I played Wente today. It's a fairly long course for us guy who don't hit the tee shot very far. But we played the white tees and that helped a bunch.
I think I figured out why my irons are so much better than the driver. I realized that when I hit an iron and this is more pronounced with the short irons, I make no effort to try and square the club face. But as the club lengths increase and I move to the woods, my focus changes to try to "help" the club face get to the ball.
Well, that makes it all a lot slower and a more miserable hit.
I recognized this about the 3rd hole and tried to implement it on the fly. No one ever said I wasn't foolhardy! I was pretty satisfied with my efforts. I didn't hook and only sprayed one shot to the right. But it landed on the fairway of the only hole that provides two fairways.
My distance was good with the driver and my 3 wood and utility club worked well. I had a couple of birdies, which means something as this course has greens with bent grass and there is always a lot of break.
I hit some cracking 3 woods and some great irons. Good stuff all around.
The weather may be closing in later this week; I'll be on the home course tomorrow to keep testing.
My golf motto is "Every Day a New Theory."
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
Boring Part II
How shall I begin, to tell the story of my round?
Well, it started a lot like the last one ended. As you may recall it was with 12 consecutive GIRs and two putt pars. The same happened today for the first two holes. Then I pushed into a trap that was short sided and uphill from a tight pin.
The TV commentators would have been beside themselves with remarks of immenent peril. But, the hard silted, adobe clayed (to invent a couple of verbs) trap was no problem to our player. A full wrist cock and a smooth downswing plopped the ball onto the fringe to roll out to less than a foot. "An easy game," a foolish man once said.
But I am not here to gloat -- did I mention the two birdies today? -- I wanted to talk about some swing changes from Sunday's trip to the range.
I finally found a smooth 10% effort with some wrist unhinging early in the downswing, seemed to make the driver really easy to hit.
I was looking for new things to try, as I've become tired of doing the same old thing and expecting different results. Old Al Einstein had some comments on that one.
In any case I was looking for less effort and less muscle. I found that I could do it.
But it's difficult to trust. As I wandered through the round I was not expecting to have my usual iron distances as my swing effort was much lower.
I over hit three greens and hit a lot of shots pin high - did I mention the two birdies? So, I must conclude with my limited sample that this lessor method does provide as much, if not more, club head speed. I can't remember any shots that were short.
I did hit an interesting 6 iron on the last hole. The fairway is still muddy and I think I hit it a bit fat. The ball started low, never got very high, but about 75 yards off the club started to climb. It finished pin high and 20 feet right.
I mentioned trust issues with this technique and that is mostly a problem with the driver. Since it's been the problem child for a long time, this is to be expected. But I had one bad drive and the rest were passable and I was happy.
I'm playing tomorrow on a longer course. I'll see how it goes.
The course continues to dry quickly. The fairways are mostly mud free and one didn't feel in peril for holes at a time.
Well, it started a lot like the last one ended. As you may recall it was with 12 consecutive GIRs and two putt pars. The same happened today for the first two holes. Then I pushed into a trap that was short sided and uphill from a tight pin.
The TV commentators would have been beside themselves with remarks of immenent peril. But, the hard silted, adobe clayed (to invent a couple of verbs) trap was no problem to our player. A full wrist cock and a smooth downswing plopped the ball onto the fringe to roll out to less than a foot. "An easy game," a foolish man once said.
But I am not here to gloat -- did I mention the two birdies today? -- I wanted to talk about some swing changes from Sunday's trip to the range.
I finally found a smooth 10% effort with some wrist unhinging early in the downswing, seemed to make the driver really easy to hit.
I was looking for new things to try, as I've become tired of doing the same old thing and expecting different results. Old Al Einstein had some comments on that one.
In any case I was looking for less effort and less muscle. I found that I could do it.
But it's difficult to trust. As I wandered through the round I was not expecting to have my usual iron distances as my swing effort was much lower.
