I got a comment! Yeah. Ok, then blogger will not allow me to reply to it! Great! Ok, I logged back in and was able to comment in situ. But here is my response.
Let quote the comment here and then I'll reply below it
Comment:
Say a player's average drive is 250 yards vs. 230 yards. How much better will that player score? How many putts do you average in a round? How many times do you get up and in from around the green? How often from 100 yards out do you miss the green?
Reply:
Let address these in reverse order. I expect to hit a green when I'm 120 or in. From 100 yards it has to be close to 90% and maybe higher.
Ups and downs is 70% or so. Some of that depends on the greens; lots of slope and grain make it more difficult to chip or pitch closely.
Putts per round vary based on how many GIRs I get. The other day playing from short tees, I hit 16 greens. But only made one birdie. But miss a lot of greens, then I one putt a bunch. To some degree more putts means a better long game.
As for tee length, if I could get out 250 on on the fairway, I would expect to hit all the greens for holes less than about 380 yards. And on my course that would mean that I would easily get to all of them. As for general scoring it would come down to the player's iron game.
Thanks for the comment!
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Putting, Initial Thoughts
My current thoughts, which should suggest areas of inquiry
I should start this out by stating that I don't believe there is any magic in putting. Oh, Ben Crenshaw thought it all came down to feel. He probably can't define that beyond "I'm going it hit it on this line with this speed."
So with no magic involved is it any different than hitting a nail with a hammer? We have arms/hands that are offset from the ball, like the rest of the swing, and we have to choose a line and a speed.
Of course the speed and line are interconnected. They are paired and you have to get them to match. Unless, of course, the putt is straight, then your speed is not particularly critical -- assuming that you were going to get it to the hole to start with.
Thus we are only worried about breaking putts. On my home course, there are not a lot of those! When in doubt, play no break.
How about this? Assume we have a left to right putt. How about a line that will maximize the break of the ball across the hole. So on left to right, the line to attempt is to putt the ball in at the right third of the cup. That maximizes the amount of time that the ball "sees" the hole. Also if the putt breaks less than you thought, you are more likely to hole it. This breaks down if you have underestimated the break or your speed is such that the ball breaks more than it should.
Then we are down to picking a line and a speed and finally we have to deliver the ball on that line with the selected speed.
Assume we can do that, then we are at the mercy of things we don't know, e.g., the way the ball will roll over the ground, moisture, wind and minimal stuff like that.
Putter and ball interactions are interesting too. Loft and grip size and trying to deliver the club to the ball consistently are of interest.
Then we have how to be on line! How to line up a putt -- is this harder to do than decide on the line? Where are the errors?
So these are topics for discussion. Does anyone out there have any thoughts? (This will be more fun if we have a bit of interaction!)
I should start this out by stating that I don't believe there is any magic in putting. Oh, Ben Crenshaw thought it all came down to feel. He probably can't define that beyond "I'm going it hit it on this line with this speed."
So with no magic involved is it any different than hitting a nail with a hammer? We have arms/hands that are offset from the ball, like the rest of the swing, and we have to choose a line and a speed.
Of course the speed and line are interconnected. They are paired and you have to get them to match. Unless, of course, the putt is straight, then your speed is not particularly critical -- assuming that you were going to get it to the hole to start with.
Thus we are only worried about breaking putts. On my home course, there are not a lot of those! When in doubt, play no break.
How about this? Assume we have a left to right putt. How about a line that will maximize the break of the ball across the hole. So on left to right, the line to attempt is to putt the ball in at the right third of the cup. That maximizes the amount of time that the ball "sees" the hole. Also if the putt breaks less than you thought, you are more likely to hole it. This breaks down if you have underestimated the break or your speed is such that the ball breaks more than it should.
Then we are down to picking a line and a speed and finally we have to deliver the ball on that line with the selected speed.
Assume we can do that, then we are at the mercy of things we don't know, e.g., the way the ball will roll over the ground, moisture, wind and minimal stuff like that.
Putter and ball interactions are interesting too. Loft and grip size and trying to deliver the club to the ball consistently are of interest.
Then we have how to be on line! How to line up a putt -- is this harder to do than decide on the line? Where are the errors?
So these are topics for discussion. Does anyone out there have any thoughts? (This will be more fun if we have a bit of interaction!)
Transportation Issues
The title is a bit of a joke. I was talking to Stan, a wizened teaching pro at the local range, and he mentioned a client who suggested he had a transportation issue, which was taking his swing from the range to the course.
I was off to Wente today and was hoping I could hit it like I did on Friday (Monday was a bit ragged, though not bad.). For a large number of holes, by God, I managed. What a feeling that the fairway was available and distances beyond 180 yards.
Actually most of my game is getting pretty sharp. Oh, there were a couple of 3 putts and I stubbed a chip, but for the most part I could move it around the course pretty well.
The problem at this point is to make the proper swing most of the time. It's so easy to slide back to old habits. But that is an age old problem and not worthy of discussion at this point. Though, solve that mystery and the one in re transportation and my fortune is made one more time.
I fear this blog is running into a brag fest, which I don't want to write about and I'm sure my many readers are not excited about reading. To that end, what's next?
I've never found putting to be of much interest. Actually the driver was not high on my list until it started to warp my psyche. But as other parts of the game are getting solid, I must turn to the weak areas.
So, putting will probably be on point coming up. I've started to try and give the ball a nice aggressive wack, much like one does when tapping in from a foot or so. For the most part I think this will work. I used it at Wente and didn't putt badly. As mentioned the greens are difficult and there are putts where being very defensive is good policy. It should eliminate the "left short" putt, but probably will increase the massively long putts. The whole idea being to have all one's misses 1 foot beyond the hole.
I thought of a training game that would encourage getting to the hole. Have all the players toss a quarter into the pot for each short putt and then divide the pot evenly at the end of the round. One must adjust the amount tossed into the pot to be easily divisible by the number of players. The guys I play with don't gamble, which is fine with me, but it looked like a means of sharpening the putting for a modest cost.
I think I have one of the Dave Pelz books upstairs, but it's on the short game, which I'm not really worried about at this time. I've been getting up and down a lot and don't feel there are massive areas that I have to fix. But maybe when the putting is better...
So some putting detail to come.
