Golf’s inevitable way of eliciting The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

This past week I think my golf game developed more than a tad bit of a dissociative identity disorder. The highest of highs followed 24 hours later with the lowest of times. I am sure there are other things in this world that can produce similar feelings on a daily basis as I would be inclined to say that your response to the performance at hand reflects more about your general mood than it does the literal quality of the shots being applied, but it’s hard to imagine another pursuit that has quite the influence on one’s state of contentment like golf can. It is what it is.

The highs!

That photo, courtesy of my golfing companion of the day Blair, was taken right after dunking a gap wedge from 106 yards out for an eagle. It was a crazy hole of a hooked hybrid off the tee, pushed 3-wood layup that bounced off a tree and then the wedge right into the bottom of the cup. The hole round was rather elated as well with 3 birds and an eagle on the front alone. It was one of those rounds where everything seemed to bounce the right way and putts held their lines. A beautiful day, good company and really fun shots that did as told.

The next day couldn’t have been more different and for the life of me I could not get a tee shot to come close to a fairway nor could I figure out how to hit an iron shot. I went from shooting in the low 70s one day to feeling like I have no idea what I am doing with my swing. Those rounds were just one day apart, too. It was simply crazy. No photo of that, but if I had taken one it would have looked a bit like this: dbc620f8

But, I’ve been working hard on my Vision54 play boxes and had a few notes to jot down from both what I was doing during the good round as well as what was going on in the bad one and it was those notes, as well as a day off to process and rest, that got me back to playing better golf. I just have to remember to keep this ball with me, the one that holed out for eagle:

And along with that I am starting a notebook collection of all the positive things this sport has done for me. It’s having those on hand and being able to reflect upon them that help one get out of a funk on the course when and if that may happen. We’ve all been there and I, for one, know that there isn’t much worse than letting a bad ball striking day get to you. It’s just as bad as playing well is good (maybe worse). I just have to remember that it’s all manifested in our own heads. If we create it we can either change it or linger on it.

I have a few tournaments coming up and in order to prepare for them I am working on the course more right now. But, I have also been fine tuning my short game distances. Especially important is half swing wedge shots, which for one swing I have concreted my distances from 50-100 yards. I shot a short video about how I practice these. I didn’t mean for it to come off as an instructional video as there are tons of people out there who can tell you what to and not to do, but I do want to share it as it’s a bit about how I practice:

The next big tourney for me is the Oregon Mid-Am coming up August 23-24. Lots to prepare and work on before that, but I am excited for another 2-day event coming up so soon. In the meantime I’ll be collecting my positive swing thought notes and working on that short game as always.

After that tourney I am going to address the dynamic loft and how it has lost distance for me. I’m already working on it a bit, but want to get in play mode for the next 10 days and then get back into swing adjustment/change mode.

9 Responses to "Golf’s inevitable way of eliciting The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"

Mad Dr says:

August 13, 2014 at 1:40 pm

Dan, you might enjoy Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible: 4 wedges + three swings for 12 separate distances inside 110 yards. Takes a lot of guess work out of those sub 100 yard shots.
Richard Chen says:

August 13, 2014 at 1:48 pm

Hogan and numerous others mention that the rear arm, and the rear elbow are slightly bent during setup. Hogan wrote in the 5-fundamentals book about having the right elbow (rear elbow) somewhat bent, and tuck nearer the side of the body at setup. He went on to say the the rear elbow is slightly bent at the moment of impact, when the club strikes the ball. He wrote that the arms do not both completely straighten out until the clubhead has passed the point of contact for about a foot, or a little more. He seemed to make a fairly big deal about these, although he did not explain the rational of having the real elbow bend at setup, and at the moment of impact.

One way to explain these may be that when throwing a baseball, the elbow of the throwing arm remains slight bent at the moment the ball leaves the hand. If the baseball is held a little longer until the throwing arm elbow straighten out, the ball is usually thrown down into the dirt.

Another way to explain why the rear elbow, and the rear arm are bent somewhat during setup and address is that these increase leading arm, and leading-side control. The configuration at address of a straight leading arm with a bend rear arm encourages having the straight leading arm controlling the swing of the club, while having the rear arm remaining “soft” and “passive” for most of the back and down swings until the final release phase of the swing. This produces a left-side, and left-arm dominated swing (for a right hander.)

Another way to explain this need of bend rear elbow is that by having the rear elbow bend, the rear shoulder tends to be lowered more, which lower rear shoulder position at setup promotes better inside-out swing action, and reduces any tendency of coming over the top at the start of the downswing.

