Working up a sweat

After recovering from my Op last autumn, I started hitting the gym regularly again around the beginning of December, It’s taken me that long to get back to where I was post Hernia (although I’m still staying away from heavy Squats). I’m making much more of an effort this time round to warm up sufficiently and to lift with good form, so far (touch wood) I have only had a couple of insignificant strains that just needed a day or two’s rest.

The gym work is not specifically for golf, but it does impact flexibility and stamina and so I'm hoping to reap benefits in my golf game as well as in my general health. Tomorrow I'm going to add to my schedule with specific cardio workouts for the first time since I started lifting. I feel fit enough to manage both now and I know that the cardio will benefit my fitness over 18 holes.

I'm lucky enough to work close to a gym and to have a treadmill at home so my workouts are over lunch or in the morning and therefore don’t cut into golf time. One added bonus is that I am fitting into clothes again that got a bit too snug over last year.

One new exercise I did today was to take a light empty barbell and with it sitting across the back of my shoulders take a golf stance and slowly rotate my torso back as far as possible and slowly through again. After a few reps I started getting a good stretch and managed with the added weight of the barbell to reach a good 90 degree rotation. I’m going to add this exercise into my routine each time in the hope that it gives me a better shoulder turn. I really want to work hard in the future on rotation while keeping my spine angle.

No shanks thanks!

Today I spent a couple of hours at the pitch n putt course, which has become my practice ground, and where my emotions swung from despair to delight.

I went to practice my pitching distance control but in the event it turned into a technique session.

The first half of the story was all about the despair, because almost as soon as I started, I had a monster dose of the shanks, just like I had last year early in the season. I spent a considerable time trying different things to shake them but they got steadily worse and I was in the pit of depression and on the brink of giving up for the day when my mood turned to anger and then determination to figure out what I was doing wrong.

It felt like my back swing was getting quite armsy and then as I began the down swing I was lifting out of the shot a little, this meant that my right hip was in the way a bit and forced my arms out a touch in turn throwing the shank towards the ball.

So I tried one last thing; bending a little more at the waist and really rotating my shoulders back instead of my arms, then rotating through while staying bent at the waist. Basically really concentrating on keeping my spine angle.

I won't say that I found the ultimate answer, but it worked a treat today and I then spent an absolutely awesome hour hitting shot after solid shot with amazing distance control. I felt that taking the arms out of the swing and keeping my spine angle gave me perfect contact with the ball and made it just so simple to control the distance. 20 yard chip, 40 yard pitch, 80 yard pitch it made no difference, ball after ball the same distance and all really tightly dispersed. It was by far the best pitching I have ever managed and not a hint of neckiness in any of the shots.

I would have stayed till dark if I had not got a call to return home and sort out a PC problem for my wife. Not sure I have ever gone from such dejection to such satisfaction in one golf session.

I can't wait to get another chance to get out there and try and replicate the new pitching technique.

New Shoes!

Spent the morning shopping for new shoes. The last pair served me well , in fact since I was a beginner, but a recent hole in the left shoe was the prod I needed to invest in a new pair.

First stop was American golf where I correctly assumed that the widest choice in my local area would be, the choice was wide, but they had nothing that I liked in my size!

So I stopped by the Pro shop at our club. there was only a few uninspiring pair on display and I was thinking about where to try next when the pro asks what size? Into the back room he goes and out comes a pair of Footjoy Sport in my size, the very style I had wanted to try in AG earlier.

Not only do they fit like a glove, but they were last years model and so priced at £70 instead of the £99 that AG wanted.

Suffice to say that I brought them on the spot. Our pro shop never fails to amaze me. We also got talking about custom fit, he has a fitting set by Taylor Made and has offered me a fitting to determine what shafts and loft/lie I should be using, all for free!

I'll find some time after my coming lesson to take him up on the offer. Talking about the lesson, I booked in next Thursday with Mark the head teaching pro at the golf academy. Can't wait to see what he recommends.

Now, I should be out practising, but it keeps bombing down with rain every 1/2 hour or so. I'm feeling a distinct lack of motivation because I just know it's going to be a mud bath, however time to drag my sorry rear out into the cold, so bye for now!

Took my 8 iron up to the PnP for another hour. Same story with left pointing divots but less fade, go figure!?

