About a week ago we took a trip to Roman Nose golf corse in Oklahoma. If you have never been there it is a cool 18 hole course. Lots of hills and you can’t see the flag on almost every hole. We were playing best ball and I was teamed up with my father and we shot 2 over. Not bad for a course I have never been on before but I was still not hitting the ball that good. I was topping my iron shots and my drives were going right most of the time. That was in till I looked at the video that I recorded on the trip.
What I saw was that I was breaking my left arm on the back swing. I was doing this because it gives me more swing speed but on the down swing the club head was not straight so the ball go’s everywhere but where I want it to.
So last week during our Thur. golf I changed my swing and it worked better then I would of hoped. I had 3 or 4 bad shots during the 9 holes and one of those wasn’t that I topped the ball or hit it short. It just went to the right to much. The best shot was on hole 8 that is a dogleg left after the tie shot. You have to hit it between some trees off the tie to the fairway then its straight to the hole or you can try to hit it over the trees to make the hole shorter but that is not a easy shot. When I hit off the tie I didn’t clear one tree, I cleared a line of about 5 of them onto the fairway. Then on the fairway I gave my fathers hybrid a try and hit it straight over 200 yards.
It only took 11 rounds of Thur. golf, a trip to Roman Nose, countless times to the driving range and a few weekends of golf but its starting to come together.
The biggest problem I have with my game is my irons. My driver is long but fades to the right. My short game is the best part but it is not great. The problem with my irons is that I never fell like I am going to hit it right. I top the ball or I hit the ground before the ball or I hit it and gos to the right like my driver.
So I went to the driving range today to see if I could fix it and my girlfriend went with me with her new clubs and there are two things that I think I worked out. I think I was pull up too soon and that was making me top the ball. So I started to keep my upper body in place as I swing and then turn my body after I hit the ball. That didn’t work every time but I was hitting better.
The other thing I worked out was to not spend so much time I my setup. If you play golf you know that most everyone has there own pre-shot routine. Most people stand behind the ball and see where then want to hit it then get next to the ball, swing a few times and then setup to the ball and hit. I found out that if I just walk up to the ball, setup and just hit it works out better. So im going to try that on Thursday.
As a side note, Pine Bay went pretty good. We ended up playing 18 and I think we were 8 over. The good part was I hit the island hold on 7 the second time around.
You have to begin somewhere. I play golf every Thur. and last week wasn’t that good. We split up into groups depending on how may people show up and have to two people per team, best ball. Not a great way to see if your getting better unless its your ball that your playing everytime but snice im just getting back into golf it makes it a little easier.
Last week we shot 7 over for 9 holes. I was hitting like shit and so was my teammate. I would hit it left and he would follow then he would top the ball and so would I. But theres is one thing that I might of learned that worked and that is my grip. When I first started playing years ago I had a baseball grip. That is one hand above the other with no fingers over lapping. When I started playing again this year I was using the same grip but it wasn’t working to good so I went to the driving range. That is when I found out that I was hitting better with a interlocking grip. So I used that grip for the past two weeks. Two weeks ago it worked pretty good. This past week it went to shit and that is when I changed my grip to a Vardon Overlap grip or overlapping grip. Then every shot after that was better and it fells better.
I fell like I am getting better every time I go play but its just baby steps right now. I am going to play at Pine Bay tomorrow with three other people so I am going to try the new grip then and hopes it gos good.
The goal is this. To see if I can get to a one handicap in one year and to document it along the way.