Mugs050

My golf season just started two weeks ago where I live. This year I have vowed to not worry about score and worry more about improvement. The two biggest issues in my game are my putting and the biggest issue is my long back swing. I have been resistant to change because I have been able to get to a single digit handicap with my swing but its mentally exhausting and I have plateaued as far as how much I can improve with it. Here is a link to my swing from a golf tech swing evaluation session (this is actually the after with improvements). https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/83582-my-swing-mugs050/#comment-754897 The main problem is consistency. Yesterday I played, hit 8 out of 14 fairways long and straight but due to violent hooks took 10 penalty strokes on the rest of the tees. This mostly happens off the tee but I can get them on approaches as well. Its like because of the timing with my exceptionally long swing I am playing duck(good shot) duck(good shot) Goose(huge penalizing miss). I need to make my misses less severe and I think the best way to do that is to shorten my swing. My questions to the community is the following: Help me develop a practice plan to shorten my swing by the end of my golf season beginning of October. How many times should I practice? What should I practice? Any training aids? Any drills? What kind of data should I track when I play? Thanks All. Sincerely, Tired of being compared to John Daly.

I am in a similar boat I only have a short golf season where I live call it 5 months. I play probably 30-35 times a year. I use the rule of three. Whether it's playing or practicing or both try to be either practicing golf or playing at least three times a week. So let's say you play once/week try to hit the driving range or preferable the short game practice area at least two more times a week. When you approach these sessions deliberate practice is needed to get better. Don't smash balls or don't just run putts. I have had difficulty with shortish putts this year so I make sure I make x amount of short putts before I leave the practice green. Then for my chipping I give a time frame let's call it 30 minutes where I look at all the pins on the practice green and try to get up/down on different pins as many times as I can in that time period. Then I record my results. That's what makes up my short game practice. For the long game. Which I hate to practice. I usually only hit a small bucket. I work on the clubs in which I hit the most, I just don't work through my bag because again limited time and it's a waste to hit 10 4 irons when you might only hit it once a round. Mostly I spend time visualizing targets or greens of different courses in my mind and hit 170 yard shots and in. Then I practice fairway finding tee shots. That means if my driver is acting up on the coarse, I can shelf it for the round and go to my next go to tee shot club. I have three in rotation my big stick which I can hit 280+, my 5 wood which is a 240-260 yard tee shot, then if I am really desperate my 7 wood which maxes out around 230-235 or on average 225ish. Summary: - Hitting balls or playing three times a week. -Emphasize short game practice. With putting work on avoiding the three putt. So work short putts and lags. Forget about spending time on the 15 - 20 footers the pro's don't even make those that often. -Long game work on reliable in the fairway shots. Now let's not get extreme just because you get hit your 7 iron 150-170 yards dead straight every time does not make it a good fairway finding club. In my example the driver will leave me usually a wedge or less. My 5 wood around the 150 yard mark and the 7 wood a 170 to 200 yards in. Of coarse depending on the hole. -Work on the approach shots you will hit the most. Track a few rounds you will start to realize there are simply clubs that are a luxury to practice on. IE a 4 iron or even a wood off the deck. Best of luck on the improvements. I am not a super low handicapper but a single digit none the less, so I am still learning these things too. PS. Don't neglect the mental game. When you can't practice physically read a Dr. Bob Rotella. Also 9 holes is better then none. Minor Edit... Your talking about sacrificing rounds to practice 2 hours +. You don't need to practice that much in one session to get better. You need maybe 30 minutes minimum a session to start getting better. Ideally an hour is perfect. Go through a small bucket, then the rest on short game.

I play with a magically find his ball guy. Man is that frustrating. When your playing a match and you see him shank one into the tree's, you know in the back of your mind your probably still not at that much of an advantage. Then to keep him honest you have to hawk the guy, which is both awkward and slows down play. I have just learned to elevate my game to beat the cheaters I play with regardless of the liberties they take.

Tried turning the feet out this weekend and shortening my back swing. Well I probably shouldn't of shorten my swing without some range time because it threw my timing way off and I hit snap hooks all day. However kicking my feet out really helped with my short irons, as when I finally got within range to use the shorter clubs I was flagging down pins. I went to the range after my round practiced keeping my head still and shortening my back swing. I was still hitting hooks until I stood up taller then I was previously. Once I did this, high powerful draws starting happening. I wonder why that happened? Anyway the big take away from seeing my swing on video is that I have so many moving parts that when I am on I can time it pretty well but when I am off it leads to crazy inconsistency.

