PGA Tour Academy: Home Edition - THP Preview

[Germerican]

Just got back from the range and really worked on lesson one again. My ball flight is much straighter and when I go 1/3-2/3 swing, I am hitting the ball at a respectable distance. I brought my wood and driver with me because I had some trouble with them Saturday when I was playing a round. I started hitting the driver really well and I still have issues with my wood.
I watched the putting lesson today and was taught something that I was doing wrong the entire time. I used to lock both of my arms tight and in line with the putter shaft. After watching the putter set up, I now know the proper way with the elbows tucked in and arms flexed. My driving range has a pathetic green so there was no chance of me working with a towel and rolling some balls. I do have some practice balls at home, but the shag carpet will give me a false reading and mess up my tempo. I did, however, work on putter grip, alignment, cadence, and the A-B-C.
Playing a round of 18 tomorrow and I hope what I did on the driving range will work on the greens. I might also go early and do the towel exercise on the practice green.
On an awesome note, I grabbed an old driver sitting around and I noticed that I was holding it properly as taught in the GPA lesson. Love it when things become automatic.

 

[Akrobby]

Darn rain is getting in the way of my golf time. Besides being busier than a one armed paper hanger, this wet weather has put a damper on my golf time. I did the putting lesson, but was stuck putting on my at home putting mat that I got from Amazon. I am going to do the home lesson #3 tonight, and hope I can get to the practice range tomorrow. I still go through the GPA items throughout the day.

I also found the foundation movements section of the DVD has a lot of useful movements. So far I've reviewed that at the end of each lesson, and will continue to do so. I am hoping to finish this before our weather turns to complete crap. I have the indoor golf dome to continue practicing over the long winter, and also plan to get out of state a few times this winter for golf trips. By next season I hope to be ready to consistently cut some strokes off my game.

 

[Germerican]

I also found the foundation movements section of the DVD has a lot of useful movements.

I use the foundation movements now when I warm up. All but the pelvic thrusting. Don't want people to look at me thinking I love golf in a physical manner

 

[Bullitt5339]

OK, just finished Lesson 6: Intermediate distances - Pitching.

I have to say that I didn't expect to learn anything ground breaking during this lesson, but again, I was wrong. They demonstrated two different types of shots, the Toss Shot and the standard Pitch. I had never thought of these as two different swings, I was always taught 8-4, 9-3, 10-2 with all my short game shots. Their approach seems like a much better approach for consistency. The toss shot was pretty much an arm swing 9-3, but you do follow through. This brought in high, standard and low toss shots, which is the same swing, just varying the ball position in order to control flight and distance. It was a very repeatable motion for me. The pitching was nothing really new, but they did remind me of a few things that I haven't been doing very well lately. Namely the setup and keeping myself centered over the ball throughout the backswing. Again, nothing that I didn't know that I should be doing, but the motions made it very apparent that I was swaying on my backswing.

I was not disappointed with this lesson at all, and after the problems I had with Lesson 5, everything fell together nicely and it all made sense. I see this as a pattern with me and these lessons. I will go through a certain lesson and it will have me all screwed up, but then the next lesson addresses what I was having a problem with and everything gets straightened right out. I'm super confident going into my practice tomorrow for toss shots and pitching that I am getting the moves down and it's making a big difference overall, even though I may be struggling every now and then with those intermediate lessons.

I must say that over halfway through this series, I am super impressed with the strategy they employed. This is definitely the best program that I've seen as far as really learning how to swing a club correctly from the ground up. As someone who owns the Stack and Tilt DVDs and has taken many lessons throughout the years, I can honestly say that this is the best way I've seen to actually learn how to play golf. Everything definitely builds on top of each lesson, which is something that I've never experienced before. Whenever I went in for lessons, I wasn't learning from the ground up how to build a swing, I was learning how to fix a specific problem, which never actually was a long term fix to my game.

I am really grooving on these lessons now if you couldn't tell, especially after last week when I felt lost and started to think that I could not get the pivot correct because I wasn't hitting the ball well. You have to believe in the process and even if you regress a little from where you're playing now, the next lesson will more than likely bring you much further than where you were beforehand.

 

[Akrobby]

I use the foundation movements now when I warm up. All but the pelvic thrusting. Don't want people to look at me thinking I love golf in a physical manner

Hahahaha, I do the same thing. I actually did the pelvic ones today at the golf dome, but there was only one other person there.

