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


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4 minutes ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

Monte is a genius. 

"It has been measured." He really is hacker whisperer, IMO.

 

Swing is looking real good to my amateur eyes in that video. Awesome to hear you saw that much improvement with your overall ball striking. Your playing partners won't know what hit them when you win all the $! Then your index will catch up, lol. Wonder how I know that...

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kids, rain, and work have limited my time to get practice. I was at the range Monday and would have liked to go today, but couldn't due to heading into the office. Hoping that the "atmospheric river" holds off until midday tomorrow and maybe I can go tomorrow morning, but I suspect the rain will start late tonight and the range will be rained out until late next week at least. 

 

At the range Monday things did continue to go well. Tried to clean up the pitching/chipping motion with a portion of the bucket, and continued working irons. Definitely still seeing straighter flight and not hitting big sweeping hooks. And in general better contact again and fewer misses on the toe side. Something's wonky with driver though, not sure what the heck it is. I'm hitting irons great and snap hooking the driver. Will have to work on it. 

 

Yesterday since the range doesn't open until 10 I got an 8:30 time at the pitch & putt. Played alone and didn't catch anyone until the 7th tee, so got around the course in just under an hour. Overall I played like hot garbage. Ended up no longer keeping score and dropping multiple balls in places once it went off the rails. On the "bright" side I only hit one green, so I was able to put the chipping/pitching to the test in a real world environment. Definitely not perfect, but definitely more consistent contact than what I typically see. Gotta keep working it and working it. 

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Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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Keep at it! 

 

I wish there was a pitch and putt near me since it's a great way to hit the shots I think I face when I miss greens, whether on purpose or not. 

 

The better contact in your short game under real world conditions is a very good sign. I was watching a Dan Grieves lesson video last week and he said something I never thought of before. Gonna paraphrase - If the ball doesn't have consistent flight, how can you develop feel? It made perfect sense but I never thought about it much. Improving contact will lead to more consistent ball flight and make it easier to figure out where to land the ball/how hard to swing.

 

There's also the added bonus that in my experience, bad chips when I make better contact are still okay. Less mishits means more chances to salvage a bogey, maybe a par. Needing two chips to get on and I'm probably looking at a double.

 

When's your next 18 planned?

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2 hours ago, bortass said:

 

When's your next 18 planned?

 

Possibly the morning of Super Bowl Sunday at Oso with my son. If that doesn't work schedule-wise, I'll definitely be playing Sunday 2/18 with my usual group. If we can't get Oso next weekend, maybe we'll just play the pitch & putt. 

 

Rain was coming down hard by the time I woke up this morning, and the range won't dry out before Sunday when it's scheduled to start again, forecasted to continue all week but potentially tail off next Fri/Sat. So won't be able to hit buckets again until the week of 2/12...

 

Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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  • 3 weeks later...

Practice time has been impossible with all the rain, and then once the rain had let up enough this past week that the range was open, it was limited hours due to mud and I had a lot of work conflicts, so haven't been able to play. And now it's raining again with atmospheric river 2.0...

 

But I did manage to play yesterday at San Juan Hills and then played this morning at Oso Creek as I had the day off work and the rain was supposed to hold off until afternoon--turns out it started coming down lightly on the 16th tee, but I had my umbrella on my push cart so it wasn't bad.

 

First things first before I proceed... Scores were pretty terrible. I'll talk about why below... But there were a couple major positives:

  1. Yesterday's round was shaky for ballstriking on the front 9. I had a few of the big left misses. But as I got synced into the eyeline stuff, the back 9 was a LOT better. I actually had 5 GIR on the final 6 holes. Today likewise I had only one bad left hook (of course it happens on the one hole where left is dead), and was a bad pitch away from a 5-hole GIR stretch on the back 9. It's REALLY nice to actually have confidence I can hit the ball straight--and my previous discussions of cleaning up the toe misses is persisting.
  2. Short game is a process. Yesterday I was making good contact--and just having absolutely ZERO distance control with the new method. I had at least 5 mid-range pitch/partial wedge shots where I made PERFECT contact--and it bounced off the back edge of the green or flew it entirely. And a few others where I was trying to avoid that--so I made great contact but left it short. It's going to take a lot of time to learn what length swing generates what actual distance... Today was a little worse, partially due to soggy conditions IMHO, and partially just me being a bit off. But on the good pitches, it was good lol. 

