I think you are spot on about if you let your body create speed it does a great job but if you try too hard it goes to shit. Especially given you are doing PSTs.

That’s the point of the CKs – to stop you trying too hard and let your body do what you’ve been training it to do.

I need some advice from you Guru and Darty if you’re about. I’m struggling with my bag set up after my 19 Hybrid. It’s a Taylor Made TP19 and quite heavy with a stiff shaft, I hit it mostly very well round 200 and feel confident. I’m wondering about where to go after that. I have an old Callaway Warbird 3W I hit well but not much further really (and only off a tee) and then a 10.5 G5 with a reg shaft that tends to feel too light and wippy, I can’t feel it like I can the Hybrid. It feels like I have to use a different swing with that altogether.

Anyhow, my question is that if I hit the Hybrid well should I look for something similar in shaft and weight? Maybe even just a 15 Driver or 3W? I’m going to leave them out for now but wondering how to approach that short of getting a fitting, bit tight on funds right now.

Cheers, stinky.

Well I had a very interesting hit today without any driver or 3W. Played 18 at Yarra Bend in between the rain! Didn’t get a great score due to very average putting on confusingly fast greens that didn’t break and that were very wet??

BUT, there wasn’t one hole that a driver would have helped me today. I was hitting lots of fairways with my 3i, getting it out around 190. Shot 7 over on the front (with 2 OOB, silly club choice) and a horrid 14 over on the back, had 5×3 putts to my horror, ouch, loss of confidence there to be sure, and some chips where the ball had no realisation that it should stop rolling before going over the green, stupid bloody balls!!!

Anyhow, my ball striking was really pretty good. My PST has my swing pumping but I feel like there are 2 main factors for me to get, one is not over accelerating the other is eyes on the ball at impact (this is more conceptually and not about keeping the head still). When I get that all is sweet. That’s actually the thing I’m going to work on with the CK’s I reckon, I’m liking using them as it does help me quieten my over chatty mind, but I sometimes mess the whole pre shot order up but I’m getting much better at it.

I will need to sort out a plus 200 club soon, but off 18 I don’t expect to be reaching all the holes so I will play within that limit for a while. I see no reason to not be able to play to 10 on most courses with my set up for now. Must say my 3i was only just short of the best drives of my partners so really there’s many more places that need focus to improve my scoring.

BTW, it was hard to leave the 3W at home, but I’m glad I did, learned heaps. One day soon I’ll be hitting balls that well then be able to putt to, hopefully in a comp!!

Is your 3w too long for a 200m club? That’s pretty close to my distance with my 15 degree – 200-210m.

No for 200 I hit my TP19, great club off the turf too. Can hit it bit further if there is good run. The 3W just isn’t much longer and is less consistent, would rather have an extra 10 or 20 to go to green and be in the middle which my 3i does very well. If I hit 2×3i I’ve got 360 t0 380 covered, on long par 4’s I just want to lay up anyhow.

What a great practice session I had this morning, so much fun too. Got to my local and the Vets were teeing off so I hit the practice fairway/green for some chipping. Spent about 40 mins with PW and SW back and forth and a while in the sand too. Just tried out loads of different shots, ball forward, back, super high lobs etc, great fun.

When I teed off there was no one around so I played heaps of balls on each hole to various spots of green or fairway. When going up the fairway I dropped balls and hit from various distances to see where things were at. Also putted all of the balls with the aim of getting them all in 2.

Anyhow, only played 7 holes as the 7th is closest for the walk home. Still no one behind I had the time to hit 10 balls from this tee. I hit 3×5i’s then 3×4i’s and 4×3i’s ( it was a 294mtr par 4 playing about 270). Only missed the fairway with 3 balls and they were on the edge. One short 5i left me a 7i in which I hit center of green. The rest were less than full PW. I managed to put all but 2 of those onto the green, some pretty close, the 2 misses were close but just a bit short. So I ended up with 1 birdie, 1 bogey and 8 pars with those 10 balls, lots of fun.

