Where I live it's probably the coldest and wettest part of winter at present. The course is really wet and swamp like and the little grass that's left may as well not be there because it's weak and trampled down into the turf. The first few holes sit under a hill and don't get any sun til mid afternoon so they never dry out. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the ball is sitting on wet dirt as opposed to grass. I'm finding that wedges, particularly part shots, are more difficult in terms of hitting the green than a full 7 iron.
To overcome this I've been trying really hard to work out a really precise way to ensure good contact. It's normally so cold that it feels like the ball won't compress and so that narrows the margin for error even further. I've been trying many things:
1. For a while I was working really hard on low point and getting my left shoulder in the perfect position to deliver a flat left wrist.
2. I've been working on getting the right shoulder traveling down plane right at the ball so I don't get too level and shallow.
3. I've worked on having my club in the perfect position to remove the effect of bounce (further forward) and preventing the heel digging in (higher hands with shaft how the maker wanted it).
But, the big one, it came just the other day. I thought to myself, why am I still flushing 7 irons off wet mud and not wedges? Golfers are often advised to keep the left arm attached. I think this has been the problem. In a good swing I'd normally feel my right arm closer to my chest than my left arm. If anything the right elbow tries to move in front of the ball before releasing the power package and, in that position, the left arm will have already been launched off the chest and will be facilitating a flat left wrist. So I've been working on keeping my upper right arm absolutely glued to my chest throughout the entire swing pre-impact. I figured that in shorter swings, on the backswing it's so easy to let the right arm stray a little bit and then it won't get back to that strong position of a dynamic swing. If it did, doing so would generate too much clubhead speed.
I would think that what is happening is that my longer swings have a steeper angle of attack (not steep, just steeper than my pitching action. So, with the old pitching action too shallow, the new action puts me in a position where I feel like I can get a lot of clubface on the ball as opposed to feeling like I had to pick it. If you've played in conditions like this yourself you'll know that it feels like there is very very little difference between a shot that is flush and dead next to the hole and one that struggles to even make the green. THEN, knowing that, there is the occasional thin shot over the back from trying to pick it too clean. So, now I preset impact with right arm against my chest and more to the middle of my body than the side.
Any thoughts? Similar experiences?
To overcome this I've been trying really hard to work out a really precise way to ensure good contact. It's normally so cold that it feels like the ball won't compress and so that narrows the margin for error even further. I've been trying many things:
1. For a while I was working really hard on low point and getting my left shoulder in the perfect position to deliver a flat left wrist.
2. I've been working on getting the right shoulder traveling down plane right at the ball so I don't get too level and shallow.
3. I've worked on having my club in the perfect position to remove the effect of bounce (further forward) and preventing the heel digging in (higher hands with shaft how the maker wanted it).
But, the big one, it came just the other day. I thought to myself, why am I still flushing 7 irons off wet mud and not wedges? Golfers are often advised to keep the left arm attached. I think this has been the problem. In a good swing I'd normally feel my right arm closer to my chest than my left arm. If anything the right elbow tries to move in front of the ball before releasing the power package and, in that position, the left arm will have already been launched off the chest and will be facilitating a flat left wrist. So I've been working on keeping my upper right arm absolutely glued to my chest throughout the entire swing pre-impact. I figured that in shorter swings, on the backswing it's so easy to let the right arm stray a little bit and then it won't get back to that strong position of a dynamic swing. If it did, doing so would generate too much clubhead speed.
I would think that what is happening is that my longer swings have a steeper angle of attack (not steep, just steeper than my pitching action. So, with the old pitching action too shallow, the new action puts me in a position where I feel like I can get a lot of clubface on the ball as opposed to feeling like I had to pick it. If you've played in conditions like this yourself you'll know that it feels like there is very very little difference between a shot that is flush and dead next to the hole and one that struggles to even make the green. THEN, knowing that, there is the occasional thin shot over the back from trying to pick it too clean. So, now I preset impact with right arm against my chest and more to the middle of my body than the side.
Any thoughts? Similar experiences?