Addicted2Golf

Be careful doing this. If you start compensating for the shanks by standing further from the ball, your brain may start to over compensate causing you to throw your hands out at the ball. This will result in more shanks and even further frustration. The greatest advice I got when I had a minor case of the shanks was to stand slightly closer to the ball. It seems counterintuitive, but it helped me to concentrate on keeping my hands in and on the correct path.

Until I can make it through a round without losing a hand full of balls, I'll be using some good condition used balls. Most of them look like they've only been hit a few times, but you can find them for less than $1 per ball (I play the Callaway tour i series). I lose them because my driver is really inconsistent. They either end up in the water, or across some other insurmountable obstruction. If its in the grass, I'll find it come hell or high water.

You can be right without being a douche. Try that for a while and perhaps people will give you a little credibility.

You're the most unprofessional "professional" I've ever come across. From reading your posts, I would hate to have to interact with you in person. Best of luck being the most correct person on the forum.

Many thanks to those of you who have replied. The votes of confidence are as helpful as the critique when the swing starts to get a little out of control. I lose confidence in my driver pretty quickly. I had my first ever lesson today and the instructor's main thing for me to work on was just what Rexx said. He said I need to work on rotating through the ball. It was good to come home from that lesson and find the same advice given to me on here. Regarding the flatness of my swing, if you saw it a year ago I think you'd prefer how flat it is now, to how steep it used to be. I looked like I was trying to pound the ball into the ground, and therefore had quite a few problems to overcome that came along with that. Also I separated my shoulder a little while back, and keeping my arms low helps with that.

I've never seen that before. In general I think I am below average on that scale. That pretty well describes me. Until recently I didn't even have a yardage for my fairway woods. I try to step up and carry the ball 300 yards each time, when I really should have the mentality of an iron. I could see that thought alone making a big difference in my accuracy. Thanks!

I was hitting wiffle balls. The first one catches the top of the fence, and the second one clears the top by a foot or 2 and lands about 10 yards into my neighbors back yard (the house is vacant, but when it was occupied the owners were okay with me retreiving any that sailed over). I didn't know it was a problem that people hit real balls around houses or I would have clarified. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks Looking at the video I can see what you mean about how rigid I look. It doesn't feel that rigid, although part of the purpose behind it is for my arms to be similar to how they would be at impact because I've struggled hitting the ball off the heel quite a bit. What are you seeing that leads you to the conclusion that I was decelerating? I didn't intend to, so if I was it is something that I need to work on.

Hey all, here are a couple driver swing videos. Any constructive critique is welcome. My swing is a work in progress right now, but as of late things have been going well across the board. When things start to get loose, my driver is the first to go. Thanks!

That is the best advice I have ever received! Thank you all for your replies. I played a round a couple of weeks ago, and used my 3 wood off of most tees. There were 2 long par 5's on that course, and I couldn't seem to humble myself enough to keep the driver in the bag on those holes. The results showed that I should have. I just don't want to give up on the driver, but I hate not being confident enough to know where the ball will end up when I use it. My typical miss is too the right. I had a good friend come and watch me swing at the range today, and his assessment is that my swing plane is good (no OTT) but I'm just not getting into a good position by impact. He had me hit 5 balls with my feet together and the results were promising. He then had me hit a couple with my feet apart, but just trying to replicate that feeling I had with the feet together. The results were very promising to say the least. All in all, my average was within 15-20 yards of my target as opposed to my typical 40-50. I was also able to hit a repeatable draw. I hit about 30 balls switching between feet together and feet apart, and I was very encouraged by the end. I know this isn't the fix all for my driver, but I saw some promise, and hope to be able to get things straightened out. I don't know if anybody else has used this drill, but for me it really seemed to help.

As you can all see, my handicap isn't very good. I've been working on my short game and ball striking with my irons for quite a while and feel like things are going well, but I still can't shoot a consistent score when I get out and play. Since I started keeping my stats, I realized that when I hit fairways I score much better (seems obvious, right?). I decided to test my theory today and played a 9 hole par 3 course with holes ranging from 105 to 200 yards. I shot a 29 playing what I feel is average golf for me (when I play from the short grass). The problem is I don't get much opportunity to play out of the fairway. My driver has become a sticking point to the improvements I'd like to make in my golf game/handicap. On one or two holes for every 9 I don't even have a shot into the green because I've put myself into such a precarious position. Lately I average about 2 fairways hit for every 9 holes of golf. That's an improvement from last year when I literally went 6 rounds without hitting a fairway with my driver (no joke). I know the short game is important, but do you guys think high handicappers should focus more on getting off the tee? I'm not suggesting a range session where all you do is hit dozens of balls with the driver, but rather time spent grooving a consistent swing with the driver/fairway woods. I think so, what about you?

