exCartboy

I've been a long time Lamkin Crossline user. I've been thinking about moving to cords as I'm now walking the course again and my hands are getting a lot sweatier. I'm curious if anyone has tried out the Tacki-Mac Tour Select cords (or the regular model). They're about half the price of the premium corded grips out there (Crossline Cord, Z-Cord, Tour Velvet Cord, etc.). I tried the Royal Linktech cords, but they have a really reduces taper which I didn't like.

I actually just reshafted my old mixed set of Professional Grind blade PW-7 and Tour Cavity Forged 6i-4i. They felt great hitting into the net in my driveway, but I blew out my back before I could take them to the course. :(

Do most of the people who work with Gankas improve? That's a serious question - obviously there are some of his students who are doing great, and we probably won't hear much about people who don't. But isn't that what really matters the most? I don't get the impression that he's trying to force all of his students into the same style. As far as whether his information is useful for people who just see things online (i.e. aren't sending him videos to get individualized feedback), I don't know how possible it is to quantify something like this. Most amateurs (including me) have absolutely no idea what's actually happening in their swings. Trying to improve by watching any instructional video or reading an article is kind of a shot in the dark since whatever they're describing may be the fix to the opposite problem that a particular person may have. When I video myself making what feels like a Jim Furyk steep takeaway it actually looks flatter than Hogan. I may feel like I'm staying behind the ball only to see that I'm way ahead of it at impact.

What I would recommend is going to the driving range, and lay a club on the ground aimed 2-3 feet left of your target. Setup with your toes just short of the club on the ground. This way you'll know that your feet are aimed square to the target. When you get your feet set properly. hold your club across your hips and try getting the club to be parallel to the club on the ground. Do the same thing at your shoulders. This will help you learn to feel what it's like to have your feet, hips, and shoulders all aligned square to your target. It will also help you to develop the visual perception of what proper aim is - it's amazing how easy it is to think that you're aimed at the target when you're actually aimed 20 degrees in the wrong direction. Note that this is a good neutral starting point. There are some pros who align a bit left of the target, and some who align a bit right of the target. There are also some who may align their feet and/or hips and/or shoulders differently. I once watched an LPGA player on the range who had her hips aligned left and her shoulders aligned right (or perhaps vice-versa - it was almost 20 years ago :). What works best for you may take some time to sort out, but it's generally a good idea to start from a neutral position.

I don’t know if I’ll ever totally accept my swing, but I have definitely tried to move from the “find my perfect swing” mentality to the “cleanup my current swing” mentality. Years ago I went through a swing overhaul that took a tremendous amount of work, but was totally worth the effort. When I was done I was able to hit it longer, higher and more consistently with less effort. But I had to put in a couple of hundred hours of practice to make this happen, and my game got much worse before it got better. I was an assistant pro at the time, so I had the time - it was sort of my job. :) At this point though I don’t have the time or inclination to overhaul anything (normal non-golf job, kids, etc.), and it doesn’t sound like you’re interested in putting in that kind of work either. What I would recommend is to try and understand what your big mistake is, and figure out what you need to do to mitigate against it. For example, my #1 driver flaw is that I sometimes slide to the left too much on the downswing and don’t stay behind the ball, resulting in a high-right shot (aka a slice). I certainly make a lot of other mistakes, but this is the one that hurts me the most. When I do get the time to practice, this is what I primarily focus on, though I do try to chip and putt more than working on the full swing.