alfriday101

I played for years with face balance putters. I was shocked when I had a putter fitting and the fitter recommended 30 to 40 degrees toe hang. He fit me into a new putter and my putting improved, especially my start lines. I have more of a straight back and through stroke-the shaft stays on plane, the face stays on that plane but open and closes relative to the start line. With face balance, I had to manipulate the putter (not consciously) to square the face to the start line. With the toe hand putter it just happens, no manipulation necessary.

I play right handed, but I have a left hand 7 iron that I will use on the range. Switch hitting helps to keep me loose and definitely helps with balance. Plus, it’s fun.

I am a fellow golf nerd. I love reading and learning about all things golf. But, I have learned that you cannot intellectualize a good golf game. It must be learned and felt. Here are my suggestions on how to speed up the learning process. (a/k/a things I wish I had done much earlier in my golf experience.) 1. Take a lesson on THE PROPER SET UP. A proper set up is a must for every shot. Save up and take one lesson on the set up. It will save you years of frustration. If you are not getting set up consistently, you will just make compensation upon compensation and improvement will be neigh impossible. Learn the grip, balance, posture, ball position that gives you the best chance of hitting a good shot. A good pro will help you find a base set up that fits your body. Make sure you get check points for the set up. Where are your toes pointed? At 12 o'clock or are they flared slightly to 11 and 1:00? How far is the butt of the club from your belt buckle? Measure with your fingers--use the "hang loose" hand position. When you are over the ball, where are your hands. When I close my left eye and look down at my hands, they align with the instep of my left foot. Your check points will be unique to you. But make sure you leave the lesson with checkpoints that you can use later for practice. Also, have the pro watch you get into your set up--watch your full preshot routine. The pro may notice things you do in your routine that lead to an inconsistent set up. For example, I tend to line up closed to the target. My pro noticed that if I set the club down and have my toes parallel to each other (when my feet are together), when move my left foot over I tend to close my stance. I now start with my left toe slightly back of my right toe. My pro also noticed that I tend to put too much weight on my right foot if I put my right hand on the club first. I now put my left hand on the club first and lower my left shoulder before moving my left foot to widen my stance. If my pro had not watched my full routine, I would have continued to do things that sabotage my set up. Practice your set up on every shot! Every Shot. It takes longer on the range, but is well worth it. 2. There are a few base drills for learning the feels of a good swing. Drills 1, 2 and 3. The three drills in the above video are a great place to start. Elsewhere on Mygolfspy is a thread started by a high school coach who had his less skilled players do these drills and they progressed rapidly. While listed as drills for juniors, the drills are good for all golfers. Drill 4. Spray a line on the range with foot spray. Place the ball on top of the line and note your impact point in relation to the line. (it should be toward the target). Low point control is a key to ball striking. 3.1 Vary your practice. Hitting full shot after full shot with the same club is one of the slowest ways to learn. Mix it up. Vary your clubs. Vary your shots. Learn what a club is capable of doing. Instead of hitting your 150 club 5 times to "grove a swing", try hitting the club full swing, half swing, 3/4 swing, 1/4 swing and then full swing again. Another variation is to hit your 150 club, start by hitting it 150. Then, hit it 100 yards, but still take a full swing. The try 75, yards, 125, and back to 150 yards, each time with a full swing, varying the speed of the swing. 3.2. Try "If/Then" practice. This type of practice will really help you to correct things later on the course. Hit your 150 club to the target. Then ask, "what happens if I swing toward 1st base?" Hit a ball swinging to first base. Judge the shot not as good/bad, but as cause and effect. Note how it felt compared to your regular shot. Then try swinging to 3rd base. Note the feel and the result. Try varying ball position. Hit one ball in the center of you stance--where it should be after the lesson you got above. Put a tee down even with the ball. If the ball is two inches forward, then what happens? Put a ball down two inches in front of the tee, set up to the tee and find out and fell the difference. If the ball is two inches back, what happens and how does it feel? Later in the course, if you get the ball too far forward or too far back in your stance, you will recognize the feeling and can self correct. I'll throw in one other "awareness" drill that you can do at home. It's great for learning club head control. Take your grip and hold the club confront of you angled up 45 degrees. The club head should be about eye level in front of you. The club head should be pointed straight up to 12:00. Move the club head around in small circles and fell relationship between your grip and the club head. Then close your eyes, spin the club in your hands and retake your grip. Move the club around in circles and before opening your eyes, call out where you think the club head is pointed. 3:00? 9:30? Open your eyes. Did you get it right? If not, close your eyes and circle it around, now knowing where the club head is pointed. Do this for a few minutes a day and you will quickly develop better clubbed awareness. That's my 2 cents. Try the drills, nail the set up. Oh, did I mention practice the set up on every shot.

