Golf

[Simmo86]

http://www.youtube.com/user/4golfonline

 

I'd recommend the bloke above for anybody just starting out and hasn't got any bad habits yet.

 

Helped my swing out no end with little tweaks to my grip, swing plane etc. I usually watch his videos then try in out in my living room before trying it at the range.

 

Might even be of use to some more experienced golfers 

[Ric Flair]

Absolutely diabolical from Day and Schwartzel yesterday!! Rumours Day has got an injury, which hasn't helped. There's £50 down the shitter. On the plus side Josh Teater is leading after day one in the Reno Tahoe. Early days but I took him as FRL too so i'm quids in already.

[ScouseFox]

Bloody 'ell Tiger 

[Simmo86]

Bloody 'ell Tiger 

 

He's gone completely and utterly sick!

[Donut]

61, around a golf course as hard as Firestone, is nuts

 

Look at the other scores....theres a sprinkling of 68s and 69s, one 66.................and Tiger's 61!

 

I mean, could you imagine what the CSS of Firestone would be if us mere mortals were playing it in the monthly medal?

 

Mind boggling

[Collymore]

I played golf for the first time in ages yesterday and was driving so far to the left i had to aim into the trees on the right! It worked though, I just looked a complete pleb when people were walking by!

[Donut]

I played golf for the first time in ages yesterday and was driving so far to the left i had to aim into the trees on the right! It worked though, I just looked a complete pleb when people were walking by!

 

What type of shot were you hitting? a pull (a ball with no curve that goes straight left), a hook (a ball that starts straight and then curves severely left), or a pull-hook (a ball that starts left and goes even further left?)

 

I can solve this problem for you very quickly with more information.

[Ric Flair]

Early USPGA fancies? Stenson's in incredible form but 25/1 is too low for me. I like that Dufner's had two top 5's in recent weeks.

[Collymore]

What type of shot were you hitting? a pull (a ball with no curve that goes straight left), a hook (a ball that starts straight and then curves severely left), or a pull-hook (a ball that starts left and goes even further left?)

 

I can solve this problem for you very quickly with more information.

 

 

A mixture of hooks and pull hooks - When I was hitting them towards the trees on the right I'd almost kiss the branches and the ball would finish on the left of the fairway! When I try to drive straight down the fairway I would often severely pull hook straight into the bushes.

 

Thanks for taking the time.

Edited 5 August 2013 by Collymore

[separator]

Tenner each way on Stenson @ 30/1 with Paddy. There paying 6 places on the USPGA

[Donut]

 

A mixture of hooks and pull hooks - When I was hitting them towards the trees on the right I'd almost kiss the branches and the ball would finish on the left of the fairway! When I try to drive straight down the fairway I would often severely pull hook straight into the bushes.

 

Thanks for taking the time.

 

 

A lethal combination unfortunately. Hooks and pull hooks are bad ''bad'' shots (if that makes sense) as they are very destructive.

 

Youve got two things in operation causing these shots. 1) your clubface, in relation to your swing path, is very closed. Not necessarily closed to your target, ie the middle of the fairway, or the flag for example, but closed relative to where youre swinging. The other thing is 2) a swing path that is going too much out to the right.

 

Unfortunately, aiming right will only serve to make the problem worse, as it will push the swing path even further out to the right.

 

So what you need is to feel like you are aiming square to slightly left of your target (which will feel alien and youll be scared of hitting it left at first) and you need the swing path to become more neutral, swinging much more leftwards.

 

At first, youll probably hit some straight pulls with no curve, as the clubface will still be closed. But gradually, instinctively, you will gain a more ''open'' clubface as your swing path improves to the point where you will hit a straight-ish ball, ideally with a yard or two of cut spin.

 

Ill upload a video or two shortly to show a visual example of swingpath, to give the idea of where the club path should be at for more solid contact

[Collymore]

A lethal combination unfortunately. Hooks and pull hooks are bad ''bad'' shots (if that makes sense) as they are very destructive.

 

Youve got two things in operation causing these shots. 1) your clubface, in relation to your swing path, is very closed. Not necessarily closed to your target, ie the middle of the fairway, or the flag for example, but closed relative to where youre swinging. The other thing is 2) a swing path that is going too much out to the right.

 

Unfortunately, aiming right will only serve to make the problem worse, as it will push the swing path even further out to the right.

