Correction: taking IT back slower is a nice key

OK, Don. I don't want to hear anymore about how far you hit your 9iron. You make me sick.

Seriously, I am extremely jealous of that kind of distance. I also saw Vijay take a 6 iron for a 222 par 3. Then the next 175 par 3 he hit the 6 iron again. That's insane.

I've had enough. I guess I have a little golf swing envy.

Whey JP, remember that Don's in that thin-air of Denver and so when he's hitting a 9I its like us hitting at least an 8I. At last years GGR there, I hit a 6I into a green that was approx. 190yards. Now back home I hit a 6I about 175 so that's at least about 15 yards better out there than I get here at home.

I forgot about Don being in Denver. That's a good point.

Don, I didn't know you were a pistol guy. I don't shoot competitively but I started getting into pistols this year and splurged on some guns this year. Plan on splurging some more. They have a huge gunshow in Tulsa, OK in April I think it is. I'm working in Tulsa right now, so I'm going to try and get to the show.

Out here at sea level, my 6i is about 145ish.

Don't pay any attention to what Scott is saying. When I was in Cabo playing at sea level, I only lost about half a club length with my irons. So my 150 yard 9 iron was landing at 143 yards down there. And I'm older than you other guys, so that has to count for something.

I'm all of you are at least 20 yds further than me. When I get really comfortable with my new swing plane and grip I'm going to start working on some power. I'm sure there is some left out power in my release and hip to shoulder differential.

JP,That is a good plan. Remeber, once you get comfortable with the grip and swing plane for each club, hip turn is the key to power and distance. Don't forget to work on that part of the swing. Everything follows the hips. Make sure you are good and loosened up. When I swung at the range this past weekend, I was not getting anywhere close to the distance I thought I should and tweeked my back trying to pull just a little more.

Fortunately I can't hit my short irons as far as Don so I don't have to carry a PW, GW, SW and LW to fill in the gaps, as well as the 64 and 68 degree wedges to hit it 80 and 100 yds.

I'm with you Bill. I don't have that problem. PW, SW, and LW is plenty for me. I'll hit the range today and see if I can get my driver straightened out.

This weekend my irons were great, but my driver was spastic and cost me about 3 or 4 out of bounds/hazard drops. I would've easily met my goal for this year of breaking 90. Because even with the spastic driver I hit 90. My iron play was really good except for a big hook on a par 3.

Hit the range yesterday after work.

For some reason, I was hitting my driver really well. Actually, started with pushes. Then after a rest, started hitting them straight, all the way to the net at 230 yards carry. Did it consistently for about 10 balls. Feeling good about myself, I picked up my 3w and hit them about 200-220 yards (just short of the net's base), and did this consistently for 5 balls.

Normally, my driver is about 190-220 carry (depending on the sun position, wind, moon, tides, and other astronomical/astrological anomalies). And my 3w is usually 180-190 yards.

The only thing I can think I was doing differently was turning my upper body more during the backswing, without changing my tempo.

As for the irons, I couldn't hit anything consistent. A lot of straight pulls from 6i-9i.

I was planning to play the 3par course tomorrow, but now I'm told I have to work. Will probably just hit the range again before work to see if I can re-create my driver swings.

Went to the range after the gym today, split a large bucket with my husband. The best thing I got out of the range today was that I used the "+" mark on the mat to work on ball position for my hybrid...since I never really felt that I nailed that down last year. Found that one inch foward of center was working well, and made some good contact with the hybrid (which is critical to my goal of more consistency in long 2nd shots off the fairway).
Also worked with the wedges, distance control is good, feel pretty comfortable with them. Played with trying to hit the ball into the net and aiming at other targets.
Season officially starts on April 1st!

I went to the range Saturday.
Started ou with irons and did pretty well, a little more draw than I wanted though. I think a lot of times I just square the club up on setup a little too much because I used to struggle with slices and fades out of habit I semi closed the face.

I think now I could actually open it up a bit, but it is not natural for me to open my club a tad due to all my past transgressions.

