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

[bortass]

17 minutes ago, iacas said:

You can still get fliers from SGI type clubs. The high launch, low spin, game-improvement type clubs when caught high on the face do the same thing a driver does: knock off spin while increasing the launch.

 

That's why good players generally don't use them - poor distance control. Too many little fliers here and there. I had a student who was a 5 who would hit his 7I 175… and occasionally 195. It was unusable. He traded them in for some cavity back player irons and shaved a stroke off his handicap in his next few rounds.

 

Have either of you ever measured your clubhead speed?

I have not. The only thing I have is kinda anecdotal and from a long time(2009ish) ago. I went to a club fitting and the fitter commented I had a low swing speed. My problem is I can't remember if if was my 6i or driver, I think 6i. Anyhow clubhead speed was in the mid 70s. I have been fitted into R flex shafts at every fitting.

 

I've wanted to dabble with speed training but all the advice is fix your crap swing before going down that path. I don't have a radar, though i know they are cheap, because I have not pursued speed training.

Edited June 10 by bortass

[iacas]

45 minutes ago, bortass said:

I have not. The only thing I have is kinda anecdotal and from a long time(2009ish) ago. I went to a club fitting and the fitter commented I had a low swing speed. My problem is I can't remember if if was my 6i or driver, I think 6i. Anyhow clubhead speed was in the mid 70s. I have been fitted into R flex shafts at every fitting.

 

I've wanted to dabble with speed training but all the advice is fix your crap swing before going down that path. I don't have a radar, though i know they are cheap, because I have not pursued speed training.

 

Right, so… LPGA Tour average is 78 MPH and 143 carry with a 7I.

 

[bortass]

13 minutes ago, iacas said:

 

Right, so… LPGA Tour average is 78 MPH and 143 carry with a 7I.

 

  I know an LPGA player would smoke most of us and I have read they are a better comparison for most amateurs, if you want to compare yourself to a pro. My iron distances are just below those LPGA averages with the toe shot off my SGI irons. I think if my mechanics were better and I could get closer to center, I'd probably have better numbers. One thing is when I started to pick up golf, the 'wisdom' was swing slower and find the fairway versus bomb and gouge. So swinging fast/hard is not part of my swing DNA.

 

Why did you ask about swing speed originally?

 

[iacas]

17 minutes ago, bortass said:

Why did you ask about swing speed originally?

 

I know I said "both of you" and this is your topic, but I was mostly asking Brad. He was the one talking about a few hits now and then showing what he thinks is his potential.

 

May be better in his topic…

[bortass]

Just now, iacas said:

 

I know I said "both of you" and this is your topic, but I was mostly asking Brad. He was the one talking about a few hits now and then showing what he thinks is his potential.

 

May be better in his topic…

It's all good!

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

 

I know I said "both of you" and this is your topic, but I was mostly asking Brad. He was the one talking about a few hits now and then showing what he thinks is his potential.

 

May be better in his topic…

 

I'm working on getting the R10 charged (it's been sitting a while). It was early 2023 that I started weight training in earnest, so that old data is probably not really all that relevant right now. Plus it was in my backyard in front of a net that I was terrified I'd hit a shot that missed the net and cause property damage 😟

 

I'll post some up to date speeds in my own thread when I get a chance to take it to the range. I also think that it can have the advantage of triggering my phone to capture swing videos (I never played around with that when I impulse-bought it) and associate them with the actual swing metrics in question... Which might be cool. 

 

But yeah... I don't think there's any physical reason that I can't up my swing speed with driver to 105-110. I think it's mechanical flaws that are leaking power. So I think I'm swinging far below my potential. 

 

The only real question is whether I'm right or wrong on whether some of those rare "big" hits were due to a random swing speed spike, or something like a high face / low spin strike as you suggest. 

[SNIPERBBB]

3 hours ago, bortass said:

  I know an LPGA player would smoke most of us and I have read they are a better comparison for most amateurs, if you want to compare yourself to a pro. My iron distances are just below those LPGA averages with the toe shot off my SGI irons. I think if my mechanics were better and I could get closer to center, I'd probably have better numbers. One thing is when I started to pick up golf, the 'wisdom' was swing slower and find the fairway versus bomb and gouge. So swinging fast/hard is not part of my swing DNA.

