Be Better, Brad! (Update 4-11-2024 with new swing videos)

[betarhoalphadelta]

Wow. Just... Wow. That was terrible. 

 

Shot a 114. Blowup holes were so bad and so numerous that it only gets posted as a 105. Thought it was bad on the front shooting a 53, and then the back showed up at a 61.

 

Oof. The less said, the better. 

[bortass]

Ouch, how much of it was wind related? 

[betarhoalphadelta]

6 hours ago, bortass said:

Ouch, how much of it was wind related? 

 

Very little. I can think of one approach shot where I slightly tugged it and a hard right->left wind pushed a ball that probably would have found the green into the rough. But I managed to save bogey whereas I'd probably have made par if that ball found the green. Other than that, the score was my own terrible play, not the wind.

[Valtiel]

On 10/28/2023 at 12:21 PM, betarhoalphadelta said:

Lot of crap going on this week and couldn't make it to the range until this morning. Wanted to get at least one session in before I play San Juan Hills tomorrow AM. 

 

Great range session though. A lot of REALLY good contact with the 56*, 7i, even 5w, and driver. Everything really felt like it was working. Good feeling...

 

Didn't have access to the stall next to me, so could only manage DTL for video. 

 

 

 

I actually had some thoughts last week before your game I remember thinking "maybe wait till later, don't screw him up before a tournament" 😅

Now that it's passed though and you had some struggles, I hope this is relevant.



Your first video vs. your most recent. While the club is slightly less open and not as inside your hands, the same sort of pattern is still there + you're pushing your hands further away from you now. It looks to me like you're trying a bit to correct that rolling inside takeaway, but where you should be radial deviating with the wrists to pick the club up you're instead pushing it out. I can't remember if you'd worked on any proper wrist setting moves before, but that is likely needed here.

You're still in an ok realm here though should your hands not flatten out too much after this and club were to stay more laid off and not continue opening...



....which it does. Your hands are definitely more in front of you now which is good, and if your backswing was sequenced to stop here you'd be in a decent place. This is where the critical problem still exists and is almost slightly worse than it was originally:



In both swings you have a flat -> steep move in transition, and you're actually steeper now here. In this type of laid off backswing pattern you *have* to maintain your wrist conditions and the flatness of the club, a la Schauffele or Rahm:



Because otherwise the breakdown of these angles at the top sends the club across the line right in transition, the worst time that can be happening. This virtually always leads to a downswing that is much steeper and often stuck inside, which is the main problem you're managing right now. IMO you need to either:

1) Work on holding the laid off wrist angles at the top of the swing. You can practice this in the mirror, but you need to resist this move:



The club changing plane that quickly that late in the swing is a recipe for steep. The position in a vacuum isn't an issue to be clear, its the fact that it happens so late and gets the momentum of the club traveling across the line that leads to the steep transition. This move btw is largely right wrist radial deviation, the same move you likely still aren't doing enough earlier in the swing, which was the original cause of your flat/inside takeaway in your early videos. What your right wrist is doing here is the same thing someone like Shane Lowry's does here:



Therefore this falls under the category of "improper late wrist set". Either you resist that deviation move at the end of the backswing per #1 above, or:

2) Better/more complete wrist setting earlier in the swing like Lowry above. The goal being to take *out* what you're currently putting in at the very end of your backswing by simply doing it earlier and correctly. Right now you're stuck between two patterns and you're not able to get the club on plane in the downswing.

#1's backswing would be ending around here:



And #2's can end here...



....but only if you're able to get the club working up with a proper wrist set earlier to avoid the sudden change in path at the end.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Thanks @Valtiel -- it's actually something that I want to work on with Monte when I go next. One of his points was to work on that wrist set and there was a drill for it, but I'm clearly not doing it well. I feel like when I set them earlier I get more arm overrun and go across the line at the top, and then (as you point out) it's a hell of a hard time to get the club back without steepening in transition... 

