Love Golf?

[passedpawn]

@bwarbiany that's crazy about the sand! My local course gives us a free drop from the sand due to covid (I suppose touching the rake is germy+ they don't want to have to maintain them).
Oh well, I take it as a strategic advantage!

Courses around here have gotten rid of the rakes. I think it's dumb, but that goes for a lot of the knee-jerk these days. I love not having to rake, so win for me (I do a "foot-rake" though). Some have also gotten rid of the sand on the carts for divots, and some have not. Kinda random.

The UV in the sun kills all of it pretty quickly I think. For states that have sun

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

@bwarbiany that's crazy about the sand! My local course gives us a free drop from the sand due to covid (I suppose touching the rake is germy+ they don't want to have to maintain them).
Oh well, I take it as a strategic advantage!

Courses around here have gotten rid of the rakes. I think it's dumb, but that goes for a lot of the knee-jerk these days. I love not having to rake, so win for me (I do a "foot-rake" though). Some have also gotten rid of the sand on the carts for divots, and some have not. Kinda random.

The UV in the sun kills all of it pretty quickly I think. For states that have sun

Yeah, I can't really tell whether I'm just a terrible bunker player, or whether it's terrible bunker conditions. I seem to remember being halfway decent out of the sand before my 5 year layoff... And by "decent" meaning I'll get the ball out of it in one stroke, not that I actually expect it to finish close to the hole.

We don't have rakes either, so invariably my ball comes to rest in a divot or footprint. To be honest if I'm in something that doesn't look like it's a "natural" issue (i.e. my ball splashed into its own ball mark), I've not hesitated to move it, because unraked sand traps are not IMHO the way the game is supposed to be.

But the condition of the sand on this course isn't very good either... I assume because maybe it's not even getting raked daily in the early morning or evening? So I'm not sure that even with a decent lie whether the sand is really very playable.

'Course, I could just be making excuses for crappy sand play at this point.

 

[orionol73]

USGA R&A made this specification this summer...

If rakes have been removed from the course

• Introduce preferred lies in bunkers, for example allowing a place in the bunker within one club-length not nearer to the hole than where the ball came to rest.

 

[bkboiler]

Oof....I have been taking a drop outside the bunker since the sand is in such a poor state--was treating it as "grounds under repair"

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Been a while since I've played golf in January. I use to make it a point to play every month of the year. I was itchy this year as weatherman forecasted 50° with sun. I woke up with fog, ice on my deck and 33°. Did get up to 40° by the time I teed off but sun disappeared. Weathermen lie!!! Phone died as I got there but never a good sign when I have to drive over snow. January punched tho and a couple of top notch breweries nesrby. I will return

 

[passedpawn]

That white stuff looks cold. Brrr.

Man, I kept meaning to get out to play this week, but decided to make some money instead. Definitely next week. I don't play on weekends, too many people out there. I really like wednesday or thurs afternoon.

 

[Novacor]

Sat at work for the last 3 days looking out the window at the 50 degree sunshine. It's currently raining and will be cold and windy all weekend. At least I got a putting mat for Christmas that I can roll out in my living room.

 

[bkboiler]

mother in law watching kids Monday when I am furloughed...I better remember to call in and schedule my tee time!

 

[aces-n-eights]

That white stuff looks cold. Brrr.

Man, I kept meaning to get out to play this week, but decided to make some money instead. Definitely next week. I don't play on weekends, too many people out there. I really like wednesday or thurs afternoon.

Hey Andrew, i've sent you a couple of PMs, can you please check your inbox and confirm you're getting those messages?

Thanks

 

[passedpawn]

Hey Andrew, i've sent you a couple of PMs, can you please check your inbox and confirm you're getting those messages?

Thanks

Got them! Will reply there.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Ugh. Played yesterday on the longer, more difficult course. +40.

I did something I can't remember the last time I've done it on a hole--recorded a 10. BTW that was without any lost balls, penalty strokes, etc.

 

[passedpawn]

Ugh. Played yesterday on the longer, more difficult course. +40.

I did something I can't remember the last time I've done it on a hole--recorded a 10. BTW that was without any lost balls, penalty strokes, etc.

Meh, that's an A in my book (well, in hexidecimal anyway). I've had them, but not too many. Often it involves stubbornness and sand/water/trees.

 

[bkboiler]

Ugh. Played yesterday on the longer, more difficult course. +40.

I did something I can't remember the last time I've done it on a hole--recorded a 10. BTW that was without any lost balls, penalty strokes, etc.

Oof...I stop counting at 7 and pick my ball up shortly after that.
I played Monday and most holes wasn't keeping score. Just glad to be on the course.
Had a chance to go to the range on Friday and was crushing my short irons...
Now why can't I do that when it counts??

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I'm trying to make a pretty significant swing change, and had only had one day on the range working on it prior to Sunday.

So my goal was to not even attempt to implement any of my changes and just use my normal swing.

I think it leaked in, though, because my ballstriking was all over the map. I was missing the ball in much different ways than my usual misses.

Hope the range is back open today after all these rains so I can get more work in.