I over hit three greens and hit a lot of shots pin high - did I mention the two birdies? So, I must conclude with my limited sample that this lessor method does provide as much, if not more, club head speed. I can't remember any shots that were short.
I did hit an interesting 6 iron on the last hole. The fairway is still muddy and I think I hit it a bit fat. The ball started low, never got very high, but about 75 yards off the club started to climb. It finished pin high and 20 feet right.
I mentioned trust issues with this technique and that is mostly a problem with the driver. Since it's been the problem child for a long time, this is to be expected. But I had one bad drive and the rest were passable and I was happy.
I'm playing tomorrow on a longer course. I'll see how it goes.
The course continues to dry quickly. The fairways are mostly mud free and one didn't feel in peril for holes at a time.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Boring!
It was a boring back nine.
I hit all the greens and two putted every one for a smooth 36. Lots of kick in pars.
The course is still pretty wet. There is no roll on the fairways. Lots of shots hit the green and spun back. I don't think I'm hitting the ball that much better!
The front was a different story. Not all pars, though I did have one birdie. My irons continue to but weapons of mass destruction. I had a lot of good birdies chances and putted pretty well.
I'm not sure what I shot, Hmm, after thinking about it, it was a 37 or 38, so we are talking 73 or 74 for the round. One of my better ever, though I was not playing from lengthy tees.
I was trying to get a good wrist cock. I usually like to roll the wrists and the club behind my back and then make a hero move to get the club head back to the ball. That doesn't work very well and I cannot recommend it. Taking it back with a flat wrist and a more upright motion kept the club in front of me. It made it pretty easy to move the ball around.
It was nice to be so consistent.
I won't play until Monday. I'll try to get to the range this weekend and see if I can ingrain a bit of what I am doing.
I put distance clips on my clubs (http://www.distanceclips.com/), which I found very useful and a nice addition.
I've been using a Bushnell distance finder for a number of years. I have a gps watch, Bushnell too, that I don't turn on much. But then I know the home course awfully well.
Ping irons, S56s I think. Musty Putter - wood and classic!, Ping G30 driver with an old Olimar trimetal 3 wood that has to be 15 years old. I like its looks however. Wedges are TaylorMade and I think I talked about them in a prior post.
I've been playing with a pro v1x ball for the last few rounds. Actually the same ball. I'm not sure it's the current version of the ball, but I like the feel of it.
I hit all the greens and two putted every one for a smooth 36. Lots of kick in pars.
The course is still pretty wet. There is no roll on the fairways. Lots of shots hit the green and spun back. I don't think I'm hitting the ball that much better!
The front was a different story. Not all pars, though I did have one birdie. My irons continue to but weapons of mass destruction. I had a lot of good birdies chances and putted pretty well.
I'm not sure what I shot, Hmm, after thinking about it, it was a 37 or 38, so we are talking 73 or 74 for the round. One of my better ever, though I was not playing from lengthy tees.
I was trying to get a good wrist cock. I usually like to roll the wrists and the club behind my back and then make a hero move to get the club head back to the ball. That doesn't work very well and I cannot recommend it. Taking it back with a flat wrist and a more upright motion kept the club in front of me. It made it pretty easy to move the ball around.
It was nice to be so consistent.
I won't play until Monday. I'll try to get to the range this weekend and see if I can ingrain a bit of what I am doing.
I put distance clips on my clubs (http://www.distanceclips.com/), which I found very useful and a nice addition.
I've been using a Bushnell distance finder for a number of years. I have a gps watch, Bushnell too, that I don't turn on much. But then I know the home course awfully well.
Ping irons, S56s I think. Musty Putter - wood and classic!, Ping G30 driver with an old Olimar trimetal 3 wood that has to be 15 years old. I like its looks however. Wedges are TaylorMade and I think I talked about them in a prior post.
I've been playing with a pro v1x ball for the last few rounds. Actually the same ball. I'm not sure it's the current version of the ball, but I like the feel of it.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Some Technical Thoughts
As you, dear reader, know, I have a sad tendency to shift forward when trying to smack the ball. It shows up in the woods more than the irons and probably not at all in the short irons.
