Travtex

My go-to club around the green is my 58*, and I'm much more confident with it than anything simply because I spent a year with it in my yard hitting thousands of various chips and pitches. Now, I do -try- to change things up a bit depending on how much roll I have between myself in the hole. I know the one club system is supposed to be 'Beginner's Mistake' territory. But... I don't have great results with other clubs. It's just a matter of practice, of course. Less confident when I'm pulling out my 8i for the first time ever on any given type of chip.

Hey guys, weird experience/question: I switched to graphite shafts recently to counter some elbow tendonitis (Works wonders, by the way). Ordered a set of Di9's, and now that I'm starting to get used to them I'm finding myself flying WAY past the green. Went from a dead-on straight shot with high trajectory (Maybe ballooning) to a lower, looping draw. Even adjusting for the differences in lofts, I've picked up around fifteen yards. Made for an ugly round, actually. Bouncing off trees behind the green, finding the lake after overshooting my target by ten yards, etc. I kind of expected this to be the case once I got the feel for the lighter shafts. What I did NOT expect was a similar increase in distance with my wedges. These are, mind you, the same wedges I had before. Same shafts, same everything. What would bring this about? Anyone have graphite shafts also increase their swing speed with steel shafts? My body getting used to a quicker sequence with the irons and just deciding 'Okay, we swing THIS fast, now'? Was also overcooking short pitches, sand shots, everything. With the same wedges I've been using for two years.

Google 'eye dominance golf' or something along those lines, and you'll be reading for a while. I do the same thing, though the mirror image version -- I golf left-handed, and I'm right-eye dominant.

On board.

Fayetteville, Arkansas. Most if not all of the teaching pros are absorbed by the University. (It's kind of a pain when the standard recommendation to any question is 'Get a Lesson', since I've yet to find an instructor that uses video... while telling me how 'Aggressively Rolling Hands at Impact' will cure my driver push) Anyway, I don't really have the budget to go make a Project out of it and fly to Kansas City/Dallas/Wherever... and, like you say, I realized the Professional Fitting wasn't particularly professional. Just trying to hope that some of the data might carry over here to get me SOME sort of information. *laugh* Problem: Driver too High. (My real-life 6 iron can get in the mid-180's, at least?)

Well, I went and got a fitting today and while I can probably find something to do with the information gained it wasn't a particularly helpful experience. At the end of the day, the dude told me I needed stiff flex irons and regular flex driver... Though I have my questions about the monitor. It had me popping a 6i with a club head speed of about 80 mph (I think the average was 77). Best was 82mph for 198 yards. But my DRIVER club head speed was averaging around 85mph. I might have developed a tendency to try and keep my whippy driver shaft under control. Anyway, the problem THERE that I'm mostly curious about was my problems with launch angle. Driver is Cleveland Comp 460 10.5* with 45g Grafalloy PL Blue R-flex. I was ballooning that thing 19-25* on the monitor. I do believe that, because it's the problem that got me in there wanting to try out shafts in the first place. I started asking the guy about kick points and his summary was "You need a regular flex." I pressed around, trying to find something about shaft properties, and I came away understanding that he wanted me to get a 9* or less driver head with a 'regular flex' shaft. Is it really that simple? 'Cause it feels like I didn't quite come away with the Complete Fitting Experience for my money.

Unsolicited Update: Backswing work... I'm not sure. When I try not to go too flat, I seem to immediately overcompensate and go full Furyk steep. Not sure if that's better or worse, heh.

I have a huge problem making good contact with "slow" or "controlled" swings, myself. My natural tempo is pretty fast and aggressive (Talk too fast, walk too fast, swing too fast), so slowing things down really messes with my timing while being intended to improve it. Far as lag and impact position (One of those all-too-rare areas I'm not so horrible at), the only thought that -ever- worked for me was keying on the trailing elbow and getting it to my hip/side -- Actually, for me, the feel is getting it in front of my hip or toward my navel -- as quickly as possible. Work with hand position, wrists, etc, was all futile, but focus on the trailing elbow just made it sort of happen by itself.

I got into golf because my wife was tired of me injuring myself regularly with MMA and Kali stuff. I think she regrets it, now, because I have a bit of an obsessive personality. Amusingly, I injured my shoulder within a week of quitting martial arts and taking up daily golf practice. Anyway, yeah -- I've screwed up my left knee, left shoulder, both elbows, broken my right hand, separated some ribs, torn my sacroiliac joint, broken both radius and ulna left wrist (at the same time)... I could probably use a surgery or two, but so long as it's still workin'... The worst is instability in my left (trailing) knee, and it can be a bit tough to work with at times. I don't play pain-free, but I don't really do ANYthing pain-free. Lessons + Range are the way to go to start, IMO. I don't have a great deal of opportunity to get lessons (My locale limits options, as does my schedule, AND my budget), and I've got some pretty nasty bad habits to work on. If you have a pitch and putt/par 3 course nearby that's a fun way to crash course your short game. I remember playing a few par 3 rounds before I had ANY idea what I was doing. Horrible, haha. Chipping back and forth over the green two or three times before three-putting, etc.

