We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Another oddball post by Hammy

Hamfist

Hamfist

I promise not to murder Canadan.
Joined
Dec 7, 2014
Messages
12,160
Reaction score
7,571
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Handicap
30+
I was thinking about something today.

I'm always thinking about my swing. How to make it better, more distance, consistency, all the standard stuff.

This brought to mind a question. If I can make par on a hole, whether it be a 3/4/5, do I have a bad swing? Or, as I pondered, do I have a functional swing but just mis-hit the ball? (Often, sadly.)

Can one actually have a solid swing, and still mis-hit the ball with regularity?

Feel free to opine.
 
Depends on what you consider a miss hit. If you are always hitting fat/thin and missing the center of the face then no, you probably have a flaw(s) that makes it hard to repeat. Now if you are hitting the center of the face and getting the ball to go the distance you are trying to hit but your timing is a bit off that day and miss left or right because the club face is 3 degrees off I don't think that means your swing is bad.
 
My swing hasn't changed much from hitting in the 100's from hitting in the 70's/80's. Slight alignment tweaks and set up positions have been a game changer once I figured out what I was doing. Contact comes with repetition and practice for me. So yes, I do think it's possible to have a mechanically sound swing while having other things off, causing your shots to be off in one way or another.
 
Hamfist said:
I was thinking about something today.

I'm always thinking about my swing. How to make it better, more distance, consistency, all the standard stuff.

This brought to mind a question. If I can make par on a hole, whether it be a 3/4/5, do I have a bad swing? Or, as I pondered, do I have a functional swing but just mis-hit the ball? (Often, sadly.)

Can one actually have a solid swing, and still mis-hit the ball with regularity?

Feel free to opine.
Click to expand...

Is there a typo in the bolded sentence (should it be "can't"?)

I would think that you can have a good swing, but mishit the ball. The face can be open or closed while the club is on path and plane.

Can you also hit the ball fat, but have a good swing and bad body position?
 
Sure, golf is the game of managing misses. Good solid swing helps lower the margin of errors but it's there for everyone even pros. All of the shots that you see on TV that don't go in or near the holes are misses. That there are lots of misses.
 
That is why you have to define miss. But yeah golf at high levels is more about how bad your bad is not how good your good shots are. Tons of people can hit shots that are as good as you see on tv.
 
Hamfist said:
Can one actually have a solid swing, and still mis-hit the ball with regularity?
Click to expand...


For me it comes down to how one defines "with regularity."
You can make a par, even a birdie, with a 140 yard worm burner to the green, so scoring should not affect answer to your Q.
Conversely, you can have a well struck shot and beautiful swing that leaves you short, long or left/right for a variety of reasons other than good swing- bad swing.

I like to say (and think) I am a pretty good ball striker - except on those swings that I am not, LOL.
Seems I may have 4-6 brain freeze ugly swings per round, but do not think that disqualifies one from having a "solid swing".
 
Didn't Jack Nicklaus state that during a round only 4 or 5 shots go exactly as planned?
The pros and better players practice and it seems to better their odds of having a good shot.
From watching on TV, some of the pros will hit a sour shot.
Yesterday, Fred Couples yanked a drive hard left.
His recovery shot was unbelievable.
 
Interesting responses!

To clarify, or muddy, the water:
(In order of appearance)
-let's define a mis-hit as either a fat shot or a thin, neither more prevalent.
-let's say if happens once per hole
-and let's say the other shots on any given hole are acceptable
 
brianmk24 said:
Is there a typo in the bolded sentence (should it be "can't"?)

I would think that you can have a good swing, but mishit the ball. The face can be open or closed while the club is on path and plane.

Can you also hit the ball fat, but have a good swing and bad body position?
Click to expand...

Actually, Brian, the idea behind this is my swing is good enough to allow me to have par'd 3's, 4's, and 5's, so the swing can produce good shots. And many bad ones.
 
Another oddball post by Hammy

Hamfist said:
Interesting responses!

To clarify, or muddy, the water:
(In order of appearance)
-let's define a mis-hit as either a fat shot or a thin, neither more prevalent.
-let's say if happens once per hole
-and let's say the other shots on any given hole are acceptable
Click to expand...

IMO you can have a generally good looking/fairly mechanically sound (for the most part) swing and hit most shots fat during a given round. That could come from just one part of your swing that is causing it, instead of the entire thing being poor. or could come from alignment if you have the ball slightly too far forward.

I have a generally consistent swing; but if I get off even slightly I can hit almost every shot fat during a round.

