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 .