Unfortunately, luggage can be lost or delayed. St. Andrews has good club rentals. I recommend taking a carry on pilot case and pack essential golf clothing in the carry on. When I travel overseas to golf, I pack one pair of golf shoes, rain gear, layers, a glove and one or two extra shirts and undies in the carry on. Enough clothes to wear and play for a couple of days until the bags arrive. AirTags in your golf bag and suitcase are also a good idea.

I thought this was interesting. I went to the Louvre today and found this set up in the “studio” section where kids can make art. The area now has an Olympic focus. Who would have thought it, a Ping sponsored simulator in the museum.

As an aside, I am very interested in the approach Paris is taking to the games. Compared to past cities that built massive Olympic complexes, Paris is mostly using existing stadiums and erecting temporary stadiums for the games. The opening ceremonies are not a stadium event, but a fleet of cruise barges down the Seine. The venues are spread throughout the city. Much of the cost of improvements are for infrastructure that will be usable by the population after the games end. For example, they are erecting a temporary stadium in the Champ de Mars, a block from the Eiffel Tower for beach volleyball. They started erecting it March 1st and are now working on the second level of the stadium. They are erecting a temporary stadium in the Place de la Concord for the skateboarding and other new events. the games will showcase the city. Photos show design of finished stadium and progress as of yesterday.

I start most days with a 10 minute yoga session that also includes the McGill 3. I highly recommend it to all golfers. I'm 65 and I am more flexible (and less injury prone) now than in my 30s. It definitely helps with golf--a stronger core, bigger turn and a lot less soreness after a round. I also will do longer sessions a couple of times a week to work on specific areas of tightness. The past year I have been doing parts of my yoga routine on a vibration plate. It ups the stretching/strengthening to 11. The vibration plate especially helps hit hard to stretch areas like the psoas and illiacis, and for me, the upper back (between the shoulder blades).

I play Edel Sl irons. My SW through 7 iron are all the same length. The 6-4 are 1/2 inch longer. I also have Cobra SL hybrids , but they are 3/4 inch longer than their standard SL, but still shorter shafted than their standard hybrids. So basically, I have a set of three different lengths for "SL" irons/hybrids. When Edel first came out with SL irons, he did a number of interviews/podcasts and talked about combo lengths. He was a proponent. He said it made sense for a lot of players to have the lower lofted irons a bit longer than the higher lofted irons. He foresaw sets with two and three lengths. The golfer gets more consistency than with a standard 1/2 inch change per club, but the golfer isn't tied into strict single length. I was fit for my clubs by an Edel fitter. The extra length on the low lofted irons helped my gapping, but I don't even notice the difference when playing. I'm glad to see a company pursuing this even though Edel sold. I'll have to follow the company to see how they do.

I have my clubs checked every other time I get new grips.

I collect ball markers on my travels. I keep them in a plastic bag and randomly grab one out before play. Brings back good memories.

I really like the above video. To me it explains what is really going on with the putting stroke. How the club shaft goes straight back and forward on plane, but the club head rotates open and closed to the line, but stays square to the plane. Clarified a lot of concepts for me.

Here is a video by Malaska with three drills that directly apply to the issues mentioned in the OP. While the video title refers to drills for juniors, the drills apply to all golfers and are great drills for syncing the lower body and upper body and improving balance. I highly recommend the "Feet Together" drill. Here is another take on the drill for more advanced players: As for getting your weight to the left side, check out the "Gary Player Drill", a/k/a the "Walk through Drill."

I'll throw out a drill that really helped me to develop feel with the putter. Short, in, long. I set out four tees in a box 3 feet by 3 feet, or 2 feet by 2 feet on shorter putts. I will put to a target at the front of the box. I use either a ball marker or a fake hole--a round, rubber jar opener tossed on the green. Putt from various distances to the hole. Key: Don't watch the ball. Call out before the ball stops whether it will stop short, long, or in the box. Can also be done with eyes closed.

I regularly use a rangefinder. Not once has my rangefinder read a putt for me, raked a bunker, told me how the wind coming over the dunes will knock my shot down, found a ball in the woods, given me a line off the tee, cleaned my club, carried my bag, held my umbrella, told me to aim away from the pin because the green slopes toward the bunker, told me a joke....

I'm watching ISU/Michigan to see will beat up on the Hawkeyes in Indy next Saturday.

Stoop's last game at Kentucky? Rumors he's off to A&M. I remember him as a linebacker.

I had to think about this question for a bit. I realized that I tend to pay more attention to shotmaking and course management when watching the LPGA v PGA. I hit the ball about the same distance as some of the LPGA players. I like seeing how they approach the game: strategy, club selection, etc. I don't have a 200 yard 7 iron, so I have a hard time relating to the PGA distances.

Thanks for the recommendation. I just read the preview part on Amazon and decided to order the Kindle version of the book. Thanks.

