2015 Feb and March thoughts

Ballstriking is now solid with a few key swing thoughts apart from basic setup.

1 Driver: 210-230m Narrow V, Hover, Hip bend, Tilt right, takeaway first 1 ft straight, after 1 ft then start cocking wrist, initiate downswing with left leg brace. Very nice and straight shot,with decent distance.

3 wood: 180-190m Tall, narrow V, left hand controls direction, upright backswing with wrist cock.
3 hybrid 170-180m Narrow V, first 1 ft swing with left leg brace,
4 hybrid 160m Narrow V, first 1 ft swing with left leg brace
5 iron choke down for greater consistency 150-155m, slight draw, hold in left hand fingers, first 1 ft swing with left leg brace
6i choke down 140m/ 7i shortened iron 130m, same as 5i swing.

Mid irons don't need to hold in fingers, tend to draw a little (compensate)
8i 125m, 9i 110-115m, PW 100-110m, AW 80-90m, SW 70-75m

even quarter swings use left leg brace (nice consistency)
chipping MUST visualize target landing spot and potential roll

Putting caused a few headaches earlier last week when greens were not cut and were slow and bumpy. It caused me to practice really hard one night trying to hit a point only 1cm wide from various short distances from 2ft to 8ft. Realized that a tucked left elbow like Matt Kuchar and Jack Nicklaus did the trick to get me hitting the target almost 100% of the time.

On the course, focused on speed, and visualising the target before taking the putt.

Feeling good with many Greens in Regulation and an average of 9-11 pars per game. Just shot an 86 and an 83 in the last two games. Hope to groove the swing a little better, and play more matches to learn to play under more pressure.

2015 January Thoughts - New Year's Resolution (play in the 70's consistently)+ improve putting+ eliminate swaying

The game has stabilised with scores around the mid 80's. Shot a 42-42=84, 42-43=85 and 45-39=84 recently. Always some bad decisions on the course that turn bogey into double bogey and some bad short and long putts that cause a few dropped shots. Plagued by too many missed short putts, so I've decided to work on short putting again.

1. 40, 50 and 60m shots are rather consistent with relaxed quarter swings. (Slight right hand cock back is important.)
2. Right arm connection is key to nice contact.
3. More putting using the clock drill at 1,2 and 3 steps is proving effective again. The right elbow connection helps with direction control and using the line is still key. 10c coin drill helps too.
4. For long putts, staring at the hole to burn it into the memory seems to be helping, especially just before hitting the putt.
5. Crucial swing fault pointed out by the 'third eye' Dcruz, about eliminating the sway to the right on the backswing. Thanks.

8 key focus areas for 2015, in order to play in the 70's consistently:
i. Short putts
ii. Long putts
iii. Chipping
iv. Driver
v. Bunker
vi. Short irons
vii. Mid irons
viii. Course strategy and confidence

Weekly Schedule
Sunday - game strategy and confidence/ short and long putting
Monday - game strategy and confidence/ driving/ chipping/ fitness
Tuesday - game strategy and confidence
Wednesday - range mid irons/ bunker/ chipping/ long and short putts/ fitness
Thursday - game strategy or range (focus on driver)/ short irons
Friday - short and mid irons/ bunker/ fitness

2014 December Thoughts

2014 Year in Summary

Played some rounds after a 2 week hiatus, shot a 43 for the first 9 hole game after the break, an 85 from the white tees on Xmas Eve to get my swing back, and an 84 from the blue tees on Xmas Day which felt good. 

Golf has become more fun now that everything has stabilised and there is a lot more consistency. Here are the key thoughts for 2014 that have helped me play better golf, from pin to tee.

1. Short putt alignment by using a line on the ball helps. Keep to standard grip. Count steps (1 to 4 steps) to register strength.
2. Mid-length putts, the line still helps. Count from 5 to 15 steps, and remember that strength is key.
3. (Still one of the weaknesses.) Long putts, don’t worry so much about counting. Looking at the target long and hard before looking at the ball to putt helps.
4. Greenside chipping with SW, AW, PW and 7i with textbook setup helps. Deciding on a landing spot is crucial.
5. Pitch shots with chipping stance is OK.
6. (Main weakness.) Greenside bunker seems to work with textbook approach, but still sometimes fails because of lie (downhill) , sand texture and lack of commitment to the follow through. Must work on this a little more in 2015. Practised a little after watching a video about L to L, looking at a small hand mirror after the swing, textbook stance, loose hands,.. and it worked 15 out of 15 times at the practice bunker.
7. Short irons to mid irons are fine, with nice pre-shot routine, balanced stance for anti-shanking, slight offset for draw, and smooth tempo (MOST IMPORTANT). Swing path nice and wide to the back, hip turn, then attack… beautiful. Getting good direction and distance.
8. Fairway Bunker shots, remember to choke down, put ball a little back, and swing like a normal iron.
9. Long irons are still a little inconsistent because of the tendency to get too quick… rescue clubs to the rescue!
10. Rescue clubs working well, as long as there is no practice swing. Left hand control direction with moderate pressure into the ground and aim, narrow triangle, right arm connected, remember to cock the wrist… hip turn triggers the downswing – these are the go to clubs for 155m (choke down 4H), 165m 4H. 170m (choke down 3H) or 180 to 190m full 3H.
11. 200m 3 wood is doing well, as long as the narrow triangle is maintained, there is the left hand controlling direction and ground sensing pressure, upright backswing… nice.
12. 220m to 240m drive. Maintain pre-shot routine – slow wide backswing, hip turn and attack. When addressing, remember bent knees, spine tilt, slight tilt to the right, waggle while looking at back of ball, relative loose right arm before beginning backswing.