The great bit is that I can see how these changes are going to make the scores come down. It's just going to take practice to make it consistent--particularly with the chipping/pitching. 

 

For the rounds:

 

San Juan Hills: Yeah... It was bad. Scored a 57/47 for a 104. Two holes where I scored a 10. Blow-ups were bad enough that it's only a 99 for the index. Putting was abysmal--I had four different three-putt bogeys (yeah, great way to waste a damn GIR!)... I just kept leaving lag putts in the 4-5 foot range and not converting. But as mentioned there were 5 instances of mid-range pitch / partial wedge shots where I made perfect contact and just went long. But things started to clean up after the 12th hole, and that 47 on the back (par 33 due to renovations) came despite a 10 on one hole and an 8 on another. From there as mentioned I had 5 GIRs in the final 6 holes, including two good pitches on a short par 4 and on the missed GIR on a par 3. If it weren't for two three-putts I would have played that stretch at 1 over. I could tell that what I was working on was actually working. 

 

Oso Creek: A weird round. It was a mix of competent golf and WAY too many blow-ups. I actually had only one double bogey... 6 pars, 5 bogeys, 1 double. And then four triples and a sextuple 9(!) on a par 3. But again some positives... Although I only had 2 GIR on the front, I was greenside in regulation on 5 more holes. And then on the back I had 4 GIR, but was greenside 2 more times. Most shots were straight to a very slight draw, so the eyeline change is working. I had some chipping/pitching woes, but had really good pitches on holes 3, 8, and 18, where I could feel that what Monte had taught me was actually what I was executing... The METHOD is way better. I just need to get consistent at it. 

 

Edit to add: The score at Oso was 86 (+26), but 83 for hdcp calculation due to the sextuple bogey. A perfect example of how scoring for us high-caps isn't dependent on making birdies (or even pars), it's on avoiding blow-up holes. 

Edited by betarhoalphadelta
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Awesome! The Monte lesson really looks like it will pay off. Getting the ball to go more in the direction you want versus way left is gonna cause your scores to drop. You mentioned you were greenside a lot. I can't recall where I saw the concept of nGIR but the point being made was being near the green in regulation is also an important stat, especially for us high handicappers. In theory nGIR, should be bogey or better depending on how solid our short game is that day. So if we bump up both GIR and nGIR, scores should drop over time. The short game work will help a lot.

 

Speaking of which, it's great to read you missed some greens because you hit the ball perfectly and went long. You'll develop the feel for the shot as you execute more often. Saw Dan Grieves mention it in a lesson that he posted online. Once you get consistent flight, so it's always the same, you will develop distance control. if you don't know how the ball is gonna fly and rewact, how can you know how hard to hit it.

 

I'm quite optimistic of what you'll start to do as you ingrain the eyeline and short game work more. Great stuff!

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The weather has been challenging for our area for sure. Based on Monte’s post, I think my lesson with him was the same weekend as yours. I’ve gotten maybe three rounds and two range sessions since then. My scores haven’t gone much lower, but my ball striking seems to be improving. 

 

I hope the weather improves so that we can both get some of that eye line work in. Good luck!

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13 hours ago, absoludicrous said:

The weather has been challenging for our area for sure. Based on Monte’s post, I think my lesson with him was the same weekend as yours. I’ve gotten maybe three rounds and two range sessions since then. My scores haven’t gone much lower, but my ball striking seems to be improving. 

 

I hope the weather improves so that we can both get some of that eye line work in. Good luck!

Yeah, the good thing about the eyeline change is that it was SO simple. It's not a sort of massive motor pattern change that will take a lot of time. The first range session I just started hitting them straight. It was a little less straightforward on-course, but that's probably to be expected with nerves and thinking more about target than technique. But even so I was seeing better results than before. 

 

The short game stuff is basically a massive overhaul of a completely non-functional technique. That'll take longer, I'm sure. Spend 30+ years doing something wrong, it'll take time to get comfortable doing it right. 

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Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

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1 hour ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

Yeah, the good thing about the eyeline change is that it was SO simple. It's not a sort of massive motor pattern change that will take a lot of time.

