Hooker - Going back to my roots

I just wanted to share a quick update to happily say my ball striking is continuing to improve. For me it's all about the take away. When I do this correctly it is amazing how much purer I strike the ball. The club head is squaring up much better these days. The full shots are coming around real nicely.

One thing that is costing me a ton of strokes right now is green side yips. I built me a little training device via a tip from Golftec. It involved taking an old wedge, cutting out the bottom, and inserting a shaft through the butt end. It's like hitting an extended wedge. If you do it wrong it bangs you in the side of your ribs. I will be hitting a ton of balls with this as it really does help to prevent the yips with those short little pesky shots. I see really good things happening in 2013. I'm scheduling a fitting session next week in Athens, Ga. which I am excited about. Once I win the $550 million lottery tonight, I will be all set to gear up for next season :D!
 
That is great news about the ball striking OG. The short game will come around.
 
I'll be anxious to see the new (old) swing when we get over to True Blue next week OG. Of course, you were still hooking the ball the last time we played together, so I may not notice the difference.
 
That is great news about the ball striking OG. The short game will come around.

Thanks for the encouragement. This is the most excited I have been in some time about golf and it all came about from a single golf lesson. My pro told me we have more to work to do however get this (take away) right first.
 
Went out today and struck my driver, hybrids, and irons well. The in the right pocket and up move is beginning to work very well! The only thing that kept me from scoring today, was poor chipping and putting. Next week I will be taking a lesson on my short game. A solid short game along with a proper club fitting, should make 2013 a good golf season :blob:. Not even a minor tweak on my right wrist,caused any ball striking problems today. I'm looking forward to Myrtle Beach this coming weekend!
 
Went out today and struck my driver, hybrids, and irons well. The in the right pocket and up move is beginning to work very well! The only thing that kept me from scoring today, was poor chipping and putting. Next week I will be taking a lesson on my short game. A solid short game along with a proper club fitting, should make 2013 a good golf season :blob:. Not even a minor tweak on my right wrist,caused any ball striking problems today. I'm looking forward to Myrtle Beach this coming weekend!

Great to hear OG! I hope I get to witness some of this much improved ball striking in MB!!
 
Great to hear OG! I hope I get to witness some of this much improved ball striking in MB!!

Green side shots are my main culprit for now. We have some tough rough just off the second cut of rough which is driving me nuts! Once I get out of this stuff, I have to deal with some ultra fast bent grass greens. When I learn how to deal with this ^^^^^^^^^, I will be able to travel to any golf course and be prepared.
 
That's a nice problem to have. I love dropping 80 - 100 balls and just chipping the day away
 
shouldn't this be under "Random & Off Topic"? or a new thread grouping called "Personal"? haha I kid, I kid. FIX THAT HOOK! *Action hero point*
 
shouldn't this be under "Random & Off Topic"? or a new thread grouping called "Personal"? haha I kid, I kid. FIX THAT HOOK! *Action hero point*
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haha I hear ya Jack! But once a hooker always a hooker :bulgy-eyes:. Well at least I thought so and then I had to go back to hooker school :D KellyBo and I joined our course range program, where you pay once a year and then you can hit all the balls ya want to. I plan on hopping on a few and getting this hooking thing down pat :thumb:
 
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haha I hear ya Jack! But once a hooker always a hooker :bulgy-eyes:. Well at least I thought so and then I had to go back to hooker school :D KellyBo and I joined our course range program, where you pay once a year and then you can hit all the balls ya want to. I plan on hopping on a few and getting this hooking thing down pat :thumb:
I know whatcha mean, i'm quite the snap-hooker myself.
 
Big day for wedge practice and some on course time. Tomorrow heading to Athens, Ga. for a 2 hour fitting session! :blob: This will cover every club in my bag from driver, hybrids, irons, & putter. I will come away knowing everything including what shaft works best for my game. This is the second step in my transition to becoming a more consistent golfer. Once the fitting is final I will be looking for either major modification to existing clubs or new clubs that do fit my fitting chart. Then back to my pro for more lessons. He wanted me to work on the take away first, then get fitted, then go back to him and we start a series of lessons to hammer down some consistency. I'm excited!
 
Awesome! Can't wait to hear how the fitting goes.
Big day for wedge practice and some on course time. Tomorrow heading to Athens, Ga. for a 2 hour fitting session! :blob: This will cover every club in my bag from driver, hybrids, irons, & putter. I will come away knowing everything including what shaft works best for my game. This is the second step in my transition to becoming a more consistent golfer. Once the fitting is final I will be looking for either major modification to existing clubs or new clubs that do fit my fitting chart. Then back to my pro for more lessons. He wanted me to work on the take away first, then get fitted, then go back to him and we start a series of lessons to hammer down some consistency. I'm excited!
 
Ok getting pumped for my fitting at 02:00 p.m. Thoughts on anything I should be aware of, or ask the fitter?
 
