Rexx

I'm sure it's happened to me before. Sorry, not trying to be a douche, but c'mon... either you tilt WAY too easily or it's a pretty lame excuse for your second shot. And saevel, I'm sure you didn't mean it to sound that way... but golfers of all races do some strange things on the course.

For a one-plane swing, it sounds about right. But, I swing two-plane, and there is definite separation of the elbow and side on the backswing. There are other differences in those swings. A lot of golfers have a hybrid of the two, but lean definitively one way or the other.

I think a heavy club is good for stretching and warming up and perhaps some strengthening. But IMO, swing speed is 80% technique (includes flexibility), 10% strength, and 10% size (i.e. a 6'4" golfer vs. a 5'9" golfer), so it's not something I would look to dramatically increase my distance. I suppose if it could help with your technique (e.g. using larger muscles) then it could have some tangible benefits.

Replace with a 4h? Since hybrids tend to go further for most than the corresponding iron, this might work for you. I actually have a gap now between my 5h and 6i (175-185 yards), but make due by choking down on the 5h.

My thoughts: - Keep the left arm straighter, especially at the top, it looks like it's collapsing some. This should help to move the hands away from your head and even with or just outside your right shoulder at the top. - I'm not sure if it's because you're swinging short irons, but eventually you're going to want to build up some speed. You're kind of guiding the club down (understandable if you haven't been playing golf long). A proper 3/4 shot would be a shorter backswing, but with similar acceleration to a full shot. - Do you have a front view video?

Yes, your arms are dropping too quickly. In your first video, look at what your hands/arms do when you start your downswing. They drop straight down. This would be fine if you had more of a two-plane top of backswing position, but you have more of a one-plane top of backswing position. You need to keep those hands/arms moving on a more single plane down to the ball. From the down-the-line view, the hands should cross your body at about the bottom of the ribs or kidney region (yours currently cross at or slightly below the right hip). BTW, it would be better if your backswing also passed this same point -- you're a little bit low here as well, but not as much.

The club is well behind you on the downswing, forcing you to flip it at the bottom. Two ways to fix this: - You have a sort of one-plane top of backswing position. As Butch said, you'll need to give a little tug on the butt end of the club down the target line to start. You don't need to keep pulling the left arm throughout the downswing as the shoulders turning should should take over and keep the momentum going. - For a two-plane swing, you would need to hinge the wrists a bit more vertically (and a little less horizontally) on the backswing. This would get the club head to go a bit more up and over the right shoulder and your hands would be about even with your right shoulder instead of outside it (in the down-the-line view). From there, the little tug would be more vertically. In both cases, the tug should not involve the unhinging of the wrists (if anything, it could cause a slight increase), because they will unhinge closer to impact and give you the power you're looking for. Good luck.

I'd play from the tips every time if I could, but with the group I play with we usually play from whatever are ~6500-6700 yards. On courses with 3 sets of tees, this is usually the tips. On courses with 4 sets of tees, this is usually one up from the Championship Tees. It's not that I'm really that long (the shortest hitter on Sand Trap at only ~240-260 yards per drive), but I like it as difficult as possible and I like hitting the hybrids into the greens -- I used to hate hitting long irons.

A lot of pros dip their heads on the downswing. As long as it's from "compressing" into the ground (i.e. squatting), I think you're fine. It can be a power move when you push off the ground for leverage and extend your spine through impact.

Eh... I wouldn't worry about it too much. Personally, I don't offer advice to anyone -- even my own partner if we're playing a friendly 2-on-2 game. I happily give advice to our opponents, though. But really, it's pretty rare that I/we are paired up with strangers, so I guess my chances of a golf faux pas are limited.

It may have worked because it can get those that struggle with "hitting from the top" and flipping at the bottom to delay enough to have some reserve left to "hit at the bottom"... not really what you want to do, but at least you're getting some acceleration through the ball. Combined with the pronating of the wrists (which delofts the club a bit), and you just might hit it better/farther -- usually if you're a typical high-handicap slicer. But those positions can all be achieved with more repeatable sequencing of other muscles (with even more power).

I read it as on the downswing. Not too many people actually have this problem. He's posted videos before, but I never saw the "too far inside" problem he is describing. Maybe he has changed his swing and it's a new problem? If so, new videos might help...

There's this article by Erik from a long time ago. And one of the reader's comments: "His suggestion, again - set up normally, but rotate the club and your hands open about 10 degrees. Take your normal backswing, but make a conscious effort to keep the right palm facing the target line. On your downswing, 3-4 feet from the impact area, make a conscious effort to pronate your wrists." A little googling will probably lead to a lot more discussion. These DVDs have been out for a long time.

Thanks! I'll take another look... sounds like a promising app!

I thought the usual tie breaker in these scramble tournaments was score on most difficult hole. If the score is the same, then the second most difficult hole, etc. But, I suppose if you guys bought mulligans, you may have beaten them straight up.

Anyways, back to putting... why is the Dave Pelz stuff bunk? I don't have much opinion either way, and I've never seen much argument against it until now. I'm guessing he's not advocating 17" in every situation (e.g. uphill/slower greens would be less than 17" and downhill/faster greens would be more than 17" inches), but I've only seen the abridged version in articles.

Concur with Gibby about basketball... just horrible advice. I think its point was to give focus to your shot, since your real target is some empty space, but still it's a bit odd to have a target that if you hit, you'll miss. For golf, whatever works... I guess. However, the back of the cup advice seems only to be relevant to straight putts -- and probably only shorter putts of less than 5 or 6 feet. The idea of having enough speed to roll a foot or so past is probably better. But I'm a terrible putter, so...

That infomercial is probably 4-5 years old and is a long running joke among golfers and golf forums. I don't know anyone that has ever bought that club, but our golfing group has mimicked the scream on many occasions when someone hits a good drive.

Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I downloaded and used the Golf Logix app today (I have standalone GPS as well). Do they not actually have pictures of the holes? Is it just distances with the same stock hole picture? I didn't know if that was just a trial thing or that's how it always is.

Huh? Everyone is saying that that the top players "go for it" more. I gave examples of non-top players that I believe go for it with just as much if not more regularity (maybe to their detriment). Do you not agree? I didn't say they were "as good" as those guys, just that they have the same "go for broke" attitude. Please reread what I wrote. Wow... and how dare I compare ONE aspect of other pro golfers to some of the greats... sheesh. And yes... Tiger would go for it. So would probably 90% of the players on tour (hell... even Corey Pavin hit a 238 yard 4-wood to win his U.S. Open and he was regarded as one of the best wedge players of his day). The difference is that Tiger has a better chance of pulling it off because... get this... he's better than they are. He might be the best long iron player of all time and if he misses, he is near the top in his scrambling abilities. He is the best player on tour for many reasons, but some type of "go for it" attitude is not one of them, because it simply is not unique to him or even a small percentage of the pros. Oh, and Zach Johnson won the Masters by never going for it. And Phil Mickelson lost the U.S. Open by going for it. What do either of these mean?

Where are the stats that back all these claims up that the great players "went for it" more (whatever that means)? Where is the poll among PGA Pros that says a majority of them would lay up to preserve 2nd place instead of going for it to win? You know who goes for it all the time... John Daly, Hank Kuehne, JB Holmes. Why aren't they as good as Jack, Arnie, or Tiger? Are you saying Corey Pavin just lacked that "go for it" attitude, else he would have won half a dozen majors? As for Tiger... geez... he's one of the most conservative players out there, especially in the majors -- using irons and 3-wood off every tee to keep it in the fairway. Pro golfers are who they are... they all worked hard to get where they are. There's probably plenty of guys on the Nationwide Tour that have put in just as much hours and practice as any PGA Tour player, but they just capped out at a different point. That's life. And really Shanks, "Don't hate the player... hate the game". These guys played the game and won... they can do whatever they want with the money they earned. There's also a sea of failed golfers that never quite made it to the big time -- it's a risky choice, so with the risk, comes big rewards. You should know... musicians, artists, and actors have the same life... scraping by until a breakthrough (whether 'deserved' or not). And you can complain all you want if they "don't give you want you want"... and they can tell you to kiss off. They know they're fortunate to play golf for a living (and a very good one at that) -- you hear them say it all the time. And they don't play the game to amuse us (as if they are some sort of Roman Gladiators) -- I doubt you'll get that response from any of them. I think you have the roles reversed -- they have a skill that you find so fascinating that you're willing to give money to watch them. They create these tournaments, put them on TV, and get the sheeple to pay to watch them. It's an arrangement that is always "up for negotiations" and either side can walk away whenever they want.

I don't understand the notion that shaping shots somehow makes it more predictable about what is going to happen. I've seen plenty of people line up for a fade and proceed to hook it (or vice-versa). Pros do it, too. Both "working the ball" and hitting it straight rely on the notion that the average of all the shots hit that way should be at the intended target. Anything different and there's a bias you need to account for. And I still say that given the choice, hitting your stock shot is the proper play unless it's just not really possible. But as iacas says, learning to work the ball on the range may give an "aha" moment that changes your stock shot for the better.

Wow, any empirical evidence of this? I mean, we have the Rickie Fowler layup, but he seems quite convinced that was the right thing for him to win given the circumstances. I think it's safe to say that almost every one of the golfers on tour used to cleanup their local tournaments (probably as juniors) and probably had at least moderate success in college. They know how to win and they want to win. I don't believe for a second that anyone in contention on the back 9 on Sunday isn't doing their best to win. Once out of contention, things may be different, especially if your status on tour is tenuous. Then, it only makes sense to maximize your "profits" to retain your tour card. For people like Woods, Els, etc, I don't know what their thought process is once out of contention... they may be uber-aggressive for the heck of it, play some shots they might not normally play, or think about what to have for dinner... who knows. But really, this all sounds like jealousy to me. These guys are paid exactly what the market will bear. If you want a piece of the action, then get out there and work your butt off just like they have done for most of their life. It's a game to us (just like a lot of sports), but it's a job for them -- one that they enjoy at times (just like I enjoy mine). And complaining about them making too much money... that's funny. You think it has anything to do with buying $500 drivers, $1500 irons, $200 putters, or $3 golf balls?

I don't think you can intentionally/actively manipulate your hands/forearms in the downswing and be consistent. The hands/forearms release properly when there isn't much tension to hold them against the centrifugal force that is applied to them in a proper downswing. Now, this is coming from someone who used to hook the ball like crazy by dropping the arms way to the inside and flipping at it with the hands/wrists. My success now comes from quiet hands in the downswing. This drill may be good if you have a problem of tightening up the forearms and hands during the downswing (the ol' death grip on the club), but I think it goes too far in the other direction.

This... especially the lower body part. This is one reason I don't like looking at a driver swing. There tends to be additional movement to get added power that isn't present in other swings. If you swing like this for your irons, it's going to be difficult to get the consistent ball striking to take it to the next level. Any chance we can get an iron swing video (6-iron)? But, specifically for this swing... in the front view, you slide your hips back 4-6 inches to start the backswing and almost straighten the left leg. The better motion would be for your hips to move no more than a couple of inches and the left knee to bend inward. This will keep you more centered and take a little less timing out of the downswing. A slightly narrower stance may also help to prevent so much sliding. Obviously, you have a lot of good things going on in the swing. I'm pretty jealous. Good luck.