Busy Week

I started this week off in the search of a coach to help move me into the next level of my game. Within that search, it didn't take long for me to learn a few quick things about myself as a professional. During my practice sessions I have really been focusing on something I don't think I cared enough about ... consistency. Lately I have been working on short game execution which will keep me consistently better around the greens. Barry has been a big help on that, working on shots around the green that are just no brainers. This has made it progressively less stressful when making those shots I have been having trouble with. To make this consistency happen I am working on eliminating most of my moving parts during my short game shots. Eliminating my lower half and using my shoulders and chest to swing through the ball at impact. Stress will come up in a round but if i can reduce the potential stressful occurrences during the round I know I will on average have better results.

I have always used a little more of my arms to swing through the ball at impact which is fine, it has been working for me up to now... It's just a matter of understanding how your swing works and what are your tendencies. Tuesday I met with a potential coach who had played on the PGA Tour in the 90's. Carl Cooper seemed like he could be a great fit as he would be able to give me an insiders view on how I can take my game to the tour. As we spoke on the range I let him know what I was looking for... number 1, it's a month away from my chance at Q school and I don't want to be making any swing changes. Two , Three whatever... you see where this is going. By the fourth hole I hit my tee shot and Carl lets me know that to be better I need to change my swing. Long story short I tried for the entire round to make this golf swing work and all it did was help me lose not only a dozen golf balls in the woods but i lost all confidence in what I had been working on up till then. It wasn't a good day.

Carl and I will not be working together.

That was Tuesday...

Another guy I've been playing with is Michael Borrote from London, England. He's a class A PGA professional and plays some events on the Tight Lies Tour. I played with him on Wednesday and later went to the range. He had a suggestion for my swing which would help me be more consistent. The best part was, it wasn't a big change at all. I squared myself up to the target and weakened my grip (my grip has always been fairly strong*). From there I was able to swing through my swing a lot more, he found I was holding my shots off to keep them online.
A good 500 balls on the range and short game work we made it to today. Wind was blowing this weekend and today was at least 35 mph... it was strong enough that a large cypress was knocked over beside the green we were on. Either way I played like their was no wind out there... I hit 12 greens, 2 or 3 may have been missed on the fringe. Had 27 putts (missed two 5 footers, two 3 putts) and shot a 2 under 70. I was 4 under on the back nine, which we played first. I only had to make 3 tough up and downs, two were from sand... but i did, and they were basically tap ins. It was a great day and my playing partner even said he was inspired to practice harder. He was 79 and played well... the wind was tough. Today was incredible just how tough the course was playing with the wind but I just stuck with what I had been practicing and I was very pleased to play my best round in the toughest conditions yet.

I look forward to this week, I will be working really hard on my short game and making everything more and more automatic. I have to say I'm also really looking forward to a day where the wind just sits still and I can see what I can do out here without mother nature in the way.

* A strong grip doesn't mean you grip the club harder, it's a position where if you grip the club strong you are more likely to hit the ball to the left (if you're a right hander). The reason is because the grip makes the club head close a bit at impact. It's completely the opposite for a weak grip where the ball will move right because the club head is open at impact. I weakened my grip so that I would be coming through the impact zone with a square club head more often.

Stay tuned, things are looking good.

JS