So I set out to struggle with this and probably wrote up a lot of this in the last post, but memory being what it is, I will possibly just repeat myself; I'm at the driving range yesterday and between rain I got some hits in and some chipping.
The experiment was an attempt to swing the driver like I do the short irons.
The hitting as ok and, as usual, was a lot better there than on the course. But I did some chipping afterwards and realized than I seem to be blocking my right shoulder from coming under the swing plane. I worded that poorly, but what what should happen with the shoulders is that the left goes behind you and the right shoulder goes down to the ball and then is pulled up in front of you after the hit.
Thus we spin around the spine, which is offset to the back of the body.
When I became aware of this, I was encouraged to move the right shoulder down towards the ball and it kept me from shifting forward. I was spinning and not shifting towards when I wanted the ball to end up.
I found that the lag of hands and club were easily kept in control of the motion of the shoulders. This led to a more stable hitting position and better contact.
I played 27 holes today on the short course. All irons and most of those short. I think I missed 4 or 5 greens out of the 27.
But I was trying to be aggressive about moving the right shoulder down to the ball. This went quite well. The divots were beautiful and went a great distance -- they were hard to find.
I was long a number of times; as I was getting a very efficient hit. Distances were what I expected, but biased towards long rather than short. I think I hit one short short of pin high. It was wet, but I still spun most of the shots backwards a yard or so.
A lot of the shots were very pure and had that creamy feeling of a ball on the center of the club face.
The few chips I had were also well struck.
I'm pretty happy with this new approach. I'm scheduled to play tomorrow, so we shall see.
I think my prior swing was a shift back and then forward, more of a shift or sweep than a rotate. With the shoulders coming around me, it makes it easier to take a turn for the backswing and not the shift and then just turn back on the downswing.
The future beckons!
So I set out to struggle with this and probably wrote up a lot of this in the last post, but memory being what it is, I will possibly just repeat myself; I'm at the driving range yesterday and between rain I got some hits in and some chipping.
The experiment was an attempt to swing the driver like I do the short irons.
The hitting as ok and, as usual, was a lot better there than on the course. But I did some chipping afterwards and realized than I seem to be blocking my right shoulder from coming under the swing plane. I worded that poorly, but what what should happen with the shoulders is that the left goes behind you and the right shoulder goes down to the ball and then is pulled up in front of you after the hit.
Thus we spin around the spine, which is offset to the back of the body.
When I became aware of this, I was encouraged to move the right shoulder down towards the ball and it kept me from shifting forward. I was spinning and not shifting towards when I wanted the ball to end up.
I found that the lag of hands and club were easily kept in control of the motion of the shoulders. This led to a more stable hitting position and better contact.
I played 27 holes today on the short course. All irons and most of those short. I think I missed 4 or 5 greens out of the 27.
But I was trying to be aggressive about moving the right shoulder down to the ball. This went quite well. The divots were beautiful and went a great distance -- they were hard to find.
I was long a number of times; as I was getting a very efficient hit. Distances were what I expected, but biased towards long rather than short. I think I hit one short short of pin high. It was wet, but I still spun most of the shots backwards a yard or so.
A lot of the shots were very pure and had that creamy feeling of a ball on the center of the club face.
The few chips I had were also well struck.
I'm pretty happy with this new approach. I'm scheduled to play tomorrow, so we shall see.
I think my prior swing was a shift back and then forward, more of a shift or sweep than a rotate. With the shoulders coming around me, it makes it easier to take a turn for the backswing and not the shift and then just turn back on the downswing.
The future beckons!
Monday, January 23, 2017
Some success, update on 1/23/17
I need to think about some of this and try it out on the range some more, but I managed to play the last 3 holes quite well today, with no bad shots.
I'm excited about this and wanted to write some of it down.
