strangegrey

Hey folks, I'm new around here. I'm generally a lurker...but recent events have convinced me to post this question to see what you guys feel on the subject. I appologize in advance for a what I believe will be a long post....hopefully most of you guys wont mind the read. I've been playing for about 10 years now. I'm left handed, but play right handed. I did this for the simple reason that the clubs I had at my disposal at the time, were righty clubs. Im also a guitar player that plays righty and the advantages for guitarists that play righty over lefty are vast (more instruments to chose from, etc). So I assumed, at the time, that similar advantages to right handed golfers existed. Back in the winter I made a resolution...and over the past 6 months, I've been desperately trying to get my game out of the 90s and into the 80s. Ive gone through a series of lessons, a few minor equipment changes and even lost a whole bunch of weight. All aimed in some way, to getting my game out of the basement. The lessons came to a close about a month ago....The one improvement I seem to have made, is that I've increased my swing speed a good bit. I seem to be clearing my hips better...this increase in swing speed, has resulted in a few things...Off the tee, I'm alot longer. Unfortunately, my acuracy has gotten awful. simply awful...Any given tee shot will be a hard slice or hard hook. 30% of my shots are finding the fairway. The rest of them are so far to the left or right that I'm losing strokes just getting back to the short grass. I recently came back from a trip to Myrtle Beach with the family and another family. The other father and I got out for 63 holes over the course of the trip. He plays left-handed. Throughout the trip, I struggled with my game....same scenario as mentioned above. The other guy (a left handed player), after hearing that I am a lefty that plays righty...imediately started suggesting to me throughout the trip that I consider making the switch....He played for 10 years as a right handed player before switching to left handed...and he feels it was the best move for him. What got me thinking was his assertion that he has more control, since his left arm is now the trailing arm (which he feels controls the swing). He also feels he has more power (not that it's that much of a concern for me) and his dominant left eye has less trouble on the golf course. I swung a bat from the left side of the plate in school and find that to be my natural swinging side...although these days, swinging a golf club lefty is awkward (although swinging a bat feels natural). The big questions I have are the following: Will I see more control if I switch to leftie? Is it a disadvantage having the trailing arm in a golf swing be the weaker arm? I seem to be convinced that having my dominant eye low (i.e. setup leftie) might help with alignment both on the tee/fairway...and on the greens. am I wrong? Has anyone made this switch successfully? I'm willing to take the down time/starting over that this switch would result in...I dont mind spending a few months or half a year learning the golf swing from the other side, if it will result in an ultimately improvement...but I'm not yet sold it would work. Any advice is welcome! Thanks guys! -Frank

I've had a titleist 585h 19deg for about 3-4 months now. It effectively replaced the 2iron/5wood function in my bag...but I find it very difficult to hit. I often spray shots with it, either pushed or flat out sliced. About 4 years ago, I used to play a Golfsmith/Snake Eyes Quick Strike (1st generation) that was simly amazing. All I had to do was touch the back of the ball with something sorta resembling a swing and the ball flew off the face, straight and long. I can't seem to remember why I no longer have the club, but I've been sorely tempted to assemble a QS3 and replace the 585 with it.

Oh, that's right...he had knee replacement or surgery...right? Maybe that's the reason for the change. I had not read that tidbit about the Harmon swing...

Forgive me if this has been discussed regarding tiger...I'm fairly new here. This has been discussed by the various announcers...Miller made a few comments on it during the NBC coverage in the past few weeks...and I'm sure Kostis has and will discuss it over the next few weeks. IIRC, (and I'm by no means a guru, so what I'm saying is subject to my aging memory) the root cause is that his hips turn too fast...and his arms lag behind (how I would LOVE to have hips that could turn in tandem with a 130mph swing)...when his arms lag behind, he has to drop down to bring the clubhead onto the ball. The clubhead's face, after the drop is open...and 9 times out of 10, it results in a missed shot to the right. This is what Tiger and the various TV analysis refer to as a 'block'. Like all of us, when we are fearful of a particular fault, we tend to overcompensate in the other direction...in this case, Tiger pulls it, like he did on #2 on sunday. Personally, I think that Tiger's recent swing change with haney isn't the magic bullet he keeps saying it will be. There was nothing more perfect than Tiger, after his initial swing change with Butch. That swing resulted in that amazing stretch in 2000-2002, where Tiger was simply flawless. Part of me thinks that Haney almost brought in this new change just for changes sake, you know, justify his salary....I dunno, if I were Tiger's new coach following Butch, I think I would have just continued Butch's work. There's no need to come out of your shoes like Tiger does to put the Ball in the center of the fairway a long way out. If Ernie can do it with a fraction of the effort....Tiger can dial back his swing a little bit and get some consistency. Even though Tiger is on top of the rankings now, I think his Driving problem will eventually be his downfall. 2 reasons I feel this way....#1, eventually someone will develop similar 'scrambling' ability...but with straighter driving....#2, I can't help but think that now that Tiger has inherited the Seve comparisons (with respect to scrambling) he might inherit Seve's fate.... I dunno, I love Tiger...I really do, but I'm getting sick and tired of pulling for him each Major and watching him dunk the ball in the right trees.