7 o'clock, The perfect "time" to hit the ball.

[RoverRick]

Tuesday evenings, I get together with my neighbor about 5 pm and we play around. (EDIT: a round of golf ) I have written about him many times because he was unable to break 100 when we started and now has broken 90 regularly. Often, our Tuesday nights turn into a 3 1/2 hour lesson.

 

Last night, from the opening hole, he was slicing the ball into oblivion. This is not new. He did this all the time. And to stop it I taught him how to hit a draw. Then I taught him how to hit a fade, But then he started slicing again and .... Well, he is a difficult person to teach.

 

So last night I took a marker and wrote 12 on the ball and than moved around to the 7 oclock position and wrote a 7. I told him to line the ball up and hit the 7. He argued that if he did that then the ball would go to the right, and he was trying to spot the ball going to the right. I told him that it was my ball (an old one) that I did that to, and if it went to the right than we would just leave it. First, I had him hit a tee in the ground on his practice swings, He hit the ball that way and was amazed. He said he had never hit the ball that straight and far before in his life, I said, "That will be $100." He said "Mickey only charges $40." I said "you should have asked Mickey instead of me.":P No money exchanged hands.

 

But as I said he is a difficult student. This happened on the first hole, and we spent 18 holes arguing that it did not feel right to him. And he would hit two or more balls, some his way and one my way. Hitting the 7 o;clock position. I told him that when you have never hit the ball properly, and change it may not feel right, but that does not make it wrong,

 

I will not go into to 3 hour arguement that insued, but I will say that on the third hole, I started focusing on hitting the ball at 7 oclock. I did not have a ball flight issue. I was hitting it pretty well, but all of a sudden, I started hitting the "perfect" shot everytime. Especially with the driver. With no wind, I hit it to where I normally do with the wind.

 

Of course the key to this is that in order to hit the ball at 7. You have to approach the ball from the inside and in order to do that you have to swing in the proper sequence. I already did this to a certain degree, but I never made so many great swings in a row and it was effortless.

 

So do you do this? or have you done this? It is a great "cheat" to use on the teebox.

[GolfSpy WD]

Tuesday evenings, I get together with my neighbor about 5 pm and we play around.

 

It's amazing how a simple space between 'a' and 'r' can totally change the meaning of a sentence

 

But back on the topic, this is exactly how I try to hit the ball when I'm looking for a draw, which is most of the time. The other key component of this is to try to keep your hands near your right hip during the backswing and downswing. I also focus on two other things: feeling the weight on my right heel without swaying my hips and the right wrist feel at the top of my swing (which I can't really describe).

 

This is all during my practice swing though, I try to forget everything for my real swing, which doesn't always work out...

[Kanoito]

RR speaks the truth and should join Luke Donald in his commercial!

 

Thanks to this tip (grip near right hip and hitting the 7 o'clock) and JBones' not tilting too much, I played the best round of golf ever! Beautiful drives on Par 5's leaving 220 yards for my second shot, hitting super approach shots with my 4 and 5 iron.

 

Seriously, after putting this into practice, my boss and I got 4th place during Sunday's tournament.

 

Thanks RR!

 

EDIT: Nope, I didn't draw a 7 on my ball, I just used the logo as the target.

[JMiller]

Tuesday evenings, I get together with my neighbor about 5 pm and we play a round. I have written about him many times because he was unable to break 100 when we started and now has broken 90 regularly. Often, our Tuesday nights turn into a 3 1/2 hour lesson.

 

Last night, from the opening hole, he was slicing the ball into oblivion. This is not new. He did this all the time. And to stop it I taught him how to hit a draw. Then I taught him how to hit a fade, But then he started slicing again and .... Well, he is a difficult person to teach.

 

you really can't learn anything without committing to the change and putting in 3000 - 5000 reps of the change to make it 'automatic', so my guess is that he really hasn't committed to making a change in his swing like he should.

 

So last night I took a marker and wrote 12 on the ball and than moved around to the 7 oclock position and wrote a 7. I told him to line the ball up and hit the 7. He argued that if he did that then the ball would go to the right, and he was trying to spot the ball going to the right. I told him that it was my ball (an old one) that I did that to, and if it went to the right than we would just leave it. First, I had him hit a tee in the ground on his practice swings, He hit the ball that way and was amazed. He said he had never hit the ball that straight and far before in his life, I said, "That will be $100." He said "Mickey only charges $40." I said "you should have asked Mickey instead of me.":P No money exchanged hands.

 

really cool idea, I might be marking up some range balls next time I am their just with a dot or something. This swing path is optimal probably give a baby draw if the face is square, great idea.

 

 

But as I said he is a difficult student. This happened on the first hole, and we spent 18 holes arguing that it did not feel right to him. And he would hit two or more balls, some his way and one my way. Hitting the 7 o;clock position. I told him that when you have never hit the ball properly, and change it may not feel right, but that does not make it wrong,

 

I will not go into to 3 hour argument that insued, but I will say that on the third hole, I started focusing on hitting the ball at 7 o'clock. I did not have a ball flight issue. I was hitting it pretty well, but all of a sudden, I started hitting the "perfect" shot every time. Especially with the driver. With no wind, I hit it to where I normally do with the wind.

 

Of course the key to this is that in order to hit the ball at 7. You have to approach the ball from the inside and in order to do that you have to swing in the proper sequence. I already did this to a certain degree, but I never made so many great swings in a row and it was effortless.

 

Some people don't like to accept help regardless of how much it works, if it feels 'unnatural' they will always revert to bad habits.

 

So do you do this? or have you done this? It is a great "cheat" to use on the teebox.

 

Yes indirectly I focus on good sequence, I have not marked a ball to practice the inside to out swing but my miss is a hook so if anything I know I come too far inside at times and release the wrists hard. Been working on toning down the wrists rolling over at impact to hit straighter shots.