Dave325

Something that Erik pointed out to me during a lesson... when you hover the driver at the sweet spot and let it fall to the ground, you'll notice that the driver is lined up more to the toe (I hope I got that right). So, I did this and never did the hover thing. Just recently, I started to hover and felt like I was more prepared to move smoothly into the backswing. However, I am currently working on the mechanics of the swing.

More of the same on this today. Though today I spent a lot more time on the backswing and downswing drills. Then, slowing down both iron and driver swings to 50% speed. Starting to feel better with the transition.

I am with you on this one, @colin007. Those two items seem to always want to run away from me. I also have to remember to get back to the basics here (and doing the drills helps a lot) and going through the swing in slow motion. In fact, I just came in from my backyard and was working on these two items (along with the shoulder turn).

Worked in the yard today on driver and 6 iron full swing and backswing drills. Focus today on figuring out the rhythm and slowing down the transition to about 70% to build on consistency and a solid strike (I really need to get rid of that excessive fade that eats golf balls). Key note here is the feeling in two parts... Transition to A4 (soft chest pointing to ground).... Then hip / shoulder rotation and weight forward through impact. Two focus areas I need to work on: Left Shoulder turn (seems to stall at A6) and continuing hip rotation through A7 forward. I turned this into a slow rehearsal drill as a pre shot routine. More to come tomorrow. Spring is coming... Fired up the lawnmower and mowed the lawn tonight. That will make for a nice practice turf tomorrow.

My golf buddy canceled our round, so I thought the time would be better spent at the range. Worked on my focus items with driver and 7 iron. Irons looking good, but not so much for the driver. I seemed to pick up tha old fade again (arg). I need to work more on my shoulder turn (left shoulder coming around on the follow through). After that, spent a lot of time on pitching, chip and putting. All those are looking real good, but going to have to work harder on the driver. Tried to slow the swing down to 1/2 speed and try to str5aighten thing out.

Not a sappy thought at all, Jeremy. That's a great meaning to keep in front of you.... Or behind you too since its on your back. I am not not into tats, but my daughters have them. My one daughter has been through a lot and has the words "stay strong" on her wrists. I know that has special meaning there. It seems Tats used to be sported by mostly male ex military, but Now a more growing trend among females. Not sure why.

Welcome fellow Ohioans... I'm originally from Cleveland, but moved to Cinci in 94. Good luck on getting your swing back. I have played that long too, but never got my game to that level. Life intervened way too much

Fantastic deal at the store, @Patch and that was very nice of you to pass them to the kiddos.

Spent a few hours working on the drills, then full swing with driver and 7 iron, focusing on transition at A4 to finish... Hip/shoulder turn and weight forward extending the legs at Impact while keeping head back and steady. Did a few slow motion drills on this transition. Then worked on pitches. Later this evening, moved to garage and continued slow full swing with 6 iron and hybrid. Took some videos here and did a review in Sl-Mo. Swing is coming along and the pic is definitely changing for the better. Heading out for a round with auddy in the morning. Going to focus on the weight forward hip turn and head back tomorrow. Going to swing a tad less to focus on the mechanics.

Very true about the muddy mess.... At my rural course it's pretty much whatever at this time of year. When I walk off the course I'm spattered with mud up to the knees, since I walk and carry my clubs.so usually the homeless look fits nicely

I agree here... You don't want to swing it... Unless you get it repaired properly or replaced. You definitely don't want to see the clubhead go flying down the fairway and hit someone. I didn't notice if you mentioned how old the club is. My last driver was a Nike and worked just fine for me for many years. It could be a manufacture flaw that Nike might fix for you if it's not too old. Just thinking.

I believe they will have a better year this round, as last year had its issues. Even though, I'm actually an Indians fan, being a transplant from Cleveland. I am hoping they have a better year too.

Did about 3 hours in the yard working on drills and the priority elements from my Evolvr analysis. Focused on slower transition from A4 through the downswing to get the sync of weight forward with hip and shoulder turn through impact. (Alternated between driver and 6 iron). Worked at thrusting through ball in the hip slide (I guess that's what you call it) while keeping the head steady up to impact (I realized I had the tendency to move the head forward up to impact resulting in a push fade (ugly). Slowing everything down for now to get the feeling ingrained. Worked on more pitching practice to wrap things up for the day.

Working on the priority items from my last Evolvr lesson... shoulder hip turn and weight forward through impact. A couple things I still need here... to maintain the hip position that was at address up to A4 and get more weight forward, while keeping my head back. Feeling a bit like Gumby now at the finish (smile), but it seems to have straightened out my fade. More work on this ... slowing things down from A4 through to finish to get the mechanics ingrained.

Good point, Dave! And actually, when they keep it light with a little humor, it helps to widen the readership, and not sound too authoritative.

