yurself

I am full of BS! I went back to the range the following day and checked with the desk, the yardage markers are set for winter-time distances predicated on the mats not the summertime grass lines. I knew that on some level, but I was making such good contact I somehow let myself believe I was getting 40+ yards when in fact I was getting 15+ . It is still a good swing if I can consistently create that kind of lag and good follow-through on my drives. I will find that out today when I play a tough 18 with lots of long par 4's. My apologies for anyone's leg that got stretched.

I began reading the posts in the sandtrap about a month ago. At first it seemed like I was reading a foreign language. The first eye-opener was to discover the ball flight laws. Sorry, most of the books written prior to 2000 used the older “understandings” to explain ball flight. I have not really paid attention to any modern explanations. My last golf lessons were in 2003 when I paid for a 10 lesson series in an indoor video facility and the place went bankrupt(Doors Shut) after my second lesson after all the legal wrangling they re-opened 6 months later and I got access with no lessons as a consolation from the emergent ownership. I have stopped reading golf magazines for tips, they seem to work for a day or so and its right back to the struggle or they are so fantastic as to be unbelievable from the get-go. As to instructors, there are a lot of motor-mouths out there who are so impressed with their knowledge that they take a novice student and fill him with six chapters of theory without giving just two or three things he should work on until his next lesson. In 2007 I bought a course on the internet called Golf Swing Control. The stress is on balance in the golf swing and learning to feel where the head of the club is by taking your eyes out of the equation. Set up to the ball while looking down the fairway, tilt slightly to the right, keep your weight on the inside ball of your feet. With your weight already loaded on the right the transition move becomes all important. That is the place where I break down, at the top of the back-swing I am supposed to feel my stomach muscles tighten and magically I will make a move to the left foot so that I can pivot on my left hip to accomplish the finish. As they say on Okinawa, nevva happen yo! I have spent 5 years trying to get a consistent finish. I am straighter off the tee, but never long and I have to be very careful to keep an upright swing path going back or I can seriously yank it left. This year has been the worst as I have stopped playing as often my scores have climbed back over 100 on bad days and 90ish on great days, only my short game and putting to save me with some help from a more consistent hybrid striking. Now that you have read the autobiography, I decided to explore some different methods. After poking around here and learning some of the “NewSpeak” (at least to me) I decided to get a copy of the Stack and Tilt and see what I can do. The book is on its way from Amazon, but I could not wait, so armed with some remembered Youtube lessons I went to the range today. From a technical point of view it was not pretty; most of the shots went right. Obviously my face is open at impact, but I could not seem to close the face. I found that my ball position seems to move back from where I would normally hit it. As I was taking the club away seriously inside for my normal swing it is no surprise to see all the right movement. But the surprise was in the distance and crispness of the ball strike. I have been taught that the bane of a good hit was a straight right leg, but when I did that and connected I was getting 180 in the air from a 5 iron for a club that I normally figure for 165 max that is impressive for me. My driver is a Nike SasQuatch; the face is narrow up and down and a tad wider than a normal driver. I have been teeing it lower so I would not go under it when I drive. Today I found that I needed to tee it higher because I was actually hitting it on the upswing (I’ve never experienced that, used to hate hitting from mats with the built in high tees) Once again the distance for me was mind-boggling; I was getting 250 in the air with release on the roll. A few of them rolled to the back of the range at 325+. I even closed the face in an exaggeration and got a 250 yard pull down the left side. So the distance is certainly inviting a much closer look. I am setting up with my hip pushed out far to the left, handle forward from my body, my right leg almost straight or straight and then pivoting around my right leg on the back-swing. By making an effort to stand up left side on my through swing after impact, I am exploring places I have never been in the finish. My former swing usually got simply in front of me a little to the left of center, and never over my shoulders. Amazing… now I need to get the book and flesh out the swing, get my direction woes solved and find a coach in the Denver area to work with. The swing feels different with the left hip “extended?” and the straight right leg but the rest of my “fundamentals” still remain, maintaining a good triangle connection with arms and shoulders, obviously I am now getting good lag whereas before I know I was casting. I am sure you did not really want to read an essay, but I had to put it in perspective, I have never seen such results from a few simple changes. Comments or suggestions are welcome. Thanks

Wow, 81 holes in Myrtle! I am envious. I don't mind taking a divot, although it is indeed annoying when I do it with a three wood or a hybrid. If the results are a great shot, I am happy. That said, there are times when my shot/path/plane/whatever...become so poor that I take an uneven divot that has an obviously deeper groove down the outside. Usually a 5 iron in my hand, I have to wonder how I can get so upright that I can dig the toe in so deeply. I have always been guilty of something that occasionally causes me bury the club in the ground, (dipping the left shoulder?) that I even had paint missing on the top of one of my old drivers. Any suggestions?

Your loosing your spine tilt. Or to quote another teacher from a certain golf magazine, your loosing your tush line. Basically your hips are getting closer to the ball, which causes you to raise up a bit. This will shift your impact conditions vertically, causing you to hit the ball slightly thin. Your probably doing it just slightly, not a full out thin. I've caught a few SW shots thin, and lucky most of those were 3/4 easy swings, and the ball ends up going the same distance. Which is precisely why I stopped reading the tips in golf magazines, "Tush Line" indeed! what the hell is that? Standing too close to the ball? or bending over too far and pushing your butt out? Verbal explanations are tough and most of them are very unclear leaving the reader contorting themselves trying to figure out... What got said and... How can I make my body conform to those words.< /Rant>

You probably have the ball further back in your stance. If you normally start your swing with your hands in the vicinity of your target side thigh, (Leading hands) you have de-lofted the club more than you usually do. With the ball in the center of your stance you will have 48 or whatever degrees of loft, as you lead more with your hands that loft decreases. so even if your hands remain the same as you normally have them, if the ball gets further back in your stance you accomplish the same thing--hands further forward, club approach angle more shallow. Least thats my opinion, its the way you use the same club for all your short shots around the green, sand-wedge for pitches and for chips.

Bogeysaurus Thanks for your honesty, now I feel better. I too and not a big distance hitter. I just concentrate on my "old mans golf" method of getting it straight down the fairway and staying out of trouble. Driver 225 Hybrid 3 18deg 190 Hybrid 4 21deg 180 5 I 165 6 I 155 7 I 145 8 I 135 9 I 125 PW 115 Gap 52 100 Sand 56 75 Lob 60 50 Wedges are so variable you can get all kinds of distances when you de-loft them. Hit them straight and seldom!