BigMikey

I don't know if I every got blister but I know I've got a nice callus there now. It's probably a factor of how hard your gripping the club. Also realize that the right index (pointer) finger and thumb can be held off the club entirely as he recommends practicing in his book. I do that some times just to get the feeling that those fingers don't play a good part in the swing. On the waggle: It helps me hit the ball each time and eliminated many fat / thin shots. I know the book says not to groove the waggle and I don't think I've done it but every time I do waggle... I hover the club just behind the ball just a hair off the ground while I waggle to more or less set my neck position which remains the same throughout the swing. My head can turn but I want my neck at the same position on the back and forward swing. I still vary the speed and action of my waggle if I want to hit a shot soft or hard, but that little hover and alignment check has done wonders for my shot making.

I started out with the interlock like Jack Nicklaus. However after reading Hogan: Five Lessons I gave his version of the Vardon Overlap a try. I started liking it better because: - It helped me eliminate casting (I found myself casting more often with the interlocking grip.) - I can hit more balls before I start to get raw between those fingers. - With the overlap I don't have the temptation to make my right hand grip too strong. It's very easy to interlock your fingers all the way. With the overlap it's next to impossible because there is noting to latch onto. (Again I use Hogan's version of the Vardon overlap where the pinky of the right hand fits in the groove between index and middle fingers of the left hand and wraps around the knuckle of the index finger on the left hand.)

Who really cares who Tigers swing coach is or isn't??? I'm more of a golf fan than a Tiger fan. It's sad to me that the whole Steve Foley thing is overshadowing some great golf. I thought Tiger played well yesterday and hope he gets his groove back.... but could give a crap if he works with Butch, Hank or Steve.... At the end of the day it's up to him to swing that darned old club.

My only comment would be that the author of that book had the following statistics / honors to back up his writings: Which is hard to say for modern day books written by golf pros and instructors... In 292 career PGA Tour events, Ben Hogan finished in the Top 3 in 47.6-percent of them . He finished in the Top 10 in 241 (82.5 percent) of those 292 events. Tour Victories: 64 Major Championships: 9 • Masters: 1951, 1953 • U.S. Open: 1948, 1950, 1951, 1953 • British Open: 1953 • PGA Championship: 1946, 1948 Awards and Honors: • Member, World Golf Hall of Fame • PGA Tour money leader 5 times • PGA Tour Vardon Trophy winner 1940, 1941, 1948 • PGA Tour Player of the Year 1948, 1950, 1951, 1953 • Member of 2 U.S. Ryder Cup teams • Captain, U.S. Ryder Cup team, 1947, 1949, 1967 Jack Nicklaus 'Golf My Way' and Tiger Woods 'How I play the game' which are more recent are the only two that hold a candle to golf instruction when considering they came from the pros themselves with similar career statistics. What I liked about the book was it showed more depth than his later book 'Five Lessons' His approach to chipping, pitching, putting and even how he played the fade or draw was all covered in that.

Yea, I know he's full of crap. And thanks for confirming that it's not the case.

Thanks for the info. It's awesome that S&T; is > 50% of your improvement. It will be one of my next reads. A buddy mentioned that it can mess up your back... but he's not a S&T; guy so I call BS and want the opinions of those who use it. What are your thoughts or any others on what the S&T; effects are on your back: Is it (better,same, or harder) on your back than a standard one / two plane swing?

I've read so many books in the last 1 1/2 years. After boiling it all down, I would say the "Golf My Way" and "Five Lessons" are the only two I wish I had purchased. Both Jack and Hogan explain how there swings worked for them. The best part of this book though is that jack covers golf from the infant level to retirement. How he approaches the shots by 'playing a movie in his head' and how he defines ball flight is critical for any new player to the game.

Focus more on keeping the right knee flexed and acting as a brace for the backswing. The only lateral movement you'll need is to shift your left ass cheek right above your left knee / leg so that you can finished balanced. I kind of let my left knee do what ever it wants and don't force it to point in during setup. It does a little bit anyway but I certainly don't focus on that one point. But next time I'm out I'll focus on how it shifts and let you know.

Anything higher than 85 - 90 MPH. Not sure what the optimum is given that most tour players are 100+, but I've played them for a while with a 90 - 95 MPH swing and love them. My only caution is make sure you can hit straight before you get this ball. With 392 dimples, she'll hook / slice easy if your not coming into the ball just right. This past weekend I decided to try the e5+ from Bridgestone... even after a recent fitting put me as an e6. I'm just a junky for Urethane covers I guess. Also the chance to play a Urethane ball at $26 / box vs. $45 was somewhat appealing. I'm very impressed with the balls performance and in my round on Sunday I played a two balls (a Titlest ball and the e5.) The e5 ended up +2 score wise which impressed the hell out of me, but let me assure you it had virtually nothing to do with performance of the ball, more or less the operator of the tools. My summary results found that the e5 traveled about 1/2 club back from the v1 from my best tries of making two swings as close to one another as I could and would pretty much stop in place once it hit with almost all clubs other than the driver. The v1 off the driver was about 10 - 15 yards longer but honestly didn't put me out of shot making range. After a hole or two it was easy to figure out how to hit the e5 vs the v1 and I can tell you that on slippery or narrow greens the e5 performed better in my opinion. In fact the best thing about the e5 is you can pick a landing area much smaller because it's more of a carry ball than a roll ball. I couldn't see a noticeable increase in the trajectory of the ball over the v1 which was also appealing.

