Range Notes Saturday 10/29/16

Items to try:

• Very relaxed right hand grip
• Different kind of shoulder turn (see previous post)
• Hmm, maybe not much else

A right hand as soft as dawn, did not lead to the ball being drawn.

It mattered not to my elbow right, as I hoped would awaken in my sight.

Off went the brazen ball, into the colored leaves of fall.

No great progress I could see, but un-hurting arm was enough for me.


Now let's try the shoulder turn, in hopes it the ball would burn.

Sadly to my dismay, no changes did come my way.

Perhaps I already turned like this, but I needed to try and not to miss.


The only important thing I found, was to make sure my hips led the way down.

So this post must timely end, and off to readers I shall send.

(I'm listening to Marlowe's Hero and Leander.)

Friday's Report

"Ted, it rained all night and it's still raining.  Perhaps bowling should be the game of the day?" I inquired.

"What's your average, 250?"

"It's a lot like my golf, I don't usually keep score..."

--------

"This Thomas, how can I help you?"

"Thomas, my man, this is Mr. Hume with the 8:45 tee time.  My group has decided to forgo golf for the day."

"A wise decision, Mr. Hume.  We will see you another day."

-------

"Mike, if you want some training, today is a good day."

"How about 9 am?"

"I'll see you then," I said. 

--------

I cranked up the car with the anti-lock brakes and the traction control and headed down the the freeway to bill a few hours and work the minor miracles.  When I was done, the sun was shining and the course beckoned.  It would have been empty and a few holes would have been possible.  But I was tired and figured that I could sneak out to the range on the morrow.

For dinner we tried Tandoori chicken pizza.  Barb found it a bit spicy.  I was ok with it, but burning lips required some cold dessert to return them to normal.

More news tomorrow, I hope.

Thursday 10/27/16 a day of rest

It's been raining a bit here, but undaunted with a couple of youtube videos under my belt, I did wander off to the range to hit a bucket.

The technique that I was interested is was "How to hit penetrating wedge shots."  I was curious about this as the guy doing the video was hitting 80 yard 60 degree wedge shots with a 3/4 swing.

A full swing for me with that club used to go about 100, but it doesn't seem to anymore.  80 might be the current full swing maximum now. 

But undaunted, I thought I would give it a try.

The technique is to:

• Put the ball back in your stance
• 3/4 shot
• don't be shy about smacking down on it

What this gives you is less effective loft and the 3/4 swing ought to provide a bit more control.

I used the range finder and found a 70 yard target and gave it a go.  I was able to easily put the ball beyond the 70 yard marker.  80 and 90 did not seem out of reach.  The ball flight was lower which was part of the goal of the shot.

I don't know how much of this I'll use, but I can see that it might be handy.  I had a 70 yard shot yesterday that I hit about 40 yards and having a shorter swing with more of a hit might have made that shot easier to manage.


The other item was an analysis of Patrick Reed's swing.  The points that I wanted to try on this was:

• Very relaxed hands and wrists
• hands and arms being passive to the body spin

I was able to do this.  It's probably a good thing for me as I don't always start the swing from the bottom.  That's a habit I would like to break.


Finally, a video suggested that the shoulder turn is more like starting a lawn mover with the pull cord.  There is a use of muscles just below the rib cage.  This can be thought of as when one hand goes up, the other goes down.

Using that thought, it kept me from swaying and I stayed more centered in my initial setup position.

I look forward to see how this plays out tomorrow at 8:45 - weather permitting.

Wednesday, or How did I get so tired?

First a note to apology to my two readers, who having been in the Written Word business probably noticed a couple of typos that I didn't notice the first time around.

Yes, I do know that the past tense of the verb to shoot is not "shat."  It is impossible for me to have shat a 79.  I could say that about a 95 or so, but being on the good side of 80 is, in my humble world, a good thing.  There was other egregious issue that I don't recall, but if I think of it...

Ok, on to Today!

I was doing quite well until 13, when after a great good drive, I found myself with a slightly down hill lie.  I topped the sucker, pushed the next shot (an uphill lie) in the maintenance yard, lost the ball, which I really liked.  I had played 4 rounds with it.

I took a drop and took 3 more from 70 yards.  A smooth double bogey 7.

