justincredible;763635 wrote:If anyone near Cincinnati wants to golf let me know. Terry_Tate and I hit the links a few times last summer but he always kicked my ass.

All I remember was the course kicked my ass.

This week isn't good for me, but starting next week I'm up for playing. We still need to hit up Blue Ash.

I come from the Seve Ballesteros school of thought that I only care where my hands are at impact. The easiest way to make sure your club is squared at impact is to let your hinge occur naturally, and the only way to do that is to start your backswing with a shoulder turn and not your hands/arms. a straight, but not tight, left arm and a complete shoulder turn will get your hands hinged in a natural position on its own. Likewise, you don't swing your hands at the ball, you turn back into it and let your hands lag behind. This will insure that your hands get back to a squared position and your hips have cleared before contact, resulting in the ball first, turf second impact the Karen Lotz is talking about. Focus on the swing and not hitting the ball. Its a golf swing not a golf hit. A pure hit is a result of a good swing. Never throw your hands at the ball. It's a lot easier to control a shoulder turn than a wrist turn. Leave your hands out of it.


Once you get the feeling of where your hands are squared at impact (you're hitting the ball straight), you can experiment with the draw and fade. Some are the school of thought that they want to square the club to the target amd adjust their stance to the left or right for the fade or draw but Im a feel player and I like to feel my hands at a certain position at impact. So I don't manipulate the club at address but manipulate my wrists at impact forcing an open or shut face. The bad part about this is it takes a lot of time and practice to feel your hands at the right position. The good part is its a lot easier to fix a problem mid round b/c you have a sensation of feeling where you're supposed to be at impact already versus a player that manipulates the clubhead at address.
Seve was a feel player. Fred Couples also and morerecently Bubby Watson. Of course Nicklaus was a club head manipulator and its hard to argue against his success. Faldo was very mechanical rather than feel, and when he was off he looked like a 18 handicap.

ZWICK 4 PREZ;763858 wrote:I come from the Seve Ballesteros school of thought that I only care where my hands are at impact. The easiest way to make sure your club is squared at impact is to let your hinge occur naturally, and the only way to do that is to start your backswing with a shoulder turn and not your hands/arms. a straight, but not tight, left arm and a complete shoulder turn will get your hands hinged in a natural position on its own. Likewise, you don't swing your hands at the ball, you turn back into it and let your hands lag behind. This will insure that your hands get back to a squared position and your hips have cleared before contact, resulting in the ball first, turf second impact the Karen Lotz is talking about. Focus on the swing and not hitting the ball. Its a golf swing not a golf hit. A pure hit is a result of a good swing. Never throw your hands at the ball. It's a lot easier to control a shoulder turn than a wrist turn. Leave your hands out of it.


Once you get the feeling of where your hands are squared at impact (you're hitting the ball straight), you can experiment with the draw and fade. Some are the school of thought that they want to square the club to the target amd adjust their stance to the left or right for the fade or draw but Im a feel player and I like to feel my hands at a certain position at impact. So I don't manipulate the club at address but manipulate my wrists at impact forcing an open or shut face. The bad part about this is it takes a lot of time and practice to feel your hands at the right position. The good part is its a lot easier to fix a problem mid round b/c you have a sensation of feeling where you're supposed to be at impact already versus a player that manipulates the clubhead at address.
Seve was a feel player. Fred Couples also and morerecently Bubby Watson. Of course Nicklaus was a club head manipulator and its hard to argue against his success. Faldo was very mechanical rather than feel, and when he was off he looked like a 18 handicap.

I really need to work on swinging w/ a shoulder turn instead of swinging w/ my arms/hands. I also tend to sway back a bit on my swing, causing me to chunk it much too often. It makes sense though if you swing w/ your shoulders, and let your hands lag, it pretty much forces your hips to be clear at impact.

ZWICK 4 PREZ;763858 wrote:I come from the Seve Ballesteros school of thought that I only care where my hands are at impact. The easiest way to make sure your club is squared at impact is to let your hinge occur naturally, and the only way to do that is to start your backswing with a shoulder turn and not your hands/arms. a straight, but not tight, left arm and a complete shoulder turn will get your hands hinged in a natural position on its own. Likewise, you don't swing your hands at the ball, you turn back into it and let your hands lag behind. This will insure that your hands get back to a squared position and your hips have cleared before contact, resulting in the ball first, turf second impact the Karen Lotz is talking about. Focus on the swing and not hitting the ball. Its a golf swing not a golf hit. A pure hit is a result of a good swing. Never throw your hands at the ball. It's a lot easier to control a shoulder turn than a wrist turn. Leave your hands out of it.


