Stray Thoughts and Catching Up

Dear Readers,

I've been playing and in spite of the "answer" found in the previous post, have not solved it all.

However, the golf has actually been pretty good.  My driver is slowly moving from a problem to an asset and my length seems to be getting better.  When playing on Tuesday, I was getting to distances I have not seen before.  The area is still recovering from last week's rain and there is not a lot of run out.

I find that my main problem is that I don't remember what I was trying to do.  Probably due to too many ideas and I would be better if I worked on just one and thoroughly incorporated it.

For example, I realized today, that my left arm was not getting under my chin during full shots.  This might be due to a lack of shoulder rotation or just leaving the arms too low or slung around my back.

Of course all the "go left hard" stuff from the last post is forgotten as I try to do this.


The weather has been lovely as the rains left last weekend.  The sun is out and the courses have the sprinklers turned off.  The shoes are picking up less mud and the mowers are getting to almost all of the course.  The course are quite empty too.  So we go and play and never see anyone else!  Wonderful.  If I ever win a very large lottery, I'll have my own course with all the tee times in my name! 

But the nice weather seems to be bringing allergies too.  I had a migraine one day and my eyes and sinuses have been unhappy too.  But sunny warm days make it all worthwhile.

I have a day off tomorrow.  My old job wants some of my time; but I should be able to manage some range time.

One of the main things I'm trying (pardon my bouncing around) is to stay a bit stiller over the ball both in backswing and down swing.  This makes my swing more efficient and also - added bonus here - is keeping my back from hurting too much.  Ah, yes, there is the old pain on the lower right, which is ok, it's the lower left problems that really hurt.

One of my playing buddies has not read any of the Wodehouse golf stories, so I passed on volume.  He's finding them amusing.

I think that's the news.  If I think of anything else, I'll drop a line.

Going Left and Some Clarity - Updated

So where were we?

I think making a better backswing was there:  Making sure the hands move parallel to the toes and not getting behind that line was one issue.

On the down swing, moving the hands a bit towards the ball to create some room for the hands to go through.

And once the hands are out a bit, pulling the club left to pivot the club into the ball.  This is a new one and it squares the club neatly and it shallows the club path.  I was hitting pitches off of tight lies and taking no divot, just a patch of beaten turf the size of half a dollar bill.


I'm playing today and doing all of the above and that is moving the ball pretty well.  It's a tough course with difficult greens, so I'm not knocking down par after par, but I'm pretty happy with what I am trying to do and actually doing.


Then it strikes me some where along the back nine that the club head is attached to the grip!  And that if I just yank and pull on the grip that the club head will follow.  What a novel thought!

If I apply this "grip does all" theory to the swing, then I don't care where the club head is, I can just move the grip and all will follow.

I can pull it up and down and left and not spare the horses!  I don't have to wait for the club head to get to the ball, just move the grip to the proper position and all will be well.

In fact, it will be more than well, as not waiting for the club head allows me to move the grip faster with less tension -- I'm no longer trying to make the club square, etc.  (I have grips with deep grooves from trying to "help" the club get where it was going to get every time.)

So, what did this do?  How about longer, straighter and higher?  I can also mention that all of this makes the swing a ton simpler.

Update:  I was thinking more about this and if you can "rip" the grip around, you are in effect throwing the club.  Which, if you watch enough golf videos, suggest is the proper thing to do.  Get into the proper position and then throw the club away and throw it as hard as you can. 


Remember the post from a couple of days ago where I was waiting for the club to contact the ball?  Well, erase that one and read this one!  Don't wait for the head to get to the ball, just keep moving that grip!

I feel liberated and empowered.  I even managed to par the long 17th and 18th today - a feat unseen ever as far as I remember.

There is the acronym in golf "WOOD," which stands for "works one day only."  So I shall see about this.  But it does seem to check the proper boxes and align with the physics and now I have a bit of empirical  data to back it up.

How Did it Go?

I'm sure my loyal reader(s) are interested in the Friday golf and how it all came together.

