Travtex

Absolutely accuracy. When I first picked up a club, knowing absolutely jack-all about golf, I was anticipating being a fairly short hitter, yet precise. Turns out I could not have been more wrong, and instead became the Nuke LaLoosh of golf. Now, sure, it impresses the hell out of my 9 year old when I blast one... But when I think of knocking a ball completely off the driving range, I do not usually have 'sideways' in mind. Gack, ANYthing for accuracy.

So, I finally took back control of the DVR from the kids (Little dudes had like 20 hours of cartoons recorded. Whoah.). Working nights on random days of the week/weekends makes it pretty much impossible for me to regularly follow any show worth following, so I started recording the Fix and the newish Martin Hall show. The -first- Martin Hall show I came across, he spent a significant portion of his show discussing a handful of things that cause a push. As a habitual pusher, I was intrigued. As he went along and covered three or four completely different things that could cause a block, I was rather horrified to behold that I've been demonstrating a Perfect Storm of Blocked Shots with my body motion. To the extent that I'm a bit disturbed to think of how many compensations I've had to sneak into the swing to still be hitting it straight. * Hips outpacing upper body -- Had a lesson a while back and already knew about that one. * Leaning back (target line) at address -- Oops. * Bending over too much -- Oops. The one that -really- seemed to help... so much that it completely ruined my practice routine (More later)... Hall mentioned a tip from Nick Faldo about turning your rear shoulder over your front foot as quickly as possible. I felt so hunched over when I started trying it, I really must have been screwing up my spine angle while swinging through. Anyway -- I'd developed a practice routine at home that has improved my iron play from a best 9-hole score of +14 to a +9 in just a couple of weeks. Little 9-3 swings with the little foam ball at my house, concentrating on properly getting the club through impact. I'd really grooved it. From my front yard, the foam ball would hit about halfway up the roof of my house, then roll on back to where I was hitting. My own automatic ball return. Consistent enough that I could aim at particular tiles on the roof with reasonable expectations. So, I try to start incorporating that rear shoulder rotation... And immediately blast the next batch of shots over my house. Into the back yard, occasionally over my BACK fence into the forever-lost wilderness. THAT started creating some problems as I started catching myself decelerating through impact to keep from having to go shag the stupid ball. So, I clubbed down and started whacking away with my wedges. The target distance is much better, but I have to be on my toes -- Seems a good deal of backspin has been added, as well. The ball hits the roof, bounces once, then sucks right back at me off the roof. (Just past where I'm hitting, my yard turns quickly downhill... so at this point I'm either having to track down balls in the back yard with my PW or having to chase them bouncing down the street with my SW/LW.) In summary, excellent results so far... but I need to make up a new home practice game.

Probably don't want some goober high-capper answering, but I've had a longstanding war with the dead push. Short answer: Club face is open. A straight push, as I understand it, is the result of an in-to-out swing path with the club face being square to that swing path (Which is open relative to the target line). As to what causes -that-, any number of things. For me, specifically, it tends to be due to spinning out my hips and getting my hands trapped behind -- Only options left at that point is a monstrous balloon push or a correction that brings me over the top. A few million 9-to-3 type drills with feet closer together have helped immensely, as did the feet-together drill. But, that's a reason -I- was hitting pushes, you could be doing something different.

How 'bout this one? http://www.momentusgolf.com/products/index.asp?id=27740

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costochondritis I'm a respiratory therapist, but I'm drawing this information from personal experience. Have some recurrent inflammation along the left side of my sternum -- And tons of chronic pain along the lower right section of my rib cage (Which I separated many years ago). Chest wall pain is one of those annoyances that can fall into 'probably no big deal, but needs to be checked out since it's chest pain'. My sternum tends to pop, too. First time was pretty disconcerting, heh.

I've managed to groove a pretty useful swing this year. Feel is consistent, nice 'n easy with perfectly acceptable distance... it's a swing that could readily carry me to bogey golf and beyond. Looking at my last handful of scores, where I'm losing strokes is VERY obvious: Off the Tee. On the Green. Obviously, it makes no sense whatsoever that I can hit a pretty mid-iron draw into the green while having all sorts of trouble with that same iron off a tee. Push out of bounds, pull hook screamer into the lake, tops, fats. Utterly ridiculous off the tee. Can't make bogeys when you're hitting 3 or 5 off the tee. Same deal with putting. Lag a 30' putt to 2 feet, then miss the two footer. Turn a six foot putt into another six foot putt the other direction. It's horrifyingly bad -- Though the practice green can make me look like I know what I'm doing. Lousy putting makes that pretty pitch/approach shot utterly wasted. I'm coming to the conclusion that it has to be mental. Some of it's just inexperience, I'm sure, but there is no way I should -so- consistently lose my swing on the tee and not on the fairway. What have ya'll done to get over a psychological hump?

