you keep your spine angle stable and centered, and keep your center of gravity centered as much as possible, the action of your left hand pulling your left arm, pulling your left shoulder, will cause a slight natural weight shift, ever so slight, and that is a natural action, no conscious thought is required. On the way down, the left hand leads with the left arm, followed by the left shoulder. Any core rotation is a result and not the cause of the swing. The sequence is left hand, left arm, left shoulder, the weight shifts ever so slightly to the right, then, the opposite thing happens. The left hand and arm move towards the ball, the left shoulder follows, the body core is responding without conscious thought, as does the weight moving off the rear foot and eventually onto the front foot after the ball is on it's way towards the target. Most of the things taught to do are things that actually happen automatically. What you must focus on is how to get the clubhead moving, how to follow with the left arm and shoulder uo to the top. Then, allow the left hand and arm to change direction and return to the ball. The body will automatically adjust to keep you in balance. If you swing smoothly with correct pace, following the clubhead pace, and not exceeding it, you will stay in balance easily. The weight will not remain on your rear foot. When I gave up on mechanics, and went to learning how to swing the clubhead, my score dropped by over 20 strokes for nine hole, on a more difficult back nine holes. Yes, that is the kind of improvement is possible if you swing the clubhead, and not the club with brute force or leverage. You must focus on the feel of the clubhead with your left hand. You need a light hold on the club to do this. Never use excessive force. Ease your your way into the swing, keep it nice and easy, and the results will blow your mind. I don't swing hard and I kill the ball. You can as well. But first you must experience the real golf swing, in balance, without excessive force.

Yes, and the pros have to hit thousands of golf balls to make it work! Once they stop practicing, their technique falls apart quickly. They go into terrible slumps. I believe that their technique is so artificial, going against the principles of a simple and natural swing, the pendulum swing to be more specific, that for the average recreational golfer, their methods are not applicable. Do you have tons of time to hit thousands of golf balls? The modern swing may work for a few, but does not work for the masses who try to play the game simply on the weekends. The average scores have not improved over the years for the majority of golfers Most golfers can't break 100. The industry uses a cookie cutter approach, the one size fits all. This is rubbish! Everyone is built differently, feels differently, hears differently, and on and on it goes. The one common element is the sense of internal balance. That everyone has, otherwise you would not be able to walk down the street without falling down. This should be a clue to learning how to swing. Trying to copy the current pro swing model is just plain silly. You must find your own internal swing by feel. It is not difficult if you read my postings and try it out for yourself. Get away from mechanics, as far as you can! Pick up the club in your left hand, waggle it, and feel the pulling force of the clubhead due to its larger and heavier mass at the end of the stick. This is the easy route to learning a swing that is unique to you. When golf was invented they had a very simple swing model and very lousy equipment. I don't know that the average golfer today, could beat an average golfer of yesteryear. Just remember that golf is an industry. The goal is to make a profit. What better way to milk the cow than to teach something that is inherently easy, an make it as complicated as possible. For one thing, the industry sends out a message. that if you buy the latest equipment, you will play better. This is silly stuff. If you want to get better, don't fall into the trap of using the pros as your swing model. Good golfing!

I read a book once by Phil Rogers. He advocated playing all shots off the left side of the face. I adopted this and it simplified my game with great results. The ball flight is always high, and the ball always lands softly and stays put. I save my wrists from wear and tear, I don't chew up the course, and my results are very consistent. To tell you the truth, putting backspin on the ball looks cool, but I I think it is more difficult to do, and you will be less consistent, if you follow that method of striking the ball with your irons. I don't know if that makes me a picker or sweeper. When I set up to the ball, I bend at the hips. I use the Ernest Jones approach to swinging the clubhead. I can tell you that this method lets you realize that every swing can feel and actually be the same. I swing no differently for my iron shots or drives or fairway wood shots. It simplifies the game for me. It is the best thing you can do to become a more consistent golfer. Try Phil Rogers and Ernest Jones in their thinking. Golf will become a whole lot easier for you. Please read my other post on the dominant hand in golf. All I can say is try it for awhile, and see if you don't drop tons of strokes off your scorecard. I believe the more you can play by feel, and less by swing mechanics, the faster you will improve, and the improvement will last.

I have played golf for a long, long time. I have read almost every famous golf book ever published. The proof of whether an idea is correct or not, should emerge without having to hit thousands of practice golf shots. Something either works almost immediately, or not. My answer, from all my experience and reading, is that the swing starts with the left hand, followed by the left arm, followed by the left shoulder, on the way back. On the way down, the left hand remains in control, followed by the left arm and left shoulder. Don't even think about the hips, or leg drive, or core rotation, etc., it is all silly stuff that does not work. You can complicate this by injecting the modern ideas of core rotation, etc., which is not a swing. You can only swing the clubhead and follow it. That is a real golf swing. You can never feel a swing using the way golf is taught today. The big muscle theory does not work easily, or for most golfers, never. The earlier models based on Sam Snead, come closer to the truth of what a real golf swing should be. The best book I ever read was Swing the Clubhead by Earnest Jones. It is short on detail, but the overall idea presented is absolutely correct. Can I elaborate on how the pendulum swing should be employed? Please listen to what I am about to reveal to you. The waggle, of the left hand, breaking the left wrist, moving back and forth, is the first step in creating a real golf swing. There is an old Scottish saying "How Ye Shall Waggle, is how Ye shall swing" Believe me, there is more truth to this than meets the eye. Now, here is what you don't know. You waggle to determine how much energy you want to infuse into the clubhead, in order to get it moving, giving life to it, feeling it pull the left arm back, and not the left arm pushing, but following the initial breaking of inertia. This is not published in any golf publication to my knowledge. It is the magic move! A fast waggle creates a fast tempo. A slow waggle creates a slow swing tempo. Once the clubhead is pulling, like the engine of a train, follow it with the left arm, and then left shoulders, they are the cars of the train. The cars never push the engine, that is, the clubhead, but rather follow it back and up. When the energy of the initial waggle push dissipates, the left hand and arm senses this, and the left arm slows to follow the lead of the clubhead. Then, the clubhead is ready to change directions. Never overtake the speed limit set by the initial motion of the moving clubhead. Now comes the downswing, the easy part of the swing. The left shoulder does not move but remains where it is. The left hand and arm simply swings down towards the ball, followed by the left arm, and lastly the left shoulder. Your spine angle should remain centered as the left hand and arm swish down and out towards the target. Your feet and legs don't add leverage but rather, simply balance. The weight naturally flows as the left arm moves in front of the ball and then past the ball out to the target. There is nothing else to think about. You learn to play by feel as described above. You don't need fancy, complicated theories to play well, very well. Yes, you need a good setup, and aim correctly, but at the end of the day, the left hand is the key. It infuses life into the clubhead, and then the left arm and finally left shoulder simply follow the leader, that is, the clubhead. The right hand and arm do nothing. It they get involved, the swing will be ruined. One more thing, remain tension free and loose. Use an easy hold on the club, and keep your right hand out of the process. Learn how to infuse life into the clubhead to start the backswing. Then follow the clubhead to the top, and follow it to the bottom. Everything else happens automatically. No need to spend lots of money on equipment or lessons. Now you know the truth!