Here's some friendly advice: spend more money and time on golf lessons than on cigars. While your cigar-cred is a bit lacking, your swing needs some serious work!!
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 9000 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
You have an excellent point. I used to play with a group...we called ourselves a hard drinking group of guys with a serious golf problem.
Lucky: look at photo 3 where you're hitting a 7 iron (should be about a 160 yard club...). Your weight is on your back foot. Looks to me like you're trying to hit the ball into the air by hitting it up. Try hitting DOWN on the ball...let the club provide the trajectory and backspin that gets the ball in the air. If you're hitting 'up' then just about every club will hit the ball the same distance. Remember...hit the LITTLE ball first (the big ball being this planet we live on).
When you're putting, I like to allow my hands to swing. In the first photo, your hands are touching your legs, so they can't swing. Maybe try standing upright a little more and let your arms hang free. Relax a little. Maybe put a cigar in your mouth (BUT! Be careful not to use it as an alignment aid, it'll cost you many a stroke and quite a few drinks at the bar!!!).
There are very few golfers who hit the ball straight all the time. The problem is that, the further you hit the ball, the more broad is the spectrum of going left or right. The key is to narrow that spectrum.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 9000 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
I think you are very right. I always feel that the ball goes almost the same distance and height whatever the club I used. Can you further explain what do you mean by "hit down" and "hit the small ball"??
How do I hit down?? You mean that I should let my arm stay down more in the forward swing or what exactly?
And as for putting, it's a HUGE problem for me. The coach told me the same thing you just said. I used to put the club against my body while swinging, I felt it gave me more control and feel of the club, but the swing was always incomplete and the ball never dribbled as far as I wanted, and always went right or left.
I started putting with my hands free now, and I think the puts got better, but I still need a lot of practice. Before I started playing golf, I always thought it was a very easy game when I saw people play it, and I always though that putting was just the easiest part of it, always wondering how some players can miss what appeared to me back then as easy puts. Now I realized this is the HARDEST game ever, and putting is the HARDEST part of it.
I appreciate your help.
______________________________ H.O.Roshdy.
"Stick to your blue collar RASS, I will smoke Cohibas"- ccsigloIII.
Posts: 1010 | Location: Egypt | Registered: June 14, 2007
It's an application of principles of physics, really...the clubhead, the grooves, the material of the ball, the dimples...all work to make the ball fly a certain way. Try to think of hitting the leading edge of the club right at where the ball is sitting on the ground, and that you're trying to dig your club into the ground at that point, sort of as if you are trying to slice 2 mm off of the edge of the ball with the leading edge of your iron. What happens is that the ball spins up the face of the club with backspin. The angle of the clubface gives the ball a trajectory, and as it rolls up the clubface, the spin is imparted. Since each club has a different loft, the launch angle will be a bit different, and you adjust for yardage. The dimples and materials of the ball allow the ball to fly true. It definitely looks like you're trying to make the ball get in the air by lifting it up with the club, hitting 'up' as they say. That's totally backwards. Hit "down" and the ball will fly up. Tough to explain, but easy to demonstrate in person. A pro will be able to help you visualize what I mean...
There's an old video by Ben Crenshaw about the art of putting. Try to find it. Be the ball, Danny.
I have experience, you know. So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one -- big hitter, the Lama -- long, into a ten-thousand foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga...gunga -- gunga galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consiousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 9000 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
hey luckybreak. where's the gar? i play at least 1 round a week and don't remember the last round i played without a cigar =)
nice pics. now for my 2 cents.. you've got a bit of a reverse pivot happening which will lead to 'fat' shots.
also, on the top of your swing, your club face is facing the sky or 'closed'. it'll help to get the 'toe' pointing down a bit. do you miss it left a lot?
lastly, if you steepen your plane, you'll hit a lot more criper shots.
irregardless, a bad day on the course is still better than a good day at work. cheers!
Closing the clubface is the last act of a desperate slicer! But I don't care if it's the last act of Henry V...! Olsen Johnson is RIGHT about what Van Johnson says...it IS a reverse pivot that has to do with weight balance and distribution. If you're going to come across the ball flailing that badly, no matter how closed your clubface, the ball will still go right.
Get lessons. Advice here is worth the paper it's printed on...and there is no paper. Any pro will straighten out these things...the swing plane, the balance, the moving off the ball, the extension, the turn, the loading, the finish...
Remember...the fewer moving parts the better.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 9000 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
Thanks a lot. I just have a question, should my weight be more on my left or my right leg?? And you still have not told me what's exactly hitting the ball down.