As a suck-tacular high handicapper, I offer up my meaningless endorsement for this. A for-instance from my last round. First time playing a new course, the first hole was a par 4 with DANGER DANGER DANGER on the left side and a ridiculously narrow fairway. I'm a lefty with a tendency to hit a dead push on my idiot shots, so I sucked it up and decided to play wimp golf so I didn't end up putting a ball through someone's windshield on my first tee shot. Took a six iron to the tee. Left me at about 150 and change. Second shot I caught a bit fat, leaving me with a 30 yard pitch to get up and down for par. Took bigger clubs from there on in (Not counting par 3's), and didn't make another par on the day. The one time on the day I got confident (Cocky) and pulled anything longer than a hybrid -- Tried to tee off with a 3 wood on what looked to be a wide open Par 5. BLAST... dead push out of bounds. Now I'm hitting three off the tee. Had I taken, say, an 8 iron off the tee and for my second shot, I could've been lying three a few hundred yards down the fairway instead of teeing it up again... Of course, taking three off the tee makes you feel like you need to hit it even FURTHER, and then the death spiral into hell begins. I'm sorely tempted to just take a day and try to play a round with, say, 7i, PW, Putter. Probably be the day I break 100. (Okay, I'd be lost without my 58*... It gets to stay.)

I was playing a solo round today, and came up behind a pair who invited me to join up with them. A couple holes later at the tee, one of the guys -- Attempting to compliment my swing, misspoke this gem that we heckled him about until the end of the round: "Lefties always swing so much more gracefully than white people."

[quote]Well 178 OB might not be a good indication I would go to the range and decide it there. If your having issues, its probably the swing. Driver's can really make someone feel like they have to swing hard. I would just try to think the driver as a 3-wood, maybe give it 20% less go at the ball.[/quote] Well, the 170-some was the only driver swing that left the ball somewhere I could actually guage from the GPS, heh. For what it's worth, I have managed to figure out how to NOT hit the giant balloon push fade out of bounds with the thing and straighten it out -- But there's no distance. For my game/level of development/so on and so forth -- The 3 wood is the better option. Easier to control AND goes farther. I need to just keep the driver in the garage 'til I can get it straightened out.

I've been doing some pretty dedicated swing work the past month or so -- Whenever I've gotten the chance. The weather has been completely ridiculous between tornadoes, hail, double-digit inches of rain, etc. Paid off in a HUGE way today as I improved my previous best 9-hole score from +14 to +9. Now I'll couch that by saying that score is padded by a couple of strokes by what happened on the first hole. Duffed my tee shot on a par three. I'm sitting in the rough about fifty yards from the green. Pitch. 'Hey, that looks pretty good'. And it went in. Great way to start a round, despite the -waaaay- too early adrenaline boost. The Good: Irons. They were going more or less where I intended them to be going. This is a new experience for me. Considering that includes some fairly recent and fairly drastic swing changes, I'm optimistic. (Getting my hands MUCH lower -- Think Zach Johnson kinda low -- Swinging much looser, slower, more whippy acceleration through the impact zone.) Good escape from an intimidating bunker. My first thought was a counterproductive -- No way in hell I'm getting out of there. Basically, the lip of the bunker was -right- in front of me at about chest/shoulder level. Ugly. Ball landed -right- at the top ledge and rolled onto the green. Only hit two greens, but I did hit three more fringes and the chipping/pitching game was -on-. The Bad: Tee Shot Stupidity. As usual, I was hitting three off the tee -- Only twice this time around, which is actually a huge improvement. Putting. Lipped out THREE short putts. Three putted four or five times. The putter was just all sorts of awful.

Pretty close to the same problem here -- Hell, within a couple yards, even. I played a tournament a couple weeks back, with GPS in the carts (Amusing: It took my cart partner and I a few holes to realize this. Up until #4 we were standing around going, "Looks like about 150!", oblivious to the high-tech gadgets in the cart.) Anyway, 3 hybrid: from 210-219 3 wood: from 227-238 Driver: from OB to 172 It's ridiculously frustrating, though I'll certainly take 230 from the 3 wood any day as my long shot. There's still that notion that if I could ever HIT my driver...

I picked up a couple of wedges from Gigagolf. 52* and 58* SGS, ran me like twenty bucks each with custom grips. They've been excellent wedges, and I'll buy another set when I grind 'em down to nothing.

I really tried to find a professional body double when I first started out, hoping to emulate a swing that was obviously working for somebody. For a while, between my body type and handedness Mike Weir was my only option. After a few lessons and allowances for personal quirks, though, I've drifted quite a way away from that starting point. I have long gangly arms, so Elkington might be a decent model (5'9", 73.5" wingspan. Fricking gibbon.) (Lately I have just let my gibbon arms be gibbony... this has resulted in ridiculously low hands at address. Think knee-level. Decent results and a quick wrist cock, though... so...) In summary, I have no idea what I'm doing.