Previously, I shared a list of tips that my course published to its members in an email. Well, they just sent another round of them today. So, I thought I would share them to help all of us. There are a couple funny comments in their too. The one about the sand traps really doesn't apply to my course, since they remove them last year due to maintenance issue, but it may apply to you. Enjoy the read. 8 More Tips to Speed Up Play Earlier this month, we gave you 8 tips to help speed up play on the golf course to help every player's enjoyment. Don’t be one of those slow players! Here are 8 more tips to help you avoid slowing down play: Don’t step off or measure yardage for every single golf shot; develop an “eye” for distance. Be efficient with your pre-shot routine. Take only one practice swing. Play a provisional ball if you think the original might be lost outside a water hazard or out of bounds. When hitting a shot from the bunker, make sure you put the rake next to you. That way you'll be ready to rake right after you nestle your shot next to the cup. Park the cart at greenside as near as possible to where you expect to exit the green after holing out or if walking leave your clubs on the side of the putting green towards to next tee. This avoids backtracking. Exit putting green promptly after holing out. Wait until you're on the next tee to start writing down scores. Don't ask your playing partners to help you search for a lost ball - unless you are absolutely certain there is time for them to do so (e.g., there is no group behind waiting). If the course is crowded, your partners should continue moving forward, not slow things down further by stopping to help your search. Let them play through: If the group behind you is faster, it's okay to let them play through. Finish your hole and then let them tee off ahead of you. Swallow your pride. It's not a sign of weakness. Who knows? It might be Freddie Couples or Tiger Woods. Remember to forward this to the players you normally play with so we are all working out of the same playbook. We look forward to seeing you!

True, but then that would take this from a $50 towel to $60 towel. Just looking at this from a purely business perspective, the company needs to look at a few directives here: 1. Figure out how to make them cheaper so they can drop the price. I am hard pressed to understanding that the consumer would place that value on the pretty quilt. 2. Add more options that separate it from other towel, like a number stratigically placed grommets, a couple small carabiners and a portion of the material being porous enough to clean the grooves in your clubs. Other than the pretty quilt.... What separates this from a dish rag I can buy at WalMart? i know I may be a bit picky here, but I'm looking at this from a business, marketing and sales venture. I am assuming that is part of the reason for the review process. But I may be wrong.

worked on drills and rotation elements from my evolvr analysis that came in last night. heading out in the yard to do some more work.

Started with this and then found that it is best to go with this option on the windy days..... At this point... the aesthetic have quite a bit higher rating than the functionality. There could be a lot more options built in with a little re-engineering. As it stands, I am wondering how it might out do an off-the-shelf hand towel from WallMart. There has to be value-add here. I am thinking the company spent more time focused on the art and marketing department, rather than the engineering side of golf needs. But, just my take on it. I plan on giving it go at the range where it can get a bit mucky in the turf where I frequent. T1.tiff

played a round today. Nice weather! .... and as for my game.... ah.... did I say that the weather was nice. Moving on.

Just got back from a round of golf today using the towel. Today was VERY windy. I used the towel as my only fixture to wipe anything off.... but this way of carrying it (across the clubs didn't work for carrying your clubs on a windy day. It fell off a few times and ended up tying it on to a club with the a knot to keep it from blowing away. That is... until I needed to use that club. Then ran it through the handle, which seemed to work better, but needed to keep readjusting to keep it from falling away. The quilt side of the towel has very little use (other than aesthetics), though I used to wipe my face and clear my sinuses (ahem). The other side (more like a dish towel) of the towel worked fine for cleaning the mud off the clubs and shafts. However, it would be nice if 1/2 of this side had a more textured material to clean out the grooves of the club. The last item to change on this towel is putting a couple grommets at each end AND the middle... and supply a small carabineer to connect it to the bag. Just some thoughts while they are fresh in my mind. I took a couple pics but it doesn't seem that they will embed after reviewing the How To directions. So, I'll need to look into that and post back later. Regards

Thanks @boogielicious. I'll do that. I probably need to step back a bit as I tend to get a bit over aggressive with practice and wanting to see improvement. I find myself practicing for hours on end until I can't grip the club any longer. So that's probably got good and may need to re-evaluate that part. (Shrug)

Ok, Erik. Will do. Thanks for the input.

Great practice day today (and great weather)... worked a lot with the driver, 6-iron and 7-iron in the backyard. Focused on backswing, downswing drills and full swing incorporating the key elements of the drills. Again, my main focus is swing now with the lower body (not arms) and continuing with my single swing thought (at A4... try to hit the ball with the belly button). Heading out to play a round of golf tomorrow morning to try to put this into my game. Also, made a number of videos and reviewed them. Sent a couple off to Evolvr for review. Here are a couple driver videos that I posted in MySwing. Any suggestions and comments are always appreciated.

Driver swing with FO and DTL views. Focus priority is getting the hip turn weight shift forward, ensuring that the hips are open before impact and finishing with weight on the outside of the left foot. Starting to feel better with swing of using the lower body and less arms. When I do this right, the ball goes dead straight. When I don't, I get a serious fade. Any suggestions or input here is always welcomed and appreciated.