Syks7

I've been playing well lately so I've been focusing on really building muscle memory from repetition. Really focusing on feel to work on chest rotation, connection, and clearing the hips. Almost all of it into my garage net. Over the weekend the feel just went away and all of my bad habits bubbled up -- heavy contact, standing up in the swing, getting stuck, etc. It felt fully unfolded and I mentally prepped myself for some pain in my game while I re-found my feel. Yesterday I ran through a lot of drills throughout the course of the day and while things improved it just wasn't right. The feel wasn't there and correspondingly the contact was pretty poor. I decided to give it a rest of the day and while I was laying in bed last night I was watching some instagram swing videos my instructor posted of a high school player he coaches (kid is headed to a decent D1 school next year). It was pretty handy because he's much better at doing what the instructor tells him to do with his change in direction and transitional move. I compared it to a video I (fortunately) took of my swing a week ago, identified something that I was doing that was missing from the last few days, and walked out to the garage to try the same move. SMH!!! Problem solved. Feel is still back today and according to the foot spray so is the contact. The golf swing is wild and so unbelievably subtle. I'd been working on all the parts and pieces I needed, but was missing this tiny almost imperceptable move with my hips and torso. A move that looks nothing like it feels -- like I'm dipping my trail shoulder to skip a rock (Obligatory MAROOCH!!!!). That move simultaneously shallows the club, starts clearing the lead hip, maintains spine angle, and frees my torso to rotate rapidly through impact. All I have to do is let the club release. Simple right.

Woke up at 5AM because apparently that's what happens when you're in your 40s. Rain had let up and the forecast showed a 3 hour rain free window. Checked the reservation list and found that it was wide open after the first group and I could get out on the back 9 solo. Spoiler... The weather didn't hold but it was a great start to the day. Played through the first group by the second hole and had the back 9 all to myself. Played 9 in 1:20. It wasn't a good ball striking day and I was wild off the tee, but I still shot 41 with a couple good birdie looks on the pars. Short game was really good today and I almost holed out for par (less than 6" cleanup) 4 out of 5 bogeys. It was encouraging to be able to limit the damage when I didn't have my best stuff. I'm looking forward to my more favored scoring conditions (hot and dry) once this El Nino decides to call it a year.

Thanks for that link. New favorite website!

Lot of pin hunting today with some great up and downs. Can't wait to see the sunday pins.

Tomorrow is going to be fun. Max is due for some putts to start dropping, Bryson is capable of fireworks, Scotty is Scotty, Morikawa looks like the Morikawa of a couple years ago. There's plenty of talent lurking back there too, beyond the obvious guys that are closer -- Cam Smith and Cam Young both made up more strokes than the current masters lead at the Open a couple years back. I still put money on Colin or Scotty and the final pairing (Iron striking shootout anyone!). Should be a hell of Sunday to watch some golf.

That was brutal. Remind me to decline the invite to play if its going to be that windy. Who am I kidding. I'd play if there was an active tornado in the patron parking area...

Team no glove here. It wasn't always that way, but I started playing no glove on my touch shots inside 100 yards and gradually progressed to no glove at all. Particularly after I started taking lessons. I found that it was easier for me to complete drills and find feel sans glove. . It also makes it very easy for me to feel feedback from the club face. I find that it causes me to be very deliberate about my grip, grip pressure, and tempo. Eventually I played a full round without and never looked back. Now that I've been playing without a glove for a couple years (fully formed calluses at the grip points) I don't really have any issues with grip even in the heat of summer or the rain.

It's more about feel for me than stability. The Link I got during the test was built with an Accra and I love the feedback I get from it. No knock on the standard steel shaft of the DF2.1 I picked up but it just doesn't seem to have the feedback I want. I wouldn't re-shaft myself, I'd send it back to LAB.

Precisely why I abstained, I'm more than halfway home to re-shafting the DF2.1 with that.

Grayson Murray has one on his Link as well. I'm going to bet that all the LAB players are rocking them.

Camilo Villegas has one on his putter in the Par 3 contest right now.

