Bring what you got.

I’ve talked about this before, but I feel like my understanding of the subject has improved some so I would like to approach it once again.

Today, I’m heading down to the Portland Golf Club to play with a man who has reached out and invited me on for a round. It’s a good track and will be loads of fun to play, just unfortunate that it is happening on a “rebuilding” week. This week has been dedicated to learning some fairly drastic swing changes, including a different ball position as well as a change in my motion. Both of those things added together has caused a significant increase in fat shots (CS has me moving the ball forward a decent amount in my stance so if I accidentally revert to the old swing the club bottoms out well before the ball, something that is never a good thing).

But, good players are ALWAYS working on something in their swing/putt and the trick is to know what to bring to the field when it’s time for battle. On one hand, you don’t want to completely revert to your old swing because if you really want to implement changes, the course is where it is for and where it should be used/tested. But, at the same time, the ego doesn’t exactly fair well if you go out and hit 104 fat shots in front of 3 people you have never played with and the last thing you want to do is to completely discourage yourself from making any changes. The answer, in my humble opinion, is to try and find a happy medium between the old and new for the round and then go back to the range to continue working out the kinks in the new swing. Instead of moving the ball 6 inches forward and trying to slide into it with a lateral hip movement, I’ll move it 3 inches forward and make sure I’m getting some lateral movement as well as making solid contact. And, in a situation like this where you are somewhat unsure of your new mechanics, it can help to take a bit of zip off of your clubs. Solid contact is much more important than an extra 10 yards.

Heading to the range to warm up. Will let you know how the day goes. Theory is a completely different beast than implementation.

Here’s a shot from yesterday. I always wanted to be 14’8″:

Michael says:

September 1, 2011 at 3:30 pm

This is definitely the thing I find hardest about taking golf lessons. It’s so tempting to revert to the old tried and tested swing that could save you a good few shots in the short term but you know if you do, you’ll never make the progress you want to in the long term. It must be one of the only sports where you have to be content to regularly look like a beginner for the greater good of your game. Keep at it – enjoying following your progress!

Micke says:

September 1, 2011 at 9:41 pm

Dan,

congratulations on breaking 90! Next target 80
Did you have some friendly competition during the round? I would suggest that every time you play a round make it a competition. Play skins or have the one with the highest net score pay for a beer or lunch after the round. It makes a world of difference in terms of pressure and focus, at least for me.
Last season me and a good friend of mine always had a putting competition with the following rules:
-if you leave a putt short it costs you 1€
-if your putt is more than 5 feet past the hole it costs you 0,5€
-if your putt is more than 10 feet past the hole it costs you 1€
The point was to never leave a putt short because it has no chance of going in nor to go too far past the hole (making the second putt difficult).
I noticed a dramatic change in my putting after just a few rounds with this competition. I focused a lot more on the green and it obviously helped my putting quite a bit.

Micke

dan says:

September 1, 2011 at 10:39 pm

Michael,
True, you have to swallow your pride if you want to learn, always thinking about the big picture..

September 1, 2011 at 10:42 pm

Micke,

I almost always try and put something on the line. It does make you focus more and puts that extra edge on the game that is at least somewhat close to what a tournament will be like. I know it’s not the same whatsoever, but at least there is a bit of extra pressure.. The putting game sounds like a good endeavor too, will have to start doing that on rounds from time to time.

Thanks for the congrats and have a great one!
Dan

Leave a Reply Cancel reply