Divots

After doing an hour of emails this morning at work I escaped for an hour of practice at the local municipal pitch n put course. I also went last night after work and got in an hours play in the twilight (first time this year that it’s been light long enough). These are my first visits up there since last summer; it’s still shut officially as the season runs April to October. However the gate is wide open and dog walkers are making good use of the site so I had no hesitation in using the course.

There is also no question of me damaging the place, it is not looked after even at the best of times, there are holes dug in the greens, bald patches of sand on the greens where the sun killed the surface last summer, in fact it’s a right sad mess but it provides an almost ideal practice area. You are able to hit off grass into a target green and with so many tee and green options you can vary distance and targets at will, in fact play any short game shot you can imagine. Once the summer comes they let the rough grow to shin high, then practice becomes less useful as you spend more time searching for balls in the grass than hitting them, but at the moment it beats the driving range by a country mile!

I took a pitching wedge and 20 balls and set up for a hundred yard pitch shot into one of the greens. I was working on my swing as I have done over the winter, keeping the flex in my right leg, setting the club on plane at the top keeping the connection of my arms/body, then getting my weight through the ball and releasing the club so I take a divot after the ball.

I was doing it very well and had the satisfaction of seeing almost all my divots starting where the ball had been and extending forward. I only hit maybe two slightly fat.

Actually I was so intent on this, that I wasn't really paying attention to where the balls were going only briefly remarking that I was seeing a lot of fade for a pitching wedge and that they were going high and not that far. Eventually I got more interested in the ball flight and to my dismay found that they were all short high fades. I then finally had that eureka moment when I looked at my divots again.

Now this is the first time in months I have been able to hit off grass and take a divot. While they were all showing ball first contact, they were also all heading badly left. I tried hitting deliberately in to out, but nope, divots still pointing left! In fact no matter what I tried I could not move my swing path L.

I have to face the fact that somehow in changing my swing over the winter I have ingrained a very significant out to in move that I never noticed while hitting on mats. Without seeing any video it’s almost a dead cert that I'm coming over the top badly. By thinking back over my range sessions I'm seeing a fade with most of my clubs now, so I have to assume that my swing is OTT and out to in with all my irons.

Time for another lesson to sort out my swing path!

I think I’m going to go back to the expensive video pro based at the local academy, he coaches a European tour player so he must know his business. There is a wait to get to see him but he has done good things to my swing in the past and I need to see what I’m doing wrong on screen.

Until I have had my lesson I’m not going to worry about it and just keep doing what I have been doing. I mean it’s not all bad, I am hitting the ball more solid than ever, hopefully the last piece of my swing puzzle will be fixing the OTT move and getting my path back on line.

78 in the snow!

I think of myself as a fair weather golfer. So when I set off for a few holes in the cold grey drizzle this morning I had low expectations of playing anything half decent. In fact I only went up to the club due to lack of more appealing options, I was determination not to go anywhere near the local driving range for a start and it was too miserable to travel far just to hit balls off matt's, so by default I decided on a few practice holes.

Amazingly I was not alone on the course, the hardy retired golfers of Yorkshire were out in force, so after just a few swift swings in the practice net I started cold on the 12th tee instead of the 1st. It was not much of a surprise when my opening 3 wood headed left on a worm burning trajectory that left me 15 yards behind some small trees. With the green out of question I played it as a par 5 and surprisingly hit the ball pure and nearly rescued a par with my first put missing by inches.

Onto the 13th Tee in a mix of snow, sleet and drizzle now and I played a huge long hook with my driver that found the lateral water hazard about 140 yards from the green. Playing three from the soggy rough 2 club lengths from the hazard I nailed my iron over the defending bunker to 10 feet and rolled in the put for a career Par save.

That set the tone for the next few holes, swinging slowly in the snow and in control I played golf like it's easy despite the north wind, the cold and wet I was enjoying myself and stood on the 17th tee just one over par for 5 holes.

The golfing gods brought me back to earth on the 17th with a duffed delicate chip that went less than 2 feet. The follow up chip was over hit as a result and I just missed the 8 foot bogey put taking a double.

By now the weather was worse than I have ever played in, and I was getting cold and the swing was no longer pure but more of a battle to stay smooth. Never the less I finally for the first time in my golfing life scrambled and ground out the score instead of getting down on myself and hacking it.

