Scott_K

You're better off going with 80% instead of 100%. Power is nothing without control.

I make a conscious effort to focus on the spot where the ball was sitting. By doing this, it helps keep my head steady and down through impact. Let the follow through of the swing bring your head up and you'll be able to find the ball once it's airborne. Practice with half swing wedge shots and make it a point to keep your eyes on the ground.

As long as you move and keep up with the pace of play, I don't see anything. wrong with playing some of the muni courses. I know plenty of guys who shoot in the 100s who play them. In nassau, Chirstopher Morely is flat little par 3 course. Eisenhower is relatively flat and you can catch 9 on white or blue usually in the afternoons.

Congrats on breaking 90. The key to breaking 90 for me is making sure you make your bogeys, trim down the doubles and take triples out of the picture completely. The pars and birdies will come, but you have to make bogeys. I'd put breaking 90 a number of times a goal before seeking to break 80.

I agree with Max Power and the EW guy. I'd stick with the stiffs. In general, more flex will pull you to the left. If you can hit your 7i 150 or further, thats enough distance IMO. 7i is a club for accuracy, not power/distance.

Yeah, nice tempo. Great all around balanced swing. You look like you're a little bit on your heels with the driver compared to your 6iron. Don't know if that's big deal or not in the results. I tend to block it out to the right when I end up on the heels a little with the driver.

As mentioned above, find a launch monitor and some stats if you can. I know my spin rate is around 3300 which is on the high side. I get that high shot off the driver farily often as well and miss out on the roll. I think ideal spin rate for a driver is around 2200. Launch angle in the 12-14 range. These are general numbers and starting lines. I think the real deal is how it feels and translates on the course.

It's the shaft....it's a noodle.

I keep the ball by my left heel with the longer irons. I move it back as I get closer to wedges. Wedges are usually a little forward of center. All depends on how I'm hitting it that day and what I'm trying to do with the shot.

They longer shafts make them harder to hit. You're further away from the ball and it's possible that the overall time to swing the club is longer, so a bigger window to have things go wrong. Also, there's a mental factor where people are psyched out by the loft of the club and try to help the ball into the air. That's generally what I see when people stuggle with long irons. Try using the same tempo that you use with your 7 and 8 irons without any concern with the distance. Focus on just making a good swing, shoulder turn and solid contact. I hit my 3i further when I'm not to hit it my 3i distance.

Sounds like a good start. If I read your other thread correctly, your fairway stats were really good. Work on your approach shots with your instructor and get the GIR stats up. I like the 9 - 3 drills to focus on tempo and solid contact. They will eventually cascade into your pitch and chip shots. To me those shots are just a subset of the full swing. It'll help your up and down stats and get you into the mid 80s, then the low 80s.

In some sense, yes, less lower body can lead to more pull if the swing plane is flat and the lower body is not turning and moving forward. The upper body tends to do most of the work and come around pull the ball left. At least with my experience. There's a lot more to it than I can explain. If you're willing to read the "slide your hips" and ball flight law threads, they help in understanding how the body works and the results you get from different swing paths, face angles, etc. A hook and a pull are different. It's pretty heady stuff, but the knowledge is very good if your self taught. Did you try playing with the grip like the other guy metioned ? It might be as simple as that. Ha.

Putting style/technique is a personal preference. I like the arc path of the putter head. I feel as if my shoulders are just rocking around my spine and the putter head goes inside to square back to inside. I have tried the SBST method, but it doesn't work for me. I've also tried the claw, the reverse and a few others, but they didn't work for me. Different pros will teach different techniques. So like everything else in golf, I'd keep an open mind about it and give it a try. Most new things are usually uncomfortable and don't feel right, but after a while, they become a normal feeling. This season I changed the distance between where I stand from the ball and it is working out for the better. This change felt pretty weird initially since I was using a technique which I've used for probably 10+ years.

I aim from behind the ball. When I line up say a 150 yard shot, I'm picking a divot out in front and depending on how it lines up, I'll choose the left edge, center or right side of the divot. When standing over the ball, and looking down the line, I might second guess my alignment, but it's something I just ignore. I do it for the distance "feel" and part idiosyncracy. I've found that it's always better to trust my aiming spot than when I changed my shot while standing over the ball. Seems like it's working well with your putting. I do the same thing with putting by trusting the line I chose while behind the ball and just ignoring the line I see when standing over it. I still look, but I won't change my aiming spot. I see it similar to plumb bobbing. I see no value in plumb bobbing a putt. If anything, it would be an exercise to confirm what I already see (or confuse the heck out of me). Something I never fully understood.