The next hole was not much better as a duck hook (no doubt due to extreme tiredness!) an 8 iron to get out, it didn't hook!  Then a simple 70 yard pitch went about 40 and a two putt was the end of that hole.

I almost had a hole in one on the next hole.  It was playing 170 and I ran the ball quite close to the pin.  It waved as it went by and ended up on the frog hair.  It was a back pin.  The birdie putt missed by a fraction of an inch and a ho-hum par was the result.

16 was not much better.  We start with a topped drive, ok 3 wood to get back in play and a wedge to a front pin.  Two putts.  Another bogey...  I managed to par in from there, but every shot was a struggle.


I was dragging as it was about 2:00 and I had not had breakfast and only a small peanut butter sandwich at 9 or so.  Dragging is the operative word here.  My concentration was also an issue.  Fred was a liberal and I was trying to convince him of the error of his thinking and it was distracting...

But I cannot blame Fred.  If I can save one soul, it will be worth it.

"How was the front nine?" I hear you ask.

Well, the blood sugar was pretty good and I was not feeling too tired.  I started with 5 pars, all quite easy.  I hit all the green with two putts each.  This is a rare start since I don't warm up.  The first two holes and the 4th and 5th demand good tee shots.  I usually think of the first nine as a "warm up" but the weather was warm and I chipped bunch, so it was painfully boring.

Then on 6 blew a wedge over a green and could not recover from an aggressive chip. 

But I hit it to 6 feet on the par 4 7th and made the birdie.

I followed that up with a 9 iron to 4 feet on the 8th, a par 3 over a pond.  I made that birdie too.

Nine was poor tee shot bogey, so the nine came in at an even par 36.  Probably the 3rd best score on that nine.

When the dust had settle and we golfers had dropped our implements of savagery, I ended up with a 36, 41 for a reasonable 77.  I would love to try the back again as I've never managed 18 holes under par.

I'm going to take the day off tomorrow and probably spend some range time.  I was quite happy with a lot of shots, but I want to explore some things that arose as I played.

Tuesday 10/25/16 A Journey to Wente

Wente makes wine (the wifi password for the guest account is cabernet!  But you didn't hear it from me.) they also have a couple of restaurants on the site and a golf course that winds its way through the local hills.

It has a slope of 123 for the tees we played today, 124 for our usual set.

Rain threatened again and aside from the tiniest two spots of pseudo-drizzle, the weather was grand; cool and overcast and not much wind.  The wind can blow there through the hills.

I decided that if you are playing well, golf can be quite the treat.  I would have gladly gone another 18, but lunch and some wine was the agendum.

I shot a smooth 40/39 to romp home with a 79.  I've played the course maybe 4 times and I think the best was an 88 or so.  No doubles, which are easy to get on this course.  Only once in the sand on a 390 yard hole, and I managed the up and down neatly.

I only missed one green badly, ran though a few others and 3 putted a bunch.  The greens are undulating and seeded with bent, which make for tough putting if you don't know the breaks.  There is usually a very fast direction and a slow one based on the grain of the grass.

My driver never let me down -- we'll ignore the "breakfast ball" on the first tee - hooked into the grapes.  I reteed and hit it 260 in the fairway.

Lots of 105 yard shots to the greens and this is a comfortable number for me, usually a gap or sand wedge depending on wind etc.

I didn't think much about taking the club back inside and rerouting;  that didn't seem to matter much.  I was staying looser a la Freddie Couples.

My distance seems to be improving.  I smacked one three wood just like Freddie, nice long backswing and a delicious hit complete with a whoosh noise and a direction that cut the grape vine corner to setup a short iron to an elevated green.  Just like it was planned.  Ah, the joy of a number of shots, well struck, and in sequence.

I widened my putting stance and that helped with my distance control and accuracy.  I'll test this some more tomorrow.

Monday 10/24/16

My how the month has gone by.  At this rate retirement will seem to be over before it's well begun.


So the swing thoughts for today were to take the club back inside and not worry about it.  Also I have a request for GIR numbers and 3 putts.  I found myself paying a lot of attention to those numbers as I was playing and have come to the conclusion that I play better if I don't think about that sort of thing while playing.


It also seemed that those numbers may not be particularly useful depending on what I am trying to learn as I'm going along.

I don't record scores, nor do I have an index.  It is more a journey in discovery and learning.