 

Your experience highlights something that probably does not get talked about much or maybe I just miss it in passing. A seemingly simple thing can have a big impact on the swing and thus resulting ball flight. There are probably a few reasons for this such as it's much less common than the motor pattern issues and it's very unlikely for someone without a lot of experience working with the swing to pick up on it. I am not sure how many teachers would pick up on the eyeline issue you have for example. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, bortass said:

 

Your experience highlights something that probably does not get talked about much or maybe I just miss it in passing. A seemingly simple thing can have a big impact on the swing and thus resulting ball flight. There are probably a few reasons for this such as it's much less common than the motor pattern issues and it's very unlikely for someone without a lot of experience working with the swing to pick up on it. I am not sure how many teachers would pick up on the eyeline issue you have for example. 

 

 

 

Agreed. Especially since I do have motor pattern issues. Roll the club back open on takeaway, get the clubhead deep due to late wrist hinge, too much sway away from the target on takeaway leading to a late shift back to the trail side, etc. All of those things probably need to get addressed in the future. 

 

It would probably be easy for a coach to say "we'll fix all those things and see if it neutralizes the path somewhat and improves contact." Whereas Monte saw it, had me try that one change, and it immediately neutralized path, which is going to help with my most severe miss (and actually improved contact by reducing the toe-side miss). And the thing is that I don't get the sense it's a band aid. It was just one of the few "easy" fixes. 

 

Improving those other motor pattern issues will I'm sure improve consistency, improve sequencing and possibly even clubhead speed / distance, and have a lot of great effect on my game. But I'm glad I had him to spot the low-hanging fruit that I'm not sure most would have seen and correlated to my big in->out path. 

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Made it to the range yesterday with my son. If my swing (below) is off, forgive me... He's got a learner's permit and this weekend was the first time he's gotten to start driving around in my behemoth Ford Flex. So for the 45 minutes prior to getting to the range, I was trying to be the calm supportive dad and not show fear that my life was about to end. (He did great though.)

 

What I see...

 

Good: Eye line is much better. I may not be perfect, but I don't have that massive tilt to the right that I had before. I'm also seeing pivot that is miles ahead of where it was back when I started this journey. From the DTL view I'm getting a little bit of "squat" in transition and doing a better job of driving the left hip back. Not amazing, of course, but surprisingly when I compare to my son's swing, it seems I'm not throwing that right hip and EE'ing out nearly as much as he is lol... For this I think there are a couple drills Monte just posted on IG (here and here), and I also pointed that out to my son because it seems like it would be good for him too.

 

Bad: Sway off the ball is still there. What's odd is that I see a LITTLE less immediate off the ball sway but then my upper body carries the lower body to the trail side. My head drifts WAY off to the trail side. I feel like it's moderately functional because my head/torso/etc all stay well-stacked, but I'm still late recentering and it would be a lot less timing-based and a lot less wasted motion if I didn't do any of that. I need to figure out how to minimize the sway of the upper body. 

 

 

Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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  • betarhoalphadelta changed the title to Be Better, Brad! (Update 2-26-2024 with new swing videos)

Made it to the range again yesterday. Goals:

 

  • Continued work on eye line.
  • Continued work on the chipping/pitching feels.
  • Test out my 3 utility iron that I had rebuilt. I had it reshafted with my normal iron shaft, built to 40", with the same grip as my other clubs--which should make it swing weight out identical to my other irons.
  • Get some swings in with other clubs (4h, driver). 
  • Play around with Monte's drill from this and this IG post.

Overall it was a VERY good day.

 

I mean, besides having to sit there and not laugh as a bro with a poor swing and a big fad was trying to instruct his bro coworkers who looked like they'd never swung a club before, talking about how hybrids are different than irons because you "swing up" with them and other hilarious stuff. My ability to tune out and maintain willpower was tested. 

 

Eyeline continued to be a success. Was hitting 8i primarily, and it was basically straight shots to tight push draws. The few left misses that occurred would have been greenside, rather than giant sweeping hooks. 

 

Contact on chips/pitches was MUCH improved. The feel that Monte and I came upon during my lesson was sort of "start the downswing by pushing the left heel" which distracts me from trying to get overly stabby with accelerating the hands. Contact was great; distance control is still going to take a LOT of work. 

