More Thoughts 12/18/16

I hit it pretty well today too.  I still have hope for the next round.  Probably Tiger says that every time too.

I have a list of tendencies to fight:

• The slide.  (I think this is where I became handsy as I needed to do heroic things to hit the ball.)
• Using the hands instead of letting them do their things as the body rotation brings them to the hitting zone.  This tends to cause me to come over the top and not be in position when the strike occurs.  So, accuracy and distance suffer.
•  Keeping the shoulders working on a vertical plane and not allowing them to get parallel to the ground until the arms pull them up.
• A slow swing seems to be as powerful and better direction as a swing designed to hit the ball harder.   Who would have guessed?  Who would be brave enough to try it!?

I also tried some of the sand technique that Bobby Lopez illustrated in a video:  A quick wrist break,  place the ball in the middle of the stance and then make sure to turn through the shot.  Also one wants to swipe across the ball with an open club face.  The ball, of course, will fly based on the face angle, not the swing path.

The practice bunker is filled with very hard sand this time of year.  But I was taking very nice shallow divots, hitting the bounce nicely into the sand, and the ball height and carry were very good.

The changes for me with this are: I used to setup the ball forward in the stance, I didn't cock the wrists much and finally, I was not turning all the way through the shot.  I've been pretty good out of the sand, not withstanding, so I hope to be more accurate with this.  Distance control has been my soft spot.

That's it.  Hope the weather is warmer tomorrow -- come on global warming!

Memory Test Coming up

Or, one could title this post "Never Hit It Better."  Yes, it came together nicely today.

Shall I set the scene?

It was cold morning, under 40, with the roofs befrosted and the Peete's coffee hot. Some choirs post coffee and then back home.  I made some candied ginger as I'm trying to make a spicy gingerbread loaf that will burn all the way down.  That completed, I went to the range about noon.  The sun was doing its part and with no wind, it was more than bearable.

A bit of chipping to start and I fell into the movement of allowing the hands to start stuff, but once aligned with the body to come on down and hit the ball together or apace, one might call it.

Hmm, I thought to myself, is this what we want to feel when hitting a full shot?  I hit some balls across one chipping range to the other -- this is a flagrant violation of the posted rules.  They flew high and straight and it seemed that the swing was pretty efficient, id est, not much effort required to move the ball around.

I cut the chipping short and advanced to the grass to see what the full swing was going to be like.

So, nice back swing, keeping the club pointing at the ball as long as possible.

Full turn to put the back to the target.

A gentle movement to start the down swing with the arms, then as the body and arms synced up, a gentle shoulder turn to help the body along and off the ball went.  And went well it did. 

As I worked through the clubs I was able to do this with all of them.  My tendency to slide forward was still there, but I controlled it pretty well.

It was a very solid feeling at impact, which I've been told is a lack of bad vibration. 

The driver was on point and authoritative; as one would wish a Micheal Moore utterance would be.  (Have you noticed his verbal stutter?  "I mean"  Well, there are worse ones.)

I'm very happy - with the swing, not Micheal!  I wish to hold on to it.  Probably try it again tomorrow.  I'm encouraged that the method is quite smooth and unhurried.  That might make it more reliable and easier to trust.

It also ties in the things that Monte Scheinblum and Bobby Lopez have discussed.  Start the downswing with the hands/arms and turn the body when they are lined up.

Turning one's back to it

It's been gray today and we had cars to shuffle around and drop off and such. 

I managed to get to the old DR as we call the driving range at the casa Barbara.

The first 100 balls were ok, but not as solid as I was expecting and hoping for.  But I had the time, so I did some more chipping and realized I was not turning my back to the target like I had been doing. 

This turning thing is a bit new for me, as I usually like to slide away then rush back to the ball.  It's a technique you will not find written down anywhere for good reason.  Needless to say, I'd like to get away from it.

So I got another 50 balls and went back to work.

With as big a shoulder turn as I could, then use the arms to get off the chest and try to ring the bell or pull the arrow from the quiver or win the race back to the ball, I was able to smack some good ones.

So much stuff to remember.  Well, that's part of why I'm writing the old blog here.

I was also trying to make the shoulder turn cause the club to set and not to manipulate it with the hands and wrists.  It feels different but I think I can do it. 

I've been tearing up grips with deep grooves where my thumbs go.  They are clearly fighting each other and not lined up.  I theorize that my hands roll quickly at the end of the swing when I slide forward.  If they didn't do some wonderful stuff, I couldn't square the club to the ball.  I'm trying to weaken the right hand to get them to act together.  Also if I don't slide, I will not need the emergency arm roll at the end. 


So, much is happening.  I'll see what I can remember when I get to the course.


If I do it like I want to, the swing feels slower and easier.  Oh, Lord, please let it continue for a while.

I'm still finding the swing analysis of Bobby Lopez to be of interest and useful.  You can find his stuff on youtube and quickfixgolf.com.

Does Bobby Lopez Know His Stuff?

An old German professor suggested not to start an article with a rhetorical question.  Ah, well.

So I was attempting to stay well behind the ball, try to get the left shoulder at the ball for a wood at impact and maintain an angle "up" towards the path of the ball.  (Right arm is lower on the club, there is your tilt, and like a Republic, try to keep it!)

When I was able to do this, it worked quite well.  When I was not able to do it, my misses were tops and not duck hooks.

I managed to hit a couple of monster drives.  I hit a lot of high, long, straight irons. 

While I've been relying on my iron lay for a decade or two, these were better.  I like the added height and was able to carry some stuff that ordinarily was a problem, particularly if I needed to hold the green.

