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MrLeek

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Everything posted by MrLeek

  1. MrLeek
    Day 3: Jun 11 Worked on drills to continue improving my club path (put a pool noodle around an alignment rod that I placed on the floor, then practiced swinging a club along the same line as the alignment rod). I think the feel that works for me is a) right elbow into my right hip, and b) a sense that the club head drops behind me before swinging around me. But having that visual cue and feedback if the clubpath was incorrect seems helpful. Also spent an hour chipping/pitching at my local course, working on feel and ball control from a range of distances. This includes spending some time just experimenting with different types of short game shots to see what happens.
  2. MrLeek
    Day 2: June 10 Golf lesson followed by range practice. Continuing to work on the feel of a better/more neutral club path - sometimes my clubpath is fine, other times it’s creeping too far over-the-top. I still don’t quite have it…but it’s not far off being ideal either. But I have new feels to try to see if I can get this locked in. Range practice trying to continue this feel (about 1/3rd of the session) then plenty of driver practice. Decent control of the clubface = a decent shot outcome. It’s not perfect, it can be better…but it is playable.
  3. MrLeek
    Although my week away visiting NYC was awesome, it meant a lack of golf practice (walking 90 miles during the week doesn’t count). So…. Day 1: June 9 Range session focusing on getting back into a steady groove. I think the clubpath is remaining on plane (a little too much out-to-in with driver), but I have to focus on getting a square clubface. Hit a number of shots where I intentionally tried to excessively close the clubface (sometimes successfully); I don’t have a good sense of the “feel” when I’m doing that but it seems a worthwhile exercise. But I’m trying not to be hard on myself given a week or so away from practicing.
  4. MrLeek
    Day 63: May 30 Played 18 holes at home course. Some mistakes made, couple of penalty shots added from errant tee shots and managed to 3-putt from 6 feet (horrible hole position). Still managed to record a round just a couple of shots above my PB. Lots of smart golf played; when in trouble, make sure I get back into play. Add to that some lovely golf shots and it’s all positive stuff to build on.
  5. MrLeek
    Day 62: May 29 Did a couple of indoor practice putting sessions focused on 4-5 ft putts. Then went to my local course for a couple of hours of short game & putting practice. Beginning to reacquire my touch/feel for more lofted short pitches & chips, especially for shots where I have to carry over a short obstruction which would prevent a low-running chip or even using my putter. Putting green was trying to get a consistent pace on putts. Also got my first taste of using my feet to feel the borrow on putts in a very basic AimPoint sense. Hard to explain but I can feel that a seemingly flat putt…is not flat, which adjusts my aim point.
  6. MrLeek
    Day 61: May 28 Golf lesson followed by personal range practice. Confirmed my understanding of my “bad miss” with a driver; it’s not necessarily a dramatic out-to-in swing path, but the face is wide open. There’s also the potential of mishits that are causing the worst of my misses - we touched briefly on angle of attack and other metrics. But we both agreed that staying focused on keeping my swing path under control remains the priority. It’s becoming semi-automatic with mid-irons…but it can get away from me when using my driver.
  7. MrLeek
    Day 60: May 27 Golf lesson followed by range practice. Golf swing is still a little too out-to-in, but it’s not terrible and if I focus on the path I can make it neutral. Also looked at driver: my “miss” right (and this is after work on the range) is being caused by an excessive out-to-in swing. The club face is slightly open in relation to target line, but it’s wide open in relation to the club path. At least I think that’s what’s happening. We spent time chatting about ball flight and what affects it; I’m seeing my coach again tomorrow and will be continuing on this theme to understand what’s happening. But my driver swing focusing on smooth tempo seems to result in a controlled fade (or close enough for my current golf standard). If I try to swing quickly, I lose control of the swing path. But I was terrified of my driver 6+ months ago…so this is progress!
  8. MrLeek
    Day 59: 26 May Back to the course for 18 holes…and stuck with a driver off the tee for the first time. Results were decent, most of the time. It’s the same mantra: trust what I’m about to do and commit fully to the shot. If I hit a bad shot, so be it. But hitting a bad shot because I backed off or didn’t commit to it is something that’s in my control. That especially applies to shots when I’ve put myself into an awkward place or I don’t feel committed & comfortable over the ball. Better to play the percentage shot and get a decent/good result than continue with a shot that the little nagging voice in your head is whispering “this is a bad move”. Get better at listening to that voice….but either silence it or use it to make a better decision.