 

Why did you ask about swing speed originally?

 

The problem with swinging slow when learninf to play is that you end up being to manipulative with the club.  Swinging fast, you don't have time to do such manipulations.

Lot easier to to swing fast then learn to control it then  learn how to speed up after developing a manipulated swing.

[Nels55]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

You can still get fliers from SGI type clubs. The high launch, low spin, game-improvement type clubs when caught high on the face do the same thing a driver does: knock off spin while increasing the launch.

 

That's why good players generally don't use them - poor distance control. Too many little fliers here and there. I had a student who was a 5 who would hit his 7I 175… and occasionally 195. It was unusable. He traded them in for some cavity back player irons and shaved a stroke off his handicap in his next few rounds.

 

Have either of you ever measured your clubhead speed?

I see that effect on Mevo+ quite often.  Low spin with a good launch and a seven iron can be 15 or even 20 yards longer than a high spin version.  And that is inside on a mat.

[bortass]

1 hour ago, SNIPERBBB said:

The problem with swinging slow when learninf to play is that you end up being to manipulative with the club.  Swinging fast, you don't have time to do such manipulations.

Lot easier to to swing fast then learn to control it then  learn how to speed up after developing a manipulated swing.

Yeah, wish I had known that back then. Not sure if swinging my driver fast on the range for ten balls would help or not.

[Chip Duffer]

An interesting exercise is to simply turn the driver around. Grip the shaft just below the driver head and swing it in tempo but with speed, not power through the bottom of the swing. Basically from 4:00-8:00 on a clock. 
 

Make this practice swing half a dozen times then make your normal set up and drive a ball. 
 

Your mind will begin to recognize that you can swing and turn without a speed limit placed by the brain.

[bortass]

Video update of the drill.  My amateur observations are below and I welcome any feedback to both refine what I am doing and to try to improve my own analysis ability regarding my swing. I'm sure I am missing some stuff. 

 

Positive(s):

• I do better with keeping my head closer to where it was at address. It still drops at the end though. This is still much better than my earlier attempts where I was  dropping my torso low.
• I do a better job of turning and getting my lead shoulder down and pointed more at the ball. This entails more rotation than I tend to do with my flatter turn

 

Negatives:

• I still going left early. My focus is on trying to perform the drill but even though I feel more pressure in my trail heel, I am not shifting to the trail side early on. Reading Vatiel's swing analysis in the Amateur Tournament Golf thread makes it even more painfully clear to me.

 

Notes:

• I am focusing on getting the grip in my fingers. I do it before every attempt and swing on the range. It doesn't seem to be that way when I look at the end of the lift the arms part of this video but I am doing it. Not quite sure what's going on with that.

 

 

 

[bortass]

This post is brought to you by @iacas's thread about getting for 5-10 to scratch based on what the analytics say. I've been using Arccos for over 5 years and only have looked at the SG comparison of my game for that mythical target HCP that I am currently no where close to getting. I've never bother to look at the SG comparison of my peer group aka those golfers with a similar index. It tells me the same story that comparing myself to better golfers but I still think the numbers are interesting. Sorry for the wall of text that I am about to post but part of typing it is it helps me also think about it. 

 

My current index is 20.4 and I am in the soft cap. I expect to hit hard cap again soon since I seriously am struggling to play decent for my actual skill level golf lately.

 

The following is my last 50 rounds compared to a 20 HCP in Arccos. I'll start with the high level numbers and revisit each section in more detail.

 

Approach: -4.5 SG, this has almost always been my worst area. My driving may have been worse when I started playing again but it actually has improved.

 

Driving: -1.8 SG

 

Putting +0.8 SG

 

Short game: +1.4 SG

 

50K foot view, if I were to play with average 20 HCP players, I should make bets based on short game and putting. I find this dynamic kind of funny only because my short game is not that good. Before I started to see the SG data of my game I would have said it was a big area holding me back. 

 

Let's get a bit closer to ground level.