 

So what you need is to feel like you are aiming square to slightly left of your target (which will feel alien and youll be scared of hitting it left at first) and you need the swing path to become more neutral, swinging much more leftwards.

 

At first, youll probably hit some straight pulls with no curve, as the clubface will still be closed. But gradually, instinctively, you will gain a more ''open'' clubface as your swing path improves to the point where you will hit a straight-ish ball, ideally with a yard or two of cut spin.

 

Ill upload a video or two shortly to show a visual example of swingpath, to give the idea of where the club path should be at for more solid contact

Thanks for that. I'm going to get someone to video me next time so it will be interesting to see exactly what I'm doing!

[Donut]

In terms of your hooking, ive picked a ''do'' and ''dont'' model that should straighten things out:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X1OfEK8H38

 

First video is a series of Hunter Mahan's swings from the practice round at the AT&T Pebble Beach tournament which show hand and clubhead path coming into impact and through impact from the ''down the line'' view.

 

Collymore:

 

Notice, as a hooker of the ball the club shaft returning to the angle it was on at address in Mahan's swing and low much LOW and AROUND the club exits after impact into the finish. The club never chases out towards the target, the path of the club simply matches the upper body rotation through the ball as he maintains his arms to torso connection.

 

 

The feeling you want to AVOID would be the feeling of:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfTnSSwbE_g

 

and

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z7aMe8tK20

 

Jason Day from the Quail Hollow tournament, and Rickie Fowler, also at Pebble Beach. The bad feel for a hooker they both display is a lifting of the arms in the backswing and dropping the club down in the downswing to the inside more than Mahan, and then you can see through impact the firing of the hands down the target line OUT and AWAY from the upper body turn. The synchronisation within these two swings will lead to inconsistent miss directions on bad shots due to the overly inside out and AWAY path of the swing.

 

There is a much heavier emphasis on timing in these two swings compared to Mahan's action as a model.

[Ric Flair]

In terms of your hooking, ive picked a ''do'' and ''dont'' model that should straighten things out:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X1OfEK8H38

 

First video is a series of Hunter Mahan's swings from the practice round at the AT&T Pebble Beach tournament which show hand and clubhead path coming into impact and through impact from the ''down the line'' view.

 

Collymore:

 

Notice, as a hooker of the ball the club shaft returning to the angle it was on at address in Mahan's swing and low much LOW and AROUND the club exits after impact into the finish. The club never chases out towards the target, the path of the club simply matches the upper body rotation through the ball as he maintains his arms to torso connection.

 

 

The feeling you want to AVOID would be the feeling of:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfTnSSwbE_g

 

and

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z7aMe8tK20

 

Jason Day from the Quail Hollow tournament, and Rickie Fowler, also at Pebble Beach. The bad feel for a hooker they both display is a lifting of the arms in the backswing and dropping the club down in the downswing to the inside more than Mahan, and then you can see through impact the firing of the hands down the target line OUT and AWAY from the upper body turn. The synchronisation within these two swings will lead to inconsistent miss directions on bad shots due to the overly inside out and AWAY path of the swing.

 

There is a much heavier emphasis on timing in these two swings compared to Mahan's action as a model.

 

The similarities between Fowler's swing and mine in terms of dropping the club down is frightening. Done it for nigh on 15 years though so possibly too late to change, tried and always fathomed out it was better to work with what i'd got than re-build.

[Donut]

Another short clip demonstrating squaring the club with upper body rotation and a matched up upper body and arms rotational unit, exiting lower and more leftward through the ball into a holdoff cut finish by PGA TOUR player Charley Hoffman

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov6PpOdU7as

[Collymore]

Cheers for all of this Donut it's really interesting. Are you some sort of coach?

[Donut]

Cheers for all of this Donut it's really interesting. Are you some sort of coach?

 

No probs

 

Not a coach officially, but have a huge understanding of the golf swing and the game from my earlier years of relentless reading/video watching/practice with the aim of studying a PGA diploma but i let it go to be honest to study something more academic and play golf when i realised i wouldnt be able to make a living playing

[Donut]

the plan was to use the PGA diploma a long time ago to get into a position where i could play mini tour golf and progress into being a player. But it was a bad option as people employed within golf dont tend to practice much.

 

The competition is extremely fierce too, so when i took stock of the money needed to give it a go AND the depth of talent at every level, it just wasnt worth pursuing really.

