Great Course! Hitting consistently question.

Tom, you truly have a gift for explaining golf swing concepts that are easy and fun to implement! Coming to golf late in life, I’ve watch videos, read books and had some professional training, but the ability to translate knowledge to another, is definitely a gift, that not many of the above had. On my own, I‘ve put together what works, but always there was a lingering doubt that ‘I’m not doing it right’. Stumbling across your school gave me the affirmation that, with a little more guidance, indeed I was doing it correctly. I handicap about 18 at age 70.

Now my question. I’ve always had a tendency to overdo the side shift left, and bend the trailing knee too much forward, outward and low to make a divot. With corrections from your set up suggestions, and more focus on body rotation (swinging inside the barrel; tilt & rotate), I found the body mechanics, the way bones have to move, gave me just the right and proper left shift and solid strikes. I shoot irons and driver straight, but was still inconsistent with hybrids and my 3 fairway wood. In particular, I found my hybrids (4H, 3H), after hitting, severely closed and I hit poorly. I guessed that I’m hitting closer to the heel.

I did some slow motion swings and noticed that my actual swing extended a bit further away from my body than at set up; about half the distance from the hybrid mid point to the toe. Stepping back that amount gave me a perfect hit and straight. I also found that the slight shift left and the slight right knee bend inward to the target and outward from my body moved my club about that distance. Am I correct in thinking that this is normal, or am I still doing something wrong? It appears to me that the momentum of the downswing just naturally moves the body left and causing the right knee to sink a bit, just as it does, in reverse with the backswing. Whatever I’m doing, it is very consistent. It is quite amazing to learn how fine movements of the body can change both the club face angle and the club position towards or away from the body, causing a miss hit. I hit my irons flush, I think, because I generally set up with the ball nearer the wider toe of the iron. I keep my right elbow tight to my side on the downswing, and let the swinging force help keep my arms extended at impact. The faster I swing, the more consistent it is.

Once again, thank yo SO much for your course.

Robert

3 Comments

Tom Saguto

Aug 02, 2021

I very much appreciate your kind words, Robert, and I am so glad to learn of your improvement as well as your enjoyment of the school!

If you are consistently flushing your driver and irons - and if you have figured out your other clubs as mentioned - is there still an issue? As I tell folks, let your impact quality and ball flight be your guide!

Thanks again!

Tom

rbrtschroeder

Replying to

True enough! If it works, don’t fix it perhaps. Just that I’m 5 years new to this game, and I’ve made adjustments to my set up in the early days to fix a slice, only to realize later it was my grip and swing path that was poor. I guess I wonder if I’m losing power somewhere, or if it is normal for golfers to make these fine micro adjustments for their individual swings as they improve. Whatever I’m doing, my swing seems to extend out an inch more than at set up. Doesn’t sound like much, but makes a huge difference with the strike! I’ll just make it my set up, until something changes!

Thanks, Tom, for the quick reply.

Best,

Aug 03, 2021

@rbrtschroeder - Sounds good to me. Again, the ball does not lie. It will tell you everything you need to know about the flight plan it was given

And yes - I always prefer to check the setup for issues prior to any kind of swing intervention. Speaking of which, there are distinct setup differences between Stack & Tilt vs. shift & lift, so hopefully you spent sufficient time working gradually to build the proper foundation for your swing!