bweiss711

Day 17: Playing 18 each of the next 2 days, so just wanted to keep things simple. Hit a few free and easy shots into the net. No launch monitor, simple on-course swing thoughts, free and easy tempo. Did some chipping and putting games/drills.

Does the pitcher throwing behind the next batter count as someone else giving Tatis a hard time? It's a story because it's real. Unwritten rules are something that players actually believe exist, and it makes the sport look stupid.

Day 16: Chipping practice. Off of my mat and into a hula hoop into various locations around my backyard. Hoop indicated the landing area, not the hole.

I didn't realize it was so easy to just hit a home run whenever you wanted. I feel like they would have been upset if he was taking all the way and it ended up a ball. Its probably another unwritten rule to not take a bases loaded walk with a lead too.

Whether or not it was real OB, isnt the point. The point was just understanding the difference between your best hits with a club, and your typical hit with a club. They aren't the same thing, and the higher you go in handicap, the further away from each other they become. I'm not an expert here, and anything I say on the matter is coming straight out of LSW, for which I see you have the badge. So it might be better to just revisit the first and third sections of that book.

Day 15: Rather than move on to a new part of the swing, I figured its better to make sure Im fully implementing the 2 drills I worked on last week. So i repeated the Day 22 and Day 1 drill from the 30 day covid challenge relating to stance and initial takeaway respectively.

Talking about average yardage without outliers is not the same thing as the average of your "best" hits. Your "best" hits could actually be, and at your handicap probably are, the outliers if 3 of your 7 tee shots are OB. Sometimes its better to use the word "typical". What is your "typical" drive? 7 out of 10 times, where is your drive actually going? Its possible you think your scores should be improving because your best hits are getting better, but your typical hits are still all over the place.

First, I received my copy of LSW today and got through the first section, so let me rewrite yesterday's post, stating things in a different manner. Day 13: Played 18 holes today. Had a very average day scoring, but had a good day in terms of ball striking advancing the ball on every shot. All day, I only had one true mishit, and just a couple more less than great strikes shots that were outside the expected dispersion range for my current ball striking ability. But a huge improvement for me. Also, this might be the first 18 holes ive ever played without losing a ball. That might not be true, but certainly in recent memory it is. Just keeping the ball in play is huge. Problem is, just because it was in play, doesn't necessarily mean it went where it needed to go. Most of the time it was close enough, but 3 or 4 "close enough" shots on a hole, is a bogey or double bogey. And I don't have the short game or lag putting needed to make up all those partial strokes lost from driving and approach shots. Not complaining, I've literally spent zero days working on chipping and lag putting. Just being realistic about where my game is currently. However, knowing that greenside shots are a SV3 skill and 25+ foot putts are just as important as 3-15 foot puts, its time to start adding those to my regular practice schedule. Pleased with today's effort. Consistency Consistently advancing the ball using full swing motion breeds confidence. If I can start turning those double bogeys into bogeys , and some of the bogeys into pars, 3 strokes into 2 on just a few more holes, I'm going to be right where I want to be by the end of the year. Day 14: Even though I was happy with how I was advancing the ball yesterday, I knew I had only a handful of shots that had that "flushed" feeling. And I know what was missing was that feeling I get in my left wrist at impact, so i wanted to work on how to get that feeling more often. Now I know, what I am looking for is improved competency over SK#3. Today was just messing around a bit without any specific drill. Not ideal, I know. Partial swings with a flat left wrist led me to find that at address of full swings, if i flatten out my left wrist a bit at address (less cupping), such that my hands move slightly towards the target ahead of the ball, I was able to more often get that feeling in the downswing. This was confirmed by my launch monitor which gives swing speed and ball speed. Higher ball speed by 4 or 5 mph with similar club speed when i got that feeling at impact. Moving forward, I'll look into finding actual drills to work on this.

Just received the book today. I'm only through the first few chapters, and I already want to go back and re-write almost every post I've ever written on this site about my own game. Can't wait to find out everything else I'm going to learn.

Generally, I'll look to see where the better miss is. Long or short. If it's better to miss long, hit the longer club. If it's better to miss short, hit the shorter club. If for some reason, the only play is to attack the pin, I'll hit a "three quarter" shot with the longer club. Of course at my handicap, I rarely end up actually executing any of those options properly. But that's my mindset.