 

The 3u seems to be a success. The goal is to have something distance-wise above my 4h, because something about looking down at fairway woods for me is a mental block (i.e. my 5w). The club with its previous graphite shaft (~30g lighter than my iron shaft) at 39.5" just felt WAY too light. The SW calculator I think had it at C8, whereas my irons play around D6. Now the club feels "right". Mostly hid decent shots (playable if not constantly middling it), but getting used to a 40" club compared to my SL irons is going to take a little time. Either way, it immediately gave me much more confidence than I ever have standing over my 5w. For now it will replace the 5w in the bag and be a mainstay of range work to learn it. 

 

Finally, the Monte drill was interesting. In true Monte fashion, "it felt weird" lol... But I got some video and it seemed to help me avoid my initial steepening move in transition slightly, which should mean less compensation to reroute. But honestly it's something I'm going to shelve. As I was thinking more about it, the next thing on my agenda should be the sway to the trail side. But I'd consider going back to that later. 

 

I've got a round scheduled tomorrow morning at Oso if the weather cooperates. Should rain steadily all day but tomorrow morning should clear or be scattered showers at the worst. I'll be out there playing as long as I don't think it's going to be a constant rain all morning. 

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Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

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Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

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Hoping I HAVE a round at Oso lol... Supposed to be an 8:40 tee time. 

 

Screenshot_20240302-154153.png.122c299848ee56c57feada0aceb9e729.png

Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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Okay, so played yesterday. Weather mostly cooperated. Light rain for the first 2-3 holes which then cleared up, came back around 13 but only lasted a few minutes. Overall not a bad day for some golf. 

 

As for the golf, well, that was a mixed bag. Scoring was abysmal, shooting an 88 (+28). Yet in a lot of facets of the game, I can point to improvement.

 

Long game: Eyeline continues to prove a "sticking" change. The only big hook I had was on 18, with driver--which is the one club I'm still hooking a bit at the range. I'm still seeing straighter ballflight, reduced toe misses, and better results in general. I still missed a whole lotta greens, but it was more face control than path. The reduction in toe side misses and improved ballflight means that I missed a lot of greens pin-high. I really believe that is I tighten this up, scores will come down. 

 

Short game: Sorta mirrors the weather. Some bits of sunshine, some bits of storms. I can tell the motion is better, but from time to time I'm losing the tempo and getting squirrely, having low point issue, etc. And distance control is still spotty. I had some mid-range pitches where I feel like I was decent on the motion and contact but just left them short. I also had some pitches that were downright gorgeous. I kinda lost it on the back 9 and it definitely added a lot of strokes there. 

 

Putting: Holy hell this was a mess. Everything from 2.5 feet out was just terrible. Some three-putts including from WAY too close to three putt and some "that shouldn't be a two putt" two putts. My playing partner was keeping score so I was counting putts, but it was without a doubt over 36. Looking back on the round I think I count 5 three putts and at least 3 or four places where I left myself 3-6' from the hole and couldn't one-putt. I left a lot of strokes out there on the greens. I don't know what it was--I'm no great putter but it was just uncharacteristically bad. 

 

There were four blow-up holes (triple or worse) which combined for +14 over par. Which means that even with my terrible putting I was still playing bogey golf the other 14 holes. The blowups:

  • 7th hole: Short par 3 where I took 9i and just missed it right by not closing the face. In rough and trying to pitch up to the green, I felt like I made a good motion but caught it slightly thick and between that and the rough didn't get great distance. Pitched again and it was MUCH better. Then IIRC I three-putted from somewhere between 10 and 15 feet. Triple. 
  • 13th hole: 288y par 4. Took driver off the tee and hit it well, but it was a little left. Rough with all this rain was gnarly as hell and I just couldn't find the damn ball. There's no way it went anywhere except where I was looking, but alas, that's two penalty strokes under an MLR E-5 drop. S-worded a partial wedge, then made a great pitch to well within 10 feet (don't remember exactly) but two-putted. Triple.
  • 16th hole: Short par 3, took 7i into a severe headwind and just shut the face. Missed way left (w/o massive hook--not a path problem). Ball was just short of going into the creek but I was starting to lose it with the pitching motion so it took me three botched pitches to advance it into a greenside bunker, blading one out of the wet-like-concrete bunker to the other side of the green, used putter from off the green to get it close, and this time actually MADE something in the 6-7' range. Quad.
  • 18th hole: 225y par 3. Round was already trashed so given that I was into a stiff headwind again, thought I'd go for it with driver. Well, this was the ONE shot all day that turned left--into the pond. Looks like the distance was right into the wind though, so there's that. Take a drop by the edge of the pond, and felt like I made a decent pitching motion but caught it thick in a very soggy bit of turf and only got halfway there. Then made a terrible motion and bladed it across the green. Putted from the fringe back on, and then two-putted from about 6'. Quad. 

