MikeLowry5

Biggest club with the biggest swing I can make doing it right at this time.

Assuming 12 for you is correct be VERY selective off of the lie you use it on. I had one for a few months and liked hitting it off the deck on some long straight Par 5's at my old course which were about 570yds each. I needed it to be sitting up on the first cut like it was on a tee or I had to make sure it was not above or below my feet on the fairway so I could increase my margin for error. 3 woods to me should be designed to do what you want them to do. Some people NEVER hit a 3w off the deck and it's a 2nd driver. I'd say the mini's are ok for that. Some never hit it off the tee, but use it a few times a round off the deck. This would not be a good club for that. As your peer I'd tell you that you want something that is versatile since they only give you 14 tools to work with.

Solid round trying to hit a pull fade on every full shot.

I just asked the question to my instructor about if I should work on the 1/2 and 1/4 swings with a driver since he thinks it's the most important club. Since adopting this way of practicing I have only focused on hitting irons, short ones at that. I have Arccos and the club most often used (less the putter) according to the software is without a doubt my driver. It is the longest, lightest club with the least amount of loft. It is the club that is the hardest to control and the most critical to control. I think we all should probably use our driver in practice much more. I WISH my work with short clubs bled into my driver swing!

The club head. Think of "holding the release off" as long as you can. It keeps the club head from moving right for me, left for you after impact unless you can get your hands REALLY inside. Trying to get the hands in with leaving the head out has that cut off feel for the follow through. Right now I'm really confused on how to move the club/hands/arms throughout the swing. My instructor called at lunch and we went over it again and he's going to send me a video or two showing me again. I can make the motion with my hands using left palm/back of my right hand as the clubface, but not with a club in hand. I'm a short guy (5'-8") and to keep from sticking it in the ground I always get everything moving way out right. If I cut down a driver to an 8' length I guarantee you with 100% certainty my path with it would change instantly. That particular swing looked as over the top as I can remember with regards to my swing. The ball flight was pretty straight, but it was a slow motion 1/2 swing with a PW. I'd hope I would hit it straight at that speed with that club. Give me a driver or even a 7i doing the same swing and I cannot copy this motion nor get it to fly straight and not kill some worms on the right of me. I'm glad to be back reading the posts here. I bought the 5SK DVD's the other day and I'd say I should have them in a few days.

For those of us (most everyone here) we have multiple issues and minimal time. My hands are so active in the swing that while trying to work on the body movements (ankle roll) I've also been trying to work on the arms swinging correctly. Trying to focus on two things at this point is probably not optimal. I'm going to have to break it up in my practice so I get more out of my time. Edge of my ability here and still feel like the club head is staying out too long. Foot work looks better in my own eyes.

Good read. Practice yesterday and today = not many balls hit. I did lots of slow motion pump drills working on the ankles rolling. I had to come down into impact with the club head in slow motion to still find that feel of the heel on the ground and the knee not kicking out. Your swing is much more of a complete product than mine. For someone of my ability would you recommend this type of practice exclusively during this time of year when I'm also playing or do I need to spend time hitting balls to targets, pitching, putting, etc? I have about 1-2 hours a day 5 days a week to practice and can play 2-4 days a week. I cut off the slow pump drills in these videos. Next videos will show them. My instructor wants me to work on clubface control. I agree that it is really bad right now. I mixed it in with the ankles rolling here, I've been almost exclusively doing that work with the handle/shaft face going right after impact in the mirror because it is so hard to do with a ball right now. I need A LOT of work on stabilizing the face in my swing. I'm hoping the body work will help with this (definitely a hope because I feel lost toning my hands down). Title says full speed, but felt like 75%. Ball went to about full swing distance. Hopefully the swing was just more efficient at 75%! Only working on ankle rolling/heel down/knee not kicking out. Thanks for the help and comments. It should clear up after today and I can get outside for some better videos and see how the swing changes when not on a mat.

Do you have a preference for what clubs to use when practicing specific movements? Sure I can make small movements and work on a specific movement and hit a sand wedge ok, but would it be better do do this with longer clubs that are harder to hit?