That's actually pretty clever, thanks.

Hey all, Finally got a chance to get a lesson for my ongoing battle with the pushes and push fades -- I'd suspected (among other things) that I was spinning out my hips, and sure enough. Hips getting way ahead, and my shoulders had been creeping open at address. Anyway, the guy tweaked me around (Feels like I'm standing dead closed at address, now) got my hands down a bit lower, and had me working on little 9-3 knockdown shots with a 7i. Other than the feet-together drill, what are some solid drills for keeping my hips from spinning out too early? Instructor said it's going to feel like I'm arm-swinging for a while (He was right), but I was getting some good draw spin on the ball before the weather made us flee indoors.

Went to the range this morning with the intention to work on my unplayable push and occasional push fade. It started with just the driver, then started creeping further down my bag. Last round I had been starting to push long and mid irons. By the time I started trying to work on it at the range, I was pushing my stupid pitching wedge. Whatever horrid habit is causing it, it's terribly ingrained, because I was moving ball position forward in my stance, back in my stance, trying to turn the club over through impact, tweaking my forward press at address, setting up toward the toe, toward the hosel... it made zero difference WHATsoever. Push Fade. Once in a great while I managed a snap hook. I worked a bit with the 3w and hybrids a bit, trying to get the ball started off straight. Out of nowhere, I started hitting some monstrous slices -- Straight slice. Pull slice. Even a nasty balloon push slice that ended up about 45* left of my target. So, trying to wrap my head around the ball flight physics -- This starts to sound like a grip thing to me. Going from dead push to a slice means I've just changed the swing path... BUT my club face relative that swing path is pretty much the same, yes? Push -- In-to-Out Path, Open Face Slice -- Out-to-In Path, Square Face So, if I'm correct on the physics, what are some ideas to work on next time? Coming over the top in order to make contact with a square face to fight the push is obviously not the way to go. (The day wasn't lost, at least... Had one of the best pitch/chip/putt sessions I've ever had, after I got pissed off at the range and forced myself to stick around for twice that in short game practice, heh.)

The same problem has stood out my last couple of rounds -- Tee shots are tearing me up. 4 hit OB, 1 pull-hooked into the lake, 2 topped, 3 or 4 sent me off on a scenic trip through the woods. I lost at least 15 strokes just by screwing up on the tee. AND I wasn't even playing my driver (Except for two holes, and 1 of those worked out). Too many 3 putts, of course. A -few- lousy chips and pitches, but that'd be a distant third on the list to the other pair of problems. Keep the tee shots in the game and I'm breaking 100 pretty easily. Take away 3 putts and I'm in the 80's. Easy to see where this season's scarce practice time needs to focus. Got a nasty push with my hybrids, woods, and driver that I can't seem to shake. Might see if I can't sneak in a lesson sometime this summer... plan out a vacation to somewhere I can actually FIND lessons, haha.

Well, that was a bit nerve-wracking. Played my first tourny round, today... My idea was that it'd be a good way to meet playing partners, and my hesitation was that I suck at golf. Anyway, I ended up still sucking at golf, but no more or less than my normal everyday hack around the course. I'm still sitting at about 100 and change per 18. I dropped about ten shots at the tee. Blasted four out of bounds, and pull hooked one into the lake. I'd break 100 if I could just get out of the damn tee box without incident. In interest of that, I tried to leave the driver in the bag. After a blow-up hole, I went ahead and pulled it for the next... ended up 280 yards in the fairway. Encouraged, I pulled it on the next hole and blasted it out of bounds. The driver was done for the day. My dreaded push fade crept into -all- of my longer clubs at points, but for the most part my 3 hybrid was good for 215 or so off the tee. Shot of the day: 152 (Hooray for GPS-equipped tournament carts) yards to a ridiculously uphill green. Dude after me hit a shot up the hill... it struck the side of said hill, then rolled back down toward him. About halfway, it hit the cart path and rolled ever-more-quickly... Anyway, popped a seven iron uphill to 6 feet. Then fricking 3-putted on the fastest green I'd ever putted. (Sticking on the side of a hill seems to do that.) In any event, I managed to suck quite impressively in front of more people than I think I actually know in person... BUT, hey, good experience is good experience, right?