 

Approach game(-4.5):  Arccos told me early on that this is my biggest gap and while I may have gotten better over the years, it's still where I suck the most. I suck with irons and my lack of distance is probably not helping. 

 

In order of problems:

125 - 149 yards: -1.3 strokes, these are all irons.  My 9i is my 120 club and my 6i is my 150 club. My 9i and 6i will bleed into other range bands since they are on the edges of this one.  This is the main driver in my comment that my irons suck.

 

150 - 174 yards: -1.2 strokes. This one is not as clear cut. I have my 6i(150), 5i(160), and 7w(175).  I am going to still say this is an iron issue. My 7w is in the mix here but it's also an edge case.

 

200+ yards: -0.9 strokes, this could be any club in my bag except driver and putter. The odds are I am laying up. My strategy is to hit the longest club I can based on the landing area and trouble. I'll give my 4w a whack at the green if it's 200ish but will probably be short and chipping.

 

175 - 199 yards: -0.5 strokes. I only hit two clubs in this range band normally, 7w and 4w. I tend to hit these better than my irons but can still throw out some stinkers. There can be layups though, if I'm 190ish out with a hazard fronting the green, I am likely to leave the 4w in the bag and get it as close as I can short of the hazard.

 

100 - 124 yards: -0.3 strokes. This is either a 9i(120) or partial PW. My partial PW is my 100 yard club. I tend to hit my partial wedges better than I do my full irons. There is a big gap here since I do not take full swings with my wedges and struggle with partial shots with the 9i.

 

50 - 74 yards: -0.3 strokes: These are all feel shots with my SW. My pitch with SW maxes out around 50 yards, so anything esle in this range is trying to take some off my partial SW(80) shot.

 

75 - 99 yards: +0.0. These are all partial wedges, SW(80), AW(90), and PW(100) and the one approach area where I play like a 20 when it comes to approaches. All of these are pretty much the same swing, I do not try to vary my backswing ala Pelz's clock method even though I did that once upon a time. I figure I can work on that if I ever get a functional iron swing.

 

When it comes to my lie it's pretty clear cut, -2.5 from the fairway; -1.2 from the rough; -0.7 on par 3s. Sand is not worth talking about since I rarely end up in fairway bunkers.

 

Driving(-1.8) is an area I have the biggest swings in SG but I have really struggled the last month. I can have great days with driver and follow it up with some dogs unlike my approach game which is almost always dogs. Both of my home courses since I started playing again 5 years ago have OoB or hazards of both sides of almost every hole. My home course until I move last September had 16 holes with OoB/hazards on both side. My current home course has OoB/hazards on both sides of all 18 holes.

 

Penalties: -2.4, a product of any big miss with driver or 4w( I use 4w off the tee on one hole), is almost always going to be a drop. There are no neighboring fairways to play from and the tree lines tend to have a decent amount of undergrowth that makes is uncommon to punch out.

 

Accuracy: -0.1, I'm not sure I care that I don't quite hit as many fairways as other 20 HCP players. I hit the FW 52% of the time and my misses are pretty even left(23) and right (25).

 

Distance: +0.6, lol. I'm not sure why Arrcos is saying this since my 50 round average is still below the average for a 20 HCP.

 

I don't think it's worth getting into putting and short game since they are "strengths" even though I know I am losing shots there based on what I see happen on the course. I really suck in the 3 - 5 foot range putting for example and do much better lag putting.

 

 

 

[bortass]

I actually have something to write about today. I have the day off and booked the first tee time of the day. It didn't look like anyone was able to join me and I started playing the gold tees instead of the normal whites. I decided to take the advice in Monte's just swing your swing thread. My swing thought was pretty much focus on Cast B and just swing. 

 

Opened with a par and on #2, a maintenance cart dropped off one of the guys that was a maybe at the 2nd green to join me. He had arrived late and we played two balls for the rest of the front 9. He only planned to play the front, so I dropped him off at his car, reset Arccos, and played the back 9 from the whites with a single ball aka like I normally would on a Saturday. All I will say about the front is I had a birdie on #3 with a single ball and overall hit it pretty decent with no penalties.

 

 

 

I shot a 43(+7) with a double and a triple. The double was a bad chip that went about 40 feet long. I lagged it to three feet and missed the next putt. The triple, I am willing to write off.

