wachesawgolfer

I still think there may be some laxity in your position at the top, although your move back looked to me to be fairly good on the video. If there is laxity, ie. lack of coil, doing much of anything, at the top of the backswing, doesn't help the downswing so the body recruits the right shoulder to move the arms out and down which is an OTT move. Make sure the shoulders/sternum complete the turn back and the arms just are turned/raised by that body turn. This keeps you connected and allows you to experiment on how to start down without just a right shoulder lunge out.

However you should know this : Maintain the bend in your right (rear) wrist. If you unhinge your right (rear) wrist during the downswing, you will hit behind the ball. regards,[/QUOTE] I have never heard this. Maybe anything can happen if you release early, not just fat shots?

And if it really works, as the saying goes, buy the Demo you hit, as no two clubs, exactly the same, really play the exact same due to the nature of graphite and the assembly process of the head and the finsihed club.

I guess the question would have been better posed to you as what is your 99percent make distance from actual putts. Hoping to make putts has nothing to do with percentage made putts from increasing distances from the hole. Most people make all two inch but do not make all three feet putts although they would like to forget those misses. Every putt is makeable and mental attitude and good technique make more putts sink, but alas, they do not all go in for anybody and the question is or should be at what distance for you do they all go in.

On the next Blade vs. Cavities thread can we are least spell cavities correctly or perhaps even use "cavity backs". Golly what else is there to say? We eagerly await.

I did not even think it was possible to break a graphite shaft on the leg as it is too strong and flexible. Most people I see breaking them do so on the golf cart or a tree. But if you cut the shaft even just a little with a hack saw it will break like candy in your hands. Big reason to make sure your shafts are not damaged or cut as they will self destruct on impact, if they are.

I just reread the book and am going to give it another try. I like the fact the early break he describes puts the club perfectly on plane at the top if you can judge from a "swingguide" attachment. I have always felt the reason people are so inconsistent is inconsistent backswings and this technique minimizes that faults of being too steep or too shallow, laid off or armsy in the backswing.

Hope we helped to some extent. You made an excellent video. Best of luck this season.

[QUOTE=Slicer McGolf;264308]it started well, with the down move, but the ending here is completely wrong. Lowering the arms transfers the weight? Not likely. How can a vertical move transfer weight horizontally? This is the problem people have with golf. They never experiment with their bodies to see how things work. Read Ben Hogan's book he talks about how the whole body is connected, that is turning the hips brings the arms down. Next time you get the chance simply turn back in a good golf posture, chest turned against the rear braced leg. Now move the lead knee towards the target, arms are pulled down, now turn back again and move the rear knee towards the ball, you guessed it, arms are pulled down. Now set up again and turn but this time just lower the arms, left knee moves towards the target and right knee towards the ball, ie a weight shift has occurred. To me it makes no difference how you start the downswing from the top, whether you just lower the arms, move the left knee to the target or right knee to the ball, because it all starts the same transfer and turn. I found that starting the downswing with the lower body tended to pull my right shoulder out and thus OTT, not straight down as Hogan stated. BUT, he made a much better backswing than I could ever make in terms of raw coiling and maintaining the corrects angles throughout. Do the towel throw, it will amaze you. If it doesn't you are merely raising your arms to complete the backswing and have no coil at the top as the reverse happens (the arms raising independently of the torso turn cause the coil to release so there is no tension at the top.) Hogan called this a false backswing and it is the root cause of the OTT move.

From the top, swing down not out. Simply extend the right arm straight down and the left arm slides down the chest. Simply lowering the arms transfers the weight to the front foot and will turn the body. Keep the shoulders back and the left arm on the chest as long as possible. As soon as the left arm comes off the body at the top, it breaks down, left wrist folds backwards to the target to allow the outside in swing path. This uplofts the decelerating clubhead resulting in weak thin fat right or left shots. I like the towel throw to feel the golf swing. Simply take a towel and set up to an imaginary golf ball. No turn back with good extension and let the sternum complete the backswing so you have a tight good coil with no upward arm drift. Make sure the right arm has folded correctly under the left at the top and left wrist is flat. Now simply throw the towel straight down behind you. You should end up with all your weight on your front foot and your arms perfectly extended down the imaginary target line as any good pro. For all the golf instruction out there, most people who come over the top do not know how to make a good backswing which is tight, coiled and uncomfortable at the top and then just swing down. Nicklaus in his book is right, the OTT move stems from a poor backswing in that it is a compensating move to develop power from the top due to lack of coil at the bottom. Swingplane based instruction is another culprit in that it can cause people to swing down on the ultimate plane, which is too outside at the top, rather than straight down and let the turn forward combine to create the ultimate swingplane

I play to a 10 or so and my best rounds have been with blade clubs. No real difference at all to me. I found if I make a bad swing, my club, no matter what it is, doesn't seem to care and will not come to my rescue. How many times have we hooked, sliced or shanked a sand wedge? With all that loft and the club just doesn't care or forgive. Its been said over and over again, its not the arrow, but the archer. Clubs are more about proper fitting than head style. A blade you might find in a store comes fitted with a Rifle 6.0 or TTDG X 100 standard and that shaft simply doesn't work for most people. Too stiff, too stiff, too stiff. Get a set that shafts to your spec and be in for a big surprise how easy these clubs are to play with a little practice on your swing, so you trap/compress the ball, not just sweep/lift it.

