My name is Festus and I suck at golf - (Everyone…”Hi, Festus”)
I’m 46 years old and have been playing since my early teens. I was half decent back then, low to mid 80’s, with a good tee to green game and a hideous short game. Took about a 10 year break in my 30’s and now am back at it. My game now has pretty much done a 180 with my short game being my strength. Pretty much the same scores as before but a whole lot different way of getting there.
I’m talking about 85’s on the local peep 6100 yard white tees with all those 320 par 4’s. A typical round is a few fairways hit when all the random forces in my swing align, most missed with a recovery hopefully somewhere in play, something near the green and then up and down. I may be the Jedi master of the one-putt bogey. Standard round is maybe 7 pars, 9 bogeys and a double or 2. Very few birdies and also very few train wrecks. And to be honest, it’s not a very satisfying way to play. Add to the fact that I’m a range rat which makes it all the more discouraging I still suck.
All I want is some reasonable method to put the ball in play and keep it in play (HA! – is that all?). So, onto my swing…
When I started back with the game in my early 40’s, I wanted to do it right so I had a series of lessons from a local pro. Looking back, beats me what school he was from but he had me using my left arm as the primary driver of the swing (I play right handed). It was to the point of basically swinging one handed (or armed). It actually didn’t work THAT bad but was inconsistent and not very powerful. He moved on (probably to another trade) and so did I – off to the wonderful world of the internet. So many philosophies, so many ideas it was overwhelming. I wanted something my feeble brain could comprehend so I went with the one plane swing (yes, THAT site). Tried hard at it for about a year but was hooking the ball off the planet, almost comically so. I was likely way too flat AND flipping. Just imagine some of the trick shots you can hit doing that!
So then it was back to basics so I gave the Manual de la Torre arm controlled pivot swing a shot. I’ve been at it since the end of last season with mixed success. It works pretty good down to maybe a 7-iron but with longer clubs, a slice comes in and gets progressively worse. Once again, it just doesn’t seem “right”. So at the moment, I’m not really using any pattern per se, maybe it’s the Festus Special pattern of bunts, half swings and other such nonsense to get within 50 yards of the green in regulation, then play golf from there.
So alas, here we are. I've been lurking here for about 3 weeks now and read every post down to maybe page 100 or so plus all of Brian's posts. I am amazed by all the knowledge! Brian and his team really have a presentation of information that's second to none from what I've seen out there. It finally makes sense now about how to make a "correct" golf swing. For me, it's counter-intuitive as hell but maybe that's why so few golfers really excel. So I finally make a commitment to go with it. Started last Monday in the backyard with 70 yd sand wedges just getting a feel for all these foreign concepts. The week went pretty decent just making 3/4 speed pivot swings with the ball just leaping off the club. Just amazing how effortless it seemed. But the real test would come over the weekend on the range. So I start with the 8 iron - so far so good. Quickly move to the 4, about half pretty good, the other half hooking left in varying degrees. Finally the driver - the first one was maybe 285 dead straight but only about 10 yards off the ground. Just a nice cruise missile that just seemed to carry forever. Now I NEVER hit it 285 and we're talking the first friggin' one right out of the box! That was the light bulb moment for me - "so THAT'S how you do it!".
So to make a long story short (probably too late for that), after only 2 days on the range, I can already see this is the path. I'll likely go with NHA since starting around a 6 iron, an increasing percentage starts left and hooks. Just want to confirm that with another couple of sessions.
So thank you Brian and Co. for this site and all your efforts, materials and knowledge sharing. I sincerely hope I can master this and FINALLY have a game I can be proud of and rekindle some of the lost excitement the game offers.
If anyone has any words of wisdom for someone at square one like me, I'd be grateful for the advice.
I’m 46 years old and have been playing since my early teens. I was half decent back then, low to mid 80’s, with a good tee to green game and a hideous short game. Took about a 10 year break in my 30’s and now am back at it. My game now has pretty much done a 180 with my short game being my strength. Pretty much the same scores as before but a whole lot different way of getting there.
I’m talking about 85’s on the local peep 6100 yard white tees with all those 320 par 4’s. A typical round is a few fairways hit when all the random forces in my swing align, most missed with a recovery hopefully somewhere in play, something near the green and then up and down. I may be the Jedi master of the one-putt bogey. Standard round is maybe 7 pars, 9 bogeys and a double or 2. Very few birdies and also very few train wrecks. And to be honest, it’s not a very satisfying way to play. Add to the fact that I’m a range rat which makes it all the more discouraging I still suck.
All I want is some reasonable method to put the ball in play and keep it in play (HA! – is that all?). So, onto my swing…
When I started back with the game in my early 40’s, I wanted to do it right so I had a series of lessons from a local pro. Looking back, beats me what school he was from but he had me using my left arm as the primary driver of the swing (I play right handed). It was to the point of basically swinging one handed (or armed). It actually didn’t work THAT bad but was inconsistent and not very powerful. He moved on (probably to another trade) and so did I – off to the wonderful world of the internet. So many philosophies, so many ideas it was overwhelming. I wanted something my feeble brain could comprehend so I went with the one plane swing (yes, THAT site). Tried hard at it for about a year but was hooking the ball off the planet, almost comically so. I was likely way too flat AND flipping. Just imagine some of the trick shots you can hit doing that!
So then it was back to basics so I gave the Manual de la Torre arm controlled pivot swing a shot. I’ve been at it since the end of last season with mixed success. It works pretty good down to maybe a 7-iron but with longer clubs, a slice comes in and gets progressively worse. Once again, it just doesn’t seem “right”. So at the moment, I’m not really using any pattern per se, maybe it’s the Festus Special pattern of bunts, half swings and other such nonsense to get within 50 yards of the green in regulation, then play golf from there.
So alas, here we are. I've been lurking here for about 3 weeks now and read every post down to maybe page 100 or so plus all of Brian's posts. I am amazed by all the knowledge! Brian and his team really have a presentation of information that's second to none from what I've seen out there. It finally makes sense now about how to make a "correct" golf swing. For me, it's counter-intuitive as hell but maybe that's why so few golfers really excel. So I finally make a commitment to go with it. Started last Monday in the backyard with 70 yd sand wedges just getting a feel for all these foreign concepts. The week went pretty decent just making 3/4 speed pivot swings with the ball just leaping off the club. Just amazing how effortless it seemed. But the real test would come over the weekend on the range. So I start with the 8 iron - so far so good. Quickly move to the 4, about half pretty good, the other half hooking left in varying degrees. Finally the driver - the first one was maybe 285 dead straight but only about 10 yards off the ground. Just a nice cruise missile that just seemed to carry forever. Now I NEVER hit it 285 and we're talking the first friggin' one right out of the box! That was the light bulb moment for me - "so THAT'S how you do it!".
So to make a long story short (probably too late for that), after only 2 days on the range, I can already see this is the path. I'll likely go with NHA since starting around a 6 iron, an increasing percentage starts left and hooks. Just want to confirm that with another couple of sessions.
So thank you Brian and Co. for this site and all your efforts, materials and knowledge sharing. I sincerely hope I can master this and FINALLY have a game I can be proud of and rekindle some of the lost excitement the game offers.
If anyone has any words of wisdom for someone at square one like me, I'd be grateful for the advice.