 

I get to 18, par 5, and setup with my driver. I watched the AMG vide on on setup the other day and was trying to be more cognizant about not having my butt too far back. Well on this hole i setup and it's all wrong. I'm addressing the ball on the heel of my driver and it feels off. I swing anyways, like I always do, I have not learned to back off and start again even though I say I will every time i do this. Anyhow, I heel it, push snap hook into the left trees maybe 100 something yards off the tee box. I decide to hit a provisional, don't think about my setup at all, and smoke it down the middle with a baby draw. I hit an okay 4w to give me a 7i into the green. i catch it tin and I'm off the back. I chip through the front of the green (40 yards) and then use my putter to chip to inside 2 feet and that's my triple. It was not a bad swing that caused this blow up but my idiocy of not resetting on the tee when I knew it didn't look right.

 

I cannot remember the last time I shot under 45 for 9. It has been quite a while. This is a big change from the 100- 109 18 hole rounds with eight or so lost balls that I have been dealing with for the last month. It wasn't all great and I pulled some short game magic outta my butt. I had a chip in to save par and got up and down on another three holes for par. The key things were I kept my driver in play and actually hit it decent AND my approach game was much better. I missed long on two holes and only came up short three times. 

 

I actually hit some solid shots. I almost fainted because it has been pure garbage lately. Forgetting about swing changes and what I am working on really helped( outside the brain fart on 18). It felt like I was keeping my left arm straighter going back and shifted my weight better but feel isn't real. I have no idea if anything I have been working on showed up in my swing today but it felt like it did.

 

I have no idea what will happen this weekend and if today was just luck. I'm being honest with myself. I'll just go out and try to just swing the d@mn club and see what happens with the Cast B swing thought.  I am very excited though since this is such an outlier and I guess I'm not completely broken.

 

The stats from the back 9.

 

birdies: 0

pars: 5

bogeys: 2

double bogeys: 1

triple+: 1

 

 

Avg drive: 209 yards

Longest drive: 262 yards( severe downhill shot)

Fairways: 4/7

GIR: 1/9

Avg Approach: 136 yards

Up & down: 4/8

Putts: 13

 

Strokes gained compared to a 20 HCP. I changed the target HCP in Arccos to what I am now versus the 10HCP I have been using for comparison for over a year now.

Overall: +3.8 strokes

driving: -1.1, with 2 penalty strokes

Approach: -1.0, this is a big improvement

Short game: +4.5

Putting: +1.4

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Glad to hear you put up a nice round, and especially that you were hitting it more solid! 

 

When I'm working on a swing change, I never consciously "take it to the course". I figure that it's supposed to be developed on the range, and eventually it'll naturally bleed into my on-course swing because I'm changing the pattern. (Although sometimes I feel the transition period can be rough as the two swings compete--I had a round a few years ago while trying to make a change where it seems I'd forgotten how to hit the ball and shot 121 IIRC lol). But I have always looked at is as a "swing your swing" thing because the goal on the course is hitting targets and scoring, not trying to worry about movement patterns. 

[bortass]

2 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

Glad to hear you put up a nice round, and especially that you were hitting it more solid! 

 

When I'm working on a swing change, I never consciously "take it to the course". I figure that it's supposed to be developed on the range, and eventually it'll naturally bleed into my on-course swing because I'm changing the pattern. (Although sometimes I feel the transition period can be rough as the two swings compete--I had a round a few years ago while trying to make a change where it seems I'd forgotten how to hit the ball and shot 121 IIRC lol). But I have always looked at is as a "swing your swing" thing because the goal on the course is hitting targets and scoring, not trying to worry about movement patterns. 

Yup, and the foolish part is I know this. I learned it early on when I was taking regular lessons. I always did better when I left the swing changes on the range.

 

I think part of it may be related to my lack of range time. So I tried to take the changes from the slow motion work and do it on the course to see what happens when a ball is involved.

 

I had to scramble a lot during those 9 holes but that’s the reality of my game. I missed in okay places and the only terrible shot was because of poor setup and not a terrible swing. 
 