I then hit my driver OK. A little inconsistent on direction, I think I should go with a stiff shaft instead of a regular.

I also demo'd drivers of Cobra LD F/Speed and Callaway FT-5 and Nike 5000 SQ.

I pulled the Cobra too much, it has a shaft angle that goes forward and makes the club act like it as an offset. The Callaway FT-5 was amazing.

I think the FT-5 and now the Titliest 907 are on my favorites list. I hit the straight, especailly the FT-5 in 9.5. The Titliest I hit indoors and it was center to center right on the launch monitor. I will be trying this one outdoors. I think a squared face will be just fine but a slight closed face I will pull a little too much. I could eliminate that by moving the ball back a bit though.

However, after hitting with driver for so long at the range, I finished off a bucket with a couple irons and was hooking them. I don't know why that happened. It's happened before after hitting a bunch of drives.

Got out to the range Friday and worked on the short game mostly. There was a guy hitting ball out of the rough from 50 yards, so I asked if I could join him. Ended up hitting about 70 balls to a flag and did pretty well mostly. Then worked on my chipping game, this time with a 9 iron instead of my normal 7. Just wanted to get a feel for chipping with a higher lofted club for when I'll need that shot. Next time out it's a wedge. I know that some pros chip with a SW all the time, but I never do, so I want to try it and develope a good feel for this shot. Never know when it will be required, and I'd like to know I can pull it off.
I built a new putter so it was time to work with it and see how it performs. I think I'm going to like it once I get used to it. It's a bit hotter, so I have to get used to it rolling the ball a little farther. Other than that, it's rather nice.

Well, I got over the injury and back to swinging a club in late January. It was ugly coming back, incredible how much I'd forgotten. Who knows, it may have been a net gain, because I sorta learned from scratch again, and I have a much better swing than I did before the injury. Here are some of the things I've been working with:

NO sliding on the backswing, but a BIG turn in place.

NO stiffness in the right side on the downswing. The turn is not over the right side, but under and through it.

And, numero uno, everything is so soft. How can something so soft generate so much power? This mystifies me, how something so soft can generate so much power...

Laney, look at the guys on tv....Fred Couples and Ernie Els have super smooth swings that generate a lot of power. Hard to believe how easy it is sometimes huh?

Soft and loose creates distance, as I have learned. Stiffness in your body creates too much tension in your muscles, which ends up restricting movement.

A longer backswing also doesn't always promote more distance for me. A longer backswing promotes more errors on my downswing. My friend had me shorten my backswing, and I'm consistently hitting 200-220 yards off the drive. With my full backswing, I was hitting 180-200 and fading and creating more errors. Even though I've shorted my back swing, my arms are going 3/4 back but my back is making a fuller turn (back facing the target). Works for me since my last 2 sessions and at the course, so I'm sticking with it.

Doc, I'm not sure I know exactly what the difference is, but I think there's a fake backswing that is different than a full backswing. In a fake backswing, it feels like I get around further, but I think I do it by letting my arms get away from my body and turning with just the outer parts of my shoulders. A full backswing feels more compact, I do it with my whole torso, but if I check, I still get the club back to parallel. I don't feel the need to cut my backswing short, like I see some people doing, but the right way certainly feels shorter to me.

Had my best practice day at the driving range Friday. Hit a hugh bucket of balls, supposed to be 170 balls. that's a lot for one old goat. I did it right this time, starting with my SW for 25 or so balls. Just worked on making a nice smooth easy swing, not in any hurry. Then went to 9 iron and did the same. Then on to 7 and 5 irons for the same easy swing for 25 balls each. Then it was 9 wood time, then 5 wood and saved the driver for last. What was nice was the first ball I hit with the driver was at 116MPH. Nice easy relaxed swing and hit it down the middle with no sign of a fade or slice. I finished up hitting one ball with driver and one with a short iron, like playing a par 4 hole. Out of 170 balls, I only hit 2 slices, and maybe 10 bad shots in all. I hardly ever hit my 5 iron at the range, so hitting it solid right on line with my target was really nice. Now I just need to see if I can do it again next time out and all season.

