Effington

Did you have that golf weekend you referred to earlier, and if so how did it go?

Thanks, I appreciate the thought! Yeah, I take regular lessons.

This thread is making me depressed. I've been playing around seven years and am yet to break 100.

I don't have much constructive to add, but how is the driving range into the water? Does it have yardage indicators?

I appreciate the an analysis! I’ve done a lot of tweaking with the swing. Last year I had a teacher that was working with me on getting my backswing more upright. I switched teachers a couple months ago and the current one has a focus on hip turn and keeping the wrist hinge in the downswing, and told me not to worry about the shallow backswing (yet). This most recent iteration looks ugly to me on camera, but I do have better results. I finally got a little confidence to dust off the longer clubs, and was getting good ball speed and solid contact, but it was a low trajectory with a very significant push-hook. After seeing this most recent video, I’m suspicious that it’s from my shallow backswing causing my downswing path to be out to the right. Thanks, I appreciate the comment! You’re absolutely correct that I used the wrong terminology, thank you for the clarification/correction. Regarding your last comment, I see the same thing. Against my better judgement, I went to practice today and tried to work on getting a swing path that is "less to the right". Ended up shanking it all over. Serves me right for trying to think I know the answer; I just hope that tomorrow I can remember how I was doing it before.

Hey guys, was hoping to get your thoughts on my swing; I have made some significant changes. Worked on lower body movement a lot. What pops out to me is how much “below the line” my backswing is; this is something that has baffled me for years. My instructor has told me not to worry about it yet; he has been focusing on lower body movements. I practice with a Trackman monitor, and my 7 iron shows carry of 135-145 + ~10 yards roll, ball speed in high 90’s/low 100’s. It starts out right but has a fairly significant pull (~800-1500L spin), trajectory in the low/mid 20 degree range. If I am on the low side of the left spin rate, the ball lands just about at a straightaway target. I had started hitting the ball thin, so the focus of my practice has been slowing down the backswing and making sure I don’t sway back. That way, on the downswing I can focus (“think about”) hitting down on the ball. When done well, contact was very solid and seemed to get me a couple extra mph on the ball speed too. I wiped the dust off my longer clubs, and I got solid contact, but they’re low trajectory and a bigger pull than the 7 iron. I feel like I’m a couple small changes away from almost having a real golf swing, but not sure what those changes are!

I'm still playing my first set, which is roughly 8-10 years ago. A friend of mine who keeps an eye on the industry noted that you'd really benefit from upgrading 20-30 year old clubs, but anything within the last few years is only marginal improvements.

Climate wise, I can't think of a better area than Southern California; it stays nice all year round. That being said, real estate is so expensive out there I can't imagine they have as many courses as some other popular golfing areas, such as Florida or South Carolina. With that being said, I'd pick Cali since you probably can still have enough variety to keep things fresh, and I don't think a new course each week would be a priority for me. As others have said, though, living there is quite expensive so you need to make some cash or marry rich first.

How did you like Golftec? I've heard mixed reviews from them--how much did you your results improve and how many lessons did you take?

I'm a bit late to the game on this thread, but thought I'd add that I use this plan in my area and they don't have the 2 per week cap. You can go every day as long as you reserve. In the cold weather, it's pretty busy.

How do you fly for free? I believe you I'm just intrigued...

I'm a bit younger, but my parents did this for a while. The Pro's are essentially the reason you're doing it; you can be close to family (which I don't want to undersell as trivial). The Cons that I saw were significantly increased expenses associated with moving and having two places. I know you might be able to find a deal where you are only paying for half the year somewhere, but you're going to pay for that privilege with higher rates, etc. Also, the hassle of actually moving back and forth every year could get tiring. And to start off, I saw my parents have to buy multiple duplicate things, such as beds, kitchen supplies, etc., that you wouldn't want to lug back and forth. Also, hopefully your agreed upon schedule works to achieve your goal. For example, if your winter is in Florida, are you traveling back for Thanksgiving & Christmas? That is another increased cost and something to consider. If money is not an issue and you enjoy travel, it seems like the cons are not a big deal.

Hey guys, it's been a month but I have been practicing diligently. I found an instructor and have so far had two lessons. To start, I'm doing weekly lessons to keep me practicing on the right track. Lesson 1 was a bit of a cliche in that it was about set-up & posture, but it looked like I needed it. Changes suggested were: Ball in center of stance with 7 iron. He noted that I was very far forward. Hands in front of the ball at address. I found that doing this also promoted more shoulder dip. Change open stance to have feet square/perpendicular to the target Club face aimed at target Felt super awkward at first, which I took as a good sign as improvement. Other things he noted to work on was keeping lag in downswing (I was using too much bicep for swing speed, which he noted has the opposite effect), and turning hips more in the downswing. This was a bit too much for me to practice all, but I did get better/more comfortable with the new posture. This had an immediate significant impact on ball speed; balls were flying much faster. Huge first lesson! Lesson 2 was about the take-away and just after that. He noted that in my take-away, I bow my wrist right away, which closes the club face and promotes a pull (I did this consciously; I thought I was opening the clubface to prevent a pull!). Also, I stop rotating my body about half way, limiting my engagement of "big" muscles. Lastly, he noted that I should try and get my arms up more after the take-away. Similar to lesson 1, I'm not really able to practice all of these at once, but have been working on stopping the wrist from bowing at the takeaway and rotating my body more. I went to an indoor driving range with a Trackman monitor, and was hitting the ball as hard as I can remember. My 7 iron was logging ball speed of 97-100 and carrying 135-140; a huge jump from where I was a month ago. I've included here a picture from the first lesson; I think it's clear the lessons were helpful. Still a huge amount of work in front of me to get a good swing, but I'm confident to say I've made huge strides in 2 weeks; definitely the most improvement in a short period I can remember.

If it's 62 degrees in the middle of January, does that mean the winter is peak golf season there? I'm imagining summers being 100+ degrees and not comfortable to be outside for 4+ hour stretches.

Can't help with your swing but it looks like you pretty much know what you're doing. I'm just wondering, is that your home practice set-up? If so, it looks pretty sweet. It looks like you have a projector--do you have any golf related software?