 

I agree with you that I'm probably trying to push my arms out and up to pick the club up when I should probably just be lifting the club with the wrist hinge. 

 

I also noticed that my setup (the main thing he told me to fix) is drifting back down. Not nearly as bad as it was during the lesson, but the checkpoints he gave me looked like this right after the lesson:

 

 

And they look like this now:

 

 

From what he said, 38 degrees of forward bend is fine -- 35-40 is pretty typical, and in the lesson I was 54 IIRC. 

 

Plus trying to draw a "spine line" isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, so I could be off a few degrees too. Either way I don't think I'm 54 degrees in the second picture. 

 

But the checkpoints is that the line from the center of the shoulder should bisect the hands, and the line from the butt of the club should be outside the toe line. I'm seemingly more bent over, which I compensate for by letting my hands drift inside my shoulders a bit, and then the butt of the club is drifting closer to the toe line. 

 

Nowhere near as bad as it originally was before the lesson, but I need to get back to checkpointing this more often. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Made it to the range today. First time since that awful round 10 days ago. 

 

First things first... Work on setup. Which told me a lot. Got my setup right and proceeded to hit like crap for 10-20 balls because I hadn't adjusted. Seems the drift was real. Got through that and started hitting pretty crisply again. Setup image from the session once I started hitting well here:

 

 

Again, the spine angle is a bit of guesswork where to put the ends of the line. But definitely a little more upright, and the hands bisect the shoulder line, which was a problem. 

 

So I then tried to work on a 9-3 swing drill, thinking that if I could get my wrists to be fully hinged by left arm parallel in a 9-3 drill, I could do it in a full swing. 

 

So here we get into "feel isn't real"... Here's the end of my backswing on a 9-3 drill...

 

 

And here's the end of the backswing on a "full" swing...

 

 

Seems my 9-3 swing is almost a complete swing. And my "full" swing is probably too much. 

 

Here are the videos of the "drill" swing and the full swing...

 

 

 

 

 

[Valtiel]

@betarhoalphadelta "Seems my 9-3 swing is almost a complete swing. And my "full" swing is probably too much."

I swear about 70% of the golf instruction industry would collapse overnight if everyone woke up one day and realized + implemented this. So many issues come from people going too far in a few areas because they were just never properly taught to know when to stop. 

A few other observations related to your current swings:



This to me looks like two things; a rolling over of the forearms/fanning open of the clubface and NO lower body pressure shifting at all (notice the lack of any lateral movement in the legs/knee/hips. Both of those things are kinda problematic as this is *not* any kind of proper wrist setting and it sets up your entire lower body shifting sequence to now happen late. 



Most pros at this point have already shifted most or all of their pressure into the trail leg, you've only just started (note the lateral movement NOW occurring whereas Tiger's is stopping). Also note how disconnected your arms are from your shoulders. Lots of arm movement and very little shoulder rotation. Then....



...you continue stacking into that trail leg all the way to the top of the backswing. I know you've likely seen this harped on about a dozen times, but this is all a "late" problem. Starting the swing with your hands + keeping a passive lower body only for the shift to start late and follow the momentum of your arm swing leads to being out of sequence causing the rush + compensations Monte describes here. That "how in the world/80% at the top" portion is exactly what you look like at the top right now. 

I'd be curious for @iacas or @MonteScheinblum to chime in because I have a theory (might be old hat). I'm feeling like there is an increasingly strong correlation between lateness in pressure shift sequence and the myriad of overrunning, late hingeing, and general lack of regulation of the length of the backswing. I feel like the properly sequenced pressure shift acts as a natural regulator to swing length, because the shift + momentum of doing it on time really triggers the backswing to stop, whereas everything arriving at the top simultaneously give the wrists/hands/arms/shoulders free reign to simply continue turning to the extent of the person's ability, and often a little beyond that as well with really chronic overswingers.  

