Nice Deege. Glad you are getting a feel for the new putter.
Have you kept it at the standard length, or changed it?

I absolutely love the Old Course.
If I had the money, I would be there in a heartbeat
You know why?

Because if I was having a shithouse round, I would just sit for a second and look at the views.

Simply a stunning course, even when the ocean is not in sight

I think I will change the length of the putter though it is standard at the moment. The lie is just right though and I am much preferring the metal face. The white hot face seemed to just deaden the ball off the face and I couldn’t get the feel of getting it to the hole.

The old is a fantastic course – and only playing it in Ambrose means that I have never really felt the worst of the course. Before my round, I went to cheer off my club’s division one pennant team who were playing on the ocean course in the morning and took a brief moment to think to myself that that could potentially be a very wretched way to experience the course – the most wind exposed course in the howling wind while playing division one pennant

Had a good day in comp today after a fair few weeks just missing out on a new flagged round. As always happens when you are playing well, I left a couple of shots out there. Annoyingly I had two three putts and they were on two of the occasions when I reached green in regulation.

The bunker work continues to improve with practice (who could have seen that coming?). And my long game, which I am paying no attention to at all, is improving as well.

Tomorrow I have my first lesson since returning to the game with a plan to try and book in for lessons every 6 to 8 weeks to keep an eye on the game and try to work on some improvement. Will be interested to see what he suggests for improvement.

Nice work Deege.

Question.
How does your course play to a PAr 75?

3 shots is huge!

It’s a par 72, but the course rating for the women gives us some extra shots, mainly due to the the length of some of the longer holes. It actually shifts around a bit cause they play our 36 holes in 4 different regular configurations. So I can never remember what the ACR is for the course we play on, but we have to score about 32-33 to play to handicap.

So I went for a lesson with my pro today. What a cracker those pros are. I know that it shouldn’t surprise me that he gave me some tips that immediately and measurably improved my ball flight, but I was still really impressed.

We had a chat about what I wanted to get out of my lessons and how I was feeling about my game. He asked me what part of my game was having the most negative effect on my scoring and I nominated my approach shots (my ability to go from the centre of the fairway in prime position to a wipe is a thing to behold).

He used some videos of my swing and setup to explain what he wanted me to work on, and in the end it was just two things to work on with my swing and go away and practice it. As you would expect it feels a bit weird while I am trying to groove the new swing, but it had an immediate effect on my ball flight – giving me a much higher ball flight even for my longer irons. The theory goes that this should increase my distance with my irons and give me more consistent distances.

I used the opportunity to do about 40 minutes work on the putting green, working on distance control in particular.

By the time I arrived home, I already had an email with my before and after photos of my set up and positioning to help with working on it. All in all, was extremely impressed with the session and will look forward to implementing the suggested fix and will be continuing with the lessons this year to work on my game.

Good to hear Deege.
Never had a lesson yet.It would be scary, the before and after shots?

Actually it was really helpful. He didn’t give me all the videos etc which was good cause I think I would obsess a bit. But I am working on adjusting my spine angle at address so the photos are really helpful to show me what I should be looking for.

Sounds like a good pro

Well today was inconsistent to say the least. Such an adjustment with my stroke that it could have gone anywhere at any given time (and often did). Have scheduled some extra practice to try and groove my new stroke a little.

However, I was thrilled to be able to scramble all over the course to score 28 with only one wipe. It actually replaced one of my lowest played tos to become a flag round.

That scrambling included my best putting performance to date. I had 26 putts with one wipe. I had done one extra practice session working on my length and I don’t know whether that made a difference, but I was holing putts all day in that ‘bonus’ range of 6 feet plus.

Trying to fit in at least a couple of extra range sessions this week to try and groove the new setup

Well done Deege…I can relate to the impact that a new coach or swing can make to your game initially….it often isn’t a good thing.

I know that it got me an orange vest last year…about 3 weeks after I’d seen Garth, I made the mistake of trying to take swing changes out onto the course. 23 points, NAGA at Patto River. Too many swing thoughts, not enough instinctive play because it really wasn’t natural to me at that point.

10 months down the track, and with a fair bit of work put into it, I reckon I am now striking the ball better than I ever have, and whilst my handicap has only moved down by a couple (from 25 to 23), that is mainly a product of playing very little in the way of comp rounds in the last 3 months – both back-related and the fact that I play a truckload of social golf. I think I’ve been playing to about 19, so a six shot improvement in that time.

Stick with it – if you believe that what you are now doing is likely to lead to your improvement – because ultimately it will.

deege
well played mate,
good golfers scramble well and dont get phased or panic by shit that happens
re your spine angle.
just stick your bum out girl friend and try and hold that posture while swinging it easy.
can vouch for the golden crumpet, play a lot in his his food group and he even pulled his big dog out on good fri at sandhurst
he is traveling well
kiwi

Sticking the bum out fine, kiwi – making room for my big arse has never been the problem. It is the sideways tilt that is the problem. A prime example of spending a year grooving a stroke with an entirely wrong setup because I was too slack to go to a pro and get my basics checked. So I have to set myself back and groove a new stroke. When I get it right it is way cool.

In light of my renewed efforts to get to single figures, I have negotiated for an extra practice time every week. I spend half the time working on my homework from my coach and half the time doing putting drills.

Deege,

where is the major problem part of you game?
Of the tee, around the green, on the green, 100 out?

