watty

Thanks for the input, guys. I will keep this thread updated periodically.

I just signed up on the monthly plan and did my first upload. Ready to take advantage of all the knowledge these guys possess. Iacas, you and others are doing good work. I look forward to improving with y'all's help.

I've been Playing Golf for: several years My current handicap index or average score is: 15 index, but it's on the rise. Been shooting around 100 lately. For a while I was down to a 12, shooting in the 80s often, but with a flawed swing. I've since been working on fixing it but have been all over the place in the process. My typical ball flight is: right now I'm so all over the map I don't even have a "typical," but I've always been a slicer The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: the slice and the compensating pull hook It seems my swing is different every day these days as I continually tinker and search. These swings below are an 8 iron, trying my best to focus on weigh forward without doing a reverse pivot (that's been a problem for me lately). Videos:

Any help would be appreciated. I am doing this weird reverse pivot thing and can't stop. Ever since I started trying S&T;, I've ingrained this bad habit. I've followed things here and am impressed with the whole 5SK direction. Anyway, I apologize, I don't have a swing video just yet, but basically, my butt swings out toward the target on my backswing, and then often reverses course on the downswing. As you can imagine, I have lots of issues then. Is there any help that can be offered here without seeing my swing? Any particular drills I should focus on? I've done several drills (though admittedly without much of a plan) from the 5SK thread, particularly the ones focusing on weight forward at impact. I've tried to feel what that position is like, but am still struggling with it. My other big problem is that I massively struggle with moving my upper center forward when trying to get my weight forward. I *know* that's not right, but it's what my body does instinctively. When I try to get forward, my head goes forward. I always feel like if my head stays stationary, my swing bottoms out well behind the ball. So that's a whole laundry list of issues I guess, but any help is greatly appreciated.

I recently played golf with an old doctor in central Texas. He told me a great story about Arnold Palmer. When this doctor was a senior in high school in 1962 (IIRC), he was a huge Palmer fan. So, he sent him an invitation to his high school graduation. Mr. Palmer wrote back, apologizing for the fact that he wouldn't be able to attend but wished the future doctor good luck and also autographed the invitation. So, flash forward to 2009, this doctor was a member of a country club that was I guess owned by Palmer's group or something, and he attended a big banquet type thing and Palmer was there. Turns out, they were actually seated at the same table. The doctor had brought the old high school invitation, and showed it to Mr. Palmer. He looked it over, read it, and being a sentimental man, his eyes welled up a little bit. He then joked to one of his people, "this guy's been with me longer than you have!" He thanked the doctor and signed the invitation again, so now this guy has a pretty awesome piece of memorabilia. A high school invitation with dual autographs from Arnold Palmer, 47 years apart. That's the kind of thing that probably just wouldn't happen anymore.

dak- we have a love/hate relationship, haha... But lately he's been arguing with me over ridiculous stuff that he's completely wrong on, sometimes even crazy stuff like mathematical laws that are indisputable. I think there's something else going on but that's another discussion. :) Anyway, he talks out of his ass a lot but on this one, I just wondered if there was some kind of proof I could show him. I didn't know if they had done a sports science thing or if any instructional videos have included any displays of precision or something. Specifically something about the short game and how they can make the same swing every single time.

In my experience at least 90% of the golfers I have ever been around keep their score incorrectly and/or "cheat" by improving their lies or taking gimmes, or all of the above. It's amazing how few people actually shoot what they claim they shoot.

I was showing my buddy (who thinks he knows everything) the Mickelson shot off the cart path. He was claiming that it was a lucky shot, and of course, knowing golf, I pointed out that for a guy like Mickelson, it wasn't luck. It was skill and he was confident in his ability to hit that shot. So my buddy asks how many times out of 10 would Mickelson hit a decent shot onto the green, and I said 10. And out of 100, I said, probably 97 or 98 would be on the green. Maybe 2 or 3 would have missed, but anyway, he's going to basically always execute that shot. He was also asking how many times out of 100 a guy like Mickelson could bottom out his club in an exact spot, and I said again, basically every single time. He thought I was incredibly stupid. So anyway my friend gets all worked up and high and mighty and telling me how stupid I am, but I am pretty sure I'm right. But I was looking around the internet to see if I could find any support. Anyone know of good links that have info on just how consistent and repeatable a pro's swing is?

Cool. I have played the Black 3 times. Once was two years ago, about a month after the Open. Then we played it again twice last summer. COMPLETELY different course from one year to the next. The year of the Open, the greens were perfect and the rough was unbelievable and the fairways were the softest I've ever seen. The following year, it was still amazing but you could tell they weren't spending the time and money that they had in the previous year. The rough was thin and short, not very penal. The greens weren't as nice. Hopefully they'll start having the Barclay's there every year and that will force them to keep the course in better shape year round. I've never played tournament golf, so for me, the most nervous I've ever been on a golf course was the first time I teed off on the first hole of the Black course. I couldn't even feel my arms. It's an amazing place. I'm hoping to find a way to go back this year. And in my opinion, it's worth it to have a caddy. We sprung for one all three times. Two of them were good, one was wasn't, but man, not having to carry anything as you walk around and having someone give you the yardages and help spot your ball is a huge benefit.

ttt

Any leads would be appreciated.

Thanks for the responses. Feel free to keep them coming. :)

I've tried that. I've tried just doing punch shots to at least get the impact squared up, and I'll be doing ok, but then I can't make a full swing out of it. Very annoying.

Honestly it's gotten so bad lately I'm not even sure what's happening. Another odd thing is that literally every day, I go out and my first 4 or 5 shots are good, and then comes the first bad one, and from there, it's gone and I don't hit another good shot the entire day. 3 or 4 buckets worth sometimes.