Transitional golf moments

It’s on!

That’s how I’ve felt over the past week. A cloud has lifted and a period of uncertainty has passed. I’m not attempting to prosthelytize that my scores shall leap lower, although this is exactly what I think is about to happen (how’s that for mixed messages?).

It all started during my last lesson with Bruce. For the longest time I had been changing my swing but kept hooking and pulling all of my shots, especially the tee shots. I thought that I was doing everything right and had been holding off on the tee shots to save my life, but the only results were either quick snap hooks or giant blocked fades. This past lesson, Bruce explained to me what it felt like to open the club face during the take away. For 90 days I thought that I had been opening the face while working on the new swing, but to my dismay I had been taking it back completely shut and then if I tried to release the club, the result was that I was hitting the ball with the face completely shut. For the non golfers out there, it’s the equivalent of attempting a left turn in a car with the wheel held to 3 o’clock. Bad things are bound to happen.

It was just a simple little thing that Bruce pointed out, but it was something that was completely new to my golfing repertoire. These are the “aha” moments we live for. The times when something finally makes sense and the level of knowledge in our field is expanded. Sometimes this is complicated computer language jargon, epiphanies for the way light resonates through dense material or new found fundamental understanding of the beautiful way in which baking soda chemically interacts within a chocolate chip cookie recipe; they are the times in which the world makes complete sense. I can’t think of any other way to put it than saying my heart feels light once again.

Last Tuesday was the lesson with Bruce. He mentioned after his explanation of what open and shut “looks and feels like” that “This should bump you to the next level.” In Bruce talk, he means that I had a breakthrough and that good things could follow if I was diligent in my homework. Not wanting to let him (or myself) down, I worked on that feel that eve. The next day I took off with Mary and I had some family visit from Switzerland so spent time off of the course, but thought about the feel and move all day. Come Thursday, I practiced it hard and could tell that a major shift was on the horizon.

On Friday, Country Club talked me into playing a match play game at Riverside. I hadn’t played many holes lately and was a bit hesitant, but wanted to see how this feel would hold up just 48 hours old. It was new and awkward, to be sure, but after the second driving hole, Country Club looked me in the eye and said to me: “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you getting out of the box again. Seriously, it makes me so happy to see that.” I hit some banging drives and was ecstatic about it.

He totally beat me, hands down. The reason was that while my driver was FINALLY working, the same feel didn’t quite makes sense with the irons yet and I was pushing all of them 20 yards left of the greens and at Riverside if you are way off with your approaches you have some major trees to deal with. We ended up playing 27 match play holes and he won five up on the first 9, two up on the second and one up on the third. It’s progress and I’m happy to see it happening.

This is some major progress. Since making the swing change back in June I had been struggling with the club face and understanding what it felt like to hit a draw and fade. Now, I get what open and shut is and know what I have to do, just need to groove those feelings and become automatic in the moves.

It feels really good to know what needs to be worked on and in what way. The clouds are gone and there’s enough summer left to groove this thing and still make it into a couple tournaments to give the new swing a test.

Coming soon: A full write up of a shaft test I did for the driver, 3-wood and hybrid. Interesting TrackMan numbers on all of those sticks.

13 Responses to "Transitional golf moments"

AIPM says:

September 2, 2013 at 5:20 am

Your coach has been fantastic for you. This just makes me want to echo what I said on the last post about ignoring the commenters and just stick with his keys. I’ve been following you for a while and I can’t wait until you start consistently breaking par.
Paul says:

September 2, 2013 at 2:52 pm

Delighted that you’ve made the breakthrough Dan – exciting times. I’m sure the pushed iron shots were simply a hangover from bad habits you had developed when trying to keep the club face open on the way through. Really looking forward to hearing how your next few rounds go. Best of luck!
williamevanl says:

September 2, 2013 at 10:36 pm

I think you are about to embark on the magical, “I’m playing better golf but my scores are still the same” phase. It’s always fun to watch you go through what millions of others have. Well, lets see if you can break into that 4 handicap. I’ll be surprised if you do!
Kent says:

September 3, 2013 at 4:49 am

If you’ve found “the” key, you should trust it, and never search for another. And that would truly be be the most amazing feat you achieve within your amazing journey. Best of luck with it
Brian Kuehn says:

September 3, 2013 at 5:41 am

Did you go out and watch the ladies playing at CECC this past weekend? What did you think?
thedanplan says:

September 3, 2013 at 8:15 am

Next individual tourney is scheduled for later September, and am playing in the club’s match play series starting this week.
Brian Kuehn says:

September 3, 2013 at 1:32 pm

When you play in a tournament do you ever feel a bit of pressure knowing your results, good or bad, will be seen by all the people visiting this website? Most of us, when we play a round of golf, can just toss the card away at the end of the day, the only witnesses possibly being the people in our group (if we even shared with them our scores).