I was also trying to pop my putts a bit - the back swing being 1/3 of the follow through to get an accelerating action through the ball.

Some numbers:
GIRs   13  Maybe being pin high would be useful to track?
3 Putts - 2 - playing around with a new putting stroke was an issue, also the greens were a bit slow
Pars - 11
Birdies - 2
Bogeys - 5 or 6 (one was a penalty stroke as the water jumped in front of a wonderfully hit utility club on the tricky 3rd hole!)

Score looks like it was in the high 70's, though it didn't seem that good at the time (I'm taking some liberty with some gimmes).

I lost strokes due to bad drives once, which is a very good event.  It's been times where instead of two bad drives, it's been 2 good ones.  I'm still sliding a bit instead of getting the lower body going first. 

I found that I was hitting the ball further - irons were recalibrated to 10 yards longer.  My carry distances were very good.

My direction was excellent with maybe 2 balls off line far enough to hurt.  One topped shot.

Tomorrow on a longer course with more terror if the fairway is missed.  Updates then!

As I played along, I got to thinking about trying to accelerate through all the shots, rather than to hit the ball.  The times I tried to do this, it seemed to work.  I want to think about it some more and do some testing.

I might be a sledge hammer driving Man

Background is in the last two posts. 

What I wanted to try was an inside take away and then a slight over the top move to get back to the "slot."

I am curious about this because I am very comfortable to take the club back inside.  What I think I struggle with is a move to get back to the slot and also a willingness to slide forward in front of the ball.

Sliding makes it very tough to hit it straight or anything else that one might want. 

I found that inside and then a loop back was easy for me to do.  It also seemed to keep me behind the ball a bit.  When I don't slide then I don't have to "save" the shot with some aggressive hand action.

The hand action was causing some very impressive hooks and the occasional push.  A tough combination to play with.

My ball flight was quite high and very straight.  No misses to the left and the pushes seemed to be less of an issue.

I'm quite excited about this.  The swing is more natural to me and the ball reaction better.  All good things.

I'll play tomorrow and we'll see how well it does off the range.

Interestingly to me, it seemed to work for 30 yards pitches too.  Chips were good as the right hand and the body rotation were tightly bound and controlled.

Ok, all things good and I'm eager to try it out.

Stay tuned!

Video to look at

This is something that matches up a bit with the last blog.

Take a look at this movement of laying off or flattening the club path on the down swing.

I'm curious to try this.

Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNqCva0HNOg

I'll post results maybe tomorrow if I can get to the range.

Next Set of Things to Try

I've been put on notice that I have at least two readers and they are hungry for content.  So I'll do my best to pass along more content in what is happening in my golf journey.


One bad habit I have is to look at the golf content on youtube when the sun has gone down and Barb has the TV displaying the latest in Zombie adventures. 


I ran across an interesting one by Jim McLean.  He has a lot of content there and he is a thoughtful guy and I enjoy his analysis.

The one I'll talk about today is about getting the club into the "groove" or "slot."  He discusses this in length.  There are three schools of thought.  One is to loop it like Jim Furyk.  Jim is a bit extreme, but to take the club outside and then reroute it back to the groove on the way down.

The second is to take the club back on the line you would like to come down on.  It seems in practice that this is a bit hard to do.  But seems simple, but, as explained in the next item, might be a mechanical issue, id est, it doesn't feel normal to us humans.

The third way is to take the club back inside and then reroute back to the slot.  A lot of very good golfers do this to some extent.  Jim McLean mentions that this is never taught.  Ok, all is well and good, but the next bit is what I found quite interesting.

Jim M. mentions that the inside then reroute path shows up in other activities.  One of which is the stroke that is used by guys who drove railroad spikes and those who use a sledge hammer for a living.  Jim reports that these guys deliver a lot of power and "never miss."

Young kids, if learning the game by themselves, gravitate to this motion.  It must provide some leverage to get a heavy object into a good position to hit with it.

My driver stroke has some of this in it.  I'm not sure of my loop to get it on to the proper plane.  I want to look at this on the next trip to the range.  Maybe tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Jim reports that they never teach that inside then back over move, but as mentioned some very good players use it.  Including some who never had to practice - Bruce Liztke was mentioned as was Bobby Jones.  I'm guessing the "don't teach this" is from tradition rather than any technical reasons. 

