Bump, how's hero's spring swing looking?

You in Vegas this summer AE?

In the spring I played some courses in Palm Springs to mixed results. I probably shot mid 90s after not playing over the winter. I'm back at it the last week or two. Hoping to play a round soon to get an idea of where I am.

I'll post some videos later tonight. I have some inconsistency (too much tinkering), and I've got a few clubs I 'can't' hit, and I still haven't worked on putting-- but I'm overall excited about my ball striking. Have some shaft lean, know an absurd amount about the swing (even if I can't execute it), and according to trackman #s at my last lesson I'm actually pretty consistent when I want to be.

I'll be in Vegas in like 4-5 days, am down to play golf if anyone in this thread wants to and I'm not busy gambling/at Summer League. I prob owe DeathDonkey around for some of the advice he gave me early on

A few random swing vids from the last week. I know I have to get my takeaway a little steeper so I can get the opposite in the downswing, I just can't quite figure out shallowing yet, working on transition with a few simple drills (like pausing at the top).

And yes I know it's a very short swing but I get pretty similar distance so I'll probably keep it simple for now.

Bump

Strangely, I'd say from a scoring perspective it's mostly bad news. I'm hovering around 100 or so these days (played some pretty tough courses, including Toronto Golf Club and Angus Glen, and shot 102 and 105). My scoring sucks because of penalties (5-8 a round probably, mostly just drives OB) and putting (avg like 2.4/hole). My ball striking from mid irons to wedges is pretty good, and while I have some frustration pitching/chipping when I have bad lies, I'm good with my 60.

Unfortunately I just haven't had enough time to practice with a lot of traveling. My plan is to get a net and hit some balls indoors with the GC2 over the winter, but the people at "real feel mats" or w/e haven't gotten back to me after a few emails.











My swing is just a LITTLE steep coming down, producing a weak cut right now (that still has enough distance, just not really the shape I'm going for). I'm vaguely working on being patient and allowing some shallowing, but it's not really happening consistently yet. This is magnified with longer clubs, especially when I try to hit my hybrid.

so why do you post five 7-iron videos?

I thought 7i was a good club to take a stock swing video with for posterity, is it not?

I think it is; I think the point trying to be made is that if you're feeling comfortable and confident with your 7-iron swing and having trouble with the longer clubs it'd be best to then compare those swings. Let's so a 4-iron swing and Driver swing to compare them too; perhaps you're over swinging the longer ones or something.

KJ pretty much summed it up. based on your comment it appears you are losing the most strokes off the tee and around/on the green. if that is in fact the case, it seems you should focus more on macro-tuning that part of your game instead of micro-tuning your mid iron swing

I'd say a more balanced approach would be better for improving scoring, but right now ball striking is keeping me interested more than the other stuff.

Also the one thing that's kind of annoying is that pretty often my misses are embarrassing-- I'll hit two 300 yd drives in a row down the middle, and then I'll pop one up (bc I tee'd it too high? bc I had some kind of brain fart?) that doesn't get past the next tee box. It's pretty weird, there aren't even very many workable misses. I'd say something like that probably comes from just not playing much as a youth more than anything, but woof.

do you make the same type of driver misses on the range?

do you ever play the range like you would play a round? i.e. get the scorecard of a course you're familiar with for reference (or don't if you have it memorized). start on the #1 tee box with a driver (or whatever the right club is for that particular hole). your next swing is with the club you would likely hit in the actual round based on the result of your drive. play out the hole and when you get to the imaginary green move to the next tee. if you have the patience to wait a minute between swings even better.

the intent is to prevent you from getting into a groove on the range with any one club. swinging a driver ten times in a row typically has overall better results when compared to swinging it once every 15 minutes or so like you do in a real round.

This is an interesting idea that I may try out at some point. I don't have a consistent miss with driver right now because I'm frequently tinkering, but it seems like I'll stop tinkering bc I have some rounds to play. I'd imagine I'll become a slicer like every other weekend donk.

I played Mickelson National yesterday, which is on a 10 hole (free) trial run while they set up what's supposed to be a private course (apparently intending on getting the Canadian Open there eventually) designed by Phil just outside Calgary. Holes were very interesting, and though we played it on the calmest day of the year, I bet it'd play with 20mph winds pretty often given the openness. (I think they broke ground on it while the economy was much more flush in the region, and the new ownership group has a bad rap for being cheap and I think they might've even stopped paying Phil or something, so we'll see what happens)

One of our foursome snuck a video of me. Here's a 7i that hit like 15 feet from the hole and bounced into the waste area behind.



After playing with me, my coach (I'd have to say he's motivated to be positive) says I should be breaking 90 pretty easily if I stop tinkering on the course. I'm not sure I agree with him, he caught me on a day where 5/5 of my drives stayed in bounds even though I didn't hit a few of them perfectly.

Coach is right for sure. I was going to suggest you play a round with just 7 iron, 60* wedge and putter. You could definitely shoot in the 80s with those 3 clubs and the swing I see in your videos. So if you aren’t close to that I would say the mistakes are mental / course management rather than technical.

Agree I think it is a good idea to try a round playing only irons and see how you score.

