Golf Thread
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Soldato
Went to the range again last night with a friend who plays a bit, and he managed to help me out a lot with my swing and pulling it etc. Started to then slice a few, but towards the end it was very nicely balanced. He was impressed with the progress I have made the past few weeks. Can't wait to go again now 
Just got back from the range, after how well i did i should be playing the open 
I made sure i didn't stop my left knee from 'dipping' on my back swing, and just did it nice slow and controlled....PHWOAR what a difference. I was even brave enough to use my 3hybrid
Still not brave enough to use woods yet
I made sure i didn't stop my left knee from 'dipping' on my back swing, and just did it nice slow and controlled....PHWOAR what a difference. I was even brave enough to use my 3hybrid
Still not brave enough to use woods yet
Go on, get the big boy driver out, you know you want to!
Seriously though, don't be afraid to use the driver. Just remember to use a more rounded, baseball like swing, move the ball nearer your front foot, and lean a little to your right hand side. Everything else stays the same. Keep it smooth and controlled. If you have a big headed driver (460) tee up so that about half of the ball sits above the club face.
I've recently started to properly flex my knees and it has made a huge difference to my shot path. I now hit 90% straight or even with a slight draw, whereas before I was pushing/slicing everything! I can only assume that because my knees were so rigid, I couldn't turn properly through the ball. What I do know is that my back has not given me any problems whilst playing for the 1st time in ages.
Seriously though, don't be afraid to use the driver. Just remember to use a more rounded, baseball like swing, move the ball nearer your front foot, and lean a little to your right hand side. Everything else stays the same. Keep it smooth and controlled. If you have a big headed driver (460) tee up so that about half of the ball sits above the club face.
I've recently started to properly flex my knees and it has made a huge difference to my shot path. I now hit 90% straight or even with a slight draw, whereas before I was pushing/slicing everything! I can only assume that because my knees were so rigid, I couldn't turn properly through the ball. What I do know is that my back has not given me any problems whilst playing for the 1st time in ages.
Just been out to practice grounds and played a few quick holes on the course and doing exactly the same as you Diggsy, hitting most of my drives dead straight and a few with a little draw on. Flexing my knees properly now so that must be the reason, im well happy
Associate
Just played a 4BBB stableford, shot 43 which i suspect will not be good enough to win.
Joined a club about 2 months ago and loving the comps you can play in almost every week, a great way of meeting other golfers.
Aslo play in the "roll up" on wednesday evenings, a pound to enter, everyone just turns up and puts a ball in the bag, they're then pulled out to determine the groups, play is stableford best 3 scores out of 4 plus 20p for birdies, first week my group won and we got a grand total of £6.80 each
Joined a club about 2 months ago and loving the comps you can play in almost every week, a great way of meeting other golfers.
Aslo play in the "roll up" on wednesday evenings, a pound to enter, everyone just turns up and puts a ball in the bag, they're then pulled out to determine the groups, play is stableford best 3 scores out of 4 plus 20p for birdies, first week my group won and we got a grand total of £6.80 each
Soldato
I was due to play with my company's society yesterday so went to the range on Thursday. Noticed they had some used clubs for sale and borrowed a Calloway FT5 driver for a few hits. I really liked it but told the pro-shop guy that it had a draw bias and I already draw the ball. He taped up a new Calloway Ft9 and a Titliest 909-D3 and gave me a coupon for some balls.
Anyway, I obviously ended up buying a new one instead of the £90 FT5, shelling out £245 for the Titliest.
Played yesterday and was rubbish around the greens with way too many putts but drove like a %&£$ing champ!
Anyway, I obviously ended up buying a new one instead of the £90 FT5, shelling out £245 for the Titliest.
Played yesterday and was rubbish around the greens with way too many putts but drove like a %&£$ing champ!
Soldato
When you go to the range do you play off the mats? If so, don't forget that they are 'perfect' surfaces and you are easily able to align yourself using the square matting which is perfectly flat for every shot. Ideally find a range with a grass area as well as a mat area (in Leeds the best one i have found is Garforth Driving Range), that way you are playing off grass without the aid of the nice mats. Makes a difference.
Soldato
Hey Andrew, yeah being on a coarse is a lot different, the ball is rarely positioned as if you are on a range. With the ball above your feet or below, makes for a more challenging shot.
Only way to learn thought is to go out on coarse with a pro and have a lesson whilst playing 9 holes, this way he/she can show you the correct way to approach each shot depending on the situation.
I know we go on about lessons, but it is the best grounding 'if' you want to improve your game. Once you have been shown what to do, you are then free to go and practise and delvelop your game.
Only way to learn thought is to go out on coarse with a pro and have a lesson whilst playing 9 holes, this way he/she can show you the correct way to approach each shot depending on the situation.
I know we go on about lessons, but it is the best grounding 'if' you want to improve your game. Once you have been shown what to do, you are then free to go and practise and delvelop your game.
gahh - my glorious run in the club single tournament ended last night in defeat at the quarter finals stage.
I was giving away 11 shots (can't remember the last time i did that!!!) - played like a muppet until about last 5 holes but lost up the last!!!
Will just have to go and win the doubles now i guess!!