Day 13: Played 18 holes today. Had a very average day scoring, but had a good day in terms of ball striking. All day, I only had one true mishit, and just a couple more less than great strikes. But a huge improvement for me. Also, this might be the first 18 holes ive ever played without losing a ball. That might not be true, but certainly in recent memory it is. Just keeping the ball in play is huge. Problem is, just because it was in play, doesn't necessarily mean it went where it needed to go. Most of the time it was close enough, but 3 or 4 "close enough" shots on a hole, is a bogey or double bogey. And I don't have the short game or lag putting needed to make up all those partial strokes. Not complaining, I've literally spent zero days working on chipping and lag putting. Just being realistic about where my game is currently. Pleased with today's effort. Consistency breeds confidence. If I can start turning those double bogeys into bogeys, and some of the bogeys into pars, I'm going to be right where I want to be by the end of the year. View this round on GAME GOLF

Agreed. It needs to be simple. Don't touch the sand. Nothing is then left to interpretation. The other way to think of it is, what other legitimate reason is there for touching the sand that wouldn't be for the purpose of gaining an advantage? Was he drawing a picture? Testing it out to see if its good packing sand for a sand castle? Just don't touch the sand and everything will be ok.

So I did day 22 drill from the 30 day covid challenge. I appreciate that the drill was simple enough that even I had some confidence I could pull it off. I understand completely the feeling of arms dropped down straight, and then relaxing the knees. Makes a lot of sense, and is easily repeatable. My question is then, is this posture used for every club in the bag? If i were to do that drill, hang my arms down, and then pick up a wedge, would the angle of my spine be the same as if i picked up a driver? So the only thing that changes in the stance as you hold longer clubs is 1) how far away you are from the ball and naturally 2) the angle of the club shaft as it relates to the ground? Thanks

Day 12: Did day 22 drill from 30-day covid challenge related to stance and posture. Then hit a few different clubs trying to incorporate the feel of that posture. Playing 18 tomorrow. Should be an interesting round trying to play with a stance that feels so different. But i have some confidence after a pretty consistent session hitting balls into the net.

Day 11: played 9 holes at my home course. The last 2 pars for my par challenge continue to elude me. Also took some swings in the backyard working on posture.

Wow, thank you. That visual makes so much sense. Maybe it should be common sense, but seeing it laid out that way is extremely helpful. I've always known that i need to try to swing around the spine on the backswing, but its difficult for me to visualize exactly how to do that. Just thinking about simply bending over more (there's probably more to it than that, but its where i'll start) seems like it will make so much of the rest of the backswing easier. Keeping the club head outside the hands for one, but i also can feel while thinking through it, that it may flatten out my wrist naturally, as that bowed wrist is one of the compensations you're talking about. I really appreciate the time you took to put that together. As for Hogan's book, I'm not surprised to hear that. Its one of those things that my dad got me into when i was in high school, and I assumed was going to be the best way to learn. I figure a good golfer from 70 years ago would still be good today, or at least better than I am today. But if that's not how the swing is taught anymore, or there have been clear advancements in a better way to swing, I'm game to learn whatever is going to make me better. I have LSW on the way right now. I'm not sure that its truly an instructional book, but I'm very interested to learn more about those 5 keys I read about on this site. Thanks again.

Figure its time to update the thread. My last declared part of the swing to focus on was stance and posture. Here is a snapshot from a swing i took today. Compared to 2 previous images, both of which were said to be not great. Maybe the new one is a compromise of the 2? I also did the day 1 drill from the 30 day covid challenge relating to the initial take away today. I believe my backswing needs a lot of work, so assuming my stance and posture is in a decent spot, the next logical place to go is the initial takeaway of the backswing. Here is my swing from today at A2. I think its ok. Should my club be outside my hands more? Should there be more shoulder rotation? And here is my complete swing. I know I'm still a little OTT, but not going to worry about that until i work my way through the entire backswing to make sure im setting myself up to succeed on the downswing.

Day 10: Did the Day 1 drill from the 30 day covid challenge related to the initial take away. I'm not necessarily looking to go back and do all 30 days, but I do plan to cherry pick the ones related to the backswing and takeaway for now, and use that as a resource for helpful drills moving forward. Can't thank @iacas enough for making things like that available to everyone. After the drill, I continued to hit a few balls with partial and full swings into my net while attempting to incorporate the drill into my swing.