I give you a thumbs up for sharing your failures and successes. It is difficult to try to perform athletically and then have the general public able to review the performance. It is never easy to know that a failure will disappoint your supporters and give ammo to your detractors. Of course your entire experiment is pretty public so you may be used to the scrutiny.
thedanplan says:

September 3, 2013 at 8:55 pm

I didn’t, but did catch a bit of it while stopping in the pro shop on a break as well as saw the final scores. I also talked with a few guys from CECC who all shared thoughts about the setup and conditions of the course. I find it interesting what the LPGA does for their players and makes me wonder what the PGA’s philosophy is on setup. At the end of the day, those ladies killed it and you have to get the ball in the hole. 20 under is very impressive regardless of any conditions or setup. Solid tee shots, amazing irons and rolling the ball like a champ, that’s what it takes.
thedanplan says:

September 3, 2013 at 8:56 pm

Thanks Sima!
thedanplan says:

September 3, 2013 at 9:00 pm

There is definitely pressure, and I see it as a good thing. It’s perhaps the one and only advantage I have: the fact that this project has been in the limelight since day one and when the big stage comes it will seem like every tourney from day one. We shall see. For example, the first tourney I ever played in (last April at Pumpkin Ridge) two local tv crews filmed, an AP reporter was there and ABC’s Nightline came out for the occasion. It put a bit of extra pressure on those ole’ nerves.
Clay Ballard says:

September 12, 2013 at 8:32 am

I was curious how you like to break down your practice between improving technique, practice and play? What is your strategy on most days?
Colin says:

September 18, 2013 at 7:47 pm

Hey Dan! My name is Colin O’Gorman and we are learning about you in one of our classes at the University of Windsor! It will be super interesting to see if you can make it to the PGA, and I admire the effort you’ve put into this to test the 10,000 hour theory! Keep up the great work, and you do have some vocal supporters behind ya !!
Constantine says:

July 23, 2023 at 10:33 am

It’s so sad the further and further I go into re-reading the blog after all these years. April 2010 to like fall 2012 is such a fun, happy adventure, but by September 2013, this blog reads like golf’s version of Apocalypse Now or something. You needed to spend like a good year straight on the range developing the new swing. Playing golf is absolutely ruining your development and it’s sad you simply cannot dedicate yourself to practice or see why rounds of golf are wrecking your progress.

Rounds of golf are such a terrible use of your time and energy and you’re forced to make full swings and play for score every time. Given I already know how discombobulated your swing was by the end (early 2015), you had lost sight of your original goal and how to get there.

I love you, Dan, and I have always loved this blog and journey, but re-reading it this summer I did not realize how depressing the last couple years were, how dark things got when as a reader I already know the ending, which wasn’t just total failure but a serious back injury too.

Thank you so much for doing this project, but it’s a shame there are no do-overs in life. It just goes to show you how key it is to start not just young but with a legitimate mentor. Imagine if you could mentor yourself and start over at age five? That’s nearly what every successful golfer got in their life, from their dad or something like that. That’s the unfortunate reality of this game. There’s simply too much to know and the more you can know without learning the hard way, the better.

But the range is by far the more efficient learning method than playing rounds. I read somewhere you swing a club for only nine minutes over the course of a four hour round? That’s terrible! Especially when you’re on the wrong side of thirty and trying to prove 10,000 hours. You can do that on the range in less than a half an hour! Plus what good are rounds of golf with a bad swing? Imagine just striping it straighter and farther, how much the strategy of golf changes?

Anyway, please don’t take my criticism the wrong way. You know I’m a massive fan of this blog despite whatever dumb stuff I’ve said in the comments over the years. It’s such an important learning tool for me, this blog, as I have learned so much from your journey, and I will forever be grateful for that.

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