You definitely have the order right as far as forgiveness goes. Also, I may be this friend @GolfSpy SAM speaks of unless he's got a second golf buddy with a Link (in which case he better introduce me to my Link twin). I also have the DF2.1 and I find myself swinging between the two in kind of an odd fashion. When I feel like I'm getting too sloppy with my stroke and handsy I've been pulling out the DF2.1. Then when I feel I'm getting too technical and want a bit more hands for some 'artistry' I switch back to the link. Truth be told the Accra on the Link is probably what keeps me coming back more than anything (Stability probably doesn't matter but the feel is superb) and I should just pull the trigger and send the DF2.1 back to Lab for an Accra install.

Cut -1 Low Amateur Neal Shipley

I keep seeing these headcovers that say things like 'remove before flight', 'hit bombs', or 'send it'. Things that are very different from how I feel when I take the headcover off of my driver -- even as I find more fairways. IMHO there should be more headcovers that have a bit more humor and are a little more accurate. Something along the lines of: 'this driver is like a box of chocolate' or 'Gambler'. I even searched for some to no avail until a targeted ad reached me today. I could not help but buy it.

I'm not aware of anything. I think it would require some serious re-engineering of the link since they'd have to relocate the hosel to point the shaft at the center of mass.

Double wide?

Another solid outing at Woodley. Tried to fight my way under 80, but made a couple silly mental mistakes on the back that took it just out of reach. 41/40 81. I started a bit rough as I adjusted to my new driver head. Literal first outdoor swing was on the first tee. Took about 5 holes to adjust. I still need to get on a launch monitor and play with the weights and the hosel settings to see the best result, but it was pretty promising as I had it set up. 33 total putts with two silly three putts on the back. Both completely mental errors. Got greedy trying to get a birdie and gunned the ball by the hole on one, and didn't trust my read from 3' and babied it to miss. On 17 I got overly aggressive and fortunately one putted for bogey. On 18 I had an very unlikely birdie from 30' to bring it back to 9 over. Pretty good round. The ZX7's continue to be very high performers and I've put the Mizuno T7 back in the bag as my only official wedge. If I get some other stuff in line I'm going to be getting to my single digit goal this year.

So when you're on eBay selling surplus clubs you also run across things that you want at prices that can't be ignored. So while I sold some Gen 4 stuff and gained this pretty much mint 0311 Gen 5 head. Just like everything else that PXG makes I seem to be able to hit it well. Looking forward to getting it out on the course.

Most casual drop for a HIO, maybe ever. In this day and age of look at me(I'm as guilty as anyone else in my generation) I really appreciate the casual execution of this announcement. Congrats on #3

Said my goodbyes to Wedington Golf & Tennis center (Par 3 course) this morning. It's due to close tomorrow and I figured it would be fun to get out for one more round. Didn't keep score, made mostly pars, and tried a few silly recovery shots for fun (Almost made it through the 2' gap in between palm trees to get up and down then almost holed the resulting carom). It was a fun morning made even more fun with good company in the form of a random pairing with an old Royal Navy Submarine vet. Definitely a good partner to say goodbye to the course with. On a side note, I'm really falling in love with these ZX7s. Only my second time out with them and they still seem to be easy for me to hit well and the accuracy, forgiveness, and dispersion I'm seeing with them is better than I've seen with anything else I've played.

I'm selling some stuff to tidy up the garage and stumbled accross something I'd forgotten about. I bought these thinking they were going to go on a set of 0317T's when I raised the funds... I think they're going to go on my ZX7s instead.

I think I'm really going to like these ZX7s. Had kind of a cold start with them while I figured out how to play them and what distances I should be play for on each club. They're about 1/2 a club longer for me at the top end, = in the mids, and marginally shorter at the bottom end since the 9, PW, and AW are much more traditional lofts. I went 6 over through five holes then caught fire and finished 3 over for the final 13 holes. That's with two three putt bogeys on the back 9 One of the three putts was not paying attention from 3 feet and the other was gunning it by the hole trying to get a birdie. Ended up 41/40 81. I knew I was playing well, but wasn't paying attention to the score. The better part of the day was that I played with an older friend of mine who's come off a bad couple years of health. He played 18 holes with me for the first time in over two years.

Definitely. I feel like I'm coming off of a step back with my swing. It's starting to feel strong again after some adjustments. Will let you know when I decide to do it.