so my golf swing is doing...okay i suppose. played 18 holes with matt this past friday, and shot a 91, which is damn good considering i haven't played a full round of golf in about a year. now for a detailed look at each part of my game, and how i plan to fix it.
driver: surprisingly consistent with my usual slice. fairly disappointed that i was fading it as much as i was, considering i had been working so strongly on eliminating that part of my driving game, but i will take consistently going left rather than not knowing where the ball will go. the biggest problem was my distance. matt was consistently outdriving me by 50 yards, and i couldn't have been getting more than 200 yards on my drives that were hit well. that leads to the problem of me having either a long iron into the green, or laying up on a par 4, which will inevitably lead to a bogey. the only thing i can think to do is try and build up a bit of muscle mass through my upper body, and arms to help generate more clubhead speed to get the ball out there farther off the tee. secondarily to that, i will continue to try and correct my fade, because just a few weeks ago i was able to get a bit of a draw going on my driver, which was the pinnacle of lovely.
long irons: this is also going to include my 7 wood. these were horrible. couldn't make any of these clubs do what i want. i went to the range the day after playing in order to try and correct my problems, and i think i found a solution, but it is not ideal. if i set up with my 5, 4, or 3 iron as if i am playing my driver, i hit them reasonably well, albeit with a distinctive fade. but i had consistency when doing that, so next time i play, that will be the plan. these were the major reason for scoring as poorly as i did; not being able to hit these when i was 200 yards out really made me lean on my 50-80 yard game too much.
short irons: these were solid. once i got within about 160 yards of the green, i had confidence with my swing, knowing that the ball would generally do what i wanted it. i still fell back into a few old tendencies that resulted in a consistent small fade, instead of the draw i was doing at the range, but that is okay.
this is what i am trying to avoid. you can see the club is far past parallel with the ground. at the top of my backswing, the club should be parallel with the ground, and i tend to overextend, making my swing longer, and then my hands cannot catch up to the shift created in my hips on the downswing.
this is more along the lines of what i am trying to do. and yes, these were 2 different swings, with me fixing the problem.
these next 3 are my address to the ball, which although is a little tall, is not too bad. the problem arises when i take the club back, and you can see by comparing the pictures that my head distinctly dips down. my goal is to keep my head down at address so that there is not much movement; it would just always be down. i also finish upright, but that is not a concern; it's fairly normal.
pitching & chipping: very solid. i have practiced this part of my game incredibly well with my sandwedge, and i am able to generate a reasonable amount of spin for an amateur, and can generally fly the ball to where i wanted. i only hit 1 bad pitch all day, so i was very pleased.
putting: horrible. i didn't make a putt longer than 7 feet all day. i was very consistently putting for par, but could not convert any of them. one putt sticks out in my mind, because i read it right, but i pulled the putt and misshit it, so i missed the putt. i need to spend a lot more time on the greens to build up confidence again, because frankly i have been slack with my putting practice lately.
overall, i am reasonably pleased with my game, considering i only have been on a range and not actually playing for a long time. it is coming together, and more time on the course this summer should translate into a better and more consistent game that i'm looking for. goal is an 85 by the end of the summer.
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