Edited November 10, 2023 by Valtiel

[MonteScheinblum]

40 minutes ago, Valtiel said:

@betarhoalphadelta "Seems my 9-3 swing is almost a complete swing. And my "full" swing is probably too much."

I swear about 70% of the golf instruction industry would collapse overnight if everyone woke up one day and realized + implemented this. So many issues come from people going too far in a few areas because they were just never properly taught to know when to stop. 

A few other observations related to your current swings:



This to me looks like two things; a rolling over of the forearms/fanning open of the clubface and NO lower body pressure shifting at all (notice the lack of any lateral movement in the legs/knee/hips. Both of those things are kinda problematic as this is *not* any kind of proper wrist setting and it sets up your entire lower body shifting sequence to now happen late. 



Most pros at this point have already shifted most or all of their pressure into the trail leg, you've only just started (not the lateral movement NOW occurring whereas Tiger's is stopping). Also note how disconnected your arms are from your shoulders. Lots of arm movement and very little shoulder rotation. Then....



...you continue stacking into that trail leg all the way to the top of the backswing. I know you've likely seen this harped on about a dozen times, but this is all a "late" problem. Starting the swing with your hands + keeping a passive lower body only for the shift to start late and follow the momentum of your arm swing leads to being out of sequence causing the rush + compensations Monte describes here. That "how in the world/80% at the top" portion is exactly what you look like at the top right now. 

I'd be curious for @iacas or @MonteScheinblum to chime in because I have a theory (might be old hat). I'm feeling like there is an increasingly strong correlation between lateness in pressure shift sequence and the myriad of overrunning, late hingeing, and general lack of regulation of the length of the backswing. I feel like the properly sequenced pressure shift acts as a natural regulator to swing length, because the shift + momentum of doing it on time really triggers the backswing to stop, whereas everything arriving at the top simultaneously give the wrists/hands/arms/shoulders free reign to simply continue turning to the extent of the person's ability, and often a little beyond that as well with really chronic overswingers.  

When you pressure shift late, you don’t rotate properly and vice versa.  That absolutely leads to arm over run.  As does the late wrist set from decades of the one piece take away being over done and incorrectly.  

 

The game is infinitely easier when you understand sequence of movement and shift.

 

If you shift late and set the wrists late you’re chances of being your best self is close enough to zero that I’d say it’s zero.

 

You see tour players that shift and hinge late and have arm over run, but you could make a case they’re not their best self either and just over came it with hard work and skill.

 

Proper sequence in the transition is EVERYTHING.  That’s why you see guys with funky stuff hit it and play great and guys who look awesome and they suck. 
 

The easiest way to sequence the transition is to reverse it in the backswing and shift on time.  You don’t have to do it that way, but it’s harder.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Thanks guys...

 

And Monte, I'll be scheduling to come see you in maybe a month or so... 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Played Oso Creek today. Was a bit rough for non-golf related reasons. It was a little warm. I had a little sunscreen get into my eye due to sweat early on the front nine, and it just got progressively more miserable all round. Eye watering and burning, causing me to be sniffly as hell. When I got home I immediately flushed it while taking a shower, and it's MUCH better than before, but even 3 hours later it's still bothering me. And my eyes are so bloodshot I look like I sparked up a Cheech & Chong sized blunt...

 

Beyond that, the golf wasn't great. Shot an 87 (+27), which was 85 for index due to exceeding NDB on two holes. But the culprit was mostly the partial wedge and short game. Starting with the first hole where I put one right into the fairway 60 yards from the green, then proceeded to lay the sod over pitches four consecutive times before pitching to 5 feet--and then two-putting it. In the sand 4 times, twice taking multiple strokes to get out. (But on the bright side, actually made a sand save for par on another hole...)

 

Long game was decent. Nothing special, but no real problems except a big left turn on a few shots, my usual miss. And as usual, it seemed to get progressively worse on the back 9--not sure if there's something that creeps in due to getting a little more tired. Obviously with my poor shift as described above, it could get worse later in a round as I fail to time up my sequencing. 

