Ok, so I have taken on a complete overhaul of my swing with the main objective of this season being to break 80 of the first time. I have a low round of 83, several between 84 and 86 (where I would currently put my average), and of course through the learning process several higher. I have never received a lesson, and still don’t plan on it. To see if I could spot any glaring issues, I decided to record my swing.
Good God! Here I thought I had a pretty nice swing. No wonder I couldn’t consistently play well. The way I was swinging the 70s would have forever remained a dream. So I had a choice to make; deal with just being an average/below average golfer or pick my swing apart. As much work as I knew would have to go into it, I chose the latter. It has been about two months since I decided to take this on, probably around 3-5,000 range balls, and a ton of discomfort. Change feels awkward. Change feels like you are regressing. I have hit the range to the point any pressure point that could blister is now bulletproof.
About a month into this, I discovered a software that allows you to analyze your swing. You can highlight, draw lines, find angles, etc. This has helped tremendously. I feel it’s best to find a few golfers that you think you can/want to mimic. Now you probably will never fully achieve their exact swing, but there are a few critical moments in swings that you need to have in similar positions. Knowing why they do things differently and how it effects the rest of the chain is the part I enjoyed a lot about this.
I personally did my best to mesh the swings of Jason Day and Tiger Woods. Obviously, I am not them and the resulting swing I have developed is not a mirror image of either. The reason I chose these two? They hit the crap out of the ball, they both have/had the ability to create a lot of different shots from their solid platform, and they are both notorious for keeping their heads very still. The last one is an area I knew I needed to improve. A steady head allows you to keep your eye on the ball. Simple. Here’s how they do it.
I have always had good posture in my swing. It’s a must. I never looked past that though. Good, my back is nice and straight. That’s all I should need, right? Very wrong. I stood very upright at address, and this set off a massive chain reaction of suck, compensation, and inconsistency. Sadly, this is one of the last things I discovered in my analysis. Getting this corrected was by far the most uncomfortable change I made. I felt like I was going to fall forward, chunk every shot, and I just didn’t trust it. When you get your upper body out further in front though, it allows your lead arm smoothly go under your chin, it automatically clears your hips to make room for your elbow, and it keeps you from having to move your head around. There was a lot of awkward time in front of mirrors and, as always, even more range balls to get comfortable with this.
One of the other big issues I had was bringing the club back really flat. This combined with my old upright stance was the perfect recipe for a slice. I am surprised I didn’t slice it more, but it was something I always had to take into account when playing a round. I made a slight adjustment to my grip, made sure to keep the clubhead outside of my hands in the first quarter or so of my backswing, and worked on keeping my right shoulder dropped down through impact. Again, the initial spine angle helped these fall into place fairly quickly.
My hip rotation was piss poor. It was more of a twist and sway, both back and then through. Diddy saw in a video I put on here that my heels would come off the ground and then go back down. This was a drill I found that helped out a lot. I would start with my right heel off the ground and drive it into the ground as I brought the club back. This helped me feel the weight transfer and what part of my foot I should feel it in (inside of the heel to be exact). Honestly, other changes (most likely the initial transfer drill) fixed my forward sway.
(Photos above show this as well)
You need to create lag. Plain and simple. If you don’t, you won’t strike the ball solid and you will lose a lot of power and control. I would take a club out back and just take it back with one hand. I would try to keep the L shape with my wrist for as long as I could before letting the clubface naturally fall back to square at the ball. I did this drill several hundred times at night to both establish what lag is and to convince my brain that I don’t have to help the clubface close.
The last main thing I had major issues with is overextending my backswing. I still fight this one. Bubba Watson makes it work, but he’s a rare one. It absolutely kills my timing and when I do it I know exactly why I’ve mi**** the ball. At this point for me, this is my shot killer. Rarely do I have something else create a mi****. When I stop at the right time, I am hitting them pure. It will take some work because every club has that slight difference in length/weight tugging on you to promote this. It is much better, but there is still work to be done. (Hard to tell from the camera angles below. I will try to get some better views of this)
So there you have it. Several descriptions and images of things I was doing wrong and the steps I took to correct them. I am very fortunate to have an unlimited range ball practice facility near me and have created a lot of time for this. I hope that someone can use a thing or two from this write up to help improve their game. This has been a frustrating but very rewarding process and, if you are up to it, I recommend you take the time to address your own issues. I will keep you updated on my quest for the 70s and any other helpful nuances I come across. Play well!
Final Swings:
3 Wood:
4 Iron:
7 Iron: