Broke 100, now bring on 90

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

More work today. Struggled with some feels. Was just one of those days where eventually i just resorted to the Nail Drill just to get external in my thoughts. That seemed to help better.

Had a few epiphanies. One, if I don't get deep enough with my hands, i will go across the line. Second, i was struggling with foam ball straight hooks. Moved the ball up a little more than half a ball and things started out much straighter with no curve. I think moving it up helped me get the ball more centered on the face (some videos i took were very on the heel). I don't think this was a step back day but it didn't feel like a full step forward. Curious how my nine holes on Saturday goes.

[sirchunksalot]

7 hours ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

More work today. Struggled with some feels. Was just one of those days where eventually i just resorted to the Nail Drill just to get external in my thoughts. That seemed to help better.

Had a few epiphanies. One, if I don't get deep enough with my hands, i will go across the line. Second, i was struggling with foam ball straight hooks. Moved the ball up a little more than half a ball and things started out much straighter with no curve. I think moving it up helped me get the ball more centered on the face (some videos i took were very on the heel). I don't think this was a step back day but it didn't feel like a full step forward. Curious how my nine holes on Saturday goes.

I hope to hear some good things from you after your round on Saturday, you've put in a lot of hard work and it'll be great to see it pay off. 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

1 hour ago, sirchunksalot said:

I hope to hear some good things from you after your round on Saturday, you've put in a lot of hard work and it'll be great to see it pay off. 

Thanks. I think I am gonna try something different Saturday playing with a 8 club bag. Gonna see if less it more and if I can get really good with fewer clubs. Less things to think about. 
 

Driver, Super hybrid (16*),4i(22*),6i (28*),8i(36*),PW(45*),54*,Putter. 

[Kenny B]

On 4/25/2022 at 9:37 AM, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

Chatted with my coach after working on feels yesterday. If I incorporate the NTC cast A (feeling letting the wrist flatten out) felt much better and videoed better. Here is a short of how that is looking. Excited to try to get this to the range. 
 

 

Better, much better!  Just need to get the sequencing a little better on the downswing.  I know it's difficult to do; it's something that I constantly have to work on.  If you can drop your arms when flattening and try to keep your back to the target longer, you'll nail it.  

You start rotating your body as soon as the downswing starts; that gets the club lagging to far behind.  Try slo-mo swings where the upper body doesn't rotate until your left arm is parallel in the downswing; then rotate as fast as you can.

Good luck Saturday!!

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Not so great round 55 (includes a 9 on the last and an 8 on #2). 
 

positives: no three putts. My last 45 holes I’ve only had one three putt. Hit the super off the deck real well on a par 5. Got rid of driver hooks. Had a 33ft par putt that was money! Tied my neighbor on three holes (he is a former d1 player so he is my measuring stick)  

negatives : had too much tape on driver. Gonna settle half way as my pull hooks were now killer fades. Chunky on a lot of shots but that’s ok. That’s my swing shallowing. Need to work on low point once that is ingrained. Long clubs still an issue. Work in progress. 
 

overall a beautiful 55* day. Birds were out and life is good. 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

More work today but also wanted to do some swing speed training so I videoed. Realized my winter swing speed training set me back to winter. I get flippy and my hands got away from my body on the down swing. Will really need to focus on my proper feels with driver so I don’t go back to what I saw doing swing speed training. 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Inside light swings. Had a video in my inbox today explaining a feel called spin the meatballs. Long story short, helps starting the right wrist shallowing. Took a couple videos doing it and I like what I see. Will see how that correlates on Saturday. 
 

 

 

 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

50 today but ball striking not the issue. Hit 33% fairways. Only had one bad drive. Irons also great. Never lost my ball. the key was lighter grip pressure (flute drill) and easier tempo. 
 

pros: driving. Only one poor drive. Longest was 270 middle of fairway. Iron and pitching was great. I had birdie chances on holes I’ve never sniffed birdie before. 
 

cons: PUTTING!!! Greens were slightly fast despite all the rain. I had 5 chances at par and only made one! Some of those were also within 5ft. Had 19 total putts for nine holes including back to back three putts!!! Ugh!!  
bunker play killed me. One hole I smoked one past that I then had to chip. The other took me three tries to get out (granted the first was a plugged ball near the back edge that I needed to get super steep for). 
strategy: I can name about 6 poor decisions that cost me a stroke or two easily.

 

Overall I could have shot 40 or lower today which is something to hang my head on with the potential. 

 

shot of the day (although two of my drives that lead to birdie chances could also be considered). After a punch out, a brilliant pitch form 75 yards out. I missed the par! 
 

 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Slightly discouraged today. Got my lesson back. I don’t think it’s a step back but kind of feels like it. First my posture is a little too upright. No idea how that snuck in. I know feel like @dlow206hinging more.  Probably overdoing it but need to get a feel for more hinge. Also, For the past two months been working on being less across the line with irons. That has lead me to be to laid off so I can’t shallow. So now I have to tweak my takeaway to be a little more inside and feel going across the line. Driver my area to address is getting my hands to drop in transition because my rotation is so powerful my hands come out. Thanks @Kenny Bfor foreshadowing that . I feel these are things that will come to me. Just need to grind and mentally know this will get me in a better spot. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

There’s a lot of symptoms in there. Also a lot of “feels”

What did your coach give you as the actual cause and what is/are the drills to work on it.

There’s things that are listed that if done wrong will make things worse. Like hands in. Many roll the hands with this thought and that’s going to get the clubhead behind the hands and make things worse.

 

[Kenny B]

1 hour ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

Slightly discouraged today. Got my lesson back. I don’t think it’s a step back but kind of feels like it. First my posture is a little too upright. No idea how that snuck in. I know feel like @dlow206hinging more.  Probably overdoing it but need to get a feel for more hinge. Also, For the past two months been working on being less across the line with irons. That has lead me to be to laid off so I can’t shallow. So now I have to tweak my takeaway to be a little more inside and feel going across the line. Driver my area to address is getting my hands to drop in transition because my rotation is so powerful my hands come out. Thanks @Kenny Bfor foreshadowing that . I feel these are things that will come to me. Just need to grind and mentally know this will get me in a better spot. 

Keep at it... golf is hard!!

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

24 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

There’s a lot of symptoms in there. Also a lot of “feels”

What did your coach give you as the actual cause and what is/are the drills to work on it.

There’s things that are listed that if done wrong will make things worse. Like hands in. Many roll the hands with this thought and that’s going to get the clubhead behind the hands and make things worse.

 

So for my irons, he stated my outside take away was causing me to be too laid off at the top (I don’t know how much I like that since it’s been the same since I started where I was across the line). Because of being too shallow at the top with my long swing due to my good turn, I cannot shallow and therefore come in steep. So the thought it’s to me more neutral or slightly inside vs outside

 

outside takeaway

showing where shaft should be vs where it is

 

steep coming down

For my driver, he plainly stated that not starting my hands down early enough in transition causes them to fly out in the down swing since my rotation is so fast. 

Driver takeaway

better position at top due to more neutral driver takeaway

shallowing of club 

Rotation down causes hand to fly out

12 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Keep at it... golf is hard!!

Thanks Kenny!

[RickyBobby_PR]

5 minutes ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

So for my irons, he stated my outside take away was causing me to be too laid off at the top (I don’t know how much I like that since it’s been the same since I started where I was across the line). Because of being too shallow at the top with my long swing due to my good turn, I cannot shallow and therefore come in steep.

Same things I’ve mentioned in pst videos of your swing. Too much arm loft and separation.

Did he give you a specific drill to get the hands to move more inside? Something like towel under both arms? Headcover or glove under either arm? Alignment stick on lead or trail hip?

7 minutes ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

For my driver, he plainly stated that not starting my hands down early enough in transition causes them to fly out in the down swing since my rotation is so fast.

Same stuff Monte talks about with getting hands off the chest or lead shoulder off the chin. Or his cast A move from NTC.

Did he give you a drill to work on this? 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

3 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Same things I’ve mentioned in pst videos of your swing. Too much arm loft and separation.

Did he give you a specific drill to get the hands to move more inside? Something like towel under both arms? Headcover or glove under either arm? Alignment stick on lead or trail hip?

Same stuff Monte talks about with getting hands off the chest or lead shoulder off the chin. Or his cast A move from NTC.

Did he give you a drill to work on this? 

Yes and yes

[BMart519]

33 minutes ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

 

better position at top due to more neutral driver takeaway

shallowing of club 

Rotation down causes hand to fly out

 

Thanks Kenny!

The shaft is not completely parallel to ground in the first photo, but it is close for comparison here. Your club face is 45+ degrees more open at shaft parallel in the downswing compared to takeaway. These large differences are going create inconsistencies. You likely need to do a lot with the hands to square the club face between impact and this second position. 

Your hands are flying out to throw the club and square the face. If you arms and hands stayed tucked to your body, you would hit the ball extremely far right. 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

So the drill my coach is having me work on for shallowing is a pump drill where I get the arms moving before rotation. Holy s*** does my swing feel fast now. In fact, when I was doing it with driver, it made my Ventus black feel like a noddle after the swing (it wobbled a ton!). Again  overdoing it to get the feel, but man is it nice. 
 

Also doing some take away work with irons. I realized I almost need to purposely go way inside on my takeaway to get it to look neutral on video. It’s like my old takeaway was so outside I need to move ocean and mountain to get it right. Today was a good day for all this practice. The reason I had the old takeaway was to not get the reverse movements at the top, causing OOT. In actuality it’s my lack of hand movement at the top causing it. Golf is such a funny game and so interesting from a physiological standpoint. 
 

at the top. A little across the line

 

coming down and the shaft shallows. Notice it is bisecting my lower bicep instead of my shoulder. My left arm also comes off my chest  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

With my post above, got two thumbs up from my coach that I am doing the drill properly! Very excited to work this feel.

[stephenmatt]

I really like how in depth and thorough you are with all your posts and drills. I think that alone is going to help you tremendously in the long run.