It felt good to play some golf like I used to. The 100+ scores have been taking its toll on my mental game.

 

When are you getting out next? Edit- Nm, I saw it in your thread. Good luck Sunday!

Edited June 20 by bortass

[bortass]

How today, scaled to 18 holes, bucked my trends…

 

[bortass]

I grabbed some video of the drill today. Thanks to @KD1 for linking a phone tripod with clicker in @betarhoalphadelta's thread. I got it for Father's Day and it makes taking video easier for me. My old tripod required me to remove the phone from the case and I didn't have a bluetooth device to trigger the shutter, so it was a hassle. I will put DTL in a separate post. I grabbed normal speed and slow motion for both.

 

Overall I think it's looking better except for the stupid head movement. I will need to pay attention to that. I realize that my head is turning with my torso during the drill and then correct it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bortass]

Down the line. One thing I want to mention is I have been trying to work on my posture based on an AMG video. I have always been a sit on a stool person versus bend forward at the hips and just crack the knees. It looks like I made some improvements with that based on these DTL videos.

 

 

 

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

 

IMHO it's better than some of the things I've seen from you in the past, but still a flatter turn than it should be. 

 

This was just basic lines drawn with the Microsoft screenshotting tool, so it might not be perfect. But the line at address shows your [rough] spine angle, and the perpendicular line SHOULD be your shoulder angle in the second picture. 

 

My $0.02 anyway, which might not be remotely worth that. 😉 

[bortass]

13 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

IMHO it's better than some of the things I've seen from you in the past, but still a flatter turn than it should be. 

 

This was just basic lines drawn with the Microsoft screenshotting tool, so it might not be perfect. But the line at address shows your [rough] spine angle, and the perpendicular line SHOULD be your shoulder angle in the second picture. 

 

My $0.02 anyway, which might not be remotely worth that. 😉 

I'll have to try to keep a better eye on that. I think my mantra is going to be 'a little better is still better'.  Maybe by end of year I will get this.

[bortass]

@betarhoalphadelta I decided to do the drill where you place the club across your chest and rotate a few times to get a feel for a less flat turn. When I do that I get the butt of the club pointing more at where the ball would be. I then took a couple of videos and edited them together.

 

I had to put it on Youtube because it failed both times I tried to upload it here as an attachment...

 

 

 

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

24 minutes ago, bortass said:

I'll have to try to keep a better eye on that. I think my mantra is going to be 'a little better is still better'.  Maybe by end of year I will get this.

 

Yep. I didn't bring it up for you to overthink it... Just something to be cognizant of as you keep going. 

 

Are you able to do any of this outdoors / including a ball yet?

[betarhoalphadelta]

3 minutes ago, bortass said:

@betarhoalphadelta I decided to do the drill where you place the club across your chest and rotate a few times to get a feel for a less flat turn. When I do that I get the butt of the club pointing more at where the ball would be. I then took a couple of videos and edited them together.

 

I had to put it on Youtube because it failed both times I tried to upload it here as an attachment...

 

 

 

 

 

Yep. That looks like you're turning properly around the address spine angle.

[bortass]

3 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Yep. I didn't bring it up for you to overthink it... Just something to be cognizant of as you keep going. 

 

Are you able to do any of this outdoors / including a ball yet?

I have not been able to go to the range for a few weeks. I went to the course early last week and found out the range was closed because the picker broke down, so that was  a wasted trip. I am hoping to be able to get out there over the next couple of days.  I did have good results the first time I went to the range and tried the Iacas drill even though I was doing some key parts wrong.

[RayPlan]

9 hours ago, bortass said:

Down the line. One thing I want to mention is I have been trying to work on my posture based on an AMG video. I have always been a sit on a stool person versus bend forward at the hips and just crack the knees. It looks like I made some improvements with that based on these DTL videos.

 

 

 

 

Definitely noticeable improvement on the setup posture. The knees flexed forward is good 

[bortass]

My on course swing is starting to change. I played 18 Saturday and this morning. Scores are still a disaster but I'm seeing some signs of life. The biggest difference is I am starting to notice that my left, lead, shoulder is getting under my chin more than it does normally. I am not claiming that I am no longer flattening my turn, just that it's steeper than normal for me. The area this has had the biggest impact is with my irons but I am noticing with any club. I also have been feeling my arms stay straighter on the backswing i.e. keeping more width and not letting the right arm breakdown as much .I am not thinking about doing it either of these things. I'm sticking with the drills w/o a ball are helping me slowing change things.

 

The following are from both rounds:

Partial PW, off the deck and above the green: High draw that flies the green, 126 yards when I'm trying to hit it about 100 or so.

9i off the deck: High draw, 139 yards with my 120 club and over the green. The grass stain was closer to center than I normally strike my irons which is off the toe.

6i par 3 tee box: A bit thin but high draw, 156 and over the green. I only hit this a bit further than normal but it was almost all carry.

Partial PW from wet rough: High draw, 114 yards and over the green.

 

Not super impressive but I'm starting to see some differences...

 

My driver and 4w are both seeing some much better strikes but way too many dogs still. The good ones are better than normal, probably the best one was 264 on fairly level ground in the morning, so there was some dew and it rained the prior night. I'm struggling to keep them in play though. Think I had 10 penalties off the tee today, normally multiple on same hole. Almost all are push fades and some low slices have crept in.

 

One thing I have noticed with good drives and 4w, teed or off the deck, is a difference in my finish position. It's more like a golf trophy, upright with my back arched back. Those swings feel like I finished completely. I almost never get to that position normally but when I do, it's always a very solid strike. I've noticed this same thing in the past as well, so it's not just a random thing that's happened the last couple of days.

 

I'm not gonna lie, it would be nice for positive swing changes to manifest faster but that is not realistic at all. I'll just keep doing what I've been doing because it seems to be working. maybe someday I won't be embarrassed by my scores, lol.

[SNIPERBBB]

You'll never not be embarrassed by scores lol. There's always rounds, especially the good ones where you feel like you should of been 4-6 shots better lol.

[bortass]

Last week was vacation but instead of golfing everyday like I normally would, I got to do fun stuff like trim bushes, clear gutters, etc. The only golf related stuff I got in was my round Saturday morning and a 9 hole social couples scramble.

 

The scramble is described as a social event that happens to include golf. It is not serious to say the least. A number of people only golf during these events and the group scores get changed at the end in some random way. One time it was based on how a pro did in their round that day at the US Open and the other night it was based on a roll of a die that determined if even or odd numbers of putts counted. These have been off the red tees and I can't use driver, men 60+ can and I'm not quite there yet. I'm mentioning this format because I find it's a great way to practice/push boundaries. I hit 4w off the tee on all par 4s/5s and saw some very good stuff. The scramble format let me also try to hit 4w off the deck very aggressively when the rest of the team got us to a safe spot first. It didn't always work but a risk free way to push the envelope is kind of nice to have.

 

Most of the guys bailed on Saturday's round. Score is still horrid but I 'only' had four penalties with driver. The main thing that stood out though were my approaches from 125-149 yards. These would be anything from a 9i to a 6i. I actually had a positive SG, compared to a 20 HCP, in that range band for a change. I am seeing the high draw a bit more often with irons but there are still issues. Some pulls and low point with partial wedges. My driver swing is still push fade into the right trees machine when it comes to misses. I can hit a few good ones but that's it still. I have not found an adjustment that has helped with this miss. 

 

The reason I mentioned most guys bailed is because only three of us played and one was the club pro. He started to give the third guy a mini lesson as we played. His flaw was sucking it inside, reverse pivot, and mostly arms swing. Kind of like what I have been known to do. The three of us are talking about the swing and various movements throughout the round. Nothing earth shattering there but there was a lot about shifting to trail then lead side. He did comment on my swing when I blocked a drive into the right trees though. He saw that during the backswing my torso is going right(trail side) but my hips were shifting left(lead side), if I were Gumby it'd look like a C assuming <-- is direction of my swing. I managed a few swings where it felt like I shifted to the trail side better and hit some nice shots. he also commented on those that I did it much better. This observation was on hole 15, so not enough to 'save' the round, but it's good to know I need to keep an eye on it.

