Thanks Bob

In his book Manuel says to have a clear swing concept and then to make all your effort about achieving that concept. Not about fixing errors or changing patterns – executing the concept. So I am taking that very much to heart.

Because his concept is so clear and concise I find that I can commit to this approach to practice. If the concept was about some sort of impact condition or positions throughout the swing then I know that I would be forever tinkering! But now the only tinkering is getting my grip aligned to my swing for a standard shot that finishes where I align to.

From there I can use small grip changes and your GPS concepts to shape shots when I want to.

Really loving Mr de le Torre’s approach!

Definitely will if I can Golden Orifice. And this trophy-holder has spent the first 30 years of his golfing career as a 20+ handicapper so I’m not putting in any airs and graces! Sho’ ‘nuff sir!

Starting 2012 on unofficial 17, target 12 then single figures
Inaugural Official Handicapper and Treasurer of the SEQ Golf Guys
LEARN then PERFORM – Geoff Mangum

Hey guys

Can I tag along if your playing during the week somewhere? Also can look at getting some better rates possibly for us at some of the courses.

Are you playing Brissy or GC?

Maybe set up a SEQ weekday round for anyone that can make it?

Resident forum moderator
Any issues contact content @ iseekgolf.com

Chuck a post in Goldy’s thread madman. Mid week is generally not good for me but the Goldmeister may be up for a couple of outings.

Or I might be able to get the boss to release me for a day! :-)

Or both!

thanks well need a day to recover as well!

I’ll just have to crawl up under my desk I expect! :-)

Definitely will if I can Golden Orifice. And this trophy-holder has spent the first 30 years of his golfing career as a 20+ handicapper so I’m not putting in any airs and graces! Sho’ ‘nuff sir!

Starting 2012 on unofficial 17, target 12 then single figures
Inaugural Official Handicapper and Treasurer of the SEQ Golf Guys
LEARN then PERFORM – Geoff Mangum

Hey guys

Can I tag along if your playing during the week somewhere? Also can look at getting some better rates possibly for us at some of the courses.

Are you playing Brissy or GC?

Maybe set up a SEQ weekday round for anyone that can make it?

Resident forum moderator
Any issues contact content @ iseekgolf.com

Chuck a post in Goldy’s thread madman. Mid week is generally not good for me but the Goldmeister may be up for a couple of outings.

Or I might be able to get the boss to release me for a day! :-)

Or both!

Starting 2012 on unofficial 17, target 12 then single figures
Inaugural Official Handicapper and Treasurer of the SEQ Golf Guys
LEARN then PERFORM – Geoff Mangum

I just did Ive started an interest list for Goldy as well. Ive put y our name on it!! chuck a sickie if you need;)

;o)

Had a couple of very productive range session this weekend. Mostly full swing, full pitch and kiwi punch shots. Unfortunately the chipping area at the range is in appalling condition partly due to their efforts to totally stuff up the green by sanding the heck out of it and now digging a bit up and leaving it, and partly because we’ve had no rain and you are always chipping off a very tight dry lie.

Firstly testing my 4 wedges with full pitch shots and kiwi punches. Works out pretty much consistently 10m shorter than full swing fora full pitch, and another 10m shorter for a punch. So I now have more options inside 100m.

I will do a lot more practice with these shots because I want to get to a position where I want to lay up in the 50-70m range because I know I can get them close and give myself some more birdie chances.

I need to practice more with my sand wedge though to get a better understanding of its normal full swing distance and the two others. Ditto lob wedge.

Full swing has been a very interesting experience. Technique wise I am getting a better feel for the swinging action, especially on the back swing. It really feels like I am just swinging it straight away from the target. It also feels like a short swing but doing a bit of swing it back and hold it is around 10 o’clock so plenty long enough.

My focus continues to be on swinging the club. Feeling the club through the whole swing. And that aspect of it is definitely improving.

