My Road to Improvement - 7/9/25 new swing video

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 hour ago, GoGoErky said:

Anything you intend to do at p5 needs to be thoughts of and planned before you get to p4.

 

Got it. I agree there. And that there are certain things that may be thought of and planned that become active movements after P4 if it's something that doesn't come "natural" to you that you're trying to fix... Like the casts. 

 

1 hour ago, GoGoErky said:

 

Impact is a reaction tow where the club is at in transition/downswing.

 

as Monte points out the most important thing in the swing is transition. Its har fro get a good transition without a good backswing. So you need to set yourself up in the backswing to give yourself a chance at a good transition. Once you you transition that’s it.

 

IMHO "once you transition that's it" isn't true... I'm a prime example. One of my issues is that I have a too much "around" backswing, and one of the results is that my transition move is steepening. But... And I don't know if it's you or Nels55 that commonly talks about this, one of the differences between adult male swings and juniors or women is the ability to overpower things and compensate for bad stuff. I actually do a pretty solid job of rerouting on the downswing to get that steepening move back on plane. I hit the ball from the inside (sometimes too much lol) and compress it pretty well despite that steepening move. 

 

Where I agree is that I need to fix my backswing, so I don't steepen in transition, and I don't need to reroute/compensate. Which will probably make my swing more powerful because I'm spending less effort compensating and causing power leaks. And which will hopefully make everything more consistent. But where I disagree is "once you transition that's it" because if that were the case I'd be hopelessly OTT with my transition but things I do *after* transition are doing that reroute. It's not ideal (and I need to fix it), but it's possible. 

 

[GoGoErky]

1 hour ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

IMHO "once you transition that's it" isn't true... I'm a prime example. One of my issues is that I have a too much "around" backswing, and one of the results is that my transition move is steepening. But... And I don't know if it's you or Nels55 that commonly talks about this, one of the differences between adult male swings and juniors or women is the ability to overpower things and compensate for bad stuff. I actually do a pretty solid job of rerouting on the downswing to get that steepening move back on plane. I hit the ball from the inside (sometimes too much lol) and compress it pretty well despite that steepening move. 

What we do after transition is to make any compensations for the club being out of position. It’s our brain telling our body how to get club to the ball it’s not you trying to purposely do something. If you didn’t do the things you do in your down swing as reaction to where the club is you would with A) not hit the ball or B) hit it worse than you do.
 

Again it takes .25 seconds from the top

of the swing to impact. It takes .3 seconds for for signals to go from the CNS and being processed to go

out to the motor neurons. So you can’t think of something at p5 and do it before  p6 or p7. 

[bortass]

I have written about actively making Cast B happen over the years. It's something I have done off and on since NTC was released and obviously I don't have a clue about if/when I should even be trying to mess with it since I do not do Cast A. What I do know is if I think about making Cast B happen to start my downswing, I seem get the face closed better. I don't see the  push fades as much and draws appear more often.

 

This is all feel versus real territory. I am aware of the downswing being faster than our reaction times and don't know where in the swing my pea brain thinks about Cast B to "trigger/start" the downswing. I know if I think about Cast A or Cast B at some point in my swing, a change does happen. Can't think about both in the same swing though, lol.

 

My intentional Cast B is likely just a bandaid and probably isn't even being done correctly by me. I feel like I come into impact with a wide open face a lot more than I should( I say this because at my skill level I would expect to have the face either too open or too closed a decent amount). I understand the face being wide open is all based upon how I swing a club and if I can improve my swing to fall more within the range of acceptable swings, theoretically the face should not be as open as often as it is now. So if I think about trying to close the face, it seems to help.

 

I'm still at the point of just trying to improve my backswing via going from address to end of backswing slowly with a club and no ball. Trying to make sure I shift to the trail side, rotate the trail hip up and back, keep the left arm from breaking down and not letting the arms get behind me.  I really don't know how long it'll be before I start to see these things show up in my swing most of the time.  I am assuming it will take quite a while and then it'll be the question of what to tackle next.  

 

 

[GoGoErky]

9 minutes ago, bortass said:

I have written about actively making Cast B happen over the years. It's something I have done off and on since NTC was released and obviously I don't have a clue about if/when I should even be trying to mess with it since I do not do Cast A. What I do know is if I think about making Cast B happen to start my downswing, I seem get the face closed better. I don't see the  push fades as much and draws appear more often.

 

This is all feel versus real territory. I am aware of the downswing being faster than our reaction times and don't know where in the swing my pea brain thinks about Cast B to "trigger/start" the downswing. I know if I think about Cast A or Cast B at some point in my swing, a change does happen. Can't think about both in the same swing though, lol.

