Dlow206 does away with double bogeys

[sirchunksalot]

I am no swing expert, but that swing and ball flight definitely looks better in the 8 o'clock position. Definitely higher launch and it looks like it starts out straight to slightly right. Keep it up!

[edingc]

Love reading your updates. Keep them coming! 

[dlow206]

Right now, trying to figure out how to get back that swing in post 2 that i had after a lesson a while back. It is completely gone and I am just back to being super steep.

[Nolan220]

My goal this year was to break 90 and the second round I played this year I shot 88. I was so happy couldn't believe it, I found out with my swing that if I open my stand up a little i hit it straight so i just start practicing that to get more comfortable. The round I shot 88 I hit 7/13 fairways ( Arccos data) That is really good for me I usually hit only around/under 35% of fairways. But even with the ones I missed the fairway I was only on the first cut of the rough so still a pretty good shot. These updates are great and good luck with your swing. 

[edteergolf]

Just my opinion, but it would be hard to be very shallow with the amount of rear shoulder internal rotation you display.  This seems to force you to lean back making it difficult to get to the ball or to get any pressure back to the lead side.   Difficult to control the golf ball this way.  Steep(not over) may not be wrong for you.  

[dlow206]

15 minutes ago, edteergolf said:

Just my opinion, but it would be hard to be very shallow with the amount of rear shoulder internal rotation you display.  This seems to force you to lean back making it difficult to get to the ball or to get any pressure back to the lead side.   Difficult to control the golf ball this way.  Steep(not over) may not be wrong for you.  

I see, thanks for pointing that out. My attempts to make shallowing moves, while I can pull it off for one or two shots here and there, ultimately don't work well for me. Makes sense on the shoulder rotation issue.

[edteergolf]

54 minutes ago, dlow206 said:

I see, thanks for pointing that out. My attempts to make shallowing moves, while I can pull it off for one or two shots here and there, ultimately don't work well for me. Makes sense on the shoulder rotation issue.

Your shoulder is internal from setup so the shaft may not ever look shallow and pulling the club in and then swinging out only makes solid strikes and controlled ball flight more difficult.  You don't want over the top, but its probable that you should look like you are swing left.  Yes, it can look like its going left and still not hit pulled shots. 

[dlow206]

12 minutes ago, edteergolf said:

Your shoulder is internal from setup so the shaft may not ever look shallow and pulling the club in and then swinging out only makes solid strikes and controlled ball flight more difficult.  You don't want over the top, but its probable that you should look like you are swing left.  Yes, it can look like its going left and still not hit pulled shots. 

Thanks, one thing I am working on right now is getting to a better release position (P8-ish). No matter what swing or swing changes I try, my release position and finish is sort of weird, it is way left and my arms fold in narrowly (don't know if that description makes sense). I've been practicing the intent to get to a better release position and it seems to be helping ball contact. 

Trying to get to a more playable swing with less fat shots. Sometimes I get way to steep to the point of take ridiculously huge divots, almost like i am smashing the ground instead of hitting the ball.

[edteergolf]

4 minutes ago, dlow206 said:

Thanks, one thing I am working on right now is getting to a better release position (P8-ish). No matter what swing or swing changes I try, my release position and finish is sort of weird, it is way left and my arms fold in narrowly (don't know if that description makes sense). I've been practicing the intent to get to a better release position and it seems to be helping ball contact. 

Trying to get to a more playable swing with less fat shots. Sometimes I get way to steep to the point of take ridiculously huge divots, almost like i am smashing the ground instead of hitting the ball.

The back swing rotation is massive and makes it very difficult to release/rotate so when the hips can't move/open then the arms and club release is going to look off.  Ultimately, it is post impact and doesn't really matter.  Without being able to make it back to and past the ball you have a tendency to move the low point behind the ball which requires your attempt to be steep to get back to the ball.  This is an example of each step out of position is causing the next step to be out of position leaving you very few if any viable ways of successfully striking the ball. 

[dlow206]

13 minutes ago, edteergolf said:

The back swing rotation is massive and makes it very difficult to release/rotate so when the hips can't move/open then the arms and club release is going to look off.  Ultimately, it is post impact and doesn't really matter.  Without being able to make it back to and past the ball you have a tendency to move the low point behind the ball which requires your attempt to be steep to get back to the ball.  This is an example of each step out of position is causing the next step to be out of position leaving you very few if any viable ways of successfully striking the ball. 

Thanks, this is what I meant by getting to a better release position. Having that swing intent helped improve my pre-impact portion of the swing. It was also a much easier swing for me to make than the "After" swing from 5/3. The after swing on 5/3 i felt like I was coming way from the inside. 

 

[dlow206]

I’ve learned that you should never trust an a-ha moment, especially when its based on watching an online tip. However, check out my swing today. You will never guess how simple but fundamental the change was.

https://youtu.be/ztlnSJjPSrk

[dlow206]

Not sure why my last post didn't embed the video

 

[edteergolf]

5 hours ago, dlow206 said:

Not sure why my last post didn't embed the video

 

IMO - it is pretty tough to evaluate with random camera angles.  My preference is rear elbow high on the hand line for down the line and elbow high center of you body for face on videos.  

