Have you changed anything for this season in your swing?

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

…and as part of everything else I’m changing…I’ve changed my grip from Vardon to baseball.

I’ve used Vardon since I started playing when a kid 50+ yrs ago, learning it out of Hogan’s book, and have previously found little tweaks to it quite weird…but the change to baseball has been dead easy and as part of the overall change I’m doing seems to be working instantly, with no weirdness feelings whatsoever. Indeed it seems completely natural. And so I’ve changed to baseball for putting also.

All I am doing is developing a PSR that enables me to find my comfortable position at address, and then I just swing the club and hit the ball. I am doing nothing whatsoever in the swing itself that involves work on hands, hips, elbows, planes, top of backswing, follow-through etc…nothing…nada. I simply grip the club, get comfortable over the ball, address it, and hit it. Intuitive stuff with no swing thoughts cluttering and confusing my mind.

Golf is a simple game made difficult and complex by too much technique teaching.

 

[Orikoru]

Just went to the driving range, and actually tried a rough approximation of this eureka thing. As best as I could fathom from the couple of videos I've seen. Set my left foot back and open a little, tried to keep my shoulders square. Had enough success that there might be something in it. For one thing it does seem to help me turn through and get my weight over to lead side. Another thing, I used to have a short backswing and I think it's got a lot longer recently, whereas this set-up stopped me over-swinging it.

Of course this could be all old bollocks and back to slicing and duffing on Sunday but we'll see.

 

[harpo_72]

Just went to the driving range, and actually tried a rough approximation of this eureka thing. As best as I could fathom from the couple of videos I've seen. Set my left foot back and open a little, tried to keep my shoulders square. Had enough success that there might be something in it. For one thing it does seem to help me turn through and get my weight over to lead side. Another thing, I used to have a short backswing and I think it's got a lot longer recently, whereas this set-up stopped me over-swinging it.

Of course this could be all old bollocks and back to slicing and duffing on Sunday but we'll see.

The slicing and duffing are due to transfer .. the pros have huge width in their stance, but they practice massively, they sequence or start the down swing before they complete the back swing. So they start transferring their mass direction of travel.
The thing is the distance and power comes from going through the ball and the loses you have by not having a full back swing are mitigated by contact and your mass travelling in the direction of the shot .. that’s how I have interpreted the Eureka swing, which may be wrong

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Just went to the driving range, and actually tried a rough approximation of this eureka thing. As best as I could fathom from the couple of videos I've seen. Set my left foot back and open a little, tried to keep my shoulders square. Had enough success that there might be something in it. For one thing it does seem to help me turn through and get my weight over to lead side. Another thing, I used to have a short backswing and I think it's got a lot longer recently, whereas this set-up stopped me over-swinging it.

Of course this could be all old bollocks and back to slicing and duffing on Sunday but we'll see.

Stick with it and get the three canes and put one down the target line and then put the left and right a grip width from the top and line the clubface (right) and feet (Left) on these. It will feel insane to start and you may get few iffy ones. I find putting the club facing right and then putting left hand on seems to work. Once you get the feel for how open your body is and how easy it is to rotate you can start to reduce slightly the gap between the canes but it should be at least 3/4 of a grip width

 

[Orikoru]

Stick with it and get the three canes and put one down the target line and then put the left and right a grip width from the top and line the clubface (right) and feet (Left) on these. It will feel insane to start and you may get few iffy ones. I find putting the club facing right and then putting left hand on seems to work. Once you get the feel for how open your body is and how easy it is to rotate you can start to reduce slightly the gap between the canes but it should be at least 3/4 of a grip width

I'm not really one for faffing with alignment sticks and I'm not looking for wholesale changes - often with my longer clubs though I was aligning slightly left anyway because I expect to fade the ball, so doing that with all clubs doesn't feel too drastic. The key though I think is still having my shoulders square, rather than everything being set-up to the left. That (hopefully) means I'm not exacerbating that fade too much and slicing it.

The slicing and duffing are due to transfer .. the pros have huge width in their stance, but they practice massively, they sequence or start the down swing before they complete the back swing. So they start transferring their mass direction of travel.
The thing is the distance and power comes from going through the ball and the loses you have by not having a full back swing are mitigated by contact and your mass travelling in the direction of the shot .. that’s how I have interpreted the Eureka swing, which may be wrong

Duffing and fatting is definitely due to not transferring weight, and that's something I've been working on a lot. Ironically though I figured out last night that the opposite seemed to work for my recent driver slicing issue - once I stopped trying to transfer weight forward I was hitting it straighter. Of course with driver everything's a bit different anyway and I was probably getting the weight forward too much to hit up on it, as a hangover from working on that with other clubs.