Just did lesson 3. That one has been tough on me, as I have been swinging wrong basically since I started 3 years ago. Im going to be going through this lesson over and over. I used to have a bit of lag in my swing, but not to the point I needed it. It has also been raining pretty much non stop for three weeks at least. I've been going over and over on the GPA at home multiple times a day. We have an indoor putting area at the golf dome, so did my putting practice there. We only have a few weeks left on the outside courses, after that it will be indoor hitting at lunch, and simulators. The indoor golf dome changed owners, so this winter they will be only open for golf from 11:00 to 2:00, and it looks like indoor soccer will be filling the rest if the time. I'm heading to Seattle for a few days at the end of this month, basically to play golf all weekend, so hopefully I will have time to get through my first round of this course before then.

 

[Germerican]

Saturday I did the putting lesson and it seemed to help a bit. I still do a lot of lag putting and my green reading is pretty bad. I'll over read the break and wind up further to the left or right than I want to be. Monday I did the towel training and putt from 1m, 3mm, and 9m out. There are no breaks in the practice green so the around the world session was omitted.
However, due to certain circumstances, I am going to take a week or two off from all golf related activities and clear my head.

 

[Ashnz]

I did the Impact Zone yesterday at the range… not impressed with myself at all. I was doing the drill perfectly indoors when there was no ball to hit. When I got to the range and had a ball there all of sudden I wanted to hit the ball rather than just doing the drill as best as I could. I still managed to get few pure shots which felt really good and had good distance on them but most of the time I could not get it right. Maybe it had something to do with the guy next to me who seemed to be hitting his iron shots into the stratosphere.

When I came back home again I started to swing beautifully without a ball there to hit. Today is meant to be an off day but I might go to the range again and try the drills again.

I was hitting lot of fat shots (as opposed to my usual thins) on the range as I was trying to extend my right arm – any idea why that could be?

 

[Bullitt5339]

I was hitting lot of fat shots (as opposed to my usual thins) on the range as I was trying to extend my right arm – any idea why that could be?

You're probably either extending the arm too early, remember that the full extension should be past the ball or you're not "going with the shot", which will make the swing bottom behind the ball as well.

 

[Ashnz]

You're probably either extending the arm too early, remember that the full extension should be past the ball or you're not "going with the shot", which will make the swing bottom behind the ball as well.

Yes - thank you. I recreated my swing here in the office and realised that I am indeed not going with the shot and fully extending behind the ball insted of past it as you said.

I think what happened was that I was so focused on extending the arm that I forgot the other parts of the swing like weight transfer.

 

[Bullitt5339]

Yes - thank you. I recreated my swing here in the office and realised that I am indeed not going with the shot and fully extending behind the ball insted of past it as you said.

I think what happened was that I was so focused on extending the arm that I forgot the other parts of the swing like weight transfer.

Yeah, it happens. Once you get to the chipping lesson, it'll be a lot easier because you'll instantly see the results when you get through the impact zone correctly vs. not. At first, I wasn't going with the shot and I actually shanked about 10 chips in a row because of it. Realized what I was doing and instantly corrected it.

 

[ironcondor]

I hit the range hard today - about 2+ hours. My putting couldn't be in a better place for me. I'm very pleased with how my putting is going. :alien2:

Like Ashnz said above, I had trouble with lesson 3 and a real ball. Eventually it started to click, but it's like re-learning my entire downswing. It still feels weird. But, man - when you contact the ball right - it feels amazing! I started incorporating the pivot as well, and worked on 1/3-2/3 speed swings. It's tough. I have a lot of work to do. It just doesn't feel natural. That said, the contact is coming along - and, I'm taking nice divots in front of the ball! That's where the good news ends though. Check out my attached pic. So, my target line is noted, and check out where my divots are angled to. Way off to the left. I'm not sure if it should be like that. Outside-in swing? What's strange is, when I'm hitting the ball, the ball is going down the target line for the most part, maybe a slight fade. It really feels good. Then I look down and see the divot angle, and I'm confused...

Any ideas? I really struggle with an outside in swing, and I don't want it to be there still with these lessons. I must be doing something total wrong (just to test, I busted out my driver and sure enough - slice-o-rama!!)

View attachment 11114

 

[Bullitt5339]

I hit the range hard today - about 2+ hours. My putting couldn't be in a better place for me. I'm very pleased with how my putting is going. :alien2:

Like Ashnz said above, I had trouble with lesson 3 and a real ball. Eventually it started to click, but it's like re-learning my entire downswing. It still feels weird. But, man - when you contact the ball right - it feels amazing! I started incorporating the pivot as well, and worked on 1/3-2/3 speed swings. It's tough. I have a lot of work to do. It just doesn't feel natural. That said, the contact is coming along - and, I'm taking nice divots in front of the ball! That's where the good news ends though. Check out my attached pic. So, my target line is noted, and check out where my divots are angled to. Way off to the left. I'm not sure if it should be like that. Outside-in swing? What's strange is, when I'm hitting the ball, the ball is going down the target line for the most part, maybe a slight fade. It really feels good. Then I look down and see the divot angle, and I'm confused...