I was off to Wente today and was hoping I could hit it like I did on Friday (Monday was a bit ragged, though not bad.). For a large number of holes, by God, I managed. What a feeling that the fairway was available and distances beyond 180 yards.
Actually most of my game is getting pretty sharp. Oh, there were a couple of 3 putts and I stubbed a chip, but for the most part I could move it around the course pretty well.
The problem at this point is to make the proper swing most of the time. It's so easy to slide back to old habits. But that is an age old problem and not worthy of discussion at this point. Though, solve that mystery and the one in re transportation and my fortune is made one more time.
I fear this blog is running into a brag fest, which I don't want to write about and I'm sure my many readers are not excited about reading. To that end, what's next?
I've never found putting to be of much interest. Actually the driver was not high on my list until it started to warp my psyche. But as other parts of the game are getting solid, I must turn to the weak areas.
So, putting will probably be on point coming up. I've started to try and give the ball a nice aggressive wack, much like one does when tapping in from a foot or so. For the most part I think this will work. I used it at Wente and didn't putt badly. As mentioned the greens are difficult and there are putts where being very defensive is good policy. It should eliminate the "left short" putt, but probably will increase the massively long putts. The whole idea being to have all one's misses 1 foot beyond the hole.
I thought of a training game that would encourage getting to the hole. Have all the players toss a quarter into the pot for each short putt and then divide the pot evenly at the end of the round. One must adjust the amount tossed into the pot to be easily divisible by the number of players. The guys I play with don't gamble, which is fine with me, but it looked like a means of sharpening the putting for a modest cost.
I think I have one of the Dave Pelz books upstairs, but it's on the short game, which I'm not really worried about at this time. I've been getting up and down a lot and don't feel there are massive areas that I have to fix. But maybe when the putting is better...
So some putting detail to come.
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Speed Research 1a
I was at the range again today. It's good exercise. It also looks like there may be some rain tomorrow and I might not get out tomorrow.
I have a club head meter and I tried a couple of of the speed enhancement techniques. None of them seemed to work.
I went off to the range and worked on some of this. I found I was a few yards longer today than yesterday. The irons didn't seem any longer, but it was hard to tell.
I'm also a bit leery of screwing up my nice ball striking. It might be prudent to make sure that soaks in and is there under pressure before I try to distort it.
But I'll keep thinking about it. It's that old theoretical mind of mine, per father that looks for understanding and reason before adoption.
I have a club head meter and I tried a couple of of the speed enhancement techniques. None of them seemed to work.
I went off to the range and worked on some of this. I found I was a few yards longer today than yesterday. The irons didn't seem any longer, but it was hard to tell.
I'm also a bit leery of screwing up my nice ball striking. It might be prudent to make sure that soaks in and is there under pressure before I try to distort it.
But I'll keep thinking about it. It's that old theoretical mind of mine, per father that looks for understanding and reason before adoption.
Friday, November 24, 2017
Speed Research I
It's black Friday and the mall was mobbed and thus I was off to a different range then I usually use. Got part way there and decided a U-Turn was going to make me a happier golfer and not hate the bargain shoppers. The ones at the outlet mall are some of the worst drivers I've ever seen in action. Best to stay clear!
There are a number of ways to generate speed and I wanted to try out the method where the swing is initialized by the lower body, which then slows to pass energy to the chest and eventually the speed gets passed to the arms and finally the club.
What this meant was an attempt to slow the hips after I'd got them going. The do the same with the shoulders.
This is kind of a different swing thought for me. I was able to do it (and have we not heard that before!). It allowed me to keep a better balance; a very good thing.
However I cannot claim a lot more distance.
I got a much higher ball flight and it seemed to put me in a position to make a nice athletic movement when it came time to hit the ball.
The only issue I had with this was a tendency to pull the ball a little bit. I think I was not staying behind the ball as much as I should and that forced the arms a bit over the top. But this was not too common and it is a drastic improvement over a low duck hook.
So far I'm happy, but without some measurements I'm not sure I've gotten the faster club speed.
But the balance and ease of swinging like this are benefits.
I looked at a couple of bull whip cracking videos. I always thought that one needed to pull the whip handle backwards to create the crack, but it does not seem to be true. As the whip hand goes out, as long as it stops, the crack will show up. It was important in doing the coachman's crack (there are many "cracks") to make sure of a full back swing and the swing to produce the crack was not a fast or violent action.
The next thing to examine is "supple wrists," to allow more of a whip action. What I've seen on this seems to be a bit in conflict with Malaska's arm action model. There are a few things to investigate!
There are a number of ways to generate speed and I wanted to try out the method where the swing is initialized by the lower body, which then slows to pass energy to the chest and eventually the speed gets passed to the arms and finally the club.
What this meant was an attempt to slow the hips after I'd got them going. The do the same with the shoulders.
This is kind of a different swing thought for me. I was able to do it (and have we not heard that before!). It allowed me to keep a better balance; a very good thing.
However I cannot claim a lot more distance.
I got a much higher ball flight and it seemed to put me in a position to make a nice athletic movement when it came time to hit the ball.
The only issue I had with this was a tendency to pull the ball a little bit. I think I was not staying behind the ball as much as I should and that forced the arms a bit over the top. But this was not too common and it is a drastic improvement over a low duck hook.
So far I'm happy, but without some measurements I'm not sure I've gotten the faster club speed.
But the balance and ease of swinging like this are benefits.
I looked at a couple of bull whip cracking videos. I always thought that one needed to pull the whip handle backwards to create the crack, but it does not seem to be true. As the whip hand goes out, as long as it stops, the crack will show up. It was important in doing the coachman's crack (there are many "cracks") to make sure of a full back swing and the swing to produce the crack was not a fast or violent action.
The next thing to examine is "supple wrists," to allow more of a whip action. What I've seen on this seems to be a bit in conflict with Malaska's arm action model. There are a few things to investigate!
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Speed Theory
As mentioned previously, I've decided that the next quest will be for more club head speed (chs).
A short survey of Youtube videos suggests there are a couple of ways to go about this.
I'm not really interested in long driving contests and those guys seem to a couple of very athletic things: squat, leap and get off their feet. I'm not up to that and I'd hate to hurt myself.
Other methods suggest that in trying to hit a ball harder, you hit it shorter. And to hit it longer, you need to decelerate the various parts of the body as energy is passed from body parts to the arms and finally to the club.