 

My intentional Cast B is likely just a bandaid and probably isn't even being done correctly by me. I feel like I come into impact with a wide open face a lot more than I should( I say this because at my skill level I would expect to have the face either too open or too closed a decent amount). I understand the face being wide open is all based upon how I swing a club and if I can improve my swing to fall more within the range of acceptable swings, theoretically the face should not be as open as often as it is now. So if I think about trying to close the face, it seems to help.

 

I'm still at the point of just trying to improve my backswing via going from address to end of backswing slowly with a club and no ball. Trying to make sure I shift to the trail side, rotate the trail hip up and back, keep the left arm from breaking down and not letting the arms get behind me.  I really don't know how long it'll be before I start to see these things show up in my swing most of the time.  I am assuming it will take quite a while and then it'll be the question of what to tackle next.  

 

 

Thinking about cast or cast b at this point doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 

the focus should be on the takeaway and then the backswing. You’re out of position at the very start of the takeaway. Everything you do after the takeaway is compensation for there the club is.

 

Learn to set the wrists and get the club on the toe line and then to get the hands to 7 o’clock. If you’re not in proper position with the hands and 7 aka lead arm parallel you won’t be at p4 or anywhere in the downswing.

 

If you’re going to do NTC focus on the wrist set and push to 7 and work on that til it’s not a problem anymore. To hit balls forms 7 o’clock you use cast b

[bortass]

19 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

Thinking about cast or cast b at this point doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 

I agree with regard to what I'm trying to work on.  Thinking about cast B seems to help when I'm playing though, so I'll probably keep that bandaid unless I start pull hooking the crap outta the ball. It gets tiresome to play from the right trees which is what almost always happens with the push fade.

[jut111]

Just jumped into the thread and to my untrained eye your swing videos reminded me a lot of my old ones. Bit of a reverse hip sway in the backswing. 
 

drill that helped me with that was to unweight my lead foot as a swing trigger.  Some before and after of my progress with that. 
 

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

6 hours ago, bortass said:

I agree with regard to what I'm trying to work on.  Thinking about cast B seems to help when I'm playing though, so I'll probably keep that bandaid unless I start pull hooking the crap outta the ball. It gets tiresome to play from the right trees which is what almost always happens with the push fade.

Nothing at all wrong with playing with the intention of swing to P3 and then using cast b. In that video posted a week or so ago with Brandon and Monte, that was what Monte suggested and Brandon made a full swing because (as was discussed in @iacas's excellent podcast this week) nobody at your level can stop at P3 without a lot of practice. 

 

Work on the pivot and backswing away from the course.

[berndgeurts]

On 3/20/2025 at 9:02 PM, bortass said:

@TheDeanAbides @getitdaily @iacas Thanks for all the input. I am slowly realizing I have had my head buried in the sand. I had noticed that my old swing videos from over  a decade ago showed the same issues my more recent videos contain. The obvious reason is it's because I didn't actually make any real motor pattern improvements. I just didn't accept that I've been a bit delusional the last 5 years.  I worked on stuff but it had a couple flaws IMO.

 

It was disjointed in that I thought my backswing was okay, so I dabbled with Cast A and B from NTC. First off, dabbling doesn't get the job done. Second while I have issues with both of those wrist movements, they are not the earliest issues in my swing chain. A lot of my full swing 'work' fell into those two traps. My gains with driver and slight gains with approaches during that timeframe is most likely from all the reps and figuring out how to get a little better with getting the club on the ball with my swing, not because I made a fundamental swing change.

 

@TheDeanAbides and @berndgeurts both told me years ago to do mirror work which ties into what @iacas wrote with the 3:00 five times a day. I have never been on board with that, after all the range is where you make the changes! Well, that is a fallacy that I am finally understanding. My office in the new house is big enough that I can grab a club and do some slow work w/o a ball. I could swing a club if I wanted but I do not want to have the missus kill me if I FUBAR and either hit a wall or damage the floor. I have been taking a few minutes here and there throughout the day to try to work on my backswing. Sometimes with a club but never with a ball. I'm also aware of the science behind it's better to practice 15 minutes on three days versus 45 minutes at once.

 

What all this means, is I am starting to actually try to change the motor pattern in a more realistic way. My plan is to keep working on things w/o a ball a few times a day for a few minutes at a time when I can.  I still will go to the range and hit balls but it won't be a daily thing. I don't want to write off the range completely since I still play once a week and don't have a simulator to hit in at the house. 

 

None of this is going to be easy. It'll take who knows how long but I'm confident if I stick with it, lasting changes can be made. I got lucky that just the feel of shifting right at the start of my backswing seems to have improved how I hit the ball with my driver. I am very cognizant that changes may not have a quick positive impact and things can go south on the course before it gets better. 

 

I'm a much better golfer than when I came back to the game at the end of 2019 but it's not because I made big strides in swing improvement. My swing is my largest limiting factor and it's time to try to make it better.  