Really learned heaps playing this way, just sort of noticing where I go wrong and where I need work. I certainly improved my pre shot today which will give me more confidence.

The emphasis for me again though is eyes on the ball, and this works best with a certain aggression with my focus. When I look up too early everything goes out of whack, if I keep looking at the ball things work. Now it’s weird because I don’t see the ball get hit, it’s moving way too fast, but it’s the staying committed to the strike that I get when I ‘look’ at the ball leaving the club. Hard to explain and is far more feel than real I’m sure.

Big game at Kew tomorrow, should be fun.

Well I succumbed to pressure (just my own) and took my hybrid in and got it measured, now I have a 10.5 Tour Burner with the same shaft and swing weight specs, felt and looked good on the monitor, it’ll be there tomorrow helping me make my way around Kew.

Have fun scotty

Excellent day indeed, didn’t shoot the lights out, got 88 off stick for 39 points. Was a 4 ball so with my partner we got 46 points and won the comp! Love the new driver, tending to fade it a bit but when I get it right, ball height and placement etc, get a solid 230/240, good for the first day.

Highlight was the 403mtr par 4, good drive to right fairway, had an uphill lie 165 out, took 4i and got it on with 4mtr putt, got me par on the 2nd hardest hole. Then the hardest par 4, 413mtr (playing 390ish I think) , hit a stellar drive down the guts, had 135 home, 8i to front of green into wind then 2 putt for par. Very happy with those holes indeed.

Ball striking in general very good. 36 putts wasn’t the best, had 6 birdie putts and missed them all, none of them easy but still could have dropped a few there. 11 of 14 fairways, all misses right and not too bad.

Only scratch was a silly par 3 that had a temp tee playing 64mtrs. I was annoyed coming up to the hole so distracted, I really like this hole from the back. Duffed my LW (the temp tee was crap, lame excuse) then put it over the back. Great chip clipped the NTP marker and went in bunker, doh. Got out well and 2 putted. Learned my lesson, should have used PW and just run it up there for bogey and 2 points.

All in all a positive day, my game is coming together and I have a voucher for the pro shop, sweet.

Golf is such a funny game. 11/14 fairways and still hit 88, last week played my first official game and carded a 90, 1 of 14 fairways, and 5 three putts. I don’t want to seem stupid, but how do you you still get 88 if you are striking it well, and have short approach shots from the fairway on most holes? I mean I assume the pros with such tee success are shooting in the 60’s, so where does it fall apart for you?

Good question, to start with I only hit 6 greens, mostly just pushing the ball, shots add up quick I guess. 36 putts, one 3 putt, 1 single. Bunker play and short game good. 7 pars, 7 bogeys, 3 doubles and a triple.

Golf is tough. you can have 4 total crap shots and 1 great one for a bogey or 2 great ones and a chip and 2 putt. I reckon I only played 2 bad shots from the fairway and one bad par 3 tee shot. The others were just not quite on but well struck and found a bunker or the fringe.

All my pars I was putting for birdie, all my bogeys I was putting for par. Fine tuning could see me shoot a much lower score, it’s just a tough game I guess.

I’ve played much much worse, hardly even 1 good shot in a round, for only 2 or 3 shots more.

FML, looking forward to a lot more scores in the 90’s before I get it anywhere near the 80’s then…

Nothing that surprises me that much I guess.

Every one has their own journey in this game mate, you may well drop a lot quicker, hope you do. I’m sitting on a plateau that I hope to soon be cascading off! Patience and hard work, all good fun.

Ok, finally dropped a stroke, 16.9 now, just gotta keep it heading in the right direction now.

Just remembered a great compliment yesterday too, the guys I played with commented that I hit the ball like a 10 marker, my aim is to live up to that appraisal.

Mm, played par today, ended up – 1, had + 2 on the front then fell apart with a – 3 on the back.

It was a very interesting day for me today in that my ball striking has been pretty good so I was looking forward to the game. I wont bore you with details but I thought I played just ok for the +2, left a few putts out there and was in 3 bunkers, all out well. Was happy to square the 2 holes that usually nail me.