I originally picked up my Nickent 3dx hybrid irons set for super cheap, so no complaint is intended when I say that I wasn't sent the ACTUAL 3dx hybrid iron set. The incorrect hybrids were included, and after ignoring it for a year or so, I'm finally getting decent enough consistency that the loft/yardage gap could make a difference. Basically, here's how the top end of my bag is sitting: 3w: 15* 3h: 20* 4h: 23* 5i: 22* The 5 iron is basically just taking up space in my bag. I don't hit it particularly well, and considering that any situation I might call up on it, I'm pulling out the 4 hybid -- Not likely to improve. So, that has me looking at the 15-20 gap. So, I've read some conflicting stories about which is easier to hit, distance, ball flight, etc... I can pick up a 3dx 17* 2h OR a Mizuno F60 5w for somewhere in the neighborhood of the same price, so I can maintain consistent feel with either my 3 & 4h or my 3w relatively inexpensively. Problem with the 'Hit a bunch and see how they feel' approach is that I'm a lefty in a small market. I'm lucky to find ANY left-handed clubs to test drive, much less specific ones. Anyway, I'm just looking to hear some experiences regarding the differences between a 2H and a 5W. I don't think either option would be innately 'better' than the other. I've had similar success with the 3 wood and the 3 hybrid off the tee. Though when I screw up, I tend to push the wood and pull hook the hybrid (For whatever difference that might contribute). Will probably get most use off the tee, as I've flat-out abandoned my driver until further notice.

Not particularly, though I was with a friend who is a fan of the cart (Never seem to do less walking with a cart, but you aren't carrying the bag either). I've a pretty long history with athletic activity, and I walk quite a bit over 12-hour work shifts, so stamina isn't really an issue. Yeah, I'm trying to be cautious about wanting to target my desired approach distance, but I think it's in reach if I can get my 3 wood consistent. Next step down was the 3h, but that's looking at about 185 or so. I need to pull my 5i and put a 5w in the bag... The 5i's loft is 22*, and my 3h/4h are 20* and 23* respectively, which makes the iron a bit of a wasted slot.

I appreciate the time to give the tips, and I do understand the idea -- At present, it's just a familiarity thing. Although, after my recent Dramatic Grip Overhaul, I've been moving on down the bag with my backyard practice routine (Everything feels so much smoother, only way I can explain the feel of largely taking my trailing hand out of the mix). I'm all the way up to the PW, now. ;) If I manage to get some more course time, I'll certainly try out a few more clubs around the green. Have me stopping to consider what clubs were in my hand the most, last round. Putter aside, of course. 58*, 7i, 6i, 3h, 3w. Everything else, maybe a few swings in the round. I -should- make my practice routines about getting the feel for some of THOSE clubs (7i, 6i, at least).

Yep -- It's a matter of familiarity and confidence for me at this point. My only daily accessible practice facility is my tiny backyard, in which I spend an hour or two tinking around practice balls with my 58* to see what sorts of different ways I can get at my target (Bucket, patch of grass, towel, whatever's handy). My brain (reading) tells me the smart shot is a bump and run... My body (practice) tells me I don't have any idea what to do with that shot, so it ends up being the 58* that ends up in my hands. I do recognize that's likely to end up hampering my development in the end... BUT, not having any where to practice or anyone to get lessons with is -probably- a bigger problem in the end. At least I have a pretty mean short-sided flag over the bunker shot when that pops up once in a great while, haha.

Picked up the game around 35 years of age, have been playing whenever possible off and on for a couple years, minus time for a broken hand, a rib issue, two-foot snow winter, and a couple of moves through my new wife + new job + new state period of life... So it ended up taking a while to find the opportunity to play a full 18. Finally did, and ended up shooting 103 on a Par 71/Slope 123 course. Hoo, that was a weird balance of ungodly ugly and not nearly as bad as expected. Some observations... * I recently changed my grip (As in, two days ago) to a double overlap to get my trailing hand out of the swing. It gets too active and throws me over the top at times. Pretty happy with the results so far, but needs further analysis. * Pumped a 3 wood up a pretty steep incline, and it ended up 235. I'm pretty happy with that. Imagine I'll be happier on level/downhill holes. Put the same 3 wood in the middle of the fairway a handful of times, one of which carried over 180-190 yards of lake. I can work with that. I also topped it into the turf 50 yards... I can't work with that. * Short putts suck. * I'd be sniffing at breaking ninety if I could get rid of tee box bonehead shots. I was hitting 3 from the tee six or seven times. * Two bunkers. Two sand shots to within 10 feet. Good start for me, there. * At least a half dozen fat/thin chips/pitches. Inexcusable, considering that chips/pitches is damn near the only thing I have the opportunity to practice. * Way too many 150-160 yard approach opportunities. I -want- to be hitting around 130 into the green. So, frustratingly close to breaking 100, and confident that I can break 90 in the process -- Not sure if that's entirely realistic, but I'd be a piss poor golfer if I didn't think myself drastically better than evidence told me. *heh*

My Nickent set has the conversation-starter 10i, and I like the progression with my wedges. 10i: 44* PW: 48* 52* 58* The 52 doesn't get a great deal of usage, really. The 58 has been abused to the point of an impending replacement (I use it pretty much everywhere around the green).

Hah! Though I fear there's an inverse relationship between birdies and money if you don't start with a particularly large money variable.