I ain't Tiger Woods so ......

[RoverRick]

Rick..no matter the competition..you sound like you are playing some good golf.

 

Keep up the nice playing

 

After playing all winter on greens that were the speed of a pool table, the grass is growing.  And they have slowed down a lot.  Now, putts that used to go off the green only get half way there and my putting numbers have gone way up.  However, they are still better than most so that helped me a lot.  I had a number of 3 putt bogies that I was certain the ball might go in the hole or at least look at it as it went by and came up 9-10' short, and in easy three putt range.

[Lonnie96]

Golf.. Gotta love it .. " never up.. Never in"

[RoverRick]

I spent some time this afternoon working on the irons. And some more of my thoughts on it for now.

• The basic set up is hips and shoulders square and feet closed, (right foot back about half a foot).  This swing will cause a bit of an over the top move in the down swing and by setting up this way, I am adjusting for it.
• The iron swing for me is about a 75% shoulder turn going back, and the speed of the body is 75% as well.  I probably allow the club to continue back farther with a driver or perhaps FM or Hybrid, but increased distance is not what I am looking for with the irons.
• The left arm feels as as though it is moving at a constant 75-80%.  Not a fast motion but in no way is it really slow motion.  I have begun to waggle the club by just swinging the club with the left hand to the top to get the tempo right. 
• The left arm, while it is not important to keep it straight at the top of the back swing, is straight at impact, and the left wrist is flat the entire swing.  But I feel the arc of the swing created by the straight left arm and the tempo is created by the body turn. 
• THIS IS NOT A SWINGER'S SWING, so keep the tempo right.  That killed me this last weekend.
• To initiate the swing with a slight forward press of the hands, and then simply turn back, with the shoulders and fold the right arm. 
• The downswing starts when I reach the top and with the right shoulder starting back down.
• Milliseconds after the right shoulder starts I begin to fire the right hand by straightening the right elbow, while the body continues to turn.
• As the hands approach the impact position, the right arm is getting longer.  Since the right hand is positioned below the left and the left arm is already extended, this causes a pulling on the butt of the club, and a pushing just below that on the shaft, some 30-40 inches away is the head of the club.  This torquing of the shaft causes the club head to accelerate much faster.
• At impact, because I have continued to turn, my hands are still leading the club head.  But I feel as though I slap the ground underneath the ball with the sole of the club.
• But I continue on to a full finish.

 

This gives the illusion, since the body was turning at only 75-80% speed, that I made an effortless swing.  But according to my swing meter today, I was getting an average of 83 mph with this swing.  That is plenty of speed for me with an 8 iron.  

[Lonnie96]

Rick.. You are really nailing this man.. We all have different feels , but I concur with what you said above . Driver was the hardest with this .. But once I spent 2 days working at it .. I nailed it . I literally was hitting shots clean off the tee , without even disturbing it .. ( not all) but more than normal . I never have experienced that before .. I was always a big tee breaker

 

Nice job explaining your thoughts

[RoverRick]

I went to the course this afternoon and applied what I had written above.  However, I will admit that I never full accelerated the hands.  I wanted to ingrain the feel and was not concerned with distance too much.  I missed 1 fairway, and only hit 8 GIR but my misses were never more than 5 yards off the green.  Chipping and putting was pretty solid so I had 3 bogies and 4 birdies for a 1 under par.  I could be very happy with that scores like that.

[Lonnie96]

Nice

[RoverRick]

Another day of light wind, slow receptive greens, and honestly, easy pin placements.  Course Super says greens will be slow to recover from the cold winter for a week or two.  Today, I began to add a bit more power to the swing but still did not want to overswing.  10/12 Fairways hit, and 11/18 GIR.  This is up significantly than before.  30 putts for 1 over par.

[RoverRick]

Two week update. 

 

Well, actually, tomorrow will be two weeks, but since there is 100% chance of rain, and they are obviously correct about that,  today or tomorrow makes no real difference.

