Per usual I'm making a few changes. The driver, which is working a lot better of late, is still the icon for inconsistency. While my average drive is much better and I'm hitting a lot of the fairways, often it is a bad tee shot that kills a par. A couple of those a round and it turns great rounds into so sos.
I play a lot of golf with Sonny, who suggested that I try to start the downswing by moving both the lower and upper body at the same time. This is an approach contra to getting the lower body moving first to provide a stable foundation from which to hit.
Now, we have to reconcile this approach with that of Bobby Lopez, et al., who suggest that you want to take the club back and then spin the shoulders. Trying to do this seems to energize the lower body as well as keeping the head back. Lopez also likens the swing to a marching band going around a corner. The band guys on the inside of the corner must move a lot slower than those who sweep the outside of the march. If we apply this to golf we have hips and such that don't move far, but they have to move a bit and then the arms which have to move a longer way. If everyone starts at the same time, then unequal speeds are required, but there is no need to try to move the hips at killer speeds. Arms however need to catch up and move on the outside arc. So be gentle with the hips and aggressive with shoulders.
As I think of my driver misses, the body gets ahead of the lower body and then my hands need to do major, heroic things to allow me to hit the ball at all. Modern golf theory suggests that your hands should not be called upon to do anything, much less something of note.
I go to the range this morning. Barb is off to the Scottish Games to help with a charity booth and I've got time to burn.
My first step is to hit the clubs that I hit very well. Those are the short irons. I'm wondering just what I am doing with my swing for these clubs that I don't do for the longer ones. When I have a short club, I think of just direction. There is no question about how far they will go. I'm pretty sure that when I want to hit the ball a long way, that I concentrate on power or speed and not direction. This might be a bad habit that will need to be addressed. :-) I try some pitches and it looks like a gentle hip movement with my normal shoulder/arm swings at the pitch, is working well. Very solid strikes and consistent height on the shots. I'm eager to move to full length clubs; I pack up and move to the full range from the pitching area.
I hit a few 9 irons and I'm hitting them well. Yes, it seems like the downswing consists of a synchronized movement of the lower and upper body. My contact is very good with this.
Ok, then let's move to the 6 iron and see what happens. That worked well. No thin shots which is my usual miss with this club. This club is the beginning of my problem clubs. I try to help these guys too much and don't let them swing like the shorter ones.
On to the 4 wood. These are going out quite well. Moving the lower body and upper feels easier on the back. My hands feel pretty good. I'm not having to make a lot of adjustments as I come into the ball.
Ok, time to unleash the big dog and see if he can run down the fairway. From the first shot I'm hitting the ball with center of the club face. Now this is not a common thing. It's easy to be on the toe or a bit thin. But my contact is very good.
The swing feels really good, the ball is going well and I'm not working too hard to make it all happen. Time to be cautiously optimistic.
Will this be the last blog post? We will have to wait for Tuesday!
One of the interesting thing that was happening on Friday was that my irons were going further than normal. You might think this is a good thing, but going over greens is a very hazardous approach to golf. I'm happy with more length, but I have to trust it and I'd like to know why it's suddenly happening.
It looks like some very interesting things are developing. Perhaps the golf gods are messing with my mind, but I feel good about all of this.
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