I agree 100%. Your goal is to make money so if you find people who are willing to spend it, and give them a way to do so, they will. At the tournament I was involved in they had one of the players from the university golf team at a tee, and you could buy his drive for 5 bucks. He sat there with a dozen Pinnacle gold balls and hit them until he had a really long one in the center of the fairway.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works wonders for white shoes

Is the word "you" obsolete? Anyways, I played in a tournament similar to what you're referring to near the end of last summer. Several thousand dollars was raised for the school of business. If the end goal is to raise money for the school then there are quite a few things that you can do to reach that goal. My suggestions: A scramble tournament draws people of all skill levels, and allows them to play together without too much work from you in this area. A shotgun start makes sure nobody is sitting around for too long. Get the word out to local businesses. It's a tax write-off for them, and you can charge a flat rate for a team of 4. My tournament had a 'young alumni' rate for students and young alum so we could still contribute to the school even though we don't have deep pockets. Get sponsors for prizes and market it as advertisement for them. Sell mulligans, licorice ropes (for putts) etc. We made a huge chunk of change alone on this stuff. The hardest part will be finding a good venue that will fit all of your needs. Once you've got that nailed down, the rest is fun. If you would like some more details on how my school did it, PM me and I'll get you some more information in much greater detail. Good luck!

I am going to side with those who have said you should be careful about jumping into the tour irons. My experience was similar to yours, and I ended up struggling quite a bit after I decided to go with some blades. I used to hit my GI Titleist 822's great on the good days, and pretty good on the bad days. I tried out some MP-32's and was hitting them great, so I decided to go for it. I ended up selling them within a few months. When I had a bad day it destroyed my game. I started getting nervous over shots that were pretty stock. I sold those clubs and got my current set that is a cavity back from 3-7, and muscle back from 8-p. If you can hit the tour irons like that every time you try, then good on ya, but just be aware that they can really mess with your game if it starts to go south.

I apologize for hijacking this thread, but it really got me thinking. Your description to situation 1 is exactly why I was given this advice. My hips were beating my hands to the ball, which left the face wide open. The result was a push slice. Turning the hips allows my hands to catch up and get the face a bit more closed. The other benefit is that in turning the hips a bit more, the club gets to the inside a little more. As long as I start the downswing by sliding the hips, the OTT move I've constantly struggled with is reduced. I'm just thinking out loud now. Thanks for the reply.

I see. Now your reply makes more sense to me. Would you agree, then, that a little more hip turn at the top could be beneficial to a slicer?

Maybe I'm not understanding the original question, but I always thought that a little more hip rotation at the end of the backswing would help if you were slicing. I'm not saying this to challenge your statement, I really want to know because I struggle with a slice off the tee, and was told that I should rotate my hips a bit more at the end of my backswing. Help me understand this a little more.

A couple of days ago I was able to get out to the range for the first time since the snow hit, and was a little bummed out when I was slicing the driver pretty bad. I was striking my iron's better than ever, and the ball flight was either straight, or a very slight push draw (I did a lot of work with my irons into a net through the winter). Today I went to a local golf shop and hit a few in front of the launch monitor. I was pushing the ball, and it had about 1200 rpm of side spin on it. The picture that was snapped was very revealing. The club face looked to be very very open. I don't think that my slice is as much of a swing path issue as it is a club face issue. I've been working on staying centered over the ball much more which has helped my swing path. Does anybody have any tips on getting the club face to square up at impact? Last time I had this problem I tried to roll my arms over, which caused an OTT move which then caused a whole other bucket of problems. Can anybody help me with what it is supposed to feel like getting to the correct position? Any drills to work on specifically for the driver?

Thanks for the response. I went back to the set up pages of the Stack and Tilt book and it confirmed what you've said. I think my problem is I am trying to get too much weight on my front foot at address which is making me feel like I move my head in front of the ball. Really the 55/45 shouldn't feel require a huge forward weight shift. I hope I'm on the right track.

Lately, like many others, I've been experimenting a bit with Stack and Tilt. At address I typically set up with my weight centered, then just shift forward a bit before I start my swing. A day or 2 ago I was reading a thread on here (I can't remember which one now) that contained a training video from Dave W about keeping the head behind the ball while still sliding your hips through on the down swing. This got me thinking that in the shifting of my weight to my left side at address, I was also moving my head. So, my question: What does it feel like when you put your weight forward at address? Does it feel like you are sliding just your hips, or do you feel like you move both your upper and lower centers forward to achieve the proper feeling at address? When I just move my lower center, it feels like a reverse K. Any advice?

It's hard to diagnose the problem fully without seeing your swing. The only piece of advice I would give is don't go for the 'quick fix' advice that people will give you. The quick fix will fail you within a few weeks and you'll be stuck looking for another. After you've tried 3 or 4 quick fixes on top of each other, your frustration level will peak. Take the suggestions above, and work on getting the club inside. If you can't seem to figure out what's going on that's keeping you from doing that, post a video. There are a lot of good players on here that can help you get this in check.

Check to make sure your posture is not too upright. Try to take a full back swing, then stop at the top and return the club to the ground in the posture that you were in at the top. You might be dipping a bit on the backswing to compensate for the uprightness of your posture at address. This could be a cause. Perhaps you could take a video of your full swing and see if you have a head dip at any point.

Which do you prefer between the D2 feel or the Gamer, and why?

You've had 2 experts weigh in on your question already, but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents because I've struggled with this concept. I had a hard time "pushing" my hips through without it being awkward and throwing off other areas of my swing. What I found helped me is focusing on making the push with the instep of my right foot. Pushing off of the instep of my right foot got my hips going in the right direction without consciously focusing on my hips. I hope I'm not way off base on this one, and if I am I'd like to know so I can fix my own flaws, but this did help me start my downswing with my lower body and clear my hips properly.

I was having that problem for a while. I realized that for me I was dipping my head slightly on the backswing, then leaving it down on the downswing.