The point that Nichol and Morris make is that looking at the putt only from behind the ball "foreshortens" the putt--i.e. the putt appears shorter than it actually is. So it doesn't matter whether the putt is uphill, downhill or flat--your brain registers the putt as shorter than it actually is. Looking at the putt from the low side, and being far enough from the line to see both the hole and the ball in your vision, counteracts the foreshortening and you are able to accurately judge the distance. This worked for me. When practicing on a putting matt with known distances, I would rarely leave a putt short. But on the course, I consistently left putts just short of the hole. I tried picking a target beyond the hole, but that lead to a bigger dispersion. Once I incorporated looking at the whole putt from the low side, I started getting more balls to the hole.

How you read your putts can lead you to leave balls short. Golfers who only read the putt from behind are more prone to leave putts short. In "The Lost Art of Putting" Nichol and Morris, 2018, the authors emphasize the need to look at all putts from the low side. p. 114ff. "You will see the full picture if you stand far enough back to see both your ball and the hole in your peripheral vision. You will see the full length of the putt." p. 114. Only reading the put from behind foreshortens the putt and the golfer tends to leave the putts short.

Habits, especially when looked at in the context of golf, is a fascinating topic for me. I recommend two books to anyone even mildly interested in the topic: 1. Atomic Habits; An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good habits and Break Bad Ones, by James Clear. Not a golf book, but deals with the issue in broad terms, but has very specific detail in how to implement changes. 2. Golf Sense: Tips on How to Play golf in the Zone, by Palmer and Weber. the title is a bit misleading. The book covers the Alexander Technique (a way to recognize habitual action and then change it) applied to golf. Highly recommend to the OP. Regarding letting go of bad shots so they don't continue to show up and ruin your round: 1. I started to celebrate my good shots. Go ahead and show some positive emotion. Acknowledge that that was a great shot. "Oh yeah, look at that one!" "Great shot." "Boy that felt good." Hold the finish and relish the feel. 2. For shots that are not so good, I have learned to view the result as cause and effect, not "bad." This starts on the range, where I will do a lot of "if, then" practice. If I move the ball back two inches, X happens. If I move the ball two inches forward, Y happens. If I grip the club extra hard, Z happens. it's not good or bad, it's cause and effect. On the course, that translates into "I had the ball too far forward in my stance and it went left," instead of, "How can I hit such a crappy shot and pull the ball over into the trees, which is going to leave me no shot and I'll probably double bogey the hole and there goes my round and now I'll never play this game well and I'll be in a bad mood when I get home and my wife will get mad at me and probably divorce me and take all my money and I'll die all alone..." Expectations plays a part in it. Sinking an eight foot putt is a reason to celebrate. I'm amazed how often my playing partners curse themselves for missing the putt. On the PGA Tour, the pros make 50% of their 8 footers. Why should I, not a pro, get upset at missing an 8 footer? Also, how do you evaluate your round. I do a "good, better, how" analysis. Instead of dwelling on my "bad" shots, I go through a round and start by imprinting the good shots. Then look at the shot that could be better and ask "how."

I've played 23 of the courses, many of them in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Not so many in the US. Royal Dornoch probably tops my personal list. There's just something special about that course. Enjoyed it every time I've played it. In the US, toss up between Sand Hills and Bandon Dunes.

Yep. Good for adults too.

I did a putter fitting at club Champion on August 7th. The results were eye opening. I went in expecting to get the LAB Mez1 Max based on trying the putter a few weeks earlier at the PGA Super Store and Second Swing. I hit 10 putts with my putter. My set up was good and my old putter length was good. My face angle was "good" according to the computer at .1 degree open. We quickly determined that my old putter was too heavy. The surprise was that the data said I really needed 30 to 40 degrees of toe hang and a higher loft. I was skeptical as I have played mostly face balanced putters for years. The fitter pulled out a couple of different putters with more toe hang and higher loft. A bit of tweaking and boom, I found a putter that worked. I could feel the putter toe swing through when putting in the shop, but I didn't think it would show up on the course when I wasn't paying close attention to the feel of the stroke on the course. The extra loft really helped the ball to roll better. I ended up with the Odyssey White Hot Versa One--about as far away from a Mez1 Max as you can get. (An aside: One of my golfing buddies did a fitting a few days later. He went from a Scotty Cameron to a Mez1 Max, long putter. He's still waiting on delivery) My new putter showed up last Monday. I have played a few rounds with it now. It only took about 9 holes to figure out ball position and aim. It's almost as if I am confident in hitting my line for the first time in years. The roll will take a bit longer to adjust to. Pure roll tends to roll out more, but it holds the line better on our suboptimal greens. I'm excited about putting for the first time in years. I was a streaky putter. I could have really good stretches, but then revert back to below average. My base level with the new putter is already much higher than with the old. Sometimes it is the arrow. I highly recommend getting a putter fitting. I wish I had done it years ago.