2014 November Thoughts - Freddy to the Rescue

Came across this video and the tune just stuck. Tried out what Fred Couples was doing and voila, nice solid shots. Simply amazing .... the focus on tempo is key.

1. Slow wide, upright backswing
2. Begin with hip clearance and let the rest follow through from the inside path
3. Watch the tempo.

Nice.

Also realized that if I could make most of my putts under 10ft, my score would be pretty decent. Shot an 83 one day, with a 39 on the back 9 when the putter was hot.

Hybrids need the right arm connected... flying nicely.
Bunkers need to swing through.

Back at practice - October thoughts

Managed to start hitting the range again after a busy September of work. The last 2 games saw a downhill trend as I lost touch with my basics. After a decent 85 two weeks ago, I slipped to a 90 just last Tuesday, and I struggled to make good contact with my irons despite hitting my driver and hybrid well. Chipping also lacked feel.

So now that I have time on my hands again, I'm back to practicing.

CHIPPING:

Tried chipping, and felt good chipping to various short, mid and long distances with my SW and PW. Getting some confidence back.

IRONS:

Struggled with making solid contact and lost about 10m on each iron. Instead of the usual average 150m 6 iron, I was only getting around 140. It was consistently shorter with all irons. So I tried to remember how I used to hit when during my good iron days...

1. Basic setup with tall feeling (not hunched). Not bad.
2. Grip and left hand... club back in left hand fingers towards the end of practice, and the distance n contact came back. Phew. Must try to remember this left hand feeling as my crucial setup swing thought.
3. Takeaway: while the early wrist cock seems to work well for my driver n hybrids, the NYC takeaway started to give me more width and solid distances with my irons and I felt some good contact again, finally.

OK, so I must remember 2 things: Left hand grip back to basics (this forces the narrow V that feels good)/ takeaway NYC width first then cock the wrist/ initiate downswing with the hip bump again...

Let's see how things work out. Was working with slow smooth tempo, ended up remembering a few fundamentals.

August Thoughts

Some updates.

Putting has stabilized. I found that using the line on the ball for reference for putts under 15 ft does help with percentages. I wish I had tried this earlier. For longer putts, some pacing and a focus on speed definitely helps, and so far no more dreaded 3 putts have appeared. For the extremely long putts above 50ft, there were one or two 3 putts but I think those are forgivable, especially when weighed against all the extra putts I am actually avoiding. My last 18 hole game saw several par saves from the sand and from chipping, and many safe 2 putts, with only one 3 putt which was a 60 footer on a 3 tiered green (an acceptable miss I guess).

From the tee, the driver has been excellent, with distance when necessary (regular grip), and safe direction when necessary (choked down).

Hybrids are now no-brainers and are so easy to hit, I'm thinking of getting a 5 hybrid on top of my 3 and 4.

Bunker shots were perfect, with one 140m fairway bunker shot landing nicely on the green and two greenside bunker saves. All 3 ended up in par. Maintain the bunker stroke.

My irons were giving me a headache on my last game, where I was playing great till the last two holes, where my short approaches from 100m and 120m respectively were shanked. Aargh. Determined to cure the shank, I hit the Internet, read about several 'solutions', hit the range after that, and fixed the problem. I realized that as I got tired, I lost my fundamentals. Most importantly, I ended up crouching too much (over-exaggerated hip bend), standing with the weight on my toes (how in the world did I not notice that?) and basically standing too close to the ball.

As so many gurus on the net explained, the basic shank (not the other weird varieties), which I was suffering from, was actually almost a perfect shot, only about 1 to 2 cm too near the shank. So all I did was make sure I was not putting all my weight only on my toes, not addressing the ball with the shank (obviously) and swinging it like usual. The result... pure shots again. Hooray!

OK now I can't wait for the next round on the course to test my shank-proofing. (Quick update: just played 9 holes trying to use mostly irons and they were flying straight and true. Shank-proofing works!)

It is fun, and funny, how, in golf, we seem to solve one problem only for another one to rear its ugly head. That makes the game a constant challenge. If not, it wouldn't be worth mastering.

Putting solutions

Had a lot of help from friends to improve my putting over the past week.

Short putts:
1. Eye on top of line best, don't bend until over the line, or some distortion might occur. (F L)
2. Keep the eye on the ball (the line mark on ball aimed towards target) while putting (R K)
3. Follow through to target (J K)
4. Grip at comfortable level (F L), even to the metal if the putter is too long.
5. Don't think too much (D O)

6. Use clock drill and coin drill (best drills for short putts)/ using the line on the ball is an excellent high percentage method for short putts.

mid to long putts:
1. Have a reference point for backswing and follow through (D F)
2. Use feet as reference pt (J K)

Progress at the moment, clock drill from 2ft, 3ft, 4ft, 5ft (16 putts in a row)

Recent 9 hole game: no 3 putts, made all putts under 10 ft, sank birdie from 15 ft. Lag putts stopped very near the hole except for last hole, but sank the 4 footer.

OK, that's all for my putting notes for now.