This post tells the best step someone can take when starting a path to improvement.

[bortass]

I did more slow motion work of and on through out the week w/o a ball. I also never got to the range. Most of the guys went to 'Bama to play the RTJ Trail, so I thought I'd be alone on Saturday. One guy did join me and we played 18 in about 2:50, lol. We didn't rush but were able to move right along.

 

I focused on my grip and the shift right at the start of my backswing the entire round, so I don't comment on it in the recap.

 

Coweta Club, white tees, 70.4/129, 6202 yards per the card. All hole description yardages are from the card. The course winds through a subdivision and every hole has trees on both sides. There are no holes where a miss will just put you on another hole. The course is also hilly. There are a lot of uneven lies out there. Greens are small IMO, have no tiers, and some are in rough shape.

 

 

1 – par 4, 300 yards, slight dogleg right, #15 HCP. There is a gully of sorts fronting the tee boxes. The landing area is lower than the tee boxes but wide. There's a dip in the fairway short of the green before it rises back up to the fringe, so short shots may roll back away from the green. One small bunker is front left.

 

I start off with a solid drive, 221 yards, into the middle of the fairway. I have about 90ish yards to the back of the green and I decide to use that as my approach yardage because I normally come up short. It's a partial AW and contact is very solid, 97 yards, and over the green. I'm in the rough with a slight slope down to the green. I bump and run chip with my 7i and mess up.

 

The ball comes out more sideways for some reason and stops in the fringe. I chip with my putter to a foot and start with a bogey, 5.

 

2 – par 4, 354 yards, slight dogleg right, #3 HCP. Fairly wide fairway with no real trouble. Too far right could block you out though. The entire fairway slopes left to right. The green is slightly elevated compared to the fairway and there's another dip between the fairway and green. There is a fairway bunker on the right near the green and another bunker guarding the front right.

 

The wheels come off the bus right away as I push fade my drive OOB. My provisional is a pull draw, 236 yards, into the left rough. I don't find the first ball and am now scrambling for a double.

 

I have about 140 as my target and mishit my 7i. A low push into a bunker that's just over twenty yards short of the green. I barely get out of the bunker in one. I have to use my SW to chip from an up slope because another green side bunker is in the mix. Contact is okay but I leave it short of the green. Chip with my putter to a foot and walk off with a quad, 8.

 

Awesome start to the day.

 

3 – par 3, 150 yards, #17 HCP. There is a gully/stream bed with stuff growing in it about halfway between the tee and green, so a forced carry. A small bunker is front right. The green is a little lower than the tee boxes.

 

It's about 150 yards to the back of the green and I use that for my target yardage. I make decent contact with my 6i and it's a solid push fade, 153 yards, that misses the green about 10 yards right or so. I bump and run using my 7i and I have the speed but the ball doesn't break as I thought. The ball stops about 14 feet directly above the hole. It's a two putt bogey, 4.

 

The quad sucks but I feel good about the other two holes. I mention this just to frame my mental state after the massive blowup.

 

4 – par 4, 340 yards, fairly straight hole, #13 HCP. Tees are lower than the fairway landing spot and there is another stream forced carry between tees and fairway. The landing area is very wide but the right side slopes steeply into the woods. The fairway dips again, probably 100 yards short of the green, and rises back up to an elevated green. There are two fairway pot bunkers on the right side where the fairway starts to rise towards the green again.

 

Another terrible push fade with my driver into the right trees, 179 yards. I have to take a drop and have around 130 to the back of the green. I mishit my 8i and it's a very low draw that goes about 115 yards and ends up a couple yards short of the green.

 

I chip with my putter, about 8 yards, to a foot. I dodge a bullet and come away with a bogey, 5.

 

5- par 5, 490 yards, another fairly straight hole, #9 HCP. Decent fairway width and the fairway may be a bit higher than the tees. There is a gully with brush short of the green with a small gap on the left side that rises to an elevated green. Behind the green is a slope going up that is covered in very long grass and whatever else will grow. This makes it tricky because short runs the risk of rolling back into the gully and long is very difficult as well.

 

I make sure to turn my wrists over in the downswing and hit a pull draw, 237 yards, into the left rough. There is a slope leading down to a ditch that fronts the green which I need to account for with my second shot. I decide to punch a 7i using the 4Ls and it comes out real good and I see it land and bounce near the top of the slope. The ball runs out quite a bit and it's a 190 yard shot that leaves a pitch to the elevated green across the ditch.

 

I hit a great pitch and my ball is about 11 feet left of the cup and just a bit past it. The birdie putt is tracking at the hole and dies a foot short. I didn't hit it firm enough but a par is always good, 5.

