bddarnell

Thanks Hacker James! I meant to say right eye, not chin, in speaking specifically about my left hand grip. Fingers didn't cooperate with what was in my head. :-) My attempts to learn to swing like Hogan are in the very early stages. I feel that I have the grip down the best, my stance is decent compared to Hogan, my backswing and downswing are still works in progress.

I'm new to this community and also pretty new to golf. I'm had short dabbles in it in years past, but I'm making an attempt to slowly build a foundation of a solid game with this book. One initial struggle that I had was in gripping the club correctly with my left hand. I found that my thumb was too far to the left, the V from my thumb and forefinger was certainly not pointing to my chin. My mistake...I was gripping the club with the palm up so that I could see what I was doing. A careful re-reading of chapter 1 revealed to me that my left hand should be facing the target when I took my grip, not my face. :-) Seems like a very beginner mistake, but there you go. Now that I have practiced this particular piece of Hogan's method enough that I am reasonable comfortable with it I feel like I don't need to have it be so slow and measured every time I take my left hand grip. I have found that I can know that I am gripping the left hand correctly just by how it looks on the club (left thumb pointed slightly to the left and down the shaft on the top-right hand side of the grip would be the best way I could explain it), I have tested this theory several times by taking my grip in this way and then carefully unwrapping my fingers from around the shaft and examining where the grip is making contact with my left hand, right where Hogan says it needs to if you examine the illustrations. One early observation from a real newbie at this game. I don't have alot to offer in the ways of advise, but I can offer my observations that I make as I endeavor to build a decent golf swing.

Howdy, I happened across this community earlier today and I have to say it looks like a very positive place to discuss golf and help each other out. I am not a golfer of any accomplishment. Growing up we were members of the local golf club but I never really had much interest in the sport then, the fact that I could not step into it and immedietely be rewarded with positive results did not help. I have been on the course very sparsely, maybe once every 2 or 3 years since my childhood. Well, coming into my early 30s I guess I was recently struck with a desire to give the game an honest shot. Not a naive and childish expectation that I could go out and receive instant gratification from a game that I have yet to put an adequate down payment of my sweat and time into. These days, I have been spending time trying to learn from Ben Hogan. Five Lessons The Modern Fundamentals has been my guide book for a few weeks. I don't have it down yet by far but I'm picking some things up. Glad to be here.

I've been Playing Golf for: Back into playing a bit this season for the first time in several years My current handicap index or average score is: Astronomical My typical ball flight is: Dribbled along the ground or if I make decent contact far right or left The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Just trying to establish a decent swing Hey everyone, new to this community, seems pretty cool. I haven't played golf for several years and have never had any game. Trying to get into playing some this season. I would like to get a decent swing established. Let me briefly explain that I have been trying to carefully study Ben Hogan's swing in the Five Lessons Fundamentals book, so I'm trying to pattern my swing in this way (grip, playing the ball forward in my stance, one piece hand/arm/shoulder takeaway leading the hips, full shoulder turn, hips starting the downswing, etc.) By my own evaluation, looking at my left arm, it looks like my swing plane is much too flat. Perhaps my left knee comes forward too much instead of sliding to the right. I'm sure that I'm doing many things wrong. Any tips on getting things built more solidly? The video below shows what I would consider a pretty typical swing followed by a pretty typical result. If this is too little sample size let me know. Videos: