Dave D's swing thread - Pg 39 new putter & swing update 9th April

[flog2]

I think you should use the £270 shop credit to get some lessons!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

;)

[Dave D]

Congrats! Two things

 

1) do you get to keep the trophy?

2) just like a champion, he's thinking about getting new equipment after winning again! lol

 

1) sadly not, have had it at home since I won it but gave it back to the club yesterday.

2) it's always nice to have a new toy :D

 

whats your strengths and weaknesses in your game?

 

Strengths:

Iron play - the strongest part of my game IMO

Short putting - has become a real strength

Distance - don't hit it monster distances but long enough to be an advantage on most courses I play - 6i 190

 

Weaknesses:

Lag putting

Trying to hit the ball too hard when I'm striking it well

Pin seeking

 

Adequate:

Short game

Driving accuracy

[Dave D]

After a few of weeks off I played yesterday and shot a 74 (+2) on a different course, greens had just been treated and were in awful condition, my wedges and chipping were superb so could've been a good score had you been able to actually putt properly.

 

Backswing pivot is starting to improve but still moving off the ball slightly. Crept back into having a lot of secondary tilt at impact, face looks too open at p6 with lead wrist cupped slightly again. The problem I originally had when I went to Zane. I haven't worked on this for many months so this is obviously a natural tendency I am going to fight.

 

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I've booked in for a driver fitting at my club on Thursday so potentially a new toy will be ordered soon. Am very interested to see my numbers as haven't been on a launch monitor for a while. I hit a few balls on the range the other day and a guy had a little portable swing speed monitor and it tracked 1 drive at 118 and the other at 121, he was swearing blind that it's accurate and I was like I don't think it is pal, if it is my driver isn't optimal at all! Will find out Thursday!

[Dave D]

Think this is a very good video showing the DD/GG type move, certainly an exaggerated feel that I know I need to work on to help sort my issue out. What's also interesting is how his left wrist moves as he demonstrates the pivot.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXh7m3vgwsI/?taken-by=scottyhowarthgolfcoach

[flog2]

Think this is a very good video showing the DD/GG type move, certainly an exaggerated feel that I know I need to work on to help sort my issue out. What's also interesting is how his left wrist moves as he demonstrates the pivot.

 

https://www.instagra...owarthgolfcoach

that looks the opposite to the left shoulder/chin separation move or could certainly promote that move imo

[Dave D]

Think this is a very good video showing the DD/GG type move, certainly an exaggerated feel that I know I need to work on to help sort my issue out. What's also interesting is how his left wrist moves as he demonstrates the pivot.

 

https://www.instagra...owarthgolfcoach

that looks the opposite to the left shoulder/chin separation move or could certainly promote that move imo

I see what you mean but I think it is and it isn't, yes the chin shoulder isn't separating much from the chin but then it's working in a much better way? whereas when the chin sticks and shoulders work very vertical that's bad

[Dave D]

Super excited about driver fit tonight, been a few years since I've been fit for a full swing club. Hoping to get some pictures and record as much data from it as I can. Given its nearly 5 years ago since I got it, I am hopeful I can find something that improves on my current gamer.

[moony_12]

Hi Dave, congrats on the club champs!

 

How do you work on the left shoulder down and around? I too create too much secondary tilt on the downswing.

[flog2]

Hi Dave, congrats on the club champs!

 

How do you work on the left shoulder down and around? I too create too much secondary tilt on the downswing.

 

try this

 

[Dave D]

Hi Dave, congrats on the club champs!

 

How do you work on the left shoulder down and around? I too create too much secondary tilt on the downswing.

 

Thanks, I try a few things, left shoulder low and away from chin doing slow swings, try and feel my upper body tilts towards the target, although nothing seems to really work. I'm beginning to think I'm chasing positions and maybe that there's a reason I have a fair bit of tilt, like the way my body is built.

 

My swing work for the foreseeable future is going to be backswing pivot (more central) and work on getting left arm off chest/right elbow more infront coming down, which will get in a better position to rotate.

 

Certainly my arm structure at and through impact is better than it's ever been:

 

[Dave D]

Driver fitting

 

My current gamer is a Callaway optiforce with Graffaloy pro launch red stiff. When I was originally fit for this I had it in -1 degree loft at 8.5. For the last 10 months or so I've had it set at +2 10.5 degrees because it was going too low. I hit it a good distance so not expecting huge gains distance wise was more looking for consistency in flight. My iron and wedge play is the real strength of my game so if I keep it in play off the tee im going to have a good day.

 

Fitting was done in my clubs indoor studio using GC2. Started out hitting some shots with my own, all shots were launching a little low, between 9 and 10 degrees, carrying 264 with swing speed between 113-115. Angle of attack between 1.3 and 3 degrees up.