What was most surprising this weekend was how much length I’ve added. A full club length across the bag as far as I can tell. Definitely longer with irons. Gets a bit harder to tell with the hybrid and woods as I can’t really tell exactly how far they land but they look longer too.

I think as I getting to a point where I can just swing the club I am more able to put a good swing on it. Definitely happy with how things are progressing.

Hey Weeti

I’m lookin at testing the Cobra AMP 4 wood with Aldila 50 RIP shaft, noticed you have one how is that wood for you?

What is your swing speed with a driver as the shaft is suppose to be designed by swing speed.

Hey Node. Good to see you back. You’re obviously playing well at the moment! :-)

I think my swing speed is around 90 I think. Driver distance is around 210-230m.

I love my AMP 4 wood. Hit it about 200 off the ground. Have no problems hitting it off the ground. Reliable off the tee too. I rate it highly. Definitely give it a rip.

Good value too.

Does yours have the same shaft as the one I’m looking at?

RIP 5.0 Reg Shaft.

Yep

Yeah so does the demo one they are offering me….

Trouble is they are swing speed tuned and from memory my swing speed was 104 or something like that but I think I may have increased that as I’m getting a lot more distance now compared to when the speed was taken, either that or my swing has improved somehow to increase distance.

So I’m thinking maybe the S 5.5 or 6.0 shaft may suit better.

Bloody gorilla! :-)

Hit the range tonight before my game with sandy on Sunday back at his old stamping ground at Wolston Park. It’s a par 67 ACR 65 course. I’ll need to hit some good shots to score well if I want my unofficial handicap to keep going down.

Just mat shots tonight as the short game section isn’t worth the effort at the moment. Practiced my wedge punch and pitch shots. And full shots. The usual bucket and a half deal on a weekday.

Remembered what golfsavvy said about not doing the hands thing on the backswing but just doing the whole swing with the upper arms. So tried that today. Really loved it. Once I’d stopped trying to guide the club on the back swing and just allowed the arms to take the club where they wanted to naturally I was hitting very straight shots.

Actually, that should be once I’d strengthened my grip a little as per usual, and then swung it without manipulating the back swing path! Still gotta keep an eye on that grip!

Anyway, was hitting them great. I’m starting to get a real locked down concept of what I want to do with this approach.

Thank you Manuel de le Torre and thank you golfsavvy!

Also really happy with my wedge practice tonight. It’s working out that my full pitch shot distance and my full swing setup punch shot distance are about equal. Which is fine because it gives me a lower risk low shot for most situations and can play the pitch when I need a higher shot that drops to carry hazards or avoid nasty bits on greens.

Taking a pitch setup with the punch drops about 10m and gives me another distance. Four wedges obviously gives different distances too. Lob is about 50m pitch-punch, 60m pitch or punch. Sand is about 60m – 75m I think. Need more testing with those and the gap and pitching wedge.

I really want to get confident with these 3/4 pitch and punch shots as these distances are my weakness at the moment, and where I will find birdies in the future on par 5s. I am straight enough to play driver and wood or hybrid on par 5s but I tend not to because I’m not confident with inside 100m distances. There are some serious scoring opportunities if I can get confident in this range.

Try a 7 & 9 ir. I know it sounds stupid but you may be pleasantly surprised with the ease of results.

Not at all stupid. Realistically for me though I am pretty confident with my full swings with a pitching wedge and above, so my punch and pitch distances for those irons I’d rather go the full swing. That’s at the moment and as I get better with the partial shots I may want to add those.

I do use those shots with those clubs, but generally only when I have a tree branch to stay under.

Good thinking AB. Can’t have too many options! Will be better for pins up the back too – as it’s better to run it up a lot of the time than fly a pitcher all the way.

Try it from inside 40. It’s only practice. It’s sounds ridiculous to be pulling a 7 from there but it works a treat. Like a short putt. Less backswing, less chance for error. Or something like that :/

Well we hit Wolston Park today and it hit back! Was anything but single figure like today! Especially on the front nine.