Been more than a year since I've gotten some swing video. Pretty horrified, although my ball flight/contact have never been better. *heh* Current list of things to work on are getting my posture a bit more upright and not taking the club back so wildly inside. At first glance, I like my impact position... Just looks like way too much work to get there, inconsistently. Thanks, all!

It's been a while, but I did the stage & studio thing for somewhere around a dozen years up 'til about 2002. Trying to find the time as well as the personnel to put together a little casual band to bang around with, now. Through the 90's, though, heh... Hovered around a hundred shows a year, anywhere from a couple thousand in the crowd to three drunks and empty chairs behind a chickenwire stage in Nowhere, New Mexico. Was successful enough with music to encourage me to drop out of my Premed program in college, leading me to now be unable to afford my golf habit. *hah*

Yeah, if I get more than 200 yards on it, it's going to be in the next fairway over. I'm looking VERY suspiciously at my shafts. The hybrids I can hit pretty straight and solid. When I do miss with them, it's usually a straight hook. They're Nickent 3DX's with stock S-flex shafts, at about 75g. The 3 wood, which I tend to push or push-fade, is a 70g R-flex. The driver, which should cause alarm throughout the golf course when I'm stupid enough to pull it out, is rocking a 45g R-flex. Whippy.

Another lefty with what sounds like a similar problem -- Report back if you find a fix, as I'm driving myself slightly insane in my search for a fix. (I ended up trying out one of the few 'I don't use no videos' instructors that are available to me, here... His solution was to aggressively roll my hands through impact. Obviously, that did not work.) I have a -bit- of the same problem with my 3 wood. Basically, my long clubs go 4h: 200, 3h: 215, 3w: 180-235, Driver: WTF? 170 or so if I do straighten it out. Managed to get on a launch monitor recently on a trip back to San Antone... I was jacking a 9.5 degree driver at a 16-20* launch, monster balloon push fade. At this point, it's become an -issue-, and I simply have zero confidence in the woods. (Maybe I'll just get a 1h and 2h to fill out the set, heh.)

I would have thought so... Or at least a discount. Or a rain check. Or even some sort of apologetic, "I'm sorry, that sucks." of some sort. Instead, when I get in to the club house and tell the dude why I'm hanging it up after four holes, his response was, "Huh. Well, have a nice day. *wander off*"

Someone's already mentioned Phil's DVD. I'll add in a nod to Stan Utley's books -- Don't remember if it's Art of the Short Game or Art of Scoring that I have at home on the bookcase, but Stan's chipping/pitching methods helped me greatly. (That, and a few billion hours of practice in the yard.)

I usually end up playing alone, but not by choice. I simply don't know anyone -- Moved to a new city for work a year or so ago, nobody I work with plays. Kinda funny; I'm definitely leaning toward the introverted side of the spectrum, but I'd rather have a playing partner. I don't seem to focus nearly as well when I'm on my own. I played a tournament recently, which pressed my social capacity beyond the limit -- So that's TOO many people, heh. Ideal for me would be an afternoon/morning double.

I tried to play a round yesterday that got ridiculous enough that I just gave up and went home after the 4th hole. Even sucking up the 'Oh well, that stinks, but no refunds' attitude they had about it at the pro shop. Granted, I'm not the most strident of individuals, maybe throwing a hissy fit would've gotten better results. Anyway... I get to the first tee at the same time as another single is teeing up. I offer to join up with the guy... and he just says no. He hits his tee shot and walks off down the fairway. While I'm waiting on him, two guys roll up in a cart, wondering why my playing partner is off without me... I explain, amused, the situation, and they ask to join me. Sure, cool. I hit my tee shot. One of the guys hits his, and the third guy, who by this time it is apparent is snot-slinging drunk, whacks his ball into the lake. His second tee shot, he actually falls down while hitting it into the lake. He decides to take a drop. Anyway, by the time he gets back to the drop area, the single ahead of me is already moving on to the third hole. I bid my farewells and press on. Now the antisocial single ahead of me is taking his PGA Analysis Sweet Time, but it doesn't really matter because in front of HIM is a five-some of college dudes who are whacking balls randomly about the course. About three holes of this, and a couple errant warning shots from the drunk guy behind me buzzing nearby, I call it a day and pack it in.

Yep. One of my stock idiot shots is the PURE dead push. Can hit some pretty majestic looking hooks, as well. I can finish having my tantrum fit before the ball even hits the ground.

Yeah, that would be a Par 4. Got over excited and put it in the wrong forum with typos, heh. Putting is just absurdly bad, definitely. Outside three feet, I'm doomed right now. Marathon practice sessions in order.

