June Gloom

Haven't said much on here lately, but there has been quite a bit of golf played. By April I was playing pretty decent - enough that I was lucky enough to win a couple of events at GC of GA. Throughout it all, my short game has been killing me and still is.
To top it all off, I'm now on a bit of a downcycle with the swing. (I've figured out that no matter how much I progress, its all cyclical - it gets to be pretty good for a while and then it gradually slips away, hits rock bottom and then starts to come back again)
This weekend was out Member Member and I played putridly. Tee to green was not too bad, but round the greens was nothing short of abysmal.

My sole goal for the rest of this year is to develop a somewhat plausible short game. Yesterday, I ordered Phil Mickelsons DVD Short Game Secrets. I'm going to see if this can help me develop some sound short game fundamentals and see what happens from there. I'll post a review once I get a chance to watch it.

In the near term, I have a member guest at TPC Sugarloaf this week. Very excited about that - hope I can contribute for my partner. Then Monday I have a qualifier at Atlanta National for the state amateur. I think it'll take 77 to have a shot on what is a very tough track.

Bizarre

In all sport, there is a major stigma attached to any accusation of the 'c' word but I can't imagine any sport where that stigma is more damaging than in golf. (C for cheating in case there is any confusion).
This case leaves me dumbfounded.

I can't understand why anyone with discredit themselves in such a manner.

Ben Crane has lost the plot

This might be funny if it was Sasha Baron Cohen but Ben Crane, I am not so sure?
(For anyone not familiar with Crane, he is THE slowest golfer on the PGA Tour by a country mile.   Admittedly he acknowledges it and is trying to speed it up while staying competitive.   Have I mentioned that slow play is my pet hate??)

I guess he is trying to drive site traffic or something.

Club Championship

We had our club championship this past 3 days.
It was a blast.  I have never experienced such pacy greens.  I believe the greens were running at 13!!  Surprisingly, playing from the tips was not such an issue.  Weather was superb.
This is going to sound funny but given what I shot today but I have never been happier with my ball striking.  I have finally eliminated that horrible big high block to the right with the driver.  It was being caused by a slide towards the target with the left hip on the downswing.   THE DOWNSWING HAS TO BE INITIATED BY LETTING THE CLUB FALL/THE RIGHT ELBOW UNHINGE WHILE REMAINING COILED.
Anyhow, I shot 81/81/87.  I was in 9th place as of this morning but probably finished in the high teens.
In general I'm very happy with my ball striking tee to green.  I had maybe 3 bad swings all weekend.  Alas two of them cost me a 9 on the 11th hole (that's a par 5).
Was disappointed with how I chipped and putted.  In truth I was tentative and a little chicken on the fast greens.  I missed about five 3-footers or less.
Season is winding down.   Only one event of note left - final round of the Green Tour on Nov 6th.   Will take a week off to freshen up and get a few good weeks practice in before that!!

Back to HOTLANTA

Just got back from Ireland and it's absolutely steaming.  I don't think there will be a lot of golf played in August.  First of all, its just too hot.  Then there is a matter of the condition of greens seemingly everywhere.  Anywhere with bentgrass greens is really struggling with this heat.   Played 4 times in Ireland.

No more left side

When I first started my lessons with Tim, my ball flight was what you might describe as a controlled hook at best.  That was my good shot and my miss was either a big block to the right or a quick snap hook.

Desperately Seeking Short Game

Thoroughly depressed after today!
Had a GA state am qualifier at Atlanta National.  Shot 83! 

Putting Lesson 1

Had a lesson with TW this morning and we started to address putting.
Before we even considered the putting stroke, Tim was able to see that my putter is the incorrect length for me.  I had it cut down to 33 inches a couple of years back.  As a result, I am crouched over way too much and my eyes are not directly over the ball.  In fact my eyes are a couple of inches outside the ball.
TW tells me that my eyes must be either directly over the ball OR a tad to the inside.  Outside is an absolute no-no.  
Since it's not physically possible for me to get my eyes in this position with my putter as is, I am going to switch temporarily to my old Scotty Cameron with a 35 inch shaft.    I will get the shaft on the other lengthened to 35 also and see which one I am most comfortable with.

We also took a look at why I struggle so much with my 3 wood and yet am so comfortable with my 5 wood (both TaylorMade V Steels).  TW is convinced it is because the shaft on the 3W is wrong for me (frequency is very different from the 5W).  I am going to see a clubmaker on Monday who will replicate my 5W shaft specs in the 3W.   Let's see if that makes the difference.

