BigZ and I have been taking lessons with Shawn this winter at Richmond Hill Golf Centre. So far it has been incredible. We taped my swing and for the first time ever I did not puke :)
Anyhow, here are some short lessons and tips from Shawn.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Sunday, September 10, 2006
17th Tee at Canadian Open
September 9th, Hamilton Golf & Country Club
My first Canadian Open (and based on the sponsor and player lacklustre reception of the new date for 2007 and venue perhaps last one) was an incredible experience. Sure, the field was weakened but there was still plenty to see, and to see we did, especially once we found an amazing spot on the 17th tee. 17th at HGCC is an amazing eagle hole, being only 550 yards par five with sever downhill drop. Now imagine this, perhaps it will never happen again, the tee that is perched up on top of a hill was pushed so far back there was not enough room to provide for spectators and cameras. The ropes behind the tee were no more than 5 yards away and we were straight behind the players. Because there was so little room behind the players there were no cameras, nor caddies between the players and us. On couple of occasions we were uncomfortably close and not wanting to cause distraction gently pushed away. Camilo actually murmured for us to watch our selves. Fred Funks practice backswing whizzed by my head no more than a foot away. Then he simply stepped into his shot, lined up and proceeded to hit a cable straight drive right down the middle. Steady Freddy - no wonder. He had the most interaction with the spectators, asking us did Vijay hit his drive really all the way down there, is it his first or second shot :) There were mostly no expression of emotions from the players and no interaction with the audience, other then Fred Funk and another player from Ben Kurtis group, I don't remember his name and I am embarrassed for it because he actually acknowledged the crowd on the way in and out. However, Axley and Obberholser were for sure no happy campers. I was downright embarrassed for them for their lack of composure.
Now for the drives. Every single drive, other than Steve Strickers ugly push cut some 50 yards off to the right, were quite passable with large percent being mint. Bubba definitely belted out the longest and most amazing drive. His high draw with slight wind in the back and steep downhill drop probably resulted in him not having more than 150 yards in, perfectly positioned on the left side of the fairway. Most of the players are playing fades, if you cared to know. Most of them find the fairway, some were just off the fairway to the right. Some exceptional swings that I remember were Jonathan Byrds, with his smooth, Hoganesque one plane elegant drive through the ball, Bubba with his amazing rubber man, all out ferocious whip with what seems an incredibly short ping shaft at the whimpering ball, and cable straight Freddy who refuses to hit anything more than 5 yards of the center of the fairway. Camilo did not surprise me with his perhaps inelegant but aggressive, athletic swing and Jesper Parnevic speedy tempo would have shocked me if I did not see him before. Sean O'Hair and Justin Rose were quite remarkible, Brett Quickley pounds it absolutely surprisingly hard, considering his small stature. That was the other thing that shocking - these guys are positively too skinny and small. I mean, I felt that I could lift them with one hand and yet they are incredible in how they generate the swing speed - they simply have less weight to move and they know how to move the little weight that they have in the most efficient way.
It was amazing and inspiring. I hope that this tournament persists and regains its stature as what I saw at Hamilton Golf and Country Club was nothing but fantastic.
My first Canadian Open (and based on the sponsor and player lacklustre reception of the new date for 2007 and venue perhaps last one) was an incredible experience. Sure, the field was weakened but there was still plenty to see, and to see we did, especially once we found an amazing spot on the 17th tee. 17th at HGCC is an amazing eagle hole, being only 550 yards par five with sever downhill drop. Now imagine this, perhaps it will never happen again, the tee that is perched up on top of a hill was pushed so far back there was not enough room to provide for spectators and cameras. The ropes behind the tee were no more than 5 yards away and we were straight behind the players. Because there was so little room behind the players there were no cameras, nor caddies between the players and us. On couple of occasions we were uncomfortably close and not wanting to cause distraction gently pushed away. Camilo actually murmured for us to watch our selves. Fred Funks practice backswing whizzed by my head no more than a foot away. Then he simply stepped into his shot, lined up and proceeded to hit a cable straight drive right down the middle. Steady Freddy - no wonder. He had the most interaction with the spectators, asking us did Vijay hit his drive really all the way down there, is it his first or second shot :) There were mostly no expression of emotions from the players and no interaction with the audience, other then Fred Funk and another player from Ben Kurtis group, I don't remember his name and I am embarrassed for it because he actually acknowledged the crowd on the way in and out. However, Axley and Obberholser were for sure no happy campers. I was downright embarrassed for them for their lack of composure.