 

When I was fit before I was 110 fastest and average 108. After about 20 or so balls in this fitting though my speed dropped to 111 and stayed there for nearly every shot.

 

We first tried my shaft in the epic, pretty similar results to my gamer. Tried a few shafts in the epic, rogue, speeder, diamana, hzrdous, none of which improved on my gamer and most worse. Fitter then suggested teeing it higher, I normally use white castle tees and the optiforce is quite a shallow face, whereas these drivers are a lot deeper. So teed it higher and saw better results and a higher strike and launch. Still nothing mind blowing.

 

Tried the Ping g400 next with stock TFC shaft, then hzrdous, the hzrdous combo felt really solid and produced some good numbers.

 

Then tried sub zero with a couple of shafts but the spin was just too low for me. This is also an indication of how my swing has improved the last few years as I used to be a high ball high spin hitter.

 

Tried the G400 again and I just couldn't mishit it. I hit probably 4 lots of 5 shots with it inbetween other clubs and I honestly don't think I mishit one. Here is a picture of the strike from one lot of 5 shots:

 

 

Fitter had never seen someone hit it so out the middle so frequently when switching between clubs, which was nice to hear.

 

Tried the titleist D2, similar issues to the epic and I hated the look of it.

 

So the winner from the fit was the Ping G400. I was launching it higher than my optiforce, around 11.5 I think, was carrying it average 268 and that was with a couple of mph less speed than I had when I hit my optiforce. So a few yards in distance, but most importantly was the consistency of the strike and also flight. My dispersion with the ping was 24 yards as opposed to 49 with the optiforce.

 

Now for some on course testing to see if it's going to become the gamer. Have a competition at my home club sunday so that will be a good test to throw it into. Watch this space!

 

[Thrillhouse]

I like it, no taylormade though?

[dg_1983]

Worth the cash Dave? Or just because you could?

 

While I understand a player could be ill fitted every month it seems I flip between liking fitting and hating it.

 

I've never once thought my bad shots or putts were due to the club. Maybe fitting is about the average, not the extreme good or bad swings.

 

I can carry my callaway xhot2 regular flex 7 iron 185yards, I'm not sure there is much fitting could do for me. Maybe lie angle? Again probably a benefit for averages.

[flog2]

I tried it with Ping the other day, nice feel and shots were equal or worse than my Titleist 910 D3- go figure at that price.

[Dave D]

I like it, no taylormade though?

No sadly they don't stock taylormade, I would be intrigued to try the taylormade but having a near £300 voucher at my club ties my hands a bit. In the process of buying a house so can't warrant splashing out £450 odd on a club.

[Dave D]

Worth the cash Dave? Or just because you could?

 

While I understand a player could be ill fitted every month it seems I flip between liking fitting and hating it.

 

I've never once thought my bad shots or putts were due to the club. Maybe fitting is about the average, not the extreme good or bad swings.

 

I can carry my callaway xhot2 regular flex 7 iron 185yards, I'm not sure there is much fitting could do for me. Maybe lie angle? Again probably a benefit for averages.

Did it purely to see if there was anything better out there, I'm pretty happy with the rest of my bag setup, just wanted to see if there was something that suited me better now I hit it better. I think fitting is about the average but more important how big the difference is between bad and good. Golf after all is about how good your bad shots are not how good your good shots are. My dispersion was a lot better with the Ping, hopefully that shows up on the course testing.

 

 

I tried it with Ping the other day, nice feel and shots were equal or worse than my Titleist 910 D3- go figure at that price.

yeah goes to show how important it is to get fit, I could've spent £450 on an epic off the shelf and I hit it worse than my current 5 year old optiforce. But the amount of people that do just that is mindboggling

[pusb365]

Your carry numbers seem a little low for your SS, did the fitter comment on that at all? Launch is a touch low maybe?

[Dave D]

Your carry numbers seem a little low for your SS, did the fitter comment on that at all? Launch is a touch low maybe?

 

Do they? Thought my carry seemed in line for the speed going by this article?

 

http://www.golfwrx.com/64715/carry-distance-vs-swing-speed-chart/

 

We were trying to get my launch up and we did. I launch it too low with my optiforce

[Dave D]

Have used the ping in 2 competition rounds now and it performed admirably, better in the 2nd round, and much more consistent accuracy wise than my callaway. I'm still not 100% sold on it just yet though. It seemed a few yards longer with side or down wind when I compared it head to head against my callaway but was a good 15-20 yards short into the wind.

 

I would expect the callaway to be a bit better into the wind as I launch it lower with less spin, but then to see very little distance difference down or side concerned me slightly. But would I take more fairways a round over the occasional shorter shot into the wind? I think I would.

 

However.....