 

6 – par 4, 404 yards, close to 45* dogleg left, #1 HCP. It's tight off the tee and then opens up in the landing area at the corner of the dogleg. A tee shot of 210+ yards risks going through the fairway and into trees. If you get too close to the outside edge of the fairway, you will not have a shot at the green. The fairway narrows as it drops to another stream, forced carry, around 100 yards short of the green. The fairway rises up to the green and a small set of three bunkers guard the front left.

 

The hole I struggle the most with is this one. I tee off with my 4w and hit a high draw down the right side that goes 199 yards and ends up in the fairway on the left because of the slopes.

 

I am about 200 yards out on a downhill lie and can't go for it. I decide to lay up with my 5i across the stream and mishit it. I hit a push fade that luckily crosses the stream and ends up under some trees on the right side. It was a 141 yard shot but I'm in 'my spot'...

 

My ball is sitting on dead leaves and the green is above me and I have a steep bank directly in front of me. I always come up short from this spot even though a 50 yard shot will reach the green. I take my SW and instead of trying a long pitch, I take some off my partial SW swing. It comes out good and goes 62 yards and over the green.

 

It's flat behind the green and I hit a 10 yard bump and run chip with my 7i to 4 feet. Double bogey is my best result on this hole I think and I have a short bogey putt!

 

I push it and miss and get a double, 6, which is pretty much the best I can do it seems. A double sucks but it's better then a triple or quad which is more normal for me here.

 

7 – par 5, 514 yards, fairly straight hole but the green is a bit off set to the left, #7 HCP. The fairway goes up to a crest before it starts to drop to the green, so you are teeing off into an upslope. There are a set of fairway bunkers on the left side about 300 yards from the white tees. Being on the left side will block you out from the green or you have to deal with trees. There is a pond to the right of the green. Overall this hole is narrows as it approaches the green.

 

I hit a nice true fade for a change, 238 yards, into the left side of the fairway. My second shot will go over the crest of a slope, so I hit a 4Ls shot with my 6i. It comes out good, a low draw, and takes the slope and rolls out which turns it into a 201 yard shot. I wish I could hit my 6i that far normally, lol.

 

My ball is in the fairway and on a slight down slope. It's about 80ish to the back of the green but going too long is bad. I take a bit off my partial SW shot and hit it nice but a bit left. The ball lands in the left fringe and rolls to the right and onto the green. I have a 21 foot birdie putt and get it to a foot. I have no complaints about the putt and come away with a par, 5.

 

8 – par 3, 152 yards, elevated green, #11 HCP. There is a forced carry, stream, about halfway to the green. It's really only in play with the tee shot. It then climbs up higher than the tee boxes. Short shots will likely roll backwards away from the green but that's about it.

 

It's close to 150ish to the back of this green and I always seem to come up short with the mishits on this hole. The hole is closer to 140 yards but I stick with my 6i.

 

I make a good swing and hit a high draw, 146 yards, and onto the green past the hole. I finally hit this green! I have a 21 foot downhill birdie putt. It tracks for the hole and drops! Birdie, 2.

 

9 – par 4, 366 yards, straight hole, #5 HCP. The tees are elevated but so is the green. Imagine a U with the green being higher than the tee box. Your tee shot is into the face of the slope rising to the green. It's also very steep just short of the green the green.

 

Another solid drive, I can't recall the shape though outside it wasn't massive either way, 248 yards into the center of the fairway. I have a partial SW on an upslope to reach the green and chunk it...

 

The ball lands a bit short of the top of the slope and rolls back a good 20 yards, sigh. It's a weak 46 yard result. I hit a good, blind pitch, 28 yards, to 8 feet and two putt for a bogey, 5.

 

I had two bad holes but feel like I am playing very good for a change as I head to the back 9.

 

10 – par 4, 390 yards, dogleg right, #4 HCP hole. There is a steep slope to the right at the corner that goes down to a stream, about 270ish yards from the tees and inside 100 from center. The ball will feed right and take the slope if you hit the ball around 210ish off the tee. There's a bunker short right just across the stream and below the green. A small set of bunkers curve around the left side of the green.

 

The tees are back some but I am worried that driver will be too much and end up in the gully short of the green. I tee off with my 4w and hit a solid draw down the left side. We see it land and kick right towards the down slope.

 

I find my ball near the cart path, 308 yards off the tee. Gotta love a 100 yards or so or roll, lol. One of the longest drives ever for me but all three or so 300+ yard tee shots in my life have had some serious help. It's not because I can actually hit the ball that far, lol.

 

I take relief from the cart path and that gives me about 110ish yards to the hole. I stick with a partial PW since I have a tail wind and I don't trust a partial 9i swing.

 

Contact is very good and it's a high shot in, 111 yards, that ends up 12 feet left of the hole and just a little past. I have another birdie putt that I leave short by a foot. Par, 4.