Kingdom Come

I tried out the driver that the Pro put together for me last week. For 9 holes, I hit my own driver and the new one once on each hole (except the par 3s of course). The outcome was pretty telling - when I made solid contact with both, I hit the new one 20 yards past mine!!
However, I still felt that I was hitting it too high, therefore I decided to bite the bullet and have made an appointment at The Kingdom at Reynolds Plantation for the full driver fitting on the real outdoor launch monitor. (May 6th was the first available slot)
Seemingly, the deal is we will start in the MATT room and then move to the outdoor range using the launch monitor.
Based on their findings, they will then build my driver for me to take home. It's all included in the package price. This looks, to borrow an Americanism 'way cool' and I'm very excited about it.

Qualifier (NOT)

Well, I played in a qualifier for the Georgia State Mid Am at Brickyard Riverside in Macon today. Pretty sure I did not qualify (didn't stick round til everyone finished). I shot 86!! No way to sugar coat it - I did not play well. Hit it well on the range beforehand but could not take it to the course. Course was so long! 4 times I had 5 wood and 3 times hybrids to par 4s after well hit drives. I struggled with the pace of the bermuda greens. Very slow especially compared to the GC of Georgia. Main weakness was iron play. Can't say I hit one good iron all day.
Positives? Hmm - lets see. Chipping and pitching was better and I got up and down from sand twice.
Had 29 putts.
Hit (only) 4 greens.
Hit 8 fairways.

Disappointed with how I struck it to be honest. Just not comfortable with the swing changes. Was way too mechanical trying to experiment with every swing instead of just hitting it. Of the greens I did hit 1 was with a 5 wood and 2 with hybrids. That tells a story.

Need to go back to working on ingraining the swing so that I can do it without so much concentrating on mechanics.

State of Play

(Incidentally that's the name of a good movie I saw last weekend - if your into political thrillers)
Anyhow, I'm about about a month into this venture so I figure its time to take stock of my progress.

• USGA Handicap is still 5.1.
• Have had a few lessons and ball striking is improving drastically however I am struggling to take it from the range to the course a little.
• Equipment wise, I will be going to Reynolds Plantation sometime next month to get fit (on a launch monitor ) for a new driver - I feel sure I am giving up about 20 yards by not being optimized. My launch angle is way too high as is my initial spin rate.
• I have started to address physical conditioning - will continue to update on that. (P90X)
• I have NOT yet put together a practice plan. I need to do that starting from Monday next. I need to emphasize pitching, chipping and putting.

Oh and I have a lesson on the sand game tomorrow.
Hopefully by next month I will have started to make some progress in terms of scoring and thus handicap.

Pitching solved??

Last time, I mentioned my 'pitching crisis'.
Well, I had a lesson with Tim and I think he has set me right. I haven't fully got it down yet but I think its going to come good.
Basically, I had many flaws.
First of all I need to drastically open the club face. A little closed does not work for pitching.
Secondly, I have to eliminate the hip slide on the back swing. In fact I need to lock that right hip in the back swing. Tim describes it as pre-setting the impact position.
Perhaps, most importantly is how I start the downswing. Like in the full swing, the downswing must begin by a 'falling' straight down of the club. To me this has a feeling of dropping the club behind me onto the ground along my toe line - however in reality because of pivot/rotation the club should make nice impact with this technique.
Had a good session with it at the range today. Had a good degree of success hitting high soft pitches - something I have never been able to do.
So, lets see if I can take it to the course now over the weekend!!

Good Riddance Winter

Hope I'm not tempting fate but it was glorious here today and I finally got to do some practice over the last couple of days. Found myself hitting balls beside Edoardo Molinari on the range. Seems like a very likeable chap so I hope he does well at Augusta. In any case, I wasn't sure whether to be inspired or realize how inadequate my game is. I'll opt for inspiration :) It truly is phenomenal how well these guys hit it. Interestingly, some of the Georgia Tech guys (who practice at the club too) seem to hit it just as purely. But I digress!

I myself seem to be making a little progress. I'm focusing mostly on ball striking at this time. To this end, I worked on a few things this evening:

• Maintaining the brace in my right knee/not turing my hips until they are called upon in the backswing. This helps me to keep the club in front of me and not take it too much to the inside.
• Keeping the right elbow in front of the torso as it hinges on the backswing (again to prevent the club moving too much to the inside/behind me)
• Starting the downswing by 'letting the club fall', basically unhinging that right elbow.

I actually seemed to be hitting it quite well. Have a lesson in the morning so we will see if I am heading in the right direction with those changes.