Big day for wedge practice and some on course time. Tomorrow heading to Athens, Ga. for a 2 hour fitting session! :blob: This will cover every club in my bag from driver, hybrids, irons, & putter. I will come away knowing everything including what shaft works best for my game. This is the second step in my transition to becoming a more consistent golfer. Once the fitting is final I will be looking for either major modification to existing clubs or new clubs that do fit my fitting chart. Then back to my pro for more lessons. He wanted me to work on the take away first, then get fitted, then go back to him and we start a series of lessons to hammer down some consistency. I'm excited!

I did this last year, OG. Always wanted to know for sure if my equipment fit me. I found out none of the shafts I was playing were optimal for me. I have replaced everything except the hybrids and wedges. Plan to go SCOR soon on the wedges. Expensive proposition, but, heck, at my age what else to I have to spend my money on?
 
I did this last year, OG. Always wanted to know for sure if my equipment fit me. I found out none of the shafts I was playing were optimal for me. I have replaced everything except the hybrids and wedges. Plan to go SCOR soon on the wedges. Expensive proposition, but, heck, at my age what else to I have to spend my money on?

I hear ya brother and being a senior, is all the more reason to get clubs fit correctly for our old arses. We don't need to be twisted up in some sort of weird position trying to hit our equipment :D
 
Today was an interesting day to say the least. The fitter had me hit 14 balls to collect data for the computer. I was very surprised to find out that my lie for my irons came out to be one degree flat or 62.5 I was thinking my lie would need to be adjusted to a more upright one however due to the stats compiled to include my long arms, it came out -1 flat. The fitting was very thorough and we looked at stuff like smash factor, spin, & launch angles. My head was spinning trying to remember all he told me however the main thing I remembered, was my swing is looking really solid and my current set of irons, which were bent a few months ago were correct for swing. With that said I have a minor tweak that is needed to lower side spin and increase smash factor, to be spot on where I want to be. The fitter who knows my swing coach personally, said what he was doing to my swing would in time create the desired results we are looking for. He commented me on my swing technique saying it was spot on to reaching my desired goal. I'm having problems attaching the pdf file to show the exact stats from my fitting today. Once I figure out how to do that I will add it to my ongoing diary here.

View attachment 6677
 
Good stuff my friend, you are well on your way to a great 2013 on the course.
 
Good stuff my friend, you are well on your way to a great 2013 on the course.

The cool thing is that our Pro fixed my nasty weak push/slice shot in ONE lesson. If you look on the far right side of the FlightScope chart you will see that every shot I hit was a draw. I emailed this data to my course pro for his records and something we will be looking at for my next session. One thing for sure is my sidespin (left), needs to be drawn in for a tighter dispersion. The fitter I went to in Athens, is certified by both Ping & Titilest and also spent time as a pro is extremely knowledgeable. He showed me how to adjust my swing just a bit, so my club face would not close as fast thus producing less side spin. It was cool actually seeing this minor tweak come to life on the FlightScope stats.
 
Glad to hear you enjoyed it, Gray. Are you still thinking about new clubs?
 
Glad to hear you enjoyed it, Gray. Are you still thinking about new clubs?

Does Santa come down the Chimney :drool:. Yea it would be nice to have a backup set. If my clubs were lost, stolen, or run over by a rain deer, etc. I would be in deep shat. I think every golfer needs at least one back up set of irons. If I suddenly lost my clubs, KellyBo would have to tote me over to the old folks home and put me in a straight jacket :bulgy-eyes:. Heck she has been rubbing her I20 Ping goodness all in my face saying, "Man you need to swing these things they are pure lushness" :beat-up:
 
Practice at the range went great today and the nine holes that followed, are confirming that my swing tweak is beginning to pay dividends. I'm starting to feel giddy like a girl in a jewelry shop :D. I have something to practice and build repetition, that actually works the right way :thumb:
 
Ok confession time as I slid off the wagon of correct swing path training. My progress recently just went into a major slump but thanks to my step son, train is back on the right tracks. MarcH who is a member here and has a beautiful golf swing knows a great deal about proper swing planes etc. He was watching me Monday (New Year's Eve) as we played golf earlier that day. Back to my old roll ya hands to the inside with a much too flat plane. We went to the range after the round and he worked with me for about 15 minutes and told me some drills to work on. The one that seems to stick in my hard head the best is simply putting a club in your belly button and rotating upwards toward the right shoulder. I played by myself today to work on this move and this is part of my pre shot routine now. Both of my thumbs should be pointing up towards the sky in this move. This keeps my wrist from rolling over to the layed off position. Marc said I should have a club in the house and do at least 60 reps per night for two weeks. After hitting some balls on the range and playing today with this move I was striking the ball much better. I may need to put 60 reps in per night for two years to break my terrible habit but I'm determined to make this muscle memory!
 
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