Now for the drives. Every single drive, other than Steve Strickers ugly push cut some 50 yards off to the right, were quite passable with large percent being mint. Bubba definitely belted out the longest and most amazing drive. His high draw with slight wind in the back and steep downhill drop probably resulted in him not having more than 150 yards in, perfectly positioned on the left side of the fairway. Most of the players are playing fades, if you cared to know. Most of them find the fairway, some were just off the fairway to the right. Some exceptional swings that I remember were Jonathan Byrds, with his smooth, Hoganesque one plane elegant drive through the ball, Bubba with his amazing rubber man, all out ferocious whip with what seems an incredibly short ping shaft at the whimpering ball, and cable straight Freddy who refuses to hit anything more than 5 yards of the center of the fairway. Camilo did not surprise me with his perhaps inelegant but aggressive, athletic swing and Jesper Parnevic speedy tempo would have shocked me if I did not see him before. Sean O'Hair and Justin Rose were quite remarkible, Brett Quickley pounds it absolutely surprisingly hard, considering his small stature. That was the other thing that shocking - these guys are positively too skinny and small. I mean, I felt that I could lift them with one hand and yet they are incredible in how they generate the swing speed - they simply have less weight to move and they know how to move the little weight that they have in the most efficient way.
It was amazing and inspiring. I hope that this tournament persists and regains its stature as what I saw at Hamilton Golf and Country Club was nothing but fantastic.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
How I beat the dreaded shank
There are two types of shanks - one hit from the hosel and the other hit from the extreme part of the toe. I have been suffering from the first kind, especially last year. This year, it has been less severe, mostly due to the fact that I have switched from Ben Hogan Apex blades to Taylor Made LTs that have more offset. Offset really makes a big difference on this case - you might have seen advertisements for Focus/F2 wedges where they go with extreme offset in order to guarantee no shanks. Anyhow, after talking with Shawn Clement from Richmond Hill Learning Centre, and getting a confirmation that I was coming too much from the inside, I knew what I have to fix. Most of my misses have been thin pushes and I soo much wish to get back to the feeling of going through the ball and taking a nice, square divot. In the end I believe I have found it, and for me it has to do with the hip rotation. When I looked at Jim Hardys book the picture that showed me that both the club head and the arms are moving in a circle around the body made a huge difference. In my attempts to keep the club moving along the target line I have disrupted the natural rotational move required in the one-plane swing. In order to get it back I remembered another one of Jim Hardy's tips which is to keep the arms relaxed but passive - let the body lead the hands and let the hands and the club react to the momentum of the swing in which case the arms trace out a circle (if you look at it from the top). By concentrating on relaxing the arms and rotating the hips I got it all - no more lateral shift, solid, solid contact, full weight transfer, easy finish. Lovely. Note however that there is still the matter of timing - there is no doubt in my mind that the one plane swing increases the timing requirement in terms of direction as the ball flies tangentialy from the circle that the clubhead traverses. If you get it on the wrong part of the circle from positioning the ball poorly or from in any way varying the width of the arc you are screwed with direction. Right now I am ok with this - I would rather miss few yards left or right than hit thin or chunk.
That's my two cents on shanking and pushing.
That's my two cents on shanking and pushing.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
So far tips from pros really do help
I was happy to meet Shawn Clement at the Richmond Hill learning centre about a month ago (see Shawn Clement Golf ). I was getting ready to go low but my iron shots were erratic and I was going to take some lessons from Shawn. He was kind enough to take a quick look even before we scheduled the lessons and pointed out couple of things:
a) that my grip was not secure and that I was creating a gap at the top
b) my old pain of taking the club inside and coming even more from the inside on downswing causing lack of power and occasional shank
The first one was not very difficult to fix - I knew what the grip was suppose to be but got sloppy over time. The second one is naturally much harder to fix but with a little work and persistence in working on keeping the club in front of my chest at all times it worked out. I have not shanked in last month and consequentially increased my confidence in ball striking. Worked hard on the putting as well and guess what, broke 80 couple of weeks ago with a great 78 with even par on the back nine. I missed I believe couple of fairways (where I had lost balls) and perhaps a few more green in regulation but for sure had more than 10 GIRs. It was a great round and I was able to repeat with 79 at Richmond Hill. I took the golf digest challenge and it definitely points out that my weakness is in the short game.