 

The state of the swing is, really good.  I have had no real desire to slip back into the old swing as I have in the past.  But let's face it, my old faults were coming over the top (off line), hitting with the hands, tightening my grip, and early release (last 3 are speed killers).  This swing, hitting with the hands and over the top are part of the swing.  The 10 finger grip has greatly reduced the tighten of the hands and a stronger grip created more lag which is the opposite of an early release.  Hitting with the hand is where the speed is generated.

 

Friday is our county wide 6 man scramble (42 6 person teams).  Best Grips is coming to visit and will be on my team. My "area of expertise" will be 150 and in and putting.  So as soon as the rain stops, probably Tuesday, I will spend the week on Short irons, and 3/4 and 1/2 shots.  Chipping and putting.  We have 3 long hitters so I am happy with my driving for now.

[HighFade]

Loved it, Rick. Here's my thoughts:

 

Step 1: grip it

Step 2: rip it

[RoverRick]

Loved it, Rick. Here's my thoughts:

 

Step 1: grip it

Step 2: rip it

 

Perhaps a bit week in the pre-shot, but perfect swing thoughts.

[HighFade]

Thinking has never been a strength.

[RoverRick]

End of week 3 with the new swing.

 

The important part.  This weekend, starting Thursday to Saturday afternoon, I played 81 holes of golf in 54 hours.  My back felt great, better than the rest of me.  Haha. 

 

I did not make a good swing on every shot, but did play two tournaments this weekend.  A 6 man scramble on Friday and a 2 man modified alternate shot on Saturday.  We broke par on the alternate shot and really should have been a 66-67.  However, the winning score was well, no reason to cry over the three that got away.  We would not have won anyway.  But Zach and I played well, ok, Zach played awesome and I did not stink it up too badly. 

 

The swing, however, needs some further modifications.  The range was not opened until Thursday so the only swings I have really had have been on the course and it has been so windy I was not confident with my distance.  I did know that I had lost a club or club and a half.  With tournaments looming just hours away, the solution was to change hybrids.  I went back to the Ben Hogan hybrids and dropped the long irons and had 3 hybrids.

 

I need to make better contact and get more established in my routine.  I also think I may modify this to a steeper angle of attack to trap the ball instead of sweep it, but still, very happy with my play over the weekend.

 

I am much more upset with my putting. The greens have been "allowed to grow so that the longer blade can absorb more sunlight and develop a better root system after the hard winter" according to the letter we received.  The speed of the greens was drastically different, and then after one tournament and before the other, we went to a different course with fast greens so any adjusting I did on Friday morning was undone on Friday afternoon.  But we had a great time and the swing is easy on the body.

[RoverRick]

5 Week update.

 

Ok, Five weeks ago, Big Bomber posted the Lee Comeaux thread and I began to explore the whole hitter vs swing thing.  While I did ok with this for 3 weeks, I began to study the Bio-Mechanics Swing Theory.

 

Barbajo sent me a copy of his "Understanding your Golf Swing" that he got when he took lessons.  I went through this step-by-step to find what was best for me.  It was funny because there was really no adjustment time required at all.  I basically worked out the swing in the back yard and then went to the range the next day and solid ball striking from the beginning. 

 

Most of last week, I was in Boston-Rhode Island area so no golf, but I did play this weekend.  I actually had a pressure match on Sunday ($10 per hole match with $8 in my pocket and my competitors playing well) and I played really well and the swing held up.  I was down $30 due to fine play by my opponents but was able to rally and ended up breaking even.  Also, the my back has felt better than it has in years.

 

I can not stress enough how important it is to find your natural swing and not Tiger's or Bubba's unless you are Tiger or Bubba.  I see that I have pretty much wasted more than 2 years trying to do things I am not naturally inclined to do and more importantly, keep from doing things that I naturally did.