...I think that answers the question you're asking? Haha
 
Hamfist said:
Actually, Brian, the idea behind this is my swing is good enough to allow me to have par'd 3's, 4's, and 5's, so the swing can produce good shots. And many bad ones.
Click to expand...
Gotcha because if I made par on every hole, I wouldn't care if I had a good swing or not!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
brianmk24 said:
Gotcha because if I made par on every hole, I wouldn't care if I had a good swing or not!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Truth on that!

So, I'm wondering if I should not obsess on the swing, just accept it for what it is, embrace it, and play.
 
cbaker2882 said:
IMO you can have a generally good looking/fairly mechanically sound (for the most part) swing and hit most shots fat during a given round. That could come from just one part of your swing that is causing it, instead of the entire thing being poor. or could come from alignment if you have the ball slightly too far forward.

I have a generally consistent swing; but if I get off even slightly I can hit almost every shot fat during a round.

...I think that answers the question you're asking? Haha
Click to expand...

Well, it's the type of information for which I was fishing. As I said to Brian above, maybe I can stop the swing addiction, and just play it as what it is.
 
The goal of golf is to make the lowest score on each that your game will allow. We play golf not golf swing. If you can make par hitting it all over the lot so be it. Bad swings will putt you into negative situations more often then not. Making your scrambling skills paramount. Solid swings aren't going to have too many misses.
 
I hit slightly fat and thin shots way more than I flush them, that said I am the only one who notices since it might only come up 3 yards short or just a slight loss in spin. I am sure that is what the JN quote is talking about and he probably had a fairly high standard. If I miss my target yardage by more than 5% I consider that a bad shot, more than 10% is a disaster.

As for your swing individually you need to decide what you want. If you want to go out and have fun don't stress over it. In your case I think chasing lots of distance would probably be bad but chasing a swing that you can repeat and not have more than 10% misses very often is a worthwhile goal.
 
Hamfist said:
Truth on that!

So, I'm wondering if I should not obsess on the swing, just accept it for what it is, embrace it, and play.
Click to expand...
I think that's up to each of us. We can always improve our swing (to a point for us amateurs, depending on physical limitations, practice time, etc.).

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
ntanygd760 said:
I hit slightly fat and thin shots way more than I flush them, that said I am the only one who notices since it might only come up 3 yards short or just a slight loss in spin. I am sure that is what the JN quote is talking about and he probably had a fairly high standard. If I miss my target yardage by more than 5% I consider that a bad shot, more than 10% is a disaster.

As for your swing individually you need to decide what you want. If you want to go out and have fun don't stress over it. In your case I think chasing lots of distance would probably be bad but chasing a swing that you can repeat and not have more than 10% misses very often is a worthwhile goal.
Click to expand...

But, but, I want to be "Ben long"!!!!!
 
cbaker2882 said:
IMO you can have a generally good looking/fairly mechanically sound (for the most part) swing and hit most shots fat during a given round. That could come from just one part of your swing that is causing it, instead of the entire thing being poor. or could come from alignment if you have the ball slightly too far forward.

I have a generally consistent swing; but if I get off even slightly I can hit almost every shot fat during a round.

...I think that answers the question you're asking? Haha
Click to expand...

This is exactly my problem. I golfed with the president of our golf club two weeks ago. Not knowing he also teaches golf he basically said my alignment is a disaster. I'm all over the place, he said my swing was really good and my short was solid, but from tee to mid iron nothing was ever consistent. He gave me some tips to work on, but I think I may hit him up for some lessons. He said if I get my alignment down my handicap will drop significantly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thru my 90s and 80s scoring range all I wanted was a swing like Steve Elkington. Once I stated shooting in the 70's I've come to love my Lee Trevino's style swing. It's all about priorities.
 
interesting question. I think there are two possibilities that offer answer to the question.

I think at the higher cap levels one can have a somewhat poor swing that still works well sometimes and that is not a good swing imo but is one in which just so happens to work well for the time being. I also think one can have a so called "solid" swing but simply does not yet have it ingrained into his mind.body, system. And so he cant repeat it enough.

So imo we can have poor swings which happen to work well sometimes and we also can have solid swings which are not yet repeatable and don't work well sometimes. Being regularly inconsistent as for enough errant strikes and enough bad misses with regularity I would think can come from either scenario about equally.

The less ingrained (or repeatable) the solid or good swing is the more mishits but at least that player is on the right track becuas the opposite is also true. But the player with a "not so good" swing that works well only at times will never be able to improve his consistency because that poorer non repeatable swing is all he'll ever have so its always going to fail often enough. Amd will always wonder why the heck he played well before or yesterday yet cant now or tomorrow.
 
Thanks for all the input, everyone. Always enjoy reading the different views people have.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top