 

Putting was above average for me (32 putts total). I had one 3-putt on one of the most difficult greens on the course. I had two-putts from midrange that I would have liked to drop, but I also had 1-putts from 10 and 15 feet, which were both particularly nice because they were par saves too. 

 

But I really need to figure out my sand problems. Part of it is that the sand at Oso is usually not good--damp, hard, and thin. But still, my playing partners seem to navigate it acceptably well. I feel like my sand technique is just not good--I've tried to use what Monte teaches in UTB 2.0, but clearly it's not working and I'd say that's clearly a "me problem" lol... 

[bortass]

Do you use an open face or leave it square when in the sand at Oso?

 

If open, consider keeping it square when on hard packed sand like that.

[betarhoalphadelta]

19 minutes ago, bortass said:

Do you use an open face or leave it square when in the sand at Oso?

 

If open, consider keeping it square when on hard packed sand like that.

 

I set up (body/stance) square to the ball, with an open face, per UTB 2.0. I never had any luck with my 56/12 wedge doing that in hard sand, so I use my 60/6 wedge. 

 

If keeping the face square, would it be better to go to the 56/12 with more bounce? 

[bortass]

The square face is to avoid using as much bounce. If the sand is firm, more bounce can kick the club into the ball. A square face should dig a little and the firmness of the sand will keep it shallower than if you tried it on more fluffy sand.

 

Thats my understanding and why I use a square face most of the time since soft sand isn’t common when I find myself in a bunker.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Haven't really been able to practice. We had rain last Tuesday which shut down the range, and then I've got the kids from last Friday until this Friday, and will be dealing with Christmas decorations from then until I play Oso again on Sunday. 

 

I was able to get out this past Sunday with my son to play a quick 9 at the exec course. It wasn't a great outing for either of us--he beat me at 10 over but 5 of those strokes came in the first two holes, and I finished 12 over with 5 of those strokes coming in the last two holes. 

 

Overall it was mostly a day for me of "close to good, but score suffered because close isn't good enough". I had 2 GIR on 9 holes. Both pretty close (12' and 7') with makeable birdie putts that I didn't convert. Only two pars of the day. Other holes I had a couple of good opportunities for par saves and couldn't convert. On 1 I tried to putt from just off the fringe in light rough and the ball got caught up and left myself WAY too short. On 3 I missed the green just short to a front pin, putted from the fairway but left it 5' short and missed. On 7 I mishit a GW off the tee (I was carrying a short set and PW would have been perfect distance but I only had 9i and GW and tried to muscle it), hit a GREAT pitch to about 7 feet, but missed the putt. 

 

Two bad holes were shots near the green that were well-struck but trying to chip out of bad lies and just made a mess of it. Double on #4 and triple on #8. #8 pissed me off because I had what was a good yardage with a full 56* to a back pin, into the wind, caught it well almost dead on line for the pin and thought I stuck it close--nope... Went long, bounced off the back of the green into messy rough. The other two were the par 4's where I tried to go for the green on #5 (190y out) and didn't catch my 6i flush--line was good drawing towards the pin but there's a pond short of the green and I just had no chance clearing it missing off the center of the face. Could I have just layed up with a 9i? Yeah, but I figured I'd go for it on that day. The other was #9 where I hit a nice ball into the fairway but then caught my approach fat into the ravine. So both of those holes were ruined by penalty strokes. 

 

A scoring day that could best be described as "mediocre". 

 

On the bright side, it was nice to get out with him. The course was pretty empty so we played as a twosome. We were stuck behind a foursome but they let us through on #3, and then we had clear sailing all the way until we caught a group on #9. A nice quick getaway on a warm sunny November afternoon 😉 

 

[bortass]

Glad you had fun with your son!

