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!