Murder on the golf course: Swing Feb 2010

I'm so glad I didn't try to correct my swing on the course yesterday as looking at it again the main thing I've noticed is an old bad habit and trying to fix it would have done more harm than good. What is quite funny is that when I first started lessons my pro said that people he taught regularly rarely developed new problems and more often than not slipped back into old bad habits. Looks like I'm a case in point.

What is interesting is that with this flawed swing when I connect it goes miles (well probably 1/10th of a mile). Unfortunately, I just can't connect consistently. The video below was taken on arguably my best iron strike of the day. It went arrow straight and according to Freecaddie travelled 182 yards.




Now you may have more observations regarding set up and follow through and I'm interested to hear them. The problem I've noticed is on back swing.

I have a tendency to bend my left arm and overhinge my wrists. This means that the clubhead almost appears over my left shoulder. It's then really difficult to control on the down swing because of the resulting steep angle of attack and rather than sweeping the ball off the surface, I either hit fat, the top of the ball or catch it right. The inconsistency has to go and that left arm has got to remain straight. The poor soggy fairway never stood a chance as I beat it black and blue with some horrendously deep divots.

I've got a video lesson next with my teaching pro which I'm hoping will be this weekend. I'm sure he'll have a few more observations to make. I'll let you know what he says.

Comments:

Homer
The main problems I can see are that you are swinging way past the parallel, there seems to be a lack of weight transfer onto the right side on the way back and that the left heel is coming off the floor.

That said you seem to get back into the back of the ball pretty well and follow through nicely. It has a lot of plus points and is certainly a firm base on which to build. Not too many moving parts which is good to see. All in all not too bad at all

Tiger
Hey Homer, thanks for your thoughts. If I can keep my left arm straight that’ll resolve the parallel issue. Weight transfer is a great spot as well. In terms of left heel I’ve read mixed things about that with some coaches not fussed about it. Anyway all things for me to discuss with my coach on Saturday. Cheers. T

Oggie
Really enjoying the blog Tiger, keep up the good work.

I’ve got to say I’m very impressed with the swing (especially considering how long you’ve been playing). As you’ve said there are a few things to work on, but it looks like you’re doing the basics well. It puts my early swings to shame anyway!

I got my first handicap last year and managed to get down to 18, so with the time and practice you’ve been putting in you should have no problem getting to that.

My only advice for you would be to drop the Pelz clock system (at least for the time being) – I felt that my short game suffered when I tried to get too technical and force myself into certain positions. I’ve recently started relaxing, concentrating on the target and hitting the thing and it seems to be working much better for me. It might work well for the pros that can spend 4 hours a day hitting pitch shots, but I don’t think it translates well to the amateur game.
(I actually really liked his book though, and thought there was loads of good advice in there.)

Anyway, good luck with the challenge.

Tiger
Hi Oggie,

Thanks for the positive comments. I am really pleased with how the swing is developing, I think having lessons from the word go with a good teaching pro has really helped.

As for the Pelz click system it raised more than a few eyebrows when I started talking about using it. However, so far the simplified version and introduction I’ve taken to it have had positive effects. This has mainly been a combination of the Freecaddie on course and using half (9.00) swing.

I don’t like the three quarter swing (10.30) as I lose control on the backswing, and can’t achieve a consistent quarter swing (7.30) on the course. But I’m just building it slowly into my game, which has mainly been because of the words of caution from people on the blog. Please keep your thoughts and opinions coming.