sPinHigh

I've had a bad golf year so far; not my usual nice tempo and lots of problems with my swing. Last night at the range I realized I'm just generally "looking at the ball" but not in any particular place. I started really focusing on a single point at the back of the ball where I want to make contact / hit it. And things really started to fall in place again. Very much better contact and much better-feeling shots. This is promising. How do you look at the ball? Really focused on some spot or just generally eyeing it? A downside with this new (or refound) way for me is that it is harder for my eyes to really focus on such a tiny point that it can sometimes feel dizzying. Similar experiences or ways to coping with it?

Thanks for your input. I decided to go with th mx23's but they were actually sold out so they could never get me a set. Since season is basically over here now I'll wait until next season and get a set of mx-25's. I'm a bit concerned they are not workable enough for me since I play my irons probably a bit better than my handicap indicates (weak with driver&woods;) and am used to work the ball but I really liked the mx23's when I tried them so should be ok.

Thanks a lot for your insight guys. I'll probably go with a Wii and play the Wii Sports/Golf and Super Swing game until TW07 comes out. Searching the net I've found some interesting links: This one claims TW07 is coming to Wii in march 2007: http://www.gamespot.com/wii/sports/t...46&mode;=recent http://www.gamespot.com/wii/sports/t...?mode=versions and here are some movies showing people playing Wii Sports/Golf: http://uk.wii.com/movies/02/ http://uk.wii.com/movies/09/

Winter is coming here in Sweden and the golf seasone is coming to an end. It feels sad and I need something to get me through it. One idea is to buy a game console with some nice golf game. I've seen some demos of "Tiger Woods 07" for Xbox 360 and it looks quite impressive. Hoever, the Nintendo Wii seems to get a cooler controller which you might be able to swing realistically. However, the golf games coming for the Wii looks like they target children with cartoonish graphics. Any ideas on what I should choose? Do you think something like TW07 will be available for the Wii? Or will the Wii not have the graphics power needed? What is the best computer golf game you've played? Most fun? Most realistic?

I wonder if someone has tried swingstargolf.com or some other similar "online/virtual golf lesson" provider? I'm not really happy with the pro at my club and think I need a few lessons to get started on a new track in my golf... How does video-based lessons compare to the real thing? Any comments appreciated.

Not sure there are any Spanish golfers on this forum but maybe someone has played golf around Barcelona? Any tips on courses and/or hotels? Plan to go there in late November. Thanks.

A friend claims that a former pro player commenting on one of the recent golf events was asked how hard the tour-prepared courses would be for "normal" players, and that he replied: "A scratch player would probably not break 90 if it is a 'tough' tour course setup for a tour tournament" This sounds ridiculous to me; I thought the difference might be 5-10 strokes so maybe a bit pressed to break 80, but not breaking 90. Unbelievable. Any comments?

It is actually a normal Aldila NV Stiff shaft in that FW but they have a strange way of marking them. I just got at very cheap at a sell out and it feels fairly "springy" so works pretty good. But thanks a lot for your comments; will definetely focus on the short game and get that new set of MX-25's. Sadly the golf season is coming to an end here in Sweden soon so progress will have to wait until next year...

Very interesting account Clubswinger21, thanks. Espeically interesting to hear you say equipment has such a strong impact. I've been basically playing the same set of clubs for 15 years now (well, I had my 7-year break in between but anyway). When I tried a friends Big Bertha driver this year I realised how much has happened equipment-wise; got 30 more yards and better consistency with the same swing. Got new driver and lob wedge this year and they have both helped me improve. So for next season I'm getting a new set of Irons (Mizuno MX-25 most likely), will play more and will focus on the short-game. I hope that can take me to a single digit handicap. Interesting that you have not taken any instruction at all. I tried it this year but found it counterproductive (I feel may instructors wants you to to the basics their way and are not open to personal variations); always been more of a self-tinkerer... ;) Do you think you can go to scratch and beyond without any instruction? I mean, even most pros gets help from time to time right?

I agree with georgep that increasing tech and distance add to the fascination and thus should increase interest. (Norman's comment about "you should not win if you don't use the driver" is very strange; Tiger used a fairly traditional, forged Iron-2 from what I've understood, what kind of high-tech is involved there? Does he mean the advancements in ball technology is the only thing that made that possible? Probably it is as much up to Tiger's brilliance...) However, I think Norman has a point when it comes to money and Tiger's dominance. It is ok for me that the top finishers get lots of money but then it should decrease more sharply. My feeling is that many players today are pretty content just to be on the PGA tour, just showing up and picking a few top-50 finishes, get quite a lot of money and live a nice life. Too few see themselves as beating the top guys, especially Tiger. Maybe I'm wrong but I'd like to see more ambition and boldness, especially among the young ones. Even if they don't succeed (since he is that good) they should believe in themselves.

Thanks for the tip. I will focus even more on short game the next season. I started taking Dave Pelx Short game handicap test this year and will continue practicing and evaluating progress with that test.

I'm not very good at this but one thing I seem to notice is that your feet seemed to be a bit closed compared to the aim club (ie right foot further away from aim club than the left one). But this could be due to camera angles etc. If you have a bit of a closed stance that could "hide" other swing problems such as for example an outside-in plane. This happened to me at one point and I needed to make sure my alignment was ok first before I could attack the other problems.

The interesting "Click" thread initiated by Lbob made me think about my own plateauing in golf knowledge over the years. I can't say I have any definite memories for most of my plateaus or what made me step up to the next one but I figured if we all tried to think about our "Plateau History" / Hcp development others might be able to spot patterns, and learn from or comment on them. It need not be very detailed; just try to jot down what you remember... :) So here are my Hcp Plateaus / Golf history: Age: 7-10, Hcp: None, Average Rounds/year: 0, Got a childs 5 Iron from grandpa and played with it around our house Got pretty good at shooting at specific goals but don't remember much else Age: 17-18, Hcp: 36-27, Avg R/y: 25, Started playing golf for real One or two lessons then got my official handicap Played a lot on the course and rather quickly improved to below 30 Major cause of improvement probably that I started mainly two-putting, before that there could be both 3 and 4-putts Problem was definetely consistency from the tee, spread drives and even irons all over the place and the rest sort of followed from that (ie problems lead to more problems...) Stood at 27 for quite some time Got myself a new set of clubs, previously used very cheap ones which actually added to my inconsistency Age: 19-22, 27-21, Avg R/y: 30, Started participating in a few tournaments Improved a lot in the iron play from tees, much better at the par 3's Started with more match play, helped a lot since there were more and shorter-term goals that were more in reach (win this hole, then the next) instead of the whole-round goal of stroke play, I'm an "eager" kind of personality so short-term goals and deadlines are more my cup of tea ;) Made my first pars and birdies, that was a real confidence builder Age: 22-26, Hcp: 21-15, Rounds/year: 10, Played less and less for every year, mostly since student years were replaced by more and more work-like conditions ;) Tried to reduce amount of "overswing" => better consistency Better iron play from tee started to carry over to fairway shots Also a bit longer in all irons Started ditching the woods and driver, was way too inconsistent with them, only Irons from tees and fairways helped reduce number of "catastrophe holes" and thus improve scores Age: 27-33, did not play! Age: 33-34, Hcp: 20-14, Rounds/year: 20, Moved and now lives in local golf mecca (6 clubs within 16 kilometers), and children now older, couldn't help but start playing again :) Was reset to Hcp 20 by new club Bought modern driver, much better consistency than 1990's Taylor Made driver, extra length and better consistency from tee lead to hcp improvement Started focusing on "short game", much more up&downs; (chip+1putt or pitch+1putt) Practice the "short game" for the first time in my life, much better putt length, really tries to not be "short and below" the hole Consistently makes 5-9 pars per round and something like 0.2-0.3 birdies per round but still have a few catastrophe holes which increases score Confidence builder: *Really* close to Hole-in-one at three occasions Realised I have pretty long hands but standard grips => tendency to draw or hook easily, now 2 layers of tape on driver and woods which helps a lot Plans for the future: Planning to buy new set of irons which are better fit to my length (6'3") and hand size, hoping that can take me further Planning to play more, children growing should give more time for golf! ;) Golf travels to lengthen season (we have basically a 5-7 month season in Sweden => too little time for golf ) It feels like I'm on a plateau now again. At my best I seem to play at the level of a high single digit hcp (around 10-12 over par) but I can't keep it up for multiple rounds in a row. Any hints on what made you click and go further from around a 13-16 level plateau would be much appreciated... ;) Sorry if this is too long / uninteresting.

Just a quick sidenote... I also had a similar pre-shot routine but then an instructor told me that having the "intermediate target" as far as 3-6 yards away (which I tend to have) is way too far and might explain alignment/aiming problems. Instead I should have it only 2-4 feet away from the ball. I find this piece of advice strange (or even irrational) and not very helpful and have gone back to my old habit. To me it seems crucial that the intermediate target is at least a few yards away from the ball. However, for putting I tend to allow for shorter ball-to-IT distances.

Not sure if it is a click but I sort of "clicked" with the putting this year when my pro noticed that I kept my hands very far out from my body and had a very active right hand. I tended to miss to the left of the hole. Key for me to good putting is to keep hands "low" and close to body and have the feeling that the left hand drags/leads through the ball. I've seen a reduction from 34-36 to 30-33 putts per round since this "click". But I also focus a lot on having speed to go beyond the hole so not sure which is the main factor.