First off I am a feel player, I have never taken a lesson, I processinformation by feeling it. I have an open stance wether I am hitting a cut or a draw.
Now a little bit about me, I am 6'1" 215 lbs, wide shoulders. I played in College and on the mini tours, so I normally have a good idea of what is going on with my swing. I have a strong grip, ala fred couples/azinger/Duval. I normally play a draw. I am thinking on going back to the fade Iused to play but that is another story. My swing is on plane, my shoulders and hips and feet point left of my target. I am more of a hitter with a pretty quick transition on the downswing, I normally carry my 6 iron around 196 and have a 124 mph driver swing.
I have played three rounds in a row with similar results to these. Hitting around 70% of the fairways and hitting my driver great as normal. My putting is good to great and my mid and long iron play is very steady. However for example today with my PW down to LW I missed the pin to the right acouple of times by over 25 yards. Now these were not bail outs b/c of a tucked left pin, many were with the pin in the middle of the green.
My score was good, but I counted it up and I had 6 wedge/SW/GW/LW shots to the green and did not manage a shot within 35 feet except for one. My birdies were on par 5's and a 8 iron I hit to three feet.
What gives? Anyone have an idea? I can videotape my swing and send it in an email or something. I have left the course the last three rounds striking the ball great, but feel like I am leaving shots on the course.
The turned hand gives us a little bit of a problem. As a player with the type of ability that you have, you miss the ball to the right where most would miss the ball to the left with that type of grip. You are talented enough to create a compensatory move that keeps the ball from going left. Compensation does not equate to consistency.
I would work immediately on the grip, trying to get the left hand in a vertical position to the ground. Make the back of your hand match the leading edge of the clubface.
Would this compensory move be something like spining my hips open or swinging too inside? What other moves could be causing it. Like I said I am happy with my long shots, and I don't want to mess them up badly.
When I get off on those shots it is nearly always either a ball position or alignment issue. Especially with the open stance, the shoulder line gets too open and the eyes are off plane, so what you think you see, isn't where you are really aimed. With the stronger grip, and your ability, I'd guess the ball position may have slipped too far forward. Pro Aim glasses or similar are a great way to check your eye alignment, and confirm your shoulder alignment isn't off.
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Technically speaking I have a question, b/c I do not know anything technically.
First off I will check my alignment and work on that. Should my shoulders be aligned with my feet? I have the distinct feeling that my shoulders are open in correlation to my feet, not just on wedge shots but all shots. I think with my stance being open(I just went to the back and hit some balls out in the yard of my store) that my ball position may be too far back in my stance on my wedges. Could it being too far back cause this?
Like I said I am not very technical about the golf swing I work on feel and taking a few ideas down to the range with me.
If you have a turned left hand grip, you have to hold off the rolling of the forarm on the downswing to keep the clubface open enough to hit accurate shots. If you move your grip into a vertical position, you have to teach yourself how to roll the club on the downswing. The "no roll" with a turned grip is a compensation that is required to keep the face square. Changing your grip requires you to change your clubface control.
Also, most players who have a turned grip tend to bend their left wrist during the backswing. If you adopt a vertical grip, you may need to work on keeping the left wrist flat during the backswing.
Well that makes perfect sense, except that I like to use my larger muscles to square the clubface rather than my smaller ones. I grew up playing golf this way and a complete change needing to use my smaller muscles(hands/forearms) seems like a recipe for inconsistency. When a smaller muscle moves it tends to go offline more. Big muscles are not as likely to "twitch" as big ones are. Maybe my lack of understanding TGM is leading to my way of thinking.
I have gotten some good leads, I think my stance is open but my shoulders are square and I am playing the ball too far back in my stance. I don't know if I am ready to learn a completey different way of looking at the golf swing just yet.
If you have open feet, and your shoulders are even more open than your feet, you will go right (or smoother hard/low left). Even more so with the ball too far back. A very steep attack on the ball - usually too steep - which results in less than solid shots and some chunky divots. If/when you do hit it solid, you'll get a ton of spin though (the low burner that checks up).
Keep in mind that the shoulder line is a big indicator of where the hands/plane will be - more than any other alignment.
Sounds like you have a very 'Azinger' like motion, similar to Trevino - it can certainly be effective, but does rely on some compensations (holding off the face, clearing the hips, leg drive)
Given that motion, you would find it easier to always play a fade
__________________
"Support the On Plane Swinging Force in Balance"
"we have no friends, we have no enemies, we have only teachers"
Simplicity buffs, see 5-0, 1-L, 2-0 A and B 10-2-B, 4-D, 6B-1D, 6-B-3-0-1, 6-C-1, 6-E-2
Well my feet are open, but I think I might be leaving my shoulders closed. Either way I take a huge divot with my wedges, I do not hit a lot of fat shots, but do hit the occasional low screamer. My normal shot is a high draw, after getting info from you guys here and a couple of other places I am going to go back to grooving a fade swing. I have always had this shut/closed grip and it feels right. My swing reminds me of a mix between Couples and Garcia with a hit mixed into it. I get a lot of power from the lag my swing creates, but I have an out to in move a la Couples. Take couples path and add Sergios tempo and you have my swing but it produces a draw with my strong grip. I do not change my stance to pay a cut a la Couples. I will try to weaken my grip a bit and go back to my fade, I have decided to put a bunch of effort into my game this year to see if I can get back to my mini-tour and College level. I may even try out for the Big Break and play in some amateur events before hand.
This game gets confusing for a feel guy when he cannot hit balls everyday.
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