Follow up Lessons

Once again, I was feeling great about my game, things are really coming around and my index has finally creeped below 11. After a day of 36 holes, a 79 and an 80, I was leaving the course, when I noticed that there was a "range party"...1$ beers and beat the pro contests...at any rate I went over to the range to give my pro a hard time... and one of the other pro's comes up to me and wants to play a 5 dollar double up chip game...immediately he didn't like my setup, said lucky shot and then proceeded to hole his chip from a downhill lie, to an elevated green, over a sand trap...from 18yards...
After the miracle shot he said well, lets get you your moneys worth... he said lets go to the range and hit a few balls, we chatted, I told him about my game(s) that day and he congratulated me on the hard work that seems to be starting to pay off... then he has me hit some shots with my 7 iron at the 150 flag... I land about 8 feet from the stick, and I say, see its coming around... then he says lucky shot, set up again, I do, and I do it again...again he says lucky shot, set up again but don't hit... so I do, he lays a shaft down at my toes and says come back here...I was pointed about 20 to 30 degrees to the right of my target line...I felt like an idiot this is something I had struggled with prior to lessons, and it was also a good sign that I was probably getting to upright in my swing again... I was lucky to have bumped into rob that night or this could have easily ballooned into a very large problem with time...
So after the alignment issue, he says and you are way over turning your shoulders and letting the shaft come over the top again. So I start feeling all Butt hurt, and feel like he is just being overly critical... so we start hitting some shots... he puts me onto a new drill...stand at address, put the club butt end pointing at the target, accross the elbow folds and the bring your hands flat to your chest one laying on top of the other, then point the butt end of the shaft at the ball, while keeping your hands on your chest... as soon as the butt end points at the ball, this is all the shoulder turn that your backswing position needs to achieve, and let me tell you, it felt well short of where I was turning to before...the best way I know to equate it, is like drag cars...or hot rods...if you have to much power and you let it all out from the starting line, you probably won't go anywhere fast... you will just sit there doing a burnout...I was probably getting really close, to start doing burnouts... and its a good thing I bumped into rob, even though i have been scoring better, that doesn't mean I was doing things correctly...at least now I can continue to work at my goal... and I have some more tools in my box to help me achieve them...

Blades versus Cavity backs...oh no

I traded my taylormade lt irons for a set of taylormade muscle back rac blades yesterday. I went and played a round and I really like them. If I miss hit the shot, I get instant feedback. It seems to help me slow my tempo down and focus on swinging with my hips. The distance loss is only about 6 yards, and I think that as I get better and find the sweetspot more...I will get that six yards back. I did hit all my par three greens in one yesterday, but only made par on all of them... I had a horrible time putting yesterday. I think my putting has suffered because the bulk of my focus has been on chipping on up...putting was typically the strongest part of my game...I feel like it will come back soon.
The blades are great, all it takes is one shot just a touch off center to slow me back down and make me focus on clearing my hips, finding my center, and releasing through impact. The cavity backs never punished me, and I would constantly "swing for the fences".

Wrist Angle for straight shots

I played great yesterday, Only had one shot yesterday that I didn't like. It was a hook I hit with a 7 iron. I went to the range after playing...and could hit nothing but hooks...pitching wedge through driver....I was getting very frustrated. Halfway through the bucket I started checking down everything... my setup was good, my alignment was good, my shoulders and hips were square... so I started my swing went all the way to the top, paused, and looked at my wrists... they were collapsing , the arm was falling into the wrist and the knuckles were protruding towards my head... so I corrected there (maintaining a nice flat line along the outside of the arm, through the wrist all the way to the knuckles, wrist hinged 90* to my arm) almost like a preset hinge, bounced my arms a few times then finished the swing... I had to do this several times before that wrist feeling became or is becoming another part of my swing routine. I would absolutely hate to have to be thinking about something like this while playing...but it was good knowledge to have incase I hit that shot while playing...with a few swing rehearsals... I could hopefully fix a problem like this in the middle of a round if it creaps up on me again.

Spine Angle, remove the suck factor increase the luck factor

I have great spine angle on my irons up to my 5 iron, 4 iron is something I am working on maintaining... on the course its not something you want to be thinking about... but it is what sets up the coil and lets your hips unwind properly through the impact area making it much easier to maintain the target line and swing plane through the finish. For me its more of a feeling, than an effort to get good spine angle... and it helps to have a good set up routine to achieve the same spine angle everytime. Just a touch loss of focus during setup can cause me to get to close, or to far away, or off line, causing me to unconsciously make up for the poor setup with a bad spine angle...I might be able to hit the shot flush, but the ball is going to have a much harder time finding my target and if it does, it will be by luck alone... There is a lot of luck in golf... but taking away bad shots and alignment will definately increase my luck factor... remove the suck factor and increase the luck factor... might be a good address thought for a round or two to help me keep my mind clear while executing my setup routine.

Comforting Round

I am starting to get a dislocated right index finger...probably from hitting 500 balls a day. At any rate it has made me slow my foreswing down a little and has improved my ball striking...it is helping me to let my hips drive the swing more, specifically with woods and long irons. I did notice a tendency to over read the break on my short chips, i kept missing them on the high side of the cup...i like to play a running chip that has enough to get at least 2 feet past the pin but no more than 5 feet. My putting was on point, no three putts and several nice long putts dropped for me yesterday... I went back to more overlap between my hands and less grip pressure, allowing me to release the putter through the stroke, which helps for distance feel and line maintenance.
The scores were not what I wanted... little stupid trouble off a couple par fours and two unlucky bounces put me in bad positions...totaled a loss of 8 strokes that I never made... had a 41 on the front and a 44 on the back...
Halfway through the round I started gripping my woods just a little strong with my left hand, which was a kind of a cheat to keep the ball on line... but if I nutted it, it would yield a block to the left...off line by about 25* to the left but long and straight flight.
All in all it was much more encouraging than my last round, starting to see the benefits of hitting all these balls. A little reminder to self is to get all the way through on my chips, i.e. complete the wieght transfer in order to get all the distance out of the open faced chips.

Good Range day bad Golf Day

Day started well...went to range and was able to hit every shot exactly like I wanted and where I wanted, had the high straight, low draw, and low fade working...did not hit one bad shot on the range... first hole had a putt for birdie that didn't break in... easy clean up par... second hole... crushed an eight iron about 13 yards long of target... poor chip left me two putting for a bogey...next tee... stuck it in the trees, left of the fairway... another poor chip left me putting for a bogey....next tee trouble ensued... felt mechanical and frustrated... I ended the first 9 with an embarrassing 55...at the turn I grabbed a few beers and decided to just have some fun... shot a 41 on the next 9.... played an additional 9 and shot a 38...but at that point had a pretty good buzz going...I am just going to chalk it up as I am working on to many things and need to save the practice for the range and do what is routine on the course...if I have learned one thing... remember the good in golf and develop a severe case of amnesia for the bad...