 

[Smoj]

I've been working on compressing the ball a lot more, club handle first then club head. As before I was club head first then hands 2nd resulting in nice contact but going too high and not getting the carry I'm meant to be getting on each club.

Now I'm starting to get really satisfying contact and carry on all my clubs, I've also gained confidence in my long irons. it's the kind of thing that makes you want to play every day

 

[Depreston]

…and as part of everything else I’m changing…I’ve changed my grip from Vardon to baseball.

I’ve used Vardon since I started playing when a kid 50+ yrs ago, learning it out of Hogan’s book, and have previously found little tweaks to it quite weird…but the change to baseball has been dead easy and as part of the overall change I’m doing seems to be working instantly, with no weirdness feelings whatsoever. Indeed it seems completely natural. And so I’ve changed to baseball for putting also.

All I am doing is developing a PSR that enables me to find my comfortable position at address, and then I just swing the club and hit the ball. I am doing nothing whatsoever in the swing itself that involves work on hands, hips, elbows, planes, top of backswing, follow-through etc…nothing…nada. I simply grip the club, get comfortable over the ball, address it, and hit it. Intuitive stuff with no swing thoughts cluttering and confusing my mind.

Golf is a simple game made difficult and complex by too much technique teaching.

Forgot all about this as it was such an easy change I too have moved to a “baseball” grip and it’s been great. So much easier to close the face

Think for me with overlap vardon etc it was too easy to get my right hand in a weak position no idea why … I do have quite small hands

I’ll ride it till I start hooking the crap out of it

 

[MadAdey]

I tried the lifting of the lead heel in backswing then slam it down on the transition that might help him.

I found it a bit awkward but it does show your shifting your weight.

That is what I was talking about in the original post. Has really helped me not just gain some distance, but also better dispersal front to back and left to right. It is really weird to start with, but is amazing once you get it grooved in.

 

[clubchamp98]

That is what I was talking about in the original post. Has really helped me not just gain some distance, but also better dispersal front to back and left to right. It is really weird to start with, but is amazing once you get it grooved in.

Had a knock with an ex pro golfer today.
92 yrs old and a proper good player still and a total gent!

After the golf I said “ I was struggling a bit “ played ok though today.
He said to me “ you have a lovely tempo and a really good swing but you fan the club open on your backswing”
Nobody has said that to me before !
So practice ground tomorrow to see if he’s right.

 

[MadAdey]

Had a knock with an ex pro golfer today.
92 yrs old and a proper good player still and a total gent!

After the golf I said “ I was struggling a bit “ played ok though today.
He said to me “ you have a lovely tempo and a really good swing but you fan the club open on your backswing”
Nobody has said that to me before !
So practice ground tomorrow to see if he’s right.

Who was that BobMac????.................

Sorry Bob I just could not resist

 

[bobmac]

Who was that BobMac????.................

Sorry Bob I just could not resist

I cure your putting woes and you call me 92?
Cheeky fecker

 

[MadAdey]

I cure your putting woes and you call me 92?
Cheeky fecker

View attachment 53558

And here is the actual footage from the lesson.......

 

[bobmac]

Think your self lucky you are 5000 miles away

 

[MadAdey]

Just took this picture of my golf bag....................look what is still in there. Best few quid I have spent on golf. I will always remember when I got this from you and you showed me how to use it. How's life going matey?

 

[MadAdey]

Think your self lucky you are 5000 miles away

Sometimes I wish I wasn't, miss some of the lads from the forum. I do not know any of the newer members, but the original crew from way back was a great bunch and had some of my favorite golfing days with them, would love to have another game with you one day.

 

[bobmac]

Just took this picture of my golf bag....................look what is still in there. Best few quid I have spent on golf. I will always remember when I got this from you and you showed me how to use it. How's life going matey?

Going ok ta, hope you are too

 

[Barking_Mad]

Reading this topic then, it's clear what I need to do to save my golf game from oblivion. I just need to practise lifting my left heel in a eureka swing on top of some force plates. Job done.

600 reps a day for 2 weeks, you'll be golden.

 

[clubchamp98]

Who was that BobMac????.................

Sorry Bob I just could not resist

No absolute gentleman the likes of you don’t see much of any more.

Cost me though for the lesson !
Best half of Guinness I ever bought

 

[MadAdey]

Going ok ta,

Going ok ta, hope you are too

all good over here, enjoying my golf more than ever and playing my best ever golf. You still involved in the game?

 

[MadAdey]

No absolute gentleman the likes of you don’t see much of any more.

Cost me though for the lesson !
Best half of Guinness I ever bought

Best lesson you'll ever get is off Bob and that V-easy, took me from a very average at best putter, into that person who gets more than his fair share of putts that drop.........