Hiatus

Well as you can probably tell from the lack of posts, there has not been a lot of golf played over the last two months.   I had planned to scale back a little to revitalize the appetite for the game a little and generally there is no better time to do it than the winter (even here in Georgia).  Another reason for  taking a break is the nagging pains I have been having in my right elbow.   There have been some developments here.   I assumed it to be golfers elbow aka tendinitis and just fairly normal wear and tear.   To be sure I went to see orthopedic specialist Dr Craig Weil (a physio of the Atlanta Falcons).   Unfortunately, it is worse than I thought.  A tendon has ripped off the bone, tearing with it a bone fragment.   In addition there is some arthritis in the elbow.
The upshot of it all is that I can't swing a club for a couple of months, am having physio twice a week, icing twice a day and  taking an anti-inflammatory.   The goal is that it will heal naturally however he has said I may need to have surgery to remove the bone fragment and clean up the scar tissue.  
I can't point to a single moment where it tore.  I gradually noticed the pain building up over last summer.

This leaves me in a position where:
a) I am not going to be able to hit any balls until Feb at best
b) When I do get to hit balls again, I am going to have to hit a lot less balls.  Essentially I am going to have to make my swing a little lower maintenance.  (No clue how to do that)
c) In the meantime, I am going to be focusing on putting and short chips.

Towards the end of last year, I started to come to a realization of what/where my weaknesses lie.
My putting is way subpar as is my chipping.   My long game is solid with the exception of my propensity to block the driver high and right at least a couple of times a round.

Those three things are going to be my focus for 2011.

I have already taken a putting lesson from TW.    I had so many mechanical issues I don't know where to start describing them.   Most importantly I was adding loft to the putter face by virtue of my setup.   This means I had no shaft lean.  A couple of other changes:

• Ball position needs to be one putter head (Odyssey 2 ball I use) back from front toe.
• Elbow alignment has me starting way right.  Left elbow needs to tuck in.
• Head position should be slightly behind the ball ( I will go into this a little more in one second)
• Ball needs to have an alignment line/semi-circle.
• Putter head needs to have an alignment line.

Perhaps most interestingly though is what I look at when putting.   Subconsciously over the years, I have come to watch the putter head while making a putting stroke.   I guess I like to establish that the putter goes back on forth on a good line.  TW illustrated with an example that this is not a good idea.   (When throwing a ball to someone, I don't look at my arm go back and through.  Rather, I look at the target or some intermediate point I want to hit).   The predominant change in my putting thus will be that I will be looking at the ball and the line I want to trace when putting.   (If its a short putt I will probably be looking at the hole)

Finally for this post, an interesting exercise is to analyze your next/last round of golf.  Compare your actual score with your score if you made all putts inside 6 feet and no 3 putts.  You might be shocked!!   My last round before this break was by no means a ball striking classic.  I shot 78.   However, if I had made all putts inside 6 feet and no 3 putts, I calculated I would instead have shot 69!!  If ever I needed validation of where I should be focusing my practice, there it is!!