If we admit that the human system is capable of remarkable problem solving, then the fact that this method of swinging a club shows up in a number of areas, would suggest that it cannot be discarded out of hand.

I'll close with a summary of an article I ran across a number of years ago.  The article reported that a study suggested that the human brain would seek a new solution to repeated problems -- even those that were "solved."   I clipped this to pass on to a golf teacher, to suggest that he and I and all labored in vain to create a new motion/swing/activity as the mind would instantly and constantly look for another solution.  That makes it tough to learn and store and move on to the next item or to become the golfing machine.

Bill asked for more technical numbers including greens in regulation, putts and such.  I don't usually compile them.  I can recall them for the last few rounds.  I'll add them as they were asked for.  Is there anything else?  Feel free to add the first comment to the blog!

Friday 10/21/16

Played early at Las Po today.

Shot 77 with a 38/39 score card.

I am still working on driver skills.  The driver put me in trouble once, but otherwise was a weapon and not a tool of self-fright!  So that is a good thing.

The round included a number of double bogeys.  I was in traps a lot, but got it up and down 3 out of 5 times.  I recently purchased a pair of TaylorMade wedges.  The sand wedge has 15 degrees of bounce (56 degrees of loft) and it is very good at getting out of the sand in a nicely controllable manner.  They are not cheap.  I think I paid $139 each and I had to look for that.  The current price is $159 or so.  They seem to be wearing well.  The last wedges I had were Scor and before that Ping.  I hit a lot of shots and the grooves were blunting quickly.  I'm hoping for a longer life and thus a lower cost per year.  So far, I'm happy with them.

The things I'm trying to do with the driver is to stay behind it during the swing.  I have an old annoying habit of sliding or lurching my upper body in the direction of the target, which puts me out of position and then I use my hands to "save" it.  That led to a lot of hooks and slices.  Tough combination there.  I'm still out of position a fair amount, but not as far, so I'm ending up in the fairway.  My distance is improving too and I've been pretty straight. Yeah!

I've also getting more realistic in re my iron carry distances.  For example in the old days I would hit a 7 iron for a 150 yards shot.  Well, that guy probably flies 130 to 140 and the 140 is on a good day.  I'm getting careful about getting over bunkers etc.  This came about because we've had some rain and courses have been quite wet.  The balls are not bouncing up at all, just hitting and sticking.

Of course it is not that easy.  Some of the greens will still roll out, so extreme course knowledge is needed.  That's a bit tough on a new course.

Finally, the next goal is to make sure I provide a full shoulder turn when I'm hitting.  I think I'm not doing that and there is a major power leak.  If I change that, then all the carry distances will change and I'll have to start over a bit.  But more club head speed should lead to better accuracy as I'll be using shorter clubs for shots.

I may do some range stuff this weekend, but I'm feeling a bit beat up with sore legs.  I've played everyday for the last two weeks and walked all but two rounds.  I felt good until today, where I was a bit creaky to get started.

The game is getting more fun as I get more accurate and consistent.  Having a reliable driver has been missing for 7 years or so.

Thursday Round 10/20/16

It was a late tee time, 11:30 and the grass was dry and my feet stayed that way! 

I've been working on the driver and it was a good day from the tee.  I hooked a couple, but managed to get the ball out there a lot.  We played from the blue tees and it wasn't a problem with the extra distance.  I hit 7 greens on the front and I'm not sure on the back - which was a bit of a roller coaster. 

I've figured out my carry distances and I was quite effective in getting the ball the distance I wanted.  The greens on the Las Po course are quite receptive.  There is very little roll with any kind of a shot that comes in high.  So carry it where you want to be.

I didn't putt very well.  I was leaving a lot of them short.  Did manage one birdie, but hit 7 of the greens on the front and the birdie was on the back nine.

I was working on staying below the swing plane and letting the club come around when it wanted to.  That worked quite well and I hit a lot of shots I was quite happy with.  Ball flight continues to get higher and distances are very consistent. 

Score wise it was not a great day, but the items I was trying to work on came through nicely -- so a success and I'll sleep the sleep of the satisfied tonight.

Feeling the "Lag"

Dear reader(s), it is quite usual for me to pick up on some subtlety in re the golf swing during a round.  Of course I don't file it away for future exploration, but try to use it.  No one ever said I wasn't optimistic!


