Back at it

[AntLockyer]

28th Jan 2023

Shot 1 - tee ball on 18. Setup on the left of the tee box, aimed at the left edge of the bunker and trusted the draw. Set the club behind the ball before taking my grip and just jumped hard with my left foot. Hit a nice high draw out to about 280 yards. Partner said "that's the best one you've hit today".

 

Shot 2 - was one of 2 great wedge shots to choose from. On 18 I'd hit my second just short of pin high to the left of the green. The green is raised about 10ft with a very sever bunker to go over. Pin was 4 paces from the edge with very little green to work with in any direction other than back towards the tee. I had exactly 30 yards to the pin. The lie was a little wet but sitting well. I set up as normal with my 59 degree wedge, ball forward, weight forward. Turned back to about hip high with some hinge, and turned back through with a strong strike with the right hand. Ball got up quick, landing just short of pin high and stopped after one soft hop. Was about 6ft from the pin a little right of where I'd 'aimed'.

 

Shot 3 - The 14th is a par 3, 188 yards, into a slight breeze. The green slopes heavily front to back and long is hard work. Lots of pot bunker trouble short. I chose the club that if I nutted one would not go long. I told my playing partner I was going to birdie the hole and got up there with a very strong intent to hit a great golf shot. Aimed 6 yards right of the pin, relaxed and hit it hard. A beautiful high draw, landing a few paces short and a little to the right of the pin.

[mshills]

Thanks for the update, and very sorry about your father. 😞

 

I also would like to study Cam Smith, his routine, and what makes his routine unique. Your setup in the above photos looks very natural and comfortable. If you don’t mind, how is it different from what you used to do and what specifically did you change?

[AntLockyer]

39 minutes ago, mshills said:

Thanks for the update, and very sorry about your father. 😞

 

I also would like to study Cam Smith, his routine, and what makes his routine unique. Your setup in the above photos looks very natural and comfortable. If you don’t mind, how is it different from what you used to do and what specifically did you change?

Cam doesn't take a practice stroke and neither do I now. However I have to say if I feel like it I'll take one as I am no longer fixated on routine,  just a process and some goals. So if I need to take a practice stroke to meet the goal I will.

 

Before my right hand was a lot lower than it is now. Basically my full grip with the overlapping fingers reversed.

That sort of thing. I struggled with pace control but start line was superb. For me it felt like the hands were difficult to keep working together,  where now they feel like a single passive unit.

 

for the rest of my setup, the ball is back a little in my stance (this may move again once I am doing outside alignment work), my feet are closer together, I feel like my hips are higher and overall just feel a lot more athletic whereas before it was all about being locked in, which I don't think is necessarily a good thing (see Justin Rose working with Phil Kenyon).

 

I hope that helps. A lot of the comfort part is important too. As I'm ramping up and aiming for 500 putts a day I need to be able to physically do that.

[AntLockyer]

Yesterday was a slow and not great ball striking day. Friday also started a bit slow and my driver speed was 97mph or so. Once I got going however I was back to 106. Spoke to my coach and he suggested a better warm up. Will see how that goes.

 

Anyway I decided to get a benchmark for distance consistency on what I'd call a bad day

 

Couple of actual bad shots (9 iron and 6 iron in particular) and I just didn't have the speed to make my 4 iron usable. I'm going to be checking my 6 iron speed on the range before playing from now on. If it's 85mph I'll use these numbers and 90mph my normal numbers. Hopefully this gives a useful improvement to distance control and clubbing.

 

At the end of the test I managed to get back to 90mph 6 iron so finding the right warmup holds some merit.

Edited January 31, 2023 by AntLockyer

[AntLockyer]

Did a warm up, and felt good today. Most I got out of a 6 iron was 89mph though, so I scaled back and focussed on strike. You all know what's coming next, I was hitting it was better with ball speeds between 116 and 120. Repeatable and far enough.

 

[AntLockyer]

Shot 87 yesterday. 1 birdie, 5 pars, 7 Bogeys and 5 doubles!

 

Have fallen back into the pattern of a heavy draw and just can't bring myself to 'aim' at trouble on the right in order to hit greens and if it does hit the green its travelling left anyway. Toward the end of the round I tried a different pre shot routine that seemed to help, I suspect it just moved me open to start line a few degrees. Will talk to my coach and make a plan. Anyway, onto the 3 best shots.