[dlow206]

2 hours ago, edteergolf said:

IMO - it is pretty tough to evaluate with random camera angles.  My preference is rear elbow high on the hand line for down the line and elbow high center of you body for face on videos.  

Yeah, I haven't been taking consistent video angles. Been moving around because I have been destroying grass in the backyard.

Anyway, I learned today that I wasn't holding the grip in my left hand correctly. I had a longstanding misunderstanding of where in my fingers to hold the grip in my left hand. The way I was holding the club in my left hand caused my left wrist to be super cupped at setup. And the looking at number of knuckles on the left hand was misleading because of how I was holding the club.

Correcting the left hand issue made everything quite a bit better.

[dlow206]

Currently working on a few things:

• Ensuring I am putting my hands on the grip correctly. I found a good approach to ensure that I am putting my hands on the grip consistently. If I don't focus on the grip, then how I grip the club gets inconsistent
• Ensuring my backswing, especially takeaway is on plane. Sometimes I start taking it too inside. If I take it too inside and then get to a cupped wrist position at the top, i'm dead, especially with the driver

[dlow206]

The other thing that i have learned while having too little time on the course and too much time at home is that there are a lot of fundamentals that I never learned (or forgot) when I learned to play golf. Things like how you put the club in your hand, where your right arm points, etc. Besides what I mentioned above with my grip issue, I also found an issue with where my right arm is pointed. I previously had a very strong right handed grip, and with that, my right elbow properly pointed toward my hip. When I weakened it, my right arm started to turn with it in a counterclockwise direction at setup, which sort of preset my right shoulder in internal rotation. I am learning a lot about how different factors impact the swing, and in the long run, this will help a lot.

[edteergolf]

2 hours ago, dlow206 said:

The other thing that i have learned while having too little time on the course and too much time at home is that there are a lot of fundamentals that I never learned (or forgot) when I learned to play golf. Things like how you put the club in your hand, where your right arm points, etc. Besides what I mentioned above with my grip issue, I also found an issue with where my right arm is pointed. I previously had a very strong right handed grip, and with that, my right elbow properly pointed toward my hip. When I weakened it, my right arm started to turn with it in a counterclockwise direction at setup, which sort of preset my right shoulder in internal rotation. I am learning a lot about how different factors impact the swing, and in the long run, this will help a lot.

It will also affect your release and an internal shoulder would be consistent with a weakened right hand grip.  That could be good if you have a more cover/roll release.  Not so much if you have a disposition for a throw or under release.   A lot of millionaires with both patterns. 

[dlow206]

Played yesterday, didn't keep score, just focused on trying to hit good shots. Had ups and downs, and showed glimpses of being able to play pretty good golf, followed by the struggles of a high handicapper. Started the round with too many OB shots off the tee, but that settled down after a few holes. The main place I lose strokes is hitting fat short iron shots, like the fat ones you intend to go 100 yards but they only go 20. Every time I thought about not hitting it fat, I would it hit it super fat.

Going to keep working on the fundamentals. Setup, grip, etc. I realized that I have terrible posture at setup. When I first learned to play golf at age 9, I played with full size adult clubs, so I had to stand very upright. I still stand that way, but with terrible posture.

[dlow206]

Over the weekend, I learned that there should be some left arm rotation in the swing between the takeaway and left arm parallel. I definitely wasn't doing that previously. If I make that move decently, then i don't feel like i need to make any sort of artificial move to shallow.

 

[dlow206]

Played today, had some glimpses of hope. Still shot in the 100s but had some pars. I am confident if I can reduce these two things, I can break a 100 without too much problem:

• Two way miss off the tee (many times OB) - So the weird issue I have is with irons, I often times revert back to the high handicapper over the top swing, but my driver swing is like a completely different swing. I swing my driver from the inside as validated by Trackman and validated by my misses. My misses are either the dreaded weak snap hook or an OB push fade. I think what happens is that my driver swing is coming from the inside but way too open. Then I either flip at the last minute to save it and snap hook, or I hold it off and push fade way right. These misses either result in OB, or a really weak snap hook that doesn't go forward very far.
• Second issue is fat shots. I waste too many shots on fat mid to short irons. I almost wish I would miss thin, because at least the thin shot goes forward a good distance. My issue is head and body movement, way too up and down. When I try to keep my head more level, it still probably moves some but the result is much better

After my round today, I tried an experiment. I setup with my driver face closed, and body aimed a bit left. At the start of the downswing, I have the intent of swinging as left as possible and trying to close the face as much as possible. The result was a nice power fade. The miss with this tended to be straight or a small straight draw. The big miss with this was a high straight shot. I think this power fade intent may be what I should focus on going forward for my tee shot. In my time playing golf, I never have been a slicer, I don't think I could hit a slice if my life depended on it. So I am not worried about this shot turning into a week slice.