So the bad holes were... bad. I honestly don't fault hole 13 that much--I hit the ball into a safe space and just ended up with the bad luck of it being lost. But the others all had various "WTF?" screw-ups involved. 

 

But again, there's positive to take away. I just need to REALLY increase reps on the chipping/pitching. I can tell that it's an easier and more consistent stroke when I do it. The motion and tempo is much better, but under the pressure of doing it live for a score on a real course, I get squirrely, and the only thing IMHO that'll fix that is practice. There were at least some really bright moments in that face of the game to offset the screwups. 

 

So, not a great score, but still some positives in there.

 

Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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Sounds like a very positive round. The drop off in your way left miss is quite large. That will have a pretty positive impact on your scoring trend IMO. Same with the short game. A lot of your older write ups seemed to be about how many times you missed way left and how many pitches/chips were flubbed. That last lesson is helping with both things that seemed like big issues. Granted it'll take time, just as you said but things appear to be looking up!

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12 hours ago, absoludicrous said:

Hope it wasn’t like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/s/wjHUONhUup

 

FYI I'm sure @absoludicrous knows this but for the others in the thread, that in fact is Oso Creek golf course. That's the creek right in front of the first tee. 

 

Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was hoping to get to the range today... Until...

 

image.png.53a8c1c066bf13ba8774c1b0d6da879e.png

 

Guess it'll wait until tomorrow. Playing Oso on Saturday so I want to make sure to get at least one session in. 

Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, bortass said:

 

When's your next match with your son?

 

Not sure. I've made a couple of tee times but had to cancel because he has too much homework. His education is really getting in the way of golf!!! 😂

 

He's in season now so he's the one getting all the play/practice time. He just had two really good matches at some of the tougher courses in the area, going +10 through 9 holes at one course and then +7 through 9 at another. His team also plays at Oso occasionally, but both of those courses were par 35/36 for 9 and full regulation distance.

 

He's actually volunteering at the Hoag Classic next weekend, so that will probably be cool for him. 

Edited by betarhoalphadelta

Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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Hit the range today. Primarily did short game (chipping/pitching) work and 7i swings. 

 

The pitching/chipping was good, making good contact. Specifically what Monte and I worked on to try to kill my impulse to get stabby with the hands is to feel like a slight "push" in my left foot starts the downswing. Just really focused on that, and it helps. We'll see how well it translates to the course tomorrow--as mentioned my last round was some of the best pitches in memory, whereas I still blew up a couple holes based ONLY on pitching screwups. 

 

7i was good. I finished up the session just getting "normal" reps with 7i, because I was starting to address the sway in the middle of the session. The sway work feels REALLY weird. Essentially what I'm trying to do is pressure the right foot earlier effectively with a feel of "resisting" the sway and then getting left. It definitely worked, but then it threw everything else off. I felt completely off balance. For a bit I was starting to drift left in the downswing again which didn't work (since I hadn't swayed right) and I had to remember "oh yeah that left foot is supposed to drive the left hip up and back--maybe I should do that!" That helped the off balance feeling a little bit. Timing/sequencing was all over the map and low point control is going to adjust with this. Doing it made my backswing feel like it was over before it was over--which I've heard can happen when you actually get a proper shift. It was weird and uncomfortable...

 

...but holy crap it was effortless power!!!! I was trying to hit 3/4 effort 7i shots literally putting nothing into it (i.e would have been happy with 100 yards) and the ball was launching off the face near my normal 7i distances. I guess that's why Monte called that video series "Power Shift" lol...

 

Unfortunately I didn't bring my tripod or camera, and I had someone in the next stall anyway so I couldn't have gotten FO video... Going to try to do that early next week when I get back to the range again. I *REALLY* want to see what this looks like on video so I can determine if I'm just fooling myself and the motion hasn't changed, or if I'm changing my motion but doing something else that's really really bad. 