Onto the 3rd our stroke index one (hardest hole), into the teeth of a northeast wind, with the snow showing up the wind strength and direction like some kind of computer game. There was no way I could reach. Good course management saw me play it as a three shot par 5 and narrowly missed the 12 foot par put for another drooped shot.

By now I was quite determined to see out a full 18 holes despite the snow. I was in a perverse way enjoying the challenge of the bad weather.

Par, Bogey, Par, Par, Bogey, Par.

Stood on the 10th tee, my 17th hole of the day and I know that breaking 80 is in my grasp. In fact I know that I will need to seriously screw up to not break 80. The 10th is a long hole all up hill, I'm short of the dance floor in two and my chip is a bit strong, but a safe two putt See's me heading to the last hole with a smile.

A final sketchy 4 iron that fades a bit to much to the right, a chip over the bunker and a regulation 2 putt then i'm fist pumping the air in the middle of a deserted sleet battered golf course for a Bogey 4 and a personal best 78.

Now I know that the course is on winter tee's so it's short, and I was under no pressure not playing with anyone. Still I'm well chuffed with the way I played and how I scored. It's been one of my goals for this season to break 80 in a general knock and to do it so early in the season in awful conditions and bobbly greens hopefully bodes well for the coming years golf.

Particularly pleased with my putting today, short game work finally paying off? I hope so...

18 holes
Score 78, 8 over par.
71% fairways hit.
7/18 GiR
31 putt's (1.72/hole - 2.00/GiR)
Penalties 1

Done with the driving range

Yesterday I hit the range, literally! Today I have a mild case of tennis elbow in my right arm as a consequence. What a counterproductive waste of time it was. Not only did my new move not work this time (pushing everything), but I also sprayed the ball all over the place and miss hit loads, never felt warmed up and hit the matts far too hard too often. Seeing as our local range mats are 10 year old thin rubber directly onto concrete trying to take a divot out of them is not a very bright thing to do!

Hence forth I swear to only go to that range for practicing wood shots off a tee.

One other thing that made me laugh, I only had 3 quid with me so I got the cheap one piece balls and they really are rocks, now our range yardage is miss labelled badly, the 150 yard marker is at 130 yards, the 250 yard marker at about 190 although uphill. With the rocks I could not even get a 7 iron to the 150 yard marker. At the end of the session I put down a real ball from my bag and hit the same 7 iron and it went a very considerable distance further than the range rocks with completely different feedback from the club face.

I’m beginning to question again the value of this kind of range work. This is the time that I really; really wish the club had good practice facilities. I would not mind collecting my own golf balls if only we had a large enough space to hit them into!

I have to find a space to practice in that’s on grass, the local council run pitch n’ Putt is not open until April, however I may sneak up there and check out the conditions. I don’t need flags in the greens to practice and if it’s deserted then I can hit shots of up to 200 yards across the field, I just need a teeing off place that is not jungle rough.

It may be my only option.

Putting in the practice time.

How many times in a row can you roll a golf ball over a 5 pence piece from 6 feet away with your putter?

Well, We have a short pile carpet at work with sort of patten lines on it so that alignment is a piece of cake, Basically it shows up how reliable your putting stroke is.

From 3 & 4 feet it’s actually very easy to just keep rolling balls over the coin, in fact only boredom gets in the way and I seldom miss unless I let my attention wander. But from 6 to 10 feet it becomes a little trickier. Still I can do it time after time when I get into a grove. With my normal miss being a coins width to the right that would have easily dropped into a real cup.

What’s the benefit of this? Well I have been doing this most every Friday (a quiet day at work) since xmas and I’m now very confident in my putting stroke. Basically if I miss one on the putting green it because I miss aligned, or miss judged the break/grain/speed. Having confidence in your putting stroke is a huge boost, it doesn’t mean I’m going to turn into a great putter but it does give me added incentive to practice my real putting once the greens come to life a bit later in the spring.

Actually I am going to turn into a great putter! :)

New moves

Work and chores have really taken my time away these past few weeks, but I have had chance to hit the range a few times. To be honest I’m spraying the ball all over the shop whenever I get to hit a few. Working on technique changes is not easy at the best of times, but when you’re not that good in the first place it can be especially demoralising. On the odd time that I got to the range I have been working on a variety of things probably too many things to be honest, but there are occasional signs that some of it is starting to stick.