Oh and ryj, how much did it take you to start saying that you can actually play golf and compete with other players?? I have been playing for just 2 months now. Cheer me up man, tell me that I am on a normal learning curve.
______________________________ H.O.Roshdy.
"Stick to your blue collar RASS, I will smoke Cohibas"- ccsigloIII.
Posts: 1010 | Location: Egypt | Registered: June 14, 2007
... and if you come in closed with proper weight distribution, you'll end up left. but take ryj's advise and consult a pro. don't worry, you're probably on the right learning curve. golf just takes time and patience.
Originally posted by LuckyBreak: Thanks a lot. I just have a question, should my weight be more on my left or my right leg?? And you still have not told me what's exactly hitting the ball down.
Oh and ryj, how much did it take you to start saying that you can actually play golf and compete with other players?? I have been playing for just 2 months now. Cheer me up man, tell me that I am on a normal learning curve.
Your weight should be fairly balanced, but as you load on your backswing your weight naturally goes back to the rear foot, and as you swing through, your weight shifts to the front foot. Go watch Tiger Woods or any other pro to see how the weight distribution should be.
Hitting "down" is not something I can really explain. How about this. Think of hitting the club head into the ground right behind the ball, as if the edge of the club was going to barely nick the ball as it goes into the ground, and scoop up dirt as you do that. The dirt would be a 'divot' and the fact that you created one would show that you're hitting 'down' on the ball. It's the angle of the clubface that makes the ball spin backwards up the grooves so that the ball has trajectory that is a function of the club. Don't be trying to hit the ball up, think of it as you are slamming the clubhead into the ground right behind the ball. It's tough to explain without showing, and the best person to show you is a golf pro! And I'm nothing of the kind.
Golf involves a never-ending search, grasshopper, and you will always be trying to improve your game, whether it's irons, woods, putting, chipping, playing in wind, course management, concentration over a 4 hour round, whatever the case may be. First, you'll feel good about completing 18 holes. Then you'll start counting those shots that should have gone in or might have been closer...a chip here, a putt there, and how close you were to breaking 100. Then you'll want to break 95...then 90...then 85...and on and on it goes. But go see a pro and the pro will put you on the right track and get you there faster, if that's what you want to do. But do it before you try to figure it all out yourself and then pick up tons of bad habits.
The smartest golfer is the one who goes to the pro and says that they want to forget everything they've ever learned and want to relearn how to hit the ball. They say Tiger has done that several times during his career...totally restructured his swing from the ground up. Sort of like tasting cigars. If you don't know what to expect or have some sort of preconceived notion about something, then your senses are fresh and you can sense and pick up things that would otherwise be lost on you if you already had an idea about a flavor profile or how to hold your club. Forget everything you ever thought of about golf now, and do not pass "GO" and do not collect $100. Go straight to the pro!
I may have gotten a "B" in Constitutional Law (barely), but I took 4 strokes off my golf game in just one semester! I had my priorities straight.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 9000 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
PS: The "handicap" index system makes it possible for ANY player of any level to compete with any other player...when you're talking scoring and competition, anyway. For example, if you have, say, a handicap index of 24, and you are playing someone with a handicap index of 10, then they have to give you 14 strokes during the round to make the competition even.
That being said, most people like to play with players of their own basic level or caliber, or better, so that the pace of the game is not disturbed. If my playing partner hits a nice drive down the middle of the fairway, and I hit into the trees and it takes me 3 strokes to get out to a point where I'm basically the same distance to the pin, I've totally messed up the game of the others I'm playing with. If you're keeping pace with players in your group and you're all just about as good or bad, then you're fine.
BIG HUGE HINT: If you are playing and there is a group behind you, make sure you keep up with the group in front of you so that you don't make the group behind you mad. If you find yourself falling behind, pick up your ball and move it to another place during this learning period. For example, if you are not having to wait for your shots because the group in front of you is long gone, but the group behind you has to wait for you to get out of the way all the time, PICK UP YOUR BALL! And wave a faster group through. It's only courteous to do that.
Understand that there's a learning curve and it's something that takes time to perfect. The idea is to minimize how far right or left your shots go...
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER (not Ann)! VIVE CPD! Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go...(Oscar Wilde)
Posts: 9000 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
Thanks a million for the advice ryj. I will continue the lessons with my instructor most certainly. And yeah, whenever I find someone behind me, I wave to them so they could play and take a lead on me, I don't want to bother them with my slow strokes.
______________________________ H.O.Roshdy.
"Stick to your blue collar RASS, I will smoke Cohibas"- ccsigloIII.
Posts: 1010 | Location: Egypt | Registered: June 14, 2007