I've been Playing Golf for: 10 Years My current handicap index or average score is: 8.4 My typical ball flight is: High draw The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: The hook and two way miss when timing is off. Videos:

Kind of an update. Played this weekend twice and my driver was improved both days. Not great but better. I hit a couple in which I could say were safely around my old yardages/flight. What I worked on was the following: -moved the driver quite a bit farther up in my stance. -wider follow through. -dropped the club more inside on the down swing. -delayed the release and from a tip from a guy at work, kept my left hand right of target on the follow through. I got my first ever lesson on Thursday. I am going to ask about some things to work on from there.

When I first started playing the game (teenager) I naturally lagged the club and hit nice compressed irons. I would take good pelts but after the ball was struck and hit my clubs farther then almost everyone I played with. Since then I have gotten away from doing that as when I was young I could not control where my ball would end up. Recently in my search to get better and to find more consistency I have been trying to recreate that ball flight/motion. It has been a success I have now picked up 1 to 1 1/2 clubs with my iron distance, the ball has a lot more spin and I got the nice piercing zing sound. I love how the irons feel, fly and land. It gives me instant feed back on a good strike or not. However this motion has created havoc on my driver. I hit low bunts that roll about 250, giving up anywhere between 25-50 yards on my old swing with the big stick. A well struck compressed 3 hybrid is going pretty much just as far and straighter as my driver. This is how I have achieved my old compression: - Swinging more around my body. Not super inside but little bit more around to create a shallower attack angle. -Pressing the club slightly forward. Again nothing super exaggerated but pressed none the less. -Keeping my left hand flat through impact (Right handed golfer) My question is how do I fix my driver without screwing up my irons? Any ideas?

So I have gotten my handicap down to 8.6. I still suffer from some inconsistency issues but overall starting to be really happy with my game. I think I am ready to compete for fun. I think if I get out there and play some tourneys that it can only help my game progress further and shoot lower scores. What has been some of your guys experiences from playing casual golf to tournament golf? Did it improve your game? Hurt your game? What kind of learning curve did you experience?

I was trying to develop a go to fairway finding shot but your right I did some more research and to truly hit a fade with power I should be just adjusting my stance/club face then still hit from the inside. Hmmm more training is needed.

What would be proper? I have read many articles that state put the ball farther back in your stance, open the clubface, aim to hit the outside of the ball, open your stance etc... Are these anymore of a cheat then using your ability to manipulate swing path in order to hit the desired ball flight?

Sorry attached. So basically as the red arrow indicates I move the head of the club away from the ball to promote more of an outside/inside swing or a cut across the ball at the top.

Why? I understand its a major fault for beginners and slicers but when you want to call on a reliable left to right why not cheat a little?

Normally I would make my backswing on line with the ball (blue arrow).Now I am trying to push my hands immediately away from the ball (red arrow) this is my first move on the back swing.

I have recently read about the ball flight laws. I know that clubface is the most important factor when shaping a shot but I know swing path is important as well. This is where I will throw up a disclaimer. This advice I am about to give is for people that their major miss is a hook but still hit the ball far and understand how to draw the ball. If you just finally beat the slice or if you lack distance I would not recommend this move. Now I am in the earlier stages of trying to develop a fade. I found that minor adjustments caused inconsistence in my desired result, meaning the traditional methods without changing my swing majorly would give me the desired fade approximately 1 out 3 times. Doing this at least in the initial testing is giving me a fade about 90% of the time with the rest being mostly pulls. Now the move. when I start my back swing I immediately move my hands away from the ball. This gives me a gross aggressive out to in swing the classic slicer move which promotes a nice casting of the club. This will give you the left to right and actually with my power/natural tendency to draw/hook a good power fade. On the occasion you do try to correct your backswing and get out of the casting position in which you will most likely pull it but I have seen these to be power packed and not too bad. What say you sand trappers?

I kind of indicated in an earlier post I feel I am just as wild with woods epically off the tee as drivers. Maybe your right maybe I just bite the bullet and hit driver and hope for the best. I would say that it would only burn me on the tight hole severely looking at past data about 10 % of the time, meaning water/OB. I have been tracking my big misses this year.