Well, slowing down is something I've gotten good at as the body slides into late adulthood. Surely, I can get me some of that.
It also seems to me that the slowing of the lower body earlier in the swing should provide a more stable platform at impact.
This method is akin to cracking a whip, where a slowing/halting of the whip hand is needed to pass the energy to the whip.
I should get to the range tomorrow and I'll see about exploring this method.
When I was 30 years younger, I remember thinking I was pretty long and 250 yard drives were not uncommon. Maybe I was more limber and stronger and maybe I did things differently and it might even be true that I was not all that long in the day. But I remember that my iron distances being longer than now, so I think there's been some slippage.
A short survey of Youtube videos suggests there are a couple of ways to go about this.
I'm not really interested in long driving contests and those guys seem to a couple of very athletic things: squat, leap and get off their feet. I'm not up to that and I'd hate to hurt myself.
Other methods suggest that in trying to hit a ball harder, you hit it shorter. And to hit it longer, you need to decelerate the various parts of the body as energy is passed from body parts to the arms and finally to the club.
Well, slowing down is something I've gotten good at as the body slides into late adulthood. Surely, I can get me some of that.
It also seems to me that the slowing of the lower body earlier in the swing should provide a more stable platform at impact.
This method is akin to cracking a whip, where a slowing/halting of the whip hand is needed to pass the energy to the whip.
I should get to the range tomorrow and I'll see about exploring this method.
When I was 30 years younger, I remember thinking I was pretty long and 250 yard drives were not uncommon. Maybe I was more limber and stronger and maybe I did things differently and it might even be true that I was not all that long in the day. But I remember that my iron distances being longer than now, so I think there's been some slippage.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
The Story Continues
When we last left our protagonist, he, once again, felt that he had a handle on this crazy game and that wonders and joy would unfold. Of course we have heard that before and it's never panned out.
But I am happy to report that, indeed, the journey is still on the right track and that current theory is holding up quite nicely to empirical evidence.
This was the best hitting round of my modest golfing career. I topped a 3 wood off a tee, otherwise hit every tee shot.
I was in three bunkers and made pars on all of those holes.
I hit 16 green in regulation. Only one birdie, but a ton of kick in pars.
I only made a mess of one hole; the one with the topped shot and it was ugly for a while after that.
Scoring wise, I shot 75. There are two or three 3 putts in there. And as mentioned , I had 16 birdie putts - it could have gone a lot lower.
My direction control was quite good. Areas that could ave been better were the putter and there were some distance control issues with some short irons.
The only thing lacking now is more distance. I'm still not long enough to play on a longer course. However, I'm going to approach that topic cautiously as I do not want to regress in re ball striking.
It's kind of a strange game when you get to the ball and have a very good idea of where it is going to go. Takes a lot of stress off. It's about an hour after the round and I'm feeling no strain or tiredness from playing. It was a gentle walk in the park.
No golf for a few days as the Thanksgiving feast is upon us. I'm going to look at more speed and I'll report on how that develops.
But I am happy to report that, indeed, the journey is still on the right track and that current theory is holding up quite nicely to empirical evidence.
This was the best hitting round of my modest golfing career. I topped a 3 wood off a tee, otherwise hit every tee shot.
I was in three bunkers and made pars on all of those holes.
I hit 16 green in regulation. Only one birdie, but a ton of kick in pars.
I only made a mess of one hole; the one with the topped shot and it was ugly for a while after that.
Scoring wise, I shot 75. There are two or three 3 putts in there. And as mentioned , I had 16 birdie putts - it could have gone a lot lower.
My direction control was quite good. Areas that could ave been better were the putter and there were some distance control issues with some short irons.
The only thing lacking now is more distance. I'm still not long enough to play on a longer course. However, I'm going to approach that topic cautiously as I do not want to regress in re ball striking.
It's kind of a strange game when you get to the ball and have a very good idea of where it is going to go. Takes a lot of stress off. It's about an hour after the round and I'm feeling no strain or tiredness from playing. It was a gentle walk in the park.
No golf for a few days as the Thanksgiving feast is upon us. I'm going to look at more speed and I'll report on how that develops.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Dreams and Drang
My golfing soul is at peace. It's been a long summer and lots of effort to see some progress. And today it showed up. Ah, I didn't shoot 68, it was actually a difficult day to score. Lots of good stuff didn't hole out. But my long game finally matched my short game. I was healthy off of the tees and long shots from the fairways were object of extreme confidence. My new 3 woods held its own and twas a grand day all around.
For example on 12 which is a short par 4 up the hill, a nice drive and a pitching wedge was enough to get pin high, but I pushed it and was on top of a mound close to the green. A delicate flop shot hits nicely and rolls slowly to the hole, hits the pin dead square and pops out to 4 inches. It was a thing of beauty, but no more than a couple of putts if I hadn't pushed the approach shot.
I hit a lot of putts that I really liked, but other than a long birdie at the seventh, a lot of them didn't drop. The greens were running pretty quickly, which is nice and I think I only 3 putted once, but the holes were being elusive.
Then last night a couple of golf dreams -- or were they nightmares?
In one I open my car trunk and the clubs are gone!
In the other, I'm at a driving range and I pet a puma, which promptly bites my hand. It gets worse! At this range you put in your money and get a receipt that has a number to enter into another machine to get the balls. Another episode with the dumb puma, and now I can't find the receipt. The guy running the range gives me some sort of dongle to get balls and I don't think I ended up with the number I paid for. What a sad dream life last night was.
I hope it has no more meaning than the fact that golf skills show up and are gone like the will-o-wisp.
I've got a tee time tomorrow and will probably play today a bit later. The weather is fine now and with the holidays coming up, I'll have a number of days off.
For example on 12 which is a short par 4 up the hill, a nice drive and a pitching wedge was enough to get pin high, but I pushed it and was on top of a mound close to the green. A delicate flop shot hits nicely and rolls slowly to the hole, hits the pin dead square and pops out to 4 inches. It was a thing of beauty, but no more than a couple of putts if I hadn't pushed the approach shot.
I hit a lot of putts that I really liked, but other than a long birdie at the seventh, a lot of them didn't drop. The greens were running pretty quickly, which is nice and I think I only 3 putted once, but the holes were being elusive.
Then last night a couple of golf dreams -- or were they nightmares?
In one I open my car trunk and the clubs are gone!
In the other, I'm at a driving range and I pet a puma, which promptly bites my hand. It gets worse! At this range you put in your money and get a receipt that has a number to enter into another machine to get the balls. Another episode with the dumb puma, and now I can't find the receipt. The guy running the range gives me some sort of dongle to get balls and I don't think I ended up with the number I paid for. What a sad dream life last night was.
I hope it has no more meaning than the fact that golf skills show up and are gone like the will-o-wisp.
I've got a tee time tomorrow and will probably play today a bit later. The weather is fine now and with the holidays coming up, I'll have a number of days off.
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Testing, Testing, Testing - updated
I would direct your attention to the following video by Mike Malaska. He has a different, hard fought view of what the swing is all about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_DVuuStY3Q
If you don't watch it or you are interested in my take on all of this, allow me to summarize a bit. I've also watched a lot of Mike's videos and my understanding is not just from the one mentioned above.
The concept that Mike calls a pivot point is where the club plane and swing plane either align or diverge. Obviously the align on the back swing and then diverge on the down swing.
Mike suggests that the prudent golfer do a couple of things: one being to embrace and encourage the pivot points - certainly not fight them - and to bring the hands down to their starting point with the arms, not shoulders. Moving the hands down to the start point brings them under the swing plane and allows the club to step out from the pivot point and align with the ball. This pivot point on the down swing is about where the hands are waist high. I believe that with the drive, it's even above that point. (A note here, the location is important as you do not want to try and hold the angle or increase the lag or anything else; it has to happen fairly early in the swing. Don't fight it!)
Also as a part of this, one cannot have one's body in the place where the hands are going to be. It's not uncommon to move into this location. When that occurs the mind figures out a way to hit the ball, but it's neither efficient nor directionally useful. This is where the over the top move comes from as the on plane location is blocked, so the body goes around it and there you are, over and in trouble.
I think I've mentioned before that I have some alarming wear marks on my club grips. This comes from fighting the club's position as I try to hit the ball. Something was wrong, but I muscled on to make it work.
So I'm off to the range today to put Mike's swing thoughts into those I've been working on from my lesson with Glenn.
I was able to stay behind the ball or on sides as Bobby Lopez calls it, and to move my hands to their start position and allow the club to step out and hit the ball.
This worked quite well. It seems that it's almost impossible to hit a hook this way -- yeah! And out of 100 balls I think I pulled two or three, but hit the rest usually high, long, and straight. Ah, what joy.
Ok, round tomorrow, we shall see what the golf gods will allow.
Golf Literature Blurb: I read The Haunted Major the other day. This was suggested to me by David, my UK golf buddy. It predates Wodehouse and had a lot of the themes I was going to incorporate in the modest literary effort I've got on the back burner. It was a fun read, lots of Scottish accent from the caddie/pro and some of the folks in the town. Bits of humor in the style of The Accidental Tourist. It had some of the original illustrations in it. Originally printed in the early 1900s. Just a fun read. I found it at abebooks.com, which specializes in used books. I usually am getting the book for the cost of the shipping, usually around $4.
Update:
After I wrote this I watched a few more Mike movies. One of the things he talked about was what the left arm does. His view is that the let arm is a rotator and not a puller of the club. Thus its function is to move the club in a fanning motion and not trying to pull it down and across or whatever. Obviously the left arm will be moved at speed until the point where it starts to perform the rotation and the faster it is moving the earlier the rotation has to start. I'm going to ponder this for awhile and not worry about it. If I can do the stuff in the original post and hit it like the range that will be enough progress for a bit. There is always one more thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_DVuuStY3Q
If you don't watch it or you are interested in my take on all of this, allow me to summarize a bit. I've also watched a lot of Mike's videos and my understanding is not just from the one mentioned above.
The concept that Mike calls a pivot point is where the club plane and swing plane either align or diverge. Obviously the align on the back swing and then diverge on the down swing.
Mike suggests that the prudent golfer do a couple of things: one being to embrace and encourage the pivot points - certainly not fight them - and to bring the hands down to their starting point with the arms, not shoulders. Moving the hands down to the start point brings them under the swing plane and allows the club to step out from the pivot point and align with the ball. This pivot point on the down swing is about where the hands are waist high. I believe that with the drive, it's even above that point. (A note here, the location is important as you do not want to try and hold the angle or increase the lag or anything else; it has to happen fairly early in the swing. Don't fight it!)
Also as a part of this, one cannot have one's body in the place where the hands are going to be. It's not uncommon to move into this location. When that occurs the mind figures out a way to hit the ball, but it's neither efficient nor directionally useful. This is where the over the top move comes from as the on plane location is blocked, so the body goes around it and there you are, over and in trouble.
I think I've mentioned before that I have some alarming wear marks on my club grips. This comes from fighting the club's position as I try to hit the ball. Something was wrong, but I muscled on to make it work.
So I'm off to the range today to put Mike's swing thoughts into those I've been working on from my lesson with Glenn.
I was able to stay behind the ball or on sides as Bobby Lopez calls it, and to move my hands to their start position and allow the club to step out and hit the ball.
This worked quite well. It seems that it's almost impossible to hit a hook this way -- yeah! And out of 100 balls I think I pulled two or three, but hit the rest usually high, long, and straight. Ah, what joy.
Ok, round tomorrow, we shall see what the golf gods will allow.
Golf Literature Blurb: I read The Haunted Major the other day. This was suggested to me by David, my UK golf buddy. It predates Wodehouse and had a lot of the themes I was going to incorporate in the modest literary effort I've got on the back burner. It was a fun read, lots of Scottish accent from the caddie/pro and some of the folks in the town. Bits of humor in the style of The Accidental Tourist. It had some of the original illustrations in it. Originally printed in the early 1900s. Just a fun read. I found it at abebooks.com, which specializes in used books. I usually am getting the book for the cost of the shipping, usually around $4.
Update:
After I wrote this I watched a few more Mike movies. One of the things he talked about was what the left arm does. His view is that the let arm is a rotator and not a puller of the club. Thus its function is to move the club in a fanning motion and not trying to pull it down and across or whatever. Obviously the left arm will be moved at speed until the point where it starts to perform the rotation and the faster it is moving the earlier the rotation has to start. I'm going to ponder this for awhile and not worry about it. If I can do the stuff in the original post and hit it like the range that will be enough progress for a bit. There is always one more thing!