It sounds like you flattened out your plane a little by taking the hands more towards the inside. Guessing you did this to get rid of the slice. When I flatten out my plane too much, I tend to pull the ball as I come around with too much of a turning motion without any lateral movement on the downswing. If you're killing it for a while at the range and then starting to hook the ball, it might be your legs and lower body "going to sleep" and you're swinging mostly with your upper body. When my legs get tired on the course (14-18) and I end up with an upper body swing, my tee shots can end up on the left side with a pull or a hook. The driver takes a lot out of you when you're hitting it at the range. I find it more productive if you hit maybe 10 drives with your pre-shot routine and focus rather than 20 or 30 that are smashed.

I'm not looking to change my grip. Was just using it as an example of something that is tough to change and get use to if you've been doing something for so long. My first set of clubs had leather grips which were very slick, so I use to have to hang on to them for dear life, thus the baseball grip.

I don't see anything wrong with it. I do roughly the same thing, but have the grip more at the base of the fingers. I'm 6' and all my gear is off the rack. Changes to your grip are hard to do, if you've been doing it for a while. I grew up using a baseball grip and it's very hard for me to try an interlocking grip.

PW - 46, GW - 50, SW - 56ish. Added the GW late last year. Played with PW / SW combo for ages.

I had the same gap from Driver to 3i and wanted a club for short par 4s as well. I recently picked up a used 15.5 Nickent hybrid. Figured it had a low enough loft to help keep the ball down since hybrids tend to go high. I haven't hit it enough to figure out the distance, but it's higher than my 3i and maybe a little longer. I think I still want a 2i for short par 4s.

I'd switch to something that suits your game and possibly beyond. I was hesitant to switch to forged irons a while back when I was shooting in the high 90s. I thought my knock off cavity backs were sufficient. After switching, I was able to become a better ball striker, because they gave me better feedback and I was able to learn where I was missing. I'm about 6 feet tall and play all off the shelf gear. If you can control your current set pretty well, you can probably control a stiffer set even better.

This philosophy has extended my knee knocker range from 3 feet to 4 feet and some days a few 5 footers. I just try to start the ball on line with a good stroke. I know if I made a poor stroke or if I misread the putt. To the OP's original question, There are times when I would like to take a little extra time to read the putt(or any other shot), but will move to keep the pace of play going. There are also times when I totally skip my pre-shot routine for the sake of moving. It's sometimes a little tough to take your time if you play on congested muni courses.

trickymicky69, be careful with your shoulder alignment. With these excessive long drivers and teeing the ball forward, it's very easy to have your shoulder alignment get a little open while the alignment for your feet, knees, hips might be square. I think we talked about this a little bit on a similar thread that had to do with slices/fades with the driver but not with your 3w through irons. (really, I'm just remembering your avatar).

I can "work" the ball side to side with my Hogans. I have better control of my fade vs. my draw. I cannot however, hit the lower trajectroy shot with the short irons (7,8,9), unless I'm trying to play a knock down type shot. The "newer" irons tend to be bent on the strong side (a few degrees), so that might be a factor. The TM burner irons are a good example of irons that are stronger. However, Hogan irons tend to be fairly strong for their time. I know my PW is 46 degrees for instance. Depending on the year, the degrees change a little bit. I don't know enough about iron shafts, but the Project Xs seem to be pretty popular. I've mostly been following driver shafts. In general, comparing shaft options of today vs 10 years ago, I'd imagine that you can find a set of shafts which will give you a little more distance.

I came off the bench last year after taking about 8 years off, so my irons still look very new as well. I'm playing the stock Hogan shafts (4 stiff) and my shots are often pretty high. From what I've read, this is a common result a lot of Hogan players have. I've thought about switching one shaft just to see the difference in trajectory. I might do it with an old Hogan 3i blade I have lying around, but my driver shaft is my first priority. The amount of info on shaft fitting these days is kind of insane with the help of ball flight monitors, etc. Look back 8-10 years ago, and it was Reg, Stiff, X Stiff. Hit 'em into a net. "hmm, these feel nice". At least that's what I remember.

Practice juggling a ball on your wedge.