 

[Kee]

I'm trying to make a pretty significant swing change, and had only had one day on the range working on it prior to Sunday.

So my goal was to not even attempt to implement any of my changes and just use my normal swing.

I don't have any kind of "grooved" swing now, so I can relate. If all else fails, I just try to swing with a good tempo. My New Year's resolution should have been to work on only one swing change at a time.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

The driving range where I've got my "membership" just happens to be a runoff area for heavy rain. So when it rains, it becomes mud, and the ball retrieval tractor can't go out there.

So they require at least 3 full days of dry before the range reopens after a rain.

It rained Sunday night into Monday morning. The range isn't open. It's expected to rain tonight and heavily tomorrow.

So the range likely won't be open until at least Tuesday.

And I'm desperately in need of doing some work on this swing lol...

 

[HoppyDaze]

putt...best way to improve your scores

 

[bkboiler]

The driving range where I've got my "membership" just happens to be a runoff area for heavy rain. So when it rains, it becomes mud, and the ball retrieval tractor can't go out there.

So they require at least 3 full days of dry before the range reopens after a rain.

It rained Sunday night into Monday morning. The range isn't open. It's expected to rain tonight and heavily tomorrow.

So the range likely won't be open until at least Tuesday.

And I'm desperately in need of doing some work on this swing lol...

Ditto...I called my range today and same response...
Haha...usually when I reaaaallly want to golf but can't...I have a 3 and 4 year old that I got a putter for each--we go on the front lawn with our "nike-golf-cup".
Fun for about 30 minutes before "no, me first" starts...
Now I know why the concept of "the honor" was invented in golf!

 

[Kee]

The author (Wayne Defrancesco) of this article paints a great picture of how to swing a golf club. It's certainly not the only way (some great players do not keep the right knee flex he suggests), but I especially appreciate the detail about turning the right hip while it deepens and shifting the weight onto the right heel, instead of some vague suggestion to shift weight. Below is an outline with part of the detail.

1. Set up with your weight on the balls of your feet.
Your movement in your backswing will be to move pressure back toward your right heel with your head staying out over the ball. If you start with your weight on your heels at address, moving to a deeper position will feel out of balance.

2. Start the backswing with your upper trunk while encouraging the right hip to move backward almost immediately.
The right knee should stay flexed or even add a little flex, and the right foot should stay braced in so that the weight on it does not drift to the outside of the foot.

3. At the same time as your upper trunk starts your swing, begin to increase the pressure under your right foot and move that pressure toward your heel by pushing the right side of your pelvis back.
If the pelvis deepens on the right side, the left side of the pelvis will not move forward much at all, meaning that now your entire pelvis has moved to a deeper position, one that is critical to your ability to clear your left side in the forward swing.

4. Initiate the forward swing by using the muscles in the right side of the pelvis that rotate the hip to reverse the direction of the hip movement from clockwise to counter-clockwise.

Because the right leg is now loaded and braced, this counter-clockwise rotation will drive the entire pelvis away from the right foot, giving the swing its necessary lateral left movement. This is done just before the backswing finishes, driving your hips in a diagonal direction approximately 45 degrees left of the target line.

The transition movement utilizes the pressure you feel under the inside of the right foot and will begin to rotate the hips immediately, but you must still activate and aggressively use the muscles on the left side of the pelvis as well as the muscles of the entire left leg.

5. Make room for the right arm to drive in front of the right hip while trying to get the hands to pass by the body as close to the original address position as possible (the shaft-plane approach).

6. Drive the hips to the finish.

https://www.golfwrx.com/386984/learning-from-ben-hogans-pivot-compression-part-2/

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Range opened yesterday and finally got a chance to go today...

Feel like I managed to finally get a "feel" that I've been missing.

I've been trying to connect the dots from the top to impact. I think I got some sense of what the rotation from P6 through impact should feel like from the AMG drill. But trying to get from the top to P6 has been difficult. I've been trying to keep the arms inside so that the club can come from the inside with a little closed face.

I noticed today that when I was making good contact and felt like a more effortless rotation through the ball, my arms just "felt" way too inside and close to the body on the downswing. Granted my previous issue was arms that were completely disconnected and way ahead of the body on the downswing.

So I decided to roll with it, and focus on that connection between the left arm and the body from the top coming through impact. To try to rotate everything in sync and not let the arms get out ahead.

It helped greatly... My contact was more consistent. Granted in this below shot you can see a little early extension, but I think my arm movement is better and I don't have the big open face at P6 that I had in the above videos...

Think there's some progress there, but it's gonna take some effort.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

BTW I just bought this push cart from Costco...

https://www.costco.com/caddytek-3-wheel-golf-cart-with-swivel-front-wheel.product.100430232.html
I had a 2-wheel pull cart that I bought pretty cheap from Amazon when I got back into the game. I didn't have a stand bag, so it was a pain to carry. And on 18, to be honest, I don't want to carry, even though I MUCH prefer to walk a course rather than ride. But the 2-wheel pull cart didn't have much in the way of features. I bought a fabric cup holder for my beer, but it didn't keep it vertical so I'd have to pull the beer out of the holder while walking down the fairway lol...