 

“Pars are good” is what I say as I get my ball out off the cup.

 

 

11 – par 4, 354 yards, straight hole, uphill the entire way, #8 HCP. There's a forced carry over a stream off the tee. The fairway is wide but slopes to the right. It's entirely uphill and balls that get too close to the right side may take a slope into the trees. There's a bunker about 20 yards short of the front right with another bunker just past it fronting the green.

 

Teeing off into the wind and into the face of the hill that I just came down on #10. I hit a solid drive, 206 yards, into the middle of the fairway. I'm near the 150 marker and the green is 32 feet above me per Arccos. It's telling me it's playing more like 175ish. I trust the playing distance and go with my 7w from 150...

 

The ball is on an up slope and I make good contact. A high draw at the green. The ball went 158 yards and is in the back rough. I bump and run chip with 7i to 3 feet and sink the par putt, 4.

 

12 – par 4, 351 yards, dogleg right, #6 HCP. It's narrow off the tee but opens up as you approach the corner. A couple fairway bunkers guard the outside edge of the corner in the rough, about 220 yards from the white tees. There's more room to miss the green to the left than right.

 

I don't recall what the wind was doing on this hole but I hit a high fade with my driver, 216 yards, into the fairway on the right. I have a partial PW in, ball below my feet, and push it. A bit thin too and the ball lands short of the green and it rolls across the green and just off the right side.

 

Another bump and run 7i chip to 5 feet. I miss the putt and it's a bogey, 5.

 

13 – par 3, 181 yards, #16 HCP, the tees are very elevated on this hole. Imagine a lopsided U with the green being on the low side. There are a couple bunkers on the left edge of the rough and trees short of the green. A large bunker is front right and a set of four small bunkers curl from three back right to back left of the green.

 

The tees are back and it's about 180 to the hole. I tee off with 7w and hit a pull high draw, 171 yards, that lands short and left of the green. The hole is just on the left side and I hit a 13 yard bump and run 7i to 4 feet. Again it's a 2 putt for bogey, 4.

 

14 – par 5, 515, straight hole, #10 HCP. The fairway is more narrow but there's no real trouble outside of the trees on both sides. There are a couple of fairway bunkers about 80ish yards short of the green. There's another bunker front right and a second on the left side towards the back of the green which would catch balls that would otherwise take a slope into the trees.

 

The tees are forward and I think we had a tailwind because I hit a very solid push draw down the right side 263 yards...

 

I'm in the right rough and 7w could reach the green. I hit it thin and off the toe. It hits a tree about 40 yards in front of me on the right and kicks into the trees.

 

I have to take a drop and now it's an 8i in. I thin that as well but it goes 118 yards and ends up just short on the right side. I hit a 15 yard 7i bump and run chip to 5 feet. This time I make the putt to dsave bogey, 6.

 

That 7w shot sucked but I am very happy to have saved my bogey.

 

15 – par 4, 360 yards, straight, #12 HCP. There are a couple of trees on the left side that cut into the fairway short of the green. So a tee shot into the left rough will lead to them being in the mix with your approach shot. This fairway also slopes right to left.

 

A pull draw with my driver, 247 yards, into the left trees. I find my ball and have no shot at the green that is worth the risk. It's open if I want to come out to the right and the hole has a slope along the entire right side that feeds the ball left.

 

I figure a little 4Ls 9i out to the right and try to hit the green in three. I aim a bit too aggressively. The ball comes out nice, hits a branch dead on because eit started more left than I should have, and kicks backwards almost to where I left my cart. I'm in the left rough after a -6 yard shot...

 

From there I chunk a partial PW, Leave a 40 yard 7i bump and run short of the green. Finally get on with my next chip to 4 feet and two putt for a triple bogey, 7.

 

Wow does that hurt...

 

16 – par 3, 157 yards, #18 HCP. Elevated tees and a long narrow green. A stream is on the right side by the green and there's a single bunker front left. The green slopes from back left to front right.

 

I decide to hit my 6i and aim left. I decide to blade it off the tee for some reason and the ball goes about 115 yards. I bump and run it with 7i about 33 yards which gives me a 24 foot par put that goes up a small tier. I leave it 4 feet short and three putt for double, 5.

 

Really?

 

17 – par 4, 250 yards, straight, #14 HCP. The tees are very elevated. The fairway is narrow and the green is slightly offset to the left. A few bunkers guard short right. Another guards short left. There are mature trees that poke out a bit on the left side near the green. This is a drive-able hole.

 

The tees are forward and as usual it's go for the green with driver. I hit a solid pull fade down the left side. The ball lands between the bunkers fronting the green, rolls up onto the green and just off the right side, 226 yards.