I felt some of the club lag or more properly hang and  unhinge as the swing was approaching the hitting zone.

When I felt this and allowed it to happen, I found my ball flight to be higher and more carry.  These are good things as I've come to the realization that my carry distances are 20 yards less than I thought.

The greens and course have been wet and soft and it was necessary to carry the ball all the way to the hole.  I managed to spin back a 5 iron from the rough from about 150 yards.

In trying to accentuate the late in swing unhinge action, I find that I can bring the club down without any hand input to the direction of the club handle - in other words, don't try to manipulate the shaft at all. 

That leads to a down swing that is more compact and feels more in control that an early uncock and casting movement.

Is all this really happening?  Ah, an interesting question.  I think I'll drop over to the range and do some testing.

Wente and the Driver 10/18/16

Since my mother reads this daily, I'm going to try and post more often.

So, off to Wente today, a guest of Phil.  Upscale course in Livermore, it's nestled in the hills of southern Livermore with a lot of ups and downs.  It used to be used for a Web.com event, but, and I am quoting here, "the pussies on the tour found the course too hard" so they moved it down the road.

I don't think the Web tourney is the area anymore, which is too bad, as I like to take in the occasional tournament.

My focus today was my tee shot, which has been the bane of my golf existence for about 6 years.  I was very happy with what I managed.  I miss hit a couple of them, but the other 12 were fairly long and very straight.  So a successful day.

Wente is a longish course for me, but with a reasonable drive, I was able to get to a lot of the greens.  I didn't score very well, as I find when I'm concentrating a lot on a single aspect that scoring is difficult.  So the putting was a side thought.  I chipped reasonably well, but the greens are bent and there is a lot of slope and grain, so without knowing them very well, it's tough in any case.

Then we had lunch at the grill.  Good food, we had the place to ourselves as we teed off at 9:30 and missed the lunch crowd by the time we finished.

I had the number 4 burger, medium.  This has lettuce and bacon and was supposed to have some jalapenos, but I couldn't taste them -- very sad.

A glass of red and some water to round it all out. 

An early round tomorrow at Los Positas - I'll try to continue my tee shot progress.

Notes 10/12/16

Usual game at Las Po today.  Finally got my stride about the 15th hole; ok a bit earlier than that.  We started on the back, which seems to be a Wednesday thing,

I worked (once I remembered) to get my hands at address beyond my toes.  That caused me to straighten my back, then my butt came out and there I was, with the ideal position.

I think I hit the ball pretty well from then on; even some tee shots!  My tee ball to the 9th hole was probably the longest I've hit there.  It was about 230 with a 3 wood.  I was under the trees a bit and hit a hooded 4 iron through the green to a back pin.  It ran down the hill and I had a delicate chip back up to a down hill pin.  Got it to out 2.5 feet and made putt for a satisfying par on my last hole.

Left a couple of putts short dead on line.  That cost a few birdies.  But all told, a good round for me.

The other issue was to make sure the hands follow a path below the swing plane and not get above it.  If I think about going up and back down in front of me, it seems to make the "slamming of the club face" work well.  Is it more room and a better position in which to do it are questions for tomorrow.

I've found that I tend to stand too close to the ball and my hands are well inside my toe line.  I don't seem to make a vertical swing from there, but more of an inside move which dooms me later.

10/13 - follow up notes

I tried to do a couple of things as mentioned above.

 - take arms back along a plane parallel to the shoulder to ball plane.
 - lock the upper body with the arms
 - bring it all down in one piece
 - not slide forward before starting the unwind.

I then worked on making sure I started the down swing with the legs.  This was just for the last couple of holes.  (I've found that if I work on keeping my head stationary as I start down, that requires that the lower body become active and leading the down swing.)

Everything worked quite well.  I also sought to keep my hands on a plane below the ball shoulder plane.  That allows room for the "swat" to take place.  I was able to do this without much effort, which suggests that everything was where it should be and nothing was blocked or required adjustments to hit the ball.

I scored pretty well.  I was spending so much mental energy on the long game that I was a bit hasty on the putting.  I had two three putts and a couple of short ones that I just didn't hit hard enough.

It was a smooth 38/38 with one birdie.

My mom is perhaps the only active reader, so I'll publish this to keep her entertained!