I'm saddened to report that while progress has been made, I wasn't able to do what I wanted to.

I did play pretty well and scored reasonably. 

I started with a couple of boring bogeys to start, then a routine par on a 4 par.  It didn't require a driver and I hit two nice shots to get to a back pin about 12 feet away.  Then a nice sandy par on the third.  My group commented on the most excellent "thump" of the club hitting the sand.

What kind of golf do I play, well let's look at the 5th hole?  It's a bit long usually.  I slice the driver (this is new as the usual ball action is a short hook), then have about 170 in but I'm behind wispy trees and sure enough hit two of them.

Then I hit it to 6 feet with a wedge and make the putt for a routine par.

More highlights:

I can't get to the green on the 6th and don't get it up and down either, though I hit a nice pitch to the green.

Then it clicks a bit and I par the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th. and 13th, before going off the rails on 14, where the drive puts me against a tree and have to I hit it backwards and do that left handed to boot.

Par on 15, and I don't remember 16 and 17.  18th seems muddled too.

Bottom line I was happy with a lot of ball striking.  I'm good about my takeaway with the irons and it's tough to remember on the driver.  Then from the top, a struggle to get it right with driver, but not any other club. 

 I was on the range on Saturday as Barb was off making cards with her gal pals.  I was chipping, my usual practice when warming up, and found that if I waited for the club to get to the ball before I made a gross shoulder movement, I got very good club ball contact and nice effective loft. 

That feels like a much slower swing and less power, but by waiting and probably slowing down the upper body, there is more energy in the club head and it might be going faster.  So much of this stupid game is anti-intuitive.  It sure would be nice to less inclined to think about all of this and just to do it.

I then went to strike full shots with this slower swing in mind.  This worked well.  It may just be a better explanation than "spin the shoulders" as a means to swing. 

I've been invited to go back to work tomorrow for a bit, but I told them I needed to be done by 10!  late tee time tomorrow!  Even if I get hung up working, I can still make the back nine with the pals.

I'm feeling good about all of this.  It seems right and doable.  I've getting less sore spots on my hands and while my back seems a little unhappy, I don't feel that I'm getting beat up hitting the ball.

Range Notes 1/18/18

Last post mentioned that I had cleared the cobwebs of ignorance/doubt from my head and that, "this time," I was on my way to doing it all well.

The old job called me back a couple of days and I didn't get out to test my understanding.

Strangely, I wasn't missing being out or playing.  Perhaps my feeling of satiation has something to do with that.  If I end having "figured it out" it will be time for the next activity and perhaps a new blog.  We shall see.

It was a strange day today and I worked on a modest project for one of my golf buddies who have problems picking up ball markers and such.  A tool was needed and I made one up today.  Then I was off to the range.

One of the issues that I was having was my take away and my tendency to roll the wrists and then let the club find its way behind my back.  Usually with the driver and longer clubs.  From there it gets really ugly.

To avoid this the hands have to go back without moving away from the body.  That feels very vertical and from there only a wrist cock is needed.  The take away is done with the shoulders, of course, and when the shoulders stop and wrists have hinged, no need to get the hands higher.

With this approach there is a lot more distance between head and hands than before.  More width is considered to be good by all the gurus.

The motion seemed very simple and different from what I was doing.  I could do it with all clubs.

The down swing was just an unwind.  I did have an tendency to do a little right to left action on the swing.  I think I was trying to hit the ball hard and that caused me to pull left with the shoulders.  But this was causing a Bruce Lietzke type of ball flight -- it would start a touch left then gently fade back to center.  This is a very comfortable ball flight to me.  I'd be happy to hit it all the time.  Setting up a bit open is comfortable and with a bit of fade back, I'll very happy. 

The driver strikes were off the top of the club face, I'm usually thin, so this was an interesting development.  They seemed to be flying out like a knuckle ball.  There was no sensation hitting the drive, just the flight as the club came through.  I had no need to manipulate the club to hit the ball.  This is new too.  So, lots of different, good things seem to be happening.  The distances looked long, but the tees were up and as long as the strikes were good, I really don't care about the distance.


I took this technique to the pitching area.  Pitches were coming out lower with more spin.  Direction control was quite good.  The club seemed to be coming through the strike area properly, id est, there was no toe or heel or fat/divot issues.

Weather willing, it's a 9 am tee time tomorrow and there will be confidence in the head as well as the Pro Vs in the bag.

An Epiphany

I was lying in bed this morning contemplating the big problem in my life, which is why my 9 iron is so consistent and my driver so awful? 

I ran across a web site talking about a rotary swing and he laid it out the full rotary swing pretty well.
This type of swing makes a lot of sense to me.  And, per usual, I find I need to understand something before I'm going to accept it and do it well.  With Dan's videos and explanations, it cleared up a number of areas where I was not comfortable with my understanding of it all.

With all of that in mind, my theory was that as the clubs got longer, I would "help" them go further by use of arms and hands, etc.  There was the view that a torso rotation would not provide enough speed to properly propel the ball. 

The proper swing would not "help" anything, and not try to use a longer back swing, but just turn through the shot and that the club speed generated would be sufficient.  Looking at some of the pros, this speed seems more than adequate. 

So this comes to me in bed and I think that this is testable and I can do it. 


Armed with this experiment, off to the course I go today.  I do my usual warming up pitching and realize that I am truly using the torso to propel the pitches and there is a nice feeling of power and mechanical advantage to this.  The more I did this, the less the hands are involved, the body seems to square the club nicely, it's all good!


I take it to the first tee.  The tees are up and I hit a nice 5 iron to position b+ and line A+,  I strike a hybrid to the back pin and easily get there.  Hmm, I think, this might be the answer...

I didn't score wonderfully, but I was moving the ball well.  All the drives were pretty much on the club face, no hooks, no pushes, and I moved it right to left a couple of times when I wanted to.  My irons were going well, with not a lot of effort to get my usual distance.  I shot 37 on the back without strain or any hero shots required.  As the round went along, I trusted this more and more, which led to embracing it more.  The power of feedback! 

So I am a pretty happy camper.  I think as I trust this more, the ball will be straighter and it feels like there is more speed to be generated if I work at it.  I don't even feel that I need to go pound balls to drive this home.  I was getting close to this lately, but it seems to have clicked.

Here is the link to Dan Whittiker's site: http://www.danwhittakergolf.com/

New Putting Approach

There is a brand of putter out there called the Evnroll.  The creator, Guerin Rife, has been in the putter business for 20 some years.

In a conversation about the game of putting, he had some interesting things to say, that made sense to me.

1) if you are greater than 15 feet from the pin, try to make a golf stroke, not a putting stroke.

2) from 6 to 15 feet, then you are putting, but you still want some motion in the wrists and hands; one might think of this a controlled golf swing.  It basically is a lag.  The odds of making are still quite small.

3) from 6 feet in, you are trying to make it.  Use the Steve Stricker tip: move closer to the ball, allowing the hands to lift and the wrists to pronate.    That locks the wrists and hands.  Then use the shoulders only to try to smash the ball into the hole.  Big muscles to keep the yips out.

I tried a lot of this today.  It worked well.  I had one three putt, a number of one putts and would have made more of then, but I was a bit short on two or three.

The longer putts were much easier as I was allowing the club to swing and the club to give the ball a bit of a wack.  Distance control was very good.  Direction was pretty good too.

All in all, I like this approach.  It certainly makes the longer putts much easier.

Dustin Johnson on the Take Away

I was watching a video of all the shots that DJ had hit on the last round of the last tournament he played and won by 7.

What I found interesting was where his hands wound up on the take away (ta).  It looked miles outside and far away from his body and of course, well above his head.

Then there was the other video that showed the differences between the right elbow positions between pros and ams.  Basically the pros don't bend their elbows as much and straighten them out earlier in the down swing.  The ams like to wind up close to their body with arms collapsing in close.

I was doing some of the elbow stuff the other day and just knocking down flag sticks.  One of my golf buddies, after watching about 6 of these and tired of say "nice shot" again, altered the banter with:  "You know, if you could putt, you'd be a really good golfer!"  All in jest of course, but I had been thinking the same thing about 3 micro seconds before he spoke up.  I did manage to make that birdie, however.

Today, I was out on my own and the course was crowded, so I played the par 3 course, which was empty.  I tried the DJ take away and found it doable.  I was hoping for DJ distance, but that didn't show up.  I think with this ta, that the right elbow is not going to bend much.  I hit it pretty well.  The divots were shallower.  I found I needed to make sure I took the ball back "outside" or I'd pull all of them just a touch.

I played the short course twice, then played the front nice on the big course.  I shot a two over 38, with a three putt in there.  I was moving the ball pretty well and even hit a couple of drives! 

I've got a game with the boys on Friday.  I'll probably play tomorrow some too, though it might be a range day. 

We've had some rain and the course is a bit soggy.  The grounds crew was letting the course dry up a bit and there was some run out on the fairways.  But now, it's a good time to hit the ball high.

I tried one of the Snell MTB balls today.  MTB is My Tour Ball.  I found that I was spinning all of these balls backwards, just like on TV!  Usually I don't do that.  I've been playing the Pro V1 X as a favorite ball.  It just seem to play well with it, I can't point to specific performance characteristics.  The Snell was nice.

I also have a Vice ball in my bag and that is supposed to be pretty good too.  I'll report more when the data come in .

First Round of the Year

Back in the saddle again...

Gasp, there were were strings of 3 days where I didn't pick up a club!  The holidays must end!  My gentle life style is at stake!

Actually now that I think about it, I played on the 2nd and on the 3rd.  So I'm going to yak about the 2nd round of the year.

I was playing with my Monday group.  I'm the young guy and they like to play from the forward tees.  Since they are 65 to 87 or so, this makes some sense.

I also saw a stat the other day that the average golfer hits a driver 220, a seven iron 135 and a pitching wedge 74 yards.   I find this interesting in that I'll buy the driver and 7 iron numbers, but the pitching wedge?  I'll play that out to about 110.   I'd like to think I can carry a 7 beyond 135, but reality sets in on occasion.  So maybe I deloft the pitching web to make it into a 8 iron or something.  Golly, one more thing to think about.

But back to that second round...

Short tees, which make the par 3 holes delicious short irons for the most part. 

Without going into a ton of detail, I play pretty well, though the driver is again absent.  I manage a 74 with 3 birdies and an eagle on a par 4 where I hole out from 133.  It was kind of fun, I could actually see the ball vanish and the guys in front of us on the next tee were watching and they went nuts.  All fun.

I made the turn at two under, but the driver puts me in jail on the 13th and I take a double.  Indifferent play from there and I'm 2 over for the round.

I did manage a rare "barky" birdie.  A barky is where you hit a tree then still go on to par the hole.  This was on 12 and I hit it to 3 feet from 140 yards with a ...  7 iron.

---

So I'm upset with this stupid driver and I have some time today and go to the range.  I get the happy bucket of 150 balls.  Most of which I hit with the driver.  My worst drive on the range was better than my best drive on the course.  Sheesh.

But I thing (ha!) I've got a better handle on what I am doing.  Tom Kite wrote in a book decades ago, "that golf is a game played from the side."  To embrace this I have to feel that the right arm stays under the plane of the swing, while the left arm stays on it.  This keeps me where I ought to be when I hit the ball -- which is the big problem with on course drives.

When I find something like this, I try to apply it to all shots.  That seemed to work well too for irons and chips.  So, once again, I'm filled with optimism for tomorrow's round.  Perhaps the weather will be gentle as rain is scheduled. 

It was a glorious 67 today and a wonderful day to hit balls -- ok, all days are wonderful for that, but shirt sleeves and a cold Slurpee to finish.  Chili Mango is the flavor with a bit of spice to it.  Even Barb likes it!