 

I think that a PGA diploma would be an interesting career change later in life though. Self employed coaches put a lot of time into building their client bases, its not an easy task. The other problem many face from talking with them is income during the winter when naturally people are taking less lessons and playing less.

[SOCCERROO FOX]

I don't like how this is turning in to an actual golfers thread, more punting people!!

[Ric Flair]

I don't like how this is turning in to an actual golfers thread, more punting people!!

 

Hahahahaaa!

 

Sang Moon-Bae, talk to me. Same form line as Keegan Bradley in 2011 when he won the USPGA. Both players had won the Byron Nelson coming in to the USPGA. The only slight difference is that something daft like 9 of the last 10 winners of the USPGA have finished in the top 25 the week before at Firestone and Bae hasn't done that. He's 300/1 though and worth a few quid for sure, he's erratic as hell though.

 

Steve Stricker's game is perfect for Oak Hill. Straight hitter, with a decent bit of distance, no.1 at green in regulation and a very good putter. He is good on technical courses where scoring is tough and at 55/1 he's good value. He doesn't play many tournaments nowadays but when he does he's never far outside the top 15-20.

 

Bill Haas, he finally got another win this year after blowing an obscene amount of chances on the final day. Anyway, Haas at 50/1 is another player whose strong at hitting greens in regulation and I believe that's the most important ingredient this week. With scoring going to be at best only a couple under, if you can consistently hit greens and make par then you'll be right up there.

 

The form book states that recent USPGA winners have already had a win that season on either the PGA Tour or the European Tour, that goes against Stricker but works for Bae and Haas. I'm tempted to throw Ernie Els in to the mix as well, he looked very good at Merion on another tough scoring track and he's a battler these days. I always fancied Dufner's chances for this tournament but at 40/1 he's not enough value for me with the way his game has been this season, I might take him for FRL though.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Any chance you could sort out my slice?

[Donut]

Any chance you could sort out my slice?

 

Absolutely

 

Can you tell me where your ball starts, relative to where you are aiming first?

 

Do you hit a ball that starts at your target and curves right? Is it a ball that starts left and then curves right? or is is a ball that starts right and curves even further right?

[Bobby Hundreds]

Absolutely

 

Can you tell me where your ball starts, relative to where you are aiming first?

 

Do you hit a ball that starts at your target and curves right? or is is a ball that starts right and curves even further right?

 

These two. Especially off the tee, with the 2nd option being more prevalent.

[Donut]

These two. Especially off the tee, with the 2nd option being more prevalent.

 

Bobby, sorry for the slow response.

 

Ok. On your slice, your clubface is square to your target at impact for the initial takeoff of the ball to be close to what you are aiming at. On your push-slice however, you have the clubface open to your target, in this case the middle of the fairway for example. This creates the initial velocity of the ball out to the right.

 

On both shots, your swing path is severely OUTSIDE INWARDS across the ball. this creates a clubface that, although reasonably square to your target, is significantly open to the direction of your swingpath.

 

So in short, there are two undesirable factors present in your swing currently:

 

1) Clubface control, because you are presenting the face angle differently to the ball on each swing

 

2) A swing path that is too much outside in. Most likely very steep on the ball too. I can imagine that you hit the ball very high with your driver, but a kind of powerless, floaty kind of ball flight with no ''oomph''

 

I think your slice is a little more complex than the guys who were struggling with hooks earlier in the page. Primarily i believe this because if you are hooking the ball, the swingpath is better, swinging from the inside is what we are trying to achieve but swinging too much from the inside creates a problem. The opposite is true of a slice.

 

I want to delve a little deeper if possible. I want to start with your fundamentals.

 

1) Your grip. when you look down on your grip on the club, how many knuckles on your left hand do you see? and where do the ''v's'' created by your thumb and index finger on both hands point to? are they at your chin? right shoulder? outside your right shoulder etc

 

2) When you set up to the ball, relative to your front foot, how far forward in your stance is the ball?

 

3) Do you slice EVERYTHING? do you find that when you get into your shorter clubs, like an 8 iron for instance, your slice just becomes a straight pull to the left?

Edited 6 August 2013 by Donut

[SOCCERROO FOX]

Think Scott, Mahan, Kuchar this week and maybe Henley and Colsarets at odds.