The back was different. Just started pushing the ball into trouble or OOB. I’m convinced the issue is that I look up too soon when I get a little nervous about the shot, this tilts my shoulders and opens the face. It’s actually a shot I can use to my advantage at times but when not wanted does me no good at all. The other bad spot was putting, just not on. I’m finding that now I am hitting more greens I have more very long putts as apposed to a chip close and putt. This is obviously a weak point I need to work on, putting around 20+ft. Too many of my first putts aren’t close enough. Inside 4/5 ft I’m ok as I’ve been working on that.

I’m happy though that I played pretty bad golf but was only 1 over my HC. 6 months ago bad golf was shooting 100.

After playing at Kew last week I wish I was a member at a private course too, the fairways and greens at N’cote are in terrible condition. I had maybe 1 good lie on a fairway all day even with a hand span placement on some, just shit indeed.

stink
if you call the pro shop at Bundoora,
you can play in their (yarra view) sat ball comp as a guest.
Only prob is you will be in the last group.
you have to be there to pay at 8:30 too.
T off about 9:30 and food & drink after.
Some good guys there and a better conds.
if you are interested can send you more details.
Regards
Kiwi

I will take you up on that suggestion in the near future, thanks Kiwi.

Looked at my putting today, hit many long putts and tried to notice my actions. I think I had a bit of a realisation that I have been tending to hit up on the ball rather than down in my putting stroke. When I started focusing on hitting down on the ball the distance control seemed much better on long putts, the sound was noticeably different too, much deeper and more solid. I also hit heaps of one handed putts, started to feel the lag in my right hand so much more and noticed how lightly I can hold the club. Very enlightening session indeed.

Great point about still shooting near your handicap even though your swing was off. That’s one of the keys to becoming a better golfer and a lower marker, finding a way to post a decent number through smart play and a sharp short game. Sounds like it’s coming along nicely mate.

Don’t usually go to the range and just hit balls but went today and got the 300 balls for $20 deal to try some things out. Main thing I wanted to look at was my horizontal hinge, been having trouble drawing the ball lately. Just started slowly with the PW at the 50 mtr mark, then up to 100. Worked my way up through to the longer irons trying to maintain a similar feel through the clubs. I didn’t really want to change anything but rather notice or be aware of what I was doing. As i got to the longer irons I started to fall apart, no surprise. What I did notice though was the over riding want to hit my 4i so much harder.

So, in attempt to sort this out I’d hit a few with a PW then onto a longer club with the same swing. Worked very well for the first few then had to go back to PW to remind myself of the easy swing.

When I got to the driver I was reminded of whet Guru said elsewhere about driving to the 150 with a full swing. I found that I slowed my swing right down and it felt great. I started having much more control over the ball indeed, it actually surprised me how slow I could swing and still put the ball right out there. This was a big lesson for me today in the rhythm of my swing. This also worked well with what my PST is working on in that I didn’t try to create speed but simply relaxed and swung allowing my body to do what it needed.

It’s kinda strange but it feels like I had to really let go of all trying to hit the ball at all, sort of the CK thing too, oblivious to effort or force, just a relaxed swing like it wasn’t even me doing it. Takes a lot of trust and at the same time focus. Lots for me to think about and work on.

Well done stinkler. You can see the almost holistic approach of mental, physical, geometry and power, all lead to that flowing rhythm ‘zone’. No downswing black out in there at all.

Once the mind realises that ‘feeling’ it is what you always attempt to achieve in anything that you practice and play with.

Dr Mumford calls it “giving away control to gain it.”

Starting to get there Guru. For me it really is a weird thing. Just because I’m not consciously controlling it all doesn’t mean I’m not doing it, just that I’m trusting myself to complete the task as it needs to be done. I can still take the credit for a good shot even though it feels like it wasn’t me, I was just letting the other ‘bit’ of me take care of it. It’s funny how the ego wants the glory, the conscious ego is a control freak but the sub-conscious ego very at piece it would seem? It’s like my mind goes “if I don’t know what I did right by controlling it, how can I take the credit”

My steering issue seems resolved when I don’t try to hit it ‘there’ or anywhere really, just swing as I swing.

