Finally a powerful effortless golf swing

Hello fellow members. Just joined recently and read a few posts from other members and thought I would share a little about my golf journey and what brought me to Saguto Golf. It's a bit of a long story, but one that might help inspire other seniors or be just interesting to other Saguto Golf members. Plus I enjoy writing so here goes...I hope you enjoy the story.

I am a senior golfer (66) and have been golfing on and off for most of my adult life. I never had any formal lessons and learned to golf mainly through the course, Wisdom in Golf by Shawn Clement - who is also an excellent teacher. I was shooting in the mid 80s when I quit golf in 2014 after losing my best friend and golf partner a little too early in life. Like many seniors I had looked forward to spending a lot of my retirement time golfing, but after my friend passed I just lost the desire to golf. However, as time went by I started to get the bug again around summer of 2021. So I started to practice and made a few trips to the par three course near me and realized right off I had lost some power and my swing needed some help.

So I went on a search for some online training wanting to move on from Shawn, mainly by watching You Tube videos, and came across the Top Speed Golf system with Clay Ballard. His style seemed to resonate with me so I joined and proceeded to follow the curriculum and rebuild my swing from the ground up. My goal was to have an effortless but still somewhat powerful swing. I invested some money to build an indoor golf simulator and spent most of the winter of 21/22 practicing indoors. I am one of those individuals who loves to practice almost as much as I enjoy golf so I practiced pretty much daily and made some progress, but was still not getting the results I was looking for. I was struggling to make consistent solid contact and my swing was far from effortless. A big focus of the TSG system is making a full shoulder turn and it was that same big shoulder turn that made my swing seem tight and awkward.

Plus I was not getting much distance out of any of my clubs. But hey I was a senior so I just assumed that was the way it was going to be now. What bugged me though is I have worked out most of my entire adult life lifting weights 3-4 times a week as well as doing high level cardio a couple of times a week too, so I am in pretty good shape for a man of my age. I could see no logical reason I should lose power like most men my age. I thought it might be partly due to the extra muscle I have in my upper body causing some flexibility issues so I took up yoga to improve my flexibility and it does help, but it did not improve my power or make my swing feel any more effortless.

When spring hit I started to practice outside. I have a good size yard (2 acres) and have a Net Return pro and a couple of nice mats so I have a pretty nice practice facility. I use birdie balls which are an excellent practice aid because they feel like a golf ball when you hit them but only go about 40-50 yards. You can also fade and draw them and based on the sound and flight you, know when you make a good swing. Plus you can practice hitting the ball first and taking a divot using them as well. I was making okay contact, but I was spraying the ball all over the yard and still not able to take a decent divot after the ball. Around this same time I started working on the speed training module of the TSG system to hopefully get my club head speed (with a driver) to a respectable 90+ MPH. I was making progress, but I aggravated an old injury pinching a nerve in my neck so was sidelined for a few months. When I returned to practicing around the end of July, I was limited to just hitting short irons and not taking a full swing. Even then I could not make decent contact so I was one frustrated golfer and about ready to just hang it up.

Then one day I saw a video about keeping your left arm straight and it made me curious. There was no mention of this in the TSG system which seemed odd to me...and I was definitely not keeping my left arm straight. Like I said, a big focus of the TSG system is getting a full shoulder turn and for me to accomplish this, I needed to bend my left arm slightly. This left arm straight thing peaked my interest though so I did some searching on that and found my first video by Tom Saguto. It was an older video but the focus was on two things…keeping you left arm straight and putting the weight on your left side. He also mentioned to just come back as far as was comfortable and not try and take a huge back swing…it was not necessary. Wha….what!!!!! I had heard about the Stack and Tilt method before, but never pursued it so I had no idea it was the foundation of what Tom was showing in that video. What I do know however, is that it produced amazing results...and I mean the first time I tried it.

Like so many self-taught golfers though I have watched a ton of videos on You Tube and have experienced times where one tip produced good results. What I also learned is that most of these quick fixes are just that…quick fixes. If you do not have a good foundation, they really don’t produce long lasting results. Not always mind you… some do work, but generally speaking. So I was skeptical to say the least…excited as heck, but still skeptical. I exchanged a few comments with someone, seemed like Tom himself but maybe not, regarding my results. Of course they encouraged me to join, but I was not about to make that jump just yet and explained that to them as well. What I did do is proceed to hit 100+ birdie balls a day for about three weeks focusing on keeping my arm straight and putting my weight on my lead side, and wow. I was making the best contact I had ever had my entire golf life. I was even taking divots after the ball a lot more often, not every time mind you, but a lot more often. I also have a Divot Board, my second favorite training aide, which works real well with Birdie Balls.

Up until this point I was just hitting Birdie Balls and not real balls since I was still in recovery, but also because I was simply afraid to find out it was not real. I know that might sound weird, but even I know as much as I like hitting Birdie Balls, there is nothing like the real thing. Anyway, I got myself 20 balls and some impact tape and went to work. I started with some shorter swings and worked my way to a 3/4 swing with just two swing thoughts and in short order I was just blistering the impact tape. Shot after shot, solid as heck and right in the sweet spot.

When I finally took my new swing to the course it was one of the most satisfying feelings I had ever experienced golfing. I’m not going to say it was all good - it was my first time out since March so I had my share of poor shots and could not hit my hybrids worth a damn, but I made some of the best iron shots of my life. The impact on a most shots just felt so solid and my swing felt so effortless…and I was getting some decent distance. I have gone out a few more times since and it just keeps getting better. Two days ago on a short 145 yard par three I hit an eight iron about two feet from the pin. It might have been the single best shot of my life. It was not just that, every time I made contact it felt solid. Sure I had my share of duff shots, but when I did make contact, most of the time it was solid. The funny thing is, I could never hit my longer irons very well, even when I was shooting in the mid 80s. So I just started using hybrids after my 8 iron and I made it work. But now I am much more confident with my irons and plan to put a 7 and 6 iron back in my bag.

So to make this long story short, I am a believer in this method – it just works for me, is simple and gives me the results I want – a smooth, effortless and powerful swing. I still have some work to do with my hybrids and woods, but I plan to go through the entire program so I do not miss out on any foundational aspects. At the end of the day I am confident by following the program I can make the necessary adjustments to the swing I have now to hit all my clubs with as much confidence as I do my irons right now and I look so forward to getting started.

One last thing I want to say, the TSG system is a solid one and Clay Ballard has put together and excellent training program. I truly believe there is more than one way to swing a golf club. We are not all built the same so if Saguto Golf does not work for you, I highly recommend giving the TSG system try or some other method. I am convinced everyone can learn to play the game of golf well as long as they have clear goals, are willing to put in the practice time and have realistic expectations.

Cheers,

AE