Can you see them now? When rolling the ankles should it be subtle? I can pretty much roll completely over on both ankle and over the weekend while working on this I had a lot of shanks followed by vicious pull hooks, etc. Slowing down to focus on the movement only made it worse. The practice swings are me completely rolling the ankles over. The full swing is me TRYING to completely roll them over. I obviously cannot do it at full speed or even what I thought was "half speed". My question is if the practice swings are correct? I'll take a side video today doing the same thing. This is me swinging the driver very slowly. Come out of posture and the backswing sucks, but I was only focused on my footwork. What do you think?

Yes there are pros that lift it a little coming into impact but you were doing it too much, too soon. Trying to quiet the body in the swing has always been hard for me. It's made me wonder if I'm physically strong enough to control my body. I know most think we are, but I would venture to say that we're not strong in the right places to help control some of these movements. I'm so concerned about the hand action and path because I know how bad in to out I get and I start playing really bad golf when my timing is off. Even with a handsy swing I was still getting a straighter flight. Again, thanks for the help. I know the rear heel doesn't get dragged off the ground like Fred Couples/Kenny Perry, etc but even that small change seemed to produce a straighter ball flight. From the looks of the video the body is MUCH more quiet. I live in St. Louis and my instructor is in Kansas City (4 hrs away) and I don't get over there nearly as much as I should. So far (until this week when I went back) we worked on getting the arms moving more up and down and getting the pressure in the right heels at the right time. I had a hell of a time getting to load into the rear heel and not having the hips slide out from underneath me. Look at these videos from last winter.....

This is the part of the internet where tone would've helped you better understand what I was saying. I certainly am going to try and do what he asked and already have. I hit the ball better immediately and that is with the heel still coming off the ground vs it rolling forward. It lowered my ball flight a bit, but when I looked on some of the videos it looked like the upper half was coming more forward than usual. Mentioning it was a trait was only meant to be it has been something that from the time I first swung a club it was there. Tiger Woods has the same issue. In the past I simply tried keeping the heel on the ground which had me falling back and throwing the club way out to the left (right for all of you righties). Thanks for the help @mvmac !!!

It's always been a trait of my swing. It is certainly not a conscious move and I still have that much action when focusing only on the upper half rotating. The swing there was me working on hitting a fade trying to get the path more neutral. I also had my instructor recommend hitting half shots with an alignment stick in my belt buckle and avoid hitting the stick on the way down. From a cause and effect standpoint I see that when the heel raises it tends to block out the hand path from going in the circular motion that you should have. Thanks for the reply.

My apologies as the video did not look nearly that dark when I uploaded it.

I've been Playing Golf for: This is my 7th season playing golf I believe. My current handicap index or average score is: Handicap is going to be in the 7-8 range right now. Shows as lower, but will balloon with the new revision My typical ball flight is: Has been a block or hook. The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: I want to hit a ball that consistently is near my target. I prefer to see the ball push draw, but small pull fades do not scare me.

I haven't visited here in a few years, but wanted to say good job on the book. I bought it after hearing about it, was interested in some of the ideas and it is new information that you don't see anywhere else. Being relatively new to golf (played for 5 years) I've always thought that for handicapped players distance and ball striking were more important to your scoring than putting of which you guys have said and even went farther to say that it is more important for even pros. I've always been told that if someone wanted to get better they should do nothing but practice from 100yds and in. The problem is if you are a terrible driver of the ball you won't make it to 100yds out often enough to take advantage of your "practice"! If anyone was ever into card playing and read "The Theory of Poker" I can tell you this has similarities with regards to golf.

I don't know about your posts, but Erik/Iacas used the words "somewhat unfair advantage" and in later posts specifically uses the two words "unfair advantage" when explaining his reasoning for banning them. That is clear enough language for me.

I struggle to not call this a ridiculous argument, however I will not do so since those who think they should be banned believe it is an unfair advantage (their reasoning hase been thought out and doesn't seem to be reactionary). I do not believe it is an unfair advantage nor come close to it. I find the long putters to be very odd looking and could never see myself putting with one, but I will not call it an advantage. If this has any teeth within the golfing community and even gets near the folks who determine the rules of golf I feel sorry for golf. There are rules already in place in golf that heavily penalize honest mistakes that have not given the player an advantage (see Dustin Johnson, Padraig Harrington) whatsoever which bothers me, but this one takes the cake. I do not mean to ruffle feathers; only put in my $.02.

We have an office "tournament" set up next Friday at Stonewolf. I have never played there, but one of the guys in the office loves it. I have not played anywhere other than Birch Creek this year. Between there and Aberdeen is where I spend most of my year (I live near Six Flags).