 

1. Drive on 3, lovely mid flight, just a hint of draw to bring it perfectly in the middle of the fairway. Was focused on keeping my arm structure throughout (bonus link at the end on that).

 

2. Went long on 4, green 16 feet above my ball, green sloping away heavily. Awful lie, hit the most precise chop on the back of the ball, it popped up, landed just on the green and rolled out to about 10 feet. Doesn't sound great but it was an incredibly good result. Drained the putt.

 

3. Drive on 16, almost identical to the shot on 3, same feels. Wind had picked up off the right so aimed at the right fairway bunker and let it ride the wind round the corner. Set me up perfectly in the fairway on what is an incredibly difficult golf hole.

 

The link. The theraband drill is the feeling I have in my swing right now

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjEYoCYrS1I

 

[AntLockyer]

 

Had a simple piece of advice from my coach on Monday which transformed my ball flight, felt like total control was restored. We had a frost delay so sat in the clubhouse eating a sandwich and really only hit a couple of shots in the net and rolled a couple of putts beforehand. Something didn't feel right about the putting but I got to where it was comfortable.

 

Was hitting the ball nicely, putting ok if a little uncomfortable. Clubbing was a bit hit and miss with the wind seemingly changing directions and it was cold. On 5 I came up a little short in 3 (hit rough off tee) and knocked a very simple chip over the green, taking 3 more to get down from there. 7 was a 3 putt but I really was on the wrong side of the pin and misread the first one a little. 8 was a crazy situation. Pin high off the green in 2, had a brain fart and hammered my texas wedge 10ft past, then 3 putted! Missed green on the right on 9, crappy pitch and a 3 putt. At this point it felt like the putter was an alien in my hand, I had no confidence, it looked super closed at address and I had no speed control. I needed to change something so I started looking at the hole when I putted (I've done this a lot). Instant improvement, I hit most greens or was putting on every hole thru 15. 16 was a tricky 3 putt down a hill, 17 and 18 were actually miraculous bogey saves from bad spots.

 

This week, I'll be working on the short shots and putting.

 

Onto the highlight reel

 

1. Driver on 1, after sitting around for a couple of hours, no warm up and a bunch of people around I hit a lovely high, baby draw just short of the green side trap. 

 

2. hole 10, missed fairway left, had an OK lie but wasn't 100% sure. Had about 180 to the pin, picked a line just right of the flag (9 yards from the left edge) and put a nice smooth swing on it. It flew nice and high and landed quite soft, rolling out about 3 yards. Left myself with a 10ft putt for birdie.

 

3. I found myself a long way over the back of the green on 18, in 4. It's a very tricky green with a 10ft slope up to the surface and the pin was only about 3 paces on. given it's a tight lie and well mown I opted for putter and got it up and over the hill to about 3ft, saving bogey.

[AntLockyer]

Played 4 holes yesterday afternoon. If only I could get my distance control back to where it was 3 weeks ago. It's never been a strength, and I really want to improve in this area more than anything else.

 

 

[AntLockyer]

Front 9 I hit 7 greens and shot 45 with 23 putts! Zero distance control. It occurred to me that all my rounds in the 70s have been heads up putting so not sure why im fighting it

 

went out on the green today, worked through my putters and then just hit a lot of lag putts, all significantly better and with less thought than looking at the ball.

[AntLockyer]

A lot has happened since February. Hit 200 subs on YouTube 😂 and Handicap has hovered between 8 and 10.

 

Had a big breakthrough mentally. Finally understand the need to work on the same things relentlessly and try to capture the feels that produce good shots within that frame work.

 

I think keeping a journal falls into that and I'm tempted to use this as it's searchable and might help someone else.

[Gsea]

On 2/19/2023 at 10:29 AM, AntLockyer said:

Front 9 I hit 7 greens and shot 45 with 23 putts! Zero distance control. It occurred to me that all my rounds in the 70s have been heads up putting so not sure why im fighting it

 

went out on the green today, worked through my putters and then just hit a lot of lag putts, all significantly better and with less thought than looking at the ball.

forgot to write in number 10, so not an 82

[AntLockyer]

13 hours ago, Gsea said:

forgot to write in number 10, so not an 82

I didn't forget. That's my score card from the competition and I never mentioned the back 9 in my post. Thanks for the input though.

[AntLockyer]

Feels and the things I'm working on. The intention is that this stuff is never going to change. I have a conceptual model of how to swing a club and I'm sticking with it.