Anyhow, I had my first class with Shawn and I must say that I am impressed. His understanding of the swing and short game is exceptional and his teaching method is very easy to understand. I look forward to next couple of months.
a) that my grip was not secure and that I was creating a gap at the top
b) my old pain of taking the club inside and coming even more from the inside on downswing causing lack of power and occasional shank
The first one was not very difficult to fix - I knew what the grip was suppose to be but got sloppy over time. The second one is naturally much harder to fix but with a little work and persistence in working on keeping the club in front of my chest at all times it worked out. I have not shanked in last month and consequentially increased my confidence in ball striking. Worked hard on the putting as well and guess what, broke 80 couple of weeks ago with a great 78 with even par on the back nine. I missed I believe couple of fairways (where I had lost balls) and perhaps a few more green in regulation but for sure had more than 10 GIRs. It was a great round and I was able to repeat with 79 at Richmond Hill. I took the golf digest challenge and it definitely points out that my weakness is in the short game.
Anyhow, I had my first class with Shawn and I must say that I am impressed. His understanding of the swing and short game is exceptional and his teaching method is very easy to understand. I look forward to next couple of months.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Mismatched shafts can shaft your game real fast!!!
BigZ picked up a set of Taylor Made RAC MBs from eBay. Apparantly they were made for the Kenny Perry, one of the most consistent ball strikers for a long time now, and 9th ranked last year on PGA Tour. Were they really made for KP? Who knows. I saw that he was playing the LTs when he won Colonial (check here - .Winner's Bags) but who knows, it might be true. Anyhow, they came with X-stiff shafts and BigZ and I were waiting for them with great apprehension, maybe even a bit of fear.
Well, our fears were well founded. First 10 shots with short irons did not feel that drastically different from the MP 33 with Precision Riffle S300 shafts but always seemed to be starting right and drifting a bit right. The middle irons started showing this even more and ofcourse we understood that we are not loading the shaft enough and that therefore there is not enough kick for the clubface to square in the impact zone. So how do you load an extra shift shaft? I have no clue. I can tell it is not by swinging harder. Trying to swing harder and around (flatter) resulted in one of my most dreaded experiences of repeatable shanks. After 10 or 20 terrible shots I simply gave up and picked up the 33s where I had mixed success, after the loss of confidence from the X-stiff shafts. BigZ had more success - in our fitting session at golf town it was showing that he had more bend in the shaft then I did so this made sense. However, he too felt that he needed to try to swing extra hard with the body while keeping his arms relaxed in order to generate enough load and whip through the impact zone in order to square the clubhead and generate a slight draw.
The conclusion - don't ever play shafts that don't match your game. I have a lazy swing that picks up speed gradually, up to 110 mph on standard length driver - I can play regular flex but the fitting session has indicated that stiff flex is the right one for me and apparently that is so. Trying to play with stiffer shafts than what fits your game can result in long term swing screw up so please, don't do it.
There is a happy ending to the story. I picked up my LTs (recently obtained from eBay) with nice S-flex and went to the range and law and behold, the swing was back. Full shoulder turn, smooth transition, solid contact, straight or slight draw. Just the way I like it. KP, you can keep your clubs - they might fit your swing just fine but not the swing of this amateur.
Well, our fears were well founded. First 10 shots with short irons did not feel that drastically different from the MP 33 with Precision Riffle S300 shafts but always seemed to be starting right and drifting a bit right. The middle irons started showing this even more and ofcourse we understood that we are not loading the shaft enough and that therefore there is not enough kick for the clubface to square in the impact zone. So how do you load an extra shift shaft? I have no clue. I can tell it is not by swinging harder. Trying to swing harder and around (flatter) resulted in one of my most dreaded experiences of repeatable shanks. After 10 or 20 terrible shots I simply gave up and picked up the 33s where I had mixed success, after the loss of confidence from the X-stiff shafts. BigZ had more success - in our fitting session at golf town it was showing that he had more bend in the shaft then I did so this made sense. However, he too felt that he needed to try to swing extra hard with the body while keeping his arms relaxed in order to generate enough load and whip through the impact zone in order to square the clubhead and generate a slight draw.
