Moppy

This sounds right to me. A couple of years ago, I might have changed the fundamentals of my swing based on a "tip," now I will consider whether that tip works at all with what I am trying to do. For instance, I might hood the driver if I am hitting right, for the round I am in, instead of trying to work out during a round what is going on, but I wouldn't incorporate that compensation into my swing, as it would end up being a band-aid that retarded my development. Building a swing for some of us, especially those of us who started late in life, takes a lot of faith and involves steps backwards in results, even as they move us closer to an effective, repeatable swing. Beginners just want the ball to go down range in bounds. The best instruction I ever got took 30 yards off of my distance, at first, but after working on it for a couple of weeks, I got the yards back, plus some, and more accuracy.

Easy, play five times a week. Maybe start keeping a handicap, after a couple weeks, anyway.

Good point, the ground was wet, and I am sure I was sinking in to it. Making a fat hit more likely. I think the thin hits were about fear of fat hits, since I don't hit it thin that much off the matts.

That's how golf starts too... But it turns out that guitars have levels, like golf, and as you master one level, you begin to understand the next, and want to do that now, and on an on.

You know, this seems obvious, but then I thought about it and I think I know the problem. When I do catch one exactly right off of the mat, I can feel it, and see it in the flight, but instead of thinking "There! I did that one right and I have to do that every time if I can," I would think "Wow, that was a great shot, wish I could do that every time, shrug..." So much of golf is mental (Captain Obvious alert). As it is, I am going to swear off of mats. If I can only find a range with mats, I will just hit off of tees, in the future.

I spent the whole winter in Florida playing very little golf, but I took a couple of lessons and hit off of mats almost every day. I noticed a huge improvement, at the range... But yesterday I got out on the course here in Vermont for the first time and what a mess! I was longer off the tee, after slicing the breakfast ball into the woods anyway (I was alone at the course :^) ) which was nice, but my irons were terrible, I was either topping everything, or hitting it fat. I think it is sort of like hitting live pitching vs the pitching machine at the batting cage. I also feel like I can't even sweep the grass, it's like my first swing with an iron, when I was expecting my great flight I had been getting at the range, and I hit it really fat and it went 20 yards into some water, I got gun shy and started hitting everything thin. Any suggestions for exercises I can do to get over being psyched out by the grass. The course is also pretty wet, so I have that to worry about.

Well, what I have learned is that the "solid strikes" I used to get were kind of accidental through luck. I have completely rebuilt my swing with the help of lessons and I am getting a lot more repeatably decent strikes with far less spraying of the ball, though I did go through a 50% duck hook phase. I have gotten a couple of 220 yard drives at the range, and I think with a little work, a top end drive of 260 a couple times a year is not out of the question. I still am not swinging freely, due to thinking about the swing mechanics too much, and grip is still too tight, which I know is robbing me of yards, but that is one thing more than I can think about in a swing right now. Coach says I need to do a thousand reps of the swing like I did on video, and it will be mine forever. A fundamentally sound swing that I can tweak to improve, but won't have to rebuild again, hopefully. I have done about fifty today on a mat in the back yard today, just working on address, takeaway, and final position and holding it for a sec each time. I am starting to understand it better and to have a feel for all of the parts of it, and what I am doing wrong when I miss instead of being stumped why I hit it fat, or bounced the driver off of the ground before the tee, topped the ball, etc, etc... It was nice that he only gave me a couple of corrections today, and they were simple ones, rather than a laundry list, as I have gotten in the past. Mostly I hit balls today rather than listen to swing theory. It's funny that it gets so much simpler once you understand it.

ESPN has become all politics all the time. It's almost worse than Twitter in that regard. There is probably a political agenda behind the comment. I couldn't say because I haven't watched ESPN in quite a while. I used to love it. Thanks to God we have the NFL network, MLB, NHL network, and of course, The Golf Channel now.

I don't know anything, really, but have you thought about tilting your left shoulder higher to change your angle of attack? Like Rory here

Went to GolfTec and the guy fixed my problem for me really easily. He said I needed to tilt my shoulders far more than I was on the driver, differently than the wedge, and more than I was comfortable doing, and he showed me video of pros and I saw they were doing this, and move the ball even with my shoe laces of my left foot. Like magic it worked. I was hacking down on the ball with my driver as if it were a wedge. Hence why my hybrid worked better. The tilt, raising my left shoulder, sort of tilted my whole swing. He also gave me this neat tip about sort of locking my right knee by keeping the knee inside of my right foot, which kept me from rocking back in my swing, I won't go through the whole lesson, but anyway, there it is.

You know, that sounds right. Thanks!

You know, all of those things may be factors. It is kind of late in the season here, the ranges are all closed, to make a swing video, but I think I really need to do that. I have tried teeing the ball lower, and experimenting with different ball positions, but maybe I need to be more scientific about it. When I get to Florida in a couple of weeks, I will try to make one. On difference is I love that club and swing it with confidence, because it always seems to work out great. IIt's hard to get confidence in a club you can't really hit, and no, I can't really hit the three well either, nothing under a four. I like my five hybrid a lot too. And the shorter irons, I hit pretty well. It's like a sawtooth for me, game gets better, then falls back, but it's on a positive trajectory. I was hitting the driver decent a month or two ago... Sigh...

