Bet that thread title got you thinking... didn't it...
Yeah, I'm the guy that posted the thread about hitting the ball aiming with the toe of the club. So this is gonna come as absolutely no shock to a lot of people.
My setup has creeped closer and closer to the ball over the last 8 months, unnoticed by myself, my golf buddies, and multiple instructors. First effect was just some draws. Then hooks. Then $hanks. At this point, I thought I was coming over the top, or casting the club. Instructor said I needed to "clear my hips faster and get out of my own way". Did absolutely nothing to my setup besides moving the hands lower and adding lots of forward press. "Keep more weight on the left side!" he said.
A day at the golf shop on a launch monitor finally told me I was swinging way inside out. Couldn't believe it. Tried swinging left. Worked for one day. Tried swinging left the next few days... didn't last. When it worked, I had this fantastic feeling of raising my hands out in the backswing and trying to put them in my left pocket on the downswing. The resulting path of the club from the turn and pull was straight through the ball... well... on the one day when it worked that is.
Eventually, I couldn't hit the ball at all. Long clubs became useless. Even off the tee, my game became highly erratic. This went on for the last 8 months.
Finally decided today I had had enough and very precisely setup to the ball (my own stubbornness had led me away from standing farther from the ball).
"I'm an upright swinger" I thought "My distance is fine."
Only one difference this time setting up from my usual routine. Instead of having the club a hand width from my body, I placed it a hand length. A difference of about 3 inches.
That was all it took.
Some real adjustments getting used to swinging that far out (I felt like Moe Norman for about 30 minutes, just without the laser straight ball flight and rotted out rambling grin), but the ball flight straightened out. The look, the feel... all different, but swinging in control took about a quarter of the effort. I could once again shape shots by monitoring my left hand through impact. Line up 3 balls, draw one, straight next, fade the last.
Absolutely amazing what a little 3 inches can do.
So to anyone out there who gets in this too far from the inside pattern, check your distance. It's a ridiculously sensitive thing.
Now if only I can get control of that 8 inches between my ears!
Yeah, I'm the guy that posted the thread about hitting the ball aiming with the toe of the club. So this is gonna come as absolutely no shock to a lot of people.
My setup has creeped closer and closer to the ball over the last 8 months, unnoticed by myself, my golf buddies, and multiple instructors. First effect was just some draws. Then hooks. Then $hanks. At this point, I thought I was coming over the top, or casting the club. Instructor said I needed to "clear my hips faster and get out of my own way". Did absolutely nothing to my setup besides moving the hands lower and adding lots of forward press. "Keep more weight on the left side!" he said.
A day at the golf shop on a launch monitor finally told me I was swinging way inside out. Couldn't believe it. Tried swinging left. Worked for one day. Tried swinging left the next few days... didn't last. When it worked, I had this fantastic feeling of raising my hands out in the backswing and trying to put them in my left pocket on the downswing. The resulting path of the club from the turn and pull was straight through the ball... well... on the one day when it worked that is.
Eventually, I couldn't hit the ball at all. Long clubs became useless. Even off the tee, my game became highly erratic. This went on for the last 8 months.
Finally decided today I had had enough and very precisely setup to the ball (my own stubbornness had led me away from standing farther from the ball).
"I'm an upright swinger" I thought "My distance is fine."
Only one difference this time setting up from my usual routine. Instead of having the club a hand width from my body, I placed it a hand length. A difference of about 3 inches.
That was all it took.
Some real adjustments getting used to swinging that far out (I felt like Moe Norman for about 30 minutes, just without the laser straight ball flight and rotted out rambling grin), but the ball flight straightened out. The look, the feel... all different, but swinging in control took about a quarter of the effort. I could once again shape shots by monitoring my left hand through impact. Line up 3 balls, draw one, straight next, fade the last.
Absolutely amazing what a little 3 inches can do.
So to anyone out there who gets in this too far from the inside pattern, check your distance. It's a ridiculously sensitive thing.
Now if only I can get control of that 8 inches between my ears!