Wolston Park is a short course, pay 67 off the competition tees and 4751. It is a hilly course so you get lots of practice on uneven lies. And the greens are almost all raised up, upturned bowls. And mostly pretty small too. So it places a premium on your approach shots and short game.

Today, despite a bit of rain yesterday, I found that my biggest challenge was getting the ball to stop. Because the greens are generally above the fairway you have to land on them – you can’t hit short and have the ball roll on. But today both of us had shot after shot roll off the back of the green. Approaches, pitches, sand. But especially approach shots. The ball would hit and bounce and then roll and roll. Right off, generally leaving you on a slope and having to hit a wedge up to the green, which would then roll and roll way past the pin.

I played the Vision BOB today again and he wasn’t my friend in these conditions! Sandy’s e6’s were a similar story.

Today was also a draw day! Which took a bit of adjusting too. Overall I struck the ball quite well with full swings. It was pretty windy and I didn’t always allow for that very well, or the slopes, but pretty happy with most of my ball striking. Short game was where most of the strokes were lost.

Upturned bowl greens were all they had a Ayr when I played there. Options where pin point wedges, hitting a pitch with a club to roll out from fairway to green and local knowledge of the slopes. The last only one in our playing group had. It definately is a different game. Get a round with a member and watch and learn.

Finished with a 16 over 51 front and 8 over 40 back for a 24 over 91, which was 26 over ACR. I was at least happy that I held it together to score a reasonable back 9.

3 pars 9 bogies 4 doubles 1 triple 1 quad.

33 for the long game was 2 over. 6/11 fairways, 3 GIR but quite a few more that hit the green but didn’t stay there!

3 pitches 12 chips 3 sand 3 Texas and 37 putts for 58 short game shots meant 22 over for the short game. 3 out of 15 up and downs. But they were more than offset by 2 times where I had 3 short game shots just to get on the green, another when I had 2 and 5×3 putts.

So very ugly. Neither of us had a good short game going and that was definitely influenced by the greens not holding but somehow still generally putting slow. Although there were exceptions that played fast. So we never really knew what each green would do! Made it interesting.

I had a pitching wedge that landed soft and stopped short, and lob wedges that ran for ages. Putts that I thought were too hard that came up short, and to soft that ran way past. But mostly I was short.

I also hit a lot of pulled putts – definitely didn’t help my scoring! :-)

I have a lot of work to do on my short game. Good thing was that it improved a lot on the back 9 – 7 over for the short compared to 15 over on the front. Started to get my putting stroke to move the ball where I’d aimed! But back to the mat for me! And lots more chipping. I need to make the extra effort and hit ranges that have decent short game practice facilities.

Upturned bowl greens were all they had a Ayr when I played there. Options where pin point wedges, hitting a pitch with a club to roll out from fairway to green and local knowledge of the slopes. The last only one in our playing group had. It definately is a different game. Get a round with a member and watch and learn.

’The past is history, the future one may never see and today is a gift which is why it’s called, the present’
KungFu Panda
VTPP #534

Actually played with a former member! He basically said all you can xo is get really good with chipping! Really good. Apparently the greens hold better in winter so it’s not so bad, but with the dry weather we’ve been having the grass on the greens, which was quite a lot and thus the slow putting – wasn’t enough for spin to slow the balls up. Bounces were too hard!

It’s actually all good from my perspective. I want to play there a bit more to hone my short game. Well, my chipping anyway. But it could have been a lot worse – would have been in the past. I am in the process of making changes to my putting to improve consistency and I got caught up in technique on the front nine. Back nine was much better – all 3 up and downs there. Shame about the 3×3 putts but there was misreads in there more than poor strikes. And speed issues. So the stroke was better on the back nine.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Not a counter today by any stretch! Hopefully will play well next week at Mt Warren Park – a track I know fairly well, and Redcliffe the week after.

Correction – 1 GIR, 3 was the U&D stat!