I was giving away 11 shots (can't remember the last time i did that!!!) - played like a muppet until about last 5 holes but lost up the last!!!
Will just have to go and win the doubles now i guess!!
Im a low handicapper and the best thing that ever helped me was the DVD AJ Bonar Reveals The Truth About Golf, he debunks the theory that a square clubface at impact is needed, infact slow mo action of tour pros shows the face open right on pre impact with rapid closing after impact, ive seen this over and over on TV too, one of the best things he teaches you is to get that club back steep, he demostrates this by placing a golf ball 15 inches behind the ball he is hitting and you must raise and lower the club whilst missing the back ball, then rotate after impact, it really does work, you watch any tour pro and they all have this steep angle of attack, he laughs in the face of the old phrase "low and slow" because as common sense and AJ points out if you actually apply and swing this way if you swing low enough on the way down to hit the ball you will fat it and if you come down late you will come up and hit the top of the ball, ive followed and copies these methods and ive never hit the ball so pure.
http://www.golf.com/golf/instruction/article/0,28136,1583055,00.html
"There's a trick, but most people don't know it." He vowed to show us how to saw the lady in half. "Everything you know about the swing is wrong," he added. "You play piano, you improve. You play tennis, you improve. But in golf, you can work and slave, and get no better. Why? Because the swing rules — square the face,' 'swing with the body — are myths. Millions of golfers have been taught wrong."
Taught wrong? I formed a carefully worded query: "What the hell are you smoking?"
As Bonar tells it, in 1968, golf instruction changed with the publication of The Search for the Perfect Swing, by Alastair Cochran and John Stobbs. Based on tests commissioned by the Golf Society of Great Britain, the book was the first comprehensive scientific study of the ballistics of the golf swing. Among their key findings, the authors concluded that golfers can't use the hands to reliably manipulate the club on the downswing. The clubface, they added, must stay fairly square through impact. "The Search gave rise to the theory of square-to-square, which became the accepted method and informed teachers like Flick, McLean, Leadbetter. Square-to-square made logical sense. Turning over the face seems reckless."
But the book was flawed, Bonar claims. It dubbed a square clubface king but ignored the fact that all good players close the face by about 120 degrees in the two feet before and after impact. That second lever, the rotating clubface, imposes tremendous energy on the ball, he says. But by swinging with your big muscles, you lose the lever. "It's like hitting a tennis ball with all arm, no wrist. You lose that extra pop." Every good golfer turns over the toe, Bonar says. When you aggressively rotate your hands, the toe passes the heel at a much higher speed than with passive hands. Bonar says unleashing this "turbo toe" is the swing's missing link. It creates a radical accelerator — the rotating face — that equals big power with little effort. To demonstrate, he stood on his left leg and socked a 3-wood 200 yards. "That was all hands and arms. No weight shift. But I killed it."
If this sounds all too theoretical, you should know that Bonar spent four years in the mid-1990s as the director of education for a California-based custom-fitting company called Zevo Golf, where he oversaw the fitting process. (He was also an R&D consultant at TaylorMade.) Bonar's eyes light up when talking about his lab days.
At Zevo, we found out some neat ****! We tested David Toms, Julie Inkster, Duffy Waldorf, Billy Ray Brown and others," he says. "We confirmed that, with top players, the toe rotates much faster than the heel through impact — up to 19 mph faster. That creates a draw bias, a face hook, worth about 30 extra yards on drives. It's like hitting a homerun in baseball — but swinging square is a check swing."
My mind reeled. Were the pillars of golf instruction built on quicksand? Had the game's top teaching pros perpetuated a Da Vinci Code-like fraud against millions. ("So dark the con of golf!") It made some sense. It explained why I never get better, how Ernie Els tags it 300 yards with a flip of the wrist, and why the average American golfer's handicap (16.2) hasn't budged in 15 years, despite golf schools, movable weights and Academy Live! Maybe we were taught wrong.
Few examples, Luke Donald doing exactly this, wide open pre impact massive roatation past impact, look how much the face turns over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeIZdcYzGbk
Jim Furyk wide open pre impact, large rotation just beyond impact, every single good pro ball striker is like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDRebJy8ac
Retief Goosen look how far his clubface right before impact, now pause it just after, huge rotation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrXIT7m9LGw
Sergio clubface again open at impact, you can really see this, and quickly rotates through impact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li9wq33aHeg
Next time you watch golf on TV and watch for steep angles of attack and close up slow mo of impact positions, watch very carefully at the club right after the ball leaves the face, it will shut left quickly. I recommend the DVD highly, might still be able to pick it up somewhere.
http://www.golf.com/golf/instruction/article/0,28136,1583055,00.html
"There's a trick, but most people don't know it." He vowed to show us how to saw the lady in half. "Everything you know about the swing is wrong," he added. "You play piano, you improve. You play tennis, you improve. But in golf, you can work and slave, and get no better. Why? Because the swing rules — square the face,' 'swing with the body — are myths. Millions of golfers have been taught wrong."
Taught wrong? I formed a carefully worded query: "What the hell are you smoking?"