Any ideas? I really struggle with an outside in swing, and I don't want it to be there still with these lessons. I must be doing something total wrong (just to test, I busted out my driver and sure enough - slice-o-rama!!)

View attachment 11114

Patience..... the direction of the divots are not important right now. The fact that your swing bottom is past the ball is what's important at this point. You are swinging out to in, but don't let that bother you at this point. Once you get to the pivot lesson, you'll start to get the swing more on plane, then more in the pitching and full swing lessons.

 

[ironcondor]

thanks for the encouragement!


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[Germerican]

Bullitt, is lesson three going to possible fix my issue? I top the ball or slice about 70% of the time when I'm on the course. My main issue is slicing and topping.

 

[Ashnz]

Bullitt, is lesson three going to possible fix my issue? I top the ball or slice about 70% of the time when I'm on the course. My main issue is slicing and topping.

I know you asked Bullitt but I do think that lesson 3 is going to be a big help towards fixing your topping issue. I am a big topper/thinner too and I hardly take any divots but lesson 3 has changed the way I strike the ball. Not sure about slicing though.. I'd say it is more of an element of the grip.

 

[Bullitt5339]

Slicing is swing path. Lesson 5, 6, 7

 

[Ashnz]

I re-did the Impact Zone work again yesterday even though it was meant to be a day off. It went better but I still have instinct of hitting the ball rather than just doing my swing. Main focus was to ingrain stretching of arm into my full swing. I am playing 2 rounds this weekend and I am quite nervous about my swing at the moment since it's going through a big change. I don't really feel that I have a swing anymore because all is new to me. Any ideas on how to carry over the new swing ideas to the course?

Chipping lesson tonight and I am looking forward to it. For some reason I've always been a person who has enjoyed chipping and has been above average (for my handicap) with chipping and putting. So I am really looking to the lesson tonight.

 

[Bullitt5339]

I re-did the Impact Zone work again yesterday even though it was meant to be a day off. It went better but I still have instinct of hitting the ball rather than just doing my swing. Main focus was to ingrain stretching of arm into my full swing. I am playing 2 rounds this weekend and I am quite nervous about my swing at the moment since it's going through a big change. I don't really feel that I have a swing anymore because all is new to me. Any ideas on how to carry over the new swing ideas to the course?

Chipping lesson tonight and I am looking forward to it. For some reason I've always been a person who has enjoyed chipping and has been above average (for my handicap) with chipping and putting. So I am really looking to the lesson tonight.

I don't worry too much about translating to the course right now. I've been struggling a bit incorporating the pivot into my swing, which has made my irons a bit erratic right now. My playing partners know that I am going through a complete overhaul so they laugh along with me when something stupid happens.

I have noticed one thing. When I had a bad ball striking day before I started, I was shooting 105-107s. When I have a bad ball striking day now, I shoot 90-92. That's a big difference when I feel like I am playing just as bad.

Today was a perfect example. I was hitting my fairway wood decent off the tee, but my irons were a bit crazy. I was also not putting well, I was zooming everything way past the hole and couldn't get it figured out. When I tallied everything up at the end, I had a 92 with 38 putts. I felt like I was shooting a 110.

What I did do was hit the practice green after the round for over an hour. I went back to the basics and realized that I wasn't gripping down as far on the putter as I had been and I had let the ball get too far forward in my stance again. Using what I had learned in these lessons, I was able to get myself fixed in under an hour.

I did do my pitching lesson today with mixed results. I was practicing the toss shot they teach, which is a limited turn pitch and did pretty well with it at short distances. They didn't have the high toss in the practice, which seems to be just shy of a lob shot. Square face, but forward in the stance and a high, soft landing shot. It took a while with my lob wedge to trust swinging that hard with the green right in from of me, but I realized that you can swing hard and the ball is going to go really high, but only go 10-15 yards. I need to work on learning my 9-3 and 10-2 distances with LW, SW, GW and PW so that I know what club to use from different distances under 100 yards, which is my full SW swing distance.

 

[chasingpar]

Due to all the positive reviews on this I bit the bullet and placed my order. Cant wait to get started.


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[Ashnz]

I don't worry too much about translating to the course right now. I've been struggling a bit incorporating the pivot into my swing, which has made my irons a bit erratic right now. My playing partners know that I am going through a complete overhaul so they laugh along with me when something stupid happens.