Once you get the feeling of where your hands are squared at impact (you're hitting the ball straight), you can experiment with the draw and fade. Some are the school of thought that they want to square the club to the target amd adjust their stance to the left or right for the fade or draw but Im a feel player and I like to feel my hands at a certain position at impact. So I don't manipulate the club at address but manipulate my wrists at impact forcing an open or shut face. The bad part about this is it takes a lot of time and practice to feel your hands at the right position. The good part is its a lot easier to fix a problem mid round b/c you have a sensation of feeling where you're supposed to be at impact already versus a player that manipulates the clubhead at address.
Seve was a feel player. Fred Couples also and morerecently Bubby Watson. Of course Nicklaus was a club head manipulator and its hard to argue against his success. Faldo was very mechanical rather than feel, and when he was off he looked like a 18 handicap.

One of my swing keys with my irons is to keep the bend in the right wrist through impact. This resulted in a much straighter iron shot for me. Does this make sense? I thought I watched some Greg Norman stuff on youtube last year that helped me develop this (can't remember who it was) I need to rewatch it.

OneBuckeye;763884 wrote:One of my swing keys with my irons is to keep the bend in the right wrist through impact. This resulted in a much straighter iron shot for me. Does this make sense? I thought I watched some Greg Norman stuff on youtube last year that helped me develop this (can't remember who it was) I need to rewatch it.

You really don't want to consciously rotate your hands on a straight shot. You're out of place or aren't staying connected during your swing if you have to rotate your wrists at impact to promote a straight shot. It's too hard to replicate that rotation of the wrists to hit it on target.

se-alum;763878 wrote:I really need to work on swinging w/ a shoulder turn instead of swinging w/ my arms/hands. I also tend to sway back a bit on my swing, causing me to chunk it much too often. It makes sense though if you swing w/ your shoulders, and let your hands lag, it pretty much forces your hips to be clear at impact.

all your power comes from the lag. your arms can't get disconnected from your body and still generate the same power. you will never be consistant throwing your hands at the ball.

Ive always had a big problem with my drive. Im left handed, and took lessons once about 7 years ago, and they helped me with it (but another sports season came and I lost my touch). My biggest problem is I usually have a significant fade (ok, a slice lol) with my driver. I have played 3 times this year, and the thing I have been working on most is trying to turn my hips more as I swing through the ball. It has led to mixed results, but I am getting a lot straighter drives than I have in a while for about 60% of my drives.

Zwick, as to what you were saying about using your shoulders and body more, I will have to try to do that next time I hit the range or course...any other basic tips on how to cure a huge slice with my driver. BTW, all of my irons go about 10-20 yards left when I hit them (remember they are away from my body since Im a lefty). I think It has to do with not getting the clubface square at impact, which obviously would be the problem for the driver also. So any advice would be great!

#1 thing to concentrate on is balance. Someone mentioned a "reverse pivot" a few posts ago. Make sure you aren't losing balance at any time through the swing motion.
#2 thing to remember is to use a smaller backswing with shorter irons...like those from 160 yds and in. Short irons are for control and you should have a controlled swing. Just cuz the pros hit their PW 160 yds doesn't mean you have to.
#3 thing is the divot point. I think Zwick made some excellent pointers about this earlier. A great friend told me that you hit down on the ball to make it go up.
#4 thing is to make sure you get a nice turn. Some say, "clear the hips". Same thing. Don't be an arm swinger...use your body.
#5 - Don't look up!! Let your back shoulder turn your head as it passes your chin.

When all else fails, I recommend copious amounts of swing oil. Works for me!

Well obviously your club face is open at impact so your timing and position are off. Like I said... focus on shoulder turn and not using your arms at all. Start with a slow turn and stay there til you're hitting straight and get a feel for where your hands are at impact. The key to hitting further isn't how fast your arms are going but how fast you make your turn thru the ball. so as you get more comfortable with the shoulder turn, you can speed it up. But it won't happen overnight... if you focus on turnig thru the ball and not throwing your hands at it, your hips willclear on their own and you wont have to worry about it.

The second you lift the club up with your hands and arms, you're done. It takes an act of God to time it back up at impact.

here's a decent video for beginners.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1632991641951717316#

thanks for the tips....I think everyone can agree one of the most difficult things is to have to change your "natural" swing and go outside of your comfort zone...thats probably my biggest struggle now.

