Antneye

I think so.....There is no reason you cannot work on the items your instructor gives you in front of a mirror, or hitting into a net. I even hit foam balls in my garage when I am working on my mechanics. Anything to keep you fresh. As you read this site you will learn many drills and practice ideas that do not require a driving range.

You can't go wrong with Cobra. Nice job on your selection. I recently bought the F7 driver and got the hybrid thrown in for free. The failure of my balls to find the fairway have everything to do with me and nothing to do with those clubs. They are excellent. As far as practicing through winter goes, I would recommend that you use the time to get professional instruction. That coupled with indoor work that you can do in your home will give you a nice start on next season. Start a swing thread while you are at it to help accelerate your learning curve. There are a lot of really well informed folks on this site who are eager to help. Good luck!

I'm not easily distracted and don't really care what people are doing while I am putting, but if I did I would prefer they be 30' back. I don't understand people who get distracted by where people are standing, but I respect it and do my best not to let my lack of concern for these things effect them. I was once standing around 20' or so behind someone who was lining up to a putt. He took a few practice strokes and then stopped and angrily waved me to move. (I didn't know him at all). I don't see how I could have been in his line of site, but I said a simple "I'm sorry" and stayed far away from him any time it was his turn going forward.

I was going to put this on my Christmas list, but I am growing impatient. If my wife can make me go buy my son an XBox-1 Birthday Gift even though his birthday is not until December, shouldn't I be allowed to buy this now?!!!!

So I read through the thread (and agree that it is a great thread) and feel as if I am already working on this to some degree. It may even be a primary item for me at this point in order to eliminate my remaining OTT. I think this is likely the primary reason for my driver inconsistency. I need to go back and really digest some of the videos in the thread. I used to watch a lot of Paul Wilson videos, and he is a big proponent of keeping the arms out of the swing. I think this topic is one of the primary reasons he preaches that. When I do this properly my feel is one of "leaving my arms behind" and not really feeling like I am engaging them until I get down to about A6. Some of my best drives ever were struck with that feeling, but I struggle to make it repeatable. My primary swing thoughts as I work on my driver are steady head, slight hip bump, and then starting the downswing from the ground up. It's amazing how I can have these thoughts and then end up crushing a ball to the left with a swing that is all arms and coming from OTT, or totally give up on the swing and end up with a push fade that flies off into the woods on the right. I need some video footage to see if my feels of what I am doing (especially in relation to the improvement I feel I have on posture and steady head) are real or not.

I found it and will definitely be reading it. Thanks! (I was going to ask some q's about your feedback, but I will see if the thread clarifies first)

I haven't made an update in a few weeks and started venting in the bogey golfer thread about my driver. I guess its best to get my thoughts down in here in case anyone has any good feedback. First things first though: Injury update: It seems I have some sort of achilles issue. Either a slight strain or tendinitis. The pain can be pretty severe, but it subsides with rest and does not affect me on the golf course. My guess is that it will not really heal until I take a good 4-6 weeks off and maybe a little longer. Being that Fall is some of the best golf weather in Charlotte I am just gutting it out and playing regardless of how much I am limping the following day. I am playing less to compensate for the needed rest and will totally shut it down in Jan/Feb to try to fully heal. On to the swing: There's not much new to report. I owe you guys some video to see if what I am feeling is what is really happening. My irons are pretty solid right now. I am hitting them better than ever. The Driver? Totally different story. I am just falling apart with it. The odd part about this is that I feel as if I am finally swinging on a much better plane and am not coming over the top. My main focus of my swing and my practice work is still posture, steady head, and swing plane. I have not really changed anything. If anything, the one change I am working on, is trying to shorten my driver back-swing and to have more of a slower tempo with the swing but that isn't really a deviation from my main focal points. I'm not getting discouraged. I am staying with the program, but it is very frustrating seeing this club go from solid to un-hittable seemingly for no reason at all. Some days it is hole to hole, others it can be full rounds. I'm at a total loss to explain it. All is not lost though as my absolute worst rounds these days are about what my average round was before I started this journey. My handicap is down to 21.6, but I don't see it moving lower (and it might go up) if I don't solve my driver dilemma.

I guess it is just a challenge that I feel the need to solve. You raise very fair points and I won't disregard the advice. When I am playing for money I will put the club away if it is not working, but when I am out playing just for me I feel the need to try to solve the problem. I am quite stubborn apparently.......

I am starting to think it is time for me to get a lesson, but I really don't want to waste time with a poor instructor. If anyone has any recommendations for a good (and affordable) instructor on the South side of Charlotte, N.C. it would be appreciated. I've been improving thanks to this site, but I may need a little more help than that. I wish there was a 5SK instructor around here, but I don't see anyone in the area.

I'm at a new low of 21.6, but I am really struggling and fear my handicap is going to start regressing. I have simply lost any semblance of being able to hit my driver consistently. All other aspects of my game are dialed in, but the driver is killing me. I've done everything i can think of. I have my own swing thread, I've done tons of research of the instructional threads on here; I've put in hours of practice (on and off the course). I just seem to be going nowhere on that one club. It's mind-boggling because all of the work has lead to an amazing improvement in my irons and woods, but nothing on the big stick. Now, before anyone tells me to put the driver away and just play my 3 wood, I want to be honest and admit that I do not see that as an option for me personally. If I am ever going to improve my overall game I simply have to be able to hit the driver. I am not forcing the driver onto holes where it does not belong, but if the hole calls for a driver I need to be able to hit it. I am only hitting about 1/3 of fairways. My misses are pretty evenly split between left and right. That surprised me when I looked at my stats because anecdotally I would have said that my misses were mostly left.

Welcome! (From Charlotte)

I am still working on the things I've been working on, but I am on the shelf with an injury. With all the work I have been putting in I have developed a pretty serious pain on the bottom/side of my left heel. I am really hoping it is temporary but it has not improved in the week that I have been staying off of it. The Dr. has me on anti-inflamation meds but it doesn't seem to be helping. The injury makes sense as it is the place I find a lot of my weight to be at the end of my swing (and I have been swinging a lot). The injury has me limping, but is not painful enough to stop me from playing if I want to try to push through it but I am going to try to give it another week to see if it improves. If it doesn't I will likely have to go for some tests to see what the issue is. I seem to have my head movement issue mostly solved and my primary focus right now is the transition from back to down swing. I am still very quick at the top and I am working on slowing that down and staying on plane throughout the swing. I will try to get some video up once I am back in action.

This is why all of my practice work the past few months has been on the full swing. Particularly my driver. If I hit fairways (or simply do not lose my drive OB) I have a shot at most greens. My low rounds have all been days when I am getting off the tees. When I don't have my driver it does not matter what I am doing. BTW....I am better than when I made my initial post in this thread. Down a few strokes and on my way to my first set of goals thanks to the great folks on this site.

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I have been continuing to focus my work on posture, balance, and swing plane. My scores are coming down (HCP 22.1 now) but I am wildly inconsistent with the driver (flipping between amazing off the tees to spraying it two ways on any given day). My irons have been vastly improved and not prone to the inconsistency of my Driver. I was doing some work with my son on the range and he filmed me for a swing thread check up. I am posting a lot of swings so you can see the ones that had good results as well as bad. I don't want to be mislead by feedback based on only my good swings. My personal assessment is that the swing is much improved but I still have work to do in this area. My head has stabilized a lot but still moves a bit forward and down at the top of the downswing. I still see some OTT in my swing but I have been struggling the last few days and suspect that when I have been striking the driver well this has not been the case. Thoughts?