 

*plot twist*

 

I am going for a fitting tonight at a taylormade fitting centre..... I have the demo ping to test against too

[dg_1983]

The game is certainly easier from the fairway!

 

I keep chasing an increase in my 155ish ball speed with a better launch and lower spin.............then I realise its the missed fairways that cost me and the diminishing returns in effort versus ball speed gains!

[Dave D]

I'm joining the darkside...

[Dave D]

I like it, no taylormade though?

No sadly they don't stock taylormade, I would be intrigued to try the taylormade but having a near £300 voucher at my club ties my hands a bit. In the process of buying a house so can't warrant splashing out £450 odd on a club.

 

Taylormade fitting

 

Last night went for a fitting at a golf club near me that is a taylormade fitting centre. The club has great practice facilities, I may be moving nearer to it so i may well look at moving there in the coming years.

 

The fitting centre used a gc2 but also opened up onto the range which i loved. I quite like hitting in a simulator but there's nothing like seeing the actual flight of the ball. Best of both worlds with also having the data from the GC2.

 

I do like the ping (g400 with hzrdous yellow 10.5) which i turned down to 9.5, i definitely hit it straighter than my callaway but the flight was a bit floaty. I hit a lot of straight drives at The Grove, but in on course testing it was 15-20 yards shorter than my callaway into the wind and not massively longer in other winds. It just lacked a powerful forward flight.

 

I started off by hitting a few with my optiforce, and as expected, good distance but low launch and a fairly wide dispersion. Ball speed was high with it but so was my swing speed, 113-115, as before this dropped to 111 for the rest of the fitting.

 

Started out with the M2 10.5 head with kuro kage stiff, numbers ok but didn't really like the feel and flight had a fair bit of shape. Then hzrdous yellow and straight away felt the stability that i liked with the Ping but flight looked better and numbers better, higher ball speed and carry. Then hit the Ping just to get some numbers to compare, as expected the flight was a bit puffy and also quite a big draw.

 

We then tried a 9.5 head lofted up to 10.5 just to see what affects this had on spin, i hated this as the club then sat closed, which with the white part of the crown is even more glaringly obvious than normal.

 

Hzrdous yellow in an M1 10.5 next, solid but not better than the M2. Never really seen much advantage from weight adjustment either, seem to subconsciously deliver the club the same way somehow.

 

Then tried speeder, rogue, fujikura and matrix, rogue and fujikura producing better numbers and feel. Hated the speeder, also tried an X in the rogue but felt like i really had to hit it hard which i don't like.

 

We then tried the hzrdous black and BOOM! first ball 292 carry. felt super solid like the yellow but the flight was just awesome. i mishit 1 of the 4 recorded, the other 3 were all 12.9-13.1 launch and 1896-2002 spin, 286-292 carry. The mishit still carried 280. Hit quite a few with this combo and loved it.

 

One thing i was mildy concerned about was the tingy noise at impact on all shots but then when i hit a few outside at the end that noise was more being caused by the echo affect of the indoor room.

 

 

 

I always swore i wouldn't get a taylormade club again after a bad customer service experience with my r7 tp but i can't help myself. This club has the solid straight consistent feel that the ping does but with a much hotter forward flight. I've caved in and joined the darkside

 

[flog2]

thanks for sharing- did they capture SS as well?

[Dave D]

thanks for sharing- did they capture SS as well?

 

They did on a few not all of them, first few were 113-115 Then others were all basically 110 or 111

[dg_1983]

Some nice ball speed there Dave!

 

I'd kill for that bit extra!

[Dave D]

Some nice ball speed there Dave!

 

I'd kill for that bit extra!

thanks :bb2:

 

must be all that eating I do :lol:

[dg_1983]

Ah come on - fast hands are nothing to do with the belly!

[Dave D]

Thought I'd share a couple of videos I've found that explain the thing I'm currently working on in my swing. My right elbow was getting trapped behind me at the top and staying stuck coming down. Doing this drill with the left hand cupped behind the right elbow helps get my arms more infront at the top and keep them in front coming down.

 

When doing the drill I can feel how much quicker my arms extend and move than I'm used to, but this drill helps keep me turning at the same time. I always struggled when working on getting the arms moving quicker/faster/sooner that I then wouldn't turn at all. Am finding this drill to really help.

 

EDIT: unlike the videos though I also do some rehearsals all the way through to chest high on the through swing. chest feels so open at p8-p9 this way.

 

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I'm sure there was another video by Dan about it but can't find it at the minute

[flog2]

useful thanks. Just had an ex European Tour pro lesson and he gave me this drill/swing thought also

[Dave D]

useful thanks. Just had an ex European Tour pro lesson and he gave me this drill/swing thought also

do you suffer with similar then? who was that out of interest?