Yesterday I managed an hour and 50 balls which while it does not sound much was quite a feat because I was hitting into an arctic cold feeling rain shower and head wind that blew straight into the driving range bay from the east and left my hands stinging the way they would if I had just hit a thin with a blade.

I persevered because I was trying a new move and while I did not hit too many balls that great, when I did get it right I was encouraged enough to try again next time.
I have always had an over the top move from the top of my back swing. In an attempt to fix this I spent some time the other day with a mirror and swinging in slow motion. This was after reading somewhere about feeling like your back stays pointing towards the target for as long as possible in the transition/downswing. This has the effect of your weight shifting a touch before your shoulders turn and routes the club on an inside path without you having to lean back. In essence I think I ‘may’ have found the true way of approaching from the inside whilst still getting my weight through the ball.

When I nailed one I had the satisfying result of seeing a baby draw or a baby push fade depending on how I was aligned. The one caveat of all this for me is that it only works when my transition and tempo is silky smooth. I suspect that there will need to be a lot of practice before I can take this with any success to the course.

Whilst I have not been able to get as much practice time as I may have wished lately, hanging around in airports and hotels does give you plenty of thinking time, I have been using some of this to work on the mental side of the game. I think it’s true to say that most everyone plays there best golf in a relaxed yet focused state, evidence the good scores whilst playing a few holes after work on a pleasant summers evening. For me I will be trying hard to replicate that feeling of being chilled positive and not rushing. This means a new warm up routine, new pre shot routine and a lot of work in letting go of bad shots and bad holes. Time will tell if this staying chilled out is achievable!

Poor range work out

I took an early lunch and went to the range for a quick 50 balls today. I have to say that just like last week I was rubbish; I could not hit anything longer than an 8 iron. Swinging wild with fat shots and out of the toe shots. I ended up just swinging slow with a pitching wedge trying to find the middle of the club with some mixed success.

I think I have to stop these range sessions of a lunch time, I’m in a hurry, not warmed up and not relaxed and that ends up in poor ball striking leading to a negative mind-set. The problem is that the range isn’t flood lit and so it’s shut by the time I could get there after work. Even so I think it’s counterproductive to hit bad shots for the sake of it. Instead I’ll take my Tuesday lunch break at the club and spend 30 min’s putting, that should be more effective use of the time.

So until the light stays till 6pm of an evening I’ll restrict the range sessions to weekends or days off.

February & 2011 goals.

So February is here and I’m thinking about my goals for the year. I want to break 80 this year in a general knock from the yellows. I also want to break 90 in a comp. Handicap goal for year end is 18. These should all be achievable goals.

Biggest goal of the year is to get comfortable playing in medals. We all play our best golf when we are relaxed and focused, I know it’s just a matter of use before I feel comfortable in the medal comps, so I plan to enter as many as possible and to hell with the score. I’m just going to play to enjoy a round of golf.

Work looks much busier this year and I will have chunks of time when I will not be able to get out as much as last season, but I will have enough time generally especially if I use it efficiently.

From now until April I’m working mainly on the swing at the range and on pitching to distances. Then I will switch to mostly short game stuff and especially chipping & putting.

I’m half committed to not changing any of my clubs this year and I have enough golf balls to see me through the year. So at least my equipment will be consistent.

I think the next step is a video lesson mid Feb, I can’t do it before then due to work commitments but it will be nice to see what the swing looks like after my tinkering over the winter.

Jan Practice log...

January Practice log…

Putting stroke practice, 1 hour. 28th Jan.
5 holes general practice. 27th Jan.
Range 80 balls, 1 hour. 27th Jan.
Putting practice, 30 Mins. 27th Jan.
Chipping practice, 1 hour. 27th Jan.
Pitching practice, 1 hour. 27th Jan.
Range 50 balls, 1 hour. 25th Jan.
Putting practice, 30 Mins. 23rd Jan.
Pitching practice, 1 hour. 23rd Jan.
12 holes, general practice. 23rd Jan.
Range 50 balls, 1 hour. 22nd Jan.
6 holes general practice. 8th Jan.
Range 75 Balls, 1 hour. 8th Jan.

Practice time

Putting time 120 Min's
Driving range 255 balls (Estimate 240 Min's)
Pitching & Chipping time 180 Min’s
Practice holes played = 23