- there was the feeling of turning back to cock the wrists and then just turning back to affect the shot. That seemed to lag the club well and kept me from getting outside
- taking the club back on a line that felt wildly outside, but I think it was closer to being n plane. The arms were off the chest and there was a lot of room to swing.
I hit some very nice irons and nice drives on the last few holes.
The twist back to the ball seemed to be a key as it slowed me down, but didn't slow swing speed. Might have increased it a bit actually.
I hit some very nice irons, long and creamy feeling as one gets when the center of the club is actually used to contact the ball.
This path seemed to be better on my hands. I was tearing up my left thumb a bit, which can't be good.
It's been a couple of days since I wrote the above. What has occurred to me is that I am not sure my wood swing matches my iron swng. The iron swing is reliable and quite good especially for the shorter irons.
What I've expected for some time, and I may not be alone on this, is that as the expected length of a shot increases, the swing also changes in an attempt to "help" the ball go further.
I'm off to the range in a few minutes. It's too wet to play, I'm sure the course is closed. I looked at it yesterday and is more a river than a place to play. I'm guessing it will be a week and that may require a lot of sun and wind.
I'll add a post when I get back.
I'm excited about this and wanted to write some of it down.
- there was the feeling of turning back to cock the wrists and then just turning back to affect the shot. That seemed to lag the club well and kept me from getting outside
- taking the club back on a line that felt wildly outside, but I think it was closer to being n plane. The arms were off the chest and there was a lot of room to swing.
I hit some very nice irons and nice drives on the last few holes.
The twist back to the ball seemed to be a key as it slowed me down, but didn't slow swing speed. Might have increased it a bit actually.
I hit some very nice irons, long and creamy feeling as one gets when the center of the club is actually used to contact the ball.
This path seemed to be better on my hands. I was tearing up my left thumb a bit, which can't be good.
It's been a couple of days since I wrote the above. What has occurred to me is that I am not sure my wood swing matches my iron swng. The iron swing is reliable and quite good especially for the shorter irons.
What I've expected for some time, and I may not be alone on this, is that as the expected length of a shot increases, the swing also changes in an attempt to "help" the ball go further.
I'm off to the range in a few minutes. It's too wet to play, I'm sure the course is closed. I looked at it yesterday and is more a river than a place to play. I'm guessing it will be a week and that may require a lot of sun and wind.
I'll add a post when I get back.
Monday, January 9, 2017
Another Week another agendum
So, my literary professional fan(s), what is the definition of agenda?
Yes, of course, when you thing about it, they are multiple lists of things to do.
An agendum is (unknown to spell checker!) a single list of things to attend to. Perhaps a bit rare in use, but by the old gods and the new, still thusly defined in a reputable dictionary. (Thusly is also not found in the spell checker!)
But we are here to discuss golf and its inherent complexity. I must admit that as my memory slides down the mole hole, that the complexity might be a bit much for me. But, perhaps if I just played the silly game and worried about complexity only on the range, I might be able to survey more of the details. I saw this mentioned in a youtube golf video; they were talking about Spieth and how, if he tries to get more technical, may not be able to "feel" his way around the course as well as he used to.
But, now, back to the current agendum. (I used to have a new theory for each day, but now a list of stuff to keep in mind seems more comfortable to me.)
So:
1) Soft hands - this is an economy measure too as I tend to wear grooves in my grips.
2) Shorter backswing - stop hands when the shoulders stop. This seems to promote ball striking and consistency. I seem to get pulls from this, but it might be that I'm just closing the club face, as I feel comfortable with a bit of closed club on setup -- we can call that 2a. That might be a means to deal with a bad habit.
3) Make sure I take the club back on plane and cock wrist rather than roll them over.
I think that's it. Doesn't seem too tough to do as all of the above is done at low speed.
The weather is soggy here. I'm scheduled to play tomorrow, but it's begun to rain again. I hold little hope for tomorrow.
Even the driving range is having a lot of problems with ball retrieval.