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Just now, stephenmatt said:

I really like how in depth and thorough you are with all your posts and drills. I think that alone is going to help you tremendously in the long run.

Thank you for the kind words!

[stephenmatt]

Just now, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

Thank you for the kind words!

Of course. What is the main goal right now? Just to be able to shallow the club better?

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Just now, stephenmatt said:

Of course. What is the main goal right now? Just to be able to shallow the club better?

Just to get a more consistent swing and tighten up my shot dispersion. Overall, my goal is to break 90 and really enjoy the game more by scoring lower and being competitive. At some point I want to do some amateur tournaments and be competitive. Along this journey, I also want to share my knowledge and give insights to others to think about (mental aspects, enjoying other things about the game, etc...)

[stephenmatt]

Just now, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

Just to get a more consistent swing and tighten up my shot dispersion. Overall, my goal is to break 90 and really enjoy the game more by scoring lower and being competitive. At some point I want to do some amateur tournaments and be competitive. Along this journey, I also want to share my knowledge and give insights to others to think about (mental aspects, enjoying other things about the game, etc...)

I love that attitude. Keep it up. I will continue checking in!

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Same course as last week, three shots better for a 47. Putter was great today, everything else meh. 

cons: weather was wicked. Drizzly  wet then the winds picked up on the last 4 holes. Driver was not great today  really only had two good drives but one of them ended in a side hill that I had to punch out. I guess pitching could have been a little better. Hole 5 sucked. Solid drive but clip a tree and only went 150, then side lie punch out I hit to down on it and it went right into the hill.  2nd punch out ok. Then pull 8i out from 140 (was up hill and wet) and pulled it left (story with my irons today). Then poor pitch back onto the green, poor chip and two putt 8, ugh

pros: decision making was better today. Didn’t force any thing and kept ball in play (played the same ball). Putting was 180 from last week. 16 putts (including a 3 on the last due to aiming slightly off). Nearly drained a 25 ft putt from fringe on 1, a 35 ft on 2 that lead to a tap on par, drained a 25 ft par on 4 down hill with right to left break, 5 nearly drained a 27ft for triple, 6 nearly drained a 18 ft for par, 8 after bad distance on a chip and having to chip again drained a 24ft for bogey, 9 nearly drained a 55ft putt for birdie and off course missed the 8ft for par  ugh. greens were also at an 11 stump. Last week a 9.
 

Overall a fun morning, a good challenge and I feel myself getting better and enjoying the game more  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

A break down of how my swing is coming along. Biggest takeaway  , my takeaway I need to feel like I am bringing in majorly inside for it to be neutral. Then need to feel my lead arm get vertical, then pump and feel my right shoulder rotate around my spine. I still need to feel a little more downward hand action in transition to shallow. I’m getting there and it looks a hell of a lot better than three months ago. 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Did my pre-round prep incase i play in the Saturday tournament this weekend. Even though i have been ill, I've been doing slow swings in the house to keep ingraining.

[Ken32000]

I would really recommend ShotScope over Arccos.  I've used both and found ShotScope to be more intuitive and easier to use out of the course.  Great stats, etc. too.

 

Good luck on breaking 90 and congrats at getting under 100.

[SharkyM]

How about a playing lesson?  Sometimes the tendencies that show up on the course aren't the same as when you're hammering 100 balls on the range, maybe you're aiming a certain direction on the course that you don't do on the range.  Get your fundamentals dialed in, grip, aim, ball position, etc.... without that, you'll play in plateaus of very small incremental progress...

 

 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

2 minutes ago, SharkyM said:

How about a playing lesson?  Sometimes the tendencies that show up on the course aren't the same as when you're hammering 100 balls on the range, maybe you're aiming a certain direction on the course that you don't do on the range.  Get your fundamentals dialed in, grip, aim, ball position, etc.... without that, you'll play in plateaus of very small incremental progress...

 

 

Ya i have considered it. I am a firm follower of Adam Young and Scott Fawcett, so I believe i know course strategy and alignment well. I also treat range sessions like rounds by doing my pre shot routine so i can know how my alignment is at the range and translate it to the course.

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Tournament sign up official. Super excited. Hope I am in the morning group. 

[SharkyM]

15 minutes ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

Ya i have considered it. I am a firm follower of Adam Young and Scott Fawcett, so I believe i know course strategy and alignment well. I also treat range sessions like rounds by doing my pre shot routine so i can know how my alignment is at the range and translate it to the course.

Congrats on breaking 100 BTW and I'm sure we'll be hearing about 90 being shattered soon! 

IMO, one very important stat that I don't see talked about too often,  is to not give up strokes on par 3's like doubles or triples, fight like hell to get out with bogey at worse.  Hyper focus!!

Another one, cliché as it might be, tighten up the short game, particularly from just off the green/fringe, Texas wedges, bump and runs, whatever it takes, you gotta get up and down.  Turn triples into doubles and doubles into bogeys.    For me, one of the most glaring stats of what went right when I play a good round is the score on par 3's for the day. Par or better for the par 3's collectively and it's generally a good day...