I couldn't agree more. I'm glad that old Vinny is replaced by Allen. Between Synder and Vinny they really screwed the team and the players by letting the AH's of the world think they could dictate the best O / D for the team. I can see Haynesworth's side because he was sold on the 4-3 and told that was it. Now Mike comes in and changes it.... I'm a little old fashion so my next statement shouldn't surprise anyone: Albert.... shut the heck up and play a role... your going to win more games uner Allen and Shanahan than you ever would have with Cerato and Zorn. Do you want $$$ or wins? No one remembers $$$!

Same here. Another critical point I found is making sure the lines of my right foot and club face are perpendicular to the target line. My last check point before I start my backswing is to look at the target and then check that the club face and right foot are parallel. It's done wonders for my FIR/GIR %. A piece of advice: Use the book rather than lessons at first. Immerse yourself into the 4 core lessons (the 5th is really just a review) and practice those on your own. I've probably read each lesson 4 - 6 times and each time I do I uncover another key detail. It's a real gamble to rely on lessons from an instructor because like many of us they have a personal preference. Hogan boiled down all the crud he'd learned in his 15+ years on tour and came up with key fundamentals which when executed correctly can't help but improve your game. Note: I took formal lessons prior to getting this book and would say it really delayed my improvement drastically. For about a year, I was doing these drills my instructor wanted me to do that didn't really relate to reducing my score and improving my handicap and even formed some bad habits. I've since read and practiced the fundamentals in the book and take a regular lesson now about once every 1 - 2 months only after fully understanding the concepts Hogan outlined. The lessons are more or less checkups to see where I'm not executing proper fundamentals. I was having very inconsistent drives recently, and once I started looking at the video with my instructor my setup was too far out with the driver affecting my balance and forcing hard fades, pull hooks and slices. Now going back to the 2nd lesson on stance and posture, I'm much closer, hands down more and I'm back to hitting straight shots and baby fades. I'm still pure Hogan, but a checkup every now and then with a second set of eyes are really what you should be looking for in lessons. It's up to the individual to build his / her own golf swing. Just MHO.

Thanks for the info. That puts it into perspective on how it's helped your individual games which is what is really important to me. The only follow up I would have is one question: What percentage of your improvement do you credit to the S&T; method?

Working on my driver consistency. Not sure if it's tempo related or something else but I'm all over the place (left.. right... down the middle) and it's buggin the heck out of me. Time to spend several hours on the range grinding it out.

Funny thing. Hogans first book "Power Golf" which was written entirely by Ben Hogan states that toeing out is specifically ok. However he wrote Five Lessons with a team of people. If one were to look at a timeline Power Golf came before Five Lessons. Now onto the truth about Hogan. He was a real stickler about keeping the right knee flexed and he had his shoes custom made by a London company with an extra spike (13 total), which was located right on the ball of the right foot. I never paid much attention to feet position other than that they needed to be generally aligned with the target line of the ball prior to reading Five Lessons. With my swing I hit many shots Fat and suspect I did so because my body (hips and heads) would sway back on the back swing. Since reading Five Lessons I modified my setup to keep my foot perpendicular to the line as suggested. It really helps brace the right knee, which helps the hips turn in rather than away, which helps my head stay as still as I can hold it on a full swing. On the down swing if the foot is in the right position I can run my knee at the ball as I unwind the hips and the club head somewhat miraculously comes right back through where it was at address. Let me just assure you it helped my game and I'm a 10 handicap after where I was a 20+ before.

In fact Hogan tried every grip out there on the market. He arrived at a variation of the vardon grip where rather than the pinky finger of the right hand riding the index of the left, it fits in the groove between the index finger and FU finger of the left hand. When I started golf my hero was / still is Jack Nicklaus so obviously I had an interlocking grip. However like everyone starting off I was casting the club bad. After reading five lessons and trying out both my JN grip (interlocked) and the hogan style grip I can tell you it did wonders for me. I can have lag without thinking about it. Having lag with my fingers interlocked was more difficult than the hogan style grip. Since I've changed and my regular instructor I check in with every month said he noticed the difference immediately. So now I've got two heros. Nicklaus and Hogan are tied. The moral of the story, if you truely want to see how it works for you. Do what Hogan did... try them all and go with the one that yeilds the best results. BTW... recently I've been hitting my driver somewhat incosnstently and I tried for a round playing my driver with the JN grip. My drives seemed to do better, and I'm speculating that the driver is the one club in the bag where lag is not always desired as much as I've put into my iron shots.

My opinion on S&T; is open at the moment. It's blanket statements like the one above about Steve going from 398 to 40th that keep me from committing to seriously try it. I've always been cautious of statements like those above, because how can we quantify that the improvements were do solely to S&T; and not other practice items the player was doing... Can anyone here in the forums attest and quantify what S&T; did for them. I.E. Handicap reduction, GIR went from 15% to 60% etc...