This one has a lot more in the way of features. I can keep golf balls and tees in the little compartment on the top so I don't need to have them in my pocket. It has a cell phone holder, which is good because I can use The Grint to track shots for yardages and for tracking score without having to pull my phone out of my pocket and carry it down the fairway. And it has a cupholder that will keep my beer vertical while it rolls lol...

I'm selling the old cart to one of my playing partners for half price... It's in good enough condition that I could probably ask more, but right now the cart on Amazon is already 20% lower than I paid for it because golf equipment was getting a premium last summer.

 

[passedpawn]

Cart looks sweet. I walk a lot, always 18. Yea, not carrying. I’d carry if I only wanted 5 clubs. I see guys doing that.

 

[beersk]

Dang that cart is huge. Probably kill my back just getting it out of my trunk!

I got back into golf last summer, kind of because of COVID. I made a significant swing change because I always had the tendency to shank it when my swing was off. Well, I decided to drastically shorten my backswing and it made all the difference in the world. I hit it farther than I ever did with a longer backswing. Probably because of better mechanics and contact. I probably somewhat resemble John Rahm or Tony Finau with my short backswing. Man it really makes a difference in terms of consistency.
I played a lot in highschool, then after HS (2002) I played probably once or twice a year ever since. Now I'm getting back into it, mainly to spend more time with an uncle who plays a lot and to get outside and maybe someday make new friends playing in a league or something. My best round last year was 86. I was pretty happy with that for barely playing for years.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I keep trying to shorten my backswing... And then I look at video and dammit, I'm back to parallel at the top even with short irons.

It's something I need to work on. I think I'm not getting my weight back onto my left foot before the top of the backswing, which should force my body to stop rotating.

I could probably pull off the Jon Rahm motion... I'm basically built like him.

 

[bkboiler]

Nice slomo...your swing looks on plane and stable spine-angle / head. Seems a bit like you're opening the face of the club at the 8 o'clock position as you're taking it back (if 6 o'clock is the ball), but that could just be parallax of the lens. Oh well, the launch of the ball looked perfect so that's what matters!
I'm about to head to the range myself...will have to make up some hours later...I guess the beauty of work from home.
Other beauty is in staring at my brew rig next to my computer getting ideas!

 

[passedpawn]

Yea, that looks like a great swing. I should post a similar video, a primer on what not to do.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Hit the range again today to try to get these swing changes ingrained. Started to get to the point where I could start putting the effort back into the swing and regained some of the distance I was forgoing while trying to teach myself new motions.

Also tried something I rarely do--I hit the driver.

They weren't all great, but the ones that I made solid contact were freakin' SMOKED.

If I can actually take this onto the course and tee up on long holes with something longer than a 4 iron, it's gonna make this game a little easier.

 

[beersk]

I keep trying to shorten my backswing... And then I look at video and dammit, I'm back to parallel at the top even with short irons.

It's something I need to work on. I think I'm not getting my weight back onto my left foot before the top of the backswing, which should force my body to stop rotating.

I could probably pull off the Jon Rahm motion... I'm basically built like him.

Try not to think about your weight shift or your legs at all. Mine are very very quiet. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm not at all flexible, so it's a lot of rotation of the upper body and swinging through. If you think too much about weight shift, that can force you to slide or sway, which is what I was doing, causing a shank and a lot of fat shots.

And, yeah, shortening the backswing, especially if you're used to going back to parallel, really feels weird, almost like you're taking a 3/4 swing. But it really does help. Shortens the amount of time that something can go wrong.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Try not to think about your weight shift or your legs at all. Mine are very very quiet. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm not at all flexible, so it's a lot of rotation of the upper body and swinging through. If you think too much about weight shift, that can force you to slide or sway, which is what I was doing, causing a shank and a lot of fat shots.

And, yeah, shortening the backswing, especially if you're used to going back to parallel, really feels weird, almost like you're taking a 3/4 swing. But it really does help. Shortens the amount of time that something can go wrong.

For me, I want to get the lower body involved. That's where real power in the golf swing comes from. Right now I'm a decently long hitter, but I feel like so much of it is from swinging "hard" to get speed. If I get everything sequenced right where the power comes from the hips, I should be able to be more consistent because I'm relying less on my arm/shoulder/torso strength and more on the hip rotation to generate speed.

But I agree. I need to learn the proper "feel" but if I try to shift too much I get more of a slide.

Hell, I need to see a pro. I'm just trying to wait until I get the vaccine before I embark on a series of golf lessons.

 

[passedpawn]

Well, winter's over down here in Clearwater - must have been low 80's this afternoon, but dry and felt great. One of the ponds had a half-dozen 3' gator baby's sunbathing.

Birds everywhere - cormorants, ibis, egrets, a bunch of ducks I think. Sometimes you'll see a roseate spoonbill - those are pink and tourists think they must be flamingos haha. There's one hole that has a mated pair of huge Sandhill Cranes that think they own the tee box, they're always there in the evenings when I play. Those are wonderful large birds, and in the spring there's often a baby walking around with them (not this pair though).