A Busy Weekend

SATURDAY- I finally played a round with the new swing changes. I hit the ball okay, but man, the short game killed me. I've been spending a lot of time on drills for the swing and no time on the short game. Also, the greens are still filling in from aerification, so they're just a little bumpy. Overall I'm happy with how I hit the ball with just the little changes I've made to the swing. 


Stats for the round:
Score - 90
Fairways - 36%
GIR - 22%
Putts - 35
Scrambling - 14.3%
Sand Saves - 25%




SUNDAY- I hit the ball much better this time, just couldn't score. Once again the short game stopped me from doing anything out there. I had 13 bogeys, which could have easily been pars if the putter would have worked. I'll definitely be hitting the chipping and putting green this week. 


Stats for the round:

Score - 89
Fairways - 43%
GIR - 22%
Putts - 35
Scrambling - 7.1%
Sand Saves - 0%

Looking Better Already

Last week I was able to start working on the lessons Dan gave me. The driving range was finally dry enough to open, so I played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It's a little hard to practice on the course but since the range was closed I had no choice. I played...eh.                               So man it was nice to finally hit the range and start working on my swing. I was hitting a small draw about every 10-15 balls. Everything else was straight or a little fade. Contact was so so. I'm hoping tomorrow will be better. 

I sent the videos to Dan to look at and make sure everything looks good.

                                                                               His response: 

Minor change but will help ball flight big time.  In the backswing want a touch more hip turn. From there it will feel like there is a slight shift left with the lower body (might feel like hips stay closed just a touch long than normal). This should yield some solid small draws. Already looks much better!

Lesson One

Here's the video of my swing that I sent Dan Carraher.

  

His response to the video was this (with some editing):


There are some good things going on but we definitely need to clean some things up. The first thing we're going to change is your setup, your upper body is too far forward. Make sure your head doesn't get forward of the middle of your stance. I want your shoulder over your ankles and your head in the middle of your stance. This should make you feel more behind the ball. From the new setup I want you to hit half shots 7 irons maybe 100-110 yards feeling both arms are straight the entire time. It will feel very wide, and somewhat robotic. Think Steve Stricker. You should be able to hit low draws if doing this correctly, hands will feel very passive and ball flight should be low. This will get your arms and pivot in sync and get your arms straight in follow through, getting rid of the chicken wing. To add to this drill you can do it with a small ball (softball sized) between your forearms just above your grip. Do this right and the ball shouldn't fall out.


Now the rain just needs to stop so I can go to the range and practice.

*Breaking News*

As of yesterday I have a golf instructor from Florida helping me with my swing. His name is Dan Carraher, and I found him on one of the golf forums I visit daily (www.golfwrx.com). He's charging me $20 per online lesson - what a deal! Here's the link to his website: http://dancarrahergolf.com/.  I'm not sure which direction my swing is going now. I did tell him what I've been working on, so we'll see if it's the right swing for me or if he'll have me go a different way. Granville could be in store for a sleeve of golf balls from me since he took the bet about the swing change. I've sent Dan some video of my swing from yesterday and he has already looked at it and given me feedback and drills to work on. 

I will post the video that I sent him and his views of my swings and recommendations soon.   

Its Been Awhile

Well, let's see what's new. Oh yeah... it's been raining all week. The rain did stop for a day though, so I got to hit my new toy. I love it! =) Now if I could just get my swing together the world would be a better place. So far I've let Doug, Ron, and Bud hit my driver. Bud and Ron really liked it. I think Ron said he was going to eBay for one when he got home. 

Awhile back I bought a 3 wood shaft off eBay, but the guy lost it during his move. Instead he let me choose a different shaft. Since the driver has a high ball flight, I went ahead and got a driver shaft instead of a 3 wood shaft.  I really like Graphite Design shafts, so I emailed them and told them my number from the Golf Galaxy launch monitor. They recommended the Graphite Design Aura Red stiff flex, so I webr with that. The shaft should be ready tomorrow afternoon, but I doubt I'll be able to hit it till Monday. The weather man says there's more rain coming this weekend.     

Oh SNAP!

The courses just got a little shorter!

My new baby!

R9 SuperTri Info











I got back from Golf Galaxy with my new Taylormade R9 SuperTri! I traded in some clubs the other day and got some store credit. I still have my 2007 Burner driver, I'm going to sell it on Ebay since Golf Galaxy wouldn't give me much for it. In the simulator the R9 was flying about 15-20 past my driver. This driver has many possible configurations with the movable weights and open and closed face at address, with the option to also change the loft a few degrees.

I got the 9.5* with the Fujikura Motore 60 shaft in Stiff. I can't wait to hit it on the course - too bad it's been raining like cats and dogs since Friday, and it's supposed to keep raining throughout the week. In the meantime it won't be leaving my side.

Better than Yesterday

You'd think after yesterdays great performance I wouldn't be too anxious to get back out there, but I had even more of an itch to play and prove that I can actually swing a golf club. I played with Doug again at Sunset Whitney and shot 87, 45 on the front and 42 on the back with a birdie. I only lost one golf ball compared to the nine yesterday. I did however only hit the driver once today, and it was a big slice. I haven't been able to hit the driver for some reason, I need to get to a driving range where I can play around with it. I was pretty happy otherwise with my round. The putter was on fire, I had 26 putts on aerified greens. This was my best scrambling round of the year so far. The only bad part was when Doug made his 7 foot putt on 18 to win 1-up. At least I gave him a scare. I'm not sure when I'll be playing again because the weather man is saying a chance of rain everyday next week.    




Stats for the round:
Score-87
Fairways -36%
GIR -11%
Putts -26
Scrambling -37.5%
Sand Saves -0%