 

Well I almost drove a green, at least my ball actually was on the green for about 10 yards, lol.

 

The hole is about 8 yards away and I have a couple yards of rough to deal with. I make a poor choice and bump and run chip with 7i instead of putter. My eagle chip just misses the hole and rolls 15 feet past it. I hit my birdie putt to a foot and have a sad par after starting with a pretty simple eagle chip, 4.

 

 

18 – par 5, 544 yards, slight dogleg right, #2 HCP. The fairway drops off into a wide gully that you can't see from the tee boxes at the corner. The landing area is wide and there's a small slope on the left side that you can try to bank your tee shot off but anything 220ish yards is likely in that gully. The fairway climbs back up from the gully and the green is the highest point on this hole. A cluster of bunkers are short and left of the green to catch balls that would otherwise take the steep slope into the trees on the left. The main defense on this hole is the length and the gully takes driver out of the mix unless you can carry about 250ish.

 

I opt for my 4w and aim a bit left. It's a high draw that goes 180 yards into the left side of the fairway. It's level and another 4w is what I opt for. I blade it 149 yards. Luckily it made it over the ditch and I have around 170ish yards to the green from an upslope.

 

I swing my 7w and hit it fat and all of 87 yards, lol. I now have a wedge in, partial AW, that I hit okay and it lands on the green, 81 yards. I'm pin high and 12 feet to the right of the hole. I hit the par putt and it drops, 5.

 

A 45/44, 89. One of my best rounds on this course and a 16.3 differential which dropped my index from 20.0 to 19.3. I'm surprised I did so well with a quad and triple on the card. This round does highlight why not letting a bad hole early on taint a round matters. I don't have the swing changes nearly worked out but it's making a difference. I am hitting the ball a bit further off the tee. I also hit my irons a bit more solid than usual. That and using the yardages closer to the back of the green helped. Chipping and putting were not lights out but the good stuff in both areas outweighed the brain farts and bad execution I had.

 

There were some obvious issues with decision making. The 7i chip on 17 and the getting greedy on #15 with the pitch out of the trees really stand out. Execution errors as well but I will always have those. Overall, I am extremely happy with this round and I hope I can keep it going. My swing feels different on the course and that's a good thing cuz the old one doesn't get the job done, lol.

 

birdies: 1

pars: 6

bogeys: 7

double bogeys: 2

triple+: 2

 

 

Some stats:

Avg drive: 229 yards

Longest drive: 308 yards

Fairways: 6/14

GIR: 5/18

Avg Approach: 106 yards

Up & down: 3/13

Putts: 30

 

Strokes gained compared to a 10 HCP. 

Overall: -6.6 strokes

driving: -2.3,

Approach: -5.2,

Short game: +1.9

Putting: -0.9

 

Edited March 31 by bortass
Added photo

[TheDeanAbides]

I didn't read the whole thing, Boris, but I thought you were going to use the cast b P3 feel for playing? 

Edited April 1 by TheDeanAbides

[bortass]

6 hours ago, TheDeanAbides said:

I didn't read the whole thing, Boris, but I thought you were going to use the cast b P3 feel for playing? 

The glory of my walls of text 😉

 

 

I am and I didn't call it out because I didn't always remember to do it.

 

For example, my tee shot on #2. I launched that thing way into the right trees with a push fade. My provisional, I made sure to use the feel and hit a pull draw. I pretty much used that feel the rest of the round but I am pretty sure I forgot to a few other times. It would be easier if that was the only thing I was thinking about, lol.

 

 

Edited April 1 by bortass

[TheDeanAbides]

1 minute ago, bortass said:

I am and I didn't call it out because I didn't always remember to do it.

 

For example, my tee shot on #2. I launched that thing way into the right trees with a push fade. My provisional, I made sure to use the feel and hit a pull draw. I pretty much used that feel the rest of the round but I am pretty sure I forgot to a few other times. It would be easier if that was the only thing I was thinking about, lol.

 

 

That should be the only technical thing you're thinking about. In fact, I would recommend making that the feel you use in your preshot routine. Do you have a preshot routine that you use religiously? Sounds like you don't. 

 

I always say to high cappers that there are things they can do as well as any pro - visualisation, preshot routine, setup fundamentals, aim. If you're not doing these you will stay stuck. They create the internal culture of a player. 

[bortass]

14 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

That should be the only technical thing you're thinking about. In fact, I would recommend making that the feel you use in your preshot routine. Do you have a preshot routine that you use religiously? Sounds like you don't. 

 

I always say to high cappers that there are things they can do as well as any pro - visualisation, preshot routine, setup fundamentals, aim. If you're not doing these you will stay stuck. They create the internal culture of a player. 

I do have a pre shot routine but swinging the club isn't part of it. It's just gripping the club behind the ball, getting my target line, and how I address the ball. 