The 7th hole at Las Po, is a short par 4.  I start with a 5 iron and then approach the green with an 8 to a wedge depending on how the roll out is with the iron.

The green is faced with a large bunker and the green is pretty shallow.  I was able to hit an 8 over the trap and easily hold the green.  Actually made the putt too, so some added bonus.

So club head speed is up, ball flight is better. 

The problem is doing what I'm trying to do more frequently!  And isn't that always the case?

Range Notes 12/11/16

If you have read the prior post, I was off to the range to apply Bobby Lopez's lessons on staying on sides while whacking the ball.

I was able to do this without too much trouble.  It provided the following:

• Less body movement, less moving parts and thus better consistency.
• Much higher ball flight, better carry distances.

I was able to do this while chipping as well as the long game. 

If it's a good idea, let's see if it applies to putting too!  I found that it did.  I was trying to line the left shoulder point up with the ball for all the shots and putts and chips and pitches. 

I'm a pretty happy camper.  I'll be playing on Monday and we'll see how it goes.  I'll be at my home course, which is a comfortable place for me to play. 

It's Xmas party season, so Tuesday, normally at Wente, will be spent over eating instead.  Hmm, I probably have time for some holes at Las Po instead! 

Stay tuned.

Practice Balls and some new Videos

I found some practice golf balls at Play it Again sports.  They are a thick walled wiffle ball construction with reasonable weight.

I've been looking at golf vids today and I was getting antsy as there were things I want to try, but the weather has been nasty.  But I was able to dash out about 4:30 to the local school with a wedge and the practice balls. 

I like the balls a lot.  Sadly they are $4 each, but they are not fragile and hopefully will last a long time.  They provide a good contact feel and they fly pretty well.  They reward a good hit with a nice launch and distance is enough to differentiate between good hits and bad.

The grass at the school is quite long and quite wet, but even so, I was happy with what I was trying to do.  I may throw them in my golf bag for on course goofing off when things are slow.

Which leads me nicely onto the videos. 

I stumbled across a nice set of clips and lessons by Bobby Lopez on youtube.  He played on the European tour in the mid 70's.  His main thrust is that folks get "off sides."  What he means by this is that golfers will slide past the ball and then are doomed.

His approach is to tilt back at setup, then rotate shoulders leaving a lot of room between you and the ball, then use the shoulders, keeping them on plane (which is about 30 degrees tilted to the sky) and then swap the position of the shoulders.  The faster the swap, the more speed.

There is no lower body pulling stuff around, there is little to no lateral movement. 

He has clips of pros to prove his points.  If a pro does not move off the ball during the backswing, they will shift their head rearward as they do the downswing!  There is no forward motion until the club pulls you out of the hitting position.

If you've been following the blog, dear reader, you will know that I struggle with this very thing.  When at the school this afternoon I was able to do as Bobby suggests.  It seemed fast and with great balance.

Hopefully the range and the weather will accommodate more testing tomorrow.

New Tool

Well, Wente was a bit of a bust.  I had a reasonable front of 40, but the back was 7 strokes worse.

The only good drive I hit, and that was on 18, found the arroyo that bisects the fairway.  Penalty stroke, drop, fat shot to the pond, penalty stroke, drop, shot to green and two putt.  Sheesh.


I was at the local Play it Again Sports store and noticed a baseball weighted swing tool.  Not sure of the real name.  There is a golf equivalent called the Orange Whip.

It's long and weighted and you use it to lengthen your swing, smooth it out and find a rhythm that will not cause you to fall over. Then repeat and hope it will carry over to when the stick is exchanged for a club.

I went back today and bought the nicest one they had.  I also got some fancy plastic practice balls that I'll report on later.


We're having rain today and tomorrow, but I swung it in the backyard.  I didn't break any flower pots -- not as easy as it sounds, and found it to be a nice exercise tool.

I did scamper off to the driving range for some chipping and found my chipping stroke a mimic of the long swing as patterned with the weighted stick.  It felt good and long and slow and in control. 

I'm happy so far, for sure. 

The price at the Play it Again store was $15.  The Orange Whip ordered new runs over $100.  My Scottish soul remains at rest.

Things to Test...

I've been in the south of California this past week and while I talked a bit of golf, didn't manage to play any.

We drove back today and I went out to the range for a bit of time.  Alas it was cold and windy and all I did to chip and putt a bit.

I'm trying to incorporate all the stuff I used the other day to reach new levels of solidity with the irons.  I find that it all applies to the chipping as well as the rest of the game.

The method of keeping the angle of the hands and letting the club find its own way to the ball works quite well with the chipping too.  I realized that following through with short chips is a real good idea.  Seems if you stop, the hands do too much too early and result in fat shots.

Then I found that if I stroked all the way through the shot and still letting hands do their thing, seemed to work quite well too.  Something along the lines of the classical instruction to just stroke through the ball and not stop to hit it.

I have a lot of expectations for the morning.  I'm off to Wente, a course that requires a certain straightness and a bit of length.  It would be nice to be in control of the tee shot.

We shall see.


Monday night, 12/5

I wrote this about a week ago.  As I recall the drives were actually in control.  Nothing monstrously long but in play.  One out of bounds that led to the first snowman in a long time.

I also played today and lipped out a putt for 79.  There were a few three putts in there and the driver did get me in trouble a couple of times.  Irons were solid.  What can't I hit the driver like an iron?

That's the most perplexing problem.  I theorize that I take the wood around and the irons more up.  I hit one and not the other. 

I'm off to Wente tomorrow and they have a range, so I may test this before I play.  It would be nice to have the same level of trust.