ZWICK 4 PREZ;763858 wrote:I come from the Seve Ballesteros school of thought that I only care where my hands are at impact.

Same. My takeaway and backswing are pretty deliberate and often times I won't have the same "swing" 2 holes in a row, but as long as my hands are coming through square and to the target line I'm fine.

This weather has freaking pissed me off. We had our regional tournament and national championship (at Firestone this year) in terrible weather and even our match play tournament and Scarlet vs Gray Ryder Cup have been postponed due to weather. I can't wait until I can play when I get actual roll with my drivers and I can have easy wedges and scoring irons into greens instead of 8 and 7 irons that I'm not as accurate with.

My swing for the most part is pretty solid, I just need to correct that one mistake that is leading me to being 5 yards left/right...does that have to do with shoulder turns? I feel like it's more or less how I'm coming through the ball with my club head. Sometimes I can feel the irons push it left or right, which is why i figured I needed to tighten my grip

DeyDurkie5;764898 wrote:My swing for the most part is pretty solid, I just need to correct that one mistake that is leading me to being 5 yards left/right...does that have to do with shoulder turns? I feel like it's more or less how I'm coming through the ball with my club head. Sometimes I can feel the irons push it left or right, which is why i figured I needed to tighten my grip

Most certainly it does. If you get lazy and don't make a full shoulder turn you aren't going to be in correct impact position due to arms getting away from the body or coming in too steep from not getting your back facing the target... and your ball will draw or fade depending on where the clubhead is at at impact.

The worst thing you can do is tighten a grip. Tightening means restriction and you don't want any restriction in a golf swing

FYI for you NE ohio golfers. Played Rawiga in Rittman/Seville a formerly private CC now semi private. It is a very nice and well maintained course especially for how wet it has been. $35 to walk was a little steep but a great new place to try.


http://www.rawigacc.com/

Anyone else play good courses lately?

I played Blacklick's course the other day, and I thought it was a nice one for the price

Blacklick Woods? I never got a chance to play that when I was down in Columbus. Heard it was a nice course though.

http://jacksonville.com/theplayers It was 90 today, going to be much nicer tomorrow.

Thurs tee times http://jacksonville.com/sports/golf/2011-05-10/story/tee-times-players-championship

Played at the cliffs at keowee falls here in sc. It is a beautiful Nicklaus track. I actually put up a pretty solid 81 today due to no penalties and a hot flat stick. I used to be a six hcap but I play much less these days.

First real night of golf league tonight and I shot a 42 with doubles on 7 and 9 after pulling drives OB... Not bad for only playing in a 9 hole scramble last week and not touching my clubs otherwise since October.

Don't know anything about the course, but this is a pretty good deal if you're around West Jeff.

http://www.groupon.com/deals/national-road-golf-course?utm_campaign=national-road-golf-course&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&c=title&utm_content=columbus_inter&d=deal&division=columbus&s=featured_deal&date=20110522&user=59ddff48263dd1e859eb4dbd3a797bd92c0dbbac5af5fea91e397f463d4d2100

se-alum;776549 wrote:Don't know anything about the course, but this is a pretty good deal if you're around West Jeff.

http://www.groupon.com/deals/national-road-golf-course?utm_campaign=national-road-golf-course&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&c=title&utm_content=columbus_inter&d=deal&division=columbus&s=featured_deal&date=20110522&user=59ddff48263dd1e859eb4dbd3a797bd92c0dbbac5af5fea91e397f463d4d2100

I actually looked at this coupon earlier today...I've played at National Road many times, but thats mainly because Im a poor college student who sucks at golf. This course is pretty easy and wayy wide open, but definitely worth the coupon.

Couple pics from mamala golf course on hickam afb. Playing turtle bay Thursday, where they play the Sony open.

http://video.ak.fbcdn.net/cfs-ak-snc6/231353/178/10100182959205204_64629.mp4?oh=4c2b819aabaa66ce048ee816e31a039b&oe=4DDC1000&__gda__=1306267648_ddeaa408f1939817f3b3eb74481994ef

Took this video a week or so ago.

Midstate01;776717 wrote:http://video.ak.fbcdn.net/cfs-ak-snc6/231353/178/10100182959205204_64629.mp4?oh=4c2b819aabaa66ce048ee816e31a039b&oe=4DDC1000&__gda__=1306267648_ddeaa408f1939817f3b3eb74481994ef

Took this video a week or so ago.

That's pretty cool.

First time out today and shot an 82 at Green Valley, in New Philadelphia. Putted very well, that probably wont last.