Tied my best ever nine-hole round, today. My putter and driver are still atrocious (Though I'm only able to keep one of them in the bag), but the hybrids and irons... and actually, the wedges, are dialed in better than ever. On the third hole, a very short Par 3 (About 310), I took a 4 hybrid off the tee... Not only because that was the distance I wanted to leave myself, but anything longer and I have no idea where it's going. I left myself on the right side of the fairway at 96 yards from the pin (First time out with the GPS on my phone, too). Choked down on my 48* PW and gave it a pretty good pump. I knew it was on-target when I hit it, saw it hit the green and bounce past the hole... at which point I lost sight of it. As I got closer, I didn't see my ball on the green. I immediately started griping, thinking I'd bounced and then rolled down the slope at the back of the green. After we dug around in the tall grass a bit, I was getting pretty annoyed. Thinking there was no possible way I'd hit where I had and rolled ALL the way through the rough over a rise and out of bounds, I peeked into the hole. Well what the hell. Last two trips out, I've knocked in from 50 yards, and now 100 yards. Screw putting. What destroyed my score for the day: 18 putts. Two 3-putts, and three 2-putts from inside ten feet. A pull-hook out of bounds. Being an idiot and trying to pull out my driver on #7, and push-slicing it into the next fairway. 2 chips of questionable skill. ------------------- I still can't understand how I can stripe a pretty draw with my 4 hybrid to a surprisingly consistent 205-210, hit my 3 hybrid a little wilder in the 220's... and top out at about 170 off target with my 3w and do even worse with my driver. (Driver and 3 wood are both R-flex, and hybrids are S-flex -- But that wouldn't make me hit THAT badly.)

I don't think the Lock and Cast swing is quite as effective as the Adirondack Chair swing. http://toimprovegolfswing.com/the-new-golf-swing/

I read one of Utley's books a while ago... Don't remember if it was Short Game or Scoring, but there for a while I was more or less building my entire swing on his lower body rotation. As usual, there was overdoing it involved, so now I'm fixing THAT, etc. *hah* Was hooking the crap out of my irons, today, which is actually promising for where I was wanting my experimentation to take me. Have been reading through Joe Dante's stuff, and that version of the wrist cock coupled with the pitch elbow has gotten the swing path MUCH closer to where I was wanting it. I'm still a bit surprised about the 'New' finish that's resulted. It's pretty textbook after a year or so of just being accustomed to having a bizarre finish position, with zero in the way of conscious effort. I think my plane was brutal steep, before.

I stumbled across a book for my phone/kindle recently, and I'd definitely recommend it for beginners. Very quick read, and pretty focused in intent, though the title oozes hyperbole (But, hey, marketing is what it is). Tamayo's Finally: The Golf Swing's Simple Secret. The focus of the book is quite simply on making a steeper shoulder turn and creating lag in the transition. Now, I'm pretty athletic, and body proprioception is a strength. I spent about twenty-five years practicing martial arts with varying degrees of enthusiasm before taking up golf -- Basically, I'm a newb and can't putt to save my life, but I pretty quickly figured out how to get a decent swing on the ball. The change I made with that little transition move, which after a frenzy of research I figured out was cultivating a 'Pitch Elbow', made a pretty ridiculous difference in my contact. Short irons and wedges gained about 5-10 yards, but more significantly gained an absurd amount of height. My 52* was getting more height than my 58* used to. I had success with clubs up to my 4 hybrid, which added about 20 to 25 yards from my previous "good shot" distance. (Can't really say 'Average', as that includes any number of what the hell was THAT?! shots.) Haven't been to a monitor, and I'm still getting comfortable with the changes, but I'd estimate a swing speed increase of 7-10 mph. Also, I don't know if it means anything, but it -completely- changed my finish from an almost upright, abbreviated thing to a 'Rory' sort of thing where I was actually whacking myself in the back of the neck with my shaft a few times (Without even planning to make any changes to the finish/thinking about it/etc.). That's the good. The -down- side is that I can no longer say I don't hit shanks. At first, I was doing it more often than not, almost to the point of giving up and going back to my more controlled swing. Then, once I got the timing down a bit better, they seemed to go away for the most part. Still, that seems to be my new miss -- Just an ungodly ugly low slicing atrocity 45* or more off-target. Also, my driver swing still seems to suck, but at least now I can -feel- what I've been told about getting 'Too Quick'. It feels all out of sync, timing-wise, and will definitely take some hours on the range to work out. Now, I guess the starting-point question I have is this: Going from a 'Punch' to a 'Pitch' elbow transition, is there some fundamental error that would make me prone to ugly hosel rockets? Off the top of my head, I wonder about ball position, as getting that elbow in a different slot would surely change the distance I should be standing from the ball. Just curious about some general trends and differences that should be accounted for. Thanks. (And for any fellow noobs that got as confused as I did about 'Maintaining the Angle', I definitely recommend the above book -- Worth the few bucks just for the creating lag section. The word 'maintain' always seemed like some sort of active process to me, but with this kind of transition, it's a passive automatic thing.)

Yeah, this. Maybe it's a Golf Channel thing? They do the same annoying thing with Big Break, which has me just about done with THAT show. Maybe GC assumes their primary demographic is deficient in the short-term memory department.

I'm averaging about 200 yards with my driver... Only including the good ones. Though, I've been hitting my 3 wood from 225-240. Suffice to say I -really- suck with my driver.