Long Way to Go

Although today’s instruction went reasonably well, I still have a long way to go on mastering the fundamentals of the golf swing.

Video analysis has shown a significant improvement in my posture, downswing and follow-through and my ball striking has come a long way since first making my swing changes. My posture is still not coming as naturally as I would like, I need to build my grip and posture into my pre-shot routine so I can forget about them and swing the club.

With the recent improvements in my swing my coach now has me working on my take-away and back-swing. I am still dragging the club way inside and making a slight over the top action to get the club back on plane. The ‘new’ take-away feels radically different than what I am used but it is definitely putting me in better positions on the way back. If I can groove this over the next few weeks I might be able to take it to the course with decent results.

Prior to my lesson I made the mistake of hitting the new g10 irons and woods at the Ping demo booth. All I can say is WOW…I hit them very well and they felt great. I’m playing with 10 year old Titliest DCI’s and I am extremely anxious to get new gear. I will be purchasing new equipment within the next 6 weeks and will hit several clubs in that time period but man those Ping’s felt good. I will be getting custom fit as well so we will see how much (or how little) this impacts my game.

I’ll keep you posted on my club testing and the fitting process over the next few weeks.

The Path to Improvement

It has taken me a while but I am now much more comfortable with the changes in my golf swing.

To date we have worked on four major areas:

1. Grip

2. Posture

3. Path

4. Follow-through

Swing path has been the most difficult to correct as I had been playing with an over the top move for quite sometime. I have pretty much grooved an inside out approach to the ball over the last couple of weeks and I am now starting to draw (or hook) the ball with reasonable consistency.

My ball striking has improved significantly since first making the changes to my swing. It is probably on par (pun intended) with how I was hitting the ball before the swing changes. The good news is that this may be evidence that I am indeed on the path to improvement. Hitting balls on the range has actually been somewhat enjoyable my last couple of times out. 

I suspect my first round of golf may be played before the month is up and I am eager to see  how my winter program will translate to the course. I suspect my early scores will be off the charts but hope to have my game ‘in shape’ much earlier than usual. The goal of a reasonably low (5 or less) single digit handicap for the season remains unchanged.

 I know…GOOD LUCK!