The conclusion - don't ever play shafts that don't match your game. I have a lazy swing that picks up speed gradually, up to 110 mph on standard length driver - I can play regular flex but the fitting session has indicated that stiff flex is the right one for me and apparently that is so. Trying to play with stiffer shafts than what fits your game can result in long term swing screw up so please, don't do it.
There is a happy ending to the story. I picked up my LTs (recently obtained from eBay) with nice S-flex and went to the range and law and behold, the swing was back. Full shoulder turn, smooth transition, solid contact, straight or slight draw. Just the way I like it. KP, you can keep your clubs - they might fit your swing just fine but not the swing of this amateur.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
The "New!!!" X-Factor
When you read a lot about golf (as I do - all the golf magazines, any book I can get my hand on) you certainly get a feeling that there is a lot of recycling of ideas and concepts. After all, golf is really a sport, something that requires physical implementation of ideas, concepts and visions that we have for what a golf swing is suppose to be, and believe it or not a lot of it has to do with physical ability to implement those ideas and less with what ideas are. Idea, as per Plato, is the silhouette of reality (or was it the other way around) so in the world of ideas there can be a perfect swing. The reality is that my body that lacks the required flexibility, speed and coordination can only pull of a mediocre swing at best. But still, I study the swings of the great hitters, looking for that illusive magic move that will turn my inept body into a birdie making machine. And I read the new "old" ideas.
One of those old ideas is featured in this months "Golf Magazine". The old X-factor was the concept, at least to my knowledge, coined by Jim McClean to describe the differential between the hips and the shoulders in the backswing which generates power in swing through the employment of elasticity of the big back muscles that snap the shoulders and arms with great acceleration in the downswing. The "new" X-factor is still the differential between the turn in hips and shoulders but not during the backswing but instead in the transition area and further into impact. Now, what really gets my gear grinding (yes I do watch Family Guy) is that this has been talked about just about forever - the hips leading the arms, two cheeks at impact with shoulders trailling and so on. So please, don't talk about the same old concepts by giving them new names. If there is no magic move then don't try to invent one.
BTW what do we know about the magic moves so far? We know that it is different for everyone. Here is what I recall from my readings:
Moe was simply magic!!!
Despite the general flakiness of the instructional videos there is one thing that I must admit I did find clearly explained and can possible consider the magic move: the rotation of the forearms and the palms in the impact area and acknowledgement that timing is crucial component of the swing. This also shows up quite a bit in Leadbetter teachings (L to L) where he talks about the swoosh generated through the release of the arms from one L on the downswing to the other L on the through swing.
One of those old ideas is featured in this months "Golf Magazine". The old X-factor was the concept, at least to my knowledge, coined by Jim McClean to describe the differential between the hips and the shoulders in the backswing which generates power in swing through the employment of elasticity of the big back muscles that snap the shoulders and arms with great acceleration in the downswing. The "new" X-factor is still the differential between the turn in hips and shoulders but not during the backswing but instead in the transition area and further into impact. Now, what really gets my gear grinding (yes I do watch Family Guy) is that this has been talked about just about forever - the hips leading the arms, two cheeks at impact with shoulders trailling and so on. So please, don't talk about the same old concepts by giving them new names. If there is no magic move then don't try to invent one.
BTW what do we know about the magic moves so far? We know that it is different for everyone. Here is what I recall from my readings:
Ben Hogan
Hogans magic move was the kick of the knee towards the ball during the transition period of the swing. This and his weak grip. By pushing his right knee towards the ball he essentially early triggered his hips with proper roll of this right foot creating a wonderfully stable base against which he was able to unleash his arms in widest possible circle that his body would allow. You can read more about this move in Hogan's Secret on Golf Digest site.
Harvey Pennick
Harvey's magic move from the little red book is the weight transfer during the transition coupled with bringing the right elbow (for right handed golfers) close to the body (not across or ahead) which promotes the inside-to-inside golf swing. Currently all the Leadbetter pupils have this move very visible such as Shawn O'Hair and Michelle Wie. This move is also known as dropping the club into the slot.
Moe Norman
Moe was simply magic!!!
AJ on Golf
Despite the general flakiness of the instructional videos there is one thing that I must admit I did find clearly explained and can possible consider the magic move: the rotation of the forearms and the palms in the impact area and acknowledgement that timing is crucial component of the swing. This also shows up quite a bit in Leadbetter teachings (L to L) where he talks about the swoosh generated through the release of the arms from one L on the downswing to the other L on the through swing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)