Swing fixes required

Glorious sunny day today, blue skies, not a cloud in sight...fecking freezing! However, despite the winter chill I enjoyed two rounds on the nine hole par three course today. The aim this month is to play on any form of course (as much as possible) in preparation for joining my first golf club in April.

I'm hoping to have a much needed lesson next weekend, but in the interim I'm using my playing time to identify where my problems lie.

Putting
I've eased off my putting practice recently and there were warning signs today that I need to rectify this. Missed a couple today because of 'twitchyness'. Need to keep stroking those short putts at home, as that translates into more confidence on the course. All the same a return of 16 then 14 putts is pretty solid.

Chipping
From the fringes my ball striking and confidence has improved significantly. However, I am still liable to duff a chip when I have a bit more ground to cover to the green. I need to practice more so I have confidence in my stroke and can avoid the duff, duff, blade issues which plagued my first round today.

Swing
There are fundamental issues at the top of my backswing. It was dramatically misfiring today and was the main cause of the extremely poor score first time round. I carded a 48. Five solid holes, four absolute disasters, three shots out of bounds and two of those on one hole.

Second time round I took the top of the backswing out of play. I clubbed up used a half swing and proceeded to knock 11 shots off my previous score (37). It still wasn't perfect but this was mainly due to overhitting the majority of greens and taking a chip and two putts for bogey.

I am definitely getting better as a player, and with a return to my dedicated practice, a much needed 1-2-1 with my coach and some more time on the full swing, I think I'll be ready for the new season.

Comments:

Homer
It seems you’re getting there in fits and starts. My advice would be to try and negotiate some form of block booking deal with the pro. Get a look at the long swing where there are obvious issues and then perhaps a chipping refresher. Its easy when you spend ages working on one facet as you’ve done with your short game to get lazy in terms of technique (address, ball position, set up) and so little errors creep in.

Putting is one element that you’ll need to work on over and over. Its not surprise top players spend hours on the putting green. Again a lesson would be my way to go. I had one before the start of last season and it was a revelation. My alignement and address were way out as was the grip. I putted so much better after that and had real confidence especially on the tricky 3 footers. I know money is a potential issue so might be worth shopping around and seeing what deals you can get.

Glad you liked the plug on my blog. It was one of those things that I’ve been thinking about. You and Mark are attacking it from opposite ends and I’m stuck in the middle and can see both sides. I hope others will join in and give you their insights too.

Tiger
Best deal I can get is buy 5 get 6th lesson free, and I currently have 3 left of my current block. They’ll all be used for full swing at one every 3/4 weeks, first one is Saturday. I’m not too worried about the putting, it’s just I’ve not had any solid practice since the 16th Feb – I’ll be back on the mat tonight! In terms of approaches, it’s been fascinating, and I have plenty of food for thought if my current approach doesn’t work. Looking forward to reading out about how your golf psychology sessions go.

Spinn77
Homer’s advice sounds good to me, one other thing that will help is to play with better players when you can, you’ll see how they select and play their shots, especially in and around the greens. Even if you make mental notes without picking their brain it’ll help.

Keep working at it.

Tiger
Thanks Spin, I think that’s one of the things that I’m really keen to do. My brother’s used to play off lower handicaps but are both rebuilding their game at the moment, but I have a couple of friends who play off 18 and know someone who plays off 7 who is happy to support my development. I’m hoping that if I can make future GM meets that one of the lower handicappers wouldn’t mind being paired off with me so I can learn from playing with them as well.

It’s also a great incentive when you watch them strike the ball more consistently and see their touch around the greens. Just makes me want to get better so I can compete on an even footing.