Damn, I'm glad I can help! Something I have to focus on is that imaginary plane with each club because it gets shallower as the clubs get longer. I've been doing so much work with my irons lately, that yesterday I was playing army golf with my neglegted driver. left on 1, right on 3, et.... because I wasn't finding that key slot or was taking my club above the plane But my irons and short games are still saving my handicap.

I agree, and I had a similar issue but only discovered it after I video'd my swing on the range. I either do a full or 1/2 swing to try and keep it simple for me. My brain can only store so much. I would guess that your 3/4 to full swing is very small and is affected by how much lag you maintain and how fast your tempo is when you come back through on the follow through. My suggestions would be to: Develop a tempo drill that is range verified: My futher definition on this would be to focus on keeping your swing speed tempo the same but as fast as you can consistently hit balls to a target on the range. My instructor gave me this task and told me to focus on whatever tempo thoughts that made my accuracy better. I do it with 1/2 and full swings and log the distance and relative accuracy. Tempo control is different for all of us but my trick was to practice turning my hips through to start my downswing the same speed regardless of what club or swing (1/2 or full). This way theoretically your club head speed should be consistent for each swing range resulting in accurate distances. Previously I would unwind my hips faster than normal on some swings. I remember carrying a 7 iron 175 with a perfect hit, but I swung like I was trying to drive to 300 with my driver. Now that I've stopped doing that My 7 Iron carries 135 with a 1/2 swing and 145 - 150 with full swing. I know I could punch it farther, but I'm throwing darts. If I need 160 I'll just pull out the 6I. Using a video camera if you got one helps you identify if it's your swing size (3/4 or Full) or if your just going all at it.

I think making a US Open where par wins it is a great goal. I don't want to get into specifics but I thought they way they did it was cheap. #14 was killing them (don't get me wrong, I laugh when I see a pro do what I did when I first started golfing but on a regular green), and #7 was darn near impossible withouth a perfect tee shot with the right timing on the wind. But we have to ask ourselves, do we want to see more 7000 - 8000 yard courses or really tough 6500+ ones that makes even the pros tremble? I liked it and hated it at the same time. Another point, those greens looked ugly and like some of the grass was missing and they just steam rolled the turf so that the ball could roll on a semi-flat surface. I would have enjoyed it more only if they struggled on more holes, and DJ didn't choke on Sunday.

For me it was two key points. 1st ) The positioning of the arms as close together firmly against the chest on both the back and forward swing. 2nd) Combo of making sure your arms are touching the top of the imaginary plane at the top of the back swing, but combined with making sure the hips start the forward swing. It really almost becomes automatic to hit through the ball. I remember the first day I was at the driving range after fully reading the book. I hit 3 large buckets of balls, and it wasn't until the last bucket when I was dead tired that I realized I was putting way to much effort into my swing with the rest of my body. About that point all I could muster was unwinding my hips and I was all of a sudden hitting my 3W 230 - 250. I was like Holy S**t.... Somewhere in that book he states that if the setup is correct on the backswing, unwinding everything else on the follow through makes hitting the ball almost automatic. He's correct!!!

I started golf last year and wish this were the only book I'd purchased. I've got countless other books from you name them... but none have done more for me than Five Lessons. I strike the ball much better now and hit less balls fat or thin. Maybe it was the time Hogan was in where his drivers were like our 3 / 5W but I can honestly say it the fist day I hit the range and picked up a 3W / 5W I was hitting about 230 / 210 respectively with an occasional 250. Prior to that I couldn't hit a straight shot. My shots all have a slight fade to them which is fine by me but if that's all I have to work on this short read was well worth the money. I only wish Hogan had written a book on how to intentionally fade / draw the ball. I understand the physics of if but so many players do it differently (grip position, body alignment, Intentional swing path.... etc...)

I sure did. I knew JC was not going to be the guy for this year, but when I heard they got McNabb from our division arch rival I about had a heart attack. While many of my friends say it's a great move, I know he gets hurt often and I don't think he has many good years in him left. I hope he proves me wrong for my teams sake but man I was not expecting that.

He looks like a cross between the Jonas brothers and Carol Brady. Great Clips can fix that for $13 + tip.

Just taking a stab at it: Your head is probably dropping on the real shot, many players swing harder on the real shot vs. the practice swing which is fine but could be the cause of the larger divot on the real swing. My quick fix: Rather than taking a divot on the practice swing setup a little higher and mow the grass. This way when you take your real shot you'll go deeper as you indicate your natural tendency is and take a shallower divot. Plus you won't destroy the tee area making all us other golfers happy. - Then work on keeping your head level throughout the swing.

On a Budget: Nike PD Soft or Long / Titelist DT Solo (Carry / Roll are still available at the Wal-Mart / Targets) Willing to spend a little: Brigestone E6 or E5+ (Dual Layer Urathane 2 Piece) / Titelist NXT or NXT Tour I use Nike and low end Titelist when I'm just playing a few rounds at the local muni. I save the V1's fro the nice courses and it does make a difference when you need a ball to stop on the green.