The Golf Swing

Weekend Round – Game Progression

Another weekend, another early Sunday morning tee time. My wife and I played at Quail Brook at 6:48 am, which is an awesome time to play, as we managed to finish in under 4 hours. Unheard of at a municipal course. Finished with a 76 (+5).

My iron game was pretty spot on. Hit 44% GIRs, including almost every par 3. Barely missed one of them, it was on the fringe. I feel pretty comfortable with my iron swing at this point, and these Adams irons have given me a little more confidence as well. They may not feel quite as nice as the Mizunos when perfectly struck, nor are they as deadly accurate when perfectly struck…but, the misses are working out much better. I can work the ball just as easily as well, and have started getting much better with the knockdown shots.

The most important part is that I have been very consistent with the irons. I really only had one ‘off’ shot on Sunday, which was a slightly fat hit that ended up short of my intended target. Otherwise, things were pretty good all day.

I have been working on my grip the last couple weeks. My left hand has always been solid, Hogan style with the V at just inside my right shoulder. However, my right hand had slipped down to the point where that v was pointing outside my right shoulder. I’ve straighted that out, and for the most part have the v’s aligned with the shaft now.

My real problem at the moment is the Driver. Like I said, I am really comfortable with the irons. My ball flight is generally a nice little draw. Even with a 3 iron. But put the Driver in my hands, and I feel like I need to sweep the ball, and my swing feels completely different. I try and tell myself swing like the irons, but if I do that, I’ll end up coming in too steep to the ball and launch these drives with 5000 rpms of backspin. I can get a hold of the driver, and for some stretches of time I put some nice flatter swings on the ball. Occasionally hitting the 275-300 yard little draw. Which is wonderful. But far too often, I find myself either over swinging (sending the ball right), hitting the ball off the heel or in some terrible circumstances topping the ball about 75 yards in front of me.

So much of it, I believe is a mental thing. I just don’t feel confident in that swing or even my setup. Ball position, alignment, my grip..is it all good? I’m worrying about these things, then trying to swing..that’s when it’s a real mess

Amazing how I can feel so completely confident with the iron swings at times..but have such a complete lack of confidence with the driver at others.

Anyone have any good driving tips?

In the Bag on 07/08/07:

Driver: TM R7 425
Hybrids: Nickent 4DX IW 17/20
Irons: Adams Idea A1 Pro 3-PW
Wedges: Cleveland CG11 52, Eidolon 56
Putter: GEL Diamond

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