 

I am also taking it as a positive that he did not say anything about an inside takeaway and rolling of the wrists. I feel like my arms are not going inside nor breaking down with the elbows bending too much. He would have said something to me about it since the other guy was suffering from those issues. 

 

Things should be a bit more normal this week and I'll get back to practicing the drill indoors w/o a ball and I really hope to make it to the range one day this week to get updated swing video and to practice hitting a ball.

 

I do have a question for anyone that wants to chime it. Does it make any sense to hit driver at the range to see if I can figure out how to avoid the push fades? I'm not talking about trying to work on my takeaway issues with the driver, I am talking about figuring out how to keep the damn thing in play outside of doing it during a round. I do not like tinkering with my swing when I play and I almost never hit driver at the range since I am almost always trying to make a swing change. Any thoughts?

[TheDeanAbides]

2 hours ago, bortass said:

Last week was vacation but instead of golfing everyday like I normally would, I got to do fun stuff like trim bushes, clear gutters, etc. The only golf related stuff I got in was my round Saturday morning and a 9 hole social couples scramble.

 

The scramble is described as a social event that happens to include golf. It is not serious to say the least. A number of people only golf during these events and the group scores get changed at the end in some random way. One time it was based on how a pro did in their round that day at the US Open and the other night it was based on a roll of a die that determined if even or odd numbers of putts counted. These have been off the red tees and I can't use driver, men 60+ can and I'm not quite there yet. I'm mentioning this format because I find it's a great way to practice/push boundaries. I hit 4w off the tee on all par 4s/5s and saw some very good stuff. The scramble format let me also try to hit 4w off the deck very aggressively when the rest of the team got us to a safe spot first. It didn't always work but a risk free way to push the envelope is kind of nice to have.

 

Most of the guys bailed on Saturday's round. Score is still horrid but I 'only' had four penalties with driver. The main thing that stood out though were my approaches from 125-149 yards. These would be anything from a 9i to a 6i. I actually had a positive SG, compared to a 20 HCP, in that range band for a change. I am seeing the high draw a bit more often with irons but there are still issues. Some pulls and low point with partial wedges. My driver swing is still push fade into the right trees machine when it comes to misses. I can hit a few good ones but that's it still. I have not found an adjustment that has helped with this miss. 

 

The reason I mentioned most guys bailed is because only three of us played and one was the club pro. He started to give the third guy a mini lesson as we played. His flaw was sucking it inside, reverse pivot, and mostly arms swing. Kind of like what I have been known to do. The three of us are talking about the swing and various movements throughout the round. Nothing earth shattering there but there was a lot about shifting to trail then lead side. He did comment on my swing when I blocked a drive into the right trees though. He saw that during the backswing my torso is going right(trail side) but my hips were shifting left(lead side), if I were Gumby it'd look like a C assuming <-- is direction of my swing. I managed a few swings where it felt like I shifted to the trail side better and hit some nice shots. he also commented on those that I did it much better. This observation was on hole 15, so not enough to 'save' the round, but it's good to know I need to keep an eye on it.

 

I am also taking it as a positive that he did not say anything about an inside takeaway and rolling of the wrists. I feel like my arms are not going inside nor breaking down with the elbows bending too much. He would have said something to me about it since the other guy was suffering from those issues. 

 

Things should be a bit more normal this week and I'll get back to practicing the drill indoors w/o a ball and I really hope to make it to the range one day this week to get updated swing video and to practice hitting a ball.

 

I do have a question for anyone that wants to chime it. Does it make any sense to hit driver at the range to see if I can figure out how to avoid the push fades? I'm not talking about trying to work on my takeaway issues with the driver, I am talking about figuring out how to keep the damn thing in play outside of doing it during a round. I do not like tinkering with my swing when I play and I almost never hit driver at the range since I am almost always trying to make a swing change. Any thoughts?

Don't try and fix shot shapes when you're changing your swing so drastically. Laser focus on making the movement. If you chase shot shapes you'll undo the work. 

[bortass]

16 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

Don't try and fix shot shapes when you're changing your swing so drastically. Laser focus on making the movement. If you chase shot shapes you'll undo the work. 

Gotcha!