The test was done with a TM Penta and I use a Callaway IZ. And I don't necessarily agree with the idea that weaker lofts and/or a slower clubhead speed equal less distance. If you are at optimal launch, smash factor, etc then, yes, this would be the case. If weaker lofts allow for your optimum trajectory and the slower clubhead speed allow you to hit the ball in the optimal location on the clubhead I would say they would INCREASE distance rather than decrease it. With that being said, I am not convinced I am hitting the ball in the optimal part of the clubface on a majority of shots and I am not sure if the ball flight is optimal or too high right now. There are so many variables in the equation that I am just not sure if this is my mind or I really am shorter this year. All in all I would assume these differences (loft, shaft flex, change of type of ball) would not equate to 12+ yards of distance loss with shorter clubs anyway. To add to this I checked my averages for my wedges and they are not even close to what I see out on the course. Here they are: GW: 126.8 SW: 115.8 LW: 105.6 Take those numbers and figure this. I hit a shot into a 104yd flag yesterday in relatively calm wind, low 60's for temps with a GW and ended up 5yds short. I am not even hitting full PW's 126.8yds this year, much less a GW.

I had my irons fitted over the winter and the fitter suggested Rifle PX flighted 6.5's with the lofts bent 2° weak (PW went from 46° to 48°). I had the original TM Burner 105g stiff shafts in them previously. The trackman data from the fitting session showed I hit the PX 6.5's further and had a higher swing speed with the PX's vs my original shaft. With all of the above said, I feel like I am hitting the ball considerably shorter this year. I live in STL and we have had a few 90° days and even on those days I felt like my irons were not carrying as far as the previous year. This time last year I would use a PW from 135yds a 9i from 150yds and this year I have had to hit an 8i into a 135yd pin. Last night I hit a 7i into a 145yd pin (playing to about 147yds with slope according to laser) and was still a few yards short! I am 27, in good shape and have not lost any flexibility or any strength as far as measurables. I do not have any recognized injuries and have been swinging the clubs better than I ever have. So what gives? Here is the trackman data. Swing Speed Attack Angle Club Path Dy Loft Face Angle Ball Speed Spin Max Ht Carry 105G TM 92.5 -8.4 4.1 In to Out 14.3 .5 Closed 127.4 5544 20.5 180.5 PX 6.5 91 -7.7 1.8 In to Out 14.7 .6 Open 127.4 5097 22.8 187.3 It is early in the season and the weather and wind has been up and down so it is still early to make a final determination but, the feeling is I hit the ball shorter than I did before with my irons. Thanks for the help in advance!

I have a set of 2009 Tour Preferred Irons that I purchased new, changed out the shafts to the PX 6.5's and only hit a few times at the driving range. The reason for this is I was going to use the 8-PW as part of a combo set with my Tour Burner irons. The clubs are look new, free of scratches, dings, etc. They have Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips on them. Clubs are standard length and lie and the grips have no extra wraps under them. I would like to get $500 (plus shipping) for them as I have put in a good amount of money with purchasing the new clubs, then re-shafting. I will listen to offers and trades. Thanks, Mike

Assuming I could hit them, Scratch blades and some of those fany Miura (sic?) wedges. I can't hit them well enought so it doesn't matter. A kid at the driving range I use has about 4 sets of beautiful looking blades (Hogan Apex, McGregors with custom paint, Callaway Prototypes, etc) but he can't even hit the damn PW on them well enough....

Well I wanted the shirt. I'm sure feeling like i got a new driver for $10 made me that much more apt to pay the money for the shirt. Mike

I received a NEW, UNOPENED R11 today as a replacement and was only charged shipping for it. I cannot tell you how suprised I was to see this. Although I am not a fan of the white, I was very greatful for TMAG's generosity. They had every inclination to deny my claim and I would not have been upset in the least bit, but to warranty it, and send the updated version is like Christmas. I caught a lot of razzing by the guys at Golf Galaxy for walking out of there with that new club for a $10 charge. I felt so overwhelmed I purchased an $80 Travis Mathew shirt before leaving....

I am firmly convinced that Donald Trump is a good golfer, partifularly a good short game player strictly because of the confidence he has in himself. There has to be some type of intangible correlation between the confidence you have in yourself to succeed and your brain allowing your body to make the correct motions to hit that shot. Just sayin...