  9. MrLeek
    Day 58: May 24 More range time, working on squaring the clubface better at impact, then time practicing 3-wood & driver. Reassuring results; some shots leaked right, but that’s down to not closing the face properly. I need to be careful that I don’t overswing as that helps me control the shot. But with a neutral stance and strong grip I’ve proved (again) that driver is playable. One thing to watch for alignment: since my driver/3-wood is now generally a fade (sometimes leaking too far right), I need to align centre-left of fairway and not left-edge of fairway. Otherwise the ball won’t fade back into the fairway.
  10. MrLeek
    Day 57: May 23 Played 18 holes. After plenty of range practice with good results from fairway woods, I went into that round full of confidence. But after the first couple of holes (which had terrific tee shots), I got stuck in a rut of topped tee shot -> tee ball higher -> topped tee shot….which got very frustrating very quickly. Part fixed the problem by teeing the ball up lower/correctly, but it was still in my head. Ended up using my driver to finish the round after encouragement from my playing partners…and proceeded to hit four great drives. Lessons learnt: trust what I’m doing and don’t lose heart. If I’ve been scoring well (and I had been in that round), use that to regain confidence. If I haven’t, then I’ve used up my bad shots and I’m about to hit a hot streak, so play with confidence.
  11. MrLeek
    Day 56: May 22 Back to the range. Generally consistent with fairway wood: I wanted to have a session of improving what’s “normal” for me…and the results were rather good. Lost my way a little bit in the middle of the session (note to self: you’ve never cracked this silly game, so never think that you have), but knuckled down and rectified things somewhat. Hybrid performance was completely fine; I’ve got a dumb mental block about using a hybrid during a round, but I’ll sort it eventually. Future me needs to organise a trackman session to collate data on my fairway wood performance: a neutral grip; a slightly stronger grip; having the “feel” of the club coming from the inside (I thought I was doing this today, but I don’t know if that’s a sign of my golfing maturity or just wishful thinking). TLDR: Really understand what’s happening during that part of my game. Footnote: I’m slowly introducing my driver into these practices….and it’s almost good enough for me to start trusting it. Encouraging signs!
  12. MrLeek
    Day 55: May 21 More range time. What seemed to be working yesterday with my fairway wood swing…didn’t seem to work today. I could “fudge” things with a strong grip that helped close the face. But without that I couldn’t seem to close the face properly. In a way it’s helped diagnose what’s happening: my clubpath is out-to-in (not excessively, but I need to improve it), but the clubface is way too open in relation to the clubpath/target line. One positive was hybrid work: fairly tight dispersion. It’s either a slight pull or a baby fade, but I’m being a little hard on myself. A ~3.5 degree variation from my target line with a hybrid is completely fine given my current ability.
  13. MrLeek
    Day 54: May 20 Range practice, working on better control of the clubface. I *think* that my focus on having the correct wrist position at the top of the backswing meant that I’m hitting a little-too-excessive fade with a 3-wood. This is instead of a seemingly-straighter shot at the start but basically a slice by the end. My first thought was that the better wrist position was encouraging an out-to-in swing path. But on reflection I think the swing path is generally unchanged for all of the swings - it’s just that an incorrect wrist -> wide open face -> slice. Whereas the correct wrist is -> face square-ish to path, but with my current out-to-in swing path -> strong fade. Improve the swing path a little and it’ll become a more “normal” fade.
  14. MrLeek
    Day 53: May 19 Played 18 holes at regular course. A few very questionable holes, but otherwise plenty of decent golf played. Cutting out dumb mistakes remains a focus; part of that comes from really focusing in on the shot I’m about to play but also gain a better understanding of what’s possible/realistic for me to achieve from that shot.
  15. MrLeek
    Day 52: May 18 Range practice, focusing on trying to control the clubface and committing to a full turn through the ball. Results were generally good - still leaking some shots out to the right with fairway woods. I need to take time during next lesson to understand what factors are causing the leaked shots. I think it’s that the face is open in relation to an modest out-to-in swing path, but a) I need to quantify how good/bad that path is and b) where the club face is in relation to that. That will help focus my efforts.
  16. MrLeek
    Day 51: May 17 Golf lesson followed by practice in the net. Club path with 7-iron now averaging around -2; if I focus I can get an in-to-out path. But I’m struggling slightly on understanding the feel or the “what” that I’m doing when I get that in-to-out path. It may be that I’m beginning to really control the clubpath. But I think the priorities are a) club face (I’m sometimes leaving it open, which is magnified with fairway woods) and b) over swinging (which risks hinging my wrist incorrectly, opening the face in the process). So I want to focus on those two areas.