Friday, November 17, 2017
A Good Day
This was a good day on many levels.
I was able to get the driver working more often than not. And the changes I made to hit the driver I applied to the other clubs as well. That worked well too.
"What changes are those?" I hear you ask.
There are prior posts where I mention Bobby Lopez and his phrase of "staying on side." This is basically what Glenn was trying to get me to do too.
If we consider the impact position, we have a straight line from the left should down the arm and then down the shaft of the club. If one's body is in a position in re the ball, then a fast swing with no conflicts can occur. But the shoulder has to be even or behind the ball to allow this.
If the body is too far ahead of the ball then drastic movements will take place to even hit the ball. Those hero moves are not conducive of an effective strike.
One of my hero moves was to raise the body out of a good hitting position and that allowed me to top the ball easily and often. This is pretty common.
Also these hero moves will effectively slow down the swing, causing less swing speed than one can generate when all is properly placed.
I also saw an interesting video of Aaron Badderly where at the moment of impact with a driver, there was still considerable angle between the wrists and club. In that the club was trailing the wrists. I usually try to "help" square the club and eliminate this angle. Oops.
Today I was not doing that. No help to the club, it was on its own.
That worked quite well. I hit a low ball usually, but when I stayed in position and did not help the wrists, the ball was up in the air, with normal distance and good accuracy.
The course was soggy as there was rain all day yesterday and hitting it high and on line was quite useful.
One last bit of news; in the Support the Junior Golfers bin at the pro shop I found a Calloway Steel Head Strong 3 wood. It was $10. Not cosmetically perfect. Probably 10 or more years old.
I hit it 3 or 4 times on the course and was happy with all of it. It has a nice feel and goes pretty well. Add a cord grip, a bit tired, but it was a tenner well spent.
So a fun day. Phil and Steve and Allen came out and we played to sunshine and the company of like minded men. Finish this with a Polish at Costco and a nap post game -- a wonderful day.
I'm going to work on these positions and swing feelings. I've made some real progress and find I've got more control over what's happening.
I was able to get the driver working more often than not. And the changes I made to hit the driver I applied to the other clubs as well. That worked well too.
"What changes are those?" I hear you ask.
There are prior posts where I mention Bobby Lopez and his phrase of "staying on side." This is basically what Glenn was trying to get me to do too.
If we consider the impact position, we have a straight line from the left should down the arm and then down the shaft of the club. If one's body is in a position in re the ball, then a fast swing with no conflicts can occur. But the shoulder has to be even or behind the ball to allow this.
If the body is too far ahead of the ball then drastic movements will take place to even hit the ball. Those hero moves are not conducive of an effective strike.
One of my hero moves was to raise the body out of a good hitting position and that allowed me to top the ball easily and often. This is pretty common.
Also these hero moves will effectively slow down the swing, causing less swing speed than one can generate when all is properly placed.
I also saw an interesting video of Aaron Badderly where at the moment of impact with a driver, there was still considerable angle between the wrists and club. In that the club was trailing the wrists. I usually try to "help" square the club and eliminate this angle. Oops.
Today I was not doing that. No help to the club, it was on its own.
That worked quite well. I hit a low ball usually, but when I stayed in position and did not help the wrists, the ball was up in the air, with normal distance and good accuracy.
The course was soggy as there was rain all day yesterday and hitting it high and on line was quite useful.
One last bit of news; in the Support the Junior Golfers bin at the pro shop I found a Calloway Steel Head Strong 3 wood. It was $10. Not cosmetically perfect. Probably 10 or more years old.
I hit it 3 or 4 times on the course and was happy with all of it. It has a nice feel and goes pretty well. Add a cord grip, a bit tired, but it was a tenner well spent.
So a fun day. Phil and Steve and Allen came out and we played to sunshine and the company of like minded men. Finish this with a Polish at Costco and a nap post game -- a wonderful day.
I'm going to work on these positions and swing feelings. I've made some real progress and find I've got more control over what's happening.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Was Heinlein Right?
Well, he had some science degrees, I believe.
We go back to the book Glory Road which is probably 50 years old at this time. The protagonist has a wild old adventure, fights some bad guys, marries the empress of the 20 universes, gets bored and heads back out again.
While he is fighting the swamp ghouls he is hanging from a rope and decides that he needs to get the rope swinging as the ghouls are not real bright and if he can do that, he can land and win the skirmish.
The line from all of that is, "you have to work with a swing, not fight it." I'm guessing at the wording as it has been a long time since I read it.
Anyone who has swung on a swing knows the truth to that too. The old golf swing has to be like that too. We have a nice take away and then we return the swing back to the ball.
We don't want to fight the club back to the ball, we must work with its position, the various levers in play and work on accelerating the turn to eventually move the club around.
More to think about down the road. I wonder why it came to mind this last week? Is it time for some epiphany?
The round on Wednesday was interesting. I scored quite well. Putted well enough to generate some envy. I made a couple of slidey, down hill, birdies and got it up and down with some chips that were close enough to not need a putter.
The highlight was a very pure swat on the second hole, the first drive of the day and usually the start of my frustration. I'm usually left about 180 off the tee, seeking the fairway for the next shot and deep in thought.
But this time, the ball was hurt. Wacked about 260 right up the middle, just short of the cart path. I was about 210 out at that point and anything was going to get me home in regulation.
Sadly the driver was still the under performer on the day, but I made the turn with a sloppy bogey on 9, I hit it over the green with one of the better 5 irons of my life. It hits pin high and then jumps a bit over the green. It was a back pin and I don't chip it well at all, at all. Sad as I've managed to par every hole getting there.
But a turn at one over is pretty good for me. I start the 10th with one of the birdies and then play like goof ball on the 12th and take another sloppy bogey.
Work like hell to par the 13th a par 5 where my drive has placed me behind all the trees. A "chip out" 5 irons seems to go forever and I managed to get pin high in three. A careful down hill putt snuggles up to the hole. This is the toughest green on the course and attention must be paid.
14 is a simple 2 putt, though I managed to get it to 4 feet from 190 yards, one of the shots of the day - sad as it should have been a medium iron if the driver had been pulling his weight.
Let's skip a head to 16, where I manage the other slidey 20 foot birdie putt, which leaves me even for the round.