 

I am thinking about two things, which is probably one too many, and noticing a third. First is making sure to shift to the right as the backswing starts, second is cast b feel. I am noticing my arms are in a different spot at the top of my backswing but that's not a swing thought, more of noticing a change in how things feel compared to my normal flat and OTT swing.

[TheDeanAbides]

7 minutes ago, bortass said:

I do have a pre shot routine but swinging the club isn't part of it. It's just gripping the club behind the ball, getting my target line, and how I address the ball. 

 

I am thinking about two things, which is probably one too many, and noticing a third. First is making sure to shift to the right as the backswing starts, second is cast b feel. I am noticing my arms are in a different spot at the top of my backswing but that's not a swing thought, more of noticing a change in how things feel compared to my normal flat and OTT swing.

One thought when you swing is plenty. You can do a slo-mo swing as part of your routine to get a feel for those other things, but over the ball you only want one thought. Do it every single time. It'll make a big difference - I'd say easily 3-5 shots at your level. 

[TheDeanAbides]

I hope that this is something you can see the value of now rather than in three years time. 

[bortass]

This week was more work on the takeaway w/o a ball. It's not exciting but it is easy to grab the club in my office and spend a couple minutes here and there working on the moves.

 

I did make it to the range today. Luckily there is no video, so everyone's lunch is safe 😉 I stuck with the recommendation to work on takeaway. I did the drill Monte has in NTC for 'backswing A'. It's really about hinging the wrists up and flexing/flattening the left wrist. The drill is pretty simple, hinge up, then flatten the left wrist, then push the hands towards 7 o'clock. I've been noticing a feel from the drill during my backswing work in the house and when I hit balls today while working on said drill. One thing I noticed is contact is moving closer to the center of the clubface. The grass stains were more centralized versus off the toe. This makes me believe that changes are actually occurring.

 

I finished the session with a few full seven iron shots and overall I am pretty happy with them. I'll be playing tomorrow and will do my best to use Cast B as my swing thought and to work in some of what @TheDeanAbidessuggested into my pre-shot routine. I am hopeful that the round will go well but it's okay if it doesn't.

 

Have a good weekend!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Good luck tomorrow! I'm going to be brewing a batch of beer, which I haven't done in a LONG time--roughly since I got back into golf in 2020. 

 

Which should be good. I'm a $^&#@& golfer, but I'm a plus-index homebrewer 😉 

 

[bortass]

7 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

Good luck tomorrow! I'm going to be brewing a batch of beer, which I haven't done in a LONG time--roughly since I got back into golf in 2020. 

 

Which should be good. I'm a $^&#@& golfer, but I'm a plus-index homebrewer 😉 

 

Thanks! Let me guess, your avatar on home brew sites is a bag and clubs😄

 

Good luck with the beer. There are a couple of guys on my team at work that home brew but we're scattered across the country, so I never get to try any. One of them did bring some barley wine that he made to one of our last FtF team meetings which was back in 2018 I think. It was different but I'm also not a beer or wine guy.

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

30 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

Good luck tomorrow! I'm going to be brewing a batch of beer, which I haven't done in a LONG time--roughly since I got back into golf in 2020. 

 

Which should be good. I'm a $^&#@& golfer, but I'm a plus-index homebrewer 😉 

 

If you have a still I'm in! 

[SNIPERBBB]

3 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

Good luck tomorrow! I'm going to be brewing a batch of beer, which I haven't done in a LONG time--roughly since I got back into golf in 2020. 

 

Which should be good. I'm a $^&#@& golfer, but I'm a plus-index homebrewer 😉 

 

Let us know when your step it up to mead, wine or whiskey 😛

[bortass]

On 4/4/2025 at 3:14 PM, betarhoalphadelta said:

Good luck tomorrow! I'm going to be brewing a batch of beer, which I haven't done in a LONG time--roughly since I got back into golf in 2020. 

 

Which should be good. I'm a $^&#@& golfer, but I'm a plus-index homebrewer 😉 

 

Hope the beer comes out better than my round did!

[betarhoalphadelta]

9 minutes ago, bortass said:

Hope the beer comes out better than my round did!

So far so good! 😂

 

[bortass]

  I commented Saturday that my round wasn't great. It's true, it wasn't great. It was middling/decent.  I had hoped what I pulled off the prior week would continue but it didn't. I shot a 46/48*, 94*. *I picked up on #10 and carded a NDB triple. It helped my index drop, -0.1, to 19.2.

 

The round was marred by three triples and two doubles. I could blame two things for it but one is a direct side effect of the first. My approach shots were way off. It was like I regressed and it led to some bunker play issues. I could blame my bunker play but it was mishit approaches that caused it all. The approach issues happened even on non blow up holes but I was able to scramble and recover.