 

The six iron into the pond is fine. That's a shot we can hit and sometimes we need to test ourselves to see if anything has changed. I don't know what your thought process was but I have had shots where I decide to go for it instead of laying up like I always do, just to see if I can hit the shot. That does mean I am accepting the outcome may be bad and it's not something I would try if I really cared about my score such as about to shoot a career best or win some $ from the guys as long as I don't blow-up.

 

#8 is an interesting one. Based on your description, you struck it very well and ended up with a bad result. Been there, done that a number of times. Long is bad and hit the ball flush for a rare change and watch it sail over the green. A great shot but I do not base club selection on great shots but by my normal mishit driven yardages. Sure, the score almost always sucks but the great contact and ball flight super cedes it. If I had bladed my shot long, that's a different story, context matters, at least for me. So I wouldn't get frustrated by that type of shot. Gotta love mental gymnastics. 

 

Have a great Thanksgiving with your family.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Yeah, he got to play again today and shot +7, so that was an improvement. And he gets to play Oso tomorrow. 

 

I don't feel bad about the shot into the pond on 5. I view this course as a glorified practice area, so taking on a shot I felt I *can* hit but didn't, even though it affects my score, doesn't bother me. I understand that you can't post scores from 9 holes if it's <1500 yards or <30 par, and this course is 1115/29 and unrated as far as I know. I was trying the shot but it's more of a "if I pull this off it's great!" kinda thing. Often based on tee location or what I've brought in my set of clubs I don't have an opportunity to try, so this was a nice change. 

 

The long wedge on 8 pissed me off. It didn't feel like some nuked flushed wedge that went much farther than anticipated. It was also into a decently strong headwind. It was a stock shot, came off the club exactly as I expected, and it was heavily shaded on the green where I thought it landed so I couldn't see it but I thought I was going to walk up to a 5 foot birdie putt. Instead I was at least 10 yards past the pin down a slope in the rough. 

 

Oh well. It's just a practice round basically, so I shouldn't really stress over that lol. 

 

Enjoy your holiday!

[betarhoalphadelta]

Played Oso on Sunday. The fact that I'm waiting until Tuesday to mention it should tell you about how it went...

 

Failure in every phase. Shot a 91 (+31) which was all the way down to 86 for index due to blow-up holes going above NDB. And it aged out a good round, so my index rose to 22.2.

 

I can count one perfect drive, about 3 "good" shots otherwise, two excellent lag putts from the fringe, and sinking one downhill breaking 12-footer for birdie. Everything else was trash. 

 

Turned a TON of stuff hard left in the long game. Thrice leading to penalty strokes (water), another leading to going left which is dead dead dead on #5. I literally remarked to my buddy right after that tee shot on #5 (a par 3) "put me down for a 7" because you can't miss there... Although I did recover to "only" make double. Was also missing a lot of things very thin, and even topped a few. Bladed a long pitch on #1, missed my 52* a few grooves low on 9 & 12 leading to flying the green by a mile, and got REALLY lucky on 7 with a 9i that was several grooves low but managed to still hit the green and stop (leading to the birdie), but that was pure luck. And then short game? When not thin it was mostly chunky and terrible. 35 putts (with four 3-putts) despite only hitting 3 GIR. Two-putts from 3, 5, and 7 feet, and a 3 putt from 20 feet. No good there either. 

 

That makes three rounds in a row with handicap differentials over 30, which is even more terrible than it sounds when those are adjusted down by a combined 17 strokes due to blow-ups above NDB. 

 

I'm just a mess right now. 

[bortass]

I feel your pain. Playing good versus poorly seems to happen in waves, at least that's what I am telling myself.

 

When do you think you'll see Monte again?

[betarhoalphadelta]

1 hour ago, bortass said:

I feel your pain. Playing good versus poorly seems to happen in waves, at least that's what I am telling myself.

 

When do you think you'll see Monte again?

 

Was going to shoot for sometime in December. I do want to get myself out of this funk first. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Since that terrible round, I haven't practiced and I haven't played. Was supposed to play about 10 days ago but had to cancel. 