Went to the range today and got a bucket of about 160 balls for $10. I did not hit anything more lofted than the 7i. The 7 was the warm up club. I started with easy swings and was hitting very nice shots 165 to 180 yards. Using the range finder I picked a target 190 out and hit the next 25 to 30 balls at it with the 5i. I hit about half past the target with only a couple well short, where I took too much of a divot. Then I moved to the 3i. I really like this club from my new set of x18s. I was striking the ball real nice by now and every shot was over the 200 mark and a couple pushed the 225 to 230 mark. Next I went to my new 19* launcher. This club was all over the place. I have always had problems with fairway woods. Some I skyed to about the 170 mark and some I pushed to about the 190 mark. Of 20 shots I really connected on 2 and hit 240 yards. next I went to the 13* launcher. All I can say is WOW, of about 30 hits probably 25 were in the 240 to 270 yards range. By range finder the last flag was almost 270 yards out, 300 yards straight on, but I moved to the grassy area and pegged it at 268. 5 hits were almost embarrassing. I finished with about 30 balls with the driver. Everyone was past the 270 yard mark. The fence was at 312 and I flew 6 balls over the fence. Very straight, I think I really like this HiBore XL. A guy next to me was hitting an R7 and asked what driver I was hitting. He asked to hit it and I let him hit 3 balls. He said he really liked it as well. All in all, I hit about 90% of my shots clean. This week it is back to the par 3 course to work on the short game.

Went to the range yesterday morning to beat the afternoon heat.

I had a very inconsistent day. Started with my 9i and hit my usual distance of 110-115yds. Picked up my 7i and hit them 150yds. WHAT?! My 7i is my 135yd club. And no, there were no tail winds. Thinking I'm Daly, I then took out my 6i and only managed to hit it 155 yards, which is 10 yards more than my usual. I grabbed my 21* hybrid and only hit it 160 yards, my usual yardage. My driver was going its normal carry distance too.

What happened to my 7i? Where did that extra distance come from? I tried my 7i again, and was back to my measly usual 135 yds. All this was in a span of 1 hour and approx 100 balls. I think I over did it and tired myself by continuously going at it. I spent my last 30 minutes practicing my chipping. And that's another story.

Chipping: on mats is easy. I can get my ball up and carry about 10-25 yards. On rough grass is very unpredictable. My club head gets caught in the grass and I either chunk the ball over the green or pop my ball just a few feet.

All I need to do now is find a golf course that has artificial turf and no rough and I'm all set.

I think if that fence is at 312 yards and you few the fence 5 times, I'd be REAL HAPPY with the driver. I'd say you should keep it in the bag for now. How high is that fence? I'd be happy to roll the ball up to that fence, much less carry the ball over it. Not that it would do my much good to hit it that far. I can't see a ball that far away, and I'd just lose more balls.

4 feet. I got real good distance. It's not as good as it sounds looking back over it. If most were on the course they would have been hit out of bounds to the left or right on tight courses. But I did make real good contact on all clubs.

Went out to the driving range. Did it right again, starting with 25 balls with my SW. Then hitting 20 or so with 9, 7, 5 and finally my 3 iron. Then I allowed myselft to hit the driver. Last time I did this, I had my best practice session in years. Yesterday was just about the same. I did pull a few iron shots, but much more good shots than pulls. It was also the first time in a real long time that I hit my 3 iron. I talked myselft into hitting it nice and relaxed, and managed to hit more good shots than bad with it. I was hitting my 460 Comp with a new S flex shaft in it. I think I found my driver now. I hit more really good drives than good one, and only 2 bad ones. Swing speed was averaging 107 to 109, with a high of 120. The new shaft is working out great. The driver is now long and straight, and very solid. I came home feeling really good about my game yesterday. There might be hope yet for me.

Sounds god Don. That's how I practice, short irons up to the driver. I see some folks go out and start with the driver, which to me gets your tempo all off.