Yes, of course, when you thing about it, they are multiple lists of things to do.
An agendum is (unknown to spell checker!) a single list of things to attend to. Perhaps a bit rare in use, but by the old gods and the new, still thusly defined in a reputable dictionary. (Thusly is also not found in the spell checker!)
But we are here to discuss golf and its inherent complexity. I must admit that as my memory slides down the mole hole, that the complexity might be a bit much for me. But, perhaps if I just played the silly game and worried about complexity only on the range, I might be able to survey more of the details. I saw this mentioned in a youtube golf video; they were talking about Spieth and how, if he tries to get more technical, may not be able to "feel" his way around the course as well as he used to.
But, now, back to the current agendum. (I used to have a new theory for each day, but now a list of stuff to keep in mind seems more comfortable to me.)
So:
1) Soft hands - this is an economy measure too as I tend to wear grooves in my grips.
2) Shorter backswing - stop hands when the shoulders stop. This seems to promote ball striking and consistency. I seem to get pulls from this, but it might be that I'm just closing the club face, as I feel comfortable with a bit of closed club on setup -- we can call that 2a. That might be a means to deal with a bad habit.
3) Make sure I take the club back on plane and cock wrist rather than roll them over.
I think that's it. Doesn't seem too tough to do as all of the above is done at low speed.
The weather is soggy here. I'm scheduled to play tomorrow, but it's begun to rain again. I hold little hope for tomorrow.
Even the driving range is having a lot of problems with ball retrieval.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Catching Up
Not much to report. The weather has become a problem. It's been cold and wet. I've had a few days away from the range and have not played since last week some time.
I continue to watch the Bobby Lopez videos and they start to make more and more sense.
Which leads to the next question about learning. Why is it that one cannot draw it all in at once?
Perhaps the aperceptive mass needs to need to provide a foundation for the new knowledge. No foundation, then you can't build the next portion of the building.
I've thought that when I continue writing the golf book, one thing I will state is that everything your old pros has told you was true. But some of it you were not ready for.
I also learn towards the wag who suggested that no one can teach you better than you can teach yourself. There is a story in one of the Harvey Penick books about this. Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw came to Harvey and wanted to learn how to hit a high lob shot. Harvey gave them a bag of balls and pointed them towards a tree on the course. "Get 20 yards away from the tree and hit balls until you can hit them over the tree." The story went that they figured it out. (Quote is probably not accurate, but the gist, the gist, rings true.)
So the next item to play with is to spin the shoulders and get the left shoulder behind my head when I swing at the ball. Not lurch it towards the target; but to pull it backwards.
It seems to generate a lot of speed and I can maintain the wrist angle -- or so it seems when I try it in the garage. Can I hit the ball that way too? Tomorrow may tell. My weather person has just informed me of a break in the rain!
I continue to watch the Bobby Lopez videos and they start to make more and more sense.
Which leads to the next question about learning. Why is it that one cannot draw it all in at once?
Perhaps the aperceptive mass needs to need to provide a foundation for the new knowledge. No foundation, then you can't build the next portion of the building.
I've thought that when I continue writing the golf book, one thing I will state is that everything your old pros has told you was true. But some of it you were not ready for.
I also learn towards the wag who suggested that no one can teach you better than you can teach yourself. There is a story in one of the Harvey Penick books about this. Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw came to Harvey and wanted to learn how to hit a high lob shot. Harvey gave them a bag of balls and pointed them towards a tree on the course. "Get 20 yards away from the tree and hit balls until you can hit them over the tree." The story went that they figured it out. (Quote is probably not accurate, but the gist, the gist, rings true.)
So the next item to play with is to spin the shoulders and get the left shoulder behind my head when I swing at the ball. Not lurch it towards the target; but to pull it backwards.
It seems to generate a lot of speed and I can maintain the wrist angle -- or so it seems when I try it in the garage. Can I hit the ball that way too? Tomorrow may tell. My weather person has just informed me of a break in the rain!
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