 

I've got a couple days off work and so I went out and played San Juan Hills today. 

 

A month without swinging a club and I stripe one dead down the middle on the first tee. Started bogey/par/birdie/bogey to be +1 through 4. Then reality set in and I made quad on 5 to be +5 through 5. But a par on 6, double on 7, triple on 8, and par on 9 and I came into the turn at +10. 

 

Apparently once I remembered how to swing a club, then the wheels fell off. +19 on the back to finish with a cool 100 (+29). 

 

Still, it was a nice day of golf. I feel like with the approaching new year, mentally I'm ready to start getting back into the swing of practice and actually try to do something. 

 

I definitely needed this break, the way I was playing. 

[bortass]

Sorry to hear the round was rough but good to see you got out and had fun.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Honestly, it wasn't all bad. Just hitting a lot of things left on that back 9, which resulted in multiple OB penalties (and two water balls on various holes). You pretty much can't miss left on the back 9 and get away with it.

 

Standing on the 18th tee, a 140y par 3, I had a score of 97--knowing I needed birdie to break 100. Stuck my tee shot to 7 feet but sadly two-putted for par lol. But at least the day ended with a par. 

[bortass]

Ever get to see Monte again?

 

On a different note, hows is your son doing out there?

[betarhoalphadelta]

2 hours ago, bortass said:

Ever get to see Monte again?

 

On a different note, hows is your son doing out there?

 

Nah, with my golf funk and the busy holidays I didn't think I was in a mental place to see him, nor would I be sure I could / was willing to / commit to actually working on what he would teach me. I should get off the hump and see him soon. 

 

My son's doing well. Been very busy with school (2 AP classes) so he's been pretty slammed... Soph in HS and he's had several nights up past midnight. But he's part of the golf class / golf team for the upcoming semester and it should give him some extra time to practice. Going to try to get him a lot of range time and at least one round this long weekend / school break. 

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Played River View yesterday. Some interesting starts to the day. First, on my drive in I hear on the radio "A high wind advisory has been issued for Southern California until 7 PM tonight." So yeah, knew it was gonna be a bit interesting. Then my buddy shows up and announces he's forgotten his irons... Look in his bag and yep... No irons in there. He took them to get regripped and forgot to pick them up. So, since River View is a cart course and since he's probably physically best suited to swing my clubs, he rode with me and used mine when needed...

 

Overall it was a pretty decent day. I got off to a TERRIBLE start, +13 through 6 holes. But then went bogey/par/par to close out the front, and was +9 through the final 12 holes, with nothing worse than a double in there. So it was 48/44 for a 92 overall, +22 as par is 70. I played the entire round on one ball, with no penalty strokes. If I had any semblance of a short game, I probably would have improved my score by at least another 7+ strokes. Even my driver was behaving and was a help, not a hindrance. Biggest issue would be the terrible short game, as mentioned, and the fact that my approach accuracy was poor (only 4 GIR) meaning I was putting pressure on my terrible short game to make up for it. Putting was so-so... Only two-three putts (one from 15' grr). But I wasn't sinking much in the midrange so there were only three "one-putts", with all three being second putts after lag-putting from off the green or the fringe. So in a way those were two-putts. 

 

I managed the wind well, with the exception of one par three where it was 154 to a back pin with a pretty strong tailwind, I took my 140 club, and bounced it off the net behind the green protecting houses... So I hit my 140 club about 170... I guess I misjudged that one!

 

Overall it was a differential of 25, which is good enough to count in my best 8 of 20, but the round that aged out was a differential of 24.9 so it didn't really make a difference to my index. 

 

From this point due to scheduling and travel I probably won't play another full round until mid-Feb, so I made an appointment to go see Monte this week when I know I'll have some time to grind on the range with whatever he gives me to work on. I think I'm also going to ask him to look at my chipping/pitching form to see if I'm just doing something egregiously wrong there to clean up the short game woes. 