I just did.

Day 9: Set up a new practice area along my garage. Happy with the results. Happy to have a comfortable area on my own property to swing everyday. Took a few swings with a couple different clubs to test it out. Really trying to hone in the free and easy feeling without swaying back and forth with my head and legs moving all over the place.

I think I need to get this book.

I'd be curious what you think if you go for it. Prior to this year, and doing that kind of research, I'd played Titleist Velocity that I could find used for about 50 cents a ball. This year, after doing the research, particularly on the benefits of the urethane cover, i tried the Pro V1x. Still used, but quite a step up to about $1.65 a ball for prior year's model. The difference around the green is crazy. Pitch shots from 50 - 100 yards in stop on a dime, and chipping around the green with high lofted clubs gets almost no roll. I still remember my first round of the year with the new ball, and i had a chip from just a few feet off the green with a 54 degree wedge, and it checked up and stopped after just a few feet of roll. My buddy and I looked at each other both with that WTF look. I don't really notice too much difference off the tee, putting, or on longer approach shots. But there is just so much more control around the green, and don't think ill be going back to Velocity any time soon.

The idea that certain balls are better or made for slow swing speeds haven't really held up under testing from what i've read. Its more marketing myth than anything in an attempt to make market segmentation easier (or at least thats my opinion). Check out this article from MyGolfSpy. Particularly points 3 and 4 in the introduction. Then take a look at the data for balls at 85 mph swing speeds. Generally speaking, golf balls marketed to slower swing speed golfers are lower compression balls. And lower compression balls are generally slower in ball speed, resulting in less distance. And if you play balls that don't have a soft urethane cover, you will lose spin around the greens. So a ball like Callaway Supersoft, you will lose distance off the tee and spin around the green versus something like a Pro V1x. In fact, that article recommends the Pro V1x as the best ball for distance for slower swing speeds, which runs contrary to almost everything you see related to marketing for the Pro V1x. It looks like price is a consideration to you and how much that difference in performance is worth to you is entirely up to you. There are some great balls comparable in price to the Supersoft (or a little more expensive) that should give better performance at any swing speed, such as the Maxfli Tour or Snell MTB or Kirkland balls. 2019 Golf Ball Buyer's Guide | MyGolfSpy This is the most impactful test we have ever published. Over the past 10 years, MyGolfSpy has conducted hundreds of tests, and published thousands of articles that have influenced millions[...]

I have the epic flash hybrid, 18 degrees, and its a great club. The thing to consider is that it is a very hot face. If you hit it perfect, its just goes and goes. The problem with that is there is quite the dispersion from shortest to longest shots. Even on good strikes. Great for tee shots, but maybe not so much for approaching greens. But I loved the 18 degree so much, I got a 21 degree as well to replace my 4 iron. Problem was, when i hit the 21 flush, it goes almost as far as the 18. So carrying both didn't make any sense. I still wanted higher lofted hybrids, and I ended up getting and loving the Titleist 818 H1s. They feel great, and have a very consistent distance on good strikes. I have those in 21 and 25. Depending on your tolerance of used clubs, I'd recommend giving those a shot. $80 each at 2ndswing. If it turns out you're interested in the Callaways, check out the Callaway preowned website as well. They've got a very true and fair grading system for their clubs, have excellent money back guarantees, return policies, and overall customer service. You can always buy the epic flash from there, and return it for full value within 14 days if you don't like it, or if the condition isn't suitable to you. And they accept returns up to 90 days at decreasing levels of value every 30 days. I rebuilt my entire bag this year using this method of buying and trying used clubs from there. I realize that sounded a little like a paid endorsement for callaway preowned, but i've honestly had nothing but good experiences with them.

This is the way to go. Choose 2 or 3 grips you want to try, put each one on a club, and try them out. Pick the one you like the best, and regrip all your clubs with it. Yeah, you're wasting the grips you don't choose, but its a lot better than gripping your entire set only to find out you don't really like it. I play the MCC +4 Align. Once I tried the Align, I couldn't imagine playing without that feature, as my grip had previously always been an issue. The +4 is also a great compromise between standard and midsize grips. I do wish they had Tour Velvet +4 Align, I'd probably play that instead. But the rubber on the lower hand of the MCC +4 is softer than the rubber on the non +4 MCC, so that helps the comfort level.