I have noticed one thing. When I had a bad ball striking day before I started, I was shooting 105-107s. When I have a bad ball striking day now, I shoot 90-92. That's a big difference when I feel like I am playing just as bad.

Today was a perfect example. I was hitting my fairway wood decent off the tee, but my irons were a bit crazy. I was also not putting well, I was zooming everything way past the hole and couldn't get it figured out. When I tallied everything up at the end, I had a 92 with 38 putts. I felt like I was shooting a 110.

What I did do was hit the practice green after the round for over an hour. I went back to the basics and realized that I wasn't gripping down as far on the putter as I had been and I had let the ball get too far forward in my stance again. Using what I had learned in these lessons, I was able to get myself fixed in under an hour.

I did do my pitching lesson today with mixed results. I was practicing the toss shot they teach, which is a limited turn pitch and did pretty well with it at short distances. They didn't have the high toss in the practice, which seems to be just shy of a lob shot. Square face, but forward in the stance and a high, soft landing shot. It took a while with my lob wedge to trust swinging that hard with the green right in from of me, but I realized that you can swing hard and the ball is going to go really high, but only go 10-15 yards. I need to work on learning my 9-3 and 10-2 distances with LW, SW, GW and PW so that I know what club to use from different distances under 100 yards, which is my full SW swing distance.

I hope I'm like that tomorrow. I have had times in past where I've felt I'm hitting really bad but in the end walking away with a good score (for me). Is the toss shot same as lob shot? I love following your updates as it gives me a preview of what's ahead for me

I did the chipping lesson yesterday. It was largely what I expected. Hinge and hold makes me nervous though - idea of holding the hinge throughout the swing is little bit intimidating. I will practice tonight to see how I go.

 

[Bullitt5339]

I hope I'm like that tomorrow. I have had times in past where I've felt I'm hitting really bad but in the end walking away with a good score (for me). Is the toss shot same as lob shot? I love following your updates as it gives me a preview of what's ahead for me

I did the chipping lesson yesterday. It was largely what I expected. Hinge and hold makes me nervous though - idea of holding the hinge throughout the swing is little bit intimidating. I will practice tonight to see how I go.

From what I understand so far, the toss shot is just a square face, arm swing pitch. You can control the trajectory by where you place the ball in your stance. Putting it forward in my stance and swinging a bit harder with my lob wedge gave me a pretty high ball flight that didn't go anywhere, similar to a lob shot, but I can't reliably hit a lob shot and this is pretty easy to accomplish.

I wasn't confident with hinge and hold at first either and it took me a while to even make decent contact with the ball, but now I can actually use it on the course, although I've only had a couple instances where I needed to use it instead of a standard chip. Usually when I've overshot the green and I'm in some fairly thick rough. It flies higher than a chip shot, but still has quite a bit of roll out on it.

 

[BuckeyeMark]

Have been reading this thread because I was looking to see if any others are doing the Home Academy. I'm on Lesson 4 now and must say I'm very impressed. They really break it down where you can understand it and replicate it, and the ability to go back and "re-take" a lesson is pretty great. I've taken lessons and by the time I got home I couldn't really remember all we'd worked on. Here you just watch it again or read the book (or both). It's really solid. And the practice drills seem to really ingrain what you learn. For me this has been a big big plus.

 

[Bullitt5339]

Well, after a tough week, I cannot stress how important it is to be able to go back and do the lessons over again. Something that I didn't have the benefit of when I was taking lessons from a Pro.

I struggled with putting, so I went back to the putting lesson and practice and cleared it up quickly.

I was struggling with my irons after the pivot lesson, so I went back and watched The Impact Zone and Pivot lessons again today and realized I had slipped back into setting up too close to the ball again and wasn't extending through the ball and had my stance too wide which didn't allow me to get my weight forward. Went out afterwards and hit a few balls at the range with my 7 iron and was right back to hitting them high, straight and 175 yards.

I actually skipped the full swing lesson I was supposed to do tonight to go back and redo some of the previous lessons, which I believe I will make up for going forward by practicing the proper technique.

Keep at it guys, improvement is coming although it never comes as quickly or stays long enough in our minds.

 

[Daniel]

This looks amazing and would love to get it. However, just checked it out and apparently only ships to US and Canada so I'm screwed here in the uk.

 

[BuckeyeMark]

This looks amazing and would love to get it. However, just checked it out and apparently only ships to US and Canada so I'm screwed here in the uk.

you just need to get an ebay seller who is willing to ship it to the UK. prolly save a few bucks too.