17 is a non-adventure and I'm off to the 18th. A birdies sees me home for the first 18 holes under par. But I go topped drive, hooked second shot, that hits a tree. I've still got a chance to get home from there, but another ugly shot and then finally, a wedge and it's not very close. Finish with a bogey for a 73, which, is probably the 2nd best round of my life, but it seems a hollow victory.
Ah, well, off to Costco for a nice hot Polish sausage and a contemplation of the cosmic swing. Thursday a down day - it's pouring rain, I was hoping to get to the range, but that will wait and I'll think about working with the swing another time.
We go back to the book Glory Road which is probably 50 years old at this time. The protagonist has a wild old adventure, fights some bad guys, marries the empress of the 20 universes, gets bored and heads back out again.
While he is fighting the swamp ghouls he is hanging from a rope and decides that he needs to get the rope swinging as the ghouls are not real bright and if he can do that, he can land and win the skirmish.
The line from all of that is, "you have to work with a swing, not fight it." I'm guessing at the wording as it has been a long time since I read it.
Anyone who has swung on a swing knows the truth to that too. The old golf swing has to be like that too. We have a nice take away and then we return the swing back to the ball.
We don't want to fight the club back to the ball, we must work with its position, the various levers in play and work on accelerating the turn to eventually move the club around.
More to think about down the road. I wonder why it came to mind this last week? Is it time for some epiphany?
The round on Wednesday was interesting. I scored quite well. Putted well enough to generate some envy. I made a couple of slidey, down hill, birdies and got it up and down with some chips that were close enough to not need a putter.
The highlight was a very pure swat on the second hole, the first drive of the day and usually the start of my frustration. I'm usually left about 180 off the tee, seeking the fairway for the next shot and deep in thought.
But this time, the ball was hurt. Wacked about 260 right up the middle, just short of the cart path. I was about 210 out at that point and anything was going to get me home in regulation.
Sadly the driver was still the under performer on the day, but I made the turn with a sloppy bogey on 9, I hit it over the green with one of the better 5 irons of my life. It hits pin high and then jumps a bit over the green. It was a back pin and I don't chip it well at all, at all. Sad as I've managed to par every hole getting there.
But a turn at one over is pretty good for me. I start the 10th with one of the birdies and then play like goof ball on the 12th and take another sloppy bogey.
Work like hell to par the 13th a par 5 where my drive has placed me behind all the trees. A "chip out" 5 irons seems to go forever and I managed to get pin high in three. A careful down hill putt snuggles up to the hole. This is the toughest green on the course and attention must be paid.
14 is a simple 2 putt, though I managed to get it to 4 feet from 190 yards, one of the shots of the day - sad as it should have been a medium iron if the driver had been pulling his weight.
Let's skip a head to 16, where I manage the other slidey 20 foot birdie putt, which leaves me even for the round.
17 is a non-adventure and I'm off to the 18th. A birdies sees me home for the first 18 holes under par. But I go topped drive, hooked second shot, that hits a tree. I've still got a chance to get home from there, but another ugly shot and then finally, a wedge and it's not very close. Finish with a bogey for a 73, which, is probably the 2nd best round of my life, but it seems a hollow victory.
Ah, well, off to Costco for a nice hot Polish sausage and a contemplation of the cosmic swing. Thursday a down day - it's pouring rain, I was hoping to get to the range, but that will wait and I'll think about working with the swing another time.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
It was the Worst of Times and the Best of Times
Ok, I stole most of that from a more prolific writer than myself, however it sums up the last two days quite well.
On Sunday I had an excellent day at the range; I could do no wrong. I was excited about playing on Monday with my usual group.
It was pretty much a mess in re the driver. I managed an up and down two over on the front, which is a good score for me. The back was a study in frustration. Very few drives were reasonable. It was not much fun. I must confess that thoughts of taking some time off crossed my mind.
Tuesday was an invitation from Phil to play Wente, where the fairways are long and the greens are elevated. A side note here, the course sports all of 5 greens that you can see from the fairway. The others are all elevated with fronts that block your view. Las Po, on the other hand, has a view of all 18 from the fairway.
I was determined to fix this driver issue. I've made some progress in that I can feel the wrong stuff as I do it. Blocking that from happening has to be possible -- I would think?
I read The Inner Game of Golf a number of years ago. By Gallwey, I think, too lazy to look it up, but he had a mechanism for making change. The idea was that you concentrated on the object you wanted to change, then rank each swing and assign a score of 1 to 5 to what you did. Gallwey contended that your brain is really good at solving these kinds of problems, if you trust it to do so. Thus, assign a score, iterate and let the brain solve the problem.
I've not played with this for a long time - I'm talking decades here. I've no recollection of how efficient it might have been or if I had seriously tried it. But since I don't do this on the range, it might be a perfect test of the theory.
But back to my story. Determined to be better with the big stick, I was trying hard to swing easy and not try to crush it. For the most part this worked well. I hit some nice balls and only one horrible one, which was a topped ball on the long 18th. This was not a disaster as I usually cannot reach the green anyways. So it was topped drive, 6 iron then 9 iron. Almost made the putt too!
And I must say that the swing on 18 felt great and I was doing wonderful things except for the top. Perhaps I had swayed back in my efforts to keep from launching my lower body, which is the big problem.
I also hit numerous wonderful irons - full distance and straight like a happy laser beam.
I even putted pretty well. A little more courage and I would have made about 4 from length. Wente greens are tough to putt and one tends to be defensive when putting there.
I'm much happier tonight than I was Monday night. I have hope for the future! I'm back out with the boys tomorrow and I'll see if I can keep getting closer to what's available on the range.
On Sunday I had an excellent day at the range; I could do no wrong. I was excited about playing on Monday with my usual group.
It was pretty much a mess in re the driver. I managed an up and down two over on the front, which is a good score for me. The back was a study in frustration. Very few drives were reasonable. It was not much fun. I must confess that thoughts of taking some time off crossed my mind.
Tuesday was an invitation from Phil to play Wente, where the fairways are long and the greens are elevated. A side note here, the course sports all of 5 greens that you can see from the fairway. The others are all elevated with fronts that block your view. Las Po, on the other hand, has a view of all 18 from the fairway.
I was determined to fix this driver issue. I've made some progress in that I can feel the wrong stuff as I do it. Blocking that from happening has to be possible -- I would think?