Own a 5 wood. I feel a wood in general although it's easier I would say to hit solidly or to its true potential distance, its just as wild as a driver. I am looking for the confidence of a long iron with just a little added distance.

I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I hit my driver between 280-310. I play a draw and I feel I am pretty straight,confident in all but 2-3 holes on any given round hitting driver. However on those 2-3 holes I will hit anything from 6-4 iron depending on how confident I feel. 6 Iron for me is about 190-200, 5 Iron 200-210 and 4 is about 210-220. These holes are your typical tight par 4's and range from 365-420. So the 365 no problem even armed with a 6 iron its not hurting me. On the long par 4, 400+ I typical hit the 5 iron so I am coming in with two 5 irons this really hurts me! Occasionally I reach for the 4 iron when I am feeling confident but that really only gets me an extra 10. My miss is a hook. So I want something with a fade biases that can get me that 230-250. I am thinking of the following: - 4 Hybrid off the shelf recommended to not hook by the fellow trappers out there. - Re shaft my 4 hybrid with a steel shaft. I hear this helps with control? - Re shaft my 3 iron with a graphite shaft. Make it easier to hit still probably fight it left a bit. What say you?

Ok last question about Balls. I am starting to think that I should stick with just using urethane golf balls for my swing speed. My question for straightness off the tee is their a big difference between surlyn or urethane golf balls?

I think what everyone forgets is golf is suffering right now in part to how difficult a game it is and how long the rounds take. Some rules should be tweaked to attract more people to the sport...

Okay I will revise. I will say OB should only be if your not on the course. For example Houses are OB but a forest area which I see sometimes being white stakes should not be OB. Or a driving range granted if the course puts up a local rule that you do not enter just take a drop. Club length no close to the hole. If you can't find good grass then your SOL.

My Swing speed with the driver is 110-115 so that makes sense! I don't mind losing distance as long as the ball fly's straighter.

Two rules to change which would help pace of play and help make golf more fun. -All Hazards/OB play as one stroke lateral hazards. Drop at point of entry - If your ball lands in a fairway divot not rough but fairway you can move it out onto some good grass

Hi All, I just thought I would give you a guys a quick breakdown of my golf ball experience so far this season. Although I maintain a single digit handicap I am still getting enlighten on a few things. One thing I never thought was a big deal was the golf ball we use. I use to think that any old rock would perform just the same and if I wanted to be careful just in case it did make a difference, I reached for the king (a Pro V). Wow my opinion sure has changed! I have now started my journey to finding the right golf ball! So far this year I started out playing a TM Burner. I quickly banished this ball to the bottom of the bag. I soon realized these rocks were wild and consistently rolled out to far around the greens. I then took out a new Pro V. I played great with it and seen the improvements immediately. However I am not to fond of paying $60/dozen, so I set off to find a value somewhere in between. I then picked up a sleeve of Callaway Chrome Softs. This ball flew the same distance as the Pro V, had relatively the same short game performance and was straight as an arrow off the tee. Needless to say I was in love. But... I carried on with my search for the ball of choice. I heard a ton this year about the Wilson Duo. So I bought a dozen. Well I played one 18 and will play another today with them but I am not loving it to say the least. I felt like I lost a lot of distance off the tee and that they scuffed rather easily. I played slow greens that day and it felt like I had to slam it to get there. I think I will give them a fair shake and play another couple rounds before I go back to the Chrome soft for further evaluation. So far though.... Chrome Soft Pro V Duo Burner

I put the Nike Vapour Pro in the bag two rounds ago it was a replacement because my Covert 2.0 broke (I didn't like it anyway) and before that I played the old Nike 420 Tour that Tiger use to hit before the Coverts (Awesome Driver). In Between I switched to Titleist briefly which had great results and will be a fall back option. With all that being said I think the Nike Vapour Pro is a great driver! Very dead sound but incredibly consistent and no where near as wild as other distance drivers I have hit. I think NIke Drivers get a bad rep because their simply some of the hardest drivers to hit for the average player but if your a better player with a good swing speed then I think there worth a look. They won't help a player correct a slice or add distance but IMO will help you find more fairways.