 

The main patterns were low point and face control. I used the cast B feel on every full swing but I was still a mess. I felt like I was either thinking too much on some swings and a couple times felt more conscious control take over( which was always bad). I'm chalking it up to the learning process for now.

 

AW: Partial shot that I bladed over the green and into the trees, scrambled for bogey.

 

PW: Chunked partial shot into a bunker. Led to a double when I get out in one and three putt from 50 feet.

 

8i: Heavy shot that comes up short. I get up and down for par after a great 7i chip.

 

6i: low push fade that came up 50 yards short and landed in a bunker. Took two shots to barely get out and led to a triple.

      Fat, low, push fade similar to the above in ball flight, scrambled for bogey.

      Topped 4Ls shot that ended up in the left trees by the cart path. Scrambled for bogey.

      Chunked 6i off tee on par 3. Miracle pitch to a foot saved par.

      High push fade off the tee on a par 3 into a hazard on the right. Led to a double.

      

5i: Shanked from a downhill lie into the right trees. This played a role in a triple but I will need to talk about the tee shot on this hole. I hit my 7w, high push, into the right trees and punched out with my sand wedge. The mishit 5i was my third shot and the approach at the green. I was playing for bogey once I saw the tee shot head right but couldn't pull it off. FWIW, this was on the hole that always kills me every round.

 

7w: Shanked it OOB but the ball bounced back in play but it only went 50 yards and set me up on a steep downslope. That led to a bladed 8i into a gully and I hit a heavy AW after th drop, so I picked up and carded a NDB triple(7).

     Thinned approach from an up slope lie that rolled about 110 yards and I scrambled for bogey.

 

4w: topped second shot on a par 5 left me playing for bogey and I pulled it off.

 

Driver: Topped drive(120 yards) that led to a bogey, which is what I was playing for after the tee shot.

 

The good news is even with the topped driver shot, I feel like I am hitting that club better. I think the ball being on a higher tee helps mask the low point issues I see with irons on a par 3. That said, distance and quality of drives seem to be improving. It's a very small sample size and I could be very wrong but I'm gonna take the optimistic view for a change 🤣

 

 

Strokes gained compared to a 10 HCP. 

Overall: -11.8 strokes

driving: -0.5,

Approach: -10.8,

Short game: +0.9

Putting: -1.3

 

birdies: 0

pars: 4

bogeys: 9

double bogeys: 2

triple+: 3

 

 

Some stats:

Avg drive: 207 yards

Longest drive: 245 yards

Fairways: 10/14

GIR: 2/18

Avg Approach: 98 yards

Up & down: 4/15

Putts: 30 (assuming a 2 putt on the hole I picked up on)

 

[TheDeanAbides]

PM your latest work over? It'd be good to see how the pelvis is moving.

[bortass]

13 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

PM your latest work over? It'd be good to see how the pelvis is moving.

Full swing or the indoor stuff w/o a ball? 

[TheDeanAbides]

1 hour ago, bortass said:

Full swing or the indoor stuff w/o a ball? 

Both if you have them. 

[bortass]

The guys in the Saturday dogfight run a couple Masters weekend tournaments. Friday was the par 3 tournament which was a blast. The holes ranged from 37 yards, chipping down a hill next to the green, to playing the tips on one of the regular par 3s that was playing 220 yards. The distances and things to deal with was very interesting. There were a couple cases where the tee was sent on the next holes tee box. For example the tee for #2 was one of the tee boxes for #3. This brought trees and brush into the mix. 

 

I have included a picture that was the view from where we teed off for the 9th green. The tee box was across the cart path by the driving range. It was 73 yards to the flag, which you can't even see, because the green is 15+ feet lower then ground level where that rock is. 

 

 

I didn't do so hot in the par 3, played bogey golf, nor the Masters tourney on Saturday where I couldn't seem to get anything going and carded a 105 with at least 4 Xs. It was fun though and I'm looking forward to it next year.

[bortass]

I snagged this today, regular and slow motion video. It's just a backswing and I feel my pressure go to the right but I am not sure about how this looks overall. It still looks like I'm going left right away but I'm not positive.

 

 

 

[getitdaily]

18 minutes ago, bortass said:

I snagged this today, regular and slow motion video. It's just a backswing and I feel my pressure go to the right but I am not sure about how this looks overall. It still looks like I'm going left right away but I'm not positive.

 

 

 

This would be good for you to do...15 or 20lb ball is all you need.

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

Two things stand out. You need to feel like you make a concerted effort to shift right straight away: shift, turn, shift, turn remember? 

 

The other thing is that you are far too narrow. Feel much more like you're keeping your right arm straight in the backswing. 

 

Pelvis looks better, but a DTL would help. 

 

Good work!