I read The Inner Game of Golf a number of years ago. By Gallwey, I think, too lazy to look it up, but he had a mechanism for making change. The idea was that you concentrated on the object you wanted to change, then rank each swing and assign a score of 1 to 5 to what you did. Gallwey contended that your brain is really good at solving these kinds of problems, if you trust it to do so. Thus, assign a score, iterate and let the brain solve the problem.
I've not played with this for a long time - I'm talking decades here. I've no recollection of how efficient it might have been or if I had seriously tried it. But since I don't do this on the range, it might be a perfect test of the theory.
But back to my story. Determined to be better with the big stick, I was trying hard to swing easy and not try to crush it. For the most part this worked well. I hit some nice balls and only one horrible one, which was a topped ball on the long 18th. This was not a disaster as I usually cannot reach the green anyways. So it was topped drive, 6 iron then 9 iron. Almost made the putt too!
And I must say that the swing on 18 felt great and I was doing wonderful things except for the top. Perhaps I had swayed back in my efforts to keep from launching my lower body, which is the big problem.
I also hit numerous wonderful irons - full distance and straight like a happy laser beam.
I even putted pretty well. A little more courage and I would have made about 4 from length. Wente greens are tough to putt and one tends to be defensive when putting there.
I'm much happier tonight than I was Monday night. I have hope for the future! I'm back out with the boys tomorrow and I'll see if I can keep getting closer to what's available on the range.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Well, It Was a Thought
So I'm hitting balls today. I got the "happy" bucket, 150 balls. I thought that I'd figured it out. When I'm hitting at the range, where I don't miss drives, I don't use much lower body drive. It just feels like a shoulder turn back into the ball.
Of course to test this, I have to turn on a large body motion and see if I can replicate the bad strikes I see 80% of the time on the course.
Well, of course, I find I can hit the ball very nicely with a large lower body motion too. Not only that, it seems that the speed is up.
As the smoke clears and red tailed hawk cries above the range, I'm right back where I started. I can hit them like a minor deity on the range and like a beginner on the course.
Well, I still have the short irons!
I was also playing around with an early wrist cock in the back swing. I'm not sure how cocked they get normally. The sound of the strike was pretty good.
Walt, an earlier teacher, advocated an early cock, then just a shoulder turn to complete the backswing.
If I ever write the golf book, one of the lines is: "everything a pro has told you is probably true."
I must wind this up with the promise of additional research down the line. Or maybe I'll just start to hit it ok on the course and then I'll move on to getting more club head speed.
I've bought a monthly pass for November on the 10th, so I've got to play a lot to get my money's worth out of it. I'm sure I'll have a few things to report.
I had kind of a strange 9 holes on Friday. The front was the normal for my current golf. Then on the back, it's an up and down at 10, same at 11. A simple 2 putt par on 12. Then I hit it to within one foot on 13 from 175 yards for a tap in birdie. Another GIR on 14, which is kind of a long hole for me, but I'm putting with excellent speed and keeping the two putts in the trivial range and manage another par. I kill a hybrid into 15 and two putt. An ok drive and short iron turns 16 into an easy par. Along about this time I realize I'm under par for the 9 and rolling along.
17 is another ok drive, with a reasonable iron and two putt.
Then 18, which is a shortish par 5. I semi-top the drive, but it's straight and long enough. I semi top a three wood, which is also straight and reasonable distance, so it's wedge in and a two putt for a one under par 9 holes. This hasn't happened for a bit, but it feels pretty good. No bogies and a bird, which is nice consistent golf for recreational golfer.
Then off to Costco for a Polish sausage - hot and tasty! What could improve on all of this but a nice afternoon nap!
Of course to test this, I have to turn on a large body motion and see if I can replicate the bad strikes I see 80% of the time on the course.
Well, of course, I find I can hit the ball very nicely with a large lower body motion too. Not only that, it seems that the speed is up.
As the smoke clears and red tailed hawk cries above the range, I'm right back where I started. I can hit them like a minor deity on the range and like a beginner on the course.
Well, I still have the short irons!
I was also playing around with an early wrist cock in the back swing. I'm not sure how cocked they get normally. The sound of the strike was pretty good.
Walt, an earlier teacher, advocated an early cock, then just a shoulder turn to complete the backswing.
If I ever write the golf book, one of the lines is: "everything a pro has told you is probably true."
I must wind this up with the promise of additional research down the line. Or maybe I'll just start to hit it ok on the course and then I'll move on to getting more club head speed.
I've bought a monthly pass for November on the 10th, so I've got to play a lot to get my money's worth out of it. I'm sure I'll have a few things to report.
I had kind of a strange 9 holes on Friday. The front was the normal for my current golf. Then on the back, it's an up and down at 10, same at 11. A simple 2 putt par on 12. Then I hit it to within one foot on 13 from 175 yards for a tap in birdie. Another GIR on 14, which is kind of a long hole for me, but I'm putting with excellent speed and keeping the two putts in the trivial range and manage another par. I kill a hybrid into 15 and two putt. An ok drive and short iron turns 16 into an easy par. Along about this time I realize I'm under par for the 9 and rolling along.
17 is another ok drive, with a reasonable iron and two putt.
Then 18, which is a shortish par 5. I semi-top the drive, but it's straight and long enough. I semi top a three wood, which is also straight and reasonable distance, so it's wedge in and a two putt for a one under par 9 holes. This hasn't happened for a bit, but it feels pretty good. No bogies and a bird, which is nice consistent golf for recreational golfer.
Then off to Costco for a Polish sausage - hot and tasty! What could improve on all of this but a nice afternoon nap!
A Quicky for Now, More Later!
I've got a few things to say, but I'm off to the range in a couple of minutes. But in the mean time, here is an interesting link that is worth a visit.
It contains some other links if you want to explore beyond the material within.
http://www.unz.com/isteve/golf-and-evolution-the-missing-link-discovered/
It's about early golf, design, some poetry, and why central control or design may not be all that important!
It contains some other links if you want to explore beyond the material within.
http://www.unz.com/isteve/golf-and-evolution-the-missing-link-discovered/
It's about early golf, design, some poetry, and why central control or design may not be all that important!
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Working Through the Details
I continue to think and practice on the full swing, usually with the driver.