[bortass]

Sounds like a positive round. The driver behaving is pretty big since it always seems to cost a few strokes in prior rounds that you've detailed out. Any particular trend with the short game shots?

 

Good luck with Monte! 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Short game is my typical poor contact. Sometimes chunked, sometimes skulled. 

 

My worst hole was #3, a par 3 playing about 160.

 

Wind partially in my face but also left->right, and I made good contact but just didn't get my start line left enough OR a strong enough draw to counter the wind, and the wind just pushed it into the right greenside bunker. With sand, I'm just happy to get out in one shot, and I did, but hit it too far over the green to the left side. Got over there and tried to pitch back, skulled it over the green to the right side (thankfully not back into the same bunker). Tried to pitch onto the green, and hit it fat and left it short. From there I putted through rough to 12' past and then two-putted for a 7, quad bogey. 

 

I mean, I know FULL WELL that I don't have the level of short game to expect a sand save there. But getting out of the bunker, onto the green, and two-putting for bogey? Or even if I allow how bad my sand game is, getting out and over the green, then pitching on and two-putting for double? I'd freakin' take it, man!

 

Thinking to the round:

• #2, par three ended greenside, made double. 
• #3, par three greenside bunker, made quad.
• #4, par four missed on my approach, skulled one over the green, pitched on to 7 feet (good one!), two-putted, made double. 
• #6, par three missed right, skulled one into the left greenside bunker, got out by hitting the lip which saved me and ended up on the green. Three-putt for triple. 
• #12, par four, great drive but poor approach, skulled one over the green, pitched much better but rolled out to the fringe, putted on and then sank a gimme for double.
• #14, par three which was the one where I misjudged the wind. Tried to pitch onto the green and dug the leading edge into the turf without the ball moving. Then pitched on a little better. Two putt for double. 
• #18, par three where I just didn't close the face and missed wide right. Tried to pitch on and took it fat and short. Putted from off the green to 3 feet and sunk it to save bogey.

I can pretty easily say that I wasted a shot on 2, three on 3, one on 4, one on 6, one on 12, one on 13, and one on 18 (although I effectively got that one back and still saved bogey). 

 

So about 8-9 shots completely wasted. Shooting an 84 would have looked a little better than a 92... 

 

Granted, yesterday was an epically bad short game day for me--usually it's bad but not that bad. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

So I had my lesson with Monte yesterday. It was REALLY good. 

 

As you may have already seen his post on it, the primary full swing change was a very minor change, but very important. As anyone who reads this thread knows, a big miss for me is a massive sweeping hook where face is fine but path is WAY right. I'll use the images @Valtiel put up above to point it out as they're face on, and it shows the difference from Tiger. Basically address->takeaway->top:

 

 

I'm not sure my head tilt is anything of note at address. But early in takeaway and then the rest of the way, I tilt the head quite a bit to the right. Whereas Tiger, well, doesn't. 

 

Monte held my head oriented to the right on a partial swing and I had a big in->out path. He then held my head angled (exaggeration) to the left and I had a big out->in path. He had me take a few swings with different tilt, and all of a sudden my path moved without any other input to match head tilt. He had me do one where the only feel was to feel the left ear staying closer to the left shoulder, and my path was immediately neutral. I started taking full swings and the path continued to hover near neutral. I had one that got away at +4 and so we looked at that particular swing on video--and lo and behold, there was the head tilt coming back on that swing. 

 

We then started talking a little about my wrist hinge and sway. He says they're related, but even this slight change to the head might help me avoid some of the sway. It reminds me of my time from ages 11-18 doing karate, and then a little intramural judo my freshman year of college. "Where the head goes, the body will follow." And he gave me some tips (one of which makes perfect sense) about intents that might help avoid the sway as well if it continues.