 

I will not claim any distance gains at all.  The wind has been in the upper 20's every time I have gotten on the course so distance is hard to tell.  I seem to be driving the ball between 200 and 300 yards based on the wind.      And can hit a 5 iron and a Gap Wedge 140 yards.  However, I will say my GIR are way up.  Last weekend I had 12 and 14 GIR in pretty strong winds.  Distance was never a determining factor.  I am wanting a pain free swing that will hold up under stress.

[MattF]

So at the end of the day Rick, Dick's might be right, swing your swing?

[RoverRick]

So at the end of the day Rick, Dick's might be right, swing your swing?

 

100% right.

[Lonnie96]

Rick

 

You are doing very well .. I ran into a bad stretch with it . I started missing way right /!fat/ and a few shanks . I think I need to clear my mind. , take maybe a while off .. Sometimes when you hit a bad stretch , best to not play swing doctor and think thru what you did wrong . Just seems having a steady posture is vital to this, moving laterally is a killer

[RoverRick]

Now, tomorrow, I hope, I need to work on my sand game.  The rest of my game is better than it has ever been.  The full swings are money.  Had 17 GIR yesterday and hit every fairway, and was longer than ever before.  However, we have had no sand on the course in 3 almost 4 years.  Last week, they started adding the sand bunkers and every round will have more and more sand being added.  If there is no rake it is ground under repair.  But if there is a rake by it, it is now an open bunker. 

 

Full swing is awesome now.  Not many swing thoughts at all.  Just a certain feel going to the top and than through to the follow through.  I feel like I have finally achieved the effortless power instead of powerless effort.  Consistency is there and it even stands up under pressure.

[RoverRick]

Hi guys,

 

It has been 20 days since I have posted here.  My goal that I set on my 45th birthday was to be a scratch golfer by my 50th birthday.  I am not sure I was able to achieve that to the letter but certainly I achieved the spirit of that goal.  I played 101 holes of golf in 4 days and my cumulative score was like 736, or 7 over par.  I never once felt like I played my best golf.

 

What was really awesome was that I below par through 4 holes one round and in a three hole span I had a bogey and two double bogies.  Poor choices and poorer swings and I was headed down hill fast.  But on the 8th hole I was able to regroup and get myself under control and managed to right the ship and have a respectable round.  I think I was 4 over after the round after added some bogies and birdies. 

 

I can tell my swing is still evolving some.  Without necessarily thinking about making more changes, I am developing a bit more lag and feeling like I am getting my right side more involved at impact.  I will let this develop and see where it goes. 

 

I am so stinking happy with this swing.  Now I am able to spend more time with my short game, and my long game is just on cruise control, and this is an awesome feeling.

[Max L698]

 Because they are legends . So its not bad thing to follow them. Success in golf depends less on strength and power of the body, it more depends on strength on mind, character and abilities. When ever I feel any require improvement in my golf game, I simply taking golf tips online from mybestgolfbuddy. com where I get more professional instructions rather hiring private teacher.

[SeeRed]

Just bumping this thread to find out how things are going with the swing. I need to simplify my swing and am wondering if incorporating some of Lee's ideas might be helpful. Anyway, just wondering if you're still happy with the change and whether or not other have stuck with it.

[RoverRick]

Just bumping this thread to find out how things are going with the swing. I need to simplify my swing and am wondering if incorporating some of Lee's ideas might be helpful. Anyway, just wondering if you're still happy with the change and whether or not other have stuck with it.

 

Very little has happened with this swing since about mid-June.  The swing is pretty good, and will hold up under pressure, but since then golf has taken a back seat to other things in my life.  More recently, I have pulled a muscle in my back.  I hope to be back in full swing and fully motivated in the coming weeks.

 

I like this swing but it fits my natural tendencies.  You need to be sure to get one that fits yours.

[SeeRed]

Sorry to hear about the back. Good advice you gave there at the end. I've been struggling lately and looking for simplification. Need to own the swing I have.