Time to Get Started....Again....

With the weather getting warmer here in the Northeast, it is time I dusted off my sticks and get started on another season of Golf.  Especially since I'm going to visit my parents down in sunny Florida and we've got plenty of golf planned.  The bag has been moderately revamped, and I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.  I'm pretty excited to get going again, my work with the Stack and Tilt last season yeilded some good results. 

First up for this season is to hit the range and really try and get that motion worked in.  My main problem is still a wicked slice, though now it is pretty much limited to my woods and the hybrid.  I think I've got that licked, but more on that later.

My punch list of goals hasn't changed from the end of the season last year, so there's no reason to rehash it here.  Until next time...

Done for the season?????

Well, we are closing in on the end of the 2010 golfing season, and it appears that if I'm lucky, i'll get in one or two more rounds of Golf before the snow flies, and maybe not even that much with other obligations sneaking in.

So, the question is how have I done compared to my goals I set back in April, and what can I accomplish before the spring thaw in April?

Power Swing:

Goals: Get rid of my current swing faults, develop a controllable shot shape which I can hit consistently, and chart how far I hit each club.

I feel like I've made some improvement here, but I've still got a ways to go. The Stack and Tilt has been really good for me, but I still need to practice it a bunch, but I'm very happy with the progress i'm making so far. For all of the noise about the “revolutionary swing” that is “Stack and Tilt” (SnT), the real revolution is the teaching method, as well as the “new” ball flight laws. For instance, back in April I wrote:

I know enough about golf to know that the slice comes from an open clubface and the push comes from the head of the club moving on an inside-out path when it strikes the ball.

After studying tons of Trackman data, The guys that wrote the SnT book have shown us that the traditional way of describing the interaction between the club and ball is a load of garbage. My push was from the open clubface and the slice is from an out to in path. I have mostly fixed the open face at impact which has mostly fixed the push, but I still have a tendency to have an out to in path with my woods, particularly with the driver. Therefore, my slice is still alive and well and pops up several times through a round.

New Goal: Unchanged, but I feel that i'm halfway to my original goal.

Finesse Swing:

Goals: Apply principles of the "clock" method for wedge shots and chart the distances with each wedge.

Okay, I never quite got around to working on this much, but I still feel that this is still one of my stregnths.

New Goal: Unchanged from April.

Putting:

Goals: Get properly fit for a putter, develop a feel for the "speed" of my putts, and concentrate on 2-putting on most holes.

I didn't get fit, but I think I will do that before the spring rolls around. That great tip that I found about gauging speed of a put helped a ton, and I have found that my 3-puts have gone down considerably since the beginning of the season.

New Goal: Work on better reading greens and eliminate 3-putts

Overall Objective:

As the 2010 season comes to a close, I'm fairly happy with my progress this year, especially considering that from during that from the middle of May to the beginning of September I didn't manage to pick up my clubs even once to play or practice. Hopefully the momentum I have right now will not completely fade over the off-season and I will be able to pick up where I left off this year.

Hunter Mahan's Five Moves

Hunter Mahan's Five Moves to Make Your Swing Great
Hunter Mahan's Five Key Moves (Video)

Here's a swing tip from Hunter Mahan in Golf Magazine. He hits all the high points of the Stack and Tilt swing, but with maybe a little different twist to it.