  17. MrLeek
    Day 50: 16 May Played 18 holes at home course. Bad start, but improved in places. Continued to struggle with tee shots and eventually concluded that I had to use a more 3/4th swing from the tee. I’m over swinging, therefore losing the club path through impact which is just creating a hard-to-control slide. Saw immediate results, a controlled fade off the tee with minimal distance loss. Back-9 was really solid, just some short game hiccups. Plenty to work on - I’ve certainly not cracked it - but encouraging signs.
  18. MrLeek
    Day 49: May 14 Net session, originally trying to continue with a better sequence of hips. Then recorded a couple of swings and spotted that I’m overswinging. So focused on that instead; previously I’ve overswung by adding a wrist flex that’s opening the face. I’m not doing that now - the “overswing” is due to higher hands. Plus there’s no early release happening (good!). Something to chat about with coach to make sure I’m on the right track. Also spent time working on short game (10-20 yd touch shots). There’s inconsistencies, but also evidence of improved touch and feel.
  19. MrLeek
    Day 48: May 13 Essentially a repeat of yesterday: transition drills, trying to get a better sense of sequencing.
  20. MrLeek
    Day 47: May 12 Continued with transition drills, trying to get a better sense of sequencing. Rotate hips, my hands fall naturally “behind me”, then rotate my shoulders through impact. I just need to be mindful of not introducing any steepening of the club shaft.
  21. MrLeek
    Day 46: May 11 Been working on transition, trying to get my hips turning (not sliding) early in the downswing whilst making sure I don’t cast/ throw the club. I want this out-to-in path with fairway woods & driver to be no worse than -3. I accept I’ll hit bad shots - and my club path is light years better than it was - but if I want to achieve the goals I’m setting then I have to get this sorted.
  22. MrLeek
    Day 45: May 10 Played round a golf at a different course (bit longer with a fair number of hills). I took far too long to adapt to the pace of the greens, so I butchered a few decent opportunities to score. I’m also fairly happy at how I was playing from uphill/downhill/side hill lies. Couple of mental errors cost me. But the big takeaway was my lack of cardiovascular fitness. I really flagged on the last 3 holes and the results showed. Short term fix is easy: have snacks (banana, etc) with me for a quick pick-me-up. Longer term is to improve my physical fitness.
  23. MrLeek
    Day 44: May 9 Range session before my lesson (time constraints meant I couldn’t do this the other way around). Really focused on 3-wood, almost “proving” to myself that I can hit good golf shots with it. Granted, hitting good shots on the range is easy. But it also provides confidence and reassurance. Spent some time during my lesson looking at alignment, I wanted to make sure what I was doing was correct and that I understood what I was trying to do. My fairway woods/driver has a closed stance, but it’s not excessive and teaching pro is happy with it for now, whilst encouraging me to practice with a more neutral alignment. I’m also continuing to control my clubpath with a 7-iron and it keeps getting better.
  24. MrLeek
    Late to this, but the headline goal I’ve set for myself at the start of the year was to reach a handicap of 18 (dropping 8 shots). Even though we’re a fair way through the year…it still feels an achievable if “stretch” goal. How I’m going about it: practice something every day. Lessons, range time, short game practice, even the “5 minute challenge”. If it’s possible to do some practice, I’m going to do some practice. drop 10lb (4kg), then maintain at 210lb/95kg. That’s still a little heavy but it means I’m in better shape to play golf. I walk every time I play and need to get cycling again. But diet is key to this. play golf as often as I can. Try to learn something new about how to play golf during each round, including how to approach golfing scenarios. Im stringing together good passages of golf, I just need to maintain it. The immediate focus is to minimise the impact of a blowup hole. Turning bogies into pars will come by just creating enough chances. But stopping triple-bogies from happening is the key to playing regular bogey-standard golf.
  25. MrLeek
    Day 43: May 8 Played full round of golf. First eight holes went rather well (a couple of mistakes but minimised the damage), then decided to have a mini-meltdown for a few holes. Which led to me getting annoyed with myself, a reaction that’s quite rare for me. Got a grip of myself and played well enough the rest of the way. Few things learnt about shot selection, which hopefully I can file away for future use. Also need to work on tee shots. Far too steep on occasions, resulting in poor results. But the overall trend is good. Keep practicing, stay positive.
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