As Bonar tells it, in 1968, golf instruction changed with the publication of The Search for the Perfect Swing, by Alastair Cochran and John Stobbs. Based on tests commissioned by the Golf Society of Great Britain, the book was the first comprehensive scientific study of the ballistics of the golf swing. Among their key findings, the authors concluded that golfers can't use the hands to reliably manipulate the club on the downswing. The clubface, they added, must stay fairly square through impact. "The Search gave rise to the theory of square-to-square, which became the accepted method and informed teachers like Flick, McLean, Leadbetter. Square-to-square made logical sense. Turning over the face seems reckless."
But the book was flawed, Bonar claims. It dubbed a square clubface king but ignored the fact that all good players close the face by about 120 degrees in the two feet before and after impact. That second lever, the rotating clubface, imposes tremendous energy on the ball, he says. But by swinging with your big muscles, you lose the lever. "It's like hitting a tennis ball with all arm, no wrist. You lose that extra pop." Every good golfer turns over the toe, Bonar says. When you aggressively rotate your hands, the toe passes the heel at a much higher speed than with passive hands. Bonar says unleashing this "turbo toe" is the swing's missing link. It creates a radical accelerator — the rotating face — that equals big power with little effort. To demonstrate, he stood on his left leg and socked a 3-wood 200 yards. "That was all hands and arms. No weight shift. But I killed it."
If this sounds all too theoretical, you should know that Bonar spent four years in the mid-1990s as the director of education for a California-based custom-fitting company called Zevo Golf, where he oversaw the fitting process. (He was also an R&D consultant at TaylorMade.) Bonar's eyes light up when talking about his lab days.
At Zevo, we found out some neat ****! We tested David Toms, Julie Inkster, Duffy Waldorf, Billy Ray Brown and others," he says. "We confirmed that, with top players, the toe rotates much faster than the heel through impact — up to 19 mph faster. That creates a draw bias, a face hook, worth about 30 extra yards on drives. It's like hitting a homerun in baseball — but swinging square is a check swing."
My mind reeled. Were the pillars of golf instruction built on quicksand? Had the game's top teaching pros perpetuated a Da Vinci Code-like fraud against millions. ("So dark the con of golf!") It made some sense. It explained why I never get better, how Ernie Els tags it 300 yards with a flip of the wrist, and why the average American golfer's handicap (16.2) hasn't budged in 15 years, despite golf schools, movable weights and Academy Live! Maybe we were taught wrong.
Few examples, Luke Donald doing exactly this, wide open pre impact massive roatation past impact, look how much the face turns over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeIZdcYzGbk
Jim Furyk wide open pre impact, large rotation just beyond impact, every single good pro ball striker is like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDRebJy8ac
Retief Goosen look how far his clubface right before impact, now pause it just after, huge rotation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrXIT7m9LGw
Sergio clubface again open at impact, you can really see this, and quickly rotates through impact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li9wq33aHeg
Next time you watch golf on TV and watch for steep angles of attack and close up slow mo of impact positions, watch very carefully at the club right after the ball leaves the face, it will shut left quickly. I recommend the DVD highly, might still be able to pick it up somewhere.
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A lot of that sounds like the 'release' my Pro keeps telling me is so important (turning the right hand over the left on contact) When I get it right, the ball does curve a little right to left, and it goes a mile, and with very little effort.
It's all about timing, and practise - lots of it
It's all about timing, and practise - lots of it
Right guys, going to look into getting a rescue/utility club tonight and wonder what people recommend. I'd be looking at around a 18deg loft as i dont really cut the mustard with my 3 wood and want a backup off the tee really.
I'll be having a swing with them but wondered if anyone knows of a 'must try'.
Cheers
I'll be having a swing with them but wondered if anyone knows of a 'must try'.
Cheers
Soldato
Personally i'd steer clear of the newer adjustable types, such as the Taylormade '09 TP's, i really like my older style Taylormade Burner hybrids but have also tried the Titlesit 909h range which went well also. I've heard good things about the Cobra Baffler range also.
Soldato
Real nice post gnr26, twas a good read
i've got a taylor made 18 rescue (original one). Nothing fancy. I've used it well for a number of years now but the other night i kind of had a eureka moment with it!
Badly sliced my drive off the 1st tee and thought i'd better hit a provisional ball and change from the driver to my rescue. I hit the provisional ball about as far as i've ever hit my driver up the first fairway!!!
For the rest of the round, i decided as a test to hit my rescue club off the tee instead of my driver and i reckon i was 10/15 yards less distance with the rescue than a good drive but i hit 8 out of 10 fairways, instead of my usual 4 or 5 at best with my driver.
Very very long and so much more forgiving than a driver. Tempted to go with it on saturday in the medal (will get some funny looks on the 1st tee with the boys if i hit rescue instead of driver!)
Associate
I often hit a rescue off the tee but never get funny looks (any you do get soon fade when you hammer one 210 yards down the middle and they only manage 230-240 in the rough with a driver).
Even if i'm hitting the driver well there are several holes that don't require anymore than a rescue to require a <7 iron into the green.
Even if i'm hitting the driver well there are several holes that don't require anymore than a rescue to require a <7 iron into the green.