Glenn was trying to get me to "just spin" my shoulders. Of course, I still need the lower body to have moved to a forward position before I can do that.
So some of the time is spent becoming conscious of what I need to do -- and do at the range, but not on the course.
I still feel the difference is to be in too much of a hurry on the course. The movement of the lower body has to have enough time to get there. The upper body has to wait its turn.
I was looking at a video of Justin Rose and his recent tournament wins. There are videos where all the shots are kept and all the rest of the broadcast are removed. A full 18 holes takes about 10 minutes. It's interesting when watching these is that you can see patterns in how the guy swings and not just the details of a fully analyzed single swing.
What Rose does is to start down from the top of the back swing at a very slow speed then accelerates hard through the rest of the swing. The position where the acceleration seems to be obvious is where the hands are about waist high. Now, it might be that he's accelerated a bit earlier than that, but that's what it looks like.
There was an old adage in the golf lesson books about starting down at the same speed as you take the club back. Easy to say, and easy to do, but when we all want to hit the ball further, it's hard to commit too. Perhaps golf is yet another exercise in discipline?
I was doing this today at the range. It was easy to do and I cannot complain about the shot quality.
It helps me take the arms on a circular path rather than trying to get directly to the ball. Thus allowing me to spin the shoulders.
Will I have the courage and memory to do this on the course? Well, I've got to do something!
I'll be playing Friday. Tomorrow is supposed to rain, so I'll probably just go to the range if I can.
Glenn was trying to get me to "just spin" my shoulders. Of course, I still need the lower body to have moved to a forward position before I can do that.
So some of the time is spent becoming conscious of what I need to do -- and do at the range, but not on the course.
I still feel the difference is to be in too much of a hurry on the course. The movement of the lower body has to have enough time to get there. The upper body has to wait its turn.
I was looking at a video of Justin Rose and his recent tournament wins. There are videos where all the shots are kept and all the rest of the broadcast are removed. A full 18 holes takes about 10 minutes. It's interesting when watching these is that you can see patterns in how the guy swings and not just the details of a fully analyzed single swing.
What Rose does is to start down from the top of the back swing at a very slow speed then accelerates hard through the rest of the swing. The position where the acceleration seems to be obvious is where the hands are about waist high. Now, it might be that he's accelerated a bit earlier than that, but that's what it looks like.
There was an old adage in the golf lesson books about starting down at the same speed as you take the club back. Easy to say, and easy to do, but when we all want to hit the ball further, it's hard to commit too. Perhaps golf is yet another exercise in discipline?
I was doing this today at the range. It was easy to do and I cannot complain about the shot quality.
It helps me take the arms on a circular path rather than trying to get directly to the ball. Thus allowing me to spin the shoulders.
Will I have the courage and memory to do this on the course? Well, I've got to do something!
I'll be playing Friday. Tomorrow is supposed to rain, so I'll probably just go to the range if I can.
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Range Report
I'm working on figuring out what I do differently at the range than on the course.
I also saw a video on youtube that talked about the major difference between ams and pros. Which was that pros use their hips differently than even very good ams. Basically they are quieter and do not have much lateral movement particularly in the back swing. The ams on the other hand, push the hips back along the target line, the forward, causing the head / chest to teeter-totter about twice what a pro does. I' talking angle to the target line here.
I was going to go to the range then play today, but ended up just ranging it.
I tried to keep my hips quiet and fairly stationary. I let them turn and such, but made sure there was no lateral shift on the back swing. I don't have problems with irons at the course, so there is a good chance I do the right thing a lot. My irons are not very long these days, but they are very straight. If I'm not swinging at them well, I can't be too far off either.
As I kept the hips centered, it kept me over the ball and I was able to hit everything well. When I say I hit everything well, I'm talking about 2 misses out of 100 balls. I think I topped one shot and sliced one, otherwise off they went.
I'd like to think I've got the key to the difference, but it ain't over until we test it a bit.
This brings to mind a round down in Albuquerque where I was kind of bunting the drives along and hit them very solidly. I couldn't understand it and I've not recaptured it since.
I talked to Sonny again a bit today too as he was coming in to do some teaching. We concurred on the thoughts above.
I'm guessing that when I feel I need to hit it a long way, then comes the over-backswing and then I'm stuck and will early extend and flip the hands.
Sonny also thought that a big difference between ams and pros was that for ams the swing is a Ferris wheel and for pros it's more a carousel. I thought there wasn't much difference between the two, but I can see the carousel being more of a flatter shoulder swing and more powerful than trying to spin the arms in front of you.
I'll play with that next and see if it revives some distance.
OK, off to Southern California tomorrow and some golf on Saturday.
I also saw a video on youtube that talked about the major difference between ams and pros. Which was that pros use their hips differently than even very good ams. Basically they are quieter and do not have much lateral movement particularly in the back swing. The ams on the other hand, push the hips back along the target line, the forward, causing the head / chest to teeter-totter about twice what a pro does. I' talking angle to the target line here.
I was going to go to the range then play today, but ended up just ranging it.
I tried to keep my hips quiet and fairly stationary. I let them turn and such, but made sure there was no lateral shift on the back swing. I don't have problems with irons at the course, so there is a good chance I do the right thing a lot. My irons are not very long these days, but they are very straight. If I'm not swinging at them well, I can't be too far off either.
As I kept the hips centered, it kept me over the ball and I was able to hit everything well. When I say I hit everything well, I'm talking about 2 misses out of 100 balls. I think I topped one shot and sliced one, otherwise off they went.
I'd like to think I've got the key to the difference, but it ain't over until we test it a bit.
This brings to mind a round down in Albuquerque where I was kind of bunting the drives along and hit them very solidly. I couldn't understand it and I've not recaptured it since.
I talked to Sonny again a bit today too as he was coming in to do some teaching. We concurred on the thoughts above.
I'm guessing that when I feel I need to hit it a long way, then comes the over-backswing and then I'm stuck and will early extend and flip the hands.
Sonny also thought that a big difference between ams and pros was that for ams the swing is a Ferris wheel and for pros it's more a carousel. I thought there wasn't much difference between the two, but I can see the carousel being more of a flatter shoulder swing and more powerful than trying to spin the arms in front of you.
I'll play with that next and see if it revives some distance.
OK, off to Southern California tomorrow and some golf on Saturday.
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