Forward press

[Kenny B]

Finally was able to get on the range today after another week of rain and 60 hours plus of work when it wasn't raining.

 

I thought of opening a new thread actually after the session but realize that people don't often comment on threads that deal with basic things (perhaps they should but they don't.)  Instead I'm hopping back on here to offer some thoughts if only to solidify things for myself. 

 

I've been very frustrated with my golf game this summer - poor weather, being busy, work obligations have made it very difficult to practice and/or play with any sort of consistency.  The game has been difficult and my shot making very spotty.  A week of inactivity meant more of the same old, same old on the range.  After some warm up I hit a couple of dozen so so wedges at a target 110 yards away - there weren't any horrible shots but the ball flight was all over the place.  Next I hit the 7 iron at a pin 147 away, same result only worse dispersion and diversity in trajectory.  Driver took a couple of swings but it was okay so I went back to 7 and it was all over the place.  In fact I was ready to walk into the clubhouse schedule a lesson for next Tuesday and put the clubs away until then when I decided to take a 5 minute break and reflect. 

 

I remembered this thread not to follow suggestions so much as to consider what basic thing I might try shifting to effect a more consistent ball flight - I knew my grip was proper as was my stance but the one thing that I thought might be off was ball position (my mistakes were thin so I moved the ball back in my stance about 2 inches). 

 

The first shot was wonderful, high, a slight draw, it finished hole high or past about 15 feet right (there was a slight left to right breeze that held the draw up.)  The next three balls all looked the same and finished just right of the pin.  I hit the fifth one a little thin but it still flew fairly high with a slight draw and the last six (without the aiming aid) were all beautiful, high with a slight draw or straight, missed one left the others a tad bit right (again the breeze.)  I most certainly hit 9/10 solid and could have easily hit all 9 of those on the green on a course.

 

So I pulled my GW (weaker than Jason Day's ) and started hitting it towards the 110 yard flag.  All 8/10 were on the green which is a 15 foot closely mown circle around the pin - the 2 misses were fine - one was around 25 feet left, the other a little short (but these were range balls.)

 

I'm hopeful - I'd like to get to the range tomorrow but it's supposed to be a total wash out.  Can't Sunday or Monday so I may have to wait until Tuesday to see if I finally have something that will carry over from one day to the next.

 

Keep us posted on your results.  I also tend to get ball position a little too far forward which is exacerbated by a weak effort to get off my back foot.  Bad combination.  Some days are just better than others.  

[revkev]

I honestly think we waste a lot of time and money on stuff that could be resolved by focusing on the basics, you know what goes on from pre shot routine until the swing starts.  If you have a nice little routine, take a solid grip and get yourself into a proper set up it goes a long, long way to hitting the shot you selected in your minds eye when you pulled the club.

[Kor.A.Door]

When I think of forward press for putting, obvious example is Phil, but something I read somewhere reminds me that if you forward press with the putting you are delofting it, since it only has 3-4 degrees of loft, forward press will make it 0-1 degree, which can cause problems with the way the ball rolls, so isn't it kind of imperative to add some loft with the putter if you are going to use a forward press, I think I remember seeing or hearing something that Phil's putter is like 5 or 6 degrees of loft because of the press.

Full swing forward press causes you to trap the ball and effectively deloft your clubs, it doesn't work for everyone come over the top with a trap draw and you just hooked the ball 60 yards, I think bubba is a good example of some who can play a lot of shaft lean creating the trap of the ball, think of the wedge in the playoff at Augusta.