Enjoying following your journey of discovery Stinkler. I find the feeling of euphoria one gets from a new discovery helps to keep me sane.

Focusing to hit at 60% to 70% of normal length seems to be the hardest thing to get a person to do. I must admit that I had a lot of trouble doing it in the beginning. But I have found it to be the only way to work out your swing faults. For some reason, we are all driven to practice on the edge. You can see it happening all the time on the driving range. Much better to think of it as a practice fairway.

Nice going Stink.

The joys of power control!

Ye Dart, the joys of power control indeed, just need to get that into my short game too : )

Comp today, ball contact was great, direction not so. I’m finding that I am over compensating with many of my shots. I’ll get the shape I want but will over do it. Really made some great contact with the ball though and just need to make smaller adjustments for a fade or draw.

My main focus the other day at the range was not just that power control but getting a draw back in my game when needed. It’s worked, but I’m not in real control of it.

1st Par 4, slight draw (needed fade)
long 5i chip low under branches
chip on, 2 putt for 5/2
2nd Long Par 4, Drive solid but draw and expecting fade, hit tree and dropped.
long Hy to front
chip over (crap control)
lob on
2 putt 6/1
3rd Par 3, 5i pin high but draw again.
chip on 2 putt 4/2
4th par 4 Sick of the draw over compensated, aimed right and open face a bit pushed 3i but good contact.
Chip out
Fantastic 8i hit power wire, replay
good 8i too open, trees, got messy, scratch, but the only one as it turns out. 0
5th Par 4 great 3i this time with draw that I meant.
good 8i that just caught bunker
well out of shitty wet trap
bloody 3 putt that should have been 1, 6/1
6th Par 3 PW to 8 foot
2 putt, 3/3

By this time I’m getting a bit sick of my putting, at least I was in a good mood and keeping a smile and looking forward. I felt I was striking it well at least.

7th par 4, v good 4i up guts
Low weak Hy into creek, it got me doh, I definitely had the creek in my head and tried too hard, it wasn’t my fault, oh yeah, that’s right it was, loss of control big time!!!!!
drop and re focus, good PW
2 putts 6/1
8th par 5 pushed drive but good solid contact, just not feeling my alignments.
Hy into tree and back behind, had a little giggle, in a good mood.
Hy punch down middle
4i to fringe
chip 2 putt 7/1

This is where being in a good mood helped. I was a bit confused as the ball was this way and that and my putting was way off. I just thought to myself it’s not important, just keep playing the next shot and focus on it. Maybe I just warmed up a bit but things took a turn.

The 9th saw me hit a great drive, I could feel it all come together, a nice relaxed swing, CK in head, pre shot good. The shock of it knocked me as I set up for a 50mtr lob onto the green and I had an almighty shank into the trees. I found this very funny indeed, must have looked odd hitting it like that and laughing, but it didn’t phase me. Grabbed to lobby again and went over them there trees to 2 foot and tapped it in for par! I had found my groove.

After only 14 points on the front, I went on to hit 21 points (5 over) on the back. Ball striking had found it’s alignment and I was very happy. I had 4 very makeable birdie putts but it wasn’t my putting day, more work to be done there.

I felt like today I won a battle against myself in that I didn’t give in to frustration. I wont win the comp with 35 points but I feel like a winner in a way.

Stink,

You won the only important battle. It is my only reason for playing this silly game.

Unless you can take a good shot and piece of crap in the same spirit, the learning rate is too slow to be of any interest.

Like Ben Doyle says,”play as if watching yourself from the Channel Nine Traffic Helicopter”. Be detached enough to be non reactive and you see things a little clearer.

It took one of my lady pupils five years to get good at that, nowhere near perfect but good enough to enjoy life.