Fourth day in a row of solid consistent contact. That’s never happened before. Not as tight as thr other day, but much more solid. So think about this:
Slower takeaway with the shoulders
Don’t move my head off the ball and keep legs quiet
Hinge it, start back with the hips (not right leg alone)
Hold the hinge
Everything will happen as it should… most of the time. Solid 9i punch/full, 7i, and even a driver swing or two.
Rain, so ive spent a couple hours the last two days hitting indoors on the RealFeel Mat. Had two very consistent days. Today, with the 7, my impact marks actually formed a little ball pattern on the sweet spot. That’s serious progress. I feel like I’m actually swinging inside, square, inside. Instead of outside-inside. And backed up that feeling with video, so I should trust it. Great balance and smooth shots hitting the net dead center. The swing doesn’t feel like I’m wasting energy anywhere. Is been fun.
Swing thoughts:
Stance a little more narrow, knees in a touch, arms close.
Take the club back with shoulders and feel the loading or torque of inside right leg but DONT actively shift weight, it will just happen.
Slower takeaway on a 1… 2 count. Jason Day has a nice tempo, a good guide.
At top, turn back horizontally with hips, don’t just slide.
Split second after, feel like drop the right elbow a bit to flatten the shaft.
Don’t sway head, just keep it still and focused on the ball thru shot. Important on the course especially.
Keep the wrist hinge and feel like the shaft is parallel and on top of an imaginary line at my feet. Inside, use the platform beam as a guide.
Keep turning and release.
The course was excellent. Really unique layout weaving thru the subdivision, but still plays with a wooded, country feel. Doglegs, tight landing areas and strategic bunkers make it difficult. It’s not long, but it is tight making it difficult.
Mixed round. I played with my brother which brings in a competitive fun element. But really teste my patience being paired up with 2 poor golfers. I don’t usually say that, but these guys were bad.
My driving was mixed. I hit a couple great drives, one that tracked 300 (elevated tee so let’s say 275) but perfect flight. A couple others were great but also had really slicey. When I hit it well…. setup was solid, ball forward off the left toe, flex in the knees, everything squared up, and the shaft leaning slightly back, takeaway was slow and controlled with a nice hinge and then I just let the hips go. I have to just whip things forward and let it go.
Irons were mixed. My misses were straight and thin with longer irons and chunky with short irons. When i struck it well I stayed centered, head not swaying with a wide takeaway and good hinge. Need to leave my root foot on the ground longer. My foot doesn’t need to come up manually, just stay grounded and come up naturally after impact as hips continue to turn.
Im getting smarter at course mgmt and getting out of trouble. Was in pine straw, elevated from green, and played a 7i under trees to land in front of the green and roll on. 100 yrd punch, something I’ve never practiced, but managed to pull off confidently.
I need more time with this new swing and I need to stay concentrated. No coincidence that last round and this round, when I realized what I needed to win or break a certain number, that I would play better. I need to do that during the first 15 holes, too.
About to play four straight rounds so I hit up the range tonight. First time I’m getting a chance to see the ball fly with this new shorter swing. Honestly, not sure if it’s sound, but the balls were flying well tonight. Straight or slight fade (or was it the wind).
A couple mishits, but mostly good contact with 6i, 7i, and 9i. 9 especially. Getting a lesson tomorrow afternoon so we’ll see whats up.
When you hit good shots tonight, here’s what it felt like:
– Feel grounded stable
– Shoulders initiate the swing and left leg kicks in about belt level.
– Wrist hinge pushing the butt end down and holding that hinge.
– Feels weird but club should feel more straight up … It’s not.
– Transition starts from ground up with foot & especially the left leg moving out then pulling hips in play
– Resist the arms until hips move and nice free release pulling body and club around to balanced finished
– DONT look at the damn ball
Not taking much of a divot now though, which makes me concerned. But I’m hitting ball first and nice center contact.
Driver was terrible. Not sure what to say there. If irons continue to work I might have to use them a lot.
Safe to say I turned the corner into full-on obsession. I have a new golf mat for indoor hitting and the tech is pretty cool, so I’ll write up a post on it. Also, I’ve blocked out time each day for practice. Last night I spent almost an hour on posture and takeaway. I want my backswing to hit the same spot every time. I feel like my swing is inconsistent right now which is making practice difficult because my misses are inconsistent. So for a week, working on backswing 30 mins each day. Will do the same with transition and forward swing. Also, working on strength and conditioning. I’m never going to be on tour, but that doesn’t mean I can’t devote myself to getting really good at this game. Single digit handicap is my goal one day.
Have a golf trip coming up soon where I’m planning to play at least 4 rounds and get a couple hours of practice in every day. Love golf trips like this.
