May 26 2010 Returned home after four days on the travelling and partying circuit. Good to get away have a play in the nighttime and socialise while doing a little business at the same time. No golf in the trip aside from picking up the latest addition to my club collection. Very happy to have a set of Keith Knox R700 blades circa late 1970’s (I will guess). New grips on them and although a little short in length have been a delight to use the last three days. Have been hitting the ball very sweet and the smaller heads on the irons are “light as a feather”. I have also reshafted the set of late 80’s irons and they will be ready friday/saturday for a hit. The longer shafts will be a good correction for my accuracy and distance consistency.
The progress in the past months has been very gradual in my game. In essence it is a matter of relearning a lot of the basics again and coming to grips with the requirements of playing to a lower handicap. It has been most surprising to notice the difference in my own ability to play shots, the improvement is a little disconcerting, now it is a matter of not expecting slices and hooks to happen. The ball flying straight and true is a delight to experience off my clubs. There is several specific improvements which have been establishing themselves in my game of late. Now I can identify them and accept as permanent aspects of my game for now and not the occasional fluke that I used to try to have repeat.
First is the drives off the tee, after the lessons in January 2010 the club pro put me on the right track with my swing plane. Since then the hours of practise have delivered better results than I even considered possible. First off the Driver a King Cobra S9.1- 9.5 degree has been a revelation from my first ever swings with it. I have never been a big hitter of the ball on or off the tee. Even though in 2009, I used the 3 iron off the tee choosing accurate and controlled hitting of the ball with as few errors as possible in preference to “no Idea” ball clubbing with Drivers. The past two weeks my distance off the tee is 220-250 metres with the driver. Accuracy is average and nothing that some dedicated practise and set up routine cannot improve and establish. This morning I left the Cobra and took a No 3 metal, a club that I was very erratic with previously. Nine holes later no bad drives, 200-220 m average and some amazing hits that were shaped with draws and fades as well had me gob smacked. Irons were a bit ragged to begin, the last 5 holes began to get the set up with the shorter shafted irons figured out. Simply a matter of having the ball a little further behind the front foot solved the over hitting errors. Ended up hitting the last green in regulation and one putt for a birdie. Drive #3 Metal 220m, 5 iron 150m and Putter 1.5-2m in the hole. Speaking of the putter the PGF model 705 is perfect, took a while to track one down and was well worth the effort. Pitching/chipping is a little scrappy at the minute, nothing that some practice will not address and improve either.
The simple program is the same as it was when starting out. hitting buckets of balls with all my clubs. Not forgetting the same with Pitching, chipping and putting. The difference this time is that the hitting will be a lot more measured and directed to hitting targets for all clubs.
Having seen friends make the move from low twenties handicaps to teens has made it easier for me. All of the work put into getting my swing and actions working well does not end it is still a matter of “hitting balls” to improve. It has been frustrating as my brain has been figuring out what I need to do next. Sitting here at the minute knowing the steps required in my program, it is so obvious all along what I had to do, yet it did not click until this morning. The past two weeks in particular built up
my awareness of the transition coming. Lately some of the balls hit have been perfect and then the shots have been repeated with following strokes. A bit of revelling and wallowing in this delight has happened. Then there have been the blow out holes which when on 25-22 Hcp are a lot easier to recover from. With a 22 handicap a golfer can have 4 double bogies among a round of bogies, pars and birdies, that is a handy number of strokes to have in hand during a round. The trial with the blades and other irons has not helped in my results of late. That time has past now and the consistency will return. With the new handicapping system it is going to take a little longer to drop strokes even so 18 is the target by the end of July 2010. Thankyou for your time and attention.
Hit ‘em straight all.
Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff
No comments:
Post a Comment