Ugh, ok . . .

Full Swing

So I was hitting balls on the range today and then I decided to take some shots at the ball picker. It was interesting because this is what started everything today. My friends Michael & Grant were watching me and as soon as I flighted my low, piercing stinger shots at the ball picker they both were like "whoa, your right arm position was awesome". Eventually, I tried to do it again, had them video tape it, and then they went on to talk about how with my real swing, my shoulders and my hips both rotate together rather than the hips leading first. This was something that I knew I did, but I thought I've improved on. I guess not.

So they showed me that I needed to create separation between my hips and my shoulders. I would have to clear my hips first, then drop my arms in the inside while staying covered over the ball. As soon as I had an understanding of what they wanted from me (and remembering what Mike Malaska showed me a long time ago) I was starting my shots right of my target and stopped coming over the top. I really had to feel as though my hips would shift laterally, fire, and at the same time, keep my shoulders closed as I dropped my arms down into the ball. A couple of weeks ago, Martin White & Jessi Gebhardt pointed out that I should try to keep my back to the target as long as possible. Well today, Michael wanted me to accomplish the same thing, but I believe I learn better when I understand the positions that I'm supposed to be in. Rather than being told certain sensations I should feel to achieve a position; to me, that's backwards to how I learn.

Short Game

I worked more on what I learned in the past few days with the tee drill, but I still felt the over the top skull shot from time to time and felt as though I was trying to pull my shots. Sure enough, I have been aiming right of my target and pulling my shots. I worked on my aim, and it seems to be working towards a better, more consistent impact.

Putting

I've been working on the same things for the past few weeks on alignment and producing a more consistent stroke with the putting plane, but I still feel as though my alignment with a different putter would make things easier. I feel as though I can putt well with the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 model that I have, but I feel like I would be even better with a putter that fit my eye better. I will need to take a lesson with Penny Pultz again soon to get fitted on the fit-to-aim putter system. At the time when she showed me a brief demo of the concept, I really didn't believe it too much. But now, I've been working hard, and I've looked at different putters with different necks and feel that there is some weight to the whole theory.