Specific Weaknesses

Golf Digest has been promoting some tools (see the latest at www.golfdigest.com/makemebetter) over the last few years that track your stats based on the notion that each player has two handicaps - a long game handicap and a short game handicap. I tried it for a while last year, entering some basic stats about each round that I played (greens in regulation, fairways hit, total putts etc). According to GD I have a long game handicap of 2 and a short game handicap of 8. I'd have to say the 8 might be a little generous.
First and foremost, my chipping is brutal!! I probably get up and down about 1 out of every 6 or 7 attempts. In order to get to scratch I will need to get this stat to 70%. I can't even describe what the basic technique for a chip (or pitch) shot is. Shameful!!
Probably the next biggest area of concern are pitch shots from 60 yards and in. As often as not, I will skull or blade it to the point where I will lay up to 100 yards rather than be faced with anything closer.
The third focus area would be driving distance. I'm guessing that I average about 240 (yards) off the tee. Admittedly, I do hit a lot of fairways but I really need to get that extra 30 yards or so in order to challenge scratch. I'm hoping that general swing improvements as well as optimizing my equipment (that's right I'm going to get fit for a new driver).
On a recent visit to the PGA Superstore in Roswell my driving specs were 18 degree launch angle with 4000 rpm initial spin. I've been doing some research on this and clearly these figures need to change. That launch angle should be more like 14 degrees and a spin rate of 3000 rpm would be more than acceptable. (Incidentally my club head speed was between 95 and 100 mph) . While acceptable, I'm hoping to get that a little closer to 105 by the summer.

Two other areas spring to mind, putting and sand play. I'm a half decent putter but I simply haven't practiced this element enough over the last few years. Also, I think I have become lazy in terms of executing a repeatable routine.
As for sand play, pretty average but I feel confident that once I address this with Tim, I will see a huge improvement.

To summarize, chipping and pitching are going to be the key criteria to me getting to scratch. I need to get another 20 yards off the tee and dedicate a couple of hours a week to putting and sand play. R

Roll on the warm weather!!

Lesson time.....

As mentioned in my last post, getting lessons from a really good pro was one of the tasks I identified.

One thing I have learned over the years of struggling with the golf swing is that I certainly am not going to teach myself. I got the opportunity of playing with a couple of European tour pros a couple of years back and was totally blown away by their ball flight and their swings. I promised myself at the time to come back and truly learn how to play this game properly. In the pursuit of this I have taken lessons from two of the top 50 teachers in the US as rated by Golf Digest and Golf Magazine. I stuck with both for at least 12 lessons. However, I saw relatively little progress in truth (despite the $150 a pop I was parting with). Now, I'm not saying that those pros were not excellent at their craft. I think finding the right pro is not just a matter of finding someone highly rated - it's more of finding a good match. I came away from those two experiences very frustrated believing that perhaps I would never get much better than a 5 or 6.

I had a go at trying to figure it out on my own for a while since then. I gave Jim Hardy's 'one plane' methodology a twist for one season with some moderate success but it seemed to desert me after a little while. Again, I think the problem is not with the methodology so much as it not being right for me. A season later I happened upon 'Stack and Tilt' and thought why not. For about 3 weeks I struck it so pure that I started getting some silly ideas but yet again it seemed to leave me after a short while.

So, last summer I found myself back to square one - unhappy with my game but not sure what to do about it. So, I set about finding a pro I could work with for the long haul. A friend suggested I talk to Tim Weinhart. I met with Tim and discussed his teaching philosophy and my goals.

At this point it seems like a really good match. I'm totally convinced by his teaching philosophy. (He teaches the swing by focusing on five key fundamentals - NOT to be confused with Hogans book). His manner is another huge bonus for me - easy going, not at all arrogant. (I'm sometimes a little intimidated by people who are leaders in their field :)) A very good communicator with a nice utilization of modern tools (video cam etc) without being totally reliant on them. I think it also helps the I have great respect for his playing accomplishments - numerous PGA championship appearances, PGA tour appearances etc. I do think it helps that I am totally open minded and prepared to literally forget everything I thought I knew about the golf swing.

We've had 6/7 lessons at this point. Still very much a work in progress. To summarize the major points we have worked upon so far:

• My grip was way off (club was in the palm of my left hand for a start)
• Stance was very closed
• Took the club way inside on the backswing (not surprisingly way across the line at the top)
• Way too much lateral movement

I think that's enough for this post. I will expand on some of the details of what I have worked on with Tim in the coming months. I think the key point is that finding the right pro is a process. Explain what you are hoping to achieve, ask questions about how they will help you get there and most of all once you pick a pro, give them the time to succeed - even with the best teacher results will not be immediate.