Me and My Shadow

[sui generis]

Played a tournament round today ... not very good!

 

On a couple of holes where the sun was at my back, I severely mishit four shots because I couldn't stop looking at my own shadow which was cast over the ball. :(

 

What is the cure for this? Playing only at night? Round two is on Sunday morning; hope it's cloudy.

[Sean2]

"Playing only at night." lol

I take off my sunglasses and simply focus on the ball.

[360_CS]

Yea I do the same thing. I look at the shadow to see if my takeaway is correct, I don't know why because I can't tell a thing. I have started teeing the ball up with the ball logo facing up now and I just try and concentrate on the logo.

[TB07]

Close your right eye.

[Jon H]

I have screwed up a few shot doing that. I just force myself to focus on the ball.

[Ewmcdade]

It can ruin my swing too. No matter how much I try to focus my subconscious gets distracted by that shadow and I can hit it off the planet.

[elcgolf]

Thank god. I thought it was all alone. It destroys swings.

[PowderedToastMan]

I've learned to cope with this. This actually drove me away from the game professionally, because I knew I'd shoot in the 60's on a cloudy day, but was primed for big numbers if my shadow was visible. Not only that, but depending on the position of the shadow, it felt like a completely different swing all together. There are certain shadow positions that I feel more comfortable hitting a fade, draw, etc.. I played with a good buddy of mine the other day, and we stepped on the first tee and he mentioned to me "it's overcast. You're going low today." It wasn't a joke. He's witnessed it many times.
Here's what I do:
I'll start behind the ball to determine what shot I'd like to hit. Then I turn in whatever direction necessary to have no shadow in the way and feel the swing I want to put on the ball. Then I step up to the ball without wasting time, visualize that shot shape, and hit the ball with the same rhythm as the practice swing. With enough practice, even though the shadow swing feels different, you'll eventually trust that you are putting the same swing on the ball.

It all seems so insane, yet I imagine many, many players deal with this.

[dsqueezy]

[quote name='sui generis' timestamp='1405213216' post='9689059']Played a tournament round today ... not very good!

On a couple of holes where the sun was at my back, I severely mishit four shots because I couldn't stop looking at my own shadow which was cast over the ball.

What is the cure for this? Playing only at night? Round two is on Sunday morning; hope it's cloudy.[/quote]

this is absolutely me! my worst shots are me watching my shadows swing... to check if he's better than me.

[pmcuk]

This:

[bman58]

I'm just the opposite. I always make better swings looking in a mirror and have trouble at times recreating that swing over the ball. But when my shadow is directly in front of me, my swing always seems to work in synch, much like the mirror practice swings. I would score much lower with a shadow in front of me for every shot.

[TheCityGame]

You know the joke about the blind guy who shows up at the course and decides to challenge the club champion?

Club champion looks at him and says, "any time."

Blind guy says, "How about midnight?"

[jamie]

[quote name='bman58' timestamp='1405513068' post='9711071']
I'm just the opposite. I always make better swings looking in a mirror and have trouble at times recreating that swing over the ball. But when my shadow is directly in front of me, my swing always seems to work in synch, much like the mirror practice swings. I would score much lower with a shadow in front of me for every shot.
[/quote]
I'm the same way. I'll actually turn around and take practice swings so I can use my shadow as a reference.