I can hit my 4 hybrid 210 yards on a solid strike, 20% loft Calloway XR. I can't hit my driver more than 180 without an exceptional bounce and roll. I play kind of a short course, so I don't actually mind leaving the driver home and using the hybrid, but on the other hand, it is very frustrating. Any ideas for what causes this? One thing is that the ball flight on the 4 hybrid is lower than the driver. I have this tendency to hit pop flies on mishits with the driver. The other thing is that the 4H has a small head, maybe it forces me to hit the sweet spot. The ball flight is straight as an arrow too, unlike my usual "pronounced fade" with on or two slices per round I get with my driver. It's kind of funny, I left the 1 wood in the car the last nine I played, and played mostly bogie golf. That driver is costing me a ton of strokes, with my chipping being the other thing that keeps me from being a solid bogie golfer, which has always been my goal.

Yeah, I knew it didn't add up. But I did fall for it, I am ashamed to admit. Still, I knew a guy who was so cheap he would never give up without at least coming out with two more balls than he lost.

You know, sometimes. I have found though that as I have improved, my times have gone way down. An hour and a half to walk nine. It used to take me over two hours. I don't hurry any more than I did, I read the putts the same, I still take a practice swing or two. I actually hurry less, I used to pick up on holes, or not even look for balls and just drop one. It's just that now I progress towards the hole significantly with each swing, balls are easier to find if they are usually in the short grass, This past weekend, I hit a bucket before playing, the range is right next to the first tee, across a little drive. A couple got to the first tee in a cart just as I walked to the range. I hit a whole bucket of balls, crossed the road to the first tee, and they were still playing the first hole about 150 yds out from the tee, looking for balls, I think. Anyway, they waited for me on the second hole and let me play through, so I couldn't be mad. But wow.

Area man Arnold D. Penner created a three hour delay looking for a lost ball during his afternoon golf match this past Tuesday. Penner, who is an avid golf ball finder, was not so concerned about the lost stroke but in the high cost of golf balls. “I bring one ball with me and that is it yet,” said Penner, traipsing through the bush. “I’ve been playing with this same yellowed and cracked Titleist for years.” http://dailybonnet.com/mennonite-golfer-spends-three-hours-looking-lost-ball/

If it makes you feel any better, I once read an article about a jazz saxophonist who had to have part of his lip removed due to mouth cancer. he had to relearn from scratch, but this time he understood the importance of good technique and couldn't carry over his bad habits, so he just learned new good ones. He said that after a year, he was getting invited to play with people who never considered him before the operation.

You know, I had been doing much better at the range than ever, but still it was double par after double par, but then something just clicked. Suddenly I am getting pars without any "foot wedges" or lie fluffing or mulligans. I am playing a lot faster too, without hurrying any more than I ever did. It helps when your ball is usually in the fairway or the first cut of rough and you cover a decent distance toward the hole with each swing. I now have just a handful of things that I need to work on, instead of having no idea what went wrong when I had a bad swing. I am sure, when I introduce the next swing change, tried at the range and it works, that I will be able to break 90. I don't want to introduce it on the course though until the last swing change I made is well and truly burned in. Since it helped me so much. "Left elbow straight at address and through the swing, remind your self of steady head before beginning the swing." Anyway, this site has helped me so much. Thanks.

Maybe you should change courses. You would be one of the better players at mine. But seriously, little things like proper grip pressure can increase swing speed, there are lots of things a pro can help you with.

I feel bad for you guys. I went out Sunday afternoon at 4 and had the course to myself. After Labor Day this place becomes a ghost town.

You know, I played with a guy once who played two over on the back nine, we only played nine. Even though I was trying to keep up, he would often drive nearly to the green on a par 4, it took me at least two strokes to catch him, and he would pitch on and close in those cases fast too. It was such a mismatch that picking up when I did a double par was not enough to keep him from spending a lot of his time politely waiting. He never said anything, but I wouldn't play with that guy again out of respect for his game. Part of it was that he played from the whites to accomodate me.

I don't keep score, but I notice that I am no longer shocked to be playing the same ball for nine holes. So that is something right there. I used to play for nine pars -- in a summer. Now I think I am playing for 18, and throw in a couple of birdies, not all on par 3s.

I am guilty of channeling the judge from Caddyshack when I am using a foot wedge to get out of the weeds or woods and into the rough. I still think it's funny. They forgot the guy who is never happy unless he comes out of the weeds with at least one or two balls, if he is not going to find his.

I am keeping mine, but I figured that if it didn't help me, returning it was justified.

I got mine at Dicks on sale for $129. If it doesn't do anything for you, it only identifies some flaws after all, return it and get your money back. It helped me a lot, I think. But I can see how it will help high handicappers more.