 

Putting. Left eye just inside ball. Left hand lifeline builds the hold, right hand connects. Feel the head go back straight. Like SBST, this keeps on plane and square to plane. Swing the head, let it release, rotate around spine, no hit. Body driven.

 

Chipping. Same feel of head going back on the line, causes subtle hinge and maintains loft. Patience in transition. Don't over do the body rotation feel, will cause pulls. Focus on ball first thought.

 

Pitching. Stock pitches are half way back halfway through feels. 59 degree - 40 yards, 55 degree - 50 yards, 51 degree - 60 yards. 

 

Full swing. 2 rubber band drills (vids below). 1 to feel pressure down through handle, 1 to feel path of head. Feeling on backswing of getting shallow, letting head fall below hands, raising the hands lowers the head. Slow rotation back, pull the handle from the top. If push fade not enough pulling. If pull draw not enough jump with left leg.

 

GRIP THOUGHTS. Strong left, for woods build grip before address. Right hand matching left (feels strong). Have been playing as weak a right hand as possible with irons, fully on top of left to avoid over draw. Not sure this is right. Will address at in person lesson.

 

Use DECADE to build targets on every shot. Might start tracking the mental scorecard. Not sure.

 

kPdIJBYNE40

 

 

[AntLockyer]

Round recap. 3rd June

Score 84

Weather, hot and sunny, NE 20mph wind.

Rough exceptionally penal. Tough to find even if you are 2ft off of fairway.

 

 

Doubles. Been fading tee shots for a bit. Better dynamics seeing the ball draw, didn't quite trust it. Draw tee shot on 2nd into left rough, smashed it out but it came out low and hot and found the hazard. Was playing my most lifted club, not sure anything could have been done differently.

 

Scared of tee shot on 5, not enough arms and blocked it into rough, lost ball.

 

15 hit 4 iron fat and didn't carry to fairway. Only fat shot all day not concerned. Recovery good but poor target selection for approach short sided into a ridiculous piece of rough. Just mental focus on DECADE.

 

No 3 putts but made 1 putt all day, struggled to get to hole (again) the one I made I aimed a foot past the hole.

 

The rough right now is a 50% find rate. If I do find it I have zero control. Should probably practice a bit in that sort of rough. Play next round considering the rough as hazard and choosing targets accordingly to see what happens.

 

[AntLockyer]

Today's practice.

 

A couple of minutes on Visio putting template. Checking face angle in the back swing, path and eveness of stroke (tendency to get short on forward swing, which despite the advice don't think works well for me).

 

30 or so putts with the mirrored putting gate. Did run through a couple of putters to see if equipment might help my tendency to leave putts short. Cleveland blade seemed to have a bit more energy but felt worse so put that thought aside.

 

Setup my 3 in a row putting ladder drill outside for the first time. 4 targets 3ft, 5ft, 7ft and 9ft. Have to get the ball past but not more than 12" past the target 3 times in a row before moving on. All putts have to pass through the gate which equates to about half a degree of error. I lost count but did video so will review. Perfect score is 12 I must have been over 50. I have no doubt that is my biggest opportunity for improvement. Need to understand what good putters are thinking etc.

 

Range. Pitch shots were a bit pulled at times, probably just ball position with hindsight. Hung out near the heel a bit too much, realised I was giving the club a nudge forward after setting up, once discovered strike centred again. Full iron shots had too much draw for the most part. A bit more left leg helped but a big one was feeling like I stayed behind the ball ended up nudging the ball back a bit in my stance and focussed on hitting a fade swing. Reduced to a tight draw.

 

Driver. Same slow wind up feel, hands high club head low. Just rip it from there. Nothing went right, couple of hooks but more focus on target ended that. Exceptionally pleased with how that went.

 

Blown easy saves was my though for short game. Long chip (limit of chipping really) with tons of green to work with. PW hit 40 shots, really need to focus on rotation of shoulders, not letting left shoulder get low at setup and being patient. Rushed ones go a long way!

 

Hit another 40 to a closer pin, using 51 degree. Much prefer the feel over PW but they spin a lot and not always in a straight line. Careful of weight getting towards toes in short game.

[AntLockyer]

Practice.

DECADE putting ladder drill. No good. Got an impromptu lesson. Focus on less follow through/more hit.

 

Played 12 holes. Played decent. Must be confident of hitting with hands/arms. Do not pitch chip shots into upslopes!