Find out exactly were you leak your shots.
Get a fix for that part of your game.
Dont try to fix everything at once

Nope, not trying to fix everything at once. The swing advice from my pro is aiming to fix something in my basic setup, which should help fix my staggering ability to spectacularly wipe a hole from the middle of the fairway. The putting I am just working on because I find it terribly fun to hole long putts.

GOTCHA…...went to 22.2 after today.

nyah nyah nyah-nyah nyah ;-)

Now….lets not get childish about this.

It’s on, baby!

So played medal on Saturday. Still working on my swing. I was more consistent than last week so spent less time in the trees, but the ball striking is still a work in progress. When I get it good though I am really liking the new striking and the ball flight. In my practice sessions I am finding that (notwithstanding the current inconsistency) it actually makes all of my shots much easier – and it might just be an answer to my former bewildering inconsistency with my fairway woods.

Thankfully, the new stroke comes easiest off the tee so the driving is the first thing to click into place. So it was up to that and my short game to try and scramble a halfway decent score – always dangerous.

I actually putted pretty well. I am becoming convinced that the most important path to improvement is improving my feel in my length, so I have developed a drill aimed at trying to get myself consistently putting the ball just past the hole (if not in). I think it is making a difference so far leading to more one putts.

I thought my chipping and pitching was reasonable without being spectacular, but the low marker in our group complimented me on it after the round, so I was pleased with that. My bunker work continues to improve, which is nice seeing as I am finding myself in so many of them at the moment.

The crowning glory of the round was my 18th hole. It is a tricky par 4 with heavy bunkering both in the fairway and greenside. I adhered to my rule of “always try to smack the tee shot on the 18th” which saw me hit one of my few wayward tee shots of the round. I was through the trees on the left into the driving range area. So I dodged the practice balls landing around me and punched out perfectly – advancing my ball a little way without being silly and leaving myself on the good side of the fairway for a straightforward shot into the green.

My 7 iron into the green was one of the inconsistent ones and left me in the greenside bunker with 30 metres to the back pin position. I tried to put some extra oomph into the bunker shot to run it all the way back to the flag, end up taking no sand at all and see the ball flying through the green forcing me to yell “FORE” for the benefit of those on the practice putting green (which, of course, was packed).

The ball winds up lying just off the practice putting green leaving me a very lengthy pitch into the green. Normally at that distance I would be hitting a full wedge shot, but I was way too self-conscious so decide to bump it down into the landing area behind the green hoping it would run on. By this stage I have a full gallery, with people marshalling people off the putting green so that I have a clear shot. So between that and worrying about putting a stinking great hole into the turf in the practice area I of course forget to concentrate on my actual shot, and completely chunk it, while putting a stinking great hole into the turf in the practice area.

My gallery refrains from applauding and watch me hit the next chip decently so it lands in the fringe of the green about hole high. I run it on and hole the putt for a crowd-pleasing 8 (one putt, though!)

My playing group holds back their giggles and while one of my playing partners is putting out, I try to reconstruct what score I have actually hit on the hole, by the time-honoured method of pointing at each place on the hole that you hit and counting the shots. As I turn around to count my shots from the practice area, I see three members of my “gallery” from that terrible display clearly having colluded to wait for just this moment, as they are standing neatly in a row where I hit my chunked chip from and as I look up towards them, they cheerily smile and wave at me.

Which was basically the end of it for me – I collapsed in gales of laughter in a horrible breach of etiquette while my playing partner is still putting (I bought her a drink later to make up for it). But despite my horrible etiquette, I was gone and in fits of giggles for the whole process of marking cards, collecting on our side-bets (least putts on the back nine kaching!) and finishing up.

Some more practice work this afternoon and here’s hoping next week with Maggie and Robnewy my striking will have improved another notch.

I love stuffing up in front of a gallery.
Always fun

There have been some classics….your tee shot on the first at Beacy, Frank’s tee shot on the first at HV, Stink’s tee shot on the first on Bowdo’s day, my tee shot on the first at Heritage….ahhhhh….the memories.

The all time classic…SS’s shank on the 19th at Eagle Ridge….never gets old.

http://www.willowgolf.com.a...

Never fun playing to a gallery when you feel like your failing :/
Good to hear you saw the funny side.

Nice work Deege …...... including the effort on the last. (Good to put on a show for the gallery)

Spine tilt is something we all need to work on at times, in order to adjust our shot trajectory, as well as when playing from varying slopes …. so it’s good that your coach has got you working on it.

It’s not surprising that your driver is the first club to benefit from your work on it … as a more solid and upward strike with that club can be the effect of simply changing your spine angle.

Just be mindful not to go to far with it though … and to stick to what your coach suggests in terms of it’s degree.

Some very good work going on in your game though so well done..

PS I thought you had a great looking swing before ….... can’t wait to see the even more improved one.

http://www.willowgolf.com.a…

Never fun playing to a gallery when you feel like your failing :/
Good to hear you saw the funny side.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

VTTP #534
The “unofficial” millionth POST poster

Nice link Jumma.

Dave Willow is one of the resident pro’s up at my home course at Beacy, and is pretty bloody cluey about the game. Some good info in that link for anyone to consider (not just the plus 90 shooter’s)

And speaking of Willow, the lucky bugger is off to watch the Masters live this week, and to play a bucket full of “bucket list” courses over there, eg Pebble Beach, etc, etc.

There have been some classics…. Frank’s tee shot on the first at HV, ...

That was a practice round Goldy…....so you know that it NEVER happened. ;-)