 

As mentioned I finished up the session with "regular" reps since I wanted to get the sway work out of my mind before hitting the real course tomorrow, and that was good. Solid contact, good flight. Even got the Chinese family taking up the two stalls behind me oohing and aahing over some of them lol... Looked over and they told me I was very good. I mean, I'm not, but I'll take the compliment 😂

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Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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But they were right you are very good.

 

At something😜 I mean they didn't specify anything in particular did they? LOL, hopefully you know I'm joking around.

 

It sounds like it was a very positive range session. I think you would make Monte proud because it was 'weird and uncomfortable'.  That short game work is really going to help as well since we don't hit a lot of greens(yet).

 

Good luck tomorrow and looking forward to hearing how you did.

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Well, another round where I felt like the things I'm working on continue to get better, I hit the ball straighter with better/more consistent contact, and my short game contact was MUCH improved...

 

...and I still shot 26 over par. Aged out a round and my index grew to 24.1. Ugh. 

 

Front was fairly decent at +9, and actually had started even better at only +4 through 7. Missed green, one bad pitch attempt, and a three putt turned 8 into a triple. Good driver strike but leaking just a LITTLE right, into the wind, meant that I had to carry the creek at its farthest point (right) and didn't quite make it. Missed green approach shot turned into double with the penalty stroke. Then on the back it continued falling apart, at +17 on the back 9. Two triples, four doubles, and no pars. No single cause--just everything a bit off and the slight bit of bad kept compounding. 

 

37 putts (21 on the back 9) didn't help. Five three-putts (two on GIRs to make 3-putt bogeys). That's a continuation of garbage putting from my last round.

 

Contact in short game was much better; I had two bad ones but a LOT of good ones (missed a lot of greens obv with that score so had plenty of chances), but still have no feel for distance control. That'll come in time with reps. I absolutely love that I feel SO much more confident with a wedge in hand from 15-30 yards. 

 

Long game was pretty solid. Lots of good flush contact and only turned one ball hard left--on hole 5 which is the one hole you can't go left... I suspect it was the fear of going left that screwed me up. HOWEVER it wasn't turned as far as my REALLY bad ones, so it hung up in the rough farther up on the slope and didn't go beyond the trees, I managed to make bogey--farther left you're lucky to walk away with double. Face control a bit spotty, which is a large reason I had so few GIRs, not the ball curvature. 

 

It makes me think that over the next couple of weeks I need to mix both range time AND time spent at the pitch & putt. Range practice is good, but nothing replaces time actually spent hitting the ball for a score. 

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Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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Hit the range this morning and got some video. Basically only worked on sway with 8i, and some intermittent pitching just to get reps.

 

It FELT like I wasn't swaying, but the video doesn't look like I've done much to tame it. 

 

 

 

Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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I looked at it a little bit more closely, and it appears that I might have made more progress than I thought. At least with the lower body.

 

Before:

 

image.png.3d23d5b620acfe32df88fdd0ff6207ce.png

 

After:

 

image.png.bb9949a6a60dd6cb1da922cc132986d1.png

 

I was looking at the head position, and the fact that my top half is getting "un-stacked" over my bottom half isn't great. Needs work. But I think there's a LOT more pressure on that left foot at the top in the "after" photo...

 

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Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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  • betarhoalphadelta changed the title to Be Better, Brad! (Update 3-18-2024 with new swing videos)

My son had a team match at San Juan Hills today...

 

image.png.2c0ec920bbe7344b654b78d660af0e4e.png

 

As they say...

 

Friday Damn GIF by hero0fwar

 

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Ping G25 10.5* w/ Diamana 'ahina 70 x5ct stiff (set -0.5 to 10*)

Sub70 Pro Tour 5w w/ Aldila NV NXT 85 stiff

Wishon EQ1-NX 4h, 5i-GW single-length built to 37.5" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 286 52/10, 286 56/12, and JB 60/6 wedges, black, built to 36.75" w/ Nippon Modus3 120 stiff

Sub70 Sycamore Mallet putter @ 36.5" with Winn midsize pistol grip

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  • betarhoalphadelta changed the title to Be Better, Brad! (Update 4-11-2024 with new swing videos)

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