OK, first round after the wheels came back on. Tee time: 7:20am which meant the front nine was smooth with zero traffic on the course and the weather was gorgeous. Playing with my younger brother is always a blast. The course was in awesome condition, first time I’ve played it when it looked this good. Greens were excellent, fairways and rough were green and trimmed up.
I tried to focus on the pre-shot routine and making a good lower body move. Again, when I did it, I hit the ball really solid. A 9-iron on 11 was the best example of that. But I still “blank out” over the ball. On the range I can keep a calm head thru the swing, hitting my checkpoints along the way. On the course, I must be way to interested to see where it goes. I also lost my head on a par 5 on the back. Got a 10. Went right on approach and decided to re-hit instead of taking a drop. Ended up pancaked in the bunker, 2 to get out and the rest is history. I haven’t lost it like that on the course in a while.
Had a couple decent drives, oddly all of them were from elevated tee boxes. I’ll have to figure out the psychology of that. Chipping was not solid. I left shots out there. And 3 putts. Especially on GIR… stop 3 putting.
What to work on:
What a difference one subtle change makes. I’m reading Golf Anatomy which digs a bit deeper into biomechanics. One point struck me about the left leg and its role, so I modified the movement slightly to more actively initiate the downswing by positioning the left knee out over the left foot. This puts me on my left side and the hips easily turning back. I’ve been struggling to initiate with the legs consistently and thinking of it this way has already been beneficial.
I was stunned on the range today just how well it worked. Flush, connected swings in good balance with a nice high finish. 7-irons were flying straight and 170-175. 9-irons @ 145-150. 5-irons were solid for a change but not the majority. When flushed they were probably 190. SW was accurate – within 15 ft radius and 105-115y.
But the key is that I had a smooth swing with all the power generated by the proper hip turn. When I sped things up, the shots failed. Only a couple sliced shots and even my drives were pretty decent and straight today. Same thing with the drive… initiate with the lower body and hold onto the hinge.
Two seasoned golfers (one of the a “player” back in the day) asked what I was hitting, told him 6-iron and he commented “pretty strong.” Then asked my handicap assuming it was a 5-6. A 5-6! He also said I was working on the right things. For me, that comment was the most important since I’m not using an instructor.
This is YOUR swing sequence. When you do this, you hit solid shots.
Headed about an hour away for this round, so we got out of the city. This is a very unique course with lots of hills and terrain changes. Couple times we thought the cart wasn’t going to make it. We had lots of rain so it was a wet course. A couple times I didn’t hit down on the ball cause I didn’t want to splash myself. But it was a good course in a great shape. Now is the time to play golf in Georgia for sure
My round was mixed. Nothing really stuck out. I had some decent drives and some decent irons. I had some terrible ones. I need to get my lower body working, which sounds like a broken record. I need to calm down on the course, not my temper (which is fine) but my tempo. I get to rushed, curious where the ball is going. I need to just keep my head over the ball and wait for my body to bring me up.
What to work on: You know, its the same stuff. Lower body turn, stay connected. Let the lower body lead, stop trying to help the ball up.
I got up early and hit the range before work (and the storms) this morning. It was the first range trip since playing 3 rounds last week. Things were off, really off. No connection, no lower body, the club was twisting in my hands on nearly every shot and things just felt off. Way off.
I had some solid hits with the 60degree wedge and my 9-iron. But the 7-iron, which should be a great club was poor all day. Its possible I’ve just had too much golf lately, but that seems a bit opposite.
What to work on: back to basics. My grip and grip pressure. Takeaway and position at the top. Keeping my arms and body connected thru the swing and using my lower body to initiate the downswing. Pretty much everything.
I guess at this point City Club Marietta is my “home course.” It’s close to the house, pretty easy to get on, and convenience will win every time. The layout is really interesting as well with holes really using the land and elevation to create some interesting holes. On the front 9, it’s tough to find a level lie which makes it interesting. The downside is the condition. I know it’s early in the season but the course is pretty rough. The tee boxes haven’t grown in, fairways were a bit sparse in places and the greens were better, but still not awesome. Looking forward to playing again in late May.
First off, I enjoyed the round. It’s always fun to play a round of golf with Charlie, and since this was my 3rd round this week, how could I not enjoy it. But I didn’t play well. There were glimmers of Tuesday’s round such as my tee shot on the 252 yard (up hill) par 4 which I knocked on the front edge. There were a couple good solid irons, but nothing felt good.
Maybe i was tired, maybe I rushed it, but things were off. Settle back down, continue to work on the lower body move, connected turn back and thru and a solid setup and routine. Putting was better, chipping was dead on. My 90 would have easily been 94+ if it wasn’t for some great chips.