Didn't quite play a round with 7i/60*/putter, but I may try it. I have to say I don't *think* it'll be an improvement, though I'm certainly far from confident, and it would absolutely narrow my range of outcomes. Problem is that even with irons I just scald it ~15% of the time. Findable if I don't have a carry, but often still **** myself.

I played 3 times this week:

69.9/130: 99
71.2/136: 103
71.6/127: 94

Was pretty close to a good round today, only 2-3 lost balls and 2.3 putts (no 1 putts, a 4 putt)

Here are a few swing vids from the range, I like this swing a little better than the last few vids I've posted, was able to be a little more patient in transition and keep handle straight at/almost right of target:

Ae, do you live in Calgary or are you just visiting? I live on the west side of town and am hoping to get over to Mickelson the weekend after next, haven't tried it yet. Anyways if you're ever looking for a playing partner around here, PM me. I'm not a member and I play all over town.

Since I'm posting I will give my unwanted honest and casualfan assessment. Swing looks nice, but you take the range way too seriously. I find an added benefit of doing some short game practice and putting is that it prevents me from thinking too hard about the full swing. Just watching a few videos you should be in the 80s.

Something so satisfying about striking an iron well imo. Moreso than even driver for me.

I'm here a few months a year. I should still be in town, PM me when you have a better idea of when you want to play and we'll see if we can make it happen

It looks to my non-expert eye that you are too steep/over-the-top on the downswing. Issue is likely with the transition, there should be a bump where the club drops into the slot (slightly below the plane going back). If you watch youtube videos of top players, they all have this drop onto the plane in the transition/downswing.

I find I have the most success when comparing the feel to other sports I am better at. For example a baseball batter usually holds the bat higher as he waits in the box, and instinctively drops it down as he starts his swing.

Thanks, and I agree with that. I've been working on remedying it primarily by going through old drills where I fixed this previously-- the most prominent one is just focusing on taking it away steep so I can't get as steep in the downswing. Another is being patient in transition.

I've been playing some rounds with varying success. I played a short course (6183, 69.9/140) and had double for my career best round of 88, and made quadruple. So, oops. Then played it again a few days later and made FIVE straight GIRs to start the round (ok, clear lie, I was on the fringe on the fifth)... and shot 103 (46/57, just a half dozen penalty strokes and 2.x putts per hole).

Yesterday I thought I'd hit a few shots with the GC2 to get stock of where that is right now. I got rid of the worst 5 shots and one really good one (in the future I'd probably like to standardize it as removing stuff that's 1 std dev in either direction) and here were the results:

https://imgur.com/a/IwgVT1e

https://imgur.com/a/L9Tp13C

The lack of consistent miss is definitely one of the things hurting my actual golf score (along with putting, and random shanks OB), but my swing is basically constantly in a transitional phase. But it's really close to being good, and if I spend some time on it this winter I can hopefully find something consistent enough that I can be legit ~15 hcp by next summer (also on the winter docket, a putting green in my house obv)

That data is 7 iron right? I don’t get it. You should be able to shoot like 82 just hitting that club for every shot and then putting. You seem to hit it great. I guess I would have to play with you to see what is going on.

I would probably stop hitting irons at the range entirely and just hit 80% wedges and 20% drivers, woods, hybrids. Work on weaknesses not strengths.

Wedges actually probably a strength. Yea idk I just have like a half dozen penalty strokes a round-- thin 6i into the water, sliced hybrid into the houses, topped drive that didn't get passed the forward tees, etc.

I'm probably just a bit worse at everything than you think, also. Lack of consistency, still a bad putter, maybe bad club selection, not good at bunkers, etc.

edit: yes, that's a 7i

Bumping bc I shot 85 today (no birdies, no putts outside 8 feet), which is 5 strokes better than my best round this year. I've been playing the same course a few times a week (it's a bit short, 6500), so am starting to get the hang of where to hit what. My striking and short game has been great, but driver is 50/50 to be ob (grip issues I think), and putting is still an adventure. I'll finally have an indoor setup this week, so I'll fix driver in the winter (only about 6 more weeks of golf here probably). Also got a putting mat recently, so have been hitting short putts.

Will post more pics/data updates soon.

But I told myself I'd get fitted for some new clubs when I shot 85, and I did. So what I really wanted to ask (and maybe should just post in one of the other threads) is: club fitting seems like such an adventure, and I saw a friend get fitted recently where I just felt like it wasn't scientific enough. Do some guys really know what they're doing? Or is it primarily just "You swing fast, your shaft should be stiff. How does that feel? You hit that great!"

Fitters can be hit and miss but I would stick to well known places like True Spec or Club Champion. Hopefully you have one near you. They can show you the data when getting fit, helps a ton.

And glad to see the scores heading downward. 6,500 is not short to me. I am at sea level though.

Some fitters know what they're doing, others not so much. Guys at chains can be really good or downright horrible, just depends on what guy you get. The good thing about Club Champion and True Spec is that they have access to tons of shafts and not just what a certain club manufacturer offers in their clubs. Example, you can get an Accra 80i shaft in your Ping G710.

No, a good fitter does not just go you swing fast you need stiff. It's way more complicated than that, or at least it should be. Having been in the fitting business I've heard infinite stories both good and bad.