A leading-side, and leading-arm dominated back and down swing promotes accuracy as the leading arm remains fairly straight throughout the back and down swings. A leading arm dominated swing promotes directional accuracy.
Aaron says:

August 14, 2014 at 10:49 am

What is the single biggest thing that separates a pro golfer from a very good amateur?
I think the biggest difference between the very good amateur and the successful pro is probably one’s mindset. The real players that I had the chance to hang around with, they just had this air about them, this confidence, even arrogance, that made me want to get out of their way. They were totally comfortable in their tournament skin, and that is something that I never really accomplished, and it’s something that can’t be faked. Hit all the balls you want, it doesn’t matter — some guys approach a four day tournament like it’s their regular game. Some guys approach it like it’s the most terrifying experience on the planet. I, sadly, proved to be one of the latter. There’s also an obsession and an uncommon focus that I saw in the successful pros I played alongside. They were golf. All golf. All the time. Made some of them pretty boring, but they could really hit it. – See more at: http://oobgolf.com/content/fore+play/1-3481-Exclusive_Interview_With_Tom_Coyne.html#sthash.PRaDeC2O.dpuf
Daniel Swanger says:

August 15, 2014 at 12:26 am

Nice Dan!! Keep it up man swing is looking good. I did have a question for you, I was wondering how do you keep focused practicing so much every single day! When I go out to practice, it is hard for me to stay more than an hour, after that I get pretty worn out and since it is so hot here in Arizona it is hard to stay focused for long periods of time!

However, when it comes to actually playing golf I could do that all day. Which is strange because it is the same game, same swing, same putts, but take the word “practice” out of it and I am down for 18 holes no matter what the temp!!

Good luck in your upcoming tournament
Richard Chen says:

August 15, 2014 at 6:30 am

A leading-side dominated driver swing will have the leading arm, and leading hand carrying the load of controlling the driver during the back and down swings without much contribution from the rear hand. A “stronger” leading hand grip position can be used to increase the control of the driver. A stronger grip position means having the “v” formed by the thumb and the forefinger pointing more toward the rear shoulder rather than pointing toward the chin. More knuckles of the leading hand will be seen at setup.

When there is a tendency to push the shot a lot, a stronger grip position may be called for (assuming there is no hitting up at the teed up ball, which can open the clubface at impact.)

A stronger leading hand grip position requires the leading hand to rotate to square less during the final release just before impact. Since the leading hand is the weaker hand for most players, a stronger leading hand grip position places less demand on the weaker leading hand to rotate to square just before impact.

A slightly to somewhat pushed driver shot implies that the driver swing path is OK with a slight to somewhat inside-out swing path, which is desirable, but the clubface is opened at impact. A stronger leading hand position will automatically help close the clubface at impact.

Nicklaus wrote that the natural orientation of the hands when standing upright with the arms handing down naturally is the grip position to be used. People with rounded shoulders (stoop shoulders) tend to have the hands turned inward when standing naturally, which implies that a very strong grip position of the leading hand may be natural. The opposite of very straight shoulders will have the hands not turned inward when standing naturally implies a more “neutral” (aka “weak”) grip position may be the best.

A strong grip position simplifies the swing, as less rotation of the leading arm (counter-clockwise for the right hander) to square the clubface just before impact is needed. This will reduce or eliminate pushing.

Too strong a leading hand grip position can close the clubface too much at impact producing duck-hooks, which are very lowing flying hooks, that start low in the direction of the hook, and then diving and hooking severely to the ground. Severely closing of the clubface also severely reducing the dynamic loft of the clubface at the same time.

Pulling is when the swing path is outside-in with the clubface closed also at impact. The outside-in swing path should be addressed first before weakening the grip position, as grip position changes usually do not fix the outside-in swing path issue.
jw says:

August 16, 2014 at 9:13 am

Hi Dan. You’re standing quite far fro the ball and eyes are following the shot a bit too early. its amazing what can be done in practise then doesnt work under real pressure in competition play.
I dont like to to be critical and am wishing you all the success in the world.
Brian Kuehn says:

August 18, 2014 at 6:16 am

Don’t allow your expectations to get too high as far as the Oregon Mid-Amateur. Quite a few of the players are going to be tournament savvy and have their game honed to a razor edge. Work on hitting your 3-wood off the tee and hitting some fairways. Play at least a couple practice rounds at the venue so there are no surprises. Cracking the “80″ barrier each round should be a good target.
ilikegolf says:

August 18, 2014 at 5:58 pm

I actually think the best approach to competitive golf is to play aggressively. It takes the pressure off of hitting long approach shots into greens on par 4s and takes some of the thinking out of the game. If the objective truly is to be professional you need to make a lot of birdies. Even pros don’t make birdie from 175+ often.
Richard Chen says:

August 21, 2014 at 5:39 am

One way to visualize the release actions of the leading hand, and leading forearm is to tape a marker to the bottom end of the driver shaft, and draw semi-circles on a large cardboard placed on the ground, using the leading hand only to hold the driver handle. This is like doing waggles with the leading hand only. For safety, the marker and tape are to be removed immediately after the drawing experiment. The driver must not be used to perform swings, and the driver must not be used to hit balls while the marker is taped to the bottom of the shaft.

In the waggle, which is representative of the release action, the back (top) of the leading hand first faces outwards toward the target line, and then the back of the leading hand faces inwards to the rear of the player away from the target line with the palm of the leading hand facing outwards toward the target line instead.

The counter-clockwise (for right handers) or clockwise (for left handers) turning of the leading hand during the waggle and during the release is somewhat comparable to flipping a pancake, or to flipping an egg over on the griddle.

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