 

We would have probably spent more time working on that, but he made a comment about 25 caps and I told him I'm a 22 (which I think he didn't realize). And he looked at me like he was about to fall over in disbelief. Quite funny, actually. He thought I was maybe low-mid teens based on my swing. 

 

So we got into the short game stuff (which I mentioned above I had intended to talk to him about). And he saw my short game "technique", and immediately understood why I'm a 22 lol. With the "before" on full swing I'm obviously going to miss a lot of greens, and with my short game stroke that means a great result is just getting on the green and two-putting for bogey. But a bad result (as mentioned in my post above) is taking several strokes to get on the green from just off. Which means that good golfers are trying to get up and down for par, I'm trying not to blow it and end up with double or worse. 

 

So, where to start. I drop my head/torso in the downswing, whereas Monte has stated (and I've seen) numerous times that good short game players extend. I don't have my weight preset to the left and not only have some of my sway/etc come in to the short game, but I then use my hips too much like I'm hitting a much longer shot. And finally, I aggressively accelerate into the shot in a manner that is FAR too violent for a chip/pitch, which often causes me to then decelerate because I'm afraid of hitting it too long. 

 

So what did he fix? Literally everything. Setup, intent, feels on how to control speed, etc. Basically I actually have a real understanding of what I'm supposed to do and the tools to actually practice and hone it. 

 

Finally, given my index he wanted to see me putt. It was a little off as I had only brought my Sunday bag w/o putter, so we grabbed one off the rack. It was shorter and MUCH lighter than my putter. But he saw one of the same things (that I'm 100% sure he expected to see after chipping) in me having overactive hips, as well as too much of an acceleration of the club. Which makes sense--one of the reasons that I really like the long/heavy mallet I use is that the weight of the putter makes it easier for me restrain the urge to violently stab at the ball. He gave me the same drill @bortass knows, using the alignment rod in the belt loops to checkpoint quiet hips. And had me make the same sort of smoother motion accelerating the putter that he wanted in the chipping/pitching motion. Knowing that intent will probably help me a lot even with my own heavier putter, as I can do more mindfully what the putter mostly tried to force me into. 

 

So... All in all some HUGE things in multiple facets of the game. Easily the most productive golf lesson I've ever had. 

 

I won't be out for a full round until probably the weekend of Feb 17th, and the layoff will give me time to grind out these changes. While I'm going to want to do the full swing stuff at the range so I can see ballflight to know my face/path relationship, the good thing about the chipping/pitching stuff is that I don't need to worry about ballflight so I can do it in my backyard hitting station, and I can practice putting basically anywhere--I've got a putting mat in my son's room, or I can just putt down the carpeted hallway for longer stuff. 

[bortass]

Awesome stuff and I do know that drill well, lol.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Monte is a genius. 

 

Finally got to the range today. I kept feeling like the longer I waited, the more I was wasting the good money I'd paid him. But it was a massive success just from one range session. 

 

Swings below, but I didn't hook a 7i the entire session. I did have some pull draws where the ball started left and went gently farther left--suggesting a shut face and relatively neutral path. But a ton of shots dead straight. 

 

What was really odd is that I was that based on sound/feel/ballflight, I was hitting it out of the center more and not having as many of my misses off the toe. Not sure how this helped, but it freakin' helped. 

 

The sway is still there--not sure if that will tend to diminish as I get more practice or if I'll have to address it separately. But the head is much more stable and it's CLEARLY helping path. 

 

Ballflight on 56*, PW, 7i, and 4w were nice. Got a little squirrely with 5w and driver. Will have to keep working it. 

 

The short game stuff was a little less successful. I was striking better, and controlling distance better, so it's definitely well beyond where I was. But on video I can tell I'm still using too much hips and need to quiet those down, and be a little more smooth with the acceleration even if I'm way smoother than I was before the lesson. But for the most part I was just drilling the short game stuff when I wanted a breather from full swings, so I'll try to work some of this short game stuff in my backyard hitting station instead.