 

More random putting practice 3, 5, 7, 9 footers. Feeling of both hands hitting ball.

[AntLockyer]

Played Tuesday, felt exceptionally difficult in the wind. Was hitting irons very neutral but struggled to trust the aim so missed right a bit which cost a few strokes. Hit a lot of fairways by not taking driver, certainly saving money on lost balls.

 

Played Wednesday. Picking conservative targets really helped. Got off to a slow start but found some mental key. I feel like I play way better in front of people. I get the feeling that I'm showing off or maybe 'expressing myself ' like Garret Kramer talks about.

 

Putting was as good as it's ever been. 

 

Range after, the best mechanical feel for me is focussing on the shoulders and then just hitting the ball. Need to rehearse the backswing feels in practice swing.

[AntLockyer]

Putting, 2 flowing rehearsals with intent. One more look and go, use the right hand.

 

Chipping. 8 iron exactly as putting with hole as target for stock situation. Toe down slightly.

 

Practiced cut, neutral and draw with lob wedge. Neutral still has cut spin if hit hard with right hand  

 

Band between belt and head drill. Focusing on strike/release. Surprised at how comfortable backswing felt. Very neutral iron shots, felt relaxed. Driver, overall decent, shot pattern 10 yards right 50 yards left. Can really get it super neutral with a half swing feel. Probably the way to play at the moment with firm fairways and ridiculous rough.

 

 

[AntLockyer]

Did only band drill to warm up on Saturday. Worked well. Need to be more certain over green speed. Knew they were slow but still couldn't commit to the extra speed needed. 

 

Perform best when feeling arrogant. Got up and down from ridiculous places by just backing myself.

 

Need to work on short game process, 'straight forward' stuff gets written off as simple and I'll miss slopes behind pins etc.

 

Won my match 2 and 1, 3-10ft putts the key.

[AntLockyer]

More struggles with hitting the ball on slow greens. Hopefully they come up to speed soon.

 

Staying behind the ball feeling with irons generally gives a much more neutral shot. My ball position was creeping forward, playing further back generates some really nice contact. No wind yesterday, distance control was really good. 10mph+ today and not so good, need to start logging those shots to look for patterns.

 

If I cannot commit to driver it is likely going to the right hand side of my shot pattern, if I feel like I cannot swing very hard at it I should move to a different club.

 

Flirting with the neck too much, work on bring that back to centre this week.

 

 

5 was a topped tee ball, followed by a bad lie that I put into a bunker, followed up by missing the green with my 4th and not getting up and down.

 

10, poor tee ball, followed by a necked shot etc.

7, ok shot just in rough, necked, head gone.

16, bunker (girl outside course shouting on backswing). Just hard from there.

 

7 decent drive left 250, almost laid up but really no real danger was just short of pin high left. easy up and down (the chip was great though)

 

Short game. The longer backsing, more cup in the wrist and more release is working well. Need time to dial it in. DO NOT USE OFF TIGHT LIES!!!

 

[AntLockyer]

Short game continues to develop. Feeling the strike with the right hand works well (just as I was taught 10 years ago but couldn't get to grips with). 55 degree works best, can hit some way behind the ball and still generate a good shot. Total distance never seems to change if I focus on the hole as a target.

 

I have solved my speed control issues. I have always focussed on an aim spot and try to putt unconsciously to it. In practice I would have sessions where I'd leave it short and sessions where it would be long etc. Despite trying to have a consistent source of motion and tempo etc.

 

I tried a drill where I added some concious thought into the process. Aim at the spot hit a putt to it. Next putt aim.at the spot but think about hitting it 1ft past, next 2ft and then 3ft. The strike quality instantly changed. A clicky sound off the face. My dispersion front to back actually improved so while I could leave a 9ft putt 1ft short, this reduced to 6 inches which was still beyond my actual target. After a few hours of work on this at home I realised that 18 inches past is a good thought for me and then also realised when I putted best was when Dave Pelz told us 18 inches past was optimal! Made a bunch of stuff yesterday, everything inside 5 ft and some in the 8-14ft range.

 

Only issue now is still too much shape with irons. Need to remember the stay behind the ball feeling and maybe feel like I'm hitting a cut from a normal setup.

 

 

[AntLockyer]

Video about the putting drill, has my setup and stroke face on and DTL

going to go weaker with my grip, in an effort to gain more control. It's basically as strong as possible right now with the left hand.