I cannot agree with much of what you say. A golf club is just a golf club. Ones mental attitude and focus is way more critical than one's golf club. Most pros are playing cavity backs that are close to blades in terms of size, offset and lofts and have miminal cavity. In reality they play like blades and are just as workable. Modern pros grew up with cavity back clubs and are simply familiar and comfortable with them. Very few, if any, play Game Improvement irons which are large, thick soled, have a wide top line, metal inserted faces, lots of offset and strong lofts. They, in a word, do not need all that stuff. They would hook the heck out of the clubs and lose any feel and control as to ball flight and distance. Heck, they are all now just retiring their two irons and some their three irons.

I always say the same thing. Buy a component blade, say a 6 iron head, get fitted and play with this club or use it at the range. You will quickly see, it will not bite you but plays just like a golf club. But, it lets you know if hits are off and really hums when you catch one well. The big edge is chipping around the greens, very easy to learn the feel to find the holes into makable range. Years ago there were only blade irons, thats all anybody could buy. No money in that so the manufacturers keep tweaking irons to make them sell each year. Bigger heads, stronger lofts, longer clubs and thin faces, todays 7 iron is yesterdays 5 iron and in some the 4 iron. We have not gotten better we only rebadge our irons and change the color inserts on the back to feel better.

Keeping the head still is probably bad advice at best as it inhibits the turn back. The head needs to move back from the ball as the body turns with the correct weight transfer to the rear foot. The problem is with your rear leg bracing if you sway. Set up so your rear knee is inside your rear foot; you should be able to place a shaft on the inside of that foot and it touch the outside of the knee. Now swing back and make a full backswing without the knee crossing the shaft which is hard if you sway. Swaying is a lower body issue not a head issue. Free up the head so the body can turn freely. Practice keeping that rear knee flexed and braced and the sway should become a turn back.

Uh, why don't you keep the 3 iron and use it for practice at the range. Once you get used to hitting the 3, the mid irons will seem easy. Seems like an inexpensive training aid at this point.

The best answer is how is your putting. Due to the make up of the DT Roll it will be harder hit it the correct speed on keen greens, That is the trade off for the added roll on the fairway. The NXT Extreme is a very popular ball in the mid range price area and gives the better combination of all around playability of the two.

Yes that is true but you lose too much extension of the left arm which is critical to effortless club head speed. Rather than glued to the side it is important the right arm fold correctly but still extend out so as to maximise the left extension so that the left arm does not have to do it alone and become locked out and tense.

Not being a "player" but observing juniors the only thing I can add is not to overplay things to make that birdie but play smart to your strengths to insure par. Make some putts and the birdies start to happen. At the better levels, its being able to nail pins from 160 in and sink the putts. Do you play rounds with just one iron and a putter to force you to make all types of shots?

As stated you can walk and basically use the cart as a caddy especially if your partner would rather drive than walk, but the cart is nice on those mile long distances betwen holes so common on post 1990 courses in the southeast. I always think it is best to walk when they walk and ride when they ride.

18, shot that 54 and never looked back...in my dreams.

Nice thing about the 54, if its a strong sand wedge, ie about 10 degrees of bounce, it can be the only wedge you carry with a traditional PW of 46 or 47. This is a nice thing if you like to walk alot.

I assume you right handed. My understanding is the left foot is supposed to be a little open and the rear foot straight to the target line. This helps you turn through and finish the swing.

Many people believe, including Leadbettor, that the Medicus encourages too slow a backswing which affects the natural hinging and setting of the club early and ultimately hurts the overall tempo.

This is what Bobby Jones says in his book about starting the downswing with the butt of the club going down on the plane it is pointed. It works well if you club is in good position at the top.

You have to determine why you are coming over the top. It is a backswing oriented problem, not a downswing problem. The downswing is easy if you have made a good backswing and thus are in good position at the top. 1. If you start down before you finish a 90 degree turn you will be outside. This is a flexibility and timing/tempo issue. 2. If you take the club inside at the bottom it will travel up and cross over the top in a loop which forms a counterclockwise circle. Things in motion tend to stay in motion so the natural move on an inside takeaway is the over the top. You need to get to the 9:00 position in the backswing where the club is parallel to the ground butt to target and toe up or slightly closed. From there turn the torso and the clubs loops clockwise and drops inside at the top. Completely different loop direction at the top from the low inside move. Practice taking big looping swings where the club rises up in the front and then inside and down to the inside. 3. You are picking the club up somewhere in the backswing free of the body turn creating arm drift or travel which breaks down the swing connection such that at the top you are too arms steep and have no coil which results in the only move available to the subconscious to start the downswing which is to fire the arms/rear shoulder out and over the top. 4. Your arms are not folding correctly in the backswing such that the club is too steep or flat and thus too far out of position to swing down requiring bad arm compensations. You want to take a tray held vertically and swing back so tha the tray is somewhat flat and the right hand below it. What Leadbetteor call the waiter's positon at the top. This is the on plane position. Keep the left wrist flat and allow the right hand to travel under the left while not regripping. This is the power hinge move. Easy to do if you practice it. At the top just check the swing and see where you are, or have a friend check it. Having said that the best drill is to set up to a ball with a good setup and have a spare shaft which is placed on the same plane as the club you are using. Now move to the left (righty) so that with you club on your hip the hosel extends to the shaft. Now set up again and make practice swings not hitting the shaft. Once you can do that, simply swing straight down by dropping the arms straight down and you should be to swing under the shaft. With practice you can hit balls with a shaft so placed. To feel the golf swing mechanics, simply take a golf towel and make a good setup and now turn back to really feel a coil against that braced rear leg and then simply throw the towel down behind you. If you made a good turn back you will see the weight all shifted to the front and your arms are perfectly straight down the target. The downswing happens automatically if you coil back and swing down, not out. The point of all this is to point out that the over the top move is a result of a poor backswing, not a problem in and of itself.